Hagen's Brown Sound Ale

9 lbs. Briess Pale
.5 lbs. Briess Special Roast
.5 lbs. 60L Crystal
1 lb. Victory
.5 lbs. Flaked Barley
.25 lbs. Chocolate

-Dry English Liquid Yeast

Northern Brewere (60 min)
Kent Goldings (15 - 5)
Cascade (Leaf - Dry Hopped in Secondary)

-Brewed it yesterday with my boy Matt Hagen, did a 90 min. boil for the first time, whirlpooled, areated all that jive, capped around 10 pm and was bubbling hard the next morning at 7, did a starter at 5 and pitched at 10 so must be plenty of time to get the cell count up

-tasted quite bitter and i'm afraid i may have gotten husk in the boil from stirring the mash as though to do a batch sparge half way through even with it still lautering...whatever, i'll just have to use gelatin again, which worked awesome on the two-hearted ale

-OG at 1.054, added about 1 gals of water to the wort to put me around 6.5 gals or preboil, ended with 5 gals in the primary, heated up 4 gals of sparge water to the 14 qts + grains in the mash...so i lost about 2.5 gals left in the mash tun...i attribute this to the grains sucking up water as well as the manifold/racking system which leaves a bit at the bottom, i'll need to drill a hole in the side of my pot to fix this, but it aint so bad, i just need to sparge more water than 4 gals, i think 5 would be just about perfect

-has a dark reddish/brown coloring to it, more like a dark amber than a brown but we'll see where it finishes...still not sure if i'm going to dry hop or not

-I now have a pretty good reserve in the basement of brews, bottled the two-hearted yesterday and it is a light tan color, very clear, not sure about the aroma, the hops may not have been right, i may have put in cascade instead of centennial or vice versa, very hoppy and bitter tasting, i only hope that there is enough suspended yeast for carbonation, had 4 gallons of beer and added 2/3 cup of sugar, as i wanted a high dose of carbonation in this one

-the ESB continues to fermenent and bubble, not sure if it will ever stop, hopefully next week so i can bottle next weekend

-the panama red is clearing out nicely in the secondary with the hops floating on top

Bottled:
-Milk Stout
-American Wheat
-Octoberfest
-Ginger Porter
-Fruity October
-Two-Hearted Ale

Secondary:
-ESB
-Panama Red

Primary:
-Hagen's Brown

TIGERS in 6 (I don't think it will be as easy as the last series, but i see us pulling it out)
GO TIGERS!!!

Gelatin and the Fall Classic Brew

Put a package of gelatin in with the Two-hearted to clear it up - worked AMAZING - still transferred to a teriary and dry hopped with 1 oz. of Cascade hops - i should bottle later this week when i've got enough bottles

THE fruity octoberfest is GREAT (The Fall Classic Brew)- sweet and full of different sweet flavors - its only been bottled a week and already it tastes great - i'm sure it will only get better

Panama Red

Got this recipe off of NB, slightly converted...Brewed last thursday before seeing Kenny Rogers and the rest of the Tigers spank the Yankee during the first ever playoff game at Comerica Park...first in 19 years for the Tigers organization...then I was off to San Diego for the weekend to see the Chargers and Steelers play while managing to get kicked out of two different bars and basically be drunk for 48 hours straight

Panama Red
10 lbs. two-row pale weyer
2 lbs. briess 6-row 60L
2 lbs. weyer vienna
.75 lbs. briess chocolate

hops: Northern Brewer - 60 min 1 oz.
Fuggle - 30 min 1 oz.
Cascade 15 min. .5 oz.
Cascade 5 min. .5 oz.
1 oz. of Cascade Leafs in Secondary

california ale liquid yeast

-60 min boil
-whirlpooled to minimize trub...worked great!!!
-added irish moss at flame out - forgot to add earlier(oops)

1.25 gal to each pound of grains for mash
mashed at 152
mashed out at 170
sparged with 2.5 gals of 170
then 2 more gals at 150
1.046 BG before boil
1.056 OG
started yeast 2 days prior
bubbled wort before pitching yeast during siphoning out of kettle (20 minutes or so)
bitter tasting before pitching, sweet before hops/boil

1.020 going from primary to secondary

Next time:
need bigger hot liquor kettle
90 min boil - 6.5-7 gal of collected wort pre-boil should be perfect - had extra this time in bottom of pot with whirlpooled hops and left in primary trub

ESB UPDATE
-yeast was stuck in the trob - cause of high floculation and wouldn't go - shook up but still didn't help that much - 1.025 gravity - now in secondary is churning like a mo fo and should finish off in a week or so