Sehr gut

After resting close to 2 weeks to ferment some more in the bottles I had to take a sample and the DK Bock is fabulous. It has good bottle carbonation now and really is colorful. Clear as day and so smooth. Shameless plug but just really impressed with the beer.

Cheers!

Weizenbier

On a whim today I went and bought a kit at Brew and Grow. It was a Brewer's Best Weizenbier for fairly cheap. I wanted something light and ready for May's summer awakening and the package sold me. If I get it going now it should be ready.

Though when I opened it up I didn't see any grains? Really? A wheat beer without grains to steep... something didn't add up. But after looking over the ingredient list sure enough it was the case. This will be too easy I thought so I went and bought 2lbs of honey to add to the recipe.

Initially I thought this would be an easy kit - and it was, but the water took forever to boil, 1hr 22 minutes to be exact. I easily could have saved time had I added hot water instead of cold to boil - lesson for next time.

All said and done I have a nice golden honey looking batch just ready to ferment. I had a sample and it tastes like the good soggy sweet milky leftover from an oversized bowl of Honey Nut Cherios. Tastey, I know. OG is sitting at 1.054.

mmm Märzen

I'm trying my hand at a Märzen - which is effectively an Oktoberfest bier brewed in the spring and lagered through the summer.  Whether we'll be able to wait until October to taste is another story.

It's a Brewer's Best specialty kit called Marzen Festbier.  I'm writing this after the brewing but I do know it was brewed around the first week of April.  I know the OG was about 1.058.  It was a lager beer so I started the fermentation in the room temps then transferred the carboy to the Kegerator on April 12th.  When I did the OG was sitting at 1.016, so I think that was about a week or so after I brewed it.  I had a noted that said it was brewed on April 2nd.... but that can't be right?  That was the day before Easter and I would have been black fasting.... something didn't add up, though I did have Good Friday off of work so it's possible.

Anyway it went into the Kegerator and I kept it in for quite a while.  Temps were about 38F and the airlock was clicking away nicely.

Terrace Pilsner

It's been a while since the last post, but not from lack of activity. In fact I have a whole bunch of new stuff to post just having trouble finding that precious time.

However this simply can't be bottled. For Easter I at the request of my brother I ventured into my first Pilsner beer. It was the Terrace Pilsner from the Wine & Hop Shop. I started the beer in early March and wanted to have it ready to keg for Mike to bring back and enjoy with Shari.

I cut it close and Good Friday turned into a long Friday (as I brewed a Marzen and also kegged the Pilsner). But I'm told the final product is acceptible to the Minnesotans. Even more impressive is that Mike turned his Sankey only tap into both Sankey and Corny - so now he can enjoy both and I get an excuse to brew more.

Some photos from the Terrace Pilsner project...