Friday, May 29, 2015

Lost Abbey Saison Blanc Tasting

ABV: 5.4

Appearance: Light. straw color.
Smell: Slight cheddar cheese, soap
Taste: Light malt, slight tang
Mouthfeel: Sparkling, medium carbonation
Finish: dry, slight sweet left on tongue
Duration: medium (seconds)

Overall: 6.5


Thursday, May 28, 2015

Brew 21: Oats, peas, beans, and barley grow aka Mum, You Been On My Mind


2 lb Pale Malt
0.25 lb toasted rolled Oats
0.1 lb ground beans


0.25 lb ground peas

Black tea
spearmint
Juniper
Cardamom
Bay leaf


Simmer oats and beans for 20 minutes before adding to malt mash
Mash at 150F,
  Mashed for ~4 hours
Ferment with ale yeast 3-4 days. Add the other ingredients. Infuse for 10 days.
 Strain and allow to clear, then bottle. 

Pitched yeast cake from brew 20 into 89F wort
Fermenter chilled to 74F (outside) over night (7 hours)

OG: 1.040 @60F

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Red Barn Ale tasting

ABV: 6.7

Appearance: Light. Slight tan color.
Smell: Spicy, peppery, hay, orange
Taste: Orange flavor, cream ale-y
Mouthfeel: Sparkling, high carbonation
Finish: dry (carbonation) then sweet
Duration: medium (seconds)

Overall: 7

Decent wine/champagne alternative

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Brew20 Tasting

First taste from fermenter

Yeasty, bready smell
Green apple, slightly soapy taste
Quite dry finish
Green apple lingers

Overall: 6 of 10

Drinkable. Maybe a little green.

Brew20 Bottling

Equipment: Small boil pot, solid stopper, 20 qt pot, water bottles with ice, draft bottle and cap, tasting bottle and cap, racking cane, tubing, hydrometer, starsan, sugar

Steps:
  1. Freeze water bottles ahead of time
  2. Cold condition beer
    1. Put ice water in 20 qt pot
    2. Boil stopper for 20 minutes
    3. Replace airlock with stopper
    4. Put fermenter in 20 qt pot and measure temp and time
      1. 69F, start at 11:55am
      2. 56F, end at 10:00pm
  3. Sanitize all equipment
  4. Made sugar mixture of 1.2 oz corn sugar and 2x by volume water
  5. Add sugar mixture to bottles that will be bottle conditioned
  6. Siphon from fermenters to bottles
    1. Measure FG from smaller bottle, if haven't already
      1. 1.008
    2. Burp bottle before capping
      1. Seems a little low on the amount of liquid
    Broke bottle cap Poured yeast cake into bottle

    Sunday, May 17, 2015

    Brew22: Strong Stout


    Equipment: Mash tun (20 quart pot, nylon bag), Lauter tun (6 quart sparge pot, 20 qt pot and splatter/strainer, 8 quart pot), Boil pot (8qt pot), Fermenter (2 2 gallon buckets), Airlocks, Hydrometer, Starsan, Thermometer, wort chiller (salted ice bath from frozen 16oz water bottles), strainer, ruler, stirring spoon, scale, measuring cup

    2.5 gallons water
    Target: 1.75 gallons wort, OG: 1.091
    Max OG: 1.114
    Target Brew Eff: 80%
    3 lb 2-row base (63.8%) (Max PPG: 76)
    1.2 lb. flaked barley (25.5%) (MP: 26)
    0.5 lb. black malt (500L) (10.6%) (MP: 12)

    Total grain bill: 9.4 lbs

    1.75 gallons boil
    Target: 1.5 gallons

    0.25 oz Goldings/NorthernBrewer at 60 mins
    0.25 oz Goldings/NorthernBrewer at 60 mins
    0.25 oz Goldings/NorthernBrewer at 30 mins

    1 gram Calcium Carbonate total (only 1 batch)

    0.375 ounces Hungarian medium toast oak

    Yeast: Safale trub from Brew20

    Steps:
    Mash:
    1. Prepare ice ahead of time
    2. Heat Mash tun
      1. Heat over to 170
    3. Prepare strike water. Using 5 qts water to 165  F (5/4.7 ratio mash thickness)
    4. Temper in grains with strike water
    5. With thermometer, maintain mash temp
    6. Stir mash every so often
    7. Prepare sparge water: ~175 F at .5qt/lb water loss to grain, 2.35 qts loss, 3.5 qts water
    8. At end of mash, scoop wort over grains into boil pot.
    9. Measure wort amount to find sparge wort amount.
    10. Measure gravity.
    11. While measuring gravity and wort volume, sparge into secondary pot until reaching sparge wort amount or 1.75 gals wort in boil
    12. Measure gravity
    Boil:
    1. Add hops according to schedule
    2. Rehydrate yeast if needed (boil 1/2 cup water per 7g packet, cover put in freezer or water bath until 95-105 F reached ~30 mins) (or boil 1/2 cup wort and put in freezer or water bath to get a starter going)
      1. Poured chilled wort over yeast sludge to help break it up
    3. Bring wort to rolling boil
    4. With a 10-15 minutes left in boil, sanitize fermenter, airlock, blowoff tube, wort chiller, strainer, funnel, ladle [need to scoop some wort for hydrometer]
    5. Near end, add extra water to reach target brew amount if needed
    6. Finish boil at 60 mins
    7. Scoop half wort into secondary pot
    8. Chill wort
    9. Measure OG
      1. 1.063 @ 76F (Batch 1)
    10. Pour and strain wort into fermenters
    11. Pitch yeast
    12. Cap with airlock/blowoff tubes

    Thursday, May 14, 2015

    Wort chiller

    http://www.education.com/science-fair/article/fastest-way-to-cool-a-soda/

    Salted-ice bath is the key to chilling wort without the use of a specialized wort chiller.

    http://www.pfaltzgraff.com/stainless-steel-asparagus-steamer/5040235.html?utm_source=googleshopping&utm_medium=cse&utm_campaign=googleshopping&tmcampid=23&tmad=c&tmplaceref=GGL&tmclickref=5040235&CAGPSPN=pla&CAWELAID=1421054239&catargetid=530007880000022248&cadevice=c#productdetails
    16.99

    http://www.homedepot.com/p/Coleman-5-gal-Beverage-Cooler-Orange-3000000733/203321696?cm_mmc=Shopping%7CBase&gclid=CMT_iYOJwsUCFQwLaQod_ikA8Q&gclsrc=aw.ds#specifications
    19.99

    Wednesday, May 13, 2015

    Brew20: Blonde ale

    Not sure if this is brew 20. It fits as Brew 2.0, though.

    Max og : 1.064
    Target og: 1.051
    Target brewhouse eff: 80%
    Actual og: 1.045
    Actual brewhouse eff: 70% (might be closer to 75% as my actual batch size might be closer to 1.6G)
    Target size:1.5G
    Grain (max pts/target)
    Grain
    2lb California Select 2-row (50.6)
    0.2lb Crystal 10L (4.6)
    0.2lb Goldpils Vienna (4.6)
    0.2lb Carapils (4.3)

    Hops
    0.125 oz Willamette (4.5%) fwh
    0.125 oz Willamette (4.5%) 30 min

    Yeast
    Safale US-05

    Water
    2 G Arrowhead spring water

    Prepare ice bath in cooler.

    Mash:
      Mash targets: 140 through 158 to produce drier beer
      Initial strike 1.25qt/lb == 3.25 qts, target 140 == 151F

      -- Initial mash: 144F
      -- 5 mins later: 142F
        Fiddled with switching between Warm and Low settings to raise temp
      -- 60 mins later: 148F
      -- 105 mins later: 154F
        Stopped cooker at this point

      Lauter rest of grain. (5 qts sparge 175F)

      Sparge temp: ~180F

      Combine mash, sparge, and steep water. Measure with hydrometer. Boil.

    Boil:
      Begin rehydrating yeast and boil wort for 60-75 minutes


    Chill in ice bath

    • Chilled to ~90F after 30+ mins. Ice bath was no longer cold. Moved to kitchen sink where tap water temp was around ~65F.


    At desired brew temperature 68-70F, remove boil pot from bath. Reset temperature of cooler water to desired brew temperature.
    Strain wort into fermenter. Pitch yeast.

    Shopping List

    Colonna corker
    Plastic fermenter
    More Belgian corks


    ---
    Mini auto siphon
    3 ft 5/16" tubing
    Bottle filler
    Belgian corks
    Belgian hoods
    Bottle caps
    375ml Belgian style bottles

    ---
    Vodka

    Thursday, May 7, 2015

    Shopping list

    Large nylon bag
    Hydrometer
    Airlock
    Small auto siphon
    Tubing
    Corn sugar
    2 lb pale
    0.2 carapils
    0.14 crystal 10
    0.14 Vienna
    Centennial or cascade
    Da star Nottingham yeast or similar