Fermentation Frenzy--A Homebrew Triathlon

Mike DiMarco should be proud--I'm running a triathlon...a beer triathlon that is. I'm brewing 3 beers in 3 weeks, and I'm already a third of the way there. This past weekend, I brewed a 5 gallon batch of a Munich Helles, a light lager that the BJCP describeds as having a "malty but fully attenuated Pils malt showcase" and "is not overly sweet, but rather focuses on malt flavor with underlying hop bitterness in a supporting role." The beer was made using mostly Pilsner malt, with a little Light Munich as well as Melanoidin. The hop bill was pretty simple--just some German Hallertauer at 60 minutes. For my first time brewing in my new place, the brewday went extremely well. My new stove was luckily able to bring 7.5 gallons of wort to a boil, though I had a small issue with a boil over, which took 45 minutes of scrubbing the stove with a brillo pad to clean it up. The one major issue I had was fermentation; this was only my second time doing a lager, and I didn't handle the yeast as well as I should've. Although I made a properly-sized starter using WLP838 Southern German Lager yeast, I kept the starter at fermentation temperature (about 52 F) instead of keeping it at room temp to grow the yeast. Once I pitched the yeast slurry, there was about a 72-hour lag time before fermentation really got going. In the end though, the yeast prevailed, and you can see the krausen forming on top of the beer in the picture above. I'll let the beer ferment out at 52 F before transferring it to the secondary and lagering at 34 F for at least a month.

While my Munich Helles is fermenting away, I'm going to brew a 5 gallon batch of a Rye IPA this Sunday, which should come out to be a hoppy and subtly spicy ale with a firm malt backbone. The malt bill calls for mostly American 2-row with a number of specialty malts, including Rye, Caramel 60, CaraPils, and a little Wheat. The hop additions are all either Mt. Hood or Columbus, and I prepared a starter last night using WLP051 California Ale V yeast.

Finally, next weekend I'll be brewing a 3 gallon batch of an Imperial Brown Ale using Maris Otter as a base malt with Brown Malt, Caramel 80, Caramel 120, and some Dark Belgian Candi Syrup. The hops include Columbus and Willamette, and I'll be using WLP001 California Ale yeast.

Tasting notes to come once all three beers are on tap...onward with the triathlon!

The Return of the Blog-O-Beer

I'm back like a bad case of herpes! I'm finally settled down in DC and just moved in to my newly purchased condom (umm, I mean "condo"...I'm still on the herpes subject apparently). Okay, enough about STDs! On to beer!

Along with my new home, comes a newly built kegerator. When I moved down to DC, I got a new 5.5 cubic foot chest freezer as a mini-kegerator in my temporary apartment. Now that I have my own place, I'm going to be using the chest freezer for lagering, and I moved my 14 cubic foot upright freezer down to DC from NJ. Last week I converted the upright freezer into a full blown kegerator with three taps. Despite a "small" snafu along the way, it's all setup and waiting for beer! I only need a drip tray and some tap handles to complete it, which are both on their way. Check out the pictures below!

I built the kegerator by drilling three holes through the door using a 1-inch hole saw. Shanks run through the door with faucets on the outside and 5 foot beer lines attached on the inside. The gas systems consists of a 5lb CO2 tank and a primary regulator connected to a 3-gauge secondary regulator, so I can control the individual pressure in three different kegs. My small snafu was the fact that one of the three holes I drilled cut through two wires in the door. I managed to fix the wiring by removing the back of the freezer door, digging through the insulation, and splicing the wires back together with. In a moment of stupidity though, I decided to plug the freezer in after drilling through the wires--this shorted out the circuit board in the LCD control panel on the freezer. Luckily, I was able to order a replacement control panel from Frigidaire--it arrived yesterday and everything is back to working order!

The only thing I'm missing now is beer. I'm going to be re-starting full-scale brewing operations this weekend when I brew my inaugural beer in my new home: a Munich Helles. I've setup an agressive brewing schedule for myself; I plan on brewing 3 weekends in a row in order to stock up the kegerator. The other two beers will be a Rye IPA and an Imperial Brown Ale. I'll have details plus pictures of my brew day after the weekend. Cheers!

Review: Vanilla Bourbon Porter

I'm finally down in DC and getting ready to start my new job tomorrow! I'm all moved in, and although homebrewing is going to take a break for awhile, home drinking is not! I picked up a 5 cu ft chest freezer yesterday to hold two kegs I brought with me (pumpkin ale and vanilla bourbon porter). Although my roommate may not be thrilled to have a chest freezer in the apartment, he certainly can't complain about fresh draft beer on tap! (Right JT?)

Below are some tastings notes of my homebrewed vanilla bourbon porter. I'm very happy with the way it turned it out...

Aroma: Strong chocolate aroma with notes of vanilla. Some hints of coffee. Very clean, no hop aroma.

Appearance: Dark, dark brown and almost black. There's a small tan head with decent retention. It looks almost creamy.

Flavor: Coffee and vanilla are the dominant flavors, with some dark chocolate. Medium bitterness with a very slight hot alcohol quality. The bourbon is noticeable on the finish, but is very faint otherwise. Some oakiness is detectable. No hop flavor.

Mouthfeel: Medium to medium-full bodied with a mild carbonation. A little astringent from the roasted grain

Overall Impression: For a nearly 10% ABV beer, this porter is extremely smooth. I would like the bourbon to be a little more apparent--I have a sneaking suspicion that the alcohol and water stratified in the keg, and that the last few pints are gonna be uber-bourbon flavored. However, I just took another sip now that it's warmed up a bit, and the bourbon is now noticeable. I gotta give myself some props for making an exceptionally clean and drinkable "big" beer!