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49 Bottles of Beer On the Wall

One of the first bottles with the first filled six pack

Well maybe they aren’t on the wall. They are really in two cases waiting to be tasted. Today I bottled my first beer. I bought two cases (48 bottles) when I bought my kit. Reading the instructions though they recommended that you have 53 bottles on hand when bottling. I had one extra here from my brothers beer so I was still four short of the recommended bottles to have on hand. I cleaned out a growler to use just in case. Read the rest of this page »

Posted by  |  July 11, 2011 | Categories: 2011 Red Ale (Beer) | Tags: , , , , | Leave A Comment »

The Bottle Tree is Full Once Again!

The first time beer bottles have been on my tree

I may just enjoy seeing my bottle tree full more than seeing a full Christmas tree. Anyone who knows me well knows that I love putting presents under a tree. With my bottle tree tonight I put 50 presents on it. These 50 bottles will be filled tomorrow when I bottle my first beer. I am pretty excited about bottling my beer. From start to finish this process will only take 4-6 weeks depending on how patient I am in waiting before taking my first taste. With wine I would be bulk aging for that 4-6 weeks. I enjoy making the wine, but I also enjoy the quick turnaround you get with the beer. Read the rest of this page »

Posted by  |  July 11, 2011 | Categories: 2011 Red Ale (Beer) | Leave A Comment »

My First Beer Moves On

The beer making it's way into the secondary bottle

Today I also racked my beer. From a beer making expert (my brother) I learned that most beers are made using the 1-2-3 principle. You ferment initially for one week, followed by two in the secondary carboy, followed by 3 in the bottle. I am now 1/6 of my way to drinking this beer. Who am I kidding? I will have one soon after it is in the bottle. Read the rest of this page »

Posted by  |  June 28, 2011 | Categories: 2011 Red Ale (Beer) | Tags: , , | 1 Comment »

Another One in the Bottle!

My bottles waiting to be filled

Today I was able to catch up on a couple of things. One of them was to finally bottle my no name Chianti that I have been bulk aging. I like the fact that I can wait a little longer to bottle the wine so that it can age together a little longer. While it was aging I came up with an idea to keep better track of my wine. I cleaned the bottoms of the bottles and affixed a sticker to them with numbers from 1-30. This way I know where the wine was taken from in the carboy. I had a bad bottle of Pinot that I guessed was from the bottom of my carboy, but I didn’t know. This way I know exactly where in the process each bottle was bottled. Could I fit another bottle in that sentence. I don’t think so. Read the rest of this page »

Posted by  |  June 28, 2011 | Categories: Untitled Chianti | Tags: , , , | 1 Comment »

Finally We Have Fermentation!

The must as it worked its way to the top of the bucket

I waited for what seemed like an eternity for my strawberry wine to ferment. I realized a few hours before I had to leave for the weekend that I must have killed my yeast by leaving it in my car on a very hot day. A rookie mistake, but one that was easily fixed. I made a quick trip to Anderson’s Orchard to get another packet of yeast. I will have a little more on my trip to the orchard in a later post. Read the rest of this page »

Posted by  |  June 23, 2011 | Categories: 2011 Strawberry Wine | Tags: , , | Leave A Comment »

A Red Ale Update

Fermentation in the beginning stages

This morning I checked my fermenter first thing. It had a little foam on the top, but nothing to great. A few hours at lunch I looked again, and was greeted by the above site. The body of the wort was really moving. This was quite a bit of work for just being 12 hours in the carboy. I was very excited to see that my beer was working already. It won’t be long until the beer is in the bottle.

Posted by  |  June 22, 2011 | Categories: 2011 Red Ale (Beer) | Tags: , , , , | Leave A Comment »

Quick Out of the Gate

The yeast starting to work already

I was a little worried about about the strawberry wine fermenting. The only real reason was the fact that I left my yeast package in the card Sunday. They store the yeast in a nice cold cooler in the store, but for some reason I had it in my card all day where it was stifling to get into. I wondered if I had killed it. Imagine my relief when I took a peek into my fermenter and saw that it was already starting to work. I bet this will be crazy by the morning.

Posted by  |  June 22, 2011 | Categories: 2011 Strawberry Wine | Tags: , , | Leave A Comment »

Day Two of the Strawberry Wine

The brainy pulp that I found today

Last night I took my strawberries and mashed them up. I put a sanitizer in with the 30 pounds along with just under two teaspoons of pectic enzyme. Before this project I did not know anything about pectic enzymes. I just trusted the recipe last night and put them in. I went to bed wondering how I would get six gallons of liquid after all the pulp was left behind. Today I stuck my arm in the mash to stir it and got my answer. The enzyme had really broken down the pulp to the point that only a bit of the bigger pieces was left over. I was really impressed with how the mash had broken down. Read the rest of this page »

Posted by  |  June 22, 2011 | Categories: 2011 Strawberry Wine | Tags: , , | Leave A Comment »

A Change of Pace (My First HomeBrew Beer)

A little over a week ago my brother sent me a link for a Groupon to get over half off a beginning brew kit. I have a lot of beer brewing supplies already so I decided to give beer a try. This past weekend I was getting my wine supplies when I picked out my first beer. My brother has made a couple Red Ale’s, and I really liked them. Why not start with one that you really like? The good news is that even though this is my first time brewing myself I have seen it done many times.

The steeping sock in place

The process starts off just like wine. Everything must be sterilized. After that you have to get 2.5 gallons of water up to 150 degrees. Once it is there you take the grains they give you and put them in what appears to be an old sock. This process is very similar to making tea. The ‘sock’ only stays in place for 20 minutes. After that the sock is pulled out of the wort and suspended to let drain. Read the rest of this page »

Posted by  |  June 21, 2011 | Categories: 2011 Red Ale (Beer) | Tags: , , , | 1 Comment »

The Strawberry Wine is Underway!

The package from GFS that saved me a lot of time

I have been waiting to make a wine from scratch for a couple of months now. I did not know of any pesticide free fields to grab dandelions from so I had to wait until Strawberry season to make a new wine. I was going to just pick my own strawberries, but the weather stepped in whenever I was going to go and get them. I needed 30 pounds so I knew I had my work cut out for me. The recipe that I am following called for 25 pounds, but that was for a 5 gallon batch. I am making six gallons so I adjusted all the ingredients to match. While shopping for something else at GFS I came across their frozen whole strawberries. The five pound packages were actually less than I would spend to pick them myself, and these were cut and washed already! That was a huge selling point that made my decision easy. Read the rest of this page »

Posted by  |  June 21, 2011 | Categories: 2011 Strawberry Wine | Tags: , , , | Leave A Comment »

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