Good Bad & The Monkey
It takes me just a few minutes. I use a funnel. It gives me more time to drink while bottling. I prefer this method to putting it into the carboy, getting it mixed inadequately and possibly disturbing the lees.
Yeah, the sugar dose should be the same white sugar or brown. I suspect that you won't notice much flavor change with that amount of brown sugar unless the beer's body is very very light.
I'm running somewhere tomorrow. It's going to be beautiful. I can't wait.
Poor baby
Prince of Fatness
Yeah, I remember you saying that you didn't rack to a bottling bucket. I use the bucket. I pour half of the sugar water mix in and start siphoning. About half way through I gently pour the other half in. That seems to work. Cool thing is that there are different ways to get to the same place.
Best part was last time I had two neighbors over. One filled and the other capped. I drank beer and barked orders. Good times.
Not at it at all.
OK. I'll try the brown sugar just for the sake of experimentation .... brown ale seems like a good one to try it on.
A final check on the specific gravity predicts up to 7-8% alcohol in this heady brew !
Bottled. A taste revealed a dark toastiness, a soft creaminess and a sucker punch from the robust alcohol. Still needs some time, some bubbles and a bit of chill. But this is looking good!
Nice! The good news is that this is not the time of year for a heavier beer like this one. I imagine that you will have some great tasting beer once the cool weather sets in.
I'll finally getting around to bottling the bitter this weekend, that means it's time to brew another batch. I saw this kit at my LHBS and am thinking of doing an all grain version. It uses 6 pounds of Muntons Wheat DME (55/45) so I am thinking of using 5 pounds wheat malt + 4 pounds pale ale malt in it's place. Sounds like an interesting recipe, perfect for mid summer, I think.
Made this yesterday and narrowly avoided my first blowout. The airlock was bubbling vigorously when I left for work this morning, and when I got home I noticed krauzen in the airlock. I installed a blow off tube and all is well. Good thing that I checked.
Former runner
Ross
Trent, how much molasses did you use, and when did you add it? I am thinking of adding some to a brown ale, but don't think I need as much as you used in that stout. And I won't be using the blackstrap stuff. I don't want it to dominate the beer.
I'm thinking 1/2 cup, which from what I understand is ~6 ounces by weight, added with about 15 minutes left in the boil. Sound about right?
This brown ale won't be nearly as heavy as your stout, so I think that I am OK with 1/2 cup of the regular molasses. I just want to add a hint of flavor. I'm probably a couple of months away from brewing this, I want to brew a couple of lighter batches first.
I'm starting to experiment with American Ales, so my next three batches will be pale, red, then brown. Base malt will be pale malt for all. I'll just tweak the specialty grains and hops as I go. And I will put the molasses in the brown. All just for fun. I'll let you know how it turns out.
Thanks.
My perspective on American Ales is forever shifted after drinking this -
Moon Man A session beer with a bright bold blend of five hops that flirt obligingly with the smooth malty backside.
Beer Advocate:
Holy friggen cow. May be one of the best light-colored beers ever. And totally unique.
A cheap way to go all grain is to make a cooler mash tun. Get a 50 qt+ cooler on sale, add a stainless steel braid and you have a mash tun for under $50. There are a bunch of how-tos out there. This is pretty much the guide I followed. Conversion guide
I decided to give this a try and brewed a batch using this method over the past weekend. I went with the Rubbermaid 10 gallon water cooler. I like it. There are a few reasons that I wanted to give it a shot. First, using the double bucket method I just don't think that I was doing a good job of getting the sugars out of the grains. I couldn't run the water through the grains slow enough and I didn't have a good way of feeding the water into the sparge. This new way I am batch sparging. I take my first runnings and subtract the amount extracted from the total amount I want. I divide that number by two and do two more rinses, mixing well each time. The second reason is that it saves me time. I mash and sparge in the same vessel, so no transferring the mash. Also, after I take the first runnings I can get the boil started on the burner to get it started quicker. Bottom line is this seemed easier to me, and it would be especially easier if I didn't have a helper.
MTA: Another benefit of this method is that it has more capacity for doing heavier beers.