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I harvested my Northern Brewer hops last night. The yield was quite good being that they’re only in their 2nd year of growth.

Me and the bines:

This is about a third of the total harvest from the two NB plants:

I got some help from Meghan and Bjorn as well!

The hops are now resting peacefully in my shed. They’ll be there for the next few days or until they’re dry. After that , I’ll pack ‘em into freezer bags and into the deep freeze they go.

Tags: general by erik
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This will be my first hack at meadmaking, and I’m quite excited. I’m estimating that I’ll end up bottling this batch in late July, meaning that it’ll be ready to drink just in time for the Christmas season. :-)

Fermentables

• 15 pounds orange blossom honey

Yeast

• Lalvin 71B-1122 - “Narbonne”

Other

• 2 vials of Go-Ferm rehydration nutrient
• 4 sachets of Curt & Kathy’s Nutrient blend (1 at pitching and 1 at each 24-hour mark for three days)

Notes

• 2006/03/28 - Pitched at 9:30 PM. O.G. 1.108.
• 2006/06/02 - Racked to secondary. Current Gravity = 1.004.

Tags: general by erik
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Well - I’ve decided that my next homebrew adventure will be a belgian-style witbeer. I will be using a recipe published by silverfront on the Norther Brewer forums. Here’s the recipe:

Fermentables

• 6 lbs. (minus 1.25 cups for bottling) Muntons Wheat DME

Boil Additions

• 1.5 oz. Styrian Golding (60 mins)
• .5 oz. Styrian Golding (15 mins)
• 1 oz. Czech Saaz (1 min)
• .75 oz crushed coriander (15 mins)
• .25 oz crushed coriander (5 mins)
• .5 oz Bitter orange peel (5 mins)

Yeast

• Wyeast 3944 - Belgian Witbeer

Notes

• 2006/01/30 - Brewed. No starter. OG 1046.
• 2006/03/24 - Racked to secondary. Current gravity = 1.012.
• 2006/06/02 - Bottled. F.G. = 1.010. ABV = 4.7%

Tags: general by erik
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Since my first attempt at making a hard cider turned out very well, I decided to take another hack at it. This time, the recipe’s a bit different:

Fermentables

• 4.75 Gallons store-bought apple cider (cub brand)
• 4 Cans Welch’s Frozen White Grape/Raspberry Juice
• 2 Cans Old Orchard Frozen Cranberry Juice

Yeast

• White Labs 570 - Belgian Golden Ale

Notes

• 11/18/05 - Gave a 1-minute shot of oxygen and pitched yeast at 8:00PM. OG 1.060.
• 11/19/05 - First signs of fermentation at 1200 today. Thin coat of foam covering the top of the cider at 2000.
• 11/20/05 - At 1850, all the kreusen is gone, but fermentation is still roaring away. It’s bubbling about once every second and a half or so.
• 12/6/05 - At 2130, racked to secondary. Current gravity is 1.006, making the current ABV 6.8%. Tasted pretty good, though there is still a ton of suspended yeast that skew the taste of the cider.
• 03/24/06 - Bottled. Used 3/4 cup of corn sugar to prime. FG = 1.002, making this puppy 7.6%. Not too bad.

Tags: Uncategorized by erik
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This is a standard American Wheat w/ a bit o’ Honey. Should (theoretically) turn out similar to Leinie’s Honey Weiss.

Fermentables

• 6 lbs. Wheat LME

Boil Additions

• 1 oz. Tettnang (60 mins)
• 1 lb. Clover Honey (1 min)

Yeast

• Wyeast 1010 - American Wheat

Notes

• 3/30/05 - Made starter.
• 3/31/05 - Jed came over and we brewed in the garage. OG 1044, a bit low I guess, as the target OG was 1048. Pitched a 600 mL starter at 10:00 PM.
• 4/1/05 - April fools!!! Okay seriously…fermentation is progressing nicely - should start blowing off before noon.
• 4/14/05 - Transferred to secondary. Gravity: 1.009. By my calculations, that’s about 5.5% ABV. Tasted pretty good - nothing extraordinary, but it’ll be very drinkable. I’ll probably leave it in the secondary for another week and then bottle.
• 7/20/05 - Yep - it’s been a while :-) I finally got this bottled tonight. FG: 1.007.

Tags: general by erik
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