Making the wort for the APA right now. First time doing whole grain brewing.
The Brew
- Thread starter Vhexxus
- Start date
might still be a bit early...but how'd it turn out?
Still fermenting, have about a week left and then bottling, where there is another two weeks.
It turned out pretty well for my first whole grain. Cleared out well, good aroma and body.
Nice! I still haven't made any beer this year. :slight_frown:
But what I have is still good, and is depleting at a steady rate. Almost have enough empties to justify another batch of something.
What?! Time to brew some more.
Just got my porter extract kit, but will add another pound of DME to the wort in the last 15-10 min of boil to help bring up the ABV. Gonna be my first 5gal kit. Still gotta go through all my bottles, clean and de-label.
I'm hoping this summer or fall to do a long-term brew. One that is just a couple weeks in the primary, and then about 6 months in the secondary. Really want to make my own clone of Dragon's Milk, if you haven't had it before...get it. Nice strong bourbon barrel aged stout at about 11%, but can be pricey.
Beer tea, the start of a strengthened chocolate porter.
Attachments
I needed the best Imperial Russian Stout one time.......one time, the next turned into a great vinegar!
Update from the porter, in the end it turned out to become a robust porter. The name? Innsmouth Robust Porter, guess where that reference is from.
Currently have five gallons of imperial Russian stout aging, will let it sit for about a month and then bottle.
Currently have five gallons of imperial Russian stout aging, will let it sit for about a month and then bottle.
I see @Blind Owl getting through making the mash at which point he'd get impatient, consume all of the ingredients, then have @CrudeSasquatch shake him over his head until they both feel drunk.
I don't generally drink alcohol, but I've often been interested in the distilling of alcohol. I find the methods & techniques used on the show Moonshiners absolutely fascinating. While I have never attempted to distill or brew any sort of alcohol so far, I'm happily down to assist however I can.
Not sure I'd be up for drinking owl beer. Its not that I am bothered by it fermenting and aging in his gizzard, I'm just not sure I'm man enough to grab that spigot to get a pint.
Don't be scared. Maaahahaha.
So thinking of doing a long term brew (about six months or longer) this fall or early winter. One of the people I work with at my company makes his own whiskey as a family business. He has been nice enough to offer me a tour of this distillery and a bunch of their oak chips dripping with whiskey, the ones they use for aging.
I'm planning to use these in the secondary fermentation (about five or so months there). Anyone had experience using oak chip aging? Was thinking of putting them in a sanitized brew bag and let it sit in secondary 7-gal container.
The other question part of this. I'm also looking at it being a higher ABV, about 10% or above, so I'm thinking of using a liquid yeast. Anyone ever used those before? If so, what brand and strain?
Hoping to make a heavy hitting aged imperial stout.
I'm planning to use these in the secondary fermentation (about five or so months there). Anyone had experience using oak chip aging? Was thinking of putting them in a sanitized brew bag and let it sit in secondary 7-gal container.
The other question part of this. I'm also looking at it being a higher ABV, about 10% or above, so I'm thinking of using a liquid yeast. Anyone ever used those before? If so, what brand and strain?
Hoping to make a heavy hitting aged imperial stout.
I recall watching something similar in a pair of episodes of the show Moonshiners about a year ago.
We make wine up here, kinda family thing. Have also whipped up a few batches of mead. Last year I tried a new experiment I read about. Whipped up a full demijohn of mead, put in a water lock, covered the cap and most of the way up the lock with wax, then we sunk it in the river here at the end of November, its been sitting at 42 feet deep in water averaging about 2C since then. I'm waiting for the ice to get off the river so we can safely recover it.
^ Now that just sounds delicious, but I do have a soft spot for mead (and this time it isn't on top of my head).
A buddy and I did something similar to this last fall. We didn’t use a brew bag, but otherwise the same method. A couple things we noticed is that adding whiskey along with the wood chips is a great idea and helps bump up the abv. I think it was like 12oz of whiskey for a 5 gal batch.
Another think is that we kegged after 2 months, and it was about another month or two before if reached its prime. I assume if it’d lasted much longer it might’ve kept improving.
Let us know how it goes!
