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Give your farts another two weeks, and they will magically become beer. Amazingly enough, if you drink enough beer, they will become farts, thus closing the circle of life.
 
YourMother said:
Used auto-siphon, which snapped at the top

Hope I didn't infect it.

Any words of encouragement would be appreciated.
Your Mother
Click to expand...

Don't need an autosiphon to take a sample. You can use a sanitized turkey baster, just take the top off and use it like a wine thief. (Bet you didn't know it had other uses than DIY invito fertilization!)

Highly unlikely that you infected the beer.

Congrats, you hit your target FG and now just wait another week or two for the yeasties to clean up after themselves and bottle/keg away!
 
I couldnt figure out why the thread was called so...untill i looked at your user name :D Good luck!
 
Racked to the secondary last weekend and I'm thinking about bottling this weekend.

Since my primary is now empty, it may be time to try another brew. I'm thinking some kind of Christmas ale.

Any suggestions for a new brewer? I like hops but I'd also be happy with, say, a spiced porter or something like it. Also, I am inexperienced so no triple-decoction mashing or anything.

Thanks!

Your Mother
 
I had good results with a Baltic Porter (dark, malty beer). Here's basically the recipe I used:

6 lbs light DME
2 lbs 12 oz Amber LME
8 oz Caramel/Crystal 60 Malt
8 oz Chocolate Malt
8 oz Munich 20 Malt
8 oz Vienna Malt
1.5 oz northern brewer @ 60 mins
.5 oz Hallertauer Hersbrucker @ 25 mins
1 Whirlfloc Tablet @ 15 mins
.5 oz Saaz @ 10 mins
Irish Ale (White Labs WLP004) liquid yeast

OG: ~1.081 (I ended up with 1.072, this is after adding water)
FG: ~1.022 (hit my FG)
Color: 27.3 (dark, opaque reddish brown?)
IBU (32.7 (spicy, but balanced by the high maltiness of it)
Partial mashing the non-extract grains, then adding LME/DME afterwards just before boiling.


Primary 4 weeks @ 68 degrees, secondary 1 week @ 68 degrees
(looking back, I probably could have kept the temps lower, like 63 degrees...)

Let sit in bottle for 1-2 months, but you can test it after 3 weeks and weekly thereafter to see the difference as it conditions.

Turned out great, and would make a nice beer to drink around xmas time (when it would be done bottle conditioning)
 
Bottled the concoction yesterday. I'm thinking I will need to let this sit in the bottle in my closet for two weeks or so. Any harm in tasting it before then? It has had two weeks in the primary and one week in the secondary, dry hopped.

I can see why people move straight to kegging. Washing / sanitizing 40 bottles sucked big time.

Your Mother
 
A buddy of mine washes ~160 bottles or so at once... his loss.

No harm in tasting it early, but it will taste better once it matures.
 
I'd taste one now, take notes on it, taste one in a week, take notes on it, and taste weekly thereafter so you can see the change it goes through in the bottle. Just make sure to throw it in the fridge for a day or two beforehand each time.
 
Just cracked one open and there's a little bit of carbonation in it already! It tastes much better than when it was first out of the primary and I expect it will mature substantially over the next two weeks.

Yeah!

Your Mother!
 
ksocia said:
I had good results with a Baltic Porter (dark, malty beer). Here's basically the recipe I used:

6 lbs light DME
2 lbs 12 oz Amber LME
8 oz Caramel/Crystal 60 Malt
8 oz Chocolate Malt
8 oz Munich 20 Malt
8 oz Vienna Malt
1.5 oz northern brewer @ 60 mins
.5 oz Hallertauer Hersbrucker @ 25 mins
1 Whirlfloc Tablet @ 15 mins
.5 oz Saaz @ 10 mins
Irish Ale (White Labs WLP004) liquid yeast

OG: ~1.081 (I ended up with 1.072)
FG: ~1.022 (hit my FG)
Color: 27.3 (dark, opaque reddish brown?)
IBU (32.7 (spicy, but balanced by the high maltiness of it)
Partial mashing the non-extract grains, then adding LME/DME afterwards just before boiling.


Primary 4 weeks @ 68 degrees, secondary 1 week @ 68 degrees
(looking back, I probably could have kept the temps lower, like 63 degrees...)

Let sit in bottle for 1-2 months, but you can test it after 3 weeks and weekly thereafter to see the difference as it conditions.

Turned out great, and would make a nice beer to drink around xmas time (when it would be done bottle conditioning)
Click to expand...

OK-- so given that this would be my second brew and I've only done extract, could I partial-mash the grains using the method described in this thread?:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/easy-partial-mash-brewing-pics-75231/

Also, I'm not sure if my fermenter-storing location will get as low as 68 degrees, let alone 63. I believe you had mentioned making a swamp cooler before. Is that how you achieve your ferment temperatures?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Your Mother
 
Yes, the partial mash brewing link is what you need to do (and the tutorial is excellent). You're basically making a tea with the specialty grains prior to the boil. (I don't think this recipe has enough real grains to do anything BUT a partial mash...).

And yes, I used a swamp cooler, simply a large rubbermaid container, filled halfway with water, with some frozen water bottles (swap these out with new ones every day or so), that your carboy goes in. You can put a black t-shirt over the carboy while it's in the cooler, and also put a fan on it, which will drop the temp even lower because the t-shirt wicks up the water and evaporates in the fan-blown air. In any case, just keep the carboy away from fluorescent or sun light (hence the black t-shirt).

With this setup, I probably was able to keep the water around 65ish, so the temp in the container was maybe 70ish when it was fermenting.
 
I tried it on Wednesday (four days in bottle) and it sucked the Big One. I tried some this evening (seven days in bottle) and it's night and day. Nice malt front and heavily hopped, as designed.

It's still a bit wild, I think, as the flavors are not quite there yet, but I'll keep you posted.

I am optimistic.

Your Mother
 
ksocia said:
I had good results with a Baltic Porter (dark, malty beer). Here's basically the recipe I used:

6 lbs light DME
2 lbs 12 oz Amber LME
8 oz Caramel/Crystal 60 Malt
8 oz Chocolate Malt
8 oz Munich 20 Malt
8 oz Vienna Malt
1.5 oz northern brewer @ 60 mins
.5 oz Hallertauer Hersbrucker @ 25 mins
1 Whirlfloc Tablet @ 15 mins
.5 oz Saaz @ 10 mins
Irish Ale (White Labs WLP004) liquid yeast

OG: ~1.081 (I ended up with 1.072)
FG: ~1.022 (hit my FG)
Color: 27.3 (dark, opaque reddish brown?)
IBU (32.7 (spicy, but balanced by the high maltiness of it)
Partial mashing the non-extract grains, then adding LME/DME afterwards just before boiling.


Primary 4 weeks @ 68 degrees, secondary 1 week @ 68 degrees
(looking back, I probably could have kept the temps lower, like 63 degrees...)

Let sit in bottle for 1-2 months, but you can test it after 3 weeks and weekly thereafter to see the difference as it conditions.

Turned out great, and would make a nice beer to drink around xmas time (when it would be done bottle conditioning)
Click to expand...

OK-- my beer is still bottle conditioning (and tasting better) and I want to start brewing the baltic porter. I have some questions:

1. How big should the boil volume be? My first batch was about 2.5 gallons and I could go higher but I'd like to know what you used.

2. For the Hallertauer Hersbrucker hops-- I see Hallertauer hops and Hersbrucker hops but nothing called Hallertauer Hersbrucker. What am I not understanding?

3. Should I make a starter for the yeast? If so, I'm assuming I could just get some DME, boil and add the yeast to the DME. Then, let the yeast sit for a couple of days and pitch at the same temperature as the porter wort.

Could / should I double pitch it?

Any answers would be welcome.

Thanks.

Your Mother
 
YourMother said:
OK-- my beer is still bottle conditioning (and tasting better) and I want to start brewing the baltic porter. I have some questions:

1. How big should the boil volume be? My first batch was about 2.5 gallons and I could go higher but I'd like to know what you used.

2. For the Hallertauer Hersbrucker hops-- I see Hallertauer hops and Hersbrucker hops but nothing called Hallertauer Hersbrucker. What am I not understanding?

3. Should I make a starter for the yeast? If so, I'm assuming I could just get some DME, boil and add the yeast to the DME. Then, let the yeast sit for a couple of days and pitch at the same temperature as the porter wort.

Could / should I double pitch it?

Any answers would be welcome.

Thanks.

Your Mother
Click to expand...

1. Since I've started doing all grain, I've been using full boil volumes (~6.5 gallons), but for this recipe, I used as much as could fit in a 5 gallon pot (so ~4 gallons or so?), and then topped off with clean water when it went into the carboy. So anywhere from 3-6.5 gallon boils are fine as long as you finish with 5 gallons in the carboy

2. Had the same problem, LHBS said use either Hersbrucker OR Hallertauer, as they're pretty similar. Personally I'd lean towards Halletauer (See http://www.brew-dudes.com/hersbrucker-hops/298 for a history on the naming).

3. I don't think I made much of a starter. If I did, it was just some of the cooled wort (70 degrees) and I pitched the yeast into it about 30 minutes before putting it in the carboy with the rest of the cooled wort.

Double pitching probably wouldn't hurt, and if it's dry yeast you're using it's pretty cheap insurance against something going wrong. Just make sure to keep this sucker pretty cool (65 or so), especially during the first week or so.
 
OK-- so I got all ingredients yesterday including two vials of Irish Ale liquid yeast for double pitching. I don't think I'll make a starter.

I also made a swamp cooler and I'm testing it now to see how low it will go. So far its holding at about 70 degrees (which is about the temperature in the house right now) but its only been in the cooler for about 45 minutes so let's see how it goes.

Your Mother
 
OK-- so this recipe calls for 2 pounds of grain for the partial mash, which I believe means I will need 2.5 quarts of water for the mash heated to 168F to achieve a 153F mash. Does this sound correct?

Also, the sparge water should be about two gallons at 175F, which means I will have a 2.625 gallon boil. I will have to add some more water to the boil in order to get three gallons, but should I add the remaining water to the sparge instead?

Your Mother
 
sounds about right, but I wouldn't add the extra water to the sparge, just put it in right before the boil (after mashing/sparging)
 
So, I finished the brew today with an OG of 1.090. This is a lot bigger than I thought, but I double-pitched so I'm hoping for big things.

Your Mother
 
Did you use White Labs Irish Ale Yeast? If so I only use one vial per 5 gal batch. At $7 a pop I'd make a starter before double pitching. The DME is way cheaper. But that's just me. Sounds like your off to a great start. If you haven't already put a blowoff tube on your primary you don't want a blowout. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f85/no-i-dont-need-blow-off-tube-135584/
 
Grimtas said:
Did you use White Labs Irish Ale Yeast? If so I only use one vial per 5 gal batch. At $7 a pop I'd make a starter before double pitching. The DME is way cheaper. But that's just me. Sounds like your off to a great start. If you haven't already put a blowoff tube on your primary you don't want a blowout. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f85/no-i-dont-need-blow-off-tube-135584/
Click to expand...

Yes, I used Irish Ale yeast from White Labs. It's been about 14 hours since I pitched and while the airlock isn't bubbling yet I do see a layer of bubbles on the top of the wort. Socia's swamp cooler has the carboy down to about 67 degrees and I have it in a dark closet fanning away.

I don't have a blowoff tube hooked up yet. I'll probably get to that today.

More updates / pictures to follow.

Your Mother
 
Don't credit ME for the swamp cooler! I think I got the idea from one of Revvy's posts
 
Visible signs of fermentation began at about 11AM this morning. Airlock is bubbling well and there's some foaminess.

Looks good.

Your Mother
 
So, I'm a bit concerned that my high OG of 1.091 is the result of a high temperature in the partial mash. While it's true that there's only two pounds of grain here, I did accidentally have it at around 163 degrees for about 10 minutes or so, followed by an over-cooling to around 148.

The correct OG according to the recipe is 1.081.

Should I be concerned?

Your Mother
 
Don't worry about it, it'll work itself out, and at worst you'll have a slightly higher ABV.
 
I'd take one tonight and then again on Sunday to see if it's still dropping. I would suspect it is ready to go but you should never decide with a single measurement.
 

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