On Saturday evening I brewed up Brevity Wit again; this time, however, I plan on racking it onto cherries in the secondary. I've got the cherries all ready, though I still haven't decided quite how much to use. I have a little more than two pounds; not sure if I'll use all of 'em.
The Recipe:
4 lb 2-row pale malt
4 lb wheat malt
1 lb flaked wheat
5 AAU (28g @ 5% AA) East Kent Goldings @ 60 min
1 oz ground coriander @ 2 min
Zest from 2 oranges (16g) @ 2 min
Rack onto cherries in secondary.
Wyeast 3944 - Belgian Witbier
Mashed at 152° for an hour using just shy of 12 quarts of water. Batch-sparged (needed 2 batches since I can't quite heat enough water to do it all in one batch after the mash) using 170°-190° water.
O.G.: 1.048
Est. IBU: 16.8
I used the newly rebuilt 10-gallon mash tun and it worked like a champ. I'm glad to finally have that thing all sorted out. I rocked 80% efficiency this time, and I'm pretty happy with that. Pitched the yeast in the mid-to-high 60s. When I checked the temperature 24 hours after pitching (a pretty good kräusen was going), it was at 68°, so it's keeping a pretty good temperature.
Pretty much everything went uneventfully, though I got distracted and didn't aerate the wort quite as much as I normally do. The result of this appears to be a less vigorous fermentation; I should also mention, however, that even three or so hours after smacking, my Wyeast Activator packet was not anywhere near fully bloated. So, I might have had not-perfectly-viable yeast. I guess I'll just have to see how it turns out; it's fermenting now, so I don't think the effects will be too bad.
I also racked Nugget into the secondary on Saturday and introduced the dry hops. I think I'll leave them in there for a week and then keg. SG read 1.008 at racking, which makes it 5.8% ABV -- a pretty sweet spot for IPAs. It is just about as bitter as you can imagine.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Monday, August 2, 2010
Another Mash Tun Odyssey
Well, I was so proud of my new 10-gallon mash tun when I finished it up in May. Then, I was so disappointed when it got destroyed while making my first Russian Imperial Stout. Now, I think I have my problem solved.
I decided to go back to my big collection of brass and stainless valves, fittings, washers and whatnot to see whether I could cobble something together after all. I also went online and got a big ribbon of thin heat-resistant neoprene, which is water-impermeable and compresses to form a tight seal when squeezed.
So, there is a 5/8" OD pipe nipple that connects the inside and outside of the tun. This is run through the O-ring which came with the cooler, but that is not enough to actually prevent water getting through (because of some overzealous dremeling on my part). I cut small holes in the center of some 1.5" squares of the neoprene and stretched a few over the interior end of the pipe nipple, put a few washers up against them, attached my hose barb to the end of the nipple and then tightened the hell out of the whole assembly.
To test it, I filled the tun up with water and just let it sit there dripping into a measuring cup. After almost 6 hours, it had lost about 1/4 cup of liquid. 2 ounces in six hours is an acceptable loss rate for me, and the new assembly is much more robust than the old plastic-valve-and-stopper bit. Perhaps my next batch will be something big so I can use the new tun -- an imperial IPA maybe? That would also let me re-use the yeast from batch #26.
You know what? That's it! I will harvest the yeast from Nugget IPA (1332 - Northwest Ale) and then make a real Northwest Imperial IPA with a similar hopping schedule to #19 (though probably with added dry hopping).
I decided to go back to my big collection of brass and stainless valves, fittings, washers and whatnot to see whether I could cobble something together after all. I also went online and got a big ribbon of thin heat-resistant neoprene, which is water-impermeable and compresses to form a tight seal when squeezed.
So, there is a 5/8" OD pipe nipple that connects the inside and outside of the tun. This is run through the O-ring which came with the cooler, but that is not enough to actually prevent water getting through (because of some overzealous dremeling on my part). I cut small holes in the center of some 1.5" squares of the neoprene and stretched a few over the interior end of the pipe nipple, put a few washers up against them, attached my hose barb to the end of the nipple and then tightened the hell out of the whole assembly.
To test it, I filled the tun up with water and just let it sit there dripping into a measuring cup. After almost 6 hours, it had lost about 1/4 cup of liquid. 2 ounces in six hours is an acceptable loss rate for me, and the new assembly is much more robust than the old plastic-valve-and-stopper bit. Perhaps my next batch will be something big so I can use the new tun -- an imperial IPA maybe? That would also let me re-use the yeast from batch #26.
You know what? That's it! I will harvest the yeast from Nugget IPA (1332 - Northwest Ale) and then make a real Northwest Imperial IPA with a similar hopping schedule to #19 (though probably with added dry hopping).
Nugget IPA
Yesterday I got down to brewing business after a three week hiatus. I kegged Heat Wave straight from the primary (my first time skipping a secondary) and racked Pyatiletka (it's at 1.024 right now, about 8.1% ABV). I did all this while brewing up a single hop IPA utilizing my giant bag of Nugget hops.
The Recipe:
9 lb Maris Otter
13 AAU (28g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 60
13 AAU (28g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 20
13 AAU (28g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 10
13 AAU (28g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 5
13 AAU (28g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 0 (flame-out)
13 AAU (28g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 0 (dry-hopped in secondary)
Whirlfloc tablet @ 15 min
Wyeast 1332 - Northwest Ale
Mashed at 154° for an hour using about 11 quarts of water; used the old 5 gallon mash tun. Did a more-or-less batch sparge (1.5ish batches, really) using 170°-180° water.
O.G.: 1.052
Est. IBU: 107.1
Brewing went very well and there were no mishaps or anything. I managed to do my kegging and racking while waiting for the mash, waiting for the boil, etc., which was quite nice. I pitched the yeast at about 69°, which, based on the temperatures of the room and of the tap water, was about as good as I was going to get. I plan on racking to the secondary after a week or so and then steeping the dry hops in a bag.
I decided to keg Heat Wave Hefeweizen without a secondary in an attempt to preserve some cloudiness. Besides, it had been in the fermenter 22 days and I don't think it was really going to improve any. It's heavier on the clove than the banana; I want to use 3068 again already, but maybe implement actual temperature control (Heat Wave hit about 81° at high kräusen). Heat Wave finished at 1.006, so it's running about 5.0% ABV -- just about perfect, really.
The Recipe:
9 lb Maris Otter
13 AAU (28g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 60
13 AAU (28g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 20
13 AAU (28g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 10
13 AAU (28g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 5
13 AAU (28g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 0 (flame-out)
13 AAU (28g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 0 (dry-hopped in secondary)
Whirlfloc tablet @ 15 min
Wyeast 1332 - Northwest Ale
Mashed at 154° for an hour using about 11 quarts of water; used the old 5 gallon mash tun. Did a more-or-less batch sparge (1.5ish batches, really) using 170°-180° water.
O.G.: 1.052
Est. IBU: 107.1
Brewing went very well and there were no mishaps or anything. I managed to do my kegging and racking while waiting for the mash, waiting for the boil, etc., which was quite nice. I pitched the yeast at about 69°, which, based on the temperatures of the room and of the tap water, was about as good as I was going to get. I plan on racking to the secondary after a week or so and then steeping the dry hops in a bag.
I decided to keg Heat Wave Hefeweizen without a secondary in an attempt to preserve some cloudiness. Besides, it had been in the fermenter 22 days and I don't think it was really going to improve any. It's heavier on the clove than the banana; I want to use 3068 again already, but maybe implement actual temperature control (Heat Wave hit about 81° at high kräusen). Heat Wave finished at 1.006, so it's running about 5.0% ABV -- just about perfect, really.
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