Today Is a Good Day to Keg

I just finished kegging batches #56 and #57. The process is made a bit easier by the fact that I have a bucket of sanitizer pre-made and onhand at all times. Some notes:

Houblon Saison: musky, sweet saison-like aroma. A bit of funk in the flavor, along with an earthy and citrusy hop character. Bitterness is really damn high.

Centennial IPA: sweet malt character with a fruity, somewhat earthy hop aroma. Flavor is fruity, citrusy hops along with a lightly biscuity and sweetish malt backbone. Bitterness hits you at the end, but it's smooth.

All in all I am happy with how these beers are progressing. Once they are conditioned, they should be mighty fine. Also, I saved the yeast cake from Centennial IPA and plan on making another Wee Heavy in the next week or so. Should be fun!

Centennial IPA

Today I decided to use some of the Centennials I got almost a year ago. I bought a whole pound of 'em and have only used 20 grams thus far. This recipe should do the trick.

The Recipe:

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

22 AAU (56g @ 11% AA) Centennial @ 60
11 AAU (28g @ 11% AA) Centennial @ 20
11 AAU (28g @ 11% AA) Centennial @ 10
11 AAU (28g @ 11% AA) Centennial @ 5
22 AAU (56g @ 11% AA) Centennial @ 0 (dry-hop; added 7 days into fermentation)

Whirlfloc tablet @ 15

Wyeast 1728 - Scottish Ale

Dough-in with 15 quarts and mashed for an hour at 149°. Batch sparged with 170-175° water to get 26 quarts for the boil.

O.G.: 1.056
Est. IBU: 107.6

Hit a mash efficiency of 81%, no doubt due to my adjustment of the malt mill noted in my last post. Perhaps if I just keep on top of this every 3-4 batches, I'll keep hitting the 80-85% efficiency range.

Houblon Saison

Last Sunday I brewed up a Saison which I decided to hop quite aggressively, mostly to use up the huge store of hops I have laying around. Yesterday I added two whole ounces of Challenger pellets for dry-hopping.

The Recipe:

6 lb 5 oz wheat malt
4 lb 2-row pale malt
6 oz Crystal 60°

20 AAU (39g @ 14.5% AA) Columbus @ 60
10 AAU (50g @ 5.6% AA) Challenger @ 30
10 AAU (25g @ 11% AA) Galena @ 20
10 AAU (19g @ 14.5% AA) Columbus @ 10
15 AAU (39g @ 10.7% AA) Amarillo @ 5
11.2 AAU (56g @ 5.6% AA) Challenger @ 0 (dry-hop)

Wyeast 3711 - French Saison

Dough-in with 16 quarts of water and mashed for an hour at 146°. Batch sparged at 170-175° to get 26 quarts for the boil.

O.G.: 1.050
Est. IBU: 154.9

My efficiency dropped to just 72% for this brew, so I adjusted my malt mill to try to get a better grind next time.

Forever and Ever!

Today I finally got around to kegging my last three batches of beer, brewed in late December and early January. I have been extremely lazy these last few months when it comes to my beer hobby.

They all ended up pretty interesting, and I think they were all successful experiments if not necessarily successful beers.

Snowstorm Mild: smooth with a light malty taste and just enough hops to be interesting. Finish is a bit watery, I'm betting because of a lack of any minerals in the brewing water.

Viena Mexicana: lighter in color than I wanted, but a pretty convincing Mexican-style Vienna lager. I'm quite happy with it.

Lynnwooder Gose: enticing wheaty/coriander aroma with a good flavor, but it's a bit too salty. I should have used maybe 50-60% as much salt as I actually did.

Snowstorm Mild

I brewed this beer using only snow collected during a snowstorm here at the house. Brewed on 19 January 2012.

The Recipe:

5 lb 2-row pale malt
4 oz Crystal 60°
3 oz chocolate malt
3 oz Cara-Pils

5 AAU (13g @ 10.7% AA) Amarillo @ 60
5 AAU (13g @ 10.7% AA) Amarillo @ 15

Whirlfloc tablet @ 15 min

Wyeast 1187 - Ringwood Ale

Dough-in with 9 quarts of water and mashed for an hour at 152°. Batch sparged at 170-180° to get 26 quarts for the boil.

O.G.: 1.033
Est. IBU: 25.6

Viena Mexicana

I'm catching up on my brew blog posts, as I've been derelict in my duty for months now. This beer was my attempt to make a Mexican-style Vienna lager. Brewed on 4 January 2012.

The Recipe:

9 lb Vienna malt

5 AAU (44g @ 3.2% AA) Tettnanger @ 60
3.1 AAU (27g @ 3.2% AA) Tettnanger @ 15

1 Whirlfloc tablet @ 15 min

Wyeast 2308 - Munich Lager

Dough-in with 13 quarts of water and mashed for an hour at 149°. Batch sparged at 170-180° to get 26 quarts for the boil.

O.G.: 1.048
Est. IBU: 26.3

Lynnwooder Gose

I completely forgot to post about some brewing I did, oh, 11 days ago now. I made a Gose for the first time, which is a Leipzig wheat beer which includes salt and coriander.

The Recipe:

4 lb wheat malt
3 lb 2-row pale malt
8 oz acidulated malt

4 AAU (10g @ 11% AA) Galena @ 60

1 oz freshly ground coriander @ 5
4 level tablespoons kosher salt @ 5

Wyeast 3056 - Bavarian Wheat Blend

Dough-in with 10 quarts of water and mashed for an hour at 150°. Batch sparged at 170-175° to get 26 quarts for the boil.

O.G.: 1.043
Est. IBU: 17.3

Completely uneventful brewing. Hit 82% mash efficiency, so I know my malt mill is still set up properly.

Kegged Up

I just kegged Blackacre Pilsner, CitrAmarillo IPA and Drain Clog Dubbel. First impressions are that CitrAmarillo is totally awesome, Blackacre Pilsner will be supremely drinkable when it is lagered for a little bit, and that Drain Clog is a pretty successful dubbel -- although, since it is not my favorite style ever, it's not really my favorite batch.

Kegging the Dubbel was a real pain in the ass. I went through 3 keg lids and was still not able to get a sufficient air-tight seal. I eventually ended up having to double-up on the lid gasket to get things to work. This seems to be functioning, but I will not be at all surprised if I wake up to an empty CO₂ tank tomorrow.

Blackacre Pilsner

So, today I decided to brew up a Pilsner for the first time. I've done Kölsches and California commons before, but this is my first real honest-to-God lager. I've got my temperature control planned out and hope it comes together.

The Recipe:

9 lb 2-row pale malt
4 oz crystal 60
4 oz Cara-Pils

5 AAU (13g @ 11% AA) Galena @ 60
3.2 AAU (28g @ 3.2% AA) Tettnanger @ 20
3.2 AAU (28g @ 3.2% AA) Tettnanger @ 5

Whirlfloc tablet @ 15

Wyeast 2278 - Czech Pils

Dough-in with 12 quarts of water and mashed for an hour at 149°. Batch sparged at 180° to get 26 quarts for the boil.

O.G.: 1.054
Est. IBU: 29.4

Since I already had sanitizer out and everything, I also took the opportunity to add a couple ounces of dry hops to CitrAmarillo. I'm feeling pretty good about these last 3 batches.

CitrAmarillo IPA

Today I decided to keep up my brewing schedule now that I have a working sink. In an effort to finish up my Amarillos and use up some of my copious Citra, I'm making an IPA with those two.

The Recipe:

10 lb 2-row pale malt
8 oz Victory malt
3 oz Cara-Pils

20 AAU (39g @ 14.2% AA) Citra @ 60
10 AAU (26g @ 10.7% AA) Amarillo @ 20
10 AAU (20g @ 14.2% AA) Citra @ 20
10 AAU (26g @ 10.7% AA) Amarillo @ 5
10 AAU (20g @ 14.2% AA) Citra @ 5

Added the following hops on 30 November 2011:
10.7 AAU (28g @ 10.7% AA) Amarillo
14.2 AAU (28g @ 14.2% AA) Citra

1 Whirlfloc tablet @ 15 min

Wyeast 1332 - Northwest Ale

Dough-in with 14 quarts of water and mashed for an hour at 148°. Batch sparged at 170° to get 26 quarts for the boil.

O.G.: 1.056
Est. IBU: 109.7

I adjusted my malt mill today so I got my efficiency up to 76%. I think my batch sparging is affecting my efficiency negatively, so I will be sure to make sure my rollers are adjusted each time I mill grain.

Drain Clog Dubbel

Last Friday (one week ago), I brewed up my first batch in almost 3 months. The reason? I finally fixed my sink/garbage disposal after accidentally putting the remnants of Chernobyl Stout (oak chips and all) down the drain. That being fixed, I chose to brew again.

The Recipe:

12.5 lb 2-row pale malt
8 oz crystal 60°
4 oz chocolate malt
4 oz roasted barley
3 oz cara-pils

5 AAU (26g @ 5.4% AA) Cascade @ 60 min
5 AAU (26g @ 5.4% AA) Cascade @ 20 min
6.6 AAU (34g @ 5.4% AA) Cascade @ 5 min
14.2 AAU (28g @ 14.2% AA) Citra @ 5 min
3.2 AAU (28g @ 3.2% AA) Tettnanger @ 5 min

Wyeast 1214 - Belgian Abbey

Dough-in with 17 quarts of water and mashed for an hour at 151°. Did a pretty basic batch sparge at 170° to get 26 quarts for the boil.

O.G.: 1.058
Est. IBU: 46.1

The smack pack of 1214 that I pitched was way past its due date, which was evinced by the fact that after 72 hours no fermentation had begun. At that point, I pitched a brand-new smack pack of 1214 and fermentation began quickly and continued apace for the next 3.5 days. Lesson: use fresh yeast.

September Updates

Today I did some spring keg cleaning. I had four empties, a record for me! I then kegged up Chernobyl Stout and Big Nose Blonde. Here are my thoughts:

Chernobyl: this beer finished at 1.040, locking in a good 11.3% ABV. Lower than the 12% for which I was shooting, but not surprising considering the below-average attenuation my big beers tend to achieve. The oak is a nice touch and I think 16 days was a pretty good amount of time. I think 3 weeks might have been the max, based on what I'm tasting now. I am told the oak fades over time, though, so I'll reevaluate in a few months.

Big Nose: the nose is, as expected, big. Dry hopping lasted only about 6 days, but I needed to get this guy into the keg for tailgating on Saturday. My hop bag also had a tendency to float in the secondary, so my dry-hopping usage efficiency was probably low, but the 3 ounces I added probably makes up for this. The nose is awesome, though the flavor leaves a little to be desired. There was no traditional flavor addition in this brew; only a bittering addition and lots of aroma hops at 5 plus dry hops. Should be an interesting experiment.

Both of these beers used re-pitched yeast from batch #47, the Irish Red. All three of these beers lack any kind of distinct yeast character (although they also lack off-flavors). I think I am done with 1084 Irish Ale for now, unless I really want to brew something with little to no yeast character and just a smooth texture to serve as a palate for some kind of flavorant, be it hops or fruit or whatever.

On a last note, I've switched from Iodophor to Star-San. It's more expensive, but it also seems a little less toxic (and, my LHBS was out of Iodophor in the Io-Star squeeze-measure bottles). Foam is an issue. Don't fear the foam.

Big Nose Blonde

So, I brewed up an aroma-forward blonde ale last Monday and completely forgot to post about it. The idea for this brew is not that it is particularly bitter, but that it will be particularly hop-flavored and strongly aromatic.

The Recipe:

8 lb 2-row pale malt
2 oz Cara-Pils

5 AAU (26g @ 5.4% AA) Cascade @ 60
10.7 AAU (28g @ 10.7% AA) Amarillo @ 5
14.2 AAU (28g @ 14.2% AA) Citra @ 5

Added the following hops on 31 August 2011:
5.4 AAU (28g @ 5.4% AA) Cascade
10.7 AAU (28g @ 10.7% AA) Amarillo
14.2 AAU (28g @ 14.2% AA) Citra

Whirlfloc tablet @ 15 min

Wyeast 1084 - Irish Ale

Dough-in with 10 quarts of water and mashed for an hour at 150°. Did a pretty basic batch sparge to get 26 quarts for the boil.

O.G.: 1.040
Est. IBU: 38.4

Sometime in the next few days I am going to commence dry-hopping, but I haven't figured out exactly what hops I am going to use. Probably more Amarillo and Citra, but I might throw some other stuff in there as well.

The Trees

So, today I'm pitching some oak chips into Chernobyl Stout. After much consideration, I decided not to soak my oak in bourbon before adding them. Instead, for sanitation, I'm cooking 'em at 350° for 30 minutes in the oven. I'm using 2.5 oz of medium-toast American oak chips, and I think I'll leave 'em in there for 2-3 weeks. I may sample it after 2 weeks and then decide if I want a third.

In related news, I took a sample of Chernobyl to measure its gravity. It is currently sitting at approximately 1.038, which is high, but that means it is about 70% attenuated. This is the figure I had for Backbreaker Wee Heavy (1.101 OG) and close to the 72% I got for Pyatiletka Stout (1.086 OG). So, attenuation is right where it ought to be. The brew is quite sweet and the 11.5% ABV is masked extremely well. The flavor on this one is quite good, although it could use a hair more complexity. I'm hoping the oak will help that a bit.

My brew buddy Lance provided me with a packet of Nottingham dry yeast in case this guy did not ferment as well as expected, but I think I'm going to hold off on adding it. I am not convinced this beer would benefit at all from drying out; the sweetness is working for it.

Chernobyl Stout

Today I kegged Tyo's Fourth of JulIrish Red, White and Brew, and since that meant I had a ton of yeast ready to go I decided to brew up a massive Russian Imperial Stout. My goal is to hit the elusive 12% ABV mark on this one, which Wyeast says that 1084 can do.

The Recipe:

20 lb 2-row pale malt
2.5 lb chocolate malt
1 lb crystal 60°
12 oz Cara-Pils
12 oz roasted barley

290g light dry malt extract
225g corn sugar

22 AAU (43g @ 14.2% AA) Citra @ 60

Wyeast 1084 - Irish Ale

Mashed for an hour at 157° on a dough-in of about 30 quarts. Collected 12 quarts of first runnings and boiled that down to about 4 or 5 quarts to caramelize some of the sugars. Maintained the mash at about 150° for the two-plus hours that process took. Once that was done, continued taking runnings, sparging with a few quarts of ~170° water when necessary.

O.G.: 1.126
Est. IBU: 52.9

As I was preparing to do the main boil, I decided that perhaps the gravity could be kicked up a notch so that I can hit my goal of 12% ABV. I went ahead and added the ~10 oz of light dry malt extract that I had laying around (it was getting old and needed to be used anyway), then added a half-pound of corn sugar left over from my bottling days. This beer is going to have absolute truckloads of body anyway, so I felt like it wouldn't hurt to add a little sugar to boost the gravity and provide a little bit of counter to the eventual sweetness that it will have.

One thing I forgot about was the lower utilization of whole hops vs. pellet hops. If I had remembered that, I would have made it maybe 28 or 30 AAU of Citra rather than the 22 that I used.

Lastly, I think I am going to oak this beer once primary fermentation is done. My current thoughts are to use two or three ounces of toasted oak chips, soaked in bourbon (for sanitation purposes, naturally). Should add a little character to this massive beast, no?

Tyo's Fourth of JulIrish Red, White & Brew

Today I brewed up my first Irish Red and decided to give it a preposterous name. Brewing was completely uneventful, which is just the way I like it.

The Recipe:

10 lb 2-row pale malt
8 oz Crystal 60°
3 oz Cara-Pils
2 oz chocolate malt

5 AAU (27g @ 5.1% AA) Fuggles @ 60
2 AAU (11g @ 5.1% AA) Fuggles @ 20

Whirlfloc tablet @ 15

Wyeast 1084 - Irish Ale

Mashed for an hour at 151°, which was right about my target. Doughed in with 14.25 qts to get to 151°. Performed an 8 qt mash-out with 175° water, followed by a small (~6 qt) batch sparge, followed by fly sparging until I had the requisite 26 quarts. It was a bizarre sparge, but it yielded 75% efficiency for me. So, yay!

O.G.: 1.054
Est. IBU: 24.6

I am feeling optimistic about this brew. If all goes well, I think I am going to use the yeast cake from this batch to make another Russian Imperial Stout. Should be fun!

Big Keggin' Night

Tonight I kegged batches 44, 45 and 46. A synopsis:

44 is my Saison which attenuated rather dramatically: a final gravity of 1.000! The 3711 French Saison is evidently a beast of a yeast. 7.2% ABV, and it is quite light and smooth.

45 is my almost-imperial IPA made with truckloads of hops. Dry hopping helped this guy out, I think, even though I only used about an ounce of hops. This keg is going with me to Rush at the Gorge next weekend, so I'm trying to carb it up quick.

46 is the Vienna Hefeweizen from the week before last. 9 days is a pretty short time to ferment, but it was a relatively small beer and fermentation was over pretty much in two or three days. Tasting it now it is not too sweet nor too dry, but it, at least now, doesn't seem like my best Hefe.

Vienna Hefeweizen

The Sunday before last, I brewed up an ad-hoc Hefeweizen out of two-thirds wheat malt and the rest Vienna. I'm a bit late getting a post up about it, though.

The Recipe:

6 lb wheat malt
3 lb Vienna malt

4.5 AAU (39g @ 3.2% AA) Tettnanger @ 60
4.5 AAU (39g @ 3.2% AA) Tettnanger @ 20
4.5 AAU (39g @ 3.2% AA) Tettnanger @ 5

Wyeast 3068 - Weihenstephan Weizen

Mashed at a rather low 146° for an hour using about 12 quarts of water, a bit looser than I normally do. Once again I mashed out with about 8 quarts at about 170°, then performed a single-batch sparge at about 165°.

O.G.: 1.040
Est. IBU: 33.4

Got a rather low 68% mash efficiency this time around, so I don't know how much I like this mash-out business. It speeds up my brew day about 15 minutes, though, so it will be a hard process to give up.

This brew session I also monkeyed with my grain mill to try to get it to grind a little bit finer, but evidently I didn't actually accomplish this. I will have to get some calipers or something to allow me to measure the effective gap and actually improve upon it.

Dry Hoppage

So I've been away from brewing for about a month and I'm jonesing to get back into it. Today I decided to dry-hop Five Seas IPA so I threw in a half-ounce each of Cascade and Columbus to see what that'll do. I'm going to Rush in July so I think I'll be taking Five Seas to that event -- should be a good time.

Five Seas IPA

Yesterday I brewed up a sort of "theme" IPA using every variety of hops in my inventory beginning with the letter "C". Each hop has two additions at different points in the spectrum. It should be interesting to see how this one turns out.

The Recipe:

13 lb 2-row pale malt
1.25 lb Victory malt
1 lb Cara-Pils

22 AAU (42g @ 14.5% AA) Columbus @ 90
4 AAU (21g @ 5.4% AA) Cascade @ 20
4 AAU (8g @ 14.2% AA) Citra @ 20
4 AAU (10g @ 11% AA) Centennial @ 20
4 AAU (20g @ 5.6% AA) Challenger @ 10
4 AAU (8g @ 14.5% AA) Columbus @ 10
4 AAU (21g @ 5.4% AA) Cascade @ 5
4 AAU (8g @ 14.2% AA) Citra @ 5
4 AAU (10g @ 11% AA) Centennial @ 0 (flame-out)
4 AAU (20g @ 5.6% AA) Challenger @ 0 (flame-out)

Added the following hops on 15 June 2011:
7.25 AAU (14g @ 14.5% AA) Columbus @ 0 (dry-hop)
2.7 AAU (14g @ 5.4% AA) Cascade @ 0 (dry-hop)

1 Irish Moss tablet @ 15 min

Wyeast 1272 - American Ale II

Mashed at 148° for an hour using about 20 quarts of water. Did kind of a mini mash-out with 8 quarts at about 185°, then a further single-batch sparge at about 165°.

O.G.: 1.064
Est. IBU: 122.3

I am also considering fortifying the hop aroma with a little dry-hopping in the primary a week or two before kegging, once the main fermentation is done. I'm thinking it won't be necessary to rack to a secondary for this.

Brewing was uneventful, though when adding water for my sparge I feel like I added a bit too much, thus potentially diluting my final wort. To compensate for this I collected 2 extra quarts and then did a 90-minute boil (a first for me). The color change due to this is quite noticeable.

This was also the first time I did a mash-out, which is nice because it reduces overall sparging time (I have limited pots for heating water). I'm not sure if it was this or the aforementioned over-watering which caused my not-so-great 69% efficiency; in any case, I think I am going to adjust the rollers on my mill to give a little bit of a finer grind. I think this might help quite a lot.