9/30/2022 1:07 AM over 2 years ago
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9/30/2022 1:07 AM over 2 years ago
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Roasted two pumpkins, one for the mash, the other for the boil. Cut them in half and then into 8ths. Roasted on two sheet pans with aluminum foil. Applied brown sugar to the top surfaces. Roasted at 375 F for just shy of two hours.
Ultimately, after removing the skin, the pumpkin for the mash is about 10 oz of roasted pumpkin, and the boil is 9 oz. These pumpkins were 2-3 lbs each when I weight them in the store. I diced up the one for the mash a bit but figured the boil one didn’t really need to be cut up: it is so soft I expect the boil action will cause it to fall apart. |
9/30/2022 10:00 PM over 2 years ago
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9/30/2022 10:00 PM over 2 years ago
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Decided to strike a little lower temp. 158. The resulting mash with both grain and pumpkin is around 135 currently. I figured I’d rather undershoot and then raise it with direct heat which I will now do. |
9/30/2022 10:07 PM over 2 years ago
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9/30/2022 10:07 PM over 2 years ago
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Raised to 155 F. Overshot 152 by a couple degrees intentionally, due to the fact that the kettle has poor heat retention. Will check it and raise it back up in 15 min. |
9/30/2022 10:24 PM over 2 years ago
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9/30/2022 10:25 PM over 2 years ago
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Had a hard time getting a read on the temp. At first it seemed it had hardly dropped at all, but eventually I determined it seemed to be around 150 average. Raised it back up to 155. Trying to have the average be 152 between the fluctuations. |
9/30/2022 10:31 PM over 2 years ago
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9/30/2022 10:31 PM over 2 years ago
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Starting to heat sparge water. Filled the canning kettle up to the second indentation in the side. I just figured having a generous amount of sparge water never hurts. I intend to keep the water level 1-2 inches above the grain bed for the duration of the sparge. |
9/30/2022 10:49 PM over 2 years ago
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9/30/2022 10:49 PM over 2 years ago
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Overshot my target temp by a few degrees in the last warm up. Averaged out around 158. Kept the lid off and stirred it until it came back down to 156 then called it good. |
9/30/2022 10:52 PM over 2 years ago
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1.070
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9/30/2022 10:52 PM over 2 years ago
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Refactometer reading towards the end of the mash. |
9/30/2022 11:41 PM over 2 years ago
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-1 |
Mash Complete |
1.048
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16 Liters |
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10/1/2022 1:10 AM over 2 years ago
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Sparge is going about twice as fast as planned. Looks like it will be done in about 20 minutes when the target was 45. Temp at the top of the grain bed is 156. Just ran out of sparge water (I thought I had more than enough).
Scratch that. Sparge just finished. Time was about 17 min. |
9/30/2022 11:58 PM over 2 years ago
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9/30/2022 11:58 PM over 2 years ago
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One thing I wonder is if there is a way to prevent the grain bed from settling unevenly. It always seems really lumpy on top and that makes me think that the water will filter through it unevenly and end up being less efficient than it could be at rinsing the sugars. |
10/1/2022 2:11 AM over 2 years ago
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+0 |
Pre-Boil Gravity |
1.048
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16 Liters |
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10/1/2022 2:11 AM over 2 years ago
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10/1/2022 2:12 AM over 2 years ago
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+0 |
Boil Complete |
1.071
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9.3 Liters |
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10/1/2022 2:15 AM over 2 years ago
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10/1/2022 2:32 AM over 2 years ago
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+0 |
Brew Day Complete |
1.071
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9.7 Liters |
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70 °F |
10/1/2022 2:32 AM over 2 years ago
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I was able to chill down to 69 in 10 minutes this time. I think just because the weather is colder the coldest water I can get is much colder and the chill time was cut in half.
As it was chilling I was enjoying the aroma of the kettle. It has a fruity/sweet/spicy aroma. Tasted the post-boil wort and gave Kate a taste. We’re both excited about it.
Only thing I’m a little nervous about is if I didn’t add enough bittering hops. It is going to be just a touch stronger than planned (which I sort of imagined it might be due to the pumpkin and brown sugar).
The post-boil color is noticeably darker. Will have to consider this if in the future I want to go for a brighter orange color. |
10/4/2022 9:02 PM over 2 years ago
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+3 |
Sample |
1.035
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10/4/2022 9:22 PM over 2 years ago
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Tasting notes:
- clear aroma of cardamom
- first taste is of cardamom
- middle of the taste it expands out and the pumpkin is clearly discernible
- finish is a complex spiciness where no individual spices stand out
So far so good. It is pleasant. Clearly not to little on the cardamom. Hopefully not too much. |
10/12/2022 9:36 PM over 2 years ago
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Other |
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10/12/2022 9:36 PM over 2 years ago
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I decided to raise the temperature in the fermentation chamber yesterday by three degrees. The target on the gage says 72, but it tends to run 3 degrees cooler than that in the liquid itself. So, 69 is what I’m hoping it is. The idea is to try to make sure it fully attenuates. |
10/14/2022 11:03 PM over 2 years ago
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+13 |
Fermentation Complete |
1.025
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8 Liters |
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10/15/2022 4:13 PM over 2 years ago
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After racking to the bottling bucket, I took the gravity and found that it was 1.025. That’s 8 points higher than the target FG. Even considering that the OG was 3 points higher than the target OG, I worry that the fermentation is, in fact, not done. However, I basically decided it would be too much of a pain to continue fermenting and also it would throw off my plans for the brew day today.
So I primed with 1.3 oz of table sugar targeting 2.0 volumes of CO2 and I’m planning on just keeping an eye on it and not storing it too long. I don’t want bottle bombs so I’m just planning on making sure it all gets drunk quickly enough. It tastes good though, and Kate and I don’t think it tastes too sweet. And has a nice color.
It’s interesting… carbonation has, thus far, been the most fraught aspect of starting to brew again. This has made me think that it would be great to have a tilt hydrometer so that I can be more proactive about detecting stuck fermentation so I can shake them / warm them and try to get things going again. My thought is that if I’m planning with cool fermentations to raise the temp for the last 3 days or so to ensure complete attenuation, what I should do is shake it up at the same time as I raise the temp. Perhaps that would have helped. |