Notes |
- STRIKE: 10.5 gals @ 170F
- MASH: @ 149F for 90 mins
- SPARGE: 6 gals @ 200F
BOIL:
- Pre-boil S.G. (total volume): 1.076
- Post-boil S.G.: 1.084 (picked up 8 points in the boil, as per usual, efficiency was about 75%)
BREW NOTES:
- Mash settled at about 148. I'm fine with this, as I want the beer to be a bit drier anyway, as the cherry flavor will then play a bigger role, as well as make the beer less viscous and easier to drink a whole pint of.
YEAST:
- Was going to use 1084, but ended up using Mangrove Jack's M79 Burton Union yeast, two 10-gram packs per carboy (rehydrated in 1.5 cups of 90F water ea. for 30 mins before pitching).
FERMENT:
- 15-20 hours: 1.5" thick rocky krausen (not super-dense yet) and active airlock. Things look good. No lag to ferment start like some M79 reviews stated (odds are they underpitched for their O.G. or didn't rehydrate, resulting in underpitching anyway).
- 36 hours in: Crazy ferment. Both carboys blowing off through airlock, even though they were filled to below the start of the neck of the glass. Krausen is light brown and thick. Took off airlocks and put on blowoff tubes and a few drops of FermcapS. Fermometers reading 69F; perfect.
- 72 hours in: Down to 1.035. Blow-off subsided about 50-55 hours into ferment, now bubbling along nicely. Still at 69F. Will add cherry puree and dry hops in a few days I think. Gravity sample tastes good, but a tad bitter/ astringent. Finish flavor is of baker's chocolate (very nice). Sample is very drinkable (if a bit viscous), even at 1.035.
"SECONDARY":
- 04/26/15: Added cherries & dry hops (split between two carboys) after 2/3 sugar depletion (2.5 lbs cherries per carboy and 1.5 ounces Willamette per carboy)
- Cherries were frozen, pitted black cherries. Put into bucket with water to cover fruit with 1 crushed Campden tablet per gallon of "must" (about 2 gals total, so 2 Campden tablets). Let sit overnight to off-gas, the added to carboys. Carboys then swirled to rouse yeast and mix in cherries, then purged with CO2.
- 12 hours after adding cherries: airlocks bubbling away (about once per second). Thankfully no blowoff.
4/29:
- Left carboy (got more whole cherries, less juice) down to 1.026
- quite tart and a bit astringent. May have to add some sugar or cocoa
- Right carboy (more juice, less whole cherries) down to 1.026 as well
- less tart/ astringent, but still unbalanced. We'll have to see how it conditions.
TASTING NOTES: |
