Copper Ale II
With Bockfest fast approaching, and the Copper Ale still “priming”, I wanted to test it to see how it was doing. So this last Saturday night, I put a bottle of it out on the deck to chill for two hours and popped the bottle. It obviously needs a few more days to finishing building the final carbonation levels but it tastes fantastic. It would benefit heavily from being cold aged for a solid 48hrs to get the chill haze to settle out. Its surprisingly clear at room temperature however. Irish Moss is a miracle product I tells ya. Its a very triumphant moment after the huge failure that was my Holiday stout. Alton Brown was right. Sanitization is the key. The trick I used this time around was to run all the equipment I could possibly fit in my dishwasher through a full cycle. That way the equipment is heated above the magical 170 Degree mark for a considerable length of time. I also put about a tablespoon of powered sanitizer in the soap launcher in my dishwasher. I do need to come up with some way to get my 5gal Carboy in to my dishwasher and get it to be stable. Right now it won’t stand up straight. I’d also like to find or make a drying rack for for my 1L bottles. The standard bottle racks from places like Midwest don’t support a 1L bottle and I really don’t like storing the bottles and my carboy right side up.
I will have to ask you to save me a pint of that fine sounding brew, my friend. As for the rack for the 1L’s, check out World Market in SuFu if it’s still open there. I saw some very nice and affordable racks of all sizes on my last visit.
Comment by Tom — February 17, 2009 @ 3:42 pm
Was that intentional innuendo Tom?
Comment by Peter — February 17, 2009 @ 3:57 pm