Author:

mac

mac batch #2: first taste of Sierra Naomi

Posted by mac – 2010-02-13

[2010-02-13]  It has been a week since I bottled this batch, so, typically impatient, I chilled one down on the back deck to have a taste.  Not too energetic on the pour yet, though it did form a bit of  a head when I poured right down the middle.  Also, I overcooled it a bit, so had it been at a slightly warmer temp, it might have been a little fizzier.

This is actually quite a delicious brew.  I was concerned that the dry hopping might make for a smack across the face of hop aroma, but I think this has really good balance.  I really like the Cascade flavor, I think they’ll become a staple of my brewing for American pale ales.  I’m very pleased.  Hopefully it gets even better after another week or two in the bottles, but I’m going to have a hard time staying away from them in the mean time.

mac batch #3: sparkling sweet hard cider

Posted by mac – 2010-02-6

Ingredients

  • 6 x 1/2 gal Zeigler’s Organic Apple Cider (pasteurized, no preservatives)
  • 3 tsp yeast nutrient (urea and diammonium phosphate)
  • 1 packet Red Star Cote des Blancs dry yeast

Process

[2010-01-24] See the stuff after those three bullets up there? I mixed em together in a 3 gal glass carboy and sat it on the floor in a coolish spot (60-65*F). OG: 1.045

[2010-01-29] Gravity is 1.004  time to bottle.  Its dry as hell, and tart!  Need to sweeten this up a bit so that it gets bubbly, and so that it doesn’t make you cross eyed and puckery faced.  I’ve read that you want to get the gravity up to 1.010 to have enough sugar for carbonation.  I figured if I could get it to 1.020, then let it ferment in the bottles till its carbonated to my liking, maybe at that point it would be at near 1.010, which would leave a little sweetness to counteract the pucker.

Rather than calculate anything, I took a wild ass guess and dissolved 1/2 cup sugar and 1/4 cup honey in something like 1 cup of water, and added it to the fermented cider.  That got me to 1.010…whatever, good enough.  Even straight from the fermenter, this stuff is tingly, maybe it won’t need much time in the bottles to carbonate enough, and it won’t eat much sugar in the process.

[2010-01-30] after only like 14 hours in the bottles, its plenty fizzy. I don’t have enough cold storage for all this cider, so i’ve got to kill these yeasties with heat before the bottles blow up all over the place.  My cider book says submerge the bottles completely in a canner, and boil them for 60 seconds.  Sounds crazy, but I’ll give it a shot.

It would take forever for that much water to come to a boil from room temp, so I boiled the water in my brew pot, then killed the heat and added the bottles, then put the spurs to it again.  After 7 minutes, the water still wasn’t fully boiling, but one of the bottles decided it had enough, and blew itself to bits with a bang.  Sweet.  I killed the heat fast, but visions of picking glass out of my forearms kept me away from the remaining bottles for 5 or 10 minutes.  I eventually took the bottles out and let them cool.

I scoured the internet for a gentler (less ridiculous) approach to pasteurization for the second half of the cider.  One source suggested placing the bottles in 160*F water for 10 minutes.  This sounded reasonable to me, so I went for it.  I made a “test bottle” by filling an open bottle with room temp water, and placing a temp probe in it, so that I didn’t over- or under-cook the cider.

Well, 10 minutes in and my test bottle hadn’t hit 150, so I let it keep going.  A few minutes later, another bottle let go with a bang, so I decided that this batch was also cooked enough.  Next time I’ll skip the temp probe and just listen for the explosions.

This cider is pretty dang tart, with a nice dry finish.  I didn’t add any clarifiers to the batch, so its very cloudy, and a bit rosy in color (similar to the starting unfermented cider, but lighter).  I think it would actually be a pretty nice summer drink, it finishes almost like a good guezue.

mac batch #2: SNPA clone

Posted by mac – 2010-02-6

[2010-02-06] Bottling Day

FG: 1.014 @ 62*F

primed with 5 oz corn sugar

yield 46 x 12 oz bottles

mac batch #2: “Sierra Naomi” SNPA Clone

Posted by mac – 2010-02-4

Est OG: 1.055
Est. FG: 1.014
Bitterness: 36 IBU

Ingredients

  • 1.8 lbs Briess Golden Light Dry Malt Extract
  • 4 lbs Alexander’s Pale Liquid Malt Extract
  • 1 lb Maris Otter (sub’d for unavailable 2-row)
  • 1 lb Crystal 40L
  • 0.5 oz Perle pellets 8.3% -> 4.15 AAU (60 min)
  • 0.3 oz Magnum pellets 14.4% -> 4.32 AAU (60 min)
  • 0.5 oz Cascade pellets 7.8% -> 5.4 AAU (15 min)
  • 1 tsp Irish Moss (15 min)
  • 0.7 oz Cascade pellets 7.8% (0 min)
  • Wyeast 1056 American Ale yeast
  • 0.8 oz Cascade whole leaf (dry hop)

The Boil [2010-01-16]

  • Bring 5 gals filtered water to 155*F
  • Place Marris Otter and Caramel 40L in muslin bag and steep 30 min
  • Remove grains, bring to boil (add 1-2 qts makeup water during rise to boil)
  • When boiling, remove from heat, add dry malt extract, and stir. Place 60 min hop additions (Perle, Magnum) in nylon boil bag and add to wort, then return to boil
  • After 45 min, remove from heat, add Irish Moss, 15 min Cascade addition, and stir in the liquid malt extract, return to boil
  • After 15 min, remove from heat  and add 0 min Cascade addition
  • Chill to 75-80*F, transfer to primary fermenter
  • Aerate wort, and pitch Wyeast 1056 American Ale

Primary Fermentation [2010-01-16]

OG: 1.051
[2010-01-21] Bubbling slows to a crawl (3-4/min)

Secondary Fermentation [2010-01-23]

Racked to secondary, specific gravity is 1.014
Added 0.8 oz Cascade whole leaf hops to the secondary (smells so good)

mac batch #000001: Bavarian Wheat

Posted by mac – 2010-01-28

- 6 lbs Midwest Supply Wheat Liquid Malt Extract (65% Wheat, 35% Barley)
- 8 oz. Carapils
- 2 oz. Tettnanger Hop Pellets (4.7% AA)
- Danstar “Munich” German Wheat Dry Yeast

2009-12-29: Boil Day
- Steep Carapils (placed in muslin bag) in 5 gal of filtered water at 155*F for 30 min
- Remove grains, bring to boil.
- Remove from heat, add Liquid Wheat Malt Extract.
- Return to boil, add 1 oz. Tettnanger Hops (60 min)
- Add 1 oz. Tettnanger Hops (2 min)
- Meanwhile, boil 1/2 cup water, cool to 90*F and add dry yeast.
- Chill wort to ~70* F, using the finest homemade immersion chiller you can lay your hands on
- Neglect to take a SG reading.
- Transfer to primary and aerate (shaka-shaka)
- Pitch bloomed yeast
- SG: ~1.042

2010-01-02: Ferment slows to a crawl

2010-01-04: Rack to Secondary. Specific Gravity: 1.010

2010-01-12: FG 1.010. Prime with 5 oz corn sugar, bottle (yield ~46 12 oz. bottles). Smells a little like plastic.

2010-01-14: Still flat. Still a bit plasticy (phenolic?)

2010-01-21: Its beer! The head fades kinda quickly, but the carbonation level seems OK. This brew is a bit light on both the alcohol and body. The plastic aroma has mellowed way out, and is barely noticeable.

2010-01-27: Better head retention after a while longer in the bottles. All in all a nice brew, it went over well at a roll-your-own sushi GTG this weekend. “This is pretty good, the last homebrew i had tasted a bit like skunk or something,” says one. I might make this or something similar again, definitely a nice quaffable summery brew.