Brew #17 Porter

 Brew Date: May 18th, 2012

No Friday night at the fights for me. Just domestic chores and kitchen duty.

I figured it's high time to develop a malty flavor and tone down the hoppiness. On-line you can find a range of recipes for Porters so, as the Command-in-Chiefs girlfriend that we read about is a composite, so is this recipe. Note: for economic reasons I start with 10lbs of 2 row to get the discount price.

sTevo's Porter:

10 lbs 2-row
3/4 lb crystal 80L
1/2 lb roasted barley 300L
1/4 lb chocolate wheat 500L

1 oz saaz @ 4.9%
1 oz tettnang @ 4.8%
1 oz kent golding @ 4.5%

Safale US#05 dry yeast

The other day PDB brewed his #2 batch using the full grain method, solo. I called to check on his progress and he was ten minutes or so into mashing. He had the mash going on in the boiling pot which was running over. His mash was sticky and hard to stir. I lent him my Igloo cooler and it skipped his mind so he forgot to mash in it. After a short conversation I convinced him to transfer the mash into the cooler in order to gain and extra 1/2 gallon of volume. From there I believe all when well.

He confessed to needing a wort chiller because he didn't like staying up to midnight waiting for his wort to cool down in the sink. I told him that it took 16 batches for me to come to Jesus on this piece of equipment. He said "Ah a Conversion Experience". Yes there is a conversion going on...PDB is becoming a Brewing Monk.

For the sake of being redundant, here are the steps to brew, using wifey's pots and pans:

Mash in the Juice Box

Strain and Rinse Using

 Wiefy's Broccoli Steamer

Pour Wort into Boiling Pot

 Skim The Scum Off The Top

Add Hops Per Sched

Hop Addition Schedule:
Upon Boil after Skimming
1/2 oz saaz t=0
1/2 oz saaz t=20
1/3 oz tett t=40
1/3 oz tett t=60
1/3 oz tett t=80
1/3 oz Kent t=90
 dry hop 2/3 kent after active fermententation settles down 

Employ The Coveted Chiller

Bottling Day #16

So I bottled the reformulated bud-rice. To ease the pain of the whole bottle wash and rinse routine I picked up a rinsing gismo that attaches to the sink faucet. What a life saver.

Bottle Rinser

Bud-Rice #16 Revisited

OK, the joke is on me. The Bud-Rice taste like a cereal box. I shouldn't be surprised as it has Cap'n Crunch in it. What to do with 5 gallons of swill? I know. I can blend it with 2 lbs of crystal and 2lbs of rye, 2 more oz of hops and a pack of Safale US-05.

And so I ran a mini batch the other night. I tell you, working in smaller quantities is a lot easier. It has given me the idea of revisiting Batch #6. I will use a grain bag to mash and rinse and it will be a lot easier. Might even use a hop bag to put the Galena bittering hops in. This way the bitter won't overpower the flavor and aroma.

So I processed the batch and then go on-line to  review the crystal specs and it says the crystal has no enzymes in it. Now what, Joke number two? Not to worry. That sucker was bubbling away like it was made with two row.

Bud-Rice Fixer

 PDB has my two air traps so a Mason jar will have  to do.

While I was at the shop the other day I picked up this present with some of Mother's birthday money. In ~15 minutes this guy had the wort down to ~85 deg F with a very low water flow rate. It is a thing of beauty. You also get to experience heat exchanger fouling first hand. It you don't keep the wort agitated, the water temp drops of quickly.

Wort Chiller

I also grabbed a bottle rinser. Pics next time I bottle. Then I returned to the shop with PDB and he grabber a rinser too. Oh man does that make bottling day so much easier. PDB avoided all the misery of rising 48 bottles and was raring to go when I arrived to help him bottle his first batch Friday evening.

Lunch Hour

It used to be that you could have a few beers on lunch hour. Not any more with all of the restrictive policies. Get caught with beer-breath and you are off to a piss test and a pink slip. Well they can't stop me from going to the brew shop. Even made a map so I could get there and back in an hour. Cuts out about 10 traffic lights.

Point A to Point B in 15 Minutes

Note From Uncle Jim

Uncle Steve,
Benny Boy and I just returned from the Homebrew Emporium!  We are planning to make Oatmeal Stout on Sunday while it is raining.  Here is the recipe:

10 lbs British pale ales malt
1 lb flaked oats (1 L)
3/4 lb chocolate malt (350 L)
3/4 lb victory malt (28 L)
1/2 lb crystal (80 L)
1/2 lb black roasted barley (500 L)

2 oz Kent Goldings 5% AA

11 grams Safale S-04

Working the yeast starter now.

I plan on mashing for 90 minutes to get the most out of the oats.
Cheers,
Uncle Jim

Uncle Jim's New Mash Tun

It all started about ~1987 when Uncle Pete started home brewing. Then a couple of decades later I started brewing  in 2010. Uncle Jim tasted and said, "It is Good" and so he started in 2011. Uncle Jim won't do anything without the best equipment though. Last August he acquired a soda keg system with 2 kegs and a CO2 tank. Then he got a 10 gallon mash tun with false bottom. Oh, and then he made a wort chiller. Below are some pics of Uncle Jim's new toy.


Uncle Jim will be sharing his recipes, methods, success stories and best of all, how not to brew. I have made some small mistakes but I have never dumped a batch, excepting the Horse Grain #2. That was a learning exercise.

I. Need. One.

I am not jealous, I am happy for Uncle Jim.

False Bottom

False Bottom

   

Little Juice Box Behind Big Juice Box

 

I Need One Of These

Blonde #16 Bud-Lite

Why on God's green Earth would I try to brew Bud-Lite?

Observation: The recipe cost $17 for the real parts and $7 for the fake parts.

Real Parts:
5 lbs 2-row

1 oz Hallertau (sub for Saaz that was sold out)
Saflager w-34/70

Fake Parts:
2lb-10 oz Minute Rice
14 oz box Cap'n Crunch (Corn substitute)

I mashed on the stove top and I think it is too much work. I will go back to the mash tun and pay more attention to the water draw. The rice did not appear to convert as much as the cereal. The cereal completely dissolved. I am wondering what happened to all the cereal ingredients like thiamin mononitrate and riboflaven? Was it the crusty stuff that precipitated and hardened on the foamy scum ring? No, I think that was the Yellow #5 and the Yellow #6.

This beer and no color at all except that it is blonde. Very blonde. Goes with the target audience. Girls. Oh no, now I am going to be called a sexist.

Next time I try a silly experiment with rice, I will use puffed rice to get the same 100 percent conversion. Can't say what this is going to do to the taste, or even if the carbohydrates get converted to fermentable sugars or not.

The moral of the story is that Bud-Lite brewed at my house has Cap'n Crunch in it. It is children's beer.

This Is What The Recipe Calls For

Oh Man, I Screwed Up

Where's the Cap'n?

Meticulous Record Keeping

For Blonde's Only