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.

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?

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

BCHX and inki's brown: tasting notes

i think the BCHX could have stood to bottle condition a little longer. the last bottle was very sour with a kind of mettalic aftertaste. maybe too yeasty, maybe a bad side effect of using the wheat malt. i noticed a wheat malty flavor, though the sourness and carbonation kind of overpower everything else. didn't get to drink the last one out of a glass. perhaps degassing would have helped cut the tongue-assault of the carbonation. don't think i'm going to try wheat malt again any time soon. next beer should be heavy with lots of aroma hops, maybe cut the bittering to 45 minutes.

inki's brown has been in the bottle for a while and has the malty sweet flavor as expected, but i'm noticing the same kind of sour taste as BCHX, although it doesn't wrap up in the metallic aftertaste. this batch is decent, but not as good as i recall the last couple. perhaps i'm having higher expectations or maybe the collapsing ceiling in the kitchen unleashed some wild yeast or bacteria into the mix. it would have to be airborne, because i haven't changed my sanitation. of course this is a taste of the bottom of the bucket bottles, which might have some of the heavy stuff in them. they are pretty clear so far, so i'm not sure. more to come on the 'higher' bottles.

inki's brown bottling day #3

bottling inki's brown #3? fg before sugar was around 1.015. let it sit in the primary for 4 1/2 weeks. we'll see. crashing some BCHX in the freezer with the priming sugar.

inki's brown again

brewing inki brown tonight. eyeballed the specialty grains, dropped about 1/2 oz on the floor. nice even balanced aroma. cascade at 60, fuggles at 2. cooled wort to 100 and ran through sieve like the last batch. starter looked good and bubbly. can't go wrong (knock on wood). OG before yeast 1.045. aerated while listening to 'alligator'

2oz special B
2oz choclate malt
12 oz crystal 80L (60L?)
cascade 60 bittering
fuggles 2 aroma
3.3 dark
3.3 amber
muntons 6gm

full 5 gallons, through strainer
used same sanitizer (one step) from 9/23
plan on 3 wk primary for this one again. last one was good, but took 2wk bottle cond

bottled inki's brown #1

bottled homemade brown ale

ryepa in secondary, 1st inki brown

Racked rypea to secondary so i can boil the home recipe brown ale tomorrow morning or late tonight. should bottle ryepa in 2 weeksish (8/12). gravity was about 1.015. so far the most behaving brew

brewing my version of big river brown with amber DME instead of the LME. had to measure grains by volume since no scale (6T hopefully equals 2oz). munton's cheap yeast, used DME in starter for first time, hopefuly good.