Brewing a Batch: American Pale Ale

Because I've made a few missteps lately I decided to brew my very tasty first batch again, though with a few modifications such as a liquid yeast and a bit more hops. Brewing was straightforward, though as usual the foam on the chilled wort prevented me from getting an accurate reading of the initial gravity. Another frustration is that I am going through C-Brite sanitizer like crazy. I will be looking for something more cost-effective on my next trip to the homebrew supply shop.

Batch Three Update Four

After performing a messy recapping and letting it coolish-condition for another week, this brown ale has become drinkable if not great. Carbonation is now at reasonable levels, though the beer is still a little more fizzy than my other batches. It doesn't have any off flavors, so I am fairly sure the problem was bottling it too early. Lesson learned, hopefully.

Batch Five: Mild Porter

Style: Porter
Grains: 32 oz., 60 minute soak in 1.5 gal.
Malt: 3.5 lbs. Muntons light, 2.5 lbs. Muntons dark, 60 minute boil in 3.0 gal.
Hops: 1.0 oz. Northern Brewer @ 60 minutes, 1.0 oz. Fuggles @ 15 minutes
Fermentation: 5.0 gal. total liquid, Wyeast London, 8 days
Yield: 47 12 oz. bottles, 3/4 cups corn sugar as primer

Appearance: Dark brown, brown-colored head that subsided after a few minutes, light lacings
Aroma: Traces of malt, smoke
Mouthfeel: Medium
Taste: Some smoke, some malt
Verdict: A decent porter
Comments: At the first sampling of this batch after two weeks in bottles I was unimpressed. But after another week the flavor was much improved and I am now really enjoying this beer. The two flavor aspects are nicely balanced, which is what I was aiming for, instead of a beer dominated by smoke like my previous porter. It is a bit thin for the style, but that just makes it more drinkable now that the weather has warmed up. Next time I will try to make it stronger while keeping the balance.

16th Annual Green Mountain Homebrew Competition

For homebrewers in northern Vermont what might be a pretty fun event is on tap this weekend. The Masher's website doesn't give exact hours but the April edition of The Barleycorn Press says the action will start around 9:30 on Saturday the 5th of May. The location is near the airport in South Burlington, which isn't within walking distance of downtown but somewhat to Saint Michael's College in Winooski. I'll be checking it out for sure.

Bottling and Brewing

In a marathon session in the kitchen I bottled my previous batch, which is a Belgian brown ale, cooked dinner, and brewed a new batch, which is a Kölsch. Before bottling I pulled the spigot off my bottling bucket. The helpful people at my local hombrew supply shop said it is a good area in which bits of trub get stuck and cause contamination. My spigot turned out to be pretty clean, though there are some suspicious looking dark blotches between the inner and outer sleeves, an area that liquid should only be able to enter very slowly. I will probably soak the parts in some bleach before the next bottling session. Brewing was straightforward, though with everything going on I was pretty beat by the end of the night.

Recapping a Batch

After talking to the helpful people at my local homebrew supply store I decided to re-cap my (currently) disastrous batch four. First I stuck all the bottles in the fridge for a couple of hours so the C02 would be less likely to come out of solution. Then I grabbed one and popped the cap. No foam came out and I though I was good to go. I set the bottle down and turned to do something else for a minute, and when I came back foam was coming out at a good clip. Pretty soon the level of the beer was well below the bottom of the neck. Once the foaming stopped I poured the remaining beer into a glass and tried it. It wasn't great but I've bought worse.

With the rest I decided to just barely crack the seal, hoping that a slower release would result in less beer loss. It worked, though I ended up having to give each cap several gentle prys until I got the optimal opening. Even with patience a couple of bottles lost about a quarter of their contents, and all lost some. Once the flow stopped from the bottles I boiled some caps and re-sealed the bottles. I put the batch back in the basement to cool-ish condition for a week and I will sample it again in week or so.

Hopefully this is the first and last time I have to perform a re-capping.

Otter Creek Brewing Roundup

Otter Creek Brewing makes two lines of beer, the other being Wolaver's Organic Ales. Most of beers marketed under the main line were decent and drinkable, without any bad flavors but also unexceptional, like the organics. As with the beers sampled under the last round of testing, several of these were pretty old and may not have had optimal flavor - especially the Copper Ale, which poured completely flat. I will get some fresh product and do a re-taste later in the summer.

Otter Creek Brewing beers
Otter Creek Vermont Lager
Otter Creek ESB
Otter Creek Pale Ale
Otter Creek Copper Ale
Otter Creek White Sail
Otter Creek Stovepipe Porter

Notes: Otter Creek recently installed a new bottling line for both of their brands. As of my last trip to the bevvy the new labels don't have date codes on them anywhere, nor do the bottles. In a few months the lack of dates could be seriously frustrating.

Otter Creek White Sail

Style: Belgian White
Appearance: Medium gold, fizzy during pour, white-colored head that subsided almost immediately, no lacings
Aroma: Sweet, orangey
Mouthfeel: Light, creamy
Taste: Sweet,
Verdict: A decent beer
Comments: I am unfamiliar with this style but the beer was good and had a refreshing flavor

Links: Otter Creek Brewing, Rate Beer, Beer Advocate

Otter Creek Copper Ale

Style: Amber
Appearance: Medium amber, no head, no lacings
Aroma: Sweet, caramel
Mouthfeel: Light
Taste: Sweet
Verdict: A tolerable amber ale
Comments: This ale was completely flat when poured and the flavor was rather simple.

Links: Otter Creek Brewing, Rate Beer, Beer Advocate

Notes: This can't be a typical bottle. I will re-sample and update at some point.

Otter Creek Pale Ale

Style: Pale Ale
Appearance: Medium amber, small white-colored head that subsided almost immediately, no lacings
Aroma: Floral, hoppy
Mouthfeel: Light
Taste: Slightly sweet, nice hop bite
Verdict: A decent pale ale
Comments: This pale ale is pretty good and has a pleasantly hoppy aroma and flavor.

Links: Otter Creek Brewing, Rate Beer, Beer Advocate

Otter Creek ESB

Style: ESB
Appearance: Medium amber, small white-colored head that subsided almost immediately, no lacings
Aroma: Hint of sweet and hops
Mouthfeel: Medium
Taste: Slightly sweet, moderately bitter
Verdict: A decent bitter
Comments: A decent, drinkable ale that has a bitter finish without the floral overtones of a pale ale.

Links: Otter Creek Brewing, Rate Beer, Beer Advocate

Otter Creek Vermont Lager

Style: Lager
Appearance: Medium gold, small white-colored head that subsided almost immediately, no lacings
Aroma: Hint of sweet
Mouthfeel: Light
Taste: Slightly sweet, slightly dry finish
Verdict: A decent lager
Comments: Though much better than a macrobrew, this lager is unexceptional.

Links: Otter Creek Brewing, Rate Beer, Beer Advocate

Brewing a Batch: Belgian Pale Ale

Brewing tonight's batch was pretty straightforward and the wonderful smell of malt now fills my humble abode. I have no idea what this style tastes like so I hope to have a pleasant surprise in a few weeks. Five different specialty grains totaling two pounds in weight should provide some interesting flavors.