What the Helle is going on with Bubba's Brew?!?!

Let me begin with saying Happy Holidays and a Happy 2012 New Years!! Yeah, that's only 14 days late. So I've been meaning to update my blog for a while now, but things just keep coming up. Lame excuse. So, how about some updates then if you're too damn busy to update your blog, slacker.

Beer: What the Helle, my Munich style Helle (German for light) is coming along nicely. Being a lager beer, it takes a long time to ferment at colder temps. I had it in the basement for a month before racking it to my secondary fermentor. I then brought it to some warmer temps (i.e. my closet) for a few days so it could rest. This morning I put it in the 2nd fridge to start the lagering process. At this point the beer is done fermenting, but what the cold temps of the fridge does is allows the beer to age and drops out any leftover yeast or sediment from brewing. This style beer should be super clear in the glass. The beer that is the background to my blog is the Munch Helle, actually at Octoberfest in Munich, Germany when I went. It was there that I decided I wanted to start brewing all-grain style after talking with a buddy. I'm thinking the Helle should be done sometime around March.

Bubba's brew on the left, What the Helle on the right. 

Bubba's brew was an interesting beast. I made the yeast starter as I showed in the last post. Being that I've never worked with a Belgium yeast before I didn't really know what to expect. Christmas day after being out with the family the whole day and out of the house, I came back and opened the door to the office where I keep my ale beers when fermenting and there was a **VERY** strong brewhouse smell. Now, I love the smell of a brewery, but this my friends was a little too much. I was actually scared that my work clothes which I keep in the closet in the office would smell like a brewery. I know some of my coworkers wouldn't mind (Lee, Christian, Walski), but I don't think my boss would care too much for that. Lucky for me after another 24 hours the smell went away and my cloths did not smell like a brewery. After hanging out in that glass container for a little over 2 weeks, I pulled the gravity reading on it to see if it was done. Yes, it was very done. Final ABV: 7.8%. Wow. This is my strongest beer to date. Let's hope it tastes good. Its been sitting in the keg carbonating now for a week. I just moved it to the lower psi of CO2 and I'll start the aging process. Should be ready to brew just after my birthday (End of January).

Other Things: So, why not give an update of what I've done since brewing Bubba's Brew. The holidays were "classic" to say the least. Christmas Eve we go to my mom's, Christmas Day we go to Erin's parents, then Christmas Day Dinner we have with both families. I really enjoy that our two families really are one. Needless to say I wasn't at my house a lot, which is fine. I'm sure we all feel a little crazy around the holidays. With starting the new job I no longer have shutdown week like I did at my last job. Shutdown week was the week between Christmas and New Years which they gave that week off. Years past I've spent that time with my brother who would fly in from out of town. Due to travel issues he was not able to make it this year, which I guess was good being that I didn't have any time off. Instead I was very deep into my work project which involved digging deep into my brain for my Java programming skills that I did 10 years ago in college. It's amazing how quick you can pick some of that stuff back up again. New years eve we went to Green Bay to visit Erin's cousin and go to the New Years day Packer game. More about the game in a minute.

New Years Eve is when I meet Tim Ek. Ok, ready, prepare yourself.. Tim is Erin's cousin's fiance's sister's husband. Tim is a big time biker (peddle, not vroom vroom) and also runs a blog: http://timekchronicles.blogspot.com/ Tim just so happens to be sponsored by the bike company I've been watching for a while, Salsa Cycles. I've wanted to build a bike for a while, but never really pulled the trigger. He informed me that the frame I've been looking at for some time was no longer made, the Ala Carte. Well Tim, I found a frame on ebay, brand spankin new and I pulled the trigger. Along with his help I plan on getting back on the mountain bike more and a little less on the street bike. Don't worry Erin, I'll still ride the street bike with you. I'm sure I'll update this blog with the bike build info.

Sexy bike frame is Sexy

Some people might ask "Why the hell do you want to build a bike when you can just go out and buy one?". If you haven't figured out from my blog yet, there's some things I just like to do on my own. I've been building my own computers since I was 15. I've actually only had 2 computer cases my whole life, but I've ran more parts through them then I can count. Even with beer, I could go to the store and buy beer, which I do, but I still enjoy the fruits of my labor in brewing it myself. So, me wanting to build a bike from scratch shouldn't come to a surprise to anyone. If I had the space, funding, and time I'd build an old car ('68 Mustang Fastback or '43 Willys Jeep). 

Getting back on track, New Year eve was good times. The Packers game was wonderful (we won) and overall it was nice seeing the Green Bay people. I'd post pictures but I spent the last hour searching Erin's computer for them while she's sleeping with no luck. On a side note I did finally setup nightly backups for her laptop and realized that my nightly backups profile somehow was erased. Not good. Needless to say after 2 weekends of lots of travel, I was ready to relax and not leave the house. 

I still have yet to figure out my next brew, but I know Sophie's Stout is already half gone and the Wet Ted is cached. I'm guessing I'll do another Sophie's stout, but I'll need to figure out a few more ale's. Any suggestions?

I'll leave you all with this year's holiday card photo:

From my family to yours, Happy 2012. 

Prost!

Ryan