Author: stoutmaker

Woot!zenBock

stoutmakerLeave a comment

Woot!zenBock

6-27-11 Lots of stuff goin on today. Its the Friday of Memorial Weekend so I’m off for 4 days.
Picked, cut up, and froze about 12 lbs of rhubarb for wine. Looks like I got quite a bit. Been thinking this over, and decided that I might wanna use some grape juice in there with the wine. maybe.

Ok on to the brew. wer gonna be brewing My Woot!zenbock. pretty big for what I normally do.

Woot!zenbock
5 lbs munich
1 can of wheat LME
3 lbs wheat malt
2 lbs pilsner
.5 lbs special B
.5 lbs Chocolate malt
1 oz Pearle @ 60
1 oz hallertaur @ 15
1 packet munich wheat yeast

think I am gonna try to slightly step mash this up. gonna mash at 152 for 30 then take some out and reheat it and raise to 157. gonna give it a shot any way.

Ok lookin at 3 ½ gallons at 165 in my pre heated tun.
just a bit shy. got 151 but gonna leave it. I dont really know how much more boiling water to add to hit 158 but gonna start at about ½ gallon.
found a claculator for it at the Rackers site.
Yep got 158. another 30 min.
Got 2 ¾ gallons first run. filled mash tun to top again and got 3 gallons in second.
whoops I think I got too much now. will have to boil down.
Dont think It really lost a whole lot, gonna go another ½ hr.
still quite a bit. filled my 6 gallon carboy and still a gallon left

OG 1.075 a bit low but had to much volume. but, works for me

Start of the Weekend

stoutmakerLeave a comment
Coming up on Memorial day, so we I got a four day weekend coming up. We are totaly unprepared as usual. Gots almost no beer kegged. All I have is about 2 pints of the Cream Ale left. But the stout is ready to be kegged. I hopefully will be doing that tonight, after going to get a load of firewood for the weekend. Because its a stout means a couple good things. It wont have to be super carbed,, and I will prolly be the only one drinking it. I do have a bit of the Old Republic left, but saving that for our next Rackers meeting.
 
Seeing that I have that 4 day er, I better brew something. So Friday I am going to brew a beer that I havent brewed in quite a while, and even then it was an extract. Woot!zenbock. I bumped it up to a 5 gallon batch,, but will need to partial mash it because my mash tun is only a 5 gallon. I also changed the recipe a bit, because back then I had no idea what a bock beer was supposed to be like, so now I know and that recipe seems to be off just a bit.  The only dark grains were a bit of special B, so I added a bit more of chocolate malt to color it.
Still have to get going on more Crop Circles. Possibly Saturday. Need to get er up and going so its ready for the 4th. Shouldn't be a problem though.
Thats what on the ready. Will post the full recipe on the Friday brew day

Back to the Beginings

stoutmakerLeave a comment
After sitting and looking at all this stuff we got , and have had growning, I got a little pissed at my self for not fermenting it. Sheesh when we were kids we made wine outta everything we could find. Apples, pears, rice … Now I'm sitting here looking at rhubarb, red currents, and never thought about using them. Well maybe my currants, but those are going into a wheat beer later on.
 
I think I get asked about 5 times a day this time of year if I want any rhubarb, and always say no. But this year I'm gonna take all I can get. I havent made rhubarb wine in quite a while, but I'm guessing I'm gonna use the same basic procedure, but this time I have better equipment.
 
Here is what I plan on doing. 3 gallon batches. 
-chop and Freeze my rhubarb. thinkin maybe 7-8-9 lbs. (estimating)
-thaw it out and put into bucket dump about 4 lbs sugar on it and let sit in a cool spot for 2 days (maybe brown sugar)
-heat up 3 1/2 water. (Hot, not boiling) again estimating. and dump over the rhubarb and sugar mixture that is prolly looking all soupy by now.
-strain all that out. cool,  and put into fermenter with oh I dunno, a cup of rasins and a cut up lemon and wine yeast.
-secondary
-bottle, Gonna use bombers
 
Ah yea. just like the good old days,, but better. Gotta get home and make some space for this