Being just a few batches in to the homebrewing endeavor with my friend Carl, I would have to say that things are, overall, going very well. We have produced some tasty beers while sharing some laughs and learning much about the craft. Having developed a fine working relationship, we have grown quite efficient in the limited time we get to spend on brewing and other beer work.
There is one small blemish on our record, however. Our first batch of beer together, the Pool-Pah Pale, has had a terrible existence. Fermentation began sluggishly and when it did reach terminal gravity, we kegged it in what turned out to be a leaky Corny keg. After not one, but two changing of the seals, we finally had a beer that was “drinkable,” but we both feared for what all of the poor treatment had done to the final product. We had been tasting the beer all during the process, but we finally had a stable keg and the beer needed to pass the final taste test. Carl and I’s first tentative sips convinced us that the beer had not gone off, but it was evident that it had not seen the best of conditions and was therefore not up to our high standards.
When I worked closely with the wine steward at a small market, we always talked about what wines would make better “second bottles,” i.e. ones that, while by no means terrible, taste significantly better when you are drunk enough not to care what they taste like. This first batch of Pool-Pah Pale fell squarely into that category for me. It’s not going to kill anybody, but I will not be rushing to share it with my friends as I would with our more tasty concoctions.
But alas, we persevere; undaunted. Feeling confident in our process and techniques, we decided to brew up a new batch so that we can test how it truly tastes. I did alter the hop bill, as the first batch was too high on the IBUs to truly be considered a pale ale and I have learned more about calculating how many IBUs each hop addition will impart to the final product. Other than that, the recipe remained the same, again, with the hopes that we can taste a much finer version of a finished product.
We began by discussing whether we should also try to complete other beer tasks such as bottling and racking the batches that were already fermenting, but with Carl also in charge of their newborn child, we decided to keep things simple for once.
We have dialed in the flame control on the new burner and we were mashing in very quickly. Stirring the grains within the brew bag did not abate the feeling that we should be doing more, but by the time we were sparging, we had settled into a more relaxed brew day. The boil came fast, but we avoided a boil over (seeing as how our attention could not possibly be diverted elsewhere to other beer tasks) and began waiting for the hop additions to start. I still wanted to practice something resembling continual hopping so we had taken the time to pre-measure and label all of the hop additions. After the boil, the ice bath brought the temperature down very quickly and we were pitching yeast and cleaning up in what seemed record time.
Having only one task to complete between the two of us made for a smooth brew day. However, given the restrictions placed upon our brew schedule because of our lives, it is doubtful we will have many days that easy again.
We are excited to see what a proper Pool-Pah Pale will taste like, since the first batch displayed so much promise, despite the poor handling it received. Now all we have to do is empty the keg of the first batch to make room for the second. Work gladly undertaken.
Despite my promises to the contrary, I have been remiss in keeping this blog up to date with my beer adventures. There is only one thing more annoying than a stale blog and that is someone who does not keep promises. In my defense, I have been quite busy with above mentioned adventures, as well as having to be responsible with the (arguably) more important things in life.
Last week in particular was especially hectic. Monday was packed with working my day job, logging hours in preparation for the week to come. Tuesday is when the fun began, as Carl and I spent most of the day completing homebrew work. We had planned to brew a second batch of Pool-Pah Pale, but Carl finally got a taste of the first batch of Granfalloons, added his voice to the chorus of praise and requested that we try our hand at brewing a batch of it. Looking at my stock from the previous batch and seeing but five bottles, I heartily agreed to the recipe change. As we reached the various points within the brewing process where one finds oneself with a few minutes on their hands, we snuck in racking the Hoppy Happiness IPA and the Thieving Bastard. Despite the varying tasks, we kept all of our ducks in a row and had a rather smooth brew day. The Granfalloons ended up with a much higher Original Gravity, even though no recipe changes had been made, something I can only attribute to a more vigorous boil thanks to the super propane burner the Budge Brothers let us borrow (thanks again!). As long as it fully attenuates and the beer turns out anywhere near as good as the last batch, I will be satisfied. For the third batch, I will focus on consistency.
After some good brew work, I headed up to my girlfriend’s in Newport and a fire night in our friends back yard. I brought along a bottle of the first batch of Granfalloons and the reviews were unanimously in praise of its liquid goodness. After being humiliated by my lack of bocce skills, we turned in early in preparation for my next adventure.
I woke up super early in order to make the drive from Newport to Ponderay to put in a day working under the tutelage of Duane in the general operations side of a brewery (another homebrewer had already offered to help out with brewing).Our first task was to crop some yeast from the fermentation tank holding the Pale Ale. What began smoothly quickly turned to a frustrating experience as, by a confluence of small events, a hole formed in the trub cake and we began pulling beer instead of yeast. Giving the tank a little rest to settle out is the answer to that conundrum, so we set out to begin filtering and transferring other batches of beer.
Laughing Dog recently purchased a new filtration system that works very quickly because it works under heavy pressure. Having relied on racking only to clarify my homebrew, the whole filtration experience was new to me and I was excited to learn its intricacies. Before beer is pushed through, the plates within the pressure bell must be loaded with a fibrous papery substance called Cellite and then loaded again with diatomaceous earth. As beer is then added to the system, it is dosed with further diatomaceous earth, effectively creating a continuously “new” layer of filtration. The beer is then sent through a secondary plate filter as an extra measure to remove any impurities. If that sounds confusing in theory, just wait until you are staring at the eleven valves that control this thing.
As the filtration system was recently purchased, they are still working out the kinks and becoming familiar with the operation of such a complicated piece of machinery. However, the joke floating around that I had brought some inadvertent bad mojo began to take on weight.
We successfully transferred one 30 bbl batch before lunch time. After lunch, I helped with folding six pack cartons in preparation for bottling the next day and then Duane and I began resetting the machine to begin another transfer. It had seemed that a clog or two had appeared and a thorough cleaning also appeared to solve the problem. Unbeknownst to we all dealing with the problem, there was a nefarious clog hiding in the system that caused pressure spikes which forced us to shut down the system periodically and change the filter plates, a tedious process. We were able to transfer enough beer to suit the needs of bottling and kegging the following day before calling it quits on a twelve hour day. I appreciated seeing the side of being a brewery that doesn’t have to do with actual brewing because I know that will be most of my life when I become a brewer in the near future. Being a part of a less-than-perfect day at the brewery was also a good experience. This brewing thing is not all sipping rare beers and smelling hops, as some would believe. Rather, it takes a rare blend of brute strength, technical know-how, perseverance and precise finesse; namely, not a task for the weak of spirit.
Although my wonderful girlfriend did a fine job of melting the stress of the day away with a home cooked meal and her calming presence, sleep came quickly. I woke in the morning to drive back up to Sandpoint to do the whole thing over again, albeit on a smaller scale, by helping Mickey brew a batch of his porter at MickDuffs. We began an hour later than the day before and I was thankful. After admiring the new fermentation tank, we milled the grain and then set about mashing in, the most labor intensive and dirty part of the brew day there. Sweating in the muggy heat that preceded a spectacular rain storm, I began to feel gummy as the dust from the grain began to settle on my skin. After the mash and a transfer to the kettle, we began noticing that the water was not heating up as fast as it should. Mickey sent Duffy down to the boiler cave numerous times, but to little avail. The wort came to a boil, but it was not as roiling as Mickey would normally want, which I know can lead to some problems with a beer but Mickey was confident that everything would turn out in the end. We also tried a new procedure with adding olive oil to the yeast before pitching. A study that Mickey and I read proposed that the olive oil provides the same response from the yeast as aerating properly does. No word yet on the outcome, but I am interested to see what happens. Other than the troublesome boiler, the brew day went fantastic and I was paid for my work with a free growler fill and two Corny kegs! Thanks Mickey!
Finally, on Friday, in between putting in hours with my real job, I ran over to Carl’s house in order to keg the Thieving Bastard. Carl informed me that our problems with the keg that the Pool-Pah was in were persisting, despite changing the main seal. I swung by Jim’s Homebrew to pick up some more seals for the problem keg and for the two Mickey let me have (might as well be safe). After some labor and some scratching of heads, we completed our tasks for the day and I returned home to finish up some work for the day.
To wrap up this novel of a post, I will not promise a date by which reviews of our homebrews will be up on the blog, but the second batch of Bagombo IPA is almost ready to drink and the Thieving Bastard can be tapped tomorrow, so there are plenty of opportunity for reviews in the near future. Please, keep reading!
With no experience in blogging, I did not know what to expect when I began posting a few months ago. My initial fear of being completely irrelevant has been assuaged some as a small group of readers has developed and interacting with random people that have discovered the blog on their own has been very fun. Also becoming apparent to me is the amount of time one must dedicate to updating a blog (on any subject) in a timely manner. Between work, beer education and the rest of my interests, it is not always easy to find the time to document what has been happening in my beer world, let alone be witty about it. However, it is a labor I undertake with much joy and passion, if only to satisfy the incredibly large geek inside of me.
Although it has been over a week since my last post, it has been far from uneventful. Carl and I have been hard at work as our brew days are filling up with more than just brewing. Monitoring fermentation, racking, kegging, bottling and the ever-important quality control tastings have filled up our time and the brew days are far from lazy days in the sun, sipping our previous batches. Due to our diligent pre-planning and attention to detail as the day progresses, the brew days have been more or less going smoothly (when our equipment cooperates) and we have been enjoying our work.
We brewed a big hoppy IPA that is a departure from the Bagombo recipe as a “one-off” in honor of a pretty big life event happening for some friends later this summer (it is supposed to be a surprise). Using a mix of Perle, Magnum, Chinook and Cascade hops is going to make this one very complex but satisfying in the warm waning days of the summer and with a huge dry hop bill, the aroma is going to be intense. A little inspiration and a trip to the hardware store finally solved our wind problems in the form of cinder blocks and a more powerful stove borrowed from the Budge Brothers (thanks, guys!) made the brew day move quickly, but the added work of racking the Thieving Bastard evened us out.
A few days before, we had kegged the Mother Night American-style India Black Ale. I wanted to also get some into 22oz bottles to share and to lay down for cellaring and that provided some head scratching as I worked out how much priming sugar to use and how to divide it amongst the bottles. That big lump on my shoulders finally kicked on and the problem became a memory. Moving forward, bottling a small amount and kegging the rest of a batch will be routine for us and that particular comedy of errors will not need to repeat itself.
Last week, before heading into the woods for some camping, Carl and I took on our first full bottling session. The second batch of Bagombo IPA was ready and as it is the most popular beer I make, putting it into bottles to share just makes more sense than kegging. I warned Carl that bottling makes for the longest work day of making your own beer and to be prepared for more hours than brewing. Turns out we are a very efficient team and the day went faster than any other bottling day I have taken part in.
We now have the Pool-Pah Pale and the Mother Night ASIBA in kegs and the Bagombo IPA in bottles with the Thieving Bastard getting bottled this week, all of which is accompanied by the few remaining bottles of the Granfalloons Belgian Tripel I had brewed previously with Brian. Stay tuned for a review post of the beers that are carbonated and ready to drink by week’s end.
We have dialed in the flame control on the new burner and we were mashing in very quickly. Stirring the grains within the brew bag did not abate the feeling that we should be doing more, but by the time we were sparging, we had settled into a more relaxed brew day. The boil came fast, but we avoided a boil over (seeing as how our attention could not possibly be diverted elsewhere to other beer tasks) and began waiting for the hop additions to start. I still wanted to practice something resembling continual hopping so we had taken the time to pre-measure and label all of the hop additions. After the boil, the ice bath brought the temperature down very quickly and we were pitching yeast and cleaning up in what seemed record time. 
