Honey Beer & Brewery Update

Howdy!

The honey beer continues to chug along. Much of the yeast has dropped, but there is still quite a bit in suspension and the fermentation lock continues to turn over regularly. I am very interested how this will turn out.

The only downside is that if this does turn out to be a masterpiece, it can never be duplicated. Being that I did not have much time to brew, I essentially threw this together out of left over supplies. I used canned extract and pre-cracked crystal malt that I had been given by a former brewer over a year ago. One must confess that there is something romantic about a beer that can never be repeated....

Brewery Update:

We have had our preliminary mettings with the planning and zoning boards. All went very well. We were asked plenty of questions, many of which were helpful to us as they addressed items we had overlooked or not fully explored. Overall, the mood was supportive. We have also received the support of another local business. So far, so good.

In other news, we picked up some of the tanks we will be incorporating into the brewery. We had preordered these to avoid an anticipated increase in steel prices. Then the price actually went down! It is well that I am not a gambler.

Here is a photo of the tanks on arrival:

Honey Beer

Greetings, I hope all of you had a happy holiday season. Mine was enjoyable but busy, thus the tardiness of my posting.

Beer experimentation continues. I had never heard of dark honey. While at the hardware and garden store, I saw jars of raw dark honey for sale. Immediately, I thought "This can be used in beer!" I purchased a five pound jar and hurried home. Checking my references, I ascetained that, due to its strong flavor, dark honey is not recommended for use in beer. Just the inspiration I needed!

As I was pressed for time I could not make this an all grain brew. However, I had some cans of light malt extract that had been given to me, along with some crystal malt. I created the wort with 4.5 pounds of extract and half a pound of the crystal malt. I added 2 ounces of Kent hops. Fifteen minutes before the end of the boil I added 3 pounds of the honey. I then added Nottingham dry yeast.

The yeast has been working steadily but not as vigorously as dry yeast often does. My house is a bit cold this time of year so the temperature of the fermenter has been hovering around 53 degrees F. The fermentation has been going for about 8 days.

What will be come of this brew: A cold fermented honey ale? I am already dreaming.....

Howdy

Hi All,

It may sound a bit contrived, but, welcome to my first post. I am new to blogging so bear with me and, hopefully, we will have some fun. This blog is dedicated to my three favorite things in life: Beer, photography, and philosophy. My favorite beer is (was) Watney's Cream Stout, my photography is at http://www.belgianmare.com/ and my philosophy is decidedly Ancient Greek. Am I the only one amazed that those guys got it right 2500 years ago and since then all we have been trying to do is find a way to prove them wrong?

About the beer thing. I enjoy brewing my own. In fact my wife and I are starting our own brewery. We hope to have it fully functional in the Fall of 2010. It will be a lot of work but also a great adventure. So please stop by often to check on our progress.

And about anything else - have at it. Send me your thoughts and I will respond. I look forward to hearing your thoughts, on anything, and dispensing my suspect knowledge and wisdom upon all of you!

Until next time - Stay Metal!