Brewing Beer

Pouring of the malt.

Beer brewing is starting once again. Hibernating after it's hey dey in Santa Cruz, ca. 2000, the equipment has been revived and the folks have been gathered. A mailing list collects the (likely) vulgar communications.

Notes

• Dave's Dreaded Homebrew Calculator
• Partial Mash Brewing Instructions
• 7 Bridges recommends 0.1 oz (3 mL) iodine per gallon of water (3 tsp. = 0.5 oz. = 5 gallons). This is equal to the 12.5 ppm "sanitizing" level listed on the bottle.
• Need 7 x 4 lbs. for wort chiller + fish tank pump
• To remove chloramine from 20 gallons of water, use 1/16th tsp of potassium metabisulfite.

Ideas

• Try a first wort hopping (FWH) during an all-grain batch (How To Brew, p. 42)

Kits Brewed

Extract kits always include specialty grains. Partial kits are roughly half extract and half mash.

date	producer	type	name	yeast	O.G.	F.G.	ABV	°F	mods
2014 Oct 5	7 Bridges	partial	Organic Dry-Hopped Rye Pale Ale	Wyeast #1056 American Ale	1.0535 @ 70º	1.009 @ 64°	5.9%	62°-64°
2014 Sep 22	7 Bridges	extract	Organic 7 Bridges Red Ale	Wyeast #1056 American Ale	1.051 @ 72º	1.010 @ 64º	5.5%	67º-62º

Organic Dry-Hopped Rye Pale Ale (mash-extract)

1.0546 → 1.009 ≅ 5.9%

• Mash temperature fluctuated between 145º and 154º.
• Sparge went poorly at first as water wasn't going through the grain bag. Switched to a colander and that was a little better but still quite difficult. Sparge water cooled down a lot due to length of sparge.
• Fish tank pump powered wort chiller went awesomely. Used 4 bags of ice (28 lbs.) to bring the wort down to 70º (lower than the ambient temperature!) fairly quickly (forgot to time it, would guess about 20 minutes).
• Other weirdness is the bung kept popping out of the carboy after we sealed it shut. Wondering if it's slick from the alkali wash.
• Hop bag worked out pretty well. Had to use the spoon to keep it submerged.
• Racked on day 9. Volume is low. :-( Maybe 4 gallons?
• Hops added on day 16.
• Bottled less than 4 gallons. :-(

Organic 7 Bridges Red Ale (extract)

1.052 → 1.010 ≅ 5.5%

• New! Used bucket of ice water and fish tank pump to speed up wort chilling process! This is going to be standard procedure now. Get 4 x 7 lbs. of ice.
• Yeast pitched @ 74ºF. Couldn't get it lower due to ambient temp (i.e, damn nice day).
• Added quart of water at the end to bring OG down from 1.0596 to 1.0526. Target was 1.049 - 1.053. In the zone!
• *Next time*: Use hop bag to avoid hop sludge at the end of the transfer.
• After 3 weeks in the bottle: A lot of buttery/butterscotch flavor. Wondering if the boil isn't strong enough (it's kinda weak). *Next time*: Do a 4 gallon boil and add cold water at the end. Also, perhaps less aggression on the aeration.

Kits Brewed 2005-2006

date	producer	class	name	yeast	O.G.	F.G.	°F	mods
Oct.	SF Brewcraft	partial	Custom Nut Brown
Nov.	7 Bridges	extract	Organic Oktoberfest				62
Dec 11	7 Bridges	partial	Organic Robust Porter	Wyeast #1028 London Ale	1.053	1.014		1/2 cup organic honey for bottling.
Dec 23	7 Bridges	all-grain	Organic Oatmeal Stout	Wyeast #1084 Irish Ale
Jul 16	7 Bridges	all-grain	Weissbier	Wyest #3333 German Wheat	1.038	1.010	74
Jul 23	7 Bridges	all-grain	ESB	White Labs #WLP005 British Ale	1.067
???	7 Bridges	all-grain	7 Bridges Red Ale		(1.048-1.052)

SF Brewcraft Nut Brown (partial)

Approximate notes, we weren't keeping a journal.

• The grain bag was cooked, burned and most of the grain fell out (through the massive burn hole).
• We ended up with far less liquid than we should have.
• We used the small carboy for the primary fermentation (wrong!) and the blow-off tube got clogged causing the beer to explode into Ross's garage.
• Transferred a week late.
• Bottled for over month. About 3.5 gallons.

Result: Really great beer. We aren't sure how.

Organic Oktoberfest (extract)

Approximate notes, we weren't keeping a journal.

• This didn't get transferred at all. It's been in the primary fermenter for about a month.
• However, initial taste is good. Real good. A lot better than the Nut Brown above, which turned out really well.

Organic Robust Porter (partial)

• The Irish Moss flakes were added to the mash. Don't even ask why.
• After mashing and sparging we accidentally filled the brew pot to 6.5 gallons instead of 5.25.
• Removing some of this liquid, we did a second mashing and sparging and ended with 5.5 gallons.
• Recipe should have produced an O.G. of 1.056 - 1.060. We are 3 points low (1.053). Not so bad. We are in the range suggested by Terry Foster in his Porter book.

Result: Good after the bottles had aged about 2 months. I was disappointed to not detect the honey used for bottling.

Organic Oatmeal Stout (all-grain)

This got better as the bottles sat around longer and longer. It took about 2 months for it to reach full maturity. The earlier bottles lacked flavor and robustnes. 6 months was too long for the bottles to sit around, the delicate aspects faded. In general, this was an above average beer, but below what I expect of a home brew. --brainsik

Organic Weissbier

• Brought to 150 right away instead of 122-126 for temperature stabilization. Supposedly, this step is unnecessary with the grains coming from 7 Bridges.
• 1 - 1.5 extra gallons was added at the very beginning, but this was corrected during the sparge
• O.G. was 8 points below the minimum target. Our sparge went far far too quickly (as always).

Organic Extra Special Bitter

• Sparge lasted 50 minutes instead of 10-20. This is the first time we didn't have a lightning fast sparge. Ironically, this recipe actually calls for a quick sparge.
• O.G. was 5 points above the top of the maximum target. Sparging works!! :-)

Resources

• Wheat Beer
• 7 Bridges Coop (the bomb)
• San Francisco Brewcraft (local, but not organic)
• How do I calculate original and final gravities?