Bourbon Country and Bottling

So we had a great Saturday; Toured Bourbon Country (Makers Mark and Woodford Reserve),with some GREAT Bar B Que at a little joint outside of Versailles, KY we found on the way back. Then it was back to our "home brewery" to bottle our Octoberfest Lager.

First, some pics from bourbon country - if you EVER have a chance to visit, We'd highly recommend it. The scenery alone is worth the drive, and in a 30 mile county, there's 8 highly rated bourbon makers where you can sip and visit all day long.
Makers Mark




Woodford Reserve (They stop their tours at 3 pm, so we missed it by 1/2 hour)





Now back to our beer...
2 weeks in cold storage


Then Bottling


The bottom feeding yeast left a lot at the bottom of the barrel this time


Finally, the finished lineup, we can't wait to taste it in a couple of weeks

Lagering...

So after fermentation completed, we decided to try our hand at 2 weeks of lagering. The temperature was kept around 36 degrees for 10 days. See next post for the bottling and pics

Day 9 - 50 degrees, still some bubbles

The temp is still between 48 and 50 degrees, and we still have *some* bubbles going on. I timed them at about 3 every 10 seconds. The question of the day is: do we turn down the temperature this weekend and start the lagering process?
Thoughts, comments from DJ and S are welcome, phone calls or emails work just fine

Day 5 Still 48, but bubbles

Day 5 of fermentation, Sept. 11 at noon, the temp was still 48 degrees, but we have frequent bubbles. I timed them at every three seconds, fairly large bubbles were appearing. I raised the temp control in the fridge to 1, which is the warmest it will go so here's hoping we'll get it to at least 50 degrees this time.

Nice and cool (maybe too cool?)

So the temp today on the primary fermenter in the lagering fridge was 46 degrees, so I adjusted the temperature control again. It's down to 2, so I don't have much more room to adjust it. No visible bubbles during a 2 minute observation, here's hoping once the temperature raises the fermentation will start back up again.

Back in the saddle again...

So after an almost 5 month hiatus from brewing, we're back at it again this labor day weekend. The layoff was mostly due to a lot of other summer activities, but partly due to a "less than excellent" results with the milk stout we brewed last time.
We're getting a little more ambitious this time; in honor of the season we decided to brew an Oktoberfest lager, our first attempt at a lager. So without further verbosity, here's the events from yesterday.

After a visit to our favorite beer store, Listermann's on Saturday, we scheduled a pot luck dinner for the labor day weekend after our brewing was complete (got to keep the wives involved and happy)

It's about a 5 hour process from start to finish to brew using a kit, maybe a little longer depending on the cool down time required for the wort.



So first step, as always is to salute the start of the brewing with a toast (yeah, I know this is an old pic, we'll have to take a new one next time)


Now on to the brewing
First, we filled the grain sack



and brought the water up to steeping temperature (150 degrees) for 1/2 hour. You lift up the grain sack out of the water occasionally to steep it like tea.


Next, raised water to a boil and added the Pilsner extract and the hops

Not nearly enough hops for Jerry


We had no boil-overs this time, must have been the great temperature control work by Steve :-)

The cool-down took a long time for this batch; maybe it was a hotter day, but it took one hour to cool down to 100 degrees, and another hour after that for the wort to reach 80 degrees so we could cast the yeast.


The OG was 1.052, and the raw wort had an ice tea like flavor to it.

After the yeast had been cast, and it was all sealed up in the primary fermenter, it took a car ride to the lagering fridge, where it will sit for 14 days at a temperature between 50 and 60 degrees.

Sunday 12 noon temp: 48 degrees, so made a slight adjustment to the fridge temp control, will check back tomorrow

Bottling the IPA

So after convincing J that there IS enough hops in the IPA, and the foam settled, last evening we bottled.



It was uneventful and went smoothly, we did stir in the bottling sugars a little more this time.
Dissolving the sugar and stirring






Cleaned and sterilized bottles




Bottling


Checking the SG - we're still not sure about the finished alcohol level, it appears to be a little above 3%...


The finished product - We're meeting in two weeks to sample and share. This time, we're fermenting the bottles of beer in different locations to see if there's any environmental impact. We ended up with 52 bottles this time, up from 47 from the first batch.

Adding the additional hops

Added the secondary hops this morning. The mix was still very foamy, but no bubbles in the airlock. I hope we didn't add them too soon.

First, the hops


Next, open the primary fermenter (pretty foamy)


Then dumped the hops into the wort






Happy hops, floating on the foam. There was nothing in the instructions or that I could find online about stirring them into the wort or anything, so I'm assuming they will settle to the bottom as the foam dissipates.

Bubbles...

At 6 pm the following evening, we now have bubbles in the airlock. Current rate is about 1 per second, the temp on the primary fermenter is 66 degrees.

Brewfest January 2009

Well, we're at it again with a second batch. We added another "Brewer" to the team, so now we're DJDS Homebrewers.

After a road trip to our favorite brewing supply store, in Cincinnati, OH http://www.listermann.com/ (yeah, it's a shameless plug but the customer service is great, and they're so helpful for us novice brewers) we gathered at the brewhaus for a night of food,brewing and fellowship with spouses and friends.


We had a table full of food and some new Cream Ales to taste, so without further ado, let's get down to the brewing.


First order of business was to put the grain into the "sacks" or BB's as we call them.

It took two sacks this time as we needed a second one for all the hops



Then we added the "secret ingredient" to the mix


Meanwhile, we all ate pizza, salad and an EXCELLENT pecan pie (thanks K) while the grains, water and hops steeping.


After steeping the water and hops, and bringing it to a boil a second time, we added MORE HOPS, boiled for another 1/2 hour, and then we were ready to whip the wort.


After an uneventful casting of the yeast,

we had a little excitement when inserting the airlock into the top of the primary fermenter. The rubber grommet decided after 10 years of sitting, it fell apart. This led to a trip to Lowes, where we were fortunate enough to find an exact match. Whew, now all is well and the primary fermenter is in the downstairs brewhaus.