The First Batch (06-0114)
I decided to try a pale ale for my first recipe. It seemed fairly easy without too many steps and for some reason, I thought it might be a forgiving brew if things didn't go exactly as planned.
Pale Ale
What the recipe called for...
6 lbs barley malt extract syrup
1 lb light dray malt extract powder
2.75 ozs Fuggle hops
.5 oz Golding hops
2 tbsp gypsum
1 tbsp Irish moss
12 oz crushed amber crystal malt
4 oz corn sugar
What I actually used...
6.6 lbs barley malt extract syrup
1 lb light dry malt extract powder
3 ozs Fuggle hops
~ .5 oz Golding hops
2 tbsp gypsum
1 tbsp Irish moss
12 oz crushed amber crystal malt
4 oz corn sugar
I sterilized everyting first. But discovered the better way would be to sterilize the boil pot and stirring spoon, then steep the barley and get the water boiling. Then, while the water was boiling, sterilize the rest of the equipment.
The directions started with preparing the yeast, so I did. This turned out to be the wrong way to go about it. The yeast should be prepared after the wort has cooled because I was using dry yeast, not the liquid stuff (which has to be prepared like two days in advance). The dry yeast take about 15 minutes to prepare, and then should be used right away. Instead, it sat around for about four hours while I boiled and cooled the wort.
Some other ideas I came up with is steeping the grain in a tall 12 quart pot. My 21 quart pot is rather wide (it's an enamaled canning pot - instead of stainless, I'm not made out of money you know). The grain sack sat on the bottom of the pot instead of being suspended in it. I'm thinking this is not the ideal way to do things. I could mix the grain steeped water with new water to get the full three gallons required.
The grain was steeped until the water started to boil (I think). Here was what actally happened. As stated, the grain sack sat on the bottom of the pot, the water seemed to bubble around the sack, but after removing the grain, it was another 15 or 20 minutes before the a full boil was achieved.
After the water was at a full boil, the pot was removed from the heat, and two 3.3 lb cans of malt extract syrup were added and stirred in. The fellow at Ale-n-Vino said to heat the cans first, but I forgot to, and so getting the syrup out of the cans was not at all that easy. But I'm sure I ended up with at least the required 6 lbs. The pot was put back on the heat for about 20 minutes (I think, I really didn't keep that close a watch on the time -live and learn en?), until it started to boil again.
The recipe called for 1.25 oz of fruggle hops for the first hopping, I dont have a scale, and had three 1 oz bags of fruggle hop leaves (Ale-n-Vino didn't have any fruggle pellets in stock), so the first hopping got 1 oz of fruggle hop leaves.
Thirty minutes later I added the second batch of fruggle hop leaves. This one called for 1.5 oz, but again, I had three 1 oz bags, and no scale, so I added 2 oz of fruggle for the second hopping, crushing the leaves as I added them.
It was at this time I took a quick inventory of my supplies. What's this? A bag of malt powder? What the heck is that? Oh, crap, I forgot to add the malt powder with the malt syrup. So I put it in at this time. Man, I should have checked the 'Net for better instructions! I emptied the 1 lb bag of malt powder into the mixture and stirred well. It now occurs to me that maybe I should have removed the mixture from the heat to do this, but what the heck.
Somewhere around 15 minutes later (dang, I really, really need to keep a better watch on the clock) I added the third hops. The recipe called for 1/2 oz, but once again, it's me with limited resources and no stinking scale. I took what looked to be about 1/2 of the 1 oz bag of pellets and tossed them in. At this time I also added the Irish moss and gypsum.
This boiled for about another 15 minutes (and you know, the killer about the whole time thing is, there are about 15 appliances in my kitchen that have a stinking clock on them!). Anyway, when I removed the wort from the heat I placed the pot in a sink full of ice. I stirred it some to get the middle stuff out to the edges. We called Domino's, had some 'za and watched Valiant with the kids.
After the movie I went to check on the wort. It wasn't looking very good. The isntructions said to siphon off the liquid into the fermenter, then add water to make five gallons. Well, there was a problem. There really wasn't much liquid. It was really just a big pile of goopy sludge which had a consitancy that was almost, but not quite completely unlike oatmeal. I stuck my finger into the middle of the goop to see how hot it was (note to self, buy a fracking thermometer!). It was HOT. I stirred it about and the 5/8s and I sat down to watch Battlestar Galactica and Num3rs which we had recored on the DVR. I though maybe after it cooled there would be more liquid.
WRONG! 1 1/2 hours after the finger burning excercise, it was still just a big pile of goopy sludge which had a consitancy that was almost, but not quite completely unlike oatmeal. I'm standing there trying to figure out how to get liquid out of this sludge, when my 5/8, being a huge fan of McGyver back in the day grabs the wire basket from the fry-daddy and suggests using the basket to strain it. I knew there was more than one reason I married her! I slopped the sludge into the wire basket and let it drain a bit, then got the idea to filter the water I needed to add through the sludge. This seemed to work pretty well (except a lot of extra gunk got into the fermenter).
I added the yeast (now about 4 hours old), stirred it in and took a gravity reading (1.030), stuck the little fermenter poppy thingy in the lid and sealed the lid. I put the fermenter under the kitchen table because I just didn't feel like taking it down to the basement.
The directions indicated it could take 24 - 48 hours before fermentation began. We'll have to see what happens.
The First Batch - part II
The instructions implied it would take 24 - 48 hours for fermentation to start, but I checked this moring and the little poppy thingy in the fermenter lid was just a popping up and down like crazy. I think this is going to work!
The First Batch - Part III
Bottled the first batch today. I thought I should get 53 bottles out of the 5 gallons of beer (5 gallons = 640 ounces, divided by 12 equals 53 1/3 bottles). But I only got 47 1/2 bottles out of it. It makes me think that I might have overfilled the bottles somewhat. I'll have to keep an eye on them in case they decide to start exploding from having too much carbonation and not enough room for it all.
The First Batch - Part IV
Well, I just couldn't wait. Being Super Sunday yesterday, combined with my slight worry that I had over filled the bottles, I cracked a couple open yesterday to sip on while watching the Steelers pound the Seahawks into submission during the Xtra Large Superbowl.
The color is very pleasing, a nice darker amber color - not yellow like American commercial lagers (i.e. Budwieser, Coors etc.), and not near black like stouts or bocks (i.e. Guiness, Becks Bock etc.), but a color more like watered down syrup or old, darkened honey.
The flavor I found to be very smooth. It was a bit flat as I opened them a week early and it lacked some carbonation. But there was a noticable absence of the after-bite of most lagers. My 5/8s liked it better than most beers.
I think the flavor is most like a Fat Tire, but less caramelly.
In about a week, I'll distribute it to some friends and solicite their honest opinions ...
Oh, yeah, and next time I'll take pictures during the whole process to break up all this text stuff!
The directions started with preparing the yeast, so I did. This turned out to be the wrong way to go about it. The yeast should be prepared after the wort has cooled because I was using dry yeast, not the liquid stuff (which has to be prepared like two days in advance). The dry yeast take about 15 minutes to prepare, and then should be used right away. Instead, it sat around for about four hours while I boiled and cooled the wort.
Some other ideas I came up with is steeping the grain in a tall 12 quart pot. My 21 quart pot is rather wide (it's an enamaled canning pot - instead of stainless, I'm not made out of money you know). The grain sack sat on the bottom of the pot instead of being suspended in it. I'm thinking this is not the ideal way to do things. I could mix the grain steeped water with new water to get the full three gallons required.
The grain was steeped until the water started to boil (I think). Here was what actally happened. As stated, the grain sack sat on the bottom of the pot, the water seemed to bubble around the sack, but after removing the grain, it was another 15 or 20 minutes before the a full boil was achieved.
After the water was at a full boil, the pot was removed from the heat, and two 3.3 lb cans of malt extract syrup were added and stirred in. The fellow at Ale-n-Vino said to heat the cans first, but I forgot to, and so getting the syrup out of the cans was not at all that easy. But I'm sure I ended up with at least the required 6 lbs. The pot was put back on the heat for about 20 minutes (I think, I really didn't keep that close a watch on the time -live and learn en?), until it started to boil again.
The recipe called for 1.25 oz of fruggle hops for the first hopping, I dont have a scale, and had three 1 oz bags of fruggle hop leaves (Ale-n-Vino didn't have any fruggle pellets in stock), so the first hopping got 1 oz of fruggle hop leaves.
Thirty minutes later I added the second batch of fruggle hop leaves. This one called for 1.5 oz, but again, I had three 1 oz bags, and no scale, so I added 2 oz of fruggle for the second hopping, crushing the leaves as I added them.
It was at this time I took a quick inventory of my supplies. What's this? A bag of malt powder? What the heck is that? Oh, crap, I forgot to add the malt powder with the malt syrup. So I put it in at this time. Man, I should have checked the 'Net for better instructions! I emptied the 1 lb bag of malt powder into the mixture and stirred well. It now occurs to me that maybe I should have removed the mixture from the heat to do this, but what the heck.
Somewhere around 15 minutes later (dang, I really, really need to keep a better watch on the clock) I added the third hops. The recipe called for 1/2 oz, but once again, it's me with limited resources and no stinking scale. I took what looked to be about 1/2 of the 1 oz bag of pellets and tossed them in. At this time I also added the Irish moss and gypsum.
This boiled for about another 15 minutes (and you know, the killer about the whole time thing is, there are about 15 appliances in my kitchen that have a stinking clock on them!). Anyway, when I removed the wort from the heat I placed the pot in a sink full of ice. I stirred it some to get the middle stuff out to the edges. We called Domino's, had some 'za and watched Valiant with the kids.
After the movie I went to check on the wort. It wasn't looking very good. The isntructions said to siphon off the liquid into the fermenter, then add water to make five gallons. Well, there was a problem. There really wasn't much liquid. It was really just a big pile of goopy sludge which had a consitancy that was almost, but not quite completely unlike oatmeal. I stuck my finger into the middle of the goop to see how hot it was (note to self, buy a fracking thermometer!). It was HOT. I stirred it about and the 5/8s and I sat down to watch Battlestar Galactica and Num3rs which we had recored on the DVR. I though maybe after it cooled there would be more liquid.
WRONG! 1 1/2 hours after the finger burning excercise, it was still just a big pile of goopy sludge which had a consitancy that was almost, but not quite completely unlike oatmeal. I'm standing there trying to figure out how to get liquid out of this sludge, when my 5/8, being a huge fan of McGyver back in the day grabs the wire basket from the fry-daddy and suggests using the basket to strain it. I knew there was more than one reason I married her! I slopped the sludge into the wire basket and let it drain a bit, then got the idea to filter the water I needed to add through the sludge. This seemed to work pretty well (except a lot of extra gunk got into the fermenter).
I added the yeast (now about 4 hours old), stirred it in and took a gravity reading (1.030), stuck the little fermenter poppy thingy in the lid and sealed the lid. I put the fermenter under the kitchen table because I just didn't feel like taking it down to the basement.
The directions indicated it could take 24 - 48 hours before fermentation began. We'll have to see what happens.
The First Batch - part II
The instructions implied it would take 24 - 48 hours for fermentation to start, but I checked this moring and the little poppy thingy in the fermenter lid was just a popping up and down like crazy. I think this is going to work!
The First Batch - Part III
Bottled the first batch today. I thought I should get 53 bottles out of the 5 gallons of beer (5 gallons = 640 ounces, divided by 12 equals 53 1/3 bottles). But I only got 47 1/2 bottles out of it. It makes me think that I might have overfilled the bottles somewhat. I'll have to keep an eye on them in case they decide to start exploding from having too much carbonation and not enough room for it all.
The First Batch - Part IV
Well, I just couldn't wait. Being Super Sunday yesterday, combined with my slight worry that I had over filled the bottles, I cracked a couple open yesterday to sip on while watching the Steelers pound the Seahawks into submission during the Xtra Large Superbowl.
The color is very pleasing, a nice darker amber color - not yellow like American commercial lagers (i.e. Budwieser, Coors etc.), and not near black like stouts or bocks (i.e. Guiness, Becks Bock etc.), but a color more like watered down syrup or old, darkened honey.
The flavor I found to be very smooth. It was a bit flat as I opened them a week early and it lacked some carbonation. But there was a noticable absence of the after-bite of most lagers. My 5/8s liked it better than most beers.
I think the flavor is most like a Fat Tire, but less caramelly.
In about a week, I'll distribute it to some friends and solicite their honest opinions ...
Oh, yeah, and next time I'll take pictures during the whole process to break up all this text stuff!
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