Recipe: Northern Brewer Winter Warmer, with the Wyeast #1728 Scottish Ale yeast
2014-11-04 5:00pm Smacked wyeast pack to activate. Using Wyeast Scottish Ale
8:30pm pack has inflated considerably. Started boiling 650 ml of water to use as a yeast starter. Added 1/2 C Dry Malt and a pinch of yeast starter
9:30pm Finished cooling starter wort. Pitched yeast in the nalgene bottle that i'm using as a flask and used an improvised stopper (a gallon jug cover with a hole in it into which I inserted the airlock.)
2014-11-05 7:00am Yeast starter smells "bready", there is a little foam on the top of the flask but no bubbling
5:00pm the yeast starter has quite a bit of sediment on the bottom, seems to be working as it should
7:00pm put yeast starter in the fridge to get the yeast to settle; will decant starter wort
7:45pm begain boiling water to make wort
8:05pm water is at 152F, added specialty grains and turned the heat down considerably
8:27pm took specialty grains out of pot, returned the burner to the highest heat
8:37 liquid came to a boil; removed from heat and added some liquid malts
8:43pm mixture is at 197F, starting to bubble
8:45pm Hot break! Added 2 oz Wilamette hops
9:24pm removed yeast flask from fridge, decanted, added some yeast nutrient and allowed it to warm up.
9:28pm added 6.3 lbs malt
9:34pm added 1oz hops
9:46pm finished the boil
9:50pm down to 165F
10:01pm 107F
10:14pm shook carboy for 2 min, temp still above 79F. Carboy was close enough to 5 gallons that I didn't add any extra water.
11:18pm finally pitched the yeast slurry, but i'm a little worried that the temp was still too high. It is slightly warm to the touch and there was still no color in sight on the thermometer. Measured OG at 1.067 + 2.5 for temperature correction (assuming that it is 81F, so very close to what the kit reports. Tastes very good, even better than the porter at this stage. Less hoppy (or bitter, maybe) and smoother.
2014-11-06 6:56am Small foam cap has formed, airlock is moving once every 2-3 seconds. The thermometer still reads above 79, which is very discouraging. I'm not positive that it is working correctly,
as it "feels" a little cooler than it did last night. I turned the space heater down.
6:37pm Lots of foam on the top; the bubbles are slightly bigger than in the porter. The airlock is moving vigorously. Temp down to 74F, still a little high for the yeast. Turned the space heater off.
2014-11-07 6:00 am Airlock still bubbling vigorously, a little more foam than before, lots of movement in the vessel, temp still at 74
7:00pm Airlock moving less vigorously than before, temp down to 72. Probably still too high.
2014-11-08 7:20am Airlock moving much more slowly now, 3-4 seconds between motions. Temp down to 69F, foam level has reduced.
6:23pm Airlock is moving very slowly, once every 15 seconds or so. Temp is down to 68F, foam has almost totally dissipated.
2014-11-09 6:46am Airlock moved once in 37 seconds of counting, temp down to 67F, foam has dissipated
7:50pm airlock moved once in 1:20 seconds. Temp down to 66F,.
2014-11-14 3:30 pm Transferred beer to secondary. Temp at 66F, Specific Gravity was 1.017. Medium brown, almost reddish at the top of the glass. Very cloudy, some sediment fell out of the beer as it sat in my glass. I may have made a mistake transferring to secondary so early. It is very heavy, alcoholic, and very rough at this point. Not unlike the porter in body and mouthfeel, but significantly lighter in color. Has a Bell's Best Brown "tar" like quality. Very bitter, not sweet at all. I think it will end up very good. Just had a bottle of Great Divide Hibernation Ale. It is higher in alcohol (8.7% vs 7% at the moment) but had a similar heavy, "tar like" quality, slight frutiness and deep rich color and flavor.
2014-11-15 11:34 am Temp at 66 at the moment, so I moved to a cooler part of basement.
2014-11-16 10:45 am Temp down to 64F
2014-11-28 2:40 pm House temp down to 57F while we were gone for a week, carboy temp down to 58
2014-11-28 8:00 pm Basement temp up to 62F
2015-01-01 temp 52F in cool part of basement when we got back from our trip w/ thermostat set to 55F
2015-01-02 bottled. Boiled 24oz water and 5oz corn sugar for 10 minutes, put in bottom of bottling
bucket. Filled 41 12oz bottles and 3 24oz bottles. Measured gravity of 1.016 at 60F before adding the boiled corn sugar water. Tastes very malty, a little hot, a little estery.
2015-01-19 After learning about an impromptu visit to Indiana, I decided to try to speed up the carbonation process a little in hopes that the beer would be ready by Friday (three weeks after bottling) by moving 12 bottles to the top of the fridge, where the temp is about 70F (its about 62F in the basement.)
2015-01-22 9:07pm The moment of truth: I decided to check the carbonation to see if I could bring beer to my parents' house. There was an encouraging "pfft" when I popped the top, but there was no head at all as I poured. It is not ready. The beer is a dark reddish-brown and fairly clear. The two weeks it spent in the 50s must have helped to clear it. There are a few occasional bubbles, but definitely not carbonated. The nose has indistinct dark fruit and a hint of chocolate. It is very smooth across the palate, much more so than it was when I tasted it before bottling, no hint of burned rubber and not overly estery. It tastes like a lighter (non-carbonated) version of Great Divide's Hibernation Ale. It has good bitterness/malt balance (though Anna says its too bitter.) It is very good, better than I expected. I brought 2 more 6 packs upstairs to carbonate.
2015-01-30 8:30pm Mike and Christina came over, so I decided to check the beer that I had carbonating on the top of the fridge to see if it was ready. It was! The first one poured out with a generous head, the second was a bit lighter, but both were ready to drink
2015-02-04 8:45pm Tried one of the bottles that was sitting on the floor in the basement, it was barely carbonated. Tasted ready to drink, with a hint of brown sugar behind the hop/chocolate malt bitterness, but not quite bubbly enough. Moved the remaining 15 bottles to the top of the fridge, the bottles on the fridge back to the basement floor. Will explore warmer storage
2015-02-07 Finally came to the realization that the floor is too cold a place to store almost ready to drink beer (when the water vat stayed at 55F for days after I last put ice in it, I knew), I moved all of my homebrew to a warmer location on the top shelf.
2015-02-11 Beer is drinking very well now. The bottle I had spent 2 weeks on the fridge and a week in the basement, and it is very carbonated. Once the initial bubbles from pouring faded, there remained a thin off-white head. It eventually dissipated as the beer sat in the glass. The carbonation was good; noticeable but not too bubbly. I drank the beer slightly warmer than I normally drink beer, leaving the bottle out of the fridge for an hour. It was very fruity in the nose (fermentation started at too high of a temperature), but not across the palate. The beer starts off bitter, a combination of the dark malts and bittering hops, but ends with a touch of brown sugar and phenolic fruit. It is very smooth, a little bit hot not as malty as I would like. It is good. On account of the over-carbonation situation, I moved everything, including the bottles on top of the fridge, back to the basement floor, where it is about 58F right now. I briefly inverted bottles that had been upstairs to try to re-suspend the yeast in the hopes of getting it to add a little more bubbles. Hopefully the carbonation will subside a little after sitting in a cooler area.
2015-11-08 Yesterday, I had one after having Great Lakes Christmas Ale on tap (for the first time, and the 2015 version is *AMAZING*, so much better than the 2014 version) and this Christmas Ale seemed balanced but bland. It was smooth and had lots of brown sugar yet not too sweet, but seemed like it was missing some roasty notes, some dark fruit and didn't taste "strong" enough. But today, after drinking the first Harvest IPA, I think it tastes very good, it has everything that it was lacking yesterday. It is so amazing (and disappointing) how the flavor changes based on what I've had recently.
2015-12-21 I'll echo my notes from last month here. It is much more bitter than before (a nice brown ale bitterness) and has the requisite amount of warm brown sugar, but I noticed that it was a little less "cloying" than before. It has a bit of a rum-raisin-plum note that I didn't notice before as well as a bit of a vinous flavor. It is less dry than I would prefer, but other than that it is really quite good.
2016-02-24 Finished the final bottle today. It was good, much better than it was over the summer but not great.
2014-11-04 5:00pm Smacked wyeast pack to activate. Using Wyeast Scottish Ale
8:30pm pack has inflated considerably. Started boiling 650 ml of water to use as a yeast starter. Added 1/2 C Dry Malt and a pinch of yeast starter
9:30pm Finished cooling starter wort. Pitched yeast in the nalgene bottle that i'm using as a flask and used an improvised stopper (a gallon jug cover with a hole in it into which I inserted the airlock.)
2014-11-05 7:00am Yeast starter smells "bready", there is a little foam on the top of the flask but no bubbling
5:00pm the yeast starter has quite a bit of sediment on the bottom, seems to be working as it should
7:00pm put yeast starter in the fridge to get the yeast to settle; will decant starter wort
7:45pm begain boiling water to make wort
8:05pm water is at 152F, added specialty grains and turned the heat down considerably
8:27pm took specialty grains out of pot, returned the burner to the highest heat
8:37 liquid came to a boil; removed from heat and added some liquid malts
8:43pm mixture is at 197F, starting to bubble
8:45pm Hot break! Added 2 oz Wilamette hops
9:24pm removed yeast flask from fridge, decanted, added some yeast nutrient and allowed it to warm up.
9:28pm added 6.3 lbs malt
9:34pm added 1oz hops
9:46pm finished the boil
9:50pm down to 165F
10:01pm 107F
10:14pm shook carboy for 2 min, temp still above 79F. Carboy was close enough to 5 gallons that I didn't add any extra water.
11:18pm finally pitched the yeast slurry, but i'm a little worried that the temp was still too high. It is slightly warm to the touch and there was still no color in sight on the thermometer. Measured OG at 1.067 + 2.5 for temperature correction (assuming that it is 81F, so very close to what the kit reports. Tastes very good, even better than the porter at this stage. Less hoppy (or bitter, maybe) and smoother.
2014-11-06 6:56am Small foam cap has formed, airlock is moving once every 2-3 seconds. The thermometer still reads above 79, which is very discouraging. I'm not positive that it is working correctly,
as it "feels" a little cooler than it did last night. I turned the space heater down.
6:37pm Lots of foam on the top; the bubbles are slightly bigger than in the porter. The airlock is moving vigorously. Temp down to 74F, still a little high for the yeast. Turned the space heater off.
2014-11-07 6:00 am Airlock still bubbling vigorously, a little more foam than before, lots of movement in the vessel, temp still at 74
7:00pm Airlock moving less vigorously than before, temp down to 72. Probably still too high.
2014-11-08 7:20am Airlock moving much more slowly now, 3-4 seconds between motions. Temp down to 69F, foam level has reduced.
6:23pm Airlock is moving very slowly, once every 15 seconds or so. Temp is down to 68F, foam has almost totally dissipated.
2014-11-09 6:46am Airlock moved once in 37 seconds of counting, temp down to 67F, foam has dissipated
7:50pm airlock moved once in 1:20 seconds. Temp down to 66F,.
2014-11-14 3:30 pm Transferred beer to secondary. Temp at 66F, Specific Gravity was 1.017. Medium brown, almost reddish at the top of the glass. Very cloudy, some sediment fell out of the beer as it sat in my glass. I may have made a mistake transferring to secondary so early. It is very heavy, alcoholic, and very rough at this point. Not unlike the porter in body and mouthfeel, but significantly lighter in color. Has a Bell's Best Brown "tar" like quality. Very bitter, not sweet at all. I think it will end up very good. Just had a bottle of Great Divide Hibernation Ale. It is higher in alcohol (8.7% vs 7% at the moment) but had a similar heavy, "tar like" quality, slight frutiness and deep rich color and flavor.
2014-11-15 11:34 am Temp at 66 at the moment, so I moved to a cooler part of basement.
2014-11-16 10:45 am Temp down to 64F
2014-11-28 2:40 pm House temp down to 57F while we were gone for a week, carboy temp down to 58
2014-11-28 8:00 pm Basement temp up to 62F
2015-01-01 temp 52F in cool part of basement when we got back from our trip w/ thermostat set to 55F
2015-01-02 bottled. Boiled 24oz water and 5oz corn sugar for 10 minutes, put in bottom of bottling
bucket. Filled 41 12oz bottles and 3 24oz bottles. Measured gravity of 1.016 at 60F before adding the boiled corn sugar water. Tastes very malty, a little hot, a little estery.
2015-01-19 After learning about an impromptu visit to Indiana, I decided to try to speed up the carbonation process a little in hopes that the beer would be ready by Friday (three weeks after bottling) by moving 12 bottles to the top of the fridge, where the temp is about 70F (its about 62F in the basement.)
2015-01-22 9:07pm The moment of truth: I decided to check the carbonation to see if I could bring beer to my parents' house. There was an encouraging "pfft" when I popped the top, but there was no head at all as I poured. It is not ready. The beer is a dark reddish-brown and fairly clear. The two weeks it spent in the 50s must have helped to clear it. There are a few occasional bubbles, but definitely not carbonated. The nose has indistinct dark fruit and a hint of chocolate. It is very smooth across the palate, much more so than it was when I tasted it before bottling, no hint of burned rubber and not overly estery. It tastes like a lighter (non-carbonated) version of Great Divide's Hibernation Ale. It has good bitterness/malt balance (though Anna says its too bitter.) It is very good, better than I expected. I brought 2 more 6 packs upstairs to carbonate.
2015-01-30 8:30pm Mike and Christina came over, so I decided to check the beer that I had carbonating on the top of the fridge to see if it was ready. It was! The first one poured out with a generous head, the second was a bit lighter, but both were ready to drink
2015-02-04 8:45pm Tried one of the bottles that was sitting on the floor in the basement, it was barely carbonated. Tasted ready to drink, with a hint of brown sugar behind the hop/chocolate malt bitterness, but not quite bubbly enough. Moved the remaining 15 bottles to the top of the fridge, the bottles on the fridge back to the basement floor. Will explore warmer storage
2015-02-07 Finally came to the realization that the floor is too cold a place to store almost ready to drink beer (when the water vat stayed at 55F for days after I last put ice in it, I knew), I moved all of my homebrew to a warmer location on the top shelf.
2015-02-11 Beer is drinking very well now. The bottle I had spent 2 weeks on the fridge and a week in the basement, and it is very carbonated. Once the initial bubbles from pouring faded, there remained a thin off-white head. It eventually dissipated as the beer sat in the glass. The carbonation was good; noticeable but not too bubbly. I drank the beer slightly warmer than I normally drink beer, leaving the bottle out of the fridge for an hour. It was very fruity in the nose (fermentation started at too high of a temperature), but not across the palate. The beer starts off bitter, a combination of the dark malts and bittering hops, but ends with a touch of brown sugar and phenolic fruit. It is very smooth, a little bit hot not as malty as I would like. It is good. On account of the over-carbonation situation, I moved everything, including the bottles on top of the fridge, back to the basement floor, where it is about 58F right now. I briefly inverted bottles that had been upstairs to try to re-suspend the yeast in the hopes of getting it to add a little more bubbles. Hopefully the carbonation will subside a little after sitting in a cooler area.
2015-11-08 Yesterday, I had one after having Great Lakes Christmas Ale on tap (for the first time, and the 2015 version is *AMAZING*, so much better than the 2014 version) and this Christmas Ale seemed balanced but bland. It was smooth and had lots of brown sugar yet not too sweet, but seemed like it was missing some roasty notes, some dark fruit and didn't taste "strong" enough. But today, after drinking the first Harvest IPA, I think it tastes very good, it has everything that it was lacking yesterday. It is so amazing (and disappointing) how the flavor changes based on what I've had recently.
2015-12-21 I'll echo my notes from last month here. It is much more bitter than before (a nice brown ale bitterness) and has the requisite amount of warm brown sugar, but I noticed that it was a little less "cloying" than before. It has a bit of a rum-raisin-plum note that I didn't notice before as well as a bit of a vinous flavor. It is less dry than I would prefer, but other than that it is really quite good.
2016-02-24 Finished the final bottle today. It was good, much better than it was over the summer but not great.
