![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Brew Day (and talk)
Feb. 26th, 2014 11:58 pmI recently made a "from the hip" gallon of what I call Hard Gingerale. I say "from the hip" because I didn't measure or record anything. I remember thin slicing ginger and putting it in the pot with an unknown quantity of sugar, a few squirts of lemon juice (to add some acid), and the leftover half pack of yeast from the last batch of beer (a Saison) that I brewed previously.
In the end it came out SPECTACULAR!! - Seriously. I'm kicking myself for not logging my ingredients, quantities, and fermenting procedure. Well, less than one week after it was ready to drink - it's gone. I'm not a Brew guzzler really - a gallon of brew yields about 9 bottles of brew when all is said and done. I'll add that the alcohol content on this particular brew was probably around 3%.
Anyway, since most of my homebrew is gone - - I need to make some more. I should be doing this once a week considering my enthusiasm for drinking and sharing it with friends. It takes about 3 weeks from brew day until you can drink the cider-style stuff (cider, hard gingerale, etc.) - and 4-6 weeks for beer.
Yesterday I brewed a German Blonde Ale, and it's in the fermenter. Today I pitched the leftover yeast from that brew into a gallon of Central Market apple juice and set it up to ferment. Lazy I guess, but I really wanted to see what simply fermenting the basic juice would end up tasting like.
I seem to be brew crazy these days. Marcel and I went out to a brew pub for lunch today (there's a pic on my FB page), and I tried Porter for the first time. Yum!! Loved it. When dessert came I put some of the vanilla ice cream in a glass and poured some of the porter in. Marcel was like - Yuck!! - then I made him taste it. He is one of those painfully honest types..... he said it was delicious. This might be an upcoming dessert idea if I can figure out how to present it.
It was cold and wet today, but I'm trying to enjoy it. Pretty soon it's going to be hotter than hades and sticky yucky; I really don't look forward to dealing with it from mid May through mid October.
In the end it came out SPECTACULAR!! - Seriously. I'm kicking myself for not logging my ingredients, quantities, and fermenting procedure. Well, less than one week after it was ready to drink - it's gone. I'm not a Brew guzzler really - a gallon of brew yields about 9 bottles of brew when all is said and done. I'll add that the alcohol content on this particular brew was probably around 3%.
Anyway, since most of my homebrew is gone - - I need to make some more. I should be doing this once a week considering my enthusiasm for drinking and sharing it with friends. It takes about 3 weeks from brew day until you can drink the cider-style stuff (cider, hard gingerale, etc.) - and 4-6 weeks for beer.
Yesterday I brewed a German Blonde Ale, and it's in the fermenter. Today I pitched the leftover yeast from that brew into a gallon of Central Market apple juice and set it up to ferment. Lazy I guess, but I really wanted to see what simply fermenting the basic juice would end up tasting like.
I seem to be brew crazy these days. Marcel and I went out to a brew pub for lunch today (there's a pic on my FB page), and I tried Porter for the first time. Yum!! Loved it. When dessert came I put some of the vanilla ice cream in a glass and poured some of the porter in. Marcel was like - Yuck!! - then I made him taste it. He is one of those painfully honest types..... he said it was delicious. This might be an upcoming dessert idea if I can figure out how to present it.
It was cold and wet today, but I'm trying to enjoy it. Pretty soon it's going to be hotter than hades and sticky yucky; I really don't look forward to dealing with it from mid May through mid October.
