Moose's Home Brew

Well, after an exceptionally long break I have returned. I have had my Grape Belgian conditioning in the bottle now for a month and a half. I has finally started to loose some of the extra sweetness left in the beer. I still think it needs some time before it is where it needs to be. I'll keep you posted

Guess what day it is.... Bottle DAAAYYY!

So after a month of chugging away, the Grape Belgian Red Ale still has too high of a gravity and still to sweet overall. Another few days and we'll see where we are at.  At 1.030 right now.

Today we mourn the loss of a hydrometer... note to self, stop using hydrometer to stir sanitizer. I guess I am in the market for a new one

I peaked in on my Grape Belgian Red ale, and still fermenting away. It is down to about two bubbles a minute comming out of the air lock, but that is fine for me. I need that gravity to continue to fall. Fingers crossed that I can move to bottle this weekend.

Craft breweries comming up in the world. Way to go @foundersbrewing

My perspective labels for my Grape Ale. Thoughts?

Great place to start off making  personalized labels for your home brew

I checked on my Grape Belgian Red Ale yesterday and the gravity is sitting at about 1.042. I am thinking about another week and it should be about ready for the bottle.  I'll keep you all posted.

Kudos to my wife Rachel for finding and being the answer to my problem ;-) love ya!

So I poped the top on my Grape ale yesterday to check the gravity and this is what I found. I'm not sure exactly what it is. It may be a contamination of some sort, but I really don't know. It has the viscosity of a the cream layer on top of curdled milk. I tasted the beer, it tastes good still with no apparent flavor issues. It is sitting at a gravity of about 1.050. It is in secondary, I added 1gal of Grape syrup to the Belgian base when I transferred it from primary. The brew was at 1.022 at that transfer. Any one have any thoughts or comments? ?

I sat and looked at my little bubbles coming out of my air lock for a while today. That has to be one of the most interesting of home brewing phenomenon; watching in longing as your wort turns into your brew. I will probably check the gravity of my Grape Ale tomorrow.

I need a little help if anyone would care to give some advice. Check out @immoosbrews's Tweet:

Racking to secondary on top of the grape syrup. It tastes is good, just the right amount of bitterness you would expect from the combination of Warrior and Cascade hops. Sitting at about 4.4% ABV right now.

More to follow Moose

Brew pot bubbling away just after I added the Warrior hops to my wort.