The cider unfortunately did not go well. At all. While the cider made with Hefeweizen yeast was, prior to bottling, to Elizabeth's liking, after bottling and carbonating it had simply dried out too much. The cider made with the much beloved Nottingham was a loss right after fermentation. The flavor issues I attribute to the lack of brown sugar, molasses or any other of the usual additions used to add flavor and boost gravity.
The last, and most dramatic mistake was waiting too long before starting the dishwasher pasteurization process. Several bottles exploded in the dishwasher, and others began exploding before even making it to the dishwasher (cider was later found on the ceiling). Luckily, no one was hurt, and the remaining cider was dumped before they could explode. Elizabeth made a blend of some of what remained of both ciders, and to no surprise, she wasn't a fan.
So, in addition to adding tasty fermentables, I also need a kegging system. Hopefully in the near future I can obtain a corny keg or two and will be able to force carbonate her sweet cider.
Fade to present day. My lager has been happily lagering away in Henry the Party Pig for almost 4.5 months. The term lager is from German and simply means 'to store'. Traditionally, Lager beer was made in the fall or winter, fermented then lagered, stored at low temperatures in cellars or lagering caves. Many lagering caves still exist in the United States, carved into the sides of sandstone bluffs. Though these caves tended to stay in the 40F range, deeper caves could fall into the mid 30's F. However, Nature is not to be trusted, so as insurance, brewers packed in large blocks of ice to aid in the refrigeration needed to lager, ideally 36-38 degrees Fahrenheit.
The caves, as well as the danger of cutting large blocks of ice from lakes, and the cost of transporting it to the caves began falling into disuse as early as the late 1800's due to artificial refrigeration techniques becoming available and financially viable to even moderately sized town breweries. Prohibition didn't help either.
3-6 months is a good time frame to lager, for the
Unfortunately, I was unable to take many photos of the process but it's pretty straight forward. I sanitized my bottling bucket, auto-siphon, the Party Pig activation pump, valve, valve gasket, and restrictor. I then transferred the unfermented beer from Henry the Pig, to the bottling bucket. All that was needed to clean Henry was a quick rinse and then I filled him with sanitizer.
When carbonating in a Party Pig, far less priming (corn) sugar is used, only 1/4 cup to a MAXIMUM of 1/3 cup. I used slightly more than 1/4 cup. Based on the instructions, the sugar can be added right to the Pig, or the bottling bucket, but I chose to boil water and dissolve the sugar that way, for sanitation (and habit) sake. After this cooled, I added it to the bottling bucket and stirred to mix it thoroughly. Using the bottling wand that is forever attached to the bottling bucket, I slowly filled Henry.
For those of you unfamiliar with the Party Pig system developed by Quoin, it's a great device. It is a 2.5 gallon amber PET bottle to which attaches a metal collar and push-button dispensing valve. Inside, with the beer, is a pouch which when activated (I'll describe that in a moment), expands to fill the empty space, pressurizing the beer inside. As the beer is dispensed, the pouch continues to expand thus maintaining constant pressure. A new pouch must be used each time, and they come pre-sanitized. The system also comes with a somewhat chinsey stand and a carrying strap. Check out the Party Pig system here.
Leaving the required 4" of head space I opened the pre-sanitized pressure pouch and dropped it into the beer. After placing the gasket and valve onto Henry's neck, I firmly attached the metal retaining collar. The pressure pouch contains food grade chemicals that when mixed, produce CO2 gas thus inflating the pouch. To activate this reaction the activation pump (sold separately of course. Surgical tubing and a hand pump would work just as well) is attached to a bit of tubing, which is inserted into the spout on the Pig. After the proper amount of pressure is built up (it requires more than one would think) a satisfying, and startling, pop is heard signalling the mixing of the liquids and the pouch promptly expands.
Through this process, one must keep the valve's button depressed firmly while pumping air into the Pig. Beer and foam will spray out if you let go and have to restart pumping, though it's only a little so no big deal.
I'm very excited for this beer. I've wanted to try my hands at lagers for some time, and this is my first. I also really love the idea of a portable, self-pressurizing tap/mini-keg system. It's small enough to even fit in the fridge without upsetting SWMBO! Carbonation should work the same as it does when using regular beer bottles, it may just take longer 3+ weeks as opposed to maybe 2 since it's a bigger bottle. Luckily, I can test carbonation periodically without worry of contamination.
I'm getting ready to start another full batch, and intend to plan it out more, so that it runs much more smoothly this time. I continue to go back and forth on what type of beer to make. It's come down to either a Porter, a heather ale, spruce ale, or maybe a heather ale with a bit of spruce. These ales have been brewed for thousands of years in Scotland, Northern Europe and Scandinavia. Williams Bros. Brewing of Scotland makes wonderful recreations of these ales (and others including a Kelp ale which I haven't yet tried) which I love. Traditionally, heather and spruce ales were made without hops, as hops weren't much used until the 13th century, and in fact were banned in parts of England in 1474.
However, in these ales, a small hop addition is made for modern drinkers. I'm debating on whether or not to use hops. My main concern is how to keep 5 gallons of beer from spoiling without the preservative quality of hops. I may do a smaller unhopped batch to dig into my fascination with historical brewing.
A new feature coming soon to the Stubborn Agnes Brewing Blog are Blue Collar Beer reviews. I've got a few waiting to be published, including reviews of Williams Bros. Fraoch (heather ale) and Alba (Pine/Spruce), Samuel Smith's Imperial Stout, and a new Stone Brewing Co. collaboration, Japanese Green Tea IPA. Keep your eyes out for those within the next couple weeks.
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