In Cairo, with brews left behind

[Steiner]

Greetings from Egypt! I left you guys over a month ago to come over to Cairo. According to my friend watching my brews back at home, all is going good and will be racked soon. I brewed them and left them in his care. Let's just hope it all works out- he's new to brewing, but I'm sure it'll be fine. I have an irish stout, fat tire clone, cheese's VCCA, 2 Apfelwines in Mr Beer kegs, and 2 mead mini-batches going.

I'm worried about autolysis and wanted some feedback on how long each brew should sit on the yeast in the primary. I'll be gone until June so I'll need to rack and will then be aging in the secondary until I get back. How long could/should each brew go before racking to a secondary? Once racked, is there any need to rerack in that time? I'd rather not risk contamination for the sake of clearer beer since I wont be there, but wanted to know your opinons.

Cairo is cool, but in case you guys are wondering, the beer is disappointing. And didn't the Egyptians start making beer thousands of years ago? You can only get about 4 domestic beers (all lagers) and they're all pretty bad- very alcoholy. No imports. But all is well and I'm definitely excited to sample my beers.

Edit: just to clarify, my brews are all still in primaries, brewed in early January.

 

[EvilTOJ]

Autolysis is one of the bogeymen of brewing. YOu never need to worry about autolysis unless the beer's been sitting in the primary for months and months and months. I'd have your friend rack the beer to clearing tanks anyways, and that should be sufficient for bulk aging until you get back in June. The apfelwein and meads will be fine as they are, but it won't hurt to rack those either. IF your friend needs help, we're always here.

Sounds like the egyptians haven't improved on their beer making prowess in 5000 years Whatcha doin out there?

 

[Jamo99]

+1 to EvilTOJ

Autolysis is definately feared way more than it should be. Won't happen in primary for a while, and your brews can sit in secondary for even longer. I'd have your friend rack each of them once and then let them be until bottling/kegging time.

It's too bad about the lack of good brews in Egypt, but your homebrew will taste that much better when you get back!

 

[Hagen]

This is somewhat off topic, I'm suprised that beer is legal in a muslim nation like Egypt.

 

[Steiner]

Thanks for the help. So being that it's now been almost 2 months, should I have my buddy transfer the beers ASAP or is it better to wait? I've never left my brews in the primary for longer than 3 weeks, so it's new to me.

Ya, it's a little disappointing about the beer, but I learn to get by. I saw some bread yeast in the market the other day and was tempted to rig something up. But ya, I'll be excited to get back for the beer.

I'm here on a grant learning Arabic so it's cool. I'll be here til June. Beer is legal here but it's frowned upon by many and Muslims aren't supposed to drink it. But being a lot of tourists (and not-so-devout Muslims) are around, there is a small market for it.

 

[zonabb]

Welcome in Cairo! That's what they said to me when I was there. Yeha, enjoy that Stella!!!! Nasty stuff when you can get it.

Are you at the American University in Cairo?

I was in Cairo for 10 days in 1995 when my cousin was studying there. Great, amazing place but scary as well. We went south (or as they say Upper Egypt!) to Aswan and Luxor, that was amazing.

I would love to go back.

BTW, I had some of the best pizza in my life in Cairo, I think in Garden City it was called? Have some ful, koshari and definitely some nice hot sahlab!

Enjoy.

 

[anderj]

I spent a month and a half swlling Luxor, Stella, and Sakkara in Dahab. In my opinion ICE ICE cold Stella out of glass is the best way to go.

cheers and enjoy the weather, I was there in July

-ander

 

[Steiner]

Ya, definitely have had a go on the Stella and Sakkara. Sakkara is 10% and tastes like they dumped a shot of vodka in the beer. I'm getting by just fine with Stella since it's all I've got. Fridge keeps them cold alright. Ya, living off of the koshari, fuul, and taamia sandwiches just fine. All is good. Ya, I'm at the American University Arabic Language Institute studying Arabic full-time. It's a ton of work, but I'm getting a lot out of it. It must have been smoldering hot in July- I do not envy you.

Does anybody have any suggestions about my brewing situation? Leave in the primary a little longer? Should I have already racked? Thanks. I'll keep ya posted.

Edit: for those not aware, fuul is like a mashed bean sandwich, taamia is what they call falafel sandwiches in egypt, and koshari is like a macaroni dish.

 

[g_rath]

I would say have him rack it for you. Its not that hard or time consuming. That way you wont have to worry about it any more. How comfortable is your friend with beer making? If he knows what he is doing, you should have him bottle/keg it (or part of it) for you so you will have good beer ready to drink when you get home. Just give him a share of it.

 

[Steiner]

Ya, he's never done any brewing before but has helped me out, so I feel ok with him doing it for me. We've just never siphoned before, so it'll be a first for him. Always used plastic ale pales before but this time I used carboys for the first time. I grabbed a bunch of extras so I could brew and leave several batches for me to return to. When testing, there wasn't a secure enough lock on the air, so the autosiphon didn't work well, but I'm thinking the tubing might not be an exact fit, even though it seemed as tight as possible. I'll give him the go ahead if the siphon seems to be working. Thanks. Any other tips for a rookie would be helpful.

 

[conpewter]

I'd have him practice a bit using just water. Also I got a plastic hose clamp that I used to get my silicone tubing to fit tightly on the autosiphon, really helped out. After the siphon started I pinched the tube right below the racking cane a couple times to get rid of the air in the line and form a stronger siphon

 

[Revvy]

You did teach him to santize the autosiphon before using it didn't you?

And reminded him to clean and resanitize after each use....

 

[chthonik]

I spent a month and a half swlling Luxor, Stella, and Sakkara in Dahab. In my opinion ICE ICE cold Stella out of glass is the best way to go.

cheers and enjoy the weather, I was there in July

-ander

Cold Stella definitely beats WARM Stella! Eh, it's not so bad when it's hot as hell and dusty out.

 

[Steiner]

Just a quick update: brews have been successfully racked to secondaries with minimal problems. All seems to have gone well. Thanks for the help everybody. Cheers! I'll drink a Stella to all yall's help.

 

[Revvy]

My wonderful GF, while research something for a book she's writing came upon this interesting Googlebooks book on Ancient Brewing in Egypt...Maybe there's something in here that can help you....

http://books.google.com/books?id=6x...sig=1VzJywNbekpZyos5LbQWA22FZ20&hl=en#PPT7,M1

 

[Steiner]

Well, I have returned back to the States and all the brews seem to be going just great. I started bottling last week and I think all the beer should taste great. The mead and cider mini-batches aren't what I'm used to, but don't taste rank, so I hope it should be fine. You can definitely taste the alcohol in those 3 batches though. I've never had so much bottling to do or beer in the house at one time before. Before leaving, my brewing operations were kept at a one pail at a time, but I decided to bulk up before I left. Now I've got over 20 gallons of booz on my hands. It's all pretty exciting, seeing that I've got over 6 cases of beer which have since taken over my room now. Thanks for the help everybody.

I also made an apple/cherry cider from bread yeast while in Cairo which turned out pretty successful actually. Pretty potent stuff that needed a little extra juice addition after brewing, but tasted pretty good. It was a fun experiment too, brewing from the bare necessities of equipment.

 

[Revvy]

Well if you weren't so freakin far away I'd help you drink it!

So how was Eqypt???

Welcome back, glad you made it back safe!

 

[Steiner]

Ya, at this point, unfortunately, for the first time, I'm almost hesitant to make more beer. As it is, I'm out of fridge space and bottles. I think it's a sign to start kegging. As for the beers I left while overseas, I think they'll be good, but may need some time, interestingly.

As warm and still undercarbonated, all 3 beers are not quite ready for the fridge, but I'm still very excited.

The Stout is definitely the blackest I've ever made and tastes it. I could go for a little less roast, but I think it should be good, just pretty aggressive for others' consumption.

The Fat Tire clone is trying hard to taste like Fat Tire, but is still not there, and tastes green. Not sure if it should be this far off after being left for 5 months of aging, but hopefully some cold conditioning will bring it on track.

Cheese's Vanilla Caramel Cream Ale is good but certain flavors still haven't quite melded. I added lactose and vanilla extract when bottling, which may be why.

Bottled the apple cider just yesterday which tasted alright. I'm hoping cold and sparkling will be better though. Racked the Blueberry Mead looks and smells amazing (tastes pretty good too) which should be good with a little more aging I think, and I haven't touched the Orange Mead yet. A thief-full was a bit off-putting though. Not sure if I like sweet mead so much, but we shall see with time.

 

[Revvy]

When they're all carbed and conditioned post the results, please, you've got a good "experiment" going in bulk aging, and I, for one am interested in the results.