So, I've got two things to talk about this morning.

1. I did an Amber Rye Ale last night and it came out pretty well. The OG was a little low (1.041) because I think my mashing/sparging needs work. I'm modifying a 2 gallon water jug with a hole in the bottom. The built-in spigot wasn't very good, and coupled with my high percentage rye mash, it got stuck, so I think I lost a few points there. Also, I didn't boil down enough (had about 1.1 or 1.2 gallons wort at the end) which would also lose a few points of OG. Anyway, the point of the picture is to show that necessity is the mother of invention. I have been buying 1 gallon glass bottles to do my 1 gallon fermenting. The problem last night was that as soon as I pushed the stopper into the mouth of my new glass bottle, the mouth broke! Now, I don't know about you, but I don't like glass in my beer. So, I had to improvise. I had this on hand and it seems to be working just fine. And it's cheaper, too!




Now, the second thing I wanted to post. Here's a video of my Imperial IPA a day after brewing. Can anyone tell me what the crap is going on in there?

Status update on Batch #8 (Dunkelweizen)

Well, I've been drinking my #8 as time has gone on, and it appears that it is peaking just about now. In fact, the carbonation is getting a little bit too high for the style (bubbles clinging to the sides of the glass in large groupings), but all in all, the aroma, flavor, mouthfeel and overall impression are back where I like a Dunkel to be. I'm still not sure what happened with my #5 batch (also a Dunkel), but although the aroma is still a little funky, the taste has mellowed and I can drink the beer happily. Actually, it seems to exactly match Michelob's Dunkel Weisse, which is a good product, but doesn't quite capture the essence of the Dunkel I seek.

Cool pics of All-Grain

So, this batch got started really, really fast! I'm not sure whether it's because I pitched enough yeast for a 5 gallon batch (into a 0.75 gallon batch) or because I pitched at a higher temperature (about 80 degrees), but the picture below is only 2 hours after pitching! I've never done a batch where the primary fermentation occurred in a glass bottle, so I've never actually seen the first part of fermentation. I do think it's weird, though, to see the thick sediment layers at both the top and bottom.


This picture is the next morning, about 12 hours after pitching. Bubble activity in the blow off tube has sped up a fair bit (1 bubble every couple of seconds), but the weirdest thing to me is that all of the sediment at the bottom is gone! Where'd it go? Was it processed by the yeast? Did it float to the top? How weird!!! (No, I didn't mess up and switch these pictures.)


On another note, the Imperial IPA I did (5 gallon batch) 2 nights ago is rocking along! It has to be the fastest bubble activity I've ever seen in a blow off or airlock. I'm seeing probably 2 big bubbles PER SECOND! Of course, since the OG for that batch was 1.092, it has a long, LONG way to go before it's done. Man, brewing is fun and interesting!

First Try in an All-Grain

OK, so it's been awhile. Since the last post (Irish Stout), I've brewed #11 (American Pale Ale - bottled), #12 (Blackberry Hefeweizen - in secondary) and #13 (Imperial IPA - in primary).

I was in the car and had little to do (not driving), so I looked up all-grain brewing techniques on my iPhone (love it!). I found a web page describing how to brew 1 gallon batches at home on the stove with basically nothing more than I already had. The only thing I needed to buy were the ingredients (duh!) and a 1 gallon bottle for primary/secondary.

So, here's my journey through the wonders of all-grain brewing. I found a simple, straightforward 10 gallon batch recipe for an American IPA and all I had to do was move the decimal place.

My ingredients were:
2.1 lbs. American Two-Row Pale Malt
.3 lbs. Rye Malt
.1 lbs. 40L Crystal Malt
.33 oz. Cascade hops (6.3% for 60 minutes)
.33 oz. Cascade hops (6.3% for 15 minutes)
.33 oz. Cascade hops (6.3% for 5 minutes)
1 sachet SafAle US-05 Dry Yeast

I didn't quite follow the recipe exactly, but we'll get to that later.
Here's a shot of the entirety of my ingredients:


I steeped (maybe "mashed") my grain at 150 degrees for 90 minutes. I was supposed to do it for 60, but I like big, strong, flavorful beers at the moment, so I wanted to wring out whatever these grains had to offer. Here's a shot of the grain almost as soon as I added it to my brew pot.


Here are the 3 hop additions. This was simply a 1 oz. bag of Cascade to start with. I separated them as evenly as possible (one for you, one for you, one for you...)


After I mashed the grain for an hour and a half, I strained it through a grain bag to get all of the stuff out that I could. Then, I added the wort back into the brew pot and started the boil. Here's a shot of the pot as it's starting its boil. Not much foaming action here.


These are all of the accessories I needed to use. Note the absence of any sort of racking or siphoning devices. I used the 1 cup measuring cup to get my sample for gravity readings and used the funnel to pour straight from my brew pot into the fermenting bottle. I'll probably skip the racking equipment when I transfer from primary to secondary, too. I think I'll simply carefully pour the beer through a grain bag into a sanitized pot, clean the fermenting bottle and pour the beer back into it through the funnel. Small batches are easy!!!


Here's the wort as it's cooling. If you look closely, you can see some weird looking stuff under the surface. Not important to brewing (I don't think), but a cool picture nonetheless.


Here's the batch in its final setup, ready to ferment in primary.


So, I kind of messed this batch up a little. I was supposed to add 2.25 gallons of water to my mash, but when I added 2, it looked like so much that I didn't add the next quart. Then, I was only supposed to boil for 60 minutes. By the time I started my boil, I was afraid I'd end up with 1.5 gallons or more, so I started planning for a 90 minute boil. Well, about 50 minutes in to it, I was shocked at how much water had boiled off, so I did a 75 minute boil (yes, 75 minutes of .33 oz Cascade for bittering) and I added my flavor hops at 20 minutes. I still ended up with well under a gallon of wort at the end, as you can see in the picture above. From my measurements, I actually brewed an Imperial IPA (again) rather than a standard American IPA. Oh, well, not a bad miss in my opinion.

*****Targets*****
Batch Size: 1.0 gal
OG: 1.066
SRM: 6.6
IBU: 67.9

*****Actual*****
Batch Size: ~0.75 gal
OG: 1.088
SRM: 8.6
IBU: 70.3 (not a ton of difference)

*****Hoped-for final numbers*****
FG: 1.017
ABV: 9.3%

It was a fun first foray into all-grain brewing! I might try another batch, say, Thursday or so. Well, I'm off to smoke a no-name brand cigar to see whether I've become too spoiled by my Padrons!