Russian Imperial Stout

Yesterday I brewed my second batch of beer. This is Russian Imperial Stout kit from The Beverage People. The people at the Beverage People were very helpful. I told them I would be traveling to Bangladesh and that the kit would set in a container for three months so they traded out the liquid yeast (it would go bad) for a dried yeast. The dried yeast was designed for wine but they recommended it because of the high alcohol content of the beer. This is going to make a beer similar to an Old Rasputan from North Coast brewing. Dark, complex and a big punch. The brewing went without a hitch this time. The foam of this beer is lush and has a great color. Check out this pic:

I was able to cool the wort down quicker this time after trying some new techniques. This time I set the wort in a chilled bath and ran water through the wort chiller. I also periodically stirred the wort as gently as possible so as not to introduce any oxygen while it was still hot. It took about 30 minutes to get 25 quarts of wort from boiling to 75 degrees. Not too bad.

Then I transferred the wort to the primary fermenter, pulling a little bit out to test the specific gravity (and taste it...hehe). It was at 1.095! To explain what this means, the specific gravity is comparing the specific gravity of the wort to that of water. The higher the number, the more sugar in the wort. The 1.095 converts to a final alcohol content of about 13%. This happens as the yeast converts the sugars into alcohol over the next few weeks. Yeast is so cool!

There is already a good deal of action in the carboy as you can see from the pics I took today. I am super excited about this batch and I hope I am not building it up too much. Luckily I still have some of the first batch to sip on while I watch the yeast work its magic.

Finally Brewing!

Finally got my act together and brewed some beer! It is a Dark Lager Kit from The Beverage People in Santa Rosa. Everything went pretty well and now it is just a waiting game. There is something so satisfying about making things like beer and bread and mayonnaise from scratch. Things that we usually just buy at the store. Things that we take for granted. We go to the store to buy bread or beer like it is a singular item. But when you make these things you realize that they are a collection of ingredients and time and meticulous actions and stress and mistakes. It means so much more and tastes so much better. The next time you go to the store and buy a loaf of bread you appreciate everything about it. "My, what lovely crust. The airy quality of the bread" or "Oh, this beer has a great fresh hop flavor!" and you read the bottle and it talks of the variety and region of the hops used in the beer. Appreciation is back. Brewing your own beer makes other people's beer more interesting. Alright, I'll stop! Here are some pics of the process.

Steeping the brewers barley

Boiling the malt extract and barley tea. I am also sanitizing the copper wort chiller.

 The spent grains

 My wort chiller chillin. Tap water to ice bath to wort and to the drain. Worked ok, was not as fast as I was hoping... need larger coils I guess. It took about 40 minutes to get it from boiling to 80 degrees...

 Siphoning from the pot to the primary fermenter.

Overall the process is surprisingly easy and only took about 3 hours. It seemed so daunting and I have been putting it off because I was a bit intimidated... but of course there was no need! Should have started brewing sooner!

Beer!

I got an invite from one of the long time teachers at AISD to come over to help brew beer. I have tasted a couple of different batches of Leon's beer. They are interesting, full of flavor and rather un-homebrew like which is so refreshing after drinking mostly Hieneken since our arrival. He has a proven setup and brews 20 gallons at a time! When I arrived he already had the malt and hops boiling. Our job was to transfer from stove top pan to a pan on the floor and cool it as quickly as possible. The key is a heat exchanger. Boiling beer goes in one side and ice water in the other. What comes out is 21 degree C beer and warm water. Leon was a Chemistry major in college so he has a very ordered and clean way about his brewing: think efficient production line. He also has a distillery!!!!!! Fun Fun Fun. Here is a pic of the man in action.

Can't wait for our container to arrive so I can brew too!