American Pale Ale Bee Cave Brewery Haus Pale Ale

What does this look like 3 days into fermentation? This is my second all grain batch, and I'm a bit paranoid; the reason: as I was chilling the wort, I looked down, and lo and behold, the chiller was leaking regular, unboiled water into the wort.

I probably should have reboiled for 10 minutes but I didn't. How concerned should I be about this?

The wort fermented about 8 hours in and lasted for about 36 hours once churning commenced. It's just very cloudy right now.

MelsBigOleBrew said:

What does this look like 3 days into fermentation? This is my second all grain batch, and I'm a bit paranoid; the reason: as I was chilling the wort, I looked down, and lo and behold, the chiller was leaking regular, unboiled water into the wort.

I probably should have reboiled for 10 minutes but I didn't. How concerned should I be about this?

The wort fermented about 8 hours in and lasted for about 36 hours once churning commenced. It's just very cloudy right now.

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Extract brewers often top off with unboiled tap water. If it's good quality drinking water, you should be fine.

Especially early on in cooling, the wort was pretty hot.

Alrighty. Not going to worry too much about it then. Thanks.

I pitched this one on May 2 @ 1.048
checked it today, May 13 @ 1.010
I'll check it again tomorrow and Friday and make sure it stays around the 1.010 mark, and then I will rack to the keg and force carb.

the sample is tasty, I added 1 ice cube to give me an idea of how it tastes chilled....I thank you very much Ed...

Crap I just mashed at about 156-158 will this mess it up pretty bad? Apparently I should not try and brew and watch kids.

Your final gravity may end up slightly higher than expected. You will still have good beer. Let us know.

Going to brew this on Memorial Day!

A50SNAKE said:

I pitched this one on May 2 @ 1.048
checked it today, May 13 @ 1.010
I'll check it again tomorrow and Friday and make sure it stays around the 1.010 mark, and then I will rack to the keg and force carb.

the sample is tasty, I added 1 ice cube to give me an idea of how it tastes chilled....I thank you very much Ed...

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well, i tested it today and it was only @ 1.006 so I just racked it into my keg and now I'll carb it up...the sample is tasty still...

thanks again Ed

I brewed this yesterday but my mash temperature was really inconsistent? My third all grain batch. The mash temperature held during the whole mash, but some spots were reading 148 while another was reading 151. Will this be an issue?

PS here is a picture of the sparge, just because I feel like posting it cheers.

treacheroustexan said:

I brewed this yesterday but my mash temperature was really inconsistent? My third all grain batch. The mash temperature held during the whole mash, but some spots were reading 148 while another was reading 151. Will this be an issue?

PS here is a picture of the sparge, just because I feel like posting it cheers.

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You should be fine with that range, it may knock a few points down for your OG but that isn't necessarily a bad thing either. Do you stir before taking a reading?

Newbie question here. Regarding the boil and hops section of the recipe. What do the percentages and time refer to?

The percentage is the alpha acids in the hops, basically how strong they are. The times are when to add the hops. 60 refers to 60 minutes left in the boil, so 45 would be with 45 min left and so on.

Schecter said:

You should be fine with that range, it may knock a few points down for your OG but that isn't necessarily a bad thing either. Do you stir before taking a reading?

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Yeah I did stir and I had trouble reading the sample because I had a lot of foam build up in the sample? But it looked like my OG was 1.050 or a little under. I had 0.5oz of cascade hops left over so I dry hopped with them just so I could get rid of them. Have no way of storing them and probably won't brew for a month or so again.

treacheroustexan said:

Yeah I did stir and I had trouble reading the sample because I had a lot of foam build up in the sample? But it looked like my OG was 1.050 or a little under. I had 0.5oz of cascade hops left over so I dry hopped with them just so I could get rid of them. Have no way of storing them and probably won't brew for a month or so again.

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Sorry for not specifying, I mean 'did you stir before taking a temperature reading?'

If you end up with foam in your graduated cylinder while taking a gravity reading, blow out the foam with your mouth. You should be able to get a decent amount of it out. Before you take your reading, spin the hydrometer to deter the bubbles clinging to the edges of it and skewing your reading.

Schecter said:

Sorry for not specifying, I mean 'did you stir before taking a temperature reading?'

If you end up with foam in your graduated cylinder while taking a gravity reading, blow out the foam with your mouth. You should be able to get a decent amount of it out. Before you take your reading, spin the hydrometer to deter the bubbles clinging to the edges of it and skewing your reading.

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My apologies. Yeah I did. I think I stirred the mash a total of 3 or 4 different times. She is bubbling away though so that's a good sign.

I brewed my first batch of beer using this recipe last weekend and have a few follow up questions.

Fermentation went fast. I think it finished out in four days. Is that a good thing and normal? I hydrated the yeast with go-ferm before pitching. Guessing that contributed to it taking off so fast.

I racked the beer from my primary fermenter (bucket) to a 5 gallon carboy yesterday. Ended up with approx 4.5 gallons so there about a half gallon of head space. Is this ok? How long should I let the beer rest in the carboy? I can see that it is starting to clear.

The recipe indicates to cold crash after fermentation before it is keged. What is the purpose of that step and how do you do it? I plan to keg half of the batch and bottle the other half. Does the hole batch need cold crashed and if so will that impact the ability of the yeast to bottle condition what I don't keg.

Final question is process related. I mashed in a 10 gallon cooler with a false bottom. With the batch sparge the recipe calls for an additional 3.5 gallons for the second step. How do folks measure that out? I was draining water out of a hot liquor tank with a slow pour spout. Ended up dipping a pitcher into the tank to speed things up. Volume in for the second sparge was a guestimate. I think I might have put in a little to much because the ton was still flowing when I reached 6.5 gallons in boil keg.

Garmoni said:

I brewed my first batch of beer using this recipe last weekend and have a few follow up questions.

Fermentation went fast. I think it finished out in four days. Is that a good thing and normal? I hydrated the yeast with go-ferm before pitching. Guessing that contributed to it taking off so fast.

I racked the beer from my primary fermenter (bucket) to a 5 gallon carboy yesterday. Ended up with approx 4.5 gallons so there about a half gallon of head space. Is this ok? How long should I let the beer rest in the carboy? I can see that it is starting to clear.

The recipe indicates to cold crash after fermentation before it is keged. What is the purpose of that step and how do you do it? I plan to keg half of the batch and bottle the other half. Does the hole batch need cold crashed and if so will that impact the ability of the yeast to bottle condition what I don't keg.

Final question is process related. I mashed in a 10 gallon cooler with a false bottom. With the batch sparge the recipe calls for an additional 3.5 gallons for the second step. How do folks measure that out? I was draining water out of a hot liquor tank with a slow pour spout. Ended up dipping a pitcher into the tank to speed things up. Volume in for the second sparge was a guestimate. I think I might have put in a little to much because the ton was still flowing when I reached 6.5 gallons in boil keg.

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1 - If the airlock stopped bubbling in 4 days, it doesn't exactly mean that it is done fermenting but this is perfectly normal. The only way to tell is by taking a gravity reading. And normally a lot of people take 3 readings over 3 days or something like that, and if it says the same gravity, fermentation has completed.

2 - You will be fine with 4.5 gal in a carboy.

3 - You don't necessarily need to cold crash it. Cold crashing just helps with clearing up the beer. It just leaves all of the trub behind so it doesn't get into your keg, but I have never cold crashed and I have had no issues. Your beer will still clear up on its own in the keg after it gets cold and everything that doesn't need to be in there settles to be the bottom. I wouldn't worry about cold crashing the carboy. I would bottle half of your batch and then when you transfer the other half to the keg, give it a little co2 to seal it and then let it get cold overnight before carbonating it if you're force carbing(it absorbs co2 better cold).

4 - Best thing I can say is just sparge whatever way works for you. After a couple more batches and experimenting with the amount of water you need, you will get the hang of it. I'm not familiar with batch sparging too much and the additional water so I apologize I'm not much help there. I fly sparge with a colander and measuring cup. Takes a little more time but it seems to be working great for me. Did you take a gravity reading before pitching the yeast? If you still had a lot of wort left in the mash tun when you hit 6.5 gal. then your gravity was probably a lower than it should be resulting in a lower abv. But you saw airlock activity so you had sugars in there so you will end up with beer for sure!

so I kegged my batch of this, and poured my first full glass last night, ok I had two actually...but whose keeping track .... LOL....and its alot lighter in color than Ed's first post...his looks more dark, mine looks more like a wheat beer, that yellow'ish color...not cloudy like a wheat, but that color I think...

any ideas what might have caused that? I'll post what grains I used when I get home and I can check my list...

TIA

Yep, I think I left some sugars behind in the mash ton. SG was 1.04 at 6.5 gallons pre boil. Was 1.046 after the boil right before I pitched the yeast.

Garmoni said:

Yep, I think I left some sugars behind in the mash ton. SG was 1.04 at 6.5 gallons pre boil. Was 1.046 after the boil right before I pitched the yeast.

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Let us know how it turned out!

I brewed this on memorial day and I kegged it saturday night. Could have let it sit for a little longer but I'm excited for this. I kegged it saturday night and cold crashed overnight, and set it at 30 psi yesterday morning. Dropped it down to 25 psi this morning and am going to pull the first pint tonight after work (about 11 hours from now) Probably be undercarbed but I can't wait!

EDIT FOR PHOTO: Still undercarbed obviously. The picture makes it look a lot darker than it is due to the lighting and it's still cloudy. Very easy to make, very easy to drink... almost too easy to drink. Not bitter and not much aroma but delicious. A lot of my bmc friends would enjoy this.

Plan to bottle / keg my first batch this weekend. I have never kegged beer before put plan to leave the co2 tank attached to the keg in the fridge for a few weeks. What psi would you recommend setting and serving at?

I also plan to bottle half the batch. I bought some carbonation tablets for this. The package instructs 3 tablets for low carbonation, 4 for medium and 5 for high. What would be the recommended dosage for this type of beer?

It depends on what temperature you're at and how much carbonation you want. I like my Haus at 2.5 volumes. Try out this chart...

http://www.kegerators.com/carbonation-table.php

I have no experience bottle carbing.

So I tried this out of my keg again last night, and it just tastes really watery? I did my boil between two pots on the stove and only added hops to one pot. Could this be why? I brewed it on memorial day.

treacheroustexan said:

So I tried this out of my keg again last night, and it just tastes really watery? I did my boil between two pots on the stove and only added hops to one pot. Could this be why? I brewed it on memorial day.

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The first time I made this I tried it uncarbed/lightly carbed and I thought the same, really watery. I bumped up the psi and after a week or two of force carbing it was fantastic.

NoahBeach said:

The first time I made this I tried it uncarbed/lightly carbed and I thought the same, really watery. I bumped up the psi and after a week or two of force carbing it was fantastic.

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Maybe I'l wait another week or so to pour one. Hopefully that's the issue!

treacheroustexan said:

Maybe I'l wait another week or so to pour one. Hopefully that's the issue!

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Yeah carbonation, or lack thereof, makes for some really weird tastes.

NickTheGreat said:

Yeah carbonation, or lack thereof, makes for some really weird tastes.

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Whatcha know... Pulled a pint and it's carbed today and it's fantastic.

Haus Pale Ale - English Style

Went a different route with a recent batch.
Maris Otter in place of the standard pale ale malt.
Cluster hops (0.75 oz @ FWH & 0.25 oz @ 20 min.)
East Kent Goldings (0.5 oz each @ 20, 15, 10, 5 min.)

The basis of this recipe is so adaptable it's great to try out different malts and hops.

This was awesome dry hopped with Amarillo!

Here it is. Yum.

Definitely a good staple as a haus ale...

Brewed this as our first all grain yesterday. Had to replace the Vienna malt with Munich Light because the supply store was out of Vienna. Also used whole hops instead of pellets. We tasted it before adding the yeast and putting in the fermenter. I could really taste the Munich malt and a whole lot of hops.

I can't believe this didn't win best pale ale in the article a couple weeks back. On my second batch and it's a huge hit with everyone!

Just got it in fermentation chamber. Hopefully I'm impressed. Description from everyone sounds like its what Im looking for. Can't go wrong with Ed as ive learned.

Why crash keg? I've never done this before.

dustinolsen84 said:

Why crash keg? I've never done this before.

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Drops more yeast out of suspension and makes a clearer finished product. I use gelatin and from my research its more effective if used after a cold crash.

Brewed today and hit an OG if 1.065. Pretty good for my second AG.

I have brewed this twice now and both time turned out very tasty but the color of my beer seems to be much lighter than all the pictures I have seen. What would cause this?