Stout Brew Session

Just finished brewing the Newborn Stout. Total time was about 5-1/2 hours, not too bad for 11 gallons or so. I actually overshot the target og by about 8 points, meaning I got about 86% efficiency. Thats the best yet! Beer smells great, and is cooling down the last few degrees. My new modified immersion chiller got it down to about 68 deg in 25 minutes so I was happy with that. I'm going to aerate and pitch the yeast a little later tonight. Cheers!

Newborn Stout

So my wife is having our second child this coming friday, and has requested a stout as the next brew. Nothing like something light for the summer! Anyway, I'm brewing up 10.5 gallons tomorrow using this recipe, which I've been tweeking for the last few years. Hopefully, this one's a winner.
Newborn Stout
10.5 gallons, 80% efficiency
18 lbs. Marris Otter
1 lb. Chocolate Malt
1 lb. Crystal 60L
.5 lb Roasted Barley
.5 lb Black Malt
2.5 oz Challenger (7.5% AA) at 60 min.
1 oz. EKG (5% AA) at 2 min.
2 packets US-05
Mash at 152-153 for an hour. Collect 12 gallons of wort, boil for 60 minutes.
OG - 1.054

Beer Photos

Just wanted to post an update and a nice photo of the beer I'm drinking. I kegged the Pilsner IPA on May 18, and it is sitting in the basement conditioning. I cracked it open for a taste tonight. The IPA is in the small glass in the photo below. It is good, but not as bitter as I thought it would be. The hop flavor is citrusy as it should be with the Amarillo hops, but the aroma isn't what I thought either. I'm going to dry hop this to see if the aroma comes out a little more.

The beer on the right is the amber lager that I made earlier this year. Its the first lager I made, and I think its pretty good at this point. When I first started drinking it a few months ago, I was very skeptical, and the flavor was pretty bready. Not really my thing. But, it has really come around in the last few weeks and I'm going to miss it when it is gone, which will be soon. Cheers!

We have hops!

I decided I would try and grow some hops this year. I decided to try two varieties, centennial and cascade. I use a lot of centennial, so I thought that would be a good choice, and from what I read, cascades do well pretty much everywhere. I bought one rhizome of each from Midwest Homebrew Supplies, they arrived at the end of March. I put them in the fridge until I was ready to plant, which was on April 5. I got worried after 2 weeks with no sprouts, so I dug them up. There were buds on both, which meant patience on my part. No sweat. They both broke ground about May 7, the centennial with one bine and the cascade now with five. Check out the pics. The centennial is about 3 inches tall, the cascades are about 1 inch tall.

The Centennial

The Cascades

Hopefully I can get a few ounces of each this year. Cheers!

Imperial IPA

This is the recipe for the Imperial IPA I brewed on March 8. It is loosely based on a pale ale I regularly make.
6 gallons, est. og of 1.092 at 80% eff.
16 lbs. Pale 2-row
2 lbs. Crystal 60L
1/2 lb. Carapils
1.5 oz Nugget (12% AA) @ 60 min.
1.5 oz Centennial (8.6% AA) @ 30 min.
1 oz Amarillo (9.8% AA) @ 10 min.
1 oz Amarillo (9.8% AA) @ 2 min.
2 oz Amarillo (9.8% AA) Dry Hop
Nottingham Ale Yeast (1 pack)
Whirlfloc @ 15 min.
Est. SRM 14.7, IBU = 87

I now realize theres too much crystal malt in here. When I do it again, I'll probably add another pound of pale malt, use 1/2 lb. of crystal 60, and add in a few oz. of roasted barley for color. Cheers!

Bottling Sucks

Bottled my first batch in about 8 years today, an Imperial IPA that had been was brewed on March 8. Had about 3 gallons that had been dry hopped with Amarillo for the last 2 weeks. The flavor/aroma from the dry hopping is really great, and the beer tastes good as well. We'll see how it ages. I'll post the recipe here soon.
On another note, the Pilsner IPA I brewed last sunday is still bubbling away after 7 days. I'll probably check the gravity mid-week and maybe will keg next weekend. That one will also need some dry hopping with Amarillo, probably will just do it in the keg.
Cheers!

Pilsner IPA

I stopped by Kettle to Keg here in Pembroke, I had ordered 2 sacks of grain from him. Unfortunately, he was on vacation, and his fill in sold my sacks piecemeal to other folks before I could come pick them up. I stopped by yesterday and he told me the bad news. And, all he had left was pilsner malt. So, he gave me 10 lbs for free for my trouble, and re-ordered the sack of weyermans 2-row and marris otter for me. So, I am trying something completely new, and brewing an all-pilsner (almost) IPA. The recipe is shown below.
For 5.5 gallons, og of 1.064 at 80% efficiency.
10 # pilsner malt
1 # munich malt
0.5 # crystal 60 L
2 oz. roasted barley
0.5 oz Nugget at 60 min.
0.75 oz Centennial at 40 min.
0.75 oz Centennial at 20 min.
1 oz. Amarillo at 5 min.
1 oz. Amarillo at knockout
Fermentis US-56 dry yeast, 1 whirlfloc tablet at 15 min.
Est. SRM is 8.5, IBU=64
I've used this hop schedule before with success, including the Imperial IPA I made about 2 months ago which is aging (and dry hopping) in the basement.