Just took the gravity of my 1st brew. Question.

[varack]

Hi all,

Here is my recipe first off so it might help with my little problem.

1 Gallon batch
1.25lbs of Nothern Brewer Amber LME.
0.0625 Galena Pellet Hops (60min)
0.0625 Ahtuem (sp) Pellet Hops (15min)
2 Grams Coopers Ale Yeast

OG: 1.046
Gravity right now 1.021
Target Fg: 1.013

Yeast Rehydrated in 90F degree pre boiled water. Aerated before pitching by shaking violently in my fermenter. Pitched yeast and whirpooled it.

I have already read about the 1.020 curse. It has been fermenting since 1/15/12 and today I decided to take a reading to see what it was at. My question is if i boiled the wort all 1.25lbs starting from 60min that would have camarlized it and created unfermentable sugars right? Also in the future could i add half the extract at 60min and the rest at 15min left to avoid carmilization?

Furthermore, I thought the yeast fell out so I gentelly rocked it with no splahing to re-suspend them. It has started to bubble 1 bubble every 5 min out of the airlock. Is that a good sign?

 

[Brizzo]

I do a lot of 1gallon batches and have a lot of fun doing them. I typically only do a 15 minute boil and use the yeast pitching rate calculator from mr.malty to make sure I am pitchng at the right amount. The 15 minute boil does not include the steeping time of the specialty grains.

 

[varack]

Ok thanks for the advice. I will try a 15min boil next week and see how that turns out. Still really new to this. As for hops additions the same as usual? except start 1 at 15min and the next at like 5?

 

[varack]

Sorry if I am a pest but took a new SG rading and it dropped to 1.018 now in a few hours. I have one question. What is this stuff in my fermenter? I used pellet hops and a strained them out after the boil. This green wierd stuff is all over floating in all layers of the beer. Could it be what is left over from the krausen. Or could it be some of the hops that went through the strainer.

When it comes time to bottleing and it still is there what is the best way to remove it? I was thinking of using a sanitized coffee filter when transfering it to my botteling bucket.

 

[Brizzo]

in the july/august 2007 BYO magazine, James Spencer wrote a really good article about Small Scale Brewing. He has a recipe for a "6 pack late hopped Simcoe Ale" which utilizes a 15 minute boil and additions of hops at 15min, 5 min, 0 min and then dry hops. I did this recipe with Northern Brewer hops as my LHBS shop cant get simcoe hops and they said NB were a good substitute but they are completely different. The beer came out really good after letting it sit about a week to carb but the beer was amazing after about 1.5 months of cold storage. It was crystal clear, crisp, good carb and mouthfeel.

As far as the floaties, don't worry about them, they are probably left over hops sludge and krausen. It will settle out if you let it sit long enough. If fermentation is done, cold crash it is your fridge or basement and it will settle out. Spencer recomends in the article cold crashing for 24 hours to clear the beer before bottling.

When I brew I keep my hops in a bag, whether mesh or a nylon paint straining bag and when I transfer to the fermenter I pass it through another bag layed out on top of my funnel which has a screen in it. That usually takes care of everything and the Krausen will settle out after a while.

There is a nano brewery out on long island new york that is gaining a lot of popularity by being the smallest craft brewery and they do small 1 gallon special batches. Its a lot of fun and lets you experiment with a lot of styles on the cheap-minus whatever the yeast costs you.