NB Brickwarmer Holiday Red Ale

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msmith92

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2 weeks in primary. Final at 1.013.

OG=1.062

Into keg till Xmas.
Looking forward to it.
 
Let us know how it comes out. I've got a batch in the fermenter now that's a week behind yours.
Its gonna be my first kegged batch.
 
First taste is pretty good. It's been carbing since Saturday at 10psi. I think by the weekend it'll be better. Still a little sweet without the full carb. Nice caramel flavor with slight hop taste coming through. I don't get much orange taste but the aroma is there a little.
 
I just brewed this on Saturday and am excited to see how it turns out as well. I'm going to primary for 4 weeks and then bottle. I'm really glad I read the reviews on NB about using a blowoff tube as my first few days of fermentation have been crazy. Did either of you need one?
 
I did for sure!

4 weeks will be perfect. But I did reach FG in 2.5

Other notes ... The orange is there
 
Yup, pretty good brew! I made a batch up fo my Christmas party on Dec. 1. Both craft beer drinker and big box drinkers all liked this. I had 4 different kegs of beer plus several meads, so I had about 1/2 of the keg of Brickwarmer left after the party. It's tasting even better 3 weeks later.
 
I just ordered this kit and plan on brewing it on New Years Day. I will be using a 6 1/2 gallon fermentation bucket and was wondering if you guys would recommend a blow off hose. All the reviews I have read, recommend one. However, I have never used one and not quite sure what to do. Do I just attach a hose to my 3 piece airlock? Then put the hose into a bucket of sanitizer? Would I then need to change out the sanitizer after a week or so or could I just put on the traditional airlock once activity has slowed? Any help would be much appreciated.

:mug:
Cole
 
So I ended up making this kit and I have a blow hose hooked up but it doesn't appear I needed one. Brewed in a 6 gallon bucket last night and as of today the hose is bubbling about once every 10 seconds. Did I possibly do something wrong? Temp is at 63 degrees.
 
did you use liquid or dry yeast?

give it some time and check this evening. it might go crazy later?
 
msmith92 said:
did you use liquid or dry yeast?

give it some time and check this evening. it might go crazy later?

I used the 1028 Wyeast activator pack. As of this morning the temp was still at 63 degrees and it was bubbling like crazy. About once every second. Still no krausen coming out of the blow hose, but I'll take that as a good thing lol.
 
I brewed this on December 1st, in the secondary still...dry hopped with some zythos. Gonna bottle it up next week.

I used white labs 007 dry English yeast and it definitely needed that blowoff hose
 
Ynksfan27 said:
I used the 1028 Wyeast activator pack. As of this morning the temp was still at 63 degrees and it was bubbling like crazy. About once every second. Still no krausen coming out of the blow hose, but I'll take that as a good thing lol.

Yeah. I think you will be fine. 😊
 
I'm on day 5 and just changed to an airlock. Bubbles have slowed to about one every 7 seconds. Does this seem normal? Temp has been consistent at 63 degrees. Did you guys rack to secondary or keep it in primary the whole time?
 
I kept mine in the primary.

after a few weeks just do a gravity check.

When it stays steady for 3-4 days you should be good to go.

what was your og?
 
Og was 1.062. I usually rack to secondary after a week or so, but this may be the batch where I finally do away with secondary. Seems like more and more brewers are doing this as well. I will test the gravity after 7 days and see where I'm at.
 
I decided to just keep this in the primary as well. I'll be bottling it up this weekend. Ynksfan27, sounds like you're having a good fermentation. This brew seems to trend toward using a blowoff but don't worry that the krausen decided to remain calm in yours. Always better to be prepared!
 
I see that Northern Brewers calls this a strongish American Amber Ale. I'm looking at the BJCP guide and I wonder if the beer isn't more of a American Brown Ale? I'd like to enter this in a local competition, but unsure which catagory would be correct. What do you all think?
 
I'm going to be brewing this one soon. Will let it bottle condition til mid November. Should be phenomenal with a few months age on it, you think?
 
I'm going to be brewing this one soon. Will let it bottle condition til mid November. Should be phenomenal with a few months age on it, you think?

How did it turn out with some conditioning? I've got a batch of this in secondary right now.
 
I did the extract kit from NB. After 2.5 weeks I went from 1.067 to 1.013. I just transferred to a secondary on Tuesday. I will keg it Wednesday when I get home.

I did something a little different on this one. I put the orange peel in with the secondary. We will see how this turns out in a few weeks.
 
I thought about brewing this one last year, but ended up not doing it. This year I decided to go for it. It's been in the fermenter for a few weeks now. I'm going to bottle half, and keg the rest. Can't wait to try it!
 
Just brewed this kit yesterday. OG was 1.059, but I did not calibrate my hydrometer. Pitched yeast last night around 5:30PM. Fermentation going strong as of 11AM this morning.
 
Brewed this again on 11-29. Going to do 2 weeks Primary 1 week Secondary and Force Carb in Keg (4 days) then bottle from Keg for Xmas.
 
I brewed this, had some modifications tomthe malts since my shop didnt have marris otter, added morenorange peel and a full 2 oz of hopsminstead of the 1 3/4 oz. Needless to say its not the original beer by far, I hit 1.090 and dropped to1.020 when I racked to my secondary after a week or so, its oretty much an american strong ale now but the taste test when racking was really promising ill post again after my bottles are don conditioning
 
I brewed a 10 gallon AG batch on Nov 17th.

At 1.062, the recipe OG is right at that borderline of where you want to make a starter. If I was brewing 5 galls I definitely would have made a 1500ml starter (I use liquid smackpaks). That would have given me a really healthy cell count. Pretty much well over the minimum. By half :)

As it was, I decided to make a 2200ml starter for the 10 galls but the calcs showed that I was still just at the minimum. I had to go with it. The biggest flask I have is 2L and I didn't really have time to step on it again anyway.

I nailed the preboil gravity and vols and everything was textbook after that, so I was surprised to miss my OG by 4 points at 058. But I've learned not to stress these things (not really, but if I keep saying that...).

I always add fermcap into the fermenters now, for 2 reasons: (1) during aeration the foam in the carboy is controlled and (2) it suppresses blow-off during fermentation, This doesn't mean my fermentations don't blow-off - more do than don't - but they are just a bit better controlled.

Fermentation in 2 separate 6-1/2 gal carboys was, interestingly enough, not exactly the same. One blew out and I had to fit a blowoff tube. The other was very active but better behaved and got by with just an airlock. I figure there was just more/less something in the later part of the beer to drain from the BK. Not sure what.

The active part of the fermentation was short. Like 4 days.

The first finished at 1.0125, the second at 013. Tested after 5 days, and 10 and finally on Dec 10th - bottling day. Same every time. So, brew to bottle, primary only, in 24 days. I usually transfer to secondary and condition for 2-3 weeks, so this was a real quickie.

Taster from hydrometer tube was very nice. Orange is not prominent - in fact it was hard to pick it out, either by aroma or taste. Wonderful full body though. Can't wait to drink it.

I'll let them bottle condition till the 20th (10 days), but I have a feeling they won't peak till mid-Jan, but then they gotta go. We bottled 4-1/2 cases of 12 ouncers (yup, 108 bottles!), of which we reserved 12 for in-house. The rest we're slapping on our 2013 Christmas Card/Bottle Label on them and delivering to friends all over town. Will post a beauty shot of the bottle before they go.

Ho, Ho, Ho!!!
 
I brewed this one last year, put it in the keg and force carbed it, and was able to give it away as Christmas presents. Everyone loved it, and wanted more. The whole keg was gone in about 3 1/2 weeks. I highly recommend this.
 
Here's the label we're putting on our liquid Christmas Card this weekend (Thank you, Grogtag!):

UFM453-guest_turkey_necker5BE57988normal.jpg
 
Here's the label we're putting on our liquid Christmas Card this weekend (Thank you, Grogtag!):

Wow, very cool...what a great idea!

I brewed a 5 gallon batch of this last weekend its been sitting around 64-65. Cant wait to get this in bottles just after Christmas.

Cheers
 
Transfered to 2nd. Hydrometer read 1.012

Starting gravity read 1.062

Should give me 6.5%
 
FYI. I didn't need a blow off this time around. The krausen stayed just under the cap.

Tastes good so far 4 days in keg.
 
I tried a bottle yesterday. After 15 days bottle conditioning it's fantastic. I think the carbonation will settle in a little and the body will get a little fuller in another 10 days, but it was delicious, medium/full bodied, with a nice bit of hoppiness in the nose but not overly hoppy flavor. Beautiful deep red color - like dark brick (?) The ultimate test: SWMBO loved it.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

2013-12-26%2010.39.33.jpg
 
So we have just moved this to Secondary and we are thinking it could use a little more hop. IF we dry hop in the secondary for a few days what variety should we use?
 
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