Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day 2013 is upon us, the weekend that tends to be the swan song of summer around these parts. From here on out it is a long slog down into the depths of winter. I've also extended the normal 3 day weekend into a full blown week of vacation as my list of tasks to get done around the house has grown quite long, especially with the birthday party for the little one coming up next weekend.

Earlier this week I kegged the Pale Tranquility so that it will be available for the party next weekend. Putting it in the keg on Wenesday only allowed for 11 days to carb up, at normal serving pressure that has usually not been enough for the beer to be at its prime. As a consequence I upped the pressure to around 30 lbs to speed it up a little bit. I don't want to over carb so I pulled a sample this evening and it is doing very well. At this point I'd put it close to 90% of what I'm looking for, so I turned it back down to serving pressure and will consider it good. One more week at normal pressure and it will be at that sweet spot that I love.

Oh, and for how it tastes, pretty damn good if I do say so myself especially given that it was an American Pale recipe that I built mostly from available grains that I had on hand. The only ingredient I had to pick up was 1 oz of Simcoe for flavoring, I reused the yeast from a prior batch of Sky Blue.

One of the more enjoyable tasks that is on the list is to take up the brew club challenge of cloning Stone's Arrogant Bastard. I had planned to brew it this coming Sunday morning, but the weather forcast is not looking good so it looks like it will be pushed to Monday morning. Close enough. I've yet to settle on the recipe for the clone, a bit of research is in order to find out what I already have on hand and what I'll need to complete the brew. The next brew after that is also in the planning stages. Our club has volunteered to help out with a fundraiser the first weekend of November, all German style beers. I've volunteered to supply a Dunkleweizen. It'll be my first, but it's a style I like so will be happy to showcase to the public and enjoy the rest.

Another project I'm hoping to complete this week is the ribcage immersion chiller that I've been wanting to make for quite some time. I have all the necessary hardware already sitting around I just haven't had the time to put it all together. If I can get to it on Sunday it'll be ready to use on Monday for the clone.

Cheers

IPA Day

I neglected to note that yesterday Aug 1st was IPA Day. I chose to observe with a Founders Centennial. My brewing club members have requested that I brew the Pregnant IPA recipe again. It has been about a year since I last brewed that one and I think it might be time.

Yeast Cake



This is a 6.5 gallon fermentor, the Krausen clogged up the first airlock and it had to be switched out with a second one.

 The Pale Tranquility seems to be humming along nicely now. This was the first time that I have attempted to pitch a new batch of wort onto an existing Yeast Cake of the same strain.

This particular one was WLP001, California Ale yeast left over from my second batch of Sky Blue (The Blue Moon Clone). Technically I didn't pitch it into the same fermentor as it had the leftover ring of Krausen still clinging to the inside. Instead I used a sanitized container and funnel to transfer the existing yeast slurry out. The funnel has a built in screen so it was able to keep left over trub from the Sky Blue from intruding into the new wort.

It took about 30 hours for the yeast to take off, but once it did it took off with a vengence. Previous uses of WLP001 never achieved this level of vigor. Within 12 hours of the first signs of activity the airlock was semi-clogged due to the krausen filling up all the headspace. This one probably could have used a blow off tube, if I had known in advance that it would have performed like this then I would have set it up. Either way, it didn't make any mess at all and is happily churning away.

My next planned beer is probably going to be an Oktoberfest so I won't be able to use this same yeast right out of the fermentor. I will happily wash this batch though and store it for later use.

Happy brew day!

In honor of this being the 44th anniversary of Apollo 11 I shall dub this beer Pale Tranquility.

It's an American Pale Ale, specs as follows.

6 lb 2-row
3 lb Maris Otter
1 lb Victory
1 oz Cascade @ 60 AA 7.3
1 oz Cascade @ 10 AA 7.3
1 oz Simcoe @ 5 AA 12.7
WLP001

Brewing drought has ended.

So today I finally got back to brewing. It has been to long. I brewed another batch of the Blue Moon clone, this one is going to be served up at the Craft Beer and BBQ event on June 22nd at Leclaire Park.

I've got to plan another batch already, my Smiddicks is already half gone and the English Brown just emptied today. That currently only leaves me with 7.5 gallons on tap with nothing else in the pipeline.

Decisions, decisions......

The eternal Krausen

The Blue Moon Clone I brewed over the weekend still has a 2 inch Krausen on it. It first formed within 18 hours of being pitched and has been going strong ever since. You can see the little yeasties happily chugging up and down in the carboy, and it has been 6 days already!

The Smithwicks won't be finished in time for St Pats tomorrow, unfortunately. There is still airlock activity as of last night, albiet quite slow. I don't even have time to cold crash and do a super-fast carb job on it, not and do it justice. It has to be ready and able to bottle from the keg by the 23rd though, so I'm hoping it hurries up. I need at least 48 hours to crash the yeast or it will be way to cloudy for judging.

Brew Day!

Brewing the Blue Moon clone finally. Only a few weeks after I had planned.