Monday, December 31, 2012

Batch 132, Prickly Pear Beer

Another batch of the Prickly Pear Beer recipe that I made in April 2011. It wasn't a very good beer at first, but the keg that sat in the back of the fridge for a year came out delicious.

10 gallon batch.

15 lbs 2-row
1 lbs wheat
8 lbs prickly pears
2 oz Delta hops, 60 minutes
Wyeast 1272 from batch 131

Mash at 152F.

Like last time, it's a guess on the weight of the pears. I looked at the pictures, found the same bucket, and filled it to the same level.

This turned out to be a pain in the ass day. It took forever for the wort to boil, then I finally realized I barely had the gas on. Doh! Then the false bottom in the boil kettle must have floated, because pear seeds got picked up and clogged the pump. Had to do a complete disassembly to get the pump to work again. While working on the pump, I drained the kettle by gravity into a bucket with a strainer, then poured the wort back into my now empty mash tun. Pump ran fine after that.

The new wort chiller worked like a charm. I'm still figuring out how to work my system with all the upgrades I did recently. The pick up tubes on the BK and HLT don't seal well, so they suck air rather than completely draining the kettle. The mash tun seems to work fine, maybe because the grain helps clog any gaps.

I pumped the wort directly on to the yeast cake from batch 131.

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Batch 131, Pail Ail

Pail Ail

A basic pale ale recipe, featuring Magnum and Saaz.

Recipe Pail Ail Style American Pale Ale
Brewer Batch 10.00 gal
All Grain

Recipe Characteristics
Recipe Gravity 1.045 OG Estimated FG 1.011 FG
Recipe Bitterness 42 IBU Alcohol by Volume 4.4%
Recipe Color 13° SRM Alcohol by Weight 3.5%

Ingredients
Quantity Grain Type Use
10.00 lb American Munich Grain Mashed
10.00 lb American two-row Grain Mashed

Quantity
Hop Type Time
1.50 oz Magnum Whole 60 minutes
2.00 oz Saaz Whole 10 minutes

Quantity
Misc Notes
1.00 unit American Ale yeast Yeast 1272

Mashed at 148F.

Update 12/31, racked to kegs.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Equipment Upgrade

It all started because I stacked things up precariously when cleaning up, and my pump took a fall and broke.


This isn't something that is fixable, so I bought a new pump head. I'd read on my home brew club form about Chugger pump heads, they are stainless steel and are designed to fit on to March pumps, so I bought this one:



Since it's all stainless steel, I needed to get some stainless fittings for it. I went whole hog.



This sure looks nice all assembled.

 

Then I thought I'd go ahead and get some tri-clover fittings and some high-temp hose:





Since I needed tri-clover connectors on the other end, I got those, plus bought three complete sets of stainless valves, pipes, and false-bottoms. 



Saturday, November 24, 2012

Batch 130, Panama Red

One more time!

10 gallon batch.

OG: 1.063 (1.060 actual)
FG: 1.016
IBU: 65
SRM: 13
ABV: 6%


22.25 lbs 2-row (Gambrinus)
1.5 lbs Crystal 60
1.5 lbs wheat
4 oz Chocolate

Mashed at 152F for 60 minutes.

2 oz Mt. Hood, FWH
2 oz Centennial, 60 min (pellet)
2 oz Cascade, 30 min
2 oz Cascade, 5 min
2 oz Mt. Hood, 5 min

90 minute boil.

2 packets Wyeast 1272 American Ale II yeast.

Ferment at 65F for 12 days, rack to keg.

I couldn't find Centennial leaf hops this year, so the Centennial is pellets, 2012 crop. The rest are all whole leaf. Since I had so many leaf hops, I just dumped the pellets in and hoped they didn't clog the SS braid. All was well, no clogging. Dropped my pump at the end and broke it. Lots of swearing. I ordered one of these to fix it: http://chuggerpumps.com/product.php?prodid=235

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Nitro

I bought a nitrogen set up from a guy who is getting out of homebrewing. I always thought it would be cool to have one. All the beer on nitro I've had at the various microbrew places has been excellent, including stouts, porters, pale ales, and, of course, cream ales. I didn't know much about it and had some wrong ideas. It's taken me quite a bit of research to figure this out, so I'm putting the notes here for future reference.

The system 

The system I bought was mostly complete. The tank was empty, so I needed to get that filled. Besides the tank, it came with a regulator, hoses, drip tray, and stout faucet. I needed to switch out the ball lock connectors with pin lock connectors to fit my kegs.

Installation 

It turns out there is a lot of very vague and incomplete information on the internet. I can't find any info on the faucet at all. I did find an image, but that's about it. Other than the faucet looks different, the hook up and plumbing is exactly the same as for a regular CO2 set up.

Here are a few shots of the nitro/stout tap installed.The tall handle is going to be a problem. I have the short handles so I can open the freezer section without opening a tap. The knob right behind the handle regulates the flow, just like a faucet. So it is possible to turn off the tap or run it real slow. It turns out this is great for filling bottles and growlers. The more modern Guiness taps don't have this knob. I didn't know about it in advance, just lucked out on getting one with this great feature.




Here is the NO2/CO2 tank in the reefer. I have a 20 lb tanks for my ales, outside of this pic.

Prepping a keg 

This is where I found a lot of conflicting and confusing information. It seems that any beer can be put on nitro. Stouts tend to do better than IPAs, mostly because the nitro will diminish the hops flavors that should be prominent in the IPA. Carb the keg about .5 atmospheres lower than normal. If you're force carbing, set the pressure to about 8 lbs and let it sit until carbed properly. Then connect the keg to the nitro. The pressure should be set to 4 or 5 times what your CO2 pressure was. This is because the beer gas is about 80% nitrogen and 20% CO2. Ask the people that filled the nitro tank exactly what the percentages are. The nitrogen won't absorb into the beer. Well, it will, but only a very little will absorb, so the higher pressure puts the smaller amount of CO2 at the right place to keep the beer carbed. Once the pressure is set, it may take a few days for the system to stabilize and provide proper pours.

 Pouring

The Guinness way is to hold the glass at a 45 degree angle, fill the glass 3/4 full by pulling forward on the tap handle, let it sit 2 minutes to settle (don't rush this step), then top it off by pushing backward on the tap handle. This should make a nice, creamy head about 1 inch tall.

First pour:


Nice creamy head!

Other notes 

  • It will take a bit of playing with to get the knob on the back adjusted right to get a good pour, but it was easy enough to get it right during the first pour. I'm not sure how the newer faucets without the adjustment knob get the flow right, maybe it's all in the tube length?
  • The stout faucet has a restrictor plate in it that can be removed. Just unscrew the spout and it should fall right out. Once removed, the faucet can be used like any other faucet with 100% CO2. Don't use the faucet with the restrictor with a 100% CO2 system. You'll get nothing but foam if you do. 
  • This tap is great for filling bottles or growlers. The knob on the back allows fine tuning of the flow rate out of the tap, so it's easy to turn it down to do a slow pour into a growler. A hose slid up over the spout would help get the beer into the bottom of the bottle with less foaming.
  • Beer gas comes in several proportions. I have 75/25. The rule of thumb is use a mixture with less CO2 for darker beers, more CO2 for lighter beers. So maybe use 60/40 for pouring pale ales, 80/20 for hard-core stouts. The guy at Norco told me 75/25 is the most commonly used in this area.
  •  Supposedly you can hook regular beer with a regular tap to the nitro, but you'll need to do some adjustments to the beer line to make sure the output pressure at the tap is around 2 lbs. Taverns and bars use beer gas all the time to push the beer through the long lines from wherever they have the kegs to their taps. This way they can increase the pressure without over-carbing the beer.
  •  Some people think serving beer with nitro is a substitution for cask ale. Not true, they aren't the same thing at all.

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Batch 129, Leeser

Slightly different than last time, I kept the grain bill the same, but am using Magnum for the bittering hops.

10 gallons Bohemian Pilsner

OG: 1.044
FG: 1.011
IBU: 41
SRM: 12
ABV 4.3%

10 lbs pilsner malt
7 lbs munich malt
1 lb vienna malt
1 lb carapils

Mash in with 7.5 gallons at 165F for mash temp of 154F. Hold 1 hour. Sparge with 7.5 gallons 180F to collect 12.5 gallons in boil kettle.

1.5 oz Magnum, 60 minutes
1.5 oz US Saaz, 15 minutes
1.5 oz US Saaz, 5 minutes

Pitched onto the yeast cakes from batch 127.

Pitched at 50F, hold at 50F for 12 days. Removed from freezer on Nov 22.
Raise to 65F for 24 hours, actually until Nov 24.
Lager at 34F for 40 days. Put into lager on Nov 24, should be done lagering on Jan 5.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Batch 128, Barleywine partigyle

My homebrew club is doing another barrel aged beer, this time a barleywine. The recipe is a Bigfoot clone. I bumped up the grain bill to do a partigyle.

5 gallons barleywine, 5 gallons pale ale.

30 lbs 2-row
1.5 lbs Crystal 60

2.0 oz Chinook, 60 minutes
1.0 oz Cascade, 20 minutes
1.0 oz Centennial, 20 minutes
2.0 oz Cascade, 10 minutes
1.0 oz Centennial, 10 minutes

This is hops for 5 gallons, so double these hops as this quantity goes in both boil kettles.

Wyeast 1272, American Ale II

This is slightly different than the Bigfoot clone recipe, I was a little short on Centennial, and didn't have the darker crystal malt on hand.

This gives an OG of 1.075. Reading my partigyle notes, this will make a barleywine at 1.103 and a smaller beer at 1.050.

31.5 lbs grain will absorb 4 gallons of water (31.5 lbs x 0.125 gal/lbs = 3.9 gal = 4 gal or close enough), so I mashed with 11 gallons to get 7 gallons of wort in the boil kettle with a single run off.

Sparged with 7 gallons into a second boil kettle for the pale ale. No additional absorption on the second runnings, so collected all 7 gallons.

I used my HLT as the second boil kettle and forgot to put in the SS braid before filling it, so I used a hop bag.

Barleywine OG: 1.104 actual
Pale ale OG: 1.058 actual

Batch 127, Leeser

The name is an inside joke, you'd need to watch Doc Martin to get it.

10 gallons Pilsner

OG: 1.044
FG: 1.011
IBU: 41
SRM: 12
ABV 4.3%

10 lbs pilsner malt
7 lbs munich malt
1 lb vienna malt
1 lb carapils

Mash in with 7.5 gallons at 165F for mash temp of 154F. Hold 1 hour. Sparge with 7.5 gallons 180F to collect 12.5 gallons in boil kettle.

2.5 oz Mt. Hood, 60 minutes
1.25 oz Perle, 60 minutes
1.5 oz Czech Saaz, 15 minutes
1.5 oz Czech Saaz, 5 minutes

Wyeast 2124, Bohemian lager yeast, 2 packages.

It appears I boiled a little too hard, I ended up with 9 gallons of 1.054 wort in the fermenters. Topped off with 1 gallon cold water, which puts actual OG at 1.049.

Pitched at 50F, hold at 50F for 12 days.
Raise to 65F for 24 hours.
Lager at 34F for 40 days.


Update, 12/29: Racked to new kegs without moving the lager kegs, so got very clear beer. Primed each keg with 1.75 oz table sugar.


Saturday, September 1, 2012

Batch 126, Dagger Falls

I don't know if this counts as a "clone" since this recipe came from the brewer at Sockeye. He gave a recipe for 5 gallons, I doubled everything for 10.


Dagger Falls IPA
10 Gal. All-Grain Batch

O.G. 1.060
F.G. 1.012
Yeast:  White Labs WLP-001 Cal. Ale (I substituted Wyeast 1056, which is supposed to be the same)

Mash Temp. : 151-152 for 1 hr.
20# Pale Malt
2.5# Vienna Malt
1.5# C-75

hops:
.6 oz. Simcoe, .6 oz. Centennial in the Mash
1.0 oz. Simcoe, .4 oz. Magnum 1st Wort hops

Boil 1 Hour
1.0 oz. Magnum, .6 oz. Centennial @ Boil (60 mins.)
.8 oz. Simcoe, .8 oz. Centennial, .6 oz. Galena @ (40 mins.)
1.4 oz. Simcoe, .8 oz. Centennial @ (25 mins.)
1.2 oz. Liberty, .8 oz. Simcoe @ (10 mins.)
2 oz. Centennial @ (0 mins. - flame out)

Dry Hop on 3rd day of fermentation in primary with:
1.4 oz. Simcoe, .6 oz. Centennial


Actual OG was 1.060. This is the first time I'd done mash hops, it smelled great! 

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Batch 125, Denny Conn's Rye IPA

We did this for a club group brew at my house. Small crowd, but good fun. Just 3 brewers, David, Bob, and myself, plus some help from Steve P, Niko, and Don. We made 30 gallons all together, so everyone left with 5 gallons each.

I copied this straight from Denny's page:

Denny Conn's Rye IPA -1st place Pale ales, Lane County Fair 2001

Recipe : Rye IPA

Recipe Specifics
----------------

Batch Size (GAL):         5.00    Wort Size (GAL):    5.00
Total Grain (LBS):       16.25
Anticipated OG:          1.073    Plato:              17.8
Anticipated SRM:          12.2
Anticipated IBU:          75.1
Brewhouse Efficiency:       65 %
Wort Boil Time:             70    Minutes


Grain/Extract/Sugar

   %     Amount     Name                          Origin        Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 67.7    11.00 lbs. Pale Malt(2-row)              America        1.036      2
 18.5     3.00 lbs. Rye Malt                      America        1.030      4
  7.7     1.25 lbs. Crystal 60L                   America        1.034     60
  3.1     0.50 lbs. Cara-Pils Dextrine Malt                      1.033      2
  3.1     0.50 lbs. Wheat Malt                    America        1.038      2

Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.


Hops

   Amount     Name                              Form    Alpha  IBU  Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  1.00 oz.    Mt. Hood                          Whole    4.90  15.0  FWH
  1.00 oz.    Columbus                          Whole   17.80  54.4  60 min.
  0.50 oz.    Mt. Hood                          Whole    4.90   5.7  30 min.
  1.50 oz.    Mt. Hood                          Whole    4.90   0.0  0 min.
  1.00 oz.    Columbus                          Whole   15.00   0.0  Dry Hop


Extras

  Amount      Name                           Type      Time
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
  1.00 Tsp    Irish Moss                     Fining    15 Min.(boil)
  1.00 Tsp    Gypsum                         Other     60 Min.(boil)


Yeast
-----

BrewTek CL-50 California Pub Brewery Ale or Wyeast 1272 Am. ale II

Mash Schedule
-------------

Mash Name :
BrewTek CL-50 California Pub Brewery Ale

Total Grain LBS : 16.25
Grain Temp :      63.00 F
Total Water QTS : 21.61 - Before Additional Infusions
Total Water GAL :  5.40
Tun Thermal Mass : 0.00


                     Step   Rest   Start   Stop  Direct/  Infuse   Infuse  Infuse
Step Name            Time   Time   Temp    Temp  Infuse   Temp     Amount  Ratio
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
sacc                   0     60    153     153   Infuse   166       21.61   1.33


Total Water QTS :  21.61 - After Additional Infusions
Total Water GAL :   5.40 - After Additional Infusions


All temperature measurements are degrees Fahrenheit.
All infusion amounts are in quarts.


Sep 1, update: added dry hops.

Sep 22, update: Went to rack to a keg today. What is this? I've never seen bubbles like that. Looks almost moldy, maybe. The hydrometer sample tasted okay, so I kegged it. Knowledgeable people from my brew club say it's a pellicle.






Dec 27, update, it's still in the lager fridge, just waiting. I'm afraid to put it on tap. Someday...


Thursday, August 9, 2012

Batch 124, Belgian Pale Ale

This is for a group project, we're all brewing a Belgian pale ale to put into a barrel to sour.

5 gallon batch

OG: 1.055
FG: 1.012
ABV 5.5%
SRM: 5.0
IBU: 21

9 lbs 2-row
1 lb Munich
1 lb wheat

Mash at 154F.

0.5 oz Nugget, 60 min

Wyeast 3742, Belgian Saison


Sunday, August 5, 2012

Batch 123, IPA

Another batch of IPA.

10 gallon batch.


Recipe
St. Brigit's Lake
Style
American IPA (14B)
Brewer
Dale Anson
Batch
10.00 gal
All Grain

Recipe Characteristics

Recipe Gravity
1.056 OG
Estimated FG
1.014 FG
Recipe Bitterness
95 IBU
Alcohol by Volume
5.4%
Recipe Color
11° SRM
Alcohol by Weight
4.2%

Ingredients

Quantity
Grain
Type
Use
23.00 lb
American two-row
Grain
Mashed
0.25 lb
American chocolate malt
Grain
Mashed
Quantity
Hop
Type
Time
0.25 oz
Chinook
Whole
90 minutes
0.25 oz
Centennial
Whole
90 minutes
0.25 oz
Cascade
Whole
90 minutes
0.25 oz
Chinook
Whole
80 minutes
0.25 oz
Centennial
Whole
80 minutes
0.25 oz
Cascade
Whole
80 minutes
0.25 oz
Chinook
Whole
70 minutes
0.25 oz
Centennial
Whole
70 minutes
0.25 oz
Cascade
Whole
70 minutes
0.25 oz
Chinook
Whole
60 minutes
0.25 oz
Centennial
Whole
60 minutes
0.25 oz
Cascade
Whole
60 minutes
0.25 oz
Chinook
Whole
50 minutes
0.25 oz
Centennial
Whole
50 minutes
0.25 oz
Cascade
Whole
50 minutes
0.25 oz
Chinook
Whole
40 minutes
0.25 oz
Centennial
Whole
40 minutes
0.25 oz
Cascade
Whole
40 minutes
0.25 oz
Chinook
Whole
30 minutes
0.25 oz
Centennial
Whole
30 minutes
0.25 oz
Cascade
Whole
30 minutes
0.50 oz
Chinook
Whole
20 minutes
0.50 oz
Centennial
Whole
20 minutes
0.50 oz
Cascade
Whole
20 minutes
0.25 oz
Chinook
Whole
10 minutes
0.25 oz
Centennial
Whole
10 minutes
0.25 oz
Cascade
Whole
10 minutes
0.25 oz
Chinook
Whole
5 minutes
0.25 oz
Centennial
Whole
5 minutes
0.25 oz
Cascade
Whole
5 minutes
0.25 oz
Chinook
Whole
0 minutes
0.25 oz
Centennial
Whole
0 minutes
0.25 oz
Cascade
Whole
0 minutes
Quantity
Misc
Notes
1.00 unit
American Ale yeast
Yeast
Wyeast 1272, 1 qt slurry


Batch Notes
Actually measured 7 grams instead of 1/4 ounce, it works easier with my scale.

Half of the 20 minute hops are actually FWH, the other half are actually at 20 minutes.

Mash at 156F for 60 minutes, collected 14 gallons.

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Batch 122, Panama Red

What can I say, this is the best beer ever. I need to get some Nugget. I've substituted Centennial for the last couple of times I've made this, and it's good, but not quite the same.

10 gallon batch.

OG: 1.063
FG: 1.016
IBU: 65
SRM: 13
ABV: 6%


22.25 lbs 2-row (Gambrinus)
1.5 lbs Crystal 60
4 oz Chocolate

Mash at 154F for 60 minutes.

2 oz Mt. Hood, FWH
2 oz Centennial, 60 min
2 oz Cascade, 30 min
2 oz Cascade, 5 min
2 oz Mt. Hood, 5 min

90 minute boil.

2 packets Wyeast 1272 American Ale II yeast.

Ferment at 65F for 12 days, rack to keg.
Lager at 34F for 14 days, rack to serving keg.

Batch 121, Pilsner Urquell

A Pilsner Urquell clone. I got the recipe from Deb at Nampa Brewers Center.

10 gallon batch

OG: 1.049, 1.055 actual
FG: 1.013
SRM: 4
IBU: 42
ABV: 4.7%

16 lbs Pilsner 2-row
1 lb Vienna
1 lb Munich
1 lb Cara-Pils/Detrine

Single infusion mash at 154F. One day I'll do this will only Pilsner malt and a full on triple decoction mash. Today I went with single infusion.

2.6 oz Cluster, 60 minutes
1.86 oz Saaz, 15 minutes
1.5 oz Saaz, flameout

90 minute boil. When I do that triple decoction, I'll use all Saaz.

Pre-boil volume: 12.75
Pre-boil gravity: 1.048
Post-boil volume: 9.0
Post-boil gravity: 1.055
Volume into fermenter: 8.5

2 packets Wyeast 2001, Urquell lager yeast.

Pitched at 50F, hold at 50F for 12 days.
Raise to 65F for 24 hours.
Lager at 34F for 40 days.

Update: This came out slightly sweeter and less spicy than I was hoping for. I entered it in a club comp for 2C, Classic American Pilsner, and got a score of 35. This turns out to be quite popular among the non-beer geek crowd, definitely worth making again.

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Batch 120, Oktoberfest

Time for Oktoberfest! I got this recipe out of the latest issue of Zymurgy. I haven't been completely happy with my past attempts at this style, and this recipe won a contest, so I thought I'd give it a try.

10 gallon batch

OG: 1.061, actual: 1.060
FG: 1.015
SRM: 10.9
IBU: 25.3
ABV: 6.0

Grain:
11 lbs Munich 10L
11 lbs 2-row (should have used pils, didn't have any on hand)
4 oz Aromatic malt
8 oz Biscuit malt
8 oz Caramunich malt

Mash:
Mash in with 7 gallons of 133F water to hit protein rest at 122F. Hold for 25 minutes.

Add 4 gallons boiling water to raise temp to 152F. That didn't quite work, the addition got me to about 145F. Started direct heat on mash tun, but it seemed to be sticking, so switched to heat exchanger. This took a while to get to 152F . Hold for 60 minutes.

Ran off 3 gallons to boil kettle. Added 4 gallons of 200F water to raise to 165F. That didn't work either, got to about 158F. Ran it all off anyway. Ended up short in the boil kettle by about 1.5 gallons, so topped off with RO water. Pre-boil gravity was 1.050.

90 minute boil.

Hops:
1.75 oz Hallertau pellets at 60 minutes
1.75 oz Tettnanger pellets at 60 minutes

Put the hops in in a nylon sock.

Yeast:
Wyeast 2206, Bavarian Lager.

Made a starter with 1 pack on Wednesday. The starter was made with 1 lb grain mashed in 1 gallon of RO water.

Fermentation:
Pitch yeast at 62F, hold for 24 hrs.
Drop to 50F, hold for 20 days.
Raise to 65F for 2 days (diacetyl rest).
Transfer to keg.
Lager at 34F for at least a month.

Pretty good brew day overall. I've been trying out Brewtarget since it seems more complete than qbrew and is also under active development. It calculates the volumes and temperatures, but I don't think I have it dialed in quite right yet as I was off on both and it took some time to correct for the differences.

Also took some time during the boil to clean out my lager fridge. There were 3 kegs in there, I thought the back 2 were empty and were last year's Oktoberfest. Turns out only 1 was empty, the other has 5 gallons of crystal clear Oktoberfest! Racked that to another keg without moving the original keg so it is still clear as can be. Also racked the keg of prickly pear beer that was in front to another keg, again, without moving the original so it is also very clear.

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Batch 119, All Cascade

Went to the Beer Valley Brewout. A few people from SRB and from the Boise Brew Club meet up at Beer Valley to brew. Pete and his wife were the most excellent hosts. Pete provided hot water, electricity, and a thick (thick!) yeast slurry.

10 gallon batch

16 lbs 2-row
2 lbs Crystal 60
2 lbs Victory
1 lbs Wheat

3 oz Cascade 60 min
1 oz Cascade 20 min
1 oz Cascade flameout

I forgot what Pete said the yeast was.

OG: 1.056
FG: 1.015
SRM: 12
IBU: 34
ABV: 5.4%


Saturday, March 3, 2012

Batch 118, Panama Red

Yet another batch of my favorite beer. Sort of annoyed -- I'd made sure I had all the right grain well in advance, didn't check on hops. I'm completely out of Mt. Hood, so I substituted Delta. It won't be the same, but I'm sure it will be good.

10 gallon batch

OG: 1.061 calculated, 1.062 actual
FG: 1.015 calculated, 1.012 actual
IBU: 64
SRM: 13
ABV: 5.9%

20.25 lbs 2-row
1.5 lbs wheat
1.5 lbs crystal 60
.25 lbs chocolate

Mash at 154F for 60 min.

2 oz Delta, FWH
2 oz Centennial, 60 min
2 oz Cascade, 30 min
1 tsp Irish Moss, 15 min
2 oz Delta, 5 min
2 oz Cascade, 5 min

90 minute boil

Wyeast 1272, yeast cake from previous batch.


Notes:

23.5 lbs grain
Mash with 1.25 qts/lb
30 qts mash water = 7.5 gal
Heat this in BK, add all to mash tun

23.5 lbs grain
0.125 gal/lb absorption in MT
3 gal lost to absorption
leaves 4.5 gal wort to transfer to BK

Want 12.5 gal in BK
4.5 after mash
need 8.0 gal sparge
Heat this in HLT
Use 2 gal w/ mash out
Sparge with remaining 6 gal

Heat water in BK and HLT at same time, then HLT water is hot for heat exchanger if needed (it wasn't, the weather was decent today). BK is empty after mash in, ready for wort.


Mar 22: rack to kegs. Actual FG: 1.012. It doesn't look as red as usual, not sure why.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Batch 117, Pale Ale

Another basic American pale ale.

10 gallon batch

OG: 1.050, actual 1.056
FG: 1.012
IBU: 38
SRM: 11
ABV: 4.8%

17 lbs American 2-row
1.0 lbs American wheat
1.0 lbs Crystal 60
2.0 lbs Victory

Mashed at 150F for 1 hour with 6.5 gallons water.
1 T Calcium chloride
1 T Gypsum in HLT

1.0 oz Centennial, FWH
1.5 oz Centennial, 60 min
1.0 oz Centennial, 20 min
1.0 oz Centennial, 10 min
90 minute boil

Wyeast 1272 yeast

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Batch 116, Another Porter

Just another porter. I wanted to do the recipe from batch 99, but I didn't have any British brown malt. So this is a new recipe made up of what I had on hand.

10 gallon batch

OG: 1.045 est, 1.058 actual
FG: 1.011 est
ABV 4.3%
IBU 29
SRM 36

Grain:
10 lbs 2 row
7 lbs munich
2 lbs roasted barley
10 oz chocolate
6 oz black patent

Mash at 150F, actual 148F.

Hops:
4 oz Experimental Fuggles 4.0AA, 60 minutes

Yeast:
Wyeast 1272, 2 quart starter

Ferment at 63F.


Feb 12, 2012, racked to kegs, FG 1.010.

Split one of the kegs into thirds, added jalepenos to one, serranos to the second, and a habenero to the third. Let them sit for a week, then bottled.