Jug Score and Homebrewing Dog
So I am out walking the dog at 11PM the other night before retiring for the evening. The dog was sniffing around at my neighbors trash and recycling bin. I gave a little tug on the 20ft lead I have to say come on. Normally he keeps coming. But he wouldn't leave the bins. Just planted his feet and said "NO you come here."
So I wanderd over to the bin and found 8 glass wine jugs in there. Clean and crystal clear. "Good dog!" I said, "Good dog!"
So after the walk I put out my recycling and grabbed an empty bin. I walked back up the street and claimed the jugs as my own. I am psyched. I have been trying to slowly gather 8-12 jugs like this for an experiment I want to do. This might be the year I pull it off.
My dog, Stout, got an extra biscuit for that one.
What's the experiment??
brewchez wrote:
So after the walk I put out my recycling and grabbed an empty bin. I walked back up the street and claimed the jugs as my own. I am psyched. I have been trying to slowly gather 8-12 jugs like this for an experiment I want to do. This might be the year I pull it off.
My dog, Stout, got an extra biscuit for that one.
I have about 15 or so, but I claimed mine the old fashioned way. I dont mind carlo rossi, and have a glass with dinner probably 3-4 nights a week.
These are true multi-taskers. I have a couple in the basement collecting blowoff from my dopplebock ferments, a couple above my fridge in the cabinets holding 2 gallons of souring pilsner with brett and pedio, and I am going to make a 3 gallon batch and ferment in 4 jugs of a netral wheat that I will blend with my sour. I will still have a bunch on hand to make starters with or use additional blowoffs. They are simple to clean and easy to maintain.
Great score, Stout deserves a T-bone bite for that one.
I do have to admit though, when I first read the title I thought it was going to be a story of you coming home late after being at a tittie bar and finding your dog decocting a mash. He's still pretty smart in my book.
thirsty wrote:
I do have to admit though, when I first read the title I thought it was going to be a story of you coming home late after being at a tittie bar and finding your dog decocting a mash. He's still pretty smart in my book.
That was last week, but that happens every week so I figured it was normal.
The recycling bin thing was out of the ordinary.
Brewski wrote:
What's the experiment??
Well....
We have all brewed with all sorts of ingredients. When you drink your favorite brown ale do you really know what chocolate malt tastes like? No, you know what chocolate, a little crystal, a little munich and a little carapils tastes like IN symphony. Think of it like guessing what basil tastes like when you have only ever had marinara sauce.
I really want to taste the difference between crystal 40 and 60 in a beer. Not try to remember what crystal 60 in the last brown ale tasted like compared to crystal 40 in the last pale ale I did. See how confounding it can be to really understand ingredients.
I have always wanted to brew with just one specialty grain in small batch format only for flavor comparisons.
But I wanted to do many at the same time with one base wort to control fermentation variables and such.
The plan then is to make a 12 gallon batch of one base wort then do a series of one gallon boils, each with a different specialty grain. I made a list of about 20 specialty grains that I use the most. So maybe in two rounds of brewing, I plan to make 10 3/4 gallon batches, bottle them. Then do a large side by side tasting.
I don't think I'll do alot of beer brewing this year. SO maybe this is the year I do this experiment. Really take some time to get to know my ingredients. I also plan to try the same thing doing mini-mashes of base malts.
Maybe I'll have to employ the help of some local brewers for comparison.
I still have some logistics to figure out, but I am pretty close.
Thoughts and feedback are welcome.
Nice score. I recently acquired a couple of those 1 gallon jugs and I'm on the hunt for more. I'm thinking of doing some 1 gallon SMaSH brews (single malt and single hop). Should be a nice way to get some AG stove top brews done while its snowing outside.
brewchez wrote:
I made a list of about 20 specialty grains that I use the most. So maybe in two rounds of brewing, I plan to make 10 3/4 gallon batches, bottle them. Then do a large side by side tasting.
Brewchez, you are making me ill. I don't think I have used more than 8 to 10 specialty grains in the whole time I have been brewing. In fact, I have what I think of as a pretty good LHBS, and I would have a hard time coming up with 20 different specialty grains down there I would even dream of using. You will probabily brew more in your "not a lot of brewing" year, than I will going full steam. @#*&&%^%
Crabnut wrote:
Brewchez, you are making me ill. I don't think I have used more than 8 to 10 specialty grains in the whole time I have been brewing. In fact, I have what I think of as a pretty good LHBS, and I would have a hard time coming up with 20 different specialty grains down there I would even dream of using. You will probabily brew more in your "not a lot of brewing" year, than I will going full steam. @#*&&%^%
Funny. Here is the list of malts I plan to test with. My wort will be made from DME just for ease of process.
And just to make Crabnut more crazy, I put an astrick (*) next to each one that I usually keep on hand at all times in my brewhouse.
Base Extract *
Crystal 15L *
Crystal 40L *
Crystal 60L *
Crystal 80L *
Crystal 120L *
Chocolate Malt *
Black Patent *
Roasted Barley *
Special Roast *
CaraBohemian
Wheat (steep) *
Victory *
CaraPils
Oats (steep) *
Pale Chocolate *
Munich
Aromatic
Buiscut
CaraMunich
$#%&^&*@)%
brewchez wrote:
[
Base Extract *
Crystal 15L *
Crystal 40L *
Crystal 60L *
Crystal 80L *
Crystal 120L *
Chocolate Malt *
Black Patent *
Roasted Barley *
Special Roast *
CaraBohemian
Wheat (steep) *
Victory *
CaraPils
Oats (steep) *
Pale Chocolate *
Munich
Aromatic
Buiscut
CaraMunich
No melanoidin, WTF?
or special B? you should be fined!
Now, I am going to expose my true novice condition. The various roasts of Crystal. The differences are more final color oriented, right? Most of my beer ends up on the dark side of the planned color anyways, and I always wondered if I needed to be so picky about the roasting level of the Crystal.
I am still not really brewing enough quantities to try experimental variations, and I am still the primary beneficiary of my brew days. Hence, I have to ask questions and rely on other's Brewing Knowledge Base.
Crabnut wrote:
Now, I am going to expose my true novice condition. The various roasts of Crystal. The differences are more final color oriented, right? Most of my beer ends up on the dark side of the planned color anyways, and I always wondered if I needed to be so picky about the roasting level of the Crystal.
.
The measurement of the roast is given by color, which is the difference between a 15L and 120L, the color contribution. But that is more of a cosmetic thing, the real difference is the flavor they impart. A low kilned crystal malt is much sweeter than a higher kilned, and the spectrum ranges from sweet through caramel, through toffee, through raisiny and dried fruits at the far end of the spectrum. So brewchez' expewriments will be determining the subtlties not in color, but in the interim of the flavor spectrum, say between 40 and 90, there are certainly differences. Whenever I order I always gravitate to certain ones, I cant say I have ever ordered c-70, why not just get c-80? It should prove very interesting.
thirsty wrote:
Crabnut wrote:
Now, I am going to expose my true novice condition. The various roasts of Crystal. The differences are more final color oriented, right? Most of my beer ends up on the dark side of the planned color anyways, and I always wondered if I needed to be so picky about the roasting level of the Crystal.
.The measurement of the roast is given by color, which is the difference between a 15L and 120L, the color contribution. But that is more of a cosmetic thing, the real difference is the flavor they impart. A low kilned crystal malt is much sweeter than a higher kilned, and the spectrum ranges from sweet through caramel, through toffee, through raisiny and dried fruits at the far end of the spectrum. So brewchez' expewriments will be determining the subtlties not in color, but in the interim of the flavor spectrum, say between 40 and 90, there are certainly differences. Whenever I order I always gravitate to certain ones, I cant say I have ever ordered c-70, why not just get c-80? It should prove very interesting.
These also vary mfr to mfr
My fav crystal malt is special B, which is usually a lov of about 150, and gives a very distinct grapenut, raisin, fig type flavor, but can be overwhelming, balance is the key.
Crabnut wrote:
I have to ask questions and rely on other's Brewing Knowledge Base.
If you like to read, I highly suggest the late Greg Noonan's New Brewing Lager Beer. It isnt just about lagers, it covers EVERYTHING.
This inspires me to pose a good query for brewchez. You plan on testing the diferences of levels of crystal malts, but how about the comparison to their sisters of caramel malts? I always thought they were the same, however Greg Noonan describes in his book that they are not and should not think of them as even interchangeable.
Although similar in color, they do undergo a difference in process. Caramel malts have a higher moisture content, and are brought to there kilning temperature without ventilation to caramelize the endosperm. While crystal malts are allowed to completely saccharify. Crystal malts were more applied to British ales, and became more popular, while true caramel malts are more for continental applications. (at least thats what the book says)
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