#13 A Midsummer Night's Mead

It was a dark and stormy night….

… and I thought to myself, “what a wonderfully magical night for brewing”… if only I had gotten to the HBS for those ingredients I needed for my next batch.

But then, one of my fermenters was outside, catching rain with the trub in it still from the batch I bottled the other day, and the other was inside underneath one of the leaks in our roof…

BUT, I could still use my 5L Demijon…. and actually I had ingredients enough to put together a Braggot (Mead Ale) of sorts:

• 500g Brewing Honey
• 250g Light DME
• 200g Dextrose
• 50g Maltodextrin
• 10g Goldings hops
• 10g Hersbrucker hops
• 1g yeast nutrient
• 7g Coopers (kit) yeast
• 1x Midsummer Night magickal spell (“Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania!”)

• OG: 1.045
• FG: 1.001

ALC/VOL 6.5%

Bulk-primed with 35g Dextrose

In 2L of water I boiled 400g of fermentables and the Goldings for 1 hour.
I then added the hersbrucker hops and boiled for a further 5 mins. On flameout I added honey and the remainder of the sugars. Added water to 5L, cooled to pitching temp and added nutrient.
Meanwhile I had rehydrated the yeast, and pitched it at 26°C.

This morning I woke up to find the Krausen spewing forth from the airlock, and it is bubbling away madly.

Truly a magickal brew…..

More perma-homebrewing

Just some further ideas about home-brewing in an eco-sustainable manner…

• Use no rinse sanitisers for bottles and equipment. This reduces the amount of water used in this process, and is a little cleaner. The best one to use is iodine, as its a substance that is harmless, especially given that even in Australia we have a slight deficiency of this in our normal diets. Whilst I wouldn’t advocate then using this water to feed vegies/etc, it is harmless to pour it out onto the grass or other garden beds.

• Consider the fact that you are re-using the same bottles over and over again, instead of buying more and more beer, using more and more bottles. Whilst buying ‘new’ bottles from your local HBS means you have a collection of ‘clean-skin’ bottles, think about re-using bottles that would normally just get thrown into the recycling bin. Talk to your local restaurant/bar/cafe/etc and see if they will let you take away their bottles – it means less cost for them, and free bottles for you. If you like all your bottles to be the same, you’ll find it doesn’t take long if you collect from a venue that has a huge turnover of beer!

• Think about buying your ingredients from local suppliers. In Australia, we have two great companies that sell kits and malts: Coopers and Morgans. These kits are undoubtedly some of the best in the world. These kit worts do not have any preservatives or ingredients that shouldn’t be in beer. Grain & Grape also have fresh worts produced by the 3 Ravens brewery in Melbourne, which are quite good. Other Australian kits are Malt Shovel Brewery, Cascade, and Tooheys.

• The trub leftover after a brew can be used to feed plants/vegies/trees/compost. It is high in nutrients (especially the yeast) which hungry plants will love. Water it down somewhat, and feel free to add other nutrients such as seaweed, dolomite, copper sulphate, garlic, etc to turn into a ‘brew’. Pouring it into composts and worm farms is also ok for this (although you don’t really need to give it to the worms). Pouring this stuff into your compost will help with breakdown and adding nutrients into the compost.

• Got a batch that didn’t work out? Bad beers and infected beers need not be poured down the drain. It makes for a wonderful snail/slug-bait. Pour some into a container (I use ice cream containers), and place it around the ravaged plants, digging it into the ground (although this isn’t necessary, as they will climb into it). Next morning, go and empty the countless of drunken-drowned slugs into your compost bin. Warning: don’t feed these to your chooks – you don’t want drunk chooks!

Home-brewing permaculturally

Who says that home-brewing cannot also be environmentally friendly?

Here’s an interesting article on a Canadian study, showing that beer fridges are contributing to climate change.

It’s not half obvious! Why else do people throw out fridges? Beer fridges are synonymous with being old and second-hand.

Which is partly why I brew according to permaculture principles, and brew Ales in the warmer months (with top-fermenting yeasts) and Lagers in in the colder months (with bottom-fermenting yeasts). That way, I don’t need any special equipment to keep my brews at certain temps. Many homebrewers buy heating pads and special brewing fridges to keep temps down. Not only does this end up costing you money, but it also burns electricity and contributes to Global Warming.

Really, what we should get into the habit in this country is having cellars, rooms built under houses which can be used to store things in a dry, cool environment. Ales should be best served at the room temperature of a cellar, so its still cold, just not below 4°C cold. Ultimately, a good Ale will taste fine anywhere up to about 10°C in my opinion, whereas Lagers need to be drunk at that ice-cold temp, which is why they are so popular here in Australia!

So what I find is that if you brew Lager-types in the winter, you have a refreshing, crisp beer that you keep in the fridge for those hot summer nights. During the warmer months, you brew Ales, and then store them in your cellar or ‘outside room’, where you can enjoy these in winter (where the outside temp does the refridgerating for you!)

#12 Red Ale

This began as a clone of Matilda Bay’s stunning Rooftop Red Lager, which is one of my all-time favourite beers.

But after various dramas and time delays, I decided it was too late into the year to brew something needing the colder temperatures (like a Lager, which is an inferior style of beer anyhow…), so I changed the yeast and went for the same recipe.

Ingredients

• 1x Coopers Draught Kit
• 1Kg Morgans Caramalt LME
• 500g Weyermans Carared grain
• 30g Hersbrucker Hops
• Safale US05 yeast

• OG: 1.037
• FG: 1.009

ALC/VOL. ~4.3%

Steeped grains for about ½ hour. Strained and rinsed. Boiled 10L water – added steeped grain wort and ½ tin of caramalt. Boiled for 30 mins. Turn heat down to simmer and added hops. Flameout after 5 minutes, added the remainder malt and kit wort.

Poured into fermenter (straining through grain/hop-sock), topped up to 23L and cooled to pitching temp – 26°C. Rehydrated yeast and pitched into wort.

Bottling Notes

Essentially this only took 4-5 days to ferment, it took off and bubbled madly during this time. It then just stopped completely, and didn’t move from 1.011 for 3 or 4 days. So I decided to sanitise the bottles and prepare to bottles. I bulk primed into 140g of Dextrose to give a medium carbonation. But just before I started bottling, I took a reading, which gave me 1.009. I was a bit converned, but as I had already started the process, I couldn’t stop now. So I hope fermentation had stopped, and I won’t end up with exploding bottles. Just in case, I draped tarps over the crates and laid them away from the other brews, so as to minimise the damage if it happens. Looking forward to see what the finished product is like.

#11 Girls love this Ginger Beer

Ingredients

• 2kg Organic Fresh Ginger
• 160g Fresh Lemon (or about 3 of them)
• 500g Brown Sugar
• 500g Dextrose
• 120g Maltodextrin
• 500g Lactose
• 2x cinnamon sticks
• 4g yeast nutrient
• 1x US05 Safale yeast

• OG: 1.032
• FG: 1.009

ALC/VOL. ~3.6%

Chopped ginger and lemon and boiled the fuck out of them for hours in water (adding water when necessary); the idea being to create an ‘essence’. This ended up being left in the fridge for a couple of days before I could get around to finishing the brew.

I then bought it all back up to the boil, adding the cinnamon and kept on low boil/simmer until I could sense the cinnamon aroma. I then fished them out and strained the juice through a cloth, squeezing until all of it was out (or as much as I could get out). I then put the juice back on the heat and added the sugars, stirring until dissolving.  I then put the pot in the freezer to cool down. Once cooled down to about 40°C, I took out, added nutrient, and then added to fermenter, topping up with water to 20L.

Meanwhile I boiled up water, putting in a coffee cup and covering until cooled down enough to add yeast. After some time, stirred yeast vigorously. Then added rehydrated yeast to brew (I didn’t pay attention, but the brew was actually at 32°C – but this didn’t seem to affect the brewing process). Put the whole fermenter in the freezer and brought down to about 28°C. Then took reading, gave a shake and let it sit.

Bulk primed with 160g Brown sugar.

It took only a little over a week for this brew to stop. It didn’t do too badly, considering the temps I pitched the yeast in.

I will have a tasting after 3 weeks in the bottle. I used enough sugar for a high level of carbonation, as this is what the ladies like.

If this works out, then this should produce something akin to a Bundaberg GB, but with a nice alcoholic kick (subtle).