Brew Day 7.9.12 Janet’s Brown Clone Hoppy Amber
first brew in months
Going for a hoppy but balanced brown ale. Came across the Janet’ Brown recipe that seemed about what I was thinking. Inspired by Lagunita’s WTF.
http://hopville.com/recipe/1512616/american-brown-ale-recipes/janets-brown-clone
Getting started at 4:30. I’m going to drain in a cooler. I just can’t be bothered. I’ll run a little secondary batch sparge, put @ 1.5 additional gallons through the cooler.
4:50 – start filtering water into bucket
strike 170 f water, 7 gallons to 158 f 14.5 lbs of grain on a hot day
mash between 158 and 150 for 1 hour
mash out 5 min at 170 f
added 2 oz northern brewers hops 15 minutes prior to pulling the bag, same time as adding flame to get to mash out temp. It took @ 10 min to get to 170 f, so let that sit for 15 to get a 15 minute first wort mash, then pulled bag and added flame to get to boil.
start boil @ 7 pm
boiled over bad, lost maybe .5 to .8 gallons, around 10% of wort
boiled 55 minutes
cut flame and let sit for 5 minutes.
started cool down 60 minutes, 8 pm,
cool to touch at 8:30
yielded 5.5 gallons at 1.052
Just realized I forgot to get Chocolate Malt. No where near dark or roasty.
Let’s call it a Hoppy American Amber.
DIY Cooler Mash Tun
I bought a 48 quart cooler for 10 dollars to make a mash tun. I want to do a modified brew in a bag followed by a batch sparge in the cooler to milk a bit more sugar out. I have been getting efficiency in the low 60s and below. It seems wasteful, and I don’t like the spinning and squeezing. I just want drop the hot bag o grains in the cooler and drain off more sweet wort, maybe pour a gallon or 2 hot water in the cooler or maybe not, either way, I think I’ll be more satisfied with less fuss and mess. It’ll just take a bit of set up. Yes, this marks my decline into gear…
A few links:
http://homebrewhead.com/2009/06/09/how-to-build-a-mash-tun-for-cheap/
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Converting_a_cooler_to_a_mash_tun
how to put the valve and spout on http://releasethekrausen.wordpress.com/2012/06/04/the-birth-of-big-blue-how-to-build-a-diy-cooler-mash-tun/
http://jonflash.myweb.uga.edu/mashtun.html
http://www.mybrothersbrew.com/d-i-y-the-mash-tun/
Hops Update spring 2012
Spring came early this year. Goldings, Perle and Wilamette have several vigorous sprouts by the end of March.
The straw mulch got infested with grass and weeds. I pulled the mulch off and dug out quite a bit of grassroots, etc and then covered with newspaper and straw. It got cold, freeze, while the mounds were exposed. It appears there was no damage.
I put Cascade and Centennial in from Hopsdirect. They ship 2 rhyzomes per order. The Cascade have quite a bit of sprout already, Centennial had buds. I planted them vertically in big holes with Natures Helper and a manure + compost mix. I think they will do well.
The order now goes thus, moving away from the house:
Cascade
Golding
Perle
Willamette
Centenial
Brew Day 12.27.2011 Perle Crop
brewing with my crop of homegrown hops. mostly perle with a little willamette. Maybe 2 or 3 ounces total. going for a light american ale with flora, herbal hops.
| % | LB | OZ | MALT OR FERMENTABLE | PPG | °L |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 92% | 12 | 0 | American Two-row Pale | 37 | 2 |
| 4% | 0 | 8 | Crystal 45 | 34 | 45 |
| 4% | 0 | 8 | Victory Malt | 34 | 25 |
| 13 | 0 |
|
with 5.7 Gal of OG 1.045
when to harvest hops
They should be a yellowish green to light green and should feel light and dry, if they are ready to be picked. You can also compress some of the hop cones in your hands. If they stay compressed, they are still not ready. The lupulin, which is the yellow powder in the center of the cone, should make your hands feel sticky, and if your hops are ready, your hands will take up the aroma from the lupulin. If the hops are not yet ready to be harvested, the cones will appear too green and will feel damp in your hand >> http://www.americanbrewmaster.com/?cPath=4_32_141j
//
the stem will crack and should not be flexable when ready
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f92/should-i-havest-now-atlanta-ga-257432/
//
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/when-time-harvest-hops-14322/
//
hops year 2 growth and planthoppers
the perl is growing vigorously, williamette ok and goldings minimally – barely grew at all.
i think i have planthoppers Metcalfa pruinosa
brew log blondy
see http://hopville.com/recipe/711822/blonde-ale-recipes/blondy
7 gallon mash in at 157, for 150 degree mash
4pm start mash @ 150.
4:20 flame on to 150
5:10 mash out at 169 for 10 min.
bottle bucket sparge for 5 or so min with 2.5 gallons water @155.
8 gallons to boil at 5:45
Put 6.2 gallons in fermenter @ 1.062 — poor efficiency again.
ended a week later at 1.010
Hops Trellis Up
May 30 got a simple hop trellis up. Vines are just above the level of the fence on 2.
Brew Log blog 