jimniemira
Member
Greetings! I found this site the other day and have been reading it a lot.
I had picked up "Beercraft" some time ago, on the premise that I'd rather make one gallon at a time (I don't drink that much at a time, and it's just me drinking it), and I'd like to start small until I know what I'm doing. A few weeks back I visited my LHBS and picked up the ingredients for an abbey ale, which I started Monday.
So far it's nothing if not exciting. Here are my highlights and lessons so far:
Recipe:
2# belgium pilsner
8oz munich
4oz belgium special-b
2oz belgium aromatic
15g Kent
- Using Kent - LHBS fresh out of Styrian that day
- Using WLP530 - LHBS had no 500 or 540 that day
- The 12qt pot I picked up cheap at a local discount store is actually 8qt
- I decided to use molasses instead of candi syrup. I don't know why :cross:
- I wanted to go nylon mesh, so was limited to two small bags (bigger nylon bags at LHBS were narrow and long, too big for a small pot)
- Maintaining temp while mashing was harder than it looked - with only 6qt water, I wound up with a water temp that fluctuated wildly - fortunately, some extra water and ice helped. I hope I didn't burn it ...
- Sparge/boil went well (yay!)
- Emptying the boil pot was more difficult than I expected - the trub really wants to get out!
- For some reason I had great difficulty finding one gallon glass amber jugs. Wound up ordering from the 'net. Maybe I'm too old and that's something you just don't see any more ...
- Followed instructions on the yeast vial and took it out of the fridge 3-6 hours before use - upon opening, painted myself in yeast spray
- Got ... well, some amount of yeast in the jug. There's about a third of the vial left, back in the fridge. (The recipe called for 1/3 of a vial)
- Plugging a jug with just a tube is a no-go - maybe my jug is weird, but there's no way that will provide a tight secure fit. I had to duct-tape it in place, and it leaked foam. For the next batch I'm going to get another stopper, a short length of glass tube, and attach a smaller plastic tube for the blow-off.
- Three days later I've got the airlock on, and it's bubbling away. There's been lots of activity in the liquid - looks like somebody has an immersion blender in it
- OG was 1.060, 3 days later it's at 1.025 (at 68 degrees). I don't know if that's good or bad
- It tastes pretty good, and smells very abbey-ale-fruity-spicy. It never tasted sweet, though. I don't know if that's good or bad
Now I'm trying to figure out how long to leave it in the primary. After reading many posts here, I'm leaning towards three weeks. Meanwhile, I have three other glass jugs ...
I'll let you know how it goes. Nice to be here!
I had picked up "Beercraft" some time ago, on the premise that I'd rather make one gallon at a time (I don't drink that much at a time, and it's just me drinking it), and I'd like to start small until I know what I'm doing. A few weeks back I visited my LHBS and picked up the ingredients for an abbey ale, which I started Monday.
So far it's nothing if not exciting. Here are my highlights and lessons so far:
Recipe:
2# belgium pilsner
8oz munich
4oz belgium special-b
2oz belgium aromatic
15g Kent
- Using Kent - LHBS fresh out of Styrian that day
- Using WLP530 - LHBS had no 500 or 540 that day
- The 12qt pot I picked up cheap at a local discount store is actually 8qt
- I decided to use molasses instead of candi syrup. I don't know why :cross:
- I wanted to go nylon mesh, so was limited to two small bags (bigger nylon bags at LHBS were narrow and long, too big for a small pot)
- Maintaining temp while mashing was harder than it looked - with only 6qt water, I wound up with a water temp that fluctuated wildly - fortunately, some extra water and ice helped. I hope I didn't burn it ...
- Sparge/boil went well (yay!)
- Emptying the boil pot was more difficult than I expected - the trub really wants to get out!
- For some reason I had great difficulty finding one gallon glass amber jugs. Wound up ordering from the 'net. Maybe I'm too old and that's something you just don't see any more ...
- Followed instructions on the yeast vial and took it out of the fridge 3-6 hours before use - upon opening, painted myself in yeast spray
- Got ... well, some amount of yeast in the jug. There's about a third of the vial left, back in the fridge. (The recipe called for 1/3 of a vial)
- Plugging a jug with just a tube is a no-go - maybe my jug is weird, but there's no way that will provide a tight secure fit. I had to duct-tape it in place, and it leaked foam. For the next batch I'm going to get another stopper, a short length of glass tube, and attach a smaller plastic tube for the blow-off.
- Three days later I've got the airlock on, and it's bubbling away. There's been lots of activity in the liquid - looks like somebody has an immersion blender in it
- OG was 1.060, 3 days later it's at 1.025 (at 68 degrees). I don't know if that's good or bad
- It tastes pretty good, and smells very abbey-ale-fruity-spicy. It never tasted sweet, though. I don't know if that's good or bad
Now I'm trying to figure out how long to leave it in the primary. After reading many posts here, I'm leaning towards three weeks. Meanwhile, I have three other glass jugs ...
I'll let you know how it goes. Nice to be here!
