Bottled Batch 10 & 11......Full Brew Cabinet

Was almost out of brew, so I went on a tirade brewing 3 batches in about a months time. The Oatmeal Stout is turning out really well. After 2 weeks in the bottle it is smooth, well carbonated and getting better every time I try one. Sunday the 6th of Dec. I bottled the Ordinary Bitter and the Dry Irish Stout. I will post F.G.'s and some notes on both in the links to the beers, but they both are going to be great beers. The Dry Irish Stout's wort was ooh, la, la!

Batch Number 11: Dry Irish Stout - Northern Brewer

Been on a brewing kick here of late, this time brewing up a batch of Dry Irish Stout from a brew kit from Northern Brewer. This was a simple batch, with very few ingredients, just showing that it doesn't take much to brew a batch of beer.

Ingredients:

1 lbs. Simpsons Roasted Barley

6 lbs. Gold Malt Extract

1 oz. Nugget Hops @ 60 mins.

* 1 cup Brown Sugar

* Residue from this mornings Coffee in the French Press @ 15 mins.

1 Pkt. Safele S-04 Ale Yeast

* I can't leave well enough alone, so I went looking at what else I could throw into the mix.

Brew date: 11/23/09

Size: 5 gal.

O.G. 1.041 @ 80 = ~1.043

F.G.  1.016

Pretty straight forward batch of beer. Either the brown sugar or the coffee upped the specific Gravity a touch. Now it is all up to the yeast to make some beer out of sugar water.

Final Gravity to follow in a few weeks!

Notes: Wow, the wort on this beer is amazing. The coffee really comes through in the flavor. It is going to be a really dry stout and am excited for it to age a couple weeks in the bottle for carbonation. Should be good!

Home Made Wort Chiller - Cool Beer Fast

The left side goes in a water bath, the right into the wort pot.

After watching my friend Jason use his home made wort chiller, I had to have one. Jason gave me all the pro's and con's to his design, namely it works great, but he got the wrong size copper tubing. Knowing this, I went down and got the wrong size tubing as well (dumb), but since I was committed to the tubing after they cut it, I decided it would have to do. Smaller tubing will give you more surface area for heat exchange, wasting less water in the process.

This fits on the faucet.

I designed mine with two sets of coils, one for a cold water bath with ice cubes in it, the other to submerge into the wort. The need for the coil in the cold water bath isn't founded and was just an idea. I have tried it in a cold water bath and without, and not sure if there was a difference in chill times. The copper is easily twisted, and it is best to have your brew pot around to ensure that you will get it to fit. Also, use a bottle or large can to twist the copper around and if you are so lucky as to have some tubing benders, those make the work even easier.

When you are purchasing materials, make sure you know what size your faucet is. The faucet at the old house in Lawrence wouldn't have been able to use this, but our new place does.

When you use the chiller, make sure this end goes in the sink or a bucket!

How does it work you ask? Very well. I can cool a 3 gallon vat of wort in about 8 minutes, from boiling hot to about 90 degrees or so. Mixed with room temperature water, it is yeast pitchable.

Bottled Batch Number 9 Tonight - Finally Out of the Closet!

Bottled the Breakfast Stout tonight (11/22/09), got 51 - 12oz. bottles from the batch. A week or so from now and it and it will be ready to test! Couple more weeks and it should be well ready. Can't wait. The F.G. came in at 1.016 @ 60 degrees F. I didn't think it would be this high since I gave it 2 weeks to ferment. Wondering if the lactose in the recipe is responsible?

Batch Number 10: Ordinary Bitter

Brewed another batch tonight, this time a recipe from Austin Homebrew Supply. I am a huge fan of the British Bitter and this one was an easy batch to brew.

Ingredients:
1/2 lbs. Crystal 60L
1/2 lbs. 2 Row Barley
5 lbs. Extra Pale Malt Extract
2 oz. Fuggles hops (1.5 @ 60 and .5 @ 15 min.)
Irish Moss - Pinch at 10 min.

The O.G. was 1.041.
F.G. is 1.0135.

This beer is one of my favorite styles and am excited about trying it. Should be ready in a week or two..

Batch Number 9. Northern Brewer's Breakfast Stout

Brewed batch number 9 today, which was an inexpensive kit from Norther Brewer. The kit was the Breakfast Stout and was one of their cheapest kits available at $19.95. Initial brew day impressions are positive. The wort smelled great and my new home made wort chiller worked like a champ, cooling the 200 degree wort down in less than 10 minutes to a yeast-pitchable-ready 85 degrees.

Beer in the closet! I can't wait till it comes out!

Here are the kit's ingredients:

1.5 lbs. Flaked Oats
0.5 lbs. Simpson's Roasted Barley
3.5 lbs. Dark Malt Syrup
1.0 lbs. Lactose (non-fermenting sugar)
1 oz. Willamette Hops
1 pkt. Danstar Nottingham Ale Yeast
* 1+ Cup Molasses

* My addition. Really like the way it makes the beer taste and smell, especially since this is a breakfast beer.

Everything else is pretty standard, steep, boil, ferment, bottle, drink!

O.G. is 1.044

Just a note that this came out about 0.014 more than the recipe specified. I don't think that 1 cup of Molasses would add that much and I bet I didn't add enough H2O to my carboy. Darn the bad luck, guess we will see what happens. Pics. and F.G. will be posted in due time. Check back later.

Here are the results of this brew!

Batch Number 8. Really Light Pale Ale - Suggest A Name?

Cat approves of the finished product.

I made up a beer recipe that I thought I would be embarrassed to admit to making up. I wanted a really light, but bitter pale ale type of beer so I used rice syrup solids for some of my fermentable sugars. What I ended up with was something that I was surprised to say I really liked and has been well received by some other beer lovers.

The beer has a really light color at ~6 HCU's, a nice bitterness to it at around 41 IBU's and ended up with a ~5% alcohol by volume.

Here is the batch ingredients for a 4 gallon batch size:

- 4 lbs. light malt extract
- 1.5 lbs. rice syrup solids
- 2 oz. cascade hops
- 1 oz. goldings hops
- 1 pkt. Mutton's yeast
- bit of Irish moss

Pretty standard instructions:
- bring 3 gal. H2O to boil
- turn off heat
- add sugars
- turn on heat
- add hops at 60, 45 and 15 mins. into the boil
- add Irish Moss at 15 mins. left to aid in clarification.
- cool in carboy or bucket and add yeast at optimal yeast temperature
- ferment 1-2 weeks or until F.G. gets down to 1.010 or so.
- bottle and wait

Oh wait...relax....have a home brew through at least 100% of these instructions.

So, for the future, I am going to make a 5 gal. batch and change a few things about the recipe trying to give it a bit more hop as well as more sugar to increase the alcohol content as well as the flavor a bit. My idea is that the rice will add sugar for fermentation, but that sugar won't be adding too much in the way of flavor, kind of like an American Macrobrew but the hop will let you know that it definitely isn't that! I am also trying to achieve a high rate of attenuation and would like most of the sugars to be converted to alcohol for a dry crisp taste.

- 5 lbs. light malt extract
- 3 lbs. rice syrup solids
- 3 oz. cascade hops
- 2 oz. goldings hops
- 1 pkt. muttons dry yeast
- Irish Moss

I am going to dry hop 1 oz of the goldings hops in a secondary fermentation vessel for a week. The rest of the hops will be added at 60, 45, 30 and 15 mins. Otherwise pretty similar, with just a bit more fermentable sugar per batch size than what I did before.

Conversions were done using the Beer Recipator 2.2.

As I get this recipe tweaked out, I will be trying to think of a name. Anyone has any suggestions, send it my way.

As usual, pics to follow some time soon.

Batch Number 7: Arrowhead Alt Beir from Wind River Brewing Co.

Going in reverse to get all my brew batches online....

Here are the ingredients:

6 lbs. Amber Malt Extract
2 oz. Mt. Hood Bittering Hops
1 oz. Hallertau Aroma Hops
1/2 lbs. Crystal 60L Grain
1/2 lbs. Carapils Grains
Muttons Yeast Pkt.

O.G. 1.046
F.G. 1.013

5 Gallon batch
Cost from Wind River Brewing: $22.95

Great batch, actually just finished my last bottle the other day and it was really nice, kinda wet beer. I don't know if it is one of my favorite styles of beer, so I don't know how soon I will be brewing another one.

Batch Number 6: English Tavern Bitter, Wind River Brewing Co.

Again, working in reverse trying to get my brew log online comes a really nice batch of beer that I enjoyed the heck out of. The batch was brewed on 5/27/2009 in Lawrence, KS.

Ingredients for a 5 gal. batch:
6 lbs. Gold Malt Extract
1 oz. Nugget Bittering Hops
1 oz. Fuggles Aroma Hops
1 oz. Goldings Aroma Hops
1/2 lbs. Caramel 10L Grain
1/2 lbs. Carapils Grain
1 Pkt. Danstar Nottingham Yeast

O.G. 1.062 @ 96 Degrees = 1.066
F.G. 1.009

Cost: $23.95
From: Wind River Brewing Co.

Bottled 6/7/2009

Loved this batch of beer and the style. It had a nice golden color and good lighter malt flavor, but the hops and bitter set it apart. I think the British bitters are one of my favorite styles of beer and I will definitely brew something like this again soon.

Batch Number 5: Cologne Kolsch - Wind River Brewing Co.

This was a great batch of beer and I look forward to brewing a Kolsch sometime again, heading towards next summer. This is the closest you can come to a pilsner in an ale. If I was going to brew this batch again, I would have racked it for an extra week or two in a secondary fermentation vessel.

Ingredients:
6 lbs Golden Malt Extract
1 oz. Tattnager Bittering Hops
1 oz. Saaz Aroma Hops
1/2 lbs Crystal 10L
1/4 lbs Vienna Grain
1/4 lbs Wheat Malt
Muttons Yeast

O.G. 1.0645
F.G. 1.016
6.3% Alcohol by Volume
Brewed: 5/26/2009
5 Gallon Batch
Cost from Wind River Brewing Co.: $23.95

Batch Number 4: Lake Pepin Porter - Wind River Brewing Co.

Still getting the brew log online. This batch is one of my favorites and it is probably because I screwed up and had to use about 3 cups of molasses in this batch to replace some leaked malt extract.

Here is the ingredients:
6 lbs. Dark Malt Extract
1 oz. Willamette Bittering Hops
1 oz. Fuggles Aroma Hops
1/2 lbs. Chocolate Malt
1/2 lbs. Carapils Malt
1 Pkt. Nottinghamm Dry Yeast

O.G. 1.043
F.G. 1.015 after 1 week
F.G. 1.011 after 4 days in secondary fermenter

From Wind River Brewing Co.
Price: $25.95
Brew Date: 4/26/2009

Batch Number 3: Gopher Pale Ale - Wind River Brewing Co.

Great batch of beer that went way too quickly at a party we had for Cat's Ph.D. defense.

Ingredients:

3 lbs. Gold Malt Extract
3 lbs. Amber Malt Extract
1 oz. Willamette Hops Bittering
1 oz. Fuggles Aroma Hops
1/2 lbs. Carmel Malt
1/2 lbs. Carapils
1 pkt. dry yeast

O.G. 1.050
F.G. 1.010

Did a short secondary fermentation on this one.

Brewed on 4/25/09
Bottled on 5/6/2009

Batch Number 2: D.J. Emery's Special Bitter

I have recreated my brew log starting from the beginning where details are sparse at best, vague at worst. The posts do not reflect when the posting was made exactly, but when I brewed the beer.

This was a great brew recipe from Jason Emery. The style is one of my favorites and this beer was fantastic in hop, taste, body....everything.

Ingredients:

6 lbs. Dried Amber Malt Extract
3 oz. Cascade Hops
1 oz. Willamette Hops
2 tsp. Irish Moss
1 pkt. Wyeast London ESB Yeast

Straight forward on the brewing, fermenting, etc.

Notes: Some bottles weren't carbonated well, others too well. Very malty taste, leads me to think I should have allowed to attenuate more or 2nd fermentation after the 1 wk. in primary fermentation. Another note, need a good bottling cane, too much o2 during bottling. As it aged, it really became a great beer and I will brew again some day!

Batch Number 1: Oatmeal Stout

Not much detail on this batch, but it was my first batch and I didn't keep good notes on the first one. Bad me!

Brewed on Sat. Feb. 14th, 2009. Batch was from Homebrewers Outpost and was a partial mash kit w/ liquid and dry malt extracts. This is one of the two kits I used a liquid yeast with.

O.G. - 1.053
F.G. - 1.018 after 6 days and 8 days

Bottled on Feb. 22nd, 2009 w/ Jason Emery.