Monday, September 26, 2011

American Farmhouse

TGT OG 1.060 TGT FG 1.005 TGT ABV 7.3% TGT AA 91.3% TGT IBU 29.5 TGT SRM 5.1

Total Grain: 13.54 lbs
Wort Volume: 5.98 gal
Pre-boil Volume: 7.5 gal
Pre-boil Gravity: 1.048
Anticipated Efficiency: 70%
Boil Time: 90 Minutes
Evaporation: ~13% hourly

70.0% - 9.53 lbs. Castle Pilsner Malt
15.0% - 2.04 lbs. Rye Malt
12.5% - 1.70 lbs. Weyermann Pale Wheat Malt
02.5% - 0.34 lbs. Melanoidin Malt

3.5 oz. Styrian Goldings (Pellet, 2.6% AA) @ 60 min.

1.00 tablet Whirlfloc @ 15 min.
2.64 g Wyeast Yeast Nutrient @ 10 min.

WLP565 – Belgian Saison I
WLP645 – Brettanomyces clausenii

Carbon filtered Waco, 50% distilled

Rest 60 min @ 154 F

Notes:
25 September 2011 – Made 1.7 l starter of WLP565 (production date 28 July 2011) w/ Wyeast Yeast Nutrient on a stir plate.

26 September 2011 - Brewed by myself. Doughed in with 5.1 gal (1.5 qt/lb) at 164 degrees. Adjusted with .5 gal boiling water. Rested at 154 for 60 minutes. Adjusted with 1 tsp phosphoric acid for mash pH ~5.2. Batch sparged with 4.5 gal at 180 degrees for 10 minutes at 165 degrees (added sparge water a little slow, undershot target 170 degrees). Adjusted sparge water with 1 tsp phosphoric acid for water pH of 5.0 (overshot sparge water pH, next time use ½-¾ tsp)

Yielded 8.15 gal of 1.044 wort (mash efficiency 70.4%).

Removed .5 gal wort.

Boiled for 90 minutes yielding 5.85 gal 1.058 wort (evaporation rate 15%/hr or 1.2 gal/hr).

Chilled to 67 degrees F in 26 minutes. Racked 4.8 gal to Better Bottle (~1 gal lost to trub and hop sediment).

Aerated with pure O2 for 35 seconds then pitched entire starter of WLP565 and vial of WLP645. Temperature control ceiling set to 80 degrees F.

27 September 2011 - Highly active fermentation within eight hours. Krausen blowing through airlock. Removed airlock, replaced with sanitized aluminum foil, and added 7 drops of Fermcap-S.

20 November 2011 - Moved into freezer to cold condition before kegging.

29 November 2011 - Kegged ~4.75 gal. Final gravity 1.005 (91.1% AA, 7.0% ABV). Set regulator to 30 psi at 45 degrees F to carbonate quickly. Targeting about 2.5 vol CO2.

Friday, September 9, 2011

DIY Sous-Vide

I assembled my own sous-vide apparatus with pieces I already had lying around my kitchen and a dented crock pot my sister was about to throw away. I really love the versatility and convenience. I can vacuum seal a steak in the morning, pop it in the water bath when I get home from school, and take it out and sear it whenever I feel like eating. Once the commercial versions come down in price a bit (they hover around $450 now) and the general public gets wind of it, it's sure to change home cooking. I won't get into the particulars of sous-vide cooking, others have covered it much better. There are tons of resources on building your own and cooking with it.

So far I've only cooked one rib eye steak and a couple pieces of chicken, but I was pretty impressed. The steak was closer to medium than I intended (was aiming for medium-rare), but after fine tuning with my precision thermometer I think I got the temperatures dialed in a little better. I'm looking forward to experimenting with this little contraption. If I continue to get good results I may have to invest in a vacuum sealer. Right now I'm just using Ziploc bags and a straw to make the vacuum.