Amen brother she's like a little version of her mum but I'll love them both till death!
What are you doing with homebrew today?
- Thread starter BOB357
- Start date
Started the boil on my Dunkel
I’m going to LHBS to pick up grains, hops and yeast to make Janet’s Brown Ale. While there, I might also get some DME for starters. At this point I am still undecided about using slurry from my recent amber ale to build a starter, or just pitching a fresh pack of US-05. Today might also be a good day to pop my first bottle of homebrew made here in Eugene. If my wife doesn’t keep me out all day, I might try to drop in to the zoom meeting, too.
“Hop” to see you!
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Yeah, three whole bottles off the keg. The Kolsch turned out fantastic, by the way.Never mind i thought you were bottling some kolsch for a competition musta read that wrong.
Thought you might post a pic of the clarity is all.
I believe you but you know picture speaks a thousand words
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What cycle is that herd of yeast and what sort of ABV was the herd last in? The collective wisdom leans towards stepping up from a lower to a higher ABV batch is a best practice and your herd"s strength is going to start to face somewhere around the 6th cycle. You could also do a starter with the slurry, just feed and oxygenate the herd and decant the beer from the starter before pitching especially if you're doing smaller batch, < 5 gallons
If your batch of Janet is a first time, start new so you have a "truer to form" baseline. My 2¢ and only suggestions but let us know how it comes out. Jannet's is supposed to be a really good recipe and one I'd like to try.....and a lovely tribute!
This will be my third time making Janet’s Brown Ale. The slurry from the amber ale is a first pitch of US-05, which had an OG of 1.055/abv 6.2%. For Janet’s Brown, I’m going to brew the lower abv version (1.066 OG/6.6% abv targets), skipping the addition of table sugar.
My wife and I were out all day, then in the evening met some friends who were in town from Bend, OR. One of these days I’ll be able to join you all.
Hopefully in a 'righter' thread.
I'm trying to avoid heating elements that come in direct contact with the wort for the very reasons you state, uneven heating and scorching risks. Not saying I won't consider them, just that I'd prefer some metal between the wort and the heat source that prevents sudden changes and flashing the wort around the element. The right immersion heater construction might change my mind.
I'm good to go with recirculation now and actually dunno why I didn't do that upgrade a lot sooner. It sure made a hell of a difference in the wort quality going into the boil, and actually improved the heat control on the mash to some degree. Just not enough control to prevent swings that I'm sure are affecting wort quality. I'm a staunch proponent of the GIGO principles. (Garbage IN, Garbage OUT). Improving the IN will improve the OUT. Since I started circulating, I haven't used any flocculant additives. Getting some pretty nice looking beer without it.
I could add a bung and thermowell to the kettle near the bottom, but not sure I want it permanently in the way. I still have the immersion chiller to contend with and have to avoid the torpedo screen too. That screams immersion heater installation, too, but like I said, I don't think I want the heating element in direct contact with the wort. Something else that's gonna have to be scrubbed on a regular basis to get carmelized sugar off it. Our hard water isn't very kind to heating elements, either. Every 5 years I pull about 20 pounds of lime/calcium out of our hot water heater (cistern to you Ben) when I'm typically replacing the bottom element because it's overheated and broken due to calcium buildup on it. That's calcium that's going to get solidified in the wort. It should precipitate, but it doesn't seem to occur if the elements don't touch the water. Don't read about osteoporosis much around here.
Another issue that going electric will get rid of is the heat that just goes around the kettle, and makes the handles stupid hot,or burns anything remotely flammable within 3 inches of the pot (wasted heat), as well as CO/CO2 risks of brewing inside. Plan B for mash temperature monitoring would be to replace the thermometer on the kettle with a thermowell to insert the temp probe for an ITC. If I continue using the dragon, I'd have to wrap the wires with something heat resistant, though. I couldn't let it stick out very far, though (immersion chiller), so not sure I'd win anything with that. Maybe just a thermowell stuck through the lid of the kettle that I can adjust the depth on it, and drop the ITC probe in that. That wouldn't interfere with the immersion chiller. The probes are supposed to be 'waterproof' but Im not sure how well they'd hold up in boiling temperatures without some protection. It's just smarter to put 'em in a well. I could probably put a sparge shower ring on the lid too with QD fittings on it. As long as I'm using the dragon, I've got melting wires to contend with.
I typically run mid to low density mashes (1.3 - 1.5 quarts/pound of grain) because of scorching risks as well as it makes it a lot less likely that I have a stuck sparge or paste ball in the middle of the mash, mostly because I stir frequently during the first 30 minutes of mashing. Going electric will probably let me increase density a little, but I don't have much problem with boiling to reduce. I'm usually watching a ball game or something during the boil.
Still learning and appreciate all the advice. Truly.
Just watching today. Garage was mid 50’s F last night so temps are perfect for my Dunkel. I did let 5 psi build up to help keep it clean. Dropped 6 points already.
I just spun up a starter for Janet’s Brown Ale, using slurry from my recent amber ale. That starter will spin on the stir plate until it looks right to my eyes. This should give me a good strong pitch of fresh yeast for tomorrow afternoon.
Now it’s time to feed my sourdough starter to bake tomorrow night, and also put together a pizza dough for tonight. Lots of fermentation projects to tend to.
Now it’s time to feed my sourdough starter to bake tomorrow night, and also put together a pizza dough for tonight. Lots of fermentation projects to tend to.
Livin the dream
I took a look at the recipe db, and there's only 345 references with Janet's Brown Ale. Which is the one you guys are raving about? Trying to think of what to brew next, so might give a brown a try. Anyone try a brown with an Irish yeast (WLP-004)? For that matter, how's about a repitch from a stout into a brown? I know the rule of thumb is lighter to darker, but can't see repitch from a stout discoloring a brown that much. Probably going to decant the beer and revitalize with DME anyway.
"Hol' muh beer and watchiss!"Glad I don't live close to you guys!
Redneck ingenuity seldom is successful without at least one maiming or disfiguring injury and rarely does not result in some kind of mechanical damage to something that should NEVER have been used in the design to start with. Don't ask me how I know.
I started with the recipe posted here by now defunct member @thunderwagn
My second batch was a rejigger of that previous batch. This time, I am following the recipe posted on the site of American Homebrewers Association, which featured the recipe last year for National Homebrew Day.
Scrubbed the new (to me) ferm fridge and door gasket to get the black mildew off with "pink stuff", a mild abrasive cleaner. Plugged it in and made sure it still worked, all in prep for the next batch some time soon.
Your right Josh that Windsor took just over 24hrs to blow through the Q4 brown ale of Jmcnamara 's holly cow!
Violent stuff for sure! Takes a bit to clear though
Hmmm, okay Herm. I’ll search again for that username. As well as jmcnamara. I like KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) beer recipes. I’m still way too much a novice to try complicated recipes. I’m thinking about ordering the book that @Sunfire96 told me about so I can learn and speak better beerese when I talk about my efforts.
Checked on my Frankenbeer II. It isn’t orange anymore and looks quite nice. Very nice looking yeast cake in the sediment bulb. Gonna be very light (<10 SRM). Smells absolutely delicious when I open the fermentation freezer. The 6-row really brought out the corn aroma. The Hallertau aroma is there too, but it’s got some stiff competition from the corn. Can’t wait to get it bottled and carbed. I’m thinking pretty fizzy for this stuff. I may even prime the bottles and bottle from the fermenter. That should shorten the packaging time enough to start another batch.
Checked on my Frankenbeer II. It isn’t orange anymore and looks quite nice. Very nice looking yeast cake in the sediment bulb. Gonna be very light (<10 SRM). Smells absolutely delicious when I open the fermentation freezer. The 6-row really brought out the corn aroma. The Hallertau aroma is there too, but it’s got some stiff competition from the corn. Can’t wait to get it bottled and carbed. I’m thinking pretty fizzy for this stuff. I may even prime the bottles and bottle from the fermenter. That should shorten the packaging time enough to start another batch.
