beer My Homebrews

So I brewed that Irish Red last Tuesday. I completely tweaked the recipe I originally posted on it, and I got to thinkin. I'm not sure how balanced this beer is gonna be. My OG was 1.070 and I feel like the hops and specialty malts may be too slight for a bite that big.

I ended up going:

7.5lbs golden light DME using late addition.
8oz Crystal 120L
1oz Chocolate

1oz Willamette (60 mins)
1oz Fuggles (5 mins)

Irish moss 3/4 teaspoon (15 mins)

WLP004 Irish Ale yeast

This was the first time I ever tried comin up with my own thang.

Any guess how this beer will actually turn out?



Also should I bottle condition it longer than say a standard gravity red ale?
 
Good deal... I'll be doin the homeland good me hopes.

I'll be drinkin that stuff all Irish day long if I can manage to make it last till then
 
The homebrewing threads have got to be the slowest topics around here. Everyone should be growing alcohol! I guess I'm just gonna ramble and say shit, and update things at random and for no apparent reason. S'all good.

Tonight I took an FG of my Stout that has been in primary for 19 days. FG was 1.017. It had a projected OG of 1.054 (couldn't get an actual reading)

I don't know the dryness level the recipe intended, but it tasted dry rather than sweet. It definitely has some sittin around to do though.

As far as color I definitely appear to be way off target!
pale stout.jpg


The wannabe stout

I guess not enough dark malts. Or maybe the fact that I used golden light DME rather than pale malts? I dunno.

Bottling wednesday.
 
is that a grinder behind the beer?

dont worry about the thread being slow most of my threads im just talking to myself!
 
HigherThisHeat said:
The homebrewing threads have got to be the slowest topics around here. Everyone should be growing alcohol! I guess I'm just gonna ramble and say shit, and update things at random and for no apparent reason. S'all good.

Tonight I took an FG of my Stout that has been in primary for 19 days. FG was 1.017. It had a projected OG of 1.054 (couldn't get an actual reading)

I don't know the dryness level the recipe intended, but it tasted dry rather than sweet. It definitely has some sittin around to do though.

As far as color I definitely appear to be way off target!
pale stout.jpg


The wannabe stout
Click to expand...
Hell, I'l bet its still drinkable! I'd drink it.
 
Oh it is definitely drinkable. I just missed on color. And also body. Next time I will not use extra light DME, and also probably add more steeping grains.

I bottled it last wednesday. I reckon I'ma crack one open this week and see how its comin along.

Yesterday was another brew day. Brewed up an American Amber using a tweaked recipe from Brewing Classic Styles recipe book.

Finally got a pipeline going. That should keep me busy.... And by busy I mean drunk.
 
Nother update here... perhaps even pointless.

Came home from work last night and went to check on my newly fermenting amber ale, and didn't hear any bubbling as I did before leaving in the morning. Upon opening the cooler it sits in, I see a clogged airlock and krausen matter all over the inside!
I thought I only had to worry about that with higher gravity beers. This one was only 1.052, but this mother effer took off in about 6 1/2 hours. Never used the yeast before. Cali ale WLP001. Maybe thats just how it do.
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problem solved though.
Blowofftube.JPG


I think I'll just use blowoffs on everything
 
Yep, and so as I'm addicted to making alcohol, I was at the Fresh Market and gallon jugs of apple cider were on sale.
murrays cider.jpg


So I bought em. I don't know a thing about makin cider, but I just went the most simple route possble. This is what I did:

2 gallons cider
2 1/2 cups sugar
5g's Safale-05 american ale yeast

O.G. was 1.072

In cider terms, I think that is like 7.5-8% abv

Thats it. I didn't do nuttin else. Its sitting at 67 degrees as we speak. I wonder what will happen! I plan on letting it sit in its primary for, eh I dont know? A week or two? Then racking back into two 2 gallon jugs and conditiong for a month and then bottling. Maybe back sweeten if it ends up too dry. Not really sure how to even do that, but I'll figure it out by the time its done. Its all for fun, but if it turns out good I'll do a larger batch
cider.jpg
 
Hard Cider is deff an Easy brew. I bought 5 gallons of fresh cider 2 years ago and sweetened with a pound of honey and a cup of Sugar in the raw.
I cant remember the yeast , think it was a wine yeast not champagne. Fermented for about 8 weeks.
Anyhoo.... Backsweetening works well if too dry but make sure you pasteurize the stuff or ferm will kick in again and you could have a mess.
I blew apart a 1gallon Carlo Rossi bottle in my kitchen and it sounded like a shotgun went off in my house. This was Christmas morning no less. Glass everywhere, a chunk of the neck hit my wife, she was not happy.

But that sheit would get you fugged up at warp speed!
 
Merry christmas to you...Yeah those carlo rossi bottles aren't meant to hold pressure. That must have been a fun mess to clean.

I also plan on carbonating rather than having a still cider, do you back sweeten at secondary, or upon bottling? I'll hafto do some more research
 
you wont need to backsweeten

you used a beer yeast, it wont attenuate down that low to where it will be necessary

most ciders are fermented with champagne or wine yeast
 
and if it's not sweet enough for you just use some Lactos to sweeten it up a bit. It doesn't ferment so your sweet tooth will be a happy camper :)
 
nah, dont backsweeten cider with lactose, thats just gonna taste gross

use honey if you are gonna do anything, but you should be more than fine
 
Yeah, even if it was dry, I am just going to not do any additional steps for now. I'd rather not put TOO much work into this 2 gallon batch. It's really just for fun to see how it turns out anyway. I also hear your supposed to age that shit for like a year... EFF THAT. I'll drink it, rocket fuel tasting or not.

I may hold out for a couple months though. Who knows if I can stay distracted enough.

At the moment I have zero ready-to-drink homebrews on hand. But in a couple weeks, between me and my gf's brews we will go from zero to 25 gallons. Yep that should keep us busy and drunk.


Speaking of which, we cracked one of her very young saisons, only a week in bottles, last night to see how its coming along. Holy shit, even as young as it is, it is one of the best tasting beers that has been brewed out of our house.....
saison.JPG



Only for now though. My Irish red will be a contender
I sampled it yesterday while taking a gravity reading, and that shit was sooo good. I was worried the balance would be off and there would be some alcohol heat, but nope. It is pretty balanced.

OG was 1.072 and yesterday It was at 1.018 at 67 degrees. It still may finish up a point or two, but as is that is about 7%abv. Excited for this one.
 
Yep. So it's been a little under two weeks since the irish "stout" got bottled. I put some in the fridge yesterday, and today I opened one up after work.

Its definitely good and drinkable, but also young tasting still. The bitterness is still too far forward. I don't get any roasted flavor like you expect from a stout. Then again the bitterness takes the front seat and the roasted barley may be masked still. I definitely did not get the right color. Its like a dark brown, copper color instead of black like a stout ought to be. So I think more roasted barley next time for bigger roasted flavor and darker color? Perhaps. I don't know shit, so i'll hafto look into that further. I think they'll still benefit from being in the bottles for a couple more weeks.

All in all a little disappointing it came out not very stout like. I don't really detect any off flavors, and its pretty drinkable. So I'm ok with it. We'll see what time does to it.
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True dat.

It's good enough to drink, but not so awesome that I feel guilty for pounding 8 of them in a sitting. So it works out.



.
Tomorrw night I bottle up the irish red
 
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