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.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
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.
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