May Update by Matuz

A couple of quick updates from Matuz’s side of the world.

1.   Hops are still growing very slowly.  I cut off a bine of the Sterling that looked extra weak, leaving one bine to grow.  My hopes is that it is not going to have to compete with the other bine anymore.  Some days it looks worse than others.  For example, on Sunday it could barely hold onto the twine, but Monday, it straightened up and looked stronger.  Hopefully the roots are just working their way through the tougher soil….
2. Blackberries are for sure growing.  5 of the 6 are still below 6 inches, but they are getting bigger.  The biggest, is already blooming with a few flowers.
3. The Rye ale, taste like rye bread….enough said.
4. Broken Treaty….well if I may borrow a few words from Der Brauer, “If it ain’t Broken, don’t drink it.”  A taste test between the kegged and the bottled is in order.

That is all I really have right now.  I have been reading my new book I mentioned before, The Principles of Brewing Science.  It is not for someone who has NO chemistry what so ever, but definitely anyone with a high school chemistry class under their belt should be able to get through it.  I will post my thoughts on it once I finish reading.

Cheers!

-Matuz

Updates

Cascade hops are growing strong and out of control.

Hallertau

I have to keep trimming new shoots, like a barber has to keep a bad Jose Canseco mullet in check. The Hallertau is two feet tall, but it's thin and needs to establish roots. This is the same for the Cascade transplant. Warm, consistent weather should help.

A Few Things....Beer and Wine

    This week I should be receiving a book I ordered titled, Principles of Brewing Science: A Study of Serious Brewing Issues by George Fix.  It is kind of the next step in the science of brewing books that I have wanted for a while.  After that there are a few others that I have been seeing pop up on the homebrew forums.  I also found a PDF of a brewing science book on one of the forums.  I am going to check copyright issues before posting the link and downloading it myself.

     Tasted one Rye ale on mother's day.  THIS BEER KEEPS CHANGING AND GETTING BETTER!!!!  I don't know about you guys, maybe it is the Polish heritage in me, but I LOVE rye bread.  And this beer taste more like rye bread than ever!  After this last taste test, I have locked it back up.  The only key now, is a wiffle ball game in a downtown park,  coupled with first pitch Cardinal baseball tickets.

    My hops quit growing....well they are not done growing, I don't think, but they have halted for a time at about 5.5 ft. I was reading through the forums and posting this very topic.  It could be several things:

1. Been to rainy lately....too much water. 
2. Roots are now working their way through the tough soil that surrounded the soft soil it was planted in...so it is taking more time.
3. They are not technically first year(since they were in a pot at Irish Rover's), but they were in a pot, so full potential may not be had yet.
4. Maybe not enough sun.....I plan on cutting three more trees this summer...two of them I may have an actual company come out and cut.(I am not a pro, and the house is near them.)

Nugget

Sterling

    Blackberry trellis materials are at my place now.  Just need to buy the wire, pound in the stakes, and train them.  Each plant is growing, one is ready to be trained, the others may not reach the wire for another month or so.

I'll keep you all updated.


-Matuz

BrewTarget 1.2.3 Review

    I have decided to write a review of a brew software that I had come across a long time ago, but had disregarded due to my liking of Hopville.com so much.  I had recently signed up for BYOB magazine and I am liking the publication thus far.  In the most recent edition they did some small reviews of several brew programs on the market. Some were pay to use and others free.  The program that was both free and most highly rated of the free(and very close to the top when including the pay to use) was BrewTarget.
    For starters, I had been using online calculators coupled with Hopville's recipe calculator, along with notions form several books when developing my brewday schedule.  It always seemed like I was going three places to get one thing done.  After tinkering with BrewTarget, I can see myself doing some one stop shopping. Here is a list of items to help show you why:

• Recipe Calculator
• Already has grains, yeast, hops, and additives in a menu for you to easily choose. Includes descriptions of each, and allows you to modify the properties of the default do not suit.
• Equipment Choices
• Can choose to use some standard brewing equipment to use to help calculate wort volumes before and after boil, along with temperature loss.  
• A lot of brewers have different setups so this was nice.  I put in our own setup in about 2 min.
• Mash Schedule
• You can choose to use a standard mash schedule that comes with the program, develop one your own, or use the Mash Wizard.  I used the wizard on my Oatmeal Stout....it came out VERY close to what I did the day I brewed it last fall.

Schedule prepared by the Mash Wizard.

• The calculators it comes built in are also a huge plus.  No more going to my websites to find strike temps, carbonation amounts, etc.  BrewTarget comes with it all.  Including a Refractometer tool, Gravity scale correction, convert units, priming calculator, and my person favorite, the Yeast Pitch Rate tool.
  
• Lastly, I wanted to mention the ability to export or import others recipes, and create a Brewday printout or a recipe printout.
  
• Overall, my experiences with it so far have been great.  It is simple, yet handles some complex calculations with ease.  Allows for the beginner brewer to jump in and create a recipe, and the advanced brewer to tweak his recipes to more specific measurements and details.  The program can be as strict as you want, but at the same time very flexible.  And the fact that it is free, makes it all the better.  

We're Back!

It has been a long time since we have posted on this site.  It just kind of gotten away from us once the fall came around.  A lot of things came up in our lives that took more precedence over the blog, BUT I can proudly say we never stopped brewing!  In fact we may have actually increased our brewing in Fall 2010 over Fall 2009.  We made a lot of changes in how we brew and when we brew to correspond with the earthly temperatures.  It also fit in our personal/work schedules quite nice!  This blog post is going to be a doozy,  since I will be recapping from Fall 2010 until today.  Might as well start in order.

Back in October, really more so back in August of 2010 I, Matuz, signed up for a group called STLMalts.  It is ran by a guy named Kent Robertson, and if you live in the St. Louis, St. Charles, Jefferson County areas, I recommend signing up and getting your malts from him for some of the LOWEST prices you will ever see.  Going through Kent, we bought several sacks of grains and a grain mill.  This has lowered our cost per beer significantly, and we will no longer have to pay the price of shipping which can sometimes be 20% of the cost of the batch!  Since using these grains and crushing them ourselves on the day of the brewing, we have noticed an increase in hitting our O.G. measurements.  We have always been within range, but 3 batches in a row were right on the dot!  We are pretty excited about that.  Next step: Yeast Culturing...which brings me to my next update.

A BEER FRIDGE!  Craigslist is great.  I bought this fridge for $50 from a fellow brewer.  He told me the freezer part did not freeze, I thought that was great, it would just stay cool and I could store yeast cultures in there.  I was wrong...but in good way.  The freezer part did work, so I can't complain about something that is working, right?  So far we have this fridge, two college fridges, and a deep freeze(temp controlled) holding beer...oh and a kegerator with two kegs.  AND we STILL have beer that can't fit...why so much?  Well that brings me to my next update.

I swear the two Bud Selects in the pic are not for me
...but the Coke Zeros are!

We recently updated our brewing schedule to increase the efficiency of hitting our wanted taste,smells, and gravities by brewing only during the late fall, winter(mainly), and early spring.  We found that those seasons allowed for much more stable and desirable temperatures in our "Brew Haus" in the basement of Irish Rover. The temp controlled freezer helps out a lot, but that is mainly for lagering(lower temps than can be reached naturally), and conditioning.  We have discovered two things by planning our brews this way.

1. Better brews.
2. Allows time for more family/friend activities since we are brewing much more in less weekends.  Our summer is completely open! Along with most of fall, and most of spring was, too!

Finally, on my end, I will end with a little bit about what I have done recently at my new residence.  I just moved into my new house with my beautiful wife, and we have planted two hop rhizomes(Nugget and Sterling), and 6 semi-erect thornless blackberry plants.  The hops are doing great, and if we can get rid of this rainy weather they will take off even more.  Right now they are between 5-6 feet tall.  The blackberries may give us some fruit this year, but definitely more next year after they have taken hold.  Enjoy the photos and stick around for more updates about Antonio on Wine, Der Brauer on his grain and grape endeavours in Hermann, and Irish Rover winning Crown Valley Brewery and Distillery Porter category. 

                                                                               

Hastily prepared blackberry site.  Basically put them in and
covered in mulch...

                                                                                               

My wife helping me put the stone border around.

My dog, Scully, checking to make sure the stones are in the
proper locations.

View from the road.

So far so good! Bring on the sunlight!

-Matuz