CreamyGoodness
Well-Known Member
Ok, this and my okra mead video are me giving back to the HBT community and leaving myself wide open to being poked fun at. A dear friend of mine has been out of work for a bit, and is getting stir crazy. So, I invited him over to make a batch of beer and kvetch and eat pizza. This is his first brewing experience. Note that this brew, like the two that came before it, was an all grain brew.
This time, I figured out how to get the damn hydrometer to get a reading (sigh... I wasnt putting enough of a sample in the jar). More on that in a minute.
Firstly, I sanitized everything religiously. There are a couple times I think I might have not been 100% efficient in my sanitation (restirring with the same spoon after it has been on the counter... during a full boil) but for the most part I think we were pretty dilligent. I know I used more starsan than I thought I would.
The beer is a simple stout. Unfortunately the grains used I failed to record, as the gentleman at the not-so-L HBS worked with me to get a mixture together out of the book "Classic Styles" and gave it to me in one shrink wrapped bag. Also, being an idiot, I lost the instructions he kindly copied for me. So I did what I thought was the next best thing. I used the instructions from a trusted kit:
http://brooklynbrewshop.com/directions/Brooklyn_Brew_Shop_Coffee_Donut_Stout_Instructions.pdf
and modified the hop schedule to 2/3 Kent Goldings at 60 and 1/3 at 5 minutes. So far so good. The color of the wort is... stout. I have drank enough stout to know that this wort looks and smells like stout.
After the sparge I took a hydrometer reading. Not sure why I did that, but I did. I think it read 1.044, but there is always the chance I misread. As I have said in the past, this is the first time I have brewed anything and taken a hydro reading. With JAOM, since the mixture isnt homogeneous, it seems like folly to take an OG. I sure as hell wasnt about to take a reading on the okra mead.
Post boil I took another reading. 1.055. Does this sound about right? Also, I noticed that I have more wort than 1 gallon somehow (perhaps because I squeezed the cheesecloth for every bit of worty goodness?, perhaps because I didnt boil at a high enough temperature) I saved the extra wort in a jar just in case anything can be done with it. Its currently sitting at room temperature.
After pitching my yeast at 70 degrees (Notty) I woke up to the blowoff tube making tons of starsan bubbles.
Ok... feel free to constructively rip me a new one. Just know that I am only on my third lifetime gallon of beer, and I jumped in with both feet into AG.
This time, I figured out how to get the damn hydrometer to get a reading (sigh... I wasnt putting enough of a sample in the jar). More on that in a minute.
Firstly, I sanitized everything religiously. There are a couple times I think I might have not been 100% efficient in my sanitation (restirring with the same spoon after it has been on the counter... during a full boil) but for the most part I think we were pretty dilligent. I know I used more starsan than I thought I would.
The beer is a simple stout. Unfortunately the grains used I failed to record, as the gentleman at the not-so-L HBS worked with me to get a mixture together out of the book "Classic Styles" and gave it to me in one shrink wrapped bag. Also, being an idiot, I lost the instructions he kindly copied for me. So I did what I thought was the next best thing. I used the instructions from a trusted kit:
http://brooklynbrewshop.com/directions/Brooklyn_Brew_Shop_Coffee_Donut_Stout_Instructions.pdf
and modified the hop schedule to 2/3 Kent Goldings at 60 and 1/3 at 5 minutes. So far so good. The color of the wort is... stout. I have drank enough stout to know that this wort looks and smells like stout.
After the sparge I took a hydrometer reading. Not sure why I did that, but I did. I think it read 1.044, but there is always the chance I misread. As I have said in the past, this is the first time I have brewed anything and taken a hydro reading. With JAOM, since the mixture isnt homogeneous, it seems like folly to take an OG. I sure as hell wasnt about to take a reading on the okra mead.
Post boil I took another reading. 1.055. Does this sound about right? Also, I noticed that I have more wort than 1 gallon somehow (perhaps because I squeezed the cheesecloth for every bit of worty goodness?, perhaps because I didnt boil at a high enough temperature) I saved the extra wort in a jar just in case anything can be done with it. Its currently sitting at room temperature.
After pitching my yeast at 70 degrees (Notty) I woke up to the blowoff tube making tons of starsan bubbles.
Ok... feel free to constructively rip me a new one. Just know that I am only on my third lifetime gallon of beer, and I jumped in with both feet into AG.