All Posts in experiment

August 30, 2020 - 1 comment.

The Great Estibrew Challenge

es·ti·brew
/ˈestə,bro͞o/

nounestibrew; plural noun: estibrews
a type of beer brewed partially or entirely through human-sensory estimation.

verb: estibrew
past tense: estibrewed; present participle: estibrewing
to make (beer) using varying degrees of human-sensory estimation.

Folks and friends, first time readers and foes,

Have you ever wondered whether you had the brewing chops to brew a competent beer based purely on estimating each end every variable by feel alone? I'm talkin' grain bill, water chemistry, hop additions, water volumes, water temperatures, the lot? Read more

January 13, 2016 - Comments Off on Eisbock! Ice-Beer! Accident averted!

Eisbock! Ice-Beer! Accident averted!

Well this was an interesting experiment...

eisbock

Eisbock is typically a term given to beers that have been created by freezing off a portion of the beer's water and then discarding it so as to increase its percentage of alcohol and elevate its maltiness. Typically an eisbock (German for ice strong-beer) has an alcohol percentage of around 10% or more. The alcohol levels levels for this beer however were much lower. This beer had a huge problem that needed a solution.

Read more

December 7, 2015 - Comments Off on Silly Sir Sara’s Cider

Silly Sir Sara’s Cider

Well really, this cider has very little to do with Silly Sir because Sara did 90% of the work (although we are a team). She decided to make a cider today using about 10 crushed apples, cinnamon sticks, a whole nutmeg seed, and cloves, as well as a couple oranges and a bit of brown sugar towards the end. "It smelt great!," Sara just said two seconds ago. It only yielded about half a gallon of cider, which was somewhat disappointing. Initially it was just going to be a regular cider, but I suggested we ferment it to give it some punch.

Looks freaking amazing, right?

Looks freaking amazing, right?

True to Silly Sir form, we experimented and messed around without caring too much about the end result because there's so much learning that goes on through experimentation (I'm a scientist at heart). We used a bread yeast rather than an ale yeast which according to research could produce a "bready" cider depending on the brand. Regardless it should flocculate (drop out) nicely, and if we let it clean itself up for a couple weeks, it should taste crisp and clean. I'm excited to see how this tastes.

cidershake