Category: Brewing

I made a little 2 gallon test brew. It is in bottles now. So I started on another batch.

Caribou Slobber:

This is a kit available from Northern Brewer. It uses

• .25 lbs Briess Caramel 80L Malt
• .25 lbs Fawcett Pale Chocolate Malt
• .125 lbs Black Malt

I got the Davis water report and then decided to use Crystal Geyser Water…

The water is heated whilst the grains steep in the pot for 20 minutes or until the water reaches 170 degrees. I timed it so that 170 degrees occurred at exactly 20 minutes.

To make a stir plate for growing larger numbers of yeast organisms.

Yeast cultures are expensive. Often the culture does not contain adequate numbers of active cells for inoculating (pitching) a certain batch of home brew.

the good news is that yeast multiplies like crazy! Given the proper conditions, yeast is like a copy machine on steroids.

Time to chill out!

• I am going BIAB (Brew in a Bag)

This will take some more equipment. More on that here.

But first, I wanted to get an immersion chiller for a larger batch of wort. I looked at several designs: Ribcage, multiple coils etc. But for simplicity sake, I decided to go with a standard coil. I looked for copper tube. It has gotten expensive!

For my first batch for Brew In A Bag, I decided to make a Kolsch. The recipe was provided by John Sanatar, former president of Greenbelt Brewers Association.

This all grain bill uses 11 pounds of grain. It is mostly Pilsner malt with a little Vienna malt and Wheat malt for character and mouthfeel.

• .5 lbs Wheat Malt
• .5 lbs Vienna Malt
• 10 lbs Pilsner 2 row.

I did some research on brewing bags. Most people use Voile Curtain material, made of polyester. It needs to be fine enough that all purpose flour will go through the weave, but not anything bigger.  Wall mart has good sized panels for cheap.

It is too hot in Davis this time of year.  Temps are running in the 90s and even 100s. In my studies, I discovered that many common ales need to ferment in the mid 60s. That could be a problem! The coolest place in the house in in the high 70s!  Well, this is a college town. Where there is a university, there are student dorms. Where there are dorms, there must be… MINI FRIDGES!!

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