Homebrewers

jmanic

JORBA Board Member/Chapter Leader
Staff member
JORBA.ORG
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Sweet bling!
What's the first batch outta that bad boy?
 

ArmyOfNone

Well-Known Member
Brewed up a Imperial Stout that is now aging on whiskey soaked oak chips and 1 vanilla bean...boy did I underestimate the blow off it foamed over for 12 hrs and shot the airlock across the kitchen but managed to save 4 gallons

What kinda whiskey did you use? I have oak chips but I am being kinda cheap ATM. I want to get a bottle of knob creek but that ish is pricey DOE.

Sweet kettle Bill! I love mine!
 

Glenlivet12

Well-Known Member
Any recommendations on a grain mill?

Barley crusher, monster mill or something else. I'm open other brands. Barley crusher is cheapest and most ready to use, the monster mill seems beefier but requires you to purchase the hopper separate and is more expensive. I'll probably mount it to a table or something so a base isn't important. I can make one to hold me over.
 

ArmyOfNone

Well-Known Member
I have a barley crusher. Reasonable price, good reviews and pretty brainless to use. I have a 7lb hopper (wish I would have got the 14) but the base fits perfect inside a home depot bucket.

two thumbs up
 

Glenlivet12

Well-Known Member
It was a productive weekend for beer! On Sunday ArmyOfNone came over and helped me make Wobbegongs RyePA recipe. I think that was the fastest brew day i've ever had! We didn't dough in until after 12 and we were completely done and relaxing by 3:30.

I've heard horror stories about stuck sparges w/ Rye wheat but we didn't have anything like that. I was a little under on pre boil gravity and w/ 5 minutes left in the boil i decided to add two cups of dextrose to help bring it up to around 1.071, still short of the 1.075 i was shooting for but close enough for me. Its sitting in the basement now and a krausen just formed earlier this afternoon. Temp is starting to raise a bit. Once it hits 68ish i'll bring it out to the garage to keep the temps in the mid to low 60's for the active fermentation phase.

Since I had off today i decided to try a 1 gal BIAB SMaSH recipe i worked up using some Australian Topaz hops i have and left over 2-row. I don't think i like the brew in a bag method. The pot i used lost a lot of heat so i had to keep checking on it and adding heat. Also I couldn't really vorlauf so theres ton sediment in this batch. I'd rather use a 2gal cooler w/ a colander or bag in it. They're cheap and would probably hold temp better. I think it'd be just as easy as BIAB and i could vorlauf. In the end i have about 3/4 gallon of wort and used about 3/4 an ounce of AU Topaz and the rest will be dry hopped. I may top off to a gallon but probably won't...I pitched half a packet of S-04 i had laying around from a cider experiment i did not long ago. OG of the 3/4 gallon wort was 1.076.
 

Glenlivet12

Well-Known Member
The back room of the basement does, the garage temp is a lot closer to outside but w/ the heat generated from active fermentation the carboy will be in the mid 60's(at least it was last time).

If I see it getting close to 60 i'll wrap it in a sweater or blanket to insulate it a bit. Once things settle down, after a week or so, i'll bring it back down to the basement to finish up.

Jeremy, I forgot to mention when I saw you, the bottle labeled "CS" was bottle conditioned so theres a bunch of yeast sediment in it. The ESB was bottled from the keg and is nice and clean.
 
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jShort

2018 Fantasy Football Toilet Bowl Lead Technician
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Cool. Looking forward to trying them both.
 

Glenlivet12

Well-Known Member
I ended up not having to move this batch. The ryePA never went above 66*. It's still fermenting but definitely slowing. The carboy temp is dropping as well. I'll move it to a warmer spot for a few weeks to make sure everything finishes up before racking and dry hopping.

The 1 gal smash is pretty much done. I moved it to a central warmer spot and you can see it starting to clear on its own. I'll move it to the garage on fridge to cold crash before racking and dry hopping.
 

Glenlivet12

Well-Known Member
They rye is kegged and amazing! Strong hop flavor after the first week on gas. It's week two now and the hops are mellowing and the rye is starting to shine through.

The smash is a dud, not sure where its coming from but there's a strong milky or creamy flavor to the beer making it hard to get down more the. A few sips. Ill hold not a few of the bottles and revisit in a few months.

I threw together some meads the other night. These were super basic but the gravity samples tasted great. Ones an orange melomel with cinnamon, clove, nutmeg and allspice. The other is a pineapple melomel with about three cups of tea added to it. Both used 3.5lbs of honey diluted with boiled water. The orange batch used bakers yeast to ferment and the pineapple used lalvin 71B.
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1362670588.336754.jpg
 

jmanic

JORBA Board Member/Chapter Leader
Staff member
JORBA.ORG
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Midwest Supplies coupon

I have a 20% off one-time use coupon code good through Sunday (6/2) for Midwest Supplies.

I believe it's good for the entire order.
If you can use it, shoot me a PM.
 

Glenlivet12

Well-Known Member
Racked both meads to a secondary a few weeks ago. It's been about 2.5 months. One of the meads, I think the orange, racked again to a 1L bottle to serve. Right now it's still a bit harsh. Ill have to let it sit for a while and hope it mellows out. Hoping to get the second one into a serving bottle this weekend. I lost track of which is which. The one I tried seems like it has some orange to it. ImageUploadedByTapatalk1370035595.752038.jpg

Edit: racked the second mead tonight. This one was just honey and a bunch of pineapple with lavlin wine yeast. This one is a bit more palatable and sweeter than the first. Doesn't have that bitey robitussin taste the first one has. This is counter to what I expected. The wine yeast should have fermented real dry and the bakers yeast should have stayed sweet. Unless I'm mixing them up, this latest one tastes like pineapple tho.

Hopefully after a few months of aging I'll remember to revisit this.
 
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Glenlivet12

Well-Known Member
I brewed a pumpkin ale this weekend. Used 5lbs of 2-fow, 5lbs of Marris otter a few ounces of flaked wheat and a half pound of crystal 80. Also in there is a pound each of grade B maple syrup, molasses and brown sugar. I hopped with an ounce each of cascade and Hallertauer. For some pumpkin flavor i added close to 64 ounces of pumpkin puree and three whole cinamon sticks. I double pitched with both S-04 and S-05. This thing took off! Its still going and has an awesome orange color. I'm really looking forward to this in a month or two. Should be around 7 or 8%.

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Wobbegong

Well-Known Member
Delicious beer! Time to culture some Conan Yeast for my next IPA brew session. Heady Topper isn't pasteurized, its living beer. The bottom of the can has enough yeast settled out to harvest. The can bottoms are added to a small amount of sweet wort in a flask and spun until the yeast wakes up and eats the sugars, making more yeast. I'll step this up 3 times, which will give me enough yeast to ferment my beer. This yeast makes the most delightful peach and apricot flavors and is a huge part of Heady Topper's flavor profile.

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GSTim

Formerly M3Tim
Nice.

Me = Jealous

Send some my way when your done! :D

When you coming back to this neck of the woods?

Tim
 

GSTim

Formerly M3Tim
P.S. I t's pretty funny that the Heady Topper can says "Drink from the Can" but the guy on the label is drinking from a glass. :hmmm:

Tim
 

The Kalmyk

Well-Known Member
Delicious beer! Time to culture some Conan Yeast for my next IPA brew session. Heady Topper isn't pasteurized, its living beer. The bottom of the can has enough yeast settled out to harvest. The can bottoms are added to a small amount of sweet wort in a flask and spun until the yeast wakes up and eats the sugars, making more yeast. I'll step this up 3 times, which will give me enough yeast to ferment my beer. This yeast makes the most delightful peach and apricot flavors and is a huge part of Heady Topper's flavor profile.

Shelton-20140404-00157_zps2fc16c51.jpg

That's very ironic you post this... My friend was just explaining to how he is doing the exact same thing you explain in this post
 

Wobbegong

Well-Known Member
My yeast project was a success. I grew a nice and clean culture of yeast from a can of Heady Topper. I harvested enough yeast to pitch for this batch of IPA, plus extra yeast to store in mason jars for the next few batches. Time to brew!

I was able to find a day that worked out with the family schedule that allowed me the time to focus and actually enjoy the day. My wife is awesome for taking one for the team.
Off to the brewery to get things going (It’s really my garage, don’t tell anyone… :D ). Having a dedicated place all set up for brewing is such a great thing.

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For this 5 gallon batch of IPA, I’m using 12 pounds of Munton’s Pearl Malt and one Pound of German Munich Malt. I mill my grain immediately before mashing to preserve freshness, similar to coffee. This process strips the husks off, keeping them mostly whole, while crushing the inner components of the kernel. I fill the hopper and get to crushing.

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After crushing, the grains are added to a measured amount of water in the mash tun and held at a specific temperature. During this time, starches are converted to sugars for the yeast to consume during fermentation.

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The mash water re-circulates from the bottom back to the top of the grain bed. My system monitors the temperature and fires the burner as needed to maintain the pre-set temperature. Every aspect of my process is strictly controlled and measured.

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I am blessed with very soft water. It’s perfect for brewing. My water was tested by a laboratory that provides analysis specific for brewing, so I can understand what needs to be added for certain styles of beer. IPA benefits from a higher level of sulfate. It helps to emphasize hop flavors and bitterness. I add salts to boost the needed elements. For this beer, I’m adding measured amounts of calcium sulfate, magnesium sulfate and calcium chloride to the mash tun. I use brewing software to calculate these additions on the computer.

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I also added 3ml of food grade lactic acid solution, which will bring the mash into the proper PH range. After things have a moment mix well and settle in, I measure the PH with a calibrated meter to confirm my mash is where it needs to be. I targeted a ph of 5.3. Anything over 5.5 and the beer won’t be what it could be…. Great beer!

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More to come later… Hoping to keep this thread alive…. :getsome:
 
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