Second batch - trying for a good everyday beer

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

thanantos

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 29, 2011
Messages
283
Reaction score
10
I like the bitter end of beers (IPA's - my favorite is Centennial IPA from Founder's) and something with a just a little sweetness to it as well so I am trying to come up with a decent everyday drinker for myself since I am gluten intolerant.

I brewed my first batch last spring (busy year) and it was GREAT! After much reading here I tried to make things simple. Toasted quinoa (not malted) steeped for 20 minutes then a 60 minute boil of 6lb sorghum, 1lb rice solids and an ounce or so of fresh frozen cascade hops a buddy gave me from his garden. I dry hopped with Amarillo.

It was honestly the best GF beer I have ever had, but I could also see it's deficiencies (no complexity to the hops, light mouth feel, color, etc.) so I thought I would try again with a new recipe to address those. I also did not feel I got anything from the quinoa and it was damn expensive so I left it out.

Here is the recipe I brewed yesterday:

6.9lbs of sorghum (LHBS bought in bulk and filled mason jars of 2.3lbs each) (I spread this out: 2.3lbs at 40, 25 and 15 minutes)
1lb of rice solids (60 minutes)
1lb of dark candi syrup (60 minutes)

1oz. Cascade (60 minutes)
1oz. Columbus (sprinkled a few pellets at a time from 45 minutes until I had about a third of a bag left at 23 minutes and dumped it in. Not very scientific, but it was fun.)
4oz. maltodextrin (20 minutes)
1oz. Citra (5 minutes)
4oz maltodextrin

I had to add more water than I expected (ended up at 5.75 gallons or so) to hit my OG (1.060), but it tastes and smells great. Since the LHBS packaged the sorghum it is possible they were a little heavier than marked. The color was also quite dark with a brown tint rather than the rust color of the sorghum alone.

I DO plan to dry hop this with Amarillo and I want to try a very similar recipe in two weeks and NOT dry hop that so I can to compare the two side by side.
 
Looks pretty similar to the grapefruit IPA I brewed up not too long ago (minus the grapefruit, of course), and that one's easily the best thing I've ever brewed...so you should be very pleased with your results!
 
This looks great!

It follows a grain bill that is very similar to what I have been using, it does not disappoint. Lately been trying to keep the Sorghum to ~60% of the total grain and they have been great. Will post my recipe in a separate thread so not to hijack too much.

:mug:
 
I originally pitched one packet of S-04 and did not rehydrate. I just through it on top and popped the lid on. I also did NOT use yeast nutrient in this batch. Since then the temperature has been a steady 66 degrees.

It's been 20 days since I pitched the yeast.

Fermentation was....lazy...I would say. I had bubbles the next day that moved up in a nice bell curve until about day 3 or 4 when I had a bubble a second or so. That slowly slowed to a bubble every 5 seconds or so a few days ago and stayed there.

I took a hydrometer reading today and got 1.02. My target gravity is 1.013. I also had a TON of hops on the top of the wort as well as suspended in it.

Not sure what exactly went wrong, but the batch I brewed less than two weeks ago has already hit it's FG. Same exact procedure and storing conditions EXCEPT I used yeast nutrient in that batch.

Hoping to fix this, I brought my fermenter up from my basement and put it in my dining room which I hope will boost the temp to around 70 and kick start fermentation.

Cross your fingers :)
 
What I've been doing with my dry yeasts is rehydrating them about 30 minutes prior to pitching, usually just before I start the cool-down. While the wort is cooling, I'll add just a couple drops of it to the yeast. By the time I'm ready to pitch, the yeast is frothing up pretty good, and so far my fermentations have been getting going quite quick, and finishing in record times. And I don't use yeast nutrient (though I've been thinking of adding some, in hopes of getting fermentation finished even faster).

Lots of people on this board advocate extreme patience in homebrewing, but there are a few who claim that proper pitching rates and temperatures can allow you get drinkable beer in a month. I'm hoping to cut my fermentation time down to two weeks or less (1 in primary, 1 in secondary, or just 10-14 days in primary if I can get it to clear adequately). Of course big beers with higher ABV will always need more time, but I feel like going grain to glass in a month for a simple blonde or pale ale should be feasible.
 
Yeah, I took a look at Safale's website and found these instructions:
http://www.fermentis.com/fo/pdf/HB/EN/Safale_S-04_HB.pdf

Rehydrate AND add nutrient will happen in the future. :tank:

For now I will give it a bit in the dining room to see what happens. I've also been gently agitating trying to get some of the yeast up and suspended again.

If I don't have anything by tomorrow I will boil up a slurry of table sugar and nutrient and toss that in.
 
Just to update, I woke up today and I had a just little bit of airlock activity so I mixed up some table sugar and yeast nutrient and tossed that in.

I am hoping that will be enough to get me down to my FG.

The stick-on temp gauge is now hovering between 70 and 72 as well.
 
My messing around seems to have worked a little. Hydrometer reading today shows 1.018

Ugghh, I think this batch might be buggered. It has a really strong alcohol snap right up front like cheap booze. However, according to my calculations the ABV at this point should only be around 5.20%

I am going to let it sit for a few weeks and forget about it.
 
My messing around seems to have worked a little. Hydrometer reading today shows 1.018

Ugghh, I think this batch might be buggered. It has a really strong alcohol snap right up front like cheap booze. However, according to my calculations the ABV at this point should only be around 5.20%

I am going to let it sit for a few weeks and forget about it.

Sounds like fusels, which suggests your yeast got stressed. Lame. I had to dump a batch once because of fusels. They're bad business--nasty AND harmful!
 
planetscott said:
I know a Thanatos on the Falcons message board? Same person?

Nope, not me. Not even sure what the Falcons message board is. Falcon's club?
 
igliashon said:
Sounds like fusels, which suggests your yeast got stressed. Lame. I had to dump a batch once because of fusels. They're bad business--nasty AND harmful!

My reading of this board implies the same. Again, I'll let it sit for a while, but I fear it is a lost batch.
 
I ended up pitching another packet of yeast which did not seem to help in lowering the gravity at all.

However, I did let it sit another two weeks in the primary and just racked to secondary yesterday. It is tasting much better I have to say. I guess all the people who preach patience are right.

I will give it another two to three weeks in the secondary and bottle it up.
 
After 2.5 weeks in secondary this beer is surprisingly good.

1.014 FG (1.012 was the calculated FG), very clear, and it tastes great!

I bottled it up today, and now have SURPRISINGLY high expectations for this batch.

I guess all the gurus are right. Time heals many beer wounds.
 
richbrew99 said:
subscribed

Good to hear.

I should be able to post a report on this beer within a week or so. It's been 4 days since bottling, and I checked today but no yeast cake in the bottles yet.

Once I see some cake forming I'll crack one to give it a try.
 
This beer is now carbed up enough to give a review (it's been 10 days since bottling).

For a beer that I was afraid I was going to have to throw away it is remarkably good. I basically made Redbridge.

It's twangy and light on body, but certainly drinkable.

As I have done with subsequent recipes I would recommend keeping the sorghum lower as a percentage (66% or below) of the grist, adding more hops, increasing the gravity and adding maltodextrin.

The higher IBU's help to compliment/mask the twang and the rest (besides reducing sorghum) seems to add body, (I would have said that proponents of this were crazy before) but late sorghum additions really does reduce the twang.

P.S. I did NOT end up dry hopping this batch. It would have been a nice addition.
 
I was WAY too harsh in my previous review of this beer, and I chalk that up to being a n00b brewer and not appreciating how time can really change a beer for the better.

Now that this beer has had some time to bottle condition (not much, a couple weeks?) it is much better.

The beer starts off with a sweet taste and finishes with a nice bitter hoppiness which is what I was looking for all along.
Even the sorghum twang has mellowed to a great extent.

Would I brew this again? Yes, but with the changes I mentioned above.
Am I happy drinking it? ABSOLUTELY, it's still better than any commercially produced sorghum beers I have ever had. It's just not quite as good as some other beers I have made myself.
 
Here is my recipe:
Did a mini mash of 1lb GF Rolled Oats
Added 2lbs 4oz of White Sorghum Syrup
Started the boil.
.25oz Columbus at 60 min
.25oz Columbus at 30 min
.50oz Cascade at 20 min
1lb 5oz Brown Rice Syrup at 15 min
1lb Buckwheat Honey at 15 min
2lbs 4oz Sorghum Syrup at 15 min
1oz Cascade at 10 min
8oz Maltodextrine at 10 min
1.25oz Yeast Nutrient at 10 min
1oz Cascade at 5 min
1oz Cascade at 0 min
2 packs US-05 yeast
1oz Simcoe dryhop for 9 days
.25 Magnum dryhop for 9 days
 
Back
Top