What's in your fermenter??

[Don]

Blood & Guts Imperial Stout #50

I did this brew on July 9 and hope to be drinking it on New Years Day.
TYPE: All Grain
Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 8.31 gal
OG: 1.087 SG
Color: 61.3 SRM
IBU: 82.2 IBU
Boil Time: 75 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------

1 lbs Rice Hulls
18 lbs 8.0 oz Maris Otter
1 lbs 4.0 oz Roasted Barley
1 lbs Oats, Flaked (Toasted in oven till golden brown)
12.8 oz Cara-Pils
12.8 oz Chocolate Malt
12.8 oz Pale Chocolate Malt
12.8 oz Special B Malt
2.00 oz Magnum [14.40 %] (60 min)
2.00 oz Fuggles [4.60 %] (15 min)
2.00 oz Styrian Goldings [4.80 %] (1 min)
2.00 tbsp PH 5.2 Stabilizer (Mash)
2.00 Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min)
Dumped it in the Irish Red Ale carboy right after I kegged it (Wyeast #1084)..

Total Grain Weight: 25 lb

90 min Mash In 1.2qts/# at 154.0 F
10 min Mash Out Heat to 168.0 F over 25 min to raise the held for 10 min.
Sparged till I had 8.3 gal in kettle

The weight of the grains gave me a slow running sparge it took all day to make this beer... Cut myself modifying the RIMS, so the "Blood & Guts" name came to be.

[john mills]

Was your red blood cells to help oxygenate the wort, or provide proteins for head retension?

[john mills]

Made a Barleywine Partigyle today for 70 gallons total of tasty brew in 35 days!

Barleywine 5 gallons OG 1.100 157.5 IBU's (Promash calculations)
25 Cargil Special Pale 2 row
1# Cara-pils
1# Crystal 60L
2 oz Chocolate Malt
1tsp Irish Moss 15 min boil
2 tbsp 5.2 ph buffer in mash
1½ oz Zeus whole hops@ 16.4% AA 60 min boil 85.8 IBU’s
1 oz Centennial whole hops @ 9.0% AA 45 min boil 29.5 IBU’s
1 oz Zeus whole hops@ 16.4% AA 30 min boil 30.6 IBU’s
1 oz Centennial whole hops @ 9.0% AA 15 min boil 8.4 IBU’s
.82 oz Centennial whole hops @ 9.0% AA 5 min boil 4.3 IBU’s
.18 oz Zeus whole hops@ 16.4% AA 5 min boil 1.7 IBU’s
2 packs Safeale US 05

7 day Brunette partyigyle 10 gallons OG 1.036 30 Ibu's
Used 2nd and 3rd runnings from the Barleywine grains.
1 OZ Sorachi Ace whole hops @ 12.3 AA @ 60 minutes
½ of hop bag from American Barleywine II 7/31/09 @ 10 min
½ of hop bag from American Barleywine II 7/31/09 @ 5 min
2 tsp Irish Moss @ 15 min
Mutons Dry yeast

[JohnD]

Brewed a Wit today using a starter from Turomi's yeast
5# 2 row pale malt
3 1/2# White wheat malt
1# Flaked oats
2/3 oz. Sterling hops 60 min.
1/3 oz. Sterling hops 15 min.

Mash 152F 60 min. with 5.2
90 min boil
After 7 day primary fermentation. add to secondary:
1 oz. crushed coriander
1/2 oz bitter orange peel
1/2 oz. sweet orange peel
Ferment 7 days. Bottle w/ 3/4 cup corn sugar

[sirgiovanni]

Made a Barleywine Partigyle today for 70 gallons total of tasty brew in 35 days!

Barleywine 5 gallons OG 1.100 157.5 IBU's (Promash calculations)
Mutons Dry yeast

Holy ship shit batman!

[Chris Norrick]

Ginger Beer (fake=yeast-based)

2 Liters filtered water
1.75 Cups Sugar
2 Tablespoons Fresh Grated Ginger Root (about 1 hand)
Juice and Zest of 1 Lemon
1/4 Teaspoon Cream of Tarter
1/4 Teaspoon Ale Yeast (US-56, WLP001, Muttons, etc) may need more with this OG

OG: 1.083

I sanitized everything, and dunked the ginger root in boiling water to sanitize. All ingredients were added to a 2 L bottle and foil placed on top for primary fermentation. In a few days I'll taste it and when it gets to be just a little too sweet I'll strain and bottle it in another 2 L bottle. Let it bottle condition until rigid then refrigerate. Glass could be dangerous.

Back Story
This is "fake" ginger beer. Real ginger beer is fermented with a funky composite organism called Ginger Beer "Plant" (GBP) and not brewers yeast. No one knows where the original GBP came from or who figured out to use it to ferment. The GBP is gelatinous grains like kefir grains that are much larger in appearance than dry yeast and can be easily strained out and transfered. It can't be made as it is not a pure strain, it is a symbiotic organism consisting of the yeast Saccharomyces florentinus (formerly Saccharomyces pyriformis) and the bacterium Lactobacillus hilgardii (formerly Brevibacterium vermiforme). It was just passed down generation to generation like a sourdough starter or friendship (Amish) bread starter. Once it's done fermenting you just strain it out of the beer and pitch it in the next batch. It should have grown some and can be split and shared. It was very popular to make Ginger Beer at home up to the 1920s in the US and 1950s in the UK. It seems the GBP almost went extinct during WWII due to rationing of things like sugar.

I've got some real GBP on order but in the meantime I made up this batch of "fake" Ginger Beer to compare it to the "real" stuff.

The Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginger_beer

[Don]

Human studies suggests that 1 gram daily of ginger may be safe and effective for pregnancy-associated nausea and vomiting when used for short periods.

In addition to providing relief from nausea and vomiting, ginger extract has long been used in traditional medical practices to reduce inflammation......such as arthritis and ulcerative colitis.

[john mills]

Many a pregnancy, let alone the resulting nausea could be avoided by not drinking in the first place.
I can vouch for this first hand.

[Chris Norrick]

Filtered out all the zest and ginger through some paper towel filter funnel. Tasted it flat. POW! WHAT A KICK! If you like ginger, you'll like this brew! It was so strong I think it got me pregnant. It was still bubbling like mad tonight but I need it carbonated by Friday so I went ahead and filtered it and capped it to start building pressure. It's a little sweet but I'm hoping it will dry out a little more while it's carbonating itself.

For the record, that's three days in primary. And I'm guessing it won't take more than a day or so to carbonate.

And I got my real Ginger Beer Plant in the mail today. It's in a pouch very similar to a dry yeast pouch. I'm really excited to see what it will taste like. It's a Lacto/Yeast fermentation so there is going to be some sour in there. I need to rehydrate it and get it munching on some ginger but I went kayaking this evening instead...

[Don]

The garage temp was 94 degs. and I couldn't have a beer the whole day because I was going flying with my son, after we finished making this beer and the yard work!!

Style: Oatmeal Stout
Name: Breakfast of the Gods
TYPE: All Grain
Batch Size: 5.25 gal
Boil Size: 8.02 gal
OG: 1.065 SG
Boil Time: 80 Minutes
(boiled till I had 7 1/2 gallons in kettle the started the 60 minute hops)
Ingredients:
------------

4.0 oz Rice Hulls
10 lbs 6.4 oz__Maris Otter
1 lbs Oats, Flaked
12.0 oz Chocolate Malt
12.0 oz Victory Malt
8.0 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L
8.0 oz Roasted Barley
4.0 oz Wheat Malt, Pale
2.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.40 %] (60 min)
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 min)
1.00 tbsp PH 5.2 Stabilizer (Mash 90.0 min)
2 Pkgs English Ale (White Labs #WLP002) with 1 qt. starter

70 min Mash In 154.0 F
90 min Mash-out 168.0 F
Got called into work just as I was starting the Mash-out, temp only dropped 1 deg.

In fermenter and set at 68 degs for 7 days

Notes:
------
Boil to 7 1/2 gal then start 60 min Hops
Roast grains at 300 degs till golden @ 15 min on 2 cookie sheets.
added 1/4# wheat malt just because I had it!

Great evening for flying.. but it was still hot at 4000 feet.

[BREWsmith]

I finally got back in the saddle after my recent attempt at a dubbel went down the drain...literally. I took Friday off and brewed a robust porter (http://hopville.com/brewer/recipes/gjsmith). I pitched a nearly 1 litre yeast starter which was about double what I had been doing. This was easily the fasted fermentation I've had. I had noticeable activity after about three hours. After 36 hours it had slowed quite a bit and now it seems pretty much done. Since I'm still pretty new at this, nearly every batch brings a new experience. Is such a fast fermentation typical? I haven't taken a hydrometer reading since it went into the carboy, but the OG was nearly on target at 1.056.

[john mills]

Your fermentation sounds just fine to me. Life's good sometimes. Sometimes its hard to see the bubbles on a 3 piece fermentation lock. There's no need to rush and bottle or keg just yet eventhough primary fermentation seems complete. The yeast will clean up some of the off flavors, etc. I'll leave my big beers on the primary yeast 4-6 weeks before racking. The lighter beers I move at about 1-2 weeks depending if I'm reusing the yeast cake... like brewing every Saturday.

[sirgiovanni]

I finally got back in the saddle after my recent attempt at a dubbel went down the drain...literally. I took Friday off and brewed a robust porter (http://hopville.com/brewer/recipes/gjsmith). I pitched a nearly 1 litre yeast starter which was about double what I had been doing. This was easily the fasted fermentation I've had. I had noticeable activity after about three hours. After 36 hours it had slowed quite a bit and now it seems pretty much done. Since I'm still pretty new at this, nearly every batch brings a new experience. Is such a fast fermentation typical? I haven't taken a hydrometer reading since it went into the carboy, but the OG was nearly on target at 1.056.

Welcome to the world of proper pitch rates with healthy yeast. ;)

Now get a stir plate and see what happens.

[BREWsmith]

I finally got back in the saddle after my recent attempt at a dubbel went down the drain...literally. I took Friday off and brewed a robust porter (http://hopville.com/brewer/recipes/gjsmith). I pitched a nearly 1 litre yeast starter which was about double what I had been doing. This was easily the fasted fermentation I've had. I had noticeable activity after about three hours. After 36 hours it had slowed quite a bit and now it seems pretty much done. Since I'm still pretty new at this, nearly every batch brings a new experience. Is such a fast fermentation typical? I haven't taken a hydrometer reading since it went into the carboy, but the OG was nearly on target at 1.056.

Welcome to the world of proper pitch rates with healthy yeast. ;)

Now get a stir plate and see what happens.

It shipped yesterday.

[Don]

I took off Thursday and did a simple little American Wheat with a 1 qt. started. We went out Friday night and I forgot to check in on my latest brew before I left so when we got home I ended up cleaning up the inside of the fermenter refrigerator and the floor.

Picture 011_1.jpg

Life is good!

Don