Sweet Summer Ale

Bottle up the Sweet Summer Ale after 4 weeks in the secondary. A long time I know. The beer was very dark in the secondary, but fairly light, the expected color, in the bottle.

Before bottling SG = 1.018 and T = 68 F, so adj. FG =

Dissolve 5 oz of priming sugar in 2 cups of water for the priming. I got nearly all the beer this time. Produced 51 bottles of beer.

Sweet Summer Ale

The secondary fermentation is definitely active. It was still bubbling slowly as of last night.

Red Ale

Mix 5 oz of priming sugar with 2.5 cups of water and boil for 10 minutes. Add to bottling bucket, add Red Ale and bottle. I left behind a fair bit of beer in the secondary fermenter to make sure that I did not get too much yeast. As a result I got 3 bottles short of 2 cases.

Sweet Summer Ale

Rack to secondary fermenter. The primary fermentation went well, starting on the second day and running through Thursday. It was nearly complete, very slowly continuing, on Thursday.

Sweet Summer Ale

Starting a new brew called Sweet Summer Ale. The recipe can be found here. The grains have been cracked, put into a bag and set in the brew pot. Around 9:00 am or so, I started the boil. As with the Red Ale, I'm brewing all 5 gallons at once in the large brew pot. I start with 6 gallons and we'll see how much I end up with.

9:50 Water is boiling. Remove grains. Add Malt.

10:03 Boil restarts. Add Willamette hops (4.5% AA) and cover.

10:40 Add 1 tsp of Irish Moss

10:43 Add Saaz hops (3.1% AA)

10:53 Remove from heat and allow to cool.

11:30 Temperature = 100 F, add 2 tsp Yeast nutrient and 1 tsp Yeast energizer. Transfer the wort to the fermenter for further cooling.

Ok, my temperature measurement during the cool down need to be reviewed. I'm using a floating thermometer in the wort which should be fine, and I don't think the thermometer is inaccurate, however, my temperature measurements are fluctuating wildly. It must be due to temperature variations within the wort given the way I'm cooling it. I'm cooling it by leaving it in the brew pot, which remains covered, and is placed in a tub of cold water. I've seen the temperature fluctuate between 90 F and 110 F just while checking the wort and transferring it to the fermenter. So, right now the wort is perhaps as warm as 110 F and is in the Fermenter, which is sealed with an air-lock, which is in turn sitting in a tub of cold water. I will check the temperature again in about a half-hour or so.

I need to consider purchasing an immersion chiller.

12:25 Wort Temperature = 84 F. Needs to cool longer.

2:00 And Wort Temperature still reads 84 F, using a second thermometer as well. Ok, pitch the yeast (Wyeast 1272 prepared according to directions on packet).
Original Gravity 1.044
Adjusted OG 1.047

That is substantially higher than expected. I do not know what is going on with this batch.

Red Ale

Rack to secondary fermenter.
T = 68 F
FG = 1.012
Adjusted FG = 1.013

Looks good! The specific gravity is a bit high, the expected value was 1.008 to 1.010. The fermentation did go very quickly, it was really done by Tuesday night, only about 48 hours after pitching. On the other hand, there was no shortage of yeast at the bottom of the primary fermenter. I had it in the back room for the fermentation and the back room is a little cold. As the final temperature indicates it was probably below 70 F throughout the primary fermentation. We'll see.

Red Ale

6:00 am - fermentation well under way.