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