Brewing Porter today

Here's what I'm brewing this afternoon.
10 pounds American 2-row
6 oz 40L Crystal
6 oz 120L Crystal
6 oz Roasted Barley
1 pound Flaked Barley

Will mash at 154, add 1.3 oz EKG at 60 minutes.
Should be quite tasty!
Be starting the mash at about 1 p.m.
The brewday went very well. Anticipated fg was 1.061, actual was 1.060 with about an extra quart and a half of wort. Chilling with the new chiller did not go so well, might have been due to the leaf hops I used, effectively packing against the chiller and insulating it. Try again soon.

Kegged

The Grozet is kegged, slowly carbinating to a tingly 2.4 volumes of CO2.
What is Grozet? Its an ancient Scottish ale flavored with herbs (other than hops) and gooseberries. My version comes in at 8% ABV, a fine sipping ale.

Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble.....

Penrose kettle in action....

New Yeast trial

Trying a new yeast out. Bought an out of date vial from MO Malt Supply (1/2 price) of the following.
* WLP006 Bedford British
Ferments dry and flocculates very well. Produces a distinctive ester profile. Good choice for most English style ales including bitter, pale ale, porter, and brown ale.
Attenuation: 72-80%
Flocculation: High
Optimum Fermentation Temperature: 65-70°F
(18-21°C)
Alcohol Tolerance: Medium

I pitched it in a quart of 1.034 wort a couple days ago. Will pitch this in a half gallon of 1.034 wort today. The whole lot will then go to make a batch of porter, then I think I'll try to recreate the old ale on top of the resulting yeast cake. The fun never stops!

American Brown Ale

Brewed an American Brown tonight. Nice brown ale, taste of chocolate in the malt, well supported by Cascade Hops. Third time I've brewed this beer this year, a real crowd pleaser!

Racking day!

Dry hopping the IPA, an ounce each of Cascade and Centenial as its racked to secondary. In a week, I'll keg. Also going to rack over a few meads, get them off of the lees, the cran on cran, the cranberry blossom, the blueberry blossom and the cherry mead. Should keep me entertained for a while! Hopefully, I'll be brewing on Tuesday night!

National scores

Received my scoresheets from nationals. While I did not place, I did quite well, my cider scored a 37.5, highest score in that catagory was 41. My American Barleywine scored a 38.5,the black raspberry mead received a 39, and the cyser a 38. 3 of them made the excellant catagory, the cider missed it by a half point. No complaints, will do better next year.

Brewing IPA today

The grain bill is simple (5 gallon batch)....12 pounds of Maris Otter and 1.5 pounds of 45L crystal. Mashed at 154 for 60 minutes.
One hour boil, The hop bill is as follows.
.4 oz Chinook at 60 min.
.5 oz. Chinook at 30 min
.5 oz Centennial at 30 min.
.5 oz Centennial at 15 min
.5 oz Cascade at 15 min.

Will be dry hopped with an ounce each of Centennial and Cascade.

Off to go sparge!

Kegging Sunday

I kegged 9 gallons of bitter today. Looks like I need to bottle the Grozet soon. Going to go to step three on the deep Forest Ale later tonight. Rack to secondary and add a quart of maple syrup! Tomorrow I should be brewing up an American Brown Ale.

The Latest Medal

You asked for it Robert, here it is!

Microfest Homebrew Competition 2010

Heading down to Forest Park today to the Microfest. At 4 p.m. they are handing out the Homebrew awards. 70 dark ales were entered this year and my Historic Old Ale took the gold! I'm pretty darned pleased.