29 April 2008

Angelsblood


This brew is based on last year's Angelsweat Wheat. It is a simple extract recipe that I had great success with during the time of Bay to Breakers last year. This time around, I decided to take something I liked a lot and take the chance of ruining it by adding fruit! Specifically blood oranges from Italy I picked up yesterday from Monterey Market in Bezerkeley. Go there if you haven't; it's an amazing place. I know, the one in the picture isn't all that blood-red, but trust me, it was super sweet and delicious.

The recipe:

7+ lbs. wheat/malt extract
1.25 oz. Hallertau upon boil
.5 oz. Saaz with 20 minutes left
Spoonful of Irish moss. It will still be hazy, I expect. Which is a good thing.
.5 oz. Saaz at the end of boil

While this is happening, I heated 1/2 gallon of water to 180 degrees with the zest and meat of 4 nice-sized blood oranges. Let that steep and cool.

At yeast-pitching time, I threw all of into my large carboy and let it all talk it over. It looks pretty fun, we'll see how my first fruity beer turns out.


I didn't take a hydrometer reading, seemed a little pointless with all that fruit.

Hosed

I mess to impress.I got some new hoses to tighten up my wort-chilling process. It actually worked pretty well, and riding on that success I went on to try and poison everyone I know and love. See, I thought filling my carboy with a hose made a lot more sense than holding it under the awkward bathtub faucet. It worked well, but something didn't quite sit right with me. I hadn't sanitized the inside of the hose, and I didn't like the idea of the water touching all that rubber before touching my beer. As the water level in the carboy was happily rising, I took a peek at the label that had come with my new hose. It read:

WARNING: This hose contains chemicals, including lead, known to the state of California to cause cancer, birth defects and other reproductive harm. Do not drink water from this hose. Wash hands after use.

Heh. So I started over. There are some lessons I am very happy to have learned the easy way instead of the hard way.