| By CookiesAndMilkStout on Oct 6th 2008, 9:20 pm | Permalink |
| Hmmm, first brew in a year (NB's extra pale ale: 7.5 pounds two row, 1 pound belgian pils, 2 ounces of cascades for an hour and 1 ounce near flameout). Everything that could go wrong did, but I plowed ahead anyway. My mash temp was off by 10 degrees so the mash was at about 142 for an hour. Seems I made a very fermentable wort since I achieved 82% attenuation with one packet of US-05 just sprinkled into the carboy (OG 1.045, FG 1.008). To make matters worse, the gas hose on my burner got damaged in storage so I ended up doing a stovetop boil on my gas stove. Aaargh, trying to boil 6 gallons of wort for an hour on such a small flame was very frustrating. Chiller was all goofed up so pitched kind of warm and wasn't able to cool the fermenter down until the next day with a wet towel and fan. Figured I'd have 5 gallons of jet fuel before long. But...this session exemplified RDWHAHB to me. For all the worrying the final product is pretty darn tasty. I dryhopped it with an ounce of whole Cascades for 2 weeks and the aroma is awesome. The beer is bone dry almost the way a dry wine steals the moisture from your tongue, but there's a pleasant bitterness to it, not much body mind you, but it's doesn't just taste like hop water and I would definitely drink this in the summer. All in all not too shabby for a rusty brewer that couldn't get his act together. | |
| By CookiesAndMilkStout on Mar 26th 2007, 6:25 pm | Permalink |
| Having still been on the search for the ultimate pale ale recipe and after reading all the rave reviews for Bob's Sharktooth Pale Ale, I brewed up a batch yesterday. I followed the recipe to a T with only one exception: I mash hopped with the leftover 1/2 oz of Chinook and Cascade. I got kick ass efficiency and ended up with an OG of 1.068. A little higher than I'd liked, but hopefully it will all balance out. It was bubbling madly this morning so I guess I'll know more in a couple of weeks before I dry hop it. Thanks for the great recipe, Bob! | |
| By CookiesAndMilkStout on Oct 9th 2006, 4:16 pm | Permalink |
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Much better brew Sunday. Made an american amber with cascades, 2-row, wheat, chocolate and US56. Thinking I might end up with 63% eff like the week before, I threw in an extra pound or two of 2-row. I ended up with 73% eff and an OG of 1.0632! I hope the ABV of 6% won't throw off the balance with 32 IBUs. This was also a late hop addition experiment that I had read about on another board. I added the cascades at 30, 20, and 10 minutes left in the boil. It smells fantastic and has been bubbling away for 24 hrs now. From what I've read, the later additions provide a smoother bitterness. Either way, I'll have beer and I dig on cascades anyway. The apricot ale is finally carbed and pretty good. I don't generally like fruit beers, but this one is just bitter and tart enough to pass muster. I would definitely make it again. This weekend, a dry stout: maris otter, flaked barley, roasted barley and KG hops put atop an S04 yeast cake from last week's porter. Trying to replenish my cellar with good brew for the winter. |
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| By CookiesAndMilkStout on Oct 2nd 2006, 3:51 pm | Permalink |
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Dumpy Sunday brew day. I did a quick porter using S04, but ended up with 63.2% efficiency! WTF. I've never had it that low before, but I should still end up with a 4.6% brew around 40 IBUs, so I guess I can deal with it. I tried a different cooler this time, a round Igloo instead of my big Ice Cube. That's the only thing that changed so I'm assuming that's where I fell short. I also ended up sparging with about 1/2 gallon too much water. I should have collected it all and boiled the hell out of it to concentrate it, but my pot is limited to 7.5gal. Also, my mash got interrupted by an emergency, so I'm really unsure of the mash temp for 40 minutes of it all. Live and learn. I bottled a small batch of apricot ale on Sat and it looks to be pretty awesome. Very simple extract 2.5gal batch: 2# amber LME 3# Oregon apricot puree 1 oz. Glacier hops US56 I've never made a fruit beer like this before that actually tastes like the fruit I put in it. And with the fruit in primary none the less. It's got a tart, crisp taste to it, but at the same time a bitterness that turns into the taste of dried apricot skins. We'll see how it carbs up. Might think about making 5 gallons of this one, but the Oregon puree comes in pretty expensive at $12 per 3# can. |
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| By CookiesAndMilkStout on Sep 28th 2006, 8:44 pm | Permalink |
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Planning a super-citrus IPA for this fall...5 gal w/a 6.5 gal boil... 11# Maris Otter 1# crystal 40 1# flaked wheat 1/2oz Summit 60 min 1/2oz Magnum 30 min 1/2oz Centennial 20 min 1/2oz Amarillo 10 min 1/2oz Cascade 5 min (or maybe a full ounce) Maybe the WLP English Dry ale yeast, but I want the hops to be the stars of this brew. Should be a pretty big beer at 1.074 and 70 IBUs. The best part is that if I make it once and like it, I'll half the other half of each ounce of hops to make another batch. |
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