Continue reading]]> What a great day! Started out with biscuits and gravy, watching some football, and bottling my oatmeal stout!

So, bottling beer is a lot of sanitizing and making sure everything is clean before you bottle. So, gallons of sanitizing solution later I have things clean and ready to bottle.

One important thing is to calculate your alcohol by volume. Final gravity was 1.018. Take your initial gravity (1.056), subtract your final gravity (1.018) to find the total sugars eaten by the yeast (0.038). Multiply that by 105 (which gives you 3.99), then multiply that amount by 1.25 and that gives you 4.99%, which is your alcohol by volume. Real close to 5%. Last time I made was exactly 13 years ago and it was 4.5% alcohol by volume. SHEESH! 2009 on October 30th was when I bottled this one the last time I made it!!! Crazy!

My wife hand wrote the labels, as it’s been years since I’ve had a working inkjet printer. I’m so looking forward to this beer!

Continue reading]]> I’ve brewed this bad boy many times, and I love it! It’s been 3 years since I’ve last brewed (11/3/2019), so I’m long overdue!

This classic Charlie Papazian recipe calls for 1lb of quick oats, 4 lbs of 6 row, 1/2 lb crystal malt (I used 60l crystal), 1/2 lb chocolate malt, 1/4 lb roasted barley, 3.3 lbs dark malt extract ( I used a 3lb bag of dry malt as they were out of their 3.3lb liquid malt), 2 oz Willamette hops, Irish moss and Irish style ale yeast. They didn’t have my regular Wyeast 1084 irish ale yeast so I ended up going with a different brand.

So, it’s been so long I decided to clean and sterilize all my equipment. A long bleach soak for all my fermenters and lauder tun and a good washing for my brew pots.

Started with my grains. Got my water up to 150 degrees, then put my grains into a grain bag and dropped them in, bringing the temperature down to 133. Well, that’s the goal. It was a bit higher than that so I added a touch of cold water. Kept the temp there for 30 minutes for the protein rest.

Added 6 quarts of boiling water to bring the temp up to 155 degrees. This took some finesse to keep the temp steady at 155, but I was able to do it. Kept it there for 45 minutes to extract all the yummy goodness!

One point I missed was that I added gypsum to the water before the protein rest. I also added some to the sparge water because it helps with the extraction. Plus the harder water gives it a more authentic Irish feel.

After the 45 minutes brought the temp up to 167 (it actually got higher and I melted my grain bag- oops!) Then i sparged the grains with 2 gallons of 170 degree water. Once done there was still stuff in my grains! I want it all! So another gallon of hot water to get the nummy goodness out of those grains!

I used my larger brew pot to do the boil, plus thanks to my gas stove and large brewpot I used two burners to get the wort up to boiling. Once boiling I added my dark malt extract and my hops which were placed in a hops bag.

After an hour boil I transferred it to my fermenter to cool. Oh, yeah! BEER!!! Can’t WAIT!!!!

10/23/2022- The next morning I aerated the beer and pitched the yeast. Initial gravity was 1.056. Close to what it was the last time I brewed this back in 2010. HOLY CRAP, it’s been that long? My blog doesn’t lie, so I guess it was.

I can’t wait for this beer to be done! I do need to go through my beer bottles and clean those out (and dump some old beer that’s probably not good anymore….)

Continue reading]]> What can I say? Freaking MEAD!!!

The boys helped me bottle, plus I had a few others join in.

Took the final gravity- 1.020. Initial gravity was 1.102. Take the difference, multiply that by 105, then multiply that by 1.25 to get the alcohol by volume. 10.76% alcohol. YES!

10.76% alcohol by volume. And it tasted yummy!!!

Continue reading]]> I’m sick of not being able to brew beer. So, despite some horrible personal news that should have derailed all my plans, I pushed on and brewed two batches of beer. Well, one batch of beer and a mead that I’ve been meaning to make for over a year.

The mead recipe: 15lbs honey, yeast nutrients, water. Then yeast. Yay!

My Big Fat Oatmeal Stout recipe:

2 lbs quick oats
3 lbs light malt extract
6 lbs liquid dark malt extract
1-1/2 lbs 60L crystal malt
1/2 lb chocolate malt
1/2 lb roasted barley
1/4 lb black patent
4 tsp gypsum
1oz Centennial hops (boiling)
1 oz Cascade hops (boiling)
1/2 oz Cascade hops (10 minutes left)
1/2 oz Cascade hops (2 minutes left)
1/4 tsp Irish Moss (10 minutes left)
Irish Ale Yeast

Started the mead first. The eternal debate on mead is whether to boil or not. Papazian recommends a 15 minute boil to make sure. I decided to do a different route and just pasteurize it- brought the temp up to just below a boil and then transfer to my fermenter. Then I topped it off to over 5 gallons. Eazy cheezy!

Now the Stout. I couldn’t find the clip I normally use to clip my grain bag to my pot, so I just let it float in there.

My temp got away from me there- had to take it off the stove for the last 15 minutes. Then I ran hot water through the grains to try to get all the yumminess out of the grains. Then I added the light malt extract and bittering hops and started the boil

With 10 minutes left I added the Irish Moss and the flavor hops. Then with 2 minutes left I added the aroma hops, then killed the temperature and began to strain the hops out. Again I used hot water to rinse the hops as I removed them to get all the yummy goodness out of them. Got it transferred to my fermenter and let it rest.

This morning I took the initial gravity and pitched the yeast. Initial gravity was 1.102 on the mead, the stout was 1.092. Both are going to be some high alcohol beers!

Continue reading]]> It’s been so long since I brewed I’ve almost forgot how to do it. So, I was reminiscing and found an excel spreadsheet I created- my beer database.  Everything I’ve ever brewed and how I thought about it.  All my successes and failures since 2007.

First, how I rate my own beers:

Now, my Beer Database:

If you’ve had one of my beers, chime in and tell me what you thought of it!

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Tracy's Framboise

Tonight we bottled Tracy’s Framboise that’s been sitting in the fermenter since March 1st.  All that time sitting there had me extremely curious as to how it would turn out, especially since the trub in the fermenter looked nasty.

Brett siphoning beer

Siphoned the beer into my bottling bucket, then took the final gravity, which came to 1.004.  Wow, talk about a lot of fermentation.  Almost all of the original 1.044 has been eaten up by those Belgium yeasts.  Alcohol came to 5.25% given that final gravity.

Nasty Looking Beer Trub

Brett prepping to take final gravity

The Hydrometer Reading

Once the final gravity was done I added the raspberry flavoring to the batch.

Adding raspberry extract to beer

Now, this presented a problem, not in terms of how much to add, but in terms of how much fermentable sugars are there.  If the syrup has some or a lot, then the beer can over ferment in the bottle.  If not any and I short the amount of bottling sugar, I won’t have well carbonated beer.  Doing what any trained scientist would do, I guessed.  Added all the extract, then used 1/3 cup corn sugar for bottling sugar.   A bit nervous, but hopefully all goes well.  I’ll keep checking on the bottles through the next few weeks.

Beer Yeast being pitched

Next, I pitched the yeast.  I added corn sugar to a tad bit of water, heated it up to dissolve, then added the yeast once the water got back down to reasonable temperatures.  The reason I’m pitching new yeast was that I’m pretty sure after all this time the old yeast is mostly gone from the beer, thus will need some fresh yeast for bottle conditioning.  I used Safale 33, a Belgian strain.  Thought I had a generic ale yeast instead, but this is what I had.

Bottling Tracy's Framboise

Now, it’s time to bottle.  Started bottling, using some nice, pretty red bottle caps I picked up.  The beer has a wonderful color to it, and the flavor at this point is very dry (given the amount of fermentation), and tart.  Not a lot of sweetness, which would be hard to do given my current setup, but good.  Can’t wait to see what it’s like in 2 weeks.

Framboise in clear bottle

Got quite a few bottles from this batch.  I hope Tracy loves this and treasures it!  It’s all for her!

Continue reading]]> Wednesday evening I brewed a Beamish Stout clone, thanks to the clone recipe we got from a magazine with 150 recipies in it.  We used the extract recipe, not the all grain recipe listed below.

Beamish Recipe from Magazine

So, gathered the ingredients, put some water on the kettle, and began mashing the grains.

Beamish Stout beer ingredients

The recipe called for 3.3lbs light liquid malt extract, 1lb light dry malt extract, 1/2lb 2 row,  1/2lb wheat malt,  6oz cane sugar,  4oz crystal malt,  6oz chocolate malt,  4.5oz roasted barley,  and 1.5oz black patent malt.  The hops it calls for are .5oz Challenger (which I didn’t have, so I substituted Fuggles) and .6oz Kent Goldings for bittering hops, then 1/4oz of Hallertauer for aroma hops.

Got the grains mashing for 30 minutes at 145 degrees roughly, then sparged the grains.  I cheated a bit and didn’t use my lauder tun, as that is designed for a lot more grains than I was using.

Beer Grains mashing

Sparging Grains

After sparging, I added the malt extracts and the sugar to my wort.

Adding Dry Malt Extract

Adding Liquid Malt Extract

Adding Sugar to Wort

Now, with liquid extracts, I always have some hot water standing by to dissolve the remains inside the can, to insure I get as much of the extract as possible.  I’ve also learned to use an oven mitt when handling the can after adding the hot water (yes, I’ve burned myself before.)

Hot Water in Extract Can

Next I got my wort to a boil and added my bittering hops.  Here I have to admit a minor mistake.  I decided to substitute Fuggles for the Challengers, and since Fuggles have less alpha acid’s than Challengers, I added a touch more than called for.  Unfortunately, I forgot to look at the recipe (which called for 1/2 oz of Challenger) and assumed it called for an ounce.  So I added 1-1/4 oz of Fuggles.  Grr…..

Bittering Hops

Note to brewers out there:  Don’t brew when your overly tired!  You will make a mistake or two.

While the wort is boiling, I got my fermentation bucket sanitized and my Irish moss hydrated.

Sanitizing Bucket

Irish Moss

During the last 15 minutes I added the Irish moss and the aroma hops.  Once the boil was complete I emptied the sanitized water, strained the beer into my sanitized bucket, and topped of the bucket to 5 gallons.

Pouring Wort in Strainer

Hop Pellets in Strainer

I won’t mentioned that I accidentally knocked the strainer into the beer.  I won’t!  Honestly, I didn’t really do that.  (Ok, I did.  Sue me!)

Beer in Fermenter

Thursday morning I measured the initial gravity (1.044) and pitched the yeast.  This has the potential of around 5% alcohol per volume.   I’m seriously looking forward to trying this.  I freaking love Beamish!

Continue reading]]> Last night I brewed my first seasonal beer using Papazian’s recipe for something he calls “Holiday Cheer.”  It uses 7lbs of light malt extract, 1/2lb of crystal malt, 2oz of black malt, 1lb of honey, orange peels, fresh ground ginger root, and cinnamon.  It also uses Cascade and Saaz hops, but since I don’t have any Saaz I substituted Hallertauer instead.

After mashing the small amount of grains and boiling the wort, I added the malt extract and the honey and the Cascades.  It was amazing to see how such a small amount o black malt can add so much color.  The smell of the honey and the malt were quite noticeable.  After the 60 minute boil I added the cinnamon, ginger root, and orange peels, and let them boil for 15 minutes.  2 minutes before the end of the boil I added the Hallertauers.

I aerated and pitched the yeast this morning, after taking the initial gravity, which came out to 1.052.  So, this beer has the potential to be over 6% alcohol.  My guess is that it will turn out to around 5.5%.  Not too shabby.  Definitely enough to warm you over the holidays.

My thanks to Robert for pitching in for this one.  I’ll definitely make it worth your while!

Batch 19 is ready to brew as well, which is a Beamish stout clone.  Oooohhhh, I absolutely love Beamish, so I’m really looking forward to that one.

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I’ve brewed 9 batches of beer since I began this brewing adventure back in Christmas, and it has been a learning process. And, as most people will attest to, no learning is complete without some failure.

My second batch was my first attempt at oatmeal stout, and despite the fun we had brewing it, we burnt the oatmeal, and that burnt flavor took over the beer and ruined it. So, lesson learned? Don’t burn grains! Use a grain bag, then remove the grains before you crank the heat up.

My 4th batch was a German style Hefeweizen, which actually came out tasting more like a Weizenbock. It was delicious, but WAY over-carbonated. I did add more than the standard 3/4 cup of corn sugar, but I was still below the 1 cup mark. The over-foaming could be the result of a bacterial infection in the beer. Lesson learned? Better sanitation is needed when I brew.

Batch 5 was an attempt to utilize the ingredients my brother gave me at Christmas in this beer kit. It had some malt extract and some grains. I attempted to make some wort with the grains with the help of my friend Jared, and we attempted to strain them out then add the malt extract. I had no gelatin to use to bottle, and I didn’t put any Irish Moss in to help settle things. The result? Sludge beer. Some bottles had 1/2 inch of sediment in the bottom. The beer ended up tasting like a muddy amber. Ugh! I tossed it all. Lesson learned? Don’t use old ingredients, and when using grains use a grain bag or better filtration.

Batches 6 and 7 were a traditional bitter and an IPA, made from can’s of extract bought at the beer store. My goal here was just to get a bunch of drinkable beer so I will have something in the fridge, freeing me up to experiment more with brewing. Well, it worked. The beers are drinkable. The IPA is NOT an IPA, it tastes more like a hoppy amber. The bitter is ok, nothing to brag about, but I like it. Jared seemed to detect something in his palate when drinking both of these, which he thought might be bacteria. That may be possible, as I ran out of spring water making these and ended up using some tap water in them. There is also that sanitation issue again, as the kitchen was a disaster when I brewed these. But, whatever that slight taste was that he detected, I still drink these beers. They’re not that bad. Lesson learned: Better Sanitation, and clean the kitchen before brewing and bottling.

Now, we move on to batch 8, which was an American style hefeweizen, supposedly a Widmer clone. I got this from the beer store I got the ingredients from. Now, the recipe only included the ingredients, and that’s it. No description of how much beer it was supposed to make, nothing. So, I assumed a 5 gallon batch, did the grains as per Papazian’s directions on doing a mini-mash, then got the wort boiling and added the wheat extract and the hops. Now, instead of pitching the very expensive yeast I bought and calling it good, I got the hair brained idea to culture the yeast first. I attempted to be sanitary when doing so, sanitizing two beer bottles, filling them with filtered water and corn sugar, then putting 1/2 the yeast into it the two bottles to culture, then pitching the other 1/2 into the beer. I left the bottles out for a few hours to ferment- uncovered (what a dingledorf I am sometimes,) then put them in the fridge and capped them. The yeast I pitched into the beer didn’t take off. After 2 days I decided to pitch one of the beer bottles I cultured into it to get the fermentation going. Well, fermentation began, and kept going, and kept going, and kept going. 14 days of active fermentation. I was getting worried. After it was done I bottled it, and tasted it. At first it tasted like strong alcohol mixed with a light wheat beer. I had no idea what was going on and why it turned out like it did. Then I read what Papazian said about culturing yeast, and infections in the yeast turning your beer into a “band-aid” type taste. Grr…. what a freaking moron! I just ruined an expensive batch of beer by trying something on my own before really reading up on how to do it properly and not doing it sanitary enough. Lesson learned: Don’t mess with the yeast, unless you’re properly prepared to deal with it. There is no room for mistakes with the yeast.

Now my batch I brewed Saturday is batch 9, my second attempt at an oatmeal stout. I followed Papazian’s recipe for his mini-mash oatmeal stout. The only problems I ran into is I slightly melted my grain bag, as it was resting at the bottom of my pot when I turned up the heat to heat up the wort. I didn’t detect any off flavors in the beer, which is good. But I did ruin my grain bag. I also had difficulties in filtering the wort before I boiled it as well as sparging the grains, as I don’t really have a lauder-tun, nor do I have a filter type thingey which fits over my bucket nicely to allow me to focus on pouring. I ended up holding a colander with cheese cloth in it while someone else poured. Not the best method of filtering. I was super-anal about sanitation this time, I kept sanitizing agent in my beer bucket right until the point I was ready to pour my beer into it, and I sanitized EVERYTHING! And I got some yummy tasting oatmeal stout.

So, lesson learned? Get the right equipment for the job, be extra careful about how clean your work area is, be extra careful how you sanitize things, always have specific directions on your recipes, and don’t take any unnecessary chances.

This isn’t rocket science, it’s beer, and that means it’s important!

Continue reading]]> I brewed batch 9 yesterday, some Oatmeal Stout.  I used Papazian’s mini-mash recipe from The Complete Joy of Homebrewing.  Now, I purchased the grains a few weeks ago and had them crushed when I purchased them so I wouldn’t have to try to do it myself.  Of course, no one told me to brew them right away, so they’ve been sitting here for weeks waiting till I can get time to brew it.

I started out whipping out my grain bag and throwing all the grains in.  Then I put them all in 1-1/2 gallons of water and steeping it at 133 degrees for 1/2 hour.  Then I brought up the temp to 150 for 45 minutes, adding boiling water to help bring it up.  Then I took it up to 167 degrees for 15 minutes.  While all this wort brewing was happening, I sanitized my buckets and some cheese cloth and other utensils I might need.

Once my wort was done, I carefullly removed the grain bag and set it aside for a moment.  The bag had ripped (actually slightly melted then ripped), so I had to strain the wort to remove a bit of oatmeal that had escaped.  Then I sparged the grains as best I could, burning the crap out of myself in the process.  Sparging meant holding the grains in a strainer over a bucket while my wife poured hot water all over my hands and the grains.  I need to invest in better equipment!

Then off to boil the wart!  I added 2 OZ of Willamette hops and boiled away.  Now, I had a problem.  The recipe calls for 3.3 lbs of dark malt extract at this point, but my brew pot was near the rim.  Grr…..    I had to wait about 30 minutes for enough of the liquid to boil out to add the malt extract.

After an hour in the pot, I poured a gallon of cold water into by brew bucket, added the wort (I used a hops bag so I didn’t have to strain the hops out), and topped it off to 5 gallons.

Now, silly me, I normally take a small bit out to taste, but I was late to get somewhere, so me and the family rushed out the door at this time.  So, I figured I’d wait till I pitched the yeast to taste it.

This morning, before church , I airated the beer and pitched the yeast, making my wife angry at me in the process (oops!)  Before I pitched, I sanititzed a cup and removed a small amount of beer to taste.  Needless to say, my tasting was interrupted by the aforementioned wife, so I wasn’t able to sample the fruit of my labor until this evening.

After spending Easter with the family, we got home and put stuff away and settled in and I noticed this cup sitting on the counter with some beer in it.  So, despite the fact that it’s been sitting out all day, I tasted it.

Wow!  That was good!  This oatmeal stout is going to be an amazing beer!

So, I can’t wait till it’s bottled and ready to drink.  I’ve had enough beer failures since I’ve been at this and I’m ready for an amazing drink of my own crafting.