Happy B-Day Aunt Trixie

I usually don't like to brew fruity beers, since I don't really like to drink fruity beers.  However, my little sister in law turns 21 in June, so I'm going to break down and brew her a McMenamin's Ruby Clone, which is a raspberry pale ale.  I should be brewing this tomorrow morning.

Recipe:
5.5 gallons

Grains:
8.8lbs GW 2-Row

Hops:
I think I'll use like .5oz of Colombus for 60minutes.

Yeast:
Wyeast 1056 slurry that keeps on giving.

Anticipated Results:
Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.036
Post-Boil Gravity: 1.044
Final Gravity: 1.011
ABV: 4.4%
IBU: 21

Extras:
I'll boil about 2 pounds of raspberries and strain the extract and add to secondary.  That way it won't affect the gravity or add too much more fermentation.

Strike: 3 gallons @163
Sparge: 4.6 gallons @ 176

I'll post actual results as they occur as usual.

Brewing Update:  Man, five gallon batches are really easy!  Including cleanup the whole process took about 4 1/2 hours.  Everything went super smooth.  Possibly the smoothest brewing day yet.

Actual Results:
Pre-boil Gravity: 1.036
Post-boil Gravity: 1.040
Collected 1.85 gallons from strike and 4.5 gallons from sparge.
I think I'm missing my temps on the strike cause I'm not pulling the gravity's I'd like to be.  I'll raise them and see what happens.  Either way, this will be a good session beer gravity, which will be good for a 21 year old!
Update 5/13/11: Gravity down to 1.009.  Really good flavor too, and I don't even like beers like this!  I'm going to try to bottle this up tonight.
Update 5/15/11: Finally bottled this.  Got 35 12's and 9 22's.
Update 5/23/11: So my wife said this is her second favorite of anything I've made so far.  Looks like I'll be brewing this again to make her happy.  The raspberry is a nice subtle aftertaste.  This is probably a really good ale for the summer time.

Chico's Finest Export

or should I say Chico's only export?  Anyways, I'm pretty excited about this one.  Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is one of the first brews that I really liked, so I figure it's probably the best pale ale to start with.  I've done a few IPAs and some Bitter Ales, but no true pale ales, so here goes.  I found this recipe online somewhere a couple weeks ago and plugged it into my brewpal app on my phone.  Well worth the $.99 if you have an iphone.  I subbed out some Nugget (which I already had) for some Perle, but otherwise I guess this is straight from the brewer.

11 Gallon recipe so I'll hopefully fill a Cornie Keg and split the other half with someone.  5.5 gallons seems to end up at 5 gallons after losing the yeast cake and secondary transferring.  So here's the details.

Recipe:
11 Gallon Recipe

Grain:
25.3lb of GW 2-row
1.65lb of Crystal 60L

Hops:
1.5oz Columbus @ 60m
1oz Nugget @ 30m
2oz Cascade @
4oz Cascade @

Yeast:
Wyeast 1056 American Ale Slurry

Extras:
2tsp Gypsum @ boil
2tsp Irish Moss @ 15m

Details:
Strike 10.1gal @ 163
Sparge 6.9gal @ 183
Anticipated Preboil Gravity 1.058
Anticipated OG 1.068
Anticipated FG 1.017
IBU 42
Anticipated ABV 6.6%

I'll post details and results tomorrow night or Saturday.  Cheers!

Brewing Update:
Everything went relatively smoothly.  The counter flow chiller continues to get dialed in a little better.  I got 7 gallons from the mash and another 7 from the sparge, which meant 14 gallons boiling to start in a 15.5 gallon keggle.  The pre-boil gravity was 1.046 adjusted (1.032 @ 132*) and finished up at only 1.054 adjusted.  I was really hoping to hit closer to my target of 1.068, although since I ended up with close to 12 gallons despite a 90 minute boil, I guess that's part of the problem.  Hopefully this at least gets down to 1.014 or so.  It's blowing off like crazy right now, so that should help.  So this may be a SNPA Session clone.  As long as it's tasty, I'm not too worried.

Brewing on the tree is super easy though.  If you're thinking about upgrading your system, I highly recommend building a tree.  The only problem is having to get out the ladder to fill the HLT, but that's not too big a deal.  The ease of everything else makes it totally worth it.

Once I figure out how to better hit my targets as far as the proper amount of wort to start the boil with, things should be better.  Also, I need to move the banjo burners closer to the keggles to speed up my heating and boiling times.  It's taking like 30-40 minutes to get my boil started.
Update 4/25/11: Gravity is down to 1.012.  I'll give it another day or two and then move to secondary.  Good taste.  Another winner.
Update 4/28/11: Racked to secondary.  Gravity was down to 1.010, so ABV should be about 6%.  Really smooth flavor.  I'm going to have to do a side by side with this one.  Also, I was able to split the two jars of yeast slurry I put into (one into each bucket) into four jars.  So now they should last even longer!
Update 5/7/11: Bottled half of it for my neighbor.  Got 48 12's for him, and 3 22's for me.  The stem that I got for my cornie (for my half of the batch) is too short, so I need to switch that out before I can keg it, otherwise I'll lose over 1/2 gallon of it at the bottom of the keg.
Update 5/9/11: Decided to just keg it and I'll pour the bottom dregs into a half gallon jug if need be once it gets down all the way.  I'll hopefully add the second tap to the kegerator in the next day or two.
Update 5/24/11: Really enjoying this one.  This is a tasty pale ale.  Brought my neighbor his half of the batch last night and he was super stoked.  I'm sure I'll brew this one again!

Update: 5/27/11: Did a side by side comparison with a SNPA.  Flavor was really really close as was the hop flavor/finish.  My color was much darker, but this was the dregs of the bottom of the keg.  Next time I brew this I'll do a comparison a little sooner.  Pretty good though!

Angry Canadian

This is a second take on the "Bitter American" clone I had previously brewed titled "Why Are You Yelling At Me?"  Bitter American is a session ale from 21st Amendment Brewing in San Francisco.  The first time I didn't get the efficiency I wanted from the first mash tun I had made, so I had to use some DME the next day to raise the gravity and try to save it.  Luckily it turned out awesome.  So awesome, I had to make more since I keep drinking it and giving it all away.  This time my buddy Gregg (with 3 G's) came over to help out and split the batch with me.  We did a ten gallon batch, so 5 gallons each coming our way!  This was a nice break in for the new Brew Tree.  Here's the important info you're dying to know...

Recipe:
Grain:
7.5lb GW 2 Row
8lb Golden Promise
1lb Crystal 40L

Hops:
2oz Centennial @ 60m
1.5oz Centennial @ 10m
1.5oz Colombus @ 10m
1.5oz Centennial @ 5m
1.5oz Colombus @ 5m

3oz Centennial for 7 days in secondary
4oz Simcoe for 7 days in secondary

Yeast:
Wyeast 1056 Slurry (that thing keeps on giving!)

Extras:
I meant to add 2tsp Gypsum at boil and 2tsp Irish Moss at 15m, but I forgot.

6.2gallons Strike @ 163
8.3gallons Sparge @ 176
Collected 4 gallons from mash and 8.5 gallons from sparge.
Pre-boil gravity adjusted to 1.038 with temp at 140.
Post-boil gravity was 1.043
Anticipated post-boil gravity was 1.043, so I nailed it!
Anticipated final gravity: 1.011
IBU's: 68

Notes:

Gregg modeling the brew tree.  Very nice.

Brewing went super smooth.  The only hitches were forgetting to add the extras and we ran out of propane while trying to get the boil going.  So a quick run to the store down the street and we were back in business.  Otherwise using the Brew Tree is so nice.  Easy to transfer, easy to mash, the keggle mash tun works great, and I can boil 10 gallons and not have to move it to use the counter-flow-chiller.  The 100,000 btu burner's are pretty awesome.  I recommend them.
The counter-flow-chiller wasn't quite as efficient this time, but I still finished right around 75.  I think I need to get the counter-water flow dialed in.  But, the Canadian is fermenting away right now as I type....

Counter-Flow-Chiller in action. 

Update 4/14/11: Gravity is at 1.016 and 1.014 in the two fermenting buckets.  Another day or two and I'll move to secondary.

Update 4/16/11: Racked to secondary and added the dry hops.  However due to my cheapness I only added 2oz of Centennial and 2oz of Simcoe.

Update 4/25/11: I kegged 5 gallons a couple days ago and now I'm waiting for it to be fully carbonated.  Since this is my first keg set up, I'm still figuring it out.  Hopefully it'll be ready soon.  I'll be bottling the other five gallons with Gregg tonight...Bottled it up and got 12 22's and 29 12's.  Pretty good amount and everything went quite smoothly.

Brew Tree

So after coveting Randy and Scott's brew trees, I jumped on the banjowagon, ordered some banjo burners and welded me up a brew tree.  Well, by I welded I mean that me and Randy told our good buddy Dean-O-Rean-O how we wanted it and he made it happen.  It's good to have friends.  So anyways, it's about 90 inches tall including the caster wheels to make moving it easier.  The base 'H' is 42 long on each side and the center bar is 21 inside length, or 24 total.  It's super solid!

We welded each 'U' to the center vertical pole and gave it an extra support piece.  Under those we added banjo burners from agrisupply.com to each about 4.5 to 5 inches below the bottom of the keggle so I can be boiling/heating in a jiffy.  I had to cut the burner and pieces I could use from the base, but that was cheaper than ordering just the burner and then having to get regulator's and hoses.

The top tier is 22 inches below the top, and the next one is lower and the next one is lower.  If you want the specifics I can get them, I just don't want to get off the couch again.  We put the bottom tier high enough so I can fit my counter-flow-chiller under it and the fermenting bucket below that without having to lift up the keggle to something higher.  That way I can do 10 gallon batches for friends when they can't make it to help or be here for the whole time.

I still need to sand it and paint it.  I got some 2000 degree black paint so it'll look nice.  I'll probably do that next week.  Here's some more pics and close-ups of the details.

I'll break this thing in tomorrow with my buddy Gregg (with 3 G's, not 2).  We're going to make some more of the Bitter American Clone.  I'll post about that later....

Close up of the banjo beneath a keggle.

The extra support for one of the 'U's.

Easy Rollin!

Breakfast in a Bottle Stout

This is actually a recipe I've done already, well sort of.  I did this extract style a couple months ago and it was awesome.  So I'm going to do an all grain this time and break in the keggles.  This is pretty much a clone of Rogue's Shakespeare Oatmeal Stout.  Also, I'm going to do a 10 gallon batch this time since a couple guys want to go in on it with me, so hopefully the new equipment works well!





Recipe:
Grains:
22lb American 2-Row
1lb Crystal 120L
1lb Chocolate Malt
1.5lb Flaked Oats
.5lb Roasted Barley

Hops:
2oz Cascade @75min
2oz Cascade @ 60min
2oz Cascade @30min
2oz Cascade @flameout

Yeast:
Pacman Slurry from Poorhouse Brewing.  I plan to split the slurry when I return it, keeping half so I don't have to keep stealing Randys.

Extras:
2tsp Gypsum at boil
2tsp Irish Moss at 15min

Anticipated Post-boil gravity: 1.070
Anticipated Final gravity: 1.018
Anticipated ABV: 6.8%

I'll update after brewing tomorrow and add any notes.  Maybe some pictures as well.

Brewing Notes:
So I brewed this on Saturday, April 2.  I should have done this on the 1st, cause the day felt like a giant April Fools joke on me.  There were some good things though that I'll touch on first, then the bad things.

Wort draining from the Mash Tun.

The Good:
-The hot water keggle and the mash tun keggle both worked great.  I got good sugar out of the mash tun and it stayed plenty warm (after an hour it was still at 152 degrees, right on target).  It will be easier once it's all on the brew tree, which hopefully will be going down this week.
-The new Counter-Flow-Chiller worked great.  Dropped 10 gallons from boiling to 62 degrees perfectly.  The entire flow out for the 10 gallons to run through was about 25-30 minutes.  There was a tiny leak in the epoxy for the water, but I'll add some more and hopefully it will be good.
-The Hop Spider worked well.  Hopefully the hop flavor is increased in future brews.
-I got to brew.



The Bad:
-I still didn't get quite the targeted gravity, so I'll need to fine tune some more.  I wasn't off too much though, but more than I would have liked.
-The ball valve decided to start leaking on the boil keggle right when I added the wort.  That meant moving the wort to buckets while I ran to Home Depot to get a new rubber seal.  Works fine now though, but it added like an hour to the brewing day.
-I also managed to catch the propane hose on fire due to having it too close to the flame as well as wind coming at an inopportune time.  Luckily I was able to see it quickly and shut off the propane line.  That meant running to Home Depot again, and when they didn't have it nor the next place I checked, I resorted in buying a new burner so I could get the regulator and hose from it.  I guess at least I'll have three new burners on the brew tree (once my banjo burners arrive).  So I managed to not blow up my garage or kill myself, so that was good, but it made my 4-5 hour brew day turn into a 8-9 hour brew day.  I was rushing out the door to make it to our Saturday Night Service.  So I still actually have to clean the boil keggle and the hop strainer.

So I was able to save the brew and my life, but it was a stressful day.  Hopefully next weeks is better, supposing I get the brew tree finished.  I don't think I'll brew again until I build that, which will hopefully be this Thursday.

The Stats:
Pre-boil Gravity: 1.040
Post-boil Gravity: 1.062 (I wanted it to be 1.070)
Collected 6.25 gallons of wort from the strike.
Collected 5.75 gallons from the sparge.
Boiled 12 gallons, ended up with 10 after a 75 minute boil.

Update 4/6/11: Bottled this up.  Adam and Daniel came over to help out since they're splitting the batch with me.  We had a good time and got 93 bottles out of the 10 gallons.  They each took 24 leaving me with 45.  Final Gravity was 1.013.  ABV ended at 6.6%, pretty close to the target.
Update 4/11/11: Tried a bottle of this for fun.  Turns out it's pretty much ready!  Good body and flavor.  I can taste the oatmeal much better this time.  Quite enjoyable.