Brewing Extravaganza!
Monday, March 16, 2009
Thursday, March 12 was like Christmas. Or maybe an early birthday. Some occasion where you get gifts. The only way to really describe the impact of this long-awaited shipment is thusly:
My shipment from Northern Brewer arrived!
On Sunday, with Chief Assistant Brewmasters Greg and Heather in tow, we brewed 2 beers in just under 3 and a half hours. Less than 24 hours later, the Russian Imperial Stout in going nuts, with the foamy yeast cake stretching towards the top of the fermenter (thank God I got a 6.5 gallon one or I would have a floor covered in stout...). The Cherry Dubbel is moving a little slower, but I have noticed that White Labs vials take an extra day to really get rocking if you don't use a starter, which I should have. I'll give the Cherry another day to get cooking before I panic.
All going well, the Russian will get bottled in May, and bottle condition until Fall. The Dubbel, if it ever gets moving, will get bottled in late-April, and I'll let it bottle condition until mid- to the end of May. The Dubbel is brewed with a quart of real Traverse City, MI cherry juice, which adds a great tartness to the super-sweet Dubbel.
Now...the waiting.
5 comments:
"FRA-GEEL-AY. Must be from Italy."
Woohoo! Glad to see some brews are goin. Were these AG batches? Or extract?
I won't have any personal Brewing Extravaganza started anytime soon... but I am going to spend all of next week in Mt Pleasant volunteering at the Mt Pleasant Brewing Company! One step closer to apprenticeship =)
Because Brewmasters Greg & Heather were there....Greg is now planning an order with basic brewing gear in it. Because we, errrr, they were there Heather is already trying make up her own beer recipes. Because they were there, Greg will back into brewing soon.
You know of any place in MI that will ship sour cherries in large quantities? I'm thinking like 30 lbs? Frozen is great, because I'm plannign on freezing em at home, anyhow.
I do. Let me dig up contact info.
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