Racking batch #2

Last night I racked the latest batch from the primary fermenter to the carboy. It was about 5 gallons of brew into a 6 gallon carboy, so there is about 4 inches of head space. Hopefully this does not negatively impact the taste of the beer. I may need to get a 5 gallon carboy.

Home brew batch #2

On Sunday I attempted to make another batch of home brew. This time I used ingredients as opposed to a kit. I am trying to make an English bitter. Here are my notes:

HOME BREW (May 23, 2010)

Beer attempted: Palace Bitter (Papazian page 170)

Extract: 2kg light dried malt extract
Malt: 1lb Crystal Malt 70/80L
Hops: Fuggles (5.1) and Northern Brewer (8.9)
Yeast: Nottingham Brewing yeast (dry)

Notes:

Recipe called for Crystal 60 and Kent Goldings hops. Substituting the Northern Brewer. Result should be a hoppier beer than as per the recipe

STEPS

11:00 am: added 12.1 oz Crystal Malt to 1.5 gallons water @ about 70 degrees C

Note: the temp got up to about 77 degrees. Hope that causes no ill effects

11:30 – strained out the malt

11:36 added the malt extract. Has to stir quite a bit due to clumping

11:54 – boil over (dammit – busy combing dog) Added hops

12:24 – added 7 grams each of Fuggles and Northern Brewer

12:39 – added 14 grams Northern Brewer

12:52 – added 14 grams Northern

12:53 – suspended about 14 grams yeast in 8 oz water

12:55 – placed the wort pot in ice water

13:45 – strained wort into primary fermenter. Added about 3.5 gallons cold water, and poured back and forth between pot and fermenter (once).

14:00 – added yeast and water mix

OG – between 1038 and 1040

Bottling the brew

Last night I bottled the home brew. Step 1 was about 2 hours of sanitizing all the bottles and equipment. What fun. Next step - rack the beer from the carboy back into the primary fermenter. With the auto-siphoner this was quite simple! Add some dextrose disolved in water, stir gently, and it is ready to go. I filled about 40 bottles of various sizes. Now, to wait 10 days and try the brew, and keep my fingers crossed it does not taste like ass...

I am an idiot

Solution to the siphon problem: auto-siphoner!

Why am I an idiot? It turns out I had one all along...

sigh