I brewed another batch of Wizard's Wheat today. Lori, Nathan and Dave helped out. Homebrew Haven changed to a different yeast that's supposed to give it a more authentic German Hefeweizen taste. I really liked the taste of the last batch so I'll have to compare the finished results.
I took pictures this time and will post them here later. It was a fairly drizzly day. Nathan and I rigged up a blue tarp for some overhead cover. I declined to take a gravity reading again. I really need to figure out how to use that tester thingy. I ended up with a little less than 5 gallons in the primary fermenter this time. I need to make sure I start with a little more water.
11.29.8
Just finished watching Akeela and the Bee. Went upstairs to grab a book and checked the airlock. I could smell the beer at the top of the stairs. Fermentation is very active right now. I recall last time it took a good day or so before fermentation really started. This yeast is definitely alive.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Instructions for Wizard's Wheat
I found the instructions included with Wizard's Wheat from Homebrew Haven to be a little confusing. I reworked them to exclude most of the stuff that really doesn't need to be there to cook up your beer. I'll probably include a link to the PDF version of these instructions which includes boxes to check off steps instead of the lines. I laminated a copy that I can use while making my beer. A grease pencil or china marker will work great for checking steps off and logging gravities.
Wizard’s Wheat
Brewing Instructions
_____ Fill your brew pot with 6 gallons of tasty, filtered water.
_____ Crack the specialty grains in a Ziploc bag, with a rolling pin.
_____ Place the specialty grains in a mesh bag and suspend it in the water. Ensure the “grain bag” doesn’t drop to the bottom of the brew pot or stay in contact with any one spot in the brew pot. Ensure the contents of the grain bag mixes with the water. Swish and squeeze the bag. Think beer tea.
_____ Heat the water in the brew pot to 170˚F. When the temperature reaches 170˚F, remove the grain bag and continue to heat the water until it reaches a “rolling boil”.
_____ When the water reaches a “rolling boil”, reduce heat and slowly stir in the dry malt extract. You may want to remove your brew pot from the heat source.
BE EXTRA SPECIAL CAREFUL AS IT CAN EASILY BOIL OVER!
_____ Bring the wort back to a “rolling boil”. When the wort reaches a “rolling boil”, start your timer. You’ll keep the wort boiling for an hour. The “rolling boil” shouldn’t be too vigorous.
_____ At 45 minutes, add the flavoring hops and clarifier tablet and place your wort chiller in the boiling Wort to sterilize it.
_____ At 58 minutes, add the finishing hops.
_____ At 60 minutes, turn off the burner and chill the wort to 80˚F. KEEP THE LID ON THE POT!
_____ Pour the wort through a strainer into the primary fermentor ensuring you splash it around to oxygenate it. Give the wort a few spins with the large spoon.
_____ Take a starting gravity reading and log it.
_____ Sprinkle your yeast on top of the wort and seal the primary fermentor, ensuring the air lock is inserted tightly.
NOTE: Primary fermentation should be done at about normal room temperature (65˚ to 75˚F) for a few weeks. Wait for the bubbles in the air lock to get to about 1 bubble per minute.
_____ Take another “specific gravity” reading and log it. Then transfer the beer to your secondary fermentor, ensuring the air lock is inserted tightly.
NOTE: Secondary Fermentation will likely take about 3 months. Wait for the bubbles in the air lock to get to about 1 bubble per three minutes. You can also take “specific gravity” readings for 3 or more days. When the readings do not change for 3 days you can go to the next step.
_____ Transfer your BEER to a sterile container (primary fermentor).
_____ Boil a little beer and mix in the bag of corn sugar.
_____ Mix your corn sugar and beer mix with the beer in your sterile container.
_____ Bottle and cap your beer. Store it in the case, in the same place you left it in secondary fermentation. The temperature should be normal room temperature (65˚F to 75˚F). Let it condition for about 2 months. It will be drinkable in about 2 weeks.
Wizard’s Wheat
Brewing Instructions
_____ Fill your brew pot with 6 gallons of tasty, filtered water.
_____ Crack the specialty grains in a Ziploc bag, with a rolling pin.
_____ Place the specialty grains in a mesh bag and suspend it in the water. Ensure the “grain bag” doesn’t drop to the bottom of the brew pot or stay in contact with any one spot in the brew pot. Ensure the contents of the grain bag mixes with the water. Swish and squeeze the bag. Think beer tea.
_____ Heat the water in the brew pot to 170˚F. When the temperature reaches 170˚F, remove the grain bag and continue to heat the water until it reaches a “rolling boil”.
_____ When the water reaches a “rolling boil”, reduce heat and slowly stir in the dry malt extract. You may want to remove your brew pot from the heat source.
BE EXTRA SPECIAL CAREFUL AS IT CAN EASILY BOIL OVER!
_____ Bring the wort back to a “rolling boil”. When the wort reaches a “rolling boil”, start your timer. You’ll keep the wort boiling for an hour. The “rolling boil” shouldn’t be too vigorous.
_____ At 45 minutes, add the flavoring hops and clarifier tablet and place your wort chiller in the boiling Wort to sterilize it.
_____ At 58 minutes, add the finishing hops.
_____ At 60 minutes, turn off the burner and chill the wort to 80˚F. KEEP THE LID ON THE POT!
_____ Pour the wort through a strainer into the primary fermentor ensuring you splash it around to oxygenate it. Give the wort a few spins with the large spoon.
_____ Take a starting gravity reading and log it.
_____ Sprinkle your yeast on top of the wort and seal the primary fermentor, ensuring the air lock is inserted tightly.
NOTE: Primary fermentation should be done at about normal room temperature (65˚ to 75˚F) for a few weeks. Wait for the bubbles in the air lock to get to about 1 bubble per minute.
_____ Take another “specific gravity” reading and log it. Then transfer the beer to your secondary fermentor, ensuring the air lock is inserted tightly.
NOTE: Secondary Fermentation will likely take about 3 months. Wait for the bubbles in the air lock to get to about 1 bubble per three minutes. You can also take “specific gravity” readings for 3 or more days. When the readings do not change for 3 days you can go to the next step.
_____ Transfer your BEER to a sterile container (primary fermentor).
_____ Boil a little beer and mix in the bag of corn sugar.
_____ Mix your corn sugar and beer mix with the beer in your sterile container.
_____ Bottle and cap your beer. Store it in the case, in the same place you left it in secondary fermentation. The temperature should be normal room temperature (65˚F to 75˚F). Let it condition for about 2 months. It will be drinkable in about 2 weeks.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
My first batch of homebrew
So I finally got the equipment together and after watching a couple instructional DVDs a few dozen times, I took the plunge and made my first batch. I chose a kit from Homebrew Haven called Wizard's Wheat. It's supposed to be a Hefeweizen and while it doesn't look quite right, it tastes fantastic. I'm writing this months afterward so I'm sure I'll forget a few details but hopefully I'll get it mostly right. In an effort to streamline and simplify I decided to not take any gravity readings as it seemed I'd only need them to determine the final alcohol content and since I didn't care what it was, why bother taking the readings.
I set up my propane burner on the deck near the water hose and fired it up. I'm pretty sure I just used tap water without filtering it. I crunched the veggies a little and tossed them into the tea bag and brought it up to about 170 degrees and removed it. It took a little while to get it to that temperature and I swirled the bag around and squished it a little here and there to get as much of the veggie goodness out of it as I could.
I continued to heat the water until it came to a boil and then I carefully added the malt extract. Adding the malt extract was a little tricky. It will fairly easily boil over if you aren't careful. After all of the malt was added I brought the mix back to a good "rolling" boil. This part was also a little tricky as I tried to keep the mix rolling but not boiling over. It boiled for 1 hour total.
At 45 minutes I added some hops for flavor and a "clarifier" tablet and let it continue boiling. It was about this time that I placed the Wort Chiller into the mix to sterilize it.
At 58 minutes I added some more hops for aroma.
At 1 hour I turned off the burner and turned on the water flowing into the Wort Chiller. When it got down to about 85 degrees I turned off the water and removed the Wort Chiller. At this point I recall being worried that my thermometer was broken as it seemed fixed at 80 degrees.
I carefully poured the wort from the brew pot into the primary fermenter. Placed the lid on the bucket and placed the air lock in the hole in the lid. Then I carried the beer to the basement, covered it with a paper bag, except for the air lock and left it for a couple weeks. I probably should have moved it sooner but my schedule at the time kept me busy and as I recall the bubbling was a little to vigorous for awhile anyway. Eventually I transferred the beer to the secondary fermenter, the glass carboy.
According to the instructions it should have completed secondary fermentation in a few weeks. After a month or so it was still producing a bubble 40 or so seconds. I was sure I screwed up somewhere so I called Homebrew Haven to ask them what I should do. I have to admit they weren't any help. The guy on the phone asked me about the beginning gravity reading that I had never taken. As I write this I now now that what he may have meant to say was that I should take three gravity readings over three days and when the readings stop changing it will be safe to bottle my beer. At this point I wanted to ask a friend at work who brews what I should do but I didn't see him for a few weeks. It seems that it was close to two months before I finally ran into Doug and consulted him about my concerns.
Doug was extremely helpful. He told me that my beer was fine. Wheat beers should ferment longer because they are using a more robust yeast strain. Basically my beer was safe and I should check it again in another week. If it still wasn't ready I should wait another week and check it again. But most importantly my beer was going to be OK if it sat longer. It felt like it was close to three months before the air lock showed a single bubble every almost three minutes.
I bottled it and put it up to condition it. I tried some in two weeks and it was mighty tasty. It didn't have much of a head at first but as time went by it started to develop one. This beer turned out to be incredibly good and I'm a tad stressed that I know it'll be months before I have more made.
My next brew day is the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I'll have some friends over along with my sons and wife to help. They all are interested in what I'm doing. Hopefully I won't make a mess :p
I set up my propane burner on the deck near the water hose and fired it up. I'm pretty sure I just used tap water without filtering it. I crunched the veggies a little and tossed them into the tea bag and brought it up to about 170 degrees and removed it. It took a little while to get it to that temperature and I swirled the bag around and squished it a little here and there to get as much of the veggie goodness out of it as I could.
I continued to heat the water until it came to a boil and then I carefully added the malt extract. Adding the malt extract was a little tricky. It will fairly easily boil over if you aren't careful. After all of the malt was added I brought the mix back to a good "rolling" boil. This part was also a little tricky as I tried to keep the mix rolling but not boiling over. It boiled for 1 hour total.
At 45 minutes I added some hops for flavor and a "clarifier" tablet and let it continue boiling. It was about this time that I placed the Wort Chiller into the mix to sterilize it.
At 58 minutes I added some more hops for aroma.
At 1 hour I turned off the burner and turned on the water flowing into the Wort Chiller. When it got down to about 85 degrees I turned off the water and removed the Wort Chiller. At this point I recall being worried that my thermometer was broken as it seemed fixed at 80 degrees.
I carefully poured the wort from the brew pot into the primary fermenter. Placed the lid on the bucket and placed the air lock in the hole in the lid. Then I carried the beer to the basement, covered it with a paper bag, except for the air lock and left it for a couple weeks. I probably should have moved it sooner but my schedule at the time kept me busy and as I recall the bubbling was a little to vigorous for awhile anyway. Eventually I transferred the beer to the secondary fermenter, the glass carboy.
According to the instructions it should have completed secondary fermentation in a few weeks. After a month or so it was still producing a bubble 40 or so seconds. I was sure I screwed up somewhere so I called Homebrew Haven to ask them what I should do. I have to admit they weren't any help. The guy on the phone asked me about the beginning gravity reading that I had never taken. As I write this I now now that what he may have meant to say was that I should take three gravity readings over three days and when the readings stop changing it will be safe to bottle my beer. At this point I wanted to ask a friend at work who brews what I should do but I didn't see him for a few weeks. It seems that it was close to two months before I finally ran into Doug and consulted him about my concerns.
Doug was extremely helpful. He told me that my beer was fine. Wheat beers should ferment longer because they are using a more robust yeast strain. Basically my beer was safe and I should check it again in another week. If it still wasn't ready I should wait another week and check it again. But most importantly my beer was going to be OK if it sat longer. It felt like it was close to three months before the air lock showed a single bubble every almost three minutes.
I bottled it and put it up to condition it. I tried some in two weeks and it was mighty tasty. It didn't have much of a head at first but as time went by it started to develop one. This beer turned out to be incredibly good and I'm a tad stressed that I know it'll be months before I have more made.
My next brew day is the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I'll have some friends over along with my sons and wife to help. They all are interested in what I'm doing. Hopefully I won't make a mess :p
Making Beer
For most of my life I have pretty much despised the taste of beer. Except for somewhat rare occasions, when it's been fairly hot, and the appeal of a very cold brew seemed yummy. My beer drinking has been confined to not wanting to turn down an offer from someone trying to be hospitable.
About the year 2000 I made an attempt to drink myself stupid. I started drinking way to much in an attempt to drown my sorrows. In the end I was too responsible for that stupid idea to actually work. But I did develop a taste for a few very specific styles of beer. Namely Blondes, Hefewiezens and some Begium Ales. Pilsners are too weak and empty for my taste and IPA's are extremely nasty (bitter), I just don't understand their appeal at all. Porters can be yummy but after a few swallows they seem to overwhelm my taste buds.
Being the bookaholic that I am, I started reading more about beers. The idea of making my own started to become more appealing. Not because I thought I could do something that no one else had. But because it can be an extremely technical adventure yet allows for artistic expression. The idea that I could make something that we humans have been making for thousands of years was also very appealing, kinda getting in touch with my fellow man and forefathers and mothers.
As much as I was interested though it just didn't happen for quite some time. I knew the initial outlay of cash for getting everything needed was going to be more than I seemed to have laying around.
Then one night I went to dinner with Lori, Sally and Ardell. It was a little Italian place on Evergreen Way. A few doors down was a little beer making shop called Homebrew Haven. I don't recall anymore how it came up but I made a comment about always having wanted to try my hand at making beer. The next family Christmas celebration saw me getting a gift certificate from Sally for Homebrew Haven for $50.00. It kinda obligated me into taking the plunge and getting the rest of the gear. It took awhile as I bought items a little at a time until I had everything I needed. Including a DVD called Basic Brewing: Introduction to Extract Home Brewing. I must have watched the DVD 10 times before I finally fired up my propane banjo cooker and made my first batch of home brew.
At the time I'm writing this I'm enjoying the fruits of my labor. I was originally thinking I would end up giving most of my beer away to friends that enjoyed beer more than I do but that just ain't gonna happen. As it turns out, the beer I made really does taste damned yummy. It was just a generic kit from Homebrew Haven called Wizard's Wheat. It's supposed to end up being a quasi Hefeweizen. Mine doesn't "look" to much like a Hefeweizen but it tastes fairly close to one.
Today I went out and bought another Wizard's Wheat kit. I'll definitely be brewing another batch within the next few weeks. I was a little worried that I would end up with a few hundred dollards worth of brewing equipment that I'd never use again. Now I know I'll be using that equipment enough to justify the initital cash outlay. Yummy :)
About the year 2000 I made an attempt to drink myself stupid. I started drinking way to much in an attempt to drown my sorrows. In the end I was too responsible for that stupid idea to actually work. But I did develop a taste for a few very specific styles of beer. Namely Blondes, Hefewiezens and some Begium Ales. Pilsners are too weak and empty for my taste and IPA's are extremely nasty (bitter), I just don't understand their appeal at all. Porters can be yummy but after a few swallows they seem to overwhelm my taste buds.
Being the bookaholic that I am, I started reading more about beers. The idea of making my own started to become more appealing. Not because I thought I could do something that no one else had. But because it can be an extremely technical adventure yet allows for artistic expression. The idea that I could make something that we humans have been making for thousands of years was also very appealing, kinda getting in touch with my fellow man and forefathers and mothers.
As much as I was interested though it just didn't happen for quite some time. I knew the initial outlay of cash for getting everything needed was going to be more than I seemed to have laying around.
Then one night I went to dinner with Lori, Sally and Ardell. It was a little Italian place on Evergreen Way. A few doors down was a little beer making shop called Homebrew Haven. I don't recall anymore how it came up but I made a comment about always having wanted to try my hand at making beer. The next family Christmas celebration saw me getting a gift certificate from Sally for Homebrew Haven for $50.00. It kinda obligated me into taking the plunge and getting the rest of the gear. It took awhile as I bought items a little at a time until I had everything I needed. Including a DVD called Basic Brewing: Introduction to Extract Home Brewing. I must have watched the DVD 10 times before I finally fired up my propane banjo cooker and made my first batch of home brew.
At the time I'm writing this I'm enjoying the fruits of my labor. I was originally thinking I would end up giving most of my beer away to friends that enjoyed beer more than I do but that just ain't gonna happen. As it turns out, the beer I made really does taste damned yummy. It was just a generic kit from Homebrew Haven called Wizard's Wheat. It's supposed to end up being a quasi Hefeweizen. Mine doesn't "look" to much like a Hefeweizen but it tastes fairly close to one.
Today I went out and bought another Wizard's Wheat kit. I'll definitely be brewing another batch within the next few weeks. I was a little worried that I would end up with a few hundred dollards worth of brewing equipment that I'd never use again. Now I know I'll be using that equipment enough to justify the initital cash outlay. Yummy :)
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