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wow, just pitched the yeast a few minutes ago, with an all new respect for all grain brewing.
Was supposed to have an OG of 1.069 for a 6 gal batch.
ended up with an OG of 10.59 in a 5 gal batch.
Solved the above mentionde crisis, after I realized what I f*ed up. Now I am just exhausted, I started 8 hours ago!
I know I will laugh about this later, but now I just want to finish cleaning up and go to bed. I made quite a mess in the process of all of this.
night y'all.
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Sounds stressfull, but atleast youll have an AG brew at the end! I just bottled tonight and moved my australian light ale to the secondary. Now my big question is....what to brew next!
-Ben
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You are very correct Ben. I just hope that my f*k ups still did the job and produce a good brew. I really did learn a lot from doing that and making all those mistakes.
The next one may not be such a big beer, maybe shoot for a lower OG and give myself a little less chaos. In any event, I will post the pics when I get a chance.
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I dont think I will ever be able to do AG even though it looks like the way to go! Good luck though with yours! Hows the kegging system coming by the way? Im interested to see how thats working out for you. It seems like the way to go!
-Ben
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Ben, kegs are, simply put, heaven! I love bottles for a specific reason, that I can send them to other people that I can't pour a pint for out of my keg. But I love that when it comes time to keg, I just sanitize 1 container instead of 24-50, then fill it w/ CO2 and siphon into 1 container. it's so much easier, in a few minutes, you're done. Close it up, crank up the CO2 for a little while, and there you have it, your 2-3 week wait to taste your beer just turned into 2-3 hours.
Storage does get interesting w/ bottles vs kegs. Kegs (this is when it becomes a plural situation) fit better into a chest freezer type set up, where as bottles are easier to access out of a stand up fridge. I can probably store 2 kegs in my frudge and that leaves one shelf for bottles, and ultimately I am fine with that
well, I belive we have fermentation, temp kicked up to 75 last night, and despite the cld towel I put on it last night, it was still up to around 78 this morning, so it will be cold towels through out the day I belive. I love the smell of yeasties in the morning!
also researching making root beer, and have found about all the ingredients for straight up all natural root beer w/ out extracts. Even found a forum for root beer junkies, however, let's just say there's not quite the level of participation there that we've got here. But I think a great source of information.
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well, I haven't opened the fermentor, but plan on siphoning in the next day or two, it has been very active, temps were difficult to keep down for a few days, so I am thinking all is well. As this was a beer requested by the Mrs., I want to try to aim for the taste she requested, which was a wheat beer with a hint of citrus. Whicle the citrus is more of a Belgian style aspect, I am thinking of siphoning the ba tch into 2 seperate vessels and dropping a bag of orange peel into one of the vessels for a few weeks to see what happens. Worst case scenario, I only screwed up 1/2 the batch, but I think it will actually taste really good, but I think it tastes really good w/out that added flavor, hence the other 1/2 being untainted.
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well, I opened it later that day to see a healty head of krausen sitting on top, which is still there today, so I will give it a few more days and check again. Can't really have any complaints when great fermentation is happening, ya know. Everything smells great, and the line of how high the krausen had gone to was pretty high, so I am stoked.
getting ready for the next batch now, maybe a nice rye pale ale to fill up the keg and keep things spicy on the palate this summer.
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oh, just realized I haven't given a hop update. The goldings are still in the lead, though they haven't grown much since that initial foot or so. The cascade has made a fantastic comeback, and the willamette had to be cut, so I am waiting to see if it will spring back up or not.
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well, I finally siphoned over to secondary 2 days ago. The krausen had dropped but wouldn't break up, there was a layer that was not very thick, just sitting on the top. I sanitized my spoon and broke it and let it sit for a few more days then siphoned. 1/2 of the batch went in one carboy, and the other went into another carboy, and I added some orange peel in a grain bag.
Hops are doing about the same, it's hot as shit and I probably don't water them often enough. The Willimette I think may not make it, unfortunately, but I am still watering it in case.
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what's up, gnome! i'm glad to see you've been hard at work, and even gotten your first stuck mash! what a great thing. i say that seriously. it means you're learning the nuts and bolts and soon enough you'll be ripping killer brews without a hitch. i remember sticking my first mash... 7 barrels of oatmeal stout. talk about sheer panic. after some good natured ribbing by the head brewer, he helped me knock it out (in twice the normal time, using a lot of paddle work and sweat). you're really not a true brother of the brewhouse until you've taken a few bullets. so...
i would say you are now officially a true brewer. dig it!
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definitely diggin it! I am getting ready to keg the 1/2 of the wheat ale that I added orange peel to. I have a 2.5 gal keg that needed some parts replaced on it, so I went through that process on thursday and now just getting things air tight and I will be ready to drink that part. Still need to find time to bottle the other 2.5 gal.
I have a kit from Northern Brewer arriving tomorrow for a "nukey" brown ale. Sounds like a simplified version of Newcastle, which would be nice. I do want to do a full clone of Newcastle sometime, but my understanding is that Newcastle is a combination of 2 beers, so it will take a minute to get that one ready.
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