After 2 weeks, the Bavarian Hefeweizen (target is  1.009) = 1.008 (1.010)

Updated: Just learned that I need to add .002, so I added the calibrated/adjusted numbers in parenthesis.

A medium-bodied, effervescent ale practically exploding with yeast and wheat malt character – kind of like a liquid multigrain bread. One of the signature brews of Bavaria, Hefeweizen is a medium-bodied, effervescent ale practically exploding with yeast and wheat malt character – kind of like a liquid multigrain bread. Our kit is 100% traditional—cloudy, malty, and spicy, with a smooth mouthfeel and dense, whipped-cream head. Serve in a tall glass “mit hefe” – swirl the bottle to make sure you get all the yeast!

Bavarian Hefeweizen
Extract kit from Northern Homebrewer, Milwaukee, WI

Target OG: 1.049

Malt 1: 6 lbs. Gold Malt LME (60 min)
Malt 2: 1 lb. Wheat dry DME (60 min)

Adjunct: 1 tsp Irish Moss (15 min)

Hop 1: 2 oz Tettnang (60 min)

Yeast: Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephan Wheat Yeast (64°-75°F)

Boiling Schedule:
Collected 2.5 gallons of water. Steep grains at 125°F for 20 minutes. Bring to a boil. Remove water from heat and mix Malt. Add 6 drops of Fermcap to reduce boil foam. Bring water back to a boil. Add Hop 1 @ 60 minutes. Add malt 1 and malt 2 addition at 15 minutes. Add Irish Moss with 15 minutes left in the boil.

Notes:
I’ll leave in the primary for about 2 weeks and then begin taking daily hydrometer readings – when hydrometer readings are the same on consecutive days, primary fermentation is complete. Bottle with 6 oz of corn sugar. Bottle condition for up to 2 weeks.

My actual OG was 1.049. I pitched @ 64° and fermented @ 66-68°.

Northern Brewer Big Honkin’ Stout extract kit. Here is their description:

We took inspiration from American-style foreign stouts for this recipe, combining high bitterness and gravity and an intense roasted grain character to make a pitch-black ale that can’t be ignored. Strong, dark roast coffee with a shot of hops and background notes of tar, dark fruit, and caramelized sugar in the nose, giving way to a big mouthful of malt, roast grain, and more hops with a lingering bittersweet finish. Recommended: 2-stage fermentation and yeast starter.

Big Honkin’ Stout
Extract kit from Northern Homebrewer, Milwaukee, WI

Target OG: 1.068

Malt 1: 3.15 lbs. Dark Malt LME (60 min)
Malt 2: 6 lbs. Dark Malt LME (15 min)

Adjunct: 1 tsp Irish Moss (15 min)

Grain 1: 0.5 lbs Simpsons Roast Barley
Grain 2: 0.5 lbs Simpsons Black Malt
Grain 3: 0.25 lbs Weyermann Carafa III
Grain 4: 0.25 Briess Caramel 120

Hop 1: 2 oz Willamette (60 min)
Hop 2: 1 oz Cascade (15 min)
Hop 3: 1 oz Cascade – (1 min)

Yeast: Safale Us-05 Ale Yeast(59°-75°F)

Boiling Schedule:
Collected 2.5 gallons of water. Steep grains at 155°F for 20 minutes. Bring to a boil. Remove water from heat and mix Malt. Bring water back to a boil. Add Hop 1 @ 60 minutes, Hop 2 @ 15 minutes, add Hop 3 @ 11 minutes. Add Irish Moss with 15 minutes left in the boil.

Notes:
I pitch yeast @ about 60°. My fermentation temps are 61-62°. I’m not going to transfer to secondary fermenter on this stout as suggested. I’ll leave in the primary for about 6 weeks and then begin taking daily hydrometer readings – when hydrometer readings are the same on consecutive days, primary fermentation is complete. Bottle with 6 oz (3/4 c.) of corn sugar. Bottle condition for up to 2 weeks.

My actual OG was 1.067. I pitched @ 60° and fermented @ 61°. It was suggested to use a yeast starter but I simply pitched the single packet of yeast since I had a pretty close amount of dry yeast for this gravity.

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That being said, I chose to bottle both my Imperial Stout and the Belgian Dubbel early. The stout was given almost 2 months to secondary and the Dubbel was given about 3 weeks to clear in secondary. They’ll now age in the bottle and I might as well have them carb up at the same time.

Also, I need some equipment free to start my next brew, a Belgian Patersbier. I bottled both of the above using both plastic and glass bottles for a variety of sizes.

This was also the first time I’ve used yeast at bottling, which should be done anytime I secondary a beer from here on out. I used a couple dry yeasts for both. For the Dubbel I used a whole pack of T-58 along with 2/3 cup corn sugar, which was probably double of the yeast I should have used. The result will simply be more matter at the bottom of the bottle, so I’ll pour carefully. It shouldn’t effect the beer. For the Imperial Stout, I used about 3/4 cup of corn sugar with a half a packet of US-05. I was talking to a guy at the LHBS and he mentioned trying to use 5 oz of corn sugar and 2 oz of normal table cane sugar because traditionally they are both eaten by the yeast differently and for some reason it is a good method for bottling.

“When you are racking your beer from the primary fermentor to the secondary, is the time that you should be collecting the yeast. It’s easy to do it. Just sanitize a quart jar and lid, sanitize the neck of the primary fermentor, and pour from the fermentor into the jar. [Some people wipe the fermentor lid with alcohol and flame it to sanitize.] Loosely cap the jar so that if you have some continued fermentation, the glass jar will not explode! Clean out the primary fermentor and pour the quart of yeast solution back in. You can then pour a fresh batch of wort directly into the fermentor. This is the easiest method of reusing yeast.

If your next batch of wort won’t be ready for up to a week, you can store the glass jar of yeast in your refrigerator and reuse as is.”