Blonde Ale Miller Lite (Really Triple Hopped)

Brewed this again yesterday, added some honey malt, if it turns out I'll post up the recipe.

So I let it sit on the Enzyme for 2 weeks and it cleared nicely but the gravity didn't drop at all. That is rather annoying. It still tastes good so I am going to keg it and carb it up. Any idea what could have gone wrong? I racked into a secondary right on top of of 1 tsp Amylase Enzyme, let it sit for a week, added the dry hops and let it sit for another week. All at about 67 degrees. My FG was 1.006. Mashed at 147 for 90 min, did a 90 min boil.

The yeast is done or your enzyme is no good. Probably the later. How low did it get? Or your beer bobber is off.

Schlenkerla said:

The yeast is done or your enzyme is no good. Probably the later. How low did it get? Or your beer bobber is off.

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Sorry, just edited my post to include the gravity. It got to 1.006. I calibrated my hydrometer so I don't think there is a problem there.

rjsnau said:

Sorry, just edited my post to include the gravity. It got to 1.006. I calibrated my hydrometer so I don't think there is a problem there.

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FG of 6 is not too bad. It'll still be pretty good.

Great! Thanks!

How long do you typically leave it in seconday? I brewed this up last night after Converting it to a 3 gal BIAB which is the only way I have done all grain thus far.

My fg ended at 1.008. Not worried, will taste like beer.

Dmatson89 said:

How long do you typically leave it in the secondary? I brewed this up last night after Converting it to a 3 gal BIAB which is the only way I have done all grain thus far.

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One week in the primary, two weeks in the secondary.

I think I messed up. I dont think I should have dry hopped in primary. I pitched the yeast, shook, and added the whole leaf hops. Am I going to get anything useful out of this? Fermentation was really only going good for about 36 hours and now it has pretty much stopped.

furner said:

I think I messed up. I dont think I should have dry hopped in primary. I pitched the yeast, shook, and added the whole leaf hops. Am I going to get anything useful out of this? Fermentation was really only going good for about 36 hours and now it has pretty much stopped.

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Not sure if dry hopping that early can affect fermentation. I suggest taking a gravity reading after a week and seeing where you're at.

verbhertz said:

Not sure if dry hopping that early can affect fermentation. I suggest taking a gravity reading after a week and seeing where you're at.

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Yeah, take a reading after a week then rack to the secondary. Do so on top of amylase enzyme.

This beer ferments fast, so 36 hours is about right.

Tasted mine today, 10 days in the bottle. Plenty carbed. Tastes more like high life. Hope SWMBO likes it, if not I can stomach it.

I did not care for the saaz hop at secondary. My friend loved it.

Racked to secondary and put in AE last night. Definitely not getting any action so far. Yeast should still be pretty good. I will give it time and see what happens.

furner said:

Racked to secondary and put in AE last night. Definitely not getting any action so far. Yeast should still be pretty good. I will give it time and see what happens.

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Sometimes its slow... Look for tiny bubbles rising in the carboy. Use a flashlight.

The first beer i kegged was a DFH120 clone. The second will be this

Lesson learned when playing beerpong with DFH120, i NEED to brew beers like this.

Going the sorachi ace route, it sounds delicious! and i'm sure will be exactly what i need to convince my new roommate to get into the homebrewing. (last week he told me the bottle of FW Sucaba i was drinking tasted like guiness.) So i gotta start somewhere.

going to do the 5 grams of black patent, idea too. just for my own sanity, i need a splash of color in this.

i'll report back in 4-5 weeks with pictures!

underdogadam said:

(last week he told me the bottle of fw sucaba i was drinking tasted like guiness.)

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lolwhut!?

Unrelated, I have a ton of Nelson Sauvin hops in my freezer - so I might try that in this... or possibly Columbus.

Ok so I brewed this one up about three weeks ago hit 1.03 on the nose and got down to 1.000 after secondary. But my beer is soooo pale it's almost got no color at all, the flavor is there for a light beer it just lacks much color. I'll post a pic next glass I pour and I'm heading to work right now so I'm thinkin I'll be needin a beer here in about eight hours.

we love this, but we halved the drying agent... it was too much before... but now it is perfect...

I just transferred 10 gallons of this into secondary and added the amylase enzyme. Since this sits for 2 weeks are you adding the dry hops to secondary after the first first week? This thread is so long I couldn't find the answer.

nyer said:

I just transferred 10 gallons of this into secondary and added the amylase enzyme. Since this sits for 2 weeks are you adding the dry hops to secondary after the first first week? This thread is so long I couldn't find the answer.

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Yeah, after the first week add the hops and enzyme. I generally put the hops and enzyme in an empty sanitized carboy, then rack the week old beer on top.

I've brewed 20 batches of this and it's my everyday drinker. The last 11 gal batch I brewed has been in the primary for 7 days today and the airlocks are still bubbling away like three blurps a minute. I have not measured gravity yet but want to rack to secondary today and use the yeast for a new batch. I reused the yeast from the last batch for this which was the first reuse of a pack of dry US-05. I estimate it was around 100ml. It took off within 8 hours and bubbled aggressively for almost a week. I've never seen this before but thought it was awesome.

Is there any reason not to rack to secondary today? I wouldn't think so since it can continue to ferment in the secondary.

Three weeks before the yeast explodes and gives off bad tasting stuff. I just wait two to three weeks and put into a corny. I do not secondary.

I have my third batch of this brew in the primary right now. SG was 1.038 and after a week on Saflager 34/70 @ 50F it is 1.002 double checked between my hydro and refractometer. Hydro was as I read it 1.002 and the refractometer was 1.0017etc... Adjusted reading of course.

My question. Should I seriously expect the enzyme to push me below 1.002 or should I reserve it for when I do this recipe with US-05?

Background info. Last time I did a split batch with us-05 and 34/70 and the us-05 needed the enzyme to finish and the 34/70 went to 1.002 and stayed there regardless of the addition of the enzyme.

I would leave it be at 1.002. The two points aren't worth the bother.

I had a question about the all grain version.

I don't have an all grain setup per se, but I've been doing mini mash, since this is such a small grain bill could I do the all grain the same way? I have a 30 qt. pot.

You could do this either all-grain or partial mash. If you don't do all-grain try the partial mash.

I think you could look at the early posts or the first post they had instructions for extract. You would need part of the extract or rice extract.. Can't recall what is at the moment.

Edit:


% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
60.0 2.25 lbs. Muntons LME - Extra Light England 1.037 3
40.0 1.50 lbs. Rice Syrup Generic 1.040 0

You could do the partial mash with either one of these. My guess is use the muntons extra light LME and whatever grain amount you need to hit 1.030 with roughly a 50% mash efficiency. I would use an even percentage of the stated grist, 2-row, 6-row and corn.

The first number in the grist bill is the percentage used in the bill.

36.4% is 2-row
31.8% is 6-Row
31.8% is Flaked Corn

So if you figure 2.25lbs net grist is needed apply these percentages to the bill.

THE BEST THING TO DO..... is use this calculator to get you to the 1.030 OG with 16-18 IBUs.... based how much extract you want to use or grain. Just lock one ingredient and adjust the other. http://www.recipator.com

Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
36.4 2.00 lbs. Pale Malt(2-row) America 1.036 2
31.8 1.75 lbs. Pale Malt(6-row) America 1.035 2
31.8 1.75 lbs. Flaked Corn (Maize) America 1.040 1

Desp said:

I had a question about the all grain version.

I don't have an all grain setup per se, but I've been doing mini mash, since this is such a small grain bill could I do the all grain the same way? I have a 30 qt. pot.

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You might want to try doing this with brew in the bag method. Search BIAB in this forum. This is a nice stove top or outdoor burner method of doing allgrain w/o building a mashtun. I use paint straining backs from Menards for smaller grain bills.

Alright, I’ve finally purchased all the supplies and am just about ready to start my first all-grain. I chose this one for my first because it seemed pretty straight forward and it seems like a beer I will enjoy.

That being said, I’m having a bit of trouble understanding the ‘Mash Schedule’.

Given 5.5 lbs of grain and 1.35 qts water/lb grain gives me 7.43 qts as listed in the schedule. What I don’t understand is where does the ‘Total Mash Volume Gal: 2.30’ come from?

Using this link for a calculator http://www.brewersfriend.com/mash/ it says I will need to add 6.5 qts of boiling water to reach 175. None of these numbers add to 2.3 gallons.

Thanks for any help you guys/gals can provide.

Skim said:

Alright, I’ve finally purchased all the supplies and am just about ready to start my first all-grain. I chose this one for my first because it seemed pretty straight forward and it seems like a beer I will enjoy.

That being said, I’m having a bit of trouble understanding the ‘Mash Schedule’.

Given 5.5 lbs of grain and 1.35 qts water/lb grain gives me 7.43 qts as listed in the schedule. What I don’t understand is where does the ‘Total Mash Volume Gal: 2.30’ come from?

Using this link for a calculator http://www.brewersfriend.com/mash/ it says I will need to add 6.5 qts of boiling water to reach 175. None of these numbers add to 2.3 gallons.

Thanks for any help you guys/gals can provide.

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Use calculator here http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml "Can I Mash It?"
Adding the volume that the grains will occupy and the volume of water equals 2.3 total gallons (grains + water). Your mash tun needs to be at least that big.

Input the recipe into Brewer's Friend, then click 'Brew'. It will produce a full water breakdown for you. You may need to tune some of the equipment settings to dial it in.

normnmiles said:

Use calculator here http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml "Can I Mash It?"
Adding the volume that the grains will occupy and the volume of water equals 2.3 total gallons (grains + water). Your mash tun needs to be at least that big.

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Ah that makes a lot more sense! Thank-you.

So I finally ended up brewing this on Saturday. I took Schlenkerla's advice and used Hallertauer hops. My OG was 1.031 so I would consider it a success so far. I checked at lunch at it already is slowing down so it looks like it fermented pretty quickly. I plan on kegging and force carbing this and I'm really excited to try it. I'm looking for something exactly like this to keep on tap at all times both for myself and when friends and family come over.

For a mash tun I am using a converted 5 gallon rubbermaid cooler. I hit the mash temperature right on. After the 90 minute mash I quickly checked the temperature and it seemed to read low at 143. Is it possible that one of these coolers could lose that much heat? When doing this recipe do you guys bother to check the temperature during the mash or just let it do its thing? I had the mash tun covered in a thick blanket too in an effort to minimize heat loss.

Skim said:

For a mash tun I am using a converted 5 gallon rubbermaid cooler. I hit the mash temperature right on. After the 90 minute mash I quickly checked the temperature and it seemed to read low at 143. Is it possible that one of these coolers could lose that much heat?

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Had a similar problem with my cooler. You might want to look into insulating the top of the cooler by drilling some holes in the top and filling it with some spray foam. Also a false top made of insulation will help.

When I first used my mash tun I lost about 10 degrees over 60 minutes but insulating the top and using a false top I am able to keep loses to 1-2 degrees over the 60 minutes.

normnmiles said:

Had a similar problem with my cooler. You might want to look into insulating the top of the cooler by drilling some holes in the top and filling it with some spray foam. Also a false top made of insulation will help.

When I first used my mash tun I lost about 10 degrees over 60 minutes but insulating the top and using a false top I am able to keep loses to 1-2 degrees over the 60 minutes.

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Perfect, thanks for the advice. I have since done a second brew and I covered the top with a towel and then a blanket and it seemed to hold the heat much better. Insulating the top seems like a better long term solution.

At the one week point I racked to a secondary while adding the AE. I don't see much airlock activity but I do notice the small bubbles that have been mentioned before. I'm pretty excited to try this one out when it finishes.

I finally got around to brewing this one, too. I had a holiday party this past weekend and blew through the two kegs I had on tap. I kegged this when it really had about 5 more days to go in secondary, but when I sampled it I determined it was "close enough." There is still the faint corn thing going on, but the Sorachi dry hopping helps detract from that. I have another batch of this going that will get to run the full fermentation time, and based on how good this one tastes being pulled early I'm excited about the next batch.

Any BIABERS out there done this recipe? How much water did you start with? Did you do a mashout or just do full volume from the start? using this calculator i get 7.19 gal total strike water http://beerreviewdude.com/biab-calculator/
but using this calculator i get 8.28 gal to start http://www.simplebiabcalculator.com/
The second one seems like a hell of a lot of strike water considering the recipe pre-boil wort size is 6.85 gallon. I think the first calculator is based on squeezing and the second is no squeeze! I use a 13.5 gallon keggle and it boils off around 1 gallon per/hr. Let me know what you have done, thanks!

So I am a BIABER and you basically just have to scale it to your boil off and grain absorption. I have done this recipe 30 times now with a few slight adjustments. It's my all day drinker around here.
I do 11 GAL batches (5.5 per bucket). My latest process is to start with 13 GALS for the mash and then to get to 15 GALS I do a custom sparge using a 30 QT mixing bowl with a hole in the middle sitting on top of the kettle. Once I get to 15 GALS I boil that down to 12.5 which takes 90 minutes. After cooling shrinkage and hop trash I can usually get 5.5 GALS in each bucket from that.
So I guess the bottom line is that you need to just tweak your numbers to get what you want in the end. The last batch I did I was using my new refractometer (Merry Christmas) to monitor my numbers during the mash and am able to hit them spot on. Once in the bucket I'm at 1.030 and get to 1.001 or 1.000 before bottling. I adjusted the recipe over time to the following but it's still pretty close.
4# 2 row
3# 6 row
3# flaked corn
1# flaked rice

Like Schlenkerla said:

"Note the flavor is very minimal. Were talking light beer here!! "

It beats the crap out of any commercial light beer and for half the price (or less).

Now I just need to figure out where the hell to get Amylase Enzyme. 5 brewstores and nobody's heard of it.