Hop Water Batch Four

What happened to batch 3? Good question. Batch 3 was finished and added to the 1 gallon Growler Werks mini keg. My writing took a back seat due to back to back visits of grandsons. First week were the 2 under the age of 4 and the next batch of grandboys were in from Denver, similar ages. They kept me busy, but not so busy that I did not have a chance to enjoy batch 3……Batch 3 was made with 9 grams of Centennial hops. Used citric acid to lower the pH to 3.15…….some lessons learned here with amount of citric acid needed. FYI it does not take very much and it takes a lot of water to bring it up from pH 1.8!!!!!!!Batch 3 was dry hopped at a chilled temperature for about 24 hours. Results -very drinkable and used a thin slice of Meyer lemon in each pour. The Growler Werks mini keg did a very nice job carbonating the batch. A single 16 gram cartridge did well. As the 8th pint was dispensed the cartridge was totally expended. My beer loving daughter from Denver gave high marks to Batch 3.

Batch Four – back to more experimentation and exploration. Used a variety of hops that I had never heard of nor ever used to brew, Tahoma Hops. ;

“Released in 2013 by the USDA and Washington State University, Tahoma is the daughter of Glacier. With alpha content higher than its parent, Tahoma features very low cohumulone giving it a subtle, yet lovely lemon citrus aroma and flavor with undertones of orange, woodiness and spice.”, https://www.hopslist.com

Additional experimentation and exploration, I am a bit notorious with my need to experiment and explore. The drawback is that repeatability when a come across something really good may suffer. Note to self; make notes and capture the story. Used my sous vide to run the water temperature up to170 degrees F. Steeped for 30 minutes. Needed to use 1.5 gallons to get sous vide gear submerged enough to pump and heat….I had planned on 8 grams of Tahoma, bumped to 12 grams as the volume was half again larger. My prior pH discoveries let me zero in to pH 3.55 this time, just what I wanted. I filled one half of a 1/8 teaspoon with citric acid but then ;only added a little “dab”, measured pH, added another “dab”, measured pH, added another “dab”, measured and yee haw, pH dialed in to 3.55. Still a relatively large amount of citric acid was left in the measuring spoon.

Off to the races……heading on up to 170 degrees F
Reached set temperature…..close enough for my purposes. Removed sous vide and added hops as shown below.
Just at the beginning of immersing the hops.
A little low on carbonation so I jacked up the pressure a little more . Color is nice and the flavor is smooth….I may try the next glass with a slice of lemon but it really doesn’t need it.

Chilled the one gallon batch overnight after running through cheese cloth to sieve out hop pellet crumbs. Then added the chilled batch to my chilled growler and charged up the pressure to approximately 20 psi. Shook it good in order to get the CO2 into solution. Will shake it again after 24 hours and then wait a day to sample the result. Be patient Bishop …….. The initial aroma is good and I do like the color, a bit more yellowish, very much more than the prior 3 batches. Not sure if it is all due to the hops variety or the warmer temperature used for steeping or a mystery due to my exploration……..

Added another cartridge to better carbonate this batch.

Drink Local and Drink Responsibly

Bishop

Hop Water Batch II…..For Better or Worse

New hop variety, a true lemon and a tweak to the steeping process. So let me break it down, The hop variety first. I am a big fan of SMaSH IPA’s and have brewed 3 or 4 batches, my favorite are the batches made with Mosaic hops. The beer is heavily dry hopped and my freezer was holding several ounces of Mosaic hops, therefore batch II was made with Mosaic hops. Next, the lemon to add acidity to the steeping water. I had a list to grocery shop this morning so I added a “real” lemon…..and yes it was tart and acidic. When it came to steeping I chose to go with a dry hoping approach at room temperature for 24 hours, then chill and filter into the Growler for carbonation.

Patience…. I need to be patient, patient enough to wait out the process and if it all works out savor the hoppy essence. I was patient and I will need to tweak my recipe. A bit more hop flavor came through but…..the hops were old and poorly sealed up so I suspect they oxidized. I do have a stash of many pouches that are still sealed and will be smarter with batch number 3.

I picked the brain of the head brewer at my local Brewery, DECA, and I will follow his advice offerings. It will entail getting a good pH meter……I need one don’t I ??????? I will also order some citric acid to help zero in on the right pH…..somewhere around 3.5 and 4.0.

Paused mid blog draft and made batch II and it was miserable. Batch III is underway today and I am better prepared. I have my pH meter, citric acid and hops that are still sealed from the supplier……Batch II failure I am attributing to a pouch of left over hops from the SMaSH Mosaic IPA I made a long while back. The taste and aroma of the hops was woefully missing form that batch, although I did drink nearly 1/2 of the 1 gallon batch.

Already a few lessons learned, my “spring water” is about 7.15 pH……so, with the one gallon of spring water I added one teaspoon of citric acid…….It dropped the pH to 1.8……way overshooting the 3.0 to 3.5 I was aiming for……dilution was the solution but wow…….I would have never guessed…..I finally got it up to 3.18 pH and will call that good. I dry hopped at room temperature for 4 hours and 45 minutes. Hop aroma was prominent. I ran the liquid through cheese cloth and then chilling it. The “Growler Werks” mini keg is also chilled. The chilled temperatures aids in force carbonating the batch. Colder liquids absorb the carbonation more quickly.

So…….finally tasting and testing. Second glass today, March 13, one day after my 73rd Birthday and it was a pleasant gift. I did not use lemon juice, just the citric acid and 6 grams of Centennial Cryo hops. Glass one was good , the hop aroma and taste was just enough but…….I added a little lemon wedge and it went to damn good…..

Freshly opened pouch, sadly I discarded to remaining pellets but lesson learned on previous batch…..it is best to use unopened hop pellet pouches.
Well carbonated, Hoppy Beerthday to Me, Hoppy Beerthday to Me……go ahead and sing it out loud. Yum and yes it is very refreshing and I am very pleased. Just a hint of color as most of the hop sediment was filtered out.
Started with a Melita filter funnel but not with coffee filters….another lesson learned even with cheese cloth it filters too slowly. I used tight mesh cheese cloth and then switched to the open bottom funnel I have used to fill jam and jelly jars. even though the hop pellets were in a mesh bag some sediment settled out overnight as I chilled this batch.

Can’t wait for warmer weather…..cool weather is lingering I am not complaining but……this Hop water will be a great hot weather thirst quencher. Batch 4 …..hmmmmmm what will I tweak next….any suggestions?

Drink Local and Drink Responsibly

Bishop

HopWater…Hmm, Can I make it Myself?

I have been aware of the growing trend of breweries adding hop water to taproom offerings as well as some well known breweries offering hop water, i.e., Lagunitas, Sierra Nevada, as well as my local go to brewery, DECA in Porter, TX. DECA doesn’t always have it on tap but I have sampled the Lagunitas as well as the Sierra Nevada offerings and……….I Like! So now the question is, can a home brewer make something drinkable? Below is my first attempt……..two reviews near the end of the blog post.

Doing a search for recipes I found mostly recommendations for 5 gallon batches. That could have been an option for me but, alas, my kegerator died suffering a compressor failure and an $ 800 repair estimate on a used refrigerator. I do have the desire to rebuild but with a brand new refrigerator costing less than the repair estimate……and potentially a long life. The kegerator comes into play as the hop water recipes all require carbonation. Alternative are the counter type Soda Stream devices or, lucky me, I have a 1 gallon Growler Werks growler that has a potential for me to carbonate my first attempt. Another plus of 1 gallon batches is that I don’t have to drink a 5 gallon batch or wait for my buddies to help.

I was one of the early adopters for the Growler Werks crowd funding and among the very first recipients of the 128 ounce growler. It has been lightly used but if my hop water adventure is fruitful is a better future for it.
One good thing about the Growler Werks is the pressure gauge. A little explanation is needed here. Most recipes call for force carbonating at 30 psi. My growler’s scale goes to 15 psi and anything beyond that is a guess.

A walk through my process and first attempt. Duh, I decided on a 1 gallon batch. Best guess from my reading online was 5 grams of hops, juice of one lemon and a dash of gypsum. I chose to heat the water to near boiling and as it cooled to 170 deg F, I steeped the hops for 20 minutes in a hop bag I use when dry hopping my brews. Once cool, I squeezed in the juice of one lemon, a Meyer Lemon……more on the later, a dash of gypsum and removed the hops bag taking care to not squeeze it. I placed the pot in the fridge for 24 hours then transferred the liquid through Malitta coffee filters. I had on hand a fairly large selection of hops acquired from a store going out of business stored in my freezer. I chose Amarillo for my hops….Hmmm more later.

From yakimavalleyhops.com the Amarillo is described as; ”Amarillo® offers solid bittering properties in the 9-11% Alpha Acid range and it packs one of the highest myrcene oil contents (60-70% of total oils) of any hop. This gives it a very sweet citrus flavor and aroma that is closer to oranges than grapefruit.“ See above…..I used the juice of a Meyer Lemon, which may not have been to best choice. The Meyer lemon fruit is very yellow and larger, rounder and juicier than a true lemon They are much sweeter and less acidic than the more common supermarket varieties. Most recipes called for getting the pH into the 3.5 range and the Meyer Lemon’s acid content may have come up short there. . The skin is fragrant and thin when ripe and makes an excellent jelly…..Yum.

So, with the sweetness and less acidic properties of the Meyer Lemons and the flavor profile of the Amarillo hops……the hops flavor may have been masked. After the growler was filled with the cold hop water, I added a CO2 cartridge, cranked the pressure up well past the 15 psi mark, shook the growler to help force carbonate and let it sit in the fridge for 24 hours. After 24 hours I pulled a sample and shared it with my good friend…..taste was very citrusy but no detectable hops, in either aroma or taste. That said, we both agreed that it was refreshing and is a good zero calorie beverage for a summer day……even if it is February in Houston…..at 75 deg F and humid. About 24 hours later I sampled it again and I could finally detect the hint of hops. The hop water is very slightly cloudy and by day 3 it had more evidence of sufficient carbonation.

Day 4, very pleasant and after nearly 4 pints of the available volume the CO2 pressure had begun to drop. The flavor is still improving and begs for another round of experimentation. What will I do differently? Use store bought lemons for sure! Monitor the pH, this will require a meter and steep longer to pull more of the hop’s attributes.. Maybe two experiments with steeping; 1. dry hop for 24 hours at cold temperature, or 2. begin steeping at 170 deg F and then allow to steep for 24 hours. Hop selection may change to something like Citra, Mosaic or Centennial. I have lots of hops so there may be multiple iterations and taking good notes, not one of my strong points, will be a must.

Very cold and refreshing and with some carbonation.
Hint of color and tasty.
Adding a little more of the story to an earlier photo. After 4 pints the pressure has dropped but the hop water still seems to retain the carbonation.

I think I am going to like my experimentation and what a great way to reduce my weekly calorie intake, read that as maybe………. fewer beers…….not really a bad thing as creep closer to my 73rd birthday in Early March.

Drink Local and Drink Responsibly

Bishop

A Tragedy, Not of a Greek Tragedy Nor Shakespearian Nature, but a Tragedy Nonetheless.

When I considered writing about my recent and very significant tragedy, the first thought that popped into my head were the words, “Greek Tragedy and Shakespearian Tragedies”. Well, very quickly I realized my lack of writing skills! The first of which is “1 – Language: Shakespeare (or whoever really wrote the plays) wrote in iambic pentameter within a sixteenth century style of English. The Greek tragedies, of course, were in neither English nor iambic pentameter but in common Greek.”(1) I do remember hearing about iambic pentameter and failed miserably in my English classes trying my hand at it! As for common Greek, well, it is all Greek to me.

Secondly, ” 2 – Subject: Most of Shakespeare’s subjects were real people. He got many of his characters from “Holingshed’s Chronicle” and other historical volumes. Some Greek tragedies dealt with real people but had a tendency to veer to gods and goddesses and those with almost superhuman determination or strength.“(1) I am most definitely real people, but I will not even pretend to be a god or have superhuman traits.

Thirdly, ” 3 – Endings: Shakespeare’s endings were more more realistic. The Greek’s loved “deus ex machina” (god from a machine) for their happy endings. As our hero or heroine got deeper and deeper into plot problems, a hand-lowered contraption with a actor as “god” inside would magically make everything great again.”(1) The ending to my tragedy has not yet manifested itself, but, I do have a pretty good idea where/what it might be and address minimizing future tragedies.

 (1) https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-similarities-and-differences-between-Greek-tragedy-and-Shakespearean-Tragedy#:~:text=Greek%20tragedy%20is%20typically%20written,asides%20spoken%20by%20individual%20characters. I am sure my attempt at proper attribution for the quoted sections above will keep me out of plagiarism court or from ridicule at Harvard.

This is both a personal tragedy and a tragedy to an important inanimate object, yet, an important object in my life and nearly essential to my well being. My kegerator died an early but under the circumstances, not an unforeseen death. Building my kegerator was a labor of love as well as an exercise in creativity. The base element was a “used refrigerator with a top door freezer section. The used element…..the good and the bad, cost was attractive but the condition of the refrigerator was a big unknown and a key element in the tragedy.

The finished product. Four taps available and aesthetically pleasing with it’s covering in rough cut 1X4 cedar boards. I left without finish for a rustic appearance. The top freezer section was finished with chalkboard paint. Handy for designation of which particular essence/nectar of the gods is on tap.
Four Cornelius 5 gallon kegs fit very nicely into the comfy, cozy and chilly home. When equipping my kegerator I also purchased an Sanke valve set up so I could also tap commercial style kegs.
Sanke valve vs. ball lock type connectors on Cornelius kegs.

Now the tragedy to my beauty, my refuge and to my love of sharing the essence or nectar of the gods with friends & family was ripped from my heart in a tragic and untimely demise. The heart of every refrigerated device is the compressor. We/I had a massive heart failure and, although repairable, less expensive than a medical repair, it is still costly……. the estimate was a potentially costly $ 797.66 and it could be almost as good as new……! Now, my dilemma, spend nearly $ 800 to put it into working order but still used!!!!! Or, at my leisure, my labor is essentially free, strip the cedar off the original project and install on a brand new refrigerator costing less than $ 700 new, replumb the lines, FYI there were some lessons learned there that will be incorporated into the new project, hopefully creating a very long lasting kegerator! …….Hmmmmmmm what is a beer drinker to do????? Better have a beer to facilitate this difficult choice.

Drink Local and Drink Responsibly

Bishop

Russian Imperial Stouts – A Beverage that Begs to be Shared

I have brewed 4 or 5 batches myself, which I typically have bottled in 24 ounce bombers. Big ABV beers and big volume which I always utilize as “the one and done” beer at the end of the evening to be shared with 2, 3, 4 or more friends. Drink Responsibly…….The “one and done” is due to the ABV which tends to be north of 10 %. I don’t want to put a friend over their limit in any way shape or form. I am fond of the barrel aged Russian Imperial stouts and have always known they were to be shared and savored from my very first exposure.

I want to share my first exposure to the delights of Russian Imperial Stout…..the barrel aged beer called Parabola by Firestone Walker in Paso Robles, CA. Which year it was is a bit foggy…..not from the beer but from time frame……suffice to say a number of years ago. Close to 15 years are likely and I have slept multiple times since that visit to Firestone Pub in Paso Robles. That said I do recall my company that evening and the fun we had sharing the beer. My workmate Murray and I had been working in the area and decided to try out the Firestone Pub. The beer was their barrel aged Parabola, an Imperial Stout bottled in 22 ounce bombers……now reduced to 12 ounce sized bottle…..smart move and now the line up in their barrel aged offerings is extensive and so damned good.

Our waitress made the suggestion at he end of our meal to give Parabola a try. Glad we listened but in our conversations we realized that even though she recommended the beer, she had not ever tasted it. Murray and I immediately knew we had to include her, but we also realized this beer was near 14% ABV and we didn’t need to cross the line. We eventually shared 5 reasonable pours of this bottle and needless to say we were both hooked. I bought a bottle to bring home and in the years since, I have made it a top choice for sharing.

I do not brew this beer often and I always utilize toasted oak that has been soaked in bourbon to enhance the final product. The final product many times needs to age up to a year before it mellows out and becomes literally = Nectar or Essence of The Gods…..ready to be shared. I am going to share a link to Firestones barrel aged collection, as it has grown extensively over the years.

https://www.firestonebeer.com/our-beers/
Take time to take a look. https://www.firestonebeer.com/our-beers/

Some of the Best Russian Imperial Stouts according to Beer Advocate ……FYI Parabola is on the list several times due to the fact, that the aging process can be different every year yielding different taste profiles needing to be shared…..LOL https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/top-styles/84/

Three very fine ones in my inventory waiting to be shared. These are 12 ounce bottles so fewer shares available or maybe the same number with smaller pours LOL.

The last several batches I brewed I have been wise enough to bottle 3-4 in 12 ounces bottles to periodically share on 3-4 month intervals, in order to see if my partners in crime like the progress of the aging. One of my unique methods with my Russian Imperial Stouts I prime with brown sugar to allow CO2 to be built up. Most home brewers that bottle utilize corn sugar in the priming process that adds little if any flavor to the beer. The brown sugar creates the aromas and flavors that are also unique to my Imperial Stouts. From my sharing efforts in the past I have received strong and positive feedback from folks I shared this Nectar/Essence of the Gods with. It also ages well with a 6 year old bottle, last one from a prior batch getting rave reviews.

Drink Local and Drink Responsibly

Bishop

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My First Lager……!Que Bueno!

Ok, yes, I am patting myself on the back……Translation……awesome! excellent beer Bishop, keep up the great work! The most difficult portion of this effort was the need for patience, allowing the beer to lager for 6 long and lonely weeks,……….just begging to be quaffed. Brew date was June 23, 2023, raised temperature to 68 degrees F on my mother’s birthday, June 30th, she would have been 94, for the diacetyl rest, what is that?…….”Because of the need for warmer temperatures to reabsorb the diacetyl, the diacetyl rest stage is mostly used when brewing lagers.” It was then cold crashed for several days to aid in clearing up the beer. It was kegged on July 8, 2023 and placed at 36 degrees into the kegerator and placed on CO2 for the +/- for 6 looooooong weeks needed to lager. On an additional note, in preparation for this beer I combined the zest of 4-5 limes into some 100 Proof vodka…….4 ounces of cheap vodka for about 3 weeks. The infused vodka was added when I kegged the beer.

Target date to drink was August 20, 2023, well it was going to be questionable if I could wait! The betting line was at least 100:1 against me…….and yes, I failed…..but it was for good reasons. I needed to pull a few samples about 4 weeks into the process to ensure any sediment that may have accumulated was pulled off and properly disposed of as well as checking the carbonation levels. Very little sediment was found and the disposal actually tasted pretty good, carbonation a bit light but not bad. At 5 weeks the sample was again pulled and properly disposed of. Much cleaner now and carbonation was on target. August 20th was approaching, Yee Haw.

I had my good buddy John over the join me for the summertime release of my Mexican Lager. The infused vodka was in just right amount, there is a hint of lime flavor but no indication of the presence of the little dab of spirits. If you folks have not been aware, August in Texas can be brutally hot. Summer of 2023 has literally kicked our butts around the block for 30 some odd days straight. My buddy John is a bit of a weather geek and for his Christmas/Birthday present several years ago, I bought him a weather station from Davis Instruments……The image below is from August 20th, the release date, and copied from his weather station. Needless to say we needed 2 1/2 to 3 healthy samples to adequately hydrate and give the beer a proper taste test. We both gave the beer high marks, Well surprise, surprise, surprise……Thank you Gomer Pyle USMC!

A little warm ya think and sadly not much breeze.
A Saint Arnold’s pint glass photo taken from my patio on August 22, 2023 and yes…….it was still friggin hot outside.

Will I brew another lager?…..Yes, but I prefer my ales…….I have 2 empty taps on my kegerator so I see at least one IPA – a SMaSH of some sort and probably a dank West Coast IPA in my near future. On a side note, a friend of my daughter’s was by recently and I broke out a 12 ounce sample of my bottled Russian Imperial Stout. He is a self professed fan of stouts. He and I split it. His opinion and mine were that the aging process is progressing nicely and it is very drinkable now…..I do have a number of 22 ounce bombers to share this fall and winter. It will only get better. Yum

Drink Local and Drink Responsibly

Bishop

Stormy Day Tomatoes

11:09 AM May 9, 2023…….in about 20 minutes 1.5 inches of rain swamped my backyard garden. Once it clears a little more I need to stake up the Brandywine tomato vines.
One of the Brandywine green tomatoes. About fist size and yes I do have big hands.
Another heavy Brandywine drooped over and in need of support.
A cluster of smaller oblong shaped tomatoes and yes…..I have been snacking on them…

The rain will be heavy off and on over the next several days. I have cucumbers needing support along with tomato vines. My plans to lay sod are shot for the week so plan B is is to cut some plugs from healthy patches of grass and moving them into the more bare spots. Potatoes are looking very, very healthy. My poor bees….. foraging is greatly diminished, heavy rain reduces nectar available as well as the pollen. They will be put a little behind on my schedule……but my schedule is not on their calendar….LOL.

Our many dozens of customers wanting honey will hopefully be patient…..

TTFN

Bishop

Barrel Aging Beers and Priming the Bottles

I have made 4 or 5 Russian Imperial Stouts since I first began brewing in 1991. I have always used charred dark oak spirals that had been soaked in bourbon and added to the secondary fermenter for up to 3 months. Every batch has produced very drinkable and enjoyable stouts. The last batch was one that I ignored for several years, the last 22 ounce bombers were 6 years old when consumed at the beginning of 2023. the beer seemed to continue maturing to the “not bitter end”! The complexity of flavors never ceases to amaze me. The last bottle was shared with a handful of folks at DECA Beer Company, the head brewer Cody was loving the slight molasses aroma, obviously from the use of brown sugar to prime the beers.

Beer lesson……priming homebrewed beers that that are bottles. I batch prime my beers when I bottle rather than add sugar to each bottle….a lot less messy. If it is not and Imperial Stout, I use corn sugar to prime. How much sugar? Well that depends on the style and and amount of carbonation desired. There charts galore out on the web to help new brewers figure out how much sugar, and yes, you can use many different fermentable sugars. How do I batch prime. I will take two cups of water….microwave it until it is plenty hot, add in the measured amount of sugar and stir to dissolve. I then cover sugar water and let it cool before pouring it into the bottling bucket. As the beer siphons out of my fermenter into the bottling bucket it mixes uniformly and well….the residual yeast in the beer eats up the sugar, adding negligible alcohol but primarily creates the CO2 required for the beer.

Filling a bottle from the primed beer in the bottling bucket. I use a sanitized plastic piece of tubing so the beer goes straight down to the bottom so as not to splash and add oxygen.

Many beers once primed and bottled can be ready to drink 14-21 days later. My Imperial Stouts take a lot more time, not necessarily to ferment, but to properly age and mature. Months and months down the road and continues to mature actually for years.

I would love to pick up a 5 gallon bourbon barrel for my home use. They can be found…..pricey maybe, but I think I will bite the bullet and attempt to really, really, barrel age my next batch. I would like to think that the depth and complexity of the beers will be amazing to say the least. I found this great guide that will help me out in that endeavor as well as give y’all a look at how it is done….lots of good info in the article and resources too. Enjoy……

http://secretlevelbrewing.com/barrel-aging-homebrew-in-5-gallon-barrels.html#preparing

Drink Local and Drink Responsibly

Bishop

Russian Imperial Stout……Bottled and Maturing

I bottled about 5 gallons of the stout this week. It is inky black and for a beer that has yet to mature, it has great flavor….I giggled a bit when I wrote the title…..it is a bit of a reflection on me…..I consider myself to still be in maturing mode but some folks, including my wife, think my maturing was somehow mostly arrested many years ago…..my physical maturity has been marching along and has begun to make the downhill sprint…..if you can call it a sprint….LOL, into my “Golden Years”.

My Russian Imperial Stout was brewed with a grain bill that slightly exceeded the recommended maximum for my Grainfather system….20 pounds max and I went with 20 pounds and 8 ounces of grain….doesn’t sound like much, but trust me…..it was over the limit. The original gravity was a little lower than I expected…I was shooting for something in the 1.090 SG and hit 1.085. Final gravity was 1.019 SG so not too bad. 8.7% and was hoping for 9.3 %.

Once into the secondary fermenter I add some dark toasted oak spirals that had been soaked in Bourbon. Last 4 batches this was the procedure. Always loved the results. As noted above…..maturity will be somewhere down the road so……I gotta be patient….not my long suit. Most of the beer went into 22 or 20 ounce bottles. I bottled 6.75 – 12 ounce bottles that will be used to gauge the maturing process. I took the 3/4 filled 12 ounce bottle down to my local brewery, DECA, here in Porter, Texas. Surprisingly feed back from beer connoisseurs was positive, even though it has a long ways to go. I and everyone else was expecting the beer to have a hot taste, i.e., the taste of alcohol coming through but it was actually a pleasant taste. Note: the beer was primed prior to bottling with 3 ounces of dark brown sugar. It will ad to the beer’s complexity upon maturation.

Bourbon soaked oak spirals…..repurposed as smoker wood for my spatchcock smoked turkey. Not sure it was enough to impart significant flavor but the bourbon soaked cherry wood carried the day.
There it is….14.4 pounds of deliciousness

The stout definitely turned out inky black and dark, albeit with great early flavor.

Taking a hydrometer reading for the original SG reading and yes…..very dark.
Filling a 22 ounce bomber
Yes my wife lets me used the kitchen but I do have to mop the floors…..it is only fair I guess….My simple bottle capping tool…..has worked well for many years.
If I were going to set this photo shoot up again…..the door to the laundry room should have been shut…..oh well, so much for my maturity.
I have always loved these old flip top bottles. I used 6 of them and 20 of the 22 ounce bombers along with 6.75 – 12 ounce bottles.

So now the schedule is set, one 12 ounce bottle every 3 months until the proper level of maturity is reached…..Obviously long before I reach my proper level of maturity.

Drink Local and Drink Responsibly

Bishop

Massive Disappointment Yesterday

Yesterday my buddy John dropped by as he often does for a cold beer. We alternate patio sitting so yesterday was my turn. I knew he would like a nice pour of my Simcoe SMaSH IPA……

If it looks familiar it is…….I used this image in my last post.

I pulled two 20 ounce glasses out of the freezer, set one under tap number one featuring my “outstanding” Simcoe SMaSH IPA….there I go again with self congratulation! Mini lesson here, when pouring beer, always pull the tap handle into the fully open position. Why, a partially open valve creates a larger pressure drop at the tap and causes much more foaming of the beer than necessary. I sat the big glass under the tap, pulled it full open and dang it, just short of 14-16 ounces the keg ran dry. No problem, I give John the good beer and I will take a pour of the Session Ale. At about 2 ounces poured the Session Ale keg blew empty……dang it. Sorry John……no full beer for you. I took a portion of his and we had even amounts……sadly.

Well, now my brewing plans need revision! My kegerator is empty. Life is not good….I do have some options! When I built my kegerator system I bought a Sankey valve connector and added hardware to connect it with ball lock fittings. In simple terms it means I can pick up a commercial keg requiring a Sankey valve and hook it right up!!!!!!I have a special keg ordered from my favorite local brewery, DECA Beer Company, the Mosaic SMaSH…..cant wait till it is ready.

I need to shift gears and put a succession plan together for my empty kegerator. IPA’s are at the top of my list, my wife has slowed down on her beer drinking so I will likely focus on my tastes, my buddy John’s tastes, he is a fan of IPA’s and also some of the good lighter versions, and my beer drinking sons. My son Ben likes the Dank West Coast style IPA’s as do I. At my age, 72 and counting, I could probably benefit by having some lower calorie and less potent beers on tap. So, IPA’s of some sort soon to be brewed.

As for my Russian Imperial Stout, bottling day is on the calendar for April 23rd or thereabouts. Almost all will be bottled in 22 ounce bombers but 4 or so will be in 12 ounce glasses to help judge the aging process every 3 months. Progress notes will be coming…..I promise no more long hiatuses.

Drink Local and Drink Responsibly

Bishop