O2 experiment failure

The O2 experiment was a failure. Why? Because both beers turned out great. The non O2 beer finished at 1.008 and the O2 beer finished at 1.006. The O2 beer tasted better. It was smoother. But the non O2 beer was very good as well.

Ok. So I didn't nail down my culprit of yucky taste. Below is a list of differences from the offending brews that I can think of.

1. The current brew was aged in the bath tube. The others in the chest freezer.
2. The current brew used a silicon air lock. The others used a water air lock.
3. The current brew used a glass thermometer. The other used an uncalibrated steel thermometer.
4. The current brew was brewed with Albertson's spring water. At least one of the other was Arrowhead. Although now that I think about it one of these Kevin's water. So this seems unlikely.
5. The previous brews were sampled at 1 week. The current brew was left alone for 3 weeks and then sampled.
6. Also fly sparged instead of batch sparged.

I think I'm going to mix them both in the keg and pour out what horrid abomination is in there now.

Holiday Graff

Made some graff today. Ingredients:

4 gallons of pasteurized apple juice. No preservatives.
.5 lbs of Crystal 60L
1 oz of wheat
2 lbs Amber DME.
0.5oz Perle hops

.25 tsp clove

.25 tsp nutmeg

.5 tsp allspice

.25 tsp dried orange peel

1 cinnamon stick

WLP002 - Two vials.

Steeped the grains in 0.75 gallons of water at 155F for 30 mins. Rinsed with 0.25 gallons of 170F water. Added DME. Brought to boil. Wait for hot break. Add hops and spices to muslin bag and throw it in the wort. Boil for thirty mins. Cool to 70F. Pour into fermenter. Add the four gallons of apple juice. Add the yeast. Shake.

OG was 1.058. Tasted bitter and sweet. Also could taste the cloves and cinnamon. I'm worried when the sweet goes away it will be too bitter. We'll see. I'd like to give this out as Christmas presents.

Amanda came over to help. It was nice to see her.

American Ale

A couple of weeks back I made the American Ale kit from MoreBeer. Here are the ingredients:

9lbs 2 row
1lb Crystal 15L

1oz Magnum 60min
1oz Cascade 5min
1oz Cascade 1min

Yeast = WLP001

Mashed at 150F. I also did a more of a fly sparge instead of a batch sparge. The OG was 1.046. The estimated was 1.044-48 so I nailed it.

I bought some silicon air locks and have begun using them. This way I don't have to worry the water being sucked back into the carboy. Not that I care about the water getting in the beer (it is starsan water). I care that the beer is exposed to air.

Why I really wanted to make this batch was that my beer lately is not coming out very well. It tastes bad. The only change from good beer to yucky beer has been the oxygen stone. So for this batch after it is cooled we will pour half into one carboy and half into another. Then use the oxygen stone for 1 minute on one and shake the other. Then pitch the yeast into both. Each carboy got its own yeast vial. The yeast was good an active. Both tubes exploded when opened so I was concerned whether I got enough in there.

They both took off within 24 hours. Both had a healthy fermentation. They looked to ferment the exact same. I'll sample them next weekend and then we will see.

Another note is that I made sure to get the temp right. This maybe the reason for the yucky taste as well. So we will see if there is a difference.

Spiced Graff

Link to a holiday graff with spices that I will try today.

http://ahomebrewlog.blogspot.com/2010/12/holiday-spiced-graff.html