Welch's Wino Winale, (Fri 22feb)

I decided to do a little experiment because I was curious and discovered other's experiments while bored at work:

I made a gallon batch of ghetto hooch using welch's concord grape concentrate, sugar, lemon juice, and Nottingham ale yeast (purported to handle high gravities).

The recipe consisted of:

1 gal spring water
2 cans of 100% Concord grape concentrate (Welch's)
2 cups of sugar
1 packet rehydrated Nottingham yeast

1. Rehydrated yeast at 95F for 15, then added splash of cooled must (see below) and let sit for 15 more minutes

2. Boiled sugar with 1/4 gal water and juice of two lemons (sub for acid blend; for balance)

3. Added frozen juice concentrate and 1/2 gallon water

4. Pour back into empty jug

5. Cooled with ice bath

6. Added rehydrated/primed yeast

7. covered with paper towel and rubber band

Update: shit is fermenting along. I'm gonna let it go until the foam subsides, and then secondary it in two half gallon glass growlers for a couple months. And then hopefully drink it without puking.

UPDATE (Fri 29feb): The gravity after a week is at 1.022, yielding what is now a sweet carbonated wine-cooler like beverage. I have put it in two half gallong growler to secondary for alot of months, we'll see how that goes.

UPDATE (Mon 10mar): The wine has now cleared to a ruby red color. The gravity is ~ 1.0 and it tastes very dry, carbonated, and yeasty.

UPDATE (Mon 17mar): Gently transferred the wine in both jugs off of the yeast, attempted to minimized splashing and pouring of yeast. Then I cleaned and sanitized the jugs and poured the wine gently back into them. I didn't use any racking equipment because I don't have any, because I don't really use carboys when brewing beer. I will probably do this maybe once more in another month to continue to get yeast to drop out.

UPDATE (Mon 21apr): Transferred of lees again to further clear wine. Probably the last time before I drink it in a month or so.

I told you I would change my mind

So I decided today due to even more increases in hop and malt prices that I am going to go ahead and start brewing springs beers after the next brown ale and mild that I plan to do.

So I now plan to brew another brown ale (southern english), a mild (from Jamil's show), then I'm going to do both an American Wheat and then a Honey Kolsch beer. I will post recipes soon. I will probably do the southern english first because I have older extract for that and it will take more aging time than the mild. I'm just going to use a fresh yeast packet for each one as well to try and get the best beer I can get, screw the 1.60 for the yeast.

Recipes for American Wheat and Honey Kolsch (northern brewer kits):

American Wheat:

6 lbs. Wheat LME (1/2 @ 65 min; 1/2 @ 15 min)
1 oz. Williamette Hops (60 min)
1 oz. Cascade Hops (15 min)
Wyeast American Wheat 1010

Honey Kolsch:

6 lbs. Gold LME (65 min)
1 lb. Local Raw Honey (1 min)
1 oz. Mt. Hood Hops (60 min)
Pitch onto yeast cake (or slurry since this yeast probably doesn't floc into a cake really) from above

Fermentation Notes, Sweet Stout

Mon 18feb2008: @ 13 hours, no sign of fermentation yet. I'm wondering if this is common for this yeast (I know I should make a starter, but I'm lazy). There was a lag the first time I used this as well. If there are no signs by the time I get home today, I will rehydrate and pitch a packet of Safale S-04 which will probably explode off. I guess I just need to start making starters for everything above 1.040 OG. I have just been considering my yeast cake as a lazy man's starter for my consecutive brews.

UPDATE (Mon 18feb2008): Signs of fermentation have shown sometime between 13 and 21 hours while I was at work. There is a thick white krausen on top of the beer and the airlock was bubbling by 23 hours.

UPDATE (Tues 19feb2008): This morning fermentation is really going. Ambient room temp was 62F, but the fermentor was at 68F. I'm leaving it in the cool part of the condo until fermentation slows down and its not generating so much heat.

UPDATE (Fri 22feb2008): Fermentation has slowed down quite a bit, the gravity right now is at 1.027. I'm expecting it to get down to 1.022-1024, which would be normal considering the pound of unfermentable lactose involved.

UPDATE (Wed 27feb2008): SG reading of 1.024, probably the terminal gravity and is in the range I expected given the unfermentables present.

Brewing Notes, Sweet Stout (Sun 17feb2008)

Brewed a sweet/milk stout yesterday:

see previous posts for recipe.

Started with ~ 3.5 gallon boil, ended around 2.5 gallons. I boiled this brew a little hotter (9 for 30 minutes, then 8 for 30 minutes to try and increase hop utilization). I think I am going to start trying the extract late method to increase hop utilization.

Pitched one fully inflated smack pack of Wyeast 1028 London Ale yeast into 68F wort.

Initial gravity was measured at ~ 1.050

Current brewing plans, ideas, and recipes

Ok, so, until my mind changes, which happens alot, here are my brewing plans for the near future. Alot of my brewing decisions are based on what sounds good, if I find/make a recipe a want to brew alot, what ingredients I can get, the cost of ingredients (I'm not going to make any double IPAs anytime soon), the ability to use all of my ingredients before they go stale, and yeast reusle.

Next Brew:

Sweet Stout:

6.0 lbs. Amber LME (Briess) (70 min)
1.0 lbs. Lactose
.75 lbs. Simpson's Black Malt
.50 lbs. Simpson's Chocolate Malt
.25 lbs. Simpson's Dark Crystal Malt
1.0 oz. Cluster Hops (7% AA; 60 min)
Wyeast 1028 London Ale, no starter
1/2 cup dextrose (priming)

Dark Mild (Jamil's recipe)

3.5 lbs. John Bull 100% Maris Otter LME (65 min)
.75 lbs. Caramel 60L (Briess)
.50 lbs. Caramel 120L (Briess)
.50 lbs. Fawcett Pale Chocolate Malt
.75 oz. East Kent Goldings (~5% AA; 60 min)
Safale S-04 dry yeast, 1 packet
3/8 cup dextrose (priming)

Southern English Brown

6.0 lbs. Gold LME (Briess) (65 min)
.25 lbs. Caramel 60L Malt (Briess)
.75 lbs. Simpson's Dark Crystal Malt
.50 lbs. Caramel 120L Malt (Briess)
.50 lbs. Fawcett Pale Chocolate Malt
.50 lbs. Special Roast Malt (Briess)
***Yes, that is 2 1/2 lbs. of steeping grains, yummmm***
.25 oz. Galena Hops (~ 13% AA, 60 min)
.25 oz. Kent Goldings Hops (~ 5% AA, 60 min)
Partial amount of Safale S-04 dry yeast cake from above Mild (or maybe just a fresh pack, depending upon how motivated I am to clean/sanitize an extra time or if I get a carboy/siphon)
3/8 cup dextrose (priming)

You can tell I like brown ales.

So, I will basically be doing another run of brew-then-repitch on an old yeast cake. I like to do this for 3 reasons. It saves time by not having to clean the fermentor every single time and consolidating brew/bottle days. It could also be a good starter for a higher gravity second ale (not so much in this case). It also saves money by cutting the cost of yeast in half for each batch.

The end result. More tasty beers.

Bottling Notes, Dry Irish Stout #1 (tues 12feb)

Used ~ 3/8 cup of corn sugar for a lower carbonation level (~ 1.75 volumes)

Final gravity: 1.011

Initial gravity: 1.041

% attenuation: ~73 %

Approximate ABV: 3.9% Obtained ~47 12oz. bottles worth

more schemin

pale ale ------> american stout

always planning new brews

Anyhow, base recipes which I'll probably continue to monkey with as time goes on:

Sweet stout:

6 lbs. Amber LME
1 lb. Lactose
.75 lbs. Black Patent Malt
.5 lbs. Simpson's Chocolate Malt
.25 lbs. Simpson's Dark Crystal
1 oz. Cluster Hops, 7 % AA (60 min)
Wyeast 1028 London Ale

Porter:

6 lbs. Munich LME
1 lb. Pilsen DME OR 1lb. raw honey (haven't decided yet)
.5 lbs. Simpson's Chocolate Malt
.5 lbs. Simpson's Dark Crystal
.25 lbs. Black Patent Malt
Bittering Hops (~10-13%, Columbus, Chinook, Galena, etc..)
Possible aroma hop addition @ end, still deciding on this.
British Ale Yeast

hydrometer calibration

So, out of curiousity, when checking the gravity on the current beer fermenting, I decided to check my hydrometer with some tap water. Turns out my hydrometer is about .002 off. I am going back through my previous posts and adjusting all of my readings in my notes effective now.