Give or take a few days, I'm about 2 months late to celebrate the first beer brewing anniversary. To be honest I'm not quite sure how many batches of beer I've made now and quite honestly, as long as they all taste good, I don't really care about the produced volume. As stated in one of the earlier posts, I was going to give the 6-gallon kettle a wort(hy) baptism by brewing our first trial: a chestnut brown ale. With chestnuts not quite in season yet, I'm renaming the beer "Chestnuts Not Allowed".
First of all, here's the full recipe (3 gallon, brewhouse efficiency 75%) WITH chestnuts, in case you brew it at the appropriate time:
First of all, here's the full recipe (3 gallon, brewhouse efficiency 75%) WITH chestnuts, in case you brew it at the appropriate time:
- 4 lbs 8 oz Maris Otter
- 9.6 oz Caramel/Crystal 60L
- 9.6 oz Caramel/Crystal 120L
- 1 oz Roasted Barley
- East Kent Goldings 22 IBU - 60 mins
- 9 Chestnuts - 60 mins
Preheat oven to 400F. Cut a small crosshatch into each chestnut shell. Roast on a baking sheet for 20 minutes or until the shells have peeled back. Remove from the oven and cover. After 10 minutes, peel off the shells, reserving the nuts.
- East Kent Goldings 6.7 IBU - 20 mins
- 6 g SafAle English Ale S-04
- OG: 1.050, FG 1.010
Brewing took a little longer, because of the higher starting volume (4 gallons). Similarly cooling required more time, not only because I now have 3 times the amount of wort, but also because I'm no longer stirring. The trub (proteins, hops, spices, etc) start dropping down in the kettle when the temperature goes down. In the past I would keep stirring and be able to cool 1 gallon in the matter of a few minutes, unfortunately that also increased the trub in the fermenter. The lessons learned are: no stirring, have a slightly higher end volume in the kettle and don't try to transfer every last drop of wort.
This afternoon we also bottled our WTFBBQ?? rauchbier. The green beer reminded us of eating smoked bacon. Hey, that works for me!
This afternoon we also bottled our WTFBBQ?? rauchbier. The green beer reminded us of eating smoked bacon. Hey, that works for me!