Bottled the Bavarian Hefeweizen

Yep so it's in the bottles, actually used some recycled Grolsch bottles too. Yes I made sure to sanitize the rubber valves. I was kind of worried, cause I meant to bottle it last week Wednesday, but I didn't get a chance until Sunday. The troub had all but fizzled down and sediment was very visible. the beer still had its cloudy characteristics, which I am glad about. When I added the wort to priming sugar, I could definitely smell the banana and clove phenols. Really looking forward to tasting this brew.

True Brew Bavarian Hefeweizen

Well my birthday has come and gone, and I was the recipient of a True Brew Bavarian Hefeweizen brew kit. To say the least, I was not that all impressed with the difficulty of the brewing process or instructions. This kit is intended for the BEGINNER Home brewer. It was a pure wheat malt extract kit with 2 oz of Liberty pellet hops. Took about 2 hours to finish which is rather quick for a home brew, to say the least. With all the snow we had received in the last few days I was able to chill my wort within a snowbank. This was a lot of fun to utilize. Took about 45 min to chill with the lid on my brew pot. Overall satisfaction was 5/10. hopefully next time I can get a Hefeweizen with half grains and half malt extract. Later to come...


Has anyone received their latest BYO magazine, its been almost a few months for mine to come in!!!!

In the Bottles, wishing I had kegs...

So its been almost two weeks since my last entry...My Raspberry Red Ale is in the bottles, I so wish I had kegs so that I could force carbonate them, and be able to drink my beer already...wahhhhh!!! Oh well I just need to grow up and ask Santa, aka SWMBO, for a very nice Christmas present maybe next year....who knows...I will be adding some pics of the process for y'all to look at here in a few minutes. By the way the beer smelled great...and it was very clear going into the bottling bucket...Hopefully we can crack some open for the wedding next weekend in the Michigan...who knows...

Bottling Day...

Well today we get to bottle, this is probably going to be the longest day, cause I have to sanitize the bottles and dry all them. I will most likely dry them in the dishwasher, which will most likely be alot more efficient time wise. I will keep you all updated on the bottling phase cause today I get to use the Super Agata Bench Capper. Oh yeah. For all you who are reading this post, do not buy the Emily Capper, its worthless...so back to everything else. I had a Amber Ale last night from Mickey Finn's. It was in the can, definitely a great beer but different. I will Blog again tonight or tomorrow, depending on the hour...see you all then...

Happy Homebrewing,

Jon A.

Raspberry Red Ale

OK so here we go...I have finally found so time to import some pics of the May 2009 Raspberry Red Ale. I hope you all enjoy...oh please feel free to subscribe to this blog...it has a whole bunch of interesting subject matter about home brewing...well that's just a given...The first pic is of my Ale Pale in which the primary fermenting takes place...second pic is of the water beginning to boil to 160 degrees...third pic is of the grain steeping in the hot baby...fourth is when I put the hop ball in once it reached it finally boiling point...Cascades if I am not mistaken...oh boy they smelled yummy...WARNING!!! DO NOT FEED YOUR PETS(DOGS) HOPS...THEY CAN CAUSE MALIGNANT HYPOTHERMIA IF INGESTED!!! Now back to the descriptions...fifth shows the cooled wort sitting in the primary fermenter awaiting to be stirred for aeration...this is a must cause the yeast lives off of it...if you can get a pure oxygen system for aerating...finally the ALE PALE is sealed and the airlock is filled half way waiting for CO2 to arrive and leave the fermenter...more pics to come of racking to the secondary since it is highly recommended for this beer...oh yeah I forgot once pic. It is actually the second pic it is off the HOPS, 1oz. Cascades and 1oz. Fuggles(USA)...can't wait to grow my own...

Fermentation Counting Down...

Well we are four days into the primary fermentation stage. On Monday we will siphon the wort into the glass carboy for secondary fermentation. I always like watching the brew in the secondary fermentation because you can actually see the sediment sift to the bottom. Maybe this time I can save some of my yeast for the next brew date. I would really like to try that this time. We will just have to wait and see. As for a new commerical brew review. I have recently bought two six packs of Lienenkugel's 1888 Bock and Summer Shandy...both are a great drinks for the summer I feel. The 1888 Bock is a little crisp mild lager that grasps on to the rich aroma of toasted and caramel malts. The Summer Shandy is a lemonade flavored beer which is a European favorite in the warmer months. It has hints on wheat, malted barley and real Wisconsin honey then topped of by real lemonade that gives it that citrus flavoring, yummy!!! Well its a warm yet overcast day in Lake County, IL and I started marinating the pork ribs last night with garlic, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper and brown sugar, and then I am going to top them off with some sort of barbecue sauce tonight, and one of those Lienies...hope you can enjoy the weather and outside where every you are...

Happy Brewing...

Jon A.

P.S. Sorry pics soon to come...probably when I transfer the brew to the secondary on Monday night...

The Brew is a Fermenting...

Well the second batch is now fermenting as we speak. Total time for brewing was just a little over three hours, roughly 3h 15min. the process was time consuming as I always feel like I was contaminating the brew. But I did my best to make sure all was sanitized and there wasn't anything that could have gotten into the brew pot. The smell was intoxicating...well not just yet but it will get there. I had one ounce of Cascade hops for bittering and one ounce of Fuggle (USA) for aroma. One reminder to all, make sure you have a good enough strainer for filtering the wort into the primary fermenter, mine slipped a few times which was rather aggravating. So I have a feeling that some of my hop sediment made it into the primary, hopefully this won't ruin the taste of the brew. I also included one teaspoon of Irish Moss for clarifying the brew once it goes into the bottling stage. I apologize to those reading this as I am jumping all over my process of brewing. I finally ended up with an original gravity for the brew at 1.043, which is a pretty good OG. The alcohol content was about 5.5%, which will be a very tasty brew I think. I will be posting more pics tonight if I get a chance so you all can see my attempts at making a Raspberry Red Ale.

Hope you all enjoy this read...

Jon A.