Leftovers Beer (Brought in from the the affectation blog)

Since the State of Oregon sees fit to relieve me of some of that evil load of money (One needs always remember Christ’s contempt towards the rich), I am using up leftovers in nearly all facets of my life. This trend has been ongoing for quite some time now, but I think that it is going to be even more pronounced for the next couple of weeks.

I need to start making beer for the summer. Brew doesn’t appeal to me in the winter..wine better suits the mood then. But a beer in the summer is an act of kindness. But, due to shortfalls as described above, I went rooting around the basement and found the following:

1. An old mason jar in the deep freeze containing what is probably Millenium hops pellets. These are probably around two years old.
2. Two cans of Coopers light malt extract.
3. Big jug of molasses
4. Spices in the freezer
5. Some brewers yeast of uncertain origin. I think that it is fermentis SAF T-58 High Gravity Yeast, but who knows for sure.

So looks like an odd batch of beer will be coming down the pipe. I did go out and buy more priming sugar (3 lbs for $2.99) and a lb of rice syrup solids for $4.49.
First, disinfect the hell out of all equipment. I have found that soaking with bleach followed by soaking with iodophore cuts infections way down.

I started out by adding a 5-second pour of molasses into around a gallon of cold water I figure that this is around 2 or so cups, stuck this on the stove and started heating it. At around 120 F, I added

• 2 teaspoons nutmeg powder
• 2 teaspoons clove powder
• 2 tablespoons dried orange peel

Brought the mix to a boil and then chucked in the hop pellets as follows:

1. 1/3 cup of pellets in a muslin bag, tied off with dental floss. Give yourself a long string to pull it out when it is cooked, makes it easier. These get steeped for an hour. Set the time for thirty minutes to tell you when to put in the next hops.
2. 1/4 cup of pellets, prepared as above, go in for thirty minutes, set a timer for twenty minutes.
3. 1/8 cup of pellets go in for ten minutes. When the last timer goes off, pull them out of the solution and let them drain for a minute before you pull them out.

After the hops are out, I added one can of the malt extract and the pound of rice syrup solids and then brought it back up to a boil. Just so you know my nomenclature, I call this the wort concentrate. At this point I turned off the burner and let it cool for three hours. Note folks, do not open the lid during this cooling time. If it is cooling from 210 F, the stuff in there has almost no bioburden. If you open it to the air, you have no idea what cooties you are letting in. Don’t open it.

After the wort concentrate has cooled, dump the iodophore out of the carboy and put it upside down to drain for five minutes. Add around two gallons of cold water (I usually use the sprayer head to make sure the water gets well aereated) then use a funnel to pour in the wort concentrate. Fill the carboy to the five gallon line with cold water and pitch the yeast.

I usually lug it back down the basement the next day. Wait two weeks, transfer the beer to another carboy, prime it with one cup of sugar, and bottle it.