Hump's Brewing

Brewin’ It Up

Today Hump’s celebrated father’s day by making what every dad really wants on this day: awesome beer.

Ahhh… Can’t you almost smell the sweet wort and fresh German Perle hops?

And here we have the spent grains, still sitting in the mash tun, waiting to be pitched into the compost.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get a good shot of the whole brew stand on this outing. But I did get a snapshot of the stand’s “control center”:

It’s a bit hard to tell, but on the right is a valve to turn on/off the water, and to its left are two valves to turn on/off the propane supply. The top valve controls – you guessed it – the top burner (the hot liquor tank as it’s called), and the bottom valve controls the bottom burner (the kettle).

My brew-stand is fairly bare bones, and I got it at a steal of a price. Doug, the guy who fabricated it and who also happens to own/operate Just Brew It!, has fancier models that include metal/rigid lines for propane integrated with (i.e. welded onto) the brew-stand. My low-budget fastening method involves flexible gas lines and zip-ties, as you can see from the picture.

Daddy’s Day

To celebrate the occasion in style, Malin got me a bottle of 16-year-old Lagavulin. How awesome is that?!

I tried a tiny dram of it side-by-side with the 10-year-old Cask Strength Laphroaig I got for Christmas.

They are both very smoky. When sipped side-by-side, the palate quickly acclimates to the smoke, and you get a lot more nuance from each one.

The Laphroaig is a little warmer – not surprising given its cask strength (55.7% abv). It pours slightly lighter in color with just the slightest hint of green hue. Its flavors feature more peat-moss with notes of salty ocean water and seaweed. The body is fairly velvety with a touch of honey-like maltiness towards the end.

The Lagavulin is smoother and slightly richer. It starts with subtle hibiscus flower and honey up-front and then finishes with touches of dark malt character like slightly overdone toast.

It’s hard to pick a favorite. The Laphroaig is more eccentric and a better value (i.e. a less expensive than Lagavulin). The Lagavulin is more straight-forward. I can certainly see how some may show disdain for the crazy range of flavors in Laphroaig, whereas Lagavulin is more refined and sweeter. They are both very smokey, which I think is why I like them.

As both of these were gifts, I need to keep a good thing going by finding a way to get a bottle of Ardbeg as a gift. That will complete my trifecta of what are generally considered to be the strongest tasting whiskeys available. But I’d just as happily accept any other Islay whiskey – Caol Ila, Bowmore, Bruichladdich…

Brickworks

Last night, after taking the family to a birthday party for a one-year-old, we headed over to a new area near Georgia Tech campus: Brickworks at Midtown West. Therein is a fantastic beer and wine shop named Hop City and, right next door, location #3 for Atlanta’s very own Five Seasons Brewing.

We made a quick dash into the bottle shop to see if there was anything new and found a new variety of Mikkeller Single Hop IPA. Recently, I found three of them in a local shop, and they were all pretty good:

In case you can’t read the labels, the picture features their Cascade, Warrior, and Simcoe single-hop IPAs. The idea is that they use the same recipe for each beer, but use a different variety of hops. Each beer uses one and only one hop variety. The Warrior IPA was my favorite, and I’ll be on the lookout for Warrior rhizomes next year so I can have some of my own.

The new variety that I found last night is, unfortunately, not pictured. It features a variety of hop I’d never before heard of: Nelson Sauvin. After googling it, I found that it hails from New Zealand and supposedly imparts a Sauvignon Blanc grape character to a beer. It didn’t taste like grape to me, but I did notice a slight sourness on top of the usual grassy citrus and pine notes. In any event, a worthy beverage…

After perusing Hop City for new stuff, we went next door for dinner at Five Seasons. My wife and I had mixed impressions of the place. The presentation of their beer sampler was unimpressive and the glasses they used (double-tall shot glasses) are horrible for sampling beer – no aroma escapes the glass geometry which makes everything taste more bland, like tasting a beer with a cold.

Two of the six beers in the sampler were very good: the Venus Belgian White and the Decadent Brown. The others were decent, too, but just not as good. I also tried a pint of their “mild” ale, on cask. It was quite disappointing – too mild in flavor and tainted with a strawberry funkiness.

We had a similar opinion of the food – some bright spots, but not that great overall. The menu looks great – interesting “feasts” (dinners for two), pizzas, small plates, etc. The delivery was a little hit and miss, though.

We ordered a kid’s mac and cheese for our older son, and it came out ridiculously over-cooked. Well, I guess kids like mushy noodles, so I guess we can cut them a little slack here.

For ourselves, we had fried sweetbreads over barley-pearl risotto (not bad; we always appreciate seeing sweetbreads on a menu), lamb tenderloin with rosemary demiglace and smashed potatoes (worst value: small portion, slightly overcooked lamb, too much potato, demiglace was a bit weak), and cajun-style grilled ravioli with andouille sausage and crawfish (my favorite – spicy, very flavorful).

We were then a bit disappointed with the service when presented with the dessert menu. They were pretty much out of everything but failed to mention it when they gave us the menus. We had a frustrating time figuring out what they did have. Their home-made ice cream was good, and the fruit was ripe and sweet. The pecan tart – called Coca-Cola Rum Pecan Tart – was too dry, and had not even a hint of rum-and-coke flavor (which I was hoping for given the name). My wife really enjoyed the flourless chocolate cake.

All in all, it was a bit of a mediocre visit. The price was too high for the quality of food and service. The other Five Seasons locations are usually highly rated, so perhaps this new location just hasn’t gotten into its groove yet. There are also many other types of food on the menu. So we’ll probably return and see if we don’t have a better experience. But unless either the beer or food is really great next time (hopefully both), we may not return for a trip #3 since The Porter and The Bookhouse Pub are so close to that part of town…

Welcome to the World!

Tonight, I added the 1.5 pounds of frozen pineapple and 1.5 pounds of fresh coconut to the Witbier I brewed to celebrate the arrival of our latest son, Ewan.

I was dismayed to see that after almost three weeks in the primary it had only gotten down to about 1.030. I used Saison Dupont yeast (Wyeast 3724), and I’ve heard and read about this yeast doing exactly this. It is very finicky and frequently slows down nearly to a halt, even after a rapid start.

I added the fruit to a clean carboy and decided to go ahead and rack the stuck beer, hoping the extra sugar will help get it going again. As another prod to get it going again, I’ve moved it out of the basement and into the kitchen – which is a good 4 degrees warmer. I’ve read that warming it up near the end of fermentation helps to keep it going – even as high as 85 degrees! So hopefully the shift from 74 to 78 will get it back in gear.

I have to admit that, even grossly under-attenuated, the beer tasted awesome. It was sweet, but the sweetness will go away once it is finished fermenting, so I’m totally stoked about the final result. I just have to be patient and possibly let it sit for several more weeks before it is ready.

By the time it is done, it will be disgustingly hot and sticky here in Georgia. Oh, wait – it already is! In any event, a cold, tropical-cocktail-inspired Belgian Wit will be just what the doctor orders to cool off.

Toucan Stout

Today I nabbed ingredients for our next brew: Hump’s Toucan Stout.  This will be an “Export Stout” – a version of stout brewed for export to tropical markets. It is generally fuller and much, much stronger than a standard “Dry Stout”, and often fruitier, too. The classic example of the style – Guinness Export Stout (not available in the US and not to be confused with Guinness Draught and Guinness Extra Stout which are) – isn’t particularly fruity but is punched up with subtleties of brett fermentation. Or so I’ve read. I’m not sure which markets still get Guinness Export Stout, but I didn’t see it the past two times I looked for it in the UK and Europe.

This brew will be hopped exclusively with German Perle hops, and I’ll be using Wyeast 1187 – an English/British style of yeast known for its complex fruity esters.

Brew day will be this Sunday. The opportunity to brew will be my father’s day gift…

Hopyard

Hump’s is now home to four hop plants. The Chinook plant we started last year is doing really well. It started slow but is a monster now, already covered in spurs.

We added three more this year: one each Centennial, Horizon, and Willamette. I actually bought others and gave the rhizomes to a friend of mine. He had a couple more Willamette (both of which have unfortunately already passed), one Cascade (which may produce grapes since the rhizome was apparently fused to a grape rhizome!), and one Glacier.

I thought the Centennial died, but a little over a week ago it started getting some new growth. The other two new ones, Horizon and Willamette, are doing great – much better than the Chinook did last year when it was fresh in the ground.

Hopefully later this season we can cook up some frighteningly bodacious wet hop ales.

Georgia and Beer

Over the past several months, numerous new breweries have come to the Georgia market: Moylan’s and Bell’s most notably. We’ve had some other new brews popping in here and there, too: Yeungling and New Belgium on the almost-micro-brew-but-not-really front and French Broad (from Asheville, NC) on the authentic micro-brew front.

Last night I was able to try an interesting specialty from Sierra Nevada: Brown Saison. This beer, unlike almost every other Sierra Nevada brew I can remember, was exactly as described. It was Belgian, it was fruity, vaguely Saison-like, and brown in color (though not too dark). It was distinctly missing hops. This from the brewery whose “doppelbock” (Double De-Bock-le) tastes like an American IPA.

I’ve been stockpiling interesting brews from a new beer, wine, and homebrew supply store in the city. The store’s called Hop City. Their homebrew supply selection is weak (but of course I’m spoiled, since Just Brew It is probably the best in Georgia). But their beer selection is phenomenal. Of particular interest: Struisse Black Albert and Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale. I’ll post reviews once I try them. I’m quite excited about both of them (and about numerous other bottles hiding out in the stash downstairs).

The other day we had a chance to have dinner at The Bookhouse Pub in midtown. It was a really cool place. Despite the fact that they have no kid’s menu, there were several families there with small children – which we liked since we drag our 4-year-old and newborn wherever we go.

The place is very cool inside, has a nice ambiance (including a Logan’s Run DVD playing on the television), a solid beer list (though not as impressive as The Porter or The Brick Store Pub), and an awesome food menu (maybe even better than The Porter’s, though shorter).

Also, they have a sort of happy hour between 5pm and 6:30pm on weekdays where they offer numerous appetizers for only $3 and a few entrées for only $10. We had the smoked trout mac & cheese appetizer (awesome! and only three bucks!) and the hanger steak (even more awesome!! and only ten bucks!!). We had a great time.

Last week (starting 5/11) was my first week back at day-job work after being off for three weeks. Because the office is closer to it Brickworks than my home, a friend of mine and I dropped by during lunchtime last Wednesday. We didn’t eat or drink, but took a quick look at the Five Seasons Brewpub location there (their third). It is open and serving food, but won’t be pouring brewed-on-premise beers until this week or next I think. Our main objective was actually to check out the beer, wine, and homebrew-supply shop next door: Hop City. The folks there were really friendly, and they had some great brews to choose from.

Particularly good picks that I haven’t tried yet but was excited to nab include these:

• Struise Black Albert (expensive little sucker)
• Three different versions of Mikkeller Single Hop IPA:
  • Cascade
  • Warrior
  • Simcoe
• Nøgne Ø Dobbel IPA
• Smuttynose Maibock
• Sam Adams Long Shot 2009 (a sixer with two each of three different brews)

I haven’t gotten into any of these great finds – in fact, I still have a fridge full of older selections (some still hanging around from my trip to LA last October). Next time I have beer geek friends over, I’ll have to crack some of these (if they’re not all gone by then…)

Our other recent adventures have been all about homebrews.

The English IPA, Hump’s Punjabi Pale Ale, was the first to make it into a keg. This beer turned out great. It is a little bold, hoppy, and bitter for an English IPA, but the distinctly English hop varieties and yeast keep the flavor profile in style. This is frighteningly drinkable – almost session-beer like for a hop-head like me – for a strong brew (6.5%abv).

Next into a keg was our fine Belgian strong ale: Hump’s “La Brabançonne” Grand Cru. This one is still a little green. It finished quite dry and thus very strong: 9.0%abv. It is still a bit warming with alcohol and the flavor of ethanol is a little too conspicuous. A few more months of aging and it will be nice. A year or two and it will likely be un-freaking-believable.

The final brew, sitting patiently for weeks on the counter-top, was a big American Amber – perhaps India Amber Ale: Hump’s Red Bedlam. This is everything that it promised to be. It’s big hop aroma and flavor from Columbus and Simcoe hops are simply bliss. The malt profile is bready, rich, and slightly sweet – which stands up well to the very bitter finish and warming strength (7.4%abv). This one might be my favorite on tap right now, but it’s a close call between it and the IPA.

My fridge is once again full of crazy, hoppy goodness – a welcome sight after several months of low-hop brews (which were all good – don’t get me wrong – but were unable to tickle my hop-funnybone, if you know what I mean).

I bought ingredients for the next batch a few weeks ago, but haven’t gotten a chance to brew yet. I hope to brew this weekend (perhaps on Memorial Day). I’ll be cooking up Hump’s “Welcome to the World!” Wit. This crazy, refreshing beer – brewed to celebrate the birth of our newest son – will be the offspring of a ménage à trois involving a Belgian Witbier, a Belgian Saison, and a piña colada. If anything, it promises to be wild. With luck, it will also be delicious (a restrained hand when adding the pineapple and coconut will hopefully insure its drinkability).

Today is episode #27 of the beer-blogging Friday sessions. This month’s topic is Beer Cocktails, titled more elegantly in the topic announcement as Beyond the Black and Tan.

When I was in college, it was Guinness that brought me to the world of flavorful beer. I drank mostly Miller Genuine Draft and Bud Dry because of their middle-of-the-road price points. They were cheaper than the brand standards like Budweiser and Coors Gold but seemed equally palatable. How naive I was (I even enjoyed Zima every now and then)!

A friend and roommate of mine had enjoyed Guinness on draft in the past and brought home a six-pack of their Extra Stout in bottles. I was intrigued by its color and subsequently blown away by its flavor. My roommate didn’t care for it. He preferred the “smoother” draft variety, which wasn’t available in bottles at the time (only on tap or in “widget” cans). I later tried the draft version and thoroughly enjoyed its coffee overtones and sublime drinkability. Around this time I also tried Pete’s brews – initially their Wicked Red – and was similarly impressed. Before too long I was a certified beer snob, unable to revert to flavorless yellow lager unless I was at a keg party where it was available for free (after all, I was still in college and usually broke).

I was even fortunate enough to live in Home Park – a neighborhood of shabby houses filled mostly with students and adjacent to campus (Georgia Tech in Atlanta). This turned out to be fortunate because this was back in Sweetwater’s early days, and they used to sort of (perhaps they still do…) “sponsor” the Home Park Festival by bringing a truckload of Sweetwater kegs of all flavors. Great live music + great local draft beer = tons of fun.

So, what does all this backstory have to do with beer cocktails? Sorry. I can be a bit long-winded sometimes. It wasn’t long after I discovered Guinness that I discovered this bizarre cocktail that was the black and tan. I read (and was probably told) that it is traditionally Bass and Guinness. I read that locals in Ireland preferred Harp and Guinness. I was fascinated (still a little naive, too, eh?).

I used to make my own “big daddy” black and tan using a 24 ounce stein/mug (emblazoned with Buzz the yellow jacket of course), a wickedly bent spoon (for the perfect pour), one 12 ounce bottle of Sierra Nevada Stout, and one 12 ounce bottle of Samuel Adams Bohemian Pilsner (no longer available). I have since outgrown this cocktail, but can still attest to the wonderful beer that it produced: stout with big roasted barley and coffee notes, a touch of grainy pilsner malt sweetness, and a mesmerizing hop complexity from the blend of citrusy American stout and brightly hopped Czech-style lager.

So in memory of this “big daddy” cocktail, I decided to make something even more memorable. Something immense. Something that is hopped to absolutely irresponsible levels. Something with enough alcohol to serve as a pleasing after dinner drink – or to stir crazy college students to perilous uproar (if they could afford it). I mixed up a delicious Imperial Black and Tan – enticing and intoxicating (is that redundant?):

As can be seen in the photo, this beer consists of two big beers: Sweetwater Happy Ending (the current vintage from this past winter) and Samuel Adams Imperial Pilsner (from 2007). Despite the fact that the glass looks more dark than light, it is mixed to about 50/50. I think that the ratio of final gravities in the two beers is different enough to prevent the perfect pour (i.e. the stout’s specific gravity is too close to that of the lager to let it easily float atop the other without some blending).

I will now close this novella with tasting notes of this blended beast:

• Appearance: Surprisingly cloudy. Very dark brown with red and caramel-colored highlights when held to the light (after the two beers completely mixed). Head pours medium-thin and splotched with tan and white from the two beers. It subsides into a crescent of light tan, fine bubbles. A few spots and streaks of lace are left on the glass.
• Aroma: Resiny and vinous with hops. There are also some notes of dried fruit and chocolate-covered toffees. And some alcohol, too.
• Flavor: Starts sweet and hoppy with a mix of grainy sweetness, caramel, and crazy spicy nobles hops (thanks, Sammy!). There are some notes of toasted bread and coffee-like roasted grains, too. As the beer finds its way to mid-palate, there is an explosion of hop bitterness that is surprisingly docile compared to its individual constituents. Spicy hops with a touch of evergreen blend with toast, semi-sweet chocolate, and dark strong coffee. There are also notes of dark fruit esters (prunes, raisins) that fit wonderfully well amidst all these flavors. The finish is surprisingly dry and surprisingly familiar from other black and tans: a nice mix of hoppy, roasty stout and grainy, hoppy lager – but elevated by an order of magnitude.
• Texture: The mouthfeel is surprisingly smooth and slippery – very full-bodied and creamy with a slight zip of carbonation.
• Overall: Wow. This met my expectations exactly. It tasted exactly like what it is: a great big, irreponsibly-hopped “imperial” black and tan. ‘Nuff said.

I am now feeling a little bit dreary thanks to this experiment. Many thanks to Beer at Joe’s for coming up with this original (and evidently nostalgic – at least for me) topic.

No, I did not make it out to the 420 Fest this year, though I am waiting in mad anticipation of tasting their latest Dank Tank offering – a Double IPA that was available at the festival. It should be available soon at a few local pubs – including at least one or two Taco Mac locations and hopefully The Porter and/or Brick Store.

Actually, I only mention it because from now on I have an excuse (albeit perhaps a weak one for a few years) to celebrate the 420 fest: our newest son, Ewan James Strider Humphries, was born on 4/20 (2009).

I chatted with a guy I knew from high school the other day. This guy also happens to be a home brewer, so naturally part of our catch-up conversation was about beer and brewing.

When I mentioned to him that we have a newborn coming soon (due April 16^th), he said I should brew a beer to mark the occasion and then suggested the title “Welcome to the world!” Wit. I thought it was an absolutely brilliant idea.

Unfortunately, I’m not sure when I’ll get a chance to brew it. I can’t cook it up this weekend because we’re too close to delivery date (the last thing I want to happen is to have to stop what I’m doing in the middle of a batch to take Malin to the hospital – and obviously telling Malin to wait for a few hours for me to finish wouldn’t be a realistic option). So I’m hoping the whole family can hang out on the deck in the nice weather while I’m on vacation (I’m taking three weeks off when the new one is born), and maybe I’ll have a chance to cook up the celebratory beer at that point in time.

The biggest thing going for me being able to brew with a newborn around is the fact that my wife loves Belgian Witbiers. I’m still deciding which recipe to cook up – my box o’ uncooked original recipes currently includes two Wits: Hump’s Wry Wit – a witbier made with malted rye instead of malted wheat; and Hump’s Witless Monk Ale – an “imperial” Witbier at >7%abv. I think I’m leaning towards the Rye Wit – since “imperial” isn’t always the best pair with “hot weather in Atlanta” (among other reasons)…

In any event, I still have lots of delicious stuff sitting in the basement, eager go into kegs. That may have to tide me over until the time when I can make the next baby-welcoming batch.

The dark strong Belgian ale I made three weeks ago is probably ready to be kegged. I racked it to a secondary fermentor for a little aging since time will do it good (it finished at nearly 9% abv). It could certainly stand to stay in the secondary for a few more weeks, but I’m getting itchy for something new…

The English IPA I made last week, Hump’s Punjabi Pale Ale, is very nice so far. It’s probably finished fermenting (though yesterday I did see the occasional slow bubble from the fermentation lock). My plan is to rack it over 1.5 ounces of dry hops (Fuggles and Target) and let it sit for another couple of weeks in that state before kegging. I can hardly wait!

And, of course, we have the India Amber Ale I just made this past weekend: Hump’s Red Bedlam. It features some of my favorite hops – Columbus and Simcoe. It smells retardedly awesome, blowing hoppy and estery air out of the fermentation lock as it bubbles along. Once it is done fermenting (I’ll probably give it another week from now), I’ll rack it over 1.5 ounces of dry hops, too (more Columbus and Simcoe).

My current line-up of kegs is nowhere near empty, so I’ll be putting a lot of beer into bottles over the coming weeks. Of course, Malin will actually be able to drink some beer pretty soon here, so maybe we’ll finish some of this stuff off after all…

Also this past weekend we added three more hop plants to the garden: Centennial (my favorite), Horizon (never used but have read lots of good things about it), and Willamette (the most plentiful rhizomes available at my local homebrew store). And the Chinook we planted last year has already started coming out of the ground (though growth is admittedly modest). We had to cover everything Monday night to prepare for the freak cold front that came through. The mercury dipped below freezing Monday night and Tuesday night. And today things returned to their normal Spring self (near 70 degrees – a long way from freezing).

Beer writer Lew Bryson picked the topic for this month’s Beer-Blogging Session: Smoked Beers. Luckily, I didn’t even have to go get something special for this one. I have two smoked brews in the cellar at the moment.

Fireside

The first brew in the basement fridge I’ll share with you is Weyerbacher Fireside. The label is charming and rustic. It promises to be a delightful glass of smokey, malty goodness.

The aroma is malty. There is a subtle hint of smoke, but it is minor next to the waves of tangy malts and caramel. The flavor is similar: rich in malt character with some graininess, some subtle pepper and fruit, and even more subtle smoke.

It’s tasty, but it’s not smokey enough. I recall one of my favorite smoked beers – Aecht Schlenkerla Urbock – and decide that Fireside is too timid. I want more in-your-face campfire from my smoked beers.

It is a good beer. It is slightly warming with alcohol, and has a nice malt profile that is rich and flavorful. But it is a disappointing smoked beer.

Next up… homebrew!

Hump’s Smoked Maple Stout

Now this is more like it! Admittedly, this too is a bit weak in the smoke department. Neither of these beers are the smoke bombs that you’d find from a beer whose label reads “Aecht Schlenkerla.” The Schlenkerla brews are the only commercial German Rauchbiers I’ve had, and the only ones I know are available in these parts (though I’ve recently read about Spezial and wonder if they’re available in Atlanta). I wonder if all authentic Bamberg rauchbrews are as smokey as these prodigal exports…

So the homebrew, which is on draft in the fridge at the moment, pours a deep black with a very thick, light tan head. The aroma is grainy with light notes of chocolate and smoke. The smoke flavor comes from some applewood-smoked British Pale Ale malt (6 ounces in a 5-gallon batch). The smokey quality to the beer was rich and full of life at first. It has smoothed out – almost too much.

The flavor is chocolatey and sweet (the base style is Sweet Stout, made with a fair portion of Grade B maple syrup). It is missing a roastiness and richness that I like in the style – back to the drawing board!

The smoke qualities are stronger than in Weyerbacher’s Fireside. Both beers get a thumbs up. Both beers need more. Fireside needs more smoke. Smoked Maple Stout is about right, but the underlying base beer could use some tweaking.

2009/03/14

I had a few friends over the other day to celebrate the inaugural batch for my new brewing sculpture:

It is a three-tiered metal frame with two built-in burners (one high for the hot liquor tank, the other low for the kettle). Currently, I use a step-ladder in order to measure the water in the hot liquor tank and check the temperature. The ladder also makes it a little easier to work with the mash tun as I can reach down instead of up.

We turned the brewing festivities into an impromptu picnic. Unfortunately, much time was spent inside because of the crummy weather. Cleaning up was a huge pain because it began to really rain heavily. I was so soaked that the jacket I was wearing was still wet after hang-drying all night.

The beer we brewed should turn out delicious: Hump’s “La Brabonçonne” Grand Cru. It is a Belgian-style dark strong ale. The first beer we opened, prior to starting the brewing operations, was one of the beers that inspired this recipe: Gouden Carolus Cuvée Van De Keizer. The beer we brewed won’t be quite as strong (only ~9%abv, not 11%). But it will hopefully be similar in many other respects. The recipe uses sugar and a low mash temperature to make sure the beer is dry and drinkable. There are also a number of specialty grains and spices to keep things interesting. After brewing was completed, I tasted the wort, and it was possibly the best tasting wort I can recall tasting. I’m looking forward to sampling the finished product.

It has been fermenting for close to two weeks now, and it is still going strong. Strong fermentation began within 12 hours, and it only got heavier from there. After just over a day, it got so active that the krausen exceeded the headspace of the fermentor: in other words, it made a big yeasty mess everywhere.

I put on a blow-off tube to prevent further incident. After a couple of days of steady but not excessive fermentation, I decided to remove the blow-off tube, put a fermentation lock back on, and move the carboy off the floor and on to the counter-top. Naturally, the next day fermentation went into overdrive – another yeasty mess to clean up. Luckily, Will was around to help clean up the mess.

It has been in steady and sometimes heavy fermentation since then. Occasionally when I check on it, I can see the krausen getting near the top again. Yesterday it appeared to have finally calmed down: over 24 hours with consistently medium krausen. With luck, I can transfer it to a secondary fermentor – or maybe even a keg – by Sunday afternoon. If I can’t then I’ll have to use a plastic bucket as a fermentor because I have a double-feature lined up this weekend.

Will, after helping to clean the carboy:

Next Brew Day: Double-Feature

That’s right: I’ll be brewing two batches back to back. This should be a good test of the brewing sculpture, which should enable me to cook two batches in only 6-7 hours (two batches would otherwise take about 10 hours).

Sunday will first find me cooking up an English IPA: Hump’s Punjabi Pale Ale. I have high hopes for this recipe. I have lots of whole leaf Fuggles and Target hops for this one. It’s a reformulation of Hump’s Imperial ESB, which was an English IPA recipe that wasn’t designed quite right.

While the English IPA is boiling, I’ll be starting on a big ol’ American Amber: Hump’s Red Bedlam. This amber ale will be a bit bigger than you might usually find – perhaps India Amber Ale is a suitable appellation. It will feature some of my favorite American hops, Columbus and Simcoe.

This week, I’ve fashioned a new CPVC manifold for the mash/lauter tun. This one is built to actually touch the bottom of the tun – the previous one was rigidly parallel to the valve on the bottom of the tun which kept it off the bottom by about one inch. This one also has more linear length of drilled tubing, too, so it should flow faster.

New:

Old:

The other week, I didn’t get a chance to use my new copper manifold in the kettle. I don’t have it soldered together yet, so I didn’t want to use it and then it come apart while cooking. So I’ll be testing two new goodies this weekend: the new lauter tun manifold and the copper kettle filter manifold. I expect great things.

It’s been ages since I’ve posted pictures, so this one is overdue.

First up are some photos that I call “Goldilocks and the Three Beers”.

The first one is too small (only one ounce). The last one is too big (an Imperial pint). The middle is just right (6 ounces). Not for Goldilocks, but for my pregnant wife. In all seriousness, she doesn’t actually drink while pregnant except for a sip here and there and maybe an ounce or two of wine every couple of months. And we only let Will drink a few sips, too. In fact, here is the aftermath:

I, of course, went on to finish the rest, being the noble and chivalrous gentleman that I am. By the way, the glasses were filled with Hump’s Itsy Bitsy Brown.

Will prefers to just play with the beer, which is perfectly fine. He likes the idea of drinking beer much more than the act itself (at least for now…).

The next photos are of “the cellar.”

If you’re curious about exactly what’s on tap at the moment, look no further than the draft menu:

And if you looked closely, you’ll see the special stuff in the bottom of the fridge. It’s not actually all special in those drawers, but it’s all aging. The bottles are mostly just 1-2 years old now, but I do have a Chimay Grand Reserve from 2001, too.

Now on to my latest project: a hop-filter manifold for my kettle. This allows me to simply open the valve on the bottom of the pot and drain every last drip into the fermentor without worrying about trub and hop matter. The pipes around the perimeter of the pot are all touching the bottom and have 5/32 inch holes drilled into them. They suck the sweet wort out of the pot and filter out hops. They’re around the edges of the pot because most of the trub piles up in the center (at least it does after you whirlpool the cooled wort really well and wait a few minutes). Also, using whole leaf or plug hops will further remove trub since the hop leaves will act as a filter much like the grain husks act as a filter while lautering the mash.

And finally, I leave you with the latest beer label I’ve drawn. This label is for my favorite homebrew from 2008, my Most Worthy Ale. The beer’s name gave me the idea for what the label should be:

I’ve interrupted the flow of beer-related posts to this beer blog once before. I have to do so again.

I was at the store today shopping for a get-together we’re having tomorrow. I had rough ideas on a cocktail, so I was picking up ingredients. I also snagged some beer and some wine (Smuttynote Robust Porter [new to Georgia!], Magic Hat Hi.P.A, and Sweetwater Hummer). We have a habit of having too much of everything at these things (food, soft drinks, adult beverages… all in plentiful – perhaps sometimes ridiculous – quantities).

While there, I spent some time drooling in the Scotch aisle. The drool was brought on by a single bottle. And not a cheap one. At least not cheap to me (I’m sort of a Scotch newbie – but a very enthusiastic newbie). The store was asking $86 for a bottle of 16-year-old Lagavulin. That is about mid-range for good single malts – at least at the Georgia World of Beverage (priciest bottle of Scotch there was a 21-year-old Macallan for ~$130).

I very seriously considered throwing it in the cart. My wife would not have been happy. “You have an expensive bottle of Scotch already. You were supposed to get stuff for tomorrow – not for yourself.” She doesn’t actually complain much. She’s wonderful and understanding. But my spending $86 for one bottle of Scotch would not please her.

Come to think of it, I drooled over another bottle of Scotch that was similar in price (a hair less expensive): 10-year-old Ardbeg.

I think I am, at this moment, doubting my decision to forego. I think lustily of those Scotches. My current expensive bottle of Scotch is a cask-strength Laphroaig. From what I’ve read, many place the standard 10-year-old Laphroaig in similar rankings as the Ardbeg and Lagavulin. So maybe I would have been disappointed by them after thoroughly enjoying this cask-strength whiskey. But probably not. If I were to base it just on price I would think that both these whiskeys were nicer since they are both a little pricier. No matter, I lust for them. Perhaps next time I’m at a bar, I’ll try one or both of them. They may be very pricey at a bar ($15 for one drink), but it’s still cheaper than forking over 160+ bucks to try them from my own bar.

By the way, today is also The Session. I’m afraid I’m just not that interested in participating. I have no fizzy, yellow lager in the house (except for Samuel Adams Boston Lager? Probably not what was in mind when the topic was decided). You can read all about the topic here.