Brew Day - March 15, 2014

Slightly Confused Brewing Company

Hop Zombie Pale Ale (Hoggetown Ale Works recipe)

Ingredients:
US 2-Row malt
US 20L Crystal malt
CaraPils malt
Victory malt
--total grain bill 11#

Magnum/Horizon hops
Cascade hops

White Labs California Ale Yeast WLP001 via 1.5 L starter

Stats:
OG: 1.054 (estimated); 1.050 (measured)
FG: 1.012 (estimated); *** (measured)
ABV: 5.4% (estimated); *** (measured)
78 IBU


Brewing Steps:

• Heated 3.5 gallons of water to a strike temperature of approximately 164 degrees
• Target mash temperature 152; volume at 1.25 quarts/pound
• Used Sparge Pal app for volume calculations
• Added water to mash tun first (about 2-3 gallons), then added grains and rest of sparge water
• After all water added mash temperature approximately 147.5 degrees 
• Heated 0.5 gallons to boil; added to mash tun and temperature increased to 149
• Final mash temperature 149 degrees
• After 60 minutes lautered into bucket (to measure volume)
• Heated 4.5 gallons of sparge water to approximately 175 degrees and added to mash tun 
• Let sit for 10 minutes, then lautered until we had about 6 gallons
• Added hops according to schedule
• Chilled by putting pot into tub with ice and water (filled about 6-8 inches of tub with water) and wort chiller/pre-chiller to 75 degrees in about 6 minutes
• Pitched yeast and then aerated wort by transferring between brew pot and bucket 6 times
• Poured into fermenting bucket 
• Put bucket into fridge at 62 degrees (took 9 minutes post-boil)
• Ferment about 3 weeks in primary
• Dry hop '6 days (start on 3/30/14)

Notes:

-Only about 1/2 pitcher of sweet wort left in mash tun after lautering
-Low OG due to volume? Post-boil volume about 5.5ish gallons (maybe a little more?), so potentially a little bit of dilutional decrease in OG?

Brew Day - March 09, 2014

Slightly Confused Brewing Company

Black IPA (Hoggetown Ale Works recipe)

Ingredients:
US 2-Row malt
US C-40
Weyermann Chocolate Wheat
Weyermann Carafa Special III
--total grain bill 12.5#

Aussie/NZ Bittering Hop
Falconer's Flight
Falconer's Flight 7Cs
Zythos
Dry Hop with "Blend Blend"

White Labs California Ale Yeast WLP001 via 1.5 L starter

Stats:
OG: 1.070 (estimated); 1.060 (measured)
FG: 1.015 (estimated);
ABV: 7.2% (estimated);


Brewing Steps:

• Heated 4 gallons of water to a strike temperature of approximately 164 degrees
• Target mash temperature 152; volume at 1.25 quarts/pound
• Used Sparge Pal app for volume calculations
• Added water to mash tun first (about 2-3 gallons), then added grains and rest of sparge water
• After all water added mash temperature approximately 150 degrees 
• Final mash temperature 148 degrees
• After 60 minutes lautered into bucket (to measure volume)
• Heated 4.5 gallons of sparge water to approximately 175 degrees and added to mash tun 
• Let sit for 10 minutes, then lautered until we had about 6 gallons
• Added hops according to schedule
• Chilled by putting pot into tub with ice and water (filled about 6-8 inches of tub with water) and wort chiller/pre-chiller to 75 degrees in about 7 minutes
• Pitched yeast and then aerated wort by transferring between brew pot and bucket 6 times
• Poured into fermenting bucket 
• Put bucket into fridge at 62 degrees (took 12 minutes post-boil)
• Ferment about 2 weeks in primary
• Dry hop '6 days (start on 3/25/14)

Notes:

-Only about 1/2 pitcher of sweet wort left (low OG not due to dilution)

Brew Day - March 4, 2014

Slightly Confused Brewing Company

Denny's Rye IPA (NB recipe)

Ingredients:
Rahr 2-row malt
Weyermann Rye malt
Briess Crystal 60
Briess Carapils
Rarh White Wheat malt
--total grain bill 16#

Mt. Hood
Columbus
Wyeast #1450 Denny's Favorite 50 via 1.5 L starter

Stats:
OG: 1.078 (estimated); 1.062 (measured)
FG: 1.015 (estimated); 1.014 (measured)
ABV: ?% (estimated); 6.3% (measured)


Brewing Steps:

• Heated 5.1 gallons of water to a strike temperature of approximately 168 degrees
• 1.25 quarts/pound 
• Used Sparge Pal app for volume calculations
• Added water to mash tun first (about 2-3 pitchers), then added grains and then rest of sparge water
• Hole in grain bag so had to pour entire bag out into mash tun before adding more water
• Poor mixing? Disturbed braid location/positioning? 
• After all water added mash temperature approximately 159 degrees 
• Left lid off for about 12 minutes; decreased to 155
• Final mash temperature 154 degrees
• After 60 minutes lautered (slowly) into bucket (to measure volume)
• Heated 4 gallons of sparge water to approximately 175 degrees and added to mash tun 
• Let sit for 10 minutes, then lautered until we had about 6 gallons
• Did not drain extra water left in mash tun to determine if sweet wort was "diluted" 
• Added hops according to schedule
• Added '30 addition at about '14
• Chilled by putting pot into tub with ice and water (filled about 6-8 inches of tub with water) and wort chiller/pre-chiller to 75 degrees in about 7 minutes
• Pitched yeast and then aerated wort by transferring between brew pot and bucket 6 times
• Poured into fermenting bucket 
• Put bucket into fridge at 62 degrees (took 12 minutes post-boil)
• Ferment 1-2 weeks in primary
• Will put into secondary for 4 weeks (recommended

• Put into secondary on 3/12/14
• Will dry hop for about 7 days (starting on 3/19/14)
• Kegged 3/25/14

Notes:

-Unclear why OG was so low. Maybe adding all the grains and then the water led to suboptimal mixing (some pockets of grain not in contact with water)? Or mixed too much and messed up the position/location of the braids? Volume was too high? Did not drain out remaining volume in mash tun so unsure how much was left; not likely enough to drop OG 16 points. Also double checked hydrometer and it seemed to be working fine.

Brew Day - February 2, 2014

Slightly Confused Brewing Company

Peat Smoked Porter (NB recipe)

Ingredients:
British Golden Promise
German Munich Malt
English Black Malt
Briess Caramel 80
British Peated Malt
Added: 15 oz of priming sugar

Cluster
Willamette

Wyeast 1056 American Ale via 1.5 L starter

Stats:
OG: 1.062 (estimated from recipe; calculated to be 1.069 after dextrose addition); 1.068 (measured)
FG: 1.008-1.013 (estimated);
ABV: ~6.7% (estimated);


Brewing Steps:

• Heated 4.1 gallons of water to a strike temperature of approximately 165 degrees
• 1.25 quarts/pound 
• Used Sparge Pal app for volume calculations
• Added water to mash tun first (about 2-3 gallons), then added grains and rest of sparge water
• After all water added mash temperature approximately 153 degrees 
• Final mash temperature 152 degrees
• After 60 minutes lautered into bucket (to measure volume)
• Lautered slowly - seems to help the efficiency
• Heated 4.8 gallons of sparge water to approximately 175 degrees and added to mash tun 
• Let sit for 10 minutes, then lautered until we had about 6 gallons
• Added hops according to schedule
• Added priming sugar at 60'
• Chilled by putting pot into tub with ice and water (filled about 6-8 inches of tub with water) and wort chiller/pre-chiller to 75 degrees in about 6 minutes
• Pitched yeast and then aerated wort by transferring between brew pot and bucket 6 times
• Poured into fermenting bucket 
• Put bucket into fridge at 62 degrees (took 11 minutes post-boil)
• Ferment about 2 weeks in primary
• Will put into secondary for another 2 weeks

Notes:
-Priming sugar added to boost ABV only. Hopeful to be up around 6.7%

Brew Day - January 25th, 2014

Slightly Confused Brewing Company

Batch #20
Belgian Quad (courtesy of Chris at H.T.)
Adapted from 10 gallon recipe with an estimated efficiency of about 70%

Ingredients:
13# Castle Pils
0.75# Special B
0.5# Weyermann Dark Wheat
0.125# Weyerman Chocolate Wheat
0.125# Crisp Pale Chocolate
1.25# Dextrose
0.5# Brewers Crystals
1# D-180 Candi Syrup (added at 60')

0.6 oz 16.5% Magnum (whole leaf) (30')
Irish Moss (15')
1 oz 3.9% Tettnang Pellet (10')
1 oz 3% Saaz Pellet (5')

WLP500 Trappist via 1.5 L starter

Stats:
OG: 1.093 (estimated); 1.088 (measured)
FG: 1.015 (estimated);
ABV: 6.2% (estimated);

Mash: 150 degrees for 75 minutes
Boil: 120 minutes

Brewing Steps:

• Heated 4.7 gallons of water to a strike temperature of approximately 168 degrees
• 1.25 quarts/pound 
• Used Sparge Pal app for volume calculations
• Added water to mash tun first (about 2-3 gallons), then added grains and rest of sparge water
• After all water added mash temperature approximately 150 degrees 
• Final mash temperature 149 degrees
• After 75 minutes lautered into bucket (to measure volume)
• Lautered slowly (8 minutes?) 
• Heated 4.8 gallons of sparge water to approximately 175 degrees and added to mash tun 
• Let sit for 10 minutes, then lautered until we had about 6 gallons
• had about 1.5 "pitchers" of water left over, so likely didn't dilute out the sweet wort
• Added hops according to schedule
• Chilled by putting pot into tub with ice and water (filled about 6-8 inches of tub with water) and wort chiller/pre-chiller to 75 degrees in about 6 minutes
• Pitched yeast and then aerated wort by transferring between brew pot and bucket 6 times
• Poured into fermenting bucket 
• Put bucket into fridge at 62 degrees (took 10 minutes post-boil)
• Ferment about 3-4 weeks
• Will put into secondary for another 4 weeks
• Then will bottle; won't drink until we get into the new house (sometime in May)

Notes:

-Forgot to add the dextrose and Brewers Crystals. Also not sure if they should have been added during the boil (and when during the boil) or to the mash (but probably not). At 37 points/pound of fermentables provided by dextrose, in a 5 gallon batch the 1.25# would have contributed about 9 more points

-Didn't know when to put the D-180 in so put it in at 60'

Update:
-Put into secondary on 2/13/14

Brew Day - January 20th, 2014

Slightly Confused Brewing Company

Son of a Roo IPA (Hoggetowne Ale Works recipe)

Ingredients:
US 2-row
US C-40
Weyermann Melanoidin

Aussie/NZ
Helga
Pacylvica blend
Calypso

Coopers Dry Ale Yeast (rehydrated prior to pitching)

Stats:
OG: 1.062 (estimated); 1.056 (measured)
FG: 1.013 (estimated); 1.010 (measured)
ABV: 6.2% (estimated); 6%

Brewing Steps:

• Heated 3.8 gallons of water to a strike temperature of approximately 165 degrees
• 1.25 quarts/pound 
• Used Sparge Pal app for volume calculations
• Added grains to mash tun
• Added water to mash tun by about 1/2 - 3/4 gallon at a time; poured last 1.5 gallons from brewpot straight into mash tun
• After all water added mash temperature approximately 151-152 degrees 
• Final temperature 150 degrees
• After 60 minutes lautered into bucket (to measure volume)
• Need to lauter slower next time to improve efficiency? 
• Heated 5.8 gallons of sparge water to approximately 170 degrees and added to mash tun 
• Let sit for 10 minutes, then lautered until we had about 6 gallons
• Added hops according to schedule
• Chilled by putting pot into tub with ice and water (filled about 6-8 inches of tub with water) and wort chiller/pre-chiller to 75 degrees in about 5 minutes
• Pitched yeast and then aerated wort by transferring between brew pot and bucket 6 times
• Poured into fermenting bucket 
• Put bucket into fridge at 62 degrees (took 9:25 minutes post-boil)
• Ferment about 14 days
• Will dry hop in about 7 days (about January 27th, 2014)

DIY Manifold

Built this manifold from the recommendation from one of the guys at the home brewing store. Trying to increase our ability to to get fermentables out of the mash to hit the higher OGs.

Equipment:
5 feet 12" PEX tubing
brass 1/2" T
1" to spigot
silicone rubber stopper
1/2" to 1" brass connector

We cut the PEX tubing to size and then drilled small holes into the tubing - more in the back and less in the front.

We had to open the hole in the mash tun to fit the 1" spigot. Luckily the 1" bit that we had to drill the tap holes into the keezer collar was the perfect size.

Then we had to connect the PEX tubing to the brass T. In order to make the tubing malleable enough we had to put the PEX tubing into the oven at 270 degrees. Had to use a grill lighter to heat the small connector in order to connect the brass T to the 1/2" to 1" brass connector.

Update:

Worked decently-ish for the first batch (Dry Dock Breakwater).

Didn't work for the second batch (Milk Stout).

Upgraded to a double braid