Hop, Yeast, and Bottle Label

21 May 2010
Spent a little time getting some beer stuff done.

The Hops are getting big enough to start climbing. Moved the pots and ran the twine up to the roof.

Another view.

Finished up the yeast wrangling. It took me two days to get all the junk out and harvest just the healthy yeast. I will be able to use this the next time I make another five gallon batch of Captain Griff's Castle.

Printed up some labels for my "Captain Griff's Castle Brown Ale."

Happy Yeast

12 May 2010

My first draft of the label for the "Captain Griff's Castle" brew.

Beer in the primary fermentation carboy at the 12 hour mark.

Beer in the primary fermentation carboy at the 36 hour mark.

Yeast activity at 24 hours.

Yeast activity at 36 hours.

Captain Griff's Castle

10 May 2010
Brewed up some Brown Ale for Griff.

This is a clone kit. It clones Newcastle Brown Ale

Drinking a Newcastle while making "Captain Griff's Castle"

Steeping grains. 13oz Crystal 50/60, and 3oz Chocolate Malt that is all mixed.

Hop's and Irish Moss.

Using the good yeast.

All done. This is its home for 7 days.

All the grains in the bag, water temp 155 deg, and it will stay in for 30 min.

Steeping grains are out and you can see the nice Amber Brown color.

Baker Dam ATV Ride.

09 May 2010
Spent the day up at Baker Dam North of Vayo.

After the rain fall the water level was pretty high.

The Topo map showed a trail that would go through the South side of Pine Mountain and end up in the town of Pine Mountain.

The trail was very over grown and un-passable.

Hops are getting bigger.

06 May 2010
Hops are growing better then expected. Moving them to their own pot.

Gun Lock ATV Ride

24 Apr 2010
Went to Gun-lock reservoir and spent the day finding trails.

Looking to the North.

Found this cool little Horne y toad.

Cool hole in the rock.

Sharon crossing the upper Virgin river.

Sharon thought it would be hard. No sweat.

Bottling Day

30 Apr 2010
Beer has been in the fermentation carboys for 15 days. Time to put them into the bottles.

Bottle tree. It is used to wash and sanitize the bottles.

Transfering the beer into the bottling bucket.

47 bottles of beer.

Transferring the beer into the bottling bucket.

Sharon putting the beer into the bottle and then putting a cap on.

Hops are Popping Up

26 Apr 2010
My Hop rhizomes are starting to show signs of life.

This is the Centennial hops.

Macro view of the Centennial.

Cascade just poking out.

Macro View of Cascade.

Beer Transfer Day

22 Apr 2010
The Wort has been in the primary fermentation bucket for the last seven days. It is now beer. Now it has to go into the glass carboy for another seven days.

All set up and ready to transfer the beer into the secondary fermentation (glass) carboy.

Went and got a wall paper tray. The auto siphon fits perfect in the tray for sanitizing.

Opened the primary fermentation bucket and looks like the yeast did a good job.

Siphon is going. Glass carboy is filling with five gallons of beer.

Down to the end of the transfer. The yeast cake can now be seen.

Beer transferred. All that is left is yeast cake.

The beer is now in the glass carboy, it will stay in here for seven days. Two things are going on here. One is the final fermentation is happening and second is the clearing of the beer by letting the suspended partials to fall to the bottom. On the 29th I will transfer the beer into bottles.

Beer transferring from primary fermentation bucket to secondary fermentation carboy using auto siphon.

Planting some Hops.

20 Apr 2010
Planted some Hop Rhizomes today. Will see how they do in this warm climate.

Cascade Hops.

Centennial Hops.

And we wait.

Finding more Mines

18 Apr 2010
Spent the day to the South of HWY 91. Went into three mines.

Came across this mine. It was not on my GPS.

This mine had three different shafts. The deepest shaft went in about 175 feet.

One of the shafts. It went into the mountain about 300 ft.

"I'm not going any farther!"

Entrance to the Warrior Mine.

Waiting for the 3:10 to Yuma. Followed it about 600 ft and stopped. It kept going.

Quartz that was inside an open vein in the rock.

Bubbling in The Pot

16 Apr 2010
16 hours after putting the WORT into the primary fermentation bucket. The yeast is going crazy and doing their job. The yeast is eating the sugars and producing C02 and alcohol. The C02 is bubbling out of the airlock and the water in the airlock is keeping all the outside air out.

There are few types of yeast out there. This one was dry.

Added two ounces of warm water to wake it up.