Messages

1

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: British Yeast Recommendation

« on: May 14, 2013, 04:25:27 PM »

I make a lot of british ales... they are nicely balanced and I can't find too many here in the states that haven't been shipped over from England.

I've tried most of the Wyeast yeasts (London Ale 3, Thames Valley Ale, Irish Ale, London ESB, London Ale, etc.).  I've made Jamil's "Best Bitter" recipe at least 6 times now, with a bunch of different yeasts.  So far, my personal favorite by far is the WYeast private collection Thames Valley Ale II (1882). 

This is a GREAT yeast that I really love.  Last time I used it was for a brewin series with my homebrew club.  We made a Best Bitter, Northern Brown, and Brown porter about a month apart and repitched the 1882 between each batch.  All three of the beers were fantastic, but the Best Bitter was supurb.  THe next time it comes around in the WYeast private collection I suggest you check it out.

Personally, I'm thinking of starting a personal yeast slant of this one.  Once a year is not nearly enough.

2

Beer Recipes / Re: HAle 2012

« on: November 25, 2012, 07:26:32 PM »

Well, this was a massively happy fermentation, no surprise.  the morning after I brewed, the airlock was blown out of the fermenter, and maybe 1/2 c of beer on the floor.  Cleaned it up, and switched to the blow-off tube I should have added in the first place.  HUGE amount of trub from this one; but, then, I didn't wash the yeast from the first batch.  Kept fermenting for a good 5 days or so.

I finally managed to source some black treacle, per Jamil's recipe.  This is some TASTY stuff; smoother and more caramel than molasses.  Just dumped the can into the beer and shook to rouse the yeast.  Once this finishes, I'll decant to a keg and start aging it.  Hopefully it will be drinkable enough for a pint or two by christmas.  But probably won't be great until next year.

Question for the crowd:  I've never oaked a beer, but this one seems like it might benefit from it.  Should I give it a shot?

Also; anyone else been making old ales?  Seems to be a neglected style these days; along with a lot of the british traditionals.

3

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: What's Brewing This Weekend - 11/16 Edition

« on: November 18, 2012, 06:40:22 AM »

Per the Recipe forum (http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=13942.0), Just kegged a best bitter, and decided to have fun with the yeast cake.  An old ale blew the lid off the fermenter despite a good load of fermcap S, and has settled back down to bubbling merrily away.

It spent about 24 hours with a near constant stream of bubbles out the airlock.... sounded like a power boat.

4

Beer Recipes / HAle 2012

« on: November 16, 2012, 05:32:28 PM »

Decided that I shouldn't let the yeast from a Best Bitter go to waste (Thames Valley II)...  I rarely pitch on top of the cake, but for this Old Ale I think I will.  Should reach it's peak for next year, most likely.

As always, thoughts welcome....

HAle 2012
Old Ale
Type: Extract Date: 11/16/2012
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal Brewer:
Boil Size: 2.82 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: Pot ( 3 Gal/11.4 L) - Extract
End of Boil Volume 2.60 gal Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 5.25 gal Est Mash Efficiency 0.0 %
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage Taste Rating(out of 50): 30.0
Taste Notes:
Ingredients
Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
1 lbs Crystal Extra Dark  (C&F) (120.0 SRM) Grain 1 7.3 %
8.0 oz Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM) Grain 2 3.6 %
8.0 oz Honey Malt (Gambrinus) (25.0 SRM) Grain 3 3.6 %
4.0 oz Black Malt (Simpsons) (550.0 SRM) Grain 4 1.8 %
4.0 oz Crystal, Dark (T&F) (80.0 SRM) Grain 5 1.8 %
11 lbs 4.0 oz Extra Light Muntons Dry Extract (3.0 SRM) Dry
Extract 6 81.8 %
1.00 oz Magnum [14.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 7 38.1 IBUs
1.00 oz Bramling Cross [6.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 8 3.3 IBUs
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.092 SG Measured Original Gravity: 1.046 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.023 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.010 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 9.1 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 4.7 %
Bitterness: 41.4 IBUs Calories: 151.6 kcal/12oz
Est Color: 25.1 SRM

5

Beer Recipes / Re: First Recipe comments....

« on: September 25, 2012, 06:29:04 PM »

If anyone is interested, this beer has finished fermenting, carbing, and aging.  When it was young, it definitely had an unbalanced feel to it.  Interestingly enough, the darker roasty and toasty elements from the amber and chocolate malts have been coming to the fore now that it's been on CO2 for a couple weeks.  I don't get too much hop-forward from this, but it's turned into a decent beer.

Definitely some tweaks to it next time around, but definitely better than pitch-it.

6

Kegging and Bottling / Re: Some Basic Kegging/Force Carbing Questions

« on: September 03, 2012, 05:50:37 AM »

Personally, I am a "set it and forget it" man.  However, if you MUST shake-carb for whatever reasons, this procedure will guarantee it doesn't get over-carbed.  I know several people in my HBC that swear by this procedure:

1) Chill the beer to serving temp (DO NOT FORGET THIS STEP)
2) Set the CO2 to the correct pressure for the level of carbonation you want.
3) Commense shaking
4) When you don't hear any more gas going into the keg, you're probably done.

The reason this works is that you aren't setting the gas to "too much carbonation."  You will need to shake for a little longer this way, but you will not be able to over-carbonate either.  It is similar in mechanism to putting an aeration stone at the bottom of the keg, but doesn't involve all that assembly and disassembly.

7

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Mead lag time

« on: August 27, 2012, 06:24:14 PM »

Just 2 sachets of the US-05.  I didn't even rehydrate.  It's very confusing.

8

Beer Recipes / Re: First Recipe comments....

« on: August 26, 2012, 06:09:56 PM »

Yeah, I went back and checked a couple of the past recipes that I was basing this on... I'm not so worried about the amber/biscuit/chocolate malt, but the crystal does look too high.

We'll see how it turns out.  Hopefully not too bad.

9

Equipment and Software / Re: Reliability issue with Chest Freezer/Keezer

« on: August 26, 2012, 01:06:18 PM »

The other thing I haven't seen mentioned is that you are converting USED freezers.  I read somewhere (in support documentation for my deep-freeze I believe) that these things aren't really made to be warmed-up once they are down to freezing temps.  Apparently, a lot of them tend to start rusting inside the walls once they get some moisture in there.  Since that nearly always happens when they warm up, you can see the potential problem.

I haven't done any investigation myself, but it's something to consider, at any rate.

10

Beer Recipes / First Recipe comments....

« on: August 26, 2012, 11:15:24 AM »

I've just finished brewing my home-made recipe.  I've tweaked a few recipes in the past due to ingredient availability and such, but this is the first one I've come up with myself.  Any comments/Thoughts?  Since it's brewed, any changes will need to wait for next time, of course.

Note: This is the original recipe; I had to substitute Galena for the Galaxy hops due to availability.  I am calling this a hybrid English/American Brown ale.  I wanted something a little citrusy and hoppy, but to retain the fantastic malt character of an English Brown.

Rockin 2-Fast Brown
Amt    Name    Type    #    %/IBU
7 lbs    Golden Promise (Simpsons) (2.0 SRM)    Grain    1    53.8 %
3 lbs    Amber (Crisp) (27.5 SRM)    Grain    2    23.1 %
1 lbs    Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM)    Grain    3    7.7 %
1 lbs    Crystal, Dark (Simpsons) (80.0 SRM)    Grain    4    7.7 %
8.0 oz    Chocolate Malt, Pale (200.0 SRM)    Grain    5    3.8 %
8.0 oz    Crystal, Extra Dark (Simpsons) (160.0 SRM)    Grain    6    3.8 %
0.50 oz    Galaxy [14.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min    Hop    7    22.7 IBUs
0.50 oz    Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min    Hop    8    2.8 IBUs
0.50 oz    Galaxy [14.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min    Hop    9    4.5 IBUs
0.50 oz    Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 1.0 min    Hop    10    2.3 IBUs
0.50 oz    Galaxy [14.00 %] - Boil 1.0 min    Hop    11    3.8 IBUs

Yeast: Safale US-05

11

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: What's Brewing This Weekend - 8/24 Edition

« on: August 26, 2012, 09:26:24 AM »

Just started two beverages:

MyFirstMead: 1.114 OG, Basswood honey, US-05 (no Lalvin 71B at the homebrew store).

"Rockin 2-Fast," a hybrid English/American Brown ale.
OG came out at 1.055.  The thought is to have an american hop character, backed up by some of the fantsatic Simpsons Crystal malt, and a nice bready note too.  This was a last-minute decision between fermenting with US-05, or some saved Thames Valley-2 in my fridge.  Ended up saving the TV-2 for my next batch of bitter, and tossed the US-05 into this one.

Amt    Name    Type    #    %/IBU
7 lbs    Golden Promise (Simpsons) (2.0 SRM)    Grain    1    53.8 %
3 lbs    Amber (Crisp) (27.5 SRM)    Grain    2    23.1 %
1 lbs    Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM)    Grain    3    7.7 %
1 lbs    Crystal, Dark (Simpsons) (80.0 SRM)    Grain    4    7.7 %
8.0 oz    Chocolate Malt, Pale (200.0 SRM)    Grain    5    3.8 %
8.0 oz    Crystal, Extra Dark (Simpsons) (160.0 SRM)    Grain    6    3.8 %
0.50 oz    Galena [11.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min    Hop    7    22.7 IBUs
0.50 oz    Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min    Hop    8    2.8 IBUs
0.50 oz    Galena [14.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min    Hop    9    4.5 IBUs
0.50 oz    Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 1.0 min    Hop    10    2.3 IBUs
0.50 oz    Galena [14.00 %] - Boil 1.0 min    Hop    11    3.8 IBUs

12

Yeast and Fermentation / Mead lag time

« on: August 26, 2012, 08:45:13 AM »

All you mead makers… how long is typical for a mead to take to start showing signs of active fermentation after pitching?  I just started my first mead, and it started bubbling nicely in the airlock in about 45 minutes.  Needless to say, this was a LOT shorter than I was expecting.

OG: 1.115
Yeast: Safale US-05 (Brew store was out of Lalvin 71-B)
Temperature: 60-65F
1st batch of a staggered nutrient addition added.

I was a little sad to find that I couldn't get 71-B for my first mead... I've had some good meads from US-05, so hopefully this will come out all right.  I have a little Thames Valley-II hanging around in the fridge, and I almost pitched that instead.  It has a nice stone-fruit character, but I didn't think it would attenuate enough.

Thanks.

--Evan

13

The Pub / Re: Project Fedora

« on: May 19, 2012, 04:34:29 AM »

Sorry.  My hat is a custom-made grey derby.  Which is much more fun than a fedora!

I need to add a derby to my haberdashery.

You have your own hat store?  Wow.

14

The Pub / Re: Project Fedora

« on: May 17, 2012, 06:47:10 PM »

Sorry.  My hat is a custom-made grey derby.  Which is much more fun than a fedora!

15

The Pub / Project Fedora

« on: May 17, 2012, 04:22:54 PM »

Well, since I saw a Diablo 3 thread out there, I figured I would throw in a plug for Project Fedora.

Calling all Adventure Gamers out there:  Project Fedora (texmurphy.com) is now live!  The Tex Murphy games were sci-fi/detective adventure games, and left with a huge cliffhanger about 15 years ago.  If you like adventure games, you should check out the old games over at gog.com.  If you like Tex, then you should consider offering a bit over on kickstarter to help fund the reboot of the series.

If you want names... Chris Jones (co-founder of Access SW), and Aaron Connors (sr. developer at EA) are the founders of Tex.  They've cast people like James Earl Jones in their games, and they do a great job.

Thanks for listening to the plug, all.