COVID Quarantine : Stress Brewing

In between mind-numbing online meetings, responding to work email and grading papers, I have tried to continue some hobbies. One of those is something Pat and I started doing a few years ago -- homebrewing.

A week and a half ago, I started a batch of beer that I think I'm going to call Boxer Rumble. Pat's been on a Belgian kick, and told me that I should brew a Belgian tripel. I decided to go for a quad because, well, I don't know any three cylinder cars.

I looked for some base recipes on the American Homebrewers Association website, and decided to start with the Easter Quad recipe by Michael Tonsmeire. This is an all-grain recipe, and I don't really have a set-up for doing all-grain (not yet, at least!), so I did some modifications to incorporate malt extract. I also only wanted to do a five-gallon batch, so needed to divide everything in half.

I used the AHA "cheat sheet" to partially convert the recipe to extract, then placed an order with Maryland Homebrew to get the ingredients. With the stay-at-home order and closure of all business except those deemed "essential," it's nice to know that 1) a homebrew shop actually falls under "grocery store" and can stay open, and 2) Maryland Homebrew is close enough to me that if I order on Monday, I will have the order on my doorstep on Tuesday.

The special ingredient with this recipe is pomegranate molasses, which was the singular thing that the homebrew shop didn't have. I broke down and ordered it via Amazon, though in the future, I'll look for it in the international aisle of the local grocery store.

It's just like keeping a lab notebook!

The beer was transferred to the secondary fermenter last Sunday, and the pomegranate molasses was added. This is what it looks like right now.

Fermenting happily

I'll wait for the yeast to wind down (a few more days) before bottling it. The initial taste-test during the transfer (pre-pomegranate molasses addition) was good. I was afraid I might have added too much cardamom seed.

If you are interested in getting started in homebrewing, I'd suggest starting by ordering a DIY kit and following the directions. You'll need some basic kitchen utensils, including a 5 gallon pot, for boiling the wort, and then the "fermenter(s)", which at a basic level, you can get away with just using a plastic bucket with a sealing lid. Maryland Homebrew is my local shop that sells everything you could want or need to get started.

Here's what Pat and I bought to start us off :

• The Brewers Best Deluxe Kit
• Star San sanitizer
• Two cases of 12oz bottles
• Bottle caps (which it turns out, we didn't need, since most DIY kits have them)
• Brewers Best Black IPA 5-gallon kit

Pat already had a 20 quart stainless steel pot we could use. 

It's funny that this whole endeavor started because a lot of craft breweries had discontinued making black IPAs, which is why that was the first kit we bought. 

By the way, if you decide to purchase the materials from Maryland Homebrew, consider also joining the American Homebrewers Association; MDHB offers a discount to AHA members. Other homebrew shops do, too. 

If I'm bored later, maybe I'll post up my recipe for my Smoldering Fire beer that my friends like so much. In the meantime, you can also check out my videos from when I brewed a beer with honey (Sweet Ride, Hon!).