Bottling Split-Log Porter

After kegging the Kream Ale I decided to bottle the Porter I had brewed in November and aged on oak cubes until yesterday. During the process I would regularly "check in" to see how it was progressing. Unfortunately, every time I took a sample there was a very astringent, puckering, heavy tannin, medicinal woody smell and taste. Hoping the flavors would be corrected over time I let it age longer than normal. While the flavors did mellow out, it is still off somehow. This was my first experiment at oak aging and I have a lot to lear. I enjoy barrel aged beers and wanted to replicate that. One of the thinks I recall in this process is coming to the realization that breweries most often reuse old Bourbon barrels which impart their unique qualities. My beer was lacking in that catagory so next time I decide to age a beer on oak cubes, I'm pre-soaking them in Boubon to draw out that flavor. I learned this one night while frequenting my watering hole. I struck up a conversation with a guy who happened to be a fellow home brewer. I told me he did this one time and the beer turned out alright...so it's worth a try at least.


I enjoy bottling, but the cleaning gets old quick. That is way kegging is probably quicker and easier, but after my experience last night I more comfortable sticking to bottling.
So it was an eventful evening upon the completion of kegging and botteling both beers.

I ended the night with a sense of accomplishment and excited to move on to the next series. I think I'm going to brew each one seperately so I can watch them more carefully and give them my full attention. In two weeks both the keg and bottles should be ready so consumption.

As you can see to the right I enjoy putting labels on my fermenting buckets and keg. I think it adds a nice touch (kind of like a well traveled suitcase). Oh! During bottling I found out that Pilsner Urquell and Peroni bottles do not work. They do not have a lip for the cap press to grab onto so don't save them for homebrew.

Lately, I've been reading up on some interesting beer blogs and realized that I need to perfect my craft and grow as a homebrewer (unfortunatly, as with most hobbies, that requires cash). The best beer I've brewed to date was Common Place. I'm finding that I want to brew that beer over a couple times and perfect my recipe and quality of product. Do some experiments with hopping, use a partial mash, and explore better grains to use would all be interesting to me.
I think I might interrupt my next series of brews to attempt a second batch of Common Place...we'll see.

Happy Valentine's Day and Happy Home Brewing!

Kegged the Kream Ale

So after about 3 months I finally got around to doing something with my remaining beers I have been lagering. I brewed Kitchen Sink Kream Ale on 11/28/09 and left it to take care of itself. I sporadically check in on it to take gravity readings which have been consistent since early January. That sample had major hints of DMS making me think I used to much Maize in the brew. Thinking that time would fix this issue I forgot about in the basement for over a month.

Today I decided that enough time had gone by not to mention I wanted to free up a carboy. I recently bought my first keg and had attempted to keg a half batch of my Marzen. This did not turn out the way I hoped. The seal leaked and after numerous efforts to stop the bleeding I gave up. I ran out to the homebrew shop and picked up some supplies and gave it another go. Under the advise to put a lube on the seal I went with some glycerin and that seemed to do the trick.

I racked the 5 gal. batch of Kitchen Kream into the keg and sealed it up. My F.G. ended up being 1.006. I did not expect this brew to be a big beer as much as it is an experiment. Still trying to work on my lagering skills and getting use to this whole kegging system (which is not that hard). The beer smelled fruity, had some hop notes, and still contained some DMS. After a couple sips it tasted and smelled similar to a plastic toy or packing. We'll see how it turns out after 2 weeks of conditioning and getting the keg operating smooth.