Näf-Woods to start kegging

In December I acquired all of the necessary equipment to start kegging beers. I had bought a 5 lb. CO2 tank at a garage sale for $2, but the certification had expired. I went to a local gas company, and exchanged my tank for a re-certified tank, and had it filled. It amazes me that most of the tanks are old fire extinguishers, and I found some certification stamps dating back into the 70's on my tank, but it is guaranteed for five years. For Christmas my parents bought a 5-gallon old Pepsi keg, all of the fittings, the lines, a picnic tap, and a regulator. I don't plan to drill a hole in the fridge for a real tap, because with a picnic tap on a line you can raise or lower the line as you fill the glass to compensate for too little or too much CO2. A picnic tap is the hand tap that you used on kegs back in college. I bought a US sankey tap, which will work on 90% of US beers, including microbrews. I plan to have a tap for a homebrew keg and a small commercial keg. Eventually I will get a tap for European beers.

My first kegged beer will be a Pale Ale that I started yesterday.

Pale Ale in primary

I did not have class on Martin Luther King Day, so I decided to brew a batch of beer. I wanted to make a beer to keg. I wanted to make what I call a "house beer" for the keg. I consider a "house beer" to be a beer that I can drink at at any point of the year. It goes with most any food or occasion.

I was starting the beer late in the day, so I decided to buy a Listermann extract kit instead of doing an all-grain. I bought the American Pale Ale. Initially I was excited because I was told at the store that it would have Cascade hops, which are very difficult to find this year. Unfortunately when I opened up the kit I found Galena hops. I looked up Galena and found that they are bittering hops, not typically used for flavoring, aroma, or dry hopping. No chart on the web, or in my books, recommend Galena as a substitute. The only connection I can find is that both have a citrus like characteristic. I know we are in a hop crisis, and perhaps this was the best substitute available, but I was not comfortable using the Galena hops, so I pulled some of my secret Cascade hops out of storage and used it for flavoring and with the Galena for aroma. I will probably dry hop with the Galena and save the rest of the Cascade for another recipe.

The brew went well. It was a cold day, so the propane burner helped warm up the garage. As always the neighbors walked by the garage door wondering what I was doing with a 9 gallon pot on a turkey fryer burner, with the strange smells lingering in the air.

Doppelbock in primary

I started my second lager, a partial mash Doppelbock recipe. I am making a bock beer to be enjoyed at Bockfest, which occurs in Cincinnati in early March. I liked this particular recipe because it had some wheat, which I though might be a nice addition. Otherwise, the recipe follows a typical German style. It will be 7-7.5% alcohol. I used German Hops, Northern Brewer and Hallertau, which I had bought last year before the hop crisis cleaned out the market. At this point it would be difficult to find either hop variety. I set aside some of the Hallertau for my Oktoberfest, which will be brewed in June. The Doppelbock recipe recommended an extended lagering stage. My lagering won't be extended, but it should be sufficient. I plan to do a two week primary in the 45-55 range. I will then bring the beer up to to 60's for day or so to make sure the yeast is done. I will have the beer in the secondary for two weeks in the 30-40 degree range, and in the bottle for 3-4 weeks in the 45-55 degree range.

I had trouble getting my Oktoberfest lager to start to ferment, so this time I did a yeast starter for the liquid yeast and left the carboy in the basement at 65-70 degrees until I saw activity, at which point I moved it to the fridge set at 48-50 degrees. That seemed to work. I was forced to move the carboy into the basement after a week in the primary, because the garage fridge temp was dipping into the 30s, with the carboy reading at 43 degrees. Luckily one spot in my basement is holding around 45-50 degrees, so there should not have been a big difference in temperature. The fermentation is still going in this second week in the primary.

Hop Shortage

Luckily I heard about the hops crisis back when the harvest came out in late fall. I have been slowly buying up hops so that I could make all of my recipes for 2008. The hop crisis is blamed on a variety of reasons, including weather problems around the world destroying crops, the common problems such as plant disease and wilting, the weak dollar exchange rate resulting in other countries buying up US hops, emerging beer consumption markets in China and India, farmers abandoning hops for more lucrative crops such as corn, and some other factors. Here is a good article. Unfortunately it takes 2-3 years for a farmer to successfully grow a hop crop, so it may take a while for the hop market to recover. Some larger brewers are protected by contracts, while smaller brewers have been forced to find substitute hops or abandon certain recipes. Homebrewers are even lower on the food chain, as the shops are supplied after brewers. Every shop and website I have visited has raised their prices on hops 2-3 times, placed limits on orders, and some require that grain be bought with hops. Although I am fortunate to have most of the hops I need for 2008, I realize 2009 will be worse as no one will be caught off guard. I will be forced to use substitute varieties, which will have an effect on the taste and aroma.

Dupuy Draft Cider (version 2)

The Label

This was the second version of Dupuy Draft Cider. I chose this recipe because it involved a boil, while the original recipe, described here, was simply cider and yeast. In this new version, I boiled a gallon of water and added some Dry Malt Extract (DME), brown sugar, cane sugar, and some cinnamon. Once that was chilled I added the apple juice and an ale yeast. After transferring this beer to the secondary I added some corn sugar and more apple juice. Before bottling I added some apple sweetener, which is commonly used when making fruit wine.
Kati helped design this label, since the recipe was for her. The picture has two apples hanging on a Christmas tree, since this was bottled in December.
This batch definitely tasted different than the first batch, but it is still not quite sweet enough. I learned a few lessons from this beer. First brown sugar does not leave a taste, it simply converts to alcohol like cane sugar. Secondly adding sugar in the secondary does not add sweetness, as it is completely converted to alcohol. Lastly I may need to go back to the cider yeast strain used in the first recipe, as beer and wine yeasts make the taste too dry.
For my next attempt at cider I might try to sweeten the cider with a non-fermentable sugar such as lactose, or I may halt the yeast and then add apple juice or cider and force carbonate with CO2. Ultimately I would like use freshly squeezed juice, either directly from an orchard or with a press at home.

Hoppy Hoppy Holidays! Imperial India Pale Ale

Any lover of hops, including myself, has always dreamed of making a double IPA (Imperial India Pale Ale) after drinking a Dogfish Head 90 minute IIPA. I decided in the fall that I would make an IIPA, and that it needed to be made long in advance of Christmas, so that the beer could condition properly. Due to law school, the beer was not made until October, so it really did not reach the proper taste until late December and it is getting better with each month. I used 3 oz. of Nugget for bittering and 3 oz. of Columbus hops for flavor, aroma, and dry hopping. The beer registers at over 100 IBUs, which is insane. The alcohol is around 10%. With that amount of alcohol I had to use two packets of yeast. Thanks to Listermann for the recipe and ingredients. I was really afraid of the reaction from people tasting this beer, but I was surprised to see the number of people that liked it despite the high alcohol and hops. It was not the favorite beer within the holiday packs, but it still received good feedback. I have tried a few since Christmas and the beer is getting better. Due to the hops shortage, I will not likely get to make an IIPA this year or possibly next year, so I am carefully rationing the beer, since it has a shelf life that could extend into 2010, no joke. The beer had light body and a definite alcohol taste that was balanced by the spicy taste of the Columbus Hops.

The Name
Based on the insane amount of hops, I thought "Hoppy Hoppy" was a good description that worked well as a play on words.

Lump of Coal Christmas Stout

The Label

Believe it or not, this was my first attempt at a stout. Most homebrewers I have met, usually attempt a stout early, and in many cases it is the first beer they make. I found this recipe in one of my books. It caught my eye because it not only used a variety of types of malted barley, but also wheat, and roasted barley. The yeast specified was for a German Ale, which seemed a bit strange, considering the British history of stouts, but I followed the recipe. The yeast gave the beer more of a dry finish, which worked well based on the unusual variety of grains. The beer has a very dark, almost black look, with a rocky dark head, strong roasted smell, and a roasted taste with hints of coffee and chocolate. This was my personal favorite from the holiday packs, and it received high praise from family and friends.

The Name
Based on the color of the beer, I could think of no better comparison than a lump of coal, which was always a possible gift from Santa, if you had a bad year. After naming the beer, I found a couple commercial beers with the same name.

Griswold's Yule Log Spiced Christmas Ale

The Label

This beer proved to be the most popular beer in my holiday packs. I based the recipe off my 2005 Christmas beer, but I changed the spices a bit and the hops due the shortage. I used a smaller quantity of nugget hops, since Cascade was not available. I only used the hop for bittering, allowing the spices to provide the flavor and aroma. I put a small quantity of all of my spices in at the end of the boil, which included ground allspice, dried sweet orange peel, ground ginger, cinnamon sticks, and vanilla. I allowed the beer to sit in the primary for one week and in the secondary for two weeks. I added more of the spices to the secondary. The beer was carbonated with corn sugar. The beer had nice combination of spices that were true to the holiday season, but it was not overpowering in taste. It was light brown color and the aroma was ginger, allspice, and orange. The ginger taste was much lower than the 2005 recipe.

The Name
I was inspired by one of my favorite holiday movies, although some people have not been comfortable with the reference.