Bah Humbug: It's about time

I finally got the chance to tap the Bah Humbug keg, sampling it this warm spring evening with my wife.

Thanks to a rather inauspicious business practice of taking a customer's money with no plans to provide the purchased items, I was stuck for awhile without the final pieces necessary to connect my kegerator to my pin-locked cornelius keg. In case you're interested, the website is www.keepjimfromenjoyinghishomebrew.com (where keep = keg and jimfromenjoyinghishomebrew = kits).

Thanks to http://www.midwestsupplies.com/ I was able to resolve the situation. I'm not sure why I didn't go with them to begin with, considering the fact that I've only known good experiences when ordering from their online store.

Anyway, so I bet you're wondering how this Winter Ale turned out: pretty damn good. It's a spicy, smooth and not overwhelming ale, reminding me of a good pumpkin ale from the fall.

My rating: 3.75 / 5

Hell's Gate Porter: Thumbs Up

My current setup only allows me to have one brew on tap at a time (there is most certainly a project on the short list to remedy this situation), and the Hell's Gate Porter was chosen from the two available. The beer poured beautifully with a thick head; the porter turned out to have a very dark color.



Despite the dark look, the porter has a lighter taste to it. It doesn't have a syrupy after taste, making it go down very smoothly and leaving a refreshing taste in your mouth.

My rating: 3.5 / 5

Although it really does taste great and has met expectations, it isn't a very exciting brew. Not that I need excitement from every brew I drink, but with this dark of a porter, it seems like it should pack a punch in the flavor department and it does not. I'm always happy with a good home brew, free of any turn-offs; and this brew is a model of the very least of what I hope to put together with our efforts.

Cheers!

Kegging the Winter Ale and Hells Gate Porter

On 3/25 we transferred the Bah Humbug Winter Ale and the Hells Gate Porter into corny kegs. This is now our second time kegging, and things went extremely well with the transfer of the beer; it's amazing how much time you save when you don't have to clean and sanitize bottles...

Both beers had been transferred to secondaries on 3/16. The gravity measurements from 3/16 were practically identical to 3/25.

Hell's Gate Porter
OG: 1.055

FG: 1.020

Atten: 65%

ABV: 4.7%

Bah Humbug Winter Ale

OG: 1.074

FG: 1.023

Atten: 69%

ABV: 6.8%

The attenuation was a bit lower than expected based on previous brews using the same yeast; however, I believe this is mainly due to the lower temperature of the fermenting room. Don't be surprised if there is a post about a temperature-regulated fermenting box in the near future.

Problems with the kegging process:

More due diligence on both my part and one of my colleagues would have made this a much less painful process. We have a mix of cornelius keg styles with different pressure relief valves. The first group of kegs that were purchased seem to work with no issues. They have the user-initiated pressure relief levers. This latest set has a pressure relief that is triggered only when the pressure inside the keg reaches a certain level (configurable based on the strength of a tiny spring inside the pressure regulator valve in the keg top). After much fidgeting, I was able to get the pressure valve to hold 20 psi (removed the valve mechanism; cleaned it; re-tighted it).

The good news:

I'm happy with my gas setup at this point. I now have both kegs pressurized from the same CO2 tank, with the cost to extend to a 2nd keg being somewhere around $10.

The IPA has been bottled

The 1 Gallon Brew attempt has advanced to the next stage. I bottled the IPA yesterday afternoon with a FG of 1.018 (73% attenuation).

The good news: 1 Gallon of beer requires that you only prepare 4 bottles

The bad news: only 4 bottles of brew...

8 Bit Sees More Action

I'd like to say that 8 Bit Beer is back in action. Two of the three members met up tonight to complete a much needed, overdue brew night. Unfortunately, the third member is off touring the South Pacific. There's more than just chemistry in the flavor extraction from the grain steeping when brewing with 8 Bit, so we're looking forward to the next brew night where the team is whole again.

So, enough of that, let's talking beer: Bah Humbug Winter Ale and the Hell's Gate Porter.

You may notice that both of these brew names are retarded. This is usually a good sign that a recipe was chosen by the blond of the group (although, I have to admit, he has chosen some great tasting recipes, thus far). The Hell's Gate Porter is a repeat which we are attempting to brew at least as well as the previous brewing: it was a damn good porter.
The Winter Ale was chosen a few months ago, but put on hold. It seemed like a good night to resurrect the recipe so we weren't partaking in a bit of a Christmas ale during the Easter weekend.

Here are the recipes:

Hell Gate Porter
- 6 lb of dark liquid malt extract
- 1 lb of amber dry malt extract
- 1 lb of 80 L Crystal
- 1/2 lb of chocolate malt
- 1/2 cup Black Patent
- 1 oz of 8.8% A.A. Cascade (60 min)
- 1/2 oz of Ken Golding (30 Min)
- 1/2 oz of 4.5% A.A. Cascade (30 Min)
- Safale S-04 yeast

OG: 1.055

Bah Humbug Winter Ale
- 8 lb of light liquid malt extract
- 2 lb of honey
- 1/4 lb of Black Patent
- 1 lb of 40 L Crystal
- 1 oz Willamet Hops (60 min)
- 1/2 oz of Kent Goldings (10 min)
- 2 Tbsp allspice
- 1 can Welch's Cranberry juice concentrate
- peels from 4 oranges
- Safale S-04 yeast

OG: 1.074

And some highlights from the evening:

1 Gallon Brew: IPA

Recipe:

• 1 lb of Pilsen Golden Dry Malt Extract
• 1 lb of 60L Crystal Malt
• 1 oz. of Northern Brewer pellet hops
• Safale S-05 yeast

OG: 1.065

I was interested in attempting to repeat one of the first IPA's brewed by the 8 bit crew and came across an instructional video detailing a method of brewing smaller batches to keep overall brew time and resources to a minimum. I decided to give it a try. So far everything has gone well, but we won't know for sure until we taste the final result. Here is a link to the 1 gallon brewing process as outlined by Ben's Homebrew:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVGkTcYW0Yc

Here are a few pictures from the brewing process:

Pumpkin Spice Ale

The 8 Bit crew decided to try their hand at a couple Pumpkin Spice Ales.

Here is the recipe for one of the brews. In comparison, this ale was a bit less sweet, using about half the pumpkin. Also, for this brew, we boiled the pumpkin in the wort and counted on the strainer to remove as much as possible. The primary fermenter showed that a good bit of the pumpkin snuck through the strainer, as a thick layer of pumpkin quickly settled on the bottom. Most of this was removed in the transfer to the secondary.

OG: 1.033

FG: 1.011

Attenuation: 67%

AbV: 2.9%

Here are the ingredients:

• 6 pounds Golden LME
• 1 pound Crystal Malt 60L
• 4 pounds canned pumpkin
• 1 teaspoon Nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon Allspice
• 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
• 1 ounce of fresh grated ginger root
• 1.5 ounce Willamette
• 1 ounce Cascade
• Safale US-05 Dry Ale Yeast

Boil Times:

1. Willamette boiled for the full 60 minutes
2. Pumpkin boiled for the last 30 minutes
3. Cascade and spices boiled for the last 10 minutes

Racked into a secondary after about 4-5 days at 61% attenuation (1.013 gravity).

This recipe based on a pumpkin ale recipe from BeerRecipes.org.