My First Brew: Red Ale

Ted's Red

It's a beautiful thing!  But it took seemingly forever before I could pop the top to my very first home brew.  But after waiting five weeks, taking my first sip, it was definitely worth the wait.  If you want to know the process then read along.  It isn't as difficult as you may think, but it is a process. 
Cleanliness is essential to this process.  That really cannot be stated enough.  And it must be part of your technique.  You must thoroughly wash and sanitize all equipment and utinsels to be used in the brewing process.  We always had a large bowl or tub filled with sanitizing solution and religiously dipped our hands in before and after touching anything. 

I had an experienced partner in all this; my fellow Wing Nutz teammate, Al "Heisenberg" Beilgard. Al has a home brewers set up that has everything one needs to brew a batch: 6+ qt. brew pot, 5 gal. fermenting bucket, hydrometer, thermometer, glass carboy, airlocks, syphon set, bottling bucket, and bottle capper.  An equipment kit like this runs about $150 if interested. 

For the beer itself, you can buy beer kits that have all the ingredients needed to brew the flavor and style of beer one is interested.  For this first brew, I let my sister-in-law Judy (also a fellow Wing Nutz member) choose and she selected a red ale.  The brand name of this particular kit is True Brew.  What comes with the kit is both  hopped and unhopped light malt extracts, melanoiden malt grain, grain steeping back, hop pellets, yeast, priming sugar, and bottle caps.  The kit ran about $40 or so.

The wort (pronounced wert)

And so it begins...a wort (unfermented beer); the first step in brewing, making me one step closer to my first beer.  We brought 1.5 gallons water to boil in our brewpot and then turned off the heat.  Next, we filled our steeping bag with grains, tied it off, and placed in the hot water and began steeping it for the next 20-30 minutes.  

 

Next, we added our liquid malt extracts and heat the wort up to a slow rolling boil.  Next, we added half of the hop pellets stirring them in until dissolved and then boiled for 30 minutes, adding the remaining hop pellets in the last two minutes.  At one stage the hop pellets adds aroma and at the other acts as bittering agents.   When finished, we filled a sink full of ice water and placed the brewpot in it to rapidly cool down the wort.  When it achieves a temperature of around 90 degrees we put it into the 5 gallon fermenting bucket and added cold water until we reached about 5 gallons in total volume.  This brings the temperature down to about 74 degrees or less; the desired temerature.  Using a hydrometer we took our original gravity reading and registered at 1.05 - right on target according to our kit directions.  Just before bottling we take a final gravity reading.  Through a simple calculation this will give us our alcohol by volume percentage.        

The final step of this first day's process is to add yeast.  We sprinkled it over the top, stirred it in, and sealed the bucket tightly with the lid. Inserted into the lid is an airlock that allows gases to escape but not let air in that will contaminate the wort as it is fermenting.  When sealed tightly we took it downstairs and stored it in the basement where it is cooler.  It needs to be stored in a cool, dry place out of sight where no light can (especially flourescent lighting) disturb it.  Light is bad.  

 

Over the next 24-48 hours the yeast goes crazy and does its thing and fermentation begins.  You can see it in action bubbling through the airlock. Fermentation continues for about another 48-72 hours and then cease as settling begins.  The beer needs to settle for another 3-4 days after bubbling ceases.  In total, it takes about a week and then you can begin the second stage fermenting process.   

  Second stage fermentation allows for more settling and allows for greater clarity of the beer.  Using a syphoning tube we transfer the beer from the fermenting bucket into a 5 gallon glass carboy.  The tube has a little stopper on the end that helps minimize transferring the settlement (called trub) into the carboy.  The picture above is the transferring into a carboy.  The picture below is the trub.   

 

When we finished the transfer, we capped the carboy with a rubber stopper equipped with an airlock.  It will continue its fermenting and settling for another week. 

  

Finally, after two weeks we are ready to bottle.  But before we do we take our final gravity reading , coming in at 1.010.  This gives our beer a 5.25% ABV. 

 

We syphon the beer from the carboy into a 5 gallon bottling bucket.  Just prior to filling the bucket we add the priming sugar, a necessary ingredient for carbonation.  As the beer transfers it stirs the priming sugar.  Next, Al used a special glass tube and hose called a bottle filler to begin syphoning the beer from the bottling bucket and filling the beer bottles.  As he did that I stood at my station and used a bottle capper to seal the bottles.  When finished, we had 48 bottles of beer.  They will remain in their cases in the cool, dry basement sitting in the dark for another three weeks as the beer ages.

 

Five very long weeks later, I am finally rewarded!  It was a really big hit with others as well.  It was as good as most red ales I have had.  We went throught the first case fairly quickly but I have reserved some that I would like to age longer and try after four months or maybe even six.

It was a lot of fun  learning the process of home brewing.  And since this first batch, we have done a imperial nut brown ale, Scottish ale, and special stout beer that is a homage to Walter White, aka Heisenberg, and the Breaking Bad series.  We just transferred this Breaking Bad beer into the carboy over the weekend where it will rest for another 2 weeks before bottling.  It should be ready for the final season premiere on August 11.  Next up to cook this weekend is a german beer in  preparation of Oktoberfest! 

 

Cheers everyone!

 

 

Tri-Tip Beef: It's What Should Be For Dinner

What is tri-tip; you ask?  If you do, you are in good company. 

Tri-tip roast, also called the triangle roast or steak because of its shape and points, is a lesser known cut of meat around the Midwest and most of the country.  It sits on the bottom of the sirloin.  The reason for its scarcity is two-fold.  One, there is only one per side of beef.  Two, because way, way back in the day when there were local butchers carving meat, they considered this beautiful beef a waste because it was too big for their display case.  And because of these two reasons, butchers would ground it up and sell it as sirloin hamburger.  But today with packing plants, packers carve the meat and so you are much more likely to find  this at your local meat market. 

So, is it a roast or a steak?  It is a small roast that weighs between 1.5 - 2.5 pounds.  OR, it is an enormouse steak!  However, you can slice it into 1.5" inch thick steaks and grill that way if you prefer.  Tri-tip looks like a mini-brisket and it has the same texture and tenderness of a slow smoked brisket but only takes a fraction of time to cook.  For this reason, I like to grill mine whole and then slice it against the grain. 

And like a brisket, there is nice fat cap on one side.  If you are grilling the tri-tip, you do not have to trim down the fat cap.  When you sear the meat this will burn most of it off.  However, I still like to trim mine down - not take it all off - just trim it down.  Fat equals flavor!  And because this meat is leaner than most you will want some of the fat to help keep it from getting dry.   

How to prepare your tri-tip: less is more, I say.  This is a very flavorful cut of beef.  I have never used a marinade and cannot foresee me ever doing so.  Cowtown Steak seasoning goes really well with this.  Whatever you use, just go easy.  A simple onion, garlic, salt, and pepper combination will suffice nicely.   

How to cook your tri-tip: roast, smoke, or grill; all will give you a thrill!  In my professional opinion, however, the grill is the way to go.  You only need medium heat to do this - never high heat.  Grill at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes to 1 hour tops. Use a digital meat thermometer if you wish to ensure doneness to your liking but do not overcook! 
 
So when you are done grilling, remember to remove it to a platter or pan and loosely cover leaving it sit for at least 10 minutes or longer.  The internal temperature will still rise a bit even after it comes off.  Resting your meat is critical so that the juices have an opportunity to be redistributed throughout the meat.  If you cut into it too early, all the juice will run out leaving you with a very dry dinner.  And for goodness sake, never slice into your food while it is cooking to check if it is done or not for the same reason; you dry everything out.  Do NOT be THAT guy. 

Like I wrote above, the tri-tip is like a mini-brisket. It has points which are thin and a thick center to it. I like cooking it whole and if you do so correctly, you will medium rare slices in the center and well done slices on the point - something for everyone on one platter!

 

If you are like me, your mouth is watering now!  So the only question left is, where do I go to get one?  Well, if you are asking that question then I know you are not reading this blog in California.  That is because there is an abundance of tri-tip in California.  I am not sure how it all started, but packers started shipping tri-tip to California years ago and today most of them still go to California.  But like I said, its popularity in these parts is really growing.  I have been told that Sam's Club and Costco sell tri-tip but I have never investigated it for myself.  Because of its scarcity, I am reluctant to tell you where I get mine.  It is like sacred, almost like your hunting or fishing spot where you are guaranteed to score big, you never share those with others!  But I will; this time.  Kroeger's Meats in Lecompton, KS keeps them on hand regularly but even so, I still call ahead before trekking over there and will ask to hold one for me if they can. If you are in Topeka you might try Herman's Meat Market.  If you are in KC, try McGonigles off Ward Parkway.  I do not know for sure in either case, so call first.   

 

It might take a little leg work searching them out, but tri-tip is definitely worth the time and effort.  I love it so much, I won't hardly do a brisket unless I am in a BBQ competition (it's one of four required meats).  So, let your search begin and be sure to let me know what you think.  You will thank me, I promise!

 

Tailgate Ted