Brewing Day!

Today was the official brew day, as planned.  Before we get into that, let's get into more beer -- my first batch.

We tried it again, and it hadn't changed a whole lot from the last tasting.  More malt than hops; still more sourness from the yeast.  Not a bad ale, but not an IPA.  My sister was not a big fan, but the fiance and my friend Matt seemed to like it.  I'll let it sit for a while and see how it goes in another couple of weeks.

The brewing.  Easier than last time, but not without slight complications.

I started by steeping one pound of crushed crystal malt for about half an hour in 2.5 gallons of water.  This gave the wort a nice malty smell, and once I kept the water to just under a boil, I added six pounds of Munton's Light DME.  This boiled over (hurray!  first time!) and then I let it go for about 45 minutes or so.

I added two ounces of Super Styrians at the beginning of a 60-minute countdown.  Hurray, another boilover.  This was to be the last one, thank god.

I then added one ounce of Willamettes at the 30 minute point, and one ounce of Centennials at the 10 minute point.

At the final three to five minutes, I added two good pinches of Irish Moss, and then added a half-cup of honey along with 32 ounces of Grade A maple syrup.

I was going to use liquid yeast once I cooled down the wort and added it to the carboy.  I failed to read the directions on the back of the smack pack which said to make a culture three hours in advance.  Instead, I grabbed a packet of Munton's Gold dry yeast which had been in the fridge, activated that in some hot water, and added it to the carboy.

The wort now sits in my sink.  I figure that if there's any blowover, it can go right into the sink and make cleanup slightly easier.

Pictures to come tomorrow.  It's late and I didn't get much sleep last night, so I'm hitting the sack.

The recipe for next Sunday.

September 28th is brewing day!  It should be a good day -- I'm off from work (as far as I know), it'll be the beginning of Autumn, and I've got a couple of friends coming over to brew.

The plan I've got for the ale I'm making:

Dissolve 6# of DME in 2 gal water and bring to a boil for 45 min.

Steep 1# crushed crystal, 30 min, bring to boil

Add Super Styrians, 1 oz, with 45 min left to go in boil

Willamettes, 1 oz, 20 min left

Centennials, 1 oz, 10 min left

Now here's where it gets interesting -- I'm thinking about adding, with 3-5 min remaining in the boil, 3 cups of maple syrup and a little honey.  That'll get strained into the carboy which has 3 gal of cold water.

I think this'll work.  I need to do more fine-tuning between now and next Sunday.

Working on the recipe for the next batch.

More for my use than yours; this is the rough outline (not yet complete) for my next batch o' brew.

1# Crystal Malt 10

9# Amber DME

1oz Super Styrians @ 60 min boil

1oz Super Styrians @ 60 min boil

1oz Bramling Cross @ 20 min boil

1oz Willamette @ 10 min boil

Wyeast 1098 British Ale Yeast

I haven't determined what my finishing hops are going to be yet.  I do know that I need to buy the DME still, as well as said finishing hops, some nylon bags, and maybe a couple of decent beer mugs.  :)

I had originally shot for a Labor Day brew date on this, which didn't happen due to timing and funds.  Having planned it in advance, I'm having a "Bills and Brews" party on September 28th, where I'm brewing this beer and showing the Bills/St. Louis game.

Why I'm glad I have a 6.5 gal carboy.

A couple of my friends are brewing an ale, and have it in a five-gallon carboy.

Maybe 12 hours or so after they got the wort in the carboy, that sucker blew up.  I'd never seen an airlock full of krausen before; I suspect they also didn't strain it very well, since it seemed to be extremely green.

Seeing that makes me want to be even more meticulous with future batches.  It's kinda like hearing kids screaming in a restaurant, which becomes a quick-fire method of birth control.

Changing one's mind.

I decided to wait on the bottling, given that the wort still had some bubbles on top.  I checked in again today -- not the gravity, but just the temperature/visuals.  Given that there were still some bubbles, and everything else looked good (it was reading 72 degrees), I'm waiting.  I may end up bottling it tomorrow morning -- if nothing else, I'm going to check the gravity and make a decision then.

If it ain't ready, it ain't ready.  As of tonight it'll be fourteen days of fermentation; I don't have a problem waiting a few more days.  Better safe than sorry.

Odd!

I checked up on Batch #1 today, and found it had a new bit of krausen going on!  Some bubbles along the top, with the airlock giving out the occasional CO2 bubble.  I found that rather interesting.  I took a gravity reading of 1.020 -- maybe tomorrow's not the time to bottle.  Gotta think about this one.

Further developments.

I checked the gravity of the wort yesterday: around 1.015.  This is exactly where it's supposed to be; I will be bottling it up tomorrow.

I'm debating picking up more equipment.  I found a large ultra-cheap strainer (a flat one, not a curved one like most use) at Big Lots for $3.50.  I'm thinking I might want a fermenting bucket (rather than a second carboy) so I can do dry-hopping easier for this next beer I'm contemplating.

Also, it seems that hop pellets are great to use, but for dry-hopping, I could be better off with actual hops themselves.  I may swing by another homebrew store in Rochester to see what they've got available.

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Related but not: a friend of mine is hooking me up with a font that I need to start work on my labels/logos for my beer.  Once I get something drawn up via Photoshop, I'll post it.