Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Death of the Dubbel

It's been awhile since I've posted, I guess I've been busy with work and being sick all last week so I haven't been doing too much brewing related stuff lately. On Sunday I finally got around to checking the gravity of the Dubbel and the Hopslam clone. The dubbel had dropped down to 1.016, lower than the target. I thought that was interesting since it took 3 yeast additions to get the dang thing going and then it crapped out after about 3 days, so I was curious what it would taste like. Now, granted, I had just gotten over the stomach flu so it was the first taste of beer I had in about a week, but that was the single worst taste I have ever had in my mouth. I couldn't even force it down. After an hour of hemming and hawing I finally did what had to be done, I dumped it. This was the first time I ever dumped a batch and it was probably the hardest thing I ever had to do in my life.

The Hopslam clone is coming along nicely. The sample I tasted smelled awesome, super citrusy and delicious, but the taste was a liiiitle rough around the edges. Hopefully it will be an awesome beer, just going to take a little time to let the big bastard mellow. The gravity had dropped to 1.022, which is only a few points away from the target, but it is still bubbling every 10 seconds or so after more than 2 weeks in the fermenter, so I've still got hopes that it will continue to drop. I did bring it upstairs into slightly warmer temps to prevent the yeast from pooping out early.

In other news, I stopped at a homebrew shop in Stevens Point 2 weeks ago when I went to visit my folks and picked up 9 packs of Safale US-05 dry yeast to experiment with this summer. I've heard good things about it so I'm hoping that it works well for the APAs, brown ales, and ambers I have planned for the summer. I figured that it will save me some time and messing around with starters, while also being easier on the wallet. Of course, any savings will be reinvested in hops! I'm still holding out hope to be kegging by the time the next baby comes, but I have to save some dough, not an easy thing now that golf and fishing season have finally started. Finally, my wee heavy has still not carbed up! It has been almost a month now. I've got the bottles sitting on a heating pad right now and I swirled them up to hopefully wake up any yeast that's left. What's the longest you've waited to have a carbonated beer?

2 comments:

Bri said...

I had my coffee stout pressurized at 6 psi for probably 4 weeks. I started drinking it and it had no head what so ever. So I cranked the co2 up to 12 psi for a week. That did the trick and has a nice quarter inch head for a stout. Now I'm back down to 6 for pouring. I typically crank up the co2 right away on each keg. Unfortunately, this can't be done on a bottled beer. You could however add a carb drop or a small touch of priming sugar and re-cap, maybe as a test only.

Sorry to hear about the dubble. I would probably cry the entire time dumping it.

Well we're down to hours before we have child number two. Yesterday I had a Thermodynamics exam and just about sent myslef to the nut house I was so wound up before it. The 2 energy drinks beforehand didn't help the situation any. I'm trying to do homework right now and have absolutely no ambition to do any of it. There may be another 0 in my homework future. Thinking about beer has kept me sane most of today. After work a few buddies and I had to go have a few beers on the local tap; Spaten Optimator, Dos Equis dark, & Goose island 312. I know crazy selection, but hey, I don't have those beers on tap at home. I plan on doing an IPA while I'm on baby leave. It will also be my first all boil, as well as whole hops (hopefully). I'm comparing a few recipes sticking with common ingrediants. There is one that is a clone of tyranenan bitter woman which had a nice variety of hops in it.

Well, talk to you in a few days.

SWART said...

Once again, its been awhile for me in between posts. Sara has been traveling a lot for work leaving me as a single dad. As you might guess it doesnt allow for much free time. Especially since she has a cold. However, she is asleep so I can express my empathy. I felt the same way about dumping my Tripel. Now imagine how I felt when I discovered that I probably didnt need to since there appeared to be a leak in my primary. Anyway, I brewed my Phat Tyre about the same time as your HopSlam and it has carbed a bit more but not yet to my liking. Im going to give it a little longer. My ESB was bottled two weeks ago and smelled and tasted great. At least to me. It made my cheeks pucker a bit which was intended. I added about 1 oz more hops that the kit called for. Hopefully that turns out well.
I am planning an Imperial IPA with my next batch but now that it is hiking/kayaking season I am not sure how soon I will get to it. Perhaps a couple of weeks.

Later....