Pumpkin Day Soon

So the cream ale and the porter were tapped out at the BBQ at Little Deej's a week ago. So now all I have in the fermenter is the pumpkin spice porter. Last week I woke up early to transfer it to the secondary and while washing the carboy it slipped out of my hand, onto the concrete and into a thousand sharp pieces. Awesome. Well, now I'm cold-crashing in hopes of some clarity. I'll probably keg it Thursday and we'll see how things go for the Halloween party on Saturday. The brewery and school have taken up all my time so any new brews will have to be put on the back burner.

Pumpkin Porter

Alright, this past Sunday the gravity on the cream ale was at 1.006 so I racked it to the secondary and then prepared for the upcoming brewday with Little Deej. Pumpkin spice porter, yum! For the base of this one I used a brown porter. Here it is:

12 lbs MO

1 lb Crystal 60

8 oz Special Roast

8 oz Brown Malt

4 oz Chocolate Malt

Mash @ 154F for 70 min

1.5 oz EKG @ 90 min

0.25 oz EKG @ 20 min

0.25 EKG @ flameout

5 1/2 lbs caramelized pumpkin in boil

1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg @ 90 min

1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg @ 20 min

1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, allspice and clove @ flameout

The base beer is much more like a high gravity brown ale than a porter. I probably should've upped the chocolate. As far as the pumpkin goes, we used the Libby's canned variety spread onto cookie sheets and baked it @ 350F for an hour. The boil smelled amazing. I'm still getting horrible efficiency, my OG was 1.060 after the boil. I guess I'll start messing around with the water profile and pH for the next batch. We pitched the wort onto the US-05 yeast cake from the cream ale and it took off like a rocket. Within 3 hours there was krausen blowing out the hose and its still going strong two days later.

Labor Day Cream Ale

Finally finished. I began at about 11:30 this morning and the whole process took about 5 hours. Brewing in a new house presented its own set of advantages and complications but I think I'll have it down for the next brew session.

I mashed in with about 5 1/2 gallons of water and the sach rest went perfect temperature wise. 148F the whole way. I didn't have the same lautering problems I did the last time I used flaked grain. All the same, I think next time I'll put a handful of rice hulls in the mash just to be safe. My efficiency was awful. With 14 pounds of grain my initial gravity reading was 1.051. It should have more like 1.061. I'll have to figure out how to increase the yield when mashing on my system.

After the boil I had an OG of 1.059 so we should be looking at about 6-7% ABV. The yeast smelled a little fruity when I was rehydrating it. That's weird. As soon as the primary is done I'm going to rack it to a secondary and then put an RIS on the yeast cake. Should be fun.

Back in action!

After four months of not brewing my fermentation refer is now fully functional. I'll be brewing a cream ale:

11 lbs pale malt
3 lbs flaked maize

Sach rest @ 148F for 60 min

1 oz Czech Saaz @ 60 min
0.5 oz Czech Saaz @ 20 min
0.5 oz Czech Saaz @ flameout

This should set my ABV at around 7% and IBU's close to 17. I guess 7% is knocking on the double or imperial door. Oh well. I just can't wait to frickin brew again!

As for the porter I brewed back in May, it came out wonderfully. By far my personal favorite homebrew. It had all the chocolately flavor I was looking for and some citrus and coconut notes from the later hop additions. This will definitely be my go-to porter recipe.

Porter Day Continued...

I took a final gravity reading after a week of fermentation. It came out to 1.010 giving it an ABV of 5.34%. 1.010 is a little lower than I had initially wanted but upon tasting, the mouthfeel isn't too light. There's a huge nose of roasted grain and a little chocolate. Its almost like sticking your nose into a sack of crushed chocolate malt. I'm thinking the graininess will subside with another week or two in the fermenter. Taste is another matter. Its alot lighter than I would have liked. We'll see how its turns out once its kegged and carbonated. I'll probably leave it in the primary for another two weeks and cold crash it right before I siphon it into the keg.

Porter Day

So I finally gave in and set up a blog to record my brew sessions. Before doing this I had to seriously ask myself, "who really gives a fuck about what I have to say?" I still haven't come up with an answer to that question but I know I give a fuck. Its been decided that I needed some sort of forum to keep track of all the deliciousness (sort of) I've been brewing up in the kitchen of my small one bedroom apartment.

Anyway, not too long ago I decided that instead of brewing up crazy stuff with a bunch of unconventional ingredients, I should stick with traditional styles and try staying relatively close to the BJCP guidelines for the particular style. Mastering the classics and then adding my own tweaks will probably be the best way to go. Today I brewed up a robust porter. Here's the recipe:

8 lbs Marris Otter
8 oz Crystal 60
8 oz Honey Malt
12 oz Pale Chocolate
12 oz Chocolate
4 oz Black Patent

1 oz Northern Brewer @ 60 min
1/2 oz Northern Brewer @ 20 min
1/2 oz Northern Brewer @ flameout

1 packet Safale US-05 rehydrated

I was hoping to mash at 155F, but I checked the temp after 15 minutes and it had risen to 160F. Too hot. After adding about a quart of cool water, the temp leveled out to about 151F for the duration. After the boil my OG was 1.051, lower then I had wanted. That's alright, I wanted this one to be a little more sessionable than my last two batches. I put the carboy in a water bath that I'm trying to maintain at 65F by putting a frozen gallon jug of water in every day. Its melting alot faster than I had anticipated. Hopefully it still helps. I'll report back once fermentation starts. Now I'm off to bed.