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?
Friday, July 29, 2011
Monday, July 4, 2011
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!
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!
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
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.
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.
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.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
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.
Monday, May 16, 2011
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.
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.
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.
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