It was the equipment all along.

The grain mill was not to blame for efficiency problems.  The grist was fine, dusty, and pretty well the grains were cracked open.  This pretty much was a hollow victory since I was still wondering what was going on but at least I know it is not the grain mill.  When I brewed my honey nut brown ale I squeezed the brew bag like the dickens after I sparged and I got 60-some percent so I now figure it is my equipment and is it is not efficiency friendly.  60% and above is not bad, since I don't have the proper equipment, so I am not going to complain.
Just bottled my orange wheat and I am loving it so far.  Not only am I getting started on developing a great summer beer, that may even be competition worthy, but it gives me a good base on a cascade IPA that I would like to make.  Slowly but surely I am turning into a brewer and the more I open myself up to learning recipes and just brewing the more become competent.  Hopefully the more secure I feel in my adventures the more likely it will lead to some professional brewing later on.

Happy accidents may not be accidents after all

When I made my orange wheat (which is turning out really well) my efficiency was really low and I thought it was something I was doing wrong.  The stout I made yesterday ran into the same problem so I am thinking it might not be me after all.  It could still be me but now that two batches in a row have ran into issues I have done some research.  I don't use mash tuns, since I brew one gallon batches, so using a strainer and sparging water over the grains could be it BUT I had a string of normal efficiency batches so I should look elsewhere.  The first issue to look at is the grain mill.  The mill might not be holding its size and needs adjusting.  I use the LHBS, or local home brewers store, as my grain mill location so now I have to look into how often, if at all, they adjust.  Hopefully it will help in solving the issue.  Low efficiency does not mean bad beer, but as someone who wants to keep up quality and consistency, it is important to keep the process at a top level.  Other problems could be water temperature, mash time and temperature, hydrometer.  Those, I do not believe, are so much the problem, so I will start with the grain mill.
I will report back tomorrow after I get my grains.  On deck for next week: Honey nut brown ale!

Happy accidents

Too bad not all accidents are happy ones but at least I can say mine was a happy one.  I made my orange wheat beer yesterday and had to adjust the grain bill.  Most wheat beer recipes call for 50% wheat malt at the most and I had 60%.  I added more 2-row, honey malt, and carapils and brought the wheat malt to 51%.  By increasing the other grains I bumped up my estimated ABV to 5% and I wanted to keep it just above 4% since I wanted a good summer drinking beer that was not strong.  Well, somewhere in my sparging I did not get the efficiency number and this will lower the alcohol level to probably just under 4%.
This accident is giving me the end result but at a cost.  I just hope that my next batch (vanilla bean stout) will hit the efficiency number and I am not doing something horribly wrong.

Happy Friday!

Back to Brewing!

Brewing every other week is nice since it does free up time to think of recipes and research but it is really slowing down my production.  Oh well.  Extract stout is moved to secondary but yeast was getting into the siphon and clogging it up.  It created air bubbles but hopefully not enough to really change the end product.  I am brewing a nut brown ale tomorrow and I am excited.  Why?  Well, not only am I finally brewing after two weeks BUT I am brewing another recipe from scratch that is not a stout!

I did learn something while I was milling my grains...pay attention to what grains you are measuring out!  I thought I was measuring out Maris Otter and needed 11 ounces but I was, in fact, measuring crystal 60 malt and I only needed an ounce.  Hopefully I fixed it well enough that it won't change anything but what a lesson to learn.

The first stout I attempted to make, stout v1.0, tastes fantastic despite it being a 3.2 beer.  It has a very espresso quality that I might exploit in future batches.

Cheers for now!

Letting the beer rest for a bit.

After brewing a batch of beer a week for the past five weeks I am taking a little rest for a week or two.  I would like the beers I do have in the fermentors to get bottled and get myself geared up for the swamp cooler that I am going to use during my fermentation.  The beer, so far, is drinkable.  With that being said I do have so much more to learn and do before the beer will come out to a level that I feel comfortable with so I can share the beer with others.  My technique and procedures have been improving but I can always get better.
So far they are overly "malty" on taste and texture and probably due to how warm they are fermenting.  As of now they just sit in the basement with ambient temperature at 66 F, which means they are fermenting at 71-74 F and that is about 10 degrees too warm, and this where the swamp cooler will come in.
So far it has been just the extract brews so we will see in a couple weeks if the all grain beers turn out the same.
Taking a break from brewing will give me time to plan on what else I am going to brew and get a schedule down too.  I'm still going to work on the stout but a brown ale is something I will be working on.  I want to make a nut brown ale with honey and possibly cinnamon but I think I am getting away from natural beer flavors with adding too many flavors.  If I work on the wild rice beer as a third recipe and brew every other week I should have a nice schedule that will give the beer time to develop before I do anything else to that recipe.  If I get really ambitious I could on a forth and do an IPA.  Normally not a fan of IPA but would be nice to have one just to change from the dark beers.
Today I am bottling my German Blonde and bottling my first batch of stout on Monday.  If I get tired of not brewing I will brew the stout again on Tuesday.

Happy Hump Day!

The first batch of all grain and my first recipe.

Oh the lessons we learn!  This is one of the many reasons why I love homebrewing so much.  I learned a lot brewing my first all grain brew yesterday and with learning comes improvement.  I'll quickly break down the day's event:

First of all, I don't have all of the equipment that I need.  Well, I do, but they are just pots and strainers that I borrowed.  It was interesting in my rush to find what I needed but I did find everything that I needed so it eventually worked out.

Being that I am using the BIAB (brew in a bag) method I did not know that the straining bag I bought was in fact a BAG!  I thought it was just a giant piece of cloth that awkwardly "fit" inside the kettle.  Nothing is foolproof.

I didn't use all my sparge water and I was way under my finish amount.

My efficiency number was incredibly low.  This is probably due to not using the straining bag properly and not using my sparge correctly.

With the issues I had yesterday the beer should still turn out just fine, just not at 100% quality, and being my own recipe I am so far pleased with the result.  We will see once it is done fermenting in a few days how it turns out but I have mostly high hopes.  Now I know I need to use the bag correctly and use my sparge water correctly and this should increase the efficiency and quality of my beer.

And just like that I learned from my mistakes!  Every venture comes with the risk of underachievement to failure but if we cannot see where we faulted then we will never change what we are doing.  Homebrewing is such a high reward hobby and the risk of underachieving decreases with every brewday but you have to keep brewing.  I know I will.

OH!  If you haven't noticed, stout won the poll.  Okay, stout and wild rice ale tied at two votes a piece but being the brewmaster I went with stout.  Mistakes are well hidden, I do have flavors of stouts I want to shoot for later, and wild rice ale is a relativly new concept in brewing so it outside my comfort zone for now.

Northern Brewer just came out with more one gallon recipe kits and I just might pick some up.  Other future plans include tinkering my stout recipe, adding aromatic malts to the stout, and possibly a porter.

Happy brewing!

Stepping up to all grain brewing!

As I get near my next brew day I start to realize, I am down to my last recipe kit and have to make a decision: buy more kits or buy ingredients?  Luckily for me I do not need to purchase much more to start to brew all grain so I think it is time.  Now, the big question is, what do I brew?

I have three directions I would like to go:
1) stout
2) brown ale
3) wild rice ale

The direction would result in a few different variations of the style so once I decide what to do I will be on that style for a few batches.

So let me hear your voice!  Answer the poll on the right side and let me know what style I should take on first!

If you have any suggestions on flavors within the styles let me know!

The First Brew!

Just a quick rundown of how I am going to keep this blog page going.

The "What's Brewing!" section will have what I am currently brewing with its current brew log and notes and the "What I Brewed" section will have what I have bottled.

So as of right now I have my Caribou Slobber in the primary fermenter and just getting ready to rack it to the secondary.

In celebration of my first homebrewing experience I have posted some pictures here of the Caribou Slobber brew day.

Also, if anyone is interested in following me on Twitter you can! @thenerdygnome

All brews start with a passion.

So here is to my adventure into homebrewing!  Beer has turned into something of a passion since the days of drinking the cheapest stuff to get drunk at all the parties are done.  Not saying I don't enjoy the occasional Hamm's every now and then but there is something about beer that people just don't see...or taste.  Luckily my enjoyment of trying new and different beers has lead me to now making my own beers and I hope to share this adventure and everyone gets enjoyment out of the process and probably my missteps since I am still learning.


A Little About Myself

As you may have wondered, my friends call me a gnome as a term of endearment, I hope, but I have ran with that nickname.  I am short and stocky and most of my interests peak on the nerdy side so being called Nerdy Gnome is rather appropriate.
I enjoy beer, mostly porters and stouts.  Hop beers, such as IPAs, are not my cup of brew but I do appreciate them.  What kind of beer lover would I be if I detested certain types of brew?
I am just learning so most of my brews are probably going to be safe as in terms of flavor and what I add to it.  I took an intro to homebrew course at our local community college and am currently taking the advanced course so for the most part I know what I am doing.  Brewing beer is easy, it's just the technique and implementing the process is what takes practice, but over time and a couple more "brew days" I should have it down to where I can increase my game, sort of speak, since I am currently using recipes and extract kits.  I do plan on going to all grain and making brews from scratch, even if I do use recipes, then eventually try some of my own recipes.
I would like to get good enough to have my brew in the local bars and go into business for myself.  This is many years down the road but a gnome can dream.  Even if it doesn't get to that level at least I learned to brew beer so I can enjoy what I love and share that with others.

Some people give me a hard time since I am brewing one gallon batches instead of the traditional five gallon batches.  Space and money are the two biggest factors contributing to my decision to go with the one gallon setup, but this is for another discussion.

So here is to learning new things and a new adventure!

Relax and have a homebrew!