Hopdate 3.0

Cascades (the two on the left) are picking up steam, the Mt. Hood (big one in the middle right) is booming, and the poor Sterling (right) is showing signs of failure :) (Brewer's Gold not pictured because it was planted too late is still pretty small).

Hefeweizen...oh Sweet, Refreshing Hefeweizen!----errrr. Bock or Dunkleweizen

Mike McClung and I finally found a time for us to brew together...we made a Hef.

Ingredients:

Grain:

4 lbs Pilsen Malt

6 lbs Wheat Malt

Hops:
.6 oz Hallertauer Mittelfrueh @ 60 min

.6 oz Hallertauer Mittelfrueh @ flame out

Yeast:

Wyeast Bavarian Wheat Blend 3056

Extras:

Whirlfloc @15 min

Wyeast yeast nutrient @15 min

Water:
1.15 quart water to grain

3.20 gallons of water @ 180 to start and mashed for 60 min, collected just over 2 gallons.

4 gallons of sparge @190, finished with just over 6 gallons.

Notes:

7-14-2010--Everything went off without a hitch. We started a little late so I didn't finish cleaning up till 11:30 pm. Color looks good.
7-24-2010--Kegged. Looks a little light, but we'll see.
8-8-2010--Yeah, it's a bit light. I think I'm going to try to reboil adding some wheat LME and let it re-ferment. I'm sure it won't work, but it'll be better than tossing it without an effort.
8-16-2010--Boiled 3 lbs of wheat extract into around 2 gallons of the Hef, chilled and pitched the (suuper yeasty) rest of the hef. We'll see.
8-25-2010--Well. I kegged it (again). I tastes sweet still. I took a reading and it was at 1.020. I forgot to take one before I tried to re-ferment. There wasn't much airlock activity, but there is a good amount of yeast at both the top and the bottom of the bucket.
9-4-2010--Well. My Hef has turned into a Dunkelweizen or a Bock. It's good, but not great.

Rouge's Shakespeare Stout Clone 1.2

Same recipe as before

Grains:
11 lbs Rahr 2-row pale
.5 lbs Briess 120L Crystal
.5 lbs Simpson chocolate 412L
1 lbs flaked oats6 oz Roast Barley 550L (up from 3oz as recommended by Don Osborne)

Hops:
2 oz Cascade @ 60
1 oz Cascade @ 30
.5 Cascade @ 2
Water:
Here's where I differed from last time.
1.25 quart to grist, so...
4.2 gallons at 180ish for 60 minutes
1 gallons for grain absorption after 60 minutes
pulled out just about 4 gallons.
3 gallons of spargepulled out another
2.5 gallons

Extras:
White Labs yeast nutrient @ 15
Whirlfloc tablet @ 15 min
Yeast:
Pacman yeast from the ESB I made in February, that was from the Stout 1.0...circle of life :)

Notes:
7-2-2010--Everything was going fine until I started chilling the wort. I've been racking my brain lately trying to think of ways to conserve water better (the water in my rain barrel is too warm to use anymore). I tried putting the sprayer head on "mist" so it would put out less water, and therefore, use less. BUT...the pressure in the line caused the line to explode!
I had to improvise. I went to the store and got some ice to make an ice bath. After a couple hours, the ice had melted and the wort was only down to 140. I tried putting it in the fridge, but it wouldn't fit, so it was back to the store for more ice. After 3 more hours, it was down to 71.2...close enough.
I pitched the yeast (which was clumpy) and stirred.
7-3-2010--Fermenting away. Since it's summer, I am able to let it ferment in the garage. Which is nice since there is something in the smell of fermenting beer that makes pregg-o Emilie heave her guts.
7-8-2010--Heat wave 2010 has struck PDX and I had this brewing in the garage, thus, it's finished in a couple days. Fermenting from 70-95 degrees...FG: 1.010. Tastes really good already.

7-28-2010--Turned out to be a wonderfully drinkable beer. A lot like the last one.
8-25-2010--Almost finished with round 2. I'm going to make this one a house ale.