Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?

[Tristan]

Originally Posted by St. Lou Stu

Primary and secondary are finally both empty.
I bottled my RIS yesterday. It started at 1.125 and finished at 1.020 for a whopping 13.83% ABV.
My brewstand should be done this week. I'll post pics before and after powder coating.
After powder is down and baked, I'll just have to plumb it up and do some final wiring.

American Pils will be the test batch on the new rig:

Classic American Pilsner
Type: All Grain
Date: 3/20/2011
Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Brewer: Tim Lael
Boil Size: 7.00 gal
Boil Time: 60 min
Equipment: My All Grain
Brewhouse Efficiency: 80.00

Ingredients
Amount Item Type % or IBU
5.50 lb Brewers Malt 2-Row (Briess) (1.8 SRM) Grain 64.71 %
2.00 lb Maris Otter (Crisp) (4.0 SRM) Grain 23.53 %
1.00 lb Rice, Flaked (Briess) (1.0 SRM) Grain 11.76 %
0.50 oz Sterling [7.50 %] (60 min) Hops 13.2 IBU
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (20 min) Hops 5.3 IBU
0.50 oz Sterling [7.50 %] (15 min) Hops 6.5 IBU
1 Pkgs American Lager (White Labs #WLP840) Yeast-
Lager
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.045 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.010 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.62
Bitterness: 25.0 IBU
Est Color: 3.5 SRM

Notes
Created with BeerSmith

Nice job on your RIS attenuation! Looking at your CAP recipe, where's the 6 row brother? I'd take half of that 2-row and sub 6-row and then sub Pilsner malt for the other half. 6 Row really adds another dimension! Also, I'd save the MO for an English beer. When CAPs were brewed back in the day they didn't have any fancy malts! Also, I like corn a whole hell of a lot; I tried Rice and it's not for me. Just my 2 cents.

Also, if you like noble hops, Perle for bittering and Saaz/Tettnang for flavor/aroma is an awful nice combination If you want super classic pre-prohibition and like cat piss flavor try cluster hops LOL.

[St. Lou Stu]

Originally Posted by Tristan

Nice job on your RIS attenuation! Looking at your CAP recipe, where's the 6 row brother? I'd take half of that 2-row and sub 6-row and then sub Pilsner malt for the other half. 6 Row really adds another dimension! Also, I'd save the MO for an English beer. When CAPs were brewed back in the day they didn't have any fancy malts! Also, I like corn a whole hell of a lot; I tried Rice and it's not for me. Just my 2 cents.

Also, if you like noble hops, Perle for bittering and Saaz/Tettnang for flavor/aroma is an awful nice combination If you want super classic pre-prohibition and like cat piss flavor try cluster hops LOL.

Yeah... that great attenuation made a fairly hot beer. We'll see what time does on that.

I will take your advice on the Pils... for the second batch. I wanted to stray just a bit on the first batch since it will be for my BMC friend that helped me build the stand. I want him to see that beer can have flavor and be simple. I think I will go with the Perle, Saaz/Tettnang on both batches though. Nice idea... I'll keep my cascades for IPA and AIPAs. They really don't have a place here. And the corn... I am still 50/50 on that... what do you see as an advantage compared to rice? I do rice 'cause its easy, but I guess corn would be just as if not easier. Do you still cereal mash it?

[Tristan]

Originally Posted by St. Lou Stu

Yeah... that great attenuation made a fairly hot beer. We'll see what time does on that.

I will take your advice on the Pils... for the second batch. I wanted to stray just a bit on the first batch since it will be for my BMC friend that helped me build the stand. I want him to see that beer can have flavor and be simple. I think I will go with the Perle, Saaz/Tettnang on both batches though. Nice idea... I'll keep my cascades for IPA and AIPAs. They really don't have a place here. And the corn... I am still 50/50 on that... what do you see as an advantage compared to rice? I do rice 'cause its easy, but I guess corn would be just as if not easier. Do you still cereal mash it?

To me Rice adds a bit of "insipid" to the flavor profile. I just didn't care for it personally. I used Flaked Maize (Corn) and there is no cereal mash needed. Just through it in with the rest of your malt in the mash! I find corn gives a nice delicate sweetness at about 18% of the grist. Rice is more neutral, but I'm usually not a "neutral" kind of guy