Rhubarb (+Raspberry?) Wit

Another brew day, another weird beer - this time not inspired by one of Pete's creations!

An early start down at the vegetable market had me picking up 3 bunches of rhubarb as the plan was to make a Rhubarb Draught using the Premium Draught kit that I had left over, however ended up changing my mind...

Picked up a WilliamsWarn Wheat and a Black Rock Wheat LME to turn my rhubarb into a Rhubarb Wit.

Started by chopping up the 2.1kg of rhubarb and boiling with 3 cups of water until soft, then blitzed it with a stick blender to turn it into a thick pink sludge.

About 2/3 of the sludge went into the fermenter with the two cans of liquid malt along with a rehydrated Safbrew WB-06 wheat yeast (that comes with the WW kit which justifies it's extra cost)

The plan at this stage is to taste after initial fermentation and if not tart enough, rack to a secondary fermenter and add the rest of the rhubarb along with some frozen raspberries for a final RRWit (just a working title at this stage)

Bottling 'Joan Jettison'

Well it is that time again. Cleaning time...

The fermenter has been cold crashing in the fridge for the past week while I was in Australia, and I was due in the Manawatu on Saturday afternoon so I had a window of opportunity Saturday morning to bottle.

I wish I had gotten up earlier.

You would think I would have learnt after the first bottling experience that it is not a quick process - and really should not be rushed. I of course rushed.

First stop was at The Brew House to get some plastic corks and cages - rather than using plastic 750ml bottles, I have been collecting the wife's discarded champagne bottles along with the usual empties that I generate (purely in the name of research of course). Because the plan is to cellar the stout I am hoping that glass bottles will keep the beer better.

I then grabbed some more canned cherries from the supermarket. I was hoping to find some cherry extract or syrup but I kind of ran out of time. The syrup from the canned cherries will be added to the priming sugar to hopefully give a bit more of a cherry hit.

Because of the crap generated from the chocolate syrup and the pureed cherries in the fermentor covering the tap I ended up picking up a auto-syphon and syphoning the beer from the fermentor into the Brewtec fermentor and bottling from that.

I primed with 36g of table sugar and 30g of chocolate syrup (dissolved in boiling water and let cool) and the syrup from the two cans of cherries. I am a bit paranoid after how over carbonated 'Catrina Neue' is so I used a priming calculator and selected a low carbonation level as I couldn't factor in the sugar from the cherry and chocolate.

The only problem that I encountered after all the cleaning was it turns out not all champagne bottles are created equal. By equal I mean with the same neck diameter. Even after softening the plastic corks in boiling water there were two bottles that I couldn't get a cork into (and I tried, I have two munted corks as proof). I do have a slight concern that there is the chance that if the beer is not carbonated enough, there is no way those corks are going to come out again!

The final yield was just over 17l, meaning I lost 3l. I know where about 500ml went (I consumed it un carbonated while bottling - quality control), but the rest must have gone to the hydrometer testing, trub and bottling process.

Now the bottle conditioning wait begins...

Testing Catrina Neue

So this weekend was the first time that anyone outside my self and my wife had tried Catrina Neue. I took a couple of bottles up to my wife's mums to share on Saturday night and shared a bottle with my neighbours sitting in the sun on Sunday evening.

Everyone said nice things (at least to my face) and everyone finished their glass (or at least didn't tip it out while I was watching). Result. Even the wife drinks it (which is both good and bad. Good, easier justification of the money spent and area consumed by beer equipment. Bad, I have to share)

The real test will be when I share with some home brewing, beer nerd friends. They will tell me exactly what they think of it!

Investment?

So I am trying to decide if it is an investment or just another waste of money in this flight of fancy.

I picked up a Brewtec Micro Brew kit. I am sure there was a plan when I went out. I had vague ideas that I needed a crown capper as I have been collecting empties for bottling 'Joan Jettison'. I also thought that maybe I needed something to transfer the fermented JJ beer into before bottling so I could avoid the gunk at the bottom that insists on coming out of of the tap. Somehow this logic turned into a whole new beer kit...

It also means I have a 'Premium Draft' kit to turn into something drinkable...

Catrina Neue Costs

To satisfy my slightly OCD tendency's I have been recording all the money I am spending on my home brewing enterprise.

Here is a breakdown for the "Catrina Neue 1.0" brew I did:

*The amortised cost will decrease the more brews I make (you can see the number of brews in brackets)

The time is a bit of an estimate as I didn't record it accurately while brewing or making the labels. I will try to remember for future brews.

At the time if writing the per litre price sits at $15.93 (your view might be different as the above spreadsheet is dynamic) . Considering I want to say I paid $16.50 per litre (but I can't exactly remember) at the Garage Project cellar door for La Calavera Catrina in a rigger (the beer Catrina Neue is based on) when you include labour, trying to replicate it at home is not exactly cost effective.

Especially if it turns out to be undrinkable...

A beer only it's mother would love?

So I know I was supposed to wait - hell it has been less than a week since I bottled it - but when I was labelling my 'Catrina Neue' (the Garage Project knock off) some of the bottles that had been conditioning in a warmer location were rock hard and I started to get nervous about the two 330ml glass bottles and the potential for catastrophic failure of the containment grid...

So I put them in the fridge...

Opened one...

And it is drinkable...

Good carbonation (which is a worry after a week, what the hell is going to happen over time). Very clear. Very Red. Way too sweet. I mean way way way too sweet. It is actually a bit like a shandy (if shandy's had a chilli bite to them - which incidentally is the only thing I did get right). Too much watermelon syrup. Too much rose syrup. Too many carbonation drops. There are just so many things wrong with it - but of course I love it. And it is a v1.0 (actually it probably should be a v0.1)

Lucky I just picked up some Garage Project Venusian Pale Ale to wash the taste out of my mouth.

Lets hope it improves with age. All babies are ugly little bastards at birth.

Patience is a virtue?

Oh man, nobody warned me that waiting to sample would be so hard!

Every day I am squeezing the plastic bottles of 'Caterina Neue 1.0' trying to judge how much carbonation they have. They are getting harder so something is happening inside the bottles. It has only been 5 days since bottling, and already I am itching to throw one of the small glass bottles into the fridge to crack into. I know I have to wait, but it is killing me!

In other news I dropped my temperature sensor into the water surrounding the fermenter when changing ice packs. Considering it is just a raw circuit board and while in the water it decided to connect to the wifi to transmit a temperature I was thinking I might have stuffed it - however it has sat for a few hours drying out and after reconnecting the battery it seems to be working OK. I might need to come up with a better attachment method that the bungy cord.

I also took a sample of the 'Joan Jettison' stout. SG is down to 1020 (from 1074) making it currently about 7%, but even with all that residual sugar it still tastes rather bitter (living up to the Jettison part of the name?) It is also pretty chunky (I guess with the cherry puree and the tap at the bottom of the bucket I am picking up trub). I am thinking that I will leave it on the yeast cake for a few more weeks to hopefully clean up the flavour and try again. If it is still nasty then I might have a go at racking to a secondary fermentor and adding some more cherry.

All this waiting...