Sunday, August 30, 2009

The Hops are Outstanding

I've been picking like crazy. So far, I've only picked Cascades. I've picked 106 ounces so far. That's 6 1/2 pounds! I've got 3 more bines of Cascades, then I think 8 Willamette and 8 Chinook. I'll probably end up with somewhere around 12 pounds total, which will likely be enough that I won't have to buy any this year. Although, I will probably buy a pound or so of Mt Hood and a pound of Centennial.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Hops!

The 2009 crop of hops is just about ready. I picked 11oz of Cascade today, and it doesn't look like I picked anything. Here are a few pictures.



Saturday, August 1, 2009

Batch 78, Amber Ale

Batch 78, Amber Ale

I used the grain I toasted earlier in the week for this batch. Originally, I was going for a brown ale, but the toasted grain really didn't have much color change from the original 2-row color, so this recipe fits the Amber Ale (10B) style. The toasted grain is definitely darker than 2-row, and definitely lighter than the Crystal 60 I used in this recipe. I plugged it in qbrew as Biscuit, which put the extract at 1.035 and color at 24, which seems about right.

10 gallon batch

12 lbs 2-row
8 lbs toasted 2-row
1 lb crystal 60
1 lb wheat

Mashed at 155F for 60 minutes, collected 13 gallons.

2 oz Perle pellets at 60 minutes, 90 minute boil.

Wyeast 1272 from Batch 76.

OG: 1.060, actual 1.060 (nice! I hit volumes dead on too!)
FG: 1.015
SRM: 14 (estimated, I used 24 for the toasted grain)
IBU: 33
ABV: 5.8%

I used my pump to move water from the HLT to mash tun, which I don't normally do. I liked this as I plugged the output hose from the pump into the valve at the bottom of the MT, which causes the hot water to enter at the bottom and ensure the SS braid doesn't get clogged. I don't have a sight glass, so I just put my measuring stick in the HLT and used that to gauge when to turn off the water. Using the pump made it easy to stir while the water was being added, so I think I got a better mix than usual. Although, things came out as expected in the end, so this didn't help improve efficiency.

Aug 15, kegged. Oddly, one of the fermenters was active enough to cause a blowout.