Dark APA.

Yep. Another beer! :)  Again, special thanks to Mike at Brew & Grow, Roselle, IL.  This one has been a long time coming.  Marlon has wanted to make this beer for about a year.

Today we bought a kettle thermometer and a hydrometer.  The kettle thermometer is a new gadget and obviously the most exciting of the two purchases.  This means we can get a better read on the grains and tea during the extraction. The hydrometer means that we can make a more reproducible beer (and I get to be all scientific bout it).

So the grain bill for today’s beer was:

½ lb debittered

½ lb chocolate

5lb German Munich

5lb 2 row

1lb flaked oats

1lb 60 Crystal

1 ¾ oz cascade hops

1oz Centenial hops

With this beer we wanted to try something a little different.  We wanted to try and cold steep our dark grains.  So, the day before the brew process started we drew a full bucket of water and allowed it to sit overnight with the ¼ campden tablet.  Then we took our 1lb of combined dark grains and sat them in just under a gallon of water overnight in the fridge.

On brew day; we took around three gallons of water and heated it to 150F and added the remaining grains.

We turned up the heat to bring up the kettle up to 160F for our extraction.  As the kettle was approaching the temperature it jumped suddenly to around 200F (we know this because our shiney new thermometer told us so) so we gently turned the grains over which helped the temperature drop and added a splash of cold water.  The beer was saved!  Once the kettle had stabilized we extracted at 160F for 1 hour.

Then, we transfer the liquid to the bucket and sparge the grains to wash the last of the extracted sugars into the beer; our final volume was about 6.5 gallons.

We then wash the kettle and get rid of the grains and siphon the liquid (wort) back into the kettle. And now to boil!  At the beginning of the boil we add 1oz of centinial hops.

After 45 mins we add ¾ oz cascade hops, the cold extraction liquid and the chiller to the boil.

We paused the timer here because the temprature dropped and we lost our boil.  Once the boil was back, we restarted the timer.

Once the hour was up we attached the cooler to the water and chilled the beer to room temperature (check the yeast package for exact measurements).  At this stage everything is sterilized prior to use and the yeast is pitched into the bucket with the cooled beer.  The yeast wasn't as active as usual probably because it had sat in our fridge for a couple of weeks however, the package did swell indicating active yeast.

Our hydrometer reading was 1.06 at 81F with a volume of 5.25 Gal.  If we can achieve complete conversion we expect a beer in the 8.5% alcohol range.

At bottling our hydrometer reading was 1.014 at 77F.

Orange Wit beer

Firstly, I have to mention this AWESOME guy called Mike at Brew and Grow in Roselle, IL.  He is the reason we can make yummie beer.  You go in there, take a few beers, reminisce over beers that you enjoy and a recipe develops.  This guy is just the best.  If you're near there drop by and say Hi.  They also give generous samples ;)

So the recipe we used for this beer is as follows:
5lb Pilsner malt (Rahr)
1lb flaked oats
2lb malted white wheat
2lb unmalted torrifies
1tsp amalyse enzyme
1/2oz corriander
1/2oz dried orange peel
3/8 oz cascade hops
Wyeast #3944 belgian Whit

While picking up the grains at the store, visiting with the guys and sipping our samples we grind up our grains.  There is a hand mill in store and this is my purpose in life ;)

The night before brewing we draw seven gallons of water (as much as much as the bucket can hold).  Then we add ¼ of a campden tablet; this is to bind the chloramine in the water since our water comes from a city source.  The Cl- ions will evaporate as gas overnight.  The tablet does help with Cl- ions too.

Now on brew day, we heat up about 3 gallons of water to 155F then we add our grains to the water which causes a drop in temperature; 

so, we continue to heat until we achieve 150F and then add 1 tablespoon of amylase (because it’s a wheat beer and 1 tablespoon because i can't tell the difference between a table- and tea-spoon) and then hold for one hour.  This extraction will result in a medium to dry beer.

Next, we transfer the liquid to the bucket and sparge the grains to wash the last of the deliciousness into the beer; this adjusts the volume to 6 gallons with the expectation that we will boil one gallon away.

We then wash the kettle, get rid of the grains and siphon the liquid (wort) back into the kettle.  At this stage it is important not to get too much air mixed into the wort.

Next we boil!  We bring the whole kettle to a rolling boil and add ¼ oz of the cascade hops.  Then 15 minutes into the boil we added the ½ oz orange peel and ½ oz of coriander seed. 

Here we're using sweet and bitter orange peel at 50:50. The final weight remains constant, we just felt like changing it up a little!

Then in the last 15 minutes of the boil we add the 1/8 oz cascade hops, a whirlfloc tablet and put the chiller into the beer to sterilize.

At the beginning of the boil, we popped the yeast package in order to bloom the yeast.  After the 1 hour boil the bag was looking very puffy.

Once the hour is up we attach the chiller to the water and chill the beer to room temperature (check the yeast package for exact measurements).  At this stage everything is sterilized prior to use (hoses, buckets, yeast packages, EVERYTHING!)  The beer is transferred into the fermentation bucket with lots of agitation.  Air is very useful here to get the yeast started before they turn all those sugars we’ve just extracted into alcohol.  We then pitch the yeast and close the bucket until it has mostly stopped bubbling (this takes about a week).

Once the beer has completed it’s most active fermentation we transfer it into secondary; at this stage we are trying to separate out much yeast form the beer.  If you’re not bothered about yeast then you can leave out this filtering step.

Once the fermentation is completed we transfer our beer to bottles.  There is a sterilize setting on our dishwasher and this is how we prepare our bottles.

We mix 3oz of priming sugar with a little water and heat.  Once we achieve boil we close the pan (with the lid) and continue to boil for 15 mins to sterilize.  Once cooled we transfer the sugar and the beer back into the sterilized bucket.  

Here we give it a really good stir to put air back into the beer and help wake up the yeast so that they can put the carbon dioxide into the beer.  Then we use a little widget to bottle.  

Now we wait at least 3 weeks to pop the beer and enjoy.

HOLY GUACAMOLE!

 This is too good (and easy) to be true.  But like all perfections there’s a snag; avocados while a fruit, are very calorific.  But this is just lush. PLEASE try this!

The players:

2 ripe avacados

½ red onion

1 ripe tomato (at least seeded preferably but not obligatory skinned);

Some fresh cilantro (coriander for those in Europe);

1 Serrano pepper;

Juice of ½ lime;

Garlic salt.

So this really is the work of minutes.

First finely shop the ½ red onion;

then the tomato;

 and the chili;

Next, scoop the flesh out of the avocados

 and cut each half into 4.  This will leave big chunks which will break down in a moment when we mix everything together.

 And roughly chop the cilantro (coriander leaf).

 Now we mix!  Stir everything together and add the juice of the ½ lime and garlic salt to taste.

 All that’s left to do is share with a few friends over a beer or two!

The Mutt’s Nuts.

As you know nuts are a yummie source of protein and essential oils.  So how could they get any better?  By caramelizing them!  These nuts are so good, thy really are the Mutt’s Nut’s.

Sorry, no group of ingredients photo.  But, you will need

550g Pecans

1 cup brown sugar

½ stick of cinnamon (ground up)

3 Tablespoons of water

½ teaspoon salt

2Tablespoons of vanilla

Then;

Melt the sugar and water, just to get the sugar dissolved.

Add the pecans and stir into the sugar

Boil this until it clumps or that the sugar at the bottom is no longer runny.  At this point the sugar will stick to the nuts and coat them.

Turn off the heat.  Add the vanilla and cinnamon.  Stir it all up and then spread the nuts out on a baking sheet and bake at 350F for 10 mins.

Once they’re all baked and golden cool and store in an airtight tin.  YUM!

Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes.

When you need help at work you need to thank people for the help.  How better than chocolate cupcakes?

These are those in Nigella Lawson's Domestic Goddess cookbook:

Ingredients:

125g unsalted butter (1stick + 1T)

100g chocolate chunks (2/3 cup)

300g cherry jam (1 jar)

150g caster sugar (2/3 cup)

2 large eggs (3 medium)

150g self-raising flour (1cup)

So once all the ingredients were found in the cupboards, the oven was heated to 180C/355F.

Then, melt the butter and once almost all melted add the chocolate count to 10 and turn out the heat.  Stir to complete the melting and make a velvety smooth mixture.

The add the jam, sugar and eggs.

Then sift in the flour.

Stir together, and spoon into 12 muffin cases.

Bake for 25 mins until toothpick comes out clean.  Rest in tin for 10 min, cool on rack.

To make topping melt together

100g dark chocolate (2/3 cup)

100ml half and half (2/3 cup)

15g butter (1T)

Top the cupcakes and thank all colleagues.