Brew Updates

Updates on the last two brews and general news.

Info: I did a full cleaning of the brewery last week and it looked great when we brewed on Saturday. My sister Jen also unveiled the Black and White version of the new RMB logo, it looks awesome! I can't wait to get the color and post it. She also showed a couple concepts of Angry Ogre vs Warrior, and Mostquito Trapped in Amber.

Brew #5: was the Mosquito Trapped in Amber was put into the keg for the BrewBQ this weekend. It weighed out at 1.011 grav giving it an alcohol of about 7.6%, another big one. I'm all about the big beers btw. It went over well for the guests at the BrewBQ. Still needs a little more carbonation though.

Brew#6: Bourbon Drunken Irishman went well despite the hosting duties I did (with thanks to Andy for cooking, and Pemmet and Danielle for some brewing help). At first there wasn't enough water to cover the massive grain bill, so I had to add more, and it ended up mashing at 158 deg F, which is higher than normal for me, but many other brewers use this temp.

There were two issues at hand, first the yeast starter didn't seem to take, I'm not sure if I got a bad yeast package or what but if it doesn't start fermenting by tonight I'll have to pickup another package tomorrow.

The other issue is the same continuing one of low yield. Ended up with 3.5 gallons again and I'm sure I started the boil with around 5.5 gallons. This makes me believe that I have to cover the boil and only remove the cover after adding hops since it boils up with the hops. I'll try a simple beer next time and see if I can get a good yield out of it. Since i already got a good gravity of 1.096 to the expected 1.095 I'm not going to add water and sugar and throw off this and the flavor. Instead I'll have a smaller batch and if it's good I'll do it again next time with a bigger yield.

Depending on how the yeast situation goes I'm planning to soak some oak chips in bourbon and throw them into the secondary. Not sure which bourbon to use yet, probably a Four Roses since they have a high rye bill and I have a bunch of their bourbons (and its delicious).

Next brew will probably be an Octoberfest that I can use to see if i can get a better yield. Date TBD.

Brew #5 Mosquito Trapped in Amber

I started creating a few recipes at a time and buying a couple when I go to the brew store so I can save the number of trips there. Had nothing going on Friday so I brewed up this little gem. I wanted a lighter but hoppy amber ale, and wanted a slight kick to it so it has some slight dark malts, giving the name Mosquito Trapped in Amber. I also gave it a decent hop at 44.5 IBUs, and wanted to try out the "Evil Twin" method of lots of late hop additions. For a 5 gal batch the est SG was 1.055, but again I brewed too little and ended with 4 gallons, bringing the est SG to 1.069. The measured SG was 1.068 so that's right on the button. Looks really interesting and should be a great drinkable beer.

The biggest problem I'm having now is amount of wort achieved. I think I need to mark off the brew kettle at 5 gal and account for 20% boil off instead of 10% now, see if that helps.

I also bottled the spicey Grey Lady Clone #1 to see how the spice settles as it ages. It could be a good Christmas style beer if it mellows for the next 6 months. The FG was 1.010 bringing the alcohol to about 5.7% or so. Its not exact since i had to add the water and 1lb of honey, which was hopefully neutral.

Plan to do a big cleaning and sterilizing session this week at some point to completely clean the brewery before the next big brew on the 8th.