I'm always looking to try new styles, even those that I'm not particularly fond of. I don't like ESBs (Extra Special/Strong Bitters) - you casual micro drinkers know this as Redhook's flagship brew. I don't like wheat-based beers either, but I did that Grand Cru and that was widely appreciated, so I guess I need to branch out if I'm going to start a brewery (2014 spoiler alert). So I made a compromise with myself and created an English Bitter. I named it Brit-Bit, because to be honest, I'm terribly amused with three things: a) Britney Spears' nickname is or used to be Brit-Brit; b) Britney Spears' toy chihuahua's name was Bit-Bit; and c) I'd love to see what would happen if the two could successfully breed. Okay, the entirety of that is false, but I thought Brit-Bit (British Bitter) was catchy in that very vein of celebridiocy (that's my word, copyrighted).
The usual suspect Jason showed up (and graciously bought the ingredients for the brew, probably around $28 - that makes five gallons, mind you), and our coworker, fellow bartender, and all-around good guy Marc showed up to watch the proceedings. We got the mash going (all-grain, baby) and cleaned up and sanitized all the necessary gear and bottles to bottle the "It's So Cold in the D" Belgian Imperial Brown ale that John (another fellow bartender that, sadly, no longer works in our unit) and I brewed as a collaboration between Marshall Brewing and Snoddy-Watty Brewery. Yes, John's last name is Marshall, and Marshall Brewing is a moniker I bestowed upon his excellent brews. Jason's last name is Snodderly. Those precious few of you reading this know me as Watty. Jason's wife came up with Snoddy-Watty....we were going to go with Watson and Holmes, but this is more fitting. Anyway, I'm digressing. The mash takes at least an hour, and after sparging (draining out the 'tea' that we had made from the grains and then rinsing them with hot water to flush out the rest of the viable fluids), it was time for them to go. Marc had to work at 5:30am - props for staying until 8:30pm when he had to drive back to West Seattle! Jason had something important he had to do with his wife the next morning (massages and French dining in Snoqualmie - pussy), so I had to do the entirety of the boil, the chilling of the wort (finished product), the filtering, the pitching of the yeast, and all the bottling by myself. Some partner, eh? I kid. I finished up around 11:15pm.
I'm curious as to how this beer is going to turn out. Not that I think it's going to be bad, everything went right. I used several ingredients that I've never used or incorporated before, and although I tasted the hydro sample (I will explain shortly), that's not a foolproof example of how the beer is eventually going to taste. For starters, this will easily be the lowest-ABV (alcohol by volume, or as you understand it, alcohol level) beer we've ever made. OG - original gravity, or the amount of sugars present in the mixture - was 1.042. For a quick reference point, water is 1.000. Anything above that equals potentially fermentable sugars, though you're almost completely unlikely to reach 1.000 once fermentation is complete (that would mean that all sugars were able to be converted by the yeast into alcohol, and that's very unlikely). After using a software program to figure out roughly where this beer is going to end up, I hit the target of 1.040-1.045 OG, and after fermentation bottoms out, I should be at about 1.012 FG (final gravity). If these numbers are correct, we use the quick equation of OG minus FG times 131 to get the ABV, and 1.042-1.012x131=3.9% ABV. Thank God. Two of our last three brews (the ISCITD Belgian Imperial Brown and last week's AG Oatmeal Espresso Chocolate Porter) are going to be upwards of 10% alcohol. Seriously, the ISCITD is 9.825%, and that's fact. I'm all for potent beer, but I want these to be something that my friends aren't afraid to drink, and something I'm not going to get overly fuckered up on.
Okay, to explain the term "hydro sample." When the wort (finished pre-fermented pre-carbonated product) is completed and cooled down to appropriate yeast-adding (pitching) temperatures (roughly 64-74 degrees F), a sample is taken and gauged by a hydrometer. This hydrometer, as I alluded to before, measures the amount of sugars in the solution. 1.000 = water, and anything above that is potentially fermentable product. Again, it's rare that you're going to reach 1.000 after fermentation is complete, but it's not unheard of, and some high-alcohol brews have been known to reach sub-1.0 readings. That just means there's a shit-ton of alcohol in them, as alcohol has a lower density than water.
I'm tired, and it's getting late. I'll make a post bringing all of you up to speed regarding jargon and whatnot. Thanks for following.
Chris
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