had a great bottling/brew day

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BrewProject

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well yesterday was very successful if i do say so myself.

had a couple of friends come over to help me bottle up my cherry wheat and pumpkin ale. after the bottling we brewed a Double Chocolate Stout. All of this time we were drinking my first home brew, a John Bull American Beer...

so here's a couple of pictures...

Cherry Wheat, 4.0% ABV and 67.9% Attenuation. a little low, but it has the nicest cherry flavor and a slight red tint... This one is gonna be real popular.
dcam1745js3.jpg



next up was my pumpkin ale, 4.7% ABV and 74.1% Attenuation. Very nice subtle pumpkin flavoring with a nice amber/orange tint. One of my friends said this one was gonna be his favorite...
dcam1748vp1.jpg



and finally and this one is gonna be popular too. a double chocolate stout. and i was totally blown away when taking my OG on this one. The kit instructions said OG would be about 1.056. well i ordered the extra 1% ABV boost from AHBS and my OG was a huge 1.070. If the FG ends up at 1.013 like the kit says it should, this baby is gonna end up @ 7.4% ABV with 80.4 Attenuation !!! The taste on this was a nice roasted barley flavor. The chocolate on this kit does not go into the primary or secondary, but is added at bottling time. YUM YUM, can't wait...

Fermentation had begun when i checked on the airlock @ 2:00 PM today. 3 bubbles per second.

the kit ingredients:
dcam1754rt0.jpg


and the beer:
dcam1758ll2.jpg
 
Cregar said:
They look great... the cherry white looks delicious :)


thanks, and the cherry wheat is gonna be killer :rockin:

i suspect it won't last long with my friends around helping me bottle/brew :tank: :mug:
 
Wonderful! How the Cherry Wheat taste out of the bucket?

I wonder about attenuation when you add sugars such as that from puree. I wonder if some residual sugars are around and give you a false attenuation. I'd guess your attenuation was actually higher than that...
 
Exo said:
Wonderful! How the Cherry Wheat taste out of the bucket?

I wonder about attenuation when you add sugars such as that from puree. I wonder if some residual sugars are around and give you a false attenuation. I'd guess your attenuation was actually higher than that...

it was really nice, a very natural cherry flavor. not to overpowering or weak, just about perfect i would say...

i think your apricot hefe will come out wonderful too...

3 lbs of puree in the secondary seemed to be the right amount.

i used BeerSmith to determine the attenuation, so i really don't know. but i do know that after racking to the secondary my SG did drop from 1.018 to 1.014... :mug:

i really think anyone of my friends who tries the cherry wheat after it's carbonated is gonna request that one again... :tank:
 
The only that has me concerned is how rapidly my bubbling seems to stop.

My first brew was still bubbling after 1 week in the primary, however, brews 2, 3 and now 4 stopped bubbling the airlock after roughly 36-48 hours. With a huge OG of 1.070 I was kinda expecting a long period of fermentation.

I am more than certain fermentation is continuing as the SG continued to drop on batches 2 and 3, even after racking to the secondary, but it just kinda freaks me out a bit.

I read on here that some people actually open up thier primaries and used a santiized spoon to stir their beer... Either that or pick up their primary buckets and give them a little twist back and forth. Purpose being to get the yeast up and more active again.

Bubbling on my Double Chocolate Stout has apparently stopped after only 36 hours. Do you guys recommend me doing the swirl or twist technique?
 
What temperature is your primary at? My first few batches burned through and finished as quick as yours did. It came out great, so I'm not too worried too much about fermentation time.. I built myself a fermenter chiller
http://home.elp.rr.com/brewbeer/chiller/chiller.PDF#search="fermenter chiller"

and have a belgian abbey brewing that has been fermenting for over 2 weeks and it's still bubbling once every 6 - 12 seconds! (it fluxuates...) It still smells great though, but that one I'm keeping at 65 degrees, whereas my others I had at room temp (no ac, temp varied between 65 - 80). So I can definitely see first hand that temp is a factor. I think the yeast makes a difference too. My OG was pretty high as well..

Just some thoughts.
 
nobes341 said:
What temperature is your primary at? My first few batches burned through and finished as quick as yours did. It came out great, so I'm not too worried too much about fermentation time.. I built myself a fermenter chiller
http://home.elp.rr.com/brewbeer/chiller/chiller.PDF#search="fermenter chiller"

and have a belgian abbey brewing that has been fermenting for over 2 weeks and it's still bubbling once every 6 - 12 seconds! (it fluxuates...) It still smells great though, but that one I'm keeping at 65 degrees, whereas my others I had at room temp (no ac, temp varied between 65 - 80). So I can definitely see first hand that temp is a factor. I think the yeast makes a difference too. My OG was pretty high as well..

Just some thoughts.

well my fermentation chamber is the floor in a closet. temps right around 75. it might help me to get it lower, but without a chiller like you show, it's not gonna happen during the summer...

plus in my apartment i don't have room for the chiller. the SWMBO and I should be ready to purchase a home during the first half of next year, then i can have more home brewing room...

as far as yeast, all i have used thus far is dry yeast... may have to step up my quality of yeast in the future also...

thanks
 
nothing wrong with dry yeast.

A basement is a boon to the homebrewer. Perfect temps and lots of space. And you stay out of SWMBO way.
 
Exo said:
nothing wrong with dry yeast.

A basement is a boon to the homebrewer. Perfect temps and lots of space. And you stay out of SWMBO way.

Can't find any houses with basements in my part of Texas. :( :mad:
 
BrewProject said:
Can't find any houses with basements in my part of Texas. :( :mad:

Then you just might have to build an insulated brewshed on your new property. Heat/cool that sucka, feed it with power, water and a natural gas line, and you're two steps from a microbrewery.
 
Evan! said:
Then you just might have to build an insulated brewshed on your new property. Heat/cool that sucka, feed it with power, water and a natural gas line, and you're two steps from a microbrewery.

now that sounds like a plan...

SWMBO = She Who Must Be Obeyed... :D
 
SWMBO, that's a good one. Hmm...after I kept her up until 2am with the smell of hops and grain and the noise of dishwashing and lugging carboys around, I fully understand.
 
BrewProject said:
I read on here that some people actually open up thier primaries and used a santiized spoon to stir their beer... Either that or pick up their primary buckets and give them a little twist back and forth. Purpose being to get the yeast up and more active again.

Bubbling on my Double Chocolate Stout has apparently stopped after only 36 hours. Do you guys recommend me doing the swirl or twist technique?

can anyone comment on this?

should i swirl or twist my primary to mix up the yeast again?

thanks
 
I don't bother with doing that in the primary. And doing it in secondary only seems like it releases more of the CO2 that got suspended from all that fermenting.

BUT, Brewpastor says that if you give your secondary a few swirls you could possibly drop your FG by a point or two...
 
Exo said:
I don't bother with doing that in the primary. And doing it in secondary only seems like it releases more of the CO2 that got suspended from all that fermenting.

BUT, Brewpastor says that if you give your secondary a few swirls you could possibly drop your FG by a point or two...

thanks for the reply... i did go ahead and twisted the bucket by the handle before you replied. i twisted it for about 10 seconds... nothing radical just some twisting back and forth.

it bubbled for about 10 seconds and then just suspended the airlock with C02. the airlock is not laying down now, but it's not bubbling either.

i am tempted to take a gravity reading, since i find it hard to believe that my gravity has dropped from 1.070 so quickly.

i guess fermentation continues even if the airlock is not bubbling. at least that has been my experience in my secondary. or i haven't sat there for long enough to see a bubble.

my SG reading out of my primary every time has dropped anywhere from .005 to .007 when i measured during bottling. all that with no visible bubbles.

i think i am just excited about possibly having a 7%+ brew here and was quite shocked the bubbling stopped so soon...
 
The Happy Mug said:
Pardon me for butting in, but those fermentation chillers are BAD ASS. I'm holding a nice 60 degreesin a 78+ basement with one.

sounds pefect :mug:
 
just racked my Double Chocolate Stout. SG was @ 1.024, but with a OG of 1.070, I am at 6.0% ABV already...

once i racked it and put it back in the closet, i noticed the airlock was active again.... about 1 bubble every 30 seconds...

Here's bumping that ABV up another .5 % or maybe more... :rockin: :mug:

this kit was supposed to be a 5.0 % ABV, but I added the extra alcohol boost, so I have reached the promised 6.0%.

i am still a newbie, but my first three batches all increased another .5% - .7% while in the secondary.

WOOHOO, DC Stout :tank: :drunk:
 
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