ESB Transfer

Transferred the ESB to secondary. It has been a week, it should have stayed in primary longer, but I have to admit, I would like to see a little fermentation in secondary for purely visual purposes. A LOT of trub came through in the end as evidenced by the picture. I wasn't going for "every last drop" either. There was basically no solid cake on the bottom. We will see, live and learn. Hopefully it compacts down and clears. Gravity is 1.018 It taste's pretty good, a bit light, but seems balanced? I think I would like the color a little more red, but it is hard to tell at this point.

Maybe Jason can help me bottle in 2 weeks when he is here.

Bought the porter book Dean recommended and read it cover to cover last night. What great insights. I think next bacth will be Porter redux. Up crystal from .5 to 1lb, chocolate from .5 to .75 and maybe back the patent down to 5oz. I may also put 1 lb of british 2 row in. Also up the partial mash temp to 157ish.

Cioppino Vino

Very exciting wine day with Bob and Kat. We bottled what should prove to be our best attempt yet with the cab. It is clear, but so dark you can barely see through it. Very strange. Taste is really good, though obviously young. I have a feeling it should go 6 months or so, though 1 test bottle will have to be broken out early i am sure.

Went with a new style kit and started off a merlot. This one included grape skins (and branches and other sordid items) and 3 different kinds of oak. Grape skins when reconstituted smelled exactly like raisins obviously, but it took a minute to register. OG was ridiculous at 1.110. (Cab was 1.086 and malbec was 1.082 I believe).

Tasted the malbec finally as part of a fruits of the labor tasting with some of Kat's outstanding Cioppino. I have had a lot of the Shiraz obviously so that was nothing new, The cab was really interesting so green. But the malbec, I have to say it turned out pretty well. Massive differences between out of the bottle, vs through aerator, vs 30-45 minutes to breathe. Not sure if this will change over time, or it just happens to be a function of the wine. I think I will let my bin sit another 3 months before cracking one open.

ESB Bubble report

1-24-09 10:00 35 secs (12hrs after pitch)
1-24-09 13:00 5 secs
1-25-09 8:00 Holy Krausen! Had a blowout so switched to a blowoff
1-25-09 17:00 5 secs through blowoff
1-26-09 7:00 5 secs through blowoff
1-26-09 21:00 5 secs through blowoff
1-26-09 7:00 5 secs through blowoff
1-27-09 18:30 7 secs through blowoff
1-28-09 9:30 6 secs through blowoff
1-29-09 8:00 6 secs through blowoff. This is getting ridiculous
1-29-09 22:00 8 secs through blowoff.
1-30-09 8:00 6 secs through blowoff.
1-30-09 23:00 7 secs through blowoff.
1-31-09 8:00 8 secs through blowoff.
-Transferred to Secondary-
1-31-09 21:30 8 secs bubbler
2-1-09 9:30 13 secs
2-1-09 20:30 18 secs
2-2-09 21:30 24 secs First signs of clearing, but still heavy yeast with a lot of movement
2-3-09 20:00 23 secs
2-4-09 7:00 17 secs
2-5-09 8:00 22 secs
2-5-09 21:00 27 secs Still a LOT of yeast in suspension and carbonation is very evident
2-6-09 17:00 33 secs
2-6-09 21:00 36 secs
2-8-09 9:00 60 secs. For the first time yeast at the bottom is moving down and not up. Significant clearing, but not enough to bottle.
2-8-09 22:00 79 secs

I'm special

Spur of the moment decision to get my brew on this weekend with an ESB. All went well. Steeped for 30 mins at 153. Took a long time to get up to temp.

6lbs Muntons extra light dme
1/2lb Crystal 60
1/2lb Breiss Victory 20
1oz UK Challenger pellets 60mins
1oz Kent Golding 2 mins
Wyeast Thames Vly 1275 pitched at 76
Whirlfloc 15mins

OG 1.050

Spoke with Dean on facebook, he is up to 200 gals a year with an amazing setup. He is prodding for a full boil burner. Maybe when the weather warms.