The Words written in my head

Ok, I have racked the chocolates, Was able to find the oaking on one that I put in.  Wow that's going to be some really heavy oaking.  I think it was in a month.  I put oak in the other one.  So now they are both oaked.

Predicablly, the chocolate is tasting like antaseptic and not incredibly chocolately.  The chocolate flavor will come back as will the sweetness with aging.  It may be a little less sweet than I want but It should be good.  The color is just beautiful.  Nice Brown that has a transparent quality about it.  I may only end up with 5 gal each but it will be worth it.  I plan on hitting it up with some sparkloid next time I rack it, which will be the final racking prior to bottleing.  Hopefully I will bottle these two no later than march.  That would mean that the earliest I would want to open a bottle of this is around mile hi con in 2013, fall that is.   I really must do another chocolate with nuts and maybe some coconut.  Hell if I am going to have such a long aging then why not put coconut in two.  As I understand it both Chocolate and Coconut have many oils in them that need time to break down.  But Oh, I can't wait to try these.

Didn't bottle the Blueberry Lemon.  Plan on trying on Monday as I have this off.

Also plan on putting in the primary two of the Orange Blossum honeys.  This will be destined for strawberry batch and mango batch.

In the Spring, I hope to be able to do another Blueberry, a Blueberry Vanilla for my friend Robz who hasn't had a decent drink in years and when it's ready to drink will be able to.  I am flattered that he has requested a sweet blueberry for his choice.  I plan on using some of the buckwheat honey for this.

Also in the spring I hope to start the Bamboo Jasimin mead, with buckwheat honey and orange blossum honey, what's left, I think of what I have now.  This is for the 10 year anaversery of my Shinia club.  Which by the time that comes around it should be aged about 2 years or so.  Well and good.

In the spring I also hope to bottle the Rockbitter Trinary toast, making next year around this time or so when it will be aged.  I should also rack the Pumpkin Hazelnut soon.  It's been on the pumpkin aboutwhat 3 weeks?  Or has it only been 2.  Will need to check my own journal for that.

Summary: 
Bottle Blueberry vanilla, clean 2 carboys.
So 4 batches planed:
Strawberry: primary on monday or a week later
Mango: Primary on monday or a week later
Bamboo Jasmin Primary in Spring
Blueberry Vanilla Primary in Spring

Carboy Juggling: BB=Brew bucket, 6 is a 6 gal glass, 5 is a 5 gal glass.
Current configuration:
Brew Bucket BB1: Chocolate
Brew Bucket BB2: Chocolate Mint
Brew bucket BB3: Pumpkink Hazelnut
Glass 6A: Blueberry Lemon
Glass 5A: Trinary Rockbitter
Glass 5B: Trinary Rockbitter
Glass 5C: Trinary Rockbitter
Glass 5D: Empty and Dirty

Monday:
Glass 6A: Bottle, empty and clean.
Glass 5D: Clean.
Monday or a week or two from monday:
Glass 6A: Primary of orange blossom honey (Strawberry)
Glass 5D:Primary of orange blossom Honey (Mango)

Febuary:
BB3: Rack off of Pumpkin, and Oak and Postasium Sorbate.
Late Febuary
BB3: Backsweeten, Buckwheat honey and Sparkloid
Spring-ish:
Glass 5A: Bottle
Glass 5B: Bottle
Glass 5C: Bottle
Glass 5A: Primary of Buckwheat (Blueberry Vanilla)
Glass 5B: Primary of Buckweat/orange blossum mix (Bamboo Jasmin)
BB3: Rack to 5C
(At this point I have BB3 empty)

Don't know from here.  Juggling takes some  time to figure out.

That is all for now.
Dave

Ok, so I finally racked this to the pumpkin.  Still not sure if I need to back sweeten this.  The primary went well. Took about 3 weeks.  I broke down and bought another brew bucket so now I have 8 brewing vessels. 

Found 1 of the pumpkins that I bought went bad.  But the 4 were good.  Split the pumpkin pie pumpkins along the middle, scooped out the seeds then put face down in a little water and cooked at 350 for 1/2 hr.  Then when they were out of the oven and cooled down, I scooped the meat out of the skins.  and put it all in a mesh bag.  Oh, I heard that yams help enhance the pumpkin flavor, odd but true, so I put 2 yams in there as well, cooked and sliced into about 1/2 inch thick slices.  All in the mesh.  Put in a hops bag 1/2 a nutmeg, freshly crushed, 1 cinnamon stick and a sprinkle of pumpkin spice for a little bit of extra.  Spices go a long way.  So now we have the pumpkin hazelnut in the secondary. 

Blueberry Lemon:  I have this one oaked now with lightly toasted oak chips for about 3-4 weeks.  Maybe a month.  Interesting thing I did:  I been having trouble taking out oak chips in the glass carboys.  They get stuck in the neck.  One of my autosyphons developed cracks along the sides making it unsuitable to do it's job.  So I loped off the end and drilled holls into it.  Then stuffed it with lightly toasted oak chips, putting a hops bag on the end of it.  dropped that in and what do you know, it worked.  The tube is almost like a home made spiral of oak.  I did have a little trouble getting the chips out of the tube because the oak swelled up a bit but, a few taps with a knife and some coaxing and they came out.  So that just needs a bit more settling and then to the bottling process, prob 2 weeks from bottling.

Tale of 3 Toasts:  These 3 carboys were so ready for racking it wasn't funny.  They were not fully clear but you could see the clearing process going.  I racked this over and stuffed in hops bags about 1 oz of each oak toast level.  3 weeks and I will take it out and rack.  Then it is all up to settling.  Tasted each one, the backsweetening worked and it is sweet and should age out wonderfully.

Choclolates: Didn't touch but it should be oaked and racked.  Final stage here.  High hopes for this one but as they said, long aging process.

When I bottle the Blueberry Lemon, I should be able to do 2 primaries with the orange blossom honey so that I can get both the Mango and the Strawberry going.  When the Tale of 3 Toasts get's bottled, then I should be able to do the Bamboo Jasmin and the second blueberry and maybe another lemon something.

So that's 4-5 planed.  2 very soon.

That's all for now.

Dave

Ok, So I wanted to concentract the extract I have made.  In this case Lemon extract or more appropriately they are Tinctures not truely extracts.  I found some instructions online that seemed to indicate that a way to concentrate the flavor is to evaporate the alcohol out of it.

The instructions were for only a couple of doses of volume.  More medicinal but I felt that the concept was sound.  Totally spaced that it was for only a dose or two.

2 methods were described.

1.  Microwave for a few minutes until it is reduced.  Very scarce on the instructions.
2. Put in a double boiler and heat slowly on low heat as alcohol is evaporated at low tempatures.  This method also suggests to use a wide bottom pan as it will provide more surface area to evaporate.

I opted for method 1.  Put a cup of my lemon extract in a measuring cup and proceeded to nuke it for 2 minutes.

(Wait for it)

Ok, got some bubbling and let cool off for a minute or so, the volume was down about 1/8 of a cup as it was in between 1 cup level and 3/4 cup level.  Was thinking on going to the 3/4 cup level.  So in it goes, still warm but stopped bubbling.  So I put in for another 2 minutes.  It got to 46 sec.

(Wait for it)


Then BOOM.  The door shoots open and there is a spray of lemon extract vapor that explosively shoots out.  Ok, note to self, extract is....Combustable in the microwave if left too long.  And Yes I realize that I was Distilling.  The alcohol vapor must have come out of the solution too quickly for the volume of liquid to handle and possibly combusted into flame.  I cleaned up the now fully drenched microwave and in front of it.  I actually sprayed my wifes calves with it and burned her slightly, an application of Alovera burn jell was neccessary but I couldn't tell any redness so it was very mild of a burn.  And after much appologies to my wife, promising that I wouldn't do it in the micorwave again and proving that the microwave still worked, I  managed to get out of hot water.

Yes, NOW I am aware that what I was actually doing is called Distilling.  A big no no for home brewers.  Not sure if it's ok in small batches for extract.  The mint extract is a little weak and needs the concentration, What's left of the Lemon and some Orange Extract could all use some reduction.  Time to try my hand at the slower method.

The other technique was simply evaporative of just opening the container and leaving it open until it reduces on it's own.

So if you want to make a microwave go boom without a fire, simply put some rum or vodka in it and nuke for  4-5 minutes strait.  NO I am not recomending it, more of advocating against it.

It startled me though.

Dave

(On the mead side, nothing new, haven't started the Pumpkin yet.  Hopefully this Sunday.)

Ok, So I heated up and melted 6 pounds of honey into 1/2 galon of water. For those that don't know that is 1 gal of total volume, about. I then mixed it with my already too big 6 gal of Blueberry Lemon. Kicked the dryness right out to just right after it ages leve. Now I did overflow a little. I ended up with about 1 glas past a full carboy. Put that in an empty jar I keep for extract making.

So other News:

Tripple Rockbitter
Racked off the primary the Triple Toast Test. It is still that carmel coloredness that tells you that much yeast is in it. Near as I can tell after 13 days of fermenting it is at about 10% ABV. Looks good. This one should be nummy when I backsweeten it.  So it should be good when it  comes time to oak it. I don't have any Heavy Toast Oak yet.

Labels:
I picked up at office Despot some 3/4 inch rounds that I can print on.  After a test this is the perfect size for on top of the cap.  Now the Mead will be Clearly labeled for all to see.  I only used a word template but I was thinking on putting it into photoshop and I can get images.  This way I don't have to put a full label on it and it can be identified in a bucket of ice just fine.  Yea, I am getting more organized.

Chocolate:
The Chocolate batches seem to be doing fine.  I was going to put into a new mesh bag the Chocolate grounds into one as I don't think that it is infusing properly.  I didn't get to it.  Will do later.  I currently have a big pillowcase sized mesh bag for it.  That should get good infusion.

Extract Projects up and coming and current:

So on the chocolate I plan on doing a Hazelnut Chocolate.  To get the hazelnut flavor into it, I have decided to make some hazelnut extract.  I took one cup of chopped hazelnuts and toasted them then hit them up for a rough grind in the coffee grinder, Then into a jar with 1 1/2 cups of rum.  The shake daily for a week and let sit for about a mont 1/2.  Then I am going to ad 1/2 of that once strained into the chocolate, the rest I am saving for the Pumpkin Hazelnet this Fall.

On another note, A friend of mine has come Chocolate Mint growing in her yard that she said I could harvest for making extract.  Plan on doing this and using some of that extract in the second batch of chocolate.  And keeping the rest.  Possibly spliting it with her.  I know my wife would like homemade mint for her chocolate mint swirl brownies.  Should be good.

Wondering how much flavor will be left wih the nibs, thinking on trying to melt it and mix with sugar and see.  Hmm.

THat's All for now.

Dave

Ok, So I am currently upset at my honey supplier: Madhava's. I just checked in and it seems that they increased their prices to the point that they are so close to non-wholesale that they may as well not be a wholesaler. I also got told that my lovely Alphafa honey is not available in time for my brewing on Monday, memorial day. They also no longer carry the 42 pound buckets. They have 24 pound (2 galons) and by a special 2 week advance order a 60 pound size. The price went from nearly $2.00 a pound to now at about $2.30 a pound, again this is WHOLESALE.

I checked with another supplier in Lakewood and he wants a whoping $4/lb for a 60 pound size. That is actually more than at Vitamin Cottage.

One supplyer in Greely (Rice's Honey) may still have the 60 pound clover for $125, which is $2.09 a pound. Stlll, my costs are going up.

Sigh, I need to see what Apiary's there are about: Bee Keepers. Or find a supply from a farm or something.

If anyone has a good supply for inexpensive, I'd like to hear of it.

Matrix (Sad times now for brewing)

Ok, So I finally racked over the two primaries that I had sitting on the lees for too long. I racked it over to my two brew buckets. Reason, Adding Coco beans, or rather what is properly coco powder. I got the cacao beans roasted from chocolatealchemy.com for a good price, and roasted. I ordered 5 pounds and 4 of them roasted. I thought I was buying Nibs, which is the roasted bean broken up into bits with the shell off. But What I got was the whold beans with the shell on. I did remove the shells on some and then gave up at being too work intesnsive. I just put the whole thing into the coffee grinder and did a rough grind, Just a few twirls not breaking up the whole thing down to fine powder. Finally a use for my coffee grinder. Yea. So I have 4 pounds in a plastic zip lock. The shell make it a lighter color. I figure that it couldn't hurt as I am extracting the chocolate flavor. I took a big mixing bowl and scooped up a cup at a time to split the 4 pounds evenly as I didn't have a scale. So I ended up with 8 cups a peice. 6 cups with the shell in the mix and 2 cups that I de-shelled. I belive the term is cracking and winnowing. So 8 cups. Probly be about 6 1/2 cups each if I was to crack and winnow all of the beans prior to putting in. I put them into a couple of nylon bags that I have and dropped it into the must. I plan on stiring a bit and making sure that it ALL is submerged so that it gets some aggitation going for the extraction process. I also put into musulm bags 2 vanilla beans split and dropped those in. If you look at any candy bar or chocolate bar it does include a litte vanilla for deepinging the flavor. So I did the same.

I plan on letting the extraction process do it's thing for 2 months. Hopefully that will be plenty of time for the extraction to take place.

Steps after that:
1. Rack off of the chocoalte nibs
2. wait until clears a bit more and stabalize
3. Then Back sweeten 1 pound in each batch of Maltodextrin and some honey. This should give it a creamyness and a good mouth feel. Put Mint in 1 batch 1/8th teaspoon of extract. Should be nice and subtle.
4. Wait a few weeks and then rack onto some sparkloid to clear.
5. Oak with 1 oz medium toasted oak for 3 weeks or so.
6. Possibly Sparkloid again if not fully cleared and wait for at least a month.
7. Bottle.
8. Age for minimum a year, possibly 1 1/2 years.

So that is the plan.

On a side note, I need to get some money together to get another 42 pound bucket of honey to make the Trinary Rockbiter test. Last major test was the Rockbitter Binary Batch: To oak or not To Oak. This produced positive resulst such that I will be oaking my standard honey mead. The new test for the Rockbitter Trinary: Tale of Three Toasts is to test oak toast levels. That is to use Lightly Toasted, Medium Toast, and Heavy Toast Oak Chips or cubes and see what the flavor differences is.

The next Rockbitter test will be using step nutrients vs putting all of the nutrients in at the beginging. That will be the Rockbitter Step Up test.

This will tell me what the results of doing a step nutrient process will be and how it affects quality. But that test will be in 2014, I think.

Now is the Rockbitter Trianary: Tale of Three Toasts.

I hope to start that in 2 weeks, I just need Honey. Planing on starting that on Labor Day as that is the day that I first started brewing and it's in 2 weeks. It's going to take all day As I need to do the 3 batches all seperately and exactly the same. Due to the need to keep the results the test accurate, no additional variables.

Future Projects: Pumpkin Nut in October/November. Hopefully I can do at about the same time: Strawberry Oatmeal (Sort of my first Braggot), and the Mango Mead in January. Most of this depends on how long it takes the batches to get bottled.

I have 7 carboys to juggle:
2 have the Chocolate batches (these are my 2 brew buckets.
1 has the Blueberry Lemon: Mental Note, need to rack and back sweeten soon and then sparkloid.
3 will have the Rockbitter Trinary
1 will have the Pumpkin Nut in the fall.

Now hopefully I can Get the Blueberry Lemon clear and done by January and bottled at that time too. So that can be happily aging for a late summer/fall opening date. This will free up 1 carboy for either the Strawberry Oatmeal or the Mango.

In the freezer, I have fruit for: Strawberry, Mango, and Peach. I also have enough lemon and lime juice frozen to flavor a batch, I think 2-3 cups of each.

I have enough yeast for 5 batches and I just bought new sparkloid, Yeast Nutrient (in Bulk 1 pound) and Yeast Energizer (in bulk, 1 pound). So at this point all I need is honey. 2 buckest shoud do the trick.

Ah, for an unlimited brewing budget.

That's all for now.

Dave

Ok, So I have two new primaries in the works. My basic formula. I used Lavin 71B instead of the normal D47. The reason is that it is summer and hotter than winter in my brewing area. 71B does better at higher temps, going up to around 82 degrees max. D47 is best at 70 degreees or below.

This batch is destined for the chocolate batches, Cocolate and Chocolate Mint, going with very creamy mix by adding a pound of malto-dexterin.

I have to bottle the Lemon/Lime but before I do, I need to delabel some bottles. The ones I have have only labels.

I will also need to rack the Blueberry Lemon into my glass 6 gal carboy from the brew bucket it's in. This way I can watch as it clears, maybe rack onto some sulfate and sparkloid so it will clear quickly.

That is all.

Ok so I bottled an epic 3 batches today. I say epic because each batch was 2 cases each and I needed to wash all of my de-labled bottles. I couldn't bottle the 4th batch that is ready to bottle as I only had 1 case and 1 six pack of de-labled bottles left and it will take 2 cases and 2 six packs, about, as it is a 6 gal batch. So the Lemon Lime didn't get bottled.

Here's the Score in order of bottling (a very tiring day):

Pumpkin Toasted Almond: Some sour notes but that is due to the fact that it is a bit less sweet than the other factors. It had a sort of darker flaver imparted by the Medium Toasted Oak, I think. This one should turn out fine but I think that it requires at least 8 months of aging to be palatable, prob a full year. Not much nose but color is a nice amber to dark amber.

Peach Spearmint: The sublty of the Peach really came to the fore and that brought the spearmint as a background note. Sweetness is very high on this one. Oh, god I can tell that after aging this is going to be a really good mead. Good Nose and color is lighter than the pumpkin and looks good, very clear. I think that this one is going to be a killer mead. Aging, should be around 6 months but I think that 8 months to a year would do wonders. In the OMG what is this and how do I get more, type of wonder.

Raspberry Thyme: This ended up a verry deep red color that goes to opaque red with in about 1-2 inches deep. This one is very sweet and a little tart from the raspberry. I can barely discern the Thyme notes but it is there and serves well to cut the sweetness and the Raspberry tartness and overall candyness of it. I think that it was a great pairing of flavors. The scent is just amazing. A sensitive nose can smell the raspberry and the Thyme. I don't have a sensitive nose but I can barley descern it. I am sure that this will age very well. Due to the Tannins inherent in Raspberries and the mix, I recomend at least 8 months aging. It does have some Fusel alcohols. For some reason yeast loves raspberries. This fermented dry quickly and I needed to backsweeten it. I stablaized and backsweetened it, then thymed it and oaked it with lightly toasted oak chips for 3 weeks. That should smooth it out some. I think that If I do Raspberry in the future that I will try a Raspberry Basil. Thyme was a great complement though. I can't wait for this to age so that I get a taste of it. I ended up with an extra bottle beyond the 2 cases. That bottle I am hoping to save and taste when it's aged. But I digress. I feel that Ziz is going to be very happy with this once it ages, although a depserate person could drink this now. Just a little alcoholic bite. I also don't have the lable design done yet. I have been slowed down on that score due to the busyness of the current and next few weeks and that my computer is dying. I need to get the images, I have not yet found an adaquate farie image to put on it. I got some great red Raspberry picts and a few Awesome Thyme picts. I had no Idea that Thyme's flowers were purple. They look quite beautiful. So Lable design is on that.

UP next is bottle delableing, Clean 4 carboys, start 2 primaries for the Chocolate and Chocolate Mint. Bottle Lemon/Lime Mead. Rack Blueberry Lemon Mead and Oak in a few months.

Fall: Start Trinary Rockbitter, Pumpkin Nut, Raspberry Basil (?)

Other News: I got more bottles. 11 cases for inexpensive, just need to delable them. So bottle supply is about 18 cases. This will make about 8-9 batches. Considering I have 2 in the carboy and 5 planed, this makes it 14 cases needed, so that will leave about 4 cases or 2 batches. Hmmm. I have had 2 people want more blueberry. One for Robz, said he can't drink for 3 more years but he wants one ready for it. I am honered that he wants my mead for his long break from alcohol ending. The other person that wants blueberry is Anabelle. She told me that she was thinking on saving up for a batch. I also won't hear the end of it if I don't have another Strawberry on the docket. Even though it was rocket fuel, due to a primary infusing of the strawberries, people loved it. So, I think that I will have no troubles filling that slot. I loved the Lime so much that I want to do another one. That would be a Spring/Summer batch at least for timeing.

Definite on docket:
Chocolate Mead
Chocolate Mint Mead
Trinary batch
Pumpkin Nut
Raspberry Basil(?)

That's 7 batches. I have 7 carboys but currently 2 are filled. I don't think that the Blueberry Lemon is going to be ready by fall so that will make it 6 batches. I think that the Raspberry Basil will need to wait, with supplies in the freezer for the clearing of that carboy.

The Plan:
2 Chocolates: Primary in a couple of weeks, Secondary by mid august on the cacao nibs and vanilla. Racking off of that in the fall?

Honey Buy in late summer (Aug/Sept)

Trinary Rockbitter batch (Labor Day?) Primary with rack to secondary middle october.

Pumpkin Nut: Primary in early October. Secondary in mid November when the pumpkins for pie making come out.

Buy Red Raspberries in Aug/Sept and put in Freezer.

Maybe start the Red Raspberry late November/Early December depending on when I can bottle the Blueberry Lemon.

That is all for now. sorry for long post.

I racked the Lemon/Lime, Backsweetened and oaked it. It has 2 weeks on the oak then racking onto some sparkloid. I tasted it prior and after the backsweetening and WOW it tastes good. Not much lime but the lemon comes through astonishingly well. After back sweetening it I was very pleased witht the taste. In tasting this I know it could use a spice or some bittering agent, something to balance it. I think when I get around to my Lemon Sage Mead it should work out.

For those that don't know, Back Sweetening is the process of stopping the yeast and fermentation (called Stabalizing) and then adding more sweetness via more honey or other sugars. I had some honey in the second of the 2 buckets, I'd say about 6 pounds, most of it crystalized. To solve that I heated up a galon of water to boiling. Then pored it in and stired till it was all disoved. Then I put in about 12 cups of that solution, 1 gal to 6 pounds of honey is a bit strong for regular mix that I start with, that is about 4-5 pounds per gal. But it's great for backsweetening, adding sweetness will thin out the alcohol content and bring it to a sweetness level I like. This is the low alcohol one that is supposed to be more drinkable. I think that the oaking will bring in a flavor that will balance the sweetness and the lemon/lime flavor. I think that i may end up with a 6 gal batch here too.

And for my next trick: Bottling 3 batches: Raspberry Thyme, Peach Spearmint, Pumpkin Toasted Almond Spice. All are about ready for it.

Also, I plan on starting 2 more batches, using up the majority of the honey I have to make 2 chocolate mead batches, A Chocolate and a Chocolate Mint. I will be using 2 pounds of Cacao Nibs in the secondary, of which I need to buy yet. And one pound of MaltoDextrin to add body to it.

The next batch beyond that is going to be a strait pumpkin nut mead and this fall into winter I plan on finally doing the heroic effort of 3 meads in one day and doing the Trinary Rockbitter Test. Same batch but oaked with all 3 toast levels: Light, Medium, Heavy. That is after I get more honey.

That's it for now.
Dave

Well, I took out the oak and the Thyme. The Thyme was only in for about 1 1/2 weeks. I tasted it from the drain off of the oak. always a little.

The thyme has yet to integrate into the flavor, that's why we have aging. But it tasted good and smelled awesome. I MUST do anther raspberry because wow the scent and flavor is just awesome. A bit sweet but once the thyme get's integrated into the flavor it should be good. And after aging, mucho awesome.

The last step before bottling is that I am going to rack it one more time and put in some sparkloid to clear it up a bit more. Then wait for that to take effect and bottle, then age 6 months to a year. I should be bottling it in June or late May. Then I need to turn it over to it's owner.

I also need to get images and make the lable.

Should be fun.