BeerBorg

This past Saturday was the inaugural brew on my M&B, brewing up a tried and true Nelmo Pale Ale.

Today I brewed a Blueberry Cream Ale, a 5G Extract w/steeping grains Recipe kit from Adventures in Homebrewing.

What a great brewday I did today and almost un-eventful. Set the timer on the M&B, went to town to get things before the storm, came back and ready to mash in. Had some more coffee, and more coffee, then almost done and had some beers. cleaned out the spigot on the brew bucket but forgot to turn it off and lost about 2 gal of starsan on the floor, no big deal. all in all made a good stout. everything else came right on. This will be a good one and will bottle this in a few weeks or maybe keg if I can get another keg by then.

Holy crap, I'm brewing. Super smooth so far, though adjusting process for 5 gal causes a bit of improvisation... using Anova and turkey frier in conjunction to get to temp blows a fuse... so 100yd extension to outside outlet and back in business! Also decided as a last min audible to cut the 2 row bill in half and use extra light dme just to ease intobigger grain volumes in the fryer.

Based on ingredients on hand, putting an esb-ish, amber-ish on tap first to test out the setup. Intended to go full ESB, but realized I only had US-05 on hand.

#110: Amber Ale

5 lb 2 row
1 lb Munich
1 lb crystal 60l
.33lb flaked corn

60 min mash, 154

Late additions
3 lb extra light dme
11oz Lyle's golden syrup
1 Whirlfloc

1oz Magnum 60 min
1oz Williamette 5 min
1 oz Williamette 1 min

US-05

Est OG: 1.056
Est FG: 1.014
Est ABV: 5.4%
IBU: 53
Color: 12


EDIT:
Actual OG: 1.068
New est FG: 1.017
New est ABV: 6.6%

EDIT: Nailed the above estimite for FG. No problems kegging. Taste was ESBish, which was the intent. So, pretty happy with that. Sitting in the keg on 12. We'll see how we look in a week or two.

Nice swen. Looks like you got quite the system going on there.

I've liked this setup for quite some time... the turkey fryer has served me well for my 3 gallon brewing. The addition of the Anova has also been great, as it makes maintaining mash temps and doing step mashing a piece of cake. What I really learned about this setup today, though, is that I'm going to have to do partial volume. I had quite a struggle reaching and maintaining boil with full volume, which I imagine has a lot to do with the volume, but also the 20 degree temps today. So, I'll either have to do partial volume and tap up, or I'm going to have to upgrade my system.

I would say the biggest culprit is the 20 degree weather. Before I bought my Blichmann burner from a good friend of mine, I used a turkey frier burner and it did just fine. And I boil full volume. I've brewed in 40 degree weather and it took a long time to come to a full boil, once it was there it stayed, but 20 degrees is a lot different than 40. Don't give up on it yet. See what it does in regular brewing weather!!! I will say this...You the man for brewing in 20 degree temps!!!

Just for clarification, this is an electric fryer, so not sure apples/apples. We shall see. Fortunately i was in the garage, so temps weren't bad...

I see...yea, electric would be totally different than a propane burner.

So, I bottled the "Krampus's Vienna Lager(s)". More orange then red still. I guess you should just go close to 100% RedX if you want to really get Red, even when using other reddish malts to supplement. That or throw in a pinch of roasted barley.

Even though they both had different Mangrove Jack lager yeasts, I couldn't tell them apart by tasting the hydrometer samples. We shall see if I can later.

Kegged my Wacky Hijnx which was mostly Comet hops with my first try at Comet Hop Hash. Can't say it looked, smells or tasted any different but it didn't taste bad so I'm going with 'SUCCESS'!

Today I brewed a Dunkelweizen because....I never have and it sounded good.

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I made me a Burton Pale Ale.

Kegged my first stout, BCS Oatmeal Stout, using 1318. Sample tastes good.

I bottled the smoked Kolsch. It turned out lighter colored then I expected since I used the Kolsch malt which isn't quite as pale as Pilsner normally.