What are you brewing/bottling/kegging?

[bpgreen]

Not my brew day, but I was remote support for my brother and nephew. They brew beers for my mom's kegerator, but they're fairly new at brewing and unsure of themselves.

I think this was the first partial/mini mash they did (mostly) on their own. They did an all grain batch once, but another nephew brought his gear and ran the show. I was there for that brew day but was mostly a spectator.

But they're diving in head first. They used 4 oz of homegrown hops in this batch and are planning on planting a bunch more hops this spring. They currently have comet (for 8 or 12 ounces this year) and centennial (first year from one of my rhizomes, less than an ounce).

They know somebody who'll grow the hops on some land he owns in exchange for an occasional growler. They've been growing a couple of bines at my brother's house, but my sister in law expressed some dismay when she learned that they'd grow along the string to the top of the house every year. My brother said something about that in passing to his friend, and the friend told him he had some land that he needed to find a use for. Win win.

They told me all of the varieties they have, but I only remember a few. Comet, centennial, pride of ringwood, Willamette, chinook, tahoma. If I get a hallertauer rhizome, I'll send them one. I think I've mentioned the Borg to them. I should tell them to sign up.

[TonyKZ1]

Today I Brewed a Stout. It's one of those Beer. Simply Beer 5G Extract w/steeping grains recipes from Midwest Supplies. Everything you need for the recipe is included and they're affordable too.

Years ago when I got back into brewing, I got an Iris Stout kit from Midwest that was awesome. It took a few weeks to taste good but when it hit its stride, it was great. Since then, I've only made about 6 stouts but none were as good as that one. Tuesday I'm doing an Oatmeal Stout that I'm hoping will be good. Stouts are very forgiving and they're hard to mess up so I think you'll be impressed with it if you give it time.

Thanks that sounds good. This will be the 3rd time, I've made this Simply Beer. Stout recipe. Last time I added 1/2lb or so of oats to it to make an oatmeal stout, it was pretty good. Actually, I've made all of the 6 Simply Beer. recipes and they're all pretty good as is or with added flavors/ingredients.

[ScrewyBrewer]

This month I plan to brew a Pale Ale using organically grown whole Cascade and Cashmere hops. It'll be my first Pale Ale in quite some time and the first time using whole hops in years.

[TonyKZ1]

Today I Bottled this Bottoms Up! an American Session Pale Ale, a 5G Extract w/steeping grains Recipe kit from from Jasper's Homebrewing. Since they supply bottle cap labels with their recipes, I've started using just those instead of making my own label that goes around the side of the bottle. That definitely saves some time bottling and there's no label to be removed when you drink, empty, and rinse the bottle.

[John Sand]

Printed caps sound great!

[swenocha]

Single hop brut ipa... this should be fun...

Improv from several Brut IPA recipes I found. Mashing low (143.5 is what I settled on), adding enzymes to the fermenter (not during the mash). There is a lot of debate on this subject, but I'm rolling with the fermenter this time. We shall see. Have a lot of hops on hand. Plan is to go Simcoe, but if someone wants to chime in on the other hops (Jarrylo, Challenger, Wataku) and express a preference, I may call an audible.

6lb 2 row
1lb red wheat
1lb flaked oats
12oz Crystal 15
10.6 oz flaked corn

whilfloc - 15 min

2oz simcoe - 10 min
2oz simcoe - 1 min
2oz simcoe - dryhop

143.5 mash - 90 min
60 min boil

glucomaylase - 1 tbsp in fermenter
bry-97 yeast

Meas OG: 1.041
Meas FG: 0.996
Est ABV: 7%
Est IBU: 39.4
Est SRM: 4.4



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[Beer-lord]

Simcoe all the way.
I believe, after listening to a number of podcasts on the subject, adding the enzymes to the fermenter was most popular. Not sure what the differences were but many mashed at 148.
I've given lots of thought to this and so far, have decided to back away from trying one of these until maybe in the summer. Not sure I want 5 gallons of it too so I'm not sure it it'll happen but I'm following this closely.
Good luck!

[swenocha]

I relied on my edumakation on the mash temps from the Chemistry of Beer course I took online from Oklahoma University. Not sure they offer it anymore, but it was a pretty intense chemistry refresher for me, and I quite enjoyed it. The basic gist of the temp is that I want beta amylase predominate instead of alpha amylase so that the beer has higher attenuation. Alpha creates longer sugar chains, while beta creates single maltose chains. Alpha is active at 130-150F, while beta is active at 154-167F. So really, I could do anywhere from 130 to 150, and thus 143 or 148 will do, but I need to extend my mash time as alpha is slower working.

[mashani]

Simcoe all the way.
I believe, after listening to a number of podcasts on the subject, adding the enzymes to the fermenter was most popular. Not sure what the differences were but many mashed at 148.

My impression is that the brewery who invented it did it in the mash, others later went with the fermenter as this consistently will give you < 1.0 end results, where in the mash it is more dependent on grain bill and temperature. I think perceptually people who like it in the mash might like something like a 1.003 beer better then a 0.997 beer, and people who like it the other way around prefer it extra super bone dry.

The mash temps matter more if you are adding the enzymes to the MASH and then boiling it and murdering the enzymes.

The enzymes will be breaking down the large sugar chains in the mash, where the lower mash temps promote the more fermentable sugar chains but do not prevent large sugar chains from being formed as well. So the combination of both helps to lower the FG when combined in the mash in this way. Using something like flaked corn or oats or whatever that is going to just make simple sugars also helps in this scenario.

If added to the fermenter, the enzymes are going to all the time in the world (compared to an hour or two) to hammer on those large sugar chains and convert them into simple sugars. And they will. And will. And will. Until they are all gone. The enzymes used can break down pretty much any large sugar chain, and even starch. Same as how a sac var diasticus yeast strain like Bella Saison can do it (because they produce the same kind of enzymes on their own when active). One of the biggest commercial uses of the same enzyme being used is to take corn syrup of various grades and turn it into consistent high fructose corn syrup.

So because of this, I think mash temperatures are pretty much irrelevant when it comes to adding enzymes to the fermenter. Not that it hurts to mash lower, but that will likely just get your fermentation done quicker, but not necessarily any lower when it comes to FG when it's all said and done assuming you leave it alone until it's done.

It should end up something like 0.997 to 0.995 no matter what if added to the fermenter.

EDIT: Mine ended up at 0.995 FWIW.

EDIT EDIT: BTW, if I was going to do it again I'd just make a really hop forward beer and use Bella Saison at low temps like one of my "hoppy saisons". It's less expensive (that enzyme isn't cheap) and to me the results are just as good, the Bella Saison at low temps gives you a tart/citrus vibe anyways which goes nicely with Simcoe or Nelson Sauvin or the like, and it's going to end up < 1.003 no matter what with Bella Saison, and usually I end up more like 0.997 with it. Basically I've been making something like "Brut IPAs" with Bella Saison and Nelson Sauvin for like 5 years now, every year, and loving them every time. And they were just as good as the Brut IPA I made with the enzymes.

[Dawg LB Steve]

Did a double this weekend, yesterday a batch of Bottoms Up Brown and today a batch of Traveling Irish Red. Next weekend Kolsch and....?

[berryman]

Did a double this weekend, yesterday a batch of Bottoms Up Brown and today a batch of Traveling Irish Red. Next weekend Kolsch and....?

Looks like you are really making up for lost brewing time now and with the new indoor electric system...

[Kealia]

I'm just about done with the boil for my Firestone Walker Double Barrel Ale clone recipe.
I haven't done this in years, but am looking forward to having it again soon.

[berryman]

Brewed another 5 gal, of the Redx with EKG seems how the first batch disappeared. I must be getting better a reproducing a recipe and coming out the same, almost the exact same numbers as when I brewed this in January. I bumped up the hop profile a little this time because I thought it was a touch to sweet. I am going to name it Sweet L'il Red after one I use to brew a long time ago but not with Redx.

[berryman]

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[The_Professor]

Did a double this weekend.....

That sounds like a good idea.