Brew Day Video

At long last, I filmed shots of brewing an all-grain batch of a Honey Double IPA and strung the clips together into an 8-minute video on YouTube.  It illustrates all the steps involved in brewing a batch of beer from milling the grains through pitching the yeast.

The beer turned out great and the honey flavors really shined through.
Cheers!

IPA Brew Day

Brewing our Eternia IPA for the National Homebrew Conference Competition.

7 types of Hops:

US Pale and UK Pearl with German Cara-Red and Carafoam.

Mash hopping and big hop stand after 90 minute boil.  Double dry hop planned.

Batch Moving Day + Ginger Ale

Today was batch transfer day.  We had 10 gallons of Pale Ale and 5 gallons of IPA that finished in the primary.  One Pale Ale went directly in the keg with a sock of Ahtanum hops and the other went into a secondary fermenter.  The IPA with an original gravity of 1.064 went into the secondary fermenter at a gravity of 1.011, which equates to about 7% ABV with 70 IBU.  In addition to the three transfers, we made a 5 gallon batch of ginger ale with fresh ginger, lemons, sugar and water.  Here are a few shots of the action.

Dry hop Ahtanum:

Pale Ale transfer:

Washing bottles with recycled cleaning water:

Racking Pearl Malt IPA:

Ginger Ale:

Cheers!

Fat Ninja Ale Big Brew Day

Saturday was 65 degrees, perfect for a Pale Ale 10g batch. We used up the Maris Otter and used Pale US Malt, Munich, Biscuit, and Wheat malts. It came out at 1.052.

Experimental hop schedule with Simcoe, Centennial, Amarillo, & Palisade in the boil at 7,6,5,4,3,2,1...

Grains pre-mill:

Draining mash to kettle:

Boil in progress, lots of green hops:

Racking to two carboy fermentors;

Pitched yeast and set blowoffs:

One is California Ale yeast and one is English Ale yeast, both from White Labs.

Hoppy Brew Year

Today's batch is an Imperial IPA.  We used American 2-Row base malt, Munich, Crystal 35, Carapils, Torrified Wheat, and cane sugar.  The OG hit 1.077 and we pitched it on a yeast cake from an American Amber.  We decided to hop the tar out of it and used 16oz of hops.  The IBUs calculated out at 140, so we'll see how it goes!

Milling the grains:

Measured Hops:

Vigorous boil:

Yakima Valley Hops

Today we received a great package from our friends at Yakima Valley Hops!  This should last a little while.

• Cascade 2014
• Chinook 2014
• Citra 2014
• East Kent Goldings 2013
• Amarillo 2014
• UK Fuggle 2013
• Some yeast
• Whirlfloc tablets
• Gypsum
• Bottling tablets 

Brew on!

Turkey & Beer

Happy Thanksgiving!  The Blichman was on double duty today...

Two ounces of Simcoe leaf hops:

This was 50 mins into boil:

After the brewing was complete, we fried a Turkey!  It was a 14 pounder, which took 48 minutes.  It was delicious!

Citra IPA Brew Day

Today, we brewed an all Citra Hop American IPA. This is batch 9 of this recipe, with small tweaks along the way.  The last batch scored second place for American style IPAs at the Music City Brew Off AHA BJCP homebrew competition in Nashville on 11/8/14.

The malt in the recipe was American 2-row Pale Malt as the base with Munich for breadiness/maltiness, Crystal 10L for light sweetness, Carafoam for body & head, & Melanoidin for sweet toastiness.  The hops were of course all Citra added as First Wort Hops, then 60, 15, 10, 5, 0, & Dry Hops.  The mash was a single infusion which rested at 152F.  We did a single batch sparge and 60 minute boil.  After chilling and racking to the carboy, we pitched Safale S-04 English yeast at 9pm into the 1.062 original gravity (OG) wort.

Black Rye Ale Brew Day

Today was an experimental brew day.  We took our Rye Pale Ale recipe and painted it black.  During the mash and sparge process, we had an esteemed guest stop by.

This was a 10 gallon batch, which tested the limits of our system.

Grist:

1. Pale Malt
2. Rye Malt
3. Vienna Malt
4. Biscuit Malt
5. Honey Malt
6. Crystal 75L
7. Melanoidin Malt
8. Carafa II Special (added to mash tun prior to sparge)

Hops:

• 60: Warrior
• 30-15: East Kent Goldings
• 15-0: Amarillo & Cascade
• Dry: Amarillo & Cascade

Yeast:

1. American Ale
2. American Ale II

Notes:
American Ale showed signs of finishing at about day 5, where American Ale II still had krausen, but little airlock activity at day 7.  This turned out pretty dark; hopefully it gives a touch of roast like a black IPA.

Extra Special Bitter Brew Day

We brewed an English Pale Ale (aka ESB) today using White Labs 005 English Ale yeast.  The color looks great and we can't wait to try the finished product.

This is the kettle with the chiller and auto-siphon after racking was complete.

The color looks very caramel/toffee:

We are looking forward to this one!

Hop Jarring Time

Today, we received our bulk hops order from Yakima Valley Hops.  Like MC Hammer, we proceeded to "break it down" by sealing them in 1 quart wide mouth mason jars and keeping them in the freezer.  The hop pellets vary in size, but the jars will hold 16+ ounces of hops, making them perfect for buying in bulk.