OpenSights
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Brew day today! Other than the normal good time with a couple of buddies and a few session beers, it didn’t go quite so well... in a number of ways.
I consider myself new to brewing, but have been brewing for 2.5 years. I’m at the point where I kinda know what I’m doing, but know I’ve just scratched the surface. This is my 4th AG. First two were pathetic, third I hit every number almost perfectly, now this one...
The beer on the other hand, I should’ve used my smaller tun, but that one I’ve had a couple stuck sparges. This is the first beer recipe that I’ve written by myself and from research and advice from all my friends who have used ginger in a recipe I decided to change the recipe on brew day.
A couple of things don’t add up, mostly my water volumes and my OG.
What I don’t get is all the sugars were there, hops, ginger and other ingredients changed a bit, same with boil times. I did over sparge. 60 minute boil I loose a gallon with my keggle. Over sparged by half a gallon. Plan was a 60 minute boil, and this was a 5.65% beer. No biggie, not going for ABV, just a little bit of alcohol with ginger and lemon. One of my lp tanks was acting up. Thought it was my regulator. Nope. So I had a half of a 20#er. So change of plans. 30 minute boil. Here’s where it gets confusing, I ended up with 4.5 gallons out of 6.5 gallons pre boil. My OG ended up at 1.030 instead of 1.047. Yes, over sparged, but under boiled, ended up with less wort than I should’ve and lower gravity
Recipe:
5 gallon, 60 minute boil, OG 1.047, FG 1.040, S-04, IBUs: 32.9, color 6.3 SRM
5# Pilsen 2 row
1# caramel malt
4oz black strap molasses @60
1# 8oz light brown sugar @60
1oz Centennial @60
1oz Citra @20
32oz peeled, coarsely chopped fresh ginger @20
5oz ginger race (granulated) @10
1oz lemon peel @10
I wrote the recipe before I did a bunch of reading and talking with people, so I knew I was going to change up the schedule.
What really went down:
No Centennial. I planned on cutting it down to 30 minutes, but nope, no Centennial. Looked for another hop in stock, chose Kohatu. Never used it before, got it for cheap when my LHBS was closing. Reading up on it, decided it might pair well with the Citra, lemon and ginger. (I know early American hard ginger beer also used orange peel, but that’s not for me.) Decided to drop boil to 30 minutes, no need to boil the malt and sugars other than to concentrate from over sparging. Oh, and could only find 1oz of ginger race...
So 30 minute boil
Ginger root @10
1oz Citra, 1oz Kohatu, 1oz ginger race, 1oz lemon peel @5
At the last few degrees before transfer to the fermentor, when my back was turned cleaning up what I could I went to check temp and found the lemon peel bag floating in the cooled wort! So I decided to drop a campden tablet and pitch tomorrow night.
After the wort was in the fermentor I was cleaning up the snacks, cans and everything else I got stung by a yellow jacket on my left pinky! SOB! I haven’t been stung in probably a decade! 1/4 of my hand is swollen.
But I made MY beer today! The wort is sweet, so I have a hard time believing my hydrometer, but how can it lie? Tonight I’m going to be thinking of how to raise the OG 0.017, or if I just let it ride. I wanted to make an alcoholic version of Vernor’s, which is why I went light on malt, but still wanted it part of the party. Kind of traditional beer, but extra ginger.
Next time I’m going to copy the revised and cut the lemon peel or citrus hops in half. Right now the lemon and ginger are having a fist fight. I’m hoping the ginger wins and the lemon settles down, but I have my doubts.
Any thoughts for next time?
I consider myself new to brewing, but have been brewing for 2.5 years. I’m at the point where I kinda know what I’m doing, but know I’ve just scratched the surface. This is my 4th AG. First two were pathetic, third I hit every number almost perfectly, now this one...
The beer on the other hand, I should’ve used my smaller tun, but that one I’ve had a couple stuck sparges. This is the first beer recipe that I’ve written by myself and from research and advice from all my friends who have used ginger in a recipe I decided to change the recipe on brew day.
A couple of things don’t add up, mostly my water volumes and my OG.
What I don’t get is all the sugars were there, hops, ginger and other ingredients changed a bit, same with boil times. I did over sparge. 60 minute boil I loose a gallon with my keggle. Over sparged by half a gallon. Plan was a 60 minute boil, and this was a 5.65% beer. No biggie, not going for ABV, just a little bit of alcohol with ginger and lemon. One of my lp tanks was acting up. Thought it was my regulator. Nope. So I had a half of a 20#er. So change of plans. 30 minute boil. Here’s where it gets confusing, I ended up with 4.5 gallons out of 6.5 gallons pre boil. My OG ended up at 1.030 instead of 1.047. Yes, over sparged, but under boiled, ended up with less wort than I should’ve and lower gravity
Recipe:
5 gallon, 60 minute boil, OG 1.047, FG 1.040, S-04, IBUs: 32.9, color 6.3 SRM
5# Pilsen 2 row
1# caramel malt
4oz black strap molasses @60
1# 8oz light brown sugar @60
1oz Centennial @60
1oz Citra @20
32oz peeled, coarsely chopped fresh ginger @20
5oz ginger race (granulated) @10
1oz lemon peel @10
I wrote the recipe before I did a bunch of reading and talking with people, so I knew I was going to change up the schedule.
What really went down:
No Centennial. I planned on cutting it down to 30 minutes, but nope, no Centennial. Looked for another hop in stock, chose Kohatu. Never used it before, got it for cheap when my LHBS was closing. Reading up on it, decided it might pair well with the Citra, lemon and ginger. (I know early American hard ginger beer also used orange peel, but that’s not for me.) Decided to drop boil to 30 minutes, no need to boil the malt and sugars other than to concentrate from over sparging. Oh, and could only find 1oz of ginger race...
So 30 minute boil
Ginger root @10
1oz Citra, 1oz Kohatu, 1oz ginger race, 1oz lemon peel @5
At the last few degrees before transfer to the fermentor, when my back was turned cleaning up what I could I went to check temp and found the lemon peel bag floating in the cooled wort! So I decided to drop a campden tablet and pitch tomorrow night.
After the wort was in the fermentor I was cleaning up the snacks, cans and everything else I got stung by a yellow jacket on my left pinky! SOB! I haven’t been stung in probably a decade! 1/4 of my hand is swollen.
But I made MY beer today! The wort is sweet, so I have a hard time believing my hydrometer, but how can it lie? Tonight I’m going to be thinking of how to raise the OG 0.017, or if I just let it ride. I wanted to make an alcoholic version of Vernor’s, which is why I went light on malt, but still wanted it part of the party. Kind of traditional beer, but extra ginger.
Next time I’m going to copy the revised and cut the lemon peel or citrus hops in half. Right now the lemon and ginger are having a fist fight. I’m hoping the ginger wins and the lemon settles down, but I have my doubts.
Any thoughts for next time?