Category: Uncategorized

Smash!

stoutmakerLeave a comment

Vienna/Spalt smash

10 lbs vienna

1 oz spalt 60

1/2 oz spalt 15

1/2 oz spalt 1

05 yeast

Movie: The Last Lovecraft, the relic of Cthulhu (which I would recommend)

Gonna try and hit 154 so gonna heat 3.5 gallons to 162

well with a pre heated tun I sttled at 160. damn it. cold water.

Ok with some cold water and stirring we got 154.

Using a new thermometer. today. back to the old school, as I was having problems trusting my cheapo digital.

really had a funny lookin crush this time.


Lautered real quick, and got more out of First run than expected.

Took 3 gallons off first run, was thinking 2.5.

Second run we got 3.5 out of 3.5 (seems wierd) but ok.

Getting set to add first hop addition.

smells amazing. those spalts are neato.

Hey! I remembered the Irish moss this time!

Ok got everything cooled, which is getting faster now that its not 100 degrees out here.
What the hell? I got an OG of only 1.040. Checked it three times. 1.040. How can I get only 40 from 10 lbs
I did a conversion test and we were good. Musta been that shittly lookin crush. Looked like the grain was just split open, not crushed.
Damn. I shoulda said something when I seen it. He musta adjusted it because his crush went from flour to gravel.
Whoa, and now I see we musta had some super boil off. Pretty short in the fermenter. I dont have marks or anything, but its about 2 inches down from where it normally is. On a Better Bottle, thats quite a bit.
So that means if I woulda had a full batch my OG would really be off.
Hmmm, not liking this

8-21-11 She was justa regular old ferment with the 05 nothing evenful. She is almost donr and starting to clear up a bit. Lotta fallout this time.

Ginger Mead Bottle day

stoutmakerLeave a comment

Got time to do some bottling today. Dont have much at all. Just 3 gallons of the Orange Ginger mead. I wanted to put half in 12 oz and half in 22 oz, but i remembered I gave all my 12 oz away. But a quick trip to the House of Homebrew and we are back in business.

Once we got everything racked into the bucket, we of course can start sampling. I was kinda expecting it to be pretty dry, but it was not. pretty sweet, and I’d have to say just the right amount of ginger, but maybe could stand some more orange.

A quick reading and it looks like we are sitting at 1.012 or a tad less. So that with the OG of 1.064 puts us at about 6.8%. Thats not so bad for only 6 lbs in 3 gallons.

I already see that I am gonna hafta step the batches up. This stuff is pretty good, and those few bottles aint gonna last long. I dont see any reason to change this recipe other than bumping it up to 5 gallons and maybe a a bit more honey to the ratio.