Friday, June 3, 2011

Yet Another Catch-up Post

Whew. May was quite a month. About four weeks ago, my wife had a bit of an accident and tore some ligaments from her knee. After a trip to the emergency room, surgery and recovery, life has been pretty hectic while she's been laid up. Luckily, this has not kept me from brewing! Here is a run down of May's production.

As you may recall from my previous blog post, I was running a month behind. My plan was to brew a Midas Touch clone first, then a Witbier. One of the main ingredients of the Midas is a Muscat grape extract which is completely impossible to find locally. After calling around I decided that I'd need to order it online and brew it after the Wit.

So, the Wit was brewed first. This is a very simple recipe based off Rob Tod's Allagash White. You can view my version here: http://hopville.com/recipe/656161/witbier-recipes/april-wit.

The Wit currently resides in secondary and will be bottled this weekend (6/4/11). The first tasting puts it a bit dry, making me question my choice in yeast. I used Forbidden Fruit with the idea that the bitter lemon and cinnamon would be stronger, but I think it worked against me. In any case, it certainly tastes nice and I look forward to tasting the finished product. This one should be ready to drink by 6/18/11.

Once I finally received the Muscat in the mail, I set to brewing the Midas Touch clone. You can view my version here: http://hopville.com/recipe/682727/specialty-beer-recipes/may-braggot---midas-touch-clone

This one is going to be interesting. If you've ever had Dogfish Head's Midas Touch, you know that it's a pretty unique beer. I tried not to stray too far from the original, although I did drop the malts by a pound. The initial brew went off without a hitch and the fermentation kicked off fine. Once the fermentation died down a bit, I added the Muscat. Luckily, I was working in the office after this addition. The Muscat totally blew the airlock. It wasn't nearly as bad as my last blow off, but it certainly made a bit of a mess and didn't calm down for a few hours.

This little mishap shouldn't affect the beer at all, it simply adds more work. After another week, I'll be moving it to secondary and let it clean up for another week. This beer is looking at an early July drinking date.

As for June's beer, that is one I am still up in the air on. I want to make a new Saison, but I think I'll wait until July or August to really take advantage of the summer heat. I'm also looking at a Kolsch for some nice late summer drinking. If you have any suggestions, leave them in the comments!

 Cheers!
-Chris