Messages

31

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Cold Crashing

« on: August 24, 2011, 10:43:33 am »

High-floc strains (English, ringwood, etc.) can almost completely drop out in a couple of days at those temps (esp. with finings). The small amount left will either not be enough to carbonate, give inconsistent carbonation from bottle to bottle, or take a LONG time to carbonate.

Im doing a red ale with OG of 1.071 and using WLP007 which is a pretty high-floc. Fermenting at 68F right now. I was planning on doing at least 3 weeks in primary. May ramp up the temp gradually to 72F by the end.

Im not even sure just how cold my fridge can get! hahaha! Im using a SANYO brand mini-fridge basically big enough to fit one 6.5gal carboy and it's connected to a Johnson Controls A419 digital thermostat. Ive never done a lager with it so idk what its lower limits are without stressing the fridge motor too much.

32

Homebrew Clubs / Orange County CA brew clubs?

« on: August 23, 2011, 09:29:25 pm »

Anybody living in the Orange County (preferably north OC) area, and belong to a good brew club? Im looking for one to meet with and share brews! 

33

Beer Recipes / Deschutes The Abyss

« on: August 23, 2011, 09:11:33 pm »

Ok... So this is my favorite beer ever, and for a very long time I have been wanting to somehow emulate this beer.

Given the complexity of processes and ingredients that seem to go into making it, Im sure it would be next to impossible to actually clone.

Here's what Deschutes has to say about it:

"SPECIFICS
Recipe type: All grain
Batch size: 5 U.S. gallons
Original gravity:   1.100
Final gravity: 1.018
Boil time: 90 minutes
Fermentation temp: 65° F
Yeast type: English Ale

MALT - NW 2-row Pale Malt, Black malt & black barley, C-120 & C-60
Malted Wheat, Roasted Barley, Victory or biscuit malt

HOPS - Millennium, Chinook

**Note: Temps, times and weights are the challenge. Happy Brewing!"

So here's what Ive come up with so far for a 5-gallon batch...

13 lbs - 2-Row Base (69.3%)
1 lbs - Crystal 60L (5.3%)
0.5 lbs - Crystal 120L (2.7%)
1 lbs - Wheat Malt (5.3%)
0.75 lbs - Roasted Barley (4%)
0.5 lbs - Black Patent (2.7%)
1.5 lbs Victory Malt (8%)
0.5 lbs Molasses (2.7%) In Boil

(Gives me a calculated finished-beer color of about 50L in Brew Pal)

Boil Time - 90min

   1oz Millennium (13%AA)@ 60min
   1oz Chinook (11.8%AA) @ 45min
   0.5oz Millenium @ 30min
   0.5oz Chinook @ 15min
   0.25oz Licorice Root @ 10min
(Approx. 67 IBU's calculated) 

Fermentation @ 65F with WLP007

This beer was originally a blend of a molasses stout with a licorice stout. Plus, they also do a myriad of barrel aging and blending of different oaks, as well as "dry-hopping" with Vanilla beans and Cherry bark... So that would be the harder part to emulate im sure!

34

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Cold Crashing

« on: August 23, 2011, 08:10:59 pm »

Mind if I ask, for how long and at what temp?

And then you just bottle condition with dextrose (or other sugar) as usual? Or would re-pitching a small amount of yeast be a good idea? I assume a good amount of yeast will still be alive if the cold-crash isn't too long

35

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Fermentation

« on: August 23, 2011, 07:45:53 pm »

I have had to do this a few time and so far I haven't had any major issues. I only have an immersion chiller, so once I get it below 100F my cooling really starts to slow down. Ill throw it into my fridge and turn my thermostat to around 45 and wait a couple hours. Its probably still a little warmer than it should be but at least I know it's in a range where the yeast aren't gonna go into shock if I go ahead and toss em in.

36

Yeast and Fermentation / Cold Crashing

« on: August 23, 2011, 07:40:57 pm »

On a beer that is just going to go straight from the primary to the bottle (no secondary)... Is cold crashing the beer for a while at the very end, before bottling, recommended? Ive done the technique before of cold crashing the bottles after they carbonate to help it clear up but Ive never tried cold-crashing while still in the fermenter. I especially hear of this a lot in traditional belgian recipes.

Any recommendations?

37

Pimp My System / Re: My Brewery and Alehouse-Shed

« on: August 22, 2011, 04:22:16 pm »

MAN CAVE!!!

38

Pimp My System / Wooden brew stand? Help with system design...

« on: August 22, 2011, 04:19:21 pm »

Ive been desperately wanting to get myself a nice brew stand in order to eventually consolidate my entire brewing process into one unit. Been doing some thinking, and Ive seen quite a few people that have built wooden brew stands. I have easy access to a full woodshop and somebody who would be willing to help me construct it. So all-in-all, im thinking that a wooden stand may just be much more practical for me.

Anybody have any good designs or personal experiences they would be willing to share? 

Also, my dad works for a company that specializes in fluid technologies, so I also have access to all kinds of pipes, hoses, pumps, heat-exchangers, and all that stuff at a pretty cheap cost if I need it.

So yeah, if anybody has some good ideas for a design... or input regarding making it a certain style, like RIMS or HERMS... Id really love any advice I can get! Thanks! 

39

All Grain Brewing / Re: Goodbye stove... Hello Blichmann!

« on: August 22, 2011, 03:42:11 pm »

Did my first brew on the Blichmann burner yesterday. It definitely seems like a well-made product. I had to do a little bit of messing around with it until I really got a handle on how to dial in the right levels. Im not very schooled on using propane tanks so it took some time for me to realize that I was running too lean of a mixture and too much air was getting in, so my flame kept going out the first few times. Read online to adjust the air flow to where just the tip of the flame starts to turn yellow, and once I dialed that in, I didnt have a single problem.

As far as the rest of the brewing process.... we shall see how it turns out.

40

All Grain Brewing / Re: Single-malt beers

« on: August 22, 2011, 03:35:33 pm »

Thats what I thought. haha. Thanks guys! Got some great input there. Wish I could brew everyday! There are too many options and possibilities!

I feel like if I spend some time better understanding the character of each individual ingredient, then in the long run, it would help me with developing my own recipes and being able to create whatever I have in mind.

41

All Grain Brewing / Re: Making up for Space under spigot?

« on: August 22, 2011, 03:29:42 pm »

Ok yeah! One of the pots I have has that already. I assumed thats what its for and it makes perfect sense. Thanks!

42

All Grain Brewing / Making up for Space under spigot?

« on: August 22, 2011, 12:04:42 am »

Im starting to move towards doing larger batches (lager than the usual 5 gallons, that is) so I have recently acquired a couple new brew pots. One 15 gallon and one 20 gallon. But I have noticed one thing that concerns me a bit.

When you are using these larger-volume pots with spigots on them, do you usually account for the liquid that is left below the level of the spigot? It seems like it a pretty decent amount too... at least a few gallons.

Maybe Im just still so used to doing 5 gallon batches that this seems like a bigger deal than it is! hahaha

43

All Grain Brewing / Single-malt beers

« on: August 21, 2011, 11:32:41 pm »

Ive been wanting to dive into learning the different characteristics that the different kinds of malts add to a beer. Ive heard/read about people brewing a bunch of what they called "single-malt beers", featuring individual specialty grains to learn their flavor really well. This is what I am assuming they mean by "single-malt"...
 
For example. If i want to learn the flavor of Crystal-60: I would still use a base malt like Pale 2-row making up 75-90% of the grain bill, correct? And just fill up the rest with C-60.

I shouldn't just make a 100% C-60 grain-bill, right?

Hope that makes sense!!!   

44

All Grain Brewing / Re: So, how long to do a 5 gallon all-grain batch?

« on: August 21, 2011, 11:18:17 pm »

Just did a brew today and Id say it took me about 7 hours from start to finish... or  what I call, from "cleaning to even more cleaning"

45

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: What's Brewing This Weekend - 8/19 Edition

« on: August 19, 2011, 06:34:16 am »

Heard a pretty simple Arrogant Bastard clone recipe on The Jamil Show the other day. I think I may be giving that one a whirl on Sunday. Either that or I might attempt a Berliner Weiss that I am supposed to do as a friend's birthday beer... We shall see!