Raspberry Wheat, Oatmeal Porter and Pale Ale..Lots to talk about!

Ok so I'm nearly a month late posting but have been real busy. The baby has been keeping me busy the last couple weeks since Annette has been working more. However, I have been keeping hard at work brewing, just not writing about it! A lot has happened since my last post and I will talk about it all in a few, to summarize I have about 90 bottled beers, 5 gallons in the fermenter and all my Irish Red is gone. Blame Russo, Jay and Leanzo for that..Ok I guess I helped too.

The alcohol content in the Red was staggering, this is by far my best brew yet. I guarantee I will use this same recipe in the future so everyone who didn't get a taste will get one eventually, it tasted amazing.

As for the Raspberry Wheat that's bottled (Jay helped bottle this one); I tested it at about a week last Wednesday and it's still got some carbonating to do. I have had a couple compliments on it thus far, but I think next time I make a fruit flavored beer it will be with real fruit with secondary fermentation, not fruit extract with artificial flavors. I wish I remember the alcohol content of this brew, I should have wrote it down!

I bottled the Oatmeal Porter on Wednesday March 30th. The only unfortunate thing about this batch is I tested the ABV before bottling and it was only at about 4.76% or around, not terrible I suppose but I was expecting a little more than that. I tasted the sample before bottling and it has nice roasted chocolate/coffee taste to it and I can't wait to taste it when it comes out. Oh and Heather, I know I told you I'd make a stout for you to try and I will eventually, but for now I'm going to save some of this porter especially for you to try, sorry you didn't try the Irish red though, you would have loved it.

The last batch I brewed is fermenting right now, I started it on Friday April 1st. It's a Pale Ale with a recipe similar to Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Unfortunately it's still by extract but hopefully my next batch will be all grain, I just have to get the money for supplies to make the equipment I'm missing. The starting volume of the batch was at about 1.058 and since the weather is getting a little warmer my fermentation temperature is too, meaning a faster fermentation. I'm going to have to think about getting a thermostat for my garage refrigerator soon so I can continue brewing into the summer.

Anyone who hasn't tried my brew yet and would like to, hit me up on facebook or email (ultimahitzu@gmail.com, or just comment on this blog post. I don't have the capability to share every batch with everyone and if I did I wouldn't have any for myself so you gotta speak up! I won't forget about you.

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Oatmeal Porter - Brew Day

I did a lot of work today. After all the stuff I did today I'm ready to finish my beer and go to bed.

First of all; I set up the bottling equipment, readied the priming sugar and Annette and I bottled the Irish Red I had fermenting. I came out with forty-nine 12oz bottles. We didn't run into much trouble besides the normal mess. Oh, my bottle filler didn't want to stop flowing so I made a mess of beer on the floor a couple times. After that I decided to crimp the racking cane instead of relying on the cheap bottle filler to work. During the bottle filling I started seeping the grains for the Porter. The grain bag they sent me was..I don't know how to explain it..It probably could hold about an eighth of the grains I needed to steep, so I got two socks of pantyhose and used them to seep the grains instead, I wont be ordering from them anymore. We finished bottling without much of a problem, so I'm happy about that, only about 3 weeks till I can drink the Irish Red! Hit me up if you want a sample.

Back to the Oatmeal Porter. I did pretty good I think, almost had a boil over about three times but overall I think it went by pretty smoothly. The steeping came out nice and dark, I actually used LME (liquid malt extract) AND DME (dry malt extract) this time, as opposed to just LME. The ingredients all smelled and tasted delicious.
The original gravity came out to around 1.046 but I don't trust that considering I haven't figured out how to take into account the amount of extra water you put into the wort to top it off.

I found a local homebrew supplier downtown, pretty cool place on palm and olive. I will be getting the rest of my supplies and ingredients from them from now on to avoid shipping costs. Those shipping costs are more than I've been paying for the supplies themselves! I'll try to find a recipe for my next beer and get the ingredients from them next time.

Raspberry Wheat - Day 1

I started my raspberry wheat last night. Annette helped a little since this is her choice batch. This time everything went by pretty smooth, I actually did everything pretty flawless plus I got to use my immersion wort chiller I made (I'll show pictures when I upload them soon). It is fermenting right now and looks pretty healthy. I'm glad I decided to go with the blow off tubing, although I wish the tubing was bigger than 5/16". It is working pretty good so far. I went with the 5 gallon carboy this time (hence the blow off). It had an original gravity of 1.060 (or so). I'll leave this one in the fermenter for about two weeks before I bottle it.


I'm probably going to bottle my Irish Red tonight or tomorrow, I'll update everyone.

Batch 1 - Day 4 update - Active Fermentation

I checked on the batch today, this will be my last check this week unless something else happens that requires me to check it. I have opened the fermenter way too many times in the first four days and don't want to risk infection.

Active fermentation has begun. I am seeing constant activity in the airlock and krousen is forming nicely over the top of the beer.



I expect this batch to go about 3 weeks in the primary fermenter, so I should be bottling around the 11th - 18th of March and drinking around the beginning of April.

Another thing! I know voting isn't over yet (by the way if you haven't voted please do on the left hand of the screen, I am very indecisive), I will be doing another batch along with the current one and it is going to be a Raspberry Wheat Ale. As soon as I order my next ingredients after these two batches they will be for the poll that isn't finished, probably in a couple weeks.

Don't drink and brew

Ok you can drink, but don't drink as much as I did.

Well I got my stuff and jumped right in. Me Mike and Luie were drinking and brewing. It all was fun but I think I was doomed from the beginning. First of all I used an old tamale pot that was stained on the inside, I really don't know if that will effect anything so hopefully that part is fine. Secondly my thermometers weren't working properly so I had to guess at some points. I also dropped it into the hot wort and it took about ten minutes to get it out, ontop of that we put a couple non-sanitized spatulas to get the thermometer out. The last big thing is I forgot to put the fuggle hops in at the correct time ended up putting it in while the wort was being chilled..For the most part it was a disaster, but hopefully a miracle happens and it all works out fine.

All in all it was fun, and I am going to do it again soon, but don't get drunk and start taking your attention away from the brew..

Annette says she's supervising me next time we brew.

High Country Canadian Draft

Sitting here waiting is just too hard so I decided to use the Mr. Beer again, even though it wont produce as much as I will when my good equipment and ingredients arrive. I have two more flavors left, Whispering Wheat and Canadian Draft.

Yep, you guessed it, I decided to try the Canadian Draft. I'm not quite sure exactly what it is, but until I am able to mix my own ingredients I'm going to have to deal with these extracts. I added some honey to the wort, not much but it might add a little ABV and maybe effect the taste a little in a good way. We'll see.

Also today I set up my closet for fermenting, I'll show you all pictures as soon as I get a light in there.