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