Took a hydrometer reading on my porter. I bought a new hydrometer last week as I was beginning to suspect that the one I picked up in Germany had a funny scale. I can now confirm this. My new 'murrikan hydrometer tells my beer is at 1.014. The kraut-thingy says about 1.040. There's clearly some Euro-confusion going on and one of these days I'll sort out just what it is. Until then, I'm happy with the knowledge that I might have a notion as to when my beer is done fermenting and can hazard a guess as to how much booze is in it. Had a taste of the sample. Pretty tasty. I think I'm going to bottle next Saturday, which will cause the four-pack samplers that I'm taking to some friends in Philadelphia to become proper six-pack samplers.
Meanwhile, I'm having a Sam Adams Wee Heavy. I really shouldn't as I've got a bit of a cold, but what the hell. I'll be going to bed soon and this will send me on my way nicely. I picked up a four-pack of this and the imperial stout. I'm happy with the variety that Sam seems to put out, but at the same time, it'd be nice if they had a nice stable of four or five that I could reliably pick up now and again. Brooklyn Brewery is great in that they have a steady roster, but still break out the one-offs. Dogfish Head could also follow this advice. Special is nice, but what's also nice is being able to buy something a second time.
Back to the beer. Rather nice. I had two of these last Friday while racking the porter to secondary (and painting my front door and watching Star Trek). I was surprised that it didn't get on top of me as it's a fairly big beer. ABV is 10% which would even make a Belgian sit up and take notice. It's a very thick, syrupy drink and I mean that in a good way. There are nice pockets of caramel and molasses lurking in this dark, peaty thing. It heads in the direction of being the ale equivalent of some instances of Starkbier. Nice. Certainly worth having again; it would be lovely at Christmas. Let's just hope I can still buy it in five months time.
It just occurred to me that I'm drinking a Wee Heavy and I heard the Phish song "Heavy Things" on the radio this morning. Cool, baby.
This is a blog about beer and anything else that's on my mind. Best read with a beer close by.
Friday, July 15, 2011
Friday, July 8, 2011
Johnny's in the basement...
... mixin' up the medicine. I am in the kitchen with the tombstone blues.
Wait. That's not quite right. I grabbed the porter from the basement and am now letting bleach do its magic before I rack the porter to secondary. I'm pleased with how it looks so far. I cooked it up last Saturday and although it took a while to get going, it seemed to ferment rather well. To all outward appearances, it went smoother than my first two batches. I cooled it down in a hurry, actually tried to take it off the trub, seemed to have gotten loads of oxygen by filling the carboy and I aerated with the fish tank de-vice. So all that's ok. I took a reading with my bizarre German hydrometer and got an OG of 1.075. I know that's dead wrong and I look forward to learning what sort of odd scale that thing is set to. I'll take a reading tonight and at least I'll know how it's doing in a relative sense.
I experimented with a layered hop addition this time. Porter isn't something known for its hop, so that was a bit of a fool's errand, but I love to try new things and I hate to wait. And a porter with complex and assertive hop is hardly going to annoy anyone, so there you are.
Meanwhile, I poured a glass of my hef side by side with a glass of Schneider (picture to follow later). I have to admit, I was pleased with the color that I got. Granted, color ought to be something that's very hard to F up, but it was a surprise given my initial reaction. When I first poured it, it seemed far too dark. A comparison with the cover of my book about German wheat beer seemed to confirm this, but there's no arguing that the Schneider looked very similar. That is to say, the color was similar. The head looked loads lovelier on the Schneider. As for taste, I didn't fare too bad here, either. There's no doubt that the Schneider was better- mine is still a banana bomb and somehow simultaneously too thin and too heavy. Still, my hef held its own. It wasn't nearly the disaster that I had been expecting and that's a very good thing.
Tomorrow night: tasting the ESB/strong ale/whatever. Bought a bottle of Fuller 1845 for comparison. Had an ESB, but I drank it last night. Like I said earlier, I hate to wait.
Wait. That's not quite right. I grabbed the porter from the basement and am now letting bleach do its magic before I rack the porter to secondary. I'm pleased with how it looks so far. I cooked it up last Saturday and although it took a while to get going, it seemed to ferment rather well. To all outward appearances, it went smoother than my first two batches. I cooled it down in a hurry, actually tried to take it off the trub, seemed to have gotten loads of oxygen by filling the carboy and I aerated with the fish tank de-vice. So all that's ok. I took a reading with my bizarre German hydrometer and got an OG of 1.075. I know that's dead wrong and I look forward to learning what sort of odd scale that thing is set to. I'll take a reading tonight and at least I'll know how it's doing in a relative sense.
I experimented with a layered hop addition this time. Porter isn't something known for its hop, so that was a bit of a fool's errand, but I love to try new things and I hate to wait. And a porter with complex and assertive hop is hardly going to annoy anyone, so there you are.
Meanwhile, I poured a glass of my hef side by side with a glass of Schneider (picture to follow later). I have to admit, I was pleased with the color that I got. Granted, color ought to be something that's very hard to F up, but it was a surprise given my initial reaction. When I first poured it, it seemed far too dark. A comparison with the cover of my book about German wheat beer seemed to confirm this, but there's no arguing that the Schneider looked very similar. That is to say, the color was similar. The head looked loads lovelier on the Schneider. As for taste, I didn't fare too bad here, either. There's no doubt that the Schneider was better- mine is still a banana bomb and somehow simultaneously too thin and too heavy. Still, my hef held its own. It wasn't nearly the disaster that I had been expecting and that's a very good thing.
Tomorrow night: tasting the ESB/strong ale/whatever. Bought a bottle of Fuller 1845 for comparison. Had an ESB, but I drank it last night. Like I said earlier, I hate to wait.