Homebrew


Chocolate Milk Stout

Yeast:

  • Safale S-04

Specialty Grain:

  • .25lb English Extra dark Crystal
  • .75lb Fawcett Pale Chocolate Malt

Malts:

  • 6 lbs Dark malt syrup (60 min)
  • 1 lb Lactose (60 min)

Hops:

  • 1 oz Cluster (60 min) 7.2% AAU
  • .5 oz Cluster (30 min) 7.2% AAU
  • 4 oz Cacao Nibs (add to secondary)

Gravity:

  • Target O.G: 1.051
  • Initial O.G:  1.070 @ 72 degrees
  • After 1.5 weeks:  1.020 @ 74 degrees
  • Racked to 2nd-ary.  Added Cacao Nibs

 


My First Beer Label

And my realization that I SUCK at photoshop….

I decided to call my latest batch of homebrew Rosie IPA (in honor of the Puppy’s first christmas) and I had an idea for a label in mind.  After stumbling and bumbling through the wealth of photoshop tutorials I realized that I SUCK AT PHOTOSHOP.  Actually, let me clarify, I suck and graphic designing in Photoshop.  I can rock Bridge + Camera Raw for photo editing, but when it comes to graphics and text and layouts and layers I SUCK.  It took me an hour to figure out how to draw a rectangle that fit across the top third of the canvas!!

Anyway, I stumbled through it and I’m actually pretty happy with the result:

The crazy thing is that I think I can do all of this even easier in the simplified editor that comes with Snagit!


Chili, Baking and Homebrew

Today was a wonderful saturday.  The weather was gorgeous, I didn’t have any commitments, I had a batch of beer to brew, AND, to top things off, Jason came over with all the ingredients for homemade chili.  He had a hankering and I wasn’t going to let an offer like this pass me by.

As I worked on brewing my Chinook IPA, Jason made up some fantastic chili.  Then Jen got home and decided to whip up some Tastefully Simple Beer Bread.

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Chinook IPA

Aiming for:

Hoppy American IPA.  Kit link

Yeast:

Safale S-05 Dry Ale Yeast. Dry. 11.5g. Rehydrated.

Speciality Grains:

.75 lbs Belgian Caramel Pils
.25 lbs Briess Caramel 120

Malts:

6 lbs Pilsen malt syrup Liquid
1 lb. Pilsen malt extract dry

Hops:

1 oz. Chinook 60 minutes 11.2% AAU
.5 oz. Chinook 10 minutes 11.2% AAU
.5 oz. Chinook 1 minute 11.2% AAU
1 oz. Chinook Dry Hop 11.2% AAU

Calculated IBUs:  38 IBUs (via calculator)

OG: 1.070 @ 70 Degrees
FG:
ABV:

Brew Day Pics (11/12/2011):

 

 

 

 

 

Racked to Secondary (11/22/2011):

FG: 1.018

Bottled on 12/3/2011:

 

 

 


Honey Brown Ale

Description:

A spinoff of our highly popular Nut Brown Ale kit that combines American malts and ale yeast with English hops and Minnesota honey.  Kit link

Yeast:

Safale S-33 Dry Ale Yeast.  Dry.  11.5g.  Rehydrated.

Speciality Grains:

Simpson’s Chocolate .25 lbs. Crushed Grain
Dingemans Special B .25 lbs. Crushed Grain
Dingemans Biscuit .25 lbs. Crushed Grain
Briess Special Roast .25 lbs. Crushed Grain

Fermentables:

Northern Brewer Gold 6 lbs Liquid
Honey (0 minute late addition) 1 lbs Liquid

Hops:

1. Cluster 7.5% AAU 60 Minutes 1oz

Calculated IBUs: 26
Kit OG: 1.050
MY OG: 1.060 @ 70 Degrees
FG: 1.018
ABV: 5.4%

Brew Day – 4/30

Get Ice.
Clean and sanitize: Stir Spoon, Measuring Cup, Bowl, Knife, Table Spoon, Thief, Thermometer, Fermentation Lock, Strainer.

Heat 1.25 Gallons of water to 160 F
Steep Speciality Grains for 30 minutes.
Remove bag and squeeze off excess.
Added 1.25 Gallons of water.
Remove from heat and Stir in 6 lbs liquid extract
Bring to boil (~3 gallons)
Add hops.
Boil partially covered for 60 minutes.
Rehydrate Yeast.
Remove from heat and Stir in Honey.
Chill wort.
Strain out gunk
Pour back and forth 3 times. Lots of “head”. Added 1.5 extra gallons
Let head settle. Pitch yeast. Seal. Swirl. Add sanitize solution to air lock.

Weird: Fermentation stopped after ~8 days, but it picked up fairly vigorously around the 3rd week in the fermenter…

Bottle Day – 5/29

Clean and Sanitize.
2/3 cups Corn Sugar in 2 Cups water.
Rack to bottling bucket + Priming Solution
26 12oz bottles, 9 22oz, 1 Growler