Hops - 2011 - First Planting (Mt Hood / U.S. Tettnang)

Got my first two varieties of hops in the ground early this week. Got a few rhizomes of Mt Hood and U.S. Tettnang. Still waiting on my Cascade and Williamette delivery from my LHBS.

I was so excited about my first plants that I forgot to take a picture of the Mt Hood before getting them in the ground.



Kegerator - Upgrade

As many homebrewers know, one tap isn't enough. So I converted the kegerator to have two taps. I tried several different ways to fit at least 3 kegs in the frig, but it just wasn't happening. Kind of a bummer. But two will do for now.

My father-in-law made some custom handles for me and I painted them with chalkboard paint so I could easily label each batch. Came out pretty sweet I think!

Hops - 2011 - Trellis Build Continued....

So added a second hop pole this afternoon to the other side of the swing. It mirrors the pole pictured in the previous post.

Initially was only going to do one pole with 2 varieties (Cascade and Williamette), but a buddy of mine was gracious enough to send me two more varities from a cutting to plant (should get those this week).

So instead of just having 2 types, I should have 4! Very excited for this first year!

Hops - 2011 - Trellis Build

Finally got the hop trellis built this weekend. Used our swing as the base. The trellis stands around 13.5' tall. The pole is a 4"x4" with 18" steel pipe as the arms. Used a "T" at the end of each steel pipe that I plan to run jute line through.

Still need to prep the ground for planting. I hope to get my rhizome shipment (Cascade and Williamette)  this week but may wait a week or so to put them in the ground since low temperatures next week may fall below freezing a few days.

Software Review - BrewMate

Here is a software review I wrote for my local HomeBrew Club Newletter. There have even been chances to the software since I wrote this just a month or so ago.

My brewing obsession began with pre-packaged partial boil kits that offered little need for brewing software. I was sure to nail my numbers as long as I followed the directions. I quickly found as I moved toward full boils that without adjustments to the hop schedule, I’d end up making Imperial IPA strength Cream Ales. 

Though mainstream applications like BeerSmith are not overly expensive, I was on a mission to find something free.  I stumbled across BrewMate (www.brewmate.net), which has become a staple to my brew day preparation.  I believe that it offers similar features as paid software programs, but at zero cost.  

Building a recipe with BrewMate is extremely simple. An extensive list of fermentables/grains, hops and adjuncts are included by default. With ease you can add ingredients if not listed or adjust preloaded items.

A feature that I really like is something the designer calls “Style Nazi” Mode. When you select a style from the drop down menu, it loads in the BJCP guidelines that you can compare with your recipe. An example above shows the IBU range of an American Pale Ale and how my current recipe compares to the BJCP style guideline. If you fall outside the range, the attribute will turn yellow to clearly show that you are outside the chosen style guideline.

BrewMate is fully customizable for your brewing system to give you the most accurate results.

Besides recipe building, there is an assortment of commonly used tools to help you through the brew day.

If you choose to use BrewMate in Metric Measurements, you have “BrewDay” feature available to you.

This is ideal for the all grain brewer because it helps with calculation of strike and sparge water as well as other key all grain measurements. I spoke with the designer and they are actually in the process of making this option available in U.S. Measurements, so be on the lookout for that.

The designer of the software is easy to contact through the website and very receptive to suggestions. I’ve recommended several things and some of them have been implemented. There have been a few updates to the software which are all free and each new release has some nice features.

Though I don’t expect loyal BeerSmith users to convert to BrewMate, I highly recommend to anyone that does not currently have any brewing software to give it a shot. It’s free, you have nothing to lose.

Brew Day - Cream Ale

So All Grain batch #2 is in the books. Another pretty good brew day overall. I'm happy with it, but there are still parts of the process that I want to clean up. I had a small stuck sparge but was able to get out of it by moving the grains around, but it taught me a lot about how my mash tun works so I can avoid that in the future (see below).

My original gravity came up a few points short of where I wanted to be but that could have been due to a little extra volume of water post boil. I left a lot of trub in the kettle, which I typically don't do, cause I wanted to test to see if I get a cleaner product in the end.

Just getting to the boiling point.

Above you can see how my braid came out of the grain bed. Next time I need to just spin it/bend it so that it turns down below the grains. Once the tip was exposed to air, that's when I had issue with the sparge. After I got it back below the grain bed, all was fine.

A 1L starter just before putting it on a stir plate.

Here's the recipe for this Brew Day

FL Cream Ale

Recipe Specs

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Batch Size (G):           5.25
Total Grain (lb):         8.750
Total Hops (oz):          1.00
Original Gravity (OG):    1.046  (°P): 11.4
Colour (SRM):             4.2   (EBC): 8.3
Bitterness (IBU):         17.5   (Average)
Boil Time (Minutes):      70

Grain Bill

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4.500 lb American 2-Row (51.43%)
2.000 lb Vienna (22.86%)
1.500 lb Flaked Corn (17.14%)
0.750 lb Crystal 10 (8.57%)

Hop Bill

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0.5 oz Cluster Pellet (7.6% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil)

0.5 oz Mt. Hood Pellet (4.7% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes (Boil)

Misc Bill

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Single step Infusion at 150°F for 60 Minutes.

Fermented at 66°F with Wyeast 1056 - American Ale (1L Starter)