Bottling the Pumpkin Ale

The time has come to bottle the Pumpkin Ale we brewed back in September. A home brew kit or home brew store will have unlabeled bottles, caps and a capper for this part of the process. You can also save old beer bottles and wash them thoroughly before re-bottling them.

Before you bottle, you must first add dextrose, which is a sugar, to your beer. The yeast will eat the sugar and give off the bi-product carbon dioxide, and thus carbonizing your beer. Science! So until you add the sugar, there is no carbonation. (Dextrose can also be purchased at any home brew store.)

First, boil the dextrose with a small amount of water for 5-10 minutes and then add it to the bottling bucket. Next, make sure your bottles are clean (a rinse through the dishwasher will do) and then siphon the finished beer from the bottling bucket into the bottles and cap.

(had to steal these pictures because we forgot to photograph our process: photos . Pardon the man-hands)

In about a week you will have ready-to-drink, carbonated beer. You can store the bottles at room temperature or in the refridgerator, but make sure to keep the bottles out of direct sunlight. In total, we made about five gallons of Pumpkin Ale for around $35.00. Just in time for Halloween!

Roses Are Red

Last night as Simon was so sweetly picking me up a bouquet of flowers, he was asked by two NYPD officers if he knew what each color of roses meant. He didn't and, when he got home, I explained them to him so that next time he would know! I am not sure what the origin of these rules are or if anyone really abides by them, but here is a simple break down of how it works:

Red = "I Love You"

White = Reverence, Innocence or "I Am Worthy of You"

Pink = Admiration or "Thank You"

Yellow = Friendship or "I Care"

Orange = Desire or Enthusiasm

Peach = Appreciation

Black = Death or Farewell

Lavender = Enchantment or "Love At First Sight"

Apparently a single, thornless rose also says "Love At First Sight." Now you know, so pick your colors carefully!

In Season: October

I took advantage of having a car in the city this weekend and journeyed to Fairway in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Whoa. It was amazingly overwhelming. It's as if Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, and Costco got together to make a super grocery store with a stellar selection. Their produce section is an engineering feat, with vegetables and fruits teetering on the brink of collapse. I could have spent a whole week in there tasting and exploring, but alas I only had an hour. In addition to amazing olives, cheese and craft beer, I did manage to pick up some in-season October produce:

Apples, Celery, Grapes, Lettuce, Potatoes, Pumpkins, Radishes, Spinach, Turnips, and Winter Squash. An interesting point I just noticed: our produce is starting to come from the ground where it is still warm, instead of from bushes and trees where it is growing colder...

"Winter is Coming"

"Winter is Coming" as the Stark Family motto goes (Game of Thrones fans, anyone?). The nightly lows are creeping down to the 50s and it is time to get your plants and pots ready for the colder weather. You can remove your summer flowers and vegetables now as their season has passed and replace them with heartier greens for the coming months. Plants from the Brassicas Family: Kale, Kohlrabi, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Brussels Sprouts, Broccoli,  Rutabaga, Turnips and Mustard are the perfect Fall crops. Unfortunately, I do not get enough light this time of year on my fire escape so my outdoor growing season is over until spring. I will still be growing things in my apartment though, and sharing of course, don't you worry!

If you have land (lucky you!) fall is the time to mulch. The idea of mulching now is not so much to keep the soil warm as it is to keep the soil temperature even throughout the winter season. This is also the time that you plant your spring bulbs.

If you do not have land (like me!) and are the proud owner of a container garden it is time to compost and/or dispose of your summer annuals and prune your perennial flowers and vegetables. For example, my lavender plant is a perennial, which means that it comes back each year. By pruning it after it is done flowering, I am encouraging root growth throughout the winter and, come spring, it will be, "hard(ier), better, faster, stronger." Kanye would be proud.

One way to prune your lavender is to let your cat go to town on it...

This is actually not advised!! Instead, cut back not only the flower stems, but also about a third of the gray-leaved stems as well.

Avoid pruning back so far that only woody stems with no leaves are showing. Make sure that what you are pruning with is sterilized! It may look like it has a "bad haircut," as Simon noted, but I promise that come spring it will look 10x better!

To prepare your container garden for the Winter, you not only have to worry about your perennials surviving the cold, but also your containers. Once you remove your plant debris and soil, thoroughly wash the container to prevent any harmful pathogens that might survive the winter and ruin your spring plantings. This next part is hard for space-strapped New Yorkers, but it is not a good idea to keep terra-cotta, glass or glazed pots outside. These pots will absorb moisture throughout the cold, snowy months which will then freeze and cause your pot to break. If you do not have room to bring your pots inside for the winter (this is when a garage would be handy) you can carefully stack them inside the largest pot and place the stack against your apartment wall so that the radiant heat from the building will keep them slightly warmer. Other people suggest wrapping the pot with bubble wrap and covering the pot with leaves or straw. You do not have to worry about this though if you have any plastic, polyurethane, fiberglass, wood or concrete pots. Preparing your pots and plants for the winter now will make spring easier and more rewarding.

Brewing Pumpkin Ale

My boyfriend and I have homebrewed five different beers, mostly IPAs, an ale and a stout. His friends got him a home brewing kit a few birthdays back and we have been hooked ever since. For about $40.00 you can make five gallons of beer right in your kitchen! In honor of Fall we decided to make a Pumpkin Ale which will be ready just in time for mid-October.

There are many kits available for purchase online. These kits come with all the equipment you need and sometimes include enough ingredients for one batch of beer. If your kit does not come with any ingredients, I highly recommend Brooklyn Homebrew in Gowanus. Everyone there is equally knowledgeable and friendly and are eager to help you navigate the daunting world that is grains, hops and yeast. Here are our ingredients:

We are essentially brewing a large tea. After all, beer is mostly water. Bring six quarts of water to boil so that it reaches 152°F (your pot should be roughly three - five gallon capacity; the larger the better). A thermometor is your friend and germs are your mortal enemy during this whole process. Even though you are attempting to brew beer in your apartment, you should try as hard as you can to get the temperatures exact and keep everything sanitized. Once the pot of water has reached 152°F, steep the grains (we used two pounds of Simpsons Golden Naked Oats) and the pumpkin puree (two 15 oz. cans) for one hour.

 Once the hour is nearly over start to boil 1.5 gallons of water so that it reaches 170°F. When the hour is complete, remove your grain and pumpkin puree bags from the large pot. Pour this newly boiled water over the grain and pumpkin puree bags to release any final flavors into your large pot. The mixture you have going now is called the "wort."

Top off the wort with water, almost filling the large pot. Leave enough room for the wort to be able to "vigorously boil" without boiling over. Once it is boiling again add the malt extract until disolved. We used 3.3 pounds of extra light liquid malt extract and two pounds of extra light dry malt extract.

Time for the hops! Add one ounce of bittering hops and boil the wort vigorously for at least 55 minutes.

During the final ten minutes of boil add the Whirlfloc tablet or similar clarifying aid which helps precipitate the flavor of the beer, but does not add any flavor.

During the final four minutes of boil add one ounce of aroma hops.

During the final one minute of boil add the spices: 2 oz. chopped crystalized ginger, two crushed cinnamon sticks, two split and seeded vanilla beans, and two crushed nutmeg seeds.

At this point it is extremely important to keep anything that touches the wort from now on sanitized. We are no longer boiling, so any unwanted bacteria that comes in contact with the wort will not be killed and may funkify the batch.

Rapidly cool the wort to 70°F. You do not want the wort to be too hot when you add the yeast because you could kill the little guys. We usually have extra bags of ice handy so we do not totally deplete the apartment's supply.

Transfer the cooled wort to a sanitized fermenting bucket or carboy and top off with water to make five gallons. At this point you can take a test sample to measure its gravity which then tells you its alcohol content, but we never bother doing this.

"Pitch" or add the yeast to the cooled wort and aerate thoroughly. We do not have an aeration pump so we do it the old fashioned way which is on the floor, vigorously stirring/shaking/rocking the carboy for about five to ten minutes. We made it to six..it is hard work!

 

Now leave the carboy in a generaly dark location at 55°F - 78°F for seven to fourteen days. We choose to go the whole fourteen days to allow the yeast and flavors to really gel. Once the fermenting is complete we bottle it up which I will share in about two weeks! I'm looking forward to it.

In Season: September

Can you feel that? The seasons are changing! I even wore a sweatshirt this weekend. I think that I love Summer and Fall evenly, and if we could live in a world with only those two seasons I would be very happy. I think everyone would be happy...except maybe Winter Olympic Athletes. Here's what's in season this month:

Apples, Blueberries, Grapes, Cucumbers, Peppers, Pears, Tomatoes, Corn, Raspberries and Plums! There's nothing better than a Fall fresh apple. Yum!

Mint Tea

I have a bunch of mint leaves from my garden that I want to use up and thought I would make some fresh mint tea. I love mint tea. It does not have any caffeine in it so you can drink it all day without feeling guilty AND it is so easy to make. First, cut a bunch of fresh mint.

Lightly twist the bunch of fresh mint to bruise the leaves and release their lovely aroma.

Bring a large pot of water to boil. Toss the whole bunch in the boiling water. Do not worry about removing individual leaves because it will be easier to fish out a whole stem at the end of the steeping process.

Allow the water to remain at a light boil for about five minutes, stirring the leaves every few minutes to aid the flavor release.

Next, turn off the heat and allow the tea to steep for about ten minutes. Fish out the stems and leaves and add any sweetener you might like. Personally, I think honey is the way to go.

You can either drink the tea hot or put it in a pitcher to cool in the refrigerator. Either way it is a pretty cheap, refreshing drink that you grew and brewed yourself. Enjoy!

p.s. If you happen to cut too much mint you can always store it in the refridgerator for future use. My friend Eli said that if you store it upside down in the cup (i.e. opposite of this picture) it will last longer. Go figure!

p.s.s. I did save about two tablespoons of mint leaves to make this delicious recipe found on Smitten Kitchen. Another good way to use your mint!