Moinette Blonde helps me kill lobsters and brew my first partial mash home brew

It's the day before my berfday and I got lots going on. I'm gonna kill a lobster using a butcher's knife (I can't believe this is the humane way) and then I'm going to make my first partial-mash home brew. I've been eying this day for a while because brewing partial mash is a completely new process compared to extract brewing and it requires some science and solid execution. Good thing I'm going sharpen my execution skills with these pound and a half crustaceans first!

Sara names her lobbie William, David's is Garth and mine is Newton. We read on a website after we bought and named them, that whatever you do don't name them! Because then you get attached. Well, I suppose I've had friends for shorter time periods but I've never put a knife through their brain. Time to knock that off my bucket list.

David likes to get really close to his subjects before execution. It makes doing business personal.

Newton is gonna be delicious

Because I knew this would hilarious, I took video of each of us wielding the killing stroke. David is the pioneer, Sara is hilarious, and mine is 'efficient' (I suppose). I'm very proud of these videos, not just because I went hand-held Paul Greengrass style, but really because David and Sara are energetic participants in them. It was weird to end a lobster like this, but it is much more humane than throwing them in a boiling pot and letting them die a slow, agonizing death.

*Please know the videos are slightly graphic - we are killing animals. If you have a problem watching Shark Week or 'When Hungry, Hungry Hippos Attack' on the Nat Geo channel, this is not for you. Otherwise, I think you'll be entertained. I was a little squeamish at first, but it turned out to be (too much) fun and is one of those experiences I can cross off my life list.

Do note, that when they are moving afterwords, they're dead but their nerves are still going. It's creepy and crazy. The same thing happens when you kill a snake. The videos are short, between 1 minute and 1:30. Below is what happens when brain meets knife.

 David

 Sara

 Walker

This was quickly becoming an incredibly fun day. After slicing and dicing them, David and Sara stuffed the lobsters with crab whilst I prepared my brewing equipment.

The champagne below (I will post a video tomorrow with more detail) was a gift from my dad for my 21st birthday. It's a pretty nice bottle so at the time I planned to have it on a 'Special Occasion.' And I could never decide when that occasion was, so it's been on my desk, under my bed and in my wine cooler for the past 7 years. It's not like champagne ages, would it still bubble?

To my delight, the bubbly and food was amazing. The champers was surprisingly complex. Champagne with crab stuffed lobsters, wow, a pretty high-class meal. Thanks to Sara and David, who made my last day as a 27 year-old an awesome day.

So instead of celebrating the birthday weekend by paintballing today, I decided to grill seafood and make my first partial mash beer. Homebrewing with extract is how I made my previous 4 beers, but by learning partial mash, I gain an understanding of All-Grain brewing (the third and final tier of homebrewing) and hopefully create more complex beers. It's more complex though and I had to outfit two 5 gallon coolers with special equipment.

I won't describe the process in depth here because it's detailed online, but it simply involves 'cooking' the grains (I have 5.5 lbs) in 152 degrees for an hour (mashing the grains), and then sparging the grains (washing them with 180 degree water) again, to create the wort. The hard part is getting the right water temperature and then maintaining it and figuring out how much water to use. Overall, it took me 4.5 hours to mash the grains and cook the wort. Usually it takes me 2, 2.5 hours.  

I'll post the recipe below, but first let me review the beer of the day. I'm making a Belgian Blonde so I picked one of the few Belgian Blondes I saw in Beverage Warehouse today and it was fantastic. It has a strong yeast smell and great color. The pop when I uncorked it was stronger than my champagne pop, and it has great carbonation and sexy Belgian lace. There is a smooth and balanced pilsner malt base and has a subtle spicy flavor that adds a delicious twist. Moinette blonde is a flat out fantastic for the style. BAD BOYS rating.

Here's the two-tier system in action

Untitled Belgian Blonde
Here is a link to the recipe that is reprinted below: Summer Belgian Blonde. I built this recipe from scratch.

Malt Extract:     Pale 3 lbs
                        Dry Pilsner Extract 1lb

Sugar:              Light Belgian Candy Sugar 1 lb

Grain Bill:          Belgian Pilsner 3 lb 4oz

                        Vieanna Malt 1 lb

                        Caramel Crystal Malt 10L 12 oz

                        Cara-Puls 8 oz               

Hop Schedule:  Hallertau (3.0%) 1.5 oz at 60 mins
                       Hallertau (3.0%) 1oz at 30 mins
                       Cascade (4.0%) 1oz at 15 mins
                      
Yeast:            Wyeast 3522 Belgian Ardennes (made a yeast starter Friday night at 3:30am after partying, HA).
                 
IBU is  22.5 (style is typically between 15 and 30)

Potential Alcohol 6.7%
SRM (color) is 5

The gravity was a little lower than I expected coming out of the Mash-Tun, so I added a cup of dry pilsner extract to the boil. The OG reading at the boil's end malfunctioned and said my beer is 10%+ which is not possible. Overall, I hit the temperatures I wanted but had trouble maintaining the 150 degree plus temp while Mashing. The process kept me busy but wasn't as stressful as I thought. It was fun though, I'm already looking forward to creating another recipe!

 Here are 5.5 lbs of grains being mashed.