Yogurt

yes, we have a yogurt maker

adding the starter

Might as well make some homemade yogurt to go with the homemade granola!  Yogurt is really easy to do if you have a yogurt maker.  It is just heated milk with a yogurt starter (they sell packaged yogurt starters, or you can just use a tablespoon of commercial or homemade plain yogurt).  You mix the milk and starter, pour into cups, and then turn on the machine to keep it at the right temperature for 10-20 hours (depending on the consistency you want).  This batch ran for about 20 hours but was still rather runny, we're going to play with the starter next time- our Trader Joe's low fat greek yogurt didn't seem to get the culture going very strongly this time.

Walnut-almond-pistachio granola

We used honey, brown sugar, coconut, wheat germ, walnuts, almonds, pistachios, (oats, oil, spices).  Had to rebake to get it crunchy, but I think it turned out very well.  Next batch I may try increasing the honey/oil proportions.

American IPA

I just harvested the hops from the garden, so we decided to make an IPA to see how they taste.

Our malt in the lauter tun: 10 lbs American 2-row, 1/2 lb Munich, 1/2 lb Crystal 20L. 

Here, after an hour lautering I'm recirculating the wart to clarify. 

Into the mash tun for the hour boil.

Checking the gravity, if it's too low we the beer will be weak (so we would need to add some malt extract at this point in the process) turned out perfect (1.055). 

Since I didn't have enough fresh hops to bitter the beer, we added 1 oz of Magnum hops (12%) at the beginning of the 60 minute boil.  Since these hops were dry 1 oz will go a long way.

These are the hops I harvested (~10 oz). Since they are fresh and whole  they are much weaker by weight and volume (lots of water weight). This whole gallon sized bag and the single ounce of the magnum ought to be roughly equal in bitterness.

Adding half the fresh hops with 20 minutes left in the boil, the rest were added with 5 minutes left.

After the boil we fill the primary fermentor - in our case a small 5 gallon keg (replacing the 5 gal carboy that was broken last week) - with cooled wart. 

Last, we oxygenate and pitch the yeast. 

The primary ferment is done in 2 weeks...

Results

 September 10, 2011: Fig glazed Pork Chops, Biscuits & Beet Salad 

EE preparing the biscuits. 

Flour, Butter, Sour Milk (Milk & Vinegar) and sticky fingers

Into the oven (400f) for 10ish minutes

Chops (1 1/4 inch from our local pig farm via the butcher down the street) soaking in brine (1/2 gal water, 1/2 cup kosher salt, 1/4 cup sugar, etc)

Fig Jam EE made from our community garden figs (Water, Figs, Sugar, Brandy). We have half a dozen jars so we were looking for a way to use it.

Glazing the Chops

Next into the over at 350f, until they are 140f inside

Waiting for dinner, results to follow...

New Batch - California Common Lager (Steam-esque)

Our success with the porter made up ambitious, and we tried a steam type beer last weekend. This time I know the recipe we used, it is a slight modification of the recipe in the palmer book and goes as follows:

Malts:

8.5 lbs 2-row American base malt

0.8 lbs Crystal 40L

0.25 lbs Maltodextrin Powder

Hops:

Bittering 1 oz Northern Brewer (9.8%)

Finishing 1oz Northern Brewer (9.8%)

Yeast:

Liquid California Pilsner

As you can see in the photo attached we decided to attach a heating pad to the carboy, it's been kind of cold her lately and the yeast took a while to get going. Thankfully it seems like it is going strong now.

2 weeks til bottling. I'll try to post again with then.

UPDATE: Peter posted this, you can see it bubbling.

First 5 Gallon Results

The first batch with the new equipment came out surprisingly well, we made it from some malt extract I had laying around the house and a combination of the brown ale and porter recipes from the Palmer book. Despite being completely from the seat of our pants, the end result came out really nicely (dark and carmelly, with a light carbonation), makes me regret not taking more careful notes on what went into it. I'll try to remember to take photos of the next bottle we open.