Champion City Brewing

2 stone 2 lb

Jon — Sun, 20 May 2012 01:41:28 +0000

Diet continues to be successful. 30lbs lost so far. 19% of my goal.

Getting my S%$t together

Jon — Sun, 06 May 2012 03:37:07 +0000

I came to a realization after Opening Day that I need to get my mind and body in a healthier state. With a new child on the way and a high energy 3 year old looking to play more sports with Daddy, I need to get my self in shape. After some advice from my brother and some personal guilt trip, I did it. On April 16th, I started my personal transformation. I have lots of goals (some long term and some short term) that I plan to meet in the next 2 years. My goal is to be below 300lbs by my birthday in 2013. Since I started the diet, I have lost approx 16lbs. I feel better, I sleep better, and I have more energy. I have a long way to go but plan to update my blog periodically. For those who read this, please post positive thoughts and success stories. Also, healthful recipes and exercise routines.

16 down. 142 to go.

Red Sox Opening Day

Jon — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 12:39:35 +0000

Steve and I kicked off Opening Day the Champion City way with cherry wood smoked mild and a trip to our usual watering hole for $8 Bud Light pitchers. I think the mild has come out perfect. Enough smoke to know its there but not enough to feel like you licked an ash tray. A few ideas from the creative department on names but I would love to hear from our Champion City fans on what they would like to call it. Think British and smoky, maybe BBQ. Post your thoughts and maybe you can help name this next CCB offering.

BTW, the Red Sox won 12-2.

Sour Beers

Jon — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 04:05:22 +0000

I think its time to take my sour beer projects to the next level. Senior Assistant Brewmaster, Stephen Jay, is always raving about Russian River, New Belgian, and Belgo sours. Berliner Weisse was my first foray and it has finally matured and is drinking wonderfully. Tasted by a few Master Brewers last month (Mitch, Otto, Jaime, Doug, etc), I got a thumbs up on this odd ball style. I think a more traditional yet complex Flanders Red. CCB is ready to take on the biggest and best in the world. Ingredients are being ordered today. Look for this to be brewed in the next few weeks.

Organizing and Cleaning the brewery

Jon — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 02:38:51 +0000

While Tom and Sarah were out at book club, I was able to finally finish insulating the garage / brewery today. After I finished I decided to finish the brewery re-org that I started last weekend. After discovering some really moldy brittle cardboard cases of homebrew that I had been storing, I have upgraded to brand new boxes. The moldy cardboard crates was caused from a raspberry mead bottle bomb that must have gone off months ago. No major harm but definitely a mess to be cleaned up. The new boxes I am using are from CW Crate (http://www.cwcrate.com). They are made from corrugated plastic (polypropylene) and are lightweight, durable, and more importantly water proof.

After cleaning up and putting all my homebrew into the boxes, I have a pretty good inventory on what beers I have floating around. Berliner Weisse, Gluten Free Porter, East India Porter, Maple Porter, Cider, Pomegranate Melomel, Raspberry Melomel, A few bottles of Oktoberfest, Double IPA, and Slam Dunkel Weisse. I also have a case of my new Sake. I need to dig around in the basement to see if I can find any Bad Ass B’Wine or Braggot Rights version I.

Overall, things look pretty good. I need to use up some of my older liquid malt extracts in prep for some all grain on the Top Tier. I am wondering if I used all Dark Malt Extract with a small additional of Attenuzyme-Flex whether I could make a low carb dark beer. Hmmmm…. Not sure its worth finding out. Sounds like an interesting concept though. I know we were able to hit 87 RDF on sorghum syrup in a nano trial at work so its definitely possible. Not sure what it would taste like though.

Progress in Sake Land

Jon — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 03:32:00 +0000

So I decided after my struggles on Day one of filtration to filter about 1/3 of the crystal clear Seishu and then blend in 1/3 on the unfiltered of the top. I am planning on dumping the final 1/3 since it is like rice sludge. This will make a nice nigorizake. I think I will bottle my first bottles on Saturday and begin pasteurization. I think this batch is only going to yield maybe 6-8 bottles. A rare selection indeed.

Yikes. Sake filtration sucks

Jon — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 02:57:00 +0000

Started filtration of the Sake tonight and I am two sets of filter pads in and made 2 cups of liquor out. This is not going well. Anyone have any thoughts? I am about to give up. Maybe I will … Continue reading →

Sake Update

Jon — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 21:17:02 +0000

Finally, I received my bottles from Midwest Home Brewing (after a little delay). The sake was moved to a colder location to slow fermentation and mellow. Today, I am trying to figure out the best way to bottle and pasteurize my first batch of Sake. I think fermentation is done. It takes good but is a little chunky with rice. I figure a combo of of a rough filter through cheese cloth and then a fine filter should get me the product I am looking for. Bringing the bottles up to 145F for 10 minutes is probably my best bet for pasteurizing.

Pretty Blue Bottles

Jon — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 00:15:46 +0000

I ordered a case of cobalt blue bottles and some fancy silver corks for my sake today.

375 ml Cobalt Blue Bottle

This project is really turning out to be fun although extremely nerve racking. I am excited to taste the final product. I opened my fermenter up today and it smells like delicious sake. It had some whisps of foam on top and the rice blob is dissolving into a liquid. I am still trying to figure out if I should filter it and how to best home pasteurize it. I will take a couple fermentation photos tomorrow for the update. Any one have any suggestions on a name?

PS A few have asked what style of sake I am making. I have to admit its hard to say. It is very much junmai-ginjo but since I do not have access to ultra polished rice, it doesn’t technically qualify for much. My plan is to filter and pasteurize as well. Maybe a real home brewing sake expert can assist.

CCB Sake

Jon — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 04:22:51 +0000

So I decided that I wanted to try to make Sake in the New Year. I figured it couldn’t be too difficult. “Its just rice”. Well I was sadly mistaken. Koji (which is a mold) is the key ingredient in successful Sake making and unlike yeast, cropping and propagating mold is not so simple. First, you need to make sure you only propagate the right mold, aspergillus oryzae. The wrong mold and you might seriously make someone sick or dead. I don’t think I have any deadly molds in my house but extra care was needed. I dumped my first batch of Kome Koji because it didn’t look right to me. The second batch came out much better.

The second annoying thing is handling the rice. Washing the rice takes a long time. For proper steaming, you need to make sure all of the cloudiness is removed and the liquid runs clear. After that, it needs to soak for a couple hours, then drain, then steamed. Most rice is not actually steamed. You add water and rice bring to a boil, viola. Steamed rice is different. Steamed rice has an al dente texture and it doesn’t stick together. It takes a long time too. After making rice, koji, and then pitching yeast, the process is just beginning. You need to bump the fermentation with additional rice and koji to keep the yeast performing and keep the subtle sweetness and delicateness of the rice in the final product. I am at Day 1 of Fermentation. I will post some pictures and updates when I see some active fermentation.

I did pick out some awesome blue bottles and corks for the final product. Hopefully, it works out. Projected completion around the end of February so keep an eye out for updates and bottles.