What's Brewing - May '17 edition

Probably last brew day for awhile as summer weekends look to be planned for me......not by choice. today is an all citra pale ale using up remaining hops from couple weeks ago when I brewed an all mosaic pale ale along with a citra & mosaic pale ale.

 

Bottled up my Hefedunk today - plan to give it a good long time to carb up before trying it. Got the ingredients for my BPA preordered which will be brewed around Memorial Day. Also accepted an offer on our condo so it was a good day.

 

I have been an extract/partial mash brewer for 5 years, with good results. Today I made my first foray into all grain brewing by way of a "brew in a bag" method. http://homebrewmanual.com/brew-in-a-bag/

I'll probably have a mash tun sooner or later, but I have tried to keep my hobby from consuming too much household space, so for now a large bag was a better fit than a big orange cooler.

It went pretty well. I did have to re-fire the burner about 30 minutes into the conversion in order to maintain the proper temperature. I was favorably impressed with the look and aroma of the wort. Much more appealing over my extract/partial mash concoctions. I lost a little more liquid in the process than I had figured, and by the time I added more water to make the full batch size the O.G. was a little lower than I would have liked. But it's a pale ale, so a lighter summer brew will probably work.

The recipe is from John Palmer's How To Brew and called "Lady Liberty" so I plan to have it on tap for the 4th of July. Seems appropriate.

Very pleased with my first all grain brew so far.

Happy Trails!

 

Have you tried bringing a measured volume of water (roughly a pre-boil wort volume) to a boil for an hour, letting it cool, then measuring the remaining volume? Subtract the remaining volume from the starting volume, and you'll be very close to your hourly boil-off rate.

Even boiling for a half hour (and multiplying the final answer by two) would get you pretty close.

Other important volume factors that apply to most/all systems:
- Mash Tun dead space...measure by adding a know volume of water to your mash tun, draining it via gravity through its normal exit, and then measuring what's left in the tun. (Or measure what got out and do the math.)
- Grain absorption... measure the actual pre-boil wort volume you're getting into the kettle to dial that in.
- Hop absorption... once you have Mash Tun dead space, boil-off rate and grain absorption dialed in, you can dial-in hop absorption by tweaking it in your software until its predictions for post boil volume or volume into the fermenter match what you're actually getting.

There are other loss factors, but these are the important ones in most systems.

 

No mash tun just BIAB for me right now. I have tried the boil off rate thing three times now. The first two I got 1 gal/hr, the last time was closer to 1.25 or so. I learned that the regulator valve was sticking on my burner, once fixed I was getting a better boil off rate. Grain absorption and hop absorption would be the next things I would want to look at I think. Also need to remember I filtered the last batch here, so removing some of the solids would help lower my finale volume.

 

Just brewed another batch of the AP NE IPA, this time with WLP095 Burlington Ale to try it out. I believe this is supposed to be Conan. We'll see how it does.

 

I have a new pilsner I will be brewing this week after work, but I have a question:

How have your experiences been with a single, mash-out only decoction? I did a typical double before on my first pils, then skipped it completely on my last one only doing a single infusion (with a little melanoidin malt to make up for it). This time I am thinking of a single decoction…My first pils was overall more impressive, but it was also very different in recipe (Czech vs. German style pils) so I can’t say it was due to the brewing technique itself.

The plan is to mash for 1hr at 150F and then pull a thick decoction to boil for 20mins and then just add back to the rest of the mash, drain and then batch sparge as usual. This way it only adds maybe 20-30mins to my brew day but I hope to some extent, still adds some additional color/complexity (in theory!). It will be followed up with a 90min boil as well.

This will also be the first Pils I try dry hopping as well… It will be with 1oz each of Mittelfrueh and Saaz which I will add during the D-rest right for 2 days or so before cold crashing and kegging, for the 5-6 week cold conditioning. In the boil, Hallertau Magnum, Tettnanger, Saaz for bittering at various times. Expecting a finished beer of about 5.6% and 50 IBU.

 

Last night was my first AG batch, BIAB style. 2.5 gallons of NEIPA that will feature Citra/Mosaic/Galaxy. I questioned my sanity a bit with making this my first AG attempt, but the simplicity of the grain bill (82% Maris Otter, 18% flaked oats) and easy hopping schedule (FO, DH to follow) was too alluring. Was a big step up from my 2nd extract batch, as I set up a fermentation chamber and started working with my water profile.

Ended up hitting my numbers almost perfectly -- preboil gravity was 1.047 instead of predicted 1.046, and pH was 5.34 vs. 5.30, but mash temp, preboil volume, OG, the rest were spot on. Thank god for Bru'n Water, Beersmith, and the Priceless BIAB calculator.

 

Heating the water for northern brewers Bavarian hefeweizen right now

 

Once I got the garage cleaned up brewday was almost perfect, a little too easy. Got slightly higher efficiency than expected. Maxed out my kettle. Filled the fermenter with about 15 gallons. Rocking the next morning.

 

I've got a small batch of Maple pale ale in my 1 gallon fermenter that I am going to bottle on Sunday. I am expecting the ingredients for my next 5 gallon batch today or tomorrow--that one one will be a smoked graf. Its my second attempt at graf--the first attempt did not properly ferment because the cider I used (which was supposed to be preservative-free) was not. Fermentation never quite took off and I ended up dumping it. To circumvent this, I ordered some cider extract from Forbidden Fruit, and am using that instead of actual cider.

 

Pulled a sample from the Brett Tripel. Gravity has been steady at 1.004 since I checked it last week. It tastes surprisingly sweet.

 

Kegged my session, finished at 1.014 (3.9% ABV). But wow, it tastes nothing like a <4% IPA. My last session was at 4.3% and this one just may edge it out from what I can tell. Loving the flavors and malt/hop balance. Excited to tap it in a week! (Would be this weekend, but will be out of town!).

Also prepped my mash and sparge water for brewing after work tomorrow (Pils). Got all the salts added and ready to go and all the grain weighed and crushed. As soon as I get home I just will fire up the burners and hope to finish by a decent time lol

 

Making 15 gallons of saison. Ten Dupont, five Blaugies. Pils, rye, flaked rye and candi sugar. Not sure on the hops yet.

 

Due to a miscommunication with my brother I brewed my imperial stout without him two weeks ago so I have agreed to make another imperial stout with him this Saturday. Going for an Imperial Neapolitan Stout this time. I've enjoyed Saugatuck Brewing's version so hopefully get something similar with a higher ABV. Maris Otter, 2-Row, Crystal 90, Pale Chocalate, Special B, Roasted Barley, Flaked Oats in the Mash. Adding lactose and Cacao Powder to end of the boil. Willamette, Columbus, and Fuggle hops. Going to try Safale US-05 yeast for the first time as I've mostly used liquid yeast. Will add Vanilla Beans and Strawberries to the secondary. May add additional lactose and cacao powder at bottling if needed.

Probably have to make a few light beers after this one!

 

I always get sweetness in my Tripels and Blondes. Even if I have adequate IBUs. I attribute it to the esters and alcohols. With age they tend to mellow out and you get a dryer finish. Proper carbonation helps too.

 

That's good to know. My recipe should have put my IBUs in the 32-35 range, so I'm not too concerned. It's been going for three weeks, so if the gravity is steady I'll probably let it go for another 10 days or so before bottling it up in some sturdy bottles and letting it ride for a couple more months.

 

Bottled raspberry, peach mango and blueberry hefe,s and a session pale . Tommorrow bottleing citra lager and face plant brown. I am about out of bottles.

 

Just bought a pound of Citra on a whim, so I've decided on a recipe for 11 gallons of Citra Pale Ale.

2-row, a bit of Crystal 40, a touch of Carapils and a fair amount of Citra. 5.5 gallons is getting Imperial Organic A24 blend (it's an awesome blend that I recommend!). The other 5.5 will be getting a mystery Brett strain that I harvested from Urban Artifact's Phrenology. It was a brett IPA, and puts out some intense tropical fruit aroma/flavors. I'm sure that'll play well with a Citra Pale