Love thy beer

Right back into the swing of things. I have brewed only twice since my last post, but I have high hopes for both of the brews. The first one was the prize beer for my birthday beer tasting party. Both Mel and Andrew won by having the beer that received the most votes. I made, as per their joint request, a holiday spiced beer. It will be ready by Easter so it can still be considered a holiday beer, but the style I brewed it in is more appropriate for a winter warmer. It's a belgian spiced ale that had about 15 pounds of grain in a 5 gallon batch. If I got 100% efficiency we'd be talking about a beer with about 12% alcohol. I did not but I got about 70% which will produce about 8% ABV. Still a big beer which is why I need to keep it bottled up for about 3 months before it's anywhere near ready to drink. I'll let you know Andrew and Mel

The other one, brewed today, is modeled after one of my current favorite styles. Black IPA is a robust and malty IPA with chocolaty undertones. I tried a couple new techniques on this one. First wort hopping involves putting an ounce or so of your hops into the wort as the sparge is taking place. The idea is to have a more balanced beer in the end. We shall see. I may have overdone the hops on this one, but I liked the taste of sample I pulled for my hydrometer reading. Good backbone in this one. I got about 70% efficiency again. I would like to get higher numbers, but I still got 1.056 hydrometer reading which will get me about 6% ABV. Tasty all around

Long Pull v.3

So I have completed my brew day and am happy to say my efficiency went way up, 80% to be exact. I am happy, and will be happy, with that number if I hit for the rest of my life (brewing that is). The first runnings got me to 2 gallons. I then sparged with about 5 and got a 7 gallon pre boil volume. The middle stats are OG 1.050, 6 gallons in the fermenter. I am excited about this one and I think I have found my happy medium for the propane cooker. I ended up with more volume at the end of the boil than any previous batch. Can't wait to taste, but I have to

Shouldn't have left you...

Okay, I haven't brewed in some time and I have a day off work today so here goes nothing. It's been so long I feel like I'm going to forget to add the hops or something. Hopefully not, that would be a super sweet malty beer considering there is 10.25 # of malt in it. Here's the recipe

8 # Maris Otter
1 # English Brown
.5 # carapils
.5 # Aromatic
.25 # 60L Crystal

Mash at 152 for one hour

1 oz Kent Golding for 60 min
.5 oz Challenger for 30 min
.5 oz Challenger for 15 min

Safale S-04 yeast

Fermentation temp should be around 68 F for one week in primary
and then two or three in secondary

The goal is to hit about 75% efficiency in my mash which would put me at 1.058 OG
If the yeast does its job I will have a 6.5% ABV beer. I can't wait

IPA is bottled

It's been a week since I bottled my Downtown IPA and I have extremely high hopes for this one. I dry hopped an ounce of Cascade and upon first taste it seems to have worked. Very prominent hop aroma and the taste has a brilliant fruity and citrus hop character which then turns to malty sweetness on the back end. Another two weeks priming in the bottle and this IPA is gonna be a winner.

Transfer day

I transferred my IPA into secondary today. It's OG was 1.063 and the FG today was 1.012. It's going to be just under 7% ABV and I put an ounce of Cascade pellets into the secondary so the hop aroma should be pretty prominent. The hydrometer sample tells me that this has some kick to it. I put four ounces of hops in the boil so we should have a pretty standard IPA in about a month.

Tahoe blog

Well, I've been up a while and all I can think about is my IPA at home. I'm just kidding. I'm hanging with V bug quietly, she's been up since about 5. I think it's time to retire the porta crib. She touches both ends with her head and feet. She's playing quietly so as not to wake up the others in the house right now. What a good girl. But back to beer, I had the Dogfish Head 60 minute IPA, and I must say, that is as close to perfect as I have ever had. It got me thinking about my IPA at home. Once we get home, I'm going to transfer it and throw in the dry hops. I'm excited about this one. I just have a good feeling about it.
Until next time

Trouble with numbers

The Downtown IPA is done. If I got anywhere near 100% efficiency it would have turned out to be an Imperial IPA with an OG around 1.090. But, I didn't and so it's a run of the mill IPA. Just kidding, this beer is gonna have some serious kick to it, and with 68% efficiency, I got a 1.063 OG which will still produce a pretty big beer. 4 ounces of hops in the boil and one waiting to be dry hopped. Mmm mmm. Can't wait

My last two batches have produced less than stellar efficiency. I got 65% for the pilsener and 68% today with the IPA. I'm not complaining about the numbers here, anything above 65% is considered good in homebrewing. What I am concerned about is the drop in efficiency. In my first three batches I got an average of 76% and then all of a sudden it drops to 65%. I think I may have narrowed it down to one of two factors. I didn't add gypsum to either of the last two batches, and they both also got stuck during sparging. I think if the grain were crushed a little less fine, and I added gypsum during the mash, my efficiency would go back up to the 70's. I'll have to wait until next time to find out. Darn, that means I get to brew again

Long time coming

Well, since the last time we talked, I have brewed a pilsener and it seems to be going just fine. I got about 64% efficiency which isn't bad in homebrewers terms but I would like higher efficiencies for my beers. Thats just me though. I let it ferment longer, and gave it a good two day diacetyl rest, which, by bringing the temp of the beer back up to room temp, it gets rid of the buttery flavor that cold fermentation leaves behind. It's going to be a session beer for sure coming in at a whopping 3.47% ABV.

I'm going to the brew store today to get ingredients for my first IPA since my first batch that I brewed over a year ago. It's gonna be a darker IPA, going for a big malt backbone on this one to try and balance out the big hops I plan on using. Gonna look something like this

9 lbs 2 row
1 lb munich
1 lb aromatic
1 lb 40 L

1 oz Galena for 60 min
.5 oz Cascade for 60 min
1 oz Willamette for 30 min
.5 oz Cascade for 15 min
1 oz Willamette for 5 min
1 oz Cascade dry hopped

Maybe an IPA?

Transferred Brandon's nameless pale ale to secondary today. I ended up using a dry yeast for this batch and the attentuation was crazy. OG was 1.061 and the FG was 1.009. Man this beer is gonna be big. I might have to try the dry yeast Safale US-05 on my next batch. I think I wanna make a balanced pale ale next, after my pilsner for Katie of course, with some low AA hops. I love doing this stuff man. Great results so far from my AG switch

Black Cap Beer

The first Common is now bottled. I have decided to treat it like a Seasonal Release, therefore it's only in 22's. With around 7 percent ABV, it's gonna be one of those beers that you should savor. Hopefully the flavor coincides with this. My next beer is going to be a pilsner, as per Katie's request, thinking about rehashing the German one I made with a partial mash recipe not too long ago. It will look something like this

8# German pils malt
1# Vienna malt
6 oz Carapils

2 0z saaz for 60 min
.5 oz tettnanger for 30 min
.5 oz tettnanger for 15 min

The guys at Brewcraft told me that a triple decoction was the best way to get a really clean and crisp pils, I don't know if my set up could handle all that. It involves taking part of the mash out and boiling it to raise the temp of the whole mash slowly. The other thing that would do is lengthen my brew day by about 3 hours, I will probably just do a single infusion and try to rig some filters and what not to clean out the beer nicely.

The beer of champagne

The Pale Ale is complete. Brandon got to do most of the heavy lifting, thank goodness, because I have a serious crick in my neck right now. As a result of our concerted efforts we now have 4.4 gallons of wort fermenting in the hall closet. I wanted to get more than that, but I think my kettle and brewing system just boils off more than I thought. I started with just about 6.5 gallons pre boil and I ended up getting about 4.5 after. I should be able to tweak some things to get it going right. My efficiency was at 74%, it would have been higher had I gotten 5 gallons, but I can live with 74. The OG was 1.061 and with an expected FG of 1.012, we should have a pretty punchy pale ale in about a month.

Competing

I'm entering two beers into a competition tomorrow. The tasting actually happens on the 30th with winners announced on the 6th of June. It's up in Sonoma in the town square. I will be entering my Laddertruck IPA and Bitter Beer Face Pilsner. Wish me luck

Brandon's Brew Day

Saturday is again Brewturday. Finally getting Brandon going on this. He's been waiting patiently since Christmas. We are brewing an APA with a fair amount of hoppiness. I was going to do a single hop series but decided to go with Cascade and Fuggles on this one.

8# Pale 2 row
1# Munich malt
1/2# Victory Malt
1/2# Carapils

2 0z Cascade pellets for 60 min
1/2 oz Fuggles pellets for 30 min
1/2 oz Fuggles pellets for 10 min

Going to mash at about 152 for 60 min hopefully getting about 2.5-3 gallons of first runnings

If my system stays the same I should get about a 1.054 reading on the hydrometer after boil. Mmm beer. Brandon has two cases plus of empty Sierra Nevada bottles ready to go, and who know, maybe this will be close to a clone of that beer. We'll see

It is decided

Let it be written. I am brewing this Saturday, finally giving Brandon his long awaited and well deserved batch of beer. We will be doing an American Pale Ale in the style of Sierra Nevada. I am aiming for the same efficiency as my last two beers, or thereabouts. If we do hit that number, 77% or so, the gravity should be around 1.055-58. We are going to do a single hop series. His will be Cascade and then I'm going to use the yeast cake from that beer and make the same exact beer but with Willamette hops. Should be tasty goodness.

Need a backup

I have completed my first real all grain brew day. I'm counting the actual first day as a practice run. I used my larger beverage cooler and was able to collect more than enough wort. I started out with just under 7 gallons and after the boil, just about 5.5 gallons went into the primary right on top of the yeast cake. My mash tun seems to work fine, although I broke my thermometer today, but it holds the mash temp really well. I think this helps with my extraction rate because I got a 1.054 reading on the hydrometer which puts my efficiency at 77%. I will be ecstatic if I can continue that for the rest of my brewing days.

Everything was going well, my first hop addition was in, and so I went upstairs to clean up a little bit. I came back down and my flippin propane had run out. AAAAAHHHHH. I had to carry 7 gallons of liquid, boiling hot liquid mind you, upstairs and try to get a rolling boil on the stove top. I got it done, and everything else went as planned, but that would have really sucked had I fallen or spilled boiling water all over myself. The two commons are getting along nicely, bubbles are already happening in today's batch. Can't wait to drink em

Commonly misconstrued

I am brewing today. The (hopefully) five gallon version of the Cal Common. I am going to change one thing in this version. Instead of Fuggles as my last two hop additions I am going to use Cascade. It will be cool to have a horizontal flight when both of these beers are done. We'll see how they both turn out. I know that the smaller batch is going to be a two and done type beer with almost 8% ABV. But this one today should be right around a 5%-er

FUNemployment

Day two of FUNemployment went well. I went with Veronica to Kindergym and got to see what she does with her Papi and Grandma on Tuesday's. What a blast that was. I continued the cleaning project that is our garage. Got rid of some cardboard, cleaned some more bottles. I also got the ingredients for another Cal Common which I am going to brew on Thursday. I am looking to hit 70% percent efficiency which will put me right around an OG of 1.055 which is more like a common than my little batch that's fermenting right now. I got one more pound of 2 row to put the total at 9# 2 row, 1/2# each of munich, cara-pils, and 40L. I converted my other beverage cooler to a mash tun and will now be able to sparge with the desired amount.

The next one's on you

Common misconceptions

I've decided to give the Common another go. I am going to make another batch of it in my larger cooler and then just use the yeast cake from my current batch. It will save me eight bucks which will put my cost right around 20 bucks for a whole batch. After I do this it's onto the Pale Ale that I promised my buddy we would make a while back. He's got all the bottles ready, now we just need to get it done. I haven't forgot Brandon.

Brew day complete

The first all grain brew day at Brewery 20th Ave is done. My "Not as Common as You Think" Cal Common is in the primary. Every site and video I've seen had me thinking that I was going to have to commit to an eight hour process. I started at 2 and am done before 6. Did I miss a step? Did I do something wrong? The proof will be in the pudding when I try the beer a month from now.

I found out that my 5 gallon water cooler is too small to batch sparge 10# of grain. I started out with 3.5 gallons of water at 170 which got me to my mash temp of 155. Surprisingly it held that temp the whole hour of mashing. I only got 2.5 gallons of wort out of this first running. So I tried to sparge with 4 gallons but I could only fit 3. It seems as though my next batch will put to use my ten gallon water cooler.

Everything went smoothly though. I ended up with 5 gallons of wort pre boil and 4 gallons post boil. My gravity was a wopping 1.070 which puts me at 80% efficiency so we're talking about 7% alcohol when all is said and done. Yikes. Til next time

Tomorrow is the day

Tomorrow will be kind of bittersweet for me. I am getting laid off for three weeks but at the same time it will give me so much time to do many things I don't usually get to do during the week. Hang out with my daughter, hang out on the couch and do nothing, make beer. I am excited about all the possibilities and tomorrow starts the journey. I am going to delve into all grain brewing for the first time with a California Common (like Anchor Steam). I am so juiced. I have my cooler mash tun ready to go with no leaks and plenty of test rounds to clean out the plastic smell. I am hoping for 68-72% efficiency which would put me right around a 1.050 original gravity. This is kind of a redux of my extract Common but this time I will have dextrose on hand to carb it. My first attempt at this style produced a really good but almost champagne like beer because I used cane sugar to carb it.

I will let you know how everything goes. That includes my hang time alone and with my baby girl

Friday is the big day

I finally have all the equipment I need. Gonna get a wort chiller today as well as all the ingredients for my first all grain batch. I'm thinking about re doing my Cal Common. I really liked how it turned out only this time I will have the corn sugar so I can carb it to style more so than last time. It was a little effervescent because I had to carb it with cane sugar which also imparted, I think, some flavor. Corn sugar is flavorless and creates less vigorous carbonation. We shall see. I think I'm gonna name it More Common than a Sixth Generation San Franciscan.

Finally

Well I have finally done it. I got almost everything I need to convert to all grain. I have two beverage coolers one of which is ten gallon so if I decide to upgrade to ten gallon batches, I can do so more easily. For now I am going to use one as my hot liquor tank and try my hand at fly sparging. The only other thing I need right now is a chiller. I keep going back and forth between a plate chiller and an immersion chiller. The immersion chiller is easier to clean but takes longer to chill than does a plate chiller. I just don't want to have bad batches of beer because of some leftover hops inside the plate chiller. I will figure it out in time for my next batch.

Tasting Notes

Lagunitas Seasonal
Wilco Tango Foxtrot - First of all, probably the most clever name for any beer I have ever had. The taste is so unique, it's like a conundrum because it's a hoppy brown ale, which I don't think should be a conundrum. It's malty, hoppy, almost chocolate like. As of right now, it has knocked Censored off the top of my Lagunitas list

Bear Republic
XP Pale Ale - I really like this pale. It's fruity on the nose and initial taste, bitter right in the middle and then it finishes malty and fruity. Delicious

Moving

Well I'm moving faster than I thought toward all grain brewing. I purchased a 5 gallon water cooler off Amazon yesterday. There was some doubt in my mind as to what size my brew kettle was. I didn't know if it was 7.5 or 8 gallons. It's 8, I measured it and also scored a piece of wood so I can know how much wort I will be boiling. I need a more efficient way of cooling my wort, I think I lose more volume with an ice bath. I tried a full boil on my last batch, I started out with over 6 gallons of wort and ended up with just over 4. It's time for some trial and error. Maybe I'll try making my own wort chiller. Who knows

Racked and Bottled

Yesterday was, as promised, busy on a lot of fronts. I did end up playing golf, quite well I will say, in the morning while V and Katie went to the store. I got home and the beer craziness commenced. We started out by racking Jason's dunkel to secondary. The hydrometer reading was at 1.020 so the yeast seems to have done it's work. Now it lagers for a month at 38˚ F. After that we transferred the Ladder Truck Red to secondary. I may have to rename it because it seems I have created a hop monster. We'll think about that later. The hyrdometer reading on this one was 1.010. And finally, while both Katie and V were napping, I bottled the RyePA. The dry hopping seems to have done it's job with a nice fruity aroma.

In the bottle now
Bitter Beer Face Pils
I Am Hefe - 1 week to go
Rueben Extra Mustard - at least 2 weeks
Long Pull Brown Ale

Secondary
Hop Red Ale

Busy beer weekend

This weekend is shaping up to be one of the busiest on my plate in a long time. We have a farmers market to hit up, sloshball to play, our social calendar is quite full. But I also have three beers to do something to. (That sounds dirtier than it is) Jason's Slam Dunkel is ready to be racked to secondary after two weeks in the primary. It's a lager so it's going to be at about 38˚ for another four weeks.

I've also got my red ale, which I changed the name of to Ladder Truck Red, to transfer. I worried myself almost crazy, not to mention how crazy Katie thought I was, by pitching the yeast at a too high temp. It sat above 80˚ for more than 4 hours with no signs of yeast activity. It eventually started and I should have a nice hoppy dark ale in about three weeks.

The RyePA, aka Reuben Extra Mustard, is ready to be bottled. Katie will help with this part when the little miss is down for her nap. I am looking forward to this weekend and the beer activities should be a nice addition to it.

Bubbling red ale

The Red Ale is fermenting nicely, has been for the past two days, and I have high hopes that this is going to be a great beer. I did some calculations on two different websites and they both gave me different answers. The color rating was pretty similar, but the bitterness rating was different by twenty points, from one to the next. We'll see how it turns out, I can't wait.

Fire Crotch Red Ale

The red ale is in the fermenter down in the garage. I'm going to try primary down there just to see if it works. If it does that's one less thing taking up space in my closet. I figure with the temperature in the garage around 68 degrees, the conditions should be ideal. The SG on this one was 1.044. It will probably end up around 1.012-1.010 which will give it an ABV of 4.5-5% I think this is going to be my most bitter ale to date. I used Galena and Amarillo as bittering hops and then two ounces of Cascade at flameout to give it a nice fruity floral aroma.

When I came up with this recipe, I wanted to get a good size grain bill so that I could start trying to figure out the all grain versions of some recipes.

1 # pale 2 row

.5 # caramunich 60

.25 # aromatic malt

.25 # 120 L crystal malt

.125 # chocolate malt.

steep in grain bag at 155 for 45 minutes

6 # pale LME

1 oz galena for 60 min

1 oz amarillo for 30 min/ whirlfloc addition

2 oz cascade at flameout

I pitched WLP 001 a little hot, I need a better thermometer, I think it was around 80 degrees or so, but it will probably just kick start fermentation.

With a grain bill like this, I feel like it's an easy enough conversion to all grain that this would be a perfect starter beer for that venture.

Fire Crotch stats

SG - 1.044

FG - 1.012?

SRM - 14.46

IBU - 80

Brew day

Gonna brew tomorrow. I've got the ingredients for a red ale. It might end up being a redux of my red headed stepchild fuck up. We'll see. This is my first recipe that I pretty much came up with on my own. It's going to be lightly hopped for bitterness and will have two ounces of Cascade at flame out. I need a name for this one, help me out

Fun day at Brewery 20th Ave

I Am Hefe is now bottled, upon tasting it seems like a winner. I throttled down the corn sugar to get a lower carbonation, hopefully it turns out good. It is going to have around 5 percent ABV. Reuben Extra Mustard was transferred today as well and the gravity reading told me that I'm basically going to have a session pale ale. We'll see how it turns out, it's dry hopping with an ounce of Willamette right now.

Katie helped bottle I Am Hefe, maybe this is the start of our family brewery. So in the bottle right now I have Long Pull pub ale and Bitter Beer Face pils ready to go. I Am Hefe will be ready in about two weeks and I will be bottling the rye pale in about two weeks. All grain here I come.

We got to go out tonight sans bebe to celebrate a friends birthday. Fun times and right now I'm feeling good. Until next time

Family All Grain

Got the new Gorillaz single going in the background, pretty sweet, and all I can think about is my first all grain batch. I want to do it, I feel like I can do it, so I should right? Extract based beers are known to lack middle body. If you take a sip, the first taste and smell of an extract IPA leads you on, tickling your fancy and palate. Floral, pungent hop aroma and bite latches onto your senses, and then all of a sudden, it's gone, like it was never there in the first place. I have had fun brewing and learning both with friends and by myself. I want more and I hope that I can do it soon.

The one drawback to all grain is the time it takes. If a batch of extract takes 3-4 hours then this is going to take 4-5. I feel like involving my family, and Katie has shown interest in this, so I need to find out how to make brewing accessible to a nineteen month old. Only time will tell.

This is basically what I want, but I will probably end up with a chest cooler

All Grain

I now have a serious hankering to make the switch to all grain brewing. I just spent about an hour reading up on it online and I feel like it's the logical step in my brewing process. Don't get me wrong, I have loved all but one of the beers I have made (that made it to the bottle) and the only reason for my hate on that one was lack of sanitation. If I cleaned the bottles better, it probably would have been a great beer. The equipment I would need would probably only run me another hundred bucks and the outcome would be closer to what I wanted to achieve in the first place which is quality beer close to what the microbreweries put out.

I've got the large brewpot capable of doing at least a 6.5 gallon boil

all I need are two 5 gallon igloo or rubbermaid water coolers and the conversion equipment.

Let's get started

Reuben extra Mustard

RPA stats

SRM- 6

IBU- 53.6

OG- 1.042

FG?- 1.012

ABV?- 4%

Results of Brewturday

Yesterday went off without a hitch. I did my first full boil ever, a Rye pale ale, and ended up only having to top off about 1 gallon. Jason did a Munich Dünkel with his fancy new 15 gallon brew pot. They are both fermenting right now, with the Dünkel in the chest freezer downstairs and the RPA in my closet. I will be bottling I Am Hefe soon, it seems to have settled out well. I think next time I am going to try an American ESB in the Red Hook style.

mmmm... beer

Saturday=Brewturday v.2

So this Saturday is most definitely brewturday, provided V doesn't end up puking in our bed like she was 2 weeks ago. Jason and the fam are coming over for a birthday weekend brew. I will be brewing a rye pale ale calling it Reuben Extra Mustard. I'm gonna dry hop this one with an ounce of Willamette and an ounce of Cascade in the secondary

I Am Hefe is safely transferred to the secondary and the gravity reading was 1.012. The ABV is gonna be around 5.5%. It will be in the bottle in about a week or so.

Hoppy brewing everyone

the cursed belgian is dead

So yesterday I had to dump the dubbel down the drain because after two weeks in the secondary there was a layer of mold across the top of it. It was doomed from the get go. I would have felt worse had nothing gone wrong during the brewing process but because all the stuff that could go wrong did, it wasn't a very big deal to dump it. We'll give it a try again some day, but for now, I'm going to stick to American and British style ales.

In the bottle- Long Pull- British Brown

Steam Boat - Cal Common

Bitter Beer Face - German Pils

Primary- I Am Hefe - American Wheat (it's on day 8 in the primary and still bubbling away, maybe the OG was higher than my initial thought of 1.050)

Next Brewday - Probably RyePA

Tasting notes

Anderson Valley Brewing Brother David's Tripel- not really a fan. I have had plenty of belgian style ales that I like, a lot. Ommegang brewery's dubbel, Russian River Brewing's Damnation. And most of the stuff Anderson Valley puts out I like. Their Hop Ottin IPA is one of my favorites, and most potent. The Tripel just didn't do it for me. Oh well.

Pilsner is tasty

It's been about ten days since the Pils was bottled and I got the all important "psssshhh" when I opened it. It's tasty, young, but tasty. It's a German pils so it has a little more bite than a Czech one. It's nice and dry and has some licorice on the back end. All in all worth the wait

Yo soy el jefe

I Am Hefe went over well last night. I have it in the primary with a blowoff tube right now. I totally screwed up and forgot to take a gravity reading, but I'm gonna assume that it was around 1.050. I ended up with a little over 3 gallons after the boil and I topped the primary up to about 5.5 gallons. This was totally a simple recipe and if it tastes good I'm doing it again this summer to have a nice session quencher

Saturday=Brewturday

The day is almost here. I can smell the malts and hops. Mainly because they are sitting in my dining room about 25 feet away from me. I am going to be brewing an American wheat that is going to be called I Am Hefe. It seems like a simple enough recipe with some very mild hop additions. They also said to use a blowoff tube which will make this two in a row for it. My goal for the new year was to keep a beer in the primary and one in the secondary with one bottled. After Saturday I will have three beers in the bottle (with two drinkable), the dubbel in the secondary and a wheat in the primary. Things are looking good. This is also going to be, hopefully, the first of many Guild meetings.

It's Tuesday which means it's a short work week which means I'm that much closer to my brew day on Saturday. I'm still torn between a Rye P.A. and some kind of wheat beer. Being from the fine city of San Francisco, a winter "warmer" beer is not really necessary. Especially since it was almost 70˚ yesterday. I'm thinking that after this session I'm going to try my hand at a porter or stout of some kind.

Put down the swill people. Spend the extra two bucks on a tasty six pack. Try something new

Pilsner is bottled

My pilsner is bottled and should be ready to drink in about two to three weeks. The tasting out of the gravity sampler was promising. Hopefully it is good so I can keep making lagers and pilsners. It is gonna be around a 5% abv with about 48 ibu. The color is a really crisp orangish yellow. SF Brewcraft people are extremely helpful and they thankfully let me know about diacytel rest which I hope I did enough of. This is the step that gets a lot of the buttery flavors out of your lager when you bring the beer fermenting back up to closer to room temp for a day or two to get the yeast working hard again. After this you transfer to your secondary fermenter and lager for about a month and a half at 38˚ F. I followed all these steps so it should turn out tasting like a pilsner but only time will tell.

So I kind of decided to do a redux of my first beer in my next brewing session but I'm thinking I might try a wheat beer this time around so that I can see if I like it and redo that for summer consumption. I have a week to decide.

Bottle day

Bottling my pilsner today. Another two weeks or so to wait. Hopefully it's worth it.

Mmmm....rueben sandwich

So I think I have my next brew figured out. I like the idea of tweaking older brews so I'm gonna make my first one again, a west coast IPA, only this time it's going to be a dry hopped ryePA. Should be tasty

My brews

This weekend I bottle my first dive into the land of lagers, a German Pilsner to be exact. Hopefully the wait will be worth it. It's been about 6 and a half weeks since I brewed it. I also have my cursed dubbel in the secondary. My EPA, English Pub Ale, which I am calling Long Pull, is delicious and completely ready to drink in 22's.

My buddy and I are going to brew next weekend, he will be doing a dunkel while I have yet to figure out what I want to do. We shall see

Til next time

Cursed Belgian

So my dubbel seems to be cursed. I was emptying the sanitizer out of my carboy and I dropped the thing onto the cement outside. SMASH... MOTHERFUCKER!!! I don't know what was louder, the glass breaking or me yelling. So I had to wait another day to transfer the cursed belgian. Yesterday I went to transfer the beer and I have my primary up on a stool, I take the airlock out of it and turn to put it in some water and I hear a sliding noise and then BAM. My primary fermenter had flipped over and onto the ground. AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH. Luckily only about a pint spilled. It is now transferred but what fate awaits it now?

Tasting notes

Pliny the Elder by Russian River Brewing Company- Fruity, hoppy aroma. Definitely some grapefruit taste, and the hops are more weed like than I have ever tasted in an IPA. Awesome brew that finishes clean and is way too easy to drink for an 8% beer

Belgian Dip

"I know... it's called a Belgian dip"

My first foray into Belgian beer was with a Dubbel. The recipe was from the dude at Brewcraft. It was also my first time doing an actual partial mash. I got freaked out right after I racked the wort because Griz, at Brewcraft, told me to pitch the yeast at 95 degrees. So I did, but no action for 28 hrs. I thought that with all the extra sugars to raise the gravity I would get a vigorous start. It has started though and this is also my first time using a blowoff tube. Maybe I should try to tie in the whole concept of firsts into naming this beer. What do you think?

The OG was 1.070 and I'm aiming at a 1.020-015 FG which would give me a 7% beer. The IBU's for this one are right around 75. It's in the primary going crazy right now, in about 5 days I will rack it to the secondary then 16 days later bottle it. After a nice cozy 2-3 months in the bottle, I will taste it. In the mean time and between time, I will be brewing more. Maybe another IPA? Maybe an amber? Who knows?

Until next time

New year two at a time

I've got two beers fermenting right now and this would be ideal. We'll see if I can keep it up. I have one more semester of school to go and am starting back to work, after ten days off, tomorrow. So we'll see. I am learning as I go, and I realize that my OG readings are probably a little off. I have to use a different technique to get the reading. Hopefully I can start getting more into the science of it all and learn more about what grains do what to my beer. Cheers and Happy New Year everyone. Buy local, brew your own beer