Sunday I brewed up another Mild Ale, which I haven't done since last spring's 24 Hour Challenge. Today, the recipe is essentially the same but with the addition of 4 oz of Cara-Munich malt and a switch-up from EKGs to Hallertauers (hence the Noble moniker), though maintaining the same hopping schedule.
The Recipe:
5 lb 2-row pale malt
4 oz Cara-Munich
4 oz Crystal 60°
4 oz chocolate malt
3 AAU (28g @ 3% AA) Hallertauer @ 60
1 AAU (9g @ 3% AA) Hallertauer @ 15
Whirlfloc tablet @ 15 min
Wyeast 1968 - London ESB
Mashed at 150° for an hour using 7.25 quarts of water. Batch-sparged using 170-190° water and collected 6.5 gallons for the boil.
O.G.: 1.030
Est. IBU: 15.8
Brewing was mostly uneventful, which is the way I like it. I hit 73% mash efficiency here, and this is acceptable. I've pretty much given up trying to get a predictable consistency in my mash efficiencies.
The only potential issue with this beer is that I cooled the wort a bit too much (January tap water is really cold, apparently) and so ended up pitching at about 57°. Wyeast recommends fermenting 1968 in the 64°-70° range, so I may have mucked that up a bit. If it hasn't gotten rolling by tonight, I may put a heating pad around the carboy to kick-start it a little (note that, for obvious reasons, I'm not bothering with the cooling tub on this one).
On top of brewing up Noble Mild, I racked Hoppy Hefeweizen onto about 235g of homegrown hops in a secondary fermenter. I'm a little concerned that I racked it a bit early (only 7 days), as the kräusen hadn't fully subsided yet. Ah well, we'll see!
Monday, January 31, 2011
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Kegerator is Done! (Mostly...)
Well, 9.5 hours and 5 trips out of the house later, and my kegerator is all but done. This morning I aquired the requisite lumber, nails and drill bits, and with the help of a borrowed drill from my mom I was able to finish the construction portion of the project.
I also bought 5 tap/shank assemblies from my LHBS (though had to return later because the hose barbs I initially got were 1/4" rather than 3/16"). The only thing they were short on were the plastic screw-on tap handles; they only had one, so only 2 of my 6 taps actually have presentable handles. Still, that's a minor, minor thing.
This is definitely the hardest I've worked on a Saturday outside of doing a film project. I feel accomplished, but supremely exhausted. A toast to homebrewing!
I also bought 5 tap/shank assemblies from my LHBS (though had to return later because the hose barbs I initially got were 1/4" rather than 3/16"). The only thing they were short on were the plastic screw-on tap handles; they only had one, so only 2 of my 6 taps actually have presentable handles. Still, that's a minor, minor thing.
This is definitely the hardest I've worked on a Saturday outside of doing a film project. I feel accomplished, but supremely exhausted. A toast to homebrewing!
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Toys!
So, last night my shipment of goodies arrived. I hooked up the manifold and all my CO2 tubing so that all my chilled kegs are now under pressure. The fact that my CO2 tank still had gas in it this morning is testament to the air-tightness of the setup; it's exciting!
One drawback to the new setup is that, in my excitement to put it together, I neglected to create a provision for disconnecting the tank from the manifold. This would be pretty much necessary for performing my normal kegging tasks (pumping sanitizer through kegs, purging O2, etc.), and would also be extremely useful if I wanted to take a keg with me somewhere. I need to figure out an assembly which will let me do this.
I also tested my new beer tap, which was less successful than my gas-in setup. Apparently the seals need to be *really* tight or beer will go everywhere. I plan on testing again this weekend.
One drawback to the new setup is that, in my excitement to put it together, I neglected to create a provision for disconnecting the tank from the manifold. This would be pretty much necessary for performing my normal kegging tasks (pumping sanitizer through kegs, purging O2, etc.), and would also be extremely useful if I wanted to take a keg with me somewhere. I need to figure out an assembly which will let me do this.
I also tested my new beer tap, which was less successful than my gas-in setup. Apparently the seals need to be *really* tight or beer will go everywhere. I plan on testing again this weekend.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Hoppy Hefeweizen
Last weekend I brewed two batches, but in order to maintain a 1-batch 1-post policy I'm giving this brew its own post separate from the Kölsch. This beer is a hefeweizen which I brewed with about twice as many IBUs as my last hefe (#25, Heat Wave Hefeweizen).
The Recipe:
4.5 lb 2-row pale malt
4.5 lb wheat malt
6 AAU (48g @ 3.5% AA) Czech Saaz @ 60
6 AAU (48g @ 3.5% AA) Czech Saaz @ 20
6 AAU (48g @ 3.5% AA) Czech Saaz @ 5
Wyeast 3068 - Weihenstephan Weizen
Mashed at 153° for an hour using 12 quarts of water. Batch-sparged using 170-190° water and collected 6.5 gallons for the boil.
O.G.: 1.050
Est. IBU: 42.4
I mashed this one a little bit higher than normal to try to get a little more body out of it. I am also considering racking this thing onto some fresh hops in the secondary to see how that works out; it would give me a good excuse to use the fresh hops I have in my freezer.
Since the Kölsch is using the temperature control tub, I've decided to let Hoppy just ferment at room temperature in our kitchen. Since it is January, that is still pretty cool; plus, fermenting the Hefe at a slightly elevated temperature should give it some good aromatic complexity (this morning it was at high kräusen at about 67°).
This batch also used up the last of the Czech Saaz I opened back in October 2009. They were still bright green and fresh-smelling, so I'm thinking keeping them in the subzero deep freeze keeps them pretty darn fresh. Interestingly, the first use of those Saazers was for batch #9, which used fresh homegrown hops from the same plants I'm considering using for this batch (albeit the previous year's crop).
The Recipe:
4.5 lb 2-row pale malt
4.5 lb wheat malt
6 AAU (48g @ 3.5% AA) Czech Saaz @ 60
6 AAU (48g @ 3.5% AA) Czech Saaz @ 20
6 AAU (48g @ 3.5% AA) Czech Saaz @ 5
Wyeast 3068 - Weihenstephan Weizen
Mashed at 153° for an hour using 12 quarts of water. Batch-sparged using 170-190° water and collected 6.5 gallons for the boil.
O.G.: 1.050
Est. IBU: 42.4
I mashed this one a little bit higher than normal to try to get a little more body out of it. I am also considering racking this thing onto some fresh hops in the secondary to see how that works out; it would give me a good excuse to use the fresh hops I have in my freezer.
Since the Kölsch is using the temperature control tub, I've decided to let Hoppy just ferment at room temperature in our kitchen. Since it is January, that is still pretty cool; plus, fermenting the Hefe at a slightly elevated temperature should give it some good aromatic complexity (this morning it was at high kräusen at about 67°).
This batch also used up the last of the Czech Saaz I opened back in October 2009. They were still bright green and fresh-smelling, so I'm thinking keeping them in the subzero deep freeze keeps them pretty darn fresh. Interestingly, the first use of those Saazers was for batch #9, which used fresh homegrown hops from the same plants I'm considering using for this batch (albeit the previous year's crop).
Kölsch II: the Kölschening
So, over the weekend I brewed up two batches -- the first time I've ever brewed two days in a row. My first batch is a Kölsch which attempts to improve upon my last, chiefly through different hopping, improved mash efficiency and improved fermentation temperature control.
The Recipe:
9 lb 2-row pale malt
8 oz Munich malt
6 AAU (48g @ 3.5% AA) Czech Saaz @ 60
3 AAU (24g @ 3.5% AA) Czech Saaz @ 30
4 AAU (32g @ 3.5% AA) Czech Saaz @ 5
1 Irish Moss tablet @ 15 min
Wyeast 2565 - Kölsch
Mashed at 150° for an hour using 13 quarts of water. Batch-sparged using 170-190° water and collected 6.5 gallons for the boil.
O.G.: 1.052
Est. IBU: 36.2
I had upped the total grain bill by a pound since my last Kölsch had such poor efficiency and was so light (OG of 1.035!), but I ended up getting 80% mash efficiency so the gravity is a hair higher than what I wanted. Still, it's within operational parameters.
For the most part, I'm trying to keep my fermentation temperature below 60° on this one, although it did drift up to about 62-63° yesterday before I refreshed the ice in the cooling tub. I think I should end up with a pretty crisp brew this time, though!
The Recipe:
9 lb 2-row pale malt
8 oz Munich malt
6 AAU (48g @ 3.5% AA) Czech Saaz @ 60
3 AAU (24g @ 3.5% AA) Czech Saaz @ 30
4 AAU (32g @ 3.5% AA) Czech Saaz @ 5
1 Irish Moss tablet @ 15 min
Wyeast 2565 - Kölsch
Mashed at 150° for an hour using 13 quarts of water. Batch-sparged using 170-190° water and collected 6.5 gallons for the boil.
O.G.: 1.052
Est. IBU: 36.2
I had upped the total grain bill by a pound since my last Kölsch had such poor efficiency and was so light (OG of 1.035!), but I ended up getting 80% mash efficiency so the gravity is a hair higher than what I wanted. Still, it's within operational parameters.
For the most part, I'm trying to keep my fermentation temperature below 60° on this one, although it did drift up to about 62-63° yesterday before I refreshed the ice in the cooling tub. I think I should end up with a pretty crisp brew this time, though!
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Chores
Today I finally got around to kegging batches 31 and 32. Things were uneventful, and despite my reservations about having left them in the primary for 77 and 51 days, respectively, they both appear to have turned out OK. Mediterranean Baltic finished up at 1.014 for 7.6% ABV and Mulligan IPA finished at 1.007 for 5.1%, my lowest-ABV IPA but completely within parameters.
Early tastings indicate Mediterranean Baltic will be an incredibly smooth and nicely chocolatey brew when it is conditioned. It's a got a bit of a bitter bite at the end but I think it's pretty successful. Mulligan IPA is nicely citrusy with plenty of back-end bitterness, and it seems like my cara-pils experiment to add a little body has paid off.
So, for Christmas, Emily got me a refractometer which I tried out tonight in addition to taking hydrometer readings. The 1.014 porter shows 9 Brix, and the 1.007 IPA showed 5.5 Brix. This is because the index of refraction is affected by both sugars and alcohol in a different way than is the density; it turns out there are a bunch of cool formulae dealing with this, and I look forward to learning them all!
Early tastings indicate Mediterranean Baltic will be an incredibly smooth and nicely chocolatey brew when it is conditioned. It's a got a bit of a bitter bite at the end but I think it's pretty successful. Mulligan IPA is nicely citrusy with plenty of back-end bitterness, and it seems like my cara-pils experiment to add a little body has paid off.
So, for Christmas, Emily got me a refractometer which I tried out tonight in addition to taking hydrometer readings. The 1.014 porter shows 9 Brix, and the 1.007 IPA showed 5.5 Brix. This is because the index of refraction is affected by both sugars and alcohol in a different way than is the density; it turns out there are a bunch of cool formulae dealing with this, and I look forward to learning them all!
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Holiday Lull
So, it would seem that I've demonstrated a tendency to fall back on brewing activity during the winter holiday period. I plan to get back on track, though, and have jump-started my brewing mojo by purchasing some more parts to move my home kegerator project towards completion:
Lastly, I desperately need to keg the two batches I've got sitting in fermenters still. Once that's done, I can feel good about embarking on another batch.
- 6-way CO2 distribution manifold
- 6 ball-lock corny keg gas inlets
- 6 ball-lock corny keg beer outlets
- 24 feet each of 1/4" beer line and CO2 line
- 1 beer tap and barb assembly
Lastly, I desperately need to keg the two batches I've got sitting in fermenters still. Once that's done, I can feel good about embarking on another batch.
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