Batch #8 was a BUST! :(

Sampled the stuff tonight ... YUCK!! That nasty fermenting smell is still there as soon as I popped the top.

Ok. First off. I can drink damn near any beer. BUT!!

That stuff smelled like dog piss! No joke there!

So yeah. I couldn't suck down a full bottle. Going to save a few and let them sit.

But honestly .. how good could aged dog piss taste?!?!

After making it I read that most use Apple Juice and not Cider. Wonder if that was a part of the cause or if it was the short spike in fermenting temp.

Bottled Batch #9 - Honey Wheat

Well it has been a little over two weeks and the fermentation has not budged from 1.016 in the last 3 days.

Time to prep the soldiers. Here they are sanitized, primed, and ready for their mission!



And After:


Notice the Mr. Beer bottle. That's my trub/carb test bottle :)

Now after all the fun comes the fun task of cleaning YUCK!

I'll be working on a new label I think for this batch and new name. Need something a little more original.

Bottled Batch #8 & Brewed Batch #9

Well today I started another batch of my favorite Honey Wheat. 5 gallon size.

• 6.6 lb of Wheat extract (Muntons)
• 2 cups sugar
• 12oz Honey
• 2 oz Hallertauer Hops (60 min)
  
• Pitched with Wyeast 3056 with a 4hr swell.

Everything seemed to go as planned. Pitched the yeast at 80°F and it's now sitting at 74°F. Hope to get it down to about 70°F and keep it there.

OG: 1.068

Yesterday:
I decided to check the SG of the hard cider and it was already down to 0.996. That was VERY fast. Only 6 days. I'm hoping it didn't go bad. Had a funny smell but I have heard ciders smell funny. Tasted ok but the Mr Beer cider I brewed last took a while for the flavor to mellow out. I'm hoping this one didn't go bad. So I bottled it up and hope it turns out ok.

This would give the Hard Cider an ABV of 8.5% A bit more then I intended :)

Musselman's Hard Cider

Well it has been a while. With the new baby and the hot summer temperatures I just didn't find myself brewing for a while.

But Last night came Batch #08

Batch #08:
Musselman's Hard Cider (MB Size)

2.5 - Gal of Apple Cider
1.25 - Tsp of Yeast Nutrient
1 - Packet of Red Star Champagne Yeast
OG - 1.061

Simple Simple Simple. Sterilized. Poured in the cider at room temp. Added Yeast nutrient. Pitched Yeast. Put the lid on and done!

Here is a picture of the Cider used.


Next up will be another batch of the Honey Wheat by request from my Father-in-law :)

Bottling Day

Well I actually bottled Saturday but am just now getting around to posting. Been pretty busy around here getting ready for the new baby to come. Less then 2 weeks left!!! WooHoo!!!

Not much to say. Bottled up the Toutle River Tart and the DuceDuce WCPA.

Here is a picture of the two squads. The Toutle River Tart is in the front in 12oz bottles and the DuceDuce WCPA in the back.


With the DuceDuce name I thought it only be appropriate that the beer go into 22oz bottles :)


Here we have the bottles with their labels on.


Very Important Tip About Labels!!

My first attempt at labels I bought some Avery 3"x4" and they worked great. That is until it was time to take them off. Lets just say a 24hr soak in warm water and oxi-free out back in the ice-chest and an additional 4hrs of elbow grease and Goo Gone they finally came off. Then I had to thoroughly clean the bottles.

New way of labeling: Simply print the labels on plain paper, cut out, and apply to the bottles with Elmers Glue Stick. They hold perfectly fine in storage and come right off under running water. Yes, Running water!! No more scrubbing, rubbing, finger nail scraping and cussing!

Batch #06 and Batch #07

YAY! Brew day!

Well everything finally arrived. I brewed up the two batches in the previous post. With the exception of the WCPA. I ended up turning it into a 5gal batch. we shal see how that comes out.

But!! We can not begin without some brewing essentials :)


Batch #06:

Toutle River Tart
1 Can Archer's Orchard Hard Cider
1 Packet Dry Cider Yeast
1 Can Red Tart Cherries in Water
1 1/2 Cups Granulated White Sugar
1 Cup Honey

Pureed the cherries and followed the Mr. Beer directions to the "t". Hoping this will come out as something the wife will like. First time brewing a hard cider. I can't wait to see what it comes out like. It definitely had a different smell to it. This one is resting ever so nicely in a cooler in the pantry. With the addition of the fruit, I wanted to make sure this one was contained in case of a blow-out. I'm still having flash backs of the 5gal blow-out.

Batch #07:

As mentioned this One I increased the size from the Mr. Beer size of 2.25gal on up to 5gal. This was only due to the kindness of JakPumpkin of the Mr Beer Fans Forum. Kudos to you sir.

"Duce Duce" West Coast Pale Ale w/Pale Export (5gal mod)
2 Can West Coast Pale Ale
2 Can Pale Export UME
2 Booster Packs
2 Packet Dry Brewing Yeast

As with the hard cider I followed the Mr. Beer steps. But since this one was an alteration I took an SG (specific gravity) reading. This one read 1.054 with the temperature correction. Not bad. Might end up around 5-6% A.B.V.

I decided to see what Qbrew would come up with and surprisingly the OG was very close.

Duce Duce WCPA (official name haha)

Recipe		Duce Duce WCPA		Style		American Pale Ale
Brewer		Desert Brewing		Batch		5.00 gal
Extract

Recipe Characteristics

Recipe Gravity		1.053 OG		Estimated FG		1.013 FG
Recipe Bitterness		0 IBU		Alcohol by Volume		5.1%
Recipe Color		4° SRM		Alcohol by Weight		4.0%

Ingredients

Quantity		Grain		Type		Use
2.42 lb		MrB. West Coast Pale Ale		Extract		Extract
2.42 lb		MrB. Pale Export UME		Extract		Extract
1.62 lb		MrB. Booster		Sugar		Other
Quantity		Hop		Type		Time
Quantity		Misc		Notes

Bitterness is wrong. It should show something around 12-14 IBU. Qbrew does't have the correct rates. But it did come up with an OG of 1.053 and I had 1.054. Pretty close. We shall see if I can get that FG lower then 1.013.

2 new batches coming

Two new orders coming in. For some reason Mr. Beer decided to delay one. Perhaps it was the fact I used a promotion code for a free can. Both of these batches will be 2 gallon batches.

The first to arrive will be

Toutle River Tart
1 Can Archer's Orchard Hard Cider
1 Packet Dry Cider Yeast
1 Can Red Tart Cherries in Water
1 1/2 Cups Granulated White Sugar
1 Cup Honey

Flavor: Hard Cider
Alc/Vol: 5.5%
SRM (Color): 3
IBU (Bitterness): 0

Second will be:

West Coast Pale Ale w/Pale Export
1 Can West Coast Pale Ale
1 Can Pale Export UME
1 Packet Dry Brewing Yeast

Flavor: Balanced Flavor: Balanced Flavor: Balanced Flavor: Balanced Flavor: Balanced
Alc/Vol: 4.6% Alc/Vol: 4.6% Alc/Vol: 4.6% Alc/Vol: 4.6% Alc/Vol: 4.6%
SRM (Color): 4 SRM (Color): 4 SRM (Color): 30 SRM (Color): 4 SRM (Color): 9
IBU (Bitterness): 14 IBU (Bitterness): 14 IBU (Bitterness): 14 IBU (Bitterness): 14 IBU (Bitterness): 14

Both being very lite beers. The Toutle should arrive Tomorrow. (Hopefully) :)

First Blog!

Yeah this is all new, so bare with me. If you haven't figured out by the blog name this is mostly going to be dedicated to my new found hobby, Home Brewing. I have been at it for a little while so I'll bring you up to speed.

It all started with a 2 gallon Mr. Beer (MRB) kit. The kit came with 2 different cans of extract, PET (plastic) bottles, Fermenting barrel, Booster(sugar), yeast, Sterilizing Agent and a handy little brewing book.

Batch #01: was the MRB Classic American Blonde Ale. Came out great! Beer is mostly a guys drink by choice. And most guys take their beer seriously. And for the first time, I made beer!! (insert guy moment pause). The plus side was it tasted good.

Batch #02: was the MRB Cowboy Golden Lager. Yet another success.

By this point I had joined the http://www.mrbeerfans.com forum and gathered enough ideas to move on up to 5 gallon batches. So down to ACE Hardware I went to get my fermenting bucket and hardware. After 2 trips I had my fermenting bucket complete with spout, tubing for bottling, and a grommeted hole on top for the airlock/blowoff tube. Filled it up with water for a leak test and it passed.

Introduce Batch #03:
Next step was to decide what I was going to make. I like wheat beers so I found an easy starter recipie.

• 6.6 pounds, wheat malt extract
• 1oz Hallertauer hops (60 min boil)
• Wyeast Bavarian wheat yeast

Since this was a beginners round I just used the dry yeast that came with the extract. The batch was a success. Very smooth beer.

Batch #04: Well #03 was soo good I decided to repeat the recipie but this time I would add 12oz of Honey. This batch ended up teaching me a very, very important step. That is make sure after you finish your boil you cool the wort to the propor temperature before pitching the yeast. If my memory serves me corretly I pitched the yeast at about 90ish°F. It was late and I wanted to get it done. Bad Bad move.

At about 3am my wife and I woke to a very loud and deep BOOM!. We live in a two story house and the sound was similar to that of a large object falling onto the second floor. At first we thought our 4yr old fell out of her bed. After my wife checked and came back to the room to inform me she was fine and sound asleep, it hit me. "Oh Shit, I think I know what it was!"

Unfortunately I was right. The yeast had been working overtime in its nice warm environment. The airlock had clogged up and the 5gal bucket built up enough pressure to blow off the lid. Krasuen (the foam created when fermenting) was everywhere inside the pantry. And this stuff was not easy to get off. So I spent about an hour cleaning and went back to bed. About 6am my daughter comes to wake me up and tells me there is beer all over the kitchen. UGH! And it was. The lid was warped from the explosion so it would not snap on anymore. The krausen just lifted it and spilled over the edge for a few hours. Once the foamy bubbles popped it just went back to liquid form and ran across the tile. After cleaning that up, I spent the entire day babysitting the beer scraping the krausen off as it foamed up too high. I knew having the lid off was a great risk for contaminating the beer but after this much work, I was not about to give up. Roughly 10hours later I was able to put the lid and airlock on and let it finish unattended. At this point I only had 3.5 gallons left. The beer was a hit. Glad I didn't toss it. My Father-in-Law had some and asked to make him some. That brings us to,


Batch #05:

• New Fermenting bucket (6gal for a little extra headroom)
  
• 6.6 lb of Wheat extract (Muntons)
• 2 cups sugar
• 12oz Honey
• 2 oz Hallertauer Hops (60 min)-
  I know this may sound like much but I could hardly notice the 1oz from the previous batch so I'm trying 2oz
• Pitched with Wyeast 3056 with a 6hr swell.
  This was a propagator pack. My LHBS advised I didn't really need to make it into a starter. It would take a little extra time at fermentation. And after that last batch I had no problems with slowing fermentation down a bit. haha

This batch is now carbonated and tasting quite well.

Bottled in glass for the first time.
First Labels



Nice Amber Color
Good Carbonation

Well this turned out to be the best (Non-Explosive) batch yet!

What will be next?