Turned Timber Brewery - Stepping Up the Homebrew System

My parents moved back to my homeland of Pennsylvania last year, building their new house.  My father, along with usually just one friend, did all of the principal construction; in seven months, their home was livable.  No small feat!  The house is gorgeous, well thought out, and expertly designed.  Mrs. Absalom and I have had the chance to visit it in its completed glory for the first time this summer, and I've enjoyed spending quite a few weeks here this season.

Building to my parents' specifications allowed for some very particular design elements.  My mother is a quilter; thus, she has a quilting studio with ample layout space, storage, etc.  For my father, the energy went toward woodworking and homebrewing.  He's set himself up with plenty of space for his woodturning and just about any other project he'd like to take on with a standalone shop; the brewing space doesn't occupy its own structure, but it sure isn't small.  Based on his woodwork background, he's christened the operation the Turned Timber Brewery (TTB).

The brewery, part of the main house, is done in tile and includes lots of drainage, two sinks, and plenty of power.  The table space and cabinetry are all handmade.  The most exciting part of the setup, however, is the all-electric HERMS brewing rig.  The system is built from specs from the Electric Brewery; my dad ordered

the control panel components and built the box himself. The whole deal is based around three twenty-gallon Blichmann SS kettles and two March pumps, along with a hood and fan assembly to draw out the steam generated while brewing.  While it can produce as little as five gallons of wort, it's designed to regularly produce ten to fifteen gallons, I believe; the batches we've done normally average around eleven or twelve gallons of finished beer.  It is an absolute dream to use; there's still plenty of manual labour involved, but many of the normal all-grain processes become easier to navigate, thanks especially to the pumps.  Like any new system, it's taken a while to dial in procedures--along with figuring out how to properly hook up the pumps for each step in the process, fly sparging is a new experience--but it's been an incredible experience brewing on it.

Along with the range of carboys he's collected over the years, TTB also includes two fourteen-gallon Fermenators, which tend to see the lion's share of fermentation.  For temperature control, the brewery

houses a couple refrigerators: one equipped with a Johnson temp control that switches between acting as a fermentation chiller and as cold storage, the other normally used for storing ingredients and bottled beers.

Outside of that, there's the central heating system; while the brewery doesn't run entirely on its own, it's on a grid with just the garage, meaning the rest of the main house is unaffected by settings for fermentation.  For serving, some beers are still bottled, particularly higher-gravity ones; in general, though, my dad's moved to kegging and is not looking back wistfully on bottling.  He currently has a two-tap kegerator and will set up a second two-tap unit in the near future.

The brewing setup is nothing short of amazing, but the best part is having a chance to once again brew beer with my father.  A few short years ago we were making Mr. Beer kits, trying to avoid stovetop boil-overs and cleaning my mother's kitchen like mad after each batch.  A lot has changed in a short amount of time, and very much for the better.  We've brewed a number of batches already, and have at least a couple more planned before Mrs. Absalom and I head back west; the batches I designed will be detailed on my personal blog soon.  We've supplied beer for a couple private parties, including a 4th of July weekend bash at the new house.  If only every brewday could be as fun as the ones at Turned Timber; once we depart, I'll be left feeling impiously envious for now...

- Br. Absalom

Hazy Recollections of Summer

Hello again, weary travelers.  It's been quite some time since the Blogastery has seen any activity; it's a sign of industry from the members of the Order.  There are tales to tell on all sides, no doubt, and I'll begin the telling by revisiting the road trip undertaken by Mrs. Absalom and myself more than a half-year hence now.  Over two months we spent traveling through three time zones and fifteen states of this Union.  The best way to get a good overview of all it for this venue seems to me to 1)stick to the best beer experiences we had; and 2)include a lot of pictures.  Bearing that in mind, here we go.

Our first destination was Chicago.  Here we reconnected with Br. & Mrs. Thelonious, spending some good quality time with them.  For Br. Thelonious and myself, that meant brewing.  My fellow brother in fermentation was still refining his brewing processes, and elected a tried and true recipe from Jamil's tome Brewing Classic Styles, Janet's Brown Ale, to continue his journey.  A fine brewday ensued, punctuated by lunch at City Provisions and dinner at Hopleaf.  Definitely a great start for our return to the Midwest.

 
Next we spent a couple days in lovely (also hot) St. Louis.  Beery highlights included visiting the wonderment of the Wine and Cheese Place, a liquor store recommended by Br. Abelard for its excellent range of beers I couldn't find everywhere else, including Chicago--it's the only place I've come across Pannepot.  Our other beverage destination was Square One Brewery & Distillery, which served up a really fine pale ale and a gluten free mixed drink for Mrs. Absalom.  A fine first impression, STL.

As we swung through the South, we picked up the best damned peaches we'd ever tasted in north Alabama; these went on to be half the base of our first mead, Pennsylbama Peach Melomel.  We also discovered the burgeoning craft beer scene in Lexington, KY; searching for a homebrew shop to provide us with yeast for the melomel, we stumbled upon Lexington Beerworks, a pretty new homebrew shop/bottle shop/beer bar.  While they didn't have much to offer in the way of appropriate yeasts for our purposes, they did have some exceptional beers on tap--I reunited with Goose's Imperial IPA and finally sampled Dogfish's Burton Baton--and plenty of great local beer shoptalk with the bartender.  He sent us down the road to West Sixth Brewing Company, which had only been open for a matter of months at that point.  There we enjoyed their beautiful bar and patio, really incredible food from the Fork in the Road food cart, a Local First Lexington event in full swing, and a couple fine drinks as well.  We'll look forward to the next time we pass through Lexington, to be sure.

Our next stop was Pennsylvania, land of my birth.  We picked up some local honey and brewed the melomel, but more importantly I reconnected (and Mrs. Absalom connected for the first time) with old, dear friends whom I hadn't seen in years over drinks at the very decent Appalachian Brewing Company in Harrisburg.  Another Keystone State stop was the newly-relocated Troeg's Brewery in Hershey; the new brewing premises and taproom are spacious and well thought out, not to mention that they're pouring some damn fine beer.  We spent most of our time in the central part of the state, in a log cabin off the main road with a WHOLE lot of homebrewing equipment in various states of disarray and disuse in the basement.  The owner's brother came in from out of town every so often to brew, and it seemed that he wasn't worried about letting things gather a patina, if you will.  Finally, no trip involving Pennsylvania, especially in the summer, would be complete without copious green bottles of Yuengling Lager; I'll fully admit to being downright snobbish about beer most of the time, but the call of Lager is like a siren song for me.

Our last eastern stop was south central Ohio for a couple weeks at the end of July for the Lancaster Festival, an annual summer arts event.  We took a day trip up to Columbus and discovered the might and majesty of Brothers Drake Meadery.  We'd planned to stop in for a quick tasting and instead had our entire understanding of mead redefined.  This was certainly the best mead either of us had ever tasted, and we really enjoyed chatting with the owners for quite a while on our own; we showed up just as they opened the tasting room, so had the run of the place for quite a while.  They source all their ingredients locally, and only sell their libations in the greater Columbus area.  Their range of semi-sweet to dry meads, melomels, and metheglins are just amazing, and we'd recommend anyone interested in mead--including those who don't think they're interested at all because of poor past experiences--check them out.  That visit has continually inspired us over the intervening months to continue our mead making adventures; we love what we've done so far, and will take them a sample next time we go that way.  Possibly equally exciting was discovering a new brewery in Lancaster itself, Rockmill Brewery.  Specializing in Belgian and farmhouse (read saison) styles and built on a working farm, everything we saw of this micro (verging on nano) operation was exquisite, from the tasting room to the full grounds.  Thankfully, the quality of the beer matches that of the setting; I still have a bottle of their Oak-Aged Tripel just waiting for an appropriately special occasion to open.

On our return west, we were able to stop again in Chicago for a last hurrah with Br. & Mrs. Thelonious.  I'd read on some forums that bottles of Pliny the Elder could sometimes be found in Philadelphia; while my search for that beer on a trip to the City of Brotherly Love during our time in Pennsylvania proved fruitless, I did manage to come across one of Russian River's sours, Consecration.  Br. Thelonious and I indulged in this excellent beer to mark our final parting of the ways for the summer.

We returned to Utah road weary and happy to be home again.  It was a long trip, but full of great times that have afforded a superb store of memories.  We came across a staggering array of breweries (and a meadery), nearly all of which are dedicated to keeping as much of their operations and ingredients locally sourced and as much of their business in their respective communities as possible, which was a heartening sign.  We haven't made another big drive since, which is out of character for us, but it will undoubtedly occur again sooner rather than later.  I do have one more excursion from the past few months to detail on this hallowed blog soon; until then, stay warm and drink good beer.

-Br. Absalom

Small Batch Yeast Rejuvenation

Paying a visit to a new (to me) homebrew shop in the area last week--unbelievably, there are three here that are within easy driving distance--I discovered a box of expired yeast vials and smack packs, all marked half off.  "Great for yeast starters!" the note on the box proclaimed.  Indeed, I replied.  In the box was a vial of WLP862, Charlie Papazian's Cry Havoc strain; I've never used it, but have been interested since Br. Abelard put it to work on his recent kolsch.  I hadn't yet settled on a yeast for an upcoming imperial porter, and growing up this vial seemed like a good possibility.  Of course, the "best by" date on the vial was 10 March, solidly three months ago; according to Jamil Zainasheff's pitching rate calculator, it was only 10% viable when I bought it.  Nothing like a challenge.

On hand at home were partial ounces of Galena, Warrior, and Nugget hops, and just over a quart of starter wort from the end of my recent Burton ale mash.  Add a pound of DME, some water, yeast energizer, and a short boil, and we have a gallon of hopbursted IPA.  It came together almost too easily, and into a little fermenter it went.

It took a couple days to get going, during which time I moved it into a glass fermenter and put it on the stirplate, much to its benefit.  This strain is known to have a bit of a lag starting fermentation even under optimal conditions, and I didn't entirely set it up for success.  It would've been smarter to start off with a much smaller starter of lower-gravity wort; next time I'll probably build it up with just a cup of 1.030 wort before this size starter batch.  Thankfully, by yesterday afternoon it was chugging away, making up for lost time; I had to slip it into a swamp cooler to keep it under control.  This is a way to take advantage of a good deal on yeast, fully utilize the resources already around, and get a micro batch of semi-experimental beer out of the deal.  There's not time now to propagate enough yeast for my imperial porter, but that just means the Cry Havoc will be available for something a little further down the brew docket.  In the meantime, I'm planning to stop by that LHBS again; they seemed to be suffering from an overabundance of expired Pacman smack packs...

Starter IPA
1 gallon
OG: 1.056
IBU: 39.1

1 qt Starter wort
1 lb Muntons Extra light DME

.1 oz Galena (13.2%) (15 min)
.2 oz Nugget (12.4%) (10 min)
.2 oz Warrior (16.7%) (5 min)
1.1 oz Galena-Nugget-Warrior blend (0 min - hop stand 30 min)

Pinch Yeast energizer
WLP862 Cry Havoc

- Br. Absalom

Casking on the Cheap

I don't recall exactly when I was introduced to cask beer, or real ale as it's termed by CAMRA, but I've long enjoyed this departure from the normal draught experience.  There are certainly those who don't care for this "warm, flat" beer; for me, the cellar-level serving temperature allows more aromatics and flavours to emerge, and the reduced carbonation lends a fuller, richer mouthfeel to lower-gravity ales.

My home serving setup has not progressed to kegging yet, let alone setting up a firkin with a handpump (though there are some interesting DIY ideas for doing this).  A while back, though, Northern Brewer started carrying an innovative solution for those who wanted to have real ale at home.  Cubitainers are expandable, reusable plastic containers that are available in a number of sizes and can take a tap attachment.  They can't take a very high level of pressure, which makes them perfect for serving cask-style beer via simple gravity feed.  I picked up a few of the one-gallon size a year or two ago, but had only tried using them once before.  When my recent English summer ale was ready for bottling, it seemed like a perfect time to put one back in action.

Since the volume going into bottles was going to have a higher level of carbonation, I filled the cubitainer before adding my priming solution to the bottling bucket; the cask portion received a separate preparation of priming sugar to lend it a more appropriate amount of pressure (and to prevent the thin plastic container from, y'know, exploding).  This was kind of a test run for the cubitainer cask method, so no finings were added to the "cask".

After a week in my warm brew closet, during which time the cubitainer expanded and the yeast flocculated solidly, I let it chill in the fridge for a while and we had a small cask release party.  Real ale traditionally sits well for just a couple days once tapped, after which it begins to turn, so the thing to do seemed to have most of it in one go.  The results: mixed.

It was difficult to reach a real "cellar" temperature; with spring in full effect, even our basement was relatively warm, but in the fridge for even an hour or so seemed to bring it down a bit too far.  While not bad, it was just...off...a little.  The bigger effect was in the mouthfeel.  While the cubitainer had built up significant internal pressure, the beer in the glass was pretty much wine flat.  Again, while not the worst thing in the world, it still wasn't quite right.  Beyond that, the summer ale itself was pretty green; the mineral quality of the yeast (Wyeast 1028) was very assertive, giving the beer a lager-like quality.  This is still present in the mature bottles, though it's mellowed.

While this wasn't quite a rousing success, it was still encouraging; I will do this again.  Some considerations for next time:

- More priming sugar.  I'm fairly certain that BeerSmith, which I use to estimate carbonation as well as build recipes, accounts for some CO2 left in solution after fermentation; however, in rousing the yeast to ensure fermentation was complete, much of that was probably driven out.  Going a little heavier on the priming solution (within reason) should cover the issue.

- More carb time.  Giving the cask more time to allow the generated CO2 to get back in solution should also improve the carbonation levels.

- Improved "cellar temperature" method.  Instead of moving in and out of the fridge, a small insulated box with room for the cask and one (or maybe two) ice pack(s) might keep the beer at a better "cellar" temp.

- More appropriate beer style.  Admittedly, the beer in question was probably not the best one for casking: it was a light wheat beer, and the higher carbonation of the bottles seems to suit it much better than the low-carb cask did.  In addition, the young yeast character was a bit overwhelming.  An all-barley bitter or porter, possibly with a fruitier yeast, will probably turn out quite nice served this way.

- Cask hopping.  A few whole hops, maybe in a hop bag, would really make this something special.

Half the fun of these projects for me is trying out homespun methods to imitate or commercial process or product, or even to come up with something even more interesting.  Keep innovating, and find your bliss.

- Br. Absalom

Brother Thelonious Visits for a Brew Weekend

After a great deal of anticipation and back-and-forth planning, Br. Thelonius made it up to the Northwoods of Wisconsin for a weekend of brewing. There was a great deal of eating (of good food), good discussion, good baseball listening, good beer, and of course, good brewing. The weekend exceeded expectations; an impressive achievement given the hype!

The docket consisted of two 2.5 gallon batches: a Tripel for the Friday evening brew session and an English IPA for the Saturday brew session. For these batches I wanted to try out two styles I had never brewed before, and also make crisp and refreshing beers for the warm months ahead. To that end, I've made the decision to use my beer ledger in the ol' budget for only homebrew and the purchase of special beer that I'd like to age/cellar. This idea stems from trying to brew (and drink) more to the season; brew more in general, and; with the dearth of great choices at the store (aside from some of New Glarus' offerings), save my money to buy some excellent beer when I do have the opportunity.

Both of the brews went according to plan and really involved very little dramatics or cursing. I was a little worried with the 3787 as it started out REALLY slow, but it picked up nicely. The interesting part for both beers was fermentation: it was too cool in the basement to ferment the English IPA, and I didn't have a bath setup in the closet upstairs, so the result of fermentation was this:

Note the gunk all over the side.

Happily for the Tripel, I had a nice fermwrap setup for that, and got to utilize the temperature control to its fullest extent:

I guess I didn't have to worry about the 3787.

To ensure that it didn't produce too harsh an alcohol flavor and also finished dry enough, I started the fermentation at 66F, and raised the temperature over the course of 7 days up to 77F. Now, the results from both brews:

Velvet Hammer Tripel

Batch size: 2.5 gallons
Pre-boil: 1.063
OG: 1.089
FG: 1.012
ABV: 10.9%
ADF: 88%
SRM: 4.5
IBU: 34
Mash: 148.5F for 90 minutes
Efficiency: 75.7%
Boil: 90 minutes

Grains and Additions
79%- 7 lbs German Pilsner
2%- .25 lbs Aromatic
19%- 1.25 lbs cane sugar

Hops
1.15 ounces Tetnang (4%), 60 minutes
.25 ounces Tetnang (4%), 10 minutes

Yeast
1.3 L starter of Wyeast 3787, 12:12 AM, 5/19/12
1/4 tsp yeast nutrient in starter; 2 tsp in boil
Pitched at 66F; raised to 77F over the course of 1 week

Notes
Blowoff hose necessary by 5/19/12, 2:05 PM
Fermentation complete by 5/30/12; replaced with airlock
Hydrometer sample is full of citrus and spice; the alcohol seems well hidden to my palate.

English IPA

Batch size: 2.5 gallons
Pre-boil: 1.053
OG: 1.065
SRM:11
IBU:50
Mash: 151F for 60 minutes
Efficiency: 65%
Boil: 60 minutes

Grains
78.7%- 6 lbs Maris Otter
13.1%-   1 lb White Wheat
3.3%- .25 lbs Victory
2.4%- .18 lbs C-40
2.5%- .19 lbs C-120

Hops
1 ounce Northern Brewer (8.6%), 60 minutes
.78 ounces Willamette (4%), 10 minutes
.85 ounces Tetnang and Willamette (4%), 0 minutes

Yeast
1L starter of WLP013 London Ale, 6:50 PM, 5/19/12
1/4 tsp yeast nutrient in starter; 2 tsp in boil
Pitched at 70F ambient. No temperature control.

Notes
Extremely vigorous fermentation. Visible activity had ceased by 3rd or 4th day.


~Br. Abelard

Frankenmash IPA

American IPA is one of my most-brewed styles. I really love the taste of a super-fresh IPA, although ironically enough, I find that homebrewed IPAs definitely tend to lose their hop aromas and flavors much quicker than commercial examples. That said, it doesn't stop me from brewing it: it just means I had better drink it up!

My usual recipe, however, was at a loss because I didn't have the amount of 2-row I thought I did, or Munich, or C-20...at least I still had the hops. Time for improvisation! I ended up supplementing with some wheat and victory malt to match the usual amount of grain and also hit the gravity numbers so it matched up with the IBUs. Oh and some black barley that got mixed in with my 2-row at the homebrew store when I went to crush the grain. Always make sure to give the little flap a good knock before starting up your own grind!

Of course, I prefer to have additional things to stress me out during a brewday; it helps me to achieve what Mrs. Brother Abelard likes to call my "Brewday face". The yeast was at its best-by date, so luckily I was able to worry about yeast health for awhile, at least until I got home from work to brew, and found out it started up just fine after all:

Finally, of course, there was the little moment of panic when I opened up my kettle filled with filtered water to find white stuff floating around. My initial thought was mold, but it smelled fine and tasted okay too. As it turns out, the white stuff was simply calcium that had fallen out of solution over time. Once I had heated the water and dumped it into the mash, the remaining stuff in the kettle dried into a fine, chalky powder. Disaster averted.

After all that, I ended up pitching the yeast at 11:59 PM, and it has been fermenting quite happily ever since. So happily, in fact, that I had to replace the airlock when I got home from work this evening because the first one became clogged with beer. In conclusion, the usual mantra follows: "Relax, Don't Worry, Have a Homebrew". 

Frankenmash IPA
Batch Size: 5 gallons
Projected Pre-boil: 1.056
Projected OG: 1.065
Projected SRM:9
Projected IBU:71
Mash: 149F for 90 minutes
Boil: 60 minutes
Efficiency: 72.6%

Grains
82.2%- American 2-row Pale, 12 lbs
4.8%- Wheat, .70 lbs
4.7%- Munich, .68 lbs
4.5%- Victory, .65 lbs
2.1%- C-20, .31 lbs
1.7%- C-40, .25 lbs
.3%- Bits of Black Barley that got mixed in with my 2-row at the store, .05 lbs (estimate)

Hops
1.18 oz. Falconer's Flight (11%), 60 minutes
1.0 oz. Falconer's Flight (10.2%), 10 minutes
1.0 oz. Falconer's Flight (10.2%), 5 minutes
1.0 oz. Falconer's Flight (10.2%), 0 minutes
1.0 oz. Falconer's Flight (10.2%), Dry Hop

Yeast
2 liter starter of WLP001
1/4 tsp yeast nutrient in starter; 5 tsp in boil

Notes:
Pitched yeast at 59F ambient; beer was 68F.
Temperature control set to 67F.
Fermentation large and in charge: had to replace airlock on 5/14 with new airlock.

~Br. Abelard

New Pot Windscreen

I finally got around to putting together a windscreen for my new 9-gallon ported kettle, all for real-like (i.e., not held together with duct tape).  Given the size of the kettle, this one was much easier to build; the favoured design here was a simple cylinder that fits tightly to the corners of the turkey fryer body.  A couple notches for the gas line and the kettle ports and we're done.  The next step is to avoid accidentally folding the damn thing in half when it's not in use.  Let's hear it for ease of lighting and heating efficiency!

-Br. Absalom

First Brewday, New Place

Kolsch, to me, is one of those styles which always seem to be overlooked when considering one's brewing docket. It either doesn't seem to be the right time of year to brew one, or I am too impatient to wait the additional time it takes to lager it, or I want to brew something intensely malty, or...well, you get the idea. This lack of initiative on my part is odd, considering the first time I truly enjoyed a lager-type beer was Goose Island's Summertime, a Kolsch-style beer. In fact, I believe I first drank it on Brother Thelonious' patio at his (old) Damen apartment, after an afternoon spent watching a Sox/Twins game and grilling hot dogs. Well, things have changed since then: I no longer drink Summertime; my hot dog consumption has been reduced significantly since switching over to only meat which I know from where it came, and how it was produced; and the Sox and Twins both are not nearly as good this season as they were in 2006.

For my first brew in the new place, I wanted to create a beer which would take advantage of the cooler temperatures in my basement, my new *gasp* temperature control system, convert some of my Wisconsin friends to craft beer, and also be a good quaffer for those hot summer days just over the horizon, threatening, ever threatening. Kolsch seemed an excellent fit for those parameters. Done well, I think the style has a balance to it which appeals to the craft beer drinker and macro beer drinker alike: subtle enough to appreciate the balance and craftsmanship for the former; and subtle enough so as to make it approachable to the latter.

I brewed the beer this past Sunday (4/29), after dragging out all of my equipment, cleaning it up, and stressing out over the best-by date on my package of yeast (April 9th). For this beer, I wanted to try out WLP862, better known as Cry Havoc, Charlie P's house strain of yeast and marketed to be good for lagers and ales. Given that it was past its best-by date and (in some camps) purported to be a slow starter, I made a 2-liter starter to compensate. Thankfully, it was chugging away by the morning of my brewday, less than 16 hours after I made it.

Next up to stress out about, of course was the temperature controller, my Johnson A419, coupled with a FermWrap to keep things warm in the cool basement.

The instructions, unfortunately, were very technical (for me), and I was in the middle of the mash and had very little time to decipher them as fully as I liked. I eventually determined I needed to shift some of the jumpers over from an open position to a close position on the internal circuitry to reflect what I wanted to accomplish, which was overriding a heating element, and instructing it to cut out (shut off) when it reached a certain temperature.

The rest of the brewday was uneventful, thankfully, given the new place and unfamiliar (and steep!) steps down to the basement. My wort chiller hooked up to the outside hose properly, chilled it down within 15 minutes, and was hustled inside before the coming storms could conspire to dump bacteria-laden water into my beer.

Above is my setup, which seems to be working well. Four days into the fermentation and it is still fermenting nicely, holding steady at 60F. Ambient temperature as of two hours ago was just around 56F. Below, the recipe specifications:

Ted's Kolsch
Batch size: 5.25 gallons
Pre-boil gravity: 1.039
Efficiency: 70.8%
Original gravity: 1.050
SRM: 4
IBU: 31
Mash: 90 minutes at 149F, for maximum conversion
Boil: 90 minutes, to drive off DMS precursors

Grains
95.4%- 10.3 lbs Pilsner malt
4.6%- .50 lbs Vienna malt

Hops
2.0 oz Hallertau (4.3% AA) (60 min)

Yeast
2 Liter starter of WLP862 (Cry Havoc)
5 tsp. yeast nutrient

Fermented at 60F

~Br. Abelard

Special Delivery

The other day I received a package from Austin Homebrew Supply.  Whatever could be in there?

Why, it's 26 ounces of pellet hops, of course!  Last week I jumped on a deal put up on Homebrew Finds for an 18-ounce hop variety pack from AHB; most of the hops will fill out my bittering needs for the next several months, though I may have to make some sort of "mixed bag" pale or IPA with them as well.  If you're interested, it looks like the sale is still going on as of my writing this.  While I was at it, I added a half pound of Kent Goldings pellets to the order for a Burton ale I'm planning.

My tiny hop freezer is nearly bursting at the seams!  Looking forward to having an opportunity to do some brewing and put them to use.  Not this weekend, but perhaps the following one.  This winter has found me missing hoppy homebrews; I see a remedy for that in the near future.

- Br. Abelard

Dad's Rye IPA tasting & recipe

My dad got into homebrewing shortly after I did.  We’ve brewed many stovetop extract batches together on my visits home (we did an American brown a couple weeks ago), and I’ve put together a number of recipes for him.  This is one of those; it’s pretty straightforward, based around the new rye malt syrup that Northern Brewer released last year. It's modeled a bit on NB's Denny's Wry Smile kit, the hops in particular, subbing some of the specialty grains my dad had in stock.

Date - 8 January 2012

Venue - My parents' house (WI)

==========

The beer’s a deep red-brown with a full head on the pour; it drops to a thick film after a few minutes, but doesn’t leave a lot of lacing on the glass.  The aroma has a lot of fruit (apricot, maybe?) and floral notes.  The taste up front is of dark fruit and malt, followed by a strong bitterness that fades back quickly but lingers for a few moments.  There’s a little more fruit in the middle as it warms.  It’s medium bodied, the rye lying heavy on the tongue before slickly sliding off; the carbonation is moderate, not prickly but certainly not flat.  It’s turned out to be a very tasty beer, with a lively fruitiness without being overly sweet, balanced by solid IPA bitterness.

Dad’s Rye IPA (extract)
Batch size: 4 gallons
Projected OG: 1.052
Projected SRM: 9.2
Projected IBU: 38
Boil time: 60 minutes

Grains/Fermentables
94.1% - 6 lb Rye malt syrup
3.9% - 4 oz Biscuit
2.0% - 2 oz C 120

Hops
.5 oz Columbus (14%) (60 min)
.5 oz Mt. Hood (5.5%) (20 min)
.5 oz Mt. Hood (0 min)
.5 oz Columbus (Dry hop 7 days)

Yeast
1 pkg WY1450 Denny’s Favorite 50

- Br. Absalom

Turkey Fryer Windscreen (Re)Build

In my second year of brewing, I moved to heating water and wort outside on a propane turkey fryer. Some time later, while perusing the book Brew Ware, I came across the idea of building a heat shroud or windscreen to keep the heat focused on the kettle and make lighting the burner easier (which can be a serious pain on a windy day). One roll of aluminum roof flashing and some pop rivets later, I had a heat shroud that looked a bit like a Cylon helmet but made my fryer much more efficient (and easier to light).

That is, until a few months ago, when we had a horrendous wind storm that was bringing down neighbourhood trees and blowing semis off the road. I’d left the windscreen sitting out the back door from the previous brewday; by the time I went looking for it, it was long gone. After much gnashing of teeth and donning of sackcloth, I set out to make a replacement.

I started to build the new windscreen just the way the old one had been: one straight sheet of aluminum with one pop-riveted seam that sat as an uneven tapered cylinder. After putting in one rivet, though, it seems I’d miscalculated my size and made it unusably small. I cut out the offending rivet, measured everything again, and redesigned the

windscreen to come together in five sheets, which would allow it to rest more evenly on the burner. Cutting down the single sheet also allowed me to leave out the spot where that first poorly-placed rivet had been. It took some adjusting before the final seam was riveted, but it came together great.

On its maiden voyage (a low-gravity beer fermented with Brett L alone, about which I’ll post on my homebrewing blog soon) I did learn one lesson worth passing along to anyone else interested in a project like this: five times the seams means five times less rigidity in the structure. The previous windscreen held its shape pretty well, and was never too difficult to navigate around to get the kettle on the flame. The new one bows so much around the square fryer frame that the narrow top opening, designed to only leave about a ½” to 1" gap between the kettle and windscreen, shapes itself into more of a square

when set over the burner, making it difficult at times to get the kettle into position.

To fix this, I’m considering making a rigid hoop for the top opening over which I can bend the rim to help it hold its shape. The extra seams also let out more heat, which you can see from the scorching along them on the windscreen; I’m not too worried about that, though, as it doesn’t seem to be melting. I may put some high-temp metal tape over them to better seal the structure, unless I come up with a better way to do that. In the meantime, though, I have a very usable replacement to keep down my propane expenditures.

- Br. Absalom

UPDATE: Last brewday a flaw in my slapdash propane-in opening (visible in this final shot) revealed itself: the contact with the propane line eventually led to the line melting, leaking propane, which ignited and sent out a very not-cool jet of flame.  I had to replace the line, and have since chopped down this windscreen to fit just on top of the fryer and inside the larger cylindrical windscreen I constructed to fit my larger brewpot.  Make sure your gas-in opening shields the line from as much heat as possible!

Homebrew labels

The only labeling I normally put on my homebrews is a couple initials on the caps so I can tell them apart.  It makes it a bit tough when folks come over and can’t figure out what’s what, but it’s not usually too much trouble get them what they want.  When giving homebrew as gifts, though, an actual label really improves their presentation.

In years past, I’ve mocked up pretty simple labels in a word processing program; for a background I’ve used an uncomplicated graphic (too much going on and it doesn’t really work) that I faded in a photo editing program.  Application with a washable glue stick makes it easy to reuse the bottles down the road.

This holiday season, though, I came across Andy Biggs’s Beer Labelizer website, which allows you to input your beer’s information into several really nice looking label designs.  It’s also extremely easy to use, which is a big bonus.  You don’t have total control over all of the variables (font, position, etc.), but it’s turned out the best-looking homebrew labels I’ve seen outside of some heavy Photoshop work (to which I’m not prepared to devote the time to really get into at this point).

I’m sure there are other sites and tools available for just this application; in fact, here’s another site I found sometime in the past year that I just haven’t spent as much time playing with.  I think I’ll be able to get a lot of mileage out of the Beer Labelizer site.  Fellow homebrewers, how long what do you do for label design?

- Br. Absalom