Coffee, Jamil, Ronnie's Legs, Triple crown, Cider and Oxygen-absorbing Caps.

posted by Jon

This weekend has become a weekend of bottling. By this afternoon I will have bottled 3 batches of beer in a 24 hour period. Let's backtrack a week. A week ago I got a Christmas gift. It was the book Brewing Classic Styles by... (more after jump)

Jamil Zainasheff. This guy is a god in the home brewing world. This guy has won dozens upon dozens of medals in the National Homebrew Competition. Reading this book is already changing some my practices. His guideline for fermentation times is 1-4 weeks. I've had some beers ferment for over 2 months. He also only uses a primary fermentation and then bottles. The only time he would ever use a secondary fermentation is if he is dry-hopping or adding something else, like...

Coffee. Yesterday I ground a 10 oz bag of organically grown French roast to add to Selma's Roast. I racked the beer on top of the grounds and am letting the grounds cold-steep in the beer for 24 hours. I will be bottling this in the next couple of hours. This will be bottled batch #2 for the weekend. Yesterday I bottled the...

Triple Crown Barleywine. This is a hoppy beast. If you dislike hops you'll want this to sit a while. Right now it tastes more like an Imperial IPA than a barleywine. Fortunately, you can age it for quite a bit, since I bottled it with my new...

Oxygen-absorbing caps. These caps have something in the plastic that actually absorbs any oxygen left in the bottle. I will be using these caps for any beers that will age well. They are plain silver. I will be labeling them with a sharpie to specify which beers are which. A new rule of thumb is now if you get a beer with a sharpie-labeled silver cap, it will age well. If you get a colored cap, drink it while fresh. So, back to the barleywine. The reason it is so hoppy is due to the fact that I added 10 ounces of hop cones to this beer. That's the most I've ever put in a beer. Unfortunately, one of the cons to using hop cones vs. hop pellets is that the cones suck up a lot of the beer. The 6 gallons of beer I started out with became 4 1/2 gallons of finished product. A couple of you will be asked to take 5 bottles rather than a full 6-pack. In lieu of the 6th bottle you will be given another bottle of your choice or 2 bottles of our...

Hard cider. That's right,. The cider is finished. I'm drinking a glass right now. It's well-carbonated and tasty. The price will be the same as last year, $6 for a 6-pack. We have a full 12 gallons this year, so you may purchase more than one sixer if you'd like. I will set the limit a 3 6-packs per customer at this point and if we have more left over I will let you know and you can order more. Beware the cider. It as just as potent as last year. If anyone would like to volunteer to take an extra 2 ciders in their 6-pack, I'd appreciate it. If you'd rather have an extra beer I would include an extra Selma's Roast or...

Ronnie's Legs. The winter warmer. The 3rd and final beer bottled this weekend. The beer that I won't be bottling unless I get of the computer now and get started.