That's right California Highway Patrol. Frikkin Ponch pulled me over today as I was crawling back from Berkeley where I had bags fo beer supplies, a take & bake CostCo pizza and some fresh bread from Acme. Why, oh why, doing oh-five in the slow lane would the man with no eyes pull over my poor dented truck? No seatbelt, of course, because I am a lazy shit.
Interesting thing was my first thoughts. I had to give myself the once over, checklisting my potential illegal behavior...had I been drinking? Speeding? I knew the seatbelt was off, but oh well, right? I even considered reaching over to pull it on. Good thing, would have been a dumb move.
Anyway, officer BoBrady takes my license and reg, comes back with my ticket, looks in the passenger seat. "What is THAT?" He asks, and I assume he's looking at the copper tubing making up my wort chiller. "Is it COKE?"
I think I laughed, and blurted a "mmghyeah, right! It's beer-making stuff." I reach over and grab the brown bag and only then do I realize he's looking at this huge clear bag of off-white powder. I show him.
"That would have been some drug bust," he exclaims and stands to leave.
"I would have to be a pretty stupid drug dealer," I reply.
"I don't have to lecture you on your seatbelt, do I? You just didn't put it on?"
I shake my head, frowning. I thought we had passed this point in our relationship. C'mon, beer buddy, how's about tearing up that stupid $20 tichie so's I can make more beer?
05 April 2006
Monday, Tuesday, Brewsday, Thursday...
Today it is another adapted recipe from Beer Captured: Victory Hop Devil India Pale Ale. I also bought a wort chiller today, hopefully I will get it to fit on my faucet. Key-Z is coming over to pitch in, we will drink Stella, eat Cost-Co take and bake, and have a brewtastic time.
We kept excellent company with our one and only bar connection from Japan, who advised us that we should number our beers consumed from 1 to a dozen and keep in mind baka is a reasonable substitute for hammerhead. Now if only we can get that translation from Portuguese.
It's hard to tell what one gallon is. I found filling up 3 nalgenes about does the trick. Yes, for the first time I am using Oakland's finest instead Safeway approved. I have my grains speeting for a half hour, suspended in a grain bag from a rolling pin in 160 degree water.
The specialty grains are:
8 oz. German Munich Malt
8 oz. German Cara-Munich Malt (wtf is this?)
8 oz. German 40L Crystal (adapted from 65L Dark Crystal)
After a half hour steep, I did the 'ol minisparge with a gallon of H20. Brought that to a bizzle, added all the sugary stuff:
4.6 lb. Light Dry Malt Extract (adapted from 4.5 extra light)
4.5 lb. British Light syrup (adapted from 3.5 lb. Bierkeller light syrup)
6 oz. Malto Dextrin
2 oz. Centennial pellets
Brought the level to 2.5 gallons, boiled for 45 minutes. Added:
1 oz. Goldings (adapted from 1/2 oz. G, 1/2 oz. Cascade, since I had less cascade than i thought)
tsp. Irish Moss (gonna need it, this beotch is murky)
12 minutes later,
1 oz. cascade
Killed the heat in 1.5 minutes.
After an hour of stovetop cooling (lid on), I strained the wort into the carboy half-filled with Essence of Lake Merritt. I made up this funwrist swirl to get the muck off the surface of the strainer: if I rotate in a circular fasion, the spent hops simply pull away from the sides, forming a nice neat green ball in the bottom of the strainer, letting the liquid slip by. I am learning!
A week later, dry hopped with one oz of Saaz pellets. (adapted from recipe)
OSG:1.054
FSG: 1.019
1.054-1.019 x 105=3.7%
We kept excellent company with our one and only bar connection from Japan, who advised us that we should number our beers consumed from 1 to a dozen and keep in mind baka is a reasonable substitute for hammerhead. Now if only we can get that translation from Portuguese.
It's hard to tell what one gallon is. I found filling up 3 nalgenes about does the trick. Yes, for the first time I am using Oakland's finest instead Safeway approved. I have my grains speeting for a half hour, suspended in a grain bag from a rolling pin in 160 degree water.
The specialty grains are:
8 oz. German Munich Malt
8 oz. German Cara-Munich Malt (wtf is this?)
8 oz. German 40L Crystal (adapted from 65L Dark Crystal)
After a half hour steep, I did the 'ol minisparge with a gallon of H20. Brought that to a bizzle, added all the sugary stuff:
4.6 lb. Light Dry Malt Extract (adapted from 4.5 extra light)
4.5 lb. British Light syrup (adapted from 3.5 lb. Bierkeller light syrup)
6 oz. Malto Dextrin
2 oz. Centennial pellets
Brought the level to 2.5 gallons, boiled for 45 minutes. Added:
1 oz. Goldings (adapted from 1/2 oz. G, 1/2 oz. Cascade, since I had less cascade than i thought)
tsp. Irish Moss (gonna need it, this beotch is murky)
12 minutes later,
1 oz. cascade
Killed the heat in 1.5 minutes.
After an hour of stovetop cooling (lid on), I strained the wort into the carboy half-filled with Essence of Lake Merritt. I made up this funwrist swirl to get the muck off the surface of the strainer: if I rotate in a circular fasion, the spent hops simply pull away from the sides, forming a nice neat green ball in the bottom of the strainer, letting the liquid slip by. I am learning!
A week later, dry hopped with one oz of Saaz pellets. (adapted from recipe)
Kegged two days later. A quick brew that I want to make again.
OSG:1.054
FSG: 1.019
1.054-1.019 x 105=3.7%
05 December 2005
Websurfing Day
http://abtonline.com/brewpub.html -Brewpubs 101. What the hell is bbl? has to do with amount of barrels a batch, I think. And hls. is what? Boy do I know nothing.
23 November 2005
Dr. Cornelius
Oh man do I have no idea what I'm doing, trying to get this beer into a soda keg. It's 2 days before Thanksgiving at 12:30 am. I have a Ciabatta Biga starter in my kitchen, an empty fridge, laundry in the dryer, a carboy full of beer, and a clean cornelius keg (I'm hoping big man at the brew store re-conditioned the keg with clean parts, 'cause I don't yet have the tools to disassemble the muthafuka). I used this crazy iodine solution that scared the bajeezus out of me, and hope that it won't taint the beer. Commence racking...
I think it's pressurizing...if I wake up witha explodeded fridgerater then you all know why.
13 November 2005
Cascade
Dry hopped yesterday. So after 6 days, fermentation was still kickin but slowed. I quickly sanitized my other carboy and siphoned that good lookin stuff into it. dumped a nice amount (close to 1 oz) of cascade hop pellets right on top of it. A nice floating green layer formed immediately. Now to figure out how the hell to keg this stuff. Next weekend, my fridge will be taken over so get ready!
08 November 2005
06 November 2005
R.I.P.A. Day
Steven Seagal and I first marked off 2.5 gallons on my big stock pot. We are loosely following the BridgePort IPA clone recipe in Beer Captured.
10 oz. cracked 40l crystal malt steeped in hot water (150 degrees) for 30 minutes.
Ladled a gallon of 150 degree water over, sort of a mini-sparge.
Added 4 pounds pale malt syrup.
Added 3.3 lbs extra light dry malt extract. That's a lot of powder. I love my new scale by the way.
Looking for a substitute for Chinook bittering hops. Decided on equal parts cascade and Golding; 3/4 oz of each.
Added a bit a water to bring the kettle up to the 2.5 gallon mark, bring to a boil. 45 min boil.
Added 3/4 oz each of cascade and golding pellets, plus 1 tsp. irish moss. Not Randy Irish Moss, as the Raiders just fell to The Chiefs in the last second of the game. Boil 14 minutes.
Add 1/2 oz. each cascade, golding, crystal (used whole hops for crystal), boil for a quick 30 sec or so, turned off heat.
Had no attachment for the wort chiller, so we put the kettle in the sink and ran cold water to fill. Slower, but seems to work.
Strained into carboy with 2.5 gallons spring water in it. Looks like yield is still low, need to add more water to hit 5 gallons. When temp hit 71, pitched 1056 American yeast.
osg: 1.034
fsg: 1.011 (nov 23)
1.034 - 1.011 x 105 = 2.5% alcohol. Well blow me.
10 oz. cracked 40l crystal malt steeped in hot water (150 degrees) for 30 minutes.
Ladled a gallon of 150 degree water over, sort of a mini-sparge.
Added 4 pounds pale malt syrup.
Added 3.3 lbs extra light dry malt extract. That's a lot of powder. I love my new scale by the way.
Looking for a substitute for Chinook bittering hops. Decided on equal parts cascade and Golding; 3/4 oz of each.
Added a bit a water to bring the kettle up to the 2.5 gallon mark, bring to a boil. 45 min boil.
Added 3/4 oz each of cascade and golding pellets, plus 1 tsp. irish moss. Not Randy Irish Moss, as the Raiders just fell to The Chiefs in the last second of the game. Boil 14 minutes.
Add 1/2 oz. each cascade, golding, crystal (used whole hops for crystal), boil for a quick 30 sec or so, turned off heat.
Had no attachment for the wort chiller, so we put the kettle in the sink and ran cold water to fill. Slower, but seems to work.
Strained into carboy with 2.5 gallons spring water in it. Looks like yield is still low, need to add more water to hit 5 gallons. When temp hit 71, pitched 1056 American yeast.
osg: 1.034
fsg: 1.011 (nov 23)
1.034 - 1.011 x 105 = 2.5% alcohol. Well blow me.
25 October 2005
13 October 2005
Comment Spam is pissing me off
Lets test this blogspam thing again with an updated verification thing
11 October 2005
10 September 2005
Beer Names
It's been so long since an entry I barely remember how. Nonetheless, beer names:
Lager Del Lobo: pays homage to MW and Bay Wolf, and attractive to Oaklanders who speak Spanish.
Hammerhead: Already taken by a brewery in Portland. Maybe I can alter it and keep it.
R.I.P.A.: for my cat if I ever kill her and if I ever brew it!
Go OBC! Like the look of that.
Lager Del Lobo: pays homage to MW and Bay Wolf, and attractive to Oaklanders who speak Spanish.
Hammerhead: Already taken by a brewery in Portland. Maybe I can alter it and keep it.
R.I.P.A.: for my cat if I ever kill her and if I ever brew it!
Go OBC! Like the look of that.
11 June 2005
Brewery Fantasies
I'm just daydreaming. Thinking about the progression and final product. Just getting a small space to brew would be a great start; I could basically be a one man operation like Mr Hunt. All I need is space and equipment. I can keg and bottle, distribute and pick up new accounts. Clever labelling and great beers. Eventually, open that cheese counter at the new Oakland ferry plaza. Then a full-fleged place for the hand made cheese, baked goods and beer.
As for the learning, re-arranging my apartment to allow for a sparging system would be an interesting start to try out all these recipes. Really though, I need a big ass kitchen to bake my bread and boil all this water. Otherwise, I cant see it happening smoothly and regularly. But for the time being, it's all I got, yo.
Although I like this venue for thoughts, it would be helpful to create a spreadsheet template for the recipes, documenting batch I, II, III, etc. That way I could tweak approaches in a more organized fashion. The web is a great way to record the info on the fly, tho yo.
As for the learning, re-arranging my apartment to allow for a sparging system would be an interesting start to try out all these recipes. Really though, I need a big ass kitchen to bake my bread and boil all this water. Otherwise, I cant see it happening smoothly and regularly. But for the time being, it's all I got, yo.
Although I like this venue for thoughts, it would be helpful to create a spreadsheet template for the recipes, documenting batch I, II, III, etc. That way I could tweak approaches in a more organized fashion. The web is a great way to record the info on the fly, tho yo.
03 May 2005
First Dry Hop
After doing some reading I learned that Irish moss won't work after the boil. I swear I read it somewhere to add it during secondary fermentation, but I couldn't find the reference again. There are other clarifyers I could use, but I don't have any now.
Anyway, on Sunday, after Key-Z, the big M and I drove home from the rose garden, I dry-hopped my beer with 1 1/2 oz or so of saaz hop pellets. The result was pretty cool; I have a hazy wheatish colored beer with an inch of pure green floating on top. Now how I'm going to get my siphon around all that floating debris I don't know. I was scared to bag it because the cheese cloth wouldn't be sanitized. My readings, however, say not to worry so much because the alcohol now present will actually stop a lot of bad bacteria from forming.
Anyway, on Sunday, after Key-Z, the big M and I drove home from the rose garden, I dry-hopped my beer with 1 1/2 oz or so of saaz hop pellets. The result was pretty cool; I have a hazy wheatish colored beer with an inch of pure green floating on top. Now how I'm going to get my siphon around all that floating debris I don't know. I was scared to bag it because the cheese cloth wouldn't be sanitized. My readings, however, say not to worry so much because the alcohol now present will actually stop a lot of bad bacteria from forming.
28 April 2005
Fermentation Lock Luck
I pitched the yeast Tuesday morning, and finally today on Thursday I was able to place the fermentation lock on. This seems to be a very active batch, but I also noticed it got off to a slow start. I tried to place the lock on last night but failed miserably. foam was spouting all over the place, into the lock itself, and repeatedly popping the 7 1/2 cm stopper out of the neck. I tried with the same stopper today and still the same, so I tried the 8 cm and it worked the first time. I actually don't know if those are centimeters, but I do know that 8 is bigger than 7 1/2. Note: get another 8 for a two carboy situation.
Hope I didn't contaminate anything having it open for as long as I did, jamming in a rubber stopper over and over with my washed but still human hands.
Hope I didn't contaminate anything having it open for as long as I did, jamming in a rubber stopper over and over with my washed but still human hands.
25 April 2005
Sa-Wheat Beer Night
All-Wheat Extract brew.
(all measurements are definitely approximate)
8 lbs wheat extract boiled in 2 1/2 gallons safeway drinking water for 30 minutes only
1 oz hallertauer hops added immediately upon boilage
0.5 oz saaz added after 20 minutes
0.5 oz saaz added after 12 more minutes, heat turned off
The recipe, out of HFD, called for 6.6 lbs extract. This is supposed to be a fruity, light, banana-clove german style weiss beer. Hefe-weizen is yeast-wheat. I'm planning a secondary fermentation where I will dry hop some more saaz (a definite no-no for the style, I'm told), and add some Irish moss to clarify this very syrupy-looking sweet stuff.
OSG: 0.031
FSG: 1.017
(all measurements are definitely approximate)
8 lbs wheat extract boiled in 2 1/2 gallons safeway drinking water for 30 minutes only
1 oz hallertauer hops added immediately upon boilage
0.5 oz saaz added after 20 minutes
0.5 oz saaz added after 12 more minutes, heat turned off
The recipe, out of HFD, called for 6.6 lbs extract. This is supposed to be a fruity, light, banana-clove german style weiss beer. Hefe-weizen is yeast-wheat. I'm planning a secondary fermentation where I will dry hop some more saaz (a definite no-no for the style, I'm told), and add some Irish moss to clarify this very syrupy-looking sweet stuff.
OSG: 0.031
FSG: 1.017
20 April 2005
Cheese, Gromit, cheeeese!
Of course. Beer and cheese will be the staple on the menu that will prove its worth as a culinary pairing. Though it will be difficult to figure out how the hell to make money on cheese, people will come from all over to try Cole's Cheese menu. And once they are there, they will eat and drink baby, oh yes they will! Thinking big picture, I can imagine our own artisan cheeses from our own caves under, I dont know the oakland hills or maybe some warehouse in West Oaklnad, right? Think about that when looking at spaces to make the beer.
18 April 2005
Websurfing Day
Welcome to HomebrewAdventures.com - News
I realized yesterday that a trip to Belgium would be very accessable to me. I have a huge amount of info available to me from Bob and Arian (sp?). Now just to learn some stuff. That's what I need to be doing; reading and learning, remember that? I also joined Zymurgy today; a three year membership for 33 bucks a year. I think a three year commitment to brewing is a given anyway, right?
I realized yesterday that a trip to Belgium would be very accessable to me. I have a huge amount of info available to me from Bob and Arian (sp?). Now just to learn some stuff. That's what I need to be doing; reading and learning, remember that? I also joined Zymurgy today; a three year membership for 33 bucks a year. I think a three year commitment to brewing is a given anyway, right?
11 April 2005
Midwest Love
Sanfrancrisfro went to Milwaukee for a gig and brought back a bunch of beer. Mostly K-zoo stuff and we drank it um-hmmm yes we did. Oberon tastes much milder than it used to with the new recipe. Two hearted ale is nice and balanced; there is none of that super west-coast hoppiness, but its not like the ale is missing anything, you know? K-zoo stout yummy thick chocolate love. Didn't get to the Expedition maybe he'll save one bottle cause I'd like to try that. Well, in one month I go to Michigan and will try whatever I want to try!
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