Donate Your Medals

At last year's Wildflower Triathlon I learned about this non-profit organization, Won for One. I thought it was genius immediately. They will take your medals that you have "won" (I have never been close to winning) and give them to kids in hospitals.
I think the medals have a much better purpose this way than staying in some drawer in my house. I have the memories from the training and racing and there is no need for medal to remind me. It also makes your achievement more gratifying knowing you earned this medal that will now bring happiness to someone else.
So I urge all of your that have medals collecting dust, to take 5 minutes to fill out the form on their website and mail them off.

Dreg Series: Black Jolly Sour

Alright, I'll work on the name. This was my third trial with using bottle dregs to make a unique beer with the wort from my main batch, Black California Common. This time I decided to take almost a full gallon after the wort had started boiling for about 10 minutes because last time it appeared I only had lactic fermentation. Also with this batch I did first wort hopping with all my hops.
After taking a gallon of boiling wort (be careful) I put the gal into the sink with a water bath. Once the wort was cool, I poured myself a few glasses of Jolly Pumpkin's Bam Noire. (Side note: I don't really like to do beer reviews because I don't really know what I'm talking about. But this beer is great, instant top 10 of all time. The best part of this beer is the aroma, just a touch of funk and sour. This was a pretty young bottle, though. And the beer is actually pretty tame and easy drinking.)
Within 24 hours I already had signs of fermentation and then the thing just took off. I have no idea if it will be that funky but maybe over time. I remember listening to a Can You Brew It show on the Brewing Network about Jolly Pumpkin beers and I believe he uses WLP 530 as his base yeast. I'm pretty sure this is what took off and the rest of the bugs will need some time.
I'll keep the post updated on the progress.
Day 2:

Day 4:

Day 6:

Update 9.11.10

Gravity 1.008
Big roast, taste of "burnt peanuts", just a touch of sour and pretty clean. Adding .25 oz Franch Oak cubes

Update 2.5.11
Gravity 1.010 - ???
HUGE sour, it was in your face and I love it, I touch more acetic than I'd like and I think that may be due to the amount of head space. This will probably get blended but I will see where it is in another 3 months.

Update 6.20.11



Tasted a sample at bottling and the acetic bite is completely gone and the acidity is now pretty mild. The beer is also much more fruity with big English esters. What I believe is happening is that as the beer mellows there is an equilibrium reaction happening with esters, acids and ethanol.

Ex. Acetic acid + ethanol -> ethyl acetate



"Ethyl acetate is synthesized industrially mainly via the classic Fischer esterification reaction of ethanol and acetic acid. This mixture converts to the ester in about 65% yield at room temperature:



CH3CH2OH + CH3COOH ⇌ CH3COOCH2CH3 + H2O " - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethyl_acetate
A formal tasting will follow.

Black / Schwarz California Common

So I wanted to try something new. I have my California Common currently lagering a bit in the keg. So I have a nice pitch of California Common yeast. In my travels to Germany my beer of choice was Schwarzbier with Alt a close second. I thought that it would be neat to try to make a Schwartz beer with this yeast.
So as usual I looked at a few references started with Jamil's recipe but I also found an interesting one at this blog I have been reading for a while, Ryan Brews. I am always shooting for more malt in my beer. This beer uses all Munich 10L for its base malt. And don't worry Munich can convert itself but if you use a lot of other grains that need the enzymes then you will need to add some 2 or 6-row. I was also going to try a couple new techniques. The first idea was to try a decoction mash. I had it all planned out and then realized it will make my brew day over 8 hours. This particular weekend I did not have that much time, so my decoction will have to wait. Plus listening to the Brew Strong guys they did not seem to see any improvement in their beers. Also I wanted to try First Wort Hopping, FWH. I have done some reading and it seems like an interesting method.

Recipe: Black California Common
O.G.-1.054  F.G.-1.013   IBU-27 
SRM-25   ABV-4.8-5.2%%   Cal-182

Grain Bill (75% Efficiency):
9.5lb Munich 10L Malt (95%)
.25 lb Chocolate Malt  (2.5%)
.25 lb Carafa III Malt (2.5%)

Hops:
.75 oz Northern Brewing, 8%, pellet, FWH - 60 min 27 IBU


Yeast:
White Labs WLP810 San Francisco Lager Yeast Cake

Brew Day:
Brewed: 7/24/10
Kegged: 8/15/10

Water:
San Diego (Alvarado) Tap Water
1 campden tablet for 5 gal.

Mash Details:
H2O/Grain Ratio: 1.33 qt/lb
Mash Volume: 3.25 gal
Sacc Rest. Temp/Time: 152F @ 60min
Strike Temp: 166F
Batch Sparge Volume: 4.25 gal
Sparge Temp/Time: 170F @ 30min

Boil Details:
Boil Volume: 6.5 gal
Boil Time: 60min
Post Boil Volume: 5 gal

Ferment Details:
O.G.: 1.058 (I got 80% efficiency so I will add water)
Ferment Temp: 58-61F
Length: 14 days
Ferment Temp: 65F
Length: 7 days
F.G.: 1.013