Jensen Haus Home Brewing

Jessica, the Brew Mistress of Jensen Haus, and I brewed up the Irish Red Ale Kit we’d ordered from Midwest. The Boil and subsequent pitching of yeast went just fine. However, there was a HUGE lag from pitching the yeast to the fermentation beginning. We pitched this batch at about midnight Friday night and it just started bubbling this morning. My assumption is that it started some time late last night. That puts it right at the far reaches of the three day window. Maybe I was spoiled by the sub-24hr start time on the Copper Ale but this one freaked me out. I opted for the liquid White Labs yeast for this one just like I did on the Copper Ale. I do have a packet of Munton’s on hand just in case though. If this batch wouldn’t have started fermenting by tonight, I was going to pitch that in to the fermenter just in case I had a batch of White Labs or the temp was too high. Unless something changes, I shouldn’t need to resort to such a drastic measure.

The funny part is that because Jessica was “in charge” of this batch, she’s been checking on the fermenter all the time. I think she’s worried that she did something wrong and that it wouldn’t ferment. For both our sakes, I hope all is well with this Irish Red. I’m almost out of Copper Ale so I need to get this batch rollin’. Next up is an Oatmeal Stout. Without the Holiday Spices this time around. (Just for you Craig and JB.)

Officially opened a bottle of the Copper Ale tonight. I had strategically put a single bottle in the fridge before I left for work yesterday so I could let it chill all day. Other than the inevitable chill haze, this stuff is awesome. I’m struggling to find a good comparison in a commercial brew but it reminds me of Sam Adams Winter Ale but not as dark. The closest comparison I’ve thought of would be an Oktoberfest. As the single bottle was successful, I put the whole batch in the fridge to halt the priming.  It should have close to 36hrs to settle the yeast and chill haze out. This should be an excellent drinking this stuff while waiting in line for Bockfest on Saturday morning. Hopefully I can keep myself from drinking all of it before I got to visit my parents in March. That’s the best part of Home Brewing. When you have a successful batch and you can share it with other people and get to say, “I made this.” Check out my Flickr Gallery of the Copper Ale here.

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.

My most recent batch of brew is in the bottle and should be ready for a sample in about a week or so. Ideally, I’d like to have it ready to go for BockFest. I’d love to take along a few bottles/growlers of it to give to some friends to sample. I brewed this batch of Copper from a kit I’d ordered from Midwest Brewing Supplies. Midwest is where I ordered my original brewing kit and brew pot from and they’ve been amazing. Great customer service, fast shipping and excellent products.