Bottling day: Heilige Taffelwasser

My Patersbier was bottled today. I wanted it pretty effervescent, close to a Saison. For about 4.25 gallons in the bottle, I used about 5 ounces of raw turbinado sugar.

The flavor is apples and hay, sweetness, and bittering floral hops. It hasnt quite all melded together, yet. Once the carbonation sets in and dries it all out a little more, unlocking the complex aromatics, we shall see what results in the glass

Note: This was a first attempt with Lallemand Safale Belgian Abbaye, a new dry yeast. I was not impressed with the yeast cake. The beer is full of floating yeast particles that just wont drop. I also expected a drier beer. Fermentation was under very good, controlled conditions, starting at 60 for two days, and rising slowly over the course of two weeks to 80 degrees. Before bottling, I crash chilled the beer down to below 40 degrees to help it drop clear, and it did not seem to do a rhing. I am unimpressed compared to Wyeast Trappist High Gravity, and would pay a couple bucks more for that product next time without question. Included are pictures of the dregs in a glass full of floating particulate and cloudoness, and the unimpressive yeast cake.

Still, light and crisp and lightly sweet, with apple and flower notes, I expect my family will love this beer in the sweltering Texas heat that is already waking up down here in South Texas.

Loquats!

All over south Texas, landowners and homeowners plant this ornamental tree called a loquat. It is in the rose family, not the citrus family. It is tremendously delicious, and fruit after mild winters triannually. It also fruits very, very early, before even the mulberry comes in. This is why mild winters are key: The blooms come from january to march.

Also, they don't last long after picking. One really only sees it in ethnic markets in cans. It is not a familiar fruit to Americans, and most years a tremendous waste occurs all over the south. The fruit falls rotten to the ground. Nobody eats it. Nobody puts this abundance of glorious, apricot-tinged and aromatic sweet nuggets of deliciousness to use.

We encountered a tree off by itself in the grass beside a local farmer's market, of all places, laden with huge, delicious loquats. I was flabbergasted that at a venue celebrating local food, no one thought to pick the loquats!

Quickly, my wife and I harvested a good produce bag's worth and showed some to  a few of the vendors who were asking us what we were doing.

At home, we see aside a couple of the best for immediate fresh eating, while I turned the rest into refrigerator pickles.

Upon picking, they last about a day. This is why we don't see them in grocery stores, I reckon. They need to be processed fast. Also, as this is urban foraging, they need to be triple washed and really inspected for signs of trouble. The Loquat tree is used because it is such a trouble-free plant, that requires minimal fertilization and no spraying. However, that doesn't mean nothing happened in the grass around it. Always exercise common sense and caution while urban foraging. Avoid sites that look like heavy spraying or lots of exhaust from the nearby roads might pollute the fruit. This was a fairly well-tense spot but it was simply grass and nothing else. Also it had been raining for days. I assumed the worst I soul encounter would be chemical grass fertilizers that had not been completely washed out by the rain.

At home, we washed them first in a baking soda and vinegar and water solution. Then, I chopped off the blossom end, and sliced them in half to remove the pits. Rinsed through two more times until the water they soak in is clean, stuff them onto clean Mason jars with whatever spices and herbs you desire. Everybody uses rosemary. Rosemary in loquat pickles is glorious. Bay leaves are popular, too, but ours is too small to harvest. Instead we did thyme in one, and black pepper and cardamom in the other.

A simple pickle brine solution with salt, vinegar and water is sufficient, but I do like mine sweet, so I also add a bit of sugar to the already sweet loquats.

This stuff is tree candy, and it is astonishing to watch it go to waste year after year. This is truly one of the finest fruits in the world, right up there with peaches and cherries and apples, and it is so abundant at a time when so little else is available fresh. I am flabbergasted every year by the astonishing waste of loquats. Food is free. Particularly loquats. Go harvest some today, south Texans!

Rumbally

I love nothing more on my day off when the house is clean and I  have nothing to do. I pull out a good book, fire up the coffee, and lounge about in pajamas, until the dog decides we simply must go do something outside.

On the lazy days, I like to spike the coffee with a wee little khalua or bailey's. Alas, I dont do dairy, anymore. Also, ever notice how there's no ingredient list? What the hell is in that stuff, anyhow?

I do know Irish cream is not supposed to be stable outside of the fridge, and caramel coloring is definitely in the khalua. In other words, they are full of weird chemicals.

I decided to make my own. Lacking Irish Whiskey, and feeling creative, I put together a recipe for something that's like khalua and baileys had a Caribbean hippy baby!

Vegan, gluten free, and delicious!

First, make almond milk with about a pound of almonds. This is very simple. Soak raw, fresh almonds overnight in filtered water. Then, grind them in the water in a food processor or food ninja. Place the grainy, gooey, wet paste in some cheesecloth in a colander over a large bowl. Almond milk drains out of the almond meal. Voila, almond milk.

Second, make French Press coffee. I used Italian Espresso, but make your best, most favored kind. Cold brew coffee would also work well. i prefer French Press. Hot coffee is where to dissolve the sugar. For a gallon batch, the rum is quite sweet, so for a 2 quart batch, I used 1/4 cup of dememera.

Now, you need really good rum, unspiced. I had a bottle of 12-year old Appleton rum sitting unopened. (Despite my blog about beer and alcohol, we drink less than one glass a night of anything alcoholic. Two on weekends, maybe.)

You also need dememera sugar, or Turbinado. (White cane is not vegan, and imparts no flavor. Boo and boo.)

Finally, 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla per quart.

Spice is nice! For this batch, i only added cinnamon, but I regret not adding Bay Leaf, which is actually a close cousin of cinnamon both genetically and in flavor profile. Any other spices you desire. (Recommendations: ginger, bay leaf, nutmeg, coriander, black pepper, cocoa, etc.)

Now to make Rumbally.

2 parts fine, aged, unspiced rum.
1 part fresh almond milk
1 part coffee
Natural sugar to taste, about 1/4 cup-1/2 cup per 2 quarts
1/4 tsp vanilla paste per 2 quarts
Spices - a light touch is suggested as a little goes a long way.

Combine and refrigerate for one week.

Almond milk settles out, and that's normal. Be sure to shake and stir before serving.

Use like Baileys and Kahlua, or just serve over ice as a dessert drink.

It is like baileys, except rum and spice and no animal partd and no preservatives or fillers or mystery ingredients. It is like what Baileys would be in Grenada. Okay, they would probably use cashews instead of almonds, but I really like almond milk. And, hey, try it with cashew milk. Why not?

I dub it Rumbally. Pronounced like Rum Baileys in my belly, a.k.a. rum-BAH-lee.

Looks good, no?

Heilige Taffelwasser

Patersbier is a great Texas early summer beer, and a simple recipe for anyone trying to get their new mash tun squared away in the brewing process.

Today's recipe is for about 5 gallons of beer. I am looking to make this with 8 pounds of pilsner malt, 2 pounds of Vienna malt, and half a pound of caramunich. It is protein resting, right now. I will try to get a medium body infusion going in a step mash momentarily up to 152 degrees for an hour.

Once the boil starts, at the 30 minute mark an ounce of fuggles goes in. Then at 30 and 15 each, half an ounce of First Gold is going in.

I am trying Fermentis' new Belgian Abbaye yeast. I am excited for new dry options in Belgian yeasts, and I hope for greatness!

I bottled the Fiddleback Brown Ale eaelier today, and it is very good, very green, and much thinner-bodied than intended. I had struggled to get the grains up to mash temp and had to water everything down a lot. I hope this time, with this brew, I have a little more success.

Practice, practice....

Anyway, I may snap photos as I go and add them, later.

Brewday: Fiddleback Brown Ale

I built my own mash tun from a 10-gallon Igloo cooler. I did so because I have been having issues with the direct heat, BIAB method, particularly with a puppy and a busier schedule. It's hard for me to sit there and stare at the thermometer, and flip a flame on and off. Also, it is more expensive in propane to keep it running all through the mash, all through every step. So, I built a mash tun. The plans are widely available on-line, and I used the cheapest method possible, with a sink line mesh for the filter. To test out my system, I put together a fast, easy, and likely very delicious American Brown Ale that I'm going to name after the spiders I kill in my house: Fiddleback.

Target 5 Gallons (Actual 4 gallons)

Target OG: 1.51 (actual 1.54)

30.5 IBUs

22.1 Target SRM

Target ABV 5.15%

6 lbs American 2-Row Pale

2 lbs American Munich 10l

1/2 pound Gambrinus Honey Malt

1/2 pound Crystal 120l

1/2 pound Victory Malt

1/2 pound American Chocolate Malt

1 ounce US Goldings @60

1 ounce US Goldings @30

Danstar Nottingham Yeast

Intended mash of 153 for 70 minutes.

Brewday went well, but for my first attempt at a real sparge, I ended up not reaching my target temperature and expect a thinner beer, as a result. I mashed longer, and did my best, but I just need more practice at it. I came out with an OG that was lower than intended for a 5 gallon batch, but higher than intended with the 4gallons that resulted at the end of the boil. When I see the FG, I will adjust water amounts with the priming sugar a quart or two to get a little lighter in the bottle. Summer is coming, and I don't need to warm myself against it down here in south Texas.

Practice, practice, I need more practice.

Also, I forgot to take pictures. Oh, well...

UPDATE: Bottling went well after two weeks at 60-65 degrees. The beer is carbing, now. It came out sweeter than I would like, so far, but hopefully as it settles into the bottle, it will lose some of the sweetness as roasted notes rise up. On the nose, there is a lot of roast and toast.

I think, in the future, I'd drop the Honey Malt entirely, and just up the base malt by 1/2 a pound. Also, I'd use a different hop, with more of an edge to it. Goldings is very "pretty" and it only makes the beer taste sweeter. Perhaps Northern Brewer would be a better fit, for my palette.

Good, though, but not great. My audience does prefer sweeter beers, and I expect it will be drunk very quickly when I bring it to my brother's house, or to a party somewhere.

Disastrous days, under-attenuation, etc

Last two batches were both disastrous.  A belgian patersbier got infected in the secondary due to some crud I whiffed during cleaning. The tiniest of crud is enough to infect and ruin a whole batch!

The next was a Mexican-Viennese Lager that never quite reached efficiency in the mash run, boiled over, and froze during primary which stymied the yeast. This all resulted in a light, sweet beer. I also discovered that I dislike Mount Rainer hops which were the aroma and flavor in this batch. In a sweet, under-attenuated beer, it tastes like licorice soda.

Boo.

I hope it dries out in the bottle, and under carbonated on purpose with that hope in mind.

I will try again with new equipment. I built a mash tun out of a 10-gallon Igloo Cooler and help from the nice expert at Lowe's.  I have a wort chiller, now, at last. I also got a temperature controller for the fridge.

Working 3 jobs doesn't help my brewing any, either. Som of my problems were due to severe time constraints. I see no respite any time soon. Buy my books, yes? Anyone?