Cherries! Also Blow Off Tube Technique

I was walking through Safeway a few days ago when I saw that cherries had come in - they were $4 a pound, which makes the desired recipe over $25 just for the cherries (with tax). I think I'll wait until they're back to $1 a pound, but it's encouraging to see them back in stores. I'll have to pick up the rest of the stout grain bill when I get a chance.

Also, I purchased a clone brew kit from Austin Homebrew Supply - I modified the base Tripel Karmelite clone recipe to have 'mini-mash' (which adds a very surprising amount of grains - not something a standard grain bag can hold - it will require steeping loose grains and 'sparging' them into a backup container due to the 5+ lbs of grains that came). It also came with a huge bucket of 7lbs of LME, which was astounding until I remembered the stout kit I made with a large amount of grains as well - the LME came in two different tubs at that point, which is why it looked smaller to me.

I went with the recommended White Labs (or at least the first on the list) yeast, but left out the yeast fuel. The OG on this is up over 1.08 and if you added fuel to this, you'd have such active fermentation that you'd definitely need a blow off tube in addition to a lot of rags.

It looks like the blow off technique is to  insert a tube into the carboy that is well above the wort (but not right up at the lid). Make sure the seal going out of the carboy is tight. From there, put the other end of the hose into a container that has a good amount of water in it so that the gas released from the fermenting wort will be pushed through the hose an into the water, but not allowing 'air' back into the carboy. It's just a really big airlock.

As the yeast was liquid, I did add the 'cold pack' and I hope (for my brother's sake) that I remembered to include the priming sugar. If not, sorry bro, you can use regular table sugar, just decrease the amount a bit (you'll have to google it, I don't remember the proportion off the top of my head). Table sugar is more potent and I'm not sure it is the best flavor, but I've been told that I just over-carb'd the one recipe I did with it.

I also hope I added the 1% ABV boost - just a cup or so of maltodextrine - just because it's kinda fun to have a really strong beer. However, this means that maturation time will be longer (by several weeks), and fermentation will be more active (violent, if you use a standard airlock - it will pop!), and then I hope I also included bottling caps. If not, priming sugar and caps can be picked up quickly and easily at a local homebrew supply and I'm sorry.

Hopefully I'll get a review of the kit (nobody had posted one online, which was sad because you don't really know what you're getting), but also - hint, hint - a bottle or two to taste myself.

New Recipe: Pad Thai

So I was in charge of cooking tonight, and found a decent recipe that I had made modifications to in order to reach 'great.'

Ingredients
Just under 1-ounce tamarind paste (1 and 1/4 Tablespoons)
3/4 cup boiling water
1 and 1/2 Tablespoons fish sauce
2 rounded Tablespoons palm sugar
3/4 Tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon Sambal
4 ounces rice stick noodles
1 to 2 Tablespoons oil (I used vegetable, original recipe called for peanut)
1 cup chopped scallions, divided 1/3 (serving) and 2/3 (recipe)
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 whole eggs, beaten
3 ounces bean sprouts, divided
Freshly ground dried red chile peppers, to taste (I used Sambal)
1 lime, cut into wedges

Directions
Place the tamarind paste in the boiling water and set aside while preparing the other ingredients. Stir occasionally.

Combine the fish sauce, palm sugar, Sambal, and rice wine vinegar in a small bowl and set aside.

Place the rice stick noodles in a mixing bowl and cover with hot water. Set aside while you prepare the remaining ingredients. Once the other ingredients are measured out into separate bowls, drain the water from the noodles and set them aside.

Press the tamarind paste through a fine mesh strainer and add to the sauce. Stir to combine.

Place a wok over high heat. I did not have a wok, so I used a cast iron skillet, and it worked wonderfully (for the tossing, I was still able to hold both ends, as my cast iron skillet came with a small nub on the side opposite the handle).

Once hot, add 1 tablespoon of the peanut oil. Heat until it shimmers. Add 2/3 of the scallions and then the garlic, cook for 10 to 15 seconds. Add the eggs to the pan; once the eggs begin to set up, about 15 to 20 seconds, stir to scramble.

Add the remaining ingredients in the following order and toss after each addition: noodles, sauce, cabbage, shrimp, and 2/3 of the bean sprouts and peanuts. Toss everything until heated through, but no longer than 1 to 2 minutes total.

Transfer to a serving dish. Garnish with the remaining scallions, bean sprouts, and peanuts. Serve immediately with lime wedges.

Recipes!

I was looking for inspiration online and found this

Brewers Best Recipes Page

The best kits and recipes available - including my favorite - the English Brown Ale

Flavored Beer Base

I've been looking into doing a lot of different flavored beers, and I finally picked up Brewing Classic Styles. In there was the Apricot Wheat recipe, and it provided a great base wheat to add fruit and some other light flavors to.

8.3 lbs wheat LME 4L
1/2 lbs crystal 15L
.85oz willamette hops 5%aa

Suggested yeast is Wyeast 1010 American Wheat

This will provide a great base for any number of fruits, with possible minor tweaking needed for apricot, raspberry, blueberry, strawberry, etc...

Out of Season Red Ale

Both the Kumdis Island Spruce Ale and the Cherry Fever Stout apparently both require ingredients that are currently out of season, so I went to my Local Home Brew Shop and picked up Bob's Red Ale recipe.

7 lbs light malt extract
8 oz dark brown sugar (added last 5 min of boil)
1 lbs 40L crystal malt
2 oz roasted barley
2 oz Willamette hops (60 min boil)
1 oz Willamette hops (5 min boil)
1 Whirlflock tablet
1084 Irish ale yeast

This was definitely a new procedure for me, but I've attempted to 'sparge' with a very very small strainer.

Steps
Add 3 quarts of water to a med to large saucepan and head to 165-170 degrees. Stir in grains and steep for 30 to 45 minutes in a warm oven (mine was set at 150). Pour grain mixture through a strainer into boiling kettle. Rinse (sparge) grains with 2 quarts of 160-170 degree water into boiling kettle.

Add 2.5 gallons of water to boiling kettel and bring to a boil. When the water is boiling, remove from heat. Add malt extract and mix well. Return kettle to heat and bring to boil. Add boiling hops and boil per hop schedule (add Whirlflock at 45 min in, add brown sugar and finishing hops at 55 min in).

When hour boil is done, remove from heat and cool wort. Add to fermenter, and add enough cool water to bring total volume to 5 gallons. When wort is below 80 degrees, aerate well by stirring, and pitch yeast.

On Hold - Cherry Fever Stout

It seems that with cherries out of season that the Cherry Fever Stout is on hold. I will be collecting cherries as soon as they're in-season and freezing them for a delicious future.

Instead, I will be brewing Papazian's Kumdis Island Spruce beer.

Next Up - Cherry Fever Stout

Ingredients
3.3 lbs plain dark LME
2.5 lbs hopped flavored light LME
1.5 lbs plain dark DME
1 lbs crystal malt
1/2 lbs roasted barley
1/2 lbs black patent malt
1.5 oz Northern Brewer hops (boiling)
1/2 oz Willamette hops (finishing)
8 tsp gypsum
5 lbs sour cherries
1 - 2 packages ale yeast
3/4 cups corn sugar (priming)

Directions
Add crushed roasted barley, crystal and black patent malts to 1 1/2 gallons of cold water, bring to boil. At boil, remove grains and add malt extracts, gypsum, and boiling hops, for 60 min. Add 5 lbs cherries (pits and all), and steep for 15 min (160-180 degrees) - do not boil. Add finishing hops 2 min before adding to fermenter, add cold water to make 5 lbs. Pitch yeast when cool, after 4-5 days, move to secondary for another 2 weeks and bottle upon complete fermentation.