Blood Orange Hefeweizen

Joe and I have been working our way through Extreme Brewing. The author is owner of Dogfish Head ( who always have the yummiest beer). Many of the recipes we have been trying are coming from this book. The book isn't perfect, in fact far from it. There are inconsistencies in the directions and ingredients. Overall though, the beers have been yummy. I had to try the Blood Orange Hefeweizen. I love blood oranges. Blood orange sorbet is one of my favorite foods (although I can never find it.. there are rumors that Whole Paycheck has some but I never go downtown... so I will continue to dream about it.) Anyway. This was the first beer that I really took charge on. Usually Joe does all the leg work and I hang out. There is a lot to do when brewing beer! It took longer than I though it would to brew (Joe did warn me but I like to make cooking mistakes for myself.) It takes so long to get three gallons of water to boil. It was an easy enough recipe as it only had one hop addition. I almost forgot to heat up the malt extract and threw it into some hot water last minute. Malt extract is like honey in its consistency and if it isn't warmed it is impossible to add to all the water you just spent forever getting to boil. It all worked out and it was done in time for Lost (a very important part of Tuesday evenings). The oranges are added after the boil. They are peeled and steeped in water for about 30 minutes. Then all the pieces and zest go into the fermenter. This beer fermented like crazy. I tried it at two weeks. It was good. At three weeks after bottling it was awesome! Hmm can't wait for week 4. I spent 37.28 on this beer and I gave it a slightly higher price tag since it is an unusual brew. So I prices the 40 or so bottles I got at 66 with a total savings of $28. Not to shabby.

Pumpkin Porter

We had a pumpkin left over from the fall and I kept meaning to make a Coconut Lime Pumpkin Soup. (Hmmm not to rush through summer but doesn't that sound good right now?) With some convincing I allowed Joe to use it for some beer. The process for brewing the beer was pretty much the same but instead of starting the beer out with plain water you use pumpkin water. This was made by boiling pumpkin chunks til they are tender then blending them. This bear also had some new additions for us ... spices. A pumpkin pie like combination of Allspice, cinnamon and nutmeg.

The wort was a thick mess. Thicker than we were used to and it separated quickly.

We think we forgot some Malt extract. The beginning gravity reading was off from what the recipe said it should be. The theories we have are that it was not mixed enough when we took the reading or the pound of malt we missed effected the reading negatively.

We brewed the beer on 02/05/10 and the OG reading was 1.040 (should have been 1.078). We bottled it on 02/15/10 with an ending gravity of 1.013.

We paid 51.99 for the ingredients for this beer. It is higher than normal because we also bought some bottling caps, extra priming sugar, and a new hydrometer. The cost at the store would have been around 55. Leaving us with savings which is a plus but not really reducing our investment numbers as much. We are still 95.05 in the hole. This will all change when the barley wine is complete. (it is brewed and bottled- but it needs to bottle age for 3 months) We will have payed off the equipment by the time it's done. We'll keep chipping away with other beers in the mean time.

So if the numbers are accurate the alcohol content is - 3.5 %. If the reading was off because it just wasn't mixed up it would be 8.6%. A huge difference! I guess in the name of science I will have to drink a few in a row and see how it makes me feel. A sacrifice I know.

Roasted Brown Ale.

We brewed this beer on 1/29/10. The starting gravity was 1.061 @ 71 Degrees.

To the wort we deviated from the recipe and added extra Perle hops with the bittering hops to boost hop profile as an experiment. Also we tweaked the recipe we used by adding .6 ounces of Cascade hops at the aroma addition instead of .3.

What that all means. I don't really understand because I haven't read all the beer brewing books that my husband has.. I should have him write a guest entry. What I do understand is that this beer tastes good. It has been at three weeks since bottling and the beer is really starting to shape up. It is smooth to the palate with a strong chocolate aftertaste. Yummy.

We bottles it on 2/13/10. It had an ending specific gravity reading as 1.019 at 69 degrees.

A home brewer can go to this website - Alcohol Content Calculator - and put in the starting and ending gravity and it calculates the alcohol content for you! I love technology.

This beer comes in at 5.5%.

We spent 39.45 on the ingredients for this beer and it would have cost us $56 dollars at the store. Saving us 16.55 and leaving us 97.08 in the hole after cost of equipment.

Irish Red Ale.

Joe steeping the grains.

The wort with hops added.

Jen smelling the wort as it gets cooled in an ice bath.

The ale fermenting in the loft.

We brewed this ale when we had some out of town visitors in order to sway them into brewing their own.

Brewed on 1/17/10 with an original gravity of 1.042 and a final gravity when bottled on 1/30/10. Giving it an ABV of about 4%.

We first tasted this beer way to early 2/6/10. We were hoping it would be ready by the super bowl but it wasn't. Our second try on the 11th was much better. We are finding now that the longer the beer ages the better it tastes. We will most likely not drink much of this until the pale ale and porter are gone. The porter which has been bottled almost a month now is amazing. The Joy of Home Brewing recommends saving a 6 pack of each beer brewed to drink at the two month mark to show its true flavor. Hopefully we can restrain ourselves.

We spent 24.95 on the Irish Red and if we bought it at the store it would be around 50 dollars. Which makes us 113.63 in the hole.

Alliteration Porter.

Power Pack Porter

Started Brewing on 01/06/10 - OG 1.063- FG 1.004-1.011

(the hydrometer was taking on water) - The alcohol content is around 6.8%.

We bought this kit from Midwest Supplies. The process went much smoother with this batch of beer. We were much better organized and ready for all the steps. Ahh Experience. We raised the amount of water in the wort which a few books have said leads to a better tasting beer. This also leads to a higher chance of the stock pot bubbling over. It would be terrible to have gallons of water that have been infused with 10 or so pounds of sugar to be all over the stove /counter. You have to be vigilant while everything is boiling on the stove.

We bottled the beer on 1/19/10 and had our first taste on 01/29/10.

It was very yummy!. It had a smooth flavor, with hints of chocolate. I think the aftertaste hit too fast but will settle as the bottles age more. We are expecting this batch to be good for the Super Bowl.

The kit for this beer cost 33.5 at the grocery store it would have cost 55.92 for an equal number of beers. Leaving us 126.78 in the hole.

Batch 1- Sierra Nevada.

We just started enjoying our first batch of beer. When we bought our brewing kit we choose from a list of clones (home brews based on mass brewed beer.) We thought Sierra Nevada would fit both our tastes and since the saleswoman knew we were beginners... easy. Well it was a bit more complicated than we should have started out with. The batch it self hit some snags and we learned lots of lessons.

Here is my brief synopsis of beer making.

Steep grains for about 20-30 mins at water about 155 degrees. Remove the grains and add malts and fermentables. While those boil for a while you add hops at different intervals (60 mins- bitterness / flavor / aromatics.) After an hour you immediately cool the beer and throw in some yeast. Let it do it's thing for 7 days. Then you transfer to a bucket with a spigot at the bottom and add some sugar (which carbonates the beer). Bottle, cap, wait.. enjoy!

We were supposed to add another step to the Sierra Nevada which is to move the beer to a secondary fermenter (a glass carboy or 6 gallon bucket) and add some more hops and let it ferment again for another 7-10 days. We didn't do this because we didn't own a second fermenter at the time... something one would think the sales lady would have mentioned. Regardless.. we just skipped that step and bottled as instructed.

Reactions- It tasted pretty good! Nothing like a Sierra Nevada though. It started as overly carbonated which means we should fill the bottles up more. The more air left in bottles the more carbonated it will be. As it ages this problem seems to be going away. I enjoy this batch with a lemon.

Besides our fascination with making things ourselves instead of buying them prepacked we are also brewing beer to save money. In the end our six packs should cost us under 4 dollars. Currently we pay anywhere from 6.99-7.99 p/6pack and around 4.19 for our favorite beers that only come in 22oz bottles. So far we spent 176.62 on equipment. The cost of the ingredients for our first batch was 40.49. If we had bought that batch in 6 packs at the grocery store we would have spent- 67.91 leaving us 149.20 in the hole.

Coming up- Power Pack Porter and I dream of Harvest Mondays.

The Beginning

This will mark the first summer that my husband Joe and I will spend in our new home on Briggs St. We saved for a couple years to afford this house and are excited to realize our dreams of spending summers sweating in the garden and lounging enjoying the fruits of our labor. Our previous apartments lacked the outdoor experience we had been craving. I want this blog to track progress in our garden, showcase our chickens and talk about each new batch of beer we brew.

I have been looking forward to having a garden for years. We dug a 14 x 18' foot plot for our first year to keep things simple and manageable. We also have a 10 x 3 plot where I plan to start an herb garden and an 22 x 10' ornamental plot that we planted this past fall. There are some berries and herbs in that plot which I hope will add to my garden harvest totals. Besides this we have three huge containers, two big containers and a handful of smaller pots. I am currently awaiting the arrival of this years seed catalog and hope to have everything plotted out within the next couple of weeks.

We plan on getting three chicks this spring. First we have to build a coop and a run and then hopefully take a class of raising chickens. I think they are going to be so much fun to own. We love eggs from the farmers market but have a hard time justifying the 6-7 dollar dozens.. I am hoping that the birds will cut down that cost. They will also be eating our garden scraps and contributing to our compost pile.

Brewing beer is our new hobby. I am hoping the garden can contribute some hops. And if nothing else the grains and hops are already in our compost pile, already contributing to our non existent garden.

I hope to join in a blog community. I have been voyeuristicly reading some garden/ canning blogs and hope to start conversations with these people to A. have friends who won't mind me being excited about harvesting spinach and B) to have have friends with experience whom I can ask questions.

Looking ahead - The first batch of beer and I dream of harvest Monday's.