This past weekend I bottled up my Kolsch and IPA. I had brewed the Kolsch in a “Better Bottle” carboy. You may have seen or heard of these carboys at your local brew shop, or in your favorite brewing magazine (like Brew Your Own).

I only have one of these, but I love it. Primarily because it’s much lighter and significantly less fragile than the traditional glass carboys that many of us have. I strongly endorse these carboys for primary fermentation, even as a seconday container. I would still use glass if I was brewing an imperial stout for aging or something with a bacteria addition or “wild” yeast addition. But for most applications I think the Better Bottle is the best substitute out there for doing ferments in.

I have been using my buckets to do most of my fermentation in mainly because of their ease of cleaning. However, my buckets are getting tired and I think I may start to replace them with a couple Better Bottles. There is however, on small issue with the Better Bottle that I was painfully reminded of this weekend when bottling.

Because these things are plastic, they are mildly malleable. I tend to put my carboys (glass or otherwise) in a milk crate to help carry them around. This is a great way to support the carboy and pick it up when it’s full as they are difficult to grab onto. As I lifted the carboy out of the milk crate to put it on the kitchen counter, the bottom of the carboy flexed down a little bit with the weight of the beer inside it. This change in shape creates just enough of a plunger effect that a vacuum was created and it sucked a bit of air from the airlock into the beer as I lifted it!

As I put it on the counter, I said “DAMN” to myself. Brewing up a Kolsch is a bit more work than a tradition ale and I may have contaminated it right at that moment with the airlock water. The lesson learned here is that Better Bottles are great, but just don’t take them out of the milk crate when they are filled with beer because of that flexible plastic issue. The saddest part of the story is that this has happened to me before, but I just don’t use my Better Bottle often enough to have remembered that.

So I’ll just be sure to drink up the Kolsch fast enough that if there is a mild contaminant in there it won’t have a chance to spoil the beer too quickly.

Lesson learned,
Brew ON!

Check out our earlier post on Better Bottles!

With the gracious help of my wife, we got the IPA and the Kolsch bottled up. These two beers were made out of the same mash, then tweaked with steeping grains as I reported back on my Double Brew Day post.

My kegerator is dead, and has since been hauled out to make more room in my garage. So back to bottling for this devotee of home kegging. I didn’t have any corn sugar on hand, so I just used 3oz of table sugar (sucrose) for my priming agent. I considered using DME, but I wanted the beers to carb up quickly and DME priming can take a little longer than refined sugars. Both beers spent three weeks in primary and were looking nice and clear in the carboy.

Everything went as planned. The IPA had a finishing gravity of 1.014 and the Kolsch was a dry 1.009. I had considered dry hopping the IPA with 2 oz of Cascade, but the aroma from the later hop additions was already great, so I decided to save those Cascades for an American Brown in the near future.

We are certainly looking forward to tasting these two beers once they are ready. As this was the first time I have used Columbus and Centennial hops (IPA), I was pleased with their aroma and flavor. We’ll have to see how the beer is all carbed up and conditioned. I’ll post back with pictures of each beer and a taste review in a couple weeks.

Be sure to look for my next post on using the Better Bottle carboy as I totally forgot about one key factor about them that may have ruined the Kolsch.

Brew ON!

Just another site update!

I added two new categories to our list: Hops and Malts

When I started the hops and malts profiles, I stuck them all in the Ingredients category…now they have their own categories!

Now the hops/malts profiles are in the same place. Take a look.

Tough choices always abound when the seasons are changing. My IPA and Kolsch are going to get bottled up this weekend and its time to brew again. I have so many recipes that I want to brew, and styles that I want to drink. Several factors are making the choices hard:

1. Its getting warmer out. I was amazed at the American Cream Ale I brewed up not long ago and we toasted the whole keg at one party. I’d love to brew that up again for a regular drinker.

2. I still have a couple late winter recipes that I told myself to try out: Sweet Stout, American Brown Ale and Southern English Brown. Is it too late to brew these guys this far into spring? The stout maybe, but the browns would definitely still fit in with some wet spring weather.

3. I have a half sack of Pilsner malt and half sack of English Pale malt. I could brew up an Allagash White Clone that I put of from last year, or I could brew up a Best Bitter. I still need to re-try the Tripel I made late last year that didn’t quite turn out right. But these two beers have yeasts that I don’t have on hand right now.

4. I have a good amount of Cascade pellets on hand right now that are probably getting a little old. I should really brew up an all Cascade Pale Ale to use up those Cascades before they turn.

5. The IPA that is ready to be bottled has a nice yeast cake of Fermentis US-05 waiting to be repitched. Maybe that means the Cascade Pale or American Brown should be next. Then again that American Cream Ale starts rising to the top (Get it? Cream rises to the top!)

Anyhow here are the potential contenders in no specific order:
American Cream Ale
American Brown Ale
Southern English Brown
English Best Bitter
Allagash White Ale Clone
Belgian Tripel
Sweet (Milk) Stout
Cascade Pale Ale (American Pale Ale)

So what is sitting in your brew line up/agenda???

Sometimes I research hops because of their replacement value of other well known/popular hops. Because of the shortage, Sterling hops have been mentioned as a suitable alternative to Saaz hops. Since summer is almost here, maybe you are getting ready to brew a nice pilsner for some hot weather enjoyment. Here’s our profile of Sterling hops:

Origin: America - Released in 1998. Not sure who released it but it looks like the origin is Oregon specifically. There is a bit of mystery of the hops’ heritage. All sources say it have a Saaz parent, but a list of other hop varieties are mentioned in its lineage:

• Hallertauer
• Mt. Hood
• Cascade
• Brewer’s Gold
• 64035M
• Early Green

So, I don’t know. Maybe all of them?!?!

Aroma: Fine, Rustic, Earthy, Spicy. Similar to Saaz.

Alpha Acid: Between 6 and 9%

Typical Usage: Used as aroma primarily. Bittering is mentioned as well.

Beer Styles: Pilsners! From what I have read, Sterling was developed as a US version of Saaz. One of the outcomes was to breed a variety that would generate a greater yield. Although some would say you can’t replace the original, Sterling may be a good alternative to Saaz if you can’t find it.

Last night, I got my stuff together for the Sam Adams LongShot submission. I followed the instructions that they emailed me including printing out the labels and attaching them to each bottle using a rubber band. I took a few pictures of the bottles and the traveling case I am using for transport:

So if you see a guy on the subways of Boston with a case like this, he may not have a laptop in it…

I am submitting the APA that I just brewed along with the Maple Porter I made late last year.  I am going to be dropping them off at the brewery today.

Now I don’t have any delusions that I am going to win or even do well in this competition…just interested in the whole process.
I have learned that life is about experiences and trying things like this blog…so let’s see what happens.

Hey there,

We had a reader write in with a problem about low to no carbonation after priming and bottling his lager.   From what he typed about in his email, it seems it might have been an issue with time and/or temperature.

The temperature part of the issue has me concerned…and I am using this post to reach out the community for comments and discussion.

Here’s a little back-fill:  I plan to brew a lager this year.

The few things that seem to be the brick wall in front of me are:

• Controlling temperature - will I be able to maintain the right range of temps without a fridge?
• Will I be able to master the diacetyl rest if need be?
• Are my yeasties going to settle out before I bottle?  If so, will I need to add more yeast at bottling?

Although I have a few worries (silly, I know), the one I would like to focus on and get a discussion going is the last point.

Has anyone run into problems bottling a lager, in particular low to no carbonation in the bottle?

Comment away!