Big Brew 2007-May 5 @ Germania, 8 a.m.-?

JohnD · Post by **JohnD** » Thu May 03, 2007 5:53 pm

Just talked to Charlie about getting in the door on Saturday morning. He said 7:30 would work for him. OK with everybody else??

JohnD · Post by **JohnD** » Thu May 03, 2007 5:56 pm

Just got a return call from Charlie. We need to be out by 3 PM

Chris Alvey · Post by **Chris Alvey** » Thu May 03, 2007 7:30 pm

Sounds good.

Dwayne_Delaney · Post by **Dwayne_Delaney** » Sun May 06, 2007 5:25 pm

I thought it was a pretty successful Big Brew this year. It would have been nice to have seen more folks outside of the club attend, but I think everyone that attended had a good time. We had a total of 35 gallons of beer brewed onsite. Thanks to everyone that participated, especially Peter, who volunteered to tackle the decoction mash for the Doppelbock.

I am babysitting the AG Belgian Strong ale and the extract Griffin Spit. Both of them took off like gangbusters and boy am I glad I used blowoff tubes. I can't wait to taste the final products.

psfred · Post by **psfred** » Sun May 06, 2007 7:25 pm

Thanks Dwayne!

Now you know why I don't usually do decoctions! It does make better Pils, but man oh man, do you get tired of stirring!

I've got it in my "new" fridge set as high as it will go, will check the temp tonight and transfer it into a 6.5G carboy, it's started up nicely. I was afraid the yeast was dead, but I had some pressure this morning and foam this afternoon, so I'm OK. Will take an initial gravity by refractometer tonight as well.

This stuff better be pretty good for all that work!\

Edit: Can't find the refractometer so I siphoned out enough to use the hydrometer -- IG 1.084. Horribly sweet...

Nice color, yeast is going gangbusters.

Peter

JohnD · Post by **JohnD** » Sun May 06, 2007 8:32 pm

Report on extract Belgian Strong Ale. OMG!!! Fermentation at about 65F went from slight foam and minimal bubbling to VOLCANIC activity in about 3 hours. I had the forethought to put on a blowoff tube for initial ferment. Good idea. Otherwise good odds of an airlock missle.

Chris Norrick · Post by **Chris Norrick** » Mon May 07, 2007 7:53 am

I did a .75 gallon yeast starter for the extract Doppelbock. Here's what it looked like Monday morning...humming away at 50*F. First lager I've ever done so I hope it rocks! From the rest of these reports, I should have put a blow-off on it this morning, hope I don't regret it! If I remember right, Josh said the OG was 15 brix, that sounds a little low to me, and I didn't write it down so well just see how it tastes in a few months.

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Chris Alvey · Post by **Chris Alvey** » Mon May 07, 2007 7:36 pm

Griffin Spit AG going fine ... keeping her nice and restrained at about 67 degrees.

Going to wait until fermentation activity has died way down to dry hop - wouldn't want to lose any of that goodness.

psfred · Post by **psfred** » Tue May 08, 2007 8:45 pm

Chris:

Likely you will be fine, at 50F fermentation is fairly slow.

Mine is running along nicely at 45F, after a couple adventures -- my "new" fridge compressor locked up Sunday night, and the temp got up to 68. I took the beer, hissing and foaming out the airlock, over to Steve's Monday morning and stuck it in his temp control fridge and cooled it off. Got my fridge running again (a bigger hammer.....) and brought the beer back last evening after it started to cycle. Working fine now, who knows. Made a new back cover for the fridge, some idiot pulled it off and there was no air circulation over the condenser coil --- why do people do stuff like that?

A nice clean airlock and all appears well. My "cheater" (the stuff in the hydrometer jar) is down to 1.050, so it looks as though it will behave pretty well.

Peter

JohnD · Post by **JohnD** » Sun May 13, 2007 7:38 pm

Extract Belgian Strong Ale gravity is down to 1.010. Original Gravity was about 1.080. I tried the bit that I used to take a gravity reading. Definitely strong and definitely has that Belgian "funk". Just waiting for it to clear. It seems to really have fermented fast.

Dwayne_Delaney · Post by **Dwayne_Delaney** » Tue May 15, 2007 7:30 pm

Big Brew Beer Update............

Just transferred the Griffin Spit Extract to the secondary. Airlock activity is a bubble about every 10 min. the best I can tell. The gravity has dropped to 1.020. There was about a half gallon that wouldn't fit into the 5 gal. secondary, so I had to dispose of it.......down my throat. Tasted very clean; not as bitter as the numbers would indicate. It has a very pronounced Summit aroma (At 6 oz. of hops, I wonder why???). I am thinking about not adding the dry hops to this one. I think that it has just the right amount of hop aroma.

I am trying to free up another fermenter so I can transfer the AG Belgian. It has about the same airlock activity as the Griffin Spit. I'll keep you posted.

Kenny Lucas · Post by **Kenny Lucas** » Tue May 15, 2007 8:38 pm

As I transferred my "Blockhead APA" (Appropriately named after the Charlie Brown shirt I wore, Interestingly enough, last year's Red Eye Brown recipie will become Charlie Brown Ale this year) to the secondary where I added 2 more ounces of "C" hops, I took a little swig. Had a wonderful hop balance throughout but a little plastic taste

. I hope the plastic taste was just from the hydrometer tube I was drinking from and not the new tubing that I had just installed on Brewtus.

Chris Alvey · Post by **Chris Alvey** » Wed May 16, 2007 7:32 am

I am thinking about not adding the dry hops to this one.

Blasphemy

Chris Norrick · Post by **Chris Norrick** » Wed May 16, 2007 9:46 am

The Hailbra

JohnD · Post by **JohnD** » Tue May 22, 2007 8:19 pm

Extract Belgian from Big Brew has cleared nicely in secondary. Time to get a corny and store it in the cooler at Turoni's. Can't wait till it's ready to drink. I think it could be really good. Patience!!!