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What are you brewing?

Me and a good friend from work just started home brewing recently. We have an Irish red in bottles that will be done about mid Jan and a Saint Paul porter that should be ready this Sunday for bottling. I love that that hobby seems to go quite well with collecting/smoking cigars.

Just got done cooking my first batch last night. Made an Irish Red Ale myself Joe. Got it downstairs and it's already bubbling away. :thumbs:
Going to try my hand at a Belgian Trippel next.
 
Me and a good friend from work just started home brewing recently. We have an Irish red in bottles that will be done about mid Jan and a Saint Paul porter that should be ready this Sunday for bottling. I love that that hobby seems to go quite well with collecting/smoking cigars.

Just got done cooking my first batch last night. Made an Irish Red Ale myself Joe. Got it downstairs and it's already bubbling away. :thumbs:
Going to try my hand at a Belgian Trippel next.


Ah the bubbling drives me nuts for two reasons. One, it shows that the beer is doing good which makes me giddy and two, I am using the white plastic style fermenters and I can't see it fermenting inside and just want to peek. Having it in the hallway where I walk regularly probably is not a good idea either. Next investment is going to be glass or clear plastic one for sure.

For your red did you use a kit then? If so, where from?
 
Me and a good friend from work just started home brewing recently. We have an Irish red in bottles that will be done about mid Jan and a Saint Paul porter that should be ready this Sunday for bottling. I love that that hobby seems to go quite well with collecting/smoking cigars.

Just got done cooking my first batch last night. Made an Irish Red Ale myself Joe. Got it downstairs and it's already bubbling away. :thumbs:
Going to try my hand at a Belgian Trippel next.


Ah the bubbling drives me nuts for two reasons. One, it shows that the beer is doing good which makes me giddy and two, I am using the white plastic style fermenters and I can't see it fermenting inside and just want to peek. Having it in the hallway where I walk regularly probably is not a good idea either. Next investment is going to be glass or clear plastic one for sure.

For your red did you use a kit then? If so, where from?
I bought my brew kit from Grape & Granary in Akron Ohio. They've always done well by me with my home wine making, so I gave them my business again. The kit came with the Irish Red ale ingredient kit. Figured I'd give a few of these a go before I try any recipes.

I saw the instructions said you can use something like Insanglass for clarification.................Did you have to do this, or is it really necessary?

I'm wondering if it would be okay to use the glass carboy's and primary fermenters I use for wine to do beer? Anybody? ???
 
I wouldn't worry about using your wine fermenters for beer as long as they're glass. There shouldn't be any flavor crossover or anything like that as long as your cleaning them as well as you should be. Plastic may be another thing, but I don't know.

I know some people that use separate EVERYTHING for beer and wine and I know people that use whatever they can for both. They all make good stuff.

The ingredients, your process, and time contribute a great deal to how clear your beer will be. Some beers will never clear and some you can't tell anyway. As long as it tastes good, everything is just fine.
 
I bought my brew kit from Grape & Granary in Akron Ohio. They've always done well by me with my home wine making, so I gave them my business again. The kit came with the Irish Red ale ingredient kit. Figured I'd give a few of these a go before I try any recipes.

I saw the instructions said you can use something like Insanglass for clarification.................Did you have to do this, or is it really necessary?

I'm wondering if it would be okay to use the glass carboy's and primary fermenters I use for wine to do beer? Anybody? ???

Is the Insanglass an ingrediant? I googled it and did not find anything on it so I guess my answer is that I did not use it?
 
beer.jpg


By the directions I *should* be able to move from secondary to bottle over the weekend, but there is still some yeast activity going on and I think it needs to clear up some more. Gotta decide what i'm gonna do and soon.
 
beer.jpg


By the directions I *should* be able to move from secondary to bottle over the weekend, but there is still some yeast activity going on and I think it needs to clear up some more. Gotta decide what i'm gonna do and soon.

Save yourself some time and give it 4-6 weeks in primary and bottle directly from there. Tons of beer brewed and never a bad batch yet
 
My primary at the time was a bucket. I'm gonna be getting me a 6.5 gallon glass carboy before the next time I brew. Though I am wondering about my SG reading from last night. Looked to be sitting at 1.000. Need to read again tonight and tommorow. If all thats good then bottle.
 
I know, unless this is the 2nd hydrometer that's broke on me. I'm def. checking again after I get off work. Maybe I had some trapped bubbles or something.
 
I know, unless this is the 2nd hydrometer that's broke on me. I'm def. checking again after I get off work. Maybe I had some trapped bubbles or something.

I sure hope everything is alright... That's alot of beer... :(
 
My primary at the time was a bucket. I'm gonna be getting me a 6.5 gallon glass carboy before the next time I brew. Though I am wondering about my SG reading from last night. Looked to be sitting at 1.000. Need to read again tonight and tommorow. If all thats good then bottle.

Nothing wrong with buckets
 
had the worst brewday ever last weekend.

Finally got a march pump and went to use it on a 10g batch. Ended up clogging the stupid thing with whole leaf hops when it came time to cool. Dont have an immersion chiller so I transfered it into buckets and let them cool overnight. Pitched the yeast and had very little activity over the course of the week. Going to check gravity readings tomorrow and see how its coming along (if it even is)

With all the mess of the marchpump I poured boiling wort right onto my foot where I now have a nice burn BTW.

Gotta get some stuff for the pump to make my life easier and then hopefully everything goes well.
 
Woo hoo! In the middle of bottling a porter with a 6% ABV, it's my first try at a "stronger" beer. Also, have to bottle a pilsner here in a bit, I've been cold-crashing it and just waiting now. I don't care much for pilsners, but I figure I can give it out to my friends who don't enjoy dark beers.

Then, I'm going to be brewing up some special stuff for the end of this year... YUMMY!
 
Woo hoo! In the middle of bottling a porter with a 6% ABV, it's my first try at a "stronger" beer. Also, have to bottle a pilsner here in a bit, I've been cold-crashing it and just waiting now. I don't care much for pilsners, but I figure I can give it out to my friends who don't enjoy dark beers.

Then, I'm going to be brewing up some special stuff for the end of this year... YUMMY!

Sounds awesome John. I have brewed a few heavier beers.. IPA, IIPA, and a belgain Trippel that i bottled up a few weeks ago. Just made a California Common with some White Labs San Fransisco Lager yeast, can't wait to try this one.
 
My Irish Red has been sitting on the cake for about two weeks now. I just need to find the time to prime and bottle now, and then off to start a batch of Belgian Trippel. I'm already looking into the one after that which I hope to be my first from scratch..........A Belgian White. I can't stop drinking Shock Top when I want something smooth and refreshing, so I figured I'd give it a go and do something like this where I have to add coriander, orange, lime, and lemon peel to the boil.
 
Okay, I just discovered QBrew and here are the specs for my two latest creations:

Chocolate Blueberry Oatmeal Stout
--------------------------------
Brewer: Blue Bear Brewery
Style: Oatmeal Stout
Batch: 2.13 galExtract

Characteristics
---------------
Recipe Gravity: 1.063 OG
Recipe Bitterness: 26 IBU
Recipe Color: 48° SRM
Estimated FG: 1.016
Alcohol by Volume: 6.1%
Alcohol by Weight: 4.8%

Ingredients
-----------
Blueberries (Canned) 1.21 lb, Sugar, Steeped
MrB. Golden Wheat UME 1.21 lb, Extract, Extract
MrB. Sticky Wicket Oatmeal Stout*2.42 lb, Extract, Extract

MrB. Sticky Wicket Oatmeal Stout*2.00 oz, Pellet, 5 minutes


Notes
-----
Recipe Notes:
Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa (1/2 Cup)

and

The Dubliner
------------
Brewer: Blue Bear Brewery
Style: Irish Stout
Batch: 2.13 galPartial Mash

Characteristics
---------------
Recipe Gravity: 1.059 OG
Recipe Bitterness: 36 IBU
Recipe Color: 38° SRM
Estimated FG: 1.015
Alcohol by Volume: 5.7%
Alcohol by Weight: 4.5%

Ingredients
-----------
Brown Sugar, Dark 0.24 lb, Sugar, Other
Malted Oats 1.00 lb, Grain, Mashed
MrB. Creamy Brown UME 1.21 lb, Extract, Extract
MrB. St. Patrick's Irish Stout1.21 lb, Extract, Extract

Fuggles (U.K.) 0.75 oz, Pellet, 5 minutes
MrB. St. Patrick's Irish Stout1.00 oz, Pellet, 5 minutes


Notes
-----
Recipe Notes:
-The Silver Palate Oatmeal used
C&H Dark Brown Sugar
Liquid Yeast (Stout) @ 74* degrees F

I'm pretty excited about both of these guys. Also, like I said, I just discovered QBrew. Does anybody else use it? (Linky to QBrew DL) After one day, the keg with The Dubliner is going nuts, and there's a TON of foam in it! The Blueberry on the other hand, has a tad bit of foam, but I am optimistic that it will being to pick up. Martin2D or Smelly, any thoughts?
 
Martin2D or Smelly, any thoughts?

What kind of yeast did you use on the Blueberry beer? Different yeasts produce different krausens...it's so dependent on so many things that I wouldn't worry about it. EDIT: I see you used oats in the stout recipe. That helps in head retention and is probably helping the krausen look a little more aggressive. I don't know much about extract, but in the future, I would ferment the blueberry beer without the fruit then rack onto the blueberries in secondary. If you heated them, there may be pectin haze in the beer, but that shouldn't matter too much since it's a dark beer.

Also, I'm not also that huge of a fan of liquid yeast. On such small batches, you're kind of wasting money. I think those beers would come out fine with S-04 or Nottingham. Plenty dry and Nottingham is only $1.50 a satchel vs. $7 a vial. Good savings IMO and why I use Nottingham for most of my ferments.
 
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