Archive for category Home Brewing
Home Brew – Wine Kit and Skeeter Pee Plum update
Posted by bradinator in Beer, Experiments, Home Brewing on November 30, 2011
Did I mention I bought a wine kit for my friend? Did I mention I am brewing it up for her as we speak? No? Well I did. I bought a Shiraz kit from the local home brew supply store and whipped up the batch on the weekend along side brewing my Jolly Christmas Manticore. The kit was super easy to make when compared to brewing beer; you simply toss the ingredients into a fermenter and add water and yeast. Done! The OG was 1.090, a bit stronger then I was anticipating (I think the kit called for 1.070). I am sure it will be drinkable in the end, though it may take upwards of a year in bottles to mellow.
I also moved my Skeeter Pee Plum to the secondary last weekend. I wanted to get my Pacman yeast back for the Jolly Christmas Manticore so I need to move the must off of the yeast cake and wash the yeast into jars. I am not sure how much this yeast will impact the flavour of my Christmas ale as it was not sitting in beer, but a lemon cider. The gravity reading was right at 1.000, making this around 5% ABV. I will probably throw this into my crappy PET beer bottles next or next next weekend.
Home Brew – Spiced Golden Christmas Ale
Posted by bradinator in Beer, Home Brewing on November 26, 2011
I woke up a couple hours early this morning just to brew another beer. I wanted to make another Christmas inspired ale again, but this time took a different spin on it. I ended up using allspice, cinnamon and coriander to flavour this batch, which I steeped as a tea AND added to the end of the boil separately. I also wanted to achieve a fast brew day managing to finish the entire batch, milling, mashing and boiling in just over 3 hours.
Here is what it ended up looking like.
He brings poisonous death. And gifts!
Jolly Christmas Manticore Ale
Grains/Adjuncts
- 5.0 lbs Pilsner Malt
- 2.0 lbs 2 Row Pale Malt
Hops/Herbs
- 1.0 oz Tettnang @ 30 min
- 1.0 oz Tettnang @ 20 min
- 0.1 oz Allspice @5 min
- 0.2 oz Coriander @ 5 min
- 0.3 oz Whole Cinnamon Stick @ 10 min
Misc
- Spice Tea (1L of water, steeped all spices prior to adding directly to boil) @ 10 min
- 1 tsp Yeast Nutrient @ Flame out
- 1/2 tsp Irish Moss @ 10 minutes (for clarity)
- Pacman Yeast Starter
Procedures
- Unconditioned malt, milled once
- Brew-in-a-Bag
- Single Step Mash, ~152F-155F, 60 minutes, 4.25 gallons
- Sparge, 1.25 gallons, 170F
- 30 minute boil
- No Chill
Beer Profile
- Batch Size – 4.5 gallons
- Actual OG: 1.042 (Eff: 75%), Estimated FG: 1.010 (4.2% ABV)
- IBU – ~21
Home Brew – Red Dragon SG taken
Posted by bradinator in Beer, Home Brewing on November 26, 2011
I took the gravity reading of the Red Dragon IPA this morning before I started making my next beer, a Christmas ale. The SG was 1.011, making it nearly finished.
It’s also looking very red already! I am definitely moving this to a bright tank (secondary) in a few weeks.
Home Brew – Red Dragon IPA
Posted by bradinator in Beer, Home Brewing on November 19, 2011
The last of the Three Dragon Ales. First was the Gold Dragon Gruit Ale, a uniquely beer flavoured with a variety of herbs like used in medieval brews. The second was the Black Dragon Gruit Stout, a dry stout brewed with molasses and wormwood.
Today’s brew is the final Dragon, a more traditional ale that I am trying to make as red as possible. Using a combination Munich and specialty malts, followed by dry hoping with Safflower, a herb known for imbuing intense red colour, I am hoping for this beer to come out as red as blood.
Red Dragon IPA
Grains/Adjuncts
- 4.0 lbs Munich Malt
- 3.0 lbs Pilsner Malt
- 0.5 lbs Melanoiden Malt
- 0.5 lbs CaraRed Malt
- 0.25lbs Crystal Malt (120L)
Hops/Herbs
- 1.0 oz Chinook @ 60 min
- 0.5 oz Cascade @ 45 min
- 0.5 oz Cascade @ 30 min
- 0.5 oz Falconer’s Flight @ 20
- 0.3 oz Safflower @ 10 min
- 0.5 oz Falconer’s Flight @ 5 min
Misc
- 1 tsp Yeast Nutrient @ Flame out
- 1/2 tsp Irish Moss @ 15 minutes (for clarity)
- Nottingham Yeast
Procedures
- Unconditioned malt, milled twice
- Brew-in-a-Bag
- Single Step Mash, ~150F-153F, 280 minutes, 4.5 gallons
- Sparge, 1.5 gallons, 170F
- 60 minute boil
- No Chill
Beer Profile
- Batch Size – 4.5 gallons
- Actual OG: 1.050 (Eff: 75%), Estimated FG: 1.01 (5.2% ABV)
- IBU – ~82
Home Brew – Boxing Unicorn is bottled
Posted by bradinator in Beer, Home Brewing on November 14, 2011
What a busy week and weekend.
I still was able to find a hour today to bottle up my last batch of beer, the Boxing Unicorn. I managed to get around 35 bottles of this spicy, saison-esque ale. Here is hoping next weekend when I crack a bottle it will be as good as it smells!
Final gravity was 1.004. Primed with 3.5oz of dextrose.
Home Brew – Fermentation is not pretty. Ever.
Posted by bradinator in Beer, Home Brewing on November 8, 2011
It stinks too.
This horrid looking brown top is one of the by-products of fermentation. No one said making booze was pretty business.
So the Skeeter Pee is a go, no doubt. No point in taking gravity reading until this crazy kruasen falls.
Home Brew – You can tell you are bored when
Posted by bradinator in Beer, Experiments, Home Brewing on November 6, 2011
You start making experimental batches with grocery items lying around the house. I had basically everything I needed to make another batch of Skeeter Pee except the lemon juice, so I ran out to the grocery store and picked up a couple bottles. Now I have today’s concoction cooling downstairs in the basement waiting for me to pitch my last jar of Pacman yeast into it.
Skeeter Pee Plum —
- 1KG Table Sugar
- 250g Dextrose
- 1 can Apple Juice concentrate
- 1 can Lemonade concentrate
- 250ml Umechuu (Japanese Plum Wine)
- 1 jar of Pacman yeast starter
OG is 1.040 which is a bit lighter then the last batch, but I think it should still be good. I kind of regret dumping the entire contents of the Pacman yeast because now I have none left to use for my next batch of beer. I also added the last cup of Ume Chuu, a Japanese plum wine into the batch. No one was drinking it and I find it far to sweet for my palette so I figured it was better used in this batch then thrown out.