Belgian Witbier - and New Mash Tun

I brewed a Belgian Witbier last night, and I'm hoping that it comes out OK. I had problems maintaining the temperature during the partial mash process. My thermometer broke, and spilled BBs all over the stove – what a night.

When I pitched the yeast into the primary, my OG was 1.044. My efficiency suffered! I inspected the grain after I was done, and there seemed to be lots of sugar left. I base that on the internals of the grain pods – there seemed to be lots of gelatin like grain.

Don't get me wrong, I think the beer will be fine – albeit a little low in alcohol. It smelled just like Hoegaarden.

I still would have preferred a more efficient mash, so I've decided to build a Mash Tun. Even for a partial mash, I should get much better beer and higher starch conversion. I picked up the cooler yesterday for $14. That's pretty cheap. I picked up the remaining parts from Ace Hardware today. Here are some pictures of the finished product.

		Here is the mash tun with the valve installed.
		Here is the mash tun internal screen.

 I plan on using it for the Fat tire clone next Friday.  Wish me luck!

J

Bottle Cleaning

Before I bottled the Maibock today, I had the pleasure of cleaning beer bottles. It worked out pretty well though – I used Oxy clean.


I filled a cooler with hot water and put in a couple of scoops of Oxy Clean(dollar store version). Then I filled the bottles with not water (so that they wouldn’t float), and set them in the cooler. In about an hour the labels began to float off. I rinsed them off in the dishwasher, then sanitized them and put them on the drying tree.

I had a few different bottles in the mix. See below:

Sam Adams -  Easy – labels floated off, and almost no glue remained
Rogue Dead Guy Ale - Easy – labels floated off, and almost no glue remained

Bass Ale - Easy – labels floated off, and almost no glue remained
Sierra Nevada Moderate – Labels floated off, but the glue remained and need a little bit of scrubbing

I think I'm going to kegging. 

Cheers!

Bottled the Maibock - ala Dead Guy

I bottled the Maibock today and this stuff is going to be really good. I tasted it side by side with Rogue Dead Guy ale, and the color was just about exact. Mine was a tad bit darker, probably because of the boil time. I tasted it flat, and it was phenomenal! I can’t wait until it’s carbonated. This will be one of my staple beers – it’s just too good not to brew again. I’ll probably do the all grain recipe next time.

So far, it’s a success!

The one on the left is the clone, the one on the right is the Rogue.  I'm guessing I'll get the chill haze when its done conditioning.

Cheers!

Racked the Irish Stout into the Secondary

The Irish stout looked great so I racked it to the secondary today. The FG was 1.013. It has a great color and wonderful aroma. Not bad for a kit! I’ll bottle that bad boy next Friday.

Cheers!

Racked the Dead Guy - Brewed an Irish Stout

I racked the Dead Guy Clone to the Secondary today. It looks and smells exactly like the Rogue's version - I hope the taste is spot on too. Aside from the bits of trub that still haven't settled, the color is slightly murky - just like Rogue. Gravity at racking is 1.013, placing my current ABV at 6.3%. - and there is still a bit of activity in the airlock. I'm guessing that it'll end up at around 6.5%. I also saved about 1 cup of the pacman trub/lees from the bottom of the primary for the next batch. According to my local brew shop, the second and third pitching of this culture will give even better results than the first batch.
I also tasted the Newcastle Clone today. It tasted pretty close to the real thing, although it still needs a bit more carbonation. I moved it inside in the hall closet - it is about 70 degrees in that room, so the process should accelerate. I plan to have a few for the Super bowl next weekend.

When I was done with all of that stuff, I brewed an Irish Stout. One of my brewing friends uses the same extract kit with great results. True Brew is the brand, and it could not have been easier. It was a little different from my other recipes so far, in that the boil was only 30 minutes long. I can't wait to see how it turns out.

Cheers!

Bottled Brown Ale - Brewed Maibock

I successfully bottled my Brown Ale on Friday afternoon.  The color was perfect and the smell was unbelievable.  It should be ready to drink on or around January 5, 2010.

I went on to brew a maibock - ala Rogue Dead Guy Ale clone.  The OG was a whopping 1.061.  It's in the garage now in the primary, hooked up to a blowoff tube.  The blowoff tube was a good choice, because the yeast are kicking!  I'll be draining it to the secondary on Friday January 29 for a week.

It looks like my routine brewday will be Friday's.

On another note, one of my brewing buddies brought a couple of pints of True Brue Irish Stout for the game last night (Go Saints!).  That stuff was really----really good! Like butter!  I'll be doing a batch of that soon too.

Cheers,

Jarrod

Next Batch

The stuff for my next batch came in yesterday. I plan on doing a maibock. In fact, the recipe I'm using is supposed to be a clone of Rogue Dead Guy Ale. I can't wait! I picked up a six at Winn Dixie yesterday just to remind myself of how good this stuff was and all I have to say is WOW! That is some good stuff. This time I chose a mini-mash recipe…this should be interesting.