Pilgrymm HomeBrewery

New Batch of Red

2008-07-25T10:25:00.000-07:00

Well I had an interesting night last night. I started a new American Red (Amber) batch. I made this one a little darker than the last, and maybe a little lighter on hops. I'll post the new recipe at the end of this post.

After the Imperial Stout blew it's head, I decided to try using one of my carboy's as a primary. We'll see how that works, so far it looks pretty good. already bubbling (thanks to the yeast starter, which I will talk about in a few), and due to it not having a plastic lid, no sign of exploding.

I did a yeast starter last night, and something interesting happened. It did what it was supposed to, but on the second day, the yeast separated from the wort in the flask. Which made it really simple to then pour off the "wort" and then dump the yeast slurry out and separate it into two parts. One of which I still have saved in the fridge. I'm really starting to get the hang of the whole yeast deal. I just wish I had something to measure how much yeast there was, like cell count, etc. I also saved that wort and threw it in the fridge to settle further, hopefully I'll get more yeast out of it and then I can do another starter, and then split it in half again for the next time Mr. Bergson and I brew. Was that confusing?

Using a wort chiller outside is very unsatisfactory. I couldn't get it to go below 80f. So I ice chilled a bucket filled with the rest of my filler water to about 60f, then dumped the 80f wort in, and checked again, and let the ice chill it down to about 70f. Then pitched half the yeast slurry, siphoned it into my carboy, and threw it in my office with a shirt over it.

No pictures this time around, I can't seem to find the digital camera. Here's the recipe for you:

New American Red -=6 Gallon=-

Grain:

1lb British Pale
2lb British Munich
1lb British Crystal 120L

Malt Extract:

7.25lb Light Munich LME

Hops:

2oz Willamette %5.5 60min
2oz Cascade %6.1 30min
1oz Cascade Aroma

London Ale Yeast Wyeast. (Starter)

Est %7.2 v/v

American Red Recipe

2008-06-17T09:28:00.000-07:00

Here is the recipe that I created for my American Red. I had originally intended for it to be a Irish Red, but I made it way too strong. Irish Red's are lighter in consistency and have less alcohol content.

American Red

Grains:
1 lb. British Munich
2 lb. British pale
10oz. British Crystal 120L

Steep:
Steep at 170f for 20 minutes.

Malt Extract:
6.6lb Munich Light malt
1lb. Brown Sugar

1tsp irish moss at 30min

Hops:
2 oz. Kent Goldings (5% AA, 60 min.)
2 oz. Mt. Hood (4.5% AA, 60 min.)
1 oz. cascade for 2nd ferm. dry hop.

Yeast:
Irish Ale yeast slappy.

The original gravity is: 1.064
The alcohol is: 6.5% v/v (5.0% w/w)
The color is: 27 HCU (~14 SRM) (Dark RED)
The bitterness is: 44 IBU

Imperial Stout Recipe's

2008-06-16T14:12:00.000-07:00

I have posted up both recipe's, the old and the new, in succession. check them out. The old was wayy too thick, Literal sludge. I'm going for a clearer brew with more taste and less sludge this time.

Old Imperial Russian Stout Recipe:

8oz British Chocolate
8oz British Crystal 70-80l
12oz American Chocolate
12oz American Black Patent
12oz Roasted Barley

6.5lb Amber Malt Extract
6lb Dark Malt Extract

2oz chinook
1oz centennial
3oz willamette

scottish ale yeast slap pack.

New Imperial Stout Recipe -=6 Gallon=- 2.5 boil.

Grain: Steep for 30 min @ 140-160

3oz. British Crystal 95-115L (probably be 120L)
2oz. British Chocolate
4oz. British Black Patent
2lb. British Brown

Malt Extracts:
8.6lb Amber (or similiar quantity)
6.6lb Dark (or similiar quantity)

Hops:
2oz. Centennial 60min
2oz. Centennial 30min
2oz. Chinook 60min
2oz. Chinook 30min
1oz. Willamette or Fuggles(if available) Aroma

1tsp Irish Moss @ 30 min.
British Ale Wyeast Slappy slap.

The original gravity is: 1.121
The alcohol is: 12.4% v/v (9.7% w/w)
The color is: 124 HCU
The bitterness is: 44 IBU

Yeast Starter 2

2008-06-16T13:34:00.000-07:00

This week marks the cooking of Imperial Russian Stout, build no. 2.0, officially dubbed "Immortal Ale." Today I am starting off with the Yeast Starter again. This time I am going with a 1200ml size with 6.1oz, or .76 cups of Light DME.

I am trying out a cheap way to keep the starter cool, using household items. I have a collapsible cooler that we use for picnics, that I have placed the stirrer in, and will be accompanied by bags of ice wrapped in a towel to help moderate the temperature. Of course I will keep a thermometer in there to make sure it doesn't get TOO cold.

Also I made a makeshift funnel out of a dixie cup so that I didn't make so much of a mess, like last time (see previous yeast starter post, picture of hand being used as funnel).

I am also attempting to build a cooler plate to help keep the temperature inside the fermentor down, using things that I have around the house. Sofar my method is to use a USB powered soda can cooler, and a steel computer case side panel.

The Starter has started boiling, in 20 minutes I will cool it, which should take about a half hour most likely. After that it's just pitching yeast, setting the stirrer, and go. Updates to follow on my twitter account, linked on the side of the blog. I will also be posting up the recipe that I have re-worked and will be using tomorrow.

Second First Run

2008-05-15T21:15:00.000-07:00

Tonight, was part two. The wort chiller.

Things went great. I did a brown ale, and Mr. Bergson did a wheat ale. I can still smell the wort. Great stuff. Recipe's will be posted up later. Anyway, tonight was the maiden voyage of the wort chiller.

Run one, I have a skinnier, taller pot. The wort chiller ran off about 100 degree's fahrenheit in under 20 minutes. Great work for ten feet of 1/2" copper pipe. Run two, Mr. Bergson's pot. It is a shorter, squatter pot, the chiller didn't quite fit into the whole wort. Still, ran off over 100 degree's fahrenheit in less than a half hour.

All in all, I think if you want to run a 25 foot copper line instead of something smaller, it's just maybe a 5 minute difference. I am really impressed.

I ended up squashing the copper pipe down together (view the previous pictures a few posts down for the original look.) so that it could fit into the whole wort. I didn't take into account that the wort would be around 2 gallons of water, instead of 5 or 6. =)

Anyway, success! 2 out of 2! The yeast is still really to be determined. We split it in half and pitched it a little earlier. Cross your fingers. Here's some silly pictures of us sitting on our buckets.

Alright, so right before those pictures, I accidentally stepped on the siphon plug on my bucket. Great. It was a little over 6 gallons anyway... still, i'm a little unhappy at my oversized feet.

All in all sofar we are doing great! After this it's smooth sailing provided everything goes well. If you have any suggestions or idea's feel free to let me know.

The First Yeast Starter

2008-05-14T21:51:00.000-07:00

Alright! Sit tight, this is a long one.

So tomorrow is the next brew day with Mr. Bergson. I am somewhat excited, as I haven't been able to brew in over a month. I'd say probably almost two months now, since my red. Which is delicious by the way.

Anyway. I am starting this yeast starter now, it is currently 9:53pm. We plan to use it sometime around now tomorrow night. So hopefully it will be a 22-24 hour spin on the yeast stirrer. I don't know if there are pictures posted up on the blog for that yet, but if not I will post some up with this post. I just checked, and I do. But I will post pictures of it in action tonight.

It was a little silly, I think the Harvest Ale is making thinking a little tougher right now, I decided to try and convert 1000ml to a cup based measurement, and when i got 4.226, I said "oh man, that's going to be hard." But, then I realized that I have a 1000ml pyrex measuring cup. DUH. Alright, on with it!

I'm using an Amber DME for the extract, and 1000ml of tap water. I have purified water from k-mart, but i'd rather save that for the actual wort. From the pictures, I had a fun time getting the DME that i'd measured out into the beaker. (I am using just over a 1/2 cup of DME. that is 1oz per 200ml. or .522 cups.) I need to get back to stirring. This will take about 20 minutes to finish once it boils. Also, ignore the bottle of Red Label... Not sure why that was there.

Now I'm a little nervous about this, as it's the first time I've ever put a glass beaker on an electric range. Although I just have to look over at my coffee machine to see a glass pot sitting on an electric burner. huh. ok not so bad now.

I just popped the inner thingie in my wyeast package, I don't really think it matters if I do or don't, I just can't remember for the life of me which is the yeast, the tan stuff or the brownish clear stuff in the inner balloon. So I figure it's best just to combine the two before I chuck it in the mini-wort.

Spoon!

Finally boiling. I pussyfooted it 'til just now. Still scared of glass on a electric burner. But, it's boiling. Seems to be boiling off a lot of water, it's down to 800ml now. Once it's cooled i'll probably recompense the lost liquid. Also, apparently it doesn't like wooden spoons. And I burned my fingers. And again. Damned steam! I guess the best course is to just let it sit and bubble. 20 minute boil.

Time to let it sit for a while. after the glass has cooled to touchable temperature, gonna drop it in some ice in the sink for a few. the icebox needs to be dumped anyway.

Alright, Here it is. The temp hit 65, i yanked it from the ice, and put in the yeast. Here are the final two pictures. The first pic is the yeast mixing into the mini-wort, and the second is the yeast sittin and spinning on the stirrer. The first trial run of the yeast starter will hopefully be a success! We shall find out tomorrow. Also, to clock, it was put on the Stirrer, at about 11:45/12. so it should be about a 20 hour sit and spin.

And thus, another tale comes to pass. Stay tuned for tomorrow, for part two in this series of "The Firsts" when we try out our homemade wort chiller for the first time!

anticipation.

2008-05-05T16:22:00.000-07:00

I'm really itching to start a new batch or two. Now that I have all day to do what I want, I can do a few batches.

Also, now that I have a yeast stirrer, I can turn one wyeast slap pack into two 5-6 gallon batches.

What say you, I start a new batch of a revised porter recipe, and a batch of brown (for Milan and Shannon) ?? That sound like a plan?

Good. I thought so too.

Here's some pics from my Wort Chiller. Basically all it is, is a 10 ft segment of 1/2" copper tubing, attached to two 5ft segments of hose. The connections are screw-clamps, and underneath are rubber washers to waterproof them. The first test, water leaked like all get out, so I added the rubber washers in to help, and they helped marvelously. Also, I bent the copper tubing by hand. I didn't have a model to wrap it around, so I just tugged and bent by hand. Anyway, it's a simple enough setup, and here's the pic's:

I fail.

2008-05-02T09:01:00.000-07:00

Well, my other blog, International Zombie Threat Awareness Day has officially been dubbed a failure. Double FAIL goes to me, who somehow had auto-renew checked on the domain for that (iztad.net)... and it renewed for another year. oh well, i'll leave the website up as a reminder to myself of my fail.

I haven't been able to brew in the last month due to losing my job, and the resulting lack of fund's. I would love to make it my full-time job, but I just can't afford that kind of setup right now. A micro-brewery would be awesome, even if I ran it out of home for now.

However, that doesn't mean I haven't been busy. Before I lost my job I had picked up some stuff to build a few things. I built a stir-plate, and a wort-chiller. Here are some pics of the stir plate, I will post some info up on the wort-chiller later.

moving

2008-03-07T16:08:00.001-08:00

Sorry, but thebrewjournal's server is currently moving. It will be down until you don't see this page anymore. (obviously.)

In the meantime, here's a picture of a cute puppy to keep you entertained!

Pilgrymm HomeBrewery: On beginnings

2008-03-03T11:50:00.000-08:00

There is a lot to tell about this subject, and I'm not really sure where to begin. I'll start with some basics.

I live in Chico, CA. Sierra Nevada Brewery calls Chico their home. I can drive down 20th st. and smell their wort, the hops, smell it all cooking. It's been this way since I can remember. I have been drinking Sierra Nevada ales since just after high school, and they have always been my favorite brewery in the area. Their beers all have such flavor, and it's what I crave in a beer. Flavor, Consistency, Color, Alcohol content.

I have quickly become a beer connoisseur in the last 8 years or so. My standards are judged by Stone Breweries Arrogant Bastard, or their Imperial Russian Stout. Or Sierra Nevada's Pale ale, and their Bigfoot. North Coast Breweries Old Rasputin. These are places that are keeping beer alive. Not just the, "let's buy a 36 pack and get drunk at marty's house," type beer. No, they're keeping the, "this beer has a flavr!" beer alive. The stuff that makes you want to sit and enjoy it, and not dump it down a funnel, into a tube to shove down your throat, and then vomit on the sidewalk. I would spend a whole evening with a single 24oz bottle of Stone Imperial Russian Stout in my hand, just soaking in the malt, the muddy consistency, the smell, the %12.1 alc. content.

I don't mean to sound like a commercial. Just putting a little back story behind things. Or more of an explanation.

I had always thought that my current job description, as a computer tech, would be what I spent my life doing. Fixing Hardware, teaching people how to use programs, etc. It wasn't until I decided to try making my own beer, while I was sitting at work, that my life changed dramatically. Unfortunately I have no pictures of my first batch to show you. I had been reading a book on how to do it, and I had a couple cans of malt syrups, and a 2oz. bag of hops, for a 3 gallon batch.

Following the directions the best I could, I started water boiling, and threw in the ingredients. The pot boiled and the wort turned a dark brown, and within minutes I was starting to get afraid that I was in over my head. After an hour of cooking everything, I threw it in my bathtub to cool for an hour or two. By this time it was near 10pm and I had work the next day, but I wasn't going to let that stop me from finishing this. I dumped the cooled wort into the fermentor bucket with another gallon of cold water.
It was then that I realized I hadn't done anything with the yeast. Quickly I threw it in some water with a tsp of sugar to try and get it to start up. I let it sit for a half hour, then gave up and threw it in the bucket.
The lid was tamped down on the bucket, and I setup the airlock to install in the lid. I pushed it through the hole, and the rubber o-ring pops out and dissapears into the wort.
"Oh shit..." I mutter, and lean back against the cabinet to sit on the floor, and immediately sit in a puddle of water.
I take the lid off the bucket, siphon the wort out into these cheapass mr. beer kegs that I still to this day have not used for anything but transferring beer into bottles... and dig out the rubber washer which had sank to the bottom. Affixing it in place, I made sure the airlock was in the hole and the washer still in place before I put the lid back on the wort and shove it in my closet.
Hooray, my first batch! And it came out great! My friends liked it, and it had a decent alcohol content. I'm 1 for 1.

After that one, I tried a porter, this time using a partial grain recipe, and a lot more hops, as well as doing a full 5 gallons. Came out great! 2 for 2! yeah!

I even had a friend tell me that the porter I had done was better than most of what he gets in the store. Which to me was the mother of compliments, see'ing as it was my second batch ever.

It was after that batch, that I realized, that I have finally found what I truly love doing. Not just something that I think would make me money, and I MIGHT be happy doing it one day. But something that I truly take joy in doing. Brewing.

And today, as another batch of porter, and a batch of imperial russian stout sits in secondary fermentation in my closet, and a recipe that I made for a nice strong dark Irish red sit's on the drawing board, I feel happy. Happy that I know now that someday I will be doing what I love, and see'ing the smiles on other people's faces as they taste one of the most delicious brew's they will ever drink. And I made it.

Here's some pictures of my current batches: