Porter

Used the same recipe as the Petite, but with Marris Otter instead of 2 row and Kent Goldings to 15. 1.054 FG,

11/23/10- Kegged 1.016FG

Lemon Wheat

Knocked out the lemon Wheat for the summer this afternoon due to thunderstorms and good-ol desire. FG again ridiculously low. I guess it is the wheat?

5lbs 2 row pale
5 lbs wheat
1 oz Hallertau (used tettnang the last time, grabbed the wrong thing, go back to tettnang, more AA) 60
.5 oz Saaz Chech 20
.5 oz Saaz Chech 5
Zest of 1 lemon 5
1007 German Ale

3.25 Gals @ 162 for 60 mins
1.25 gals @212 for 15
Runoff
3 gals sparge @ 168


First runnings 1.040 hot, 1.052 room
Second 1.010 hot, 1.022 room
FG 1.044
Pitched @76

Kegerator out of CO2. Must check for a leak. No reason the 20# should have kicked on 5 kegs.

Didn't secondary this, after all, it's a wheat. Kegged 7/3/10 1.008. We'll see. Very light and refreshing, hint of lemon to the nose.

Petite Porter

This is intended to be a lighter version of the potbelly porter. Suitable for the post lawn mowing or motorcycle rides of summer. Left everything the same, but backed down the specialty grains with the exception of the crystal and ditched the carapils.

1.3:1 liquor/grist ratio 4 gals @169 1 hr for 155. 1.75 gals boiling added and let sit 15 minutes. Got 4 gals runoff at 1.064 adjusted. Batch sparge with 3 gals @ 170 for 15.

10lbs British 2 row pale
5 oz Chocolate
4 oz Brown
3 oz Black Patent
.5 Crystal 60



60 1oz Challenger 7%
10 1 oz UK Kent Golding 5%
5 .5oz Fuggles 4.8
3 .5oz Fuggles 4.8


Pitched Wyeast 1028 @70

Totally forgot to take OG. Transferred to secondary 2/24/10 1.016

5/18/2010 Transferred to keg. FG of 1.017? Way high, not sure why. Warm and flat it's a winner. Pancake syrup kind of color, very smooth, very excited to get back from Canada and wack a few cold and carbonated. Maybe push the Kent Golding back to 30 minutes? It could use some more hops early and late for a more Americanized version, but it is very English ale'y, exactly like I like it.

Irish Christmas Red Ale

OK, so I'm not irish, but it is christmas, and what's more festive than red ale and green hops?

Found the grain bill and inspiration for the hops from a Smithwicks clone. Only 5 more months...

8lbs Marris Otter
.75 Crystal 60
.5 Carapils
.16 Roasted Barley

60 1oz Kent Goldings 5%
20 .5oz Fuggles 4.5%
5 .5oz Fuggles 4.5%

Preheated with 2 gals boiling
3 gals @ 167 for a 154 mash 1 hr 1.3:1 ratio
1.5 gals boiling mashout 15
3 gals @170 sparge

FG 1.045
Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale @68
Fermenting happily @64

1/3/10 - Moved to secondary 1.010. Not really red, we will have to see in a pint glass. Curious why fg is so high again. Perhaps the higher mash temps?

Potbelly Porter

Great day of brewing. Not even any mini disasters and I will take that every time. Porter turned out fantastic, though way over gravity 1.058 (planned 1.052). 1.3:1 liquor/grist ratio 4 gals @169 1 hr for 155. 1.75 gals boiling added and let sit 15 minutes. Got 4 gals runoff at 1.064 adjusted. Batch sparge with 3 gals @ 170 for 15. 65.2% efficiency!

Finally got to use brown malt!
10lbs British 2 row pale
.5 Chocolate
.5 Brown
.25 Black Patent
.5 Crystal 60
.25 Carapils

Changed up the Hops quite a bit
60 1oz Challenger 7%
10 1 oz UK Kent Golding 5%
5 .5oz Fuggles 4.8
3 .5oz Fuggles 4.8


Pitched Wyeast 1028 @70


1/6/2010 - Just had to comment for when I looked this up again. Friggin fantastic. Wouldn't change a thing.

Back in the saddle

Ah, Labor Day weekend. Time for some sweet labor. Kicked off the weekend in grand fashion with the latest iteration of America pale ale. Slight modifications from last time. Ditched the .5 lb crystal 20 and added .5 wheat. Swapped Nugget for Warrior. Swapped the Amarillo for Cascade.
11lbs American Pale 2 row
1.5 lbs Malted Wheat
.5 lbs Munich

.5 60 Warrior
.5 12 Cascade
.5 12 Chinook
.5 4 Chinook
.5 0 Cascade
Should deliver 42 IBU


Preheated MLT with 3 gals boiling water this time. That was perfect.
4 gals at 166 gave me 153 on the nose which is what I was shooting for. 60 mins later it was 151.

First runnings were 2.5 gals @ 1.080. I really should have gone with my gut and used rice hulls. there was standing liquor at the far end of the MLT. Not sure if the hulls will up that initial run or not.

4 gals @172 for sparge. Held for 15 minutes and ran off. 1.030

Start of 6 gal boil 1.050
End 1.058

I'll take that.

I hope I can milk the Double Chin until this one is ready for some side by side comparisons. My hopes are that it will be slightly less sweet and a bit lighter color. Double Chin screamed cascade from the first taste so hopefully this is a step in the right direction.


Chilled wort down to 95 with chiller then put it in fermenter and put whole thing in beer fridge. Still waiting as I write this pitch the Northwest Ale Yeast.


Efficiency 60.3 with SRM of 4.8 according to http://www.brewheads.com

Unlike last time, this took off like a bat out of hell. Pressure in the airlock before I went to bed. Bubbling at 4 secs when I woke up. Got back from disc golf and there was a bulging bucket with the depressed part of the lid filled with foam. Installed the handy dandy blowoff tube and it is dare I say violently fermenting. Very very strange. Pitched at 72, it dropped to 70, now back up to 72. No idea why this is happening, but is smells great. We shall see rabbit, we shall see.

Sept 14 - moved to secondary and dry hopped with 1 oz cascade plugs. 1.014. First impressions. No bitter bite at all, I think the warrior was a good call, but should have gone heavier. Could have significantly upped the IBU's I am guessing but it should be nice and drinkable.


Sept 22 - Tasted it and it is going to be good. Light on the aroma so added another ounce of cascade plugs and weighted it down with a ton of glass beads. This should be interesting.

Double Chin Ale Kegged

Kegged the double chin yesterday. Really different, very earthy, dark and warm in taste, with a solid malt profile Nice break from the cascade rat race of late. 1.008fg

Put into serving fridge on 20psi 7/23 20:00.

Chinook/Amarillo Pale Ale

"Hmm. That's different", he says with a cock of the head and dives back in for more. Racked the Chinook/Amarillo Pale Ale to secondary. OG 1.016. Still had a nice frothy Krausen, but not too high. Bubbles were 4-5 seconds all week, slowed to 10 friday and was about 18ish today. I thought about keeping it in primary longer, but I like the idea of some fermentation going on in secondary to push out the O2 with CO2. Still very turbid in appearance as I expected. The finish is late and long which I like, earthy and what do you know, spicy as advertised. Thinking less old bay, and more cumin-y? Can't really place it. It almost seemed hot pepper spicy when it went into primary, but it has lost that edge now, which I think I am glad about. It definately needs to be dry hopped, but with what? Initial immediate reaction was cascade would work well with it and brighten it up a bit on the front end. I may do some sniffing around that new Japanese hop. Not sure whether to stay in the earthy end since it is well placed in that category, or th change it up a bit. I don't want more Amarillo I don't think and the Chinook doesn't really smell hoppy to me.

I think I may really like this northwest yeast.

This beer needs a name. Something like 38th unparalleled maybe since I saw Dean and Mouse as it was in primary. I think I am settled on the Patton Porter for a name, lemon wheat will be a standard brew this time of year, so that needs a name as well. Hell, the brewery still needs a name, Imbecile brewing is funny, but I'm not going to proudly write it on a bottle.

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.

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

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.

Water Quality

I got a call back from Easton Suburban Water Authority about water quality. The woman was really nice (Erin?).

Last year is published here: http://www.eswater.net/report_2007.pdf
Here is what I done learnt about 2008.

Calcium 15.7 ppm
Hardness 54
ph 7.15
Sulfate 23.1

Supposedly bicarbonate is calcium + magnesium and magnesium is a property of hardness and calcium? That will take a little bit of research.

Reason so soft she said was because we drink from the Delaware, not from ground water, so the water does not absorb nearly as much minerals as other cities/wells may.

Amarillo Pale Ale

This is more of a placeholder because I have what I thought was piles of notes to put in for my first all grain batch.

Starting at the end, I bottled today. 1.008 FG. It is outstanding. Amarillo hops really gives it a unique aroma. Should be a real easy drinking beer. Perhaps 5 more ibu's next time? We will see.

April 19- Dryhopped with 1 oz Amarillo plugs split between 2 muslin bags. Put 8 marbles in 1 bag and it did not sink.

April 11- Moved to secondary.

April 4- Brew day.
There was a lot of confusion on my part as to the grain bill. I have notes for both 9 and 10 lbs of pale malt and changed it at least 4 times. I need a new system to log this stuff.

UPDATE: Keystone Homebrew Supply asks for my phone number for a reason. Josh looked it up and it was in fact 10 lbs of Breiss pale malt

Grain Bill
10lbs 2 row Pale Malt
1lb Crystal 40

Water
Put 3 gals hot tap water (119F) into Mash Tun for 30 minutes to get the temp up. Then moved that 3 gals to the HLT.

Process
Alternated adding small parts grain bill and 3Gals 164F water to the mash tun. Stirred and capped.
7 mins 147F. Too Low.
15 mins added 2 qts boiling water and stirred. Temp to 154. Perfect.
45 mins started runoff after recirculating 1 gal. 1.054 @152 Temp adjusted this was 1.070
60 mins Batch sparge 3 gals 168F water. Mash temp 166
95 mins started runoff after recirculating 1 gal and lit brew pot. SG temp adjusted was 1.038
120 mins had 18 cups extra but ended up using 8 of them. to cover for evap

-virtual timer reset to run in reverse now-
70 min boil
60 minutes 1 oz 8.5 AA Amarillo pellets
30 minutes added 2 more cups of mash water
30 minutes added .5 oz 8.5 AA Amarillo pellets
15 minutes anded 1 whirlfloc tablet
4 minutes added 1 oz 8.5 AA Amarillo pellets
0 minutes added .5 oz 8.5 AA Amarillo pellets

Pitched Wyeast 1272 American Ale II

1.054 FG @ 68F

Porter 2 Transfer

Moved to secondary. G 1.016. Tasted pretty good, only time will tell.

Porter II Bubble Report

Well. The curious case of the missing bubbles has been somewhat solved. First bubbles sighted at 2pm Tuesday, 15 sec's apart. Moved fermenter from back basement to finished side to get it up to temp. Gauge on side of the bucket still says 66, but it said 63. I guess that made enough of a difference.

3-7 20:00 0 63
3-8 20:00 0 63
3-9 08:00 0 63
3-9 20:00 0 64 Moved to finished side
3-10 08:00 0 64
3-10 14:00 15 66
3-10 19:00 4 68
3-11 08:00 3 68
3-11 18:00 2 70?
3-12 20:00 3 70
3-13 8:00 8 70
3-14 08:00 32 70
3-14 13:00 Transferred to secondary
3-14 20:00 54 68

Porter Deux Brew

What a great day. Spring fever hit hard as temps were in the 70's after shoveling 4 inches on Monday. What better way to celebrate than to get my brew on with the porter. 8am found me at Cabelas becoming the proud new owner of a stainless steel 30qt pot, and the cabelas fish cooker base. More than I wanted to spend, but oh well. I look at it as an "hey, it wasn't cancer" present. Used 70$ in cabelas points so it evened out.

Brew went well, up until boil almost started and I realized I was 1 oz short of fuggles. Keystone was open and hazed me appropriately. I could no be happier with the outcome so far. Pitched at 63 degrees!

Burner only used about 2 lbs of propane??? Is that possible?

2:25 2.5 gals in steep pot with grain bill of .5 Crystal 60, .5 Chocolate, .5 black patent and .75 Carapils
2:56 152 degrees
3:10 cranked up stove to Med High
3:13 158 degrees. Fired burner outside with water level up to 2 inches below "min fill mark"
3:30 Moved hot liquor to brew pot. Sparge 1.5 gals @ 172
3:42 Pot level up to bottom rivets.
3:50 Emergency shut off and race to Keystone for 1 oz of fuggles because I am a dumbass
4:26 Pot fired up. Added 6 lbs of dme which took to within 1 inch of the top. Took time with heat to avoid boilover
5:05 Tossed 1 oz bramling cross pellets in a bag and stated count down
5:50 1 oz fuggles and whirlfloc. Whirlfloc damn near caused boilover.
5:58 .5 oz fuggles
6:02 .5 oz fuggles
6:05 flameout and chiller in
6:55 Started transfer, wort at 64
7:20 Pitched pretty weak bag of 1028 London Ale at 63 degrees dated Jan 20 that smacked at 1pm. This yeast better not screw me by being old.

OG 1.055

Tasted a shot of the liqor at 152, post 152, 158 and sparge. Pretty interesting profiles. Could definately tell it was thicker at 158, but that may just have been due to time.



March 28, 2009- Bottling day. I have to say, it is good as it is. I think the carapils did the job. I will be interesting to see how the carbonation and rest change things, but at the moment, I couldn't be happier with a flat warm porter and I am drinking the schwag as I speak. FG 1.013

Original Extract 13.55
Apparent Extract 3.32
Real Extract 5.25
Specific Gravity 1.021
Apparent Attenuation 75.5
Real Attenuation 61.3
ABW 4.4
ABV 5.7
Cals/12oz 188

Shopping

Today is shopping day for what I hope to be a brewing day tomorrow. Tonight a turkey fryer is the objective. Went to Keystone for the ingredients of Programmer Porter Deux.

1/2lb Crystal 60
1/2lb Chocolate
1/2lb Black Patent
3/4lb Carapils

1oz Bramling Cross Pellets 7%
1oz Fuggles plugs 4.5%
[edit] 1oz Fuggles plugs 4.5%
6lbs Muntons Light DME 8 ebc/3.5 L

1028 London Ale Jan 20 2009.

ESB Bottleing

Little brother J came down from Rochester last night and we had a great time with some BBQ and broke open the first Malbec. BBQ was outstanding, and the Malbec hit the spot, though I must admit it is lacking a little something, it is a really easy drinking wine. I will enjoy the next dozen, but I think another couple months of aging is in order.

ESB cleared significanly, so it was time to bottle. FG was 1.010. Drinking one now flat and warm and it's pretty good. No hop aroma to speak of, I think it may be a dry hop candidate if I do it again.
ABV 5.5, abw 4.3 Apparent attenuation 78.1%, real attenuation 63.4%, calories 177/12oz.

Surgery is on wed am. This should be ready by the time I am off anti-biotics.

Cioppino Vino

Very exciting wine day with Bob and Kat. We bottled what should prove to be our best attempt yet with the cab. It is clear, but so dark you can barely see through it. Very strange. Taste is really good, though obviously young. I have a feeling it should go 6 months or so, though 1 test bottle will have to be broken out early i am sure.

Went with a new style kit and started off a merlot. This one included grape skins (and branches and other sordid items) and 3 different kinds of oak. Grape skins when reconstituted smelled exactly like raisins obviously, but it took a minute to register. OG was ridiculous at 1.110. (Cab was 1.086 and malbec was 1.082 I believe).

Tasted the malbec finally as part of a fruits of the labor tasting with some of Kat's outstanding Cioppino. I have had a lot of the Shiraz obviously so that was nothing new, The cab was really interesting so green. But the malbec, I have to say it turned out pretty well. Massive differences between out of the bottle, vs through aerator, vs 30-45 minutes to breathe. Not sure if this will change over time, or it just happens to be a function of the wine. I think I will let my bin sit another 3 months before cracking one open.

ESB Bubble report

1-24-09 10:00 35 secs (12hrs after pitch)
1-24-09 13:00 5 secs
1-25-09 8:00 Holy Krausen! Had a blowout so switched to a blowoff
1-25-09 17:00 5 secs through blowoff
1-26-09 7:00 5 secs through blowoff
1-26-09 21:00 5 secs through blowoff
1-26-09 7:00 5 secs through blowoff
1-27-09 18:30 7 secs through blowoff
1-28-09 9:30 6 secs through blowoff
1-29-09 8:00 6 secs through blowoff. This is getting ridiculous
1-29-09 22:00 8 secs through blowoff.
1-30-09 8:00 6 secs through blowoff.
1-30-09 23:00 7 secs through blowoff.
1-31-09 8:00 8 secs through blowoff.
-Transferred to Secondary-
1-31-09 21:30 8 secs bubbler
2-1-09 9:30 13 secs
2-1-09 20:30 18 secs
2-2-09 21:30 24 secs First signs of clearing, but still heavy yeast with a lot of movement
2-3-09 20:00 23 secs
2-4-09 7:00 17 secs
2-5-09 8:00 22 secs
2-5-09 21:00 27 secs Still a LOT of yeast in suspension and carbonation is very evident
2-6-09 17:00 33 secs
2-6-09 21:00 36 secs
2-8-09 9:00 60 secs. For the first time yeast at the bottom is moving down and not up. Significant clearing, but not enough to bottle.
2-8-09 22:00 79 secs