Friday, August 19, 2005

Brew 18 --- Irish Red

First brew in the new apartment!

This is a standard from morebeer.com. Usually I add some red pepper and oak to turn it into a Burning Forest, but I decided to do something more normal this time. Yeah, I know. I'll be feeling better soon. John came over to watch, he's getting into the hobby soon.

I decided to try the V-Vessel for beer this time. It seems to be working, mostly. There seems to be a cone of sediment forming that didn't make it into the little ball at the bottom. I will probably try pushing it through with a wine paddle and see what happens.

One scare: I forgot to oxygenate the wort. After about 48 hours with no sign of fermentation, I decided that desperate times called for desperate measures, and oxygenated the wort. Fermentation started within an hour. Note that times are given in terms of time remaining for a 60 minute boil. Date of Brew: Saturday, August 13, 2005 Date of Bottling: Not yet! Ingredients

  • Malt Extracts 7 lbs Ultralight
  • Grains 1 lb Crystal 120L 8 oz Aromatic 8 oz Caramanich 2 oz Black Roasted Barley 2 oz Special 13
  • Hops 1 oz Magnum (Bittering, -60 mins) 2 oz Willamette (Flavoring, -5 mins)
  • Water Treatments Whirfloc (1)
Number of Gallons in Boil: 5 Boil Time: 60 mins Gallons in Fermenter: 4.5 Yeast: White Labs Clifornia Ale Quantity: 35 mL

2 comments:

David Larsen, fine artist said...

If your "V-Vessel" is a conical fermenter and the "cone of sediment" is yeast and gunk that clogs up your bottom dump valve, I have similar problems with my conical fermenter. I usually apply a little pressure from the CO2 that I use in my kegs. That pushes it right out.

If not, ignore what I just said.

David Larsen, fine artist said...

How is the batch coming? It has to be reaching the end of primary fermentation by now.