Monday, October 17, 2011

Beer

On Sunday, we gathered at the Ring farm to make beer. It was a lovely day to attend the Church of the Blue Dome. Billy had all the ingredients for Billy Nevada Pale Ale (a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale clone) measured out when we arrived.
Did I mention it was a perfect day to be outside under the blue sky?
Billy boiled the wort over a turkey frying burner.

And stirred. And stirred.



And stirred.

Steve and Lauren showed up with their kids to lend a hand.And stirred. And stirred. And stirred.
Ma supervised.
During the boil, Billy added Rakau, Perle, and Cascade hops at specific intervals.

Adding hops near the beginning (Rakau and Perle) adds bitterness to the beer while adding hops toward the end (Cascade once 15 minutes before the end and once after the boil - called dry hopping) gives you more hoppy flavor with less bitterness. Here is the first of two additions of Cascade hops. It also has Irish Moss which aids in clarification.

After the boil, the wort was cooled to 80F by water running through a copper coil into a cooler of salted ice water

then through a copper coil in the wort
and out.

After the completion of the boil, the wort needs to be treated aseptically to prevent contamination.
Billy tried to keep farm dust from the big pot - very scientific process here:

A certain daughter-in-law failed to realized the pan full of things in the sink were sanitized tools and accidentally put a dirty spatula in with them. Fortunately, Billy realized this before proceeding, and Sharon quickly re-sanitized it all. Whew!

Owen had a grand time watching shows, playing outside, and looking at books. He's such a big boy these days.
Caedmon resisted a nap but finally got a short one.
Billy and Sharon transferred the cooled beer from the big pot
to two 5-gallon buckets through a seive to remove the hops. Billy was really careful to get the two buckets VERY even.
He added his hydrated yeast to the wort and mixed each bucket for 2 minutes with a paint mixer (used only for this purpose :o)).
They transferred the wort
to two, sanitized glass carboys
which he capped with airlocks. He likes to fill his airlocks with vodka.
And they were left to ferment.

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