test bottle -- barleywine

i've siphoned off a 22 oz bottle of the barleywine, adding about a teaspoon of brown sugar. from what i'm reading i may have to put some yeast in when real bottling time comes around. the stuff is still at around 1.030, tastes pretty hot, but also on the sweet side. i think bottling yeast will help trim off some of the extra sweetness. i'll check on the test bottle in 2 weeks or so to see how it tastes before deciding to pitch.

i've harvested the yeast from the primary (lots of trub) of the scottish 80 to see what i can do with it. so far it looks like it's not super-live.

scottish 80 #2 bottling day

bottled up the scottish 80, attempt #2 4oz brown sugar in 2 cups of water, boiled and cooled. got about 550 oz out of this (~4.3 gallons). 1.015 fg. tastes a little sour and bitter. smelled like bread when i popped the top, then smelled like fruit. i'm not sure about this, left it in the primary for 5 weeks(?), trying to avoid bottle bombs. i also brushed out all the bottles with star san, rinsed, dried, then sanitized. i even cleaned the bottle trees. trying to eliminate any opportunistic bacteria or yeast since the last couple of batches have been a little off (last export 80 was a bunch of geysers). i'm going to test the first one on the 10th and then wait until the 13th if it's not ready. the last bad batch burnt my morale, so i hope this goes better.

brewing scottish export 80 again

i think i got the two brews mixed up. one of them is not so good. i think it is the emma's ale since i used reclaimed yeast. i'm doing the scottish export 80 because inki is enjoying the one that doesn't suck. the sucky one has some crazy phenol/alcohol tastes, so i'm going with the one that i used fresh yeast on. hopefully this is the one. gonna do it by the book.

nope, i opened another bottle of the explosive geyser beer and poured what didn't immediately foam away into a glass. It has the same amber look of the stuff i just brewed. i think i'll leave this batch in secondary for a while longer than the last batch. i think i recall it not getting very close to fg, so that might explain it. for now, i have about 8 bottles of 'exciting' export 80 left to deal with. since the brown ale turned out so good, i'll try and replicate what i did with that as much as possible next time, probably a nice, slow, low-temperature steep that gave it a lot of dark malt character without too much astringency. 1.046/7 for the sg on the export 80. doin' it by the book for this one.

racked emma's ale and export 80 some time this weekend

both gravities hadn't changed much. i forgot that i didn't have 2 carboys so i racked the scotch export 80 on friday(?) (1.020) and the brown ale on sunday(?) (1.015). this post is back-dated to try and keep track of the approximate time of racking.

export 80 and emma's ale gravities

export 80 at 1.020, looking finished lots of floaty chunks. tastes peaty for some reason ;-P. this one had whirlfloc, hopefully the chunks settle in the carboy.

emma's at 1.015, maybe ready for carboy? tastes really smooth, is almost a red ale. perhaps from a more rigorous/quick boil, thanks to the timer thermometer? might darken in carboy...

gonna start reading these daily and maybe rack simultaneously, saving me a clean-up, kinda.

emma's ale pt 2, re-using yeast

i decided to use the 1275 cake from the last batch of emma's ale on this one. i did a half-assed job of washing the yeast and put it into 2 quart mason jars in the fridge (2 weeks). warmed them up yesterday and did a 650ml starter. not much bubbly activity, but it's cloudy (both jars, minus the jar beer). still a bit of trub.

for this boild, i did the pseudo sparge with the grain bag. in the middle of doin it now, in fact.

the original emma's ale was bottled 2 weeks-ish ago and is tasting fine. a bit drier and maybe more bitter and malty, but nice. used big bottles for most of it, saving a 6 of 12-oz bottles for the dregs. have been taste-testing over the last week with the 12ies and it has matured nicely, though maybe a little champaigny despite doing only 4 oz of brown sugar for bottling. maybe take that down another 1/2 oz for this next one.

edit -- og was maybe 1.054?

scottish export 80

sg 1.063? overshot 1.054. i'm just good at coaxing the sugar. new thermometer with alarm thanks to inki! poured white labs 1728 english ale yeast, straight from the vial, see how she goes.

started bubbling sometime the next day. still bubbing on 25th, so yeast probably good with the no-starter.

iea at 1.018 still, ready to rack

70% attenuation (apparent). rack after nap? we'll see...

iea (inki's emma's ale) gravity

looks like we're at 1.018 from 1.060, which means the abv is 5.5% already! gonna wait till tomorrow, then rack. we'll be craving this soon, as we're almost out of the last batch of iba (inki's brown ale). may 26th will be my brewversary. not sure how to mark this occasion. perhaps a new brew?

new brown ale for inki ('emma's ale')

i'm making the 'emma's ale' kit from northern. steeped 30 min at ~160, pseudo-sparged again. following the recipe pretty much verbatim other than that since tis a new brew. OG 1.060. The yeast (wyeast 1275) was started two weeks ago (350ML) and put in the fridge because i didn't have time to do the boil. hopefully there's not too long of a lag.

hop head!

doesn't play well with others. the hop head is at its peak, i think. floral fruity nose with a citrusy, grapefruit bitter aftertaste. definitely lived up to expectations and is slightly surpassing them. mmmmmm.

barleywine told me it was ready to rack, taste of hop head

the barleywine has mellowed out quite a bit, still super sweet, but hopefully some time and carbonation will take care of that. she's ready for the 5 month carboy journey. i might just have really sweet not-so-high-alcohol beer, but i've got plenty of other more important shit to whine about. i can blend it with another beer or something, or make some nice bread if it ain't there in 5 months.

trying out a bottle of the hop head. still tastes a bit green. i'd give this a couple more weeks to a month to condition properly. carbonation not quite there, but i did plan on about 2.3 vols. ok, after a wine glass of the barleywine and about half a hop head, i can tell that one or both has quite a bit of abv. doesn't hurt

barleywine stuck?

got 1.032 again today. wondering if i should put some nutrients in there. it tastes good, though i'm only getting about 56% attenuation. hrmmm. not rushing it. gonna probably do at least 3 weeks primary and wait for the krausen to fall all the way. keeping it at 70° and swirling a couple of times a day.

worrying over the barleywine

gravity time...wow! this stuff smells like raisins and has some heat to it. i don't think it's messed up at all. probably ready to rack in a couple of days. gravity is still 1.032. krausen is back on top, with dirt patches that i thought were mold -- pretty sure it's just hop dust. gonna do some more research, keep it at 70° and not rush things.

bottled hop head double ipa

i bottled the hop head double, which has been dry-hopping for a little over a week and weighed in at 1.020. i'm starting to think that gravity readings for extract ales are only useful to determine when fermentation is stopped, and there's no way to get a good sense of the attenuation. at least i hope so (see barleywine below)...

inki's brown was bottled around the 16th and tastes pretty good, though she likes to let it rest for about 4 weeks in the bottle. probably sensitive to the sulfur that needs to condition out.

i've started in to the english bitter which isn't the most exciting of beers, but it tastes ok. it has a sour taste that it didn't have when it was green. very quick finish, low alcohol like a session beer.

barleywine was giving me fits as it seems to be mostly done bubbling, but was only 1.035 on saturday and sunday. it's down to 1.032-ish as of this post. looked it up in the bjcp style guide and searched around for how to un-stick a fermentation. i have a feeling it's done and that the high 1.020's might not be bad. it tastes good and seems really alcoholic though it only got ~56% attenuated if you believe the gravity readings. still a bit of yeasty-pasty krausen floating on the top, so the yeast may be goofin' on me. i've put it into the downstairs bathroom with a heater on low and have had it around 70° for the last 3 days, swirling occasionally. gonna rack when i get 3 days of stable readings and/or the krausen falls. thought i might have seen some mold on the top, but it could just have been some grain husks or hop dust.

northern brewer barleywine!

i did the 3.3lb LME at boil and 9.9lb LME at 15 minutes, then realized that the temp was down to 190 or so. i gave it another 15 minutes to warm back up, then timed it for 5 minutes more boil time. that should probably be in the instructions. also, the need for a bigger yeast starter should be in there too. 1.090 sg! i overshot the 1.086 sg indicated in the instructions. if the starter i prepared is any good, this could get explosive in a few hours. i put the fermenter in the basement bathtub to catch anything, should it get too active.

i have a bad feeling that i'll be going out to get another pack of 1948 neobritania, 'cause there were too many floating questions about the starter. it ended up with about 400ml of slurry plus another 400 ml of spent wort. it should be good, but i'll believe it when i see it. it seems to be the same volume as the pack was, though that was probably mostly nutrients. we'll see in the next 48 hours.

i added the dry hop bag to the hop head late last night. probably going to bottle that next weekend.

inki's brown bottling day -- brown sugar!

i'm using 3.7 oz of brown sugar as priming for inki's brown (big river brown ale). bottling with my baby tonight :-)

the hop head double ipa is still at 1020, and it tastes good enough to drink right out of the bright tank with no carbonation. carbonation would just be an extra feature. i still have to dry hop, perhaps this beer could get even better?

big starter for a big beer

[3/14-17] i broke down and got a barleywine kit from northern brewer, as well as my first liquid yeast, wyeast 1948 neobritania. i was advised that one pack wouldn't be enough for such a big beer (estimated 1.086 og), and got a 2l starter kit to build up the starter to at least 290 billion cells.

lots of vague advice online, most relying on the yeast counts being predictable and making a lot of assumptions. since thursday, i've made a 1300ml starter (1.040 DME), chilling it friday, pouring off the starter beer, and adding another 1300ml of starter wort. i hope i chilled long enough and didn't pour off a bunch of good yeast!

according to my triangulation of various sources and calculators i need 400 ml of slurry (4.5 billion cells per ml) or 4l (~1 gallon) of starter! the starter has blown its top a couple of times, being as obnoxious as warm soda during high krausen. it's looking super-healthy, but i might end up getting another pack or so depending on how the starter looks tomorrow. i think i'll pitch, then see how the gravity looks after a week. might just re-pitch if it looks stuck. gotta make some mistakes in order to figure it out.

links:

mrmalty

homebrew post

neobritania info

palmer on yeast

wyeast calculator

midwest's documentation

racking/gravity for hop head ipa and inki's brown

i racked inki's brown and hop head double ipa to secondary last week sometime. both measured 1.020 today, which is a little disturbing, since the brown should be from 1.010-12 and the hop head should final at 1.016-18. not going to worry too much, i guess. i had an ill-advised tasting of the english bitter. it made the satisfying whoosh sound when uncapped, but was not super-carbonated and still had the green taste. not too bad for less than a week in the bottle. just need another week or two for the co2 to go into solution and the beer to condition.

english bitter bottled

after priming sugar (4oz this time, instead of 5), FG still at about 1.015. hopefully these bottles don't pop! the un-carbonated beer tastes like a nice mild dry beer. probably at about 3.5ABV

inki's brown could technically be bottled now, but i'm thinking that a little more time in the primary fermenter would be good. debating on whether to rack to secondary, but i think i'm going to be lazy and let her sit for today.

the hop head is done bubbling, even after moving it to the basement and rousing it a bit. probably time for the secondary. hrmmm. i'm tempted to rack both to secondary, but i just got done cleaning up after the bottling. maybe tomorrow.

english bitter at 1.012-14-ish

it's really hard to see through the bubbles, but i think this beer is ready to bottle. samples taste like a nice mild beer. not super-exciting, but something with which to stock the beer cellar.

hop head double ipa

i brewed the hop head double ipa recipe from midwest: http://www.midwestsupplies.com/hop-head-double-ipa.html. i diverged from the recipe by adding the last 3.3lb of LME 15 minutes before the end of the boil. ended up boiling 1 gallon in another pot because the 4 gallon was in the boilover danger zone after adding the first 6.6lb. also tried adding 2 gallons of tap water before pouring the cooled wort. wort was snow-cooled to 90 this time, and the temp was still around 70 at pitch time. used 2 tbs of powdered sugar for the starter, hopefully the gravity difference with the super-sweet wort won't affect it. SG was 1.074, overshooting the recipe's 1.067 a little. i couldn't find the airlock that i got at midwest, so i've used an s-trap, which fits ok in the new fermenter's grommet. wort tastes like hop stew, unsurprisingly. hopefully the dry hop with leaves will give it a good aroma, not just bittering.

the english bitter is still bubbling a little since i've been rousing it daily. gravity is at 1.014. gonna wait a day or so more before bottling. i haven't fussed so much about gravity before, but i want to avoid bottle bombs and have as much alcohol as i can get out of it.

i haven't touched the inki's brown. looks like it's settled down to conditioning.

english bitter in secondary

looks like she's at 1.016. wanted to bottle this weekend, but i'm going to see what i can do to rouse the yeast. gave the secondary a few spins and saw bubbling at the airlock, hmm. in the basement, the beer is at 65°F. colder than the pitch temperature. not expecting high alcohol for this one, though.

inki's brown, aka 'big river brown ale'

i'm doing the brown from the midwest kit again, since there was a sale. using powdered sugar for the starter. steeped the grains for about 30 minutes, with the temperature fluctuating between 160-170°. i sparged the grain bag with about 2 cups of 212° water. hopefully these high temperatures won't mess with the flavor, but i'm not getting too anal about it. calibrated my dial, which was waaay off. now i have a scientific thermometer and calibrated to several points around my usual target temperature so dial should be more accurate.

arrgh! forgot to take a gravity reading. oh well, i guess we can guess it is like previous batches. starter was in good shape, and chilling the wort in a tub of salted snow water worked super-fast like last time. 212→90° in about 15 minutes. adding tap water to the 90° extract wort brought it to a nice 70°. This is the second batch using unfiltered tap water. Hopefully the water supply is free of anything that would mess with the flavor or give an infection.

racked english bitter to secondary

i racked the english bitter to the new carboy using the new auto siphon. what a great invention! i didn't have the right sized tubing, but forced the small tubing into the siphon end. the gravity is at about 1018, down from wed's 1020 a little. very hard to read the hydrometer through the foam. a refractometer would make an excellent gift!

first minnesota brew

i boiled an english bitter midwest specialty grain kit. 20 minute steep at ~160 (thermometer isn't calibrated right, so i'm not sure). i tried rinsing the grains after the steep with boiling water in a strainer. goldings (5.5AA) 1oz at 60 and 1oz at 2 minutes. i broke down and got a thief and a test jar at northern brewer. sg: 1040 (recipe calls for 1035). very bitter at this point.

i used snow/salt/water in a tub outside to chill. it was amazingly fast and saved me some money, though i slightly over-chilled. pre-dilution was about 80F. used plain tap water for the first time for top-off, which brought it down to 65F. i waited an hour or so for the mixed wort to come up to 70F, the temperature of the starter. i also diverged on the starter by using some dme instead of plain sugar.

checked after 1.5 days in the fermenter, when obvious bubbling stopped. now it's at 1020. the sample was super cloudy with yeast and tasted much better than the first sample. the battle of what-to-get-next is looking like a win for a burner, since the glass-top electrical stove is super slow.

wish list: gas burner, refractometer, digital thermometer with some sort of alarm. the wort chiller won't be needed until the snow goes away.