Château Saison

Last night I brewed up my first attempt at a saison. I mixed things up a little by throwing in about an ounce and a half of freshly grated ginger at the five-minute mark, so we'll see how that comes out. Also, this was the first time I'd ever brewed after work, and it seems doable for the future (4:45 start time; 5:15 dough-in; pitched at 9:00).

The Recipe:

11 lb European Pilsner malt
12 oz Vienna malt
4 oz acidulated malt

6 AAU (33g @ 5.1% AA) Fuggles @ 60
3 AAU (16g @ 5.1% AA) Fuggles @ 20
3 AAU (26g @ 3.2% AA) Tettnanger @ 20
5 AAU (44g @ 3.2% AA) Tettnanger @ 5

1.5 oz (42g) grated fresh ginger root @ 5

Wyeast 3711 - French Saison

Mashed at 147° for an hour using about 15 quarts of water. Batch-sparged using ~165° water and collected 26 quarts for the boil.

O.G.: 1.055
Est. IBU: 40.6

Brewing was uneventful and pretty quick. Mash efficiency was 74%, which is right in the ballpark I'm trying to hit. I tasted the wort after cooling and it definitely had a noticeable ginger flavor, so I'm hoping that comes through in the finished product.

One thing I'm trying with this brew is that it is fermenting in the hall closet rather than under a desk in the kitchen. I'm hoping that keeping it away from the light will help prevent the development of off flavors. I'm going to be doing this for all my beers going forward, so hopefully I'll reap some dividends from that.

Puget Sound Pro-Am

So, this weekend I dropped off my entries for the Puget Sound Pro-Am. I submitted Blackacre Special Bitter, Bulldog Brown and Two Bails Cream Ale.

This competition is a little different than the last one I entered, in that the winning recipes of this competition get brewed by one of about 16 local breweries. Wish me luck!

Hail to the Spring

Yesterday I brewed a batch of pale ale with a nice, springy hop schedule. I haven't made a successful basic pale ale yet, so hopefully this comes out OK.

The Recipe:

9 lb 2-row pale malt
6 oz Crystal 60°
6 oz Cara-Pils

7 AAU (14g @ 14.5% AA) Columbus @ 60
5 AAU (26g @ 5.4% AA) Cascade @ 20
5 AAU (26g @ 5.4% AA) Cascade @ 5
5 AAU (25g @ 5.6% AA) Challenger @ 0 (flame-out)

Whirlfloc tablet @ 15

Wyeast 1056 - American Ale

Mashed at 152° for an hour using about 12.5 quarts of water. Batch-sparged using 165-190° water and collected 6.75 gallons for the boil.

O.G.: 1.048
Est. IBU: 42.2

I went and bought a drill yesterday morning to obviate the need for hand-cranking my new grain mill and used it for this batch. It was easy-peasy, and I even managed to get 77% mash efficiency -- even without adjusting the gap on the mill itself. I also tried to be a little less wasteful when draining the mash tun, so perhaps that contributed to my improved efficiency. That 76-80% efficiency range is what I'd really love to inhabit in the long run.

I pitched ~200mL of yeast cake I harvested from batch #39, Two Bails Cream Ale. It was only harvested 15 days prior to pitching, yet fermentation has been pretty slow to occur. I've got a very thin 1/4" layer of kräusen going on right now, a little over 24 hours after pitching. Hopefully it all comes out OK in the end.

I also kegged up batches 40 and 41, both IPAs, yesterday. Both of them finished pretty clean and taste pretty good. They should serve as solid spring beers as well. I harvested their yeast cakes as well for future use.

Blackacre Butte #3

Saturday I brewed up another batch of Blackacre Butte. This is the recipe I used for my first two batches of homebrew almost two years ago; it should be interesting to see whether the improvements to my processes and equipment have actually improved the beer.

The Recipe:

10 lb 2-row pale malt
9 oz chocolate malt
10 oz crystal 60°
8 oz roasted barley

4 AAU (10g @ 11% AA) Galena @ 60 min
4.25 AAU (22g @ 5.4% AA) Cascade @ 30 min
4.5 AAU (39g @ 3.2% AA) Tettnanger @ 5 min

Whirlfloc tablet @ 15 min

Wyeast 1318 - London Ale III

Mashed at 152° for an hour using about 14 quarts of water. Batch-sparged using 165-185° water and collected 6.5 gallons for the boil.

O.G.: 1.049
Est. IBU: 32.3

Brewing was uneventful. My mash efficiency was pretty damn low -- 65%. I think I could have been a little smarter with my sparging and got a little bit more extract that way, but I'm thinking that, per usual, this poor performance is down to the crush. I will need to adjust my mill for a finer crush and get a drill or something to operate it, because this milling by hand is for the birds.

Amarillo IPA

Well, after a week off I brewed another single-hop IPA on Saturday, this time using whole Amarillo hops.

The Recipe:

9 lb 2-row pale malt
12 oz Victory malt
8 oz Cara-Pils

18 AAU (47g @ 10.7% AA) Amarillo @ 60
6 AAU (16g @ 10.7% AA) Amarillo @ 20
6 AAU (16g @ 10.7% AA) Amarillo @ 10
6 AAU (16g @ 10.7% AA) Amarillo @ 5
6 AAU (16g @ 10.7% AA) Amarillo @ 0 (flame-out)

Whirlfloc tablet @ 15

Wyeast 1272 - American Ale II

Mashed at 149° for an hour using about 12.5 quarts of water. Batch-sparged using 175-185° water and collected 6.5 gallons for the boil.

O.G.: 1.051
Est. IBU: 79.3

Brewing was mostly uneventful, except that I forgot to smack my Wyeast Activator pack the typical 3 or so hours before pitching. Instead, I smacked it about 5 minutes before pitching. Still, fermentation seemed to begin relatively quickly and is humming along nicely now.

I also kegged #39, Two Bails Cream Ale, and saved its yeast cake for future use. It appears to be the palest-colored beer I've made yet, and actually tastes pretty good (if a little grainy). It might make an interesting base for a hoppier pale-ale type brew in the future.