| By Brian Campbell on Jul 28th 2006, 6:13 am | Permalink |
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You know what I like about living in a fraternity house? They'll drink anything. My dubbel was so sweet. I obviously mashed at too high of a temperature, as the ABV fell 1.5 pts short of the recipe's at 8.5% ABV. God this stuff is so sweet! But, luckily it only took 3 hours to kill the entire cornie, warm and barely carbonated, and I can try again. I even got compliments on it. If I cared, I would be ashamed. |
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| By Brian Campbell on Jul 21st 2006, 6:47 am | Permalink |
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I've finally been able to put as much time and energy into [learning about] homebrewing as I've wanted to for a while. Covertly brewing in a fraternity house that was sanctioned to be dry by our insurance put a damper on acquiring the equipment and space I needed. Now I've moved my brewing equipment into a spare room of my girlfriend's place. Flat rates for utilities (Free water), virtually unlimited space, etc. I'm beginning to realize the vast amounts of science that goes into designing a truly great beer and brewing setup. Sadly, beer isn't just steeping some grain, boiling in some hops, pitching, priming and bottling anymore. Although it can be, my desire to produce top-notch beer has me yearning for more technical information. Fortunately and unfortunately, the best learning comes from experience, and if there's one thing you know about brewing beer, it's that patience is the biggest factor. I've just bottled a 5Gal carboy of a generic Bock and a 5Gal carboy of a Scotch ale that I can't wait to taste. My 5.25 Gal of Dubbel ale is waiting on bottles. Where are your alchie-Sam Adam's-drinking friends when you need bottles? My next goal is building a mash tun and brew kettle out of 2 15.5Gal kegs in my room. After that I want to move into kegging my beer and having a gas tap. I should be able to get in several good batches until then. I took some gravity measurements: Scotch Ale OG 1.040=5.4% (1.045-1.050=6.1-6.8%) FG 1.010=1.4% (1.010-1.012=1.4-1.6%) -------- Actual (Suggested) ABV 4% (4-5%) European Bock OG 1.050=6.8% (1.066-1.088=8.9-11.9%) FG 1.010=1.4% (1.020-1.022=2.7-3.0%) -------- Actual (Suggested) 5.4% (5.0-5.5%) Dubbel Ale OG 1.060=8.1% 1st G 1.015=2.0% -------- Current ABV after 1st Fermentation = 6.1% (Still fermenting after 2 weeks) Will bottle Thurs. or Fri. Predicted FG 1.010=1.4% Predicted ABV 6.7% |
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