3 Generations of Homebrew! (w/ pics)

[KFBass]

So this was my first "real brew" as in not using kits, or pre-made wort. My grandpa has been home brewing probably since before i was born. I did not know that until I got into the hobby and started talking about it with him.

So anyways last weekend, myself, my father, and my grandpa got together for some wholesome family beer making. Recipe is as follows

3lbs pale what malt
2 lbs Canadian 2-row
.25lbs chocolate malt
3lbs amber DME
1/2oz perle 60min
1oz saaz 20min

Gotta give a shoutout to Randy at www.homebrew-supplies.ca for getting this all together for me.

We followed DeathBrewers Patial Mash method, more or less. Here is the grain bag being added.

and the DME addition. Big up to my dad for getting this "action shot". It took a while to get it up to boiling temps.

The Perle. Note the printout my grandpa made of the emails we first sent back and forth. Guy likes to be organized I guess. He basically let me do my own (albeit borrowed) methods that I got off this site. He just made sure I didn't mess anything up too badly.

The Boil was rather un-eventful. after some scrambling to get the temp to stay constant (damn electric stoves) we had one small boil over, that was easily taken care of. Note to self, don't eat lunch while things are boiling on the stove.

There was quite a large amount of hops, and floaties left over when we strained it.

After that we cooled, and combined with cool water to bring it up to 5 gal. The reading on the hydro was 1.028 @ 65f. Little lower then I was shooting for, as well a little lower then I may have preferred, but this can just be my before 5pm beer

So, things I'd do differently. Probably nothing. Went pretty smoothly. That being said, havn't tasted anything yet so it could be terrible. It's fermenting in my grandpa's "brewery" as we call it. And he's hooking daily updates. He's got some old school idea's about bottling and secondaries and such though. I had to explain to him what a bottling wand was So it'll be interesting to see how that whole adventure pans out. I'll keep everyone here posted.

Thanks everyone on HBT for helping me along with your knowledge!

 

[Erythro73]

For your OG, you probably just didn't mix evenly the top-off water along with the wort. I ran the number in Beersmith, and you should've been higher.

 

[Professor Frink]

For your OG, you probably just didn't mix evenly the top-off water along with the wort. I ran the number in Beersmith, and you should've been higher.

Agreed. Unless you mixed it really well, the sugars are going to drop to the bottom at first. The yeast will take care of that though.

 

[KFBass]

Word. SO I shouldn't worry about it? It'll be a bit higher then what was read? or is it still going to finish with a low abv?

Would there be a way around that? Say like using a bigger boil, larger strike water ect...or is it just the sugars haven't had time to mix into the water near the top (make a solution?)

 

[Jaysus]

I think it is awesome that gramps is a brewer too!

 

[BrewDocND]

For your OG, you probably just didn't mix evenly the top-off water along with the wort. I ran the number in Beersmith, and you should've been higher.

I did exactly that on saturday. Ended up way lower than expected (1.040 instead of 1.053) then realized later I was probably pulling a good deal of water off the top.

 

[Erythro73]

Word. SO I shouldn't worry about it? It'll be a bit higher then what was read? or is it still going to finish with a low abv?

Would there be a way around that? Say like using a bigger boil, larger strike water ect...or is it just the sugars haven't had time to mix into the water near the top (make a solution?)

A bit higher? It was probably a lot higher. Probably around 1.055 (I don't find the exact ingredients you used in Beersmith, but I'm substituting for the nearest ingredient. eg. Canadian 2-Row---> US 2-Row). You should have a FG of approximately 1.013, which mean your beer will have an ABV of 5.35%.

RDWHAHB

You can take a look by yourself. Download the free trial of Beersmith and run your own numbers!

 

[KFBass]

Well that is much better haha. I guess im just a bit confused, I should be expecting the numbers in the program, not the ones I observed?

I guess i'll find out in a few weeks either way. Thanks tho!

 

[Erythro73]

Well that is much better haha. I guess im just a bit confused, I should be expecting the numbers in the program, not the ones I observed?

I guess i'll find out in a few weeks either way. Thanks tho!

Well, you should always use the numbers your measured. But, when you use top-off water, it's a common mistake to not mix evenly and have a lower OG. So I guess, in your case, you should use Beersmith's OG, but measure yourself your own FG.

Beersmith's approximations are good, but he still cannot predict how the yeast will behave in your wort, what temperature you will set it too, and some other variables. So really, read your own FG.