Irish Red is dead

Posted on June 22, 2011 by kconley

It’s a sad responsibility to announce that the Irish Red Ale is no more. The last pint was drawn tonight and every last drop was enjoyed.

Must brew more!

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Refrigerated Fermentation Water Bath

Posted on June 3, 2011 by kconley

I have an office water cooler that I was given, but really didn’t have a need for. Ever since I acquired it, I’ve wondered what I should do with it.

Over at Homebrewtalk.com, there’s plenty of people making fermentation chambers using dorm fridges or altered window AC units. I started thinking that all this water cooler was is just a simple fridge of sorts. I didn’t realize how simple it was until I actually started taking it apart. It consists of a simple copper tube that is coiled around a plastic water tank which is gravity fed out to the spigots when someone wants a drink of cold water.

My idea was to immerse the cooling coil into a container like a bucket to cool the water or Propylene Glycol if I want to spend the money to do that and pump it through copper tubing wrapped around my carboys. That idea quickly went away when I realized the price of copper tubing. I decided the best way to conduct heat away from my carboys and to promote even cooling was going to be a water bath.

After talking with an AC guy to find out if there would be any issues with immersing the cooling coil in water (he said there weren’t any) I decided to move forward with the project.

I finished taking off the outside cabinet and started working on the wiring. This unit has a water heater built in, but being in Florida, I’m really not likely to need it so I disconnected it. I rewired the on/off switch that used to control the heater and put it inline with the cooler compressor.  I now had a way to turn it on and off when I needed.

I purchased a 50 gallon tub to use for the water bath. I keep my glass carboys in milk crates so I can move them around safely and I can fit two of them inside the tub with crates. If I go crate-less, I can fit three carboys inside but moving full carboys around without my milk crates makes me nervous! I placed a $10 Harbor Freight water pump inside the tub to circulate the water around. I carefully bent the copper cooling coil down into the water so it would be below the water line.

 

 

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My Northern Brewer Order is in..

Posted on June 2, 2011 by kconley

I ordered my grains for my upcoming brewday and thought I’d have some fun with the Special Instructions section of my order.

If you watch BrewingTV, which is presented (produced?) by Northern Brewer Homebrew Supply, this may be familiar to you. If you don’t know what BrewingTV is and you are interested in brewing your own beer and want to watch some interesting and entertaining videos on the subject then check out Brewing TV’s Episode Index.

Right now, my office smells awesomely of malted barley and other adjuncts for this weekend. I can’t wait!

 

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Upcoming beers: Chocolate Milk Stout & Pub Ale

Posted on May 26, 2011 by kconley

One of my next beers I’ll be brewing is a Chocolate Milk Stout. This will be the first of probably several test batches that I plan to do until I get this recipe down.

The second batch will be a Pub Ale, based off of the Pub Ale recipe off of Home Brew Talk The main difference I plan on making is instead of using brown sugar, I will use Sucanat instead. This will be a 10 gallon batch and will be sending 5 gallons home with a co-worker who wants to try out brewing.


Chocolate Milk Stout
Dry Stout

Type:
All Grain

 Date: 5/25/2011

Batch Size:
5.00 gal

 Brewer:
Keith Conley
Boil Size: 7.18 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 90 min Equipment: Brew Pot (15 Gal) and Coleman Xtreme 70 qt cooler
Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0 Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00
Taste Notes:
Ingredients
Amount Item Type % or IBU
10.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 64.52 %
1.25 lb Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 8.06 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt – 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 6.45 %
0.75 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 4.84 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt – 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 3.23 %
0.50 lb Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 3.23 %
2.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (90 min) (First Wort Hop) Hops 33.6 IBU
1.00 oz Chocolate, Dark Bakers Powder (Boil 1.0 min) Misc
1.00 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
1.50 lb Milk Sugar (Lactose) (0.0 SRM) Sugar 9.68 %
1 Pkgs McGuires Yeast (McGuires Brew Pub #House Yeast) [Starter 1000 ml] [Cultured] Yeast-Ale
Beer Profile

Est Original
Gravity:
1.085 SG

 Measured Original Gravity:
1.010 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.022 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.005 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 8.27 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 0.65 %
Bitterness: 33.6 IBU Calories: 43 cal/pint
Est Color: 34.3 SRM Color:  

Color
Mash Profile
Mash Name:
Single Infusion, Full Body		 Total Grain Weight:
14.00 lb
Sparge Water:
3.54 gal		 Grain Temperature:
72.0 F
Sparge Temperature:
168.0 F		 TunTemperature:
72.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment:
TRUE		 Mash PH:
5.4 PH
Single Infusion, Full Body
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
45 min Mash In Add 17.50 qt of water at 174.7 F 158.0 F
10 min Mash Out Add 7.00 qt of water at 198.2 F 168.0 F
Mash Notes: Simple single infusion mash for use with most modern well modified grains (about 95% of the time).
Carbonation and
Storage
Carbonation Type:
Kegged (Forced CO2)		 Volumes of CO2:
2.4
Pressure/Weight:
12.2 PSI		 Carbonation Used:
-
Keg/Bottling Temperature:
42.0 F		 Age for:
28.0 days
Storage Temperature:
52.0 F
Notes
Created with
BeerSmith

Pub Ale
Standard/Ordinary Bitter

Type:
All Grain

 Date: 5/14/2011

Batch Size:
10.00 gal

 Brewer:
Keith Conley
Boil Size: 13.20 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 90 min Equipment: Brew Pot (15 Gal) and Coleman Xtreme 70 qt cooler
Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0 Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00
Taste Notes:
Ingredients
Amount Item Type % or IBU
9.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 56.25 %
2.00 lb Toasted Malt (27.0 SRM) Grain 12.50 %
1.00 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 6.25 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt – 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 6.25 %
1.00 lb Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 6.25 %
1.00 lb Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM) Grain 6.25 %
3.09 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (60 min) Hops 29.9 IBU
2.06 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (5 min) Hops 4.0 IBU
2.00 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
1.00 lb Sucanat Sugar 6.25 %
2 Pkgs British Ale (White Labs #WLP005) Yeast-Ale
Beer Profile

Est Original
Gravity:
1.045 SG

 Measured Original Gravity:
1.010 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.013 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.005 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.14 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 0.65 %
Bitterness: 33.8 IBU Calories: 43 cal/pint
Est Color: 11.1 SRM Color:  

Color
Mash Profile
Mash Name:
Single Infusion, Full Body		 Total Grain Weight:
15.00 lb
Sparge Water:
9.24 gal		 Grain Temperature:
72.0 F
Sparge Temperature:
168.0 F		 TunTemperature:
72.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment:
FALSE		 Mash PH:
5.4 PH
Single Infusion, Full Body
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
45 min Mash In Add 18.75 qt of water at 170.5 F 158.0 F
10 min Mash Out Add 7.50 qt of water at 196.6 F 168.0 F
Mash Notes: Simple single infusion mash for use with most modern well modified grains (about 95% of the time).
Carbonation and
Storage
Carbonation Type:
Kegged (Forced CO2)		 Volumes of CO2:
2.4
Pressure/Weight:
21.6 PSI		 Carbonation Used:
-
Keg/Bottling Temperature:
60.0 F		 Age for:
7.0 days
Storage Temperature:
52.0 F
Notes
Sucanat prep: Heat with 1 cup water in sauce pan until boiling, cool slightly and add to kettle with 15 minutes left.  

Toasted Malt: Toast 2 lb. 2-row in 275° oven for 30 minutes, stirring once halfway through.
Created with  

BeerSmith

 

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Escambia Bay Homebrew Club Iron Brewer 2011 – 2nd Place

Posted on May 10, 2011 by kconley

Pan Fried Pale Ale

The challenge:

Using a specified ingredient’s list, create a beer. You may only use the ingredients specified, no new ingredients may be used. You may alter your malt (toast it, char it, etc.) and may alter your hops additions as you see fit.

 

Ingredients list:

  1. 10 lbs. 2 Row Barley
  2. 3 oz Cascade Hops
  3. 1 packet of dry Muntons Ale Yeast

Escambia Bay Homebrewers Club Iron Brewers 2011

For my beer, I wanted to have a slightly higher alcohol level with more balanced malty flavor and good hops aroma and a deeper color.

I toasted 2 lbs of barley in the oven at 275 degrees for about an hour and a half. Upon seeing that there was not a significant enough color change, I took another .5 lb of barley and put it in a stainless steel frying pan and cooked it dry over medium heat until I had a good amount of charred kernels and an over all darkened appearance.

I mashed in at a little over 3 gallons of water shooting for 152 degrees. Mashed for 60 minutes and sparged with another 4.5 gallons of water. Added 1 oz hops at first wort, 1 oz at 15 minutes, .5 oz 5 minutes and .5 oz at flame out. Total post boil volume was about 4.5 gallons with an Original Gravity of 1.068 SG.

Iron Brewer 2011 2nd Place

I fermented the beer in a water bath and did my best to keep the temp around 70 degrees by using 2 liter bottles of ice that I would swap out about twice a day. I should have swapped them out at least 3 times a day in hind site.

On May 7th, The National Homebrew Day the Escambia Bay Homebrew Club met for the annual Big Brew Day and BBQ. 12 beers were entered into the contest and were voted on by popular vote. After much tasting the votes were cast and my beer was chosen as the 2nd best beer. Thank everyone for the votes!

 

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