Bottling the Red Lager and Cream Ale

It was time to bottle both beers that were in the secondary conditioning stage. The Red Squirrel Lager had been lagering (sort of - I could only keep the temperature at around 50 - 60 degrees) for four months. It should be nice, smooth, and ideal for session drinking at this point. The Canada Goose Cream Ale conditioned for about a month. It also turned out good and clean. After the bottles carbonate, a batch will be traveling to Sweden to share with the fellow brewmasters who participated in the all-grain brew day for this ale. Final results: Red Squirrel Lager - one mini keg, thirty-seven 12oz. bottles Canada Goose Cream Ale - one mini keg, thirty-nine 12oz. bottles

Bottling the Honey Nut Brown

After a little over a month of secondary time, I bottled the Crazy Bear Honey Nut Brown.  It smelled fantastic so I feel good about the end product.  My intention is to have a big BBQ in early April so I went ahead and filled a mini-keg along with thirty-eight 12oz. bottles.  Nothing like good beer straight from the tap into a big glass!

Bottling the Holiday Ale

Twenty-six 22 oz. bottles and three 12 oz. bottles - that is the final result of today's bottling of Tomten's Jul Ol, the holiday ale that has been aging since the middle of the summer.  Luckily I had a half of a bottle too much and was "forced" to taste it.  This is the second time I have brewed this beer and it is just as good now as the first time.  A few weeks of carbonation and it will be ready to pop.  'Tis the season to be jolly!

One adverse note: this bottling session leaves the Brewhus with all vessels empty.  It's time to brew again.

Bottling the Pumpkin Ale and Pale Ale

Yesterday was a busy bottling day.  Boo-Ya (pumpkin ale) smelled and looked great.  The extra 30oz. of pumpkin definitely paid off.  The end result was forty-two 12oz. bottles and one 2-liter growler.

The pale ale was broken into two bottling sessions: one for the original and one for the dry hopped version.  Obviously, the dry hopped was second, so not to taint the other with fantastic Nugget flavor.  Each of these produced twenty-three 12oz. bottles.

In a few weeks we will discover if Boo-Ya is (yet again) a crowd favorite and whether all-grain brewing lives up to the hype.

Bottling the Saison and Holiday Beer Troubles

Yesterday we bottled the Saison du Grassklippare (Lawnmower Saison). Forty-one 12-oz bottles and one mini-keg (since I plan on uncapping this at our end of the summer BBQ). A quick taste expressed positive results - nice, medium hops and light-body will mean a very refreshing beer. A little time for carbonation and we likely have a winner.

Final gravity: 1.010
Estimated ABV: 4.5%

And now for the dissapointing news: The yeast did not fully attenuate the holiday beer. I moved it from the primary fermenter into another vessel and added some dry yeast. We now have renewed fermentation but not with the same yeast strain. Hopefully, this doesn't result in off flavors. Only time will tell.

Bottling the Cherry Beers

So (finally) I bottled the cherry beers. New puppy ownership and large stockpiles of finished beer have definitely curtailed my brewing; however, I am determined to brew at least twice this summer.

The first half of the batch (11 bottles) was the cherry amber ale by itself. I added 2oz. of cherry extract to the second half (13 bottles). I know that it may be a bit strong (usually one adds less than 4oz. to a five-gallon batch) but it should give me a clear idea of whether extract really makes the flavor better.

Final gravity: 1.010
Estimated ABV: 3.7% (clearly, fermentation didn't renew but cherry flavor was absorbed)

Beer Bottling and Tasting Updates

One post per month - I should be savagely beaten. The reason for the lack of attention to the brog is simple: I haven't been doing much notable beer stuff. I am doing my best to reduce my massive finished-beer supply and, thus, not actively brewing anything. Time is ticking away though and the itch to brew is in desperate need of scratching.

Beer bottling:

Elderflower Ale #2 - eleven 12oz. bottles
Old Tjikko #2 - thirteen 12oz. bottles
Amber (control beer) - fourteen 12oz. bottles

I will bottle the two cherry ales this week and, after a month or so, will pop a few of each to test the experiments.

Tastings:

Two solid beer tastings in the past month. A couple of weeks ago we went to a beer festival in Baltimore. Unfortunately, despite a generous beer pouring policy, very few beers really stood out as great, "must buy" options. A few interesting brews: Lancaster Brewing Co.'s Strawberry Wheat, Pratt Street Ale House's (Oliver's) Cherry Blossom Ale, and Old Dominion's Spring Buck. Fruity and/or sweet really dominated these beers but they were, nonetheless, pretty fun and tasty. Also, a previously unknown-to-me brewery, Stillwater, had two versions of their saison (one was cask-conditioned) with distinctively different aspects. They were both pretty good and it was nice to be able to compare the two side-by-side.

This weekend we went on a beer sampling adventure at Rustico in Alexandria, VA. I tried about a dozen beers - mostly from breweries I don't regularly drink. Eggenberg's Spezial Dunkel and Mikkeller's Nelson Sauvignon were winners; Hitachino's Classic Ale was a real disappointment - it had been billed as an English Ale aged in cedar casks (from a Japanese brewery!). Frankly, it was just Kirin Ichiban. They lied to me. A surprise winner: Duck Rabbit Craft Brewery's Barleywine. It had just the right amount of hops to offset the hops and no funny alcohol taste. It just goes to prove that if it walks like a duck and quacks like a rabbit, it might turn out great. Maybe that doesn't prove anything.

Bottling the Cream Ale

Last night we bottled the Canada Goose Cream Ale (second edition, so to speak). Looks great, smells great, tastes great. I can't wait to pop this beer after its carbonated. End count: fifty-one 12oz. bottles. I doubt this batch will last long.

Bottling the Pale Ale

It's been a while since my last post but there's a simple reason: not much has been happening. Today we bottled the Trojan Celebration Ale. A nice hoppy pale ale with good clarity and color. End count: fifty-one 12oz. bottles. Four more weeks in the bottle and we can celebrate last night's Emerald Bowl win against Boston College (24-13). As if they had a chance.

Bottling, Tasting, and Brewing (oh, my!)

It was a long weekend but a busy one for the Brewhus. First off, we bottled the Broc Irish Stout and, frankly, this one is going to be a great one. Awesome dry stout taste with a clean finish... and that was on bottling day. A few weeks of conditioning and we will have a winner. End count: fifty-three 12oz. bottles.

Second, we uncapped Tomten's Jul Öl on Thanksgiving and it was fantastic. The aroma was full of holiday spice and the flavor was clean and magnificent. Even though we used 22oz. bombers, I expect they won't last very long. Better get 'em while they're hot (er, cold)!

Third, Friday was a brew day: Canada Goose Cream Ale. This is the second generation of this beer - that is, I previously brewed a cream ale under this label and, although it is not the exact same recipe, it should come out similar enough. Note: Brewing on day two of a four day weekend was really nice - plenty of time and no pressure. I need to find a similar weekend to do so again.

Starting gravity: 1.036

Ingredients:

6 lb. Gold LME
8 oz. Carapils specialty grains
2 oz. Cascade hops

Finally, after a solid win against our cross-town rivals, the pale ale is officially labeled Trojan Celebration Ale.

Bottling - El Hefe

We bottled the El Hefe last night after a short secondary period of just under two weeks (just long enough to allow any bigger particles to settle out.) Very nice hazy orange-gold color. As for mouthfeel, it seemed a little heavy but I am sure that will lessen after four to six weeks of bottle conditioning. Taste? Great. If only I had made this beer before summer.

Fifty-four 12oz. bottles (23 of them are Grolsch-style flip top bottles - seemed fitting for a hefeweizen). Also, we went ahead and labeled the bottles as well. A finishing gravity of 1.010 results in an ABV of around 4.7%. El Hefe!

Bottling - Coffee Stout

Saturday was a bottling day - fifty-four 12oz. bottles of Joe's Java (a coffee stout). Before aging for over a month, I cold-pressed 4oz. of coffee beans and added the resulting java to the wort. Although it has no carbonation yet, I already expect a phenomenal end product. The coffee flavor is resting in the background with a comfortable stout body. In short, this should be a mellow but flavorful beer. Finishing gravity: 1.010 means about 3.4%ABV.

Bottling - Holiday Brew

Last night we bottled the Tomten's Jul Öl, a holiday ale to be uncapped around Thanksgiving. The aroma of brown sugar, nutmeg, and cinnamon wafted out of the bottling bucket, creating strong anticipation of the final results. This beer was brewed on 6/21/2009 and has been aging in a secondary vessel since. With a finishing gravity of 1.018, this brew should come in around 5.33% ABV, enough to provide some decent holiday cheer.

The successful bottling yielded twenty-six 22oz. bottles, one half-liter bottle, and one 25.5oz. bottle.

The tomten is a mythical Swedish gnome associated with Christmas (duties similar to Santa Claus). Jul Öl roughly translates to Christmas beer.

Festival and Bottling

Several beer-related details from the weekend. On Saturday, the Maryland Beer Festival provided a solid opportunity for tasting the area's best (and worst) beers. Still going through the notes though. One of the top beers was DuClaw Brewing Company's Sawtooth Belgian White Ale -just a really great beer.

Also, we did some bottling on Sunday: Questionable Stout, Old Tjikko, and Dropwater Ale. QS is still questionable but, with a finishing gravity of 1.020, it meets the technical definition of beer (but only with a little over 50% attenuation.) OT is a bit light on taste (and alcohol); however, with aging, it may turn out to be a nice, refreshing beverage. DA has a cider-aroma to it but, has real promise. I intended to prime the DA with molasses then changed my mind (since I am not familiar enough with the priming properties of said sugar.)

Finally, we moved the Broc Irish Stout to secondary for a nice aging period. Although many people say that Irish Stouts don't really need aging, I find that dark beers of all sorts benefit from a period to "mellow out".