BrewLog:Squatch
From Brewwiki
Well, I have some catching up to do. I will 'splain. No, there is too much. I will sum up.
12/1/05 - Brewer's Best Brown Ale
All of the homebrew pieces are in place. Tonight I will brew my first beer. I started with an easy one. I selected a Brewer's Best Brown Ale kit that I picked up at the LQR in Lexington. The instructions were straight-forward and the concept was fairly simple. I started around 8:45pm and finished around 11:30pm. There were only a few setbacks.
1) The cheapo digital thermometer crapped out on me after the steeping process. So in order to determine when the wort reached 80 degrees, I had to guesstimate with a quickly sanitized meat thermometer.
2) Electric cooktops are ball-breakers. I thought the 2.5 gallons would NEVER boil.
3) I put ice directly into the fermenter which Alton Brown recommends in his show Amber Grains. After some reading, I found that this is generally regarded as a bad idea (tm)
Noticable fermentation started after 20 hours (bubbling airlock). I just used a primary fermenter on my first brew. It stayed in primary for two weeks. I bottled the brown on 12/15/05. After placing the beer in the bathtub so as to catch any beer from the dreaded exploding bottles, it occurred to me that "Bathtub Brown" might be a good name.
01/07/06 was when I tasted for the first time. It turned out really well. It is very drinkable with no crazy aftertastes or any funky flavors. Just a mild brown ale. The surprising thing was that Kristie, my mom and dad all liked it. The beer was fairly clear but after chilling it did turn a little hazy. This did not affect the flavor in any way.
12/13/05 - AHS Double IPA
My second homebrew had long been selected from Austin Homebrew Supply. They have these great recipe kits and shipping is free for orders of $60 or more. Anyway, I chose the Double IPA. I like IPAs so therefore, I must love a 9% IPA right? We will see.
Anyway, this brew session went very well. I took extra time to make sure I had all of the hops straight because I had 9 packages of to deal with. Each was added at a different times during the boil and one package was even added when you racked to secondary. I did some things differently this time around.
1) Well, I did not get another thermometer yet so my meat thermometer had to get me through again.
2) Electric cooktops are still ball-breakers.
3) I did not put the ice directly into fermenter. I did drop the cook pot into a sinkful of icy salt water. It cooled the wort to 80 degrees in 22 minutes. Not bad.
4) I did NOT strain out any of the hops when I dumped the wort into the fermenter. I did this because I would be racking to secondary in a week. Plus the directions that came with the kit did not say to strain as I poured.
5) I used Wyeast American Ale 1056 yeast instead of dry yeast. I was expecting the visible fermentation to start quickly but it was still about 24 hours before I could see any sign.
My primary was 8 gallon bucket and with all of the sugar from the malt to make it 9% it must have been one heck of a crazy ferment. After about 2 days, the airlock had been breached by foam. I now see why you are instructed to sanitize the airlock and put bottled water in it. I took off the airlock, cleaned it, sanitized it and put more water in it.
12/13/05 - After a week, I racked to secondary. Most of the hop remnants had sunk to the bottom only with dead yeast and foam. There was still a little bit of foam on floating on the top. After racking, I dumped in the last of the hops.
01/10/06 - Four weeks in secondary. One week longer than the recipe called but I was in Colorado when I was supposed to bottle. The hops that I dumped in were still floating at the top so next time I will definately use a hops bag. Bottling went well and Kristie helped which was nice. This IPA has to condition for 6 weeks (I guess to simulate the boat ride that IPA traditionally made from Great Britain to India.) I hope it turns out well since I will have almost 2.5 months into making this one. They should be ready on 2/15/06.
2/11/06 - I just couldn't wait until the 15th. Popped one open tonight and even at room temperature, it was awesome. Very hoppy, good head, bitter, and packs quite a punch. Tastes like an IPA should. I am very pleased. I think it will taste even better at the proper temperature. I will say that this one will not be as popular with some people. You definately have to like hops and beer that is more bitter than average. That's fine! More for me!
1/16/2006 - AHS Red Ale
Ooof. The brew schedule was moved up a bit. I started tonight around 9:30pm on the Austin Home Brew American Red Ale. It was an extremely smooth brew session. I even watched Alton Brown's Amber Waves episode a couple of times while the boiling was going on. This being the third time in a little over a month that I brewed, it is becoming easier. I can really see why people move on to all grain and making their own recipes. I'm not saying that it was not fun or that I am ready to move on or anything, but it was slightly easier.
1) I did use a better handheld digital thermometer. It worked well and didn't konk out on me.
2) I am getting used to the electric burners on the cooktop. I still don't like them, but I realize that they do a pretty good job.
This will give you an idea about how brew has already become "less exciting". On the first two beers, I would check the fermenter every 30 minutes or so while I was awake to see if it was bubbling. This time, after putting the fermenter in the closet around 12:15am, I didn't even think to check it until about 6pm, almost 18 hours later! It was gurgling away happily but I do not know exactly how long it took to get to that point. Oh well. Even if the process is becoming less exciting, the outcome is still awesome.
I allowed the Red Ale to ferment for two weeks and four days. I bottled on 2/3/06. They should be ready to enjoy on 2/24/06.
This one turned out great. I will be making it again in the future. I really like this one when it is hot outside. It turned out to be a very refreshing brew.
2/7/2006 - Paul's "Pilsner" Ale
Tonight I brewed a Pilsner type ale. I found the recipe on Paul's Homebrew page I know it seems like a weak or wussy move to make a "light colored" beer, but I have noble intentions. I plan on using this beer to show my "non-real-beer drinking friends" (i.e. they like Bud) how a real "light" beer can taste. The recipe was easy. I started at 8pm and finished at 10:20pm. I was a little nervous about the yeast. The Wyeast bag did not "puff up" at all. I hope the yeast was not dead. We will see in 2 days.
The concern about the yeast was completely unfounded. After about 24 hours, it was bubbling away merrily. I love the smell of fermenting beer.
I let the beer sit in the fermemter for two weeks. I am not the kind of person to take gravity readings. Just seems like you are asking for trouble if you don't sanitize properly. Anyway, I popped open the top of the fermenter and there was still some bubbles one the top. <shrug> I bottled anyway. I hope it doesn't come back to haunt me in the form of busted bottles. It should be ready after March 14th, 2006.
This brew is definately my least favorite so far. It is a little too sweet. Don't get me wrong, I will still drink it and it will serve it's purpose, but even the Brewer's Best Brown kit that I made was much better tasting than this one.
2/27/2006 - FREE FRIDGE!
I was talking with someone at work today and they said they have been putting off a run to the dump. I inquired what they were hauling away and he said two refrigerators. One that doesn't work AND ONE THAT DOES. I told him I would take the one that works off of his hands and he was glad. Huh. I've never wanted to throw away anything that works. Especially a refrigerator. I ordered a temperature controller and a TWO lager kits. Lagers will definately be in my future now that I have a place to keep them cool!
3/27/2006 - XX Amber Lager
The planets finally aligned and I was able to brew my first lager. It took forever for the temperature controller to ship, the fridge smelled like fish and then I went on vacation. But the controller finally arrived after an couple of emails to the supplier, scrubbing with bleach and leaving a whole box of baking soda in the fridge for two weeks took care of the smell and I just got back from vacation two days ago. TIME TO BREW!
The brewing went well without any hitches. Steep grain, add malt extract, add hops, boil, chill, add yeast, put in bucket, rinse and repeat. Since this is a lager, the fermenting procedure will be a little different. Here is the rundown:
- It has to stay at room temp. until the fermentation starts.
- Then cool to 50º and keep it there for 10 days.
- Then warm to 60º for two days.
- Then rack to secondary.
- Then store at 40º for 4 weeks.
- Then bottle and store for 4 more weeks.
Ah, lagers, I hope it's worth it. I think it will be. I keep you posted. When I rack to secondary, I will brew another lager, a Munchën Dunkel, and dump it on top of the yeast from the XX. I'll also let you know how that goes.
- 3/29/2006 - I moved the fermenter to the fridge. I set the temperature to 55º.
- 3/30/2006 - I lowered the temperature to 50º.
- 4/8/2006 - Racked to secondary. Put in a 40º fridge.
- 5/8/2006 - Bottled
4/8/2006 - Munchën Dunkel
This one is very near and dear to my heart. The end of my sophomore year in college, I had the opportunity to travel to Germany for a three weeks. Brian and I fell in love with the Dunkel. We had not had ANY beer before that trip. You could say we cut our teeth on Dunkel.
"EIN DUNKEL!"
That wonderful phrase rang out several (dozen) times throughout the week. Especially at Greece. With all of these great memories, I am taking this brew very seriously.
One thing that I did to ensure a proper fermentaion, I used the yeast cake left from the XX Amber. After racking the XX to secondary, there was a good two to three inches of yeast in the bottom of the fermenter. After cooling the wort to 80º, I dumped it straight into the XX fermenter. That was at 6:15pm. I checked it at 8:00pm and the airlock was blurping about three times a second. Talk about fast! No chance of a bacterial infection at all. So with that I will cross my fingers and hope it lives up to the memories from Germany.
I put the fermenter in a 50º fridge that night.
- 4/19/2006 - Raise temperature to 60º
- 4/21/2006 - Rack to secondary, store at 40º
- 5/19/2006 - Bottle
- 6/15/2006 - Drink!
5/14/2006 - Anchor Steam Beer Clone
Okay. Now that I feel fairly comfortable with my beer making procedure, how about I change just about everything? Sounds like a great idea.
First, I used White Labs Yeast. I have read that yeast starters are a good idea. Some people say that they are unnecessary. <shrug> I'll make one and see for myself.
So, the concept is pretty simple: you need to make a simple wort, add the yeast, put on an airlock, and let the yeast eat and multiply so that when you pitch on brew day, you have a larger yeast colony. It is never as easy as you think (at least for me). First, I took my eye off the DME/water mixture and had a boil over. Crap. Looks like I have to clean the cook top now. Then, I didn't cool the boiled wort and when I poured it into my 1 gallon glass jug, it cracked. Crap. Now I have to get another. Luckily, I have several jugs. That's another story why I have so many small jugs. Maybe I'll tell that story one day. Anyway, I cooled the wort, and put it in the 1/2 gallon jug, now all I have to do is add the yeast. So I shake up the vial and crack the top and found out that Alton was right, these things can really fizz. Lost half of the yeast on the counter top. Now I have to clean the counter. Pour in the yeast (or what's left of it) and then shake the jug for about a minute to get some air in there. The airlock was bubbling in about 3 hours.
Next on the new list was using a 2.5 gallon cooler to mash the grains from my brew kit. I know it's overkill but I wanted to see if all grain might be something I'd want to do in the future. Below, you will se some pictures. I used a stainless steel braided water hose for the "strainer". I simply pushed the rubber hose out of the center of the hose and used the braided part. It worked extremely well. I put the grain in, put some 165 degree water, put on the top and left it for an hour. I drained off the sweet wort and then poured some 170 degree water in the cooler, stirred and then drained off more wort. I ended up with about 3 gallons and made the beer like I normally do.
Finally, I used a copper wort chiller that I made. It worked very well. I cooled about 2.5 gallons to 80 degrees in about 13 minutes with just tap water. So we will see if the beer is drinkable.
I pitched my 1/2 gallon starter and vigorously swirled the carboy for about a minute to get some oxygen action going on. That was something that I had never done before either. I noticed the first bubbles from the airlock after about 1.5 hours. They were only about once every 30 seconds but it was definately going. Here are some pictures.
I have been a little less than pleased with the hops in this beer. It is very in-your-face and not at all like the Anchor Steam beer I have had in the past. It is still an okay beer but it is not tasting like I would expect.
5/19/2006 - AHS Mexican Lager
It's a little bit late to be brewing a summer lager. It won't be ready until early August. I guess, it's still hot in August and September. It's custom beer. It can't be bad. I'd drink a Mexican lager in January if I made it. Heh. You can't go wrong with your own homebrew. I was a little disappointed with the appearance. I looked like it was going to be a brown ale when the boiling was done. Again, it'll taste great but just be a little darker. My disappointment was unfounded. When I bottled this beer, it had cleared and lightened considerably. Lagers are great to brew in the summer if you have lager fridge. It's generally too warm here in Kentucky to ferment ales at room temp (unless you keep your thermostat at 70) Lagers and fun and taste great. If you have the means, make one yourself.
I am just not a patient person sometimes. After 1.5 weeks in the bottles, I had a trip coming up where the light colored Mexican lager would be a big hit. I decided to open one and try it out. It tasted great! Very light and chuggable with mild hops flavor. It was better than Corona in my opinion. It was a hit at the wine bottling in North Carolina. People were hot and sweaty and the beer had been on ice for 6 hours. Very refreshing.
5/20/2006 - Sam Adams Black Lager Clone
Two brews in two days. What fun. It really was. The only thing about this brew session is that halfway through we found out that Kristie was pregnant. Wow. What's cool is that I will always remember the Black Lager brew session for this reason. I'll also remember it because I totally SCREWED UP the mashing procedure. Instead of mashing for 15 minutes, I mashed for over an hour. Boy, when they say BLACK lager, they mean it. Especially when you mash for 5 times longer than you should. But, remembering that I should just relax, don't worry, and have a homebrew, I pressed on. It may not turn out too bitter. At bottling time, I tasted the flat beer and it tasted surprisingly great. I'm now excited about the outcome.
This beer exceeded my expectations. It had a very pronounced malt flavor that was not harsh like I thought. I think the fact that is was a lager helped matters. Several people have tried it and said that they were fairly surprised with this one.
7/04/2006 - American Brown Ale
I bottled today and cleared two spots in the fridge. Now I plan on setting the thermostat at 68 or so and doing a couple of ales. I have brewed this brown ale recipe TWICE but never for myself. Now, it's about time.
I did a couple of thing differently. About an month ago, I purchased a turkey frying kit for $34 at Rural King. This does two things. First, I can brew outside and second, it keeps the wifely comments of the "stench" to a minimum ;) I mashed in the house and then moved outside for the boil. It started to rain right before I moved outside so I had to open the garage door and brew in the garage. I draped my nylon grain bag over the boiling pot to keep the trash and bugs at bay and that seemed to work well. I hate to say it but brewing has become something I can do while doing 5 other things. I was cleaning the house, cooking dinner, playing with Camden, etc. Just set the timer and come running when it starts beeping. Very fun.
This one was disappointing in one respect. The fact that I have had to pour most of it down the drain. I used some old flip top bottles that my uncle gave me. I did not replace the rubber gaskets like I should have. Over half of the bottles have ended up being flat. It's just heartbreaking to dump them down the drain. I have purchased new gaskets from Austin Homebrew and they will be replacing the old ones before I try to bottle with them again. AAARRRGGGH!
7/7/06 - Pumpkin Ale
Now we're getting into something completely different. This recipe called for 7 pounds of pumpkin. I spread it out on three cookie sheets and baked the mushed up pumpkin for an hour at 350. I mashed the grain in the small cooler I have and then sparged with a couple more gallons. I moved outside and put the carmelized pumpkin in the pot with the wort and boiled away. The recipe called for a 90 minute boil with three spice additions. The pumpkin in the boil made for an interesting time. I would turn up the heat and it would almost boil over, then I would turn it down and it would not boil enough. It was a good thing that I could give this brew session all of my attention. It demanded it.
I gave nug my last copper chiller and I made me another one but I haven't cleaned it yet. I had to use ice to chill the wort. Straining was a pain too because of the pumpkin sludge in the bottom of the brew pot. It smelled great and should be ready by the end of October.
EDIT #1
TOTAL DISASTER. STAY AWAY. DO NOT DRINK. BLEH!
8/19/2006 - Fat Tire Clone
Well, I finally gave in. Every brewer it seems makes a Fat Tire clone at some time their brewing career. I do like Fat Tire. It is very good beer and I like to drink it when I go snowboarding. I reminds me of being in Colorado which brings back happy memories.
The brewing session went well. I brewed outside on the turkey fryer. I will say, that a pot with a larger diameter may be in my future. The hot break is difficult to manage. Even though it is a seven gallon pot, it wants to boil over even with only 3 gallons. It never happened but it came close.
I didn't worry about straining out the hops when I put it into the primary. I was going to transfer the beer to secondary after a week anyway.
EDIT #1
Well, Fat Tire, this ain't.
For the brewer out there, never take advice that says, "Reduce the amount of priming sugar or DME you use to simulate Fat Tire's lower carbonation level." What you get is a beer that ALMOST tastes flat. Plus, looking at the grain bill, you will see that this one turned out WAY TO DARK. We are talking Guiness dark here folks. The hops were too weak too. So with the almost flat state, this one was way too sweet.
From now on, I promise to say with recipes that were tested by someone I know or at least came from Austin Homebrew in a kit.
8/20/2006 - AHS Blond Ale
This brew is the first one that I actually used my very own chiller to cool the wort. I have made three so far and the last one is mine has has over 50 ft of copper in it. I was lazy about purchasing the plumbing so I could hook it up to the garden hose. I was pleased with the results. It cooled to 85 degrees in about 13 minutes. Can't beat that. I'm still only boiling about 3 gallons but I think this chiller is long enough to use if I ever make the jump to all grain.
Oh yeah, the brew session went very well, no real surprises.
EDIT #1
Well, this one was WAY too bitter. I don't know what the deal was. This beer makes three semi-flop in a row. Plus this recipe came from AHS. I did find that if you mix the Fat Tire flop (way to sweet and dark) with the Blonde Ale flop (way to hoppy and bitter) you get a beer that you can drink and ALMOST enjoy. But like the drink synthesiser on the Heart of Gold, the produce is not quite like beer.
4/4/2007 - AHS Czech Pilsner AND Munchën Dunkel
Yeah, that's right, two beers in one night. Who's da MAN! Erm, yeah. With the long hiatus over, I decided to jump in with my balls on fire. Actually, the only reason I did two in one night is because they are both lagers and my lager fridge has space in there for two buckets. And if I am going to have to monitor temperature and futz around with it so much, I might as well do two at once.
Two days before brewing, I pulled the 4 month old yeast out of the fridge and made two starters. This starter was just to make sure the yeast was still alive. After a day, I saw the yeast poop collecting and the airlock bubbling so I knew I was good to go with the monster brew session.
Since I haven't brewed in a while and had moved in the meantime, all of my brew equipment was filthy. I had to scrub and resanitze everything. I didn't mess with my immersion chiller. It may be a lost cause. So much tarnish and whatnot. I went with ice to chill the wort. Doing two brews in one night is not that bad actually. While the first batch is boiling, you can have the grains for the second batch soaking. I started around 8:30pm and finished around 1:00am.
Thursday evening, both primaries were bubbling away so I put them in the 55 degree lager fridge. Here's the time-line:
4/4/2007 - Brew session. Keep at room temp until fermentation begins.
4/5/2007 - Fermentation begins. Put in a 55 degree fridge for 10 days.
4/16/2007 - Raise temp of fridge to 60 degrees for two days.
4/18/2007 - Rack to secondary. Store at 40 degrees for 4 weeks.
5/16/2007 - Bottle. Age for 4 weeks.
6/6/2007 - Should be ready in time for my birthday!
I will definately have to make some ales in the meantime. Brown ale anyone?
EDIT #1
Bottling is complete. I was lazy and did not rack either of these to secondary. I just changed the temperatures at the proper times and left them in the same bucket. They both tasted extremely nice even if they were flat. Both had nice, crisp lager flavors and were surprisingly refeshing, even the dark Dunkel. Lagers really never display a lot of airlock action like ales do. So, a lot of times, you wonder, "Is this thing even fermenting?" The answer is 'YES.' The bottom of both buckets had a good 3" is "yeastly poopings" in it. Good show chaps.
I was very surpised at how "light" in color the Pilsner was. In my limited experience, even when a homebrewer tries to brew a lighter colored brew, the malt to carmelize to some degree during the hour long boil. This does not really change the flavor but it does darken the color a lot. The Czech was much lighter than I had expected. It was a nice surprise. I will attach some pictures soon so you can see.
Now, I just have to wait 4 full weeks to open one. I guess you have to wait so long since lager yeast are just slower. Patience...
