Punk! Pumpkin Ale test batch

I love pumpkin ales.  I LUV LUV LUV them, and so this year I decided to make one.  Just a couple weeks ago, on a nice windy morning, I sat out back and brewed this right up. TEST - (For Seasonal prelim) - PUNK Pumpkin Brew Type: Extract Date: 10/22/2012 Style: Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer Brewer: Batch Size: 5.50 gal Assistant Brewer: Boil Volume: 8.84 gal Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: Cameron Mathews Brewery: Brew Pot (15 gal) and Igloo Cooler (10 Gal) Taste Rating (50 possible points): 35.0 Ingredients Amount Item Type % or IBU 6.00 lb Amber Liquid Extract (12.5 SRM) Extract 60.00 % 1.00 lb Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 10.00 % 0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 5.00 % 0.50 lb Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 5.00 % 1.00 oz Mt. Hood [6.00 %] (60 min) Hops 20.9 IBU 0.50 oz Hallertauer [4.80 %] (5 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops - 0.25 tsp Allspice (Boil 10.0 min) Misc 0.25 tsp Cloves, ground (Boil 10.0 min) Misc 0.25 tsp Ginger, powdered (Boil 10.0 min) Misc 0.25 tsp Nutmeg (Boil 10.0 min) Misc 0.50 tsp Vanilla Extract (Boil 15.0 min) Misc 1.50 tsp Cinnamon, powdered (Boil 10.0 min) Misc 4.00 lb Pumpkin (Roasted Pieces) (Mash 60.0 min) Misc 52.80 items Bottle Caps - Orange (Bottling 1.0 min) Misc 1.00 lb Brown Sugar, Light (8.0 SRM) Sugar 10.00 % 1.00 lb Molasses (80.0 SRM) Sugar 10.00 % 8.84 gal Dallas, TX Water 1 Pkgs American Ale II (Wyeast Labs #1272) Yeast-Ale Beer Profile Estimated Original Gravity: 1.056 SG (1.030-1.110 SG) Measured Original Gravity: 1.010 SG Estimated Final Gravity: 1.014 SG (1.005-1.025 SG) Measured Final Gravity: 1.005 SG Estimated Color: 16.8 SRM (5.0-50.0 SRM) Color [Color] Bitterness: 20.9 IBU (0.0-70.0 IBU) Alpha Acid Units: 6.0 AAU Estimated Alcohol by Volume: 5.48 % (2.50-12.00 %) Actual Alcohol by Volume: 0.65 % Actual Calories: 43 cal/pint Carbonation and Storage Carbonation Type: Corn Sugar Carbonation Volumes: 2.4 (2.0-3.0 vols) Estimated Priming Weight: 4.2 oz Temperature at Bottling: 60.0 F Primer Used: - Age for: 3.0 Weeks Storage Temperature: 72.0 F Notes Used one and a half 4-5 lb pie pumpkins, cut into 8ths and peeled and roasted 1 hour at 325 degrees in the oven. Then added to the water with steeping grains and removed when water reached boiling temp to add extracts, molasses, etc. Notes from http://www.thebrewsite.com/pumpkin-ale-recipe/The first thing to say is do not use canned pumpkin! Real pumpkin is the only way to go here, otherwise you’ll be dealing with a huge mess. You’ve been warned. You’ll first need to roast the pumpkin in the oven, similar to cooking squash. This softens the pumpkin and begins breaking it down. Cut the pumpkin into manageable pieces (should be cleaned, of course—old jack-o’lanterns work great), place in a shallow baking pan and add a bit of water to the pan. Roast in a 325°-ish oven for about an hour, or until soft. Or check a cookbook . There’s two ways you can incorporate the finished pumpkin: a partial mash-style method or simply a soak with the grains as the water heats. For the soak method, simply add the pumpkin and the grains to your pot of water, put it on the heat to boil. When it boils, remove the pumpkin and grains.

Chew with Incysers (it's a Cyser, get it?)

So I've made mead... but cyser is a specific kind of mead that uses apple juice as a base instead of water.

Think of it as mead & cider's offspring, if you will.

I decided to make a half batch (recipe was 6 gallons) and it looks like I might have exceeded even that.  Here's the ingredients and the process I used...

2.5 gallons apple cider (no preservatives - I used generic Albertson's apple cider)
6 lbs honey (I used 4 lb Albertson's Clover and 2 lb local unfiltered)
1/2 gallon water
3 lb brown sugar (I used 2 lb light and 1 lb golden brown)
1.5 lb golden raisins (I used Sun-Maid)
3 tsp Yeast Nutrient
1.5 tsp Yeast Energizer
1 cinnamon stick
1/4 tsp pectic enzyme
2 pkgs - Pasteur Champagne Yeast (Red Star)

OK, so first I dumped a gallon of apple cider in the carboy.  Meanwhile I boiled the half gallon of water on the stove.

Then I proceeded to pour in the honey, jar after jar, and shake the carboy around to mix the honey with the cider.

Then, using some of the cider, I poured it in the honey jars, sealed them, and shook them vigorously to get all the honey out, pouring that in.

Dissolve brown sugar in the boiling water - use some ice or apple cider to cool it, then funnel it into the carboy.

Chop the raisins in the food processor - they become this big globby ball, so you have to work a bit to force them through the funnel in small chunks into the fermenter.

Drop in the cinnamon stick.  Add the remaining apple cider.  Shake again.

Add Yeast Nutrient and Yeast Energizer.  Shake again.

*Note:  This is where I am right now.  Following steps to be completed tomorrow.

Wait at least 12 hours and add Pectic Enzyme.

Wait at least 12 more hours and pitch yeast (I will do this dry) into the fermenter.

Let it ferment for 3 or more weeks, swirling every day or two to keep the raisins in mixture.

Rack to secondary.

Let sit for up to 3 months before bottling.  (I plan to bottle in November)

Bottle and let age in bottles - try one new, wait 3 months on most, and save some for a year.

We will see if I have the patience for that.

Psycho triple brew day - again! again! again!

So I'm at it again - trying to make three different "fermentable beverages" in a single day.  This is how to wisely spend a vacation day, I tell you!

Today is running a little different than last time, though, partially because I had to stay outside the whole time, so I couldn't use the stove for a mash water heater which delayed my ability to get the extract brew on.

For those of you playing along at home, I've found that I can get three brews in pretty easily so long as they follow a certain pattern: one all-grain 10 gallon batch, one extract 5 gallon batch, and one no-boil (mead or cider or perry or something) batch.  I also can build my water for the all grain batch, but I tend to use tap water for the extract batch.  Today I added an RV carbon filter to that line to remove some excess chlorine or other bad flavors - the water tasted great coming out the other end of the (drinking water) hose.  Total cost for that was under $20.  Today, I'm throwing a half-batch of cyser in there today (only 2.5 gallons) so I will be targeting 17.5 gallons total, but still using all my carboy capacity.  The cyser may rest a while longer, though, so that limits me to probably single 10 gallon brews or maybe a 2-batch day for the rest of the year or so...

So - what's in the lineup for today?

1- Kolsch - I won about 10 lbs of pilsner malt in a raffle so what do I do with that?  Make a nice easy-drinking kolsch for Oktoberfest time!  It is a 10 gallon all-grain batch with a simple grain bill.
2- Porter (plus something extra) - have been wondering for a while if there is a way to incorporate bacon into beer.  Found a recipe and a commercial example, so I am guessing the answer is yes.  So, here goes - Porker Porter - five gallon extract batch (grains steeping above in picture), bacon (cooked and dried of as much grease as possible) added to the secondary.
3 - Cyser - I was pleasantly surprised with my cider creation last time - so decided to spice it up a bit.  Making a cyser with honey, white raisins, apple cider, and cinnamon.  Sounds like a fall or winter treat.  I will probably try to bottle it in November, I think - maybe earlier - and enjoy some young this fall, to see how it goes.  I'll save some for next year, perhaps.

Now, here's the tricky part (to be figured out next week some time).  I only have 4 carboys.  I am using all 4.  I want all three with beer in them (porter and two with kolsch) to be secondary fermented.  Where I sit right now is either racking one to a sanitized bottling bucket, then holding while I clean and rack the other 2 carboys then return the bottle batch to a clean and sanitized carboy, OR saying forget it, bottling one of the batches of Kolsch, and daisy-chaining from there.  I do think the Kolsch would benefit clarity-wise from a secondary rest, though.  We will see (and by that I mean we will see how lazy I am).  I also need to get some bottles cleared out to hold all this beer!

Will post recipes shortly.  Enjoy!

Empty Carboys

Bottled up the cider Sunday, half sweetened/half dry, which leaves me with only one empty case of bottles, but another problem - four empty carboys.

I am not sure I'm going to pull off another 20 gallon brew day again, but I could very well pull off 15.  We will see how it goes.

For now, though, I just have to figure out WHAT to brew.  Probably something that can sit in a carboy a while as I clear out more bottles (time to get to work on that, eh?), so maybe something that has to age, alongside some drinkable beer that I can bottle up when it is ready.  I'll go back to my planning board, while you all wait with bated breath.

In the meantime, what are you brewing?

Cheers!

Secondary Racking

Racking the cider to secondary today.  Then going to bottle brown ale tonight.  From the looks of the cider, I might even go with a tertiary rest on it, just to help a little with clarity, but I do think it looks pretty good overall - I may skip it.  The brown ale looks just great, and I decided to go ahead and bottle it and free up the carboys instead of doing any sort of secondary business with it.  I should get a good 70+ bottles of brown ale out of it, so that is a plus.  Then I've got 10 lbs of Pilsner malt sitting around that I need to figure out what to do with.  What to brew what to brew!?!

So starts the chain reaction

Decided to bottle the CDA/Dark IPA so I could use that carboy as a secondary for the browns and cider - and just clean and rack and clean and rack those over to it.  It did not attenuate out as much as I would have liked but I also think my OG reading must have been low, otherwise I have an "IPA" with about 4% alcohol.  I think based on the other number that I had floating around (and the fact that it does not taste like sweet malt), it's more like 6.4%.

Anyway, chose to do this one because it didn't need as much clarifying, though it is definitely lighter than I would have hoped.  Will have to see how it looks in a glass, but probably need more black patent next time around.

Once I've racked this and cleaned out the carboy, time to rack over the browns and cider one-by-one to secondary fermentation and clearing for a few weeks...

Cheers!

Bottles, the Good, the Bad, the Ugly

Over the last several years of beer brewing, I have seen lots of bottles come and go.

I have purchased homebrew clean bottles directly from a homebrew store, and while those pristine glass containers are perfect for competition and zero effort, I have also found myself taking a much cheaper route of cleaning bottles from my last six pack and reusing those freebies.

Along the way I have noticed that some bottles are perfect and ideally suited for "conversion" into "competition-ready" bottles with little or no effort, and some bottles are just never going to make it.  So I decided to keep this post as an ongoing post to track which commercially available bottles I have tried to clean for reuse and which ones generally aren't worth my effort.  This is a personal list, you may have found different results.

So first, the criteria for my verdict:  My process for cleaning the bottles has to be the result of a rinse and soak in hot water, followed by potentially peeling off of labels (if they didn't float off) and a light scrubbing of glue with a scrubber sponge.  A subsequent soak in sanitizing solution will result in a usable bottle.

The result will be one of the following:

• Competition Grade: A clean 12 oz. brown bottle free of labels, with a crimp cap top with a wide enough collar to accommodate my two handed capper as well as the stand capper.  Bottle should have no raised glass lettering, no glue, and no printing remaining that would render it unusable in competition.
• Personal Use: A bottle that is easily devoid of paper labels or glue and has sufficient collar for crimp top cap.  Some feature of the bottle (size, raised lettering, silk screen printing) would prevent use in competitions, but these are excellent for personal consumption.
• Trash: Requires too much effort to clean or has bottle characteristics making it undesirable for even my personal use.

I'll start with what I know and update this the more beers I try.  And yes, I know this is scarce right now, but just a starting point for tracking this stuff.

Brewery	Beer(s)	Cleaning Effort	Result	Notes
Ballast Point	Big Eye IPA Calico Amber	Minimal	Competition Grade
Dogfish Head	Festina Peche 60 Minute IPA 90 Minute IPA	Minimal	Competition Grade
Magic Hat	Blind Faith IPA #9	Moderate	Competition Grade	Some heavy glue to remove
Samuel Adams			Personal Use	Raised Lettering
Stone Brewing Co.	Arrogant Bastard Oaked Arrogant Bastard	N/A	Personal Use	Printed Logos 22 oz. Size
Widmer Brothers			Personal Use	Raised Lettering
Rogue Ales	Santa's Private Reserve Dead Guy Ale Morimoto Soba Ale Chocolate Stout Shakespeare Oatmeal Stout	N/A	Personal Use	Printed Logos 22 oz. Size
New Belgium	Fat Tire		Personal Use	Raised Lettering Odd Size
Abita	Purple Haze Amber		Trash	Squat Size Profile

More to come.

Cheers!

The Cardinal Puff Puff Puff will (or will not) post his third and final recipe of the day

Oops.  I realized that I didn't actually circle back and post the third recipe from the giant brewday last week.

No worries - it was a 10 Gallon Southbound and Brown Ale batch.  I've made it a ton.  So, you can get the recipe links here.

At this point, the beer is a week old and all the furious bubble bubble pop has settled down.  I'm going to let everything settle another week and then I'll bottle SOMETHING and rack the other three to secondaries in succession (yeah, I'll probably bottle half of the brown ale, since I've got 10 gallons).

Anyway, consider this your circleback

Happy brewing!

Cidah

OK I have never done hard cider before, but that was enough reason to try.  So here's what I did - and keep in mind I got lots of the ideas from the Making Homemade Hard Cider site.

I upped the scale from them, though.

I couldn't find enough of the right kind of juice, and thought blending might give me an interesting approach, so that's what I did.

In a clean and sanitized fermenter, here goes (in this order):
1 can Albertson's frozen Apple Juice Concentrate
just under 2 gallons (4 bottles) Simply Apple pure pressed apple juice (no water or preservatives)
2 gallons Albertson's Unfiltered Apple Juice (no preservatives)

5 tsp Yeast Nutrient (because yeast needs nutrients)
2.5 tsp Pectin Enzyme (for clarity)

1 gallon Musselman's Pasteurized Apple Juice (no preservatives)

1 pkg Lalvin EC-1118 yeast (wine yeast)

Then I'll wait a few weeks, rack it to a secondary, and then after some settlilng, it will be time to bottle.

Cheers!

Black IPA, Black not Pale, CDA, something of the sort

First brew of the triple brew day is... an extract-based dark/black IPA (also known as Cascadian Dark Ale for those that can't fit Black and Pale into their same beer description).

First time making one of these, but I wanted to try one, and needed to make an extract brew while the other was mashing.  So here goes - also of note, coming out of the boil, it looked more "dark brown" than "black" but I think most of that (after some settling in the hydrometer test jar) was hops and it will be pretty darn black.

Batch TEST - Black Not Pale

Recipe Specifications

Brew Date: 6/22/2012
Recipe Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Recipe Boil Size: 8.84 gal
Estimated Pre-boil OG: 1.054
Estimated OG: 1.079 SG
Estimated Color: 25.3 SRM
Estimated IBU: 77.6 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: - %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Actual OG: 1.060 SG
Actual FG: 1.018 SG
Actual ABV: 5.48 %

Ingredients

Water Additions

Prepare 8.84 gal Water for Brewing

Grain Bill

Steep Grains at 165.0 F

Amount	Item	Type	% or IBU
1.00 lb	Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM)	Grain	7.48 %
0.25 lb	Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM)	Grain	1.87 %
0.13 lb	Black (Patent) Malt (Paul's) (500.0 SRM)	Grain	0.93 %

Hop Schedule/Boil Additions

Boil Ingredients

Boil	Amount	Item	Type
60 min	12.00 lb	Amber Liquid Extract (12.5 SRM)	Extract
60 min	1.00 oz	Cascade [6.40 %] (60 min)	Hops
60 min	1.00 oz	Warrior [16.70 %] (60 min)	Hops
20 min	0.50 oz	Cascade [6.40 %] (20 min)	Hops
5 min	0.50 oz	Cascade [6.40 %] (5 min)	Hops

Yeast/Other

Ingredients for Fermentation

Amount	Item	Type	% or IBU
2 Pkgs	Safale US (LeSaffre #05)	Yeast-Ale

Mash

Mash Schedule: None
Total Grain Weight: 10.00 lb
Steep grains as desired (30-60 minutes)

Notes

Brewed low with about 3 gallons water after marking fill line on carboy

Generated with a custom BeerSmith template created by Cameron Mathews

Brewing to Capacity

So I have reached a sad state of affairs.  I'm out of homebrew.  Well, not completely out, but with only about 4 bottles mixed between stout and that "turned out too dark brown Irish Red" -  functionally, I'm out.  I DO have another five gallons of the Irish "Brown" in a carboy ready for bottling, but nary a drop to drink.  Oh, and while my mead from a few years ago has aged quite nicely, it is not a session beverage in the slightest.

It is this utter dearth of beverage that caused me pause to consider - how much could I possibly have at once?  Given that I only have five gallons in any state of progress, how much could I actually max out?  Turns out, the answer is about 50 gallons.  With 4 carboys, 2 kegs, and 8 cases of bottles, I do have room to produce and store a quarter of my limit at once (limit in the U.S. for those playing at home is 100 gallons a year for an individual of 200 gallons a year for a household with two or more individuals over the age of 21.  More adults does not increase the personal consumption limit above 200).  Now, were I to be maxed out, I would run into a consumption bottleneck rather than a production bottleneck, but that's a problem I could try to work through.

Since I'm not FULLY keg capable yet, we'll call my maximum capacity 40 gallons - which means with only 5 gallons I'm at a meager 12.5% of my available load.  With one day off of work (today), the question was, how do I pump so much into the front-end of the production line that I fill up more more more of that capacity to last me throughout the summer.  The answer?  A 20 gallon brewday.

What?

A 20 gallon brewday.

Now, while I could theoretically start at 7:30 AM with boiling and mash in around 8:30 with the first of two 10 gallon batches, that just wouldn't be my lazy procrastinative style (yes, I think I made up procrastinative, but I like the way it rolls).  Rather, I didn't truly PLAN to brew until last night, meaning that I don't actually have any ingredients, which also limits my start time, since my Homebrew store of choice does not open until 10:00.  This leaves me with the dilemma that there is no way to do two 10 gallon all-grain batches by a reasonable time this evening.  So I made some plan adjustments.  The new plan is: one 5 gallon batch of something experimental (I'm trying a Black IPA or CDA or whatever you want to call it), that I will source primarily with extract.  Then one 10 gallon batch of a standard (we're doing the American Brown).  Then, for my last trick (after clearing a carboy by bottling), I will be attempting 5 gallons of hard cider (another test, using some tips from this site).

After all that, I'll have 5 gallons bottle conditioning and 20 gallons fermenting.  62.5% of my carrying capacity of 40 gallons.  Much much better.  One more 20 gallon (double 10g batch?) psycho-brewday in a month or two and I'd be loaded up for the rest of the year, most likely.

I'll be live tweeting my exciting day, along with posting updates and recipes here on the blog,  Hope you enjoy it.  Oh, and such a carefully constructed day requires carefully constructed timing.  So I have a strict down-to 15 minutes schedule.  Here it is:

Time	General	10G Brown Ale	5G Black IPA	Cider	Red Bottling
7:00 AM	WAKE UP
7:15 AM	WAKE UP
7:30 AM	Donuts & Water
7:45 AM	Donuts & Water
8:00 AM	Load Propane,Take Dogs
8:15 AM	Get Propane
8:30 AM		Measure Chemicals
8:45 AM				Buy Apple Juice?
9:00 AM	Get Equipment Out
9:15 AM	Prep/Clean
9:30 AM	Drive to HBHQ
9:45 AM	Drive to HBHQ
10:00 AM	HBHQ
10:15 AM	HBHQ
10:30 AM	HBHQ
10:45 AM	HBHQ
11:00 AM	Drive Home
11:15 AM	Drive Home
11:30 AM			Boil 8 G/Steep Grains
11:45 AM		Boil 6.25 G Water for Mash In	Boil 8 G/Steep Grains
12:00 PM	Eat	Boil 6.25 G Water for Mash In	Boil 8 G/Steep Grains
12:15 PM		Boil 6.25 G Water for Mash In	Boil
12:30 PM		Boil 6.25 G Water for Mash In	Boil
12:45 PM		Boil 10.5 G for Mash Out	Boil
1:00 PM		Mash	Boil
1:15 PM		Mash	Transfer to Carboy
1:30 PM		Mash	Transfer to Carboy
1:45 PM		Mash	Transfer to Carboy
2:00 PM		Sparge	Transfer to Carboy
2:15 PM		Sparge	Pitch Yeast
2:30 PM		Sparge
2:45 PM		Sparge
3:00 PM		Heat to Boil			Sanitize Bottles
3:15 PM		Heat to Boil			Sanitize Bottles
3:30 PM		Heat to Boil			Sanitize Bottles
3:45 PM		Heat to Boil			Transfer to Bottling Bucket
4:00 PM		Boil			Transfer to Bottling Bucket
4:15 PM		Boil			Bottle
4:30 PM		Boil			Bottle
4:45 PM		Boil			Clean Carboy
5:00 PM		Transfer to Carboys		Fill & Pitch
5:15 PM		Transfer to Carboys
5:30 PM		Transfer to Carboys
5:45 PM		Transfer to Carboys
6:00 PM
6:15 PM
6:30 PM
6:45 PM
7:00 PM
7:15 PM
7:30 PM
7:45 PM
8:00 PM		CLEAN
8:15 PM		CLEAN
8:30 PM		CLEAN
8:45 PM
9:00 PM

Competition update

Well, poor planning on my part has already caused me to drop some of the ball on competition this year.  I intended to have a nice chunk of entries for the Bluebonnet, and I ended up with only three (and one was a cross-category entry, so it probably won't fare too well there).

Then I missed the deadline for the Club Only Competition on Stouts, despite having about a case and a half of Shadow's Shadow Stout in my closet.  Argh.

Next up for me is the Celtic Brewoff - where I should have a Stout, Mead, Scottish, and Irish Red Ale to enter. Hopefully I can make the deadline - it's not until April.  Then the Scottish and Irish can double duty over to the May Club Only Competition with Scottish/Irish Ales.

Onward!

Brewing today - Irish Red

Here's the recipe and I'm tweeting this...


Batch TEST - Shillelagh Whack Irish Red (10G)
Recipe Specifications
Brew Date: 1/31/2012
Recipe Batch Size: 11.00 gal
Recipe Boil Size: 13.50 gal
Estimated Pre-boil OG: 1.043
Estimated OG: 1.050 SG
Estimated Color: 15.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 22.6 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Actual OG: 1.043 SG
Actual FG: 1.010 SG
Actual ABV: 4.29 %


Ingredients
Water Additions
Prepare 16.90 gal Water for Brewing Amount Item Type
0.88 gm Calcium Chloride (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
1.54 gm Epsom Salt (MgSO4) (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
4.62 gm Baking Soda (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
4.62 gm Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
7.04 gm Salt (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
11.66 gm Chalk (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
11.00 gal Dublin, Ireland - Modified for Irish Red Water


Grain Bill
Ingredients for Mashing Amount Item Type % or IBU
18.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (Paul's) (3.0 SRM) Grain 68.57 %
4.00 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (Briess) (2.0 SRM) Grain 15.24 %
2.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (Briess) (10.0 SRM) Grain 9.52 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt British - 35L (Hugh Baird Carastan) (35.0 SRM) Grain 3.81 %
0.75 lb Roasted Barley (Paul's) (300.0 SRM) Grain 2.86 %


Hop Schedule/Boil Additions
Boil Ingredients Boil Amount Item Type
60 min 3.00 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] (60 min) Hops
15 min 2.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
0 min 1.00 items Hop Sock (Boil 0.0 min) Misc




Yeast/Other
Ingredients for Fermentation Amount Item Type % or IBU
2 Pkgs Irish Ale (Wyeast Labs #1084) Yeast-Ale


Mash
Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, No Mash Out, Brown Ale 10G Thick Mash
Total Grain Weight: 26.25 lb
Single Infusion, Medium Body, No Mash Out, Brown Ale 10G Thick Mash Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Mash In Add 26.25 qt of water at 174.2 F 155.0 F



Notes



Generated with a custom BeerSmith template created by Cameron Mathews

What's Up!

Well, not much, I guess.  It's been a while since I posted, mostly because my last round was a double-brew madness experiment that left me with about 5 gallons of strong Scotch Ale, and 8 gallons or so of Stout.

Now I'm headed out to get some ingredients this afternoon, and we'll go to brew an Irish Red this Tuesday.

As usually is the case, I will try to send lovely updates via Twitter throughout the brew along with pictures occasionally thrown in.  If you want to brew along with me, you need about 16 gallons of water, a good 10 gallon brew system, and the following:

18 lb Pale Malt (2 row)
4 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine Malt
2.5 lb Crystal 10L
1 lb Crystal 35L (or 40 if you can't find 35)
0.75 lb Roasted Barley

3 oz Fuggles at 4.5%AA

2 packs of Wyeast Irish Ale #1084

And a pile of water adjusting ingredients if you build water like I do (baking soda, epsom salt, salt, gypsum, chalk, etc.)

See you Tuesday!