First Brew In A Bag Attempt

When I brewed the Hefeweizen, I decided that I was going to try to do it as a Brew In A Bag(BIAB). I had seen several podcasts on the technique, but had never given it a try. I had purchased a couple of strainer bags from my LHBS, but hadn't given them a try yet. So, with a dirty mash tun, and me being lazy, I decided that today was the day. So first, I added 4 gallons of 60 degree water to my clean boilermaker. I then fired up my new Bayou Classic Burner, and brought the water up to the typical strike temp for a single infusion mash for the 9.5lbs of grain.

I then, with the assistance of my wonderful wife, put the grain into the straining bag. The bag was about 1.5' x 4'. In retrospect, I would have preferred a wider bag, as I the bag was too small to hold open on the sides of the boilermaker. Once the bag was in, my wife would hold the bag open, and I would stir the grist as I would if it were in my cooler mash tun. I kept the temp pretty steady at 154 degrees F for 60 minutes. I would stir the grist every ten minutes. Once an hour passed, I slowly pulled the bag up out of the wort, and slowly twisted it, trying to force as much of the wort back into the pot. I then set the ball of grain up onto a very strong strainer above the boilermaker.

I then heated up another couple of gallons of sparge water which I then poured slowly over the bag. Once it was all said and done, I had about 6.5 gallons of wort in the boilermaker, and had squeezed what I could out of the grist ball. If I do this again, I will definitely get me some nice Blichmann brewing gloves for squeezing the ball..... IT'S HOT!! From there its the standard boil process for your given style of beer. I boiled this one for about 75 minutes, enjoyed a home brew, got it into the fermenter, and inoculated it with some hungry yeast!

NB Irish Blonde Ale

This is the second beer that I will be serving at the upcoming KofC Pro-Life dinner. This beer was brewed with Brother Knight Carlos Rivas. This beer is going to be an interesting Guiness like beer without any toasted malt. A very toasty, and herbal beer that should mix well with the cajun New Orleans style meal that will be served.

Northern Brewer Irish Blonde

23-A Specialty Beer
Author: Michael Dawson
Date: 9/5/12

Size: 5.4 gal
Efficiency: 75.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 190.39 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.057 (1.026 - 1.120)
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Terminal Gravity: 1.014 (0.995 - 1.035)
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Color: 5.31 (1.0 - 50.0)
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Alcohol: 5.63% (2.5% - 14.5%)
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Bitterness: 32.8 (0.0 - 100.0)
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Ingredients:

9.75 lb (83.0%) English 2-row Pale - added during mash
1 lb (8.5%) Barley Flaked - added during mash
1 lb (8.5%) Oat Malt - added during mash
.75 oz (42.9%) Palisade™ (7.7%) - added during boil, boiled 60 m
1 oz (57.1%) Palisade™ (7.7%) - added during boil, boiled 15 m
2 ea WYeast 1084 Irish Ale™

Schedule:

Ambient Air: 70.0 °F
Source Water: 60.0 °F
Elevation: 0.0 m

00:03:00 Mash In - Single Infusion - Liquor: 4.0 gal; Strike: 163.56 °F; Target: 152 °F
00:03:00 Batch Sparge - Batch Sparge: 3.5 gal sparge @ 170 °F, 0.0 m; Total Runoff: 6.26 gal

Notes

Capped with a dense meringue of nose-dotting foam, this ale offers up suggestions of buttered toast, warm cereal, and a trace of fruity, herbal hops. A full body with thick mouthfeel, more buttered toast and fruity hops give way to a finish evenly split between malty and bitter. Flaked barley and oat malt build density and a viscous texture with supporting grain flavors.

Hefeweizen

This is the NB All grain Bavarian Hefeweizen recipe and setup. I typically use this as a good wheat base for my Blue Eyed Wheatie. This time however I'm going to serve this beer at a Pro-Life dinner. Should be a pretty tasty beer!

Northern Brewer Hefeweizen

15-A Weizen/Weissbier
Author: NB - Murrey
Date: 10/13/12

Size: 5.04 gal
Efficiency: 67.0%
Attenuation: 73%
Calories: 147.88 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.044 (1.044 - 1.052)
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Terminal Gravity: 1.012 (1.010 - 1.014)
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Color: 6.02 (2.0 - 8.0)
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Alcohol: 4.24% (4.3% - 5.6%)
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Bitterness: 16.7 (8.0 - 15.0)
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Ingredients:

5.5 lb (57.9%) Pale Wheat Malt - added during mash
4 lb (42.1%) Premium Pilsner Malt Extra Pale - added during mash
1 oz (100.0%) Tettnanger (4.5%) - added during boil, boiled 60 m
1.0 ea WYeast 3068 Weihenstephan Weizen™

This week at the Home Brewery

It's been a pretty eventful week for the home brewery. I was able to transfer both of the beers that I had in secondary into some kegs, and start the force carbonation process. It's going to be a busy week this week at our house, and I'm sure my wife is super happy to not have any fermenters on the kitchen island. Have I mentioned what a saint my wife is? On another note, I planted my hop rhizomes into a couple of very large containers. This years plan is to grow them from the containers and up about 20 feet to some connections off the south side gutters. It should make for some good looking decoration, and give the hops adequate space to grow. Coming up next will be an Irish Blonde Ale. Yes, a Guinness like beer, in a blonde. It should be interesting. I'm also going to be brewing up another batch of my Blue Eyed Wheatie. It's always a hit, and there's nothing better than a Blue Eyed Wheatie after a long hot summer day. Cheers!

Dunkelweizen moving to keg

It's finally time to move Bill and I's first collaborative brew to the serving kegs!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Tonight's Brew - My CDA

Andy's CDA (Black IPA)

23-A Specialty Beer
Author: Andrew Murrey
Date: 2/15/12

Size: 5.04 gal
Efficiency: 65%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 235.53 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.070 (1.026 - 1.120)
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Terminal Gravity: 1.018 (0.995 - 1.035)
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Color: 31.67 (1.0 - 50.0)
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Alcohol: 6.96% (2.5% - 14.5%)
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Bitterness: 31.6 (0.0 - 100.0)
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Ingredients:

12 lb 2-Row Brewers Malt
2 lb 2-Row Caramel Malt 60L
1 lb Victory® Malt
1 lb German Carafa III
1 oz Cascade (5.5%) - added during boil, boiled 60.0 m
1 oz Cascade (5.5%) - added during boil, boiled 10 m
1.0 oz Centennial (10.0%) - added during boil, boiled 2 m
1 oz Chinook (13.0%) - added during boil, boiled 0.0 m
1 ea White Labs WLP001 California Ale

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.5.21

Brew Update

Bill and I transferred our Dunkelweizen AG brew from primary to secondary last night.  There was a TON of flocculated out yeast, so the fear of too many dead yeast cells drove the desire to transfer a few days early.  We will let it sit in the secondary for another 3 weeks.  SG reading when going into the secondary was 1.025.  Hopefully in the next three weeks we can get down closer to our target of 1.011 - 1.014.

Looking to get into Homebrew

Groupon currently has a great deal online for Midwest Brewing Supplies.  For $64 you get a starter kit, a recipe, and a gift card for a second recipe.

Check it out

http://www.groupon.com/amarillo/deals/dc-ghd-mm-midwest-hydroponic?utm_medium=afl&utm_campaign=4534259&utm_source=rvs

Great Quick CDA Recipe - BIAB

In the last episode of Brewing TV Jake walked us through a really simple and probably very tasty 3 gallon BIAB for a CDA.  Today they posted the recipe on their blog site.  If you love CDA's and have been wanting to try out all grain brewing, but don't have the dough or space for the equipment, this is right up your alley.

You can find the recipe and instructions here:  http://www.northernbrewer.com/connect/2012/02/jakes-biab-cda/

You can subscribe to BrewingTV, put on by the fine folks at Northern Brewer on iTunes or here: http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewingtv/

Cheers!

What a Week of Brewing

Well a lot sure has happened in my brewing sphere this week.  First off, I took the Hefeweizen that I had fermenting the past 3 weeks, and racked it ontop of 6lbs of blueberry puree.  Yes, I know that it was supposed to be blackberry nectar this time around, but a dear friend of mine is moving to Virginia, and she hadn't gotten to try the Blue Eyed Wheatie.  For this particular batch, I doubled the amount of puree that I used.  I did this for a couple reasons.  First I wanted to add a bit more blueberry flavor to the beer.  The first batch I did only had 3lbs and you couldn't really taste the blueberry until the finish.  Second, I wanted to add more berry color to the beer.  I used all pale color base malts along with the wheat, so that it would help take more color from the berry in the finished product.  It is going to sit on the puree for about two weeks, and then I will rack it off to an empty keg, and let it age a week before putting it in the beer fridge, and carbing it up to 2.3 volumes.  The next thing that happened in my brewing this week was the introduction of a friend to the hobby.  He had always enjoyed drinking my beers, and was interested in seeing how it was done.  For our brew,  I chose to brew an All Grain Dunkelweizen from Northern Brewer.  I walked Bill through all of the steps of a Brew Day from Mashing In, Sparging, Boiling, Hops, Chilling, Pitching, and finally Sanitization, and all the work that goes into producing a quality brew.  At the end of the day, we spent a few hours outside on a 30 degree Indiana night, tossed back a few home brews, and checked our troubles at the door.  On the Dunkel, we had a decently successful mash.  For some reason I am only able to get about 60 percent efficiency out of my current cooler setup.  I think it may have something to do with the SS braid floating up into the mash, and I'm leaving some thick malty wort in the bottom of the 5 gal rectangular rubbermaid cooler.  I'm open to any thoughts on ways to get that number up.  I'd really like to get 70 percent efficiency.  On the next batch, I am going to ask for a finer crush from NB.  I'm interested in seeing if that would help make a difference.  Anyways, we ended up 5.25 gallons of sweet dark wheat wort in the fermenter, and pitched some Wyeast 3068 that I had harvested from the recently completed Hefeweizen that is now on the blueberries.  So, it's been a successful brew week.  

Cheers!

This week's evil plan!!! Muhuhahaha!

Ugh, it's been below freezing here or raining for what seams like two weeks. I'm ready to crash this Hefe, and put it into secondary with some blackberry puree. That's all well and good, and doesn't require any good weather to do, as its pretty much an all in the house job. I do however want to reuse the massive yeast cake that I have been nurturing for the past two months for one more rodeo. I have an excellent dunkelweizen ready to get mashed, and I want to use this large pitch of Wyeast 3638 as my primary fermenting microbe. I'm actually contemplating dumping the wort straight from the boil kettle, cooled of course, into the primary that this Hefe has been occupying for the past two weeks. Give the vessel a really good shake to bring the yeast back into solution, and then cap her off. Should be interesting.

Recipe for my Blackberry Wheat Nectar

Blackberry Nectar

20-A Fruit Beer
Author: Andrew Murrey

Size: 5.76 gal
Efficiency: 55%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 105.3 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.032 (1.026 - 1.120)
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Terminal Gravity: 1.008 (0.995 - 1.035)
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Color: 3.21 (1.0 - 50.0)
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Alcohol: 3.12% (2.5% - 14.5%)
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Bitterness: 14.6 (0.0 - 100.0)
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Ingredients:

5.5 lb Pale Wheat Malt
4 lb 2-Row Brewers Malt
1 oz Tettnanger (4.5%) - added during boil, boiled 60 m
1 ea WYeast 3638 Bavarian Wheat™
5 lb Blackberries (pureed) - added dry to secondary fermenter

Schedule:

Ambient Air: 70.0 °F
Source Water: 60.0 °F
Elevation: 0.0 m

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.5.19

Breaking in the Boilermaker