Belgium Golden Ale - 10 gal All Grain 3/27/2015

Malt

8 oz Special B

8 oz Belgian Aromatic 

15 lb Belgian Pil

5 lb Castle Belgian Pale Malt

Mash

80 mins @ 152 

Yeast. Belgian Golden Ale. WLP570

Hops

2oz Magnum 60 mins

1 oz Willamette 20 mins

1 oz Magnum 20 mins

Boil

80 mins

OG 1.070

-Day 2. Using the conical I removed about a pint and a half of hop trub from the bottom. Good strong steady fermentation. 

-April 4 - Fermentation still happening. Pop every 4 seconds on the airlock. Dump all hops that settled to the bottom and a little dead yeast. Still a thick head of head on the beer. OG yesterday was 10 brix. 

Root Beer

Instructions for 4 gallons of Root Beer. 

• Heat .5 gallon water 212 F. +/-
• Dissolve in 1.5 lbs sugar
• Dissolve in 2.75 lbs honey
• Add 4 oz. Morebeer extract #2 Soda Extract
• Transfer to Corny tank
• Fill tank up to 4 gallons with tap water
• Fill tank up with 12 psi CO2
• Pour when you can create a big head of foam

My objective was to recreate the A&W root beer I had at the drive ins growing up. Frosted glass mug. Frothy and full of the amazing flavour. I would give the results of this a 8/10. Frothy was fine after about 5 days of carbonation. The flavour is very good but still not spot on.

I will enjoy drinking this however since this is my first Root Beer I'm going to try other recipes.

---
5/16/2015 - Finished the soda. Overall very good but only a 7/10 for creamy sudsy. Flavour and sweetness was 9/10. 

Guinness 5 Gal All Grain March 21, 2015

Easy to make and very enjoyable on Nitro. Should be ready to drink in 3 weeks.

Malts

8.5 lb of 2-row maris otter milled

1 lb black roasted barley milled 

2 lbs of flaked barley. Not milled

Mash 

152F 60F

Sparged 

170F to produce 7,4 gals

Wort 

Pre boil:      11 Brix / 1.044 OG

Post boil:    13.7 Brix / 1.056 OG

March 24 - brix 7. 1.010

March 25 - brix 6.7 1.009

Target 1.012 / 5.8% ABV

Actual ABV 6.0%

Counter coil cooled 5 gals in 10 mins to 95F. Added reused english yeast. The yeast did not seem active when I opened the jar. We will see.

Boil

70 mins

60 mins 2 oz Magnum pellets

20 mins 2 oz UK Target pellets

April 6 - While moving to keg i saw a mold growing on the top. Mild funk with socks and cheese. I dumped the whole batch. First batch in 7 years I've dumped.   I blame this on the reuse of yeast. It did not look healthy when i added it. I should have avoided this yeast. Arg!  See photo. 

Sanitized Counterflow Chiller

15 gallow kettle

Hops and yeast

Pour off of mash. Sweet wort!

Kolsch + 10 gal all grain. 2015-03-14

Making a Kolsch ale today. This beer typically only has Kolsch malt in it however I am mashing at a very low temperature so I plan to add a little bit of Carapils and 20 Levi-bond malt to increase the flavor profile.

Malts

20 lbs Kolsch

8 oz of 20L

8 oz of Carpils

Mash

149F for 70 mins

Sparge

170F to make 13 gallons

Boil

70 min strong boil

All hops are from my back yard

Cascade 2 oz 60 mins

Cascade, Zeus 6 oz 15 mins

Cold crash

First time using couter flow cooler. Cleaned with 15 mins of boiling brewers cleaner then rised with hot water then sanitizer with tap water. 

Cooled to 100F with 13 gallons of tap water. Next time try to use 15 gallons of tap water to get wort to 90F. 

Stats and Comments

OG 1.55 (13.5 brix) take the morning after pitching yeast. 

- Hop flavour really comes through on day 2
- Fermentation is at about 76F today. This will make it a bit fruitier.

- March 22, 2015 - FG 6.2 Brix, 1.024

- April 5 - great beer however do to high fermentation temperature the beer is fruitier, dark ( light caramel) and, cloudy. 

- April 10 - amazing Kolsch. Fruitiness has settled down and the flavour and mouth feel is too knotch. Still hazy but this will clear up with lagering....if it lasts. 

My sculpture! Burner is bolted to the table for safety.

Last of my 2014 backyard Hop harvest.

Due to the warm wort this fermentation took off within hours.