[Homebrew-discuss] Next Batches of Beer

[Clinton Ebadi]

Greetings,

I see that everyone is now subscribed to the list (feel free to invite
anyone else). Excellent.

Bottling time draws near for Justin and Steve's beers, and so now I
think we ought to plan out the next set of brews. I have catalogued the
remaining ingredients from our last brew at [0].

We have a pretty good amount of malt for one or two dark brews and
another pale brew or two. We also have about half of the hops required
for any porter/stout type brew, but not much else.

The grain is all unmilled and so we need to have our next recipes
formulated before going to the homebrew store as we have to take
anything on hand back to be milled.

As with last time, I think getting a 33 pound container of pale LME is
the way to go for our base malt.

And so then, on to the recipes. I am leaning toward making a strong
stout (6.5-7%) with a bit of star anise, and reusing Justin's yeast cake
to save money and ensure a good fermentation.

Justin seemed interested in making a Belgian Pale Ale, an endeavour
which I support fully.

Justin: could you bring the recipe book to my house so that it may be
lent to either Steve or Bpt if they need it?

We have the recipe book we used last time, and there is a link to a
rather extensive recipe database on our Recipes page. I can assist with
the actual formulation, but it isn't that hard--everyone should probably
give a go at using QBrew to formulate their recipes, and I can provide
assistance as needed.

The LME from the LHBS is 100% 2-Row malt, and the values listed in QBrew
for its gravity contribution and color are correct. For the speciality
grains make sure to mark them as steeped and not mashed (this changes
the extraction efficiency calculation)!

So then, the next order of business is with those Groupons Steve
notified me about. He got two, and I went ahead and got one. I was going
to be spending $20 on a bucket, and I really wanted a better bottle (but
it was $35) so ... there we go, I spend $5 more and can get what I want
more. 

My intent now is to acquire:

 - 6 gallon better bottle (+ airlock and bung). Basically a plastic
   carboy, and it should have enough headspace to handle the nice
   krausens we've been getting.

 - The Thief™. My current wine thief can't even take a sample from the
   carboy, but this can (+ the hydrometer fits in the tube, and you can
   sanitize it all and just return the sample)

 - A couple of reusable nylon hop/grain bags

 - Potassium Sorbate so I can experiment with still ciders and fruit
  things (hey, I have to convince Kristen brewing is worth my time
  somehow)

 - Raspberry and Apricot fruit extract (since nothing else caught my eye
   under the $50ish mark). We can use these guys with a pipette to dose
   glasses of beers with make with fruit flavor to see how a fruit
   version would taste.


... and then I'm done buying equipment for at least six months, heh.

Steve, however, suggested we get a /third/ primary. If we go this route
understand that we will have to brew once a week to keep all of the
carboys full!

Which leads me to the final topic, PROCESS.

Now that you all know the basics of brewing I think we should combine
bottling and brewing day. They can be done entirely in parallel so this
should save us quite a bit of time.

[0] http://wiki.calefaction.org/HomeBrewing/Ingredients

-- 
Lindsay (Carlton): nighttime baker! sounds a little iffy
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