Wolfberry Mead update/bottling day

This past weekend I got around to bottling the wolfberry (gojiberry) mead I made a few months ago. I didn't take a final gravity reading, but based on the taste and the starting gravity I would assume it's somewhere north of 12%.

I didn't take a lot of photos, but I did taste a sample as I was bottling. It was hot, but very tasty. The wolfberries gave it a slightly fruity, vegetal character and a great orange color.

Ready to bottle!

The large bottle marked "C" and the two smaller bottles will be sparkling mead.

Garden update

It's been awhile since I've posted about the status of our garden. In addition to the usual suspects - tomatoes, pepper plants, squash, etcetera - I also planted some wine grapes and hops this year. I had to be more selective with the grapes than hops due to the harsh winters (30 F and below). Unfortunately, the grape I was most excited about, the Traminette, seems to be DOA. I will likely replant it next year and cross my fingers.

Cascade. The centennial in the back isn't doing nearly as well. This picture was taken on Friday, it's now even taller (over six feet!).

Pinot gris plant. The goal, eventually, will be a Pinotlambicus clone. I will probably only get enough grapes for 1/2 gallon of wine this year, but not bad considering how young the vines are.

Worden grape, a hybrid table/wine red grape. Off to a late start.

Brewing Triathlon, Part II - Thai-spiced witbier

This Saturday, my friend Rick and I finally got around to brewing the collaboration witbier we have been waiting on ingredients for. The LHBS finally got my yeast (WLP410, my go-to witbier strain) in stock again and so after picking up the yeast and other ingredients on Friday, we were good to go.

I also needed to borrow Rick's beer gun so I could keg and fill a few bottles of KG30 for my cousin's thirtieth birthday party on Saturday night.

Lastly, we needed to bottle our secret porter that we originally brewed for a collaboration homebrew contest in Southern California. Unfortunately, we bit off more than we could chew and the beer was not even close to ready when the deadline came up, so it never even got to compete (if it had, I'm sure we'd have done well!).

Ultimately, Rick and I ended up holding a 'brewing triathlon' and decided we would just do everything in one day, so I've split the day into two parts - Part I is here. Today I will talk about the witbier we brewed and attempt to review a stout without laughing.

Part II - Thai-spiced witbier

A little over a year ago, I brewed my first all-grain witbier for a style presentation hosted by Addison Homebrew Provisions. Everyone was invited to brew a witbier and share them during the montly meeting. As I always seem to do, I decided to take the less beaten path and go for a more historical interpretation of the style. Rather than used flaked wheat, I decided to buy some raw spelt berries from Whole Foods and mill them myself using my mill attachement for my stand mixer. Unfortunately, that eagerness turned to horror when I ended up breaking my KitchenAid in the process. In honor for a fallen friend (since fixed!) I named the beer "Greasemonkey Wit".

Long story short, the beer was well-recieved and people have been asking for me to brew a second batch ever since. I finally capitulated and agreed to split a batch with my friend Richard, giving each of us 2.5 gallons. I made some adjustments to the recipe. I ended up having to use flaked red wheat instead of raw spelt since I couldn't seem to find it again. I also increased the grain bill to boost the ABV from the original 3.5% to ~5%, as I found the original version a tad too watery for my tastes. Lastly, I added some additional spices in the form of lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, and thai chilies based on some success with the ingredients in the past. With these tweaks, I set on brewing a second batch of witbier.

Rick and I mashed in around 9:30 or so, and started the boil around 10:45. I ended up having to extend the boil by 10 minutes because we both got sidetracked bottling the porter and forgot to add the spice additions at the correct time. Other than that, the brewday went smoothly and the sample I tasted from the hydrometer tube was spot-on in color and flavor. As usual, I am using WLP410, the platinum-strain Witbier II yeast, as I prefer its flavor over the year-round variety; order it while you still can.


Thankfully, witbiers have a quick turnaround, so I'll be back at Rick's in two weeks to bottle this one up. Recipe and a mini-review past the break.

Brewing Triathlon, Part I - Batch Eleven and KG30

This Saturday, my friend Rick and I finally got around to brewing the collaboration witbier we have been waiting on ingredients for. The LHBS finally got my yeast (WLP410, my go-to witbier strain) in stock again and so after picking up the yeast and other ingredients on Friday, we were good to go.

I also needed to borrow Rick's beer gun so I could keg and fill a few bottles of KG30 for my cousin's thirtieth birthday party on Saturday night.

Lastly, we needed to bottle our secret porter that we originally brewed for a collaboration homebrew contest in Southern California. Unfortunately, we bit off more than we could chew and the beer was not even close to ready when the deadline came up, so it never even got to compete (if it had, I'm sure we'd have done well!).

Ultimately, Rick and I ended up holding a 'brewing triathlon' and decided we would just do everything in one day. Because of this, I am going to split this up into two posts, with Part I today and Part II tomorrow morning.

Part I - Batch Eleven and KG30

Since there's no longer any need for secrecy, let's get Batch Eleven out of the way. Originally brewed for a competition in Fullerton, it ended up missing the May deadline and was finally ready to go in bottles. Rick and I brewed a single six gallon batch back in February as a tribute to "Black Lingerie", one of the best beers I've ever had. I was able to get the recipe from Daniel, the brewer, and made a few (minor) adjustments to the grain bill, leaving the yeast, hops, and mash schedule intact.

Partially inspired by my love of cordial cherries and Alaskan's Baltic Porter, I decided that I would add cherry puree, cacao nibs, and a concoction of american oak cubes and vanilla beans soaked in rum to my half of the beer. Rick, conversely, went with blackberry puree and a single french oak stave soaked in port wine. The beer was primaried in a single carboy and split up for our expirements in secondary.

We ended up bottling most of it as two seperate batches, along with a handful of bottles filled with a 60/40 blend of the two, my half being the majority. I have my share in a cool closet for the next few weeks to carbonate and bottle condition, but I plan on opening one ASAP to see how it tastes with some carbonation, as the sample I had at bottling was fantastic.

KG30

KG30, bottled and labelled.

I also filled 5 bottles of KG30, the wheatwine with honey, oak, and tequila I brewed a few months back to celebrate my cousin's 30th birthday. The party was later that night, and since I didn't have time to bottle it the regular way, I asked Rick if I could use his beergun to bottle it. I racked the beer to a keg on Tuesday, and force-carbonated it at Rick's Saturday morning (I was out of CO2). We let the keg chill for a few hours in his lagering chamber while we brewed and bottled Batch Eleven. After we were (mostly) done with everything else we grabbed the bottles out of the freezer (keep them cold for best results) and retrieved the keg from his refridgerator. Beer gunning is incredibly simple, and I can't believe I don't own one already. It's a huge time saver being able to not have to pick between kegging or bottling, and except for sours, I already keg everything, so I think I will have to get one of these once I start entering more competitions.

Rick filling the bottles.

Tomorrow I will go over the rest of the brewday, including a tasting of an oddly named stout and brewing our collaborative witbier.

KG30 update #2

Today, I finally got around to kegging my wheatwine. I was originally going to bottle it, but my friend is letting me borrow his beer gun, which works out better because I only need a handful of bottles to give as a birthday present (for more info, read the original post).

Next up is making a label and beer gunning a few bottles before the party this weekend.

Crab Tostadas

Tostadas two ways:

A - Salmon ceviche, cabbage, crème fraîche, whitefish roe, pico de gallo, chipotle aioli.

B - Dungeness crab 'salad', cabbage, crème fraîche, whitefish roe, pico de gallo, chipotle aioli.

Paired with The Bruery's Oui Oui.

DIY Mash Tun

Wow! Almost a month since the last update. I've been busy.

This weekend I built a mash tun using instructions off of this thread. I made a run to Home Depot for most of the parts, but they were out of ball valves at the time, so I had to make a quickie run to Lowe's to finish off the parts list (it was on the way home, so no biggie).

I followed the instructions on the HomeBrewTalk thread to a tee, but made a couple modifications to the basic design. First, I opted to use the more substantial 'bazooka screen' instead of the braided hose filter. I've heard too many stories of the braid crushing under the weight of the grain bed and getting horrible efficiency - or worse - a stuck sparge. I attached a spare stainless steel nut to the bazooka screen to weight it down per advice from my friend Rick, who had problems with the bazooka screen 'floating' and causing him to lose efficiency points. The second modification I made to the design was to add a neoprene rubber washer to the inside of the cooler, between the stainless steel washer and the rubber grommet. My hope is that the rubber washer will  help fill in the gap between the flat washer and the curved wall of the cooler. I'm probably going over-kill, but I'd rather overdo something than have it leak.

After everything was assembled and tightened down, I filled the cooler 2/3 with hot water and left it for ~45 minutes. It didn't leak a drop, so I emptied it out, dried it, and hope to use it this weekend to brew.

Some pictures:

Weighing down the bazooka screen.

All done!