Aqua Vitae

Last night I was drinking one of the Pale Ales that I brewed last August, and I noticed a hint of a certain flavor that I have noticed quite strongly in the Belgian Abbey Ale that I’d brewed just after that. It’s a flavor which is hard for me to describe, a kind of musty, […]

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On Friday I brewed an Oatmeal Stout using a recipe from Clone Brews. It’s a Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal Stout clone. Everything worked out pretty well. It was the first time I used the new mash tun Peter helped me build. I ended up steeping ~5 pounds of grain in 5 quarts of water, which made […]

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I inherited my dad’s brewing collection including plenty of bottles. I now have over 12 cases of empties. I hope never to see a beer label again.
I also build up the BBB starter on 11/23 and made a batch of beer bread on 11/26. The beer bread was pretty good, but not malty enough. Next […]

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11/24/06 - Bottled Steam Beer with 7/8 cup of corn sugar
FG: 1.014 (predicted 1.011-12)
ABV: 4.67% (predicted 4.8%)

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Aeration system (nb#7862*)
carboy cap w/ thermometer probe (nb#40054 or morebeer)
pH meter (nb#7444*)
Brix refractometer (nb#7402 or morebeer)
small glass thief (nb#7430)
filter (nb#7861*)
racking cane (nb#7113)
smaller mash tun spigot (hardware store)
10 gal cooler (ace hardware)
cooler bulkhead (nb*)
tubing

racking cane replacement
bottling bucket outflow
mash tun outflow (high temp)

2000ml Erlenmeyer flask (nb #7108)?
foam stopper (nb #7090)
false bottom (nb #7527)
10 gal brew pot
ring […]

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Tonight I added a second batch of wort to the Bluebird Bitter starter and transferred the Steam beer to the secondary fermenter.
Earlier I’d determined that 1oz of DME to 1cup of water equaled 1.044 SG, so I made a pint of starter with 2oz of DME in a pint of water. Since the Bluebird bitter […]

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