This is funny!

A Canadian brewery wants answers from is consumers about how long it takes for beer to freeze outside. Break out the text books on chemistry and physics, because it sounds like not only are we talking ambient temperatures but also snow cover, wind and solar presence!

Thanks Fox News, for posting the important stuff.

Cheers!

I’ve been trying to avoid this for some reason, but every time I open my home page there seems to be another article in there about it. Apparently our wonderful European brewery conglomerate (and yes, Google their name and surf through the 150+ beers they offer) produced 600 bottles of a beer they are calling Vintage No. 1.

Look, if you’ve read more then two of my blog entries in the past, I’m a normal guy with what I consider to be normal tastes… a little towards the hoppy side, but still “normal.” I’ll certainly not turn my nose up at Beast Light nor will I willingly walk away from a 90 IPA.  But seriously, how good does it have to be to pay that much money for that little product?!?

I could possibly appreciate the cost if it were something that Napoleon had in his cellar, or if it were an orginal India Pale Ale found in an undiscovered, miraculously preserved cellar, but something produced yearly? C’mon.

Where is the difference between this and Utopia? I don’t know, maybe national pride? Maybe $270?

Who knows, perhaps my disdain comes from pure jealousy at the fact I will never be able to justify that much money for a beer.

Cheers.

 I asked for some help yesterday and got some great, insightful replies.

A quick recap of the problem: My overall flavor of recent brews aren’t to my satisfaction in comparison to what I brewed at my old house in a different city and most of the recent brews have been causing gaseous interruptions hours after consumption, not lending itself to marital bliss in the slightest. The dog can only be blamed for so much before it wears thin. (Thankfully, Travis, its not the trots.)

I had several possible solutions already thought up but the comments forthcoming opened up some more ideas. Its great getting some outside views. Its always easier to think of solutions from outside the problem.

My plan of attack with the next two kits are as follows:

• Buy bottled water for the next batch
• Take accurate hydrometer readings before pitching and throughout fermentation
• Rack as soon as the gravity nears the final goal, rather than a set time period
• Monitor temperature of fermentation to rule out fluctuation causing off flavors
• Ferment in well sanitized glass fermenter, avoid the bucket at this time

Am I missing something?

I usually ferment in my 6.5 gallon glass carboy anyway using bleach to sanitize and then my bottle washer to rinse with hot water, then slowly turning it to cool. Could it be the water from the faucet might leave some traces of something contributing to the off flavors, or lack of definition?

I have a bottle of Iodophore beating around somewhere, perhaps I’ll try a no-rinse attack of sanitizing.

To be truly effective at narrowing down the cause of the poorer quality beers I should make one change at a time to the brewing process and then take copious notes. Since I’m not made of money and would rather get the best beer I can with each kit I buy, I think I’ll take all the steps at once, or at least most of them and then go from there.

Have I left anything out, or does anyone else have other suggestions. I’m tentatively planning on brewing on Saturday, either that or heading out of town to drink beer and play cribbage and euchre, whichever works out best in the grand scheme of things.

Cheers!

Comments from a previous post led me here.

I’ve brewed maybe six or seven batches… oh maybe even ten, at my new house. Different city, different water supply. All the same equipment, same sanitization and inspection procedures to make sure I’m not introducing contaminants.

My issue is twofold. First I’m not getting quite the nice distinct flavors that I used to at the old house. The beers seemed to be sharper with more clarity of taste where the batches here seem muddled, if that makes sense. Even the IPA and Pale Ale have come out tasting off.

Second, out of the batches that I’ve done here, only two have not effected war upon my intestines a couple hours after consumption.  I have an oatmeal stout that I brewed last summer still on tap because one pint is enough. I actually have served it to people I don’t like in order to get rid of it! The flavor is fine its just…  (If you visit me, don’t accept my stout unless I get this figured out hahahaha)

I have my suspicions for causes but would like input from other brewers as well. I’ve read comments from folks who obviously take their brewing as serious or more so than I, and welcome any advice or thoughts!

Addressing the first issue: I’ve tried using filtered water, Pur three stage faucet filter to be precise. All water that goes into the boil as well as topping it off goes through the filter. I refuse to use straight tap water because it reeks of chlorine. My next step, which I don’t have the money for, is to go with an RO filter and rebuild the mineral makeup of the water similar to what was in Duluth. Frankly both the cost and chemistry behind that has me hesitant. I’m a bio guy, I might have minored in chem, but I don’t admit to liking it.

Another possible cause might be from letting it sit in the primary for two weeks, picking up more yeasty flavor that I want. I suppose the only way to test that is to rack right after the cap falls?

Which leads right into the second problem, which may also be caused by sitting in primary for two weeks. I just don’t buy that though.

I’ve tried using whirlfloc (sp?) tablets and that seems to have some reduction of the, ahem, side effects. One thing that I am slightly embarrassed about is a lack of using my hydrometer. Perhaps I’m not completing fermentations, but leaving the beer in secondary for nearly a month or more ought to take care of that shouldn’t it?

Any thoughts?

Cheers.

After my post about using beer as hairspray, someone sent me a link to Hairfinder.com with this little tidbit of advice in an article about household hints:

If you want to add body to your hair, try beer. Wash your hair as usual, then pour the beer onto the hair and massage it in. Leave it on for a few minutes then rinse it off. You’ll find that your hair has more body and will hold a style longer. Use a full-bodied beer for this purpose, not a light beer.

I’m trying really hard to imagine what the guy would say after his full-bodied beer got dumped out on hair in the shower.

“Hon, I love the new conditioner, smells awesome”
or
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH MY BEER?!?”
or
“hmm bit early for a bock, isn’t it… ohhhman”

Cheers!

As the temperature dropped in the last day from 40degF to 0, I wistfully thought about the basement in our old house. It was unfinished and had a slab floor, and if I didn’t wear my slippers my feet would get very cold. We actually laid runners from the bottom of the stairs over to the laundry area just to keep our feet warm!

This is the perfect way to lager a beer without having a dedicated refrigerator or temperature controlled freezer. I put the primary on a table in the basement so the temperature of the beer was around the mid sixties. By CAREFULLY placing the empty secondary directly on the cement and racking the beer to it, I was able to have and maintain temps in the mid fifties for three or more months. To help maintain thermal consistency I also flipped the carboy box upside down and put it over the secondary. I was hoping that would act like a cooler, keeping the cool from the carboy and cement in.

I have absolutely no idea how technically effective it was. I do know that the lagers I brewed using the cement floor turned out quite nice and very repeatable. Living in an area that has an actual winter with cold temperatures can work in your favor!

Brew on,

Cheers!

A word of caution: Glass carboys are delicate and can easily shatter simply by placing it full on the cement floor. As convenient as a cold floor is, five gallons of beer and glass isn’t worth the risk of moving it full to the floor.  No, I have never broken a carboy and I hope and pray to keep it that way.

Last night I was walking through the local beer store looking for something to review and found a cool looking beer hidden over by the cheap cases. I should have probably figured on what I was getting into, but went ahead and got it.

Now, here’s a dirty little secret that only my wife knows. If I get more than one bottle of a beer to review I drink one first off to see what I think and decide if its worth it to write up. Usually that turns out to be a fun adventure and then I can think about what to write and colorful discriptors, thus keeping myself entertained at least.

So, there I was drinking this beer and thinking “wow, this is pretty good. Nice firm yeast cake on the bottom” and I continue to drink the bottle. Oooh, I should have known, should have been aware of the danger lurking in the bottom of the bottle.

I’m not going to divulge the name of the beer because I may (perhaps) come back to the bottle in the fridge and review it at a later date and I don’t want anyone to think its the beer’s fault.

I was impressed enough with the beer, and realizing that there were enough left to review another day I opened another one with dinner.

Two or three hours later though I was thoroughly regretting drinking from the bottle.

Rather than go into descriptors of the result, I will simply relay this tidbit of information that usually rules my beer policy and yesterday was just simply … overlooked.

Always pour off beer that is on a yeast cake in the bottle. NEVER DRINK BEER DIRECTLY FROM THE BOTTLE IF THERE IS A YEAST CAKE.

Save yourself the discomfort. Find a nice tall pint glass, pour the bottle out and stop before it get cloudy and disrupts the yeast cake. Yes you’ll leave somewhere between a half inch and an inch of beer in the bottom, but its WORTH IT.

Believe me.

Cheers!

NO this isn’t a review, are you kidding me?!? I’d have to save up my wage for over a year to afford the $130 price tag!

The Boston Globe had a great article about it to tie back to the extreme beer movement, though. I have written before how Sam is one of my favorite macro-micro breweries, or is that micro-macro? and this one has me drooling at a chance to try out the Utopias brew.

Although this has me wondering:

The silky, brandy-colored drink is a blend of liquids that have been brewed over the last 13 years, then aged in various woods, including bourbon casks. It’s finished in sherry and Madeira casks.

How much hopping and malt profile comes through versus the wood types that its stored in afterwards?

Cheers!

I use Firefox as my main browser. I use iGoogle as my homepage and have a few things on there like NPR headlines and my Gmail preview and the “how to of the day.” A couple days ago they had this wonderful how-to!

How to Open a Beer Bottle With a Dollar Bill

How cool is this? Back in my college days when a bottle opener was unavailable we would use all sorts of interesting things including but not limited to counter tops, lighters and knives. I never thought to use a buck! Although, back in my college days it was pretty unlikely that there was a spare buck to fold, but hey…

Since my homebrew is kegged, and I have more bottle openers than I care to admit to, I’m not going to try it, but if you do, heed this warning:

Take care you don’t rake your fingers across the edge of the bottle cap. The cap is sharp and you WILL get a deep cut.

From close personal experience, this is TRUTH.

Cheers!

Its funny what I will read when I get bored. In a bookshelf in my home lives a black book with white and pink lettering. I never paid it much attention since it was clearly something that would have little to no interest to me. Its title?

Diane Irons The Worlds Best-Kept Beauty Secrets, What Really Works in Beauty, Diet & Fashion.

On page 31 is this little gem:

Natural Styling
Flat beer is a cheap, but effective styling tool. Pour a small amount in a spray mister… Spritz on before setting hair. Don’t worry, the smell disappears when your hair dries. Beer will also give life to a tired perm or naturally curly hair that tends to droop.

What a hoot! If I had enough hair on my head I’d be tempted to give it a try just to say I did. I wonder what other fashion tidbits I could find about beer. Perhaps an oatmeal stout will add color and moisture to brunettes highlights. A Farmhouse ale might provide the citrus help for overly….

Ok, I’m going to stop there, my head hurts from trying to think of more.

One last thing that I found funny about this, they call it “natural”. What beer did they use? Then it dawns on me, of course, the “natural” is Natty Light!

Cheers!