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March 19, 2013

Red Clover Wine Recipe

Around Virginia when spring time comes around it’s pretty easy to find red clovers. They have a sweet tasting flower and has a great base for wine with the nectar. The clover heads aren’t going to change the color of the wine to much though. This is a great wine recipe to impress your friends with. Flower wines are always so easy to make but the biggest thing is that you just need to be on top of the season.

1 Gallon Yield

Directions:

1 gallon clover head

3 lbs sugar

8 ounces light raisins

1 teaspoon acid blend

1 package wine yeast

1 teaspoon pectic enzyme

1 teaspoon yeast nutrient

1.5 cups orange juice at room temp

Directions

Remove the stems and the base from the clover heads
Place the petals in a stainless steel pot with 1 gallon of water
Bring the mixture to a boil
Remove the heat and add half the sugar mixture and the raisins
Cool down
Add yeast with wine yeast, pectic enzyme, yeast nutrient, and orange juice
close up the top and add the air lock
After 5 days rack
After 7 days rack again
Then let it sit for 3 months then bottle

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Marigold Wine Recipe

Last year I put up a dandelion wine recipe – it’s a favorite of mine. This year I wanted to do another flower wine. The thing with some of these wines is that you really have to stay on top of it. If you don’t, the season for getting that particular fruit, flower, or vegetable is gone before you know it and you have to sit around for another year. This wine is a Marigold wine. I have these in my garden so it’s pretty easy to make this wine. This is a light golden wine, sometimes it may be red. If you want a pale wine use a yellow or white marigolds. The easiest ones to use are the giant marigolds. You can expect it to have a citrus flavor because of the oranges and lemon that is added to it. Enjoy!

Yield: 1 Gallon

Ingredients

1 lemon
2 oranges
3.5 quarts of Marigold flowers without the sepals and stems
3 pounds sugar
1 package wine yeast
1 teaspoon pectic enzyme
1 teaspoon acid blend
1 teaspoon yeast nutrient

Directions

Grate orange and lemon rinds.
Reserve the fruit
Place the rinds and the flower petals in a 2 gallon plastic container
Bring 1 gallon of water to a boil and pour over the petal mixture
add sugar
Stir until the sugar dissolves
Cool down mixture
Add yeast, pectic enzyme, acid blend, yeast nutrient
Add juice of the lemon and orange
Put lid on top
Ferment for 7 days
Rack and put into 1 gallon fermenter
Rack after 4 weeks
Let it sit for 4 weeks and then bottle
Wait 6 months before you drink

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March 13, 2013March 13, 2013

Last Porter Of The Season – Brown Porter Recipe

Being that it is March, I can’t imagine doing too many more dark beers. It’s going to start warming up pretty soon. Maybe I’m being a bit optimistic, but one can hope for that at least.

A great bridge for this season is a brown porter. What’s the difference between that and a robust porter? Robust porters can compete with stouts in my opinion, a brown porter is going to be on the lighter side though. So picture a darker version of a brown ale, but lighter then a robust porter (which is a purple colored stout). This one has a slight chocolate flavor, and it has a nice dry mouth-feel.

This recipe is going to have Challenger hops in it as well as some EKG. Both are about the same alpha acid (6.7%). The IBU’s aren’t off the chart or anything like that though. This beers hoppyness really compares to something like a weaker pale ale.

The Black Pat and Chocolate malt with give it its color as well as a rustic feel to the beer. The crystal 60L will give color as well as residual sweetness. All around this recipe is for those that are trying to get some beers to bridge the gap from winter beers to spring beer. As always make sure to check out our conversion chart if you are an all-grain brewer. I would use 2-Row Brewers malt for this beer.

Ingredients

11 oz Chocolate Malt

10 oz Crystal 60L

1 oz Black Malt

6 lbs DME

1.5 oz Challenger (60 minutes)

1/4 oz EKG (15 minutes)

WLP 005 or Saf 04

Specifications

OG: 1.52

FG: 1.012

IBU: 36

SRM: 82

ABV: 5%

Directions

Heat 2.5 gallons of water up to 150 degrees
Steep grains for 30 minutes
Take grains out
Add malt extract
Bring to boil
Add Challenger hops
Boil for 45 minutes
Add EKG hops
Boil for 15 minutes
End boil, cool the wort down, put in fermenter, fill up to 5 gallons, pitch yeast
Ferment for 7-14 days
Bottle with .75 cup of corn sugar
Let it in bottles for 3 weeks before you end up drinking it

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March 12, 2013

Home Brew Competitions

In an earlier post I said that I was going to try to keep up with the different home brewing competitions that are going on in the area and let you know about them. Well I found one that is for those that are in the Virginia, D.C, and Maryland area. Homebrewing competitions are a great way to keep your skills sharp and something to look forward to as well. You will normally get some feed back to help improve your beer. So here are the details:

The competition aimed towards:

The competition is open to non-professional home brewers over the age of 21 living in DC, Maryland and Virginia.

Prizes Go To:

Grand Champion Brewer (1st place)

Popular Vote Champion

Prize:

Grand Champion Brewer wins $100 Visa gift card plus one-year complimentary membership to the Gateway CDC.

Popular Vote Champion wins $50 Visa gift card plus a one-year complimentary membership to the Gateway CDC.

Deadline

April 24, 2013. Entrants must submit their beers for judging between May 20 and May 27, 2013.

Full Details Found Here

Article Found Here

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March 12, 2013March 12, 2013

New Website For Jay’s Brewing!

So this has been an idea that we’ve had for a while, now it’s a reality. Our website and our blog are now one – amazing! The purpose of this was simply because it was becoming pain to switch from one to the next.

With this done, we will be moving forward with some other projects that we’ve wanted to do for sometime now and that have been in the pipe line. All of these were were held up with merging the websites. So with that said, make sure to like us to join the conversation, like us on facebook and sign up for our e-mail list.

Blog post will now resume to the normal frequency.

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February 27, 2013March 1, 2013

Good Eats Video On Home Brewing

I’m personally a sucker for home brewing videos. This past week I was told by a customer about a home brewing video that I should watch. If you are someone that watches the food network then you will recognize this character. This is a really good video for those that are just getting into home brewing and want to see the process on how to make your own beer.

I watched it and found it entertaining after home brewing for close to 10 years. So even if you aren’t a novice any more, maybe you’ll pick up some good lines on explaining the home brewing process to your friends. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Er0gRTUGvU

February 26, 2013

Last Minute Stout For Saint Patricks Day – Murphy’s Irish Stout Clone Recipe

Every year there is so much pressure to have a beer for Saint Patrick’s day (March 17th 2013) . If you are a homebrewer your friends are most likely looking for you to come up with something great. If you are doing bottles, well you are flirting with disaster if you are making it now. You can try to push it and get it done but there is a chance it won’t carbonate right in the amount of time that you need it. If you are doing kegs, you are fine.

So to choose a beer that will be ready in the limited amount of time you have, you need to choose one that is going to have a low ABV. Having a low ABV clues you in that there it is not going to gain much complexity with age and also the fermentation process will be a bit shorter as well. Now, what does that mean for recipe choice. For me it’s simple – I’m going tried and true Irish Stouts. The actual type of stout is called a, “Dry Stout”

It has an off white head, hints of coffee, mild bitterness and is pretty clean. They really don’t last that long on the shelf (2-4 months) so make sure that you drink it up. Surely that won’t be a problem though with it being Saint Patrick’s day. This is a good dry stout to make, it’s Murphy’s Irish Red Stout.

Ingredients

9 oz Roasted Barley

6 oz Chocolate Malt

4 oz 60L Crystal Malt

4 lbs Golden Light DME

8 oz Cane Sugar

1 oz Target Hops (60 min)

1/4 oz East Kent Golding Hops (15 min)

WLP 004 or Saf – 04

Specs

OG: 1.042

FG: 1.009

IBU: 35

SRM: 77

ABV: 4.2%

Directions

Heat 2.5 gallons of water up to 150
Steep grains for 30 minutes
Take grains out
Add DME and cane sugar
Bring to boil
Add Target hops
Boil for 45 minutes
Add East Kent Golding hops
Boil for 15 minutes
End boil
Cool down, put in fermenter, fill to 5 gallons
Pitch yeast
Let ferment in primary for 1 week (that’s if you are rushing 2 weeks will be good if you are not rushing)
Bottle and drink when carbonated

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February 22, 2013March 1, 2013

Canning Your Wort For Starters – Brilliant

It was just last week a customer came in and had this brilliant idea. He told me he was going to start canning his wort for starters. You may be thinking, “Wow, great idea…” with plenty of sarcasm, but think about it for a second. By canning your wort for starters, you just made a huge shortcut for making a starter. Pretty much once your yeast gets to room temp, you are ready to go! No more hassle, no more wasted time. The key to brewing for me is learning how to cut down the time it takes to make it without diminishing the final product. This is one of those tricks that you can do that will give you that result.

Check the video below. They tell you how to do it exactly right step by step.

Article To Read

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February 21, 2013

Old Speckled Hen Clone Recipe

This is one of my favorite beers. I love this beer when it is hot out, I like it when it is cold out – this beer is simply easy to drink. It has a white head and an amber body. For a while it was near impossible for me to ever make this beer because of the hop, “Challenger” was just so difficult to get, but now I have lots of it. Over all this is an easy beer to make and easy one to drink. If you make it soon it will be a good, “bridge” beer for the cooler months into the nicer days. If you are looking to do it all-grain check out the conversion chart.

Ingredients

12 oz 60L

5.25 lbs Light DMe

8 oz cane sugar

4 oz wheat DME

1 oz Challenger (60min)

1/2 oz Kent Goldings (15min)

1/2 oz Challenger (15min)

1 oz Kent Goldings (1min)

WLP 013

Specs

OG: 1.052

FG: 1.010

IBU: 35

SRM: 12

ABV: 5.2%

Directions

Heat 2.5 gallons of water up to 150 degrees, steep grains for 30 min
After 30 min take the grains out and add DME cane sugar and 1 oz Challenger
Bring to boil
Boil for 45 minutes
Add 1/2 oz East Kent Goldings and 1/2 oz Challenger
Boil for 14 minutes
Add 1 oz East Kent Goldings
Boil for 1 minute
End boil
Cool down, put in fermenter, pitch yeast
Ferment for 7 -14 days
Bottle with 3/4 cup of corn sugar
Let sit in bottles for 2-3 weeks
Ready to drink when carbonated

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February 20, 2013

DIY Fermentation Chamber

I love the DIY type of homebrewing projects. They really bring out the creative nature in me. One of the ones that is nice to do is a fermentation chamber. The reason why you may want a fermentation chamber is to help get the temperatures that you need to ferment at. Most of the time, people think about doing them only for lagers, but the truth is that you can do them for ale’s as well to help make sure that you lock into your temps that you need for a good tasting ale.

I found an amazing set of instructions on how to build one for about $70 plus the cost of the mini fridge. That is what I would like to call an amazing deal. With mini fridges, wait until April or May and then check Craigslist. Up here in NoVa, we have GMU near us and college students will normally give their mini fridges away because they are moving out of the dorms. The same goes for if you are near a military base (again we have that up here in NoVA) – many military families will be moving in summer and who knows, they might be a homebrewer.

So click here to find out how to build a fermentation chamber and help your fermentation process move along.

Cheers

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