Paul’s Brewsletter

Last night’s beer batches bring the total to three for the Cranberry Holidaze.  Tomorrow I’ll be unveiling the Cranberry Holidaze 2006 at the New Orleans Concert Band’s Christmas concert - this is a pretty regular tradition for me to do this, so I’ll let you know how it goes.

The alcohol content on the most recent batches bottled dropped a little - 3.40% is what I calulated for batches 2 and 3.  I did a quick taste test and it was promising.  I’m not trying to make this batch really high in alcohol — I will shoot more for alcohol content when I try the Opus Stout in another few weeks…stay tuned!

The experience of the Cranberry Holidaze reminded me about filtering and I’d like to share a tip on that with you.  This mainly applies if you are making beer with fruit or any substance that could leave pulp matter in your wort.  I have tried bottling the fruit beers I’ve made with absolutely no filtering so any and all remaining pulp from the fruit goes into the beer bottles.  The settling that occurs during the time the beer is bottled before it is drank usually gets the pulp to the bottom of the bottle and out of your way.  However, pouring the beer will often disturb the pulp and you very well could end up with some in your beer glass.

I’ve used cheesecloth to filter beer and it has been fairly effective.  I simply cut a piece of cheesecloth and place it over the funnel I use for bottling.  The catch with this is to remember to keep an adequate supply on hand.  The cheesecloth can run out rather quickly, especially if you are dealing with an above average amount of pulp (like I had with the Cranberry Holidaze).

Another method I have used for filtering unwanted pulp remnants is a metal splatter guard.  You can buy these from a local supermarket.  Simply cut a piece of the metal screen that would act like the cheesecloth I mentioned above.  The advantage here is you get a reusable filter (for a little more money spent initially).

So tell me, have you been Christmas shopping for gifts?  You’re running out of time!  Have you been brewing any holiday beer batches?  Feel free to post a comment about a beer batch or anything else related to brewing beer.

Until next time - happy brewing!

Paul