Batch 6: Ginger Beer

Batch Number: 6
Batch Type: Ginger Beer
Date into Primary:11/22/11
Yeast Type: N/A!
Ingredients:

• Ginger root, washed, scalded and chopped -- 3/4 to 1 pound (washed and scalded)
• Water -- 2 quarts (boiled)
• Honey -- 1/2 cup
• Lemons or limes, juice only -- 2 to 3

Method:

1. Place the chopped ginger, 3 cups of the water and 1/2 cup honey in a blender and puree well. Let set for at least 30 minutes or overnight to extract all the flavor.
2. Strain the liquid through a fine-meshed sieve and pour into a pitcher. Add enough water to make 2 quarts and stir in the the lemon or lime juice and additional honey to taste. Chill well before serving.
3. Force carbonate in pressure vessel at 25psi, chill for 24-48 hours and bottle under pressure or serve.

Date into Secondary: N/A!
Date Filled: 12/7/11
Comments:

November 20th:
- Sanitized the pressure vessel and o-rings.
- Filled vessel with 4 gallons of cold water.
- Connected CO2 tank to vessel; raised pressure to 80 psi

November 22nd:
- 1.1 lbs fresh ginger was broken and shredded in the food processor
- Placed in a mesh bag and placed in 1 quart of boiling water with 2 cups of Jim's fall honey
- This was boiled/steeped for approximately 1.5 hours
- Sanitized a growler and a funnel
- Transferred the ginger tea concentrate into growler, sealed the container, labeled it, and placed it in storage for use in the future

Hope you feel better soon Jimbo.

12/04/2011 Update:
Dumped the water that was in the tank to replace it with fresh water. Found it to be perfectly carbonated (so much so that I flavored it with some pomegranate juice and enjoyed the sparkling concoction). Refilled vessel with four gallons and placed it under 80 PSI.

 

12/7/11 Update:

Bulk syrup stored 2 weeks at room temp had mold on the top.  This will have to be frozen if we do not make it fresh each time.  Mold was skimmed and bulk solution pasteurized prior to use.  It smelled and tasted great.  We filled this by syringe addition of concentrate to bottles mostly full of carbonated water (filled with the beer gun).  This worked quite well, though it required 4 oz of concentrate to get the right intensity.  There was not excessive outgassing when adding the concentrate even though it was still slightly warm.  The concentrate was not uniform, with greater thickness on the bottom layer than on the top.  The sweetness and spice was well balanced in the concentrate, though.  We filled approx 12 ea 12oz bottles. 

Throwback: Strawberry Melomel

Since we had made some batches prior to starting this blog and didn't keep the best records, we agreed we would occasionally add some posts related to older batches.  These won't have batch numbers and the info may be spotty, but we'll try to preserve what we do remember in these posts.

Batch Number: N/A (Pre-Historic)
Batch Type: Melomel
Date into Primary: June 2011
Yeast Type:  ?  Probably Red Star Cuvee or Cotes de Blanc
Ingredients:
20 lbs of pureed fresh strawberries, frozen, then thawed
Honey, maybe 5#?
Yeast Nutrient
Pectic Enzyme
Water to QS to 5 gallons

Date into Secondary:
Date Racked:
Date Racked:
Date Filled: 9/20/11
Comments:

Cameron got a GREAT deal on jam strawberries from Woolf Family Farms.  The berries were the tiny strawberries that have such a great fresh strawberry flavor and aroma.

The most memorable event from brewing this batch was the approximately 6 or 8 inches of fresh strawberry schmutz on the bottom of the primary when we went to rack it.  We did not use any kind of cheesecloth bag to contain the fruit pulp during primary fermentation.  To deal with this, we racked as much as we could into a clean carboy, leaving the schmutz.  Then we walked to the local drug mart where we bought one thing, a pair of ladies nylons.  I walked up and put them on the counter, secure in my masculinity, and reached for my wallet.  To make it as weird as he could, Cameron stopped me and said, "No.  Let me buy these for you."  The lady at the register laughed a bit, then explained she'd seen things much weirder than this, and handed us the receipt.  We went back to strain the remaining quantity through the sanitized nylons and into a sanitized bowl.  We then poured the strained melomel into a separate carboy due to the risk of contamination with all the extra handling and residual cloudiness. 

I think this batch was the first we used sparkeloid on, also.   It cleared nicely and had a very strong, all natural strawberry flavor.

3/3/12 Update:
I tried a small bottle of "first run" strawberry melomel and was disappointed.  It appeared bright and clear and beautiful with some slight sediment on the bottom of the bottle.  The strawberry aroma was there, and while a distinctive strawberry flavor was present, it was overpowered by something I can only describe as a gaseous funk.  I mean, it wasn't terrible like it had spoiled.  It was drinkable but not good.  It had an odor of slight mustiness and, after drinking some, I felt I could exhale it.  I do not know if this can improve in time. This was only 3 months from brew to fill and less than 6 in the bottle.  Maybe there is hope?

4/18/12 Update:
There is no hope.  We had a mead judge proclaim this undrinkable and I (Demko) agree.  Damavandi thinks it's not that bad, so there must be some things he cannot taste.  I'm dumping mine to free up bottles for a future run.

Batch 5 - Fall Methyglyn

Batch Number: 5
Batch Type: Fall Methyglyn
Date into Primary: 11/8/11
Yeast Type: Red Star Montrachet (lot # 2711)

Ingredients:
1 gal honey (Jim's fall honey)
1 Tbsp fresh lemon peel (fresh)
Juice of 1 lemon (from the above lemon)
2 Tbsp orange peel (fresh)
Juice of 2 oranges (From the above oranges)
2.5 cinnamon sticks
60 whole cloves
6 tsp fresh nutmeg
5 inches bruised ginger root (fresh)
35 allspice berries, crushed
1 handful of full leaf black tea
4 tsp mead yeast nutrient
Water to QS to 5 gal

Method:

Made a spice tea by boiling 3-4 cups water and pour over spices in a pan. Steeped for 20 minutes, over low heat.

Heated 1 gal. of water to boiling, allowed to cool and added the honey, stirring until all honey is dissolved.

Added spice tea to hot honey/water solution. Put 3 gal room temperature water in pail with 5 campden tablets. Added hot must to bucket and and let cool. Sealed pail with top and airlock. Stirred via stirbar gently over night.

Yeast to be pitched 11/9/11, target rack date is early December.

Date into Secondary: 12/6/11
Date Racked: 1/31/12
Date Racked: 1/12/13
Date Racked: 6/25/13
Date Racked: 7/30/13
Date Racked: 12/7/13
Date Racked: 2/2/14
Date Filled: 4/12/14

Comments:

11/09/2011 update:
Opened the bucket to add 1 packet of yeast (Red Star Montrachet-lot # 2711), 5 teaspoons of nutrient, and 2.5 teaspoon energizer to the bucket. I must note the fragrance of sweet honey and pleasant citrus/spiced aroma was wonderful (not at all overpowering like I was anticipating upon removal of the lid...although there was a slight plasticy Lipton after-effect...just kidding Jim). Placed the bucket on the stir plate and started continuous mixing at relatively high rate.

11/10/2011 update:
Checked on the bucket to find vigorous and active bubbling of the air lock and the tell-tale sign of excessive CO2 production: puddling of air-lock fluid on the bucket lid. The air-lock still had enough liquid and I probably won't add any until it gets very low.

12/03/2011 update:
Turned off stir-plate/stir-bar in anticipation of racking.

12/04/2011 update:
Brought the bucket up to the processing area (the kitchen island) to allow it a few days to settle prior to racking.

1/31/2012 update:
Tasted upon first racking carboy to carboy. Nice honey flavor, spices weaker than anticipated. Adding another spice tea during the next racking is recommended, maybe April?

07/23/12 update:

In preparation for our back-sweetening tutorial with Carl a 12oz. sample was drawn into a bottle, capped, and refrigerated. 

1/12/13:
Racked and added sparkeloid.  Very dry and high alcohol, as with almost every mead.  Not a significant spice profile, though perhaps some residual sweetness would bring that out.  No new data captured.

6/25/13:
Finally starting to clear, a bit acid.  Thin and insufficient mouthfeel.  Spice is finally there, citrus and nutmeg predominantly.  Fantastic bouquet.  Needs sweetness.  Perhaps glycerin and honey will help.   Probably need to stabilize and further adjust.  Spices have become more prominent, not sure if this will continue to develop or if more should be added.  This is finally showing some promise.

7/30/13:
Same taste as 6/25/13.  Racked and stabilized the 5 gallon batch with 3 campden tabs and 1.5tsp sorbate.  Added 4 tsp bentonite to 1/2 cup boiling water and added slurry to the batch.  Added 3 lbs JimBo's spring honey.  The bentonite was successful in clearing Hoder's batch 13, so trying on this batch which has been cloudy forever.  This is the first batch we are stabilizing, clearing and back-sweetening in a single step.  Next step: taste and determine whether or not to add another spice tea. 

8/13/13:
Still a bit cloudy, though much improved.  Very fragrant nose, bright crisp flavor, good acid and sweetness, if anything maybe a touch more honey.  Very pleased!  Still needs to age just a bit.  Will rack and try to clear with Bentonite again in case it will help clear more.  If it doesn't clear further with more bentonite, might try sparkeloid.  If nothing else works, will have to try to filter it. 

11/7/13:
Shockingly enough, this dropped completely clear without any more bentonite or sparkeloid. 

12/5/13:  
Tasted and was surprised to find how tart it was after clearing.  Citric acid from juice of 1 lemon and 2 oranges is really coming out now.  Racked and added 1.5 lb Jimbo's spring honey thinned with 2 cups boiled water to ease mixing.  Now it is cloudy again and the wait continues.

2/1/14:
Tasted and found it is now more balance, has a slightly bitter finish, though.  Racked and added bentonite to clear.  Possible mazer cup entry come March.

2/21/14:  A brief visit to the brew cellar found this batch has tiny bubbles rising through it, outgassing.  Did it restart fermentation after racking?  Probably kills a shot as a 2014 mazer entry.

3/1/14:  Sorbated with 2.5 tsp on 2/25/14 and shake-uh shake-uh to resuspend bentonite.  Cleared nicely, no signs of fermentation on 3/1/14.  Racked off of bentonite and filled 3 bottles for 2014 mazer cup.

4/12/14:  Bottled.  It's good.  Some think our best yet.  It only took 3 years.  Got about 7 each 750mL, 18 each  375mL, and 12 each 12 oz.  1 bottle to Steve, 1 to Charles, 1 to Cameron, 1 to Kelly, my neighbor.  I'll bring in a 12 to work, too.