Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,
First up, Saturday night, Dizzy & I went to a righteous Halloween Kegger in Sacramento hosted by one of Dizzy’s friends Sid… and was pretty amazing. A keg of decent beer, the host running the bar like a pro, full audio complete with karaoke as the evening progressed, live performances by a band including impromptu freestyling, lots of hot ladies in revealing outfits despite the somewhat frigid temperatures, just an overall great party. Kudos to Sid! Here are some pictures… but most of the good ones will be posted throughout the annuls of history (Facebook?).
The reason for Halloween... hot chicks...
There's another Waldo in the mix...
Where... in the... world... is...
(baritone Carmen Sandiego)?
Sunday morning after getting back from the party after 3 AM, we napped & then started with the next chapter in our Homebrewing Adventures…
Bavarian Hefeweizen Tasting
We actually tested the Hef on Friday night, which was probably a few days earlier than we should have (damn impatience) but it was still pretty good. Great body & flavor, but there was a little bit of sourness that will probably mellow out with a little more aging. Hefeweizen is among my favorites as it’s a light yet flavorful beverage and if with its quick brewing time & susceptibility to experimentation with other flavors, you may see a few variations of this recipe in the coming months. I already have some ideas for summertime beverages that might work well.
Anyway, here’s a brief summary of this first, traditional, Bavarian, malt extract kit Hefeweizen:
Summary
Bavarian Hefeweizen
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Malt Extract Kit
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5 gallons
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Ingredients
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Fermentables
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6 lbs
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Wheat Malt Syrup (split 60 & 15 mins)
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1 lbs
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Wheat Dry Malt extract (15 mins)
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Hops
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1 oz
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German Tettnang (60 mins)
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Yeast
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Danstar Munich Wheat Beer Yeast
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Cook Date/Primary Ferm
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10/5/2013
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Secondary Ferm
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Not needed
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Bottled
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10/19/2013
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2 weeks
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First Taste
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11/1/2013
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4 weeks
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Reaction
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May require some aging but still decent
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Citrusy, almost sour notes
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Adjustments?
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Extra aging?
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Possible fruit accents in future batches
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Nut Brown Ale Bottling
Sunday morning, Dizzy & I bottled our Nut Brown Ale so that should be ready for tasting in about two weeks. A few weeks ago, this was the wort that kinda smelled like chocolate… and is supposed to have nutty flavors as well, so we’re really excited about this one. Here are a few pictures that… may not be completely appetizing… but still kinda cool…
Bubbles in the bottles
The crud left after primary fermentation...
mostly used yeast, grain husk particles, etc...
Quick Mead Making
Next up was making our first batch of mead (honey wine). Now typically, meads take a looooong time to ferment and reach proper peak flavor. You make the mixture of honey & water, warm it to get it a proper consistency and so the honey is uniformly mixed… then you add the yeast… and basically lock it away for a year or decade while the yeast transforms the sugar in the honey to alcohol and you get a pretty amazing sweet honey wine with double digit alcohol content. However, we did some research & asked around the brewshop… and were given a recipe for “Mini-Mead” that the fellow brewers recommended that will produce similarly tasting mead with a lower alcohol content (about 5-6%) but will be ready to go in a matter of like… two months, that we can then also stash some away for a full year or whatever to get some more intense flavors. The main difference is that it’s a little less honey per volume so less syrupy… and you add a few yeast additives & other ingredients that’ll help the yeast to do its thing quicker & easier. We figured that it’s worth a shot… and so here are some pictures of the preparation…
Gotta get every last drop...
Now, during the primary fermentation stage, I’ll be shaking the carboy around daily so that the yeast & other additives get to all of the honey inside, which is very different from the beer recipes in the past which was basically just set it in a dark place & don’t wake it up… but that’s perfectly fine because I’ll get a little bit of a workout with it too… and then after about three weeks of daily stranglings of carboys… then we transfer the wine to some proper vessels… and let them sit & do their thing in a cool, dark place for another few months… and then by about Valentine’s Day, I may be able to get my lady liquored up on some sweet mead while we watch romantic flicks like “Cannibal: The Musical” and then wait a few more months so maybe I can enjoy some further fermented vintage for 4th of July weekend or something. I’ll keep you posted on this adventure of course.
BIG NEWS!!! We will have a special visitor to the Bay Area in just a few weeks!!! The Wingman himself may be joining us for Thanksgiving!!! He’s coming down to spend time relaxing on the bay (ex-wife has the kids) and it’ll be just in time to try a selection of our fine brews, take in the sights & sounds of San Francisco, and of course gorge on wonderful holiday dishes like pumpkin pie, turkey, gravy, football & booze. It’s gonna be great fun!!!
Anyway, that should wrap it up for today… join us next time when… well, it’s a surprise! Okay, I really have no idea what it’s going to be… but definitely worth what you paid for. Have a great day everybody!!!
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