Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Nightshade Ale finally Bottled

So I finally got around to bottling my Nightshade Ale (a blackberry-blueberry wheat beer). Bottling is just as much of a pain as it always is, but I wanted to get my Starless Night Imperial Stout into secondary soon, so I finally got motivated to do it.

After I bottled, I siphoned what was left into a glass - and it looked awesome. It poured a surprisingly clear purplish-red, with only a little bit of haze. Much less haze than I expected, especially considering a) It's primarily wheat malt and b) the amount of fruit used. It didn't smell very beery at all - almost smelled more like blackberry or blueberry juice or soda. The fruit is the most evident in the taste, but there's just a hint of the wheat malt that comes through. I'm hoping once it's carbonated it'll taste more like beer, so we'll see. I couldn't get an accurate hydrometer reading, so I have absolutely no idea what the alcohol content is.

I'm probably going to rack the Starless Night to secondary tomorrow night - after spending two hours sanitizing and bottling, the last thing I wanted to do was clean and sanitize my carboy/siphon. Besides, I managed to get two vanilla beans today, so I figure I'll soak them in vodka overnight to sanitize them, and then rack the beer on top of them in the carboy. I'm excited about this, and I'm just disappointed that I'm going to have to wait a few months to try it.

It's going to depend on my financial situation, but I might try to brew a quick-turnaround IPA before I leave for the summer, and then have something else sit in secondary while I'm gone. I've been doing some research, and I think I've come up with the combination of hops I want to get that citrus/grapefruit flavor which I love in IPAs. If I decide to do it, I should be able to have it ready by early May, and I can bring the bottles home with me for the summer too.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Starless Night Imperial Stout

So I finally brewed my Starless Night Imperial Stout. I got the ingredients a few days ago, but I've been too busy. Had a fourteen-hour day today (between working two of my three jobs and class), but I got home around seven, and figured brewing/having a few brews would be a good way to relax.

It's obviously too early to tell anything, but the wort is a little bit lighter than I would have liked, so I'm a bit concerned. I'm hoping it darkens as it ferments, but we'll see. My theory on why is that I ordered everything online, and all of my specialty grains came in one massive grain bag, precrushed - and that's something like 3 pounds of grain in one bag. I think it's possible that the grains in the middle of the bag didn't get all of their sugars extracted as well as they could have, and therefore the color didn't darken as much as it should have. Of course, if all of the sugars weren't extracted, then obviously the flavor can be affected too. We'll see. My apartment does smell nice, though - I've forgotten how much I love the smell of boiling wort and fermenting beer.

More likely than not, this will be my last batch for awhile. I'm going to be out of town all summer, back with the parents, so I probably won't be brewing anything. If I get really adventurous, I might bring one carboy home and try to brew something over the summer, but I doubt the parents will appreciate the smell as much as I do. Besides, I'd still like to have both my carboys full over the summer.

I still am tentatively going to brew my winter warmer/barleywine before I leave, and let that sit in secondary all summer. I won't be leaving til the end of May, so obviously that's a bit away. However, last night I tried Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout for the first time...and it got me thinking...

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I've always wanted to brew something with maple syrup. Originally the idea was a maple porter...but...something like the KBS (already with bourbon, coffee, and chocolate) with maple syrup added could be nothing less than phenomenal. That would also be something I'd like to have fermenting for awhile, so we'll see.

The two styles of beer I drink the most are Imperial Stouts and Double IPAs, and I've already tried my hand at a few stouts. I've been wanting to brew an IPA/DIPA for awhile. Once I tasted Bell's HopSlam, I decided that when I brew my IPA, I want to try to clone that. That's obviously going to be a pretty intense project, and I'd like to refine my brewing technique before I tackle that one, but that's something I'm excited about.

When I transfer the Imperial Stout - which, I've named Starless Night, and I think that's a pretty sweet name for an Imperial Stout - to secondary, I'm going to age it over vanilla beans. Starless Night is pretty heavy on the roasted flavors, and I think the vanilla could add a nice smoothness and an awesome finish. I hope it darkens a little bit...if anyone has any opinions/other things I could add to darken it at this point, I'm all ears.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Free time for brewing is few and far between

So I haven't brewed at all this month, which entirely defeated the purpose of buying a second carboy so I could have two going at once. Ah well. Still haven't bottled my Nightshade Ale yet either...although I think I have enough bombers lying around to do the batch, I haven't had the time to devote to bottling. When I have had time, going through the effort of bottling has been the last thing I've wanted to do. It's not that bad of a thing though - work and law school has kept me ridiculously busy, so I wouldn't have the time to enjoy the beer anyway. I still have a good amount of the chocolate porter and raspberry-chocolate stout I made, anyway.

The raspberry-chocolate stout has mellowed out somewhat, but the raspberry flavor is still a little strong. If I do a beer like this again, I might stay away from the extracts. It added a medicinal flavor that is kind of unpleasant. Still, it's a pretty solid beer - I'm happy with it.

I did order the ingredients for my next brew, however, and I did decide to do the Imperial Stout. I'm going to be on spring break next week, but hopefully when I get back I'll be able to make time to brew the batch. I enjoy brewing MUCH more than bottling, and my lack of free time will definitely be a good thing with this beer, since I'll want it to sit in secondary for awhile. I'm going to be out of town for most of the summer, so I haven't decided if I want to leave it in secondary over the summer, or bottle it right before I leave (after a month-month and a half in secondary), and let it bottle condition. I also plan on aging it over vanilla beans in secondary, so that might have something to do with which way I lean.

Since I am going to be gone this summer, I'd like to make full use of both carboys and have another batch going while I'm gone. I'm contemplating making a barleywine/winter-warmer combination...or basically a barleywine with traditional winter spices. I think it'd be perfect to do over the summer, because it would just be getting drinkable right around as the temperature starts to drop in the fall. That, however, is obviously way down the road.

I'll be gone for the next week, as I said, but hopefully I'll have time to brew my Imperial Stout sooner rather then later once I get back.