Bottling two beers this time: A Belgium Stout and another Peat-Smoked Porter

So sad and yet so full of promise. All those empty bottles waiting to be filled.

I've been very busy making chocolates. The Peanut Praliné have been flying off the shelf. People have discovered the wonderful taste of fantastic organic chocolate and an as wonderful organic peanut praliné, which we make here at Life By Chocolate.

I also made some very yummy Butter Crunch Toffee. To name only two confections. We have been extremely busy making rabbits and bunnies. Not to mention all the other chocolates we make on a daily basis.

Luckily, I found time to bottle my two beers, a Mustache Envy Belgium Stout and another round of the very lovely Peat-Smoked Porter. The Apple Cider I made is still aging but has met with delight and approval from my friends and colleagues, m'colls. (For the "A Bit of Fry and Laurie" fans out there.)


Either we had one huge party or it was bottling day yesterday. After an extended secondary fermentation, about 4 days longer than called for, we are ready to bottle.

The first step is to rack the beer. And since I had two beers to bottle, I racked, bottled, washed, racked again and bottled again. Luckily Dmitri was there to help me. He's a neighbor of ours.

Dmitri, not only an ace photographer but now also an expert bottler.

Because Dmitri was there to help, I was able to cap and box the beer while he was bottling.

Of course, I did some bottling, too. Dmitri had some appointments to take care of.

Of course my sweetheart, Kim, was also there to help. She helped recorded gravity readings and helped with sanitizing.

Mr. Music, drum roll please. The alcohol percentage of the Peat-Smoked Porter was 5.1% and careful readers of this blog will note that the last time I made this beer my alcohol percentage was 5.8%. I started out with an OG of 1.065 both times, though expected was 1.062. I did do secondary fermenting rather than a 3 week primary, this time out. I wonder if the temperature made a different in gravity, probably. The beer was much colder this time. Also, during secondary fermentation, the beer may have been stored at a lower temperature than the first batch. All of these things could contribute to a lower alcohol percentage. I'll have to recheck the beer after it's had another two weeks. I'm carbonating it in the kitchen where it is much warmer, than the cellar, that is. Though the final gravity on this batch was 1.025 and on the first batch 1.020 so they aren't that far off. .7% from just a .005 difference. Just goes to show you what compounding can do.

And for the Mustache Envy Belgium Stout we have an alcohol content of 5.8%. Spooky. The same as my first batch of porter. Original Gravity was 1.075 (expected 1.080) and the Terminal Gravity was 1.030. Again, the secondary fermentation happened in the cellar. We'll see if we get more alcohol as it ages and carbonates. These two are in the kitchen for their bottle conditioning. I don't know if the oak aging, which I did for about 2 weeks, longer than called for, but thems the breaks, did much to enhance the flavor. I'll see in a few months if I can taste the oak.

Mind you, I did have a space heater going in the cellar but I don't think it did much. After putting in the priming sugar, the temperature of both beers was around 59F. So, they probably have quite a bit of fermenting to do in the bottle. I just hope those caps hold.

Upshot: I love these beers. The samples I drew both tasted very good. i was glad I could fit in the bottling. Our Life By Chocolate chocolate making schedule has been hectic, to say the least. Easter is always very busy. On top of that, the Hudson River Valley Art Workshops and Fiber Art Workshops have been delightfully busy this year. What great weather we've had and what terrific workshops we've hosted at our two schools.

Bitter and Esters (formerly The City Brewshop)

No this isn't about a Folies Bergère star performer but rather this is about my brother John's new store for all things alcoholic. Or rather for all things about making alcoholic beverages. It used to be called The City Brewshop but they changed it to Bitter and Esters.

700 Washington Ave, in Brooklyn NY.
Phone: 917.596.7261

It's an amazing space. Beautiful! And they crammed it will all the things you will need to make, bottle and enjoy your beer, wine or mead. And take it from me, it's worth making your own bear or mead or even wine. They also have a great space for teaching classes. So, if you aren't a beer, wine or mead maker, you can become one.



John is on the left and Douglas, the other owner, and the mead, cider and wine expert, is on the right. John is the beer expert. Carla, John's main squeeze, is in the middle.

Founders.

They even have a cool basement. I was not allowed to take pictures. Hush, hush, big secret plans for the basement. They have a patio too, which is amazing for Brooklyn.



But I did sneak a picture of their grain storage bin. They're putting in some organic dark chocolate that I brought into the bin for safe keeping.



One reason I went was to visit my brother and Carla as well as to see their new shop. They had a soft opening. The other reason that I went to Brooklyn was to pick up bottling material for bottling my mead.



I listened to Doug and I bought the white champagne caps to go with the champagne bottles I had gotten and I also bought some corks to bottle the still mead and a corker to put the corks in. I also bought baskets for the champagne bottling.



What fun. I tried the mead, this is the high alcoholic, not sweat mead, mine is somewhere around 10% Though it may be as high as 11.5%. I'm hoping that 10% is enough alcohol to keep the mead from turning. We'll see. I may have put in too much water on start up. But even so, the mead tastes pretty good. The Sack Mead, which I'll be bottling soon, is much better.



I was going to try and use my 29mm caps but the capper I have is strictly for beer bottles. If I'm going to make Champagne or sparkling wine, methode Champenoise, or very sparkling mead, I'm going to have to get another capper.

Secondary Fermentation for the Mead Big Step

It's simple you rack the mead into a secondary glass carboy and you put the rubber stopper in and that's it. Well, it may sound simple but it isn't. As you can see by the pictures, we did this in the basement in the laundry room. Lots of space and I don't have to carry a slippery glass carboy weighing a ton up and and especially back down the stairs. The basement is nice a cool.

I lost the stopper into the mead and didn't have an extra. So, always buy at least 2 extra. Also, if you want the stopper to stay down in the mead, you make sure it is BONE DRY. Kim found this out by looking on the internet. She's a lifesaver. Also, when you put the stopper on, if you have to lock in the stopper, take off the top and the bell, put the stopper in and then put the lock back together. If you do that, everything will be very simple. I screwed up on the Dry Mead, which doesn't taste anywhere near as good as the Sack Mead which I did like clockwork.



I also used a little duct tape to hope the stopper down. I hope this doesn't contaminate anything. John suggested aluminum foil. Well, I don't think the duct tape will be any more contaminating than the open air.

More mistakes. On the Dry Mead, I had way too much mead, about 16 oz more than I should have. On the sweet mead, I had too little, about 32 oz too little. I used water on the latter and drank the former. I just hope this works out.

I filled the carboy up to the tippy top leaving only a 1/2 inch for the collection of CO2.

I didn't use any fining agent, egg whites, clay or anything like that. I just hope it clarifies. The Sack (Sweet) Mead is a lot clearer than the Dry Mead

Next day. The mead is fermenting like crazy and the mead is up in the lock. The pressure is very high and it forced the mead up into the airlock.

Making Mead at LBC part 2,3,4

Getting ready to lift the lid off of these very tight buckets. I got this equipment form City Brewshop. Brew. Drink. Repeat.


After the initial pitching of the yeast and the initial adding of the nutrients and energizer, you have to stir the mead 3 more times and add the nutrient/energizer combination each time. I started out with the mead in the kitchen, along with my Petite Saison d'Été. The weather had been lovely and cool. Then it got hot. The kitchen soon became a very bad place for the mead and beer. In the middle of the day, the temperature rose to around 80 degrees. I moved the three 5 gallon buckets to the cellar where it ranged from 63.5F to around 67F. The mead and beer is very happy down there. I don't think it ever gets above 70 degrees in the cellar. At least, I hope not. I don't have any more places to move it. I wish I had some dry ice, I could always throw that in. It's an old wine making trick.

The golden mead. I used a lot of honey on these two buckets.

First I stir to release the built up CO2. When I did this the first time, the mead, the Dry Mead, actually hissed at me. And then when I threw in the nutrient. It really bubbled up.

Not as energetic the second time. This is from the second day. Or it may have been the third day.

Weighing out the nutrient mix I made up.

Now adding the mixture.

And as you can see, it's starting to foam up.

Stirring. This is the Sack Mead, which isn't quite as energetic as the Dry.

This is the Dry Mead and as you can see, it's bubbling like crazy.

Wow. Will you look at that head. I had to do this once a day for 3 days. I had to sanitize all my equipment and it was a little bit of a pain doing it in the cellar but I managed. The Sack Mead is supposed to be like a great Ice Wine and the Dry Mead, which I'm going to bottle condition and make bubbly is probably like nothing I've ever had. We'll see in 3 months for the Dry and 4 months for the Sweet Sack Mead. I can't wait.

A quick update on the Mead...

The Sack (Sweet) Mead I was worried about is bubbling away. Not as aggressively as the Dry but it's bubbling. The Dry is going crazy. I also just finished another Petite Saison d'Été. But this time, I put in the Styrian Golding, the entire amount, for 10 mins, .75 oz of the Saaz for 10 minutes and the rest for 2. I also added 3 oranges quartered, everything, rind and all, and a little more than a pound of pineapple chopped up, fresh. no rind about 30 minutes before chilling. I did a very rapid chill. Less than 10 minutes it was about 47F. Fast. Now it's fermenting. In a bucket. Enjoy your beer and chocolate.

I just noticed I never blogged about the Petite Saison d'Été, A shame. It is a great beer.

Making Mead at LBC and other adventures

A lot of honey.

Well, gentle and gentile readers, I made mead today. No, not just a simple 5 gallon batch and howdy do, ma'am, but rather two different 5 gallon batches with the honey we use in the Bee's Knees bar. As a matter of fact, I used up all the honey that is for Bee's Knees. Well, almost all. I now need another 100 pail of honey as soon as possible. I've called my apiaries. I am going to have to get about 20 hives on this property somewhere in the back. That's right, I need to resurrect my beekeeping.

On Easter Sunday, Happy Eostre Bede, I went to visit my brother Johnny, of City Brewshop fame, and picked up another boatload of equipment. It's been a life long dream of mine to make mead. And now, because of my brother John and the wonderful help of my sweat wife Kim, I'm making two batches of mead. Huzzah!

Two more primary fermenters, with locks, etc, and two new glass secondary carboys, with locks etc. John gave me a great deal. I brought him my new toffee formulation with Pilsner Malt. Really good toffee. On sale soon.

Anyway, this wasn't a very sticky operation, though as you will see by the photos, a lot of water got on the floor. Just a typical brewing and fermenting operation. Now, instead of my kitchen smelling like hops, it smells like honey. Well, honey and chocolate and maybe lamb tangine and pizza.

So, how do you make mead? Well, it's simple. Sanitize everything as for brewing. You glop a lot of honey in a bucket,





17.8 pounds for the Sake Mead, a sweet mead, made with my special local honey and 12 lbs for my Dry Sparkling Mead. Unfortunately, I shorted this recipe by almost 1 pound but will make it up t tomorrow when I add in more nutrients and stir. Making this mead sparkling by bottle conditioning will be a challenge. Think Champagne. Think billions of pounds of pressure. Think explosion. I'm going to have to use Champagne bottles with special caps. Huzzah!

Glopping in honey in water and nutrients.

More glopping and water.

Taking gravity reads.

Add some warm water, nutrients, stir and then pitch the yeast in and cover.

Pitching the yeast.

Covering and praying this works. LOL. I had sanitized gloves and everything was clean and sanitized except for the honey though it's hard to culture anything in honey. I did pitch it a little warn, 79 F for the Sack Mead with Sweet Mead Yeast, which likes it warm, and 76 F for the dry mead, with the Champagne yeast, which does not like it warm. Other than that, I think we are on our way. A two week fermentation and then another 2 month secondary fermentation for the dry mead and a 3 month secondary fermentation for the Sack (Sweet) Mead.

Stay tuned folks for updates.

Beer, wine and sangria... What have we been doing?

The Guilded Otter

For my blog followers and my twitter followers who do not follow me on Facebook, here is a make-up post with all the pictures that are currently on my FB account and the Life By Chocolate FB account. There is even more on the Greenville Arms 1889 Inn and Hudson River Valley Art Workshops and of course our Wee Forest Folk store. So that should be most of what we have on Facebook.

Now, what have we been doing besides making chocolate and brewing beer and of course knitting and quilting? We've been dining and having great wines and beers.

Let me start from most recent. We went to The Guilded Otter in New Paltz.



We tried their sampler and then decided that the Winter Wassail was the one that we wanted to drink. The Crimson Lager was also good as was their Altbier and their Imperial Stout and the porter. Mostly all their beers are good. I bought a growler of the Winter Wassail.

They make a great sandwich. Here is my love, looking at the menu.



We've also been drinking some stellar wines. Here is a montage or rather a pictorial of the wine we've had over the last few months. These will be in reverse order of drinking them, from latest to lastest, if that's a word. Which I know it is not.

Very super yummy.

When I first opened this rosé I thought it was gone. It wasn't. It did take a few minutes, about 30 of them, to open and be delightful. I highly recommend this nice rosé.

One of the wonderful meals Kim made for us. I'm definitely going to steal the slaw. Great. Tasty and yummified.

The Hosmer was good and the Heron Hill was great though I think the Heron Hill needs a lot more time.

Ooooh La La, as my French friends would say, this wine was superb. It had honey and other complex flavors on the finish. Here's what I said about it when I was drinking it. "another stunner from the collection. Sauzet and a 1er cru. A wonderful wine that went well with the gigli we had with cheese sauce. Basically a goat cheese, mascarpone sauce."

These are the glasses we had the wine in.

I couldn't detect the honey and honeysuckle flavors I was expecting on the finish with a trace of caramel. When the wine opened, it was beautiful and delicious with all the flavors you'd expect from a 1er cru Meursault of this caliber.

We've also been making a great drink with the St. Germain and Apple Cider, local good stuff, cinnamon heated. I use almost a 1/2 and 1/2 mixture of St. Germain and Apple Cider. Very nice. Sorry, no sangria so this will have to do. It makes a very good winter cocktail of about wine strength.

A most lovely Chardonnay. This was a great drink. I've been taking out wines that I thought might be over the hill because when I opened this Chablis I thought it was already over the hill.

This was the bottle of wine that started all the problems. I thought it was bad. But I was wrong. It just took a long time to open. At least 1 hour. This wine was very gravely and very austere and had no fruit at all but after it had opened, it was a very typical Chablis with plenty of fruit though not as much as other Burgundies.

I'll leave you with two more. This is a great dessert wine and one of Kim's favorites. We had this with Roquefort and other blue cheeses.



I bought this next Sauterne back in the 80's and back when people were more concerned with Terroir than the skill in making the wine. This bottle of wine was sold to me as "contiguë à Yquem" that is the vineyard for this wine was contiguous with Yquem, the greatest Sauterne.

All of Burgundy is an example of this belief that Terroir isn't everything but the only thing and how wrong that can be. Clos de Tart is a particularly great example of how a change in the technique produces a much better wine. My last bottle of Clos de Tart was a 1990, which was superb.

And another great dessert wine. We drank this one with Roquefort and other great cheeses, mostly blue. All of these dessert wines had that characteristic honey and bottle sunlight greatness to them. No Yquem but still worth the drink. I am leaving out the great Champagnes we had over New Years, DVX, Krug etc. But you can see them on my Facebook site.

I hope this post satisfies not only the beer people following me but also the wine people and the cocktail or mixed drink crowd. And I hope it also makes for interesting reading for all you chocoholics out there. Enjoy.