BrewLog:Scromp
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Beer One
This one is off to a dodgy start - not following a proper recipe:
Barley and malt extract (6.6lbs) from a Brewer's Best Oktoberfest Ale kit. Got some newer dry yeast from the Liquor Barn - I am forgetting right now what it was, but it's by the same people that make the Nottingham stuff. 1oz Cascade and 3/4oz Kent Golding leaf hops, then another oz of the Kent Golding for aromatics.
( ~~ time passes ~~ )
This did indeed work out kinda dodgily. The oranges were total overkill. In retrospect, it probably just wanted one or two of the dried slices, not half the pack. Hehe. Other than the fact that it tastes utterly nasty, it turned out pretty well: good color, good head, smells great. Next time I will follow a recipe.
I dub this concoction: Cautionary Ale
Update: It seems to be mellowing a month later. Casey managed to drink a whole one. I'll let it sit for a year and see what goes down.
Update 2: May, 2006: Holy..! This thing tastes good now!.
Beer Two - 3/4/2006
Sasquatch Brown
Casey came up this weekend and we had a little brewparty. The recipe:
- 2.5lbs 2-row
- 0.5lb Crystal 60L
- 0.25lb Chocolate
- 1oz Black Patent
- 5 lbs Pale Malt extract
- 1.5 oz Cascade (bittering)
- 0.5 oz Cascade (aromatic)
- Wyeast American Ale II 1272
We wound up modifying it a little bit due to ingredient availability and some misread numbers on the part of one foutsian interlocutor, but nothing big:
3lbs 2-row, 1lb crystal, WYeast American Ale I.
I learned how to use the Liquor Barn's grain muncher. Neat.
We followed the same basic approach as last time, with Casey calling the shots. We boiled a lot longer than I did my first time, which should bring out more flavors.. Casey also let me use his nice grain net thing. Going to have to get one of those. Everything went well and the wort started bubbling the next day. It's now 2 days later and it's pretty much going constantly.
Results
After one week in the bottle, it was drinkable - still yeasty, a bit bitter. Definitely wants the full 2 or even 3 weeks. At that point, it became quite tasty indeed. Deep, dark and rich like a lighter porter, with a hint, nay, a strong implication of chocolate (which has been a big hit with chime.) I did not expect her to like something anywhere near the 'porter' section of the chart, but she loves it.
Beer Three - 4/29/2006
Blue Moon Ale Clone -
Revolution Wiit (recipe)
Brewers present: Scromp, Squatch, Nug
Homebrews consumed: NaN
5/1/2006
First noticed bubbling activity at 30s intervals 30 hours after pitching. 8 hours later it was going nuts at about 1.4hz. Plan to go to secondary as described in the recipe, I think I will use a proper carboy this time.
5/7/2006
I've been surprised by very steady fermentation all week long, it's been active for much longer than my previous batches. Casey thinks it's the honey. Let me dork it up for you:
Casey suggested I sniff the airlock vapors, which had honestly never occurred to me. Smells like a million bucks; pretty much dead on a Blue Moon. You can even smell the coriander. Going to take it to a 5 gallon carboy tonight.
4pm
- Moved to secondary
- It seemed to be pretty healthy. Smelled good, clearly a lot of activity went on, still fermenting in the secondary. The fermenter needs a good long bleaching. The color is about halfway between a Blue Moon and, uh, Sasquatch Brown. It's pretty dark for a Blue Moon clone, in other words. It is still lighter than anything else I've brewed, so hey. I'm not on a quest for a light beer or anything, I just thought that was what I was making. :)
In Other News
Casey surprised me yesterday with a homemade wort chiller!
Very awesome of him. I cleaned it last night in a vinegar/water solution, and hooked it up to a powerhead that I had in a box in the basement. That way I can just cycle the same water through it from an ice bath in the sink. I tested it out last night - the powerhead is not terribly strong, so the flow rate is not all that high, but the water comes out scalding - it is seriously moving some heat!
So, I'll get to try it out this afternoon, as I am making another batch shortly: American LagerNot
5/17/2006
Bottled. Batch produced 588oz. Will be good to crack in 3-4 weeks (June 7-14.)
Beer Four - 5/7/2006
American LagerNot :: Code name: Speedy McQuickerson Summer Ale
I'm going to log any observations this time as I go along, since I'm doing it by myself.. No one to talk to. :)
T plus 0 minutes
- Using Highbridge Springs springwater this time out. I took a swig of the Kroger "Drinking Water" that I used on the last batch and bleh! That stuff wasn't fit for human consumption. I really hope the fermentation fixes that, but we have one major exposure going there. :-) Fixed that problem this time, Highbridge is some tasty stuff.
- I paid more attention to the smack pack before smacking it this time. I could clearly identify the nutrient pack, and it does not take a big slap to pop it, I barely touched the thing. So there's that.
- I used 20L instead of 10L; they didn't have 10L.
T plus 30 minutes
- I gently warmed the smack pack with my hands, and I can actually hear the yeasties through the bag. We clearly have a working culture, even with the somewhat colder beer fridge storage.
- Steeping corn is just weird. Corn tea.
T plus 3 hours
- The chiller works pretty well. I need more ice. Before I ran out of ice, it went from boiling to 150 in about 10 minutes. It's taken another half hour to get to 95, but that's something to remember for next time. (~64F input vs 32F) I also forgot that I don't need to get the wort all the way down to 75 on its own, since I'm adding ~2.5 gallons of room temperature water to it.
- I realized just as I started the chill that I did not have a bucket lid sanitizing.. I went down to find one, and apparently I lost my other one. Woops. So, evasive maneuvers! I quickly sanitized some other stuff, brought up the Revolution and transferred it to the secondary, freeing its lid for this batch. Whew. Glad I bought that carboy! Also: how do you lose a big white bucket lid?
- It's a lot darker than I expected. Not going to be a Corona type deal. It may still be summer compatible, we shall see.
- Pitched at 5pm, 77F
T plus 48 hours
Well, folks..
It has done nothing. I was worried about the lack of bubblage, and while I've had them take a long time to start before, 40 hours was my cutoff. This morning I decided to stop by and pick up some more yeast on the way home. Got some dry Danstar and another Safyeast or whatever it's called to store as an "emergency pitch."
Popped the lid on the bucket and it had really not done much of anything. There were a few bubbles on the surface, but no krausenatoring or anything. I figured I didn't really have anything to lose at this point by putting some more yeast in, if something happens then what the hell.. It's better than just tossing the wort.
T plus 52 hours
Wow, it's bubbling. I didn't even pitch it properly, just dumped the dry straight in. So I guess whatever I heard from that Wyeast packet was not yeast. The dry went right for the throat. HMMM. This may wind up being bad anyway given the 2 full yeastless days bacteria had there to set up, but here we go. I'm certainly not going to dump it now.
T plus 55 hours
Bubbles 4 seconds apart. It's going nuts in there. Hot diggity.
T plus 66 hours
2hz now, for the curious. Further updates as warranted. I hope "Nottingham" was a good choice for the replacement. We'll see!
5/20/2006
- I am totally editing my wiki from my cell phone.
Beer Five - 6/10/2006
Sasquatch Brown: Take 2.
I'm all out of Sasquatch Brown and it was so tasty, I feel the need for another batch of it.
Everything went pretty much perfectly. I smoked a pork loin at the same time, and was totally not stressed about either of them. Also didn't have Kim's help except when we poured the wort into the carboy. Clearly getting better at this.
Today was the first time I had my sink-adapted hoses working. Much nicer for filling and rinsing, and the wort chiller did indeed operate better with high flow. Cooled from boiling to 100F in 12 minutes. I'll take it.
I used my probe thermometer this time instead of the stick, that was pretty handy. It was fun to watch the temp plummet with the chiller going.
WYeast pack worked well this time- puffed right up such that I thought it might pop. Pitched at 4pm and it was bubbling in the carboy 1 hour and 15 minutes later (not the airlock, I could just see activity.) I did buy a backup packet of dry yeast, looks like I won't need it.
First time for primary fermentation in a carboy, too. Got a 6.5gal this past Friday. I should have marked on the outside where 5 gallons was.. the grains took out a lot of water, and I wasn't sure how much to put back in. I wound up eyeballing it at an extra half gallon. We'll see. I'll mark it with a sharpie when I rack to secondary.
Used Irish Moss again. I also put in half a pound more 2-row than the recipe called for, just because what am I going to do with half a pound of 2-row? I think we did this last time too. Also used an extra half-pound of malt extract for the same reason. Uh, and an extra half ounce of aromatic hops. All of these should match the last batch, so more power to me! Everything else was by the book.
I miss the brewwiki.
t plus 17 hours
Goin' crazy. Frequent bubbles and a good inch and a half of foam, stuff flying all around. It's really fun to watch primary in a carboy. :)
7/2/2006
Bottled after 2 weeks in secondary. Everything looks good, nothing to report except that the dishwasher+sanitizer thing really failed to work out so well. Had a lot of funky residue on the bottles, so I followed up with a standard bleach soak & rinsed thoroughly with my sink-hose.
7/13/2006
WOOT. Cracked one after 1.5 weeks of bottle aging. It's only about halfway mature but it is already tasting just fine. Sassie Brown inna house.
Beer Six - 4/28/2007
Brewparty involving: nug, scromp, squatch! Chime and Ben also attended. Many homebrews died to bring us this brewlog.
Nothing much to tell, everything went smoothly according to plan. Bought all the mats at the LQR Thursday, Michael Sorg was very proactively helpful in an almost pathological way. Made some basic ingredient substitutes but nothing that would raise an eyebrow.. british this for american that, WYeast Irish Ale yeast instead of WL, etc.
The wort was -very- dark and syrupy. Looked like it had a lot of promise as a porter, I'm pretty excited. (I love a good porter.)
Primary fermentation taking place in the 6.5 carboy again..
The chiller hose had a crack, need to have a look at it. Sent the remainder of the Cautionary Ale home with squatch, who is totally out of homebrew right now due to Circumstances.
5/5/2007
Racked to secondary, 5 gallons right on the nose. The wort started bubbling last week almost instantly, it was building those bottom sandcastle things within a few hours and bubbled prodigiously from that Sunday morning through about Wednesday night. It was still pretty active this morning, even still bubbling the airlock every now and then.
It's pitch black and smells quite like a nice Porter. :)
Only.. 2.5 months now until it's ready! (yeah right)
Bottle in 2 weeks (5/19).
5/20/2007
Bottled 644oz of Hey Porter today. Used 12 of those awesome 18oz St. Peter's bottles, 26 16oz flip-caps, and 1 12oz. I only had one overflow bottle left, but it didn't worry me because I'd done the math up front. :) I managed to fill that last 12oz one all the way up, usually there is a distressing 75% fill... WASTE. Not this time.
Once again there is a giant tub full of homebrew in the basement. Supposed to bottle condition for *8 weeks* which puts us all the way out to July 20, but I'll probably crack a few next month just to see what's going on.
6/02/2007
I went ahead and cracked one at 2 weeks. C'mon, that's the canonical bottling time, I had to see what was going on. First, it's clearly not ready - it's still a bit sharp and twangy, like the carbonation hasn't really settled in yet. I think 4 weeks will be just dandy, however! It's got a good, thick, creamy head that clings to the glass and it smells just like a porter should. It is black as night in the glass, but if you hold it up to the light just right, there's the barest hint of a rich ruby red color. It tastes like a porter, too. A bit chocolatey but not too much. A little bitter but definitely not too much (I'm lookin' at you, Rogue.)
I'll admit I was slightly worried since it didn't do a whole lot in secondary.. there was evidence of some amount of activity, so I knew it wasn't dead or stuck, but I wondered if it'd really pick back up that well in the bottles. Nothing to worry about, it's done quite well for itself.
If early indications are anything to go on, this may soon be my new favorite.
Beer 7 - June 2008
Summit of the Dog American Pale Ale. Sadly I forgot to take notes on this one, but it was made during Sacksummit 8, so that's probably understandable. Turned out really well, though. We used Nug's APA recipe but with a lot of substitutions due to local availability, but the guy that runs the brew shop in Durham was really helpful with converting the recipe to match what he had in stock. (He also robbed some of his kits for us..)
