Brewing Updates

The German Kolsch

I've missed a few opportunities to write about brewing and brewing related activity. In July, in addition to brewing an American IPA and an extract Gordon clone with my girlfriend Laura, we also finally got around to labeling and putting a wax finish on all of the Laurabelle barleywine labels. 

The Barleywine came out great; a really nice, complex, malty beer that should be great this winter. Hopefully these beers will be able to age well through the summer at cellar temperature of about 65 F. 

Laura and Mike

Finished bottles of Laurabelle Barleywine

Laura measuring out grains for the extract Gordon clone

The Belgian Wheat finished about a week ago and I quickly carbonated it in the keg through shaking and force carbonation. I think anytime I need to get a keg quickly on tap, I'll shake it a bit at a time which should allow for me to reach the proper carbonation level quickly without overdoing it like I have in the past. 

Chocolate and other specialty malts

The Rye Pale ale is just about finished with fermentation with just a bit of fermentation and conditioning left. I racked the beer off the yeast and trub layers in order to get some 1056 ale yeast ready to ferment the test batch of the "O Hike Ale". The beer tasted great regardless of the fact that it took a while to begin fermenting after pitching a bad activator pack of 1056. After the Pale ale cleans itself up, I'll pitch the two ounces of Amarillo for dry hopping and then either put it on tap or bottle it for competition next month.

Steeping the specialty grains