Continued Excitement!

My books have arrived...a day early! I can't wait to chew on these and make multitudinous strides in brewing this summer!

Hop Victory!

Just found a place today from where I could still order hop rhizomes! I ordered a Nugget rhizome, a high alpha hop, and Sterling, a Saaz hybrid. I am so excited to get my hop garden going. Peter the horticulturist will be the perfect mentor in this process. Now I just need to get some plans going for some sort of trellis system on which the hops can grow. Come early April, I'll be planting my first rhizomes, and they should be ready to harvest in August. This way, I should have a couple of pounds of fresh hop flowers to use for the winter months. In addition to the Fuggles, Goldings, and Cascade from Peter, I'll have these types as well. I am really excited to add this step and have another hand in the process!

Can't wait to free up my primary fermenter

Fermentation is slowing, haze is clearing, and the brew is nearing completion of its primary fermentation. I can't wait to get this thing into secondary, and that will hopefully happen by the end of this week. At that point, I will brew an earth-shattering, all original recipe for Belgian witbier! I am really excited about it...should be a great brew for late spring/early summer! I may even have to do another one mid summer if it goes well.

In other exciting news, I have been in touch with a fellow homebrewer in Andover who is a horticulturist by trade and grows five different kinds of hops in his garden! He has generously offered to split off his rhizomes so that I might start growing some of my own hops, so hopefully I will have some fresh buds of homegrown Cascade, Kent Goldings, Fuggles, Mt. Hood, and Willamette in my yard that I can use throughout the winter! This would make me BEYOND happy.

A shoutout to Dave and Brenda Bryan for putting me in touch, and a shoutout to Peter Konjoian for just being generally awesome!

Mmmm...hops!

I may have to brew more often...

It has only been about a week since we cracked into the ESB, and one of the two cases of beer has already been drunk...we're still a couple of weeks away from the light lager and the Belgian Wit (which hasn't even been brewed yet), and this worries me a bit. It's not a huge deal, we'll just be "rationing" a bit for the next couple of weeks. Hopefully I will be able to rack the Youzaho into secondary really soon, that way I can brew the witbier and have that done sooner. This is all a learning experience for me, though. Clearly, when there is good home brew to be drunk, more people want to drink beer. Thusly, I should probably brew more frequently this summer, and perhaps try to get some styles out that take less time to mature properly, and the two that I am most intrigued by are the English mild and brown ales. Both styles are brown ales that have nice flavor and delicate body and are fully ready to drink within about two weeks of being brewed (even a hair sooner than bitters). Since they use less malt (and in the case of the milds, fewer hops), they will be less expensive to brew. Furthermore, they are some of the only darker beers worth drinking in the summer, since even though they have a nice rich flavor, they tend to finish clean all around. Basically, I will likely be brewing quite often this summer, so please come by to partake of my nectar and learn the process of brewing, and PLEASE PLEASE DONATE EMPTY NON-SCREWTOP BOTTLES WITH PAPER LABELS, because the beer has to have somewhere to go!

Man does this stuff make me happy.

Cheers,
Brewmaster Cuttsy

I don't really have updates, I just think that this picture belongs in a magazine

Three words: Perfect. Fermenting. Temperatures.

The garage has maintained an unbelievably constant temperature that has been wonderfully healthy for the lager. Furthermore, I officially have fridge room for the five-gallon carboy for some cold secondary fermentation (also known as "lagering"). This is definitely going to be great.

A quick shoutout to my family for putting up with all of the equipment being everywhere. Aw who am I kidding? I'm supplying them with nearly endless delicious batches of suds between now and August. Not to mention the fact that we have more than enough room for this stuff. Man, this is going to be a good summer.

-The Brewmaster

Various updates

Hello readers! I've got some wonderfully happy updates on the following:

Mead: Wow, I caught a whiff of it the other day, and man does it seem like it will be wonderful nectar! The mead has still been bubbling away, barely slowing down since it started. It is also showing some signs of clear progress, namely some sediment in the bottom and some darkening of the color at the top. It has officially been fermenting away for two weeks, and I'm so excited to taste it in another month and a half. Hopefully it will be an instant classic, just like the NESB (New England Special Bitter, what what!). More updates to come.

Youzaho Light Lager: I'm starting to take some pride in this, especially because it's a lager and I'm trying to take some care with it so that it ferments properly. Turns out that my garage is a perfect place for lager primary fermentation, with the temperature remaining in the 50-60 range that is perfect for the Saflager S23 yeast. If this comes out well, I will definitely be trying some more lagers. It looks really nice, and is already past high Kraeusen. The best news about it is that there was a ladybug on the carboy this afternoon when I checked on it! Good luck? Yes. Luck of the Irish? Completely possible.

NESB: Man does this taste and look good. Come by for a bottle sometime! This recipe is going into the archives as a wonderful standby. Such a great first brew.

Equipment: I got a wine thief at the homebrew store last week. Makes my life so much easier! Now, taking specific gravities is as easy and dipping a thing into another thing. Yeah that's right, I went there. I also walked away with two spanking new airlocks so that I can use all of my carboys at once! Furthermore, this isn't exactly rocket science, but I am currently storing the remaining 3/4 of Hallertauer hops in a labeled mason jar, and I plan to do this any other time I need less than a full ounce of hops in a recipe. Such a great method for storage! Freshness in the fridge!


Happy St. Patrick's Day!

-Jeff