I hadn't posted since 7/7, and I just posted about my batch from last night, but I've also done 2 more batches in the meantime:
1. English Bitter
2. 1 gallon of Mead
I racked both last night.
The mead had a slight rubbery smell (like the stopper I was using), but to my knowledge it had not had any contact with the stopper in any way. Hopefully that's just a raw characteristic that will age out of it. The small taste I took was good except for that flavor.
The English bitter was dark, much darker than I remembered, but it smelled good and was very, very clear during racking to secondary. Since I have 2 kegs full of beer right now, I'm planning to leave this beer in secondary until a keg comes empty and then use sugar to naturally carb the beer in the keg. Therefore, this beer will probably not be on tap until the end of August or the beginning of September. Maybe this time I'll get a draft beer that's not so crappy :). (My first two kegged batches were much lower quality than I've experienced in bottles. I think it has to do with fine-tuning my keg pressures and letting the beer age properly. Why force carb if you still have to let the beer sit?)
I have a kit for a simple American Cream Ale that I might do next, but I also tasted some of the Belgian Dubbel/Tripel/Wedding Ale I made at a bachelor party last weekend (the groom got an early taste!), and it was AWESOME!!!! I'm thinking about doing another batch of that and buying a new keg when it's ready in order to let it age for a long time. So, I'm not sure what's going to come next.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
American IPA (from kit)
If anyone has actually been reading this blog, I'm sorry for the lapse in postings. I've done a few batches since my last post, and have progressed to kegging my batches. Results are mixed so far.
Here's the latest batch I just put into primary:
American IPA
*******************************
Target Ranges:
*******************************
OG: 1.056-1.075
FG: 1.010-1.018
COLOR: 6.0-15.0 SRM
IBU: 40.0-70.0
ABV: 5.5-7.5%
*******************************
Measured Values:
*******************************
OG: 1.056 (1.054 @ 77.4F)
Color seems to match color panel displayed in Beer Smith.
No idea how to measure IBU, but Beer Smith calculates 42.7. This might be a little low for what I want, but we'll see.
*******************************
Ingredient list:
*******************************
6.6 lb. Munton's un-hopped Pale Liquid Malt Extract (2 cans)
1.0 lb. 60L Crystal Malt
0.5 lb. Victory Malt
1.0 lb. Karo Syrup (to make sure to bump up the OG)
2.00 oz. Cascade (7.90%) @ 60 minutes of boil
1.00 oz. Cascade (7.30%) added slowly from 20 to 8 minutes left in boil
1 package SafAle US-05 dry ale yeast
*******************************
Procedures:
*******************************
Used a Bayou Classic SP-10 propane burner for all heating tasks.
Used a modified 5 gallon Home Depot water cooler with false bottom. Put1.5 lbs. of grain into cooler and added 2 gallons of water at about 160F for 40 minutes.
Drained "mash" straight into brew pot.
Added both cans of liquid extract and bottle of Karo (corn) syrup.
Began boil.
Had little foaming action (most of it was at hop addition).
At 40 minutes of boil, I began slowly adding the 1 oz. of flavoring hops, continuing to do so until the pellets ran out at about 8 minutes remaining.
At 15 minutes remaining, I placed my heat exchanger in the boil to sanitize.
When I cranked the water on to cool the wort, my heat exchanger was spraying water. Luckily, I had placed the lid over the pot, so I don't think any hose water got in, but I had to go to plan "B", which was an ice bath in the kitchen sink. I try to be very careful with sanitation, but my wife accidentally spilled about 1 or 2 oz. of tap water into the wort as it was chilling. I hope it doesn't introduce a bacterial infection to the beer. It took a LOOOOONG time to cool the wort down to 110, but luckily I had 3.5 gallons of chilled spring water to bring the temp down further.
After putting the concentrated wort in the bucket, adding water to 5 gallons and taking a gravity reading, I simply covered the top of the wort with the yeast, not stirring it in.
I rigged a blow-off solution into a 1 gallon plastic water jug, and there was fairly significant activity this morning.
The goal for this beer was a nice, strong, hoppy, yet quaffable summer beer.
Here's the latest batch I just put into primary:
American IPA
*******************************
Target Ranges:
*******************************
OG: 1.056-1.075
FG: 1.010-1.018
COLOR: 6.0-15.0 SRM
IBU: 40.0-70.0
ABV: 5.5-7.5%
*******************************
Measured Values:
*******************************
OG: 1.056 (1.054 @ 77.4F)
Color seems to match color panel displayed in Beer Smith.
No idea how to measure IBU, but Beer Smith calculates 42.7. This might be a little low for what I want, but we'll see.
*******************************
Ingredient list:
*******************************
6.6 lb. Munton's un-hopped Pale Liquid Malt Extract (2 cans)
1.0 lb. 60L Crystal Malt
0.5 lb. Victory Malt
1.0 lb. Karo Syrup (to make sure to bump up the OG)
2.00 oz. Cascade (7.90%) @ 60 minutes of boil
1.00 oz. Cascade (7.30%) added slowly from 20 to 8 minutes left in boil
1 package SafAle US-05 dry ale yeast
*******************************
Procedures:
*******************************
Used a Bayou Classic SP-10 propane burner for all heating tasks.
Used a modified 5 gallon Home Depot water cooler with false bottom. Put1.5 lbs. of grain into cooler and added 2 gallons of water at about 160F for 40 minutes.
Drained "mash" straight into brew pot.
Added both cans of liquid extract and bottle of Karo (corn) syrup.
Began boil.
Had little foaming action (most of it was at hop addition).
At 40 minutes of boil, I began slowly adding the 1 oz. of flavoring hops, continuing to do so until the pellets ran out at about 8 minutes remaining.
At 15 minutes remaining, I placed my heat exchanger in the boil to sanitize.
When I cranked the water on to cool the wort, my heat exchanger was spraying water. Luckily, I had placed the lid over the pot, so I don't think any hose water got in, but I had to go to plan "B", which was an ice bath in the kitchen sink. I try to be very careful with sanitation, but my wife accidentally spilled about 1 or 2 oz. of tap water into the wort as it was chilling. I hope it doesn't introduce a bacterial infection to the beer. It took a LOOOOONG time to cool the wort down to 110, but luckily I had 3.5 gallons of chilled spring water to bring the temp down further.
After putting the concentrated wort in the bucket, adding water to 5 gallons and taking a gravity reading, I simply covered the top of the wort with the yeast, not stirring it in.
I rigged a blow-off solution into a 1 gallon plastic water jug, and there was fairly significant activity this morning.
The goal for this beer was a nice, strong, hoppy, yet quaffable summer beer.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Blackberry Hefeweizen Update
OK, so I've taken a little time off from drinking the Blackberry Hefeweizen. It's been about a week since I last popped one and the time seems to have helped out a lot. As I was hoping, the blackberry flavoring (2 oz. of concentrated flavoring added when I racked to secondary) has mellowed out a little bit and gone towards the back of the flavor profile. This has allowed more of the overall hefe flavor to come out, and it's now getting toward a nice marriage of flavors. It's still a little heavy on the blackberry flavoring, which seems to be a little musty when it's so strong, but it's getting better. I now have higher hopes for the other 3 gallons I bottled last week. Now, I guess I just need to give it about a month before I start drinking those.
On another note, I realized I had a small stash of batch #6 left. These were the roasty/smoky dunkelweizens I did a few months ago. The flavor is still a little off for my taste, but it's turned into a fairly solid beer. Carbonation is nice. Lacing is good. I wish it had been a standard dunkel, not roasty, but it's still good enough to keep me from buying beer instead of drinking it.
On another note, I realized I had a small stash of batch #6 left. These were the roasty/smoky dunkelweizens I did a few months ago. The flavor is still a little off for my taste, but it's turned into a fairly solid beer. Carbonation is nice. Lacing is good. I wish it had been a standard dunkel, not roasty, but it's still good enough to keep me from buying beer instead of drinking it.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Batch updates
I've bottled 13 gallons of beer in the last week alone!
5 gallons of Imperial IPA
5 gallons of Belgian Grand Cru/Tripel
3 gallons of Blackberry Hefeweizen
I used Munton's "drops" as my bottling sugar for the Hefeweizen and am interested to see how it will turn out. After 3 days in the bottle, I checked one and noticed that all of the "drops" (they come as small pills or tablets of sugar) had broken apart, but a good bit of sludge at the bottom indicates that they still need to fully dissolve into the beer.
I'm a little disappointed with the 2 gallons of Blackberry Hefeweizen I've bottled so far. The blackberry taste seems to overwhelm the hefeweizen taste, but not in a good way. I hope with more time in the bottle that this beer will mellow out and the flavors will marry well.
I was very happy with the tasting of both the Imperial IPA and the Belgian at bottling. I have high hopes for both. I went ahead and tasted one of the Imperials last night (only 5 days after bottling) and it was well short of full carbonation, although it did have some bubbles to speak of. In any case, the flavor was right on for what I want, so I believe when it's ready it will be great! For the belgian, I laid out some money and bottled them in true belgian style with the proper bottles and corks and wire caps. A good number of these will be given away to my friend for his wedding. I'm also planning to age quite a few and give him more on his first anniversary. I also laid out some money for labels from MyOwnLabels.com, and I've very pleased with the results. I got both body and neck labels for this batch, and it makes the bottles look quite good indeed. I'll post the pictures later.
I have also purchased similar labels for other batches (Pale Ale, Irish Stout, Hefeweizen, among others) and will continue to do so. When applied to a clean and dry bottle, these labels stick very well and really make the beer bottle look classy. The only down side is that they're somewhat expensive, adding about $0.40 per bottle. I know this doesn't sound like much, but for some batches, that's as much as the cost for the beer inside! That said, I'll probably look for an alternate solution that will allow me to print the labels at home. For a special batch, though, the professional quality of these labels is sure to please!
5 gallons of Imperial IPA
5 gallons of Belgian Grand Cru/Tripel
3 gallons of Blackberry Hefeweizen
I used Munton's "drops" as my bottling sugar for the Hefeweizen and am interested to see how it will turn out. After 3 days in the bottle, I checked one and noticed that all of the "drops" (they come as small pills or tablets of sugar) had broken apart, but a good bit of sludge at the bottom indicates that they still need to fully dissolve into the beer.
I'm a little disappointed with the 2 gallons of Blackberry Hefeweizen I've bottled so far. The blackberry taste seems to overwhelm the hefeweizen taste, but not in a good way. I hope with more time in the bottle that this beer will mellow out and the flavors will marry well.
I was very happy with the tasting of both the Imperial IPA and the Belgian at bottling. I have high hopes for both. I went ahead and tasted one of the Imperials last night (only 5 days after bottling) and it was well short of full carbonation, although it did have some bubbles to speak of. In any case, the flavor was right on for what I want, so I believe when it's ready it will be great! For the belgian, I laid out some money and bottled them in true belgian style with the proper bottles and corks and wire caps. A good number of these will be given away to my friend for his wedding. I'm also planning to age quite a few and give him more on his first anniversary. I also laid out some money for labels from MyOwnLabels.com, and I've very pleased with the results. I got both body and neck labels for this batch, and it makes the bottles look quite good indeed. I'll post the pictures later.
I have also purchased similar labels for other batches (Pale Ale, Irish Stout, Hefeweizen, among others) and will continue to do so. When applied to a clean and dry bottle, these labels stick very well and really make the beer bottle look classy. The only down side is that they're somewhat expensive, adding about $0.40 per bottle. I know this doesn't sound like much, but for some batches, that's as much as the cost for the beer inside! That said, I'll probably look for an alternate solution that will allow me to print the labels at home. For a special batch, though, the professional quality of these labels is sure to please!
American Pale Ale (Batch #???)
If anyone has actually been reading this blog, I'm sorry for the lapse in postings. I've done a few batches since my last post, and have progressed to full grain, full 5 gallon boil batches. It makes the process a LOT longer, but also simpler in certain ways, and it also has the advantage of making the batches cheaper. Going all grain costs significantly less than using DME or LME.
Here's the latest batch I just put into primary:
American Pale Ale
*******************************
Target Ranges:
*******************************
OG: 1.045-1.060
FG: 1.010-1.015
COLOR: 5.0-14.0 SRM
IBU: 30.0-45.0
ABV: 4.5-6.0%
*******************************
Measured Values:
*******************************
OG: 1.051 (1.049 @ 75.5F)
Color seems to match color panel displayed in Beer Smith.
No idea how to measure IBU, but Beer Smith calculates 30.9. I was going for a slightly less hoppy beer this time, on the lower end of the range, and I seem to have hit it.
*******************************
Ingredient list:
*******************************
10.00 lb Pale Male (2-Row American Briess)
0.50 lb Munich Malt
0.50 lb 20L Crystal Malt
0.25 lb Carapils/Dextrine
1.00 oz. Cascade (6.00%) @ 60 minutes of boil
slightly more than 0.50 oz. Cascade (6.00%) @ 20 minutes of boil
slightly less than 0.50 oz. Cascade (6.00%) @ 5 minutes of boil
1 package SafAle US-05 dry ale yeast
*******************************
Procedures:
*******************************
Used a Bayou Classic SP-10 propane burner for all heating tasks.
Used a modified 5 gallon Home Depot water cooler with false bottom. Put all 11.25 lbs. of grain into cooler and added just under 3.5 gallons of water at about 160-165F for 60 minutes. (Sometimes it's hard to measure the exact temperature of the water, as it's different from spot to spot. I went on the lower end of the suggested temperature range to avoid overheating the mash.)
Drained mash, putting about the first 2 or 3 quarts back on top to aid with filtering.
Added 2.5 gallons of water at about 190F for batch sparging for a period of 10 minutes.
Drained sparge, putting about 3 quarts back through again.
Began boil.
Had a large foaming action, requiring the addition of almost 2 gallons of cool water to prevent boil over. When foaming action had subsided, I added 1 oz. of Cascade and began the boil clock.
At 40 minutes of boil, I added in just over 0.50 oz. Cascade and placed my heat exchanger (copper tubing hooked to garden hoses) in the boil to sanitize. At 55 minutes of boil, I added the rest of the second ounce of Cascade (just under 0.50 oz.).
The last all grain batch I did had a few small flies in the primary when I racked to secondary, so I placed the lid on top of the kettle when I was cooling the wort to attempt to prevent as many flies from coming in. It took almost 45 minutes to get the wort temperature down below 80 degrees. I then transferred the cooled wort to my primary and pitched my yeast.
I hope to have this beer drinkable by the 24th of July, as I'm going on a bachelor party weekend and want to take some along. A taste of the wort sample was good, but with a surprising bitterness. I hope the fermentation process smooths that out.
The goal for this beer was a light, refreshing, quaffable summertime ale.
Here's the latest batch I just put into primary:
American Pale Ale
*******************************
Target Ranges:
*******************************
OG: 1.045-1.060
FG: 1.010-1.015
COLOR: 5.0-14.0 SRM
IBU: 30.0-45.0
ABV: 4.5-6.0%
*******************************
Measured Values:
*******************************
OG: 1.051 (1.049 @ 75.5F)
Color seems to match color panel displayed in Beer Smith.
No idea how to measure IBU, but Beer Smith calculates 30.9. I was going for a slightly less hoppy beer this time, on the lower end of the range, and I seem to have hit it.
*******************************
Ingredient list:
*******************************
10.00 lb Pale Male (2-Row American Briess)
0.50 lb Munich Malt
0.50 lb 20L Crystal Malt
0.25 lb Carapils/Dextrine
1.00 oz. Cascade (6.00%) @ 60 minutes of boil
slightly more than 0.50 oz. Cascade (6.00%) @ 20 minutes of boil
slightly less than 0.50 oz. Cascade (6.00%) @ 5 minutes of boil
1 package SafAle US-05 dry ale yeast
*******************************
Procedures:
*******************************
Used a Bayou Classic SP-10 propane burner for all heating tasks.
Used a modified 5 gallon Home Depot water cooler with false bottom. Put all 11.25 lbs. of grain into cooler and added just under 3.5 gallons of water at about 160-165F for 60 minutes. (Sometimes it's hard to measure the exact temperature of the water, as it's different from spot to spot. I went on the lower end of the suggested temperature range to avoid overheating the mash.)
Drained mash, putting about the first 2 or 3 quarts back on top to aid with filtering.
Added 2.5 gallons of water at about 190F for batch sparging for a period of 10 minutes.
Drained sparge, putting about 3 quarts back through again.
Began boil.
Had a large foaming action, requiring the addition of almost 2 gallons of cool water to prevent boil over. When foaming action had subsided, I added 1 oz. of Cascade and began the boil clock.
At 40 minutes of boil, I added in just over 0.50 oz. Cascade and placed my heat exchanger (copper tubing hooked to garden hoses) in the boil to sanitize. At 55 minutes of boil, I added the rest of the second ounce of Cascade (just under 0.50 oz.).
The last all grain batch I did had a few small flies in the primary when I racked to secondary, so I placed the lid on top of the kettle when I was cooling the wort to attempt to prevent as many flies from coming in. It took almost 45 minutes to get the wort temperature down below 80 degrees. I then transferred the cooled wort to my primary and pitched my yeast.
I hope to have this beer drinkable by the 24th of July, as I'm going on a bachelor party weekend and want to take some along. A taste of the wort sample was good, but with a surprising bitterness. I hope the fermentation process smooths that out.
The goal for this beer was a light, refreshing, quaffable summertime ale.
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