Brewing with olive oil

It sounds crazy, but I think I'm going to give it a try. Maybe do a small batch experiment.

http://brewcrazy.com/brewing-beer-with-olive-oil-article/

GingerBread 1 Gallon Brew

I say gingerbread beer, having recently tried ginger beer and having bought the ginger to do it. I thought why not add some malt and molasses?

Brew in a bag, 1 gallon batch.

Malt:
6.3 oz - 2 Row
2.5 oz - Rye Malt
4.0 oz - CaraMunich III
2.0 oz - Munich I
1.2 oz - Midnight Wheat
1.0 oz - Pale Ale Malt

Mash: 152-154 F for 1hr

Boil:
6.5 oz - Light DME
8.0 oz - Mollasses
1 Cinnamon Stick @ 60 min
0.5 oz - Styran Goldings

FlameOut - Coast for 20 min
3.6 oz - Ginger grated fine
1 tsp Nutmeg (fresh grated)
6 cloves
1 Cinnamon stick


OG = 1.053

Oatmeal Stout 1Gal Test

Testing what it is about stouts I do and don't like. In this recipe I went for roasted, but avoided astrigency (i.e. no burnt husks).
I prefer stouts with a substancial mouth feel (I think), so used oatmeal as well.

OattyStout 1G - Russian Imperial Stout
========================================================================
Batch Size: 1.023 gal
Boil Size: 1.223 gal
Boil Time: 60.000 min
Efficiency: 70%
OG: 1.074
FG: 1.018
ABV: 7.2%
Bitterness: 33.2 IBUs (Tinseth)
Color: 60 SRM (Morey)

Fermentables
=======================================================================

Name	Amount	Yield	Color
Oats, Flaked	3.500 oz	80%	1 L
Rahr - 2 Row Malt	1.000 lb	80%	2 L
Crystal Malt - 80L	1.000 oz	74%	80 L
Carafa III	4.000 oz	70%	525 L
Caramel Munich Malt 60L	2.000 oz	77%	60 L
DME - Light	4.000 oz	95%	2 L
Simpsons - Maris Otter	1.000 lb	81%	3 L
Briess - Midnight Wheat Malt	2.000 oz	55% 550 L

Total grain: 3.031 lb
Hops
========================================================================
Name Alpha   Amount  Use       Time   Form  IBU
Styrian Goldings  4.5% 0.500 oz Boil 60.000 min Pellet 33.2

Yeast
========================================================================
Name Type Form    Amount   Stage
Safale S-05  Ale  Dry 2.232 tsp Primary

Mash
========================================================================
Name     Type   Amount      Temp    Target       Time
Infusion 2 gal 163.413 F 150.000 F    0.000 s

Boil
========================================================================
90 min

Gingerbread Ale

1 lb dry amber malt
1 lb dry dark malt
8 oz fancy molasses
Windsor yeast
Cinnamon and ginger

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/entries/gingerbread-ale.html

Oatmeal Stouts - Great Introduction

http://byo.com/stories/item/1189-oatmeal-stout-style

Pumpkin Graddin

I wanted to make a Pumpkin beer with two small pie pumpkins I bought from the farmers market (1$ each!!). This one is for Eric's thesis defense, who inspired the idea.

Grain Bill:
4 lbs Maris Otter
5 lbs 2 Row
4 oz CaraMunich 60L

2 lbs + 6 oz Roasted Pumpkin (1.5 hr in oven at 250F)

Mash:
147F initial for 20 min
2.5 Liter Decoction to boil
149F additional 30 min

Hops:
0.5 oz Magnum 60 min
Spices @ 20 min:
2 cinnamon sticks
30 cloves
2 tsp Nutmeg (1/2 fresh and 1/2 powder)
2.5 tsp ground ginger

OG 1.050

Experiment: Hop Combinations

I mashed two gallons to do side-by-side tastings of two favorite hop combinations to see which I preferred.

Grain Bill (for 2 gallons)
4.6 lbs - 2 Row
2 oz - Munich Malt
1 oz - CaraMunich 60L
4 oz - CaraFoam

Mash @ 150F for 60 min

Hop Schedule

Amarillo+Cascade (orange)	Centenial+Citra
0.5 oz Cascade 60 min	0.25 Centenial 60 min
0.25 oz Cascade 5 min	0.25 Centenial 5 min
0.25 oz Amarillo 5 min	0.25 Citra 5 min

Deperation Apple Sizer

Brewday (Oct 19 2012)

3 x 4L Motts Apple Juice
1 x 4L Fresh Apple Cider

300g Manuka Honey
500g creamed honey

US05 dry

Fermented slow

Tastings

• Oct 29 - Sweet, spiced character
• Nov 15 - Sour almost, very crisp, tad yeasty. Quite yummy

Trappist Wippit

Brewed this trappist clone right before a 4 week trip so I wouldn't be tempted to drink it early.

Designed for a 2.5 Gallon Keg

4 lbs Abbey Malt
2 lbs 2-Row
5.4 oz Vienna
3.4 oz Crystal 120L
3.2 oz Crystal 75L

Mash was shooting for 147F for 60min
First runnings at 1.050

Styrian Goldings at 60 min

Pitched White labs 500 in 1L starter night before
No initial gravity?

Fermentation was strong first two nights, 75-77F at start.
Bottled after 5 days, FG=1.009

Sours BrewingTV

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xonwaRtCHuo&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Brewing 001 - Marble Red imitation (2.5gal)

Today an all-grain AmericanPA was created.

The grain-bill was off, lets hope it is a good mistake, but I put more Crystal 120L than the recipe suggested.

• 5.02 lbs, 2-Row
• 0.67 lbs, Vienna
• 0.67 lbs, Crystal 80L
• 0.67 lbs, Crystal 120L

We bought a crappy little mill from the local kitchen supply store, which broke about 3 lbs into the bill, so the remaining 3.5 lbs were crushed with a rolling pin...

It started with a 150F mash for 60 min. The cooler held the temp to the degree for the whole mash. The PVC lautering system was fabulous, and the flow control using the tube clamp was perfect. I simply poured the sparge water on-top of the plastic lid to protect the grain bed (even though it was quite thick).

When I got somewhere around 2.5 gal of wort I stopped the sparge, but the liquid was still quite sweet and colored. I would really like to have made a second batch of "house" brew with the remaining sugars in the grain, but I don't have the equipment to run parallel fermenters.

I forgot to measure the preboil gravity, stupid mistake...

The boil of course was a little tight in the 2.5 gal pot, it did of course end up boiling over.

Hop schedule was not exactly from the recipe either:

• 70 min Columbus (0.5oz)
• 10 min Citra (0.25oz), Simcoe (0.25oz), Cascade (0.375oz)
• 0 min Cascade (0.75oz)

At 10 min I also threw in the wort chiller. When the boil was done I stirred it up a bit, then chilled it down. The chiller worked great as well, took maybe 10 min. Dumped it in to the fermenter, stirred like craze to oxiginate, and pitched the yeast. Used WYeast 1056 American Ale yeast.

Postboil gravity was very hard to read, I had to extrapolate through the foam cap, somewhere around 1.065 I think. I hope it's mostly fermentable :)

Temperature today is a little warm, 71F, now it's fermenting so next update in a few days when the transfer to the secondary and dry-hopping happens.

Wort cooling tres important

This is the wart chiller, taking a test run on hot water. The cooling was magnificent even with stainless steel; remember it's thin so the conductivity of the metal should play only a trivial role. 

Collecting yeast from bottles may be an interesting way to get commercial yeast strands...

http://byo.com/stories/item/1333-round-it-up-collecting-yeast-from-bottles

Brewing TV - Episode 68: How to Make Graf

Using inverted sugar for trappist style

http://brewvana.wordpress.com/2010/06/10/the-secrets-of-making-belgian-trappist-ales/

Trappist style

http://beersmith.com/blog/2010/09/01/trappist-dubbel-and-tripel-beer-recipes/

Getting Started - The Plan

Brewing is expensive, well actually it can be expensive. I'm going about this with the attitude that drinking beer is expensive (the drinkable stuff in Canada runs 15$ a six-pack), so hopefully making it saves me money in the long run. Unfortunately I can't drop a ton of money on brewing, and why would I? I build things for a living...

I have a large pot (2.7G), a cooler (or mash tun), some Pyrex... but not much else. I will be building my system from the bare essentials, using what I have to get by with, until I can get the items I really want (only the best unfortunately). The strategy is going to be brewing as soon as possible on as little $$ as possible. The first months are going to be the hardest though, because I think I've convinced myself I would rather keg than bottle, so buying bottles now would just be a huge waste of money (about 80$ for glass n cap(er/s)). Kegs require a large initial investment, in particular for the gas delivery system, fortunately the same gas system can be used for multiple kegs (someday).

Meanwhile I've sources some places in Ontario to purchase from:
The best prices on kegs and keg equipment (why don't they have brewing buckets?)
http://www.ontariobeerkegs.com/default.asp

This place has everything but keg stuff:
http://homebrewsupplies.ca/category/bottling/

And this place seems to have a bit of everything but not as much selection:
http://www.torontobrewing.ca/servlet/StoreFront

There are others, if I come across anything great I guess I'll post it then.

This month I will buy miscellaneous things to get started building the Lautering system. This will almost certainly come from McMasterCarr, and it will be mostly plumbing, piping, etc.

Marble Red

Marble Red would be a staple for me, and I think the first beer I'm going to try to emulate. It's hoppy yet very drinkable, not so sweet that you couldn't throw back a few.

I found this recipe posted by ditch at Home Brew Talk (I think he found it in a book, I don't have the sauce)

Marble Red Ale

Style: American IPA
OG: 1.065
FG: 1.016
ABV: 6.42%
Color: 18.4 SRM
IBU's: 57.59
Efficiency: 75%
Boil Size: 7.75 Gal
Batch Size: 6.00 Gal
Preboil OG: 1.055
Boil Time: 90 minutes

Fermentation Steps

Name	Days	Temp
Primary	5 days	68.0°F
Secondary	7 days	74.0°F

Grains and Adjuncts

Amount	Percentage	Name	Time	Gravity
12.05 lbs	75.00%	Rahr 2-Row	60 min	1.035
1.61 lbs	10.00%	Weyermann Vienna Malt	60 min	1.038
1.61 lbs	10.00%	Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L	60 min	1.034
0.80 lbs	5.00%	Caramel/Crystal Malt - 120L	60 min	1.033

Hops

Amount	IBUs	Name	Time	AA%
1.00 oz	40.43	CTZ	75 min	14.00
0.50 oz	6.56	Citra	10 min	13.20
0.50 oz	6.46	Simcoe	10 min	13.00
0.75 oz	4.13	Cascade	10 min	5.50
1.50 oz	0.00	Cascade	0 min	5.50
2.50 oz		Cascade	3 days 5.50 @ 65 then cold crash 2 days
0.50 oz	40.43	Citra	3 days 13.20 @ 65 then cold crash 2 days
0.50 oz		Simcoe	3 days 13.00 @ 65 then cold crash 2 days

Yeasts

Amount	Name	Laboratory	ID
3.0 pkg	American Ale	Wyeast Labs	1056

Mash Profile

Light Body Infusion in 60 minutes @ 150.0 deg F

Carbonation

To 2.5 Vol CO2

Breckenridge - 471 Small Batch

This is a beer I hope to emulate.
Why?
Because it's unique, hoppy, malty, sweet, balanced, and packs a real punch.


Their¹ description

Hoppy? Brother, 471 IPA redefines hoppy.471 is a small batch, limited edition ale that was created by our Brewmaster to separate the weak from the strong. 471 is a double IPA, that combines Pale, Munich, Caramel-30, Carapils and Torrified Wheat malts, with Chinook, Centennial, Simcoe and Fuggles hops. It has a big sweet mouthfeel, followed by more hoppiness than you've ever had at one time. Enjoy.

Beer Style:	Double IPA (India Pale Ale)
Flavor:	Big sweet mouthfeel balanced by aggressive hoppiness
Yeast:	British Ale Yeast
Malts:	Pale, Munich, Caramel-30, Carapils, Torrified Wehat
Hops:	Chinook, Centennial, Simcoe, Fuggles
Color:	Copper
Bitterness Units:	70
Alcohol By Volume:	9.2%
Alcohol By Weight	7.3%

Here's a recipe from wottaguy² perhaps to start from:

Breckenridge 471 IPA Clone
14-C Imperial IPA

Size: 6.5 gal
Efficiency: 77.55%
Attenuation: 78.0%
Calories: 300.58 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.090 (1.075 - 1.090)
Terminal Gravity: 1.020 (1.012 - 1.020)
Color: 12.21 (8.0 - 15.0)
Alcohol: 9.29% (7.5% - 10.0%)
Bitterness: 69.7 (60.0 - 100.0)

Ingredients:
18.5 lb Pale Ale Malt (Briess)
0.50 lb Munich Malt
0.50 lb Caramel Malt 40L
0.50 lb Cara-Pils
1.0 lb White Table Sugar (Sucrose)
0.5 oz Chinook (13.0%) - added during boil, boiled 60.0 min
0.5 oz Centennial (10.0%) - added during boil, boiled 30.0 min
0.5 oz Centennial (10.0%) - added during boil, boiled 20.0 min
1.0 oz Simcoe (13.0%) - added during boil, boiled 20.0 min
1.0 oz Fuggle (4.8%) - added during boil, boiled 20.0 min
1.0 ea Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) - added during boil, boiled 10.0 min
2.0 ea White Labs WLP007 Dry English Ale

Schedule:
Dough In - Liquor: 6.5 gal; Strike: 164

¹Breckenridge 471 Small Batch
²The Hop Vine Discussion Forum