Tuesday, February 08, 2005
Soon it Will Be Beer.....
I've been so jealous of TSA lately. He had three batches of beer going at his place a couple weeks ago. Now two of those batches are in the bottle, just waiting to be enjoyed. In the meantime, I haven't brewed any beer since June. I keep great brewing records, I started my last batch of beer on June 2nd. Actually, it was two batches of beer. Andy will point out that it wasn't three, and I can't argue with him.
Last year I brewed a batch of beer to be enjoyed after lent. I gave up beer for lent last year, not a particularly Lutheran thing to do, but I did it. Trying to put balance into my life, I thought brewing during lent would be pretty cool. The other plus was that I always drink my beer before it has any time to age, forcing myself to wait could be a good thing. It was. I've rarerly enjoyed beer that much.
Lent sort of snuck up on me this year. Last year I brewed a couple of weeks before the start of lent and bottled on the day that Germans call "Fette Dienstag." The French have a term for the same day, but I won't dignify those French folk by dropping into their language.
Today is "Fette Dienstag" and I've just started my brewing. So I'll bottle about two weeks into lent and will enjoy my beer after it's been in the bottle about 4 weeks. That's a good age, not as good as the 6 weeks last year, but it will have to do.
The one minus to waiting so long is that I found out that the local shop that carries brewing supplies stopped carrying liquid yeast. So, for the first time since my second batch of beer back in 1998, I'll be brewing with freeze dried yeast. That doesn't cause any real problems, I just won't have as much control as with liquid yeast, but yeast introduced into a sugar-rich environment will produce alcohol (and CO2) and that, of course is the point of the exercise.
Also, the recipe is a bit of a mish-mash. The local shop doesn't carry the usual malt I use, but the stuff they do carry is of a higher quality. It comes in a different size, so though I started with my class "Red Ass Ale" recipe, it will have an extra pound of malt. I was also sort of cleaning out some of the old supplies, so I had only half of the Crystal malt that the recipe calls for. I did have the roasted barley, and I added a little chocolate malt since I had some around. Couple with the different yeast, I realize I won't come up with "Red Ass," but I may make a pretty decent "Crimson Donkey."
Fementation updates forthcoming......
BOJ
Last year I brewed a batch of beer to be enjoyed after lent. I gave up beer for lent last year, not a particularly Lutheran thing to do, but I did it. Trying to put balance into my life, I thought brewing during lent would be pretty cool. The other plus was that I always drink my beer before it has any time to age, forcing myself to wait could be a good thing. It was. I've rarerly enjoyed beer that much.
Lent sort of snuck up on me this year. Last year I brewed a couple of weeks before the start of lent and bottled on the day that Germans call "Fette Dienstag." The French have a term for the same day, but I won't dignify those French folk by dropping into their language.
Today is "Fette Dienstag" and I've just started my brewing. So I'll bottle about two weeks into lent and will enjoy my beer after it's been in the bottle about 4 weeks. That's a good age, not as good as the 6 weeks last year, but it will have to do.
The one minus to waiting so long is that I found out that the local shop that carries brewing supplies stopped carrying liquid yeast. So, for the first time since my second batch of beer back in 1998, I'll be brewing with freeze dried yeast. That doesn't cause any real problems, I just won't have as much control as with liquid yeast, but yeast introduced into a sugar-rich environment will produce alcohol (and CO2) and that, of course is the point of the exercise.
Also, the recipe is a bit of a mish-mash. The local shop doesn't carry the usual malt I use, but the stuff they do carry is of a higher quality. It comes in a different size, so though I started with my class "Red Ass Ale" recipe, it will have an extra pound of malt. I was also sort of cleaning out some of the old supplies, so I had only half of the Crystal malt that the recipe calls for. I did have the roasted barley, and I added a little chocolate malt since I had some around. Couple with the different yeast, I realize I won't come up with "Red Ass," but I may make a pretty decent "Crimson Donkey."
Fementation updates forthcoming......
BOJ
# posted by Blind Orange Julius @ 6:06 PM 
