Whew!

Today was a busy day in the brew kitchen. The old cauldron yielded a batch of pale ale, but only after I moved the Heff out of the fermenter. And that couldn't be done until I bottled five gallons of red ale. And, since I finished my first tank of propane after my last batch, I had to start a new tank. I had a second tank waiting, so I was able to get going without making a trip to the store. I brewed four batches of beer with the first tank, and so far, one with the second tank. I used some of the first tank before I started brewing, so I have to keep count of how many batches I can get out of one tank.

I started out in the morning washing and disinfecting empty bottles. I cleaned and disinfected my bottling bucket, and transferred the red ale, which is now a month old, from the five-gallon glass bottle. This time, I made sure to mix the bottling sugar into the beer, stirring well, as completely as possible. The Red Ale is a beautiful brown color, not as dark as the brown ale from Batch Number Two. I filled and capped the bottles, and marked them all with an "R" on the cap.

Once the secondary fermenter was empty, I had to wash it and disinfect again, and also to clean the siphon. The Heffeweizen was a beautiful golden yellow color, like butter or lemon chiffon. It was still bubbling a bit, and I couldn't help but think that it was too soon to move it. It has been a week, and that was all I gave the Amber Ale, so I went ahead. It went back to bubbling, and is still bubbling now, very frequently, I might add.

After the Heff was in the secondary fermenter, it was back to cleaning and disinfecting the primary, and the cauldron. I put the grain bag into the cold water, and heated it close to boiling. I cracked open a bottle of my Brown Ale, and poured it in a glass. The grains steeped for about a half hour, then I pulled them out and added the malt sugar. After bringing the wort to a boil, I added two ounces of hops, and boiled for an hour. I cracked open a second bottle of Brown Ale.

Twenty minutes before the end of the boiling period, I dropped in another ounce of hops, and at the end, another ounce. After a few minutes, I chilled the mixture, and once it was cool enough, I siphoned it into the fermenter. The yeast was added right before I set it in the usual spot. Then, I cracked open my third bottle of Brown Ale. I'm giving this one two weeks. It hasn't started bubbling yet, but I expect to see some activity by the morning. The yeast went in dry, and the other times I used the same yeast, it took a while to start.

As for the Brown Ale, I am actually quite pleased. It tastes great, and the carbonation is much more intense than it was last weekend. I wrote about my carbonation issues before, because the first few bottles of Brown Ale were sort of weak in the fizz department. It may be that the bottling sugar was fine after all, and it just needed more time. I had only waited two weeks, and now it is three.

So far, I have brewed five batches of beer. I have three sixpacks of Amber Ale, five sixpacks of Brown Ale, and eight sixpacks of Red Ale. The Red Ale will not be ready until March 21st, so I can try it for the first day of spring. If the fizz isn't in it, I will have gained a valueable bit of knowledge, and the remaining forty-eight bottles will be held back for another week. Five gallons of Heffeweizen are waiting to be bottled, and another five gallons of Pale Ale are behind that.

Next weekend, I'm going for another Amber Ale kit, to satisfy the request of my wife, Shannon.