[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Beer brewing pictorial 56K death (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 9/14/2009 7:26:02 PM EDT
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I figured I do a separate thread rather than clutter up the other one with pics.
This is a Fat Tire clone, partial extract. Edit to add ingredients: 2 lbs dry LME 3.3 lbs Coopers light LME .50 lb Munich Malt .50 lb Carapils Malt .50 lb Crystal Malt 6 oz Biscuit Malt 1 oz Chocolate Malt 1 oz Willamette hops 1 oz Fuggle hops WLP051 yeast OG 1.050 FG 1.013 Most of the stuff. Sanitize everything. 
The guys at the supply house measured and cracked all the grains. The first thing was to heat 3 qts of water to 154* and toss the grains in for a 30 minute soak. 
After that, it called for a 1.5 qt rinse with 170* water. 
Add enough water to bring the pot to 3 gallons, stir in the dry malt. Stirring very well. 
Slowly bring to a boil and toss the first hops. The second one goes in at the 40 minute mark. 
At 45 minutes, add the liquid malt and Irish moss. 
At the 60 minute mark, add the last hops, stir and terminate boil. Chill wort. 
Transfer to fermenter. 
Add water to bring the bucket up close to the 5 gallon mark, checking the OG as you go. 
When you get it correct, take your room temperature yeast, dip in sanitizer, shake well and pitch. Aerate the wort until your arms get tired. 
Add lid and airlock, put in cool dark place. 
When it hits the FG, rack into secondary to clarify if you want, then bottle. 
Do this in the garage or outside if you're married and want to stay that way. 
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Aerate the wort until your arms get tired. Saves a lot of time and energy to get a paint mixer from your local hardware store and attach it to a drill.  I usually just shake the carboy back and forth until I get a good head on it. No problems in 15 years of brewing that I would say were aeration related. K |
| How much cheaper were the pellet hops compared to fresh hops? Or why did you decide to go with pellets? Also I noticed your from OH and any links to where you bought your ingredients would be great. I live close to downtown Cincinnati. Myself and Ak74man have purchased the same brewing kit. |
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How much cheaper were the pellet hops compared to fresh hops? Or why did you decide to go with pellets? Also I noticed your from OH and any links to where you bought your ingredients would be great. I live close to downtown Cincinnati. Myself and Ak74man have purchased the same brewing kit. I know Listermann's is near Xavier University. I've used a few of his manufactured products, but cannot vouch for his service or store. Since I'm from Michigan, I shop at Adventures in Homebrewing. I know that they also mail order. The owner is a friend of mine, and I can vouch for the quality of his ingredients and service. What I can't vouch for is his shipping since I go to the store, pour a beer, and get what I need. K |
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Also I noticed your from OH and any links to where you bought your ingredients would be great. I live close to downtown Cincinnati. Myself and Ak74man have purchased the same brewing kit. I buy from herehttp://www.americashobbyhouse.com/ They're only 15 minutes away. I didn't buy an off the shelf kit (this time). I walked in, told them I wanted to make a Fat Tire clone, they found a recipe for it and gathered all the ingredients, cracked the grains, ect. I could probably get things a little cheaper at the bigger online houses, but I get good service there. They go out of their way to answer all of my newb questions. |
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How much cheaper were the pellet hops compared to fresh hops? Or why did you decide to go with pellets? Also I noticed your from OH and any links to where you bought your ingredients would be great. I live close to downtown Cincinnati. Myself and Ak74man have purchased the same brewing kit. I know Listermann's is near Xavier University. I've used a few of his manufactured products, but cannot vouch for his service or store. Since I'm from Michigan, I shop at Adventures in Homebrewing. I know that they also mail order. The owner is a friend of mine, and I can vouch for the quality of his ingredients and service. What I can't vouch for is his shipping since I go to the store, pour a beer, and get what I need. K Quoted:
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Also I noticed your from OH and any links to where you bought your ingredients would be great. I live close to downtown Cincinnati. Myself and Ak74man have purchased the same brewing kit. I buy from herehttp://www.americashobbyhouse.com/ They're only 15 minutes away. I didn't buy an off the shelf kit (this time). I walked in, told them I wanted to make a Fat Tire clone, they found a recipe for it and gathered all the ingredients, cracked the grains, ect. I could probably get things a little cheaper at the bigger online houses, but I get good service there. They go out of their way to answer all of my newb questions. Thanks. -M60 |
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You know, that White Labs yeast works better if you make a starter with it.
Here is a calculator that tells you based on your yeast type, gravity and volume what size starter you should use. Mr. Malty Pitching Calculator Another good thing about making a starter, is you know the viablilty of your yeast. If your yeast is dead, you find it out before you dump it in your brew, not after. This is a good thing, ask me how I know. I'm not trying to tell you, you are doing it wrong, I'm just pointing out a different way of doing it. I use both liquid and dry yeast, and there are several different ways to innoculate your wort with both. The best way is the way that gets the yeast to start producing alcohol and CO2 the fastest, because this is what protects your brew from bacteria. I just dumped 47 bottles of a batch of haus ale because the stuff got infected. I'm guessing, it happened because the yeast took too long to start. Everything else you are doing looks great. I soak my grains for an hour, but that's so I can smoke a cigar and drink 2 beers. Let us know how it turns out. |
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<snip> Do this in the garage or outside if you're married and want to stay that way.
I'm lucky in that my wife has never complained about me brewing in the house. She did complain about that one vent tube that got clogged with hops and blew off. We had beer on the ceiling. That was not easy to clean up. Funny as heck, though. |
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I'm lucky in that my wife has never complained about me brewing in the house. She did complain about that one vent tube that got clogged with hops and blew off. We had beer on the ceiling. That was not easy to clean up. Funny as heck, though. Beer on the ceiling is funny. Beer and hop sludge on the dining room ceiling, table, pictures, walls, hutch, etc was not. 
K |
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You know, that White Labs yeast works better if you make a starter with it. Here is a calculator that tells you based on your yeast type, gravity and volume what size starter you should use. Mr. Malty Pitching Calculator Another good thing about making a starter, is you know the viablilty of your yeast. If your yeast is dead, you find it out before you dump it in your brew, not after. This is a good thing, ask me how I know. I'm not trying to tell you, you are doing it wrong, I'm just pointing out a different way of doing it. I use both liquid and dry yeast, and there are several different ways to innoculate your wort with both. The best way is the way that gets the yeast to start producing alcohol and CO2 the fastest, because this is what protects your brew from bacteria. I just dumped 47 bottles of a batch of haus ale because the stuff got infected. I'm guessing, it happened because the yeast took too long to start. Everything else you are doing looks great. I soak my grains for an hour, but that's so I can smoke a cigar and drink 2 beers. Let us know how it turns out. I don't have a problem listening to someone with more experience. That's what this thread is all about. I'm a complete newb at this. It's a thread for beginners from a beginner, to get their feet wet. 
It would be great if you'd do something of the same from the perspective of a more experienced home brewer.
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I think I'm going to toss in a few of those "I wish I woulda, coulda, shoulda" thoughts.
Carboys - I have about 20 of them. If I was going glass, I woulda bought all 6.5 gallons. If I was super smart, I woulda avoided buying all glass and started picking up some better bottles. Don't buy those neck holders for the carboys. The neck will break and you will have a serious problem on your hands. I wish I woulda started with a larger boiling pot. Now I just use tricked out keggles. I wish I woulda bought an oxygen wand earlier. It's so much easier than shaking a heavy glass carboys. |
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I don't homebrew beer, but seeing your glass Ozarka jug reminded me of a story a friend told me of his homebrewing.
He had a dead space behind his fireplace (older home in the south). He used it for fermenting his homebrew. One day he lifted his glass Ozarka jug (5 gallon) and twisted it around in his grip. Apparently to sling it over his shoulder.... That is when he hit the edge of the fireplace and shattered the jug of beer. TRG |
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I think I'm going to toss in a few of those "I wish I woulda, coulda, shoulda" thoughts. Carboys - I have about 20 of them. If I was going glass, I woulda bought all 6.5 gallons. If I was super smart, I woulda avoided buying all glass and started picking up some better bottles. Don't buy those neck holders for the carboys. The neck will break and you will have a serious problem on your hands. I wish I woulda started with a larger boiling pot. Now I just use tricked out keggles. I wish I woulda bought an oxygen wand earlier. It's so much easier than shaking a heavy glass carboys. I just looked at those pics again, and one thing I noticed was he was siphoning his wort into his fermenter. I've never done this. I've always taken one of those strainer bags that you get at the paint store (the big ones for the 5 gallon cans), secured it to the ale pail with a bungee cord, and poured my wort directly into my pail. This does 2 things, it oxygenates the wort, and gets rid of all the chunks of hops. The only thing I have ever shaken was a mead. I was shaking one of my 5 gallon glass carboys to clean it out and accidently hit the edge of the sink. There's a lot of glass in one of those fermenters. Right after that, I went to better bottles. You can say what you want about plastic, that scared the shit out of me. |
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I'm counting my blessings so far that I haven't broken one.
I've tried using a hop bag to filter junk but it always gets plugged up. I use whole hops though but even those times with plugs or pellets, things would get backed up. If you don't have one of those big funnels they sell at the homebrewshop, I'd get it now. It just makes things so much easier. Edit for a tip: I noticed you're pouring the DME from the bag to the pot. Notice how much it balled up right away? Pain in the butt? Pour it into a large bowl first. Then pour it into the pot. This way it doesn't have enough time to pull in the moisture and ball up on you. |
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You guys bring up some interesting points. IDK why I siphoned, it just seemed like a good idea at the time. Carboy handle- I had that thought about the necks in the back of my mind when I was buying it, but all the full ones in the store had them. (They brew for the classes). I'll pick up one of those strap widgets. 6.5 gallon vs 5. I bought a 5 to use as a secondary as I was under the impression that the greater head space of a 6.5 wasn't needed or desirable for that use. Thanks for the tips. |
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You guys bring up some interesting points. IDK why I siphoned, it just seemed like a good idea at the time. If you have a bucket for a primary, you could just dump it straight in. I always try to minimize things that come in contact with my wort. Carboy handle- I had that thought about the necks in the back of my mind when I was buying it, but all the full ones in the store had them. (They brew for the classes). I'll pick up one of those strap widgets. I use the straps and they work very well. 6.5 gallon vs 5. I bought a 5 to use as a secondary as I was under the impression that the greater head space of a 6.5 wasn't needed or desirable for that use. You got the right idea here. The few remaining 5s I have are used for secondaries for the same reason. Again, I wish I had picked up Better Bottles instead of glass. Thanks for the tips. So, how are you handling your bottle sanitation? For that matter, did your cleaning supplies come with the kit? If so, what did they give you? |
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I would add a .5 to 1 lb of 2-row to your steeping grains. The 2-row will help convert some of the Munich and Biscut malt. Munich malt only has enough enzymes to convert itself. Other than that, it looks great.
BTW I siphon, too. I also ferment in a 6.5gal carboy. |
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So, how are you handling your bottle sanitation? For that matter, did your cleaning supplies come with the kit? If so, what did they give you? I haven't bottled anything yet. 5 gallons in the primary and 5 in the secondary. They gave me some no rinse cleanser called easy clean. I should probably pick up some starsan or brite. ETA, I looked it up online, it's this stuff. http://www.thegrape.net/browse.cfm/4,10582.html |
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I use oxiclean for the heavy cleaning.
A 5 gallon mixture of Star San can be found in one of my kegs and transferred around when it's filling time. I also keep a spray bottle of it handy for spot sanitizing. It's a contact sanitizer so you don't need to soak everything in it. If you manage to keep the exposure to oxygen low, the Star San will keep for a while. Oh and foam is okay. When it's bottling time, I use the ...dishwasher...on the high temp sanitation mode. I'm thinking about bottling wands. Some use basic gravity to close the wand while you move it to another bottle for filling. Sometimes it gets stuck and you have a huge mess. Find yourself a wand with a spring in it. That has saved me tons of time and probably several bottles of spilled brew. Bottle Fillers |
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I use oxiclean for the heavy cleaning. A 5 gallon mixture of Star San can be found in one of my kegs and transferred around when it's filling time. I also keep a spray bottle of it handy for spot sanitizing. It's a contact sanitizer so you don't need to soak everything in it. If you manage to keep the exposure to oxygen low, the Star San will keep for a while. Oh and foam is okay. When it's bottling time, I use the ...dishwasher...on the high temp sanitation mode. I'm thinking about bottling wands. Some use basic gravity to close the wand while you move it to another bottle for filling. Sometimes it gets stuck and you have a huge mess. Find yourself a wand with a spring in it. That has saved me tons of time and probably several bottles of spilled brew. Bottle Fillers If you use a bottling bucket with a valve, you can cut yourself a piece of tubing about 2" long and use it to attach the bottling wand to the valve, so the wand hangs down. Then take the bottle and push it up on the wand. This is a whole lot easier than pushing the wand, attached by a long hose down in the bottle. Less tipped over bottles too. |
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Nice work! Now start timing your brews so you can use the yeast from the primary to ferment out a new batch versus paying the $8 for another vial of yeast. I'm not sure I want to brew another batch of Fat Tire right away, but I'm seriously thinking about harvesting the WLP051 for later use. I'm probably going to do another IPA as soon as I see how the first one came out, since that's what I drink the most of. I really like Dogfish Head 60. , so I may want to dry hop the next batch in the secondary.
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You don't have to make a beer that is exactly like the previous one to use the same yeast. It just has to be a beer that uses the same type of yeast. Any recipe that calls for WLP051 would work.
I've done this a couple of times. With the prices they are charging for liquid yeast (8 bucks), compared to Nottingham (1.99) I can see reusing it several times. Homebrewers are notorious for being thrifty (cheap skates). One of the neat things about pouring a new batch on the trub, is you get lots of fermentation quickly. Since you are using white labs yeast, are you a member of their customer club? white labs You can get free yeast from them for labels. There is a how to thread on homebrewtalk.com that goes through the process of yeast washing so you can save your yeast and reuse it. |
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I'm definitely going to wash and reuse the liquid yeast. But, right now, I want to work on my IPA. I just bottled it and racked off a pint before priming. I've got to adjust the hops to get it closer to Dogfish Head. It's not bad, but I have to do some research on it. Maybe kick the bittering hops up a bit and split it into smaller, more frequent additions during the boil and then dry hop in the secondary. I just used dry safale on the IPA and it seemed to work fine. Actually had less lag time than the liquid. <shrug> |
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This recipe comes from a pretty helpful brewer on HBT.
It's an extract with grains. Pacman yeast is a pretty hungry eater. The general consensus on the brew is to have a strong starter. –––––––––––– Amount Item Type % or IBU 9 lbs 14.4 oz Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract 90.83 % 1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 9.17 % 1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (Dry Hop 3 days) Hops - 1.25 oz Warrior [15.00 %] (60 min) Hops 26.6 IBU 0.50 oz Simcoe [12.00 %] (Dry Hop 3 days) Hops - 1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (35 min) Hops 10.0 IBU 1.00 oz Simcoe [12.00 %] (30 min) Hops 13.1 IBU Mash Schedule: None Total Grain Weight: 9.70 lb –––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Steep grains as desired (30-60 minutes) Notes: –––––– Pacman yeast used |
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This recipe comes from a pretty helpful brewer on HBT. It's an extract with grains. Pacman yeast is a pretty hungry eater. The general consensus on the brew is to have a strong starter. –––––––––––– Amount Item Type % or IBU 9 lbs 14.4 oz Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract 90.83 % 1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 9.17 % 1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (Dry Hop 3 days) Hops - 1.25 oz Warrior [15.00 %] (60 min) Hops 26.6 IBU 0.50 oz Simcoe [12.00 %] (Dry Hop 3 days) Hops - 1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (35 min) Hops 10.0 IBU 1.00 oz Simcoe [12.00 %] (30 min) Hops 13.1 IBU Mash Schedule: None Total Grain Weight: 9.70 lb –––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Steep grains as desired (30-60 minutes) Notes: –––––– Pacman yeast used Man, I priced that out today at the local.  I'll have to buy in bulk to make that worthwhile.
What I did do though was pick up another BB IPA kit for $38, add another lb of light DME and an extra oz of Amarillo to dry hop with. Also thinking about doing more of the malt additions later in the boil. Still debating on dumping it right on the yeast cake from the fat tire when I rack it off. . |
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That hop bill is large. Wanna price out a 120 recipe? :) I wouldn't sweat dumping anything on top of your fat tire cake. FWIW, I normally won't go over 3 or 4 generations on 1 cake. I ended up washing the white labs and put it in the fridge. I used safale again on the IPA. |
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Nice work!
To be honest, I've always been a chicken when it comes to washing yeast. I just have a feeling that I'll infect it. It's been a long time since I've consistently brewed but right now I have some cider and a Cabernet fermenting away. I kinda forgot the sulfur fart smell they produce. |
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Nice work! To be honest, I've always been a chicken when it comes to washing yeast. I just have a feeling that I'll infect it. It's been a long time since I've consistently brewed but right now I have some cider and a Cabernet fermenting away. I kinda forgot the sulfur fart smell they produce. I just did it like the tacked thread on that home brew forum. Boiled everything, water, jars, lids. I'll probably use it next month on an Alaskan Amber clone. I know what you mean about the wine. I used to make it when I was young. One of my uncles had an orchard and would give me all kinds of excess fruits, showed me how to, ect. Most of what I made was drinkable, but I'm not much of a wine fan, so I never kept at it.
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Bump!
Last weekend was a good weekend. I finally corked some Metheglin that's been aging for years. I did some memory tests and realized that I made that mead on one of my birthdays, 3 years ago. It's been racked, stabilized and clarified more than I can remember. The gravity was holding the same for several months so I finally got them corked up. What a relief to finally have them secured. I promptly replaced that missing vessel with a new red wine. Where does it end? It doesn't. :) |
| I need 8oz. of maltodextrin for a porter I am going to make. My LHBS is out of it. Every place on the internet I have checked with wants 3 bucks for the product and 6-8 bucks for the shipping. Does anyone know of a place where I can buy it and not get raped on the shipping? |
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I need 8oz. of maltodextrin for a porter I am going to make. My LHBS is out of it. Every place on the internet I have checked with wants 3 bucks for the product and 6-8 bucks for the shipping. Does anyone know of a place where I can buy it and not get raped on the shipping? Try a GNC type store. http://www.nutritiongeeks.com/details2.asp?Prod=carbo-gain-maltodextrin-now-7&Prodgp=carbo-gain-maltodextrin-now&utm_source=froogle&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=726 |
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Busy night. I bottled 5 gallons of IPA, Cleaned the carboy, racked another 5 gallons into it, brewed a new IPA and dropped it onto the trub in the primary. Trying to get my pipeline full.
Only problem I have is getting that damn Fat Tire clone to carbonate. I'm not too fond of the White Labs yeast it called for. It was pretty slow in the primary and it's taking it's good old time in the bottles. The safale-05 I've used in all the other ales has been great. 
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Wort Chiller = Significant time and water savings.
How long has that clone been in the bottles? Did you crack one for testing recently? What did you use to carbonate it and how much? I'll assume you bottled from the bucket. Did you slowly stir the sugar in with the brew? Edit: It was a busy day for me yesterday. I racked a 2 year old straight mead onto some oak. That carboy was cleaned and I stabilized and moved my wine into it. The wine carboy had a few gallons left so I racked yet another 5 gallons wine from a fermentor onto it. That carboy was cleaned and I racked over a cider for it's secondary. Tons of cleaning this weekend...It took a while but I moved 20 gallons of stuff around and feel pretty good about them all. This is my first time oaking the mead. We shall see. The mead was already tasting extremely good. It's amazing what happens with a little time. They go from "hot" to smooth. |
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Wort Chiller = Significant time and water savings. How long has that clone been in the bottles? Did you crack one for testing recently? What did you use to carbonate it and how much? I'll assume you bottled from the bucket. Did you slowly stir the sugar in with the brew? Edit: It was a busy day for me yesterday. I racked a 2 year old straight mead onto some oak. That carboy was cleaned and I stabilized and moved my wine into it. The wine carboy had a few gallons left so I racked yet another 5 gallons wine from a fermentor onto it. That carboy was cleaned and I racked over a cider for it's secondary. Tons of cleaning this weekend...It took a while but I moved 20 gallons of stuff around and feel pretty good about them all. This is my first time oaking the mead. We shall see. The mead was already tasting extremely good. It's amazing what happens with a little time. They go from "hot" to smooth. I bottled it the same way as all the IPAs. The only difference was the yeast. I tried another bottle yesterday and the carb level is slowly coming up. Still nowhere near where it should be. It's just going to take it's good old time, I guess. The IPAs I brewed with safale 05 are fully carbed @ two weeks after bottling. The mead sounds interesting. I've got a beekeeper down the road from me. I'd ask him about some honey, but it appears he's having problems with his hives. |
