Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Brewing the First Batch.

April 26, 2006; brewing day. The first of hopefully many more to come. Since it was the first, we started at 9AM, to have as much possible time to get things done, since burdens were inevitable.

Materials needed:
The first step was to gather all the materials, and wash/sanitize accordingly. The boiling pot/turkey fryer was assembled the night before and was ready to be washed and sanitized. As the wort will boil away in it, sanitization was not necessary but done as a harmless precaution anyway. The sanitizer is a pink powder (of unknown/forgotten chemical compound) that was mixed into water. We ran sanitizer from the boiling pot, through tubing and into the wort chiller out into the primary carboy. The kit/ingredients used for this brew is a partial grain India Pale Ale recipe. It was purchased from www.midwestsupplies.com along with 3 others. Everything was functioning, cleaned and ready to start.























First Step: Filter Water

As precautious first timers, we didn’t think hard tap water was the best idea for the brew. We decided that filtering 6 gallons of water through a Brita© filter would be a good idea. Here, the first crucial mistake was made. Filtering 6 gallons of water through a possibly 2 liter Brita© bottle was a horrible idea. The process itself took about 1.5 hours!























Second Step: Heat Water/Steeping

The second step was to set up the turkey fryer to a propane tank, and heat 6 gallons of filtered water to 155 degrees. As water began to heat, approx. half a pound of specialty grain was placed into the worst teabag known to mankind. www.midwestsupplies.com really dropped the ball on producing a decent teabag for us to use. I’ve already ragged on this website enough so I’ll stop, for now. Anyway the teabag was modified to be functional, and when the water reached the appropriate temperature (155 degrees), the fire was turned off, and the bag was dipped into the pot, and steeped. Essentially mimicking a tea making process, the water turned a light amber/brown colour and began to smell like a mixture dominated by regular flavored Pringles© with hints of caramel/sugar. Oddly enough, it smelled rather delicious. After about 35 minutes, the steeping was done, the bag was removed, and a weak wort was made.



















Mash Out:

A mash out was done and the teabag was removed from the pot. The way this was done was by turning the burner back on, and heating the wort to 170 degrees. The next step was to add malt extract to the weak wort. Upon opening the bottles, I was shocked to find the most viscous liquid I have ever seen in my life. Immediately sweet and caramely aromas arose, and a taste test followed to confirm. Upon dumping ¾ gallons of the malt extract, the burner was set to max, allowing for all hell to break loose…













Boiling:

The wort was happily boiling away at 225F for a good 10 minutes before we added the first hops. 2oz of Cascade hops for bittering along with 1oz of Willamette hops, also for bittering. This heavy hopping is characteristic of India Pale Ales to help preserve them on the long voyage to the troops in India. Almost immediately the foaming on the surface of the wort doubled, and when it foamed especially high threatening to boil over we had to turn the heat way down (temporarily, of course…). Every time this happened a thick layer of nasty green hop sludge came to the surface and deposited itself on everything. By about 45 minutes into the boil we were getting inattentive (warning signs for crucial error #2). The unwatched pot most definitely does boil(over), and kick your ass in the process. The next 10 minutes were mostly trying to clean up the sludge on the sides of the boilpot and leaving it on low temps. 35 more minutes and we were ready to add the flavouring hops: 1oz of Kent Goldings hops. A short 60-second boil with these and we were ready for flame-out.





























Wort Chilling and Transfer to Primary Fermenter

After the last hopping, the burner was turned off and an attempt was made at chilling the wort with the brilliant counter-flow wort chiller (made from some scrap plumbing parts). It’s basically a pipe inside a larger pipe. Cold water flows through the outside pipe, and hot wort flows through the inside pipe in the opposite direction. It’s an efficient design, but if you want to know more go research for yourself. Anyways this would have worked great if the siphon starter properly and could actually take the heat of water that was boiling 2 minutes ago, instead of melting and deforming like a little bitch. (crucial error #3, and another thank-you to midwestsupplies.com for giving us such a shitty siphoner). Normally rigid plastic became impotent and sagged under its own weight, and when it cooled the siphon starter was useless, and thus the wort chiller was also useless. We got about 2 pints of wort chilled and transferred by this method. You would think that a $3 piece of equipment wouldn’t bring your brewing process to a grinding halt, but there you are. We opted for a slightly lower-tech approach: dunking the boilpot into a larger bucket of cold water. A few minutes later we had the wort down to 90F and ready to transfer, but still no siphon starter. Horrible plans (and certain disaster) by trying to pour 5 gallons of wort through a tiny kitchen funnel were averted by realizing we could start the siphon manually (at the cost of some cleanliness, but we were desperate). 5 minutes later the wort was in the carboy and ready for yeast pitching.


































Yeast Pitching

While the wort was siphoning into the carboy we went and got the dry Munton’s yeast started with some warm water. When all the wort was in the carboy, this milky yeast suspension was added to it to begin fermentation. A specific gravity reading was attempted at this time but we forgot to save some of the wort for this purpose. Our reading of 1.065 was accurate for what t

he recipe is supposed to be, but the accuracy is doubtful because half the hydrometer was filled with hop sludge. Finally, a small amount of hops saved from previous steps were added to the brew for a process called dry hopping. In this way we hope to achieve more and fresher hop flavouring for more IPA character. An ounce or so of vodka was poured in the airlock and the carboy was stoppered. 2 hours later it was happily bubbling away and beginning to form a krausen (head on the top of fermenting beer). The carboy was placed in a bucket of cold water when we realized the temperature of 90F was far too warm for this 65-70F ale yeast. In a week or two it will be ready to be racked to the secondary fermenter, so expect an update.



























Cleaning

Who really wants to read about this anyway?

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Hop Growing Season

Well, to kick off the brewing expeditions, I thought it would be appropriate to try and plant some hops in my backyard. I decided on two different kinds; the Saaz and the Liberty. The Saaz is a Bohemian soft bittering hop, with a famous bitter aroma, without any harsh qualities. A fresh Pilsner Urquell is a classic example of the robust aroma that has made Saaz the most popular hop among Czech brewers. The Liberty is an American hop, developed in the early 80s, and is essentially a cross between two hops, whose names I'm not quiet sure about.

From what I've read, general consensus has it that the North American crops do better in North American soil, than the European ones, and vice verse. I'm not actually even expecting to get grade A hop, this is more of an experiment anyway.

Planting:

Ok, so on to the planting procedure. The hops arrived (along with ingredients, which will be explored in a later post) from www.midwestsupplies.com early April. UPS + shipping raped me through the ass on the order. Won't be ordering from there ever again. Anyways, the first step was to dig a 8"x8" hole, and about 10" deep. Filled about 5" with potting soil and put the root (called a rhizome) in. Hops send shoots out of the soil from the root. The biggest problem/concern was where to let it grow. Apparently it can be 30 feet so it was important to let it have room to climb onto something. A patio fence solved this problem. Either way, that was the first step there and I'm pumped to see if this actually grows.

Things to remember: The plant will need lots of sunlight and water. If watered daily, and exposed to sunlight, the plant can grow up to a foot a day!

Sunday, April 02, 2006

Cooking a Crazy Delicious Rabbit: An Illustrated Guide




You are about to learn how to cook a rockin' awesome rabbit. Ingredients you will
need are in bold.


Before you start you will need to obtain a rabbit. The easiest way to do this is to find one in the wild (see below).
It will be cute. Infact, the cuter rabbits are more tender, so keep an eye out. Shoot it. Then skin it and gut it. Now you are ready to begin.






  1. Thaw the rabbit if frozen. Note: Putting the rabbit in a plastic bag and into a bowl of water makes it thaw a lot faster.




  2. Make a baste for the rabbit. This can really be anything but the ingredients in the one pictured are below:

    • Olive oil

    • Lemon Juice

    • White Wine

    • Salt and Pepper

    • Rosemary






  3. Coat the rabbit in the baste with a brush. Note: At this point, it may or may not look like an aborted fetus. Don't be scared.



  4. Put the rabbit on a spit. You may need to tie it down with twine to stabilize it.



  5. Put the spit on the BBQ, which should already be hot. Put the rotisserie burner to medium. Underneath you will want a pan to catch the drippings.



  6. A while later it will be cooked, and look browned on the outside. Keep the temperature low enough so it doesn't burn and the drippings don't boil dry. Take it off the BBQ and spit.



  7. Create side dishes (mashed potatoes, whatever) and gravy from the drippings if desired. Carve the rabbit and discard the bones.

  8. Enjoy the rabbit with some appropriate beverages.

Pictured: Niagara Brewing Company's Pale Ale and cheapo Saw Mill Creek Wine leftover from basting.