4 Dog Pub Ale 1 - Monday, August 3, 2020 - Robobrew

I have to re-mill my grains as it is too course. 17 year old mill is getting worn. Looked okay, but there were a lot of whole kernels along with a good crush. Notch 4 for now. Wort is a real nice colour. 

Ingredients

11 lbs. 0i0

13.2 ozs. Wheat

11.6 ozs. Munich I

8 ozs. Victory - ( hope it isn't too low )

17 g Chinook at 60 min.

15 g Chinook at 20 min.

15 g Chinook at 15 min.

15 g Chinook at 10 min.

15 g Chinook at 5 min.

73 g Chinook - Hop Stand 5 min after cooling starts.

15 g US-05

O.G. - 1.054 - 82%

F.G. -

% -

SRM - 7

BU - 42

CA - 82

MG - 18

S04 - 200

CI - 53

PH - 5.44

I want a slightly darker beer I think. Going for something around 7. Will use Special III to do it. Cooling at 8:30 am. Not bad, I think I can do better if I can get the heat right in the sparge tank. I have to set the dial to a lower setting earlier so so I have time to get it just right.

Missed my hop stand by a lot. It cooled way faster than I thought. 101 F instead of 170 F. Oh well, what's done is done. Move on. Since I went to a normal IPA water profile, this should keep it's hop aroma more than a few days like my previous one's did. I do think that is the issue. I will ask brewers smarter than me. Wort tasted good. One of a few worts that were quite bitter. I think I am right about the water profile. I do hope I can get some malt flavour out of this. 

Pitched yeast @ 12:30 pm.

Next Morning - Getting started at 8 am.

Day 2 - Going good. A real nice thick, creamy krausen on top, nice.

Day 3 - Slow but steady.

Day 4 - Same. Seems to me that I won't be able to keg these 2 until Day 16 - 18.

Day 5 - Same.

Day 7 - Same. Keg in 10 days or so. Aug 17 or somewhere around there. May even slowly cool the

             chamber to help clear the carboys.

Day 10 - Slowed down a lot. Should be able to keg this on Monday, Aug. 17.

                             KEGGED ON A RAINY DAY - FRIDAY, AUGUST 21

TASTE - Okay but I didn't use enough hops in my hop stand. Will know more after clearing and carbing up, that tells all.

                                                ADDED GELATIN ON AUG 22

I found some brew logs from 1994 until 2001. Very funny. Seemed I was having problems back then the same as now. I did find out my earlier problems this year were from my yeast washing not up to snuff, but I quit washing yeast. It was definitely my well water composition back then. Darker beers seemed to be fine, but it was the pale beers which tasted funny. PH issues for sure. I did notice the cans of Brew Canada were $9.95. Now it is $25. This year and last year kind of sucked making beer. Homebrew Stores pissed me off. Brewers Pantry substituted my 55 lb. bag of grain with 50 lbs. of other grain and it sucked balls. I think it was stale. Every single batch sucked. I don't order from them anymore. OBK had a great sale of malt. 89 cents a lb. for a lot of their grain. Every single batch sucked, again, I think they were stale. Bulk buys of grain and hops are a must. Since I have been using my bulk buy of US-05 yeast, all batches were good. Over building yeast is a must too. New yeast for every new batch is working out fine.

                                              Taste on August 29

Has a slight off flavour, not sure why. Low hop aroma. Hell, I used enough. How much do you have to use to get some flavour out of them. Working on Cryo hops for a hop creep to compliment these Chinook hops. Maybe I am using too much at the wrong time. Trying something new at the end of the month.

                                              Taste on September 11

Okay beer, a tad too malty though. Of course I have changed the recipe. I think that a less malty beer will bring out the hops more. However, I still want some maltiness, so I have to go in steps. Will be brewing No. 5 soon. No. 4 is an Amber Balanced beer and if it is too low on the sulphates I will raise it to where this one is.