Brewer's Log - HopNog 1.001
I eventually planned on getting around to it, but I was spurred on by nyquil_driver's recent ventures, so I started my first batch of beer today.
The kit is the Brewer's Best HopNog 2009 edition. Ingredients are as follows:
Fermentables
3.3 lbs Light LME
2.5 lbs Organic Maltoferm DME
1 lb. Dextrose (corn sugar)
Specialty Grains
4 oz. Carapils Dextrine
8 oz. Organic Crystal 60L
Hops
1.5 oz Brewer's Gold Bittering Hops (Alpha 9.7%)
1 oz. Palisade Organic Flavoring Hops (Alpha 5.6%)
1 oz. Palisade Organic Aroma Hops (Alpha 5.6%)
Yeast
Safale US-05
Process
Sanitized all tools and containers.
Heated 2.5 gallons of water to 150˚, put specialty grains in grain bag and steeped for 30 minutes at 150˚-170˚F. Let drain and removed.
Brought wort slowly to a boil, adding all other fermentables. Let boil for 15 minutes or so to encourage hot break - which didn't seem to happen.
Added bittering hops, set timer for 60 minutes
Added flavoring hops at 30 minutes
Added aroma hops and irish moss/clarifier tablet at 55 minutes.
Turned off heat, and moved brew kettle to ice bath, stirring constantly. Chilling to room temp only took 10 minutes or so. This was the first surprise - i expected it to take 30-60.
Rehydrated yeast in 104˚ water and added a few tablespoons of wort.
Added 2.5+ gallons water to primary bucket, and poured cooled wort into fermenter. Surprise/SNAFU number two - forgot what size fermenter I have, and filled it to the wrong line. What was supposed to be a 5 gallon batch was now a six gallon batch. Swearing commenced. A lot.
Gave it a good blend with my cordless drill and lees stirrer attachment, and took a gravity reading.
OG = 1.050 @ ~68˚F (around 1.051) - which is withing the target range estimated for the recipe. They claim the batch should start between 1.048 and 1.056. Somehow, I managed to avoid last minute disaster. But to allow for room to krausen, drew off three quarters of a gallon into a 1 gallon jug (I'll mix them back together in secondary). Airlocked both.
Now I've got a couple weeks to finish collecting bottles. :-)
The kit is the Brewer's Best HopNog 2009 edition. Ingredients are as follows:
Fermentables
3.3 lbs Light LME
2.5 lbs Organic Maltoferm DME
1 lb. Dextrose (corn sugar)
Specialty Grains
4 oz. Carapils Dextrine
8 oz. Organic Crystal 60L
Hops
1.5 oz Brewer's Gold Bittering Hops (Alpha 9.7%)
1 oz. Palisade Organic Flavoring Hops (Alpha 5.6%)
1 oz. Palisade Organic Aroma Hops (Alpha 5.6%)
Yeast
Safale US-05
Process
Sanitized all tools and containers.
Heated 2.5 gallons of water to 150˚, put specialty grains in grain bag and steeped for 30 minutes at 150˚-170˚F. Let drain and removed.
Brought wort slowly to a boil, adding all other fermentables. Let boil for 15 minutes or so to encourage hot break - which didn't seem to happen.
Added bittering hops, set timer for 60 minutes
Added flavoring hops at 30 minutes
Added aroma hops and irish moss/clarifier tablet at 55 minutes.
Turned off heat, and moved brew kettle to ice bath, stirring constantly. Chilling to room temp only took 10 minutes or so. This was the first surprise - i expected it to take 30-60.
Rehydrated yeast in 104˚ water and added a few tablespoons of wort.
Added 2.5+ gallons water to primary bucket, and poured cooled wort into fermenter. Surprise/SNAFU number two - forgot what size fermenter I have, and filled it to the wrong line. What was supposed to be a 5 gallon batch was now a six gallon batch. Swearing commenced. A lot.
Gave it a good blend with my cordless drill and lees stirrer attachment, and took a gravity reading.
OG = 1.050 @ ~68˚F (around 1.051) - which is withing the target range estimated for the recipe. They claim the batch should start between 1.048 and 1.056. Somehow, I managed to avoid last minute disaster. But to allow for room to krausen, drew off three quarters of a gallon into a 1 gallon jug (I'll mix them back together in secondary). Airlocked both.
Now I've got a couple weeks to finish collecting bottles. :-)