Just started home brewing in the summer of 2015. Built a modified "Son of Fermentation Chiller," sized to fit my 1-gallon jugs. Highly efficient build! Can cool the internal temperature from 80 to sub-60 in under 5 minutes with 2 frozen gallon containers.
I have since moved on to larger batch sizes (though nothing over 3.5 gallons), so I had to modify my chamber to accommodate larger buckets. Still just as efficient!
| Date Added | Name | Style | ABV | Amount | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7/26/2017 |  Jord 2017 Belgian Tripel |
Belgian Tripel | 8.9 % | 3 Gallon(s) | |
| 7/3/2017 |  NB Saison |
Saison | 5.8 % | 5 Gallon(s) | |
| 7/2/2017 |  AHA Saison Batch 2 |
Saison | 5.4 % | 3.5 Gallon(s) | |
| 6/17/2017 | Dead Ringer IPA |
American IPA | 6.0 % | 5 Gallon(s) | |
| 5/3/2017 | AHA Saison |
Saison | 5.2 % | 3.5 Gallon(s) | |
| 4/8/2017 |  Choc-N-Oats Oatmeal Stout |
Oatmeal Stout | 7.1 % | 3.5 Gallon(s) | |
| 3/31/2017 | Leftovers Stout |
American Stout | 7.2 % | 5 Gallon(s) | |
| 3/28/2017 | Monday Morning Stout |
American Stout | 6.7 % | 3.5 Gallon(s) | |
| 3/10/2017 |  Grapefruit Pulpin All Grain Northern Brewer |
American IPA | 6.9 % | 5 Gallon(s) | |
| 11/26/2016 |  Northern Brewer Ace of Spades Black IPA |
American IPA | 6.9 % | 5 Gallon(s) | |
| 10/1/2016 |  FNBC Experiment No. 1 |
Unknown Style | 4.5 % | 3 Gallon(s) | |
| 3/24/2016 |  Using up all my extra hops Belgian Wheat |
American Wheat Beer | 4.2 % | 5 Gallon(s) | |
| 2/27/2016 | Dirty Monk Clone |
Belgian Golden Strong Ale | 7.9 % | 3.5 Gallon(s) | |
| 12/17/2015 |  Joes Irish Red Ale |
Irish Red Ale | 5.6 % | 3.5 Gallon(s) | |
| 11/27/2015 | Double Chocolate Oatmeal Stout |
Oatmeal Stout | 6.5 % | 3.5 Gallon(s) | |
| 11/26/2015 |  Bloated Bagpipe - GreatFermentations.com |
Wee Heavy | 8.8 % | 3.5 Gallon(s) | |
| 11/17/2015 |  70 Shilling |
Scottish Heavy | 3.7 % | 3.5 Gallon(s) | |
| 11/4/2015 | Winter Welcome Winter Warmer |
Old Ale | 6.8 % | 3.5 Gallon(s) | |
| 10/2/2015 | BeerSmith Milk O Stout by Northern Brewer |
Sweet Stout | 6.2 % | 3.5 Gallon(s) | |
| 9/19/2015 | Clone Of For Richer or for Porter - Low Eff |
American Porter | 5.9 % | 3 Gallon(s) | |
| 9/14/2015 |  Clone Of Texas Copperhead Amber Ale |
American Amber Ale | 6.1 % | 3 Gallon(s) | |
| 8/25/2015 |  Caribou Slobber 1 Gallon Extract - Northern Brewer |
Unknown Style | 4.8 % | 1 Gallon(s) | |
| 8/24/2015 |  Experiment 2 |
Unknown Style | 3.6 % | 1 Gallon(s) | |
| 7/28/2015 | Schulz Saison 1 |
Saison | 4.8 % | 1 Gallon(s) | |
| 7/28/2015 | Northern Brewer Saison Au Miel |
Saison | 4.8 % | 1 Gallon(s) | |
| 7/21/2015 |  Clone Of Clone Of Rochefort 10 Clone |
Belgian Dark Strong Ale | 14.2 % | 3 Gallon(s) | |
| 6/19/2015 |  Northern Brewer Bomber Barley Wine |
Unknown Style | 9.0 % | 1 Gallon(s) | |
| 6/10/2015 | Northern Brewer Hefeweizen - 6-6-2015 |
Unknown Style | 4.3 % | 1 Gallon(s) | |
| 6/9/2015 | Hopfeweizen 6/8/15 |
Unknown Style | 4.3 % | 1 Gallon(s) | |
| Date Added | Name | Style | ABV | Amount |
JustinMonroe
7/4/2017 12:00:00 AM
JustinMonroe
6/17/2017 12:00:00 AM
JustinMonroe
4/17/2017 12:00:00 AM
JustinMonroe
4/13/2017 12:00:00 AM
No yeast activity as of 4/16, 9pm. Pitched WLP005 British Ale.
JustinMonroe
4/3/2017 12:00:00 AM
4/9/17 - Racked to secondary - 3gal carboy. Gravity reading 1.025. Still lots of sulfur on the nose. Quickly dissipated in the test jar. Tasted pretty solid.4/14/17 - Added 4oz cocoa nibs and splash of vodka to mason jar.4/16/17 - 9:30PM - Added cocoa nibs to secondary. Removed airlock and attached blow-off. Tasted small sample, still pretty good. Sulfur has subsided. Will look at bottling next weekend.4/29/17 - 10:00PM - Finished bottling 2 gallons, yielded 19 bottles at ~6% ABV. FG 1.019. May ...
JustinMonroe
3/11/2017 12:00:00 AM
JustinMonroe
11/26/2016 12:00:00 AM
1st Runnings - 1.084Pre-boil - 1.059OG - 1.06712/12 - Added dry hops. Gravity checked at 1.01512/18 - Bottled ~4 gallons with 4.4oz Dextrose. ABV about 7%
JustinMonroe
3/24/2016 12:00:00 AM
JustinMonroe
3/5/2016 12:00:00 AM
3/5 Brew day1st - 1.057(Forgot to take pre-boil gravity)OG 1.0753/9 - 1.0403/14 - 1.019Attempted a multi-infusion mash. Started near 1qt/lb at 126F, raised to 144F, then mashed out near 168F. Only needed about a gallon of sparge water to hit my initial volume.Wort was still very cloudy (possibly from the torrified wheat).3/18 taste test - Lots of notes of pear and pineapple, a hint of heat from fusel alcohol in the finish.5/39 - Bottled about 3.2 gallons with 110g of Dextrose, around 3.1vol ...
JustinMonroe
1/17/2016 12:00:00 AM
Transferred to secondary on 1/26. Gravity was at 1.0211.0oz of cocoa nibs added to 2.5 gallon secondary on 1/28..5oz of cocoa nibs added to 1 gallon secondary on 1/29. Bourbon soaked medium toasted cubes will be added in a few days.Added .25 medium toast cubes on 2/2 to 1 gallon jug.Bottled the 2.5 gallons on 2/10/16 with 1.24oz of corn sugar. Final gravity of 1.023 yielded an ABV of about 6.17%.
JustinMonroe
12/26/2015 12:00:00 AM
1st runnings - 1.069. Did not hit my 1st runnings volume, so added a bit of water to the sparge.
JustinMonroe
12/5/2015 12:00:00 AM
Finally fit my starting gravity! First time with using a false bottom too. Ended up boiling 120 minutes instead of 90 minutes to hit my final volume numbers. I believe this helped me hit my gravity as well. Pitched onto my yeast cake from my 70 Shilling, and within 5 hours it is bubbling like crazy.Boiled down a gallon of my first runnings to about 1/3 - 1/2 volume and added back to main boil.1st runnings - 1.0822nd runnings - 1.033Preboil - 1.062OG - 1.095Ended up with about 3.1 gallons in the ...
JustinMonroe
11/21/2015 12:00:00 AM
11/27 - Took gravity reading and it showed 1.010. Still an occasional bubble in the airlock. I may end up sticking this in the garage for a week (where it is currently 55*F) to prevent it from fermenting too much more. It has stayed around 64-66 in my spare bedroom. I hope this attenuation is due to the lowish mash temp (152*F) and not due to wild yeast. I want to use the yeast cake for my Wee Heavy next weekend.12/5 - Bottled 3 gallons of beer at 2.0 volumes of CO2. Used 1.8oz of Corn Sugar. ...
JustinMonroe
11/14/2015 12:00:00 AM
Mashed at 152*F for 90 minutes, and vorlaufed 3 times at 2 quarts. Runnings were cleared by this time, and took my first runnings sample. Once cooled, measured out at 1.071. Sparged with 170*F-ish water for 15 minutes, but the mash only reached about 148*F for my second runnings. Reached my volumes this time, but not my gravity. Only achieved about 62% efficiency, even though I thought I did a better job this time. I will start measuring out my recipes for 64-65% efficiency, so I will at least ...
JustinMonroe
10/24/2015 12:00:00 AM
Mash temp ended up high at 158 (was shooting for 155). Ended up letting the mash sit for nearly 90 minutes as I was busy trying to fix dinner and my 2-year old wanted to run around the house. Drained my first runnings and added 180 degree water back into the mash tun, stirred, and let sit for 15 minutes. First runnings gravity came in at 1.060. Drained into brew kettle, and actually collected 6 gallons of wort. I guess that's better than being a gallon short! There was still wort to be ...
JustinMonroe
9/21/2015 12:00:00 AM
Missed my pre-boil volume by a __GALLON__! How did that happen? Batch-sparged. 2.5 gallons mash volume, added .5 gallons of 180*F sparge water for 10 minutes. 2x vorlauf at 2.5qts each, then dropped my first runnings. Drained the mash tun, and added 2.5 gallons of 175*F - sparge water, and sat for 10 minutes. 2x vorlauf at 2qts each, then dropped in my sparge into the kettle. Measured volume and I was at 3.6 - gallons!? I calculated my absorption at .1gal/lb, so how did I end up a gallon short? ...
JustinMonroe
9/20/2015 12:00:00 AM
First runnings taken late, so it may not be accurate - 1.067Bottled on 9/29. Yielded (27) 12oz bottles. Smelled pretty astringent. High attenuation, really dried out. We'll see how this one turns out.
JustinMonroe
8/25/2015 12:00:00 AM
1 hour cool-down period - had to take my in-laws' dog to a friend's house which was an hour round-trip.Gravity sample had a rich coffee aroma and taste with some bite.8/27/15 - Heavy fermentation within 12 hours, bubbling through the blow-off about 5-6 times a second after 24 hours. After 48 hours, krausen has subsided and there is very little activity through the blow-off (getting maybe 1 bubble every 30 seconds). Will switch to an airlock tonight.
JustinMonroe
8/21/2015 12:00:00 AM
I don't think I am boiling these as hard as I should be. I need more of a rolling boil, but I am turning down the heat to prevent wort loss. I will be stepping up to all-grain here in the near future with a 30qt pot from a friend to do 3-gallon batches.
JustinMonroe
7/27/2015 12:00:00 AM
Rehydrated half packet of yeast in 100ml boiled and cooled water (water temp about 88-90 degrees).Bottled on 8/14 with (1) Fizz Drop per 12oz. bottle. FG extremely low at 1.004! This beer will be very dry.
JustinMonroe
7/27/2015 12:00:00 AM
Used 2nd half of dry yeast pack. *Did not rehydrate*Bottled on 8/14 and used (1) Fizz Drop per 12oz bottle. FG at 1.001!!! That is not a typo. This beer will be extremely dry.
JustinMonroe
6/19/2015 12:00:00 AM
Once rolling boil achieved, removed from heat and slowly stirred in DME to prevent clumping. Stirred until dissolved. Reintroduced to heat and brought back to rolling boil. Once hot break diminished, took sample for pre-boil gravity and added first addition of hops and started 45 minute timer. Continued to boil with hop additions at predetermined times. Once 45 minute boil-time achieved, placed kettle in ice bath. Rehydrated yeast in 1/2 cup boiled & cooled water, used 1/2 for current beer, ...
JustinMonroe
6/8/2015 12:00:00 AM
1.25 gallon, 60 minute boil yielded about 0.9 gallons wort in the fermentor. Topped off to 1-gal mark with additional jug water. Pitched rehydrated yeast and aerated.6/9/15 - Had to change the blowoff bottle twice, krausen had begun coming out of the top.6/18/15 - Removed blowoff and replaced with airlock.6/19/15 - Hydrometer reading: 1.0106/21/15 - Hydrometer reading: 1.010 - BottledI think this batch has soured. Smelled fairly sour, almost like every Mr Beer I have brewed so far. A lot of ...
