Weekend Aftermath

The weekend bottling process turned out good and bad.

First off, the good...

Bottled the dunkelweizen with no problems. The stockpile of beer is increasing. The Sam Adams Summer Ale Clone is the best beer we've made to date..

Stockpile!

Now the bad...

Bottling the Belgian Dubbel this weekend turned out to be one gigantic clusterfuck. Where to begin...

1. Short on bottles
2. Siphon tube was fucked up
3. Some bottles got fucked up (see pictures)
4. The capper makes sounds of glass crunching
5. Broke another siphon tube (which has been repaired..)
6. Broke the necks off some of the bottles

Broken bottles full of Dubbel

A sad, sad picture

Yes, the capper was literally cutting the neck of the bottles completely off. In the first picture, you can see two bottle caps still sealed on the broken neck (Yes, I saved them as keepsakes)

So yeah, the Belgian Dubbel didn't go as smooth as expected, but there is enough there to get hammered. There are 13 bottles of Belgian Dubbel that are 22oz. So no worries! More to come with the Memorial Day weekend ahead.

Iron Hill Brewery

Today, I had the opportunity to visit the Iron Hill Brewery for lunch while I am out in West Chester (work related off-site testing). The brewery / restaurant was excellent! Great food and even better beer. While being a weirdo and taking pictures of the brewery, one of the brew masters inside asked me if I wanted to come in. So, I chatted with the 2 brew masters at Iron Hill for about 20 minutes. They were making a special spicy Wheat beer concoction that contained Grains of Paradise (also used in my Sam Adams Summer Ale clone recipie). I mentioned to them about the beers I have fermenting in my basement and said I used the Grains of Paradise for the Summer Ale. This was the first time the guys at Iron Hill were using them, so they were curious how much I used and how the batch tasted. Sadly, I could only comment on the raw taste (which was awesome) because the beer is still young (1 week into bottle conditioning). Below are some pictures of the Iron Hill brewery...

Belgian Wit

Brew Kettle

Mash/Lauter Tun
Cleaning Grains from the MLT

Fermenters and Brew Master

Fermenters 4 and 5

Fermenter 1

Iron Hill Brewery... a wonderful place to eat lunch and their beer is excellent!

Updates

Sorry for the lack of updates... More will be coming soon, but for now here is a brief overview:

Weekend update
1.) Bottling Belgian Dubbel
2.) Bottling Dunkelweizen

Other updates
1.) Brewed an IPA (Sierra Nevada Clone with some tweaks)
2.) Brewed a Belgian Farmhouse Ale (Saison) - Fermenting around 70-75 degrees, soon up to 85 degrees - to get those sour Saison type flavors.
3.) Apfelwein should be ready to be bottled next week.
4.) Sam Adams Summer Ale clone is bottled and conditioning.

What does this all mean?? STOCKPILE!!! A lot of beer to drink in the near future! Stay tuned.

Weekend Schedule

The weekend agenda is as follows:

1. Sanitize 4 cases of bottles
2. Sterilize 4 cases of bottles
3. Bottle the Sam Adams Summer Ale Clone (5 Gallons)
4. Brew an I.P.A

It should be another great weekend of beer related madness! And also I'm going to 2 Phillies games as well... I'll have pictures from the weekend's craziness on Monday.

I am going to hold off on bottling the Belgian Dubbel for another week. It looks like there is still some suspended matter floating in the liquid (most likley the krausen didnt fully fall to the bottom). I've been told to try and "cold-crash" the carboy. So, I am going to move the carboy into the kegerator for a week, hopefully knocking all the particles to the bottom of the carboy. I will add more posts later about the progress.

Other Beer Related Pictures

Friday night after brewing the dunkelweizen, I had tickets to the Phillies / Mets game. I brought down a case of the Fat Tire Amber Ale, which is now all gone. We did not make it in until the bottom of the 4th inning. It was a good game (from what I recall)

Sunday Brewing Co. Founders

(Yes, that is the Fat Tire Amber Ale in the cups)

Me and the woman went to Victory this weekend for some lunch and beers. I had a Whirlwind Weiss and Stormking Stout. Both were very delicious beers!

Dunkelweizen - Fermenting

Below are some pictures of the dunkelweizen fermenting. This batch took about 48 hours to starting kicking off the fermenting process. It has been going strong since then...

About 48 hours in

Close up of the blow-off hose

Dunkelweizen and Belgian Dubbel (beer porn!)

Wild Flower Wheat Score Sheet

Taster: Mark Blaszczyk

Name of Beer: Wild Flower Wheat

Type: Wheat

Brewery: Sunday Brewing Co.

Date: 5/03/09



Basic Scoring:
_9_ Presentation (10) - Observe the head, the consistency, the color, the clarity, the aroma…
_15_ Taste (20) - Use terms like fruity, dry, smooth, metallic, yeasty, alcoholic to help score.
_8_ Body (10) - Was this beer creamy, bubbly, hearty, thick or thin? Was it a good temperature? Was the 'mouthfeel' good(+) or bad(-)? Why?
_4_ Drinkability (5) - When finished, did you want to go out an get a six pack (+) or dump the rest of the bottle (-)?
_3_ Empty Glass Factor (5) - A trace of the ring in the glass (+) A very clean glass (-). The best beers leave a nice ring of foam. Drinking from the bottle scores a 2.

BASIC SCORE (50) __39__

Alternate Scoring:
_10_ Aroma (12) - Comment on malt, hops, esters, and other aromatics.
_3_ Appearance (3) - Comment on color, clarity, and head (retention, color, and texture)
_15_ Flavor (20) - Comment on malt, hops, fermentation characteristics, balance, finish/aftertaste, and other characteristics
_5_ Mouthfeel (5) - Comment on body, carbonation, warmth, creaminess, tartness, bitterness and other palate sensations
_8_ Overall Impression (10) - Comment on overall drinking pleasure associated with this beer and give suggestions for improvement

ALTERNATE SCORE (50) __41__

TOTAL SCORE (100) __80__ = EXCELLENT

KEY:
Outstanding (84-100)
Excellent: (68-83)
Very Good: (52-67)
Good: (36-51)
Fair: (20-35)
Poor: (0-19)

Comments: This is one of the most interesting tasting beers i've ever had in my life. You cannot compare it to anything, it's in its own league. That being said, overall the beer turned out perfect. Everything from the consistancy, color, head, carbonation, taste was wonderful. I think 2 oz. of chamomile was a bit much... I would try 1 oz. of chamomile next time and maybe add some type of spice to the wort. Overall, my best beer to date.

Dunkelweizen

That's right... On Friday, I took a much needed vacation day from work and did a solo brew. I decided to go with a dunkelweizen, mainly for 2 reasons...

1.) I've never had a dunkelweizen

2.) I love wheat beers.

The brewing process went smoothly. Everything looked and smelled wonderful. I also picked up a 5 Gallon Better Bottle carboy (plastic and much cheaper in price than glass). Of course, the bottle did not have the Gallon marks on the side, so I topped it off to where I thought was 5 gallons. This batch may be short a few bottles of 2 cases, but no need to worry, there will be plenty to go around!

Wheat Malt Extract warming up

Steeping grains at 160 degrees

Adding hops to the wort
Dog & Kettle