Fortunately for me (and likely for you reading this), there is less explanation necessary as I go through each (rather basic) recipe of home brew since it has been written here previously. As my equipment evolves, my methods become more complex, and my ingredients get a bit more adventurous I will need to go through things in more detail. For now though, if you are interested in the specifics of racking the wort from a primary to secondary fermenter check out the video in “Pumpkin Ale – Part 2” on the “Brewing” page above. In this post I will simply highlight the specifics of these two brews to keep you up to date on what is happening.
If that first paragraph sounds familiar it is because you have read it before. Recycling material is fantastic! Actually I would like to rework my brewing posts into a different format that is more of a recipe and less like reading an article. I will get there, but today isn’t the day.
Yes, I use painter's tape to mark volumes!
The British IPA was the first to be transferred. It came in at a specific gravity of about 1.0172 giving it a current ABV of roughly 3.83%. The specific gravity of this one was even lower than expected after seeing the initial reading. Hopefully it will continue to ferment a bit in secondary and drop down a little further before bottling.
Still cannot bring myself to try one.
The cranberry and ginger infused IPA was next to go. No sugar was added at this stage as I have done before so it was a simple transfer to the carboy. Since I had to deal with quite a bit of fruit floating in the wort, I decided to take the specific gravity reading before it was racked to secondary. It clocked in with about a 1.0192, giving it and ABV in the neighborhood of 3.79%. As with the British IPA, I hope that it will continue to ferment and the reading will come down a bit more.
All gone.
Both samples were not bad and I think will turn out OK once carbonated and in the bottle for a while, though with a much lower ABV than I would like to see. Still a good experiment all in all. However, it seems that exactly halving the recipes doesn’t equate to two beers of the same strength and character as the original so I think I will have to start upping the ingredients if I am going to continue that method going forward.
Back to the bathtub with you!
So now everything is sitting in the bathtub and I plan on bottling sometime before or during the weekend. I have actually brewed another (full) batch today so there will soon be more home brewing excitement to share. Stay tuned!
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