Homesteading in the armpit of the Cape

hameless shot of my winnings.  I got two free Guinness glasses from Beer Blitz Here is one of them filled with my Glen Charlie Pond Grapefruit Pale Ale.  Unfortunately, the post office broke one of the glasses.  Oh well, one free glass is better than none! 

t's been awhile.  Sorry, been a bit busy.  Just wanted to get something in to catchup.  I've got two more great beers in the drinking stable and hopefully one more in a few weeks.


Here is my Karankawa Pale Ale. It is in the cellar to drink.
A:light caramel, two finger head.  Very clear.
S:sweet, faint lemon
T:citrusy and sweet in the front, then a light bitter after taste
M:thin, watery, mid carbonation bite
D:light quaffer, would be refreshing on a hot day, nice and flavorful






 


Here is my Glen Charlie Pond Grapefruit Pale Ale. It is in the cellar to drink.
A:Pale straw yellow, three finger head subsides to one finger of fluffy large bubbles. 
S:sweet, fruity
T:subtle but strong grapefruit flavor.  Not the overly sweet flavor but the sour tangy part.  A little sweet but the tart marries well with the hops bitter at the end.
M:thin, watery, light carbonation bite.
D:VERY drinkable, this would be awesome on a hot day.  A quaffer but be careful it isn't as light as it tastes. 






Here is the Sumpfhaus Bruan. It is bottle conditioning.

arankawa Pale Ale all bottled up. Tasted very good too. This brew uses Sorachi Ace hops, a bit lemony. Can't wait for three weeks to pass now so I can try this brew.

I had to secondary this so I could use my Better Bottle for the Glen Charlie Pond Grapefruit Pale Ale. Looks like it benefited from my nice cold cellar temperatures.

had a brewing buddy stop by today. It had been a while . He stops in every once in a while when I need his strength. Today, he helped me brew up an IPA. Thanks brother, I've missed you. 17 years tonight was when our world turned upside down. You've been gone for as long as we had time with you.

rew in a bag makes cloudy beer "they" said. When it comes to brewing, I don't listen to what "they" say too much anymore.




This is my Willam's Notty Blonde Ambition...and yes it tastes as good as it looks. Too bad brew in a bag doesn't work.

Appearance:
Slight haze, could be chill haze or BIAB, not detracting but haze still. 1/2 finger head, nice slow stream of bubbles coming up inside the glass. Looks like a few more days will help the carb. The foamy head cathedrals on the side of the glass slightly, the pillow stays intact as you raise and lower the glass.

Smell:
Yeasty, bready, earthy.

Taste:
Light, low bitterness, low sweetness, very pleasing taste.

Mouthfeel:
Thin, watery, light carbonation tickles the tongue.

Drinkability:
This one is a refreshing drinker. This would be great on a hot night. At 5.6% these could probably sneak up on you easily. I can't believe I brewed this one. It tastes like something you would buy at the liquor store. YES!

Here are my notes:
Started at 9:15
put 7" (7 gallons) of water in pot
Put wok grate in bottom attached to a chain to lift it out later
Put grain bag in, attached with binder clips
Put two thermometers in (floating and dial)
Brought up to 154F
Dropped grains in at 10:00
Mash had dropped to 150F(-2F) so added heat.
10:05 mash was at 154F (+2F)
Noted dial thermometer is off by 4F+
10:10 152F
10:20 150F added heat
10:25 152F heat off
10:45 150F added heat
10:53 156F
11:15 150F
11:20 148F flame on
11:30 grains removed flame on high
put hopsock in

6.25 inches=6.25 gallons. 95%=5.93 gallons (lost 1.07 gallons to grain)
Added in water from bucket under bag, forgot to adjust water volume
Took sample, put in refrigerator for gravity reading later

11:48 rolling boil started
11:48 hops added to hopsock
12:58 Irish moss and immersion chiller added to the wort
1:08 flame off, water turned on to immersion chiller, hop sock wrung and hung over boilpot
Forgot to time wort chill, but it was quick.
Brought pot into house, began whirlpool
Forgot to check time, siphoned into cleaned and sanitized fermenter
Autosiphon aerator did not work used standard autosiphon
Needed just over 1/2 gallon to bring to 5 gallons
Gravity reading=1.054
Gravity reading out of mash=1.048@80F+.002 correction=1.050.

I believe that I have 69% efficiency? I used Brewmasterswarehous.com recipe formulator and fiddled around until I got the gravity to match what I got. Is that correct?

OG 1.038 1.054 1.054 OK
FG 1.008 1.013 1.014 Out of Range
IBUs 15.0 28.0 27.6 OK
SRM 3.0 6.0 4.9 OK
ABV % 3.8 5.5 5.2 OK
Overall Brew Status Out of Range

With the IBUs off I'll add "Strong" to the title

Willam's Notty Strong Blonde Ambition
10 pounds 2-row
1 pound Carapils
152F for the 90 Minutes BIAB mash
Hops:
2 oz Willamette for 90 min
1 tsp Irish Moss for 10 min


My setup. Turkey fryer base. 60qt Aluminum pot.

The bag in the pot.

The water heating up to 154F.

You can see the wok grate at the bottom. I don't think it is needed.

My grain from Morebeer. 10# of 2-row.

Morebeer milled it for me, I'll be making a pasta mill soon.

A pound of carapils.

My mash.

My mash covered up.

Colander in the bottom of a bucket to receive the drain water from the grain bag.

DIY hop sock bracket.

Closeup of the hop sock bracket.

Hop sock (4 gallon paint strainer bag.)

Mashing out, ready to take out the bag.

Lifting the bag. Not very heavy. Will the bag hold? (I sewed it myself on a 1941 Singer sewing machine)

Out come the grains.

A few twists of the bag to drain out the wort.

Takes a couple minutes to drain out.

See? Light enough to one arm lift it.

Just about drained out.

The wort is a bit cloudier than I am used to.

The grains in a bucket, draining over the colander.

The wok grate came out easy attached to the chain.

What drained out of bag.

Willamette hops, 20z.

Hop sock ready to go.

Final 10 minutes of the boil, the immersion chiller is sanitized.

The hop residue left in the hop sack.

Just whirlpooled.

Covered while the whirlpool settles down.

Final Thoughts
Pretty easy.
Didn't take much more time than my normal extract operations.
The temp fluctuations were a bit of a pain. It was windy and cold out so warmer temperatures should make it easier. I wonder if holding a very low flame under it would work better.
I don't think the wok grate did much, I'll skip it next time.
What was my brew house efficiency? I hit my final estimated gravity for 69% efficiency...after adding ~1/2 gallon of water to the wort, looks like I did pretty good.
I noticed a bit more water in the grains when I dumped them. I think a little more care in the draining will get me that 1/2 gallon back.

I'll be doing this again.

This is an old blog from another place, but it describes my first all grain brewing which utilized the brew in a bag method:

Here are my notes:
Started at 9:15
put 7" (7 gallons) of water in pot
Put wok grate in bottom attached to a chain to lift it out later
Put grain bag in, attached with binder clips
Put two thermometers in (floating and dial)
Brought up to 154F
Dropped grains in at 10:00
Mash had dropped to 150F(-2F) so added heat.
10:05 mash was at 154F (+2F)
Noted dial thermometer is off by 4F+
10:10 152F
10:20 150F added heat
10:25 152F heat off
10:45 150F added heat
10:53 156F
11:15 150F
11:20 148F flame on
11:30 grains removed flame on high
put hopsock in

6.25 inches=6.25 gallons. 95%=5.93 gallons (lost 1.07 gallons to grain)
Added in water from bucket under bag, forgot to adjust water volume
Took sample, put in refrigerator for gravity reading later

11:48 rolling boil started
11:48 hops added to hopsock
12:58 Irish moss and immersion chiller added to the wort
1:08 flame off, water turned on to immersion chiller, hop sock wrung and hung over boilpot
Forgot to time wort chill, but it was quick.
Brought pot into house, began whirlpool
Forgot to check time, siphoned into cleaned and sanitized fermenter
Autosiphon aerator did not work used standard autosiphon
Needed just over 1/2 gallon to bring to 5 gallons
Gravity reading=1.054
Gravity reading out of mash=1.048@80F+.002 correction=1.050.

I believe that I have 69% efficiency? I used Brewmasterswarehous.com recipe formulator and fiddled around until I got the gravity to match what I got. Is that correct?

OG 1.038 1.054 1.054 OK
FG 1.008 1.013 1.014 Out of Range
IBUs 15.0 28.0 27.6 OK
SRM 3.0 6.0 4.9 OK
ABV % 3.8 5.5 5.2 OK
Overall Brew Status Out of Range

With the IBUs off I'll add "Strong" to the title

Willam's Notty Strong Blonde Ambition
10 pounds 2-row
1 pound Carapils
152F for the 90 Minutes BIAB mash
Hops:
2 oz Willamette for 90 min
1 tsp Irish Moss for 10 min


My setup. Turkey fryer base. 60qt Aluminum pot.

The bag in the pot.

The water heating up to 154F.

You can see the wok grate at the bottom. I don't think it is needed.

My grain from Morebeer. 10# of 2-row.

Morebeer milled it for me, I'll be making a pasta mill soon.

A pound of carapils.

My mash.

My mash covered up.

Colander in the bottom of a bucket to receive the drain water from the grain bag.

DIY hop sock bracket.

Closeup of the hop sock bracket.

Hop sock (4 gallon paint strainer bag.)

Mashing out, ready to take out the bag.

Lifting the bag. Not very heavy. Will the bag hold? (I sewed it myself on a 1941 Singer sewing machine)

Out come the grains.

A few twists of the bag to drain out the wort.

Takes a couple minutes to drain out.

See? Light enough to one arm lift it.

Just about drained out.