A Beer and a Dog

"Why should I blog about brewing?", I asked. "Nothing like a beer and a dog...", So Sayeth Virtual Wayne.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Waiting for Godot...

Drinking a Biere de Garde after a couple American Amber Ales. Contemplating when to bottle the Cream Ale v3.0.... This weekend, or next? We'll see...

I was thinking the other day about my next batch of Cream Ale: Should I use a champagne yeast, and call it 'Sparkling Cream Ale', or use the final batch of yeast that I have in the fridge for fermenting as a standard Cream Ale? I was thinking of Champale, from my childhood. Is it a real style anymore? Who nose? Maybe I should make it and submit it to Sam Adams in their next Homebrewer's Competition. Would be a hoot if it made an impression. We'll see...

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Drinking Beer...

Got home from work a while ago and was puttering around the computer and drinking beer, as is the way of my people. I am about out of the v2.1.1 of American Amber Ale, but I have v3.0 in bottle and under refrigeration, as well as almost half a case of Biere de Garde in a drinkable state as well. Will bottle the Cream Ale in a week or two, depending on the gravity reading that I get when I test it in a week and two. I am considering buying hops to brew another batch of Cream Ale on Sunday, even tho' I have to go to work from 9:00 AM til 1:00 PM to do inventory. (Inventory sucks the bigun!) I know that I won't have to do the truck on Monday, so I can brew beer into the late evening on Sunday without screwing up my sleepless pattern any more than is necessary. I have the last generation of the yeast that I used for the two American Amber Ale batches and the one Cream Ale batches left in the fridge and I guess I'll use it for another Cream Ale, as Trish likes that style. More as it happens...

Monday, September 21, 2009

Beer meeting good.

Went to the September meeting on Saturday. Took a crock full of BBQ, brought home half of it. (Yippee! Lunch for CyberDave!)

Took some BBQ and several beers to Cap'n Eddie after work today, he was pleased with it all. If you remember, it was Cap'n Eddie that gave me a lift back to the States on his tramp steamer after the ill-fated Katonga safari in Africa....

Sipping on an American Amber Ale v3.0 as I write this tome. Should cellar a month or two more, but is palatable, now.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Racked 06A to Secondary with additional water

Learned a few things about this adjustment soiree: 1) Don't try to estimate the water to boil after you know how much you need. Boil more than you need and cut it off when you reach the goal as are adding it to the carboy. 2) It might be a good idea to rack it from the kettle to the carboy rather than pouring it ever so slowly into the bottling bucket. The water might be getting more O in it when you pour.

I've completed the dilution and it is at 5.25 gallons rather than the desired 6. That made the 'OG' 1.066 rather than the desired 1.057.

Looking forward to sampling this experiment!

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Cream Ale is a little lower in volume than planned...

..So... After getting input from fellow brewers and from brewing linx on the net I have decided to make an addition of 1/2 gallon of water before I rack to the secondary, placing the boiled and cooled water into the carboy first. To minimize aeration I'll put the water into the bottling bucket and attach a hose to the cock, lower the hose to the bottom of the carboy, and open the cock. THEN: I will rack to the secondary. What about the OG? That was 1.077 at 4.5 gallons. Recalculating it thusly:
SG=Starting Gravity = 1.077 = 77 Gravity Points
V1(ferm) = Volume in Fermenter = 4.5
OG = 1.055 (intended OG)= 55 Gravity Points

To determine the volume to add to achieve the intended gravity of your wort in the secondary fermenter, divide the SG points by the OG points and mulitply by the V1 volume.
SG/OG x V1 = 77/55 x 4.5 gallons = 6.3 gallons 6.3-4.5= 1.8 gallons of water to get 1.055 gravity.

I want 5 gallons rather than 6.3 gallons which is more volume than I have carboy space for.

To determine a gravity for a specific volume:
V2=5 gallons.
OG = (((V2 / V1) x SG)*1000) + 1 = 69.3 = 1.069 OG.

I think that I'll use a 6 gallon carboy to secondary in and will have a 1.057 OG.

Monday, September 7, 2009

090905 - 6A v.3.0 Cream Ale brewed...

This is my first Cream Ale since I completed the American Amber Ale series.

This beer has a corn adjunct (Corn meal). Prep work began AROUND 8:15 AM. Prep work: Cook 2lbs corn meal in a pressure cooker for 15 min. at 10 lbs. in 5-1/2 quarts water which was drawn from 8 quarts in a bucket. After finished cooking added cornmeal to remaining of 8 quarts water in the bucket and stirred til it was mostly homogenized. Added the final 1.2 quart of water to achieve 101°F, within 1° of goal. Placed barley and wheat into Mash bucked and added the corn/water mix, stirring to include all but the bottom inch of grist. This worked to prevent a stuck mash, as I had hoped! NOTE: Next time, heat corn and water over MED heat in cooker and stir to keep in flux, and when it is starting to steam, put the lid on the pressure cooker! This batch burned on the bottom but I didn't use the burned parts.

Started brewing at 9:30 when mash was started in tun.

Boil began at 1:20 PM: Volume Into Boiler: 7 g. Next time, add 1/2G. water to at 60 min. OG Into Boiler: 1.032 @ 144°F = 1.048 OG

4 g. sparge;
Had to do a decoction, 6 qt. thin mash, to bring up to mash out temp.

I use a large muslin bag that is normally used to remove seeds and husks from grape pressings to separate most of the hops and crap from the wort. After cooling, I line the bottling bucket with the bag and pour the contents of the kettle into the bucket, then remove the bag with all of the toss-ables in it.

Tapped, to using my false bottom in the bottling bucket, (This works well) into Primary. Pitched the 2nd generation of the yeast that I saved from my V3.0 of American Amber Ale. Will save this last generation of yeast after primary, before buying new vial.

I have 4.5 gallons of beer in the primary bubbling merrily away. A nice brew session with very little clean up necessary to floors & driveway...

Not one of these.. these... FAUX CyberDaves... but the TRUE CyberDave!


About CyberDave

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Contract engineering, working in the field in which I truly love: Mechanical Design.

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"Bonus Nachos!" as we say on my planet. "And CHEERS!"