To start this blog off, I’ll talk briefly about a simple brew I did recently—a Dry Irish Stout. I’ll preface this first post and all future posts by saying I am by no means a pro at homebrewing, but I hope others can learn from my mistakes/successes!
This brew comes from a kit provided by Northern Brewer. A link to the kit can be found here. This kit was provided by my dad who has had good experiences with Northern Brewer. Previously, I had exclusively used Jasper’s Home Brew Supply in Nashua, NH (they’re great!), but since moving I haven’t found the time to order a kit from them, and since we had the other kit lying around I figured I’d give it a shot.
Brew Day
Since the kit came with Safale S-04 Ale Dry Yeast, I did not need to deal with activating the liquid yeast. I heated 2.5 gallons of water to 150°F and began to steep the grains. I like to steep the grains for 30 minutes while keeping the water temperature between 150-170°F.
Next, I brought the water to a boil and added the gold malt extract that came with the kit. Something I’ve learned at this step is to 1) remove pot from heat while mixing and 2) mix, then when you think you’ve mixed enough, mix more. Burning the malt extract to the bottom of the pot only has to happen once before you become extremely cautious!
I then brought the wort to a boil, while occasionally mixing just to be safe. I’ve noticed that during this stage, some malt extracts produce these white flakes that “convect” around in the wort. I’m unsure what exactly causes this and if it has a negative impact on the beer.
Once the wort was boiling, I added 2 oz of cluster hops for bittering to the boil. The package states that the hops are “floral and spicy.” Floral, of course, but the other scent I was picking up was apricot-y/fruity, and research online confirms this. I like to run at a very gentle boil to prevent boil-overs, plus it seems unnecessary to assault the wort with heat.
After 60 minutes, the pot was placed in the sink and cooled down to 100°F using the faucet. I like to slowly turn the pot while hosing down the sides with cold water and stirring. Of course, a wort chiller would be best but I haven’t made the investment just because cooling the wort down isn’t that frustrating (yet). And I don’t use ice because I always forget to buy it.
Finally, the wort was added to a sterilized brew bucket and filled to a volume of 5 gallons. This addition of cold water should cool the wort down to a final temperature of about 70°F. Something I’ve heard is to stir this mixture extremely vigorously to mix the wort and cold water. This is so that the specific gravity reading will be accurate. It also helps aerate it.
Finally, I pitched the yeast. We forgot to use sterilized scissors, don’t tell the bad bacteria that.
And that’s it for brew day! A summary is below:
OG: 1.042 (should be 1.042 according to website, so right on the nose!)
FG: 1.014
Final ABV: 3.6%
Bittering Hops: 2 oz Cluster Hops
Flavoring Hops: None
Aroma Hops: None
I’ll update this post with more information as the fermentation process and eventual bottling/kegging process complete.
Update 8/19: The gravity was measured again, about 11 days after brew day, at 1.014. According to a quick calculation, this puts the alcohol content around 3.6% which is expected. I will check the gravity again after a few days to ensure that it has finished.
Kegging
I checked the gravity again after two weeks and it was still sitting at 1.014, so it was time to move the beer to a keg. This is my first time using a keg, and for the purpose I have a 5 gallon corny keg.
I sanitized the keg and its components, and siphoned the beer into the keg. I did not take any precautions for oxidation because I don’t believe it will really be an issue for this batch. However, once the keg was sealed I purged the headspace 3 times with 30 PSI of CO2 by pressuring it and releasing the pressure via the pressure relief valve.
The biggest challenge facing me at this point is carbonating the beer without a kegurator/keezer (coming soon). My plan is basically do a sort of hybrid burst carbonation. The issue is that my gas source is in the hot garage, and I have nowhere safe to put it inside. Which means I had to put the keg under the gas overnight when its cool and move it back indoors during the day, wrapping it in a blanket to slow down any temperature swings. This seems to be working well so far, I plan on doing two nights at 30 PSI, two at 20 PSI, then continuously at 10 PSI until it is at the appropriate carbonation for serving.
Its entirely possible that this will not be enough time under pressure at room temperature, I will post back here after the “experiment” is complete.
Update 9/1: The process seems to have worked reasonably well. I left the beer to carbonate under 30 PSI for two nights, then 20 PSI for another two nights. I finally left it under 10 PSI, and purged the gas to equalize the pressure. Upon pouring a test, it has carbonation but it could probably use more. The next step is to chill it.