English Pale Ale Brew Day

Brew Day came and went this past Sunday. This brew day was especially nice since the Southern Division was accompanied by the Northern Division brewmaster to brew an English Pale Ale kit from Northern Brewer. As we prepared to begin brewing we had help from the youngest member of the Southern Division team (as captured in the picture to the left)!

In addition to having a brewing partner this time there were a couple of tricks that improved this brew day: First, we boiled 2 gallons of water in two pots (1 gallon each) which got our wort started much quicker than both previous brews. Second trick was A LOT more ice to improve the speed of the cool down. We used 15 pounds of ice plus a few cooler packs.

We used a liquid yeast over dry yeast this time (note liquid yeast may require a multi-day prep period before your brew day). We both really like using the liquid yeast because it was a lot easier to pitch and it also began the fermentation process a lot sooner than dried yeast.

Note the Northern Division recommends pitching liquid yeast through the funnel into the fermenter chased by the slightest amount of water to clean the funnel. This would have saved the small yeast spill we had during our pitch. This turned out to be the only hitch in the brew day.

We left the English Pale Ale in a dark closest with confidence that we greatly improved over our previous batches. I guess we'll see! Fermentation began within hours and has been very active even 5 days later.

Can't wait for the next sample during transfer to the secondary fermenter (hopefully this weekend).

Vienna Lager Tasting

This past Saturday evening members of the Northern Division joined the Southern Division for the first official tasting of Muckish Mountain HomeBrews. The Vienna Lager brewed by the Southern division had good lager qualities, very clear, carbonated, and smooth. Although the overall review was that aging still needs to occur (had only been in bottles for 7 days) the taste was encouraging.

We look forward to another review here at the 14 day mark to note any improvements after an additional week in bottles.

Brew Day

Just returned from a visit to the Southern division BrewHouse. While there, I assited the Head Brewmaster in brewing an English Pale Ale. I must say that the entire process went very, very well. Brewmaster Scott will be posting additional info.

We also had the opportunity to sample the first batch, a Vienna Lager. In short, it was very mellow and smooth, although only conditioned in the bottles for one week. Brought a six-pack up to the Northern divsion for future sampling after additional conditioning.

Today, the Northern division is brewing a Chocolate Milk Stout. At the moment, I am waiting for my brew buddy to get out of bed. Will report later on today's events.

The first batch, our English Pale Ale, is still in the secondary fermenter. Expected bottling date is February 22nd. Hardest part of brewing is the waiting

Cheers!

Beer Class

Steve and I attended a beginners brew class (free) sponsored by Mr. Steves
in Lancaster yesterday. Good session and very informative. We picked up a
few tips that we will share here. I am glad that we had actually brewed our first
batch before the class because we were able to ask more direct questions with
our vast (HA!) experience. Cool deal that they even served a homebrew during
the class, who knew?

Here are some of the tips:

- Best utensils are stainless steel, plastic is OK but stay away from
rubber or wood.

- When steeping grains make sure that the bag is not laying on the bottom
of the brew kettle, so as to avoid scorching. Also, do not steep over 170 degrees.

- Instructor recommended the use of hop bags when adding the hops
to your brew. Makes for an easier and cleaner pour into the primary fermenter.

- When using a secondary (5 gallon) fermenter add water to bring beer level up
to neck of carboy to eliminate as much air as possible. Only a little water
should be necessary, First time I heard this, so I will have to do a little
more research

- After your first few batch's are bottled, crack open one at various intervals
(1 week, 10 days, 2 weeks etc.) to experience the different taste. Take notes
to find out when taste is best.

I would recommend the class but advise to have either brewed a batch or have
some knowledge of the steps involved. It is a 2 hour course and the instructor
covers the entire process quickly. In our session, he actually brewed an
Irish Red Ale that he wanted ready for St. Patrick's day.

The last tip, which is mine,.....It is so much more enjoyable to do all this with
my brew buddies, Scott and Steve, and to have the support from the best
Wife(s)and Mother on our crazy adventure.

Bottling Vienna Lager

Today was bottling day. Start to finish took about 2.5 hours. That only leaves 7+ days until consumption begins! I found bottling to be the most laborious part of brewing so far and the best step to have a brewing buddy. Bottling is a total assembly line process of sanitizing bottles, filling, and capping. Being limited to just two hands renders the process significantly less efficient. I think my setup will require some revision the next go around too. I placed bottles in the kitchen sink filled with sanitizing solution. Next to the sink was the bottling bucket. I filled bottles on the seat of a chair and capped them on the floor before placing the bottles on a towel. That resulted in tasks at 3 height levels. The Muckish Mountain ergo-specialist would be none to happy with that.

In all, the first batch resulted in 34 12oz bottles and 6 32oz bottles (about 50 12oz bottles equivalent) for just over 2 cases of home-brewed vienna lager. Be sure to check back for the first tasting scheduled to occur on sat. Feb 12 when the Brewmaster from the Northern Division makes a site visit.

Northern Division Report

OK... Just learned how to blog so here goes....

Steve and I brewed a batch on January 31st. We started with an English Pale Ale. The day went well and from start to clean up and was about 4.5 hours. A couple things we learned. First, it takes a loooonnngg time for 2.5 gallons of water to come to a boil. Second, warm the extract to make it pour easier. Third, it's great to have a brew buddy.

Our batch went in to the primary fermenter about 4:30 in the afternoon. When I checked it about 6:30am the next morning, the air lock was bubbling quite vigorously with a nice looking krausen on top. Of course, this led to all kinds of panic, as I was expecting it to take a few days for the yeast to get started. We then thought that we needed to check often as we were expecting to have to go into blowoff mode. Never happened.

So today is Day 4 and we needed to consult with our Southern division (Scott) for some advice. He assured us that thing were progressing as he had experienced and not to worry. Here is a pic of our fermenter in its special place.

Looks good, (I think), who knows.