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Linux and Beer Brews

I tried out this one tonight and it is even better than the first bitter. Maybe it is because I am getting better at brewing ?? Either way it is Delicious

I was looking earlier and noticed that the fermentation has peaked, and is starting to slow down. This is all relative as I can still see yeast rising then falling in the beer as it is carried to the top of the carboy by the CO2 bubbles. This fermentation is really progressing nicely. I imagine that It would be even better if I had remembered to put the wyeast nutrient into the beer while I was brewing. Although I did remember to use it in the yeast starter.

I collected a total of 11 quarts of wort from mashing @ a SG of 1.036 @ 90F which is 1.040 corrected for temperature. Using the calculations located on How to Brew chapter 12-5,I calculated an efficiency of 65%. Not great, but not terrible. My final gravity for this one after the sugar edition came out to 1.052 @ 77F (1.054 corrected; 6 gallons).

I think the efficiency of my mash is low due to mash water temperature only 150F starting. The milling of the grain. Hearts homebrew only has one setting for their malt mill, and they refuse to double grind grain. I tried rolling the grain with my rolling pin, but it is not a substitute for a good malt mill. (On a totally separate side note I hate shopping at Hearts. The guy that is usually there has a poor attitude. They could sell so much more stuff if he was more willing to help customers)

After the wort was all boiled and the hops spent, I placed the pot into the sink and dumped two 5 lbs bags of ice around the pot then filled the sink with water (don’t forget the stopper). I usually only use a few trays of ice for my normal brew and use more bottled spring water from the refrigerator, but my starting boil this time contained almost three gallons of wort, and I needed to cool this wort down more than I usually do.

Another thing is that While I was straining out the hops with my normal stainless steel basket strainer, the hops almost filled the entire basket. It was so many leaves that I knew that there was a lot of sugars in the hops, so I poured the other 2.5 gallons of cold spring water from the fridge through the hops and into the carboy. I did this for my previous batch of bitter with good success.

I was short some water and was only up to the 5 gallon mark, I usually fill up to the 6 gallon mark. I emptied 8 more .5 liter bottles of spring water into the carboy to get it up to the 6 gallon mark. After I topped it up with water, I took a SG reading then put the airstone into the wort. I turned the air on low and oxygenated the wort for 30 minutes, then pitched the yeast.

The Recipe:
4 lbs American 2 Row malted barley
1 lb 10L crystal malt
3.3 lbs. Briess Golden light liquid malt extract
2 lbs Hawaiian Turbano (sugar in the raw)

1 oz Northern Brewer (Whole) 70 mins
1 oz Styrian Goldings (Whole) 60 mins
1 tsp Irish Moss 15 mins
1 oz Styrian Goldings (Whole) 10 mins
1 oz Kent Goldings (Whole) 5 mins
1 oz Hersbrucker Hallertau (Whole) (Steep for 10 mins after heat off)

I finished brewing this morning. I had to let the grain mash a little longer to get the starch conversion to complete. My digital thermometer worked for a little while after I got it dried out, but it quit working again before I finished mashing. I ended up mashing for almost 2 hours before I got the sparge water heated up enough. I performed the initial mashin with 1.25 gallons of water (thick mash) at 165F. Temp of mash stabilized at 150. The temp after 1 hour had fallen to 147 after an hour and down to 143 after another hour. I stirred it several times which is why I think the temp dropped so much during that time. I ran off that wort and recirculated it until it was clear, then added another gallon of 170F water and let the grains soak for 10 mins. I ran off that wort and added another gallon of 170F sparge water, then ran off the wort a final time.

Batch sparging rocks.

I have begun mashing 4 lbs of 2 row american malt, and 1 lb of 10l Crystal malt. 1.25 gallons of water at 165F. Temp of mash stabilized at 150. on Another Note I purchased a digital thermometer today. I dropped it into the mash water while I was checking on the temp of the water. It promptly stopped working. I am trying to dry it out with a hair dryer, but I don’t think it will help much.

The starter is beginning to sediment and clear after only 24 hours. The air made the starter ferment extremely fast.

I tasted one of these last night. This beer should be renamed a brown ale. It definately has that brown ale flavor. it tastes quite good as well.

I made my starter wort in the same way that I did all my previous starters. I used 2 quarts of water but with 7 ounces of dried malt extract this time and a little hops. I did have some issues with a boil over, and with spilling some when funneling into my sanitized 2 liter soda bottle. Besides all that, I made my starter with about 1 quart of wort because of all the loss. The big thing that I did differently this time with my starter is to aerate the wort with a stainless steel airstone (2 micron), a hepa filter (to make the air sterile), and an aquarium pump.

I activated the yeast for another attempt at a bitter. Yeast is Wyeast 1028 London ale yeast from March 15.

I discovered this evening that Jinzora is only playing the first few minutes of a song (5 mins?), then going to the next. It can wait until tomorrow.