While I received quite a new wonderful gifts for Christmas this year, I thought I’d mention a few of the brewing-related ones here. Firstly, as you see above, my talented sister was kind enough to design beer bottle labels for us! Two different versions, both of which look quite good (though the “hop”-containing green one is probably my favorite), and labeled “Andy & Brooke’s Linsenbrew.” How exactly we never thought of “Linsenbrew,” I’ll never know, but I certainly got a kick out of these. I’ll probably only use them on beer batches I save for aging, and for those I take places or give away (these three are destined for my cousin, for example), but I’m very glad to have them!
In other brewing news, we got some additional equipment that I’m looking forward to trying. We got two wort chillers, which are essentially just “radiators” that pump cold water through copper tubing that you put into the wort after you boil it for an hour. It’s important to cool the wort down as quickly as possible before adding the yeast, and up until now, we’ve usually filled the sink with ice and cooled it down that way (frequently taking 2+ hrs…). Now, we have a means of cooling it down much more quickly, which will cut down on brewing time considerably. We’ll probably use one of them for beer, and the other we’ll use for Brooke’s yogurt, which also requires a cooling step before you’re done. Each chiller has slightly different fittings, so we haven’t decided which one will be used for which purpose, but regardless, we’re looking forward to giving them a try.
I also got a bottle drying rack, similar to this one. Usually, I just clean each bottle and let them dry upside-down in laundry baskets. This is a “functional” solution, but isn’t exactly ideal. I usually need around 45 bottles cleaned, with the remaining beer going in 1 L or 2 L bottles. This drying rack should take up far less space and leave the laundry baskets available for…you know…laundry…
Finally, we got a Chinook IPA beer kit. This is a kit I’d considered doing awhile back but hadn’t tried it yet. The key reason I wanted it was because it only takes around 6 weeks to make, while other IPA varieties like to have 2 months fermenting, followed by bottling and conditioning. The last IPA I made got quite a bit better with an additional month of aging so, while I thought it ended up fine, it sure took a long time to be “drinkable.” Hopefully, this recipe solves that issue.
So yeah, got some new toys for Christmas to feed the beer brewing needs. I may get a chance to brew this one on New Year’s Day, but could push it off a bit, yet. Then, we need to start thinking about what the next batch will be, likely either a Cream Ale or a Czech Pilsner. We’re trying to get a recipe that’s radically different from the others we’ve made, as the Dunkelweizen that just finished tastes pretty similar to some of the others we’ve made.