Pulling the pony up the mountain

The new counterflow chiller works, but I had a big fight with it yesterday to get my wort cooled for pitching. 11pm in the cold garden trying to fit the piping, cutting myself on the copper and covering myself in hot and cold work alike.
The beer is in and the yeast is pitched. Let's just hope my multi-mouth powered siphoning hasn't tainted the beer. Time to have a head to head with engineering to get the kinks (to put it mildly) out of the process.

I have to return to the crime scene tonight to clean the pipe work and some of the items I couldn't face dealing with at 12:30am

Pilsner in bottles and here's the pit pony recipe

Thought I post this lovely picture of the bottled pilsner before it get's drunk in a couple of weeks.

I'm definitely getting more effcient at the ole bottling and a little bit better at the yeast rinsing..fingers crossed it'll be ok for the pit pony brew in a few days time.

Pit Pony

3.5 KG Extra light dry malt extract
500g Crystal Malt
250g Chocolate malt
1kg Black malt

60 g Tettanger (Bittering)
30g Cascade (Aroma)

California Lager yeast
Dextrose for priming

Steep grains at 68c for 30 minutes. Rinse and remove spent grains. Add bittering hops and half the extract (if boil is under 5 gallons) boil for 45 minutes. Add second half of the extract boil for 15 minutes more. Remove from heat add aroma hops and steep for 5-10 minutes.
Cool wort pitch yeast.

Ferment for 5-7 days at 18c - 22c
Transfer to secondary fermentrt (optional)
Reduce temperature and ferment for an additional 14-21 days at 4c - 7c.
Bottle age for 7-10 days

See, I told you I'd get a recipe down one day. Now all I have to do is brew it!

Homebrew vs Life

My increasing passion for brewing on the whole is supported by my family, friends and also my partner (rare indeed). However oft there are other homely duties which get in the way of the schedule. How do I deal with? I pack the lot up and hope that tomorrow will bring a more favourable day for the beer gods.
The pilsner is ready for priming and after being reassured that the diactyl rest approach I employed would mean that three weeks isn't too short a lagering time (it can be up to 8 weeks) and that there would be yeast enough for priming, I'm just trying to get 2 hours to get it in the damn bottles!
Attermpt 1 failed as I needed to get the new kilner jars ready for yeast harvesting and the next attempt is now looking like Thursday.  I'm also getting hassled by my engineering department (read Dad) who wants to know how the counterflow chiller is getting on.
MEMO to Engineering
RE: Counterflow chiller
I've not had time yet! - Stop hassling me!
Regards
Brewmaster Ead

So I thought today was a good day to jot my recipes down here for Barrel Racer, Oldenburg and Pit Pony (TB released for Christmas)
I also figured I'd put them in separate posts so I can reference them later.
So here they are....

C'mon Pilsner

Lagers take ages! I need a second fridge to get another brew going!

The current candidate names are:

Hanoverian

Oldenburg

or

Holsteiner

Currently Oldenburg is proving the most popular but we'll see.

In the meantime I need to start jotting down my recipes for the next brews in the hope of making them repeatable. So recipes should soon start appearing on the blog which is a lot more interesting that me wittering on about random rubbish. It's like talking to myself really.

Barrel Racer has run out!

Showcasing your beers is very satisfying as you prove to many that homebrewing doesn't produce the yeasty slop that many experience on their first and only outing into homebrew.
The down side is that the beer gets drunk and you run out ...fast! I've managed to retain three bottles which I'm meant to conserve until Christmas...fat chance!

Here's the only photo I managed to capture of it: *sigh*

You have to move on and I have. The pilsner is coming along nicely I replaced Spalt with Tettanger but otherwise I remained true to the recipe which I will be putting up here. - watch this space!- and letting you know how it tastes too. Although the lagering is going to take this brew up to Mid- Novermber which wont leave much time for the steamship porter I have planned.

My engineering department (read Dad) has made a counterflow chiller for the next batch with is very exciting. After this set of ingredients is used up I'm thinking of getting the equipment for all grain. I'm scared.

Neeeext!

So I'm sticking with Scribbling Horse as my fantasy brewer name in the hope that people don't associate it with the smelly cafe in the town centre.
I've also come up with a theme for my beers - Horses - Not really that much of a leap but a good solid theme none the less.

I will be showing a few pictures of my first brew - Barrel Racer - Soon (just so you know I'm very proud of it)

Now I need a simple label maker and designer to get them out with some blurb.
 The ingredients for my next beer is on it's way so with a brew day set for next weekend I'm slowly becomign a production line!
Next stop wort chiller and mashing!

Brewing success! - Rinsing ...Hmmm ...not so good

So it's been a while..... the brew is finally bottled. Still working on a name as the first beer out of the scribbling horse brewhouse.

The yeast worked a treat inspite of the beer explosion in the primary fermenter while I was on holiday. Took the final gravity and we're talking total conversion - 1.010 from 1.058 - 6.3%. I'll put a picture of the bottles up at some point.
 
I think I need to work on a decent keg session beer at some point especially as I'm liking the Ringwood Best Bitter at the moment at 3.8% of drinkablity!

The yeast harvesting and rinsing didn't work as well though but as long as I turn it around in the next week or two it should be ok - I hope - watch this space

Shopping list for next time is:

3x Kilner Jars
Ice - Lots of it until the counter flow chiller is finished
Pressure cooker - Sterilising is hard without one!
Dextrose - suprisingly hard to find and I'm convinced this will make a difference to the finished beer.

The move to the garage is a bit of a pain at the moment not merely because of the garage door breaking but also carrying things to and from there.... need a boiler and water supply then I'll be set.

Hop shopping.... the last stop before lift off!

There are so many factors to a beer and so many types to try.... I've been doing way to much reading on yeast and hops and I think I'm ready to get back into the brewery (now partially located in the garage) and get my brew on.
As a keen hop head and lover of the IPA I figured the best way to get some of my commercial beer drinking (mainly lager) mates over to the ale was to brew steam/common and lager of my own. Then hop over to the pale ales and by next Christmas they'll be drinking porter like the best of 'em!

I've purchased some San Francisco yeast which will allow me to brew 'common' beer types and lagers. This will also force me to practice rinsing and propagation. Mainly because the yeast is so damn expensive!

I've purchased a few little add ons and will be making use of the fridge in the garage. Item's I've purchased are as follows:

Siphon upgrade - My current one is pants and this is a very important step to get right!
A fermenter with a bottler attached - This will be my lagering vessel and making bottling a lot easier!
Concial flask - This is for propagation
Thermostat - This is to control the fermentation and lagering temperatures in the fridge.

I'm now working out my four brews and what hops I'll need for each of them.... here's the list so far:

Cascade
Tettnanger
Centennial
Saaz

I'll post some info on these at some point soon as well as the base recipes I want to work from.

Mark Emiley - What a nice chap

During the early stages of my voyage of discovery in extract brewing I did a lot of reading on how to do certain things. Making a starter, steeping specialty grains and racking were areas of concern for me. Utilising the power of the internet and video tutorials I was able to see how these things were done by the experts. The best of these were the video tutorials by Mark Emiley. Not only an enthusiast and probably a great guy to have a beer with but also clear and consise in his brewing tutorials.

Sadly the lack of order of the videos and the titles make it pretty impossible to watch them in sequence without click on them (this may have been sorted now). You have to piece them together from what you can find too as there doesn't seem to be one place for them all.

Here's a link I just found it's a good starting place: Mark Emiley tutorials obviously youtube is another good source for them.

The stuff I've got so far

So many homebrew shops provide a great starter kit to help you on your way to brewing some nice basic kit brews. That's just dandy but there might be a few other items you might want to think about on top of your basic package.

Here's my current list of gear:

15 Litre boiling pot with lid
Glass Carboy - lovely but there are plastic alternatives.
Plastic fermenting bucket with airlock
Grain/Hop bags
Funnel
Syphon tubes
Racking Cane (Basic)
Bottler (basic)
Thermometer
Hydrometer
BIG spoon
BIG jug
Brewing belt (for temperature regulation)
Santisation powder

48 - 500 ml bottles with flip off tops
2 5 Gallon plastic barrels (although I'm a bottle convert so not in use)

On the wish list

Bucket fermenter with airlock and bottling tap  (little bottler)
1 Litre Jar
4 250 ml Jars with lids
A much better racking cane
Brupak Electic Boiler (Mmm pricey!)

So there's nothing quite like a home brewer taking pictures of his equipment and endlessly going on about it. If you're still reading this post then firstly well done!

Secondly in essence my lessons here are:

Hop and grain bags for extract brewing (your next step from kits) are invaluable
It's worth investing in decent syphon/racking cane - you want this to go smoothly
Buy a BIG pot for the boil - until you get a boiler.
Always have 2 fermenters

What are the jars about I hear you cry. They're for yeast rinsing covered in the R&D posts a little later.

The first post is always the hardest

Welcome to the New Bravon Brewery Blog

Perhaps I should start by stating what this is not first.

It is not an actual brewery - yet! I have dreams of opening a craft brewery like many homebrewers but I'm a long way off from ever achieving it.

It is not a brewing expert's blog - I am a keen student of the brewing art/science but I wouldn't call myself an expert. There are plenty of them about on other sites and forums. Check out the list of links in this blog to help with your enquiries.

I am not actually starting from scratch - I did start from scratch but that was about a year ago. I've decided to start this blog just before the grand opening of the garage brewery I'm setting up. I'll be posting a little bio of how I got to this point and what I've learnt so far.

So what can you expect from this blog?

Typos! - This is really a personal journal so although I try and keep it in tip top shape there will be typos and spelling mistakes.

Recipes - I'll be putting my recipes and brews here as a log book like all good brewers should! I'll write up my old brews here in the next few days.

Brew guides and tips - So as I've said I'm not expert but I have used the lovely web to help me figure out the basics. I'll share with you any resources I've used so far or discover en-route

Recommended Reading - I'll give you the lowdown on the books I've read and which ones I think are good and bad


Equipment - I've steadily purchased more and more equipment with a very frugal budget. This will give you the details of the good and the bad. I'm no engineer so for home made building stuff look elsewhere. Although this might change....in which case there'll be a new category.

Beer Festivals - My first beer festival is this year. I'll give you a outsiders view of the beer fest!

The Rivals - I like to view all other beers as rivals - it raises my game. I'll be posting any rival beers I have to admit are nice. 

Other beer stuff - This is where I'll be putting any beer realted stuff I want to share with you or rant about.

Well that's the intro out the way. Not that hard when I start gassing.... So on to the the potted history.