re: Homebrewing: In-Process Thread

have they ever hit an hour yet though? I'm only through episode 5 and they are all at least 1:30

oh, I agree. I like that it appears every one of the brewers do things differently. I really enjoyed the episode with Lauren Salazar too.

I do get jealous when they start drinking though

So, i was reading up in an old BYO article and Vinnie @ Russian River was discussing these grain ratio's when brewing IPA's.

LINK

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Vinnie Cilurzo said, “I'm a firm believer in a simple grain bill, not just for APA and IPA, but for most beers. My philosophy at Russian River Brewing Company is to keep the malt bill simple to allow for more complex hop characteristics to shine through. Something as simple as 95% pale ale malt or 2-row malt, 2.5% CaraPils malt and 2.5% crystal
40 ºL malt is perfect for me.”

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And, I was talking with Chico at Zapp's and he was telling me his DIPA he made (which was the best beer at the festival IMO) used almost a full 2 row/pilsner grain bill, with a little other for color i assume. So i believe, with this in mind, i will formulate a very light grain bill for an IPA. Maybe do this for single hop IPA's. In beersmith right now i have 5 recipes i've formulated i have to brew, plus a couple repeats from last year. So i guess this will be brew #8 on the "to brew" list.

I'm kind of holding off right now though. Partially because my outside fridge and fermenting fridge is completely full of bottles. And secondly, because I will be modifying the outside fridge to support a couple taps within the next month or so.

And my Galaxy XPA should be ready for the first taste today. Can't wait!

Speaking of beer smith. Did yall customize your equipment or just use a default setup. ?

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Did yall customize your equipment or just use a default setup. ?

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I customized.

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I think that's a great philosophy on all beer styles.

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Agreed. When i first started i was just adding grains for no reason other than i thought i was supposed to.

Now, i try to simplify it. Each grain has a specific purpose in my beers. My grain bill is typically around 4 grains. Base malt, caramel type malt for some color or flavor, and then maybe a cara malt to accentuate flavors, or a malt to enhance color, or maybe oats, etc... But typically, i've been at 4 malts max on brews. I find that if you have 6 or more malts, you tend to muddle up your profile. Same thing with hops.

Now granted, when i first started brewing i didn't know what i was really doing, and i didn't know what each malt or hop would add to the beer. But as i go along, i'm able to pick out things that i want in my beer, and i get pretty close to what i visualized in my head in regards to flavor, aroma, color, etc...

I'd say the only difference with malt varieties is when i brew stouts. Mainly because i've only brewed 2, one was over carbed, the other was great. But my malt bill is more complex on those brews. It's typically a base malt like Maris Otter, de-bittered black carafa III, chocolate malt, oats, black patent, and maybe some roasted barley.

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Speaking of beer smith. Did yall customize your equipment or just use a default setup. ?

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I used default setup for a very long time, until i started understanding more, how my equipment worked. I started customizing and was hitting my targets pretty well.

Recently, however, i've noticed that my total efficiency may have been incorrect. It's usually after the mash and i fill my brew kettle. Just before i start the boil i measure my pre-boil gravity. I simply take my beer thief and drop a hydrometer in there to get a reading. I would take the reading, adjust for wort temp and get my Pre boil OG. I've always noticed that it seemed as if my mash efficiency was very high. Like around 95-98%. Which i know couldn't be correct. So, I then decided to just drop the hydrometer into the brew kettle. Took a reading then, and adjusted for temp, and i was about 10 points off in Pre boil OG. Which came out to about 70-75% mash efficiency. Which sounds correct.

So, not sure why the difference between the 2. Maybe i don't need to adjust for temp when using a thief for pre boil readings? I did find that if i don't adjust for temps in the thief, and compare it to the adjusted for temps in the brew kettle reading, they are very similar.

Anyway, i've updated my equipment profile again in beersmith. This time, taking into account a total efficiency of 75%, unlike the previous 80%. I've also backed down my pre-boil volume. Before i collected 7.62 gallons of wort pre-boil and boiled for an hour, and i'd have close to 6 gallons of wort to go in the fermenter. Quite a few brews back, i'd only have 5 or 5.5 with that same pre boil gravity, but i've since learned that having your burner on full blast the entire time is very unnecessary, so i boil at a lower rate, and end up with less boil off. So i've reduced my pre-boil amount by about 1/2 gallon. This should also increase my efficiency, as i will not be gathering as much wort from the mash.

And for those looking to do some etching in their brew kettle. I found this awesome post.

LINK

Using electrolysis to etch volume markers in stainless brew kettle.

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Forgive my ignorance, but why would you need debut texted black and black patent and roasted barley?

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I wouldn't use them together. Maybe black patent if i felt the color wasn't dark enough. Purpose of using debittered vs. roasted barley is to get the dark malt character with out the burnt flavor of the roasted barley (to my understanding). I was just saying those are the grains i'd use, not necessarily together.

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So i believe, with this in mind, i will formulate a very light grain bill for an IPA

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Yep, same here.