It's been a while since I've posted. Wife and I had twins roughly a year ago which took a toll on brew days. I'm back now and have made a few improvements to the brew setup.
For the first day back brewing, the bros decided to try my mash tun cooler. This was constructed from a cooler that my brew neighbor dave was throwing away due to a faulty drain plug, perfect.
For the first all grain brew, we decided to do a parti-gyle "like" brew technique which essentially makes two separate brews from the same (larger) grain bill. For this, we made a barley wine and english style pale ale. Here are the recipes:
25 lbs Maris Oter
1.5 lbs Crystal 120
1.5 lbs Cara Munich II
1 lb rye
We mashed at 154F for ~90 min and drained the first ~6 gallons of wort into Ben's 10Gallon brew pot. We boiled this for over 90 mins and raised the OG substantially.
Pre-boil OG: 1.088
Post Boil OG: 1.122
BARLEYWINE
Here is the hops schedule for the barley wine. The bros talked me into going much more aggressive on the hops schedule. I originally was shooting for ~80IBUs
0.6 oz Chinok (12.5%) FWH
1 oz Chinok (12.5%) 60 min
1 oz Cenenial (8.9%) 60 min
1 oz Chinok (12.5%) 2 min
1.5 oz Cenenial (8.9%) 2 min
Total IBU 115 (depending on calculators used)
Yeast: 2 packs of Nottingham
Fermentation temp: 68-70F (brewed this during a heat wave)
ENGLISH PALE ALE
For the Pale Ale, we refilled the cooler for the batch sparge with 170F water. We then stirred it, let it sit for 3-5 min, recoiled some wort, and drained into Dave's 15G pot. I wanted to top off the mash with some extra oats but forgot ... oh well. We boiled this beer for only 30 min. Here are the OG readings:
Pre-Boil OG 1.038
Post-boil OG 1.040
Hop schedule for this light brew:
1 oz UK Fuggles (4.5%) 30 min
2 oz blend (Ave 4.7%) 5 min
2 oz blend (ave 4.7%) 0 min
.5 oz fresh centennial "wet" hops just for fun (Thanks Dave)
Total IBU 25-33 depending on calculations
Yeast: Safale S-04 (english yeast)
Fermentation temp: 68-70
update 8/3/2011:
The english PA was done fermenting 48 hours after brew day. At 72 hours I tested the gravity and snuck a little test.
FG: 1.010
ABV: 3.9% ... official session brew :-)
Tasting notes. Since this was only 72 hours old, it tasted a little green. Another couple days in primary, a week or two in secondary and this will be a great session brew. For using 5 oz of hops, I was a little disappointed with the hop aroma and flavor. However, the brew tasted like I was sitting in a brew pub in London which is exactly what I was shooting for. Can't wait to try this again in another week or two.
While I was testing the PA, I took a gravity reading of the barleywine.
OG: 1.122
FG: 1.022
Current ABV is 13.3%.
I quickly tasted the beer and even though it's young, it is very enjoyable. I can't wait to bottle this one. The body was lighter than expected, but it had a nice bitterness bite at the end. Hop aroma and flavor were lacking so a hop tea may be needed if the bros want more hop flavor. This will be a treat.
Update 8/9/11
I racked the English PA to the keg last night and had some issues. My normal racking tube was missing so I used a larger tube in its place. That was a mistake. There was a lot of air mixed into the beer when transferring so I'm a little worried about oxygenating the beer. I'm thinking about just throwing this into the fridge for the remainder of the two weeks to minimize any negative effects that may occur.
The primary also a lot of hop sediments which got transferred to the keg. I think this was actually the fresh hop particles. Next brew I want to filter out as much hop particles as possible before going into primary. There was so much hops that I couldn't even save the yeast (or want to).
I also added an ounce of UK Golding in a mesh bag for some nice dry hop action.
Tasting notes - light - minimal hop flavor, minimal malt flavor. Perfect as a lawnmower beer or for a party with non-craft beer drinkers. Just what I was looking for.
OG: 1.040
FG: 1.008
ABV: 4.3%
Update 8/15/2011
transfered BW to secondary.
OG: 1.122
FG: 1.019
ABV: 13.7% - too high?
Tasting notes: Hot, dry, nice hops bitterness, good mouthfeel. This may need a year to age.
No comments:
Post a Comment