Homebrew Bread

The title of this post is a little misleading. I didn’t use a homebrew in this bread. It was my first try at baking bread, and I didn’t want to potentially waste one, so I used a bottle of Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat that someone left at my apartment. I wasn’t going to drink it (not a fan personally) and the fruity, esteriness of it seemed like it would be appropriate for bread. It was. 

I got the recipe from the most recent podcast of Basic Brewing Video. It was sent in by a listener and sounded so simple it lured me to try. I would thank the listener if I could remember his name.

Here’s the deal:

3 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
12 oz of beer

The recipe actually calls for “sifted” flour, but I don’t have a flour sifter and it worked just fine. You mix the dry ingredients and beer together and then bake it somewhere between 325 and 350 degrees (I think I did it at about 335) for about an hour.

I hear this is referred to as a “quickbread” because you don’t need to let it rise or add yeast. The baking powder pretty much does the work. At about 55 minutes in, I pulled it out and spread some butter over the top and put it back in for about 10 minutes. It got a pretty good color but the consistency on the inside was slighty, and I mean very slightly, doughy. It maybe could have used another five minutes or so in the oven.

 

The end result was tasty, and you can kind of taste the estery, spiciness of the beer. It gave me enough confidence to use a homebrew in the next loaf. Will probably do one with a Hefeweizen and then in a week or so make one with an Irish Stout when it’s ready. Comparing how the two differ in taste might become a post in the near future.

Ice Beer Experiment

Like I posted earlier, I had some extra wort left after I transferred my Irish Stout to secondary, weird that I ended up with more than five gallons, but whatever. I froze it in a two-liter plastic bottle and then let it drip into a sanitized growler. 

That’s the cup of dry yeast rehydrating next to it. I used a package of Safale – 04, and just poured about half of it in the growler when I was done letting the extra wort drip. I left it melting for about  two hours and 45 minutes and decided that it wasn’t gaining anything if I left it longer.

The reason I re-pitched new yeast was because I procured the wort when it was still supposed to be finishing. I figured it probably killed the yeast still in the wort when I froze it so for the sake of science the two bucks or so I spent on some dry yeast was worth it.

The stout started with an OG of about 1.040 on on brewing day before I pitched any yeast. It’s a very rough estimate, but I’m hoping that I separated about half of the volume that was in the two liter and doubled the gravity of the wort that resulted in the growler. So because the final beer will be about four percent abv, I’m hoping the two or three bottles I get from the growler turn out to be about eight percent. Not really sure what will happen, but it’s an experiment so that’s the point. 

Homebrewing: Dry Irish Stout

Brewed up a Northern Brewer kit beer yesterday, their dry Irish stout.  

6 lbs. Gold Malt Extract Syrup
1 lb. Simpson’s Roasted Barley (Steeped for 30 min at a pretty constant 165 degrees)
1 oz. Nugget (12-14 percent AA)

Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale yeast

It was a hot DC day, so I picked up a bottle of Saison Dupont and some Legacy Midnight Wit, my first try of both. More on the wit in a later post. The Saison was great.

It smelled like a pilsner to me, kind of spicy, slight malt hint. It was just slightly hazy and a brilliant, bright gold color. Most folks say “brilliant” beer is clear, but that’s the best way I could describe the golden color of the saison. Lemony? in the mouth. Smooth and spritzy. 

To add a little something, I put in an ice cube my roommate made by freezing some Lindemans Framboise in an ice tray. 

The one cube gave the saison a slight fruity hint. It really was just about the perfect amount. I’m not a huge fan of really fruity beers, but if they have some fruitiness in good proportion, then I’m all for it. 

Didn’t have any issues with the brewing, pretty straightforward. I got to use my wort chiller for the first time though. Some pictures and a video of wort chilling.

I only let the yeast pack swell for about four hours, but it was more than fully inflated by the time I pitched. Pitched at 68 degrees. I’m definitely going to have to put the window A/C unit in today or tomorrow to keep my room a decent temperature. 

You probably shouldn’t watch these next videos. I was bored while the wort was chilling, and you will probably become dumber for watching them.