Andy Chase

It's hard to believe I haven't brewed a batch of beer since October 20, 2004 - that was the night the Red Sox beat the Yankees in game 7 of the American League championship series. I figured it would be good luck for the oatmeal stout I had brewed, but that turned out not to be the case. After a couple of months in secondary fermentation, the beer was still too sweet. (One week is usually sufficient in secondary, but I left it in much longer in hopes that it would keep fermenting.) I even pitched some champagne yeast into the beer at the homebrew supply shop's recommendation, but it was no use... for whatever reason, that last little bit of sugar remained unfermentable.

I bottled it anyway, but the few I've sampled since have been disappointing. The discouraging results last time probably explain why I haven't gotten back to it sooner. I should throw another one in the fridge and see how it's doing with over a year of aging... you never know.

But, spring is in the air and it's been long enough that I'm not particularly worried about a repeat of my last performance. This time around I bought a Yorkshire-style Bitters kit, which should be a nice ale to have on hand for the spring/summer. This will be the first batch I've done using a starter for the yeast... I've had perfectly good results pitching both dry and liquid yeasts directly into the wort in the past, but I feel like I should give it a try and see if it makes some kind of noticable difference in the end product. The starter is doing its thing on the kitchen counter right now, and I should be ready to brew later this evening.

I'm also trying something new in an effort to minimize the amount of cooling time for the wort, something that's been a source of frustration for me in the past. This time I boiled a couple of gallons of water, and (after cooling a bit) poured it into four sanitized two-liter soda bottles. I put two in the freezer, and two in the fridge... after the boil, I'll sanitize a utility knife blade and cut the frozen water free, then put it right into the primary fermenter along with the fridge water... hopefully that will chill the wort down dramatically, and I'll be able to pitch the yeast within minutes instead of hours.

Tagged:

• zymurgy
• homebrewing
• beer