Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Cream Ale in the Fermenter - Updated with Video






So I got the Cream Ale brewed last night.  This was the first time I brewed completely outdoors in the garage.  What a night, minus the light rain that began falling about half way through!  The boil went well and I really boiled it hard, it was a huge rolling boil.  My thought here was increased hop utilization.  I love hoppy beer and I was brewing this one for people who aren't really into the hoppy stuff, but I still wanted it to have a kick that lighter commercial ales don't have.  I ended up with the following hop schedule:

1 oz Cascade 7.5% AA @ 60 min
.5 oz Cascade 7.5 AA @ 20 Min
.5 oz Cascade 7.5 AA @ 5 min

I just went with the flow, I intended to split it into thirds for the aroma hops, but I dumped a few too many in at 20 min so I just thought go with it.  I ended up with a SG of 1.044 which is right about where I wanted to be.  I will be dry hopping this with  2 oz Cascade whole leaf and 1 oz of centennial whole leaf hops!  I hope that they really come through.  The only thing that I am worried about is that when I started the chiller I started the water really slow, too slow, so I ran back to the hose and cranked it up, when I got back I had water leaking off the intake of the chiller into the sweet wort!  I am thinking that I am a sanitation freak and that all will be well but keep the finger crossed. I need to get another worm clamp on the hose of the chiller so I don't have this problem again. I didn't have this problem last time so it caught me off guard.  I also used my new aeration tool last night, I bought a paint mixer and hooked it up the the drill and aeration was a snap, no more pouring and shaking!  Got the wort chilled down to 78 and pitched a smack pack of Wyeast 1056 American Ale.  Fermentation was extremely active this morning and I am thinking that I may need a blow off tube for the bucket by tonight but we will see.  Cheers!

2 comments:

  1. Nice man! Are you gonna be dry hopping it with 4 oz of cascades then. Hot damn!

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  2. Actually I am switching it up and doing 2 oz of cascade whole hops and 1 oz of centennial, going for some fruityness!

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