Mead Bottling...

Bottled up the Doh Ray Mead today... using the corker is interesting - I'm now curious how the hand corkers work, though I hear they are difficult to use. I rented a stand corker to do the dirty work today, and it was pretty easy - especially for the $10 or so it will cost me to rent.

Batch 24 - Shillelagh Whack Irish Red

Got an Irish Red brewed last weekend with a little help from some friends....

Also thanks, Dave, for the new burner that results in substantially less black dust to clean from the bottom of the brew kettle after the boil. Yay for laziness in cleaning!

Recipe Specifications
Brew Date: 1/23/2010
Recipe Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Recipe Boil Size: 7.00 gal
Estimated Pre-boil OG: 1.043
Estimated OG: 1.053 SG
Estimated Color: 13.1 SRM
Estimated IBU: 22.5 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 58.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

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


Ingredients
Water Additions
Prepare 8.66 gal Water for Brewing Amount Item Type
0.44 gm Calcium Chloride (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
0.77 gm Epsom Salt (MgSO4) (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
2.31 gm Baking Soda (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
2.31 gm Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
3.52 gm Salt (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
5.83 gm Chalk (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
5.50 gal Dublin, Ireland - Modified for Irish Red Water


Grain Bill
Ingredients for Mashing Amount Item Type % or IBU
8.50 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (Paul's) (3.0 SRM) Grain 72.34 %
1.50 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (Briess) (2.0 SRM) Grain 12.77 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (Briess) (10.0 SRM) Grain 8.51 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt British - 35L (Hugh Baird Carastan) (35.0 SRM) Grain 4.26 %
0.25 lb Roasted Barley (Paul's) (300.0 SRM) Grain 2.13 %


Hop Schedule/Boil Additions
Boil Ingredients Boil Amount Item Type
60 min 1.50 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] (60 min) Hops
15 min 1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 min) Misc




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


Mash
Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 11.75 lb
Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Mash In Add 14.69 qt of water at 170.1 F 154.0 F



Notes



Generated with a custom BeerSmith template created by Cameron Mathews

Batch 23 - Stupid Shamrock Irish Stout

Recipe Specifications

Brew Date: 1/10/2010
Recipe Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Recipe Boil Size: 7.00 gal
Estimated Pre-boil OG: 1.038
Estimated OG: 1.046 SG
Estimated Color: 38.8 SRM
Estimated IBU: 25.8 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 63.10 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Actual OG: 1.046 SG
Actual FG: 1.010 SG
Actual ABV: 4.69 %

Ingredients

Water Additions

Prepare 8.66 gal Water for Brewing

Amount	Item	Type
0.53 gm	Salt (Mash 60.0 min)	Misc
1.40 gm	Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 min)	Misc
3.15 gm	Calcium Chloride (Mash 60.0 min)	Misc
3.50 gm	Chalk (Mash 60.0 min)	Misc
4.90 gm	Epsom Salt (MgSO4) (Mash 60.0 min)	Misc
15.75 gm	Baking Soda (Mash 60.0 min)	Misc
8.75 gal	London, England	Water

Grain Bill

Ingredients for Mashing

Amount	Item	Type	% or IBU
9.00 lb	Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (Paul's) (3.0 SRM)	Grain	76.60 %
1.50 lb	Roasted Barley (Paul's) (300.0 SRM)	Grain	12.77 %
1.00 lb	Caramel/Crystal Malt British - 35L (Hugh Baird Carastan) (35.0 SRM)	Grain	8.51 %
0.25 lb	Black (Patent) Malt (Paul's) (500.0 SRM)	Grain	2.13 %

Hop Schedule/Boil Additions

Boil Ingredients

Boil	Amount	Item	Type
60 min	1.00 oz	Glacier [7.40 %] (60 min)	Hops

Steep Aroma Hops

Amount	Item	Type	% or IBU
1.00 oz	Goldings, US [4.90 %] (3 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep)	Hops	-

Yeast/Other

Ingredients for Fermentation

Amount	Item	Type	% or IBU
1 Pkgs	Irish Ale (Wyeast Labs #1084)	Yeast-Ale

Mash

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 11.75 lb

Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge

Step Time	Name	Description	Step Temp
60 min	Mash In	Add 14.69 qt of water at 170.1 F	154.0 F

Notes

Some new stuff going on this time - first off, this marks a return to the All-Grain brewing style, and hopefully with some better results. Additionally, I built my own water from some reverse osmosis water to match a London water profile which I also compared with a desired outcome on a couple of additional calculators. Finally, I have upgraded my sanitation procedures a bit, which is extremely nice - started using some Star San instead of bleach and already I notice a big benefit in my ability to use stuff right away without having to rinse. And, since it is made for brewing, there is little risk that it will mess with my beer at all. Going to try some different approaches to cleaning the SS kettles, too - we shall see.

Building water resulted in a good bit of crap accumulating on the mash water pot, but it should rinse off pretty easily with hot water, I would hope.

Generated with a custom BeerSmith template created by Cameron Mathews

New fun tech...

So, while I have been using this lovely website to keep track of my brewing and progress (and will continue to do so), I have begun down the ever-growing spiral of needing to know MORE about my beer, track MORE information, and perform calculations that make my Excel spreadsheet and Access database skills look weak.  That's not to say I can't do it, but I reached a point where I decided it would be cheaper and easier to buy an off-the-shelf program to handle my math for me than to expend the time and energy writing my own brewing program.  Especially with so many nice ones out there.

So, I checked out ProMash (not bad) and I checked out BeerSmith (also not bad).  Ultimately, both appear to be designed by software/math/brewing geeks and not people with usability or graphic design skills (Promash looks like "Johnny's first hello world app" and BeerSmith uses icons reminiscent of Windows 3.1) but both appear to work just fine.  Ultimately I ended up choosing BeerSmith, mostly because that is the one I played with more, and it has some cool customizable reporting features, etc.

My hopes are to get a nice custom report that spits out formatted recipe blog entries for me (as well as perhaps some notes like this one) and I'll copy/paste it to the site.  Hopefully for YOU, this provides more detail if you actually read this about what I am doing and get a better feel for duplicating recipes, and for ME it provides more info about what I am doing so I can figure out what I still want/need to change.

Only time shall tell.

In other news, I picked up The Thief, a wine thief used for swiping samples from my carboy.  Got it from Homebrew Headquarters and this particular model allows me to put my spare hydrometer inside.  That's really pretty cool.  So I am going to just sanitize it in some Star San, and then use it to take some measurements on my Doh Ray Mead that's been patiently fermenting for a while.  I can then just drain the sample into a glass and see what I think...  Need to take a few measurements to see if it is done and then get to bottling that lovely beverage.

Repeat Batch - Wee Beastye Wee Heavye

Started with more than enough water, but my boil was less vigorous than it should have been (think I need a new burner sadly).  Anyway, ended up with quite a bit - pushing the 6 gallon size and lower gravity.

OG: 1.068 (low)
FG: 1.020
ABV: 6.27 (a little low)

All grain ugh...

So I have had a problem lately with some bitter and washed out tastes in my all grain beers.  Going to take some to the NTHBA Christmas party this evening and see if I can get some assistance figuring it out (I am sure I can get assistance TRYING to figure it out, i.e. consuming it).

I think perhaps the issue is sparge water that is too hot extracting some tannins from the grains.  Didn't have the problem with the IPA or with the California Common...But the others have all shared this issue.

Switching to extract until I can get some of this figured out.

Cheers!

2010 Planning

January - Sweet Stout
January - Irish Red
February - American Brown Ale
March - Belgian Dark Strong Ale - Extract
April - Cherry Beer
May - American Barleywine
June -Imperial IPA
July - Scottish 80/-
October - Jalapeno Pale Ale
November - Holiday Beer
December - Russian Imperial Stout

Batch 13 (b) - St. Nick's Secret Spiced Ale

Time to make Christmas beer, but switching it up a little since I had 3 lbs of pale LME to use, and I wanted to move the honey to the very end.... here goes:

1 lb Briess Dextrin Carapils
1 lb Briess Crystal 60L
0.12 lb Paul's Black Patent Malt
Steep 30 min at 150 degrees.

3 lb Pale LME (60 min)
3.6 lb Amber LME (60 min)

2.0 oz. Cascade 7.5% (45 min)

1.0 tsp Irish Moss (10 min)
0.12 oz Sweet Orange Peel (10 min)

2.0 tsp Cinnamon (powdered) (10 min)
1.5 tsp Cloves (ground) (10 min)
0.25 tsp Ginger (powdered) (10 min)
0.25 tsp Allspice (powdered) (10 min)
3.0 tsp Vanilla Extract (10 min)

Remove from heat to stir in honey. Bring to boil and add Hallertauer.
1.5 lb Wildflower Honey (5 min)
1.0 oz. German Hallertauer 3.5% (5 min)

London Ale Yeast (Wyeast SmackPack #1028)

OG: 1.070 est.
FG: 1.018
ABV: 6.825% est.

Repeat Batch - Texas Firewater Jalapeno Pale

Since this was so popular, I decided to crank out another batch on November 1 for a little fire in mid December.

OG: 1.040
FG:
ABV:

Batch 7 (b): III Tripel

Mash:
14 lb. Belgian Pilsner
0.25 lb. Belgian aromatic
0.5 lb. Dextrine malt (Cara-Pils)
155 degrees for 1 hour


Boil:
2 lb. Belgian candi sugar
1 tsp Irish Moss (10 min)
4 oz Malto Dextrine

Hops:
1 oz. Amarillo (8.6% AA, 60 min.)
0.5 oz. Styrian Goldings (1.9% AA, 10 min.)

Pitch With:
2 packs Wyeast 3787 Trappist

OG: 1.072
FG: 1.008
ABV: 8.4%