What are you brewing next? ...official brewing log thread

[BeerSmith]

What are you brewing next??   

Here's the official thread to tell us what you are brewing next?  It would also be great if you follow up in a few weeks and let us all know how it turned out!

Cheers,
Brad

[UselessBrewing]

Light Beer! We will see how it turns out.
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BeerSmith Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Lite Beer
Brewer: Preston Brown
Asst Brewer: Brown_Beer.gif
Style: American Brown Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0) Lite Alcohol Beer

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.00 gal     
Boil Size: 6.34 gal
Estimated OG: 1.036 SG
Estimated Color: 10.5 SRM
Estimated IBU: 25.5 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount        Item                                      Type         % or IBU     
5 lbs 8.0 oz  Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM)            Grain        81.48 %       
12.0 oz       Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM)     Grain        11.11 %       
8.0 oz        Special Roast (50.0 SRM)                  Grain        7.41 %       
1.00 oz       Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %]  (60 min)    Hops         20.4 IBU     
0.50 oz       Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %]  (15 min)    Hops         5.1 IBU       
0 Pkgs        SafAle English Ale (DCL Yeast #S-04)      Yeast-Ale                 


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body
Total Grain Weight: 6.75 lb
----------------------------
Single Infusion, Medium Body
Step Time     Name               Description                         Step Temp     
60 min        Mash In            Add 8.44 qt of water at 169.2 F     154.0 F       
10 min        Mash Out           Add 4.73 qt of water at 198.1 F     168.0 F       

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Update:
If you are planning on brewing this beer, use less hops, do a full body mash and boil for 120 to bring out the carmels. The Hops were over the top for the style/body.

[Shakey_Dog]

On the 12th I am goin to do 4 beers.  Crazy I know

Saison
Brown
Raspberry wheat
IPA

[BeerSmith]

On the 12th I am goin to do 4 beers.  Crazy I know

How do you brew 4 beers in a day??  The best I can do is about 3-4 hours for an all grain if I'm really in a hurry, but 4 beers would be a 12 hour brew day!

Please share your secret!

Brad

[Shakey_Dog]

I have never done 4 before.

I do 2 all the time.  I am planning starting the first one around 6am and going as long as it takes.

Lots of punk music
Lots of Coffee (early)
Cigars
and a few beers

I should be fun

[BeerSmith]

Good luck!

  That sounds like a long brew day.  Let us know how this turns out!

Cheers,
Brad

[Andrewqld]

Oliver Cromwell Bitter this weekend, with some Challenger for bittering and Styrian Goldings at the end.

[Dr. Sideburns]

Doing my last extract: A Scottish Wee Heavy for my fiance. It will be her first brewing experience! After which hoping to switch over and try my hand at all grain. Unfortunately, brew day will have to wait until I drive back to CT on national homebrew day. Probably that monday . My EPA should be ready to drink then so the timing is perfect and Im stoked!

-Joe

[gtox]

Finished off my first Northwest pale ale last week, want to do a lager but worried about the temp getting to warm around here soon, so I am thinking a Blueberry or Raspberry Ale this weekend.

So far i have a White wheat, Helles, Pale Ale, Loving every minute of it, with the fine use of Beersmith software, brewing beer at home is fun, inexpensive and the ladies love it.

[Maine Homebrewer]

Same old same old.

Chinook has become an endangered hop so I'm using Challenger for bitter now, though I was able to score a pound of my beloved Kent Goldings.

Most of my recipes follow a similar pattern.

10-14 lbs pale, sometimes substituting Munich for 2-4 lbs of the base
.5 - 1 lb crystal or .25 - .5 lbs Belgian (Special 'B')

I try to mash between 145 and 150, then when the starches are converted I raise the mash to 170 or so by pulling out a portion, bringing it to a boil, and mixing it back in, and sparge with 200 degree water figuring it will cool down during the process.

Depending on the amount of grain and the starting volume (which decides the boil time, 60 to 90 minutes to bring it down to 5.5 gallons) I put in two to three .5 - 1 oz doses of a spicy bittering hop, then the .5 - 1 oz Goldings at 20 and 10.

I consistently get a crispy potent IPA with a nice balance of bitter, hop and malt.

Show me a microbrewer and I'll show you a former homebrewer, we all have dreams  .

[brewing-in-chandler]

I'm brewing two batches this Saturday, a Hefeweizen I intend to keg and an Imperial IPA I intend to bottle.  Here are the recipes:


Bavarian Weizen (Weissbier)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.00 gal     
Boil Size: 6.84 gal
Estimated OG: 1.050 SG
Estimated Color: 7.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 13.3 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.00 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount        Item                                      Type         % or IBU     
7.00 lb       Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM)                 Grain        63.64 %       
4.00 lb       Munich Malt (9.0 SRM)                     Grain        36.36 %       
0.50 oz       Hallertauer Hersbrucker [4.00 %]  (60 min)Hops         7.5 IBU       
0.50 oz       Hallertauer Hersbrucker [4.00 %]  (30 min)Hops         5.8 IBU       
1 Pkgs        Bavarian Wheat Yeast (Wyeast Labs #3056)  Yeast-Wheat               

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body
Total Grain Weight: 11.00 lb
----------------------------
Single Infusion, Light Body
Step Time     Name               Description                         Step Temp     
75 min        Mash In            Add 13.75 qt of water at 163.7 F    152.0 F       
10 min        Mash Out           Add 8.80 qt of water at 196.6 F     168.0 F   


Imperial IPA

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.00 gal     
Boil Size: 6.84 gal
Estimated OG: 1.091 SG
Estimated Color: 9.8 SRM
Estimated IBU: 109.6 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.00 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount        Item                                      Type         % or IBU     
17.50 lb      Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)            Grain        83.33 %       
2.00 lb       Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM)     Grain        9.52 %       
1.50 lb       Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)              Grain        7.14 %       
1.00 oz       Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %]  (90 min)   Hops         42.0 IBU     
1.00 oz       Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %]  (60 min)   Hops         39.3 IBU     
1.00 oz       Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %]  (20 min)   Hops         23.8 IBU     
1.00 oz       Ahtanum [6.00 %]  (7 min)                 Hops         4.5 IBU       
0.25 tsp      Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min)                Misc                       
1 Pkgs        American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056)          Yeast-Ale                 

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 21.00 lb
----------------------------
Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Step Time     Name               Description                         Step Temp     
60 min        Mash In            Add 31.50 qt of water at 167.3 F    154.0 F       
10 min        Mash Out           Decoct 9.52 qt of mash and boil it  168.0 F       


Can anyone suggest some recipe improvements?  I set my efficiency at 60% because I will be batch sparging to save some time instead of fly sparging as usual.  I haven't done two in one day before and am concerned about time.  Also, I am experimenting with some new equipment and expect that to drop my efficiency as well.  I'm doing a decoction mashout with the IPA because I don't think my cooler will hold the water needed for an infusion mashout.

[Maine Homebrewer]

All I can say is with grain amounts like what your recipes are calling for, and basing this on an estimated efficiency, you have the potential to run into some serious unpredictability.
Your Imperial IPA could have a higher OG than expected resulting in a stuck fermentation, or a lower intended OG resulting in more hop character than intended.
If I was you I'd experiment with the new method and get some numbers before going for broke.

[harebare]

...
Imperial IPA

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.00 gal     
Boil Size: 6.84 gal
Estimated OG: 1.091 SG
Estimated Color: 9.8 SRM
Estimated IBU: 109.6 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.00 %
...

Dude! Bro! Home(brew)y!

Seriously, that's some mean brew. I brew high octane ales (OG 1.080 +/- .002) but 1.091 sounds just crazy (in a nice way!)

A couple things I've learned about brewing higher gravity beers.

• Aerate the bejeezus out of your chilled wort. I have a medical grade air pump and regulator with an airstone.
• Pitch a little on the warm side of what the yeast likes and after you have a yeast riot on your hands, let it cool to your recommended temp range. (Example, I'll pitch at 82F and leave it that warm for 24 hrs then let it drop slowly to 68F.
• Step up your yeast twice or even three times before you pitch. I make starter with spray malt (more nutrients than corn sugar) and culture the yeast (I buy Whitelabs in tubes) in a growler (micro carboy) for two days feeding the little monsters once or twice along the way.

If you really do hit 9%+ ABV, you're going to want to let it mellow quite a bit before drinking. I'd say after primary fermentation (and if you aerate and pitch properly, you can rip through that syrup of a wort in 4 days or less) I'd airlock the nectar in a carboy and leave it in a dark corner for 3 monts or more before I even thought about bottling it. It mellows a lot better in bulk for some reason than it does in bottles. Also you can hold off on the dry hop until a few weeks before bottling and still get that fresh hop aroma in a finely aged ale.

On another note, I see you're using Tomahawk. That's what is in the clone brew recipe for Hop Rod Rye calls for. I've never seen or (therefor) brewed with this hop. Where did you get yours and do you have flowers or pellets?

Just my $.02 but I'd sure like to try this one.

- Hare

[brewing-in-chandler]

My OG worked out more or less as planned on the Imperial (1.090 at 75 degrees).  It was my first time using Columbus/Tomahawk, but I definitely liked the taste and smell.  My local homebrew shop (Brewer's Connection in Tempe, AZ) had plenty of pellets on hand, but they didn't have Ahtanum so I had to make a substitution.  After a long chat with the guy at the shop (apparently he went to Siebel, seemed knowledgeable), I was torn between Amarillo and Simcoe.  I ended up with Simcoe on his recommendation, which definitely changed a lot about the beer, but the wort was delicious.

Then I made a stupid mistake.  I accidentally pitched a pack of Wyeast 1968 instead of the 2000mL Wyeast 1056 starter I intended to use.     Don't ask me why I did it; I don't know, but it's probably just too many homebrews and me being absent-minded.  After reading about the 1968, I figured I should pitch the 1056 as well.  I had already aerated like crazy, and it started bubbling rapidly in the airlock within 2 hours.  I really hope my stupidity hasn't ruined the beer.

[harebare]

Then I made a stupid mistake. 

If I had a dime for every time I finished chilling and looked up on the window sill and saw the Irish moss sitting there, happily hydrating in a juice glass... (or any number of other "stupid mistakes.")

Your Imperial inspired me and yesterday I single handed a barley wine for one of my son's Xmas presents. I got to 1.102 with just grain although I boiled down to 4 gals. (A little barley wine goes a long way, right?) I plan to add dark candi sugar to it later per the recipe and I should hit 12% ABV easy.

I'm trying a new yeast (WLP099) which is supposed to be tolerant to 25%! I jumped it up for 24hrs in half gallon starter and sometime last night the little beasties had such a party that they blew through the airlock and made quite a mess. (Insted of the usual 6 gal plastic pail, I started this in a 6 gal carboy. I figured I had enough head space with only 4 gals of wort that I didn't need a blowoff hose. Stupid Mistake #162.) From the looks of it, I only lost 6 oz or so. It's still going wild but staying inside the primary.

I bittered with Tomahawk as well. (It's the hop called for in the Hop Rod Rye I'm trying to clone and in searching other Tomahawk recipes I found the base recipe I'm using for this BW.) I could only find pellets and I HATE pellets. Such a mess. I loved the flavor but I swear (AGAIN) I'll never put anything but flower hops in my beer again. It fouled up EVERYTHING. After a lot of f'ing around with filter bags, I got a clear, ruby red wort into the fermenter.

When it finishes the candi and calms down, I'll rack it off to a 5 gal carboy with french oak and put it in the wine/beer cellar until November. Then I'll dry hop it, throw a final clarifyer and bottle it with champagne yeast in time for Christmas. I go for a very low carbonation on barley wine. But after 5 months of cellaring, I don't trust the original yeast to do the job.