Weed Death Brew Day

My 18th brew day is done.  A good day indeed.  All of the usual stuff will come here shortly, but I had to mention three new things I got to use in the brew house today.
First, I got to use my new mash paddle.  It went through the mash effortlessly and really broke up those dough balls!  Easier = better in my opinion.
Second, I was able to use my new high temperature tubing to transfer the 165 degree water from kettle to bucket.  I also used it to transfer the wort to the kettle and I'll use it here shortly to transfer the boiled wort to the fermentor.  Again, very easy to work with since it's so flexible.
Third, I got to use my new stainless steel spoon instead of my plastic spoon to stir the hops into the wort.  Wow, just wow.  No more wimpy spoon twisting in my hands as I stir.

Now, back to our regular programming:



The yeast starter went a little crazy on me and blew its top.  I made two 2,000 ml starters - one for the initial starter and one to step it up and grow more yeasties.  The first starter fermented out in two days so I put it in the fridge, let the yeast settle to the bottom, decanted the nasty starter beer off the top and re-fed it again on Thursday morning.  I took of for my meeting in Monterrey and came back Saturday afternoon to this mess.  Yuck!  The starter is just fine but I have quite the mess to clean up!


 The mash with my new mash paddle!  Take that you little dough ball bastards!  OK, maybe I'm just a little too excited about this.....



Did I mention that I mashed in really early this morning?  Also, I had to lengthen the mash to 1 hour 20 minutes instead of the standard 1 hour.  I missed my mash temp by a few degrees so I wanted to make sure everything converted.


7.5 gallons of wort on my first runnings, 8 gallons from my second runnings.  1.5 gallons of wort (that won't fit into the boil kettle) down the drain.  I've got to work on my mash math so that I come out with zero extra gallons of wort. 


Just a liiiiiiiiiiiiiitle too vigorous on the boil.  I tuned it down and got the perfect boil going.  Not too much, not too little, just right.  Hmmmm.  Thinking about some kind of Goldilocks Ale now.....  ;-)

Just chillin'.  Oh, BTW, the outlet hose for my chiller split in the middle of the hose AND the darn connector started leaking.  Had to put a towel over the connector to keep hose water from getting into the wort.  Hmmmm.  Thinking about some kind of Hose Water Hefeweizen now..... ;-)

And, finally, the little bastards that this ale was named after.  I could here these Weedomites screaming in their death throws today: "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee".  Damn that was irritating!  ;-)

Weed Death Wheat Ale

The Summer Sunset Orange Wit is about 4 pints away from blowing the keg so it's time to brew something light to replace it.  To be honest, I don't like Wits (Sorry Stephen!) and American Wheat beers seem to be getting lots of attention so a wheat beer it is.

Now, as much as people like wheat beers, they may not necessarily want to drink one with the word Death in the name so here's the explanation.  Almost everyone reading this is going to have a lawn.  Very low alcohol beers are sometimes called "lawnmower beers" meaning that you can have one when you mow the lawn.  Well, I don't have a lawn, I have weeds and I've been battling them for 4 years.  This year my father in law gave me a mixture of round up and some other chemicals that I'm sure will pollute the ground water for years to come, but I won't have any weeds!  So, instead of "Lounge Lizard Larry's Lawnmower Libations" I opted for "Weed Death Wheat Ale", a name that was partially born out of my buddy Steve's suggestion of "Wade's Weed Death Mixture".

The yeast starter was created last night and is spinning dizzily on the stir plate.  Brewday is Sunday while I smoke 16 pounds of pork butt (Yes Steve, I said pork butt).  Here's the label and the recipe.

Weed Death Wheat Ale
6-D American Wheat or Rye Beer
Author: Wade L. Williams

Size: 10.56 gal
Efficiency: 64.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 166.16 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.050 (1.040 - 1.055)
Terminal Gravity: 1.012 (1.008 - 1.013)
Color: 6.63 (3.0 - 6.0)
Alcohol: 4.91% (4.0% - 5.5%)
Bitterness: 22.3 (15.0 - 30.0)

Ingredients:
10.5 lb Pale Ale Malt
10.5 lb White Wheat Malt
2 lb Vienna Malt
1.5 oz Sterling (7%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
1 tsp Yeast Nutrient (AKA Fermax) - added during boil, boiled 15 min
1 ea Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) - added during boil, boiled 10 min
1.5 oz Sterling (7%) - added during boil, boiled 5 min
2.0 ea White Labs WLP320 American Hefeweizen Ale

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.5.3

Containing the Mad Pig

I was able to clean a couple of kegs and then transfer the Mad Pig from the KegMentor to kegs. 

1.070 SG, 1.014 FG = 7.36% ABV.

The hydro sample had some hop haze to it but it smelled/tasted great!  Should be ready in time for the CVBG March meeting!

Mad Pig Brew Day

The Surly Sow has mutated.  It's become bigger, more bitter, hoppier, more aromatic, and about 1% more alcohol.  The color looked great in the sparge, the kettle smelled fantastic with 8 ounces of hops going into the boil, and the gravity sample tasted out of this world!  I cannot wait for this beer to finish fermenting so it can go on draft!

I did change one thing in the recipe and added 1 lb of corn sugar to the boil at 10 minutes to dry the beer out a little.  Here's how the brew day went.

I finally found a picture of a "mad" pig that didn't involve foaming at the mouth.  ;-)  I didn't think I'd be happy with a white background on the image, but in the end I was quite surprised at how well it made the pig stand out in the label.  He's one P.O.'d pig!

I was getting everything ready Saturday night and decided to bring things inside to sanitize them so I could spend some time with Carlen while I did it. The fermentor (keg on the left) was easy to sanitize on the stove.  I just put a little water in it and boiled it for 10 minutes.  I had a new thermometer and spigot for the brew kettle and wanted to put it through it's paces for brew day so I put it on another burner.  No leaks!

Santa brought a ping-pong table for the kids this year.  It sure is a nice place to spread out the brew stuff!

31.77 pounds of grain + 9.5 gallons of 175 degree water = 154 degree mash!  Hit it dead on!

Sparging one hour later.  The wort was a beautiful golden/amber color.

The hot break forming on top of one full boil kettle.  I've learned that my boil off rate is very high in the kettle (3 gallons per hour) so I have to collect 14 gallons of wort to to boil down to 11.  10.5 of which goes into the fermentor and 1/2 gallon which is left behind because it looks like pea soup from the pellet hops.

209-210 degrees is the perfect boil temp!  Keeps the wort at a nice, stead boil without going crazy.

14 gallons of wort at a boil with the first addition of hops floating around.  When the 3 ounces of Chinook hops hit the kettle the whole garage smelled like heaven.  Or, what I hope heaven will smell like!

The one hour boil is done and we're cooling everything down to 80 degrees with the immersion chiller.  Also cleaning up the boil over that happens when I put the wort chiller in the pot.  Don't know why it happens, but it does.  I'm thinking of switching over to a different kind of chiller, but haven't figured out which one I want yet.

All those hops left over on the screen after the wort has been drained off.  The wort is in the fermentor and 1800 ML of WLP001 yeast starter is in there chugging away.

2 weeks until this one is done fermenting.
1 week dry hopping.
2 weeks carbonating.
2 weeks conditioning.
----------------
7 weeks until it's ready to drink.

Mad Pig IPA

Finally! After 3 months I'm brewing again this Sunday. The yeast starter is done and will be on the stir plate tonight. This recipe is loosely based off of Blind Pig IPA that I got from Brandon over at The BN.

Mad Pig IPA
14-B American IPA
Author: Wade L. Williams

Size: 10.56 gal
Efficiency: 64.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 223.09 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.067 (1.056 - 1.075)
Terminal Gravity: 1.017 (1.010 - 1.018)
Color: 12.16 (6.0 - 15.0)
Alcohol: 6.59% (5.5% - 7.5%)
Bitterness: 96.8 (40.0 - 70.0)

Ingredients:
28.5 lb Pale Ale Malt
1.09 lb White Wheat Malt
1.09 lb Cara-Pils® Malt
1.09 lb Crystal Malt 40°L
3.0 oz Chinook (12.4%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
1.0 oz Cascade (7.8%) - added during boil, boiled 30 min
2.0 oz Cascade (7.8%) - added during boil, boiled 15 min

1.0 ea Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) - added during boil, boiled 10 min
2.0 tsp Yeast Nutrient (AKA Fermax) - added during boil, boiled 10 min

1.0 oz Amarillo (8.6%) - added during boil, boiled 5 min
1.0 oz Simcoe (13.0%) - added during boil, boiled 5 min

2.0 ea White Labs WLP001 California Ale

1.0 oz Amarillo (8.6%) - added dry to primary fermenter
1.0 oz Simcoe (13.0%) - added dry to primary fermenter
1.0 oz Cascade (5.5%) - added dry to primary fermenter
2.0 oz Centennial (10.0%) - added dry to primary fermenter


Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.5.3

44 Pale Ale

Wow, what a BLUSTERY birthday brew!  Here are the action shots:

The updated label to indicate the windy day.

The scene outside the garage.

Mashing in and heating sparge water in the garage behind one closed garage door and two others open.  This kept out the wind some and the flame didn't blow out.


Mashing out with the rain in the background.

One full boil kettle!

5.5 ounces of hops!

The boil kettle after all the wort was drained off.

The new fermenter!

Birthday Brew Planned

My 44th birthday is next Tuesday, so I decided to take the day off to brew. The Evil Twin Red Ale is just about to blow, so I figured I'd brew a Pale Ale to sit on that tap when the time comes and my Evil Twin kicks the bucket.

Here's the recipe:
44 Pale Ale
10-A American Pale Ale
Author: Wade

Size: 11.0 gal
Efficiency: 64.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 191.23 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.057 (1.045 - 1.060)
Terminal Gravity: 1.014 (1.010 - 1.015)
Color: 9.21 (5.0 - 14.0)
Alcohol: 5.65% (4.5% - 6.2%)
Bitterness: 42.3 (30.0 - 45.0)

Ingredients:
24.72 lb American 2-row
1.64 lb Munich Malt
1.09 lb White Wheat Malt
1.64 lb Victory® Malt
2 tbsp 5.2 pH Stabilizer - added during mash

1.5 oz Magnum (14.5%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
1.0 oz Cascade (5.5%) - added during boil, boiled 10 min
1.0 oz Centennial (10.0%) - added during boil, boiled 10 min
1 tsp Yeast Nutrient (AKA Fermax) - added during boil, boiled 5 min
1 ea Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) - added during boil, boiled 5 min
1.0 oz Cascade (5.5%) - added during boil, boiled 0 min
1.0 oz Centennial (10.0%) - added during boil, boiled 0 min

2 ea Fermentis US-05 Safale US-05

Notes
Mash at 152

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.5.3

It'll be my first time using dry yeast. I hear it doesn't bring much complexity into the beer, but it sure is easy!