Catching up

Time to catch up on whats been going on, and get set for a couple weeks on vacation. Brewing continues.

Here is a rare behind the scene view of Johnnycakes Brewery. Not many get a chance to pay homage.

The cider is in the green bucket. It's been about 6 weeks so far, and hopefully Ashley and Mary can help taste test for sugar additions before it goes to bottle in a few weeks. Probably split half and half still & sparkling. The primary in the back has the Whitehouse Honey Ale going to secondary Saturday. Bottled the Pumpkin Ale about a week ago. I labeled 2 bottles from the middle of the bottling bucket for the Barley Legal competition. Sure wish I could be there, but vacation's much better.

The cooler will be doing lagers this winter. Northern Brewer had a 2 for 1 sale on Better Bottle carboys so Franz got the 5's and I got 6's so we can swap. Hoping that 6 with the other style air lock just might fit below the sliding doors. Looking at Pilsners, tasting the Victory Prima Pils this week. NB has a couple kits that would make a quick adjustment for the recipes I found. Might even find a lager Calvin likes, a Yuengling knock off?

Brewing up a beer Saturday that I read great reviews about, the Innkeeper from NB. A light Ale with low ABV so they drink nicely. We'll have to see how that goes. Found a great image online for the caps.

Still have the Dead Ringer IPA on the shelf from an August buy 2 sale. Sounds like an after vacation brew. That's going to be a very busy time. Hmm too much too soon maybe... No post vacation brew till the rest is in bottles. The Innkeeper goes right to bottles after the primary, it's light. And the Honey Ale will be ready for bottles, too. Then probably time for the cider. Wow, lots of bottles and all custom caps, yea. I'm thinking the 22 oz  Franziskaner Hefe-Weissbier Naturtrüb bottles Jim gave me for the cider. It drinks better from a glass anyway. Hopefully I'll have enough 12's for the other 2. Could be close.

Also got a yeast starter kit with the new carboys. The IPA kits came in at 90+ temps, and the Chinook was OK, the Dead Ringer is still waiting. The starter kit ought to be just the ticket, and great for making every pitch a success. I should stick to dry yeast in the summers to be safe.
Brew haha.

Chinook, Pumpkin and Barley Legal HB

Chinook IPA

With help from Mary the Chinook IPA is bottled. This was the first batch with dry hops, and that last bottle from the bucket will be interesting! Maybe a simple cheese cloth filter would help.

The caps are from Bottlemark. At 12 cents a piece it's great! Since I don't currently label my own stock they're great for keeping them straight in the future. I'm trying to decide about saving some for the future. At this point I'm thinking 10 bottles, and break open a couple each year.

Pumpkin Update!

I tested the SG on the Pumpkin Rye and got the first taste. It's about 6.5% ABV so far.

 It's still young, but I'm very pleased with the flavor at this point. It's got another day or 2 before the fermenting is done. We're going away this weekend, so moving to the secondary will happen next week. I put the sample in the fridge for a while and there was a heavy coating on the bottom, so it's clearly still active.

Homebrew club

I joined the Barley Legal Homebrewers today and found out that they have a Pumpkin brew contest. Just might jump in on that and get some feedback, but won't be around during the meeting when they do the review. Bummer. I'm looking forward to interacting wit the group.

John