1st chapel hill brown ale bottling day

bottled the brown ale i brewed in july yesterday. it tastes good, though i thought maybe a little metallic -- will see. i think the gravity was still 1.014, but i knocked over the hydrometer and broke it before i could get my glasses :-/

barleywine update, 3 years later;new brew

i've been checking a bottle of barleywine every year or so and i'm assuming that it is as done as it's going to be. not bad, though it is more fruity than boozy. i'll need to find the sg beaker to take a proper reading.

started new brew about 3 weeks ago. this was the first brew since moving back to nc. 1046 OG, down to 1.014 after 2 weeks primary. i've put it in a carboy to clear. this is the first brew with the new big kettle, outdoor gas jet apparatus, and chiller coil. looks like i can cool the first 100 degrees in about 20 minutes. not sure if that's faster, but it's less fussing around and ice-buying.

barleywine jump start

after almost a year, i'm trying to revive the barleywine that was stuck at 1.030. i've taken out 1/4 gallon and added another 1/4 gallon of water and pitched us-04 into a starter to see if it comes to life. the water/wort mixture sure foamed up, like it was already partially carbonated. if this starts krausening, i'll pitch it back into the carboy with the other ~4 gallons and see if it starts brewing again. it doesn't matter either way, as i'll just bottle anyway and hopefully the new yeast will help it carbonate.

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?