Tastybrew User Journals
The homebrewing journals are designed as a way for you, the homebrewer, to let us, the Tastybrew users, know what you're brewing or what you're drinking (or most anything else). This is a good way for other users of Tastybrew to learn more about other homebrewers and enhance the community feel. So share whatever is on your mind. (Website registration required to add journal entries.)Recent Journal Entries
| By Brewmaster_Cannon on Aug 18th 2010, 1:45 am | Permalink |
| Four more days until my pale ale is done conditioning and ready to drink! I've managed to keep myself from opening one early for the first time since my first home brew. However I'm not sure I'll make it through the last four days or so. One reason I'm very excited for this one is it's a basic highly hopped American style pale ale, but I used British ale yeast instead in attempt to mellow out the hops a bit with the esters. I'm not sure how it'll turn out since it's my first such experiment with such, but I have high hopes for this brew. | |
| By MW66 on Jun 22nd 2010, 5:25 pm | Permalink |
| Sampled my all grain IPA yesterday evening. This was my first batch since not brewing for about 10 years. Finally got a new home and room to brew. I did an all grain IPA, 11 pounds Pale, 2 pounds Vienna, 1 pound Crystal 20L. I did a combination of Chinook, Centennial, and Cascade. DH with Cascade for a week in the keg. TastyBrew stated 88 IBU's. Since it's been so long, I was little out of sorts with my memory and calculations. I started with 6.5 gallons, 90 minute boil, but only ended up with about 3.75 gallons collected wort and a bunch of sludge in the bottom of the kettle. I added cool water to make up the balance to about 5.25 gallons in my 6.5 g carboy. One week in secondary before racking to the keg. I used White Labs California yeast and made a starter. Fermentation started almost immediately. I picked up the carboy after 1 week and noticed that it had a crack and was slowly leaking ever so slightly for the past week. What more could go wrong? Now, 3 weeks later, (1 primary, 2 DH in keg, 3 in carb pressure). Man, this is one of the cleanest, best tasting beers I have ever done! Super clean taste and strong smooth bitterness from the Chinook, no off flavors whatsoever. Boy, how a plan all comes together..ha..ha. Next, I'm going to do a IIPA. However, I'm going to start with 7.5 gallons wort. | |
| By BenAthar on Jun 18th 2010, 7:25 pm | Permalink |
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Well got an email from a person about getting some left over kegs. Needless to say he has a 15 and 13 gal keg left. No matter what the condition is, I am using them to make a mash tun and brew pot with. Since I have another club member that is starting a brewery in the Fayetteville, GA area, I am going to use some of their help in making this work. Beside which I am giving free labor when I can, to learn about brewing on a larger scale in order to eventually get a brew pub started in the same county. While I do have 7 years of restaurant experience in various aspects, including a brewery at Gentle Ben's in Tucson,Az, I do plan on bring some of the southwest out this way. I even know a lot of kitchen spanish and real dishes from Oxaca, Hermisillo, and Jalisco, mexico! Still love the soul food from the south as well. Creole comes to mind.......or shrimp and grits as well!!! I am just trying to move on up to all grain, and I know that I can do it, but just need these kegs in order to make that an actuality. I would like to thank the Strawn brothers for their help and insight, as well as the experience to make theirs and mine a reality. Craft brew needs to be brought into the south than people realize, North Carolina can't have all of the fun! |
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| By TheBeerGuy on Jun 15th 2010, 4:25 am | Permalink |
| 13 June 2010. I just put my Robust Porter on tap and man is it tasty. Great mouth feel, Outstanding flavor. Slightly raisiny and just the right amount of roastiness for a porter. Hops balance the malt profile perfectly and the head retention and lacing on the glass leave a lasting impression of a perfectly brewed beer. This is a recipe I've brewed many times with only minor tweaks over the years. As I enjoy a pint I wonder why I don't brew it more often. | |
| By JimRod on Jun 6th 2010, 1:52 pm | Permalink |
| I see ingredients being sold at brew stores like rice extract but I never see a recipe using rice. | |
| By coldbeer on May 15th 2010, 1:37 pm | Permalink |
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Outstanding success with the Killer Bee Wheat. I've never been a big Heffe fan but I do like to brew good beer and I like to see people enjoying my beer. Recently I modified the Killer Bee Wheat, I'm now calling it "Killer Bee Agave Heffe" and have received the my biggest accolated ever. Here is what I did - instead of 3 lbs of honey, I used 1 lb of honey and 2 lbs of Agave Syrup. I also added zest of lime (from one large lime) in the last 10 minutes of the boil (I know, a bit cheesy going for the whole Tequila effect...but it worked). So following the instructions, I added 1lb of honey and 1lb of agave syrup during the boil. Then when I moved to the secondary fermenter, I added another lb of agave with the gal of water. I hate to bottle, I'm way to lazy, so when I moved to my the keg I added 1 lb of priming sugar and let sit for a week before putting under gas in the kegerator. Its a sweat beer with very definite heffe characteristics. But there are some very subtle differences with the agave and if you try real hard to can pick up just a hint of the lime. |
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| By thedamageking on May 8th 2010, 11:43 pm | Permalink |
| YO! | |
| By jdavidpenn on Apr 27th 2010, 1:31 am | Permalink |
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call me if your in my town and buy me a drink 706-733-8397 |
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| By nander21 on Apr 23rd 2010, 6:18 am | Permalink |
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friday april 23 ruff recipe for rhubarb weizen mash @ rest 114-25min decoction mash @ 157-15min 200-20min bring decoction and mane mash together @ 147-20min 158-30min 160-mash out 9 lbs malted American Soft White Wheat 1 lbs flaked wheat 1 oz Hallertau @ 60 1 oz Czech Saaz @ 10 Bavarian ale yeast |
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| By Dennis77 on Apr 23rd 2010, 4:51 am | Permalink |
| My first attempt at brewing an imperial ipa has been sitting in primary for two weeks now and is still getting action in the airlock. OG:1.079 and today its sits at 1.018 but still goin strong. This was from a Dogfish Head 90 min IPA clone that i tweaked the hell out of. Tasted at time of gravity reading and has super clean hoppy taste with out the big malty backbone of Dogfish. So far its in the right direction i was goin for. At 7.98% ABV i cant wait to taste the final outcome of this beer. | |
| By dannyjed on Apr 21st 2010, 4:00 am | Permalink |
| I'm really thinking that 5 gallon batches are not going to cut it anymore...or stop letting my friends come over and drink my beer...No, I can't become the beer Nazi now...I must brew more beer! I must double production! | |
| By jefehumbrew on Apr 18th 2010, 6:09 pm | Permalink |
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16A. Stout, Dry Stout Extract Color Stats OG 1.059 FG 1.015 IBU 0 ABV 5.7 % SRM 41 Specifics Boil Volume 2.5 gallons Batch Size 5 gallons Yeast 75% AA Style Comparison Low High OG 1.035 1.059 1.050 FG 1.007 1.015 1.011 IBU 30 0 50 SRM 41 35+ ABV 3.2 5.7 5.5 Fermentables % Weight Weight (lbs) Grain Gravity Points Color 2.8 % 0.25 British Black Patent 0.4 28.8 2.8 % 0.25 German Wheat 0.6 0.1 5.6 % 0.50 American Crystal 60L 1.1 6.0 5.6 % 0.50 Roasted Barley 1.0 45.0 5.6 % 0.50 Chocolate 1.0 35.0 77.8 % 7.00 German Dark wheat 54.6 11.2 9.00 58.7 Hops % Wt Weight (oz) Hop Form AA% AAU Boil Time Utilization IBU 100.0 % 1.00 Magnum Pellet 14.5 14.5 0.000 0.0 1.00 0.0 |
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| By thedamageking on Apr 18th 2010, 1:59 am | Permalink |
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OATMEAL STOUT RECIPE 4 lbs Amber Malt Extract (Dry) 1 lbs Wheat Malt Extract (Dry) 7 lbs Domestic 2 Row Pale Malt 1.5 lbs Roasted Barley 12 oz Cracked Oats 10 oz Crystal Malt (120 L) 6 oz Red Wheat Malt 0.25 oz Pacifica Pellet Hops (30 min) 0.25 oz Centennial Pellet Hops (1 min) 2 oz Northern Brewer Pellet Hops (90 min) 1/4 tsp Irish Moss English Ale Yeast Brita Purified San Diego tap water First we heated 5 quarts of water to 172 degrees F and added our crushed grains, stirring well to distribute the heat. As soon as the temperature showed 155 degrees F we removed the pot from our heat source and left it covered for 45 minutes. After 45 minutes, we heated the pot back up to 167 degrees F and then poured the contents through a strainer to a second pot. After straining the grains, we threw them away. We poured more water into the mash until it reached 2.5 gallons. From there, we stirred in both packets of malt extracts plus our 90 minute hops and brought the wort to a boil. For the duration of the boil, we did not have the pot covered, and we frequently stirred. After 1 hour, we added the 30 minute hops. 20 minutes after that, we added the irish moss. 9 minutes after that, we added the 1 minute hops. 1 minute after that (90 minutes after bringing the wort to a boil), we covered the pot, removed it from the heat and immediately put the pot into a sink full of cold water. (Note: put it in bathtub next time). After 30 minutes of cool down (with the wort's temperature being about 75 degrees F), we poured the wort through a strainer into our sanitized fermenting bucket that we had already added 2.5 gallons of cold water to. We added a little more cold water to bring the contents to 5 gallons, and stirred it for about 30 seconds. Then, we pitched the yeast and sealed the top onto the fermenter, making sure that everything coming in contact with the wort had been sanitized. We didn't take a gravity measurement before pitching the yeast (oops!), but in a week I'm going to siphon the beer from the fermenter to the glass carboy, assuming there are no more air bubbles coming out of the airlock. The recipe we used suggests at least one more week in the carboy before adding 3/4 cup of sugar and bottling. I think we're going to taste the beer at this point, but I think it needs to sit in bottles for at least another week for the carbonation to build up to normal levels. Stoked! |
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| By crummycook on Apr 17th 2010, 8:07 pm | Permalink |
| I love brewing beer, but 2 cases can last quite a while, especially if it's not "dead" on. Is there a good web site featuring 3 gallon batches using either extract or partial mash? Brewing 1 case at a time also allows me to sample more types before committing to the full recipe. | |
| By MadJack on Mar 28th 2010, 10:04 pm | Permalink |
| I made a pretty simple lauter tun yesterday. Took one of my 5 gal pails and drilled a couple hundred 1/8" holes in the bottom. I put this pail inside one of my other pails with a drain cock then added my mash (all grain) and let it drain until it ran clear, then dumped the wort back into the Lauter Tun. Easy to sparge and very simple to use! | |
| By Mantis_Toboggan on Mar 20th 2010, 10:09 pm | Permalink |
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Just tasted my first brew, an american pale ale. Alcohol content was 5.5%, malty, sweet flavor and aroma. Very light bitterness and hop aroma. Ingrediants: 6 lbs of light DME .5 lbs of Carapils to add body .5 lbs of Crystal 20L for sweetness 1 oz Warrior Hops 16%AA 1 tsp Brew saltz 1 tsp Irish Moss 11.5 g of Safale yeast 5 oz of dextrose for priming Add Brew salts and bring water temp to 160F. Steep grains at 155 F for 25 minutes. Add DME and bring to boil. Add .5 oz of warrior Hops for first 60 minutes, add in .5 oz and irish moss for last 10 minutes of the boil. 5 days after bottling, little carbonation, very sweet and malty, very light bitterness and hop aroma. Second Brew - Strong English/Scottish Red Ale, arrogant bastard like |
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| By Floody on Mar 1st 2010, 12:23 am | Permalink |
Just bottled a small (1 gallon) batch of Elbro Nerkte brown ale from Papazian's book. The FG turned out to be a little higher than the recipe - 1.019. But I guess its ok for a brown ale. Tasted it during bottling and it seems to be very promising!  |
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| By HomerDuff on Feb 28th 2010, 3:01 pm | Permalink |
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Brewed my first batch last weekend (Sunday, 21 February 2010). I used a True Brew Pale Ale kit. Since this was my first batch, I wanted to keep it simple to get used to the process. I'll probably brew another kit or two before venturing off on my own. The batch seemed to go well. It took quite a long time to cool down to the 90 degree maximum specified in the instructions. Next time I'll add the wort to chilled water to help expedite that process. The OG was measured at 1.044. The wort was bubbling vigorously the next morning and continued for a couple of days before slowing down and has been quiet for the last few days. I'll probably bottle later today. Looking forward to trying it in a few weeks! |
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| By jpinachio on Feb 7th 2010, 2:03 am | Permalink |
| I just brewed my version of an Imperial Stout. Im still new to homebrewing. My question is after I bottle I want to leave it bottled for many months, i have heard this improves the taste. So after bottling should I leave at room temperature for conditioning or put in the refridgerator? Any help would be greatly appreciated. | |
| By sporr on Jan 9th 2010, 3:01 pm | Permalink |
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I started the new year out with doing my very first "all grain". I built my mash tun from a 50 qt cooler and used the manifold method with cpvc pipe to drain. I researched on YouTube for the build and it worked quite well. Alot better than I thought it would. I used a the "batch sparge" method for sparging by heating up my water to 170 degrees while mashing and put that water into a old 5 gallon Gott cooler I had. It held the temp right at 170 until I was ready to sparge. I used a recipe submitted by Nate Bourne on 10/29/07 called Screaming Viking Ale from this site. I also used a wort chller I built to cool my wort that worked fantastic. It only took 10 minutes to cool it down enough to pitch my yeast. I am also using a "blow Off tube" that I made as my bubbler. The recipe is on this site but I did make a few changes to it. The are as follows: 2 oz Hersbrucker pellet in place of the Crystal hops 1 oz Hallertau pellet 2 lbs. Light DME instead of 1 lb. It says in the recipe 8 days in primary only. But I will be racking it into a glass secondary to clear. I do not use Irish Moss in my brews. I usually let in secondary for 2 weeks or until they look clear enough to keg. |
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