Long Time No See . . . Nico's Brewery Relocates!!!

Wow.  Hard to believe I haven't posted since December.  Far too long to go without an update, so this will be a long post.  Things have been a bit hectic, but no excuse.  We also moved north to Boston in February, and I haven't brewed in almost 6 months!  No worries though, the New England brewing scene is pretty sweet, and I found a great home brew store to frequent.  Check it out!  Homebrew Emporium

So, I packed up the truck (mostly with brewing equipment and my kegerator) and braved the hurricane-like weather up the east coast.  I was afraid of rain, but had no idea we would be driving thorough Wizard of Oz conditions.  Luckily, the plastic wrap protected my kegerator, and it's up and running as we speak.  Check it out.  I couldn't help but wonder what people thought I was transporting on I-95.

Once Andi, Tobey and I made it, I had to get my first batch out fast.  I decided on an English style pale ale but with American hops.  Simple and straight forward in case I encountered any hiccups at the new brewery.  I also decided to treat my water (Poland Spring) to mimic the traditional English water of Burton-on-Trent.  I found this article and table on Burtonizing Poland Springs Water See below. The high sulfate content should accent the malt and subdue the hops. 

Nico's Yankee Time Pale Ale
6 lbs. Optic malt (U.K.)
5 lbs. U.S. Two row pale malt
1 lb. flaked rye
1 lb. crystal 40L
.5 oz. Magnum @ 75 min.
2 oz. Centennial @ 15 min.
2 oz. Centennial @ 5 min.
1 pack Nottingham ale yeast rehydrated and pitched at 65F.

The brew day went well.  In fact, maybe the smoothest brew day ever.  I found a nice spot on the deck outside and the hose was right nearby.  Interestingly, I decided to disassemble and clean my Barley Crusher malt mill.  It had a bit of rust I wanted to brush off, and I decided to lessen the gap between the rollers, which had always been set at the factory setting.

The adjustment gave me a slightly finer crush, and I got a huge boost in efficiency (may also be in part to my water treatment).  I had anticipated my OG to be around 1.050-1.055, but it turned out to be a whopping 1.070.  I added some extra water to the boil and everything finished up at 1.065.  Turns out I made more of an ESB/English style IPA.  Not what I was aiming for, but not worries.  After all, this is Happy Brew with Nico!

The sparge.  Probably the most use I've gotten out of Black's Law Dictionary in a while!

 The boil.   

Final product!!!  (sweet glass thanks to Andi and Lily).  The beer ended up tasting quite English despite my judicious use of America hops.  I think this occurred because of my water salt additions and goes to show how important water chemistry is when you try to brew a certain style.  The final beer clocked in at about 7.5% abv and had a pleasant maltiness (though not cloyingly sweet).  The perfect celebration beer for my inaugural brew in New England!

 

I think the high alcohol made Tobey sleepy.  Up-coming post:  CLASSIC AMERICAN PILS!!!

Sun Harvest IPA and a Mess on the Stove

With Andi's parents coming in town for Thanksgiving this year, I was hard-pressed to get some good beer on tap in time.  Luckily, the Sun Harvest IPA brewed on November 7th was ready.  I ended up dry hopping the batch with 1 1/2 oz. of Citra in the carboy for 10 days followed by 1 1/2 oz. Citra in the keg. 

The beer came out with a FG of 1.010.  Dry, but the rye gives it a nice mouthfeel.  It's a nice golden color with a pungent hop aroma.  The Citra hop is very interesting.  Tropical flavors like mango, pineapple, and citrus abound.  Pleasant firm bitterness and dry finish with  just a hint of malt.  The dry hopping really brought out the hop aroma and perceived flavor in this beer.  I'm glad I purchased a pound of these hops, and I'm looking forward to using them in conjunction with my other staples of Amarillo and Centennial.  YUM.

The other day I decided to open a bottle of Russian River Consecration.  I thought it would go well with the mussels Andi and I were cooking for dinner.  Consecration is a sour beer aged in oak barrels with currants added.  It's brewed with Brett, Pedio, and Lacto among other things.  I kept it for about one year since I got it in the mail back in Virginia.  It's one of my favorite beers.  By the way, our dinner fucking rocked!

Since I love this beer, I decided to use the dregs and add them to a batch of sour beer that is aging in the fermentation room.  Basically, I add the dregs to a small gravity starter that has been boiled on the stove and cooled.  I'll check for activity after a few days and add it to my sour beer.

 

Here's a mixture of about 100 ml of water with 100 g of light dry malt extract.  Let this come to a boil to sanitize and then cool it down.  I decided to take a picture of the Consecration bottle as this was approaching a boil.  Check out the pic below.

It's a great shot of the bottle but an even better view of Andi's sweet ass.  I was mesmerized and forgot about the flask of wort boiling on the stove.  Here's what happened...

Oh well.  It was worth it!

I hope everyone out there had a great Thanksgiving while understanding that ours was probably better.  You just can't beat fried turkey.  Ask Lily. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! 

Brew Day - Nico's Hop Experiment

 

Last Friday I received an order from Freshops!  I am a longtime customer and have always been happy with their selection and quality.   Along with 8 oz. each of Amarillo and Centennial, I opted to try a new hop called Citra.  It's supposed to be jam packed with tropical flavor and aroma and is currently all the rage.  Needless to say when I opened the bag, I was not disappointed.  These hops are DANK.  I left the pound ziplock baggie open inside while I was hopping the IPA I brewed today, and when I returned inside, the living room smelled like hops.  AMAZING.

On to the brew day!  I was so excited to get these new Citra hops that I decided to give them a whirl in a single hop IPA.  This way I will get an idea of the flavor and aroma and other aspects of this hop without interference from other varieties.  Here's my recipe.  My online free brew calculator has me shooting for an OG of 1.063.

Nico's Sun Harvest IPA 11/07/2011

5.5 gallon batch

10 lbs. Rahr pale malt

2 lbs. Flaked Rye from Whole Foods

.5 lbs. Crystal 40L

Irish Moss at last 15 minutes of boil

Mash at 148F for 60 minutes. 

.5 oz. Citra @ 75 minutes

1 oz. Citra @ 10 minutes

2 oz. Citra @ 5 minutes

2 oz. Citra @ flameout

Nottingham Dry Yeast rehydrated and pitched into wort at ~60F.

Damn these hops smell good!

I decided to leave the detailed instruction and photographs out of this post and future brew day posts.  If you would like to see more instruction, check out Nico's Hoppy Wheat Treat from October 2011.

I cracked the grain and put the water on for the mash.  I wanted a lower mash temperature this time because I like a dry IPA.  I opted for 148F.

The mash sat for an hour as I did some other things around the house.  Andi and I have stripped and painted a china closet (we removed the top).  So I took this time to put on the final coat.  I think it looks good.

Tobey was tired and wasn't much help brewing today.  Between you and me, I think he did too many beer reviews last night.

Once the mash and sparge were complete, I decided to take a pre-boil gravity reading.  It came in at 1.050.  I think I'm right on so far.  With a 60 or 75 minute boil, I should be right around the 1.060 mark.  Andi wasn't much help either today...

NICO TIP

When you place a copper immersion chiller into boiling wort, make sure that the outlet tube ends are pointed away from you.  You may have inadvertently left a small amount of water inside the chiller and steam burns suck.  Use your head.

Anyways, I boiled the wort for about 75 minutes and added a ton of hops during the last 10 minutes of the boil.  Then, I whirlpooled the wort and let sit for about 20 minutes before I drained it.  

Check out how clear my false bottom gets my wort.  Damn sexy.

Once the carboy was full, I carried it up to the fermentation room.  I placed it in an ice water bath to cool it down since it was around 85F.

 

 Damn, that's a lot of spent hops.  I pulled some to the side so you can see the depth!

In the carboy pic above, I pulled off a bit of the wort so that I can test the gravity post-boil.  Below, I am taking a temperature reading and then checking the gravity.  I knew the wort was warm at the time, so it is necessary to adjust the specific gravity value depending on the wort's temperature.  It was 80F.  The OG turned out to be almost exactly 1.060 (adjusted for 80F, it's 1.062).  Dead-on!  BOO-YAH!!!

Nico's Dry Yeast Pitching Treatise

After a few hours in the ice water bath, it's time to rehydrate and pitch the yeast.  My equipment is below.  

Nico's Dry Yeast Pitching Method is the best.  Nico says so.  If you don't like it, don't do it.  You'll just be making inferior product.

Get one bottle of spring water, swab the top with rubbing alcohol, dump out (and drink) 1/2 to 3/4 of the bottle, alcohol swab the dry yeast packet and scissors, cut the packet and dump into the water bottle.  Put the cap back on, tighten, and shake.  Let it sit for about 15-20 minutes, shaking intermittently.  Pitch into your wort.

It's just that simple and that bad-ass.  Check out some action shots below.

I'm really looking forward to this IPA.  Updates to follow!

Kegging Time!

Well, it's been almost a month since I brewed Nico's Hoppy Wheat Treat, and now it's time to put it in the keg!  I carried the full carboy down from my fermentation room to the kitchen and placed it on the counter top.

All that I need to siphon the beer out of the carboy and into the keg is an autosiphon, tubing, StarSan sanitizer and a keg.  Check it out.  In case you're wondering, the metal thing in the left hand lower corner is the top hatch removed from the keg.  I also have a bag of Centennial hops in the pic.

Looks like it's time to remove the empty keg from my kegerator, clean, and sanitize!  Below you can see the guts of my kegerator.  I will be removing the black keg.  In the pic I have already disconnected the grey gas line and black beer line from the keg.  The CO2 cylinder is in the right of the pic and attached to that is my pressure regulator which allows me to control the pressure in the kegs.

Now, it's time to clean the keg.  First, I remove the lid and spray in some water with my garden hose.  This loosens up any sediment at the bottom of the keg.  I'll dump out the water and repeat a few times.  Next, I fill the keg with one gallon of hot water and one tablespoon of One-Step Cleaner (a powdered no-rinse cleaner).  Seal the keg up, pump in a few pounds of CO2 to ensure a good seal, and shake for about a minute.  Then, I hook up the keg to the kegerator and pump out the dirty cleaning solution.  See below.  The Erlenmeyer flask is under the faucet to catch the dirty solution once I pump it out of the keg.

I repeat the process but use StarSan solution (sanitizer) once more.  Seal, shake, and drain baby.

Here's a Nico Tip: after shaking the keg up with StarSan, go work-out or have sex, then drain it.  This extra time will allow the StarSan's foam to dissipate and not remain inside the keg.  Now, for what everyone has been waiting for!

SIPHON TIME!!!

Remove the airlock from the carboy and place the autosiphon into the beer.  Pump it once and the siphon should begin.  Make sure the other end of your tubing is in the keg, or you will have one hell of a mess on your hands.  Also, your autosiphon or anything that touches the beer at this point should be sanitized (gotta love StarSan in a spray bottle).  Remember to spray the inside and outside of the tubing and autosiphon because Nico says so.  Check out the whole process below!

After a few minutes, the siphon is complete and the keg is ready to seal.  But first, I decided to "keg hop" this batch.  Keg hopping is a version of dry hopping where hops are placed inside the keg (rather than the carboy) to increase hop aroma and perceived hop flavor. 

I could just throw some hops into the keg and be done with it.  But, the keg would probably clog and Andi would get mad with all my swearing.  So, I decided to fill a tea ball with an ounce of Centennial hops.  First, I boiled the empty tea ball to kill any nasties.

Then I stuff an ounce of hops inside the tea ball, seal, and place it inside the keg.  The tea ball will keep the hops from creating havoc with the keg's inner workings.

Since I opted to keg hop this batch, I think it will benefit from a few days at room temperature to allow the hops' aroma to infuse better into the beer.  Otherwise, I would just crank up the regulator's pressure to around 30 psi, shake up the keg, place it all inside the kegerator, and wait a day.  The keg is now resting comfortably in the kitchen corner for a few days.

A few more days and Nico's Hoppy Wheat Treat will be ready to drink!  BOO-YAH!!!

First Beer Review - Hopmore 69

Tobey has really been bugging me to add a beer review section to my blog, especially since he loves writing beer reviews and loves drinking beer.  So, I have given him free-reign to launch a beer review section to the blog.  We have decided to only review homebrewed beer, so feel free to send us samples!

The inaugural review will be of Hopmore 69, an American IPA brewed in Charlottesville, Virginia by my friend, Kevin.  He is an excellent new brewer with some riveting ideas and is also a fellow blogger (check out "The Homebrew Project" on my Blog List).  He sent me a few bottles this past Friday.  I'm looking forward to his wife's Honey Chamomile Wheat.

Hopmore 69 
Brewed on August 27, 2011
Tasted on October 29, 2011
Original Gravity (OG): 1.069
Final Gravity (FG): 1.016
ABV: 7.1% 

Poured from the classic homebrew vessel (12 oz. brown bottle) into my sweet Sam Adams glass that Lily stole for me.  Pleasant hiss as I popped the cap.  Cloudy, reddish, rust brown color.  Billowy tan head with excellent retention.  Check out the pic.

Pleasant hop aroma.  Piney.  The aroma reminds me of the Cascade hops I grew back when I lived in Virginia.  Strong carbonation gives the beer a nice bite.  Refreshing for an IPA.  Not as hop forward as some IPA's are now.  The beauty is in the balance for this beer.  The hop flavor leads into a slight malty sweetness and finishes with a firm bitterness that lets you know you are drinking an IPA.  Medium body and on the drier side.  Beautiful lacing on the glass.  Perfect attenuation for his first brew!  Very drinkable and an overall excellent beer.

Tobey enjoyed the beer, but was still mad that I didn't bring back the armadillo that was walking under my truck when I left work!

Time to Check Gravity! (update on Nico's Hoppy Wheat Treat)

Well, it's been five days since I pitched yeast into Nico's Hoppy Wheat Treat, and it's time to check the gravity and see how things are going.  This is an exciting time, as I get to taste the beer for the first time (it's no longer wort!).  The beer "looks" good.  The Krausen has fallen, and there are clumps of yeast floating on the top of the beer.  Check it out.

Basically, I grab my thief, graduated cylinder, hydrometer, and StarSan sanitizer spray and head upstairs to the fermentation room.  In case you don't know, a thief is a tool used to take samples from a barrel or carboy.  It's ultra convenient and a must have in my book.  Check it out below.  I've sprayed it down with sanitizer inside and out, so it's ready to go. 

 All I do is place the thief inside the carboy and jiggle up and down.  There is a one-way valve pin at the bottom that allows it to capture liquids without releasing them.  Here's the thief in action.

Once I have enough beer for a gravity reading, I drain it into my graduated cylinder and place the hydrometer inside.  I'm expecting something in the 1.010 area given my mash temperature, ingredients, yeast, and experience.  Time to take a gravity reading!

The gravity is around 1.006.  A bit lower than anticipated, but no problem.  After all, this is "HAPPY BREW WITH NICO!"  This gravity reading tells me that fermentation is complete.  I'll let the beer sit on the yeast cake (yeast accumulated at the bottom of the carboy) for at least one week, most likely two.  This will ensure that the yeast clean up the beer and also drop out of suspension prior to kegging.  I am not sure if I will dry hop at this point (I'm out of Amarillo!).

The sample was delicious.  Despite the low gravity reading, the 3.5 lbs. of wheat have yielded a beer with good mouthfeel and some body.  The Amarillo hops have done their job, and there is a big grapefruit aroma and flavor.  Just a subtle lingering bitterness.  Spot on for what I was going for.  I can't wait to keg this one!

I've also taken this opportunity to remove the aluminum foil and place a rubber stopper with airlock in place.  This is not absolutely necessary, but it's good practice and I like to see the bubbles.  It's filled with sanitizer.  Here it is in place. 

Now I just have to finish one of my kegs to make room for this one!

Da Balls!

Check out my beer room and kegerator (I made it myself).  It's DA BALLS!  On tap now are a Peach Wheat Ale brewed with 7 lbs. of fresh peaches and the House IPA.  Yum....