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Linux and Beer Brews

The last few Bottles of this brew that I have had do not taste like they are infected. I may have interpreted the extreme hop flavor with something else like an infection. They have mellowed some with age, and are not half bad now.

I know that wheat beers should taste best a few weeks from bottling, but this one is tasting better now that it has had almost 8 weeks in the bottle. It still tastes malty and too sweet though.

I got tired of dealing with the local HBS. They have a nice selection at their store, but the proprietors have the personality of a rotting lump of hamburger. I got tired of being treated like shit when I spend my money. Sooo…I purchased a Barley Crusher grain mill. This thing runs sweet. I filled the hopper with Maris Otter and started cranking.. after about a minute I hooked up the drill.

I crushed 8 lbs of MO in less than 2 minutes. It would have been faster if I had hooked up the drill to begin with. I did not make any adjustments to the gap setting on the crusher. the roller gap is still set to .039 in/1mm. The crush came out much better than I have ever used before. I can’t wait to brew on Saturday.

Bottled tonight. Primed with 6.5 ounces of corn sugar. It tastes much better than the previous batch. This batch does not taste as dry, and has more pronounced clove and banana/bubble gum flavors. Definately onto something here. FG is 1.019 @ 69F(1.020 Corrected) This calculates out to 5.25% ABV.

OMG…omg…OMG…This beer is amazing.

Tasted this one tonight. It was ok. It is very carbonated. The spices seem to overpower it a little. It has very little malt flavor due to the yeast that I used. I may have consumed it while it was too cold. Age should help some.

looking at the numbers on this, it appears that my initial SG may be off. If I calculate it by points, I come up with a SG of 1.065. I think I may have been reading the hygrometer wrong

Mash = 139 pts
LME = 237.6 pts
Sugar = 46 pts
422.6 Total / 6.5 gallons = 65 ppg

I am thinking that the initial SG reading was 1.060 (1.062 corrected) This would bring the ABV of this brew up to 6.2 %. I guess I will have to brew this one again. It all does not really matter. This brew tastes really good.

Bottled this one tonight. I used 6.5 ounces of corn sugar in 2 cups of water for priming. SG was 1.010 @ 71.3F (1.011 corrected). This calculates out to 6.1% ABV. It tastes really good. Some of the spices are a little strong…I think enhanced by the higher alcohol content. This should age and blend well by Christmas.

I removed the BOT tonight and installed an Airlock. SG reading was 1.019 @ 70.5 F. I sampled and it tasted much better than the first Dunkleweizen. This one has more bubblegum banana flavor and less clove flavors.

I Brewed this one tonight. Here is the recipe that I settled on.

1 lb Munich Malt
1 lb 40 L Crystal Malt
1 lb Wheat Malt
1/2 lb Cara-Pils
1/2 lb Maris Otter Malt
1 ounce Black Patent Malt
6.6 lbs Briess Bavarian Wheat Liquid Malt Extract
17.5 ounces (500g) Muntons light Dried Malt Extract

1 oz Hallertau boiled 60 min
1 tsp Wyeast yeast nutrient 15 mins
.75 oz Hallertau boiled 10 min

4 lbs of grain was mashed at a ratio of 1.3 quarts of water per lb of grain. Initial mashin was with 5.2 quarts of water(Half distilled and half spring water w/ 1/8 tsp gypsum). Mash temp settled at 158F. Total mash time was 2 hours. Mash was stirred every 30 mins.

Temperature drop over 2 hours was 15 F. I acheived much better temperature retention by wrapping 3 towels around my mini-mash tun(9 quart coleman cooler).

I sparged with 8 quarts of 175F water(half distilled and half spring water w/ 1/8 tsp gypsum). A total of 10 quarts was collected. SG was 1.032 @ 80.2F

The wort was boiled per the schedule above. The wort was cooled in an ice bath in the sink (10lbs ice). The ice bath can’t get the wort down cold enough to pitch the yeast. The wort was sparged into the carboy with 2 gallons of chilled water (half distilled and half spring water). After wort was sparged, the carboy was topped up with half distilled and half spring water to the 5 gallon mark. Yeast was pitched. Wort was then aerated for 40 mins with air stone and aquarium pump. After, the the carboy was topped up to the 6 gallon mark with half distilled and half spring water. Blow off tube installed and placed into the fermentation freezer.

The SG of the wort after pitching the yeast and topped up to 6 gallons was 1.059 @ 68.2F