Brewing Activity March 2016

brewed a summit/cascade pale ale yesterday.

 

Chocolate stout went in the bourbon barrel last weekend and a coffee stout brewed today. Looking to brew another next weekend but haven't made up my mind on that one yet. I need a good "lawn mowing" refreshment for the summer months coming up so that will have some affect on the decision.

 

I would be sampling at least 2x/week for the next 2 weeks for the sake of "science" and taking notes about how the beer aroma & taste change in the keg over that time

 

On Saturday I brewed my DIPA... Hit lower efficiencies than I was hoping for, so I had to increase the boil to 2-hr from 1.5hr and increased the sugar by 1/4lb to try and bring that OG up a bit more. Ended with 1.072 and am expecting it to get down to 1.014 for just shy of 8% (was targeting about 8-8.5%, so not a huge diff)... I adjusted slightly for the bigger grain bill efficiency wise, but it was lower than I expected. On most beers I end up in the 75-78% range so I planned for 70%, but this one ended up at like 63%. Mash pH was good (5.37) and the crush and everything same as always. I am learning once I get above 1.06 OG or so, I need to plan for 60-65%!

The beer malt bill was 82% 2-row, 9% red wheat, 3% crystal 40L, 5% corn sugar and 1% acid malt.

Bittering was done primarily with Columbus, which I was surprised to find it had an almost oniony aroma (first time using it myself). I planned to dry-hop with it as well, but decided to remove them from that plan just in case it would give the beer some oniony-notes. Increased the other three in compensate. Although, once the hops were added to boil smelled wonderful though and I didn’t pick up any onion lol

The flavor and aroma additions (10min, whirlpool/hop stand and the dry hop) is comprised of Simcoe, Centennial and Citra – In order of quantity used. The final product going into the fermenter was just awesome... Looong brew day with the 75min mash, 2hr boil, 45min hop stand, etc...) so hopefully it is worth it!

I also blew my first keg this weekend (smoked porter)… I expect another to go any day now… Thankfully I have a bohemian pils (currently lagering) and this DIPA ready to go in a few weeks to replace. I need to get planning on another porter/stout though to brew in the next few weeks.

 

Boiling wort!

Saturday's brew day.
Hot break in my Pilsner!

 

@premierpro nice brew area

 

I've got a couple of kegs soaking in PBW at home, tonight I'll rinse them out and clean my lines. I'm trying to drink my way through some of my homebrew backlog before brewing again, but unfortunately the beers that stick around the longest are usually the least tasty ones.

 

or the highest ABV...or the best to cellar/lager...or the one you're trying to save for a special occasion cheers

 

Brewing a 3-part beer, because these things aren't complicated enough as it is.

Base been is a Scottish Light 60/- that will be very mild, and easily quaffable, hopped with a bit of Saaz. I have bottled a some of this already (25% of beer in fermentor), and have now moved the phase 2.
Phase 2 is to take the remaining Phase 1 beer, and add some Wheat Malt, Lactose, and a sour culture. This will then get a dry-hop before bottling once it is a bit older.
Phase 3 will be to take the remaining Phase 2 beer, and add a whole heap of Peaches and see what we get.

 

Why not just brew phase 2 and then blend it with phase 1 later on? (if I'm understanding you correctly)

 

Sorry if not clear. Basically making Brew 1, bottling some, leaving the remainder in the fermentor and then adding extra ingredients to make Brew 2, & repeat again for 3. This way I get three different beers out of one fermentor with very little extra cleanup.

It's just a bit of a "I wonder if I can..." process


On an unrelated note, stuffed up the mash & sparge and got horrible efficiency... by rough calculations just under 60%.

 

got my first batch in to bottles tonight. ended up with 9.5 bottles out of a 1 gallon batch. we'll see how they turn out in a couple weeks.

picked up a chocolate stout kit this weekend. will probably brew that up this week. planning to add some cold-brew coffee to the secondary. anyone have any advice as to how much cold brew to add? i think i'm gonna start off with 1 oz of beans, but not sure how much water to use to steep the beans.

 

Now that's a hot break. I would estimate the number of flakes at about a zillion.

 

Thanks for posting this.

I'm fairly new to all grain (5 batches under my belt so far) & have been trying to consistently get above the 70% efficiency mark. My 1st batch sucked but it was likely because of single-crushed grain from the LHBS.

I double-crushed for my 2nd batch and got above it (a brown ale w/ OG=1.052, 72% eff). Since then, I have only gotten 62-66% with 3 IPAs (all of which had target OGs of ~1.065). It's been frustrating me but perhaps this is just the "nature of the beast" for the beers that I'm making (which also have had ~7-15% white wheat & ~4% flaked oats)...and I just need to assume this efficiency range with my set up when I'm designing future recipes.

 

Kegged my SMaSH, maris otter and cascade over the weekend. I used all cascades grown in my back yard. First time Ive brewed with the ones Ive grown and I wanted to see how they tasted alone. Took a little taste last night and its damn tasty. I may have to take another taste tonight. Quality control and all. Cheers!

 

A bit of house triple yesterday

 

Gotta love Craigslist! I picked up a 1, 2, and 5L Erlenmeyer flask along with a Northern Brewer stir plate, and five stir bars for $70! So I"m officially starting my liquid yeast adventure now on my next brew. No more dry yeast for me unless it's absolutely necessary! This weekend I'll be brewing an Apollo, Columbus, and Chinnok DankPa and using Sand Diego Super for the first time. Malt bill will be 2 row, crystal 20, and carapils. Super excited to finally taste liquid yeast beers

 

Ummm... that's not 18 gallons...

 

Trying to adapt to a new method between big ones. Using spare time at night to brew 2 gallons, then another 2 gallons soon there after. It adds up and I'm enjoying it !