They rolly.

I spent the morning bottling my Oak Aged IPA. I filled more bombers than I usually do, so I will have to share more of it. I thought the oak taste was a bit too formidable after I took the final gravity reading, but it has mellowed out as I sip on a half filled uncarbonated bottle.
I'm glad I don't brew outside, since it is a bit nippy outside and we are expecting some snow today. I only had to brave the cold for a few minutes to pour the trub, hops and oak chips out of my carboy.

It's not cold there.

Initiate: Clusterfuck.

Propane started getting weak during the build up to the boil. Got it boiling, barely, then petered out to nothing. Fuckballs. So I put the lid on and went to grab the propane cannister, and could not move it. The base was in a snowbank and it had melted into a block of ice over the past week. Had to clawhammer the motherfucker out, gently, THEN go set up the bike trailer.

Went to the homebrew shop first, got a new spec grav setup and one of those skewer thermometers so I can watch from inside the sliding glass door. Then I went to 3 different gas stations and a garden supply place on the way home, no propane. My backup plan was the hardware joint in Harvard Square, where I just was 2 days ago and saw a propane tank on the shelf. Finally got there, got odd looks when I asked to refill, "oh we don't do that." What's that thing behind you on the wall? "An empty propane tank." You sell empty ones? Who actually wants an empty propane tank? Why do you sell them? "......." You don't actually sell any, do you? "Chuckle - No." Fuck me.

That lead to a lot of phone calls, which determined that Cambridge actually doesn't allow propane filling. Ah. More calls, finally a hardware store guy who knew where to get it - a welding supply place nearish home in the opposite direction. Probably biked that trailer around for 5 miles altogether, which whatever, isn't a big deal. But the beer was still out on the deck with a lid on it getting cool.

Just got back, hooked it up, set that fucker on Space Shuttle Launch, got it boiling again 5 mins ago. The wort had gotten down to 158F while I was gone for almost 2 hours. Now it has a lot of cold break protein chunks floating in it, which is wierd looking but hopefully not a deal breaker.

Fuck that sucked. Drinking a Tank 7, pondering what to quickly make for lunch.

Boiling along nicely now. 1 ounce of cascade at 60 mins, 1 more just now at 20 mins, will toss the third ounce in at flameout.

Had a dream recently that Cats got sent to Boston for work, and he skipped out and we had a brew day.

You need two tanks.

Yeah. Now that I'm all-grain, I do.

Shit's cooling down QUICK in the snowbank out there. Down to 140F in 5 mins, still cruising down.

Yeah, I dont even brew and I have three.

At least I'm well equipped when they day eventually comes.

Yeah I'm thinking of starting to do this sometime soon as well.

Can't believe my fucking luck. Two days in a row, shit aligns perfectly and I can brew at home. Making the mild now. I'll have to go in this afternoon but I can get this batch done first. Now that I have propane and shit...

Oh and while I'm thinking about it, Neuro was over this weekend and we sipped (literally) a teeny bit of that first barleywine TT batch out of the barrel from December. It tasted a little like apples. He noticed it, and then I noticed it too. Like it had a faint green apple smell in the mix, that was really good but I can't figure out where it came from. Something from the oak, I guess?

Acetaldehyde
Tastes/Smells Like:
Green apples, rotten-apples, freshly cut pumpkin
Possible Causes:
Acetaldehyde is a naturally occurring chemical produced by yeast during fermentation.
It is usually converted into Ethanol alcohol, although this process may take longer in
beers with high alcohol content or when not enough yeast is pitched. Some bacteria
can cause green apple flavors as well.
How to Avoid:
Let the beer age and condition over a couple months time. This will give the yeast
time to convert the Acetaldehyde into Ethanol. Always use high quality yeast and make
sure you are pitching the correct amount for the gravity of the wort or make a yeast
starter.

Makes perfect sense, then. Kickass. I plan on ageing that one for close to year, was gonna bottle it soon and just let it hang out.

The mild is coming along nicely. Mash went great - first runnings were 1.50, later it dropped way down. Wound up after sparge with just under 6 gallons, will boil hard down to 5. Burner is on Saturn V Launch right now, needle is climbing.

Well, I nailed the target OG - 1.040. Mine was a tiny bit higher, 1.042, but close enough!

www.homebrewfinds.com
has another free kindle book today. 100 Homebrewing Tips for Beginners

Since I came across that sight a couple months ago I've picked up all of these books for free

Prep School: Simple Cider Homebrew
Drinkable History: Horrifying, Authentic Techniques for 3000 Year Old Hard Cider, 1500 Year Old Mead, 1000 Year Old Ale
Beer Kit Magic
Brewing Beer: Problems Troubleshooting Your Homebrew
A Treatise on the Brewing of Beer
Fundamentals of Beer Brewing
Secret Life of the Brewer's Yeast

Some of them will rotate back to free on occasion.

Most of them aren't great but the price is right.
I have the free kindle app on my iphone and I page through these all the time. Really tempted to make a prison wine out of the powdered cider at work.

Mmmmm, terlett wine.

I've read two:

Radical Brewing - I borrowed it from friends, read it early last year so I'd get more from it now but it's mostly a recipe book and less a detailed technique book. Not bad, a funny read and plenty of info but skews towards odd recipes.

Beer Craft - Hands down the simplest / best overall summary of what goes where and in what proportions. Amazingly succinct / clear graphics, incredibly handy. The best 101 book I've ever seen, for several reasons - it doesn't say too much, and it doesn't say too little. And again, the presentation is so goddamn clear, at least for my brain, that the absorbtion is total and nearly instant. Love that book.

I read Palmer's How to Brew and I don't understand why this is touted as the best "beginners" book. I would go out of my way to not recommend that one. The first half was decent, but when he gets into water chemistry and mash temp talk, he does a terrible job at explaining it to a beginner. Maybe I should have gone with Beer Craft. I've learned much more from looking at infograph posters than the Palmer book. He's a clunky ass writer and it just annoys me.

Right now I'm reading Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers by Stephen Buhrner right now and really enjoying it.

Beer Craft is a dude who lives in NYC somewhere and brews tiny 1 gal batches in his kitchen. Feels like he was already a writer and decided to tackle brewing, because yeah that shit is clear as a bell. My favorite is the Recipe % breakdown graphic, where he shows like 10 normal styles as pint glasses, with the malt bills illustrated as colored liquid up to the % it occupies with numbers and arrows explaining each.

FYI brewers friend app for iPhone is real cheap intro price. I use the web version but I've maxed out the free trial. Was about to pay 10 bucks for a year but lll just pay half that for the app.

I don't have an iphone. Been pondering the brewing software, though, but it would mean I'd have to buy an OS to resurrect an old dead laptop. Can't install anything on the work laptop I use. So far I've just been making cheat functions in excel.

Oooooh k. I have now bottled all 3 Tiny Terrors. All of them have issues as of today, some of which may clear up. What a crazy experience. So the three...

TT1: This was the all-maris barleywine. Been in the barrel since mid December, so it got two and a half months in NEW barrel, which means it picked up a good amount of oak but not so much that it was too long. That part's great. And as mentioned before, it has a strong Green Apple presence, which should get cleared up by the yeast in the bottle between now and Christmastime when I plan on opening it. Only shitty part is that there are only 7x 12 ounce bottles. So if it IS good, then it's gonna be gone in no time.

TT2: This was the uppified version of a "normal" stout, where I added 3 pounds of light DME to it and more hops. This one was barreled a month. It also has the green apples... hoping it clears up too.

TT3: This was the Mutt thing I cobbled together last-minute at the homebrew store. Has peat-smoked malt in it, some german influence, some english. About 7% abv. THIS ONE... smells like band-aids. From what I read that's supposed to come from chlorine-based cleaners but I Don't Use Those. So where in the fuck did it come from? Is it done for? Does it dissipate?