Brewhemoth Brewday - Grains are here

Three guys, possibly four, maybe 5 brews. After some consideration I'll be brewing a Black Pearle Porter courtesy of BierMuncher over at HBT, BRoss will be brewing a Stone Arrogant Bastard clone from Brew 365and last I heard, Shady will be brewing a Centennial Blonde from BierMuncher over at HBT.

The fourth brew is possibly going to be a black ale loosely based on Tui Dark. The plan at this stage is to use a Black Rock Miners Stout extract tin, a Black Rock Dark LME tin and possibly a dry stout enhancer pack from Copper Tun. Some mention on HBT about throwing in some other hops as well, it likely I might. At the end of the day it could be a good brew!

The last an highly likely not going to happen brew will be a collaboration brew between all three brewers, depending on whats left over. I have roughly 2kg of base grains in my cupboard, so there is potential, obviously dependent on whats left over to brew a mini batch of something. Thinking a stout with some throw ins, maybe raspberry...not sure yet, time will tell.

Speaking of hops.....

 

JD SMaSH bottling

The time has well and truly come and gone to bottle. I've been sick, so haven't really felt like bottling. But today I bit the bullet and bottled.

12 500ml bottles from various New Zealand Craft Breweries and 24 745ml bottles from the Commercial crowd

 

 

Note the kiwi ingenuity and using a beer crate as a seat :-)

Shot of the beer after it'd been sitting for a while, still pretty light. All good, might be a summer ale yet.

Jack Daniels wood chips during bottling. Little bit of liquid gold left in there.

 Krausen line and trub left in the bottom of the fermenter

Lessons learned from the brew?

None really, not more than what you see below.

I have 2 30L pots now so I'm slowly working to proper all grain brewing. Get rid of the bag and use a pot or chilly bin as a mash tun. It'll work. Just need some time.

Next brew is a porter. Might throw in the rest of the Jack Daniels chips to use em up.

Watch this space!!

SMaSH

Well, I have bee  a little slack with updates but I've brewed a new brew.
With this one, I wanted something cheap, just to see if it was possible.

I settled on a Single Malt and Single Hop (SMaSH) but decided to throw some Jack Daniels barrel chips. I soaked the chips in Jack Daniels for a week before dumping them in the fermenter.

Porridge

Hadn't got my new pot, I was brewing alone and I had a 2 year old in the lounge amusing herself, so off I went. Note to self, 23 litres of water and 8kgs of grains makes for a VERY full pot. Once I finally get rid of the bag, it'll be better.

After sparging and just about loosing the grain bag on the floor on more than one occasion, I finally got a boil going.

Rolling boil with hop bag

I hit the OG of 1.072, pretty stoked about that, so off she went into the fermenter. A week later and in goes 50g of Jack Daniels barrel chips and about 150ml of Jack Daniels.

As you can see its pretty pale. I think that's due to the nature of it being a single malt. It was 8kg of Marris Otter, a pale malt, so the beer will be pale. I wasn't expecting it to be this pale though. Note that this pic is also after the chips and Jack Daniels were added. Not much colour has leaked as yet, but it was only three days.

FG was off a bit, aim was 1.015, I hit 1.020, so comes in at 6.8% not 7& abv. Suppose that's not really an issue right, only 0.5%.

I'll keep checking it, maybe every second day to see how the flavours develop. Last test, there was some distinguishable bourbon and vanilla flavours, quite nice.

Might brew again, but I'll use a darker beer, like a porter.

Watch this space in about 3 weeks for a taster :-)

Pale Ale show down

So, I finally got around to testing/tasting my Epic Pale Ale clone vs the real deal.

First off, I only used New Zealand Cascade. Epic used US Cascade only. I think this is a massive difference in the beer. I am a self confessed hop head. I like hoppy beer, I love the smell and taste of hops. Therefore I brewed my favourite Pale Ale.

First off you'll notice the haze in the clone (one the left). I'm not 100% sure why there is a haze and I'm not really worried by it. Second is the head on the clone. Its big and its lasts, all the way through. On the Epic, it doesn't.

  

Next is the aroma. This is where the NZ Cascade comes into its own. Biggest thing I noticed was more passion and tropical fruits from the US Cascade. NZ Cascade was more citrus and was much more dominant. Taste is very much the same. Epic have done an amazing job with their Pale Ale and I still rate it as one of my favourite beers, but, I think if they were to use NZ Cascade, it'd be MUCH better.

I guess it comes down to why you brew. I brew because I enjoy beer. I brew because I enjoy brewing. I brew for myself and SWMBO, but mainly for me. I enjoyed it and I will brew it again and again. House Ale I feel.

 On a side note, I managed to score a cheap pot. Its a 30L so a little smaller than my current brewpot, but it'd make a good mash tun. Just need to buy a weldless dial thermometer, sight glass and a false bottom, then we'll be good. Other thing to, got a 2 ring burner, so outside to brew now, not longer on the stove top stinking out the house.

I.R.A

Just a pic of the Irish Red Ale at bottling time.

A Dutchman a Scots/Irishman and a Red Ale

Picture this: a Dutchman, a Scots/Irishman, 4.7kg of grains, 48g of hops, 11g of dried yeast, a 31 litre kettle, a two ring burner, and a half empty gas bottle. That equals a 5 hour brew day!

The birth of an Irish Red has taken place and a decent red she will be! The recipe is from HomeBrewTalk – Quaffable Irish Red. While the actual recipe I used slightly differs mainly due to the grains I used and the hops I could get my hands on, I give credit where it’s due. Check out the differences of the brews here.

This brew is for my birthday next month, along with the American. I chose an Irish Red because I quite like Kilkenny and I figured an APA would be too much for some, considering the Pale Ale using a truckload of hops compared to the Irish.

To the Scots/Irishman house I went with all the ingredients, boil kettle, sparge pot, fermenter, burner and gas bottle.

Hitting mash in temp

Hit up the stove to mash in, figured we’d use the burner for the boil. 4.7kg of grains and we had some porridge. It was our first time working with dark malt like chocolate. We decided to taste the grains pre mash to see what they tasted like. Initial taste of the chocolate malt and we both got coffee which was a little interesting. I think the amount used (70g) was more for colour than flavour.  I put the recipe into BrewPrint and managed to get more SRM than the original recipe asked for, I think that maybe due to using the chocolate malt, perhaps pale chocolate malt should have been used. Not too worried though, looks like it will carry a red hue through.

All the grains and a Munich Lager

Grains going in the mash tun

Porridge!

Boil took a lot longer than I anticipated. Cue an emptying gas bottle, a 2 ring burner and a slight breeze and we where waiting about an hour, if not longer, to get to a rolling boil. Even then it wasn’t always rolling! Never mind, once the hot break hit, it was in with the hops and off we went. RDWHAHB right?

Waiting for the boil

Tested the gravity last night when I went and picked it up. Hit 1.052, which according to calculations is 89% brew house efficiency. Thanks BrewShop for an awesome crush on the grains!!

Spent grains

Pitched the yeast last night as well, no activity just yet, only been 24 hours. I think I’ll leave her in the primary (don’t have a secondary) for 2 weeks. One for fermentation and the second for clean up. Bottle and leave for two, should be bang on for my birthday!

All Grain and an American

Well, All Grain brewing has been a success. It was supposed to be a combined brew day with bross002, but I wanted to get it ready for my birthday (7weeks). This will be brew number 1, the second I am yet to decide on, Irish Red or Cream Ale.


The recipe is a clone of Epic Pale Ale. The recipe itself is from the Can You Brew It section of Brewing Network. I was thinking of a No8 Wired iStout clone as well, but that was getting expensive!!

So into it. All Grain is a winner. I don't think I can go back to partial or extract and that's without tasting the beer. It's awesome.

Before I brewed I borrowed a gas burner. Turns out is was buggered, so it was back on the stove top. I was a little worried about boil over on the hot break, but it was all good.

A four hour brew day as well, not as long as I thought it would take, most of that was the 90min boil.

Golden Promise Pale Malt x1

Golden Promise Pale Malt, Carahell and Carapils

Caramalt

Mash in - target temp bang on!

NZ Cascade Hops 8.8% AA and Cali V Yeast

Mash out done

Pre boil volume = 27.5l nervous about a boil over!

Rolling boil

10min hop addition - lots of evaporation

OG should be 1.052. Bang on

OG sample - mind the protein/hops

It was easier than I thought. Note there are no photos of me trying to mash out and sparge. It's waaaaaaaaaay to hard doing that alone. I did buy a 10L pail but it wasn't big enough. I think I need to find some way of holding the bag while I sparge out. I'll get my kiwi brain going and see what I can come up with.

Lesson learned:

• I really need an immersion chiller. I've got a mate from work looking into it for me. Cooling boiling wort to pitching temps is taking me 12 - 24hrs. While some do that now, no chill method, I'm doing it in the fermenter, so there is a risk of infection with no CO2 layer. I did it once with the Highlander and it worked OK, just worried about infection.
• All Grain does seem to be better, however it is a little more expensive. There could be merit buying in bulk grains, but I just do not think I will be able to brew that mush beer. I currently buy base grains at ~$NZ5 per kg and specialty at ~$NZ6 per kg surely I can find somewhere cheaper, if you know of somewhere, leave a comment :-)
• Kegging is still needing to be done. This brew in particular requires some dry hopping at cold crash temps. Not 100% sure on how exactly that will work since the cold kills the yeast, meaning when I bottle, the yeast is dead, can't eat the sugar = no carbonation.

Watch this space for the next brew and some tasting notes on the Pale Ale. Recipe in the recipe DB. Full credit to Jamil from the Brewing Network.