Bottling and brewing day!

I have had a busy day off as usual. Today I bottled my Scottish 60 that had been fermenting for two and half weeks. I also am in the middle of brewing my Breakfast Stout. On top of that I had my usual duties of watching the kids.
I have decided to outline my bottling process with words and pictures.
The first thing I do is to gather all the bottles, bottling bucket, bottle tree, sanitizer and other equipment I will need to bottle a batch of brew.
Once everything is out and set up I measure my priming agent, which in this case was 52 grams of dextrose. I add this to a microwave safe measuring cup with 1 cup of water. Then I cover with plastic wrap and microwave for probably about 4 minutes. I like it to boil for at least a minute. Then I take that out and put it in the freezer, still covered with plastic wrap. While this cools I start sanitizing bottles. This batch is five gallons so I did about 52 bottles to be on the safe side. I use a bottle tree with a vinator on top filled with star san. This to me is the fastest way to sanitize. I just give each bottle three pumps on vinator with shoots the sanitizer into the bottle, then I let it drain on the tree. It takes about 5 minutes to do this amount of bottles.


After I have sanitized I then take the sugar water out of the freezer and prepare to transfer the beer into a bottling bucket. I put the primary fermenter on the counter and the bottling bucket on the floor. I use an auto-siphon to transfer the liquid. Once I start the flow I added the priming sugar to the bottling bucket just as the transfer starts. I put the hose in the bottling bucket so the liquid forms sort of a whirlpool as it transfers this mixes the sugar in evenly while not aerating the beer. Oxygen is your enemy at this point, it will stale the beer faster giving it a sort of wet cardboard flavor. So the less sloshing and splashing at this point the better.


My next step at this point is to pour a beer and give the beer a few minutes to settle down. Today I went with a Schwarzbier that is just done with its two week carbing phase. This will get much better with a few more weeks in the bottle.

After I pour the beer I move the bottling bucket on top of the fermenter on the counter. To bottle I had a short length of hose to the spigot and then put the bottling wand right on that. I find this not only keeps things off the floor where little hand like to mess with them, I actually do less work this way. I only have to transfer the bottles once from the tree to the counter and I fill and cap there. I used to add a six foot length of hose and bottle on the floor. This was uncomfortable and not very efficient for me. I stand right at the counter and fill each bottle and then cap in groups of 24 bottles. In other words, I fill 24 bottles and then cap them. Then I get 24 more bottles and then fill and cap them.


Then once all the bottles are filled and capped its time to label, box them up and clean up. I use a sharpie to label each cap with an initial or other mark. This time I chose the number 60 being that this is a Scottish 60\-. These will sit at room temp for about 2 weeks and then I will try one to make sure it is carbed and to judge how much longer I want it to condition. I usually go from 4-8 weeks for conditioning depending on the recipe. Usually the darker the beer the more conditioning it needs.


After I got all cleaned up from making the bottling mess and fed the kids lunch and such. I decided to brew. I have this Breakfast stout recipe that I am looking forward to. It is about 30 minutes into the boil. It will ferment for about two weeks and then be in the bottle for about 5-6 weeks.

Wednesday Oct 27 2010

I have done a few batches since my last blog post. The Octoberfest Cream Ale actually turned out well. The diacetyl actually conditioned out and I have a few bottles left that have been bottled for 60 days. After the cream ale I did a little experiment for Mr. Beer using a test sanitizer. They sent me the sanitizer and a batch of Bewitched Red Ale w/ mellow amber UME, which I called Mystery Red Ale, in the spirit of the experiment. I brewed that up using the sanitizer they sent with it to test. Everything seemed to work just fine. The batch is in the bottle three weeks today and tastes pretty good. I will wait the full 4 weeks in the bottle before I fill out the questionaire and send it back to them. I brewed this one straight up and fermented in the cooler at about 66-68 degrees. I primed with 1/2 teaspoon of dextrose per 12 oz bottle. The bottles were also sanitized with the test sanitizer.
The next batch was also a Mr. beer recipe, the "May The Schwarzbier With You!". This was also fermented in the cooler at about 68 degrees. It has been three weeks in the keg. I was going to bottle at two weeks, but the gravity was really high at about 1.030. I used Muntons yeast in this because it was all I had. At the two week mark I gently shook the keg to get the yeast stirred back up and it seemed to work. The gravity is down to 1.024 and I will be bottling it today.
On Sunday I went to Great Fermentations, my Local Homebrew Shop. I got ingredients for two very simple, low alcohol recipes. I got a Scottish light 60 recipe and a breakfast stout. These were both recipes I got from northernbrewer.com but I modified them a bit and added some grains I thought would work well with each style. Sunday I brewed up the Scottish 60 and it went well. No issues whatsoever. I used fermcap s in the boil, it helped a great deal in keeping the foam down during the beginning of the boil. I added ten drops to the 2.5 gallons in the boil and the foam was kept to about 1/2 an inch and only covering about half the top of the brew. My initial intention was to get this for high gravity brews to keep the krausen under control so I dont blow the top off a bucket and spew beer all over my daughters closet.
Next up is a Breakfast stout. It will be low ABV as well, probably about 3% or so. I just wanted to get a few batches going as my pipeline was dwindling by the day. The Scottish and the breakfast stout are both 5 gallon batches that cost about 20 bucks each. I am really looking forward to the breakfast stout since it will contain flaked oats and lactose. Both will lend to a nice full, creamy body, but being only 3% abv it will also be easy to drink.

Octoberfest Fermentation notes

I brewed the Octoberfest on Saturday night. I am using a cooler with frozen water bottles to control my fermentation temperature. I put the keg into the cooler the first night with 8 water bottles. It kept the temp at about 64 degrees. I have had about an inch of krausen on top of the brew since Sunday morning when I checked the brew. It seems to have taken off sometime in the middle of the night Saturday so the lag time was very minimal. I have been changing the bottles out every 12 hours or so. It has been keeping a pretty steady temp from 61-64 degrees. I have had to drop a few of the bottles as the fermentation dies down.
The frozen bottles after the 12 hrs have been still pretty frozen the last day or so. So I changed them out last night about 10pm and by midnight it was down to 59 degrees in the cooler so I took out three of the bottles and left only three in the cooler. This morning it was 64 degrees.
I plan on leaving this to ferment at least two weeks. Then I will bottle and let it sit at about 70 to carb and condition for 5 weeks, maybe spending the last week in the fridge. I will be drinking these by the very beginning of October.

Brew Day

Yesterday I brewed up a Mr. Beer Recipe called Octoberfest Cream Ale. It is supposed to be a tasty ale version of a classic lager recipe. Im trying my new cooler with frozen water bottles inside to keep the temp down. I added 8 water bottles and the temp is at a steady 64 degrees.
I did pitch the yeast warm at about 85 degrees but I think it will be ok. Im going to let this ferment for about 2-3 weeks and then let it condition for 4-6 weeks.


Octoberfest Cream Ale
Recipe Octoberfest Cream Ale Style Oktoberfest/Marzen
Brewer Scott Batch 2.13 gal
Extract
Recipe Characteristics

Recipe Gravity 1.047 OG Estimated FG 1.012 FG
Recipe Bitterness 13 IBU Alcohol by Volume 4.5%
Recipe Color 14° SRM Alcohol by Weight 3.5%
Ingredients

Quantity Grain Type Use
1.21 lb MrB. Mellow Amber UME Extract Extract
1.21 lb MrB. Octoberfest Vienna Lager Extract Extract
Quantity Hop Type Time
0.50 oz Generic Pellet 0 minutes
1.00 oz MrB. Octoberfest Vienna Lager Pellet 5 minutes
Quantity Misc Notes
1 unit Safale S-04 English Ale Yeast Other
Recipe Notes

Batch Notes

Brewed 08/14/10

48qt cooler temp control test

I got a free 48qt cooler a few weeks ago. I was thinking of converting this into a mash tun. But I dont really want to do all grain. I decided that I would use this as a temperature control chamber for my smaller batches. I do my smaller batches in Mr. Beer kegs. I really like the size and the fact that they are brown makes them less permeable to light. I also like the fact that there is no airlock. Just a vented lid to let air out but nothing in.

My brewing plans did a complete 180 when I saw Mr. beer was having a sale. Its been a couple years since I have used any of their ingredients. I grabbed up two of their recipes which were on sale. The first one is a schwarzbier. I have always liked this style of beer so we will see how the MB recipe compares. Now it is a lager and it is made with Mr. Beer ingredients. So I don't have super high hopes. But I do really like the Octoberfest Vienna Lager from Mr. Beer, which is the base for this kit.
The other recipe I got was a Octoberfest Cream Ale. This also uses the Octoberfest vienna lager as a base. I also plan to try to ferment these in the new temperature control chamber. I got US-04 for these so hopefully I can get very few fruity esters in these beers.

More updates

Its been a while since I have brewed. I did end up doing the Muntons Mexican cerveza. It didn't turn out very good. I want to do some stuff coming up for the end of summer, Oktoberfest, and Christmas. But I need to get on the ball.
I really want to do a true lager Oktoberfest, a Belgian dubbel, and another attempt at an Old Fezziwig clone, along with my normal IPA, and stouts and porters for winter.
Beer just hasn't been tasting really good to me lately and I cant figure out why. I think part of it may be the larger 5 gallon batches. I get towards the end of the two cases of each beer and I cant drink them anymore. I think I may do just house beers like IPA's or brown ales in 5 gallons and then try the seasonals in 2.5 gallon batches.

End of June Update

Well I have finished off the Phat Tyre kit and it wasnt exactly to my liking. I had a few other people try it that enjoy the american amber ale style and they seemed to like it.
I also have the Caribou Slobber going strong at about 6 weeks in the bottle. It has a great brown color with ruby highlights and a great two finger head. I hit the carb spot on with this. The aroma is a little bit of hops and some chocolate maltyness. Flavor is much more complex than the nose. It is a little chocolatey, and has some roasty coffeeness at the end. It has a little bit of hop bitterness but not a lot of hop flavor.
Also in the bottles I have the Sierra Madre. Its a great American Pale Ale. It tastes a lot like Sierra Nevada Pale Ale which is what I was going for. I added about a quarter ounce more bittering hops to this and it came out great. I might do this kit as is next time to see how it compares to this one that is a little more bitter.
I have a Muntons Mexican Cerveca kit in the fermenter right now. I added one lb of light DME and one lb of dextrose to this kit the ABV is going to be low and unfortunalty I didnt make a note of it as I wanted this to be a super simple brew. The whole thing cost me under 25 dollars for 5 gallons of beer.
Next up I want to do a belgian beer. This will suit this time of year when my fermenation temps get up to 74-76 degrees. I will also be using liquid yeast for the first time with this. I hope to brew this in the next couple of weeks.
The cherry beer has been put off for a while. I hope to do it for the fall but I just am not motivated lately.

No Hop Beer, First Pour

Quick updates

I went today and picked about 3 lbs of cherries for a sour cherry ale recipe I got out of Extreme Brewing by Sam Calgione. I actually need about 5 lbs, but I was picking them from a tree at my parents house and it had been raining all night. I was getting soaked and had my three kids in tow. So I didn't quit get what I wanted. I may go back or I may just buy frozen cherries to make up the difference. The recipe is listed below.
I have been thinking about the upcoming fall and winter. I am thinking about doing an Imperial Stout and a Milk Stout. I made the milk stout out of Brewing Classic Styles last year and it was great. I will probably brew that one again but in a five gallon batch this time instead of 2.5. I would also like to do a coffee stout or porter and am still looking into recipes for that.
I am trying to hold off on trying the no hop beer until it is at two weeks in the bottle. It is at one week today and this would typically be the day I try it to make sure its carbing and conditioning well. But with only 25 bottles I am trying to save as many as possible. I am drinking my Sierra Madre Pale Ale and it is fantastic. It is two weeks in the bottle and the carbonation is great. It is very flavorful from the hops and alarmingly easy to drink.
I am also working on a blog about the Mr. Beer myth that should be up in a few days. Hopefully someone will read it.




Sour Cherry Ale 2.5 gallon
Brew Type: Extract Date: 4/14/2010
Style: Fruit Beer
Batch Size: 2.50 gal Assistant Brewer:
Boil Volume: 2.86 gal Boil Time: 60 min
Equipment: Brew Pot (4 Gallon)
Taste Rating (50 possible points): 35.0

Ingredients Amount Item Type % or IBU
3.30 lb LME Golden Light (Briess) (4.0 SRM) Extract 86.84 %
0.25 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 6.58 %
0.25 lb Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 6.58 %
0.50 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] (60 min) Hops 30.8 IBU
0.25 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] (20 min) Hops 4.9 IBU
0.25 oz Tettnang [4.50 %] (10 min) Hops 3.0 IBU
0.50 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
2.00 tsp Pectic Enzyme (Boil 0.0 min) Misc
5.00 gm Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
5.00 lb Sour Cherry (Boil 0.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs London ESB Ale (Wyeast Labs #1968) Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile Estimated Original Gravity: 1.051 SG (1.030-1.110 SG) Measured Original Gravity: 1.010 SG
Estimated Final Gravity: 1.015 SG (1.004-1.024 SG) Measured Final Gravity: 1.005 SG
Estimated Color: 5.3 SRM (3.0-50.0 SRM) Color [Color]
Bitterness: 38.7 IBU (5.0-70.0 IBU) Alpha Acid Units: 5.4 AAU
Estimated Alcohol by Volume: 4.63 % (2.50-12.00 %) Actual Alcohol by Volume: 0.65 %
Actual Calories: 43 cal/pint



Carbonation and Storage Carbonation Type: Corn Sugar Carbonation Volumes: 2.4 (2.0-3.0 vols)
Estimated Priming Weight: 1.9 oz Temperature at Bottling: 60.0 F
Primer Used: - Age for: 4.0 Weeks
Storage Temperature: 52.0 F


Notes
Recipe from Extreme Brewing written by Sam Calgione.
Steep Munich and wheat malt in 4.5 gallons of water with gypsum. Remove bag after 30 mintues, add LME and bring to boil. Add hops at specified intervels. Take off heat cool to 170 and add cherries. Stir clockwise for two minutes to create whirlpool effect and chill to pitching temp.

Use 10 lb of fresh crushed cherries, 7 lbs of frosen cherries, or two lbs of dried cherries. Add pits to fermenter if available.

Yeast suggestions: Wyeast 1968 ESB or 1388 Begian Strong Ale; or white labs lp002 English Ale/ ESB

Phat Tyre Amber Ale First Pour Video

Super Fly Orange Beer Update

Super Fly Fermentation Day 4

Sunday I added the zest of two oranges and the juice from one orange to my no hop beer which I have namedSuper Fly Orange Beer. Today I decided to give it a sample and see how the flavor was. It was pretty much spot on. It had a nice orange flavor and was pretty tasty. Also, my gravity was around 1.011 which what I was shooting for.

So I sprung into action and sanitized bottles, caps and my filling wand. I bottled straight from the Mr. Beer fermenting keg that I did this batch in. I used some leftover Coopers carbonations drops for carbonation. In total it took me about 30 minutes from start to finish to bottle this beer. The new Mr. Beer locking spigot and bottling wand make bottling from the keg a breeze.

I got 25 bottles of this beer. It will sit at room temp for a total of 4 weeks. I intend to give one of these a taste 7 days into carbonation just to make sure that the carbonation is happening.

I just got done bottling yet another batch of beer. This is my second batch in two weeks. Luckily I will have a lull in my brewing and bottling after my orange beer gets bottled in a couple weeks. It is also only 2.5 gallons of beer instead of 5. I would really like to keg but I think I have finally gotten my bottling day process down to where it takes as little time as possible.

Today I sanitized in my dishwasher for the first time. I ran 50 bottles on the sanitize cycle with heated dry. I used no soap and I have vinegar in my jet dry dispenser. I also have been bottling right at the bucket with my bottling wand attached to the spigot with just a couple inches of tubing. I really like this because it less moving of the bottles. I just put all the bottles in the dishwasher, and once the cycles done I put them on the counter where I fill, cap, clean, label, and box the batch. I used to sanitize at the table and move them to the floor and fill with a wand on a six foot hose. I would fill and cap on the floor then move the batch to the table to label and box up.

Here is a new product I saw at my Homebrew shop. They are called Brew Balls.

Its basically balls with different density rates and they fall into the brew as the alcohol goes up. It would eliminate the need for taking constant hydro readings and wasting beer. I would think you would still want to do OG and FG readings. By the way these were 25 bucks at my LHBS. A little steep for me. It's a solution to a problem that doesn't exist.

No hop beer in the fermenter.

I brewed my no hop beer yesterday. My recipe for a 2.5 gallon batch was just 1/4 lb of carapils steeped for twenty minutes in about a gallon of water, a 3.3 lb can of Breiss pilsen light LME, and a pack of Safale US-05 yeast. I will add the zest com an orange or two in about a week. I had krausen this morning so things are off to a good start. My OG was 1.045.

I just finished bottling my Caribou Slobber. It is an American Brown Ale. I had a heck of a time with this bottling for some reason. As I was sanitizing bottles I found one that was cleaned and put away, but wasn't really clean. It had a nasty ring of mold at the bottom of the bottle. Apparently I drank the beer and then didn't rinse it and put it away. YUCK! I tossed the bottle as I seem to have more than enough lately.

I also tried a new way of filling the bottles. I generally I attach a 4 foot hose the spigot and put a bottling wand on the other end. Today I cut about 2 inches of tubing and attached that to the spigot and the bottling wand to the other end. So I could stand at the bucket and fill basically right from the spigot. It took me a few minutes to get the tubing right and everything to fit. But in the end I really like being right at the bucket. It made getting the last bit of beer out of the bucket easier, I just had to tip the bucket forward and fill the bottle.

The next issue I had was the FG of the beer. I had an original gravity of 1.050 and a what I thought was a high FG of 1.020. I was going for somewhere under 1.015, or at least that is what I am used to. But according the Danstar website the Windsor yeast produces a high final gravity. So I was at least more comfortable with the fact that this beer full fermented. But the downside is that I only have 3.91% ABV.

The taste test was fantastic. It also had a great color. I can hardly wait to try a bottle or two of this in a week or 10 days.

Removing labels from used bottles

I save myself a lot of money by using used bottles for my home brew. I either buy a 12 pk of bottles that comes with free beer inside or collect bottles from friends to clean and use these to bottle my home brew. If I buy commercial beer for bottles I make sure they are pop tops and not twist offs. I tend to lean toward Sam Adams and Sierra Nevada, because the beer is good, the bottles are pop offs and the labels seem to fall off. Here is what you will need to successfully remove labels from bottles.

Bucket-5gallon is about the perfect size. I got mine from Lowes for about 3 bucks. You do this in the sink as well or any other vessel that will hold water.

Oxy Clean Free- "Free" is important so you don't get any dyes or scents.

Vegetable peeler-You may want to use an old one or buy your wife a new one. This is pretty hard on the peeler.

Empty bottles with labels attached

My process begins with getting the water as hot as possible and start filling my bucket. When you get the bucket filled a bit throw about 2 tablespoon of Oxyclean Free in the bucket and mix or swirl the water to dissolve the powder.

Fill the bucket with about 4 gallons or so of hot water. Then throw your bottles in. It may be easier to fill the bucket with the bottles if the bottles are filled with water first so they will sink. Then just wait for 15-30 minutes. The time isn't exact but don't let them sit too long, I have found that if you use to much Oxyclean Free or allow the bottles to sit for to long then they will get a gritty film on the outside that is hard to remove. If you do get the grit then soak the bottles in Starsan.

After they sit for what you determine to be long enough for the labels to be soaked through then you can start removing them. You may find that some of the labels have floated off the bottle. This is particularly true with Sam Adams and Sierra Nevada bottles. Reach in a grab a bottle and scrap the label and glue from the bottle with the vegetable peeler, dunk back into the Oxyclean to remove the scrapings. Then make sure you rinse your bottles with fresh water after the labels are removed. Now your ready to either sanitize and bottle or let them dry and store until your ready to use them.

I thought I would just start this blog with some rambling about what Ive got going on in the brewing world. The beer I have ready to drink is getting fewer and fewer everyday, and soon I will be out. I have a 5 gallon batch of Phat Tyre in the bottles that will be ready to drink in about 4 weeks. The picture above is the very first pour of that beer. To tell the truth I have had three from that batch already but they really aren't ready to drink but they are darn tasty at less than two weeks in the bottle.

In the fermenter I have 5 gallons of Caribou Slobber which is an American Brown Ale. I am really looking forward to this because I love brown ales and I love the american versions of most styles, as they are generally hoppier than the standard version of the style. I also have a 5 gallon batch of Sierra Madre Pale Ale in the fermenter, this is an American Pale Ale. This style is less hoppy than I normally like but I was looking for something different that would also be a good summer beer.

Coming up I would like to do a hopless beer. Again I was looking for something different and this definantly will be. I just hope that I can stick to my guns and do this completely hop free. Its really tough for me to think this will turn out good without the hops but I actually got the idea for this from someone else and tweaked it a little by adding the carapils. The original brewer says it pretty tasty and you get some of the bitterness from the orange peel.

Ingredients

Amount	Item	Type	% or IBU
3.30 lb	LME Pilsen Light (Briess) (2.3 SRM)	Extract	92.96 %
0.25 lb	Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)	Grain	7.04 %
1.00 items	Orange Zest (Secondary 1.0 weeks)	Misc
1 Pkgs	SafAle American Ale (DCL Yeast #S-05)	Yeast-Ale