Chamomille IPA

After a longer than expected hiatus, moving can be quite time consuming, we are brewing again. Our last two beers had been a Chamomile IPA, which is almost ready to be bottled, and an Orange Coriander American Wheat. The Chamomile IPA is a Chinook IPA from Northern Brewer with a little twist, we added half a gallon of Chamomile and half a pound of honey.

Regarding the half gallon of Chamomille, just note that what we added was a very strong half gallon, we are lucky to live close to Harvestime foods and they sell 1 oz. Chamomile bags for little more than $1.50, so we put the whole thing to boil.

The recipe:

0.75 lbs. Dingemans Caramel Pils

0.25 lbs Briess Caramel 120

6 lbs Pilsen malt syrup

1 lb dry malt extract

3 oz. Chinook (1 oz. boils for 60 mins, 1 oz. 10 mins before the end of the boil and 1 oz. finishing hops about 1 min. before the end of the boil)

1 oz. Chamomile

0.5 lbs honey

Wyeast 1056 American Ale

The original gravity is 1.054 and after two weeks we put it into secondary fermentation for about six more weeks. We want to bottle it sometime this week and will be posting a review around mid June.

Oriental Amber

It's 10:30a.m. on Sunday morning and this has been our morning agenda:

• Brew coffee, drink coffee.
• Eat breakfast.
• Sanitize beer equipment.
• Wash dishes.
• Clean kitchen.
• Begin brewing process.
• Scan photos.
• Listen to NPR.
• Brew.
• Clean kitchen.
• Wash floors.

It has been a busy morning. We woke up this morning on the creative side of the bed. (Beer translation: Instead of following a recipe book or using a kit, we decided to make our own experimental amber ale.)

We have loads of tea and have enjoyed adding it to our brews. (Past batches have included: hibiscus green tea wheat, sangria tea ale & white tea steam). Today we decided to go with an oriental tea straight from the non-homelands of Germany (Rotbuschtee Orientalische).

Without further ado here is the recipe. (Please note: This is an experimental amber, and while we are confident it will turn out delicious, we aren't making any promises :)).

1 lb. crystal medium

6.6 lb. amber malt extract

.5 ga. Rotbuschtee Orientalische tea (steep apart from wort until very strong & add with boiling hops)

1 lb. honey (add with finishing hops)

1 oz. amarillo hops (boiling)

1 oz. cascade hops (finishing)

1056 American ale liquid yeast (Wyeast)

OG: 1.052

Do let us know if you have any questions. We'll be sure to post our review of the final product in the months to come.

30 Days of Creativity - Day 11: Brew Day

A marvelous day. The laundry is done and a batch of beer has been brewed all before noon. Score!

We have been slacking lately on our homebrewing. Mostly because some of our gear is at my parent's house, and also because our apartment has been hot. It seemed to have cooled off in the last week, so we figured we had better take advantage of the situation before it's too late. After all, this dunkelweizen could be our last brew for the summer. (*sigh)

We are in love with the Northern Brewer kits. We got this kit at their Milwaukee location; it was affordable and an extremely easy recipe. If you are a first-timer, I would highly recommend using this kit. When we first started brewing we used some really funky kits. The beer was horrible. We've advanced since then - thank goodness!

While we admit not a whole lot of creativity went into this recipe (as we followed it verbatim), that is not normally how we roll. We've been really into doing tea beers lately, and are hoping to do one more of those before it gets too hot to turn our stove on. [Our last brew - a white tea steam beer - turned out delicious.]

So here's to homebrewing and the weekend. Prost!

Sidetracked & how to drink a beer.

I had every intention of writing something on here earlier today, but then I got sidetracked. That has been happening a lot lately. I make a "to-do" list and before I can even start it my day is booked. I guess I could be sitting around watching soaps and eating donuts, so it's not all bad. (Someday, even if it's not my style maybe I will do that :P). I just really want to finish everything on my list. Maybe tomorrow?

My plan was to post a recipe and tutorial for making Spanish tortilla today. Too bad we didn't have all the ingredients at home. (This is sad since the recipe is so basic. You'll see soon enough just how simple it is.)

As I am thinking about "to-do" lists, I got to thinking about the photo above. First off, New Belgium makes a darn good Mothership Wit. Perhaps the best part - it includes directions on how to drink the beverage. It's not just a pour, sip and enjoy. It is now a pour, swirl, pour, sip and enjoy. Is this too many steps for the thirsty? Well, it's worth it; so, just do it.

On another brewing note. I hate to confirm it, but I think it is officially too warm in our apartment to brew over the summer. That is unless we don't mind keeping a bath tub full of ice cubes through the fermentation process. Hmmm... tempting. We could always just shower at the gym, right? I am curious though - how "hot" is too hot? Obviously you run the risk of bacterias and other pesky "added flavor" components with the heat, but if you are diligent about running a clean ship does it matter? I'd love to know.

And that is all for my Wednesday ramble. Look for the recipe later this week. Cheers to beer instructables!

Say "ahhh"

Nope, we are not sick; we are just recovering. We are recovering from packed, in fact over-packed, schedules these last few months. Looking forward for the warm breeze and the chance to relax (perhaps with a homebrew) outside by the lake.

We took a leisurely walk down by the lake this evening. It was wonderful and so nice to see so many other people doing the same thing. I sometimes forget that we live in a big city after being surrounded by our very quaint neighborhood away from the hustle and bustle. It sure is nice to have a balance of both worlds. At some point this summer we are going to get some shots of the sunrise over the Chicago skyline.

Well, back to unwinding and relaxing.

+ I love the above photo from Festifools. I think I love it so much because I so often stick my tongue out in photos. This helps remind me how ridiculous it looks sometimes. It also makes me laugh. :)

solace (does it = beer?)

It's a black and white kind of day. Not for any particular reason, it just is.

We've been a moving target for the past month. It almost seems like we haven't been around at all on weekends, and when we are we have to play catch up from not being around. Through it all we've managed to keep our shelves stocked with homebrews (to the tune of 200+ bottles).

We're getting nervous as the summer approaches, as our place may be too warm for brewing. We just have to wait and see. We got a Dunkelweizen kit at Northern Brewer this weekend, and are hoping to at least add that one to our collection.

Yesterday we went to the AHA Homebrew Rally at Lakefront Brewery. Not only was the beer good (as always!), but it was nice to meet other homebrewers. I was surprised by the diversity of homebrewers. Folks of all ages. So refreshing to see so many beer lovers. Perhaps the best part: Getting free wort (Riverwest Stein to be exact) from Lakefront. Woot, woot! We just paid off our membership for the year with that wort. We cannot wait to enjoy it.

All this talk about beer is making me thirsty. Cheers to the start of a new week!

Back on track.

One way I have been able to gauge being "settled" in a new city and new apartment has been getting back into brewing. On a side note, we also realized that our reserves from previous batches (sangria tea ale, orange coriander wheat..etc.) were quickly dwindling. This helped expedite getting settled.

In many senses, brewing is just as "therapeutic" to me as baking. The one main different is time. Baking, thankfully!, only takes at the most a day to complete. Brewing on the other hand, requires patience, and at the very least 1 month to complete. I found each very difficult to mess up, but following directions and knowing the process is key.

We've got quite the pantry fermenting happily. Our spicy hard cider is bottled and will be ready to enjoy this fall. (See what I mean about patience?). Our belgium tripple is nearing the end of its secondary fermentation. Our raspberry slow stout (RSS) is almost ready for secondary fermentation.

I was thinking last week as the RSS was taking forever to start fermenting on just how much I enjoy the whole process. And, when I say whole process I mean it. Drinking your masterpiece is the big payoff, but having an adult science experiment in the house is exhilarating!

I have to laugh now as I was panicking that the yeast hadn't started to kick in 24+ hours after it was pitched. I realize now that this is not uncommon for stouts, especially when they contain lactose. This certainly is something I will keep in mind in the future. I look forward to learning more tips of the trade from the American Homebrewers Association. (We just got our membership!).

Now if only we knew what we'd like to brew next? We've got a couple recipes up our sleeve, as well as some exciting ideas, but we are certainly open for suggestions. Cheers!