The Bar Towel

markaberrant wrote:
Sure, it will be somewhat reasonable of a sub. However, I have some Paul's Amber malt from the UK, and it is very distinct. Biscuit and Victory have a cleaner, brighter taste that is similar to home toasted malt. I find the Amber more rounded in flavour, you even get a hint of smooth milk chocolate from it in the finish.

Thanks for the info.

I was putting in an order, so I added some MFB DARK KILN AMBER which was available. The MFB site just had Kiln Amber, so initially I thought that's what I was ordering, but apparently this stuff is 145 - 180L and totally different!

Maybe I'll mix a bit in with the biscuit to make the 'amber' ale.

Between moving and work exhausting me, I finally got the brew kettle fired up today after 4 long months. Kept it simple with an APA but dam did it feel good brew again.

Brewed my very first AG batch today! Did a DFH 60 min. clone.
Everything went really well, and I hit all my numbers except mash temp. I wanted to mash at 154, but ended up mashing at 150.

Calculated efficiency was 76%, so I'm really happy with that for a first try.

Did continuous dry hopping for the whole 60 min. boil, which was fun.. gave me something to do!

Couldn't get over how much cold break material there was. Didn't ever have this with extract!

elproducto wrote:Brewed my very first AG batch today! Did a DFH 60 min. clone.

Hey Chris, can you post a recipe or a link to where you got the clone?

No problem

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f69/dogfish ... act-25709/

I think the recipe itself is in Sam's Extreme brewing book available at Chapters along with, IIRC, Punkin, Indian Brown Ale and a few other dogfish ales.

In case you wanted the recipe from the source.

iguenard wrote:I think the recipe itself is in Sam's Extreme brewing book available at Chapters along with, IIRC, Punkin, Indian Brown Ale and a few other dogfish ales.

In case you wanted the recipe from the source.

There is an interesting podcast on the Jamil Show - Can you brew it?, on brewing DFH 120min, quite the process with multiple sterilized sugar additions during fermentation and imitating the continuous hopping process for 90 minutes.

Oh don't get me wrong, this is someone's interpretation of the recipe. I don't have that book though, and this seemed simple for my first AG.

If it turns out well, this could become my House Ale. Really basic recipe, means it's going to be cheap to make.

I substituted Nugget hops for the Warrior, because I have a pound of Nugget.

I brewed that 1868 porter.

I was worried that the halogen stove-top might not do the job, but it was actually better than the low end gas stove I had! It almost boiled off an extra gallon in 90 minutes!

markaberrant wrote:Might squeeze in a red wheat beer base on Friday for attempting something similar to New Glarus Wisconsin Belgian Red.

I did indeed brew this beer on Friday, but after thinking about it, the base will actually be closer to an english mild with 1kg of flaked spelt (stupid local hippie store was out of flaked wheat). Used S-04 for the first time too. I'll add 5lbs of local sour cherries to a portion of this beer later this week, as well as some oak cubes.

Next up is this year's batch of Flanders Red on Learn to Homebrew Day. This afternoon I tried the first bottle of a Flanders Red blending I did 4 weeks ago. All I can say is WOW and DAMN. Way better than last year's blend, this is possibly the best beer I have ever made. And no, I am not just being over enthusiastic, this beer freakin rocks!

The Danstar Windsor yeast had a nice head on it yesterday... but today it's gone? In two days it went from 1.062 to 1.025 (58% AA). The room temp is 66F... hopefully it keeps going (I even mashed at 147F for 90 min)?

Derek wrote:The Danstar Windsor yeast had a nice head on it yesterday... but today it's gone? In two days it went from 1.062 to 1.025 (58% AA). The room temp is 66F... hopefully it keeps going (I even mashed at 147F for 90 min)?

Windsor is a notoriously low attenuator. Max recommended ferm temp is 70F, so if RT is 66F you are prob close to the 'limit' in your fermenter, if it's still active. Maybe agitate occasionally and slightly increase temp? I was fighting with it recently in an ESB, ended up dressing the carboy in a winter coat and gently agitating twice per day which helped get it down. And there was still a significant amount of yeast in suspension after the krausen dropped.
You're 1 pt above the upper end FG for a baltic porter, but I'd imagine you are still a fair bit above your actual target. If you can't get it any lower, you could consider repitching a neutral yeast to help out. You'll get the attenuation you want, while retaining the english esters that the windsor has thrown.

cannondale wrote:If you can't get it any lower, you could consider repitching a neutral yeast to help out. You'll get the attenuation you want, while retaining the english esters that the windsor has thrown.

This is what I was going to suggest, but when re-pitcing into a stuck wort, using an actively fermenting culture at high krausen is recommended. Make a small 1L starter, wait until you see signs of fermenation, then toss it into the stuck beer.

But hopefully you won't have to do this... although I have also had poor experiences with Windsor, so I am not surprised.

And my S-04 mild I mentioned above had completed cleared after just 3 days, yet only fermented down from 1.041 to 1.019. I have gently roused the yeast the last few days, so I'll take another reading tonight or tomorrow.

Yeah, I raised the temp to 68F, swirled it 3 times last night, then once again this morning. We'll see where it's at tonight. Maybe I'm jumping the gun, but it really looked like it was clearing as well (and it's supposed to be a top-cropping, non-flocculant strain!).

It did produce an abundance of fruity-bubblegum aroma & flavour, but I was hoping for closer to 70% AA.

I was planning to throw a bigger brew on that cake, but I may have to rethink that! I've got a packet of the recalled Notty, which was supposedly just slow, and some S05 as well. Maybe I'll toss one in the second runnings to make a mild, and if it turns out I can use that cake for some added attenuation.

That S04 seems to be overly-dependent on the wort... but it chews up simple sugars like a fat kid on a sprinkled donut. I've only used it 3 times, but I didn't think I had much success. It gives me a musty flavour that I'm really not fond of (though Bobsy actually really liked my last stout). I thought it might be because I under-pitched and didn't oxygenate, but I've noticed it in a few commercial brews as well. She seems to be a prissy, high-maitenance yeast.

Derek wrote:
That S04 seems to be overly-dependent on the wort... but it chews up simple sugars like a fat kid on a sprinkled donut. I've only used it 3 times, but I didn't think I had much success. It gives me a musty flavour that I'm really not fond of (though Bobsy actually really liked my last stout). I thought it might be because I under-pitched and didn't oxygenate, but I've noticed it in a few commercial brews as well. She seems to be a prissy, high-maitenance yeast.

Well, I did mash my mild at 158F... that might have something to do with it. Anyways, we are snowed in today, so I ran downstairs and checked the gravity, it is now down to 1.016, which is still ridiculously high, but sort of where I wanted it to finish. Can't say I am overly fond of the S-04 character so far either, not sure what to call it, seems a little buttery, but then I am so used to the ultra clean S-05 character.

I added 5lbs of sour cherries to half the batch a couple days ago, and can't say I am too impressed with it either. I was hoping the base beer would be sweet enough to balance the tart cherries, but that doesn't seem to be the case, despite the high finishing gravity. So I'm thinking I'll just use the cherry portion to top up my various carboys of flanders red and chalk it up as a lesson learned.

I pretty much don't use english ale yeast, it has been over 2 years since I last used one. Never had success with any of them, even 1028. However, someone had given me this pack of S-04, the mild/cherry ale was a spur of the moment idea, and I thought maybe S-04 would help with the residual sweetness.

Oh well, good thing I've got lots of great beer to drink fermented with S-05, Wyeast 3711, and Wyeast 3763 (these are my house strains)! I am still not sure if I'm going to stay with 3711, may go back to 3787, depends how next year's belgian dark strong turns out, but I really like 3711 in my other belgians. I think it is important to limit the number of strains you use, there is a lot of variability between them all.