Keg Is King

As time goes on, I am noticing that home brew loses it's hoppiness. No preservatives, and over time, I guess, even beer gets old.

Some observations.

I spent some time collecting bottles. First it was getting larger bottles to reduce the amount of work for bottling. Then it was swing tops. I found some clear 33.8 oz bottles. I found brown 33 oz bottles. I even found a half-gallon bottle that held some German winterbrew.

I have come to the conclusion that when it comes to bottling, size counts. against you. I posted earlier that the flavor in the 25.4oz Martinelli's bottles was not crisp. My theory was that the green glass was letting in light that was spoiling the beer.

So what happens when you use the larger brown bottles? Same thing. The taste is just not there like it is in the smaller bottles.

Conclusion: Go with 12- 20 oz bottles. The crisp flavor is worth the extra cleaning bottling and capping.

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My neighbor down the street brews as well, and he came by and invited me over the following Sunday. He and his buddies were gathering for the opening day of the Formula One series in Australia, and they were kicking things off with their first attempt at kegging.

I like the idea of kegging, but my concerns are: (1) How long will the beer keep once you've cracked the seal, (2) It's spendy for the gear and (3) It can be hard to keep track of how much you drink.

Sunday came around, and I swung by. We exchanged some brewing experiences and best practices. It was nice to know I shared some common challenges with other brewers.

As I tried to glean what knowledge I could about F1 racing before the start of the race, they cracked open the keg. What came out of the tap was a resolution to keg.

My neighbor had brewed an IPA with a full fruity body behind it. But equally impressive was the freshness. You really can't beat draft beer. I tried the same beer in a 12 oz bottle, and it still had all the flavor, but that draft freshness really elevated the experience.

So apparently you can keep the beer in decent shape for about a month. But of course, I will have to research it myself, before posting it as ipso facto on "My Brewed".

I am in the process of pulling coins out of the furniture and my wife is amazed at my sudden interest in laundry. I will slowly amass my fortune in spare change and turn it into pure amber gold.

I have resolved to keg.

It will cost me about $185 plus cooling to start. This will give me the refurbished soda keg (5 gallons), regulator, Co2 tank, tubing and spigot. For cooling, the plan is to get a mini-fridge I can use to keep kegs cold (no room in the fridge without massive reconfigs, and I actually do eat more than just beer). Should be able to find one on the cheap on Craig's List. And then when the time comes, with a few more bucks, I can convert it into a full kegerator. With two towers.

Three Batches Later

Where do I start?

I guess the first question is whatever happened with the Bass? First the pour. Still darker than Bass, aroma was right. Then the taste. Yeasty, but in a fresh bread kind of way. A bit of a bite. Nice malty...sweetness. Adequate. Clean finish. Need another sip. The sweetness is not the caramel flavor, and kind of subltle. Very adequate!

As it turns out, it wasn't as good as the ESB. But it was very drinkable. It seemed to take on more of the caramel flavor you get with Bass when the temperature rose. So it could be consumed either way.

In the meantime, I made another venture outside the world of kits and used a recipe from Food Network's Alton Brown. In his show "Good Eats", Alton Brown features an episode called "Amber Waves". After watching this initially around 3 years ago, I was left with the feeling that I could brew beer. My wife got me a mini kit from Bed Bath & Beyond. In 4 short weeks I would have a six pack of beer!!

I made my wort per the instructions, cooled it, added my powdered yeast and..... nothing. No bubbling, no fermenting. It actually took a month or two before I came to the realization that it probably wasn't going to happen. The "I can do it" feeling subsided, and the idea faded with time.

Thank God for TiVo. A couple years later I got the bug again when I reviewed "Amber Waves" from the DVR (you think I'm a packrat with the shows, you should see my garage). This time, I hinted Santa might look at a big boy brew kit, and I even stopped by my local beer store and picked up a brochure to help clarify the hint. And I circled the kit in the brochure. Then brought it to her attention. Twice.

Anyways, here is the recipe:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/good-brew-recipe/index.html

Some of the user reviews are a bit rough, regarding his process, but the important thing he impresses on you is the necessity for being fanatical about sanitation.

So I used his recipe. I meant to get light liquid malt extract, but I accidentally got extra light. Also the recipe called for Crystal Malt but was not more specific. I used 40L.

Fast forward 2 weeks, and one of my friends, Marcos, is flying in from Alaska for his birthday (for accuracy's sake, his birthday is the day after Christmas, however he has rejected this and replaces it with the Oakland A's season home opener). He has requested IPA. "It's all I drink" he writes.

So Saturday I bottle the Alton and on Sunday I brew the IPA. I could have gone two directions. There was a Brittish IPA, that is brewed using oak chips, and there is an American IPA that has a nice full flavor with a fruity finish. I like the idea of the oak chips, but I have kicked this thing off with 3 consecutive Brittish recipes, so I decide to go with the American IPA.

After brewing and cleaning up, I am feeling brewer's fatigue, and decide to take a break from brewing. I decide I may try the Brittish IPA or something completely different. In a few weeks.

Two weeks later, the Alton Amber is ready. First taste, very hoppy. A bit bitter, and kind of a watery finish. Company is coming over Friday with expectations (that I set) of fresh home brew. That Thursday, it is the same way. There is a bitterness and still a lack of body.

In the meantime, I have discovered that the few bottles of ESB that I had hid away, had lost some of their hoppyness, and there was kind of an odd taste that I could only classify as "old". I had been saving these for special occasions, and now they were stale and past their prime.

Strike Two. It's Friday.

I open the Alton, and it's simply a different beer. The hoppy bitterness has blended into a nice sharp bite and a very flavorful malty finish. Smooth, and body is well provided by the equilibrium of malt and hops. Day saved. The lesson learned is that 3 weeks in the bottle is better than two. A beer is just not ready until it is ready. I recommend this recipe.

The larger Martinelli's bottles are lagging behind. In fact with both the Bass and the Alton, the flavor is a little different in these dark green bottles. Not as crisp. I decide they are good for bottling soda, but not beer. I vow to replace them and never to use them again.

I make a run to BevMo looking for brown swing tops, find that Groelsh is bottling beer again, and find a few other swing's to bottle with.

But for the IPA it is too late. I have a wife and two kids, no longer in college, no longer young, and am unable to consume enough beer before bottling day. So the Martinelli's bottles go back into service.

Next post will cover a discussion with a neighbor that turned into a resolution, and Marcos arrives from Alaska. Will the IPA be ready? Will it turn out OK? Will he be thawed out enough to drink it??? You'll just have to wait. It'll be shorter that 3 months this time, though.