This weekend was a busy one for the DRB. I started by racking the IPA. It's looking really good and tastes pretty awesome. I used my own unfiltered tap water for this batch. I've heard the argument go both ways on this issue, I may be taking a gamble doing it - but so far it tastes as it should, so I guess we'll see how things go.
I cleaned up after that, and then cleaned out both of the empty kegs, sanitizing and purged with co2. Next I started getting everything together for the evenings brew. Both Kevin and I were brewing stouts. Kevin is making a bourbon oaked stout (mmm!) and I made a pretty common oatmeal stout. There were so many grains I had to use two muslin bags to put them all in. Getting them out was a pain - I think I need to get some beer brewing tongs! I went with the liquid extract and had to add 8 oz of malto dextrin. This beer has an ounce of Willamette hops and an ounce of Cascade.. both smelled soooo good as i put them in.
I haven't decided yet if I'm going to bottle or keg this. I had planned on bottling an Imperial Stout I was going to get from the local homebrew shop, but they ran out before filling my bucket!.. so, I may just bottle a small amount of these, and keg the rest. I'll have to see how my keg situation is then.
I decided to try keeping this fermenter out in a room, that is relatively warmer than the closet. The IPA took a couple days to start fermenting, then did for two weeks! This one started the very next day and has been crazy active since. Keeping a steady temperature around 70 degrees. It's kind of cool having it sit in the kitchen (covered), I can hear the bubbling action from here.
One last thing - I've been reading about "cold clearing" a beer. I'm going to try putting my carboy of IPA out in the garage this week for it to clear through the weekend. It's going to be above freezing all week, into the 40's, so It should be just fine covered up out there. I'll keep a close eye on it. Not sure if it'll work any faster, but it's worth the experimentation I suppose.
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2 comments:
saweet dude, the DRB has a blog ... is this a secret? why didn't you tell us. Never heard of "cold clearing" let me know if it works
The cold clearing seemed to work great. Hard to say if the results are better than it being inside, but the beer does look really good. Of course, it's kind of thick, being an IPA - but it does look awesome.. oh and the taste!! wow.
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