Post by baloononPost by JoergWell, we'll see. I'll brew it today, carried a computer downstairs for
work. The water is heating up right now. Since this beer doesn't have
any grains and just that 6lbs jug of gold extract it goes all the way
to boil first. Takes almost 2h on the two 1kW electric burners so I
have time for walking the dogs.
Last Thursday I transferred it to secondary, took a sip and it tasted
fine. Quite hoppy actually so I am not sure my wife will like it. There
was only 1/2oz Chinook at 60mins and then 2/3oz Centennial and 1/2oz
Calypso at 10min, for a 5-gallon batch, so that surprised me.
Post by baloononPost by JoergIf it doesn't work out I am also brewing an "AAA" (autumn amber ale)
in the afternoon. Supposedly seasonal but that has become one of our
staples.
I broke a cardinal rule and brewed while distracted. Screwed up my
calculations when I mashed and the temp was way too low, and spent a
long time getting the temp up to 150F. Must not have done a good job
mixing in the grain, because when I checked the gravity after cooling
everything down, the OG was much lower than it should have been. I also
forgot to add the sugar I was planning on adding. So I frantically
boiled up some sugar and dry malt extract, cooled it off and added it to
the fermenter to try to get the gravity up. Except I did a bad job
mixing in the extract, so I had some big lumps I had to strain out
before adding to the fermenter.
Looks like several mishaps in one session. I've had the occasional
mishap and it often had the same reason, distraction. Once a UPS driver
with a large shipment of beer ingredients blew by our house and my wife
came running down to tell me. He finally returned and didn't drop 100lbs
of stuff at the wrong house. However, then I accidentally took the wrong
secondary fermenter and this one wasn't sanitized with Starsan. I didn't
notice that until the beer was pouring, walking out to wash the
syphoning pot and ... "What's secondary #2 doing out here all alone?
Dang!". That was the one I had sanitized. Initially I thought the
Session Ale tasted a bit funky but after aging a few extra weeks in the
bottles it came around.
When I brew I try to go by a checklist and tell my wife that I am not
here when the phone rings. There is also a list for bottling preparation
so things such as running out of caps mid-flight won't happen. Hopefully.
Post by baloononOn the plus side, I had a really good starter. I went down in the
basement maybe just ten hours later and heard a loud fast tapping sound.
At first I thought I had water dripping from a leak somewhere upstairs,
but then I looked at the fermenter and saw the airlock going nuts.
I re-use US-05 a lot. When a beer is racked off I sanitize two 6-7oz
glass jars and one smaller one. The trub goes in there. The larger jars
are used for making trub bread and the small one gets dumped into the
next batch, including some of the trub below the white yeast layer to
make sure I get max "starting power". On Monday I brewed a Cream Ale in
the morning and that got going by late afternoon. The higher octane IPA
I brewed in the afternoon kicked in by bedtime. Both about 5-6h lag.
With fresh US-05 dry yeast it often takes a whole day.
The IPA has all El Dorado hops, a lot.
Post by baloononI guess I'll see how it turns out. Fortunately it's just a generic IPA
and I have pretty flexible expectations for it now, so I'm not going to
be upset if it doesn't fit some narrow style guideline. A good dose of
hops covers up a multitude of brewing sins.
Just ordered up a ton of new hops and now I'm going to get a ton of
grain. The beer cupboard is getting pretty empty post-Christmas, and I
need to restock, and also get a beer ready to age for next December.
Plus it's going to be time to lay in a supply for summer....
Our beer pretty much goes as I brew, like a production line. We grew up
in Germany beer where beer is considered liquid nutrition but on
weekends when friends are over it can go more quickly.
I am amazed about the patience you and others here have. I brewed a
Winter Ale that should sit for two months before opening the first
bottle. Winter is almost over now and I am itching to get in there after
just three weeks.
--
Regards, Joerg
http://www.analogconsultants.com/