Oh what a difference

[keithd24]

Yesterday was brew day. I work out or town for extended periods, so I don't get to brew as often. While away for work, I do a lot of research on brewing and read many threads and articles on this site. I did some things I have never done before. I brewed NB's Caribou Slobber. I made a yeast starter the night before and used an oxygenation kit to infuse O2 in the wort just prior to pitching. It only took about 3 or 4 hours for active fermentation to begin and the airlock has been chugging away. Thanks to everyone for their posts and all the great advice. I will be doing these things every time now. Can't wait for the final product.

 

[ncbrewer]

It looks like working out of town has given you a chance to do more reading. That makes up for some of the restriction on your brewing time.

 

[keithd24]

I've only done extracts up to this point. I know there is nothing wrong with extracts and I'm sure I'll do more in the future, but I'm ready to try my hand at all-grain in a couple of months. I want to expand my brewing experience. Going to attempt a Blue Moon clone.

 

[Homercidal]

Blue Moon is pretty easy. You can zest fresh citrus during the mash or boil.

Other than that, it's a straight up 50/50 malt and wheat combo. I generally use Flaked Wheat since it's unmalted and ready for mashing already by the flaking process. Of course, there are other varieties you could use if you were so inclined, but flaked is generally really easy.

For Blue Moon I'd use a clean American yeast and probably not use oats, as that will give a more silky body than you want for Blue Moon. (Although it's often noted in a Hoegaarden clone.)

 

[keithd24]

Thanks! I wanted to do something sort of easy for my first all-grain, plus I'm a fan of Blue Moon. Thanks for the tip of using fresh citrus zest.

 

[SGTSparty]

Here's the link to the original blue moon recipe in All Grain %'s from one of the original brewers. its in the blue moon thread but that thing is a mess so hopefully that will save you some time. I made this recipe this summer and it was the best beer i'd made to that point. The only downside to this recipe is that it ages like an IPA and while the orange was amazing and dead on when it was young by the 90 day mark it was more or less gone from the aroma so drain your keg quickly and go again.

My grain bill came out like this:
5.125# (5 lb 2 oz)2 row pale malt.
4.125# (4 lb 2 oz) white wheat malt
1# flaked oats.
0.5# (8 oz)Rice Hulls

90 minutes - 0.625 oz (17.718452 grams) Hallertauer Mittelfrueh hops
10 minutes - 20.25 Grams (0.7143 oz) Ground coriander
5 minutes - 7.2 Grams (0.254 oz) McCormic Valencia Orange Peel

 

[keithd24]

Thanks for the recipe, I'll make this but don't think it will last 90 days,lol. This was for a 5 gal batch I assume?

 

[keithd24]

Update: the caribou slobber has been in primary since Sunday and the airlock was chugging away only after a few hours and continued through Monday. It started slowing a little Monday evening and now this morning it has slowed down a lot. (bubble every 15 sec or so) Is this normal? Is this because I pitched a lot more yeast with the starter than in my previous batches?

 

[SGTSparty]

Thanks for the recipe, I'll make this but don't think it will last 90 days,lol. This was for a 5 gal batch I assume?

Yeah i think it was a 5.5 into the fermented off the top of my head. I have the recipe in my google docs but not my BeerSmith file to not 100% sure.

 

[ChelisHubby]

Update: the caribou slobber has been in primary since Sunday and the airlock was chugging away only after a few hours and continued through Monday. It started slowing a little Monday evening and now this morning it has slowed down a lot. (bubble every 15 sec or so) Is this normal? Is this because I pitched a lot more yeast with the starter than in my previous batches?

The slowing down is normal. it will still slow more. Check it with a hydrometer after 2 weeks, if you are not using a hydrometer wait three weeks before you bottle.

 

[keithd24]

I do have a hydrometer and I'll check it in two weeks. My OG was a little higher than the target 1.052. Mine came in at 1.058. I knew it would eventually slow down, just wanted to make sure this was normal that it slowed significantly in just two days. Thanks for letting me know.

 

[keithd24]

This morning there is no bubbling in the airlock. I brewed this Sunday. I didn't open the bucket to see if the krausen has fallen. Since I made a starter and oxygenated the wort before pitching, is it possible that primary has finished already? Does anyone know what the gravity should be before I rack to secondary? I don't want to rush.

 

[SGTSparty]

yeah definitely possible depending on what yeast you used, which is also going to dictate your expected FG if they didn't provide an estimated FG with the recipe.

But also remember that bubbles are reassuring but they don't mean fermentation, especially if you're using buckets. Also remember that even after the bulk of fermentation is done the yeast could still be working, either slowly grinding out those last few gravity points (my blue moon got to w/in like 3 points of expected FG quickly and then took like another week to finish) or cleaning up after themselves. Just leave it for 2 weeks, pull a sample and go from there. Try to avoid checking on it, it'll drive you crazy.

Side note, since you like to research and read threads around here, keep your mind off the fermenter by digging into the Do you really need secondary debate threads. With a dark beer like this where clear beer isn't really going to be noticed you could easily forego secondary. I'm one of those people who never does secondary, I even dry hop in primary when needed because I live in fear of oxidation and infection when transferring so I primary in bottling buckets and go straight to the keg. Everyone has there own preferences but its a fun topic to dig into and will keep your mind off checking your bubble count.

 

[keithd24]

Thanks for reassurance. I'll stop driving myself crazy and watching the airlock. I'll leave it alone for a couple more weeks and go from there.

 

[dsniegocki]

My grain bill came out like this:
5.125# (5 lb 2 oz)2 row pale malt.
4.125# (4 lb 2 oz) white wheat malt
1# flaked oats.
0.5# (8 oz)Rice Hulls

90 minutes - 0.625 oz (17.718452 grams) Hallertauer Mittelfrueh hops
10 minutes - 20.25 Grams (0.7143 oz) Ground coriander
5 minutes - 7.2 Grams (0.254 oz) McCormic Valencia Orange Peel

Quick question... why the 90 minute boil on this one?

 

[SGTSparty]

Quick question... why the 90 minute boil on this one?

If you look at the link a bit higher in that post its to the info from one of the original brewers, and he said that's what they did so that's what i did. I'm not sure why they did it though, I'm not an advanced enough brewer to know if its a style thing and I didn't read through the page and pages of that thread to see if he said why. I just followed the recipe blindly like a good little lemming and it worked out famously lol.

 

[keithd24]

Update on the Caribou Slobber. Just racked it into secondary, FG was 1.012. It had an OG of 1.065. According to brewer's friend, that gives me a ABV of 6.96%. Thanks for everyone's advice. When I opened the primary, it smelled great. After I checked the gravity, it tasted great as well. Can't wait to taste it after it is carbonated!

 

[Kerrbrewer]

My first wit came out really good considering all the trouble I had with it. First I was having mash temp troubles. Dont remember the details but I ended up with all my water in the mash tun like doing no sparge or BIAB with a false bottom instead of a bag. My gravity came in lower than intended, but I just went with it. I stuck it in the chamber at 66 deg and it took 4 days to get krausen (no starter). Left it alone for 3 weeks. Pulled it out to check it and the WLP400 had stalled at 1.025. Roused it and had to bring it up to 74 deg to get it going again. Left it 2 more weeks and bottled. It took that beer 4 weeks to carbonate. It was really good! I dumped an experimental oatmeal blonde on that trub that turned out even better!

 

[skraeling]

I've only done extracts up to this point. I know there is nothing wrong with extracts and I'm sure I'll do more in the future, but I'm ready to try my hand at all-grain in a couple of months. I want to expand my brewing experience. Going to attempt a Blue Moon clone.

Honestly extracts are fine. I do all grain with my cobrewer, but sometimes I just want to bang out a quick batch and extract works great for that. On top of I cant do all grain indoors so well... yeah.

Its not much fun running a 100k btu burner outdoors in july either with 100* weather. So a quick extract kit on my stove top boom done in 3hrs.

I prefer extract but im weird and it still tastes like beer in the end anyway.

 

[davisc1513]

I'm making an all grain blue moon as well. 3 pounds 2 row, 2 pounds wheat, 1 pound honey (brew store was out of more wheat) and hallertau hops about .6 oz at 60 minutes. Then 10 minutes with the orange peel (through cheese grater) and choriander. Hopefully it will turn out good.

 

[jonny24]

Gotta say I'm not a fan of blue moon (I think it's called Belgian moon here though), but I found the jump to all grain was not especially difficult. A lot more fun and more steps to follow. It can be as easy or complicated as you want, and endless things to research for it.

 

[davisc1513]

Very true. I feel like I accomplish more with all grain. And it makes me pay more attention and appreciate the process.