Beer

Ingredients for 5 gallons:

9 lbs Amber plain malt extract syrup
1/2 lb Chocolate malt
1.75 oz Vanguard hops
1/2 oz Hallertauer hops (finishing)
German lager-type yeast
1.25 cup dried malt extract (for bottling)

I put about 2 gallons of water in the pot, which was a bit too much to deal with. I heated the water to 160, then kept it at about that temperature for 30 minutes, steeping the crushed chocolate malt. After 30 minutes, we strained out the grains, added the malt extract and hops and boiled for 45 minutes. Then we added the finishing hops and boiled for 15 minutes longer.

The tricky part was getting the finished wort into the bucket (that already had 2 gallons of water in it). The strainer was not as stable with the bucket as in the carboy. The pot was very full, so it was difficult to handle. We ended up spilling quite a bit. What a mess! I hope Bo managed to get it all up, or the floor will be very sticky tomorrow.

We're finally making beer again. We're repeating our first beer with some minor modifications. Then we're going to make a bock beer.

Ingredients for about 2.5 gallons:

4.5 lbs. dark plain malt extract syrup
.25 lbs. crystal (carmel 40) malt
.125 lbs. black patent malt
.8 oz. Fuggles hops (boiling)
.3 oz. Cascade hops (finishing)
English ale liquid yeast
3/4 cup dried malt extract for bottling

This time we crushed the grains at the store. We steeped the grains for 30 minutes at 160 degrees. The wort was very dark after just the grains. We removed the grains and added the malt and hops and boiled for 60 minutes. Then we added the finishing hops. I through in a half-dozen of the hops we grew, which added charm, if not flavor. They had been sitting out on my desk, rather than properly stored in an air-tight container.

We drank the first bottle of our beer on Saturday. It is very good--tasty and smooth. It is low in alcohol (2%) and a little on mild side for an ale. Next time, we'll put more hops and malt (or less water). What is really surprising is the lack of sediment at the bottom of the bottle. There was just a tiny amount.

Last night we bottled the beer. It produced 19 bottles, and it should be ready in a week. We heated a charge of malt powder with water in the big pot, then transferred the beer with a sanitized siphon. Then put the pot up onto the table, and siphoned into the bottles. The bottles have grolsch style caps (easy caps) on them. The specific gravity was 1.017, and the beer should be about 2% alchohol.

We decided to call this beer Hunt's Pecan Brown Ale.

We probably could have checked the specific gravity a week ago, but we didn't. We measured the specific gravity with our hydrometer. Specific gravity at 10:39 AM on 1/18/04: 1.016 at 65 degrees. Alchohol content is between 2% and 2.5%: 5% potential alcohol - 2.5% = 2.5% or (1.035-1.016) x 105 = 2%.

We'll check again tonight, and then we'll probably bottle the beer. It should be ready in a week.

We came home last night and the beer was finally visibly fermenting. This started 24 hours after we pitched the yeast. I think it was so slow because the room was kind of cold. I moved the wort to near the heater, so that it would be warmer. This morning it was bubblier, but it is still only a small layer of foam.