Monday, September 1, 2008

Long Weekend Update

Long weekends are great, but don't we always want another day at the end. I know I do. On Saturday before the Huskers took the field we bottled our Black and Blue Brown Ale. Then on Sunday Marcie and I headed to Soaring Wings Vineyard in Springfield for the 2008 Mud Run. We did the 1 mile fun run and everything was going great until we were headed down a slope that preceded the 40 foot mud pit when Marcie stepped on some uneven ground and her ankle gave way. We headed back to Lincoln and the emergency care clinic took x-rays which revealed no fractures but a nasty sprain. At present time she is sitting on the couch with a bag of frozen vegetables on her wrapped ankle. Both of us were running about a 10 minute mile pace, which is ahead of her treadmill pace, but since she can barely walk right now, she will not be running for a while.

As unfortunate as her injury is, we weren't going to let it stop the rest of the weekend plans. We did go ahead and brew our vanilla porter again on Monday. We used the same kit that we purchased last time from Kirk's, but added 8oz of cara-pils to add body. We have become quite adept at the extract kit brewing process, enough that if needed, an extract could be done on a Friday after work if the weekend was going to be particularly busy. All in all, this brewing thing is fun.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

I love this time of the year....

I remember back especially when I was in high school and college, this was about my favorite time of the year. Yes I was and still am a self proclaimed nerd I I enjoyed that summer vaction was ending and it was time to go back to school or college. I think it's probably because I have always been a planning type of guy, and the routine of the non-summer months brings back a regular schedule. But now that I am no longer in school, with the full time job and mortgage and bills, I look forward to this time of the year for the not so hot days, cool evenings, and of course COLLEGE FOOTBALL SEASON AND THE MLB PLAYOFFS!!!!

Okay, I know there is about a month left in the MLB season, but over the course of a 162 game regular season which I have been paying the utmost attention to, now is the time when every game matters that much more, especially when your team is in a pennant race. Right now my Cubs are trailing the Phillies in game one of a 4 game series, but should the game not end in my teams favor, I know that they will try to go out and get it done tomorrow.

On to the other topic, college football. The energy in Lincoln revolves around former defensive coordinator coming back as the head coach of our beloved team. The last time Bo Pelini walked the sidelines in Husker red, he was guiding our team to an Alamo Bowl victory against the Michgan Wolverines. As he teams left the field in San Antonio the Big Red faithful were calling for Bo, in an interim head coach role, to have the interim tag removed and carry on the Big Red tradition. Instead, the AD went out and got some guy with an NFL pedigree, to help keep the program from "gravitating toward mediocrity." If you follow Husker football, you know how all that turned out.

On the brewing front, since the first time around went so well, and the weather will be nice, and we have a Monday where we don't have to work, what would be a better way to spend the day than brewing the vanilla porter? Purchased the extract kit at Kirk's today, along with a few other essentials. Only one change this time, as we are adding 1/2 pound of cara-pils to the grain bag to hopefully let this one have a bit more body than the previous batch. We will try it out and hopefully it will be a drinkable product. We will also be bottling the brown ale that has been in secondary for a week so that there is a good stash of ales for our fall drinking pleasure.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Phase II....Brown Ale...and other ramblings

Friday morning, the primary fermentation of the Brown Ale was still going strong. By the time I got home Friday afternoon, we had gone from bubbles every 8 seconds, to 40 seconds. I became optimistic that there might be something to do with it this weekend. On Saturday afternoon, I took a sample and the specific gravity was right where it should be, 1.012. The starting gravity was 1.042, giving a respectable 3.9-4.2% ABV. I had spoke with a homebrewer at work who recently did a brown ale from a kit and commented that it was really yeasty, and would benefit from a week or two in secondary fermentation. Well, since I did have a couple of extra carboys just sitting around I did go ahead and get that done today. With the long holiday weekend next weekend it will be bottling time. I did taste the sample and if first impressions are a good sign I will be happy once we start drinking it.

On the drinking side of the beer front, Marcie and I along with some homebrewing friends got together for a beer tasting party last night. The night was started out with a wheat ale from Granite City Food and Brewery which went over great. Unfortunately it will be another year before we can drink it again, as they were almost out of it when I filled the growler on Tuesday night. We followed with a belgian wheat, scottish ale from the Olde Town Brewing Company in Ames IA, and then finished up with a 9% ABV tripple, and the kolsch that we had brewed. We did get some great comments on it, so that does give us something to be proud of.

It was then on to the dark beers, and we all agreed that cocoa porter from the Tommyknocker brewig company was great. The biggest hit of the dark beers was by far the Rasputin's Imperial Stout. Pick some up if you see it.

The calendar is our friend. Cubs have a 5 game lead in the NL Central with just over a month to go.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Holy Fermentation Batman!!!

I wonder if the first brewers of beer were planners like me. When I brewed on Saturday I figured that we would see bubbles in the airlock by Saturday night as opposed to Sunday afternoon, and they would be gone by Thursday at the absolute latest, allowing some time to settle out and then go to secondary sometime this weekend.

Well things don't always go how you planned. There are still bubbles about every 7-8 seconds, and here we are at 120 hours after pitching the yeast. Hope it all turns out well.

Isn't brewing great? YES IT IS!

Sunday, August 17, 2008

The air is just right right for.......brewing....drinking too

Yesterday was a good day. The weather was great, mid 80s, little breeze, with a few clouds passing by. The dog had just gotten her haircut in the morning. Makes for a pretty good day to brew. We staked the dog out in the yard while I set up the brew kettle and equiment. On the way home Friday, I had stopped by Kirk's Brew and perused his selection with my recipe for the Goose Island Nut Brown Ale clone in my hand. He did have a kit all ready put together for a brown ale, and after running the numbers, his kit was going to be about $10 less expensive than what I had in my hand. So I decided to go with his kit, and substituted a vial of White Labs California Ale yeast for the dried packet that was included in the box.

Everything went really smoothly as far as the brewing process went. The kit called for a 45 minute boil with 1.5oz fuggles, adding 0.5 oz cascade for the last minute. I tightened the connections on the wort chiller that came apart last time and SOAKED Marcie and this time things worked great. We took the 2+ gallon concentrate down to 110F in a couple of minutes while it was sitting in an ice water bath and added it to 3 gallons of water in the fermentation vessel. It was still at about 79F after that, so the carboy was immersed in the same bath and eventually cooled down to 74F with periods of agitation out of the bath. No hot spots in that carboy. Marcie added the yeast and we headed out for the evening, hoping to see bubbles when we got home.

NO BUBBLES!?!?!! None were seen after we returned from the evening festivities, as well as none before I left for church this morning. I was a bit worried, but the did show up after church. But back to last night......

We dined with coach Bo Pelini at Macaroni Grill. Well not with him, but he was there. Then we were off Sun Valley Lanes to use some free bowling coupons we had won at the Saltdogs game. We both had a fun time, and then decided to continue the night downtown. After stopping at the Brass Rail to see Kory, where he bought us a stiff drink, we then headed to Voda for a martini. One turned into more than one, and both Marcie and I saw people from our past, and they were partying together. SMALL WORLD!!! After they sat down at our booth, there were 2 more martinis for Marcie, and 3 more manhattans for me. The tab got a little high priced, but we did have fun. I was feeling allright for church (had to sing), however I cannot say the same for my better half.

And all was better when I got home to the sight of bubbles on the top of a dark carboy. Oh yeah, and the Cubs just completed a 5-1 road trip and hold a 5.5 game lead on the Brewers.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Where the heck did summer go??

Not that my title of this entry is a bad thing. With the arrival of August, we remember that college football is just around the corner. I noticed on the digital TV guide a channel labeled Husker PPV test. I actually turned there to see what they were showing on there, just a promo for now, but Lincoln is definetely ready for some football.

On the beer front, the Kolsch is officially ready to drink, and even though I like our wheat beer better, I will not be throwing this batch out. There is a fair amount of sediment in the bottom of every bottle, which may have benefitted from a secondary fermentation. It does taste decent and fits the bill for a nice refreshing summer beer, but with the arrival of Labor Day and college football season the brewing mind shifts to something a bit darker with some more hop character.

So next on the brewing schedule is a brown ale. I know, not something that exactly slaps you across the face with hoppy bitterness. But lets be honest, with the hops shortage and gas where it is pricewise, I will save the hoppy beers for an imperial stout around Christmas and another IPA when cold February arrives, just to get me through the last part of winter. I found the recipe for a clone of Goose Island Nut Brown Ale thanks to Google and will post it and how I brewed it when I fianlly decide it myself. Need to do more research. Better wrap this up, as dinner needs to be prepared and we have baseball tickets tonight.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Kolsch update

In a turn of events, instead of going to church this morning (we went last night), we started out the morning with some breakfast, a dog walk, and then to the basement to bottle our Kolsch that we brewed last weekend. Our initial gravity started out at 1.055, and this morning we were a little high for finishing coming in at 1.019. The range given with the kit should have been 1.007-1.009. All in all, it comes out to about 3.9-4.0 ABV. The hops came through really strong, so it will more than likely be 3-4 weeks before we can drink it.

I'm sitting here with my Cubs on TV, with a smoked porter in a glass beside me. It was brewed by my friends Brett and Gary, and I would have to say that it mellowed out quite a bit since they bottled it. I had the opportunity to taste it at bottling time, and it was s dry that that it left a layer of dust in the glass. It has since become palateable, but it does have the color of a black hole. No light passes through this stuff. Instead of using liquid smoke, they do actually smoke the grains for this brew. Gary has made comments that in a very short time that I will be brewing more than they do, but I have to give credit that they had a big part in getting me involved in this.

We used the bottling tree for the first time today, and it is one of those things that just makes things a lot easier to do. No more carrying wet cases back to the shelves hoping that your precious brew doesn't find the cruel end of a cement floor. Cubs half of the 6th inning, down 3-1 to the Giants. They are going for a sweep of the final homestand before the All-Star break. The good guys are represented well on the NL squad, but also some key guys are getting some needed rest. Ryan Dempster got the start for the Cubs this afternoon, and is in line for his first loss at Wrigley Field this year. Hopefully they can turn it around and fly the "W" flag.

About time to wrap this up, will continue posting on upcoming breing events.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Been a while.....

Not had the time to write anything for a while. So here goes. The Red Line Wheat, much to my surprise, is not the weak chugging beer that I had originally thought. After some advice from Kirk I now know what I was doing wrong. Two words, initial gravity, enough said. The Red Line Wheat has now been in the bottle for about a month and it won't be in there very long. It took a few weeks after bottling for the hops to mellow out, but this is one easy drinking wheat beer. It has enough bite for a hop head like me, but Marcie loves it as well. I still love a good IPA, but this is pretty darn good. Look for it again next summer.

Last weekend, in celebration of our nation's birthday, we brewed in honor of the founding fathers. After all, when they were planning this little thing called a revolution some 232 years ago, they were drinking in local taverns and houses brew that did not come from that local grocery store. This time around we went with another summer ale, a German Kolsch. I made my trip to Kirk's with an idea to do an American Cream Ale, but was open to suggestions. He suggested this kit brew from Brewers Best, saying it was what he brewed when he was in the mood for a good light drinking ale. We will be bottling on Sunday, then we will probably sample on the 24th before taking in a concert by one of the greatest American artists/songwriters, NEIL DIAMOND!!! I know Sweet Caroline is going through your head right now as it is mine.

Enough about what is going on brewing wise, need to get a few things out of the way. About a month ago, Marcie and I were downtown and we stopped in for a drink at the Brass Rail, where a guy named Kory works as a weekend bouncer. Kory's girlfriend is a friend of Marcie's, and you will never meet a nicer guy in the world. After buying us a couple of drinks, we are talking outside and he tells me that he used to be a homebrewer, but didn't have time for it anymore. He then informs me that he still had all his equipment for all grain brewing and he would GIVE it to me, including some 5 gallon kegs if I ever did decide to make that jump. Thanks to Kory, our brewing capacity has almost tripled, and there is that possibility of an imperial stout in the near future which would be ready just in time for the holiday season. Kory, words cannot explain how much this act is appreciated. If the Luhman Brewing Company ever has a public drinking house, you will have a seat of honor there. Let me know when you need more beer.

This has ran long enough, so I'll wrap this up. Happy drinking.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Another weekend

Nothing really new to write today, but Marcie is at her WW meeting and I have some time to kill before I meet her for coffee. I will probably try the Red Line Wheat tomorrow since that will have been one week in the bottle and the Cubs are on TV tomorrow.

This past week has been an interesting one here in Lincoln and Nebraska in general. Severe thunderstorms and tornadoes ran across the state, taking the lives of 4 boy scouts at a camp in western Iowa. The sirens went off in Lincoln on Wednesday night but there was no confirmed tornado on the ground. The north side of Lincoln received reports of 5-6 inches of rain in a 24 hour period, and our neighbors had 3-4 inches of water in their basement. Their carpet was floating. I took a beer over for them on Thursday since I was pretty sure they needed it. Our sump pumps worked great, and we are dry. Thank GOD!!

In the sports news, Cubs left fielder Alfonso Soriano is on the DL for 6 weeks after being hit in the hand while batting in the 2nd inning Wednesday night. One broken bone, but the Cubs will miss hit bat and base speed while he recovers. The other guys will have to step up, and I hope they can keep up to get him back fo the run at the end of the season.

In beer news, Anheuser Busch may be purchased by a European company. Will their beer still suck?? Probably. For those of you who think Budweiser is an American icon, where do you think that the orginal proprietors came from?

I was searching for ideas for the next home brew, but I don't want to have to take out a second mortgage for the hops. I found an ESB recipe that called for 6 separate additions of hops. Figuring $4/oz, it came to $16 for just the hops. Keep on looking. I have a 4 day weekend for the July 4th holiday, so I might brew then.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Lawnmower beer and other rantings

The Red Line Wheat is in the bottle. We sampled it (duh), but when we tested it for alcohol content a surprising number came up.....2.0%. Not even the equivalent of a mass produced domestic light beer. On the bright side, we have a session beer that tastes all right. There is a hint of lemon to it, and should be a real refresher when the Nebraska heat hits. As far as a lawnmower beer, I could probably mow all the yards in the neighborhood while drinking this and be good enough to grill when I got done.

So that being said, we might try something different the next time we do a wheat beer, but we'll see when we try it in a couple weeks. I might test the ABV when we crack open a bottle.

On a completely different note, we are watching a show on Discovery Health about the Duggars. IF you have not heard of them, they are the family that keeps on having kids. Marcie says #18 is on the way as we speak. It has been said before, so I will say it again. It's a vagina, not a clown car!!! I'll take arguements for birth control for $500 Alex. I'll be calling my urologist now since I can barely handle a dog.

On a weight loss note, my wife has been doing Weight Watchers since just before last Thanksgiving, and by consequence I have been doing it as well. Since then she has lost 54.8 pounds and I am down 44.4 (total of 99.2, almost 100 pounds). As the great Vin Scully said, How about that?

Battery is almost dead, better wrap this up.

Bottling Day!!

I was starting to get a bit worried. The batch of Red Line Wheat was going strong in the fermenter for four days, and was still showing bubbles about every thirty seconds until Friday morning. But by the time I got home from work on Friday, the bubbles had stopped and the surface a slightly red hue to it. I have no idea why, but maybe it will look different when it comes out of the carboy.

The name Red Line Wheat has many meanings. On the Saturday that we brewed, it was a nice sunny day in Lincoln, so my wife decided to get some sun outside while the boil was going on. She got a little more than she should have, and for a full six days there was a red line across her chest where her shirt was. It has since turned to a more tan color, but the name stuck. For those of you who have had the pleasure of visiting Chicago and using the mass transit system, you might recognize that the red line train is one of the few things that Cubs fans and White Sox fans have in common, as it makes stops near both baseball parks. The first trip my wife and I took to Chicago, we got on one of those red line trains at about 10PM. I was wearing my Kerry Wood jersey, and the train was headed northound filled to standing room only with White Sox fans. I did catch a fair amount of crap on that train ride.

On another note, regarding the news from the Dallas Cowboys camp. Jerry, way to go getting the checkbook out and locking T.O. up for the next few years. But can you do something about Tony and that Simpson girl. She screwed up his season last year. Don't let it happen again. Hey Romo find youself a non-celebrity woman.

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Happy Accidents??

You remember that painting guy on PBS, Bob Ross? One of his catch phrases was "we don't make mistakes, just happy accidents." Well, we will see about that in a few weeks when we can drink the Summer Wheat Ale. Found the recipe online as a clone for Sam Adams Summer Ale, but I neglected to read the recipe when getting my steeping bag ready. It called for one half pound of Cara-pils dextrin, but I put the whole pound in. We will see what happens. The recipe I used is listed below.

3.3 lb Pale Liquid extract
3.3 lb Wheat Liquid extract
1.0 lb flaked wheat grain
1.0 lb Cara-pils dextrin
1.0 oz Tettnang hops (50 minutes)
1.0 oz Tettnang hops (10 minutes)
1.0 oz lemon zest (5 minutes)
2.0 grams Seeds of Paradise (5 minutes)
2.0 gallons water
Saflager S23 dry lager yeast

The grains were steeped at around 155 degrees F for 30 minutes. After boiling, wort was cooled and added to 3.0 gallons cold water in fermentation vessel. Yeast was added when vessel temperature hit 78 degrees F. Bubbles started to appear after about 3 hours, and foamy head seen about 14 hours after pitching. The yeast was used as a suggestion from Kirk.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Vacation Over. Back to Brewing

After a few much needed days away from Lincoln, reality has set in once again. We arrived in Chicago on Sunday morning and were back in Lincoln on Wednesday evening. After picking up a very happy dog, it was time to get ready to go back to work, at least for me. Fortunately, only two work days until the weekend.

As I said in my last entry, it is time to brew once again on Saturday. This time around I will be shooting for a wheat beer just in time for lawn mowing season. My target is something like the Sam Adams Summer Ale which says on the bottle is a filtered wheat with a hint of lemon. I will not be filtering this batch, as I do not mind some haze, nor do I have the ability or know-how to do it. I was a bit apprehensive about purchasing the sampler case of Sam Adams brews, but have been pleasantly surprised. It was picked up at the local Sam's Club as an impulse buy, but at least the bottles are reusable. It contains four bottles of the following six brews: Boston lager (the only lager that I will buy), Light, Hefeweisen, Cherry Wheat, Pale Ale, and the Summer Ale. The Cherry Wheat is actually decent for a fruit beer, and the Pale Ale is also very tasty. If you don't want to serve the Anheuser or Miller products to your friends (WHO WOULD???) I can recommend serving this. There is enough variety to satisfy a very broad spectrum of tastes, even if there are hop heads like me in the group.

On a completely different note, if you are a baseball fan and ever have the opportunity, take a guided tour of Wrigley Field. It was one of the highlights of our vacation, and it was like the mothership calling me home. Our tour guide had also been on the Fenway Park tour and spoke highly of it. It is also a fundraiser for the Chicago CubsCare charities, so the money goes to a good cause. We also did a cruise on the Chicago river highlighting the architectural marvels of the Chicago skyline. On a 90 minute cruise, or tour guide shut up for about 45 seconds while the boat turned around, and that is a good thing. He really knew his facts, and had enough of a sense of humor to keep us interested. Even though it was about 50 degrees with a 30mph blowing off Lake Michigan we still enjoyed ourselves.

The IPA is almost gone, and the vanilla porter is very tasty. Get to go shopping at Kirk's tomorrow. WOO HOO!!

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

The First Steps

A couple friends of mine, Gary and Brett, have been homebrewing for quite some time now. When I asked them to accompany me to Kirk's Brew, here in Lincoln, their first comment was, "we have converted another." I purchased my homebrewing supplies and a kit for an IPA, by far my favorite style of beer. With the tutelage of my friends a few weeks later I enjoyed my first home brewed beer while watching the Cubs on a Saturday afternoon. At the time of this posting, I have 2 twelve ounce bottles and one 22oz left of that first batch, and am looking forward to brewing it again.

The next time around I decided to go with something a little less hoppy, that my wife would like as well. I purchased a porter kit from Kirk's (www.kirksbrew.com/) and a 3 ounce bottle of pure vanilla extract. Kirk's kits include some grain, as well as malt extracts, and everything but bottles and caps to make your beer. His store is like male aromatherapy for me, with the aromas of barley and hops throughout. The brewing process went pretty smoothly, with my wife Marcie assisting. About 10 days after brewing, when we finally had time, we added the bottle of pure vanilla extract to the bottling bucket with the priming solution, and after 8 days in the bottle, we have a drinkable product. Both Marcie and I were a bit worried, since the fermentation vessel was only bubbling for about 36-48 hours. The IPA fermented at a good rate for almost 72 hours.

But with it being summertime, and lawnmower season, it's time for a good lawnmower beer. After trying a Sam Adams Summer Ale tonight I'm leaning towards a wheat brew with a touch of lemon. I have a couple of weeks to research the right recipe, so I'm open to suggestions.

A little about me, well, more like a lot.

I've decided to break into the world of home brewing.....What seems to be a long time ago I was a graduate teaching assistant at South Dakota State University, home of the Jackrabbits. I taught Anatomy Lab under the supervision of Scott Pederson, Ph.D. I really wasn't interested that much in my classes, or my research, but I did find teaching was a good way to break up the numerous nights at the bar. Some of those nights, usually Wednesdays after my night lab ended, were spent at a place called Skinners Pub drinking with my professor. He laughed at me when I ordered a 22oz Miller Lite, so he ordered me a Guinness instead. And so the story begins......

The last time a domestic light beer (by U.S. standards) made it's way into the home refrigerator, it was in there over 2 weeks after which it was poured on the pet spots on the lawn where go figure, it did green them right up. On March 5, 2005, when I met the woman who would eventually become my wife, she was drinking that domestic tap beer. I am proud to say that it wasn't to long after that when she became a beer snob, and a proud one at that. Her support is a huge part of my journey into the world of home brewing, and there is not one person who I would rather have to share that journey with.

For those of you who are not into home brewing, need not worry. I have been known to rant on other topics, including but not limited to my love for the Chicago Cubs, Dallas Cowboys, and the Nebraska Cornhuskers. My wife and I are big sports fans, but I am a microbiologist by trade who also knows his way around a grill and kitchen. When we registered for wedding gifts, it was I who went crazy over the cookware and cutlery.

So, keep posted for further comments. Meanwhile, I need to find my next brewing project.