Disasters, check

Well, I hit the gravity. I also shorted out 3 digital thermometers via various assininities, and managed to be more worried about the gravity than the wort flowing into the primary and the hose blocked up on the hop bag i was running it through and spewed 1.5 gals onto the garage floor. Dang. 4.5 gals in the fermenter at 1.057.

Note to self: Put 5 gals of darn near boiling water into the cooler the night before.
"": Buy a waterproof thermometer.

Better yet, figure out how much heat loss occurs overnight and preheat the strike water the day before so brew day starts with the dumping of the grain, right after the de-spackling of the teeth.

Supplies, check

It's brewing weekend. I have to say that makes me happy. The idea of keg #2 in the kegerator just makes me plain ol giddy. There is certainly question as to whether keg #1 of WKE Wheat will pull a Michael Jackson on me in the next 3 weeks, but hey, it would delay me dropping another $75 on a faucet, shank and gas splitter. It should be ready to tote along to the finger lakes as well. I win.

Shopping list complete for Pale Ale #3

Box of chalk for cool new blackboard painted freezer door to identify the liquidy goodness within.
11 lbs American 2 row Pale malt
.75lb Malted Wheat
.5lb Munich
.5lb Crystal 20

New Yeast: Wyeast 1332 Northwest Ale
I don't know squat about this yeast and don't read much about it, so it should be interesting.

Hops bill has been all over the place for this one. Had some Nugget left over from Uber PA so that was the bittering. I wanted Amarillo again, but needed to mix it with other varieties so it was not so one dimensional. Originally it was Cascade, Glib suggested Centennial which is how I went to Keystone. I got there and Judy says, stick you head in there and smell some bags. That was the start of a good night in college, but a perfect suggestion in my current state. Oh what glorious scent is this? Chinook? I thought old bay for some reason, which seems ridiculous, but anyone who knows me in summer, knows I have a weakness for the sodium laden yellow can. That's a nut tickle from Madam Karma, so into the basket with you.

New MLT will make the maiden voyage tomorrow. I picked up a 70qt Coleman Extreme for $38 or something and converted it over using the 5gal igloo parts.

Getting stoked already.

Oh, I built the latest iteration of the brewing spreadsheet which now includes a standard brewday variable log to make it easier to find things, and hopefully remind me to take all the measurements.

Also put together a strike water calculator and liquor:grist ratio calculator which should both come in quite handy.

Keg legs

I am swooning, weak in the knees, and laughing at memories of nicknames from college girls past all at the same time. There could be no other title for this post.

Last Wednesday Jun 17, 2009 was a banner day in the annals of Imbecile Brewing Co, it's memory shall be celebrated every day, in perpetuity. My lemon WKE wheat had been in primary long enough. My bottle supply was a tad low. My unused refrigerator in the garage was on my nerves and my thrift (aka vacation account paid a week of expenses instead of the general fund) had left a budget surplus in May. My uber pale ale is having some carbonation issues in random bottles. What a bummer to reach for a cold one after a long hard day of interweb surfing and find a slightly syrupy, flat as a pancake, pale ale greeting me. Hmm, how do these things merge into a single vortex of pleasure say you? Read on.

"Mmmm, Draft Beer" says Homer.

Yup, after some research on the topic and yet another visit to Keystone to see Josh, I walked through downtown Bethlehem on my ergo break with a Cornie under one arm, a #5 co2 tank in the other and a box chock full o regulator, hoses, clamps, seals etc squeezed between. A gigantic shit eating grin plastered upon my melon left no question as to how the mood ring would glow.

"Late lunch" he quips to boss man as the door hits him in the ass. Co-workers nod their knowing approval. 7 miles later, refrigerator fires right up after 2 years, got cold and stayed that way. Turn and burn back to Paycheckville, USA.

Oh the joy, oh the pleasure, oh the ease of pumping primary directly into keg, sealing said device, snapping on an air hose and walking away to paint! Ok, you got me, I checked it and rolled the keg around every 15 minutes to hear the regulator say "splurrsh" as it pumped it's 30lbs of goodness into the whoreish and greedy wheat. 24 hrs later, lots of pressure and head, still somewhat flat underneath. Next morning, woohoo! (It was only a small glass boss man). Backed pressure back to #12 and have been enjoying the goodness ever since.

Now for the beer review of WKE Wheat.
Outstanding shaving creamesque head, beer is very very turbid, almost with a touch of grey, but to be expected with 60% wheat. Lemony nose comes through, head has a slightly bitter and familiar flavor with it, and to a lesser extent the finish. It reminds me of the lemon pith, which I will not do again and stick with just the zesting. It is drinkable though with very low alcohol, as was expected with the wke OG. In the words of Hanna Montana who I listened to 50 times this weekend, next time i need to pump up the party a little.

Verdict? Another $34 to the coffers of Keystone along with my grain bill so my Amarillo Pale Ale this weekend can be keg #2 on tap.

Projects:
Rip out crisper drawers and replace with wooden bottom so it will support second keg.
Pick up #20 co2 bottle from Jimbo that had a previous life as a nitrous tank in the parking lot of the Electric Factory. Ah the irony there.
Get a shank and faucet so the door doesn't have to be opened 50 times a week, err I mean occasionally. Me thinketh this one. Shall I buy 1 or 2?

The mantra RDWHAHB just evolved.

WKE Wheat

Inspiration hit me out of nowhere friday afternoon at my desk. I had enough of checkbox validation schemes for the new survey system and hit Penn Pizza for a Sam Adams Summer Ale. I drank a case of it last summer and it was good. I needed a new beer style to brew and was in need of checking my efficiency. I wasn't feeling the grains of paradise though, so after work hit Keystone.

5.5lbs American Wheat
4.5lbs American Pale
.5lb Rice Hulls
1056 American Ale 12-May 09 (Wanted the american wheat, but out of stock. Judy says it shouldn't matter that much)
1 lemon
1oz Tettnang 4.7% pellet
1oz Saaz czech 3.4% pellet

To make a long story short, OG came in at 1.040 again.. How in hell is this possible? That's 52.5 efficiency, and I was spot on with everything I wanted. I hit 1.040 with the uber pale ale with 7.5lbs of grain and hit the exact same thing with 10? Something is amuk, it most certainly is me.

3.5 Gals 168 Strike brought grain temp to 154 for Liquor:Grist of 1.33. I preheated the Mash Tun and it held the entire 45 mins. 1.25 Gals boiling water brought it to 169 and I held it for another 15 minutes. Ran that off over 30mins with adjusted gravity of 1.054. Sparged with 3 gals at 169 and held for 15 minutes before starting runoff.

8:30 3.5 gals 122deg water into mash tun to preheat
9:10 Transferred preheat water to HLT
9:27 Added hot liquor and 10lbs grain and .5lb rice hulls in about 4 alternating layers 157 initial temp
9:30 Re-Stir 154deg
10:17 Added 1.25gals boiling water temp to 168. Mash tun Full so lid upside down
10:27 Started run off
10:37 Put back a gallon and started first runnings
10:53 Collected 3 gals first runnings. 1.048 at 107. Added 3 gals 169. Mash temp to 162
11:08 Start second runnings after running 1 gal back
11:30 Fired brew kettle after collecting 3 gals second runnings. Added 1.5 gals to mash at 170 for backup
11:50 Boil
12:00 1oz Tettnang 4.7% pellet
12:15 Ran off .75 gal 3rd runnings to top rivets of brew kettle.
12:50 Yeast nutrients and .5 oz Saaz. Almost added whirlfloc, wouldn't make much sense in a wheat...
12:55 Zest of 1.2 lemon
1:00 Knockout and .5 Saaz
1:15 started chiller Forgot to log what time I started running into primary.
3:15 pitched yeast at 72
1:00 Flameout


June 11- Gravity reading of 1.004. Zested 1 more lemon in. It had a good lemony nose and decent lemon flavor. So I can't complain. Looking forward to it. Broke open an uberpale ale and it was flat flat. Starting to get concerned. Need to drop another in the fridge to rule out a bad seal.



June 17 KEGGED! Specifics are ABV 4.6% 133 cals

Why why why

Why can't i remember this? I use it all the time, it's simple and i have no goddam recall. Placing here for reference.

Update from:

update tblx
SET tblx.YEGoal = jj.yeg
FROM tblx ke
INNER JOIN jjttmp jj ON (ke.id = jj.storeid and ke.type = 's')

North bound and down!

Leaving for vacation to Newboro! Still unpacked, but just got the uber pale ale transferred to secondary so my priorities are straight at least. 1.006. This is turning out to be quite an experiment. Smells outstanding. Bitterness is there, doesn't seem overwhelming at this point as I feared with such a low OG. Lesh Philling, tastes fucking great. Definately a light beer, could fit the bill for a post lawn mowing beverage when ice cold.

Uber Light Pale Ale

RDWHAHB, RDWHAHB he says. Brewhouse efficiency, was about 64.3 to as low as 57 ish. Not exactly sure on volumes and that makes a big difference. Ended up at 1.040. Pretty far off the 1.046-48 I thought I would hit. We shall see how it turns out. According to here that kind of efficiency should have seen me with 9 lbs pale malt, not 7.5. Glad I did not go with 6.5!

7.5lbs Pale Malt
0.62lbs Malted Wheat
.5 Munich Malt
.687 Crystal 20



5:40 Fired 3.5 gals in HLT
5:58 Hit 152, left 3 cups in hlt.
6:08 Stirred 151
6:21 150
6:28 150 Stirred in 2 cups boiling water, no change
6:42 149
7:00 148 Fired 3.75 gals sparge water
7:20 168 batch sparge
7:27 160 uncovered
7:38 Ran off 1 gal then emptied
7:57 added 1 gallon 168 with 6 in brew kettle
8:13 boil
8:23 .5oz Nugget (60min)
8:36 added 3 quarts of 3rd run
9:07 1/2 tsp yeast nutrient in 1/2 cup warm water to hydrate and added whirlfloc to kettle (15 min)
9:12 added yeast nutrients (10 min)
9:15 (7 mins) added 1 oz each Willamette and Cascade
9:22 Flameout, 1 oz Cascade 0 min
15 minute rest
9:37 Chiller in
10:45 Pitched Wyeast 1056 70f




Update: May 23 dryhopped 1oz of cascade. All the marbles in 1 bag still didn't get it to sink.