Everything Brooklyn Brewshop

[bford]

I'm curious about the addition of fruit. I liked the idea of the cranberry winter wheat recipe, but had a hefeweizen kit. So I made the hefeweizen but added cranberry to the last 10 minutes of the boil, 1 cup. The Winter Wheat recipe had the cranberry added at flame out. Any thoughts on what I'll get?

Did you add Cranberry juice or just cranberries?

If you just added cranberries, I doubt you'll get very much from them.... you might look at the Lemon Lime Hefeweizen recipe here in the recipe forum... with that you add limeaide from simply limeaide after fermentation has settled down... maybe adding pure cranberry juice... or something with just pure juice and sugar would give you more flavor... it would also change the color too.. You could also try adding cranberries in a hop bag into the fermenter for the last week or so... and seeing what happens... I think I might crush them a bit first... or maybe boil with a bit of sugar.. letting them cool and then adding in a bag to the fermenter....

These are just ideas... I've added blackberries this way to good effect.

 

[Tkeonce]

Just the berries. They actually kind of explode when boiled, lol. I'll probably leave this batch alone to see what I get and modify on the next brewing.

Did you add Cranberry juice or just cranberries?

If you just added cranberries, I doubt you'll get very much from them.... you might look at the Lemon Lime Hefeweizen recipe here in the recipe forum... with that you add limeaide from simply limeaide after fermentation has settled down... maybe adding pure cranberry juice... or something with just pure juice and sugar would give you more flavor... it would also change the color too.. You could also try adding cranberries in a hop bag into the fermenter for the last week or so... and seeing what happens... I think I might crush them a bit first... or maybe boil with a bit of sugar.. letting them cool and then adding in a bag to the fermenter....

These are just ideas... I've added blackberries this way to good effect.

 

[randallpink]

I brewed the Everyday IPA two weeks ago and bottled today. My ABV clocked in at 8.2% which seems to be very high for this beer.

Pre boil gravity was 1.043
post boil was 1.075

when it came out of the fermenter it was 1.036 or 9 brix on the refractometer, which when put through calculations comes to a 1.012 FG. I mashed in at 160 and it held at 145 for the hour long mash. everything was followed to the instructions for the kit.

Any idea why my ABV is so high? is it a fermentation thing? or a mash efficiency thing? Ive seen that people have gotten around 5-6% from this beer.

Anyone else have this issue or know why this is happening? This is my first ever brew and I've always been a little confused my gravities, so I'm racking my brain trying to figure out if I've done something wrong and what it might be

Please help!

 

[balrog]

I can only offer a couple thoughts: When you measured the OG was it thoroughly stirred? Any way you can do a hydrometer on the FG instead of refractometer?

 

[randallpink]

I did a light stir of the wort after I cooled it to 70F and immediately took an OG reading.

Unfortunately I don't have a hydrometer. Since I'm only going to be brewing 1 gallon batches, I opted for the refractometer as to save as much beer as possible when taking measurements.

I use a pot that is a bit too large for 1 gallon batches so I was thinking the wort might have been more concentrated than it should have been since I had more than expected boil off. Do you think this had anything to do with my issue?

 

[balrog]

1.000 gal size means slight differences in volume are more noticeable than 5 gal batches. You take the gravity points times volume, your 1.075 has 75 points; and if you really had 7/8 gallon not 1, then if you'd stopped at 1, it would have been 1.066 (I think).

I'm still new at this (1 yr) but have found with 5 gallon batches, 3.5g boils, topping up with water, I have to be *SURE* to stir the dickens out of it to fully mix. Aerates well also. But I've had 10pt reading swings high and low if I am not careful to fully mix.

 

[Calichusetts]

I brewed the Everyday IPA two weeks ago and bottled today. My ABV clocked in at 8.2% which seems to be very high for this beer.

Pre boil gravity was 1.043
post boil was 1.075

when it came out of the fermenter it was 1.036 or 9 brix on the refractometer, which when put through calculations comes to a 1.012 FG. I mashed in at 160 and it held at 145 for the hour long mash. everything was followed to the instructions for the kit.

Any idea why my ABV is so high? is it a fermentation thing? or a mash efficiency thing? Ive seen that people have gotten around 5-6% from this beer.

Anyone else have this issue or know why this is happening? This is my first ever brew and I've always been a little confused my gravities, so I'm racking my brain trying to figure out if I've done something wrong and what it might be

Please help!

Pretty sure the recipe is calculated for efficiency in the 60s, given the instructions (unless they changed, haven't used the kit in years) so if you hit 80% then that would easily explain what happened.

As posted above, this could also be a volume issue, or temp reading problem.

 

[randallpink]

After doing a little extra research and re-doing my calculations I actually had an OG of 1.067 and a FG of 1.016 which would bring me to 6.5% ABV. This seems a little more reasonable given the brew. Thanks for the responses

 

[fstfrd00]

I brewed a BBS Beyond Blonde, which is bottled for another week or so.

I also have a BBS Warrior Double IPA sitting in the primary.

they both smell wonderful, took a sample of the blonde at racking, and it tasted / looked good. The IPA looks good in the carboy.

 

[ericbw]

I brewed a BBS Beyond Blonde, which is bottled for another week or so.



I also have a BBS Warrior Double IPA sitting in the primary.



they both smell wonderful, took a sample of the blonde at racking, and it tasted / looked good. The IPA looks good in the carboy.

What's the BBS Beyond Blonde?

 

[fstfrd00]

An American ale, BBS said it is similar to their Bruxelle Blonde recipe

 

[jgress]

I've brewed two recipes from the bbs book that call for a cinnamon stick; apple crisp and the pumpkin dubble. Both have come out with a strange plastick soap undertone and I believe it's from boiling the cinnamon stick for entire boil.
I've looked at several other recipes that call for cinnamon and it's usually added in last 15min or end of boil.
I've brewed another pumpkin beer with spice addition at last 15 min and I'm hoping that does the trick. The bbs pumpkin beer has a great flavor besides that strange undertone. With the apple crisp beer it did melow out after a couple months. I have read that it may have to do with the long boil causing certain tannins being released from the cinnamon stick (it is a piece of bark after all). Any others have had similar experiences?
Happy brewing
ps- brewed up the bbs winter wheat yesterday, smelled amazing!

It's funny what you said about the Apple Crisp; my batch smells and tastes pretty funky too, though that may be I got some kind of infection (this white film grew on the surface of the beer while in primary). But if it's just the cinnamon then I need to watch out for that.

 

[jgress]

I think their recipes are a work in progress that change as they get feedback. They recommend one thing in the book, but a year later, they offer different advice. Try it multiple ways!

Yeah definitely. They're really great on responding to questions on their FB page, I found. While I love their recipes on the whole, here are my main tips:

- If you follow their instructions for mash, sparge and boil, you usually end up with less than a gallon of wort by the time it needs to go in the fermenter. Sometimes I've ended up with just a half gallon! Too little wort can mean too little fermentable sugars were extracted at the mash stage. I generally fix this by overshooting the measurements for the amount of mashing and sparging water.

- Almost always fermentation has not finished by the end of two weeks. They suggest waiting an extra day if that happens, but really it will take more like an extra week.

- You also want a bit more than a gallon of wort in the fermenter, since the bottom inch or so will consist of sediment by the end that you don't want in your bottles if you want to avoid overly yeasty flavors. Or else realize that you're not going to get 10 bottles of drinkable beer out of just a gallon of wort!

- Use a bottling bucket for bottling: heat the priming sugar and water (honey and maple syrup are too viscous on their own to mix properly with the beer), pour the sugar solution into the bucket and rack the beer from the jug into the bucket. I tried their suggestion of using a siphon to bottle but it was a disaster: the racking cane won't stay still without someone to hold it down, and you can't get the last bottle or two of beer from the pot and I ended up having to pour the last beer through a funnel into the bottle. You don't want to do this since it oxygenates the beer.

- Some of the recipes really don't work as written, e.g. the Citrus Gose has way too much salt (try 1 tablespoon rather than 3), or the Apple Crisp recipe gives an unpleasantly tannic result since the cinnamon stick was boiled in the wort for a whole hour. The Kolsch instructions forget to mention that standard minifridges are always too cold even at the warmest setting and you have to install a external thermostat to get it up to 54 degrees.

 

[McGuigstbrew]

Hi all!

Great to see so many people enjoying BBS!

I'm in the fermentation stage of my first ever brew (Warroir IPA), but this morning I noticed that the plastic cap on the fermenter was all cracked around the top edges - I must have tightened it too much when I changed from the blow off tube to the airlock on Sunday (I didn't think it could be too tight in this case but I suppose it is soft plastic!).

Would anyone be able to advise the inner diameter of the lip on the BBS glass demijohn please so that I can try to get a suitable bung?

Quite worried/gutted that this has happened on my first ever brew! I bought the only bung available from my local homebrew shop but it's 30mm at the top so looks too small (the cap is currently taped up so I dared not take it off to measure the demijohn myself, hence the ask).

Thanks!

 

[banks741938]

Number 6 bung but I found out the hard way that the 3/8 blow off tune will not fit inside the bung.

 

[McGuigstbrew]

Number 6 bung but I found out the hard way that the 3/8 blow off tune will not fit inside the bung.

Thanks banks741938 - I've had to order one online from overseas as unfortunately they seem difficult to find in metric UK! 9mm hole apparently so may be a little more forgiving with the blow off tubing...

May have to make do with tape around the cap for now... I really hope it hasn't had too much of an effect on the quality of the brew!

 

[xcghgh]

I love BBS! I've done 6 batches of their stuff: Everyday IPA, Blueberry Red Ale, chocolate maple porter, simcoe IPA, rye pa, and their light American ale, which I added lime zest to.

 

[banks741938]

I love BBS! I've done 6 batches of their stuff: Everyday IPA, Blueberry Red Ale, chocolate maple porter, simcoe IPA, rye pa, and their light American ale, which I added lime zest to.

Do you follow thier instructions on priming and use honey? I was thinking about trying them but was gonna use priming sugar. Don't want to fool with honey. Also so you use a strainer or a grain bag?

 

[banks741938]

Sorry bout that double post

 

[rolewiii]

Do you follow thier instructions on priming and use honey? I was thinking about trying them but was gonna use priming sugar. Don't want to fool with honey. Also so you use a strainer or a grain bag?

Their priming is based on 1g of beer collected - which you will not get from a one gallon carboy due to trub. I use about .8-.85 oz priming sugar with their batches.

I always use a grain bag. If your strainer mesh is to wide - you'll have a chunky boil. If the holes are too narrow - it'll take forever. I just use a grain bag. Also use a hop bag for hops, too.

 

[ericbw]

I love BBS! I've done 6 batches of their stuff: Everyday IPA, Blueberry Red Ale, chocolate maple porter, simcoe IPA, rye pa, and their light American ale, which I added lime zest to.

Have you used their kits, or the recipes from the book? I never bought the kits, but I use the book. The best so far is the grapefruit honey pale.

 

[fstfrd00]

I did the blonde American ale, used honey to prime, used 3tbsp per instructions but didn't collect 1g and over-primed but the little I tasted was good

 

[fstfrd00]

View attachment 1424300414283.jpg

 

[MT2sum]

I've never used BBS for recipes at all, I've tried and use Brew Craft's 1 gallon all-grain recipes once in a while and brew into a 2 1/2 gallon jug so I never have to worry about coming up short. Just to compare, I use 6 qt of strike water and 2 qt of sparge water, very seldom do I have to top up after the 60 min. boil. What #'s does BBS use for strike, sparge, and boil?
I like to do 1 gallon brews for any new recipes I see on the net - some good, some bad - I'd hate to waste 5 gallons on a bad one! Without thinking ahead to make a 1 gallon batch, I brewed a 5 gallon one I saw here on HBT; "Simcoe Assault IPA" that tasted like crap to me, so I thought, " OK, I'll take this to the after-Church potluck and get rid of it there" ...... everyone liked it and some of them keep asking me when I'm going to make another batch instead of the stouts and porters I usually take! Sometimes you just can't tell ........
NOTE: I didn't make the IPA just like Chris' original recipe called for, added some different grains, etc. , had thermometer problems, yada,yada (see my comments in the thread if you're interested, I don't intend to try to duplicate it) - also didn't use the 'no chill' and bottled instead of kegged.

 

[banks741938]

Looking at doing a couple of bbs kits. I have an 8 in strainer. Will that work or would it be better to get a 10 in strainer. Or skip that all together and get a grain bag and cook the grains in that and take it out to do the sparge? What size grain bag would work good with the 1 gallon kits and a 16 quart tamale pot? Thanks!

 

[rolewiii]

Looking at doing a couple of bbs kits. I have an 8 in strainer. Will that work or would it be better to get a 10 in strainer. Or skip that all together and get a grain bag and cook the grains in that and take it out to do the sparge? What size grain bag would work good with the 1 gallon kits and a 16 quart tamale pot? Thanks!

You can get good results with a 6x9" bag, which is what I use for BBS kits. No need to mess around with a strainer.

 

[redklock]

I'm new to home brewing and thought that the size of the kit would work well with my limited space. I got two Oatmeal Stout kits and one of the Chestnut Brown Ale kits with my starter.
I brewed one of the Oatmeal Stouts, following the directions to the letter, and could not get it to settle in the carboy. It looked as if all activity in the airlock had stopped within the first week or so, but, after more than a month, half of the carboy was still cloudy. I kept it around 65 degrees (the coolest my wife would let the house get) and had it in a relatively dark spot.
I saw in one of the forums the suggestion to tie an aquarium filter over the bottom of the racking cane, but that did not work well and I was only able to get four pints into bottles. Does anyone have a suggestion on how to get it to settle out so I don't waste half of the batch with the next attempt? I am looking forward to trying what I was able to bottle in the next couple of weeks.

 

[HK823]

... letter, and could not get it to settle in the carboy.

You will need a refrigerator for these tips. Search keywords are "cold crashing" and "gelatine finings." I've had good success with it. In short the method is: stick carboy in fridge (get close to freezing) for at least 48hrs. It may settle the yeast and proteins that otherwise could cause hazing. If that doesn't help add 1 tsp of powdered gelatine to half a cup of water which you warm to 170f max in the microwave (about 2 x 15 sec blasts should do it) to dissolve it. Pour in cold liquid in carboy and stick in back into the fridge. Wait till it clears.

Alternatively you can use super kleer/turbo klar finings. This works very fast and will clear your beer in 24h-48hrs but it will likely strip so much yeast so there isn't much left you carbonate your bottles (or it takes much longer).

 

[HK823]

Chestnut brown ale: the recipe calls for roasting chestnuts at 400 for 20 mins.

I don't know but I must have had a brain hemorrhage because I chose to roast hazelnuts (grounded in coffee grinder beforehand). Of course the roasting caused it to turn into powdered charcoal.

Interesting outcome I bet... It'll be done in a few weeks.

 

[Daveyg]

I just brewed the Everyday IPA on Sunday, so it won't hurt to leave it in the fermenter for another week?