IPA and Pumpkin ale bottled- Batch 53 and 54

Bottled my IPA and Pumpkin ale tonight. IPA final gravity was 1.014, and the Pumpkin final was 1.018, giving  me an alcohol percentage of 6.56 for the IPA and 8.75 for the  Pumpkin.

You  know, I don’t really trust my alcohol readings anymore.   Why is this so different from my others?

Oh, well. They still taste yummy.

I also forgot to mention that I ran out of corn sugar while bottling, so I had to substitute evaporated cane sugar juice, which will slightly affect the flavor.  I just hope it doesn’t affect the carbonation.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=903

IPA and Pumpkin Ale- Batch 53 and 54

Gearing up for a beer tasting event next month, and my beer is the one going to be on the spot.  So, for the first two beers I’m making an IPA and a Pumpkin ale.  Here are the recipes.

God Is Good IPA

Preboil tea
3-1/2 gallons (17 L) water
1 pound 60L Crystal malt
2 pounds 2 row malt
7 pounds pale liquid malt extract
1-1/2 ounces Centennial hops (bittering) (60 min)
1 teaspoon Irish Moss
1/2 pound (225 g) light brown sugar
1 ounce Cascade hops (flavoring) (10 min)
1/2 ounce Cascade hops (aroma) (End of boil)
Yeast: Wyeast 1272
Dry Hop
1 ounce Cascade hops (Days 5-7)
Same IPA I just did, slightly modified.  Added some 2 row to boost maltiness, and added the brown sugar with the Irish Moss and the flavoring hops.

Used a grain bag for the grains and sparged the lazy man’s way with a kettle of hot water poured over the grain bag.

Grains in grain bag

Grains in grain bag

Now, what I failed to mention is that I actually started the pumpkin ale first.  I’m putting the IPA first because it was easy.  The pumpkin ale was a lot more labor intensive.  This year I cheated and used canned pumpkin.  That didn’t speed things up a whole lot.  But, let me finish with the IPA before I begin the pumpkin tale.

So, after sparging I began my boil with my hops.  Added my flavor hops, Irish moss and my brown sugar with 10 minutes left in the boil, then added my aroma hops at the end.

Hops in my IPA

Hops in my IPA

Once done I strained out all the hops and poured the beer into my fermenter, topping it off at 5 gallons.  It should be interesting to see how the brown sugar comes out as opposed to adding it in the secondary.

 

Pumpkin Ale:
Ingredients for 5 gallons
7 lbs extra light malt extract
2 lbs pilsener malt
1 lb 15L Crystal malt
7 ‐ 10 lbs whole pumpkin
2 oz Williamette whole hops (at 75‐90 minutes)
1/2 oz Cascade whole hops (at 75‐90 minutes)
1 oz Mt. Hood hops (at 0 minutes) (aroma)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 vanilla bean, chopped
1/2 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp ground dried ginger
1/4 tsp powdered Irish moss
2 packages of liquid ale yeast, or dry yeast, or an equivalent yeast starter

Cans of pumpkin waiting to become beer

Cans of pumpkin waiting to become beer

Putting pumpkin in my mash

Putting pumpkin in my mash

Now, I started this beer making process about 11am and didn’t fully finish with cleanup and all until 9pm.  I stopped for dinner, but other than that I was solid.

I did a protein rest with the grains at 122 degrees for 30 minutes.  Then I brought the temp up to 150 and added my pumpkin.  I let it sit there for 60 minutes mashing away.

Pumpkin in my mash

Pumpkin in my mash

Once the mash was done I sparged it with about 3 gallons of water.  Now, sparging with pumpkin guts is interesting.  It doesn’t really sparge well.  It sits there dripping every so often.  It got stuck a few times too.  I had to break one of the cardinal rules of sparging and give it a bit of a stir every now and then.

Pumpkin in my lauder tun

Pumpkin in my lauder tun

It took forever to sparge.

Pumpkin and Grain guts

Pumpkin and Grain guts

I had to boil it down as I was sure I had more liquid than 5 gallons.  After taking a break for dinner I got back to my wort and began to boil it again, as I had turned off the stove.  It boiled, I added my hops, let it go for 75 minutes, then added my spices.

Pumpkin Spices (and malt extract)

Pumpkin Spices (and malt extract)

The vanilla bean was interesting.  I forgot how to deal with it, so I looked it up online.  For most applications, you want the insides of the bean.  Those are the vanilla seeds, and they look like a black paste.  The vanilla pod is not normally used, but can be for extract or other flavorings.  After reading up on it’s use, I gutted the vanilla bean, chopped it up and threw the whole thing in, seeds and all.  What the hay!

10 minutes later I added my aroma hops, which were supposed to be Willamette hops, but for some reason I left Steinbarts with Goldings.  I didn’t want to open a brand new bag of Goldings, so I used some Fuggles I had left over.  With my beer sufficiently hop aromaed, I strained all the hops and stuff out, poured it in my bucket, and topped it off to 5 gallons of water.  It seems my fear of too much liquid was unfounded, as I only had about 3 gallons in the bucket before topping off.

Tomorrow sometime I will aerate and pitch my yeast.

Edit:  9/4 and I took my gravity readings and pitched my yeast.  The initial gravity on the IPA was 1.064 and the Pumpkin ale was 1.074.  IPA was lower than last time.  Hmm….

Permanent link to this article: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=890

Weizenbeir, Hefeweizen, Whatever – Batch 52

Finally bottled my wheat beer tonight.  Final gravity was 1.010, giving me my standard 5.25 alcohol by volume for this beer.

Taste was lacking some of the normal wheat sweetness, but had plenty of wonderfully Hallertauer hoppiness.  Can’t wait till it’s bottle conditioned.

Witty Weizenbeir

Witty Weizenbeir

 

Permanent link to this article: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=885

Weizenbeir-Hefeweizen-Wheat whatever- Batch 52

So, a friend of mine asked me if my blog was up to date.  Yes, I said.  He said you haven’t brewed since April.  Yeah, yeah.  My beer supplies are running low, time for a summer beer.

I brewed my traditional Half-a-weizen on Sunday.  Simple recipe- 7lbs liquid wheat malt extract. Hop schedule I used Hallertauer hops: 1-1/3 oz for full boil, 1/3 oz at 10 minutes left, then 1/3 oz for the last 2 minutes.

I pitched the yeast tonight.  Initial gravity was 1.050.  Can’t wait to drink this.  I want to add some peaches to the next wheat I brew.  Maybe next time.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=881

Bottled the IPA and Belgian Dubbel- Batch 50 and 51

Saturday I bottled my IPA and my Dubbel.  The IPA I named “God is Good IPA”, and of course I’m sticking “Rob’s Belgian Dubbel” for the dubbel.  The IPA final gravity came to 1.022, which doing straight math would give a 6.3% alcohol by volume, but I didn’t do the initial and final before and after I added the brown sugar, so this number should be much higher.  I’m guessing closer to 7%, but I’m feeling lazy and don’t want to do the math right now.

The Dubbel ended at 1.016 final gravity, giving me a 6.8% alcohol by volume.  Either my initial was off or Rob got most of the sugars in his batch when we split it, cause this thing should be a lot higher.  Last time we did it I got 8.9%.  Though this is annoying, I will still enjoy this beer, so I’m not going to let it get me down.  I have two great beers to drink!

Permanent link to this article: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=878

How to Crack a Wi-Fi Network’s WPA

I knew it was only a matter of time.  Here’s a nice little guide on how to crack a WPA or WPA2 Wi-Fi using freely available tools.
http://lifehacker.com/5873407/how-to-crack-a-wi+fi-networks-wpa-password-with-reaver

 

Permanent link to this article: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=876

IPA- Batch 50

Last night I added 1/2 pound of brown sugar to my IPA.  Boiled it with 2 cups of water, then waited a bit for it to cool off.  After adding it I noticed the activity pick up on it.  Next step will be dry hopping it.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=873

Brewed an IPA and Rob’s Belgian Dubbel- Batches 50 and 51

So, last night my friend Rob came over and we brewed two beers.  (Note to self:  Brewing two beers on a Friday night is a bit much- do it on a Saturday next time.)

Centennial Hops for the IPA

Centennial Hops for the IPA

We started with the IPA, thinking it would be the easier of the two recipes.  Here’s the recipe we used (inspired by Sam Calagione.)

Preboil tea:
4-1/2 gallons (17 L) water
1 pound (455 g) 60 Lovibond Crystal malt
2 teaspoons (28 g) gypsum
Boil:
8 pounds (3.6 kg) pale liquid malt extract (65 minutes)
1-1/2 ounces (43 g) Centennial hops (bittering) (60 minutes)
1 teaspoon (5 g) Irish Moss
1 ounce (28 g) Cascade hops (flavoring) ( 10 minutes)
1/2 ounce (15 g) Cascade hops (aroma) (End of boil)
Fermentation:
Yeast: Wyeast 1272
1/2 pound (225 g) light brown sugar (Day 2)
Dry Hop:
1 ounce (28 g) Cascade hops (Days 5-7)

Oh, by the way, we DOUBLED both recipes!

So, we got the crystal malts all nice and pretty and mashed, strained the grains out, then started the boil.  Added the 16lbs of liquid malt extract, and then the first hop addition- 3oz of Centennial hops.

 

Hop on Pop? No. Hops in pot.

Hop on Pop? No. Hops in pot.

We boiled for 50 minutes, added 2oz Cascades and some whirlfloc tablets, waited 10 minutes then added 1oz of Cascades.  Strained the hops out, then poured it equally into our fermenters.  Beer 1 done, on to beer #2.

Rob’s Belgian Dubbel

3.3lb Briess Pilsen Light LME
1lb 2oz Pilsner Malt (German Pilsner )
2.25 Aromatic Malt (or German Melanoidin)
1lb 7oz crystal malt (20L)
2.25lb Briess Special Roast Malt (50L) (Domestic “Special Roast” Malt)
2.66lb corn sugar
1.25oz Fuggles hops (60 min)
.33oz Fuggles hops (0 min)
.25oz (7.1g) Curacao orange peel
.5oz (14g) Licorice root
Wyeast 1214 Belgian Ale yeast
1.2 cups corn sugar for priming

We did the grain tea on this one, slowly brought the temp up to 168 degrees over a 30 minute period, then sparged the grains.  Well, at least that was the theory.  The temp didn’t cooperate terribly well with us, but we got it close enough.

Adding grains to pot

Adding grains to pot

We took the grain tea we made, added corn sugar, and began the boil.

Getting temperature on grains

Getting temperature on grains

The hop schedule is pretty simple.  Fuggles at the beginning and fuggles at the end.  The original recipe called for Styrian Goldings, but Steinbarts was out of Goldings.

With 15 minutes remaining in the boil, we added the orange peel, licorice root, and light malt extract.  Finished the boil, added the last fuggles, strained the beer and put it in the fermenters.

Now, I’m waiting for Rob to bring the yeast by so I can pitch it.  I also need to pick up a new hydrometer, as Greggory broke my last one.  Will record initial gravity soon.

Note:  Initial gravity on the IPA was 1.070.  The Dubbel was 1.066.  Both going to be big beers.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=861

Tragor’s Brown Ale- Bottled- Batch 49

Oooh, baby!  Got this thing bottled tonight.  Also got to use my new Christmas present!

Bottling Tree

Bottling Tree

The top part is called an avvinator.  You fill the bowl up with sanitizing solution, use the pump to spray sanitizer into bottles, then hang them on the bottling tree.  Worked great.

Bottle Tree with Bottles

Bottle Tree with Bottles

So, while the kids were doing the bottles, I was sanitizing my bottling bucket.  Then I transferred the beer to the bottling bucket.  Was going to take the final gravity, but my son Greggory in his zeal to help daddy dropped my hydrometer on the floor and broke it.  Grrrrr……  Well, no alcohol content for this beer.  Plus I’m out $7.  Second one I broke to date.

Ended the evening with 45 small bottles and 3 22oz bottles.  Should be ready for our family party next weekend.

Tragor's Brown Ale

Tragor's Brown Ale

Permanent link to this article: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=852

Tragor’s Brown Ale- Batch 49

Christmas Eve.  That time of year when the kids are getting antsy with anticipation.  A feast is being prepared.  Candy is out.  The tree is lit.  There is a festive warmth to the air.  What better time to brew some beer?

Tragor’s Brown Ale, as I am calling this one.  I did have a bit of inspiration with this, though….

Papazian Brown Ale Recipe

Papazian Brown Ale Recipe

I modified the recipe to the following.

7lbs dark malt extract syrup
1/2lb 60L crystal malt
1/4lb black patent malt
2oz Fuggles (boiling)
1/4oz Cascades (finishing)
4tsp Gypsum
English Ale yeast (Wyeast WLP002)

Used a grain bag on the grains, held at 150 degrees for 30 minutes.  Discarded grains, added dark malt extract and brought to a boil.  Normally I wait till it’s boiling before adding the malt.  This time I added it before the boil to prevent it from burning and sticking to the bottom of the pot.  It worked, I had an easy clean up of the pot when I was done.  I bought whole leaf Fuggles for the boil and boiled away.  Added my Cascade pellets with 10 minutes remaining.

Grain Bag

Grain Bag

Brown Ale Wort boiling

Brown Ale Wort boiling

Once done I strained out the hop leaves and poured the lot into my fermenter and topped it off to 5 gallons.  Pitched the yeast Christmas day eve; initial gravity was 1.052.  Should be a nice 5 to 5.25% alcohol by volume.  Tastes yummy so far.  Going to be a good beer.

Brown ale in fermenter

Brown ale in fermenter

 

Permanent link to this article: https://www.brettgorley.com/?p=845