Although fall is two thirds of the way over, the temperatures are starting to dip into freezing at night, and the pick-your-own apple orchards season is wrapped up, it's still not too late to grab a few gallons of cider and brew one of the easiest drinks you'll ever make.

A few hundred years ago, cider was considered the drink of choice--in fact, apples were thought to have few uses beyond supplying raw sugars for alcohol making.  I had my friend Dan pick up 5 gallons of fresh cider from Linvilla.  At about $5 a gallon, it's not the cheapest stuff you could use, but I like using unpasteurized cider--make the yeast work harder to overcome those wild creatures.

I was going to use one of those little packets of champagne yeast like I did last year, but Nancy at Home Sweet Homebrew suggested using yeast specifically bred for cider.  After my great experience using liquid yeast for our last batch (Fear Beer), I quickly agreed to give the cider yeast a shot.

I had to scrub out the carboy and get it sterilized.  A word to the wise--clean out your equipment right after using it and not a month later when you need it again.  A lot of bleach went into getting that thing squeaky clean, and after a good rinse with the sodium metabisulfate, it was as good as new.  In went the cider, followed by the yeast, and the waiting began.  Since the cider came straight out of the fridge, it took a good three hours for the whole batch to warm up enough for the yeast to start kicking out CO2.

Since yeast work faster with a little heat, I decided to kick it up a few more degrees.  I put a space heater on low right in front of it, working the bottle up to roughly 80 F.  The difference in CO2 production was night and day!  Summer, defender of the cider, seems to really enjoy the warmth as well.  I'm hoping to run the yeast right out of food in a week so I can get this bottled up next weekend.  It's Tuesday now, and the airlock is still bubbling vigorously.  If anybody wants to help bottle this Sunday, help is always appreciated (and repaid in beer).

As we prepare to put a dent in our supply of Fear Beer this Saturday, my mind is already jumping to the next batch.  Some things I'd like to see are a cider for Thanksgiving and to go into winter sipping spruce ale.  I guess I'd better start saving the bottles now.

The best part was standing around, drinking and waiting for the various steps to complete.  There's nothing but time to go through the various beer cookbooks on the counter or to look up some techniques online.  We took away quite a few lessons from our first batch.  Some are easily fixed, requiring only a few minutes of prep and some supplies.  Some will require building a small brewery out back (or at the least, a sanitization station with an outdoor sink.)

Better Filtration

We ran into problems filtering the beer as it was going into the carboy and leaving it.  We need a large funnel that will fit a large strainer with cheesecloth draped over it.  Two methods of filtration should stop the immediate clogging our small strainer suffered from.  Also, a better filter to remove more of the yeast for bottling might make the beer come out looking a bit clearer.  There's all sorts of other things to add to the beer to achieve this as well.

There has to be a better way...

Better Cooling

A fellow Drexel student and brewing enthusiast, Dave, said he uses a length of copper tubing from home depot submerged in running cold water that brings the wort temperature right down.  That definitely sounds better than running to the corner store for bag after bag of ice to cool down the thick-walled glass carboy sitting in the sink.  This would easily subtract an hour and a half off of our brewing time.

Better Recording

Eventually, we need pictures and notes the whole way through. For now, while everything is up to experimenting, I figure we'll do what comes naturally and see if it works.

The astounding part of the whole process was the constant realization that professional brewers (and even quite a few homebrewers) are able to reproduce their beer every time they brew it!  I love Philly Brewing Co and the fact they're still tinkering with recipes because it has led to a very colorful evolution of both the Rowhouse Red and the Kenzinger.  From when they appeared earlier this year to now, each of them have been refined and tuned.  With the Fleur de Lehigh on tap around the city right now and another yet-unnamed beer in the pipelines, it's good to see they'll be growing their selection.  Yards is producing again too!  We had a taste of their first beer brewed in their Philly location at the Oktoberfest at the Armory.  Finally--no more Wilkes-Barre beer masquerading as Philly beer.

We're bottled!  Last night, Joe and I pumped 30 22oz bottles plus two 750ml bottles full of our special brew.  Because it'll be ready so close to Halloween, and to fulfill one of Mario's long-standing dreams, we're tentatively calling it "Fear Beer."  It's not because we added antifreeze to it, or that there's some exotic strain of bacteria that'll make you deathly afraid of being anywhere that's more than 15 seconds from a toilet.

We started out with an Oktoberfest recipe--two speciality grains, some bulk malt, and Special and Sterling hops, and added our own harvest of Cascade hops towards the very end of the boil.  Why stray from the recipe so carefully prepared by Nancy at Home Sweet Homebrew?  A little because we were pretty drunk by that point, but mostly because homebrewing is about making something you can't get anywhere else.

Joe and I tried a little last night, and the results are definitely favorable.  Of course, we had it warm with almost no carbonation, so once the yeast eats the priming sugars and the beer gets chilled, I think we'll have a very rich, malty festbeir with that little extra bite from our hops.

Not bad for the first time!  Special thanks to Greg for helping with the brew, and to Becky for helping clean up.  Look for our next brewing notice, where we'll be making a Christmas beer with chunks of real reindeer.  Tis the season...  Until then, cheers!

HAHAHAAAHAAAA!

Just saw this through Fark on the LA Times website: Beer maker wins fight to market 'Legal Weed'.  Mt. Shasta Brewing Co in the town of Weed, California uses bottle caps on their brews that say "Try Legal Weed," which the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau seemed to have a problem with.  After a long court battle, though, the owner finally won out.

Aren't you glad our government has solved all the other problems in the world that they have time to focus on this?  Note to the ATTTB: Go have a beer and see if it loosens that stick in your... nevermind.

South Philly isn’t widely known as a haven for beer geeks.  Royal Tavern and the Dive Bar aren’t really South enough, Devil’s Den still has some food issues to work out, and although SPTR has made quite a name by stocking a great bottle stock and an always-changing draft lineup, their recent kitchen kerfuffle has left quite a few people (myself included) turned off from their over-priced and under-optioned food menu.  ("You want FRIES with that?  What do you think this is?  A f***ing McDonalds?!")

Enter The Station.  PBC met at the Station on Thursday, and although rocky, it has the makings for a great competitor to SPTR.  The chef, Joe, has transitioned from Caribou in CC to the first kitchen staff at Devil’s Den.  After leaving there, he and a partner, Lou, now run the Station.  It's pretty easy to tell that the Station is still a work in progress.  The menu they’re running right now is going to change very shortly, and we’ve been told to expect frequent changes as the months go by.

As far as beers go, the Station has a ways to go before they’ll start drawing away SPTR regulars.  I was a little surprised at the lack of local selection.  Giving us two or three of the more main-stream local brews is great, but I’d like to see some daring on the line-up.  Yeah, Prima Pils is great and the O’Reilly Stout is a consistent dessert-replacement, but I’d like to see one or two high-octane locals throw in.  Maybe the Weyerbacher Blasphemy or Victory’s Golden Monkey—something with a little punch and a lot of flavor to go with the meatier entrees.  And there’s really no need to carry bottles like the Ballast Point Yellowtail Pale Ale (sort of a kolsch-y metallic letdown, considering the distance it needs to travel to get here) when a much more interesting version can be had from Victory or even Nodding Head.

The food is where these guys can really distance themselves from Tap Room, given the latter’s newfound reliance on exotic (and pricey) game meats.  No, I don’t need a $15 chunk of lion to enjoy my beers—the sweet potato fries at the Station take a huge chunk out of your hunger and give your stomach some much needed padding.  They’re coated in a caramel glaze that negates the need for additional condiments.  The serving size may even be a little too big for one or two people to enjoy before they get cold—I would think that offering a half serving under the $5 mark may entice many people who just stop in for a beer to give them a shot.

A few of us waited the extra hour for the pork to roast to get the shredded pork sandwich.  If you get it, order extra peppers on the side and then throw them on top.  Make sure you have plenty of beer and napkins on hand, because this will unclog even the most stubborn sweat glands.  It’s definitely worth it, and remember—it also comes with a huge side of the sweet potato fries (so if you’ve already eaten a whole plate of them, you might want to switch it out with something else).

All in all, I’ll be adding the Station to my bar routine because I’m interested to see which direction it will go.  I’d love to see it take on the Tap Room in terms of beer selection, but if it doesn’t, it’s still a far cry better than what was there.  For now, this is definitely the place to go if you think Tap Room’s selection is too snobby and elitist.

I know that it might seem like we've gotten away from brewing in the past few months in leiu of drinking the hard work of others.  But that was before the PBC hops started flowering!  After watching vine after vine shoot off from the crown for months, it seems all of these cones appeared overnight.  I planted one variety back in March, and another in May (I'll be damned if I wrote them down...  Cascade and Willamette sound about right though.)  The ones that were given some elk antlers to grow up found their way onto some chainlink fence, and really took off.

Next year, the plan is to cut a few pieces of the rhizome to start some more sections.  I'd really like to string some lines across the yard to have the hops grow crazy all over the place.  Some advice from my friend Ed (who gave me the later-planted rhizomes) is to wait until the hops are slightly papery to the touch before picking them.  Right now, they smell and taste chlorophylly, but they should start to dry out soon.  It looks like I'll have enough to lightly hop one batch of beer, so some weekend very soon we'll be getting out the big pots to boil down some of Philly's finest.

I have some rosemary, sage, and oregano growing, as well as a year's supply of rose petals ripe for the picking.  I wonder what some combination of these would taste like?