Gratis Brewing and Falling Shoals Collaboration
3-14-2012
We've been trying to keep a punch list of actionable needs/fixes after each brew session. The greatest thing about having multiple people over is that other people focus on different flaws. I have my pet peeves and comfort zones. Those comfort zones mean that sometimes I don't mind screwing up the same way over and over. You could call that lazy on my part. So when people come over and point to those issues it makes it tough to over look them. We used to run oxygen to the wurt straight out of an oxygen tank, without a regulator. That made for all kinds of headaches. Regulating air that way is nearly impossible. Time Winters did a great job of pointing out the ridiculousness of using a vinyl hose hooked directly to the tank. I had been meaning to fix the situation but it wasn't high on my list of things to do. That razzing put it at the top of the list and so i put together a professional system and we now have an insane degree of control over the airlfow.
Our fancy new regulator
The hops rhizomes arrived from hops direct along with some nice fresh hops from the 2011 crop. Hops are only picked once a year and we like to only use hops from the previous growing season unless we're doing a style that benefits from aged hops. The Lambic that we are tackling in April will utilize 3 year old hops. It's amazing how fast these rhizomes are growing. We'll have them in the ground very soon. It will take a good three years to get a full crop but we already have three vines growing in the vine and it's their third year.
Hops Rhizomes from Hops Direct
The brew day ended up being hot. It was the perfect day to brew. The morning started off clear and slightly chilly. The brewdeck peaked at 85 degrees around 4pm. Best winter ever! Setup went fairly smooth. A short in the RIMS system meant for some mild entertainment. We bottled this same day and that lead to a mash hiccup. I cut the burner on to pull the heat up until the coil could maintain the temp. It caused a spike in temp at the 30 minute mark that raised the mash to 160. I like to mash at 152 and it always makes me nervous when we climb over 158. Technically the higher you get the sweeter the final product. That's because sugars become harder to digest by the yeast so the attenuation drops. Lagunitas mashes at 160 so I know about what the end result will be. We're blending a Belgian Triple recipe with an American IPA and I think the sweeter liquid will play well with a higher bitterness.
HLT, Mash Tun and Coffee Pot
We bottled the Karrot Kaboom the previous week and like we do everytime we brew we set up a taste panel to pick it apart. We also tried Ryan's first beer which is now called Private America's Brown Ale, and Richard Shockley's two new Beers: The Lemon's In It and the Orange Bee Hive. Ryan's first try was well done. He is well on the way. Richard's beers were very well balanced and the Lemon's In It had a fantastic subtle quality that played well off the hops. The Karrot Kaboom comes in three iterations. The far left has been infused with a tea made from curry and szechuan pepper flowers. The middle in unadulterated. The far right has been infused with Herbes De Provence (rosemary, thyme, savory, lavender and basil). It was great to see how much the aroma and really influenced the flavor. All three are carbonating at different rates which is interesting considering that they have the same amount of priming sugar. Note the subtle differences in the color.
Karrot Kaboom in it's three forms.
On to the Rhuberry bottling. This was a collaboration between Gratis and Chops and Hops co-founder and Head Chef Richard Miley. There are 16 pounds of blueberries and 4 and 1/2 pounds of Belgian Rhubarb in this Kolsch. The color is amazing and the fruit is there but the Kolsch still stands on its own. I must say that I love this beer. The sourness is well balanced and lends to the drinkability. We have been doing so many over the top styles that this is a refreshing change. We will definitely revisit this one. I need to grow some rhubarb!
Rhuberry in all it's ruddy glory.
Here are Richard and Ryan working the grist mill. You'll notice that Ryan is on mill probation after he broke the hopper (while it was full of grain) during the Karrot Kaboom brew day. Luckily his daughter Sarah (who served as his grain mill for the Private American Brown Ale) pointed it out to everyone. We'll forever be saying "Momma, Daddy broke it" at Gratis.
Private America and Shock on the
All in all it was a fantastic day at Gratis. We went over schedule by 2 hours due to a few technical issues and a lot of talking. That's what I would expect for a lazy kind of brewday and the second brew of the season. This weeks punch list added a new base and handles for the grain mill (idea via Tim Winters), a chill bucket for the wurt chiller to increase it's efficiency (Richard Shockley) and tracing the short in the RIMS wizard.
Here is a link to Richard's Blog :http://craftbeerathens.wordpress.com/category/homebrew/
He does an awesome job keeping up with all things beer.
Cheers Y'all
