Is deacair amhran a radh gan gloine.
(It's hard to sing with an empty glass.)
~ Irish Proverb
Hey guys, time for more beer brewing on The Art of Caesura!
So, I was actually smart this time and started brewing my current beer before I had finished off the last one (Nightwatchman Porter), not as much lag-time between brews, Yipeeee!
This time I'm bringing myself back to my beer-drinking stomping grounds and brewing an American Pale Ale. And, no, Canada is not part of America, but many of the pale ales made in Canada that we drink on the West Coast of Canada are in that style. Take Blue Buck, por ehemplo. This one's called Columbus Ale, and I've just finished bottling it, so it'll be ready in 3 weeks or so.
This time I'm bringing myself back to my beer-drinking stomping grounds and brewing an American Pale Ale. And, no, Canada is not part of America, but many of the pale ales made in Canada that we drink on the West Coast of Canada are in that style. Take Blue Buck, por ehemplo. This one's called Columbus Ale, and I've just finished bottling it, so it'll be ready in 3 weeks or so.
When you start a new brew you have to make the nice sugary, agary liquid for the yeast to thrive in. With these brews you add 3L of boiling water to the malt to get cracking. Usually I have a 3L milk carton that I sanitize and works perfectly for this. Unfortunately this time it's gone walk-about. So I had a 2L bottle and a 5L bottle...and felt like I was in Die Hard 3.
How would you have reached 3L? I made it overly complicated by filling up the 5L with multiple fills of the 2L (so that by the end, I was left with 1L in the 2L bottle) then added that to the fermentor and then just refilled the 2L and added that. Whewww. Glad I wasn't attached to a bomb!
And then I talked to my fiance, who came to the much more straight forward conclusion that I'm sure you did as well, why not just fill the 5L, pour it into the 2L and you'll have 3L left...DUH! Women.
Anyway, now having 2 brews under my belt, the whole process went quite smoothly. This is also the first brew where I'm using ALL flip-top bottles. Check me out!
Here we have the not-so-appetizing-looking beer undergoing fermentation with the turd-hop bag.
But when it's all done, it's a glorious sight! Behold, the magic of the Bottling Wand!
And then I talked to my fiance, who came to the much more straight forward conclusion that I'm sure you did as well, why not just fill the 5L, pour it into the 2L and you'll have 3L left...DUH! Women.
Anyway, now having 2 brews under my belt, the whole process went quite smoothly. This is also the first brew where I'm using ALL flip-top bottles. Check me out!
Above you can see the hydrometer telling us to hold our horses, that it's not quite time to bottle yet. And on the right are our little yeast miracle workers.
But when it's all done, it's a glorious sight! Behold, the magic of the Bottling Wand!
Tune back in in a month or so to see how it all turned out!
But really, tune in next week for your fix of The Art of Caesura!
Listening: The 600 Year Old Butt Song from Hell - Based on the 16th centuary painting by Hieronymus Bosch
Drinking: Torc APA - Torc Brewing, Killarney
Watching: Timecrimes (2007) - Nacho Vigalondo
Next Week:
A real treat in the miniature department, took me two weeks to paint but now ready to be unveiled...
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