new from Doylestown, Pa

[shmoo]

hey everyone, after reading up all over the site for months i decided to join. i have my first beer fermenting as we speak. it is (hopefully) haha going to be a cherry oatmeal stout. i came up with my own recipe and decided to try it. this is an all grain brew. i decided to skip the whole extract/partial mash step because i enjoy a challenge. i made my own gravity setup using stands i built and a 5 gallon cooler for the hlt and a 10 gallon for the mash tun. i have a turkey fryer setup to collect the wort then boil.

 

[Warped04]

Welcome to the forums and congrats on the first brew. I wish I had started AG. Sounds like you are on the right track.

 

[Reno_eNVy]

KUDOS and CONGRATS! Got more guts than I do to start AG like that.

 

[brewt00l]

Hey Neighbor!

 

[shmoo]

Hey Neighbor!

thanks guys! yeah idk after researching a bit and seeing how everyone built their setups i decided id give it a shot. where in doylestown do you live?

 

[Pelikan]

Howdy from New Hope. Brew on broseph.

 

[DragonTail]

Welcome

 

[shmoo]

Howdy from New Hope. Brew on broseph.

hey whats happenin. and brew on i shall! just put together a little recipe for a pale ale tonight and brewed it so now i have 2 in primary's. gonna take a gravity reading on the stout tomorrow see where shes at. and see if theres enough cherry flavor for my liking.

 

[shmoo]

took a gravity reading and tried the cherry oatmeal stout yesterday. its at about 1.018 right now so ill let it go a few more days before bottling. but it needs a tad more cherry in it so i think im gonna add a little more when i add the priming sugar before bottling. but it tastes VERY good so far. and this is my own recipe by the way.

 

[RC0032]

but it needs a tad more cherry in it so i think im gonna add a little more when i add the priming sugar

Be careful the cherry has its own sugar and may give you too much :cross:

 

[shmoo]

Be careful the cherry has its own sugar and may give you too much :cross:

yeah thats what im worried about. although i may mash some cherries up and boil them in about a cup or 2 of water then cool it down and add it to the fermenter tonight that way i dont have to worry about sugar volumes to add at bottling time.

 

[RC0032]

Here is a sugar calculator for bottle conditioning:
The Beer Recipator - Carbonation

Here is a podcast on the subject:
http://cdn1.libsyn.com/basicbrewing...38&nva=20081209230438&t=0c8d6d823609ae8a72a51


Welcome to the site; my Patents live in D-Town and I graduated from CBW

 

[shmoo]

thanks for the link for that site but i already figured around 2.7 oz of priming sugar. just worried about the extra sugars from the cherries. plus i think ill get a little more cherry flavor in the beer if i add them now and let it ferment a few more days. cool another doylestownian! haha

 

[Pelikan]

I'd add the cherries to the secondary (or to your primary once primary fermentation is complete). Let the brew sit on them for about two weeks, then bottle and add sugar at the normal rate (any sugar from the cherries would have fermented out by then). This is especially the case if you're using supermarket cherries that come in a bath of syrup (reads: sugar). Otherwise you could very well end up with bottle bombs.

 

[shmoo]

my fermentation is just about done. im gonna add them tonight i believe. plus i was sure to buy cherries that were just in water, nothing added.

 

[Pelikan]

my fermentation is just about done. im gonna add them tonight i believe. plus i was sure to buy cherries that were just in water, nothing added.

Cool. In that case, dump the cherries into your primary, and let them sit for about 2 weeks depending upon your schedule. Even unsweetened fruit will kick fermentation back into gear, so you want to give it some time to ferment out and condition.

After that, rack to a secondary if you have one and let it clear out for a week, then bottle as usual (if no secondary, just skip that step and bottle).

 

[shmoo]

thanks for the input! i didnt put that many cherries in it was a little less than a pound so ill let it ferment until this weekend sometime and bottle it up since i just want a little hint of cherry in this stout nothing too strong like sam adams cherry wheat.

 

[shmoo]

bottling my cherry oatmeal stout tonight:rockin: ill let you know how it tastes. and my pale ale is looking like its close to being done fermenting as well. at about 1.011-1.012 right now gonna let it go a few more days probably.

 

[shmoo]

my girlfriend also gave me an early christmas present, the minibrew 6.5 gallon plastic conical fermenter:rockin: so im pretty excited to see how that works

 

[shmoo]

well bottled the cherry oatmeal stout. and i forgot to taste it haha. but the pale ale is extremely good. gonna bottle that either tomorrow or sunday.

 

[Pelikan]

Those plastic conicals are pretty cool. Let us know how they work out...I might pick one up eventually.

 

[shmoo]

will do. as our next beer is gonna be an experiment but i believe its going to turn out good.

 

[shmoo]

pale ale is now also bottled tried a bottle of the stout tonight looks extremely good. tastes fairly good for only being in the bottles for 2 days so far.

 

[shmoo]

me and my buddy came up with a cool concoction for a beer. we made it tonight, its a chocolate pomegranite porter, or as i have named it, chocogranite porter. haha its my own recipe so we shall see how it turns out, its about a 6 gallon batch, and we hit 76% efficiency on this brew, which is only our 3rd ever brew/3rd all grain since i started all grain. out of a gravity setup we have. it is now fermenting in my new 6.5 gallon minibrew conical:rockin:

 

[Pelikan]

Nice...what do you use for a grain mill, or do you have the shop take care of it?

 

[shmoo]

Nice...what do you use for a grain mill, or do you have the shop take care of it?

i have keystone mill everything for now until i buy my own mill which should probably help the efficiency a little bit.

 

[shmoo]

here is a picture of my stout from sunday night which is a little less than 2 full days in the bottle.