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.