Well ... I've finally gotten a pressure transfer to work.
It happened slower than I would have liked, and I still wish there was a way to know where the level of the beer in the keg was, but at least I got Captain Serious Pilsner into the keg from a pressurized fermenter.
So, I pressure fermented Captain Serious Pilsner (Batch 333).
Four days into the fermentation, I dry hopped the beer by pulling sous vide magnets that were attached to hop bags in the fermenter.
That worked really slick.
So ... for various reasons, I want to brew an American IPA soon.
Atypical to most homebrewers, I don't actually brew very many IPA's. I like them (a lot). But, they are a little higher in alcohol than I generally like to have gallons and gallons of at home.
And ... every brewery I know brews several IPA's. If I want an IPA, I can find them commercially at any one of hundreds within bike riding distance. Not to mention grocery stores and liquor stores now have great craft beer selections.
But, every once and awhile I like to brew an IPA.
Unless I'm forgetting any (which is possible, but not likely I think) I've brewed 5 beers that could be called traditional American IPA's:
Well back in February, I made some Ginger Kombucha.
I liked it. It needed some carbonation, but other than the lack of carbonation, I really liked it.
More recently, I made Ginger Beer. It was a little too sweet for my taste, but it was nicely carbonated.
Last week, I decided try Ginger Kombucha again.
Well ... I'm 0 for 2 on pressure transfers.
The first failure (Pressure Fermentation (sort of) Fail) was really a bone-headed mistake. Really I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing.
My second failure doesn't make much sense to me. I know how I'm going to adjust next time, but I'm not sure why this time was as bad as it was.
Anyway ... I brewed No Drums Jack Black Lager (Batch 331) on March 26th. Fermentation started off great. I was seeing signs of fermentation very quickly.
This time I set the spunding pressure to 20psi. I think this was my mistake. I should have had a lower pressure so carbonation wasn't so high during the eventual transfer.
Here it is ... already April, which means that the first quarter of 2023 is done. It's time to report on the SheppyBrew Brewing Stats for the quarter.
I keep claiming that I will brew less beer in 2023 than I did last year, but so far I have not slowed down. At all.
Last year, in Q1, I had brewed 5 batches, 30 gallons.
This year so far I've brewed 6 batches for 31 gallons.
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| Grumkins and Snarks Oatmeal Stout |
The beer model has been plotting with big beer to execute a hostile takeover of SheppyBrew Brewery.
Shocking, I know. I feel like I've been stabbed in the back.
My oldest son was home from college this past week. He had never had my homemade Jalapeño Poppers, so I thought I'd better make some.
If you need the recipe ... see Jalapeño Poppers. They are awesome, and everyone should make them from time to time.
I had some of my Grumkins and Snarks Oatmeal Stout while grilling the poppers and chicken.
If you follow along on my Brewing Notes on the Grumkins and Snarks recipe page, you probably read that I have really been enjoying this beer.
So you know that as of 17B. Old Ale, I have successfully brewed at least one beer in all 2021 BJCP Categories.
Well ... actually, since "I Lied" ... this isn't technically true, but let's pretend that we're still in the days where we didn't really realize there additional categories past 27. Historic Beer. I promise that I'll get to 28. American Wild Ale and 33. Wood Beer at some point this year.
But ... I spent the time typing up this post before I realized that I Lied, and I hate to think I've wasted that effort.
Looking through the guidelines, there are still lots of individual styles I'd like to brew, so I think I'm going to start seeing how many I can get through before the next version of the Guidelines come out.
I don't think I want to brew one of every style because there are a couple I don't really think I'd like to drink.
If I'm counting correctly, there are 42 styles of beer (see below) that I need to brew to have one batch of each in the guidelines (WOW!).
For now, I'll remove Historical Beers, Sours, and 3 "Specialty" IPA's that I don't really like to drink.
I'll also remove Eisbock and Rauchbier for now.
If my math / counting is correct ... that leaves 25 styles of beers to brew. That will almost certainly take me over a year, especially because I won't JUST be brewing these.
But ... here are a list of styles that I have not brewed yet ...
So ... after my Ginger Kombucha post, I have gone down a few youtube rabbit holes which have lead me to being interested in homemade sodas.
This lead me to making a Ginger Bug starter last week.
Considering how long I've been border-line obsessed with fermentation, I'm a little surprised I have not come across ginger bug until last week, but I had not heard of it until I started watching youtube videos on Ginger Beer.
What is Ginger Bug?
A ginger bug is a wild-fermented starter culture made with sugar, ginger, and water. It takes about a little less than a week of daily diligence to make one, and you can use it to make probiotic, naturally bubbly soft drinks, sodas, herbal beers, and tonics.
I lied!
As of 17B. Old Ale, I claimed to have successfully brewed at least one beer in all 2021 BJCP Categories.
Well, apparently, I completely missed entire categories after 27. HISTORICAL BEER.
For some reason, I thought the Historical Beer category was at the end. There were a couple more pages to go:
In Followup on BJCP 2021 Style Guidelines, I also wrote that I also needed a beer in Category 17, Strong British Ale.
However after a little research and thinking about it some ... I decided that I have actually satisfied this category with some of my bottled X-Mas Ales from previous years.
Specifically ... 17B. Old Ale.
"A stronger-than-average English ale, though usually not as strong or rich as an English Barley Wine, but usually malty. Warming. Shows positive maturation effects of a well-kept, aged beer.
Deep amber to very dark reddish-brown color, but most are fairly dark. Age and oxidation may darken the beer further. Clear, but can be almost opaque. Moderate to low cream- to light tan-colored head; retention average to poor."
As I'm typing this blog post, I'm drinking the Mardi Bock that I brewed on Super Bowl Sunday.
You may recall (if you read that article) that this is the first (and so far the only) batch on which I've used my new 7.9 Gallon Fermenter King Chubby.
I got the "Chubby" because I thought it would be fun / interesting / educational to try Pressure Fermentation.
Pressure fermentation is the process of fermenting beer inside a closed and pressurized vessel.
Typical fermentations allow CO2 to escape the fermenter through an airlock or blow-off tube. In pressurized fermentation, the fermenter is sealed and the CO2 produced by the fermentation is trapped inside.
You can't just let all the pressure remain in the fermenter, you need a valve that allows pressure to escape above a certain psi. This valve is called a "spunding" valve.
Since Sauerkraut Yogurt Kombucha in 2023, I've pretty regularly been "brewing" up kombucha.
I've brewed 4 batches this year. 2 green tea and 2 black tea.
One of those black tea batches is currently carbonating with Black Cherry Pomegranate juice right now.
One of those green tea batches is in the kombucha jar right now, fermenting.
As I mentioned in 2023 Arctic Vortex and Chucky and Doodle Bop Belgium Single (batch 328), my Anvil Foundry had an issue.
It stopped working. It would not power on.
This is not ideal. In fact, it really made me sad.
I'm well past the warranty, so I had to fix it. I really missed having the Electric Brewing capabilities on my Doodle Bop Belgium Single (batch 328) brew day.
According to my records, I've brewed 48 batches of beer on this thing. When it works, I really like it.
I don't remember what I paid for it. Currently according to the Anvil Foundry it costs $425. I know I paid less than that, but let's use that cost ....
My first brew on the Foundry was Bud Lite Lime (271) on the Anvil Foundry on 11/1/2020. I discovered that it didn't work on 1/15/2023.
So ... as I'm typing this, we still have over a week left in 2022, but I won't be brewing again this year, so I can actually report on my 2022 Brewing Stats.
I did brew quite a bit of beer in 2022, but I am on a steep downward trend after an absolute ridiculous amount of brewing in 2020 and considerably less, but still a huge amount in 2021.
I brewed over 160 gallons in 2020, and over 140 in 2021.
In 2022, I only brewed 122 gallons of beer. Even with this downward trend, 2022 was my 3rd highest brewing volume ever. I blame covid.
This 4th Quarter, I only brewed 5 times for 26 gallons. Practically a reasonable amount.
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| Mr. Awesome (and Jethro Bud) |
Earlier in the year, I published a blog post in which I talked about beers that could be considered SheppyBrew Seasonals, attaching them to each month of the year.
As I was working my way through brewing over the year, I kept this list in mind. I didn't hit every month, but I brewed most of the beers close to their month this year.
