White house beer

two and a half weeks in the bottle and this beer is really starting to come around. It's carbonated to 1.9 vols and the carbonation is really starting to show up. I've entered it in a competition on Nov. 10 and I'm excited to hear what the judges say.

Im doing my first ever wait all night for wort to chill, so ill be pitching my first liquid yeast tommarow sometime.

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You should bring the temperature down as fast as possible. I believe that letting it cool on it's own can leave it prone to infection.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong

superfknmario said:

You should bring the temperature down as fast as possible. I believe that letting it cool on it's own can leave it prone to infection.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong

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This is true but plenty of people do "no chill" with success. If everything is sanitary there should be no problems.

I'm making both kits this week. I want to increase the IBUs of the honey ale a bit. My favorite beers are moderately hopped pale ales like Sierra Nevada pale ale and Bells Two Hearted. The kit ships with 2 oz of fuggles and Kent goldings hops. Could I add 2 oz of each instead of the 1.5 in the recipe? How much hoppier will that make it?

From above, it looks like the fuggles doesn't add much bitterness, but what about boiling them for longer?

Or what about boiling the goldings for 60 mins?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

I brewed the White House Honey ale two weeks ago. Nice kit from northern brewing. Last night I put it in the keg. My plan is to tap it election night.

Just tasted the first bottle of a white house honey porter brew and it tastes a tiny bit sour - Is this the taste of the beer or did I just mess up?

shouldnt be sour, what kind of yeast did you pitch

Danstar Nottingham Ale Yeast

sour like vinegar or kinda like tart green apples?

It was more vinegary than sweet. I could taste the base flavor of the beer but there was a definite almost vinegary feel to it

That's the same taste I get in my mouth when I think about the White House...

Sounds like you've got an infection of some sort.

How long has it been since you brewed it? How long has it been in bottles?

One of the intermediate compounds that yeast produce on the way from maltose to ethanol is acetaldehyde which is described as "cidery". Your beer may just need a little more time to let the yeast complete their work.

superfknmario said:

You should bring the temperature down as fast as possible. I believe that letting it cool on it's own can leave it prone to infection.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong

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I know this. 9 batches and ny first time not chilling. I bought a wyeast smacked it and i decided to wait till it was fully swelled.

Also people at one time used to not have chillers. I think I'll be okay this one time.

Seriously. No partisan, electoral politics and absolutely nothing about the upcoming presidential race. Thanks to those who hit the 'report' button on those who can't seem to resist.

I am going to brew this 11/1/12. I brew every Thursday and thought this would be a very topical brew plus I love porters. I was thinking of racking this onto my Wyeast 1028 which has my robust porter on it now. Thoughts?

mtnagel said:

I'm making both kits this week. I want to increase the IBUs of the honey ale a bit. My favorite beers are moderately hopped pale ales like Sierra Nevada pale ale and Bells Two Hearted. The kit ships with 2 oz of fuggles and Kent goldings hops. Could I add 2 oz of each instead of the 1.5 in the recipe? How much hoppier will that make it?

From above, it looks like the fuggles doesn't add much bitterness, but what about boiling them for longer?

Or what about boiling the goldings for 60 mins?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

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Can anyone help me? I'm brewing on weds so I'd love to hear some people's opinions before.

http://www.singingboysbrewing.com/White-House-Honey-Ale.html

Here's what I did for a projected 38 IBUs:

1 oz. East Kent Goldings hops (7% aa) - 60 minutes
1 oz. East Kent Goldings hops - 20 minutes
1 oz. Challenger hops (5% aa) - 5 minutes

Thanks for the info. Any particular reason you switched from the fuggle hops in the recipe to challenger hops?

A couple weeks into conditioning - the WH Honey Porter is really coming into its' own now... very tasty, warm, bready, with a hint of floral note from the honey.

Can't wait to brew the Honey Ale, using a much fresher local honey this time.

mtnagel said:

Thanks for the info. Any particular reason you switched from the fuggle hops in the recipe to challenger hops?

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Because I had didn't have any Fuggles in the freezer. I did have Kent Goldings and Challenger, whose heritage is English, so I thought it would be a reasonable substitution.

1.000 is not impossible. The finishing gravity takes into account the fact that alcohol weighs less than water so will make the gravity (relative density compared to water) "appear" to be with no sugar. HOWEVER, the amount of residual sugar and the amount of alcohol essentially cancel out.

Remember, the final gravity is NOT a measure of just sugar left, but rather the measure of the sugar water and alcohol mixture. Many wines and meads finish well below 1.000...like 0.990

back on topic...I'm shooting to brew this up with my girlfriend this weekend. Her first beer! And the honey is going in at flameout. ;-)

And Wyeast 1028 would be a great yeast for any porter. You would be severly overpitching, however. Could cause problems. Using a portion of what's left would be better.

my WH honey porter is a loss due to a wild yeast infection. dammit. it's the second batch that i've lost to the wild yeast. i was hoping it was a one-time thing and that bleach-bombing was going to solve my issues, but it appears the stuff is more widespread that previously thought. time to replace just about everything plastic and start over.

superfknmario said:

I plan on bottling in a week or two.

Anyway, I was just curious if anyone has any pics of the finished product?

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This was the first pour out of my keg. I didn't cold crash it, so I imagine that it will clear up some as it sits in the keg. It was suprisingly tasty, btw.

Sure it tastes good but cmon white house, when ya moving up to all grain?!

I finally cracked a honey ale open.
This is my very first batch, and I'm still learning to distinguish the different hops, notes, etc., but I'd say it's pretty tasty. The honey is very subtle until it starts to warm up. It doesn't take over, but definitely makes itself known. The ABV has to be higher than I calculated (5.7%). I'm positive I made some rookie mistakes with my hydrometer readings, and didn't top off enough before pitching the yeast. But, hey- if anything was going to go wrong on my first batch, I'd say I picked a good one. I'm relieved that I won't have to buy beer to serve election night after all!

Next up: Northern's Nut Brown Ale (in primary since Oct 20, and looking good) I'm definitely hooked on this beer brewing thang.

I'd just like to pop in and say how great it is to see all the people in here saying it was their first batch. Like a lot of people said early on, it was likely that this exposure to homebrewing was going to bring a lot of people to the hobby.

Welcome everyone!

rifraf said:

I'd just like to pop in and say how great it is to see all the people in here saying it was their first batch. Like a lot of people said early on, it was likely that this exposure to homebrewing was going to bring a lot of people to the hobby.

Welcome everyone!

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Let's hope it did. It would be awesome to have even more support in this community.

Hello. I don't know about the moss, sorry! I was hoping you might be able to help a newcomer out though since you've made this recipe before

I'm in the process of fermentation right now but am concerned that the recipe didn't list any gravity readings. I'm pretty new to brewing and have never done so without these guidelines. What was the gravity you bottled at? I followed other posters' advice about not needing to transfer into a second fermentation, so I'm now about 15 days out. I'm also concerned that we stopped seeing bubbles on the airlock within about 48 hours after the brew (they started about 20 hours after sealing the fermenter, but then stopped). Did this happen with yours as well? Thank you!!

RedSchorsch said:

That said, I just realized an issue that I didn't have in my first batch: I forgot to add a tsp of Irish Moss. I'm aware of what it does, but I don't know how it will affect the overall outcome of my beer after bottling? Will it just be a bit more murky when I pour it into my glass?

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At worst, yes, the beer will simply not be as clear. But even without it, if you let the beer condition long enough and chill in the fridge long enough, chances are you'll still have a pretty clear beer.

I just bottled this last night. A couple weeks left...can't wait!

JDPN said:

Hello. I don't know about the moss, sorry! I was hoping you might be able to help a newcomer out though since you've made this recipe before

I'm in the process of fermentation right now but am concerned that the recipe didn't list any gravity readings. I'm pretty new to brewing and have never done so without these guidelines. What was the gravity you bottled at? I followed other posters' advice about not needing to transfer into a second fermentation, so I'm now about 15 days out. I'm also concerned that we stopped seeing bubbles on the airlock within about 48 hours after the brew (they started about 20 hours after sealing the fermenter, but then stopped). Did this happen with yours as well? Thank you!!

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I'll start with the actual bubbling part of the fermentation, yeah mine did slow down on bubbling after about the first three days of active fermenting. You shouldn't need to be concerned about that, mine turned out fine.
Although, when I did the Honey Ale it was my second batch ever, so I didn't take a gravity reading. Sorry that I can't help you there, hopefully somebody else can.

JDPN said:

I'm in the process of fermentation right now but am concerned that the recipe didn't list any gravity readings. I'm pretty new to brewing and have never done so without these guidelines. What was the gravity you bottled at?

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JDPN, in general it helps to post your recipe when asking specific questions, but I'll assume you followed the Ale to the Chief recipe posted here, http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/09/01/ale-chief-white-house-beer-recipe.

Calculating the OG is pretty straightforward with extact recipes, you multiply the amount of gravity points per pound by the number of pounds of extract used. LME contributes about 36 gravity points per pound, DME about 40 points per pound, (source: http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter3-4.html). Honey is about 40 points per pound.

The math: (36 x 6.6) + (40 x 1) + (40 x 1 ) = about 318 points, divided by 5 gallons = 64 points per gallon, or 1.064.

Now to figure out your estimated FG, the yeast in the recipe is Danstar Windsor dry ale yeast which has an attenuation of about 75% (source: http://www.williamsbrewing.com/WINDSOR-ALE-DRY-YEAST-P829.aspx). The yeast's attenuation approximates the percentage of the fermentables the yeast are likely to consume.

FG = (1-Yeast attenuation) x OG | .25 x 64 = 16, or about 1.016. So, if your FG is stable and close to 1.016, you're good to go!

I hope this helps. I'd recommend reading the forum stickies, or the first few chapters of howtobrew.com for more info about the basics of brewing.

Pie_Man said:

JDPN, in general it helps to post your recipe when asking specific questions, but I'll assume you followed the Ale to the Chief recipe posted here, http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/09/01/ale-chief-white-house-beer-recipe.

Calculating the OG is pretty straightforward with extact recipes, you multiply the amount of gravity points per pound by the number of pounds of extract used. LME contributes about 36 gravity points per pound, DME about 40 points per pound, (source: http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter3-4.html). Honey is about 40 points per pound.

The math: (36 x 6.6) + (40 x 1) + (40 x 1 ) = about 318 points, divided by 5 gallons = 64 points per gallon, or 1.064.

Now to figure out your estimated FG, the yeast in the recipe is Danstar Windsor dry ale yeast which has an attenuation of about 75% (source: http://www.williamsbrewing.com/WINDSOR-ALE-DRY-YEAST-P829.aspx).

FG = (1-Yeast attenuation) x OG | .25 x 64 = 16, or about 1.016. So, if you FG is stable and close to 1.016, you're good to go!

I hope this helps. I'd recommend reading the forum stickies, or the first few chapters of howtobrew.com for more info about the basics of brewing.

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Nice job on the math Pie_Man...

I bolded one point that is very important to what he said.
Make sure your final gravity is stable. You can tell it is stable when you take a couple of readings a few days apart and there is no change.

If you take a reading today, and it is at 1.016, don't assume it is done until you take another reading on Sunday (for example), and that reading is also at 1.016. Even if both readings are a few points higher but still close to your expected FG (my extract batches seemed to frequently "stick" at 1.020), as long as there is no change, you are good to go.

Brewed this about 11 days ago... I'd intended to get it down a couple of weeks earlier but life got in the way. Is 11 days too soon to keg it tonight ahead of the election night?

fenners said:

Brewed this about 11 days ago... I'd intended to get it down a couple of weeks earlier but life got in the way. Is 11 days too soon to keg it tonight ahead of the election night?

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Has it stopped fermenting? If so you should be fine. It will just take longer to clear up in the keg. But I kegged mine after 2 weeks so I could force carb for election night. I usually set and forget carb but am breaking my rule for this beer.

Just loaded at 4.5 gallons of it into the keg and will take my first pour tonight.

Started at 1.062 and ended at 1.013-4... So still a little sugary at the end but it wasnt moving.

Ended up just leaving it in the primary for about 18 days. Will post a report back here after the first pull this evening.

I just opened by first bottle last night after only one week to carb. It tasted great, little under carbed but that'll fix itself. I wanted to drink a couple of these tonight.

My grandma also approves of it. That's always good.

I'm brewing this for the first time right now after voting today.. Plan to drink it on inauguration night. I'm so patriotic.

Just watched the video pretty cool. Great publicity.