Ben Reichelt’s Weblog

I brewed a Hop Head Double IPA from Midwest Supplies several months ago, right in the middle of winter. Because of the low temperature the beer takes a little longer to ferment in the winter, so this one took several weeks to finish. This beer was fun to brew because it was a dry hopped recipe. Dry hopping is when you put some hops in the beer while it’s in the primary fermenter. These hops are supposed to influence the smell of the beer more than the taste, so you should get a real pungent hop smell when it’s done.

I was disappointed with how it turned out from the hoppiness perspective. It wasn’t as hoppy as the Bell’s Hopslam that I had earlier this year, and that was what I was going for. It still tastes great and I’ll have no problem finishing the beer, with the help of friends of course.

Another reason I took awhile finishing the beer was that I was adding another keg to my kegerator setup in the basement, so now I’ve got two taps, the java stout and the double ipa are currently in there.

Unfortunately, I must have forgotten to write down any of my measurements for this beer, so I don’t have dates or readings for you on this one

Here are a couple photos of the keg setup in the basement, I don’t think I’ve ever posted pics:

This is a shot from inside the fridge. You can see the two kegs, the co2 tank and all the tubes coming from the kegs to the taps that are drilled into the door.

And here’s a shot of the door from the outside, showing the taps.

I want to get some cool tap handles at some point, but it’ll take some modifications to the fridge. If I made the existing handles any longer then whenever you opened the freezer on top you would knock the taps forward and spill beer. What I think I’m gonna do is  put a piece of metal to connect the fridge door with the freezer door, so that when you open either of them, they’ll both open up and no beer will be spilled. I also need to add the drip trays, I have them but I’ve just been too lazy to put them on. There’s a bucket to catch the drips right now that you can’t see in the photo.

I mentioned in my write-up of the last beer that I had also purchased a Java Stout kit and that I was going to try and brew it the same week as the Honey Porter. I didn’t end up brewing the Java Stout until early January

Waiting that long to brew a beer turned out to be a big mistake. Since I bought the kit in September and didn’t brew the beer till January, the yeast sat around in the fridge for nearly four months. Yeast is a time sensitive ingredient in beer, so by the time I got around to using the yeast, it was way older than it should have been. Not only that, but I didn’t realize that I was supposed to prepare the yeast for a couple days before brewing because of its age.

I put the yeast into the beer and waited a couple days for signs of activity in the beer, but I saw nothing. Usually after a day or two the beer will bubble, which indicates that the yeast is actively eating the sugar from the malts. So, I figured my yeast was simply too old to use, but I saw no reason why adding newer, active yeast would cause any issue, so I went and bought some more yeast and threw it in.

This time around I did notice some subtle activity, but not like I would have expected from previous batches. After a week or so, I moved the beer to the secondary fermenter and added the coffee. The directions said to brew a strong pot of coffee using the beans and dump that into the secondary fermenter. I did that and let it sit for 12 days.

When it was time to keg the beer, I tried some of the un-carbonated beer before adding it to the keg. It didn’t taste good. In fact, it tasted like coffee, and not much else. The final reading on the hydrometer was 1.020 which indicates that there is not much alcohol in the beer (the closer to 1.000 the more alcohol is present). I kegged the beer anyways, waiting to try it again after it was carbonated to see if that made it any better.

I tried to have a pint of this beer as I wrote this post, but I couldn’t do it, I’m having a root beer instead. It was too nasty, like cold, carbonated coffee. I’m not sure what to do with it either. Its unethical to dump beer down the drain, especially beer that you’ve spent several weeks making; I also don’t foresee any of my friends liking this enough to take down 5 gallons in any reasonable amount of time.

Here are the details:

• Beer: Java Stout from Midwest Supplies
• Brewed on 1/6/2008, initial reading: 1.050
• 1/8: added fresh batch of yeast
•  1/27: transferred from plastic to glass carboy, added 48 oz. of Peace Coffee
• 2/9: transferred to keg at 33psi, final reading 1.020

The day after I kegged this one, I brewed my next batch, the Hop Head Double IPA, I’m really excited about this one, I just transferred to the secondary fermenter today, and it smells delicious.

My buddy Rett recently launched his new online beer festival site, brew52.com. Erin and I picked up the first 5 weeks of beers last night and I just posted my first review of the Snowstorm from Schell’s brewery. Erin is still finishing her beer while I write this, her review should be up shortly, with some pics, if Rett lets her

I kegged my latest beer a couple weeks ago but forgot to post about it. I went to Midwest Supplies and picked up two kits, Honey Porter and Java Stout.

The Honey Porter contains 2 lbs of honey, similar to the Honey Steam I made last time. I was hoping that the extra sugar that the honey added would make the beer more alcoholic, but the final gravity was still 1.020 (the closer to 1.0 it gets the better, as far as alcohol content). Since it was at 1.020 that means that there was still sugar left that the yeast didn’t consume, so the beer is sweeter. It still tastes really good, its deceptively dark as you pour it and it has a thick head.

• Beer: Honey Porter from Midwest Supplies
• Brewed on 9/30 hydrometer reading 1.051
• 10/7 transferred from plastic to glass fermenter
• 10/22 transferred to keg, hydrometer reading 1.020
• 10/25 hooked up co2 tank, up to 30 psi
• 10/26 tried first beer with Rett. A little under carbonated since it had only been one day, but drinkable for sure.

I’m going to try and brew the Java Stout this week so I can force myself to get the second keg setup in the fridge downstairs. This one should be interesting as its got actual coffee beans in the brewing process.

I finally got around to finishing my next home brew last week. I brewed the Honey Steam from Midwest Supplies. I also finished making my kegerator setup as well, which means I didn’t have to bottle this batch. Kegging the beer was a lot easier and faster than bottling, and I also didn’t have to wait one to two weeks to drink the beer like I would have with bottles.

• Beer: Honey Steam from Midwest Supplies
• 6/13: Beer gets brewed, (I forgot to take a reading when I brewed it, so I don’t know the initial gravity)
• 6/21: Transferred from plastic fermenter to glass carboy, there was a lot of gunk floating on the beer
• 6/28:  hydrometer reading: 1.009
• 7/6: hydrometer reading: 1.009
• 7/6: transferred to keg, but I couldn’t get the CO2 working correctly
• 7/9: talked to Justin and got the keg pressurized to ~33 psi
• 7/12: beer was done being carbonated on 7/11, didn’t drink it until today

I think this is the best my beer has tasted on the first try. The other two beers were good, but they got better as they aged a bit, but this one was delicious right away. Honey Steam is similar to Anchor Steam, but the recipe called for 3 lbs. of honey which gave it a sweet taste.

I’ll post some pics of the final kegerator setup later.

I had the first beer of my second batch last night, its a brown ale from Midwest Supplies called Hex Nut Brown Ale. The beer tasted really good, I would compare it to Newcastle, but a little sweeter. There wasn’t as much carbonation as I wanted, but that might change as the bottles sit longer (I didn’t drink all of them last night ).  Anyways, here are the stats:

• Beer: Hex Nut Brown Ale from Midwest Supplies
• 2/16: Beer gets brewed, hydrometer reading of 1.050
• 2/27: Hydrometer reading 1.018
• 2/27: transferred from plastic fermenter to glass fermenter
• 3/8: hydrometer reading: 1.012
• 3/10: hyrdometer reading: 1.012
• 3/10: Bottled beer, yield was 44 bottles
• 3/24: Tried first bottle, all was good

This beer turned out really well and I think that because I started in the plastic fermenter and then went to glass, and finally back to plastic for the bottling, I was able to reduce the amount of sediment that ended up in the bottles. Also, I didn’t lose as much beer in the transfers, which is shown by the extra four bottles I got this time around.

I also need to point out that it was my friend Josh’s idea to post the details of my beers here, he was a little offended that he didn’t get credit when I posted about my last beer

I received a home brewing kit for Christmas this year and a few weeks ago I finished my first batch, an Extra Pale Ale from Northern Brewer. I made a new category on the ol’ blog for me to track the beers that I make. I just transferred my next beer into the secondary fermenter, I’ll bottle that batch in a week. So, here are the stats for the first batch:

• Beer: Extra Pale Ale from Northern Brewer
• 12/26: Beer gets brewed, hydrometer reading: 1.041
• 1/3: Hydrometer reading: 1.019
• 1/4: Hydrometer reading: 1.019
• 1/4: Transferred from glass to plastic secondary fermenter
• 1/17: Bottled the beer, yield was 40 bottles
• 2/1: Opened first bottle, it was ready to drink

I gave away several of these beers since it was my first batch and I wanted people to try it out, but I’ve still got some left, I’m drinking one as I write this
I was really happy with the way this batch turned out, it would have been really disappointing to ruin my first batch and waste several weeks of my time. My next batch hasn’t taken as much of my time as I know all the steps involved now. The next batch should be ready to drink in ~3 weeks hopefully its just as good.