4 Dog Brewery

Mr. Robobrew Just tossed this together quickly just to make beer and use up my Citra hops in which I bought too much of. I found this water profile on the internet and it seems to be in the range where I am used to. This is why I am not going to brew this style and when the hops are done, I think that will be it. However, if this is good, I will continue to brew it for myself and not worry about what guests want. This water profile is similar to the last one in October and was tossed out. I still don't know why it sucked. Elsie Ingredients 13 lbs. CMC 14 g Citra @ 60 min. 20 g Citra @ 20 min. 71 g Citra @ 0 min. 56 g Citra dry hop 3 - 5 days before kegging. US-05 - ( 20 g ) Water Profile ( close to yellow dry ) The water profile is close to my last House Dust which I tossed out. It just sucked. It had an awful after taste which I just couldn't stand any longer. This one doesn't have any Epsom salt in it. I tried to put it in and over shot my numbers, so I left it out and en...

This is my last Kolsch for awhile. Brewing lagers for now. Ingredients 11 lbs. CMC 8 ozs. Wheat 6 ozs. Munich II 69 g Hallertauer at 60 min. WLP029 Water Profile - David Heath from You Tube Do not measure out any brewing salts incase the previous Kolsch isn't any good. I am sure this water profile is fine, but if you have to tweek it, you will be tossing some salts out. I am not sure what to do to make it better though as I have been using 75/25 for the last 2 years now. It did turn out okay and then went south on me. The previous Kolsch seemed to be fine so I am going with the same water profile for now. Hope to make lots of this next summer. CA - 37 MG - 7 S04 - 70 CI - 36 PH - 5.35 Mash Water - 5.5 gallons ( 1.85 qts water/lb. of grain. ) Sparge Water - 5.5 gallons Calibrate?  O.G. - 1.046 F.G. -  % - SRM - 3.5 BU - 21 Make a 3 L starter and then transfer 1 L to a mason jar to end up with 2 L of starter wort. This starter was made on Wednesday, December 15. Transferred to a...

I like this style of beer better than stout. Always creamy, ( even without oats, flaked barley ). I use my stout faucet without nitro as it is just too bloody expensive. An overnight hit of C02 brings out just enough C02 to give it a somewhat creamy head with the stout faucet. I guess this is a poor man's version, yup, that is me. Ingredients CMC - 8 lbs. Crystal 120 - 5.5 ozs. Choc Malt - 3 ozs. Roast Barley - 3 ozs. Special III - 1.8 ozs. 35.4 g EKG at 60 min. 11.5 g US-05 - ( spare sachet ) Mash Water - 4 gallons - ( Mashed at 154 F ) Sparge Water - 5.25 gallons Water Profile - Brown Balanced CA - 50 MG - 6 SODIUM - 15 S04 - 70 CI - 56 PH - 5.50 O.G. - 1.032 - ( 75% ) F.G. -  1.008 % -     3 SRM - 17.6 BU - 17.6                                                          BREW DAY I forgot to calibrate Mr. Robobrew when I mas...

I made my final decision of what style of beer I am mostly going to brew. Kolsch. Brewers Pantry for now is selling Pils Malt for $76 a sack. That is reasonable, since everything else is stupid expensive. NEW PAC OF WLP029. OVER BUILD NUMBER 1. Ingredients 11 lbs. CMC 6 ozs. Munich II - 9 L  8 ozs. Wheat 5 ozs. Acid Malt 30 g Tettnanger at 60 min. 26.9 g Hallertauer at 60 min. WLP029 - After transferring 1 L of starter to the mason jar, I was short 500 ml. Corrected it                   for the next brew. O.G. - 1.049 - ( 86% ) F.G. -  1.010 % -       5 SRM - 3.4 BU - 19.4 Water Profile - David Heath ( You Tube ) CA - 37   MG - 7 S04 - 70 CI - 35 PH - 5.35 MASH - 6 Gal SPARGE - 5 Gal I am switching the amount of water in my mash and sparge. I will use less mash water so I can use my top plate more easily. I will make it up in the sparge and also not worrying about going to the 8 gallon mark in Mr. Robob...

I didn't take a gravity reading, I forgot and really don't care. I will though check the gravity along the way to make sure everything is fine. Now it gets warm in the day and quite cool during the night. Since I am going away for a few days, I have no control over the fermentation temp. I assume the OG is around 1.090 to 1.092 which I get 99% of the time.  O.G. - 1.092 10 day gravity - Friday, November 12 - .0094 F,G, - Didn't take one.  % - Bottled On -  Dec. 5 or later. Not as good as the last one, but this is bottling day as it may be kind of early to judge it. I used a course filter on my wine and it does leave some shit behind in the bottle. Next time, filter using the course and polishing filter. I bet I will still end up with the same amount of wine due to the 2 stages of filtering absorbing wine.

Brewing to use up my hops which I bought too much of. Having trouble selling some even with half price hops as opposed to brew shops. These Citra hops are the cream of the crop and I am kind of surprised no one scooped them up. This is an all Citra hop brew, hell I have enough of them. Ingredients 11 lbs. CMC 8 ozs. Munich I 8 ozs. Wheat 5 ozs. Acid Malt 15 g Citra at 60 min. 30 g Citra at 15 min. 30 g Citra at 10 min. 30 g Citra at 5 min. 100 g Citra at 0 min. 60 g Citra 5 days before I kegged it. US-05 - 20 grams Water Profile - Yellow Dry CA - 50 MG - 10 S04 - 104 CI - 46 PH - 5.35 Mash gypsum - 2.3 g calcium chloride - 1.4 g epsom salt - 2.2 g Boil gypsum - 2.1 g calcium chloride - 1.3 g epsom salt - 2 g Sparge - .2 ml Lactic Acid O.G. - 1.048 F.G. - % - SRM - 4.5 BU - 52 I have tried different amounts of sulphates and was not happy with most of them. This is kind of low, but the beer will not suffer, just maybe not a in your face taste of citra hops. So, after this one I may up it...

Mr. Robobrew  Calibrate Mr. Robobrew on brew day and check the mash temp often. Seems to be all over the place as far as temperature is concerned. Boiling is 212 F, Mr. Robobrew says 216 F. That part doesn't matter, but mash temps do. Ingredients 11 lbs. CMC 8 ozs. Crystal 40 7 ozs. Crystal 120 2.6 ozs. Weyermann Special III 65 g EKG LalBrew London dry yeast - Pitched @ 12 noon on brew day. RO water with brewing salts CA - 54 MG - 3 SO4 - 55 CI - 65 PH - 5.45 O.G. - 1.045 F.G. - % - SRM - 13 BU - 32.4 Getting to use my 40 and 120 SRM grains which need to be used up.                                                                  BREW NOTES Brew Day - Good brew day except for one thing. Please stop putting the temp                           probe into...

Robobrew                                                              Robobrew Test 2 Days Later Temp is close to my thermopen. Taking it to a boil now to see how the temp reacts on the screen. I got 100 C and it had a good boil going on.  Just a quick standard Canadian Lager using rice and corn. Quick ferment as usual. I haven't made a beer like this ever. Maybe rice flakes or flaked maize, but not the two together. If anything, it will be light. Need to get a d rest in before we go camping. The Magster Ingredients 8 lbs. CMC 2.38 lbs. Flaked Rice 1.19 lbs. Flaked Maize 5 ozs. Acid Malt 47 g Hallertauer at 60 min. 3 sachets of 34/70 - ( I used 3 because I had them and didn't want 1 sachet left over ) .3 g of Potassium Sulphate to the keg for oxidation. ( ruined the beer btw ) The SMB ruined the beer, tossed it, idiot. I quit rea...

I didn't like the Perle/Hersbrucker hop combo in the last Kolsch. I don't hate it, it is just quite different. I will go with my older hops this time just to use them up. I may go with all Perle next time to see if it is better. I assume it is the Hersbrucker since I use it as an aroma hop. I can sell them if that is the case. I only have 14 ozs. anyway. Nope, it is the Hersbrucker hops that is giving this beer an odd taste which I am not fond of. The Kolsch may be a good beer when aged properly, so I will not toss the Hersbrucker hops out as of yet. I hate wasting hops. I have to think more carefully for now on before I buy stuff. It is nice to brew on this system because nothing fails to work, not like Mr. Robobrew which is starting to give me false temp readings. Not sure if I can even get another PC board for it. If this just is too expensive, or can't find parts, I will never buy a system like this again. I can still get a 19L system with 2 pots and two 240 V elements ...

This is my August beer. Slow and cool. Going back to Perle and Hersbrucker hops. Will finish off my stash of Tettnager and Hallertauer Mittlefrauer in the Robobrew. Ingredients 22 lbs. CMC 1 lb. Munich I 1 lb. Wheat 10 ozs. Acid Malt - 2.5% 56 g Perle at 60 min. - 6.7% 55g Hersbrucker Spat 10 min. - 2% Escarpment Labs Kolsch 75/25 RO/Spring Mash and Sparge - 9.50 gallons total water in each vessel 7.10 gallons RO - ( .10 gallons is 380 ml ) 2.40 gallons spring ( .40 gallons is 1.50 L ) 3 bottles RO 1 bottle Spring -  I use spring water because  my well water is treated with a water softener and I don't want salt in my beer water. O.G. - 1.050 F.G. -  1.010 % -     5.26 SRM - 3.6 BU - 23 This should be the same as my last one in April. It was a very good beer. No filtering but you have time to use gelatin when you toss them in the fridge. CPBF these in your PET bottles which you have never used. Transfer off the gelatin to kegs, carb up and bottle. Yup, doin...

Costco Merlot O.G. - 1.092 R.G. -1.000 F.G. - 1.000 % -    12.5 Must Temp - 68 F.                                                                  Yeast Pitched at 12 pm Next Morning - Still 68 F. Has to get to at least 70F, 72F is best. Bubbling away, but real slow. Hot and                           humid weather is coming soon, so it will get warmer in the basement.  Day 2 - 70F. The temp controller can't be set for a higher temp than it is cuirrently. This is an older                      model. It is getting hot today and tomorrow so I should be able to do it then. Going                      good though. Day 3 - Having a hard time get...

O.G. - 1.092 R.G. - 1.000 F.G. -  1.000 % -      12.5 Must Temp - 68 F. The wine bag was leaking. I must of pinched it or something when I picked it up. I clipped my fingernails yesterday, so I don't know how that happened. I caught it though, early. Just a spot, always something. Using a Muslim bag for the oak chips. They float, hope they don't interfere with the yeast that also floats. I have never read about using marbles to sink the bag. Done now. Yeast pitched at 12 noon.                                        SEE THE MERLOT WINE FOR FERMENTATION NOTES Gravity too high to rack. 1.012. Should be good to go 2-3 days later. Racked my merlot because it was at 1.000, go figure. Same wine company, same yeast, same ferment chamber, same, same, same. I will check the white and may as well let it go until near done before racking.           ...

Robobrew A one off brew. I will do an overnight carb and serve with C02 but it won't be carbonated very much. I did this a year or so ago with my Maggie Mild and it was good. Ingredients 9 lbs. CMC - ( last time using this as a base malt for this style of beer ) 10 ozs. Crystal 150 6 ozs. Victory 1.25 ozs. Roast Barley 14 g Challenger at 60 min. 14 g Challenger at 40 min. 1 oz. EKG at 1 min. S04 O.G. - 1.038 F.G. -  1.006 % -      4.4 SRM - 12 BU - 25.7 It is a good idea when you set the temp on the Robobrew, to turn on the elements, duh!!! I also noticed the Robobrew's boil was showing 219 F. What did I mash at? I better calibrate it again and check it during the mash now and always.                                                         RE-CALIBRATED MR. ROBOBREW                   ...

Conical Giving this another go at using brewing salts. I do have a Chinook IPA which is very close to be kegged, but still finishing up. I bought 7.5 lbs. of Citra ( most expensive hop around ) so I want to get this right. So far, I can get 10 Conical brews out of these hops. I tasted vanilla in the 2nd keg for a day or so. Now, that was weird, but it is gone now. Ingredients 22 lbs. CMC 2 lbs. Munich I 1.38 lbs. Crystal 40 1 lb. Canadian Wheat 4 ozs. Roast Barley - 500 srm 45 g Chinook at 60 min. ( 29.7 ) 72 g Citra at 10 min. ( 10.3 ibu ) 100 g Citra at 0 min. 100 g Citra dry hop. Tossed it in loose. Not 3 - 5 days before kegging as it is still bubbling away and very slow ferment just like the last one. US-05 PH - 5.43 ( no acidulated malt needed in mash ) CA - 95 MG - 10 Sodium - 8 S04 - 201 CI - 51                                                  Mash Addition...

Conical With a new hop schedule and brewing water, I hope this beer is not astrigent again.  Ingredients 22 lbs. CMC 1.75 lbs. Victory 12 ozs. C 40 8 ozs. Aciduated Malt - ( should be lower, but this is from a previous brew and already mixed in ) 1.9 g Baking Soda ( to lower the PH because of too much acid malt ) Yea, makes no sense. 23 g Chinook - FWH - in kettle as soon as the hot break ends. Usually stop the boil, turn on again. 130 g Chinook at 10 min. 56 g Chinook at 0 min. Missed the dry hop schedule at 3 - 5 days prior to kegging. Dry hopped with 85 g of Citra in the keg with a muslum bag for a week. Sample was great on day 3. 45 g US-05 CA - 75 MG - 10 S04 - 152 - CI - 53 PH - 5.31 O.G. - 1.049 F.G. -  1.015 % -      4.6 SRM - 6.4 BU - 33.4 I am looking for a smoother hop taste along with no astrigent taste. Will look at my crush on notch 4, but notch 3 is not enough of a crush. Take a better look at it, but I don't think this is the problem. Nope, notch...

Marty's Red O.G. - 1.090 R.G. -   .994 F.G. - Do the same as mine, and/or read instructions because they might be different than a white wine kit. Monday, April 10 - Putting together the wine kit after reading instructions. They are the same. Pretty well done at the first racking. Still having issues with the oak chips plugging up the syphon dip tube. Looking into using muslum bags to hold them in.  Racked to a carboy on June 1st. Added Chitosan on June 2nd.                                                   FILTERED AND BOTTLED ON JUNE 11                                                           

Chris's White O.G. - 1.090 R.G. -   .996 F.G. -    .994 Using proper pails this time. Fill to around 1/2 inch or so below the first rim ring on the pail. Should need around 16 L of Spring water. Monday, April 10 - Putting together the kit. Make sure the wine is 70 F and up, heat room if needed.                                  From what I have read about these kits, the average gravity for this kit is 1.090. Saturday, May 15 - Still bubbling away at a steady rate. 74 F, too warm for me, but should be okay for                                 now. If they get any warmer, I will have to take them down to the basement. Sunday, May 16 -   Moved it to the basement.  Tuesday, May 18 -  Still fermenting, but a little slower. 68 F. Can rack on Thursday, but have to check       ...

Robobrew I need an elbow for the mash hose to get it to circulate properly. Thunder storm in the middle of my boil. I had no idea there was a storm coming. I did read a possibility of a storm yesterday, but they can't predict their next bowel movement, so predicting the weather? Sure... Robobrew tripped but came back with no ill effects that I saw, so brew on Chris. Ingredients 11 lbs. CMC 14 ozs. Victory 6 ozs. Crystal 40 4 ozs. Acid Malt 21 g Chinook at 60 min. 45 g Chinook at 10 min. 100 g Chinook at 0 min. US-05 - ( noticed no more 15 g sachets, so since they are kind of old, tossing in 45 g ) 75% RO water 25% Well water O.G. - 1.048 F.G. - % - SRM - 6.4 BU - 40                                                                      BREW NOTES Good brew day even though Elsie is home and cleaning everything. Hard t...

This is mine and Marty's wine from Costco. Fermented in carboys and the gravity seemed kind of high. My hydrometer was 1.098 for mine and over that for Marty's. I went up in the carboy as far as I should of for over flow and not too much water. I will top up with boiled and cooled RO water as per instructions.  O.G. - 1.096 - MINE O.G. - 1.098 - MARTY F.G. - 1.000 - Mine - ( Topped up with too much water, tastes like a peach cooler )                                                      WINE NOTES I bought pails for future batches, so I have to deal with these carboys until the next batch. I am down about 2 L in my carboy thanks to the plugging up in my syphon hose. I did a much better job with Marty's wine which I got most of it. Next time I can do things in the bucket which is a pain in the ass with the carboys. April 12 - Put together 2 kits in ca...

Mr. Conical Brewing in the laundry room. Lots of steam, but window open, fan on etc. Ingredients 22 lbs. CMC 2 lbs. Munich I 8 ozs. Acid Malt 154 g Hallertauer at 60 min. Escarpment Labs Isar Lager 75% RO water 25% Well water Using 2 pacs of lager yeast. 44 days old now. 3.5 L starter to a 4.5 L starter to get an over build of 200 B cells in a one litre mason jar for my next brew. I am making my own LME as the one store here charges way too much and the other so called HB store in Lindsay has none. I asked him last summer if he is getting some and still nothing on his useless website. I think he is letting his stock go down to nothing and closing up shop as he is getting out of just about everything. Not much of a business man in my opinion. No ads, no promotions, no nothing. No wonder he is going under. O.G. - 1.048 F.G. - % - SRM - 3.7 BU - 25 HOME MADE STARTER I got a bit of grain from the old mash tun into the pot. Should of used a filter bag but will next step. I hope it didn'...

Mr. Robobrew Maggie the Easter Dog Ingredients 11 lbs. CMC 1 lb. Munich 4 ozs. Acid Malt 77 g Hallertauer at 60 min. WLP029 75% RO 25% well water - ( Still seems to be okay ) O.G. - 1.048 F.G. - % - SRM - 3.7 BU - 25 This is the same recipe as my lager is going to be. I will have 3 kegs of this, so it is time to brew a lager. I will have time to age this in one of my many fridges. I am not using that many fridges at the moment and will cpbf most if not all of my beer to minimize my usage of fridges. Crash cool, filter, carb up and cpbf and stash them in the black fridge which is on no mater what is in it.                                                     Fermentation Notes Next Morning - Going good. April 8 - Same. Good seal on the big mouth carboy. April 11 - Steady bubbling, but slowing down finally. 10 days or so to go. April 16 - On the bench. Clearing ...