South Union Brewing Update

Well winter has finally passed and sadly we had no spring this year which stinks because spring brewing is the best! Last weekend I was finally able to find time to brew and was able to do so out doors! I have found that my switch to all grain has resulted in a much better home brewing product however it also takes a lot more time. This winter when it was so cold I had to modify my brew day and do a lot of it in doors. This means I was running in between the basement,the kitchen and outside and it was taking me 6 to 8 hours to brew a batch. When I was able to move everything outside the other day I got it all done in four hours!

My brewing setup all in one place outside where it belongs

So my brew day Saturday night went smoothly I brewed a Copper Ale which gets its name form the rich copper color it has. It will be a nicely hopped ale with additions of Cascade and Willamette hops. It should be a perfect summer beer!

Here it is boiling in the kettle.


I have also been busy ordering supplies for summer brewing. I am looking forward to brewing a lot of nice refreshing easy drinking beers this summer! On deck right now I have a Saison,La Petite Ala Orange is making a return appearance and a double batch of Raspberry Wheat! I brewed the La Petite this winter and Loved it so I wanted to do it again. Also I made a batch of the Raspberry Wheat last summer and two cases vanished in a matter of days so this time I am going to double up on it and add a bit more Raspberries to.

My beer fridge has more grain in it than it does drinkable beer right now!

On tap right now is a Belgian Triple which I have been talking a lot about lately! This was by far the biggest beer most complex beer I have made to date! It took close to four months of aging to become drinkable and I am still wondering if it needs more time. I would say the ABV is close to eight or nine percent meaning one or two of these and you really need to sit down or have a nap. When you taste this beer upfront it has a nice Caramel taste and then leaves a warm alcohol/booze feeling all over your tongue. I had a mug the other night and when I finally got to the bottom of the glass it was warm. What I tasted at the point reminded me of a very smooth sipping whisky??? I am not into strong beers but it was fun to brew and it will to nice to have around and age a bit! Hopefully I have some around this fall because it will be perfect drinking by then.

A picture of the Triple and check out my brewery label on the bottle! Thanks Dad!

Looking a week or two ahead I should be able to find time to turn out another batch as well as bottle the copper ale. I am also looking forward to once again raising the bar quality wise some newly acquired equipment! I just I ordered a few pieces of lab equipment so now I have two Erlenmeyer flasks and a stir plate. This will allow me to grow stronger and healthier brewing yeast which is the back bone of every great beer. By making a simple yeast starter and leaving it on the stir plate for 12 hours you can double your yeast cell count. Having a large amount of healthy yeast to add to your beer at fermentation will give you a stronger fermentation and leads to a cleaner better tasting beer.

Here is the stir plate in action. A magnetic stir bar  is placed in the bottom of the flask. Magnets in the stir plate rotate the stir bar causing a vortex in the flask. This vortex or spinning keeps the yeast in suspension and gives them a steady supply of oxygen so the cells can multiply. Having a large healthy population of yeast is key to making great beer!

Well that about does it for this update! I cant wait until the next brew day and until then cheers!!!! 

                                                                   

South Union Brewing goes Belgian

So as you can see from the picture on the right my first all grain brew an Amber Ale is close to bottling! I moved it into the fridge tonight to cold crash it for a few days before bottling it. Cold crashing is when you cool the beer down between 30 and 40 degrees and keep it this way for 3 to 5 days. Cold crashing causes the particulates in the beer to drop out and gives you a better looking finished product. After all this isn't Coors and I cant afford a million dollar cold filtering system so this method will have to do for now! So when will this beer be ready I will say 2 to 3 weeks from Sunday. I am hoping this turns out well for my first all grain beer. 

So whats up next you may ask and if not I am going to tell you anyway! I am going on a Belgian brewing binge!!! I love Belgian beers they are complex in taste,easy drinking and they tend to have a higher alcohol content this is an added bonus and not my reason for brewing this style. Also there is no denying Belgian yeast strains make great beers!!! 

So tonight I hopped online and ordered my next 2 kits. The first is kit is La Petite Orange here is the description right from the website    

 A Belgian Dubbel without the deep dark chocolate maltiness, the Orangé is rich with caramel sweetness and a full body that hides the 6.1% ABV very well.  

So think of this as Fat Tire only its not brown it will much lighter in color like amber or orange! With this brew I will also be adding crushed Coriander and orange zest to the boil to enhance the over all flavor of the beer.

The last beer is a Belgian Tripel which is a pale yellow brew with nice hop flavors and high alcohol content! This is one of my favorite styles  and I have been wanting to brew this for a while now. I had to wait to brew this one because all grain is the only way to do this beer justice. All the pieces are coming together now I cant wait to fire up my kettle and fill up my empty fridge with great home brews!!!! 

South Union Brewing goes all grain

Well one year later it is safe to say that Home brewing will be a life long obsession of mine. After a year of kicking tires and brewing 45 gallons of extract beer I decided it was time to take it to the next level. So 3 long weeks of getting all the pieces together I finally have a decent all grain set up that will some day allow me to brew with exception of the kettle 10 gallons at a time vs the 5 I do now. 

My new system contains the following an 8.5 gallon stainless stockpot, a 10 gallon water cooler or as brewers call it a hot liquor tank for storing hot water, and a 70 quart Coleman extreme cooler or mash tun for soaking your grains. To start I removed all of the drains on the coolers and replaced them with 1/2" ball valves this allows you to easily transfer hot liquids from place to place in a nice controlled manner without burning yourself!   

A picture of the stainless steel braid used
to filter water out of the grains in the mash tun.

My first brew a multi grain amber ale  taught me a lot. For one make sure you have a good thermometer the one I was using was way off and I was 3/4 of the way though my brew day before I realized this! Keeping everything at the right temp at the right time is key to making great tasting beer. I was so worried the bad thermometer readings might have ruined the batch. But in the end when I took my readings it was only off .004 which is awesome for my first stab at all grain.

Here are the crushed grains and
hops I used for my first brew

So the next phase of worry was when I transferred it to my glass carboy for fermentation.This recipe used a liquid British ale yeast which I had shipped to me in a kit from Northern Brewer. When you have yeast shipped there is always the possibility that the shipping will kill it all off. So after adding the yeast I tossed and turned all night hoping that it was good. I spent close to 6 hours from start to finish brewing this beer yesterday so it would of been a giant waste of effort if I had to dump it because of bad yeast! When I got home from work tonight I was pleasantly surprised and found a good strong fermentation in full swing! Now we just have to wait a long 6 weeks and then finally there will be home brew back in the fridge once again!                                                    

A picture of the fermentation  in full swing!