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- Nov 26, 2006
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I needed a break from the Lobuck competition and was somewhat aggitated about family type things. My girlfriend wants to spend time with me, but I can't because my alma mater is playing in a bowl game and I happen to have my priorities straight. I also have a 17 year old cousin living with me for the week because his father says he's a handful (but, in my experience, he's a great kid.. and I *know* the father's a ****tard). I haven't been sleeping well, been having messed up dreams lately. I woke up at 7am and the weather was nice. I decided today was the day to test my ESB recipe. And I decided my cousin should help and actually learn something about science rather than sit on his ass in front of the computer.
First of all... how to start a propane turkey fryer. Hey! That wasn't too hard. Cool. Then.. .damn. It went out. Relight.
Steeping the specialtry grains in three gallons of water. The 10L Crystal smelled slightly astringent and slightly bitter. Smelled pretty good. The temp was around 150. THen is started to climb toward 170. Meh. That's ok. It sat around 170 and I started to notice the smell going from bitter and grain-like to being really "bread-like". Hrmm.. I wonder if that's normal...
Then I brought it to a boil and looked at my thermometer. It read 200. Apparently, my 170 was probably actually 180 and that's why the crystal aroma went "soft".... I was leaching tannins out. Damn.
So I bring it to a boil, take it off the heat, add the LME (6lbs) and DME (3lbs). Add the 3/4oz of Target @60. Add 1oz Wilamette @ 30; get ready to add the ounce of whole Cascade... and realize I forgot to add the other 3 gallons of water. Wow do I feel dumb. So I left out the 3/4ths of the cascade that I hadn't tossed in yet and made a hop tea with a 2 minute boil and I added that. Hopefully that will help give me some hoppy aroma.
Starting to cool the wort... my homemade wort chiller didn't quite connect to the faucet, so I sat there, watching the wort cool for 25 minutes as water squirted across the kitchen. Eh.. just get some rags. It's ok. That stream shooting into the other room is just going to be there for another 20 minutes or so...
Then I siphon to the primary. Damnit. I don't have a siphon tube long enough or straight enough. I broke my racking cane while sanitizing it. So I wash my hands and arms and stick it into the wort to hold the flexible nylon tube down to the bottom and of course I'm sucking up whole hops left and right and I've seen 100 year olds that piss faster than that tube was going with hops stuck up inside it. I had to stop the siphon and restart it probably a dozen times to clear the hops. I gagged on some wort too, of course, when it came out of the tube faster than I was expecting. Now I know how my girlfriend feels.
But I got the aeration pump going and it seems to have worked pretty good. There's an inch of foam on top of the beer. It looks like krausen, but of course, there's no activity in the airlock yet.. I only pitched the yeast about an hour and a half ago.
My OG was 1.74 because I didn't add enough water, so I threw in another gallon to bring it down to 1.052 or so.
Wow! What a sticky mess of sugary water I made!
It tasted pretty good though. Very sweet and some good bitterness. I can't wait for the sweetness to ferment out. The recipe may be a winner.. but boy is it ever dark! Have to be more careful with the water next time.
So what's the verdict on using boiling water and doing your hops in that and then adding it to the wort later to increase utilization?
First of all... how to start a propane turkey fryer. Hey! That wasn't too hard. Cool. Then.. .damn. It went out. Relight.
Steeping the specialtry grains in three gallons of water. The 10L Crystal smelled slightly astringent and slightly bitter. Smelled pretty good. The temp was around 150. THen is started to climb toward 170. Meh. That's ok. It sat around 170 and I started to notice the smell going from bitter and grain-like to being really "bread-like". Hrmm.. I wonder if that's normal...
Then I brought it to a boil and looked at my thermometer. It read 200. Apparently, my 170 was probably actually 180 and that's why the crystal aroma went "soft".... I was leaching tannins out. Damn.
So I bring it to a boil, take it off the heat, add the LME (6lbs) and DME (3lbs). Add the 3/4oz of Target @60. Add 1oz Wilamette @ 30; get ready to add the ounce of whole Cascade... and realize I forgot to add the other 3 gallons of water. Wow do I feel dumb. So I left out the 3/4ths of the cascade that I hadn't tossed in yet and made a hop tea with a 2 minute boil and I added that. Hopefully that will help give me some hoppy aroma.
Starting to cool the wort... my homemade wort chiller didn't quite connect to the faucet, so I sat there, watching the wort cool for 25 minutes as water squirted across the kitchen. Eh.. just get some rags. It's ok. That stream shooting into the other room is just going to be there for another 20 minutes or so...
Then I siphon to the primary. Damnit. I don't have a siphon tube long enough or straight enough. I broke my racking cane while sanitizing it. So I wash my hands and arms and stick it into the wort to hold the flexible nylon tube down to the bottom and of course I'm sucking up whole hops left and right and I've seen 100 year olds that piss faster than that tube was going with hops stuck up inside it. I had to stop the siphon and restart it probably a dozen times to clear the hops. I gagged on some wort too, of course, when it came out of the tube faster than I was expecting. Now I know how my girlfriend feels.
But I got the aeration pump going and it seems to have worked pretty good. There's an inch of foam on top of the beer. It looks like krausen, but of course, there's no activity in the airlock yet.. I only pitched the yeast about an hour and a half ago.
My OG was 1.74 because I didn't add enough water, so I threw in another gallon to bring it down to 1.052 or so.
Wow! What a sticky mess of sugary water I made!
It tasted pretty good though. Very sweet and some good bitterness. I can't wait for the sweetness to ferment out. The recipe may be a winner.. but boy is it ever dark! Have to be more careful with the water next time.
So what's the verdict on using boiling water and doing your hops in that and then adding it to the wort later to increase utilization?