Homebrewing Update: Clawed the First, a strong Belgian ale
It's been too long since I've homebrewed. I think I did it once last year. So far this year: twice. Wow. Two whole times. I've forgotten how cool a hobby it really is.
On April 12 the whole family brewed together. We did two batches of soda for the kids, root beer and cream soda. I wasn't sure what to expect but it turned out to be really simple.
The soda extract came in small two ounce bottles. We combined the extract with about a gallon of water and eight cups of sugar (that's right, eight cups). We'd already made up a little "yeast starter" - a tablespoon of dry champagne yeast and a cup of hot water. That was added to the extract and sugar and topped off with another three gallons of water. After making sure it was mixed together well, we bottled. We ended up with 43 bottles of cream soda and 44 bottles of root beer. The extract costs $5.95 for a bottle and the dry yeast is $1.25. Not bad for eighty bottles.
After the soda was done, Dad went on to make his beer. It's the First Edition of Clawed, the Strong Belgian of Bottled Llama Brewing. I did a partial mash, which I've not done in years. I think it went pretty well. I made good use of a strainer and grain bag. I shoved the strainer into the top of my kettle, lined it with the grain bag and recirculated my mash water through it a couple of times then sparged with hot water. It looked and smelled wonderful.
The whole day went very well. I even remembered to write down everything I did - temperatures, times, ingredients and amounts. I can actually duplicate this beer later. I even made a 1000ml yeast starter. Fermentation started in under twelve hours and it was very active - stuff was blowing out the airlock for two days. Original gravity was 1060. I was hoping for a little higher, actually, and for a Belgian strong ale it should be (the ranges I saw were from 1064 to 1075). I'm guessing my mash wasn't perfect.
I racked to the secondary on April 19. The gravity was 1013. I figured the alcohol content (by volume) should be around 6.2%. I'm hoping that racking the beer may kickstart the yeast a little and it will ferment out a little more.
The beer is a murky orange right now. It looks like five gallons of unfiltered, raw honey. It smells spectacular. The alcohol is evident and the fruitiness of the Belgian yeast is really outstanding. Can't wait to try it. It'll be one of the Weekly Pint's, no doubt.
On April 12 the whole family brewed together. We did two batches of soda for the kids, root beer and cream soda. I wasn't sure what to expect but it turned out to be really simple.
The soda extract came in small two ounce bottles. We combined the extract with about a gallon of water and eight cups of sugar (that's right, eight cups). We'd already made up a little "yeast starter" - a tablespoon of dry champagne yeast and a cup of hot water. That was added to the extract and sugar and topped off with another three gallons of water. After making sure it was mixed together well, we bottled. We ended up with 43 bottles of cream soda and 44 bottles of root beer. The extract costs $5.95 for a bottle and the dry yeast is $1.25. Not bad for eighty bottles.
After the soda was done, Dad went on to make his beer. It's the First Edition of Clawed, the Strong Belgian of Bottled Llama Brewing. I did a partial mash, which I've not done in years. I think it went pretty well. I made good use of a strainer and grain bag. I shoved the strainer into the top of my kettle, lined it with the grain bag and recirculated my mash water through it a couple of times then sparged with hot water. It looked and smelled wonderful.
The whole day went very well. I even remembered to write down everything I did - temperatures, times, ingredients and amounts. I can actually duplicate this beer later. I even made a 1000ml yeast starter. Fermentation started in under twelve hours and it was very active - stuff was blowing out the airlock for two days. Original gravity was 1060. I was hoping for a little higher, actually, and for a Belgian strong ale it should be (the ranges I saw were from 1064 to 1075). I'm guessing my mash wasn't perfect.
I racked to the secondary on April 19. The gravity was 1013. I figured the alcohol content (by volume) should be around 6.2%. I'm hoping that racking the beer may kickstart the yeast a little and it will ferment out a little more.
The beer is a murky orange right now. It looks like five gallons of unfiltered, raw honey. It smells spectacular. The alcohol is evident and the fruitiness of the Belgian yeast is really outstanding. Can't wait to try it. It'll be one of the Weekly Pint's, no doubt.
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