All Grain Brew Event

Last Thursday we attempted our first all grain brew using my homemade mash/lauder tun and some new propane burners. So far, everything has gone extremely well.

Since it was a night of firsts, I also decided to try out a liquid yeast and put together a starter.

Here's a shot of the full setup:

Removing some steeped grains from the extract brew:

The new Bayou burner with propane tank:

Brent and Matt finishing up the extract brew:

And some nice hot break forming on the top of the Fuggles IPA:

The Fuggles IPA had an expected SG of 1.042 - 1.046. We ended up with 1.045! I couldn't have been happier.

The extract brew went just as well, coming in around 1.062 (with an expected 1.070 SG).

Today we transferred both brews to secondaries, dry hopping the extract brew; it should be a pretty dark IPA, and it tasted delicious. It had a gravity of 1.019 today (so far a 69% attenuation).

The Fuggles IPA had a gravity reading of 1.010 (78% attenuation!)

After the brews settle a bit in the secondaries, it'll be time to rack 'em in some corny kegs and get them ready for consumption.

Next Extract Brew Recipe

Our next extract brew will be a recipe pulled from my favorite source BeerRecipes.org. This site was responsible for Hell Gate Porter, Bah Humbug and Hop Hound Dog IPA.

The recipe is called Serious Black Ale, and it peaked my interest because of it's cross between my two favorite beers - hoppy IPAs and dark porters. This brew appears to have ample amounts of cascade hops, which incidentally is the same variety that we have left over from our HopsDirect.com purchase.

Description pulled from the recipe posting:

"This beer is a very dark Hybrid Ale/Porter, overtly hop forward and lasting until finish. However it has an nice toasty and chocolate flavor on the palate. Wonderful hop and coffee aromas as soon as the beer is opened and poured. As I said this beer is very dark. It is Brown almost black and has a head almost like Guiness. "

We'll see... I certainly hope so.

I'm hoping if the post-secondary taste test goes well, I may take on the effort of filling my second tank with a CO2 and Nitrogen mix, to get the true Guiness-style head.

Finally, the recipe:

• 7.5lbs Amber liquid malt extract.
• 2lbs Muntons dark dry malt extract.
• 12.5 ounces Chocolate malt cracked
• 12.5 ounces Crystal malt 60l cracked
• 7 ounces Victory malt cracked
• 2 ounces northern brewers hops
• 5 ounces cascade hops
• 5 gallons Spring water
• 2tsp yeast nutrient
• 2.5tsp yeast energizer
• 1 vial of White Labs California Ale V yeast WLP-051

OG: 1070 FG: 1021
Primary Ferment: 5 days
Secondary Ferment: 10 days

All Grain Brew Prep

I recently picked up an 8 gallon brewing pot and was interested in finding faster ways to bring water and the wort up to temperature. Since we have an all grain brew coming up this week, I thought it'd be a good idea to try out some of the new planned equipment.

We're going to try to do all of the brewing out back this week, using a turkey fryer burner (15psi high pressure propane burner). I was able to take 5 gallons of water from 77 degrees F to boiling in a little over 35 minutes. I've never tried this volume of water on my kitchen stove, but I can guarantee it wouldn't be done so quickly. Due to the success of the burner, I decided to pick up a Bayou burner on Amazon that had great reviews (20psi high pressure propane burner). The turkey fryer burner was borrowed from a buddy who will be joining us for the next brew.

This experiment also included the use of the immersion cooler with the garden hose, demonstrating how much easier this backyard setup will be than the typical kitchen environment.

Finally, I was able to test out the mash tun to see how much the temperature would drop over an hour. I was a bit disappointed to watch the temperature go from 155 degrees F to about 150 degrees F over the hour. I'm hoping that with the inclusion of the grain, the temperature may drop a big slower. I also intend to wrap the mash tun in insulation and a sleeping bag when we try it out this week.

DIY Mash Tun

I threw together a mash/lauder tun based on Greene Thumb's blog posting. I made some minor modifications since the cooler I'm using is slightly different in size, but the overall procedure was the same.

We should get a chance to try it out this Thursday. I'll report on how well things worked out after 8 Bit Beer's first all grain brewing experience.

Great Father's Day gift

My wife purchased this glass etched with the 8-Bit Beer name for me for my first Father's Day. Great gift. I immediately filled it up with a pour from the Troegg's HopBack I had on tap in my kegerator. Delicious.

Bah Humbug: It's about time

I finally got the chance to tap the Bah Humbug keg, sampling it this warm spring evening with my wife.

Thanks to a rather inauspicious business practice of taking a customer's money with no plans to provide the purchased items, I was stuck for awhile without the final pieces necessary to connect my kegerator to my pin-locked cornelius keg. In case you're interested, the website is www.keepjimfromenjoyinghishomebrew.com (where keep = keg and jimfromenjoyinghishomebrew = kits).

Thanks to http://www.midwestsupplies.com/ I was able to resolve the situation. I'm not sure why I didn't go with them to begin with, considering the fact that I've only known good experiences when ordering from their online store.

Anyway, so I bet you're wondering how this Winter Ale turned out: pretty damn good. It's a spicy, smooth and not overwhelming ale, reminding me of a good pumpkin ale from the fall.

My rating: 3.75 / 5

Hell's Gate Porter: Thumbs Up

My current setup only allows me to have one brew on tap at a time (there is most certainly a project on the short list to remedy this situation), and the Hell's Gate Porter was chosen from the two available. The beer poured beautifully with a thick head; the porter turned out to have a very dark color.



Despite the dark look, the porter has a lighter taste to it. It doesn't have a syrupy after taste, making it go down very smoothly and leaving a refreshing taste in your mouth.

My rating: 3.5 / 5

Although it really does taste great and has met expectations, it isn't a very exciting brew. Not that I need excitement from every brew I drink, but with this dark of a porter, it seems like it should pack a punch in the flavor department and it does not. I'm always happy with a good home brew, free of any turn-offs; and this brew is a model of the very least of what I hope to put together with our efforts.

Cheers!