Quick Update & Some Thoughts

Brew #1, Cooper's Lager, has been in primary for 10 days. No activity has been noticable for serveral days. I will probably be bottling this on Friday and will be using Cooper's Carbonation Drops.

Brew #2, Doc's Cellar Belgian Ale, has been in primary for 2 days and the activity is very high. The krausen has only become about an inch and a half thick, so no worries about blow-off, but the airlock has been bubbling every second for 24 hours.

After doing some more reading, I've come across a couple details that likely have a significant affect on my resulting ale. First, I squeezed the bag of specialty grains after I was done steeping. Apparently this is a big no-no as it allows tannins and trub proteins to enter the wort, imparting undesired flavors. There are plenty of particles floating around in my carboy, but most of it looks to be normal sediment (minus an ugly black flake that I couldn't clean off the bottom of my kettle before the boil). An article discussing this can be found here. Second, I've learned that steeping temperature is important and proper range varies by grain type. For this ale, I just kept the steeping temperature between 150 and 160 F. I'm noticing many recipes call for a much longer steeping time as well, compared to my instructed 20 minutes. Finally, I've come across several articles regarding so-called "late extract brewing." The idea is that since LME has already undergone a hot-break, it does not need a full boil - it just needs to be brought to a sufficient temperature for sanitizing. Doing a full boil with LME may over-carmelize the sugars. Perhaps this is where my missing 0.011 gravity contribution disappeared...

Brew #2: Belgian Ale (Part 2)

The steeped grains, LME, and beet sugar were added to the kettle and stirred until the LME was well dissolved.

After mixing, additional water was added (boil big), and the heat was cranked up to bring the wort to a boil. This took a long time with our lousy stove top - good time for a beer!

Once the wort started boiling, 1.5 ounces of Liberty hops (Alpha 4.3%) were added. An additional 1/2 ounce was added with 10 minutes left in the boil to add aroma.

Boil is finished.

The wort then needed to be cooled so that I could pitch the yeast. This should be done as quickly as possible - I'm not entirely sure why; I think it has something to do with heavy proteins falling out of solution, but the important thing is that the beer tastes better. Lucky for me, my friend picked up a wort chiller. This chiller is basically a set of copper coils that cold water is run through. With this device (along with an ice bath), I was able to bring the wort from boiling to 75 F in just 5 minutes.

I then poured the wort into my new carboy and pitched the starter.

 

Water was added to bring the total brew up to about 5 gallons. I placed the airlock on top and now I play the waiting game.

I'll let this sit for at least 3 weeks before I bottle. Longer would be even better, but I anticipate getting impatient. Original gravity is about 1.052, which should give me a final beer with around 6% ABV. The kit is advertised as having a OG of 1.063 - I have no idea how I ended up so low. The wort is great tasting to start, so I have high hopes.

Edit: I believe I missed the starting gravity due to a combination of many things, including the temperature at which I took the measurement and carmelization during the boil. When the initial fermentation was just beginning to subside, I added a "1% alcohol boost" that I got in my AHS Dunkelweizen shipment, which is a pre-measured amount of dextrose that should do as its name implies with very little taste contribution. In the end, it's hard to really tell what my ending ABV is, but it's of little consequence since it tastes so darn good. The most noticeable improvement I could have made (as suggested by a friend) would be to add Irish moss at the end of my boil to pull out the proteins and improve clarity.

Brew #2: Belgian Ale (Part 1)

With my first brew settling out in my fermenter and a strong desire to brew up a second beer, I took a couple trips to my local homebrew store (LHBS) Doc's Cellar to pick up some supplies. I ended up with:

• 6.5gal Glass Carboy
• Carboy Plug
• 3-Piece Airlock
• Racking Cane
• Siphoning Tubing
• Star San Sanitizer
• Bottle Capper
• Bottle Caps
• SS Spoon (for the boil)
• Thief (for taking samples from the carboy)
• Belgian Ale Kit
  

The Belgian Ale Kit contains:

• Liquid Malt Extract (LME)
• Flaked Wheat Grains (for steeping)
  
• Caravienne Grains (for steeping)
• Liberty Hops
• Dark Beet Sugar
• White Labs Trappist Ale Yeast

 Here's a shot of part of my recent purchases:

The day before brewing, I made a "starter," which is basically a small beer with the intention of doubling the yeast count. This allows the fermentation to begin quickly and healthily when added to the full 5 gallon batch, reducing the chance of infection and off flavors. I took a few spoonfuls of the LME from my kit and boiled it in about 1/4 gallon of water for 5 minutes, cooled the solution, and added the yeast in a 1/2 gallon sanitized growler:

Before brewing, all equipment had to be be cleaned and sanitized. I first sanitized the carboy by filling it full of Star San solution, and after poured the solution into a old bucket which was used to sanitize anything else necessary during the boil.

It was handy to have this around while brewing since it's easy to set something down on an unsanitary surface without thinking. Next task was to steep the specialty grains - the flaked wheat and caravienne. The grains were placed into a steeping bag and thrown into a gallon of water at 160 F for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, the grain tea is ready to go into the brew kettle.

1st Brew Day 6

Another taste test today. Alcohol content is up to about 4%, but the gravity is at around 1.012, so I don't think it's going to increase much further. The harsh cider taste has come down a bit, and some aroma is starting to emerge. The airlock is about half as active as it was during peak fermentation. I'm feeling more confident that it will develop into something drinkable since it still has at least another week in primary fermentation.

1st Brew Day 3

It's been almost 3 full days since I pitched my first beer. Took a sample for my first gravity and taste testing (I should have sampled the original wort...). The hydrometer is reading 1.020, which means I should have about 3.2 ABV. The sample was pretty fizzy when I took the sample but had little staying power as it tasted flat. There is almost no aroma (which worries me), is very yellow in color, and it has a cidery taste. From what I've read, using simple sugar for the fermentable (which is what the Cooper's kit uses) has a tendency to produce a cider taste. Hopefully this flavor mellows out over the next couple weeks. Another thing which I've discovered that sort of bothers me is that the kit gave me a lager extract and ale yeast. It makes sense to use ale yeast as a beggining brewer since it ferments around room temperature, but why don't they ship a nice brown ale or something with the kit? I suppose lagers appeal to a very wide group of people, but the point seems moot. I'm trying to listen to the homebrew community's mantra of "Relax, Don't Worry, Have A HomeBrew" (RDWHAHB) but it is hard not to be excited and over-cautious with my first attempt.

My First Brew

For Christmas, I received a Cooper's Microbrewery Kit. It has everything I need to start making extract brews. The kit comes with a Lager extract, which I will be using for my first batch. I will keep this blog updated with my progress on this and future brews.

On the evening of New Year's Day, I pitched the yeast and began the fermentation. Original Gravity (OG) was measured at 1.042 prior to pitching. It took about 18 hours for the airlock to start bubbling, and is now bubbling steadily after about 36 hours. The fermenting wort is sitting steadily at 22 C. I get to play the waiting game now - I will be bottling sometime between January 11 and 15. No pictures for now since I can't locate my camera.