The brewing supply company I’ve been using for years and years and years biffed on my order twice, so I’m still waiting on that torrified wheat for my upcoming winter warmer. The first package had torrified barley instead of torrified wheat. I felt bad asking them to pay shipping for an item that was $.97 plus I needed another yeast strain for my cyser so I ordered that along with the replacement torrified wheat and asked them to only eat the shipping costs and I would pay for the yeast. They were apologetic and shipped me the wheat and yeast with no shipping costs. The package finally came 2 days ago and there was a nice white labs cider yeast vial and no torrified wheat. I slept on it for a day, cause I was pretty peeved, then wrote them a nice email and spoke with a gentleman named Pete who refunded me pretty much everything on my order, sent me out the torrified wheat, and a few ounces of free hops. He says its a new slovenian variety sample from one of their suppliers? Anyway, free hops. woo hoo! I’m weird about getting things for free…kinda makes me feel bad but this time i’m gonna have to let it go and have a homebrew. If things go right, I’ll have my cyser in the fermenter by this time next week. Two more for the winter warmer. Then we’ll have to come up with an ale for petes hops and some other randoms i’ve got sitting in my freezer. HOORAY BEER! I’m excited
Archive for November, 2009
Ray’s Ridiculous Ryerish Red Ale – Lessons Learned
About six months ago, give or take a few months, I brewed up my first “big beer” (high gravity). It was the first recipe I formulated and was basically just an effort to get rid of a bunch of bulk honey I bought over five years ago to make some meads. I was away for the first few days of fermentation so I was unable to observe the initial fermentation, and my hydrometer was destroyed by my cat so I was unable to take specific gravity readings. I did the standard fermentation of seven to ten days followed by a 7 day secondary fermentation and aged in the bottle for 2 weeks. After 2 weeks there was no carbonation and the beer was too sweet for my palate. I tried again after one month and nothing had changed. I decided that I had a stuck/incomplete fermentation due to a poorly oxygenated wort and/or lack of yeast nutrients. I chalked it up as a lesson learned and these beers have since sat in my closet awaiting the day I needed more bottles and would pour them down the bathtub drain.
The past few days I have been cleaning bottles like crazy, preparing for this winter’s brewing adventures, and it looked like this experiment gone wrong was finally ready to meet its maker. Upon cracking the first few bottles open and pouring them down the drain i noticed a little carbonation that was not there before and the beer smelled very very tasty. Turns out that this beer will indeed meet its maker, me, IN MY BELLY! Wow!
While still a bit too sweet for my palate (i do still believe firmly that the fermentation was incomplete) it is definitely a tasty bev that does not deserve to be filtered through whatever funk resides in my bathtub drain on its way to the sewer. It deserves to be filtered thru whatever funk resides in my digestive system on the way to the sewer 
! It has a nice red color, very little head, very little lace, and very low carbonation. A slight bitterness is perceivable but is assaulted by a combo of sweet malts and honey with a raisiny, figgy, dark fruity flavor and a full mouthfeel. I was hoping the addition of crystal rye would give me more of a dry, bready note but without a full fermentation, your not going to get dry and bready anyway you shake it. Not my favorite brew by far, but it is amazing how it turned out from a few months of bottle conditioning and I’m very glad to have not dumped it all down the drain!
Per an earlier post, part of this blog is to help me keep notes on my brews. From what I can gather, this was my recipe for the above-mentioned beer.
Ray’s Ridiculous Ryerish Red Ale
6 lbs Briess LME
6 lbs Clover Honey
1/2 pound crystal (60)
1/2 pound crystal rye
2 oz roasted barley
1 and 1/2 ounce vangaard (4.6) 60 mins
irish moss 15 mins
1/2 ounce glacier 5 mins
1/2 ounce glacier 0 mins
p.s.
My roommate’s boyfriend was drinking a bottle of “Sixth Glass Quadrupel” from Boulevard brewing company. It was strikingly similar to my ryerish red, just not quite as sweet. I may have to try this again with more oxygen infused into the wort, throw out the regular crystal and go all rye.
Bottles bottles everywhere, but not a drop to drink…yet.
Over the past few days I’ve gone through the arduous task of de-labeling and cleaning out well over sixty standard 12 oz’ers and a few dozen 32 ouncers, fancy bombers, etc. This used to be my least favorite part about brewing, however doing this monotonous task has invigorated me this time around. Maybe it’s all the ammonia i’ve been up to my elbows in but I’m pretty sure its the anticipation that everyone of those now empty and clean bottles will very soon be filled with tasty brew-ha-ha!
I’m just waiting on the buckwheat honey and the torrified wheat in the mail. The cyser will probably have to happen first as unpasturized, fresh apple cider will be unavailable soon.
Note to self: Random blue tupperware tub with 1 cup of ammonia and hot water removes damn near all labels after an overnight soak. (i’m a firm believer in better living thru chemistry if you get my drift!) Hooray Beer!
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