BrewBrain Sports Investing

I put the ESB in bottles last night.  UG!  I won’t be able to figure out a kegging setup acceptable to Mrs. Brain any too soon.  What a pain in the arse bottles are!  Cleaning is the worst, but the actual bottling is no quickie.  If the end product is good, it’s all worth it.  And early returns are good.

I tasted (of course!) the beer and measured it again with no variance from the gravity reading when I racked it to secondary.  That’s very good.  It spent all its time in the carboy conditioning and not fermenting.  And condition it did.  It was much smoother and pleasant tasting this time around, and it should only get better.  If anything, the malts may be a smidge weak, but it should still be very good - sort of a British version of an American Pale Ale.  Oh, and it appears to be crystal clear, too.  Bonus time…

The pale ale should get bottled next weekend, time permitting.  That one already tasted good going into secondary, so I’m expecting greatness from that one.

The vanilla porter was tasted and measured yesterday with some risk of infection.   My damn turkey baster broke away from the bulb and fell to the bottom of the fermenter.  I sterilized some tongs and fished it out.  I don’t think I killed it, but you never know.  Anyway, the gravity came in just a touch high, and the bubbles were only a smidge over a minute apart, so I decided to let it sit in there for another week.  Plus, a week to let the bacteria grow and show themselves before I rack sour beer over my expensive vanilla beans seems like a good idea, just in case.  I’ll rack onto the vanilla beans next weekend and leave it there for a month or so.

So that’s it.  With any luck, these will turn out to be very good beers and I can give some away.  I’m lucky to have several non-Budweiser drinking friends who can give honest feedback, and actually enjoy the beer if it is so worthy.  If I’m really lucky, I can inspire some of them to join me in my new-found (again) hobby.

Drink Better Beer

Brew Brain