Some updates on what’s brewing and what’s doing including, but not limited to:

Not-So-Old Ale Bottling!
Experimental Speed Ale Goes Into Secondary!
New Nano-Starter Experiments!
And I Co-Host Trivia Night At A Local Bar!

I’ve got a bunch of little things to talk about today so I thought I’d just post them all at once.

Let’s start with the Not-So-Old Ale (NSO Ale for short). I had it in secondary for a week or so and decided it was time to bottle it up. I got seven 12oz bottles plus a sample glass. The sample was way better than it was out of the primary so I’m hoping some time in the bottles will bring this stuff around. Also, I tried something new with the bottling. Since there were so few bottles and the beer looked so clear out of the 3L secondary/bright tank I siphoned it directly from there into the bottles and then dumped 3/4 tsp of table sugar into each bottle. I realize the sugar hasn’t been sanitized/sterilized this way, but I just wanted to try it. If it works out I may do this on all my nano batches. It was a really fast bottling session with very little mess.

It doesn’t look as fast as it is. Trust me.

Then there’s the speed ale I tried. I took a gravity reading after only a week because I figured with such a low OG it wouldn’t take long to finish. And man oh man was that right. It hit 1.003. That’s like 90% attenuation. This Sixpoint yeast is a monster. So the speed ale went into the 3L bottle that the NSO ale just came out of and went into the fridge for some conditioning time. The sample didn’t taste so bad, surprisingly. Just really really young and grainy. But that should wear off soon. If it’s remotely drinkable I may have come up with a new style. Like an American Bitter. Maybe. We’ll have to wait on that.

Now I’m experimenting with yeast starters. Usually, for tiny batches I don’t bother with a starter. For a 2.5 gallon batch I just dump in a vial of White Labs yeast and call it a day. It’s always worked for me. For the 3.5 quart batches I do the same. This is way over-pitching on the little guys, though. So I’ll often save the slurry from a 2.5 gallon batch and use a couple of teaspoons for the smaller batches. This not only works really well but saves a bunch of money. But I was thinking that it would be a good idea to use a starter to make sure the yeast was still alive after hanging out in the fridge for a few weeks.

That’s right. I crushed the grain in a mortar and pestle.

So I made a super tiny starter. Here’s the run-down:

1.25 oz 2-row
1 cup water
Mash at 155 for an hour
Boil for 15 minutes
Cool
Pitch 2 teaspoons of yeast

This can’t possibly work. Can it?

I’m actually mashing in a coffee thermos with the grain in a little steeping bag intended for herbs or tea. And I’m going to ferment it in a 12oz bottle. It’s mashing as I type this so I have no idea how it’ll turn out. I’ll post tomorrow to let you know.

You want more fun news, you say? Well how about your truly hosting a trivia night at the local dive bar? You see, every Wednesday night is trivia night down at the Barrow St Bar (formerly Mercer & Barrow, formerly J.C.Winston’s) here in downtown Jersey City. It’s free to play and the winning team gets 50 bar dollars. I dig the bar. Fun people, Boddington’s on tap and I can stumble the four blocks home at one in the morning without a problem. And I’m into the trivia thing. My friends and I go there quite a bit. Last week, the host said he’d be out of town the following Wednesday and couldn’t find anyone to cover for him. Since I was a little drunk I volunteered but said I didn’t want to come up with the questions. To my rescue comes friend and teammate Liz, of Our House In Jersey fame. She’ll come up with the questions and all I have to do is yell them out. Awesome. Fast forward to this week. She came up with some really cool questions which I narrowed down to the ten I used. It was a lot of fun just screaming at people and schmoozing with the crowd. The best part was that at the end the owner of the bar asked if I wanted to be paid my $50 trivia fee in cash or beverage. That’s like asking if I’d like to jump into a pool of pirhanas or eat a cheese-filled filet mignon! Can you say open bar till closing? When can I host again, please?

And for your brain-teasing pleasure, here are the trivia questions that were asked. One team out of seven actually got every one.

1. Who won the Florida GOP primary?
2. This year marks the 100th anniversary of what team’s last World Series appearance?
3. Musician Gordon Matthew Sumner is better known by what name?
4. Ruth Wakefield invented what mighty delicious baked good?
5. What does an anemometer measure?
6. Multiple Choice – Groundhog Day is coming up this weekend. In what year did Punxsatawney Phil make his first official appearance? A) 1870 B) 1887 C) 1932
7. RADAR is an acronym for what?
8. Four sitting presidents have been assassinated in the history of the U.S. Name all four.
9. What was Neil Diamond’s first #1 record?
10. According to Forbes Magazine and The Chronicle of Higher Education, what is the most expensive 4-year university in the U.S.?

I’ll post answers tomorrow.