Sunday, March 3, 2013

0003 - Hellfire Deep Red Ale

This is my first batch made from a Brew Demon kit.  Used the other half of the Mr. Beer booster pack as it was open and I didn't want it to go bad.  Since the database for Qbrew was recently updated to include the malts from this company, I can now see what it says about this brew:

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Style: Generic Ale
Batch: 2.13 galExtract

Characteristics
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Recipe Gravity: 1.050 OG
Recipe Bitterness: 11 IBU
Recipe Color: 11° SRM
Estimated FG: 1.012
Alcohol by Volume: 4.8%
Alcohol by Weight: 3.8%

Ingredients
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BrewDemon™ Hellfire Deep Red Ale1.21 lb, Extract, Extract
BrewDemon™ Red Horse Mellow Amber1.21 lb, Extract, Extract
Mr. Beer Booster              0.40 lb, Sugar, Other

BrewDemon™ Hellfire Deep Red Ale1.00 oz, Pellet, 5 minutes

BrewDemon™ 5g Dry Brewing Yeast1.00 unit, Yeast, High ABV: Temperature Range: 59°-75° F  Low attenuation  [Safbrew S-33]

Notes
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Recipe Notes:
Added half  a pack of Mr. Beer booster.

Batch Notes:
Lots of solid particles in the HME (bits of grain and hops).  They didn't settle out during fermentation.  Made bottling with the wand very difficult, ended up using just the spigot for 5 last bottles, which have some particles in them.  Taste testing draw after bottling had them as well, tasted fine but had to remove bits from my mouth as I didn't want to consume them.  Hope they settle when the bottles go in the fridge after conditioning.

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Brewed on 2013/02/09.  This is the first time I've noticed solid particles (bits of grain and hops) in any of the HME that I've used.  Not sure if this is normal for Brew Demon HMEs or not.  Went with the brewing as normal, expecting them to settle out during the fermentation process.  This is a deluxe kit which includes HME and LME.  The HME can is smaller than a Mr. Beer HME (850g vs 550g), and theBrew Demon LME is bigger (550g vs 250g).  In the end, both end up with 1100g of malt, so it should be pretty comparable.  Brewed this in the LBK due to the LDC still holding the Cherry Wheat.

Update 2013/03/02:
Bottling day.  Started bottling as normal.  Part way though, the bottling wand started to slow down due to the accumulation of solid particles.  They didn't settle out during fermentation as I'd hoped.  Before I finished bottling I had to stop using the wand as it became totally blocked.  Removed the wand and finished the remaining 5 bottles or so directly from the spigot.  This means those bottles will have a fair bit of these particles in them.  Hopefully they will settle out once they are ready for the refrigerator.  In the meantime, I've contacted Brew Demon's customer service to see if this is normal.

Update 3012/03/06:
Sam at Brew Demon indicated what I experienced wasn't normal.  He's replacing the extract kit and also brewing up one himself (he's the owner of Brew Demon) to ensure the quality of that particular extract.  Top notch customer service!

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