Beer! Home beer. In cans!
Coalition Brewing in SE Portland was hosting a canning event for homebrewers this past weekend. Oregon Brew Crew got a discount. $20 and you get your 5 gallon corny keg put into 16 oz cans. Of course, we got two. We signed up, paid, and got our time slot months ago. Then, we decided to move. The ideal time to get our brew on would have been moving day. But, we were moving, which didn't lend itself well to making new batches of beer. And we had paid. So, we came up with a couple ales that would ferment fast after we got to Hood River and would be ready for canning in a few weeks. We also wanted to make a couple beers that we had already done, and we knew were tasty, because, well... we were about to have a lot of cans of beer. So,
Beer #1: Blueberry CDA 2. Sam's invention that turned out pretty damn good the first time. We took a sample to our local brewer at Vertigo Brewing before we left Hillsboro. He gave us a tip to try a different yeast. We used Wyeast NW Ale 1332 the first time. The beer was a little light on carbonation and dry. Mike at Vertigo suggested trying the Wyeast American Ale 1056. So, everything the same from the first batch. Same grains and malts. Same hops. New yeast. I brewed this batch. Let it ferment for a week. Racked it to a second fermentation, dry hopped it, and added 6 lbs of blueberries.
Beer #2: Citra Pale Ale. This is our fourth crack at the pale ale. A simple pale was our first brew ever. We repeated the Pale with European hops back in the winter. Recently, I tried making a hoppy pale with lemon rind for my fantasy baseball draft. So, now, we are still working on a nice, refreshing summer pale. Used the same grains and malts as every other batch. Same Cascade hops as the first batch, but matched all the Cascade hops with Citra hops as well. Twice the hops, and a new flavor. Added lemon rind again at the end of the boil to try to add to the citrusy finish and compliment the hops. We used American Ale II Wyeast 1272 on this batch, which is supposed to help with the citrus finish. Sam brewed this one. Single fermentation.
Once we brewed, we had the second issue of kicking the kegs currently holding beer in the kegerator. To can the beer, we had to have a full keg, already carbonated. So, with some effort last week, and help from some friends, we got the kegs kicked and the new beer in. Of course, our CO2 tank kicked with the kegs. The brew store in The Dalles does not carry CO2 tanks, and the one in Hood River is never open. Had to find a tank at the AirGas store in The Dalles. And it wasn't full. I hit the kegs for carbonation and it was out in less than 24 hours. So, AirGas kindly replaced and I hit our kegs with the gas again to get our beer carbonated.
Two carbonated kegs packed in the Scion and off to Portland and one of those urban breweries. On a side note, there is currently a vote coming up about Portland fluoridating their water. Coalition Brewery lets their opinion be heard all over the tap room. They have made an art project of it. Beer is 90% water, and they are not fans of fluoride being an ingredient in the brew. The brewery is across the street from the tap room and the canning process involves a rather elaborate contraption that sucks the beer out of your keg, and fills three cans at a time. The cans then go down a conveyor belt and are lifted up, the machine places on the top and seals it down. We watched the guys in front of us have their IPA canned. Then it was our turn, and I overcarbonated the beer. Oops. Well, would rather overcarbonate it and lose some beer to foam than to undercarbonate it and have wasted the trip. So, we lost a few cans of the pale. After the cans are topped, they are rinsed and placed into their 6-pack holder. As the pales were coming off the belt, Sam noticed one of them leaking a bit. Stuck it back in the rinsing water, and sure enough, there were bubbles indicating the top wasn't sealed. No point in wasting it. Not ice cold, but cold enough. So, we popped it open, drank it down, and passed it around. We wound up with a full case and then some of both beers. We had a bit more of the CDA, because a lot of blueberry juice went into that beer. Another side note, one of the guys, Stewart, working the canning machine noticed I was wearing a Yellow Jackets t-shirt today. He admitted to being from Georgia. He also admitted to being a UGA graduate. He was happy to talk to someone who lived in GA, despite that unfortunate latter fact.
The additional bonus of signing up for the canning event was that all our pints at the Coalition tap room were happy hour prices. Had a couple pints and enjoyed the weather before heading back. Our friend and my former co-worker at C&K, Sarah, joined us for a pint. We have both moved on to the public defense arena. She is doing well, and it is always nice having a pint with someone you haven't talked to in a while. Gave her a couple cans and we were on our way back to the gorge.
For once, the kegerator is now full of cans instead of kegs. Next projects. Sam wants to stick with the blueberries and try a blueberry honey ale. I want to try a NW Irish Red using an Irish recipe, but dry hop it with Cascade hops and use the NW Ale yeast. Until then, we have lots of cans and are really ready for some summer camping. We'll bring the beer!
Two super short videos:
Getting rid of excess CO2
The canning conveyor
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