White house beer

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I agree with giving it more time to see what you are dealing with. It's probably yeast rafts that will eventually fall back into beer or stay floating. If you notice a white film or pellicle forming a layer on top of your beer it is most infection. Even so don't worry your beer is not destroyed, still bottle and drink its perfectly safe. Nothing that lives in beer can harm you. Good luck!
 
Here's what yeast rafts look like. Is this basically what you're seeing?

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I tried a White House Honey Porter tonight after work. It tastes good. It's malty and sweet and very clear and pretty. I brewed it on October 7, added the honey at flameout, and left it in the primary the whole time since I was away for a while. I bottled it on October 26. I live in the mountains and we got a snowstorm the 29th and lost power for a week (thanks alot, Sandy). I wasn't sure it would carbonate because it cooled significantly, but it seems fine. I expect it will be really good by inauguration time (if there's any left).:mug:My OG was 1.055, FG 1.006, making it 6.4% ABV.
 
Tapped mine on tuesday(3 weeks from brewday) and I do have to say that it was still a little green. Tried some more last night and most of the harshness is gone. Thinking that by sunday it will be pretty ideal. Looking forward to it.

MtnHiBrewin, yours finished much lower than mine, Started at 1.062 and finished at 1.013.
 
casey914, your OG and FG were both higher. You may have more unfermentable dextrins than me (better for body and head retention). Our ABV is the same, though, at 6.4%.
 
Wondering how my WH Honey Ale is going to turn out...

I added 1/2 lb of honey at flameout. OG was 1.062. Primary for 12 days.

Added 1/2 lb of honey in secondary. Secondary for 14 days.

FG was 1.022 when I bottled. (It was only my second batch and didn't think much of it at the time since it was a different style than my first beer. I figured it was done fermenting after almost a month.)

Will my beer be OK?

Q: What is the consequence of bottling at a high FG?
 
Wondering how my WH Honey Ale is going to turn out...

I added 1/2 lb of honey at flameout. OG was 1.062. Primary for 12 days.

Added 1/2 lb of honey in secondary. Secondary for 14 days.

FG was 1.022 when I bottled. (It was only my second batch and didn't think much of it at the time since it was a different style than my first beer. I figured it was done fermenting after almost a month.)

Will my beer be OK?

Q: What is the consequence of bottling at a high FG?


If the FG is high but fermentation is complete, then the consequence is you will have a beer with a heavier mouthfeel and more perceived sweetness.

If the FG is high and fermentation is incomplete, you may have exploding bottles, as the fermentation completes inside your bottles.

Since you added honey in the secondary, it could be that your fermentation is incomplete, but there's no way to know for sure now. If you are ever unsure whether fermentation is complete, you can check your gravity for a few days in row - if the gravity is steady, doesn't go down, then you know fermentation is done and its safe to bottle. If gravity decreases over those few days, the you know fermentation is still active and you need to wait to bottle.

For now, you can keep the bottles in a case inside a plastic trash bag, incase you get any bottle bombs.
 
If the FG is high but fermentation is complete, then the consequence is you will have a beer with a heavier mouthfeel and more perceived sweetness.

If the FG is high and fermentation is incomplete, you may have exploding bottles, as the fermentation completes inside your bottles.

Since you added honey in the secondary, it could be that your fermentation is incomplete, but there's no way to know for sure now. If you are ever unsure whether fermentation is complete, you can check your gravity for a few days in row - if the gravity is steady, doesn't go down, then you know fermentation is done and its safe to bottle. If gravity decreases over those few days, the you know fermentation is still active and you need to wait to bottle.

For now, you can keep the bottles in a case inside a plastic trash bag, incase you get any bottle bombs.


I opened one last night (after seven days of bottling) and was okay. Not fully carbonated, still pretty green.

Will there be any signs to look for if fermentation is not complete? (besides exploding bottles.) like over carbonation? beer gushing out of opened bottled?
 
I opened one last night (after seven days of bottling) and was okay. Not fully carbonated, still pretty green.

Will there be any signs to look for if fermentation is not complete? (besides exploding bottles.) like over carbonation? beer gushing out of opened bottled?

Yes, the bottles will be overcarbonated before they explode. If you find that, you can open the bottles, let some pressure escape, then recap.
 
Kicked the keg! I will have to make another batch of Honey Porter with fresher honey this time.
 
Finally bottled the Honey Ale today. Here's the story:

Brew day: 10/21
Bottling day: 11/11
OG: 1.070
FG: 1.015
ABV: 7.2%

OG was a little higher than others because I had an extra 1.15 oz. of DME laying around that I wanted to use up. Did three weeks in the primary, then straight to bottle. Honey flavors are noticeable, but balanced. Still green obviously, but can't wait to see how this matures in the next 10 weeks. That should be plenty of time before inauguration day. :)

Cheers! :mug:

_______________________________________
Primary: Ex-Pat 1800 English IPA (try #2)
Secondary: Nae Foolish Wee Heavy
Bottled: Belgian Honey Wit, White House Honey Ale, Devil's Milk
Drinking: India Black Ale, Nefarious Blonde, Pumpkin Spice Porter, Ex-Pat 1800 English IPA,
 
OG was a little higher than others because I had an extra 1.15 oz. of DME laying around that I wanted to use up.
1.15 oz of DME would add about 0.001 to a 5 gallon batch, so unless you brewed a much smaller batch the reason for your high OG lies elsewhere.

did you mean pound instead of oz?
 
1.15 oz of DME would add about 0.001 to a 5 gallon batch, so unless you brewed a much smaller batch the reason for your high OG lies elsewhere.

did you mean pound instead of oz?

No, it was 1.15 oz. But now that you point it out, it seems obvious that that small of an amount wouldn't raise it to 70. D'oh! That's my noobiness talking. :D

Possibility 1: I do partial boils (starting with 2.5 gal. for steeping grains), and then top up in the primary to get to 5 gallons. Do partial boils affect it?

Possibility 2: I usually take the reading, prior to pitching yeast, directly in the primary (until last week, when I got a beer thief and can properly utilize the hydrometer test jar). The wort at this point is usually between 70-75 degrees, so failing to adjust for this temperature could be the cause. Would this be a likely candidate?

The only other thing I can think of is that I used White Labs 005 instead of Windsor yeast, and used crystal 40L where they call for "amber crystal malt" (which I found out later supposedly means 60L), but I can't see how these would be it.

Thanks! Cheers
 
Just wanted to let I guys know that my version came out great. The only big difference was that I added another lb of honey after one week. The beer tastes a little sweet, but very good and quite strong! Great stuff!
 
Possibility 1: I do partial boils (starting with 2.5 gal. for steeping grains), and then top up in the primary to get to 5 gallons. Do partial boils affect it?

Possibility 2: I usually take the reading, prior to pitching yeast, directly in the primary (until last week, when I got a beer thief and can properly utilize the hydrometer test jar). The wort at this point is usually between 70-75 degrees, so failing to adjust for this temperature could be the cause. Would this be a likely candidate?
possibility #1 is your most likely explanation. when doing a partial boil and then topping up, it is difficult to get the sweet sugar-water and the plain water to mix properly. getting a higher than expected gravity reading is quite common because you pull for the denser, sugar-ier water (Revvy has a good post to this effect, maybe he'll swoop in with the goods).

if you are using extract, it's really really hard to miss your numbers. X amount of extract + Y amount of water will always yield Z gravity. you can change Z by length of boil (i.e. removing water) and a few other little tweaks, but you can bank on being within 2-3 points of expected OG. crystal malts are pretty dependable too, you're just soaking out the sugars.
 
Looking to brew a ten gallon batch of this for x-mas time. When should I get started? Mind you, I am still new to All Grain and have only brewed a few IPA's but I had a bottle of this from my buddy's extract Northern Brewer kit... Delicious.
 
Hi All,

I will be making the White House Honey Ale as an all grain soon, but I can't really get Amber malt where I am (Japan). I am having some biscuit malt sent from the states soon, so I have that covered, but I was hoping to use ingredients that I can buy here for the rest of it.

The original recipe (extract) is:

INGREDIENTS
2 (3.3 lb) cans light malt extract
1 lb light dried malt extract
12 oz crushed amber crystal malt
8 oz Biscuit Malt
1 lb White House Honey
1 ½ oz Kent Goldings Hop Pellets
1 ½ oz Fuggles Hop pellets
2 tsp gypsum
1 pkg Windsor dry ale yeast
¾ cup corn sugar for priming

But the Northern Brewer extract kit comes with:

SPECIALTY GRAIN
- 0.75 lbs English Medium Crystal Malt (according to their website this is 50-60° L)
- 0.5 lbs Belgian Biscuit Mal

So my problem is that I can't get "English Medium Crystal Malt" nor "amber crystal malt" here.

I can get Crystal 15/40/60 though. Some people have said that the best sub for Amber is biscuit/victory, but since the recipe calls for that already I think using it would make a fairly one dimensional beer.

I am currently just planning on using crystal 40° or 60° but I wanted to see what other people thought before making the decision.

Here is what I am thinking right now:

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name
2.00 tsp Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 45.0 mins)
3.40 kg Maris Otter (Crisp) (7.9 EBC)
0.34 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (118.2 EBC)
0.23 kg Biscuit Malt (45.3 EBC)
42.0 g Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 45.0
42.0 g Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 1.0 min
1.0 pkg SafAle English Ale (DCL/Fermentis #S-04)
0.45 kg Honey



Any ideas?

For reference the only kinds of grain I can get are:

2-row
Pilsner
Munich Malt
Vienna Malt
Maris Otter Pale Malt (this is my standard base malt)
Crisp Malting Pale Ale Malt
Wheat Malt
WEYERMANN Smoked Malt
Crystal 15/40/60/75/150
CaraRed
Munton's Chocolate Malt
Black Malt
Roasted Barley
Flaked Barley
Flaked Oats
Flaked Rye
Rice Hulls

This is a complete list. Every single recipe I make has to use these grains exclusively, unless I want to pay to have it shipped internationally. :(
 
I was thinking of trying:

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 5.70 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.20 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.065 SG
Estimated Color: 10.5 SRM
Estimated IBU: 36.4 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 72.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
11 lbs 1.2 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 88.7 %
13.5 oz Crystal Malt - 60L (Thomas Fawcett) (60. Grain 2 6.8 %
9.0 oz Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 3 4.5 %
1.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 45.0 Hop 4 24.5 IBUs
1.50 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 5 11.9 IBUs
1.00 lb Honey (Boil 5.0 mins) Other 6 -
1.0 pkg Windsor Yeast (Lallemand #-) [23.66 ml] Yeast 7 -


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body, No Mash Out
Total Grain Weight: 12 lbs 7.7 oz
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 15.60 qt of water at 168.6 F 150.0 F 75 min

Sparge: Fly sparge with 3.30 gal water at 168.0 F


However i felt the recipe kit i tried out from NB needed more of a honey character added to it. It was present, just not as distinct as i would like. So next time around i think i might add in an extra 8-10oz of Honey Malt.
 
I was thinking of brewing a batch of the White House Honey Ale in the next 2-3 weeks so that it will be ready for my birthday in January, I was just wondering if anyone has brewed a batch yet and what they thought of it.
 
Brewed some up, and we happily drank it on election night. It's not bad at all.. everybody who tried it seemed to have loved it. Personally i think it needed a tiny bit more of a honey taste to it, as it's barely noticeable. Perhaps adding a little Honey malt to it, might give it that extra umph it needs.
 
Hi all,

I brewed a 1 Gal batch of NB's White House Honey Ale last Saturday.

I didn't have a Hydrometer at the time to measure OG, but I just got ahold of one today. I checked NB's site as well as this site which give me a general estimate of OG 1.062, and today while checking the gravity it came out to ~1.022.

Question is, most of the top layer of foam is gone from my fermentor and the airlock doesn't bubble - the inner cap is to the roof.

Getting a little worried, although I'm starting to wonder if it's my temp that's messing with everything. The house is at 62 degrees, and I have the fermentor in a dark closet wrapped in a blanket - does it need to be higher? And if I increase the temp, will the yeast reactivate or do I need torepitch?
 
You are at about 65% apparent attenuation which is a little low, but may not be unreasonable. It might depend on which yeast you used (the dry Danstar Windsor or the Wyeast 1332). Yes, 62 is a little low for that yeast, but better to be on the lower side than higher side. I'm a little surprised at the advice in the NB instructions. Normally they are pretty good, but advising that it's OK to pitch once the wort gets to 78F is asking for some off flavors. I wonder if they got this recipe straight from the White House brewer :) - I'd also say skip the secondary too (give it a couple of weeks more in the primary once you're sure you've reached FG for the yeast to clean up). And their time based advice is a little misguided. Now that you have a hydrometer, use it to your advantage to let you know when things are done (sounds like that's what you are already starting to do).

If you wanted to try to eek out a couple more points you could warm the yeast to see if they will reactivate. Since we're only talking about a couple of points it might make sense to check the calibration on your new hydrometer. Testing in distilled water is best, but tapwater is OK too.
 
I would love to be able to get Honey Malt here. I mean yeah, I could have it shipped from the U.S. But that would significantly raise my per glass price. For this beer I am willing to pay for the biscuit as I have no choice if I want to try out what the White House is making. But normally I only use the grains I can buy without paying international shipping.

But it looks like your recipe is pretty close to mine otherwise. So It seems I am at least on the right track.
 
Awesome, this is great info. Also, I used the dry yeast - when is the usual optimal temperature to pitch the yeast?

I'm going to check the calibration of my Hydrometer, which is something I should have done.
 
Brewed some up, and we happily drank it on election night. It's not bad at all.. everybody who tried it seemed to have loved it. Personally i think it needed a tiny bit more of a honey taste to it, as it's barely noticeable. Perhaps adding a little Honey malt to it, might give it that extra umph it needs.

Well my buddy and I will probably brew a batch here in the next 2 weeks, I will keep in mind that it may need more honey malt, I personally would want the honey flavor to pop out almost as much as the ale taste.

I didn't want to scour through that whole huge thread on the topic to read past all sorts of political posts and videos, I just wanted to hear someone's reaction to how it tastes.
 
azntaiji said:
Awesome, this is great info. Also, I used the dry yeast - when is the usual optimal temperature to pitch the yeast?

I'm going to check the calibration of my Hydrometer, which is something I should have done.

I've never used Windsor, but I've seen several folks claiming disappointing attenuation (like mid 60%). So your situation may not be unexpected.

As far as pitching temps it depends on the yeast, but generally you want to pitch at temps no higher than where you intend to ferment. Yeast manufacturers will give a temp range for their yeast. Where you want to ferment in that range depends on what qualities you want to accentuate (or subdue). It can be good practice to pitch a few degrees cooler and gradually warm to where you want to be, especially if your not wanting lots of fruity esters or harsh alcohols . The flavor profile of your beer is largely determined in the first 24 to 48 hours of fermentation. So at this point raising the temp to high 60's wont hurt anything and might help your attenuation.
 
I ended up with a FG at 1.018. Is this high for this? I'm wondering where I missed, just bottled last night tasted okay, just a bit green. Had an OG of 1.060 so not sure where that puts my ABV. This is my first 5 gallon batch, had done 3 Mr. Beer batches before this... Followed Recipe exactly with the kit from my LHBS
 
wilbr11 said:
I ended up with a FG at 1.018. Is this high for this? I'm wondering where I missed, just bottled last night tasted okay, just a bit green. Had an OG of 1.060 so not sure where that puts my ABV.

One way to calculate is to take the difference in gravities and multiply by 131.25.

(OG-FG) x 131.25 = ABV

1.060-1.018 = 0.042 x 131.25 = 5.51% ABV

Cheers
 
Thank you so much for the formula! Is this around what everyone else is getting? So glad I found this forum!
 
sweetcell said:
possibility #1 is your most likely explanation. when doing a partial boil and then topping up, it is difficult to get the sweet sugar-water and the plain water to mix properly. getting a higher than expected gravity reading is quite common because you pull for the denser, sugar-ier water

Thanks for the feedback. Much appreciated. I hope to move to full boils at some point (sooner than later with luck). It's an ever-evolving learning process, and fantastic.

Cheers! :mug:
 
Just finished kegging my first batch of WH Honey porter. It smelled delicious so I decided to taste the "green" beer. The initial taste was about what I would expect. I could taste hops and honey but the after taste was really bitter. Is this normal? Just wondering if anybody else noticed this. Only my 4th time brewing and I'm worried the taste is jeopardized.

Also I should point out that during primary fermentation I had to bleed off some of the foam because it was so active. To do this I had to move the batch to my living room where it got some light exposure. I tried to minimize this by covering the carboy in a blanket. I've heard light exposure causes a skunky flavor. It definately did not have that taste. Just very bitter.

Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks and brew on!
 
wilbr11 said:
I ended up with a FG at 1.018. Is this high for this? I'm wondering where I missed, just bottled last night tasted okay, just a bit green. Had an OG of 1.060 so not sure where that puts my ABV. This is my first 5 gallon batch, had done 3 Mr. Beer batches before this... Followed Recipe exactly with the kit from my LHBS

1.018 is not too high FG. Windsor yeast has a predicted attenuation of 70% which is actually exactly what you got. Typically actual attenuation results vary +/- a few percent from the predicted amount.

To calculate attenuation use (OG-FG)/OG (in points). 60-18/60=42/60=0.7
 
Okay, cool, thank you so much! Needing to develop the confidence to know things work as they should I guess.. Worried I screwed up..thank you so much!
 
I ended up with a FG at 1.018. Is this high for this? I'm wondering where I missed, just bottled last night tasted okay, just a bit green. Had an OG of 1.060 so not sure where that puts my ABV. This is my first 5 gallon batch, had done 3 Mr. Beer batches before this... Followed Recipe exactly with the kit from my LHBS
I brewed the White House ale from Northern Brewer on 10/31. Used a yeast starter and had healthy fermentation for a few days and no more bubbles for at least a week. The temperature was at the low end for the yeast, which is 64F, which I was around or a little higher for the first several days then it got cold and basement dropped to 63F. I wanted to check the gravity but I broke my hydrometer this weekend Got to my LHBS on Monday and got a new one and the gravity is at 1.020. I measured Tuesday and got the same 1.020. Northern said the FG should be about 1.007 - 1.014. There was also a healthy head of krausen on top too when I first took the gravity on Monday and it was less, but still there on Tuesday. I did move it to my dining room, which keeps it around 68F on Monday evening. There has been very slow air lock activity.

I wanted to move the beer to secondary so I could reuse the White House ale yeast to brew a milk stout which I plan to put in a used whiskey barrel. Due to vacations coming up (thanksgiving and xmas), I really wanted to brew yesterday reusing the yeast but I decided to just use the dry yeast that came with the kit because I figured my fermentation was stuck and I didn't want to use questionable yeast. So I'll probably just leave the honey ale in primary until I get back from vacation so it will probably be in primary for about 4 weeks. I will probably take a couple gravity readings before bottling just to see where it's at, but I can't imagine it wouldn't be done by then.
 
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