All grain German Alt Bier

Brent and I brewed up a German Alt Bier on Thursday afternoon, once again trying our hand at an all grain brew. The SG came out a bit lower than we were hoping at 1.034, but hopefully we still have a good brew on our hands.

Here is a video of the airlock ferociously bubbling as the alt bier fermented:

Fuggles IPA: All Grain Brew was a success!

For our first all grain brew, we couldn't have had a better result, in my opinion.

I've already completely emptied my keg of it (split between Matt and I - Brent graciously offered us his share), although I did have a higher volume of visitors in the last two weeks than usual and most of my friends enjoy a good brew. Still, it was hard to not go for a pour of the Fuggles over the Great Lakes Elliot Ness and dark hoppy extract brew that I also had on tap.

The taste was a very nice light, almost fruity flavor that even quenches the thirst. The color was a cloudy orange color. The head was perfect after the beer finished carbonating, mixing with the slightly cloudy consistency and sweat on the glass to form a visually fuzzy spectacle.

My rating: a delicious 4.75/5

And I've only left the last 0.25 in case we can top this one, in this style. I'm not sure it'll happen though.

I'll let Brent post about the dark hoppy brew we just completed. It was also very good, but I'll let Brent do it justice with a rating of his own.

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.