Winterfest IV

The kegs went into the fridge last night after we returned from our holiday sojourn. The house had dropped to 55º F, about 10 degrees lower than normal. I'm glad I put the kegs out in the warmth for a few days before we left. I should be using the so-called "CA/SF Lager" yeast variety these days (Wyeast 2112 or White Labs 810)--it works well at cooler temperatures. Maybe I'll order a few for the holiday brew sessions. I've made some lovely stouts with this strain. And I'm going to take another shot at an amber beer, which always gets me thinking of Anchor Steam. Supposedly that superb brew is made from this yeast.




prid. Kal. Dec.

Winterfest III

It was a little cool, not getting above 65º F in the closet, so I moved the kegs out into the dining room were it hovered mostly around 70º F (with high of 74º). I kept the kegs there from Thurday evening until yesterday (Sunday) afternoon. Then I returned the kegs to the closet. We'll be off for the week and out of town so the house will drop quite a bit. I wanted to make sure the priming would have a chance to succeed before the cooler temperatures stopped it completely. The beer will go to the refrigerator when we are back on the weekend.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!




a.d. VIII Kal. Dec.

Winterfest II

The Winterfest Ale went to the keg today. I primed two 2.5-gallon (half-sized corny) kegs with 50 grams of corn sugar each and added the beer. I'll take one to Andrei's and keep one for personal consumption.

Check the bottom of the page for a change: adverts. Yes, advertising. I said "yes" to AdSense! I'm curious, and wanted to experiment. This site has very little traffic, so I don't expect much, as you need thousands of hits to generate money. But this blog is narrow in scope, and I figured the ads would be targeted to brewing, so I felt better about plugging them in here than my other sites.




a.d. XVI Kal. Dec.

Rack 'em

The beer had fermented out nicely by Tuesday and so I siphoned it to another carboy.  When the yeast is that fast-acting, I figure the beer shouldn't sit on all that sludgy stuff.  It looked and smelled good, very bright and clean.  Amber is a stretch, perhaps dark honey would better describe the color.  I think we'll be kegging the whole batch up soon and hauling it down to Andrei's killer bash.

Na Zydorovye!

Prid. Id. Nov.

Zymo-update

Zym(o)-

. . . from Gr zume, leaven, and in Sci, denoting '(of, by or with) ferment'. . .


From Eric Partridge of course. I'm an Origins groupie.

The yeast was pitched about 1620 yesterday. At 0500 this morning there was an inch-thick head of foam and the closet reeked with the rich aromas of fermenting wort!
(There's supposed to be a macron over the e in zume but I can't figure out how to do that with Alt-codes.)



a.d. III Non. Nov.