PoD #2 Bottling

According to the bottling bucket, this was 5 gallons, but I think more like 4.75. Anyway FG was 1015, so we dropped a couple of points in the secondary. This brings ABV to 6.53% and AA to 76.6%. If we had one more point drop of the FG, the ABV would end up at 6.66%, the target for the Prince of Darkness! I think I'll just put that on the bottles anyway ;-)

Tasting notes:

Appearance:
No head - not yet carbonated
Very dark brown colour. Reasonably clear in thin samples. Viscous, almost oily character to the liquid.

Aroma:
Subtle chocolate/coffee

Taste:
Slightly malty sweet, still some lingering fusel alcohols, though these have mellowed significantly. Not much bitterness or crispness. Taste builds slowly on the tougue. Sweet aftertaste fades slowly, but is not unpleasant.

Mouthfeel:
Smooth, full body, but with a slight alcohol spike.

Drinkability:
At room temp., and no carbonation, it is quite thick and heavy. Drink slowly.

PoD #2 Rack to Secondary

Racked about 4.75 gallons to secondary. SG was 1017, so ABV = 6.3% and AA = 73%.

Taste was good, though a little strong alcohol tasting - presumably fusel alcohols. Hopefully these flavours will mellow in the secondary and in the bottles.

Sir Wheat (Hefeweizen) Tasting

Looks like a Hefeweizen, smells like a hefeweizen, tastes like a hefeweizen. Sweet! Suwheat! Sir Wheat!

Nice big foamy white head. Bananary estery bouquet. Light, refreshing taste. Despite H2S odours during primary, there is no hint of this now. This one keeps improving with age.

The only downside is the low OG and FG.

Prince of Darkness Batch #2

We had a bit of a brew party. Alex brought over his nice SS 10 gallon pot. Nicky, Eric and Kerry came over too. I had bought a 160,000 BTU propane burner.

I modified the original PoB recipe slightly:

9lbs pale 2row Maris Otter (increased from 8lbs)
1lbs crystal malt, 60 deg Lovibond
1.5lbs quick oatmeal (increased from 18oz)
0.5lbs chocolate malt
0.5lbs roasted barley
2 oz Fuggles leaf hops
1 pack Wyeast 1084, Irish Ale yeast

I attempted to make a yeast starter from yeast slurry that I had harvested from the original PoB. I had stored this in a bottle at the back of the fridge for several months. I pitched this into a mini DME wort, but there were no signs of life after 24hrs. Fortunately I bought a smack-pack as backup.

I decided to attempt a protein rest at 122 degF. We started with a stiff mash of ~2gallons strike water. We held the protein rest for 30mins, then added 1.25 quarts boiling water, which nicely incresed the temp to 154 degF, which we held for 1 hour.

We sparged with the remaining 6 or so gallons. The sparge rate was very slow, probably taking about an hour. I don't think I'd want it any slower, but this was a nice rate. I assume the slowness is due to the protein rest and the extra oatmeal thickening up the wort.

Hop/boil schedule was simple: We added all hops 15 minutes into the 1hour boil.

Again, the leaf hops caused some grief when it came to syphoning into the fermenter. We got about 3/4 of the way with the syphon, then the syphon got so plugged, we ended up straining the rest through the sieve/funnel.

OG was 1064.

The propane burner and big pot is *WAY* quicker than the two smaller pots on the stove.

Hefeweizen Bottling

SG was unchanged at 1009.
Primed with plenty of corn sugar - I forget the quantity.

Hefeweizen Rack to Secondary

Racked the hefeweizen to 5 gallon secondary. The 5 gallon carboy was full to the brim, with some left over, so I racked the rest to a 1 gallon jug, which was nearly full too. So I produced nearly 6 gallons of wort, instead of 5. This dilution could be part of the reason for the low OG of 1030.

SG at racking was 1009, so ABV is 2.8% and AA is 70%.

Hefeweizen

Today I used the following recipe to brew a Hefeweizen:

http://www.ratebeer.com/Recipe.asp?RecipeID=142

5 lbs Pilsen Malt
4 lbs Malted Wheat
1 lbs Light Munich Malt
1.6oz Hallertauer (bittering)
0.8oz Hallertauer (aroma)
Wyeast 3056 (Bavarian Weissen)

Note: The original recipe called for 3068 (Weihanstephan Wheat), but the store was out of this.

1. Prepare yeast starter 2 days in advance. I started with one liter and stepped up to 3/4 of a gallon.
2. Mash grains for 90 minutes at 148-155F with 2 gallons of water. Add water as necessary to keep mashing temps.
3. Recirculate until wort clears, drain this into the mash tun.
4. Sparge with another 3 gallons of water to rinse remaining sugars.
5. Add 1.6oz of bittering hops and boil for 90 minutes.
6. Add .8 oz of aroma hops at flame-out.
7. Cool to 78F and pitch yeast starter. The beer should be almost completely fermented in 48 hours.

For some reason, I forgot to mill the grain at the homebrew store, so I had to improvise. My old food processor did a reasonable job of the barley malt, though the wheat malt could have been crushed better.

Deviations from the above Method:

1. I didn't bother with a starter - I just smacked a smack pack the previous day.
2. 2 gallons of mash water seemed a bit short. I probably used more like 3 gallons. I mashed for 80 minutes, as the iodine test indicated all starch was converted by this stage.
4. I sparged with about 6 gallons. Plenty of this gets lost by absorbtion into the grist, and evaporation during the boil. I collected about 7 gallons of wort, which reduced to 6 gallons after boiling.
5. Since the wort took a long time to come to the boil, I boiled for 45 minutes.

Personally, I think this recipe is a bit heavy on the hops, for a Hefeweizen, but we'll see.

OG was 1030. Rather low. Probably because of the sub-optimal milling of the grain.

ESB #3 Tasting

First taste was disappointing, with the same off-flavours as ESB #2. Subsequent tastes were somewhat better. There appears to be a lot of variability in quality of this batch, which I can only attribute to bottling. Most likely the aeration cased by the bottling wand mentioned in the last post.

Next time I'll use a different bottling wand.

Aroma is good, though not very strong. Bitterness is perhaps a bit on the low side. Body I think is about robust enough for an ESB, with noticable residual malty sweetness. Carbonation a little weak, though acceptable. Head is small.

Overall, 7/10