Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Bottling Grommit

We finally got Grommit in the bottle.

After all, he seemed like he was constantly trying to escape!


For those of you keeping score at home, this is the second time we've bottled at home.  I'm happy to report that we are getting better at it.



Although we have yet to come up with a more effiecient way to clean all this stuff!


So, so much to clean...


But in the end, we were able to produce two cases of [hopefully] delicious black cherry beer.
(this post is being written about a week after we bottled (sorry!), so hopefully we'll have a flavor/carbonation update for you soon)

 The label, seen below, is somewhat of a small point of pride for me (ok, I friggen love this thing!  I even hung one on the fridge because I'm so proud/such a huge dork). 


We have these fancy new labels that stick on with water, which means they will also come off easeier when we got to reuse the bottles!  Win!

  
Some other updates:

We currently also have an Altbier going.  Our goal is to brew at least one new beer a month (practice makes drunk perfect).  It was brewed while I was attempting to get a tan (but successfully fulfilling my destiny as a lobster-in-training) during a family get away to Florida.  So we've got that going for us...


Also, after our trip to the Flying Dog Brewery, we bought our first tap handle!  We have nothing to use it with, since we don't keg (yet) but its a nice reminder of we'd like to aspire to (not to mention, its so cool looking! AND one of my personally favorite beers)


TA-DA!

So that's all for now kids, we've got 2 cases of Grommit conditioning in the bottle, an Altbier in a bucket, one strictly-for-show tap handle and a patridge in a pear tree


Ooh!  A pear beer...that might be interesting...

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Brewery Tour - Doggie Style

What do a Raging B**ch, Doggie Style, a Pearl Necklace, Gonzo and Kujo have in common?



They are all delicious, delicious beers

(Get your mind out of the gutter...sheesh)

This past weekend, we took a long anticipated trip to the Flying Dog Brewery in Frederick, MD.  If you're fortunate enough to have access to their beers on a regular basis, you should know that all of their beers are produced out of this single location!  They used to be based out of Aspen, CO, but when they realized that the majority of their fans were east of the Mississippi River, they moved to the East Coast.

Lucky for us, they are only located about an hour drive away!

The tour was fantastic!  Everyone was super knowledgeable and all have a clear passion for beer.  We got to see their entire operation and tasted lots of samples (more on that in a bit).


This is a pictures of one of their brew kettles.  For us, this part is played by a turkey fryer pot with a spout.  THIS bad boy however is huge!  They have two lauter tuns and a mash tun on the premises.  The inside is intricate and between every batch someone has to go down inside of the kettle to clean/sanitize it!  AH!  I would NOT want that gig...


The control panel they use it huge!  And its all kept inside of a warehouse where there are tons of supplies.  Kegs, grains, more grains and hops are all kept on the premesis. 



The warehouse!

Next we were off to see the fermentation tanks.  These guys are HUGE!  So big in fact that their "airlock" is a giant plastic barrel!  Seen below...



Me taking in the glory of the fermenters

mmm...shinyyyy


If you look at this picture closely, you can see of the plastic barrel "airlocks" overflowing


Now that's a nozzle...

I would be really upset if this much yeasty, brown frothy-ness was all over our bathroom!

This tank is hosting the Gonzo Imperial Porter

This Gigantor machine is their one and only bottling machine.  Apparently it was on-site when Flying Dog bought the space.  *Drool*


This picture was taken in their warehouse where they package the beer and get it ready to ship.  Most of their beers are stored and shipped cold (and the only reason they wouldn't be is because they have been scientifically proven to not change in taste/flavor at room temperature.)   Another fun fact I learned is that the machine can only package one type of beer at a time.  That means if you buy a variety pack, that box was HAND PACKED by some guy (or gal) taking individual bottles and placing them in the box.

Now that's love

If you have the chance and live close enough to their Frederick, MD brewery, I would HIGHLY recommend it (you can find info on how to sign up for their tours here.)  You will need a DD though (thanks babe =P), since they give you SIX - 3oz samples! 
[For those of you keeping score, or are reading this WHILE consuming the subject matter of this blog, that's 24oz (aka a lot of beer for a lightweight like me)].

We got to sample a lot of really great stuff, including their current batch of their Wildeman Farmhouse IPA and their Horn Dog Barley Wine.  A real treat was their Barrel Aged Gonzo Imperial Porter, which was sweet and delicious.  We were sure to take home some souvenirs (in fact, 2 growlers worth!) 

Overall, it was a fantastic afternoon!



Conditioning Gromit

My mom always says, "knowledge is power"...

Exhibit A

Well I can honestly tell you, this whole thing has certainly been a learning experience.

For instance, you need to learn to adapt.  When we went to sanitize the carboy for the conditioning stage of our black cherry witbier (affectionately referred to as "Gromit", or less affectionately referred to as "Ornery Bastard"), the kitchen sink nozzle was stuck.  Wouldn't budge.  So, we went over to the bathroom sink and used that instead.

We also learned that when filling up the carboy, don't turn away for even ONE SECOND!  We did, and the plastic tubing magically lifted itself out of the glass container and proceeded to spray water E.V.E.R.Y.W.H.E.R.E...

See exhibit A (above) 


Once my OCD tendencies were under control and we fully towel dried the bathroom floor (at least we know its clean now right?), we proceeded to transfer Gromit from the bucket to the glass carboy.  The picture above shows the foamy, yeasty layer that was on top.  It's a sight like this that makes you wonder, "is making beer at home is actually worth it?"

Um, of course it is!  Trick question!


Anyway, before we transferred the beer, we wanted to add the very essential black cherry concentrate to the carboy.  It smelled delicious!


Here's the set up mid-transfer.  Working auto-syphon?  Check



The leftovers, including a yeast-filled bucket and the black cherry concentrate

And that was it!  Gromit will sit there for another week or so and get happy...

Or not

See, when sugar and yeast are mixed together, it creates gas.  Gas needs to escape somewhere, which is what the airlock is for.  Apparently, the black cherry concentrate (although labeled "sugar free"), must have contained some dissolvable sugars (4% in fact after reading the label, we're SMRT).  So boys and girls, what does this mean exactly?  It means we had a reprise of what happened Sunday morning when the airlock blew and there was brown foam everywhere. 

Throughout the course of the night Gromit covered itself, the towels, the floor and even the walls in one case with brown foam because the sugars from the black cherry concentrate activated the yeast.  At times we were just sitting and watching TV and you'd hear the airlock blow with a "pop" sound.  We would just look at each other with a look of "Gromit's at it again."  It just became a lossing battle to constantly clean up, so we decided to just let it do it's thing...

Thankfully this only went on for a day or so until the fermentable sugars were processed and Gromit calmed itself down.


Finally, I know everyone reading this post is a totally loyal follower and understands every reference I make, BUT for those of you who are just joining us, above is a picture of the reason we are calling this latest beer "Gromit".  That little, round, black sucker fell in the bucket when we were attaching the airlock at the very last stage of the beer making process.  So that little guy has been sitting in the bottom of the fermenting bucket for the past week.  If this beer is as stellar as I hope it is, you can bet that I will be throwing it in to subsequent batches!

Next up on the homebrew calendar, we will be tasting the "Hot Toddie Ale" we bottled a little while ago.  Consdiering all of the errors we made, we're not too optimistic =/