Well, as evident in a couple posts back, I'm going home soon. I've got to be very crafty and dedicated to get any brewing done this time home. I promised the Missus I'd cut back due to a contruction project we have to undertake.
I do have some plans for some brews though...
I'll celebrate a Decade, introduce a new Saint, and dream of Ponchatoula. There will be something to do with roots, something untamed, and apples, apples, everywhere... oh so much to drink.
Cheers...
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Saturday, April 17, 2010
I apologize for a lack of visual aids in this blog. I am not at home so I can't get any pictures of my beer, or ingredients, or techniques or equipment and stuff. I will be remedying this situation soon. I have negotiated a trade off with a talented photographer to be my documentarian. It was pretty simple really, he asked me to teach him how to brew...
So, instead of pictures of my beer and whatnot, here's a slightly disturbing ad for another beer. I like how the one dude is holding balls as the other fella lurks behind him... man sized pleasure indeed.
So, instead of pictures of my beer and whatnot, here's a slightly disturbing ad for another beer. I like how the one dude is holding balls as the other fella lurks behind him... man sized pleasure indeed.
Count down has commenced...
Well, I'm winding down my time at work. Five weeks is a long time when you think about it. I've been away from my family and my friends for a little better than 35 days. Sometimes it doesn't seem so long. Here towards the end of my trip though, it feels like forever. I'll be flying home come April 21st, Lord willing, and barring no disruptions from the volcanic eruption in Iceland. Keep your fingers crossed.
I'll be headed home to my family who I've been missing every day. There will be a lot going on when I get home, weddings, get togethers, work related courses, etc, etc, ad infintium...
I'll get to spend time with my children and the Missus. I'll get to see family and friends. I'm looking forward to reading some comic books, kicking back with some Netflix, and eating some good old Southern cuisine. And I'm ready to start brewing...
Due to the nature of my work and my schedule, I only get to brew about 6 months out of the year. I work for 5 weeks, then I get 5 weeks off. Not too shabby if you ask me. When I'm on my days off, I brew. My products get to either age in secondary, bottle condition, or age in a keg when I come back to work. I like to think that it adds a little roundness to my brews, helps smooth them out a bit. So needless to say, I stay busy when I come home. I love being able to step back, at the end of the day and say, "I made that".
My last days off were big and busy in regards to brewing, (and everything else). Several projects took off, and I'm ready to get home and check in on them.
The first was a spiced mead. Technically called a metheglin, this little number will hopefully age for the better part of the year before I bottle it. It started with a base of about 5 pounds of honey. To this honey, I added some nutmeg, a couple cloves, allspice, and some orange peels for spicing. I bulked up the sugar content by adding brown sugar, raisins and bananas. Fruit has naturally occuring sugar in it, and it affects the taste and feel of the end product. All this fermented with champagne yeast and I racked it over to a secondary to clear up and smooth out. It smelled very Christmas-y.
The next brew was a kind of a throw together. When I first started brewing, I started with kits. The results weren't bad. They weren't great either. I was never one for starting small and all that, so pretty soon after those first few brews, I started formulating my own recipes. This beer takes one of my last kit beers, and takes it to the hilt. I basically brewed up a simple wheat beer, but threw caution to the wind and souped it up. Once the base beer fermented for several days, I added over a pound of honey, a jar of orange marmalade, and two pounds of whole cranberry sauce. This restarted the fermentation in a big way. There was foam everywhere. I was not expecting too much out of this little experiment, but when I took my gravity readings, smelled and tasted my samples.... well, I'll just say that I can't wait for this beer to be bottle conditioned. It smelled and tasted superb.
The next project was simple in style and ingredients. I made a cyser. A cyser is a historical cross between a mead and a cider. Apple juice and honey. I used several pounds of local wildflower honey given to me by one of the coolest and craziest individuals I know, Richard Vance. (Rich and his dad have been beekeepers for the past 20 years. He gives away all his honey to friends and family. He does it for the love of it.) I was inspired by the Rabbit's Foot Meadery for this project... I made this one for my Vikings.
I also made up a braggot this time home. A braggot is a cross between a mead and a beer. This is the biggest thing I've tried to ferment to date. It's still chugging along. Massive amounts of honey, malt, hops and cherry juice. More on this one later.
And finally, my first kegged brew. 1534 Quito Abbey Ale. In the book Microbrewed Adventures, homebrew guru Charlie Papazian took a trip to Quito, Ecuador in the 1980's. He visited the Iglecias Monasteria de San Francisco. In the 1500's, a group of Franciscan Monks set up this monastery, and commenced to making their beer, as they were accustomed to back in Europe. This in effect made this monastery the oldest brewery in the Americas. Charlie formulated a recipe based on notes from the monks and brewed his beer. I took his notes and brewed mine. It is simple in it's ingredients, but complex in itself. I recultured yeast from a bottle of Chimay to complete the effect. The aromas from this beer when I kegged it were great. I'm ready to get home and have a taste of history.
Well, I got long winded again... sorry. Brewing does that to me. I'll report back with the status of these brews when I get home. I'll try and share some with ya if possible. Thanks for reading. Cheers!
Kris.
I'll be headed home to my family who I've been missing every day. There will be a lot going on when I get home, weddings, get togethers, work related courses, etc, etc, ad infintium...
I'll get to spend time with my children and the Missus. I'll get to see family and friends. I'm looking forward to reading some comic books, kicking back with some Netflix, and eating some good old Southern cuisine. And I'm ready to start brewing...
Due to the nature of my work and my schedule, I only get to brew about 6 months out of the year. I work for 5 weeks, then I get 5 weeks off. Not too shabby if you ask me. When I'm on my days off, I brew. My products get to either age in secondary, bottle condition, or age in a keg when I come back to work. I like to think that it adds a little roundness to my brews, helps smooth them out a bit. So needless to say, I stay busy when I come home. I love being able to step back, at the end of the day and say, "I made that".
My last days off were big and busy in regards to brewing, (and everything else). Several projects took off, and I'm ready to get home and check in on them.
The first was a spiced mead. Technically called a metheglin, this little number will hopefully age for the better part of the year before I bottle it. It started with a base of about 5 pounds of honey. To this honey, I added some nutmeg, a couple cloves, allspice, and some orange peels for spicing. I bulked up the sugar content by adding brown sugar, raisins and bananas. Fruit has naturally occuring sugar in it, and it affects the taste and feel of the end product. All this fermented with champagne yeast and I racked it over to a secondary to clear up and smooth out. It smelled very Christmas-y.
The next brew was a kind of a throw together. When I first started brewing, I started with kits. The results weren't bad. They weren't great either. I was never one for starting small and all that, so pretty soon after those first few brews, I started formulating my own recipes. This beer takes one of my last kit beers, and takes it to the hilt. I basically brewed up a simple wheat beer, but threw caution to the wind and souped it up. Once the base beer fermented for several days, I added over a pound of honey, a jar of orange marmalade, and two pounds of whole cranberry sauce. This restarted the fermentation in a big way. There was foam everywhere. I was not expecting too much out of this little experiment, but when I took my gravity readings, smelled and tasted my samples.... well, I'll just say that I can't wait for this beer to be bottle conditioned. It smelled and tasted superb.
The next project was simple in style and ingredients. I made a cyser. A cyser is a historical cross between a mead and a cider. Apple juice and honey. I used several pounds of local wildflower honey given to me by one of the coolest and craziest individuals I know, Richard Vance. (Rich and his dad have been beekeepers for the past 20 years. He gives away all his honey to friends and family. He does it for the love of it.) I was inspired by the Rabbit's Foot Meadery for this project... I made this one for my Vikings.
I also made up a braggot this time home. A braggot is a cross between a mead and a beer. This is the biggest thing I've tried to ferment to date. It's still chugging along. Massive amounts of honey, malt, hops and cherry juice. More on this one later.
And finally, my first kegged brew. 1534 Quito Abbey Ale. In the book Microbrewed Adventures, homebrew guru Charlie Papazian took a trip to Quito, Ecuador in the 1980's. He visited the Iglecias Monasteria de San Francisco. In the 1500's, a group of Franciscan Monks set up this monastery, and commenced to making their beer, as they were accustomed to back in Europe. This in effect made this monastery the oldest brewery in the Americas. Charlie formulated a recipe based on notes from the monks and brewed his beer. I took his notes and brewed mine. It is simple in it's ingredients, but complex in itself. I recultured yeast from a bottle of Chimay to complete the effect. The aromas from this beer when I kegged it were great. I'm ready to get home and have a taste of history.
Well, I got long winded again... sorry. Brewing does that to me. I'll report back with the status of these brews when I get home. I'll try and share some with ya if possible. Thanks for reading. Cheers!
Kris.
Friday, April 9, 2010
It's not always about the beer...
It's all about love and respect... one of my favorite pictures in life.
Watt and Allgood, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 1997
Watt and Allgood, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 1997
Mr. Greenthumb
Well, well... two months of inactivity, and then two posts in a day. Within an hour or so of each other... I'm getting better at this.
I joined a wave started thousands of years ago by the first brewers, and honed throughout the ages by the German masters, the mad Belgians, self-sufficient monks of all orders, American Patriot Brewers, Charlie Papazian and his motley gang of American brewing rebels, and the legions upon legions of homebrewers, just to name a few. I'm joining them in creating beer, that wonderful social lubricant, sustenance giving liquid bread, art in a bottle.
I'm going to try my hand at growing my own hops. Yep. That's right. The brewing bug has bitten into me and has latched on like a summer tick. I constantly think about brewing and beer, thinking up recipes, designing labels, the whole process at times borders on obsessive (just ask the Missus).
Hops are the cone shaped flower of the hop plant. They are used as a bittering agent to balance against the sweetness of the malt. They are also used for flavorings and aromas, and they are used for their preservative effects as well. Hops are a very integral part of beer. In ages past, before hops became the norm, multiple herbs were used to give bitterness and balance to beer. These historical beers were called gruit, and I'll brew one, one day.
There are numerous varieties of hops, the Noble Hops, English varieties, New Zealand types, and American hops. They all have their differences, such as alpha acid levels and aromas and flavors, and each of them lend their unique spin to beer.
I've chosen 3 American varieties to try and grow, Cascade, Willamette, and Chinook. All 3 are widely used by American craft brewers, and all 3 of these are reputed to be pretty sturdy. I'll put them to the test and see if they are Mississippi proof. Due to landscaping issues at my house, I'll be planting these in big nursery planters and stringing a twine for them to travel up.
I'll keep this updated with the plants progress, and hopefully in the fall, I'll have a decent little hop harvest and be able to share the bounty with all of you.
Cheers! and sorry if I got long winded
Kris
(Cascade Rhizome)
I joined a wave started thousands of years ago by the first brewers, and honed throughout the ages by the German masters, the mad Belgians, self-sufficient monks of all orders, American Patriot Brewers, Charlie Papazian and his motley gang of American brewing rebels, and the legions upon legions of homebrewers, just to name a few. I'm joining them in creating beer, that wonderful social lubricant, sustenance giving liquid bread, art in a bottle.
I'm going to try my hand at growing my own hops. Yep. That's right. The brewing bug has bitten into me and has latched on like a summer tick. I constantly think about brewing and beer, thinking up recipes, designing labels, the whole process at times borders on obsessive (just ask the Missus).
Hops are the cone shaped flower of the hop plant. They are used as a bittering agent to balance against the sweetness of the malt. They are also used for flavorings and aromas, and they are used for their preservative effects as well. Hops are a very integral part of beer. In ages past, before hops became the norm, multiple herbs were used to give bitterness and balance to beer. These historical beers were called gruit, and I'll brew one, one day.
There are numerous varieties of hops, the Noble Hops, English varieties, New Zealand types, and American hops. They all have their differences, such as alpha acid levels and aromas and flavors, and each of them lend their unique spin to beer.
I've chosen 3 American varieties to try and grow, Cascade, Willamette, and Chinook. All 3 are widely used by American craft brewers, and all 3 of these are reputed to be pretty sturdy. I'll put them to the test and see if they are Mississippi proof. Due to landscaping issues at my house, I'll be planting these in big nursery planters and stringing a twine for them to travel up.
I'll keep this updated with the plants progress, and hopefully in the fall, I'll have a decent little hop harvest and be able to share the bounty with all of you.
Cheers! and sorry if I got long winded
Kris
(Cascade Rhizome)
Has it really been two months?
Ok. So I lied. I said I would try and update this blog on a regular basis. Well, two months inbetween posts... eh. I'll try better next time. I'm new to all this anyway. I did set up a Facebook page for my brewing operations. Be sure and check it out. Just search for Paulksbier - Misadventures in Homebrewing. Become a fan of the page. I'll be posting there pretty regularly. I'm gonna try and do some contests, give-aways, and what-not, so keep your eyes peeled. Tell your friends. Add the page.
Cheers!
Kris
Cheers!
Kris
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