Brewing in the morning!

[LTownLiquorPig]

Jonesing pretty bad right now. My wife will be heading to work about 8:30, I'll be headed the opposite direction to get my ingredients. I'm stil just playing with kit beer, I'm definitely going to brew a cheap "Doric Canadian Beer Kit" and add a KG of "Munton's Beer Enhancer" +1 pound of pasteurized honey. I might take a crakc at a straight Cooper's IPA or Irish Stout as well.

Been itching since I bottled my last batch on Saturday morning. It was just the straight "Doric" kit with the Munton's product, but at only about 18 L. It tasted a lot better than I expected, greatly upping my anticipation level!

 

[cory11]

I feel your pain. I'm ready to brew again! Think I have to wait for the weekend though.

 

[LTownLiquorPig]

Uggh, brew day screwed all to hell. Wife's car wouldn't start, had to scramble to get her to work and our daughter to school on time, then figure out what was wrong with her car (she had left the map light on all night.....). Good news was all it needed was a boost and some running time.

Finally got to the place where I buy my ingredients and they didn't have any of the plain hopped LME that I was going to use. Good news, I guess, is they move through it pretty quickly. They had six or so cans when I bought one 6 weeks ago. Bad news is it changed my plans. Ended up with a Cooper's IPA kit and a KG of the brew enhancer.

I'll try to get this one going again in a couple weeks. I hope to brew bi-weekly until late April. Then drink all summer!

 

[LTownLiquorPig]

My apologies to anyone who keeps reading this expecting something earth shattering. I use HBT as my brew log; less likely to be lost, coloured on, deleted, or used as evidence if the boss finds out how much I brew.

Put the Cooper's IPA (best before July 2013) kit together, with a KG of the Munton's Beer Enhancer. The kit smelled maltier than I'd expected, not really any hop that my nose noticed, a little dissapointed there. Struggled to get the temperature I wanted to pitch yeast at; finally got a good mix of hot from the stove/cold from the tap water at about 75*, and pitched a packet of Nottingham. Topped up to only 20L instead of the prescribed 23L. OG was 1.020, but I am assuming, as I followed procedure, that that is more a lack of adequate mixing of exctract, enhancer and water than a real problem. I was about 90 minutes from start of organizing my gear to finishing my clean up.

I will ferment in my basement, which is running mid to high 50's right now, so I'll wrap the carboy in a winter sleeping bag and get it up off the floor. Will run a blow off tube, but don't expect a very active fermentation at that temp.

Not going to look at it for 3 weeks, but hope to put another kit together in 2 weeks time.

 

[Jamminjoenapo]

T minus 4 hrs til I'm home from work and can brew tonight.

 

[Burgan]

To get a better fermentation why don't you move the bucket upstairs where it is warmer. Mid 50's might not give you the production you want.

 

[cory11]

I almost decided to brew thismorning, but decided it would be too much time crunch before work. So, instead I soaked some bottles to remove labels and took a gravity reading of my oatmeal stout. Looking like a brewing and bottling weekend!

 

[LTownLiquorPig]

To get a better fermentation why don't you move the bucket upstairs where it is warmer. Mid 50's might not give you the production you want.

The Boss says no. I just brewed a batch that turned out pretty well. The yeast I used came in a plain white packet, no markings at all. What I put on today is the Notty, which according to many will work fine in the upper 50's. Worse case scenario I leave the heat pad beside it to keep the temp up a little.

 

[Burgan]

That should work then. I also know how the "boss" can be. I brewed a wheat beer over the summer that gave off that funky fruity stank that those wheat Yeasts are know for. She wasn't happy.

 

[LTownLiquorPig]

That should work then. I also know how the "boss" can be. I brewed a wheat beer over the summer that gave off that funky fruity stank that those wheat Yeasts are know for. She wasn't happy.

So far so good. Starting to see a foam layer on top of the beer in the carboy. Temp holding at 68* still, have had the heater on about 90 minutes since I pitched the yeast. My -20 Celsius sleeping bag seems to be doing the trick at keeping the heal in. Hope to see a good ferment going in the AM so I can let it cool out a little.

 

[LTownLiquorPig]

Beautiful light, white, fluffy Krausen floating about 4 inches thick atop the carboy, blow off water bubbling away. Temp about 64*, loosely wrapped in a winter sleeping bag.

 

[LTownLiquorPig]

48 hours in and still a steady bubble coming through the blow off. 62* on side of carboy.

 

[LTownLiquorPig]

5 days in, 58* on the sticky. Bubbles still coming through at about 1 a second.

 

[LTownLiquorPig]

Bottled this yesterday. Sample smelled great, but was a little "hot" tasting. Expect it to mellow over the next few weeks in bottle. Finished out at 1.011 or so.

 

[LTownLiquorPig]

Well, I tried one of these 9 days ago (3 days after bottling). I was thirsty, ran out of beer watching the super bowl so I stuck it in the fridge. Yuck.

I just had one this morning while bottling a stout, and YUM! Not much hop flavour, but a nice bitter flavour. I wouldn't call this an IPA, at least the Canadian examples I'd had, but I'd call it maybe a step under an ESB as far as bitter goes.

If/when I brew it again I will add some flavour hops to the batch I think.