Lessons on Failure

The first attempt at a lager did not go as planned.  We were making a Czech-style pilsner for the national Pilsner Urquell homebrew challenge.  We withdrew.

I specifically remember the yeast vial saying that one was enough.  It didn't mention a starter either.  These are huge rookie mistakes.  After a few weeks of agitating the fermenter, we decided to up the temperature a few degrees instead of re-pitching the yeast.  This was a huge mistake.  Increasing the temperature causes the yeast to release all sorts of fun off-flavors.  The biggest being diacetyl acid, which smells like butter.  Gross.

So we bottled it and hoped for the best, but we got the worst.  I tried to convince Dan to pour the whole thing out.  Dan always wants to think the best about our products and insisted that we try it out.  Dan was ready to pour it all out after two sips.

Not only was the final product entirely too dark for a pilsner, it had a terrible aftertaste.  Oh yeah, and I stuck my entire arm in the fermentation vessel.  Nothing went right with this beer.  It's our first disaster in brewing; much worse than the hefeweisen that didn't carbonate properly.  Butter beer = bad.  Really bad.  Now if we could only brew a salty beer, Casey would LOVE it.

We tried brewing another pilsner about three weeks ago.  We used a starter this time around, but apparently didn't pitch enough yeast again.  I re-pitched a week ago and should be done fermenting in the next couple of days.  I'm still hopeful!

Oak Barrels

We three convened last night for three purposes.  First, we transferred the Sweet Brains from the primary fermenter into the oak barrel I purchased at the Beer, Bourbon & BBQ Festival.  The barrel has not been used to age any bourbon or other spirits despite my plans.  Really, it came down to me not wanting to buy five gallons of bourbon and then store it.  So it's been filled with water for the past month.  However, upon draining the barrel, I noticed something wonderful: the water smelled like oak, vanilla and all sorts of other great things.  This is very encouraging for a beer that has come in at 12.5% ABV.  Hopefully this will counteract any strong alcohol burn in the finish.  We are all really excited by this experiment which is now working its magic in Dan's closet.

Second, we needed to finally plan out our lager for the Pilsner Urquell competition in August.  We need to brew soon so we have time for a second version should the first one come out poorly.  This is a distinct possibility considering this is our first lager and it will be entered into a national competition.  We decided on a Pilsner Urquell clone with a slightly different yeast strain and some dry-hopping.  We're also using leaf hops instead of pellet hops for the first time!

I also decided on an amber alt ale for my end-of-the-year party beer.  This will be the lowest ABV beer we've made so far and hopefully the most accessible.  This little undertaking will happen after the lager is fermented.

Casey still has only one post.

Third, we drank beer.  Good times.