Bottling Molasses

Properly carbonated sour beer is mysterious. I am working on getting this right by adding fresh yeast and priming sugar at bottling. The original yeast at this stage is pretty much dead or mutant. As the extended fermentation reaches terminal gravity the solution has deprived of yeast nutrient. The new yeast is needed to convert fermentable priming sugar to CO2 and Ethanol. The unfermentable sugar remains leaving residual sweetness for the final beer. The difficulty with sour beer is the bacteria will continue consuming long chained sugars. Thus over carbonating the beer. I'd like the beer to stay in the bottle and so have cut back on the priming rates. I'm also playing with different sugars. This round will use Grandmas' unsulfured molasses and a small batch with inverted Golden Syrup. The molasses should impart a rum finish to the final beer. The batch was dosed with yeast and sugar by weight. The beer is less dense than water (995g per liter) accounting for the residual sugar should result in 3.5 volumes of CO2. Lets hope pressure is not lost to the corks.

Yeast & Molasses Added by Weight   

Golden Sour: Primed with Golden Syrup   

Works Cited:
http://www.meheen-mfg.com/Carbonation%20Demystified.pdf
http://byo.com/carbonation

This Is Madness

Who waits on the nuts around here?   

I am reminded of The Last Poets while reaching into the cellar. Somewhere along this quest I've lost my mind to obsessive hording of the liquid muse. These bottles are private stock. Gifts for the season of giving. They are bartering chips for fellow brewers. We sip. We chat. We laugh. What makes this hobby even more fun is experimentation. The following list is how I've played. Some brews are better than others.

Belgian Dark Barrel Project 1.0 -Sep 2012
Great | Bottle conditioned | Highly Carbonated | Wine barrel aged Belgian Dubble with caramelized jaggery sugar. Deep brown with ruby highlights. | Aging Nicely

Grassy Monk | BA Belgian Dubbel 2.0 -Apr 2012
Good | Well hopped Belgian Dubbel with caramelized jaggery sugar hopped before bottling. Medium sweetness with earthy hop notes has some raisin with phenol flavors. | Interestingly good.

English Cider 2.0 | Semi-Sweet -Oct 2013
Great | Bottled sweet aroma of juice some light oxidation. Robust flavor medium acid with great structure. Some tannin. Medium oak notes. | Bottled for aging.

English Cider 4:1 | Dry -Aug 2013
Exceptional | Highly Carbonated | Rustic cider has exceptional aroma of apple skins. Very dry with delicate sweetness. Flavor acidic apples with some oxidation.

Farmhouse Cider | Dry -Jul 2013
Exceptional | Dry well balanced cider very light funk. High carbonation delicate apple finish. Has a peppery spice note of clove. Great. | Bottled some with Mimosa Stick

St James Farmhouse Cider | Dry -Apr 2013
Bretty with Age | Cider fermented with wild yeast from St James, Missouri muscadine grapes has deep brettanomyces flavor and aroma. Dry austere with moderate acidity. | Very French

American IIPA 2.0
Great | Working on the hops schedule and grains. Hop presence is very American but the finish has balanced malt. | Brew again a bit dryer.

Dry Stout 6.0
Great | This beer is becoming a house standard. Deeply roasted easy drinking stout.

Imperial Stout 4.1
Good | Young | Rich deep stout brewed for aging. Second best batch. All others were sub-par.

English Brown
Good | Second Runnings beer intended as Brown Porter. Lacks middle richness. Finish is smooth malt forward.

Scotch Ale
Good | Well balanced would like more color and deeper caramel notes.

Scottish 60+ Shilling Ale
Boring | Low Gravity beer for easy drinking. Kettle caramelization is the only thing this beer has to offer

ESB Extra Special Bitter
Boring | Low Gravity beer for easy drinking. Good color solid hop additions.

American Farmhouse | St James Conditioned -Oct 2012
3rd Place | Sour saison bottled with St James Yeast aging at room temp expecting more complexity.

Farmhouse Brown #1.2.3 -Feb 2012
Good | Sir Duke Farmhouse Brown fermented Saison Blend yeast. Ale has great complexity and an underlining berry note. Aging well at room temperature.

Sir Duke | TX Wild -Aug 2011
Okay | Malty brown fermented with Texas wild persimmon yeast. Farmhouse styled beer with date like fruity notes complex. The finish is dry with moderate puckering. Aged at cave temperature.

Trappist | Brett B -Aug 2012
Trappist base bottled with Brett B | Moderate funk well balanced body.

Trappist | Brett B & C -Aug 2012
Trappist base bottled with Brett B & C | Drier moderate horsey funk.

Yaupon Holly Mead
Works | First attempt at a traditional mead with interesting honey. | monitor progress

Coffee Mead 1.0 - Dec-11
Sample | Aging at cave temperature | monitor progress

Coffee Mead 2.0 | Kraft Bochet -Sep 2012
Aging to mellow out the coffee notes

Kraft Bochet Mead 2.0 -Sep 2012
Exceptional | Caramelized honey mead ruby brown color. Fruity floral aroma. Flavor of toffee and light cinnamon. Getting better aged at room temperature. The sweetness and alcohol are becoming one/well rounded. | Bottled some with Oak Stick

Kraft Bochet Mead 3.0 -Feb 2013
Deep smoky toffee notes rugged honey finish.

Pomegranate Mead -Aug 2013
Pomegranate Mead semi-dry with great complexity allow to mellow with age | Bottled some with Mimosa Stick

Jester's Crown -Sep 2012
Great | Bottle dregs fermented from Gotlandsdricka. Medium sour notes saison with tropical fruit tones light funk. Debatably better than the King. Conditioned at cave temperature. Bottle for aging.

Berliner 5.3 -Sep 2013
Exceptional | Easy drinking light body golden sour. Fruity aroma with some acid. Light wheat flavor with lemonade clean well balanced acid.

Black Cherry Kriek 1.0 | St James -May 2013
1st Place | Fruit forward tart with moderate residual sweetness. Fermented with wild yeast from St James Missouri muscadine grapes.

Black Cherry Kriek 2.0 | Sour Abbey -May 2013
Black Cherry Kriek 2.0 Blend with Sour Abbey base. Light medium fruit note. Sour is deeper with more structure. Age at room temp. Track progress.

House Saison 2.0 | Cuvee Conditioned -Dec 2012
3rd Place | Golden sour dry with medium funk and deep acidity | Exceptional | Bottled for aging

Saison | St. James -Sep 2012
Exceptional | Saison base fermented with wild yeast St James Missouri muscadine grapes . Aroma high white wine with moderate fruit. Low acid low-no malt

Trappist | Roeselare -Aug 2012
Exceptional | Trappist base bottled with sour blend. Moderate funk with medium acid.

Still Born Trappist

I've pulled three bottles from the cellar to track carbonation. Given the yeast time to settle each bottle was chilled upright and poured without rousing. I pulled a Saison III bottle first after conditioning two weeks. Then waited another week on the Trappist bottle. The following day I popped open a Wine yeast-ed bottle upset by the unnerving Trappist still born. The remaining bottles will rest until they carbonate. I find the CO2 has less bite when naturally produced. Comparing to the pressurized competition entries the phenols are also lighter. Conditioned with fresh yeast the beer is more digestible. However, it still interprets the style with loads of hot-handed crystal malt, and toasted oak aroma. It paints out of style but remains quaffable.

Tips for corking Belgian style bottles:

American styled champagne bottles have a 16.5mm opening. The bottles can be corked and crown capped. These will accept 26mm caps with 23.5 mm cork.

Belgian styled bottles will a require 25.5 mm corks. The opening is 18.5 mm.

Don't trust hard corks, purchase high quality¹  new stock to protect your creations. Purchase treated² cork packed in SO2 sterile bags for immediate use. Do not soak or heat before use which will remove the surface treatment.

For good sealing the cork diameter should be 7 mm larger than the bottle opening. When carbonating for champagne pressure (+1.5 bar) use large format 30.5 mm diameter cork.

Insert the cork with 16-19 mm extending from the bottle then cage with wirehoods.

Fill the bottle leaving 15 mm of airspace under the cork.

Bottles should sit upright for 2 hours after corking allowing the compressed cork to expand³.



1st #9 Natural Bi-Disk Agglomerated Cork
Diameter = 23.5 mm
Length = 44 mm (1.75" in.)

Belgian Micro-Agglomerated Cork
Diameter = 25.5 mm
Length = 44 mm (1.75" in.)

Champagne Agglomerated Cork
Diameter = 30.5 mm
Length = 48 mm (1.9" in.)

corkscrew rescues cork   

¹  Grades highest to lowest (Flor -Extra -Superior -1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th -Agglomerated -Colmated).
^2a  Ozone, ethanol, and SO2 treatment processes to ensure against taint
^2b  Peroxide washed for sterility. No chlorine
^2c  Surface treatment (paraffin and silicone) for easy corking and better seal
³  A cork is compressed from to ~16 mm during corking and then expands to the diameter of the bottle opening. The bottle is sealed tightly as the cork relaxes. The relaxation does not happen instantly reach 95% expansion after 3 hours. If you lay a bottle down before the cork has fully expanded, liquid can fill the space between causing a poor seal.

Works Cited:
http://www.nomacorc.com/nomacorc-quality-bottle-bore.php
http://www.corksupply.com/products/sparkling-wine-closures.aspx
http://www.nomacorc.com/nomacorc-bottling-guide-details.php

Crowned and Corked

This weekend a small gang of homebrewers gathered at my place to fill kegs and bottles. After four months of oak aging the barrel project was ready for bottling. As cellarman I had the fortune of sampling along the way. The barrel imparted an interesting fermented berry note that's somewhere between wine and dates. The Belgian Dark Strong has changed immensely. I wanted more specialty crystal malt and cleaner phenols. I liked its warming notes of alcohol, oak, toasted malt, and caramelized sugar. However, the beer is unique.

Tasting Notes:
9/15/2012 Brewday Wort is malty with a hop forward profile. Great gemstone brown color.

9/29/2012 Fermented wort is well balanced with some esters. The flavor is Belgian with some nuttiness and caramels. Has a spicy clove that wants to come forward. Color is medium brown with good clarity.

9/29/2012 Top-up Wort is sweet with little to no hops. Malt presence is low resembles caramelized sugar.

10/3/2012 Phenolic with moderate esters: note higher fermentation temp has attributed more Belgian phenol character (1.015 FG1 | 1.017 FG2)

10/6/2012 Blended batch into the barrel is well balanced with some muted fusels and warming. Great profile needs time to mellow. The color is lower than target.

10/25/2012 Beer is developing nicely. Alcohol warming is slightly lower. Fusels are annoyingly forward. Fresh oak nose with low oak flavor. Barrel temp holding 62F.

12/13/2012 Light fusel nose. No hop aroma with some toasted oak, vanilla and berry wine notes. Profile is more specialty ale than Belgian Dark Strong. Medium-light body. Fully fermented finish. Lacking caramel character. Color is burnished brown. Clarity is brilliant.

12/17/2012 Top-Up Wort sweet with no hop heavy caramel malt for more body.

2/2/2013 Aroma toasted malt with light oak and fermented berry. Warming phenolic with toasted crystal malt light oak and fermented grape notes. Dark brown color with great clarity.

Barrel Racking:
In preparation for racking I had constructed a "racking bulldog" using PVC plumbing. The idea is to push CO2 gas in the barrel to pressurize the head space forcing the liquid out. The design worked well when filling bottling buckets from the hose. Later we switched to keg connections and had some fun. Soda kegs were filled from the beer line out with the pressure release open allowing filling from the bottom up. Kegs with "universal poppets" provided beer showers for all. These poppets restrict flow at the disconnect causing back pressure up-stream. Imagine a rocket torpedoing from the bung spraying everyone with beer. Now repeat twice before identifying the problem. Not fun! We solved the problem with a brace then returned to bottling.

Bottle Conditioning:
In keeping with the practice of re-fermenting in Belgian bottles I prepared fresh yeast for bottling. The yeast was to reach high krausen and be pitched with priming sugar. Using a pint of thin yeast slurry and 130 grams of sugar I am shooting for 2.5 volumes of CO2 in 5 gallons of solution. I have been forewarned this could result in bottles without carbonation so I prepared three for testing (Belgian Saison III, Trappist High Gravity, Dry Wine Yeast 1116). The corks go in straight but expand like mushrooms over time. I am expecting the bottles will carbonate within a month.

FG 1.015 | Final Color   

Before the geyser   

Soda Keg Poppets | Universal - Challenger - Cornelius   

Empty barrel yeast lees & oak additives   

Bottling yeast   

JB & TC Bottling Line   

Corked Warriors

Bottling day is easier with wine bottles and corks. The day still begins with washing but it ends quickly requiring twenty bottles. The trouble I have is getting the corks to seal and stay. I primed as I would standard beer bottles and ended up with cork pushing out some bottles. I sanitized the corks by stem which has also presented a sealing problem. Apparently there are different camps of corkers some soak in a sulfate solution others boil or steam. I am switching to agglomerated corks and inserting them dry next. I trust they are sanitary. Paraffin waxed natural corks would be best.

As for the corked warriors from my first battle, they have been given the Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi treatment. Each bottle was ribboned, wired, and waxed. The soldiers are an army of elegance prepared by hand. The corks are secure. The ale is a wild rice honey brew I'll keep around long term.

Works Cited:
http://www.jingdaily.com/en/culture/chinas-terracotta-warriors-set-for-singapore-debut/

Bottling Day

Running low on keg space and needing to clear out some kegs approaching empty today was a day of bottling. Rather than taking a dreaded approach I've prepared to gift these bottles to the people who encourage my efforts. The Christmas season of giving is here so if you've made the list enjoy and let me know what you think.

My process for bottling has simplified meaning I don't unless it's needed. My beers are finished in the keg and goes into bottles as inventory control. I've thought of corking and aging but I've not geared up. The 750ml bottles seem great for the specialty sours and experimental brews. They require greater patience than my kegged beers also corking is an extension of this elegance. A secondary plus using larger bottles saves time on bottling day. The 12 ounce bottles are more laborious: wash in the sink, sanitize in a deep pot, fill in a shallow pot, then cap with a crown. The overflowing remains are captured as elixir for my toil. I like to think of it as a sustainable measure lowering the brewhouse carbon footprint.

Saison Dupont

This beer has a long history as it's been a roller coaster to maturity. The brewday and fermentation went well but finishing presented my first mistake. I had primed the keg with too much sugar. I added double the amount needed for carbonation. The first fix was to drain a couple pints assuming the sugar had fallen to the bottom. After carbonating the beer was alcoholic and strong! The profile had a Saison essence with the flavor of a Belgian Strong Ale. After months in the keg the beer went flat (popit pressure loss). I dry hopped and force carbonated. The results were better but still not like any Saison I had tasted. The dry hops had thrown the profile into a Witbier with a kick category. I had lost a good beer but committed to finishing the creation. After a while the beer began to exhibit classic Saison character. The aroma was citrus forward with hints of malt. The flavor was a complex mix of grapefruit and lemon to accent and peppery somewhat there a drying finish. The body was medium with moderate carbonation. This brew offered more than I could imagine from a simple brewday.

It posses a magic I may never recreate. The bottled remains shall be missed they are gone!

Bottle Conditioning

I’m still giddy about the portability of bottled homebrew. The real exercise is preparing the bottles: de-label, wash, rinse, and sanitize. When filling from kegs I adjust the pressure and filled with a party tap. Bottled conditioned beer gets additional priming sugar for natural carbonation and in some cases a small dose of yeast. This means stronger cleaner beer with less body.

My recently bottled Kolsch has taken new life. Bottled from the same batch; the beer is lighter and smother than its kegged twin. The bottle's advantage is also cleaner beer. The kegged beer has more fruity notes and is fuller in body with a tart finish. I like both!

Works Cited:
http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/beer/whats-the-deal-with-bottleconditioned-beers-beer-sessions-111288