Got home from some friends last night around 10 pm, and today being brew day, had to do some prep work for today's brewtivities. My brew day preparations involve two steps:
1) Making a yeast starter, and
2) Making my top-off ice. (I'll explain.)
I don't have an wort chiller of any kind, so to cool my wort at flame-out I use a couple of jugs of ice that I've prepared before hand. A night or two before brew day I will boil several gallons of water to sanitize, allow to cool and then put into cleaned and sanitized milk jugs and allowed to freeze overnight. On brew day, I will crush the ice and add to my sanitized fermenter bucket.
The great thing about this particular method is that it achieves two things for me. One, it of course cools my wort down to pitching temp in no time flat. The other benefit is that as the ice melts it provides my top-off water. I typically do 3 gallon boils on the stovetop so I'm always in need of top-off water to get to 5 gallons.
This method won't work when I get around to jumping up to all-grain, so of course I'm going to have to invest in a chiller as some point. Someday!
What are your brew day preparations?
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Newcastle Brown Clone
I was able to brew this past weekend - on Jan. 12 to be exact. I brewed up a Newcastle Brown clone recipe kit from AHS. I brewed it for a friend who's a huge Newcastle United fan and he wanted some homemade "Newkie" to watch his beloved Magpies with. Anxious to see how it turns out.
One interesting note: No airlock activity as of yet. This is the second batch in a row that I've used White Labs British Ale yeast (WLP005). With the Oatmeal Stout the batch completely fermented out without airlock activity, so I don't know yet if this is indicative of a leaky bucket, or if this is common with this yeast strain. No worries yet, as the stout turned out excellent - I'll just have to exercise some patience with the brown.
One interesting note: No airlock activity as of yet. This is the second batch in a row that I've used White Labs British Ale yeast (WLP005). With the Oatmeal Stout the batch completely fermented out without airlock activity, so I don't know yet if this is indicative of a leaky bucket, or if this is common with this yeast strain. No worries yet, as the stout turned out excellent - I'll just have to exercise some patience with the brown.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
A Post - Finally!!!
Ya'll,
I haven't posted in quite a while, and since I'm at home playing hookie from work today (fighting a cold mind you) I thought I would post something - anything!
I've added some links on the sidebar with some blogs that track the burgeoning craft beer scene here in the Lone Star State. I've also added the great breweries here in state as well - gotta support your local breweries - especially when they're producing some mighty tasty brews!
While I've been busy with school, the time hasn't been totally devoid of brewing activity. Since the batch of oatmeal stout that I brewed this summer was nasty, I wanted to do another batch so I ordered a kit from AHS. I was able to bottle the batch this past weekend and I must say that the sample tasted great! Can't wait for this one!
I dumped the sixer of cider that I had bottled back in May. I tried a bottle last month and it was horrid! Disappointing. When I bottled the batch it had a wonderful flavor with a body similar to a white wine. The six months in the bottle didn't help - maybe more time aging would've helped. I don't know, but I'll try again in future.
Last but not least - my 'Horns couldn't get any BCS love! It stinks seeing those dog-butted Zero U's playing for the national championship when we beat 'em. Be that as it may, if we had taken care of business against Tech we wouldn't be having this conversation! We get the Fiesta Bowl as a consolation prize playing Ohio State. Should be a great game. Hook 'Em Horns and beat the Buckeyes!
Prost
I haven't posted in quite a while, and since I'm at home playing hookie from work today (fighting a cold mind you) I thought I would post something - anything!
I've added some links on the sidebar with some blogs that track the burgeoning craft beer scene here in the Lone Star State. I've also added the great breweries here in state as well - gotta support your local breweries - especially when they're producing some mighty tasty brews!
While I've been busy with school, the time hasn't been totally devoid of brewing activity. Since the batch of oatmeal stout that I brewed this summer was nasty, I wanted to do another batch so I ordered a kit from AHS. I was able to bottle the batch this past weekend and I must say that the sample tasted great! Can't wait for this one!
I dumped the sixer of cider that I had bottled back in May. I tried a bottle last month and it was horrid! Disappointing. When I bottled the batch it had a wonderful flavor with a body similar to a white wine. The six months in the bottle didn't help - maybe more time aging would've helped. I don't know, but I'll try again in future.
Last but not least - my 'Horns couldn't get any BCS love! It stinks seeing those dog-butted Zero U's playing for the national championship when we beat 'em. Be that as it may, if we had taken care of business against Tech we wouldn't be having this conversation! We get the Fiesta Bowl as a consolation prize playing Ohio State. Should be a great game. Hook 'Em Horns and beat the Buckeyes!
Prost
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Latest Brewtivities
A quick update on the brewtivities of late.
I hosted a shindig a few weeks ago. The hefeweizen received really good reviews. In fact, one of the guys in attendance asked I could supply him with a twelve pack of homebrew every two weeks! Whoa!!! I'm really going to have to ramp up production now! At least he said he would pay to cover my costs. He's partial to porters & stouts, so with that being said, I did some research and came up with the following recipe for an oatmeal stout to brew. Here it is:
3# Light DME
2# Two row pale malt
1# oats
.5# roasted barley
.5# chocolate malt
.5# crystal 60l
1 oz. Glacier - 7.4% AA for 60 minutes
White Labs Irish Ale yeast
After listening to "The Jamil Show" episode on oatmeal stouts, I decided to try my hand at my first partial mash. I bought a two gallon rubbermaid cooler to mash the grains in. I used a trial version of ProMash to calculate the recipe specifics, e.g., strike water temp., etc. and proceeded to brew.
I can't say that my first partial mash was a success. ProMash & some other online recipe calculators that I use had an estimated OG of 1.050 - I came in at 1.044! My calculated efficiency came in at 56%. Ewwwww! Lame. To top this off - I think I underpitched the yeast. At 75% attenuation the FG should approximately be 1.011. As of last night, I'm sitting at 1.016 - and this after two weeks in primary. Be that as it may, I tried a swig of my hydrometer sample, and I was pleased with the flavor - not great but good. At least it looks as though this batch will at least be drinkable.
I definitely want to try my hand at partial mashing again, so I'm planning a pale ale next. I will be reviewing my procedures to see if I can improve on my efficiency, and hopefully I'll be brewing again next weekend.
Later
I hosted a shindig a few weeks ago. The hefeweizen received really good reviews. In fact, one of the guys in attendance asked I could supply him with a twelve pack of homebrew every two weeks! Whoa!!! I'm really going to have to ramp up production now! At least he said he would pay to cover my costs. He's partial to porters & stouts, so with that being said, I did some research and came up with the following recipe for an oatmeal stout to brew. Here it is:
3# Light DME
2# Two row pale malt
1# oats
.5# roasted barley
.5# chocolate malt
.5# crystal 60l
1 oz. Glacier - 7.4% AA for 60 minutes
White Labs Irish Ale yeast
After listening to "The Jamil Show" episode on oatmeal stouts, I decided to try my hand at my first partial mash. I bought a two gallon rubbermaid cooler to mash the grains in. I used a trial version of ProMash to calculate the recipe specifics, e.g., strike water temp., etc. and proceeded to brew.
I can't say that my first partial mash was a success. ProMash & some other online recipe calculators that I use had an estimated OG of 1.050 - I came in at 1.044! My calculated efficiency came in at 56%. Ewwwww! Lame. To top this off - I think I underpitched the yeast. At 75% attenuation the FG should approximately be 1.011. As of last night, I'm sitting at 1.016 - and this after two weeks in primary. Be that as it may, I tried a swig of my hydrometer sample, and I was pleased with the flavor - not great but good. At least it looks as though this batch will at least be drinkable.
I definitely want to try my hand at partial mashing again, so I'm planning a pale ale next. I will be reviewing my procedures to see if I can improve on my efficiency, and hopefully I'll be brewing again next weekend.
Later
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Hefeweizen Photos
Playing with the camera some more.....a couple of pics of my hefeweizen. Ummmm, tasty!!!
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Just a few photos......
I've enjoyed reading the other brew blogs out there, and one of the things that I like about these other blogs is the pictures used which visually bring this great hobby to life! I've wanted to post pictures of my own adventures, but I find that life gets in the way (work, grad school, church, family, etc.) Anyway, the last post and today's is my first crack at adding pictures to the blog. Nothing fancy with today's shots - just a few of my maple brown ale. As you can see, I don't quite have the photographer's eye just yet! Enjoy.
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