"I work like I drink, alone! Or with a monkey watching me." - Krusty the Clown

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Just Getting Started

Bock beer fermenting vigorously in foreground, stout quietly bubbling in back.


Brewed a bock beer yesterday from a kit my mom gave me for Christmas.  What's interesting is that I didn't ask for the kit or suggest the style, but it's exactly the kind of beer I was thinking of doing next.  

The kit came from Homebrew Heaven out of Washington state.  It came with about 7.5 lbs of dark malt extract (although I think it was "cut" a bit with corn sugar), 1.5 lbs of various malts (including Victory, Crystal, and Chocolate), and both boiling and finishing hops of Hallertauer and Saaz.  The yeast is the dry Saflager S-23 lager yeast, which I had success with before. 

My basement is about 65-67 degrees right now, which is okay for this kind of yeast, although 45-55 degrees would be better.  I expect the beer to ferment for a week, then sit in a secondary for 2-3 weeks, then age in the bottle.

The OG was about 1.068, which points to a final ABV of over 6%.  Good for a bock style beer.

I'm brewing it now so it will be aged nicely for Maifest.

Which is why the next big step is buying a mini-fridge with temp control.   A lager like this wants to sit in a cool place for a few months.

So in the past four weeks I brewed and bottled my two-berry wheat; I brewed an all-grain stout, which is still in a primary; and I brewed an extract bock beer.  Do I have a homebrew problem, or am I just getting started?

No comments:

Post a Comment