Second wine

7/25/2011

5G

21.5# of leftover crushed blueberries
1G of blueberry/pomegranate 5 juice blend
4.5# sugar

1.060 OG. Not sure if I got more leftover wine that I thought or maybe I was closer to 4.5G. I can always top off at the end.

7/29/2011
Fermentation is complete, TG is 0.996, so the ABV is ~8.4%

I kegged the 2nd wine and added 12oz of honey and 1 qt of 100% Trader Joes Blueberry Juice to the wine to back sweeten it a touch. Force carbonated.

Blueberry Mead

7/17/2011

5G

21.5# of frozen blueberries
6.5# honey
2.5# sugar

~1.100
71B-1122 (x2)
Yeast nutrient added
Fermented at 75° (71-72° ambient)
Fermented in a 6 gallon bucket with blueberries in a tight nylon bag.

7/25/2011
A couple days ago, the wine/mead was at 1.020, it is now 1.010. So I transferred it to a 5G carboy and added the part(s) fermented in a 1/2 gallon mason jar and the 5# honey container (1+qt) as well as 5 campden tablets and 2.5tsp of potassium sorbate and tossed it in the fridge. I probably need another 1-2 qts to top off, so I will probably age it in the carboy for a couple weeks and move it to a keg so that it doesn't oxidize. If it stays at 1.010, the ABV is 11.87%. The samples I had expressed the berry, had some sweetness and seemed nicely balanced.

I'm not real good about updating this blog!

Been a while since I have blogged. Not only has it been over a year and a half, but I have brewed probably a 100 gallons of beer since then. What is in the kegs and carboys now?

1. Keg-5 gallons of Bon Jour Saison. 5.5% ABV saison brewed with the DuPont yeast.
2. Keg-3 gallons of Bon Soir Saison. 8.3+% ABV saison brewed with the DuPont slurry.
3. secondary-5 gallons of Bon Soir Saison with Brett B added in the secondary. Should finish at 9%+
4. secondary-5 gallons of Bon Soir Saison with Brett C added in the secondary. Should finish at 9%+
5. primary-5 gallons of Berliner Weisse fermented with pure L. Bacillus for 2 days, Lacto + US-05 for a week, and a slurry of Brett B after the beer moved indoors.
6. primary-5 gallons of Grisette. 4.5%+ ABV wheat heavy saison brewed with Farmhouse Ale yeast.
7. primary-5 gallons of Grisette. 4.5%+ ABV wheat heavy saison brewed with French Saison yeast.

Second AG batch.

I transferred the dry stout to the secondary today. The gravity was still really high, so I added a tsp of amalyse extract and a tsp of wyeast yeast nutrient to the carboy. On to the Rye IPA.

RyeIPA
1/14/2007
AG#2

9.00 lbs. Rahr 2-Row
2.00 lbs. Simpson Golden Promise
3.00 lbs. Rye Malt
2.00 lbs. Crystal 60L
1.00 lbs. CaraFoam
1.00 lbs. White Wheat Malt

Mashed at 151-152° for 75 minutes with 6g (1.33qt/#) of water (tap water treated with 1/2 campden tablet per 5g) and 1? tsp 88% lactic acid.

Added

1.00 oz Mt. Hood @ 5% FWH

Sparged with ~3.25g treated tap water and possibly 2 tsp 88% lactic acid (should have been 0.6ml or ~1/10 tsp)

I collected ~6 gallons and started the boil.

1.25 oz Columbus @ 16.4% 60 min
0.50 oz Mt. Hood @ 5% 30 min
1.50 oz Mt. Hood @ 5% 0 min
0.50 oz Columbus @ 16.4% 0 min

1.0 tsp gypsum @ 40 minutes
1.0 tsp wyeast yeast nutrient @ 15 min
1.0 whirlfloc tablet @ 15 min

I added a little less than a gallon of straight tap water at 20 minutes to bring the volume up.

120 seconds of pure o2

1.063 starting gravity. [well short of 1.083 (70% efficiency) per beer tools]
~55% efficiency

Cooled and pitched on a second generation PacMan yeast cake. Initial pitching thru +3hrs was at 65-69°. I put it out on the porch to cool down some more. Fermentation was active after less than an hour and I have 2-3" of krausen after ~3hrs.

In the morning, the temp looks to be about 63° (externally) and the krausen is all the way to the top. I put in the blowoff tube, but I ran it into a sealed carboy, it didn't take long for the gas to blast the hose out of the blowoff carboy and there was a loud pop and a little bit of beer on the floor. I jammed the blowoff tube back into the carboy and stuck the other side in a bucket. Looks like I lost a little beer, but the krausen seemed to die down a little. Very active fermentation!

1/21/2007 1.0135 (temp adjusted) so 6.5% ABV

First AG batch

My thermometer was busted, so I mashed at a lower, unknown temperature other than the 152° I was going for. 10 days in, I am looking at a drop from 1.045 to 1.019 in a Dry Irish Stout, making it a not-very Dry Irish Stout.

Here was the recipe.

7.00 lbs. Simpsons Golden Promise
2.00 lbs. Flaked Barley
1.00 lbs. Roasted Barley

1.60 oz.  Goldings - E.K. Pellet   5.90   60 min.

Final gravity is 1.008, so ABV is 4.8%.
The beer is very easy drinking. I hooked it up to 8lbs, so the carbonation is on the light side.