If you fill at Air gas don't swap the aluminum tank out for steel. Just ask if you can check it, have them fill it, and pick it up later. I swapped one of mine out for steel thinking I could get an aluminum one back later. On the next visit they say they never have the aluminum ones for swapping. Got hosed.
Homebrew Board - Recipes
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Last: 3 mo ago by Chipotlemonger
Sweet! I'm so much happier with kegging than with bottling. I have no doubts that you will be as well.
well i finally brewed up that batch from like 6 pages ago (page 17) with my new larger batch setup.
the larger volume went pretty smooth considering a new setup. heated water (8.25 gallons) to 160 strike temp and poured in grain, which only dropped the water temp 1 degree so i had to add some ice to get down to the target 153. the kettle wrapped in a blanket worked great and i only lost 2 degrees over the entire hour long mash. my biggest mistakes on this batch were in getting in a hurry since it was late at night and i just measured wort depth at the different stages and waited to calculate volumes until today. well, i was about 3 quarts shy of my target volume going into the boil so i guess next time i will sparge a little bit and i underestimate my boil off rate by another almost 3 quarts which explains why i ended up being short on my target into fermenter volume. and ended up with only ~4.8 gallons into the fermentor as opposed to my target 5.5. gravities were good though with 1.044 into the boil and 1.055 OG. now i just need to get a wort chiller though because 5 gallons takes a long time to cool just putting it in an ice bath. especially when you run out of ice... now lets just hope that newly built fermentation chamber works out. started it going last night around 11 and it was holding steady between 64.4 and 66.2 F when i checked it this morning so hopefully it hold through the day as well.
the new setup:
the larger volume went pretty smooth considering a new setup. heated water (8.25 gallons) to 160 strike temp and poured in grain, which only dropped the water temp 1 degree so i had to add some ice to get down to the target 153. the kettle wrapped in a blanket worked great and i only lost 2 degrees over the entire hour long mash. my biggest mistakes on this batch were in getting in a hurry since it was late at night and i just measured wort depth at the different stages and waited to calculate volumes until today. well, i was about 3 quarts shy of my target volume going into the boil so i guess next time i will sparge a little bit and i underestimate my boil off rate by another almost 3 quarts which explains why i ended up being short on my target into fermenter volume. and ended up with only ~4.8 gallons into the fermentor as opposed to my target 5.5. gravities were good though with 1.044 into the boil and 1.055 OG. now i just need to get a wort chiller though because 5 gallons takes a long time to cool just putting it in an ice bath. especially when you run out of ice... now lets just hope that newly built fermentation chamber works out. started it going last night around 11 and it was holding steady between 64.4 and 66.2 F when i checked it this morning so hopefully it hold through the day as well.
the new setup:
Nice little share last night at our home brew club meeting here in Houston. If anyone is looking for a central Houston home brew club, we're just getting off the ground with a core membership of peeps in the Heights/Garden Oaks/Oak Forest etc. Home base is the new Farmboy Brew Shop up on Shepherd @ 34th. Great group, PM me or email brewersofthehood@gmail if you're interested.
Several great home brews last night also! Our French Saison turned out awesome.
Several great home brews last night also! Our French Saison turned out awesome.
Us And Them - The Pink Floyd Experience
http://www.usandthemband.net
http://www.usandthemband.net
I updated my blog with a recap of our trip to Portland and Seattle a few weeks ago. Word and pic heavy.
New Main Brewing
New Main Brewing
Very cool! I need to do one for my NorCal trip, which included Russian River, Lagunitas, and Bear Republic.
My brewing is on hold for the time being, unfortunately. I have been diagnosed with a condition where my body absorbs too much iron, and it affects the liver first, so my beer intake has been cut back to almost zero. No sense in brewing if I can't drink it. The treatment to get my iron levels back down to the bottom end of the normal range is to take blood once every three weeks (seriously, who would have though that blood letting was still used???). That will happen for the next 4 months or so, then we'll see where we are. I'm hoping that I can go back to moderate beer consumption at that point.
In the mean time, I will live vicariously through posts like yours!
My brewing is on hold for the time being, unfortunately. I have been diagnosed with a condition where my body absorbs too much iron, and it affects the liver first, so my beer intake has been cut back to almost zero. No sense in brewing if I can't drink it. The treatment to get my iron levels back down to the bottom end of the normal range is to take blood once every three weeks (seriously, who would have though that blood letting was still used???). That will happen for the next 4 months or so, then we'll see where we are. I'm hoping that I can go back to moderate beer consumption at that point.
In the mean time, I will live vicariously through posts like yours!
Sorry to hear it Kyle. T&P bud.
Thanks. They caught it pretty early, so it's really not a big deal, other than the cutting way back on alcohol thing. That, and cutting back on red meat, since it's iron rich. That really sucks.
Good to know you already have a plan. Maybe little sips and bites here and there?
Yeah, maybe. We'll see how the treatment goes and where I'm at after.
Back to the homebrewing topic....anyone DFW folks entering DEBC's Labor of Love contest this year?
http://www.lolhomebrew.com/
It's Sunday, September 6th. I might go ahead and enter with my Citra/Mosaic IPA, since it turned out awesome the first time.
Back to the homebrewing topic....anyone DFW folks entering DEBC's Labor of Love contest this year?
http://www.lolhomebrew.com/
It's Sunday, September 6th. I might go ahead and enter with my Citra/Mosaic IPA, since it turned out awesome the first time.
Attending a Brew and BBQ at a buddy's house on Saturday. I'm in charge of cooking a prime brisket and about 20 lbs of pork. My buddy is going to brew about 30 gallons of beer for many of us to take home in fermenters...scotch ale, saison and an IPA are on the board. Can't. Freaking. Wait.
Badass
Ok, so I went ahead and entered Labor of Love. I signed up to enter two beers, but now that I actually get more info, I don't think I can have two beers ready by the entry deadline, which is August 17th. I can't brew until next weekend, which will be enough time, but then I'm gone for my National Guard AT from July 30-Aug 16. That's enough time to brew, ferment, and carbonate one beer, and have the second fermented, but not carbonated.
We are totally in for Labor of Love. It looks like they changed it up and it's now a BJCP event. Last year they allowed 5 entries and had somewhat made-up catch-all categories. I'll be entering my RIS that has been conditioning for the past 3 months and a Gose that I'm still experimenting with. They allow up to 5 brews to pour at the event, so I'll bring those 2, a chipotle spiced version of the RIS, my rosemary sage wit, and maybe something else. I don't know, 5 kegs is kind of hard to manage between me and my wife.
I entered a saison and my citra/mosaic IPA, but I have to brew both of them between now and then. I might have to use the shake the keg carbonation method on the IPA to make it work, though. I've done that once before with a DIPA, and it turned out great, so we'll see. I assume the entry is just one bottle of each? Then you can serve the rest? I'll probably take those two, along with what's left of my RIS and red Vienna lager.
Do you use a jockey box to serve cold beer out of the kegs, or something else? And how do you bottle from the keg and have it keep the carbonation for however long it sits before they're judged?
Do you use a jockey box to serve cold beer out of the kegs, or something else? And how do you bottle from the keg and have it keep the carbonation for however long it sits before they're judged?
So, got one of my questions answered. 3 bottles per entry.
I use a kind of reverse jockey box where the whole keg is in the cooler as opposed to a heat exchange coil. One of my first blog posts shows how I made it, if you want to check it out.
Last time I just filled sanitized bottles straight from the tap, but because of this my carbonation suffered and the comments on my scorecard confirmed that. Blichmann's beer gun is the ideal solution, but idk if I'll go run out and buy one just yet. I think homebrewtalk has a thread dedicated to homemade beer guns, but it's been a while since I looked it up. It's either figure that out or when it comes time to keg, rack some beer over to a small bottling bucket and prime with sugar.
Last time I just filled sanitized bottles straight from the tap, but because of this my carbonation suffered and the comments on my scorecard confirmed that. Blichmann's beer gun is the ideal solution, but idk if I'll go run out and buy one just yet. I think homebrewtalk has a thread dedicated to homemade beer guns, but it's been a while since I looked it up. It's either figure that out or when it comes time to keg, rack some beer over to a small bottling bucket and prime with sugar.
Cool, I'll check it out. I may just go the cheap trash can filled with ice and party taps route, we'll see.
Yeah, I found that thread. I may try testing with a variation on that with stuff I have at the house already, and see how a few bottles of my Vienna lager do after a couple of days.
Playing around with a brew schedule, I think I can get two beers done and in kegs by July 29th, when I leave for my 2 weeks in the dirt at Fort Bliss. then, both should be nice and carbed when I get home on the 16th, just in time to bottle a few each and submit them the next day.
Yeah, I found that thread. I may try testing with a variation on that with stuff I have at the house already, and see how a few bottles of my Vienna lager do after a couple of days.
Playing around with a brew schedule, I think I can get two beers done and in kegs by July 29th, when I leave for my 2 weeks in the dirt at Fort Bliss. then, both should be nice and carbed when I get home on the 16th, just in time to bottle a few each and submit them the next day.
For anyone following my blog (which has been dead lately, but I did make a new post today!), I updated the URL. Since there's a Texas Ale Project brewery here, I didn't want anyone to think I stole their name, I came up with a new one.
http://steelrainbeer.blogspot.com
http://steelrainbeer.blogspot.com
Brewday went well yesterday. I'm not 100% sure on my pre-boil gravity, though. I took enough for a hydrometer sample, and took just a tiny bit out to check with the refractometer. Got 1.043 when I was expecting 1.036. A buddy accidentally knocked over my sample, though, before I could take a hydrometer reading. That just seemed really high. Worked out to 98% mash efficiency if I did the math right. Original Gravity came out closer to expectations, at 1.046, and both the hydrometer and refractometer said the same thing.
Oh well, we'll see how it turns out. Here's the recipe I ended up using:
11lbs Belgian Pilsner
90min boil
1oz Cascade @60
1oz Cascade @10 (I wasn't paying attention, and this went in at 8 instead of 10)
1oz Cascade @5
Pitched Wyeast 3711 French Saison at around 66*, going to leave it there a couple of days, then let it free-rise up to the low 80s, then keg and dry hop another ounce of Cascade.
Oh well, we'll see how it turns out. Here's the recipe I ended up using:
11lbs Belgian Pilsner
90min boil
1oz Cascade @60
1oz Cascade @10 (I wasn't paying attention, and this went in at 8 instead of 10)
1oz Cascade @5
Pitched Wyeast 3711 French Saison at around 66*, going to leave it there a couple of days, then let it free-rise up to the low 80s, then keg and dry hop another ounce of Cascade.
98% would be amazing. You sure the grain was properly weighed out? Not bashing but it sounds like you may have started with more grain or extract than expected. I only say that because even the pros don't have efficiencies that high.
I don't for a minute think I actually got 98% efficiency. It's possible that I had more grain than I thought, but since my volumes were all very close, and the OG was pretty close as well (actually a little under target). That makes me think I did something wrong with the initial measurement with the refractometer. Maybe I even read it wrong. I haven't used it that much yet, so it's a possibility.
I'm not sweating it much, the beer is happily fermenting away. Next time, I'll be sure to have my sample I take for a gravity reading in a better spot, so I can compare hydrometer to refractometer.
I'm not sweating it much, the beer is happily fermenting away. Next time, I'll be sure to have my sample I take for a gravity reading in a better spot, so I can compare hydrometer to refractometer.
I've done the same thing. Who knows how it happened. The worst is when some reading is wrong, beer turns out fantastic and then you can't recreate the magic. So long as the final product is good it ain't no thing. The Joys of Homebrewing.
I've got to keg on Friday a pils that went whacky and 3 fruited berliners.
I've got to keg on Friday a pils that went whacky and 3 fruited berliners.
That WY3711 is a beast. Down to 1.010 in a week. Started it at 65F for the first 3 days, then let it free-rise to 75F. May let it rise up to around 80F starting this afternoon, then see where it is after a few more days. I need the fermentation chamber on Saturday for the IPA, so if it's not finished by then, I'll just move it into the pantry with a water bath to keep it around 75 until it's done.
Kegged 3 fruited berliners last night. All are headed to high carbonation now. Tonight I keg 10gal of pils and sat I brew 10 gal of ipa.
quote:I have a good amount of experience w/ 3711 and trust me when I say: it's not done yet.
That WY3711 is a beast. Down to 1.010 in a week. Started it at 65F for the first 3 days, then let it free-rise to 75F. May let it rise up to around 80F starting this afternoon, then see where it is after a few more days. I need the fermentation chamber on Saturday for the IPA, so if it's not finished by then, I'll just move it into the pantry with a water bath to keep it around 75 until it's done.
The bulk chunk of fermentation finishes out quickly as you noticed; however, it will continue to chew down to damn near zero over the course of a week or two. For example, here are the daily gravities for our most recent saison:
(x = days we didn't take gravity)
11.5
10
7
4.4
2.2
1.2
1.1
x
0.8
x
x
0.7
x
x
x
x
x
0.4 (FG)
So yeah by my count it took ~14 days after the 1.010 range to hit the true FG and a few days after just to confirm it was actually done. Just a warning...especially for those that bottle condition!
I'm getting 5 gallons of wort from an AHA rally a week from Sunday. Any ideas on what I should do with it?
quote:
Wort Specifications
- Pale Lacto-kettle soured wort
- Brewed with Simpsons Golden Promise & aromatic malts
- Minimal bitterness
- Boiled & oxygenated for your experimental homebrew pleasure
- Target OG: 13 P (~1.053 OG)
- pH: 3.2
Where's the rally? I love wort giveaways! It's like fast-forwarding your brew day to the easy part.
I haven't done many sours yet, but I'd toss in Roeselare and see how it does. Maybe even split it with some different fruits like cherries or raspberries.
I haven't done many sours yet, but I'd toss in Roeselare and see how it does. Maybe even split it with some different fruits like cherries or raspberries.
Rally is at Surly. Really looking forward to it.
Nice. Sunday was my first gravity reading since right after the boil. I'll probably take another one here in a bit to see where it is. I'm hoping it's pretty close to done by Saturday so I can go ahead and keg it. Either way, I'll probably just let it sit at room temp in the house for a couple of weeks before hitting it with CO2.
Will Rosalare run the risk of infecting everything? Like will I be setting myself up for a dedicated fermenter and transfer equipment?
Yeah, pretty much count on having a "sour set" of equipment with that. I did a gose a while back that I used lactic acid in (as opposed to making a lacto starter), and I've pretty much decided not to risk it. I would imagine Roeselare would ensure that it always has some population of bugs hiding in the nooks and crannies. Like I said, I'm not a sour expert or anything, so anyone else feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
Would the kettle soured wort already dictate a dedicated set of sour equipment?
Would the kettle soured wort already dictate a dedicated set of sour equipment?
Northern brewer is having a 20% off thing today. I'll just buy a bucket and a cheap siphon.
Down to 1.006 on the saison.
Got a starter boiling for my IPA that's brewing this weekend.
Jock, you going to be at the brewery on the afternoon of the 24th? We'll be in Austin that morning so I can get my DA Photo done at Camp Mabry, then we're headed to League City for my wife's family reunion for the weekend. I've talked her into making a detour through Conroe and stopping by your tap room.
Got a starter boiling for my IPA that's brewing this weekend.
Jock, you going to be at the brewery on the afternoon of the 24th? We'll be in Austin that morning so I can get my DA Photo done at Camp Mabry, then we're headed to League City for my wife's family reunion for the weekend. I've talked her into making a detour through Conroe and stopping by your tap room.
The pH is already at 3.2. You want it to be more sour? You could just finish it off with any yeast and then fruit it. If you add more bugs it's going to have to sit a long time to get more sour....thinking pedio here. If they hopped it any lacto won't do much more I'd guess. Free wort so anything can go. I wish they did stuff like that here.
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