Tag Archives: brew

Where was I last week

Carpool

Well, it’s doesn’t seem like a week has passed since my last update, but it has. I didn’t get to bottle my beer the last weekend, but got a chance on the weekend that just finished, and I also got to setup some carpooling for work.

Most of last week is long forgotten now, but I did my first ride-share on Friday, having a passenger named Jordon, who needed to get up to Fredericton to finish up some stuff for his passport. The weather tuned crappy, so I decided to leave Fredericton early, and it took almost 2 hours to get home due to the snow, rain, and sleet.
Using the power of a Facebook group and Kijiji, I was able to arrange for a full time passenger for this week, along with help a young lady get home from Fredericton tonight. My passenger this week has his own car, but it was damaged last Friday morning and is currently not road worthy, so for now I get to drive into Saint John to pick him up. I am also thinking that we might be able to get one or two additional people into the pool to save on costs.

On the weekend, I happened to enter a random Facebook contest put on by the Saint John Sea Dogs, the local major junior hockey team, who also happen to be the 2011 QMJHL and Memorial Cup champions. Yeah, I won 2 tickets for the game on Sunday, which the Sea Dogs managed to win 6-3.

I also re-tested my Mr.Beer mix to see how it was doing, and decided that it was ready for bottling. Luckily, the bottles were still sealed with the sanitizer, so I was able to use them. I added 2 1/2 teaspoons of sugar, since that was the recommended amount for the 1 litre bottles, then fill them up to just about where the neck starts. I have some pictures, I’ll get them added later. The bottles have been placed in storage, again in my office due to the nice 21’C temperature that it likes to hold. The bottles should take between 7 and 14 days

Mister Beer

to fully carbonate, and at that point they are ready to drink, though I plan to condition them at least another month. While I wait for my home brew, I picked up some Mister Beer bottle brew, which is the easiest home made beer ever… just pop in the yeast pill, wait 10-14 days (store between 20 and 24 Celsius), then chill for 12 to 24 hours and it’s ready… easy as that, and it tastes decent too.

And to end off on a fun note, I picked up a celebrity follower on Twitter today! My new follower? It’s Amber MacArthur, you’ve probably heard of her. If not, check out her page, her facebook, her twitter or Google+.

 

Beer bottling day has arrived…. or not.

I have waited the 14 day period to let me Mr.Beer keg ferment, and am ready to start bottling my beer. Now, I have had the keg resting out of direct sunlight, in the only room that I know will stay between 20’C and 24’C, my office, as having 3-4 computers always powered on does generate a decent amount of heat, and I only set the thermostat to 16’C just in case, though I did have to keep the door closed over night to keep the heat in. I checked the keg with an LED flashlight to check on the state of the contents, but it’s hard to tell the cloudiness inside the brown keg.

[singlepic id=7 w=320 h=240 float=left] Now the instructions directed me to sanitize the bottle that I would be putting the beer into, and lucky for me, the Premium Gold Edition of the Mr.Beer kit, came with 8 1 litre bottles. So, using the remaining sanitation mix, I prepared 4 litres of cleaning mixture and filled each bottle half way, capped them, and shock the crap out of them, before letting them sit for 10-15 minutes in the sink, and then shaking them again just to make sure the sanitizer had made contact with all surfaces.

[singlepic id=6 w=320 h=240 float=left] At this point, I brought the keg out of hiding, in preparation to dispense the beer into the bottles. I was able to see a nice layer of sediment built up along the bottom of the keg, and double check the clarity of the contents, and it did appear a tad cloudy, so I would have to draw a sample to verify that. If you look closely, you can see how far up the beer mixture is in the keg, just shy of 2/3’s full.

Here is a good look at the sediment.
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And here is a look at my sample, after I took a taste test.
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You can see how cloudy the beer still is, and I was able to detect a some sweetness in the taste, but it did almost taste like flat beer, which is what I am aiming for. Now, I’ve never tried the Cowboy Golden Lagar before, so I’m not quite sure of what the taste should be, but I’m guessing something close to flat Budweiser.

Well, with the beer not quite ready, I’ll put the keg back into storage for 2-3 (probably more like 7 days), then do a sample draw again to check for cloudiness and taste. For now, the sanitized bottle will remain sealed. For now, you will just have to wait another few days, just like me.

 *All pictures in this post are mine. I took them with my camera. If you want to use them for your own non-commerical use, go right ahead.

 

Mr.Beer, round 1 begin!

Mr.Beer Logo

So, I picked up a Mr.Beer Premium Gold Edition kit from Amazon.ca just before Christmas, and it arrived last Monday.
After lunch today I opened up the kit and decided to start the process. Step 1 was to sanitize… everything, the mini keg, the can opener, a few spoons and a measuring cup. Step 2 was to create the Wort in a large sauce pan using some water and the ‘Booster’ which appears to be corn starch, bring these up to a boil and then mix in the HME, which is the ‘Hop Malt Extract’, which was some funky glue like substance that was really dark brown.

Here is what my first batch of Wort looked like.
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Once the Wort was ready, I prepared the keg by adding in 4 quarts of nice cold water (keg warns about pouring the hot liquid into the keg without it) then added in the Wort mix into the keg and stir well. Had to top up the keg, with an additional ~3.5 quarts or so, again with cold water, until I hit the 8.5 quart mark on the keg. Added in the brewers yeast and waited the 5 minutes that were instructed, then stirred in the yeast and capped the keg.

Here is what the keg with the Wort and yeast looked like, just before I stirred in the yeast and capped the keg.
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Now the keg is placed in a spot where it will stay between 20′ and 23′ Celsius, which is my office (Computer heating… can’t be beat), and it should be ready for the bottling stage in 7-14 days, though I’ll probably give it the full 14. And in case you are wondering, I decided to start off with the Cowboy Golden Lager.  I have also decided that I will have to order more bottles, and possibly another keg so that I can always have a batch on the go and a few ready to drink.

I will update more on this when I get to bottling.