It’s Beer Thirty FReepers! Time For The Homebrewing / Wine Making Thread #3 June 15,2012

Free Republic | Red_Devil 232

[Red_Devil 232]

Nope my first Mead I used a commercial clover honey. I will use a local filtered honey for my next batch of mead.

[american_ranger]

I got nine gallons of Jalapeno/Raisin wine in jugs. About 4 weeks and it will be time to bottle.

[Red_Devil 232]

Whoa Japs and raisin wine? Had a taste yet? Recipe?

[Red_Devil 232]

I have been trying my best to keep some homebrews ready to drink. But missed my schedule this week. Hate it when I run out of the tasties!

[JRandomFreeper]

I always boil what I brew. Yes, it was required to get the sugar and molasses into solution. Other thing is that I was surprised at the color just 5 oz of molasses gave the brew. And the flavor.

/johnny

[JRandomFreeper]

The yeast was what I had... trub from a batch or two ago that was in the fridge. Fast yeast, this time of year.

I'm not brewing for competitions. ;)

/johnny

[JRandomFreeper]

Sounds good. Here in Texas, there are 'local' oranges from from a long way away that are small and ugly and make great marmalade. I make a jalpeno and native orange marmalade that is to die for.

Jalapenos are so mild this year that I may not can any, unless they pep up.

/johnny

[JRandomFreeper]

I've been calling it George. ;)

/johnny

[Red_Devil 232]

I guess a sub for the molasses could be some Steen’s cane syrup for the molasses it would be a bit stronger though.

[JRandomFreeper]

Could, I suppose. Never had it, so I can't speak to it. I was just researching hot weather 'beers' and came across that in a book from the late 1700s.

Sugar of almost any kind, preferably flavored, water and yeast seem to be the key elements. ;)

Don't get me wrong... I love a harsh IPA in the middle of the hottest August day, but none of the recipes I looked at had hops in them. And I didn't start an IPA back in December when I should have.

/johnny

[brewer1516]

Yup. My brewing buddy and I had been on a good schedule. Always had 10-15 gallons kegged. We’ve both been busy with life the past few months. Time to go solo.

Maybe a simple light ale or a Kolsch. Yum.

[JRandomFreeper]

Other thing about that batch of yeast is that it is the one that produced 'cidery' results that I was talking about a few weeks ago. But not bad.

It may be infected with a lactobacillus of some kind, but so far... I'm ok with that. I'll keep propogating it.

And keep it FAR, FAR away from my other stuff.

/johnny

[brewer1516]

That’ll work!

Funny, we used to name our beers but got to the point that we just labeled them by style and date.

We did have a beer that tasted like ass and band-aids that we named Ass and Band-Aids Ale, but that got dumped PDQ.

[JRandomFreeper]

I won't ask how you know what those two things taste like. ;)

I did give a neighbor most of my experiment with Kool-aid(tm) wine. She loved it and it was 8%. Very quiet week, that week.

/johnny

[brewer1516]

That reference to ass and band-aids is kind of an inside joke with the brew-bud. We have had a couple of less than stellar batches, but have had more than a few that were spot on style and world class.

I fondly recall an oatmeal stout that was killer. A Belgian Golden that I believe had the hand of Providence involved. We even tried to replicate that batch and, while good, was just missing something.

I still want to do a really big beer. Like a Thomas Hardy’s Ale clone.

Dang! I’ve got to brew soon.

[Red_Devil 232]

The Steen's syrup is a very Dark molasses made from sugar cane and is made in Abbyville, La. I did not know it was a molasses when I asked the question.

[JRandomFreeper]

Depending on how it tasted on biscuits in the morning... I might try brewing with it in the evening.

/johnny

[Red_Devil 232]

Damn tasty on a biscuit! Add a pat of butter and it is heaven on a plate. Cannin' Syrup: Grandma always said when you have a good thing going - then don't change it. Grandma Lillian lived by these words. After marrying Charley Steen Jr. in the early nineteen hundreds, she and her mother-in-law worked side by side canning syrup. "In those days one of us would fill the can with freshly cooked syrup and the other of us would snap on a lid. A man would take it from us, place it on a platform and roll it under a large fan to cool it off (which stopped the can of syrup from further cooking.) After the cans could be handled, it was time to label them. We would make a homemade paste, brush it on the identifying tag and place the tin cans in cases. I remember it was really hard work; we truly put our hearts and souls into what we were doing. You know I have seen the Mill run by four generations of Steen's. We've been through a lot together – the times have sure changed in all these years. I tell you one thing – it's a lot easier on those canning lines they have now than the way we had to do it then." – Lillian B. Steen

[JRandomFreeper]

Wonder what Lillian would think about me brewing with her syrup? ;)

/johnny

[decal]

“It helped a lot, but I didn’t share that beer with friends.”

Yup, sometimes “I make the beer I drink” turns into “I drink the beer I make.” - we've all been there.