Tuesday, March 25, 2008

1.010

1.010. That's the final gravity on all most all of the small ales that I've brewed so far. 3 weeks in the primary fermenter has worked out to be a pretty good plan to make sure that the beer is completely fermented out and given time to condition.

My son and I kegged the Pale Ale last night and it tasted pretty darn good. He even took a sip and said "Not bad". I don't know if that's a good omen since he's only 11 years old! I'm still looking for a name for this one. Here are the beers that I've brewed so far:

  • Charlie's Brown Ale - A mild brown ale that turned out to be not so good. I went and infected the batch by putting in unboiled well water in the carboy. But, just like old Charlie Brown, I'll keep brewing even if someone pulls the football out from in front of me!
  • Tinimamawiezen - A German hefeweizen that the SWMBO requested. Turned out gooooooooood with an excellent clove and banana profile.
  • No Name Pale Ale - Good so far. I've got to give it one week on the CO2 at 12 PSI to get it to carbonate. I'll try it this weekend to see if it's ready for guests. Thinking of giving it a name with "Cheap Bastard" worked in which is how I refer to myself almost every day.
Up next: English Bitter. Got to come up with an oxymoron of a name since this one is actually very smooth with very little bitterness.

Mark
picked me up another 6.5 gallon carboy today at B3 in Concord so I can start brewing 10 gallon batches. Yippee! I'm thinking my first 10 gallons will be my favorite, an American IPA with lots of hop profile and quite bitter. This one will be for me and the hard core hopheads! Hopefully I can get a few folks over for the brew day. Kind of hard since everyone I know interested in brewing is at least 30 minutes away and you can't have a good brew day without a few brews!

Monday, March 3, 2008

American Pale Ale - 03-01-08

We drained the 5 gallon keg of Hefeweizen at the bike race party on Saturday, so it's time to brew more!

Here's how the brewday progressed:

Heating the strike water.









Doing my calculations on the computer.









Sanitizer in the carboy.












The recipe.









Homework shmomework, I'm helping dad brew!









(insert picture of mashing here. Who the heck forgets to take a picture of this?)

First addition of hops by my big hopboy!









7.9 gallons of boiling goodness!









My first yeast starter.













The outcome from brewday:

Nailed my mash temp at 154 degrees.
Had to go to three sparges to get enough wort. Yikes! Now calculating grain absorption at 30%!
7.9 gallons of wort pre-boil.
5.25 gallons of wort post-boil. Have to watch the boil temps. Too high, obviously.
60 minute boil.
1 oz Magnum hops @ 60 minutes.
Whirfloc, Yeast Nutrients and Chiller @ 20 minutes.
1 oz Glacier hops @ 5 minutes.
1 oz Glacier hops at 1 minute.
OG - 1.43. Supposed to be between 1.48-1.55. A little less alcohol in this one.
Taste - Hoppy and gooooooooooooooooooood! Maybe a little too hoppy for some, but more for me!

This one will ferment for three weeks and go into the keg on March 23rd.

UP next: something the swmbo will like!