Wood Barrel Issues

I noticed after the first day or two that the wood barrel's airlock stopped exhibiting gas release.  I realized that since the keg wasn't completely full that there was a potential that the top of the keg has dried slightly allowing gas seepage.

Seeing in a articles when researching wooden barrels about using glass beads to aid in filling the volume of the keg I purchased some beads and boiled.  After cooling I placed them into the barrel to raise the volume but sadly I didn't purchase enough.  Not wanting to potentially contaminate the brew I will wait and see on this effort.

My suggestion in the future is to brew a half gallon more than needed and waste the extra or place into smaller carboy.

First Time in Wooden Kegs

Transferring From the Primary to the Wooden Barrel

After some days of conditioning the new wooden barrel, Sunday was the moving day from the primary to the secondary fermenter.  Although most reports on the barrel fermentation state that it shouldn't be done, if a air lock is placed on top it can be utilized.

Airlock Installed to Relieve Fermentation Pressures

Over the next few weeks the Milky Moose Musk will gather the flavors from the oak barrel and add them to the overall flavor profile.  This will be interesting to determine if wood kegging the stout was the way to go.  Speaking of stouts ... today I will be brewing my first Oatmeal Stout called Rocky Point Oatmeal Stout.

Kick Ass Sassafras -- Almost There, but Not Quite Yet

Wood Keg

Before Adding Boiling Water

I started prepping the wood keg so I can continue the secondary fermentation inside.  The process of swelling the keg back to be water tight takes about three hours and I would advise doing it over the sink.

Added Boiling Water But With the Cracks Came Out Quickly

Kept Adding Boiling Water Until Cracks Sealed

I started the adding of the water on the counter but as quickly as I added the water it seeped through the keg all over the counter ... thus I quickly moved the keg to the sink as the ends sealed back up.  The final process of filling the keg I just took everything into the bath tub ... this part takes up to three days to complete according to the paperwork.

Left the Keg Filled in the Bath Tub

Looking Into Expansion

I have now been brewing in the breakfast nook for over a year and have my eyes on the horizon for expansion.  There is no room left inside the house thus the garage is the next logical area for this upcoming expansion  ... but there will be a cost involved.

A few years back I had water routed into the garage to support a whole house water softener which necessary due to the high levels of Ca in our local water supply, but now I am looking into installing a stainless sink with both hot and cold water, and of course a drain.  Next week I will be speaking to a plumber to discuss options.  I also have been looking at stainless steel sinks since they can be easily sanitized but I will tell you that they are not cheap.  A friend suggested looking into use restaurant equipment which I am and I have noticed a reduction in price of greater than 50%.

I figure with the expansion including getting a professional grade beer sculpture that the total cost will range about $6 to 10K by the time of completion ... and sadly I still cannot sell even one beer to cover the cost.

But first things first.  Looking into the expansion what steps need to be taken to be best prepared and ready once everything is purchased to start brewing.

     1). Get natural gas to the site of sculpture and for the hot water heater for the new sink.  This has to be professionally done for safety and dead headed until next step.

     2)  Purchase stainless sink (double and deep to clean pots)

     3). Have a plumber install, include small hot water heater for hot water and connect to sewer.

     4). Purchase sculpture and conical fermenter.

The first steps aren't sexy but necessary if I want to brew after getting all of the new shiny equipment.

Wood Keg

Yesterday I went to my local beer supply store in Riverside to pick up ingredients for the next four batches of beer and also a couple of extra items.  Among those items was a oak keg for the secondary fermentation of my two stouts -- Maine's Moose Musk (an sweet apple milk stout) and my newest addition a oatmeal stout (not name as of yet).  Additionally, I picked up a book on yeast culturing to self teach myself how to grow my own yeast and keep the strains still going.

Also yesterday I purchased five species of hops from Organic Garden Seeds (or egardenseed.com) to test in Maine to see if it is possible to grow our own hops for some of the beers.  Have to wait until next spring to plant but looking forward to the empirical data glean.

The past week I started working on my Sour Lemon Drop by working on the base recipe.  The original recipe which by accident produced both a slight tartness and lemon flavors I wanted to make more prominent ... thus the new batch I added organic lemon grass, and the upcoming batch afterwards will include the bacteria along with the yeast to "sour" it even more.  Results still pending.

Added recipes include the oatmeal stout, the sour lemon, and now a IPA which will be named Rocky Point IPA ... such a simple name for which I hope to be a complex double IPA.

Working My Other Job

I have still been brewing regularly but have been slacking on the updating posts since this is a busy time of year at my other job.  I think I have got exactly what I am looking for with my Porter, Wheat and Honey Wheat and they will be ready for the next judging.

I have have been talking with my father about setting up our own bee hives for honey production, and getting wood kegs for the secondary fermentation to mellow the flavors in the craft beer.  These are the exciting times when I am changing the setup to prepare for the next level.

Another Attempt at the Porter

After all of the issues this past weekend with the new mash tun I decided to switch out the false bottom with the kettle screen and try the Smoked Porter again.  This time everything went as planned.

Sprage Cooler on Top, Flowing Through Tun into Wort Pot

This also was the first time I could try out the new sprage cooler that I purchased which after a couple of tweaks worked perfectly.

Nice Even Flow - Wish it Fanned Out More However

I was able to keep a constance flow when fly spraging compared to the uneven flow of the spoon method that I was using before.  Plus using the cooler allowed me to keep the sprage water at a more constant temperature.  I would suggest this purchase if you can afford it.

Kegging, New System & Mash Lock

This weekend I made my first attempt at kegging my beer.  I read the instructions and even watch a couple You Tube videos on the process before I started.

Transferring was a breeze and I decided to try my hand at force carbonation instead of the sugar bottle conditioning that I have been trying.  With this method you need to cool the fermentor down before applying CO2. 

Then once finished with the transferring you place the whole kegging system into the fridge at 10 psi for a couple of days then test. 

I have recently purchased a new mash and spraging system but the two batches I have ran through it so far have led to grain lock.  This last time was so bad that I ended dumping the entire batch.  Need to figure out the problem with my set up.

Brewing, Bottling and Transferring Over the Weekend

Over this past weekend I had to transfer the Kick Ass Sassafras into the secondary, bottle the Smoked Gobbling Porter and use up some older grains in the extract based Touch of Everything.  The Touch of Everything was a way of using up some extracts I purchased a while back, some older grains and the last of the hops in the freezer.  This batch will also be my first attempt at kegging beer with forced carbonation vs bottle conditioning.

Barely Can Walk Through

I am running out of room quickly in the breakfast nook but Sharon says I can't have anymore of the house.  I may have to create storage out in the garage just so I can move around more easily than now.  Sadly, it is so much easier to have everything in one place ... oh well.

New Equipment

This week was one of purchases:  I bought a refrigerator for the kegging of the beer and a 10 gallon mash tun and spraging cooler to better extract the grains during mashing.  I tried the mash tun just the other day on the new batch of Kick Ass Sassafras but thanks to a smaller false bottom and my vigorous stirring in the grains, the bottom slightly lifted thus allowing grain under it.  This led to a sprage lock and I had to hand dip the wort.  Lesson learned.

New Fridge and Mashing Equipment

Got the results back from the contest ... the porter fared excellent but needs to be smokier, the Smoking Wheat had a slight metallic taste ... unsure the cause but will find out, and need to be even more smokier, and lastly the Sweet Sharon still isn't fairing very well in the contest, but everyone that tries loves it.  I will change the base recipe the next time. 

Slowly Taking Over the Kitchen -- It's Mine, All Mine

All of the judge's notes have been taken into consideration and adjustments have been made to the recipes to improve their flavors.

Brewing Another Porter

Yesterday I started brewing another smoked porter with a couple of slight changes to improve the recipe.  So far I like what I have produced but still it isn't exactly what I have been looking for in the flavor department.  During the last three batches of other styles of beer I have been extending the secondary carboy time to extract a slightly higher alcohol content and improve their flavors.  Additionally, with the bottle conditions I am extending the amount of time the beer conditions to further enhance the flavors and mouth feel.

Sweet Sharon in the Secondary - Yeast Working Away

I recently purchased a couple of carboy bags which in addition to blocking the light has allowed me to use ice packs to slow the fermentation of the yeast and control the temperature.  Ideally I would like to purchase a dedicated cooler to better control the temperatures, but first I have to get a refrigerator to start the kegging of the beer ... on hold for funds right now.

The Breakfast Nook is Mine Now -- And Even More Room is Needed

I wanted to tell anyone reading this about a warning.  Currently, I have been using the kitchen sink to cool my wort, but over time and thanks to the weight of the wort I have noticed a slight separation in the caulking.  I am going the beef up under the sink and find another way to cool my wort using the wort chiller I purchased.

First Club Meeting

Ever since I started brewing I wanted to join a local brew club to meet other like me and people that have much better brewing skills than I to glean new ideas in making beer.  Well last night I went to my first meeting and joined Inland Empire Brewing Club.  It was fantastic.

I first got to meet several new people and have them test some of my beers to get their input.  Then they had a speaker, Patrick Rue, a brewer and owner of The Brewery discussed some of his beers.  After tasting several of his beers I realized just how far the micro brewing has gone in the country and what level I need to go if I wasn't to be successful ... his beer were clean , flavorful and just darn fantastic.

After he spoke the allowed several brewer to have their beers tasted and get the Club member's reactions.  They had some that were kit brewers to others that seasoned brewers ... all were welcome.  Normally, I personally am not a IPA drinker I tasted a couple that were quite nice last night.  The climax for me was when a couple other brewer got me to showcase a couple of beers for the tasting too.  I poured Kick Ass Sassafras, Sweet Sharon and Moose Musk ... all received well and got some great feedback.

What a great bunch of future friends.

All Grain & Sink

I should have posted this earlier but after brewing so many batches of beer I noticed that the sink started separating from the granite counter top thanks to the weight of the wort.  This may not ever become an issue during your brewing but still I would suggest beefing up the sink under the counter if you plan on doing very many batches, or use another more sure spot to cool your wort.

I converted my Maine's Moose Musk (a sweet milk stout) to all grain on the last batch and added carapils to improve the head retention.  I have noticed that you have to allow a couple extra weeks to condition in the bottle ... but this last batch is still facing head issues.  I am planning to take this batch to the local brewers club and get some help.  More to come later.

Changing to Kegging

As I progress in the craft beer making it was getting to be time to move to the next level.  Kegging is a normal progression and bottling from the keg was too.  Last week I bought this new system and upon my return from vacation I will be producing the first batch to test with my new purchase.  More to come.

Carboy Bags & All Grain

I just started using the carboy bags I just bought ... along with ice packs they are great.  They have been keeping the fermentation temperture where I want it to be, but it does require daily switching of the ice bags.

Additionally, this past weekend I brewed up the first batch on Maine's Milky Moose Musk using all grains and no extracts.  I also took into consideration the comments I received from the judges from Hanger 24 contest where they indicated that I wasn't sweet enough for the style, head retention and astringency issue maybe due to over spraging.  I worked on these and hopefully I fixed those issues ... we will know in 6 weeks.

Using Software

Recently I bought Beer Smith 2 and I have been trying to use it over just taking notes in a composition notebook.  There is so much data required and I am still learning but I am hoping to be able to take it to the next level and start using it in advance to aid in my recipe development.

Also just yesterday I got my carboy holders which should allow me to ice pack the fermentation thus better maintaining the temperature here in the heat of the desert environment.  Will start testing this weekend.

It is Been A Bit

Over the past couple of weeks I made a few batches in between having family visit and my oldest daughter getting married.  Over last week I bottled so much that I actually ran out of enough bottles to make another batch and that was with having a modified smoked porter in the secondary.  Thus I must drink up.

I am getting a couple of batches ready for a couple of upcoming competitions ... hopefully one in July and one in August but lately I am hitting some issue with the increasing outside temperatures I am having difficulties keeping the carboy temperatures in the ideal temperature range for the yeast.  I am looking into maybe using a cooler with ice packs or maybe even use the carboy cover with ice packs I saw online with More Beer.

Over Spiced

Well the Kick Ass Sassafras is over spiced.  It is drinkable ... but just barely.  Way too much sassafras leaves and maybe slightly heavy handed on the anise.  I will reduce to amounts and try again.

I just got in my software (Beer Smith 2) to upgrade my documentation.  Overall, it appears to be a pretty good program but lacks in a couple of the grains I use such as Rauch and Crystal 75.  As I learn more on the program I sure it will become easier. 

Speaking of easier ... on a side note the refractometer I bought ... fantastic plus save about 12 - 14 oz of beer loss during the measuring.  Over 40 to 50 batches that will mean the saving will equal the cost of the instrument.

Smoked Gobbler Porter

Yesterday I brewed up another batch of Sweet Sharon to place into the upcoming contest.  This time I am trying a honey from Florida called Tupelo honey ... hopefully it will get the taste back from my first batch.

I tasted the Smoked Porter yesterday ... all of the background flavors were exactly what I was looking for, however, just a bit heavy on the smoke.  I am going to brew another batch this weekend and reduce the amount of Rauch Malt (the smoke flavor) and hopefully that will get it where it needs to be ... and not tasting like the bottom of a campfire.

Bottled Kick Ass Sassafras

Kick Ass Sassafras in Secondary and Ready to Bottle

Yesterday I had the Kick Ass Sassafras ready to bottle ... so I did.  Of course I performed the bottling while enjoying a Brinton's Wheat Mist.  Tasted the raw product to see how the flavor infused and I was quite happy to see that the flavors were not over powering ... will have to wait until after the conditioning in the bottle to see just how well the spices worked ... or not.

First Bottle Made of Kick Ass

Today, I will be brewing up another batch of Sweet Sharon ... since my daughter is getting married in two weeks here in the Valley I have to increase production to meet the future demand ... economics 101.

Prepping Malts for Today's Brew

Brewing Two Batches ... And Another This Week

On the table I have two new batches in the primary ... one batch of the Sweet Sharon with Killer Bee Honey, and another I finished on Saturday morning which is a smoked wheat.  Although you can't see it in the secondary behind the table I have the first batch of Kick Ass Sassafras which will be bottled this week.

Ideally, this week I will be starting the first attempt at a all grain batch of Moose Musk (my milk stout) and another attempt at fixing the Brinton's Wheat Mist for another upcoming competition.  The batch I submitted in the Hanger 24 just wasn't good enough so I am tweaking it along with the Sweet Sharon (which I wasn't too proud of with the orange blossom honey) to get them ready for the August contest.

Luckily, my future son-in-law is coming soon to help me drink up all of my inventory since I am running out of bottles.

Brewing Again

Yesterday, I brewed up another batch of Sweet Sharon this time going back to my original yeast strain and trying the new Killer Bee honey.  Honey has been the most difficult thing in this recipe to keep consistent but hopefully soon I will be able to address this issue. 

First Runnings



Getting the Wort to a Boil

Today I will be moving my Kick Ass Sassafras to the secondary and bottling the Smoked Porter.  The porter is going to require additional time in the bottle to finish its conditioning.  Tomorrow I am going to be trying a smoked wheat ... it ought to be fun.

The Results are in From Hanger 24

Well I would be lying if I said that I wasn't disappointed that I did not win the contest at Hanger 24 on my first try and it wasn't unexpected.  I wasn't that proud of the entries in the wheat division since on the Sweet Sharon I used orange blossom honey which gave a overpowering taste of orange and the Brinton's mist I am still missing something.  Hopefully, the notes glean for the contest judges will help me correct the issues and make another better beer.  The Milk Stout (Moose Musk) is going all grain thus the entry I sent is not the final recipe ... but I think it is on the right track.  Oh well, next time I hope to do better.

I am going to be joining a local brew club to be able to compare notes so to speak with other brewers.  This should help me become a better brewer.

The smoked porter is about ready to go into the bottle to finish conditioning for a few more weeks, and the Kick Ass Sassafras is moving to the secondary this week.  Today, I am brewing up another batch of Sweet Sharon ... this time with a different honey found locally.  My original honey from South Dakota I am having difficulties getting on a regular basis thus I need to come up with a consistent source.  Also this week I am thinking of trying a smoked wheat (modeled after the song name "Snorting Whiskey and Drinking Cocaine" -- changed to Smoking Wheat and Drinking Cascade) ... which will include a smoked malt and Cascade hops.  Always trying to find the right mix.

Porter Moving Day

Moving the Porter from the Primary to Secondary

Yesterday, I moved the smoked porter after two weeks in the primary to the secondary carboy.  Since this is my first time to try to make a porter I am excited to see the results ... but I am going to have to wait 6 - 8 weeks until testing can be done.  The porter has to be in the secondary for 4 weeks, and condition another two to three weeks in the bottle.

Secondary is Full

Also yesterday I bottled the second batch of the Moose Musk with apple.  This will be the last bottling of this recipe since I was using DME and from here on the recipe will be all-grain.  It is ready for the next level.

Today, I will be brewing the first batch of Kick Ass Sassafras.  This will be the first time that I have ever tried putting in spices into the boil pot.  Spices include sassafras leaves, anise and cinnamon.  I will be using smaller quantities at first to start with.

Last Bottles to be Entered

The batches of Sweet Sharon & Brinton's Wheat are ready to be entered in the Hanger 24 contest.  This batch of Sweet Sharon I was out of my normal honey and decided to try orange blossom honey ... the taste is much different than I desired and most likely will be the last time I try orange blossom honey in the wort ... the orange notes are just a bit much.

Brewing a Batch of Porter

Today I brew a batch of Smoked Porter named so far Smoking Gobbler Porter (per Mom's request).  This is the first porter I have try to make so we will see what happens a couple of months from now ... since it takes six weeks in the carboy before bottling. 

Refractometer

This also was the first batch I used a new piece of equipment for me called a refractometer.  I compared the readings to the old method using a hydrometer and the reading were the same.  Thus I will only need a couple of drops of wort vs 20 oz like before ... saving brew for the bottle and slightly lowering costs.  Additionally, this method is so much quicker.

Slowly Taking Over the Breakfast Nook

The Sweet Sharon & the Brinton's Wheat Mist for the upcoming contest are bottle and ready to be submitted.  I have to get them in by Tuesday since I am leaving for business in Cabo next week.  What a tough life.

Forms are in for Hanger 24

Yesterday Lindsey from Hanger 24 helped me get the forms for the Home Brewing contest coming up this May.  This will be the first time outside friends that someone will taste my beers and help me to improve them if necessary.  I gotta be honest, I am excited to hear what the judges will say.

My hope is to someday open a brewery company (small scale) and contests are the way you can tweak your recipes.  I would suggest that if you desire the same route I am going to at the very least download the forms to see what information is needed to join these contests.

Both Batches are Done

Over the week I brewed a batch of Sweet Sharon and another of Briton's Mist ... the mashing part went quite smoothly.  But I did notice that in the batch of Brinton's that the yeast fermentation seems to shut down quicker than expected even to the point where the cap of the airlock was sitting level on the output of the airlock.  I have never seen the airlock do that thus as insurance I pitched another batch of yeast into the wort.

After pitching the batch of yeast and waiting it still appeared nothing was happening ... thus I removed the airlock, covered the port and shook the carboy to aerate.  This seems to work and hopefully the batch will turn out fine.  I should note that this is a newly purchased carboy that is more translucent than my older one. 

If should be also noted than even with both carboys in the same spot the newer one is a couple of degrees higher.  So I covered the newer one to block any light that may be raising the temperature, speeding the yeast production, etc.  I will know more after shifting to the secondary.

Brewing Two Batches

Yesterday, I brewed up a batch of Sweet Sharon Honey Wheat Biscuit, and later today I will be brewing a batch of Brinton's Wheat Mist.  I am going to enter both of these and maybe the Apple Milk Stout in a competition that is at Hanger 24 in Redlands.  Of course I hope that I will win but I am mainly entering to get some feedback from the judges of "tweaks" to improve the quality of the beer.

I also have two new exciting beers on the Horizon -- a Smoked Porter and something completely different which will pair nicely (if works) with hamburgers and hot dogs in the summer.  I am so excited to start brewing.

Getting Ready for the Next Level

Currently, I have two beers ready to take to compete in home brew completion.

        1)  Brinton's Wheat Mist
        2)  Sweet Sharon's Honey Wheat Biscuit

These are ready now and I will be making the batches that are needed for the competition.  Maine's Moose Apple Musk (final name will most likely be Maine's Moose Apple Milk Stout) has been made finally with the apple and I bottled the first batch (with apple) on Friday.  As with the stout's it will require four weeks in the bottle for proper carbonation. 

This upcoming week I will be getting the supplies to continue brewing and testing ... but look for on the horizon my first attempt at a porter.  I have been playing with the base recipe trying to figure out the needed ingredients to produce a smoked porter and I am almost there.  For now just playing with the names since my Mother asked if I could include Turkey into the name  ... of course wild turkey is out, but I am looking at maybe "Smoked Turkey Brown Porter."

Trip to Egypt

I have recently returned from a trip to Egypt, a place of beer's birth after tasting several varieties of brew.  Came with some great ideas for future batches.

Sakkara -- Very Nice Beer

In addition, along the way tried a couple of Russian beers while we were in the airport in Moscow ... they were great.

Russian Beer

Moscow Airport

I have been also sampling my own beers and two of them are ready to take to competition -- Sweet Sharon Honey Wheat Biscuit and Brinton's Wheat Mist.  The next batch I make of each will be the ones I take to the next level.  Additionally, I have removed the molasses from the Maine's Moose Musk (a sweet stout) and replaced it with the apples I plan to have in the final recipe ... also added lactose powder to improve the mouth feel ... four weeks until testing can begin since I will be bottling tomorrow.

Soon there will be a porter in my collection -- more to come.

Moving Day on Saturday & Sunday

Second Batch of Sweet Sharon in Secondary

It was time to move the 2nd batch of Sweet Sharon to the secondary and on Sunday I made another batch of Brinton's Mist.

Batch of Brinton's Mist Being Made -- This is the Wort

Additionally, on Sunday I had a couple of friends over for dinner and of course to sample my craft ... since the only batch that was fully ready was the Moose Stout we also after only one week opened a bottle from the Sweet Sharon ... which ready sooner than I expected.

Sweet Sharon Honey Wheat Biscuit

The favors from the Sweet Sharon Honey Wheat Biscuit were quite nice and I am assuming that within a couple of month I will be ready to place this recipe into completion.

Brewing Up a Storm

With my trip to Egypt looming I am trying to use up my supplies before I go including grains, hops and yeast. Last week I am another batch of Sweet Sharon Honey Wheat Biscuit, and today I am making another batch of Brinton's Wheat Mist. There are some slight changes to each batch one to use up the supplies and two to compare recipes.

Nice Head

Next week I will make another batch of Maine's Moose Muck so it will ready to bottle upon my return. Good news on the MMM is that the first batch finally carbonated after 5 weeks in the bottle. I opened a bottle from the first batch and it produced a 1" head and tasted much better. Thus, its seems that the Moose Musk requires longer time in the bottle before opening.

Tasting of Moose Musk & Brinton's Mist

Last week in Las Vegas we finally got to taste all of my hard work as the bottles were ready to open.  I had to go to some seminars so I brought up three cases of beer for my friends to taste.

The Brinton's Mist was a lightly hop tasting beer with touches of cinnamon finishes.  Everyone tasting it thought it was quite nice and enjoyed the beer.  There are a couple of changes I want to try before going to competition.

The Maine's Moose Musk experienced issues in the lack of carbonation.  The taste wasn't too bad and slightly tasted like a wine due to the sweetness ... but the lack of carbonation was too difficult to get past.  The funny thing is that upon my return as I went to dump the remaining bottles I noticed some slight carbonation ... held on the dumping to ask my local brewer for some help on the issue.

Bottling Day

Soaking in Sanitizing Solution

Bottles Cleaned & Prepped

Cleaned the bottles and bottling bucket in preparation to start the first bottling of Brinton Wheat Mist and the sweet stout of Maine's Moose Musk.  Started with the wheat beer first since it was the smaller batch ... I took the FG (final gravity) reading and discovered I made the 18-year old in Colorado happy by producing a 3.3% beer.  Meaning that my extraction of my wheat mash wasn't as good as I hoped, thus more mash will be added in the next batch.

Moving From Primary to Bottling Bucket

Bottling

First Bottles of Brinton's Wheat Mist

After priming and bottling the wheat beer I started the Moose Musk.

Moving the Moose Musk to the Bottling Bucket

All went well with the Moose Musk and the FG showed that it was 7.8% alcohol which was still lower than I desired but a good first start.  Two weeks sitting in the bottle before the first tasting can be done.

Moving Day Again

Today, I will be moving the second batch of Maine's Moose Musk (in development stage) to the secondary fermenter.  This process will free up my primary fermenter and allow me to use it for racking and priming the bottles for the two batches in secondary right now.

After the bottling on Monday, the beer will have to remain in the bottle for another two weeks to build up the carbonation level of the beer ... then it will finally be testing time.

Made Another Batch

I brewed up another 5 gallons of my sweet stout, Moose Musk, with a couple of minor changes to compared to the first batch.  Now with having the correct tools and learning how to cool the wort better this batch should exhibit some differences from the first batch.

Note:  On cooling the wort without wiping out all of your ice on hand.  Bacteria isn't a problem until below 150 degrees thus the primary cooling was done with cold water and dumping it once it got hot.  Once the temperature hit 150 range which was in about 10 minutes, I switched it to a ice bath and finished the cooling with using half of the ice required before.

Currently, I have two batches in the secondary fertmenters and one in the primary.  Next weekend I will be bottling for the first time both secondary batches and moving this weekend's batch into the secondary.  In two weeks the taste testing will begin.

Moving Day Again -- The Wheat Moves On

Yesterday I moved the Brinton's Wheat Mist to the secondary fermenter for it final aging.  During the move Jasmine, one of my daughters, said it smelt like beer ... guess we are on our way.

With two different batches in the secondary phases, it is time to start batch three with some slight variations.  I have plenty for test subjects who are ready to start testing which is still a couple of weeks away.  The bottles are ready for next week bottling, and I decided I am using corn sugar for now for priming the bottles.  Later I will be changing the priming ingredients to molasses for the Moose Musk and honey for the Brirton Wheat Mist.

Coming soon will be two more additions to the product line for testing ... Sweet Sharon South Dakota Mead which requires 10 to 11 months to complete fermentation, and a porter - yet to be named.

Brewed Another Batch of Brinton's Mist

Yesterday, after I got home from church I started mashing another batch of my wheat beer ... Brinton's Wheat Mist.  This time to get my techniques down I only made 2.5 gallons since after stopping at More Beer in Riverside I picked up a 3 gallon carboy along with my other supplies.  I also bought a new thermometer to replace the one that was causing me such issues in cooling down the wort.

After calculating the exact amount of ingredients that I needed in my grain bill by back calculating the points I desired I started my mashing.  It when fairly smoothly and I was easily able to cool the wort to the desired temperature before pitching the yeast ... it is amazing how much easier it is when the equipment is working and of good quality. 

This time I use the screen I purchased at More Beer for my mash which allowed me to easily pull the first running and fly sprage the mash using a slotted spoon.  This was much better than when it clogged so badly the first time I mashed grains.

Moving Day

Today I removed the fermented wort from the primary to the secondary fermenter.  Since the original OG was 1.080 and the FG going into the secondary was 1.022 I can except an alcohol content of around 7 - 8%.

Putting Beer from Primary to Secondary

It is time to head to the store in Riverside to get more grains and yeast to start another batch or two.

Logo Design

As with any new business the logo design is important to name recognition.  Last evening as I was watching TV I came up with this rough idea that I later put through paint shop to clean up.  The shape is in that of a salt box ... but if I ever start making money I will have it professionally done.

Stout Brewing

On Saturday I started brewing my stout.  Learning from the mistakes I made during the first batch I made sure that I had plenty of ice on hand to cool the wort, and also addressed the steeping process vs. the mashing.

Sweet Stout Ingrediants

Steeping the grains went quite smoothly but once again I had issues cooling the wort.  Still with plenty of ice on hand I wasn't that concerned but after hour of cooling and still unable to go below 89 degrees and began to wonder what to try next.  Thinking on the lines of ice cream I added salt to the ice but still the wort temperature would not drop.  Finally, I got a different thermometer and discovered that my digital that I was so proud of was giving a bad reading.

Steeping Gains

Putting Steeping Products into Cook Pot

The wort was chilled a bit too low but at this point I continued by aerating the wort and then pitching the yeast.  24 hours later ... no yeast activity thus grasping at straws I took a dry yeast pack that I also bought and re-hydrated the yeast.  Removing the air lock only and using a funnel I pitched the new batch of yeast.  Finally, fermentation has begun.

Cooking Wort

Hops Addition

Cooling Wort to Put in Fermenter