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**Leeinwa** · 02-06-2010, 04:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gonoles10

Its cooking time...sitting at 150 now for at least an hour. I am already surprised at how much the mash smells like barley. Its a little different, but very similar. I've never used the brix scale before, am I converting right....8 brix equals 1.032?

You use brix but you just don't realize it. If you have a triple hydrometer it's one of the scales. Also called "balling". Brix is just % sugar. SG 1.032 is about 9% suger which will give you potential alcohol ABV of about 5-6 % at end of brew. I use the refractometer because it ony takes a couple of drops of wort and you don't have to read it in a tank.

**Leeinwa** · 02-06-2010, 04:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gonoles10

Good stuff! Am I doing my calculations correct with the honey? I'm trying to figure out how much honey to add to raise the gravity if I need to. 1 pound honey in one gallon of water equals 1.035? So, 5 pounds in ten gallons is half that, or 1.017?

Depends. First time around I'd add honey until you get to the SG you want and then log results in your brewing journal so you'll know in the future.

Gonoles10 · 02-06-2010, 04:40 PM

What can go wrong will go wrong. I just dropped my hydrometer on the concrete. Gonna have to go without it...and I'm not even drinking

**Leeinwa** · 02-07-2010, 02:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gonoles10

What can go wrong will go wrong. I just dropped my hydrometer on the concrete. Gonna have to go without it...and I'm not even drinking

That's alright. You were just excited about making the best tasting GF beer around. In a couple of weeks the hydrometer will just be a memory of the past.

Good liuck

Skol

Gonoles10 · 02-07-2010, 02:43 PM

Thanks for the help. Fermentation has begun. The wort tastes sugary sweet with a good hop bite. Something different in the background...I think it is kind of a "roasted" flavor. Frist impressions: It is going to be a good beer! Wort is a little darker than I'm used to (propably from the medium roast chips in there). It is pretty cloudy though I am sure much of it will settle out. (The wort in the fridge is already lightening up from some settling) Before the brew session, I was suprised at how sweet the chestnuts tasted. Interesting, I didn't expect the chestnuts to swell up as much as they did. They do abosrb alot of water as you said. They were rinsed well though and tasted just like spent "grains" at the end of the day. I put some wort in a jar in the fridge so I can test the gravity next week when I get a new hydrometer. The "clean up" is done (worst part) and I can enjoy my Sunday now. What? Cut down that dead tree in the back? No rest for the weary!

mattinboston · 02-07-2010, 02:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gonoles10

Thanks for the help. Fermentation has begun. The wort tastes sugary sweet with a good hop bite. Something different in the background...I think it is kind of a "roasted" flavor. Frist impressions: It is going to be a good beer! Wort is a little darker than I'm used to (propably from the medium roast chips in there). It is pretty cloudy though I am sure much of it will settle out. (The wort in the fridge is already lightening up from some settling) Before the brew session, I was suprised at how sweet the chestnuts tasted. Interesting, I didn't expect the chestnuts to swell up as much as they did. They do abosrb alot of water as you said. They were rinsed well though and tasted just like spent "grains" at the end of the day. I put some wort in a jar in the fridge so I can test the gravity next week when I get a new hydrometer. The "clean up" is done (worst part) and I can enjoy my Sunday now. What? Cut down that dead tree in the back? No rest for the weary!

Congrats! Let us know how it goes. I had similar impressions of the chestnuts the first time I brewed with them. It just all seems so similar to an all-grain process using traditional grains.

Glad to have you on board the chestnut GF train. Hopefully some others can get on board too and we can flush out some really good recipes!

Gonoles10 · 02-07-2010, 06:15 PM

Already thinking of making a porter next time. I think the nuts and roasted flavor would work well for it. I think we can do some good stuff here!

mattinboston · 02-08-2010, 07:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leeinwa

You use brix but you just don't realize it. If you have a triple hydrometer it's one of the scales. Also called "balling". Brix is just % sugar. SG 1.032 is about 9% suger which will give you potential alcohol ABV of about 5-6 % at end of brew. I use the refractometer because it ony takes a couple of drops of wort and you don't have to read it in a tank.

Lee - thanks for all of the info on here about your chestnut chips.

Do you have an estimate of degrees lovibond for the color of the levels of roastings you offer?

Specifically I'm trying to create a Schwarzbier recipe, but am not sure of the color I'm going to get out of the dark roasted chips (& how much I should use for my desired color).

My instinct to get a 25-ish SRM would be to use 3lbs dark and 2lbs medium chips with 4lbs corn sugar (eg 0 deg L), but it's a shot in the dark really. I'm toying with things in promash, but it's really a guess using a mix of chocolate and black patent for color subs of the chestnuts.

**Leeinwa** · 02-08-2010, 08:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mattinboston

Lee - thanks for all of the info on here about your chestnut chips.

Do you have an estimate of degrees lovibond for the color of the levels of roastings you offer?

Specifically I'm trying to create a Schwarzbier recipe, but am not sure of the color I'm going to get out of the dark roasted chips (& how much I should use for my desired color).

My instinct to get a 25-ish SRM would be to use 3lbs dark and 2lbs medium chips with 4lbs corn sugar (eg 0 deg L), but it's a shot in the dark really. I'm toying with things in promash, but it's really a guess using a mix of chocolate and black patent for color subs of the chestnuts.

I just went and out and got a bottle that I put up on 5/30/09. I used my dark roast chips with that. I have some 1" cordial glasses. It would have probably made 19-20 with the the scale using one of those, but its a little larger that the 1/2 dia. they reccomend. That's about as dark as I want to roast the chips without getting a burnt taste to them. The coffe substitute I make looks just like ground coffee. When you brew it, it looks as dark as coffee, which would probably be in the 25 range you are looking for. That's really a time comsumming roast process. It's roasted just about to the point of conbustabilty. It would be too costly to use as a color enhancer for beer. Burnt barley looks like really dark mouse turds but barley is out for GF.

One time I used some BIG coffee brewers and made a chestnut coffee to use instead of water for my wort liquid and added regular dark roast chip. I fermented that to 19.5% alcohol/19 % brix, and make a liqueur that has a nice full bodied taste with a nutty chocolate taste. One of my better creations. Deliciosos!

A chocolate concentrate with the cocoa butter removed might be the answer to your drakness. Many of the really dark brews I'v made had received the palate analysis of having a chocolate taste.

Hope this helps

DKershner · 02-08-2010, 08:41 PM

Can someone look over this?

http://brew.dkershner.com/2010/chestnut-brown/

I basically tried to surmise through what everyone has been saying what the yield and color of the chestnuts are, and then build a sort of English Brown recipe based off of what you guys have said it tasted like (chocolate, roasty).

Does it look good?