Monday, August 4, 2008

Progress Lodge Master Mason Degree



I am helping out Progress Lodge #22 in Salt Lake City tonight to confer the Master Mason Degree on a lucky candidate. I will be playing the part of Second Fellowcraft. Its been awhile since I have traveled to another lodge, it has been even longer since I helped another lodge do degree work. I just hope I do Wasatch Lodge #1 proud.

Raspberry Wheat Beer

So I tried the raspberry wheat that I started a few weeks ago. It was flat, but other than that I thought it tasted awful. I think I have fixed the carbonation issue. I have read previously that the raspberry extract that I used can cause a soapy flavor. That was exactly what I tasted. I am hoping that the beer will "grow" out of it. It definitely doesn't taste like tasty natural raspberries should. I think if I do fruit in beer like I am with the apricot wheat, I will only use fresh fruit, or fruit pure going forward, those flavorings are nasty.

I also started the beer for an apricot wheat ale. It was going to be a heffeweizen, but The Beer Nut didn't have a heffe kit. I did a wheat beer instead, it should be basically the same, I am using a heffeweizen yeast. Speaking of yeast, I also used a liquid yeast rather than dry yeast. Supposedly the liquid yeast will make the beer that much better. I am planning on adding the apricots to the secondary fermentor. Right now the apricots are frozen. When I am ready for them, I am going to thaw them, mash them, and bake them for about a half an hour at 150 F to pasteurize them. It will have to taste better then the soapy raspberry flavoring.

The amber ale I first kegged keeps getting better. My first brew, the American Brown Ale tastes awesome. I cracked open a bottle this weekend, and didn't want to stop drinking it. I think that my next beer will be a stout or something else with some body to it.

That's all on the beer front for now.

Bottled: Brown Ale
Keg 1: Amber Ale
Keg 2: Raspberry Wheat
Keg 3: empty
Secondary: Cream Ale
Primary: Apricot Wheat
On deck: Irish Stout