Stepheweizen 2.0

Ingredients-
Grain-
4.5 lbs Malted Wheat
4.0 lbs 2 Row Pale Malt

Hops-
1 oz Fuggles @ 60
1 oz Fuggles @ 10
 Yeast-
Hefeweizen Ale WLP 300

 OG: 1.059
FG: 1.018
ABV: 5.4%
Collected: 4.5 Gallons
Efficiency: 82%

 30DEC2012- This was a last minute brew after church. Stopped by the brew store down the street and grabbed some yeast. I thought I had some hops left over at my house but was out, so I stole some from the recipe Randy and I are doing on New Years Day. I'll need to get some more before then. Smooth brewing, no hiccups.

15JAN2013- Transferred to secondary and cold crashed over night. Transferred to keg this morning. Fresh, light Hefeweizen with some mildly strong banana flavors.

Another Simple IPA

Grain:

13 lbs 2 Row Pale Malt
1.5 lbs Victory
1.5 lbs Munich
1 lb Crystal 40L

Hops:
2.5 oz CTZ @ 60
1.5 oz CTZ @ 30
1 oz Cascade @ 15
2 oz Cascade @ 5

Yeast:
Safale-05

OG: 1.066
FG:

19NOV2012- I calibrated and added volume marks to my boil kettle sight glass. This helped me get some exact numbers. At 0 minutes I had 8.7 gallons in the kettle. After sending everything through the chiller ended up with 7.5 gallons. That's a lot of wort loss. But whatever, 1.066 is a good IPA and I'm excited to see how this turns out.

Winter Seasonal (7.5 Gallon batch)

Ingredients:

Grain:
15 lbs 2 Row Pale Malt
1.5 lbs Crystal 120L
12 oz Crystal 80L
3 oz Roasted Barley

Hops:
1.5 oz CTZ @ 60
0.75 oz Cascade @ 60
1.5 oz Cascade @ 30
0.75 oz Cascade @ 5

Yeast:
Safale-04 English Ale in 5 Gallons
Safale-05 American Ale in 2.5 gallons

OG: 1.068
FG:


10NOV2012- Brewing went well again without a hitch. I decided to start doing seven and a half gallon batches so I can Keg five for myself and bottle two and a half to give away. I'm not a big fan of doing ten gallon batches, being careful of boil overs and having to bottle a full five gallons. I think this will work out nicely. We'll see if I like it and keep it up if it works out.

I'm not sure how much I collected as I ran out of fermentation vessels and had to use a carboy for the five gallon portion. I know it's at least five and a half gallons but it could be closer to six. Ended up with exactly two and a half in the other. Can't wait for this to be ready.

Mashing:

Cooling:

Mini CDA (2 gallon Batch)

Ingredients:

Grain:
6 lbs 2 Row pale malt
6 oz Roasted Barley (500L)

Hops:

0.5 oz CTZ @ 60
2 oz Cascade @ 5

Yeast:
Pacman Slurry

OG: 1.080
FG:

03NOV2012: This batch was done on the mini system. Basically a 4 gallon pot and a 3 gallon beverage cooler mash tun. Before homebrew club I heated the strike water and mashed in. The cooler is small enough that even when full it's easy to tote around so I just put it in my car and mashed on the way over to Andy's. Brewing while driving, never done that before. Everything went well and is in the basement fermenting away. (hopefully, I haven't gone down to check yet.)

Radical RIPA (Rye IPA)

 Ingredients-

Grain: 
9 lbs 2 Row Pale Malt 
1 lb Rye Malt
1 lb Crystal 20L

Hops:
1.5 oz CTZ @ 60
1 oz Cascade @ 30
3 oz Cascade @ 5
2 oz of some unlabeled hop from my freezer @ 5
0.5 oz Northern Brewer @ 5

Yeast:
Safale-05

Additives:
2 ml of 88% Lactic Acid to Mash (brought down to a pH of 5.2) 

Wort collected: 4.5 gallons
OG: 1.076
FG:


28OCT2012-I lost about a gallon of wort to hops. I previously used a hop spider and would pull it out and let it drain the fluid out of them at the end of the boil. With the new hop stopper I'm using they remain soaked after everything is drained and I lost a gallon. If I would have had that gallon it would put me at 93% efficiency, without it I'm at 76%. Need to figure something out to fix that. Brew day went super smooth. New system is still working perfectly. Enjoying brewing again and loving not fighting things on my system.

Hand Crank Crush IPA

Ingredients-

Grain:
10lbs 2 Row Pale Malt
1 lb Crystal 20L
1 lb Munich
1 lb Victory

Hops:
1 oz CTZ @ 60
1 oz CTZ @ 30
3 oz Cascade @ 5

Yeast:
WLP-01 California Ale

Additives:
3.5 ml of 88% Lactic Acid to Mash (brought down to a pH of 5.2) 

5.5 Gallons Collected
OG: 1.076
FG:
Brewhouse Effeciency: 89%


12OCT2012- Steph wanted to crush the grain with the hand crank instead of hooking up the drill. I weighed it all out and she cranked through all 13 pounds of it, hence the name. Steph also wanted to be able to hang out on Saturday so she asked me if I would brew Friday night last minute. Started brewing at 7:00pm, finished just before midnight. 

Almost there

Wiring the control panel is done (besides the volt and amp meter)
After much headache all the plumbing and leak testing of the kettles is finished.
All to do is install the GFCi breaker and plug, wire the element plugs and mount the control panel.

Electric brewing progress...

Here is a pic with the control panel lit up. I fried the volt and amp meters. I had checked the dc voltage before plugging them in but apparently one of my mounting screws was grounding out the converters. New meters are on the way. Luckily I can brew without those, it's just nice to have them to see what is going on.

Pics and Update on the Electric Brewery

Finished wiring up the box, everything works except I have the wrong relays. New ones are on the way. Parts are in to convert the kettles. It will be a lot of work to get it all finished.

Here are some pics:

Cana Pale Ale (11 Gallon Batch)

Ingredients-

Grain:
20 lbs 10oz 2 Row Pale Malt
3 lbs Carahell
1 lb 10oz Munich

Hops:
2 oz CTZ @ 60
1 oz Cascade @ 5
4 oz Mt Hood in Hop Back
4 oz Mt hood Dry Hop in Secondary

Yeast:
Safale-05 in half
White Labs in half (slurry)

Additives:
2 ml of 88% Lactic Acid to Mash (brought down to a pH of 5.2)

OG: 1.054

01SEP2012- This is a batch brewed for with our homebrew club. Half will go to the club and half to me. Things went fairly well but the CFC got clogged when we switched out the hops in the hops back. We'll let it ferment for about a week then transfer to secondary and add dry hops.

Electric Brewing

A little while ago I was looking at the idea of moving to a RIMS or HERMS system. I had started doing some stuff towards a RIMS system when I came across theelectricbrewery.com. This was exactly the thing I was looking for so I started selling off stuff and purchasing parts. The pics below are my progress so far. I still need to sell a bunch of my old brewing stuff before I can complete the build. Hopefully it'll happen soon so I can get back to brewing.

Smoky Smokerson (mini batch)

Ingredients-

Grain:
3.5 lbs 2 Row Pale Malt
0.5 lb Special B
0.5 lb Smoked Malt
0.5 lb Crystal 40L

Hops:
1.5 oz Cascade @ 60
1 oz Cascade @ 30 
1 oz Cascade @ 5


OG: 1.061

Yeast: 1.056 Slurry

18JUN2012- Decided last minute to brew a small 2 gallon batch on my mini system. I felt like trying something smoky, may have gone a little overboard, we'll see.

Baby Drool IPA (10 Gallon Batch)

Ingredients-

Grain:
24 lbs 2 Row Pale Malt
3 lbs Crystal 40L
2 lbs ESB malt

Hops:
2 oz CTZ @ 75
1 oz CTZ @ 30
3 oz CTZ @ 5
2 oz Citra @ 5
4 oz CTZ dry hop in Secondary for 7 days
4 oz Citra dry hop in tertiary for 7 days

Yeast: 1056 American Ale (slurry round 2)

OG: 1.072

Extras: 2 Small drops of pure baby drool

28MAY2012- My brother-in-law, Bryan, was running out of beer and since we both had memorial day off we decided to brew. Bryan was holding his daughter over the brew kettle to smell the hops when some drool fell out of her mouth and into the beer, hence the name. Everything went fantastic except when chilling the pump was starting to make some funny sounds. We let it run via gravity through the CFC while we took the pump apart. Even with proper rinsing it had gotten gummed up with too much sugar. Once cleaned thoroughly we put it back together and ran like a champ. Efficiency up  to 72% now. A little bit of recirculation fixed the problem. Can't wait to try it, but with the dry hop schedule it's gonna be a while longer than usual.

07JUN2012- Down to 1.014 for an ABV of 7.6%. Added 4 oz of CTZ and will let it sit til next week then add the Citra.

14JUN2012- 4oz of Citra added. No gravity taken. I'll wait one week and bottle half and keg the other half.

05JUL2012- Waited a little longer than I had planned to bottle but finally got it done. At least the first half anyway. This half was down to 1.010 for an ABV of 8.1%. Tastes really awesome, can't wait til it's carbed.

29JUL2012- This is the best IPA I have ever made!

Molasses Cider

Ingredients-

Fermentables:
4 Gallons TreeTop Apple Juice
12 oz Molasses (full flavor)

Yeast:
Red Star Pasteur Champagne

OG: 1.066

21MAY2012- Down to 1.012, transferred to keg.

IPA

 Ingredients-

Grain:
12 lbs 2 Row
1 lb Munich
1 lb Crystal 40L

Hops:
A lot of cascade and some nugget for bittering. I have no idea on the amounts.

Yeast: Wyeast 1056 American Ale (Brand new packet)

OG: 1.058

05MAY2012: This was done at BigBrew held on National Home Brew Day. It was really fun and there were a lot of people out. It's nice to have so many brewers together and to see all the cool system designs.
As far as my brewing for the day, things didn't go so well. Ended up with a stuck mash again and realized my new false bottom I had constructed was not very good. I ended up running to Ace, getting some supplies and building a new one on the fly. After that things went better but because of all the headache my efficiency on both brews was way down.

The picture here was actually early in the day and barely had anybody in it. The place was way more crowded later on and the other half of the parking lot not pictured was filled as well.

12MAY2012: Gravity down to 1.006 for an ABV of 6.5%. Transferred to keg and currently carbing.

15MAY2012: Carbed and pouring, had a glass this evening. Refreshingly citrus taste, smooth and easy drinking.  It tastes really good but I don't even know how to describe it. Even my wife likes it (she usually hates IPA's)

Double IPA

Ingredients-

Grain:
16 lbs 2 Row Pale Malt
2 lbs Crystal 60L
1 lb ESB Malt

Hops:
I didn't write any of the hops down on this one, I think it was something like:
2.3 oz CTZ @ 60
2 oz CTZ @ 40
2 oz Cascade @10
3 oz Cascade @ 5
(rough guesses except the first addition, I remember that one.)

Yeast:
Wyeast 1056 American Ale (brand new packet)

OG: 1.076

05MAY2012- Brewing didn't go so well this day, this was the second batch and went much smoother than the first. But I was kind tired and frustrated and wasn't super exact so my efficiency was super low.Oh well, 1.076 still makes a pretty good IIPA.

21MAY2012- Down to 1.012, transferred to keg.

Raspberry Ale (for Colin)

Ingredients:

Grain- 12 lbs 2 Row Pale Malt

Hops-
1 oz Cascade @ 60
1 oz Cascade @ 5

Yeast-
Safale-05American Ale (slurry round 1)

 OG- 1.066

15APR2012- Stuck mash totally sucked. I change my equipment around and tried not using the strainer, apparently that was a bad idea. Tried fly sparging this round and it worked great. Between fly sparging and mixing the mash better my efficiency is higher than is has been. Up to 76% now. This one is for Colin and Whitney, they came over to help and it was nice to have it since the mash stuck.

22APR2012- Down to 1.010 for an ABV of 7.3%. 19 oz of Raspberries added. The box said 24oz but I'm sure they just dried out a little bit after being packed. We'll let it sit for a week and then bottle.

Workhorse IPA Clone

Ingredients-

Grain:
16 lbs 2 Row Pale Malt
1 lb Carapils
1 lb Crystal 40L

Hops:
1.0 oz CTZ @ 60
0.5 oz Nugget @ 60
1.5 oz Citra @ 15
1.0 oz Cascade @ 5
1.0 oz Northern Brewer @ 5
1.0 oz Citra Dry Hop X 7 Days
0.5 oz Cascade Dry Hop X 7 Days
0.5 oz Northern Brewer Dry Hop X 7 Days

Yeast: Safale 04-English Ale (slurry)

OG: 1.070

10MAR2012- Had Gary over for this one. He wanted to check out the brewery and the brew process. Had a great time, caught up on things and chatted a bunch. Everything went pretty well with no major hangups. Excited to see how this brew turns out.

01APR2012- Down to 1.016, transferred to Keg. Tastes great, can't wait for it to be conditioned. ABV 7%

Widmer Hefeweizen Clone aka The Stepheweizen

Ingredients-

Grain:
5 lbs 2 Row Pale Malt
5 lbs Wheat Malt
12 oz Munich
8 oz Crystal 40L

Hops:
0.35 oz Nugget @ 60
0.6 oz Cascade @ 20
0.5 oz Cascade @ 10
0.5 oz Willamette @ 5

Yeast: Wyeast German Ale 1007

Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.033 (adjusted for temp)

OG: 1.050


04MAR2011- Brewed a beer for my wife Stephanie today. This is supposed to be a clone of Widmer's Hefeweizen. Randy gave me the idea of naming it Stepheweizen after I had told him, "I'm making a Hef for Steph." I looked up on Widmer's site for the ingredients and just took my best guess at it. I chose not to try and match their Alchemy blend, and just went with nugget as that is what I had on hand so it brings the price down a little.

I had been bummed about my previous low efficiency so I decided to use a little more water for sparging in an attempt to pull more sugars off the grains and then boil longer to to evaporate more and obtain a higher gravity. I bought more grain than I would need to make sure I wasn't under gravity on this. But as I did better on my temps and insulated well to get the best conversion I ended up being just a few points higher on gravity than Widmer's.

I used the Wyeast German Ale yeast for this as I have read the American Hefeweizen yeast is what lends to the banana-ish flavor. This should be closer to what Widmer uses but they don't list that so I can't be sure.

14MAR2012- Down to 1.012, ABV 5.1%

22MAR2012- The Stepheweizen is pourning now. I still ended up with more esters than I had hoped, lending to the banana-ish flavor. But Steph loves it and that is who it was made for anyways.

Bought a 22oz and did the side by side this evening. My version is a lot darker so I will have to lighten it up the next round. Also, I'll look into a different style fo yeast that hopefully will not leave so many esters behind.

Update on the New System

So here are some pics of the new system with Quick Disconnects installed. These are from bargainfittings
They have the best prices, the best customer service, and really fast flat rate shipping. Check them out. Also, the thermometers, bulkheads, ballvalves and sight tube are from them as well.

I moved the pump down to the bottom and flipped it over. It works much better down there and I don't have problems with cavitation anymore.

I also drilled a hole in the lip above the opening of the boil kettle and installed a quick disconnect there.

I put in an elbow so now when I fill up the boil kettle from the mash I can just connect into the quick disconnect and the elbow drops it straight down into the bottom of the boil kettle. Eventually all the copper will be replaced with stainless, but its expensive so copper will have to do for now. Haven't done any work on the RIMS equipment for a while. Hopefully I can finish that by the end of summer.





 

Hoptastical IPA

Second brew day on my new system. Only doing one 5 gallon batch this time.

Ingredients-

Grain:
17 lbs American 2 Row
2 lbs Crystal 20L
2 lbs ESB Malt

Hops:
2.0 oz Nugget @ 60 (pellet)
8.2 oz Mystery @ 25 (this stuff is wet, therefore the huge weight)
1.5 oz Cascade @ 5
1.3 oz Cascade @ Dry hop
4.1 oz Mt Hood @ Dry hop

Whirfloc @ 10

Yeast: Safale-04 English Ale (slurry)

OG: 1.074

24FEB2012- Everything went pretty well. I was able to get my quick disconnects in this week and set everything up which made things a lot easier. Also, I was able to brew in my enclosed front porch, which made everything easier as well. This was especially true of set-up and clean-up. I'm really excited about how things went and glad to have done only one batch in a day. I moved my pump down and flipped it over as I was having some problems with cavitation last time I brewed. I read that those pumps are designed to have the motor downwards and it worked a lot better this round.

03MAR2012- Down to 1.024, transferred to the keg. 6.7% ABV

Ruby Clone (10 Gallon Batch)

So just did forty gallons last saturday and am now getting around to posting. The new system works great, no big hangups but a couple of tweaks to make still. I can't wait til I can get the rest of my quick disconnects and finish my RIMS.

First batch of the day. This is made with 2 row instead of Pilsen like McMennies does. 2 Row is cheaper and I like it better. Raspberry will be added in secondary.

Ingredients-

Grain:
23 lbs 2 Row

Hops:
1.0 oz of Unknown Ricey smelling @ 60
1.0 oz of Unknown Ricey smelling @ 10

Yeast: Safale-05 American Ale

OG- 1.053

Basic IPA (10 Gallon Batch)

The grain on this is the same as the Burnt Mallow. Hops are different.

Ingredients-

Grain:
28 lbs 2 Row
2 lbs Crystal 40
1 lb Crystal 20
1 lb Munich

Hops:
2.0 oz CTZ @ 60
1.0 oz CTZ @ 45
3.0 oz Cascade @ 30
2.0 oz Cascade @ 15
2.0 oz Cascade @ 3

Yeast: Safale-04 English Ale

OG- 1.073

Pepperalia (10 Gallon Batch)

This was the third beer of the day. This beer I did previously and it was a recipe that Randy and I did last minute a while back. We had already done multiple batches that day and went to the home brew store and just started picking out grain. Then we added fresh pepperoncinis from my backyard and it ended up being my most favorite home brew I have ever done.

This time I decided I would do a very similar recipe. I used the same grains, different hops which I had on hand, and switched to Jalepenos instead of pepperoncinis.

Ingredients-

Grain:
20 lbs 2 Row
4 lbs Honey Malt
2 lbs Crystal 60L
2 lbs ESB Malt
2 lbs Vienna Malt

Hops:
2.0 oz CTZ @ 60
1.0 oz Cascade @ 30
1.0 oz Cascade @ 15

Jalepenos:
4 Whole Jalepenos @ 45
1 Broken Jalepenos @ 45

Yeast: 1/2 with Safale-04 English Ale, 1/2 with Safbrew T-58 Spicey/Peppery yeast

OG: I forgot to take on OG on this one but most of the other brew this day were pretty close to target. Target was 1.070 so probably somewhere around there.

Black Butte Clone (10 Gallon Batch)

As far as a clone the grain is pretty close, but I just made up the hops based on what I had on hand.

Ingredients-

Grain:
22 lbs 2 Row
1 lb Crystal 60L
1 lb Chocolate Malt
8 oz Black Patent

Hops:
1.0 oz CTZ @ 60
2.0 Cascade @ 10

Yeast: 1/2 was pitched with Safale-04 English Ale, 1/2 With Safale-05 American Ale

OG: I forgot to take on OG on this one but most of the other brew this day were pretty close to target. Target was 1.057 so probably somewhere around there.

07JAN2012- Brewing went great, this was the last batch. I was tired and forgot to do the OG, but oh well.

New System- Part 2.0

Keg conversion- Part 1

So last night I was able to drill holes and install the bulkheads and ballvalves into the kegs. They are now ready to brew with if need be, but they still need a couple of things.

My thermometers for the HLT and MLT are on the way and hopefully they will show up today. If they do I will install them tonight for Keg conversion Part 2. I really hope they do show up today so they will be ready for brewing tomorrow. Otherwise I will have to reach inside the kegs to see my temps.

After that the only thing left for the kegs will be a good polishing. That will be Keg conversion Part 3. This isn't necessary but I enjoy that type of work and the look it produces.

The next and most likely final portion of my new system build will be the construction and testing of my RIMS system. Some of the parts have already arrived, I am just waiting on a few electrical components for the build.

Below is the pic of my current progress....

New System- Part 1

So my new system build is underway. This system will be a two tier system instead of a three. This way I can brew in my enclosed front porch and leave the bulk of my system there even when I'm not brewing.

Pictured below is the frame of the system. It is built in two pieces. The lower tier holds the Mash/Lauter Tun(MLT) and the Boil Kettle. The upper tier holds the Hot Liquor Tank(HLT). The two tiers bolt together to maintain one single piece during brewing, yet can break down easily for transport if needed.

There are two 10 inch diameter banjo burners attached underneath the boil kettle and HLT. There is a chugger pump attached next to the connection between the tiers.

Coming up next will be the keg conversion.