Finally brewing again!
Where to begin. Well, the Springfield's got quite the brewing culture, and as I had picked up everything to all grain brew before deployment, I figured I might as well make something out of it. So... here goes.
First on the plate, or perhaps in the pot, was an Imperial IPA. My MLT for this brew was my 10 gallon megapot, with a false bottom set up by flipping a brown cereal bowl upside down and setting a splatter screen on top of it. The pot was a little wider than the screen, so I made up the difference with aluminum foil. This did not work well at all. I couldn't get clear wort for the life of me, and so brewed with hazy wort. Hopefully this does not produce any astringency.
Recipe for the Imperial IPA:
Grain Bill:
16 pounds American Two Row
1 pound Crystal 20
0.5 pounds Carapils
2 pounds candy sugar
Brewhouse efficiency appears to have been about 65%
Mash temperature: 155 (I think. I may have forgotten some basic HTFF knowledge - the final gravity suggests mash temperature may have been quite lower)
Mash time: 70 minutes - I got impatient
Mash density: 1.25qt/lb
Boil volume: 15 gallons (initially in two pots until I got it down to 10 gallons)
Hop schedule:
1 oz Cascade: 4 hours
2 oz Centennial: 1 hour
1 oz Cascade: 1 hour
0.5 oz Cascade: 10 minutes
0.5 oz Cascade: flameout
1 oz Cascade: dry hopped in secondary for four weeks
1 oz Centennial: dry hopped in secondary for four weeks
1 oz Citra: dry hopped in secondary for four weeks
Theoretical IBU's: 144
Batch volume 5.5 gallons
Initial gravity: 1.090 at 79F (corrects to 1.092 at reference temp of 60F)
Pitched two packets of Nottingham English Dry Ale yeast on the morning of 10/21. Extremely agressive fermentation (~half a gallon lost to blowoff - might have overdone it on the yeast a little), ended at 1.010 at 67F on 10/25
Apparent attenuation: 88%, ABV of 10.5%
Fermentation temperature: 67F, by maintaining apartment temperature.
Transferred to secondary evening of 10/25
Dry hopped evening of 10/27
Notes: Should have hopped the mash. Apparently this is one of the best things you can do to instill hop flavor. Also, I let my enthusiasm get the better of me, and didn't really calculate this very well. I found myself standing in the LHBS, just sort of picking grains out of thin air, hence the very uncomplicated grist.
Tasting notes: Tasted about an hour after dry hopping. Wow that's bitter. And lots of alcohol. There's a little sweetness up front, that will probably get masked by the carbonation, immediately leading into just hops. just hop hop hop. Strong coffee levels of bitterness, with a lingering aroma of hops in the back of the nose, and a lingering bitterness and warmth in the mouth and throat, respectively. This one's going to need to be aged. Maybe I'll drink it when I come back from the AT.
Next!
So, the brewing bug bit me. Hard. On 10/25 I decided to try an all grain version of my pumpkin ale, but first, I had to upgrade my MLT per the guide found here: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/cheap-easy-10-gallon-rubbermaid-mlt-conversion-23008/
Recipe for the Imperial IPA:
Grain Bill:
10 pounds American Two Row
1 pound Crystal 60
0.5 pounds Carapils
1 pie pumpkin, roasted for 1.5 hours at 400F
2 pounds brown sugar (added directly to boil)
Brewhouse efficiency appears to have been about 75% with this setup
Mash temperature: 155 (I think. The thermometer read 120, but the strike water was heated to 170. So nyeh. I think I just didn't wait long enough after mashing in)
Mash time: 70 minutes - I got impatient
Mash density: 1.25qt/lb
Mash time: 90 minutes - I like this better than the one hour minimum
Boil volume: 7.5 gallons
Hop schedule:
1.5 oz Fuggles: 1 hour
0.5 oz Fuggles: 5 minutes
1 cinnamon stick, 8 cloves, 5 allspice berries, ~1/4 of a nutmeg added at 5 minutes remaining
Theoretical IBU's: 27
Batch volume 5.5 gallons
Boil time - About two hours
Initial gravity: 1.075 corrected to 60F.
Pitched one packet of Safale S-04 on the morning of 10/26. Agressive fermentation (one blowoff noted, but did not blow airlock, unless Laura forgot to mention that part)
Apparent attenuation: dunno, it's still fermenting. Should come out to ~7.2
Fermentation temperature: 67F, by maintaining apartment temperature.
Notes: Smells great - like a malty pumpkin pie. If I managed to hit the mouthfeel on this one, it should work out perfect. Will have wife rack it to secondary and hang spices for one week, then rack onto sugar, mix, bottle, and allow to condition. 10 gallon MLT worked much better - I had an apparent 10% improvement in brewhouse efficiency from my first batch to second. Not bad.
Next!
I heated 5 more gallons of water to 200, poured into the mash, remixed, and let it sit for another hour. I then collected all the runnings from this - came out to about 5.5 gallons. Brought to boil, added 0.5 oz of EKG at 60 minutes, and 0.5 oz of EKG at 5 minutes. Initial gravity came out to 1.023 corrected to 60F, in approximately 4.5 gallons after boil. Let cool overnight in closed fermenter, added 1 packet of Saf US-05 when wort was 78F. This is what's called a small beer, and it should come out to about 2.6% ABV. This will be baby pumpkin. This was done as proof of concept/testing the parti-gyle method. In the future, this small beer will be used for such things as homemade ginger ale.
Next!
Brewed a 5 gallon batch of Johnny Jump Up hard apple cider using cider from Clyde's cider mill. Skipped the tannin in the recipe because I didn't have any. Used D47 yeast.
First on the plate, or perhaps in the pot, was an Imperial IPA. My MLT for this brew was my 10 gallon megapot, with a false bottom set up by flipping a brown cereal bowl upside down and setting a splatter screen on top of it. The pot was a little wider than the screen, so I made up the difference with aluminum foil. This did not work well at all. I couldn't get clear wort for the life of me, and so brewed with hazy wort. Hopefully this does not produce any astringency.
Recipe for the Imperial IPA:
Grain Bill:
16 pounds American Two Row
1 pound Crystal 20
0.5 pounds Carapils
2 pounds candy sugar
Brewhouse efficiency appears to have been about 65%
Mash temperature: 155 (I think. I may have forgotten some basic HTFF knowledge - the final gravity suggests mash temperature may have been quite lower)
Mash time: 70 minutes - I got impatient
Mash density: 1.25qt/lb
Boil volume: 15 gallons (initially in two pots until I got it down to 10 gallons)
Hop schedule:
1 oz Cascade: 4 hours
2 oz Centennial: 1 hour
1 oz Cascade: 1 hour
0.5 oz Cascade: 10 minutes
0.5 oz Cascade: flameout
1 oz Cascade: dry hopped in secondary for four weeks
1 oz Centennial: dry hopped in secondary for four weeks
1 oz Citra: dry hopped in secondary for four weeks
Theoretical IBU's: 144
Batch volume 5.5 gallons
Initial gravity: 1.090 at 79F (corrects to 1.092 at reference temp of 60F)
Pitched two packets of Nottingham English Dry Ale yeast on the morning of 10/21. Extremely agressive fermentation (~half a gallon lost to blowoff - might have overdone it on the yeast a little), ended at 1.010 at 67F on 10/25
Apparent attenuation: 88%, ABV of 10.5%
Fermentation temperature: 67F, by maintaining apartment temperature.
Transferred to secondary evening of 10/25
Dry hopped evening of 10/27
Notes: Should have hopped the mash. Apparently this is one of the best things you can do to instill hop flavor. Also, I let my enthusiasm get the better of me, and didn't really calculate this very well. I found myself standing in the LHBS, just sort of picking grains out of thin air, hence the very uncomplicated grist.
Tasting notes: Tasted about an hour after dry hopping. Wow that's bitter. And lots of alcohol. There's a little sweetness up front, that will probably get masked by the carbonation, immediately leading into just hops. just hop hop hop. Strong coffee levels of bitterness, with a lingering aroma of hops in the back of the nose, and a lingering bitterness and warmth in the mouth and throat, respectively. This one's going to need to be aged. Maybe I'll drink it when I come back from the AT.
Next!
So, the brewing bug bit me. Hard. On 10/25 I decided to try an all grain version of my pumpkin ale, but first, I had to upgrade my MLT per the guide found here: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/cheap-easy-10-gallon-rubbermaid-mlt-conversion-23008/
Recipe for the Imperial IPA:
Grain Bill:
10 pounds American Two Row
1 pound Crystal 60
0.5 pounds Carapils
1 pie pumpkin, roasted for 1.5 hours at 400F
2 pounds brown sugar (added directly to boil)
Brewhouse efficiency appears to have been about 75% with this setup
Mash temperature: 155 (I think. The thermometer read 120, but the strike water was heated to 170. So nyeh. I think I just didn't wait long enough after mashing in)
Mash time: 70 minutes - I got impatient
Mash density: 1.25qt/lb
Mash time: 90 minutes - I like this better than the one hour minimum
Boil volume: 7.5 gallons
Hop schedule:
1.5 oz Fuggles: 1 hour
0.5 oz Fuggles: 5 minutes
1 cinnamon stick, 8 cloves, 5 allspice berries, ~1/4 of a nutmeg added at 5 minutes remaining
Theoretical IBU's: 27
Batch volume 5.5 gallons
Boil time - About two hours
Initial gravity: 1.075 corrected to 60F.
Pitched one packet of Safale S-04 on the morning of 10/26. Agressive fermentation (one blowoff noted, but did not blow airlock, unless Laura forgot to mention that part)
Apparent attenuation: dunno, it's still fermenting. Should come out to ~7.2
Fermentation temperature: 67F, by maintaining apartment temperature.
Notes: Smells great - like a malty pumpkin pie. If I managed to hit the mouthfeel on this one, it should work out perfect. Will have wife rack it to secondary and hang spices for one week, then rack onto sugar, mix, bottle, and allow to condition. 10 gallon MLT worked much better - I had an apparent 10% improvement in brewhouse efficiency from my first batch to second. Not bad.
Next!
I heated 5 more gallons of water to 200, poured into the mash, remixed, and let it sit for another hour. I then collected all the runnings from this - came out to about 5.5 gallons. Brought to boil, added 0.5 oz of EKG at 60 minutes, and 0.5 oz of EKG at 5 minutes. Initial gravity came out to 1.023 corrected to 60F, in approximately 4.5 gallons after boil. Let cool overnight in closed fermenter, added 1 packet of Saf US-05 when wort was 78F. This is what's called a small beer, and it should come out to about 2.6% ABV. This will be baby pumpkin. This was done as proof of concept/testing the parti-gyle method. In the future, this small beer will be used for such things as homemade ginger ale.
Next!
Brewed a 5 gallon batch of Johnny Jump Up hard apple cider using cider from Clyde's cider mill. Skipped the tannin in the recipe because I didn't have any. Used D47 yeast.