Bottling and Blending Woxbic

Posted on June 10, 2017 by funkmetal

DIY Barrel Transfer tool from Milk the Funk Wiki

After four long years, it’s time to blend and package my first Woxbic beer.
I struggled quite a bit on the blending ratio. Too many variables to take
into account: the volume of beer I could produce to replace what goes into the
blend, the number and size of the barrels I already have, the volume to package,
and ultimately, how the blend would taste.

where did you get that shed? what have you got in your shed?

Transferring Year 1 Woxbic from barrel into a keg

In order to ensure I did have some of year 2 blend left, I needed to limit the
total volume I packaged. The result was that I was going to have quite a bit of
year 3 left over and that I’d need a new barrel to fill for going forward since
I was not also ready to package what would be left in year 3 barrel. Eventually
I settled on a 60/30/10 of Year1/Year2/Year3 ratio, similar to what Jester King
did with their recently released lambic-inspired, Méthode Gueuze beers. I
packaged approximately 10 gallons of blended beer. That works out direclty to 1
gallon of three year old, three gallons of two year and six gallons of one year.

Year 3 and Year 2 barrels transferring into keg for blending.

Year two and year one blends will remain in-barrel (without a top off) for next
year’s blend, and year 3 will have 9 gallons left to package separately. I’m
planning on blending that with some fruits for a cuvee style release as well.

For the actual transfer of the beer, I was excited to use a constructed barrel
transfer tool fashioned after the industry tools, like a Bulldog or
Rack-It-Teer, this was put together by some homebrewers on Milk-the-Funk
community.

The transfers from barrel to keg went flawlessly. A bit of CO2 to push and the
beer flowed quickly into the keg. After collecting all of the volumes, each was
pushed via CO2 into the Chronical where it was recirculated with some bottling
sugar.

Recirculating the blend in the Chronical

Bottling with the Last Straw was nice. The ergonomics of holding the Last Straw
are very nice in comparision to the Blichmann Beergun. I do wish the Last Straw
had a larger diameter for beer. It was designed for already carbonated beer, so
I can understand why the line is small. But for uncarbonated beer, it would be
nice to fill faster.

The weight of the line let the bottle fit itself slowly; that was handy for a single person operation.

With the bottling complete, I now have 6 to 9 months to wait to see how the beer
changes in the bottle. I’ll post some pictures and tasting notes later this
year.

And some fantastic beer to celebrate the occasion.

Dat Crooked Stave!

Subtlety and Nuance: A Brewer’s Beer

Posted on May 29, 2016 by funkmetal

The prince is a big fan of Zwanze!

One thing I miss when I was brewing more often was the chance to try out a bunch of different beers in a session. At a brew night, I’d sample close to ten or twelve beers but not have to worry about drinking the whole bottle. As I’m brewing less often I’m finding that I really enjoy having something lighter, but interesting to drink along side a larger bomber.

Until I finish this batch, I’ll have to make due with some Han’s PIls

As with many brewers, profession and otherwise it’s a great enjoyment to drink beer while working. In some cases any beer is fine, but when there’s a long day and one would like to stay sharp, the lighter, refreshing (dry) beers tend to be a favorite. This has has proven true for myself. I can recall a number of brewery mishaps after a long brew night (and beer sampling session) due to a lack of lighter beers. A perfectly reasonable solution is to have lots of lighter, flavorful choices available. If you’re not into the lighter stuff, then you might be into the complexity; some might say the subtlety and nuance of these expressive beers.

Soon you'll be filled with funk and sour!

It was a great day to sip a refreshing beer in the yard.

My recent brews have been stronger, longer aged brews which leaves my taps devoid of anything lighter so I figured it was time to remedy that situation. My previous brews using the Jester King mixed-culture fermentation have been more successful using an initial hotter fermentation, 75F up to 90F for roughly a week, or however long it takes to get below 1.010 S.G. After that point, lowering the temperature allows the souring bacteria to take root and bring the pH down under 3.6 for some solid sour flavor.

I’m a huge fan of a local pub, Pinthouse Pizza’s Calma Muerta, a session IPA with huge flavors and strong bittering. I’ve got that on my list to brew next yet my good friend suggested that we start experimenting with cultivating a high level of funk out of the Jester King yeast since we’ve got a good hold on target gravity and souring methods. Besides producing an excellent lighter beer, ala, Jester King’s Le Petite Prince, exercising the funk in this brew will help in our sour-aged hot sauce experiments.

For this brew I’m adapting the homebrew recipe Jester King posted and supplying my ingredients. I’m really excited to give such a lighter brew a go! Enjoy.

Recipe Details

Batch Size	Boil Time	IBU	SRM	Est. OG	Est. FG	ABV
6 gal	90 min	20.6 IBUs	2.3 SRM	1.026	1.004	2.9 %
			Actuals	1.046	1.01	4.7 %

Style Details

Name	Cat.	OG Range	FG Range	IBU	SRM	Carb	ABV
Saison	17 2	1.048 - 1.065	1.002 - 1.012	20 - 35	5 - 14	2.2 - 2.8	5 - 7 %

Fermentables

Name	Amount	%
Pilsen (BestMälz)	5 lbs	83.33
Wheat (BestMälz)	1 lbs	16.67

Hops

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Form	Alpha %
Goldings, East Kent (2011)	1 oz	60 min	Boil	Pellet	3.2
Fuggles	1 oz	10 min	Boil	Pellet	3.7
Fuggles	0.5 oz	20 min	Aroma	Pellet	3.7
Goldings, East Kent (2011)	0.5 oz	20 min	Aroma	Pellet	3.2
Fuggles	0.5 oz	7 days	Dry Hop	Pellet	3.7
Goldings, East Kent (2011)	0.5 oz	7 days	Dry Hop	Pellet	3.2

Miscs

Name	Amount	Time	Use	Type
Phosphoric Acid	9.60 ml	60 min	Mash	Water Agent
Calcium Chloride	0.60 g	60 min	Mash	Water Agent
Epsom Salt (MgSO4)	0.60 g	60 min	Mash	Water Agent
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate)	0.60 g	60 min	Mash	Water Agent

Yeast

Name	Lab	Attenuation	Temperature
Jester King Mixed Culture (JK01)	Jester King	84%	65°F - 77°F

Mash

Step	Temperature	Time
Saccharification	152°F	60 min
Mash Out	168°F	10 min

Notes

http://jesterkingbrewery.com/jester-king-homebrew-recipes-part-ii

Download

Download this recipe's BeerXML file

Smoke ’em if you got ’em

Posted on March 17, 2016 by funkmetal

One of the very few Pilsners that I enjoy drinking from a can

Smoking malt for a batch of Russian Imperial Stout turned out quite well. With that success complete and now kegged, I’m happy to proceed with more smoked malts! One of my favorite smoked beers is Jester King’s Gotlandsdrika. The recipe has been shared by owner/brewer Jeff Stuffings over at the Beer and Wine Journal.

Despite the cracks in the wood, the barrel is water tight.

I took this recipe and scaled it up for 15 gallons so I can fill my newly acquired Rye Whiskey barrel. This time, I’m smoking 100% of the malts used. I also decided to keep them under the smoke a bit longer to help keep the smoke present post-fermentation.

The recipe calls for using beech and birch woods. I had access to beech wood chips but no birch. Instead I picked up some Alderwood to smoke half of the pilsner malt. The whiskey barrel is a bit aged, dumped in 2015. It tested well with the swelling and holding water however, I was some what concerned about what might have found its way into the wood since it sat dry for so long. Barrel steaming to the rescue.

You wouldn't believe how long it took me to get that lid on. Embarrassing.

DIY Barrel steamer comprised of Pressure Cooker, Quick-disconnect adapter, Pressure Gauge , Check Valve, Silicon tubing, nipple to 1/2″ NPT, 90 Deg Street elbow to 2 ft. Copper pipe with drilled holes and end-cap.

Gloves are a must when dealing with steam.

A couple of rags help keep the steam inside the barrel to raise the temperature over 212 for approx 15 minutes.

Using the steam wand, I brought the internal temp up over 212F for about 15 minutes. I’m really excited to see how this smoked beer comes out after fermenting in this whiskey barrel.