Today I racked the oddball lager from primary to secondary and added some Galena hops to the secondary for dry hopping. The color is still a little dark but I have measured the current gravity and it falls pretty close to the expected zone. 1.01 SG to be exact which is actually a little low. The Galena are the "wrong" variety for the dry hop. It should be Crystal but I had the Galena pellets so, whatever.
Tasting the beer as it is at the moment it's actually close to what I was trying to get flavor wise. Don't get me wrong, it's no Kloster Kreuzburg. It could be more bitter. Not much more but I didn't do any calculations to bump up the volume of hops called for despite a lower listed AA% than called for by the recipe so it's expected to be low. So it's a little malty perhaps but otherwise, the general flavor is pretty close. The color is still off but now I am beginning to be pretty certain that it is from scorching. The difference between the measured O.G. and the current gravity suggests that there is 10% ABV. Not a chance. It's lower than that to be sure. Unfortunately the flaw in my measurements makes it impossible for me to know what the apparent attenuation really is. Bummer.
I would guess that if I can get enough carbonation into this one it's going to be a pretty good beer despite the flaws along the way. Fortunately that encourages me instead of making me second guess everything in my system.
Part of the fun of home brewing I guess.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
I have no idea.
Well, it seems that the odds are against me these days as the "lager" that I am trying to ferment at the moment is being stymied by uncharacteristically warm temperatures. Dangit. I was banking on low 60's at most and here we are looking at mid 70's during the day.
Normally, I'd follow good ol' Charlie P.'s advice and not worry. Problem is with the previously mentioned issues in measurement I expect I'll have some trouble knowing for sure if the beer in the fermenter has finished for real. Not that I expect the ABV to hit the mark or anything but until I can figure out where the measurements are off I can't use a calculator to know if I've hit a target.
I did some searching to see where I could be off. I'm generally ignoring the SRM discrepancy since that could be chalked up to scorching. I don't suspect that's my problem but since it is a possibility I am assuming for the time being that's the flaw there. That being said, based on some forum searches I guess it isn't uncommon for the cheap-y brewing hydrometers to be off some. Unfortunately not the 40 points I'm seeing. I may get a new hydrometer and compare the two.
I don't understand how the first bunch of attempts were within the margins of all the calculations and recently my forays into beer brewing have been met with faulty outcomes.
I may try and brew a few considerably smaller batches to get a larger sample size to check my method and equipment.
In the meantime, I'll have to keep my eye on the currently sour smelling fermentation going on in the corner.
Normally, I'd follow good ol' Charlie P.'s advice and not worry. Problem is with the previously mentioned issues in measurement I expect I'll have some trouble knowing for sure if the beer in the fermenter has finished for real. Not that I expect the ABV to hit the mark or anything but until I can figure out where the measurements are off I can't use a calculator to know if I've hit a target.
I did some searching to see where I could be off. I'm generally ignoring the SRM discrepancy since that could be chalked up to scorching. I don't suspect that's my problem but since it is a possibility I am assuming for the time being that's the flaw there. That being said, based on some forum searches I guess it isn't uncommon for the cheap-y brewing hydrometers to be off some. Unfortunately not the 40 points I'm seeing. I may get a new hydrometer and compare the two.
I don't understand how the first bunch of attempts were within the margins of all the calculations and recently my forays into beer brewing have been met with faulty outcomes.
I may try and brew a few considerably smaller batches to get a larger sample size to check my method and equipment.
In the meantime, I'll have to keep my eye on the currently sour smelling fermentation going on in the corner.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Hmmmm...
So, after a long hiatus after ceding disappointment in the smoked beer I tried (It ended up down the drain), I decided to brew another batch. This time I figured I would try, despite the lack of appropriate cold storage, a kind of lager. I figured a lager not unlike the beauties I had in Europe this past summer would be ideal. Bavarian excellence. Think like Munich's Hofbräuhaus only on a smaller scale, from places like Wurzburg or Bamberg.
Well, here's the thing. Something is amiss in my system for sure. As I had mentioned in my "Super Efficiency" post, recipe calculations and my O.G. readings didn't cooperate. Well, here again, I have an issue. It's not a point here or there on the scale either. It's a whopping error. I thought perhaps I should measure my water. Boring I know but then at least if it was a hydrometer error, it would show in tap water too. I know that it should realistically be distilled water but a giant error would show in tap water as well.
No dice.
Tap water measures correctly. I suppose my thermometer may be wrong but, even 20 degrees can't account for the variation. My measuring cups certainly can't all be wrong for water volumes, I suppose my scale could be off but calculators lead me to believe that would have to be by a factor of 2 to be coming out where I am measurement wise. I will say that the SRM estimations are all off too. Sure that's an eyeball kind of thing in an operation such as mine but probably worth noting. It's certainly the kind of thing that until I can figure out in an extract recipe leads me to think that hybrids and full mash are probably best avoided.
I'm at a loss. It's extraordinarily difficult to hit a target if you can't figure out how you're missing.
I have way more sugars in the fermenter than I should by calculation so I guess in a week or so, I'll see what happens.
Oh well...
Well, here's the thing. Something is amiss in my system for sure. As I had mentioned in my "Super Efficiency" post, recipe calculations and my O.G. readings didn't cooperate. Well, here again, I have an issue. It's not a point here or there on the scale either. It's a whopping error. I thought perhaps I should measure my water. Boring I know but then at least if it was a hydrometer error, it would show in tap water too. I know that it should realistically be distilled water but a giant error would show in tap water as well.
No dice.
Tap water measures correctly. I suppose my thermometer may be wrong but, even 20 degrees can't account for the variation. My measuring cups certainly can't all be wrong for water volumes, I suppose my scale could be off but calculators lead me to believe that would have to be by a factor of 2 to be coming out where I am measurement wise. I will say that the SRM estimations are all off too. Sure that's an eyeball kind of thing in an operation such as mine but probably worth noting. It's certainly the kind of thing that until I can figure out in an extract recipe leads me to think that hybrids and full mash are probably best avoided.
I'm at a loss. It's extraordinarily difficult to hit a target if you can't figure out how you're missing.
I have way more sugars in the fermenter than I should by calculation so I guess in a week or so, I'll see what happens.
Oh well...
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