Bottling Day

Good news for the Tight Skirt Stout... Sunday July 24^th I checked the fermentation progress of the stout and was pleased to find it had reached proper attenuation for bottling. So that’s what I decided to do. I quickly sanitized bottles, got the priming sugar and bottle caps ready, then recruited help. An extra person makes the job much easier, one person fills bottles while the other caps. I now have a case each of 22 oz and 12 oz bottles of nearly opaque black beer. In a couple of weeks I will perform a carbonation check. It’s a tough job but someone has to do it.

My turn to watch

I was invited, through a mutual friend, to attend one of Marty's brew days at his home on Saturday, July 16th. He is a fellow home brewer and has been brewing for longer than I have and is also brewing more often than I do. He currently has 6 beers on tap, a couple more fermenting, and was brewing 2 different beers on this particular Saturday. Marty likes brewing from kits with proven recipes. After sampling few tasters from the taps I’d say the results speak for themselves, they were all easy to drink. I did go back for a full pour of one particular ipa clone that I really liked.

It was another excessive heat warning day in Kansas City, so as soon as the brewing was done we quickly moved inside for a couple of post brewing brews. As more people arrived, each bringing a beer or two along with a little food to share it was another great day to be alive.

Each brewer’s technique and brewing set up varies. Having had the opportunity to see how someone that brews good beer does it, I am encouraged that I seem to be on the right track.

Stout update

The addition of the yeast has restarted the fermentation albeit at a rather slow pace. This would be about right toward the end of a normal fermentation. So I am hopeful that this will prove to be enough to get to to a full attenuation. I have not checked it since adding the yeast. I am trying to be patient.

Stuck fermentation

I went to the LHBS on Saturday, July 9th, to pick up a few items including Star San sanitizer and bottle caps. It has been two weeks since I racked the brew to the secondary fermenter so I have been thinking about getting it bottled. I stole enough of the fermenting beer from the carboy to make a gravity reading. What I learned was rather discouraging but not totally unexpected. The reading was the same as when I racked to the secondary. No further fermentation was taking place. By my calculations it is about 65% attenuated. What I have is beer, but if I bottle it like it is it would be overly sweet and a generally unimpressive beer. What I decided to do is not without risk, and may not even work at all, but I am hoping it gives me a chance to salvage this particular beer. I pitched 7 grams of Safale US-05 dry yeast directly into the carboy.

I am thinking that I will start using a nutrient blend in my next few batches as a test. If it works out I will continue to use it. Also, I want to brew the stout again, probably my next batch, using a less flocculant yeast strain than the current batch. I think I have been losing some yeast through the blow off tube, this combined with the yeast that drops out of suspension is not allowing for full attenuation. Of course, this is mostly just speculation. The proof is in the beer.

Cleaning day

I had accumulated a number of bottles that needed extra attention for cleaning. That’s what happens when they are not rinsed right away after being emptied. Also, after 4 batches brewed, it wouldn’t hurt for the brew kettle to be cleaned. So, on Sunday July 3rd, I mixed up 5 gallons of PBW (Powdered Brewery Wash) in the boil kettle. I cleaned about a case of bottles in several batches, soaking for about 45 minutes each. After soaking in PBW, I cleaned them with a bottle brush then rinsed thoroughly. After drying on the bottle tree they will be ready for sanitizing just before being re-filled. I cleaned the blow off tube along with the growler I use as a water container for the blow off assembly. I also ran some of the PBW through the ball valves. I use 3-piece ball valves so the next time I clean I will disassemble them but I don’t do that every time. Finally, I scrubbed the brew kettle. PBW seems to loosen about every soil normally found in the brewery and really reduces the amount of scrubbing required. A thorough rinsing, however, is a necessity. The brewery is ready for the next batch. Maybe next weekend… ?

Like a bad movie

Up ‘til now my posts have jumped back and forth in time like a bad movie and so may be difficult to follow. The reason I started by posting about the past was to give a little background about my brewing experiences and to show that brewing is an evolutionary process, you can brew good beer with just a little investment for equipment. Often you can even borrow some of the equipment, like I did, to get started. If you get the brewing bug you can upgrade as little or as much as the budget will allow and still continue brewing. To give some relativity to the posts I have created a timeline. I am nearly up to date so the posts will be less frequent and perhaps stray off topic a little more. Also, the chronology should become a little more orderly.

Date		Description
7/18/2009		Brew first batch of beer in a 20 qt stock pot on a neighbors "turkey fryer" propane stove
8/8/2009		Bottle the first batch of beer. It shalll be known as Crazy 8 Ale
9/5/2009		Brew second batch of beer, Tight Skirt Stout, by the same method as the Crazy 8 Ale.
10/16/2009		Bottle the Tight Skirt Stout
10/8/2009		Purchased a damaged keg to be converted into a "keggle"
10/9/2009		Ordered couplings to be welded to the keg and a three-piece ball valve
11/5/2009		Ordered a Bayou Classic propane stove from Ace Hardware
2/26/2010		Ordered Chillzilla counterflow chiller from Northern Brewer
3/7/2010		Brew Crazy 8 Ale. First 5 gallon full boil.
5/1/2010		Brew Wee Plaid Skirt Scotch Ale on National Homebrew Day
5/7/2010		Earned my first plate at the Flying Saucer KC (200 beers)
7/3/2010		Brew Grass Skirt Wheat Ale
9/19/2010		Brew Short Skirt Vanilla Brown Porter
10/10/2010		Brew Lucky Number 7 Wheat Dopplebock (never did carbonate)
12/4/2010		Drill the holes and deburr the tube for the stove frame
1/5/2011		Stove frame welded
1/19/2011		Ordered 10" low pressure burner & tri clamp from Brewers Hardware
2/27/2011		Layout and drill burner shields
3/4/2011		Burner shields are welded
3/11/2011		Ordered 3" thermometer with 1/2" thread to fit keggle
3/11/2011		Modify the burner to fit the burner shield
3/12/2011		Test fire the 10" burner
3/20/2011		Brew Crazy 8 Ale. First brew on my single tier stove.
3/26/2011		Visit to Red-X in Riverside as posted March 28th.
4/17/2011		Brew 3C IPA
4/30/2011		Buy tri clamp set from Marty Amon in KCK for thermometer attachment.
5/4/2011		Earned my second plate at the Flying Saucer KC (400 total beers)
5/7/2011		Brew Wee Plaid Skirt Scotch Ale on National Homebrew Day. First use of peated malt.
5/28/2011		Bottle Wee Plaid Skirt Scotch Ale
6/11/2011		Brew Tight Skirt Stout
6/26/2011		Rack Tight Skirt Stout to secondary (carboy)