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.

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.

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.

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.