Currently in the fermenter

On a whim, I purchased some New Zealand hops last summer, thinking I would make a New Zealand Pale Ale.

I finally got around to brewing it last week. Here is a link to the recipe:

http://hopville.com/recipe/1119492/imperial-ipa-recipes/ariki-imperial-pale-ale

Frankly, it is kind of a "kitchen sink" brew. I had a number of ingredients I was trying to get of -- rice and rye being two. So, I ended up throwing those into the mix.

I find that since I have switched to the "Brew In A Bag" method of all-grain brewing, the process appears to be very forgiving. Right now I have 4 all-grain sessions under my belt -- an APA, a belgian farm house ale, a lighter beer with hints of lemon (using pilsner as my base malt), and now this imperial ale. The first three have turned out quite nicely. At some point, I will put links to my recipes, should anyone be interested.

Improvements in my brewing -- My efficiency seemed to improve this time around. I didn't get a great original gravity reading (namely because of all of the solids in my sample) -- but I am very confident that this is going to be a really, really big beer. My best guess is that it will be between 10 and 11 % alcohol when all is said and done. I think I did a much better job of squeezing out my bag of grain this time around. I have a few ideas on how I want to improve on getting the wort out of the spent grains.

Always some issues -- It appears I picked the coldest day of the year to brew. The outside temperature was around 30. That lead to some difficulty in keeping my mash temperature stable. It went down about 5 degrees in the course of 90 minutes.

Additionally, I did not get the boil off I was anticipating. This may just be poor planning. Consequently, I ended up with about a gallon and a half of more wort than I was anticipating. So, I have my little 3 gallon carboy half way filled with the last of what was in my brew pot. So, there is 3 to 4 inches of trub at the bottom of that carboy. But hopefully I can get close to a gallon of additional beer out of the process.

Because of the anticipated high alcohol content, I ended up pitching 2 packages of yeast -- Nottingham to be exact. That yeast is a workhorse. But I would always rather pitch too much yeast than pitch too little yeast.

The beer has been in the fermenters for 9 days and fermentation has significantly slowed, bubbling once every 30 seconds to a minute. So, I will probably take a sample gravity reading tonight and prepare for the "dry hopping" stage. Perhaps I will even post what I find out and my initial reaction? But probably not.

City of Muncie Water Analysis Report and Brewing Update

I have been awful in keeping up with this blog. For this, I apologize. Lots have been happening in my brewing life. To summarize:

1) I am now an all-grain brewer;
2) I am utilizing the "brew in a bag" method;
3) I have three all-grain beers under my belt -- an American pale ale, a Saison, and a light summer ale;
4) I have been very pleased pleased with all three beers;
5) My next beer will be a New Zealand Pale, utilizing some New Zealand hop varieties; and
6) I can never see me moving back to extract or partial grain brewing.

Muncie City Water

One of the big differences between all-grain and extract brewing is the importance water plays in the process. Water composition and chemistry can greatly effect the efficiency in which sugar is extracted from the malted barley and other grains during the "mash". To simplify (probably too much) water with high alkalinity (hard water) can inhibit the extraction of sugars and create an astringent final product. While there are a number of things a brewer can do to adjust the water before brewing, it is important for an all-grain brewer to get a good read on water chemistry prior to brewing.

One of the brewing message boards (Home Brew Talk, I believe) suggested Ward Laboratories out of Kearney, Nebraska as the place to get water tested. So, I forked over $16.50 to get an analysis of Muncie's water.

Since you can't simply attach a pdf to this blog, I had to upload the water report onto google docs. Additionally, I created a "tiny url" which, with any luck, opens up the water report for your use. Lets see if it works:

http://tinyurl.com/6g4o67o


If it works, then I hopefully just saved you $16.50 and gave you a solid foundation to make your brewing water adjustments to suit the type of beer you are brewing.

In the next couple of weeks/months I hope to gradually get my millions of readers up to speed on my brewing adventures.

If anyone is in the Muncie area and are interested in "Brew in a Bag" and would like to see the process in action, just drop me a message and I will let you know when I next intend to brew.