Brewerman

English Bitter Update 1

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Just a quick update on the Bitter.  Due to the moderate attenuation of the London ESB yeast, we bottomed out out at around 1.025.  I transferred to glass, and put into the chill chest at 46 F for a bit of lagering.

Because I used loose pellets to dry hop, there are hop particulates suspended throughout.  The taste is clean, but green.  The purpose of the time spent in cold is to coagulate what I can to allow those solids to drop out.  This will improve the appearance, and the flavor will mature as well.  I’ll check in on it toward the end of the week and decide when it will be time to keg.

That clean taste … hats off to the wet t-shirt method.

Worth Reading – 12/30/09

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Arctic Alchemy

“Arctic Alchemy, discoveries of the Red Hand ……”, a discussion on the Homebrewers Association forum kicked off by Chris Bowen talking about a documentary project he’s embarked on.

In July 2010, I am departing from Bethlehem with two friends on a 3 week journey about 2000 miles north to the Canadian Arctic. The purpose is to recreate a historic and somewhat mysterious ale that was originally commissioned by Queen Victoria in 1851 to ensure health and nutritional value to a team of Arctic Explorers.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/arctic-alchemy-153577/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Arctic-Alchemy/197637538644

New Year, New Beer, New Hop

In BeerAdvocate magazine, Issue #35, Drew Beechum discusses a process of hop exploration by brewing not an IPA, but an Extra Pale Ale (a really-hopped-up pale ale).  He argues it avoids the alcohol and malt complexities of the IPA you’d initially reach for, and allows the hop flavors and aromas to shine.  In the article he’s focusing on the new, as he puts it, “it hop – Citra”.  Great experimentation approach for those of us really focusing on hops in our recipe formulation right now.

10 Homebrew Gadgets

Every now and then someone parades out a new list of brewing equipment and process innovations from the homebrew community that have made the brew day easier.  The new issue of Zymurgy has a new list, and it inspired me to go out and look for several cheap solutions for what I’m currently focused on (hopping, and improving my X Brew equipment).

  • Hop Filter – a device for screening out hop debris while pulling wort from the kettle
  • Sanitizer – a simple PVC pipe filled with sanitizer for racking canes and other long-stemmed items
  • Mash Tun bulkhead – create hole and bulkhead for cooler mash tun (for my 1 gallon X Brew coolers)

What about you?