Rum Rebellion...

Tomorrow I will brew a beer I have been thinking about for some time now. Well, at least certain aspects of it anyway. I have wanted to do a beer that uses oak in some way, shape, or form. For this one I will be following my typical ESB recipe for the most part but I will also add some Capt. Morgans spiced rum infused oak chips. The oak is what I have wanted to add to a beer for quite some time now. The two names floating around for this beer are currently "Rum Rebellion" or "But why is the rum gone?". The second name pays homage to the Pirates of the Carribean franchise from Disney.

Either way this beer flows into the pirate themes I have been putting into some of the beers I have done in the past few months. I picture this one as a Carribean Island attempt to push away the Brittish Buccaneers that might have waylaid the ships of the spice trade. Or even those who might have worked within the blackmarket of the rum runners. But then, maybe I am romanticizing it all. Of course that is what we do. We add a romantic twist to the reality of the harsh life people once lead.

Of course at this point I might solely have had much too much to drink while sampling Ommegangs Hennepin. I will say that this is quite a good Saison. And it is pretty easy to continue with another one each time you find yourself faced with yet another full glass to sample.

I guess this is all I have for now. Enjoy the pint you find in front of you, cause you know I will.

Finally...

So I finally kegged the pils. It finished out at close to 5% so definately light and easy drinking. Flavor wise I am pretty happy so far, or at least the warm flat version is pretty good. I am anxious to find out how the carbed version comes out. Of course until I either get the bottling system set up or clear a tap I won't know. Point of note... if you don't have the space available to do a true lager, using California Common yeast can work in a pinch. The flavor profile isn't exactly what you expect but it comes pretty close. It also helps to follow the traditional aging pattern. Mind you I did keg the pilsner a little early by traditional standards, but then its my beer I can do that if I so desire hehehe. My plan for the dopplebock remains unchanged. I do not plan to keg that till May.

I need to keep up with my projects board. I keep running across new projects that I need to add. One of the most immediate currently is the propane tank. The size of my batches has wreaked tons of havoc on my kitchen stove. When I am able to brew on the propane burner I should actually cut down on my water and liquor heating time.

I am thinking next week I may brew up a steam beer again. I have a yeast vial that I have been saving. Not sure what direction I will end up going with it though. Something to ponder.

For now enjoy your pint.

Stuff to do...

The build out on the new Kraftbrau is moving along. We are getting oh so much more closer (yet it seems still forever and a day away). The current plan will be that we are going to mainly be a brewpub, at least in the short term. The long term plan will be to add distribution.

The other day our Elite Brands rep (at the Epic) was telling me about a new style of keg. Keykeg is currently used in Europe. Although it is a step beyond the traditional way of kegging beer but environmentally it is a step in the right direction. Stainless steel kegs may be reused but the environmental impact of cleaning and sanitizing them can be drastic. Especially now with the growth of microbreweries. Personally, I like the direction that the use of this type of keg can take us.

Something I find really interesting about the keykeg is the possibility for real beers. Traditionally, a real beer is naturally carbonated (instead of forcing co2 into the liquid) and then a beer engine (essentially a hand pump) is used to dispense the beer. In this process air is forced into the keg, giving the beer a shorter shelf life. The design of the keykeg does not allow air or co2 to touch the beer itself. With this set up the brewer can pick and choose the kegs they wish to run with forced carbonation and those they wish to naturally carbonate. You could even run the real beers on your normal lines if you so choose. As a brewer, the possibilities of these kegs are mind boggling.

In other news, at home I don't have any new brews in the works. I have been lazy when it comes to kegging the pilsner. I plan to finally do it tomorrow. The dopplebock still has some time to go before I will be ready to keg it. I am thinking that after I get my bottling system in place my next project will be the buildout on a chest freezer. I want to set it up with a two tap tower and use the added space to condition additional kegs. I think with the chest freezer I will be able to condition at least two to three more kegs while having up to 4 beers on tap. This will be a must have when I set up the brew sculpture. I plan an moving into 10 gallon batches when I have that built.

Enough of this rambling for now. Enjoy a pint or two for me cause I am off to work soon.

Bottling

Its getting close to the time I am planning to bottle the Pilsner. Thankfully, it is also tax time so with the hope of a nice return coming soon I will hopefully be able to fill bottles from kegs. This is really important when you figure the Germans I have brewed in the past month or so have been aging for quite a bit of time. The initial yeast in these beers will be so far gone that I will definitely need to repitch if I was going to naturally carbonate them.

As much as I claim to hate engineers, brewing projects are the times I get to pretend to be one. The projects usually aren't that difficult, and I tend to steal ideas from others who are much better at inventing cool stuff than I am. But the key thing here... I get to play with power tools. I ran across are really cool set up for the bottling station in one of the home brewing magazines. Basically I will end up placing a couple new shanks into the door of the kegerator that will connect to the co2 line and the kegs themselves inside and also connnect with the beer gun outside. Basically, when I bottle I will only need to open the kegerator door when I am connecting and disconnecting.

The next trick will be sanitation. I don't have running water down stairs (where the cold room is). Well, I don't have a sink set up anyway. The cold room is right next to my water inlet for the house. This will require a bit of logistics I think.

Okies, I have some stuff to do currently. Sadly, there is no booze involved at this time. Enjoy a pint for me since I can't right now.