Aqua Vitae

English-Style Extra Special Bitter

Brewed 8/19/06 - Dewey Brewery
corrected O.G. 1.059 (Target 1.060-64)

A. Prep - 2 gal - (3gal slr kettle) pre-biol water, cool in sink with ice, clean out freezer, cool in freezer with chicken stock and vegtables (in separate containers, of course).

1. Mash - (another 3gal slr kettle) heated 3qt water @ 175ºF on stove top, stirred into grains, steeped in oven for 45min @ 150ºF (”warm” on dial). Note: Nathan would do it a different way next time (cooler or stove top?) because he thought the too much liquid evaporated.

2. Sparge - 2gal water @ 165 (3gal slr kettle), large cooling rack across top of 5gal blk kettle, lg colandar on top of cooling rack, straining bag in colindar. Note: this contraption worked fine, but could be much simplified by a colindar that fit snuggly inside the wort kettle. I would keep the straining bag in the colindar, since it made clean up easy.

3. Boil - (5gal blk kettle) bring liquid to boil, remove from heat add salts & powdered extract. return to boil, water for hot break, assume we must have missed it, since the foam subsided, but we didn’t see any protien, Add bittering hops. Begin timing. @15min add flavoring hops. @1hr, remove from heat, add aroma hops. Note: this step went fine.

4. Cooling - transfer kettle to sink planning to run cool water over kettle to cool; realize faucet won’t clear top of kettle; scurry to the bathroom to run shower over kettle; fear that water will run under cover and contaminate the wort; fill tub with cold water; worry that kettle, which is now floating, will tip; give up on cooling in kettle; add cold water (from step A) to fermenter, pour in wort, top up to 5gal with additional boiling water. Aerate by stirring. Temp at approx 110º; place fermenter in plastic tub, fill with cold water; add trays of ice, blue ice packs and contemplate bags of frozen vegetables; Temp at approx. 100º; panic; rush to store to buy ice; add 15lbs of ice to bucket; have fine Cadenhead’s Islay scotch; Temp at approx 70º in 1.5hrs from boil to pitching. Note: this was not the smoothest process. We definitely need a wort chiller to get the temp down within 20min after boiling. It would have helped to have enough cooled water on hand and ice. Also, having tested the water tightness of the wort kettle lid before it went into the tub would have been a good idea. Nathan thinks we should have aerated better.

5. Pitching - shake and pour liquid yeast into fermenter, rinsing vilal with some wort. Realise that maybe I shouldn’t have been playing with the yeast and shaking it a couple of hours earlier, since it seems to have already activated and begun to foam, though maybe that had to do with the heat in the kitchen… Note: this step went fine other than getting a mouthful of wort while syphoning. Definitely need to get a syphon starter.

6. Primary Fermentation - moved to basement, approx 72º

• 24hrs: no noticable activity. Perhaps some presure build up
• 36hrs: foam has risen in the fermenter by about a gallon, airlock show some signs of having bubbled, but still havn’t seen any activity in the airlock.
• 72hrs: foam is high (still one gal), but no sign of activity in the airlock, concerned that the fermenter may not have an airtight seal. Foam indicates that yeast is working. Can smell slight scent of wort around the edge of the lid. Keeping fingers crossed… may peak in at 5 days.
• 5 days: have determined that the wort is probably OK. It is unlikely that it got contaminated even with the non-airtight fermenter. However, Next time, I will switch to a carboy fermenter for the primary. Could probably transfer to 2nd today, but don’t have time.

Next Steps:
7. Secondary Fermentation - after reading this. I’m considering leaving the wort in the primary fermenter for 10 days (since we’ll be away, original plan was transfer at 5 days), seems to imply that I will be fine leaving it in the primary fermenter a few extra days.

• 10 days: Transfer to 2nd fermentor (carboy) corrected specifc gravity = 1.012; left 1/3 gal trub; tasty as heck, nice and hoppy. carboy has more head space than I’d like, should try for a slightly larger batch next time.
• 11 days: 2nd ferm is bubbling- a good sign, indicated that the yeast is still working and that the 1st ferm was definitely the problem.
• 17 days (7 days in 2nd ferm): ferm is very slow, too slow to see activity in the airlock, but bubbles are still forming on the surface, pressure in the lock hasn’t balanced, and the beer hasn’t cleared yet. Hopefully, it’ll be ready for bottling this weekend.

After reviewing Palmer’s chapter on secondary fermenting and conditioning, I think I may cold-condition the beer for the remaining 4-5 days. Seems like a good 3 week fermentation would look like this:

• week 1: Primary fermenter - 68-72º
• week 2: Secondary fermenter - 68-72º
• week 3: Secondary fermenter/Cold-conditioning - 55-62º

The cold-conditioning should clear the beer more quickly. I would do it for another 7 days, but the beer has already been fermenting for 17-18 days and I want to bottle within the 3 week window. Longer, seems to risk the development of too many off flavors.
8. Bottling
9. Conditioning
10. Drinking
11. Drinking
12. Drinking
13. Scratching fat belly
14. Drinking
15. Brewing more beer