#Beerologist may be a made up title but I sure lean into it with my enjoyment of craft beers and weekly blog. If you are the same, then #beersaturday by our friend @detlev may be the place for you! So glad to have found a home with beer drinkers across the world on my favourite blockchain due to the efforts of our friend @detlev. For week 401, I invite you with me on a brew day in the brewery!
The Pint O the Week is usually a nice draft, enjoyed out on the town in a social setting, enjoying out community with some suds. This particular one was brewed 3 weeks ago and came out as a nice 5.8% Amber Ale. It is natural to enjoy a beer while brewing, especially since it is a social affair too.
Brew Day!
As a review for recent followers, I brew beer with a couple other guys who have quite the operation in their garage. A big old keg fridge with 7 taps, 2-20 litre brewers and a 60 litre one for the bigger batches. We brew right from grain we grind up ourselves and these computer/app powered brewers help us control the process pretty nicely. Today, we are brewing out staple New England IPA and an Irish Red Ale.
Besides the brewing, we are also taking a couple batches off fermentation as they have run their course. This is obviously an Irish Stout which will go on nitro gas rather than Co2 for shat silky Guinness texture.
Comparing the initial gravity (sugar content before fermentation) and the ending gravity afterward, we get a measurement on the ABV through the sugars consumed during fermentation. This one is a little lighter in alcohol at 3.8% but nice and heavy on the dark malts for a proper breakfast beer! ;)
Avert your eyes if a couple wasted pints upsets you. Brewing is a little wasteful with the boil off, spent grains and the end of a batch that won't fit into the keg. The driveway enjoyed a pint as well and you can see how black this stout is.
Back in the brewery, the NEIPA is rolling and boiling as it will at 100 Celsius for about an hour. This one is heavy on the grains and addition of wheat for the haziness and oats for the smoother texture. Looks almost like watery porridge at this stage.
I think it is 60 pounds of dry grain that goes into the IPA. When it has been boiled and soaks up all that water, we have to split the ~100 pounds into several green bins so they are light enough to get taken away at recycling/garbage day. The guys that drive the truck and haul it away every week sure don't like us ;)
With the balmy 5 Celsius temperature outside, and the boiling beer inside, the brewery got a little hazy today like the IPA. Spring is coming and we are REALLY looking forward to brewing with the doors open when the sun is warm again.
We also had to pull the NEIPA off ferment to get it into kegs and make room in the fermenter for todays batch. With an initial gravity of 1.060, the ABV on this one was 6.3% which is exactly what we were aiming for. Once we have it chilled, transferred and carbonated, we are thinking of sending a sample of this batch to a brewing competition.
I do love my hops and the NEIPA sure takes a big load of it. Apollo for the flavour hop for a little tropical fruit and Citra, Galaxy and Mosaic for the bittering hops to make it bold.
That's about it for our brewing adventure today. We have approximately200 litres of New England IPA, Amber Ale, Cream Ale and Red Irish Ale fermenting at the moment. Should be ready to drink in less than 2 weeks, except for the NEIPA which ferments a whole 3 weeks for full effect.
Join me, @detlev , and these other beerologists because there is always room for more beer bloggers at this week's Beer Saturday gathering... @detlev/beersaturday-401 401 weeks in a row is a considerable track record so raise a glass to all the Hive Beerologists!
