What's in your fermenter??

Chris Alvey · Post by **Chris Alvey** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 6:39 pm

Chris:

How did that IPA turn out? Should be VERY bitter -- that's at least twice the bittering hops I would use for city water!

Still in the primary, fermenting like mad. It should be very hoppy to be sure. I will know in a week or two I suppose. I'm a fan of very hoppy IPAs - so I am not worried. It is over BJCP 'style' however, strictly speaking.

Chris Norrick · Post by **Chris Norrick** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 9:34 pm

Dwayne_Delaney wrote:Man, what a screwed-up weekend!! This rain has hosed all of my big plans to brew a Maibock this weekend. Maybe next weekend.

Bringin' it weak man! Justin, Josh and I toughed it out for the Imperial! A few minor screw-ups and the OG is a little low, but still should hit 10% ABV or higher.

Dwayne_Delaney · Post by **Dwayne_Delaney** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 9:59 pm

Glad to hear that someone braved the elements. Can't wait to sample the Imperial.
My schedule was tight this weekend as usual and the rain delay took its toll. What can I say, just too many honey-doos.

Chris Norrick · Post by **Chris Norrick** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 8:32 am

Ohhh Yeah! 12 hours after pitching two packs of SafeAle US-56 dry yeast. OG was 1.092. Should have boiled it a little longer to concentrate it a little more. Still had around a gallon in the boil kettle and this 6 gallon primary couldn't take any more!

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Justin Rumbach · Post by **Justin Rumbach** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 10:28 am

Scha-weet!

Chris Alvey · Post by **Chris Alvey** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 6:06 am

Ryan and I did a Red Hook ESB clone today (the recipe and particulars can be found in the link in my signature below.)

Best brew session yet ... Hit mash temp, but had to top-up later for heat. NO BOILOVER

[combination of boil plate in kettle, spraying foam with a spray bottle full of wort once it started boiling, lowering the heat, and throwing 3 hops in just as the boil started to break up surface tension].

Best part was a much-improved chilling system. We had been using a single, 20 ft. immersion chiller. I got 50' of 3/8 copper ($27), wound that into a chiller to go into the pot. We then took the 20' chiller, put it into a bucket of ice, and put it inline in front of the other chiller. 9 minutes from 212 > 75 degrees! DMS be damned.

Interesting deal with the yeast starter this time. Last starter I made foamed up and was definitely active when I pitched. This one was White labs yeast like that last, around 1800 ml like the last one, but showed no activity when pitched at 18 hrs. or so. Not sure if it's started yet. White Labs website said that you may see little or no activity in the starter. What has been you guys' experience in the apparent activtiy of the starter?

Justin Rumbach · Post by **Justin Rumbach** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 10:58 am

What has been you guys' experience in the apparent activtiy of the starter?

I never see krausen in my starters, just a nice layer of yeast forms on the bottom. I like the immersion idea!

JohnD · Post by **JohnD** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 1:28 pm

Hefeweisen has been bottled 2 weeks. Tried one last night. Good flavor. Slight clove, banana, bubblegum. More subdued flavor than I anticipated, but that is probably due to cool fermentation temp. Next time I may have to up ferm. temp a little to bring out the flavors. Or maybe use a yeast with a more pronounced flavor profile.

Dwayne_Delaney · Post by **Dwayne_Delaney** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 3:24 pm

Chris Alvey wrote:Ryan and I did a Red Hook ESB clone today.

You posted at 6:00am. What time did you guys start brewing??

Chris Alvey · Post by **Chris Alvey** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 6:36 pm

1am of course... doesn't everyone ?

Heh ... I meant yesterday (Saturday).

Dwayne_Delaney · Post by **Dwayne_Delaney** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 8:51 pm

I wasn't sure just how hardcore you guys were.

Chris Norrick · Post by **Chris Norrick** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 8:09 am

I didn't brew this weekend. Instead, Josh and I put up a new garage door. What fun... The garage/brewery is now a complete mess and will have to be reorganized if I want to brew next weekend.

The Imperial is still bubbling after a week in the fermenter! It got down to 62 F in the fermentation chamber with the garage door and part of the ceiling being down all day Sunday. It was freaking cold out! I've seen some people rigging up a small light inside the freezer hooked up to the temp control to keep it warm. A little late for that I guess... Oh, and don't stick your head in a chest freezer to get a good look at the fermenter after it has been fermenting like mad for a few days. The CO2 bout knocked me over!

Dwayne_Delaney · Post by **Dwayne_Delaney** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 11:05 pm

Sunday, THE brew day from hell.

Started brewing my take on a Maibock and everything was going smoothly. I decided that since this was my first lager that I would use my new Shirron plate chiller for the first time so that I could get my temp down as soon as possible. I had read that people were having good luck without a pump, so I attempted to use gravity to empty my kettle. No matter what I tried, I could only get a trickle of wort to exit the chiller. Time for plan B. I put my kettle back on the burner and placed my old trusty immersion chiller into the kettle. I boiled the wort and additional 15 min. to sanitize the chiller and proceeded with business as usual. The only problem is that my final addition of hops that I added at 15 min. before the end of my first boil were boiled an additional 15 min. the second time.....way too much IBUs for a Maibock. New style maybe??

Chris Norrick · Post by **Chris Norrick** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 5:45 pm

Sunday I'm gonna brew Jamil Zainasheff Amber-Red. Hope it goes better than yours Dwayne!

CLICK HERE for the complete recipe.

Here is an overview:

6 Gallon Batch; 70% Eff.

Fermentables
9.50 lbs UK Pale Ale Malt
0.50 lbs US Victory
1.00 lbs US Carmel 40L
1.00 lbs US Munich 10L
0.50 lbs US Carmel 120L
0.13 lbs US Chocolate

Hops
0.5 oz US Magnum 60 Min From End
0.5 oz US Cascade 10 Min From End
0.5 oz US Centennial 15 Min From End
0.5 oz US Cascade 0 Min From End
0.5 oz US Centennial 0 Min From End

Yeast
White Labs WLP001-California Ale

OG: 1.055 SG
FG: 1.013 SG
ABV: 5.6 %

Author Notes:
Chocolate is to be VERY subtle. One thing about some chocolate malts is that, used with restraint, they have a very nice toasty note, not a roasty note. You want to get the toasty, not the roasty for this beer. Also, it will really highten the red look. I do think you'll get some of the character by choosing the lightest chocolate you can find and dropping the amount by half. This is what I would do before I found the pale chocolate and it worked fairly well. Of course, the pale chocolate (200L) would be best. It is made by Bestons, and I hear they now only sell it to breweries

JohnD · Post by **JohnD** » Sat Apr 01, 2006 8:23 pm

Made a smoked beer today. Dark, similar to a strong Scottish ale. Used smoked malt and chocolate as specialty grains. OG is about 1.090 and I'm expecting the ABV to be about 8.5% give or take a little. I guess it would be a smoked wee heavy. Made a starter and had activity in the fermenter within 2 hrs.

Used several recipes as references so I really don't know how smoky the flavor will be