Verkenbrau 7.0

Okay, this is my first brew in a while and my first since publishing the blog. For now I'm happy posting the recipes and my general notes/comments on each one. Please feel free to comment or make suggestions about my beer or my blog. Enjoy a Verkenbrau.

Batch 9 - in progress, started 11/8/09
Verkenbrau 7.0
IPA or American Pale Ale (depending on how hoppy my hops turn out to be)

Frist brew at the new house. It’s been a while…I’m a little rusty. Just finished posting on the blog & was inspired to get back to brewing. Hoping the hops weren’t sitting out too long. They were harvested back in September(?) and have been exposed to the air in the garage ever since. I added the DME to this brew to make it a little maltier than previous batches. In the end I hoped there would be more hops, but there is something to be said for using only what we grew on our own. Special thanks to the Kraljevs for growing the things as well as to Jim and Heather for supplying the special fertilizer that made of one of the two vines so productive. Man, that fertilizer stuff was amazing. I’m thinking about rubbing it all over my body to see what happens. Maybe I’ll be able to paint beautifully realistic landscapes with a brush made from my own hair. Then make a production facility where I enslave children for cheap labor. Anyways…here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:
7.0 lb light malt extract
1 lb light dry malt extract
1 lb American Crystal Malt 20L
Unknown amount of Cascade hops –approx 3 oz? Total yield from Nick’s backyard. 1st year of growth from rhizomes.
1 tube WL p060 American Ale yeast
1 tbs Irish moss

Boil volume 2 gallons, steeped grain in a bag & then added dry & liquid malt extract. Brought to a boil and added roughly 2/3 of the hops and Irish moss. Boiled 30 min & then added remainder of the hops. Chilled in the sink w/ ice. Added enough cold tapwater to bring total volume to 5+ gallons. Pitched yeast when under 80 degrees. Will ferment for a week in primary (plastic) and then siphon to secondary (glass) for another week or so. Next time I’ll have a propane burner to use instead of my stove. I'm looking forward to expanding production into my garage. Verkenbrau production will surely be up several percent.

24 hours in I'm nervous. No action in the fermenter. So, I move it upstairs, wrap it in a magical blanket & turn up the furnace to 68 degrees. One of these days I'll turn into a more technically sound brewer with constant temperature and gravity readings, but i'm not there yet. I'm still of the belief that if I take the same basic ingredients and brew them in fairly similar environments the results will be the same. Maybe that shits on the 'craft brewers' but damn...people have been making this stuff for thousands of years. "when I find something that works, I stick to it" like John Candy dropping so many pennies underneath ladies in dresses....

After moving to a more sub-tropical climate the brew is bubbling, & the out-gassing already tells me that the yeasty presence of most batches will not be present. I think we're in for a malty, subtly hoppy and clean tasting beer. Something i think I will enjoy. We'll see....

After three weeks in the primary I bottled. Fermentation never really got going wholeheartedly, but it should be ready to go. I primed with a cup & a quarter of corn sugar just to be sure, hopefully no exploding bottles.

Three weeks after bottling it is ready. It is a little on the sweet side but the yeast is still working it's magic. We've got some gushers, so it's best to chill all the bottles.

Four weeks in & the yeast did its job. This is an amazingly smooth, but full-bodied beer. The yeast has a nice subtle tang to it. No hoppiness at all, a very good, slightly malty brew. Good work.