Home brewing adventures

Creme Brulee

2011-11-26T08:17:00.000-08:00

My wife came up with her second recipe, a clone of Southern Tiers Creme Brulee Imperial Milk Stout. Its the biggest beer I've made yet and involved some ingredients I was not familiar with. Coming in at a whopping 12% estimated alcohol and a ton of taste. We had a bottle of it a few weeks ago and both loved it.

Target Gravity 1.105 (I hit 1.109ish)
IBU's 42

Grain Bill
17 lbs 8 oz Pale 2 row US
1 lb 8 oz Flaked Barley
1 lb 8 oz Black patent malt
10 oz Lactose
12 oz Cane sugar - Here we have to caramelize the sugar, it involved basically just stirring it constantly for a good 15 minutes until it liquefied at medium heat. At the end it started to bubble a lot and get all foamy. No idea if this was good or bad. Smelled liked marshmallows.

Hops
1.25 Oz Tomahawk (14%) @ 60 min

Yeast - Dry English Ale, WLP007 We made a rather large starter for this considering the gravity of this beer. This morning it was bubbling away pretty decently. I'm fermenting at about 68F.

This was also the first time we've had the ability to do a high grav all grain with the new 10 gallon cooler. It still had plenty of room after 20 lbs of grain and 5 gallons of water were added to it to mash.

Breakfast Stout # 2

2011-11-20T10:02:00.001-08:00

So today I am brewing an ale I brewed almost exactly one year ago...its the clone of Founders Breakfast Stout. This beer turned out to be the top beer I ever made, I believe using the raw cacao from Hawaii made a bit of a difference but wow is it good, its aged a year now an I estimate we have a gallon left, its not a beer to drink before bed so it doesn't get drank that much due to the coffee in it.

This also represents my first brew using a 10 Gallon mash run we recently acquired, I am one step away from 10 gallon batches. My biggest hurdle was wondering if I could use the same strike temp, 172 that Ive been using in my 5 gallon. After a bunch of research I finally realized that beersmith has the math for this. I had to raise the strike temp to 177 and will be checking in 5 minutes if I am too high or low now.

Anyway here is the recipe incase you missed in last year.

Target Gravity 1.078
IBU 60
Est Alcohol 7.7%
SRM: 60

Grain:
11.5 lbs Pale 2 Row
1.38 Lb Flaked Corn
1 lb Chocolate Malt
.75 lb Roasted Barley
.56 lb Black Malt
.43 Lb Crystal 120L

Hops:
1.25 Oz Nugget 60 min
1 Oz williamette 30 Min
1 Oz Wiliamette 0 Min

At the end of boil add 2 oz ground Sumatran Coffee, 2.5 Oz Dark, BitterSweet bakers chocolate, 1.5 Oz unsweetened chocolate baking nibs

In secondary add 2 Oz Ground Kona Coffee

Pumpkin Ale!

2011-11-11T17:57:00.000-08:00

A bit late season but eh

This recipe was MADE BY MY WIFE, her first

OG 1.062

IBU 32

Grain Bill

9 lbs Pale 2 row

1 lb carafoam

1 lb crystal 60L

8 Oz Biscuit Malt

8 Oz Brown Sugar

6 Oz Malto Dextrin (5 min)

Hops:

.50 Oz Magnum 60 min

1 Oz Sterling 10 Min

Spices

.5 Tsp All Spice @ 5 min

1/4 Tsp Clove @ 5 min

Vanilla Extract 1 shot @ 5 min

.5 Tsp Nutmeg @ 5 min

1/8th tsp ground ginger dried @ 5 min

4 cinnamon sticks @ 60 min

Then of course the pumpkin..we used one medium sized from out yard, baked in an inch of water for about 2 hours then added the liquid and the pumpkin to the beer to boil for about 50 minutes before removing it.

For yeast we used wyeast Farmhouse Ale, same as the last brew I did we took a sample from the last brews slurry and created a starter off of it to save money on buying yeast

For this I used Wyeast Farm House Ale,http://www.wyeastlab.com/PC3q2008.cfm

Saison

2011-10-30T14:43:00.000-07:00

Decided this weeks brew will be a saison style

Some info on what a saison ale is, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saison

Here is the recipe....its fermenting right now VERY vigorously

Grain Bill:

7.16 lbs Pilsener

2.86 Lbs White Wheat

.95 Lbs Aromatic Malt

Hops:

1 Oz Amarillo @ 60 min

For this I used Wyeast Farm House Ale, http://www.wyeastlab.com/PC3q2008.cfm

Wyeast 3726 PC

Farmhouse Ale

Looking forward to sampling it, its at the bottom range of temperature 70 F right now. If fermentation slows down I may move it up stairs to warm it up.

Maibock

2011-10-09T12:14:00.000-07:00

Today I'm brewing up a lager yeast starter for my first maibock, I am taking the recipe from Brew Your Own magazine. The reason and sole reason is as I was reading through it I found the entire recipe called for nothing more than magnum hops...which I just happened to have bought a big bag of from some local grower at eastern market. Unfortunately it calls for 14.5 lbs of grain and I cant only mash about 13 so this is a partial extract recipe for me.

Grain Bill:
9.3 lbs German Pilsner
3.3 Lbs Breiss Munich extract OR 5.1 lbs Munich
5.85 AAU Magnum Hops - I have no idea what the acidity of the hops I bought is..so its gonna be a hops surprise beer.

I am using a German Bock Lager yeast from White Labs.

A follow up to the oktoberfest...damn was it good. So good I am in fact making a second copy of it also. Brewing two yeast starters right now...glad to be back in the lager game again.

Oktoberfest

2011-07-24T09:59:00.000-07:00

Well this year I've decided to try and get an Oktoberfest ready for...October..

This round our RO filter is no functional so I'm using municipal water with some RO water I bought at the store for topping off after the boil to 5 gal. I do this because there is less chance for infection since I am not introducing the stuff that exists in the tap after the boil. I try and be as anal about sanitation as I can with lagers. I've had bad luck with them and can't find a reason for it. This is the first lager I've tried in over a year I think.

Target Gravity 1.050 - 1.056

Grain bill:

7 lbs pilsner

1 lb Vienna

.5 lb CaraMunich

1 lb Munich

Target IBU's 21

All pellet hops

1 oz Hallertauer 60 min

.5 oz Hallertauer select 15 min

.5 oz Hallertauer select 5 min

Nothing too fancy here, seems pretty standard. I picked up the recipe at my homebrew store. Not sure who made it. I will be using white labs oktoberfest lager yeast with this, I'll give it one day to get fermenting then throw it in my freezer at about 40-45 F to ferment for two weeks then Ill secondary at this temp until October whenever the feeling of fall kicks in and it cools off.

The Amber Lager is bubbling away in the basement, yeast looks pretty happy.

Amber Lager 3

2011-07-23T12:56:00.000-07:00

Been a long while since I properly recorded a beer, here is the third iteration of the Amber Lager

This time I am adding more hops and using a cream ale yeast instead of an actual lager yeast. I've become quite fond of the cream ale yeast...real clean taste.

So here is version 3

7.50 LBS Pale Malt 2 Row
12 OZ Crystal 80L
12 OZ carafoam

All hops are pellet
1 OZ Northern Brewer 60 min
1/2 OZ Fresh Saaz 60 min
.50 Oz Cascade 15 Min
1 Oz Fresh Saaz 10 Min

.5 Oz Fresh Saaz 5 min

They were out of saaz pellets at the brew store so I ended up with 2 OZ bag of leaf saaz. Notice I switched to add some carafoam also...more head...no ones ever complained about that.

So I heated up 5 gallons of filtered water to 171 F. Added 9 quarts to the grain in my igloo mash tun.

Final temp after 1 hr 45 min was 152F...seems pretty accurate.

Drew out the liquid into my 9 gal pot

Added 2.5 gallons of 200 F water for 10 min

Drew out liquid

Added 2.5 gallons of 200F water for 10 min

Drew out liquid

Time to boil

Gravity pre boil was 1.040 with a temp of 145F and 4 gallon of wart. Temp different makes this 1.057 at 4 gallons. Add a gallon of water and you end up with 1.043. (((1.057 - 1)(4))/5) + 1

1/4 TBSP Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate)

1/4 TBSP CaCo3

1 TBSP Gypsum

I am using RO filtered water and this removed the metals/etc from it. This is the reason for adding these.

I will hopefully update FG and tasting notes once its all done.

Founders Breakfast Stout Clone

2010-11-17T09:04:00.000-08:00

My next brew is gonna be a tasty stout modeled after Founders Breakfast Stout. The ingredients I pulled from a BYO clone but had to change the % a bit to fit the description of the beer. This assumed 73% efficiency.

Target Gravity 1.078

IBU 60

Est Alcohol 7.7%

SRM: 60

Grain:

11.5 lbs Pale 2 Row

1.38 Lb Flaked Corn

1 lb Chocolate Malt

.75 lb Roasted Barley

.56 lb Black Malt

.43 Lb Crystal 120L

Hops:

1.25 Oz Nugget 60 min

1 Oz williamette 30 Min

1 Oz Wiliamette 0 Min

At the end of boil add 2 oz ground Sumatran Coffee, 2.5 Oz Dark, BitterSweet bakers chocolate, 1.5 Oz unsweetened chocolate baking nibs

In secondary add 2 Oz Ground Kona Coffee

My first outdoor brew

2010-11-08T06:44:00.000-08:00

Due to the size of the boil of the butternut squash/pumpkin ale, I ended up buying an outdoor propane burner since out electric stive barely makes 5 gallons boil.

Here is a video of it boiling like all crazy, took about 20 minutes to bring 7 or 8 gallons to a full boil

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnUFX70CVSk

Holiday beer time!

2010-11-01T12:36:00.000-07:00

So I challenged my friends to tell me a style of beer to make and I'd throw a party and they can drink it, jokingly one of my friends replies back "butternut squash".

So of course I am going to make this! I modeled it basically after my brown ale but went with some pumpkin pie spices.

my goal: nice holiday tasting beer with a butter taste to it to bring out the squash (or at least make it taste like the squash is in there as I found adding pumpkin really doesn't add taste, just mouth feel)

First goal:Butter taste, we found an exotic strain of yeast that my lhbs doesn't sell, so I tasked those guys to give me a suggestion. They seem dumbfounded as most people are attempting to get rid of the butter taste in their beer. So I ended up with London ESB yeast, apparently when fermented above 65 you start getting butter tastes...above 70 and its supposed to be ridiculously buttery...so I am shooting for 68-70 degree fermentation.

Now for the grain bill

8 lbs two row

1 lb vienna

1 lb munich

.25 lb chocolate malt

.75 lb crystal 60L

Hops:

60 minutes of Hallertaur, 1 oz

15 minutes of Fuggle, .5 oz

5 minutes of Fuggle, .5 oz

As for the squash....going to cut them up and bake them for 1.5 hours or so with some water, then add it to the wort and hope for the best. The last time I did a pumpkin ale I was brewing extract so it was far easier to just steep the pumpkin in the water.

Squash: 3 Butternut Squash and one pumpkin(pie variety) just for the heck of it.

As for spices, Two or so times throughout the boil I'll add typical pumpkin pie spices, whole cinnamon sticks. The only real thing I have to watch out for is too much ginger or nutmeg as they can easily overpower the beer.

Beer Bread

2010-10-26T09:59:00.000-07:00

Took a shot at this with the spent grain from an IPA I made last night, which was mostly just two row and crystal 60l

3 cups Wheat Flour

1.2 cups water

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon molasses

1.5 tsp salt

2 tbsp butter

1 tablespoon dried milk

1 cuppish of spent grain

1.5 tsp yeast

The knead was pretty wet so I ended up added probably another half cup of wheat flour. It's pretty good but it is heavy and didn't rise too well. Next time I am going to try a bit less grain I think.

Pitch Black IPA

2010-06-23T08:12:00.000-07:00

This is a near same recipe from Brew Your Own Magazine, I modified it a bit to fit what hops I have available at home already (a lot of partial bags).

Grain Bill:

9.75 Lbs Pale Malt 2 Row

1.25 Lbs Crystal 10L

12 OZ Carafa II

10 OZ Special Roast

Hops:

1.25 Oz Nugget 75 minutes

.25 Oz Cascade 2 minutes

.75 Oz Nugget 2 Minutes

.50 Oz Cascade Dry Hop 3-5 days

Est SG: 1.066

We will be using an English bitter yeast for this

Kolsch

2010-05-09T08:07:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite styles of beer, New Holland brewing choose a great logo for their brew, ying yang. It is a well balanced beer with the best of everything

Here is a try at it

Grains - Target Gravity 1.045
7.75 LBS German Pilsner
1.5 Lbs Wheat malt

Hops - Target IBU 26
1 Oz Hallertauer 60 mins
.25 Oz Northern Brewer 60 Min
.50 Oz Spalter 5 Mins

German Ale / Kolsch Yeast

Beer Fermenting

2010-04-20T13:52:00.000-07:00

Wanted to share a video of what beer looks like fermenting, I know not everyone uses a glass carboy and you miss out on the visual fun with buckets.

One on the left is an IPA, the right is the Short's I just posted about yesterday.

Sorry about it being sideways :)

Short's Brewing Magician Ale

2010-04-19T15:16:00.001-07:00

So I picked this up out of Brew Your Own and converted it to all grain

Second sparge is going on now

Target Gravity: 1.058
Bitterness 22 IBU
Color 14 SRM

Grains
8.75 Lbs Pilsner 2 Row
12 Oz Crystal 80
12 Oz Munich Malt
6 Oz cara Pils
4 Oz Crystal 60
2 Oz Roasted Barley

Hops
My LHBS was selling 7.5 % AA, make sure to plug in for the correct bitterness. This will actually put me at 24 IBU but who cares.
.50Oz Cascade 60 min
.50 Oz Cascade 30 min
.25 Oz Cascade 5 min

London Ale Yeast, WLP013

By the way the Amber Lager #2 came out GREAT, definitely my favorite!

Amber Lager part 2

2010-02-10T13:49:00.000-08:00

ok so the Amber Lager turned out GREAT, it is one of our favorite beers so far, crisp clean taste, a little hoppy, it is a dream beer. So this weekend I will be making another batch of it and trying to make it even better...and hopefully not worse. My goal is a light low calorie beer that tastes great, basically a good tasting Budweiser or miller :)

So here is version 2

7.50 LBS Pale Malt 2 Row
12 OZ Crystal 80L

All hops are pellet
1 OZ Northern Brewer 60 min
.25 Oz Cascade 15 Min
.25 Oz Saaz 10 Min

San Francisco Lager Yeast to ferment

Lager as long as you want, last time I let it ferment 2 weeks at 55 F and then moved it to 43 F for about a month

Omg Fest

2010-01-18T18:34:00.000-08:00

Well just a short update, the Irish Red is very malty and tastes great! Bit darker than I wanted, but whatever color is color it is the taste that counts! The Bitter Brown is gone, man it was good! Currently I have the Amber Ale and a pilsner lagering with this creation below in secondary.

Grain Bill:
7 LBS Pale Malt 2 Row
1 Lb Caramel Malt
.5 Lb Cara-Pils
.5 Lb Roasted Barley
.25 Lb Chocolate

Hop Bill
1 Oz Goldings 60 Min
.5 Oz Norther Brewer 15 Min
.5 Oz Williamette 5 Min

I was shooting for 1.044 SG and used Irish Ale Yeast, should be around 28 IBU and very dark and chocolaty. This was a total concoction and I have no idea what it will be like :P Hopefully great!

Amber Lager In Primary

2009-12-13T20:23:00.001-08:00

So I wanted to start recording the brews in more detail, we just finished cleaning up after the Amber Ale(turned lager) and here is what happened

First step was the mash, I ended up way higher temperature than I wanted for about 20 minutes due to me having two thermometers giving me different readings (I was about to pull my hair out) Finally got it down to 153 for 70 minutes

First running for sparge: 1.093 gravity @ 1.8 gallons
Second Runnings: 1.06 @ 3.2 gallons 127 F
Third 1.049 @ 4.8 gallons 125 F

We ended up way over gravity on this one, I am still not sure if this is due to the higher temperature or if we are just getting better at all grain. I may have to modify my next batch to use less grain.

The hops remained the same
1 OZ Northern Brewer @ 60 mins
.25 Oz Cascade @ 15 mins with Irish Moss
.25 Oz Saaz @ 10 mins

Moved the Wort to a bottling bucket to move to a 6 gallon glass carboy and brought the temp down to 63F to match the Yeast we have. Pitched the Yeast and now it is sitting in my freezer at around 58 F, getting ready to drop down soon.

We ended up using San Francisco Wyeast we made some batches of, from a previous beer.

The plans are to get another lagering freezer within two weeks, I am going to leave 2 weeks primary and secondary to a new freezer @ 35 F.

Irish Red

2009-12-12T13:43:00.000-08:00

This week we are planning on an Irish Red, a style I have yet to do. The Cream Stout was just Kegged and force carbonated today so in a couple hours we will have a taste. The Oatmeal stout is finished and man was it good, could not get enough of that. The yeast for the Amber Ale is looking absolutely great, nearly ready to go today or tomorrow.

The guys at the homebrew shop were throwing out some wyeast packets that had expired, they said we could take them so we will now have stocks of Belgian Wheat, Trappist and Danish Lager. So those will probably be the next three recipes we will follow.

Here is the recipe I will be making for the Irish Red (All Grain)

O.G. 1.054
IBU 16.9
Batch Size: 5 gal

Grain:
Pale 2-row: 9.5 lbs
Crystal 120L 12 OZ
CaraPils 8 OZ
Roasted Barley 1 OZ

Hops (pellet)
Goldings .5 Oz 60 min
Goldings .5 Oz 15 Min
Fuggle .5 Oz 10 Min

This will definitely be the lowest IBU beer I have made yet. The Cream stout we are opening later is actually our first All Grain batch drinkable so we are looking forward to trying that!

Amber

2009-11-28T11:48:00.000-08:00

A bit of a modified Amber Ale recipe I found, All - Grain
1.046 SG Goal (assuming 68% efficiency)
10 LBS Pale Malt 2 Row
12 OZ Crystal 120L

Pellet hops - 36 IBU Total
1 OZ Northern Brewer 60 mins
.25 Oz Cascade 15 Mins
.25 Oz Czech Saaz 10 Mins

We are going to use an Oktoberfest Lager Yeast and try to ferment outside during the day and inside at night.

British Cream Stout

2009-11-22T15:23:00.001-08:00

Out of nowhere yesterday we decided to make a cream stout as it sounded good and the yeast is not ready for the Brown ale yet ( I ended up buying a packet from the store to use)

Here it is

Specialty:
12 Oz Crystal 40L
12 Oz Chocolate Malt
4 Oz Flaked Barley
4 Oz Roasted Barley
1 lb Cara Pls

Rest 6.50 Lbs 2 Row Pale malt

Was looking for a SG of 1.048-49 but got 1.046, the recipe was assuming 70% efficiency.

For hops I used 1 OZ fuggle at 60 mins

Yeast: Wyeast 1028 London Ale yeast

This is for 5 gallons

Recipe 3 Pre Winter Michigan Brown Ale

2009-11-15T14:43:00.000-08:00

So today we decided it was time to venture into another concoction of beer. After spending some time reading "How to Brew" this morning I decided I wanted to do an American Brown, which is mostly just a British brown ale with a lot more...hops :)

I also moved to all grain, so this will be my first all grain batch.

Also if anyone does happen to actually read this, yes I have made many beers since my last post but I am lazy and just used clone brews. I only intend to post stuff that I modify or create.

So without further babble...Here is the recipe. We are currently getting our yeast starter going from vials so it will be a few days before brew day.

Pre Winter Michigan Brown Ale All Grain Recipe

I am targeting 1.055 SG and 33.6 IBU

Grain Bill:
Specialty

5.5 OZ Chocolate Malt (2%)

1.5 LBS Crystal 60L (10%)

Everything else:
9.6 LBS Pale 2-row (88%)

Now for the hops, I am mostly utilizing stuff sitting in my freezer so this is a bit odd
.25oz Goldings - 60 min - 5.7 IBU
.75 Oz Brewers Gold - 60 min -25.2 IBU
.50 Oz Cascade - 10 Min - 2.8 IBU (Flavor)

Yeast - 1056 American Ale ( 1 liter starter)

Well there it is, in about 4 weeks I well let you know how it tastes :)

Pale Ale!

2009-09-25T17:05:00.000-07:00

Well it is that time again...need more beer. The brown ale is gone and was pretty great. The pumpkin ale is at about 50% left and started off with a fowl taste and after a few days started to taste a LOT like Arcadia Jawjacker...it is really good and I am happy. As I type grains are mashing for this pale ale.

Here is the recipe

2.75 lb British 2-row
.5 lb Crystal Malt 60
.75 lb American wheat
4.2 lb Liquid extract light
1.5 OZ Tettnager for bittering
1 OZ Cascade for flavor
39 IBU

1 TSP Irish Moss
Wyeast 1056
SG = 1.051 @ 5 gallon

Gravity pre boil was 1.076 @ 140 F (add 0.016 for temp @ 140 F)

This started off as a clone of Magic Hat #9 and turned into our own beer. I expect it to be a bit more hoppier :P

On a side note we also have ingredients for our first Saison ale...and we bought two six packs of a Great Lakes Brewing Saison and New Holland Saison to attempt our first yeast colony.

An update of ales

2009-09-13T17:35:00.000-07:00

Well the brown ale based off of Newcastle is kegged and quite delicious. I must say there is quite a difference in color and taste using partial mash versus all extract. I am impressed. It has a watery taste but I believe this had to do with the way I carbonate (shaking the keg) as I have seen this in a few of the past beers and it disappears within a few days.

As I type I am sanitizing the second keg for the super scary brew! The pumpkin ale! Tomorrow night we will enjoy this and I will definitely need a glass now that classes are started again, hooray working 9 hours then heading to class for 2.

Pumpkin beer 2009! (Scary Brew!)

2009-08-30T18:10:00.000-07:00

This is my first real recipe, although I took lots of tidbits from other recipes. It is currently boiling in the pot and smells GREAT

Partial Mash Recipe

5 Pie Pumpkins

1 lbs Cara-Pils Malt

1.5 Cups Brown Sugar

1/2 Cup Molasses

4.0 LBS Pale Malt (2-Row)

2.25 LBS Muntons LME Extra Light

3/4 OZ Cascade Hops(Pellet)

1272 American Ale Yeast

IBU 21-24
SG 1.050 (I think we were at 1.048/49 ish)

3/4th tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/4th tsp Ground Clover
1/4th tsp Ground Ginger
1/4th tsp Groung Nutmeg
You can try Vanilla if you like, I have seen a few other do it but I passed due to the molasses and brown sugar, as I want it to taste somewhat like beer :)

First Cut the pumpkins into halves and cook at 325 F for an hour.
After this cut the pumpkin into cubes. Heat 3 gallons water to 158F add pumpkin and grains to stock pot. We steeped for an hour then removed the pumpkin, then steeped the grain for 15 more minutes at 150. Sparge the grain and add the molasses, brown sugar and extract and bring to a boil. Once boiling, add the cascade hops and boil for 55 mins. Add spices and boil for 5 mins. Cool down below 80F (We use a cheap immersion chiller we built from parts bought at lowes) and pitch Yeast.

My goal with this beer was to make something very drinkable, yet festive/seasonal. Fall is my favorite season and so are the fall foods. Last year I made an extract pumpkin ale following this recipe

http://www.thebrewsite.com/2004/10/11/pumpkin_ale_recipe.php

It tasted GREAT but man was it filling :) I think it ended pretty high gravity, somewhere around 8-9% but that was a year ago.

Anyway this is my firsttime using blogspot. This beer is my 8-11thish and my second as partial mash. I cannot do all-grain due to apartment living and the lack of being able to boil 7.5 gal of water.

If you have any questions or the recipe or want to trade/talk beer feel free to message me on this thing or look me up on facebook jambrewsbeer

Update: Well Monday I was a bit worried I saw no bubbling, after some investigation I realized the rubber seal for the bung hole was pushed in a bit, I corrected this and it is bubbling like crazy now. Wish me luck on no infections :/