Don't Fear the Beer

I should probably wait until the thing is bottled, carbonated, and consumed — but really I just want to talk about the beer sooner rather than later. This is all-grain brewing attempt number two, following after the batch I lovingly refer to as "Fail Pale Ale." Probably I shouldn't be so hard on that one, especially since it was a somewhat awkward foray into brewing more advanced than Chris and I had attempted before. Partly this was because it was only our second batch, the first having come largely from a goop-filled bag that came with the fermenting buckets. The picture below is from the IPA, as one may have gathered I obviously need to work on my beer photography.

Let me first complain about apartment stoves in this here graduate housing. After visiting friends in NYC, they with their fancy-schmancy gas stoves, I returned here to look down upon some unbalanced and misshapen coils stuck in a bright white cooktop. It's well known white doesn't show stains. These stoves take, and I stress the magnitude of my frustration here, seemingly forever to heat up 6 gallons of water. The better part of an hour, seriously...

This turns brewing into an all-day event, which wouldn't be so much of a problem if we didn't start the process in the afternoon sometime. This can be chalked up to poor planning, though I would like to blame it on the stove nonetheless.

Well anyway — Chris dug up this recipe somewhere that we can't locate anymore. Originally it was supposed to be a coffee porter, though we didn't have the beans on hand to facilitate such frills. The process on this one was pretty simple: a single temperature mash and two relatively small hop additions. We sprung for a secondary fermentation period since the IPA we tried was fairly cloudy.

This would be the second yeast-themed post I was talking about, though I can't really comment on the success one way or another. It's a pretty bare-bones porter, which probably makes sense given our inexperience. Surely we will have an update soon, inside of another three weeks.

Coffeeless Coffee Porter

The Whole Shebang

• 10 Lbs. 2-Row US Pale Malt
• 0.5 Lbs. Chocolate Malt
• 0.5 Lbs. Crystal Malt (120)
• 2 Oz. Golding Hops
• White Labs English Ale Yeast
• 3 Oz. Sugar For Bottling

Abbreviated Process

1. Steep milled grains with around 3.5 Gallons water for 1 hour at 153F, maintaining temperature by reheating some drained-off mash liquid and adding back to the mash. Stir occasionally.
2. After recirculating the first few cups of wort, drain off the mash into the boiling pot.
3. Sparge with another 4.5-5 gallons of 180F water, letting the mash rest for a few minutes before repeating the same draining procedure. Total volume of wort should be 5.5 gallons or so.
4. Boil 60 minutes, adding 1 Oz. Golding hops at the start and 30 minutes in.
5. At 30 minutes pitch yeast into a cup of cooled boiled water with 1 tsp. sugar
6. Cool wort and aerate heavily into primary fermentor, pitching yeast upon completion.
7. Ferment a scant two weeks before racking into secondary fermentor for another 2 weeks (or your equivalent winter break.)
8. Mix in boiled sugar with wort in bottling bucket, and rack into sterilized bottles.
9. Wait another 2-3 weeks for (potential) goodness.

NB: Fingers are crossed...