Continue reading]]> It’s been over a year since I last brewed. Working too much and being too broke will do that. But, my good friend Rob wanted to brew, so we brewed. He wanted to do my IPA recipe, so that’s what we brewed.

East India IPA ingredients

10 gallons of IPA sounds pretty good to me! So, we followed the directions I posted way back in my batch 27 post. Only ingredient difference is the yeast- Rob didn’t know what yeast to get so he got some Wyeast 1217 West Coast IPA.

Did the protein rest, 130 degrees for 1/2 hour, 150 degrees for 1/2 hour, and 158 for 1/2 hour. During the boil I went to get some Chinese food, and we had a boil over. Guess I used too much water getting the temperature correct.

Anyways, got all the hops added and Irish moss, then strained the hops out. Had to re-combine both fermenters to make sure both were equally mixed. Now we have two batches of beer waiting for yeast to be pitched.

IPA’s in fermenters

11/2- Pitched yeast this morning. Initial gravity was 1.068, so on track for a decent alcohol percent. Next week we’ll be adding some oak chips.

11/9- boiled oak chips and divided them between the fermenters.

Fermentation has mostly stopped.

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Fresh Hop Ale

Well, finally got around to bottling the fresh hop IPA. I was originally going to rack it to a secondary about a week after brewing, but that didn’t happen.  I still had the hops, so I made a hop tea out of them and added that to my bottling bucket before I transferred the beer.

The beer?  Well, it had a different odor to it.  Not like bad- just like…. green.  Like grass.  Or something.

Final gravity came out to 1.014, for about 7.8% alcohol by volume.  I tasted it too, not sure how I’m going to like this.  I’ll be sad if this doesn’t turn out.

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Fresh Hops

So, my friend Rob Morrison got a ton of fresh hops from a friend.  Naturally, we had to brew.  So, we did a fresh hop IPA based on my God is Good beer recipe.

Here is the modified recipe:

3 gallons water
1 pound 60L Crystal malt
2 pounds 2 row malt
7 pounds pale liquid malt extract
1 oz Cascade hops (pre-boil)
2.5 oz Cascade hops (bittering) (60 min)
1 oz Cascade hops (30 minute)
1 oz Cascade hops (20 minute)
1 oz Cascade hops (10 minute)
1 oz Cascade hops (aroma) (2 min)
Yeast: White Labs WLP051 California Ale V Yeast

Pre-Boil Tea

So, we steeped the grains in 145 degree water for 40 minutes along with an ounce of hops.  After straining the hops and grains added more water and brought the whole thing to a boil.  We added the malt extract when we had a good boil, then pitched in the 2.5oz of hops.

At 30 minutes added another ounce of hops.  Then again at 20 minutes.  Then again at 10.  Then at 2 minutes left.  Think we used enough hops?

Hops to add

We strained the hops out and threw it into our fermenter and topped it off to 5 gallons.  The hop aroma coming from this was beautiful.  I think I may have to be stingy with this one.

We also bottled the peach wheat beer tonight.  Guess what I’m naming it?

Isn’t That A Peach?

Final gravity was 1.006.  So, with a start of 1.050, then to 1.012, then to 1.014 after the peaches, the total change of 0.046, times 105 is 4.83, times 1.25 is 6.04 percent alcohol by volume.  My other wheat is 5.5%.  Not bad.

Edit: 8/31 I aerated my IPA and pitched the yeast.  Initial gravity was 1.064.  Same as the last time I brewed this.

Continue reading]]> 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.

Continue reading]]> 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

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

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

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

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

It took forever to sparge.

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)

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….

Continue reading]]> 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!

Continue reading]]> 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

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.

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

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

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.

Continue reading]]> Friday I made a batch of my East India IPA.  I redid the recipe from last time, with only two differences.  As I was getting my ingredients, Steinbarts ran out of the 120L crystal malt.  So, I used 1/4lb of the 120L crystal and 1/4lb 80L crystal.  I also had access to some loose leaf Cascade hops, which was nice as I am all out of Cascade pellets. I used some Safale SA-04 English ale yeast, as it’s cheap and it’s what I used the last time I made this and it turned out great.

Grains added to the pot

Added the grains to 1 gallon of water and did a protein rest at 130 for 30 minutes.

Greggory helping me brew

After the protein rest I added 1/2 gallon of near-boiling water to the grains to bring it up to 150.  The strange thing was it should have done it easily, as technically 1/4 gallon should have.  I eventually got things settled at 150 degrees and let it simmer there for 45 minutes.

Josiah helping me also

Mashing the grains

Next, I took the temp up to 158 for 15 minutes, then up to 168 to stop the conversion process.  I sparged with 2 gallons of 170 degree water.  I added 1/2 the gypsum to the boil water and 1/2 to the sparge water.

Sparging the grains

Once sparged I began the boil.  Had an incident with the malt extract bucket falling into the water and splashing wort all over the stove.  Argh!  Cleaned that up and realized I wasn’t stirring the malt extract, and naturally some got scorched on the bottom of the pot.

Once the boil started I added the first batch of hops.  2oz of Chinook and 1/2oz of Centennial.  Wowza!  Hoppy goodness!

2.5OZ Chinook and Centennial Hops

At the 30 minute boil mark I added 1/4oz Centennial and 1/4oz of the loose leaf Cascades.  With 2 minutes remaining I added the remaining Cascades, which was 1/2oz worth.  More than last time, but didn’t see the need to leave them sitting around.  Another thing I forgot this time was the Irish Moss.  Grr…..

Filtered out the hops as best as I could and added it to my fermenter, topping it off to 5 gallons.  Yesterday I aerated the beer, took my hydrometer reading and pitched the yeast.  My initial gravity came out to 1.074, more than last time I brewed this.  Hmm…. ok.  Maybe my sparging was better this time.  Who knows.

The fermentation has really kicked off on this.  I plan on letting it go for a week then transferring it to a secondary fermenter with some oak chips.  Should add more to this delightfully wonderful beer.

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East India IPA logo

I finally had time to bottle my IPA I made two weeks ago.  Let’s just say that my sample of this tasted as good if not better than most commercial IPA’s I’ve tried.  It was darn good.

Final gravity turned out to be 1.012, giving me a 7.09% alcohol by volume.  The bitterness from the hops is pronounced, but not overpowering.  And the aroma is great.

I’m sitting on this for at least two weeks before I crack one open.  And, when I do, I happen to have saved two bottles of my Bombay IPA to try along side and compare.