Bottling, Transferring and the Birth of Uncle Ester

I meant to post this on Saturday when the action was happening but we got pretty busy, so here's a look back with some photo's.  The day started with the transfer of the Jet Pack out of secondary and in to the bottling bucket.  Kevin and I (with a huge assist from Tim all day, thanks again Tim!) racked it out and decided to give it a taste.  I have to say that all three of us agreed that even before bottling this beer tasted great.  It had an excellent color with a good toasty malt flavor.  Just enough hop bitterness to balance.  The dry hop is going to work out well too I think.  We will definitely post a critique in a couple weeks.

Mike bottling the Jet Pack.  Tim's assisting with the last bit.

Kevin ensuring a smooth rack. 
Following bottling was cleaning and preparation for the transfer of the Bitter Belgian.  We took a taste of this beauty too after measuring the FG (1.012 from 1.067!)  Before the rest in secondary it has some promise.  I'd call it interesting for now.  You can see from the photo below that this thing had a ton of activity in primary.  It was a tough one to clean up after.  Needless to say we'll be excited to taste it again in two weeks.

The Bitter Belgian was active

Once we were cleaned up (again) it was time to prepare for the brew.  The next several hours gave birth to a new stirring tradition in the Three Kings Brewhouse as well as the crazy old man now affectionately known as Uncle Ester.  You can see an example of the former in the photo below.  As for the latter, they'll be more details in the future.  For now let's just imagine a crotchety old man with big bushy eyebrows and a wrinkled face in boxer shorts holding a bottle of his favorite Three Kings brew.  He's an opinionated son of a bitch too, so be careful!

Glockenspiel:  A percussion instrument cosisting of a set of graduated metal bars mounted on a frame and played with small hammers

What follows is the recipe used on Saturday.  This is a Kevin original.

Uncle Ester's Weibier

Estimated OG: 1.056
Estimated FG:  1.012 (assumes 80% attenuation)
ABV: 5.5%
15 IBU
6 SRM

7.8 lbs Wheat Malt Extract
1.5 lbs Weyermann Wheat (2 deg L)
0.5 lbs Roasted Barley

.5 oz Cascade Hops (7.5%) - 60 minutes
.5 oz Hallertauer Hersbrucker (4.5%) - 20 minutes
.5 oz Centenial (9.2%) - 5 minutes

.2 oz Ground Allspice - 45 minutes

Safbrew WB-06 (Pitched dry after aeration)

Steep grains in 2 gallons at 170 F for 30 minutes.  Sparge with 1 gallon of 170 F water to bring boil volume to 3 gallons and discard grains.  Add LME and boil for 60 minutes following the hop schedule.  Add allspice with 45 minutes to go.  Chill to 70 F and transfer to primary.  Add 2 gallons of boiled water to bring the total volume to 5 gallons.  Aerate, pitch and lock it down.

We used an immersion chiller to cool the wort and boiled (and chilled) the make up water during the boil.  Actual finish volume was about 4.75 gallons.  Measured OG (using a thief) was 1.066 which is higher than expected but probably due to the loss of fluid during the boil.  Fermentation has taken off after about a 12 hour lag and is going nicely so far.  Given the higher OG we could see Uncle Ester emerge raging mad and full of fire.  Somehow this seems appropriate...fate perhaps?

I used the 2 liter bottles filled with sanitizing solution (we use iodophur) for ease after using bowls the last couple of times.  I highly recommend this.  The photo below shows the marriage of what I hope are two tasty and ornery brews.  I think they make quite a pair.


Uncle Ester (Left) and the Bitter Belgian 

Until next time.

 

Respect Beer. Drink only the exceptional.

-Mike