AHS Holiday Ale

Recipe:

1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain

0.50 lb White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain

0.03 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain

7.00 lb Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract

1.00 oz Cluster [7.00%] (60 min) Hops


45 min into boil Add 0.18 tsp Mace (Boil 15.0 min)

45 min into boil Add 0.38 tsp Nutmeg (Boil 15.0 min)

45 min into boil Add 1.75 tsp Cinnamon (Boil 15.0 min)

55 min into boil Add 1.00 oz Saaz [4.00%] (5 min)

Nottingham (Danstar #-)


10/2/10
I made recipe and had an OG of 1.054...  The fermentation started the next morning and was going strong...  Dry yeast seems to work the best for me...

10/9/10
I racked to secondary..  Tasted pretty good (hints of the spices and light in color).... Reading was 1.014 for a  5.24%.  Im leaving for two weeks in secondary....

10/24/10

Bottled

Alexander's Pinot Noir

9/26/10

I purchased this extract/concentrate back when I bought my equipment from Northern Brewer.  I decided to brew it today since I had some time on my hands.  I pretty much followed the can but added more sugar and cooked..

1 can of concentrate

5 1/4 cans of water 

6 cups of sugar (can said four but the % at five was like 21 even though it was warm... I decided this would probably be best)

I cooked to about 115-125 for like 30 minutes of more so that the sugar evenly dissolves... I am now letting the must cool down to room tempature so I can pitch the Lavin yeast I have...
OG 1.094

10/06/10

Racked to another container.. It actually tasted pretty good green but good...  I took a reading and it flew to the bottom (hydrometer didnt have enough space) must be at 1.000..... Looking at about 12.3%.. I thought this was going to be ruined because I didnt see any activity in my airlock....  I was wrong, must be a leak in my container.

11/7/10

racked and added potasium metaisulfite... tasted pretty dam good... 2 more weeks....

Petes Wicked Ale Clone recipe

I can never find this any longer so perhaps I can start brewing it some day..

Ingredients: (5 gallons)

• 8 oz 2-row Klages Malt
• 8 oz 60 Lovibond Crystal Malt
• 8 oz Special Roast Malt
• 4 oz Chocolate Malt
• 6.6 lbs Northwestern Gold Malt Extract (unhopped)
• 1.5 oz Brewer's Gold Pellets (bittering, 60 minute boil)
• 1 oz Brewer's Gold Pellets (last 10 minutes)
• Wyeast 1056 American Ale yeast
• 1/2 ounce Brewers Gold pellets (dry hopping)

Procedure:

Here is what I would suggest:

Add grains to a grain bag, steep in 2 Gal water at 155F for 45 mins to 1 hr, stirring occasionally. Remove grains, add extract and bring to a boi l.

Total boil time 75 mins.
-Boil for 15 mins, then add bittering hops.
-Continue for 50 mins, then add aroma hops (10 mins before knockoff)

Cool to pitching temp, pitch yeast (build a starter for the yeast)

Add dry hops after fermentation has completed, so the escaping gas will not carry your hop aroma out of the airlock. I would probably ferment in primary for a week, rack to secondary and add the dry hops after activity had subsided. Others have suggested using primary only, just wait till all fermentation activity has subsided.

AHS Chocolate Raspberry Stout

8/28/10

I purchased the Chocolate Raspberry Stout from AHS for a nice holiday stout this year.

Here is the recipe as follows:
Crushed Grains: (Added to 2.5 gallons of water to 155 then off heat and steeped for 25 minutes)
12 Oz Chocolate Malt
8 Oz Pale Malt
4 Oz Crystal 40L Malt
2 Oz Black Patent Malt
2 Oz Black Roasted Barley

Fermentables:
(Added after boil after the steep)
8 Oz Malto Dextrin
7 Lbs Amber Extract

Hops:

1 Oz Nugget (60 minutes after return to boil from frementable add)

Yeast:

White Labs London Ale (Liquid Yeast)

Extras:

1 Oz Belgian Coca Powder (Last 5 minutes of boil)
2 Oz Raspberry Flavoring (To be used at bottling)
BrewVint yeast Fuel (last 15 minutes of boil)

8/29/10

I pitched the yeast the night before and I had a OG of 1.060 ( I should have a FG of 1.0198 - 1.015.. The yeast is 67-75%)....  The next day not a bubble in my airlock or a bit of pressure at all..

8/30/10

I let it go till Monday, which by my instructions sent by AHS said that if no activity by now to stir.  I stirred and shook the fermentor like crazy at 7 AM (there were no signs of fermentation at all).  I also sent an email to AHS stating what has happended.  The spectacular customer service by AHS sent me a replacement yeast that afternoon.  I got home at around 7 PM and was delighted to see that the airlock was bubbling like crazy. I guess I will save the replacement yeast in the fridge and also when I order kits now I will order some dry yeast for the fridge for emergencies....

9/10/10

I racked to a secondary today the reading was 1.020 (seemed a little high to me but will have to check next week whe I bottle....

9/19/10

Getting ready to bottle the smell is great.  I will test the reading as soon as my bottles are out of the dishwasher.. Beer bottled FG is at 1.018...  For a Alcohol % of  5.24% Lets try it in three weeks

10/2/10

I tried after 2 weeks... Very harsh very green .... Maybe why they say to wait at least three weeks.....

10/9/10

I tried at three weeks a bottle half filled...  Which by the way let out alot more gas than a regular filled bottle.. It tasted alot better, but I think that if I leave for another week or two it is going to be great....  I have been noticing that in the bottle if you shine a light you can see like sugar/something floating on the top and with age this goes away.....

10/21/10

Ok I officially call this done now...  I tried last weekend and it was ok....  Tried today and it was outta site...  You gotta give this time to condition in the bottles...  I thought that I ruined this batch due to the long lag on the fermentation start....  looking good though...

Getting bottles ready for first batch

Ok it's only been a few days since I cooked up my first batch so I decided to get a jump on things. I read online that oxiclean  is pretty much the same thing as one step cleaner that a lot of home brewers use. I had a big bucket of the clorox version that is odorless so I decided to go ahead with it. I added 4 scoops to my cooler filled with water and 48 bottles fit pretty nice. I am gonna leave them in there for a few days then peel of the labels and rinse. I will also put the bottles in the dish washer for a rinse and heat cycle.  On bottling day I will rinse the bottles with sanitizer and go. 

Bottles soaking in oxiclean...

The bottle in the dishwasher for a rinse and heat cycle

Brewing Formulas

Here are a few formulas that are going to be useful for finding out some brewing values.


This will show me how much alcohol is in my beer the final reading should be ABV, but you need to know ABW first.

ABW = 76.08(OG-FG)/(1.775-OG)

ABV = ABW (FG/.794)


(Update: an easier method for figuring out alcohol percentage (OG-FG) X 131= AL%)


Here is a formula to figure out OG:


Determining the original gravity is a pretty straightforward process. Multiply the pounds of extract by 38 and then divide by the batch size. As an example, if you're using 6 pound of extract syrup in a 5-gallon batch, your gravity will be 6 x 38 / 5 = 46, or a specific gravity of 1.046.


To figure out the FG :


It's always easier when dealing with gravities to use "gravity points." That's the final two numbers of the hydrometer reading. A 1.052 OG would have 52 gravity points.

In simplest terms, subtract the attenuation percentage from the OG: 52 minus 75% = 13.

To find the attenuation percentage, just multiply the OG (in gravity points) times the expected percentage: 52 x .75 = 39, then just subtract the attenuated portion: 52 minus 39 = 13 or a final gravity of 1.013.

To find your apparent attenuation from your OG and FG numbers subtract the FG from the OG to get the amount attenuated, then divide that number by the OG. So if your OG was 1.052 and your Final Gravity was 1.013: 52 minus 13 = 39. 39 ÷ 52 = 75 or 75% apparent attenuation. A final gravity of 1.015 would be 71% attenuation (52 - 15 = 37; 37 ÷ 52 = 71)

Nut brown ale (First Beer Atempt)

Start 8/14/10

This is my first extract brew attempt. It is a recipe from Northern Brewer and was pretty easy to brew.  Here is a link to the kit online (  http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/nut-brown-ale-extract-kit-2.html ). It took about 2-3 hours to brew.  I used the dry Danstar Nottingham Ale Yeast and am fermenting in a hot garage in a tub of water that I switch out ice bottles in twice a day.

The fermentation started off pretty quick (the next morning) and I am monitioring the water tempature with an aquarium thermometer.  It is around 69-75.

The OG should be 1.044, but I got a reading of 1.050. This could have been due to not shaking the wort before the reading and first time using a hydrometer.

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Recipe: ( http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/beerkits/NutBrown.pdf )

SPECIALTY GRAIN

0.25 lbs Simpson’s Chocolate

0.25 lbs Dingemans Special B

0.25 lbs Dingemans Biscuit

0.25 lbs Briess Special Roast

FERMENTABLES

6 lbs Gold malt syrup

HOPS & FLAVORINGS

1 oz Fuggle (60 min)

Recipe Kit unpacked

Setup in Garage for acceptable tempature

In about a week I will update when I rack to a secondary......

8/17/10

Fermentation seems to be slowing down compared to how it was the day after..  Seeing bubbles every 20 seconds or so...  Have not seen the water tempature rise above 70..

8/22/10

I racked my ale into a better bottle.  The FG was at 1.014, which should give me an approximate alcohol percentage for (1.050 - 1.014) X 131 = 4.716 %

8/27/10

I bottled the beer with 2/3 cup (little more) that came with my kit....  The kit actually gave me a 5 oz package.  I made my own bottling bucket, which worked out great.. I used a spigot from Austin Brew supply and a white Home Depot bucket.  I wish I had a 1" hole saw, I used a 1 1/4" inch and it was a tad bit too big but It worked without leaking and since the sole purpose is for bottling I don't really care.  The batch was pretty much exactly 48 bottles.  I rinsed each bottle in Star San and filled with a bottle filler to the top, 12 bottles at a time then capped.  I plan to let them sit for 2 weeks and then taste one to see...

Concord Wine (First HomeBrew experience)

Started 7/23/10

Recipe:

2 cans of frozen concentrate per gallon of water (2.5 gallons of water 5 cans)
6.5 cups sugar
E118 Lavin wine yeast

Mix concentrate and water in pot to 115 and  add sugar stirring good to get dissolved...  Cook for 30 minutes and let cool to room tempature.  pitch yeast and rack in like 5-7 days... Then rack again in like 5-7 days... then rack in 10-14 days ( add sodium metabisulfite) and then again in like 10-14 days.... after this time you should be ready to bottle



Hello I am starting to blog my adventures in home brewing by adding entries along the way..  My first attempt is a wine made from supermarket products.  I  found the information all over the internet and especially followed a video on you tube which I will link to below.

For equipment I purchased 2 homedepot buckets (5 gallons white HPDE with lids), wine yeast from Austin brewing company (Lavin E-118) , bung, airlocks and tubing all purchased from Austin brewing company.

7/30/10

I racked to a new vessel . I am reusing my btf sanitizer will probably use a few more times till it gets cruddy. I tasted and it's drying out and it actually exceeded my expectations. I think that I will get an actual wine that I will enjoy. Surprised. When I do another batch I will use Alexander extract. Let you know in another 5.

8/6/10

10th day I have racked to another bucket( the original) I poured my self a huge glass of the wine that was left over from racking. I used a racking cane so about an inch of sediment was left. I tastes like a lite wine cooler. I think that it will be a light wine... I will need to invest in a hydrometer in the future. In two weeks will update again.

8/14/10

I racked after 2 weeks...  The wine has a slight carbonation, but is not bad.  I used champagne yeast and attribute that as the culprit for the carbonation situation.  I hope that another 2 weeks will maybe take away some of the carbonation.  I also added 1/4 tsp of sodium metabisulfite to kill any fermentation that is possibly still going and to preserve.

8/28/10

I finally bottled this wine into 2 carlo rossi bottle, a big bottle of wine, a decanter full and two huge glasses of wine.  I was surprised on how good the wine actually came out.  My wife loved the wine and stated that it was the best home brewed she has personally had.  I served to friends and got a bunch of compliments..  I will definitely make it again.