Brewing another 10.B, version 4

Now that I have some Munich and Pale ale again, I'm going to revisit version three, make some changes in ferment-ables, hops, and yeast, and call it version 4. I'm getting a real late start, haven't even weighed out the grain yet or set up. It is almost 1:00 in the afternoon. No prob, I have the day off tomorrow. I don't think that I'm going to make note to the club that I'm brewing unless I do so real late. Too much going on should anyone actually show up. Trish isn't too happy about it: she cleaned & vacuumed the basement yesterday... including the grain spill that I forgot to clean up from under the water heater & furnace. Must... be... extra... careful today.

Yes, and no sooner had I finished crushing the grain did I realize that the bag that was catching the grain had a hole in the back. Which, of course, I didn't notice until I finished. FAH~!

Got all done and no boil overs. Cleaned up by 7:00. That was yesterday. Today, I have another 5.25 gallons of American Amber Ale merrily bubbling away in the Primary!

Racked 10B v.4.1.1.1 to secondary

Finally, got the ole brewery going again. I racked the beer to the secondary (committing the sin of using a 5 gallon carboy instead of the other 6 gallon one) and lost maybe a sixpack of beer and a quarter oz. of hops... D'oh! Oh, well. What's done is done. In my early morning thinking, I figured that I needed the other 6-er for when I brew again this Sunday... not realizing that the first one would be clean and ready by this time. Where did I put my coffee? Oh, it's upstairs...

Well, at least it is done.

Plan to brew tomorrow....

It's been weeks since I decided to brew again. And whenever the time is right, the weather has been near single digits or, the High Command had forbade any brewing action 'so she doesn't have to clean up after me'. What? I clean up after myself when I brew... Oh, not to the atomic level, but....

But tomorrow I shall brew. A nice America Amber Ale. And next Sunday, another one. The cellar is almost devoid of potables. MORE BEER, please~!

Arghhh! Another brew day froze out!

I've been trying to get a brew session in for the past three or four weeks when I have a day free to do so. And each time, the weather has conspired to keep the storeroom low. I almost had an op the other week... but there were In House issues. This week, I figured that I would brew today, Sunday, for sure. But looking at the thermometer and seeing it below 10°F, I just can't bring myself to face that. When it is too cold to brew outside, I brew in the basement with a fan in front of the outer door to exhaust the fumes from the burners. But this is just too cold. (Am I beginning to transition from 'Young Geezerhood' to actual 'Geezerhood'? Aieeee!)

Dunno... after I've had a flaggon or two of coffee I might change my mind.

Münich Cream Ale ready to be drunk...

I've taken a couple sixers out of the cases and fridged them, taking one to the December meeting (held on 2 Jan. due to snow) and the other one sampled and distributed amongst the Pilgrims. Tastes good, and Trish said that she likes this one. At the meeting I was asked to give a presentation on the Cream Ale style at the next meeting. Thought that all we did was swill brew and eat copious amounts of most excellent food, did you? Well, we do that too. But we have educational thingys as well.

This beer isn't to style per se, so I believe that calling it 'Münich Cream Ale' is not correct. But what the hey. My beer, I can name it as I please.

Tasted the Munich Cream ale after one week...

...slightly carbonated but not there yet. Tastes pretty good, Trishie will probably like it. You see, it is for her that I have been fooling with the Cream Ale style so much this year.

I had planned to brew another batch of Amber Ale yesterday but I felt like shite, as I did on Sunday. VW suggested that it was DFIRS (Delayed Flue Inoculation Reaction Syndrom) but I don't think so. I just had two days off in a row and it was time to get ill. Get it out of the way for the holidays, I raccoon. Jeff F. gave me enough grain to get the Amber Ale brewed and I have made up the recipe with the ingredients that I now have on hand. Should be ready to test next year... January? Febrewary? We will see.

Munich Cream Ale bottled

Got 53 12-oz. bottles out of this batch after adding corn sugar in 1 liter of water. Should be ready to taste by Christmas.