Now that I know that some of my previous beers should have been lagered, I will now attempt a lager. Or several lagers. The hardest part will be temperature control because I do not have a good space for it at this moment. The second hardest part is that I've forgotten the exact recipe I used again. Back on Sunday, I had decided to make this beer using:
1.4 lbs of Sorghum Syrup 60DE
2 oz(dry weight) Dextrose (Corn Sugar)
7 grams Saaz, Czech pellet hops 60 minutes
4 grams Saaz, Czech pellet hops 15 minutes
Saflager S-23 lager yeast.
1 gallon water
A second, subsequent beer that week uses:
approx 1.4 lbs Brown rice syrup
7g Saaz, Czech (60)
3g Saaz, Czech (15)
S-23
1 gallon of water
These were put into a mini refridgerator the week of the 20th and has been kept around 50 degrees F. I thought about keeping them outside in a storage area where the water heater and furnace are located but I wasn't sure if I was getting an accurate temperature reading out there. It should be warmer but since I didn't know how warm and if my thermometer was reading correctly so I used the fridge.
Subsequent tests 3 months later showed that both had a fairly crisp taste and was clear, however the sorghum beer edged out over the lighter rice beer due to having more body and "malt" flavor.
As previously mentioned, I now know more than I knew about lagers. I also know that everyone in my family except for me prefers lagers. This makes it quite difficult to test out ales on my test subjects so it was either time to find new test subjects or try a different style of beer. I'll settle for both and we'll see which finishes first.
I've decided to create several batches using the same yeast and hops. I will be using the Saflager S-23 yeast, and the Chech Saaz pellet hops, which has a description of "very mild with pleasant hoppy notes, earthy, spicy, and herbal." I really would prefer some better definitions to hops, but the main parts are the earthy, spicy and herbal. The hops are given an alpha acid% of 4% (range of 3-4.5).
The first set of tests will be varying amounts of sugars. This helps me find what body, color and alcohol content I'm looking for and will likely affect the taste as well since the three sugars I will try have different flavor properties.
Single Gallon tests. OG=1.050 | Sorghum Extract 60DE percent | Brown Rice Syrup | Dextrose (Corn sugar) | Results |
Test 001 | 100 | 0 | 0 | |
Test 002 | 75 | 25 | 0 | |
Test 003 | 75 | 0 | 25 | |
Test 004 | 50 | 50 | 0 | |
Test 005 | 50 | 25 | 25 | |
Test 006 | 25 | 75 | 0 | |
Test 007 | 25 | 50 | 25 | |
Test 008 | 90 | 0 | 10 |
A lot of these, especially that with the dextrose, probably won't even be tested. My first batch was 1.4 lbs sorghum and 2 oz dextrose before which is why I will likely approximate that again after trying a 100% sorghum batch.
The second set of tests will be hops tests.
Hops Test | AA% | Amount to reach about 24 IBU |
Mount Hood | 3-8% | |
Liberty | 3-6% | |
Crystal | 2-4.5% | |
Hallertauer | 3.5-5.5% | |
Saaz (US) | ||
Saaz (Czech) | 4% | 9g=23.69 IBU at 4%? |
I forgot to take pictures again unfortunately, so you'll have to work with my descriptions.
This past Saturday, I had heard that the a Michigan chestnut grower group was going to be at the farmer's market showing and selling Michigan chestnuts so I decided to brave the cold and visit. It appears that they're only there twice a year. It was pretty fun, learned about chestnuts since they have a few varieities. They also had some roasted chestnuts, chestnut flour and sliced dried chestnuts. They actually recommend grinding the sliced dried chestnuts and use it like a breading on chicken or fish. It turns out that the people there also supply the Jolly Pumpkin brewery with chestnuts in order to brew the gluten free beer. I picked up a package and am curious to do this too, but I will likely just eat them by either steaming or roasting the chestnuts, as opposed to trying to let enzymes break down the starch into sugars. There seems to be a way to do so to create a beer, as referenced by many people and even http://www.chestnuttrails.com/ has a beer needing only amylase. I still don't comprehend the chemistry and temperatures needed to do this as well as other grains but I'm still trying to look it up. I've only been at this for a few months.
Julie, from Tastysansgluten, who as I mentioned before does the gluten free bakery picked up some chestnut flour and will likely be trying it out. She was also selling holiday cookies which looked great. While I had arrived rather late, there was still a good selection and I picked up a frosted snowflake cookie, a lemon glazed wreath, one of the soft and chewy and very chocolatey brownies using Mindo Chocolate as previously mentioned.
This is not to really detail the difference, or provide any comprehensive explanation. This article is to show what I've learned and what I've tripped over in order to do so, and to provide information. I strongly suggest some sites like http://www.howtobrew.com/ for John Palmer's site (reference Section 1, Chapter 10) and many other sites which I will eventually understand more about.
Well, it turns out, after further review of the recipe, that what I had done for beers 3-6 was use a lager yeast, rather than the rest of my earlier and later beers (so far) which have used ale yeasts. The's the old saying about the difference between the yeast is a top ferment vs a bottom ferment, but there are many exceptions to it and doesn't really clarify the topic since in some ways, yeast is yeast. They all eat sugars and produce alcohol and carbon dioxide.
The main difference that I now see, is that lager yeasts like a lower temperature than ale yeasts (45-55 vs 60-70 degrees F)and will (ideally) produce a cleaner, crisper tasting beer, regardless of the hops used. The lager style of beer is also more of a light golden color, rather than ales which tend to be darker, ranging from a light brown down to a dark black. Ales will get a lot of flavor from the sugars and the yeasts, while lagers generally don't get quite as much yeast flavor unless it's either specificially worked that way, or accidental. My yeast flavors in 3-6 were accidental and the taste differences are probably due to temperature fluctuation. My temperatures were really in the ale range, not the lager range and that's why I noticed odd flavors that I think reminded me of bubblegum or banana.
There's a lot of history which is pretty interesting, about how beers were stored in cooler caves because of the too high temperatures outside, giving the name lager from the German word to store. Makes me wonder if the colder temperature made everything settle so that the active yeast were at the bottom, rather than floating around, giving that whole top vs bottom difference.
There seems to be specific techniques when creating a lager, involving first the initial fermentation at a low temperature, where the temperature depends on the yeast strain. For example, the Fermentis Saflager S-23 and W-34/70 recommends 9C-15C, ideally 12C. This cooler temperature prevents the fruity esters from developing, and of course because I didn't do that, I did wind up getting these esters. There is then the possibility of a short, slightly warmer temperature rest, called a diactyl rest. Diactyls are produced from the yeasts during the fermentation and may give a buttery flavor to beer. (See here for a description). The yeast will eventually absorb this but higher temperatures allows the yeast to do this quicker. Which is probably why I didn't taste or smell any of it.
After the possible, but maybe not necessary diactyl rest, there's the lagering phase, where the beer gets to rest from one to two months at a low temperature. John Palmer recommends that a 10 degree F difference is involved and that 45F would take a month while 35 would take 2 months. This means that I can't really depend on my ambient temperature but need a fridge, or otherwise insulated container.
I just purchased some 5 gallon containers (kegs actually) in order to create larger batches of beer. I'll still be using my single gallon jugs for most of my work, but when/if I find a recipe I or other like, I'll try making a larger batch.
The kit came with a keg, a small 2.5 pound co2 tank and two lines with a regulator and connections.
The CO2 tank supplies the carbon dioxide which is used to a) carbonate the liquid, and/or b) create pressure to push the liquid out through a dispenser. With a being slightly optional. For instance, I could fill it with plain grape juice and use the CO2 to push plain grape juice out into cups from a dispenser end, or I could use water and some flavored syrup and make a soda by pressurizing the liquid with the CO2 then pushing it out. The kegs were originally soda kegs.
The regulator is a really odd looking device which connects to the CO2 tank and regulates the pressure being sent from the tank to the keg. Too little, and nothing happens, too much co2 and everything gets way too fizzy, or worse can kind of blow up.
Next is the keg, rather a soda keg. This is connected to the regulator by a plastic tube and will contain a liquid beer, soda or water, which is then pressurized and/or pushed out by the incoming co2. The liquid of course has to leave somewhere and will leave via the other opening of the keg where the other line goes with a valve at the end to open and close so that it will dispense the liquid. It'd be bad to have all 5 gallons keep going without a way to stop it.
I'd have prefered a larger tank, and I should have seen about getting a larger one with the kit, but the discount was pretty decent due to the Black Friday tradition and I didn't think to message first for a custom kit. It would have taken longer and I could have missed the deal anyways. The place where I got my co2 tank filled does have refurbished tanks and it seems that it would be cost effective to get the largest one. A 5 pound tank is 75, a 10 pound 85 and a 15 pound for 95 dollars. The refills are 10, 12 and 14.50 respectively, meaning that for a 15 pound tank, it's less than a dollar a pound of co2. Now my 2.5 tank cost me 8.25 to fill up, making it over 3 dollars a pound. Given that it takes approximately (per some people's reviews) .35 pounds to push 5 gallons of beer out of a keg, then this gives me 8 kegs worth. If I pressurize the beer using these kegs, it would be an additional .7 pounds, giving me only 4 kegs worth. I have a feeling that I will be purchasing a 15-20 pound tank fairly soon. Ideally I'll be creating the beer and letting it pressurize on it's own first. After which I won't have to deal with it until I felt like bottling it from the keg.
Normally, a person would dispense it into glasses from the keg but I don't think that I'll have a cold enough place for it, except for outside, until I have a fridge large enough to hold the keg tanks. There are people who will use a freezer unit that they keep from totally freezing by using a power supply unit that will cease the power when it gets too cold, or start up the power when it gets too warm.
For the moment, all I plan on doing is carbonating water in 2 liter bottles so I can make my own sodas. I've already done this once since getting the kit and I've been adding the carbonated water to a tart cherry juice concentrate. Really tasty and not too sweet.
Now as for the first batch of beer, there were 4 variations of the same recipe. Yet it seems that somehow they tasted different, either from the temperature, or the time, or something not apparent.
All 4 batches used sorghum syrup:
Batch code 3 used:
Saflager 34
1.4 pounds sorghum syrup
2 ounces(weight) dextrose (corn sugar)
one gallon of water
Mount Hood hops 6 grams of hop pellets 30 minutes
9 grams of the same hops when the heat was turned off.
The second batch (Code 4) was the same but the hops used were: Roughly 9 and 7 grams
The third batch (code 5 and 6) used the same, except for the hops again. 1/2 ounce (weight) in the boil for 30-60 minutes, then another half of an ounce during coolingI also added 3 tablespoons of brown rice syrup solids and one tablespoon of corn sugar, this is to increase the sugar content and perhaps some flavor as well. This batch was given the same yeast (from the same opened packet.)
Fifth and sixth batch
1/2 oz Mt Hood hops (30)
1/2 oz. Mt Hood hops (flameout)
3 T dextrose
3 T brown rice syrup solids
in addition to the same as above.
So, with minor variations yet using the same amount of extract, all four batches should not have been widely different. Yet somehow 3 and 6 came out better than 4 and 5, or so people said. It makes sense that 3 and 4 would be less bitter due to the less hops, but for the variation to be that different is odd.
I'll try it again in a 5 gallon batch, however after some review of what I'll need, it seems that I'll be needing many more parts including:
A ball lock valve for the keg, which I will then connect to a hose then into a bucket of water so it can ferment without getting bacteria or air in.
A wort chiller (which is copper refridgeration tubing that will be immersed into the boiled sugar liquid and where when cold water is run through the tubing will chill the liquid) as well as sanitizers. It also seems that I lost the nylon washer that's supposed to stop the CO2 from leaking out during the pressurizing process. I picked up a nylon washer from home depot, but because the shape isn't the same, it doesn't work as well.
I'll also need cleaners and sanitizers as well as the brewing supplies themselves (sorghum syrup, hops, yeast).
Because this puts me over my current budget, I'll have to wait and pick these up at a later time. It will cost me another 200, but it's a fun and useful hobby to have. I get to make things and it gets to be used.
Gluten free beer, on it's own, has not been very difficult. Surprising to find out. Consiting of sorghum syrup, hops, water and yeast and a total of two months worth of time. Most beers that are created this way are easily two types. An IPA or a pilsner and I'm working on finding how I like mine in these ways. Most people are limited in their Gluten Free beer choices. New Grist, Redbridge, Woodchucks and Strongbow (The latter two of course are ciders, but can usually be found where the other two may not be.) I also have the Jolly Pumpkin Bellipago near here. As I've mentioned before, I have had about 10 gallons, in single gallon sized batches that I have been working on. The most recent of which is on it's second week.
I've been reading about some gluten free stouts. Two or three people have made some successful chocolate stouts, and I wanted to see about doing something similar. I've never been much of a lighter bodied hoppy beer fan (IPA, pilsner etc) but really like reds and stouts. Both of these get much of their color from toasted grains (barley) which will often give it a toast and caramel taste, and sometimes a bit of body. Doing this as a gluten free beer using extract is harder. Because I don't quite know how toasted grains act in a beer, other than from some minor articles, I decided to practice roasting some and seeing what it does to a beer. What's generally accepted is that it will give the beer a nutty flavor and probably some excess haze rather than anything else. In order to get other good things from it, it would require a process known as malting. Something I'll be trying to figure out.
What I had practiced with was oats. Plain, whole oats that were not malted, not cooked, not rolled. Pretty much whole seeds. I toasted these in a popcorn popper for 4-6 minutes until they gave a toasted flavor and stuck it into a bag for about two weeks to release the volitile scents (getting rid of the charred burnt smell, but keeping the toasty smell)
On November 17th I used this recipe:
1 gallon water (60 min)
.25 oz Columbus Hops (60 min) for a mild bitterness
1.47lbs Sorghum Syrup (60 min)
2 oz toasted whole oats (15min) - I have no idea what it'll do
irish moss (15 min) - for some clarity
English Ale yeast that I had been waking up using some old English Ale yeast from a month or two ago in some water that had been boiled and some brown rice syrup so that the yeast would feed and grow for a few days.
This means that for one full hour, I boiled the water, the hops and the syrup together. Fourty-five minutes into the boil, I added the oats and the moss. Once the hour was up, I then chilled the pot in the sink with cold water, then filtered the liquid into a jug and added the yeast. I did take the measurement and found it to be around 1.060 gravity which tells how much sugar it has in it.
On November 29th I racked the beer, meaning I transferred the slightly alcoholic liquid into another jug, leaving the sludge behind. There was quite a bit of sludge, probably from the oats rather than the yeast. I tossed the yeast, forgetting that I had wanted to try a process known as yeast washing which would clean off the yeast and let me have the yeast which is even more gluten free than before. (I'll try it next time).
Into this secondary fermenter, I added:
2 oz Chocolate nibs soaked in vodka to sterilize
Cold Brewed Coffee (Planned on .5-1 ounce)
Oops, I used a full 8 ounces of cold brewed coffee. A Burundi Kayanza Bwayi roasted on Tuesday the 23rd (So that I could bring some home for the holiday weekend). I cold brewed the coffee in a french press then decanted it into a bottle and chilled it to let the sediment settle. It's a mild tasting coffee when cold, and Sweet Maria's recommends it at a City to City+ roast describing it as a "True Bourbon character. Sweet and balanced cup with creamy body, mild citrus, raisin, plum, honey, refined sweetness. Delicate and great as a single origin espresso.
It's not a strong coffee, even when brewed hot. It's delicate, slightly sweet, mild, not overpowering and just good all around from what my family agreed on. It kept this sweetness even as a cold brew, which I had tasted during the first decanting.
I'll let it sit there for about a week, then bottle it and let it stand for at least one month before testing it to find out what flavors come out. Maybe I'll also do a pretest by putting some into a 20 ounce soda bottle and pressurizing it with CO2 for an immediate test.
I've been a little busy with the holiday season and some back issues so I haven't been doing much gluten free searching. I did have a gluten free holiday this past weekend. It was pretty standard. Turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry relish. What was gluten free of course was the dressing and the gravy. The dressing this time around was purchased pre-made from a local store, but we've made it before using gluten free bread/croutons. The gravy was made using a gluten free flour, mostly rice flour with some potato starch and tapioca starch, that was browned in oil before adding chicken stock and seasoning.
I also brought the pound cake using the Land O'Lakes recipe from before. It wasn't baking well and was quite watery after the hour was up so I left it for another 10 minutes. Of course this meant that the crust burned somehow, which I had to cut off before serving. I'm still eating the gluten free poundcake crusts, which aren't that bad. They're not a hard burnt, just a bit more caramelized than your ordinary piece of pound cake.
We'll see if I can do more baking soon.
Over the weekend, I was browsing around the farmer's market. It's always an entertaining thing to do especially if it's a nice day outside. The farmer's market provides a chance to meet and speak with the providers, and see what's in season. Most farmers markets involve the local farmers and producers, usually within a certain radius, but may include small farmers from surrounding states as further defined by an acceptable radius. Some larger markets can involve dealers and resellers or farmers from a more distant areas, they just don't call themselves local.
While looking through the stalls, I finally found the stall that had gluten free baked goods. It was mid to late in the day for a farmer's market (1pm) and the market was slowing but there were still a few cookies left to buy. I bought one of the two remaining packs and spoke with the baker. It was interesting to find that along with the more common gluten free ingredients (rice flour, tapioca flour, potato starch) but also used coconut flour. I've seen, and even purchased coconut flour (from Bob's Red Mill) intending to use it for my own baked goods but I just couldn't decide on an application. She had said that it creates a softer, chewier cookie since all of us bakers who have used the standard mix of rice flour, tapioca starch and potato starch have tasted how grainy the cookies turn out to be due to the physical structure of pulverized rice and lack of liquid to soften it.
The cookies were delicious, so unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of them, and the person getting the other cookies said how the brownies are even better and we talked about those. I'll be certain to try those next time, but in the meantime it turns out that she got the chocolate she used in them from a local chocolate maker.
I wandered further and found the Mindo chocolate makers. What's interesting about them being local is that they purchase from a source in Ecuador and ferment their beans in Ecuador where they had purchased land after living in the US for many years. On their land, they have a resturant where they may process and sell chocolate in Equador, but the fermented beans also are shipped up to Michigan where they process (roast, ground, conched etc) all the way to finished chocolate. This also means that they sell the fermented whole beans, the roasted nibs (the inside part of the bean), chocolate liquor (the pure chocolate in liquid form after the beans have been roasted and ground, doesn't contain alcohol), and of course chocolate. This refers to unsweetened chocolate at 100%, dark chocolate at about 77% and 66%. It also refers to some chocolates that contain nuts, fruits and other ingredients. I didn't think to ask if they sold the cocoa butter.
I picked up some cocoa nibs as one of the ingredients for a gluten free stout that I'll be making soon. Only a few ingredients left to figure out.
Here's the reason why I haven't been writing about, or creating any gluten free beers lately:
The plastic jugs are ciders where I added some champagne yeast and have been letting ferment as well as the mead that I described creating last post.
Soon, I will get to the point of detailing out my measurements and dates so I can reference them better.
As for my prior beers, I had some people test out #3, 4, 5 and 6. My earlier batches. It seems that #3 was the most well received so I'll have to see if I noted down anything about the recipe to find out what it was. Ah, poor note taking procedures, how did I ever get through school?
Mead is an ages old fermented drink created from honey and water and is similar to a wine. Back in the day, it's likely that wild yeasts were used. Even today, this is sometimes done. In fact, I spoke with someone who had simply mixed water and honey into a jug and let it sit without even closing or capping the jug. They had made two batches and one was said to turn out quite decently, however the other one didn't come out quite so well, a bit musty and off tasting.
One of the main problems with wild yeasts is their unpredictibility. These wild yeasts can be different from place to place. For instance a San Francisco sourdough bread takes the wild yeasts in the San Francisco region, however the same sourdough starter from Michigan will be vastly different. Perhaps wheat bread isn't the best comparison to use on a gluten free blog, but it still remains that the yeast that takes hold is different. Even seasons may cause differences in the yeasts. Lindeman's Lambics from Belgium states that the wild yeast they use is only available certain times a year in a certain region of Brussels. Also, in the case of honey, the honey itself can have a variety of dormant yeasts. For this reason, many who have not yet taken the time to test and retest their wild yeasts will use an isolated strain of yeast that has been grown and is sold in packets or vials.
Breadmakers, yes, even us gluten free ones, will make bread using a dry yeast that creates leavening by ways of carbon dioxide when it consumes the sugars and starches of the initial mix. This also creates a particular flavor from the yeast itself. The same thing happens with beer and wine. There are many varieties of both beer yeasts and wine yeasts, each having their own differences in the way they taste, and how the resulting liquid tastes.
The starting sweet material (in this case honey) also makes a difference in the finished product. Honey is a sweet fluid that originates from the nectar of flowers that undergoes a natural process by a fairly common insect known as the bee. Honey has different flavors depending on the source. Honey from clover flowers has a light sweet flavor and texture, while honey from buckwheat flowers is dark and molasseslike with a heavy malty taste. There are as many different types of honeys as there are flowers, though there are usually certain commonly known varieties such as Clover, Orange blossom, Buckwheat. There are plenty more. Nonspecific commercial honeys are usually blended and pasturized to a fairly neutral flavor profile.
Water. Yes, even the simple H2O combination is different from place to place. Mineral and chemical content, Ph balance, the list can go on and on.
There's so much that can be discussed in regards to all of this that I couldn't begin to cover it. One of the most well known resources is Ken Schramm's The Compleat Meadmaker.
Now, after all this information you'd think I'd do something amazing right? Well, to be honest I used some pretty simple things to try creating a single gallon of mead.
* 1 gallon of tap water
* 1 packet of champagne yeast. I used a Lavin EC-1118 costing me .79 cents and I didn't even use the full packet. (Note that a single tiny packet is used for 5 gallon batches and I only was making one gallon)
* Possibly optional: some yeast nutrients and yeast energizer. Honey doesn't have the nitrogen requirements for yeast, but some meads are made without these. What may happen without the nitrogen is just an incomplete ferment, meaning that some honey and sweetness may be left over or possibly some sulfur smells from the yeast.
* A sterilized funnel
* A sterilized cider (or water) jug. (I don't suggest a milk jug, they're impossible to clean the milk smell out of.)
* A rubber stopper and airlock costing me $3, but many other things can be used. One example would be foil or plastic wrap with a tiny hole poked in, secured by a rubber band.
(I sterilized everything with a mix of water and bleach, as described on the bleach bottle, giving it a good rinse after. Bleach clings so it needs a good rinse which does mean that it can be reinfected by contact, where some other sanitizers just needs to be poured out and not rinsed.)
For about a year now, I've been making my own Kefir. About once or twice a week, I refresh the milk in my kefir. Kefir is a form of yogurt, where beneficial bacteria eat away at the milk sugars creating either a slightly tangy (to some people, just sour) creamy product that is often slightly fizzy from natural carbonation. There's a lot of detail about kefir that I won't get into since I haven't done my research on it, instead, I'm going to go over what I do each week for more kefir.
Kefir starts with clumps of bacteria and yeast, usually Lactobacillus along with other strains. These clumps are called grains and look like tiny brains. If you're lucky, you can locate someone in your area via different sources, to find where you can get some free kefir grains since people who make kefir often keep getting more and more(more on how they reproduce later). It doesn't take very many grains to create kefir.
I toss these grains into a jar, about a quart or half gallon jar is enough for me, one person, and I add milk until it's just about full with just enough of an airspace. I then leave that jar out overnight, (that's right, no heating). The kefir grains go into action, eating the lactose (milk sugars) and reproducing. I tend to use a 1% milk, however it's possible to use whole or even cream to create the kefir. A higher fat milk creates a creamier product, but I like the liquidness of the 1%.
Often, people will use a lowfat milk and warm it with milk powder to create a higher protein liquid which they then create either kefir or other yogurts with. Some people will even use raw, unpasturized milk to create kefir. I've also seen other forms using goat milk and what seems to be coconut milk. I'm not quite sure how that works, however there are apparently forms of kefir that work with just juice too.
I have heard that the forms of kefir that work with juice (known as water kefir) may be a different strain of bacteria that's still beneficial, but instead of lactose, they eat the sugars (fructose, glucose and probably dextrose) leaving a slightly fermented juice that again, can be slightly fizzy.
The carbonation comes from the creation of carbon dioxide from the bacteria in the kefir which fills the airspace and eventually equalizes into the liquid so that there's equal carbonation in both. I've done this longer than beer, but I suppose it's the same process.
After a day, maybe even two if I forget, I strain the liquid into another jar, leaving the grains behind. I stick this jar into the fridge and pour fresh milk into the container with the grains. If I wanted to, I could again leave the grain jar out to create more kefir, but because one a week is enough for me, I'll stick both bottles into the fridge. Once cold, I'll drink my kefir either plain, with honey, or with chocolate syrup. I'll even use it in place of yogurt or milk (or even in addition to yogurt) when making a smoothie.
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| Extreme closeup of grains and a few curds |
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| Kefir! |
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| We started eating before I could get the picture (oops!) |
2 cups of sugarRoughly 4 large eggs (I had 5 mediums)
4 teaspoons of vanilla
3 cups of the gluten-free flour
(At the same time, I used some leftover rice, eggs, sugar, vanilla and lemon zest to make a rice pudding that I tossed into a pyrex bowl and stuck into a water filled pot to steam in the oven.)
The next day, I made a simple lemon glaze from about a cup of powdered sugar, a few spoons of water (a little at a time) and some lemon juice. I drizzled this over the top of the pound cake and served it up.
Lessons learned? To use a larger pan for the pound cake since the center turned out a little crumbly (but still good) or two pans. To make the glaze slightly thinner since it was pretty solid when it hardened, possibly adding a little milk or more water (probably milk), and to actually measure and mix the rice pudding a bit more.
Until the past few years, people with gluten problems, (celiacs and intolerantcies), had wine, liquors and hard ciders to drink. Beer was off limits. Now the thing about beers is that it's nice on a day when you don't want something too strong, and beer has enough water content to balance out the hydration where wine and liquor based drinks don't tend to do this. Personally, I've always been a fan of mixed drinks that had quite a bit more liquid than liquor, but most people wouldn't even think of such a thing.
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The Golden Manatee Bellipago. I had to have two since I forgot to take a picture of the first one. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. |
That same day I found out I had just missed trying out the second gluten free beer, I had made the decision to try making my own. I had already picked up a few books about normal brewing and the year prior, had talked to the brewing employee at a small, local home brewing store named Beer Depot. (LHBS for short). In fact, I had already purchased some of the equipment I would need before sitting down at the Jolly Pumpkin.
Reading through the books, there was an overload of information. I also read online from several sources about brewing basics and gluten free brewing. Some of it seemed simple enough. I'd boil the sorghum syrup with water and hops, let it cool and add yeast. The questions, however, became what hops, what yeast, what were some of these ingredients that I could substitute? I wanted something simple and basic for now, and I'd progress and learn as I went along. I went with the suggestion of the brewer at the LHBS and went with a WGV hop, (called Whitbread Goldings Variety), but couldn't find a yeast called Safbrew T-58 so instead went with a White Labs Yeast for english ales. This unfortunately meant that my first attempt was not 100% gluten free since White Labs liquid vials of yeast uses gluten to grow the yeast. The expectations however was to be under 2ppm when it was finished, enough to qualify as gluten free in certain areas.
After many trips to the LHBS which was thankfully close, I finally had what I needed to make a gallon batch of beer. I had my 5 quart stockpot, 2 gallon jugs, a funnel, a filter for the funnel, two pound of sorghum syrup, one one-ounce packet of WGV hops and the vial of yeast. I also had two rubber stoppers that I stuck airlocks into. [I need 5 pictures].
I sanitized everything and started heating my gallon of water. I added one pound of syrup and let it come to a boil again, then added half an ounce of the hop pellets and let it boil for 60 minutes. I then let this cool in a sink filled with cold water.
Once it finally cooled down, I poured it through the filter, into the jug so that I could get most of the gunk, mostly hops, out while keeping the sugary liquid in. The gunk is known as trub. I put on a cap and shook the jug of liquid to incorporate air, which apparently is necessary, then I added 1/4 of the vial of yeast and shook again. It seems that the yeast needs air to grow. I then removed the cap and put on the airlock, putting the jug into the closet where it was cooler and dark.
I set up the next batch, which was done exactly the same except for one ounce of molasses was added for color and flavor.
I let these sit for a week, where the yeast would multiply and eat the sugars, leaving alcohol behind. Carbon dioxide is produced and to prevent the bottle from exploding, would leak out through water filled airlocks. This block also prevented oxygen and bad bacteria from invading into the bottle causing the beer to get strange flavors and/or spoil completely. This would also mean that the only thing growing should be the yeast I chose. It's very possible to use a wild yeast, rather than deciding on a yeast but this is more difficult when it comes to consistency and I wanted to figure this out using something by choice, rather than chance.
One week later, I looked at the bottles. The bottom was filled with more gunk that had settled. This gunk, known as trub, is the sediment from the hops that didn't get filtered, as well as dead yeast that clumped up and settled. Using a plastic autosiphon from the LHBS and a tube, (picture needed), I drained each bottle into a new clean bottle and left behind the trub. This was then re-airlocked and left for another week. This process is known as "racking" into a "secondary" which lets it continue to ferment without gaining possible flavors from the dead yeast.
After another week, I took the bottle, which now had a layer of yeast that had settled to the bottom of the jug, and drained the liquid into another empty bottle that contained a sugary solution of water and dextrose in the form of corn sugar, a sweet powder that has used this name for several decades (not the new name for corn syrup). This extra sugar will be food for the yeast to produce just a little bit more CO2. Before it could really do that, however, I drained the flat beer into bottles and secured bottle caps on top using a hand lever system that closed and crimped the metal caps. This would create a seal on the bottle and the yeast would eat the sugar, releasing carbon dioxide. The CO2 would have nowhere to go, except for a tiny air pocket in the bottle and the pressure would build up. Too much, and the bottle would explode. If it was just right, the CO2 would merge with the beer, giving the liquid and air equal pressure. This is one of the ways beer can be carbonated. This however takes about three weeks before it's ready.
The other way beer can be carbonated is to force CO2 into the liquid. This is usually done in a metal cylinder called a keg. The beer is put into the keg and CO2 is sent in from an air tank. There isn't a chemical difference between this CO2 and yeasts CO2, but there are many who say that there is a difference somehow. Personally, I think the extra aging is what does it. I believe that it could be potentially possible to carbonate it, the way carbonated water is created, in a smaller container with smaller amounts of CO2.
In any case, the beer is ready to be chilled and served, and the next batch is ready to start anew.
I'll be trying things out and describing the process in more detail as I go along. I'm just starting out so there's a good chance I'll come up with some odd and possibly undrinkable things, but on an equal level, I'll come up with drinkable and new things. That's the fun part about experimentation. I'll describe the process that I go through and give the results from here on.
I go through coffee quite often, both french press and espresso shots, so the grounds have a potential of piling up. I thought that I might be able to use them to grow mushrooms.
This is a small, very basic overview of a process and I encourage people to go to either to http://www.oystermushrooms.net/ and check out their pdf guide on growing oyster mushrooms or the website http://www.mykoweb.com/. There are many places that offer kits and because I wasn't sure I wanted to start on my own, I picked up a kit at the local farmers market.
The main process requires somewhat sterile material. This could include boiling straw, or having coffee that's been used. This would also saturate the material with water to create moisture needed for growth. Mold growth is bad, since it means that something else is devouring the nutrients needed for the mushrooms. The problem with coffee is that I don't have quite enough to do all at once, and the way I've been dumping it into a container, it grows mold. The material is then innoculated with the spawn of the mushroom. Usually, this can be done by alternating layers of material and spores to get an even growth.
Oyster mushrooms, on a small personal scale, can be grown in a plastic bag that has a few holes, that was filled with the material. The material will have a strange white substance (the main body of the mushroom, called the mycelium) which will eventually fruit. These will poke out through the bag's holes and develop into the oyster mushroom most people see at a store.
I had the bag all over the place. In the kitchen, in the bathroom, in my normal plant growing room and even outside. I just couldn't figure out how to get it to start fruiting. Oyster mushrooms don't need a cold snap to start fruiting, just light. Some mushrooms do require a chilling period, but from what I had read, this was not one of them. It wasn't until this weekend when it finally burst into mushrooms. I'll have to make sure to harvest them before they start releasing spores and are past their prime. It generally takes about a week before this happens, so I have a few days before I have to harvest.
