Completely agree, even though I haven't had the 2011 on nitro. The 2010 was incredible at the pub, though.

Despite the "best after" date on the bottle, the 2011 is wonderful right now. Just split a bottle with my wife, and now that she's asleep on the couch, I get to finish off her glass. Make sure you let it warm up to around room temperature, because it just gets better.

My advice? Buy a few so you can drink some now and also save a couple. Will be interesting to break out a 2010 to see how they differ.

I dont do any step mashes mostly bc I mash in a cooler and dont have a HERMS or RIMS system so I cant speak much to a 135 rest. What is that the Beta/Alpha Amalyse stage? If you want to keep it a bit malty wouldnt you want to mash a little higher then 152?

I plugged that recipe into Beersmith and at 60% efficiency its giving me 1.043 for a 10G batch. This is all with my 10G equipment profile plugged in, I usually get 65-70% with that equip.

Im actually thinking about doing this recipe, sounds like a good winter malty beverage. If I can sell my brew buddy on it maybe we can do a trade?

I would certainly love to do a trade. We do step mash at 135, and you're right, it's the Beta/Alpha Amalyse stage. When we did our last wheat we tried a 115 degree rest for ferulic but I'm not sure it did as much as I wanted (not nearly the banana I was looking for). You're likely also right that we probably want to mash at 158 now that I think about it. He usually comes up with the mash schedule before I get to his house.

Looks like we're on the right track based on your numbers, I appreciate the help! Let me know when yours is done and I'll make sure I pull off a couple of bottles before I keg!

Also, when I asked about his 23 beer schedule he did say he didn't have any schedule in particular except getting the lambic and RIS done first....

Decided I wanted to make a brown on a whim yesterday and picked up Maris Otter as my base malt. Haven't worked with this as a base before and I think I've heard it is more likely to cause a stuck mash than a regular pale 2 row. How do you unstick a stuck mash if it happens?

Wraths, all we've ever done is blow into the end of the tube to unstick it or use suction otherwise. Don't know if that will help or not.

We mashed in our P&J at 158 (no 135 step) but have had trouble holding temp, decocted 3 times and still only got back to 152--sugars are getting out nicely though (iodine test) so we will see I guess.

Wraths,

Depends a lot on your lauter tun, obviously. I mash/lauter in a cooler with a hose braid, and have had to essentially empty it, unstick the braid, dump everything back in, vorlauf again, and continue. Blowing out the out of the lautern tun could work, underletting with hot liquor could work, lots of different things, depending.

Sounds good. I am using a converted gatorade cooler with a steel braid.

This is the recipe for the brown I am going to brew on Wednesday.

http://www.theaustinmunro.com/brownAle1.html

Thoughts?

What is P&J?

Pride and Joy clone...

We had air temps in the mid 40s and a little bit of a cool breeze so our mash tun didn't hold temp like it normally does. We had covered it in one blanket but still had trouble keeping the temp high enough. When we did the porter later in the day we put extra blankets on the tun with much more success and held temp at 154-156 degrees for the entire mash.

I got really excited for a second because I thought you had a recipe for a peanut butter and jelly beer. I had Funky Buddha's No Crusts a bit ago and it was incredible. I'd love to make a clone.

Cards, sounds awesome. 158 sounds pretty good, not sure what you ended up hitting but 156+ should be good IMO. Let us know how it turns out.

I visited Brooklyn Brewery yesterday, it was a good time. I had their Elevated Wheat (tons of bannana) and a Belgian Pale which was decent. Both of which aren't available outside of the Brooklyn area so it was cool getting to try them out. The tasting room was pretty crowded but was an awesome space.

Are those the water volumes that you're using? I do t really see the point in a 90min boil but if you do I'm sure you'll boils off more then You're expecting in that recipe. Although you know your system better then I.

What's you're reasoning for the Carapils? Just head retention?

1272 is a great pick IMO, ive used it on Browns a few times and loved the end product.

Yeah now that you mention that .65gal loss on a 90min boil does seem low. I haven't adjusted the boil off rate since owning BeerSmith so it should be the default value even though I think I've heard you lose about a gallon an hour from boiloff?

people say they lose a gallon of boil off on a 5G batch, dont listen to that when youre doing a 2.5G batch. Everyone's equipment has a different boil off rate, I boil off about 14% of the volume over a 60 minute boil which is on the high end some people are half that.

If I were you I would just boil some water for 30 mins and figure your boil off prior to brewday so that you at least have an idea of how much youll boil off. I will actually be doing exactly that with a new 20G pot I just got all fitted up and ready to go. I finally got a pump and some camlocks for ease of use, my back cant handle hauling these pots any longer.

That looks pretty good, I was going to brew a Rye Brown Ale today but it started raining a bit harder then I would like as I was setting things up. Brew on a concrete slab under my deck, not sure I want deck dripping in my beer.

So hopefully I will be brewing on Friday. Everything is bought and crushed, so a little disapointed.

Anticipated OG - 1.049
IBUs - ~30
SRM - 20

Recipe:
66% 7 0 Marris Otter (Crisp) info 38 4 ~
9% 1 0 Rye, Flaked info 36 2 ~
9% 1 0 Rye Malt info 29 4 ~
6% 0 10 Chocolate Rye info 24 250 ~
5% 0 8 Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L info 34 40 ~
5% 0 8 Crystal 120L info 33 120

Hops:
2oz Delta at 60min, 1oz at 15mins, and 1oz at Flameout. AA was 4.5%.

Yeast:
WY1056 American Ale

I may dry hop with some Cascade as I believe Delta is a Cascade/Fuggle hybrid. I got 4oz of Delta for like .60 an oz. so figure I should try them in something.

Not 100% set on Mash Temp. I think maybe 153.

That sounds delicious. I've never used the Liberty or Progress hops that I am planning on using either. Should be interesting to try, Progress sounded particularly yummy.

I also got a smoker recently so I am planning on smoking/cooking out hopefully tomorrow.

The grain smelled good when it was being crushed.

All Hops sound awesome, but Progress sounds like it would give a nice british feel to the brown.

My wife seams to think half of the hops out there smell like cat piss, I think it tends to be the higher AA ones regardless of actual IBUs. Wish they would give that warning in the hop discriptions.

Is anyone brewing on Black Friday?

Im going to go for 15 Gallons, a 10G Simcoe Marris Otter SMaSh and a 5G Oud Bruin.

Ive been pulling off 1G form my last 2-3 batches and pitching the dregs of some sour ales but this Oud Bruin will be my first true sour beer, Im pretty excited.

coff, if you feel like sending me a sample of your oud bruin, I'd be more than willing to give feedback (I'll obv pay for shipping and bottling)

Since I don't homebrew yet, I'll definitely be drinking


here's what I have planned for the weekend after vino tomorrow night:

Pliny the Elder (1st time having this)
Avery Maharaja
Avery Salvation
Smuttynose Homunculus

and possibly a Anchorage Whiteout Wit (brett infused Wit), Sierra Nevada Southern+Northern Harvest

That sounds awesome!

I still need to brew, but I've been delaying going to the LHBS and getting my grain crushed. I forgot to specify crushed grain in my last order so I am sitting on 12lbs of uncrushed feeling like a dunce.

i tried lagunitas sucks holiday ale last night. that is a perfect ipa. not your typical beer in holiday packaging

Had the Stone Double Arrogant Bastard last night. Great beer. Didn't pack a big hop puch like Arrogant Bastard does, but had a really good malt character. 10.5 ABV so you can't chug them all night for sure. Also had Sun King (local here in Indy, no idea how far they distribute) Osiris IPA and it was tasty too. No idea why I'm on an IPA kick right now....

I ended up brewing the brown rye ale today. Uneventful, other then first boil over since my first batch. It's always close, but today apparently not vigilant enough for 7.33 gallons in an 8.5 gallon pot.

The hydro samPle tasted fine, more chocolate then roast