Home Brew: Cream Ale - Update: Beer Bottled!

[Irish]

The last time I posted a home brew, a few of you asked me to take some pictures on brew day, so here they are. The wifey gave me an early Father's Day - her and the MIL took the kids out to see some relatives for the day, so I had an entire Sunday to myself! Being it was a beautiful day, I figured it was about time I got around to making a new batch of beer.

My last brew was during the winter, so this was my first opportunity to brew outside using the propane turkey fryer setup:

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_4784.jpg

Everything's been clean, sanitized & laid out for the brew boil. Here are some of the brew tools (stirring spoon, measure cups, thermometer, etc.)
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_4786.jpg

Brewing up another extract kit again, this was the other beer kit I ordered when I bought the original setup a few months back. This time it'll be a Cream Ale from Midwest Brewing:

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_4788.jpg

Before getting starting in preparing the ingredients to boil, the brewing yeast needs to be re-hydrated to make sure it's good to use:

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Once re-hydrated, I added a bit of the extract to "proof" the yeast and make sure they were good and hungry. After about 20 minutes, the yeast was frothing away and ready to go:

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_4836.jpg

Now we're ready to begin preparing for the boil. First things first though, nothing adds to a good brew day better than a good cigar and a beer. :D I had a few leftover bottles of Yuengling from the previous day's picnic

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_4800.jpg

This recipe came with grain that needed to be steeped before adding the extract. So, I added the crushed grain to a muslin bag and steeped for about 25 minutes @ 155F. Steeping grain is similar to how you would prepare a cup of tea with a tea bag. This draws out some of the flavor from the grain and allows for a more dynamic flavor that you wouldn't get from brewing with extract alone. The large turkey fryer pot allowed me to do an almost complete boil - I used a little under 5 gallons of water for the boil.

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After the grains have been steeped, the water is brought to a boil and then removed from the heat. Next, the malt extract is slowly mixed into the steeped water to form the wort:

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The wort is then brought to a boil. Now it's time to add the bittering hops. This recipe called for between 0.5-1.0 oz of Cascade bitter hops. I put the pellet hops into a nylon boiling bag so that I could remove them after the boil and decrease the amount of junk that needs to settle out during fermentation.

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Thus begins the 60 minute timed boil. Time to kick back a bit and relax while keeping on eye out for boil-overs.

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After I got about half-way through that bottle of Yuengling, I'm now remembering why I usually never buy it. So I skull the rest of the swill and crack open one of the few remaining bottles of my first home brew. Much better... :mrgreen:

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_4804.jpg

The last 2 minutes of the boil, the aroma hops (in this case, another ounce of Cascade hops) are added to the boil for flavoring. During the boil, I also start preparing means to cool off the wort after boil. I haven't invested in one of those fancy pants wort chillers yet, so my cooler is a just a bin full of ice & water.

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_4831.jpg

Alrighty, the boil is over. Now the wort must be chilled from about 180-200F to under 80-90F before the yeast can be added. Chilling the beer quickly is important as the rapid cooling helps certain proteins to solidify and drop out of the solution, making for a better tasting and clearer beer.

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_4832.jpg

Down to under 90F in about 20 minutes - not bad for just an ice bath:

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_4833.jpg

I let it sit for another 15 minutes or so to cool off some more and to allow the suspended hop particles to settle to the bottom of the pot. Then, I poured the wort into the fermenter, a food grade plastic bucket. The pour is meant to be vigorous to help aerate the beer to provide oxygen for the yeast to do their thing.

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Nice frothy beer. I added another gallon of previously boiled water to the original 5 gallon batch, as about 3/4 of a gallon had evaporated during the boil. This way I get a full gallon batch when I'm done.

Next, I used a beer thief and extracted a small sample to do a specific gravity test (gauges alcohol content). This reading is used as a basis to help determine when fermentation is done in about in a week or two.

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Got a reading of about 1.41 @ 85 degrees, which is right on target according to the recipe.

Next, the yeast is pitched into the cooled wort:

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_4839.jpg

And the lid is secured into place. The little plastic thing sticking out of the lid is an airlock. This relieves any CO2 pressure buildup during fermentation without letting oxygen into the fermenter.

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_4848.jpg

In several hours, the air lock should start bubbling, indicating that the yeast are starting to turn the malt sugars into alcohol. In about a week, once the bubbling starts to decline, I'll take a few specific gravity samples to ensure that fermentation is complete, then transfer the beer from this primary bucket fermenter to a secondary carboy (Better Bottle).

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_4849.jpg

More to come...

[Quads]

I love these type threads.

[gator20]

Awesome Irish. What setup is that?

[Irish]

I started with the intermediate starter kit from midwest home brew and added ports for the better bottles: http://www.midwestsupplies.com/products/ProdByID.aspx?ProdID=3316

The brew pot / burner setup is just a standard turkey fryer setup. I picked up mine right after thanksgiving on clearance for something like $25.

[Blake]

Midwest is the shiznits....

[Warmage]

Are you using rock salt in your ice bath to bring the temp down, so the wort cools quicker?

[Irish]

Are you using rock salt in your ice bath to bring the temp down, so the wort cools quicker?

Nope, just lots of ice and water and a bit of stirring of both the wort and the ice bath, and not with the same spoon... ;)

I checked the air lock when I got home last night and it was happily bubbling away, looking good.

[Irish]

I forgot to update this thread a few weeks back, my computer crashed and it took me a while to get my photos up. So today I'll post both the transfer to the secondary fermenter and bottling day. brb...

[Irish]

06/17/09 - Transfer to Secondary Fermenter

OK, the brew has been chillin' in the plastic fermenting bucket for a little over a week. Now we have to transfer the beer from that bucket to a secondary fermenter. This gets the beer off the trub, which is all the leftover junk like hops and break material from the boil that's settled on the bottom of the bucket. Leaving the beer in the bucket with the trub for longer than a week or so will sometimes give it an off flavor - so, once the active fermentation is done, it's siphoned out of the primary fermenting bucket into a secondary fermenter, leaving the trub behind. The beer will then be stored in the secondary fermenter for a couple weeks, allowing for the beer to condition.

Conditioning allows the yeast, who have been vigorously turning all of the primary sugar to booze during primary fermentation, to slow down and start to digest some of the larger sugar stores and primary fermentation bi-products. Conditioning also gives the beer more time to settle out, allowing for a clearer beer.

First, we carefully pop open the primary bucket lid and take a quick sample for checking the specific gravity to ensure that primary fermentation is complete. Most of the time, it's evident that fermentation is complete by the lack of bubbles coming out of the air lock, so this is just a quick check to make sure that something hasn't gone wrong (like the yeast went into hibernation due to cool temps).

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_4881.jpg

Got reading of about 1.1, which is in line with what the recipe calls for.
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_4882.jpg

In the meantime, the secondary fermenter and syphon are sanitized with Starsan. I have a "Better Bottle" for a secondary fermenter, which is basically a PET plastic version of the old skool glass carboys. They're nice because they're really light weight and not prone to cracking or shattering like the heavy duty glass carboys.
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_4884.jpg

My kit came with this neat little gizmo called an auto-siphon used to siphon the beer out of the bucket. Make this step really easy and doesn't compromise the beer to any sources of contamination. So we slowly siphon the beer out of the bucket and into the secondary fermenter:

Beer transferring:
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_4887.jpg

Auto-siphon:
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_4888.jpg

Beer filling up the Better Bottle:
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_4889.jpg

All transferred and capped off with another air lock:
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_4890.jpg

Here's what's left over in the bucket:
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_4893.jpg

You can see all the trub that's settled out of the beer.

Last but probably most importantly, the primary bucket and all the equipment used are cleaned off and soaked in oxy-clean for the next batch. Properly cleaned and sanitized equipment is a key part of brewing beer.

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_4894.jpg

The beer will be left to condition for another 2 weeks, and afterwords primed and bottled.

[Irish]

07/05/09 - Bottling Day

It's been over two weeks since transferring the beer into the secondary fermenter, and now it's time to prime and bottle the beer. I brought up the Better Bottle from the basement up to the kitchen where I bottle a few hours before bottling so that sediment that was stirred up would get a chance to settle back down.

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_5017.jpg

Next, I dissolved the packet of cane sugar I got with the recipe kit in a cup of boiling water.

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_5018.jpg

This is the priming solution that will be added to the beer - the infusion of pure sugar at this stage will kick the remaining yeast back into action to carbonate the beer in the bottle.

While that's cooling, the next step is to sanitize the bottling bucket and tubing:

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_5021.jpg

Earlier in the day, I stuck all of the bottles in the dishwasher and ran them through on the sanitize cycle to sanitize them:

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_5019.jpg

Once the sugar water has cooled, that's poured into the bottling bucket. Then, the beer is added, whirl pooling it into the bucket so it mixes with the priming solution without adding oxygen to the beer:

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_5024.jpg

Whirl pool mixing the priming sugar with the beer:

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_5025.jpg

My Better Bottles are ported with high flow valves. They have a racking adapter so you can literally get every ounce of beer out of the bottle without having to tip it over:

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_5027.jpg

Beer all transferred into the bottling bucket:

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_5030.jpg

At this point I take a few minutes to clean out the Better Bottle and let it soak. I also dropped the bottle caps into a bowl of Starsan sanitizer. Everything the touches the beer after the boil needs to be sanitized to prevent infection.

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_5031.jpg

Here's my bottling setup. Since I use the dishwasher to sanitize the bottles, I do the bottling right here. Bottling can be a little messy, but by doing it over the dishwasher door, any spillage goes right into the dishwasher, so there's no mess to clean up.

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_5035.jpg

I took another quick specific gravity reading, right at 1.15, which is close to what the recipe called for a final gravity. Plus it gives me an excuse to take a sample and taste the beer. Pretty good. :mrgreen:

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_5034.jpg

I attached a bottle wand to the spigot of the bottling bucket. The wand has a stopper at the base that controls the flow of the beer out of the wand. So, you turn the spigot on, insert the bottle wand into a bottle and touch the bottom of the bottle to start filling. When it's full you pull the bottle off and put it aside for capping.

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_5039.jpg

I typically fill about a dozen bottles, then move over to my capping station and cap the group off:

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All the beers bottled up, I got two full cases out of the batch:

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_5041.jpg

It'll take a couple of weeks for the bottles to carbonate, then they'll be ready to refrigerate and drink.

[T]

This is a great thread Irish. Thanks for detailing the steps. Pretty cool!

T

[Aust1227]

I like the idea of a bottling over the diswasher. Well played.

Great post and very nice pictures.

[Doctor_XXX]

Great thread...nice work. I NEVER remember to take pix of stuff like this. Really good job.

One thing, tho...
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_5037.jpg
You've GOTTA get a better capper than that! Maybe a table-top model, like this:
http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa297/Doctor_XXX/capper.jpg
:mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen:

[Irish]

Thanks guys, I consider this the "poor man's alternative" to having a sweet rig like aust has. :mrgreen:

That capper actually isn't that bad once you get the hang of it. I think it took me about an hour and a half total on bottling day, of which about 30 minutes was actually spent filling and capping the bottles. With the system I've got going (filling a dozen, capping a dozen), it's like a little assembly line and I'm done in no time.

A bench capper would be nice, but I think I may put those funds towards either a wort chiller or possibly a few kegs. I'd ideally like to split a batch into a small keg for home and a few six packs to grab when I'm heading out to play cards.

[MisterShark]

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd106/irishpenguin75/Beer/IMG_5041.jpg

It'll take a couple of weeks for the bottles to carbonate, then they'll be ready to refrigerate and drink.

Doh! :x

A couple of weeks! I was reading through this and licking my chops at the prospect of trying some of that delicious brew at tomorrow night's game.

Shattered dreams :cry: