Hairy Porter: Dark Magic Ale

Today we bottled the Hairy Porter. Wow, it's REALLY dark. And it was delicious, even uncarbonated. Can't wait to try it again when it's all bubbly.


Here is a picture from when we were siphoning it into the bottling bucket.



I am especially proud of this batch as it's my husband's first "all on his own" recipe. Good job, honey! Oh, and he designed the label, too.

Visiting the Fermenting Closet

Yesterday I racked the raspberry apple wine into the secondary jug. Here is how it went. I rounded up the Mr. Wine, a clean jug and the various siphoning parts.


Then I had to remove the bag of must. All the deliciousness has been soaked out of the raspberries. There is absolutely nothing yummy about what is left.


I took an hydrometer reading, sampled a bit and finally it was time to begin siphoning.


And here is the wine in its new temporary home.


It is now ready to join the other occupants of the fermenting closet. Let's check in on a couple of them. Here's the apple raisin.


And the orange banana.


Both of which are sitting on a lot of lees and will be racked again next week. The apple raisin is taking on a nice, rich dark color. I am now glad that some of the raisin bits made it into the secondary. I love that deep color.

Mr. Wine II

I wanted to start a raspberry melomel today, but then realised I don't have any more small fermenters that have a wide enough opening for a straining bag. Darn it. I have been looking on Craigslist and Freecycle for an unwanted Mr. Beer but no luck yet.

This morning I was sifting through the junk mail, tossing things into the recycling, when I happened upon a coupon for Cost Plus World Market. My favorite! $10 off your $30 purchase. Hmmmmm...I wonder if they have any wine racks? I hurried on over there and, sure enough, they had a 20 bottle stacking wine rack in pine. The price? $34.99. I used my coupon and got it for $24.99 plus tax. Next time I get a coupon I'll pick up another.

After I dropped it off at home it was time to head in the opposite direction, to K-Mart, to pick up a couple of curtain rods and 4 shower curtain liners. I want 2 liners for each bathroom so when they need washing I can just hang up the second set. K-Mart had the rods, for $1.99 a set. But they had absolutely NO shower curtain liners. Are you kidding me? None? Nope. So I went next door to BigLots and got 2 each in cream and white. $2 per plus tax. While in that area I couldn't resist checking out the local thrift store, Thrift City. This is not the nicest or cleanest thrift shop. Kind of dicey. But I did manage to find a few bargains. And everything there was half off the sticker price. I found a cute sweater for Reggie for $1.50, 10 cotton appliance covers for $5, curtains for my bathroom for $2.50, a woven cotton throw rug for $1. Then, as I was wandering the aisles, I spotted it. Is that....A MR. BEER???? Sure was. For $1.50. Woot!!! And then, at the other end of the store, 8 Mr. Beer plastic bottles! At $.40 each. That means I grabbed all the important parts of a Deluxe Mr. Beer Kit for under $5. When I got it home I discovered that the tap on it has a leak, but I will just plug it with a rubber stopper as shown in the picture.


I now possess 16 of those plastic bottles. I don't want to put beer in them, but they are awesome for making sparkling hard cider and other quick, fruity summer beverages. You add sugar when you bottle and let it carbonate until you can no longer squeeze the bottle. That's how you know it's ready. Then you just pop it into the refrigerator to halt the carbonation. And you have a nice, cold, fizzy, alcoholic drink. I plan on putting them to work this summer.

This afternoon it was time to pitch the yeast into the strawberry rhubarb wine. I like to give the liquid a good stirring to get it oxygenated then just sprinkle the yeast on top. I store my bulk wine yeast in the freezer and by sprinkling it I let it take it's time getting used to the temperature. As it soaks up the liquid it adapts slowly.


I made this little fermenter out of a bucket that held some sort of grain. I had the husbeast drill a hole in the lid so I could fit it with a bubbler and I also made 1 and 2 gallon marks on the side with a magic marker.


Today was baking day and the husbeast suggested I grind some of that spent grain I dried, and add it to the bread. Sure, why not? Here is our grain mill. It's attached to a big, heavy old computer desk that we have in the brewing room.


Here is the dried grain in the hopper.


And here is the finished flour. I wanted it rather coarse so my bread can have some texture.


I plan to add 2 cups of this flour along with 12 cups of regular unbleached flour. That will make 4 loaves. Here's hoping they're GOOD loaves this time.

Beer & Wine Sunday

Today we had many beer and wine related chores to accomplish. We went out for our Sunday lunch date, to Vien Dong, then came home and racked the hefeweizen into the secondary carboy. Since the husbeast had to work today I wasn't in the mood to watch football all by my lonesome. So I used the time to finally rack my Chianti into the secondary, as well.


I had to add 4 different clearing agents which involved stirring like mad with a long spoon for 10 minutes. Apparently if you don't stir long enough or vigorously enough your wine won't clear properly. This batch should be ready for bottling in 2 weeks. I think I'm going to have to invest in a carboy dolly. I had to carry this 6 gallons of wine from one end of the house to the other, then back again. It's heavy! In the picture you can see the gallon of mead up on the counter, patiently awaiting its second racking. It's clearing nicely. After racking the mead it was time to start my next wine which is a strawberry rhubarb. I'll pitch the yeast in it tomorrow night.

I am trying to have very little waste from my beer making. I had been freezing the spent grains but am running out of freezer room. We are doing a LOT of brewing and each batch produces over 30 cups of spent grains. I've put them in bread, made dog cookies, fed them to my chickens (and a friend's chickens) but still I can't keep up. So I will attempt to dehydrate them for longer term storage. I've ordered up more racks and some liners for my dehydrator but they won't arrive until late next week. In the meantime I am drying a big batch of the grain in my oven, on cookie sheets.


We are also trying to use the trub (beer sludge) as slug bait. If it works I'll be freezing the trub until needed. I have a trap baited now so my fingers are crossed that this will take a dent out of the backyard slug population.

February's Expenditures

It looks like I spent just about $1,000 in January. We'll see if I can't do a bit better in February.

$37.28: Groceries - Safeway (2-1-11)
$32.84: Groceries - Safeway (2-3-11)
$52.58: 2 dehydrator trays/6 liners - Amazon.com (2-5-11)
$6.74: 2 Espressos - Perk Central (2-5-11)
$27.32: World Market - Wine Rack (2-7-11)
$15.91: Thrift City - Bargains (2-7-11)
$4.35: K-Mart - Curtain rods (2-7-11)
$8.74: BigLots - Shower Curtain Liners (2-7-11)
$101: Bee Suit and feed, etc.. - Mann Lake (2-9-11)
$19.81: Groceries - Safeway (2-10-11)
$6.74: Espressos - Perk Central (2-12-11)
$4.90: Breakfast - McDonalds (2-12-11)
This last half of the month I was a very good girl, preparing foods from the pantry and freezer, and not purchasing any extras for the house. I did lose track of the grocery and espresso spending, so am tacking on another $100 to this month's totals to cover those. But I have still kept my spending for February to under $500. Now on to March.
_______________________________________________
Grand Total = $418.21
Espressos = $13.48
Groceries = $189.93

Another Wine Started & Goodies In The Mail

I started another wine this morning. This one uses 1# of frozen raspberries from my garden. I am mixing them with some apple raspberry juice concentrate. Here are the berries steeping in boiling water. I placed the berries in a mesh bag, poured the boiling water over them, and mashed them really good with a ricer. Then I left them to cool.


Afterwards I placed them into the Mr. Wine along with the juice, crushed campden tablet, yeast nutrient, acid blend and pectic enzyme. I added enough water to make a gallon. Now I'll let it set for 24 hours before stirring it well and pitching the yeast.


This afternoon the mail lady brought me a few goodies. I got that cool wine rack I'd ordered through Amazon.com as well as this bee video from a local guy who runs a web site with an online bee forum, World of Beekeeping. He sells the video for $39.99 but had a special for the folks on the forum so I got it for $19.99. I learn better by "seeing" so can't wait to watch. Some things you just can't get from a book.


I also received this nice fabric that features a wine label print. I traded 1# of cotton spinning fiber for 5 yards of this fabric. I don't know what I'll make with it. Maybe some knitting needle cases?


Sorry I am not more talkative. My two youngest children are doing really stupid things and giving me fits. I feel more gray hairs coming on.

I Racked The Fruit Wines

I still haven't gotten around to racking the Chianti. I figured I'd start with the smaller, one gallon sized wines, first. I think I'm just more excited about these two, as they're from my own recipes. The Chianti is a kit, and there really isn't a whole lot of challenge to that. I get much more enjoyment from playing mad scientist, and seeing if what I come up with is drinkable. These first two definitely are.


The Orange/Banana is on the left and the Apple/Raisin is on the right. I racked the apple wine first. This was the one with the questionable ferment. The ferment was just fine, in fact this one has an awesome alcohol content. It seems that the Mr. Beer fermenters have built in gas release by way of a groove on either side of the top opening. Even when the lid is screwed on tightly, the gas still escapes. Which makes sense since folks use these to ferment beer and there is no airlock in the kit. I had the husbeast drill the hole in the top of the lid for nothing. Now I get to find a plug for it. Live and learn. But I am happy to report that the Mr. Wine (his new name) is a dandy fermenter. So much so, I'll be looking for more of these.

This morning the husbeast woke up just as I was mid-racking. I couldn't wait for him to sample my apple raisin concoction. His verdict? "Tastes like alcoholic baby food." This from a man who swills gallons of apple juice. I guess he had on his cranky panties. More for me! I think it tastes like Wassail. All it needs is some cranberry juice, orange slices and cinnamon sticks. He declined my offer to sample the orange banana wine. That's OK. I understand that wine isn't his thing. And I really have no problem with not sharing it. The orange banana was tasty, too. This one has less alcohol, but then it started with less sugar. I am especially proud of this particular wine since it used actual fruits from my kitchen. Not just concentrated juice.

I learned a valuable lesson from these wines. A strainer bag for the must is essential. I used a bag for the orange wine and none for the apple. Can you see the raisin bits floating in the apple wine? See, I should've had those in a strainer bag. I will definitely use one from now on.