BJ's Beer and Brewing Blog

Yeast!

2011-06-22T19:43:00.000-07:00

So... been awhile since anything has been written, but that was largely due to the fact that my stockpile of brews at home was getting large, and it was time to start finishing a few before making some more. The 2 batches I decided to try out this time were an imperial ipa, and another for the keg when it drys up being "speckled heffer" Since these styles can be made with similar yeasts, I thought this would be a great opportunity to try out harvesting and washing yeast from one batch to use in the next. I brewed the imperial ipa first...reason 1, it takes longer to ferment, and reason 2... the speckled heffer is actually a partial mash, and I really didn't feel like going to the store and getting a second brew pot that night, not to mention adding a different twist to the process... that experience will be for next time.

*Side note..Since I knew I was going to be trying to keep the yeast, and I was starting with a high gravity beer, I first made a started off of the smack pack yeast, let that settle out, and made a starter again so that I was starting with a very large quantity to limit the stress on the yeast.

First step, let the primary finish up, and get ready for racking to the secondary:

Check out all the hops in the I-IPA... I think there was close to a pound of hop pellets!

Meanwhile...some small mason jars were boiled on the stove along with a couple larger ones to sterilize them

After boiling for about 15 min.. the jars are filled with some of the kettle water and cooled to room temp via the fridge so the yeast don't die when they touch the water. After the water in the jars is cool, pour the water in all the jars into the carboy after it's already been transferred to the secondary to get something for the trub to slurry up with:

Mix up the water with the trub next, and make a slurry (this photo is pre mixed):

Next step is to let some of the hops settle out a bit, and pour the liquid into a couple of larger mason jars:

After this cools enough, you can get the yeast liquid poured into a few smaller jars and place in the fridge for storage, and later use.

Now next time I want to make a beer, instead of buying yeast at $7/ batch, I can just take one of these out of the fridge, make a starter, and use it.

Next time I try this, I think I will try a batch with much less hops in the start though, since it wasn't very easy to separate the yeast from the hop sediment. Also, another project that could be fun for next time is harvesting yeast from unfiltered beer that you buy at the liquor store... more info here:

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/complete-list-breweries-harvest-yeast-88931/

Sauerkraut... why not?

2011-04-29T21:28:00.000-07:00

So, a few weeks ago I was bored on a Saturday, flipping through my new issue of Beer Advocate, and inside was a recipe to make your own sauerkraut. I thought it could be an interesting adventure to try and ferment some cabbage. Plus, grilling season is just about here, and I figured I needed something to put on the brats and sausages. It said to try and get the freshest cabbage possible, so down I went to the co-op, and here's what I came back with, along with a jar I found at Target to put it in:

Next step was chopping up all the cabbage and mixing in some salt:

Next I came to a slight predicament. When I was purchasing the jar to put the kraut in, I thought I had a plate that would easily fit inside since you need to keep some weight on the cabbage to try and keep it under the top of the salt water brine. I used a tuperware plastic that I managed to fit until I could borrow a smaller plate from the parents that managed to fit. Kept it weighted down with a jar of chili and draped it with a cheese cloth.

So... 4 weeks later, I walk into my laundry / beer room and can actually smell the jar just from walking in, and decide to take it upstairs to have a look at it. The smell is a very potent smell coming from it, and I think it goes against normal thoughts to try and take a bite from something that's basically been sitting at room temperature in the basement for close to a month, especially since I really have no idea what a normal smell should be from homemade sauerkraut, and what a recipe "gone bad" may smell like.

So I decided to scoop off a bit of the top that may have been exposed to the air a bit more than I wanted, and have a taste with the rest. It tasted like.............................................................................. sauerkraut! It was much more crisp and crunchy than most things that you would buy in the store though, although I think it was slightly on the salty side. All in all, so far I think it was a fun experience... now we just need some warmer weather fire fire up some sausages!

Side note to my brewing endeavors. I just wanted to point out that I recently got a major upgrade to my brewing systems:

So far it has been very nice, and it really beats the heck out of bottling. Tap handle to come soon maybe? When I get some more $$ more likely.

Barley Wine & Some beer magnets

2011-03-12T14:57:00.000-08:00

First off I just wanna say that I've been very interested in different beer styles and making beer the last year or so, and I decided to create a place to write some things down.

So.. last fall I realized I had an extra glass carboy lying around, so I decided put it to use, and go to Northern Brewer and inquire about the beer style they had that would take the longest. I came across a barley wine. I know that barley wines are typically more on the maltier side of the spectrum than I like, but I figured I would give it a go. Well, that was on September 28 of last year, and today it was finally time for bottling! (a good 6 months later)

Brought out from the depths of my basement. Also realized at this point that I probably shouldn't have let so much sediment stay on the bottom so long... hopefully there won't be any off flavors.

Transfering into the bottling bucket... I can't wait until my next batch where I still keep thinking I'm finally going to keg. Didn't take any pics of the bottles, but maybe upon opening.

I tasted the uncarbonated beer from my hydrometer test, and it's very raisiny with a slight alcohol taste present... hoping the alcohol gets covered up with the carbonation.

Another thing I did today was make a few more bottle cap magnets for the beer fridge (Thank you brother for the great idea) as you can see from the photo. You can also see the current beer I've got on hand still from the homebrews... although I know that some of the older ones are starting to run dry I believe.

Lastly, I'm getting antsy for spring, and I got a book today on gardening for the brewer, and hope at the very least by season's end I can make a brew where the hops came from my own yard, if not some other ingredients as well.