Wort which is minutes from trying to boil over. I love the look of it at this stage - pure chocolatey menace. Calm and foamy above, but under the surface there is mounting anger.



During...



The hops. 2 ounces of whole leaf.

niceness.

I really want to add a ball valve to my kettle now too.
I've been scooping out the first few gallons with a sanitized aluminum 1 gallon pitcher until my kettle gets light enough to pour.
I also like to filter through a bag from kettle to carboy ...so you can imagine it's a pretty clumsy process going now.

Are you making any water adjustments?

No, no water adjustments. I understand the theory but haven't gone any farther.

And as for transfering from kettle, I actually used the siphon starter and just pumped over and over again. I warped a little with the heat... not ideal. I need a good pitcher like yours. Or fuck, just get a bulkhead/seals and a drill a damned hole.

Went ahead and bottled that stout up there last night, along with the remiander of its Tiny Terror variant that wouldn't fit in the barrel. Both had settled down to their final grav target (about 1.30) and weren't moving anymore, so I figure "might as well get 'em off the yeast." Also, preliminary sips of the stout tell me that it is absolutely the best thing I've ever made. Going all-grain and using Maris as a base malt seems to make an enormous difference. It was nutty and complex with no off-flavors, other than being a little green and completely flat of course. This means I have to brew again, and quickly.

Pardon me while I think aloud...

After much internal debate about what to brew next, I think I have a plan. I think I started off all wrong last year. I tried to go big and complex first, because it was too tempting. But doing that means you can't really pin down what flavors (good or bad) are coming from what ingredient or what part of the process. Accordingly, I think I want to make my next few batches with as few ingredients as possible - I want to simplify recipes down to the fewest possible ingredients and steps, and work up from there.

Also, I need to repeat recipes and tweak them. It's the only way to home in on something really good and really repeatable.

So, I'm going to take the Barleywine (Tiny Terror 1, in a barrel now since mid December), the Imperial Stout (TT2, in a barrel or bottles since last week), and the 5% Stout (in bottles since last week) as the beginnings of basic recipes that I will repeat, along with 2 or 3 other types at most for now. I'm going to restructure the recipe spreadsheet and home in on a set of 5 or 6 recipes, and tweak each one as I go. So in addition to a barley wine, a small stout, and a big stout, I think I'd like a pale, a medium-dark wheat, a farmhouse / Spotted Cow, and a disgustingly gigantic DIAP hop bomb. That means I'd really have two categories, the lighter 5% everyday stuff (pale, wheat, farmhouse, small stout), and the Big stuff around 10% (barleywine, Nancy Ironbox stout, DIPA). Or am I missing an opportunity to begin with something more unique like a mild?

Dammit Cats put down that baby.

RE: put down the baby.
I think the bigger issue is work getting in the way of my message boarding.
i work at work now.

RE: repeat
The approach to have a couple categories/handful of recipes and repeat is the most adopted and most suggested by the community.
That's the right way, I commend those that go that way.
I just can't work that way.
I'm not good at gradual/logical/scientific learning.
I prefer to dive in way over my head and make lots of mistakes.
As a result, you'll probably learn faster and I'll probably have a few terrible batches.
And I agree to leave the sours/milds/wilds out of the mix.. unless you end up with extra space and extra equipment.

I found a well recommended Mild recipe with only 3 types of malt (Maris, Crystal 60, and Chocolate) so I'm gonna have that as one of the regulars. And I dove in and fucked around for 12 months, made 13 batches, most of them pretty so-so. I have learned a LOT but I feel like I need to pin a few of them down and get them nailed shut to really make something I am proud of.

Unless I count soda, you're a batch ahead of me.
I have 2 that I wouldn't want to have other people drink but I also wouldn't toss down the sink
5 that were so-so and everyone seemed to like.
3 that I was proud of.
1 that I'll taste on Sunday.

Cats the all-grain stout batch I just did - the 5% @ 4 gallons version of it - was already the best thing I've made, before any finishing and carbonation. I sincerely hope it wasn't a fluke or something, and that in a week or two when I start cracking them open nothing is different (unless it's better). Because THAT was a beer I could be proud of, potentially. So very much better. Everything before this was just homebrewish, sometimes good for that, sometimes just ok. This tasted better than the "solid local" commercial stuff.

Going for ingredients now, will brew early next week. Gonna get what I need to make a mild and a pale. The mild will hew close to all things british (fuggles hops and nottingham yeast), where I'll try to skew the pale american (Chico yeast and american hops of some sort, to be decided there based on what they have.) Wish I could brew 2 in one day, but there's no effing way.

Going for ingredients tonight.

I'm going to brew another pilsner for wifewilleatyou while the basement is still chilly.
Wasn't in a hurry to brew this style again but I'm running out of time.

This time I'm gonna use New Zealand descendants of the Saaz and Hallertau.
Thinking I'll do just 1 oz in the beginning and 3 oz in the last 5.
Bohemian Pilsner instead of Bries Pilsen
German Dark Munich instead of the Belgian Munich
Weyerman Caramunich - First time
Organic Carapils instead of Carapils (Just a tiny bit of this anyways)

I'm not sure yet if I'm going to use my mashtun or a bag.
I was loving the bag but I did scorch a hole in the bag the last time.
That was a brewday I still haven't had time to post about.
Trying to decide if that was a sign from the Bryggjemann to go back to the mashtun.

Either way my goal is to make a pilsner that has more intensity and character than the last one....which was great, I just didn't feel like it was MINE enough. That was just a bastard child of two clone recipes, this one will be mine. I think the malt on this will really noticeably more flavorful and aromatic. And putting more of the hops in the nose should be great. I may be totally wrong.

I'm also super tempted to put some heather tips in at the beginning of the boil, but I need to read just a little bit more on that.

So I went to the store, and I got the Mild and Pale ingredients. The I started thinking about my barrels, and how they give diminishing returns - that is, the first beer you age in it will pick up oak / char flavor quickly, whereas future attempts will each yield less flavor per time unit. That made me think I need to pull the older one soon... the barleywine I did first has been in for two months now, and I'm thinking I should tarzan-vine-swing immediately to the next one in that barrel, rather than try to sanitize it and wait with it empty. If I just immediately fill it with a new beer after emptying the barleywine, I should be fine.

So there I was at the register talking about it with the nerds, and I thought "well fuck me, I might as well go get Tiny Terror 3 ingredients now." So I scribbled the following recipe out of my ass:


1.25 gallon batch

4# of Maris
1# Crsytal 80
1# Munich II (the darker of the two munichs, and as a base malt it contributes to the conversion unlike crystal)
0.5# Peat Smoked Malt (because fuck it I LIKE that flavor)
1 oz UK Challenger hops
1 Pack Safale T-58 (spicey, peppery)

Should be more or less a scotch ale, with medium caramel color and a shitload of smoke / oak / char via the peat malt and the barrel. -shrug- If I'm showing a LOT of restraint on the normal 5 gallon batches (very very very difficult but I am forcing myself to minimize the abv and number of ingredients so I learn something dammit), then I can go ass-wild on the tiny terror batches, I figure, as long as I keep notes. I'd like a steady pipeline of 1.25 gal mini-batches ageing in various cabinets, to be opened at random times in the future for maximum surprise and variety.

And because what I bought was all grain, and none of the three styles was very hoppy, I got out for just under $70, which is nuts for 2 full 5 gallon batches plus a TT batch of goodness.

I'm glad you're keeping the little one's crazy. Jealous about it.

During the first week of baseball wifeandbabywilleatyou are heading out of town without me.
If the weather is decent I will have multiple brewdays. If the weather is shit I end up at work a lot more.
On one of those days I am planning to do a tiny batch in the kitchen while I make a big one on the back porch.

Capn, you had said that you transferred from your kettle with a siphon and experienced some warping?
I might try that tomorrow, instead of my scooping pitcher.
I just think if I can be hands free during the transfer, that's the way to go, until I get a ball valve on there.

I don't move anything from the kettle until it's 80 or 70...so I shouldn't have warping right?
Were you just running out of time and using the transfer to finish the cooling?

Correct - I used my siphon starter and I had some warping of the long tube. It wasn't a time thing, I was splitting my 6 gallon boil, drawing off 4 gallons to become a 5% stout and then adding 3 pounds of leftover extract to the remaining 2 gallons of stout to make it the Tiny Terror version at an eventual 10% abv. At 80F you will have NO warping issue.

So as for this, I sampled the first one I did back in December (the all Maris / all East kent Goldings barleywine) last night to see how the oaking is coming along, and hoooly fuck was it good. I'm going to pull it out of there soon and replace with TT3, the smoked scotch ale mentioned above. Shit if this 1:00 meeting gets canceled I'm gonna go knock that fucker out now.

One dozen batches in is not when you want to discover your thermometer might have a mind of its own.

ha ha ha.

Making TT3 now on the roof deck. Burner is wedged into a leftover snow bank.

I mentioned the categories I had to steward at the KC Bier Meister contest in the Nice New Beer thread,but I wanted to share my thoughts on the quality of judging and beers there.
1. Judges and Judging: There were a lot of them who have horrible math. I'm no genius, but it isn't really that hard to add up four numbers in your head to get a total score.
I thought the panel I worked with was exceedingly rough on the Porters, and that the best group I worked with handled the French and Belgian Ales.
It would have been difficult to judge since most of the beer was too cold due to being stored in a truck outside, but they brought the French and Belgian Ales in early and let them warm up a bit before they started to crack them open.
2. Beer: I was underwhelmed by a lot of the stuff the local club brought to share with people and never wowed by anything I got to taste while I was stewarding. I enjoyed a solid Robust porter on Friday Night that I would take great pride in, but I don't think it took Best of Show in the category.
Final thoughts: There's nothing wrong with being a prolific brewer, but don't send all your beers into a contest. I assisted some of the judges and local officers in placing score sheets into envelopes for each contestant entry, and there were a few people who entered more than four beers into that show that didn't win jack shit.
I'd be embarassed to spend that much money to come away with nothing, especially after a panel of judges skewered several of my beers. I think you can send a couple in that you think are top notch to get some professional level feedback on, but don
t go overboard. I also want to add that if you are ever going to enter a beer into the Belgian Specialty sub caegory, keep your beer description simple. We need to know what's in it, not everything you did to the beer.

Interesting.

And today turned out to be a surprise stay-home-and-brew day. Schedule just fell the right way. Headed to the roof to start now.

Starting to get a better handle on this mash setup. Heated strike water to 165F, poured into mash tun, doughed in, and it's at 154F - perfect. 1 hour to go. Decided to make the pale first. I miss hops. This deck setup is really great for a 1-man deal, with a taller deck height vs inside so I can just tip and pour 4 gallons of scalding hot water all by myself. No lifting.

...like this. Taller deck height is super useful. Nice desk up here to work at... this is a great deal.

NP: Vesco Island

BTW, Siphoning from kettle to carboy was unsuccessful.
I had to go with the pitcher again.
There must be too much gunk floating around in the wort at that point for the siphon to keep a steady flow.

GAH. Broke my spec grav meter. Dammit.