So we are finally moved and settled in to the new house. I decided a while ago my first brew would be a cream ale to test the temperature control of the basement. I did an easy extract kit from Northern Brewer. I did no gravity readings and used dry yeast to keep everything as simple as possible. I even carbed the beer with the 5 oz pack of corn sugar they sent with the kit.

It was in the primary for about 2 and half weeks. I added 12 Jalapenos to the carboy about 4 days before I bottled. To add the Jalapenos I removed the seeds and the membrane and then chopped them into about 1 inch sections. I soaked them in star san to be safe. I think I got some kind of infection from adding cocao nibs to a batch with no kind of sanitation.

The beer was around 66-68 degrees at the height of fermentation, then when things settled down the temp was around 62-64 degrees. My basement stays at 63 degrees. The hardest part of this brew was getting 12 chopped up jalapenos in a grain bag down the neck of a carboy.

I have actually already cheated and tested a bottle on Monday which was 5 days after I bottled it and besides the obvious lack of carbonation it tasted really good. Due to the low fermenting temperature this one won't need long to condition.

Here is the recipe.


Amt Name Type # %/IBU
12.0 oz Honey Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 1 10.7 %
4.0 oz Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 2 3.6 %
6 lbs Pilsner Liquid Extract (3.5 SRM) Extract 3 85.7 %
1.00 oz Cluster [7.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 4 18.8 IBUs
1.0 pkg Nottingham (Danstar #-) [23.66 ml] Yeast 5 -
12.00 Items Jalapeno (Secondary 4.0 days) Flavor 6 -

One bottle of beer.....

My wife and I are in the process of purchasing a larger house. The one we are in is only about 1200 sq ft. With two adults, 2 six year olds, and a soon to be three year old, the house is getting small. So we are getting a much larger house to fit our family.

I have decided either in laziness or a stroke of genius to drink all my homebrew and not brew anything new. That way when we move in early April I won't have to lug bottles of beer or 5 gallon glass carboys of fermenting beer to the new house.

As I was choking down the Chocolate Milk Stout I brewed back in November, I found a lone bottle of Nanci's Brown Ale. This has been by far the best homebrew I have made in a while. So I decided to save the brew and have it be my first beer in my new house.

Speaking of the new house I will have a fermenting room in the basement. I haven't taken temps down there yet but I assume the basement should stay a few degrees cooler than the rest of the house. So I should be fermenting at 65 degrees or so without temperature control all year round.

The first beer I plan on making when I get to the new house is my Jalapeno cream ale. Which I am going to rename Firecracker Cream Ale. Which will imply that it is a good summer beer and also that it has a bit of kick from the Jalapenos. I will make a 5 gallon batch so it will have to be extract. I normally do this is in small batch because I'm hesitant of the Jalapenos, but I always love it and wish I had more.

Chocolate Milk Stout Gusher Infection

2011 Brewing Stats

Stealing an idea from a beer buddy Sheppy, I am going to attempt to do some sort of end of year brewing stats. I am not nearly as organized as he is but I'll give it a go.

About an hour later....

See I am very unorganized. I was going through this and noticed that I had skipped two batch numbers in my Beersmith numbering system. I assign each brew a number which is just the number of batches I have brewed. So for example my 1 hour PA is #54, which is the 54th batch of beer I have brewed. So I went back and found two batches of hopped extract kits I made and didn't enter into Beersmith.

Lets try this again...

In 2011 I brewed 13 batches of beer for a total of 47.1 gallons

4 were 2.5 gallon BIAB all grain batches. All of which were brewed by February 15th.

7 were extract recipes with a hop boil of some sort. Two 2.5 gallon, Five 5 gallon

2 were hopped no boil kits. (One 2.1 gallon Mr. Beer and one 5 gallon Coopers)

I had one mishap when a spigot broke on a Mr. Beer fermenter. I lost about a gallon of beer all over my counter.

I went a span of 98 days between brew days. 7/27/11 to 11/5/11. My homebrew pipeline was completely empty for a while.

Of course I want to brew more in 2012. I would like to do more all grain BIAB, but I'm not set up to do 5 gallon batches which is the size I prefer. I would also like to try a lager.

1 Hour Pale Ale Brew Day

Today I brewed a 1 Hour Pale Ale that is a kit from my LHBS. It supposed to be a clone of DFH 60 Minute. Yesterday I bottled the Brown Ale. I was a little hesitant but the gravity hadn't changed since Monday. I also found out how tough carboys are to clean inside. But after a little Google search I found a suggestion. It said to add a 1/4 cup of rice and a few tablespoons of baking soda to the carboy. Then fill with just enough water to make a sort of past. Then just shake the crap out of it, concentrating on getting the paste around the krausen ring. It was clean after just a few minutes of shaking. Plus the baking soda deodorized the carboy.

I am also making some dog biscuits from the spent steeping grains. I learned of this from some beer friends on the Mr. Beer forum. I took about 4 cups of spent grain, 2 cups of flour, 1 cup of peanut butter and two eggs. Mix it all together and then spread on a cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes and then cut into biscuits and spread them out. Mine stuck to the bottom of the pan, so I may spray some olive oil to help next time. Then bake for about 2-3 hours until completely dry. I took my temp down to 300 for this long bake. Then keep them in an airtight container. Not sure how long they last, but my dog really enjoyed the one I gave him. So I don't think storage will be an issue.



54 1 Hour PA
American Pale Ale
Type: Extract Date: 12/30/2011
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal Brewer:
Boil Size: 3.50 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: Brew Pot (4 Gallon)
End of Boil Volume 3.21 gal Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal Est Mash Efficiency 0.0 %
Fermentation: Ale, Single Stage Taste Rating(out of 50): 30.0
Taste Notes:
Ingredients

Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
7 lbs DME Golden Light (Briess) (4.0 SRM) Dry Extract 3 93.3 %
4.0 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 3.3 %
4.0 oz Amber Malt (22.0 SRM) Grain 1 3.3 %
0.50 oz Warrior [15.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 4 19.8 IBUs
0.75 oz Hop Mix [7.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 5 6.9 IBUs
0.75 oz Hop Mix [7.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 6 5.0 IBUs
0.75 oz Hop Mix [7.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 7 2.8 IBUs
1.50 oz Hop Mix [7.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 8 0.0 IBUs
0.75 oz Hop Mix [5.50 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 10 0.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) [124.21 ml] Yeast 9 -
Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.063 SG Measured Original Gravity: 1.066 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.015 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.015 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.3 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 6.7 %
Bitterness: 34.5 IBUs Calories: 223.2 kcal/12oz
Est Color: 5.6 SRM
Carbonation and Storage

Carbonation Type: Bottle Volumes of CO2: 2.3
Pressure/Weight: 3.93 oz Carbonation Used: Bottle with 3.93 oz Corn Sugar
Keg/Bottling Temperature: 70.0 F Age for: 30.00 days
Fermentation: Ale, Single Stage Storage Temperature: 65.0 F
Notes

This is a kit that my LHBS put together. It is a clone of DFH 60 minute. The "Hop Mix" is a total guess on AA. They dont list the exact AA on the kit. The kit does list amarillo simco and warrior as the hops used.

Brewed 12/30/11 OG 1.066
Created with BeerSmith

Why my wife should love Star San.

I normally use Oxyclean Free to soak commercial beer bottles in to clean and remove labels after I drink them. The Oxyclean Free does a great job, but if you use too much it can leave residue. The only way to remove that residue, at least that I can find, is to soak the bottles in Star San. So I just cut a step out. I read somewhere that you can soak bottles in Star San to remove the labels. So I tried it with some New Belgium Ranger IPA bottles. The Star San worked amazingly well, labels were coming off cleanly after about a 5 minute soak. Then just a little scrub with a dish brush to remove the glue from the bottle. It could not have been easier.

After that I tried something I read on a blog or forum. Not sure which, so I can't give proper credit. I soaked the black plastic spatulas and such in the Star San. The spatulas had gotten a white residue on them from being used and washed in the dishwasher. A quick soak in Star San took that right off. I also soaked all the regular drinking glasses in Star San. They have the same problem as the spatulas. They get cloudy and have spots on them. Again another quick soak in Star San and the glasses were as good as new.

I was going to take a before and after photo but neglected to do so. In a few weeks when these things get all nasty again I will do so.

So if you're getting ready to toss out a batch of Star San, put it to good use before you do.

Christmas Vacation

I am on vacation this week. The kids are off of school this week. However the wife has to work. So it's just me and the kids. I have been cleaning, baking, and cooking. I made some banana bread and some ham and bean soup. Both of which turned out really good. Lots of laundry has been done as well, however I have not folded it and put it away. Which in my estimation is what they make you do in Hell.

We got a couple of inches of snow yesterday, so the kids and I went outside. We made snowman and had a snowball right. A good time was had by all.

I bought myself a 12 pack of New Belgium Ranger IPA, a bottle of Sam Smith's Winter Welcome, and a bottle of Sam Smith's Nut Brown Ale. I was gifted a bottle of Lump of Coal Stout from my parents. All of which have been consumed and there wasn't a bad beer in the bunch.

On the brewing front I have the Chocolate Milk Stout that I am starting to drink and it turned out well. It's a little roasty which I think prevents the chocolate from being detected as much as I want it to be. I also have Nanci's Brown Ale in the new glass carboy. I dry hopped this on Monday and am trying to patiently wait to bottle it. The gravity was about where I wanted it to be and I have another recipe sitting in the pantry waiting to be brewed. I guess I could brew it and put it into a plastic fermenter but I want to use the glass since I paid for it.

I also need a Brew Hauler. I had moments while I was using the carboy for the first time that I thought I could drop it. Like when I filled it with sanitizer and then had to dump it. I felt it slipping out of my hands as I was carrying it to the sink. I just think having the handles would make breaking it a little less likely, and also make transporting it from the kitchen to the fermenting closet and back much easier.