Begin Brewing!

While browsing of the online homebrew supply shop web sites, I discovered that they had both Belma and Azacca hops on sale. Having never used either, I decided to order some and craft a Pale Ale recipe around them.  I'd also wanted to try the relatively new Omega Yeast OYL-091 Hornindal Kveik yeast.  This recipe is the culmnation of that recipe design.  The flavor and aroma contributions from this combination should harmonize pretty well: Azacca hops : Citrus and mango notes with a little orchard fruit. Belma hops : Clean with a very orange, slight grapefruit, tropical pineapple, strawberry, and melon aroma. Hornindal Kveik yeast : Complements fruit-forward hops with its aromas of fresh pineapple, mango, and tangerine. Fermenting at high temperatures (up to 95F) will intensify the aromas and speed up fermentation. Blend all that and we should get lots of nice citrus, mango, pineapple, and grapfruit aromas and flavors. I plan to intensify that by using only later...

With some satisfaction that the issue with the Brewie+ overshooting target volumes being possibly solved (by removing excess water after loading), I decided to try one more recipe to see if I could consistently hit my volume and gravity targets. I decided to try another Pale Ale with a blend of Simcoe, Cascade, Citra, and Amarillo hops. Ingredients 5 pounds Briess 2-row Pale Malt 12 ounces Caramel 10L Malt 8 ounces Munich Malt 1/2 tsp. Citric Acid added to mash water 0.10 ounces Simcoe Pellets @ 13.6% AA (60 min.) 0.10 ounces Cascade Pellets @ 6.9% AA (25 min.) 0.10 ounces Citra Pellets @ 13% AA (25 min.) 0.10 ounces Amarillo Pellets @ 8.6% AA (25 min.) 0.10 ounces Cascade Pellets @ 6.9% AA (10 min.) 0.10 ounces Citra Pellets @ 13% AA (10 min.) 0.10 ounces Amarillo Pellets @ 8.6% AA (10 min.) 0.10 ounces Citra Pellets @ 13% AA (0 min.) 0.10 ounces Amarillo Pellets @ 8.6% AA (0 min.) 0.10 ounces Cascade Pellets @ 6.9% AA (0 min.) 1/4 tsp. Yeast Nutrient 1/8 tsp. B...

Recently, I have struggled to get the desired final volume out of the Brewie+ system. To try and resolve that issue, I've decided to brew a couple of recipes and babysit the mash and sparge process to see where the problem is occurring, as well as double-checking my calculations to ensure they are correct. The first test was this Pale Ale recipe. Ingredients 5 pounds of 2-row Pale Ale Malt 1 pound of Munich Malt 4 ounces of Flaked Corn 0.75 ounces of Mandarina Bavaria hops pellets @ 9.2% AA at 10 min. 0.60 ounces of Citra hops pellets @ 14% AA at 5 minutes 1/4 tsp. Yeast Nutrient 1/8 tsp. Brewtan B in the mash water 1/4 tsp. Brewtan B in the boil at 10 min. 1/2 tsp. Irish Moss in the boil at 15 min. 1 packet of Lallemand Nottingham dry ale yeast 9.2 liters of mash water 3.2 liters of sparge water The mash schedule began with a mash in at 104F, followed by 20 minutes at 140F, and 40 minutes at 158F. Mash out was 15 minutes at 168F. BeerSmith estimated the follo...