Paul’s Brewsletter

Wow - everyone loved the “higher octane” version of Holidaze!  Looks like I’ll be revising the recipe for next year.  And I thought 7.35% alcohol by volume would be a bit much for some people.  Looks like higher alcohol beer brewing is something I’ll be doing more often

The “standard” Holidaze batches 5-6 are bubbling away happily in their respective brew barrels.  I expect these to be ready in time for the Superbowl, when (hopefully) the New Orleans Saints will get that long awaited moment of glory they’ve been working towards.

Tell me, what kind of beer are you working on these days?  Any ideas for what you will be brewing coming up?  Feel free to post a comment to this blog.

Happy Brewing!
Paul

The final two batches of Holidaze have begun.  This batch will probably be ready in time for the Mardi Gras season, which officially begins on January 6, 2007 this year.  I made this as a double barrel batch again.  The specific gravity measurements were almost exactly the same:

Batch 1: 1.034
Batch 2: 1.036

The batch that I originally intended to have for New Year’s will instead be unveiled this weekend at a party my wife and I are attending.  These are friends of ours who were interested when I mentioned I made homebrew beer (imagine that :))  I’ll be giving them the 7.35% alcohol by volume beer, should make for an interesting impression.

Here’s a tip for those of you making beer with fresh fruit like cranberries - you can easily check the freshness of the cranberry by dropping it from a few inches onto a plate or other smooth clean surface.  If the cranberry bounces, it is fresh.  If it does not bounce at all - discard it.

My thanks to those who have responded to my survey about homebrew beer - if you haven’t already, please take a look at this site and submit your question.  I’ll send everyone who completes the survey a copy of a beer e-book when I complete it.

I’m having a hankering for some stout and I’ve also been requested to make some beer for a housewarming party (probably something on the lighter side for that one) - that will be my next blog post, coming soon.

Until then, happy brewing!

Paul

Hello - I hope your New Year’s was fun.  The latest batch of my Holidaze did not make it in time for the New Year’s party at my friend’s house.  I will get to try it out at a party this weekend, however.  This is the strongest batch of Holidaze I’ve made yet:  7.35% alcohol by volume!

I’m working on an e-book about beer and I’d love to get your input.  Are you considering taking up homebrewing beer as a hobby but have some questions?  Do you have a favorite beer recipe you’d like to share?  Please check out this site and share your question or beer recipe for homebrew beer.  When the e-book is finished, I’ll send you a copy (make sure you enter an email address so I can send you a copy).

Thanks, and happy brewing!

Paul

Hello again - I just wanted to share a fun beer site with you.  I’m sure you’ve probably heard of the Bud Light “Real Men of Genius” and “Real American Heroes” radio commercials - I’ve come across a site on the web that lists what they claim to be the entire collection, available for downloading and listening.  Take a look - these are hilarious.  I didn’t catch a lot of these before on the radio and every one I’ve heard is great!

http://diis.net/article.php?story=budlight

Greetings - I hope your holiday season is going well. Before the beer update, a friendly word if you’re doing some last minute Christmas shopping — Mr. Beer has ecards available which allows you to send a gift certificate for Mr. Beer that can arrive the next day! Find out more here.

If you’re not worried about the arrival time of your gifts, check out the beer links portion of my brewsletter page for other gift ideas.

The Cranberry Holidaze was a success at the New Orleans Concert Band party. The 2 liter bottles worked well, and they made for some humorous commentary (”try the ‘Diet Coke’, its great”). I’ll be attending an office party at my former employer, where I’ll be bringing some more of the Cranberry Holidaze. That will be taking place on Friday of this week. I’ll be giving them some of the double barrel batch I mentioned earlier - that batch came to 3.4% alcohol by volume.

I started another batch of the Holidaze (#4 of 6), which would be for the New Year’s Eve festivities. I’m hoping all goes well and this ferments in time. I used the Cranberry Holidaze recipe and added the following additional ingredients to give the beer an extra kick:

1 can of Mellow Amber Unhopped Malt Extract

1/2 cup of white sugar

The initial specific gravity reading was 1.064 and the potential alcohol content is somewhere between 8-9%! Happy New Year for anyone drinking that hehe - the beer may take a little longer to ferment since I increased the amount of fermentables (The term fermentables refers to the items in the wort, or beer mixture, that can be fermented into alcohol. An example of these fermentables is sugar. The more fermentables in the wort, the higher the potential alcohol content is.). Its a race against the clock - will the beer finish in time for New Years?

Stay tuned…all in all, I don’t believe I’ve ever brewed this much beer in this short of time.

Have a Merry Christmas!

Paul

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

December is here and the holidays are fast approaching. In honor of this, I am going to put my wish list for this year up. Here are the beer related items I would love to see under my tree this year. Feel free to post a comment with your favorite beer item wishes…

Beer Inside - Beer Recipe Book
What could be more fun than making beer? Cooking with beer, perhaps? Here is Beer Inside a collection of food recipes containing beer. Instant ebook download.

Brew Buddies
This is a great site with information on getting into the homebrew beer hobby. They have several books available on homebrewing and a variety of kits and recipes. Visit Brew Buddies

Mr. Beer
Beer Mixes from Mr. Beer — with a large variety of ingredients to choose from, Mr. Beer has a great selection for that homebrewer in your life. You can purchase a kit for $39.95 and get free shipping this month. How about that for a deal? — with a large variety of ingredients to choose from, Mr. Beer has a great selection for that homebrewer in your life. You can purchase a kit for $39.95 and get free shipping this month. How about that for a deal?

This was a busy beer weekend for sure. Friday evening my wife Andrea and I bottled the first batch of the Cranberry Holidaze. The alcohol content came out pretty much as expected (4.04% by volume) and the beer has a nice reddish tint to it. I put this beer in three 2-liter bottles and a few glass bottles. I will be sharing this beer with my fellow musicians in the New Orleans Concert Band at our upcoming Christmas concert on December 17th - I’ll let you know how the beer goes over.

Now, lets talk about the Double Barrel Batch. I use the expression “Double Barrel” because I happen to have two beer barrel kits from Mr. Beer and sometimes I brew two batches simultaneously, hence the term “Double Barrel”. Andrea was a real trouper, helping me throughout the process. I’ve done this double batch thing alone before and it was a real hassle - so her assistance was appreciated…thanks, sweetheart

The initial specific gravity on both batches of beer were pretty close:

Batch 1: 1.034

Batch 2: 1.036

So, we’re off to the races again. The beer took about 8 days to finish the primary fermentation, so I’m expecting it to be close to that again. If you happen to be in the New Orleans area on December 17th, I recommend you check out the New Orleans Concert Band’s Christmas Concert. And, if you stick around after for the band social…you may get to taste some of the Cranberry Holidaze!

That’s all for now, Happy Brewing!

Paul

Something unusual happened with the Cranberry Holidaze beer.  While in the middle of primary fermentation, some cranberry pulp made its way up into the airlock, clogging it up.  Keep in mind the beer is still in primary fermentation, which means carbon dioxide is being produced regularly.  This CO2 must be released from the fermenter, so the built up pressure ended up pushing the cranberry pulp into the airlock!  Not to worry, there is a quick fix here.  I removed the airlock and rinsed it out, then replaced it on the fermenter.  The fermentation continued from there.  This happened a second time and the fix was the same: clean out the airlock, replace and the fermentation continued.

The things we do for homebrew

Greetings and a happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.  The liquid yeast arrived yesterday.  Since it is the smack pack variety, I needed to activate it and wait until today before it was ready.  The beer is now in primary fermentation, which I hope will take no more than about a week.  I’ve got a part on order for my other homebrew kit so I can have two batches going at the same time.  Lot of parties coming up and time is running short!

The initial specific gravity for this batch comes to 1.036.  According to the potential alcohol content,  we’re looking at possibly 5%.  Woohoo!

Here’s a running total of what I’ve spent on this batch so far.  The Beer Mixes and Yeast prices include shipping costs:

Beer Mixes:    $76.20
Yeast:           $46.32
Cranberries:   $9.95
Water:          $12.44
                 ———–
TOTAL:       $144.91

As far as costs go, the beer is about $0.09 per ounce.  Pretty comparable in cost to some of your imported beers (At $0.09 an ounce, a six pack of 12oz beers is about $6.48).  Well, I didn’t get into this to make cheaper beer — just tastier beer :)  Still, you can see what kind of money you are looking at for this hobby.  Its not a huge investment (keep in mind, those totals are for 12 gallons of beer…the Mr. Beer kit does 2 gallon batches, so you can start a lot smaller than that).

I’ll blog again as the batches progress!  Check the recipies portion of this blog for beer recipies from me and others!

Happy brewing!
Paul