Bottle time

I must say that using the Blichman beer gun for bottling is nothing less than fantastic. Maybe that is a little extreme, but then those of us who have spent time bottling know the true pain of beginning bottling. Anything that makes that easier is a wonderful thing. My first big step was the build out on the kegerator. Now the next step is forced carbonated beer to fill bottles with. Let me tell ya, using the gun for the first time yesterday was a bit messy and really taxed my ability to be prepared but wow. After going through that, it will be much easier when I do it again. I will be getting some pics soon to show up some of my engineering handiwork for the current bottling set up.

Sadly, I am almost out of co2. I need to make a tank exchange in the next couple of days so I can fill some bottles for another contest soon. Arbor brewing company is having their annual contest towards the end of May. One of their drop off locations this year is at Dark Horse in Marshall. Slacker that I am, I have not yet been there. So I will make a pilgramige there shortly to drop off some samples.

My next brew date won't be till later on in May. I am planning on picking up a propane tank for my burner before then. I have had the burner for probably around a year but chose to pretty much destroy my kitchen stove instead of getting it up and running. I am planning on using this as the first step in the build out of my brew sculpture. Mostly because of the final cost of putting it together I am going to be building it a piece at a time.

I think this is all I have for now. Let's go find a pint.

Things to do...

It has been a bit since I posted, I know, I can be lazy at times. Sadly, this is also from things a bit out of my control. Earlier this month I got in a motorcycle accident that put me in a place where I was to drugged out to do much of anything. Then add to that my lap top got a nasty virus. I have pretty much been without internet linkage for roughly 2 weeks now. Most inconveinient I must say.

Within the past couple weeks I have transferred rum rebellion. I am thinking I will be kegging it on Sunday. Did a sample taste of it recently, its quite interesting. It picked up some vanilla from the oak chips but it also picked up a strong hint of the Capt. Morgans. I am anxious to see how this one turns out when it is finally carbed up and ready to go.

We spent a good portion of today in Grand Rapids. My main mission was to drop off samples of the dunkelweizen for Siciliano's home brew contest. Sadly, this contest is one of the smaller ones but any feed back is good feed back. I was entrant 34. This is a major change from a contest like the WEB where you end up being one of several hundred entrants.

While at Siciliano's I finally got my birthday present. I am now the proud owner of a Blichman beer gun. I chose not to get the "optional" connection kit (mind you without the kit you can't really use the gun). I will be playing engineer over the next few days while I get the initial set up so I can use the gun. I think I will move over the next year or so to set up the hardcore bottling set up. The quick down and dirty set up should only require a trip to Lowes and Bell's. And then some time playing with it to figure out how it all works.

We also spent some time at Shmoh's brewery. We sampled their amber, barley wine, cream ale, and scottish. Good beers all around. Personally, I really dislike the fact that Michigan is going smoke free because the bar at shmoh's really needs a layer of smoke to add to the feel you get when there (kinda old school bar).

Well, time to go. Lets go find us some pints...

Happenings...

I plan on moving Rum Rebellion into secondary tomorrow. I have had the oak chips soaking in Captn Morgan's spiced rum for a couple days now. I am hoping that this will have given the chips enough time to soak in a good amount of the flavors to then impart to the beer. Course, the beer should have enough alcohol that it will age for quite a bit of time anyway. Speaking of aging, I am reminded of the dopplebock I have waiting to finish still. I am thinking it won't be till early or mid May before I keg/bottle it.

Of course the debacle of my birthday present has now set back the set up of my bottling "line." Basically, the company that was working with Amazon had the bottle filler on back order so the info we were getting from Amazon was completely wrong. Essentially, it came down to the item was never really purchased. Needless to say I was pretty annoyed. I was so ready to do some hardcore engineering work. Shortly I will just knuckle down and order a Blichman bottling gun from one of the more reputable mail order homebrew stores.

Coming up, Siciliano's will be doing their homebrew contest again. I know, they really did annoy me with how long it took to get the score sheets from last years contest. But then, the comments on the sheet were worth the inconvienience. I am thinking of using the dunkelweizen this time around. Probably helps that I am drinking one right now and am reminded of how happy I have been with how it turned out. It just gets better as it ages.

Looking at the grains I have in storage currently I am considering doing another wheat again. If I use solely what I have in stock right now I won't need to pick up much else for it. I think a tangerine wheat would be good to do again. As I think about this I find that this may actually be a good direction to go. As the weather turns warmer and we find ourselves moving into spring and then summer a nice refreshing wheat will be quite welcome.

And now lift your glass and give us a toast, cause we'll be singin' and drinkin'

And its a working...

Too much happened this week to put me behind schedule a bit. So the base for Rum Rebellion was brewed today. Mind you I basically stood by and gave directions. Flipping the bike earlier this week makes it quite uncomfortable to carry my equipment up and down the stairs, let alone stand and watch the wort as it goes through its process.

What normally requires just me actually took three different helpers today. Chelsea, her boyfriend David, and my wife all took turns being the brewers today. I had a stuck sparge at the end so I didn't end up with quite as much as I wanted (I so need to do real sparges). But all in all the beer itself should finish around 7 to 7.5% alcohol. Nice big beer that should age nicely. I may even leave this one on the oak chips for a little longer than I originally thought.

I am not certain yet what I will do to follow this one up in a few weeks. I am thinking something akin to a saison. But there are a few weeks before I need to be looking for that one.

With that said, enjoy the pint in front of you.