http://blogs.halibut.com/mark/ en-US Copyright 2008 Sun, 23 Nov 2008 12:24:57 -0800 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Alright here's what I did today: 3gal nice clean drinking water (I have R/O water), about o1 gal of which is ice. 6c Organic Alfalfa honey (up from 5c) from a local bee keeper (Stoltley's Bee Farms) 3.5oz Sassafras (down from 4oz, all I had left; mental note, order more) 1tsp Anise seed (up from 1/2tsp) 3 vanilla beans (up from 2), cut and gutted, husks and all 2tsp Wintergreen extract The usual procedure, with a few changes: Boil 2gal of water (I have a much larger pot now). Stir in honey slowly, making sure it doesn't hit bottom and burn. This should take about 5 minutes. Add sassafras, anise and vanilla beans (guts, husks, the whole thing). Bring to a _NEAR_ boil, just when you start seeing bubbles, then back off the heat a bit and stir constantly, preventing a full boil, for 15 to 20 minutes (kinda lost track). The key here is to not let it get to a full rip roarin' boil. I think this helps keep some of the bitter compounds out of the steep (kinda like with tea.) Kill the heat. Skim off the bulk of the chunky bits with a colander-on-a-stick (if anyone knows what this is really called, please educate me. Otherwise, I'll keep calling it a COLANDER ON A STEEK!!) I put these scoopings into another colandar in a small bowl to let them drain. Siphon the good stuff from the pot into a keg via The New And Improved Spiffy Cheapo FIlter-O-Matic, Mark ][ (tm, pat pend). This gets the majority of the good stuff, but some will be left at the bottom that you can't get with the siphon because it just sucks up too much chunky bits that clog the host. I did the rest with a ladle into the NaISCF-O-M][(tm, pat pend). Top off with ice, and pour in whatever drains out of the chunky bits you pulled out earlier. Add the wintergreen, seal up, shake to mix ice and wintergreen into the soda, pressurize, burp, and store in the kegerator for a few weeks. This process was a bit more complex than before because I did a few new things: - I did not bring the steep to a full boil. The theory here is something I picked up from being absolutely addicted to tea in the morning. If you steep tea straight from a full boil, it will be more bitter than if you steep a few degrees below a full boil (ie, let the water sit a bit, pull it before it boils, drop an ice cube in the pot, etc.) So I thought I'd try the same thing here. Initial tests are positive, but the proof is in the pour 2 weeks from now. - I changed the ingredients around a bit, some out of necessity, some out of qualitative evaluation of previous batches. I upped the honey from 5 to 6 cups to add a bit more sweetness. I upped the anise from 1/2tsp to 1tsp 'cuz I still couldn't really taste it in the last batch. I upped the vanilla from 2 to 3 beans 'cuz I can't really taste it, and because they're probably nearing the end of their shelf life and need to get consumed. I decided to leave the wintergreen where it is, at 2tsp. I only had 3.5oz of sassafras, so that's all that went in. This was not intentional. - I steeped at a lower concentration. Before, I only had a pot large enough to steep about 1gal of water. That pot was lost in the Great Jam Making Session of 2008 (plum jam burned in it; we still haven't been able to get the layer of carbon off the bottom), so we got a replacement, and apparently a larger one. So I was able to steep with about 2gal of water (might have been a little less; I didn't measure.) The final concentration didn't change, but the steeping concentration did, which can change the compounds that come out of the ingredients. We'll see what this does. I spilled a bit while ladling at the end and tasted my mess; it was _GOOD_. Like, _REAL_GOOD_. We'll see how this turns out. I'm a little worried about having used so much honey; it's kinda sweet, but what I tasted was more concentrate than the final result, so we'll see. Now, it's a waiting game. We're hosting a holiday party on Dec 13, 3 weeks from now, so the timing will be nearly perfect for a tasting. I'll post again after the party, if not a bit sooner. http://blogs.halibut.com/mark/2008/11/batch_15.html http://blogs.halibut.com/mark/2008/11/batch_15.html Sun, 23 Nov 2008 12:24:57 -0800 Wow, that was a long 2 weeks... Batch 14 was consumed several months ago at a party for my office. Got good reception, but no specific comments so nothing really worth writing up here. Some of it also went as a bribe to a sister company who graciously offered to host some servers of ours for some business stuff we were doing. Again, I never got any specific feedback worthy of posting here. And, it's been too long since I tasted it, I don't remember much. What I do remember, however, wasn't not favorable of the malted barley. I might try that again some other time, but not now. Also, the Avacado honey tastes good by itself, but not so much in the root beer. So, next time (read: today), I'm using Alfalfa honey (what they had; I'm still waiting for Buckwheat again). Otherwise, I'm sticking with the same recipe. I'll post again when I've written down a "as brewed" recipe and process. http://blogs.halibut.com/mark/2008/11/batch_14_writeup.html http://blogs.halibut.com/mark/2008/11/batch_14_writeup.html Sun, 23 Nov 2008 10:39:59 -0800 Summary of the popular opinion for Batch 13: "Holy shit, this is good!" (Why is everyone always surprised?) Closely followed up with, "A bit too wintergreeny, though." (Yeah, I know.) Good comments came from: - Friends and Family, who's spoken opinion I don't necessarily trust ("..this is.. ..nice.." *sets bottle down*), but they asked for more, which I do trust. - Coworker Dave, of whom I've always gotten brutally honest, and rather detailed, opinions from - George, proprietor of the local brew supply store, who sounded surprised to like it; I think he was expecting root beer from concentrate. - Cindy (wife), who normally prefers the stuff I make from extract. This batch has universally received the best reviews so far. The Spiffy Cheapo Filter-O-Matic(tm, pat pend) worked miracles on the bitterness/astringency problem. That problem is solved, as far as I'm concerned. The rest of the mix was good, except the wintergreen which overpowered everything else, so how can we really tell that the rest of the mix was good? Yeah, who knows. But people liked it, so I've got that goin' for me. I'm excited because I finally got the filtering stuff solved. The next batch (fixing the wintergreen) should be great. So, without further ado... Batch 14: 3g RO water 4c avocado blossom honey 4oz sassafras 1tsp anise seed 2 vanilla beans .5c malted barley extract (normally used for making beer) 2tsp wintergreen extract (_NOT_ 2tbsp!) Usual procedure, but with a different order this time. Boil 1gal water. Add honey stirring to make sure it dissolves completely. Put colander in water and add sassafras, anise and vanilla beans. Boil for 20 minutes, stirring continuously. Right near the end, add the malted barley extract, stirring to make sure it dissolves completely. Pull the colander, and with it the bulk of the solid bits. Use a bit of hose left over from the construction of the kegerator to siphon the brew into the "New And Improved Spiffy Cheapo Filter-O-Matic, Mark ][ (tm, pat pend)" (See below for construction details.) Add ice and RO water to top off. Add Wintergreen. Close up the keg and shake the snot out of it. Pressurize, burp, stow in the kegerator for a couple weeks. The "New And Improved Spiffy Cheapo Filter-O-Matic, Mark ][ (tm, pat pend)" is basically a canning funnel, screen mesh from a colander, a hose clamp, and a (clean) tea towel sewn up into a two layer sock. The mesh is cut off the colander then fit to the bottom of the funnel and attached with the hose clamp. This was from Mark I of the SCFOM. For Mark 2, took a tea towel, folded over length wise and sewed up all four edges. I then folded over again lengthwise and sewed up one short side and the long side. This gives a very long and narrow sock with two layers of fabric between the inside and outside. This was too long for my keg, so I cut it in half and sewed up the appropriate edges to make two socks, each half as long as the first. I then took the open end of one of the socks and slipped it between the screen mesh and the hose clamp such that any liquid poured into the funnel would first be filtered by the screen mesh, then by the tea towel cloth before going into the keg. The whole sock goes inside the keg and the funnel (or, more accurately, the screen mesh bits that stick out of the hose clamp) rests on the opening to the keg. This makes it easy to ladle, pour or siphon liquid, through the "NAISCFOM,M][" directly into the keg. It worked like a champ. Batch 14 is currently in the kegerator, chillin' and carbin'. I look forward to a report in about 2 weeks. http://blogs.halibut.com/mark/2008/07/batch_13_writeup_good_batch_14.html http://blogs.halibut.com/mark/2008/07/batch_13_writeup_good_batch_14.html Sat, 12 Jul 2008 17:46:56 -0800 A few final observations on Batch 12: - After a few weeks, the wintergreen really mellowed out. I almost feel like it could use more (which is good; see below.) - I noticed that some bottles were _REALLY_ good and not very bitter, and others had the bitterness I really don't like. I further noticed that the bottles that came out really good a) had little to no sediment at the bottom, and/or b) I did a really good job of pouring such that little to no sediment came out into the glass. This, to me, is a smoking gun in the hands of the sediment. Solution: better filtration. Enter, the Spiffy Cheapo Filter-O-Matic(tm, pat pend)! - Otherwise, Batch 12 is far and away the best so far. I think it had a lot to do with sticking to the basic ingredients and adding the wintergreen. Given all the above observations, here's what I did for Batch 13: 3gal nice, clean, filtered water. (Mine is RO, including the ice.) 4oz Sassafras root bark, cut and sorted. 2 vanilla beans, cut and gutted. Husks and all go in. 1/2tsp anise seeds 4c apple blossom honey (what was available at farmer's market this week) 1c alfalfa honey (something I had in the cupboard) 2tbsp wintergreen extract (oops) The usual procedure, with a twist this time. Boil about a gallon of water, stick a metal mesh colander in it, add the sassafras, vanilla beans (guts and husks; the whole thing) and anise seed. Let boil, stirring continuously for about 10 minutes. Pull the colander, and the ingredients with it. With the heat still on, mix in the honey, stirring the whole time so as to not let the honey burn at the bottom of the pot. Remove from heat. This is where the story takes a slight twist. This time, I wanted to make damn sure I filter the brew before putting in the keg (sanitized, natch.) See below for the construction details, but for now, I'll summarize and say, "Ladle mixture into the keg through the Spiffy Cheapo Filter-O-Matic(tm, pat pend)" After everything is in the keg, add ice to bring the temp down so the wintergreen extract doesn't evaporate. Top off with the remaining water, then add the wintergreen extract, keg up, shake, pressurize, burp, and stow in the chill chest for a week or two. Notes: - 2tbsp of wintergreen, 'eh? Last batch was only 1tbsp, and early notes suggested dropping that to 2tsp. Yeah, well, I remembered the "2" part right, just not the "tsp" part. This was an honest mistake on my part. I hope this doesn't come back to haunt me. - 1/2tsp anise seed, up from 1/4tsp last batch. I couldn't taste the anise seed at all, so I decided to kick it up a bit. - Apple blossom honey. Hoo doggy, if you can get your hands on some of this stuff, I highly recommend it. Its a mellow, fragrant honey that does taste slightly of apples. It's quite delicious. I considered pulling some honey out for use on toast before making the root beer, but my source (Stoltely's Bee Farms, Atascadero, CA) says he'll have it for a few more weeks, so I'll just go back and get more. He tells me he'll have buckwheat in a few more weeks; guess what I'm getting for my next batch. ;-) - Spiffy Cheapo Filter-O-Matic(tm, pat pend). I've spent a fair bit of time over the last few weeks considering how to filter this stuff before kegging. I thought about using coffee filters, I thought about the good ol' standby: pantyhose, I've thought about industrial filtering mechanism... I ended up settling on a canning funnel (big wide opening at the bottom, fits a small mouth mason jar) with wire mesh from a colander hose-clamped to the bottom, and a coffee filter up top. The wire mesh is just there to keep the coffee filter from completely falling through. All parts are stainless steel or food grade high temp plastic and were washed thoroughly to remove oils and what-not. I first tried siphoning the brew into the SCF-O-M(tm), which worked great for about the first pint at which point the flow stopped. I don't mean came to a trickle, I mean it stopped. Completely. Lifting up the edge of the filter made it go again, but only for a bit. The coffee filter had completely clogged up with sediment. (Don't read this part, @blackmoondog) Rather than blowing through a few dozen coffee filters, I decided to sacrifice a tea towel to the cause and tucked a corner into the SCF-O-M(tm). It did the same thing as the coffee filter, but I was able to kinda scoot the cloth around so that it always had at least a little clean cloth to clog up (say that a few times fast...) After scooting it around the whole towel, it was completely clogged up with sassafras bits and needed to be washed. Three washings of the cloth later, I finally had the whole batch in the keg, properly filtered. It's dark in the keg so I don't have a good idea what it looks like in there, but given how much crap was caught by the SCF-O-M(tm), I'm pretty confident that I got most, if not all, of it. So. The lessons learned this time around: - Make damn sure you have a written copy of the recipe around so you don't mistake "tsp" for "tbsp" again. *sigh* - I need to design the SCF-O-M(tm) v2. It needs a MUCH larger filter surface, one that's easily removable and washable. I haven't figured this one out yet. Any ideas, folks? That's it for Batch 13. I'll be back in a week or two with a first sample report. http://blogs.halibut.com/mark/2008/05/batch_12_writeup_part_4_the_re.html http://blogs.halibut.com/mark/2008/05/batch_12_writeup_part_4_the_re.html Sat, 24 May 2008 22:22:21 -0800 I took a bunch of bottles of batch 12 to a party this weekend and it was very well received. Of course, the real test being whether people ask for more after getting their first taste, and many people did. A couple people kept coming back for more and more and couldn't get enough. I now have a whopping two bottles left. Means its time for another batch! :) A few people noticed the bitter taste I've been talking about, so I know I'm not going crazy. But it doesn't seem to bother most people, which is a good sign. Next batch: - Use buckwheat honey, if I can get my hands on it. - Use 2tsp of wintergreen - watch the pH and try to keep it neutral, or even a bit acidic. - do a much better job of filtering before kegging. I need to get my hands on some equipment. I've got the next week off from work, so I'll have some time to go shopping. I suspect there will be Batch 13 in the near future. http://blogs.halibut.com/mark/2008/04/batch_12_writeup_part_3_public.html http://blogs.halibut.com/mark/2008/04/batch_12_writeup_part_3_public.html Sat, 26 Apr 2008 19:28:58 -0800

Cut back on the wintergreen from 3 tsp to 2 tsp

Leave out the Anise until I get the bitterness figured out

Drop the pH of the water before brewing with some food grade lactic acid

Filter the heck out of the brew right after boil, before kegging to get as much of the particulate sassafras out of suspension. There are some other ways of doing this using some additives, but I'd rather start here and see how well it works. Filtration. How? That's a very good question. I brainstormed some ideas today at lunch with some friends. Some ideas involved contacting laboratory supply houses and getting vials, stills, glass spiral tubes, etc.. I suggested that I get a Jacob's ladder to complete the effect. So far, the solution I like the best is to get something like this, a large stock pot with a built-in faucet (or make one given that the ones with built-in faucets are in the $300+ range!), do the brew in that, put some sort of a large filter on the input to the faucet, then run a hose to a coffee filter on top of the keg and just let it drip through. Of course, I'd have to watch the faucet to make sure the coffee filter doesn't over flow, but I can do that. This is going to involve a trip to the local restaurant supply store, me thinks. Road Trip!]]> http://blogs.halibut.com/mark/2008/04/batch_12_writeup_part_2_tasty.html http://blogs.halibut.com/mark/2008/04/batch_12_writeup_part_2_tasty.html Fri, 25 Apr 2008 20:39:02 -0800 SASSAFRAS!!!!!" There are a few things I would like to change, if I can: - It still has that damn astringency. Though it does seem mellower. - Probably a bit too much wintergreen extract. Next batch, I would probably back it off a bit to 2tsp for a 3 gallon batch. - The anise gets lost in the wintergreen now. Maybe kick the anise seeds up a bit. doubling to 1/2tsp seems a bit risky, but maybe a "heaping 1/4tsp" next time. Those are the bits that are flavor based. However, there is one thing that is procedure based (though it also has an affect on flavor) that needs to get fixed: There was no fizz, no carbonation. For some reason, the keggerator didn't get any bubbles into the stuff. For the life of me, I don't know why. My best bet is that it wasn't cold enough in there, so I cranked the fridge up to max... ...and proceeded to turn the keg into a solid block of ice... Whoops. Probably not such a good idea. I've cranked down the cooling now, so hopefully it'll defrost soon. I hope the pressure build-up from freezing didn't crack the keg anywhere; that would get messy. So, anyway. To sum up: the flavor is really good, but I gotta get some fizz into the stuff before I'll call this batch a success. More later, after defrosting. *mumble*mumble*Gotta get a thermometer*mumble*mumble*]]> http://blogs.halibut.com/mark/2008/04/batch_12_writeup_part_1_whoops.html http://blogs.halibut.com/mark/2008/04/batch_12_writeup_part_1_whoops.html Thu, 17 Apr 2008 22:45:24 -0800 Been a while since I've made a batch of rootbeer. I was feeling the urge again recently, so I picked up a pound of sassafras from the Internet, some Wintergreen extract and got to work. But first, my writeups, such as they are. Batch 10b: Uhh. Honestly, I don't remember. It's been many months. I remember not being totally enamored with it, but I finished it so it couldn't have been too bad. IIRC, it was still too acidic for my taste. Batch 11: This is the real interesting one. This batch was made not long after Batch 10b was done being consumed, but I never wrote up the recipe, which I'm now regretting. IIRC, I was experimenting with wintergreen leaf, which I can now tell you with relative authority tastes _NOTHING_ like wintergreen I'm used to. The problem is that I ran out of sassafras and tried to make up for it with wintergreen leaf. This did _NOT_ work. I tried it after a week of carbing and hated it. Unfortunately, I never got around to emptying the keg and cleaning things out, so I had a bit of work before I could do anything tonight, cleaning out the keg, flushing the lines, etc. Batch 12: I want a known good batch and recipe. I tried to take the bits that made the best batches in the past and use them here: honey as the sweetener, loose steeping of 40z of sassafras (read: not in a grain bag), etc. This is what I came up with: 3gal of RO water, about 1gal of which was ice. 2 Vanilla beans, cut and gutted. 4oz Sassafras root bark c/s 1/4tsp Anise seed 2c Orange blossom honey 2c Spike weed honey 1c Buckwheet honey (yes, these three were just what I had in the cupboard.) 1tbsp Wintergreen extract Boil 1gal of water. Put colander into water. Put vanilla bean and guts, sassafras and anise seed into water. Boil for about 10 minutes, stiring the whole time. Pull colander, taking most of the sassafras and vanilla husks with it. Mix in honey, stirring to dissolve, making sure to not let the honey build up on the bottom of the pot, thus burning. Use a little strainer-on-a-stick to filter out most of the remaining chunky bits. Add ice to cool down boiling mixture, then ladle into sanitized keg. Add remaining ice and RO water to fill keg. Add wintergreen extract, close keg, shake to mix extract. Pressurize, burp, and stow in the chill chest for a week. I made the mistake of not tasting this batch before closing the keg up. It smelled and looked good, though. I have high hopes for this batch. A couple things about this batch: - Grab-bag of honeys. I like each type individually; I just hope they go well together. The orange blossom is pretty mellow, so hopefully it'll keep the honey flavor from getting too over powering. - I added the honey at the end of the boil instead of the beginning. Not quite sure why I did this. Hopefully, the sassafras will be able to more fully flavor the water if it's not as sugary. - Added wintergreen extract instead of wintergreen leaf. At least this wintergreen actually smells and tastes like wintergreen. The quantity of "1 tbsp" was a total stab in the dark. I googled for "rootbeer recipe wintergreen" and found wildly varying opinions on the subject, so we'll see how this turns out. It'll take a week to see how this comes out. Hopefully I'll remember to post the results. http://blogs.halibut.com/mark/2008/03/batch_10b_writeup_batch_11_and.html http://blogs.halibut.com/mark/2008/03/batch_10b_writeup_batch_11_and.html Sat, 29 Mar 2008 22:31:44 -0800 Batch 8 Writeup: Batch 8 was quite tasty. It ended up tasting more like a root-mead than a root-beer. The sassafras didn't really come through the honey flavor. It was quite tasty, but just not very root-beery. I think it was the grain bag that prevented water flow around the sassafras root. I've gotta find either a much bigger bag, or a way to steep without the confines of the bag. I think I've come up with something, but I'll cover that in Batch 10b Batch 9: I made Batch 9 specifically for a party at work. Here's the recipe: 3gal filtered water (1gal as ice) 3c orange blossom honey 2 vanilla beans 2tbsp anise seed 2.5oz sassafras root 1tbsp lactic acid Standard procedure. Boil 1gal water, dissolve lactic acid and honey, cut and scrape vanilla beans and throw in the pot. Put all anise seed and sassafras root in the water (no grain bag) and steep for about 5 or 10 minutes. Add ice to cool down. Ladle mixture into keg via a good old-fashion (clean/new) nylon pantie-hose. Top off with remaining water. Pressurize, burp, store in kegerator for a week, bring to party. Batch 9 write-up: This one didn't come out _ANYTHING_ like I wanted. I think the anise seed I got for this batch was _MUCH_ more potent than previous anise seeds I've gotten. These were fresh. The resulting brew was _WAY_ over powered with anise to the point that I was unable to enjoy it. It was also kinda sour. I think I use too much lactic acid too. Though, this could have been because of the anise; not really sure. I also cut-back on the sassafras, which I think was a mistake. Lessons learned: _MUCH_ less anise seed, back to previous quantities of lactic acid too. Batch(es) 10: My wife was taking issue with all the sugar I've been consuming via root beer, so I took a few weeks break. But, just yesterday, I felt the urge to make some more, so I did. This is what I came up with. Batch 10a: I attempted a small batch of birch beer using some birch bark I purchased a few months ago (but have kept in an air tight jar; I assure you, it's still quite fresh.) I also decided to try using malted barley as the sugar instead of honey. Anyway, here's what I did: 1.25L RO water (just got an RO installed) .25tsp lactic acid 1/3c malted barley syrup from a brew shop .5oz sassafras root .5oz birch bark .25tsp anise seed .5tsp vanilla extract Standard procedure. Boil water, add lactic acid and malted barley. All all sassafras, birch bark, anise seed and vanilla. Let steep for 5(ish) minutes, then pour mixture into a bowl and colander, then remove the colander also removing all the solid bits. Put this bowl into a larger bowl with ice in it to attempt to cool the mixture. Batch 10a writeup: This is the point that I tasted it. Oy. To say it was repellent wouldn't do justice to my response. It literally triggered my gag reflex. It tasted like I had just thrown up in my mouth a little bit. Obviously, I must have gotten a little chunk of something nasty that fell on the spoon so I tried it again. Nope. Still disgusting. I didn't bother trying to carbonate this, I just poured it out straight away. I experimented with a lot of things in this batch. I really shouldn't do so much at one time. I tried: 1) using barley as a sugar, 2) adding birch bark, 3) a much higher concentration of lactic acid, 4) RO water instead of just filtered. In addition to this, this is the same concentration of anise seed as the previous batch, which I concluded was far too much. Lessons learned: Don't change so many things at once. Birch bark adds a nasty flavor. I may attempt one more birch bark batch, but it will be much simpler. Lower the acid level (raise the pH). Use much less anise seed. Batch 10b: Immediately upon pouring batch 10a down the drain, I got a lot more conservative and made a "normal" batch (I just want some tasty root beer, after all.) 3gal RO water (some as ice (I didn't have a whole lot)) .25tsp lactic acid 4c buckwheat honey 2 vanilla beans, cut, scraped, etc 4oz sassafras root .5tsp anise seed Standard procedure, with a bit of a twist: Boil 1gal water, dissolve honey and lactic acid. (Here's the twist) Put a colander in the pot, trying to get as much of it below the water line as possible. Then add ingredients to the water, in the colander. Steep for 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Be careful not to push the bits into the colander lest you break them up and they fall through. After the 10 minutes, pull the colander out, taking most of the bits with it. There will be some floaters left, stuff you couldn't prevent from going through the colander. Scoop them up with a small (2 or 3 inch) colander on a stick (what are these called?) Ladle mixture into cleaned and sanitized keg, pressurize, burp, stash in the kegerator for a week and change. Things I did differently: I gave the ingredients more room to move around, but still had a convenient way to get most of it out. This added room will hopefully pull more flavor out of the bark. I used a lot less acid and anise seed. (Though, from initial tests, I fear it may still be too much anise.) But, I went back to 4oz of sassafras, and went back to buckwheat honey which made what I think was the best-to-date batch (see Batch 5). We shall see how this turns out. I'm optimistic. Equipment: My kegging system hasn't changed, but I did pick up a carbonator cap, a little plastic do-hickey that mates to a standard 2L bottle and gives you a ball-lock valve so you can pressurize (or re-pressurize) the bottle from a standard CO2 tank. In short, it lets me make small batches of things. (This is what I was attempting with batch 10a.) I tried it once, but it didn't seem to hold pressure. I've since figured out that it probably did hold pressure, but I only filled it with CO2 once, maybe twice. I think a heck of a lot more than that will need to be put in it. After making batch 10b, I decided to try carbonating a bottle of just water to test the hardware. I took the 1.25L bottle to the CO2 tank, filled it once and shook the hell out of it. While shaking it, I could feel the pressure drop very quickly to the point that the bottle was imploding some. I filled it again, shook it again, filled it again, shook it again, etc.etc. Until it didn't start imploding upon vigorous shaking. THEN I stowed it in the fridge. Once the temp drops, it'll absorb more CO2 and I'll probably have to do the same thing again. Anyway, the lesson to learn here is that my carbonator cap is probably doing the right thing, but it either needs to be connected to the CO2 tank full time while in the fridge, or you'll need to refill it a bunch of times over the period of a week or so (standard carbing time.) That's it for now. I'll post again when I get results from this batch and the carbonator cap experiment.]]> http://blogs.halibut.com/mark/2007/08/batch_8_writeup_batch_9_and_wr.html http://blogs.halibut.com/mark/2007/08/batch_8_writeup_batch_9_and_wr.html Sun, 05 Aug 2007 07:27:47 -0800 Batch 6 writeup Batch 6 went to a LAN party where it got mixed reviews. At least one person (besides me) really liked it and asked for more (which is the true test of whether someone likes it or not.) Everyone else was very polite and said it was "interesting." I think I went a bit overboard on the ingredients. Anyway, I brought it back home and finished it off myself. I liked it, but it still had an astringency. Talking with Dave from work, he suggested that I try dropping the pH the water before adding the sassafras. So, I picked up some food grade acid (Lactic acid to be exact) at the brew store and made Batch 7: Batch 7 3 gallon filtered water (some as ice) 1/2 teaspoon 98% Lactic acid 1 box (4 cup equivalent) Splenda 2 vanilla beans 4oz Sassafras root bark Boil 1 gallon of the water. Add the lactic acid and Splenda, make sure it dissolves all the way. Cut and gut the vanilla beans, add to water (guts, husks and all). Put the sassafras in a grain bag and steep in boiling water for 5 minutes. Remove the grain bag and vanilla bean husks. Add some ice to bring the temp down so you don't burn yourself. Put mixture in a sanitized keg, top of with remaining water. Put in the keggerator, pressurize to 20psi, burp, and let carb for a week or two. Slowly drop pressure to about 12 psi, then bottle into cold bottles and cap. This batch ended up making 24 12oz bottles. Batch 7 writeup Note that this was a sugar free batch at the request of my diabetic parents. I personally can't stand sugar substitutes, so I didn't like this batch. But my folks seem to like it, so that's good. I went very minimalistic on the ingredients, after batch 6. There are still a bunch of bottles of this floating around my folks' house. When I got home from my folks' house this weekend (it was their 140th birthday party (they both turn 70 this year)), I decided to make a batch for myself this time. My favorite batch so far has been batch 5, I think because it was made from Honey. So, I decided to make another Honey batch: Batch 8 3 gallon filtered water (some as ice) 1/2 teaspoon 98% Lactic acid 3lbs or 6cups of Organic, locally made Avocado blossom honey. 2 vanilla beans 4oz Sassafras root bark Boil 1 gallon of the water. Add the lactic acid and honey, make sure it dissolves all the way. The honey will sink to the bottom and burn if you don't dissolve it quickly and completely. Cut and gut the vanilla beans, add to water (guts, husks and all). Put the sassafras in a grain bag and steep in boiling water for 5 minutes. Remove the grain bag and vanilla bean husks. Add some ice to bring the temp down so you don't burn yourself. Put mixture in a sanitized keg, top of with remaining water. Put in the keggerator, pressurize to 20psi, burp, and let carb for a week or two. I just made this batch today, so I haven't bottled it yet (obviously.) It's currently carbing. I will say that just the honey and vanilla bean water tasted _FANTASTIC_, and after adding the sassafras, it was even better. I'm _REALLY_ looking forward to this batch.]]> http://blogs.halibut.com/mark/2007/05/batch_6_writeup_batch_7_batch.html http://blogs.halibut.com/mark/2007/05/batch_6_writeup_batch_7_batch.html Mon, 28 May 2007 15:36:53 -0800 I went to pour a glass of batch 5 yesterday and got a whole lotta foam and sputter and chunder, signaling the end of my first 3 gallon batch of root beer in my new kegerator. This makes me happy and sad at the same time. Happy, because it's a hobby that I really enjoy and have been able to consume over the period of a few months. Sad, because I wanted a glass of root beer to eat with my lunch! So, I made batch 6 today: 2oz of Sassafras 3oz of saspirilla .5oz of star annis 1oz wintergreen 2c organic white sugar 3c organic brown sugar 4 vanilla beans 1gal boiling water 1gal ice 1gal water You know the routine. Boil water, add flavorings, add sugar slowly making sure to stir it in and dissolve it quickly (you don't want it carmelizing on the bottom of the pot). Total steeping time, about 7 minutes (however long it took to work in 5 cups of sugar.) Pour into a sanitized bowl with a sanitized fine wire mesh colindar, strain chunky bits. Put ice in sanitized keg, pour mixture over ice. Top off with more water. Put in kegerator and carbonate. The ingredients this time around were from the bottom of the bin at the hippy food store where I get them. They weren't the most aromatic I've ever used. I've ordered a pound of sassafras bark and a pound of birch bark, so I'll get them fresh. I'll use that for the next batch. I used sugar instead of honey this time. The last batch was _VERY_ predominantly honey flavored. I wanted to get back to tasting the sassafras, or in this case, like saspirilla. I'll let y'all know how it comes out (if anyone is actually reading this. :) http://blogs.halibut.com/mark/2007/03/batch_6.html http://blogs.halibut.com/mark/2007/03/batch_6.html Sun, 11 Mar 2007 15:10:10 -0800 I made batch 5 today: 2.5oz sassafras root bark (wanted 3oz, only had 2.5) 1oz sasparilla root bark 1oz wintergreen leaf 1 tbsp anise seeds (not star anise) 3 vanilla beans, guts scraped of course. 3 lbs (6 cups) organic buckwheat honey (almost) 1 gal boiling water 1 gal ice 1 gal water Boil 1 gal water. Add roots, leaves, seads and vanilla guts and husks. All, straight into the water. I sometimes use a grain bag, but I wanted this amount of stuff to have room to move around. Boil for 10 minutes, stiring about half the time. (It takes the barks a bit of time to saturate with water; they float to the surface until then. Keep stiring them into the water.) Start adding honey. 6 cups is a lot of honey, and it doesn't disolve instantly, so add it slowly. I just poured it from the jars I bought it in, in a slow ribbon. The whole process took about five minutes. Total boil time so far: 15 minutes. Boil for another 2 or 3 minutes just to make sure everything is disolved. Pour into a sanitized bowl that has a similarly shaped and sized fine mesh collinder (also sanitized) in it. Pull the collinder out, taking the vast majority of the roots, leaves, seads and vanilla husks with it. (My bowl wasn't big enough for the whole batch, so I had to do this twice.) Pour filtered mixture into sanitized keg. This is where you would do additional filtering if you don't want little bits of stuff in your root beer. I tried filtering through cheese cloth, but it just fell in the keg, so I gave up. Start adding ice to the keg until it stops melting quickly when stirred (with a sanitized utensil of your choice, natch.) Fill the rest of the keg with water. Cap, shake to mix, and carbonate. Notes: - Standard disclaimers apply: Use water and ice from a good, clean source. If you don't have a filter in your house, get bottled "drinking water" and "party ice" from the store. I just used water from my under-sink mounted filter. We've since hooked up the ice maker in our freezer to this filter too, so in prep of this day, I bagged all the ice that was made at the time and got the freezer cranking out more ice. It took about 1.5 "ice maker drawer" loads. - The windergreen leaf I got from the hippy food store near me smelled NOTHING like wintergreen mints or anything. We'll see what it does to the taste of the root beer. I've considered crushing up a few wintergreen Altoids and adding that to a batch. :) - This is a heck of a lot more anise than in any previous batch. I hope I don't regret this. I was planning on putting only .5 tsp in the batch, but it just didn't look like enough, so I added more. ...and more... Hmm.. - The full 6 cups of honey didn't quite make it into the batch. There's maybe 1/3 cup left over. It just sticks to the walls of the jar. I didn't work very hard to get it out. - I know that with the brewing of tea, the longer you brew, the more nasty chemicals you get out of the tea leaves that make your drink taste very bitter. In an effort to remove some of the bitter or astringent taste of the root beer, I tried brewing for less time. I only did 10 minutes before adding the honey. I suspect this is not enough of a difference to notice, but we'll see. Next time, I'll try brewing for 5 minutes before starting to add the honey for a total brew time of about 10 minutes. I didn't taste the final mixture before sticking it in the kegerator, and I haven't finished hooking up the beer line yet, so I can't even get any out of it now. I'll post again when I have a chance to taste it. http://blogs.halibut.com/mark/2007/01/batch_5.html http://blogs.halibut.com/mark/2007/01/batch_5.html Sat, 27 Jan 2007 21:00:00 -0800 My kegs showed up today! I've got almost everything I need to put this bad boy together. The only problem at this point is that the hose they shipped with the kit is a) too small a diameter for the fittings involved, and b) shorter than I would prefer. A longer hose means more time for the beverage to drop in pressure before being exposed to the air, which means less chance for it fizz up all over the place, which means more CO2 left in suspension at the end, meaning a fizzier, less flat drink. A very good thing indeed. Oh yeah, I've gotta charge the CO2 tank too. That's easy. So, I'll be stopping by the welding shop and the brew store on my way to work tomorrow. Also the hippy store where I get my roots. Oh yes, batch 5 shall be soon in coming. http://blogs.halibut.com/mark/2007/01/kegerator_is_being_built_part.html http://blogs.halibut.com/mark/2007/01/kegerator_is_being_built_part.html Mon, 22 Jan 2007 21:09:11 -0800 I got the parts for the kegerator conversion, and the fridge to be converted, earlier this week, and tonight, Cindy was on the phone with her mother while nursing the baby for long enough for me to get started. I started by giving the fridge a quick cleaning, and removed all the easily removed bits (read: the shelves.) The shelves in the doors make the space inside too small for the keg I got, so I removed the inner door bit. This involved removing some screws under the "weather stripping" (for lack of a better term) around the edge of the door, cutting out just the rim of the inner door plastic bits, and putting the rim with the "weather stripping" back on. This gives me plenty of space in the fridge for both, a 3 gallon keg and the 5lb CO2 canister... ...well, almost "plenty" of room. I spent all kinds of time and effort measuring to make sure that the keg would fit that I totally ignored the CO2 canister. As it turns out, I have to turn it so the regulators point backwards and sort of wedge it into the fridge. It's almost upright this way. *sigh* Anyway. The next step was to drill a hole through the door to mount the faucet. The kit assumes that you haven't removed the inner part of the door and can still use it as a structural part to mount the shank for the faucet. Well, I just removed that structural part. So, I ended up drilling the same sized hole through a roughly square piece of nail plate (about 3" square, 1/16" steel) and used that on the inside of the door to distribute the pressure of the nut holding the shank, and therefore faucet, onto the door. Effectively, I made my own really large, square fender washer. It works great. So, now I have a fridge, with bits removed on the side to make space for a 3 gallon keg, and a faucet mounted to the front door. Now all I need is a keg, and to do some hose work, and I've got a kegerator. ...where are those kegs? I haven't heard from the eBay seller from whom I bought them. I just emailed him today asking about them; hopefully, I'll know more soon. http://blogs.halibut.com/mark/2007/01/kegerator_is_being_built.html http://blogs.halibut.com/mark/2007/01/kegerator_is_being_built.html Fri, 19 Jan 2007 20:04:25 -0800 I just talked with Gary, my friend who has posession of my fridge. He measured the inside of the fridge, and it's going to be close to fit one of the 3 gallon kegs in there. Hmm. It will probably involve removing some of the "bits" on the inside of the door. So, yeah.. There will be some fridge surgery going on in a week or two. This should be fun. The cool thing about this fridge is that it has a separate freezer section on top, perfect for keeping mugs and pint glasses frosty cold. :) http://blogs.halibut.com/mark/2007/01/free_fridge.html http://blogs.halibut.com/mark/2007/01/free_fridge.html Sat, 13 Jan 2007 13:54:44 -0800