Straight-up porter, as the first beer brewed in my baesment.
Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: WLP001 (2 pure pitch packets)
Yeast Starter: none
Batch Size (Gallons): intended 10, collected 9.5
Original Gravity: ??
Final Gravity: ??
IBU: ?27? ?33
Boiling Time (Minutes): 75
Color: ~25?
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp):
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp):
18# 2-row
1# Biscuit
1# Chocolate
1# C40
4oz Black Patent
2oz Cascade (4.5%) FWH
26 grams Nugget at 30 minutes into boil
1 whirlfloc
mash extended due to pump failure (2 hours total). boil extended from intended 60 minutes due to other failures. Transferred to conical fermenter for no-chill period after fermentation, due to counter-flow chiller failure. Wondering what will become of this bastard child.
Insert thoughtful introduction acknowledging Ben & Olga’s wedding and the honor of brewing their beer 🙂
Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Notty (1.5 packets)
Yeast Starter: no starter, just 1.5 packets 🙂
Batch Size (Gallons): intended 5.5, collected ?
Original Gravity: 1.072
Final Gravity:
IBU: ?
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: ?
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 62* to start
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp):
25# 2-row
1# C60
1# Honey
1# Honey Biscuit
2oz CTZ (First wort)
.5oz CTZ, .5oz Cascade 15 min
.5oz CTZ, .5oz Cascade 10 min
.5oz CTZ, .5oz Cascade 5 min
.5oz CTZ, .5oz Cascade flameout
mashed for 1 hour, ended up being 154*
UPDATE 6/26: racked to kegs, tasting yummy & grainy & a little sweet, ending at 1.006 (wow!), yielding a whopping 8.6% ABV
Insert thoughtful statement regarding the beautiful help that Olga provided to us today, the lots of beer that were brewed, and the honor of providing libation for her and Ben’s wedding reception 🙂
Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Safbrew WB-06 (1.5 packets)
Yeast Starter: no starter, just 1.5 packets 🙂
Batch Size (Gallons): intended 5.5, collected ?
Original Gravity: 1.061
Final Gravity:
IBU: ?
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: LIGHT
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 71* to start
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp):
13# Wheat
12# Barley
1# Rye
20z Cascade, FWH
Mashed at 149* for 60 minutes
Collected 10 full gallons (maybe a little more)
UPDATE 6/12/17: added 3# blood orange puree to one of the carboys
UPDATE 6/29/17: kegged the straight wheat beer, clocked in at 1.007 (7% ABV) and DELICIOUS: Sweet, full-bodied, lots of bubble gum, a little banana and a hint of clove. Also kegged the blood orange wheat beer: nose is a bit boozy, beer is a bit thinner and more muted but a bit more complex. Where the straight-up wheat beer has esthers and phenols forward, this is more subtle and complex. YUM.
Brian and Jill at Nepenthe recently provided an astute diagnosis of developing off flavors in my beer. Turns out I’ve been neglecting the health of my yeast, both in terms of under-pitching and not controlling temps. I’ve had some pissed off yeasts. I’ve also recently begun to really dial in my water. With these tools in hand, I will attempt a new IPA which I’ve named in homage to my originally very careful but forgotten and new-found respect for temps and pitching rates 🙂
Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Safale US 05
Yeast Starter: no starter, just two packets of Safale 05 🙂
Batch Size (Gallons): intended 5.5, collected ~3-3.5, added 1 gal spring water from Whole Foods
Original Gravity: 1.074 – then added 1 gal fresh water, assuming this brings me down to about 1.062
Final Gravity:
IBU: ~60?
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: ~9 SRM
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 62* to start
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp):
7.5# Maris Otter (what I had left)
2.5# German Pils (what I had left)
10oz C60 (what I had left)
1oz CTZ FWH
0.5oz Nugget, 0.5oz CTZ, 0.5oz Cascade 10min
0.5oz Nugget, 0.5oz CTZ, 0.5oz Cascade @Whirlpool (~15 minutes at 120*)
Mash was too hot (~158, intended ~150), didn’t sparge with enough water, wanted to whirlpool at 180* but instead ended up whirlpooling at 120*. Missed the mark in lots of ways, but let’s see if I can keep the temps in check after overpitching, as this was the real goal 🙂 the carboy is resting at a balmy 62* in a water bath.
This beer is being brewed to drink on the night of the inauguration of our 45th president. A number of friends are gathering to move to DC the following day for a march, and I asked everyone what kind of beer I should brew for the occasion. Top contenders were La Fin du Monde (though I don’t have the time nor ingredients on hand to brew this), Arrogant Bastard (spot on), and “something thick, dark, and bitter” (which leads me to Cascadian Dark Ale). The following is an amalgam of the latter 2: Arrogant Bastard base (http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showpost.php?p=2395329&postcount=24) and elements of a CDA (various, including: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=387410). I’m a bit torn on the name and will leave that one as a game-day audible, maybe left to a crowd vote.
Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: WLP007
Yeast Starter: 1L starter from 1 packet, made the night before (so pitched at high krausen)
Batch Size (Gallons): 5.5
Original Gravity: 1.066
Final Gravity: ??
IBU: ~65?
Boiling Time (Minutes): 90
Color: ~38 SRM?
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp):
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp):
12# Maris Otter
1.5# Special B
.75# Carafa II Special
.5# C60
1oz Nugget 90min
0.5oz Nugget, 0.5oz CTZ, 0.5oz Cascade 10min
0.5oz Nugget, 0.5oz CTZ, 0.5oz Cascade @Whirlpool (after cooled below 180*)
Mashed in and held 148* straight for 60 minutes 🙂 I heated and used 10 gallons for the mash and sparge, and ended up with more volume than I expected: 6 gallons collected in a New FerMONSTER!! (woohoo!), leaving about a gallon of trub in the pot. Pitched 1L WLP007 started at high krausen.
UPDATE from the day after inauguration … the group consensus from the 19 fellow travelers we housed for the march was that we should call this something like “Obama’s Last Stand”. So Mote It Be, mthfkrs.
Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Nottingham
Yeast Starter: 1L starter from 1 packet
Batch Size (Gallons): 10
Original Gravity: 1.059
Final Gravity: 1.012
IBU: ~50?
Boiling Time (Minutes): ~75
Color: ~12-17 SRM?
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp):
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp):
?16# Maris Otter (18# intended)
2# C60
2.5oz Nugget 60min
Fresh hops: 1/2 of a 2 gallon bucket of fresh CTZ hops from the plant out front, as a hop-stand after cooling the wort to ~180˚
1 Whirlfloc, 15 min
We took a trip to Nepenthe (and a short stop at Union) during mash, so we ended up mashing for about 1:45. The thermometer was a little on the hot side when we opened up to sparge (near 158˚), hotter than I had hoped for. We also ended up boiling a little longer than I had expected to.
We also realized as we were pitching that we had left behind 1-2# of grain, which was all very likely base malt since it was at the end of the crush. Whoops!
Thursday, 9/29: FG is 1.012 (6.2% ABV)
To be entered into the homebrew competition for the 2016 Baltimore Craft Beer Festival 🙂
Recipe Type: All-Grain
Yeast: WLP500
Yeast Starter: 1L and 0.5L starters from two separate pure pitch packs
Batch Size (Gallons): 10.5 gallons
Original Gravity: 1.075 (+0.064 w/ D90 ≈ 1.081)
Final Gravity:
IBU: ~25
Boiling Time (Minutes): 75
Color:
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp):
18# Maris Otter
6# German Pilsner
2# C60
2# CaraAroma
2# D90 (after krausen falls)
2oz Northern Brewer (7.8 AAU)
(6) 16oz Organic Pumpkin packages and (1) Libby’s 15oz pumpkin can (111 oz) bated at 350* for 60 minutes
half of the pumpkin (roughly) went into the mash, half into the pot
1# rice hulls
Mashed in 10gal water at ~163*, ended up somewhere around 146* mash temp
3 tsp pumpkin spice at 15 min
Sunday 9/25: pitched one package of D-90 in each carboy
Thursday 9/29: FG 1.010 in each carboy (9.6%) Woot!!
Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: WLP090 San Diego Super
Yeast Starter: 1 yeast cake from batch #59
Batch Size (Gallons): 5.5
Original Gravity: 1.050
Final Gravity: 1.0
IBU: 17
Boiling Time (Minutes): 90
Color: 2.5
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): room temp 8 days, then keg, cold crash & carb
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp):
7# German Pilsen
2.5# German Wheat Malt
Starting Gravity: 1.039
0.5oz Cascade – 60 min
0.5oz Cascade – 15 min
0.5oz Cascade – FO
1 Whirlfloc – 10 min
Made for my father’s 90th birthday 🙂 easy drinking beer. Happy Birthday, Dad!
16# German Wheat Malt
14# German Pilsner
1# C60
2oz Nugget FWH
1 whirlfloc
90 minute boil
8 gal recovered
yeast cake from one carboy from batch 58 (WLP090)
The taste upon racking to secondary was divine. The final product was estery, bitter, and a product of some very, very unhappy yeast. Need to brew this again with as much of the happiest yeast I can find.
Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: WLP090 San Diego Super
Yeast Starter: 1.5L (split between two carboys)
Batch Size (Gallons): 10
Original Gravity: 1.060
Final Gravity:
IBU: 44
Boiling Time (Minutes): 120
Color: 6.5
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): room temp 14 days
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp):
15# German Pilsen
5# German Wheat Malt
1# C60
2oz Nugget – 60 min
0.5oz Cascade – 15 min
0.5oz CTZ – 15 min
0.5oz Nugget – 15 min
0.5oz Cascade – 10 min
0.5oz CTZ – 10 min
0.5oz Nugget – 10 min
0.5oz Cascade – 5 min
0.5oz CTZ – 5 min
0.5oz Nugget – 5 min
2oz Cascade – FO
1 Whirlfloc – 10 min