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[codswallop]

In my experience an infected brew is pretty strong.

I was referring to a diacetyl "infection" as opposed to a regular style of infection. Haven't had any infection, luckily.

 

[andylsun]

Brewing Sierra Nevada Pale Ale clone today, what's everyone else brewing this week?

Got a new immersion chiller, home made fly sparge arm (it's the sparge method I learnt so have stuck with it even if its harder than other methods), and a couple of other process tweaks for today.

It's still below freezing on the deck, so could be a cold brew day. I have to brew outside to avoid stinking the house out - hops make my wife sick...

 

[fenners]

Brewing Sierra Nevada Pale Ale clone today, what's everyone else brewing this week?

Got a new immersion chiller, home made fly sparge arm (it's the sparge method I learnt so have stuck with it even if its harder than other methods), and a couple of other process tweaks for today.

It's still below freezing on the deck, so could be a cold brew day. I have to brew outside to avoid stinking the house out - hops make my wife sick...

Got my water heating up to strike temperature right now for a quick brew - simple brew of 2-row, dash of 120L & some carawheat I always brew outside, it's just easier to manage & my wife hated the malty grain smell from my first brew experiment. I brew outside on the patio or by front of the house. As a software guy, it's nice to be outside "making" something crafty by myself mostly.

 

[andylsun]

Got my water heating up to strike temperature right now for a quick brew - simple brew of 2-row, dash of 120L & some carawheat I always brew outside, it's just easier to manage & my wife hated the malty grain smell from my first brew experiment. I brew outside on the patio or by front of the house. As a software guy, it's nice to be outside "making" something crafty by myself mostly.

Yep, I'm a computer engineer, so can suck the fun out of pretty any hobby - but the whole brewing process is as enjoyable as drinking the end result.

 

[fenners]

And that's it in the fermenter. Phew, what a brewday. Ran out of propane. Scorched my wort while trying to get it back upto boiling. But hit my OG (~1.072). We shall see how it turns out.

12lb 10oz 2 Row
1lb Crystal 150L
1/2lb Caramel Wheel
2oz Polaris - 60m
1oz Falconers Flight - 15m
1oz Falconers Flight - 5m
2 packs Safale 05.

 

[andylsun]

And that's it in the fermenter. Phew, what a brewday. Ran out of propane. Scorched my wort while trying to get it back upto boiling. But hit my OG (~1.072). We shall see how it turns out.

12lb 10oz 2 Row
1lb Crystal 150L
1/2lb Caramel Wheel
2oz Polaris - 60m
1oz Falconers Flight - 15m
1oz Falconers Flight - 5m
2 packs Safale 05.

I had an interrupted morning and have only just started heating my strike water - going to be a long day! Fresh tank of propane though, so at least that won't go wrong.

For once, I'd like to actually hit my mashout temperature - I keep hitting 162F instead of 168F. Hope that may partly explain my low (but consistent) efficiency of around 60%.

Never used any of those hops. Have a fresh pack of Safale 05 as I was going to use a 2l starter from the IPA I made before - decided against just in case there's something funky with the yeast that caused my previous problems with diacetyl.

Have a little bit of english bitter left in one keg to drink during the 90 minute boil.

Edit: 1lb of Crystal 150L - that's pretty dark, shooting for a Brown Ale?

 

[fenners]

Exactly, a nice brown ale with a kick of hops & alcohol

 

[andylsun]

Phew Done!

Recipe called for OG of 1.053 and I ended up with exactly that. I have low efficiency from previous runs, but I also seem to have low volume. Ended up with 4 1/2 gal in fermenter and left about 1 gal behind in the brew kettle - 3oz of Cascade pellets in the last 10 minutes will do that to you.

The recipe called for more volume, but it seems to balance out with my low efficiency and just end up with less beer.

Hit my mashout temp spot on for the first time ever, and my new fly sparge arm (made for $2 from pvc pipe) was awesome.

Had homebrew Vienna Lager while brewing this one, so the beer gods should be happy.

The Sierra Nevada Pale Ale recipe I used - apparently from the head brewer according to the northern brewer forums (5gal into fermenter):

10.5lb 2-row
1lb Crystal 60L

Mash for 60min at 154F

90 minute boil
0.5oz Magnum at 60min
0.5oz Perle at 30 min
1oz Cascade at 10 min
2oz Cascade at flameout

Safale US-05
OG 1.053
Ferment between 64F and 68F.

Edit: Airlock bubbling away next morning - so under 12 hour lag time.

 

[codswallop]

The Sierra Nevada Pale Ale recipe I used - apparently from the head brewer according to the northern brewer forums (5gal into fermenter)

Yeastie Boys (a New Zealand brewer) released the recipe for their Digital IPA a while back:

http://yeastieboys.posterous.com/private/yCmgJxeHrs

Are there any other brewers officially (or unofficially) giving the homebrew community their recipes? Is there a repository of them, I wonder?

Edit: Looks like The Lost Beers has a few. Not bad but very US-focused.

 

[fenners]

Yeastie Boys (a New Zealand brewer) released the recipe for their Digital IPA a while back:

http://yeastieboys.posterous.com/private/yCmgJxeHrs

Are there any other brewers officially (or unofficially) giving the homebrew community their recipes? Is there a repository of them, I wonder?

There's a ton - I don't know of a big "repository" per se, but HomebrewTalk certainly has a bunch on there and I know the mags, BYO & Zymurgy will feature recipes direct from the relevant brewery too each issue...

Avery has their recipes online too. I've emailed Jester King & Black Star here in Austin & got their full brew sheets for their pro batches, which is damn cool to have to scale down Stone has a book out with various recipes in it. Ask!

 

[codswallop]

Stone has a book out with various recipes in it. Ask!

I've found many brewers are pretty excited to talk about what they do with homebrewers (had a chat with one in a bar on Friday, actually). More and more nowadays are becoming pro brewers after being homebrewers for a long period of time too, so sharing recipes is already second nature to them.

 

[andylsun]

Fly Sparge with 10 gal round cooler that has a SS braid at the bottom - probably the reason for my low efficiency? (60%)

I think I will switch to either false bottom or manifold (CPVC as I've never soldered copper). False bottom looks easier to build and not much more of an investment than DIY copper manifold.

My SNPA recipe had a pre-boil worst size of 8.23Gal and a 90 minute boil.

Batch size in the recipe is listed at 6.50gal, which is the amount in the boil kettle at the end of the boil? Once you leave some over when you rack into the fermenter, that would lead to around 5.5/6 gal into the fermenter? Recipe quoted 79% efficiency.

I got about 6 3/4gal pre-boil, and just under 5gal into the fermenter. OG was spot on to the recipe.

 

[thcsquad]

You'll be fine. The yeast does most of its work in the first 48 hours. Bringing it back up to a regular temperature will kick it back into action if it needs to & do any finishing it can. Relax, drink a homebrew

Update on this: After about a week of futilely trying to warm it up by taking it out of the swamp cooler, then covering it with blankets (remained at about 54, so I guess the swamp cooler wasn't doing much), I finally brought it completely inside in a corner that is a little bit cooler than the rest of the apartment. I then shook the bucket a bit to wake up the yeast. It seems to have worked: the sticker thermometer reads 59, the minimum for the yeast, and I have snail-like airlock activity - I timed it, a bubble comes up about every 50 seconds.

Does this airlock activity mean fermentation has continued? I know people usually say that lack of activity doesn't necessarily mean that fermentation has stopped, but there is never any discussion of the inverse: is there anything besides fermentation that produces that airlock activity?

I know that taking the gravity is the real way to answer the question, and I'm certainly going to take the gravity before I bottle. But I don't want to waste beer and risk contamination unnecessarily with mid-fermentation gravity readings. Furthermore, even though this is an extract brew I managed to miss my target starting gravity: Hopville says that my SG should be 1.052, when in actuality I got about 1.042. I have three hypotheses for why this happened:

1. The increased maillard reactions in the long (2 hour) boil is bound to make some of the sugars unfermentable, right? Would that affect the SG or just the FG? Hopville doesn't have any way that I can find of changing the boil time and estimating what effect the long boil would have on the sugars.

2. I diluted it a slight bit to account for a couple of gravity readings. Not by much: probably 5.1 gallons in there instead of 5. So I'd expect that to bring down the gravity a bit, but certainly not from 52 to 42!

3. Because of the temperature confusion I mentioned in my original post, I think I took the original reading at too high of a temperature. How high? I have no idea. According to the Beer Recipator, a temperature of 120 at reading time would have accounted for the 1.052 -> 1.042 drop. I'm pretty sure it wasn't that high, more like 85-90.

So as a result of those factors, my SG was different so I'm not even sure what FG I'm looking for. If the low SG was mostly from the dilution, then I think I'd be looking for a lower final gravity. But if it's mostly from the temperature confusion, then the FG shouldn't change because the reading was flawed and not the wort. And #1? No idea.

Don't misinterpret all of this obsessive analysis as freaking out about my brew - I'm sure it's going to taste great, and pulling off the low temperature fermentation is something that's supposed to be great for Scottish Ales so I'm actually quite excited. But I want to learn something with every brew and there are a lot of things that I did differently with this (low fermentation temperature, long boil, yeast entering and then exiting stasis mid-fermentation) which seem to make it harder to really know what's going on. So anybody who wants to drop some science on me, feel free.

 

[fenners]

Longterm airlock bubbles is normally from things like CO2 bubbles coming out of solution etc, rather than long term fermentation from what I know. If you've adjusted heat etc after stalled yeast, you might have some mild fermentation going on though. Out of my domain of expertise I'm afraid

 

[thcsquad]

Good to know. I can't bottle it until at least the weekend, so I guess I'll take a reading on Thursday and again on the weekend to see if it's changed before deciding to bottle then or wait a week.

I've been trying to read up on yeast metabolism to see if there's any literature about how much slower fermentation is supposed to take at cold temperatures but haven't found much.

 

[codswallop]

Does this airlock activity mean fermentation has continued?

Not necessarily. Movement, temperature changes, and CO2 being exhausted can all do it. Airlocks are an OK indicator, but not the only indicator.

I know that taking the gravity is the real way to answer the question, and I'm certainly going to take the gravity before I bottle.

This is the right answer. Take a reading, and drink it while you're there. Why not? It's worth knowing how "young" beer tastes (it usually gets better with age, so don't let a "green" or "young" flavour put you off).

Because of the temperature confusion I mentioned in my original post, I think I took the original reading at too high of a temperature.

A high temperature will definitely do it. When did you take the reading exactly? I once let my wort cool and settle, and when I took the reading (only a scoop from the top) it was way off. I didn't realise it until too late. Make sure the wort sampled is cool and representative of the consistency of the whole batch.

Unfortunately when it comes to stuck fermentation I can't really help. Adding in some new sugars (either some boiled malt extract or boiled table sugar) might help kick start it, but I'd look for advice elsewhere before trying that.

 

[G-Pink]

Alrighty, I'm jumping straight into the deep end with this. I've currently got about 15 pounds of milled grain and 3.5 oz. of hops, and I'm running my first 5 gallon all-grain batch tomorrow.

Putting together a Black IPA, the recipe from Northern Brewers recipe folder. Had to tweak it a little, because some hops weren't obtainable, but I'll be doing a 4 gallon boil and topping up to 5.

11lbs 8 oz. 2-Row
6 oz Carafa III
6 oz Chocolate Malt
8 oz Crystal 80L Malt
1 oz Centennial @ 0 min
1 oz Chinook @ 15 min
1 oz Summit @ 60 min
Dryhop w/0.5 oz Cascade @ 7 days
American Ale Yeast from Wyeast.

Pretty nervous, but this will be quite an education, either way.

 

[GodofWine]

Nice, didnt know we had a home brew-age thread.

Currently bottle aging is my little one gallon batch of an amber from grain (the gallon was my "get my feet wet" brew) I have 48 bottles of oatmeal stout bottle aging (extract with a mini mash of 2row and oats and specialty grains before the boil and extract addition) and a cream ale (2.5gal) from grains that i made up the recipe.

my test bottles still tasted green after a couple week..may have been diacetyl from bottlecarbing that wasnt cleaned up or just yeast flavors since they were only chilled for a few hours and not long enough to drop the yeast out...

any way, im enjoying the hobby. Ive been buying my local stores entire shipments of grolsch in swingtop bottles for reuse, they are a pleasure come bottling time.

Next up is a lemon wheat beer and after that a saison when my fermenting temps get higher over the summer...both using partial mash (i dont have the capacity to do all grain batches over 3gallons)

 

[fenners]

Alrighty, I'm jumping straight into the deep end with this. I've currently got about 15 pounds of milled grain and 3.5 oz. of hops, and I'm running my first 5 gallon all-grain batch tomorrow.

Putting together a Black IPA, the recipe from Northern Brewers recipe folder. Had to tweak it a little, because some hops weren't obtainable, but I'll be doing a 4 gallon boil and topping up to 5.

Pretty nervous, but this will be quite an education, either way.

Looks good, G-Pink! What sort of equipment/process are you using for your all-grain? Have you done a mini-mash or extract only brew before or is this your first?

Next up is a lemon wheat beer and after that a saison when my fermenting temps get higher over the summer...

Yeah, I've got temp control & I'm still thinking of doing a wheat beer & saison next because of how high it gets here in Austin. 5 gallons is a lot of saison though.

 

[Captain Pants]

I'm working on a stout recipe for this weekend. Any input would be appreciated.

 

[codswallop]

I'm working on a stout recipe for this weekend. Any input would be appreciated.

Is this intended to meet the regular guidelines for a "stout"? It's way over the BJCP guidelines for any stout except for a Russian Imperial (and then the IBU is too low).

Most stouts are usually quite low, comparatively, to counterparts such as pale ale or IPAs. 4-6% is the general range (US stouts are a bit higher). I like using the BJCP guidelines to get a feel for what a beer is meant to taste like, and then if I feel like bucking those conventions, I will.

You're using dextrin, maybe a little crushed oatmeal or torrified wheat might give a nice thick mouthfeel without using just straight unfermentable sugars?

I'd probably reconsider the amount of black barley (amount of grains overall, I suggest reducing the OG to 1.060-1.070ish), and probably reduce the bitterness, but I tend to prefer less aggressive stouts. Other than that, the grain bill and hops seem fine to me if those flavours are what you're after.

Take this with a grain of salt, as I haven't brewed a lot of stouts, and I tend to overthink recipes a bit sometimes. I don't think there's anything wrong or that stands out with your recipe, if that was your concern.

Edit: Oh, cascade is in there... You're sure that's the taste you're after in a stout?

I can't think of a reason why you're using six-row. You don't even have any adjuncts.

^ Didn't even notice that. What he said.

 

[Angry Grimace]

I'm working on a stout recipe for this weekend. Any input would be appreciated.

Not sure why you're using six-row. You don't even have any adjuncts that would require it (you only need six row if you're doing like 30+% flaked corn). Your gravity listing also requires 87% efficiency. I can't see that being reasonable unless you've got an ultra-tight crush and a really, really dialed in system.

Otherwise it seems okay, but I'm not really sure what you're going for. If you're looking for an imperial stout, I'd use Maris Otter for all of the grain bill, get around a pound or so of dark crystals in there (e.g. extra dark English or C-120) and increase the chocolate malt and black malt just a tad. What you've got so far is actually something closer to a Porter in my mind.

 

[codswallop]

FFFFFFF. Double post.

 

[Angry Grimace]

FFFFFFF. Double post.

Whoops, I'm talking to the wrong guy! But while I'm here, I don't think Cascade will matter too much at 60 minutes. There's not a ton of taste in anything at 60 minutes of boiling; its just a bunch of alpha acids.

 

[Yaboosh]

Whoops, I'm talking to the wrong guy! But while I'm here, I don't think Cascade will matter too much at 60 minutes. There's not a ton of taste in anything at 60 minutes of boiling; its just a bunch of alpha acids.

You would be surprised by how much difference in taste the bittering hop can make.

 

[Captain Pants]

Thanks for the input guys. I'm still learning my way around all grain recipes. My roommate is the better brewer. Should I just stick with two-row then?

We've actually been getting between 85-88% efficiency on our mash for the last three batches. I don't want to assume we'll always hit it, but we've been consistent. As for the hops... I'm still learning what's what there. I didn't want anything too bitter, and for some reason, I think of cascade as being fairly neutral.

We are definitely shooting for a higher ABV than most stouts, definitely more in the Russian Imperial range.

 

[Angry Grimace]

You would be surprised by how much difference in taste the bittering hop can make.

I've certainly never noticed any real difference beyond the harshness of the bittering, but I also rarely brew many lagers or single bittering addition ales where I would detect minute differences.

Thanks for the input guys. I'm still learning my way around all grain recipes. My roommate is the better brewer. Should I just stick with two-row then?

We've actually been getting between 85-88% efficiency on our mash for the last three batches. I don't want to assume we'll always hit it, but we've been consistent. As for the hops... I'm still learning what's what there. I didn't want anything too bitter, and for some reason, I think of cascade as being fairly neutral.

We are definitely shooting for a higher ABV than most stouts, definitely more in the Russian Imperial range.

Even if you're getting 85-88% efficiency, just remember that that doesn't always carry through to larger grain bills; definitely avoid six-row.

I still think you're going to need more chocolate malt and more roasted barley to really be looking at a big honking stout. Don't overdo it, but you're looking for a thicker, burlier mouthfeel and a nice roasty taste. I'd probably do like a pound and a half of chocolate and a pound of roasted barley to start, myself.

 

[G-Pink]

Looks good, G-Pink! What sort of equipment/process are you using for your all-grain? Have you done a mini-mash or extract only brew before or is this your first?

I've done both before, but for graff, not beer. Just finished the batch, letting it cool for the day, and then pitching yeast. I didn't want to leave the majority of it in the pot outside in the snow all day, so I just let it cool to around 100 F, and I'm going to let it coast the rest of the way with the top up water.

The recipe mentions 1 lb of corn syrup, and also mentions that OG should be around 1.075 or so. Before I added any corn syrup, I tested it, and my OG was 1.045. Perhaps I read something wrong, or still need to add the corn syrup? Wondering if the corn syrup (dextrose) is just listed for finishing?

As for procedure, I used a large mesh bag, and steeped in my 5 gal pot, then mashed out, sparged in batches, scooping from the bag, and set it up to boil for an hour. After that, I packed it into snow for a little bit, and then poured into the primary fermentor with enough distilled water to top up to 5.

 

[thcsquad]

Checked the gravity of my Scottish Ale today, I'll say it's definitely done as the SG was a bit lower than Hopville's estimated FG (1.010 vs 1.014). So I'll be bottling it this weekend! I'm actually really happy with the color, too, sorry for the glare in the picture but the apartment doesn't have the best lighting for photos.

 

[Bigfoot]

Doing my first hop boil brew today. Everything before now has just been simple pre-hopped extract brews that take 10 minutes to do.

I'm starting simple with a wheat DME and one hop type.. guess that makes it a Weizen. Can't wait to see how it turns out. Waiting is the hardest part of doing homebrew! Good thing I still have some good craft beer to drink, along with bottles of my first 2 brews.

 

[codswallop]

Made what I hope ends up being a quadrupel today. Because I didn't want to pay for 1kg of candi syrup ($20! what?!), I tried making some sort of sugar syrup yesterday.

Here's the end result of that:

Whether it's proper candi syrup, or toffee syrup, or sugar syrup or something else I don't really know. As long as it ferments out, I don't really mind.

The pre-boil OG was 1.062 (before adding the syrup), and post-boil 1.094:

Fingers crossed it ferments out. The OG was slightly over my target (around 1.090) and the original FG is meant to be 1.024 so we'll see what happens. Not sure why it's that light, though, I would've expected it darker from the two apps into which I entered the recipe.

Edit (since no one else has posted): Opened the saison I brewed a few weeks back today. Only been bottle conditioning for a week so a little early, but it's tasting pretty good already. I wasn't sure about leaving the fermentation temperatures alone (was around 27-29c) but it's turned out great.

 

[thcsquad]

The Quadrupel looks great! I haven't made one so I'm not sure what the color is supposed to be.

In other news, I bottled my Scottish Ale last night so I'm looking ahead to my next brew. Several things I'm thinking about:

1. Making the jump from extract to all-grain, through BIAB. I just have an apartment electric stove, so I pretty much have to do a 3 gallon boil and dilute to 5 gallons, or acquire a smaller fermentation vessel and do a 3 gallon batch. The only thing I'm worrying about is keeping tabs on the temperature. When steeping grains all I really have is a meat thermometer that I hold in and check that it's close, but temperature control is kind of tough on my electric stove. I know this is much more important for all-grain, so I feel like this might pose a problem.

2. I've been thinking about brewing with tea, and recently I've been thinking that green tea+mint (like Tazo's Zen tea) might make a good adjunct for a slightly hoppy pale ale. So far I've read that making an cold-brewed tea extract and adding it at bottling (or at least post-primary) would be best for keeping the aroma and flavor there without extracting tannins.

My main concern is balancing the aromas and flavors of the hops, green tea, and mint. I don't want to assault the nose with too many aromas at once. Furthermore, I don't really know much about different hops, because I don't drink pale ales much. All of my brews so far have been pretty malty. I'm thinking of doing an exercise of buying commercial pale ales, making note of the hops they use, and adding different concentrations of tea+mint to see how the flavors mix. Any advice on where to start, GAF? What hop styles might go well with green tea and mint?

 

[fenners]

1. Making the jump from extract to all-grain, through BIAB. I just have an apartment electric stove, so I pretty much have to do a 3 gallon boil and dilute to 5 gallons, or acquire a smaller fermentation vessel and do a 3 gallon batch. The only thing I'm worrying about is keeping tabs on the temperature. When steeping grains all I really have is a meat thermometer that I hold in and check that it's close, but temperature control is kind of tough on my electric stove. I know this is much more important for all-grain, so I feel like this might pose a problem.

Nah you're overthinking it for BIAB. Raise temperature & stir to circulate the heated water, until you get a couple of degrees over your ideal strike temperature. Kill the heat. Add your grain +bag (stir while pouring the grain in to make sure no big 'doughballs' form. Put lid on & wrap the pot with a couple of blankets etc. Wait for an hour. You're welcome to check back mid-mash for the temperature etc, but note if you open up the lid, you're letting heat out. For my gear, I find I can hit that strike temperature & hold it within two degrees over the 60 minutes mash no problem if I wrap the pot tightly & make sure the top is covered etc (as that's where the heat will escape). With a 3 gallon boil sized pot, you should have no problems.

Some people even go as far as use a preheated oven to keep the temp but that seems extreme to me.

For me, my "Cantankerous Ale" (hoppy brown) has been fermenting in primary for a little over two weeks. Going to move it to secondary next week & attempt to reuse the Safale-05 yeast slurry for something else, probably something malty.

 

[thcsquad]

Nah you're overthinking it for BIAB. Raise temperature & stir to circulate the heated water, until you get a couple of degrees over your ideal strike temperature. Kill the heat. Add your grain +bag (stir while pouring the grain in to make sure no big 'doughballs' form. Put lid on & wrap the pot with a couple of blankets etc. Wait for an hour. You're welcome to check back mid-mash for the temperature etc, but note if you open up the lid, you're letting heat out. For my gear, I find I can hit that strike temperature & hold it within two degrees over the 60 minutes mash no problem if I wrap the pot tightly & make sure the top is covered etc (as that's where the heat will escape). With a 3 gallon boil sized pot, you should have no problems.

Thanks. I think I'll definitely give BIAB a shot here. I do think I want to give small-batch a shot here too. I have a regular 3-ish gallon brewpot, in that I can boil about 3 gallons without worrying about overflow (the vessel itself can hold more). I think the grains would take up a decent amount of volume. Maybe I can expect to be able to do a 2 gallon BIAB batch without diluting?

 

[andylsun]

Brewing an American IPA with leftover hops today.

Magnum and Amarillo for bittering, Cascade, Colombus and Centenital for hlavour and aroma.

New false bottom on the 10 gal cooler and a bigger (15gal) boil kettle with dip tube on the inside to help with whirlpooling.

Thinking about a chugger pump as my next addition so I don't have to lift hot liquid. Then build a brew stand out of wood.

Next on the brew list is a pilsner. Market Basket here have distilled water at $1 a gallon, so that will be perfect. Got a couple of oz of Hallerteau to use up.

 

[fenners]

Thanks. I think I'll definitely give BIAB a shot here. I do think I want to give small-batch a shot here too. I have a regular 3-ish gallon brewpot, in that I can boil about 3 gallons without worrying about overflow (the vessel itself can hold more). I think the grains would take up a decent amount of volume. Maybe I can expect to be able to do a 2 gallon BIAB batch without diluting?

Can I Mash It? - it'll tell you exactly how much space your grain will take up, what volume you need etc. Great set of calculators.

I'm brewing up a cascadian/dark IPA. Going to name it Vader's Lament or something along those lines in memory of LucasArts.

9lb 2-row
1lb Munich
0.5lb Cara-pils
0.5lb carafa III
0.5lb Crystal 75L.

Using Warrior, Cascade & Columbus hops.

Going to keg up that Cantankerous Ale I mentioned too. And finally kegged up some Apfelwein I've had maturing since Christmas - hard cider basically - easiest thing to brew evar. And has quite a kick...

 

[andylsun]

It appears to be National Beer Day in the US. Good day for brewing.

On this day in 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt took the first step toward ending Prohibition and signed a law that allowed people to brew and sell beer as long as it remained below 4.0% alcohol by volume (ABV). Despite the low ABV, Americans were thrilled to be able to purchase beer for the first time in thirteen years!

 

[fenners]

It appears to be National Beer Day in the US. Good day for brewing.

Definitely! I had no idea about the significance of the date, but it made for a good day to brew & keg.

Brew day was straightforward enough bar scorching a blanket on the base of my keggle pot while trying to keep the mash heat steady and my wife deciding it would be the perfect time to clean & re-arrange our entire living room which involved a repair of the vacuum cleaner. And a dash to the nearest gas station to get ice to chill the wort as I'd forgotten it for the first time ever.

Still, hit 1.07 as my final volume was a little low, I can live with that.

 

[andylsun]

My brew house efficiency still sucks. Missed my OG on my IPA by 15 points. Was shooting for 1.067 but ended up at 1.052 (in the fermenter). Works out at 52%. I rechecked my last 4 brews and they were all around 58% efficiency. My process seems ok, false bottom worked well and my volume seems fine, so wonder if its my water.

Using spring water with,unknown mineral content and haven't been checking Mash pH. I do an iodine test to make sure conversion had finished and it had.

I'm going to try a pilsner next and make it with 100%'distilled water. This should eliminate the water factor and I will also check the pH of my mash.

I fly sparge over 30 ,minutes which could be a bit fast from comments I see online. Can try to adjust that on next brew. Mash, mash out and sparge water temps were all spot on.

 

[Yaboosh]

My brew house efficiency still sucks. Missed my OG on my IPA by 15 points. Was shooting for 1.067 but ended up at 1.052 (in the fermenter). Works out at 52%. I rechecked my last 4 brews and they were all around 58% efficiency. My process seems ok, false bottom worked well and my volume seems fine, so wonder if its my water.

Using spring water with,unknown mineral content and haven't been checking Mash pH. I do an iodine test to make sure conversion had finished and it had.

I'm going to try a pilsner next and make it with 100%'distilled water. This should eliminate the water factor and I will also check the pH of my mash.

I fly sparge over 30 ,minutes which could be a bit fast from comments I see online. Can try to adjust that on next brew. Mash, mash out and sparge water temps were all spot on.

No beer out there benefits from distilled water.

Your sparge is too fast.

 

[andylsun]

No beer out there benefits from distilled water.

Your sparge is too fast.

Thanks - Will run it more slowly next time. 60 minutes more suitable when fly sparging (with sparge arm and false bottom)?

I thought Distilled water was suitable for pilsners that require soft water? Or is it better to use distilled water to thin down harder water?

 

[Yaboosh]

Thanks - Will run it more slowly next time. 60 minutes more suitable when fly sparging (with sparge arm and false bottom)?

I thought Distilled water was suitable for pilsners that require soft water? Or is it better to use distilled water to thin down harder water?

Thin down hard water sure. But you need calcium for the yeast, magnesium, at least some sulfates etc.

 

[andylsun]

Thin down hard water sure. But you need calcium for the yeast, magnesium, at least some sulfates etc.

OK, cool. I'm going to do a Pilsner next, with spring water and take at least an hour on the fly sparge and see what my efficiency comes out at.

I'd like to get up into the 70% range, but even today's brew will still be beer. I had slightly less hops than I expected so it will all balance out. If today's IPA isn't quite there when I taste it in a couple of weeks then I can add some dry hop.

Edit: at some point in the last few batches I switched from a 5 gal to 10 gal cooler - this will lead to a thinner grain bed for the same amount of grain, which may have dropped my efficiency - will look back at some of my 5gal cooler batches and see if they were higher efficiency.

Edit:

Does this look good? Taking the water profile for Spring Hill Water, and adjusting it to match the water profile for Pilsen. Says use 80% distilled and 20% Spring Hill Water.

 

[thcsquad]

So my Scottish Ale has been bottle conditioning for a couple of weeks, so I brought it to work and did a blind taste test with some Belhaven. 5 out of 6 picked the Belhaven, including me.

http://hopville.com/recipe/1689139

Notes: I felt my beer was a little bit bland and too smooth in comparison with the Belhaven. They used something that gave quite the aroma, and I'm not sure what it is. Maybe hops (I have no aroma hops, only bittering and flavor), maybe it comes from the yeast. There was definitely a bit more bite to the taste. Still, I'm proud of the beer. There were no off flavors, and sometimes I want a smooth beer.

 

[fenners]

So my Scottish Ale has been bottle conditioning for a couple of weeks, so I brought it to work and did a blind taste test with some Belhaven. 5 out of 6 picked the Belhaven, including me.

http://hopville.com/recipe/1689139

Notes: I felt my beer was a little bit bland and too smooth in comparison with the Belhaven. They used something that gave quite the aroma, and I'm not sure what it is. Maybe hops (I have no aroma hops, only bittering and flavor), maybe it comes from the yeast. There was definitely a bit more bite to the taste. Still, I'm proud of the beer. There were no off flavors, and sometimes I want a smooth beer.

I'm a big Scottish Ale fan (I grew up in Scotland) & something I've read people doing for a more complex taste is caramelizing some of the first runnings. Take a few pints of the wort & simmer it in on your stove during the boil & put it back in at the end. Haven't tried it myself yet but it's on the to do list.

 

[fenners]

Going to keg up that Cantankerous Ale I mentioned too. And finally kegged up some Apfelwein I've had maturing since Christmas - hard cider basically - easiest thing to brew evar. And has quite a kick...

Nearly 8% for the cider. Ouch.

We had a bunch of friends over for dinner & homebrew last night which was fun. Everyone enjoyed the Cantankerous Ale, especially the grumpy cat themed kegerator label I made for it. Cider was a hit with a couple of the women, maybe a little too much of a hit. I'm sure there's a few sleepy hangovers going on today...

 

[thcsquad]

I'm a big Scottish Ale fan (I grew up in Scotland) & something I've read people doing for a more complex taste is caramelizing some of the first runnings. Take a few pints of the wort & simmer it in on your stove during the boil & put it back in at the end. Haven't tried it myself yet but it's on the to do list.

Well, what I did was a long (2 hours) boil, which is supposed to do a lot of the same thing. Maybe it doesn't? Anyway, the big thing that set Belhaven apart was the aroma, which isn't going to come from that. I'm thinking that perhaps Belhaven isn't a very standard Scottish ale, because I kept reading that they use almost no hops, and Belhaven had some definite hop presence (they even mention it on the bottle), at least on the aroma. Homebrewing forums generally emphasize a minimal amount of hops in Scottish ale, but that definitely wasn't the case here. Maybe some other examples would have been a closer match to what I ended up brewing.

 

[Bigfoot]

I brewed today and I'm hoping that it will be my first good brew. My first 2 brews were just pre-hopped LME that I bottled and they came out ok. My next brew was a DME + hop boil Weizen recipe but I stupidly added honey to the recipe and that bumped the ABV to 7%. I'm hoping it will get better with age but right now it has a strong alcohol taste. I also brewed a cider that was just below average.

My brew today was the extract version of BMs Centennial Blonde recipe. It is a pretty popular recipe on the Internets if you search for it. The fermentation has already kicked in and it smells delicious. I also bought a kegerator recently so this will be my first beer in a keg and because of that I hope to be enjoying this beer in just over a month.

I may actually brew this recipe again in 3 weeks and put it on top of the yeast cake from this brew. I've got the hops and Carapils already since i only used half of what i had so I just need to pick up some more DME. I'll probably bottle the next batch and save my second keg for another beer. Anyone got any good extract recipe recommendations?

 

[codswallop]

Tastes like my milk chocolate stout is coming together nicely. The OG was meant to be 1.056, was instead 1.062 (presumably the cacao nibs in the mash weren't properly accounted for in the original recipe), and the SG has been 1.023 (originally meant to be 1.015, attempting to rouse the yeast and put in a warmer location did nothing) for the past four or five days, so that looks to be where it'll finish.

Not too sweet, and the chocolate taste is really just a hit of dark chocolate bitterness, which is not as sweet as I want, but it's pretty nice. I'm going to bottle it this week and leave alone for almost three months before touching it.

Got a quadrupel that's been in bottles for nearly a month and has another few months before I'm prepared to look at it too. Colour on that was off but taste reasonable - I wanted more of a dark plum/chocolate taste which I missed because the sugar syrup wasn't up to what I wanted (details of that).

And finally, brewing a Belgian pale ale this weekend. Going to be away from home for a little while, so I'm going to have a TON of beer waiting, nice and aged, when I get home.

 

[Sheeshor]

Nice Thread, reminded me of

That's all I have.