After reading through the instructions multiple times and opening up a tasty Sam Adams IPA, I began to brew. I have included my full procedure below so I will spare you the detail here. Again, being that it was my first time at an extract beer mistakes were bound to be made.
Things started off great as I patiently waited for my water to hit the steeping temperature range (155-165) in my brand new 5 gallon stainless steel brew kettle (picked up for $25 on sale). I began adding the hops as the instructions recommended however I decided to mix things up. Typically, most of my friends/family don't care for very "hoppy" beer so I cut down the amount of hops recommended by one ounce. After the final addition of hops, the errors began....
About 10 minutes before the last hop addition, I filled the sink up with cold water and ice to cool the kettle & wort down "quickly". When the kettle was ready to be transferred the water had all seeped out leaving me with only some ice cubes in the sink. Damn. I filled the sink back up and began stirring the wort to try to get it to the desired 70 degree temperature. I then remembered that the coolest water temperature coming out of hte faucet from the beautiful Erie water facilities is 77 degrees (measured previously). Being out of ice, there was no way to get the wort down to the desired temp. After 30 min of stirring and using water to cool the kettle sides I gave up with the wort still steamin. (I didn't even mention that about 2 cups of water directly from the faucet went into the wort...big no no as it adds the potential for bacteria).
I tried to siphon the wort to the primary fermenter which became a whole nother issue. The siphon kept getting clogged with the hops and grains. After shooting wort on the walls, ceiling and floor I again gave up. Using the kettle lid I dumped the wort into the fermenter allowing a few hops and grains to pass through. The hydrometer was also filled with the wort that included foam so a pretty poor reading was taken. Looks like I won't know exactly what the alcohol content is. What a disaster....
As of this posting the beer has been racked to the secondary fermenter to make room for my hard apple cider attempt. The brew fermented for about 5 days vigorously (a CO2 bubble every 5 seconds or so).
Obviously, this disaster made me realize my lack of proper equipment. I began researching home brew setups and found that what I was doing was miserable. This research turned into an obsession to create an efficient setup. Posts to follow...
HopNop
1. Sanitization
a. Filled fermenter half with hot tub water
b. Added one cup of Clorox regular bleach
c. Added lid, fermenter lock, and stirring spoon
d. Filled up completely with hot tub water
e. Let set for 30 minutes
f. Did same for Stainless steel pot
i. Noticed some sort of brown staining inside pot (6 spots)
ii. Wiped down w/ paper towel
2. Brewing
a. Poured 2.5 gallons hot water into kettle
b. Brought Water to temperature of 155-165
i. Waited for 5 minutes of consistent temp before adding grain
c. Added grains to sock, began to steep at 7:15 .
i. Steeped grain for 20 minutes
ii. Did not sanitize sock
d. Turned up heat to med-high, covered, rolling boil began @ )_____
i. Filled Sink w/ water and ice (too early, should wait till after boil
e. Added 6.6 lbs of Liquid Malt Extract using Large Metal Spoon
i. Spoon was sanitized for 3 Minutes, then rinsed
ii. Some LME did not come out of jar, should heat exterior prior to pouring
f. Stirred with plastic spoon for until rolling boil returns
i. Approximately 15 minutes
g. Stirred in ¾ oz of Bittering hops @ 8:01; alpha acid 17.4%
i. Stirred semi continuously (30 seconds every 2 minutes)
ii. Boiled for 40 minutes
iii. Covered for last 20 minutes, noticed a lot of lost steam/water leaving pot
h. Added 0.50 oz of HBC-342 Experimental Hops @ 8:42
i. Boiled for 10 minutes, uncovered stirring occasionally
i. Added Dry malt extract & 1 oz of HBC-342 Experimental hops @ 8:53
i. Boiled for 10 minutes, uncovered stirring occasionally
j. Terminated boil and added 0.5 oz of HBC-342 Experimental Hops @ 9:05
i. Note: Reduced flavoring & aroma hops to ½ of recommended
1. Bittering, boil 40, 1 oz flavoring, boil 10, dme& 1 oz flavoring, 10, terminate, 1 oz aroma hops
k. Put brew kettle into ice cold sink until temp reduced to approximately ____No real idea
i. About 1-2 cups of cold water accidentally entered wort mix
ii. Took approximately 15 minutes to cool to still steaming
l. Tried to siphon wort to primary fermenter
i. Failed miserably, wort/hops got caught in siphon, siphon didn’t work
ii. Tried for about 15 minutes
iii. Finally pour wort mixture into fermenter using pot's lid
1. Get strainer!!! For top of brew kettle
m. Sprinkled dry yeast to top of mixture
i. Stirred vigorously for 1-2 minutes
n. Applied top and locked in
o. Carried fermenter downstairs and set bottom shelf
p. Filled fermenter lock to 2/3 line and attached to opening in lid
3. Fermenting
a. Began at 9:30 pm
b. First bubble noticed at ____ ( hrs)
4. Secondary ferment
a. Siphoned beer to second fermenter @ 10 am on 9/23/2012
b. Noticed about 3 hops in primary fermenter
c. No Bubbling noticed after 24 hrs
5. Clean up
a. Rinsed stirrer for 30 seconds over hot water (10 min after last stir)
b. Rinsed and bleached kettle and siphoning equipment
6. Bottling
7. Tasting
a. Waited x days before first tasting
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