Election Season Approaches (South Bank Pale Ale)

I don't know if it's the mark of a small town or of our general awesomeness, but Ferment Del Norte has reached the point that we are being solicited for donations to local political candidates.  While the club doesn't seek to be outright involved in the political realm, we were happy to oblige a request from District 2 Supervisor and incumbent candidate, Martha McClure.  Martha is a long-time resident of Del Norte County and many club members are friends with her and her family.  At her request, we brewed this beer for her campaign fundraiser on April 27th at the Oceanfront Lodge; we'll be serving tastes of the beer during the event, and a collection of homemade items from our fermenting club members will be an item in the silent auction.  The beer is named "South Bank Pale Ale" in honor of our Ferment Del Norte headquarters and brew site.

South Bank Pale:

We used the standard grain bill that we've been using for our recent beers.  A bunch of 2 row malt, crystal malt for color and flavor, and carapils for proper head retention.

• 10 lbs. 2-row American Malt
• 1 lbs. Crystal 20L
• 0.5 lbs. Carapils 

Hops:

• 1.25 oz Summit (AA: 17.5%) added for the last 20 min. of the boil
• 0.75 oz Summit added for the last 5 min. of the boil

We transferred to one of our trusty carboys and got a specific gravity of 1.060, and our yeast came from Mad River Brewery in Blue Lake, CA.

The brew went smoothly, on a slightly breezy day at FDN HQ.  Fellow fermenters Rachel, Ross, Laura, and Kelley came out and Kelley served up some of her homemade kraut.  A good time was had by all and we even got to see what looked very much like a seal in the river, but it might have been an otter.  During the brew we also took the next step in the continuing saga of Dom Del Nortignon, the Ginger Champagne of Ferment Del Norte.  We transferred the champ to its secondary fermentation; 1 transfer and 3 months down, 2 transfers and 9 more months to go!  We had a taste during the transfer and it's already got some kick!

After a 2-week fermentation, we transferred to a brief secondary and pitched some dry hops.  We didn't give it a full secondary fermentation due to the limited amount of time before the fundraiser.  After 2-days with the dry hops, we transferred to the keg and measured South Bank Pale Ale's final gravity to be 1.011, giving us an alcohol content of 6.4%.  In the spirit of recycling and conserving our valuable ingredients, we transferred our next beer (brewed for the Art Walk, coming soon) right on top of South Bank's yeast bed, and the new beer is thriving on the second round of yeast.

Cheers, Martha!

02-04-2012 Kelley's B-Day Rock Creek Brown Ale

02-04-2012 Kelley's B-Day Rock Creek Brown Ale

Ferment Del Norte (FDN) Had the awesome opportunity of being able to hold a project meeting at Rock Creek Ranch (RCR) managed by the Smith River Alliance (SRA)  http://www.smithriveralliance.org/index6.html 

The project went great! There was some scuffling around due to the loss of some small parts during the transport of the equipment From FDN headquarter to RCR, but all was not lost the ingenuity of FDN members and the access to previously fermented beverages the wort was separated from the malted grain and the broth has begun to ferment!!! 

Photos to come.......

Recipe at: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxmZXJtZW50ZGVsbm9ydGV8Z3g6MTJjMDg2MjUyYmRiY2NmYw

Secondary Transfer

La Levadura and Volatile Flavonoid transferred Ferment Del Norte's Inauguration Ale into a secondary fermentation vessel (Pic. 1).  A secondary fermentation can re-activate the yeast that has settled to the bottom of the carboy, allowing for more sugars to be fermented into yummy alcohol, as well as improving the ale's clarity and quality.  During the transfer, we also added dry hops to improve the flavor and aroma of our beer (Pic. 3), and saved our yeast (Pic. 2) which we can pitch into our next brew.

Brewing All-Grain Ale Video

Inaugural Beer Brew

Aaron (aka La Levadura) and Connor (aka Volatile Flavonoid) walked us through how to make an all-grain beer. This is the first project of FDN. Recipe can be found at All-Grain Recipe. More details can be found on the projects page, and more pictures can be found here.