Behind the Bar - The Homebrewers' Haven

[SteelShield]

Third on the label - that's badass!

Also, has anyone ever made Graf?

Used to brew in college, four years down the road and I'm contemplating another run.

[MissoulaSquatch]

Third on the label - that's badass!

Also, has anyone ever made Graf?

Used to brew in college, four years down the road and I'm contemplating another run.

Never made it before (totally forgot about it until now..loved The Dark Tower series)..definitely just went on my to do list..I'll be drawing up a recipe for it soon and will get on producing a batch as soon as I can find a good source for fresh pressed cider!

[Barmacral]

What is Graf?

 

So two of my beers were officially ready as of today, my pumpkin red and my IPA. The red was good, definitely best around 8-10 degrees, when I first started it the beer was too cold and kinda mediocre but once it warmed up it was pretty tasty. Can definitely taste the pumpkin in it. The IPA was fantastic. It has an IBU of around 65 and isn't overwhelmingly hoppy, but still has all the flavour and characteristics of an IPA. Definitely fantastic and something I think I'll brew again. Colour-wise the red has amazing colour and is a nice deep shade of red, the IPA is pretty cloudy but changing that will involve improving our process, including things like cooling the wort down faster.

 

The strong bitter I made had issues with extremely low carbonation, but neither of these beers had that problem. The red has basically no head when poured but the IPA had a lot, though poor head retention.

[MissoulaSquatch]

What is Graf?

Originally, it was a Stephen King invention that he mentioned in his Dark Tower series of books.  He didn't do too much to describe it, so (and this is where my research kicks in) homebrewers took it upon themselves to re-invent it.

In a nutshell, it is a true hybrid of an ale and a cider.  You create a miniature wort, blend it with apple cider in the fermentor then pitch your yeast in.

From all my research, this is the most recommended recipe to use as a starting point: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f81/graff-malty-slightly-hopped-cider-117117/

[Barmacral]

Oh super cool, I definitely want to give that a go sometime.

[Rooks]

So, how do you guys decide how to long to age a beer?  I've never had a keen sense on that other then stouts and porters should age a bit longer then something with a hoppy flavor so I know the hop flavor will die down as it ages. 

 

Originally, it was a Stephen King invention that he mentioned in his Dark Tower series of books.  He didn't do too much to describe it, so (and this is where my research kicks in) homebrewers took it upon themselves to re-invent it.

In a nutshell, it is a true hybrid of an ale and a cider.  You create a miniature wort, blend it with apple cider in the fermentor then pitch your yeast in.

From all my research, this is the most recommended recipe to use as a starting point: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f81/graff-malty-slightly-hopped-cider-117117/

 

Sounds similar to what Sociable Cider Werks is doing here in Minneapolis.  I've never been there, but talked with a couple of the employees and I know they mentioned they use wort with cider.  Interesting stuff. 

[Rosiesan]

Sounds similar to what Sociable Cider Werks is doing here in Minneapolis.  I've never been there, but talked with a couple of the employees and I know they mentioned they use wort with cider.  Interesting stuff. 

 

I live in the Twin Cities and never heard of this place! I'm going to have to find out!

 

Honestly I thought that Graf was a real thing Stephen King used in his books and never took the time to research it. Now I feel I must try it as I'm a huge fan of the Dark Tower series!!

[MissoulaSquatch]

Drinking this right now:

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/35363/142397/

1 Rating on Beer Advocate, 22 ratings on Untappd, why? Because they just bottled it YESTERDAY and it literally hit the shelves a couple hours ago.  Honestly this is almost the freshest beer I've ever had..only thing that beats this was a bottle of Arcade's Pale Ale brewed with Coffee that I drank minutes after the bottle was capped..my current goal is to lie down under a fermenter and drink straight from the conical bastard.

What is not mentioned in the BA link is that this Pale Wheat Ale is brewed with Rooibos Tea.

Now, a few years back I went through a phase where I collected and drank lots of teas..rooibos was ALWAYS a favorite..and this brings up all those great memories..the flavors of the tea, the wheat, the hops..all spot on.  The color, clarity, head, lace..perfect.  I gave it a 4.5/5.

I don't think this stuff is available outside of the city, I'll have to check with my bar's Marz contact (he set this purchase up for us) and see.  If they don't, you have enough here to go out and brew your own.  Also, I'm not 100% but I believe they used Citra hops.

[Barmacral]

Freshly bottled beer is the best. When I hung out at one of the local microbreweries a couple months ago they sent me home with three bottles that I helped bottle that day. The one I had that night was something else.

 

Today we re-brewed our Strong Bitter now that we've got some experience with the process and it definitely turned out differently. Going to write a blog post about it sometime soon. While bottling our christmas ale though we made the really dumb mistake of not taking our final gravity until after we added the priming sugar. We're going to try again in a couple weeks after the carbonation has set in but I suspect that may negatively affect our reading too. We'll see what happens. The stuff is super sweet, like drinking chocolate and vanilla. We were going to prime with caramel but didn't successfully making the stuff (that was a disaster) so we ended up just using brown sugar. Our caramel project is I think what threw us off about remembering to do the gravity reading. Oh and we noticed our milk stout was leaking so we transferred it to another bucket... that was even leakier. So we transferred it again to a third bucket and I did leak tests on all the buckets before we used them after that. They should all be okay now.

 

All in all, it was a long brew day and there was definitely more problems than usual, but still fun as ever.

[MissoulaSquatch]

I've moved on to the Berliner Weiss from the same brewery I noted above..and it is fantastic, a nice sour/tart finish on it..sours are my favorite style so this one really does it for me.  I honestly think I'm in love with this brewery..they are brand new and their beers are some of the finest I've ever had.

As for your gravity situation..if you are weighing out your sugar and you know the exact volume of water you added you should still be able to calculate your final gravity..I'd have to find an actual equation to do this but you should be able to mathematically "remove" the priming sugar and get a fairly decent ballpark idea.

As for the bucket issues, I haven't brewed with buckets myself yet, but I'm planning to make that switch soon..where was your leak located at?

[Barmacral]

Have to check out that brewery if they make it here sometime.

 

The leak was located in the spout at the bottom. Basically what it came down to is we had the gasket on the inside of the bucket which had worked before but I guess it loosened over time. By switching the gasket to the outside it cleared up the leak. So make sure the gasket is on the outside and make the spout really tight.

 

Thanks for the info on the priming sugar, I'll have to look into it. We do have all the information you mentioned.

[MissoulaSquatch]

Yeah, it should be as simple as just figuring out how to adjust the measurements.  It won't be 100% accurate but it will be damn close.

Also for the bucket, there shouldn't be a spout at the bottom unless of course you are using your bottling bucket instead of a fermentation bucket.

Examples:

Bottling Bucket:



Fermentation Bucket:



This is why I was confused, because I was assuming you were using the latter.  I was thinking you had a blowout at the top or a leak in how the lid was fitting.

[Barmacral]

I actually find the spout really nice for pulling samples when we need them, like for gravity measurements. But I'm hoping to switch to glass carboys at some point. Didn't know we weren't supposed to have the spout, the bucket with the spout came with the initial kit we purchased when we did our first beer not knowing anything.

[MissoulaSquatch]

Yeah..beginners kits REALLY skimp in the essentials..and the quality, I honestly hate them.

I've been using the glass carboys and am switching to buckets..for me it's about secondary additions..I like screwing with my beer and the buckets seem to be a better way to add and remove things.  Altho the wide mouth bubblers that just came out this year are an option as well..sort of a hybrid of the two (as you can still watch the fermentation process).

Bubbler:



As for the gravity measurements there is another option that I use, it's called a "Wine Thief."  Stick it down in the wort/beer (make sure its clean and sprayed with some starsan first) and it fills up.  Drop your hydrometer in to get your reading.  Then the bottom has a release on it similar to that of a bottling wand, just touch that against the side of your bucket and it will release the liquid back in.  I want to say they cost no more than $10 usd.  It's been a little while since I bought mine, and it was a fantastic purchase.

Wine Thief:

[Barmacral]

That wine thief thing sounds like a great idea. My interest in glass is so that air can't get in like it can in buckets, which isn't a big deal now but if I want to age anything for a few months it is definitely something I'll need to consider.

 

Also here's an article about the cicerone program that Mirella Amato (the Canadian Master Cicerone) linked to on Twitter. Definitely worth a read for anyone working on going through the program.

[MissoulaSquatch]

Yeah, if I was aging I would probably use a carboy as well..but I'm holding off on aging a beer because I'd prefer a proper temperature controlled environment with a temp variation that doesn't exceed +/- 0.5* F.  I honestly know everything I'd need to build it, I just don't have the money lying around to do it at this time.  If I was going to invest that much time in aging a beer I'd want to be sure nothing went wrong.  But that's just me..overkill as usual..lol

[Barmacral]

We're probably a year at least from glass carboys, we have 4 buckets now and that seems to be doing well for us for the time being. Generally always have two buckets on the go at any given time. I was actually supposed to bottle my stout tomorrow and brew a new English IPA but alas my brewing partner got called away to help set up his mom's new place tomorrow so we'll have to wait until next weekend. I'm sure the stout won't mind the extra week of aging.

 

In other news...

 

So I contacted Beer Studio on Thursday night, they are the largest of the local microbreweries (in volume, not manpower), and asked if I could volunteer with them just to learn more about the various aspects of beer. They said yes and by yesterday I was there for several hours, mostly helping with a tasting event that they hosted. I'll be coming in whenever I can to help out with whatever, be it cleaning, bottling, etc. They made no promises or commitments to future employment because they aren't in a place where they can do that (though they have hopes of heading in that direction and this'll be good for me if they do. In the meantime though they've offered to provide me with some beer and answering all the questions in exchange for labour to help them out.

 

So yeah, this is super exciting. Last night the owner who is on vacation came in just to hang out while the tasting was happening and he started cracking beer and sharing it with us which was fun, got to try a few new beers that were pretty awesome.

[MissoulaSquatch]

Very nice!

Yeah lots of microbreweries thrive on volunteers helping out (and they tend to "pay" with beer). All the local microbreweries in Chicago do it.

This week I had the co-founder /owner of 3 Floyd's and the owner/founder of Arcade both in my shop. These guys are pretty much celebrities to me..lol

[Barmacral]

That is super cool. 3 Floyd's I've heard of but Arcade is unfamiliar to me.

[MissoulaSquatch]

Arcade is new..the Rebellion would approve. All of their beer names and labels are inspired by comics and videogames. Their tap handles look like the gun controller for duck hunt and are hand made and hand painted by local artists.

They brew a coffee pale ale with enough caffeine that one bottle is equivalent to a couple cups of coffee..lol

Truly an awesome group..it was their brewery that I toured a few weeks back.

[Barmacral]

Woohoo! The brewery gave me 24 beers today (it was from a batch that was undercarbonated and they didn't want to sell it) and two BetterBottle carboys that they aren't using (they have two more but said to try the first ones out and see if we like them before we claim the others).

[MissoulaSquatch]

Drink those beers asap..they won't last long..sounds like possibly bad yeast cells to me.

[Barmacral]

They force-carb with CO2, would yeast cells affect that? I wonder because on Monday I helped dump several hundred bottles of beer that they carbonated the same way and while it turned out perfect in the beginning by the time the beer landed on store shelves it had over-carbonated to the point that it took me 20 minutes to pour a single beer. They don't filter or pasteurize their beer if that makes any difference.

[MissoulaSquatch]

Im not sure then..force carbing isnt exactly difficult..what are they doing wrong?

[Barmacral]

In the case of this one they just undercarbonated. It isn't generally a problem, just a single batch mistake. Honestly I think it is mostly them being picky because I've had two so far and both of them seemed well carbonated to me. The over-carbonated one was a learning experience for them but I haven't asked what went wrong. It is the only time they made that batch and one of the first ones they did. (they've only been around a year)

 

But that was why I was wondering if it was a yeast problem, because they force carbonate it didn't seem to me like it would be.