Decided to try and make an amber ale, well ok, it was suggested.

Ingredients:

• 2 Cups 2-Row
• 1 Cup Crisp Brown
• 1/4 Cup Crisp Chocolate
• 1/4 Cup Crisp Crystal 45
• 1/4 Cup CaraMunich I
• 3 Tsp of hops
• 5.5 Quarts of Water
• Pinch of Irish moss.
• Lallemand Munich Ale Yeast

Brewed: 3/28/14

I steeped all of the above grains at 145 degrees for 1 hour, raised temp to 170 and removed grains. Added 1 Tsp of hops when the water started boiling. After 30 minutes added 2 Tsp of hops and a Pinch of Irish moss for 15 minutes. For the yeast I put it in 100ml of water and I also added yeast nutrient(recommended amount). I don’t think that’s what I was suppose to add it too. But oh well. After putting it into the fermenting jug, it doesn’t seem so amber as it seems porter/stout colored. For brown ale v2, I’ll take out the specialty grains out earlier, hopefully I can start that soon.

I finally dumped IDK what I’m doing batch v1. I can’t just leave that 1 gallon container empty! SO, I jumped into IDK what I’m doing batch v3. I added more Wheat/Pilsner more to what was used the first attempt. I also added an orange because I kind of wish for some warmer weather right about now. That just makes me think of summer.

Ingredients:

• 3 Cups Weyermann Pale Wheat Malt
• 2 Cups Weyermann Bohemian Pilsner Malt
• 1/2 Tsp of Hops German Hallertau Hops
• 1 Sliced orange
• Lallemand Munich wheat beer yeast

I brought 5oz of water to 145 +/-2, added the grains in a bag & the sliced orange, steeped for 45 minutes. Bobbing the grains every once in a while. Turned up to high until I got to 180 degrees and then removed the grains. Once I reached a boil I added the hops for 20 minutes. Then cooled to 70 degrees. Put the concoction in the jug ended up adding a little water, pitched the yeast. Discarded the oranges and trub from the bottom. Now waiting to watch the magic.

Bottled; 3/16/2014

Update: 3/29/2014

This batch was also quite light on flavor. During the brewing process the orange was very present in smell. After the fermentation though there doesn’t seem to be a trace of the orange flavoring. It’s better than the wheat v2 but I’m not sure if I’ll dump the batch yet or not, we will see I suppose.

Ok, so I might have jacked the first batch up a whole lot. Ended up scorching the mash and making gravy out of it. Did a little looking around the net and decided to go with what I was originally thinking and doing it in the mesh bag.  So this time around I hopefully did it right.

Ingredients:

• 2 Cups Weyermann Pale Wheat Malt
• 1 3/4 Cups Weyermann Bohemian Pilsner Malt
• 1/2 Tsp of Hops German Hallertau Hops
• Lallemand Munich wheat beer yeast

Brought water to 145 -/+2 degrees.  Steeped grains in Muslin mesh bag for 30 minutes. Removed grains and brought water to a boil(212 degrees). Added hops and boiled for 20 minutes. Cooled the batch and put it in the jug for fermenting, pitched the activated yeast into the batch. The color and consistency was much more appealing than the first IDK batch. Because I wanted to get this batch going I went to the local brewing supply store and picked up the yeast to do so. We will see how this batch turns out.

Bottled; 3/8/2014

Update: 3/29/2014

The end result of this beer was very light in flavor. I lightened the recipe from the original to keep the batch from turning into mush but I seem to have gone overboard. I will likely dump this batch, but hey that’s why I’m doing small batches after all!

I want to start making some wines of my own in addition to my beer brews. First up was pretty simple, a Honey mead.

Ingredients;

• 3 12oz Medford farms Buckwheat honey.
• Lalvin EC-1118 yeast

Poured the Honey into a 1 gallon jug. Filled with cool water from the tap. Shook jug until honey was mixed into the water nicely. Activated and added the yeast to the jug. Air-locked and set aside in the utility sink for fermenting. I was kind of thinking there would have been a little more to this process.

Bottled:5/13/14

I decided the first brews without a kit would be considered the Rich’s IDK what I’m doing brews. This is the second batch I did of this series of IDK. The first was a beer which turned out more like gravy, I’ll be taking that for a round two on Sunday. I picked up the berries at a local farm market Horrocks.

Ingredients;

• 7 6oz Berried Treasure mures premium black berries
• 1 lemon
• Lalvin EC-1118 yeast
• 3lbs of sugar

Brewed 2/21/2014;

I brought 160oz of water to a boil. While the water was heating up I put the berries into a pot and mashed them. I sliced the lemon and added it on top of the mashed blackberries. I stirred in the boiling water, and put a dish cloth over the pot and stored it downstairs. Stirring daily in the morning for 1 week.

Update; 2/25/2014;

Removed the lemon slices from the batch.

After the 1 week I’m planning on adding the sugar. Stirring daily for 1 more week. Then fermenting with the yeast for two months.

Update; 2/28/2014;

Added 3lb’s of Sugar, stirred. Did this for one more week.

Update; 3/7/14

At long last it’s fermenting time! Added yeast nutrient to the jug, activated yeast in warm 100ml of water. Strained wine into jug, pitched yeast.

Bottled; 3/29/14

Looks like the fermenting is done on this batch of wine. Filtered it through a coffee filter and bottled. Used rubber mallet to knock the corks in. Didn’t take much to get them in, recessed them with 1/4″ nut driver. Racked. I’m excited to see how it turns out in a month. I tasted it when I bottled it, kind of tasted a bit like a wine cooler, I feel it’s a little light on the flavor side of things. That seems to be my brewing theme so far, light on flavor, lol.

Here we go. I’m convinced this is a failed brew but I’m going to let it sit anyhow. You’ll quickly understand what I mean by failed and can then shake your head at my stubbornness of letting it go through the process anyhow.

Ingredients:

• 3 1/4 Cups of Weyermann Pale Wheat Malt
• 3 Cups of Weyermann Bohemian Pilsner Malt
• 1 Cup of Rice Husks
• 1/2 Tsp German Hallertau Hops
• Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephan Wheat

Destroyed; 2/21/2014

Brought 160oz of water to a boil(212 degrees) and stirred in the Wheat, Pilsner & Rice husks. Continued the boil for 40 minutes when I noticed s burn smell coming from the brew. Whoops I scorched some of the grains on the bottom. At this time it was already a bit of a oatmeal like glop, Oh boy. Stubborn me said screw it I’m going to finish this brew. Tossed in the Hops and dropped the burner to low. Let that go for about 15 minutes. The Temp was down to 207 degrees. Put the oatmeal like mix through a strainer to another pot. All said and done I had a half a gallon of gravy, that was the consistency at least. I then did what any other IDK what I’m doing stubborn person would do, added cool water thinning the gravy mix. Siphoned the mix into a fermenting jug and pitched in the activated yeast. Set the jug in the utility sink to see what happens.

Update; 2/23/2014

Checked up on this… interesting batch and it appears that the gravy is separating and settling in the jug. A day and a half without a sign of happy fermenting. Going to do some research of how I was suppose to do to this batch and then give it a re-do. Hopefully today. I need to pick up some more yeast for this brew and will try to not destroy the concoction this time.

Update; 2/27/2014

Well, I finally decided to discard this batch and start a new one. It kind of looked like a brain in a jar by the time I decided this. Hopefully mock 2/3 will turn out much better. Well actually they already have, they didn’t look like gravy.

This is my second brew, it’s another kit I purchased from Northern Brewer; Caribou Slobber Brown Ale. This kit was another really basic kit to do. The instructions again were very strait forward and simple. This recipe did involve a few extra steps then the first beer I brewed.

This kit included;

• 1g. Caribou Slobber Grains
• Willamette Hop Pellets 3.5g & 7g. packets.
• Windsor Ale brewers yeast.
• 1.5lb Northern brewer Gold malt Extract syrup.

Brewed 2/18/2014

I brought 1.3gallons of water to a boil, steeping the slobber grains for 10 minutes. Shortly after the water was up to a boil. Added the Malt extract & then the first packet of hops(7g.). The majority of the hops ended up on the top of the lid and sides. I scraped them back into the wort a couple times during the boiling process. After 30 minutes I added the second hop addition(3.5g). Boiled for another 15 minutes and then cooled the wort down to 70 degrees. I activated the yeast at about 90 degrees 50mL 5.5g yeast. Combined the two into the fermenting jug and dropped it off in my utility sink with my first brew.

Bottled: 2/28/2014

I brought up the brew from the basement and bottled it. It’s the first brew I bottled, I feel it went pretty well. The batch didn’t turn out to be very potent with a 2.7% ABV. Oh, well. I’m still excited to see how it tastes after the bottle conditioning time is up. I used the fizz drops to carbonate the bottles.

Update: 3/29/2014

I can’t say I was very impressed with the way this turned out, turned out a bit bitter, more than anything else. I guess it was kind of to be expected though in the early stages of my brewing.

I decided to pick up a new hobby recently, Brewing. I ordered some basic kit items from NorthernBrewer. Mostly 1 Gallon kits and supplies, just so I can get the feel for things and not get stuck with a brew I don’t like. I started things off with the kit I had that had the least amount of steps to it;

Bavarian Hefeweizen kit from Northern Brewer

This kit included;

• Fermenters Favorites Briess Bavarian Wheat Dried malt extract 1lb.
• Safale US-05 Dry Ale Yease 11.5g.
• German Perle Hop Pellets 3.5g. (Alpha Acid 7.1%)

Brewed: 2/17/2014:

The directions were pretty strait forward. I brought 1.25Gallon of water to a boil. Stired in the wheat malt, continued to boil for 15 minutes, added hops, let boil for another 30 minutes. Cooled to 70 degrees. Used auto-syphon to transfer wort to fermenting jug, added yeast and air-lock. Placed in utility sink in case of overflow.