The Bar Towel

jaymack wrote:We talking full 5 gallons? I was thinking of trying some 2 or 3 gallon brews for that same reason; tweaking and perfecting. I suppose it's the same amount of work but cheaper on supplies.

Funny you should ask. I wanted to scale it down as much as I felt was reasonable for just this purpose. I went with 4.5 gallons in a 6 gallon carboy for primary. This will leave me with about as much head space as I'd be comfortable with by the time it makes it into secondary (5 gallon carboy).

I may just end up brewing at this batch size on a regular basis in order to ensure freshness, which is a factor to be considered with these mild ales in particular. I'll have to monitor how fast I get through the batches...

Putting together the grain bill and ingredients to brew the Founder's Breakfast Stout clone in BYO via batch sparge in the new MLT... may change it slightly by adding one vanilla bean to secondary along with the Kona coffee.

Speaking of the Kona, I'm not a coffee connoisseur so had no clue, but when I was looking around for it I found that it runs $40+ per pound for the 100%. No thanks, the blend at $6 for a half pound is fine with me..

Last night I got around to bottling all of the beer that I'd brewed late August through September. Strong Bitter, Pumpkin Ale, Mild and Sweet Stout.

on saturday Viggo and i brewed up an american barleywine and a triple-decocted alt.

two weeks prior was a triple brewday, with a pumpkin saison, imperial saison, and american ipa (to generate a fat yeast cake for the barleywine).

up next (in a week or two) will be our last brewday of the season: a giant smoked+peated wee heavy that we're planning to double-wood age and eis and a lambic, complete with turbid mash and ultra long-ass boil.

damn, i thought for sure we were over 200gal for the year, but it appears we'll only hit 195 gallons. i suppose it's some consolation that about half of that is currently sitting in fermenters... hopefully that'll get us through the winter!

Wow, 100 Gal a piece is pretty serious! (You could do one cold-weather stove-top brew to put you over).

I'm thinking of doing an Alt when my cellar cools down. Another SMaSH, all Munich & Mt. Hood (using my homegrown hops for flavour/aroma).

Derek wrote:Wow, 100 Gal a piece is pretty serious! (You could do one cold-weather stove-top brew to put you over).

hehe, thought about doing one more... but we'd have do 10gal to make it officially over 200gal.

Derek wrote:I'm thinking of doing an Alt when my cellar cools down. Another SMaSH, all Munich & Mt. Hood (using my homegrown hops for flavour/aroma).

yeah, ours was nearly 100% munich - 16# munich, 1# dark munich, and 1# melanoidin. we had to improvise on the hops, but considering it's just a bittering addition i ain't too worried.

this weekend im bottling my lastest batch that im naming "long winter abt"

i also have to brew an IPA to enter into a RB homebrew contest i entered, ill get around to that next weekend

Yesterday I took a shot at a black IPA using cascade, citra and simcoe hops.

3 gallon batch of plain jane porter. 2-Row, Crystal (40°L and 120°L), Black Patent and Chocolate Malts. Bittered with Fuggles, finished with Willamette.

I'll be brewing my 3rd batch ever this week.

It's a Pilsner Urquell clone recipe from one of those Clone Brews books (can't remember which one).

I've tried to slowly improve my technique over each batch. I live in a little condo so I'm pretty limited.

My first batch I just tossed a pre-hopped Wheat beer extract kit into some boiled tap water with a bunch of corn sugar.... and fired some dry ale yeast on it. It worked but it was very thin and sort of cider-like (I think because of so much corn sugar).

Second batch I used a pre-hopped IPA extract kit, and subbed the corn sugar out for dried malt extract. And I boiled the extract kit with the dried malt extract and added some extra hops (Nothern Brewer). I also used a dry ale yeast for this one. It was MUCH better than the first batch.

I bottled both batches in plastic 1 liter bottles... (last Christmas my buddy bought me the entire "start-up" kit... so this is what I've got)

This time around I have a little grain mill and I'm going to be using all dried malt extract and I'm going to be steeping some specialty grains... I've got a bunch of Saaz that I'll be using... and hopefully it makes for a better beer! I've got a bottle capper too, so no more plastic bottles.

JesseMcG wrote:I'll be brewing my 3rd batch ever this week.

It's a Pilsner Urquell clone recipe from one of those Clone Brews books (can't remember which one).

I've tried to slowly improve my technique over each batch. I live in a little condo so I'm pretty limited.

My first batch I just tossed a pre-hopped Wheat beer extract kit into some boiled tap water with a bunch of corn sugar.... and fired some dry ale yeast on it. It worked but it was very thin and sort of cider-like (I think because of so much corn sugar).

Second batch I used a pre-hopped IPA extract kit, and subbed the corn sugar out for dried malt extract. And I boiled the extract kit with the dried malt extract and added some extra hops (Nothern Brewer). I also used a dry ale yeast for this one. It was MUCH better than the first batch.

I bottled both batches in plastic 1 liter bottles... (last Christmas my buddy bought me the entire "start-up" kit... so this is what I've got)

This time around I have a little grain mill and I'm going to be using all dried malt extract and I'm going to be steeping some specialty grains... I've got a bunch of Saaz that I'll be using... and hopefully it makes for a better beer! I've got a bottle capper too, so no more plastic bottles.

what yeast are you using for your PU clone. can you control your ferment temps? are you re-hydrating your dried yeast or making a starter?

matt7215 wrote:

JesseMcG wrote:I'll be brewing my 3rd batch ever this week.

It's a Pilsner Urquell clone recipe from one of those Clone Brews books (can't remember which one).

I've tried to slowly improve my technique over each batch. I live in a little condo so I'm pretty limited.

My first batch I just tossed a pre-hopped Wheat beer extract kit into some boiled tap water with a bunch of corn sugar.... and fired some dry ale yeast on it. It worked but it was very thin and sort of cider-like (I think because of so much corn sugar).

Second batch I used a pre-hopped IPA extract kit, and subbed the corn sugar out for dried malt extract. And I boiled the extract kit with the dried malt extract and added some extra hops (Nothern Brewer). I also used a dry ale yeast for this one. It was MUCH better than the first batch.

I bottled both batches in plastic 1 liter bottles... (last Christmas my buddy bought me the entire "start-up" kit... so this is what I've got)

This time around I have a little grain mill and I'm going to be using all dried malt extract and I'm going to be steeping some specialty grains... I've got a bunch of Saaz that I'll be using... and hopefully it makes for a better beer! I've got a bottle capper too, so no more plastic bottles.

what yeast are you using for your PU clone. can you control your ferment temps? are you re-hydrating your dried yeast or making a starter?

It's the liquid Pilsner Urquell yeast strain from Wyeast. I've never made a starter before but I think I'll probably try to make one the day before the brew day this time around.

I have a little wine fridge (that I use for beer) that my fermenter fits in PERFECTLY if I take the shelves out. So I'm going to take all of my beer out of the wine fridge and ferment in there. I think it goes down to about 4 or 5 degrees (it fluctuates though - and gets as high as 15 degrees randomly it seems). That's the best I can do without using our actual fridge. I don't think the fiance would be too happy about that.

Any suggestions are MORE than welcome!

JesseMcG wrote:

matt7215 wrote:

JesseMcG wrote: ]

what yeast are you using for your PU clone. can you control your ferment temps? are you re-hydrating your dried yeast or making a starter?

It's the liquid Pilsner Urquell yeast strain from Wyeast. I've never made a starter before but I think I'll probably try to make one the day before the brew day this time around.

I have a little wine fridge (that I use for beer) that my fermenter fits in PERFECTLY if I take the shelves out. So I'm going to take all of my beer out of the wine fridge and ferment in there. I think it goes down to about 4 or 5 degrees (it fluctuates though - and gets as high as 15 degrees randomly it seems). That's the best I can do without using our actual fridge. I don't think the fiance would be too happy about that.

Any suggestions are MORE than welcome!

yes, please make a starter and try to follow correct lagering temps as best you can. hope the beer works out for you! PU is my fav lager so itd be cool to hear about someone cloning it with some success.

4-5 degrees should be okay for lagering, but I think it's little cold for primary fermenation. Can you turn it up? Leave the door ajar?

An external thermostat controller would be ideal, but there's the added cost (I still don't have one, and haven't lagered since I had a COLD basement).

I'm considering making an insulated box and placing it against an outside wall (actually the roughed in fireplace in my basement).

See Tip 3 - Lager box:
http://www.strangebrew.ca/Drew/cheap.html

Yep I can turn the temp up... I think the yeast pack suggests 9-14 degrees, so I'll probably set it at 9 and let it go up and down in and around that range.

I don't expect it to be a really close clone... since I'm using all malt extract with some specialty grains... but I am expecting to have a pretty tasty pilsner!