The big brew

The hops are in the ground

So for my birthday my wonderful wife got me some hop rhizomes, we're going to try this out.  I have 2 Cascade plants, a Northern Brewer and Fuggle.  I have them all spaced and in the ground, and let me tell you I cannot wait until these things are giving me some hops to enjoy. The pictures above are of the plants peeking their wee little heads out of the ground for the first time.  

I've got this master plan to take pictures at regular intervals to track their growth, I know I will forget but I'll try to post periodic updates to the progress of these plants.

UPDATE: Bolshevik Imperial Stout

I bottled the Bolshevik Imperial Stout tonight and all I have to say is WOW that is one amazing beer.  I began the process of waking the beer up from it's 6 week slumber with a little bit of brown sugar water last night, primed and bottled it tonight. 

Final "Stats"
OG 1.099
FG 1.020
ABV 10.4
Calories/Pint 463

Strawberry Pear Hard Apple Cider

So the other day I got this crazy notion while walking through the grocery store.  I'll make a hard cider.  Knowing the basic premise behind doing this I grabbed me some apple cider.  Then I noticed the price and wow maybe I'll just make 2 gallons to start with I thought to myself.

A gallon of cider later and a few hours of research on good recipes and what yeast to use I have it down I know what I want to do. 

Here's my recipe:

1 gallon apple cider (I would prefer unpasteurized but it is March not going to happen)
1 lb brown sugar
1 lb frozen strawberries
1 large fresh pear cubed

Mix the brown sugar with 1/2 gallon of water and heat to 150 degrees.
Steep the fruit in the brown sugar water mixture for 20 minutes
Add the cider to the fermenter and add 1/2 gallon of water.

Add fruit and water to fermenter; pitch with Red Star Champagne yeast. 

I'll let it ferment in the primary for about 4 days and then transfer to secondary and remove the fruit.  (And yes I plan on eating it.)

Let fermentation finish and store in the basement at 55ish degrees for 7 days then add .3 oz of priming sugar

This should be a nice little experiment. 

My Brew Day Equipment

So Super Bowl Sunday was a great day for me not only because the Packers won and the rapist lost, but I got my new keg to turn into a brew kettle.  Now for the mega extra bonus, the keg was full of Stone's Arrogant Bastard.  So not only do I score a keg but a full keg on a Sunday in a state that doesn't sell on Sundays!!!!!!!!!  I know after landing the score of the century the Packers will win and I need to buy a powerball ticket.

I just finished cutting the top off my new keg and thought I would take the time now to snap a few photos of my brew day equipment.

Mash Tun - a 42qt chest cooler from Target

 

The Inside: Total cost for cooler and parts approx $40

The Hot Liquor Tank: a turkey fryer pot

And now the latest pride and joy the 15.5 g keggle:  I am going to add an elbow with a volume gauge and a 1/2" bulkhead with a ball valve.

Bolshevik Imperial Stout

This is my most ambitious brew to date.  An all-grain, high gravity, full bodied beast of a beer.  I created it to have a complexity of flavors.  Some of the ingredients were de-bittered black malt, coffee malt and I used two separate yeast strains for fermentation and the aging: oak chips for 8 weeks and bottle conditioning for 9 months. 

Here is a photo of me sterilizing the oak chips over steam for 15 minutes.

I transferred from my primary to secondary fermenter today 2/4/2011 after five days in the primary.  After five days we are already at a staggering 9.7% alcohol.  This isn't going to be for the faint of heart.

Beer Stats
5.5 gallon post boil volume for 5 gallons of bottled bliss
24lbs of grains.
6oz of hops
2 yeast strains
3oz of medium char American Oak Cubes
and well over 9 months to finish.

OG 1.099 
Gravity at transfer 1.026


As time goes on I will update the status of this beauty.