Oh, All grain is coming, but I'm taking baby steps (big fat babies) and didn't want to make an extract setup only to have to make the AG setup later.

Good to know! Thanks.

I'll just plan on making the 1/2bbl when I convert the cooler. I also want to make a nice stand and pump setup for when I do go all grain... for simplicity, ya know?:-)


Thanks Doug... I knew I could count on you for a few cents of know how!:-)
[Reply]

I should probably specify, it's fine if you're batch sparging. For fly sparging, it could cause some issues with grain bed depth, and is tougher to deal with the shape.

Baby steps my ass. I've been brewing all grain for a while now and your setup is already fancier than mine. :-)
[Reply]

Finally!!!!!!
I got a batch of Honey Wheat (1.0545 OG) in the primary, where it will finish.
I gotta have this done for shack... wish me luck!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...4&id=656354560
[Reply]

Brewed up an Imperial IPA yesterday at the inaugural CohiBrew!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...4&l=c52e59eb96

With more than 12 lbs of malt (specialty + extract,) I was surprised to hit the target OG perfectly = 1.082. IBUs calculated at 93. Pitched it with about a quart of British ale starter last night, and this morning had the most vigorous fermentation I've had in a long time. Had to replace the airlock with a blowoff tube all day. Finally settled down. Hopefully this will be a good one!
[Reply]

Thought this would be of interest here.....

Aged 9,000 Years, Ancient Beer Finally Hits Stores


Dogfish Head brewery is known for making exotic beer with ingredients like crystallized ginger or water from Antarctica, so it might not sound surprising that one of its recent creations is a brew flavored simply by grapes and flowers. It's not the recipe that makes this beer so special; it's where that recipe was found: a Neolithic burial site in China.

Chateau Jiahu is a time capsule from 7,000 B.C., but to hear Dogfish Head owner Sam Calagione talk about what beer was actually like back then, it's not the kind of thing that makes you say "Hey, pass me another ice-cold ancient ale!"

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...587208&ps=cprs
[Reply]

Thinking of brewing a Mojito IPA.

Basic IPA with lime zest, mint, and citrusy hops (Citra, Simcoe, Amarillo, Cascade,etc.) added to the boil. Then maybe some dark rum soaked oak cubes added to secondary.

All the additions would be minor, so just a hint of mint and lime, and oak and rum. I bascially want a great IPA that suggests Mojito in the flavor.

Thoughts?
[Reply]

Interesting idea...! :-)

I'm wondering if the lime zest would get overpowered by the hops? I'd probably stick to the citrusy hops for the boil, but go light on the aroma additions. I'd think you'd want some of the lime flavor to come through the beer--have you thought about maybe adding some Rose's lime juice to the secondary? It would ferment down and still preserve the flavor, maybe also "dry hop" with the lime zest & mint, too? For that matter, you could probably just add some lime extract to the bottling bucket.

I like the idea of rum soaked wood chips.

I'm just throwing out ideas, not sure how to make it work--very intriguing, though :-)
[Reply]

I think this is a great idea, and will likely do this. :-) Thanks for the input.
[Reply]

Perhaps take a look into yeast cultures. There are many different types that can add some sort of flavour to your beer. Adding syrups can affect your foam stability.

Adding cestes with the boiling is more likely to have a lesser affect on the foam stability. Might give a bitter taste to the beer. Dont know during the yeasting, you might want to be carefull not to lower the ph during the fermantation to much cause this will have a negative effect on the yeast...

Sounds like an intresting plan tho keep us informed on what you did and how it turns out!
[Reply]

What post are you referring to, JHinc? I haven't seen any reference to syrup, and I'm not sure what cestes is. Either way, it would take quite a bit to lower the pH too much, brewers yeast likes an acidic environment; the yeast itself will lower the pH into the low 4s, or even high 3s.

Edit, to stay on topic, I have a Belgian Dark Strong in the fermenter. First shot at this style.
[Reply]

Brewing a German Alt tonight. Should make a nice fall beer!
[Reply]

Basically on yours with the diea of making a mojita IPA and kaisersozei's reply.

The syrup i mean is the Rose's lime juice mentioned by kaisersozei. Cestes are (not sure if it is the correct english word, im Dutch ) scrapings of the peel of a lemon.

I wouldent go down into the the high 3's for the yeasting part tho a steady drop from around 5 to around 4.2 is a much healthier enviroment for most yeast cultures.

What yeast are you planning on usng Bottom fermenting or top fermenting?
[Reply]

Ah, I guess I didn't realise that Rose's lime juice was a syrup, I was assuming it was juice. Shows how many mixed drinks I make, I guess.

The english word you're looking for is "zest". That's what landhoney originally talked about using.

Beer finishing in the high 3s pH isn't uncommon, but my point is that it would take a whole lot of zest to get enough citric acid to make the wort too acidic for the yeast.

Being that he's talking about an India Pale Ale, one can safely assume he's talking about an ale yeast, or top fermenting. With the citricy hops, it'll be more american style, so the default choice would be Fermentis US-05/Wyeast 1056/White WLP001. It's a relatively clean, neutral yeast.
[Reply]

Im not sure it is a syrup either i assumed so much.

Might not be uncommon but it cant be good influence on the end product.
Foam stability, protein binding ..

But then again it could easily be me thinking to pure, i mainly deal with pilseners and the standards we use for that.


Still sounds like an intresting brew!
[Reply]

Yeah, coming from a large brewery standpoint, I can understand. Lagers tend to be higher pH than ales. Hell, some of the sours will get down close to 3.0. I don't tend to think in large brewery terms, just the fact that you make such a clean product and make it so consistently is mind boggling.
[Reply]

Racked the CohiBrew DIPA into the secondary last week, SG right at about 1.019 so it fermented down quite a bit.

Yesterday I brewed up my 2010 Christmas ale, this year going for a Belgian Specialty using Trappist yeast and adding some cinnamon, orange peel, cardamon and ginger. Have a question for the group on calculating OG. I plan on adding dark Belgian candy sugar to the primary a few days after fermentation begins. I'm trying to determine how much to use, based on the impact it will have on the starting gravity. From what I've read, the sugar has a gravity of 1.036 OG/lb/gal.

I measured OG this morning (without the sugar) at 1.060, a few points lower than target. Is it safe to say that 16 oz would bring that to 1.067 (1.036/5) and 8 oz to 1.064 (50% of 1.036/5)? This is in a 5 gallon batch.
[Reply]

Kaisersozei, assuming the 36 points potential is correct and that you have exactly 5 gallons in the fermenter, then yes, your math is correct.
[Reply]

Great, thanks :-)
[Reply]

Not a lot of information out there on exactly what sugars will do what from what I can see.

I did find this in an old thread on HBT...

1 pound of sugar will add .046 points per gallon.

so 1 pound will add .0092 points to a five gallon batch.
Formula:
(.046 * "lbs of sugar") / "batch size in gallons" = "total extra points per batch"

This question is still unanswered though:
"Does this apply for any kind of sugar or is this just white sugar? I know some folks use turbinado cane, corn sugar, honey, etc."


** EDIT** Beersmith is giving me .044-.048/lb. if I'm looking at that correctly (looks like .046 falls right in there)**
[Reply]

That is a very loaded question. Sucrose is easy, as it's pretty constant, but others are tougher. Even corn sugar (D-glucose) that gets used a lot in homebrewing can vary quite a bit as it's hygroscopic. The belgian candi sugar is inverted, I believe, so you're dealing with a combination of sucrose, fructose, and glucose. Any guesses how much water you're dealing with? I made some dark candi syrup, and knowing how much sucrose I started with, I was estimating around 37pppg, which ended up pretty close. That's higher than the sugar that kaisersozei's dealing with.:-)
[Reply]