Oceantendency
Well-Known Member
So I racked my 1st AG batch (Raspberry Wheat) into the secondary that I used a bag that ended up ripping, and even though I had somewhat poor efficiency, I hit 1.10 and it's shaping up to still be a great beer and also washed and recaptured some incredible looking German Hefe Yeast!
Round 2 short version:
13lbs - Belgian Pils (1.8L)
21oz - Caravienne
1lb - White Wheat (didn't have Torrified Wheat on hand)
8.0oz - Munich
8.0o z- Special B
10oz - Dark Belgian Candi Sugar
1lb - D90 syrup
1.5oz - Willamette +.5oz - Blood Orange peelings (60 min)
.5oz - Tettanang + .5oz - Willamette + .2oz - BO peelings + Irish moss
recycled Yeast from 2 bottles Trappist Ale + 1 bottle of Iron Fist Dubble Fisted and starter using 3/4 tube of WLP530. Repitching remaining tube with small starter upon transfer to secondary for aging.
Target OG 1.082, but my efficiency was only 65% so I hit between 1.074-1.075. Started fermenting between 3-4 hours, got temp to 64* and got it still there. It already tastes amazing and haven't aged it yet, will add a Toasted French Oak Stave in Secondary.
5.5 gallons of filtered water from my fridge (so far has made the best beer versus 100% spring water)
2.5 gallons of Spring water
So Round 2, (long version) I got me a Mash Tun now
; I recycled some Yeast 2 of my Trappist Ales 750mL bottles and one bottle of an Iron Fist- Dubble Fisted and added with some fresh wort back on Wednesday, made a big mad starter on Saturday night with about 1/2 of the tube of WLP530, and added another 1/4 Sunday morning along with combining the recycled Yeast batch, so now I'm @ 1.8L total starter and it looked great, saved the last 1/4 of the tube to repitch later. Halfway through my milling, my Phil Mil attachment for my Drill stripped out :smack:, Thank you Mother Earth Brewery for opening your Shop early Sunday morning and not charging me to grind my grains. Crush looked amazing !
So I get my strike water up to 165*, added 2 gallons to the Tun, waited for 2 min and added the remaining 2.5 gallons, used my new probe digital and inserted through a small hole in top of the Tun from previous owner. Added the following grain bill:
13lbs- Belgian Pils (1.8L)
21oz Caravienne
1lb- White Wheat (didn't have terrified wheat on hand)
8.0oz- Munich
8.0oz- Special B
stirred in thoroughly and temp went up to 170* WTH??? I freaked out, kept the lid open, added 1/2 gallon of cold filtered water and about 1/4 gallon of bottled spring water from my 2.5 gallon container for my sparge water, stirred some again and it said 175* (ok, new Thermometer is crap). Just decided to walk away and let it sit at this point. 80 min later threw away that thermometer and replaced with turkey fryer one.OK it read 140*, so maybe I was good after all and shouldn't have added the extra water. Too late now heated up my sparge water, while I checked with iodine and bam fully converted, color looked good, collected first running to settle the bed, recycled a Qt 2 times, and then ran into Kettle. Halfway through poured some sparge water on my aluminum sprinkle tray thing I made, it's working but too fast, so I mostly drained out the first running, then added remaining sparge water and let sit for 10 min, stirred twice, vorlaf, and then drained into kettle. Got to a raging boil, started timer, and slowly added @ 10oz od Dark Candi Sugar, then a 1lb bag of D90 syrup, and everything else went according to plan, almost perfectly. I placed a bag of ice over water hose feeding my wort chiller and that helped tremendously.
Lessons learned: 2 different temp reads are better (I normally use 2 thermometers, but screwed up and relied only on the digital one for the Mash Tun instead of double checking with my reliable Turkey Fryer thermometer throughout the process), fix the damn stripped out attachment or get better grain mill, when doing batch sparge, use higher temp for sparge water (rushed it at 160*) and let sit 20 min and efficiency should go up. I've also gotten better at fully attenuating my beers using better starters and repitching yeast.
Round 2 short version:
13lbs - Belgian Pils (1.8L)
21oz - Caravienne
1lb - White Wheat (didn't have Torrified Wheat on hand)
8.0oz - Munich
8.0o z- Special B
10oz - Dark Belgian Candi Sugar
1lb - D90 syrup
1.5oz - Willamette +.5oz - Blood Orange peelings (60 min)
.5oz - Tettanang + .5oz - Willamette + .2oz - BO peelings + Irish moss
recycled Yeast from 2 bottles Trappist Ale + 1 bottle of Iron Fist Dubble Fisted and starter using 3/4 tube of WLP530. Repitching remaining tube with small starter upon transfer to secondary for aging.
Target OG 1.082, but my efficiency was only 65% so I hit between 1.074-1.075. Started fermenting between 3-4 hours, got temp to 64* and got it still there. It already tastes amazing and haven't aged it yet, will add a Toasted French Oak Stave in Secondary.
5.5 gallons of filtered water from my fridge (so far has made the best beer versus 100% spring water)
2.5 gallons of Spring water
So Round 2, (long version) I got me a Mash Tun now
; I recycled some Yeast 2 of my Trappist Ales 750mL bottles and one bottle of an Iron Fist- Dubble Fisted and added with some fresh wort back on Wednesday, made a big mad starter on Saturday night with about 1/2 of the tube of WLP530, and added another 1/4 Sunday morning along with combining the recycled Yeast batch, so now I'm @ 1.8L total starter and it looked great, saved the last 1/4 of the tube to repitch later. Halfway through my milling, my Phil Mil attachment for my Drill stripped out :smack:, Thank you Mother Earth Brewery for opening your Shop early Sunday morning and not charging me to grind my grains. Crush looked amazing !So I get my strike water up to 165*, added 2 gallons to the Tun, waited for 2 min and added the remaining 2.5 gallons, used my new probe digital and inserted through a small hole in top of the Tun from previous owner. Added the following grain bill:
13lbs- Belgian Pils (1.8L)
21oz Caravienne
1lb- White Wheat (didn't have terrified wheat on hand)
8.0oz- Munich
8.0oz- Special B
stirred in thoroughly and temp went up to 170* WTH??? I freaked out, kept the lid open, added 1/2 gallon of cold filtered water and about 1/4 gallon of bottled spring water from my 2.5 gallon container for my sparge water, stirred some again and it said 175* (ok, new Thermometer is crap). Just decided to walk away and let it sit at this point. 80 min later threw away that thermometer and replaced with turkey fryer one.OK it read 140*, so maybe I was good after all and shouldn't have added the extra water. Too late now heated up my sparge water, while I checked with iodine and bam fully converted, color looked good, collected first running to settle the bed, recycled a Qt 2 times, and then ran into Kettle. Halfway through poured some sparge water on my aluminum sprinkle tray thing I made, it's working but too fast, so I mostly drained out the first running, then added remaining sparge water and let sit for 10 min, stirred twice, vorlaf, and then drained into kettle. Got to a raging boil, started timer, and slowly added @ 10oz od Dark Candi Sugar, then a 1lb bag of D90 syrup, and everything else went according to plan, almost perfectly. I placed a bag of ice over water hose feeding my wort chiller and that helped tremendously.
Lessons learned: 2 different temp reads are better (I normally use 2 thermometers, but screwed up and relied only on the digital one for the Mash Tun instead of double checking with my reliable Turkey Fryer thermometer throughout the process), fix the damn stripped out attachment or get better grain mill, when doing batch sparge, use higher temp for sparge water (rushed it at 160*) and let sit 20 min and efficiency should go up. I've also gotten better at fully attenuating my beers using better starters and repitching yeast.
