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.

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.

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!)

Photo Updates

I checked on everything I have fermenting last night and also had 4 Amber Ales during the process. Below are some picture updates...

Belgian Dubbel - About 2 weeks in Primary

Sam Adams Summer Ale Clone - About 1 week in Primary

Empty Glass of Amber Ale - Yummy head lines!

Belgian Dubbel pictures

Sorry for the lack of updates.. Below are some pictures from past brews I never got around to uploading.

Dan keeping an eye on the Belgian Dubbel

Belgian Dubbel fermenting in the dark

The Belgian Dubbel will be ready to be bottled this weekend. It will need to ferment about 1-2 months, but an 8.2% ABV Belgian Dubbel will be worth the wait. The Dubbel will also be bottled in flip-top 22oz. bottles (think Grolsch bottles!)

Status Updates

Belgian Dubbel
The Belgian Dubbel just began its primary fermenting on Monday. It took about 30 hours before I seen any action taking play within the carboy. Right now it is blowing out a bubble every 5 seconds and a thick layer of krausen has formed on top of the carboy. The fermentation temperature is around 68 - 70 degrees. I will keep a close watch on it this weekend because the Philadelphia area is supposed to get temperatures in the 80's.

Ed Wort's Apfelwein
The apfelwein seems to be fermenting or doing its thing. It is in a plastic bucket fermenting, so I can not see what is going on. I smelled the top of the airlock to get a hint of what is coming out and it smelled like rotten eggs. This is common in certain strains of yeast. And since this yeast is a wine yeast, it probably produces some interesting smells.

Wild Flower Wheat
The Wild Flower Wheat is just about hitting the 2 week mark of fermentation and should be bottled this weekend. It is still shooting out a bubble about every minute or so. The fermentation temperature is around 64-66 degrees. I might try to warm up the Wild Flower Wheat a little bit to make sure fermentation is complete.

Fat Tire Amber Ale (Clone)
The Fat Tire Amber Ale has been conditioning just about 2 weeks now. I was impatient and sampled one at the 1 week mark, and it tasted wonderful. This recipie will be brewed again this weekend, but with some personal tweeks to the recipie.

Weekend Update

Ok, where to begin...

1. I took a pre-mature taste of the 1-week bottle conditioned Amber Ale and it is by far the best batch made to date. It actually tastes like beer (And a really good one to boot!). I am not going to open anymore until it's been sitting another week or two, but so far, it's a good beer!
2. On Saturday, a Belgian Dubbel (St. Francis' Blessed Midnight Dubbel) was brewed (should be roughly 8.2% ABV). This beer will ferment for about 2-3 weeks, then bottled. It will bottle condition around 2-3 months. For this type of beer, the longer it bottle conditions the better.
3. On Sunday, I made a batch of Ed Wort's Apfelwein. I will post the recipie. There is no actual boiling involved, and you can pick up all the ingredients for around 25$.

Sadly, I was real lazy and did not take any good pictures of either the Dubbel or Apfelwein being made. I will post some fermentation pictures during the process. The Dubbel is going to have a very vigorous ferment, so that should be interesting.