BJCP Tasting Exam

Today I took the BCJP tasting portion of the exam. It really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I feel we were lucky in the fact that we got all beers that were reasonable and you can take a good guess if they are in style even if you didn't know all the specs from the style guidelines.

Gordon Strong was one of the two proctors/graders. So yes, my score has to be in line with Gordon's score for me to pass.....ugh. The proctors spent time with us after to discuss what they thought of the beers and their scores. I think I did fair. I wrote a lot on each one, so even on the 1 that I didn't score in line with them with I hope that I'll get a fair amount of credit for talking about various aspects on what I did pick up.

My issue is diacetyl. I have a blind spot for it. While other folks in the room thought this Irish Red was a diacetyl bomb, I just picked up mainly caramel. I actually found it nice and scored the beer pretty high. The proctors did say it went back and forth for them as the beer sat between too much diacetyl and caramel. I'm hoping I get some credit for talking about the caramel.

Oh well. Its done now. Now I wait for months to get scores back.

Either way, this entire experience has been great. I've learn a lot about the brewing process and mainly about controlling flaws. Pass or fail, I'll be able to take that knowledge into the brew sessions and that is exactly why I did this process.

Don't Cry Over Leaked Beer...Though I wanted too

Been a while since I posted so thought I'd post about a few things...

Hops
Things are progressing nicely. All the plants look healthy and have plenty of bines. None of them are as impressive as I'd hope for as warm as the spring started, but I'm being patient. I put some compost down a few weeks ago. I may try some basic fertilizer like Miracle Gro soon to see what happens.

Brewing
Been brewing around once a month. Nothing in the fermentor now as I kegged 15 gals of beer and cider last week. So my kegerator is full with 5 kegs for the first time ever. I still need to post some pictures of that finished kegerator project. I plan to brew again the weekend of May 12.

Cider
Finally kegged a cider. Have had it conditioning since the middle of November. I back sweetened with 1 can of apple juice concentrate because it was bone dry and pretty tart due to the type of apples.

BJCP
I've been studying to be a BJCP judge. I passed the new online entrance exam a few weeks ago. I'm taking the tasting portion this upcoming Saturday. If you plan to take the online exam...know your styles!! The exam was very difficult. So know your stuff and use the study guide. Did I mention, know your styles!

Reason for Post Title As I mentioned above, I kegged a bunch of stuff last week. Well I got home from a trip this past weekend and I to check on the progress of the carbonation. To my sadness, there was a ton of beer at the bottom of the kegerator. Come to find I have a leak in my beverage connection. After I soaked it all up, I measure 2 gallons of lost beer! It's a Munich Helles and my first attempt at a lager. I've been waiting on this beer since January. Needless to say, I was pretty pissed. But oh well, guess I have to brew more to fill the keg.

Hop Spider

Sometimes I wonder why I started brewing when I look at how crazy I am with having to be exact with almost everything. One of the things I'm trying to work on now is knowing exactly how much water I need to use to mash, sparge, trub waste, absorption, evaportation, shrinkage, etc to get exactly 5 gallons in my fermenter. I've build a spreadsheet to track each brew day so I can refine the process.  I know I'm not a pro brewer and I should maybe chill out a little, but I love to keep stats and to perfect a process.

Another part about accounting for hop matter is that I harvest my yeast to save money. If hop matter gets into the fermenter then there is likely hop matter in the yeast cake. The more "junk" in the yeast cake......blah blah blah.

So as part of my wanting to nail my water volume as well as having a cleaner yeast cake, I want to limit the amount of hop matter that makes it into the fermenter. I have been straining and trying leaving trub behind, but I need to account for that water lose and I'm still getting some hop material.

To take care of the hops, I've decided to build a Hop Spider. I take zero credit for the idea or the build. I saw an article in the December 2011 issues of BYO written by John Brooke. I'm not going to repeat any of the process because you can get the article online. Click here for the article on BYO.COM.

I'm using it for the first time tomorrow. Hopefully it works!

Hop Season 2012 Underway!

The 2012 hops growing season is officially underway. The constant rain and highs in the mid 70s for almost a week now has allowed all 4 varieties of hops to break ground. The Casacade definitely has the best head start with the US Tettnang not far behind. The Mt. Hood and Willamette are just barely showing their eyes. I'm very excited for this season as it is year two. I'm so hopeful that I will get my first cone as last year I had a ton of foliage but no cones. Here's to a great growing season!

Hop Growth Already? It's only February!!!

It has been very mild this winter. We've only seen 2" of snow/ice in the Cincinnati area and there are many days where the temperatures are 10 to 20 degrees above normal. I can see that some of the local trees and roses are already trying to show signs of wanting to bud. I thought, what the heck, I'll go out and look to see if the hops are doing anything. We'll...ummm, they are!! Its only the first week of February and they are starting to show their heads. My plan is to put a layer of soil on them this week so if we see any snow or any extreme cold for the balance of winter that they may get some protection. I don't like that the rhizome is this exposed. Its has been a very rainy winter and it looks like the soil is starting to erode, so I should cover them up anyway to replenish what has been washed away.