Beer: Update on The Grand Caw

It took much longer than I thought -- 16 days to be exact -- but the tripel we're brewing finally hit the 2-3 minute bubbling range in the middle of last week. According to the directions, that's when the beer was supposed to be racked. Of course, I was sick at the time and didn't want to risk contaminating the beer, so it had to wait a little longer. Throw in a little procrastination and I didn't end up racking it until last night when the bubbling rate was all the way up to 6 minutes and it had been fermenting for 20 days! At that point, I probably could have just bottled it. My bottles and bottling equipment weren't cleaned or sanitized, though, so I just went ahead with the racking.

In the middle of the racking, I pulled a little sample off to take a gravity reading. The OG was 1.082 and it's at 1.012 right now. The directions indicate a final gravity of 1.010 to 1.015 so I definitely could have just bottled last night. Using those numbers, you can make an estimate of the alcohol content of your beer. To get alcohol by weight, you multiple the difference in gravity (0.07) by 105, which gives you 7.35%. Alcohol has a different weight than water, so to convert alcohol by weight to alcohol by volume (abv, the % alcohol measurement you see on retail bottles), you multiply by 1.25. That means The Grand Caw is sitting at a healthy 9.2% abv already. Woah.

After taking the gravity reading, naturally I took a sip (we don't waste no beer 'round here). Dios mio, man, this is going to be one tasty beer! The room-temperature, uncarbonated samples I tasted from my other beers honestly didn't taste all that great, though they did hint at the final taste. The fact that the beer tastes this good and isn't even remotely in its finished form has put my expectations through the roof. Here's hoping those expectations are met.

This n' That

Indiana Avenue Restaurant and Lounge: Exterior work continues. They've added three more windows to the Indiana-side roof in addition to the one I showed previously. A number of windows have also been added to the new third-floor space on the North St. side.

IUPUI: Research III is shaping up nicely. This is the last in a trio of interconnected laboratory buildings being built on Walnut St. near University Hospital. With the long-term goal of recruiting 90 faculty members -- as well as the hundreds of associated staff members and students that will work in the labs located in this building -- this represents a significant investment in Indianapolis as a life science hub. Work on the north-side facade is virtually complete and they appear to be in the final stages of work on the south-side facade and People Mover connection. The building is expected to be occupied in December. As the weather continues to warm up, expect to see pictures of this project sometime soon. Research III is the taller middle section with the walkway connection in this rendering:


BadaBoomz: Vintage tastings are back! Stop by Saturday (March 29th) and get a taste of Sierra Nevada Bigfoot '00 & '03 as well as Bell's Batch 7000 (imperial stout). $9 gets you a 5oz sample of all three and when they're gone, they're gone.

HD-DVD Update: supplies of players are drying up, indicating that we're just about at the end of the road. The high-end HD-A35 has been gone for weeks and the HD-A30 is now starting to disappear from online shops. Only a handful of shops still carry the entry-level HD-A3 and they won't last much longer. Movies still appear to be widely available, however. My credit card has been getting quite the workout snatching up discs before they're all gone. With a sunk investment in a player, an average of just $9-10 per movie, and a limited-time opportunity, how could I not?! These movies will be MUCH more expensive once they switch over to Blu-ray. Update (12:50pm) Looks like Best Buy just decided to pull all remaining HD-DVD merchandise.

DIG-B Crest

After playing around on Scion's new personalized crest tool, here's what I've come up for a DIG-B crest:


We've got Indianapolis, a gear, a beer bottle (maybe Red Stripe?) and the tools to get it all done. Nice.

Beer: Wabash Valley Arrives

Hoosier Beer Geek reported back in January that Wabash Valley Malt Beverage Company -- Brugge Beer's sister (see Ted Miller's notes in the comments below) a line being produced at the former Terre Haute Brewing Company -- had released sample kegs around Indianapolis. It now appears that bottles have arrived around Indiana. World Class Beverage's search engine shows that six packs of Cannonball Porter, Gangster Pale Ale and Harvest Amber Ale are now available at the following Indianapolis liquor stores and restaurants:

Alabama Liquor
Stony's Still Liquors
Parti Pak (no Harvest Amber)
Shallos (no Harvest Amber)
The Hop Shop (no Harvest Amber)
Payless Liquor #9 (9520 Uptown Dr, Suite G)
United Pkg Liq #9 (9908 E 79th)

Hazy Days Wheat and Limestone Lager don't appear to be available in bottles yet, though Hot Shotz has a keg of Hazy Days Wheat. Spencer's in downtown has a keg of Gangster Pale, and if you live in Muncie (Fickle Peach) or West Lafayette (Scotty's Brewhouse) you can also try Cannonball Porter on tap.

I may have to pop into Alabama Liquor sometime this week to grab a mixed 6-pack and see how Indiana's newest beers taste.

Beer: Digby IPA Finally Bottled!

After a wonderful Easter Dinner over at Rod and Jess's place last night, we jetted home to finally bottle our Digby IPA, homebrew batch #2. You may remember that we racked this beer almost two weeks ago! That's a big longer than I meant it to sit, but Charlie Papazian mentions in The Complete Joy of Homebrewing:

Quite honestly, for one reason or another, I often don't get around to bottling for 4 to 6 weeks. So it is important for me to use closed fermentation and a second fermenter. I'm quite pleased with my results.

I assume I've basically moved some of the aging time from post- to pre-carbonation. I hope my results are good. Here's a look at the Digby working up some carbonation:
The Grand Caw is lonely without Digby nearby, bubbling sweet nothings:
As of tonight, this beer has been steadily fermenting for 14 days. The first two beers I made only took 5 or 6 days on primary fermentation. The directions indicate that it should be racked when the air lock bubbles at a rate of 2 to 3 minutes. I timed it at about 2:10 tonight, so we'll probably rack it tomorrow.