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.

Hops are getting bigger.

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

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.

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.

It's Brew Day

15 Apr 2010
Tax Day
It's a good day to brew up five gallons of Flagstaff Honey Hefeweizen. Spent a couple of hours cleaning and getting all the equipment washed and sanitized.

Steeping the grains. Smells like bread and beer. Sharon does not approve.

And now there is WORT. It is going through the hot break. 60 more min to go.

Drinking a brew a taking in the aroma of cooking beer.

Full boil.

In the primary fermentation bucket. It will be in here for a week and then into a secondary fermentation carboy. After a week in the carboy it will be time for bottles.

Maken Some Gud Beer.

12 Apr 2010
I received my home-brew kit. Time to start my Iron Air Brew Company.

Got my brew system from Midwest Brew. Came today. Thanks Fed-X

Everything I need to brew my beer.

Going to start my first beer with an extract kit. Flagstaff Honey Wheat. This kit makes 5 gal.

Nottingham yeast. Little bugs to do our beer making bidding's.

This is the kit.

Specialty grains to steep with and is part of the wort.

This kit only comes with bittering hops. No flavoring hops.

Priming sugar to put into the bottling bucket. Natural C02.

Added Flagstaff honey. More sugar for the yeast to feast on.

50 bottle caps.

Extract.

The whole kit.
More to come.