Brewsday
Well-Known Member
OK folks I really need some advice and help
and apologize for the long post but youll understand if you take the time to read
(which I appreciate
Ive logged 100s of hours reading HBT in the last 3 months)
Anyhow, after a 20 year break I restarted brewing about 2 months ago. First I made a TrueBrew IPA kit (which I am currently really enjoying after 6 weeks in bottle), then I repeated a 20-year old recipe of mine thats essentially an all-extract Mountmellick Irish Stout perhaps a little heavy on the hops (its tasting pretty good too after 4 weeks in bottle). I have a Windriverbrew.com (nice kit and nice guys!) Dark German Lager lagering for the 3rd week in a carboy. And a Windriverbrew Red Cedar Ale in another carboy .you see Im currently unemployed and SWMBO is working late nights so I have time and Im going for it while the weather in Maine still sucks (8 of snow yesterday). All this to say Im not totally newbie. Id planned to go all grain outdoors next summer (2012) by the pool!
But my need for more carboys put me on craigslist every morning and I think I may have purchased one of the all-time great CL loads of brewing gear last week. I filled my full-sized, 4-door, Dodge Ram Hemi with:
7 carboys (5x5, a 6, and a 6.7 gallon), a 10 gallon demijohn, 5 buckets (some with bottling taps), 4 cans of LME, 1 hydrometer, 2 big floating thermometers, a homemade copper chiller, stoppers, bottling cane and 17 cases of clean, no-label, 12 oz. bottles (mostly Sam Adams, some store-bought) plus a whole lot of misc (including 2 oz. of Irish moss). AND
what seems to me like a fairly complete all-grain set-up featuring: two 5-gallon orange insulated water jugs, one with a perforated stainless false bottom the other with spigot for sparge water, a brass spinning sparging arm, a mounted JSP Maltmill (fixed gap?) w/hopper, a homemade wood stand for a 3-tier set-up, a propane burner (not a huge banjo king but iron and beefier than the one on my grill), an 8 gallon aluminum turkey fryer with basket and lid AND (heres where you all come in) in a you can have these bags of grain I never used if you want them moment I loaded up 6 (six) pre-measured plastic bags which he told me each contains:
71/4 lb Muntons pale 2 row malt,
1/2 lb crystal malt and
1/2 oz black patent malt . In his words a very basic pale ale mix.
I mentioned what I was currently drinking and brewing and he said:
I have never lagered this, but you could. I have had good results in the past, when I lagered with malts designed for ales. The up side to this is that you avoid the higher cost of cara pils malt. If you want to try this, you should add 1/2 lb corn sugar near the end of the boil to lighten the body a little or put 1/2 lb torrified wheat into the malt as you crush it. For a pale ale use 2 oz kent golding hops for first 45 min of boil and 1 oz for the last 15 min. For a Helles, german lager, use 2 oz hallertau for first 50 min of boil , 1 oz saaz for last 10 min. and 1/2 oz saaz for last 2min. For a sierra nevada pale ale, substitute cascade for kent goldings. To convert to porter add 1/2 lb chocolate malt to mix when crushing and use the same hops as for pale ale.
He also gave me:
4# Muntons Crystal (no other markings), 4# marked cara, 2# marked carafoam (lighter in color than the cara), 1# Black Patent (sealed bag), 1# chocolate and a couple other unidentified scraps
I have inspected, smelled and tasted everything with my totally inexperienced senses, it smells like grain, it all tastes like wort smells, not musty or stale, the crystal is sweet, the chocolate is bitter, the cara tastes like wort smells...to me anyhow. Again, I think this guy was a pretty serious brewer and he took care of his stuff.
So I see nothing but opportunity here! These represent essentially free test materials with which to practicce and learn about AG brewing. I mean, hopefully all I need to buy is hops, yeast, and priming sugar (I have a good supply of crowns).
In my dream world Id brew some/all into IPA. Im not opposed to using two kits to make one batch. But I thumbed through Clone Brews 2010 and Black Patent does not seem to be an IPA ingredient. However, on page 166 of that book is Courage Directors Bitter (English Ale) that is a very (?) close recipe match (7.66# British 2-row pale, 10 oz. British Crystal and ¼ oz. black malt) and sounds a lot like an IPA hoppy, complex bitter with grain and fruit on the nose and an intense bittersweet finish.. If I find a 6 pack at the store Ill buy it. Im also interested in porter but need to K.I.S.S. for now.
Following the Clone Brews recipe is very appealing to me even though I dont know this beer, I have had many best bitters in my life there are very few reasonably hoppy beers I dont like! (BTW I want to someday brew a Russian Imperial Stout and a Wee Heavy). I might bump up the hops mash like mad...and have a great supply of brew for this summer if I get to work soon. BTW, Id like to start AG brewing around April 23.
So I have two questions:
1) What do you think??? Clone Brew the Bitter??? Bump up the hops a little? Or please make suggestions as I know many of you can think this through while doing the morning crossword its so second nature. Please get creative on me! (with the caveat that Im hoping to not spend too much on additional ingredients) But if you do, please be complete and specific or invite me to PM you.
2) This guy kept stuff clean but there are some (minimal) brown stains in the MLT (?) mild bleach didnt work how much does it matter? Do you AG brewers all have stained tuns? How about Mr Clean Magic Erasers??? I will take it all apart and clean fittings (including final StarSan) and of course I need to fix the leaks!
Oh, and at the risk of driving some frustrated craigslist shoppers nuts although I drove 300 miles deeper into Maine to get it (so 25 gallons of gas and 7 hours) the number you are wondering about is $200 for everything !
Thanks for reading my first serious post. Cheers!
Anyhow, after a 20 year break I restarted brewing about 2 months ago. First I made a TrueBrew IPA kit (which I am currently really enjoying after 6 weeks in bottle), then I repeated a 20-year old recipe of mine thats essentially an all-extract Mountmellick Irish Stout perhaps a little heavy on the hops (its tasting pretty good too after 4 weeks in bottle). I have a Windriverbrew.com (nice kit and nice guys!) Dark German Lager lagering for the 3rd week in a carboy. And a Windriverbrew Red Cedar Ale in another carboy .you see Im currently unemployed and SWMBO is working late nights so I have time and Im going for it while the weather in Maine still sucks (8 of snow yesterday). All this to say Im not totally newbie. Id planned to go all grain outdoors next summer (2012) by the pool!
But my need for more carboys put me on craigslist every morning and I think I may have purchased one of the all-time great CL loads of brewing gear last week. I filled my full-sized, 4-door, Dodge Ram Hemi with:
7 carboys (5x5, a 6, and a 6.7 gallon), a 10 gallon demijohn, 5 buckets (some with bottling taps), 4 cans of LME, 1 hydrometer, 2 big floating thermometers, a homemade copper chiller, stoppers, bottling cane and 17 cases of clean, no-label, 12 oz. bottles (mostly Sam Adams, some store-bought) plus a whole lot of misc (including 2 oz. of Irish moss). AND
what seems to me like a fairly complete all-grain set-up featuring: two 5-gallon orange insulated water jugs, one with a perforated stainless false bottom the other with spigot for sparge water, a brass spinning sparging arm, a mounted JSP Maltmill (fixed gap?) w/hopper, a homemade wood stand for a 3-tier set-up, a propane burner (not a huge banjo king but iron and beefier than the one on my grill), an 8 gallon aluminum turkey fryer with basket and lid AND (heres where you all come in) in a you can have these bags of grain I never used if you want them moment I loaded up 6 (six) pre-measured plastic bags which he told me each contains:
71/4 lb Muntons pale 2 row malt,
1/2 lb crystal malt and
1/2 oz black patent malt . In his words a very basic pale ale mix.
I mentioned what I was currently drinking and brewing and he said:
I have never lagered this, but you could. I have had good results in the past, when I lagered with malts designed for ales. The up side to this is that you avoid the higher cost of cara pils malt. If you want to try this, you should add 1/2 lb corn sugar near the end of the boil to lighten the body a little or put 1/2 lb torrified wheat into the malt as you crush it. For a pale ale use 2 oz kent golding hops for first 45 min of boil and 1 oz for the last 15 min. For a Helles, german lager, use 2 oz hallertau for first 50 min of boil , 1 oz saaz for last 10 min. and 1/2 oz saaz for last 2min. For a sierra nevada pale ale, substitute cascade for kent goldings. To convert to porter add 1/2 lb chocolate malt to mix when crushing and use the same hops as for pale ale.
He also gave me:
4# Muntons Crystal (no other markings), 4# marked cara, 2# marked carafoam (lighter in color than the cara), 1# Black Patent (sealed bag), 1# chocolate and a couple other unidentified scraps
I have inspected, smelled and tasted everything with my totally inexperienced senses, it smells like grain, it all tastes like wort smells, not musty or stale, the crystal is sweet, the chocolate is bitter, the cara tastes like wort smells...to me anyhow. Again, I think this guy was a pretty serious brewer and he took care of his stuff.
So I see nothing but opportunity here! These represent essentially free test materials with which to practicce and learn about AG brewing. I mean, hopefully all I need to buy is hops, yeast, and priming sugar (I have a good supply of crowns).
In my dream world Id brew some/all into IPA. Im not opposed to using two kits to make one batch. But I thumbed through Clone Brews 2010 and Black Patent does not seem to be an IPA ingredient. However, on page 166 of that book is Courage Directors Bitter (English Ale) that is a very (?) close recipe match (7.66# British 2-row pale, 10 oz. British Crystal and ¼ oz. black malt) and sounds a lot like an IPA hoppy, complex bitter with grain and fruit on the nose and an intense bittersweet finish.. If I find a 6 pack at the store Ill buy it. Im also interested in porter but need to K.I.S.S. for now.
Following the Clone Brews recipe is very appealing to me even though I dont know this beer, I have had many best bitters in my life there are very few reasonably hoppy beers I dont like! (BTW I want to someday brew a Russian Imperial Stout and a Wee Heavy). I might bump up the hops mash like mad...and have a great supply of brew for this summer if I get to work soon. BTW, Id like to start AG brewing around April 23.
So I have two questions:
1) What do you think??? Clone Brew the Bitter??? Bump up the hops a little? Or please make suggestions as I know many of you can think this through while doing the morning crossword its so second nature. Please get creative on me! (with the caveat that Im hoping to not spend too much on additional ingredients) But if you do, please be complete and specific or invite me to PM you.
2) This guy kept stuff clean but there are some (minimal) brown stains in the MLT (?) mild bleach didnt work how much does it matter? Do you AG brewers all have stained tuns? How about Mr Clean Magic Erasers??? I will take it all apart and clean fittings (including final StarSan) and of course I need to fix the leaks!
Oh, and at the risk of driving some frustrated craigslist shoppers nuts although I drove 300 miles deeper into Maine to get it (so 25 gallons of gas and 7 hours) the number you are wondering about is $200 for everything !
Thanks for reading my first serious post. Cheers!
