Tuesday, July 29, 2008

jaggery coast wheat ale

6 gallons liquor
5.5 lbs pale malt extract
1 lb carapilsner crushed malt
1lb crushed wheat malt
2lbs jaggery sugar

hops
-----
10z pacific gem (new zealand) bittering
1oz kent goldings aroma
10z hallertaluaer (new zealand) aroma
7-24-07
mini mash schedule
------------------------
152 degrees for 1 hr
sparge with about 3 gallons of the liqour

boiled collected water adding malt extract and jaggery sugar stirred till sugar was melted
added pac gem hops as bittering when water was boiling
after 45 minutes added hallertauler and kent golding for flavor and aroma
cooled to 85 degrees transfered to bottling bucket straining as much hops as possible through a grain bag. then using a aeration tip i transfered the cooled wort to the primary fermenter and pitched the yeast. rapid fermentation and krausing evident after 5 hours. on the 4th day 7-29-07 primary fermentation seems to died off so i racked into secondry. tasting at this stage was bitter almost like an esb. Cou;ld be because i used a english ale yeast. or it could be overly hopped.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Apricot Anise ALE

so this is my first try experimenting with recipes and techniques
also my first mini mash. This is an all organic brew! all in grediants are organic as certified by california organic

25lbs organic apricots halved and juiced s
aved 5 pounds of apricots to be juiced into the secondary
1 lb german pilsner malt crushed
1 lb german pale ale malt crushed
6 lbs liquid pale malt
1 oz german spalt (bittering)
1oz german hallertauler Tradition 1/2 bitering half aroma
4 anise starts crushed up coursly
1 teaspoon yeast nutrient
1 california ale yeast
5 gallons water

started early in the morning using a juicing machine to extract about 20lbs of apricots worth of juice. pastuerized juice at 160 degrees for one hour. brought 3 quarts of water up to 160degrees then dumped grains in to water and kept between 150 and 157 degrees for one hour. sparged grains and then started boiling collected wort. added 6 cups of liquid malt extract whisked until fully incorportaed and added all the spalt hops and half the halertauler. boiled for 45 minutes very brisk then added star anise and the rest of the aroma hops also placed wort chiller in wort for final sterilization. after 1 hr of total boil time took the pot of the flame hooked up wort chiler took 30 minutes for wort to return to 80 degrees. poured wort into bottling bucket through straner to remove anise and hops. poured lukewarm sterilized apricot juice into bucket with wort. racked into primary fermenter with racking ncane tupe and aertor tip. pitched yeast and yeat nutrient. final swirl of fermenter to incorporate both and placed in closet

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

second try - fireworks Pale Ale

6 gallons water
6 lbs coopers dry dmevienne
1 lb belgium caravienne
2 oz simcoe hops
1 servomyces cap
pitchable CA ale yeast

6-24-08
this is of my second try at a pale ale while using simcoe hops instead of centinnial
started steeping the grain at 150 degres at 2:45pm
added the malt before the water boiled at 3:05 and bye 315 water was rolling
added 1/3 2oz simcoe hops at boil
added 2/3 2oz at finish 4:00
turned down to a light boil for finish
add sevo myces to end
finish at 4:15 setup to wort chiller ofr one hour

Saturday, June 14, 2008

second try : Mexican negro

6 gallons water
1 oz Chinook hops (leftover in freezer from IPA)
1 oz Magnum hops
8 oz flaked maize
8 oz hb ( damn it i actually forgot what this is all i have is the initials will update)
7 lbs pale malt syrup
1 lbs dark syrup

steeped the three grains for 30 mins at 150 to 170 ( had problems controlling heat)
soaked liquid malt in hot sink water for 30mins.
Added both malts slowly to keep from scorching at 2:10pm. brought back to a boil for 1 hr
added both hops varieties with a eye for experimentation
.5 magnum at boil
.5 magnum and 1 oz Chinook for finish
3:40 stopped boil cooled in approximatly 1 hr to 82degrees
poured from wort kettle to bottling bucket to aerate sans any modern aeration technique
siphoned in to clean 7 gallon carboy and pitched at approx 79 degrees

very hot fermentation temps during the 8 days it sat in primary
racked off to secondary fermenter on June 24. Tasting notes are very deep and bitter
it tastes more like an esb then what we originally planned for.bottle hopefully on the 28th of June

Saturday, June 7, 2008

my first brews - relatively strong IPA

this recipe is from beer&winemakers in San Jose ca

7 lbs pale coopers dme
1 lbs Belgium Caramunich
1 lbs flaked Barley
1 oz magnum hops
2 oz centennial hops
1 oz Chinook hops
pitchable California ale yeast
1 servomyces capsule
6 gallons of purified water

6-8-08
---------------------------
brought 6 gallons of water up to 150 degrees
steeped flaked barley and Belgium Caramunich for 30 Min's (11:40 am )
added 7 lbs of pale malt dme whisking in (12:10 pm) also added servomyces capsule
added 1 oz Chinook hops (12:15 pm)
halfway through boil i added 1/2 oz magnum hops(12:45pm)
finished with 1/2 oz magnum hops and 1 oz Centennial hops (1:00pm)
used wort chiller to cool wort (1:10pm)
aerated wort by pouring into bottling bucket then siphoned all in to 7 gallon carboy
pitched yeast at approximately 80 degrees

6-14-08
--------------------------------------
The primary fermentation had finished 2 days ago
I cant figure out if i didn't use enough yeast, or if it was to hot here (the last couple days have been running in the 90's)
we racked into secondary 5 gallon carboy and added 1oz centennial hops in a nylon bag for a dry hopping. First taste seems to have created a ESB more then a IPA. Tasting didn't seem to show to many sugars so we assume that the yeast was done with most of the fermentation. bottling is on schedule for the 20th of June





i will be employing a dry hopping method to finish this in the secondary fermenter

my first brews - Pale Ale

this is the third beer i did and it is right now in secondary carboy




Pale Ale
20l Belgian Caramunich
6lbs coopers light dme malt
centennial 9.5 grams
6 gallons purified water


the Belgian grain is steeped in water for 30 Min's at 150 degrees
brought to boil then add all the dme malt
whisking in at reduced heat added 1/3 of the hops
boiled 1 hr with the remaining hops added for the last 15 Min's

cooled with wort cooling coil to 78 degrees
siphoned into 7 gallon carboy
primary fermented for 9 days
racked into secondary for clarity

bottled after 13 days on the 9th of June 2007

tasting on the day of bottling showed a nice crisp pale ale with plenty of the centennial hops

my first brews - Mead

Mead
12 pounds grade a Honey
5 gallon purified water
1 pitchable tube of sweet mead yeast
two mandarin orange peals

This was me and my friends first fermented drink
pretty simple method boiled for one hour
cooled in sink with ice transferred to carboy
pitched yeast at 76 degrees
fermented 2 weeks in primary then
racked into secondary 3 weeks
third racking into a secondary for 5 days
bottled on the 9th of June 2008

tasting notes
first taste after 2 weeks was sweet almost like a very sweet spumante sparkling wine
second taste at after 5 full weeks and second racking was much dryer most of the carbonation was gone alcohol level very high