Brewpub and Brewery Operations: Day 2

Today's class was mainly lecture, by me, about the brewing process. We discussed the overall processes involved in malting and the chemical components of malt and got about half way through the mashing process before calling it quits. At the midpoint of lecture, we went down to the kitchen lab to check on the status of our beers from yesterday - happily bubbling away. Tom also had the students fill out proof of age forms.

We then had a small tasting. I didn't make it out last night to the store, so I shared two homebrews with them: the Fantome clone from 2007 (still gushing) and the second (2008) batch of Commonplace Coffee Porter.

Tomorrow I'll be wrapping up the brewing process and starting into beer styles, so tonight I'm going to buy six packs of three different styles of beer that we can taste and discuss during lecture. Rough job, I know, but someone's gotta do it.

Fantôme Clone Bottled

Tonight, with a bit of assistance from my father-in-law, I bottled the Fantôme clone. Even after the addition of all that fruit puree and with more bubbling, the F.G. was 1.000!!! It started at 1.050, fermented down, then fruit was added. It was definitely thin in body, but you could taste a bit of alcohol in there, too. Mild fruity character.

We'll see how it carbonates. I used DME to prime, which I'd not done in quite some time (was priming with corn sugar). Hopefully, that will take away a bit of the off-sweetness in some of my other homebrews.

I have the ingredients for another batch of coffee porter sitting here, but now I have to find the time in the next couple of weeks to make it!

Racked Fantôme Clone to Secondary

Yesterday afternoon, I racked the Fantôme clone to secondary. The gravity was at 1.006, down quite a ways from 1.050 (although that starting gravity was lower than I had hoped for). It tasted pretty good, though it had been in primary for 8 days. A lot of crud had settled out!

I took the fruit puree (see below) and heated it to 160 F for 10 minutes, then cooled and poured into the bottle of my carboy. On top of that, I racked the beer from primary and about mid-volume, added 5 drops of pectic enzyme.

I checked it last night and it was throwing off a little gas, so I guess fruit sugar conversion is working. I'm going to let this sit for three weeks and see where I'm at. I'm really looking forward to this one.

Fantôme Clone - Adding Juice?

So the Beer Captured recipe calls for adding some fruit juice to the secondary along with some pectic enzyme. I looked around my local markets and could find no acceptable version of either strawberry or raspberry juice (suggested in book). Any juices that I did find usually had ascorbic acid added and extra sugar.

So, I decided to make my own version. I picked up two quarts of strawberries, two pints of raspberries, and one pint of blackberries. Well, I ended up putting berries in the blender, then straining them - so really I ended up with a mass of fruit puree rather than clear juice. I'm hoping that it will do what it's supposed to do, with the aid of pectic enzyme, and add some nice tart flavor in there. Or it could be a disaster!

I'll keep ya posted.

All-Grain Fantôme Clone

Today I brewed a Fantôme saison clone, using a recipe from Beer Captured. I'm getting quicker ... I started the mash at 1 p.m. (of course, it took a while to filter and heat water) and it was chilled and in the bucket by 6 p.m.

Ingredients:
*10.5 lb 2-row Pilsner malt
*1 lb wheat malt
*6 oz aromatic malt
*1/2 oz Hallertau Hersbrucker (60 min)
*1 oz East Kent Goldings (60 min)
*1/4 oz East Kent (15 min)
*1/2 oz bitter orange peel (15 min)
*1/2 tsp coriander seed (15 min)
*1/4 tsp grains of paradise (15 min)
*1/4 tsp coriander seeds (2 min)
*1/4 tsp ground black pepper (2 min) (my deviation)

Pitched with Wyeast 3522 Belgian Ardennes.

My O.G. was much lower than the recipe specified, which is a first for me. Not sure why yet, but it's still at 1.050 which should still give a decent result.

Thanks to both Dave (dpjuart) and Eli (foureyedgeek) for the company and brewing assistance. Dave brought some of his homebrews down, along with a few summer Saranac beers and a Southampton Double White Ale. Eli brought over a bottle of Cadillac Mountain Stout.