So, yesterday I brewed up an IPA designed to finish off the Nugget and East Kent Golding hops I have had open for quite a while. This also means that I used over 3 ounces of Nugget as bittering hops and so achieved a calculated 226 IBUs, which I'm sure nobody will ever actually taste.
The Recipe:
9 lb 2-row pale malt
12 oz Victory malt
8 oz Cara-Pils
42.25 AAU (91g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 60
13 AAU (28g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 20
5 AAU (28g @ 5% AA) East Kent Goldings @ 20
6 AAU (34g @ 5% AA) East Kent Goldings @ 10
6 AAU (34g @ 5% AA) East Kent Goldings @ 5
13 AAU (28g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 0 (flame-out)
Whirlfloc tablet @ 15
Wyeast 1272 - American Ale II
Mashed at 150° for an hour using 13 quarts of water. Batch-sparged using 170-190° water and collected 6.5 gallons for the boil.
O.G.: 1.046
Est. IBU: 226.3
Brewing was mostly uneventful, except for the fact that I achieved a paltry 68% mash efficiency, the same as for the last batch. I'm thinking, once again, that it's got to be down to the crush. I guess the mill at my LHBS needs to be adjusted again.
Yesterday I also kegged batch 30, Thanksgiving Tripel, and it is now carbonating at a preposterous 30psi to be ready by Thursday. It actually tasted darn good; way better than Terrible Tripel. It finished off at 1.004, or about 9.2% ABV. Since I've decided to eschew secondary fermentation, except in the case of dry-hopping or adding fruit or whatnot, I had to buy another Cornelius keg in order to package #30. I'm now up to eight kegs, even though I can only chill 6 at a time; I guess my taps will have to begin rotating, eh?
Monday, November 22, 2010
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Mediterranean Baltic
On Sunday I brewed up a Baltic Porter (my first) in order to utilize the yeast cake I harvested from Proposition 29. Brewing was largely uneventful.
The Recipe:
13 lb 2-row pale malt
1.5 lb Carafa II malt
1 lb crystal 60°L
1 lb flaked oats
10 AAU (22g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 60
4 AAU (35g @ 3.2% AA) Tettnanger @ 15
Wyeast 2112 - California Lager; pitched about 350mL of very thick slurry from batch 29's yeast cake
Mashed at 154° for an hour using 20 quarts of water. Batch-sparged using 170° water and collected 6.5 gallons for the boil.
O.G.: 1.072
Est. IBU: 43.7
The only problem which occurred was during sparging. There was an interruption in draining so I introduced a little too much sparge water, which diluted the wort and caused me to get a lower efficiency (since I basically had to toss perfectly good wort because it wouldn't fit in my kettle). Thus, my efficiency dropped to 68%, quite low for some of my more recent batches. Still, 1.072 is a perfectly acceptable OG for a Baltic porter, so I think I'm in good shape.
I also kegged up Proposition 29 (FG 1.007; ABV 5.6%) and have it carbonating away in the kegerator right now. I decided to leave Thanksgiving Tripel in the primary, with an eye toward getting a new keg and kegging it sans secondary. Actually, I'm thinking of eschewing secondaries altogether when they are not necessary; only beers being dry-hopped or fruited or whatever really need to go into secondaries at all.
The Recipe:
13 lb 2-row pale malt
1.5 lb Carafa II malt
1 lb crystal 60°L
1 lb flaked oats
10 AAU (22g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 60
4 AAU (35g @ 3.2% AA) Tettnanger @ 15
Wyeast 2112 - California Lager; pitched about 350mL of very thick slurry from batch 29's yeast cake
Mashed at 154° for an hour using 20 quarts of water. Batch-sparged using 170° water and collected 6.5 gallons for the boil.
O.G.: 1.072
Est. IBU: 43.7
The only problem which occurred was during sparging. There was an interruption in draining so I introduced a little too much sparge water, which diluted the wort and caused me to get a lower efficiency (since I basically had to toss perfectly good wort because it wouldn't fit in my kettle). Thus, my efficiency dropped to 68%, quite low for some of my more recent batches. Still, 1.072 is a perfectly acceptable OG for a Baltic porter, so I think I'm in good shape.
I also kegged up Proposition 29 (FG 1.007; ABV 5.6%) and have it carbonating away in the kegerator right now. I decided to leave Thanksgiving Tripel in the primary, with an eye toward getting a new keg and kegging it sans secondary. Actually, I'm thinking of eschewing secondaries altogether when they are not necessary; only beers being dry-hopped or fruited or whatever really need to go into secondaries at all.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Brewing Plans
Last night I kegged up #28, Employment Singel. It has come out pretty biscuity and with almost no Belgian character, which has me a little worried because I used its yeast for Thanksgiving Tripel. I guess we'll just have to see, though.
So, I recently got a big order of hops in, so I have set out a big plan to make a bunch of IPAs in the coming weeks. I also want to use up hops I opened a long time ago (easily identifiable on my new hop inventory chart), so I'm going to start with a Mulligan IPA and then move on to a bunch of single-hop IPAs in the vein of Nugget or EKG IPA. I am suffering from a bit of a dearth of session-type beers right now, so it is just as well.
Next on the list, however, is a Baltic porter, since I have that cake of 2112 California Lager yeast to use. After that, though, it will be IPAs until the end of the year.
So, I recently got a big order of hops in, so I have set out a big plan to make a bunch of IPAs in the coming weeks. I also want to use up hops I opened a long time ago (easily identifiable on my new hop inventory chart), so I'm going to start with a Mulligan IPA and then move on to a bunch of single-hop IPAs in the vein of Nugget or EKG IPA. I am suffering from a bit of a dearth of session-type beers right now, so it is just as well.
Next on the list, however, is a Baltic porter, since I have that cake of 2112 California Lager yeast to use. After that, though, it will be IPAs until the end of the year.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Thanksgiving Tripel
Since I decided to save my yeast cake from batch 28, and since my last attempt at a tripel wasn't terribly successful, I decided to brew up another attempt at the lovely Belgian style again yesterday. The idea is to have it ready by Thanksgiving, hence the name.
The Recipe:
12 lb European Pilsner malt
2 lb granulated white sugar, added with about 20 minutes left in the boil
6 AAU (53g @ 3.2% AA) Tettnanger @ 60
2 AAU (17g @ 3.2% AA) Tettnanger @ 20
2 AAU (17g @ 3.2% AA) Tettnanger @ 5
Whirlfloc tablet @ 15 min
Wyeast 1214 - Belgian Abbey (yeast cake from batch #28); pitched ~200mL of slurry
Mashed at 150° for an hour using 15 quarts of water. Batch-sparged using 170° water and collected 6.5 gallons for the boil.
O.G.: 1.074
Est. IBU: 27.5
Brewing was blissfully uneventful and everything went well. The only disappointment was in the 75% efficiency I got, which, while within the acceptable range, was still a little bit lower than I'd been getting recently. The grind on the grain looked pretty good, so maybe this malt just had lower potential than the estimate I was using for the calculation.
I also racked Proposition 29 to the secondary. I probably could have kegged it, but I don't have any free kegs right now. It got down to 1.007, so about 5.6% ABV, and it has this interesting bright, piney, somewhat citrusy character. It was a pretty clean brew, so I'm thinking that implementing temperature control is going to really pay off for me in my forthcoming brews. I harvested 29's yeast cake as well; I'm thinking of maybe doing a Baltic porter or something.
The Recipe:
12 lb European Pilsner malt
2 lb granulated white sugar, added with about 20 minutes left in the boil
6 AAU (53g @ 3.2% AA) Tettnanger @ 60
2 AAU (17g @ 3.2% AA) Tettnanger @ 20
2 AAU (17g @ 3.2% AA) Tettnanger @ 5
Whirlfloc tablet @ 15 min
Wyeast 1214 - Belgian Abbey (yeast cake from batch #28); pitched ~200mL of slurry
Mashed at 150° for an hour using 15 quarts of water. Batch-sparged using 170° water and collected 6.5 gallons for the boil.
O.G.: 1.074
Est. IBU: 27.5
Brewing was blissfully uneventful and everything went well. The only disappointment was in the 75% efficiency I got, which, while within the acceptable range, was still a little bit lower than I'd been getting recently. The grind on the grain looked pretty good, so maybe this malt just had lower potential than the estimate I was using for the calculation.
I also racked Proposition 29 to the secondary. I probably could have kegged it, but I don't have any free kegs right now. It got down to 1.007, so about 5.6% ABV, and it has this interesting bright, piney, somewhat citrusy character. It was a pretty clean brew, so I'm thinking that implementing temperature control is going to really pay off for me in my forthcoming brews. I harvested 29's yeast cake as well; I'm thinking of maybe doing a Baltic porter or something.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Proposition 29
Yesterday I brewed my 29th batch and first lager-style beer, a California Common which I've dubbed Proposition 29. I won't really count Helmut Kölsch as a lager, since it is kind of a hybrid yeast and it was rather warm-fermented.
The Recipe:
9 lb 2-row pale malt
8 oz crystal 60°L
6 AAU (13g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 60
8 AAU (28g @ 8% AA) Northern Brewer @ 15
8 AAU (28g @ 8% AA) Northern Brewer @ 5
Whirlfloc tablet @ 15
Wyeast 2112 - California Lager
Mashed at 150° for an hour and a quarter using 12 quarts of water. Batch-sparged using 180° water and collected 6.5 gallons for the boil.
O.G.: 1.050
Est. IBU: 44.9
This beer represents my first real attempt at temperature control during the fermenting stage. I would love to keep it in the 62-64° range at high kräusen; to accomplish this, I bought a $10 clear-plastic storage tub and placed my carboy inside it, then filled the tub with ice water. I will have to periodically re-ice the water to keep the temp down; it should be interesting to see how it works. Yesterday when I first filled it the temperature was about 59-60°; this morning it was up to 64°, so I re-iced again before leaving for work. I imagine this will have to be done every 12 hours or so.
Yesterday I also racked Employment Singel, which fermented very quickly and could probably just have been kegged, as most of the yeast had already flocculated out. Unfortunately, I also kegged Cherry Brevity and had no free kegs left for Employment. I guess this week I will have to drink a lot of homebrew to get my keg situation in order. Good lord ... do I already need another keg fridge?
Employment is tasting interesting; quite biscuity and nutty, and not super Belgiany. I shall have to see if a little conditioning helps it along, but I fear that fermentation was too quick to develop all those good flavors characteristic of the style. Cherry Brevity is also interesting; so long in the secondary cleared it right up, so it doesn't look like a cloudy witbier. It is bright red, however, and the cherry added a very subtle, dry fruit character which I think works well.
The Recipe:
9 lb 2-row pale malt
8 oz crystal 60°L
6 AAU (13g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 60
8 AAU (28g @ 8% AA) Northern Brewer @ 15
8 AAU (28g @ 8% AA) Northern Brewer @ 5
Whirlfloc tablet @ 15
Wyeast 2112 - California Lager
Mashed at 150° for an hour and a quarter using 12 quarts of water. Batch-sparged using 180° water and collected 6.5 gallons for the boil.
O.G.: 1.050
Est. IBU: 44.9
This beer represents my first real attempt at temperature control during the fermenting stage. I would love to keep it in the 62-64° range at high kräusen; to accomplish this, I bought a $10 clear-plastic storage tub and placed my carboy inside it, then filled the tub with ice water. I will have to periodically re-ice the water to keep the temp down; it should be interesting to see how it works. Yesterday when I first filled it the temperature was about 59-60°; this morning it was up to 64°, so I re-iced again before leaving for work. I imagine this will have to be done every 12 hours or so.
Yesterday I also racked Employment Singel, which fermented very quickly and could probably just have been kegged, as most of the yeast had already flocculated out. Unfortunately, I also kegged Cherry Brevity and had no free kegs left for Employment. I guess this week I will have to drink a lot of homebrew to get my keg situation in order. Good lord ... do I already need another keg fridge?
Employment is tasting interesting; quite biscuity and nutty, and not super Belgiany. I shall have to see if a little conditioning helps it along, but I fear that fermentation was too quick to develop all those good flavors characteristic of the style. Cherry Brevity is also interesting; so long in the secondary cleared it right up, so it doesn't look like a cloudy witbier. It is bright red, however, and the cherry added a very subtle, dry fruit character which I think works well.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Is Homebrewing Cost Effective: Redux
Well, it's been a year since my last calculations regarding the cost-effectiveness of homebrewing, so I think I'll re-run the numbers for my experience thus far.
Take Nugget IPA as an example: $26.10 or so in ingredients, which works out to 77¢/pint or about $1.04 for a 22oz bomber (most batches are in the 4.3 gallon neighborhood once all is said and done). This is a bit less than the $1.39 of a year ago, but I've saved money by using tap water and buying hops in bulk for the last year or so. Also, I worked out how much gas and water I use during a brewday -- about 8¢ of water and 25¢ of gas, which adds about a penny a pint to the whole works.
And what about capital goods? Well, because of new equipment (keg system, extra kegs, new mash tun, etc.), I'm up to about $1,000 worth of brewhouse stuff. This works out to about $35.71 per batch over my 28 batches, which is about $1.05 per pint or $1.42 per bomber. My average last year was $2.17/bomber, but I was predicting getting as low as 63¢; clearly, that didn't happen.
Still, that means that a glass of decent IPA is costing me $1.83 per pint or about $2.47 per bomber. A good IPA is at least $3.99 for a bomber, sometimes as high as $5.99 before getting into DIPA territory. That means that Nugget saves me a rough average of $2.52 per bomber, or about $63 per batch. Woot! Still savin' money!
Take Nugget IPA as an example: $26.10 or so in ingredients, which works out to 77¢/pint or about $1.04 for a 22oz bomber (most batches are in the 4.3 gallon neighborhood once all is said and done). This is a bit less than the $1.39 of a year ago, but I've saved money by using tap water and buying hops in bulk for the last year or so. Also, I worked out how much gas and water I use during a brewday -- about 8¢ of water and 25¢ of gas, which adds about a penny a pint to the whole works.
And what about capital goods? Well, because of new equipment (keg system, extra kegs, new mash tun, etc.), I'm up to about $1,000 worth of brewhouse stuff. This works out to about $35.71 per batch over my 28 batches, which is about $1.05 per pint or $1.42 per bomber. My average last year was $2.17/bomber, but I was predicting getting as low as 63¢; clearly, that didn't happen.
Still, that means that a glass of decent IPA is costing me $1.83 per pint or about $2.47 per bomber. A good IPA is at least $3.99 for a bomber, sometimes as high as $5.99 before getting into DIPA territory. That means that Nugget saves me a rough average of $2.52 per bomber, or about $63 per batch. Woot! Still savin' money!
Employment Singel
So, yesterday I brewed up my 28th batch: a Belgian pale ale/abbey singel that is based on a recipe out of Randy Mosher's Radical Brewing. I named it in honor of my wife's just having got a new job! Yay!
The Recipe:
6 lb European Pilsner malt
3 lb European pale ale malt
8 oz Belgian aromatic malt
6 AAU (13g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 60
3 AAU (24g @ 3.5% AA) Czech Saaz @ 30
2 AAU (16g @ 3.5% AA) Czech Saaz @ 5
2 AAU (19g @ 3% AA) Hallertauer @ 5
Wyeast 1214 - Belgian Abbey
Mashed at 151° for an hour using 12 quarts of water. Batch-sparged (needed 2 batches since I can't quite heat enough water to do it all in one batch after the mash) using 170° water.
O.G.: 1.050
Est. IBU: 36.7
Once again used the 10-gallon tun, although I discovered I had a broken hose clamp connecting the braid to the internal hose barb so I had to temporarily bridge the gap with a piece of plastic tubing. I really must get new hose clamps before brewing again. Other than that, this was an uneventful brewing session; reached 79% mash efficiency which is well within expected parameters.
Yesterday I also made a first pass at cleaning out the chest freezer I got. The vast majority of the nasty mold-or-whatever-it-is is gone, but I still want to bleach the inside to be sure. If I do that tonight, then I might even be able to get some beer carbonated for poker on Thursday! That would be nice.
The Recipe:
6 lb European Pilsner malt
3 lb European pale ale malt
8 oz Belgian aromatic malt
6 AAU (13g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 60
3 AAU (24g @ 3.5% AA) Czech Saaz @ 30
2 AAU (16g @ 3.5% AA) Czech Saaz @ 5
2 AAU (19g @ 3% AA) Hallertauer @ 5
Wyeast 1214 - Belgian Abbey
Mashed at 151° for an hour using 12 quarts of water. Batch-sparged (needed 2 batches since I can't quite heat enough water to do it all in one batch after the mash) using 170° water.
O.G.: 1.050
Est. IBU: 36.7
Once again used the 10-gallon tun, although I discovered I had a broken hose clamp connecting the braid to the internal hose barb so I had to temporarily bridge the gap with a piece of plastic tubing. I really must get new hose clamps before brewing again. Other than that, this was an uneventful brewing session; reached 79% mash efficiency which is well within expected parameters.
Yesterday I also made a first pass at cleaning out the chest freezer I got. The vast majority of the nasty mold-or-whatever-it-is is gone, but I still want to bleach the inside to be sure. If I do that tonight, then I might even be able to get some beer carbonated for poker on Thursday! That would be nice.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
A Freezer Odyssey
Through the generosity of Emily's grandparents, I now have a used chest freezer (generously transported from Tacoma by my mother-in-law) which I will be converting into a kegerator for my homebrew. It is kind of manky inside and will require some cleanup, but I am told it is otherwise functional.
The most important thing about this is that I will soon be able to properly carbonate my kegs of homebrew, which in turn means that I will be able to bottle and growlerize homebrew without it going flat. I look forward to being able to share my brew once again with friends and family. Really, isn't that what this is all about?
Oh, also, a Cherry Brevity update: all the cherries have floated to the top of the carboy and the liquor is starting to develop a rusty red hue. Capital!
The most important thing about this is that I will soon be able to properly carbonate my kegs of homebrew, which in turn means that I will be able to bottle and growlerize homebrew without it going flat. I look forward to being able to share my brew once again with friends and family. Really, isn't that what this is all about?
Oh, also, a Cherry Brevity update: all the cherries have floated to the top of the carboy and the liquor is starting to develop a rusty red hue. Capital!
Monday, September 13, 2010
Slow Month
September has been pretty slow, brewing-wise. I was able to eke out some time yesterday, however, to handle a few brewhouse tasks.
First, I kegged Pyatiletka Stout and Nugget IPA. I ended up leaving Nugget in the secondary on its dry hops for two weeks, and it has come out pretty interesting. Although the sample I had was flat, it shows some promise: hop aroma is funky and citrusy, and it's got a big hit of bitterness backing it up. It finished at 5.8%, and Pyatiletka clocks in at 8.1%, which, although lower than I had planned, still ain't bad.
Second, I racked Cherry Brevity onto its cherries. I ended up with 4lb 2oz of de-stemmed but not de-pitted cherries which I threw into the secondary before racking. The cherries are sweet red cherries which I bought in season and then froze for a couple of months. As of this morning, most of the cherries are still at the bottom of the carboy but some have floated to the top. Should be interesting!
First, I kegged Pyatiletka Stout and Nugget IPA. I ended up leaving Nugget in the secondary on its dry hops for two weeks, and it has come out pretty interesting. Although the sample I had was flat, it shows some promise: hop aroma is funky and citrusy, and it's got a big hit of bitterness backing it up. It finished at 5.8%, and Pyatiletka clocks in at 8.1%, which, although lower than I had planned, still ain't bad.
Second, I racked Cherry Brevity onto its cherries. I ended up with 4lb 2oz of de-stemmed but not de-pitted cherries which I threw into the secondary before racking. The cherries are sweet red cherries which I bought in season and then froze for a couple of months. As of this morning, most of the cherries are still at the bottom of the carboy but some have floated to the top. Should be interesting!
Monday, August 30, 2010
Cherry Brevity
On Saturday evening I brewed up Brevity Wit again; this time, however, I plan on racking it onto cherries in the secondary. I've got the cherries all ready, though I still haven't decided quite how much to use. I have a little more than two pounds; not sure if I'll use all of 'em.
The Recipe:
4 lb 2-row pale malt
4 lb wheat malt
1 lb flaked wheat
5 AAU (28g @ 5% AA) East Kent Goldings @ 60 min
1 oz ground coriander @ 2 min
Zest from 2 oranges (16g) @ 2 min
Rack onto cherries in secondary.
Wyeast 3944 - Belgian Witbier
Mashed at 152° for an hour using just shy of 12 quarts of water. Batch-sparged (needed 2 batches since I can't quite heat enough water to do it all in one batch after the mash) using 170°-190° water.
O.G.: 1.048
Est. IBU: 16.8
I used the newly rebuilt 10-gallon mash tun and it worked like a champ. I'm glad to finally have that thing all sorted out. I rocked 80% efficiency this time, and I'm pretty happy with that. Pitched the yeast in the mid-to-high 60s. When I checked the temperature 24 hours after pitching (a pretty good kräusen was going), it was at 68°, so it's keeping a pretty good temperature.
Pretty much everything went uneventfully, though I got distracted and didn't aerate the wort quite as much as I normally do. The result of this appears to be a less vigorous fermentation; I should also mention, however, that even three or so hours after smacking, my Wyeast Activator packet was not anywhere near fully bloated. So, I might have had not-perfectly-viable yeast. I guess I'll just have to see how it turns out; it's fermenting now, so I don't think the effects will be too bad.
I also racked Nugget into the secondary on Saturday and introduced the dry hops. I think I'll leave them in there for a week and then keg. SG read 1.008 at racking, which makes it 5.8% ABV -- a pretty sweet spot for IPAs. It is just about as bitter as you can imagine.
The Recipe:
4 lb 2-row pale malt
4 lb wheat malt
1 lb flaked wheat
5 AAU (28g @ 5% AA) East Kent Goldings @ 60 min
1 oz ground coriander @ 2 min
Zest from 2 oranges (16g) @ 2 min
Rack onto cherries in secondary.
Wyeast 3944 - Belgian Witbier
Mashed at 152° for an hour using just shy of 12 quarts of water. Batch-sparged (needed 2 batches since I can't quite heat enough water to do it all in one batch after the mash) using 170°-190° water.
O.G.: 1.048
Est. IBU: 16.8
I used the newly rebuilt 10-gallon mash tun and it worked like a champ. I'm glad to finally have that thing all sorted out. I rocked 80% efficiency this time, and I'm pretty happy with that. Pitched the yeast in the mid-to-high 60s. When I checked the temperature 24 hours after pitching (a pretty good kräusen was going), it was at 68°, so it's keeping a pretty good temperature.
Pretty much everything went uneventfully, though I got distracted and didn't aerate the wort quite as much as I normally do. The result of this appears to be a less vigorous fermentation; I should also mention, however, that even three or so hours after smacking, my Wyeast Activator packet was not anywhere near fully bloated. So, I might have had not-perfectly-viable yeast. I guess I'll just have to see how it turns out; it's fermenting now, so I don't think the effects will be too bad.
I also racked Nugget into the secondary on Saturday and introduced the dry hops. I think I'll leave them in there for a week and then keg. SG read 1.008 at racking, which makes it 5.8% ABV -- a pretty sweet spot for IPAs. It is just about as bitter as you can imagine.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Another Mash Tun Odyssey
Well, I was so proud of my new 10-gallon mash tun when I finished it up in May. Then, I was so disappointed when it got destroyed while making my first Russian Imperial Stout. Now, I think I have my problem solved.
I decided to go back to my big collection of brass and stainless valves, fittings, washers and whatnot to see whether I could cobble something together after all. I also went online and got a big ribbon of thin heat-resistant neoprene, which is water-impermeable and compresses to form a tight seal when squeezed.
So, there is a 5/8" OD pipe nipple that connects the inside and outside of the tun. This is run through the O-ring which came with the cooler, but that is not enough to actually prevent water getting through (because of some overzealous dremeling on my part). I cut small holes in the center of some 1.5" squares of the neoprene and stretched a few over the interior end of the pipe nipple, put a few washers up against them, attached my hose barb to the end of the nipple and then tightened the hell out of the whole assembly.
To test it, I filled the tun up with water and just let it sit there dripping into a measuring cup. After almost 6 hours, it had lost about 1/4 cup of liquid. 2 ounces in six hours is an acceptable loss rate for me, and the new assembly is much more robust than the old plastic-valve-and-stopper bit. Perhaps my next batch will be something big so I can use the new tun -- an imperial IPA maybe? That would also let me re-use the yeast from batch #26.
You know what? That's it! I will harvest the yeast from Nugget IPA (1332 - Northwest Ale) and then make a real Northwest Imperial IPA with a similar hopping schedule to #19 (though probably with added dry hopping).
I decided to go back to my big collection of brass and stainless valves, fittings, washers and whatnot to see whether I could cobble something together after all. I also went online and got a big ribbon of thin heat-resistant neoprene, which is water-impermeable and compresses to form a tight seal when squeezed.
So, there is a 5/8" OD pipe nipple that connects the inside and outside of the tun. This is run through the O-ring which came with the cooler, but that is not enough to actually prevent water getting through (because of some overzealous dremeling on my part). I cut small holes in the center of some 1.5" squares of the neoprene and stretched a few over the interior end of the pipe nipple, put a few washers up against them, attached my hose barb to the end of the nipple and then tightened the hell out of the whole assembly.
To test it, I filled the tun up with water and just let it sit there dripping into a measuring cup. After almost 6 hours, it had lost about 1/4 cup of liquid. 2 ounces in six hours is an acceptable loss rate for me, and the new assembly is much more robust than the old plastic-valve-and-stopper bit. Perhaps my next batch will be something big so I can use the new tun -- an imperial IPA maybe? That would also let me re-use the yeast from batch #26.
You know what? That's it! I will harvest the yeast from Nugget IPA (1332 - Northwest Ale) and then make a real Northwest Imperial IPA with a similar hopping schedule to #19 (though probably with added dry hopping).
Nugget IPA
Yesterday I got down to brewing business after a three week hiatus. I kegged Heat Wave straight from the primary (my first time skipping a secondary) and racked Pyatiletka (it's at 1.024 right now, about 8.1% ABV). I did all this while brewing up a single hop IPA utilizing my giant bag of Nugget hops.
The Recipe:
9 lb Maris Otter
13 AAU (28g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 60
13 AAU (28g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 20
13 AAU (28g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 10
13 AAU (28g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 5
13 AAU (28g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 0 (flame-out)
13 AAU (28g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 0 (dry-hopped in secondary)
Whirlfloc tablet @ 15 min
Wyeast 1332 - Northwest Ale
Mashed at 154° for an hour using about 11 quarts of water; used the old 5 gallon mash tun. Did a more-or-less batch sparge (1.5ish batches, really) using 170°-180° water.
O.G.: 1.052
Est. IBU: 107.1
Brewing went very well and there were no mishaps or anything. I managed to do my kegging and racking while waiting for the mash, waiting for the boil, etc., which was quite nice. I pitched the yeast at about 69°, which, based on the temperatures of the room and of the tap water, was about as good as I was going to get. I plan on racking to the secondary after a week or so and then steeping the dry hops in a bag.
I decided to keg Heat Wave Hefeweizen without a secondary in an attempt to preserve some cloudiness. Besides, it had been in the fermenter 22 days and I don't think it was really going to improve any. It's heavier on the clove than the banana; I want to use 3068 again already, but maybe implement actual temperature control (Heat Wave hit about 81° at high kräusen). Heat Wave finished at 1.006, so it's running about 5.0% ABV -- just about perfect, really.
The Recipe:
9 lb Maris Otter
13 AAU (28g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 60
13 AAU (28g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 20
13 AAU (28g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 10
13 AAU (28g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 5
13 AAU (28g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 0 (flame-out)
13 AAU (28g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 0 (dry-hopped in secondary)
Whirlfloc tablet @ 15 min
Wyeast 1332 - Northwest Ale
Mashed at 154° for an hour using about 11 quarts of water; used the old 5 gallon mash tun. Did a more-or-less batch sparge (1.5ish batches, really) using 170°-180° water.
O.G.: 1.052
Est. IBU: 107.1
Brewing went very well and there were no mishaps or anything. I managed to do my kegging and racking while waiting for the mash, waiting for the boil, etc., which was quite nice. I pitched the yeast at about 69°, which, based on the temperatures of the room and of the tap water, was about as good as I was going to get. I plan on racking to the secondary after a week or so and then steeping the dry hops in a bag.
I decided to keg Heat Wave Hefeweizen without a secondary in an attempt to preserve some cloudiness. Besides, it had been in the fermenter 22 days and I don't think it was really going to improve any. It's heavier on the clove than the banana; I want to use 3068 again already, but maybe implement actual temperature control (Heat Wave hit about 81° at high kräusen). Heat Wave finished at 1.006, so it's running about 5.0% ABV -- just about perfect, really.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Heat Wave Hefeweizen
On Saturday I brewed my first hefeweizen and 25th batch overall. I had to use my older, smaller mash tun as the new one is temporarily out of commission after Pyatiletka.
The Recipe:
4 lb 2-row pale malt
4 lb wheat malt
3 AAU (28g @ 3% AA) Hallertauer @ 60
3 AAU (28g @ 3% AA) Hallertauer @ 20
3 AAU (28g @ 3% AA) Hallertauer @ 5
Wyeast 3068 - Weihenstephan Weizen
Mashed at 152° for an hour using about 10.5 quarts of water. Sparged with 170-180° water.
O.G.: 1.044
Est. IBU: 21.9
Brewing was extremely uneventful -- just the way I like it. As the name suggests, we were experiencing a heat wave hereabouts when I brewed on Saturday, although we discovered later it was to be the tail-end of the heat. Still, I pitched pretty high (73°, probably higher than I should have) and the temperature in the fermenter quickly ramped up to the low-mid 80s once fermentation began in earnest.
The blow-off airlock fluid had a distinctly banana-ey aroma to it, so I have high hopes for this one. I think I'll just let it run a week each in primary and secondary and then keg it quickly. I want to be able to enjoy it in the heat.
The Recipe:
4 lb 2-row pale malt
4 lb wheat malt
3 AAU (28g @ 3% AA) Hallertauer @ 60
3 AAU (28g @ 3% AA) Hallertauer @ 20
3 AAU (28g @ 3% AA) Hallertauer @ 5
Wyeast 3068 - Weihenstephan Weizen
Mashed at 152° for an hour using about 10.5 quarts of water. Sparged with 170-180° water.
O.G.: 1.044
Est. IBU: 21.9
Brewing was extremely uneventful -- just the way I like it. As the name suggests, we were experiencing a heat wave hereabouts when I brewed on Saturday, although we discovered later it was to be the tail-end of the heat. Still, I pitched pretty high (73°, probably higher than I should have) and the temperature in the fermenter quickly ramped up to the low-mid 80s once fermentation began in earnest.
The blow-off airlock fluid had a distinctly banana-ey aroma to it, so I have high hopes for this one. I think I'll just let it run a week each in primary and secondary and then keg it quickly. I want to be able to enjoy it in the heat.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Pyatiletka Stout
Yesterday morning I brewed up my first Russian Imperial Stout, dubbed Pyatiletka Stout. It turned out to be a very eventful brewday, which is rarely a good thing. I'll consider it a day of hard-won wisdom.
The Recipe:
16 lb 2-row pale malt
2 lb flaked barley
2 lb chocolate malt
12 oz black patent malt
8 oz black barley
16 AAU (34g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 60
Wyeast 1028 - London Ale (w/starter)
Mashed at 156° for an hour using about 23.5 quarts of water. Sparged with 170° water.
O.G.: 1.086
Est. IBU: 52.7
Things were going swimmingly right up until the sparge/wort collection phase. My intent was to implement the same caramelization of the first runnings which I first did for #22, which helps me collect more wort overall and contributes to obtaining a high mash efficiency for big beers. And then things went terribly wrong: my new mash tun has a plastic valve to which a hose can be attached to eliminate splashing when collecting the wort. However, the hole in the tun is plugged by a stopper into which the valve is pushed; so, when I went to attach the hose, I pushed the stopper into the MLT and unleashed an unimpeded flow of wort onto myself, the floor, the kettle; basically everywhere. After much jockeying and creating more of a mess, I got the MLT perched precariously on top of my sanitation/bottling bucket so that collection could resume (luckily, the mash was rather tight so the liquid began flowing much more slowly). Unfortunately, this pretty much destroyed my caramelization plan and left a fair bit of the sweetest first runnings on the floor. Both of these resulted in my getting an abysmal 62% efficiency; I compensated for this a little bit by collecting an extra quart of wort (27 as opposed to the normal 26) and boiling it a bit longer at the beginning to drive off water.
The next mishap was after I finished collecting the wort. I always take a sample right after wort collection which I then chill to 60° and take a gravity reading to estimate my brewhouse efficiency. So, I grabbed my hydrometer, held it up to make sure the tiny weights inside were even (so the hydrometer will float plumb), and proceeded to then drop the hydrometer on the floor and break it in half. At this point, the beer is bubbling and I've just added the bittering hops and started the 60 minute timer. So I throw on some shoes without socks and bolt out the door to drive up to my LHBS and buy a new hydrometer. It was hairy there for a bit, but I got back in time to put in the wort chiller at 15 in order to sanitize. I ended up buying 2 hydrometers so that I could have one in reserve; the new ones are nice, but a bit too tall for my sampling vessel, so measuring below about 1.006 or so results in the hydrometer just resting on the bottom. Uff da.
But that's not all! The rest of the boil, the chilling and the addition to the fermenting carboy all went well. I pitched a little over a pint of yeast starter (which, incidentally, I didn't really give enough time to mature so I thought there might be too little active yeast for the 1.086 OG) and put it in a corner to go. This would have been around noon, and by 10 PM there was still very little yeast activity. Fast forward to this morning, when I walk out into the kitchen to discover a stream of beer stretching 3 or 4 feet out into the kitchen dining area leading back to my blow-off receptacle, which is entirely full of beer and foam and is still burbling quite enthusiastically. So, I have a big mess but a highly successful initial fermentation! Yay!
So, Pyatiletka broke two pieces of equipment and caused two moderately large messes in my kitchen. I've learned a lot of lessons and next time I will plan* a little bit better.
* Do you like my hackneyed bilingual puns?
The Recipe:
16 lb 2-row pale malt
2 lb flaked barley
2 lb chocolate malt
12 oz black patent malt
8 oz black barley
16 AAU (34g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 60
Wyeast 1028 - London Ale (w/starter)
Mashed at 156° for an hour using about 23.5 quarts of water. Sparged with 170° water.
O.G.: 1.086
Est. IBU: 52.7
Things were going swimmingly right up until the sparge/wort collection phase. My intent was to implement the same caramelization of the first runnings which I first did for #22, which helps me collect more wort overall and contributes to obtaining a high mash efficiency for big beers. And then things went terribly wrong: my new mash tun has a plastic valve to which a hose can be attached to eliminate splashing when collecting the wort. However, the hole in the tun is plugged by a stopper into which the valve is pushed; so, when I went to attach the hose, I pushed the stopper into the MLT and unleashed an unimpeded flow of wort onto myself, the floor, the kettle; basically everywhere. After much jockeying and creating more of a mess, I got the MLT perched precariously on top of my sanitation/bottling bucket so that collection could resume (luckily, the mash was rather tight so the liquid began flowing much more slowly). Unfortunately, this pretty much destroyed my caramelization plan and left a fair bit of the sweetest first runnings on the floor. Both of these resulted in my getting an abysmal 62% efficiency; I compensated for this a little bit by collecting an extra quart of wort (27 as opposed to the normal 26) and boiling it a bit longer at the beginning to drive off water.
The next mishap was after I finished collecting the wort. I always take a sample right after wort collection which I then chill to 60° and take a gravity reading to estimate my brewhouse efficiency. So, I grabbed my hydrometer, held it up to make sure the tiny weights inside were even (so the hydrometer will float plumb), and proceeded to then drop the hydrometer on the floor and break it in half. At this point, the beer is bubbling and I've just added the bittering hops and started the 60 minute timer. So I throw on some shoes without socks and bolt out the door to drive up to my LHBS and buy a new hydrometer. It was hairy there for a bit, but I got back in time to put in the wort chiller at 15 in order to sanitize. I ended up buying 2 hydrometers so that I could have one in reserve; the new ones are nice, but a bit too tall for my sampling vessel, so measuring below about 1.006 or so results in the hydrometer just resting on the bottom. Uff da.
But that's not all! The rest of the boil, the chilling and the addition to the fermenting carboy all went well. I pitched a little over a pint of yeast starter (which, incidentally, I didn't really give enough time to mature so I thought there might be too little active yeast for the 1.086 OG) and put it in a corner to go. This would have been around noon, and by 10 PM there was still very little yeast activity. Fast forward to this morning, when I walk out into the kitchen to discover a stream of beer stretching 3 or 4 feet out into the kitchen dining area leading back to my blow-off receptacle, which is entirely full of beer and foam and is still burbling quite enthusiastically. So, I have a big mess but a highly successful initial fermentation! Yay!
So, Pyatiletka broke two pieces of equipment and caused two moderately large messes in my kitchen. I've learned a lot of lessons and next time I will plan* a little bit better.
* Do you like my hackneyed bilingual puns?
Friday, July 2, 2010
Exciting Times Ahead!
Today, I picked up 4.5 lbs of sweet, fresh (i.e., in season; i.e., cheap) Bing cherries which I intend to use in brewing a fruited version of Brevity Wit. I'm not sure exactly how many cherries I'll use, but I have a feeling I'm just going to throw them all in. I've put them straight into the freezer; ideally, the freezing process will break some of the cell walls so that the juices will be released when I add them to the secondary. Also, this means I don't need to make Brevity Wit #3 right away; I can take my time. I'm thinking of calling it Cherry Brevity. My originality is palpable.
Tomorrow I'll be brewing up my first Russian Imperial Stout in the morning and having a barbecue in the afternoon wherein I'll serve Backbreaker Wee Heavy for the first time. I'm sort of considering sampling it tonight to see if it is ready, but it's not chilled or anything. If it's not ready, I still have 6 other kegs of homebrew ready for service.
Tomorrow I'll be brewing up my first Russian Imperial Stout in the morning and having a barbecue in the afternoon wherein I'll serve Backbreaker Wee Heavy for the first time. I'm sort of considering sampling it tonight to see if it is ready, but it's not chilled or anything. If it's not ready, I still have 6 other kegs of homebrew ready for service.
Monday, June 28, 2010
One Big Beer
The Friday before last, before going on vacation, I kegged Backbreaker Wee Heavy. It finished at 1.030, so it's 9.3% and has rather a thick body. It may require some time to mature, but I might get a sample of it in the next few days to see how it's coming.
One thing that disappoints me is that I've done no brewing in June. I've got 3 more days to maybe whip up a batch after work so I can get one in this month. Hmm.
One thing that disappoints me is that I've done no brewing in June. I've got 3 more days to maybe whip up a batch after work so I can get one in this month. Hmm.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
In Through the Out Door
Actually, it was out-through-the-in-door that was more of a problem. So, to my band's Cinco de Junio gathering this year, I brought my kegs of Not-So-Imperial IPA and American Stout (nos. 19 & 20). I only have one tap, so we were switching back and forth between kegs so that people could get what they wanted (both were received pretty well, too).
Anyway, after three or four switches, I accidentally put the tap connector onto the gas-in post and the gas connector on the beer-out post of #19. As it turns out, these posts are slightly different in design, and the tap connector simply would not come off of the beer-out post. On Sunday I had an emergency beer-drinking session to finish off what was left of 19 and yesterday I took a hammer, vice grips and Dremel to the tap connector to finally remove it, destroying it in the process. I have procured a new beer-out quick-release connector for my picnic tap and a new gas-in post for the keg, as the old one got pretty hashed up in the process.
June is turning out to be a pretty low-brewing-activity month. My next two weekends are shot because of the lake, so I shan't be brewing then. Perhaps I should try to get a session in sometime this week after work? Hmm.
Oh, and in other news, I have now been brewing for a year. On June 7 of last year, I brewed up my first batch. I kind of want to do Blackacre Butte again, one year on.
Anyway, after three or four switches, I accidentally put the tap connector onto the gas-in post and the gas connector on the beer-out post of #19. As it turns out, these posts are slightly different in design, and the tap connector simply would not come off of the beer-out post. On Sunday I had an emergency beer-drinking session to finish off what was left of 19 and yesterday I took a hammer, vice grips and Dremel to the tap connector to finally remove it, destroying it in the process. I have procured a new beer-out quick-release connector for my picnic tap and a new gas-in post for the keg, as the old one got pretty hashed up in the process.
June is turning out to be a pretty low-brewing-activity month. My next two weekends are shot because of the lake, so I shan't be brewing then. Perhaps I should try to get a session in sometime this week after work? Hmm.
Oh, and in other news, I have now been brewing for a year. On June 7 of last year, I brewed up my first batch. I kind of want to do Blackacre Butte again, one year on.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Keg Knowledge
Yesterday I kegged up 24 Hour Mild for the 24-24-24 challenge coming up tomorrow. It finished at 1.003, or about 3.3% ABV. Nice and light in alcohol and relatively dark and flavorful; I'm looking forward to drinking a bunch of it.
On Wednesday I went to a local welding supply store and exchanged my CO2 tank for a fresh one, since I didn't know how much life my old tank had left. The regulator wasn't into the red "empty" range, but it was out of the green "full" range and I didn't want to risk losing pressure in the middle of the event. I'm pretty happy with how much use I got out of the old one: 3 kegs carbonated and fully dispensed, with 5 other kegs carbonated and partially dispensed. It should be noted that that CO2 tank was a little over half full when I bought it, so I'm thinking I'll get plenty of use out of this new full tank. The tank exchange is a little under $14, so if I get 10 kegs carbed and 5 dispensed, that's only about a dollar per operation. It's totally worth a buck to avoid bottling.
In preparation for kegging 24 Hour, I fully took apart and cleaned the keg I was going to use. I disassembled the posts, replaced the internal O-rings and inspected and washed the poppets, dip tubes and posts themselves. This was a valuable learning experience; the out-post on my keg of Ol' Smokey is somewhat leaky when the pressure is too high, and now I know how to find and replace the poppet. They're about $4.50 it seems, so I might buy a couple in order to have extras around just in case.
On Wednesday I went to a local welding supply store and exchanged my CO2 tank for a fresh one, since I didn't know how much life my old tank had left. The regulator wasn't into the red "empty" range, but it was out of the green "full" range and I didn't want to risk losing pressure in the middle of the event. I'm pretty happy with how much use I got out of the old one: 3 kegs carbonated and fully dispensed, with 5 other kegs carbonated and partially dispensed. It should be noted that that CO2 tank was a little over half full when I bought it, so I'm thinking I'll get plenty of use out of this new full tank. The tank exchange is a little under $14, so if I get 10 kegs carbed and 5 dispensed, that's only about a dollar per operation. It's totally worth a buck to avoid bottling.
In preparation for kegging 24 Hour, I fully took apart and cleaned the keg I was going to use. I disassembled the posts, replaced the internal O-rings and inspected and washed the poppets, dip tubes and posts themselves. This was a valuable learning experience; the out-post on my keg of Ol' Smokey is somewhat leaky when the pressure is too high, and now I know how to find and replace the poppet. They're about $4.50 it seems, so I might buy a couple in order to have extras around just in case.
Friday, May 21, 2010
A Kegging Odyssey
So, I came to a couple of conclusions today:
1) I brew way more beer than I drink;
2) I hate bottling now that I've gotten into kegging.
The result of this is that I bought two more Corny kegs today so that I could keg Blackacre American Stout and Ol' Smokey. Done and done; they came out to neat 5.4% and 5% ABV, respectively. Another week should tell me if they are any good.
My 24 Hour Mild, which I racked tonight, and which is planned for the 24-24-24 challenge, will have to get into the keg sometime before, say, Thursday, if I want to carb it up so it's ready to go. That means I have until then to finish up The Elder, the brew of which I have the least left in the keg. I growler'd up some tonight and poured a pint while I was at it; I think I probably have between one-half and one gallon left, but we shall see.
I also racked Backbreaker Wee Heavy tonight, and it read a nice 1.032. That means it's rocking about 9% ABV as well as having tons of body, flavor and caramelized sweetness. Finally, mashing high yields the expected results!
1) I brew way more beer than I drink;
2) I hate bottling now that I've gotten into kegging.
The result of this is that I bought two more Corny kegs today so that I could keg Blackacre American Stout and Ol' Smokey. Done and done; they came out to neat 5.4% and 5% ABV, respectively. Another week should tell me if they are any good.
My 24 Hour Mild, which I racked tonight, and which is planned for the 24-24-24 challenge, will have to get into the keg sometime before, say, Thursday, if I want to carb it up so it's ready to go. That means I have until then to finish up The Elder, the brew of which I have the least left in the keg. I growler'd up some tonight and poured a pint while I was at it; I think I probably have between one-half and one gallon left, but we shall see.
I also racked Backbreaker Wee Heavy tonight, and it read a nice 1.032. That means it's rocking about 9% ABV as well as having tons of body, flavor and caramelized sweetness. Finally, mashing high yields the expected results!
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale vs. Bar-None Brown
Well, I have finally got around to comparing Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale with Bar-None Brown, my attempt at loosely cloning that delicious brew. Here are the results:
Appearance: Bar-None is ever so slightly darker, but really only by a few percent. They are nearly indistinguishable in color and clarity. Bar-None's head is pretty large, but I attribute that to bottle conditioning. Judgment: even.
Smell: Indian Brown Ale's aroma centers on a rich chocolatey malt flavor with just hints of coffee and a subtle earthy, vegetabley hop aroma. Bar-None's is extremely hoppy and doesn't have near the subtle roasted-malt aroma. It is strong and quite floral and vegetabley; a much lighter hand will be needed on the hops. Judgement: Indian Brown is much more malty and subtly complex.
Taste: Indian Brown has a nice complex hop flavor crowning a chocolatey, slightly caramelly malt base. Flavor spectrum tends toward the malt. Bar-None has coffee flavor but not much in the way of chocolate, and is not subtle or smooth at all; hops abound and are floral and rough-around-the-edges. Judgement: Indian Brown is exceptionally smooth and balanced, whereas Bar-None is too hop-centric and quite rough.
Mouthfeel: Indian Brown is extremely smooth; it has a medium to medium-thich body and a wonderfully smooth, silky texture, as well as a nice level of carbonation that renders this extremely creamy and fantastic. Easily one of my favorite mouthfeels. Bar-None is a little lighter in body but has a mega carbonation that yields mega creaminess; this is probably due to its bottle-conditioned nature. It is rare for me to think of a beer as over-carbonated, but over the months Bar-None has become so. Judgement: I prefer Indian Brown Ale to Bar-None, but this is a category in which Bar-None stands up pretty well.
Drinkability: Bar-None's rough hopping makes it notably less drinkable than Indian Brown. Indian Brown welcomes each and every sip, whereas Bar-None's bitterness and overdone, vegetabley hops challenge the palate in an unpleasant way. Judgement: Indian Brown, hands down.
If I do an Indian Brown Ale-insprired recipe again, I would drop the roasted barley and up the chocolate malt to 12 oz or maybe even a pound. Crystal would probably stay the same and victory malt might have to go, and I might want to go with Maris Otter rather than domestic 2-row. Bittering hops should come down to maybe 10 AAU and I might want to go with Fuggles and maybe a little Cascade for aroma and flavor, perhaps pared down to 4 AAU for each addition.
Appearance: Bar-None is ever so slightly darker, but really only by a few percent. They are nearly indistinguishable in color and clarity. Bar-None's head is pretty large, but I attribute that to bottle conditioning. Judgment: even.
Smell: Indian Brown Ale's aroma centers on a rich chocolatey malt flavor with just hints of coffee and a subtle earthy, vegetabley hop aroma. Bar-None's is extremely hoppy and doesn't have near the subtle roasted-malt aroma. It is strong and quite floral and vegetabley; a much lighter hand will be needed on the hops. Judgement: Indian Brown is much more malty and subtly complex.
Taste: Indian Brown has a nice complex hop flavor crowning a chocolatey, slightly caramelly malt base. Flavor spectrum tends toward the malt. Bar-None has coffee flavor but not much in the way of chocolate, and is not subtle or smooth at all; hops abound and are floral and rough-around-the-edges. Judgement: Indian Brown is exceptionally smooth and balanced, whereas Bar-None is too hop-centric and quite rough.
Mouthfeel: Indian Brown is extremely smooth; it has a medium to medium-thich body and a wonderfully smooth, silky texture, as well as a nice level of carbonation that renders this extremely creamy and fantastic. Easily one of my favorite mouthfeels. Bar-None is a little lighter in body but has a mega carbonation that yields mega creaminess; this is probably due to its bottle-conditioned nature. It is rare for me to think of a beer as over-carbonated, but over the months Bar-None has become so. Judgement: I prefer Indian Brown Ale to Bar-None, but this is a category in which Bar-None stands up pretty well.
Drinkability: Bar-None's rough hopping makes it notably less drinkable than Indian Brown. Indian Brown welcomes each and every sip, whereas Bar-None's bitterness and overdone, vegetabley hops challenge the palate in an unpleasant way. Judgement: Indian Brown, hands down.
If I do an Indian Brown Ale-insprired recipe again, I would drop the roasted barley and up the chocolate malt to 12 oz or maybe even a pound. Crystal would probably stay the same and victory malt might have to go, and I might want to go with Maris Otter rather than domestic 2-row. Bittering hops should come down to maybe 10 AAU and I might want to go with Fuggles and maybe a little Cascade for aroma and flavor, perhaps pared down to 4 AAU for each addition.
24 Hour Mild
Yesterday I brewed up a special brew for a special occasion. On Memorial Day weekend, a buddy of mine and I are attempting the epic 24-24-24 challenge: eat 24 Krispy Kreme doughnuts, drink 24 beers and walk 24 miles in a 24 hour period. Crazy? Certainly. But we plan to be drinking in style, if at a lower ABV than normal: thus, 24 Hour Mild, a dark English-style mild ale that might render this challenge possible.
The Recipe:
5 lb 2-row pale malt
4 oz Crystal 60°
4 oz chocolate malt
3 AAU (17g @ 5% AA) East Kent Goldings @ 60
1 AAU (6g @ 5% AA) East Kent Goldings @ 15
Irish Moss tablet @ 15 min
Wyeast 1028 - London Ale
Mashed at 152° for an hour using about 8 quarts of water. Fly-sparged with 170°-190° water.
O.G.: 1.028
Est. IBU: 11.7
Brewing was entirely uneventful with the exception of wort collection. I got distracted when collecting the final runnings and when I went to check my brew kettle, I had nearly 30 quarts of wort collected (I usually try to collect 26). So, I took a sample to measure the pre-boil gravity for my efficiency calculation (86% on this beer; I'm quite glad my LHBS has indeed fixed their grinder) and then disposed of 2-3 quarts of the wort before the boil. After the boil, I still had 24 quarts in my kettle so this just gets to be a 6-gallon batch.
I'm going to get this into the secondary after just a week and keg it probably after three or four days in the secondary. I know that in this case the secondary isn't exactly necessary, but it's part of my protocol so I'll do it. I need to get it carbed up and ready to go before the 29th, so this may be the shortest-fermented beer since my first batch. Wish me luck!
The Recipe:
5 lb 2-row pale malt
4 oz Crystal 60°
4 oz chocolate malt
3 AAU (17g @ 5% AA) East Kent Goldings @ 60
1 AAU (6g @ 5% AA) East Kent Goldings @ 15
Irish Moss tablet @ 15 min
Wyeast 1028 - London Ale
Mashed at 152° for an hour using about 8 quarts of water. Fly-sparged with 170°-190° water.
O.G.: 1.028
Est. IBU: 11.7
Brewing was entirely uneventful with the exception of wort collection. I got distracted when collecting the final runnings and when I went to check my brew kettle, I had nearly 30 quarts of wort collected (I usually try to collect 26). So, I took a sample to measure the pre-boil gravity for my efficiency calculation (86% on this beer; I'm quite glad my LHBS has indeed fixed their grinder) and then disposed of 2-3 quarts of the wort before the boil. After the boil, I still had 24 quarts in my kettle so this just gets to be a 6-gallon batch.
I'm going to get this into the secondary after just a week and keg it probably after three or four days in the secondary. I know that in this case the secondary isn't exactly necessary, but it's part of my protocol so I'll do it. I need to get it carbed up and ready to go before the 29th, so this may be the shortest-fermented beer since my first batch. Wish me luck!
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Hops Inventory
Well, I decided to take a hops inventory today to figure out just what I have. I really like the cost savings when buying in bulk (up to 85%!), but I also don't really brew enough to use up bulk-bought hops. So, here's what I have laying around:
Stored in sealed-up freezer bags:
Cascade, 5.4% AA - 315g (11.1oz)
East Kent Goldings, 5% AA - 152g (5.4oz)
Hallertauer, 3% AA - 368g (13oz)
Nugget, 13% AA - 407g (14.4oz)
Saaz (Czech Republic), 3.5% AA - 296g (10.5oz)
Willamette, 4.5% AA - 176g (6.2oz)
Vaccuum-packed 1 pound bags from the wholesaler:
Cascade, 5.4% AA
Fuggles (US), 5.1% AA
Galena, 11% AA
Tettnanger (Germany), 3.2% AA
Willamette, 4.5% AA
All of these are pellet except for the EKGs, which are dried whole leaf hops. Note that the 1 pound bags seem to contain a lot more than 450g of hops -- anywhere from 490 to 530, it seems.
Some of these bags have been opened as long ago as October or November. I feel like I should be using these more, although at the wholesale prices I'm getting it actually is still cost effective even if I have to throw away hops after using just three ounces per one-pound bag.
I could burn up all my Nugget in a 460 IBU Imperial IPA, for instance. I'm also using my noble hops pretty slowly, so perhaps I could do what I did with EKG IPA and try brewing massive one-hop IPAs with them. Sadly, most of my brews on the horizon are relatively low-hop styles. I guess we'll just see; for now, though, I will simply try to brew styles within the confines of the hops I've already got open, rather than opening up those others.
Stored in sealed-up freezer bags:
Cascade, 5.4% AA - 315g (11.1oz)
East Kent Goldings, 5% AA - 152g (5.4oz)
Hallertauer, 3% AA - 368g (13oz)
Nugget, 13% AA - 407g (14.4oz)
Saaz (Czech Republic), 3.5% AA - 296g (10.5oz)
Willamette, 4.5% AA - 176g (6.2oz)
Vaccuum-packed 1 pound bags from the wholesaler:
Cascade, 5.4% AA
Fuggles (US), 5.1% AA
Galena, 11% AA
Tettnanger (Germany), 3.2% AA
Willamette, 4.5% AA
All of these are pellet except for the EKGs, which are dried whole leaf hops. Note that the 1 pound bags seem to contain a lot more than 450g of hops -- anywhere from 490 to 530, it seems.
Some of these bags have been opened as long ago as October or November. I feel like I should be using these more, although at the wholesale prices I'm getting it actually is still cost effective even if I have to throw away hops after using just three ounces per one-pound bag.
I could burn up all my Nugget in a 460 IBU Imperial IPA, for instance. I'm also using my noble hops pretty slowly, so perhaps I could do what I did with EKG IPA and try brewing massive one-hop IPAs with them. Sadly, most of my brews on the horizon are relatively low-hop styles. I guess we'll just see; for now, though, I will simply try to brew styles within the confines of the hops I've already got open, rather than opening up those others.
Backbreaker Wee Heavy
Yesterday was a long, long brewing day, but I got to make a new style and use my new mash tun, so it was well worth it.
The Recipe:
18 lb Maris Otter
10 AAU (56g @ 5% AA) East Kent Goldings @ 60
1 Irish Moss tablet @ 15 min
Wyeast 1728 - Scottish Ale
Mashed at 158° for an hour using about 23 quarts of water. Batch-sparged with ~170° water (more details below).
O.G.: 1.101
Est. IBU: 26.5
This procedure for this recipe was a little different. After gathering 12 quarts of the first runnings, I boiled this down to about 4 quarts to caramelize the wort sugars. Never having done this before, I just let it boil on high for about 3 hours which brought the sugars to near burning; however, based on some tasting of the wort, I think it wasn't too badly affected. While that was boiling, I added 12 quarts of sparge water to the mash tun and sealed it back up. This resulted in essentially a 3-hour batch sparge (a bit more water was required at the end as well).
Unfortunately, the long duration of this process clashed with my band practice, so I heated up the gathered wort and left it in the brewkettle with the lid on for about four hours before commencing the boil; hopefully this doesn't end up hurting it.
The most exciting thing about this week's brewing, however, was that my new mash tun worked perfectly. Right at dough-in, there were maybe two or three drops that leaked from the seal, but after that it worked fantastically. Between the mash and the extended batch sparge, there were 18 lbs of grain and about five gallons of water in there for about four hours with no additional leakage of any kind. Woohoo!
The Recipe:
18 lb Maris Otter
10 AAU (56g @ 5% AA) East Kent Goldings @ 60
1 Irish Moss tablet @ 15 min
Wyeast 1728 - Scottish Ale
Mashed at 158° for an hour using about 23 quarts of water. Batch-sparged with ~170° water (more details below).
O.G.: 1.101
Est. IBU: 26.5
This procedure for this recipe was a little different. After gathering 12 quarts of the first runnings, I boiled this down to about 4 quarts to caramelize the wort sugars. Never having done this before, I just let it boil on high for about 3 hours which brought the sugars to near burning; however, based on some tasting of the wort, I think it wasn't too badly affected. While that was boiling, I added 12 quarts of sparge water to the mash tun and sealed it back up. This resulted in essentially a 3-hour batch sparge (a bit more water was required at the end as well).
Unfortunately, the long duration of this process clashed with my band practice, so I heated up the gathered wort and left it in the brewkettle with the lid on for about four hours before commencing the boil; hopefully this doesn't end up hurting it.
The most exciting thing about this week's brewing, however, was that my new mash tun worked perfectly. Right at dough-in, there were maybe two or three drops that leaked from the seal, but after that it worked fantastically. Between the mash and the extended batch sparge, there were 18 lbs of grain and about five gallons of water in there for about four hours with no additional leakage of any kind. Woohoo!
Friday, May 7, 2010
Big Evening
Lots of brewing activity tonight.
First, I went to the homebrew store on my way home from work and picked up 18 lbs of Maris Otter malt to make my Wee Heavy this weekend. Apparently, they have refurbished their grain mill so that it actually provides a decent crush now; reviewing a sample of the crushed malt seemed to bear this out. I also picked up two used corny kegs, because I now dread bottling.
When I got home, I cleaned up my new kegs and kegged my batches which were in secondary: Red Nose Amber and Northwest Not-So-Imperial IPA. They both tasted rather good; Red Nose is not terribly amber, but has an interesting apple flavor along with the bright, citrusy hops (this is probably due to the sugar I added). Its color tracks more with a pale ale, but it is reddish; perhaps I can call it a pale amber. Not-So-Imperial has a great layered hop flavor with the bright Cascades competing for the spotlight with the earthy and subtle Willamettes. Overall, it's a great effect.
I then racked Blackacre American Stout and Ol' Smokey to secondaries and harvested the yeast cake from Ol' Smokey to use with my Wee Heavy. The stout is balanced and somewhat earthy due to the Willamettes (which I'm growing to like quite a lot) and I think it will be a good beer when it is all done. Ol' Smokey basically tastes like someone threw a shot of Islay Scotch whiskey into a growler full of basic porter. Just the effect I wanted!
All in all, a great brewery maintenance day.
First, I went to the homebrew store on my way home from work and picked up 18 lbs of Maris Otter malt to make my Wee Heavy this weekend. Apparently, they have refurbished their grain mill so that it actually provides a decent crush now; reviewing a sample of the crushed malt seemed to bear this out. I also picked up two used corny kegs, because I now dread bottling.
When I got home, I cleaned up my new kegs and kegged my batches which were in secondary: Red Nose Amber and Northwest Not-So-Imperial IPA. They both tasted rather good; Red Nose is not terribly amber, but has an interesting apple flavor along with the bright, citrusy hops (this is probably due to the sugar I added). Its color tracks more with a pale ale, but it is reddish; perhaps I can call it a pale amber. Not-So-Imperial has a great layered hop flavor with the bright Cascades competing for the spotlight with the earthy and subtle Willamettes. Overall, it's a great effect.
I then racked Blackacre American Stout and Ol' Smokey to secondaries and harvested the yeast cake from Ol' Smokey to use with my Wee Heavy. The stout is balanced and somewhat earthy due to the Willamettes (which I'm growing to like quite a lot) and I think it will be a good beer when it is all done. Ol' Smokey basically tastes like someone threw a shot of Islay Scotch whiskey into a growler full of basic porter. Just the effect I wanted!
All in all, a great brewery maintenance day.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
A Mash Tun Odyssey
Well, it turns out that the sealant gel stuff does not actually bond well to either the plastic of the Rubbermaid container or the brass fittings. My next step was a couple of neat rubber washers held on with Krazy Glue, but that didn't bond to the plastic either. Design failures no. 2 and 3.
So, faced with the fact that nothing bonds to cylindrical coolers, I got a #5½ drilled stopper and experimented with that. Unfortunately, my brass and stainless steel fittings were just too heavy, it seemed, and tended to pull the stopper at a downward angle and cause leaks. Failure no. 4.
Yesterday, I went to my LHBS to see if they had perhaps a better-fitting stopper, which they did not. They did, however, have these little plastic ball valves with 3/8" hose barbs on each end. Aha! This fit perfectly into the stopper, so I stopped at Home Depot and got a 3/8" brass hose barb splicer, clamped my hose braid onto it, and stuck it in the other end of the stopper. Tested it, and though it did leak a little at first, it apparently eventually sealed itself. It lost maybe an ounce or so of water in 90 minutes, so really not bad.
So now I have 30 or 40 bucks' worth of brass and stainless pipe nipples, hose barbs, couplers and ball valves, and $6 of plumbing parts actually in use in the tun. Frankly, I'm just glad to be at the end of that adventure. Can't wait to brew this weekend with it!
So, faced with the fact that nothing bonds to cylindrical coolers, I got a #5½ drilled stopper and experimented with that. Unfortunately, my brass and stainless steel fittings were just too heavy, it seemed, and tended to pull the stopper at a downward angle and cause leaks. Failure no. 4.
Yesterday, I went to my LHBS to see if they had perhaps a better-fitting stopper, which they did not. They did, however, have these little plastic ball valves with 3/8" hose barbs on each end. Aha! This fit perfectly into the stopper, so I stopped at Home Depot and got a 3/8" brass hose barb splicer, clamped my hose braid onto it, and stuck it in the other end of the stopper. Tested it, and though it did leak a little at first, it apparently eventually sealed itself. It lost maybe an ounce or so of water in 90 minutes, so really not bad.
So now I have 30 or 40 bucks' worth of brass and stainless pipe nipples, hose barbs, couplers and ball valves, and $6 of plumbing parts actually in use in the tun. Frankly, I'm just glad to be at the end of that adventure. Can't wait to brew this weekend with it!
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Mash Tun Update
So, last night, to test the seal on my new mash tun, I filled the thing up with ten gallons of water and let it sit overnight with the valve closed. In the morning, the level had gone down just a tiny bit and there was a very slow drip right at the valve egress.
Now, I'm not exactly sure of the cause, but I have a couple of things to try. First, I'm going to apply a little more sealant gel stuff, which I imagine can't hurt. Second, I'm going to use a little Teflon tape on the threads of the hose barb I have connected to the ball valve. I did this on my first mash tun and I'm not sure why I skipped that step this time. Wish me luck!
Now, I'm not exactly sure of the cause, but I have a couple of things to try. First, I'm going to apply a little more sealant gel stuff, which I imagine can't hurt. Second, I'm going to use a little Teflon tape on the threads of the hose barb I have connected to the ball valve. I did this on my first mash tun and I'm not sure why I skipped that step this time. Wish me luck!
Ol' Smokey
On Sunday I brewed a smoked porter with the idea of building a lot more smoke into it than #7, Djibouti Smoked Porter, had. To this end, I used about twice as much rauch malt and even threw in half a pound of super smoky peated malt to boost the flavor to new heights.
The Recipe:
5 lb 2-row pale malt
5 lb rauch malt
1 lb chocolate malt
8 oz peated malt
5 AAU (31g @ 4.5% AA) Willamette @ 60
4 AAU (25g @ 4.5% AA) Willamette @ 20
1 Irish Moss tablet @ 15 min
Wyeast 1728 - Scottish Ale
Mashed at 156° for an hour using about 13 quarts of water. Sparged with 165°+ water until I had about 26 quarts for the boil. This included a 4-quart mini-batch in the middle.
O.G.: 1.046
Est. IBU: 29.9
I only got about 60% efficiency on this batch, a fact which did not impress me. This was despite a bizarre experiment in which I took about 12 cups of the grist on a quick spin in the food processor to try to crack it down further. Perhaps next time I will run all the grain through this to boost efficiency a bit.
One interesting thing is that the batch did not smell super smoky. When I started the dough-in process, I got a big whiff of the peated malt; however, once the boil was on I pretty much lost all sense of the smoke. Perhaps it will be more noticeable once all the sweetness has been fermented out.
I used the Scottish Ale yeast for this recipe because I plan on using the yeast to make my next batch, which will be a Wee Heavy. That will require enough grain that I'll get to use my brand new mash tun... exciting!
The Recipe:
5 lb 2-row pale malt
5 lb rauch malt
1 lb chocolate malt
8 oz peated malt
5 AAU (31g @ 4.5% AA) Willamette @ 60
4 AAU (25g @ 4.5% AA) Willamette @ 20
1 Irish Moss tablet @ 15 min
Wyeast 1728 - Scottish Ale
Mashed at 156° for an hour using about 13 quarts of water. Sparged with 165°+ water until I had about 26 quarts for the boil. This included a 4-quart mini-batch in the middle.
O.G.: 1.046
Est. IBU: 29.9
I only got about 60% efficiency on this batch, a fact which did not impress me. This was despite a bizarre experiment in which I took about 12 cups of the grist on a quick spin in the food processor to try to crack it down further. Perhaps next time I will run all the grain through this to boost efficiency a bit.
One interesting thing is that the batch did not smell super smoky. When I started the dough-in process, I got a big whiff of the peated malt; however, once the boil was on I pretty much lost all sense of the smoke. Perhaps it will be more noticeable once all the sweetness has been fermented out.
I used the Scottish Ale yeast for this recipe because I plan on using the yeast to make my next batch, which will be a Wee Heavy. That will require enough grain that I'll get to use my brand new mash tun... exciting!
Saturday, April 24, 2010
A Whole New Tun
Yesterday, I received in the mail a new 10 gallon cylindrical Rubbermaid cooler. I then had to go visit Lowe's to get new brass fittings and a new stainless steel braid from a faucet hose. It turns out that what I got did not exactly accomplish what I wanted to convert my new cooler into a mash tun, but luckily I had a few left over fittings from my first mash tun which allowed me to construct something that works.
Unlike my last tun, I was not able to re-use the built-in o-ring seal, so I had to use silicone caulking gel (designed for aquarium and food-safe use) to make my connections water-tight. Now, this stuff says that it does not necessarily bond well to metal or certain kinds of plastic, so it may end up being a bad choice. Still, it's worth a try.
Today I may try kegging and/or bottling batches 17 and 18. That would free up a carboy for brewing a heavily-smoked porter for which I picked up ingredients today and may brew later today or tomorrow.
Unlike my last tun, I was not able to re-use the built-in o-ring seal, so I had to use silicone caulking gel (designed for aquarium and food-safe use) to make my connections water-tight. Now, this stuff says that it does not necessarily bond well to metal or certain kinds of plastic, so it may end up being a bad choice. Still, it's worth a try.
Today I may try kegging and/or bottling batches 17 and 18. That would free up a carboy for brewing a heavily-smoked porter for which I picked up ingredients today and may brew later today or tomorrow.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
The Hops Grid
So, I've decided to expand the Beer Grid to include dashboard data for things like hops, yeast and maybe even styles and grains. To that end, I've entered all my brews' hops data and have created:
The Hops Grid
I figure, as long as I'm collecting all this data, I might as well display it.
The Hops Grid
I figure, as long as I'm collecting all this data, I might as well display it.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Time Heals All Brews
Yesterday I sampled a bottle of batch #5, Mulligan ESB. This was a beer that never carbonated in the bottle; I hate throwing things out, so it's just been sitting for a little over seven months in my junk room.
I was rather astonished to find how well it had matured. It's still basically uncarbonated, but it has developed a flavor profile similar to a barleywine or a Belgian dubbel (albeit lighter in color and flavor intensity). I was rather impressed, to say the least. I'm looking forward to trying it on its one-year birthday to see how much more it has matured.
I'm also considering opening all the bottles and kegging it. I probably have about 18 or so bottles of it left, so that's about 3 gallons total; it may just be worthwhile to do so.
I was rather astonished to find how well it had matured. It's still basically uncarbonated, but it has developed a flavor profile similar to a barleywine or a Belgian dubbel (albeit lighter in color and flavor intensity). I was rather impressed, to say the least. I'm looking forward to trying it on its one-year birthday to see how much more it has matured.
I'm also considering opening all the bottles and kegging it. I probably have about 18 or so bottles of it left, so that's about 3 gallons total; it may just be worthwhile to do so.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Blackacre American Stout
Today I brewed up a stout with the idea of pitching the yeast from batch #18. This was batch #20, which I guess is some kind of milestone.
The Recipe:
8 lb 2-row pale malt
1 lb flaked barley
14 oz chocolate malt
6 oz black barley
10 AAU (62g @ 4.5% AA) Willamette @ 60
5 AAU (31g @ 4.5% AA) Willamette @ 30
5 AAU (31g @ 4.5% AA) Willamette @ 5
1 Irish Moss tablet @ 15 min
Wyeast 1056 - American Ale
Mashed at 151° for an hour using about 13.5-14 quarts of water. Sparged with 170°+ water until I had about 26 quarts for the boil.
O.G.: 1.049
Est. IBU: 59.4
Today was a solidly uneventful brew day. Milled my grain twice and inspected it at the homebrew store; it looked pretty good there. Got 70% efficiency with my mash, which isn't great but at the very least isn't terrible. In fact, I would be happy with 70% as long as I had a modicum of consistency.
Pitched 100mL of the yeast cake harvested on Thursday from batch #18. This should have been roughly 200 billion cells, based on a rough estimate.
The Recipe:
8 lb 2-row pale malt
1 lb flaked barley
14 oz chocolate malt
6 oz black barley
10 AAU (62g @ 4.5% AA) Willamette @ 60
5 AAU (31g @ 4.5% AA) Willamette @ 30
5 AAU (31g @ 4.5% AA) Willamette @ 5
1 Irish Moss tablet @ 15 min
Wyeast 1056 - American Ale
Mashed at 151° for an hour using about 13.5-14 quarts of water. Sparged with 170°+ water until I had about 26 quarts for the boil.
O.G.: 1.049
Est. IBU: 59.4
Today was a solidly uneventful brew day. Milled my grain twice and inspected it at the homebrew store; it looked pretty good there. Got 70% efficiency with my mash, which isn't great but at the very least isn't terrible. In fact, I would be happy with 70% as long as I had a modicum of consistency.
Pitched 100mL of the yeast cake harvested on Thursday from batch #18. This should have been roughly 200 billion cells, based on a rough estimate.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Brew Prep
So, last night I did some brew prep which involved a few things:
1. Growlerized the remaining little bit of Brevity Wit #2 so that I could empty the keg. Had about 7 pints left.
2. Kegged #16, Helmut Kölsch. This actually tasted much better at kegging than it did when I racked to the secondary; I think it had time to blow some of the skunk off or something. This finished at 1.004, or about 4.1% ABV. A nice light brew.
3. Racked Red Nose Amber to secondary. This beer does not look very amber at all, so when I keg and taste it I might have to re-classify it as a pale ale. The gravity reading at racking was 1.001; I guess this is what happens when you add even a little white sugar to a low-gravity brew -- mega attenuation.
4. Harvested the yeast cake from Red Nose so that I can use it tomorrow for brew #20, a stout.
I'm going to my LHBS this evening to pick up my grain for tomorrow. I'm going to inspect it after milling and then have the store employees inspect it and have them re-adjust their grain mill if necessary. I simply must nip this efficiency problem in the bud.
1. Growlerized the remaining little bit of Brevity Wit #2 so that I could empty the keg. Had about 7 pints left.
2. Kegged #16, Helmut Kölsch. This actually tasted much better at kegging than it did when I racked to the secondary; I think it had time to blow some of the skunk off or something. This finished at 1.004, or about 4.1% ABV. A nice light brew.
3. Racked Red Nose Amber to secondary. This beer does not look very amber at all, so when I keg and taste it I might have to re-classify it as a pale ale. The gravity reading at racking was 1.001; I guess this is what happens when you add even a little white sugar to a low-gravity brew -- mega attenuation.
4. Harvested the yeast cake from Red Nose so that I can use it tomorrow for brew #20, a stout.
I'm going to my LHBS this evening to pick up my grain for tomorrow. I'm going to inspect it after milling and then have the store employees inspect it and have them re-adjust their grain mill if necessary. I simply must nip this efficiency problem in the bud.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Northwest Not-So-Imperial IPA
Today continued the tragicomedy that is my mash efficiency. I was going for an imperial IPA but, due to an abysmal 47% efficiency, it's going to be just a tad over normal strength. Just to get it to 1.057, I had to fortify with the 2.2 lbs of DME I had sitting around (I used it a couple of times to make yeast starters). So, it is what it is.
The Recipe:
11 lb 2-row pale malt
1 lb Victory malt
2 lb, 3.5 oz light DME
26 AAU (56g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 60
5.4 AAU (28g @ 5.4% AA) Cascade @ 30
4.5 AAU (28g @ 4.5% AA) Willamette @ 30
5.4 AAU (28g @ 5.4% AA) Cascade @ 20
4.5 AAU (28g @ 4.5% AA) Willamette @ 20
5.4 AAU (28g @ 5.4% AA) Cascade @ 10
4.5 AAU (28g @ 4.5% AA) Willamette @ 10
5.4 AAU (28g @ 5.4% AA) Cascade @ 5
4.5 AAU (28g @ 4.5% AA) Willamette @ 5
1 Irish Moss tablet @ 15 min
Wyeast 1272 - American Ale II
Mashed at 152° for an hour and a quarter using about 15.5 quarts of water. Sparged with 165°-175° water until I had about 26 quarts for the boil, including one 5-minute mini-batch sparge. The latter was due to extremely fast draining during the sparge.
O.G.: 1.057
Est. IBU: 171.5
As you can see, I went all out with the hop schedule. The use of Willamette and Cascade hops is what inspired the name. I actually had originally planned only to use the Nugget and Willamette, but I was rather impressed by the Cascades when I used them in Red Nose Amber so I decided to use them in here too.
The yeast I pitched were salvaged from the yeast cake of EKG IPA. I ended up pitching about 120mL of the slurry I had, which I estimated to be about 250 billion cells. Since I didn't know what my final gravity was going to be when I pitched, I just estimated final gravity; thus, I may have over-pitched a bit. Still, I think I am decently within operational parameters. To do my pitching calculation, I used the handy Mr. Malty Pitching Rate Calculator.
Other than the efficiency disaster, this was a pretty good brew day. I can't wait to try this ludicrously over-hopped unbalanced monstrosity.
The Recipe:
11 lb 2-row pale malt
1 lb Victory malt
2 lb, 3.5 oz light DME
26 AAU (56g @ 13% AA) Nugget @ 60
5.4 AAU (28g @ 5.4% AA) Cascade @ 30
4.5 AAU (28g @ 4.5% AA) Willamette @ 30
5.4 AAU (28g @ 5.4% AA) Cascade @ 20
4.5 AAU (28g @ 4.5% AA) Willamette @ 20
5.4 AAU (28g @ 5.4% AA) Cascade @ 10
4.5 AAU (28g @ 4.5% AA) Willamette @ 10
5.4 AAU (28g @ 5.4% AA) Cascade @ 5
4.5 AAU (28g @ 4.5% AA) Willamette @ 5
1 Irish Moss tablet @ 15 min
Wyeast 1272 - American Ale II
Mashed at 152° for an hour and a quarter using about 15.5 quarts of water. Sparged with 165°-175° water until I had about 26 quarts for the boil, including one 5-minute mini-batch sparge. The latter was due to extremely fast draining during the sparge.
O.G.: 1.057
Est. IBU: 171.5
As you can see, I went all out with the hop schedule. The use of Willamette and Cascade hops is what inspired the name. I actually had originally planned only to use the Nugget and Willamette, but I was rather impressed by the Cascades when I used them in Red Nose Amber so I decided to use them in here too.
The yeast I pitched were salvaged from the yeast cake of EKG IPA. I ended up pitching about 120mL of the slurry I had, which I estimated to be about 250 billion cells. Since I didn't know what my final gravity was going to be when I pitched, I just estimated final gravity; thus, I may have over-pitched a bit. Still, I think I am decently within operational parameters. To do my pitching calculation, I used the handy Mr. Malty Pitching Rate Calculator.
Other than the efficiency disaster, this was a pretty good brew day. I can't wait to try this ludicrously over-hopped unbalanced monstrosity.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Tap, Tap, Tap!
Last Saturday I actually kegged brews for the first time. Brevity Wit #2 and The Elder went into kegs and I carbonated them up using 30 psi for BW and 20 psi for Elder.
This evening, I tapped both kegs to fill growlers to take to roleplaying tomorrow. Brevity Wit #2 actually turned out quite good and The Elder took a nice level of carbonation. The Elder is a bit too tart for me; I think the elderberries were a bit much. It is still not bad, though, and I want to experiment more in the future with the idea of a wheat porter (albeit hopped normally).
This evening, I tapped both kegs to fill growlers to take to roleplaying tomorrow. Brevity Wit #2 actually turned out quite good and The Elder took a nice level of carbonation. The Elder is a bit too tart for me; I think the elderberries were a bit much. It is still not bad, though, and I want to experiment more in the future with the idea of a wheat porter (albeit hopped normally).
Red Nose Amber
Today I brewed up Red Nose Amber, which, in addition to being a project in itself, is also functioning as a starter for project #20 when it comes around.
The Recipe:
7 lb 2-row pale malt
1 lb flaked barley
8 oz Victory malt
8 oz crystal 40°
1 lb white sugar
6 AAU (31g @ 5.4% AA) Cascade @ 60
4 AAU (21g @ 5.4% AA) Cascade @ 20
4 AAU (21g @ 5.4% AA) Cascade @ 5
1 Irish Moss tablet @ 15 min
Wyeast 1056 - American Ale I
Mashed at 152° for an hour and a quarter using about 12.5 quarts of water. Sparged with 170°-180° water until I had about 26 quarts for the boil, including one 5-minute mini-batch sparge.
O.G.: 1.048
Est. IBU: 36.9
Once again I had pretty bad efficiency, which I calculated at 65%. There were a number of issues.
First off, though I double-milled the grains per usual, I still ended up getting a very poor efficiency. Once I determined this, I decided to go ahead and add a pound of sugar, which had not originally been in the recipe, since I really wanted to be in the normal range of starting gravities. I do have a few pounds of light dry malt extract lying around, but I didn't think about that when I decided to add the sugar.
I knew right away once I started stirring the mash that I was going to get sub-par efficiency: it was just too loose without any pasty sludge forming. My fears were bolstered when the mash drained exceedingly fast (the entire drain/sparge process was no more than 20 minutes). I really must get my own grain mill.
My second issue was that after collecting my wort and stirring thoroughly, I measured the gravity at only 1.026, which would have been 51% mash efficiency. However, after the boil, my gravity was 1.048. Figuring about 9 points from the pound of sugar, this means I was getting about 1.039 post-boil on the grain alone, which means my pre-boil reading should have been in the neighborhood of 1.033. I'm cooling all samples to within a degree or so of 60° before taking gravity measurements, so I don't know what would cause me to be 7 points off in my initial pre-boil reading.
Needless to say, my efficiency and gravity measuring issues are causing me to be quite frustrated. Still, I hope I actually get a decent beer out of this.
The Recipe:
7 lb 2-row pale malt
1 lb flaked barley
8 oz Victory malt
8 oz crystal 40°
1 lb white sugar
6 AAU (31g @ 5.4% AA) Cascade @ 60
4 AAU (21g @ 5.4% AA) Cascade @ 20
4 AAU (21g @ 5.4% AA) Cascade @ 5
1 Irish Moss tablet @ 15 min
Wyeast 1056 - American Ale I
Mashed at 152° for an hour and a quarter using about 12.5 quarts of water. Sparged with 170°-180° water until I had about 26 quarts for the boil, including one 5-minute mini-batch sparge.
O.G.: 1.048
Est. IBU: 36.9
Once again I had pretty bad efficiency, which I calculated at 65%. There were a number of issues.
First off, though I double-milled the grains per usual, I still ended up getting a very poor efficiency. Once I determined this, I decided to go ahead and add a pound of sugar, which had not originally been in the recipe, since I really wanted to be in the normal range of starting gravities. I do have a few pounds of light dry malt extract lying around, but I didn't think about that when I decided to add the sugar.
I knew right away once I started stirring the mash that I was going to get sub-par efficiency: it was just too loose without any pasty sludge forming. My fears were bolstered when the mash drained exceedingly fast (the entire drain/sparge process was no more than 20 minutes). I really must get my own grain mill.
My second issue was that after collecting my wort and stirring thoroughly, I measured the gravity at only 1.026, which would have been 51% mash efficiency. However, after the boil, my gravity was 1.048. Figuring about 9 points from the pound of sugar, this means I was getting about 1.039 post-boil on the grain alone, which means my pre-boil reading should have been in the neighborhood of 1.033. I'm cooling all samples to within a degree or so of 60° before taking gravity measurements, so I don't know what would cause me to be 7 points off in my initial pre-boil reading.
Needless to say, my efficiency and gravity measuring issues are causing me to be quite frustrated. Still, I hope I actually get a decent beer out of this.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
EKG IPA
Yesterday I brewed up the first stage in my yeast recycling experiment: an IPA hopped entirely with East Kent Goldings. The reason I did this is that the EKGs that I bought in bulk were whole leaf and take up an astonishing amount of space, so I wanted to clear out some room in my hop freezer.
The Recipe:
9 lb 2-row pale malt
12 oz Victory malt
10 AAU (56g @ 5% AA) East Kent Goldings @ 60
10 AAU (56g @ 5% AA) East Kent Goldings @ 30
10 AAU (56g @ 5% AA) East Kent Goldings @ 20
10 AAU (56g @ 5% AA) East Kent Goldings @ 10
10 AAU (56g @ 5% AA) East Kent Goldings @ 5
1 Irish Moss tablet @ 15 min
Wyeast 1272 - American Ale II
Mashed at 152° for an hour using about 12.5-13 quarts of water. Sparged with 170°-180° water until I had about 26 quarts for the boil.
O.G.: 1.054
Est. IBU: 87.5
I don't really think of goldings as West Coast IPA hops, but we shall see. If anything evaluates the character of EKG in an IPA, this should be it. There are 10 oz of hops in this beer, and it should be noted that I used dried whole-leaf hops rather than pellets so the volume of hops was intimidating: five dinner plates each stacked about five-inch high piles of hops. Preposterous!
Actually, the hop volume became an issue toward the end of the boil. At this point, the liquid in my brew kettle had attained the consistency of a chowder and required constant stirring to prevent boil-over. Even stopping for thirty seconds would cause pressure to build up under a raft of hops and then violently erupt.
In the end, the hops soaked up quite a lot of water so, despite a moderately low 74% efficiency, I got an OG of 1.054, which is right in line with what I wanted. I did end up with less wort in the fermenter, however, because of all the absorption. I would say I got about 10% less liquid than my last batch, based on an eyeball comparison.
The Recipe:
9 lb 2-row pale malt
12 oz Victory malt
10 AAU (56g @ 5% AA) East Kent Goldings @ 60
10 AAU (56g @ 5% AA) East Kent Goldings @ 30
10 AAU (56g @ 5% AA) East Kent Goldings @ 20
10 AAU (56g @ 5% AA) East Kent Goldings @ 10
10 AAU (56g @ 5% AA) East Kent Goldings @ 5
1 Irish Moss tablet @ 15 min
Wyeast 1272 - American Ale II
Mashed at 152° for an hour using about 12.5-13 quarts of water. Sparged with 170°-180° water until I had about 26 quarts for the boil.
O.G.: 1.054
Est. IBU: 87.5
I don't really think of goldings as West Coast IPA hops, but we shall see. If anything evaluates the character of EKG in an IPA, this should be it. There are 10 oz of hops in this beer, and it should be noted that I used dried whole-leaf hops rather than pellets so the volume of hops was intimidating: five dinner plates each stacked about five-inch high piles of hops. Preposterous!
Actually, the hop volume became an issue toward the end of the boil. At this point, the liquid in my brew kettle had attained the consistency of a chowder and required constant stirring to prevent boil-over. Even stopping for thirty seconds would cause pressure to build up under a raft of hops and then violently erupt.
In the end, the hops soaked up quite a lot of water so, despite a moderately low 74% efficiency, I got an OG of 1.054, which is right in line with what I wanted. I did end up with less wort in the fermenter, however, because of all the absorption. I would say I got about 10% less liquid than my last batch, based on an eyeball comparison.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Yeast Recycling
So, I have decided to try re-using my yeast for a second batch. Up until now, I've always just bought new yeast (thus far, always Wyeast smack-packs) for each batch. However, now I have formulated a couple of recipes to allow me to experiment with yeast re-use.
Plan I: use Wyeast 1272 American Ale II to brew a regular-gravity high-hop IPA, then harvest those yeast after racking to pitch into a batch of Imperial IPA. The first batch will essentially be a starter for the second; this will test the idea of brewing a much bigger beer of a similar style for the second generation of yeast.
Plan II: use Wyeast 1056 American Ale to brew up an amber ale, then harvest the yeast cake for brewing up a hoppy American stout. This will test the idea of brewing a much darker beer for the second generation of yeast.
I had originally considered just pouring my wort directly onto the yeast cake left in the fermenter of the prior batch; however, after reading this article I think I will harvest the yeast from the fermenter the previous day and pitch a more appropriate quantity of yeast. I think I'm more comfortable cleaning and sanitizing the fermenter in between batches anyway.
Plan I: use Wyeast 1272 American Ale II to brew a regular-gravity high-hop IPA, then harvest those yeast after racking to pitch into a batch of Imperial IPA. The first batch will essentially be a starter for the second; this will test the idea of brewing a much bigger beer of a similar style for the second generation of yeast.
Plan II: use Wyeast 1056 American Ale to brew up an amber ale, then harvest the yeast cake for brewing up a hoppy American stout. This will test the idea of brewing a much darker beer for the second generation of yeast.
I had originally considered just pouring my wort directly onto the yeast cake left in the fermenter of the prior batch; however, after reading this article I think I will harvest the yeast from the fermenter the previous day and pitch a more appropriate quantity of yeast. I think I'm more comfortable cleaning and sanitizing the fermenter in between batches anyway.
Tasting: Bar-None Brown
So, I think I am going to start posting my homebrew reviews here as well as on the Grid. My tastings of Terrible, Dummkopf and Black Ryeday the other day were unofficial vis-à-vis my personal homebrew rating system, so you may see them referenced again.
I try to do my ratings as I would any other beer using the system they use over at Beer Advocate. Each review I do is as honest an assessment as I can give to a beer I brewed myself.
So, without further ado, The Review:
Poured from bomber into a tulip. Ultimately, I would like to compare this to a bottle of Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale, upon which this beer was theoretically based.
Appearance: rich, hazy, chocolatey brown which allows practically no light through. Head is two fingers of persistent tan foam; this brew got a pretty good carbonation. (4)
Smell: aroma is very brown and green: a nice, smooth chocolate and sweetish, slightly minty, vegetabley hops. It is actually rather dessert-like. (4)
Taste: chocolate up front, transitioning to floral and vegetabley hops. Bitterness really starts to come through at the end. Alcohol is also a bit noticeable. Toward the very end of the aftertaste flavor is like the aroma of crushed maple leaves from the beginning of summer. It is good but it lacks refinement. (3.5)
Mouthfeel: medium body with absolute loads of carbonation. This is just as creamy as you ever need a beer to be. Style-wise, I don't know that it is strictly appropriate, but I think the texture is great. (4.5)
Drinkability: after awhile, the raw hoppiness begins to be one-note. It is still a very refreshing beer, however, and I think it would make a good summer beer despite its darkness and high ABV. (3.5)
Overall score 3.8 (B+). This beer was an interesting experiment all-around: the addition of brown sugar, the rather high IBUs for a brown ale and the floral, sweet Saaz hops. I think for the future I might want to go with something funkier like Willamette; the Saaz are kind of cloying at the 3 oz level. I'm reminded of jasmine or lavender tea -- just too much flower. I think the malt bill is just spot-on, though, and I look forward to trying Ringwood yeast again.
I try to do my ratings as I would any other beer using the system they use over at Beer Advocate. Each review I do is as honest an assessment as I can give to a beer I brewed myself.
So, without further ado, The Review:
Poured from bomber into a tulip. Ultimately, I would like to compare this to a bottle of Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale, upon which this beer was theoretically based.
Appearance: rich, hazy, chocolatey brown which allows practically no light through. Head is two fingers of persistent tan foam; this brew got a pretty good carbonation. (4)
Smell: aroma is very brown and green: a nice, smooth chocolate and sweetish, slightly minty, vegetabley hops. It is actually rather dessert-like. (4)
Taste: chocolate up front, transitioning to floral and vegetabley hops. Bitterness really starts to come through at the end. Alcohol is also a bit noticeable. Toward the very end of the aftertaste flavor is like the aroma of crushed maple leaves from the beginning of summer. It is good but it lacks refinement. (3.5)
Mouthfeel: medium body with absolute loads of carbonation. This is just as creamy as you ever need a beer to be. Style-wise, I don't know that it is strictly appropriate, but I think the texture is great. (4.5)
Drinkability: after awhile, the raw hoppiness begins to be one-note. It is still a very refreshing beer, however, and I think it would make a good summer beer despite its darkness and high ABV. (3.5)
Overall score 3.8 (B+). This beer was an interesting experiment all-around: the addition of brown sugar, the rather high IBUs for a brown ale and the floral, sweet Saaz hops. I think for the future I might want to go with something funkier like Willamette; the Saaz are kind of cloying at the 3 oz level. I'm reminded of jasmine or lavender tea -- just too much flower. I think the malt bill is just spot-on, though, and I look forward to trying Ringwood yeast again.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Keg Wagon
Yesterday I picked up a kegging system from my buddy Cole. Two 5-gallon Cornelius kegs, CO2 tank, regulator and various hoses and taps. I'm looking forward to kegging The Elder and Brevity Wit #2 sometime this weekend. The CO2 tank is about 60% full so I should be able to get a few keggings out of it.
Now all I need is a way to refrigerate these kegs. For the time being I will probably tap them and pour into a growler when I want some and then refrigerate that. I may also end up brewing more now that the hassle of bottling has been removed, so I will probably need to acquire more Corny kegs. Ah, the slippery slope of hobbies.
Now all I need is a way to refrigerate these kegs. For the time being I will probably tap them and pour into a growler when I want some and then refrigerate that. I may also end up brewing more now that the hassle of bottling has been removed, so I will probably need to acquire more Corny kegs. Ah, the slippery slope of hobbies.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Helmut Kölsch
I debated not naming my Kölsch a stupid, nonsensical pun, but then I remembered who I am and what I represent. Thus, the name.
The Recipe:
8 lb 2-row pale malt
8 oz European Munich malt
6 AAU (56g @ 3% AA) Hallertau @ 60
3 AAU (28g @ 3% AA) Hallertau @ 30
1 Irish Moss tablet @ 15 min
Wyeast 2565 - Kölsch
Mashed at 152° for an hour using about 10.5 quarts of water. Sparged with 170°-190° water until I had about 26 quarts for the boil. My sparge was a combination of fly and batch sparging; more on that below.
O.G.: 1.035
Est. IBU: 36.2
The OG ended up extremely low, even for this relatively low-alcohol style. The reason for this is that, despite double-milling, I ended up with a dismal 61% mash efficiency, my second-worst since building my mash/lauter tun. I noticed right away that the mash was draining way too fast, so I tried to mitigate by slowing the outflow by adjusting my ball valve. Due to a design flaw with my spigot, this is extremely messy; so, I decided to close it off, pour in most of my on-deck sparge water, and do a mini batch sparge. I poured in about 8-10 qts and let it sit for five minutes, then resumed the drain. Still, efficiency was godawful.
Poor efficiency is something I can deal with; my problem is the wildly unpredictable nature of my last few mashes. I have already ended up with a 6.6% dunkelweizen which I was expecting to be in the low 5% range, and now a Kölsch which will be lucky to hit even 4%, with all other kinds of wild things in between. Perhaps it is time to invest in my own grain mill? It may indeed just be.
The Recipe:
8 lb 2-row pale malt
8 oz European Munich malt
6 AAU (56g @ 3% AA) Hallertau @ 60
3 AAU (28g @ 3% AA) Hallertau @ 30
1 Irish Moss tablet @ 15 min
Wyeast 2565 - Kölsch
Mashed at 152° for an hour using about 10.5 quarts of water. Sparged with 170°-190° water until I had about 26 quarts for the boil. My sparge was a combination of fly and batch sparging; more on that below.
O.G.: 1.035
Est. IBU: 36.2
The OG ended up extremely low, even for this relatively low-alcohol style. The reason for this is that, despite double-milling, I ended up with a dismal 61% mash efficiency, my second-worst since building my mash/lauter tun. I noticed right away that the mash was draining way too fast, so I tried to mitigate by slowing the outflow by adjusting my ball valve. Due to a design flaw with my spigot, this is extremely messy; so, I decided to close it off, pour in most of my on-deck sparge water, and do a mini batch sparge. I poured in about 8-10 qts and let it sit for five minutes, then resumed the drain. Still, efficiency was godawful.
Poor efficiency is something I can deal with; my problem is the wildly unpredictable nature of my last few mashes. I have already ended up with a 6.6% dunkelweizen which I was expecting to be in the low 5% range, and now a Kölsch which will be lucky to hit even 4%, with all other kinds of wild things in between. Perhaps it is time to invest in my own grain mill? It may indeed just be.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Carbonation Ruminations
It seems like my last few brews have taken an atypically long time to carbonate in the bottle. My guess is that since it is winter, my storage room has been quite a bit cooler and that this has affected my carbonation rate in comparison to my earlier brews. For instance, take Dummkopf Dunkelweizen and Black Ryeday: it's been three weeks since I bottled them, and the last two bottles I opened of each (at 1 week and 2 weeks since bottling) had not carbonated up well at all.
The Dummkopf I just cracked today, however, has begun to carbonate up nicely, so I think I will do a little tasting of it and Black Ryeday; I may also see how Terrible Tripel is coming along.
Dummkopf has a nice color but relatively poor head retention, despite the good level of carbonation it has attained. The aroma is pretty low-key, but it does have a nice banana and chocolate thing going on; I'm definitely going to have to use the Weihenstephaner yeast again. Flavor is a bit hot on the alcohol side; this guy ended up about 6.6% which is high for the style. A little of the banana comes through, but there is also a fair presence of esters which could possibly be part of the high ABV. Mouthfeel is nice and creamy, but drinkability is impacted by the noticeably high ABV.
Black Ryeday has a slightly orange golden color and a nice white head (admittedly, I poured vigorously). The head leaves a very nice lace, too. It has a very herbal/spicy aroma on top of its malt base which is interesting but I'm not so sure I'd go so far as to call it "good". Flavor is slightly sweet but similarly spicy. Actually, I'm getting some strawberry flavors here which I totally did not expect. Wow, this is interesting; I'm liking it! Mouthfeel is pretty creamy, which I also like. This strawberry thing is kind of freaking me out, but it makes for good drinkability. This one will be interesting!
Finally, on to Terrible Tripel. I haven't had one in a couple of weeks and I admit that I haven't been too impressed so far. This pouring shows enough carbonation to yield a half-finger head. Color is cidery and cloudy. Aroma is sweet with some slightly tart cidery character; this is probably due to the sugar. Flavor is unsubtle; it is exceedingly malty, quite sweet, somewhat cidery and rather sticky. It's not too bad but it is rather hot, from an alcohol standpoint, and there's a graininess toward the end which I prefer not to have. Could that be the Pilsner malt? Next time I'll just try it with domestic 2-row. However, for a style as complex, refined and steeped in history as tripel, this isn't too bad for a first try. Mouthfeel is nice and creamy; I got good carb with this one. It is drinkable, but the alcohol is way too hot and the grain is a bit of a drawback. This beer does have the distinction of getting better with each sip, at least through the first bottle. It's not necessarily the alcohol; I think that the cidery bits finally inure you to the grainy bits and then you develop a resistance to the cider. In any case, I'm going to try to keep some of this stuff for at least 6 months to see what happens.
The Dummkopf I just cracked today, however, has begun to carbonate up nicely, so I think I will do a little tasting of it and Black Ryeday; I may also see how Terrible Tripel is coming along.
Dummkopf has a nice color but relatively poor head retention, despite the good level of carbonation it has attained. The aroma is pretty low-key, but it does have a nice banana and chocolate thing going on; I'm definitely going to have to use the Weihenstephaner yeast again. Flavor is a bit hot on the alcohol side; this guy ended up about 6.6% which is high for the style. A little of the banana comes through, but there is also a fair presence of esters which could possibly be part of the high ABV. Mouthfeel is nice and creamy, but drinkability is impacted by the noticeably high ABV.
Black Ryeday has a slightly orange golden color and a nice white head (admittedly, I poured vigorously). The head leaves a very nice lace, too. It has a very herbal/spicy aroma on top of its malt base which is interesting but I'm not so sure I'd go so far as to call it "good". Flavor is slightly sweet but similarly spicy. Actually, I'm getting some strawberry flavors here which I totally did not expect. Wow, this is interesting; I'm liking it! Mouthfeel is pretty creamy, which I also like. This strawberry thing is kind of freaking me out, but it makes for good drinkability. This one will be interesting!
Finally, on to Terrible Tripel. I haven't had one in a couple of weeks and I admit that I haven't been too impressed so far. This pouring shows enough carbonation to yield a half-finger head. Color is cidery and cloudy. Aroma is sweet with some slightly tart cidery character; this is probably due to the sugar. Flavor is unsubtle; it is exceedingly malty, quite sweet, somewhat cidery and rather sticky. It's not too bad but it is rather hot, from an alcohol standpoint, and there's a graininess toward the end which I prefer not to have. Could that be the Pilsner malt? Next time I'll just try it with domestic 2-row. However, for a style as complex, refined and steeped in history as tripel, this isn't too bad for a first try. Mouthfeel is nice and creamy; I got good carb with this one. It is drinkable, but the alcohol is way too hot and the grain is a bit of a drawback. This beer does have the distinction of getting better with each sip, at least through the first bottle. It's not necessarily the alcohol; I think that the cidery bits finally inure you to the grainy bits and then you develop a resistance to the cider. In any case, I'm going to try to keep some of this stuff for at least 6 months to see what happens.
Rack Day
I racked The Elder and Brevity Wit #2 today. Brevity has attenuated to about 87% so I don't expect it to ferment much more but at 78% I'm think The Elder might have a little bit further to go.
Brevity #2 is a fair bit brighter than its earlier version, due, I think, to having over twice the amount of orange peel. The Elder has a chocolatey aroma but is rather bright and sour on the backend due to the berries. I can't wait to try both of them when they are carbonated. At this point, I'm thinking of buying a kegging system and these would be the first two on tap, so I'll really be able to pump up Brevity's carb. That was one thing I really liked about #1: it was super fizzy.
Brevity #2 is a fair bit brighter than its earlier version, due, I think, to having over twice the amount of orange peel. The Elder has a chocolatey aroma but is rather bright and sour on the backend due to the berries. I can't wait to try both of them when they are carbonated. At this point, I'm thinking of buying a kegging system and these would be the first two on tap, so I'll really be able to pump up Brevity's carb. That was one thing I really liked about #1: it was super fizzy.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Brevity Wit #2
Well, it was a busy weekend. I bottled Dummkopf Dunkelweizen (6.6% ABV) and Black Ryeday (6.9%) on Saturday night and then brewed up the second round of Brevity Wit on Sunday morning before the Super Bowl. While I hope it will be as good as the last batch, there were a few disappointments.
The Recipe:
4 lb 2-row pale malt
4 lb wheat malt
1 lb flaked wheat
5 AAU (28g @ 5% AA) East Kent Goldings @ 60 min
1 oz ground coriander @ 5 min
zest from 2 oranges @ 5 min (about 12 grams)
Wyeast 3944 - Belgian Witbier
Mashed at 152° for an hour using about 11 quarts of water. Sparged with 170°-190° water until I had about 26 quarts for the boil.
O.G.: 1.039
Est. IBU: 17.6
My biggest disappointment with this batch was that I only hit 70% mash efficiency. This is way down from the 90% efficiencies I had been getting; I was sort of counting on high efficiency this time to boost the alcohol and body just a little bit from the last batch while still using the same amount of grist. To add insult to injury, even after getting marginally better efficiency than with Brevity Wit #1 (which clocked in at 68%), I still ended up with a slightly lower OG than #1 (1.039 vs. 1.040). I'm not sure why this is; it was a pretty solid one-gallon boil-off. I suppose it is possible I didn't get a good reading for my OG, but presumably the chilled wort was sufficiently homogeneous in density when I took my sample.
This time I used whole-leaf East Kent Goldings so the batch ended up with a little bit lower IBU than #1, where I used pellets. I am a little torn as to whether I ought to bump the AAU when I'm using whole leaf vs. pellet or if I should just stick to the recipe. In this case, the hops are such a small portion of the recipe that I don't think it will matter much; still, it's something to consider for the future.
I did also make one intentional change in the recipe. This time, I zested two oranges rather than just one, as the orange was not all that discernable in #1. However it turns out, though, I'm hoping it will be at least as tasty as #1, which I really did like quite a lot.
The Recipe:
4 lb 2-row pale malt
4 lb wheat malt
1 lb flaked wheat
5 AAU (28g @ 5% AA) East Kent Goldings @ 60 min
1 oz ground coriander @ 5 min
zest from 2 oranges @ 5 min (about 12 grams)
Wyeast 3944 - Belgian Witbier
Mashed at 152° for an hour using about 11 quarts of water. Sparged with 170°-190° water until I had about 26 quarts for the boil.
O.G.: 1.039
Est. IBU: 17.6
My biggest disappointment with this batch was that I only hit 70% mash efficiency. This is way down from the 90% efficiencies I had been getting; I was sort of counting on high efficiency this time to boost the alcohol and body just a little bit from the last batch while still using the same amount of grist. To add insult to injury, even after getting marginally better efficiency than with Brevity Wit #1 (which clocked in at 68%), I still ended up with a slightly lower OG than #1 (1.039 vs. 1.040). I'm not sure why this is; it was a pretty solid one-gallon boil-off. I suppose it is possible I didn't get a good reading for my OG, but presumably the chilled wort was sufficiently homogeneous in density when I took my sample.
This time I used whole-leaf East Kent Goldings so the batch ended up with a little bit lower IBU than #1, where I used pellets. I am a little torn as to whether I ought to bump the AAU when I'm using whole leaf vs. pellet or if I should just stick to the recipe. In this case, the hops are such a small portion of the recipe that I don't think it will matter much; still, it's something to consider for the future.
I did also make one intentional change in the recipe. This time, I zested two oranges rather than just one, as the orange was not all that discernable in #1. However it turns out, though, I'm hoping it will be at least as tasty as #1, which I really did like quite a lot.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
The Elder
Today I brewed up my first batch in two months. A few days ago, I decided it would be a wheat porter, using half and half barley and wheat for the base malt component.
For Christmas I received a gift certificate to my LHBS from my sister-in-law. My ingredients only costing about $18 and I not wanting to have leftovers from my GC, I grabbed at the nearest interesting item to the register: an 8oz bag of dried elderberries. This got me to thinking: I really like Ebulum dark elderberry ale, an un-hopped Scottish ale, so why not try my own homebrew in that vein?
The Recipe:
4 lb 2-row pale malt
4 lb wheat malt
12 oz chocolate malt
4 oz crystal 60°
8 oz dried elderberries @ 10
Wyeast 1318 - London Ale III
Mashed at 154° for an hour using about 11 quarts of water. Sparged with 170°-190° water until I had about 26 quarts for the boil.
O.G.: 1.052
Est. IBU: n/a
I didn't go into this batch with an ironclad mash temperature in mind, so when I ended up at 154° after my initial dough-in I decided to stick with it. The last beer I brewed with an above-152° mash was Foam Dome Stout, which had a mouthfeel I really liked.
As far as bitterness is concerned, I have read that elderberries contribute a fair amount of it, albeit of a different character than hop bitterness. I'm calling this brew a major experiment; based on its taste pre-fermentation I have high hopes that it will at least be drinkable. Ebulum, by which this decision was inspired, uses no hops; however, it is fermented with the berries rather than having the berries used in the boil as I have done. In any case, this shall be interesting.
Lastly, my efficiency for this batch was merely 83%, which is relatively low by my recent standards. I double-milled the grain, but despite this the sparge took less than an hour, which is somewhat quicker than the last two brews. This is especially interesting considering the large amount of wheat I used. Perhaps the mill at my LHBS needs to be adjusted; still, 83% is within the satisfactory range.
For Christmas I received a gift certificate to my LHBS from my sister-in-law. My ingredients only costing about $18 and I not wanting to have leftovers from my GC, I grabbed at the nearest interesting item to the register: an 8oz bag of dried elderberries. This got me to thinking: I really like Ebulum dark elderberry ale, an un-hopped Scottish ale, so why not try my own homebrew in that vein?
The Recipe:
4 lb 2-row pale malt
4 lb wheat malt
12 oz chocolate malt
4 oz crystal 60°
8 oz dried elderberries @ 10
Wyeast 1318 - London Ale III
Mashed at 154° for an hour using about 11 quarts of water. Sparged with 170°-190° water until I had about 26 quarts for the boil.
O.G.: 1.052
Est. IBU: n/a
I didn't go into this batch with an ironclad mash temperature in mind, so when I ended up at 154° after my initial dough-in I decided to stick with it. The last beer I brewed with an above-152° mash was Foam Dome Stout, which had a mouthfeel I really liked.
As far as bitterness is concerned, I have read that elderberries contribute a fair amount of it, albeit of a different character than hop bitterness. I'm calling this brew a major experiment; based on its taste pre-fermentation I have high hopes that it will at least be drinkable. Ebulum, by which this decision was inspired, uses no hops; however, it is fermented with the berries rather than having the berries used in the boil as I have done. In any case, this shall be interesting.
Lastly, my efficiency for this batch was merely 83%, which is relatively low by my recent standards. I double-milled the grain, but despite this the sparge took less than an hour, which is somewhat quicker than the last two brews. This is especially interesting considering the large amount of wheat I used. Perhaps the mill at my LHBS needs to be adjusted; still, 83% is within the satisfactory range.
Friday, January 1, 2010
A New Year, A New Beer
OK, so there's not actually a new beer. December was almost entirely devoid of brewing-related activity, with the exception of yesterday. New Year's Eve I bottled Bar-None Brown and Terrible Tripel and racked Dummkopf and Black Ryeday to the secondary. The latter are going to end up pretty good I think, but I'm not so sure about Bar-None (finished 8.1% ABV) and the Tripel (10%). Some bottle conditioning and carbonation will probably help these a lot (especially the Tripel).
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