Honey Porter/Brown Ale

I bottled the Honey Porter last Friday. The FG was 1.012. I tasted it and it was smooth. I could have drank a glass, without carbonation. After bottling, I ended up with 28x12, 5x16, 6x22.

There may be concern for the Brown Ale. First off, it took a day and a half, just for fermentation to get moving. Second, the bottom of the carboy looked like it contained moss (River Tyne?). Finally, I transferred it to secondary on Saturday. It did appear to ferment out as it's current gravity 1.10. I tasted it (I don't always taste beer right out of the primary). It tasted kind of edgy. Sorta raw. Very green. It looked kinda separated. 2 weeks in the secondary will do it some good.

I bought these colored dots for labelling the bottles. They fit perfect on the cap. I did this, because the boxes of 3 different beers weren't labeled. I don't know if I'm drinking Cream Ale or IPA, until I taste it. I labeled the remaining Raspberry Wheats. I'll labe the rest after I test a few.

I woud normally make another beer after the first week the previous beer is in the secondary. It's a viscous cycle :). I will be in Denver next weekend. I think I'll hit a few brew pubs and decide what my next one will be afterwards.

Until then...

45 hours in (Brown Ale)

Click here to view the picture.

I'm having difficuty attaching the image itself.

Can I add anymore water?

I brewed a Brown Ale tonight. The first time I did a Friday brew.

Here is the recipe.

River Tyne Brown Ale

8 lbs English Pale Malt
4 oz Chocolate
4 oz Crystal 120L
1 oz Fuggles (60)
1 oz Fuggles (2)
Irish Moss
White Labs British Ale Yeast

Mash:
I added 2.75 galons of water at 168 degrees and let it mash for 60 minutes. Sparged at 170 for another 60 minutes.

Boil:
Once the hot break too place, I added the first hop addition. 35 minutes into the boil, I noticed the quantity boiled down so I added 2 qts,

After the Irish Moss (35), I sank the chiller. At 2 minutes I added the remaining hops.It took 20 minutes to get the temp down to 100. I siphoned to a 6 gallon carboy.

I added the yeast and aerated.

The quantity appears low. I will take a gravity reading after the primary is complete to compensate. Its too late to deal with it tonight.

Porter in the secondary

Looks and smells good. Gravity is 1.010. Maybe a little lower than I would have thought. I figured a Porter to be more like 1.015.

I took some homebrews to the Texans/Cowboys game yesterday, but mainly drank Bud Light in the can. Stuff is like water on a hot summer day.

Good game - Good beer. Can't ask for anything more.

The Honey Porter is blooping away

I did the Honey Porter this weekend. I discussed the ingredients with Ken and made a few changes. I removed the Malto-Dextrin. Substituted with more Cara-Pils. Used 1/2 lb of Chocolate. Also decided on 3 pounds of Honey as opposed to 6. Ken said 6 might make it more like wine.

Here is the Honey Porter recipe:

Honey Porter

2 lbs Aroma Malt
5 lbs. British Pale
5 lbs. Vienna
1 lb Cara-Pils 40L
1/2 lb Chocolate Malt
3 lbs. Honey (Wild Flower)
2 oz. Hallertau Hops (Boil- 4.2% AAU)
2 oz. Brewers Gold (Finish- 12.4% AAU)
WLP001 (California Ale)

Mash
I added 4.2 gallons of water at 168 degrees to obtain a mash temp of ~152. I mashed for 1 hour while heating up 7 gallons of water at 170. The recipe called for Mashing out at 170, but I skipped it, because I wasn't worried about the viscosity. I sparged for a little more than an hour and collected 6.5 gallons.

Boil
Brought to boil and waited for hot break (foaming). Once harm of boil over had passed I started my hop schedule. 1 oz Hallertau (60), .5 oz Hallertau (45), .5 oz Hallertau (30), 2 oz Brewers Gold (15). I added the honey in with the last hop addition.

Cooling
F-in wort chiller is a peice of crap. It leaks like a mug. When it eventually cooled, I aeriated and pitched the yeast. I used the 6.5 bucket this time and the mead is using my carboy. This stuff is really foamy. It was difficult to read the temp and hydrometer.

OG: 160 @ 98 degrees

Cream Ale (AG) is bottled

The FG was 1.005.

We had 2 casualties while Barb was helping bottle, but we still managed to get a bunch.

I tasted it and it appears to be cleaner/clearer. Slight hopiness. Very good. The only thing I thought peculiar was that after 15 days in the secondary, the yeast was in very small quantity. Not sure if this is good or bad. As long as it has enough to carbonate the beer.

later