Wood Chips and Fireball

This is coming way after the fact, but fireball infused pale ale is delicious.

Single Malt Wort Tasting Part I (mashing)

Last week I was busy with a few brewing related activities so the lull in posting will be replenished with pictures and commentary on what took place. Up first is how to mash 5 batches at once in your kitchen. 

The batches were for a wort tasting held by my brew club (Local 402 Union). The event was a great success and there will be more to come about the event. This however is to show how you can mash 5 lbs of malt, 1 pound at a time in your kitchen on a Tuesday night (and stay up too late). 

To mash the grains I took over the stainless mixing bowls in the house and set the oven to 170F. I then proceeded to mash in at 1.5 quartz per gallon targeting a 154F mash temperature. As one picture reveals I came incredible close to hitting that. I then let the mashes sit in the oven for 1 hour and slowly rising towards 170. 

The results were excellent. Do note that I did sparge and eventually collect about 0.75 gallons of wort for each of the 5 batches. As you will see I mashed roasted malt, victory, 

Kkolsch, brown, and light Munich. As expected the extraction was low for the roasted barley (in sugar, not in color).

 

Bunging the Firkin

Here is a quick video of Justin hammering the bung into our firkin for the Firkin' Good Beer festival that is coming up next weekend. The beer we brewed is a cherrywood smoked porter.

Wort Transformation

Yesterday morning DeJuan, Nick and I headed down to Nebraska Brewing Company to get a spot in the Wort Transformation project. We arrived an hour before the even was scheduled to start in order to get a beer and ensure a good spot in line. By 10:30 the bar was packed and promptly at 11 lined up an each secured our place in the competition.

So basically you pay $15 for 5 gallons of boiled and cooled wort. You then proceed to doctor it up however you desire. People choose different yeasts, add fruit or hops, and some have been known to pitch bacteria to create sour variants. A couple of months later everyone again gathers at NBC with a 6 pack for evaluation. There are four categories which will be awarded.

What is the Wort Transformation Challenge? 

The WTC is a twist on your typical homebrew competition and a bit of a collaboration between the brewers at Nebraska Brewing Company and the Home-brewer.  It starts with the brewers at Nebraska Brewing company brewing up a special batch of wort (un-fermented beer), then each home-brewer brings in a carboy or fermentation bucket and takes 5 gallons of wort home, Once at home the home-brewers add yeast and copious amounts of creativity to create a unique and wonderful beer.  

In 2013, this homebrew competition was featured in Zymurgy Magazine, a national homebrewing magazine published by the American Homebrewers Association. 

Due to the size of this year's competition and the fact that over 30% of the 2013 competitors were from outside the Omaha Metro, Nebraska Brewing Company had reorganized the registration process. 

http://nebraskabeer.blogspot.com/2014/01/nebraska-brewing-companys-3rd-annual.html 

Step 1: Arrive early and enjoy a beer.

Step 2: Wait in line with a bunch of other crazed brewers

Step 3: Pay up

Step 4: Enter contact information to schedule wort pick up

How to keg 11 gallons of homebrew in less than two minutes

Okay. It actually is sped up 16 times... Yes, this is what I did when I woke up last Saturday morning.

Beer Flavored Jelly Bean?

Today I'm posting something interesting that a friend brought my attention to. And, perhaps this is representative of the pervasiveness of craft beer in our culture. It might be gimmicky, but I think it speaks to the appeal of craft beer in the US.

So Jelly Belly has released a Hefeweizen inspired jelly bean. I recommend you eat it with a slice of lemon or orange jelly bean, preferably stuck to the side.

Read the Full Article Here

Smallest Food Grade Pump

I picked up this micro food grade pump that is rated for 29 gph and safe for liquid up to 100 Celsius.

Soon this will be incorporated into my Pico brewery. Yes, I am building an all grain system, with a pump that will aim to produce less than 1 gallon of beer at a time.

More to come in the next few weeks. Word on the street is that my mash tun will be a repurposed Blichmann Hop Rocket.