4 Dog Brewery

  Martin Brugard who made Bru'n Water has a method of getting the moisture out of calcium chloride.  Toss on a baking sheet and pre-heat the oven to 392F. Bake for an hour and it should dry it out so you can get true measurements when weighing it out. May as well try it now and if it fails, I have time to buy some new stuff to use in the future. I don't have a lot. Doing this on Nov. 28. 2024. Done. Yes, it was quite dry. It must of picked up a ton of moisture  when ever I bought it. I vacuumed sealed it. I need to buy more in Feb. 2025.

  Making my own West Coast Style IPA because I already have the malts so why not give this a try? I do remember many, many years ago the Brewhouse kits used honey malt. This will only cost me $19 ( hops and yeast ) because I get free delivery to Bobcaygeon Brewery but I have to buy a 6 pack of beer. Better than bloody shipping which is out of this world. Do not forget to tell Brewers Pantry to deliver to Bobcaygeon Brewery. They deliver it on Tuesdays. I am looking forward to brewing this on the 22nd. No hockey, no storey xmas, just beer and world juniors on tv. Ingredients 11 lbs. Rahr 4 ozs. Honey Malt 2 ozs. CaraFa Special III 25.3 grams Magnum at 60 min. 2 oz. Cascade at 15 min. 2 ozs. Cascade at 0 min. 1 oz. Cascade dry hop in fermenter 3 days before kegging. US-05 Mash Volume - 5.25 gallons Sparge Volume - 5 gallons O.G. - 1.044 F.G. - % - SRM - 8.3 BU - 41.3 PH - 5.31 CA - 75 MG - 9 S04 - 150 CC - 51 Mash Gyp - 4 grams CC - 1.6 grams Eps - 1.9 grams Lactic Acid - 1 ml ( for ...

  Did this one last and it went fine. The temp strip was defective so I need to get another one.  Ingredients 6.3 L of Wine concentrate. 34 grams of yeast nutrient Wine Yeast Spring water Well water which I had to top up with since I ran out of spring water. O.G. - 1.090 ( this is just a guess, it could of been 1.090 or higher ) F.G. - .990 % -    13.6 Turned wall heater on for now but will check it often cause I want to ferment all 3 wines at 72F.  Same Night - Starting to see activity late when I was going to bed. Day 2 - Same. 72F. I need one more temp strip, mine is crap. Day 3 - Had to turn off the heat, too warm. Day 14 - Rack to a carboy if the gravity is at .998 or less. Racking on Friday, Dec. 6 which is Day 14. Add the rest of the ingredients in order as they say. Let it sit for 14 more days before filtering. Rack on Thursday, Dec. 5. Check gravity before racking. I am sure it is below .998 but check it anyway. Let it sit for 14 more days before filter...

  No oak chips to deal with but the yeast nutrient was a bit of a pita. I added 34 grams to 23 litres of wine. Seems like a lot, but that is what they say to do. Use no more than 1 tsp. per gallon. I work in metric, so that is 5.69 grams per gallon which comes to 34 grams. Better work. Same Night - Saw activity when going to bed. Day 2 - More active, 72F. Day 3 - Had to turn off the heat, too warm. Day 14 - Add the rest of the ingredients in order, de-gas and follow all instructions.                Let it sit for 14 more days before filtering. O.G. - 1.090 ( just a guess. I will take a reading next batch ) F.G. -  .994 % -     13 Should be able to rack on Friday, Dec. 6 into carboys. Top up with RO water that did not come from the water cooler. Hope the yeast nutrient worked, or even over worked. I followed the instructions and it seemed like an awful lot. Just a couple points or so higher than mine for some reason. Didn't...

This kit has it all, 3 bags of oak chips and a bag of dehydrated wine skins. I didn't have a muslim bag to put them in. I just hope they don't get caught in the syphon tube when it is time to rack the wine. Next time change what you do with the oak chips. Hydrate them in hot water right after you add the bettonite and use a muslim bag with them and the wine skins. That will be 2 muslim bags. Ingredients 12L of wine concentrate 34 grams of yeast nutrient 11 L of spring water wine yeast - EC-118 dehydrated wine skins 3 packets of oak chips ( in a muslim bag ) Oak chips should be put in the fermenter just after you add the bettonite. It is kind of hard to add it plus the water which is left over from the hydration of the chips. Easier when the pail is almost empty.  Same Night - Activity when going to bed. 72F. Day 2 - More active. 72F. Day 3 - Had to turn off the heat, too warm. Day 5 - 74F. Turned down heater again... Day 9 - Just about done. Rack on day 14. Day 11 - No activity...

We sadly had to put Murphy down on November 20, 2024. He is almost 20 years old now and was sick a lot. He was a good cat through the years and we will miss him terribly.  

This is a good choice because I don't have to do anything but pour into a carboy and add yeast. I bought this in Lindsay and the price is $45 for this kit. Others are $40. This is more expensive than making my own of course, but is a good kit if all you want is beer with no mess. I will certainly think about this when I get older or just don't want to make my own beer any more. This is half what I would pay at the Beer Store. Actually less than half price. Most IPA cases are around $60 - $78 or more a case. That is $120 for 2 cases and this kit makes 2 cases for $45. Big savings where there is never any savings in this idiot province or country  Putting this kit altogether and pitching the yeast.  Foam, foam, and more foam. Fermcap did little to help, so I am waiting between dumps of wort to add more. This will take awhile. I do love the smell of this wort. I tasted it and it was pretty good. I may go back to making  this style if I can figure out the hop schedule without...