“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.” — Marcus Aurelius
I grabbed the opportunity to brew a batch, this time I decided to aim for 6 gallons to see how my mash would turn out. I have always filled my mash to the max and I wondered if this was preventing water from heating up the whole volume of grain.
Total weight of grain was 16 lbs, which left plenty of space in my mash tun. Unfortunately, my thermometer no longer works and I found out this on my brew day so I had to get my floating thermometer and use it. The mash temperature began at 160F and after one hour it was at 150F. May have lost heat from frequently opening my mash to stir and check the temperature. Either way, my target temperature was 158F so I did not complain.
I used my 1.6 litre of 1056 American Ale starter with my batch ended up with 5 gallon, and for the heck of it, dumped the remaining trub and liquid (approx 1.5 gallon) from the kettle into a smaller fermeter along with the yeast cake from the starter.
O.G. was 1.052, way off! I was hoping to get something in the 1.084 range. Either 1) my barley crusher did not crush the malt efficiently 2) something went wrong during the mash or 3) the malt was not fresh?
The 5 gallon did not start fermenting immediately, the trub began fermenting like crazy so I transferred 1/2 gallon of the fermenting trub to the 5 gallon batch. That got things kicking in no time.
After 7 days, yeast activity was not visible, gravity reading was at 1.010. Transferred to secondary and plan to bottle after 7 more days (which should be tomorrow)!
Whoo hoo! The forbidden fruit yeast I washed and saved from my Watermelon Witbier finally began today (two days after starting the yeast starter).
Am going to start my other batch of Red Ale from Festa Brew with this yeast and will toss in two crushed beano tablets too. Since six gallon of the wort will cause blow-offs I am going to blend 1 gallon of each batch for a third type of beer.
All three should be good to drink.
Last week I bought two Red Ale kit, made by Festa Brew – not my favourite choice, but that is what the store had in stock and I was not in the mood to ask them to order Pale Ale and wait for it to arrive.
My previous Red Ale from Festa Brew did not impress me (and one customer). Either the wort was not aerated correctly (there was a long lag in yeast activity and fermentation stopped prematurely leaving a lot of residual sugar).
For my Double Red Ale, I added 454g of dextrose boiled in 1 litre of water and two crushed beano tablets. The purpose of adding beano to the wort is to convert the unfermentable sugars into fermentable sugars so the beer is less sweet and dry (just what I like my beer to be).
Original Gravity reading: 1.052 @ 65ºF; Target Terminal Gravity: >1.010.
My apologizes, I need to make a habit of posting updates here!
In April, we had a baby girl, named Citra! Perfect time to release the Watermelon Witbier! When first released, it had a very harsh bitter and alcoholic taste. Keep in mind, this beer was also brewed strong with the hope of being a great beer to age.
After a few months, there was a noticeable improvement so I am confident when Citra is old enough, this beer will taste wonderful (and I hope she is not allergic to watermelon)!
What a beautiful day to brew my next batch! Introducing watermelon to my brew kettle to create my first watermelon witbier!
This recipe calls for the juice of six watermelon and to enhance the pink/red hue in this recipe I got three pints of raspberries at discounted price.
Targeted ABV is 8%.
If frecklesfly’s baby is a girl, this beer shall become her baby’s official drink and to announce the gender.
I have not really gotten time to really plan a brewing session. I have several recipes I want to brew, however I need to save money for more important expenses.
The good thing is, I have so many ingredients sitting around that really should be used up so I took an inventory of what I have and tossed them all into Brewer’s Friend Recipe Maker and ended up with something like a Russian Imperial Stout, not bad for something I enjoy drinking.
I just need to order some yeast that can work with the massive amounts of fermentable sugars for a total of an eleven gallon batch. Brew date shall be announced when I decide on a date, hopefully soon!
This is a quick update, I wanted to apologize for no posts for a while. I have been so busy with work and errands that I have not been able to find time to brew more beer.
I am really itching to brew again, hopefully soon!
Cheers!
According to the source I received this guide, using dry yeast is generally not recommended, however I have done dry yeast starters with no problems.
Since I bought a new brewery, it has been kind of awkward to host
another public brewing session so I decided this is the opportunity to
create my first video tutorial during the process of making beer.
Perfect timing since I do not have a “formal” place to use my brew
kettle yet (hopefully the garage when it is cleared up) so I am doing
beer kits right now.
Wheat Beer and Dry Ale kits are currently fermenting. The video
tutorial is being made during all the steps I am taking while doing
the wheat beer, but with this kit, the steps are the same for every
kit style that is available. The kit I am using is brewer’s wort or
pasteurized wort type of kit, which requires no boiling so for the
ultimate beginner, you do not need any pot or brew kettle, stove, etc.
Cheers!
