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!

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

New Project - Building a Stir Plate

I have a new homebrew project to occupy the next couple of weeks.

I am going to try my hand at building my own stir plate. I've seen nice commercial versions all over the web from $50 to over a $100 bucks depending on all of the bells and whistles that you have. I've started putting together my requirements, and what I think I need as far as a parts list. From looking over several posts in zymurgy, and a great walkthrough on www.donosborn.com, I think I should be able to do this pretty easily. So here it goes.

Requirements:
1.) Must be able to hold a 2 liter Erlmeyer flask.
2.) Must have an on/off switch
3.) Must have speed variability
4.) Must be aesthetically pleasing as possible.

Parts List:
1.) 6 Volt Power Supply - I think I have a few of these at the house.
2.) CPU Fan - I know I have at least ten of these!
3.) Wood Box w/ lid - I'm budgeting $10 for one of these at the local cigar shop
4.) Wire Quick Disconnects - $3 at Ace or Radio Shack
5.) 25 Ohm Potentiometer - $4 at Radio Shack
6.) 4 bolts
7.) 4 neoprene spacers - $1 at Radio Shack (So I can have room above the fan for the magnet)
8.) 4 neoprene washers - $1 at Radio Shack (Absorb vibration)
9.) Control knobs - $2 at Radio Shack
10.) Switch - $3 at Radio Shack (I want one I can mount nicely to the box)
11.) Rare Earth Magnet - I should be able to scavenge one from a dead hard drive at home.
12.) Stir Bar - $5 at Northern Brewer

So.  As I take this project on, I will take some photos, and put together a how-to blog post.  I hope to get it done by the end of November, and have it cranking away at building some great yeast populations by new years!

My Cascadian Dark Ale (Black IPA)

I placed this in Beer Tools as a Specialty Beer. I do believe that a BJCP category for CDA or Black IPA is in the works, or may have already been published.

Cascadian Dark Ale

23-A Specialty Beer
Author: Andrew Murrey

Size: 4.8 gal
Efficiency: 75.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 263.71 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.079 (1.026 - 1.120)
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Terminal Gravity: 1.020 (0.995 - 1.035)
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Color: 26.55 (1.0 - 50.0)
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Alcohol: 7.8% (2.5% - 14.5%)
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Bitterness: 110.5 (0.0 - 100.0)
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Ingredients:

11.5 lb Standard 2-Row
.5 lb 2-Row Caramel Malt 80L
.38 lb Carafa® TYPE III
.38 lb Chocolate Malt
1 lb Corn Sugar
1 oz Summit™ (17.0%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
1 oz Chinook (13.0%) - added during boil, boiled 15 min
1 oz Centennial (10.0%) - added during boil, boiled 10 min
1 oz Cascade (5.5%) - added during boil, boiled 5 min
1 oz Centennial (10.0%) - added during boil, boiled 0 min
1 oz Cascade (5.5%) - added dry to secondary fermenter
1 ea WYeast 1272 American Ale II™

Schedule:

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

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.5.17

It's Here!!

My first All Grain kit from Northern Brewer has arrived today!  I can't hold my excitement for much longer.  The only downside is that my job has me out of state until late Friday night!  I guess that means I need to finally get this mash tun kit put together that I bought from a fellow home brewer, and get ready hopefully for a Sunday brew session!

All for Brew, Brew for All!