A Counter Pressure bottle filler is a great device that is almost a need to have for any serious home brewer. You can make your own too, but it is recommended to just buy one – unless you have a proven design and access to good parts.
You will get clear, sediment free beer :- )
We really like the one valve design with a pressure relief valve on the left side, this allows for pressure to escape as you fill the bottle with beer/co2 – otherwise the beer flow would stop… it also allows for foam to escape once it is towards the top.
Tip: Many people recommend that you cool down the beer before filling as this eliminates foam problems, but we found that if you release all the built-up pressure in the Keg first, before connecting the co2 input for this process, it almost eliminates all the foam issues even when filling warm beer that has not been cooled at all – and you can totally skip this step.
In this video we show how the bigger bottle was filled… this was warm beer from the keg at room temperature.
As you can see from the pictures below, you can fill all kinds of bottle sizes and after a few bottles you will get a hang of it really quickly. We fill our bottles at about 11 psi… with a T splitter from the co2 bottle (meaning) that we split the gas line, and left side goes to feed the Keg and right side goes to feed the counter pressure device.
Purge all the air from the bottle with co2, squirt some gas as you insert the device into the bottle
adjust your pressure relief valve
once bottle is fully under pressure and the oxygen (air) is out
switch to beer side and let it rip
some foam is good, because you want to cap-on-foam // so this is a no big deal
Happy capping!
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We started with 12 gallons of total water, this is for the initial mash and then the followup sparge, we were shooting for 7 gallons, but might have been a little more, maybe 8…
OG was 1.060
FG 1.012
AVB 6.30 %
We used a 1/4 lb of hops – 3 ounces were pellet hops and 1 ounce was whole hops. We split each by 12 and added the weight together and added that amount every 5 minutes into the boil.
video of the recirculation:
video of the boil:
from mashtun, nice and black 🙂
the whole Cascade hops used in the brew.. from 2014 harvest…
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Sometimes the beer don’t need many different grains mixed in, you can get really good beer results from a basic set of 3 grains. The Pale Malt will be the base of your beer, it represents 90% of your grain bill, the other 2 are your specialty grains.
If you don’t want a Black IPA, simply remove the Carafa III and add more of the 60 Crystal.
Grains:
90% pale malt
5% 60°L Crystal
5% Weyermann Carafa III Special
Make sure you use the Special Carafa III and not the normal Carafa // otherwise you’ll end up with a hoppy Stout. Also, many brewers employ a trick where they add any dark grain in the last 5 minutes of boil or at end of boil, and let it sit for a few minutes, just enough to change the color, this way you don’t have to worry about any side effects of not hitting your goal.
once boil starts add hops every 5 minutes for 60 minutes
only Cascade hops will be used (single hop)
Use a good strain of yeast or your house yeast for this IPA Ale. We used Wyeast American Ale 1056.
On 6/4/2016 this year, we have brewed a 10 gallon version from last year, we scaled the grains and hops up by a factor of 2. Total water used was 15.5 gallons, and to be honest I think we ended up with 11 gallons total beer. However, this time we use canned Apricots, 5 cans total, they were already soft and super easy to create a puree (see video below) // also cost was much cheaper, 1 can costs $1, so $5 total. At the brew store, canned Apricots extracts were much more expensive $20 – so that’s something to consider…
Yeast, since we maintain our own yeasts, we use that, saves a lot of money and we have great results, Wyeast 1056 was used.
OG 1.056 // on day 3 we added 5 cans of apricots, this for sure raised the sugar levels, but we haven’t figured out exactly how to measure that, fruit calculators do exist, but I am not sure how accurate that really is.. Fermentation was for 2 weeks, below is a 2 week fermentation plot derived from the logger and their respective fit lines. You can see a nice spike when the fruit was added to the fermentor (blue lines are internal temps, orange external [outside the fermentor]).
FG 1.008
without factoring in the fruit added on day 3, final ABV 6.3% // which probably is closer to 8% 😉 when you do factor in the fruit.
2015 Brew – 5 Gallon All Grain Recipe – Apricot Ale
This recipe is fairly easy and the finished beer is delicious! The ABV % will range between 4 % ~ 6 % depending on how much fruit you use and what kind and the efficiency of your brew setup and the attenuation of your yeast.
FG – 1.012 // Kegging and Botteling Date: 6/21/2014
We only used 2 LB of Apricots and later 4 ounces of a natural Apricot flavoring – which will most likely push the ABV up a little bit too once it is finished aging. Normally recipe calls for 1 to 1.5 lbs of apricot fruit per each gallon of beer.
Grain:
9 lb American 2 row
2 lb Crystal 20L
Hops:
Set your timer and once a nice steady rolling boil has been achieved, then:
add 1 oz Cascade (at start of-boil )
add 1/2 Cascade or (1 OZ if you want more Hops) at last 15 minutes of Boil
– The resultant aroma is of medium strength and very distinct. It has a pleasant, flowery and spicy, citrus-like quality with a slight grapefruit characteristic. The hop is good for both flavor and aroma uses. It can also be used for bittering effectively, and can be used to make any ales.
Fruit:
2~3 lb of Canned Fruit Puree – add this to the Primary fermentation at day 3 of the fermentation. You can also add some apricot flavorings (you can buy those at the brew store), but add this at the kegging or bottling time.
Apricot Extract/Flavoring or making your own Apricot puree (lower cost)…
Do a test before bottling or kegging if you go with the extract: Take a dropper or pipette with mL measurements and blend a measured amount of the extract into a measured sample of beer, this will help you to find the mix ratio you like, and then simply scale up to figure out how much to add for the volume of beer that you have – most people add 4 ounces per 5 Gallon…
Sources: people I’ve met on G+ Community and various Beer Brewing Communities and Web sites.
Piwo = Beer.
In Polish the letters X, V, Q don’t exist and some additional letters are also present that are missing from English. For example VODKA is really spelled Wódka – the ó letter is more related to the U letter, because of how it is pronounced.
This article takes special meaning for me specifically since I am Polish, so am planning to invest extra time into figuring out all these recipes and how to best recreate them outside of Poland. I will write about a few things and then later I will post my own recipes after of course trying it out and confirming their result – and not just blind posting.
The „Grodziskie redivivus” Project – this is a famous mid-16th century Polish beer Recipe project, its maintained by a polish brewing community and here is the English version.
It goes into great details about every step to first document how it used to be done and how over time brewing has changed; and how it is done today and why. Some key differences to take note:
Artesian sources (especially the water)
low temp fermentation
a lot of older breweries and even ones that exist today open-ferment all their beers (this allows for a no stress/no pressure environment that brings out a unique and natural flower bouquet of flavors, tastes and is even apparent in the final color of the beer).
top and bottom fermenting yeasts are mixed together for a combination
Regional hops are used
some recipes use only single malt, like the smoked oak wheat malt and most breweries malt and smoke their own grains using their traditional methods
these beers are typically carbonated to 3.5 volume – so make sure to use strong bottles, don’t reuse any weak bottles that don’t qualify – the bottles might crack
Here is some links to some Polish brewing forums and Breweries:
Here is an active brewery that still employs a lot of the traditional ways of brewing beer, the videos are in Polish, but they do have an English version of their website:
If you want a classic Irish Red, don’t use the Special B, replace with CaraRed 20. If your local brew store don’t carry CaraRed, look at a substitution chart for grains:
Golden Promise – 7 lb
Munich Malt – 3 lb
Special B – 8 oz – For Red Ale look (switch this to CaraRed 20 or use a substitute chart above)
Crystal 120 – 6 oz
Roasted Barley – 4 oz
Hops:
Once you achieve a rolling boil, set timer.
At 45 minuted add 1.5 ounce of Fuggle Hops
At 55 minutes add 1 ounce of East Kent Goldings & some Irish Moss
Yeast:
Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale Yeast – starter was prepared ahead of brew date.
Cara Pils – 0.5 lb
Crystal 20 – 0.5 lb
Golden Promise – 7 lb
Munich Malt – 3 lb
Hops:
Once you achieve a rolling boil, set timer.
At 30 minuted add 1 ounce of Cascase Hops
At 45 minutes add 1 ounce of Willamette Hops
At 55 minutes add 1 ounce of Willamette Hops & some Irish Moss
At 65 minutes stop boil, reduce heat through cooling to a safe 70 ~ 75 F.
We used American Ale #1272 Wyeast.
Notes:
About the “Golden Malt” – An early-maturing spring barley, it is the Scottish equivalent of Maris Otter. Though brewers north of the English border claim that its sweet, clean flavor is superior to Maris Otter. Golden Promise malt has a depth of flavor that makes it the ideal base malt for both UK and USA-style IPAs. Golden Promise is also used extensively by premium whisky distilleries such as The Macallan.
This is a test pour out of the conditioning tank 3 weeks after racking, already looks nice and clear on its own.
Tip #1 – It’s all about Kegs Man! (but don’t abandon bottling) to build-up your cellar reserves. All brewers will quickly realize that it takes quite a bit of time to do a brew session (all day) and later even more planning needed to bottle, (cleaning, sanitizing, actual bottling time), space for all the bottles – so most people quickly switch to kegging their beer. You can literally keg an entire 5 gallon batch in 5-10 minutes and be done with it. But you also sooner or later realize that there are benefits to bottling, (you can give to friends, co-workers [check your local laws for giving out beer to people]), you can cellar beers for years like wine (not all beer styles apply) and create your very own private reserve label.
Buy bottles that can be cleaned and re-used, like the Grolsch-style swing-cap bottles, or just re-cap a regular beer of your choice.
Tip #2 – Don’t underestimate your brew batch size! Most home brewers do 5 gallon batches and that is all fine and dandy, but soon your realize after all that hard work and time endured, that 5 gallons don’t last long especially when some friends come over for a party.
We usually here unless the batch is experimental, do by default 10 gallon batches, we split the 10 gallon into a 5 gallon Keg, 2.5 gallon Keg and the rest we bottle for friends and add to our aging cellar with a label imprinted and a date.
With each good confirmed batch, I bottle and put away a few bottles or maybe even a batch for long term storage. I usually do this with higher gravity beers, because those keep well better over time like wine. The higher alcohol percentage protects the beer from bacterial infection and overtime the chemicals interactions change the beer for the better.
Tip #3 – Age most beer styles correctly before giving it out for consumption!
Some Belgian styles need to age for 6 to 12 months! Some beers are good after about 2 months! I did tests by opening a beer bottle at 1 month, 2 and 3 and trust me the 3 month old bottle was substantially better than the 1 month old bottle.
Even if you use the best, award-winning recipe that was repeatedly brewed for 1,000 years! – If you don’t wait and age it correctly before giving it out, people will think sub-par thoughts about your beer and your brewing skills. Make sure to say when the beer is under-aged if you must give it out, so that people are aware.
Tip: Some aging time can be cut by filtering the beer, but there are pros and cons.
Yes there are some beers that don’t age well for longer periods of time, usually these are beers that use a lot of hops, like IPAs. Use brown Bottles and try to cellar where temperatures are stable and there is no to little light. Light overtime will give beer a skunky smell, so unless you brewed a hemp beer, you probably don’t want any skunk in it.
Tip #4 – Not everyone wants to join a brew club for a variety of reasons, maybe you are not that social of a person or don’t want to deal with the politics at brew clubs, fees, etc… etc.. etc. There is plenty of good brew forums, blogs and communities for beer discussion (Google+ has many great beer communities and they are all free, just join), and watch your skills get better much faster and sooner than if you brewed alone for the next 20 years, trust me – communities have a lot of experienced brewers of all kinds that will quickly answer your questions, and point you in the right direction – saving you lots of time and money $.
Tip #5 – if you have a friend who brews, don’t be shy and ask them for help, they probably already have developed relationships with other brewers and you could get a hookup and deals on used equipment or new equipment and overall a lot of helpful tips!
Whatever you end up doing, please take extra time to think things through, SAFETY is #1.
2015 brew: this year we brewed it again but we decided to split the batch in half and treat one with American Oak chips. The beer came out fantastic with a smooth velvet clean taste, the oak came through slightly in the background – only in secondary for 3 weeks as we didn’t want an overwhelming oak profile.
If you want a lighter Brown color, ease back on the chocolate malt.
we also did a version treated with American Oak chips – it turn the beer velvet smooth and delicious.
Our Recipe is based on Ellie’s Brown Ale… We post it as is for now and then update it later with our tweaks.
Credit Link – http://averybrewing.com/brewery/recipes-for-homebrewers/
( they have others posted as well and were kind enough to share them with the public, beautiful! )
Anytime we try a new recipe that we have never brewed before, we try to look-up and use some award-winning recipe first, so that the effort is not wasted and we end up with good beer and we will consider tweaking it here and there or changing things up and down.
Also keep in mind that your local brew supply store might not have the exact grains called for in a recipe, so just adjust to the closest grain available that they have, if not sure, just ask for help, usually brew stores have knowledgeable staff.
Also, ask your self what you like in whatever style of beer you want to brew, in a Brown Ale, do you like it a darker tone of brown for the color, spices or no spices ?
Hops in this recipe are rated using AAU’s, it stands for (Alpha Acid Unit), the math is to divide whatever AAU you need by the acid level printed on the label of your hops (per 1 ounce). For example: Norther Brewer 8.6%. So 7 AAU’s of Norther Brewer is 7 / 8.6 = 0.81 ounces of Northern Brewer (so you will need a scale), you should be fine if you round-off, but then you lose exactness of the formula, you can easily transfer the formula into Excel or some other open-source software and keep track of it there or your favorite brewing software.
Start with a base weight of say 10/11 LB for each 5 gallons or use your brewing software to tune it in more exact, [if you are ODD or just like details] and then divide/multiply the weight by the percentage needed (use basic math).
60 min – Bullion (7.6% AA) – 0.13oz
30 min – Sterling (5.1% AA) – 0.32oz
0 min – Sterling (5.1% AA) – 1.01 oz
Use your house strain for yeast, original recipe used California, but we plan to use English.
Fermentation temp – 68F (from our experience if you are not spot on, you will still get good beer, as long as you stay within an acceptable temperature range).
2014 Rapsberry Porter Version below (the beer was only 3 weeks old, looked great and tasted great!)
2013 Pumpkin Porter Version below:
A 5 gallon batch recipe for a nice Pumpkin Porter, based on the recipe of a Edmund Fitzgerald porter clone with our tweaks. We wanted to give it a British theme, so that’s the pale malt we used, but any pale malt suitable for use in porters or stouts should work well.
In addition we are providing you a link to a very good article on the subject of porters in general, a recommended read – by Brew Magazine:
Hops are rated using AAU’s in this recipe, it stands for Alpha Acid Unit, the math is to divide whatever AAU you need by the acid level printed on the label of your hops (per 1 ounce). For example our hops were: Norther Brewer 8.6%, Cascade 6.7% and Fuggle at 5.3%. So 7 AAU’s of Norther Brewer is 7 / 8.6 = 0.81 ounces of Northern Brewer (so you will need a scale), you should be fine if you round-off, but then you loose exactness of the formula.
7 AAU’s or 0.81 ounce / Northern Brewer @ 0 minutes (from start of boil)
4 AAU’s or 0.75 ounce / Fuggles @ 30 minutes
8 AAU’s or 1.19 oz / Cascade @ 60 minutes
Pumpkin:
Add in at last 10 minutes of rolling boil, if you want more pumpkin flavor try adding at last 5 minutes or at end of boil.
A good chunk of either fresh or frozen organic sugar pumpkin is the best, you can substitute for canned pumpkin that you can buy in the store, but……… If you have a little property, try growing some sugar pumpkins, those are the best – or buy them from your local farm and prepare your own pumpkin meat.
What about the spices that typically go along into a regular pumpkin ale ? We didn’t use it in our recipe, but you are more than welcome to try if you want :- )
Mash:
We did the standard mash at 152 F for 60 minutes using the batch sparge method.
video of mashing phase:
video of mash out:
Yeast:
We used – WYEAST London ESB #1968, use your house strain if it is suitable for a Porter.
Fermentation:
A recommended temperature is about 65 F – but there exists various different techniques, so do some research if you want to know more.
