Packaging Update- The Journey Continues

About a year ago, I published a post, in which I swore off kegging until I have a proper means of dispensing from kegs (ie kegerator or keezer, something with pretty chrome faucets and concealed kegs).

In spite of the fact that this condition has not yet been met, I suddenly find myself kegging again.

Eleven days ago, I transferred ten gallons of my Hoppy Oatmeal Blonde Ale (Forty, brewed in honor of my sister's upcoming birthday) into kegs for dry hopping.  And last Sunday, I removed the dry hops and connected the CO2 to force carbonate it.

No, I will not be connecting any picnic taps for filling glasses from these kegs.  That is something that hasn't changed for me.  I am kegging for a different reason.

The point here is, as previously asserted, packaging my homebrews truly is a journey of iterations.  This latest iteration--force carbing, then bottling the entire batch off the keg--is just that:  merely the latest, not the final, iteration.

Who knows when this journey ends; or even if it does.  I think I know.  I have a vision; know what my ideal is.  But that may change once I get to where I think "there" is.  Once I get there, I may discover, want or need a different way.  In which case, the journey will continue.

Bottling Forty with the beer gun.  Couldn't have been easier.

So what about this current iteration?  Why keg, just to bottle?

Well, multiple reasons.

First, the reasons I swore off kegging in the first place . . .  Those number just two:

1. No proper means of dispensing.  Picnic taps work just fine, but that process was cumbersome.  My wife hated.  Hated.  Opening our basement fridge and seeing kegs, CO2 bottle, regulator and hoses staring at her where shelves and drawers should be.  I can't blame her.  I didn't like it either.
2. No bottles of beer to share.  I like sharing my beer.  I want to share it.  I tried a DIY bottle filler made from a racking cane and drilled stopper.  Either I didn't have the right technique, or I didn't have the requisite patience, or maybe like the size of Paul Bunyon's Ox, claims of the design's effectiveness were just more than reality could bear out.

After bottle conditioning a few batches, I was reminded of some limitations of bottle conditioning.  Well, mainly one.  There was the issue of bottle variation in carb level, but that's easily mitigated by a gentle stir in the bottling bucket with a sanitized long handled spoon.  What I'm really talking about is hoppy beers.  Bottle conditioned hoppy beers just aren't the same as their force carbed counterparts.  I noticed it with last year's Simcoemech.  Didn't get that full facial assault of hops that I was expecting from such a back-end heavy hopping schedule--a dilema in stark contrast to what I had become used to in kegs.  With Simcoemech, the aroma was there in the bottling bucket, but not in the bottle.  Why?  I guess, for the same reason we don't dry hop in primary, but rather rack the beer off the yeast cake first.  Something about the metabolic activity of yeast destroys the delicate volatile aromatic compounds, leaving hop aromas muted and muddled.  Reading similar complaints from others helped to light the lightbulb in my brain as I finally made this connection.

Forty is too important a beer to take this risk.  It's for my hophead sister's fortieth birthday.  This Beer.  Must.  Be.  Hoppy. To that end, I finally picked up the Blichmann Beer Gun, which I've had my eye on for a while.  And on Friday, I bottled two 40 oz bottles and two six packs off the keg.  It was as easy as, if not easier than, using a bottling bucket and wand.  The 40's were served last night with dinner and they were perfect.  Perfect carbonation level and amazing bright pungent hop aroma.

The idea is that I will keg most of my clean beers (those fermented only with saccharomyces, no brett or bacteria), force carb, and batch bottle off the keg.  This lends naturally to dry hopping in the keg.

This also helps me to maintain separate equipment for clean and sour/ funky beers (for the most part).  If most of my clean beers are being finished, force carbed, and bottled from the keg, then the bottling bucket and wand become obsolete for those beers.  Which leaves these pieces of equipment for sour/ funky beers.  "Clean" saisons and Belgian styles would be the only styles left to bottle condition, and these would be the only exceptions to share "infected" equipment.

Sour Bottles:  Bottling Maggie Depeche with bottling bucket

I will bottle the rest of the batch of Forty within the next few days.  The Beer Gun is so easy and effective; I only wish I'd made the investment sooner.  In addition to the advantages already mentioned, there is less risk of oxidation in the transfer from fermenter to bottling vessel, from bottling vessel to bottles.  The keg is easily purged with co2 prior to transfer, and the beer gun is designed to do the same to the bottle.  The bottle is purged with co2 directly prior to filling with beer, and then a final blast of co2 is administered to the filled bottle to displace any air that may have entered while withdrawing the gun.  Really loving this setup.  Solid equipment profile and bottling process that should serve me well into the future.

Seasonal Brewer?

Maybe I am a seasonal brewer.

I never set out to be that, but after a flurry of activity that started around this time last year, I really hadn't had much brewing related activity since last July.

That's when I brewed Maggie 2.0, my second sour mash Berliner Weisse, which I racked onto Brett and fresh peaches in late August. As the Brett slowly did its thing, I spent all of the Fall and Winter months thinking about the many things I should do around the house before allowing myself to brew again.

Yet no sooner did milder weather break, than my brain kicked into overdrive thinking about brewing. Same thing that happened last year at this time.  And the year before that.  So while Maggie 2.0 remains in the fermenter, and while Spring household projects join the list of unchecked boxes leftover from Winter, I am brewing.

I currently have five beers in process in addition to Maggie 2.0.

• Motueka Saison (Walter)
• Session Rye Saison (Walt)
• Hoppy Oatmeal Blonde (40) 
• American Brown Ale (Adam)
• Coffee Brown (Chef Adam)

All of these beers existed only on paper until I jumped back into the game on March 22, when I brewed a 6 gallon batch of a 1.066 Saison, generously late hopped with Motueka. After running off what I needed for that beer, I added 1.5# rye malt to the mash tun and did a second infusion, yielding about 3 gallons of 1.032 second runnings. The base beer, fermenting on 3724 (DuPont strain), in a temperature controlled environment starting in the 80s and ramped up to the mid 90s, is taking forever to attenuate.  Knowing 3724 is notorious for stuck fermentations, I added 8 grams of Belle Saison yeast on day 10.  And still after 3 1/2 weeks, it's only down to 1.022.

In contrast, 4 grams of Belle Saison ripped through the second runnings, bringing it to 1.002 within 3 days and finishing at a very dry 1.000 by the end of week one.  I moved this one to room temp after two weeks, and just bottled it tonight.

Since Saison brew-day, I've also brewed ten gallons of Hoppy Oatmeal Blonde (currently in kegs for a four-day dry hop, after which it will be force carbonated), and ten gallons of Brown Ale (half of which will have cold brewed coffee added to it after primary fermentation).

So, I will soon have roughly 33 gallons of beer bottled and ready to drink.

And I'm not done yet.  Next up are updated versions of last year's Wendy Peffercorn (Blonde Ale) and last year's Jobe (Cream Ale).  After that, I'd like to get a Stout going so it's ready for the cooler months, as well as a run of Belgian stuff.  Patersbier, followed by a Pale or Golden Strong (half of which will likely get dosed with Brett), and then a Flanders Red.  I'd also like to brew an Old Ale over the Summer to be ready for Christmas.

I will definitely brew another Berliner or two in the hottest weeks of Summer.

Not sure what's in store after that.

I'd like to think that I will keep brewing, and not stall out again.  I don't want to be a seasonal brewer.  I'd love to keep a steady pipeline flowing all year round.  That takes discipline, especially balanced with the duties of husband and father, and the demands of job.  I on the other hand, seem to brew in quick intense bursts of inspiration.  As for seasonality, it makes sense that these bursts would line up with the weather, especially considering I brew outside.   It's nearly impossible in the hottest weeks of Summer to get wort down to pitching temperature, even with a pre-chiller submerged in ice.  Not to mention uncomfortable standing over 12 gallons of boiling wort in that heat.  Winter presents equal but opposite challenges.  Can't run water outside in freezing temps, and even if I could, I'm not standing out in the bitter cold to brew.