In this video you can see that the yeast is very active in this batch.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Lager on the move
This evening I moved the lager we are brewing to a cooler, dark place in my basement. The reason being that lager yeasts prefer cooler temps than ale yeasts do, generally in the 45-55 degree range, while ale yeasts like 65-75 better. So I gave the yeast a couple days at around 65-70 degrees to get going initially and now the whole shootin' match gets moved to the cooler spot.
In this video you can see that the yeast is very active in this batch.
In this video you can see that the yeast is very active in this batch.
One for the northerner
My pal Scott the Canuck sent me some really cool stuff about a month ago when I arrived here in Omaha. One of the items was a great pint glass emblazoned with logo of one of my favorite ales, Hazed and Infused hop ale from Boulder Brewing Co in Colorado. Unfortunately I don't have any Hazed in the fridge right now, so I will settle for a Boulevard Wheat. Here's to you, Canucky!
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Brewing a lager
Last night brewmaster Mike "The Enforcer" Morhardt and I brewed our first ever batch of lager. Below are some pics taken during the process.
Current federal law allows for brewing of 100 gallons of beer per year for one adult in a house hold. If there are two adults in the household then the limits is 200 gallons/year. I don't believe there is any such set limit in the Nebraska statute, so maybe in theory I could brew 458,468 gallons if I was thirsty enough. ANyway, on to the brewing notes:
NOTE: Always have some good ale or lager available for drinking whilst you make your homebrew.
First you see the Crystal and Carapils grains in a mesh bag being steeped in hot water to release their sugars, flavors, colors, enzymes, etc. Following that the powdered malt extract was added, slowly stirred into the mixture to allow it to dissolve fully. Next the liquid malt extract was added slowly and again the mixture stirred thoroughly, followed by pitching the boiling hops into the mixture. These boiled (rolling boil) for about 40 minutes. The last five minutes of that we pitched in the aroma hops.
Next we used a wort chiller made of copper tubing to remove much of the heat from the wort. Once sufficiently cooled we added the wort to the primary fermentation bucket with some additional water to bring the level to 5 gallons of liquid. Then the liquid yeast was pitched in, the bucket was sealed and an airlick placed in the top of the bucket. The purpose of the airlock is to let the gases created during the fermentation process escape without allowing any air/bacteria from the outside to enter into the bucket.
Current federal law allows for brewing of 100 gallons of beer per year for one adult in a house hold. If there are two adults in the household then the limits is 200 gallons/year. I don't believe there is any such set limit in the Nebraska statute, so maybe in theory I could brew 458,468 gallons if I was thirsty enough. ANyway, on to the brewing notes:
NOTE: Always have some good ale or lager available for drinking whilst you make your homebrew.
First you see the Crystal and Carapils grains in a mesh bag being steeped in hot water to release their sugars, flavors, colors, enzymes, etc. Following that the powdered malt extract was added, slowly stirred into the mixture to allow it to dissolve fully. Next the liquid malt extract was added slowly and again the mixture stirred thoroughly, followed by pitching the boiling hops into the mixture. These boiled (rolling boil) for about 40 minutes. The last five minutes of that we pitched in the aroma hops.
Next we used a wort chiller made of copper tubing to remove much of the heat from the wort. Once sufficiently cooled we added the wort to the primary fermentation bucket with some additional water to bring the level to 5 gallons of liquid. Then the liquid yeast was pitched in, the bucket was sealed and an airlick placed in the top of the bucket. The purpose of the airlock is to let the gases created during the fermentation process escape without allowing any air/bacteria from the outside to enter into the bucket.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
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