What's brewing at your place?

[jocosa]

Payson - that makes sense, and I'd do the same - in fact, someone asked me a week ago when I would be doing a barleywine - might just be time.

Efficiency, I think I tried calculating that 3 years ago when I went AG, but haven't worried with it since... too much math!

I batch sparge anyway, and have learned that just an extra running tends to give me just what I need for my 5 gallon batches. Have a keggle and a CFC, just gotta get some high-temp tubing and 'get to it.' :) And like full volume boils and AG, once I start a new method, there's no turning back.

 

[payson]

Likewise on the "no turning back". In the past a 5 gallon brew day was the norm. Now it's usually 10 and we even did 20 in one day once. More is always better!
I was foolish enough many moons ago to think that homebrewing would save me money!! Now, there's always some other gadget I must have! Recently upgraded from an immersion chiller to a counterflow. I'm much happier with it.

 

[jocosa]

I'm looking forward to using the CFC - will keep my immersion chiller, it may end up being a pre-chiller for the CFC when brewing on Georgia summer days...

Or is that over-engineering?

 

[payson]

Not over-engineering at all. I have to do the same in South Carolina.

 

[jrbruin]

I've got a big saturday planned with a brisket smoke and brewing my famous (in my household anyway) pumpkin ale.

It's a long day of brewing with the prepping and cooking of the pumpkin, then a separate mini-mash (to break down the pumpkin) before the main mash - but the final result is delicious.

It ends up with a good pumpkin flavor/aroma in a chocolatey stout beer.

 

[deejaydebi]

Terry –

Those were really good kits. I did change the yeast from the kits dry yeast to 1 tube of German Ale/Kolsch Liquid Yeast. Boy was it active! Keep a small bucket handy and if it gets over active put a blow off tube in the airlock and put the other end in a bucket of water.

When your ready I have the all-grain version also.

Ted –
I’ve got the recipe worked out for extract and all-grain. The extract is not quite as good but the all-grain is great! Here's the printout from BeerSmith.

Deejays Ballentine *** Ale
American Light/Standard/Premium Lager
Type: All Grain Date: 6/13/2006
Batch Size: 5.00 gal Brewer: Deejay
Boil Size: 6.34 gal Asst Brewer: Jessie
Boil Time: 60 min
Equipment: Brew Pot (12.5 gal) and Igloo Cooler (10 Gal)
Taste Rating(out of 50): 42.0 Brewhouse Efficiency: 85.0
Taste Notes: Yummy

Ingredients
Amount Item Type % or IBU
2.00 lb Grits (1.0 SRM) Adjunct 6.9 %
5.00 lb Pale Ale Malt 2-Row (Briess) (3.5 SRM) Grain 69.0 %
0.75 lb Wheat, White (Cargill) (2.9 SRM) Grain 10.3 %
0.50 lb Carafoam (Weyermann) (2.0 SRM) Grain 6.9 %
0.50 lb Crystal Light - 45L (Crisp) (45.0 SRM) Grain 6.9 %
0.50 oz Mt. Hood [6.00%] (30 min) Hops 9.4 IBU
0.50 oz Hallertauer [4.80%] (20 min) Hops 5.9 IBU
0.50 oz Hallertauer [4.80%] (5 min) Hops 1.9 IBU

Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.040 SG Measured Original Gravity: 1.010 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.010 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.005 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 3.8 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 0.6 %
Bitterness: 17.2 IBU Calories: 43 cal/pint
Est Color: 6.6 SRM

Mash Profile
Mash Name: Temperature Mash,
1 Step, Full Body Total Grain Weight: 7.25 lb
Sparge Water: 5.19 gal Grain Temperature: 72.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F TunTemperature: 72.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment:
FALSE Mash PH: 5.4 PH
Name Description Step Temp Step Time
Saccharification Add 9.06 qt of water at 170.5 F 158.0 F 40 min
Mash Out Heat to 168.0 F over 10 min 168.0 F 10 min

Mash Notes: Temperature mash for use when mashing in a brew pot over a
heat source such as the stove. Use heat to maintain desired temperature during the mash.
Carbonation and Storage
Carbonation Type: Kegged
(Forced CO2) Volumes of CO2: 2.4
Pressure/Weight: 21.6 PSI Carbonation Used: 3.78
Keg/Bottling Temperature: 60.0F Age for: 28.0 days
Storage Temperature: 52.0 F

JR -

Had my first Pumpkin Ale this summer in Salem Mass at the Salem Brew Works it was very good. Wanna share your recipe?

 

[ted]

Thanks Debi, that looks mighty good!!! By grits I am assuming you mean corn/maize? I may have to brew this soon!!
Terry, like Debi suggested, upgrading to a liquid yeast is a good step for any kit.

 

[homebrew & bbq]

Debi & Ted,

Thanks for the tip on liquid yeast. I want to get this batch started soon so I don't know if I can make the substitution this time. My nearest supplier is 100 miles away.

It would be great to make it to all grain brewing, but right now my available time is keeping my learning curve like fixing Q... low and slow.

But I know where to go for help/advice if I ever make it there.

 

[jrbruin]

Hey Deb,
Sure thing.. my recipe is alot different than most pumpkin ales that I've found. Those ones tend to go for a lighter ale with a pumpkin flavor whereas I went for a much darker beer. I'll post it tomorrow while I'm brewing, my notebook is out in the garage so all I can remember off the top of my head is the non-2row grains and the pumpkins and hops. Full recipe to come tomorrow

I don't have it in Promash so it won't be quite as nicely formatted as your recipe.

 

[ted]

Hey, there's no prob using dry yeast. In fact dry yeast has improved greatly in the last couple yrs and is now every bit as good as liquid yeast in most settings. Liquid yeast has an advantage simply because you can streamline your beer very closely to the brew you are attempting to make. Example is the Kolsch yeast, you can't find a dry Kolsch yeast, the best you could do is make something that vaguely resembles a Kolsch with dry yeast. However, there are more dry yeasts now than ever before, and you can get the dry American Ale yeast along with multiple Brit strains and a couple Belgian strains in dry form. I still have not found a good, reliable lager yeast in dry form, but that is not essential as I only brew a handful of lagers any given year anyway.
As for going All Grain, yes it is arguably the cats meow for homebrewers, but there are a number of people that make outstanding beers with extract, you don't need to get to hungup on that. I would only suggest when making beer from extract to use the lightest color extract possible, then get you color and flavor by steeping specialty grains or moving to partial mashing. By doing one or the other, you can make any beer style you want with little to restrict your effort.

 

[jrbruin]

Well said Ted, I agree about the dry yeast whole heartedly. In fact, the majority of my beers are made iwth the Safale US-56 strain (now called US-05). It makes a very good pale ale, IPA, amber, etc.. I always have one or two of those types of beer on tap, then two more specialty type beers (pumpkin for example). Those ones I may buy a liquid yeast, I've got a bavarian hefe on tap right now that used white labs.

Today's brew, I'm going to use the dry US56 again, initially I was going to go with a English Ale type yeast when I first brewed this - but I think I had trouble finding what I wanted and ended up using the dry us ale yeast and was so happy with the results that I'm going to stick with it. For $1 a package compared to $5 or $6 for the liquid stuff, unless you save and culture your own strains it's much cheaper and still makes high quality beer.

 

[jrbruin]

And here's that pumpkin ale recipe:

4 pumpkins
Clean the seeds, etc and cut them up into 1 inch cubes and roast in the oven at 350 for 1 hr.
Add 3lb 2-row (I use Maris Otter)

Mini-mash the above in the oven or wherever for 1 hour at 155
This supposedly helps break down the gums in the pumpkin so that you don't get a stuck mash.

In the meantime, prepare the main mash:
7 lb 2-row British
2 lb Wheat
1.5 lb Crystal 20
.5 lb British (Dark) Chocolate Malt

Mash at 155
During boil:
1.5oz Mt. Hood (4.4AA) for 60 min
.5oz Mt. Hood (4.4AA) for 1 min

With a few minutes left in the boil, add:
1 tbs cinnamon
1 tbs nutmeg
2 tsp ginger
.5 tsp clove
1 tsp allspice

I used Safale Dry US05 (US56) yeast, but I think an english ale yeast would be good as well.
My OG was 1.061, but this should have been a much bigger beer according to promash, will let you know what I end up with today. :)
Let me know if I left anything out.

 

[jocosa]

jrbruin - thanks for the pumpkin ale recipe... I did one once, and helped some friends make one once, but a dark base instead of an amber base sounds like it might be worth trying again.

I use dry wine yeasts for meads - and occasionally a neutral dry yeast for brew...

HB&BBQ - some of my best remembered brews are from extract kits - and there's a wide margin for 'customization' with these very kits too... Brewer's Best is one of my favorite brands for extract kits because they *do* put steeping grains in the box.

Some of my favorite tweaks for extract kits are adding a lb or two of honey at flame out (when you turn off the heat at the end of the boil), or maybe adding a qt of maple syrup (not pancake syrup!) at the same time... I also like to add a 1/2 lb of oats during the steep - it'll help give a nice body boost and nice head to a plain porter or stout - effectively making them an 'oatmeal porter' or 'oatmeal stout.'

AG is fun too, but still tons you can do with extracts... I've gone back to extracts for a bit to help teach my boyfriend about both brewing methods - it's been fun.

 

[ted]

Here's what I'm brewing on Sunday with another brewer. We will be splitting this, with each getting 5 gallons. Mmmm, just in time for the winter months!!

Recipe Specifics
----------------
Recipe Name: WLP (1850)
Brewed On: N/A


Batch Size (Gal): 10.00
Est. IBU: 61.8
Est. OG: 1.065 Plato: 15.82


Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
78.6 18.33 lbs. Marris Otter Great Britain 1.038 2
16.1 3.75 lbs. Brown Malt Great Britain 1.034 60
1.8 0.42 lbs. Black Patent Malt Great Britain 1.027 525
1.8 0.42 lbs. Chocolate Malt Great Britain 1.034 375
1.8 0.42 lbs. Carafa Special Germany 1.030 600

Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.


Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.17 oz. Fuggle Whole 4.00 30.9 90 min.
4.17 oz. Goldings - E.K. Whole 4.00 30.9 90 min.


Extras

Amount Name Type Time
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 Unit(s)Whirlfloc Fining 5 Min.(boil)


Yeast
-----

Wyeast London Ale 1028


Mash Schedule
-------------

Mash Type: Single Step

Grain Lbs: 23.33
Water Qts: 28.00 - Before Additional Infusions
Water Gal: 7.00 - Before Additional Infusions

Qts Water Per Lbs Grain: 1.20 - Before Additional Infusions

Saccharification Rest Temp : 151 Time: 90
Mash-out Rest Temp : 168 Time: 15
Sparge Temp : 166 Time: 60

All temperature measurements are degrees Fahrenheit.