Apple Pie Ale- Week 1

Day 1- Vigorous fermentation- about 30 bpm.

Day 2- Slowed down quite a bit-, like to 4 bpm

Day 3- No bubbles. Could it be done fermenting already?

Day 4- Nothing again.

Day 5 & 6- Still nothing.

Day 7- I took the gravity and it came out 1.009! That's one of the fastest fermentations I've experienced- they weren't kidding about that yeast. I'll check it in a couple days too, but my hunch is that it's ready to bottle.

Still kinda green, but definitely more beer-y looking

Apple Pie Ale- Brew Day

The pie was a small, generic apple pie from Target.
I wasn't going to waste anything good on this!

Finally got this post done. I apologize for the delay. It seems that fate was against me last week. I had problems with everything from supplies disappearing to my camera's batteries dieing. Whatever. Enough with the excuses, on to the beer.

1.5 lbs of apple pie

A couple weeks ago, you all voted a whole apple pie as my next "special ingredient," so on Sunday, I finally got around to making the beer. When designing the recipe, I wanted to keep the whole thing as simple as possible to limit the confounding variables that went into my beer. That all went out the window when I learned about Austin Homebrew's Magic Hop Dust. I just couldn't resist throwing it in.

Apple pie glob. Lots of spillage during straining.

My first idea was to draw inspiration from Tom Seefurth's Mamma Mia Pizza and just steep the pie in the mash for a while. After I did this, though, I tasted the results - not very apple-y at all. Tasted vaguely of cinnamon and crust. So, I just added the whole thing to the last 15 minutes of the boil and strained all the chunks out.

I chose White Lab's famous WLP001 because I've never used it and heard good things about its hardiness and taste. If all goes well, it may become my go-to yeast in these experiments.

Recipe: Apple Pie Ale- 1 Gallon

1 lb light malt extract
.1 ounces of Austin Homebrew's Magic Hop Dust (60 min)
.1 ounces of Magic Hop Dust (15 min)
1 Whole Apple Pie - approx 1.5 lbs - mashed in a bag at around 155 degrees for 15 minutes, added in the last 15 min of boil
White Labs California Ale Yeast- WLP001

OG- 1.042

Looks like pea soup

Bad News Everybody

I was planning on making the apple pie beer today. However, when I got out all my supplies, I discovered that my hydrometer was shattered. So, I'll postpone until I stop by the LHBS Monday or Tuesday after work and get a replacement.

Ovaltine Beer - Final Synopsis

Don't worry, all that residue is from the no-rinse cleaner.
Don't fear the...residue?

Day 23- Took gravity, it's at about 1.011. I returned the sample to the fermenter because there's so little to begin with, I don't want to waste any. Made me a little nervous, but I'm being very careful, sanitation wise. I couldn't resist, and kept a sample sip. It wasn't as bad as it smells, but pretty bitter. Maybe I overdid it on the hops.

Day 24- Gravity is the same.

Day 25- Gravity is the same, that means about 6.4% abv. Nice!

It's ready for bottling! I probably won't get a chance to do it until this weekend, though. In preparation. I set my bottles in an Oxyclean solution to loosen the labels.

Day 27- Stripped the labels and scoured off any remaining gunk. I put the bottles into a no-rinse cleaner bath.

Day 28- Bottling Day! The brew now smells sweeter, though still a bit sour. Color-wise, it still just looks like light chocolate milk, very opaque.

 

My 10 soldiers.
I always make one of my bottles clear so
 I can see the color and keep it as a souvenir.

Lots of trub left over.

I'll condition them for a couple weeks, then report on the taste. Be sure to check back tomorrow night, when I move on to brew a Whole Apple Pie!