Chocolate Stout

At the request of the MIL who had one in Australia I have brewed a chocolate stout. I did some research and came up with my own recipe.

Pat's Polish Stout
1 can Mr Beer St. Patrick's Irish Stout Beer Mix
1 can Mr Beer Creamy Brown Extract
1.5 oz unsweetened baker's chocolate
1/2 c. brown sugar (packed)
Liquid Stout Yeast
2 gallons spring water

Brew according to the Mocha Cherry Stout recipe on Mr Beer.com (obviously minus the cherries). I plan to let it ferment for 3 weeks then bottle. I'll let it bottle condition for 8 weeks. So it should be ready to drink by Halloween - seems like just the right time for a stout.

Cherry Wheat Beer

Last weekend I bottled the cherry wheat beer. When I did the pre-carbonation taste test (you always taste before you bottle to make sure the yeast have consumed the bulk of the fermentable sugars, if it tastes like flat beer, you are good to bottle) I discovered that I had potentially the best beer I have brewed thus far. I'm really eager to taste it. It has been carbonating for a week now and I'm really tempted to put a bottle in the fridge so I can try it tomorrow but I think I'll have an even better result if I wait until next weekend. This is the toughest part for me of home brewing. When it is in the keg I know it isn't drinkable so I sort of forget about it but when it goes into the bottles it suddenly becomes BEER! and I want to be able to taste it.

I still need to brew the Chocolate Stout. I think as long as it is ready by Thanksgiving the MIL will forgive me. If I get it in the keg tomorrow we should be ok.

Whoops

As I mentioned, I brewed a cherry wheat beer last weekend. Unfortunately, I had a beer'splosion on Sunday night. I used too much yeast. When I went to bed on Sunday it was bubbling like mad and dripping a little foam down the side of the brew keg so I put a few paper towels under the keg and thought it would be fine. The Wife couldn't sleep and came downstairs for a snack. She heard a strange noise, did some investigating, and discovered that the beer was spewing all over the dining room wall. She moved the keg into the sink, put a cookie sheet up against it to contain the spew, and wrote me a nice little note. Fortunately she knew not to open the keg so the beer should be fine. I can bottle it on August 3.

More Random Bits

Today is the last day of my vacation. I am not looking particularly forward to going back to work. I know no one really does but some crap went on last week when I was out that is likely going to make work life tougher on me in the near and perhaps longer term.

The Wife and I made the most of the last 3 days of the vacation. We went to see "Smart People" on Friday at the local art theater (we are members and hadn't used our free passes this year so free movie for us and 2 drinks and a giant tub-o-corn for $5.50.) Yesterday we spent the day with friends, played Wii (first time for me) with their 8- and 11-year-old boys, and ate like kings (homemade empanadas, skirt steak, grilled chicken, and my home-brewed beer). Today we puttered around the yard and I brewed a Cherry Wheat beer. I can bottle it in 3 weeks.

The dog pool was christened today - the dog had a blast. We got her to go into it by throwing one of her toys in and then she discovered that she liked it. She would race around the yard and then hop into the pool on her way past at full speed. It was pretty funny. Now she is pooped and draped over the ottoman.

and the Phillies won and will go into the All-Star break leading the NL East. GO PHILLIES!
Well I can't ignore work email any longer - time to face the music.

Bottling day

Today I am bottling the 2 batches of beer I brewed 2 weeks ago. The West Coast Pale Ale is already in bottles and the keg of Vienna Lager is on the counter waiting for me to get started (I need to wash and sanitize the bottles first and the Phillies game is on so I'm torn.) I had The Wife confirm that the Vienna Lager wasn't sweet (which means that the beer needs to ferment a little longer) and she referred to it as "swill." I told her she couldn't have any when it was done. I think these batches will be good. I didn't get any hint of off flavors when I tasted both beers before bottling.

New batches of beer

In my effort to spend more time doing things that I enjoy, I brewed 2 batches of beer last weekend. I brewed a batch of Vienna Lager with dry malt extract and a batch of West Coast Pale Ale with "booster (maltodextrin - increases "body" and alcohol content of beer). Both of these are Mr Beer mixes. My first batch of beer was the West Coast Pale Ale with booster and it was good. My second batch was West Coast Pale Ale with dry malt extract and it was not so good. Not undrinkable (only about 1.5 bottles left out of an 8 bottle batch [1 liter bottles]) but I haven't and won't offer it to guests. I'm not sure what the problem with the second batch was - I used less sugar when bottling because we thought the first batch had too much carbonation. The excess carbonation turned out to be a temporary thing so using less sugar in the second batch was a mistake. I also used the dry malt extract for the first time and I wasn't sure how to dissolve it so I may have "cooked" it. In any event the second batch of beer had some off flavors. I'll see how the Vienna Lager is. The 2 batches will stay in the fermenters for another week and then have to be bottled and sit in the bottles for 2 weeks to carbonate. I also ordered 3 more mixes from Mr Beer (using my birthday gift certificate) - I just received the Czech Pilsner, a Cherry Wheat, and a Pale Ale with Mr Beer Unhopped liquid malt extract (very hard to purchase liquid malt extract in a size I can use with the Mr Beer kit which was why I tried the dry malt extract.)

Party!

Yesterday I hosted a party (followed by a family dinner) for The Wife's 39th birthday. I hired a caterer (to drop off the food, not to actually serve) which I have never done before. I am now completely sold on the concept. It would have been a little harder if it were warm out but because it is cold we were able to put the covered trays in the garage overnight and then today I packed them up (and composted the garnish). We had a fair amount of food left over from dinner but we didn't have a lot left over from the party. Notes to self: grape leaves and roasted veggies not a hit; shrimp a must have for the next party; must label pumpkin dip or people think it is mustard. I packaged the beef and chicken into 8 oz containers and put it in the freezer. The Wife and I will be eating leftovers for the next 2 months - that is not necessarily a bad thing. I do have a GIANT tray of bowtie pasta with bacon and peas in alfredo sauce that is going to work with me. I don't think it will freeze well and there is no way The Wife and I can even make a dent in it before it goes bad. We did discover that we can get 12 people (including toddler in portable high chair) into our family room for dinner. A few of us used the kitchen table (including an uncle who just pulled up the cooler and had a seat) because I needed a stable place for my plate and there were no more spots by the time I got my dinner. More tray tables would have been helpful. Even though it was a pretty casual dinner we used the china and silver, it is almost as easy to clean up as paper and doesn't generate any trash. During the afternoon portion of the pary, we discovered we can comfortably get nearly 35 people (including 8 kids and 2 teenagers) in our downstairs. I am far more likely to have parties in the future now that we know this. Everyone got along, our friends' kids played together, and neither The Wife nor I was a complete stress ball. It also gave us a really good reason to clean/organize the house and get various pictures hung. All in all, a fine day.

and everyone who tried it said they liked the home-brewed beer. They seemed surprised that it was tasty.

Beer brewing: bottling batch #2

Last weekend I bottled batch number 2 of home-brewed beer. I've been working my way through the first batch which isn't great but hey, it's beer. It is very carbonated for beer so this time I cut down on the priming sugar. The "recipe" recomends 2.5 teaspoons of table sugar per 1 liter bottle so this time I used 2 teaspoons. So far it seems to be carbonating on schedule (I bottle using plastic bottles and you can check the carbonation by squeezing the bottles to see how hard they are.) This batch is also an all malt recipe (the first batch used the maltodextrin "booster" that comes with the Mr. Beer Kit) so I'm hoping for a more flavorful beer this time. The Wife's birthday party is next Saturday so in addition to the Yuengling there will be home brew. I'm rather reluctant to share the home brew but some serious beer drinkers will be attending so I have to see what they think.

It's a beer!

I checked the carbonation on the beer on Wednesday (the best part of using plastic bottles is that when they get rock hard you know have adequate carbonation) and it seemed like all the bottles were ready. In to the fridge it went. The absolute minimum for cooling is 2 days so last night I cracked open my first bottle of home brewed beer. First impressions - beer, I made beer! It had a nice but light color, lots of little bubbles (kind of like champagne), and a nice flavor. Rather like an American light beer. That said, American light beers are not my favorite. My next batch - planning to brew today - will be the same extract (California Pale Ale) but instead of using the "booster" (about 75% fermentable, meant to boost the alcohol and body of the beer) I'm going to use dry malt extract. I'll have a report on that in about 4 weeks.

Bottling the beer

I bottled the first batch (Pale Ale) from the Mr Beer kit this morning. It smelled like a frat house on Sunday morning in my kitchen. MMMMMMMM, beer. I tasted it before I bottled it (they recommend a taste test to be sure that it doesn't taste sweet - if so it isn't finished fermenting) and it tasted like flat beer. SUCCESS! It has to carbonate in the bottles for 1-2 weeks (I'm going with 2) and then be "conditioned" for 1-2 weeks in the fridge. It is ready to drink after being carbonated so I'll probably chill it for the minimum 2 days and crack the first bottle. Last night I bought a second kit at CVS (holiday left overs at $20 off) so I have more bottles for the next batch, which will hopefully go in the fermenting keg tonight. I also have a second fermenting keg and the ingredients for another batch of Pale Ale. From what I've read on the Mr Beer Yahoo Group the Pale Ale is pretty much a MGD clone. Not my favorite beer or beer style so once I use these up I'll try something with a little more body and flavor. A lot of the recipe kits on mrbeer.com are sold out right now (either the holidays or the hops shortage) so I'll use what I have already. I can't drink 12.5 gallons of beer that fast anyway. Once this batch is carbonated, come on over for a cold one.

Adventures in home brewing

The Wife got me a Mr Beer home brewing kit for Christmas. Her uncle got me a refill kit with West Coast Pale Ale (which also comes with the kit), Witty Monk Witbier, and Whispering Wheat Weizenbier. I'm going to get a hard cider refill (and some additional bottles) so I can try hard cider too. Today I did the first step in the brewing process and now we wait for a week so fermentation can take place. Next Sunday we bottle. I'll let you know how it is once it is ready (minimum 2 weeks post-brewing but they recommend "conditioning" it for some additional time once it is carbonated in the bottle.)