Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Great video on making beer

I thought this was really well done.

3 things she could have done to help her beer taste better:
  • Don't let the water boil when soaking the malted grains!!! The water should be no hotter than 170f.
  • Hydrate the yeast before adding it to the fermenter.
  • Leave the lid off the boil kettle, there are compounds given off during the boil that should not be trapped by a lid (partially open isn't horrible, but no lid would be a safe bet).

4 things that were not shown but are very important:
  • Sanitize the fermenter before fermentation
  • Sanitize the bottles before bottling
  • Add 3/4 cup of corn suger before bottling so your beer will be carbonated.
  • Keep your fermenter in the dark, or cover it with a dark cloth to ensure the beer isn't light-struck.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

2 Lagers

I did a Pilsner and a Dunkel last month, and they are slowly finishing fermentation in the chest fridge. I re-used the yeast from the Pilsner on the Dunkel, and now I am waiting for the last 15% of gravity to ferment away, it is taking a long time, I had hoped for 2 weeks in primary and 4 weeks in secondary, but it looks like it will be more like 8 weeks in secondary.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Reusing Yeast

I have reused yeast before, by pouring it out of the carboy and into a jug, preparing another starter prior to brewing and using that yeast. It worked as well as purchasing yeast at the homebrew shop and saved me $6.00.

This time, I brewed my West Coast IPA , and then 2 weeks later when fermentation had stopped, I racked it to secondary and brewed my Pale Ale and poured it on the yeast cake in the bottom of my primary carboy.

I was amazed at the difference, the beer went from a gravity of 1.059 to 1.014 in 2 days, completing fermentation in about 20% of the time! I will be racking to the conditioning keg tonight and may be able to drink the beer within 1 week of brewing!

I have decided to brew my stout this weekend and use the yeast cake 1 more time.

Friday, April 9, 2010

My best beer so far

West Coast IPA - I only have a couple bottles left, but this one is a winner. My brother-in-law loved it too.

It is modeled after the Green Flash IPA, and inspired by the Mammoth IPA. On a related note, I got up to Mammoth last week and tried their double brown, another winner. If you are anywhere that Mammoth beer is sold, you owe it to yourself to check it out.