Two hours later…

via Facebook http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151620558865170&set=a.10151604382855170.1073741825.549550169&type=1

(41) Sunday, September 16, 2012 Brew Day, Return of the Night Horse

6:45 Flame on. Heating mash and Sparge water.

7:14 Kettle strike temperature is 175 °F. Draining to the mash tun.

7:20 Drained. Mash tun strike temperature is 166 °F. I’m going to let it drop a few degrees before doughing in.

7:25 Mash tun strike temperature is 163 °F. Doughing in.

7:31 Mashing at 151 °F.

8:51 Mash complete. Ending temperature was 152 °F. Vorlauff and lauter.

8:45 Lauter complete. Collected just shy of 3.5 gallons. First running gravity is 1.062 SG (1.056 SG at 98 °F).

8:52 Sparging. Kettle Sparge temperature is 174 °F. Mash tun Sparge temperature is 158 °F. Vorlauff and lauter. Second running gravity is 1.025 SG (1.017 SG at 108 °F).

9:04 Sparge complete. Collected a total of 6-7/8 gallons. Reasonably, that puts the first and second runnings at 3-7/16 gallons each. Boil gravity is 1.044 SG (1.041 SG at 83 °F).

9:11 Flame on. Heating wort to boiling.

Night Horse Stout wort coming to the boil

9:44 Boiling. Waiting for hot break to subside.

9:50 Hot break has subsided. Adding bittering hops.

Kent Goldings hop pellet packet

10:30 Added flavor hops.

10:35 Added Irish moss and chiller.

10:40 Added yeast nutrient.

10:45 Added aroma hops.

10:50 Flame out and chilling.

11:30 Chilled. Whirlpool and let settle. Original gravity volume is 5-7/8 gallons. Original gravity is 1.053 SG (1.051 SG at 74 °F). Target was 1.046 SG.

11:50 Draining to the carboy.

12:09 Drained. Rocking to aerate.

12:14 Aerated.

Rogue Pacman Wyeast smack pack

My yeast is Wyeast 1764 Rogue Pacman with a manufacture date of July 9, 2012. According to Mr Malty, that implies 50% viability. I made a 2-quart starter a few days ago, which means I should have about 2/3 of the yeast I need. 🙁 I need to do these calculations earlier. I could have made a bigger starter or used more yeast packs. This isn’t going to be a very good yeast experiment. This is also the yeast that it took 8 days for FedEx to deliver to me, so who knows how stressed it was to start.

So here’s the plan. I need 226B cells. My starter has about 150B. I have 2 more smack packs that should each give me 50B cells for a total of 250B.

12:23 Pitched.

1:18 Everything is cleaned and put away. The fermentation temperature is not set yet. The fermentation temperature is set to 64±1 °F.

Sunday, October 7 Kegged. Final gravity 1.016 SG (1.017 SG at 48 °F).

(39) Sunday, August 5, 2012 Brew Day — Cascade Ruination

A family of turkeys

A family of turkeys
The neighborhood turkey family was out in force while I brewed today.

BVB Cascade Ruination

Selected Style and BJCP Guidelines

14B-India Pale Ale(IPA)-American IPA

Minimum OG: 1.056 SG Maximum OG: 1.075 SG
Minimum FG: 1.010 SG Maximum FG: 1.018 SG
Minimum IBU: 40 IBU Maximum IBU: 70 IBU
Minimum Color: 6.0 SRM Maximum Color: 15.0 SRM

Recipe Overview

Wort Volume Before Boil: 7.00 US gals Wort Volume After Boil: 6.00 US gals
Volume Transferred: 5.50 US gals Water Added To Fermenter: 0.00 US gals
Volume At Pitching: 5.50 US gals Volume Of Finished Beer: 5.00 US gals
Expected Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.060 SG Expected OG: 1.070 SG
Expected FG: 1.017 SG Apparent Attenuation: 75.0 %
Expected ABV: 7.1 % Expected ABW: 5.5 %
Expected IBU (using Rager): 157.5 IBU Expected Color (using Morey): 5.2 SRM
BU:GU ratio: 2.25
Mash Efficiency: 71.0 %
Boil Duration: 60.0 mins
Fermentation Temperature: 68 degF

Fermentables

Ingredient Amount % MCU When
US 2-Row Malt 15lb 0oz 93.8 % 4.5 In Mash/Steeped
US Caramel 10L Malt 1lb 0oz 6.2 % 1.7 In Mash/Steeped

Hops

Variety Alpha Amount IBU Form When
US Cascade 5.0 % 1.75 oz 11.0 Loose Pellet Hops First Wort Hopped
US Magnum 12.0 % 3.00 oz 145.2 Loose Pellet Hops 60 Min From End
US Cascade 5.0 % 0.25 oz 1.3 Loose Pellet Hops 15 Min From End
US Cascade 5.0 % 2.00 oz 0.0 Loose Pellet Hops Dry-Hopped

Other Ingredients

Ingredient Amount When
Irish Moss 0.10 oz In Boil
Yeast Nutrient 0.10 oz In Boil

Yeast

Wyeast 1056-American Ale

Water Profile

Target Profile: No Water Profile Chosen
Mash pH: 5.2
pH Adjusted with: Unadjusted

Total Calcium (ppm): 103 Total Magnesium (ppm): 17
Total Sodium (ppm): 34 Total Sulfate (ppm): 338
Total Chloride(ppm): 30 Total Bicarbonate (ppm): 36

Mash Schedule

Mash Type: Full Mash
Schedule Name: Single Step Infusion (65C/149F)

Step Type Temperature Duration
Rest at 149 degF 60

Recipe Notes

“Only low alpha fin­ish­ing hops should be used for [first wort hop­ping (FWH)], and the amount should be no less than 30% of the total amount of hops used in the boil. This FWH addi­tion there­fore should be taken from the hops intended for fin­ish­ing additions.” — John Palmer, How to Brew

This recipe calls for 5.75 total ounces of hops. 30% of that corresponds to 1.725 ounces. That would correspond to moving the entire 15 minute addition and a quarter ounce of the dry hops to the first wort.

Conveniently, hops come in bags containing whole ounces, so we actually have 4 ounces of Cascade to work with.

We will use 1.75 ounces at FWH and 0.25 ounces at 15 minutes.

Stone’s FG suggests the apparent attenuation will actually be 82.5%. Their ABV suggests something between 78-79%.

Step by Step

Today I’m doing a Stone inspired beer. I was going to do the BYO Ruination clone, but my LHBS didn’t have any centennial hops. I changed it up with cascades and I’m going to first wort hop to accentuate the flavor characteristics. I was going to build the water up to Mosher’s ideal pale ale profile, but I didn’t get out to the store to buy water, so I will just use my well water and not adjust.

9:26 Got a late start. Water is on to boil. Probably started around 9:00. The yeast is all from July 16. According to Mr Malty, that means I’ve got 83% viability. Since I’ve got 3 packs, that’s about 249B cells.

9:53 Kettle strike temperature is 172.6 °F. Transferring to the mash tun. Grain temperature is 77 °F.

10:00 Transferred. Mash tun strike temperature is 163.5 °F. Waiting for it to cool.

10:05 Strike temperature is 160.3 °F. Doughing in.

10:14 Initial mash temperature was 146 °F. Added two dippers of boiling water to raise it to 149.2 °F. Mashing.

11:14 Mash ended at 148.8 °F. Vorlauff and lauter. First wort hops are in the kettle. The gravity of the first runnings was 1.074 SG (1.066 SG at 111 °F).

11:26 Transferred. Kettle sparge water temperature was 170.5 °F. Sparge temperature was 155.5 °F. Collected just shy of 3.75 gallons.

11:33 Sparging. The gravity of the second runnings was 1.034 SG (1.020 SG at 134 °F). Collected 3 gallons. 6.75 total.

11:46 Flame on. The boil gravity was 1.052 SG (1.040 SG at 125 °F). Target was 1.060 SG. WTF? I only managed to get 58% efficiency!

12:30 I’m saying I’m at the boil. Waiting for hot break.

12:34 Break wasn’t as intense as I expected. Adding bittering hops.

1:19 Adding flavor hops, chiller, yeast nutrient, and Irish moss.

1:34 Flame out and chilling.

2:17 Chilled. Settling.

2:37 Draining. Original gravity volume was 5.75 gallons. Original gravity was 1.061 SG (1.060 SG at 73 °F).

3:37 Drained.

3:59 Aerated and pitched. In fermentation chamber at 68 °F.

4:39 Everything cleaned and put away.

Monday morning, August 6th When I woke up this morning, the entire airspace in the carboy was filled with what looked like Great Stuff™. By the time I was ready to go to work, it was coming out of the airlock. I affixed a blow off tube and tried to button up the fermentation chamber as well as I could. The wort was fermenting at 67 °F.

Wednesday evening, August 8th The fermentation has calmed down enough that I was able to replace the blow off tube with a normal airlock. I also took the opportunity to add the first ounce of dry hops.

Monday evening, August 13th I added the second ounce of dry hops.

Sunday morning, August 19th I moved the carboy into the fermentation fridge to crash the yeast.

Sunday morning, August 26th Kegged. Final gravity 1.007 SG (1.007 SG at 57 °F). The hydrometer sample was wonderful. Slight alcohol warmth. Subtle candy sweetness. Smooth bitterness. Dry finish. Carbonating to 2.3 volumes CO₂ (15 PSI at 50 °F).