Begin the Lager!

Well I couldn't wait any longer, had to get the beer off the primary fermentation, and begin the secondary (lagering) phase of the beer.

Carefully siphoned the beer into a 6 gal carboy, leaving the sediment behind. Checked the specific grafity, and it was at 1.005, had to taste it too, just to get an idea of the finished flavor. It tastes great, can't wait till it clears, and then gets bottled. It will make a great Oktoberfest Dunkel, it has a dark amber color. Not totaly brown, but close. I have the digital thermometer in the fridge, and it is currently at 56.3 degrees, I wanted to start off at a warmer temp for a day or two, to let the residual yeast get used to the lower temps, then I will gradually reduce the temp down to about 45 hopefully by the end of the 3 weeks (this is how a lager is produced), then if I can I will try to get the temp down under 32 at the very end to reduce cold haze.

Next is just a lot of waiting, and time to buy bottles. I heard from two different camps on the topic of bottle color. One says that they prefer the dark brown colored bottles to protect the beer of course, the other camp prefers the clear bottles, so you can see what the beer looks like before you open the bottle. I can see the reason for the clear bottles, and the dark colored bottles. I'm not sure which way I will go, but I will probably go with the brown bottles. Oh and get a bottle capper too.

Want to try your hand at brewing beer, go for it, it is easy.

Some Recipes

I found some nice extract recipes on Homebrew.com. Go to their web site, and check out these extract kits. They have the ingredients already packaged for these recipes. So Find a recipe you like, add it to your cart, and they will send you all you need to make that recipe!

Bismark Munich Hellas Extract

Bavarian Haus Bock Extract

Bier Haus Eisbock Extract

Blitzkreig Dortmunder Extract

Crimson Oktoberfest Extract

Eine Kleine Vienna Rocks Lager Extract

Ludwigs German Pilsner Extract

O'Mathis Irish Lager Extract

Sedylmayr Munich Dunkel Extract

Tea Party Lager Extract

Volstead Pre Pro Lager

Walk-About Australian Lager Extract

What in the Hellas Bock Extract

Found a refrigerator to cool down the Fermentation

WHOOO HOOOOO, I found a fridge! God I love Freecycle.org

I put a post out on Freecycle looking to see if anyone had a refridgerator they no longer needed, and that I could use it. And well, I found one, I will have to drive a bit tomorrow but it works, and its free!

In case anyone is not familiar with Freecycle.org, it is a group of people like you and I who either are looking for stuff, or have stuff that is no longer needed, and instead of throwing it away, giving it away for free. We have gotten an exercise bike that I will use as a back-up human powered generator in case we have power outages during hurricane season. My best friend purchased all new furniture, and was able to give away all their used furniture. Sofa, entertainment center, beds, all still in good condition. So if you are interested go to http://www.Freecycle.org, and sign up in your area. You may need a Yahoo account to gain access but its free, and they now allow up to 1 gig of email space.

Now for the fridge. Because I am brewing a Lager, the secondary fermentation should take place in an environment where the temperature is around 45-55 degrees this will slow the fermentation down, and settle out the sediment.

Lager comes from the German word "lagern" which means to store. A lager beer is in cold storage while it ages in the conditioning phase. Temperature influences lagers in two ways. During primary fermentation, the cooler temperature (45-55 °F) prevents the formation of fruity esters by the yeast. In addition to producing fewer byproducts during the primary phase, the yeast uses the long conditioning phase to finish off residual sugars and metabolize other compounds that may give rise to off-flavors and aromas (this was excerpted from the website How to Brew at this URL http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter10-2.html)

So I will take the fridge, clear out enough space for my 6 gal carboy, adjust the temperature to this range, and let the secondary fermentation take place for about 4 weeks.

Primary Fermentation Going Strong

Not much interesting to post today, other than the primary fermentation is going along nicely, still bubbling very well.

Quote of the day "A watched Primary Fermentation tank never boils" :0

I made a slight change to the Loving Brau Recipe post, I accidentaly posted that the beginning specific gravity was 1.4, which didn't make sense, so I took another look at the specific gravity tool and realized that I mis-read the numbers along the side. The Real original specific gravity is 1.040 which makes a lot more sense now.

So if you read the post, just make a note that the SG should read 1.040, not 1.40

Now to figure out how to cool the secondary fermentation down to 50-60 degrees for the next 4 weeks ?? any ideas?

Houston we have Lift off!!!

Came home this evening hoping for a good fermentation and boy was I happy. I saw that the yeast have finally made it back from the brink of destruction, and are happily converting the sugar to alcohol and releasing tons of CO2 as a by product.

The airlock is bubbling like a fish tank. !!!

It seems that the customer support person at White Labs, Joanne, really knows her yeast, and she was right on, when she said it may take another day to get going.

Well I'm going to sit back and relax, and wait for the fermentation to slow down, to begin the next steps......

TTFN

I am a Yeast Killer, or Keep yeast refrigerated before use.

I am a yeast killer :( I feel so ashamed.

Bought the ingredients to make my Loving Brau, and due to an Air-conditioner failure at our home, I put off making the brew by one day. So the ingredients stayed on the table. I forgot to put the yeast in the refrigerator. I found this out after I had everything going, and was preparing the wort for the yeast.

It has been over 24 hours with no noticeable fermentation going on.

I had strained out the hops and any left-over grain that might have escaped the grain sock, and had it cooled down to room-temperature, when I read the instructions on the Vial (to late).

I also noticed that the Vial also had expired by a couple days. So in my panic, I sent out an email to White Labs, and to my surprise, I got a response very quickly. They (Joanne) said that even though it was past the expiration date, and that is spent the night at room temperature I may still have enough live yeast to get the party started. The folks at White Labs have been very helpful, and suggest that if you get a yeast past the expiration date, you should make a starter solution first before pitching it in. The instructions for making a starter solution are on their website at Http://www.whitelabs.com. Joanne also said that if it didn't start going after 48 to try to add another vial to save the batch. She said it might turn out a little fruiter, and that is better than loosing the whole batch.

Still waiting on fermentation, this morning I noticed that some air was being pushed out of the primary fermentation tank, and my wife said she saw a bubble a few moments ago. There still may be hope for this beer yet.

More to come, keep your fingers crossed. P.S. Joanne and White Labs told me to send them my mailing address, and she would send me a coupon for a free vial of yeast to replace the bad one I bought. They are some nice people over there!

Wish me luck

Loving Brau Recipe (Lowenbrau Clone, I hope)

Munich Hellas Pale (Lowenbrau Clone)

7lbs. Light Bock Malt
1/2 lb. Carapils
1/4 lb. Wheat Grain
2 oz. Hal bit. (hops)
1 vial of White Labs Pitchable liquid yeast, Oktoberfest/Marzen Lager yeast # WLP820

4-5 gals of Spring water, store bought(walmart) i used Silver Springs Florida spring water.

Heat 2 1/2 Gals of spring water to 160-180 degrees. Put the grain in a grain sock/bag, and steep for 30 minutes.

Then remove the bag, and bring the water to boiling, while adding the Malt. It is now called Wort from this point on, untill called beer ! Once the wort is at a rolling boil add 1 oz of the hops.

Allow 30 minutes to go by, then add half of the remaining hops, or half an ounce, and wait another 10 minutes. After the 10 minutes add the remaining hops. (that is what I am doing right now). I will let this go for another 10 minutes, and then start cooling the Wort. You can add a gallon of Cool spring water to help bring the temp down fast, Then an Ice bath till the Wort is room temperature (70-80 degrees). Put the wort into the primary fermenter, and top off the fermenter with spring water until you reach 6 gals.

A quick check of specific gravity tells me that my wort is at 1.040 sg. not bad for a first timer ;)

Lastly toss in the yeast, give a good stir making sure to aerate the wort so the yeast had a good Oxygen base to start the fermentation process. Put on the airlock and let the yeast do some work for a change.

Now for the cleanup... yuck :(

First Blog

Good Day all,

It was bound to happen, I got sucked into blogging. Well at least I'm blogging about my favorite past-time, Alcohol, or the making of it :)

This blog will be where all can read about my latest beer brewing or wine making adeventures.

At the time of this post, I have successfully brewed up over 30 gals of fruit flavored wines from Island Mist kits. My favorites Blackberry Merlot, and a Green Apple reisling.

Now it's time to start making beer. I am currently brewing what I will call Loving Brau, I hope to clone my favorite beer LowenBrau. I had a difficult time finding a recipe, but the people at the beer and wine makers pantry in pinellas park florida, helped me find, and purchase the ingredients need to make a Munich Hellas Pale lager. The style of Lowenbrau is made after.

I will include the ingredients, and my step/instructions to make this first batch. I am currently boilong the wort, and in 6 minutes will add the second amount of Hops.