Messages

301

General Homebrew Discussion / Batch overflow

« on: August 02, 2010, 05:43:03 AM »

So I was brewing a Witbier yesterday, and i had a pretty good boil going.  I go to add the hops and immediately upon addition of the first package, the wort just got violent and overflowed out of my brewpot.  (Had about 4in space between the top of my pot and the wort, was boiling about 2 gallons).  Long story short, I moved the pot to another burner (electric stove), and tried to salvage the batch.  I lost some wort with some hops, but the rest of the boil went normal.  I checked my gravity and it was about where it should be for OG.  (1.04).

I pitched my yeast after everything cooled off, but no activity in my airlock.  I know airlock activity isn't necessarily indicitive of whats going on, but has me a liitle worried. 

So think it will be a salvageable batch? 

302

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: What's Brewing This Weekend - 7/30 Edition

« on: July 29, 2010, 09:27:18 AM »

Hopefully Sunday I will be brewing MadScientist Witbier.  Need a bigger pot though! 

303

Beer Recipes / Re: Pilsner recipie with ale yeast

« on: July 28, 2010, 05:34:03 AM »

What about something like this?
http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/recipe-kits/extract-kits/extract-ale-kits/victorious-primo-extract-kit.html

I was thinking of getting this myself. 

304

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: New to Homebrewing

« on: July 20, 2010, 07:45:24 PM »

I promised I would update after the process of making my first brew was completed.  It was an Amber Ale from a kit.  Today has been 8 days since the beer was bottled, and I couldn't resist trying one, so I chilled one and a few hours later tried it.  Wow!  I guess i did everything right, because the carbonation was there, and it had a nice head on it.  It tasted... good.  Not amazing, but damn it was good.  Hopefully it will only get better as I continue brewing!  I have plans for a Belgian Wit next and then I think an Irish Ale or Pale Ale.  However, I think I might go with the irish ale, since this amber ale is almost like a pale ale.

The swamp cooler was a great no-cost method to ferment the beer.  I took a plastic tub and filled it partially with water and ice bottles, and used a t-shirt.  Easily kept the beer below 75 deg F during some of the hottest temperatures NJ has seen this summer.  At times i checked the stick on thermometer and the temp was actually about 68.  (I don't know how accurate those are, but i figure it was at least below 75).  I cut the lid into two sections and now the top of my fermeting bucket sticks out a few inches. 

OK now i'm just rambling.  I will say, though, there is something extremely satisfying about opening a bottle of home brewed beer.

305

Beer Recipes / Irish Red Ale

« on: July 20, 2010, 07:35:25 PM »

With the success of my first brew (Amber Ale), I am gathering some ideas for my next batch.  I'm looking into making an Irish Red Ale, and I'm curious to what sort of recipe would make a good Irish Ale.  I have looked at the recipe on p. 173-174 of the Complete Joy of Homebrewing (3rd ed), which seems similar to the one on Homebrewopedia, and have also found this one that uses Orange Blossom honey. 

6 lbs Pale Malt extract syrup
1.0 lb orange blossom honey
1.0 lb Belgian Special B
3 oz cascade hop pellets (total, added at 45 and 10 and 1 min I believe, the procedure is on my laptop)
1 tsp Irish Moss
Wyeast #1084 Irish Ale

Northern Brewer has all the ingredients, except the honey which is out of stock.  Any thoughts on using regular vs. orange blossom?  Northern brewer also has the kit, but I looked at it and it's totally different than these recipes.  I think I would like to do this without the kit.  I'm shooting for something not too bitter.  As this one is 20-25 IBU and the one in the book is 30 IBU. 

Any thoughts on the appropriate hops for an irish ale?

306

Beer Recipes / Re: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale Clone

« on: July 15, 2010, 05:44:41 AM »

Awesome!  I think I might try out a smaller batch for this one to start.  I like this recipe.  I appreciate all the help! 

307

Beer Recipes / Re: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale Clone

« on: July 14, 2010, 01:14:57 PM »

OK so I decided on a recipe.  Basically from the link I posted with the exception of the hops.  Should I adjust any amounts of hops?

(I'm assuming this makes 5 gal)

6.6 lbs Light Malt Extract
1.0 lb crystal malt 60L
1.0 oz Perle Hops @60min
1.0 oz Magnum Hops @10min
1.0 oz Cascade Hops @ 1min
Wyeast American Ale 1056
3/4 cup priming sugar

Says the secondary fermenter is optional with an optional dry hopping.  What's the advantage of this?  Any other thoughts?

I'll steep the grains at about 170 for 30min, then bring to a boil and add extracts, then hops @ appropriate times.

308

Beer Recipes / Sierra Nevada Pale Ale Clone

« on: July 14, 2010, 09:39:10 AM »

I tried some searching on the forum and didn't come up with much.  I'm looking for an extract recipe for a SNPA clone.  I found this via google: http://www.cornells.com/content.cfm?s=5&p=29

But according to wikipedia, SNPA has caramel malt and different hops.  Which one is right and what extracts would I use?

309

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: New brew success!

« on: July 13, 2010, 12:59:17 PM »

Yay, a fellow Newbie.

I just bottled my first beer (Amber Ale) last night.  It was hazy, but I guess that should clear up in the bottles.  Chekced my gravity just before bottling, and it was right on 1.010.  So far so good.  Now I need to have some patience, because dammit, I want to drink it! 

Next up for me will be a Wit or a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale clone.     

You should have already started that second batch About the only way to solve the "patience" problem is to always have homebrew on hand and the best way to get there is to have multiple overlapping batches going on.

Sometimes... I suck at spelling.  As soon as I get a bigger brew pot this week, I'll order up some more bottles and get brewing.

310

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: New brew success!

« on: July 13, 2010, 09:28:59 AM »

Yay, a fellow Newbie.

I just bottled my first beer (Amber Ale) last night.  It was hazy, but I guess that should clear up in the bottles.  Chekced my gravity just before bottling, and it was right on 1.010.  So far so good.  Now I need to have some patience, because dammit, I want to drink it! 

Next up for me will be a Wit or a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale clone.     

311

General Homebrew Discussion / Batches <5gal

« on: July 09, 2010, 10:02:45 AM »

Most of the kits i've seen (and recipes for that matter) are at minimum 5 gallon.  Is it possible to brew something less, like a 2 gallon batch?  Obviously I can cut the amounts of the ingredients to corrispond to the size I want, but is it that simple?  Will this affect the flavor if I attempt to scale it up later?

312

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: What's Brewing This Weekend - 7/9 Edition

« on: July 09, 2010, 10:01:07 AM »

Nothing brewing this weekend.  I will be bottling my first batch of "Mad Scientist Amber Ale" Monday Night.  Eventually I'll learn to have two going at once or as I'm bottling one work on another.  I may need to buy stock in bottles though.  Until I brew again, I will be working on improving my fermenter and getting a bigger brew pot. 

313

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: New to Homebrewing

« on: July 06, 2010, 05:51:35 AM »

A little late to the thread but never too late to the party my Momma used to say.

Here's a few pics of my setup and it only cost me $10 for the tote and I had the Reflectix already. It holds two 7.9 gallon brew-buckets.

 I used to keep several gallons of water in there as well but it promotes mildewing on the sides of the fermenters. The water helped keep the temps steady along with the ice-packs but now I've since gone without the water for many batches and the mildew problem cleared up immediately.

Depending on ambient temps and desired wort temps I'll use 2-4 blue ice packs or 20oz soda bottles. This has worked extremely well for my brewing ales.

The "out" on the thermometer corresponds to the interior of the chamber.

I just lost everything i typed.  That sucks...

Anyway, I pretty much use the same set up but I have water with the ice packs and a tshirt around the bucket.  Where do you get the reflectix?

The brewing pretty much went off without a hitch (I should invest in a bigger pot though), and I started getting activity in my airlock, so I'm happy.  I'm changing ice packs at least twice a day, and the set up has been really good at maintaing a temperature.  I'm going to invest in a digital thermometer because those stick on ones suck.  I am confident in this set up, and we'll see how well it handles over the next few days which of course are supposed to be the hottest yet this year. 

Thank you everyone for your advice, and should this go well I will attempt the Wit. 

314

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: New to Homebrewing

« on: July 02, 2010, 05:45:17 AM »

My kit came yesterday and I'll be out most of the weekend, but with monday off, I'm thinking it'll be the perfect time to brew the first batch of "Mad Scientist"

Edit:  My fiance has already requested her own batch of beer... Something along the lines of a blue moon.  Doesn't need to be an exact copy, but something with an orange-citrusy flavor (I guess even something along the lines of a magic hat no. 9 but with orange), so if anyone knows if this is too difficult to do yet, or has a link to some kits, let me know. 

315

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: New to Homebrewing

« on: June 30, 2010, 07:36:49 AM »

Cooler or tub
Frozen soda/juice bottles swapped out twice a day



You can even get fancy and put a cover on it



You'll have to experiment but one bottle will keep it around 10 degrees below ambient for long enough to go to work

This is perfect!  Thanks for sharing, and thanks for welcoming me to the message board.  The Kit should arrive 7/1, which i guess is tomorrow, so hopefully I will be brewing soon.  Eventually I would hope to move to better temperature controls and the like.  And my fiance likes having the idea of beer always on tap when we buy a house :-)  Right now I will go with simple.

And as for lagers and ales, Ales have always been my favorite come to think of it, so that's what i'm starting with.  I'm a big fan of Triumph's Amber Ale at the moment.