Hump's Brewing

I racked the Blissful Bock this evening. After a roller coaster ride of a fermentation, the primary fermentation stage (the “attenuative” phase) is done. Final gravity (to date) is 1.020. Hopefully it will drop a bit during its conditioning phase over the next week or two – but I’m a bit doubtful.

The flavor is very nice and accurate for the style. It has also fermented to roughly 7.2% (also accurate for the style, although a final gravity of 1.020 is a little high for the style).

It may not be May anymore, but I decided to brew up a Maibock anyway. After my wife recently commented on how much she liked Rogue’s Dead Guy Ale (a Bock), I figured I should brew one up. And what better Bock for summer-time than a beautiful Helles Bock (aka Maibock)?

It won’t be quite as light in color as I’d really like because I had to use “light” dry malt extract instead of “extra light”. Lighter colored beers are easier to make when brewing with all grain, but using extract makes it tricky to get really light-colored beer. You have to use extra light extract as a base and only use light specialty grains. In any event, it will be light enough. I could have gotten the extra light extract, but it would have cost a little more since the homebrew shop was all out of 3lbs. bags (and six 1lb. bags are more expensive than two 3lbs. bags). I made the call to get the light extract instead.

The beer should be very tasty. I used a mini-mash of mostly German Pilsner malt with some Carahell (very light German Caramel malts), Special Roast (similar to Gambrinus Honey malt), and Vienna malt. The final wort had a distinct taste of fresh, doughy bread.

I used only Glacier hops. This is more commonly found in recipes for hoppy American ales. It is supposed to be a bit like Styrian Goldings, but with more citrus – particularly lemon. I had also read somewhere that it is a possible substitute for Tettnang (which is probably more common in a Bock recipe). I decided to use Glacier based on that last fact and the fact that a touch of lemony hops could nicely complement a malty Maibock. Only time will tell.

I felt adventurous and used a new yeast this time, too: Danish Lager yeast. The description of this yeast on Wyeast’s website made it sound like a good fit for a spring Bock.

I’m excited about making a lager. My last lager, a Schwarzbier, suffered a warm fermentation because I didn’t realize until after I had pitched the yeast that my “lagering” vessel was missing its top (and thus completely unable to maintain lager-like temperatures). However, this time I’m using my basement fridge. I’ve set the fridge to its warmest setting, and it rings in at about 48 degrees Fahrenheit. That is within the optimum temperature range for virtually all yeasts, albeit on the low side of that range.

While at the shop, I also replaced the broken gas coupling for my kegging system. Saturday I hooked it all up to carbonate the Berry Weizen. I had the first carbonated glass of that tonight. It is nice and complex, but I am actually glad that I didn’t make a full 5 gallons of it. It is good, but not good enough to warrant that much of it. It tastes like a weizen with a distinct flavor of acid – almost like wine and a touch of cranberry juice were added to it. Unfortunately, the actual varieties of berries used (blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries) are not recognizable in the finished brew.

This morning I kegged my Berry Weizen. I think it will be quite tasty. The berries provide a subtle tartness that is nice but mellow – not overpowering. Personally, I think it could have used even more berries. But this will be palatable and pleasant even for those without a penchant for fruity brews.

Several things went wrong, however. To purge the oxygen from the keg, I hook the CO₂ line to the liquid tube (which reaches to the bottom of the keg, thus filling the keg from the bottom with inert CO₂ and pushing the oxygen out of the bunghole at the top). Unfortunately, I installed the liquid post over the liquid tube. Under other circumstances I would be hooking up the tap to the liquid tube, so this would be the right thing to do. But when purging the keg, this is a bad idea. The gas coupling is meant to attach to the gas post, not to the liquid post. So when I tried to snap on the gas coupling (through which the carbon dioxide would flow, pushing the evil, beer-spoiling oxygen out) – voila! – it got stuck. It was a real nightmare to detach, too! I finally got it loose, but broke it in the process.

Thus I will have to go buy another gas coupling from the homebrew store this weekend before I can force carbonate the Berry Weizen. And if that weren’t bad enough, my 5 lb. CO₂ tank ran dry this morning, too. So I have to get that filled also. So it will likely be next Monday or Tuesday before the Berry Weizen is ready for consumption.

On a lighter note, I picked up a bottle of Rogue‘s Imperial Pilsner (if you visit their website you’ll see that they totally stole my idea of the “brewdog”). The beer came in an awesome bottle that looks like ceramic (though I think it is just painted glass) and has “Morimoto” inscribed on it. The other two Rogue beers that bore Morimoto’s moniker weren’t that special. But this one was. It wasn’t quite what I was expecting from an Imperial Pilsner – in that the hops were not the Saaz variety. But they were nice and earthy – almost like an English variety (which I think indeed they were). This is the only Rogue beer I’ve seen that wasn’t fermented using Rogue’s Pac Man yeast. It was fermented, instead, using a Czech Pilsner yeast. You can read my full review at ratebeer.com. Suffice it to say that it was good enough for Miles to be jealous:

This evening I transformed what started out as a dunkelweizen into Hump’s Berry Weizen. Or at least I set the ball rolling (it isn’t finished yet!).

I tasted the work in progress before adding the fruit. The still-fermenting-but- past-krausening beer was delicious. Long ago I crafted a dunkelweizen recipe, but I will have to update it to be very similar to this one (but without the berries).

It almost seemed sinful to add the fruit. That may sound silly, but I have had some not-so-awesome experiences with fresh fruit and beer. Generally it seems very hard to really capture fresh fruit in the aroma and taste of the beer. It seems one must use a lot of fruit to get noticeable flavors – and then the rapid re-fermentation of fruit juices expels the fruit aroma. I am quite certain that many (probably most) commercially-produced fruit beers are made with fruit extract instead of real, fresh fruit.

But if I can master the use of fresh fruit in the product, I think it will add a lot of great character. After all, authentic Lambics use real fruit – and they are divine!

The last time I used fruit in a recipe was my “Fermented Pancakes” recipe. I used 24 oz. of frozen blueberries in a 4 gallon batch. There was virtually no berry flavor or aroma in the finished product. The only evidence of the use of fruit was that the beer had a slight touch of violet in its color and a touch of pink in the foam. This time I’ve used 48 oz. of frozen berries (blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries) in a 3 gallon batch. That is close to three times the ratio of berries to beer. Hopefully that will provide the right level of berry taste and aroma in the finished product. If not then I’ll have to use even more next time…

Beers of the Victory Brewing Company are now available in Georgia! I contacted Savannah Distributing and asked them about several major brewers that, as of yet, have no presence in Georgia. Victory was one of them, and Three Floyds and Stone Brewing were also in that list. They said they were pursuing all three of them and that Victory beers were due in mid-May. Unfortunately, the other two brewers aren’t expected to be represented in Georgia until 2008. But one out of three ain’t bad (it’s really two out of four when you include Dogfish Head, which just arrived in Georgia in March).

On another note, I brewed another batch of beer this past Sunday: Berry Weizen. So far it is just a Dunkelweizen (though not particularly dunkel). But later this week I’ll be adding three pounds of mixed berries to it (blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries).

I’ve also updated the Brews section so that the page for 2007 is up-to-date with the beers I’ve brewed and kegged during the time this site was down.

Our site is back online! Hooray!

Look for new posts in the near future. I still haven’t updated the Brews page with the last couple of batches, but I will soon.

Thanks to SliceHost for providing such a great plan for virtual server hosting.

I haven’t written a post in quite some time. “Why?” you might ask. Because of the fact that this website has been down. In fact, no one can even read this post! Whenever we get the site back up, you’ll be able to read all of this wittiness I’m currently typing up. But not until then.

We had some issues with our ISP, and our web-server was shut down. We moved my wife’s photography web-site to a set of new servers (TextDrive.com), and it has been up the whole time – only interrupted for less than two days. But, alas, my other blogs couldn’t make the move – yet.

I think they will be up relatively soon. And even if not, they’ll come back up by the time we find permanent hosting for our websites (which, tentatively, looks like it will be with SliceHost.com).

In the meantime I have brewed a delicious American Pale Ale that I’ve called Hump’s Better Bitter. I’m sipping it now, in fact. Delicious.

I’ve also kegged my Witbier. It turned out quite nicely, too.

I’ll update the Brews page with tasting notes and more info soon.

Until next time…

On Easter Sunday I had a very successful day of brewing beer. I made a Belgian Wit, and used yeast that was packaged no more than three days before I bought it Wednesday! So the package of yeast was only one week old, and did I ever notice a difference in the freshness!

The yeast began active fermentation within only six hours of pitching it. And after only two days, it already appears to have finished the primary fermentation – all krausening foam is gone. I plan on racking it to the secondary tonight. With luck, the freshness also allowed the beer to attenuate well.

Here is a photo of me on brew day, preparing all of the ingredients (measuring grains, hops, and extract so that everything is pre-measured and ready to toss into the pot when needed). As you can see, my son Will was giving me a hand (and, yes, that is a diaper next to the bag of extract in the foreground):

As I spend a miserable evening, up late, working on high-pressure tasks for a critical project at work, I choose a suitable beverage to accompany me: an Irish-style dry stout.

It certainly looks like the night… a starless night that is. Black and opaque with a medium-sized, light tan head, it beckons – mesmerizing all onlookers with its vast, vacuous void, vacant of light.

I wait, occasionally peering at my computer to see its progress. I lift the glass towards my solemn brow to peer into it. What awaits me in that impenetrable black? Towards my nose I move it. Freshly ground coffee, roasted -almost burnt- grains, and subtle, earthy hops. Towards my lips I move it. Dare I?

Its flavor follows its aroma. It is bitter from roasted grains, though not as bitter as black coffee. It is not bitter from overloaded amounts of isomerized alpha acids (in other words, not bitter from lots of hops), but rather a light roasted bitterness – like that of darkly toasted bread. The East Kent Goldings hops lend their aroma and flavor to the beer – a relaxed and mellow flavor. The finish is long and dark. The mouthfeel is not as dry as one might expect from the style. It is more substantial, but not thick or overbearing. The carbonation is currently timid and light, though sufficient.

I am, of course, describing my latest homebrew. Now conditioned with carbon dioxide, it emerges from its keg, ready for the world! It shall henceforth be known as Hump’s Irish Dry Stout.

Update: This beer has been renamed to Hump’s Stout Porter since the finished product couldn’t be accurately described as an Irish-style dry stout.

It looks like my opinion of the Humble Hop Juice goes up and down and up – just like a roller coaster.

My first taste of it was delicious. After a couple of weeks in the keg went by, it seemed to take on a strange taste. But maybe I was just crazy, because after drinking a pint of it last night I think it is delicious again.

I finally kegged the stout yesterday and had a fun time fighting with the kegs. I may need to replace some of the parts, because it seems like, when under pressure, the liquid ball-lock posts can leak a little. But they may not need replacement. I may have accidentally swapped posts. I have two different types of posts, and I think they may not be 100% interchangeable. So at some point, when the kegs are not full of beer, I might try swapping the posts and see if that helps.

Today is Easter Sunday (happy anniversary of your rising from the dead, Jesus!). What better way to celebrate than to make beer! So I’ll be cooking up the Belgian Wit today…

Update: The problem with the posts on the kegs turned out to be bad poppets. Not only were the poppets not all the correct size, but their gaskets were old, too.