The Recipe

The recipe is fairly simple, I’ve posted it before but I’ve made a few changes.

Note: in the above, ignore the aging part, this is going to take a while… Also, my hops may not be very strong. I’m using year+ old homegrown hops, and in the past I think their strength has been low.

Brew Day

Brew day went generally without a hitch.

Preparing mash tun preheat water

I mashed in with 3.5 gal of water at 174F, which settled to 156F.  I let it rest, stirring occasionally, for 80 minutes when I added about a gallon of water at 190F.  After 10 minutes, I vorlaufed and collected 3.5 (ish) gallons of wort, and batch sparged with around 3.25 gallons of water at 190F, which rested at 165F (about 5F below the target 170F).  After all that, the pre-boil gravity was 1.057.

Overview of brewing area while preparing for boil.

Boil was the standard one hour boil.  15 minutes prior to the end of the boil, I started the pump through the plate chiller, discarding the first little bit that pushed through and then recirculating through the boil kettle, creating a whirlpool.  At the end of the hour, I set the PID to a low temperature (50-ish F) and turned the cold water on to the plate chiller.  Chilling to about 70F took under 15 minutes.

Running boiling wort through the plate chiller

Running hot wort through the plate chiller

It’s fermenting away now…

It’s fermenting away!

Oak Aging

Somehow, I’m going to get some oak in this.  I don’t know how I’m going to do it, so maybe this will help…

Rescued from Half Price Books… And it was signed!

Log

12/28/2016: Brewed, SG 1.051. Forgot to get pH reading.

1/5/2017: 1.008, pH 4.15.  No acidity. Very bready.

1/14/2017: 1.008, pH 4.23. Light acidity. Still bready, but acid beginning to counter malt sweetness.

1/29/2017: 1.008, pH 4.34. More acid. pH meter is clearly fucked.  It needs more time, but bready-ness is generally gone.

2/26/17: pH = 4.26. Oakey.

3/12/17: pH = 4.12. Oakey still.

5/1/17: pH = 4.15. Still a little oakey, but better. Starting to become pleasing.

6/10/17: pH = 4.08. Pronounced oakiness, but a slightly fruity aroma and flavor.

(this will be updated as things change)

8/24/17: pH = 3.78. Oak & stone fruit aroma, more sour. Lots of oak retronasally.

10/8/17: pH = 3.49. Malt aroma, sour cherry-ish finish and aftertaste.

12/23/17: Malt aroma, dark fruit flavor. Ready to bottle.

12/26/17: Bottled 4.5 gal with 3.5 oz corn sugar. Rehydrated some 71B-1122 wine yeast and added to bottling bucket. Yield 42 bottles.