BeerBorg

Hey all! I know I've been a bit scarce, but a lot has been going on...and I never quite made beerborg.com part of my daily routine the way MBF used to be.

So, I'm now in Houston. I had a great job opportunity come up in late January, and interviewing and negotiations took a little bit, then I moved down here with one of my cats and a suitcase about...I guess it'll be three weeks come Tuesday. My wife (she was Thorn on MBF, not sure if she's registered here) is still up in the Bronx, but our lease is up at the end of March, so she's working on finishing up packing and arranging for all our crap to make the trip down here!

I moved into my apartment last Saturday (and when I say "moved" I mean I brought my cat and my suitcase, and the food I had bought, and brought them into the apartment), had a 2" thick queen-sized memory foam mattress topper delivered (via amazon) to serve as a temporary bed (I folded it in half, so it's basically a 4" thick twin-sized memory foam bed, which is actually pretty damn comfy) and decided I needed to brew more.

I looked and looked for a cheap Brew Demon kit, but the least I could find one going for was like $50! I went to Target on Saturday, and was hoping to find a clearance Mr. Beer kit, but didn't score one. So, I finally broke down and searched for a used Mr. Beer kit on Amazon, as I wanted to make sure not to give Mr. Beer any money directly.

I got one of the craft brew kits with the bottles (which I actually need, since I don't have a capper here) and two refills (Czech Pils and Aztec Mexican Cerveza) for like $32, shipped. Not the best deal I've ever gotten, but not a bad one!

I also don't have any temp control, or even a pot to boil 4 cups of water in (I have a cast iron pan that I bought at target and have been cooking everything in...somehow, I don't think its seasoning would be so good for beer, and I'm pretty sure it can't hold 4 cups). So I worked with what I had.

My first brew is the Aztec Mexican Cerveza, but I'm definitely not going to settle for brewing it stock...yet I didn't really have anything to add to it, either.

So, I started by soaking the can in hot water in my sink...the hot water here is pretty damn hot, so it really helped thin out the syrup. I poured that into 3 oj jugs worth of filtered water from the fridge dispenser, then filled the can with hot water and let it soak for a while (hoping most of the residual HME would dissolve), I poured that into the fermentor, topped up with another OJ jug, and that worked out to be right around the two mark.

I don't have scissors here, so I had to cut the yeast packet open with a chef's knife (I have 1 fork, 1 butter knife, 1 spoon and 1 chef's knife...all of which I got at Target last Saturday) on a cutting board. It worked, and I didn't lose TOO much yeast to the cutting board. I sprinkled the yeast on top...didn't stir, and put the whole thing in the fridge before going to work. This was yesterday (Thursday) morning and both the wort and apartment were WAY too warm to let it start fermenting in those conditions. When I got home around 9:30, I took it out of the fridge and set it on the counter on the edge of the sink (with the spigot over the sink, just in case a leak developed), and it looked like the yeast had already started reproducing.

By this morning, there was definite, noticeable fermentation happening...it was in the 50s overnight, and I had left the windows open...but I don't think it dropped below the mid 60s in the apartment. Of course, I don't have a thermometer, so I don't really know. Before I left for work this morning, I turned the AC on and set it to about 75*. I went grocery shopping after work and (in addition to beer and normal groceries) I picked up some sugar and molasses for the express purpose of adding it to the fermenting beer.

I dipped the spoon (after sanitizing, of course) in the molasses and drizzled the molasses into the beer. A lot got stuck in the krausen (which is actually quite thick at this point), so I used the spoon to stir (and also get most of the rest of the molasses off). I then added a coffee mug of sugar (not a huge one, so probably not more than 10 oz volume of sugar) and stirred it in as well.

I replaced the lid and the beer is sitting at mid 70s ambient temps. Thorn (my wife) is shipping me some things here and there, and the next box is supposed to have some dry yeasts and a sealed bag of hops from the freezer, so maybe I'll do something more interesting with the Czech Pils.

I may or may not dry hop this batch...we'll see what I decide. I may even just drop 2.5 gallons of apple juice and some sugar onto the trub so I can get a cider going, though I guess a lot depends on when all our stuff from the New York apartment is scheduled to arrive. I might just ferment the other Czech Pils with T-58 and some added sugar to make a nice Belgian Blond/Tripel instead. Having only one tiny fermentor makes keeping the pipeline going a bit tough!

I'll keep you posted how this batch goes. Luckilly, there are quite a few great craft breweries here in Texas! I have yet to find a good German-style Hefe, but I'm going to keep trying them until I find one (or give up and just make my own ).

Good to see you Jon.

You forgot about this:

Screwdriver? Plastic wrap? Dark towel? Rubber band? I mean, I guess my one butter knife could work for the way the screwdriver was used...but I don't have plastic wrap, and while I do have a dark towel, I use it to dry off after I shower! And I DEFINITELY don't have a pitcher (though I guess my OJ jug could kinda suffice).

Also, I think my no-stirring/shaking method might've actually been faster...it look like that took a lot of time.

Good to see you again.

Congrats on the new job!

You need to find a dollar store so you can buy some stuff you can throw away when your real stuff gets there.

Moving to another state does not sound easy to do, or so I've been told by friends that have. Good luck to you in your new location sometimes a change of scenery can be invigorating. In time I am sure you will have all of your creature comforts back again.

Thanks for the congratulations, all!

BP, the Dollar store idea isn't bad, but I'm really bad about throwing away things that can still be used--even if *I* will never use them again. Still, might think on it.

Anyway, back to the brew--I took a look at the LBK when I went to grab another beer, and I'm pretty sure there's still a big amount of undissolved HME on the bottom of the fermentor. I just left it alone...if osmosis and yeast activity don't take care of it over the next week or so, maybe I'll clean and sanitize my one spatula and use it to stir it up.

Jon!!! Missed you buddy!

Hi Jon! Good to see you around here. Congrats on the move.

I love the priorities here: get job, move, brew! Love it!

I can send you a brew demon fermenter and a pot if you need it. Where in Houston did you move to. I went to junior high and high school in Houston. So are you out of the island brew supply business? Good to see ya around again.

Whamolagan wrote:I can send you a brew demon fermenter and a pot if you need it. Where in Houston did you move to. I went to junior high and high school in Houston. So are you out of the island brew supply business? Good to see ya around again.

Whammo, I'm juuuust west of Downtown (just across 45) on the Buffalo Bayou. I believe technically it's Montrose, but I work downtown and this means I can walk to work, so it's a perfect location. Though I may not be wild about that walking to work thing come June.

I'd love a BrewDemon Fermentor and a small pot! All of our stuff won't be showing up for a few weeks.

And yes, Island Brewing Supply is out of business. Rich and I didn't have the time available to really make it worthwhile, and when I got the job here, it only made sense for us to shut it down.

I have a few friends that live in montrose. Next time I am in houston we will get together for a few.

I could've sworn I replied to this yesterday, but apparently I didn't (as it's not here).

I live right across 45 from downtown, which technically might be Montrose. Either way, Montrose is super close and I'd love to have a beer with you when you're in town.

Back to the beer, I added most of another coffee mug of sugar, and a little more molasses (for nutrients and flavor complexity)--while the beer was offgassing, there were sone noticable esters (but not banana/bublegum--a little more "englishy" for lack of a better descriptor).

I still might dry hop this batch, though I haven't decided yet. I do have a *lot* of hops (even if most aren't in Houston right now), so I may as well.

I'll probably do that closer to the weekend, and maybe again when I cold crash it.

Should make for a damn interesting beer!

Good to have you back, Jon.

Good to be back, Pudge.

Good to be brewing again, even if it's a batch that's basically me doing everything every new brewer does wrong (no temp control! add more sugar!) only *slightly* tempered by my brewing knowledge.

Jon wrote:Good to be back, Pudge.

Good to be brewing again, even if it's a batch that's basically me doing everything every new brewer does wrong (no temp control! add more sugar!) only *slightly* tempered by my brewing knowledge.

I was going to comment on the sugar, but I figured you had your reasons.