A new Kettle idea.. and some guts.

What you're looking at is my new idea for siphoning out of my boil kettle. We're sort of going backwards to simplicity here from the more complex that way it was before. The old design, which I don't have a picture of, was a down tube ending in a "T" connector that went into a circular ring shape that sort of encircled the divot at the bottom of the pot. On the bottom of the ring was a lot of hacksaw slots. That was used to filter the hop material out. That worked great when only whole hops were used, but I'm finding
whole hops hard to come by, and pellets much more convenient to use. Problem is, pellet hops clogged that ring-thing up in a heartbeat. Complete blockage, and no flow. So, I screwed with a weird "U" shaped thing for a while that just was a straight through tube with no straining mechanism on it at all, but picked up wort from the side of the kettle, right about where the end of this current tube is now. That worked great for pellet hops, but kind of jacked up the immersion chiller a bit because the two devices interfered with each other. Also, the straight tube got totally plugged once or twice by a simple hop cone getting jammed right in the end of it. So, my newest idea is a tube around the outside, ending in a hole at the end.. just like the old one that got plugged. 'cept this time, I made three small hacksaw slots right at the very last half inch of the tube, just in case of that stray hop cone. We'll see how it works. Just like the other straight tube design, this one requires you to tip the kettle to get the very last bit of wort out. Me and Jody are brewing tomorrow, so we'll see how she goes on her maiden voyage. Stay tuned..

Now, the guts, you ask? Just a little snippet from the interior pics of the Gaggia Espresso machine I was fooling with the other day. Took apart two broken ones and got one functioning one back together from the two. Here's some photos of the wiring and pump mechanism chaos inside.











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A Mini-Brew..

So I got all crazy the other day, the day I got sick, in fact, and brewed up a very small beer on the stove top. All grain style! I was eyeballing' my mini-keg of 2.5 gallon capacity and thought "Hey, maybe I can brew something just big enough to fill that little guy.. just for fun" . And I did. I didn't get any pics of the 4.5 lbs of grain I milled for this thing, the pics just sorta pick up from the mashing in phase and go from there..

Here's the photo's to show the event:

The fabricated mini-manifold that just fits a standard stock pot..


Into the mash she goes..



The mash rest in the stove..









Checking the mash temp. Shooting for 152-ish..


The lauter. All in one shot here, no fly or batch sparge for this run. Just a hard core NO sparge..


The clear runoff..










Spent grains..


The finally tally, unboiled, but getting close now...










A non-wide variety of hops. All this beer contains is Challenger, kiddies..











Two hop additions. 3/4oz at 40 minutes (40 minute total boil time. Sick, I know!) and another 1/4oz at 2 minutes to flame out.



A funnel to get 'er in the 3 gallon fermenter and..













..the final resting place. All 2.5 gallons of it.


So, I missed a few steps there with the camera. There was chillin' in the sink style, with ice cubes and all. Didn't take long cause it was such a small volume. My immersion chiller would have destroyed the pot had I tried to use that. Some overkill there, too. Milling grains, I already mentioned. Rehydrating the Coopers dry yeast I used, all 7 grams of it. Heh.. Took about three-ish hours or so to pull this off. It was fun.

We'll see how it goes. I'll keep ya' updated.

Chickens and things...

Chickens and things? And you're like, WTF? Is this guy off his rocker now, finally? The answer is negative. I'm giving a long, hard look at raising some chickens this year is all. I thought about this last year too, but I guess the time to do it is in the spring, and I only heard of this a bit too late in the game last year and couldn't get into it. I didn't wanna rush a thing like this, where the lives of four animals might hang in the balance, you know? So, we're giving it some more thought this year, and I have till the beginning of April to make up my mind about what I'm gonna do. If I go ahead with it (and right now, I am planning to..) the day old chicks will come in some time in the beginning of May. Then they'll stay in a cardboard box for a month, graduate to a dog pen for another month, and finally will need to go into an outdoor coop that I'll have to build sometime between now and then. I'm thinking about a coop like this one:



It's called a "chicken tractor" and it has an open bottom that lets the chickens scratch at the ground while still being safe from predators while they're inside the pen. You also tow it around the yard to keep the ground from geting all torn up from being in one spot, and also to give the little screwballs somethign fresh to peck at.

That's all the chicken info you'all need to know right now to help me along with this project.. cause I'm still pondering the pros and cons of this adventure. Giveme some fedback, eh? And rest assured, should I go ahead with it, this blog will be filled with beer, coffee *&* chicken news. Prepare yourself!

In other news, I roasted up a 1/2lb of a coffee from Bali called "Blue Krishna" provided by our coffee friend from the west, Kevin. What a guy! We'll see how that tastes in a day or two. Stand by for that review.

As for the coffee of the day, I'm working the last.. err.. almost last 1/2lb of the Kenya AA from Robs run to NYC. I've got a cup in hand that was Aeropressed just seconds ago. Waiting for it to cool to a below nuclear level. I'll mention tht I still aeropress almost everything these days, dragging out my faithful Yama 5 cup vapot about once a week or so to maintain my karmic one-ness with it. Is "karmic" a word? Hmm... For a Kenya, still have yet to find the lemony brightness in this bean that I'm used to. I seem to find only a mild burnt/roasty thing no matter *what* level of roast I personally bring it to being light or dark. That's really throwing me off. It makes an (and I'm serious when I write this) incredible single shot of espresso, which is remarkable for a supposedly known "bright bean". But like I said, I'm getting a burnt, sort of flat cup at all roast levels with this one, and maybe that's working its magic when it comes time to throw it under the pressure of the La Pavoni lever. ..ok, now that I'm near the bottom of the cup and it's really cooled off, I can get the acidic qualities of this bean... it's almost a sourness. Why does it wait so long to emerge? Strange bean!

OK, Frank just blew me off cause "I'm tired" and doesn't wanna come over for a beer. Well now. The lineup is to crack a bottle of SouRED for the monthly taste and see how it's coming along, then break open a 2005 Barley Wine, and finish by attempting to kick the keg of Coffee Porter. What kind of girlyman is he? Let's go knock over that SouRED and see how that looks, shall we?

I don't think you can see it in the photo cause there's no light, but I'll be darned if that isn't the prettiest beer I've ever seen. Perfect clarity, huge head of dense foam, the exact right mahogany red color I was looking for... and not a trace of sour on the nose. Just that 'dusty' sort of dry weirdness still, like last time.

Drats. OK, let's taste it anyway..

OK, no sour in the flavor, either. Very malty, though. Has that dry kind of taste to it, too. But not really objectionable. Actually, more chalky than dry, I think is what I mean to say. I make it seem more bad than is is.. it's actually a really fine red beer... I just was shooting for a really fine red SOUR beer. Some kind of really juicy, fruity grape thing mid-palate, too. Actually, that's a really nice taste right there. Almost like that Amber that Rob (from Plymouth Roasting Company!) did a while back that he fermented with a red wine yeast and didn't like so much, that I thought was a fine example. So, at least we know Rob won't like this one! :)

I think I'll save the Barley Wine review for something to do tomorrow.. this post is getting a little long in the tooth anyway. Keep clicking my Google Ad link there, just before you split, kids! Dig it...

Small Update...

I'm falling short today on what to write about, but wanted to say I did rack the funky pale ale I brewed with Pete, into a keg. It dropped from it's previous 1.032 down to a much more manageable 1.008 and should be all the better for it. I'm attempting to kick the coffee Porter now so I can get my Roggen online, and then the funky pale ale will be up next.

In other beer news, the Oro de Maggie appears to be *really* whacked out, with weird, drippy tentacle looking bug induced infection stuff on the top layer there. I couldn't capture it in a photo, it's too small to really get captured on digital for posting. But hey, it's weird. I also threw a bunch of it in a 750mL bottle and tossed in a spoon full of sugar there, with a cap on top, just to see what it'll be like in a week or so carbonated up. I wasn't that particular with sanitation, but I figured, the gravity is already way down and it's so damn infected with *something* that it can't hurt. Stay tuned, true believers.. I'll be accepting applications for a drinking partner for the bottle opening for that in about a week or so. Who's game? :-)

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Geoff's awesome Porter and some other crap (unrelated to Geoff's awesome Porter) I've got...

So there on the left is a photo I grabbed of Geoff's Porter.. a sweet Porter, I think he said. I could be wrong. I think I'll just call it a Brown Porter, cause I'm more familiar with that style. Cause it, well, exists. You know. Anyway.

This beer was left in my fridge in a 22oz bomber. As such, I found it only fitting to pour the whole damn thing into a 22oz Dogfish Head mega-snifter and drink the whole stinkin' thing at once. I enjoyed doing so. I poured a medium brown beer into the glass and found a moderate head of foam resting on top, as seen in the pic. It lasted some time up there, maybe two minutes or so. The beer itself was somewhat hazy.. I was sorta lackadaisical on my pour of this bottle conditioned beer, and may have flubbed a bit of yeast in there, so I'll not hold that against Geoff. I get the aroma of malt, and maybe a hint of roastiness as well, but not much. Checking my style guidelines against the notes I took as I drank this, so far, I *should* be detecting a mild roastiness and maybe a bit of caramel or nutty/bready-ness as well.. which I think I could see here. The malt aroma was "soft" and "fluffy", for whatever that means in the world of taste. The book says I should have a clear beer here, but like I said.. I wasn't watching my pour that much as I knew this was gonna be a dark beer. We'll do better next time. I found the bitterness to be right in the middle.. perhaps a bit on the maltier side than bitter, but definitely in the balanced zone. The taste was smooth and creamy on the palate.. easily drinkable. Perhaps that creaminess was a touch of diacetyl, which would be OK per style, but I couldn't detect any of that in the aroma. I found a tiny little ester or three of fruitiness hiding in here as I drank, but not much. Carbonation was right in the ballpark, as it ranges all over the map for this style.

All in all, I'd say this beer was fairly well on the nose. The only thing I didn't get from it was a bit of "stellar". It was a really nice, solid brew.. something you could fall back on any time and have a good drink. I think I'd like to see a it of something else in the center there... maybe a bit of chocolate flavor, or a really mild roast.. something to layer it up a bit and give a hair more complexity, but otherwise, I'd probably not change much else. Really a solid hit right there, Geoff.

I think Geoff needs to throw down with some numbers in the comments section here.. O.G., F.G., ABV, IBU's, Recipe and Hops.. give us an idea of what we're dealing with.

In other news, as you all may or may not know, I've been doing battle with that keg of American Wheat leftover from my New Years party. The damn thing just won't die. Today, I went off the deep end when I heard it gurgling but couldn't do it in.. so I called in a heavy hitter: Frank Aiudi.

I gave Frank two pint glasses and sent him off to the garage.. and almost had to avert my eyes when I saw the death blow coming.. but it came nonetheless. It was inevitable. Frank kicked the keg. It took only a pint and a half of Frank's mighty trigger finger on the pony tap, but the foam burst forth halfway through the second pint glass.. and that was it. She was gone. Expiring in a mighty burst of carbonated froth. Never stood a chance.

So long green-apple-tasting American Wheat.. you put up a hell of a fight! Salute!

Tomorrow, I put the carbonating tap on the third iteration of the Roggen, rack my funky Jolly Pumpkin yeast Pale Ale into a keg, and set my sights on the next keg target.

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Couple new homebrew reviews and some guts...

Well, guts of my iMac, anyway. Seems the optical drive (SuperDrive, in Mac -speak...) kicked the bucket this past week. First problem we've had with this thing hardware wise in the time we've owned it. Some guy from a Mac approved site came out for an in house repair. Sa took this pic of the guts of the machine while it was dismembered on the table here. Sheesh!

Here's a beer review for Jody's new IPA. I got a 12oz and a 22oz bottle from him the other day, filled with his new beer gun thingy. He says he loves it. It seemed to have carbonation, too.. so I guess the damn thing even works, to boot. It might be a little low on the carbs side.. but it was his first use of this beer gun, so I'll cut him some slack.

Here's a shot of it in action:

He even used his fancy new labeling machine to put those labels on there all straight and stuff. Beautiful work, Jody! Did you employ that guy from Hillside Brewing to design those ones too, like everyone else in town is doing?

Anyway, The beer poured from the bottle with carbonation, but not much in the way of foam.. kinda petered out really quick. get a whiff of what smells like honey in the initial aroma, but I think that's just the hops in there. Still, smelled of honey for just a bit after the first pour. It's a hazy yellow/orange color... appropriate for a highly hopped IPA. The malt is readily apparent, and is fairly big. Somewhere between a Dogfish 60 and 90 minute. I believe Jody said he was shooting for a 60 minute clone with this. I think it's a bit more malty than 60 minute.. but definitely less than 90 which makes it ever so much more drinkable. And drinkable it is, as this poor little 12oz'er didn't last much more than 5 minutes. Totally delicious stuff right here. A definite treat! Nothing in the way of defects I can taste here.. well, I do see this beer was packaged in a Michelob bottle. Which means, did Jody actually drink a Michelob to get this bottle? Hmm.. some things better left unanswered, I think..

Next time, I'll be workin' a review on Geoff's Porter.. poor guy left a 22oz in my fridge when he came over the other day, and now it's gonna suffer my wrath. In addition, I've still got Ubuntu Linux running on my old crusty laptop here, and it's a heck of an OS. I'm liking it. Way faster than Windows XP was on there.. I'll have to write about that in the future too..

That's all for now. Keep clicking the Google Ads link there to the right, you cheapskates!

Busted! A sad day... but it get's better.

I know it's hard to see in this pic, but that's a shot of my beloved iPod Touch with a big crack in the top end of the screen (which is shown at right, here). Not really sure how it happened, cause I didn't drop it or abuse it in any way. The fellow at the Apple store (a real, live Genius!) said he's seen it in the past where someone puts an iPhone or Touch in their pocket and bumps into a table, thus cracking the screen, and you're none the wiser, cause you didn't do anything that you *know* of. Maybe that's what happened to me? Dunno. End of the day, that same nice fellow sent me home with a new old stock 8 gig replacement model and I was smiling again. I was going to buy a case right then and there, but.. well... they didn't have any cases available for the 1st gen models! Ah well... I love Apple.

In other news, Jody sent me home with a couple bottles of his new IPA. I've got them on stand by here, and home to dig into them during this coming weekend for a downright brutal review of this highly touted product. We'll see how she stands up to the pressure.

Timmay's party also coming up this weekend, and there's sure to be some news from that session when the time comes. Stand by for that news as well.

Right now, I'm drinking a cup of Kenya Gethumbwini AA that I got from Rob, over at The Plymouth Roasting Company. Only took home a lb and a half or so, so it's gonna be a short lived run, but it's a nice cup so far. Day two after a roast of just into 2nd crack. a really good brightness and acidity, not quite balanced, but then.. why'd you get a Kenya if you were looking for anything else? Hint of lemony-tea in here. A slickness on the tongue that I'm not quite certain of.. not disagreeable, but odd. Really delicious stuff. I know it's insane, but I'm going to do a shot of this S.O. Kenyan puppy in the La Pavoni later on.. probably tomorrow, just to see how much it hurts. Wish me luck. ;)