New brew finally!

[Travisty]

Finally got around to starting a new brew for myself. Got motivated when I realized that I was drinking my last homebrew! Not okay! So, I went and got a Brewer's Best Robust Porter and started cooking it up. I think I will make this one a vanilla porter. I'm looking for a lot of vanilla character so I think I will add three split vanilla beans after the heavy ferment dies down. I'm interested to see how it will compare to our vanilla bourbon porter our church's brewing club bottled last wednesday. We used the power pack porter kit from Midwest Supplies thoughso the base flavor I'm sure will be slightly different due to the higher OG and different specialty grains of the power pack porter.


One kinda funny anecdote. I used a Wyeast smack pack for the first time with this brew. I've used the White Labs pitchable tubes before, but this was my first smack pack. I misread the directions and thought that the actual smack pack was inside the package, so I opened the outside packaging before smacking and letting it swell up. So I transferred the contents to a zip lock bag and smacked it in that. Of course, I managed to spill about half the yeast in the transferring process! haha So I ended up pitching the rest of that and the dry yeast included in the kit. D'oh! Oh well, live and learn. Didn't seem to hurt it as I had a very healthy ferment going on about 12 hours later.


I forgot about one of the greatest side effects of home brewing. My house smells awesome now! haha

 

[Travisty]

Welp, in the interest of keeping the homebrew supply up and diversifying I started another kit this weekend. It's called hopnog. It's a seasonal offering from Brewer's Best that is lamenting the hop shortage of 2008. It has a target IBU of 75 so it should be nice and hoppy! I'm really looking forward to this one. I used Wyeast's Pacman yeast and built up about a quart sized starter. I'm seriously considering dry hopping with about 1/2 oz of Cascade hops. From my reading, it won't add any bitterness being dry-hopped, but it will add to the aroma. I don't want to overdo it though. We'll see.

 

[smurfe]

You are correct, dry hopping will add to the aroma. Cascades will give it a very nice aroma.Good job on making the starter. Was it a Propagator pack? I normally get the Activator pack when I use Wyeast as you don't need to make a starter with it. It is large enough it actually IS the starter.

 

[Travisty]

It was the "smack-pack." I can never remember if that's the activator or propagator pack. The package said it was big enough for worts under 1.060 IIRC. The target OG for this was around 1.075 so I figured a starter was in order.


Interestingly enough, my OG was 1.062. I have always had this issue of going under the target OG. I try to add less water than I think it will need and I stir with a mix-stir . But somehow I usually end up a bit lower than my target.

 

[Wade E]

Thats why brewers usually have some mal on hand just incase.

 

[smurfe]

Was you supposed to even add any water to this for the style you wanted? I know those kits can make different styles by adding different amounts ofwater to change the OG and changing the yeast. That target OG is a big beer. What was the gravity of the wort before adding any water at all?

 

[Travisty]

Yeah, the instructions weretypical brewer's best instructions. Steep the specialty grains for 20 minutes in2 gallons170 degree water, bring to a boil, add the 6.6 lbs of Pilsen LME and 2 lbs of Pilsen DME and return to a boil while stirring, add the bittering hops once boilis achieved, boil 45 minutes and add the flavoring hops, boil10 more minutes and add the aroma hops, boil for 5 more minutes, cool ASAP, transfer cool wort to primary, add water to 5 gallons, stir, and pitch yeast.


I only added water to 4.5 gallons however since I've had issues with being low on my OG before. I was still low though. I never took a gravity reading of the wort before dilution. Is that normal procedure? I suppose it makes sense.


This does bring up another concern. When I rack to a secondary carboy to dry hop, I'm guessing I will not have enough to fill it all the way up. How do people usually top off their beer? It might be time for me to get some marbles huh?