I bottled my Irish Stout (batch 03) about 3 weeks ago and it still has some time to go. I tested a bottle the other day and it was relatively flat. I roused the bottles and will let them sit some more. The temperature is starting to climb a little so hopefully that will help it finish.

I also brewed batch 04 which is the White House Honey Ale (from Midwest Supplies). It’s the extract version of a recipe crafted by the White House kitchen staff. Pretty excited to drink it over the summer, along with my Irish Stout!

This batch I was able to try out a few new things. First, my home made hop-spider. Essentially a mesh bag suspended in the brew kettle to keep the hops separated from the wort for easy removal afterwards. Here are the instructions I used to build it.

Second is a swamp cooler for my fermentation bucket. All my beers to date have had some fruity off-flavors possibly due to the higher than recommended fermentation temperatures. If fermentation should be at, say, 65 degrees, you can’t just leave it in a room with ambient temperature at 65. The fermentation process generates a lot of heat (5 – 10 degrees I’ve read) so the temperature INSIDE the fermentation bucket is higher than ambient temps.

So you fill a bucket with water and place the fermentation bucket in it. Then you can control the temperature of the water (and thus the fermentation bucket) using ice.