Brew recipes and bragging thread.

bgkast wrote: In reply to Hungary Bill: And here I thought you had a new innovative recipe.

I have done it with applesauce before. I called it my "Leftover Apple Recipe". We ran out of mason jars for the huge amount of apple sauce we made so I threw the remaining apple sauce in a pot with some leftover apple juice, water, and sugar and fermented the stuff.

I strained it through a steeping bag when I re-racked it to get the chunks out, but it tasted like medicine when it came to drinking time Strong, but not very tasty

Oh, I forgot to mention: You can put the apple wine recipe in the freezer (plastic containers please) and skim off the ice that forms on top every day to get "Apple Jack"

Grtechguy wrote: Beer Baron, Can I step infusion with a cooler style mash tun? I really haven't tried. Or should I be upgrading to a RIMS system?

You won't be able to step infusion in a tun, but you could do step decoction. It would add an extra 45 minutes to your brew day, but you'd end up with a very nice product.

Hungary Bill wrote: I've met more than one home brewer with dreams of having a brewery of their own that absolutely can not grasp that concept. Furthermore they can't seem to make the same product twice... "It takes a lot more than a recipe to make a beer"

I did a brewers' education night here on Tuesday. My three key points for doing good home brew:

1. Clean and sanitize. Clean and sanitize. There is no such thing as too clean or too sanitary.
2. Temperature (and time) control. Mashing, boiling, hop utilization, fermentation... it's all temperature and time. Every home brewer has access to a clock and thermometers. Use them.
   (2a: Don't take measurements you won't use. Don't manipulate things you can't measure. Accurately measure everything you plan to manipulate.)
3. Keep records.

Now to brag about a beer: I just tapped "The Dude", a coffee cream stout brewed on our pilot system (which is just an 18gallon More Beer system). It's meant to be sort of White Russian-esque. It's berkeleying good.

Not giving you all the exact recipe but:

~7.5%abv
Heavy use of Carafa for coffee-like roastiness
Moderate amount of lactose for creaminess
Moderate amount of coffee. Ground. Added to fermenter in a "sock" and sat for 2 days.
Fermented with our Belgian yeast strain (no, I'm not telling you which one, but it is probably available at most homebrew shops)

Sounds good, and nice name reference.

I've been doing some reading on "Brew in A Bag" that Grtech mentioned:

Kind of neat if anyone else was interested: http://homebrewmanual.com/brew-in-a-bag/

In reply to Hungary Bill:

I did that for one or two brews before I made a cooler mash tun. It works fine, but you run out of room quickly for bigger beers. I used a 5-gallon paint strainer bag: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Trimaco-5-gal-Elastic-Top-Strainers-2-Pack-11573-36WF/202061360

Yeah, I may have to just pony up the cash for a home depot cooler and make the jump straight into all grain

I've been confused as heck trying to decipher the lingo (mash, sparge, etc etc etc) but leave it to a youtube video to give it to me "barney style"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CRI1veziKI

Not a bad watch if you're in similar shoes

For home brews, most of what I did is very "brew in a bag" style. If I were to actually feel the desire to truly home brew now, that's how I'd do it. I prefer the term "partial mash" though. You are still mashing all your character and some of your base malts, but you're getting most of your extract (sugars) from Liquid or Dry Extract. You lose a bit of control, but you save the time of doing and cleaning up a lauter. When you stick your first lauter, you'll want to avoid that if you ever have to do it again.

At this point, I still wouldn't do an all-grain single-infusion mash. If I want the control over my mash that I'm willing to devote the time to doing a lauter, I'll be willing to devote the extra time to doing a step mash and really have control. Plus, most coolers are too tall and skinny to be good lauter tuns. And berkeley ever trying to lauter with any portion of rye in a vessel that shape. (For reference, I finally have a good lauter tun. It is approximately 7' diameter, and the grain bed is typically <3' deep.)

On a production scale, it's different. The cost savings of dry malt over Liquid Extract are serious at this scale, and the equipment is engineered for the purpose it is put to, not being hacked together.

In reply to Beer Baron:

Brew in a bag does not use any malt extract, you just use a bag to contain the grains when you lauter (or drip drain )

I was able to get efficiency in the 70s with the brew in a bag technique.

Here's a recipe I've been wanting to try forever. My last experience with the commercial stuff wasn't the best (Boughtin Bratislava and it was waaaaaaay too sweet). I tried to make my own once, but couldn't get it to start. Darn if I'm giving up that easy though!

Next up in the brew-pot:

Simple Sweet Mead

• 15-18lbs honey (get it from your brew shop, not your grocery store)

• 3tsp yeast nutrient

• 1tsp yeast energizer

• Red-Star Pasteur Champagne yeast

• 5gallon batch

2-weeks primary @ 75-85deg

2-weeks secondary @ 70-75deg (or until desired clarity is reached.

Wish me luck! I'll let ya'll know how it turns out.

Cool, I've been meaning to try a mead. Expensive to brew though!

I have a beginners mead going right now. CostCo bulk honey. We will be trying it this summer & if it turns out acceptable, I will be hitting up the local apiaries.

In reply to Grtechguy:

What does CostCo charge for the bulk honey, and how much do you get? If this works out well I may be shopping around for better prices (like Bgkast said: darn expensive to brew!)

I think 5lbs was $15? Amazon sells the exact same for ~$17 plus shipping http://www.amazon.com/Kirkland-Signature-Pure-Honey-Pound/dp/B007F2EQEW

I'm seeing your 1 month turn around. I've never heard of mead being that quick. 6 months minimum is what I've heard. Better at 1 year. 2 & 3 years for it to be fantastic.

Young meads are very hot from what I understand.

Cool. Looks like just a little less at the brew shop (about $4.25/lb)

Still darn expensive though.

Grtechguy wrote: I'm seeing your 1 month turn around. I've never heard of mead being that quick. 6 months minimum is what I've heard. Better at 1 year. 2 & 3 years for it to be fantastic. Young meads are very hot from what I understand.

2 to 3 years? Not till I get a whole lot more space and equipment!

I may have to do some sampling. Say 3-months, 6-months, and one year? Take notes and compare?

Thanks for the heads up.

From bucket to bottle I got about 4-gallons, abv going into the bottles was about 1.020 (iirc) and I was able to get the mead (recipe previously posted) started.

All in all, not a bad day

Hungary Bill wrote: From bucket to bottle I got about 4-gallons, abv going into the bottles was about 1.020 (iirc) and I was able to get the mead (recipe previously posted) started.

1.020? What was your starting gravity?

In reply to Beer Baron:

starting was 1.066 so about 6%. This is my 4th beer brew (the first was a syrup kit so it doesn't count) and my third time making this recipe. But this is the first time I took a gravity reading. The first two times I was just concentrating on making something potable (ie: not contaminated).

I'll see how it compares to the first two runs. The first run was exactly what I wanted it to be. In the second run I steeped the grains in one bag instead of two and it tasted a little "light". I'm hoping to be back at "square one" with this run.

I also did some experimentation with clear bottles. After a month in the clear bottles I didn't notice any of the "skunky" flavor people said might happen. But it was fun to check.

All good times

Finally got my run of "Hungary Bill's Apple Wine" started, pitched the yeast last night, little bubbles rising in the morning, a little foam on top, signs of pressure in the airlock. This is going oddly well! The day before I was helping do a wheel bearing on a Subaru and twisted off one of the caliper bracket bolts.

Huzzah! (to the wine)

and "twisted off" as in "broke"? Egad!

In reply to Hungary Bill:

Yeah, big M14 high grade bolt, it was in there good too, the gas axe was employed in it's removal.

I did see the first airlock bubble pass just now though, so I've got that going for me, which is nice.

Did a Belgian Wit for my latest pilot batch, and the owner/brewmaster loves it. He wants to make it a permanent part of the summer lineup. He was really happy and impressed I was able to do what I did with our house belgian yeast, not getting a wit specific or blending with our hefe strain.

Egeszsegedre!

(try saying that three times fast )

I love it when a plan comes together

Not much of a brag but ima do it anyhow- we do limited batch double chocolate porter about twice a year. It came up and I decided it should have cherry in it as well. The brew master agreed- and we find out Monday if I created a beer.