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.