Bottling FTG

We have the kids of "Gretchen" this weekend. If you don't remember, "Gretchen" is the friend for whom SheppyBrew created the beer "Free the Glutens! APA" (FTG). You can read all about the story behind this beer on this blog by reading through the "Gluten Free" label on this blog and/or the Free the Glutens! APA on the SheppyBrew website. Follow those links and read away.

So, not too long ago, knowing that we would have "Gretchen's" kids this weekend, I brewed up my second batch of FTG. I gave myself more time than I did for the first batch, but still not as much as I should have. I decided that I would use the kids as bottling assistants and make "Gretchen" take home the FTG to carbonate herself.

Unfortunately, out of 4 boys here this weekend, only one wanted to help. But, I'll take what I can get when it comes to bottling help.

Bottling Assistant stirring sugar into water

You probably already know or don't really care, but just in case I'll tell you anyway: FTG is naturally carbonated. This means, we add a bit of sugar to the beer (regular white table sugar usually for SheppyBrew), and let yeast eat this sugar. When yeast eats sugar, it burbs out carbon dioxide. If enough carbon dioxide is trapped in the beer bottle with the beer, carbonation occurs.

Magic ... right?

So, my bottling assistant added 2.25oz sugar to 2 cups water, stirred it in and let it boil for a few minutes. The boiling is to sanitize the solution of sugar water before adding it to the beer. After boiling, I cool the covered pot in the sink in an ice bath.

Racking beer from fermentor to "bottling bucket".

Next, I added the sugar water to my "bottling bucket" which is really just another Mr. Beer fermentor. I drained my FTG fermentor (another Mr. Beer fermentor) into the "bottling bucket" and let it mix with the sugar water.

My sample. Pretty, don't you think?

Of course I took a sample to get a final gravity reading. You probably remember from grade school science class that specific gravity is a way to measure density of a water-based solution. To get the final alcohol of a particular beer, I take a gravity reading of the wort on brewing day (original gravity or OG for short) and then another gravity reading at bottling time (final gravity or FG for short). This beer started at 1.053 and ended at 1.020. This calculates to 4.3% alcohol (by volume). I let my brewing software do the calculation for me. If you want you can google the actual formula.

Magic ... right?

Bottling assistant sanitizing bottles.

It is important to have clean and sanitized bottles because germs can make beer taste bad. I don't want bad beer. I assume "Gretchen" doesn't like bad beer either. I use Star San sanitizer, which is a no-rinse sanitizer made specifically for brewing. It is very effective and since it is no-rinse you don't have to worry about off-flavors coming from it.

Don't fear the foam.

Magic ... right?

The bottling assistant and one of the kids who refused to help.

Actually putting beer in bottles

Finally, we emptied the bottles of sanitizer and used a bottling wand attached to the spigot in the bottling bucket to fill each bottle. After filling each bottle, we added a cap and used that read capper to crimp down the caps to the bottle.

Capping

We got 2 1 liter bottles and 18 12 oz bottles. As I mentioned above they need to carbonate for a couple of weeks. To carbonate, I let them sit at room temperature for two weeks. After that two weeks, they should be ready to drink, although I might suggest "Gretchen" waits a little longer just because I know it is torture to wait.

So, there you go, batch 2 of FTG is bottled up. I will send most of these home with "Gretchen". I will keep a couple for myself to taste and comment on.

I will let you know how I think it tastes in a few weeks. I'll let you know how "Gretchen" thinks it compares with batch one whenever she gets around to telling me. Actually, I am going to ask her to comment on the SheppyBrew facebook page. If you don't already, please like us here: http://www.facebook.com/SheppyBrew

Happy St. Patrick's Day

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Eric's Red vs Failure

Well, if you read this blog regularly you may recall that a couple of months ago I tried to brew SheppyBrew's Eric's Irish Red Ale, but failed miserably. I did decide to go ahead and ferment out and bottle almost five gallons of the failure, naming this beer Eric's Red Failure.

A couple weeks later, I successfully brewed a batch of Eric's Irish Red as planned.

You can read about my intention of brewing an all-grain batch of Eric's Red on the post Eric's Irish Red #HomeBrew. You can read all about my miserable failure at Eric's Red failure. You can read all about my successful brew day of Eric's Red at Eric's Red brew day. 

The main problem with Eric's Red Failure is that my wort chiller came apart in the beer causing the whole batch to  be watered down considerably. I would say about a gallon and a half of water diluted down the wort. I was extremely close to just dumping this batch, because I really thought this was too much extra water to make this beer redeemable in any way. I figured it was worth the effort to ferment it out for the scientific information it would provide me.

Introducing the SheppyBrew Facebook Page

Well, I've done it. Last night, I created a public facebook page for SheppyBrew Brewery. Just to be clear ... SheppyBrew still is not a real commercial brewery. It still only exists in my garage, patio, kitchen, and basement. But it also has a pretty decent presence on the interwebs.

Now, in addition to this blog and the SheppyBrew Website, everyone can get a glimpse into the SheppyBrew beer on facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/SheppyBrew

Most of my regular readers are also the Beer Master's facebook friends, so most of you have probably already gotten a notification to come like the page. But, maybe a few more of you will come by and check it out too. PLEASE hit "Like" on the page.

Incidentally, last night, one of my brewing heroes, Mitch Steele was the first (besides me of course) to Like the page. If you don't know (although how could you not?) Mitch is the Head Brewer at Stone Brewing Company ... the maker of Arrogant Bastard.

Of course, I've talked quite a bit on this blog about Arrogant Bastard: http://blog.ericshepard.com/search/label/Arrogant%20Bastard

If the SheppyBrew Brewery FaceBook page is good enough for the guy in charge of Arrogant Bastard, how can you resist?

Again, come LIKE http://www.facebook.com/SheppyBrew

Happy Friday everyone.

P.S. I almost forgot ... I also have become "official" on untappd. Check out my SheppyBrew Brewery on untappd: http://untappd.com/sheppybrew

Popcorn Beer #HomeBrew

A couple of nights ago, I was listening to The Brewing Network Sunday Session February 13, 2012 episode with Sun King Brewery. The main part of the show was a great interview with Clay Robinson who is one of the founders, owners, and brewers at Sun King Brewery of Indianapolis, Indiana.

Sun King won a ridiculous number of medals at the 2011 GABF. If my memory is correct, they got 4 golds, 3 silvers, and 1 bronze. Getting any kind of medal at the GABF is an amazing feat. Getting 4 golds is mind-blowing. Getting 8 medals is downright unbelievable.

If I have had any Sun King beer, it was at GABF. It doesn't appear in my notes, so if I had any I don't remember anything about it. I hope I remember to try to find it this year.

My favorite part of the interview was when Clay talked about their Popcorn Pilsner. If you download the episode from the link above, this part is at about the 1:42:20 mark of the pod-cast.

One of the ingredients used in Popcorn Pilsner is (are you ready for this?): Popcorn.

Brewing PIRA

Enzymes at work inside the mash tun

Well, as I mentioned a few days ago, I designed a recipe as a tribute to Stone's Arrogant Bastard and CYBI's attempt to clone the beer. If you don't remember, go ahead and read the blog post "Pompously Illegitimate Red Ale".

You can review the recipe on the "Pompously Illegitimate Red Ale" page. It is hoppy and pretty big. I should end up a little over 7% ABV with somewhere around 76 IBU.

Just a note ... I will probably abbreviate Pompously Illegitimate Red Ale as PIRA on this blog. Don't let that confuse you.

Today was nice and warm, but it was windy, so I did the brewing in the garage. Tyler had a sleep-over birthday party over the weekend, and Tracy left this morning to teach Sunday school, so technically I probably should have been watching the kids, I suppose. Nothing bad happened to them and none of the parents complained that I appeared to be neglecting their kids when they got picked up. Well, for the most part everyone picked up while the mash was going on, so they probably did not realize that I was neglecting their kids.

The kids were fine.

Pompously Illegitimate Red Ale

Arrogant Bastard
It is not a secret that I am a fan of Stone Brewing Company and their Arrogant Bastard Ale.

It is not just that I like to drink the beer (although I really do). Stone just has this in-your-face craft beer arrogant attitude. They know they brew great beer and they celebrate a snobbish attitude that not everyone is going to like their beer.

As they say right on their bottles and website:

This is an aggressive ale. You probably won’t like it. It is quite doubtful that you have the taste or sophistication to be able to appreciate an ale of this quality and depth. We would suggest that you stick to safer and more familiar territory–maybe something with a multi-million dollar ad campaign aimed at convincing you it’s made in a little brewery, or one that implies that their tasteless fizzy yellow beverage will give you more sex appeal. Perhaps you think multi-million dollar ad campaigns make things taste better. Perhaps you’re mouthing your words as you read this.

Isn't that cool? Call me a sucker for marketing if you want, but that description influences me want that beer. Seeing half-naked women in multimillion dollar BMC advertisements doesn't make be want a particular beer, but I have to admit that Greg Koch telling me that I am unworthy sort of does make me want to drink the Arrogant Bastard. Of course the fact that I love the beer's flavor profile doesn't hurt.