Friday, May 23, 2014

Batch 154, not Gemutlich

I was going to make Gemutlich, had the oats, honey, molasses, but I only had about a pound and a half of wheat. I bumped up the 2-row to cover, but it won't be quite the same. I brewed this after work, it was hot in the beer shed.

10 gallon batch

OG: 1.047, 1.060 actual
FG: 1.013
IBU: 24
SRM: 4.6
ABV: 4.5

17.5 lb 2-row
1.5 lb wheat
1.5 lb flakes oats (Quaker)
4 oz honey
4 oz molasses

Mashed at 154F for 60 minutes, adjusted pH to 5.2.

90 minute boil

1 oz Super Styrian (14% AA, pellets) 60 minutes
3 oz Saaz, 5 minutes

Wyeast 1318, London Ale III


The OG is high for some reason. I'd have to hit 90% efficiency to get that with this grain bill.


Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Batch 153, Kitchen Sink Pale Ale

I have a bunch of left over bits of hops pellets that are getting a little old, so I thought I'd use them rather than throwing them away. So this recipe is made up on the spot, just using the leftovers.

10 gallons

OG: 1.056, 1.060 actual
FG: 1.014
IBU: who knows? Probably around 60 or so.
SRM: 13
ABV: 5.4%

I started with this grain bill that I've used before for an ESB:
19 lbs 2-row
1 lb Munich
1 lb Wheat
1.5 lb Biscuit
3 oz Crystal 120
8 oz Special B

Then the hops are weird:

2 oz Perle, FWH

A mix of Liberty, Magnum, Centennial, Mt. Hood, and Super Styrian. There were 2 oz of the Styrian, and around an ounce each of the rest, so the total was just over 6 oz. I split that into six 1 oz additions at 90, 75, 60, 45, 30 and 15 minutes, then

2 oz Mt Hood, 5 min

Wyeast London Ale III yeast

FWH hops


It's nice and toasty in the beer shed!

Saturday, May 10, 2014

Batch 152, Panama Red

Yet another batch of delicious Panama Red! I'm behind in brewing, my stockpile of kegs is almost gone, so I went ahead and did the modification to my fermentation chest freezer to use bags instead of buckets. Now I can do 20 gallons at a time.

Anyway, a basic Panama Red recipe, 10 gallons worth:

OG: 1.061, planned and actual
FG: 1.015
IBU: 64
SRM: 13
ABV: 5.9%

20.25 lb American 2-row
1.5 lb Crystal 60
1.5 lb Wheat
0.25 lb Chocolate malt

2 oz Mt Hood, FWH
2.5 oz Perle, 60 min
2 oz Cascade, 30 min
2 oz Mt Hood, 5 min
2 oz Cascade, 5 min

Wyeast 1272

A few pics on brew day:

Filling the bag with 10 gallons of Panama Red. The bag on the left is just full of water, it was a test run. There is plenty of room this way.

I put my new stir plate to use on this batch by stepping up a month-old yeast cake of 1272. This is on low speed with a 1" stir bar, looks just about right.

Shot of the stir plate I build. It was pretty straightforward, a couple of parts from Radio Shack and a few parts from a dead computer. That's a 1 gallon food grade plastic bucket, it was the best thing I could find with a flat bottom.

Saturday, May 3, 2014

Salsa #3, charred tomato table salsa

Now this one is absolutely awesome!

2 large ripe tomatoes, pan roasted until blistered, black, and soft

2 jalapeno chiles, charred until blistered and black

1 small white onion, thickly sliced and pan roasted until dark brown and soft. I didn't go all the way to caramelized.

I put all of the above into a cast iron skillet and cooked them all at once.

2 cloves garlic, pan roasted until brown and soft, then peeled. I just scooped a spoonful out of that jar of garlic I have in the fridge.

1/4 teaspoon mexican oregano. Eye-balled it, probably used more.

1/4 teaspoon cumin seed. Don't have any, so just added some cumin.

1/2 cup water. It seemed juicy enough, didn't add the water.

Salt to taste. Used some fancy pink himalayan salt, how mexican is that?

Toss everything into a food processor and chop until it's right.

This is excellent and worth doing again and again. Served this with chips during the Derby.