Red Face V2
It's been a few weekends now, but we brewed up our second round of the Red Face Ale and all went well. Nick and Byran were at my place bright and early for the brew day. This was Bryan's second time really brewing the all-grain way and he seems to be getting it down.
For this brew day, instead of doing two different brews, we decided to just brew one kind and make 30 gallons of it so we could each get 10 gallons of Red Face for our selves. To achieve this, we essentially made a 20 gallon batch and a 10 gallon batch. One interesting note was that with the 20 gallon batch we just used cascade for the flavor hops. With the 10 gallon batch, we used only Liberty for the flavor. I wanted to see what the character of each of the hops was.
We made some adjustments to the recipe on this one, replacing the black patent with chocolate and using a 45L crystal instead of the 10L. Both of the batches had the same malt profile:
10 Gal
18.5 lbs 2-row US
3.5 lbs Crystal 45L
3.5 lbs Munich
.25 lbs Chocolate
2oz Pearle (60 min)
.55oz Brewers Gold (60 min)
.55oz Amarillo (40 min)
1oz Liberty (1min to cool down)
Wyeast 1056 (American Ale)
20 Gal
Double the grain bill above and replace the Liberty with 3oz of Cascade
Overall it was a pretty good brew day. The OG for the 20 gal batch was 1.054 and the OG for the 10 gal was 1.048 (I forgot why it worked out that way, this is why I usually do my blog posts right after I brew). Both were spot on and yielded 10 gallons for each of us. I have since racked mine to the keg and tasted the two of them back to back.
The 20gal finished with1.014 and the 10 gallon finished with 1.007 so they are pretty close on ABV, but the 20 gallon (cascade) one is noticeably more full bodied. The 10 gallon (liberty) batch has a lighter mouth feel and lacks a lot of the character of the cascade brew. However, it's a lighter more drinkable brew for the summer.
In any event, they are both pretty good brews. I am going to be happy. On another note, I just picked up 22lbs of wild flower honey from the Regional Market. It's Melomel time!
Cheers!
6 comments:
Wow. Looks like you're getting serious up there, Sir Travis. I hate to admit it, but I'm impressed. 30 gallons? That's practically a frat party right there!
Yea we pretty much kick ass. I will post pictures of the keg stands next time.
The scale of your brews is most definately impressive. We have been thinking of scaling up if for no other reason than to get more than a case of beer each out of a batch. Where did you get your kegs to convert to kettles?
That is a great question. With the price of raw materials, you are going to have to pay $30 per keg for a deposit. The first one I got was only $10. I would say go to any place that sells kegs and ask if you can buy an empty one. Some will let you, others will not.
Travis its been a few weeks but I think there was another pound or so of grain that we were supposed to grind and throw in the 10 gallon batch.
How about a picture of the finished brew in a clear glass? It would be nice to see the finished product.
-- Joe
Post a Comment