Making the move to All-Grain Brewing

I've made the leap to all grain brewing.  I got a 10 gallon round cooler, installed a stainless steel mesh filter (From a high pressure hose) installed a valve and decided to try my hand at batch sparging.

Last weekend I did my Pale Ale recipe that turned out so good before.  I did an all grain version on Saturday, and then on Sunday I did the same recipe with extract.  My train of thought here is since these beers are only one day apart I can taste test both bottles and see what, if any, difference there is.

Here's the recipe I used:

Fermentables:
6lbs Light DME (for extract version)
9lbs Briess 2 Row Malt (for all-grain version)

Grains:
8oz Crystal 10L
8oz Carapils

Hops:
2oz Perle (60 min)
1oz Cascade (5 min)
1oz Cascade (dry)

Yeast:
Safale S-05 US Style Dry Yeast

Adjunct:
Wirlfloc Tablet (15 min)

I mashed @ 155f for 60 min, sparged with 170f water twice and brewed.  The color of the wort looked the same both times.  The gravity readings were different.  The all grain had an OG of 1.042, and the extract had an OG of 1.048.  The previous two times I brewed this I had an OG of 1.044 and 1.042, so I am on track.

One thing that is certain, all grain is cheaper, $0.77/lb of grain versus $2.02/lb of LME.  Of course you use more grains (9lbs of grains versus 6.6 lbs of LME) but that still comes out to $6.93 versus $13.33 for the fermentables.

The all grain did add a couple hours to my brew day, but all in all I think it was worth it.  I was able to do the mashing inside while watching the Ohio State game.  It was actually a lot of fun.

These brews will be ready to drink by the end of October, so I'll be sure to update when they are ready.

Today's the big day! GO BUCKEYES!

If you are a keen observer you may have noticed I moved my 'Buckeye Chocolate Peanut Butter Porter' to "ready to drink" on my current beers list in the side bar... You know what that means...

Tonight at 7:30PM the Buckeyes kick off against Marshall, and that means my 'Buckeye Chocolate Peanut Butter Porter' gets it's debut at kick-off tonight!

I put a 12 pack in the fridge last night, and I can't wait to have everyone try it.

Pumpkin acquired.

It took posting on Facebook and 3 hours of driving in the pouring rain, but I finally got two cans of canned pumpkin. Special thanks to Gina and Sue for finding me 2 cans, and to Michele for trying, even tho they were expired. :)

the brewing whent well and the beer smelled great. finally have something to look forward to in October.

It takes a village to brew a beer.

My idea was simple enough; a pumpkin beer ready for the 1st of October.  What could be a better way to start October?  I need to brew today (8/21/10) in order for it to be ready in time.  What could go wrong?

Did you know there is a canned pumpkin shortage?  Well, that's what could go wrong.  Turns out due to bad weather last year you can't buy canned pumpkin in the store, and late August is too early to buy fresh pumpkin.

I checked all the stores... Then I started calling around.  So far I've found one can of fresh and one can of expired (over 2 years).  I need at least 2 cans.  If you have canned pumpkin, please e-mail me.  There's a 6 pack in it for you if you do!

Buckeye Chocolate Peanut Butter Porter: Bottling day

Today I bottled the Buckeye Chocolate Peanut Butter Porter, it turned out to be a 3.5% abv beer with very prominent chocolate and peanut butter notes.  Very dark, and very delicious. :)  Even my wife said she thought it would be good when it was ready.  Less than two weeks till the first OSU game and I crack the first one open!

Updates on Belgian Tripel, Buckeye Chocolate Peanut Butter Porter and Maple Ale

Yesterday I bottled the Belgian Tripel.  It's a slightly fruity ale with subtle banana notes, and I think it will be really good with an orange slice.  It'll be ready to try in 2-3 weeks, plus it is 8.5% ABV so I have high hopes for this brew.

I also took a hydrometer reading on the Buckeye Chocolate Peanut Butter Porter, It needs to be bottled this Friday to be ready for the first OSU game.  It's coming along quite nicely.  It probably won't have a high alcohol volume, however I tasted the sample and it was delicious.  Very prominent chocolate and Peanut butter notes.  I am really looking forward to this brew.

The Maple Ale was transfered to the secondary.  The gravity is down to where it was when I bottled the previous maple batch and had a much more prominent maple flavor compared to the last batch.  I think I may need to use less hops in the recipe however, it seemed a little too bitter.  Not much though, I'll have to see how it turns out in the bottle.

More to come...

Absinthe Update 3; The Infused Bottle is Ready

Friday marked the day that my infused bottle of absinthe is ready. I sanitized the everclear bottles and put the absinthe back in.

It's a very dark green. I started by putting 3 sugar cubes in a strainer, filled the glass I got with my kit from midwestsupplies.com with ice, poured one shot in the glass, then I slowly poured cold water over the sugar to dissolve it.

The smell of the liquor in the shot glass was like rubbing alcohol and liquorish. The smell in the glass was a very smooth and pleasant smell with a slight liquorish aroma.  The color was a very nice Green.  The taste?

Bile.

I added another 6 sugar cubes, and the taste was much better (relatively). It is drinkable. The interesting thing is there is no alcohol burn.

So, how did I feel after drinking it? Now to be fair i don't drink liquor. I'm an exclusive beer drinker. I stopped drinking liquor around 5 years ago. With that being said, I have drank the glass and I wouldn't say I was drunk, but I certainly wouldn't drive.  My body feels drunk but my head feels clearer than normal at this point.

 No hallucinations. lol... Well, at least according to dragon huddled in the corner I was not hallucinating cause that's all he kept saying...