April 26, 2006

So I racked the Belgian Golden Strong Ale into secondary last night.  Gravity reading was 1.018, which is still a bit higher than the target range of 1.016 to 1.010.  It may drop a few points in secondary, but I’ve never had any luck with that.  Regardless, the hydrometer sample is shaping up nicely.  I ended up with a bit less than 5 gallons, which is rather disappointing.  I blame the communists.  I also dumped out the yeast I had in the fridge all this time and replaced it with yeast from this batch.  Probably a not insignificant amount of trub, too.  So now I’ve got a potentially viable WY1388/Safale S-04 culture on hand.

On Tap: “Abbot’s Habit” Belgian Dubbel, “Skidmarks” American Brown Ale, “Hops Out the Wazoo” American IPA, “Bull & Bladder Bitter” Ordinary Bitter (bottle conditioning)
In Primary: Sweet Clover Mead (1.114)
In Secondary: “Thar She Blows” Belgian Golden Strong Ale (1.076)
On Deck: Alt Bier, Banana Oat Stout, Belgian Strong Dark Ale

April 24, 2006

Not a lot new on the homebrew front.  Went to Karp’s over the weekend and picked up a couple things – a new carboy (for the mead, eventually), some bottles and cleaner (StarSan) and a yeast pack.  They didn’t have the grains or hops I needed, so I ordered those from Northern Brewer (for an Altbier).

April 17, 2006

Took a day off to brew up the Belgian Golden Strong Ale (Delirium Tremens clone), and it was nice and overall went very well.  I made a big yeast starter for this one.  On Thursday, I activated the WY1388 pack.  On Friday, I boiled up 1/2 cup light DME in 1 pint of water.  When that cooled, I poured it into my growler and pitched the WY1388 and the Safale S-04.  The next day, there was a nice, thick yeast sediment on the bottom, so I stepped it up (brewed another 1/2 cup DME in a pint of water).  On brew day (Monday), I put it into the fridge to speed up flocculation (don’t yell at me if that’s not the right term).

April 8, 2006

I bottled the Ordinary Bitter today.  Used the new 22oz bomber bottles for part of it, but one broke during cleaning.  So ended up with 11 @ 22oz and 31 @ 12oz, so that’s equivalent to 51 12oz bottles.  Set aside 4 for competitions, 2 for Kale and 2 for Chuck.  Had a couple sips from the bottling bucket, and it’s gonna be a pretty good, though very light, bitter.

April 1, 2006

So here’s a thing or two.  First, I dry-hopped my Ordinary Bitter with (slightly less than) 1 ounce of Fuggles whole leaf hops.  Just shoved them straight into the carboy and shook it up a bit.

Second, I made a mead.  Wow, was that easy.  About an hour start to finish.  It’s nothing more than mixing honey with water and adding yeast.  Now I just have to wait a few months before it’s ready.