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Scalliwag

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Well, a buddy of mine gave me 3 cases (36) of 22oz. bottles. They are big ass bottles. It only took a bit over two cases for the five gallon batch. It saved on bottling time, saved on caps and capping time too.
I know I need a cooler label...... but........... I think my friends that get to actually drink it will get a laugh. It's not like I can sell the stuff sad.gif Besides, it's not even my recipe. ohmy.gif



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QUOTE (Lakemonster @ Jan 8 2007, 11:32 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Good deal.

Hope you are storing these in the garage while they are are gettin fizzy. Lots of stories about "Bottle Bombs" ruining this that or the other... even taking out a good portion of the other bottles around it.

You did prime em right?


I hope I did. I took a pint or wort from the carboy and heated it in a pan and dissolved the premeasured package of cornsugar in that. Stirred it as the batch siphoned.
Then I poured that into that into my filling bucket with a tube on the spout and put the tube down to the bottom of each bottle and filled each to the top.
Then when I pulled the tube out it left them a little over an inch from the top. Capped them up and hopefully...... that was the right way?
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QUOTE (Lakemonster @ Jan 12 2007, 10:47 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Sounds good. theres several priming methods..... even little pills of priming sugar that go in each bottle...

Thats one step you dont want to forget..... no bubbles.



I have one flip-top bottle that the guy that sold me the equipment threw in. I open that bottle and took a swig and it made a real good pop when it opened. So I took a swig and the shit tasted better than Shinerbock!!!!
So I sealed it back and put it in the fridge and drank it after it got cold. it was fantastic!!!
That was Thursday which was only 5 days after bottling so I really did not expect much so I was super excited as you could imagine.
A big question I have Lake is the this ingredient kit cost $32. Here is a recap of what it is followed by a few questions:

""American Bock is a traditional American style. It is much lighter in body than German Bock, but it’s often darker in color. Top-quality malt and premium hops balance in this beer to make it a very enjoyable drinking experience.
This Kit contains Amber Dry Malt Extract, Malto-Dextrin, Crystal Malt, Black Patent Malt, and Biscuit (Victory) Malt with Crystal Hops for bittering and Spalt Hops for aroma. Also included are Irish Moss, Ale Yeast, and Priming Sugar.""

The first question is when I look at ale recipes posted on the net and then price everything it is no cheaper than this kit. Maybe I am picking more expensive recipes or maybe Foreman's and the Winemakers Shop are high on their ingredients?
I downloaded the program you use, Strangebrew, and that shit made my head spin.
By looking at that ingredients list can you throw something into Strangebrew along with a pound or two of roasted pumpkin seed and produce a recipe you think may turn out? Or should I buy another kit and what problems could I have by adding something like the pumpkin seed to it other than flavor change?
I am not sure yet what all factors effect all of this, but my guess is all factors. Which makes me think you may have to do something with roasted pumpkin seed to get some sort of measurement? From what I can tell every ingredient listed when made from a recipe program has a value next to it to indicate something. sad.gif I HATE being ignorant of things like this!!!!

Oh, Lake, wanna come to my Superbowl party?
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$32. damn.

At that price for a 5 gallon kit, I would expect it to come with White Labs or Wyeasts (liquid yeast packs).

Im used to seeing kits in the $22-$27 dollar range..... but I must admit. I have never bought a kit. I just bought everything in bulk (more you buy, cheaper it is per pound or oz) and followed recipes.

I do use Irish Moss as a rule, good stuff. I noticed your kit has Biscuit malt.... thats interesting. Shiner uses Flaked Maiz instead.

Yeah. the damn malt, DME or LME is what kills you. Pricey shit..... and you need between 6 and 8 lbs of the stuff per batch. What I have done in developing Triskellion Ale (my house beer) was to to go a strange half step between partial mash and all grain....... I ended up buying around 3 lbs of American 2 Row and cooking it in with a pound or so of my Crystal malt and other adjunct grains. This allows me to keep a malty flavor (cheaply) and then bring up the Specific Gravity with Corn Syrup..... or Turbinado Sugar if I want to go a Porter direction....

I guess I shied away from kits because it limited my ability to be creative on a spontaneous level. Its fun to play with a wide variety of adjunct grains and to dial in a truly different beer.
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Check out this recipe from Foreman's website. For some reason it calls for fermenting at 42 degrees. Is that because of the type of yeast? What could I change on this to get it to a room temperature fermentation?
Also, about the roasted pumpkin seed I mentioned earlier, what factors to consider there?
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Ive never used pumpkin seed.... thats totally foreign to me. I vaguely remeber someone talking about that years ago on a brew site... but I dont rmember any details...

42 degrees, that would be a lager.

There are basically 2 types of fermentation with beer. Higher tempature levels of around 65-75 are for brewing ales or stouts. These low temp fermentations are for lagers, to make a lager you need a lager yeast. Lager yeasts survive and work in these chilly temperatures.... the beer is fermented in a cold environment over a longer period of time.... somewhere around 21-23 days for many of them.

As for making a lager at room temp is just not going to happen....sorry.. So what can you do? Well. Move to colder climate to house with a basement... thats how some of the northern cats brew their lagers.... us Southern boys have to do something a bit more drastic: Buy and old refridgerator throw the racks out and adjust the thermostat. Set your fermenter up in there and let her rip.
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I guess it would have helped if I would have actually pasted the recipe sad.gif I had heard that bocks were ales and the kit I bought was a bock that called for around 75 for the fermentation. They called it "American Bock" this recipe came from the same place, Foremans, and they call this recipe "American Bock".
I just need a good ale type bok recipe to start with and tweak around it.

As far as roasted pumpkin seed, it is something I use in a lot of food recipes like pumpkin seed crusted catfish. I don't like pumkin in general, like pies, but roasted pumpkin seed is some really good stuff. If I didn't know better they did not come from pumpkins smile.gif
Anyways here is the actual American Bock recipe I was referring to.

American Bock
5.5 lbs. (1 large pack) Yellow Dog Malt Extract
1/2 lb. crushed Lt. Crystal malt
1/4 lb. crushed Black Patent malt
1/4 lb. crushed Victory malt
1 1/2 oz. Hallertauer pellets (4.5% alpha) at start of boil.
1/2 oz. Tettnanger pellets (4.2) in last 5 min.
1/2 tsp. Irish Moss in last 15 mins. of boil
1 pack Wyeast P2308 Lager Yeast
3/4 cup Corn Sugar for priming
Pitch yeast at room temp., ferment at 42 deg.

Starting Gravity 1.040 Final Gravity 1.011

;EDIT: Is it as easy as changing to a ale yeast on this recipe? My guess is that it's not sad.gif Edited by Scalliwag
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Sure. swap out for ale yeast and go for it.

I've never used Yellow Dog.. I read that some of it is wheat malt... I dont suppose swapping out for some other amber colored DME or LME would be fine. amybe chuck in a quarter cup of torrified wheat in with the adjucts and color malt. That might wrok out about the same as for taste.

Starting Grav of 1.40.....

Oklahoma beer.... I kinda thought the weight on the malt extract was at least half lb shy. Low alc%, probably a great "hot weather" beer.

Should be pretty damn dark too..... Black Patent goes a long way as for color.
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Ok. Im lingering over your link there...

Well.. only add some more malt if you want it to be higher octane. Maybe try a batch like that... and If you wanna kick it up... just bump the SG up to 1.45-50

Ok ... the Yellow Dog Extract is what they carry as LME (look under extract syrups) Thats not a bad price for that. I'd honestly just go with that. (unhopped). Thats a trip that you can buy that shit bulk pre-hopped.

Found a few other things on that site that gets the panties wet...

Grain prices are killer in the first table. Generally a good savings buying 10lbs on the second table... and the flaked grains you are forking out .50 cents extra a lb.... but other wise the grains savings out way a few cents on adjuncts... you use those least anyway.

Hops is a few pennies high....nothin to bitch about.

That link you have there with the DME.... buying that in the 4.5 lbs is a good deal.

I need to hit this place up!
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You know what is really cool bro? They are directly across the street from Cafe' Medi which is the really good hookah lounge here with excellent food and prices. They are about 2 miles from the Indian grocer (can't think of their name sad.gif ) that has 3 Kings charcoal and Starbuzz for cheap.
So if and when you make it out we can get drunk and go driving around to all these places ohmy.gif Well, maybe go by all the places and then throw down a few smile.gif

I will buy some ingredients for the next brew smile.gif
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