05/2/2015 – Brew day

This was a group brew for American Homebrew Association’s National Homebrew Day, May 2, 2015.  There were three recipes: a Columbus Pale Ale, an Old School Barleywine, and one called Killer Kolsch.  All recipes were available in either All Grain or Extract.

Columbus Pale Ale – All Grain
Columbus Pale Ale – Extract
Old School Barleywine – All Grain
Old School Barleywine – Extract
Killer Kolsch – All Grain
Killer Kolsch – Extract

We met early on Saturday morning at the event location, the home of Chris Rauschuber. Three of us came to brew, while other folks dropped by for a beer or two.  Chris was an amazing host.  The weather was perfect.  We brewed on Chris’ driveway, under a portable pavilion.

We chose to do the Columbus All Grain, using our largest kettle on the sweet new propane burner, and as a brew-in-a-bag.

Fermentables:
8.5 lb (3.9 kg) Pale 2-Row Malt
8.0 oz (227 g) Munich malt
4.0 oz (113 g) Wheat malt
8.0 oz (227 g) CaraVienne® malt
4.0 oz (113 g) 20° L crystal malt
4.0 oz (113 g) Victory malt
8.0 oz (227 g) Clover honey (added during the boil)

Hops
0.5 oz (14 g) Columbus whole hops,17.4% a.a. (60 min)
0.5 oz (14 g) Columbus whole hops, 17.4% a.a. (15 min)
0.5 oz (14 g) Columbus whole hops, 17.4% a.a. (5 min)
1.0 oz (28 g) Columbus whole hops, 17.4% a.a. (0 minutes)
1.5 oz (43 g) Centennial whole hops, 9.6% a.a., 3.9 % b.a. (dry) -> Threw in all 2 oz

Yeast
Safale US-05 Ale

Notes

• We started with 6.5 gallons in the kettle.  By the end of the 75-minute boil, it had reduced to about 4.25 gallons, less than we’d hoped.  Some was lost in grain, the rest through boil. Next time we should probably start with more water.
• We used whole cone hops, but without a hops strainer on the drain valve.  The hops clogged the crap out of the valve by the time we’d gotten about 2/3 of the wort into the primary carboy.  After having only minimal success in unclogging it, we ended up dumping it in through a funnel.  We got way more hops cones into the primary than we’d have liked, but managed to keep an ounce or two from flowing in.
• The target gravity was 1.056.  By the time we’d topped it up to 5.25 gallons, we hit 1.055.  So not bad.
• This was a really fun brew.  Good breakfast (Rudy’s breakfast tacos and Kolache Factory kolaches) provided by Joe and Chris.  Great hospitality from Chris.  Good conversation.  Superb Texas springtime weather.

O.G.: 1.055, 13.7 degrees Brix

Fermenting at 68 degrees F.

05/09/2015 – Racked to secondary

Still plenty of whole hop cones in primary, but racked out from under them… none in secondary.

05/17/2015 – Kegged

Added 1 oz each of Centennial whole leaf hops to 2 extra fine mesh nylon bags. The bags appear to be floating so hopefully there will still be plenty of hops in contact with the beer.

F.G.: 1.008, 6.7 degrees Brix
6.2 % ABV