Last night was bottling night for the Gratzer Ale that was made at the Discovery World Museum's Ale through the Ages program. We headed up to the biology lab on the second floor to see the volunteers hard at work sanitizing equipment. The class participants were invited to bring Polish beers to sample, and we were able to try the same Berliner Weiss from the first class. Another 2 weeks in the keg did amazing things to it. This one was brewed outdoors during one of the Lakefront's many festivals and was inoculated with a wild strain of yeast if I'm not mistaken. The two weeks it spent in the keg between classes changed the beer significantly. It went from a slight thin and sour taste, with citrus notes to a full on sour. It had the horsey sourness of the wild yeast coupled with the citrus notes making it a totally different animal. The acid level tasted high to me, and I started craving some bread and oils to mellow out the flavors in my mouth.
We took a look at the two carboys that were used to ferment the beer and noticed some substantial differences. One carboy was done with a White Labs Kolsch yeast that Keven mentioned too a bit longer to get going. This one did not have any clarifying/fining agents added to it and had a soft amber color that had the distinct haze of a wheat beer. The second carboy was done with a Wyeast German Wheat strain and had Isinglass added as a fining agent. Isinglass is an agent taken from the air bladder of a sturgeon and was used as a clarifying agent historically. This carboy had a darker color to it, and you could see coagulated material in a low suspension. Once we had taken note of the different yeast strains we were instructed on how the bottling would proceed and we began in earnest.
The bottling session is a group affair. One person per carboy manned the bottling wand, filling bottles off the carboy for us. The bottles moved then to a capping table where members of the class vigorously capped the bottles using hand cappers. They then moved down to a labeling table where folks took labels that Kevin had designed and adhered them to the bottle. The process for adhering was interesting as we used a simple 20ld weight paper with laser printing, and milk. The back of the label was dipped into milk and then pressed firmly onto the bottle creating a bond. Excess milk was wiped off and the label was on nice and tight. Kevin said that he had learned the process from a professor of his who was a homebrewer herself. He has had bottles last years with the milk label, but it is susceptible to water, so no ice in the cooler with these. I was on a labeling station and had good conversation with folks around the table while working. It was also nice to sample a few of the smoked ales that people brought to share.
Overall the atmosphere was very relaxed, friendly and an all around good time. When done we were allotted one bottle of each type and if you wanted to stick around and converse a bit there would be left overs. I stuck around for a bit talking to some folks that do history oriented tasks and a few more seasoned brewers about how they do things (and getting tips on my cherry wheat I have going right now) and was able to leave with an extra bottle or two for some good friends that weren't able to make it to this session.
I had a blast and am hoping I'll be able to do more of these. There is a Colonial Porter class in December that sounded great, and Kevin announced three more classes after the first of the year begining with a Medieval Gruit, a traditional Milwaukee wheat, and a Scotch/Irish Heather Ale. I'm hoping some of my brewing compatriots will be able to join me, but even if they don't I know I'm going to try and make it down!
Kevin has put up information from this last session on his site which chronicles the archeology wing of the Discovery World Museum.
http://distantmirror.wordpress.com/
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