American RyeHop Pale Ale
Brewed-7/29 (Partial Mash)
Well I finally got myself back brewing again this past weekend after a brief hiatus (last brew was cooked up in May-Belgium Wit..which was an interesting brew to say the least). This beer actually was an afterthought when thinking up a recipe/process to brew my first Barley wine.
After consulting with fellow Brewer Ted (link to blog to the left) he advised that I either, begin a large yeast starter or (the better option obviously) brew a batch up and pitch directly on the yeast slurry, which is already in effect a large yeast population, or starter, that will be able to handle the task of fermenting a big beer such as a Barley Wine after chomping down all the fermentables in this RyeHop APA.
I prepped about 5 gallons of water the night before and began mashing at 8am for one hour at a mash temp of 147 degrees (target was 152, but I miscalculated the amount of heat I would lose to the mash tun and grain when putting in my 154 degree mash water), this will affect the fermentables and threw off my target OG (1.061) and gave me a OG of 1.051...yeah not good but definitely a learning experience.
After mash out and batch sparge with 170 degree water the boil was started after adding my 5lbs of DME (dry malt extract). Boil time was 60 minutes, cut down from the suggested 90 minute boil. I modified the boil time for one reason only, to cut down on the Alpha Acids from the 1.5oz (6.2 AA) of bittering hops added for the entire boil length. To explain a bit more-hops, and more specifically the Alpha Acids released after a violent boil are what preserves beer to an extent (see the history of IPA's-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India_pale_ale), so the same acids that protect all the good stuff in beer from infection (including yeast cells-important in this case) are also what would encase the yeast cells in my slurry which I require to be "free", or not encased in Alpha Acids, to go nuts on this upcoming barley wine when I dump the wort on top of it.
Temperature control during fermentation has always been one of my primary challenges while fermenting the brew, and I plan on making (DIY'ing) a more permanent solution to this; however for the few days that this batch will be in primary fermentation my temp solution can be seen below, front and center of the AC unit...not environmentally friendly to say the least but we do need to keep the apartment livable during the day for the puppy so I'm not beating myself up too much for the time being. This batch will sit in primary for a few more days (7 total), then its off to secondary to age an additional 3 weeks before bottling I think.
Behold!!! The advanced temperature control system!!!!
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2 comments:
whatever works when you are rocking apartment brewing. I was brewing out of an apartment before my wife and I got a house. It take imagination. Good stuff!
Hey Brian, I'd say the positioning of your carboy is perfectly aligned! 2 inches off and you may notice an increase of ten degrees or more! Just kidding.
Your 10 gallon cooler mashtun will help with primary ferment temperature control. You really only need to "control" it for the first few days anyways. I like to raise the temp after a few to get the yeast to pick up towards the end. Works very well so far.
What variety of hops do you have going on in there?
Still...1.051 aint bad. It will probably turn out a little more attenuated.
Is it difficult to simply add more extract if the gravity is low? Will that cause a malt imbalance? Curious cause I haven't used extract in a while, and will be gearing up to use some in DIAA...Double India Amber Ale.
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