Taking it up a Notch

Muktesh, Kevin, Pete, Eric, Ashley (Eric's girlfriend... wait, Eric has a girlfriend??) and I were on a mission. Brew 25 gallons of beer, the equivalent of around 250 bottles of beer. This was the first use of my two 15.5 gallon keggles. Let's get started.


I started the mash for the first batch, which was 10 gallons of Oak-aged Cascade IPA, 26 pounds total grain bill.


Meanwhile, Pete was starting his mash for a 5 gallon Shackleton porter clone.


After the Shackleton was complete, we prepared for another 10 gallon batch, this time a Dark Licorice Stout, 33 pounds total grain bill. Today we totalled a 50 pound sack of 2-row, impressive!


Hard work will pay off when these gems are ready... Here are the recipes (5 gallon measurements):

Oak-aged Cascade IPA
10.0 lbs. 2-row
2.0 lbs. crystal 60L
1.0 lbs. Victory (toasted) 2-row
1.0 oz. Perle 60 min.
0.5 oz. Cascade 30 min.
0.5 oz. Cascade 15 min.
1.0 oz. Cascade dry hopped during rack to secondary
3.0 oz. Oak chips during rack to secondary
1 Wyeast 1098 Brit Ale

Dark Licorice Stout
13.0 lbs. 2-row
2.5 lbs. crystal 60L
0.5 lbs. black patent
0.5 lbs. roasted barley
3.0 oz. Willamette 60 min.
1.0 oz. Licorice root 20 min.
0.5 oz. Willamette 10 min.
0.5 oz. Willamette 0 min. (end of boil)
1 Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale

Shackleton Porter (Beware this fantastic recipe)
9.0 lbs. Marris Otter 2-row
2.0 lbs. 2-row
2.0 lbs. wheat malt
2.0 lbs. peat-smoked malt
1.0 lbs. Rauch malt
1.0 lbs. chocolate malt
1.0 lbs. roasted barley
1.0 oz. Cascade 60 min.
1.0 oz. Perle 30 min.
1 Wyeast 1028 London Ale

30 gallons of brew in my basement!!

Yeast Culturing

Some beer recipes I will be posting soon include:
Rye Lager
Shackleton Smoked Porter
Smoked Chili IPA
Ginger Saison
Cherry Trippel
Franziskaner Hefe-weisse clone

So... I decided that I need another brew on tap, my kegerator has been dry for some time now. I've been experimenting with different wheat brews, trying to get something that tastes like a Franziskaner. Wyeast just doesn't come close. So I've decided to culture some yeast from the bottom of a Franziskaner Hefe-weisse.

How to culture yeast from your favorite beer.

Equipment:
two 12 oz. empty beer bottles
2 bottle caps and capper
2 rubber stoppers that fit an airlock and a 12 oz. bottle
2 airlocks
grain alcohol or vodka
cotton swabs
a lighter
one-step cleaning solution
2 quarts of wort
2 bottle conditioned beers that have yeast to culture

It is important to note that this process must take place 2 days in advance of the brewing day that you wish to use this yeast with.


The first step is to buy a couple (2) bottles of beer that were bottle conditioned or have a yeast build-up on the bottom of the bottle. Set the beers out at room temperature.

Put the rubber stoppers and airlocks in a bath of one-step cleaning solution. Fill the two empty bottles with one-step and water. Set aside.

Put two bottle caps in the grain alcohol, or boil caps to sterilize.

Next step is to get a hold of some wort. You can either set aside 2 quarts of wort from your latest brew, or make a small batch of wort. To make 2 quarts of wort, boil 2 quarts water with 6 oz. of dry or liquid malt extract, and a small handful (1/4 oz. or so) of hops for a preservative quality.


Boil wort for 30 minutes then strain out the hops and turn off the heat. Pour the cleaning solution from the bottles, dip a cotton swab in the grain alcohol or vodka, and sterilize the mouth of one beer bottle. Heat the mouth of the beer bottle with the lighter. Using a funnel pour the hot wort into the bottle. Repeat process with the second bottle. Immediately cap with the bottle caps that were soaking in grain alcohol or boiling.




Let hot bottles of wort cool at room temperature for one hour. After one hour, you may refrigerate the bottles to rapidly cool them or to store them for future yeast culturing. They will need to be 70 degrees before you can use them for yeast culturing.


When bottles of wort are at 70 degrees (about room temperature), open the bottles of beer that have the yeast you wish to culture. Pour the beers into drinking vessels for your enjoyment but leave 1.5 inches in each bottle. Swirl the yeast around in the bottom of the bottle to loosen it.

Uncap the bottles of wort, swab with grain alcohol and heat mouths of bottles, then dump the 1.5 inches of yeast from each bottle into each bottle of wort. Attach the rubber stoppers and airlocks that were sanitizing in the bath of one-step.


Let the bottles ferment for 1 day between 60-70 degrees with the airlocks attached. After that you can put the bottles with airlock attached in the refrigerator for at most 4 weeks before they must be pitched into your latest batch of 5 gallon wort. Make sure there is active fermentation before putting them in the refrigerator. Sterilize the mouths of the bottles before pitching, using the swab of grain alcohol and a lighter.

Rye Baby

I had the first taste of my rye ale. It's got a terrific nose, fresh and spicy from the rye malt and cascade hops. It was rewarding to use my first year hop harvest in a beer. This beer is so damn good !

5.0 lbs. 2-row American pale
5.0 lbs. Muntons Marris Otter 2-row
2.0 lbs. rye malt
1.0 lbs. flaked rye
1.0 lbs. crystal 60L
1.0 lbs. flaked barley
1.0 oz. Challenger (60 mins.)
0.5 oz. Argentinean cascade 3.2% (30 mins.)
0.5 oz. home grown cascade (dry hop at first racking)
1056 Wyeast American ale (2nd generation)

Luke O' Lantern Strong Pumpkin Ale

7.0 lbs. 6 row
1.0 lbs. wheat
1.0 lbs. munich
1.0 lbs. vienna
1.0 lbs. crystal 60L
1.0 lbs. carapils
3 medium pumpkins (~10 lbs.)
1.0 oz. saaz at 0 min.
1.0 oz. willamette at 60 min.
1.5 tsp. cinnamon
1.5 tsp. nutmeg
1.0 tsp. allspice
0.5 tsp. real vanilla extract
1.0 tsp. irish moss
1056 wyeast american ale yeast

gut pumpkin, chop into large pieces leaving skin on. bake at 350F for 1.5 hours. scoop pumpkin from skin.


mash along with grain, using 1 quart water for each pound of pumpkin (same ratio for grain).


boil for 90 minutes.


add 1.0 tsp. of cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice at 30 minutes. add 0.5 tsp. of cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla at 75 minutes. add 1.0 tsp. irish mosh at 75 minutes as well.

Mash / Lauter Tun... Upgrade!

My beloved cousin Jason has given me one of his keggles, now I can brew 10 gallon batches! It was necessary for me to upgrade my mash tun to support the new volume, so I sold off my old 5 gallon to Pete, and began working on a bigger one. I converted a 48 quart cooler, which is equivalent to 12 gallons.

This time I took my experience with the old mash tun, and some tips from Jason, to improve my original design. I noticed the false bottom gets stuck if you aren't careful dumping the grains into the cooler. So this time I built a slotted manifold. It was a pain in the butt cutting all those slots with a hacksaw, but it was worth it in the end !