Beer Bottling Made Easy

In preparation of our first entry into competitive brewing, WHB invested in a cool bottling gadget...the Beer Gun® by Blichmann Engineering. This contraption makes bottling beer easy, and dare I say, fun. Check out the pictures below.


Filling Bottles . . . . . . . . . . . . Capping Bottles


Dave not wanting to waste a drop

If It's Not Scottish, It's Crap

Our second ever all-grain brew and our first Scotch Ale. We definately learned a lot from our previous all-grain session. Just transferred this brew to secondary fermentation and it tasted great. I think this one is going to be a crowd favorite.

13. If It's Not Scottish, It's Crap!
Style = Scottish Strong Ale
Method = All-Grain Single Infusion
Brew Date = May 4, 2008
Drink Date = June 20, 2008
Specialty Grain = 15.0 lbs Golden Promise Pale Malt (2 L)
Specialty Grain = 0.25 lbs Roasted Barely (300 L)
Bittering Hops = 1.5 oz UK Goldings [5.5% AA] hops (90 min)
Flavoring Hops = 0.5 oz UK Goldings [5.5% AA] hops (30 min)
Flavoring Hops = 1.0 oz US Golding [3.0% AA] hops (30 min)
Yeast = Wyeast #1275 (Thames Valley)
Yeast = Wyeast #1728 (Scottish Ale)
Primary = 9 days at 65 F
Secondary = 19 days at 50 F
Secondary Additional = 6 days at 38 F to drop yeast out of supension
Keg Conditioning = Store at 38 F for 13 days under 10 psig

Rock Chalk Weizenbock

Rock Chalk Weizenbock is our first attempt to make an all-grain brew and will be entered into the St. Arnold's Big Batch Bash as our second weizenbock entry. This beer celebrates the incredible, some would even say unbelievable run of the Kansas Jayhawks on the way to capturing the 2008 NCAA Men's Basketball championship. Our good friend and Assistant Brewmaster, David "OH" T.V. was unable to attend this brewing session as he was faithfully cheering for a Jayhawk victory in San Antonio.


12. Rock Chalk Weizenbock
Style = Weizenbock
Method = All-Grain Single Infusion
Brew Date = April 5, 2008
Drink Date = May 8, 2008
Liquid Malt Extract = 2.5 lbs of Munich Malt Extract
Specialty Grain = 6.25 lbs German Wheat Malt (2 L)
Specialty Grain = 2.375 lbs of Domestic Wheat Malt (3 L)
Specialty Grain = 1.5 lbs of Dark Munich Malt (33 L)
Specialty Grain = 1.0 lbs Domestic 2-Row Malt (2 L)
Specialty Grain = 1.0 lbs of German Pils Malt (1 L)
Specialty Grain = 0.75 lbs of German Crystal Malt (130 L)
Specialty Grain = 0.5 Cara Wheat Malt (53 L)
Specialty Grain = 0.5 Rice Hulls
Specialty Grain = 0.25 lbs of Domestic Cyrstal Malt (40 L)
Bittering Hops = 1.0 oz Czech Saaz [3.6% AA] hops (boil 60 min)
Flavoring Hops = 1.0 oz French Strisselspalt [2.5% AA] hops (boil 30 min)
Additional Ingrediants = 0.75 oz Macallan 15yr Single Malt Scotch added to Secondary Fermenter, infused with 10 whole cloves.
Yeast = Wyeast #3068 (Weihenstephan Weizen)
Primary = 5 days at 68 F
Secondary = 24 days at 68 F
Keg Conditioning = Store at 38 F for 4 days under 10 psig

O.G = 1060 I.G.= 1018 F.G = 1016 ABV = 5.9

Southern Star Brewing Company

Conroe now has its very own brewery, Southern Star Brewing Company, and I am excited to taste their first batch of beer Pine Belt Pale. Southern Star is hosting their grand opening on Saturday April 5th from 3 to 6 pm, complete with samples from their first batch. Be on the look out for Southern Star beers at your neighborhood liquor store, and support local businesses. Congratualtions guys on the start of something big. Best of luck on your venture.

Click on title for link to their website.

Competition Batch #1

Well as you can see, our first batch of Weizenbock is called 11 O'Clock Bock to emphasize that this is only the 11th batch created by Whole Hog Brewery. It also happens to be the time we started the brew (and it rhymes too). Things went pretty smooth today as we wrapped up by about 3 pm. The orginal gansta...I mean gravity (O.G.) was only 1.050. We were expecting an O.G. of about 1.065. How could it be that we were off by 15 points! Especially with all that grain. Well looking back over the steps, it looks like we added too much water. I think we ended up with about 6.5 gallons in the primary fermenter instead of the 5 gallons used in creating the recipe. We need to scale up the grains by about 30% for the next batch. Also, we might try adding a pH adjustor, as the optimal pH for starch conversion is 5.0 to 5.5.

11. Eleven O'Clock Bock

Style = Weizenbock
Brew Date = March 16, 2008
Drink Date = April 19, 2008
Liquid Malt Extract = 7.0 lbs Wheat Malt Extract
Specialty Grain = 2.5 lbs German Wheat Malt
Specialty Grain = 1.0 lbs of German Crystal Malt (130 L)
Specialty Grain = 1.0 lbs of Light Munich Malt (6 L)
Bittering Hops = 2.0 oz German Spaltz [3.5% AA] hops (boil 60 min)
Flavoring Hops = 0.5 oz French Strisselspalt [2.5% AA] hops (boil 30 min)
Additional Sugars = 0.5 lb Brown Sugar (late addition)
Yeast = Wyeast #3068 (Weihenstephan Weizen)
Primary = 7 days at 68 F
Secondary = 21 days at 68 F
Secondary Additional = 3 days at 34 F to drop yeast out of supension
Keg Conditioning = Store at 38 F for 3 days under 20 psig

10. Dave's Groelsch

Style = German Pilsner
Brew Date = February 23, 2008
Drink Date = March 22, 2008
Dry Malt Extract = 6 lbs Briess Extra Light Dried Malt Extract
Specialty Grain = 0.25 lbs German Light Crystal Malt
Specialty Grain = 0.125 lbs German Light Munich Malt
Bittering Hops = 0.5 oz UK Magnum [12.6% AA] hops (boil 60 min)
Bittering Hops = 0.4 oz Czech Saaz [5.0% AA] hops (boil 30 min)
Flavoring Hops = 0.2 oz Domestic Perle [7.6% AA] hops (boil 10 min)
Yeast = Wyeast #2042 (Danish Lager)
Primary = 11 days at 54 F
Diacetyl Rest = 1 day at 60 F
Secondary = 13 days at 54 to 36 F
Keg Conditioning = Store at 38 F for 3 days under 20 psig