Update from June 29, 2010 - First failure

I started this blog noting that I had recently come upon my first failure as a home brewer. On 29 June 2010, I wrote how my batch of American Amber had not carbonated correctly, leaving me with two cases of alcoholic sweet amber liquid. Time apparently heals all wounds, as I kept this batch of bottles stored away for several more months. In January I came to a decision that it was indeed time to open the bottles and dump.

I placed several in the fridge for cooling, giving the brew one last chance at redemption, and to my surprise, was rewarded with a familiar "pfst!" upon opening the first one. I poured it out into a pint glass, and was welcomed with a light bubbly head and bubbles rising from the depths of the glass. Seven months later, and it had finally carbonated.

The beer itself is rather good, a classic amber beer, light on hops, a little heavy on the malt for my liking, but an overall good beer. A good late-spring, early summer beer, when there is still a small chill in the early morning, for a weekend of preparing the yard for planting.

But something to keep in mind for the future, should I continue bottling. If you think you have followed all of the steps, and done things correctly, save the beer a little longer. Hopefully I will be moving toward kegging very soon (blog post coming on this soon), and will not have to worry about bottles much longer.

- Tom.

Taking some time off

I haven't posted in some time, simply because I got a little bummed out from the last brew session. I need to post some pictures of this awful day. Actually, the past three brews have not turned out, and I have ended up pitching all three. As mentioned in previous posts, the American Amber never carbonated. Since I did not have my Co2 system operational at the time (or still), the beer was left in the bottle for several months, and ended up not tasting good on trial.

Then the previous two batches, done the same day, had a security violation: something was not sanitized. This resulted in mold growth in the fermentation carboys.

After this, I decided to take a break for a while. I have spent my time tasting different and various beers, getting some ideas on what I would like to try next time I brew. The family is off at the in-laws for a couple days, and I'm thinking about doing a small batch Mr. Beer, just because I have one sitting around. I am hoping that this will kick-start my enjoyment of brewing once again. I certainly enjoyed BTV 26, what I think has been their finest episode to date (in a series of many fine episodes). That episode alone makes me want to jump back in, though I do have some cleaning and sanitizing to do before that happens. Thanks BTV!

Cheers!

- Tom.

Dual batch and bad yeast

A couple weeks back I ordered two kits from Northern Brewer with a bunch of kegs and supplies as well. Then my son was born, and we couldn't find a good weekend to get the brews started and completed. Three weeks later, we've got them in the carboys. However, there was a small problem with the yeasts. The night before we brought them out of the fridge, smacked them around... but they never expanded. So the wort is in the carboy, and I'm giving the yeast another day in the warmth, hopefully to excite the little guys a little. I am pitching it tonight regardless, and we'll see what happens.

These two brews will be the first in the new keg system, here in four and six weeks. The four week is the NB Breakfast Stout, to which I add some unsweetened chocolate to make a Chocolate Stout with. The six week is the NB Raspberry Wheat. Together they make a really nice black and tan. The Raspberry OG came in at 1046, the Stout at 1050. We'll update on these after I add the yeast.

- Tom.