Bottling Day: German Hefeweizen (Blueberry Banana)

After brewing, and dry hopping Blueberry Banana German Hefeweizen, it's finally time to bottle! If you recall, I have an upcoming club meeting where everyone is brewing a beer with cereal in it, and I ended up with Blueberry Muffin Top cereal. I got the idea for a German Hefeweizen because the German Hef naturally comes with a slight banana flavor to it. Now, let's get down to bottling.

First, I move the carboy into the garage. I let it sit for a while to settle out the yeast that got kicked up during the move.

While the carboy is settling, I start the cleaning. Five gallons of water, Starsan, and all the equipment that I'll need.

A quick snap of the recipe while things are cleaning.

It's time to get the corn sugar ready. I set the boiler on low to slowly melt the sugar into the water, which will create a nice simple syrup. When added to the beer, and bottled, the left-over yeast will consume the sugar, and create CO2 in the bottle. This is called bottle priming (as opposed to using a CO2 canister).

Before I move the beer from the carboy to the bottling bucket, I take a quick dip to see where our final gravity settled at. It appears to have stopped at 1.020. This is a bit high.

When I added the six ounces of the cereal to the carboy during the dry hop last week, it appeared to totally kill the yeast. I got nervous, and took a sample last week, and it came out to 1.020 as well, so over the course of a week, the yeast has not done anything. Bummer.

1.020 is still drinkable (especially with a sweet beer, and a starting gravity of 1.062), but it could have been lower. Next time, I would wait to dry hop until fermentation has completed.

Time to bring the bottling bucket into the garage and fill it with beer.

Yikes. While attaching the siphon, I discover that I actually can't get the dry hopped cereal out of the bucket because the opening is too small. I decide to punt on that problem until later, and just leave it draped over the side for now.

I've started the siphon. While watching the beer go down, I notice some very strange purple/blue bubbles on the side of the bucket. It looks almost like vinegar suspended inside olive oil. The only thing that I can think of is that the cereal has some really funky food coloring?

Here we are, filling the bucket up. The corn sugar has already been slowly stirred in at this point.

Time to get the bottles ready. I'm actually out of bottles at this point, so I went and picked up twenty four more at More Beer.

I've put the bottling bucket on the table out side because it's such a nice day. I cover the top in Saran wrap to keep bacteria, dust, and twigs from getting into the beer.

Time to sanitize some bottles.

The first beer has been bottled!

Half way done.

Another snap of the progress. Benny's butt, too.

Benny's having a Lazy Sunday.

And we're done!

Everything in its right place.

Now, how do I get the dry hop bag out? Pulling just starts to rip the bag. I decide to open the bag, and fill the carboy with water. The turbulence from filling the carboy causes the cereal to float out of the bag.

Victory. Now, I just need to empty the cereal-filled carboy.

Cleaning again. I drain the kettle back into the bucket to clean up the equipment.

I fill the dirty carboy with water, and add ten scoops of PBW (powdered brewery wash).

Cleanup done.

That's all for now. Stay tuned. Next week, I'll be brewing my chocolate stout!

Gadgets: Freezer Chest Moisture Prevention

After announcing that I'd gotten a new kegerator setup, some friendly people tipped me that I should probably get some moisture absorbent in it, to prevent mildew and mold. The product that was recommended to me was Damprid. After searching Target, Safeway, and Albertson's, I finally found it at Orchard Supply Hardware.

It's now all set up in my freezer chest. Let the moisture prevention begin!

Gadgets: Freezer Chest Arrival

As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, I am going to be chilling my keg in a freezer chest. Spring has come on strong, and the temperature has risen to the point where my beer is getting warm in the garage. While this is fine for storage, for drinking from the tap, it's not ideal.

On Friday, I ordered a freezer chest from Sears. Initially, I checked Home Depot and Orchard Supply. I also called a lot of other specialty appliance stores in the area.

Eventually, I settled on this Kenmore freezer chest. I chose it partially because Sears has in-store pickup, and partially because it's reasonably priced (for a 6.7 cu. ft. model).

Without further ado, here are some pictures of the installation.

There is a slight ledge on the right, which makes it a perfect place to store extra bottled beer, and a CO2 canister. I'll probably remove the mesh on the top.

Here it is all closed up. It's surprisingly compact.

Here's a comparison shot with my corny keg next to it. The model says it's thirty three inches in height. My keg only reaches about twenty six inches.

Here, I've transferred the keg and CO2 inside the chest. Everything looks good.

A top down shot. This really doesn't do it justice, since my cheap digital camera is distorting the depth. You can definitely fit two corny kegs inside, and possibly even three (though it might be slightly too narrow for three).

Oops. After trying to close the lid, I realize that the gauge on the CO2 tank makes it slightly too tall when sitting on the ledge on the right. I can rotate the gauge slightly to make it fit, but I decide to set it into the lower basin, for now.

That's it! Unfortunately, because I transferred the chest on its side (in my car), I have to wait for two hours (according to the instruction manual) before plugging it in, so that the Freon can settle back down. I'm letting it sit open, as well, since there's a plastic smell inside.

I'm still deciding whether to put a tap on this chest, but the cobra tap will do for now.

Bottling Day: American Wheat Ale (Holler at Me)

Well, it's finally time! After brewing, fermentation, and labels, I'm ready to bottle Johnny's American Wheat Ale. Let's get started.

First, I move the carboy into the garage. I let it sit for a about a half day so that the yeast settles back to the bottom.

You can see, I've still left the blow off tube in. There's no point in letting any bacteria in, if we can avoid it.

Now it's time for cleaning. I get everything that I need, and put it in the bottling bucket.

Now, I move it outside, and fill it with water.

Next, it's time for some sanitizer. One ounce of Starsan for five gallons of water. One minute of contact time.

While things are sanitizing, I take a quick look at the recipe, and grab my corn sugar.

I put the corn sugar in 2 cups of water, and let the water warm slightly (not boiling yet, though). I will boil the corn sugar, and put it into the beer. This extra sugar will get consumed by the yeast while it's in the bottle, which will release CO2 (carbonating the beer).

Now it's time to get the siphon ready. I take the blow off tube out, and cover the top with Saran wrap.

Here, I fill my beaker with some beer, and put a little bob into it. The bob will measure specific gravity.

In this case, Johnny's Hef is coming up with a final gravity of 1.014. This is great news. His original gravity (before fermentation) was 1.052. The ABV can be calculated with the simple expression (1.052 - 1.014) * 1.31 = 4.978%. Dead on for the 5% that I was shooting for.

Here, I have run some water through the siphon, and looped the tubing back on itself. This will ensure that the inside of the tube gets sterilized.

Now, I drain the bottling bucket into the eight gallon kettle that I have. I'll use the kettle to sterilize bottles.

After a quick thought, I decide to use a tube instead. This has the added benefit of sterilizing the inside of the tube.

While the bucket is draining, I attach the siphon to the carboy. I'll blow into the little white UFO to force beer to go out the top, and into the bottling bucket.

The beer is now draining into the bottling bucket.

I run inside and grab the boiled corn sugar water, and pour it gently into the beer. Too much oxygen from splashing the beer at this point can ruin it.

While the carboy continues to drain, I sterilize some bottles.

Almost done.

Doing some quick math, I realize that I'm running short on bottles. I have only five twelve ounce bottles, and only a couple of twenty two ounce bottles. After some searching, I remember that I have some extras in the back bedroom!

The carboy has finished draining. It's so nice outside that I decide to cover the bottling bucket with Saran wrap, and move it outside to bottle in the sun.

Before bottling, I sterilize some bottle caps.

Let the bottling begin.

Progress. These are twenty two ounce bottles.

Fill bottle. Cap. Repeat.

About half way through the bucket (two and a half gallons in), I bottle six twelve ounce bottles. These will be my competition bottles. I wait until half of the beer has been bottled because the beer in the bucket has had enough time to let the yeast settle to the bottom.

Tell me this isn't a thing of beauty. 21 x 22 oz bottles, and 6 x 12 oz bottles.

All done.

I pour off the last bit that won't fit into another bottle, and give it a test. It tastes great! The hop aroma is a bit strong for a hef. If I did it again, I'd probably do a little bit less. Flavor is very crisp and clean. Clarity is perfect for a hef. Over all, I'm really pleased with this beer. I'm definitely going to enter it in some competitions.

Admiring my work.

Now, I pack everything up.

Sigh. Cleaning carboy, bucket, and kettle.

That's all! Stay tuned for labeling day, as soon as I get the labels from Gerry.

Dry Hopping: German Hefeweizen (Blueberry Banana)

Today's the day for dry hopping! For those that don't know what dry hopping is, it's a method of adding more aroma to your beer. To dry hop, all you do is put some hops into your carboy after fermentation is nearing completion. You leave the hops in for about seven to ten days. Because the hops are being added after fermentation and boil, they contribute significantly to the aroma of the beer, but not so much to the bitterness.

If you recall, when I posted about the Blueberry Banana German Hefeweizen that I'm doing, I witheld about 6 ounces of cereal. The reason for doing so was that I wanted to dry hop the blueberry cereal to give the beer a nice blueberry smell.

Let's go! First, it's time to unpack the cereal. I had it in the fridge in a nice clean bowl with Saran wrap on top.

Next, I grab my sanitizer and a grain bag.

It's time to sanitize the grain bag to get rid of any bacteria. Although the beer is alcoholic at this point, and should kill off most bacteria, there's no point in risking contamination of the beer.

Here's a quick snap of the German Hefeweizen in action. It's been bubbling away, and the krausen hasn't gone down as quickly as the Ameran Hefeweizen (that you can see in the corner).

I've taken the airlock off of the carboy, and put it into the sanitizing solution to keep it clean.

I'm doing my dry hopping in my primary fermenter. Typically, dry hopping is done in a secondary fermenter. As soon as I go to put the cereal in, I see why. It's hard to fit six ounces of cereal through the little opening in the carboy.

I end up draping the bag into the carboy, and pouring the cereal handful by handful into the bag. Periodically, I shake the bag to allow the cereal to drop down into the lower half of the bag, that's actually inside the carboy.

All done. The beer was a bit more exposed to air than I would have liked, but it's the best that I could do. I have to admit, with the blueberry steeping in the beer, I'm getting very strong blueberry banana aromas just by being in the same room as the open carboy. It actually smells really good.

Now it's time to cap it back up. I leave the string from the grain back draped over the side of the carboy, and force the plug into the carboy so that no air can escape. The airlock immediately beings to hum away. I swirl the carboy for about thirty seconds to kick up some of the yeast, and allow the cereal to get nice and soaked.

That's it! The beer will soak with the cereal in it until next weekend (about 9 days), at which point I'll bottle it up. Stay tuned for my next post, where I buy an ice chest for my keg.