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.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
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.
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