a couple questions....it's been a while since i brewed.....

Brewing Processes
1

i haven’t been very active on the forums due to the fact that eighteen months ago we had our second child and the wife works most weekends, making brewing take a back seat to life…  i had purchased some extract many moons ago to brew a beer, but never did find the time.   a couple sundays ago, the wife was off, the stars aligned and i brewed a beer.  it wasn’t the scarlett red ale i wanted to brew in memory of my old girl, but it was beer nonetheless…

my plan was to make a starter with a wyeast slap pack of american ale ii yeast that was two years past it’s packaging date.  i figured this was a crapshoot and low and behold, my starter never started and i poured it out and used a package of safale us-05.  we had homebrew club meeting a couple nights before i brewed and a fellow club member had purchased some recently expired packages of yeast for $1 at a homebrew store in nola.   the one he gave me was a wyeast propogator smack pack of belgian strong ale yeast.  so, a belgian-american (or belgi-socialist, just for my right wing friends) ipa it was.

here was my recipe…

i did a 60 minute boil and my preboil volume was 6 gallons.

malts

.25 lbs caramunich iii
.35 lbs biscuit
.5 lbs crystal 10

6 lbs extra light dry malt
1.75 lbs light dry malt

hops

.75 oz amarillo @60
.25 oz centennial @60
.75 oz simcoe @60
.75 oz amarillo @10
.75 oz amarilllo @10
.5 oz amarillo @0
.75 oz centennial @0
.5 oz simcoe @0

yeast

1 package safale us-05
1 package of wyeast belgian strong ale propogator (no starter)

i brewed sunday, january 15th and pitched the yeast when the wort was cooled down to 68 degrees,  normally, i’d keep this in a temp controlled cooler, but my cooler went out, so i’ve had to ferment at room temp, which i have maintained between 68-72 degrees.  on sunday, january 22nd, i threw in an ounce of amarillo and an ounce of simcoe.  by this point, i still had airlock activitiy and bubbles on the top of the beer, but i was pretty certain most of the fermentation had taken place.  well, here we are today and i’m still seeing airlock activity as well as bubbles on the top of the beer.

i was planning on bottling this beer sunday after coldcrashing it friday night.

am i bottling too soon?

2

Take a gravity reading. When you get three readings the same within several days your beer has finished fermenting. I recommend allowing the beer to condition at 68F for several days after that to clean up any fermentation by-products. I would not rush it…avoid any potential bottle bombs or overcarbonated beer.

3

ah yes, gravity readings!  you know, i got lazy over the years and would regularly leave beers in primary or secondary or both for periods of four to six weeks, so i got out of that habit of taking them.

now i’ve got to see if i can find my wine thief!  i did see my hydrometer in my brewing stuff last weekend.

4

if you cant find a wine thief, turkey baster works as well. check the gravity today and tomorrow, if they are the same go ahead and cold crash. Take the gravity on sunday before you bottle just to be sure.

5

If you ever decide to go all grain make sure you buy a blue cooler. And secondary isn’t needed. :wink:

6

I’ve heard blue coolers leach poisons into your mash. Go with orange!

7

hahaha!  i’ve actually got two uber cool, uber effecient orange coolers for my all grain setup.  this brew was blowing through some extract i hadn’t used!

it seemed like the dry hops may have kicked this thing off again.  i know there was minimal oxygen introduced, so i figured that may have something to do, but i figured after a couple days i’d be still again.

hopefully i can find the wine thief as i know don’t have a turkey baster.  i’d love to taste the beer before bottling anyway.

8

i loathe secondary, but i’m willing to do it if feel it real necessary, rarely ever.

9

i dry hopped this for seven days with an oz each of amarillo and simcoe.  this beer turned out awesome!!  this will be the first recipe i hold onto and brew again.  real kickass.

10

Yay! Back in the saddle and the hook is set again!

11

[quote]If you ever decide to go all grain make sure you buy a blue cooler
[/quote]

+1
I bought an orange one and my brewshed burned to the ground the very next day.

12

oh, i have an orange cooler all grain setup already.  hahaha.  no fires so far.

13

My red cooler is “cooler” than your blue cooler…