Hey Now   His Hankness

During the holiday break i figured it was as good a time as any to give beer cooking another try. Our last attempt fell sort of flat, no pun intended. So for this batch, i decided pay a little more attention and document all the steps for you,  gentle reader.  This homebrew is from an extract kit:  Brewer’s best imperial nut brown ale.   What’s that? The packaging has a lofty explanation. To wit:

“Balanced with big body and plenty of hop character, this American style Brown Ale has a deep amber to brown color. The slight caramel and chocolate flavors are followed by a nutty aftertaste.”

Sounds good to me. How hard can it be? After some serious sanitization of utensils, kettle and brewing implements,  Henry and I got down to business.  H closely monitored the 2.5 gallons (more or less) of tap water while i dug around in the included ingredients and made sure i had what we needed. The first ingredient to be introduced, besides water, was the grain bag. It looked like something you hang in the backyard that would interest some sparrows, but it contained crushed Crystal, Chocolate and  Victory grains that  steep in the hot (180º F) water. The temp was a little warm, and the main thing i guess is to be careful not to let the temp rise over 200 or risk bitter flavors from the tannins. After letting the grains steep for 20 minutes, remove, drain without squeezing and yahoo, the water is now a “wort”.

Next comes a gentle, rolling boil at around 190 F and it’s time to add the liquid malt extract (pre-processed extract is the main advantage of the kit), dry malt extract and maltodextrin (derived from corn starch).  Careful not to let the extract settle on the kettle bottom and burn. The LME’s sat in hot water for 30 mins for easier pouring.

Now it’s time to add hops.  The kit contains three different hops packets. The first to go in are the bittering hops, which are sprinkled into the boil with care, to avoid a boilover.  I notice that the thorough written instructions offer this odd footnote:

“When consumed, hops can cause malignant hyperthermia in dogs, sometimes with fatal results.”

Hmmmm. Sobering, if your labrador retriever is into homebrewing.  Remember to note the time! The 1 oz. of bittering hops boil for 40 min. At 40 mins, add the 1 oz. flavoring hops, but being careful not too get too distracted with the photo-takin’ lest you risk a

Boilover! You really have to watch the temp on that gas burner.  Henry’s miniature 7 iron golf club makes a perfect stirring rod utensil.  Sanitized, of course. Flavoring hops flavor for 15 mins, then the aroma hops for another 5 mins, boiling in a gentle rolling way all the while. Total boil time is 60 mins.  The kit contains very thorough instructions:

and lists the IBU’s at 47 – 50, with a OG of 1.071 – 1.075. ABV is 7.75% – 8.25%. I can’t tell exactly what the ABV will be, because i forgot to measure the original gravity.  The ABV % is:  OG – FG x 131.25 OG. Take the OG when the boil is cooled to room temprature and after the next 2.5 gallons of water added.  The cooling is iffy, as i don’t have a heat exchanger and it took a good 90 minutes to get to 75 deg.  Basically i cooled in a tub of ice water in the driveway. I think my next investment will be some copper and poly tubing at Llowe’s.

When cool, pour into the clean fermenting barrel, trying not to pour the sediment (trub) in too.  Pour in the additional 2.5 gallons of tap water, stirring with the 7 iron. I read something elsewhere about it being important to stir thoroughly to oxygen the wort, but i’m not sure about this.  The kit also contains a yeast sachet which is sprinkled over the top of the wort surface and stirred. I don’t know much about yeast, but i understand that the quality of the yeast is perhaps the biggest factor  in the finished product. Lid it, and pop in the airlock (sanitized) and it goes in Henry’s movie closet at 69 – 70º F for 6 days. The wort begins to ferment pretty quickly, within a couple of days the airlock starts pumping up and down as CO2 is released. When it slows, i get a cold glass, pour and,

Voila!  It really tastes great! Just kidding, i guess i’ll have to figure in the cost of this Newcstle when i calculate the final tab to brew  my own. After six days, and when the bubbling had pretty much stopped i decided to do the optional secondary fermentation. This is recommended to give the beer more clarity and a better, cleaner flavor. The fermentation should be slowed at this point, but should still be incomplete. I siphon the wort (less the bit of sed at the bottom) to my five gallon carboy, transfer the airlock and we head off to North Carolina for the holidays! Yeay!

14 days (and many NC Highland Brewery oatmeal stouts) later, the second stage ferment is as finished as it’s ever gonna be, and it’s almost time to bottle. The last step before bottling is to add the kit’s priming sugar by boiling two cups of tap water on the stove, pour the 5 oz or so of sugar in, boil for 5 mins, cool and our into the wort. One thing worth mentioning is i neglected to give the wort a good stir after priming.  I’m hoping that the sugar got distributed enough in the siphoning.  I guess if the bottles start popping off in the closet, i’ll know to stir the sugar very thoroughly next time.

I also think bottling should happen immediately after priming, but we were having a few folks over and i let this sit unattended longer than is good, i think.

Dishwashered the bottles this time, instead of the bathtub sanitization,  and visually inspected each and every bottle for any unwanted insect passengers (learned my lesson about storing bottles outside) and then bottled and capped.  The bottling is much more efficient with three people– two running the siphon and one capping.

So that’s it for the bubbling, cooking and capping.  The bottles should be ready by mid-January, then we’ll see what we’ve got. I’m thinking of using Henry as the King’s taste tester.   At least i’m not buying him beer.   More soon.