irish stout secondary fermentation

While I, @yodamon, was painting my dining room @PunkAss was doing the secondary fermentation. Transferring the primary carboy contents into the secondary glass carboy.



This is done to clarify the beer by removing some of the expired yeast, hops and malt that was left over from the wort. Also to remove some of the air space that the active fermentation was using now that the fermentation has settled down.



@PunkAss decided to taste this batch and he said that this is better than the last batch.

Cleanup is a bitch though. This part sucks. Excuse the image but this is all part of our experiments. I'm glad I wasn't there. Thanks @PunkAss.

an active fermentation

One day after the cooking of the Irish Stout, @PunkAss told me about the activity of the fermentation. This is the most active fermentation that we have had.

brewing an Irish Stout

@PunkAss and I headed to Reno Homebrew this morning to purchase the ingredients for our morning's project. We decided on an Irish Stout last week when we went searching for a new recipe and to do some research.



The recipe was fairly easy and took about the same amount of time as the last one did. The kit was $30 plus $8 for yeast and contained the following:

• 2 oz. pkg Goldings hopps
• 6 lbs Amber malt extract
• 1.5 lbs Dark DME (Dry Malt Extract)
• 1 lb roasted Barley
• 1 lb flaked Barley
• 1099 Whitbread Ale yeast

Here are the steps we followed:

1. We sterilized the carboy, wort chiller, utensils and air lock
2. Warmed up the yeast and activated it



3. Boiled 6 gallons of water
4. Mixed the ingredients into the water
5. Tasted our previous beers, yum!
6. Cooked for 1.25 hours



7. Tasted more of our previous beers, yum yum!
8. Measured the initial alcohol content to set the baseline
9. Oxygenated the wort
10. Added the yeast
11. Set the airlock with Vodka and added Vodka to the brewers
12. Cleaned up the mess



13. Done

tasting the latest brew

@yodamon here.

On the way home today, I stopped by @PunkAss's house to open one of our carbonizing beers. It was a bit early but I just couldn't wait another week or so. I think @PunkAss was also wanting to taste the goods.

Our beer tasted very good in contrast to the day we were cooking the wort. On that day, it didn't have a great flavor and I was thinking we screwed the pooch on that receipe.

What a GREAT transformation and the carbonation was right on.

-yo

searching for a new beer receipe

@PunkAss and I went to Reno Homebrewer last night looking for some supplies and a new recipe. We looked around and read up on several different ones. We settled on the Irish Stout for about $30. We had several questions, I think I remember the answers he gave:

• Being that an Irish Stout is very active how do we handle an active fermentation?
  RH Answer: Ferment in a 6 gallon carboy and after the activity subsides a bit, transfer to a 5 gallon carboy.
• What yeast should we use?
  RH Answer: An English yeast
• Some books cook the wort in 1.5 gallon and then add additional water at the end. What does RH think.
  RH Answer: They didn't think that cooking in a small pot allowed the flavors to come out completely. Stick with the 5 gallon boil.
  

Questsions still to ask: Water, tap or bottled, using tap to rinse bottles...

Reno Homebrewer has a good selection of beer that you can drink while you shop. I bought an Liberty Ale and it was very good and would definitely like more. -yo

Bottling Day for the Honey Nut Brown

Today is the day! @PunkAss and I are going to get a little breakfast at Pegs in Reno and start the bottling of my first full beer making experiment.

We start by sterilizing the bottles with a weak bleach bath and dried them on a bottle tree.



Next we boiled the priming sugar to carbonate the beer in the bottle. We raised the beer for a gravity feed and easier access.



Bottles all dry and setup for easy access.



Fill the bottles.



Capping the bottles. We had two bottles break and the precious beer spilling out onto the counter and floor. Boo Hoo - two dead soldiers and 41 still waiting to be drunk.

Secondary Fermentation

Today we decided to put the Honey Nut Brown into secondary fermentation to help with the clarification. @PunkAss took a alcohol reading and it put the beer at 22, making it 8.5%. That seems a bit high. We will see what it is at the end.