Yeast Failure, changing gears.

I checked in on the Pilsener Tuesday evening, and there was nothing going on with the fermentation. I suspected that the fermentation may be stuck as a result of underpitching the yeast. My suspicions were confirmed after I took the gravity reading. It was stuck at 1.044. It had been almost 72 hours and nothing was happening. Red flags are now popping up all over the place and I needed to make a decision. Ditch or pitch?
When brewing beer it is paramount that one pitch an adequate amount of viable yeast. In this case the yeast I used was obviuosly not adequate enough to jump start the fermentation process.
Ideally, one would like to see the fermentation lag phase commence within four to six hours of pitching the yeast. Three to fifteen hours is considered acceptable. Anyting longer than that and your risking uninvited guests to your fermentation party. Since I had already invested around six hours in this brew session, I decided to go for it and pitch more yeast.
The only hitch was that I didn't have enough viable lager yeast to pitch into this brew. Instead I pulled out theWLP 565 (Saison strain) and pitched it. This essentially will change the characteristics of my beer. Instead of a crisp clean lager, I'm now making a light farmhouse ale.
Ahhh....Alchemy at it's best. Well fermentation blasted off within a few hours, and it is bubbling away.
I'm taking a gamble here and hope it pays off. Best case scenario I'll make some fine beer. Worst case, I'll have wasted six hours of my time, a few dollars in material and have to pour some beer down the drain. Only time will tell.

Racked and Ready

Sunday afternoon I racked five gallons of the ESB, and ten gallons of the Scottish ale to final packaging. These beers are now conditioning in the kegerator and will be ready to drink shortly.

Next up in the brewing docket will be a West Coast style Pale ale brewed with Canadian two row, a little crystal, and some malted wheat. This beer will be hopped with Perle and Cascade.
I have finally gained some momentum on the brewing front and plan on carrying on until my basement gets to warm for normal fermentation temps, and then perhaps will brew some freaky Belgian shit.

The German Pils

I finally got down into the basement after a month and a half hiatus from brewing. Between being out of town, out of CO2, and spending time working on the first floor apartment I have found myself without any free time to make beer since end of April.
My luck changed this weekend when a window of opportunity opened and I brewed ten gallons of German Pils. This time around opted for not performing a decoction. So instead it was a single infusion brew, mashing in at 152f with 22 lbs of fine pilsener malt from Germany. I pitched a nice cake of WLP 830 from my yeast bank.

Scottish Ale & Strep Throat

I was in eager anticipation to head up to Tuckermans Ravine Sunday night. As luck would have it, around two hours prior to the time I was supposed to meet up with Emily and Dave, I came down with something.
I started to feel a little bit off after dinner. By 8:30 PM Not knowing what was wrong I found myself laid out and horizontal in my bed making the necessary calls to bail on the trip.
Monday morning arrived and I was feeling a little bit better so I jumped at the chance to brew. I already had the grist milled and the water measured, it essentially became a no brainer on my end. The target gravity was 1.076, and I ended up with 1.062 essentially missing my gravity by a mile. The beer should still be very good, just not as much alcohol as anticipated.
Oh, and by the way, I made it to the doctor by Tuesday, and was diagnosed with Strep throat. First time on Penicillin since I had my wisdom teeth extracted in 1989.

ESB

Today I brewed up a new ESB recipe that I have been working on for a few weeks. This experiment saw the introduction of Demura into the beer. I'm branching out a little bit more these days with the intruduction of more adjuncts into my brews. Lately it has just been sugar in various forms. Coming soon: beer made with six row, corn, and rice.
This beer was brewed so I could have a yeast cake availabel for the next batch of Strong Scottish Ale.

Bohemian Pilsener

I brewed up the Bohemian Pilsner this evening. Special surprise visit from Heath Woods this evening. He gave me a hand in getting this one in the fermenter. It was brewing as usual here with this beer. Single decoction with WY2001. I can't get enough of this excellent beer. It's certainly one of my best recipes.

Yeast and a new pump on the way

Yeast, among a few select other raw materials make beer. Different styles of beer require special elements to really make them shine. Yeast is one of those critical elements. Recently I ordered up some fresh strains of yeast for the Mid-Winter brews.
The strains I procured today make up the beers that you may have a chance to try in the next few months. Here is the short list:

WL San Francisco Lager
WL Edinburgh Ale
Wyeast Canada/Belgium Ale Private Collection Jan-March 2009
Wyeast Pilsner Urquell

I'll be fermenting at cooler temperature's this Winter with the expectation of making
cleaner tasting beer.

I also picked up a new pump for wort and hot liquor transfers.

Back in the mash tun

I brewed up the Chocolate Stout last Monday. This was the first brew of the new year for me. Lately my time has been taken up by the usual barrage of Winter activities, solo and with the family.
I took advantage of some free time to myself and finally made it down to the basement brewery to start filling up the fermenters for 2009. I decided on the chocolate stout because it is such a solid beer in my arsenal. It's good to be able to rely on tried and true recipes from time to time. It lends to less of an ordeal in the whole brewing process since I'm not putting the time in to design something new. So with that said I think that I will continue to bring on the clones this Winter.
Happy Brewing!

Strong Scottish Ale

Did I mention the strong Scottish ale that I brewed recently? On December 6th, I mashed in almost nine gallons of water with over thirty pounds of malt. The result will hopefully be one big ass beer chock full of all my favorite malty flavors. I may let this one sit in the conical for a few weeks if I don't get my brew on soon. I have been missing my chocolate stout lately, and think this may be the next brew on the docket. I should get my lager on because the cold room in the basement has been hovering at 53f.
Maybe, just maybe one or two more brew sessions before the end of the year. Billy and his family arrive in a few weeks, and I bet I can get him to help me out with a year end brew.

Sidetracked

It would seem that I have been utterly sidetracked from brewing lately. It's not like the kegs are dry and the fermenters are empty, but I just haven't been able to find the time or inspiration to brew anything in the past few weeks. I like to have all my fermenters full this time of the year.

Keeping up with the standard

Iz took the kids to visit her sister in Chelmsford Friday night. I was supposed to be painting the house, but with yet another cold & rainy day on the horizon I found myself with some free time on Saturday morning. I brewed up ten gallons of the AAPA and managed to rack some beer, and perform some general cleanup in the brewery.

The Parti-gyle

Saturday morning I found myself with a little free time while waiting for the outside temps to rise above 40f so that I could finish up some house painting on the East side of the house. In true on the fly fashion I decided to make the 999 Barleywine. Mashtun capacity limitations prevented me from brewing up ten gallons, as a result I decide to collect second runnings and and make a small ale with Amarillo hops. Both brews were a success and they are fermenting away happily at 64f in my basement.

Unorthodox Brewing Practices

I found myself with a five hour block of free time on Saturday when my sister took the girls for the day. My original plans were to spend the day on a ladder finishing up the trim on the east side of the house. Well moist weather ensued and I decided to head down to the brewery to brew something on the fly. I quickly milled up the grist for the Red Rye in anticipation that I would run into Ray and secure some yeast.
Unfortunately, Ray was not around. I failed to get the yeast I desired for this beer. Instead I made a rather unorthodox decision by deciding to pitch one of my Belgian strains into this batch.
Alchemy at it's best....

Ack!

So I reformatted the layout of my blog and it reverted back to an old setting with outdated links.
Blechhhh! I want to use the old format!

Red Rye could get bumped to a standard

The Red Rye may become one of the standards in brew the brewhouse. It is a fairly big beer that is made with 20% Rye and is aggressively hopped with Brewers Gold, Perle, Chinook, Cascade and Centennial hops. It received great feedback from those that enjoyed it this past weekend.
Speaking of my standard offerings...It's almost time to get them fermenters full for the holiday season.
Cast your vote and help me decide!

Dubbel bubbling

The Dubbel is enjoying a very active fermentation. In fact the top blew off the airlock at some point Monday. Make note to self, when fermenting in glass carbouys: use a blow-off tube.

The Dubbel

I brewed a Belgian dubbel on Sunday. Other then missing my gravity by a few points, It looks like it will work out nicely. I only made five gallons, so it may be awhile before this one is unveiled.

Indecision

I'm very excited to make beer this weekend. I'm so excited that Isimply cannot decide what I would like to brew. I'm thinking perhaps a dubbel now, or maybe scale the Strong Scotish ale back and go with a five gallon pilot batch. Decisions, decisions.

Taking the show on the road

As previously mentioned I'm getting together with some fellow brewers in Windham this weekend for a brew session.

Making ten gallons on the fly in someone else's backyard can be rather complicated. I'm scaling back to a five gallon batch this weekend. With that said, it's going be another behemoth brew not unlike August's DIPA which used an obscene amount of hops. I have decided on another DIPA, this time around instead of Warrior, Methinks I'll go with a combo using Willamette, Brewers Gold, and a third mystery hop to be determined.
On second thought, maybe I'll shoot for a RIS.

Productivity

Despite the absence of the double decoction doppelbock brew session, this past weekend proved to be successful in other ways. I attended my OEC refresher, racked fifteen gallons of beer, and managed to get my haircut. Life is good. I'm supposed to be making beer with some friends up in Windham this weekend. Getting another batch in the fermenter before Sunday's run is going to be unlikely.