Author: stoutmaker

Beers, ciders, meads

stoutmakerLeave a comment

Been busy brewing and stuff the last few weeks. Brewed twice at the local Homebrew shop for club demos and to replenish the sample stocks there. I even took the Mash and boil on a road trip brew.

Oh road trip brewing with this Mash and boil is soooo much less hassle. This is gonna make for some summer traveling. I will have to make a little checklist post for this. 

Also I have really been exploring the cider and mead side of things. I just kegged up a lower gravity (7%) Saison mead. And bottled a higher gravity (9%) Blueberry cider! Oh,, almost forgot the Farmers Market cider. Each week at the local market I bought “something” and froze them for the end of season cider. This year it was apple/red currant/strawberry/sour cherry/raspberry/beet ciderIMG_20181114_143905_687.jpg

As good as these new forays turned out, I may have to split time being a brewery and a cider mill. I think its fun for a lot of reasons. First being,, there is more involvement it feels like. With beer you do your 4 hour thing and you dont look at it for a month.  With these quick ciders, I can piddle around with the whole fruit/veg prepping, staggered nutrients, degassing, bottling… things like that. Might be a turn off for some,, but its puts me back in touch with my products, like the old days!

Take a look at this Blueberry cider!

  • 3 gallons apple juice, fresh pressed or cheap stuff. They both work 
  • 2- containers frozen concentrate blueberry/pomegranate mix
  • 2 lbs sugar
  • 3 tsp nutrient (split)
  • US-04 or any English strain yeast
  • Mix everything and 2 tsp of the nutrient. shake it up hard to oxygenate. A day after fermenting add the other 1 tsp of nutrient.
  • After 3 weeks bottle or keg @ 3 volumes

 

Pale! Ale!

stoutmakerLeave a comment

Well finally back at brewing! Mostly because A keg is possibly needed for an event next month.

I’m not really sure when it’s needed so I’ll get it ready just in case.

Somewhat under the wire, so a pale ale is the answer. Plus I have a crap-load (just under a shit-ton) of hops that are just sitting there.

20180911_083434.jpg

Screenshot_20180911-111353.jpg

I added that dose of black pat by habit, Don’t need it, and wont do anything other than darken the color. And I just happened to have some Notty in the fridge.

Felt good to get back brewing. Would brew more if I could drink up some of this, or give it away,, but that’s a whole other post.. Not today though

Pickles!

stoutmakerLeave a comment

Its that time of year when the cukes start overtaking the farmers markets. Still a lot of the smaller ones, so lets make some pickles.

20180711_203726.jpg

About all the equipment you need to make a batch of pickles is a bucket and some jars. Not much for ingredients either, especially if you ferment them like I am for this first batch of the year. If you are looking for Vinegar based pickles, here are my IPA Pickles

All I’m using today is:

20180712_160658.jpg

  •  Small pickle cukes. (As little or as many as you want)
  • Kosher or pickling salt, (don’t use iodized salt)
  • garlic cloves
  • dill seed, mustard seed, black pepper corns
  • a bayleaf
  • fresh dill flowers (this optional as the dill seed is just fine)

First thing you wanna do is clean the cukes of course. Then let them cold in some cold ice water for an hour or so. This help to keep them crisper.

After the soak go ahead and cut of the tips of the cukes.

20180712_202137.jpg

Next get put all your other things in your fermentation crock or bucket. Here I used 5 cut up garlic cloves, some fresh dill sprigs, one bay leaf, and 1 tsp each of the mustard seed, dill seed and peppercorns. 20180712_202033.jpg

Mix up your brine. 1 gallon of filtered water and 3/4 of the kosher salt. 20180712_202933.jpg

Put your cukes the bucket and add enough of your brine to completely cover them.20180712_203157.jpg

Use a plate to keep the cukes under the brine.20180712_203142.jpg

And that’s it. Either cover the bucket with a towel or put a airlock on like I did and put it in a warm place to let it ferment.20180712_203529.jpg

After a week or so, take a test taste to see if they are sour enough. If not then let them go another day or so. Once they get where you want them pack them up in jars with the brine and put them in the fridge. (Unless you can them, they gotta stay in the fridge)

That’s its it! Start your pickles now and will be ready just in time to get your crocks back for Kraut!

 

PS: for those wanting to can these for storage this is easy too.

get your jars ready for normal canning. drain, strain and keep the liquid. pack your jars tight with the pickles. boil the liquid for a minute or two and pour into the jars leaving a 1/2 headspace. waterbath for 10 min pints, 15 quarts.