Great Hope Part 3-Black Poodle Part 1

Bottling day is here!! Time to bottle the "Great Hope" Ale, and well, make some Porter. I mean, why not. The stoves not in use. Might as well put on a pot of grain tea, no? It looks kind of like dirt in black water, but the aroma of the well roasted grains was terrific, full of chocolate coffee, wood and oatmeal. For the Porter the recipe calls for:

Batch #2 (Black Poodle Porter)
Brew Date: 3/26/06
Style: Robust Porter
Racked: 4/18/06
Alcohol %:
Batch Size: 5 gal.

Steep Time: 45 (min)
Temp: 155º F

Ingredients
Mash-Specialty Grains:
1 ¾ lbs. 2-Row
½ lbs. 70º-80º Crystal
½ lbs. Chocolate
¼ lbs. Carafa
¼ lbs. Barley flakes
8 lbs. Malt Extract

Boiling Hops (Bittering):
60 min. 1oz. - Northern Brewer
30 min. 1oz. - Willamette

Finishing Hops (Aroma):
1/2oz. - Willamette (last 15 min.)
1/2oz. - Willamette (end of boil)

Yeast: Windsor
Priming: ¾ cup dextrose in 1 cup H2O

Original Specific Gravity: ?
Final Specific Gravity: ?

Special Instructions: 6 days in Primary fermenter; 15 to 18 days in secondary fermenter; 30 to 45 days in bottle.




The namesake of Batch #2 "Black Poodle Porter.









O.K. O.K. What about that "Great Hope."

Our biggest challenge was of course, getting the stopper out of the carboy (see previous post). We pulled the air lock out..very...slowly. The airlock came out, the stopper didn't. Next came the wire hanger. If any of you get in this situation, where you can't get your stopper out, here's what you do. There are no pictures because it took both of our half-brains to finally come up with this solution. Untwist a wire hanger and bend the ends into two opposing hooks. The hooks should point back up along the sides of the wire so after you insert the hangar through the center hole of the stopper, you can pull the hooks back up and into the stopper. Wrap the other end onto and around a pair of pliers so you have something to grab onto and pull with. Then sterilize the hook end with some One-step. You don't want old wire hanger funkiness to get into your beer at the last stage. Actually pierce the rubber stopper with the hook end of the hangar (like a fish hook into a fish). Once you have hooked the stopper you'll also need a slim, flat implement like a flimsy butter knife, something not sharp but flexible enough to slip between the sides of the stopper and the glass neck, just to loosen up the stopper (this should also be sterilized). Then it comes right out, and because the stopper is rubber, it heals itself and is reusable. Success!!

Whew!

Now we can get to bottling. After washing out the bottles we put them into the oven and set it on "warm" for 20 minutes. This is the lowest setting of your oven, but will get above the 140 degree pasteurization temperature necessary to kill any bad bacteria. Then set up your carboy higher than where your bottles will get filled , make sure your capper is affixed firmly to a table top and get to it. Oh, right. Putting that siphon hose together and getting a good reliable siphon started. O.K. (I'm assuming that all things have been sterilized) fill your sink with water and completely submerge the siphon hose, bottle filler, carboy cap, and racking cane. Put this apparatus together under water. This will eliminate air bubbles from stopping the racking process.



Look closely here and you'll see our air bubble in the top of the hose. This eventually killed the siphon. We had to learn the hard way. Carlito's way. Uhm, oops. O.K. back to racking.







Once you fill the doo-hickeys with water, pour your priming sugar into the beer (this promotes carbonation and makes for a good "head"), and your hoses are filled with liquid, fill up one bottle or a large bowl to clear the water from the hose. Then start filling bottles. Push the bottle filler all the way to bottom of the bottle, when the beer reaches the top of the neck pull it out. The bottle filler stops the flow and the removal of the hose from the bottle leaves enough air space in the neck of the bottle for carbonation to push the oxygen out of the bottle, and after 10 to 20 minutes, cap it.


It all goes pretty smoothly from there, and you end up with lots of yummy (potentially) beer to enjoy....two weeks from now.










Potentially yummy "Great Hope" ale from Linwood Brewery. Visit us in two weeks to find out if we have beer....or skunk water (MGD anyone?)