Pumpkin Ale #1

Getting into the fall season with a couple batches of pumpkin ale.

Recipe:

3 quarts water

2 cups sugar

1 can 30 ounce Libby Pumpkin Pie Filling

handful of hops

Boiled this down to 2 quarts

Then added another half cup of sugar

ABV measured 7% potential

Once cooled added 2 quarts of fresh strained keifer to the 2 quarts of pumpkin.  Added three hops and then added airlock.  Process started on 8/12/2016

On 9/4/2016 there was no bubbles in airlock so i decided to bottle.  Measured 0% ABV, so conceivably i made 7% drink.

When it came to bottling i decided to make ginger tea and cinioman tea (both from natural ingredients, not ground)

3 bottles (Basic):

12 ounces from carboy, 4 ounces fresh kefir + 1 tsp sugar

3 bottles (ginger)

12 ounces from carboy, 2 ounces ginger tea, 2 ounces fresh kefir + 1 tsp sugar

3 bottles (cinamon)

12 ounces from carboy, 2 ounces cinnamon tea, 2 ounces fresh kefir + 1 tsp sugar

Note: After bottling and sitting for 2 weeks, i don't think cinnamon is a good spice for kefir/pumpkin brews.  Really adds an off flavor.  Ginger was really good, but next time lesson ginger in the tea.

The basic bottles of just pumpkin had faint under tones of pumpkin.  Next time i will add molasses and more hops to the base.

Orange Coriander

Read a recipe for a Hefivisen beer that had hints of orange and coriander.  So why not brew with those two.

Recipe:
2 liters of water
.25 ounces (weight) crushed coriander seed. ( i used McCormmick) but i started growing my own for next season.
1 full orange peel
2 cups of sugar
After boiling, added 1/2 squeezed orange.
(Note: this smelled really good!)

This was added to 2 quarts of fresh keifer. The ABV potential was 10%

5/20/2016 the final ABV was 2%, so in theory should have been 8% ABV (i question this too as i can not tell if i screwed up the readin gon the hydrometer.

Some bottles I added fresh orange juice, others added more coriander.  I think the combo with more coriander was really good!

After though:  One thing was clear in all my prior kiefer brews i bottled when airlock still had activity.  COuld have been 17 seconds to 25 seconds per bubble, but it was something.  IN the coming catch up posts i will be talking about failures to fix and just trying to figure out why that might be.

Considering lowering the ABV from between 8-10 and moving it back to 5%.  Not sure if i am killing off everything in high ABV or if i need to bottle when still active.

Preparing for Spring Brews - Lemon-Ginger

Trying new flavors for the spring.  Transitioning from the heavier porter/molasses style.  Thought i would take advantage of the lemon-zest and fresh ginger brews.

Recipe:
zest of one lemon
2 cups of sugar
2 quarts of kiefer in the carboy

I question my reading skills of the hydrometer, it said potential of 10% but i really think i was reading something else.  I also had to of added ginger to 2 quarts of water + zest of lemon + juice from 1 lemon.  I would have boiled this for 10 minutes or so.

On 4/28 i began the bottling process.

At bottling i added some flavors to the base:

3 bottles received this recipe:
6oz water + 2 TBS dried crushed peppermint (Boil both for 3 minutes)  then added 2 ounces to 3 bottles. Also added 2 ounces of fresh kiefer to 12 ounces of lemon ginger 1st ferment.

3 bottles recieved this recipe:
8oz water + 1 TBS crushed coriander (Boil both for 4 minutes)  then added 2 ounces to 3 bottles. Also added 2 ounces of fresh kiefer to 12 ounces of lemon ginger 1st ferment.
NOTE:  was able to taste faint coriander taste.  Next time tripple.

All bottles where good and had sufficient fiz.

Ginger root makes the bubblies

What is it with the ginger.  I have several observations with respect to ginger.

1) It makes things extremely fizzy.  Especially when pieces are put into bottles.
2) Speeds things up, Has potential to consume sugar to make drink taste really dry with marginal improvement to ABV.

Porter Style Dark Keifer Brew #4 - Much better

Decided to go back to basics this time around.  Sticking with Molasses, just even less of it.

Recipe:
3 quarts water
3 grams hops
1/4 cup Molasses (Black Strap)
2 cups sugar
50 grams raisins

Boiled down to 2 quarts.

Then strained into the carboy and waited for it to be cool.

Added 2 quarts kiefer to the carboy.

Initial ABV = cant remember where i wrote it down >5%

Fermentation start 2/7/2016
Stopped 3/192016

Bottling I poured 12 ounces of fermented carboy into bottle, then added 2 ounces of fresh strained keifer plus 2 tsp sugar.

Notes:

• This was really good.
• Added ginger to a couple bottles, really balanced the flavor.
• Consider adding Amaretto 
• Really could not taste  the raisins.

Porter Style Dark Keifer Brew #3

Decided to go back to basics this time around.  Sticking with Molasses, just not so much of it.

Recipe:
3 quarts water
3/8 cup Molasses (Black Strap)
1.5 cups sugar

Boiled down to 2 quarts and in the last minute added zest of one lemon into the wort.

Then strained into the carboy and waited for it to be cool.

Added 2 quarts kiefer to the carboy plus an additional 1/4 cup sugar.

Initial ABV = 7%

Fermentation start 1/30/2016
Stopped 2/26/2016 @ 17 seconds per bubble
Still had 2% ABV to go going into the bottling.

Bottling I poured 12 ounces of fermented carboy into bottle, then added 4 ounces of fresh strained keifer plus 1 tsp sugar.

After a week in the bottle started enjoying it.  My goal is to wait a minimum of 1 week once bottled.  Ideally I would prefer 2-4 weeks.  But to do this I need to invest in more bottles.

Not bad, but still had that molasses taste.  Taking these notes to consider for future variations:
1) Less molasses
2) Lemon zest to the carboy.

Porter Style Dark Keifer Brew #2

So when I made my first molasses based recipe it had a dominant molasses taste.  On the second go at a Porter style I wanted to try some other flavors to balance out the molasses finish.  I am going to ruin the rest of this post for you.  This attempt did not accomplish anything, well maybe that is not true.  There was a profound learning experience when my brother came out to help install recessed lighting.

So, i created the wort as follows:

2 grams of hops
1/2 cup molasses
3 quarts water
1.5 cup sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup almonds lightly crushed.

Boiled this down to 2 quarts

Once chilled I added 2 quarts of strained keifer

The ABV was between 6 - 8%.  Not really exactly sure

Bottles after about 3 weeks.  Added 4 ounces of strained keifer plus 1 tsp sugar.

Now, I could not taste the almonds or even the maple syrup.  In hindsight I would think that I have to roast the ingredients to caramelize any sugars out of them.  I think that is the trick to making malts for traditional beer making.

My brother came out to visit and after a long couple of days we cracked one of these open to share over a game of Stratego.  We each had about 8 ounces and we were starting to feel the effects of a strong IPA.  The flavor was still molasses but we were able to experiment with additives.  Fresh lemon squeezed in made a big difference.  We then went Mcguyver and Mr Wizard to take a room temperature bottle and make it cold.  Grabbed a pot, some snow, and a boat load of salt to rapidly chill the bottle.  Worked just as good as we remembered it from the episode in the 80s.  By the time we finished this bottle we were feeling really good.

At this point I know i was onto something with fermented keifer.