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.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Saturday Kegging
I kegged up Blackacre Butte #3 and Hail to the Spring today. The third iteration of Blackacre Butte tastes basically exactly the same as I remembered the second one tasting, despite some minor differences in gravity. Frankly, I think I need to move on to some other porter recipes; I'm glad I did this one again, but it has got some flaws that I would love to try to correct.
Hail to the Spring is a pretty bright little pale ale which I think will be a lot better once it is carbonated up. It's not bad, but it has got some interesting flavors in it and I'm looking forward to see how it develops.
I checked on Château Saison, which has been fermenting out of sight in a closet (to prevent too much ill effect from sunlight). It has a really bizarre pattern of floating material covering the surface, which I'm assuming is some fungal thing. It looks weird, but I'm sure the underlying beer is fine.
Hail to the Spring is a pretty bright little pale ale which I think will be a lot better once it is carbonated up. It's not bad, but it has got some interesting flavors in it and I'm looking forward to see how it develops.
I checked on Château Saison, which has been fermenting out of sight in a closet (to prevent too much ill effect from sunlight). It has a really bizarre pattern of floating material covering the surface, which I'm assuming is some fungal thing. It looks weird, but I'm sure the underlying beer is fine.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Pro-Am Results
Well, the bulk of the results for the 2011 Puget Sound Pro-Am are out, and there's good news: Two Bails Cream Ale won 1st place in the Light Hybrid Beers category! Woo!
Eleven of the sixteen participating breweries have made their selections for the "Pro" part of the Pro-Am, but Two Bails was not among them. Most will have made their selections by Wednesday, though, so I still have a little hope.
Eleven of the sixteen participating breweries have made their selections for the "Pro" part of the Pro-Am, but Two Bails was not among them. Most will have made their selections by Wednesday, though, so I still have a little hope.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
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.
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.
Monday, April 25, 2011
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!
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!
Monday, April 18, 2011
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.
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.
Monday, April 11, 2011
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.
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.
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