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.