WATMM Homebrew Thread

awesome! so glad to hear that. I am definitely up for another trade. our 2012 will be done in April but not ready to drink until around October. I have a few 2011s still and that coffee stout made it move...

Shit's getting real up in here. Got my first sack of grain through my local brewers guild. Less than $0.59/lb shipped for some 2-row barley! Getting a sack of wheat on the next grain buy. I'll be able to turn out small beers like hefeweizens and lighter ales for about $15 per 5 gallons.

I've also been reading up on toasting my own malts, and making my own caramel malts out of basic 2-row which could save me more money if I don't factor in the extra labor/time.

I'll be building an all-grain system this summer once we move into a house with a garage! I can't wait

I bottled what I would call a belgian porter a few days ago. The wort tasted like chocolate and raisins and it's around 10.5% abv.

I've decided on a Weizenbock next. Delicious.

I have a series of hefe-yeast beers planned. Using one pack of yeast I'm going to start with a Hefeweizen, then put a Weizenbock onto the yeast cake followed by a Roggenbier (Rye beer w/ hefe yeast), and then a Dopplebock to finish it off. As long as you pitch bigger/darker beers on the cake you can re-use it up to 5 generations. Any further out and you will start getting off-flavors as the yeast mutate.

Sounds like cool plan. Progressively maltier Hefes. I've never re-used yeast, but I guess it's not as difficult as I thought. Have you ever used oak chips in the secondary? I want to make a barleywine at some point with bourbon and oak flavor.

I haven't oaked anything yet, but I've read on it.  Yeah, you just soak some oak cubes in bourbon for 5-7 days and toss them in with the beer.  Let it sit until you get the desired flavor.  I've heard you should check it very often after adding because the oak cubes can impart their flavor quickly, especially when young/fresh.

edit: It won't be difficult reusing yeast because I'm just going to keep some of the trub/yeast cake from the first beer and brew the same day I rack to secondary or bottle.  You could even reuse the fermenter without cleaning and pour the wort right onto the cake, but you'd be over-pitching at that point and might get off flavors.  I plan on saving a cup of the cake and transferring to a clean carboy for the following beers.

  On 2/29/2012 at 7:01 PM, hautlle said:

I've yet to try mead.  What's it taste like?  may have to pick up a bottle sometime soon just to check it out.

The easiest way to explain the taste is honey with alcohol in it... the recipe I made is super simple and cheap, and taste a hundred times better than anything I've bought from a store. My friends drank my chocolate mead in one night, but my blueberry ended up tasting like medicine... still letting the first batch of unflavoured stuff age.I've currently got a very, very cinnamon batch fermenting, and two gallons I've made with chai tea instead of water.

  On 3/31/2012 at 10:35 PM, Sprigg said:

  On 2/29/2012 at 7:01 PM, hautlle said:

I've yet to try mead. What's it taste like? may have to pick up a bottle sometime soon just to check it out.

 

The easiest way to explain the taste is honey with alcohol in it... the recipe I made is super simple and cheap, and taste a hundred times better than anything I've bought from a store. My friends drank my chocolate mead in one night, but my blueberry ended up tasting like medicine... still letting the first batch of unflavoured stuff age.I've currently got a very, very cinnamon batch fermenting, and two gallons I've made with chai tea instead of water.

Very nice! I actually tried some mead at the last Brewers Guild meeting, one guy brought some very young, very sweet, "dessert style" mead. It was pretty nice, not sure if I could drink a lot of it though, maybe if I was already drunk I could lol.

I put together a Single Malt, Single Hop (2-row/Cascade) beer on Sunday. My first all-grain batch using some of that 55lbs of 2-row I got.

I "built" this milling station out of a bucket I had and a piece of scrap wood, got the mill off Amazon for about $30 shipped.

Mmmmmmmmm cooling down the "pre-beer"

good stuff hautlle!!

i need to get another kit on the go.

Thinking about this as a good session beer:

http://www.homebrew.ie/proddetail.php?prod=57&Edme-Superbrew-Gold-I.P.A

I can highly recommend Woodforde's Wherry if you're thinking of doing a kit Jhonny. Mine went straight away. It had a very deep London Pride like flavour but more flowery, if that makes sense.

I've got another going at the moment that I was basically given just called 'Bitter'. Haven't got high hopes but you never know.

Edit:

Sounds good Spratters, so far I've done:

http://www.balliihoo.co.uk/john-bull-ipa-p-141.html - really really good! barrelled it so didn't last too long!

http://www.balliihoo.co.uk/coopers-ginger-beer-alcoholic-or-non-alcoholic-p-246.html - worked well and i like it but an acquired taste. strong stuff and so not a session bev!

Will give that one a go, looking for a standard session ale which I can bottle!

  On 4/4/2012 at 4:17 PM, hautlle said:

Very nice! I actually tried some mead at the last Brewers Guild meeting, one guy brought some very young, very sweet, "dessert style" mead. It was pretty nice, not sure if I could drink a lot of it though, maybe if I was already drunk I could lol.

Yeah the stuff I have drinkable is definitely more of a dessert wine than anything. The chai has a bit less honey in it, so it should be a bit drier... a small glass of the first batch was more than enough.

Anybody know an easy recipe for a stout?

Here's a pretty nice Oatmeal Stout recipe:

8 lbs 2-row Pale

1lb Oats

1lb Victory Malt (can easily substitute with home-toasted 2-row, maybe 30min @ 350F, stir half-way)

1lb Crystal 80L

0.5lb Roasted Barley

0.5lb Chocolate Malt

Mash 1hr @ 156-158

1.5 oz Cascade @ 60min

0.5oz Cascade @ 5 min

Irish Ale yeast (SafAle S-05/S-04 would work, but the Irish will give it nice character and maybe dry it out more)

Brewed a blonde ale a couple nights ago. The OG came out at 1.54. This shit is going to be potent

Setting up a brew tomorrow. Australian pale ale!

If it's not too much to ask, (it probably is), could you send over some Brewtarget template files for some of your recipes? Or point me to somewhere I could get some more template files for Brewtarget?

  On 6/1/2012 at 10:26 AM, jhonny said:

Setting up a brew tomorrow. Australian pale ale!

Slightly delayed, but it's on:

Made a mead with caramelized honey, star anise, nutmeg, vanilla bean, lemon and cinnamon, and it's finally ready... it's damn near the tastiest thing ever made.

  On 6/1/2012 at 9:09 AM, Braintree said:

Brewed a blonde ale a couple nights ago. The OG came out at 1.54. This shit is going to be potent

og?

  On 6/6/2012 at 6:18 AM, jules said:

  On 6/1/2012 at 9:09 AM, Braintree said:

Brewed a blonde ale a couple nights ago. The OG came out at 1.54. This shit is going to be potent

 

og?

original gangster

  On 6/6/2012 at 11:38 AM, jhonny said:

  On 6/6/2012 at 6:18 AM, jules said:

  On 6/1/2012 at 9:09 AM, Braintree said:

Brewed a blonde ale a couple nights ago. The OG came out at 1.54. This shit is going to be potent

 

og?

original gangster gravity

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_(alcoholic_beverage)

  On 6/5/2012 at 6:36 PM, Sprigg said:

Made a mead with caramelized honey, star anise, nutmeg, vanilla bean, lemon and cinnamon, and it's finally ready... it's damn near the tastiest thing ever made.

Sounds interesting, I need to find a local source of honey and try my hand at a mead.

I brewed up an all Amarillo Pale Ale over the weekend, my first brew in about two months because I recently moved house and didn't want to try to transport a carboy full of beer 200 miles. I think it would've been an oxygenated mess at best. I really need to get an outdoor setup with a cooler converted into a mash-tun so I can do beers bigger than 1.050 without such a hassle. Right now I can only mash about 10lbs of grain comfortably, and that puts me around 1.046 OG (3.5% abv). I mashed 12lbs for an English IPA I did and it was a fucking mess all over the stove top. Turned out quite tasty though!

I've been experimenting with toasting grains in the oven, making all two-row barley beers but adding depth of flavor through different roasts. I want to try making my own crystal/caramel malts soon.

As soon as I get my sack of wheat I plan on finally starting my series of weizen beers. Starting with a Hefe and moving darker/bigger while pitching onto the yeast cake from the previous batch.

Currently drinking an all cascade hopped pale ale and the aforementioned English pale ale that is predominately Glacier hops; It was a bit sweet at first but has matured really nicely

  On 6/8/2012 at 8:17 AM, hautlle said:

  On 6/5/2012 at 6:36 PM, Sprigg said:

Made a mead with caramelized honey, star anise, nutmeg, vanilla bean, lemon and cinnamon, and it's finally ready... it's damn near the tastiest thing ever made.

 

Sounds interesting, I need to find a local source of honey and try my hand at a mead.

Just start with some cheap supermarket honey, that way you have an idea what you're getting into and don't end up wasting a bunch of money if you decide you don't like it. I've tasted mead made with raw honey from a bee farm, and super cheap walmart honey, and can't tell much of a difference anyway. If it were like orange blossom honey or something, it would probably be noticeable... but generally it's not enough of a difference to worry about.

I had a bottling day (evening) yesterday.

Brewed up a Weizenbock last night, should end up around 7.5-8%. I also had a job interview for the assistant brewer position at a local brewery this morning! It went really well and I'm expecting a call for a second interview with the owner soon.

Anyone else make spent grain bread? I've been doing it for a while now and I finally have a really good product. Hefeweizens make the best bread just because it's only two-row ans wheat, but other grains can add good flavors. About to put two loaves in the oven now!