Citrus-y Brown Ale

April 30, 2012 in Homebrew, Recipe | Permalink

I FINALLY got the motivation to go brew another batch. The mostly failed pumpkin ale really disappointed me, and it made me struggle to want to brew another beer. I found a recipe I was likely to try – a Dark Ale – but after talking to the girl working at Booth’s Brewing, I ended up going with a brown ale with some citrus undertones.

This time I decided (well, she decided by forgetting I do all-grain) to do a Malt Extract brew, and I have to say that is a lot easier. I should try to do this recipe as an all-grain too, and see how they compare. She helped me build this by basically choosing her favorite grains, so it’ll be interesting to see how this comes out. So far the initial post-boil taste was decent and sweet (as it should be, of course)

I am still brewing 1 gallon batches as I haven’t had money to invest in a larger kit, yet.

Grains/Extract/Sugar

  • 1.00 lbs Briess Dry Malt Extract
  • 0.13 lbs Biscuit Malt
  • 0.13 lbs Caramel Vienna Malt
  • 0.13 lbs Munich Malt
  • 0.13 lbs Caramel Amber Malt

Hops

  • 0.20 oz Cascade Hops
  • 0.40 oz Centennial Hops

Yeast

  • Safale US-05

Boil Instructions

(60 minutes total)

  • 0.2 oz Cascade Hops @ 25 min left
  • 0.2 oz Centennial Hops @ 10 min left
  • 0.2 oz Centennial Hops @ 1 min left

We’ll see how this one comes out. It’s already under my stairwell beginning the fermentation. Hopefully that’ll go smoothly. I’ll be keeping a better eye on it this time.

Initial Gravity: 1.040

EDIT (2012-05-13):

Final Gravity: 1.010

Alcohol By Volume: 3.95%

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Failed Batch

April 30, 2012 in Homebrew | Permalink

So… I haven’t updated this blog because that Pumpkin Ale turned out to be a failed back. With my very minor experience with homebrew, I didn’t catch it, and I’m still not sure what to do about it.

Basically, the taste was decent, still, but the beer was only 3.68% ABV, and pretty much no carbonation.

After each successive beer with the same lack of carbonation, I decided to leave a couple bottles to condition for a year, and hopefully, even with their lack of carbonation, they’ll taste better.

I plan to brew this beer again around August, and compare both of them side by side to see if I can figure out what went wrong.

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Hmm, I’ve been missing a step

November 21, 2011 in Homebrew | Permalink

I noticed something today while I was bottling my Pumpkin Ale…

I was getting ready to bottle, and I remembered that I needed a pot and had to prepare my priming sugar (in this case I used Maple Syrup as I figured that’d be a good combination with the Pumpkin Ale). I got to thinking… Did I do this step in my Bourbon Dubbel? I could not remember for the life of me, and I don’t think I did… So I asked my girlfriend who helps me by holding the racking cane in the carboy, and she agreed. In fact, she said I hadn’t done the priming step in the past TWO brews!

Yeesh. I’m pretty lucky the Bourbon Dubbel came out so great considering it was lacking a lot of carbonation (it actually felt like it had a good amount of carbonation)… and no wonder half of my Mustard Browns were lacking that kick!

I guess that’s what I get for so quickly neglecting to read the instructions for how to bottle after my first few batches.

Anyways, the Final Gravity for the Pumpkin Ale was 1.016, which gives it an ABV of 3.68% according to this website.

The Pumpkin Ale at this step does have a good taste… and a great, great smell. There’s definitely some bitterness there, perhaps from the addition of too much hops (I was only able to get the hops in 1oz packages, and I only needed .15 and .2 respectively, so I may have inaccurately measured it, or just simply need to cut back on the hops). I’m still looking forward to it, but I’m guessing I’ll be one of the few (due to the bitterness).

So Tasty!

November 17, 2011 in Homebrew | Permalink

I finally got to try my Bourbon Dubbel last week, and I’m just now updating it here.

I loved it, and I already know that I want to brew more.

There wasn’t really any head at all, even though it was definitely carbonated. It has a very strong taste (I wish I knew the ABV), with a very light syrupy feel to it. A nice smell comes out at first of wood and sweetness, and that is followed with the initial sweet whiskey taste. You can tell it’s whiskey (I used Jack Daniels Green Label instead of Bourbon, if you weren’t aware), which lacks the warmth and kick, and keeps the sweetness. The wood (oak?) taste lingers afterwards with a bit of a tingle on the back of your tongue.

I’m going to try to replicate the recipe (remember, I got it as a premixed kit from Brooklyn Brew Shop), and see where I can take it next. But this, along with my (hopefully) successful Pumpkin Beer will very likely be one of the main brews I work with.

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I Need This Setup!

November 9, 2011 in Homebrew | Permalink

At “Learn to Homebrew Day” at Booth’s Brewing, I saw a very common setup there, and it actually makes a lot of sense. I need this kind of set up when I start expanding for sure.

It just seems better, and utilizes gravity much more efficiently than what I was currently using

Basically, it works like this:

  1. Get water to correct temperature, and move it to the top container. This is your water source for the rest of the brewing day.
  2. The second (middle) container serves as the grain holder. On the bottom of it there’s a strainer, before the valve, to stop the grains from getting through. You add the water to this from the above container, and let it cook for an hour (stirring occasionally, though a lot of the home-brewers at the event said they didn’t)
  3. After the mash is ready, you drain the wort from the grains into the pot, and then it’s ready for the boil.
  4. ???
  5. PROFIT!

Yea, I’m kidding about the 4th and 5th steps. But still, this is a very efficient method and I need to get something like this when I expand. Want to help me out? ;-)

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Pumpkin Ale

November 6, 2011 in Homebrew, Recipe | 1 comment

After brewing 4 batches of beer that have been pre-mixed for me, which was a good learning experience, it’s finally time for me to start venturing out on my own.

Of course, I have no real knowledge as to WHERE to start, without first modifying existing recipes. I have to learn about how the wide variety of hops, grains, and yeast can affect the outcome, and start to slightly modify recipes accordingly… but for now, I’m working on a slightly modified version of this recipe from brewmorebeer.com

Of course, as I’m brewing for a 1 gallon batch, the measurements below are for that:

Grains

  • 1.9 lbs American 2-row Pale Malt
  • 0.4 lbs Dingeman’s Munich Malt
  • 0.1 lbs Crystal 80L
  • 0.1 lbs CaraPils

Hops/Other

  • 15 oz (1 can) of 100% Pumpkin
  • 0.15 oz Northern Brewer Hops
  • 0.2 oz East Kent Golding Hops
  • 0.4 Tsp Cinnamon
  • 0.2 Tsp Nutmeg
  • 0.2 Tsp Allspice

Yeast

  • Safale US-05

Boil Instructions

(60-minutes total)

  • Pumpkin @ start
  • Northern Brewer Hops @ 45 min left
  • East Kent Golding Hops @ 30 min left
  • Cinnamon/Nutmeg/Allspice @ 10 min left

The main differences between my recipe and the one I started with is that I’ve shortened the boil time, changed the yeast used, and added more pumpkin (relatively). Also, apparently there were two Munich Malts available to me at the store, so I chose the one that seemed like a better fit for the Pumpkin Ale (a sweeter overall smell).

I added more pumpkin as I’ve read on multiple blogs that they have had issues with the pumpkin flavor coming through properly. As my favorite beers tend to have a distinct pumpkin taste with a minimum of spice overlay, it seemed like a good idea to add more pumpkin to make sure it comes through.

Thanks to Gary at Booth’s Brewing for his immense knowledge and help for a few of the things related to this first batch that I was completely unaware of.

We’ll see how it comes out!

EDIT (2011-11-07):

Initial Gravity: 1.044

Final Gravity: 1.016 (fermented for 2 weeks)

Alcohol by Volume: 3.68%

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Learn to Homebrew Day 2011

November 5, 2011 in Events | Permalink

Today was Learn to Homebrew Day at Booth’s Brewing down over in the opposite side of Tampa, near Brandon. I had intentions to brew there, but I apparently needed my own burner, which I don’t own currently. I’m still brewing 1 gallon batches, which fits my purposes, and I don’t really have the ability to expand at my current home, so investing in a purchase of a burner I can use outside just doesn’t really fit into things right now.

Regardless, I had every intention of brewing my first batch of beer that takes a recipe from the web, or slightly modifying it to make my own, rather than get one of those pre-built batches I have been buying from Brooklyn Brew Shop. It almost seems fitting for me to brew a Pumpkin Beer, considering how much I wait for Fall to roll around for all the pumpkin/harvest beers to finally be within my reach again. I’ll be posting more information about that tomorrow.

I spent the bulk of my time there talking to Gary, one of the owner’s of the place, as well as the various fellow homebrewers that came to the event (a handful of which were brewing there on the spot, and it smelled delicious). It was a very informative event for me, as I got a chance to ask a fellow homebrewer who found me through Barcamp Tampa Bay, Ashley, about certain things that were driving me insane (primarily the large amount of sediment I keep getting at the point of moving to the carboy, and the difficulty of handling it)

In fact, it was nice to hear that I’m not the only one that has that sediment problem, but most of the homebrewers seem to compensate for it by adding MORE water earlier in the process, while the instructions that I have been reading say to add more water into the carboy after all is done.

I’m very glad that I made it out there. You should make it to the next one!

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Bourbon Dubbel

October 25, 2011 in Homebrew | 1 comment

I didn’t get around to updating this, but I finally brewed the Bourbon Dubbel mix from the Brooklyn Brew Shop 2 weeks ago, and I’m planning to bottle it tonight.

Side note: it’s looking like Brooklyn Brew Shop is shutting down. Their quantity of products keeps decreasing, and I don’t even see the Bourbon Dubbel on their website at the time of this writing. Or they’re at least changing their direction from a beer kit shop to only their brewing recipe book…?

Anyways, I’ve learned that I need to figure out something in terms of restricting the sediment that gets into the wort, and especially the amount of sediment that ends up in my carboy. I know my friend Patrick uses cheese cloth, so I’ll have to give that a shot, but I’m brewing with such small batches (1 gallon) that it seems like an excessive use of cheese cloth for this. The funnel really just doesn’t work with the filter as the sediment blocks it too fast.

Also, I was planning on using my new hydrometer, but it doesn’t work as my carboy isn’t big enough for it to measure, and I don’t have a long slender

If I remember to, I’ll be sure to put some pictures of the bottling on here, especially since I have a question related to my carboy’s fermentation process.

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What’s Next?

October 10, 2011 in Homebrew | Permalink

I took a little break from the last batch (a Mustard Brown Ale that I kind of feel like was a flop, more below), and I finally ended up just buying another “pre-mix” batch from Brooklyn Brew Shop, a Bourbon Dubbel, that I’ll be brewing tonight.

I really need to make sure I keep this updated.

Now, about the Mustard Brown Ale… Why haven’t I talked about it? Well, it tasted delicious before I bottled it. At some point during the carbonation process, I don’t know if something went wrong, or what… but the end result seemed to be a little sour and off-putting. The first one I tried after bottling I just shrugged it to being a bad bottle due to it only having about 2 oz of beer in it (save everything, no? lol), The second two I opened, one was flat (due to improperly sealing the bottle, odds are), and the other was decent.

I haven’t actually had any since. Why not? I kind of made this beer for others to try, too, and I just haven’t had people over to try them since. Perhaps we’ve all been busy lately, or even I’ve not wanted others to try this beer, due to my poor experience with the end result thus far.

But even the biggest companies in the world can have bad batches now and then…

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Updating

August 14, 2011 in Homebrew | Permalink

Well, I’m really behind on this.

I tried the Chocolate Maple Porter I brewed, it came out great.

I also brewed the Mustard Brown Ale recipe last weekend. Going to be bottling that in a week. I was being rather lazy and half-assed with it though, so I hope it turns out well… I just started to get tired about halfway through the brew, and I just didn’t want to do it anymore. I’m sure that feeling was temporary.

However, I do have a question for those fellow homebrewers out there: How do you clean your bottles for reuse? I have been putting mine in my dishwasher, after rinsing them out in the sink. However, a couple of these bottles that just went through look like they somehow STILL have yeast on the bottom, and the insides of them didn’t smell very good. Was that my fault with some part of this? Did I not wash them right? Should I consider these sketchy to be reused?

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