Brew Project

Brew Project.

So after doing a handful of extract only batches many years ago when I was back in college I have recently decided to revisit the buckets and see if my skills and understanding of the process can result in a better product.

Currently I am on my third batch of Pale Ales and have slowly gone from a partial grain batch to get things going to my most recent batch which was 9# grain and only 2# DME.

Im calling the beer 

Hop Rankin' 

Batch One (Citra)

Batch Two (Citra Pale w/ Amarillo Dry Hopping)

Batch Three (Simco)

I've overall been pretty impressed and inspired with the outcomes. Batch one fresh out of the gate was a CITRA bomb, so juicy and delicious. Batch two had a stale malt flavor that was a bit unappealing but the amarillo character was a pretty excellent balance to the juicy citra, adding a bit more resiny earth and bitter orange pith. I was pretty confident after consulting some professionals that the undesired flavors that were coming through in the second batch had a lot to do with the extract.  The whole brewing process is definitely a good education and it is also making my palate more mature as well as giving me great information about different hop varietals and the individual characters and attributes that they hold. 

My first brewing equipment upgrade was a wort chiller... after batch one took 4-6 hours of ice bath to cool down I splurged the $60 for this immersion chiller and it took the 

cool down time down to 20-30 minutes !

Batch two goes into the fermentor and yeast is added!

24 hours into the magic of fermentation !

After 7 days there was an Amarillo dry hop addition... then onto bottling Batch two seven days after dry hopping.

Always smells delicious during the transfer !

Today I bottled Batch three... All Simco with a much heavier partial mash and just a couple pounds of DME addition. 

Touch lighter in color already and hop profile seems pretty dialed in pre-carbonation !

  

A quick glimpse and overview of the project up till now. I will get more in depth about methods and outcomes in upcoming posts. May even brew up an all brett version in the next few days !