Clinton Ebadi Treat water with 1/4 campden tablet Steep grains for 30 minutes in 2 quarts water (strike 170F). Rinse with 1qt distilled water @ 170F. Treat boil water with 1g Water Crystals, 2g NaCl ("balance between malt and bitterness") Boil as per usual Add star anise 20 minutes before end of boil (whole, 2 of them or ~10-14g) Add molasses 10 minutes before end of boil * Brew Day Notes Batch was a bit screwed up ... Steve milled the grains for me, but he did not quite get the instructions and *only* milled the leftover ingredients, and for the chocolate malt which he did weigh he used the scale in ounces mode and misread 5oz as 0.5lbs. I almost gave up, but Rebecca suggested that I use a coffee grinder... I tried a bit, and it seemed OK (at least for flavor grains that don't need to be mashed...) and the following were ground that way: - 3oz chocolate malt (weighed with my digital tea scale) - 1/2lbs black patent (american six row instead of british as well) - 3/4lbs 80⁰L Crystal The amounts of steeping grains are as a result of this pretty inexact--the amounts we had leftover were not recorded quite exactly, and my kitchen scale is only really accurate to 1/8-1/4lbs. The steeping process was not ideal, I used a bit less water than I should have (2quarts), struck at 170⁰F, but the oven was broken and I used a crock pot (which was able to hold the temperature of water fairly well, I think the water needed to strike at a higher temperature for that much grain but I have to calculate that... and should have used more water anyway). The final temperature was 158⁰F. After this debacle, however, brewing went smoothly. No boilovers, everything was added on time. The new wort chilling setup worked remarkably well--using ice water in a tub and a pump the wort was at 74⁰F in 18 minutes. Two star anise pods were used, and these weighed 2.7g. The recipe notes call for 10-14g because I am an idiot and have no idea how much they actually weighed :). OG = 1.072 @ 74F (1.074 corrected). I feared the ibeer would have a husky astringent flavor from the makeshift grind, but it was not. There was a strong nose of molasses and anise, with a mellow anise flavor at the end. * Fermentation Notes Fermentation did not take off for 36 hours. At the 30 hour mark I sanitized the wort stirring spoon with rubbing alcohol and agitated the yeast cake; this resulted in the fermentation starting farily quickly. I assume the yeast were compacted enough and old (the previous beer had sat on the cake for around six weeks due to unexpected scheduling problems and a member of the brewing team being sick for over a week). After it started, however, it was quite vigorous (over 4 bubbles per second from the airlock, and more wort churning than I've seen before). 2011-01-16 19:30 @ 72⁰F: Racked onto brown ale ringwood cake 2011-01-17 ... @ 68⁰F No activity to report 2011-01-18 00:30 @ 68⁰F: Still no activity, sanitized wort spoon with rubbing alcohol and agitated the yeast cake to suspend compacted yeast 13:49 @ 68⁰F: Finally active. 1" krausen, airlock bubbling 2/s 14:35 @ 70⁰F: 3/s, 2" Krausen. Turning fan on 1/3 and adding water to tray 22:00 @ 68⁰F: 4/s 2011-01-19 02:00 @ 67⁰F: 5/s 13:07 @ 67⁰F: 3/s 23:30 @ 66⁰F: 1/2, krausen receding. Fast and furious fermentation! 2011-01-20 03:00 @ 64⁰F: 1/[2s]. Replacing wet tshirt with a dry one, and removing water from tray. Krausen almost entirely gone. 20:00 @ 67⁰F: 1.[5s]. Krausen is gone ... no readings, average temp 68⁰F ... 2011-01-26 @ 68⁰F: Racking to secondary to free up the main fermenter. SG = @ 68⁰F = 1.016 (1.018 adjusted, on target). * Bottling 2011-03-09 -- Yeah, that sat in secondary for a while... at least it wasn't on the yeast cake. Primed with 4.3oz corn sugar in 1qt distilled water Yield: 38 x12oz bottles + 5x22oz bottles SG @ 68⁰F = 1.016 (1.018 adjusted, on target) British black patent British chocolate malt Crystal 80L Light malt extract Molasses Munich Malt Extract Styrian Golding Willamette Willamette Irish Moss Ringwood Ale yeast Star Anise Yeast Nutrient