April 22, 2008

Brown ale Bottled

Category: PB Brown Ale — Josh @ 9:38 pm

The second batch of the brown ale has been bottled. This batch is a little lighter in color with fruity, hops flavors, and less of a roasted flavor compared to the previous batch. It is very delicious. The corrected FG was 1.013 before priming. I primed the beer with with 6 ounces of corn sugar in 2 quarts of water (priming sugar and water boiled on stove for 10 mins). Total bottled was 55 bottles, a little over 5 gallons. I estimate that the FG of the finished beer was a few points lower due to the addition of 2 quarts of water and priming sugar. ABV is estimated between 5.0 and 4.9 % after priming.

April 3, 2008

Fermentation slowing

Category: PB Brown Ale — Josh @ 9:24 am

The fermentation on this brown ale is slowing down a bit. I have been adjusting the thermostat on the freezer to keep the beer at 66-67F according to the stick-on thermometer attached to the carboy. Initial fermentation activity generates quite a bit of heat and requires more cooling to keep it in the correct temp range. As the activity slows down, not as much heat is generated by the fermentation activity. I have been adjusting the temp in the freezer upwards by .5 to 1 degree per day to keep the beer’s temperature in range. The freezer thermostat is currently set at 65F, but the indoor/outdoor thermometer is reading 64F.

April 1, 2008

Brewed again: not an april fools joke

Category: PB Brown Ale — Josh @ 6:38 pm

I brewed this brown ale again on 03/29 , except with the following recipe changes. I removed the Cara-Pils and 20L Crystal from the recipe and addded 2 row malt. I did this in hopes that it will provide a little more fermentable sugar and that the ending FG will be a little lower. I also realized that the Briess Liquid malt extract already contains cara-pils and it was not necessary to add extra. The color was lightened a little with the crystal removal, but not by much.

Mash
2.00 lb Maris Otter
2.00 lb Pale Malt, Muntons
0.50 lb Special B (Dingemans)
0.25 lb Caramel Malt – 40L 6-Row (Briess)
0.25 lb Caramel Malt – 60L 6-Row (Briess)
0.25 lb Chocolate Malt (Muntons)

Boil
3.30 lb LME Pilsen Light (Briess) (added before boiling)
2.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [4.20%] (75 min)
0.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [4.20%] (15 min)
1.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient (15 min)
0.63 lb Turbinado
0.38 lb Brown Sugar, Light
0.06 lb Corn Sugar (Dextrose)
200ml White Labs #WLP005 (Slurry repitched from last batch)

Initial mash in was with 6.5 quarts of water @ 171F. The mash water was regular filtered tap water to which I added .625 tsp of PH5.2. The mash temp settled to 156F within 5 minutes. I stirred the mash and checked the temp every 30 mins. At 30 mins the temp was at 156F, 60 min 151F, and 90 min 145F.

After 90 mins, I drained the wort, recirculating about 3 quarts until it ran clear. SG of First runnings was 1.079 @ 85F (1.082 corrected). I then batch sparged with 5.5 quarts of water @ 175F. The sparge water was regular filtered tap water to which I added .6 tsp of PH5.2. SG of the second runnings was 1.038 @ 79F (1.040 corrected). I then batch sparged again with 5.5 quarts of water @ 175F. The sparge water was regular filtered tap water to which I added .6 tsp of PH5.2. SG of the final runnings was 1.012 @ 82F (1.015 corrected). The total amount of wort collected was 13.5 quarts. SG was 1.040 @ 83F (1.043 corrected). Mashing efficiency is calculated at 75%

After looking at the FG of the wort that was collected from the mash, I decided to add some corn sugar to increase the SG a little. I did not realize that I was out of corn sugar. Substituted with leftover sugars, basically using up what I had in the cabinet.

After the boil I cooled down the wort by placing the pot in an ice bath. After 40 mins the wort was at 65F, and it was sparged into a 5gallon carboy. The carboy was topped up to the 5 gallon mark and stirred. Aluminum foil was placed over the mouth of the carboy. The carboy was set aside for 3 hours to allow the trub to settle out. The wort was then siphoned from the 5 gallon carboy to the 6.5 gallon carboy, leaving behind 1600 ml of wort and trub. Filtered tap water was then added to bring the final volume up to 5.5 gallons. The wort was shaken for 5 minutes to aerate it. SG of the wort before pitching the yeast slurry was 1.051 @ 76F (1.053 corrected)

Fermentation commenced within 7 hours of pitching the yeast slurry. The krausen peaked around 40 hours after pitching the yeast.