12# Light DME
3# Wheat DME (40% Barley, 60% Wheat)
5# Corn Sugar
2oz each (fresh hops) of Magnum (17.0%AA), Warrior (17.2%AA), Zeus (16.4%AA), Nugget (14.6%AA), Simcoe (12.7%AA), Amarillo (11.2%AA)
3 packets of Safale S-04 Dry Yeast (English ale)
I should have gotten a hydrometer before the brew, and plan on getting one soon.
It looks like the tap water in Oakland, CA has fairly low amount of Na/SO4, so I'm hoping it works out alright with this all extract brew.
I was able to maintain a weak boil by simply throwing the keg on the stove. I poured in all 12 pounds of light DME at the start to try and achieve some caramelization. I used a large mesh bag for the hops.
The hop schedule was roughly:
T-90 min: Magnum
T-75 min: Warrior
T-60 min: Zeus, Nugget
T-45 min: Simcoe, Amarillo (also 3# Wheat DME and 4# corn sugar)
My plans were initially to have a 60 minute boil. At the 30 minute mark, I went to dissemble the keg I bought to use for fermenting / finished product, to find that it's not a standard Sanke style keg, but rather a threaded type with a safety latch. So it ended up being a bit of a panic situation, since the wort was almost ready. Luckily, I was able to get the keg apart, but it resulted in an additional 30 minutes of boil.
I transferred the wort to the fermenting keg, filled it up with cold water, leaving ~3 inches, and was able to cap it off, so I could lay it in the bath tub. It took a couple of hours to get down to 80*F. Pitched the yeast, setup the airlock, and called it a night.
The yeast got going after 15 hours, and I realized that 3 inches of head space was not enough. Threw a towel around the top to keep the mess down. It was done spewing the next day, so I cleaned off the airlock. It spent the rest of the day vigorously spewing CO2. Day 1 had a strong smell of hops. Day 2 onwards, it's giving off a strong banana aroma. Outside keg temp is around 74*F.
Today is day 3 of fermentation. CO2 expulsion has slowed dramatically, so I decided to add the last pound of corn sugar I had. Probably not a good idea, since I'm sure it's just sitting in the head. Gave it a good shake to try to get it into the wort. Bubbling has picked up again for now.
I'm definitely going to keep more head space next time around. How much do you guys think was lost in the overflow? Since I don't have a hydrometer, I've been relying on hopville's beer calculus. I'm estimating a batch size of 14 gallons, which should have an abv of 6.0%, with 179IBU's
drunk. Going to take final gravity measurements and work backwards to estimate OG, batch size, and ABV.
Anyone have any input on the recipe? I was trying to maintain lower cost, simplicity of extract (until I can do some more work on the brew keg), reasonable ABV, strong hoppiness, and something different. I understand it will probably be a bit lacking in body, but considering the IBUs, perhaps it won't be as big a deal? Really wondering how much of the banana smelling esters will be finished off, since I definitely would have no problem with it. Is that due to high fermentation temperature? The strain of yeast / wheat dme?
I still have some research to do on carbonation, since in the past, we've only done bottles and priming sugar. I'm imagining it'd take longer than I'm willing to wait if I did the set it and forget it approach. How much pressure can I run (obviously below the 60psi max rating of the keg), and for how long, before I should drop down to final pressure? Room temperature carbonating vs cold? I still have to find a fridge off Craigslist.
Thanks for looking. :fro:
3# Wheat DME (40% Barley, 60% Wheat)
5# Corn Sugar
2oz each (fresh hops) of Magnum (17.0%AA), Warrior (17.2%AA), Zeus (16.4%AA), Nugget (14.6%AA), Simcoe (12.7%AA), Amarillo (11.2%AA)
3 packets of Safale S-04 Dry Yeast (English ale)
I should have gotten a hydrometer before the brew, and plan on getting one soon.
It looks like the tap water in Oakland, CA has fairly low amount of Na/SO4, so I'm hoping it works out alright with this all extract brew.
I was able to maintain a weak boil by simply throwing the keg on the stove. I poured in all 12 pounds of light DME at the start to try and achieve some caramelization. I used a large mesh bag for the hops.
The hop schedule was roughly:
T-90 min: Magnum
T-75 min: Warrior
T-60 min: Zeus, Nugget
T-45 min: Simcoe, Amarillo (also 3# Wheat DME and 4# corn sugar)
My plans were initially to have a 60 minute boil. At the 30 minute mark, I went to dissemble the keg I bought to use for fermenting / finished product, to find that it's not a standard Sanke style keg, but rather a threaded type with a safety latch. So it ended up being a bit of a panic situation, since the wort was almost ready. Luckily, I was able to get the keg apart, but it resulted in an additional 30 minutes of boil.
I transferred the wort to the fermenting keg, filled it up with cold water, leaving ~3 inches, and was able to cap it off, so I could lay it in the bath tub. It took a couple of hours to get down to 80*F. Pitched the yeast, setup the airlock, and called it a night.
The yeast got going after 15 hours, and I realized that 3 inches of head space was not enough. Threw a towel around the top to keep the mess down. It was done spewing the next day, so I cleaned off the airlock. It spent the rest of the day vigorously spewing CO2. Day 1 had a strong smell of hops. Day 2 onwards, it's giving off a strong banana aroma. Outside keg temp is around 74*F.
Today is day 3 of fermentation. CO2 expulsion has slowed dramatically, so I decided to add the last pound of corn sugar I had. Probably not a good idea, since I'm sure it's just sitting in the head. Gave it a good shake to try to get it into the wort. Bubbling has picked up again for now.
I'm definitely going to keep more head space next time around. How much do you guys think was lost in the overflow? Since I don't have a hydrometer, I've been relying on hopville's beer calculus. I'm estimating a batch size of 14 gallons, which should have an abv of 6.0%, with 179IBU's
drunk. Going to take final gravity measurements and work backwards to estimate OG, batch size, and ABV.Anyone have any input on the recipe? I was trying to maintain lower cost, simplicity of extract (until I can do some more work on the brew keg), reasonable ABV, strong hoppiness, and something different. I understand it will probably be a bit lacking in body, but considering the IBUs, perhaps it won't be as big a deal? Really wondering how much of the banana smelling esters will be finished off, since I definitely would have no problem with it. Is that due to high fermentation temperature? The strain of yeast / wheat dme?
I still have some research to do on carbonation, since in the past, we've only done bottles and priming sugar. I'm imagining it'd take longer than I'm willing to wait if I did the set it and forget it approach. How much pressure can I run (obviously below the 60psi max rating of the keg), and for how long, before I should drop down to final pressure? Room temperature carbonating vs cold? I still have to find a fridge off Craigslist.
Thanks for looking. :fro:
