Three For Three

Due to duties related to invasive maneuvers I have not had time to give the bier werke the attention it deserves. But I plan on re-dedicating efforts to this extremely worthwhile project. Meanwhile, here's some excerpts from our emails we've been sending to each other regarding the beers we brewed our first weekend of production.

From Dave on the Wheat:
Two weeks after bottling and I could stand it no longer. I had to have my beer. The Beer-Misses and I sat down in the living room and poured two cold beers into two tall glasses. The color was a deep golden orange. The beer exhibited a spicy aroma with hints of sweetness, almost honey-like. It was hoppy too. It had a hop aroma but not bitter like the IPAs. The first beer generated a fine head, the second beer the head was present but weak. The texture was creamy with very fine bubbles. The beer had a rich abundant flavor but it definitely needs more carbonation. Now for the surprise, since I did not measure sugar contents at yeasting, I did not know my change in sugar content and thus the amount of alcohol the beer fermented. The result was Bam!! It was potent. It kicked like a mule!!!! HeeHAH!!! Thus I will name the beer Mulekicker. Here are pictures. By the way the Bier Dog loved it too.

Mule Kicker Wheat



From Mike on the Nut Brown
My first beers were very carbonated and great...I am drinking in reverse order of how they were filled (The last filled are the first I drank)...each beer seems less carbonated than the last; theory: I did not mix the sugar in well enough ergo the last beers, which had more sediment, had more sugar in them and made for better more robustly carbonated beers....

From Bob on the kolsch (of course much wordier than the others)

I tapped the Kolsch tonight. I'll send pictures but oh, was I so, so
disappointed. ;-(

Flat, did I say flat?

First, for the style I think it is close. This is a summer beer. It's
light in color and character. Probably the wrong time of year to even
consider it. It is a cloudy yellow very similar to an unfiltered
weissbier, you know the ones with the wheat still at the bottom of the
bottle that you shake around too much before opening. It has a sweet
aroma, just a light floral scent. As for the taste, definitely not a
weiss beer but light and refreshing (even flat).



The flat Kolsch

Now to the flatness and panic. what was I thinking? I was checking for
air leaks, disconnecting and reconnecting hoses. I almost drained the
air from the keg and removed the seal and ball to check that but I
settled down and turned to our good friend, WWW, for some answers. I not
only found the problem but I found a site that gives me a CO2 pressure
table at differing temperatures for various styles of beer. Jackpot! I
am no longer in a panic. I knew of the term conditioning but this dummy
didn't allow time for it. Hence flat beer. It takes about a day to
pressurize and condition the CO2 into the beer. Doh! I am hoping that
tomorrow I have a beer with bubbles. We'll see.


Update from Bob on Kolsch
After a few days on 18psi the beer turned out pretty darn good. It has numerous small bubble floating slowly to the top. A generous head and the carbonation remains until the last sip. Here's a picture of the carbonated version.