Swamp Bog Porter : 6th Batch
turned flat but with extremely mildly carbonated touch
coffee characters (maybe more like coffee grinds, we will have to wait and taste again later)
maybe a bit of caramel and maple
Showing posts with label Imperial Porter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Imperial Porter. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Monday, September 14, 2009
The beer just keeps coming...
Not fun when you are bottling your homebrew though.
Batch 6: Porter FG 1.020
added 2.75 oz by weight to 2 cups water for bottling 5 gallons
added 2.75 oz by weight to 2 cups water for bottling 4 gallons
Batch 5: Oaked DIPA
added .75 oz by weight to 1/4 cup water for bottling 1.5 gallons (what was left after a few samples)
- there are still 5 gallons of the DIPA (un-oaked) waiting to be bottled; was considering the keg route but who am I kidding, that was over a month ago.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Swamp Bog Porter
Session 6 was long but successful (thus far), now it's time for the all important fermentation.
Ferment Temp Log
Day 0_dropped ice cubes all over the demijon to drop temperature
Day 1_12:00 - 68F
Day 1_12:00 - 68F
Day 1_13:30 - no activity, shook demijon; no sign of yeast, flat black porter
Day 1_14:10 - fermentation is taking place (withing 20 min of shaking)
Day 1_16:24 - activity within every 10 sec; layer of yeast on top going to work!
Day 1 _17:10 - 70F, good activity, shook again just because.
Day 1 _20:12 - 72F, added water in zip lock bags to drop temp. I will freeze them over night to create reusible ice cubes to drop temp as needed.
Day 1_22:57 - 72F, relocated cold water bag, moving along nicely, I wasn't ever aware of the constant little gas stream flowing out of the keeper until now.
Day 2_12:00 - 74F, Temp is beyond threshold but still active
Day 2_16:00 - 74F, outside temp = 78F, low activity, new icebag
Day 2_16:02 - 72F, bag dropped temp I guess
Day 3_06:20 - 76F, what threshold? crossing fingers and hoping for strong yeasties
Day 3_23:00 - 77F, Climbed to 78F at the least during today, I am very concerned about the alcohols (fusals?) with this batch. I do however think it will be a good study with me being concerned enough to log the progress. I think there will come a time that this house will be able to ferment a beer successfuly during the fall and spring months, and best results with a warming belt during the winter months (but that will make for one heck of a cold brew day).
Day 4_06:21 -77F, shook, foamed up but I am afraid that the yeast my have died by now.
Day 5_ AM - 76F, no activity
Day 5_19:15 - 76F, FG at this point is 1.020, I recall hitting a 1.078 for the OG but can't find my notes (not good, I thought I noted them online). ABV would be 7.7% with this records (I also made this as an 8 gallon batch and carried 11? gallons over to the boil kettle but bottled 9...we have always ballparked this it seams, or at least I have).
I see a sight glass is in my future...
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Session 6 is approaching
Weather permitting, I will be brewing my Imperial Porter again that I failed miserably somehow at hitting my OG the first time around (also my first batch ever). My OG limped to 1.055 instead of breaking through to it's planned 1.099 destination. I have 40 gallons under my belt and my last beer (DIPA) is by far my favorite yet. I was able to hit a 1.086 OG and I'm sure it had nothing to do with the 3lbs of sugar added to the boil. 8) I must add though, I do have a few of the porters stashed away and it has aged very nicely over time and look forward to cracking a bottle open during brew day.
I plan on having a bit of the DIPA available for those that join me during the session, as well as a few other respectable beers. I will need to quickly carbonate some DIPA before the weekend hits and that will be an experiment of it's own. I figure the Oaked version will be had since the dryhops fell to the bottom of the keg when I attempted to recover them last weekend (fishing line was cut at the keg seal). I also noticed that 1 oz of hops in the strainer becomes greatly under utilized and saturated to the point that they become wet and expand so tightly that there is no wort contact with the hops in the center of the screened ball (2" stainless ball strainer).
The most I have fit in to the 10 gallon mashtun at this point is 28.49 lbs of grain for a 10 gallon batch of the DIPA. I don't think I can fit much more considering I have to add water to that as well. I think a limit of 30lbs is completely maxed out and I love taking things to an extreme so that might be what I have to do. This should yield an 8.5 gallons of the Imperial Porter and we can hope for the best by not overflowing. I hope to resolve this issues by converting one of the keggles to a Mashtun and set up a RIMS or HERMS system. I have exhausted my budget for supplies this year and will have to wait until 2010 for this upgrade; as well as a Mill Grain. If anyone out there has any experience with PIDS or Heatstick construction drop me a line, I may need some assistance.
So for now, put your shoes back on and stop dancing for rain this weekend, I need to brew. in lbs
2 row 23.3
Carapils 0.8
Black Patent 0.4
Crystal 60 1.7
Munich 1.7
Pale Chocolate 1.3
Honey Malt 0.8
Total 29.988
refer to label IMPERIAL PORTER for related posts
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
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