Goodbye 2008

It's been a long year. At least 28 batches of beery, cidery and meady things were made. And that included a two month long tax season hiatus. So if my math is correct, this appears to be an average of roughly one batch every other week. And for a guy with another full time job and a family, not too shabby. I'm pooped.

A special thanks to Ellen for putting up with me. We'll shoot to get the alcohol license in 2009. It would be great to see Raz's Fine Ales with a small retail distribution by the end of next year.

We wish everyone a safe and happy New Year's.

Cheers.

Post Holiday Wrap Up

The sticke altbier didn't get brewed over the weekend. Timing of everything going on just wasn't conducive to getting it done.

I did manage to transfer the "European" Cream Ale out of primary and into secondary. It's going to be great once the slight sulfer in there (a normal byproduct of the yeast strain used) disappears with a bit of aging. I may even make it a "house" beer and up the batch size to ten gallons depending on the feedback of others. I think it will be popular. I plan on entering this into future competitions to get unbiased opinions and hopefully some constructive criticism.

In looking at my brew calendar, it's been over two weeks since I brewed my last beer. With tax season approaching, I'm getting antsy in my pantsy...my brew days are numbered. As such, and while not a beer, tonight I plan on making next year's hard apple cider. Changing it up a bit for this go around, I'm throwing all sorts of fun ingredients in: Turbinado sugar, clover honey, 4.5# of sour cherries and Ceylon cinnamon. Who knows what I'm going to wind up with?

I'm getting a late start on next year's cider and I hope it's ready in time for next autumn. I generally like to let these age for a year. I recently put this year's cider (made Oct 2007) back on tap and it tastes great. Though the keg is about to kick...Perhaps I can get one more celebratory Spiced Woody out of it?

I hope everyone had a wonderful and fun filled Xmas holiday. We had an excellent time celebrating with our family at our house. Ellen was nice enough to hook me up with British stamped pint glasses imported from England for Xmas. These are the ones you'll find at every pub. Most excellent.

On Xmas, our commercial beer tastings included:

2007 Deschutes Abyss
Fantome La Dalmatienne
Harviestoun Old Engine Oil
Harviestoun Old Engine Oil Special Reserve (Aged in whiskey casks)
Delirium Nocturnum

I've got to say, while I've only had a few different Fantomes, the few I've had are amazing. Wonderful Belgians. If you have the opportunity, try them. You won't be disappointed.

Cheers.

Scheduling

Over the last week or so I've been scrambling to come up with a brew schedule (and ingredients!) that allows me to brew what I want in a relatively short amount of time. Tax season is coming up in earnest really quick and when it hits, probably mid-January, the brewing necessarily gets put on the back burner and eventually on hold all together through April 15th.

It looks like between now and January 18th I've got lined up (in brew order):

Sticke altbier (using the yeast cake from a recently brewed "European Cream Ale")

American barleywine (quicky extract batch and fermented in the chiller)

Spiced cherry dubbel (tweaked version of the 2008 holiday ale using 100% sour cherries and a different yeast)

Hard apple cherry cider (using leftover/unused cherries from the dubbel)

If I can swing it, I'm going to attempt to brew a tweaked version of my award winning Old Ale (using champagne yeast in addition to the Irish Ale yeast) in mid-February. But that's iffy on whether I can squeeze it in.

I'm currently stocked up on ingredients. I just started buying my three base malts (Maris Otter, German Pilsner and Munich) in bulk. I'm storing almost 200 pounds of base malt at the moment. Further, I've got various specialty malts, varieties of hops, yeast, etc. The schedule is done, the ingredients are here and I'm raring to go!

I hope everyone has a great Christmas holiday.

Cheers.

Bottling From A Keg

I've been fortunate over the years to not really need a large number of bottles of beer for any particular event. Kegs are convenient enough for get togethers and for storage in the brewery. Needing the occasional bottle to share with friends and family was never a big deal.

However, the exception to needing a large number of bottles comes annually for the holidays. Specifically for the annual release of the Rosbrugh Family Holiday Ale. This year we needed at least a couple of dozen (half a keg) worth of bottles. Minimum. And the number seemingly increases until the beer is gone.

So what are the options for bottling from a keg? Here's what I've tried (in no particular order):

a) Pour directly out of the tap and then cap with an O2 absorbing cap. Talk about messy with lots of foam. Can lose a lot of beer with this method.

b) Jam a length of thick walled tubing into the tap and then pour and cap with an O2 absorbing cap. Not quite as wasteful or messy with foam. However, quick and easy and most importantly, seemed to work. The method I've used in the past for competition entries.

c) The bottle filler pictured here:

http://strangebrew.ca/Drew/cheap.html

and then capping with an O2 absorbing cap. I found that the tube jammed into the cobra tap never seemed to stay in place. Took me too much time. Messy. Only tried it once.

d) The Blichmann Beer Gun and then capping with an O2 absorbing cap.

http://www.blichmannengineering.com/BeerGun/BeerGun_features.htm

I never had much luck with it. Beers always foamed quite bit for me. And setup was a hassle and a pain. Especially when compared to "jam-a-tube-in-the-tap-and-go" method. I'm sure it was just user error. Lots of people love these things.

e) Lastly, and the method that I will be using for filling up a sizeable number of bottles from now on, is a slightly different take on c) above.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwIbFQcHYyo

The key difference is the use of a cut racking cane instead of a piece of vinyl tubing. It made ALL the difference. Snug fit, no leaking, and it didn't fall out. In fact the whole process caused no foaming, it was relatively quick, definitely clean, cheap, and last but not least, efficient (no wasting beer!). This is how Ellen and I bottled this year's holiday ale. And it worked out quite well. No complaints of oxidation. Yet. Guess I could purge the bottles with CO2 first...nah.

Old Saguaro Barleywine - Sonoran Brewing Company, Scottsdale, AZ

Ellen and I had the opportunity last night to sample the Rare Beer Club's December selection. The selection this month was Old Saguaro Barleywine and was brewed by Sonoran Brewing Company in Scottsdale, Arizona. Old Saguaro is in exclusive bottling available only locally in the greater Phoenix area or to members of the Rare Beer Club.

The barleywine was brewed in mid June 2008 and then aged in tanks until bottling in mid November 2008. Interesting tidbits about Old Saguaro from the brewmaster include:

A boil of three hours for natural carmelization.

1.16 pounds of malted barley per bottle. (My biggest beer, an old ale, has approximately .8 pound per bottle. Wow!)

Two people spent three and a half days to bottle and package for the Rare Beer Club. That is one bottle ever 37 seconds per person.

SG was 1.097. 58 IBUs.


And now for a quick review:

Appearance - beautiful copper color, low carbonation/little head, and crystal clear.

Aroma - no specific hop aroma that I can detect, plenty of malty sweetness.

Mouthfeel - medium bodied, low carbonation and appropriate for style (and the way I prefer it).

Taste - robust caramel, medium bitterness that mostly offsets sweetness, pretty smooth with a touch of alcohol warmth.

Overall - excellent barleywine, love the caramel flavors, maybe up the IBUs a touch. Highly recommended! Wish I still had that client in Mesa...

Cheers.

Wort Cooling

Ideally, once the wort has been boiled, you want to cool it down to pitching temperatures as quickly as possible. This is generally done with either an immersion chiller (IC) or a counterflow chiller (CFC). Which of those I use depends on the equipment I’m using to brew with and whether or not I’m planning to use the conical for fermenting.

Unfortunately the ground water in our area is relatively warm. During the winter, with a reasonable amount of water and time, I can get wort temperatures down to 70 degrees using either the IC or CFC. During the summer, it’s an entirely different story. Using the CFC and a slow transfer rate from kettle to conical, I can generally get down to about 80 degrees. If I use a lot of water and take the time, I can get down to about 70 using two ICs. One IC is in a bucket filled with ice packs, frozen water bottles and water and the other IC is in the kettle.

As such, I’ve recently been researching ways in which to drop temperatures to the low 60s in a reasonable amount of time with a reasonable amount of water and not using the temperature controlled conical. Using the temperature controller takes a lot of time (8 hours during the winter to drop from 73 to 60), uses unnecessary electricity and it’s not always available for every beer. Plus I really just want to get to the pitching already!

At this point the plan is as follows:

a) Keep the IC in the bucket filled with ice packs/bottles and water.

b) If using the IC in the kettle, connect the garden hose.

c) Drop the temperature of the wort to the 90 – 100 degree range.

d) Then, using a submersible pump placed into the ice bath, switch to a recirculation method where the ice water in the bucket is being run through the IC in the kettle or the CFC, exiting the chiller, and then back into the bucket.

Others who have done this seem to have success in conserving water (relatively speaking), dropping temperatures to the low 60s and doing it all quickly.

My next scheduled brew date, when I’m brewing a sticke altbier, is the weekend of December 27^th. I’m anxious to give this plan a run through but due to family commitments and due to the fact that my conical is currently filled, brewing that weekend may not happen.

Current Brew Log

Primary:

"European" Cream Ale
Old Ale
Russian Imperial Stout
Red Ale

Secondary:

Belgian Tripel (banananey!)

Kegged/Bottled:

Spiced Cherry Dubbel (cherryey!)
Cream Ale
Sticke Altbier
Coffee Russian Imperial Stout
Chocolate Stout
English IPA
American IPA
Hard Cider

On Deck:

Sticke Altbier
Spiced Cherry Dubbel
Old Ale

2008 Achievements

Raz's Fine Ales opened it's doors in March of 2007. Initially there were a couple of large learning curves for me to overcome. These involved both the new equipment (brewing sculpture and temperature controlled conical fermenter) as well as changes in brewing processes. As a result, the beers meeting my high standards of quality and excellence were not being brewed until late in the year.

Now that most of the kinks are worked out (are they ever really all gone?), and some fine ales are making their way to regional competitions, I'm pleased to announce Raz's Fine Ales 2008 Achievements. They are as follows:


Dan - Homebrewer of the Year - Silicon Valley Sudzers


CA State Homebrewing Competition (Stern Grove) -

Old Ale - Best of Show & First Place in category


Santa Cruz County Fair Homebrew Competition -

Old Ale - First Place in category
Sweet Potato Barleywine - Second Place in category
Chocolate Stout - Second Place in category
Chocolate Coffee Russian Imperial Stout Blend - Second Place in category
Coffee Russian Imperial Stout - Second Place in category
LN's "It Tastes Like an IPA" IPA - Third Place in category


Pacific Brewers Cup -

Sweet Potato Barleywine - Third Place in category


Southern California Regional Homebrew Competition -

Old Ale - Second Place in category


Mayfaire Regional Homebrew Competition -

Old Ale - First Place in category


I plan on continuing to brew and enter many competitions in 2009. With any luck, I'll be just as successful.

Cheers.