Ferm Notes, Carolina Mild

Foam has formed in the drum tap after 6 hours, pretty quick start.   I will probably bottle this small beer after a week or so.

Brewing Notes, Carolina Mild (Sunday 29mar2009)

Brewing a mild today, based on a Northern Brewer kit:

3.15 lbs. Amber LME (Briess)

1.00 lbs. Sparkling Amber DME (Briess)

.5 lbs. Crisp Amber Malt

.5 lbs. Crisp Brown Malt

.125 lbs. Simpson's Chocolate Malt

.75 oz. East Kent Goldings hops, 5.4% AA (60 minutes)

Danstar Windsor dry ale yeast, one 11 gram packet, rehydrated & attemperated

Shooting for around 1.032 OG and ~15-17 IBUs.

*Notes: I added more H2O for boil (3 gallons vs. 2 3/4) because of the lesser volume of LME for this recipe, plus the use of specialty grains that reduce the boil volume by a little from what they absorb.*

Ended up with what seems like maybe a little less than 5 gallons, with an OG of 1.033.  Pitched the yeast into 72F wort, a little warmer than normal, but this is due to using more H2O in the brew pot, and having a little less refrigerated water to top off with.

Bottling Notes, American Pale Ale (Saturday 28mar2009)

Bottled using 3/4 cups of corn sugar aiming for ~ 2.2-2.3 volumes of CO2.  Ended up with 49 x twelve oz. bottles.

Final measurements on this beer:

OG ~ 1.043

FG ~ 1.011

% ABV ~ 4.2%

Calories/12 oz. ~ 140

This beer had a delicious sweet grapefruit aroma from the plentiful hops.  I'm stoked as this is the first beer I've made with a considerable amount of hops.

Fermentation Notes, American Pale Ale

Visible signs of fermentation were noticed at 12 hours post pitching (as foam visible in the drum tap).

Gravity check on following thursday, 5 days in.  It is down to ~1.013 adjusting for temperature.  I'm thinking it will get down to around 1.011 or so over the next week.  It tasted quite hoppy and delicious.

Brewing Notes, American Pale Ale (Saturday 14mar2008)

So I brewed according to plan, steeping grain for 30 minutes around 155-165F.  I went with the altered hop schedule that I had planned.  I even went as far as to attemperate the dry yeast after rehydrating them, a step I normally skip.  

I also added a little more than the normal 2.5 gallons to the boil pot to account for what got absorbed by the steeping grains.  This worked out fine anyways as it helped bump up the wort temperature a little (to ~66F) when the slightly greater amount of concentrated wort was added to the then smaller amount of cold water in the fermentor.  I will consider doing this for all my brews now to have a slightly higher starting temp for the yeasties to get going in.

OG came out at ~ 1.043

Brewing plan, American Pale Ale

Planning to do an american pale ale tomorrow, based upon a Northern Brewer extra pale ale kit.  After doing a little research, I've decided to mess with the hop schedule a little bit, as the recommended one for this kit seems like it is going to produce an excessive bitterness for this relatively low gravity beer.

The given hop schedule of 2 oz. of 6.3% AA Cascade hops at 60, and 1 oz. at 1 minute, gives an estimated 46 IBUs for a beer that is supposed to clock in at 1.044 OG.  That pretty freakin bitter for a small beer.  I've decided to shoot for a ratio closer to that of Sierra Nevada pale ale (an original, and a favorite of mine), which is close to ~ 1.5:1 gravity points to IBUs.

Using this IBU calculator, which accounts for partial wort boil volumes, I've come up with a new hop schedule using my 3 oz. of 6.3% AA Cascades, for an estimated ~ 30 IBUs.  This works with my anticipated OG of 1.044.  

1 oz. @ 60

1 oz. @ 10

1 oz. @ 1

This should give a nice balance of bitterness, flavor, and a good hop aroma, appropriate for a smaller gravity APA.  If I had some extra hops lyin around, I'd consider dry hopping also, but I don't.

The rest of the recipe is as follows:

6.0 lbs. Gold liquid malt extract

1.0 lbs. Dingemans Caramel Pils (30 minute steep)

1 packet Safale US-05 yeast, rehydrated

I'm hoping to have a nice hoppy delicious pale ale.  The one issue I may run into is temperature control, as it is now "spring" in south florida, so our house stay about 73-78F at all times, which is on the high end of this yeast's recommended range.  But hey, this is supposed to be a pretty solid, steady yeast that is temp resistant... and if I end up with a slightly fruity pale ale, maybe i'll enjoy it even more!

Tasty Hefe

Tasted the hefeweizen for the first time tonight.  It has developed a good carbonation after only 3 days in the bottle @ around 75-80 degrees.  It has the classic and very apparent spicy clove and banana aroma/flavor and is also kind of bready and yeasty tasting.  This combined with the high carbonation, some sweetness, and tart wheat flavor makes for a damn refreshing beer!  I have a feeling this will disappear quickly....

Bottling Notes, Hefeweizen (Saturday 07mar2009)

Bottled today, after 13 days in primary.  Used ~ 1 1/8 cups of corn sugar aiming for ~ 3 volumes of CO2.  

Ended up with forty three 11.2-12 oz. bottles and seven 16-16.9 oz. bottles.

Finals measurements on this beer were:

OG ~ 1.050

FG ~ 1.012

% ABV ~ 4.9%

Cals/12 oz. ~ 164

The beer smelled good, with that typical hefeweizen clovey smell.  It had a nice mildly sweet flavor to it and I'm thinking it will be quite tasty in a week or so.