Brewquest 2009

So the kids got their Lush "Bath Bar" which made a lot of bubbles and everyone was happy. Look at the pride on their faces, look at the classic Heppner nostrils flaring. Happiness is a good bath. Also, take note of the sleeveless sweater which Max decided to wear all day....hmmmm....YMCA anyone?

In terms of my own personal happiness, Brewquest 2009 required another chapter to be written today. For those not in the know, the time has come for brewing to rise to the next level (aka, I'm sick of kit beer). First up, after taking a gravity reading of the cranberry/raspberry ale it looks as though it has basically fermented out in 3 days. So I racked it to a secondary fermentor and found about an inch of the vileist trub (dead yeast cake on the bottom) that I have ever seen. Look below to scope it out, note that cranberries require the breaking of their skin to actually be eaten by the yeasties.

Thank goodness that the cranberries weren't pureed because this beer has a lot of hops which when combined with cranberries would completely overpower the old palate. After tasting the gravity sample I can sum this beer up in terms of the flavors in the order that they hit you: MALTY, RASPBERRY, HOOOOPS. Super malty start, then you taste raspberries and then the hops closes the show, this is by far the most complex beer that I have ever brewed (thanks for the help E!!!!!). Definitely not the sweet softdrink style I was imagining....it's got style and class. I'm going to let this beast sit until the final bits of raspberries settle and it finishes fermenting whatever was left....then bottle and let sit until New Years. Hopefully the hops, malt and berry will blend and mellow....it definitely needs some fizz. Should be sitting at around 6% alchohol after bottling.

My Strawberry Lager got bottled today, you can see my little yeast friends had their way with the strawberries. That's the last of the Belluz strawberries we picked....I had to make sure that they didn't find their way into a more productive recipe. Since the lager was originally going to be a simple kit beer, so I could have some easy drinkin' beer around, I didn't really plan ahead....but then I got bored so I decided to rack the beer onto some strawberries. Then I realized it lacked hops, so I added 2 tablespoons of Tettenanger hops tea in with my priming sugar for each 1 liter bottle in the hope that the aroma will permeate the beer.

Oh yeah, I also randomly poured honey into the fermenter throughout the primary fermentation...just to see what the yeast would do...so my readings and alchohol content may be off by a bit....but hopefully the yeast didn't eat all the honey so we'll get some of that sweetness. I think people are to yeast what Sequoia trees are to people....it's like the yeast love, they laugh and then they're dead...that's probably what we're like to big old trees just sitting there forever and sticking out their leaves.

As for the gravity sample....it definitely tastes like strawberries....subtle though (I added about 1.5 pounds whereas a super fruity recipe would call for 6-8 pounds). We're looking at around 4.5% alchohol on this one and it definitely needs bittering, without the hops it's like, Strawberry and blah....do we really need anymore blah? This whole "Coopers Pre-hopped Malt Extract" is not cool anymore. Now I have a fridge full of hops....do you think I can pull off another one before Christmas Time??????