A few random things

This weekend's birthday party went great and the UNO was a big hit. In fact the 2.5 gallon keg was drained and I had to go to some back up bottles of Summit. The response was very good, and it seemed like most people enjoyed the subtle orange flavor that came through. This was also the first time I used the portable kegerator, and it went pretty well. I think I need to get the CO2 charger thing down before I use the kegerator again in August at my fantasy football draft. The problem seemed to be with the amount of CO2; I had to shoot some CO2 in a couple times to keep it flowing, I'm thinking tha the 12 gram canisters I'm using don't work as well as the 16 grams it came with. It seems like some CO2 escapes out the side of the charger right after it punctures, where the same thing didn't happen with the bigger canisters. More on this to come...I'm going to switch back to 16g canisters (of course I just bought a box of the 12 gram) and see if it makes a difference. Of course eventually I need to just buy a 5lb CO2 tank and regulator, but cash flow is light right now.

Hopshot IPA: I bottled this today with some help from my brother-in-law. It tasted great and I'm glad I dry hopped with some cascade hops at the end, because the aroma blended nicely with the citrusy hop flavor in the beer, much more balanced than when I transferred it. But that brings up a question I pose to those out there who dry hop. I'll take some suggestions on what's the best way to do it. The first time I dry hopped I used whole hops, which seemed to work fine, but pieces gunked up the siphon and seemed kind of cumbersome. Every other time I've used pellet hops and they've worked fairly well. However a couple times I've had problems with pieces of the hops making their way into the beer. Often if I've had to move the carboy, and the hops float around in there, they can become suspended and I have a couple of vegetated bottles. I've heard bad things about using a hop bag, mostly that once the hops expand, the bag become impossible to get out of the neck. I've seen people rig up a string to the bung, etc. Thoughts for those of you who dry hop? What do you do and what has worked?

Yinzer: I made my Yinzer Lager in February and was fairly happy with the results. I saved a big 32 oz bottle to share with my brother-in-law, since I made it for him. I cracked it open tonight, and its great! Of course the lesson as always, patience is a virtue I have not learned in five years of brewing. The months of sitting in the fridge have mellowed out the hops that came through before, and its a smooth sweet lager with some nice maltiness and crispness. My wife's comments were "ridiculously better than before" and "when are you going to learn patience?" She's right on both accounts, and of course, I wish I had more of the Yinzer for the summer months.

More to come this week.
Salud!
Bearded Brewer

PS: Close circuit to Bob's Woodshed: Where you at man? I have some beers to send your way, and more importantly miss your great beer reviews.

Let the Lagering Begin!

Two weeks ago I was able to buy an old fridge from my neighbor across the street. It was the perfect situation because we just wheeled it across the street on a dolly from his garage to mine! No lifting, no moving it out of a basement, about as easy of a find as possible. It hadn't been plugged in for a year or so, so it was pretty funky. I cleaned it out and left the doors open for a week, and this weekend I built a shelf out of left over plywood from my bar, plugged it in, and put two carboys in it. Needless to say I'm fairly excited, even though its not in perfect condition, $75 to pay for a working fridge/freezer with hardly any work was about the best you could ask for. I'm excited about the ability to make bocks and some lagers, and also really excited about the extra storage space in the freezer for putting grains, hops and some additional brewing ingredients, like the 3 pounds of cranberries I have left over from a couple past beers.


My first real lager attempt, my Yinzer Lager, has been tasting good after about 4 weeks in the bottle. The beer pours a really nice light golden color with a thin white head that is fairly lacy. It's crystal clear with a faint fruity aroma. It's very crisp with a slight hoppy spiciness.
This beer was inspired by Pittsburgh beers like Yuengling and Iron City, but I don't know how close it is to either of those. One friend of mine said it had a nice "grainy" quality to it, which is good since I associate those flavors with what I was going for. My friend Brian, a native of Pittsburgh, said that its way too hoppy for a Pittsburgh lager but added, "that's not a bad thing at all."
Overall I was fairly happy with the experiment. The people who have tried it have like it, but I don't think it stands out. Personally, I'm not a big lager fan, and I made it just for the experience of making a lager. A special thanks goes out to Ted at Ted's Homebrew Blog for some consulting on the finer points of lagering.
Because of the fridge, I definitely plan on doing some more lagers, but I'm thinking about some more interesting ones, and I'm happy to know that I can achieve the crispness I was looking for.
This was a 3 gallon recipe and for those interested:
1.3 lbs Org 2-row
.25 lbs org Crystal 40
.10 lbs org Cara-pils
2 lbs org light dme
.40lbs rice syrup

.5 oz Saaz 60
.35 Saaz 15
.15 Saaz 1

Cali 2112 Yeast: Lagered for 4 weeks @ 40 degrees, brought up to 62 degrees for 1 week before bottling.

Stay tuned this week for a post on Friday in connection with the Session Series (check out Beeractivist.com for details). This month's session is related to organic brewing.
Salud!
The Bearded Brewer