Once again, this month’s update slides in just under the wire…it has been a busy month outside of the brewery, and a busy one in the brewery! For a variety of reasons, I haven’t been brewing the past two weekends, although I did some other fermentation projects as well as a whole mess of kegging.

Beer Batch Updates

• My California Common is now kegged, as of 9 May 2021.
• I kegged the session ale (Easy Days Ale) on 6 May 2021.
• I brewed the 2021 version of my white IPA on 14 May 2021, and got it kegged on 29 May 2021. Right now, I’ve got the dry hops bagged and doing their thing, with a plan to pull them out after 3 days of dry hopping at near-freezing temperatures.
• I brewed my Dunkel-Osteus (Munich dunkel) on 8 May 2021, and kegged it at the same time that I kegged the white IPA.
• I brewed a Schell’s Pilsner Clone on May Day, and it’s currently cold-crashing prior to kegging.

What’s On Tap?

• Clonal Common 2021 (my California common) is on tap, and drinking very nicely. It has dropped pretty clear, and as before is a really nice take on the style.
• Easy Days Ale, a lighter session ale that isn’t made to any particular style parameter, has been drinking super easily. It’s a really refreshing beer, and I’ve been going through it pretty quickly.
• The schwarzbier is on its very last stretch, and will likely be finished soon. I’ve been savoring that one, because it’s just that good.

What’s Coming Up?

• I’m planning to brew another batch of my orange summer wheat ale next weekend, to have it ready to drink about two weeks later.
• I’ll do this year’s edition of “Mow the Damn Lawn” in June also, if all goes well.

Other Notes

• Last weekend had a ton of fermentable food projects.
  • My sauerkraut supply is getting low, so I laid in a new batch of that.
  • For a new experiment, I made a batch of miso. The March/April issue of Zymurgy magazine had a tutorial, and I was intrigued enough to give it a go. It was quite a production, but I am hopeful that this will be well worth the effort. I had to soak the soybeans overnight, simmer them for about 6 or 8 hours, cool them, and then mash them in with koji rice grains. The concoction is now fermenting at room temperature, getting pressed under a 5 pound bag of flour atop a plate.

There’s not much to say for the past month, so let’s just jump into the beer!

Beer Batch Updates

• I kegged the orange wheat ale mentioned last time, and it’s now on tap! Such an incredibly delicious beer.
• My latest schwarzbier is kegged and lagering; it’s super nice in initial tastes! Even after only two weeks in the lagering chamber, the beer is now brilliantly clear.
• I brewed my 2021 edition of Alta California lager on 6 March 2021, and it’s currently fermenting along. I will start the cold crash in a day or two.
• I had put Pilsnerpeton (a German pils) on tap for a week or two, but swapped it out for the orange wheat ale. The pils wasn’t totally clear yet, and I thought a few more weeks of lagering would help with any latent haze. Similarly, I cycled my altbier back out from the keezer, with the English IPA taking its place. Again, I wanted to condition the altbier just a bit more. The IPA and porter kegs kicked in the last few days, so I was able to get the pils and altbier back on service. The extra wait was worth it!
• I brewed a Belgian quad this weekend, as part of a homebrew club barrel project. It was a super fun challenge to plan out such a high gravity brew on the Foundry, a setup that isn’t optimal for really big beers. I did a combination of frequent mash stirring, a long mash (2 hours!), and simple sparging to get it to the place I needed it to be. It was a loooong brew day, nearly 12 hours from start to finish, but fun as an experiment. I hit my numbers pretty closely, so I’m satisfied.

What’s On Tap?

• My orange summer wheat ale is fulfilling the “light beer” slot, and it’s quite drinkable!
• I just threw Pilsnerpeton back on…it’s super drinkable, as a moderately hoppy pale lager.
• The altbier is excellent! It’s a great recipe to start with, and the extended cold conditioning cycle paid off.

What’s Coming Up?

• I plan to do an IPA of some sort next weekend. I have some Simcoe and Centennial as well as the Samba hop blend, which seem like a good combination for an American IPA.
• I’ll make my Schell’s Pilsner clone again soon.

Other Notes

• My latest sauerkraut batch is now jarred up and ready to use. It turns out the 3 year old loves sauerkraut too, so we go through it at an unexpectedly rapid pace.
• I finished up the jar of preserved lemons, by turning some of it into chicken tagine (which was delicious), and the rest into a lemon-garlic salad dressing (also delicious). While our lemons are still in abundance, I plan to make another batch. As a short-cut, I’ve found that you can grill lemons low-and-slow on the top rack of the grill while cooking other things. They get an internal consistency very similar to preserved lemons, and a nice smoky flavor.

I’ve had to slow down my brewing pace a bit, because I have a pretty good supply of beer at the moment. Even so, I’ve managed to get a few batches in!

Beer Batch Updates

• I kegged my altbier on 31 January 2021. It hit a final gravity of 1.013, down from 1.040, for 4.3% abv. I used priming sugar for the initial carbonation, and finished it up in the lagering chamber before putting it on tap a few days ago.
• I kegged my English IPA on 13 February 2021. It started out at 1.064 and finished at 1.019, for 5.9% abv.
• I brewed a schwarzbier on 6 February 2021, repitching the Harvest lager yeast from my recent German pils batch. I expect it should be pretty close to finished, and I’ll begin cold crashing it this week.
• I brewed an orange wheat ale on 13 February 2021, using a past recipe. I grated the zest from three oranges, and that is now steeping in a few ounces of vodka, to create an orange tincture that will go in at kegging time.

What’s On Tap?

• On my picnic tap, I’m enjoying the clone of Houblon Chouffe. It’s at peak drinkability now!
• The London Porter is conditioning on tap; as seen with past experience, the ESB yeast is pretty slow to flocculate. After a week or so, the beer is finally starting to drop clear. The yeast seem to have stalled out during fermentation, because it was 1.025 when I kegged and is now a notch below 1.020.
• The latest version of Alstadt Altbier went on tap two days ago. Although it needs to condition and clear up a bit more, it’s a fantastic beer already. The aroma has a malty, floral character that is just plain delicious.
• A German pils (“Pilsnerpeton“) also went on tap two days ago. This was my first all-Viking pilsner malt recipe, and I’m pretty pleased with the results. I dropped the hop level a bit on this one (targeting ~26 IBU), because I was feeling that some of my past versions were just a touch harsh for my taste (35 to 38 IBU). This is a lot closer to what I am looking for! The beer needs to clarify a bit more (it’s had ~5 weeks at lagering temperatures), but it’s quite nice. In a side-by-side with Bitburger, the commercial pils had better clarity, but mine had amazing heading and head retention, as well as excellent flavor (see the comparisons below).

What’s Coming Up?

• Ingredients for a Munich dunkel are on-hand, to do the 2021 edition of my Dunkelosteus. I’ve missed that beer!
• I need to brew my Alta California Lager soon, so that it can condition for a month or two in order to be ready for the warm days of late spring. I’ve done it with both grits and flaked maize, and think I’ll be going back to a cereal mash with grits on this version.
• I have really enjoyed having a half-batch of something “different” on-hand, and as a way to try out high alcohol or experimental beers for which I wouldn’t want a full five gallons. I’m not sure what’s next in that arena, but I’ll figure out something.

Other Notes

• Inspired by a recent article in Zymurgy, I made a batch of preserved lemons. It took about four Eureka lemons from the tree in your yard. After around four weeks of pickling, they turned out fantastically! I made some chicken tagine last night for supper. I had been a bit worried that the rind would be too much on these versus Meyer lemons, but it wasn’t a problem.
• I also started a new batch of sauerkraut; the previous batch is running low.