Jeepers, it’s been a looooong time since I’ve written anything here. Nearly two years, as a matter of fact! So here’s a quick update.
I’m still brewing. Thanks for asking! Won a couple ribbons, so I guess that’s vaguely noteworthy.
Bottled a Saison last weekend. Even though it’s only been a few days, I plan on drinking one tonight. Looking forward to it.
Made a few meads in the interim. I’ve got one in tertiary right now that I’m particularly excited about.
Finally got around to bottling the Rye IPA the other night (Aug 20), and boy is that sucker bitter! I’m hoping it’ll mellow out a bit over the next couple weeks. I was lower on bottles than I thought, so I had to mix it up pretty much. Used 8 22oz bombers, 14 of my older, heavier, nicer 12oz bottles, and the rest the newer, lighter, cheaper, not as nice 12ozers. Oh, and it did drop a couple more points in the three week secondary, so finished at 1.020. Target was 1.018, so it’s close but no cigar. From a start of 1.074, that gives… 73% attenuation.
A bit of catch up. I bottled the Weissbier on July 16, using the Speise and the yeast dregs from the Blackforest Hefeweizen (decanting off the beer first). I’ve tried a couple bottles since then (one only three or four days later!), and it’s nicely carbonated (allaying my fears that the Blackforest dregs were nothing but trub or dead yeasties) and quite tasty. Very cloudy, though, if you pour the whole bottle, but then, that’s to style.
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So I transferred the mead to secondary last night. Gravity was at 1.022, down from 1.114. It’s fallen about 2 points since I last checked, 2 or 3 weeks ago. I’m going to try to hit Karp’s over the weekend, so I’ll try to pick up some champagne yeast to restart it if it doesn’t move in the next month or so. Target was 1.010, so I’d still like to drop it 12 points. Still, it’s at 12.65%ABV right now, but rather sweet. Seems to be mellowing out, so it should be quite good in 5 or 6 months.
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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.
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So I’m trying to figure out what to brew next. I’m all gung-ho to brew something unusual that probably noone other than myself would really enjoy. Something like a Saison or Altbier. But I think I’m going to stick with something a little more mainstream. Possibly a British Bitter, cause I really love that style, and it’s not going to offend anyone. Or perhaps a Brown Ale, something like a Newcastle (I’m eyeing NB’s Nukey Brown Ale). Or, maybe go just a bit further than the norm, and do a Honey Weizen. I think I’ve ruled out a Stout at this point, since a couple of my recent brews were dark (Imperial Porter) and heavy (Wee Heavy).
I also intend to brew up a mead at some point, but that seems to me to be more of a cool or cold weather beverage. It would need to ferment and condition for something like 4 to 6 months, so that would put it finishing in late spring or possibly even early summer. But I know my wife would enjoy it. I’ll definitely do a small batch before too long.
