Chasity Ale

Ok, so when you find a brew that is well liked by others, they will ask you to brew it again. I have a "Chasity" brew that is enjoyed by my girlfriend. She really likes it. It is a really easy batch to make. Basically, it's: 5 lb german pilsner malt 5 lb 2 row malt 1 lb german melanoidin malt 2 oz cascade hops 6.0% alpha 1 oz fuggles hops 5.5% alpha In the boil, I use one ounce of cascade for 60 minutes. at 30 minutes, one more ounce of cascade. at 15 minutes, one ounce of fuggles, 1 tsp gypsum, 1 tsp irish moss. I usually add the wort chiller at this point as well to sanitize it. This beer is not overly hoppy and tends to be a light red. Very easy good beer.

Kolsch Brewed

I brewed a Kolsch (though I can't call it that as I don't live in Koln Germany) on Saturday. It was an interesting brew. I found some Kolsch malt which was malted in Koln Germany so I decided to use 2 pounds of that along with 5 pounds of German Pils Malt. I added 1 pound of Belgian Wheat Malt as well. The hops were 2 ounces of Hallertau and 1 ounce of Tettnang. It was a very simple recipe. I started with five gallons of water and heated to 182. It was a bit too hot so I added the hot water to the mashtun and let it cool to 152 and maintained the temp. I left it alone for two hours then sparged. The boil was only an hour. I am brewing this for the style contest at Forest City Brewers for the June contest. The brew is fermenting nicely with an Original Gravity (O.G.) of 1.044 starting out. I think the Final Gravity (F.G.) will be around 1.010 based on the fermentation so far. Visit my blog page at www.beerandwineathome.com.

Scottish Ale bottled - entered - drinking

Well, I bottled the scottish ale. It is a bit dark to meet the bjcp standards but it tasted good. I entered it into the style contest at the brew club Forest City Brewers and only got an honorable mention. That was a bummer because I really like the taste of this brew! Oh well. I am drinking it up and lovin' it! The next style contest for May is Maibocks and Hellesbocks. I don't have one brewed so I am brewing a Kolsch for June this weekend. I think I may enter a simple pale ale I brewed up in between for the open contest for May though. I need to hurry though. It is still in the primary fermenter but it's done. I may as well filter out the yeast and throw that one in a keg. Visit my page at www.beerandwineathome.com.

Special Discount on the Second Release of my Book

‎$2 off on the newest release of my book Beer and Ingredients II, What does What. This is good for March only. To celebrate the new release of the 2nd edition of Beer Ingredients book, you can get $2 dollars off. Use code 6DNT3ESB when checking out and the enclosed link. Use the extra money and book to homebrew up a great batch of beer.

Click here to order the book.

Don't forget to like the book on Facebook.

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Scottish Export Ale

I brewed a Scottish Export Ale last Friday 2/24. I did a step infusion mash. The first temperature was 140 degrees F for 45 minutes. The second was 150 for 45 minutes. The third was 159 for 45 minutes. I sparged well and boiled for 90 minutes.

The brew worked out great with an O.G. of 1.058. The only odd thing that happened was when I activated the liquid yeast. I "thought" I smashed it and mixed the yeast with the nutrient, but it really didn't break and mix. So, I had to pitch the yeast as it was. This resulted in a very slow start to the fermentation. But, I checked it today and the gravity is now 1.012. The color is pretty dark for a Scottish Export Ale, but still within bjcp guidelines.

I brewed this batch to enter into the beer contest at Forest City Brewers.

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Beer & Ingredients II, The Ultimate Beer Ingredient Guide, What does What. Take your homebrew to the next level, homebrew's ingredient guide.

The second release of my beer book is out on Kindle now.  I have already gotten some good feedback that I'll take and use for release three.  Click here to take a look!  I've added some ingredients missing in the first book and updated the formatting.

This book was written to give brewers a general feel of the ingredient needed to make the beer they want to make.  Many ingredients are similar so when you get to the store and the store is out of stock, you can use my book to come up with an alternative ingredient and still brew up a great batch of beer.  Who knows....  Experimenting with ingredients to make a new batch of beer may make the beer better.  My book is geared to help you experiment and love brewing beer.

The printed version of the book should be out early next week!

Happy Brewing!

The Russian Imperial Stout is in the Bourbon Barrel

My friends at Forest City Brewers built a stand for the 55 gallon bourbon barrel and added a fresh bottle of bourbon to re-saturate the wood.  We all got together and brewed a Russian Imperial Stout.  All the batches worked out well and are now in the bourbon barrel aging and soaking in that lovely bourbon flavor.  This is going to be a great brew!  I think we ended up around 40 gallons and I think they told me another 10 gallons is on the way.  We should end up at around 50 gallons of beer.  

Great teamwork guys!

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The Russian Imperial Stout is going to the Bourbon Barrel

I moved the Russian Imperial Stout to the secondary carboy.  It had a final gravity of 1.018, which is slightly low.  The BJCP states that the low end of the Final Gravity is 1.018, but others are saying 1.020.  So, I'm going with the BJCP.

I took a small sample to taste.  It was very good.  Today is the Forest City Brewers meeting and I plan to take the beer in the carboy to the meeting and give it to my friend who owns the bourbon barrel.  This beer will have no issues passing the strict quality tests they are doing to everyone's beer that will potentially go into the bourbon barrel.  I can't wait to taste it after it ages!

Visit my site at www.beerandwineathome.com

Patrick

The Russian Imperial Stout is in the Primary

In my last post, click here if you missed it, I wrote about the Russian Imperial Stout I am brewing for The Forest City Brewers Club.  I did a single mash infusion at 150 degrees F.  I mashed for a long time as the O.G. for a Russian Imperial Stout should be at or above 1.075.  My brew ended up right at 1.075.  In hindsight, if I would've added 190 degree F water to the mash to increase the temperature to about 158 degrees F, I would've extracted unfermentable sugars which would've added to the body of the beer sending it well past 1.075.  As a result, my beer will be a bit higher in alcohol as long as the yeast lives and can survive in the higher alcoholic brew.

Regardless, the color is right, the body is a bit lighter then it should be, but all in all... it's gonna be a great tasting beer to add to the bourbon barrel to age!

Feel free to visit my site at:  www.beerandwineathome.com.

Russian Imperial Stout

The brew club I belong to, Forest City Brewers, recently got a hold of some 55 gallon bourbon barrels.  Obviously, the bourbon was no longer in it, but it has a great aroma.

We are all joining together to make 5 gallon batches of a Russian Imperial Stout to fill the barrel and age it.

I'm all in man!  I'm brewing this weekend.

12 LB Maris Otter Malt
1 LB Crystal Malt 20L
1 LB Munich Malt
1 LB Special B Malt
1 LB Wheat Malt (which was very hard to crush, by the way)
1 LB Crystal Malt 60L
.5 LB Chocolate Malt
.25 LB Black Patent Malt
.25 Roasted Barley

1 OZ Galena AA 13.2
1 OZ Northern Brewer AA 8.5
1 OZ East Kent Goldings AA 4.9

The Yeast we are using is WYeast 1056 American Ale.

Wish us luck!

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