Beer Porn

Brewed my first go at home brew dog fish 60 IPA clone last night. Decided to go AG from the get go. Snapped a few pics to share. Recipe was from Yooper's post https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f69/dogfish-head-60-minute-clone-ag-extract-25709/ from awhile back. Didn't use Pacman and couldn't find the Irish Moss during the boil but otherwise followed it exactly. The sparging method seems to vary from what I can tell, so we simply added all of the grain at once to the strike water and then drained. Interested to see if we extracted enough sugar. We also forgot to check specific gravity prior to racking in carboy. We had had a little too many (if there is such a thing) dogfish 60 and Indian Brown Ale while brewing.

















Carboy sitting at 70 in the wine cooler. House hits low 80s during the day here in Florida.

The flash my iPhone may have washed the color out a bit on the carboy pic. It definitely looks much darker in the natural light. We used 168-170F on the fire and then moved that into the mash tun. We figured during the transfer we would lose a couple degrees. We were using a 12 dollar thermometer and also a laser temp gun getting widely varying readings. Definitely need to upgrade to a better way of gauging temp. We did keep some of the strike water, about a gallon, separated until we had all of the malt mixed in. We then added that final gallon on top to bump the temp back up a bit. We let it sit for an hour before draining. Was thinking about syphoning out a little from the carboy this morning to get an OG but need to get some "work" done around the house (i.e. posting to HBT).

Even with the honey-dos piling up I yanked the carboy out of the chiller, cleaned up the syphon stick thing and brought out enough of the beer to get the OG. 1.058 was the reading. Is this the range I need to be in for an IPA using 13.5 lbs of malt? Started with 8G of water prior to strike and was left with this amount inside a 6G carboy.

If you didn't use Pacman, what yeast did you pitch?

I used Safale US-05 Fermentis

unionrdr said:

OG 1.058 isn't too bad. But I got an OG of 1.065 from 10.5lbs of malts for my Burton ale. Too much wort volume going into FV if this was to be 5 gallons?...

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Yes for 5 gallons. Does it look like more than 5 gallons in the carboy?

I agree, definitely not sure if the single batch method will work as I didn't add 20-25% more grain to compensate. Was looking for the best possible flavor at the detriment of ABV rate with what I had. I only read up on the various sparging techniques after purchasing the grain.

If you pitched the yeast the day before you took the OG, and you still got 1.058, I'm willing to bet your wort was at least 1.062 or so. US-05 can fully ferment out in 2-3 days. Nice work!

In the spirit of myfreecam I have posted a livestream of my carboy! enjoy! bubbling away!!!

http://www.livestream.com/carboycamipa

Was this your first all grain?

Congratulations on the first brew and having the testicular fortitude to jump in with all grain! Personally, I would set that temp down to 65f, things tend to come out better in the mid to low 60s with US-05 IMO. Also, like others have said, you will get better efficiency by doughing in around 1.5-2 qts h2o per pound of grain. Collect those runnings and measure, then sparge with whatever volume is needed to get your pre-boil volume. I normally sparge with 190f water and average about 75% efficiency. Welcome to the hobsession and get your next brew planned!!

Yes first time at home. There is a local brew pub, Engine 15, that allows you to brew there with their guidance. I have done two extract brews with them so technically not my first time. The temp strip on the carboy is blue at 68 and yellow at 70. You think I should turn it down some more?

That temp is probably just fine, but my preference is a little cooler. US-05 is pretty forgiving though and I doubt you will get many if any esters from the temp it's at.

OClairBrew said:

That temp is probably just fine, but my preference is a little cooler. US-05 is pretty forgiving though and I doubt you will get many if any esters from the temp it's at.

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I turned it down a notch, we'll see how it affects it with the yeast turning up the heat. Any thoughts on when to gradually turn the heat up in order to get the best efficiency?

unionrdr said:

If you have it at 68-70F already,you don't want to turn it up. That would be too high.

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Great, looks like my chiller has the right temp range for the entire process.

If you would like to give us a step by step of what you did, we could maybe offer some advice. I did see you don't worry about hot side aeration, you didn't use hose from your mash tun to your boil kettle, I'm not a huge avoid it at all costs, but I try to avoid it as much as I can.

I'm sure we can all offer some pointers, and get your next brew that much more on par.

Got the carboy temp down to 66-68.

Maxkling said:

If you would like to give us a step by step of what you did, we could maybe offer some advice. I did see you don't worry about hot side aeration, you didn't use hose from your mash tun to your boil kettle, I'm not a huge avoid it at all costs, but I try to avoid it as much as I can.

I'm sure we can all offer some pointers, and get your next brew that much more on par.

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I had no clue about aerating and adding oxygen. I am wondering how much more motion and chaotic state boiling is as compared to stirring? I will have to read more of avoid that if my brew tastes funny. We shall see.

Any idea if dropping a table spoon or two of vodka into the carboy/wort (accidentally of course) right after pitching the yeast would add a competing strain of yeast?

Thanks for all the responses.

shawnleary said:

I had no clue about aerating and adding oxygen. I am wondering how much more motion and chaotic state boiling is as compared to stirring? I will have to read more of avoid that if my brew tastes funny. We shall see.

Any idea if dropping a table spoon or two of vodka into the carboy/wort (accidentally of course) right after pitching the yeast would add a competing strain of yeast?

Thanks for all the responses.

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Boiling actually de-oxygenates the wort (or whatever you boil)

Brulosopher said:

Boiling actually de-oxygenates the wort (or whatever you boil)

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That's what I was thinking. We did strain in the funnel on the way to the carboy.

shawnleary said:

That's what I was thinking. We did strain in the funnel on the way to the carboy.

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With a good starter, that's usually fine

http://www.brew-dudes.com/hot-side-aeration/124

Like I said I don't kill my self trying to avoid it, but I defiantly use a hose on my mash tun to my kettle. Its an off flavor that evolves with extended aging.

I'd recommend putting that carboy in a milk crate or BrewHauler for safer handling. There have been several threads here (with gory pictures) about glass carboys breaking and sending people to the emergency room for stitches. Sometimes they break due to careless handling, but in a least one case there was no apparent reason for the break - it broke while the brewer was holding it and dumping out cleaning solution, IIRC.

DeafSmith said:

I'd recommend putting that carboy in a milk crate or BrewHauler for safer handling. There have been several threads here (with gory pictures) about glass carboys breaking and sending people to the emergency room for stitches. Sometimes they break due to careless handling, but in a least one case there was no apparent reason for the break - it broke while the brewer was holding it and dumping out cleaning solution, IIRC.

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Good point. I will definitely use the hose next time. This batch i'll make sure to drunk immediately to avoid any off flavorings : )

2.5 Days

Carboy fermenting at 64 degrees. One week tonight, why must good beer take so long to be ready!!

Maxkling said:

If you would like to give us a step by step of what you did, we could maybe offer some advice. I did see you don't worry about hot side aeration, you didn't use hose from your mash tun to your boil kettle, I'm not a huge avoid it at all costs, but I try to avoid it as much as I can.

I'm sure we can all offer some pointers, and get your next brew that much more on par.

Click to expand...

Maxkling said:

http://www.brew-dudes.com/hot-side-aeration/124

Like I said I don't kill my self trying to avoid it, but I defiantly use a hose on my mash tun to my kettle. Its an off flavor that evolves with extended aging.

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Hot side aeration, HSA, is a debatable topic at best, and definitely isn't much of a concern pre boil, as boiling will surely drive off any o2 introduced pre boil. If there is a concern about HSA, it's post boil, from boiling temps down to ~80 degrees fahrenheit. Even then, it's highly debatable as the yeast itself will consume o2 during the lag phase.
I've seen plenty of videos where breweries were agitation the $hit out of hot wort, both going from tun to kettle and in the kettle post boil, and I even asked a brewer at a local pub if he was concerned that the wort was splashing and churning going into the kettle. He chuckled and asked why he'd be concerned.