Today was bottling day. I had cleaned all my bottles with StarSan and left them to drain for a couple hours. I cleaned all my siphoning gear and bottling bucked and prepared the fermenter to be drained.
I did something that was a little unorthodox, I guess, in that I first siphoned and used a strainer to get some little particles of hops, grain, apples and some clumped yeast. I guess this isn't recommended in that it causes some splash and oxygenates the beer. But, I did it anyway and had a jolly-ol'-time in doing so by holding the strainer as close to the top of the beer filling the bottling bucket.
I then took my sanitized bottles and filled them from the bottling bucket by attaching my auto siphon to a bottling wand. The bottling wand has a little valve that will trip when pressure is applied and will allow the beer to flow; the opposite for when pressure is released. This allows you to go from bottle to bottle with little to no spill.
I then took some Cooper's carbon tabs and placed one in each twelve ounce bottle and two in each twenty-two ounce bottle. I then took my bottle caps that had been sitting in some StarSan and used a capper to press each one on the tops of every bottle, set the full bottles in a box, placed the boxes in a cupboard and swore to forget about them for two weeks. That didn't happen.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
All Grain Experiment
A few weeks ago I started a brew. I started out wanting to brew a Scottish ale. So, I went my local HomebrewMart to put together a recommended recipe for a Scotch 80 that consisted of 9 pounds of 2-row barley; Simpson's Golden Promise, and 1 pound of crystal malt 40. But while I was there I just started to toss in a little chocolate malt, for color and crystal 10 for head retention.
I used about 1.25 gallons of water per pound of grain, 11 pounds in all for the strike, and heated the water to 168 degrees F. The temperature of the mash was sitting at about 153 degrees F inside my 70 quart Coleman converted cooler for an hour. I then started the sparge process where I ran the mash turned wort out of the cooler about a gallon at a time and recirculated the wort over the grain bed. I had also started heating the rest of the water to 175 degrees as to lauter the tun. This sparge/lauter first gets most of the big clumps of grain that flow out from the bottom and sits them on the top so that they aren't floating around in the final product. Secondly, heating the mash to 170 halts the starch conversion of unwanted sugars in the malt and also frees clumps of sugar in the grain bed.
I then transfered the wort back to my 32 quart stainless steel kettle and continued to boil on my propane burner. It was here I added my first addition of .25 oz Cascade pellet hops. The recipe only called for 1 oz. of UK Kent Goldings, but I really like a more bitter beer, so I thought the more the better. I waited about 10 minutes before adding the Kent Goldings because I was being kept busy by stirring the pot to keep it from boiling over.
During the last 15 minutes of the boil, I got out my wort chiller, a 25 foot copper coil that was converted to fit a hose for my kitchen sink, and set that in the boil to sanitize. I also added .25 oz Irish moss to the boil to collect protein solids that would otherwise be left in and cause haze in the beer.
After the 15 minutes, I took the pot off the boil and took it inside to the sink where I hooked the wort chiller to the sink and turned on the cold water. After about 20 minutes the wort had finally cooled down to where I could pitch my yeast. I then funneled it into the primary fermenter, aerated for about 10 minutes and took a sample with my beer thief. My first SG was at about 1.058. I then placed the blow off tube in and set it aside.
After about 30 hours, the primary fermentation was fairly active. It remained active until about day 5 when the yeast cells started to die and settle to the bottom. On day 7 I transfered the beer over to the secondary fermenter by use of a auto siphon. This clears most of settled yeast cells and floating hops from the beer. I placed an air stop in the bung and put the fermenter on the counter while I cut up one red apple and put in 170 degree water for 15 minutes and then place the apple slices in the fermenter where it sat until today.
Tomorrow I will begin the bottling after 1 week primary fermentation and 2 secondary. I have 22 ounce bottles that will take 2 priming tabs each and some 12 ounce bottles that will take 1 tab. This tab is a sugar that the live yeast will convert to alcohol and most desirably, carbon dioxide. when the bottles are capped and sealed, the carbon dioxide will be trapped inside and will have nowhere to go but into the beer until it is opened and the pressure allows the carbon dioxide to escape. I need to allow 2 more weeks for this to occur and to allow the beer to mature.
I really hope this turns out well. So far the beer smells very good. It gives a sweet, malty aroma along with a distinct smell of yeast and alcohol and faintly, apples. I have tasted it along the way but I won't be able to tell how it actually turned out until it has matured. I will be sending this out to my family members and friends for reviewing. I hope they don't get food poisoning. I did make sure to sanitize everything before the wort/beer touched it.
I used about 1.25 gallons of water per pound of grain, 11 pounds in all for the strike, and heated the water to 168 degrees F. The temperature of the mash was sitting at about 153 degrees F inside my 70 quart Coleman converted cooler for an hour. I then started the sparge process where I ran the mash turned wort out of the cooler about a gallon at a time and recirculated the wort over the grain bed. I had also started heating the rest of the water to 175 degrees as to lauter the tun. This sparge/lauter first gets most of the big clumps of grain that flow out from the bottom and sits them on the top so that they aren't floating around in the final product. Secondly, heating the mash to 170 halts the starch conversion of unwanted sugars in the malt and also frees clumps of sugar in the grain bed.
I then transfered the wort back to my 32 quart stainless steel kettle and continued to boil on my propane burner. It was here I added my first addition of .25 oz Cascade pellet hops. The recipe only called for 1 oz. of UK Kent Goldings, but I really like a more bitter beer, so I thought the more the better. I waited about 10 minutes before adding the Kent Goldings because I was being kept busy by stirring the pot to keep it from boiling over.
During the last 15 minutes of the boil, I got out my wort chiller, a 25 foot copper coil that was converted to fit a hose for my kitchen sink, and set that in the boil to sanitize. I also added .25 oz Irish moss to the boil to collect protein solids that would otherwise be left in and cause haze in the beer.
After the 15 minutes, I took the pot off the boil and took it inside to the sink where I hooked the wort chiller to the sink and turned on the cold water. After about 20 minutes the wort had finally cooled down to where I could pitch my yeast. I then funneled it into the primary fermenter, aerated for about 10 minutes and took a sample with my beer thief. My first SG was at about 1.058. I then placed the blow off tube in and set it aside.
After about 30 hours, the primary fermentation was fairly active. It remained active until about day 5 when the yeast cells started to die and settle to the bottom. On day 7 I transfered the beer over to the secondary fermenter by use of a auto siphon. This clears most of settled yeast cells and floating hops from the beer. I placed an air stop in the bung and put the fermenter on the counter while I cut up one red apple and put in 170 degree water for 15 minutes and then place the apple slices in the fermenter where it sat until today.
Tomorrow I will begin the bottling after 1 week primary fermentation and 2 secondary. I have 22 ounce bottles that will take 2 priming tabs each and some 12 ounce bottles that will take 1 tab. This tab is a sugar that the live yeast will convert to alcohol and most desirably, carbon dioxide. when the bottles are capped and sealed, the carbon dioxide will be trapped inside and will have nowhere to go but into the beer until it is opened and the pressure allows the carbon dioxide to escape. I need to allow 2 more weeks for this to occur and to allow the beer to mature.
I really hope this turns out well. So far the beer smells very good. It gives a sweet, malty aroma along with a distinct smell of yeast and alcohol and faintly, apples. I have tasted it along the way but I won't be able to tell how it actually turned out until it has matured. I will be sending this out to my family members and friends for reviewing. I hope they don't get food poisoning. I did make sure to sanitize everything before the wort/beer touched it.
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