Breweries - Captain Lawrence Brewing Co. - Pleasantville, NY

While back home in NY for the Christmas holiday I took a run up to Captain Lawrence Brewing Company which is tucked away in the small town of Pleasantville, NY. Most people would even know the brewery was ever there. But by the number of folks lined up for growlers, they sure have a true local following!

I had been there once before but forgot a camera. I wanted to make sure to get there on this trip home because it is likely the last time I get to this location. They are in the process of moving the brewery a few miles south into the town of Elmsford, NY (which will make it even easier to visit when I go home to NY). By the lines of growler patrons, there is no doubt they need a bigger place to handle retail sales and tastings.

Here are a few pictures from inside the brewery. It is one large open room in a warehouse.

They have quite a few barrels, even more than what you see here. Scott Vaccaro (Owner/Head Brewer) is a big fan of aging in barrels.

While I was at the brewery I picked up a growler of their Kolsh and a bottle of the Saison. I also was able to find at the local supermarket their 5 Year Anniversary Beer called "5 Years Later", their 2008 GABP Gold Winning "Xtra Gold American Tripel Ale", an their "Imperial IPA"

I have not opened any of them yes as we just recently got home. But if its anything like their beers I've tasted at the brewery, I'm sure they will be awesome!

Carboys, Why?

I used a carboy for the first time today. A co-worker gave me a 5 gallon one a while back but I never used it. I like the ease of buckets and using the carboy today confirmed that. The carboy is being used to secondary a cider that I plan to age for a few months before kegging. To clean it was a pain in the butt. The previous owner left some stuff behind so I had to rig up a wash cloth on the end of a bottle brush to try to scrape it out. Wasn't that easy. Also, I was also terrified of dropping it when it was covered with soap.

The work it took the clean and the fear of scattering glass seems not worth using a carboy for a normal 2-3 week fermentations. During that time you will have no issues just using a plastic bucket. They are so much easier to clean and no fear of breakage. I can see using carboys for longer-term storage as I am with this cider, but unless I'm in a pitch for space (which usually isn't an issue), I don't ever plan to use a carboy. I know some people may give me crap about that, but hey, that's just my opinion.

Air in your beer lines?

Though I don't have the collar on or the shanks installed yet, I have a chest freezer stocked with 3 kegs right now. They are all connected via picnic taps.

With the newest keg that I put in, it poured mainly foam and there was a ton of air pockets in the beer line (clear so I can see them).  I know many first think "you need to balance your system". I'd agree with that if it wasn't for the fact that the other two kegs work just fine. The air pockets in the line really is what confused me too. If the system was unbalanced, it shouldn't foam up until you pour and the resistance kicks in and not leave air pockets in the beer line.

I posted a question on the Northern Brewer forum (my go to forum) and someone gave me a suggestion to check my o-rings. I took the keg apart and I was missing o-rings between my dip tubes, both gas and beer lines, and the keg. It had been a while since I used this keg and I remember after the last batch in this keg I pitched the o-rings because they were worn out but never replaced them.

I had some extra o-rings laying around, replaced them and BINGO we have a good pour.

So the next time you have foam in your beer lines and you know your system is balanced, the o-rings may be worn/damaged or in my case, just fully missing.

First Try at Cider

A friend of mine has a huge apple press every year on his farm. The makes a big deal out of it with a family-friendly party. Everyone helps out washing apples, carrying them to the homemade press (this huge hydraulic press) and bottling. I suggested to him that we should turn some of it into hard cider and he was more than excited to offer up 5 gallons.

So right now I have 5 gallons starting to ferment. I decided to go with Nottingham yeast (my LHBS didn't have US-05) for my first shot at this. If I'm successful then I'll likely go with a cider yeast next year and likely make more than 1 batch.

My first step was to get all of the cider into my bucket and I put in 5 campden tablets (1 tablet per gallon of juice). The potassium in the campden tablet will help to stop any natural yeast/molds/fungus in the apples from eating on the sugars. With putting those in however, you need to give it time to dissipate out. They say at least 24 hours. Due to timing constraints, I let it go 48 hours.

It did take some time to see some active fermentation and even now, 3 days since pitching, the fermentation is still VERY slow. I can see some krausen starting to form on the surface but it seems much slower than beer. I was expecting this but was hoping it didn't take this long. Lots of people on the forums mention a delayed start to fermentation. I'll just keep watching it for the next few days and maybe take a reading (OG 1.051) to make sure it is actually fermenting.

After around 2 week I'll plan to transfer the cider to a carboy and add some pectic enzyme to help clear out the cider. I'll then let it sit for around 4 to 6 months before kegging.

So now its just a waiting came on this. I'm very excited to see how this turns out over the winter/spring.

I'll post some updates during the process.

So Important to Keep Track of Your Brew Day Stats

I'm a number's guy. From the time I was a kid I always loved organization and keeping statistics. I'm not talking like hardcore college level crazy stats that drive you mad, just basic stuff like keeping the baseball stats of all of my friends when we played in the street or keeping a list of my baseball cards. Yeah, I know kind of weird, lame, nuts and maybe even a little scary.

Now that I'm a brewer, keeping my brewing stats has become a bit of an obsession. I'm slowly building out the tabs on my spreadsheets with new calculations. I've really only been keeping good stats for the last 4 batches or so (I'm 14 batches into the hobby). Batch 8 was my first AG batch and my first few AG batches I was so focused on process that I didn't really care if I hit my numbers. I just wanted to not screw it up and make drinkable beer. Now that I feel comfortable with my equipment and process I'm really trying to do a better job about keeping good stats so I can learn from each batch and include that knowledge in the next batch.

My last two batches I've come up a little short of 5 gallons for the fermenter. I see now, its due to trub loss. I choose not to put all of the "junk" into the fermenter just to make volume. I account for trub loss when I calculate what I need for pre-boil volume. But the trub lost from this last batch was higher than the trub loss from the previous batch. I also used an ounce and a quarter more of hops, so I'm going to watch this situation to see if the amount of hops I put into the boil dictates how much trub loss to anticipate. It won't be perfect, but it should be better.

To get better volume estimates in my kettle (aluminum 7 gallon pot with no marks), I bought stainless steel BBQ skewers from Lowes. They are 24" long, cost like $5 for 4 of them and fit perfectly into my kettle. I just measured out the volume and marked them with a permanent marker. I used to us a wood stick, but I found I was missing volumes and I think it was because the wood would expand as it absorbed some liquid.

I'm also finding my efficiency is coming up lower than I'd hope for. So I need to adjust for that and see if I can improve there.

Again, I wouldn't know if I could improve my process and quality of product if it wasn't for keeping good brew day stats. For those of you that don't care, that's fine. Just wing it an enjoy like you are doing. For you folks that are very process oriented like me and want to know why you may or may not be hitting your numbers (OG, volumes, etc), I urge you to keep better track of your stats and learn from it.

CMI Oktobersbest 2011

Last night was my first CMI Oktobersbest Competition. I entered 3 beers (Cream Ale, APA & Milk Stout) and unfortunately I didn't place with any of them. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed after coming off my first place Amber Ale at Dayton DRAFT's BrewFest. However, the real reason I enter is to get feedback. And so far that feedback has paid off. I've entered that Cream Ale into two competition now and my score increased from 29 to 35. I'll keep working that recipe until I either win something or my score doesn't improve.

The highlights of the evening were the special guests. Three time Ninkaski winner and author Gordon Strong stopped by to judge the competition as well as hang out for the award ceremony. I wish I would brought my copy of "Brewing Better Beer" for him to sign.

(Gordon Strong - center)

Besides Gordon Strong, Greg Koch, CEO of Stone Brewing company was in town on this book signing tour and stopped by to give out some of the awards. He was there only a short time but it was pretty neat for him to stop out. We took a CMI group picture with him and I hope to get a copy of that.

Overall a good evening. Another great competition to enter if you are looking for one. It continues to grow and I can't wait to see what they do next year!

Last time you checked your gas connections?

Last night I went down to the kegerator to get a nice refreshing home brew off the tap. Something didn't seem right about the pour so I checked the co2 pressure. To my surprise, my 10 lb tank was empty! This tank was on its 5th keg and at 10 lbs there so be no reason why it would be empty already.

I went down tonight and found I had a leak in the tube going to my manifold from the regulator. This may have been the first time I checked the gas lines. I check the beer lines when I change out kegs, but never the gas lines (this was only the 5th keg I've ever had on tap)

So this is you PSA for the day, check your gas lines and make sure everything is tight and sealed.

Water Chemistry Tools

Since my second batch of all-grain, I've been adjusting my water with brewing salts to try to get the mash pH in an acceptable range (5.2-5.6ish). I had my water tested through Ward Labs (Test W-5) so I knew what my existing water was (I take it from a spigot not connected to my water softener).

I've been lucky that up to this point only having to put in around 2 grams of CaCl2 (Calcium Chloride) in each mash.  That's because I've used very little Crystal malts in "pale" ales.  However, this weekend I'm going to brew a porter and my crystal malts (C-40) makes up around 9.5% of my grist. This causes a little trouble with my pH. I'm not going to go into why this is causes issues with my water chemistry. You can learn more about that here. I do want to talk a little about some water chemistry tools that's I've used. I believe you want to do the least amount of adjustments as possible!!!! There are negatives to adding brewing salts as well.

From the beginning, I've used "EZ Water Calculator" and its been great. Its very easy to use and gives a simple output. I highly recommend it if you are doing light colored pale ales.

I was not as comfortable with it however putting in my numbers for the Porter. The numbers just seemed too low and it seemed like I had to make some wild adjustments to get it within a good range. This could very well be the case, I'm not blaming the software for my pH, but it sent me to the message boards to get some answers to questions about what I should do. My post received a reply talking about "Bru N' Water". I think I actually like this water chemistry tool better. It is definitely much more robust and one could easily get caught up in all the numbers if they have never done any water chemistry before, but I found that it does a great job in showing what it is doing. I like to see why, I can't just accept it.

Excluding the pH, all of the numbers match up pretty well between the two tool. The EZ Water Calculator had me almost 0.2 pH lower than the Bru N' Water. It did make me feel more comfortable on how much more information Bru N' Water asked me about my existing water. It helps as well that Gordon Strong mentions Martin Brungard as one of his go to water people in "Brewing Better Beer" (Read it! Was hoping to write a review but haven't got around to it yet).

Though I have not test the Bru N' Water estimates yet to see if it actually works better, we'll see on Sunday and I'll plan to give a report on that.

I recommend you give them both a shot. I'm not going to write some drawn out thing about how to use them, blah blah blah. But I wanted to at least give you some sources of where to get tools for water chemistry and I'll let you decide what you like best. Like I said, they are both good, I just prefer one over the other now.

John Palmer also has his own here, but I seemed to like that one the least. Though he gives detailed instruction, I still am now on the Bru N' Water bandwagon.

What this whole thing did teach me is that I may not mash my crystal malts with my base malts anymore, especially if it will greatly impact my pH like my porter recipe seems to be. You don't really need to mash your crystal malts. Gordon Strong talks about that in "Brewing Better Beer". What you do it steep them like when you did extract batches with specialty grains and then add to the boil. By doing this, you don't run into as many pH issues by having only base or roasted grains in the mash. I've always had my LHBS mill all my grains together, this is likely the last time.

Hop Season 2011 in the Books

Today was the official end of my first hop growing season. I'm not even sure I can say that I grew hops this year. I grew bines, but got zero cones. I have to admit I'm pretty disappointed, but oh well, we'll try again next year.

In preparation of 2012, I made some changes to my beds. After cutting down my bines today, I dug up the root bulb. I then build up the beds with 2 courses of Castlewall stone. To try to condition the soil better, I added a bunch of peat moss to help break up the clay as well as some quality potting soil.

With the hops raised up, this should drain water much better. After I got them in the ground, I put a nice layer of peat moss over top of them to give them a blanket for winter.

I was sad to cut the bines down. With each snip I hoped that I was doing everything right to give them the best chance for some form of harvest next year. I just have to remember, they are pretty hardy plants and are build to survive. I (as well as mother nature) may have not given them the best conditions this year to flower, but I'm sure as hell trying my hardest to get them ready for next year.

Learning from Critiques

Finally got a hold of my scores from the Dayton DRAFT Brewfest '11.

I received a 32 for my flight winning Amber Ale. The highest score a 34, the lowest a 30. Both judges seemed to really like the beer. One said he would have liked a little more hop aroma, the other a little more malt aroma. You can't please everyone...hehe.

My Cream Ale, which didn't place, got a 29.6, with a 32 for the highest score and a 28 for the lowest. They all seem to like the beer, but I got dinged for little to no carbonation. I'm actually OK with that. Since the flavor was liked, that tells me I brewed the beer well. I can always fix carbonation for future contests. I actually plan to reenter this one in CMI's Zinzinnati Oktobersbest and make sure have better carbonation. I have high hopes for it!

Overall, I'm very happy with the scores and critiques I got from my first competition. I'm hooked to compete more!!

Winner, Winner Amber Dinner!

Today is a very proud day for me in my efforts to become a better brewer. I found out today that I came in first place in the "Amber Ale" flight at the Dayton DRAFT's 2011 BrewFest! I'm so excited! I also entered a Cream Ale, but unfortunately that didn't place. But to have my first contest end with at least one beer in a first place finish is so rewarding!

The interesting thing about this win is that I won on the Amber Ale, previously posted, which I considered dumping early in its life. Again, it teaches me and it should teach you that as long as a beer is not infected that you should give it time to see how it turns out.

I'll get my score sheets this weekend. I'm excited to read the critiques on both beers.

I'm already planning to enter another competition next month with two different beers.

Think Before You Dump!

Been a while since I've posted. Sort of a lot has happened since the last post and at the same time nothing new has really happened.

1) Hops
Not much to report. I expected to take zero harvest this year. The Mt Hood is the only one that showed real promise. However, looks like nothing is going to happen. Going to chalk this year up to root growth and hope for something next year. All the bines are still alive so it gives me hope!

2) First HomeBrew Competition Entry
Entered my first 2 beers into a local hombrew competition. I entered a Cream Ale and Amber Ale (more on that below) into the Dayton DRAFT BrewFest 2011. I honestly don't expected to win anything, though I'd really love too, but I'm most looking forward to feedback. I'm a little nervous with it being my first one and very excited at the same time.

3) Think Before You Dump!
From the first pull of the Amber Ale, there was something about it that just wasn't right. There was some sort of off flavor that I just couldn't pick out. It had an after finish bite. Not bitter like hop bitter, just something. It always wasn't getting clearer either like there was something making the beer stay hazy. I considered it very early on to dump the whole batch. Even after a month in the keg I still wasn't happy with how it was turning out.

However, around 2 months in or so, something changed. This beer took a shape of its own and that afterbite was gone and it was left with a nice hop profile. I'm very glad I didn't dump this batch. I brought it to an NFL Fantasy Draft party and people loved it. This is also what gave me the idea to enter it into a competition.

When I cleaned out the keg this weekend, there was A TON of sediment at the bottom. It didn't look like yeast but I'm assuming it was whatever gave the beer the bite and the hazy. Maybe extra proteins or grain particles, who knows, but two batches since then have not had the same issue.

So the moral of the story, give your beer time. Unless you know something is horribly wrong with it like infection, give it time to mature and come into its own.

To All Aspiring Commercial Brewers

A really great blog post by Jamil Zainasheff about starting his own brewery. I thought it was a very humbling read. 

http://byo.com/blogs/harder-than-it-looks.html

I think anyone that aspires to be a commercial brewer should read this.

First Repitch of Slurry - BOOM!

I did my first pitch from slurry this past weekend. I had just shy of 200 ml of yeast in mason jars and using Mr. Malty I figured I'd need to use around all of it based on age and yeast concentration, etc. I made a starter just a few hours before to kick start it but didn't want it to fully ferment out, just wake them up a little. First off, that starter took off very quickly. I did it around 12 hours before pitching into my wort, next time i may only do it around 6 hours before.

So I pitched it into my wort on Saturday night. On Sunday night, around 24 hours later, I go down to check on it before going to bed. I had it in a controlled chest freezer to control the temps. I open the freezer and I have a mess! I had around 5.5 gals of wort when I pitched and I know I was a little high for the bucket. So the krausen apparently back filled into the airlock which then stopped all C02 release. I have a 9.5 stopper in my lid so I can look in, take measurements, etc. The pressure build up blew the stopper out like a cork. I cleaned up the mess, not too bad. Next morning, same thing! When I got home from work later that day the airlock was filled and there was krausen leaking from the stopper but didn't blow it off.

A few lessons learned:
1) Repitching slurry works
2) Don't overfill a fermenter
3) Make a starter later in the day if at all.

I definitely plan to try repitching again in the future. We'll see how it goes next time.

Hops - Compost

For the last year or so I've been composting. I found the design for a wooden box in a "This Old House" magazine and thought it would be a good idea to start doing it with all our scrap fruits, veggies, coffee grounds and egg shells. I also put all my spent grains and used to put in my yeast before I began harvesting it.

So this morning I went out and put a few shovels full of the compost (which was nice and dark after months of decomposition) on the hops and a bunch of other plants in the yard. I'm excited to see what it does for all the plants over the next few weeks. I was debating doing another batch of the epsom salt and blood meal cocktail but figured let me see how this works before adding more nutrients.

Its been so hot here in Southwest Ohio and I've watered the hops every other day. The seems to really enjoy the heat.

Hops - Maybe I was wrong about the burrs

My last post mentioned that I thought I had burrs. The more and more I look at them I'm starting to think that maybe I was wrong. What I thought was burrs just continues to grow leaves and filling out the bines. The Mt. Hood which had the "burrs" continues to grow and fill out with no signs of a flower. Of course I'll continue to watch it, but I probably jumped the gun for burr production. :(

Hops - Burrs that Jingle Jangle Jingle

Honestly, a week or so ago I wasn't sure what the progression of hops growth was. So I looked it up and found a picture of what to look for in burr production. Little did I know, I actually had some (or at least I believe they are). I went out and saw that pretty much all the plants are showing some signs of burrs with the Mt. Hood doing the best.

From the pictures I saw and reading, they looks like little off shoots from the vine right underneath the leaves. Now we'll have to wait and see what happens next!

Brew Day - Cream Ale #2 - Swamp Cooler

A friend of mine was really interested to see how homebrewing worked, so we decided to brew up the Cream Ale since what I had left of the first batch was quickly crushed at a party a few weeks ago. He asked a ton of questions and I may have converted him. Time will tell!

Pretty standard brew day with all of it going as planned. I have a rather detailed checklist that I use for my brew day and I found that now that I have a few AG batches in that I didn't look at it often. It was a good feeling to know that I'm becoming so comfortble with the process and that I can start to focus on refining it.

If you are interested in the recipe, you can find it here. The only thing I did different was add a 1/8 lb of Golden Light DME at 30 mins. I did this because I use the DME to make starters and there wasn't enough to make another starter and it was getting older, so instead of just tossing it, decided to add it to the wort.

Temperature in my storage area were hanging out near 70 and I'd like to ferment a cooler. Temperatures are also supposed to climb to near 90 into the week so I figured I'd set up a swamp cooler so I could keep the beer at a constant temperature.

Checked it this morning and we had good activity in th airlock and the beer was sitting around 67ish. I'm happy with that. I'm monitor the temps and put a frozen quart jug in the tub if needed to keep the water cool.

Hops - Nutrient Deficient?

Its been around two months since my hops went into the ground. The Cascade and Mt. Hood are not doing to bad, but the Willamette and U.S. Tettnang are definitely lagging behind. I took a look in "The Hombrewers Garden" to see what my next steps are as the season continues. There was a section on nutrient deficiencies that caught my eye.

Most of my plants have yellow leaves toward the bottom and in some cases like the Tettnang it is starting to climb up the vine. I also feel like the plants growth has slowed down a lot even though you'd think this would be the time for them to shine.

The book suggest for stunted growth and yellow leaves before the end of the season to add nitrogen. Forms of nitrogen are fresh compost, manure, or fertilizers like fish emulsion or blood meal.

For lower leaves that turn yellow and then brown and start to die up the vine that the soil may be lacking magnesium. Epsom salt is a good source of magnesium.

Both of these seem to be my issues. So I did some research on the web to find out how much of the nutrients I would need to add. I decided to go with fish emulsion (which I found at Lowes) and an epsom salt combination as suggested by one forum. I used a water solution of 1 tablespoon fish emulsion fertilizer (per the label) and 1/4 tsp epsom salt per gallon of water and made two gallons (doubled the nutrients). The post said "Magnesium is the first micronutrient that hops crave when the pH of their root environment is too high. If you are only tending a small hop garden, try using fish emulsion with your water to acidify it. This will make magnesium in your soil more available to the plants."

We'll see over the next few weeks if I've made the right call by adding these nutrients. More to come.....

Ranco ETC-111000 Wiring

A few weeks back I was able to score a chest freezer off Craiglist for $25. Less than 10 years old, works fine and the previous owner just had no use for it and wanted it out of the way. Even though I have a Haier Kegerator, it only houses 2 kegs (had to convert it from one, http://fourleafbrewing.blogspot.com/2011/03/kegerator-upgrade.html) and I'd like to be able to have at least 4-5 beers on tap. When I convert this chest freezer, that will allow me to do so.

However, you can't just put kegs in the freezer, they will freeze....duh! So you need a way to override the thermostat. That is where a temperature controller comes in. I decided to go with a Ranco ETC-111000, unwired. I bought one on Ebay for under $50. Now it was time to wire it.

I will save you all the details of the wiring in my blog cause someone else has already done an excellent job.
http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?644-Ranco-ETC-111000-000-120V-Wiring-Guide


The only thing that I did differently was I used a power strip vs. just a female end of an extention chord. Honestly, didn't have any great reason to do that way, just saw that is what others have done and I figured the extra protection of the strip couldn't hurt.

If you have basic electric skills (i.e. installing/changing outlets, putting up ceiling fans or lighting, etc) you'll be able to do this project. As always with electric, BE VERY CAREFUL and read all the directions fully before you try this. Sorry, but I can't be liable for any damages just because you got the idea from my blog and you do this project at your own risk.

I plan to have the chest freezer converted and a collar built in the next few weeks (got the collar idea/specs from BYO's winter issue). I'll post details of that project after I'm done.

Hops - 2011 - Heat Does a Hop Good

Now that the rains have stopped and its getting very hot here in Southwest Ohio, the hops seem to really enjoy the new conditions. They are growing tall rather quickly and the leaves are definitely getting larger. The tallest bine is likely close to 6 feet tall. Here are the latest pictures of the crop.

Below is the Mt Hood. In this first season, I likely won't cut back any bines so I can give the roots a chance to really take hold this year.

For those of Irish descent out there, I thought you'd like the new center piece on the swing that separates the trellis'. Its a working claddagh weather vane we got for our wedding years back.

Yeast Harvesting - First Try - WLP001

In an attempt to start saving as much money as I can with this great hobby, I've decided to take a try at harvesting some yeast. This past weekend I rinsed the WLP001 that I used to ferment the Amber Ale I recently brewed. My hope is that I can use this rinsed yeast for the first time in a few weeks.

I pretty much followed BillyBrew's video. I found his tutorial to be super easy to understand.

SANITATION IS KEY THROUGHOUT THIS ENTIRE PROCESS!!!

To sum up the process, here is what I did. Earlier in the day before I racked my Amber Ale to the keg, I boiled 1 gal of water to santize it. I let it cool and even put it in the frig for a while. I had my bucket fermentor in the frig so I wanted to have the sanitized water and beer close to the same temperature not to shock the yeast. I cold crash all of my beers because I find that I get a nice clean, yeast free product into the kegs. I also wanted to settle out as much yeast as possible.

I racked my beer to the kegs as normal. After I had it kegged up, I poured the gallon of sanitzed water into the bucket and stirred it up with a sanitzed spoon to get it well mixed up. The reason for this is you want to get the various parts of the yeast cake to settle into layers. I gave it around 20 minutes to settle so I took that time to start cleaning equipment. The heaviest later will settle at the bottom and will have hop particles, dead yeast, proteins, break, etc and you'd like to do your best to separate that out from your harvested yeast. There is a middle layer that settles that is the healthiest yeast and then a light layer at the top of just left over beer and other light matter.

After 20 minutes I slowly poured the connects of the fermentor into a 1.5 gal pitcher leaving the darkest and heaviest matter behind. It was very easy to see what I didn't want to tranfer into the pitcher. It was very dark vs. the rest of the fluid.

Now that I had the yeast cake out of the fermentor and in the pitcher, I waited another 20 minutes for that to settle as I clean up other equipment. This time, there was little to no dark matter at the bottom, a nice creamy white layer of yeast in the middle and the light layer of beer at the top. Sorry, no picture of this step, as I forgot to take one. Maybe I'll put one up after I do this process again.

I then poured around half of the contents of the pitcher into 4 mason jars leaving any darker stuff at the bottom. I did end up pitching the rest this time.

This is what a mason jar looked like right after the pour. Very cloudy.

After filling the 4 mason jars. I put them in the frig. This is what they looked like after 12 hours...

You can notice the yeast starting to settle at the bottom but still a very cloudy mixture.

I labeled each jar with some tape on the lid to remind me when I harvest it (so you can estimate viability), the type of each and the generation. You can use yeast for several generation but I'm not going to get into that in this post and I'd like plan to use them no more than 4-5 times. You can find info about this on the web.

This was what it looked like after 2 days......

A pretty clean jar now with most of the yeast at the bottom.

These jars will sit in there until I'm ready to use them, which should be in a few week. One item I do need to finalize is to get an estimate of how many yeast cells I have. I read on one of the message boards that there are 30 million yeast cells per 1 oz of yeast. I've seen some conflicting stories. But this is my next task to learn how much of this yeast I need to pitch so I don't under or overpitch and if I need to make a starter or not. More to come on this as I learn more. 





Brew Day - Amber Ale

It been around a week since my last brew day. Wanted to post an update sooner but have just been busy with other stuff (yeah, I know brewing should be priority).

For this brew session I did an Amber Ale. I'd say it was a very successful brew day and an important one for me personally. This was my 10th batch. As I prepared for this "special" occasion I tried to figure out ways to remember #10. The highlight of the day was the my dad helped me brew. While I live in Ohio, my parents live in New York and they were in for a visit. My dad wanted to see the process of brewing so I was happy to show him. He asked a lot of questions and seemed interested so that was a great feeling. I don't think I convinced him to become a brewer (wasn't my intention anyway), but I think he can respect my obession with it.

This was just my 3rd AG batch and for the first time I had to add some boiling water to the mash to get it up to where I wanted it. Though my strike water was where I wanted it, I had some heat lose in the transfer and still learning to dial-in on my system. I keep taking notes and I'll learn to be better.

I was able to hit all of my numbers and was at around a 85% efficiency so was very happy with that. The beer started out at 1.045 and I just took a gravity reading (one week out) and I was at 1.013. I'll keep it in the fermenter for another 2 week so I'm sure I knock out another point or two and that gets me right where I wanted.

Here's the recipe....

FL Amber
American Amber Ale
Recipe Specs
----------------
Batch Size (G):           5.5
Total Grain (lb):         10.000
Total Hops (oz):          3.50
Original Gravity (OG):    1.046  - Mine came in at 1.045
Final Gravity (FG):       1.012
Alcohol by Volume (ABV):  4.52 %
Colour (SRM):             13.6
Bitterness (IBU):         36.1   (Tinseth)
Boil Time (Minutes):      70

Grain Bill
----------------
6.750 lb American 2-Row (67.5%)
1.000 lb Vienna (10%)
0.500 lb Crystal 120 (5%)
0.500 lb Crystal 80 (5%)
0.500 lb Victory (5%)
0.500 lb Wheat Malt (5%)
0.250 lb Crystal 40 (2.5%)

Hop Bill
----------------
0.50 oz Magnum Pellet (14.4% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil)
0.50 oz Cascade Pellet (8% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes (Boil)
0.50 oz Willamette Pellet (4.8% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes (Boil)
1.00 oz Cascade Pellet (8% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Boil)
1.00 oz Willamette Pellet (4.8% Alpha) @ 0 Minutes (Boil)

Single step Infusion at 156°F for 60 Minutes.  - I came in closer to 154°F.

Fermented at 68°F with WLP001 - California Ale

The first taste out of the fermenter was pretty nice as well. I think a nice balance of malt and hops. Still really soon to get the full potential but its always encouraging when a early taste doesn't taste horrible.

On the hops front, the continue to grow. They are not nearly as aggressive as what I see on the message boards but I'm hopefully for at least some harvest later this year.

Hops - 2011 - Hanging by a String

Now that the rains have stopped the hops have really started to grow. With the growth, I've strung them up.

There's a matching configuration on the other side fo the swing.

The Tettnang seems like it may be struggling from being too wet. There are a few shoots, but one has already died off and unfortunately the best looking shoot is starting to yellow from the bottom up.....boooo! I'm hoping with the heat this week the ground will dry out and the other few shoot will take off. Until the ground dries, I'm not going to assume it is anything else but the VERY soggy ground.

Above is the Tettnag. Look at the slight yellowing on the lower leaves on the left plant.

The Mt Hood continues to be the best plant. Tons of shoots and a lot of activity.

Stands just shy of 2 feet I'd say.

The Cascade is the new hero plant. This is definitely growing the most aggressive in the last few days.

The Willamette was the slowest to break ground and is by far the smallest plant. One of the shoots has done well in the last few days so I'm hopefully this variety has made its turn toward thriving.

And for your viewing pleasure, here's the starter I was cooking up while I took the hop pictures. More on this brew day after the weekend.

National Homebrew Day 2011 - Rivertown Brewing Company

Saturday May 7, 2011 was National Homebrew Day and the Cincinnati Malt Infusers (CMI, which I am apart of), the Bloatarians and some of the other smaller Cincinnati homebrew clubs gathered at Rivertown Brewing Company for the "Big Brew".

Members of the clubs got together to do a collarborative brew on Rivertown's system and those that took part were able to take beer hoome to ferment on their own. Many that decided not to take part of the "pro-style" brew brought their own equipment and brewed in the parking lot. Other, such as myself, just came to hang out and be around fellow homebrewers and check out the brewery. Word has it that over 100 people stopped by during the day and over 300 gallons total were brewed (just over 200 on Rivertown's system).

This was my first time out at Rivertown and it was great to meet their team and check out the brewery. Great bunch of folks. If you have not tried any of their beers, I highly recommend it. I just recently picked up their mixed 12 pack and enjoy each style.

Here are some pictures of the facility.

Brewers love to see healthy fermentation.

Thanks to the folks at Rivertown Brewing for having us out to the Brewery and to all of the homebrewers and vistors that came out to be apart of the day.

Can't wait to see what next year's event brings!

Frost in May?

Temperatures in Cincinnati are expected to get down into the mid 30s tonight. What is going on with the weather lately?! Put cardboard boxes around all of my hops to try to keep them from getting frosted. I'm pretty confident it will work, but we'll see come morning.

Another few rounds of rain this week. The Tettnang is really getting beat up with all the moisture. It is by far my soggiest plant. If it survives this year, I may try to relocate it next year. I figure I've committed to it in the ground already, just let it ride. One of the shoots on the Tettnang has started to die but the others so far look healthy.

The Mt. Hood is by far the best (as I've stated in previous post) and hearing from other folks, this appears to be their best too. Has done well in the rain and the little sun we have had over the last week has helped it grow quickly.

If I get around to it, I may start to string up the Mt. Hood which is around 2 feet and the Tettnang which is maybe just over a foot. I'm running them off the same pole so since I'll be up on the ladder might as well do both. The Willamette and Cascade are a LONG away from needing string so I'll do those in a few week.

Coming Up Short of the Record

It looks like Cincinnati is going to come up just shy of the all time record rain fall in a month. We currently stand at 13.51" for the month with the record for any month at 13.68" set back in January 1937. Though I've hated the amount of rain we've had, to come this close to the record and not break it will be disappointing. There doesn't seem to be any rain in the forecast today or tomorrow, the last day of the month. I think most folks in the Midwest have seen enough rain for a while, so hopefully we dry out some over the upcoming weeks.

Edit (5/1/11) - We did come up just short, the final number for the month was 13.52". Funny thing though, it is raining today.
The hops plants are still progressing, but slowly. The ground is just so damp and we have had only 3 days of sun the entire month. We should see some sun over the next few days which should start to dry out the ground and perk some growth.

I'll plan to put some updated pictures later in the week after they perk up in the sun.

Record Rainfall in Cincinnati

This weekend, Cincinnati set a new all time record for rainfall in the month of April. As of Sunday morning, the monthly rain total was 10.86" breaking the old April record of 9.77". We are not working toward the all-time record rainfall of all time for the region. The current record for any month is 13.68" set back in January 1937. We could make a really close push toward that level with 7 days left in this month and rain forecasted daily.

My hop plants are feeling the impact of all this rain. The ground around them are soggy like a wet sponge. Hopefully it will dry out a little bit and warm up cause if not I think i'll have a worry about root rot at some point in the future. Its crazy how saturated the ground is and the plants are pretty slow to grow due to the amount of water and lack of sunlight.

On a positive note, my grass is as lush and green as a pro baseball field right now!

Hops - 2011 - All 4 Varieties Showing Life

All 4 varieties are now showing signs of life. The Cascade and Willamette that I purchased from my Local Home Brew Shop (LHBS) were much slower to break ground than the other two varieties (Mt Hood and US Tettnang) that were clipping from a friend. I'd expect the two purchased rhizomes to not do as well as the other "free" ones this first season. We'll see.

Both the Cascade and Willamette only have 2-3 shoots showing. This is the best picture of the Willamette.



The Cascade is still very brown/purple and really tough to pick out (no picture posted)

Here are some updated pictures of the Mt. Hood......

......and the US Tettnang starting to climb on the tomato cage I have in place.

To keep the dog and kids out, I set up some rabbit guard to protect the plants in a quater-circle shape. I have this same design mirrored on the other side of the swing.

To try to keep the plant spaced around 5 feet apart, I have them situated at the far corner of the fence and then the front pole of the swing. That angles gives me the distance I need. But in the future I'll likely have to be diligent about keeping the roots cut so they don't tangle each other underground.



Hops - 2011 - Mt Hood / U.S. Tettnang

Been pretty warm and wet here in Cincinnati the last couple of days and that was enough to kick start the first set up if rhizomes I planted. The US Tettnang already had some sprouts when they were given to me, but now the Mt. Hood has broken ground and I swear grew in the 3 hours from when I got home and then took this picture.

Mt Hood breaking ground.



US Tettnang had a great start with a few sprouts before putting it in the ground and it is already growing more.

The weather continues to look unseasonably warm into next week so hopefully that will help the Cascade and Willamette along.

Hops - 2011 - Cascade and Willamette

Got my last two varieties in the ground yesterday. Two rhizomes of Cascade and Willamette each. The Willamette rhizones were a good size but the Cascades are pretty small. We are supposed to have a warm week with some precip so hoping that kick starts some growth.

Cascade

Willamette  

Hops - 2011 - First Planting (Mt Hood / U.S. Tettnang)

Got my first two varieties of hops in the ground early this week. Got a few rhizomes of Mt Hood and U.S. Tettnang. Still waiting on my Cascade and Williamette delivery from my LHBS.

I was so excited about my first plants that I forgot to take a picture of the Mt Hood before getting them in the ground.



Kegerator - Upgrade

As many homebrewers know, one tap isn't enough. So I converted the kegerator to have two taps. I tried several different ways to fit at least 3 kegs in the frig, but it just wasn't happening. Kind of a bummer. But two will do for now.

My father-in-law made some custom handles for me and I painted them with chalkboard paint so I could easily label each batch. Came out pretty sweet I think!

Hops - 2011 - Trellis Build Continued....

So added a second hop pole this afternoon to the other side of the swing. It mirrors the pole pictured in the previous post.

Initially was only going to do one pole with 2 varieties (Cascade and Williamette), but a buddy of mine was gracious enough to send me two more varities from a cutting to plant (should get those this week).

So instead of just having 2 types, I should have 4! Very excited for this first year!

Hops - 2011 - Trellis Build

Finally got the hop trellis built this weekend. Used our swing as the base. The trellis stands around 13.5' tall. The pole is a 4"x4" with 18" steel pipe as the arms. Used a "T" at the end of each steel pipe that I plan to run jute line through.

Still need to prep the ground for planting. I hope to get my rhizome shipment (Cascade and Williamette)  this week but may wait a week or so to put them in the ground since low temperatures next week may fall below freezing a few days.

Software Review - BrewMate

Here is a software review I wrote for my local HomeBrew Club Newletter. There have even been chances to the software since I wrote this just a month or so ago.

My brewing obsession began with pre-packaged partial boil kits that offered little need for brewing software. I was sure to nail my numbers as long as I followed the directions. I quickly found as I moved toward full boils that without adjustments to the hop schedule, I’d end up making Imperial IPA strength Cream Ales. 

Though mainstream applications like BeerSmith are not overly expensive, I was on a mission to find something free.  I stumbled across BrewMate (www.brewmate.net), which has become a staple to my brew day preparation.  I believe that it offers similar features as paid software programs, but at zero cost.  

Building a recipe with BrewMate is extremely simple. An extensive list of fermentables/grains, hops and adjuncts are included by default. With ease you can add ingredients if not listed or adjust preloaded items.

A feature that I really like is something the designer calls “Style Nazi” Mode. When you select a style from the drop down menu, it loads in the BJCP guidelines that you can compare with your recipe. An example above shows the IBU range of an American Pale Ale and how my current recipe compares to the BJCP style guideline. If you fall outside the range, the attribute will turn yellow to clearly show that you are outside the chosen style guideline.

BrewMate is fully customizable for your brewing system to give you the most accurate results.

Besides recipe building, there is an assortment of commonly used tools to help you through the brew day.

If you choose to use BrewMate in Metric Measurements, you have “BrewDay” feature available to you.

This is ideal for the all grain brewer because it helps with calculation of strike and sparge water as well as other key all grain measurements. I spoke with the designer and they are actually in the process of making this option available in U.S. Measurements, so be on the lookout for that.

The designer of the software is easy to contact through the website and very receptive to suggestions. I’ve recommended several things and some of them have been implemented. There have been a few updates to the software which are all free and each new release has some nice features.

Though I don’t expect loyal BeerSmith users to convert to BrewMate, I highly recommend to anyone that does not currently have any brewing software to give it a shot. It’s free, you have nothing to lose.