The Joy of Fermentation

Here is a short video of the primary fermentation of my Miss American Pale. Video was one day after pitching at 68F degrees. It stayed constant at this rate for about 4-5 days before transferring to secondary....

Brewing Software

So I downloaded some software for brewing a while ago from beersmith.com. I've just started playing with it a bit more and having some fun. The software is pretty good for a beginner like me, and I expect it will be even more valuable as I get more advanced and start doing all-grain brews. It has a lot of sample recipes, as well as conversions and calculators for all aspects of the brewing process. What I really like is that you can choose/add different ingredients for your own recipes and it will show you the estimated color and alcohol content of your beer. Note: I am NOT endorsing this product, nor do I get paid anything for the link or anything like that. Just thought I would mention it as a tip for anyone interested.

Miss American Pale

For my birthday my sister gave me the ingredients and recipe for me to do a new batch. It's called Miss American Pale, and should be similar to a Sierra Nevada. Ingredients and recipe came from Olympic Brewing at http://www.olybrew.com

Here are the recipe ingredients:

7 lbs Light Malt Extract

1 lb Crystal 20 L Malt

1 lb Munich Malt

1 1/2 oz Columbus Hops 25 HBUs(Boiling)

1/2 oz Columbus Hops(flavor: 30 min)

2 oz Cascade Hops(flavor: 2 min)

Wyeast American Ale


So for this third brew I have tried a few things different. First I used tap water filtered through my refridgerator filter and then boiled rather than the Glacier Peak bottled water that I used for the previous two batches. Second, I'm using Roasted Nori Seaweed rather than Irish Moss to clarify during the end of the boil. And third, I'm dry hopping for the first time. I added the 2oz. Columbus Hops to the secondary fermantation to get the extra hoppy aroma of a Sierra Nevada style pale. We'll see how it works!

Some specifics on the brew so far:
- OG was 1.057 prior to pitching the yeast
- Primary fermentation lasted 7 days and was very vigorous
- Transferred to secondary fermentation after 7 days at which time gravity reading was 1.015

I'll be bottling this weekend which will put the secondary fermentation at about 17 days.

An Inspirational Moment.....