Three guys from Central Jersey who were sitting around the firehouse lunch table discussing homebrews. Simon has been doing this for a couple years while Erik and Corey are slowly getting involved. Surely there will be many memorable brews coming up, which will all be shared on here! Please check back for the latest happenings! Cheers!
I am doing my take on a Pale Ale. I am going to be modifying a kit I had purchased from Morebeer.com. It was there American Ale II extract kit. I had recently taken a liking to Wayerbachers Double Simcoe IPA and I figured this would be a good Ale to add some Simcoe hops in. The kit came with Magnum, Cascade and Willamette hops. I modified this recipe by subbing out the Cascade and added in the Simcoe. In addition, my plan is to dry hop 2oz whole leaf Simcoe hops in the secondary. Hows it going to go, I have no idea, but it should make for some happy tastebuds! Here goes:
Steeping Grain:
1.5 lbs Crystal 15L
8 oz Honey Malt
8 lbs Ultralight Malt Extract
1 oz Magnum- Bittering Hops boiled for 60 minutes
2 oz Simcoe- Flavoring Hops boiled the last 5 minutes 2 oz Willamette- Aroma Hops are boiled the last 1 minute
9/21/2013 Racked To A Secondary My Happy Hoppy Ale had a quick fermentation and I transferred it over to a secondary. While there is a good deal of hops already in it, I decided to dry hop in the secondary with 2oz more of whole leaf Simcoe hops. I am trying to get that Ale to have a great Aroma from the crack of the bottle!
9/3/2013 The Puck You Cider was a bit extreme for an easy drinking cider. I decided to venture out and try another batch. I went from the champagne yeast to a ale yeast to try and keep some of the sweetness in the cider. I also am planning to add some cinnamon sticks into the secondary once we get there. In anycase, here goes:
5 gallons of Apple Juice (no preservatives)
2 lbs of dark brown sugar
3 lbs of light brown sugar
11g Safale US-05 Ale Yeast
5 teaspoons yeast nutrient
SG- 1.096
TRF to secondary SG: 1.02
3 cinnamon sticks (for the secondary)
Well, a couple days into it, I experienced my first blowout. There was so much fermentation that it spilled up through the airlock. No feat though, I put a blow off tube on and into a carboy of sanitizer. All is still ok with the world as a result.
9/22/13 Secondary Transfer Day!
Well, we are just short of 3 weeks in the fermenter. I decided I would transfer this cider to the secondary. I did add 3 cinnamon sticks. I have read about not trying to overpower the cider with cinnamon, so I am going with 3 for this batch. I can always adjust accordingly on future batches. My gravity reading was 1.02 which gives me just shy of 10% alcohol. I did give it a little taste test too, and it was much sweeter than my puck you cider. This should be a great batch!
I decided with the fall months ahead, it was time to brew an Octoberfest beer. I decided to get an extract kit from morebeer.com. The issue with Octoberfests is usually they are brewed as a lager (in colder temperatures) which is not an option for me at this time. This kit was formulated to be brewed as a ale (at warmer temperatures). I decided to give it a go. Here are the ingredients:
Grains (steeped till water temperature hit 170)-
8 oz Caravienne
8 oz Caramunich
8 oz Abbey
Hops-
1 oz Perle (60 min boil)
1 oz Mt.Hood (1 min end boil)
Clarifier – Whirlfloc (Use ½ - 1 Tablet) (added with 5 mins left in boil)
SG- 1.06
FG- 1.16
5.87% ABV
Keeping the steeped grains in the water until it reached 170 degrees (or 30 minutes). I had to keep it in for 30 mins, as I reached 170 degrees much before the 30 minutes had expired.
Added Liquid Malt Extract and Hops, and then a clarifying whirlfloc
And then the all important yeast!
8/31/2013 Racked to a secondary (awesome dark orange color!)
1. Steep grains in 2.5 gallons of water at a temp of 150-160 degrees for 20 mins
2. Once the boil started, added all of the LME and corn sugar
3. Brought back to a boil and added 2oz of the Columbus hops and boiled for 45 mins
4. 2oz more of Columbus hops were added and boiled for an additional 15 mins
5. 2oz of Cascade hops were added and then the boil was terminated
The wort was then chilled
Frome here, the wort was transferred to a fermenter where the yeast was added and then sealed. An airlock was added, and then laced away for fermentation.
I am starting my second batch of beer. I decided to try the American Amber kit from Brewers Best. The Robust Porter is going to be a very dark and hearty beer, so I wanted to try something a little bit lighter. For this batch, I had my nephew and brother in law from CT helping me. Below I go over the finer points of sanitizing everything before we start.
Here is the ingredient kit we are going to use. This should be roughly a 5% alcohol beer once done.
Just like the last batch, 2.5 gallons of water heated up to 150-165 degrees before putting the grain sock in to steep for 20 minutes.
Very excited to introduce the "Laytoner" with this batch. It is a wort chiller constructed by Jim Layton, a man I work with at the firehouse. I showed him a picture of it and he said he could construct that. he constructed it, for half the cost so I told him I would name it after him. And, the "Laytoner" was born. This tool will allow me to chill the wort down quicker than the ice bath did in the last batch. Basically, you hook it to your faucet and the cold tap water will run through the copper lines and conduct the heat away from the wort into the water. From there, it runs through the copper tubes out to the drain of the sink. Very excited to use this!
Also notice, the sock of goodness is in the pot steeping.
Up to a gentle boil, we now add the malt extract. This kit had two....a dry malt extract and a liquid malt extract. Here is the videos:
The dry malt extract was a first for me..... learned to get it in quick and get it stirred before it caramelizes (which, does taste good).
Dry Malt Addition to wort:
The "Laytoner" sanitizing in the wort until its go time!
And Finally, Chill Out Time.....and the legend of the "Laytoner" begins:
And From here, its transfer to Fermenter (I used a strainer to strain away alot of the sediment that was already a part of the wort. We then took a specific gravity reading (1.060). From here we pitched the yeast and sealed her up!
-CT
8/5/2013
The American Amber was fermenting nicely at the 48 hour mark!
8/10/2013
Secondary Fermenter day! Switching from the primary to a secondary glass carboy!
Besides the cider brew I did the other day, my official beer making career has started. I ventured and made a Robust Porter from Brewers Choice. It was one of their ingredient packs. For now, this is what I will be brewing until I become a little more proficient at it. This batch had some pretty good reviews through the web and I am looking forward to cracking my first one!
I started with 2.5 gallons of water which I started to bring to a boil.
Once the temp hit 160 degrees, I put in my "sock" of grains. These steep in the water for 20 minutes. At this time too, the batch goes from water to wort. it was interesting in the 20 minutes it was in. Went from clear to pitch black. At this point too, my kitchen began to smell awesome!
rolling boil started, and the malt was added along with the hops. This set had three sets of hops, added in at different times.
After the third set, it was time to take the 212 degree wort and cool it down to 70 degrees! I had a sink full of cold water and ice. It took about 20 minutes, and I was able to get the temp down to 78 degrees before it evened out. I then transferred the wort to a fermenter. I then added in an additional 2.5 gallons of water to make the 5 gallon batch. I checked the specific gravity which was 1.051 and was within the specified range. I then pitched my yeast, stirred it in and placed the top on the fermenter and added the airlock. From here, it was transferred to a cool dark area in an undisclosed location for fermenting!
See ya in a few days!
7/27/2013
Fermentation is well under way. I just checked the fermenter around 1500hrs and there were a number of bubbles observed in the air lock!
7/30/2013
Fermentation has really slowed down. Checked tonight and I am down to approx one bubble every 30 seconds. Will probably trasnfer to a secondary on Friday!
8/2/2013
Transfer to secondary fermenter..... the bubbles became much more infrequent, so I decided today would be the day to transfer the brew to a secondary fermenter into a glass carboy. It had slowed down considerably for probably about 48 hours.
8/17/2013 BOTTLING DAY!
2 weeks in the secondary fermenter, and it was time to bottle! I sanitized all equipment (man, that was a lot of beer bottles!) I boiled up the priming sugar and then dumped it into the bottler bucket. From there, I transferred the beer from the carboy to the bottling bucket and stirred gentle to mix the priming sugar throughout. Then, it was time to bottle!
Finished Product (A Mix of 12oz, 20oz and 22oz bottles):
I began my "brewing" career with a simple batch of hard cider. Over the past week, I have been watching videos on brewing, and gathering some basic equipment. While I am still waiting for some equipment to come in, I came across a video for hard cider making. Being that it looked easy, I decided along with a buddy (Simon Hernandez) to give it a go. We set off to Terhune Orchards in Lawrence, NJ to purchase 4 gallons of apple cider.
We decided that Simon would make up some sweeter batches while I was going to make a dryer batch. It comes down to the yeast selection. Simon went with a Nottingham Ale yeast batch, while I ventured for the champagne yeast. We both bought 2 gallons of cider and mixed our batches in 1 gallon carboys. My first one I used was with two cups of sugar (to bring a higher alcohol content) and my second was done simply with the sugars of the cider. I added a few raisins in the second batch (as I read the yeasts like this as a nutrient). Anyways, they are tucked away, and we will see how they go!
-Corey
8/11/2013
Today after some advice from Simon Hernandez, I decided to transfer my cider to a secondary carboy to rid itself of some of the sediment that has accumulated on the bottom of the original carboy. By doing this, it will clear some of the sediment from the finished product and make for a cleaner cider. The process went smooth, and the cider really has a nice smell to it (I did not try any). I am pretty stoked to see how this turns out, especially since it was a pretty easy brew. Here are the before and afters:
Before:
After:
Two more weeks and I will bottle them. I have also decided that when it comes time to bottle, I am not going to carbonate them. I decided I want to just try and see what transpires and how this batch tastes.
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