Why Should I Learn to Home Brew?

OK, the cider is in the fermentation chamber. I'm writing now in the middle of mashing in the grain bill for a sweet stout, a 12 gallon batch. The plate chiller is all connected, just need to sparge and boil. I decided to ferment with Nottingham dry yeast from Danstar, 2 packets reconstituted per the packaging.

Malts
Maris Otter 13#
Biscuit Malt 2.5#
Special B 2.5#
Black Patent 2.5#
Chocolate Malt 4#
Crystal 60 2.5#

1 hour mash at 151 degrees
1 hour sparge 170 degrees

Calculated SG - 1.058

Hops
East Kent Goldings pellet 2oz 7.2AA, 60 minutes in the boil
East Kent Goldings pellet 2oz 7.2AA, 30 minutes in the boil
Nugget and Cascade Whole Hops 3oz AA unknown (scrounged from my SIL's hop yard) 20 minutes in the boil

Total estimate International Bittering Units (IBU's) 35.3

Estimated Alcohol - 7.64 ABV

My system is designed to produce 20 gallon batches and doing a 10 gallon batch changes the efficiency of the mash. We'll see what kind of Starting (Originating) Gravity I get....

Since I want the ABV above 7, I will add fermentable adjuncts to correct a low specific gravity.......

 

Yes, Yes, Yes... I'm taking pictures. It is a process.....

 

OG came out at 1.079. I got freaked at the end of the sparge and I was only 1.048, so I added 1# of rice solids and 3# of dry malt extract.... Hmmmmm.

Expected ABV is now 10.46%... What's not to like!!

 

Here we go.... Heated 7 gallons of water in the mash tun (that is the upper most kettle) to 168 degrees and filled the hot liquor tank (lower right kettle) and heated to 180.



weighed the grains according to the grain bill...


then began crushing the malts...

 

Mash at 150 degrees for an hour...



Sparge (rinse the sugars out of the grains).. runoff goes into the boil kettle. It looked like motor oil but smelled of roasted malt.

 

After the sparge, we boil for an hour, during which hops are added at specific intervals..

 

This was lunch....


sterilize the fermenter...

 

After the boil, the wort is cooled to a temperature where the yeast can be pitched without their suffering temperature shock.

 

I would like to say that at this point the brew day is over, but there was two hours of clean up to do.

Dump the spent grains, clean the kettles and the brew stand, clean the buckets, run hot water through the brew hoses and pump, and oh somewhere in the mix, I made (from scratch) a pepperoni and olive pizza for dinner.

Caught the end of the Giants game and recorded the Ducks...

I hope this has been educational and has inspired some to give it a try. This is a relatively advanced process, it can be made much easier through the use of liquid or dry malt extract essentially in one pot.

References...

How to Brew by John Palmer
Brewing Classic Styles by Jamil Zainasheff
and ProMash brewing software

The Recipe is my original concoction...

 

Very slow airlock activity this morning, fermenter at 68 degrees, so I raised the temperature controller to 70. that brought on the heater instead of the air conditioner....

As big as this beer is, I expected some lag in fermentation.

 

so, here we are a few days into fermentation and it is time for me to start thinking about what to do with this beer. It has gone from being a Sweet Stout (by style) to an Imperial Stout due to the 10+% estimated FG (Final Gravity). I have a 10 gallon whiskey barrel.... Maybe I'll flush it with some 170 degree water and let the beer sit in the barrel for a few months and age.

Then, what to do after that....

Carb and Bottle it?
Rack to a carboy and add vanilla and coco nibs? (done this before with amazing results)
Rack to a carboy and add cold pressed espresso? (which will lower the ABV)

 

So I just checked on fermentation and the Nottingham yeast has quit. This happens with high gravity beers. I boosted the fermentation room to 75 degrees and pitched a vile of WLP-099, a high gravity yeast with a high alcohol tolerance. We'll see if that gets things going tomorrow morning and if so, I'll back off the FV temperature to 68. The 75 isn't going to hurt the cider three days into fermentation, so I'm not worried about esters from the yeast there, nor in the Stout as there it won't even be noticed.

 

Bottle it and deliver it to all of your neighborly NW Monkeys and enjoy beside the camp fire..... IMO.... A guy has to try.

 

Work what you got baby..... I have the campfire, he has the beer.... sounds like a good trade.

 

Barter.... It's a good thing!

 

Just got out of the brew shed, and there is moderate activity at the airlock this morning. Leaving the temp at 75 until I check it again this afternoon. The vile of WLP-099 is intended to inoculate 5 gallons of beer, and I dumped it into 10 or 12. We'll have to see what happens.

Thank God this is a 10 gallon batch and not a commercial 10 barrel (310 gallon) batch....