Yeast poop disaster (or not)

Some weeks back I started working on our "Sweet Seduction" Peach Apricot Ale. The image to the left (click to view larger) shows the labels we've had printed (they are reusable vinyl; the pink border shows where they peel off from the backing). The design was the idea of my lovely wife, so don't go calling me a perve.

ANYway... I started with a Blonde Ale recipe. Did the initial sorcery with steeping grains, boiling hops, adding malt, yeast, and setting aside for a week in a big bucket Primary Fermenter. I'd ordered some Vintner's Harvest Peach Puree and Apricot Puree all the way from Oregon (just south of where we lived for years in Vancouver, Washington); this stuff gets great reviews and is quite pure. So after a week in the Primary, I siphoned the semi-beer into another big bucket the Secondary Fermenter. Approximately two and a half pounds each of the Peach Puree and Apricot Puree had been poured into the bottom of the Fermenter before siphoning the ale from the Primary into the Secondary. With all that new sugar, the yeast had a feasting good time. I checked the airlock every day, and could see that the yeast was digesting those sugars for 3 weeks! In case you didn't know, beer is basically yeast poop. The yeast digests the sugars, craps out alcohol and CO2, the airlock lets the CO2 out and we keep the alcohol. And some solid junk falls to the bottom of the bucket Fermenter.

So far so good. When the bubbling in the airlock had pretty much stopped after 3 weeks, it was time to bottle. What I should have done was to siphon the beer from the Secondary Fermenter back to the Primary (which should have a spigot near the bottom). This leaves the solids in the bottom of the Secondary Fermenter, and allows the happy brewer to stir in a little syrup for the yeast to digest in each bottle to give the beer some fizz (CO2).

But I'd been having a beer or two when I first started the Blonde Ale, and I started it in the bucket that doesn't have the spigot (the one that should be the Secondary Fermenter). So when I "racked" the beer to the Secondary Fermenter ...oops! ...I was really siphoning the beer into the bucket that has the siphon and that should have been the Primary Fermenter. I don't know if this makes sense to you, but the point is that when I bottled this weekend, I should have siphoned the beer from the bucket with the spigot to the bucket without the spigot, cleaned the bucket with the spigot, then siphoned the beer back to the one with the spigot, stirred in the "priming sugar" (now a syrup after dissolving it in a little warm water), and then filled the bottles using a little hose attached to the spigot. I wasn't thinking clearly, and didn't do any siphoning, I did gently stir in the syrup of priming sugar, and we then bottled.

Bottom line: This beer won't be as clear as it should be. I'll have to pour very, very carefully. Hopefully the little bit of sediment that did make it into the bottles won't result in any off flavors. And sometimes little accidents result in wonderful discoveries. I'm hoping this ends up being a tasty ale ...even if we are just drinking yeast poop.

Homebrewing: I'm a n00b, but I'm having fun

Wednesday evening, my buddy Crhis and I took the 3-hour "Extract Brewing" class at Southern Brewing & Winemaking. LOL ...we both got hooked immediately and each dropped about $200 on supplies! Please note that it is absolutely NOT necessary to get that crazy; one can brew for a lot less expense than that. But it's easy to just buy all the equipment and supplies and be able to get brewing.

Yesterday we each brewed our first batch. Below are pics (click on a thumbnail image to see the larger pic) and a few comments from the brewing I did here at the Litton house.

Step one was to get everything ready...and clean / sanitize the gear. This was the main lesson from the class: just how critical it is to keep everything sanitized (one the boil is done).

Heating 2 gallons of water to 165F. The gas-fired side burner on the outdoor grill was wonderful!

While the water heated, I continued organizing the equipment and supplies:

Here's the mix of specialty grain ...steeps for 30 minutes (once water reached 165F, turned off the heat, added the grain in a muslin sack, and steeped like tea):

Removed the grain after 30 minutes..Now time to boil before adding the mail extract.

Once the water boiled, I turned off the heat and grabbed the first bag of extract. There were two 3-pound bags of malt extract to add. I started slowly adding / stirring, but it was much easier once we switched to Shirley slowly pouring as I mixed. That helped avoid clumping. It took a few minutes to get it all in there and dissolved:

Then it was time to bring it all back to a boil. Once boiling, I added the first of the hops (1 oz Northern Brewer) in a muslin sack. This was to boil for the full 60 minutes. After 45 minutes (when there were 15 minutes remaining for the boil), the other hops (1 oz E. Kent Goldings) went in (also in a muslin sack).

Just waiting for the boil to complete. The aroma of the boiling hopsreally reminded me of the scent of NW Portland Oregon ...with all the breweries there, it always smelled like hops :) 

When the 60-minute boil was finally done, the goal was to cool the wort as quickly as possible. I put the pot on a tub with some water and ice.

Once the temp was below 135F (did not take long with the ice in there!), I removed the hops bags and poured the wort into the sanitized fermenter (large bucket). I then added 3 gallons of chilled filtered water (thank you Shirley for making a run to the store during the boil!). This VERY quickly brought the temp of the (now) 5 gallons down to 67F (I was simply trying for below 80F). The yeast was poured in, stirred with a sanitized whisk using my sanitized hand and arm (critical to keep everything sanitized after the boil), and the lid and airlock were installed. Using a hydrometer, I tested a sample I'd taken of the wort to check the specific gravity; target was 1.054 and it looked like I was sitting at about 1.055, so that was a good feeling.

This morning I checked on the brew. We've got the fermenter bucket sitting in a blue tub ($8 at Lowe's :) in the guest room closet. The airlock showed that the yeast is feasting away. Sweet! ...I later added some cold water to the bottom of the bucket ...ideally the temperature should be around 60F-72F. We keep the A/C set to 78F, so that's what the temp (on the outside of the fermenter) was reading. I've now got some water bottles in the freezer and will add one or two in the morning to the water in my "swamp cooler". But to make things easier later in this batch (or at least for future batches), I just ordered a Cool Brewing Fermentation Cooler.

Next weekend will be "racking" - switching the beer to a secondary fermenter. Can't wait for the first tasting in a month or so!