Success! Thank you Edwort.

[Willsellout]

So this past weekend I brewed Edworts Haus APA. Things went well on brewday for once. I hit most of my targets and it was a fairly quick brewday. Well today action had slowed to a stop so I took a hydro reading. Turns out it fermented out to 1.009, which is a couple points lower than what Ed had but thats fine I have a 6.3% instead of a 5.1% (oops). First taste was unlike any of my other attempts; it actually tasted good....real good to be exact. It has a nice bitterness and aroma but nothing overpowering..it's perfect. I'm glad I kept good notes cause this one will be a staple. Thanks Ed for the recipe and thanks to you all for the encouragement to continue on with AG.



Dan

 

[Fingers]

Congrats Will. Glad to hear it went well. I think many of us felt your pain and frustration and we're glad you didn't throw in the towel.


Nice catch Ed!

 

[Willsellout]

Congrats Will. Glad to hear it went well. I think many of us felt your pain and frustration and we're glad you didn't throw in the towel.


Nice catch Ed!

The only real problem I foresee is that as soon as I bottle it...it's gonna be gone. I need to brew it again quickly



Dan

 

[talleymonster]

I'll have to put it on my "To Brew" list! My next up is already Edwort's Apfelwein!

 

[FlyGuy]

Right on, Dan -- I was hoping it would all work out! Here's to the next one!

 

[Willsellout]

Right on, Dan -- I was hoping it would all work out! Here's to the next one!

Thanks again..without this board I'd probably have given up by now. Man I can't wait to bottle that sucker. I'm planning on brewing another batch in a couple weeks. I want to stock up.


Dan

 

[Yooper]

Great news! Now, you've definitely got to start planning the next batch. I'm glad this one worked out so well.

 

[98EXL]

Hooray, you didn't ditch all hopes and dreams!

yeah, time to make more! I have that same problem...I have an empty carboy sitting, need to figure out what's next

 

[LouT]

Woo hoo!
Hey, Dan, I know you mentioned that procedure was what you figured out as the cause for poor success in prior AG brews. For those of us that still haven't gone AG (me), could you maybe point out some "do's and don'ts"?? When I read how-to do AG, it doesn't seem tough, but I know that most written instructions tend to leave out quite a bit of detail. What are the tough spots, if any come to mind?

 

[Evan!]

Awesome...I brewed the Haus Pale on Tuesday...krausen dropped last night. I too had a great mash. I'm hype on this stuff...I can't wait to try it.

By the way, what temp did you ferment @? Yesterday, I went googling to see what Nottingham's temp range is, and they said it'll work all the way down to 57f, meaning it could potentially be used for lagers (or so they said). I put mine in a cooling bath and most of fermentation hovered between 66 and 70.

So what exactly was it that was hurting your mash process before?

 

[EdWort]

(oops). First taste was unlike any of my other attempts; it actually tasted good....real good to be exact. It has a nice bitterness and aroma but nothing overpowering..it's perfect. I'm glad I kept good notes cause this one will be a staple. Dan

Thanks & congrats! I'm glad you like it. You'll need to start another batch pretty quick. :cross: My standard beers all have one common quality, they are all very drinkable. You know, when you taste one, ya say, "Wow, that's tasty, I think I'll have another". My Bavarian Hefe and Kölsch are the same. I've moved to 10 gallon batches, so my inventory is looking good.

Focus on making one beer well, and when you've done that, branch out to other styles that you really ENJOY! When you do that, I feel you'll be just as successful as your experience grows and your confidence in the products you produce.

If you feel like making some strange beer, have a friend come over to help make it, bottle it, and share in the costs. That way, if it is one of those that you drink 1 bottle once in a while, you don't have a bunch of space, bottles or money tied up in it.

Congrats again and Enjoy your brew! You've earned it!

 

[Evan!]

Speaking of eminently drinkable beer...I think my PacGem Special Bitter (see my recipe pulldown) is my ultimate "drooly" beer...meaning I drool over it. It's disappeared SO quickly, it makes me very sad; I have less than a case left! So hopefully this Haus pale will cheer me up...I'm sure it will...and then I'll have to make another PGSB. Maybe with Sorachi Ace this time...? Actually, Ed, I was gonna substitute Sorachi Ace for the flavor/aroma hops in the Haus Pale, but when I went to find them, they were gone, so I ended up just going with Cascade. The next day I found the Sorachi in the bottom of the freezer. Am I correct when I say that SA has a distinct grapefruit characteristic? I've never used it before.

 

[Willsellout]

Well the first AG brew I did, it was simply a bad recipe. It was one I tried to make up myself and it just tasted like water. There was no taste at all. I'm still not sure what went wrong with this one.

The second AG attempt was my blonde and for this one I did two things wrong. One, I oversparged, two I used too hot of sparge water (around 180's). I think these two factors made my blonde very husky and grainy and kind of bitter, in a bad way. I also think the crush wasn't fine enough so I had really poor efficiency on this one, about 50%. So now I have the blonde that's not horrible, but it is far from good.

The third, which was a Hefe, I had poor efficiency partially ( around 55%) due to the amount of wheat and partially due to a not so great crush I think. I also oversparged and wound up with too much liquid in my fermenter and a low gravity, so I had to pour back into the kettle after I had cooled and bring up to boil and boil for another hour to get the volume and gravity I wanted..which was a PITA. For the record, I think this one will actually turn out really good though..it was just frustrating as hell.

My fourth attempt, which was Ed's APA went really well. I mashed at 152 and sparged with 168 degree water. Another thing I did this time around was, I measured out volumes on my pot so I knew exactly how much was in the kettle so I knew when to stop sparging and when to stop the boil. This beer has no hint of graininess or husky off flavors at all. I wound up getting about 70% efficiency on this after everything is said and done, so I wound up with a higher ABV beer; I was shooting for 60%.

I think I just kept biting off more than I could chew. I needed to stick to simple recipes and get my groove before I began experimenting...which is something I always have problems with. I tend to overthink stuff.

As far as fermentation, it stuck right around 68-70 degrees in my garage.


Dan

 

[LouT]

Thanks for the tidbits. Oversparging and sparge temp seem to be the main culprits, along with not keeping it simple enough. I'll keep that in mind when I step up to AG.
Enjoy your hause ale!

 

[Willsellout]

Thanks for the tidbits. Oversparging and sparge temp seem to be the main culprits, along with not keeping it simple enough. I'll keep that in mind when I step up to AG.
Enjoy your hause ale!

Thanks man...yeah the advice everyone gives here is gospel: Keep it simple. Single infusion batch sparge recipes for me for a while.


Dan

 

[homebrewer_99]

Mine's still too bitter for me and my tastes.

 

[Schlenkerla]

I think I just kept biting off more than I could chew. I needed to stick to simple recipes and get my groove before I began experimenting...which is something I always have problems with. I tend to overthink stuff.

As far as fermentation, it stuck right around 68-70 degrees in my garage.


Dan

I think when I f_ck-up, I do the same thing . Good intentons not well thought out. Then opps, oh $hit. Then you're pissed off that you have 5gal of beer you don't want to share with anyone. (Due to embarrassment!)

I'm not at the AG level yet but I've thought quite about how to get the sparge-to-post boil volume right w/o out f-ing up the hop bitterness.

I'm guessing if you over sparge you need to know when to throw the the bittering hops so you end up with the correct post-boil volume.

Ed's Haus Ale is next for me!!

Congrats!!!

 

[LouT]

Bitter because of recipe or because of similar difficulties w/sparging? You doing AG, Bill?

 

[SAS98M]

Willsell.... Glad to hear that all went well. I guess I owe EdWort a tip of the hat also as this is my fave too.....This has become a house staple here in N.E.Pa.( when this one gets low I get nervous and it's off to the LHBS) I brew these back to back-I'm up to (if I figured correct) 85- 90 % efficiency. This is a really refreshing ale especially when it's real hot out-the first one goes down real easy and definetly becons a second. Shane

 

[BrewBrain]

Had to bring the thread back IT"S ALIIIIIVEEEEE!!:rockin:

Anyway, I am now drinking my EdWort's Haus Pale Ale, and I'm enjoying it very much. I'm even giving samples away, so that says something

This may be obvious given the hops involved, but mine tastes very heavily of grapefruit - In a beer sense it tastes like fresh squeezed grapefruit juice. Is that about what everybody else is getting? I'm just checking to make sure I've got things right in my brewing world. Since I'm not into clone brewing, I have no frame of reference other than "I like" or "I don't like".

I used WLP001 if it matters. That's my one small change to the original recipe.

 

[adam2]

Mine has a grapfruit caracter which is from the cascade hops :rockin: