Drunk in Dublin Stout
This is really tasty and has a fairly high ABV content of ~6.1%. It beats the hell out of Guinness, especially with the dry hopping — more to follow on that. :
Steeping grains:
8oz Crystal 80L malt
1# Black Barley malt
1# Flaked Barley (unmilled)
Extract:
6# Dark Dry Malt
Hops:
1oz Nugget hops at boil (1oz for dry hop)
Yeast:
Irish Ale Yeast (White Labs or equiv.) or
Safale S-04 dry yeast
Others:
1tsp Gypsum at boil
1tsp Irish Moss at 45 mins into boil
.75cup of bottling sugar at bottling time
We pretty much followed the recipe we got from the homebrew store on this one, except for the dry hopping that I highly recommend.
Beer specs:
5Gal batch size
OG: ~1.064 (unverified since we keep breaking hydrometers)
FG: ~1.018
ABV: ~6.1%
IBUs: ~60
Boil Time: 60 mins
Priming Sugars
So I’ve been thinking of experimenting with different sugars for priming my beers. In my research, I found the following chart suggesting the following equivalents to achieve approximately 25 lb/sq. in. in 5 gallons of fermented wort:
Sugar Type Amount (Cups)
dextrose ¾ c.
honey 1 c.
maple syrup 1 ¼ c.
molasses 1 c.
brown sugar 2/3 c.
cane or beet sugar 2/3 c.
dried malt extract 1 ¼ c.
(Papazian, The Home Brewer’s Companion)
I think that the full amount of some of the stronger stuff in there (case and point, molasses) shouldn’t be used by itself for priming unless you really know what kind of flavor you will be imparting. But maybe half and half (1/2 c molasses and 3/8 c dextrose) would be good.
The other way to prime is the process of kraeusening. The truest form of kraeusening is the process of adding freshly fermenting wort instead of the other sugars for priming. The wort should have just reached the kraeusen stage in order for this to work best. You can use unfermented (yeastless) wort, but this will lengthen the conditioning period because of a lack of oxygen making for a slow refermentation. *Technically, using Dry Malt Extract to prime is the latter type of kraeusening.
I’ve yet to try kraeusening or using anything but dextrose for priming, but I hope to do so in the near future, namely in Clementine’s Molasses Porter in which I want to use some molasses to prime.
Homebrew is all about adventure, so get out there and try something new!
Change of Plans
Due to a lack of funds, I am postponing the porter until I can get some money for a propane tank and ingredients. In the meantime, I’m going to brew up some more mead. I’m thinking of venturing into Metheglins (mead with spices). Further, I thought I should keep it local, and I know that I can get Colorado honey at Hops and Berries, my local brewing supply store. The question was where to get my spices. And then it hit me: who is the best at mixing exquisite spices? Celestial Seasonings. I’m going to make a Tension Tamer Metheglin. I just think this sounds terrific! So, I still need to get in the good graces of my wife to budget in the supplies, but this is the next batch unless I find a propane tank before I get my honey.
Just a little factoid for you today: Tension Tamer Tea actually has hops and catnip in it. Who knew? If you live around Boulder, CO or pass through it, definitely take the tour. It’s a lot of fun and all the tea you can drink! And then go to Redstone Meadery just down the road. Both very good tours.
RoMo IPA Bottled
I bottled the RoMo IPA today. You can read about it in the Batch 005 post.
Clementine’s Molasses Porter – Round II
So this next batch will be my first batch of all-grain beer. I though it fitting to pull out a batch I already did and try to improve it.
The original Recipe:
3 ½ lb light malt extract
3 ½ lb amber malt extract
1 lb crystal malt (60L)
½ lb. chocolate malt
¼ lb. Black Patent Malt
½ cup blackstrap molasses
2 cups dark brown sugar
1 tsp gypsum
½ tsp Irish Moss
Hops:
1 oz. liberty (pellets) @ 60 min
½ oz. Cascade (pellets) @ 0 min
Yeast:
American Ale Yeast (Dry)
The biggest question is how I will replace the amber extract. I think I want a little more of a chocolatey note in the beer, so I’ll make up lost color with more chocolate malt (1 lb).
So on to creating my recipe:
I want to match the OG of the original, 1060. To do this, I’ll find the number of total gravity units I need to create the desired OG. First, I need to convert the extract potential of my fermentables into Gravity Units (GU’s). All a GU is is subtracting 1 from the number and then multiplying by 1000. Thus, 1.030 becomes 30 GU’s.
next I multiply by gallons of the wort of the final batch:
5.5 gal of final volume after boil * 60 GU desired OG = 330 TGU (total gravity units)
What this means is that I need to get 330 TGU’s from all of the combined fermentable ingredients.
Now that I know how many TGU’s I need, I’ll work backwards a bit to find how many GU’s the specialty grains will cover:
[eq: lbs of malt = GU's contributed by this malt / (extract potential of malt GU's * mash efficiency %)]
- 1 lb crystal: 1 = x / (34 * 0.68) = 23.1
- 1 lb chocolate: 1 = x / (30 * 0.68) = 20.4
- .25 lb black: 0.25 = x / (27 * 0.68) = 4.6
These add up to a total of 48 GU’s of the total 330. That means I want to add 282 more GU’s worth of base malt.
- Pale Malt: x=282 / (36 * 0.68) = 11.5 lbs of pale malt
So here is my revised recipe:
11 ½ lbs. pale malt
1 lb crystal malt (60L)
1 lb. chocolate malt
¼ lb. black patent malt
1 ½ cups blackstrap molasses
1 tsp gypsum
½ tsp Irish Moss
Hops:
1 oz. liberty (pellets) @ 60 min
½ oz. Cascade (pellets) @ 0 min
Yeast:
American Ale Yeast (Dry)
You may have noticed I got rid of the brown sugar. This is because sucrose (table sugar) does not add any desirable qualities to a beer, and the flavor that I want from brown sugar is actually just the molasses. I could boil the brown sugar and add it for some caramel/molasses flavoring, but I’ll just take it out and add more molasses. I am also going to try using molasses as priming sugar for half the batch (assuming preliminary tastings go well), just to see how that turns out. I want this to be MOLASSES porter. but not overly so.
The BU’s of the last batch were around 20, and I liked where it was or perhaps a little higher (~25 IBU). I am going to switch the bittering hops to an English variety however. I’ll go with golding, challenger, fuggle, or maybe go with northern brewer. We’ll see what I can find down at Hops and Berries.
I’ll boil for 90 minutes, to get some more caramelization going.
I’m not going to brew this for a week or two. I’ll try to have some camera action so I can well document my first all-grain attempt though.
Propane Burner, Updates
So I got ahold of a turkey fryer setup from Home depot for $40. I guess it was on clearance from thanksgiving. Lucky me. I had to cut off some support bars, but the keg fits on there perfectly now. I also found the makings for a hopback out of steel pipe from the thrift store ($1). I made a hopback out of PVC, but found that this was probably not a great idea since PVC is not rated for boiling liquid. So I’m making a proper one out of steel and copper pipe.
I also racked the IPA and the Sweet Raspberry Mead. See those posts for specifics.
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Now playing: Metallica – Fuel
via FoxyTunes
Canned Wort
My brother Dan just called me up from Seattle to tell me about his latest adventure. I thought I’d share.
He just canned something like 10 pints of wort for use in yeast starters. I would have never thought of this, but it’s a great idea! It was a light extract that he lightly hopped, boiled and canned. The hops are something that never make it into my yeast starters because it’s a bit of a hassle (and expensive), but it is great for Dan’s process, because he only needs to do it a couple times a year, and the hops help with the preservation of the wort. Then he just has to pop one open and pitch the yeast. Very cool!
I just keep some extra-light dry malt extract in stock and boil that for 10 minutes and throw the yeast in. It works for me. But this method is appealing and better because it has the hops in there. Maybe if I’m feeling motivated some day…
Dan also mentioned that he was going to culture some Chimay from the bottle for an authentic Belgian Ale. I’ve wanted to try this, I’ll have to see if it works for him.
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Now playing: Toby Keith – Beer For My Horses
via FoxyTunes
RoMo IPA – Batch 005
Well, I had to run out to Lowes one more time this morning (for a running count of four trips to finish the mash tun). I picked up a gasket and some parts for my hopback. I still got the wrong stuff for the hopback…But I did get the mash tun up and running. The grain I got a week ago now was getting old (I milled it then) so today had to be a brew day. So I took my IPA sketch from a couple of posts back and put it to use, changed a bit from the original recipe using ideas from Designing Great Beers (Ray Daniels). Here we go!
Ingredients:
6.5 lbs. Pale Malt Extract
2 lbs Pale Malt
1.5 lb White Wheat
1.5 lb Crystal (1 lb 30°L and .5 lb 60°L)(I was going for 40°L)
.75 lb light Munich
1.5 oz Columbus
2 oz Cascade
Hop Schedule:
| Hop Weight (oz.) | Hop Alpha Acid (%) | Boil Time (min) | ||
| Columbus | 0.5 | 16.8 | 50 | |
| Columbus | 0.5 | 16.8 | 15 | |
| Cascade | 0.5 | 6 | 4 | |
| Cascade | 0.5 | 6 | 2 | |
| Columbus | 0.5 | 16.8 | 2 | |
| Cascade | 0.5 | 6 | Dry Hopped in Secondary |
Method:
So I busted out the mash tun and poured in my 5.5 lbs. of grain. The target temp was 156°, so I heated water to 14° above that (170°) and added 5.5quarts of water at 170° (1 quart per lb. of grain). I put the lid on and let that sit for 1 hr. At 1 hr, I sparged with approximately 2 gallons of water again at 170°. The process worked perfectly and I had no issues with the mashing process. This gave me approximately 2.5 gallons of wort. I had to boil in 3 pots (I really wish I could get that burner). I added the malt extract and brought all three pots to a boil. The boil was 60 minutes. I used whole hops this time, so I strained them through a strainer into the primary that had 3 gallons of filtered water in it. Toal volume was right around 5 gallons. I stuck in the wort chiller and cooled it to 68°. I pitched Safale US-05 Dry Ale Yeast simply by sprinkling it over the cooled wort.
OG: 1.065 (close to my wanted 1.07).
I am very pleased with the mash tun, it worked very well for me!
01/30
racked to secondary. SG: 1.015
I also dry hopped with .5 oz cascade pellets. I’ll let it all simmer for a week before bottling.
02/06
Bottled. Primed with 3/4 cup priming sugar. FG came in at 1.014. I bottled using one Tap-A-Draft 6 liter blue bottle, one 3 liter bottle, and the rest in 12 and 16 oz bottles.
So the ABV rings in at 7.9%. That’s a healthy beer 
From what I tasted of it, it isn’t a bitter IPA by any means. But it’s a nice mild IPA for sure with good aroma hops. Maybe the carbonation and cold will kick the bitter up a bit. We’ll see!
Why Not?
I got a little ambitious at Hops and Berries the other day when I went to get keg conversion materials. I got about 4 lbs. of grain for my IPA because I was so excited to have a brew kettle. However, the brew kettle won’t work until I find some money for a burner. I now have an emergency, I need to make myself a mash tun. As it happens, I was at my local Habitat for Humanity Thrift Shop yesterday and found a lovely little cooler that looked quite lonely sitting there, so I went ahead and bought it. I mean, for a measly $5, you would too, right? It was in descent shape, so I cleaned it out and soaked it with PBW overnight.
Now I just needed some sort of false bottom. I went down to Lowes and picked up all the fittings including the drain cock, a length of 1/2″ pipe, and some elbows and threaded ends. I decided to go with CPVC instead of copper because it was much cheaper and did not require me to solder. It is good up to 180°, and so I saw no downside, as that is hotter than I would ever be mashing.
I got home and immediately realized that I had gotten all the wrong size. MEASURE TWICE, buy once. So, it was back in the car and down to Lowes again, returned everything I had bought and got it all in 3/4″ CPVC that fit perfectly in the spigot hole already in the cooler. I had also picked up a metal pie plate at the thrift store for the purpose of making it into a false bottom, but after a lot of tinkering, I couldn’t get it to work (insert 3 wasted man-hours here). The pie plate was too high and interfered with the hose input, so I could not connect a hose under the plate. After bashing at it wih a hammer in n attempt to make it all fit, I realized that resistance was futile and it was back to Lowes (for the third time today).
So it was on to plan B. This time, I bought (4) 3/4″ elbow pieces and a ‘T’ piece to make a drainage manifold. I had lots of left over pipe at home to put it all together. It was fairly simple to do once I got all the pieces. I just glued all the elbows to make a square with the ‘T’ on one side. The ‘T’ in turn connects to the spigot via a clear food-grade plastic tube. I chose the flexible tube because it allowed the manifold to sit on the bottom of the cooler nicely and allowed an easy disconnect point. I then drilled a million little holes on the bottom side of the manifold to make it drain the sweet elixir of grains to my brewpot.
All that was left was to put it all together. Now I just need to sit down with Papazian (The Complete Joy of Homebrewing) and figure out how to use it, and then try it out and see if it all works! Oh, by the way, I still have to make one more trip to Lowes to get some gaskets…
For only ~$35, I’ve got a sweet mash tun!
Pictures!
Well, I got ahold of Carrie’s camera for a few days, so here are some of those pictures I have been promising! Enjoy!
My converted keg and the beautiful hole I cut in it!
The spigot on the brew kettle and Clementine trying to get in the picture.
My brew buddy, Clementine.
