Category: Homebrew

So I gave up on the name before actually formulating the recipe, so this isn’t a milk stout as originally intended. Anyway, brewed this on Saturday and it’s now fermenting contently in the kitchen.

When I picked up the ingredients from Steinbarts, I had Ella with me and was having trouble milling the grain. One of the gentleman behind the counter was happy to assist.

Anyway, at brewing time yesterday it was clear, cold and windy. I brewed with just over 6.5 gallons of water, thinking most would evaporate. With 20 minutes left, not much had evaporated so I turned up the gas to get a turbulent boil. Seems to have done the trick as I racked just a tad over 5 gallons.

Grain bill:

• 7 lbs LME
• 1.5 lbs domestic Crystal 80L
• 0.5 lbs Roasted Barley
• 1.0 lbs Chocolate Malt

Hops:

• 1 oz Galena @ 60 min. (13.2% aa)
• 1.2 oz Galena @ 5 min.

Misc:

• Fermentis Safale S-04 dry yeast (with 1 liter starter)
• Irish Moss

I’ve been enjoying some hoppy/spicy stouts this fall, so I was hoping the Galena could impart those characteristics. The wort tasted great, and the O.G. was on target at 1.054. I figure I got the beer started early enough that I’ll actually get it kegged before classes start again. If not, Joe can make as much fun of me as he wants. The last two did turn out though.

With Michelle’s help, I brewed another batch of Squash; My Wife, Spiced Ale. This time I only used sweet meat squash and had to skip fresh ground ginger for the dried variety. Also, I steeped half the squash for 45 minutes with the grain, and boiled the other half. The O.G. was 1.054 and the taste is delightful. Here’s the recipe:

Grain bill:

• 7 lbs LME
• 1 lbs domestic 2-row
• 0.5 lbs Crystal 80L
• 0.5 lbs Crystal 40L

Hops:

• 2 oz Vanguard @ 60 min. (4.4% aa)
• 2 oz Vanguard @ 10 min.

Misc:

• Fermentis Safale S-04 dry yeast (with 1 liter starter)
• 10 lbs sweet meat squash, cubed and baked
• 1 Tbsp cinnamon
• 1 Tbsp allspice
• 1 Tbsp fresh ground nutmeg
• 1 Tbsp dried ginger

Michelle cubed and baked all the squash and prepped spices, and since she enjoys the spice addition, we may add more to secondary if the flavors mellow when racking. So far it tastes great. I tried the steeped and boiled squash and both were bland and stringy – a good sign that the fermentable sugar and flavor had been extracted.

A huge thanks to Joe and Lindsay for snagging some fresh hops for me while at hop madness this year. They brought me 3 bags and a small tub of Willamette and Crystal hops.

Yesterday I picked the remaining hops (which were about to lose their “fresh” status) and brewed up a low gravity pale. Because of the ingredients (a mix of stuff lying around, borrowed stuff, and wet hops), an exact, replicable recipe is impossible, but here’s the gist:

Grain bill:

• 4.5 lbs LME
• 2 lbs organic 2-row

Hops:

• 2 oz fresh Willamette @ 60 min. (4.5% aa)
• 8.5 oz fresh Willamette @ 10 min. (4.5% aa)
• 13 oz fresh Willamette @ 5 min.
• 11 oz Crystal @ 2 min. (5.7% aa)

Misc:

• Fermentis us-58 dry yeast (lazily pitched into cooled wort)
• Irish Moss

Yup – that’s 34 ounces of fresh hops – almost all under 10 minutes. The kettle got rather difficult to stir by that point, but I made sure to turn the hops into the boil to extract their precious lupalin.

After the boil, I had some trouble cooling the wort efficiently – even with an immersion wort chiller – because the hops were holding so much of the wort. Because of the heat (I’m guessing), one of my chiller fittings had loosened up enough to let some tap water in to the kettle. I stopped it early before it turned the beer into hop tea.

The last part of the brew included slinging around my week-old daughter. She slept through it, but I’m still giving her assistant brewer credits.

I racked the wort into a poly fermenter to try it out again. I also failed to make a started so I sprinkled dry Fermentis yeast (it says you can do it on the packet) onto the wort. Krausen isn’t exactly rapid, but I think there’s a leak in the bucket around the airlock letting CO2 out. I suspect this because the corner of the kitchen with the bucket smells absolutely fantastic.

I kegged Michella IPA #1 and on Michelle’s insistence, but I have my doubts about it’s quality. I think I may have let the wort sit on the pelletized hops for too long. So as a backup, I brewed a second IPA yesterday with a different recipe. Joe was also on hand to audit my process and just BS to help pass the time.

Grain bill:

• 7 lbs LME
• 1.5 lbs domestic 2-row
• 0.5 lbs domestic Munich
• 0.5 lbs domestic rye

Hops:

• 2 oz Cascade @ 60 min. (5.7% aa)
• 2 oz Cascade @ 10 min.
• 2 oz Cascade @ 5 min.
• 2 oz Simcoe @ 2 min. (whole hops, 14.7% aa)
• 1.0 oz Simcoe @ secondary

Misc:

• Fermentis us-58 dry yeast (with 1 liter starter)
• Irish Moss

The wort tasted nice at pitching and had a temperature corrected OG of 1.053 and an estimated bitterness of 68IBU. Fermentation was active within 5 hours of pitching the yeast. woohoo!