Archive for category Recipes
Brew Day – English Brown Ale and Graff to Secondary
Posted by bradinator in Beer, Home Brewing, Photography, Recipes on May 8, 2010
It’s like a horrible rash I cannot rid myself of. The Brewer’s Itch. I now have three batches of homebrew sitting downstairs waiting which all need to be bottled in the near future. That is nearly 60L (or 120 pints) of potential beer sitting in my basement.
Today I began my Brew Day by moving the Dark Tower Graff to the secondary fermenter and taking an specific gravity reading. It seems to have attenuated to 1.010 which is exactly what I was aiming for.
Right on target!
Following that I cleaned up the primary and began brewing my next batch which is an English Brown Ale.
Ingredients -
- 3.75lbs of Pilsner LME
- 0.5lbs of Light DME
- 0.5lbs of Demerara Sugar
- 0.5lbs of 120L Crystal Malt
- 0.25lbs of Black Patent Malt
- 0.5oz of Fuggles @ 60 min
- 0.5oz of Fuggles @ 30 min
- 0.5oz of Fuggles @ 15 min
- 0.5oz of Fuggles @ 5 min
- 1tsp of Irish Moss @ 10 min
- 1tsp of Yeast Nutrient @ cold break
- SafAle S-04 English Yeast
Steps -
- Steeped the grains for 30 minutes in 7L of water at 75c
- Added the sugars and malt extracts to the pot and brought to boil
My favorite part - Watching a pot boil
3. Added hop additions at the times listed above, babysitting the boiling wort, stirring frequently
I love the smell of hops in the morning.
4. Removed from the water and placed into an ice bath to bring the temperature down to 45c
Achieve a quick cold break prevents "chill haze" which creates a cloudy beer
5. Moved into the fermenter, topped off with cool water and pitched the SafAle S-04 English Dry yeast onto the wort at around 26c.
The Original gravity was 1.034 which is exactly what I was aiming for. The beer is a bit darker then I wanted, but that is not a big deal. I plan to give this one 3 weeks in the primary and then straight into bottles for 2 weeks of bottle conditioning. The total cost of this batch was around $25.00.
I swear this is the last batch I am making for a long while. I really hope I have enough bottles…
Brew Day – Molasses Porter
Posted by bradinator in Beer, Home Brewing, Recipes on May 2, 2010
It’s brew day! I have been planning another Molasses Porter for some time now. The last time I made this was way back in September 2009. From my previous tasting notes from the final bottle of the that batch I was not happy with the overall product. I found it too heavy in the molasses area. This time around I cut back on the molasses, double the batch size and pitched a much stronger yeast.
Here is the recipe -
- 7.5lbs Pilsner LME
- 0.5lbs Fancy Grade Molasses
- 0.5lbs Demerara Sugar
- 0.5lbs Chocolate Malt
- 0.5lbs Roasted Barley
- 2 oz Northern Brewer Hops @ 60 minutes (I wanted to use Chinook but they did not have any!)
- 1/2 tsp of Irish Moss @ 10 minutes
- 11g SafAle S-33 Dry Yeast (not rehydrated)
Steps -
1) Steep the grains at 75-80c for 30 minutes in 7L of water. Sparged the grains with 1L of 90c water.
2) Add the sugars/extracts to the pot and bring temperature up to a rolling boil (95c~100c). Add hops.
3) Monitor the temperature and boil for the next 60 minutes, stirring the wort every 3-5 minutes to keep the hops from sticking to the side of the pot. (Nothing beats babysitting a massive pot of boiling wort for an hour. Thank god for music).
4) At 10 minutes left add the irish moss to the wort.
5) Remove from heat, cooled with water directly added to the hot wort. Brought the volume up to 6 gallons, but was not able to achieve a low enough temperature for the yeast so I moved the wort into the freezer for 30 minutes to speed up the cooling.
6) Pitched the SafAle S-33 yeast and closed up the batch.
Original Gravity was 1.056. Hoping to achieve a 1.010 final gravity. The estimated cost of this batch is around 35 dollars and I should be able to get 35 pints out of it, so 1 dollar a pint.
The plan is to allow it 3 weeks in the primary, then move it to a secondary to separate the beer from the trub (hops and grain leftovers that settle to the bottle of the fermenter) and clean it up a bit. I will probably give it 2 more weeks in the secondary, move it into bottles and give it 7-10 days of conditioning.
Now its time to start thinking about next weeks brew…
Experimental Dry Cider Recipe
Posted by bradinator in Home Brewing, Recipes on July 5, 2009
I have just threw together an experimental dry cider recipe into one of my carboys. Though my original intent was to create several different ciders and see which was best, I instead mixed all the ingredients together and pitched the yeast. I will let you know how it turns out six weeks from now.
Ingredients -
2L Wally-World Cherry Flavoured Cranberry Juice
2L Wally-World Cranberry Juice
3.5L Pure Apple Juice
1KG of Generic Honey
3 tsp Yeast Nutrient
1 Package WC-1118 Champagne Yeast
8L Boiled (and cooled) Water
Directions -
1) In a large pot warm the 4L of apple juice and mix in the honey. Stir until dissolved.
2) Add yeast nutrient to Apple/Honey Mixture once cooled to room temperature.
3) In a carboy add the water, juice and apple mixture.
4) Be sure to wait until temperature is around 24c and pitch the yeast. Cap the carboy with an airlock, store in a cool place for 4-6 weeks. Racking to secondary is not necessary, though it will help clear and give the chance to back sweeten if desired.
OG: 1.046
My plans are to leave it in the primary and rack it to bottles after about 4-6 weeks. I -MAY- rack it to a secondary in 2-3 weeks if I have the energy. I am hoping that I can reach an Final Gravity below 1.000, which should strike about a 6-7% ABV range. The goal is a drinkable, light and dry cider.
Recipe – Home Made Cottage Cheese
Posted by bradinator in Nutrition, Recipes on June 25, 2009
Since being told this recipe by a friend, I have practically stopped buying my store brand cottage cheese and instead purchase the milk needed to create my own. It tends to come out a little more like pannier then cottage cheese in consistency, but I think that is because I do not boil it long enough. the major advantage of doing it this way is that this home made stuff has no sodium, where store bought tends to have about 2000mg per cup.
Ingredients:
2L Milk (Any percentage will work, I usually use 2% or Whole)
Vinegar (maybe half a cup)
Directions:
1) In a very large pot, fill the bottom with about an inch of water and bring it to a slow boil. This will help prevent the milk from burning to the bottom.
2) Add the milk to the pot. Bring the milk to a boil (approx 95-100c) while stirring. From my experience, bringing to around 98C over a long period of time yields the most cottage cheese.
3) Allow to slow boil for about 2-3 minutes. Add the vinegar and begin stirring. The milk will separate and become curds (cottage cheese) and whey (vile yellow liquid).
4) Using a sieve or cheese cloth, drain the curds and whey. Rinse the curds in cold water until cool.
And thats is. Your done! If you can getting the timing and temperatures right, I think you can get a 50/50 split of curds and whey. Usually I end up with around a 25/75 split, wasting alot of the milk. Still the overall cost is less then a tub of cottage cheese and in my opinion much tastier.
Recipe – Banana Shanny Pancakes
Posted by bradinator in Nutrition, Recipes on June 17, 2009
This is probably one of my favorite recipes and definitely my favorite breakfast. I developed this recipe with the help of my friend, who told me to use bananas for better consistency.
Ingredients -
1 banana
1/2 cup of dry oatmeal
1/2 cup of egg whites
1 egg
Optional: 1/4 cup of cottage cheese (adds consistency and slightly more creamy texture)
Directions:
1) Through all of the above ingredients into a blender and blend until it has the consistency of pancake mix
2) In a heated (med to med-high) skillet, spray lightly with cooking spray
3) Pour batter onto the skillet evenly and cook until the underside is brown and solid enough to flip with a spatula.
4) Flip and brown the other side to your liking.
5) Once done remove from the pan, sprinkle some cinnamon and enjoy. Maple syrup goes nicely with it as well though I find it far to sweet with the banana already in it.
Nutritional Info:
Protien: 35 grams (40 with cottage cheese)
Carbs: 65 grams (67 with cottage cheese)
Fat: 5 grams (7 with cottage cheese)
Calories: 450 kcal
Home Made Cottage Cheese
Posted by bradinator in Experiments, Nutrition, Recipes on January 27, 2009
Never again will I buy a $6 tub of the sodium loaded cottage cheese from the super market. Not since I have learned how to make my own. And its so easy its a wonder I never did it before.
I eat cottage cheese like its going out of style, usually twice a day. It is probably the most expensive regular item on my grocery list. But for almost half the cost — About $4 for a 4L of 2% milk I am able to create anywhere between 1L-2L of fresh cottage cheese.
How does one do this? Just follow these super easy steps:
1) Turn the stove to medium heat
2) In a large pot, bring 2-4L of milk to a boil. It is very important you bring it to a boil slowly. I have found the slower I bring the milk up to temperature, the more curds I get.
3) Just as the milk begins to boil (before it froths up and explodes everywhere), add about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of vinegar to it. I have not figured the exact amount yet, so I just keep adding milk until it begins curdling.
4) Stir slowly, watching the milk transform into a yellowish liquid (whey) and white clumps (curds aka: cottage cheese). It takes about 5-10 minutes until the curdling finishes.
5) Seperate your curds in whey with cheese cloth or a strainer. Rinse them with cold water and put them into containers for storage
This cottage cheese keeps for about 3-5 days. It has little in the way of taste, so I like adding a bit of salt to enhance the flavour. I hate wasting the liquid whey so on the advice of my friend I began freezing it for other uses including adding to my morning oatmeal and using it instead of milk for protien shakes.