Untitled Update

I'm starting to regret implementing post titles on my brog. (No, "brog" is not a silly Asian-accent version of "blog", it is short for "brew log" just as "blog" is short for "web log".)

Anyway, let's look at, as Marvin Gaye would intone, "what's going on". Now everything is out of the primary. I got a bit of hope for my Double IPA, as I had added enzymes to it and raised the temperature, and it restarted a very slow bubbling, so it may be finishing its ferment. The Cherry Melomel is still slowly chugging along, and I assume it is going to end up rather dry. I've had a full glass of it when it was at 1.045, which is very sweet, but it was actually quite pleasant. I think the danger here is that it will end up too dry, but we'll see. I was worried about severe oxidation when I racked it to tertiary, but I think we are all right; the restarted ferment scrubbed a lot of oxygen out I'm sure. Who knows, the mead may have been low on oxygen and just needed a bit of a boost to restart the yeast. The Ginger Metheglin is drying out, at 1.010 or so. Not nearly what I had hoped, but acceptable, at least. I added about 10 oz of freshly grated ginger, or rather, I steeped that amount of ginger in a pint or so of boiling water, and added that ginger "extract" to the mead as I racked it to tertiary. The Black Braggot is slightly disappointing...I finally racked it to secondary, and it seems still, completely without activity, and stuck at the high gravity of 1.037, although the second test showed more like 1.040. This was supposed to be so much more fermentable than an Imperial Stout, and thus end up drier. Oh well, there's lots of time to correct that. The Agincourt Ale, my strong dubbel, is aging quietly in the basement. Once it clears sufficiently it will be bottled.

New plans...well, I have been somewhat taken with my cider. I liked it well before, but after I discovered the method of sweetening/flavouring it in the glass with a shot of Ribena, wow! It pairs wonderfully. The dry tartness of cider is tempered by the fruity sweetness in the Ribena syrup. Once I exhaust my supply of Ribena, which is rather costly, I suppose a decent Creme de Cassis would do fine as a substitution...making the drink into a "Snakebite". But that has prompted me to decide on my next brewing project...another cider. I think I'll stick close to the mold of my last one. I was thinking of going crazy and using a gallon to a gallon and a half of tart cherry juice, but that gets very costly, and it might end up just tasting like alcoholic Juicy Juice. But yes, more cider is on the way. Oh, and by the way, at least some of those bottles have carbonated. Can't beat it! Slight fizz, natural crispness. I'm really a bit put off that cider is so uncommon here, and especially that the few commercial examples are so "manufactured", sorbated, sweetened, adjusted, and tweaked until they are nothing more than apple flavoured wine coolers. This nation used to be a cider nation...sweet cider, hard cider, apfelwein, apple brandy. Beer was secondary to cider at one point. Remember Johnny Appleseed? I'd take a pint of good cider over a glass of any froo-froo wine for dinner, anyday.

A Quick What's-Going-On

Well, while no major brewery projects have been actively undertaken yet, I thought I might offer a couple updates. The Double IPA is all but a bust at this point. I might experiment on it with some enzymes to see if I can get them to digest some of the unfermentables remaining in the half-fermented beer. No matter what the outcome, this won't be publicly released, and only if I somehow perform magic will this beer escape a destiny with the drain.

The Agincourt Ale has been resting in secondary, and I've still got high hopes for it. I was heretofore thinking of corking it, but the high price of corking may put a nail in that coffin...I might wait and see just how good it ends up being. The Black Braggot is still in primary...I haven't noticed fermentation activity so here's to hoping it has just about finished attenuation. D47 has so far proven very reliable in that regard (unlike EC1118, surprisingly). I'm giving it extra time, partly because it is a high gravity mead, and partly because I don't have a free 5 gallon fermentor at the moment! So I'll either have to bottle the cherry melomel, the ginger metheglin, or the Agincourt Ale, or dump the Double IPA. The only real choice here would be either to wait as long as possible and bottle the Agincourt Ale (not something I'd prefer to do, it needs time before bottling) or dump the Double IPA. Or, rack the braggot to a 6 gallon fermentor, despite me preferring to bulk age in 5 gallon carboys with less headspace. Now, I might do that with the Ginger Metheglin...it is in need of a racking.

I've been partaking in the Honey Koelsch of late...what a nice, light ale it is, it definately makes the "brew again" list.

Blackcurrant Mead Bottled

Hello all,

Last night was a bottling session. I bottled my blackcurrant mead; I would consider it semi-sweet, bordering on dry, with a terminal gravity of 1.004. To my best estimation the alcohol content is somewhere between 12% and 13%. I chose not to use finings...a sample I took last month appeared very clear. However, when I racked the mead I noticed that much of it was still cloudy, apparently not all the yeast had fully dropped out of suspension. This isn't a major problem, as with time the yeast will flocculate out in the bottle, but it does mean I will have more sediment in the bottles than I would have had otherwise. Not a big issue, but I'll probably clarify all my meads in the future with finings before bottling. This mead had a nice jammy nose from the currants, I think it will mellow nicely in the bottle. Great acidic bite, too!

Let me tell you...a Ferrari floor corker is a beautiful thing. Splendid, consistent corking with ease. Awesome piece of equipment. Brass jaws in the iris, heavy construction...it's a great tool.

Also I racked my Agincourt Ale into secondary. Well attenuated, at 1.023. It has a splendidly estery nose of bananas...the specific ester is isoamyl acetate for you chemistry geeks. Also tutti-frutti and bubblegum aromas, all stemming from the Belgian origins of the T58 yeast strain. Very nice...I'm quite impressed with T58.

Next week I'm having a sampling at my house...I think I might also cook up a Carbonnade (Belgian beef stew) using my Wee Heavy ale.

Busy Weekend

New Year's Eve was a big brewday for all of us here at St. Crispin's. First, after about 15 days with the cherries, I racked the cherry melomel to tertiary. This was a tough decision, brought on by a lack of 6 gallon fermentors. However, I don't think it was a mistake in that I tasted the "spent" cherries and they were fairly bland, indicating that they had imparted the acidity and flavour to the mead already. I ran into considerable frustration racking it (cherries have a tendency to clog your racking cane) which may have resulted in some potential oxidation, but we'll have to just wait and see on that one...I topped the fermentor off with pure cherry juice (about a quart). The gravity is still high, in the mid 30s, but I'm expecting it to drop. It doesn't have to drop all that much because a cherry mead ought to be somewhat sweet.

With the 6 gallon fermentor now empty and clean (quite a task...you try getting 9 lbs of soggy cherries out of a glass carboy!), I moved on to the brewing task of the evening, a braggot in the style of Imperial Stout. I used a variety of strongly flavoured British malts, including extra dark crystal, chocolate, and black patent. I only steeped the black patent malt for a few minutes, in order to extract the colour but not the harsh flavours. The "base beer" was a mid-strength stout of approximately 1.048 OG. I hopped it decently with British hops, Target and East Kent Goldings. Then after the boil ended, I added 9.5 lbs of raw clover honey. It is fermenting with Lalvin D47 yeast, with an original gravity of 1.114. I'm expecting a final ABV of somewhere around 12 percent, and this will be laid down for perhaps a year, depending on its progress aging in the bottle.

Next up...no brewing projects persay, but bottling, racking, and general maintenance. The blackcurrant mead is next up for bottling!