So, it's been bubbling pretty good for about 48 hours. It's finally taking it easy and bubbling at a pretty even clip now. I'm going to put on the bubbler airlock as soon as I get a chance. But here's a weird thing.
It smells like yogurt.
I'm paging through the homebrewtalk.com complete codex of "did I just ruin my beer" posts, and I'm not really seeing this one. Not yet. Ominous. Or not. I don't actually know.
Update: All these posts are like-- "yeah, you probably didn't ruin your beer. just cool your jets, newbie." So I'm done freaking out now.
Monday, February 10, 2014
Saturday, February 8, 2014
Documentegery
So, here it is. The birth of a hazelnut brown ale. In the eternal words of Strong Bad:
"Oh yeah. Check out all its majesty."
Omens of mercy
Three things have happened today, which tell me that today is the perfect day to brew the hazelnut brown:
1) I just watched Bode Miller absolutely crush the downhill course in training. Holy cow, can that guy slide. Gives me the jibblies.
2) Liverpool absolutely crushed the Gunners, 5-1. 5-1! And Suarez didn't even score once! The world as I previously knew it to be is ceasing to exist.
3) I absolutely crushed not drowning Magoo at swim lessons today. Hooray!
I'm going to shower off the chlorine, shovel my way out to the snowbank, and get sanitizing. Expect a video with my next update!
1) I just watched Bode Miller absolutely crush the downhill course in training. Holy cow, can that guy slide. Gives me the jibblies.
2) Liverpool absolutely crushed the Gunners, 5-1. 5-1! And Suarez didn't even score once! The world as I previously knew it to be is ceasing to exist.
3) I absolutely crushed not drowning Magoo at swim lessons today. Hooray!
I'm going to shower off the chlorine, shovel my way out to the snowbank, and get sanitizing. Expect a video with my next update!
Saturday, February 1, 2014
Postponed
Good things come to those who wait, right? This beer better be damn good.
Our plan was to get the wort into the fermenter for that hazelnut brown last night. Instead, we bugged out for Lapeer early for my niece's one-year birthday party-- the weather was going to make that drive crazy with a capital K. Much more important, sure, but when are we going to make this beer now? I was really looking forward to that.
In the meantime, I've been reading as much as I can in How to Brew. Seriously, I've learned almost as much about beer in the past month than I have in my past three and a half years of drinking it. It is just fantastic how we know so little about something we've perfected so well, brewing beer. Fascinating stuff.
Anyway, I'll update again when I have something to update on. Hopefully sooner rather than later.
Our plan was to get the wort into the fermenter for that hazelnut brown last night. Instead, we bugged out for Lapeer early for my niece's one-year birthday party-- the weather was going to make that drive crazy with a capital K. Much more important, sure, but when are we going to make this beer now? I was really looking forward to that.
In the meantime, I've been reading as much as I can in How to Brew. Seriously, I've learned almost as much about beer in the past month than I have in my past three and a half years of drinking it. It is just fantastic how we know so little about something we've perfected so well, brewing beer. Fascinating stuff.
Anyway, I'll update again when I have something to update on. Hopefully sooner rather than later.
Monday, January 27, 2014
About to (hot) break
The gloves are coming off for round two. My wife and I are going to double team a hazelnut brown ale. I had a Hideout Smuggler's Hazelnut Stout a few months back, and boy, was it good. I've been looking for it everywhere, but no dice. A really good exhibit of some fantastic local brewing if you ever find it on the draft list. Very warm-feeling beer.
I was sitting with our kid in the middle of one of his naps when she returned home from the grocery store with a big bag of hazelnuts. "This is what you needed, right?"
YUP.
We're looking to boil up the wort and start fermenting the goodness on Friday. Too bad it won't be ready by the time we see some of our family this weekend, they seem very excited by the prospect of homemade beer. We were skyping with them earlier, and their ears seemed to perk up when I mentioned that we might be able to make good use of all those black walnuts they bring in every year.
Oh well. Until then, we'll just drink all their beers for them. =)
She's a big fan of milk stout. Maybe we'll try to figure that one out next, depending on how this goes.
I was sitting with our kid in the middle of one of his naps when she returned home from the grocery store with a big bag of hazelnuts. "This is what you needed, right?"
YUP.
We're looking to boil up the wort and start fermenting the goodness on Friday. Too bad it won't be ready by the time we see some of our family this weekend, they seem very excited by the prospect of homemade beer. We were skyping with them earlier, and their ears seemed to perk up when I mentioned that we might be able to make good use of all those black walnuts they bring in every year.
Oh well. Until then, we'll just drink all their beers for them. =)
She's a big fan of milk stout. Maybe we'll try to figure that one out next, depending on how this goes.
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Lessons learned
The book betrayed me. Knowledge is power, it seems... like shaking up a pop can.
As has been confirmed both by my internet beer friend and the lady at The Cork and Cap here in Jackson, the first couple of days in the fermenter require a different kind of airlock. You run a rubber tube into a glass of water and let the gases bubble out into that. Apparently, that handles the pressure better than the "bubbler" airlock I had on there.
The book describes these two pieces in unmistakably interchangeable terms, which I double-checked last night to make sure. I thought I would be cool with the bubbler, and then I got bubbled.
In addition, it turns out that the beer probably wasn't spoiled after all. The positive pressure from the gases coming off the yeast, in addition to the hostile environment for invading bacteria, probably prevented any contamination of the beer itself, and I could have saved it.
More guilt! Shame! Why did I pour that beer down the drain?
All right, so I'm reading up some more, and I'm trying to decide what I'm going to do next. I can't start another batch this weekend, because I've got a lot going on. In the meantime, I think, I'm going to come up with a beer to try next. Maybe I'll stick with the brown ale, maybe not. I dunno yet. If you have any suggestions, feel free to comment. Thanks!
As has been confirmed both by my internet beer friend and the lady at The Cork and Cap here in Jackson, the first couple of days in the fermenter require a different kind of airlock. You run a rubber tube into a glass of water and let the gases bubble out into that. Apparently, that handles the pressure better than the "bubbler" airlock I had on there.
The book describes these two pieces in unmistakably interchangeable terms, which I double-checked last night to make sure. I thought I would be cool with the bubbler, and then I got bubbled.
In addition, it turns out that the beer probably wasn't spoiled after all. The positive pressure from the gases coming off the yeast, in addition to the hostile environment for invading bacteria, probably prevented any contamination of the beer itself, and I could have saved it.
More guilt! Shame! Why did I pour that beer down the drain?
All right, so I'm reading up some more, and I'm trying to decide what I'm going to do next. I can't start another batch this weekend, because I've got a lot going on. In the meantime, I think, I'm going to come up with a beer to try next. Maybe I'll stick with the brown ale, maybe not. I dunno yet. If you have any suggestions, feel free to comment. Thanks!
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Disaster strikes
Sometimes, I silently complain that I don't fail often enough. I consider all the things I miss out on learning because of all the mistakes I don't make. I realize how that sounds, but this is a blog, and I'm allowed to real talk if I want.
I received this response from that friend who recommended the book this afternoon:
"Hopefully at this point your kreusen has risen, and you're getting a nice, vigorous fermentation. I love that smell."
He was right! About all of it. Even the smell, which I could smell from the doorway, because the airlock blew and my beer was all over the floor of the closet. Womp womp. Best smelling spill I've encountered in months! Most of the time it's baby vomit, and that spoiled milk smell gets old.
But I'd rather clean up a dozen spitups than have to dump another gallon of spoiled, fermenting beer down the drain. Lord have mercy.
I'll get on with documenting what I think might have gone wrong later. I'm just gonna go have a good cry.
I received this response from that friend who recommended the book this afternoon:
"Hopefully at this point your kreusen has risen, and you're getting a nice, vigorous fermentation. I love that smell."
He was right! About all of it. Even the smell, which I could smell from the doorway, because the airlock blew and my beer was all over the floor of the closet. Womp womp. Best smelling spill I've encountered in months! Most of the time it's baby vomit, and that spoiled milk smell gets old.
But I'd rather clean up a dozen spitups than have to dump another gallon of spoiled, fermenting beer down the drain. Lord have mercy.
I'll get on with documenting what I think might have gone wrong later. I'm just gonna go have a good cry.
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