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Kegged

From the fermentation log:

2/5
8:20 am 66°, 106 ppm. Plugged in heater.
2:45 pm 72°. Unplugged heater.
9:40 pm 68°, 64 ppm. Plugged in heater.

2/6
9:15 am 73°, 22 ppm. Unplugged heater.
7:30 pm 68°. Plugged in heater.
9:35 pm 70°, 6 ppm.

2/7
8:00 am 74°, 5 ppm. Unplugged heater.
9:30 pm 66°, 0 ppm.

2/10
racked to carboy
SG: 1.006 at 66° = 1.007.
ABV: 4.7%

2/24
kegged
FG: 1.006 at 68° = 1.007.
ABV: 4.7%

Amber Ale

Saturday, 2/3/07

Amber Ale, adapted from Bob's Homebrew Supply recipe:

8.5 lb. 2-row (Gambrinus)
1.5 lb. Munich malt (Briess Organic)
1 lb. 60 L Crystal malt (Breiss)
2 oz. roasted barley (Hugh Baird)
1.5 oz. Chocolate malt (Hugh Baird)

2 oz. Cascade hops (60 min.)
1 oz. Cascade hops (last 5 min.)
1 oz. Cascade hops (last 1 min.)

1028 London ale


1:39 Started heating mash water.
2:15 Transfer water to mash tun.
2:25 Dough-in complete. Temperature at 154° F.

Temperature held steady until the first stirring of the mash at 2:40, when it dropped to 149° and held steady there. This may have been due to the stirring spoon being rinsed in cold water before being returned to the mash tun. Added a teapot full of hot water near the end of the mash, but it didn't raise the temperature much.

3:35 Begin sparge.

Ken brought over the bottling bucket and we used that as a sparge water dispenser. It was much easier using a gravity feed instead of ladling in the sparge water as we have done in the past.



3:55 Start heating wort.
4:18 Begin boil. Added 2 oz. Cascade hops.



5:13 Added 1 oz. Cascade hops.
5:17 Added 1 oz. Cascade hops.
5:18 Begin cooling wort.
5:50 Pitched yeast.

OG: 1.042 at 75° = 1.044. Seems a little low.


Sunday, 2/4/07

10:15 am 62°, 2 ppm. Installed "Brew Belt" heater to raise temperature.

5:30 pm 70°. Unplugged heater.

9:30 pm 70°, 128 ppm.

Imperial Stout

Notes from brewing session on October 28, 2006

Imperial Stout
Recipe from Bob of Bob's Homebrew Supply

OG 1.080 - 1.082

11 lb Gambrinus 2 row
20 oz roasted barley
16 oz brown malt
16 oz 80 L Crystal malt
8 oz flaked barley

1 lb dark candy sugar

26 AAU Magnum 60 minutes
1 oz Kent Goldings 30 minutes
1 oz Kent Goldings 5 minutes

Single step infusion mash @ 150-152 F for 60 minutes

Yeast 1084 Irish ale or 1056 American ale


Irish ale yeast was not available; we used Wyeast 1098 British

Mash water quantity: 14.8 lb. grain X 1.25 quarts/lb. + 4.5 = 23 quarts

Water to grain ratio: 23 / 14.8 = 1.55 quarts/lb.

Strike water temperature:
Tw = (.2/r)(T2-T1)+T2
Tw = (.2/1.55)(152-70)+152
Tw = .13 X 82 + 152
Tw = 162.7° F


My record keeping for this batch was pretty weak. Here's what I was able to scrounge up from the few notes I took:

2:00 mash in
3:00 begin sparge
4:25 begin boil

OG: 1.074 (?)

10/29 am 120 ppm

10/29 10:40 pm 170 ppm

11/3 9:30 am 4 ppm 65F

11/6 Racked to carboy

11/21 Kegged

FG: 1.014


As for the Wee Heavy, it was kegged on or about 10/15 and tapped 10/28 during our brewing session. A very good brew, but not one of my favorites. At 7.9% ABV, it's a bit strong and the alcohol is very apparent in the taste. A good sipping ale for winter enjoyment.

Racked

Racked the Wee Heavy Scotch today. It smelled awesome, tasted a little sweet. Gravity was measured as 1.014 at 68 degrees = 1.015. ABV: (1.074-1.015)/.75 = 7.9%.

Here's the fermentation log for the week:

9/24 10:45 am 52 ppm

9/24 10:00 pm 200 ppm 70 F


9/25 am Krausen had invaded the airlock during the night, it had clogged and blown off. After much searching, finally found it under the freezer. Cleaned it up and reinstalled, but it was quickly re-invaded, this time by just a little foam. But at this point it wasn't so much popping as just blowing off a steady stream of CO2. Put it in the refrigerator for about an hour in the morning, then again for about three hours in the evening.

9/25 10:35 pm 42 ppm 66 F

9/26 9:20 am 36 ppm 68 F

9/26 10:45 pm 32 ppm 70 F

9/27 9:10 am 22 ppm 69 F

9/27 11:55 pm 14 ppm 70 F

9/28 9:40 am 20 ppm 69 F

9/28 11:20 pm 14 ppm 69 F

9/29 9:10 am 10 ppm 68 F

9/29 11:15 pm 8 ppm 68 F

9/30 11:35 pm 4 ppm 67 F


Here's the fermented ale ready to rack.


The Wee Heavy sitting in the 5-gallon carboy, it's home for the next couple weeks.

Wee Heavy Scotch Ale

Started with this recipe, found at http://byo.com/recipe/1491.html:


Steelhead Brewing Company
Burlingame, California

Steelhead Wee Heavy Scotch Ale
(5 gallon/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.105 FG = 1.030
IBU = 25 SRM = 28 ABV = 9.6%

Ingredients
20.5 lbs. (9.3 kg) Great Western pale malt
10.9 oz. (0.31 kg) Belgian Special B malt
9.33 oz. (0.26 kg) Belgian biscuit malt
2.2 oz. (62 g) Briess chocolate malt
7 AAU Nugget hops (60 mins)
(0.53 oz./15 g of 13% alpha acids)
3 AAU Mt Hood hops (20 mins)
(0.5 oz./14 g of 6% alpha acids)
English or Scottish ale yeast
(4 qt./~4 L starter)
0.75 cups corn sugar (for priming)

Step by Step
Heat 6.8 gallons (26 L) of strike water to 164 °F (73 °C) and mash grains at 153 °F (67 °C) for 60 minutes. Collect about 11 gallons (42 L) of wort. (Specific gravity of pre-boil wort will be around 1.047.) Boil for 3 hours (or longer) to reduce volume to 5 gallons (19 L), adding hops at times indicated in ingredient list. Ferment at 60 °F (16 °C).



Variations/specifics:
Added 2 oz. smoked malt
Used 2 oz. Nugget hops
Used about 1.5 oz. Mount Hood hops
Used Wyeast 1728 Scottish yeast


Saturday 9/23

8:30 am - Set out water (should have done this the night before).
9:00 - Breakfast at Sunflour Cafe with Robert, Ken and Jonathan.
10:15 - Provisioning at Bob's. No substitutions necessary, he had everything specified in the recipe (except the chocolate malt was another brand, not Breiss).
12:30 - Begin boiling water for mash.
1:10 - Dough in complete. Final temperature was 153 F, exactly what we were shooting for. Temperature fell to about 151 after 30 minutes, so added a cup or two of recently boiled water to get it back up to 153.
2:10 - Begin sparge.



Ended up sparging too much -- continued to add sparge water until nearly 11 gallons had been collected, then drained off at least 2 more from the residual water in the grain bed. Added to brew kettle all of first bucket (5.5 gallons) and a little more than half the second to get about 9 gallons in brew kettle to start. Added a little more part way through the boil, but probably less than 10 gallons overall.

4:00 - Begin boil



7:20 - Added Nugget hops
8:00 - Added Mount Hood hops


Ken minding the brew.

8:20 - Begin chilling wort

Pitched the yeast about 9:00.

Original gravity: 1.074 at 80 degrees F = 1.076

Ken was here through dough in, then came back in time to add the homegrown Mount Hood hops and wrap everything up. It was a beautiful sunny day. We finished off the HL 2.0.

Fermentation is off to a good start. As of this morning, Sunday 9/24, at 10:45, the airlock was popping at 52 ppm.

Homegrown Hops

I'm getting a small harvest of Mt. Hood hops from the plant I planted last year.



Here's a closeup of the cones harvested today: