What's in your fermenter??

kbhale · Post by **kbhale** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 12:00 am

Brewing this this coming week end. Also plan to make my first Mead.

Golden Goose Ale

11 gallon batch

16 LB Pilsen
2 LB Cara foam

1 oz Northern Brewer @ 45 min
2 oz Saaz @ 15 min

Nottingham yeast

JohnD · Post by **JohnD** » Mon Dec 11, 2006 7:32 am

Bottled a Wast Coast Red Ale last week. I'll give it another week to carbonate. Might be ready for the Xmas meeting
5# light DME
.66 Crystal malt 40L
2 oz Willamette 60 min
1/2 oz Cascade 15 min
1/2 oz Cascade 2 min
US56 yeast (starter)
2 tsp gypsum
Irish Moss
Servomyces
Primed w/ 1/2 cup honey

JohnD · Post by **JohnD** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 3:59 pm

Made stout yesterday, used US56 yeast from secondary fermenter of amber ale. Put in a blow off tube this time to prevent the dreaded airlock missle. Had bubbles in 4 hours. Always used Irish ale yeast before but didn't have any so we'll see what difference if any that makes.

Kenny Lucas · Post by **Kenny Lucas** » Sun Dec 31, 2006 2:49 am

Doing a Wit New year's eve. First time mashing wheat in any large quantity.

Chris Norrick · Post by **Chris Norrick** » Sun Dec 31, 2006 10:25 am

Use LOTS of rice hulls. I've got a few lbs here if you need them.

psfred · Post by **psfred** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 5:52 pm

Lotta beer all of a sudden!

Last weekend we did a golden ale (stuck frement, probably going to have to raise the temp in the brewery), another lager (amber this time), and an amber extract. All pitched with Nothern Brewer and Tettnanger hops (or all Tettnanger), our favorite.

Pitched the lager with the yeast from the previous batch, foam out the airlock in three hours! Gonna have to cut down on the yeast dosage next time, I think....

Peter

Chris Alvey · Post by **Chris Alvey** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 7:34 am

I saw this beer over at the Brewboard forums and was intrigued. I like the fact that the malt base is spread out between a couple-few pounds of several malts rather than my usual base malt plus a pound or two of something else type formula. The hop burst thing delights me, needless to say (i'd add more

). Ryan and I have both used the White Labs Kolsch yeast - it's kind of finicky.

Now if only I had somewhere warm to brew - stupid winter.

Community Spring Beer, all-grain
5.5 gallons
OG = 1.055 (@75% efficiency)
IBUs = 40 (but with emphasis on hop flavor and aroma)
Color = Golden (~7-8 SRM)

Grains
2.0 pounds Maris Otter Pale Malt [sub: Golden Promise]
2.0 pounds Vienna Malt
3.5 pounds Munich Malt
2.0 pounds Pilsner Malt
2.0 pounds Light Wheat Malt [sub: Rye Malt -or- Oat Malt]

Hops, Super HopBurst
1.5 oz Amarillo (8.5%) first wort hops (calculates as 20 min addition) [sub: Centennial, Cascade, Chinook, Columbus]
1.25 oz East Kent Golding (5.0%) 15 min [sub: US Golding]
1.25 oz East Kent Golding (5.0%) 10 min [sub: US Golding]
0.75 oz Saaz (5.0%) 5 min [sub: Sterling]
0.75 oz Saaz (5.0%) end of boil [sub: Sterling]

Yeast
White Labs 029 German Ale/Kolsch -or- Wyeast 2565 Kolsch

Chris Norrick · Post by **Chris Norrick** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 1:12 pm

Brewed up another 10 gallons of the Amber-Red Ale Sunday. It was so nice and warm and sunny in the morning when I was taking my time cleaning things getting ready for the brew. Then, as you know, it turned shitty. I hate brewing in the rain. The mash went well, shooting for 156, hit 158 then 160 so I added in some cold water. Too much of course and it dropped to 151. I was trying out a newly converted 15 gallon keg HLT with a mash recirculator in it so I had lots of water left after adding the strike water. Problem was I was refilling it with cold water. So it was not yet hot enough to run the recirulcation and gain any heat. Add to that the propane take was running out and the backup was empty... oh well, finally got to 156 with 15 minutes left. Got the mash up to 168 with no problem after getting the propane tank filled up. Trouble is, with out a brew sculpture, I was gravity feeding the sparge water and pumping the wert to the brew kettle so the HLT was not on the burner and I couldn't maintain 170. Then it really started to rain. At one point we took the whole setup during the sparge and moved it into the garage while it was sparging! Disturbed the grain bed a bit. Man I've really got to make a decent brew sculpture.

Chris Alvey · Post by **Chris Alvey** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 11:19 am

That sounds like a cursing-filled day there Chris. It sounds like it will be a cool system once you get everything worked out though.

bradb · Post by **bradb** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 12:55 am

I've got another American IPA bottled alot more hoppn' than the first one hopfully all is well with it, time will tell. Had little air bubbles showing up in the line while racking to the secondary fermenter. Chris was totally right about whole hops soaking up the beer but they smell and look great. Im stuck on pellets from here on out I think. Also bottled up an Oatmeal stout, tasted a litlle but I think it still needs extended bottle conditioning. Should be prime for next meeting.

JohnD · Post by **JohnD** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 9:14 pm

First attempt at a California Common today. Guidelines are really pretty open as far as color, grain bill, and type and amount of hops. I have had the yeast (WLP810) for a while and figured I had enough ingredients to come up with something in the ball park. Looked at several recipes, didn't follow any of them to the letter. Didn't have the right specialty grains either. It seems though, that the specialty grains are basically for color, not roasted flavor, so I used a combination of light and amber DME. Figure that the color should be about right. For 5 gal. I used 1/2 oz. of Northern Brewer and 1 oz. Perle hops for bittering (75 min) with 1 oz. Northern Brewer for aroma(2 min). SO, we'll see what happens.

Dwayne_Delaney · Post by **Dwayne_Delaney** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 6:07 pm

Into the fermenter today:

Dark Hefe
Amount Item
5.00 lb Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM)
2.00 lb Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM)
2.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM)
1.00 lb Caramel Wheat Malt (46.0 SRM)
0.25 lb Chocolate Wheat Malt (400.0 SRM)
1.00 oz Hallertauer [4.80%] (60 min)
1 Pkgs Hefeweizen Ale (White Labs #WLP300)

Beer Profile
Estimated Original Gravity: 1.052 SG
Estimated Final Gravity: 1.013 SG
Estimated Color: 16.5 SRM
Bitterness: 16.4 IBU

Very smooth brew day. I double-milled my grain for the first time after I noticed a lot of whole wheat kernels made it through.
I had great extraction; 87% into the boiler........with a single batch sparge!

Dwayne_Delaney · Post by **Dwayne_Delaney** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 5:20 pm

Another one into the fermenter:

Emerald Red
Amount Item
9.00 lb Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM)
1.25 lb Carared (20.0 SRM)
1.00 lb Corn, Flaked (1.3 SRM)
0.25 lb Special B Malt (180.0 SRM)
0.25 lb Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM)
0.15 lb Black Barley (Stout) (500.0 SRM)
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00%] (60 min)
0.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00%] (15 min)
1 Pkgs SafAle English Ale (DCL Yeast #S-04)

Beer Profile
Estimated Original Gravity: 1.055 SG
Estimated Final Gravity: 1.014 SG
Estimated Color: 15.0 SRM
Bitterness: 18.3 IBU

My wife asked me to brew this one, how could I refuse.

Chris Alvey · Post by **Chris Alvey** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 7:20 am

I'd like to know how that Safale English yeast turns out - remind me that's what is in this one if you bring it to a meeting sometime. I had a really good red from Goose Island (Kiligubbin, I think) and was inspired to do one some time too.

I did a standard American Pale Ale this weekend - Simcoe, Centennial, Cascade with 2-Row, Victory, Munich, and a Crystal 15L/40L blend. WLP001.

I did some pre-brew-season cleanings and some water experiments before brewing this one with the idea of getting my water measurements and, therefore, OG measurements nailed down.

I came away with more questions than answers.

1. I found that my new Mash Tun (via Chris N.) holds just under 0.25 gallons when drained and not tipped.

2. I found that my grain holds about .114 gallons of water per pound of grain.

3. I inexplicably found that I boiled off a bit less than 20% of my wort in one hour of boiling. This may be less because I am not sure that I measured my volumes at the same temp - this may be off because the boiling water's volume shrinks as it cools. However, most sources say boiloff should be in the neighborhood of 10 to 15%.

4. A converted keg left relatively uncleaned and boiled with clean water for an hour makes a nasty looking tea. Lesson learned - CLEAN THE KEG after use or add a foul looking tea to the beer.

5. I left behind 1.75 gallons of trub when racking from boil kettle to fermenter after settling exactly 15 minutes - more than I thought.

6. Overshooting strike water temp, then dumping it into the mash tun (without the grain) and stirring until it's down to temp is a good way to make sure the strike water is at the temperature you want. Excellent - new way I'm going to go for sure. No more of my 'backwards step mashing' procedure of finding out that my mash is at 162 and throwing in ice.

JohnD · Post by **JohnD** » Tue May 08, 2007 5:05 pm

Not much posted here lately! Recently bottled a pale ale w/ a little too much crystal malt(a little too much color also, oops!) No big deal unless concern is guidelines for contest. Turned out good.
Bottled hefeweizen last night. Much more banana/ clove /bubblegum flavor than batch made during winter fermented at 60F. Lots more aroma from higher ferment temp.
Think I'll make one more batch of beer this spring. Belgian something that can handle warm fermentation temps. Might reuse yeast from the Belgian Strong Ale at Big Brew.
Carboys not used for beer this summer might have to be used for mead.

OVHA Chat

What's in your fermenter??

Bottled today.