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 

Brew Day - January 1st, 2014

Slightly Confused Brewing Company

How Now Brown Cow Milk Stout (Hoggetowne Ale Works recipe)

Ingredients:
UK Pale Ale Malt
Black Patent Malt
US 80L Crystal Malt
Chocolate Malt 350L
Lactose

Willamette hops

Liquid yeast (White Labs Burton Ale Yeast WLP 023) via 1.5 L starter and stir plate
Note: yeast started at about 2 pm the day prior to brewing

Stats:
OG: 1.068 (estimated); 1.065 (measured)
FG: 1.022 (estimated); 1.022 (measured)
ABV: 6% (estimated); 5.6% (calculated)

Brewing Steps:

• Heated 3.7 gallons of water to a strike temperature of approximately 167 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 152 degrees 
• Final temperature 151 degrees
• After 60 minutes tried to lauter but flow out of mash tun was minimal (used manifold with protective braid)
• Poured mash out, manifold was clogged and we couldn't unclog it
• Went to Home Depot and bought 2 braids
• Removed PEX tubing and connected both braids to the T

• Very good flow afterwards
• Manifold was "thrown into the river"
• Delay was about 1 hour
• Heated 5.3 gallons of sparge water to approximately 180 degrees and added to mash tun 
• Let sit for 5 minutes, then lautered until we had about 6.5 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 (whole 1.5 L bottle) 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 21 days
• Recommended schedule is to ferment for 3 weeks in primary

Update:

• Opened fermentation fridge on 1/14/14 to dry hop the dry dock and saw that lid for fermentation bucket had burst off
• Unclear if lid had been off for a few days or nearly two weeks. Gravity at that time was 1.022
• Transferred into secondary at that time. Cold crashed on 1/18/14 (PM) to prep for kegging on 1/20/14
• Should probably check the fridge more than once every 2 weeks to ensure the air lock does not get plugged up

Brew Day - December 31st, 2013

Slightly Confused Brewing Company

Dry Dock Breakwater Pale Ale (Norther Brewer recipe)
Christmas present from Scotty

Ingredients:
Rahr 2-row malt
Briess Caramel 60L
Belgian Biscuit

Chinook hops

Liquid yeast (White Labs California Ale Yeast WLP 001) via 1 L starter and stir plate
Note: yeast started at about 11 pm the night prior to brewing

Stats:
OG: 1.049 (estimated); 1.048 (measured)
FG: ?? [not provided]; 1.010 (measured)
ABV: ??% [not provided]; 5% (calculated)

Brewing Steps:

• Heated 3.3 gallons of water to a strike temperature of approximately 167 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 154 degrees 
• After 60 minutes tried to lauter but flow out of mash tun was minimal 
• First batch using the newly constructed manifold
• Poured mash out, manifold was clogged
• Unclogged manifold and then cut old metal braid in half and put around manifold; secured with twist ties
• Flow was greatly improved
• Heated 5.5 gallons of sparge water to approximately 180 degrees and added to mash tun 
• Let sit for 5 minutes, then lautered until we had about 6.5 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 70 degrees in about 6 minutes
• Pitched yeast (whole 1 L bottle) 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 21 days
• Recommended schedule is to ferment for 1-2 weeks in primary, then 2 weeks in secondary, then condition for 2 weeks in bottle
• Will likely ferment for about 2 1/2 weeks, cold crash (started on PM of 1/18/14), then keg (done on 1/20/14)
• Dry hopped for the last 6 days (on 1/14/14)