I kegged my beer over the weekend.
Final gravity: 1.010
This gives me an approximate ABV of 9.7%. Up a full percentage point from where I was before secondary. This surprised me a bit. I expected SOME fermentation to continue, and I never saw any real evidence of strong fermentation, but clearly there was quite a bit.
Showing posts with label beer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beer. Show all posts
Monday, April 28, 2008
Monday, April 21, 2008
wanna buy a bottle?
I racked my beer over to the glass carboy this weekend. It's still pretty sharp and probably needs another two weeks in the carboy at least before it's close enough to complete to bottle/keg it.
However, I did steal about 2 liters of it whilst transferring it, both to do a gravity reading and also to taste.
I have one of these things, so I put the beer in the freezer for a half hour, cranked my regulator up to 30psi, attached it to the 2 liter bottle, shook the hell out of the bottle and then put it in the fridge for about an hour. What I ended up with was a perfectly carbonated, but still slightly sharp (from the suspended yeast) beer. I think this is going to be a mighty fine beer indeed once it's done.
The gritty details:
All measurements done at 68 degrees Fahrenheit with a 60 degree hydrometer.
Original specific gravity: 1.083
Final (so far) specific gravity: 1.018
I'm not going to correct the readings for the temperature difference since both readings were taken at the same temp, and this is only an approximation anyway (and not the final gravity anyway).
So, taking the formula to convert to the Plato scale:
°P[initial] = °Pi = (-463.37) + (668.72 × 1.083) - (205.35 × 1.0832) = 20.001
°P[final] = °Pf = (-463.37) + (668.72 × 1.018) - (205.35 × 1.0182) = 4.578
Then, using the Plato data:
My Apparent Attenuation is: 1 - (4.578 / 20.001) = .771 => about 77%
Given that I expect a full attenuation of .8, I'm pretty close even before hitting the secondary fermenter. It may be that I get no more fermentation in secondary. That's not uncommon.
This gives me an approximate ABV of (1.083 - 1.018) / .75 = 8.7% alcohol by volume.
That's about right for a Dubbel. I was expecting a little more, to tell you the truth, maybe I didn't get enough starches out of my mash.
Anyway. This is a pretty fine beer.
My wife and I recently had a nice dinner out at The Refuge, where they feature many Belgian and Belgian style ales. We sampled quite a few, and I'll put my neck out there and say that my beer compares favorably with any of these. She suggests that I sell a couple bottles to the restaurant, but being a home-brewer, I'm not legally allowed to sell beer.
However, I can sell glass.
So - if you'd like to buy an extremely overpriced decorative piece of glass that happens to contain some beer that I forgot to remove, let me know and I'll see what I can do.
However, I did steal about 2 liters of it whilst transferring it, both to do a gravity reading and also to taste.
I have one of these things, so I put the beer in the freezer for a half hour, cranked my regulator up to 30psi, attached it to the 2 liter bottle, shook the hell out of the bottle and then put it in the fridge for about an hour. What I ended up with was a perfectly carbonated, but still slightly sharp (from the suspended yeast) beer. I think this is going to be a mighty fine beer indeed once it's done.
The gritty details:
All measurements done at 68 degrees Fahrenheit with a 60 degree hydrometer.
Original specific gravity: 1.083
Final (so far) specific gravity: 1.018
I'm not going to correct the readings for the temperature difference since both readings were taken at the same temp, and this is only an approximation anyway (and not the final gravity anyway).
So, taking the formula to convert to the Plato scale:
°P[initial] = °Pi = (-463.37) + (668.72 × 1.083) - (205.35 × 1.0832) = 20.001
°P[final] = °Pf = (-463.37) + (668.72 × 1.018) - (205.35 × 1.0182) = 4.578
Then, using the Plato data:
My Apparent Attenuation is: 1 - (4.578 / 20.001) = .771 => about 77%
Given that I expect a full attenuation of .8, I'm pretty close even before hitting the secondary fermenter. It may be that I get no more fermentation in secondary. That's not uncommon.
This gives me an approximate ABV of (1.083 - 1.018) / .75 = 8.7% alcohol by volume.
That's about right for a Dubbel. I was expecting a little more, to tell you the truth, maybe I didn't get enough starches out of my mash.
Anyway. This is a pretty fine beer.
My wife and I recently had a nice dinner out at The Refuge, where they feature many Belgian and Belgian style ales. We sampled quite a few, and I'll put my neck out there and say that my beer compares favorably with any of these. She suggests that I sell a couple bottles to the restaurant, but being a home-brewer, I'm not legally allowed to sell beer.
However, I can sell glass.
So - if you'd like to buy an extremely overpriced decorative piece of glass that happens to contain some beer that I forgot to remove, let me know and I'll see what I can do.
Monday, April 14, 2008
it keeps going.. and going...
It seems that I've found the energizer bunny of yeast strains. My beer is still strongly fermenting (cycling the airlock about once every two seconds) after 8 days of fermenting.
In some completely unrelated news, it was brought to my attention that I wasn't letting people write comments in my blog. That wasn't my intent, and it's now been fixed. Comment away.
In some completely unrelated news, it was brought to my attention that I wasn't letting people write comments in my blog. That wasn't my intent, and it's now been fixed. Comment away.
Friday, April 11, 2008
belgian double dubbel
I started a brew again last weekend. I am brewing a Belgian Dubbel recipe, but I hopped it a little more than normal, for a little longer than normal, and I added 50% more sugar in the form of Belgian Dark Candy and after 6 days, fermentation is still going very strong.
It did slow down considerably on day 4, but following the advice of some folks that post to various message boards, I re-pitched with some new yeast that I'd been culturing for a couple of days just as it seemed that fermentation was coming down off the peak and it seemed to regather strength quickly.
My original gravity was a staggering 1.083 - the highest I've ever tried to brew. My yeast strain should get an attenuation ratio around 80%, which would give me a final gravity of 1.016 and a 9.1% ABV in my final product. That's not a HUGE amount of alcohol for a Belgian, but it's more than I've been able to get before.
I'm even flirting with the idea of pitching some champagne yeast in another day or two to try to get more attenuation.
I don't want an overdry beer, but I don't want a sickly sweet one either.
This will be an interesting experiment, and I plan to culture the yeast for both bread and beer when I'm done as well.
It did slow down considerably on day 4, but following the advice of some folks that post to various message boards, I re-pitched with some new yeast that I'd been culturing for a couple of days just as it seemed that fermentation was coming down off the peak and it seemed to regather strength quickly.
My original gravity was a staggering 1.083 - the highest I've ever tried to brew. My yeast strain should get an attenuation ratio around 80%, which would give me a final gravity of 1.016 and a 9.1% ABV in my final product. That's not a HUGE amount of alcohol for a Belgian, but it's more than I've been able to get before.
I'm even flirting with the idea of pitching some champagne yeast in another day or two to try to get more attenuation.
I don't want an overdry beer, but I don't want a sickly sweet one either.
This will be an interesting experiment, and I plan to culture the yeast for both bread and beer when I'm done as well.
Monday, October 1, 2007
brewing again
It's been quite a few months since I did a homebrew, but I started again this weekend with an Irish stout kit from 7 Bridges.
Say what you will about brewing from a kit, but it's easy, not too expensive, and makes for a decent beer. I can control the alcohol level and flavorings of the beer to get a consistent beer of the quality that I like and making small changes to the kit recipe is easy and painless.
I have good feelings about this brew. It'll be the first one that I keg in the new kegging system, so that will be exciting as well - a stout might not be the best choice for a keg, but it'll be interesting nonetheless.
I'll be sure to post an update when it's done fermenting.
Say what you will about brewing from a kit, but it's easy, not too expensive, and makes for a decent beer. I can control the alcohol level and flavorings of the beer to get a consistent beer of the quality that I like and making small changes to the kit recipe is easy and painless.
I have good feelings about this brew. It'll be the first one that I keg in the new kegging system, so that will be exciting as well - a stout might not be the best choice for a keg, but it'll be interesting nonetheless.
I'll be sure to post an update when it's done fermenting.
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