Adventures with Surly Furious

[Token]

This has been a crazy experience. This is the Surly Furious available from Northern Brewer. I've never experienced so many crazy things with one beer.

The yeast I used is a 3rd generation. First was used in Yooper's oatmeal stout, then NB's Dawson's Multigrain Red, now in the Surly Furious.

I've never used Better Bottles. Austin Homebrew had a sale, so I got some and used one with this beer. Maybe that's why I've never seen so much stuff hanging on the sides of the fermenter. (?)

This was the first time I reallly needed a blow-off tube also. The wort got aerated really well. I racked it to one bottle, then dumped it into another for fermentation.

 

[Token]

That was about a month and a half ago. The taste/smells of the hydrometer samples had me a little concerned. (Hey, it's not "Worry Wort Brewing" for nothing!) The latest sample is smelling/tasting pretty good. OG was 1.069, FG is 1.012. This is a fairly big beer for me.

I moved this to a secondary after about 3 weeks or so. I don't normally secondary; but there was so much yeast and stuff hanging around even in the hydrometer samples, I figured I'd better secondary it.

A few days ago I decided to go ahead with the 8 1/2 oz of dry hop addition. LOTS of hops. I plunked them in, and the air lock started up. I was worried about that, but it settled down not long after.

 

[Token]

This is what it looks like now. I have NEVER seen anything like this; then again I've never dry hopped with 8 1/2 oz of pellet hops.

I'm just wondering how I'm supposed to rack this beer to the bottling bucket????

 

[strumke]

You can try a piece of cheesecloth around the racking cane, but it may clog up pretty fast... You might be better off racking to another carboy, letting things settle and then going to the bucket.

 

[WilliamWS]

If you can, crash cool it. Just about all of the hop material will drop to the bottom. Then rack very carefully and don't get too caught up in getting every drop out.

 

[Token]

I kinda thought about a crash cool. I'm not sure how cool I can get it this time of year. I usually rely on the garage for that, but it's been pretty warm here. I think the garage is around 50 degrees. Then I'm not sure if all of that will actually fall. Still thinking of giving it a whirl though.

I'm kinda thinking of racking as much as I can as it sits, THEN try a cool, then get what I can out of it for bottling.

To me it just seems weird that it's all sitting at the top. I hope it's actually getting some aroma out of it. I guess I'll find out!

 

[killer]

You should like the results of the NB Furious recipe as they go it directly
From Surly. I even have the recipe for the "dry hop blend".

After I kegged it, had some friends over and got several compliments including one that said it tasted the same as the can he had several hours earlier!

Killer

 

[H-ost]

That first fermentation picture does look crazy.

I nylon stocking around my racking cane to filter trub and hops, it didn't clog for me.

 

[Token]

I found the dry hop "recipe" here and emailed NB to confirm. So I'm glad to know I have that correct. And luckily I bought a pound of Simcoe when it was easy to get. So I should be ok with the proper dry hop recipe.

Hmmm, a nylon stocking huh? Amazing how many guys here have nylon stockings but I don't.

 

[H-ost]

Hmmm, a nylon stocking huh? Amazing how many guys here have nylon stockings but I don't.

HAHAHA... I was actually annoyed when I found out that it costs me ~5$ for two "siphon filters".

 

[Token]

Oh geez, is that what they cost nowadays? Ok. Thanks for the heads up!

 

[Token]

I ended up cutting a piece off a mesh bag instead of using nylons for a filter. I think it worked pretty well. The hops actually fell pretty well, but I was still glad to have the mesh strainer at the inlet of my auto siphon.

Bottling went pretty well. That was a week ago. I tried this beer last night. OMG is it good! It's really murky, but it's super tasty. Has a real nice head to it too with good lacing. Kinda weirds me out how murky it is; but it tastes so good, it's hard to get too worked up about the murkiness.

Can't wait to share it with the guys on Big Brew Day!

P.S. Sorry no pic of the beer in the glass. It went down so fast, I didn't get a chance to take a pic!

 

[Yooper]

I ended up cutting a piece off a mesh bag instead of using nylons for a filter. I think it worked pretty well. The hops actually fell pretty well, but I was still glad to have the mesh strainer at the inlet of my auto siphon.

Bottling went pretty well. That was a week ago. I tried this beer last night. OMG is it good! It's really murky, but it's super tasty. Has a real nice head to it too with good lacing. Kinda weirds me out how murky it is; but it tastes so good, it's hard to get too worked up about the murkiness.

Can't wait to share it with the guys on Big Brew Day!

P.S. Sorry no pic of the beer in the glass. It went down so fast, I didn't get a chance to take a pic!

Oh, when/where is Big Brew Day? Can I invite myself? I was invited to go to Appleton but that's pretty far for me. You're not much closer, but at least a little bit closer! Not that I would invited myself over, just to drink your Surly Furious clone. No sirree, because that would be rude. But if I just happened to come over, and you just happened to have a bottle or three, that would be such a coincidence!

 

[Token]

524 Minnesota Av, Gladstone

Off the highway at the Shell station, follow the curve in the road at the State police post, right at the Gladstone Motel. We start at 11 eastern time.

 

[Yooper]

524 Minnesota Av, Gladstone

Off the highway at the Shell station, follow the curve in the road at the State police post, right at the Gladstone Motel. We start at 11 eastern time.

If it's ok with you (and the rest), I might show up if I can get away. I'd really love to do that!

 

[Token]

Sure thing!

 

[whatsleftofyou]

You can watch me try to brew an American Barleywine that's going to get the barrel treatment. I should probably start working on that recipe...

 

[Yooper]

You can watch me try to brew an American Barleywine that's going to get the barrel treatment. I should probably start working on that recipe...

I always love to see men working while I sip on a beer. I'll try to make it, as I'd love to visit!

Perc, sorry to steal your Surly thread! Carry on!

 

[Ramitt]

Wow, that is a serious dry hop. For what it is worth I have used the small paint strainer bags on my siphon to filter hops, both on the siphon end and hose end. Worked great both ways.

 

[Token]

Ya, that's pretty much what I did. I wasn't too sure about putting one on the hose end; I thought it might cause some aeration?? Probably a dumb thought. Anyway, I don't think I got much junk going through the line.

I used the same technique the next day for the half-batch I made (yes, half-batch; I messed up and didn't order enough hops for a full batch). The weird thing was I had a lot of bubbles going through the line with that one. I thought maybe the inlet with the mesh was plugged. So I pulled the auto siphon out, rinsed everything, resanitized, and started the siphon back up. Same thing. WTH?? This batch didn't have nearly as much hops to potentially clog the inlet, so i don't know what was going on. I just hope it turns out ok and not cardboardy. Keeping my fingers crossed....

 

[aurorajp]

Old thread, but hoping to maybe get some info from you perc. After you cold crashed and racked did you lose a lot of beer to the trub and hop mess at the bottom? I'm trying to avoid that, I brewed this just over a week ago and trying to figure out how to proceed before this weekend.

Thanks.

 

[Token]

I'd say I easily lost 1 gallon all together. Ya, lots of trub. Then again when you're dry hopping with over 8 oz of pellets... I decided when/if I make this again, I'll dry hop with leaf hops in a bag. I'm hoping to slowly raise the bag from the beer to let as much drain out (without a lot of splashing) as possible to reduce the loss. Great beer either way! Enjoy!

 

[aurorajp]

If I'm using the pellets that came with the kit would it be bad to squeeze out the bag to get a few last drops of goodness out? If it introduces oxygen is there anyway to counteract that, possibly by fermenting for another couple days, or would I lose hop aroma that way?

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Token]

Oh good Lord. You don't need to squeeze out any "last drops of goodness." There will be a TON of hop flavor/aroma. From what I've been told, there's nothing you can do for oxidation.

Don't try to get greedy on this one. There will be more than enough flavor from just brewing it straight up.