CopperHead 3

Brew date 12/29/2010

Look at us go!

This is the third brewing of our CopperHead recipe and our first time making 10 gallons in our converted kegs.  We don't have much equipment for this except our two keggles and a propane burner.  Outdoor brewing here we come!







CopperHead 3 (and yea it bit us)

Ingredients for 10 U.S. gallons 
Target Original Gravity: 1.066
Approximate Final Gravity: 1.016
Brewhouse Efficiency: will figure this out%
Anticipated IBU: 
Anticipated ABV: 6.66% 
Wort Boil Time: 90 minutes 

28 lbs of grain..whoot!

Grain:
22 lb Gambrinus Pale Malt 3L (we reduced our grain by a pound to reduce the gravity a bit)
2 lb  Crystal 40L 
2 lb  Munich Malt 8L 
1 lb  Victory Malt 25L 
1 lb  Caramel 120L 
.5 lb  Pale Chocolate Malt 200L 


Hops;
This is a bit crazy as we had won two hop samplers and wanted to use them up. We also added one ounce at 60min to add a tiny bit of traditional bittering even though this recipe is all about late addition.

60min
 1 oz German Spalt Select (5.5 AAU)


20min 
1 oz. American Summit whole hops (13.9 AAU)
1 oz. New Zealand pellet hops (16.8 AAU)

Trying to figure out which hops when...

15min
1 teaspoon Irish Moss
Immersion wort chiller
10min
2 oz. American Cascasde whole hops (7.7 AAU)
1 oz. New Zealand Rakau whole hops (16.8 AAU)
1 oz. New Zealand Cascade whole hops (8.9 AAU)
0min
2 oz. American Cascasde whole hops (7.7 AAU)
1 oz. American Summit pellets (13.1 AAU)
1 oz. New Zealand Hallertaur (7.4 AAU)


Yeast;
White Labs California Ale WLP 001.  Started two starters back on 12/24.

Directions and brewing notes: 

Is this thing on?

heating;

10am Started heading 10 Gallons water to 162 which took about an hour.  We probably could have gone up faster but didn't want to blast the new burner until we felt more comfortable with it.

Pouring in the grain for the mash

mash;

Single infusion mash at 154F (68C) using 10 Gallons of water.  We added a bit of heat now and then to keep it up.  After mashing for 30min we did a starch test and then started adding more heat to stop the starch conversion.  

Batch Sparging;

Six gallons of 170 degree water

action shot of vorlauf!

• Vorlauf (recirculation of wort though the grain)
• Ran the mashing water out quickly and started adding heat right away. It is great to have two pots to use.
• Put half the sparge water on the grain. Gently stirred and let rest for 5 minutes.
• Vorlauf again.
• Ran the water out quickly
• Repeat with the second part of the sparge water.

Boil;

First time running into the boil pot!

Again ran a 90 minute boil that enhances the blood-red color. It also adds a touch more melanoidin and caramel notes.

We ran into major trouble after the boiling with getting the wort out!!!!  Totally blocked and ended up tearing off the home made "hop taco" off the pick-up tube and then having to pour out from the top of the keggle into our old 10 gallon pot to drain into the carboys.

Only gathered about 8 gallons of wort with a gravity reading of over 1.080..sheesh.  Placed this in fermentation chamber at 63 degrees to lower wort a bit before pitching.  Boiled up 5 gallons of water to get up to 5.5 gallons in each.  That cooling took until midnight!  After adding some water and hitting 75 degrees..Took a reading of OG 1.070 (1.071 with temperature adjustment) and pitched in the middle of a huge storm. Hurray!  The wort was very bitter (wonder why) and lots of hop particles.  A bit of cold crashing at the end will take care of that.


At 8am this morning..one of the fermenter was showing visible signs of fermentation and the other one was flat...at 1pm both of them showed some krausen rising.



12/29 6pm
The krausen...she is rising!  Looked over the notes on the other times we made this and raised the temperature to 68 degrees.

1/10/2011 8:30pm


Almost three weeks fermenting so I took a gravity reading to see if fermentation is done.

Final Gravity: 1.010!

Wow, that yeast did some hard work.  The sample is very cloudy...yum..very smooth and not overly bitter.  This is going to be a show stopper as long as we don't get any alcohol warmth after it's been in the bottle.

Alcohol by volume should be around; 8.04 %

I'll take another reading on Thursday or Friday before cold crashing.