Where are the good beer makers?

[fantasyhockeygeek]

So, I uhh... bought some gear.

Another brew bucket and carboy
Four x 19 litre cornelius kegs
A 20 lb CO2 tank
Regulator (x2) and manifold (x4) system
Long-hosed picnic tap
CO2 keg charger and 6 cartridges

Craigslist.

I don't think I'm going to be able to resist the urge to buy a Blichmann beer gun, and do away with bottle priming forever.

Geez this hobby is addictive. I'm getting my hands on an old fridge this summer, which is going to be retrofitted to be a temperature controlled fermentation chamber (2C to 40C).

Moving house in June, and I'll be tempted to put a proper fixed tap into things, but I'd almost rather have the barrier of just the picnic tap to prevent me from having several pints a day.

Picked up a pound of whole leaf Citra hops -- have made two brews. One is a maltier pale ale, but with Citra aromas/flavours at the end. The other is a citra-only blonde ale which follows in the footsteps of the centennial-only blonde I made earlier.

I'm really looking forward to the ease of just racking to the keg and forcing carbonation. I've had more than one higher-alcohol brew stall out in terms of carbonation because the yeast just weren't happy... never again!

[fantasyhockeygeek]

Aaaaaand bought the beer gun. That's it, I'm not buying any new gear for a while.

Looking forward to a couple new brews over the next while... then force carb and condition-less bottling!

[Atomic Wedgy]

Hahahahshaha!!!! I'm doing quite well not buying gear. I have such a ghetto set up its almost sad.

[Atomic Wedgy]

Bottled up my latest batch tonight and I tried something new. My beers have been lacking carbonation. They are definitely carbed, but not enough in my opinion. Since my beers are also a little sweet, I didn't think that adding more bottling sugar would be the answer. So... I rehydrated and pitched a small amount of champagne yeast into each bottle tonight. It was 2 bucks for enough so I can do it three or four times. I used a small syringe to put the yeast into the bottles. It did make me feel a bit weird tho as there was so much shit floating around in the bottle that I was questioning whether or not a dry hop bag leaked. In the end, I could tell the "floaties" were white, so I knew it was the yeast. Still made me unhappy to see the beer that cloudy with floating particles everywhere...

Here's hoping the experiment works. I'll report back my findings in 1-2 weeks time.

So tomorrow is brewday. I was pleasantly surprised there was still some Amarillo left when I bought my supplies a few days ago. I bought 50g of Southern Cross for the bittering. I plan to FWH 30g into the 26L batch. I also bought 150g Simcoe, 150g Citra and 150g Amarillo.

3.4kg Extra Light Black Rock LME - (added at 1 min)
2.5kg NZ Pilsner malt
1.5kg Maris Otter
.45kg honey (added to primary after first krausen falls)
.25kg Carapils
** I went way less crystal this time. I want to dry it out a bit and let the hops shine.
Tablespoon of calcium sulfate at the start of the boil.

30g Southern Cross - FHW
50g Simcoe - 10 mins
50g Citra - 10 mins
50g Amarillo - 10 mins
20g Southern Cross - 10 mins
50g Simcoe - flameout (30 min rest)
50g Citra - flameout (30 min rest)
50g Amarillo - flameout (30 min rest)
50g Simcoe - dryhop
50g Citra - dryhop
50g Amarillo - dryhop

I'll pitch BRY-97. Never used it before. Excited to try something new.
Tablespoon of yeast nutrient right after the yeast.

Happy brewing all!

[Atomic Wedgy]

Had a minor beer emergency. I noticed when I was cleaning my fermenter that it was leaking. It seemed like the threads were stripped as I could screw the tap on endlessly. Off to the LHBS to get a new tap, hoping that a new fermenter wasn't necessary. Got the tap, screwed it on and it went on tight and seemingly water tight. I was wrong.

A few hours after filling it with beer, I noticed it had a slow leak. I didn't worry myself straight way and just put a paper towl under it so i could guage how much it leaked overnight. Woke up and the paper towel was wet, but not that much. So I put a ew one there and went to work. When I got home the paper towel was soaked. I actually wringed it out.... Mild panic....

Left work early to get it sorted yesterday and the guys at the LHBS talked me out of buying a new fermenter and just waiting. It wasn’t leaking as much as it was after that first night, so I went with that. Woke up this morning and the paper towel was completely dry. Leaking has stopped for whatever reason. Happy mystery….

[Atomic Wedgy]

I opened a bottle of the beer mentioned in post #87. Its still a little flat as its only been bottled a week, but I can say that it is friggin fantastic! The passionfruit taste/aroma really, REALLY, come through from the Amarillo hops. It is pretty crazy. The wife really liked it as well.

I think the FWH was a good idea. It creates a much smoother bitterness. The citra and the amarillo go really well together. I can pick them both out in the taste. I dont know if I dont know what I'm looking for with the simcoe or if its just overpowered by the other two. The beer is good without, but if there was some dank pine in the mix, it would be exactly what I was looking for.

As it is, Toe Drag IIPA (http://hopville.com/recipe/1696565) is the best beer I have ever created. It would benefit from some of that simcoe shining through a bit more though.

I love brewing my own beer...

[Atomic Wedgy]

This is turning into my own personal beer nerd diary....

Five Hole IIPA is drinking very, very well. I added about 25% more carbing sugar and it has really helped. Much fizzier than it has been. I like it.

I used Amarillo, Simcoe and Citra for the last two brews and again for the one tomorrow. Its a killer combo.

Here's what the latest brew looks like. Got some good clarity. I'm bottling right from the primary and only using koppafloc in the boil and isinglass in the fermenter to clear it up. Seems to be working good. These shots are right out of the fridge, so not much of a chill haze at all. The head dissipates fairly quick, but it hangs on with a thin covering over the top. Head gives some nice lacing as seen in one of the shots below. I'm enjoying one right now.... Yummy.

If anyone wants to check my brewtoad page, feel free. My basic recipes are there, but not the mashing techniques.

http://www.brewtoad.com/brewers/HopZombie

Happy brewing all!

[Atomic Wedgy]

Oh yeah... the champagne yeast didn't really work. There was no noticeable difference. Cheap enough experiment. 2 bucks for the yeast which would be enough for 4-5 more batches. I prolly wont use it again as it just adds another step to the bottling process but doesn't give a good enough return.

BRY-97.... weird color. It was darker than I expected. It also was a slow starter, but once it got going LOOK OUT! I had my first ever over flow fermentation. I wasn't at all prepared to deal with it as I didn't have any tubing at all. Just let it take its course. It was messy to clean up the fermenter afterwards, but not that bad.

I went back to US-05 for the brew tomorrow. I know exactly what to expect and am always happy with the results.

[fantasyhockeygeek]

It's not just your own brew log, AW -- I moved houses so in all the chaos I haven't brewed in like 6 weeks. BOOOOOOOO.

First thing to report: forced carb rules, whether it's straight from the keg (awesome) or from a bottle (somehow more satisfying).

I planted a couple vines of centennial hops, so come September or so I should have a solid harvest. The plan is to make a wet-hopped IPA as well as dry the rest to sustain me through the winter.

Made a pale ale about 6 weeks ago that was very english in malt and yeast approach, but leaning more to the american side with bitterness. It was an amazing copper colour and very nice to drink. It all went in one evening: crazy friend of mine decided he wanted to do centurion during his stag. I'm always up for a challenge, but it's definitely more abuse than someone outside of their 20's should take.

I picked up a massive pot from a restaurant salvage... it's about 90L. The stove I have isn't suited for that kind of thermal mass, so I picked up a propane burner that packs a whopping 200,000+ BTU punch. My preliminary calcs show that I should be able to bring 60 L of wort to a boil in about 15 minutes. Bigger batches are in my future!

I'll be bottling my citra blonde ale this coming weekend. It's been keg conditioning for a while and is drinking well, so once bottled it'll be good to but just a little more portable.

Also on the docket for the weekend is a summer ale (based on maris otter, 2-row, and a bit of honey malt) hopped with centennial and citra. That's a combination I'm really digging... I've decided that pine flavours in hops really don't work for me, so I'm steering towards ones that impart other interesting things. The wrinkle? Making a double batch, and will pitch different yeasts to see the effects. Since I only have one stir-plate, I'm thinking I'll just use Safale's American Ale (S-05) and British Ale (S-04) to see how the flavours differ. Should be fun.

[Atomic Wedgy]

90l POT! Whoa baby! That is huge. I have a 50L one that seems like one of the kids could sleep in there overnight. I cannot imagine what a 90L one looks like. AND... to boil 60L in 15 minutes is crazy! Must chew through the fuel though eh?

My last brew session on the weekend was the most trouble free session ever. All things went pretty much to plan, no stress, no dramas. Just easy brewing pleasure. Fermentation started within 24 hours and its sitting at a nice 18C, bubbling away. Happy, happy yeast.

I haven't really experimented with yeast yet. I've used Nottingham once in an IPA and BRY-97 once. All the others have been US-05. I have been very happy with those results and since I basically only brew IPAs, I'll stick with it.

[fantasyhockeygeek]

Yeah, definitely went through the fuel. I think over the course of the boil I went through something in the range of 10 lbs of propane.

My multidriver summer ale worked out really well -- personally I think I prefer the British yeast version to the American yeast version, but it's close. The S-04 gives much fruitier esters, which tie in nicely with the hops. I have to say that I'm really digging this style of extremely-aromatic-yet-not-bitter... why on earth is nothing like this available commercially?

I'm finally going to be getting a fridge I can use to cool my kegs this coming weekend... will help a great deal because I've lost a huge amount of carb due to foaming when I've bottled recently. I'm even going to have to "re-carb" back into a keg... ugh...

Next brew should be sometime later this month... not really sure what's on the docket. You?

[Gaborlick]

Hey guys, just found this thread. I am a recent brewer and 2 years ago I brewed an IPA (extract) that was good. It got better with age.


I just bottled an Imperial(Double) IPA. I tasted it after 1st fermentation and 2nd fermentation. It was really good and I look forward to tasting it after bottle conditioning. I used a recipe from http://hopmanssupply.com/Hopmans/ They make their own kits for people and you can put together your own as well of course.

I am brewing a Simcoe Silly clone soon (Kuhnhenn's) and it is a golden Belgium Strong with three additions of Simcoe hops. I'm excited.

Anyone have a good App they use for beermaking for history and data tracking? I tried Beersmith but they don't have all the extracts and grains in their data storage. Any thoughts?

[Gaborlick]

Bottled up my latest batch tonight and I tried something new. My beers have been lacking carbonation. They are definitely carbed, but not enough in my opinion. Since my beers are also a little sweet, I didn't think that adding more bottling sugar would be the answer. So... I rehydrated and pitched a small amount of champagne yeast into each bottle tonight. It was 2 bucks for enough so I can do it three or four times. I used a small syringe to put the yeast into the bottles. It did make me feel a bit weird tho as there was so much shit floating around in the bottle that I was questioning whether or not a dry hop bag leaked. In the end, I could tell the "floaties" were white, so I knew it was the yeast. Still made me unhappy to see the beer that cloudy with floating particles everywhere...

Here's hoping the experiment works. I'll report back my findings in 1-2 weeks time.

So tomorrow is brewday. I was pleasantly surprised there was still some Amarillo left when I bought my supplies a few days ago. I bought 50g of Southern Cross for the bittering. I plan to FWH 30g into the 26L batch. I also bought 150g Simcoe, 150g Citra and 150g Amarillo.

3.4kg Extra Light Black Rock LME - (added at 1 min)
2.5kg NZ Pilsner malt
1.5kg Maris Otter
.45kg honey (added to primary after first krausen falls)
.25kg Carapils
** I went way less crystal this time. I want to dry it out a bit and let the hops shine.
Tablespoon of calcium sulfate at the start of the boil.

30g Southern Cross - FHW
50g Simcoe - 10 mins
50g Citra - 10 mins
50g Amarillo - 10 mins
20g Southern Cross - 10 mins
50g Simcoe - flameout (30 min rest)
50g Citra - flameout (30 min rest)
50g Amarillo - flameout (30 min rest)
50g Simcoe - dryhop
50g Citra - dryhop
50g Amarillo - dryhop

I'll pitch BRY-97. Never used it before. Excited to try something new.
Tablespoon of yeast nutrient right after the yeast.

Happy brewing all!

I am assuming this is the Imperial IPA you brewed?

[Gaborlick]

This is the record of my second time ever brewing.

Basic Information
Batch Name: Hopjam
Brewed By: Jason A Bowden
Style: Imperial IPA
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Time: 60 min
Initial Boil Volume: 3.0 gal
Mash Method: Extract
Brew Date: 7/10/2013
My Rating: 0/10

Typical Style Characteristics
Style: Imperial IPA
O.G. 1.070 - 1.090
F.G. 1.010 - 1.020
ABV 7.5 - 10.0
IBU 60 - 120
SRM 8 - 15°L
Color

Calculated & Measured Statistics
Calculated O.G. 1.062 (74% Efficiency)
Calculated F.G. 1.020 (72% Yeast Attenuation)
Measured O.G. 1.070 (inf% Actual Efficiency)
Measured F.G. 1.010 (86% Actual Attenuation)
ABV 8.20%
IBU 42.6
SRM 18.3°L
Color

Malt Bill
Malt Name Weight PPG SRM Type
Light Dry Extract 7.00 lbs 1.044 8 Extract/Adjunct
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L 0.50 lbs 1.034 40 Steeped Grain
CaraMunich I - 34°L 0.50 lbs 1.034 34 Steeped Grain
Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L 0.12 lbs 1.033 120 Steeped Grain

Mash Rest Profile
Rest Temperature Time Type Details
Fly sparge with 17.9 qts of water at 170°F

Hop Bill
Hop Name Time Added Weight AA% Type
Warrior 60 min 1.00 oz 16.00% Pellet Hop
Simcoe 15 min 1.00 oz 13.00% Pellet Hop
Chinook 0 min 1.00 oz 12.00% Pellet Hop
Cascade (Aregentina) (dry hop) 10 days 1.00 oz 4.00% Leaf Hop

Yeast Details
Yeast Strand Quantity Attenuation Flocculation
Safale US-05 Fermentis Dry Ale 72 Low– Medium

Dates
7/10/2013 Brew Date Maintained boil temp fairly well. Slight fluctuations. Couldn't see flame very well
7/10/2013 Ferment start
7/17/2013 Carboy transfer Transferred to carboy after taking final gravity. Broke my hydrometer.
7/17/2013 Dry hop Added dry hops in carboy without bag. Messy and generally not a good idea.
7/31/2013 Bottling Transfer to bottle bucket through screen 1.016 grav 7.5 Got 41 bottles

Notes

[Atomic Wedgy]

I am assuming this is the Imperial IPA you brewed?

Yes, that one was an IIPA and a beauty as well. I'm still topping up with a lot of water as I can only boil 12 litres on my stove. This is why it seems like there are so many hops in there.

I really like the Simcoe, Citra, Amarillo hops combo. It was a beautiful aroma. Passionfruit, a bit of pine and citrus notes. I recommend this combo.