Christmas Brewing Day

It's been a while since I posted, why? Because sadly, it's been a while since I've brewed! Despite some hurdles, today was a successful brew day.

Christmas is nearing and we figured we could gift some beer. We decided on a variation of Janet's American Brown Ale, and since we are giving some away, we wanted to make a big batch to keep some for our selves.

So after getting all of the ingredients together I setup the electric kettle to start the brew. Yes, the electric kettle that failed on my first blog post. Well wouldn't you know it, the damn thing popped! This time it wasn't the circuitry, the plugs or the breakers. The heating element actually popped. At this point my only option is to boil this with propane. This of course added a significant amount of time to my brew session. The electric kettle is (was) much faster at boiling the wort so most of my time was spent waiting.

The good thing was that my in-laws are in town so they hung out with us outside while we brewed. Lively chit chat combined with several trips to the kegerator made for a fun evening. Even the kids were having fun, playing in the driveway.

In the end we ended up with 10 gallons of brew bubbling away in the fermenter, two exhausted kids ready for bed and two grandparents completely passed out (presumably from tiredness). My only hope now is that it isn't another two months before I get to brew again!

Search for perfection, or something...

My first attempt at an oatmeal stout was years ago. It was creamy, slightly sweet, perfect mouthfeel, in short it was delicious. I thought I had the perfect recipe. What I did not know was that my LHBS (local home brew store) guy was out of some of my ingredients and substituted what he thought was appropriate. This became quite evident on my following attempts at this favorite style of mine. Of course this shop has since closed down and the shop owner as since moved out of state. I should have gotten his number! Back to square one.

So here we are on a beautiful Summer morning brewing my latest iteration of this recipe. Really it's a complete overhaul of the original recipe, but I think it'll give me a result that is closer to what I'm looking for.









Thankful for child labor, I started the mash soon after the kids had their breakfast. The tried to help with all of the "not dangerous parts." It's surprising how much these wee ones enjoy helping with the brew. Soon I'll have my own army of brewers! But I digress. I hit the mash temperature to within 1*F of what I was aiming for. The entire process went smoothly. So smoothly in fact at I had time during the boil to keg the Brown Ale and a small batch of apple cider. I was also able to dry-hop las week's Pale Ale. Maybe later on today I'll make a yeast starter for the upcoming Belgian Wit. That's my mother-in-law's favorite beer I make.

All in all it was a great day in the brewery. The only drawback with such great productivity is the amount of stuff left for me to clean. I suppose I best get cracking, since that's the only part I've not yet undertaken.

--Ohms

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Here's what our brewery has in stock as of today:

On Tap:
Vanilla Porter
Black Lager
American Wheat
Rye Pale Ale (waiting for a free tap)

Conditioning:
Brown Ale
American Pale Ale
Apple Cider

Fermenting:
Oatmeal Stout

On deck:
Belgium Wit

Oatmeal Stout

Oatmeal Stout

13-C Oatmeal Stout

Author: Omar González

Size: 5.0 gal

Efficiency: 70.0%

Attenuation: 75.0%

Calories: 184.86 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.056 (1.048 - 1.065)

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Terminal Gravity: 1.014 (1.010 - 1.018)

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Color: 27.31 (22.0 - 40.0)

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Alcohol: 5.46% (4.2% - 5.9%)

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Bitterness: 31.0 (25.0 - 40.0)

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Ingredients:

9.0 lb Premium 2-Row Malt

1.5 lb Oat Flakes

8.0 oz Carafa Special® TYPE II

8.0 oz Chocolate Malt

2.0 oz Black Malt

1.8 oz East Kent Goldings (4.6%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min

1.0 tsp Irish Moss - added during boil, boiled 10 min

1.0 tsp Yeast Nutrient - added during boil, boiled 10 min

1.0 ea Fermentis S-04 Safale S-04

Mash the grain at 156 °F for one hour. Lauter & sparge to ~6.5 gallon volume & start boil. Add hops as per recipe. Cool wort and pitch.

Old Faithful

Ever hear people say they are their own worst critic? I can tell you that is not the case with me & my brewing. That honor belongs to the wonderful woman laying next to me as I type this. I'm not saying she's a meanie, merely comfortable enough with me to give me an honest opinion. Most of my last few brews have been untested or experimental recipes that frankly aren't anything to email home about. She recently quipped that she wished we had "something good to drink". It is time to brew an old faithful kind of recipe, one that never fails to satisfy.

Today did just that. I Brewed a 10 gallon batch of our Amarillo Pale Ale this morning and at last check it was happily bubbling away in the fermenter. Two kegs ought to keep the household happy while I continue my quest to perfect other styles of brews.

Next up? An oatmeal stout and a Belgian wit. Those huge sacks of grain sitting in the garage are calling to me and it's time to start chipping away at them...

Amarillo Pale Ale (Extract)

Amarillo Pale Ale (Extract)

10-A American Pale Ale

Author: Omar González

Date: 1/25/2011

Size: 10.0 gal

Efficiency: 92.17%

Attenuation: 75.0%

Calories: 183.1 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.055 (1.045 - 1.060)

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Terminal Gravity: 1.014 (1.010 - 1.015)

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Color: 7.89 (5.0 - 14.0)

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Alcohol: 5.41% (4.5% - 6.0%)

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Bitterness: 34.3 (30.0 - 45.0)

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Ingredients:

13 lb Alexander LME - Pale

1 lb Crystal 10L

1 lb Crystal 40L

0.25 lb Cara-Pils® Malt

2.0 tsp Irish Moss - added during boil, boiled 10.0 min

1.0 tsp Yeast Nutrient - added during boil, boiled 10.0 min

1.2 oz Amarillo (10.7%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min

0.6 oz Amarillo (10.7%) - added during boil, boiled 30 min

0.2 oz Amarillo (10.7%) - added during boil, boiled 10 min

3.0 oz Amarillo (10.7%) - added dry to secondary fermenter

1.0 ea Fermentis US-05 Safale US-05

Schedule:

Ambient Air: 70.0 °F

Source Water: 60.0 °F

Elevation: 0.0 m

Notes

Steep the crushed grains at 154º for 30-45 minutes. Add half of the extract and begin boil. Add hops as per recipe. At flame-out, add remaining extract and top off with water to volume. Cool wort & Pitch.

Last hop addition (3.0 oz.) dry hop for 10 days in secondary.

Club Brew-In

Today was a pretty fun brew day. More Beer in Los Altos had their Summer Sale and our brew club held demos out front of the shop. We had a totall of four brews going at once. Two all-grain and two extract. I brewed an extract Tasty's Janet's Brown Ale for the occasion.

Pablo & Pablo posing for the camera!

The brew day wasn't without a few snafus. My propane burner was leaking from the regulator. Luckily the shop had an extra one that I was able to use. I also forgot to add the remainder of the extract at flame out so I ended up adding it to the fermenter. In the end, the beer is bubbling away in the fermenter, yeasties chomping away and doing their job.

Did I mention this was a Summer Sale? Well since the guys running the shop know us, they let us have a "running tab" through out the day. Well, at the end of the day, I came home with 100lbs of grain an a new hops scale that looks more like a heroin scale...

All in all, it was a great day! I'll probably be brewing again this week... Til then...

Tasty's "Janet's Brown Ale (Extract)

Janet's Brown Ale

Author: Mike "Tasty" Doyle

Size: 5.0 gal

Efficiency: 66.0%

Attenuation: 75.0%

Calories: 219.07 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.066 (1.026 - 1.120)

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Terminal Gravity: 1.016 (0.995 - 1.035)

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Color: 20.73 (1.0 - 50.0)

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Alcohol: 6.47% (2.5% - 14.5%)

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Bitterness: 64.3 (0.0 - 100.0)

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Ingredients:

4.5 lb Dry Extra Light Extract

1.5 lb Dry Wheat

1.25 lb CaraPils

1.25 lb Crystal 40L

0.5 lb Chocolate

1.4 oz Northern Brewer (9.0%) - added during boil, boiled 60.0 min

.5 oz Northern Brewer (9.0%) - added during boil, boiled 15.0 min

1.0 oz Cascade (6.0%) - added during boil, boiled 10.0 min

1.5 oz Cascade (6.0%) - added during boil, boiled 0.0 min

White Labs WLP001 California Ale

The specialty grains are soaked in 5 gallons of 152ºF water for 45 mins. The grains removed, the wheat extract is added and brought up to a boil. The hops are added as per the recipe. At flame out, the rest of the extract is added. The wort is chilled to pitching temperature and yeast is pitched.