Now all we need is a fermentation chamber to control out temps!
Well it's only 12.5 gallons ... but we've upgraded from carboy's to a conical fermenter! Totally stoked to add this to our system. The conical will allow is to dump the trub, rack straight to secondary, and even save our yeast! Plus it will be a hell of a lot easier to clean than those carboys. Now all we need is a fermentation chamber to control out temps! Close up of the racking arm and dump.
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After a taste test with different combinations of tangerine extract, a tangerine puree I made, and tangerine zest the consensus was the straight extract produced a tangerine taste that did not overpower the wheat beer and was not sweet and fruity like some of our other attempts at a fruit beer. This was a little surprising to me because the Lost Coast Tangerine Wheat is (in my opinion) both sweet and citrusy which is what I thought we were going for.
Our calculations were also a little surprising... 0.5 tablespoons per gallon!! I suppose we can always add more. We yielded about 11 gallons from the brew so we are splitting the batch in 3. One will get the tangerine extract, one will remain a straight wheat and the 3rd is TBD... and I'm saving my puree for that one! John's been enjoying Lost Coast Brewery's Tangerine Wheat and since we kicked our Raspberry and Honey Wheat long ago we decided to try and do something similar. John found a tangerine extract on-line and during the brew we did a little taste testing it a generic hefeweizen we had in the fridge ... ugg it was terrible. The extract was all bitter, and no sweet fruity goodness.
So after the brew ... which went spectacularly btw... went back to the store to get some real tangerine and make a puree. That is how we did our raspberry and people loved it... although I think I'll tone down the sugar a bit. That beer was way to sweet for me. When my neighbor Fumi got wind of our plans he's volunteered some peaches for the second side... Peach Wheat ... could be a winner. Some pics of the brew day below... taken by my buddy from high school Bryan who happened to be visiting that day. He's got a drum shop in Phoenix called The Drummer's Den if your interested ... but that is another story. If you are new to the craft beer world or just simply like IPA's ... Pliny the Elder this is the standard. It is a robust Imperial / Double IPA full of pine and fruit flavors with a a solid malt backbone to check the bitterness of the hops and is extremely drinkable. Heck ... sounds like a great beer to brew! Of course at 23 oz. of hops this will put all our other beers we've brewed to shame. Which is how we came to rename this beer Pliny the Minor... we got a little nervous will all the hops and decided to back off the dry hopping. We finished with 17.5 oz. in our boil and called it a day. 7 days in primary, 10 in secondary, kegged at 14 and there it sits. I tried it at July 1st (that's about 6 weeks after brewing) and it is still a little harsh on the back end. I heard Russian River lets the Elder sit for up to 6 months before the distribute so we may be in for a long wait! Oh ... and we did a time lapse of the brew .... check out the video on YouTube below! So after what 6 months, 5 brew session and 8 different beers I finally got around to building myself a kegerator ... woo hoo!! Up to this point the beer has all been lagering in John's keezer across the street leaving me high and dry. I know I know... you can pick up a kegerator at Costco for $450 and get them on Craigslist's for less but kind of wanted either something really nice ... i.e. a dual sided commercial Perlick... or build myself one. I found a brand new in the box Vissani wine cooler on Craigslist for $100, the dual draft tower on ebay for $60, paid retail (~$75) for the CO2 tank at the Beverage Factory, $25 for the top and some bolts and Home Depot. Oh ... I almost forgot the Johnson Controller ($65) to get that baby down to a cool 38 degrees.... about $325 out the door. Had to by pass the built in thermostat so the Johnson would work, added a hardwood top with a gloss finish to act as a table and place for the tower to mount and that was it. Add some beer artwork courtesy of my brother and voila... man cave. Might add some casters to make it a bit more portable in the future. Right now I've got the last of the Moose Drool and the Passion Modelo pouring. And since we are out of kegs ... Chahhty Muut is waiting patiently to be kegged with the Vanilla Stout to follow. Okay okay... John just reminded me we actually got our start back on 04/15/2012. We made a Hefeweizen from HydroBrew in Oceanside with a wheat malt extract, wheat an vienna malt, Hallertau hops, and White Labs Hefe yeast.
O.G = 1.52 F.G. = 1.17 ABV = 4.6% It finished and was bottled around 04/23/2012. I'll be honest it was just okay... now to step it up and go all grain!! |