Angry Dwarf Christmas Ale - Update

The Angry Dwarf has finished primary fermentation.  It went quick and fast going from Saturday through Thursday morning. It slowed Thursday morning and then by the evening there was no activity in the airlock.  I let it sit Friday and Saturday and just moved it to the secondary carboy.  All looks well.  It smells great too.  If it tastes half as good as it smells we should be in business.

I added another 1.5lb of sweet cherry in the secondary since I was short on brew day.  There should be a short burst of fermentation until the remaining yeast chews through the sugars in the sweet cherries.  

I took a quick taste and it currently is very alcoholic with some honey and cherry flavor really coming though.

I will let it sit for two weeks and then bottle and mature until Christmas.

Tasting Day: Pumpkin Pie Ale

So today it was time to taste the Pumpkin Pie Ale.  I had some serious sparging issues with this one as I outlined in my earlier Brew Day post.  This was also part of the batch that was infected.  It seemed to have done pretty well showing no real signs of infection so I decided to bottle this and at least get a taste.

I knew something was wrong when I got a final gravity reading of 1.004!  It dried up like a cider.  As you can see from the photo to the left it is very light with no real body or head.

After 3 weeks in the bottle I noticed a small white ring on top of the bottles.  Signs of a small infection.  With all of these things telling me it is probably not right I still needed to taste it.

In the end I am glad that I tasted it.  It is not sour yet from the infection so I think I am getting a good taste of what it could be if I had a more successful brew day.

The main thing about this is that the recipe seems to be right on.  Even though it was 1.004 it was still sweet and had the perfect amount of spices (in my opinion).

I can only imagine that my stuck sparge probably caused a chain reaction of how the sugar was converted and thus fermented.  Maybe it resulted in nothing but simple sugars which fermented completely out causing the 1.004 reading.  I dont focus too much on science of brewing and treat brewing more like I do cooking.  I try, taste and adjust while following general rules.

I am pretty confident that my new brew-in-a-bag set up with my cooler mash tun can handle the tricky sparge for this beer and create a quality pumpkin ale.  The sad part is that we will have to wait until next year to find out for sure.  I only have a small window for pumpkin beer and it is quickly closing.  If I brewed a batch today it wouldnt be ready until the end of December.  We should be in full blown stout season by then!  So we will revisit this next August.

Brew Day Update: Angry Dwarf Christmas Ale

Quick update on the Angry Dwarf Christmas Ale - The new fresh yeast took hold and the airlock is firing away.  Figure it will go for a week.  Go into the secondary and get another shot of sweet cherries. I was about one pound short on brew day and the store was out of frozen sweet cherries so I will add the additional lb in the secondary.  After two weeks in the secondary it will have at least one month to bottle condition before potential holiday parties.  It will be in the bottle for 6 weeks for the annual Vorp holiday Christmas Eve party. 

If this ages similarly as my Chimay Blue clone it should be pretty good at the 6 week mark but really be in great shape by the 2-3 month time period.  This will be the first batch to see if I can add this as my new annual holiday beer.

Brew Day - Angry Dwarf Christmas Ale

Sweet and tart cherries added to the last
15 minutes of the boil.

It's been a while since I posted.  It's because I have been dealing with purchasing a new spot for me to brew... a house.  It has consumed a few of my weekends so I am a bit behind on my Christmas ale.  Last year I brewed a Red Ryder ale that was a hoped red with some bitter orange peel. This year I wanted to go big.

The Angry Dwarf Christmas Ale is named after Hank the Angry Dwarf from the Howard Stern show and one of our friends who gets this nickname when he has had one too many.

It is a clone of Troegs Mad Elf.  I used their website for the grain and hops and then used a recipe from Lancaster Homebrew as my baseline.

This beer actually had two brew days.  The first day was a disaster.  I had a stuck sparge.  In four hours I was only able to collect roughly 1.25 gallons of wort.  I was so frustrated I just pitched it and bought a new batch of grain.  This time I bought the large brew-in-a-bag mesh bags.  This way if I get another stuck sparge I can just lift the bag out and collect all of the wort that way.  They way I used this was just like any other batch with my 5 gallon cooler and pot.  I put the bag inside the cooler that also has a false bottom.  Added my grain and water and mixed and let it sit for an hour.  When it came time to batch sparge not only did it not get stuck again but it cleared a lot faster than without using the mesh bags.

This photo shows the red color of the
beer better.  Looks very festive

Once the wort was collected I added the hops and then the cherries and honey directly to the boil for the last 15 minutes.  With 5 minutes to go I added the final hop additions then cooled the wort and added the yeast.

It smelled delicious as it was boiling and cooling.  The sweet and tart cherries used in the boil added some nice red color while really increasing the aroma.

But again bad news happens. I check 18 hours after added the yeast and no signs of life.  Let it go a few more hours and we are now past 24 hours.  No signs of life.  I had to go to work - yes work getting in the way again - and come back and still no signs of life.  I open the bucket and know from my experience with sours that the yeast probably died and my wort was just sitting there slowly starting to sour.  Thanks for the hops that probably slowed it down.  I tasted the wort and it wasnt bad at all.  I raced to the homebrew store with only 30 minutes before it closed and bought new yeast.  Boiled the wort again - just like I would with my quick sour - and then re-pitched the yeast.  Let's hope this one takes hold.  I checked the vial on my first yeast and noticed it was well past it's best by date.  I should of looked prior to adding to the wort.

Let's hope it ferments cleanly and we have a great beer in time for Christmas Eve.  It sure smelled like it would be a great beer.  Until the sleigh bells are ringing...

Chocolate Pumpkin Stout: Final Update

Very sturdy pellicle on the beer.  Infected city.

R.I.P. Chocolate Pumpkin Stout.  We never truly got to know you.

I went to bottle the pumpkin stout and it had a very firm pellicle resting on top of the beer.  This beer was too far gone.  It was not just some fatty acids but most likely bacteria present from the cocoa nibs that infected the beer. 

Sure, I could of added some Brett and just let it go to make a Sour Chocolate Pumpkin stout but I have other plans for my carboys this winter and didn't want to hold one up with a beer that may or may not turn out.

Lesson of the day: Sterilize your cocoa nibs in some vodka prior to putting into your precious beer.

Brew Day: Apple Pie Ale / Cider

Apple Juice with brown sugar and
3 varieties of cut apples

Last year I created an apple ale.  This year I created an apple ale that may be more like a cider.  One thing I thought that could improve from last year is the amount of apple flavor.  It was there and it was good.  I just wanted more.

After brewing the hard lemonade I thought it would be a great way to try another type of apple ale.

Here is what I did. 

Same exact process as the hard lemonade.  I took concentrated apple juice and brought it to a boil.  The one thing I did differently is added three different type of apple to sit in the mixture during the boil.

Once it came to a boil I added dry malt extract.  The lemonade only used 1lb of plain light malt extract but since I wanted the beer mixture to be more of a beer I used 2lbs.  One lb of amber and one pound of dark.  Hoping the more flavorful dark and amber extract will bring in some more beer flavor.

I finished it off with a very small dose of hops and about 2lbs of white sugar and apple pie spices.

What I am hoping to get is a very dry cider that has a strong beer flavor – or a beer flavor with a very strong cider flavor.  Either way it should be interesting.  We will find out how it turns out in about 2-3 more weeks.

Chocolate Stout and Pumpkin Beer - Update

A few days after adding the cocoa nibs to the chocolate stout I checked in on it to find a gnarly surprise.  It looked as is a lacto bacteria infection had taken place as a huge pellicle laid across the top of the beer.  I opened the mixed batch of chocolate and pumpkin and the same thing.

I got pretty upset and decided to just pitch the chocolate.  As I was pitching the beer down the drain I put my finger under the stream of beer and took a sample.  It tasted great. 

Realizing I may have been throwing away good beer (less than a gallon) I decided to research cocoa nibs some.  I read on another blog that someone had the same experience.  The responses on sites like Homebrewtalk.com suggest one of two things may have happened:

1. The fatty acids and the oil from the cocoa nibs are leeching out into the beer and interacting making a pellicle looking mess.
2. There is a bacteria on the cocoa nibs that should of been sterilized by placing the nibs in some vodka prior to pitching them.

With this in mind I decided to  save the mixed batch of pumpkin and chocolate stout to see what happens. I will be bottling this week if I feel it was OK.  Maybe a sour chocolate pumpkin stout?