An update on the Rye-rish Red first. It scored ok in the competition with a 29 overall but it came out sweeter than I wanted it to since my efficiency jumped so much and I was mashing for a more full body. The higher alcohol left some hot flavors that the judges didnt like and they suggested it might have scored better in the Scottish category. Overall I am happy though, it was nice to get some feedback on the beer and the sampler of beer that The Ram provided was awesome.
The Wee Scott is now kegged and probably almost gone. It turned out very tasty but I think a higher mash temp and maybe half of the peat malt would be a good next iteration.
Going to brew up a Weinstephaner Hefeweissbier clone today. I was lucky enough to get a lot of very active Wyeast 3068 from The Ram down in Indianapolis so I need to get brewing!
Recipe:
- 5 lb White Wheat
- 4 lb Pale Malt
- 3 handfulls of rice hulls
- 1 oz Hallertauer Hersbrucker 2.8% @ 60 min
- 0.5 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Wyeast) @ 10 min
- 10 drops FermcapS before boil
- 100 ml of Wyeast 3068 slurry according to Mrmalty
- OG: 12.3% (1048) (Beersmith)
- 9.9 IBU
- 4 SRM
This is the first time all of my grains are milled by the new Barley Crusher. I got everything measured out and chucked up my cordless drill in the low range and went to it. The first battery didn't last too long but my second battery finished it out. I definitely need to pick up a corded drill for this. Pictures of before and after crushing below, looks pretty good to me at factory setting.
Mashing at 154 for 60 minutes this time to try to keep a bit of body and end up at 1012 hopefully. Preheating the MLT with 3.5 gallons of 180 degree water and grains are going in at 166. Hit 154 on the mash temp, dropped to 151 by the end of the mash.
First runnings, 21.2% Brix and 1.9 gallons, 8.6% in second runnings, total volume now 4.75 gallon at 14%, 5.3% in third runnings and 11.2% (1043) and 6.8 gallons pre-boil. That comes out to 85% efficiency if I am doing everything right which is awesome but now I might have a more alcoholic beer than I wanted. I will have to verify the OG with the hydrometer too and make sure the refractometer isn't just off. I am adding the hops at the start of the boil as usual but will watch the gravity and may cut the boil a bit short. The mash also got a bit stuck during sparging so I think next time I will double up on the rice hulls.
Boil is going fine, the FermcapS is doing its magic and keeping it from boiling over.
Did the full boil and it looks like it ended up at 12.7% (1049). Chilling down to 70 and then pitching the yeast and moving it to the new fermentation freezer. I am going to set it at 63 and hopefully the fermentation keeps below 70 for the first few days then I will bump it up to 68 or so to finish up. The FermcapS should keep it from blowing off but I will probably put a something under and over it just in case.
Well, yeast pitching was more eventful than normal. The slurry that I got last week had settled while it was in the fridge so I decided to pour off the liquid and get it all back in suspension. Once I did that the bottle pressurized and I had a yeast volcano on my hands. I ended up having to sanitize the whole bottle and just open it over the fermenter and guess at quantity. It is already working so I think it will be fine but my hope to use that slurry for another brew may be down the drain with part of the yeast. Anyway, it is in the fermentation freezer now and bubbling away, I will kick up the temp in a day or two.
