April Fool’s Swillin ’17 – & Brew Day

One of the fun things about slow and low cooking is that you’re kind of bound to the house, and can work on other projects while you’re cooking. I did have to leave the house briefly to go to the brew supply store and get my lady to her hair cut appointment. While my lady was getting her hair cut, I stopped in at Buffalo Brewpub for a couple pints. I had a Manta Ray from Ballast point – very good – and followed that up with a Space Kitty from Rohrbach. Both were high ABV, very good, and kicked my day off quite nicely!

From there, it was to the brew supply place, where I obliged the Mrs into brewing a lighter ‘spring’ type beer. I chose a Hefeweizen, trying to stay as German as I could, but then taking over with US hops at the end of the boil – not sure why. Maybe it because even though our histories are crazy and all that ‘war’ stuff happened, German and American friendships exist these days- and it gives me hope that regardless of the conflicts going on these days, the future could be filled with people that see eye to eye some day. Wow – got a little deep there – that happens sometimes, pay attention.

Back at the house, I kept the swillin’ going, dipping into my Dark Red Ale from a while back – yes, for a guy who brews his own beer, I don’t brew a ton. Surprising to some, I don’t drink every night of the week, and don’t really drink for intoxication (on purpose). I know I used this shot yesterday, but here it is again:

And yes, that is a limited edition Star Wars pint glass that was only available at the Alamo Draft House while supplies lasted while it was screening Episode 7 – The Force Awakens.. So I have that going for me.

So as I mentioned in last night’s post, Jim Beam worked its way into the night, in the form of Econo-Old-Fashions.

 

I made a simple syrup to heighten things up:

1.5 cups water

1 cups brown sugar

1 orange sliced up

1 apple sliced up

Pinch of allspice

Teaspoon vanilla extract

Boil for 45 min, or until orange flavor begins to take over vanilla extract flavor, and syrup begins to thicken a little. let cool.

Use 1 part to every 2 parts of whiskey, add bitters of your choice, Teaspoon of Luxardo cherry syrup, big block ice cube (special mold), stir it all up, then add a slice of orange, flame glass with orange peel, drop that bitch into the glass, then skewer 2 cherries and rest them on top of everything:

 These things taste like candy, and you could probably get away with 1/2 part simple syrup to every 2 parts of whiskey, but yolo bitches.

And no, I don’t use Butter in my old fashions. That’s there for style points.

Three triples of those bastards deep into the evening, I started to craft my recipe for my Orange Hefeweizen: (yes, oranges became quite the theme of the night (had a huge bag of them, so…  you know – they ended up in the beer).

Grains: 

5# German 2-row pale

5# Weizen German Wheat Malt

1# Honey Malt (Canadian)

.5# Crystal-60

Hop/Boil Schedule:

60min: 1oz German Hallertau & 4 Halves of peeled Oranges

30min: 4 Halves of peeled Oranges

20min: .25oz Azacca Hops

15min: .25oz Comet Hops and 1oz FRESHLY ZESTED orange zest.

10min: .25oz Azacca Hops

5min: .25oz Comet Hops and 1oz Fresh Zested Orange Zest

Flame out: .5oz Azacca Hops and .5oz Comet Hops

Mash at 153 degrees for an hour and sparge – collecting 6 or so gallons of water.

Yeast: Standard German Wheat

Here’s my sparge setup – pretty basic…

here are my Boil ingredients!

And just for the record, 2 ounces of zest requires 6.5 large oranges, and a shit-ton of stamina. You’ll also noticed I got as much of that bitter pith and membrane off my oranges as I could – I wanted all that juice in my beer.

My efficiency wasn’t that bad – I ended up with a gravity of 1.062 – so slightly high for style, but I think it’s going to be great!

The plan is to taste when I rack into the secondary, and see if I need to add some secondary orange zest to boost that orange flavor. I really want to taste orange when I drink this bastard.

Well, with all beers – wish me luck!

That pretty much sums up the day – there was more shenanigans, but I reviewed those in yesterday’s post .

Hey – have a great day.

cheers.

 

 

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