2nd New Jersey all grain seminar in the works

[Bobby_M]

As long as you get that strike water hot for the cooler preheat, you will have no problems even being half full. I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[janzik]

My five was churning by 7am this morning at 68F, how's its brother doing?

It's sitting between 64 and 68 and I had activity by 6am yesterday when I checked. Lookin' good!

 

[Bobby_M]

Dang, it made it to 1.013 by this evening. I'm shocked S-04 and Windsor had it in them but I'm glad. I worried a little that I didn't drop the mash temp a degree or two in anticipation for Windsor over Nottingham. That's why I doubled up on the yeast. In any case, it tastes great but a little yeasty. I'm gonna let this one go until the weekend after next, cold crash for 3-5 days and rack to keg.

 

[janzik]

Dang, it made it to 1.013 by this evening. I'm shocked S-04 and Windsor had it in them but I'm glad. I worried a little that I didn't drop the mash temp a degree or two in anticipation for Windsor over Nottingham. That's why I doubled up on the yeast. In any case, it tastes great but a little yeasty. I'm gonna let this one go until the weekend after next, cold crash for 3-5 days and rack to keg.

I'm at 1.010 today. I'll move it to the secondary mid next week. Tastes like an easy drinker. Will be good for the summer...

 

[Bobby_M]

Hell, if it goes any lower, I'd be seriously checking my thermometer out or reconsidering how attenuative Windsor really is.

 

[janzik]

Hell, if it goes any lower, I'd be seriously checking my thermometer out or reconsidering how attenuative Windsor really is.

I checked it the other day when I finally moved to the secondary it was under 10. Almost as low as 8. It had a hard time reading it. Had a little foam in my test jar. But it was definitely under 10.

 

[Bobby_M]

Mine stopped at 1.012 last I checked about two days ago. It was almost clear so I racked it into a keg with the diptube cut a little shorter. I haven't started cold conditioning just yet but I will by next week sometime. I'm in no hurry with this one because I want it to last into the hot summer.

 

[janzik]

Mine stopped at 1.012 last I checked about two days ago. It was almost clear so I racked it into a keg with the diptube cut a little shorter. I haven't started cold conditioning just yet but I will by next week sometime. I'm in no hurry with this one because I want it to last into the hot summer.

Luckily, I've gotten to the point where I'm in no rush to move things around, so I'll just leave it in the secondary for another few weeks bottle it it mid-May.

I've got an extract Cherry Wheat in a primary, and an apfelwine just starting to ferment, so I'll have some nice stuff for the summer.

(...and a stout in the secondary for the fall, woo!)

How did mine go so much lower than yours? Did you use a different yeast? I seen the recipe had 3 packets of yeast, not sure if that was a typo or not. Did you divide them separately or mix them together then pitched?

 

[Bobby_M]

I mixed all three packs together in a cup and split it equally. I'm guessing you might have gotten just a bit more yeast and/or our hydrometers are slightly different. Mine might read a point high, and yours reads a point low with maybe a "real" point difference in the beers. Maybe I fermented a couple degrees cooler than you? Who knows.

 

[joejaz]

Did you crack any open yet? THis is the second one I had and wanted to make sure it wasn't a fluke b4 I posted. This beer is great, just as good if not better than the first one we made. Will keep this receipe and will definitely make again.

 

[Bobby_M]

I have it in a keg but it's sitting at garage temps (60F) with very low carbonation (maybe 1.25 volumes) because I have to wait for one of my five kegs to kick. I sampled it last night and it's going to go pretty fast this summer....er June.

As much as I like variety, I keep going back to my American Blonde and IPAs for my during and after dinner beer. I think this bitter (technically based on the low SRM it's a Summer Best Bitter) is going to replace the blonde in about 2 more pints.

 

[Bobby_M]

I was right. The blonde kicked last week so I got the bitter in the kegger and it's finally carbed and clear this weekend. Wow, great beer. I'm probably going to brew this one again in the fall now that I have the EKG to spare.

 

[joejaz]

Bobby, can we substitute the EKGs for fuggles?

 

[Bobby_M]

I think EKG is a pretty good sub for Fuggle. In fact, I only used the fuggle because they were getting a bit old and wanted to use them up.

For a slight variation on this, I'm thinking of either replacing the 40L with 80L or Adding 4 ounces of 120L for some color and complexity.