What's in your fermenter??

Dwayne_Delaney · Post by **Dwayne_Delaney** » Sun May 21, 2006 6:42 pm

It's been awfully quiet here lately. Anybody brewing? I've been too busy to brew and probably won't get a chance for a couple of more weeks.

Sometimes life just gets in the way of brewing.

Chris Norrick · Post by **Chris Norrick** » Sun May 21, 2006 9:24 pm

Josh won 4lbs of liquid malt at the Big Brew so were going to take that and about 11 lbs of pale plus some 40L crystal and what ever hops are left over in the freezer and make a ESB or something like that. My first attempt at a double batch (aka 10 gals). All planned for next weekend. I need to get some yeast!

The Big Brew K

Dwayne_Delaney · Post by **Dwayne_Delaney** » Sun May 21, 2006 9:33 pm

The extract Poor Richard's is in the secondary. I sampled a little and I didn't detect any skunkiness.

Chris Alvey · Post by **Chris Alvey** » Wed May 24, 2006 7:14 am

My current brew is what I'm calling a BelgialBlondeWeizen. It was a kit I had ordered as a blonde awhile ago. However, the ingredients do not really add up the the Blonde style. It has been fermenting for 10 days and is still bubbling every 20 seconds or so. I used a 1800ml starter of White Labs Wit yeast.

recipe : http://members.sigecom.net/calvey/Belgi ... Weizen.asp

Planned Brews :

HefeWeizen
Belgian Saison
Denny Conn's Rye IPA
Saaz Pale Ale - yes, you read right, Saaz
Hazelnut Porter

JohnD · Post by **JohnD** » Wed May 24, 2006 8:36 am

I made a batch of hefeweizen yesterday. Last batch was fermented at what I thought was a really low temperature for the style. (60 F.) The recommended temp for the yeast is about 65-72 F. and I think that is close to the temp in the fermentation chamber(bathroom upstairs!) right now. There may be some more pronounced banana, clove, bubblegum flavor and odor. We'll see what difference temp. makes since everything else is the same.

JohnD · Post by **JohnD** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 9:33 am

Bottled hefe today. I hope there is more flavor in this batch due to higher fermentation temp. Will know soon. Maybe it will be carbonated enough to take to Jack's on the 17th.

JohnD · Post by **JohnD** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 7:24 am

Hefeweizen fermented at higher temperature has a much more pronounced flavor and aroma. General opinion of folks that have tried both-side by side,is that the one that was fermented warmer is better. I'll bring some to Brewery on Barton for the next get together.

Chris Alvey · Post by **Chris Alvey** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 12:16 pm

What temp did you ferment it at ?

If it ever cools enough outside to brew, I'm going to try my new cooling chamber made from one of those square Cold Max coolers, a homemade lid, and some frozen bottles. Gotta' get those pale ales down to 68'ish to get some of those nasty esters away.

I have a Saison that's still in the secondary... the first sample from the fermenter was not encouraging. I read that these take awhile to come around - I sure hope that's the case for this one [bleh!]

JohnD · Post by **JohnD** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 10:41 pm

Temp was somewhere in the 68-70F range for the last one and around 60F for the one I made last winter. 10 degrees made a lot of difference

kbhale · Post by **kbhale** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 11:34 pm

Bought a 15.5 gallon keg from Sabco plan to spend the weekend making it into a fermenter. If it doesn't come in tomorrow I plan to brew this Friday or Saturday.

Drunk Duck Ale

11 gallon Batch

16 LB 2-Row
1 LB Crystal 60
1 LB Wheat
2 LB Honey Malt

1 oz Willamette @ 45 min
2 oz Saaz @ 5 min

Nottingham Yeast.

Happy brewing.

Chris Alvey · Post by **Chris Alvey** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 6:55 am

That sounds like a tasty recipe.

I brewed yesterday (A Rye IPA) and I have two words for you if you do decide to brew soon : BUY GATORADE.

Incidentally, I tried out the dried Safale US-56 yeast. I read mixed reviews on whether to hydrate or not. I had two packets, so I hydrated one and pitched the other dry. Fermentation started in about three hours and this morning there's a full head of foam and it's going like mad.

Chris Norrick · Post by **Chris Norrick** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 1:04 pm

Looks like it's gonna cool down for Sunday so I'm brewing a Hefe. Gonna step it up a notch and try to fly-sparge and do a single decoction. We'll see how it goes...

mytwins1999 · Post by **mytwins1999** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 9:33 pm

Made 6 gallons of Blackberry wine last sunday,gonna do a brewers best red ale kit this weekend.

Dwayne_Delaney · Post by **Dwayne_Delaney** » Sun Jul 23, 2006 2:32 pm

Brewed an Amarillo 'merican Wheat last weekend that will go into the Secondary the next day or two:

6.00 lb Wheat Malt
5.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US
0.75 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt

Chris Norrick · Post by **Chris Norrick** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 1:14 pm

Bavarian Weizen #27

10 Gal:
10lbs US White Wheat Malt
10lbs German Pilsner Malt
Hallertauer Mittlefruh 1.5oz 60 min.
Wyeast 3068 at 62F

OG: 1.053, FG: 1.013, ABV 5.3%

Did a double decoction. Planned on doing a single just to see how the process worked, but the converted keg mash tun was losing a lot of heat so I did two to keep the temp up. Need to add a LOT more insulation. Any advice on that? Also, this was the first fly sparge I've done. Question: Do you let the tun empty out to get the total boil volume or do you keep the inch of water over the grain till you get the volume you need in the boil kettle? We kept the water on it as it seemed hard to judge when to stop the sparge water. I'm sure the SG dropped below the recommended 1.008 but we didn't have the boil volume needed so we kept adding water till we got within a gallon of target. OG was spot on, just a little low on volume. I'm sure the low mash temp affected the efficiency.