Commando Red Ale Brew Day

2 Gallon Batch
-Caramel 80 (7 oz.)
-Liquid Amber Extract (3 lb.)
-Cascade Hops (0.5 oz.) for boil
-Safale American Ale Yeast

• Started steeping specialty grains in two gallons of water for 30 minutes at a temperature between 130F and 150F.
• Next I got the water to a boil, removed it from heat, and added the liquid extract.  (Hint: the liquid extract can be incredibly thick and syrupy, putting it in a bowl of warm water makes extraction easier!)

• 15 mins in I added half of my cascade hops to the boil, stirring occasionally and watching for boil over.
• 30 mins in I added half what the cascade hops I had left
• with 15 minutes to go I added the remaining hops and the wort chiller (in order to sanitize it)
• After the 60mins expired I ran tap water through my wort chiller in order to drop the temperature of the wort to around 70 degrees, so our yeast can live happy lives and make good beer.
• Once I reached my target temperature I used my auto siphon to fill both of my 1 gallon glass carboys.  I then aerated the wort by shaking it around carefully.
• Took the Original Gravity: 1.054   
• Pitched the American Ale yeast.
• Attached blow-off hoses to both carboys and placed in my brew closet for fermentation!
  
  

Apple Blossom Hard Apple Cider

In food-grade 5 Gallon bucket mix:

-Simple Truth Apple Juice Organic (x4 gallons)
-R.W. Knudson Pear Juice Organic (32oz)
-Five Table Spoons of Honey
-One Pack of RedStar Pasteur Champagne Active Dry Wine  Yeast

Using organic and pasteurized juices is the best way to go when making cider and gives you the best results.  Before I pitched the yeast I had the following gravity:

OG: 1.050 and 6.5% potential alcohol (3/8/13)

and here are a few reading after pitching the yeast:

SG: 1.008 and 1.5% potential alcohol (3/20/13)

0.5% potential alcohol (3/24/13)

0.2% potential alcohol (3/28/13)

You can calculate the ABV% by subtracting the potential alcohol along the way from the original potential alcohol. That gave me a final ABV of 6.3% (6.5%-0.2%).  I used honey as my priming sugar and used this calculator to determine the amount of priming sugar to use.  After bottling today, I put in my dark brew closet at about 70 degrees Fahrenheit.  I plan to leave it there for at least two weeks and will post the results once finished.  The cider was very delicious straight out of the fermenter, so this recipe should be a great success. Hope you enjoy! Hit me up with any questions.

Cheers,

AFB

1st Labels Created!

Spent Grain Pizza Dough!

So after making my first batch of beer I realized there was so much potential for using the biproduct.  I took the wet mash, placed it on a few cooky sheets and left it in the oven for about 6 hours with just the warmer on.  After flipping it once throughout the process, it was dry and ready to be used.  I had dry spent grain...... what to do next...
Well naturally I combined two of my passions, pizza and beer.  I took a portion of the spent grain and put it through a coffee grinder on the finest setting. This created spent grain flower, from this I made pizza dough.

SPENT GRAIN PIZZA DOUGH
1/2 lb of spent grain flower
1/2 lb of flower
pinch of salt
spoon of bread yeast (I work in a pizzeria, we use Redstar)
2oz of olive oil

knead all of those ingredients together and you get a pretty good feeling dough ball, cover the dough ball with olive oil and throw it in a plastic bag.  Tie that sucker up and let that dough ball rise a little.

you can then take your dough ball and either roll out a pizza crust or use your dough roller if you work in a pizza restaurant and roll a pan with the spent grain dough.  Cover with your favorite toppings and cook at 500degrees for about 30 mins.  

Dough has a very hearty natural flavor to it.  Different grain would obviously give you a little different tasting dough, but its all but guaranteed to be delicious.  Enjoy with your favorite beer!

In the beginning...

After receiving a home-brew kit from my fiancée and brewing my first batch of beer I have been hooked.  Thanks to the starter kit from Brooklyn Brew Shop, I was able to delve into all grain brewing from the get go in the form of 1 gallon batches.  Three batches of beer and a hard apple cider later I came up with the idea for Red-Rig.  A home-brewer's dream of making really good beer and sharing it with the world. So I took a photo of 1968 Jeepster Commando and made a logo out of it.  This blog will be dedicated to the art of home-brew and the endeavors of a eager home-brewer who wants to make great beer for a living. So thanks for stopping by.

Cheers,

AFB