ctorx

ctorx

Member Since 7/1/2012
48 Recipes Created
35 Brew Sessions Created

I started brewing extract beers in 2011 and quickly moved to All Grain brewing in early 2012. I use an igloo cooler for a mash tun and a keggle for a kettle. I batch sparge without any fancy pumps or tiered systems and I cool my wort using an immersion chiller. I prefer darker english ales and American IPAs. A few of my favorite commercial beers include Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout, Chimay Blue label, and Sierra Nevada's Estate Homegrown Ale.

New Recipe

Date AddedName
7/19/2016 New Session IPA - Attempt 2 New Session IPA - Attempt 2
5/13/2016 Sweet Brown Tammy - v2 Sweet Brown Tammy - v2
4/21/2016 New Session IPA - Attempt 1 New Session IPA - Attempt 1
3/7/2016 Sweet Brown Tammy Sweet Brown Tammy
2/27/2016 1.5L Yeast Starter 1.5L Yeast Starter
2/22/2016 12 Day IPA - Grain to Glass 12 Day IPA - Grain to Glass
12/4/2015 Alpine Nelson Variant Alpine Nelson Variant
11/20/2015 The Brown Tammy - Fall Edition The Brown Tammy - Fall Edition
10/16/2015 1.8L Yeast Starter 1.8L Yeast Starter
10/14/2015 Warrior-Simcoe-Mosaic IPA Warrior-Simcoe-Mosaic IPA
Date AddedName
Showing 1 to 10 of 48 entries

Brew Session: New Session IPA - Attempt 2

ctorx 9 years ago
  • Water Infusion
  • Mash/Boil
  • Fermentation

Increased boil loss to 2.12 from 2 (due to heating mash water in 20 gal pot --- see version 1 of recipe)Need to evaluate process and water issues to get it dialed in, as it's really become quite unpredictable as of late.Dry hopped on 7/28/2016 10:50 PM - Will leave in for 3 days then cold crash and keg.

Brew Session: Sweet Brown Tammy - v2

ctorx 9 years ago
  • Water Infusion
  • Mash/Boil
  • Fermentation

Brew Session: New Session IPA - Attempt 1

ctorx 9 years ago
  • Water Infusion
  • Mash/Boil
  • Fermentation

Trying something new -- I'll be adding an extra 1/2 gallon that I plan to throw out to help with keeping hop debris out of the fermenter.Trying something else new -- adding a little Calcium Chloride CaCl2 and Gypsum CaSO4 as recommended using this tool (http://www.brewersfriend.com/water-chemistry/).Target water salt additions will be (for 11.02 gallons RO water):Baking Soda: .5 gramsGypsum CaSO4 = 11 grams Calcium Chloride CaCl2 = 4 gramsSpecific Amounts:Mash - Gypsum: 5.739564428 gramsMash - ...

Brew Session: Sweet Brown Tammy

ctorx 9 years ago
  • Water Infusion
  • Mash/Boil
  • Fermentation

Cold Crashed on 3/21FG was 1.017, which is much higher than intended, probably due to use of more crystal malt. The end result is what I was after in terms of sweetness, so next time, up the malts to get a bit more ABV out of it. Ideally this would be around 4.5% to 5% but in ended up at 3.8%.

Brew Session: 12 Day IPA - Grain to Glass

ctorx 9 years ago
  • Water Infusion
  • Mash/Boil
  • Fermentation

Need to up boil off volume to 2 gallons possibly. Also, should adjust wort shrinkage from .2 (which is for a 5 gallon batch) to .26 which is appropriate for a 6.5 gallon batch. Seemed to lose .25 gallons after chill. Dry hopped on 3/4/16Cold Crash starting 3/7/16Kegged on 3/9/163/21/2016Didn't get the hop brightness I was after -- at about 1/4 keg gone (~3.75 gallons) I added a mixture of 1/3 water, 1tsp gelatin and 1/2 tsp gypsum with the hopes of getting the flavors to pop as intended -- ...

Brew Session: Alpine Nelson Variant

ctorx 9 years ago
  • Water Infusion
  • Mash/Boil
  • Fermentation

Messed up slightly on this one -- my wort into fermenter was set to 6 when it should have been 6.5 so I ended up with less wort. I was aiming for 6.5 to leave .5 behind and ended up with 6.2. I anticipated the boil loss at 1.7 due to cooler weather but I think it was a tad off as well.I took a gravity reading after 11 days and it came in at 1.013. The flavor and aroma was not anywhere where I was hoping so I threw in 3 more ounces of nelson to dry hop for another 3 days.Also, I had used a ...

Brew Session: The Brown Tammy - Fall Edition

ctorx 9 years ago
  • Water Infusion
  • Mash/Boil
  • Fermentation

Brew Session: Warrior-Simcoe-Mosaic IPA

ctorx 9 years ago
  • Water Infusion
  • Mash/Boil
  • Fermentation

My wife had a baby last night, so today's brew day is a little extra special.Had a little extra water (about .5 gals) - boiled for an additional 13 minutes (a tad too long) ended up about 1/4 short of target, but ended up hitting my target OG and still filling my fermenter.Dry hopped on 10/21/2015 as fermentation has nearly stopped Gravity 1.018 on 10/27Gravity 1.016 on 10/25Began cold crashing on 10/26 - impatient? Maybe.10/27 - Created gelatin solution by adding 1 tsp gelatin to 2/3 Cup ...

Brew Session: Just James

ctorx 9 years ago
  • Water Infusion
  • Mash/Boil
  • Fermentation
  • Tasting Notes

Messed up just a bit -- I did not adjust my Batch Size on Recipe to include the kettle trub loss from this session. Batch size should have been 6.65 not 6. Also, I collected .10 gallons extra water, so effective post boil volume was 6.75 gallons resulting in an OG of 1.064 instead of 1.072. Next recipe...DO NOT forget to include trub loss.Dry Hopped on 9/24/2015 - FG Lower than expected @ 1.018

Brew Session: DJ2

ctorx 10 years ago
  • Water Infusion
  • Mash/Boil
  • Fermentation
  • Conditioning
  • Tasting Notes

Brew Session: Danimal

ctorx 10 years ago
  • Water Infusion

Setup:3/12/2015 - Coated oak chips in bourbon and toasted in oven at 350F for 10 minutes.3/12/2015 - Added oak chips and 1.5oz bacon bits to canister with Bourbon, to soak.

Brew Session: Baby James

ctorx 10 years ago
  • Water Infusion
  • Mash/Boil
  • Fermentation
  • Conditioning
  • Tasting Notes

4-28-2015: Chilled to 60F4-29-2015: Added Dry Hops4-29-2015: Raised to 68F

Brew Session: Donnie Blonde

ctorx 10 years ago
  • Water Infusion
  • Mash/Boil
  • Fermentation
  • Conditioning

Boil:I used 1.7 gallons as boil off and came up short ... need to bump this back up to 1.8 next batch.Fermentation03/31/2015: Started dry hopping, new technique. I ground up the pellets into powder and will be adding 1/5 ounce each day for five days.04/03/2015: Got impatient, added the last two hop additions on day 4.04/03/2015: Moved to Fridge at EOD to cold crash.04/07/2015: Transferred to keg. Was sick as a dog, so cold crashed longer then planned.

Brew Session: Double James

ctorx 10 years ago
  • Water Infusion
  • Mash/Boil
  • Fermentation
  • Conditioning
  • Tasting Notes

Brew Day:Made a silly error on this one, recipe batch size should have been 6 gallons, but I entered it in as 7 for some reason (had I been drinking?). No major issue with that other than wasting ingredients. Second issue, was calculating for 1 gallon of kettle trub loss, which ended up actually being .4 gallons for 6oz of hops (~ .07 gal lost per ounce of pellet hops). That left me with an extra .6 gallons of wort and diluted the final brew resulting in a loss of 7 gravity points. Bummer. ...

Brew Session: The Brown Tammy

ctorx 10 years ago
  • Water Infusion
  • Mash/Boil
  • Fermentation
  • Conditioning
  • Tasting Notes

Brew Session: Experimental Lager

ctorx 10 years ago
  • Fermentation
  • Conditioning
  • Tasting Notes

This was an experimental brew

Brew Session: ZOMG DIPA

ctorx 10 years ago
  • Water Infusion
  • Mash/Boil
  • Fermentation
  • Tasting Notes

Brew Session: Brown Moose Ale V4

ctorx 10 years ago
  • Water Infusion
  • Mash/Boil
  • Fermentation

Looks like I lose about 2 Gallons per hour to boil loss using the Blichmann 20 Gallon Brew Kettle.

Brew Session: Wet Hopped Mystery Double IPA

ctorx 10 years ago
  • Water Infusion
  • Mash/Boil
  • Fermentation
  • Conditioning
  • Tasting Notes

Brew Session: Dirty English Blonde

ctorx 11 years ago
  • Water Infusion
  • Mash/Boil
  • Fermentation

Higher than expected efficiency (+ .4 points) and lower than expected collected wort (-.5 gallons)

Brew Session: Brown Moose Ale V3

ctorx 11 years ago
  • Water Infusion
  • Mash/Boil
  • Fermentation
  • Conditioning
  • Tasting Notes

Turns out I didn't have as much chocolate malt as I thought so I supplemented with some ground coffee. Again I only collected 4.5 Gallons from the Carboy when I was expecting 5. I need to take another look at my brew day process to find out where I'm losing the half gallon.

Brew Session: Black Imp

ctorx 11 years ago
  • Water Infusion
  • Mash/Boil
  • Fermentation

Mash started at 154.5F, came out at 151.5F. I ended up collecting a little extra wort...I was supposed to get 7.2 gallons and I collected about 7.5 to 7.7. My post-boil collected wort was about 5.6, .6 more than I was planning. This resulted in a lower OG and will decrease the alcohol content from 11% to 9.8% unless I can attenuate higher than I was estimating.I wasn't sure of my efficiency, so I waited to add the DME until the sample I collected cooled enough to get a correct gravity ...

Brew Session: Winter Amber

ctorx 11 years ago
  • Water Infusion
  • Mash/Boil
  • Fermentation
  • Conditioning

I was only able to siphon off 4 Gallons, so I'm not sure where I went wrong with volume calculations.

Brew Session: The Froth Monster

ctorx 11 years ago
  • Water Infusion
  • Mash/Boil
  • Fermentation
  • Conditioning

This was the first time that I did first wort hopping. The aromas coming off the wort while I was collecting it were amazing. This beer had major foaming, and I'm not sure if it is due to the first wort hopping, the amount of boil hops, or something else. I basically had to babysit the boil to keep it from boiling over. I dry hopped this beer at 60F (as opposed to pitching temp) as the last few beers I've dry hopped have had grassy characters that I did not enjoy. I also did a cold crash ...

Brew Session: Pumpkin Spice Ale 2013

ctorx 11 years ago
  • Water Infusion
  • Mash/Boil
  • Fermentation

This was the biggest brew I have brewed on my AG system, plus I was using a new brew kettle. My 10 gallon mash tun was filled nearly to the top, and unfortunately, after filling and dough in, temp was low, so I had to add some boiled water to get it up to 153 F, when I was targeting 154 F.Also, I ended up with 8.8 to 8.9 gallons of runoff when I was expecting 8.2, so I had to boil a little longer to evaporate some of the excess. This has probably happened to me several times before and ...

Brew Session: Brown Moose Ale V2

ctorx 11 years ago
  • Water Infusion
  • Mash/Boil
  • Fermentation

Brew Session: Leftover Wet Hopped Ale

ctorx 11 years ago
  • Water Infusion
  • Mash/Boil
  • Fermentation

Slowly coming around...I didn't use a starter. I just warmed up some old yeast that was in the fridge and pitched it.

Brew Session: Brother-In-Law Brew

ctorx 12 years ago
  • Water Infusion
  • Mash/Boil
  • Fermentation
  • Conditioning
  • Tasting Notes

Not sure where I'm going wrong, but my efficiency has been low, in the neighborhood of 65% - 68% when I used to get between 72% and 75%...I'm not sure what about my process / equipment has changed. The yeast starter formed a krausen and was producing great smells and action, so I expect this bad boy to take off. It's going to be interesting because my carboy was filled almost to the top...I'm expecting some serious overflow. I'm using a blow-off tube into a 2L jar, so we'll see what ...

Brew Session: Brown Bog Ale

ctorx 12 years ago
  • Water Infusion
  • Mash/Boil
  • Fermentation
  • Tasting Notes

Pre-Boil Efficiency was much lower than expected ... added some brown sugar to get it where it should be. I must have had one too many before I started brewing...I used water from my kitchen sink to be able start with a higher temperature, but forgot that the water is softened. The brew at this stage tastes delicious. I can't remember ever making a beer that tasted so unbelievable at this stage. I think might end up being my best so far. Stay tuned.

Brew Session: Symmetry Session IPA

ctorx 12 years ago
  • Water Infusion
  • Mash/Boil
  • Fermentation
  • Conditioning
  • Tasting Notes

I think the lid to my mash tun loosened at some point because my mash ended at 151F. I'll have to be more careful of this next time. Nothing special. The fermentation was pretty mild with this beer. I dry hopped with a whopping 6oz of pellet hops. I added the pellet hops to some boiling water, which dissolved them into a thick hop paste. I poured the hop paste into the fermenter and left it there for 5 days. It actually colored the beer a slight green color.

Brew Session: Brown Moose Ale

ctorx 12 years ago
  • Water Infusion
  • Mash/Boil
  • Fermentation
  • Conditioning
  • Tasting Notes

Brew day went well. I took a few small taste tests of the sweet wort, as I always do, and I fear it may be a little too bitter for my wife's tastes. The Tinseth calculation for the recipe gives me a BG:GU ratio of .47, so I may need to start using the Rager calculation. Fermentation should definitely help to mellow and blend the flavors, so only time will tell. Saw krausen within 8 hours, very clean fermentation happening thus far. I used two vials of Clarity Ferm, mainly to reduce the ...

Brew Session: Session Brown

ctorx 12 years ago
  • Water Infusion
  • Mash/Boil
  • Fermentation
  • Conditioning

I played techno for the beer while it was fermenting. I also used a yeast started for the first time. Visible fermentation occurred within 7 hours.

Brew Session: Porridge Ale

ctorx 12 years ago
  • Mash/Boil
  • Fermentation
  • Conditioning
  • Tasting Notes

The main takeaway from the mash for this brew is that I need to be setting aside wort to be used for gravity measurements. I've been taking them fairly hot and compensating with hydrometer correction calculators, but I've recently learned that there is an upper limit such that going over a certain temp will give you unpredictable readings that can't be corrected accurately. I let this bad boy ferment for 2 weeks at 68F. Sometimes I gradually increase the temperature after initial fermentation ...

Brew Session: British Black IPA

ctorx 13 years ago
  • Mash/Boil
  • Fermentation
  • Conditioning

This was my first all grain batch, so I wasn't sure exactly what to do. I felt a little dis-organized but overall things went pretty well. Nothing exciting to report. There was krausen and C02 galore. You know the drill. Fill then cap then fill then cap then fill then cap...

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