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 #6 Bourbon Drunk Irishman date set, Brew #5 updates

So brew #6 will be called "Bourbon Drunk Irishman", it starts with an Irish Red ale, the adding 15% rye, upping the malts to bring it to 1.095 or so SG, and adding a Scottish ale yeast to kill the high gravity, then adding bourbon soaked oak chips to top it off. A crazy beer. The date is set for next Saturday, August 8th at 2pm, accompanied by a big BBQ.

I will also be putting the Brew #5 Mosquito Stuck in Amber into the secondary tomorrow and kegging it Friday night hopefully. At the same time I will do a full cleaning of the brewery.

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.

Updates

It's been a couple weeks since I updated as I was on vacation and busy with work.

The Grey Lady Clone that had way too much spice and was small, I added a gallon of water and 1lb of honey (to counter the added gallon of water). When I did this I put it in the secondary. After another week of fermenting the new sugars here I added it to the tertiary fermenter (another secondary) where it currently sits. Sometime this week I will bottle/keg it and check the final grav. My calculations for actual SG work out to be 1.061.

The Dupont Special turned out to be 5% alc and tastes pretty light but has some slight Bavarian qualities. I also noticed some strage off flavors, as I did with the Angry Ogre vs Warrior so I will have to see if the off flavors disappear with age like the AOvW.

I also created the recipe for the next planned brew, which is the Bourbon Drunken Irishman. It will be an Irish Red and Scotch Ale hybrid with 15% Rye added to it, then bourbon soaked oak chips added to the secondary. It has an SG of 1.091 so I had to use Scottish Ale yeast with the Irish Ale, so 2 packs of yeast! It should be VERY complex and interesting tasting. Can't wait for it to age. This brew is planned for August 8th.

Also, found out about this video today and its a great watch. Enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwy6XMN30CA

Brew #4 - The Grey Lady Clone #1

Well the brew went well, but I was too wrapped up in other things and didn't account for boil off, and adding more water, etc. We ended up with 3.5 gallons instead of 5, and the spices should have only been there 10 minutes but I couldn't fish them out so they stayed the whole boil. Next time need to use string or something... but we live and learn and this is what brewing is all about. It came out really spicey, but other than the spices it seemed to be tasty. The SG was 1.054.

The Dupont Special was also bottled and finished with a FG of 1.010.

Brew #4 happening at 4PM today July 2nd.

Read the title. Questions call the phone in contact info.

Brew #4 Update

Brew #4 is planned for this afternoon. It will be The Grey Lady clone. Est brew time is around 4PM, but will update more info later when I know better.