Homebrew

New York Cider

brock — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 02:20:40 +0000

On a cool Saturday afternoon in April, we stopped by the Inwood Park Farmer’s market and purchased 5 gallons of fresh pressed apple juice, from a nice upstate farmer. The goal that afternoon: to avoid my regular responsibilities, and to pitch a batch of apple cider (in the US, we call it “Hard Cider” — those in the know just call it cider). I toyed with the idea of adding fresh pressed pear or cherry juice, but decided that the first batch should be apple. Best to initially define the status quo.

The endeavor got me thinking about apples, and more specifically about honey, which is to say, bees. I imagined what it would be like to have a conversation with a brown bear. His breadth of interests would be narrow, but likewise, he would be capable of long rants regarding the subtleties of honey produced on the pollen of different species of clover, and the exquisite bouquet of orange blossom honey. I know that my apple juice exists because a humble honey bee drank the sweet nectar of an apple blossom, accidentally cross fertilizing another blossom. That’s where baby apples come from. I wonder what my bear pal thinks about apple blossom honey. I wonder if I could discern the variations in honeys from it and citrus. I wonder if he fantasizes about retiring to an island in the Mediterranean, where the year-round tropical climate allows him to support a colony of bees who feed exclusively on fresh wild thyme flowers.

Qbrew doesn’t very effectively describe ciders — though, as you know, I like it very much for my ale recipes. I was pointed to something called StrangeBrew, but for some reason the java doesn’t run for me, and I’m too lazy to trouble shoot it (see the faq). Suffice it to say:

1. 5 gallons of fresh pressed apple juice

2. Half pound of brown sugar

3. Half pound of corn sugar

4. One ounce packet of champagne yeast from your favorite Brooklyn Homebrew Shop

As the juice was treated with UV by my friendly farmer, it did not require boiling. I was glad of this, since there is some worry about damaging the sugars during a boil. As such, I chucked everything in a 5 gallon carboy, pitched the yeast, fixed, or affixed, my airlock, and stuck the whole thing in the closet. I’ll go to secondary when we get back from holiday, in about 3 months, and then bottle 3 months after that. I’ll entertain suggestions about whether to prime in the bottles for added CO2. I’m currently ambivalent on the matter. Maybe I’ll go both ways — like your daddy.

For what it’s worth, I also considered a conversation with a honey badger. If you’ve ever met a badger, you’ll know what I mean when I suggest that, while he is similarly disposed in terms of a one track mind, he would be much less engaging, conversationally. To be fair, I may underestimate them.

Wildcard Ale

ken — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 02:39:51 +0000

Nothing fancy. In fact, as plain as possible out of necessity. I really need to purchase grains and adjuncts on a more regular basis.

All DME, light pale

Cascade, Cascade, and finished with NB.

Hey: it’s a start back on the path of beer enlightenment.

2010 American Pale Ale

brock — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 09:31:58 +0000

My first new batch of the new year. With Light LME, Cascade and Willamette hops, and to top it off, 1/2 ounce of Cascade dry hopping the batch. I’ll publish the qbrew files here:

http://quantifier.org/qbrew/am2010.qbrew

Adding olive oil?

ken — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 17:41:16 +0000

Should you put olive oil in your homebrew?

Why use olive oil in your homebrew?
Your yeast need oxygen for a happy and healthy fermentation. Yeast use oxygen during the lag phase to synthesize sterols and unsaturated fatty acids for its cell walls. If there is not enough oxygen, the yeast can not grow and die off early. Low oxygen leads to stalled fermentations and off-flavors. This is the reason you need to shake the carboy before pitching your yeast.

Bitter

brock — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 20:16:19 +0000

No matter how many recipes I try, I always come back to the one I make best, my bitter amber. It’s in the secondary now, and if everything goes right, I’ll drink the first one by the end of the month. As always, here’s the qbrew files:

http://quantifier.org/qbrew/bitter.qbrew
http://quantifier.org/qbrew/bitter.html
http://quantifier.org/qbrew/bitter.pdf

White Ale

brock — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 19:13:34 +0000

Today, instead of working, I'm building a Hoegaarden rip off. It's an experiment with using the Golding hop, which weighs in at a subtle 4.2% alpha acid, for bittering, as well as a light wheat malt extract. The latter has almost always resulted in failure.

Anway, the usual qbrew files are always here: http://quantifier.org/qbrew/

http://quantifier.org/qbrew/hoe.qbrew

http://quantifier.org/qbrew/hoe.html

http://quantifier.org/qbrew/hoe.pdf

Comments welcome.

Turbodog Redux

ken — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 19:20:51 +0000

Austin Homebrew Supply offers several recipes for existing beers available at the market. I am brewing their Abita Turbodog right this moment. I added the yeast fuel and the alcohol booster that are add-ons available before checkout.

I prefer AHS for my brewing supplies because their shipping charges are affordable and their wide selection of ingredients and kits are unmatched. I will have the qbrew file up by the day's end.

I went extra-anal on sanitizing & cleansing this cook, and used bottled water instead of the mud that comes from these Dothan taps.

Wine is delicious when it hits your lips

ken — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 17:29:53 +0000

Today we're bottling an IPA and then getting started on the larger project for the afternoon: starting the first batch of Merlot. Hopefully this first time goes easily. We're skimming all ingredients by 20% to meet our storage capacities. Perhaps I'll add some photos of our progress.

Or just start drinking beer instead.

2009 Brews To Come

ken — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 18:29:56 +0000

Who knows what 2009 will bring? We'll be brewing wine and ginger ale this year, in addition to moving to Cornelius kegging. The kegerator waits patiently for its babies. Its delicious, life-giving baby kegs.

I'm returning to dry yeast as the liquid pitchable yeasts are giving me some off-tastes. I have done my best to rule out other factors (such as water & environment) and the one thing I notice is that my brews made with the liquid yeast do not come out to my liking.

And that's all this is really about anyway: making what I like when I want.

It's all in the journey after all, right?

Dog & Crown Pale Ale

ken — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 16:06:16 +0000

Another week, another brew. I tried http://www.homebrewden.com & had them ship me their Dog & Crown Pale Ale kit. It shipped with White Labs pitchable liquid yeast. I substituted Glacier hops for the Kent Golding aroma hops also. Here’s the qbrew file and here’s the html page.