Diffs

This version uses much the same ingredients and process as Black Swan APA v0.2, with a few important changes:

1. “Closed” primary fermentation process a la Charlie Papazian (et alia), where foam is discarded through a blow-off tube. (The last batch was “open” only in the sense that the foam from primary fermentation was allowed to fall back into the brew. I still used a carboy with an airlock.)
2. Greater volume (to fill the carboy completely, and make up for the volume lost via discarded foam).
3. Added 1# of light malt extract (to keep the gravity up given the greater volume).
4. Used swanky new bottle caps with an (allegedly) oxygen-absorbing lining.
5. Used a shiny new self-starting siphon and fill hose to help avoid aeration (and possible off-flavors from old, nasty plastic tubing).
6. Used liquid yeast instead of dry.

Recipe

Ingredients

7 lbs. light malt extract
1 1/2 lb. pale malt
1/2 lb. cara-pils malt
1/2 lb. medium crystal malt
1 oz. Centennial hops (bittering)
1 oz. Cascades hops (flavoring and finishing)
1 pkg. Burton water salts
1 pkg. liquid Nottingham ale yeast
1 pkg. Bru-Vigor yeast food
6 gal. drinking water (3 x 2 galllon bottles)

Procedure

1. Take liquid yeast out of fridge some hours before and allow to reach ambient temperature (no greater than 80°F). When starting brewing process proper, pop inner bag to activate yeast.
2. Measure 1 gal. of water into a stock pot. Heat to 170°F.  Add Burton salts. Stir. Turn off heat.
3. Add mesh bag containing mixed grains to hot water. Agitate gently and ensure bag is completely submerged. Steep for 30 min., stirring occasionally. (Continue with next step; do not wait until steeping is complete.)
4. While grains are steeping, heat another gallon of water to 168ºF in a second stock pot.
5. At the end of the 30 min. steeping time, transfer wort to brew kettle. Place grain bag in colander over brew kettle. Sparge (rinse) grain bag using water from second stock pot, turning the bag to ensure complete coverage. Squeeze remaining liquid from grain bag using a large spoon.
6. Add 1.5 gal. of water to brew kettle, bringing total volume to 3.5 gal.
7. Cover brew kettle and bring to a boil.
8. Turn off heat. Add malt extract. (Rinse extract bucket with hot wort to easily get the last dregs of extract out.)
9. Cover brew kettle and resume heating until wort is boiling. Boil gently for 5 min.
10. Add Centennial hops. Stir. Boil for 45 min.
11. Add ½ oz. of Cascade hops. Stir. Boil for 10 min.
12. Add remaining ½ oz. of Cascade hops. Turn off heat. Stir.
13. Cool the wort by placing brew kettle in sink full of cold water. Change the water when it gets hot. Add ice cubes if available to speed cooling. Continue until wort temperature has fallen to 90ºF.
14. Siphon ½ gal. of wort into a sterile sealed container. Place container into refrigerator. (This gyle will be used later for kräusening.)
15. Siphon wort into primary fermentation vessel. Check that yeast container has inflated. Pitch yeast into fermentation vessel. Stir gently, using end of siphon hose.
16. Add water to fill 5 gal. glass carboy within 2″ of top of neck. Stir. Measure gravity and temperature; record. Top up to within 1/2″ of overflowing.
17. Fit stopper and blow-off hose onto fermentation vessel. Place other end of blow-off hose into a container of water. (A used 2 gallon plastic water bottle is perfect for this purpose. There will be a lot of blown-off foam! Do not use a container smaller than 1 gallon.)
18. Allow to ferment for 4 days.
19. Rack to secondary fermentation vessel. Fit stopper and airlock.
20. Allow to ferment until activity ceases.
21. Check final gravity. Expected value is around 1.012. Do not proceed if over 1.017.
22. Bring gyle (from step 14) to ambient temperature. Add to secondary fermentation vessel.
23. Bottle. Age one week. Open a bottle to check carbonation levels.
24. Age an additional two to five weeks. Consume.

Presentation

The labels for this version (show up at the very top of the post) feature more original art from SJH. The design follows the same lines as the previous labels, although using a new font. (Some tasters had trouble reading the faux-blackletter style on the title text of the original.) You can download the original GIMP layers file (343KB bzipped, created with version 2.6.11).

I like mine at ambient temperature (72°F-ish) in a simple conical pint glass. If you are accustomed to cold beer, I would suggest cellar temperature (55°F) as a compromise.

Additional pictures and explanation after the cut. If you need an explanation for cookies, that is.

vendor photo

Back in September, I picked up a dragon-shaped cookie cutter via an online retailer. I have now put it to use, and my results are below. (I know my pastry-fu is weak, but this is the journey not the destination. Next year’s efforts will show improvement.)

The cutter works, in that it produces recognizably dragon-shaped cookies. This is a marked improvement over the other dragon cookie cutter I own, which makes cookies that look like deformed seals.

Given the intricate design and my lack of cookie-making experience, I was only able to cut cookies one at a time: roll, cut, peel away excess dough from the outside, scrape, repeat. The excessive handling meant I had to keep a careful eye on the proportion of flour in the dough and the temperature of everything. It also probably made the cookies tougher than they really needed to be. But it did work out with some patience.

The recipe I used was nothing special, just the one from the the Pillsbury Complete Book of Baking — my go-to source for everyday baking. Sorry, Larousse. If you have a favorite sugar cookie recipe, just use that. I would strongly suggest that you bake on (ungreased) parchment paper instead of directly on the cookie sheet, since it makes moving these guys around intact a whole lot easier.

I didn’t do much in the way of decoration. I sculpted one cookie with a paring knife, and I’m actually pretty happy with how it turned out, but it was fairly time-consuming. A few of the others got little eyeballs added by hand. Otherwise, I left them undecorated. (I’m not generally a fan of frosted cookies.) Some colored sugar or even an airbrushing with vegetable dye might have improved matters, though. Next time. I probably have to address some doubts about the food-safety of my compressed air supply before I do the airbrush thing, though.

Eating them seems so very wrong. The game — and it is far from being a nice one — is that before you eat a cookie, you invent a reason why that dragon’s getting eaten. He has an spotted hide; it’d be a mercy. This one looks a little green. That one is an eater of eggs.

Bon appétit, I guess.

[Edited 2010-02-10 by dhenke to remove Amazon links. See explanatory post.]