Slaughterhouse 7

They know it's Christmas, but don't exactly get it...

2011-12-03T19:42:00.000-08:00

Update 1/12 - Dang that's good. Hops are on the resiny side of town, but that is a tasty tasty beer. :D
Update 12/15 - I don't know. It'll probably be okay. But the lack of a good bottling method pretty much guarantees that it's all going to be oxidized. And my hydrometer doesn't want to give a constant read. So, there's that. We'll just have to see how this one turns out.
--

It's Christmas time in Tokyo, and boy are the department stores, coffee shops, etc, into it. "Let's Merry" is the Starbucks slogan this year. "Precious Christmas" is displayed all over your local デパート, and the worst modern Christmas misses are piped through the sound systems. Congratulations, Japan, you win. By taking all of the actual meaning out of the holiday we're left with what's truly important - bad music, gaudy decorations, and lots and lots of nutmeg. I actually like that last bit. Speaking of holiday cheer minus the real traditions,...

I brewed y'all a poor-interopretation-of-Christmas themed beer!

The brown sugar used in this recipe is known as "black sugar" in Japan. The taste seems to me to be a little richer in molasses character than the typical brown sugar used in the US. I'm told it's slightly less refined, lending it some interesting flavors. The idea here is a big red hop bomb. Maybe won't taste too much like Christmas, but it's got red and green and will keep us feeling warm and happy. Hopefully I can get it conditioned in time for my trip back to Minnesota.

Batch #74
The Red Green Show, 8 L in fermenter
4 lb Light DME
250g　Brown sugar (黒砂糖)
150g Crystal 40L
40 g Roasted Barley
20 g Black Patent
20 g Chocolate
1 oz Cascade, 6.4%AA (60m)
1 oz Amarillo, 3.9%AA (20m)
1 oz Chinook, 11.8%AA (10m)
1 oz Cascade, 6.4%AA (5m)
1 oz Centennial, 9.2%AA (1m)
1 oz Cascade (Dry Hop)
1 oz Falconer's Flight (Dry Hop)
1/2 tab Whirlfloc (5m)
WLP090 - San Diego Super Yeast, 1 L starter (2nd generation)
OG: ~1.080
FG: ~1.018
ABV: ~8%
IBU: ~90

Steep grains in ~1.5-2L water for 30 minutes while heating from room temp to ~75C. Add to main boil (~12L total), bring to temp and add extract. Hops as indicated. Chill, ferment at 18-20C. I tried a new hop-strain method today, which didn't really work, and is why my fermenter volume is only 8 L.

Rainy Sunday afternoon... time to brew.

2011-11-05T22:58:00.000-07:00

Metric. Because my scale doesn't read pounds and ounces. The extract and grain packets do, but I'm splitting them between this and the next brew - a dark and stormy hop bomb. I may oak-age a portion of this (but not for very long) just to see how it turns out. The coffee will go in at bottling, most likely. Home-roasted beans (probably Ethiopian origin unless I have something more interesting at the time) cold-steeped and delicious.

Batch #73
Coffee Stout, 10 L in fermenter
2 kg Light DME
300 g Crystal 40L
150 g Roasted Barley
75 g Black Patent
75 g Chocolate
28 g Northern Brewer, 8.5%AA (60m)
28 g Kent Goldings, 7.2%AA (5m)
1/2 tab Whirlfloc (5m)
WLP004 - Irish Ale Yeast, 1 vial
OG: 1.065
FG:
ABV:
IBU: 65-70

Steep grains in 12L water while heating. Pull grains out ~75 C. Open a bottle of Duvel. Bring to a boil, add extract, hops at 60m and 5m. Open Chimay and add clarifier at 5m.

Impatience

2011-09-25T03:53:00.000-07:00

Update 10/30 - Bottled.
Update 10/6 - Racked to secondary (10L keg).
Update 10/1 - SG ~1.012 or so. Dry hops added, primary oak pulled, secondary oak added. This one might need to sit for a bit to mellow. BONUS: I now roast coffee. :D
--
Wooooooooooo!

Couldn't contain myself anymore and had to brew, temperature control be damned. I'm a little out of practice, and forgot the clarifier addition...gelatine it is, then. I have less space and equipment in Tokyo, so I'm running 10 liter extract batches for now, and chilling in the bathtub. First up is a semi-scaled version of the MoreBeer Firestone-Walker DBA clone kit. I scaled the extract, but left the steeping grains and monkeyed with the hop schedule a bit.

Batch #72
FW DBA Clone-ish thing, 2.5 gallons in fermenter
3 lbs Light DME
6 oz Aromatic
8 oz Crystal 75L
2 oz Crystal 120L
2 oz Pale Chocolate
1 oz Willamette, 4.7%AA (60m)
1 oz Kent Goldings, 7.2%AA (5m)
1 oz Kent Goldings (dry)
1 oz American Oak chips (split between primary and dry addition)
WLP005 - British Ale Yeast, 1 vial
OG: 1.050-1.052 (need a thermometer)
FG: 1.010-1.012
ABV: 5.2%
IBU: ~40

Steep grains cold, for first 35 minutes of heating (nearing 170F by my estimates). Pull grains out, bring to boil. Kill heat, add extract, bring to boil. Started with 12 liters water, expecting some loss between now and bottling. As I mentioned, I forgot my clarifier, so will definitely be using gelatine at the end of fermentation to clear this bad boy up.

Oh, and I have a 10L keg to haul to the office in the unlikely event that there are no major flaws.

Evangelism

2011-09-24T07:40:00.000-07:00

[TLDR version: Not everyone will join our army. Keep trying. It's just beer]

Are some people just hopeless lost causes to the craft beer crusade? I was out with a colleague (American) tonight who I'm determined to show good beer. This came about because he had made two statements that demand both hope and despair from the craft beer lover. Paraphrasing:

1. "I didn't used to like beer, but I really like Japanese beer. So maybe I just wasn't trying the right kinds before."
2. "A friend of mine is really into homebrewing, so I'd be interested in trying anything you make."

Now, my first instinct was to pour half a glass of pilsner and fill the rest with water for him. But, no. We are on a mission to show people the world of flavor. And you catch more barflies with honey ale than malt vinegar. Right? Once I was shown just how wide open the world of beer is, I thought, as many of you likely have, that there's no such thing as a person who doesn't like beer; there are only people who haven't met the right beer yet. The array of ingredients and techniques available to brewers is vast, and so are the flavor outcomes. But there are a couple of problems: a lot of our "that doesn't sound like beer" suds that might win over the palates of those that "hate beer" are expensive, hard to find, "not beer", etc. And yes, everyone tastes the same chemicals (don't even start trying to tell me that you aren't always eating and drinking chemicals, hippie) a little differently. It's entirely possible that what tastes wonderfully harmonious to me may seem horrible for you, and vice versa. So perhaps we shouldn't judge others for their tastes, even when it's so obvious to us that they're wrong. Bitterness is an acquired taste (the only one out of the accepted basic tastes, or so I hear), and the degree to which you enjoy a particular food or beverage may be due to a quantifiable difference in the lay of the land on your palate, not due to a certifiable difference in your booze addled noodle.

So what can we do? Hopefully the "ales are beers. so are lagers" line sank in, and my friend gained a little knowledge. He drank his pint (Baird Brewing's Red Rose Amber Ale), but probably won't order it again. I'm not sure what he liked or didn't like about it,...and it can be difficult to discern this if people aren't used to or, frankly, not interested in tasting food and drink beyond "i like this", "i don't like this", "it does/doesn't taste poisonous". And that's the main problem in this case: his preferred drink is basically straight vodka (the mark of quality being tastelessness) or whiskey (which is "okay"). So maybe he likes bland beverages (and peat? what?). That's fine. Not everything has to be about interesting or unique flavors. Maybe that's not the point. In fact, you know what? It's not the point. The point is people enjoying time together, whether their drinking piss-in-a-can mass market lagers, Pliny, that $6 handle of vodka, ancient single malt, or actual goat sweat. Craft still and will always needs converts, so my plan is to continue to slowly present more options, probably starting with Scottish ales. I will buy a bottle or order a pint of what I want to drink, making a slightly greater effort than usual to vary the roster, do my best to encourage the nonbelievers around me to see the art and passion that goes into the glasses we cherish, and to remember that it's just liquid refreshment. Our libations are best, naturally, but we're a little biased.

As a final note, my own mother won't drink the beer I brew. She says that every beer she's had in her life tastes unpleasantly yeasty to her, and that it's probably okay that she doesn't expand her alcohol preferences...which I'm certain makes no sense to any of us. Why would you place a limit on your own happiness?! My plan for her is to serve "sparkling wine" and see how she raves until she learns it's all malt (I swear a tripel I had the other week tasted exactly like a bubbly dry chardonnay).

Another night squandered in the saloons of Tokyo.

乾杯

Soulfree, Careless.

2011-05-15T01:17:00.000-07:00

Edit 9/24 - Meh. I mean, I'll drink it, but I'm not going to try and win anyone to the mead camp with it.
Edit 8/10 - Bottled, some with ginger liqueur, some not. Some with a bit more honey, some not. Dry, tart.
Edit 5/30 - 490g fresh ginger, sliced thin; 400g fresh pineapple, big chunks; 1 medium lemon, sliced 'n' stabbed real good, some bits of peel included. Vodka to the top of the above ingredients in a jar...about 500mL of Smirnoff.
--

蜂蜜酒四番
ショウガの蜂蜜酒
--2キログラム　蜂蜜
--500グラム　麦芽エキス
--12グラムカスケード　ホップ (20分)
--8リットル　水
イースト：　11.5グラム　「Safale 04」

Mead Batch #04
Ginger Mead
--2kg Honey
--0.5kg Light malt extract, dry
--12g Cascade hops, 20m boil with malt
--8 L water (for total volume of 9.4 liters)
--11.5g Safale 04 dry yeast
OG: 1.080-1.085 (estimated, no hydrometer at the moment)
FG: Didn't measure
ABV: I don't know, probably, like 10%
IBU: 4

Dissolve the malt extract (for some nutrients) and boil with hops for 20 minutes. Preferably hops that weren't just sitting on the shelf for months at Tokyu Hands. I'm not convinced this will have enough beer character to be called braggot. Mix everything together and pitch your yeast. I'd prefer 05, but my options were 04 or lager yeast. It's going to be a hot summer.

Now, you may be asking where the ginger is. That's for later. I will be making a splendiferous cocktail of lemon and ginger, with a little more ginger, and some ginger thrown in for good measure. This will get blended with the mead after fermentation slows.

And yes, my first brew/mazing day in Japan. :D i mean... (^-^)

Add more hops

2011-03-28T08:30:00.000-07:00

Update 4/29 - Kegged.
Update 4/24 - Dry hopped. Thanks, wife!
--
So tasty, must make more. Added citra (first time) and cascade to round out the hop with some citrus, dropped the carafa, used darker crystal (LHBS was out of 50-60L), crushed the oats.

Batch #71
Lost Harvest, version 3
10.5 lbs Maris Otter
1 lb British 70-80L
1 lb White wheat malt
8 oz Golden naked oats
8 oz Victory
1 oz Magnum, 14.1%AA (60m)
0.5 oz Magnum, 13.1%AA (30m)
1 oz Centennial, 9.2%AA (20m)
0.5 oz Amarillo, 9.3%AA (10m)
0.5 oz Simcoe, 12.2%AA (10m)
0.5 oz Citra, 13.4%AA (10m)
0.5 oz Cascade, 6.8%AA (10m)
0.5 oz Amarillo, 9.3%AA (5m)
0.5 oz Simcoe, 12.2%AA (5m)
0.5 oz Citra, 13.4%AA (5m)
0.5 oz Cascade, 6.8%AA (5m)
1oz each Cen/Ama/Sim/Cit/Cas (dry)
1/4 tsp each epsom and gypsum in mash
Safale US-05, 11.5g dry
OG: 1.061
FG: 1.016
ABV: 5.9%
IBU: ~100

You be Beethoven and other bad jokes

2010-12-24T17:28:00.000-08:00

Last brew for a while since I'm not sure I'll be able to do much in Japan. This is the "Brewing Classic Styles" Marzen Madness recipe with some additions to clean out my malt supply. Stay tuned for my beer-related adventures from Japan.

Batch #70
I'llbe Bock
--5lbs Pils
--4lbs Munich
--3lbs Vienna
--4oz Aromatic
--2.5oz Carafa II
--2oz Hallertauer 4.6%AA (60m)
--1/2 tsp calcium chloride (mash)
--whirlfloc (5m)
--1.5L starter made from saved yeast blend from pilsner
OG: 1.062 (okay, so it's more of a marzen/vienna/oktoberfest than a bock)
FG:
ABV:
IBU: ~25

Mash in to 154F, hold for 1 hour. I batch sparged to collect just shy of 7.5 gallons wort pre-boil. Boiled for 90 minutes, chilled, pitched yeast. Fermenting in garage, so probably hovering around 50F.

Stay thirsty AND awake, my friends

2010-12-11T15:49:00.000-08:00

Update 12/26 - Kegged yesterday, coffee added today.
--
Oatmeal stout base, easy on the roast. Cold steeped coffee in secondary. Maybe the lactose is there because I enjoyed the hell out of some Surly Four last night.

Batch #69
JR Stout
--10 lbs Maris Otter
--1 lb Flaked Oats (very lightly toasted)
--0.75 lb British Black Roast Malt
--10 oz British 70/80°L
--4 oz Lactose (10m)
--2 oz Fuggles, 5.1%AA (60m)
--1/2 tsp calcium chloride (mash)
--1 tab whirlfloc (10m)
--4oz Peet's JR Reserve coffee (cold-steeped, secondary)
Safale US-05, 11.5g dry
OG: 1.065
FG: 1.016
ABV: 6.4%
IBU: ~30

Mash in around 152F. Hold for one hour. I actually probably should have mashed a little higher, but oh well. Boil 60m. Chill, pitch yeast, and ferment at 68F. Add cold-steeped coffee to secondary.

Basically, it's a 5 gallon yeast starter

2010-11-21T17:11:00.000-08:00

Update 12/7 - Kegged. Sulfury, not picking up any esters or diacetyl.
Update 11/26 - This is a real pain. I can keep it around 58-60F in the fermentation cabinet, 50-55F outside during the day...but ambient is about 30-35F at outside at night. So, this one got a good day or so at 50 and is now hanging out at about 58. Next lager will probably just go in the garage.
--

Lager season is here. Time fir the inaugural pilsner. This one courtesy of the cool dudes at MoreBeer. Their recipe kit on the house for a competition flub.

Next lager in the queue: smoked märzen.

Batch #68
German(?) Pilsner
--9lb German Pils
--8oz CaraPils
--8oz Crystal 15L
--8AAU Northern Brewer 8% (60m)
--4AAU Saaz 4%(5m)
--4AAU Saaz 4%(1m)
--whirlfloc (5m)
--soft water, 1 tsp 5.2 stabilizer in mash
--Yeast (1 vial WLP830 in 1.25 L starter, pitched to additional 2L starter with 2 vials WLP800)
OG: 1.046
FG: 1.008
ABV: 5%
IBU: ~30

Mashed 90m at 148F. Collected 7.25 gallons wort. Boiled 90m. Fermenting ~55F.

Reruns

2010-11-18T14:39:00.000-08:00

Update 12/2 - kegged. darker than the original, more bitter. awesome.
Update 11/26 - dry hops added.
--

Liked this beer so much we drained the keg and put the recipe back in the brew queue. So here we are. Minor changes: bumped up the 30m Magnum to a full ounce, gave the Carafa II 15m instead of 5 in the mash to work its color magic, and tossed in some malted oats for a little more character. I don't think we can call this an IPA anymore... I suspect it will just have too much malt character, with the color landing squarely on 'amber'.

Batch #67
Lost Harvest, version 2
10.5 lbs Maris Otter
1 lb British 50-60L
1 lb White wheat malt
8 oz Golden naked oats
6 oz Victory
2 oz Carafa II (last 15m of mash only)
1 oz Magnum, 13.1%AA (60m)
1 oz Magnum, 13.1%AA (30m)
1 oz Centennial, 9.2%AA (20m)
0.5 oz Amarillo, 8.2%AA (10m)
0.5 oz Simcoe, 12.2%AA (10m)
0.5 oz Amarillo, 8.2%AA (5m)
0.5 oz Simcoe, 12.2%AA (5m)
1oz each Cen/Ama/Sim (dry)
1/4 tsp each epsom and gypsum in mash
Safale US-05, 11.5g dry
OG: 1.061
FG: 1.013
ABV: 6.3%
IBU: ~95

Single infusion, batch sparge. Infusion temp: 152F, settled to 150F. Mash 60m. Collect 7 gallons wort. Ferment at 68F.

Beers, cars, beers

2010-11-16T20:17:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday a couple of us ended up in Hayward, CA for the 5th Annual West Coast Barrel Aged Beer Festival at the Bistro. Long name. We got in about 11am, right on time, no lines! Forty bucks gets you 10 tastes and a (rather nice tulip) glass, $2 a sample after that. For those not familiar with barrel aged beers, one generally takes a good strong ale and puts it in a used or new barrel to concentrate the beer, oxidize it, and pick up flavors from the wood, which may or may not include whatever booze was the previous tenant of said barrel. In alphabetical order, the two of us managed to knock back a few ounces of the following monstrosities...

Ale Industries - Fysus (barleywine on Bourbon... a little brothy, if you ask me)
Avery - Rumpkin (my vote for People's Choice; 13.2% pumpkin ale on Goslings rum)
Drakes - Wyld Stallyns ("super-soured" imperial stout and ESB blend on port/merlot/Am. oak)
Drakes - Brett Butler (tripel aged in Pinot with some wild yeast)
Drakes - Kadath Decoded (80% imperial stout on French oak pinot and merlot, 20% barleywine in French oak grenache)
Fifty-Fifty - Imperial Eclipse 2010 (Four Roses Single Bbl 10yr)
Fifty-Fifty - Imperial Eclipse 2010 (Rittenhouse Rye)
Firestone Walker - 14 (Ted's vote, blend of Parabola, Xantus, and Velvet Merkin)
Firestone Walker (Nectar Ales) - Black Xantus (Heaven Hill Bourbon)
Glacier - Beam Stout (oatmeal stout on Jim Beam)
Glacier - Big Woody Barleywine (straight Virgin Czech Oak...winner 2009 and 2010 Toronado Barleywine Festival!)
Iron Springs - Oaked Winterscotch (straight medium toast american oak)
Lagunitas - Blend Saison (blend of saison 75% chard., 25% pinot, Brettanomyces and wild yeast souring)
Lagunitas - Imp. Stout w/ Raspberries (Heaven Hill Bourbon, Brettanomyces, raspberries)
Mad River - 2009 John Barleycorn (Brandy)
Port Brewing - Older Viscosity 2009 (Bourbon)
Stone - Old Guardian 2008 (aged on Cabernet/Merlot French and American oak)
Stone - 07.07.07 (2007 Vertical Epic release aged on Cab/Merlot in Fr. and Am. oak)
Valley Brewing - The End of Evil As We Know It (Collaborative Evil on Heaven Hill Bourbon)
Verhaeghe - Echt Kriekenbier (Vichtenaar Flanders red ale with cherries...delish!)

...grab some lunch at Buffalo Bill's down the street, complete with a (thankfully) small glass of their Imperial Pumpkin Ale (which was okay, but no Rumpkin, and I vastly prefer their standard strength version), and drive off around 2pm.

On the way home, our driver felt a pressing need to ogle some sparkling Italian-bred sports cars at the local Lotus lot. He did not buy one. Yet. Probably because they didn't have a baby blue Exige on hand.

Later... like, 6pm the same day, our hero finds himself back on the same damn horse. This time, at Ted's place for a 2006-present Stone Vertical Epic tasting. The 06.06.06 held up fairly well for not being properly cellared. The 07.07.07 was, disappointingly, not that different from the 07.07.07 at the festical. 08.08.08 was delightful. 09.09.09 is my favorite of those I've tasted and is still a delicious chocolate orange. 10.10.10 is the new kid, and really has some nice wine qualities.
Link for more info on Stone VE: http://www.stonebrew.com/epic/

...and then I was tired. Very tired. I did make it to work on Sunday, but not until about 5pm.

One to lay down for a while

2010-10-31T15:11:00.000-07:00

Update 11/15 - SG 1.025. Will let it sit in primary another week or two.
--

Just 3 more months in the U.S., and 36 lbs of Maris Otter. First up: big bad brown british barleywine. This is a scaled up malt bill from the MoreBeer "Malty Brown Ale" kit. That was a solid recipe, and I just want something a wee bit bigger. I'm thinking toss it in a keg and hide it for a year.

Batch #66
Multiple Brown Ale
16 lbs Maris Otter
1.5 lb Munich
.75 lb CaraVienne
.75 lb CaraPils
.75 lb Aromatic
.75 lb 60L
.375 lb Pale Chocolate
2 oz Northern Brewer, 8%AA (60m)
.875 oz Vanguard, 5%AA (60m)
2 oz Fuggles, 5.1%AA (30m)
1/2 tsp gypsum in mash
WLP007, Dry English Ale Yeast, 1L starter -> 1.5L starter
OG: 1.098
FG:
ABV:
IBU: ~55

Mash in at 152F. Collect 7 gallons of wort. The Vanguard is in there just to bump up the bittering a little. It was what I had lying around my freezer.

Autumn is Ausumn

2010-09-26T13:09:00.000-07:00

Spooky Christmas is again almost here,
so it's time once more for our favorite beer.
Brewed with four pumpkins thrown into the mash,
we'll later add spices but, please, just a dash.
A fistful of caramel and another of chocolate,
a pound of roast malt to make a sweet stout of it.
Just enough fuggles for bittering hops,
we swear that you'll scream, 'this is the tops!'

Batch #65
Pumpkin Stout
8 lbs Maris Otter
1 lb British Roasted Barley
1 lb White Wheat Malt
6 oz British 70/80°L
4 oz British Pale Chocolate
6 lbs Pumpkin flesh (cooked, smushed)
8 oz Rice hulls
1.5 lbs Molasses (10m)
4 oz Lactose, 10m
1 oz Fuggles, 5.1%AA (60m)
1 oz Fuggles, 9.2%AA (20m)
1 tsp calcium chloride (mash)
1 tab whirlfloc (10m)
Safale US-05, 11.5g dry
OG: 1.064
FG: 1.016
ABV: 6.3%
IBU: ~25

Get up earlier than usual. Split, scrape out the seeds, and bake your pumpkins at 300F for an hour to 90m (want the skin to be a little saggy and the flesh to caramelize a bit). Pie pumpkins are best (sweet taste as opposed to just big). I had four pumpkins, weighing almost 17lbs total, to get the 6lbs of flesh (cooked weight). Once cooked, scrape out the flesh and save in a bowl for the mash.

Mashed in with 4 gal water (162F) to reach an initial infusion of 146F (difficult to calculate thanks to the pumpkin and rice hulls (pumpkin = starch, rice hulls = no stuck mash, please). Added tea kettles full of near-boiling water after 15m and 30m mash time to reach 150 and 153F, respectively. This was not my plan. I initially wanted a single infusion at 154F, but the pumpkin threw me off.

Boil 60m, adding hops and adjuncts as indicated. Cool to fermentation temp (I like 68F) and pitch yeast.

So much for that crop

2010-09-20T20:34:00.001-07:00

Update 10/4 - Kegged. Tasty! Great hop character and lots of toasty biscuity malt in the finish. So pleased with this beer. SG 1.012.
Update 9/29 - Dry hopped with 1 oz each of Amarillo, Centennial, Simcoe. SG 1.012.
--

Well, the whopping < 1/8oz of hops (dry weight) that I pulled this year appeared moldy today, so I dumped them instead of using them. Hence the name.

Batch #64
Lost Harvest IPA
10.5 lbs Maris Otter
1 lb British 50-60L
1 lb White wheat malt
6 oz Victory
2 oz Carafa II (last 5m of mash only)
1 oz Magnum, 13.1%AA (60m)
0.5 oz Magnum, 13.1%AA (30m)
1 oz Centennial, 9.2%AA (20m)
0.5 oz Amarillo, 8.2%AA (10m)
0.5 oz Simcoe, 12.2%AA (10m)
0.5 oz Amarillo, 8.2%AA (5m)
0.5 oz Simcoe, 12.2%AA (5m)
1oz each Cen/Ama/Sim (dry)
1/4 tsp each epsom and gypsum in mash
Safale US-05, 11.5g dry
OG: 1.060
FG: 1.012
ABV: 6.3%
IBU: ~80

Single infusion, batch sparge. Infusion temp: 152F, settled to 150F. Mash 60m. Collect 7 gallons wort. Ferment at 68F.

The List 2010 - Part III

2010-09-20T11:44:00.000-07:00

Airports are stupid.

My List

Brewery List

Winners

The List 2010 - Part II

2010-09-17T08:17:00.000-07:00

One festival day down, one to go. Rachel and I conquered the following tasty beverages last night, and will rack up a few more points with the full 10-person drinking team tonight. Current count: 120

In chronological order (yeah, that's right...I took notes!)

Dogfish Head
-Chateau Jiahu
-Grain to Glass

Hangar 24
-American IPA (dWiGhT's pro-am!)

Firehouse Brewery and Grill
-Veles Baltic Porter
-Pete's Support Belgian IPA

Firestone Walker
-Velvet Merlin
-Union Jack

Greenflash
-Palate Wrecker
-Le Freak

Rahr & Sons
-Ugly Pug
-Blonde

Yards
-George Washington Tavern Porter

Weyerbacher
-Imperial Pumpkin Ale
-Double Simcoe IPA

Troegs
-Flying Mouflan
-Hop Back Amber

New Holland
-Full Circle Kolsch

Arcadia
-Hoprocket

Flat Branch
-Green Chili
-Indigo Pale Ale

Fitger's
-Starfire Pale Ale
-Edmund Bourbon Imperial Stout

Goose Island Brewpub
-Sgt. Peppercorn
-Goose Me!

Rogue
-Old Crustacean
-MaierFest

Pike
-IPA
-Monk's Uncle Triple

Pelican
-Cream Ale
-Scottish Export

Ninkasi
-Tricerahops
-Total Domination IPA

Note: Tiara made of pretzels is cool

Elysian
-Men's Room Red
-Dark o' the Moon Pumpkin Stout

Deschutes
-Black Butte XXII
-Inversion IPA

Alaskan
-White
-Stout

Stone
-Cali-Belgique
-Russian Imperial Stout & 10th Anniv. Blen

Black Market
-Dunkelweizen
-Rye IPA

The Bruery
-7 Grain Saison
-Rugbrod

Russian River
-Pliny the Elder

Lost Abbey
-Cable Car Wild Ale
-Framboise de Amorosa

Pizza Port (Carlsbad)
-547 Haight
-Good Grief Brown

Great Divide
-Colette
-16th Anniv. Wood Aged IPA
-Wild Raspberry Ale

Redstone Meadery
-Nectar of the Hops
-Raspberry Nectar
-Sunshine Nectar (apricot)
[Note: all "Nectars" are same base mead with different secondary additions]

Brooklyn Brewing
-Sorachi Ace
-Local 1
-Local 2
-Manhattan Project
-Black Chocolate Stout

CH Evans / Albany Pumphouse
-Kick-ass Brown

Odell's
-Deconstruction
-Myrcenary

Left Hand
-Milk Stout
-Oktoberfest

Cascade
-Bourbonic Plague

Elysian (again)
-Wise ESB
-Jasmine IPA

3 Floyds
-Sandpebble
-Schwartzbier

Square One
-Bavarian Weizen
-Spicy Blonde

August Schell
-Firebrick
-Hopfenmalz

Bell's
-Porter
-Contrebassite

Boulevard
-Tank 7 Farmhouse Ale
-Unfiltered Wheat

Great Lakes
-Commodore Perry IPA
-Glockenspiel Weizenbock

Fat Head's
-Hop JuJu
-KoKo Head Chocolate Coconut Cream Stout

Thomas Creek
-Vanilla Cream Ale
-Up the Creek Extreme IPA

Terrapin
-Hopsecutioner
-Hopzilla

Sweetwater
-420
-Sch'wheat!

Asher
-Green Monster

Avery
-The Maharaja

Wynkoop
-WIXA Weiss
-B3K Schwartzbier
-St Charles ESB

The List 2010 - Part I

2010-09-16T09:05:00.001-07:00

Back in Colorado for the Great American Beer Festival. Day one was spent in Boulder. We ended up at Mountain Sun for lunch and then off to the Avery taproom. From there we picked up some bottles for a small party later in the evening and stopped off at Boulder Beer for a quick sample or two.

Now we just have to figure out how to get to Denver for the opening session at GABF tonight.

Draft...

Mountain Sun
-Hop Vivant (2009 Alpha King winner...delicious)
-Resinous Rye (good...had better versions of the style)

Avery
-Joe's Pilsner (great!)
-Jerry's Roggenbier (nice chocolatey rye)
-India Pale Lager
-IPA w/ Chinook dry hop
-Altar Boy (The Reverend, oak aged and dosed with Brett....excellent)
-The Maharaja (cask...excellent)
-Seventeen Anniversary (hoppy black lager)
-Out of Bounds Stout (cask)
-Missionary (Belgian quad with guava)
-Voltron (sour blend...good but Altar Boy was better)
-duganA IPA

Boulder Beer
-Singletrack Copper Ale (very nice)
-Bourbon Singletrack (nowhere near as good as the straight version)
-India Brown Ale (cask...too much oak)
-Mojo Risin' (DIPA on nitro, nice)

Bottles...

Ska Brewing
-Ten Pin Porter (tasty)
-True Blonde Ale (my last of the night...good, not one of my usual go-to styles)
-Pinstripe Red (great)

Left Hand
-Black Jack Porter (excellent)
-Polestar Pils (very nice)

Great Divide
-Titan IPA (excellent)
-Claymore Scotch Ale (excellent)
-Samurai Rice Ale (only had a drop but Rachel liked it)

Boulder Beer
-Hazed and Infused

Mystery Beer

2010-08-28T15:40:00.000-07:00

Update 9/20 - Kegged. Kinda gross. Cinnamon phenol from the dry hop. Don't care what the FG is.
Update 9/9 - Dry hopped in primary. Didn't check SG
--

MoreBeer put out a mystery kit for their forum competition this year. Entries due at the end of September, so hopefully this will be ready by then. My guess is that the steeping grains are 1 lb of a medium crystal (40-60L) and 0.25 lb pale chocolate malt for color.

Batch #63
Mystery Beer (5.25 gal)
8 lbs Light Malt Extract (syrup)
1.25 lbs Steeping grains
Sugar, 5m
1 oz hops "A" (60m)
0.5 oz hops "B" (5m)
0.875 oz hops "C" (1m)
1 oz hops "D" (dry hop)
Whrilfloc, 5m
Safale US-04, 11g dry
OG: 1.058
FG:
ABV:
IBU: ???

Steep the grains for 30m (start cold, ramp towards 170°F). Mix in the extract at the start of the boil (burner off!). Add hops, etc, as indicated. I plan to ferment around 68°F.

$0.29/lb

2010-08-22T20:21:00.001-07:00

Update 12/27 - Bottled. SG 1.024-25. A little cloudy, but pretty tasty and I'm tired of waiting.
Update 10/4 - Racked. SG 1.025. Still very sweet and cloudy.
Update 8/28 - Racked to secondary. SG 1.032. Note that I missed the straining step in Phil's procedure, so the plums were in primary for the past week.
--

That's the price on plums this weekend at the market near us. So, naturally, I bought 12 pounds. This is basically Phil Montalbano's recipe, but I'm pretending I know better and reserving acid blend and tannin additions until after I've tasted the post-fermentation product.

Plum Wine
12 lbs plums, pitted, chopped (next time: freeze 'em first)
8 lbs sugar
2 gal water
2 tsp pectic enzyme
1 tsp Fermaid K
1 tsp Go-Ferm
8g RC-212 dry yeast
Potassium metabisulfite
OG: 1.110
FG: 1.024
ABV: 11.3%

Follow the directions HERE. Use Campden, not KMBS...the powder is way more potent than the tablets, and as a consequence, I needed to make a stock solution to get the right amount.

P.S. "Black Plum" is a stupid name for a fruit that's yellow on the inside and red on the outside. "Red Plum" is an okay name for a fruit that's black on the outside and red on the inside. They should switch.

Strawberry Cordial

2010-08-19T09:04:00.001-07:00

While at a mead class a couple weeks ago (on Mead Day, as it were), this recipe came up. Super easy. I made a half batch. It's real purdy and smells good.

Strawberry Cordial

3C Sugar
4lb Strawberries, washed, stemmed
5C Vodka

Chop up the berries, mix sugar and vodka. Put it all in a gallon jar for a while. For the half recipe I used the handy-dandy 1/2 gallon Ball jar that I got as a growler from Lagunitas last weekend.

Road Trip!

2010-08-15T22:39:00.000-07:00

Some friends planned a trip to Sonoma wineries for this weekend, and due to conflicts, my car ended up empty. That is, until it was transmogrified into the brewery car. Then, it was transmogrified again. This time, it became somebody else's car to the breweries. Mostly 'cause what's-her-name took mine to work. Something about gas.

We hit Healthy Spirits on the way north through SF. Great selection, expensive, not so friendly. Again, GREAT selection of beers and whiskey. Picked up Avery duganA IPA bomber and Brasserie Dieu du Ciel! Peche Mortel. $15.

First stop - Marin brewing. Ran through the 7 beers on tap in 4oz sampler form for $12. All of it was okay, didn't care for the wheatwine at all... think it was the yeast they used (Fullers esters out the wazoo, not much else...didn't work for me). E.S.Chi was an interesting herb beer. Garlic fries a-okay. Bought a bottle of Mt Tam Pale. Good bottle prices.

2nd stop - Moylans. FYI, same company as Marin. Some of the same beers. MUCH more on tap, including some nitros and a couple cask. I thought it was alright. We only went through 6 samples here. Bottle of the Bridal Ale (commemorative for Jessica and Brendan Moylan's wedding.) $14 for the lot.

3rd stop - Lagunitas. The rumors are true. The place rocks. Pints in custom Lagunitas-branded mason jars. Growlers are half-gallon Ball jars. Delicious grilled veggie sammich, 8 samples, plus a bonus (Lucky 13...over-pours given out gratis) including SEVERAL not available anywhere else or even in growlers. (Jerks, I wanted to bring home a growler of the Ginger IPA!!!). Growler of Fusion II (IPA with some black malt, but not quite to CDA/BlackIPA levels). $20 growler, $14 for the sandwich and flight of 4 samples...I think. There was booze, so my numbers might be off. Live music! Outside!

4th stop - Bear Republic. Split the 5 specialty taps - $6 for ~3oz pours. Mediocre at best. Was unimpressed. Maybe just tired and ready for...

5th stop - Back south to Russian River for dinner. Flight of 2oz belgian samples (incl. sours) for $8. Pint of Hopfather IPA (stick to the Pliny or Blind Pig, IMHO), $3.25 with AHA card. Tasty tasty meatball sandwich, <$10, and a growler of RR IPA to go, $14. Live Music! Inside, 10 feet from me (what's the opposite of "!"?)

Clear winner of the day was Lagunitas. I love RR (almost) as much as the next guy, but the gang in Petaluma won my continued loyalty today. Do it to it!

Melomelomel

2010-08-14T14:34:00.000-07:00

Update 10/31 - SG 1.026. Racked off of berries. Will try to let the gravity drop a little more.
Update 10/14 - SG 1.035. The blueberries float. Recommend mesh bag and some weights to submerge next time. Pretty tasty. Magenta color.
Update 9/13 - Racked to secondary with blueberries. SG 1.050. Probably should have stirred up the lees a couple times before now. Oh well. Patience and maybe some more yeast in the coming weeks.
--

Made some more mead. Yaaaaay.

Mead Batch #03
Black and Blue Melomel
-12lbs Orange Blossom honey
-2lbs Blackberry puree (frozen, primary)
-3lbs Blueberries (frozen, secondary)
-Water to 4 gallons
-GoFerm
Split yeast: 71b-1122 (8g)
OG: ~1.116 (estimated, too much fruit gunk in solution to measure)
FG:
ABV:

Mix it all up. Go!

Pretzels

2010-07-24T16:01:00.000-07:00

As mentioned in the last post, I like Kai's Brezel recipe. It works. I used baking soda, and after rereading the directions, I realized that my first two batches came out weird because the baking soda solution needs to be hot to get the action needed.

Kai is metric, here's US for you:

4 C flour
1 C water
1 Tbsp dry malt extract (table sugar if you don't have it...but it won't be the same)
2 tsp salt
2 tsp butter
1 tsp yeast

bath:
4 tsp baking soda
2 C water

mmmalt

2010-07-17T11:57:00.000-07:00

Update 8/11 - Tapped, a few bottles prepped for comps. Gelatin is amazing. A little gritty in the first pour, but is brilliantly clear now!
--
Update 8/4 - Kegged. Trying gelatin as a fining agent. It's pretty cloudy now since I missed the clarifier during the boil and haven't been seeing great cold breaks lately. This might be going to competition, and it might not be. We'll see.
--

I've been meaning to brew an altbier for a while. It's essentially a German amber ale. Clean, dry, yet still malty and complex. This recipe is inspired by the Kaiser Alt recipe over at Braukaiser.com. I saw Kai speak at the AHA conference and in checking out his website found the recipe (and one for Brezels!). I've also wanted to try a decoction just to see how it turns out. Lucky me, Kai's all about traditional German technique, and his recipe recommends a step mash with a single decoction at mash out. So here we go.

Batch #62
Altbier (Kaiser Alt)
--8lbs Munich
--1lb CaraMunich
--1.5oz Carafa II
--2oz Hallertauer 4.2%AA (60min, pellet)
--1/4 tsp gypsum (mash)
--WLP008 East Coast Ale
OG: 1.048
FG: 1.012
ABV: 4.7%
IBU: 25

Mashed in to 132°F, held 20m. Raised to 149°F, held 45m. Decocted ~40% of mash and boiled for 20m (heat slowly to a boil, ~5°F/m). Returned decocted portion to main mash to hit 168°F, held 10m. Collected 7.25 gallons wort. Boiled 70m, chilled to 64°F and pitched yeast.

It's hot outside.

2010-06-27T08:42:00.000-07:00

Update 7/15 - Kegged. Primed with 3oz table sugar (~3+ vol CO2). Added peach flavoring.
--

Easy drinkin' summer wheat beer time. I only used 1 vial of yeast and no starter. I know, high crimes... but I just plain ran out of time earlier in the week. I was trying to get WLP320 (Am Hefe) but couldn't get it in time for the brew day. The 060 is rumored to be a blend of WLP001 (Chico/Sierra Nevada), WLP051 (Anchor Liberty Ale), and probably also WLP810 (Anchor Steam). Thought I'd give it a try since White Labs boasts a good complexity from it and not quite as much hop emphasis as the WLP001.

The hop schedule is not my ideal, but I was cleaning out the freezer. That was all I had, and it's just barely enough. In a perfect world, I would have liked some nice noble hop aroma additions and a little more bitterness.

Batch #61
American Wheat, 5.5 gallons
--5.5lbs Wheat Malt
--4lbs German Pils
--1lb Maris Otter
--4oz Melanoidin
--4oz CaraFoam
--1oz Saaz 3%AA (60min, whole)
--0.125oz Willamette 4.8%AA (60min, whole)
--0.375oz Vanguard 5.8%AA (60min, whole)
--1/4 tsp supermoss (15min)
--1/4 tsp gypsum (mash)
--WLP060 American Ale Blend
--3oz table sugar (priming in keg)
--2oz peach flavoring (priming in keg)
OG: 1.053
FG: 1.010
ABV: 5.6%
IBU: ~15

Mashed in to 153°F in 4.25 gallons water and held for 60m. Batch sparged with 18.5qts at 185°F (raised mash temp to 168°F) and collected 29qts wort total. Boiled for 90m. Chilled and pitch yeast at 68-70°F. Probably get some fruit in secondary.

Let's try that again...

2010-05-22T13:22:00.000-07:00

Update 7/8 - Bottled with 3oz table sugar and a fresh dose of Saflager dry yeast.
Update 6/6 - Kegged, started lagering ~45°F
--

Making the St Pat's black lager again. This time for somebody else. So, once again...I won't get much of it. I might try to sneak a gallon in bottles for drinking and competition, since it seemed to be very popular a couple months back. I also get to try out my submersible pump for chilling today. The idea is that instead of dumping gallons and gallons of chilling water, I recirculate it over a block of ice and save some water, with the possible added benefit of dropping my wort a few more degrees into the lager zone (Kenny Loggins called, but it was a wrong number).

For this version, I've fixed the Chocolate/carafa proportion (last time I was emptying some inventory), and had to make a substitution for the perle hops. I also opted to try out Papazian's yeast, which is supposed to be good for both ales and lagers. I figured it would be a good idea in case I can't quite get the lower temps in my fermentation space (although the weather has been mild, so it might not be an issue).

Batch #60
Schwartzbier
--8lbs Pils
--2lb Munich
--0.5lb Chocolate
--0.5lb Carafa II
--0.5lb Crystal 40L
--0.5lb Melanoidin
--4AAU Vanguard (60min)
--4AAU Willamette(45min)
--2AAU each Van. and Wil. (20min)
--0.5oz each Van. and Wil. (0min)
--Whirlfloc (10min)
--WLP862 Cry Havoc, two-stage starter - 1L, 1.5L
OG: 1.056
FG: 1.016
ABV: 5.2%
IBU: ~25-30

Mash in with 17 qts - all grains except chocolate and carafa - at 154F, hold for 30m. Stir in dark grains, mash temp falls a bit, hold for 30m. Batch sparge with 17 qts. Boil for 75m (pils malt!). Chill to 50F, pitch yeast, and ferment to 55F. Bring to room temp for a day or two diacetyl rest, rack off yeast and ramp temp down to ~34F for lagering.

They don't allow you to have bees in here.

2010-05-15T16:35:00.000-07:00

Update 8/2
Bottled lager yeast portion, final gravity 1.001.
--
Update 7/8
Bottled mead yeast portion. Racked lager yeast portion, started lagering.
--
Update 7/3
Water: 0.4+ Brix (I need a tiny screwdriver to calibrate properly)
Mead yeast: 5.5 Brix; (~13%abv) Dry, floral and perfume - almost medicinal.
Lager yeast: 8.4 Brix; (~11%abv) Sulfur aroma, slightly harsh. Might benefit from lagering.
Both have a nice hint of the source honey.
--

More mead! This one's going to be a little lighter in alcohol.

Mead Batch #02
Wildflower Mead (5 gallons)
-12lbs Wildflower honey
-1/4tsp Fermaid K
Split yeast: WLP720 Sweet Mead yeast (1L starter), Fermentis Saflager W-34/70 (11.5g)
OG: ~1.082 (19.5°Brix) <--yep, bought a refractometer.
FG: 0.997 (WLP720), 1.001 (W-34/70)
ABV: ~11% (WLP720), 10.6% (W-34/70)

Boiled 4 gallons water with yeast nutrient, let it cool just a bit, and mixed in (almost) 12 lbs honey to reach (almost) 5 gallons. I spilled some on the way, which is why my shoe smells so good. Chilled and split the must into two 3-gallon carboys. Fermenting the WLP720 around 70F and the W-34/70 at 50F.

Hop Watch 2010

2010-05-09T22:01:00.000-07:00

About a month ago I planted a Chinook rhizome in a 24 gallon pot. It sprouted two weeks ago, and I'm just now getting around to posting pictures.

Instead of making a new post every time the plant grows a little, I've made a new gadget so the latest picture and link to the slideshow will live off to the right, just below the status of my fermenters and taps. [Hint: it's the part with the picture]

Now that I've taken the two seconds to learn how to set that up, I'll start posting pictures of the beers, any awards they earn, and probably shots from some events, too.

Neil's Party Part 2 of 2

2010-04-19T16:22:00.001-07:00

This one is based on Odell's Easy St Wheat. Never had it, but sounded like a good American wheat beer. Cleaned out my RAHR, so there's a bit of pils in there, too. Added the last of the cascade whole hops for fun. Original clone recipe in brackets where changes were made.

Batch #59
American Wheat, 5.75 gallons [5 gal]
--5.375lbs Wheat Malt
--3.25lbs 2-row RAHR [4.375]
--1.25lbs German Pils [--]
--8oz Munich
--2oz Crystal 20L
--0.75oz Cascade 8.7%AA (60min, whole) [3.5 AAU Cascade]
--0.5oz Cascade 8.7%AA (20m, whole) [--]
--1oz Saaz 3.0%AA (2m, whole)
--1oz Vanguard 5.0%AA (2m, pellet) [Tettnanger]
--Whirlfloc (15min)
--1/2 tsp gypsum (infusion water)
--US-05 - 1/2 cup slurry [Kölsch yeast]
OG: 1.045
FG: 1.007
ABV: 5%
IBU: ~30 [16]

Mash in to 149°F in 4.25 gallons water and hold for 60m. Batch sparge with 4.25 gallons at 170°F to collect 7 gallons wort. Boil for 60m. Chill and pitch yeast at 68-70°F. Came in at 66% efficiency and right on target.

Neil's Party Part 1 of 2

2010-04-18T09:18:00.000-07:00

Neil's having another party and he said "Hey, can I get two batches of beer for a month from now?" A week later I had some time, and was planning to either make two batches in one day using extract, or enlist the help of a fellow hausbraumeister to make one of them. I did end up hosting a friend to brew, but he made his own thing, which is remarkably similar to the beer I was going to assign him. Oh well. Wheat beers are fast, so I should still have time if I get it done before next weekend.

I thought for a party that a wheat beer would go over well. They usually do. No one complains too much about hoppiness or roastiness. But Neil wanted two beers. So he gets an amber, too. It is the prerogative of the brewer to challenge party guests' palates at will. So looking at my recipes for amber ales in assorted beer magazines and books, I came across BYO's Bike Clones issue. Fat Tire? Too bland. Boulder Beer Single Track Copper Ale? Now wait a minute, it's brewed with toasted rye. Not your typical amber. Of course the shop had no flaked rye, so I ended up with rye malt that isn't toasted in the oven because a) I don't think that would work as well as toasted flaked rye and b) I overlooked that tidbit until reviewing the recipe to see how my numbers hit (well is the answer, check the vitals!). I opted for a big pitch of clean ale yeast, and doubled the bittering hops because I was skeptical of the BYO numbers. I also boosted the volume to account for transfer losses on the way to the keg. I get better efficiency than BYO assumes, and all my math worked out to be about where I wanted it. Original recipe differences indicated in brackets below.

Batch #58
Single Track Fraternal Twin Ale, 5.75 gallons (5 gallons)
--8.75lbs Ger. Pils [2-row, but with kolsch yeast, probably pils]
--0.5lbs CaraPils
--12oz Rye malt [flaked, toasted]
--0.75oz Cascade 7.5%AA (90min, whole) [3.1AAU Nugget, which is, like, 1/4 oz]
--1oz Vanguard 5.0%AA (30m, pellet) [Tettnanger]
--1oz Vanguard 5.0%AA (5m, pellet) [Tettnanger]
--Whirlfloc (15min)
--1 tsp gypsum (infusion water)
--US-05 - 1/2 cup slurry
OG: 1.054
FG: 1.015
ABV: 5.1%
IBU: ~30

Mash in to 156°F in 4 gallons water and hold for 60m. Fly sparge with 4.5 gallons at 170°F to collect 6.5 gallons wort. Add 1 gallon to reach 7.5 gallons total, boil for 90m. Chill and pitch yeast at 68-70°F. Rocked 78% efficiency and came in right on target.

This beer needs a good name.

2010-04-10T18:56:00.000-07:00

Ok. It's either my scale, or MoreBeer, or both, but every time I weigh my hop pellets out, the total is less than the 2oz I'm paying for. It's possible that there's some moisture loss between these batches, but I don't think it would account for nearly a third of an ounce, especially considering these things are already dried before being pelletized. Anyway. A couple months back I had the Grimbergen Dubbel and decided I needed to brew something in that style. So tasty...

Batch #57
Dubbel
--14lbs Ger. Pils
--1lbs Munich
--8oz Belg. Aromatic
--8oz Special B
--8oz CaraMunich
--1lb Belg. Candi Syrup "D" (80 SRM, 1.032ppg)
--1/3 tsp table salt (~2.5g, infusion water)
--1oz Perle 7.5%AA (60min)
--Whirlfloc (15min)
--WLP530 - Abbey Ale Yeast (sufficient starter)
OG: 1.085
FG: 1.015
ABV: 8.8%
IBU: ~18

Single infusion mash 154F in 21qts water + salt addition, fly sparge with 14qts at 170F. I ended up just shy of 7 gallons wort at 1.062, making for a whopping 82% efficiency (I even widened the gap on my mill today...just goes to show how much more efficient fly sparging is when you've got the time). Ninety minute boil, add hops at 60m mark. I initially planned to add a little near knockout for some aroma, but once again, I've been shortchanged. The salt is to add a little sodium to the beer to boost the perceived malt flavor. The amount I threw in is around 50ppm in 5 gallons of beer, so it should be enough to make a difference, but not so much that the beer is at all salty.

Sandeep's Commission

2010-03-21T12:25:00.000-07:00

Update 4/5 - Wheaty, but the orange and coriander show well. Tastes awful with toothpaste. SG 1.008
--
Sandeep asked for a Blue Moon Clone. So, I don't know, I guess this might work. I don't drink Blue Moon very often, so this might be a bit more citrus than the real deal, but as I recall there's honey and people who claim to have good clone recipes use marmalade. Also, I thought I'd use an inconspicuous high flocculating yeast to help keep the beer American and clear.

Batch #56
Cold Pressed Ham
--5lbs Ger. Pils
--3lbs White Wheat Malt
--2lbs Flaked Wheat
--4oz Munich
--1/2 tsp gypsum (infusion water)
--0.67oz Perle 7.5%AA (60min)
--Whirlfloc (15min)
--8oz Orange Blossom Honey (5min)
--fresh zest from 2 tangerines and 1 grapefruit (5min)
--2T orange marmalade (5min)
--crushed coriander (5min)
--Safale US-05
OG: 1.052
FG: 1.008
ABV: 5.75%
IBU: 15

Single infusion at 154F in 16 qts. Sparge with 17 qts at 170 to collect 7 gallons for a 90 min boil. Spices and such just a few minutes before flameout.

Yeast Wars!

2010-03-11T16:48:00.000-08:00

Update 3/30 - Belgian FG 1.018, bottled.
Update 3/28 - American FG 1.011, bottled. Belgian SG 1.018, check back tomorrow.
Update 3/21 - Dry hopped late last night.
--
I'm hop bursting the crap out of this. Expect an update with dry hops in a week or two. I also bought smaller carboys so I can split my brews into two batches for yeast and dry addition experiments. Today's lesson: Fermentis Safale US-05 vs Safbrew T-58.

Batch #55
Honey DIPA
--15lbs 2-row RAHR
--4oz Honey Malt
--6oz Melanoidin
--6oz Carafoam
--2.25lbs Mesquite Honey
--1/2 tsp gypsum (infusion water)
--1oz Cascade 6.7%AA (60min)
--1oz Cascade 6.7%AA (30m)
--11oz Cascade 6.7%AA (every 2m until knockout starting at 20m)
--3oz Cascade (dry hop, split evenly between carboys)
--Whirlfloc (15min)
--Split batch: Safale US-05 and Safbrew T-58, 11.5g dry (each)
OG: 1.089
FG: 1.011 | 1.018
ABV: 10.2% | 9.3%
IBU: ~85?

Mash in with 5gal at 152F (slightly higher than normal for my DIPAs to account for the honey), hold for 60m. I batch sparged with 4gal to collect 6.75gal total. I also immediately began heating the first batch while collecting the second. Hopefully this will add a slight caramel, but I don't expect much. Bring to a boil, and make sure to use a big hop sock or lots of bags to avoid cramping your pellets. Chill and pitch yeast. I plan to free ferment in 64F ambient for a couple days then limit at 68F in my chiller if needed.

Stupid February

2010-03-01T09:11:00.000-08:00

Yeah, no brewing in all of February. I guess it was something of a busy month between lots to do in lab, friends getting ready to leave the country, and, oh yeah, some sort of beer event.

That said, the red ale's kegged and needs some gas, the ryewine's coming along nicely, and my imperial mild developed a mild twang that seems to be a real crowd pleaser.

More beer is on the way as soon as I can get a weekend to myself!

T-minus 45 days.

2010-01-31T14:18:00.000-08:00

St Patrick's Day is not that far away. So here's the red ale, with a bit of a tweak. I'm hoping that the rose will come through but not be overpowering. If it works, I'd like to add rose hips to the recipe, too, since they contribute a bit of color as well as a citrusy tartness. The extra time to sit in the keg should help the rose mellow a bit and blend with the caramel and honey in this.

Batch #54
Irish Rose Ale
--11.75lbs 2-row RAHR
--4oz Honey Malt
--6oz Crystal 40L
--6oz Crystal 120L
--4oz Carafa II (30m mash)
--4oz rose water (15m)
--1/2 tsp gypsum (infusion water)
--2oz Cascade 7.5%AA (60min)
--Whirlfloc (15min)
--WLP007 Dry English Ale Yeast, 1L starter
OG: 1.065
FG: 1.015
ABV: 6.5%
IBU: ~40

Mash in all grains except carafa at 154F in ~17qts water. Stir in carafa after 30m. Batch sparge with ~17qts hot water for mash out to 168F. I collected 6.75gal wort.

Hello, my name is Dr. Greenthumb

2010-01-27T19:07:00.000-08:00

Preordered a hop rhizome. I don't know what I'm going to do with it. Other than brew an IPA with a whole lot of chinook at the end of summer.

Rye!

2010-01-18T16:09:00.000-08:00

Update 3/11 - SG 1.017. Kegged with 1.75oz table sugar.
Update 3/1 - SG 1.020.
Update 2/14 - SG 1.024 and has been for a few days. Racked to secondary and fermentation jump started with WLP001 (1L starter, crashed, decanted, repitched into a second 1L starter to proof).
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One of my goals for this sack o' grain was to make a barleywine that doesn't suck. Then I got to thinking. Wouldn't a ryewine be kind of fun? Turns out I'm not the only one who thought so. I've heard of recipes ranging from 20-50% rye. I went for a solid 24% rye with 8% wheat. Shouldn't be overwhelmingly spicy, but I expect it will have enough potency to balance the caramel and honey flavors from the specialty grains. This recipe maxes out my mash tun. Rumor has it there's a fantastic oatwine out there that includes a hefty 60% oat malt bill.

Batch #53
Ryewine
--15lbs 2-row RAHR
--6lb Rye Malt
--2lb White Wheat Malt
--12oz Crystal 60L
--8oz Crystal 75-80L
--6oz Honey Malt
--4oz Crystal 40L
--2oz Crystal 120L
--4oz Rice Hulls
--1/2 tsp gypsum (infusion water)
--2oz Magnum 14.4%AA (60min)
--1oz Mt Hood 5.2%AA (30min)
--1oz Mt Hood 5.2%AA (15min)
--1oz Mt Hood 5.2%AA (5min)
--1oz Mt Hood 5.2%AA (1min)
--Whirlfloc (15min)
--1/4 tsp fermaid k (15m)
--WLP002 English Ale Yeast, 1.5C slurry from stout
OG: 1.100
FG: 1.017
ABV: 10.9%
IBU: ~75

Mash in with 29 qts water to 146F. This gives a decent water/grain ratio of about 1.15, and fills my 10gal cooler mashtun almost to the brim. The low mash temp is to make sure that I don't end up with a finished product that's cloyingly sweet. Bonus: 146F is within the range of protease activity, so the rye gets a decent treatment. Nice big thermal mass, the temp stays the same for a solid 90m mash (no wind either...too wet outside, so I was in the kitchen). Fly sparge with 10qts water at 170F. Ideally, more sparge water is needed, so my efficiency suffered some (59%), but I was running into the limits of my kettle, and with the crystal malts, I didn't want to boil too long. 60m boil, hops as noted. Cool to ~60F, pitch yeast, ferment in low 60s (don't want too much of the esters from the yeast...just a hint). I may have to add more yeast later, say after a week or so rack and pitch active WLP001 or something else hungry. That way I don't stress the english yeast too much and don't have to worry about sitting on trub and dead yeast while the ferment completes.

I see your Schwartz is as big as mine.

2009-12-27T16:30:00.000-08:00

Update 3/18 - I think they liked it. Tapped for a St Paddy's party yesterday, just a bit of foam when I reached for *my* first pint of the stuff tonight. Maybe I should brew bigger batches.
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Update 1/18 - Okay, the gravity hasn't changed in a while, we're just done at 1.018. A little high, but whatever. I'll empty out a keg and pop this in the lager fridge in the next day or so.
--

Nice black lager. I think this is another one of Jamil's recipes. Or at least I took inspiration from it. Not too roasty. It's a trick, really. Looks and smells like a big roasty thing, but comes through much softer. The carafa is nice because it's been dehusked, giving a less harsh roast character than other forms of roasted barley. WLP800 isn't necessarily the best choice - it's supposedly from Pilsner Urquell - but it's what I have and I didn't feel like making a starter of German yeast last week.

Batch #52
Schwartzbier
--8lbs Pils
--2lb Munich
--0.42lb Chocolate
--0.58lb Carafa II
--0.5lb Crystal 40L
--0.5lb Melanoidin
--0.5oz Perle 7.5%AA (60min)
--0.5oz Perle 7.5%AA (45min)
--0.5oz Perle 7.5%AA (20min)
--0.5oz Perle 7.5%AA (0min)
--Whirlfloc (10min)
--WLP800 Pilsner Lager Yeast, slurry from pilsner
OG: 1.062
FG: 1.018
ABV: 5.5%
IBU: ~25

Mash in all grains except chocolate and carafa at 154F, hold for 30m. Stir in dark grains, mash temp falls a bit, hold for 30m. Batch sparged (again didn't get as much extracted as I thought I would...). Used a 75m boil to compromise between the DMS issue and the low extraction volume. Chilled to 50F, pitched yeast.

Because wine ought.

2009-12-23T14:04:00.001-08:00

Update 1/30 - Bottled. Ended up with 23 bottles. Floor corkers are wonderful.
Update 1/12 - SG 0.995. Metabisulfite, sorbate, fishguts added. Stirred to degas...will use drill next time.
Update 1/10 - SG 0.995
Update 12/31 - Damn it. I racked into the wrong size carboy and had to dump a gallon of wine. Oh well. SG was 1.009 today.
--

Mead bottled.

I "made" "wine" today. By which I mean I mixed some cat litter, grape juice, and water, and then sprinkled yeast on top. Seriously, it took longer to sanitize everything than to actually mix the must up. I'd like to try starting with grapes at some point, but really...why? This was super easy, and short of growing my own grapes, it doesn't seem like there's too much room for improvement on the grape end of things. I could be wrong. What do I know?

Wine Batch #01
Vintner's Reserve Pinot Noir
OG: 1.075 (18.2 Brix)
FG: 0.995
ABV: 10.5%

Follow the kit instructions. So far, that's mix 10g bentonite with 2L hot water, add 10L juice, dilute to 23L, and add yeast (Red Star Premier Cuvée, included in kit). Still, I had fun. I'm excited about having 30 bottles of home wine to hand out to people.

Hey.

2009-12-20T14:12:00.000-08:00

The lady's little sister heard such nice things about this one, that she requested it be around when she visits. She'll be here in about three weeks, so it's a little rushed, but here we go again.

Batch #51
'bout Damn Time Oatmeal Stout
--9.75lbs Pale
--1lb Flaked Oats
--1lb Flaked Barley
--0.75lb Pale Chocolate
--0.75lb Victory
--0.5lb Crystal 75L
--0.5lb Black Roasted Barley
--2oz Willamette 4.9%AA (60min)
--whirlfloc (10min)
--WLP002 English Ale Yeast, 1.5L starter
OG: 1.060
FG: 1.018
ABV: 5.5%
IBU: ~25

Single infusion 154F for 60m in 18qts water.
Batch sparge with 16qts to collect about 6.5 gallons.
Fermenting at 64F, so probably going to miss some of the esters from that yeast. I'll probably have to swirl the fermenter a few times to keep the yeast going, too.

That's a bit more like it.

2009-12-18T09:01:00.000-08:00

Did the mash and sparge/lauter work on a 7 bbl brew yesterday. Had to take off before the first hop addition, but still. =)

Fifty!

2009-12-12T16:57:00.001-08:00

Batch #50
Bohemian Pilsner
--8lb German Pils
--9oz CaraPils
--9oz American Munich
--3.9AAU Saaz 3.9% (60m)
--3.9AAU Saaz 3.9% (45m)
--3AAU Saaz 3%, whole (30m)
--3AAU Saaz 3%, whole (10m)
--whirlfloc (10m)
--pinch gypsum in mash
--WLP800, 2L starter
OG: 1.046
FG: 1.009
ABV: 4.8%
IBU: ~30-35

Meant to mash 60m at 154F, ended up mashing in to 158, dropping to 145, raising to 150, and holding for 45 more minutes. Used a 90m boil, ended up with just about 5 gallons exactly in the bucket. Probably 4.5-4.75 in carboy. This is what happens when you brew outside in the rain on a cold day and screw up the mash. Oh well. Smells good.

Half barrel brew

2009-11-09T07:59:00.000-08:00

Update 12/09: Rumor is this has been filtered, carbonated, and kegged. I should be bringing some home and find the FG/ABV soon enough.
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So, this is a different. I brewed a 20 gallon extract batch at Devil's Canyon using their brew-on-premise system. It sounds like after filtering and transfers I should get about 15 gallons out at best. The gravity is a little higher than I was planning for, but it'll be okay. That's why it's an "imperial mild". This is the Dark Mild recipe from Brewing Classic Styles scaled up by a factor of 4.5 instead of the 3.3 for going by just volume...hence "imperial". I added the Fuggles to give it a little more complexity. We'll see how it turns out. The recipe is a lot darker than I was hoping for, but that's my fault for scaling up the black malt...I would have liked something closer to a deep ruby color. There's always next time.

Batch #49 (20 gallons)
Imperial Dark Mild
Brown Ale
--7L (~22lbs) Golden Light LME (Briess)
--2.25lb Crystal 60L
--27oz Crystal 120L
--18oz Brit Pale Chocolate
--9oz Brit Black Malt
--18.2AAU Kent Goldings 5.2% (60m)
--4.8AAU Fuggles 4.8% (30m)
--whirlfloc (15m)
--WLP002, yeast cake from batch 48
OG: 1.050
FG:
ABV:
IBU: ~25

Steeped the grains for 30 min with temperature ranging from 145F at start to 163F at finish. Normal 60m boil with all extract added at the start. Fermenting around 68-70F.

Creamy

2009-10-24T10:21:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I brewed a porter - dark and chocolatey, but not as roasty as a stout. Thought I'd go with the Fuller's yeast to give it some nice fruity aromas and a little lactose to drive home the chocolate milkshake impression. If only I had a stout faucet - a good porter on nitro is really wonderful... Some of the grain amounts are weird because I was cleaning out my inventory. The hops are set up so that it totals 2oz of pellets.

Batch #48
Beer Flavored Milkshake
Porter
--7lbs 2-Row (RAHR)
--2.25lb Ger. Pils
--8.25oz Crystal 75L
--6.25oz Brit Pale Chocolate
--6oz Brit Black Malt
--4oz Brit Roast Barley
--4oz Lactose
--8.4AAU Kent Goldings (60m)
--1.5AAU Kent Goldings (15m)
--.25oz Kent Goldings 6.1% AA (5m)
--.125oz Kent Goldings 6.1% AA (flameout)
--1/4 tsp supermoss (15min)
--1/8 tsp gypsum (mash water)
--WLP002, 1.5L starter
OG: 1.056
FG: 1.014
ABV: 5.5%
IBU: ~30

Mash in 20qts water at 156F, hold for 60m. Batch sparge with 3.6gal water at 170F ro collect 7.25gal wort. Boil for 90m (pilsner malt), ferment at 68-70F. I went with the larger infusion to try a thinner mash and see what it does.

More like Certifiable

2009-10-21T10:40:00.000-07:00

The BJCP finally updated again, my test score and points are all there (dang, NOHC posted fast!) and I've ranked up to 'Certified'. Sweet. I'm just under halfway to 'National', too. Can probably reach 'Supreme Champion' by mid-April. That last one's made up.

My First Mead

2009-10-11T18:52:00.000-07:00

Update 12/23 - Bottled. Only got about 3/4 gallon. It's pretty tasty, so we'll see how it ages. Easy to make, so I'll probably throw in another one soon, too.
--

Because why not. Based on what some people recommend as a mead to start with - Joe's Ancient Orange Cinnamon Clove Mead. And because I had the itch and was lazy. Just like any recipe, I made changes and subs based on what I had and what seemed like a good idea.

Mead Batch #01
Joe's Ancient (1 gallon)
-3lbs Mesquite Honey
-1 large navel orange
-1/4 cup dried blueberries
-1 cinnamon stick
-1 clove, whole
-dash nutmeg from grinder
-1/8 tsp Fermaid K
-1 tsp bread yeast
OG: 1.110 (calculated)
FG: 1.019
ABV: 12%
Brought a half gallon of water with yeast nutrient to a boil. Washed and cut the orange, and jammed it into my fermenter. After water boiled for a little bit, tossed in berries, spices, and killed the heat. Added the honey while heating a quart of water in a tea kettle. Used the hot kettle water to rinse out my can of honey. Let it cool off a bit, and poured everything into the fermenter. Topped off to 1 gallon with the left over kettle water. As it turns out, 3lbs of honey is dang close to 1 qt in volume and with the orange this method got me just about on the nose for volume. Let the whole mess cool to room temperature and added the yeast. I know, it makes no sense, but I'm just going to trust Joe on this one. Fermented at ambient in the dark. Waiting for mead.

I'm actually sort of excited about this. It's a lot faster than brewing, and there are a few recipes I want to try - persimmon mead, t'ej (hopped, had some at GABF...dang good stuff), chocolate mead...maybe even one that's just mead. Damn. Now I have to go to the Renaissance Festival.

Halloween!

2009-10-03T16:47:00.000-07:00

It's October, and there are pumpkins aplenty. Two pie pumpkins are used in this bottom of the grain bucket amber (hence the odd quantities on a couple of the grains). Spice should be fairly restrained. I'll likely add a little vanilla extract at kegging.

Batch #47
Pumpkin Beer
--8.5lbs 2-Row (RAHR)
--0.5lb Crystal 75L
--2oz Brit Pale Chocolate
--6.75oz Melanoidin
--7.62oz Crystal 40L
--1 fresh pumpkin, ~3lbs pre-cooked weight (15min)
--1 fresh pumpkin, ~3lbs pre-cooked weight (mash)
--1 oz Kent Goldings 6.1% AA (65min)
--1 oz Kent Goldings 6.1% AA (20min)
--1/4 tsp supermoss (15min)
--0.75 tsp pie spice (15min)
--1 tsp vanilla extract in keg
--1/4 tsp gypsum (mash water)
--Safale US-05 Ale Yeast, 11.5g
OG: 1.048
FG: 1.012
ABV: 4.7%
IBU: ~30

Cut, cleaned, and cooked both pumpkins. Removed the skin, and mashed into a paste. Mashed one of the pumpkins and grains for 60m at 152F. Collected 7 gallons wort. Boiled for 65m (I've got my reasons...reheat time after adding pumpkin and such), adding rest of ingredients as indicated. Chilled and pitched yeast (without rehydrate).

The commish

2009-10-01T17:15:00.000-07:00

Batch #46
Neil's White
Witbier
--4.5lbs Ger. Pils
--0.5lb White Wheat Malt
--4lbs Flaked Wheat
--1lb Flaked Oats
--5.2AAU Mt Hood(60m)
--5.2AAU Mt Hood(2m)
--1/4 oz orange peel
--1/8 oz crushed coriander seed
--1/4tsp Supermoss (15m)
--WLP400 Belgian Wit Yeast, 1L starter
OG: 1.038
FG:
ABV:
IBU: ~20

Mash at 152F for 60m. Mash out at 165F, recirc, and collect 6.5 gallons. Boil for 60m. I'd prefer to collect more wort and boil longer, but the wheat and oats absorbed more water than I expected. Spices at flameout. OG came out way low...I forgot to add calcium to the mash and the single infusion with all of that wheat probably wasn't the best plan. Crap.

The List

2009-09-28T07:56:00.000-07:00

We're back from the Great American Beer Festival. There are a few that I tasted that didn't make the list since this was put together during the recovery hours. I've included the state, a better style description, and any medals. Italics means I had it at the brewery. This is only around 5% of what was available. But hey, it was my first try.

My updated list

List of participating breweries
List of all medalists

In Tsaric Russia, stout drinks you!

2009-09-20T07:34:00.000-07:00

11/12/10 - Just found out this took 2nd at the 6th Annual MoreBeer Forum Comp, too!

Update - On to Minneapolis!
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It's brew day again and we've got another biggie lined up...

Batch #45
Shrinkray!
Russian Imperial Stout
--19lbs 2-row (RAHR)
--1.5lbs Roasted Barley (Brit)
--1lb Belg. Special B
--0.5lb CaraMunich
--0.5lb Chocolate (Brit)
--0.5lb Pale Chocolate (Brit)
--28.8AAU Magnum (60m)
--15AAU Cascade (30m)
--9.8AAU Willamette (15m)
--2oz Willamette (0m)
--1/4tsp Supermoss (15m)
--1/4tsp Fermaid K (15m)
--WLP001 California Ale Yeast, 4L starter, and 11.5g US-05 dry yeast
OG: 1.094
FG: 1.018
ABV: 10%
IBU: I don't know. Like, 80-100.

Mash in at 153F and hold for 90m. Collect 7 gallons of wort, boil one hour. Chill to 65F and pitch yeast. My efficiency is a little low on this one (no calcium added...really big beer...too much going on...excuses...) but it actually turned out close to what the original recipe (one of Jamil Z's) estimated for OG. I might add some sugar, we'll see. I can't get wort down to 65 with my chiller, so it's in the fermentation cabinet and capped with foil but the yeast will be added when the temperature is right this time. Which will hopefully be before I go on VACATION. Oh, and yes, lots of yeast...the last thing I want is an underattenuated RIS.

The Dark One

2009-09-10T15:50:00.000-07:00

To compliment the Golden Strong Ale from last week, a Dark Strong Ale...this is actually about as much malt as I can fit in my mash tun, so next week's brew will be tough. I had intended all the bitterness to be from the Tettnanger hops, but didn't have as much left as I needed, so had to add some other stuff in, and still came up a little low on the IBU estimate. Missed my mash gravity reading, and was a little surprised to see that my OG was as high as it is...probably because this recipe was originally for 6 gallons. Alas.

Batch #44
The Dark One
Belgian Dark Strong Ale
--15lbs Ger. Pilsner
--3lbs Amer. Munich
--1lb Belg. Aromatic
--1lb Belg. Special B
--1lb CaraMunich
--0.5lb Amer. Wheat
--0.5lb Melanoidin
--9AAU Tettnanger (60m)
--3AAU Glacier (60m)
--0.7AAU Saaz (60m)
--1/4tsp Supermoss (15m)
--1/4tsp Fermaid K (15m)
--WLP500 Trappist Ale Yeast, 4L starter
OG: 1.110
FG: 1.027
ABV: 10.9%
IBU: ~25

Mash in at 155F, allow to fall to as low as 150F. Mash 90 minutes. Extract 7.5 gallons, boil two hours or long enough to yield about 5 gallons into fermenter. Pitch at 68F, allow to rise into 80s after a few days. My efficiency was ~76%.

Some unnamed horror

2009-09-03T23:36:00.000-07:00

Finally, a strong golden belgian ale, roughly the BYO Duvel clone recipe. This is why I bought pilsner malt for brewing this summer.

Batch #43
The Whisperer
Belgian Golden Strong Ale
--10.5 lbs Ger. Pilsner Malt
--6 oz CaraPils
--26 oz Cane sugar (15min)
--1 lb Cane sugar (secondary)
--1.9 AAU Hallertauer (60min)
--4.1 AAU Tettnanger (60min)
--3.75 AAU Saaz (15min)
--3/4 oz Saaz (0min)
--1/4 tsp supermoss (15min)
--1/4 tsp gypsum (mash)
--WLP550 Belgian Ale Yeast, 2L starter
OG: 1.065 (primary), ~1.073 effective
FG: 1.015
ABV: ~7.7%
IBU: ~20

Mashed in 14qts at 100F, slowly ramp (50min today) the temperature to 150F. I used direct flame, so had to stir very frequently (really, like, every minute, so grab a brew and a book) to prevent scorching and tanin extraction from hot spots. Held at 150F for 40min. Mashed out at 168-170F for ~10min, extracted 7 gallons wort. Boiled for 90min, yielding 5.3ish gallons of wort in the fermenter (a little boil over since I was distracted with measuring hop additions).

Ferment starting around 68F, allowing temperature to rise to low-mid 80s after 2-3 days. Rack to secondary, add sugar, and wait, etc...

Yeasty experiments

2009-08-01T16:56:00.000-07:00

Update 8/29 - It's all bottled now. The small batch was in bottles last week, and I finally had some time to rack the other 4 gallons today. It didn't taste sour, but the gravity sure reads like it.
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More Saisons today...this batch was split into two fermenters, ~4 gallons in one carboy, and the rest in a gallon jug. The idea is to compare WLP565 Saison with Wyeast 3711 French Saison. I also added the sugar during the boil to make less work for myself since I'll be bottling the scotch ale and making root beer this week, too.

Batch #42 (and 42.5)
The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything
--10.5lbs Ger. Pilsner
--1lb White Wheat Malt
--0.5lb Amer. Munich Malt (mostly, a little CaraPils to round out the half pound)
--1lb Cane Sugar (15min)
--2.25oz Hallertauer 3%AA (60min)
--0.75oz Hallertauer 3%AA (15min)
--1/4tsp supermoss (15min)
--1/4tsp gypsum (mash water addition)
--Wyeast 3711 French Saison, 1L starter (for carboy)
--WLP565 Saison Ale Yeast, vial saved from previous batch (for jug)
OG: 1.068
FG: 1.000+ (Read ~0.999, but hydrometer tube is unreliable below about 1.008)
ABV: ~8.5-9%
IBU: 20ish

Mash in 16qts at 150F, allow to fall as low as 145F over the course of 90min. Batch sparge to 7 gallons wort. Boil for 90 minutes. Ferment at 68F for 2-3 days, then allow to rise into mid to high 80s F.

Strawberry Corn Flakes?

2009-07-25T17:51:00.000-07:00

Update 8/16 - Most of the berries have fallen to the bottom, a little fermentation still going. I did figure out how to account for the berries, though. Strawberries are around 5% sugar by weight (maybe a little more since these were so ripe), so let's be generous and say I added 0.5# of sugar as berry puree, 100% fermentable at ~40ppg, so we'll call it at ~0.5% ABV added by the fruit.
--
Update 8/9 - Racked to secondary with berry puree. SG ~1.012
--

Some of the ripest strawberries I'd ever seen were $7 a flat a month or so ago. I bought a few, and we ate lots of them with shortcake, sparkling wine, in salads, etc. And I pureed and froze about 8.5lbs of the ripest, reddest berries. The lactose is to give the beer a little body, since it should ferment out pretty well (and will dry out with the berries, although crash cooling should help there). I considered using the frozen berries to help chill the wort quickly, but decided against it because fruit in primary is a good way to guarantee blowing out your airlock. 8.5lbs should give this cream ale a moderate berry flavor, since it's such a pale base brew. Ray Daniels recommends closer to 2#/gal in his book, but we'll start here and see what happens.

Batch #41
Strawberry Cream Ale
--10lbs Am 2-row (RAHR)
--1lb Flaked Corn
--0.25lb Lactose (15min)
--8.5lbs Ripe strawberries, pureed, frozen (secondary)
--1.5oz Willamette 4.3%AA, whole (60min)
--0.5oz Willamette 4.3%AA, whole (30min)
--1/4tsp supermoss (10min)
--Wyeast 1450 "Denny's Favorite", 1L starter.
OG: 1.058
FG: ~1.008
ABV: ~6.5-7%
IBU: 20ish

Mash in 19qts to 150F, hold for 60 min. Batch sparge with 3.5gal to collect 6.75gal total. Boil 60 minutes. Ferment in low 60s to minimize esters. Crash out the yeast, rack onto berry puree in secondary. Going into the fermenter, this does actually taste a lot like a bowl of corn flakes :D

More brewing furniture

2009-07-21T08:03:00.000-07:00

Based on the write-up of "Son of Fermentation Chiller" (PDF). I constructed an end table for my living room that houses not one, but two, independently controlled carboy chillers. I scaled down the interior dimensions to ~14"W x 21"L x 22.5"H (or thereabouts, I'd have to measure again) so that there's around 1" or less of wiggle room for a carboy horizontally, and actually about -1/4" of space vertically for a carboy with a 1/2"OD vinyl hose running to a jar of sanitizer. In other words, it's just barely big enough. The extra space behind the carboy houses the fan and gallon jug of ice. Everything is inside a simple wooden frame, and I used 4 pieces of 24" x 48" x 1-1/2" foam insulation (not the extruded stuff...wasn't going to be able to get it home as a 4' x 8' sheet). The table top is split down the middle so I can open one side at a time (coming soon: hinges in the back), and the front is held on by magnets. All of the foam that doesn't move (the top and front panels come out for loading/unloading) is caulked in with silicone. I plan to add some weather stripping to seal the top and front, as it's all a little leaky now. Two thermostats control the fans, the wiring is identical to the basic diagram in the pdf above, just with an additional thermostat and fan in parallel. So, here's my parts list followed by pictures.

-2 thermostats, low voltage, bimetal coil nonprogrammable heat/cool, $30 (eBay)
(as it says in the PDF, these things say "24V" on the package, but you want 12V for the fans)
-2x 80mm muffin fans, $2 (thanks, craigslist!)
-12V 500mA power adapter, $9 (Fry's)
-Extra wires from old cell phone chargers, $0
-Scrap wood from an old couch for the frame, $0
-2x 24" x 48" x 1/4" plywood sheets, ~$10 (Home Depot)
-1x 24" x 48" x 1/8" MDF for base ~$5? (Home Depot)
-2x 8' strips of moulding, ~$20 (?...don't remember exact cost, Home Depot)
-8x 1/2"ish disc magnets, $2 (home depot)
-L brackets for frame, ~$10 (Ace)
-Old worktable for top surface, $20 (craigslist again)
-Assorted finishing nails and whatnot, ~$5
-4x 24" x 48" x 1-1/2" foam insulation, $20 (Home Depot)
-Silicone caulk left over from kegerator construction, $0
-2x Plastic hose barb T-joint for blow-off hoses, $4 (Home Depot)
-3/8" ID vinyl hose for blow offs, ~$5 (MoreBeer)
-Stick on thermometers for carboys, ~$6 (MoreBeer, "fermometers")
-Stain for wood (already had primer and clear coat), $10

Easy enough to put together: build frame, add panels, cut and insert insulation (my middle panel had to be two pieces), wire it up, caulk it up, stain the wood, make girlfriend happy it doesn't look like a box made of foam insulation. Oh, and it works. I've got a DIPA fermenting at 68F inside the box and an uncontrolled saison at 74F (at 8am, higher at 5pm I'm sure).

All told, about as much as I would end up spending, if not more, for a chest freezer and temp control. BUT this has several advantages over a chest freezer: it's smaller, it uses less power (although freezing the ice might negate that), it looks nice in my living room, I can independently control the temperature on two separate fermentations. The ice is a pain to change all the time, but that's okay with me.

Pictures HERE.

Fresh hops

2009-07-19T15:55:00.000-07:00

Update 8/8 - racked to secondary, SG 1.009-1.010, 2oz centennial, 2oz simcoe added.
Update 8/4 - SG 1.010, 2oz Cascade pellets added. Temperature no longer controlled.
--

Two things. I owe Rachel a big IPA because she likes them a lot and I keep adding to the equipment list (post on that fermentation cabinet on its way). Now, before you read the recipe and crunch some numbers to find that you get something like 200IBU, let me yammer on a bit about hops and isomerization. First, I'm using a whole pound of fresh hops. Fresh, as in I picked them from someone's garden yesterday and they haven't been dried. Like herbs in cooking, fresh hops are less potent than dry ones, and ~8oz of fresh hop flowers dry to about 3oz. To compensate, I'm approximating the AA in my calculations as 3% instead of 7-10%. Second, all (ALL) of the models for calculating IBU fall apart at high concentrations of alpha acid in the wort. I could link to some papers but you won't read them...hell, I barely did. The point: it's hard to get more than about 120IBU short of using isoalpha extract. Example, running the numbers on the recipe(s) for Pliny the Elder that Vinnie Cilurzo has published (Zymurgy, Brew Your Own, AHA conference,...) the Rager or Tinseth (Palmer uses Tinseth in How to Brew) methods will give you something like 150-250IBU, and labs that actually measure these things find 95-99 IBU (it is a measurable characteristic of beer). [/geek]

Second, as you may have gleaned from the previous paragraph, I picked a pound of fresh hops yesterday! It was a lot of fun, and the guy who grew the plants is from Minnetonka, so, that's cool. Fresh hops are a bit sticky, and the resin gets all over your fingers. I do not advise chewing on the hops. They taste like lettuce, and then like the most bitter thing you've ever eaten.

Batch #40
Fresh Hop DIPA
--12.5lbs 2-row (RAHR)
--0.5lb Amer. Munich
--0.5lb Crystal 40L
--0.5lb CaraPils
--1lb table sugar as syrup (late kraüsen)
--4oz Cascade, wet, (FWH)
--2oz Magnum 14.3%AA (60min)
--1oz Centennial 8%AA (45min)
--2oz Cascade, wet, (30min)
--1oz Centennial 8%AA (20min)
--2oz Cascade, wet, (15min)
--2oz Cascade, wet, (10min)
--1oz Centennial 8%AA, (7min)
--2oz Cascade, wet, (5min)
--2oz Cascade, wet, (2min)
--1oz Centennial 8%AA (1min)
--2oz Cascade, wet, (Flameout)
--2oz Cascade pellets (dry)
--2oz Centennial pellets (dry)
--2oz Simcoe pellets (dry)
--1/4tsp supermoss (15min)
--1/4tsp gypsum (mash water addition)
--WLP001 California Ale Yeast, 2L starter (2nd generation).
OG: 1.063 (1.071 effective)
FG: 1.010
ABV: ~8%
IBU: ~100+

Mash in at 149F, hold between 145 and 149 for 90minutes. Batch sparge to collect 7 gallons wort. Add hops as listed. Ferment at 68F...more details to come (such as how I added the dry hops, 2ndary temp, crashing, etc). Other useful advice: don't break your mill with 3lbs of malt left to go, make sure you know whether or not you've previously made plans for brew day, and use fresh yeast or you'll worry about the damn starter all day.

...and we're back.

2009-07-06T07:03:00.000-07:00

Update 9/1 -- 2nd Place ribbon in Belgian/French Ales at 5th Annual MoreBeer Forum Comp. Rest of results here: http://morebeer.com/themes/morewinepro//forumresults.htm
--
Update 7/19 -- Added 500mL active starter of WLP001 and 1lb table sugar as thick syrup to help dry out the beer.
--

How novel, a few consecutive hours of free time in one day. I started this batch around 6pm, finishing up just before 11, although I batch sparged to help speed things up a bit. This was the first run on my propane burner that I picked up from a Worts of Wisdom member who recently packed up and moved out of state (thanks, Jim!) and I've learned I need to pull more wort from my mash thanks to a higher evaporation rate outside - I lost 2 gallons in 90 minutes versus the roughly 1 gal/hr rate in the kitchen. Stupid wind. Saison! Saison, saison, saison,....dry, crisp, effervescent summer farmhouse ale. It's hot out, so it's the right time. But there's a trick...fermentation needs to start at normal temperatures (~68F) and then slowly come up to 80F or higher. The latter is a piece of cake in July here, but the former requires some cooling. I'll talk about that in the next post. On to the recipe. Pretty close to JZ's Raison d'Saison ("Brewing Classic Styles"...or the Jamil Show, which I recommend giving a listen), but with a smaller volume, so slightly higher gravity. I'm also going to skip the sugar if my yeast brings the gravity down far enough.

Batch #39
Saison d'Jason
--10lbs Ger. Pilsner
--0.75lb Ger. Pale Wheat Malt
--0.75lb Belg. Aromatic Malt
--1lb Cane Sugar (after primary winds down)
--1.5oz Liberty 4.5%AA (60min)
--0.5oz Liberty 4.5%AA (15min)
--1/4tsp supermoss (15min)
--1/4tsp gypsum (mash water addition)
--pinch of grains of paradise, whole - not cracked (5min)
--WLP565 Saison Ale Yeast, 1L starter.
OG: 1.059 (1.068eff)
FG: 1.012
ABV: ~7.3%
IBU: 20ish

Mash in with 16qts at 147F, hold for 90 minutes. That's what I intended. Instead, it was in at 149, fell to 142, came back up to 145, fell to 142...annoying. Oh well, close enough for my first outdoor mash at home, at night. I hit ~76%, so I'm happy. Collect 7 gallons wort, boil 90 minutes. I had more boil off than expected and ended just shy of 5 gallons. I felt like it, so I threw in some grains of paradise...the yeast will probably give more pepper flavor than a few uncracked peppercorns, though. IBUs ended on the low end...another AAU on each addition would probably help. Ferment starting ~68F, bring up to 80s after a couple days (to avoid fusels during early alcohol production)

NHC '09

2009-06-25T07:27:00.000-07:00

has come and gone. I regret not attending the whole conference (too much $), as there were some neat talks lined up, but I did make it up to Oakland for a few events. First was the BJCP reception dinner. Sean Paxton cooked up a three course meal - greens with roasted tomato and Union Jack IPA dressing and candied walnuts, a chicken thing made with a wit (21st Amendment, I think) , and .... a dessert thing with RR Damnation. I'm still kind of tired. Gail over at Beer by BART did a better job summing up the conference. I sat next to her at the dinner and judged with her on Thursday, so some of the experience is similar. The talk was great, the off-flavor tasting was interesting, too.

Judging! That was fun. My first actual judging experience, and the second round of the national homebrew competition, no less! I didn't specify a category preference, and ended up on 23 and 18. That's Specialty Beer (ie, "Other", and spice, fruit, smoke, and wood aging are already covered, so, maybe you get the picture) in the morning and Belgian Strong Ale (think Chimay, Leffe, Delirium, Piraat, etc...) in the afternoon. The morning session started at 8:30am. Yes, that is far too early. But, that said, I had some very nice beers in both sessions and had a lot of fun earning my first judging point. That's right, we can level up.

I also made it up for Club Night on Friday. This is the night where the Ale Camino (pic in Gail's post) was to be found serving up beers. Highlights for me included a nice black kolsch, a 24% barleywine, mango mead, a California common with NO Northern Brewer hops in it, and a really fantastic rose saison. Also, tasting things brewed by a couple of my beer authors: I had an amber brewed by John Palmer and Jamil Z's flanders red. Although, to be honest, I thought the amber had a slight burnt taste to it... Still, that was cool. As was seeing them and Charlie Papazian just walkin' around. Shared an elevator with Ken Grossman (although I was too sleepy to even muster a hungover "Hi"). Oh! I also suggested to the guys from Brewing Network that they look up Wabash Caves for next year's conference, which I keep hearing is in MSP! After Club Night shut down, the party went on until about 2am upstairs in the hotel with, you guessed it, more beer. Something interesting there - three doppelbocks - one single infusion, one triple decoction, and one single infusion plus melanoidin malt. The triple decoction, in my opinion was best, but not by enough to make the time investment in that brewing method worth it.

And the Trappist before Club Night got underway. All that beer is why I crashed in the hotel and drove home the next morning.

Moonlighting

2009-06-10T20:57:00.000-07:00

I am now part of the production team at a commercial brewery. That means I help make beer that people actually pay for. Or, so far, anyway, help make room for it by cleaning kegs and tanks and such.

Low gravity like the moon

2009-05-25T17:52:00.000-07:00

Update 6/26/09 -- This is good. This is very good. It dried out a little too much...if I can get it to finish with a little more residual sugar (~1.012 maybe), it would be excellent. Mash at 154 next time...maybe a little more crystal.
--

Got the idea from Nate Smith when he gave a talk for the Worts of Wisdom club about IPA/IIPA brewing. Figured it would be a good use for the little bit of grain I had left in the garage, or at least a good experiment. Kept the IBUs down (although my estimate is likely not quite accurate as I used a full 2oz of Centennial today...probably just error on the scale). Munich and 40L for some flavor, CaraPils for a little body. We'll see. Session IPAs are...not real common. I'm also new to Palisade.

Batch #38
iPA
--6.5lbs Golden Promise
--0.5lb CaraPils
--0.25lb Crystal 40L
--0.25lb Dark Munich
--0.5oz Cascade 7.5%AA (60min)
--0.5oz Centennial 8%AA (40min)
--0.5oz Cascade 7.5%AA (20min)
--1oz Palisade 8%AA (15min)
--0.5oz Centennial 8%AA (flameout)
--0.5oz Cascade 7.5%AA (flameout)
--1oz Palisade 8%AA (flameout)
--0.5oz Centennial, 0.5oz Cascade (dry hop)
--1/4tsp supermoss (15min)
--1/4tsp gypsum (mash water addition)
--WLP001 California Ale Yeast, 1+L starter (2nd generation).
OG: 1.040
FG: 1.008
ABV: 4.2%
IBU: 40ish

Mashed in 10qts to 120F, rest for 15min. Raised (using 1.5gal hot water) to 152F and held for 45min. Batch sparge - drained, added ~3.75gallons hot water to bring to mash out temp, drained. Collected about 6.75gal at 1.030SG for 74.5% efficiency.

Fill it with your mighty juice

2009-05-03T15:49:00.000-07:00

Patience...75 minute mash, 45-50 minute lautering time (as opposed to my usual 15), and a 90+ minute boil. Cleaned out the freezer a bit with the hops. This is nominally an American amber, but the flavor and aroma hops might argue with you on that point.

Batch #37
American Amber Ale
--9.5lbs Golden Promise
--2lb Amer. Munich
--0.5lb Crystal 120L
--0.25lb Victory
--0.25lb Pale Chocolate
--1oz Columbus 12%AA (60min)
--1oz Willamette 4%AA (30min)
--0.5oz Willamette 4%AA (15min)
--0.5oz Willamette 4%AA (5min)
--1oz Liberty 5%AA (flameout)
--1/4tsp supermoss (15min)
--WLP001 California Ale Yeast, 1L starter.
OG: 1.065
FG: 1.015
ABV: 6.5%
IBU: 40ish

Mash in 16qts water to 150F for 75min. Mash out to 168F for 10min. Sparge and lauter to 7 gallons of wort (SG~1.048 for 74% efficiency!). I used 1/4 tsp epsom salts and 1/2 tsp gypsum in the mash water - that's Burtonization, Kyle.

Cookin' with gas

2009-04-06T08:11:00.000-07:00

Update - Yeah, it's tasty,...wheat, toast, banana, but I swear it's got acetaldehyde, too. That's what I get for rushing it to the keg.
--

I brewed outside for the first time. Borrowed a propane tank and burner and set to work with a few more brewers. Good times. Having a tree was a mixed bag - ample shade, ample crap falling into EVERYTHING. I was a little worried that this batch wouldn't turn out quite right, but the grains had enough enzyme to do the conversion. My efficiency dragged a little bit, probably because I was using someone else's water and didn't - excuse me, it just foamed through the airlock...okay, problem solved for the moment - add any salts. Still, reasonable efficiency around 70%. I actually ended up using two burners and two kettles, which makes step mashing by multiple infusions a lot easier.

Batch #36
Dunkelweizen
--5lbs Ger. Light Munich
--5lb Ger. Dark Wheat Malt
--0.25lb Pale Chocolate
--1.25oz Liberty 4.5%AA (60min)
--1/4tsp supermoss (15min)
--WLP300 English Ale Yeast, 2L starter from ~1/2 vial saved from a Hefe starter.
OG: 1.050
FG: 1.014
ABV: 4.6%
IBU: ~20 or so

Mash in with 10qts to around 125-130 (lots going on, didn't take notes) for 20min. Add hot water to raise temp to 152 (or thereabouts, again...no notes on what actually happened) for 40min. Added rice hulls. Mash out to 168F (more water) for 15min. I undermeasured my water and ended up only pulling 6.5 gallons of wort, so only did a 60min boil. Ended with around 5.25gal of wort. Brought it home, pitched my yeast, and it is going like mad. After 6 hours, I had about an inch of kraeusen, it's out the top now.

Smooth

2009-03-22T17:43:00.000-07:00

This one's another one for the lady. Should be ready in time for her younger brother and his WIFE to visit. The wort was slick from all the oil in the oats...flaked barley was my addition to try and get a little foam in the finished product. The rest (hop sub aside) is basically JZ's Oatmeal Stout recipe.

Batch #35
'bout Damn Time Oatmeal Stout
--9.5lbs Scot. Golden Promise
--1lb Flaked Oats
--1lb Flaked Barley
--0.75lb Pale Chocolate
--0.75lb Victory
--0.5lb Crystal 75L
--0.5lb Black Roasted Barley
--2oz Willamette 4.6%AA (60min)
--1/4tsp supermoss (15min)
--WLP002 English Ale Yeast, 1.5L starter
OG: 1.065
FG: 1.023
ABV: 5.5%
IBU: ~25

Single infusion mash, 17qts at 154F for 60min. I attempted a mash-out at 170, but my water wasn't quite ready. Instead of waiting the 5 extra minutes, I ended up only hitting about 160 or so for a 10 minute rest. Fly sparged 2.5gal to make 6.25...I guess flaked grains absorb more than I expected. Boiled for 60 minutes total. Mash efficiency just shy of 70%.

Haus Seeblick Hefeweizen

2009-03-21T10:27:00.000-07:00

Another commission. Group ski trip this time, so something that will appeal to craft/home brew noobs and old pros alike.

Batch #34
Haus Seeblick Hefeweizen
--5lbs Ger. Pils
--4.5lbs Am. White Wheat Malt
--1lb Flaked Wheat
--4.5AAU Liberty (1oz 4.5%AA, 60min)
--2.25AAU Liberty (0.5oz 4.5%AA, 2min)
--WLP300 Hefeweizen Yeast, 1.1L starter
OG: 1.050
FG: 1.010
ABV: 5.25%
IBU: ~17

Single infusion mash, 16qts at 155F for 60min...let it fall a bit to around 152F. Batch sparged with 16qts to collect just under 6.75gal. Boiled for 90 minutes total. No clarifier. Mash efficiency just shy of 70%.

More beer for Les' money

2009-03-09T19:43:00.000-07:00

Les volunteered to bankroll a couple brews since I'm not getting a paycheck and he's been drinking it up. So, this one's for him - literally, he bought it, he gets (most of) it. Based on the BYO recipe for a clone of Shiner Bock, it's an American dark lager. I subbed in brown sugar because I didn't have grits (or time for a cereal mash this week) and corn syrup just adds fermentable sugar and no flavor. I also used Pils instead of 6-row, and light munich malt since the Vienna was hiding until after I'd mixed my grains together. And I opted for German lager yeast since I couldn't find fresh Mexican. So maybe it's closer to a Dunkel. We'll see how it turns out.

Batch #33
Black Eye Lager
--4.5# German Pils
--1.5# Light Munich
--0.66# Crystal 60L
--1oz Brit Roast Barley
--0.7# Brown Sugar (15min)
--4.3AAU Willamette (1oz, 4.3%AA, 60min)
--1.3L starter of WLP830 German Lager Yeast
OG: 1.044
FG: 1.009
ABV: 4.6%
IBU: ~15

Mashed in to 152 in 7qts water, held for 60min. Attempted to mash-out to 168 with 3qts boiling water, but temp fell too fast. Sparged over ~45min with 5gal at 170F to collect 6.5gal wort at SG 1.030...80% efficiency. Half tsp gypsum in the mash water, another half in the sparge. Pitched at 60F, sitting in the garage.

For intellectuals

2009-02-21T15:32:00.000-08:00

Update: Averaged 34.5 in the first round of the National competition (didn't pass to 2nd round,...tough category). I agree with the comments, and will make this again with some minor changes.
--

It's overdue.

Batch #32
Rumination DIPA
--15lbs Scot. Golden Promise
--1lbs Crystal 15L
--36AAU Columbus 12%AA, pellets (60min)
--8AAU Centennial 8%AA, pellets (10min)
--8AAU Centennial 8%AA, pellets (0min, steeped for 5)
--2oz Centennial, dry hop
--WLP007 Dry English Ale yeast, 2L starter
OG: 1.071
FG: 1.020
ABV: ~6.7%
IBU: ~110

Mash in to 149F with 5gal (1.25qt/lb) for 60min. Mash out at 170F for 10min. Sparge water 180F, 1 gallon. Collected 6.25gallons of 1.067 wort for an efficiency of 71%. I added 1 tsp gypsum (calcium sulfate) in the mash water for two reasons: my water is really soft and the mash needs calcium, and sulfate accentuates bitterness.

I split the finishing hops from last time into two additions to add some complexity. And I have the right hops this time. And rumor has it, the right yeast. My gravity is a little lower than I expected for just over 5.25gal of finished wort...I probably overestimated the temperature correction when I calculated the mash gravity.

Dry hopped in keg while carbonating. FG is a little high, but it's crawling, so whatever. My stir plate broke (I dropped it), so the yeast population was lower than it should have been. Still tasty.

Beer Week Continues

2009-02-10T07:11:00.000-08:00

Hit up the Toronado last night for "Meet Rob Tod of Allagash". I didn't actually meet him, or even figure out if he was still there at 8pm, but I did have Curieux and Interlude on tap at happy hour prices. Nice work! The selection was Four, Curieux, White, Black, Triple, Hugh Malone, Interlude, and about four more I hadn't seen. Very cool. Oh, and Pliny the Younger was on tap here, too.

DIPA Fest

2009-02-08T06:12:00.000-08:00

Still alive! Got up to Hayward a little before 1, grabbed some glasses and tickets and went wild:

Russian River - Pliny the YOUNGER
Sierra Nevada - Hop Secret 393
Stone - Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale
Pizza Port - Hop 15
Deschutes - Hop Henge Experimental IPA
Lagunitas - Hop Stoopid
Seabright - Hopnoxious (Hopnotic?)
Green Flash - IIPA
Russian River - Pliny the YOUNGER

Also tasted:
Sierra Nevada - Firkin Chico IPA
Triple Rock - IIMAXX IIPA
Speakeasy - Double Daddy
Magnolia - Promised Land IIPA
Dogfish Head - 120min IPA
Stone - Ruination

Probably some other stuff in there, too. It gets hard to keep track of when the least alcoholic sample is 7%. I started and finished with my favorite, but other highlights for me included the Hop Stoopid, Hop 15, and Stone, which was dark and earthy, but bitter. I'd have more to say on each one, but Pliny destroyed my taste buds and everything was suddenly only "good" or "not as good".

Secret bonus beer: an as of yesterday unreleased bottling of Russian River Consecration...so sour and delicious. Great job, Vinnie!

Wry Rye

2009-02-01T09:55:00.000-08:00

By request from a fan of the beers (...but no one's actually paid me yet...), a witbier. With rye, because...why not?

Batch #31
Wry Wit
--5lbs Belgian Pils
--5lbs Flaked Wheat
--1lbs Flaked Rye
--5AAU Vanguard 4.4%AA, pellets (60min)
--1/2 oz Sweet Dried Orange Peel (5min)
--1/2 tsp coriander powder (5min)
--WLP400 Edinburgh Ale yeast, 1L starter
OG: 1.050
FG: 1.010ish
ABV: 5% or so
IBU: 20ish

Mash-in at 104F in 7qts water, rest for 20min (lots of unmalted wheat!). Added ~7.5qts water to raise temp to 152F, rest for 40min. That was the plan. For whatever reason, the saccharification rest wouldn't maintain temp. So it ran low at around 148 in the middle of the mash for about 50min. I extracted a total of 6.5gal wort at 1.045 (batch sparge...drained, added 3.5gallons, drained,...ended up adding one more gallon to get to volume) with sparge water at about 170. No mash-out. Works out to around 73% efficiency. Woohoo!. Thanks, 1/2tsp of gypsum in the mash water...and acid rest, I suppose. Again, too many variables to really tell. My next batch should be all malt, so I'll skip the rest at 104 and go straight to the final rest temp. That should make it easier to determine the role of the gypsum. Pitched the yeast around 2pm or so, saw a bubble come through the airlock around 8 or 9pm. Nice kräusen the next morning.

Scotch

2009-01-17T12:53:00.000-08:00

Update 9/3/10 - Just found out this placed 3rd for Scotch/Irish ales in the MoreBeer 6th Annual Forum Competition. Aging strong stuff is good.
Update 4/21 - SG~1.045, racked back into a larger carboy, added two pounds corn sugar to thin it out a bit. It's active but slow now, I'll probably rack to keg in a few months.
Update 2/28 - SG~1.046, even after the WLP001 addition. Racked to secondary...might add champagne yeast, but it might just be done.
Update 1/31 - SG~1.051. Damn. This is too slow. Maybe some yeast nutrient is in order?
Update 1/24 - SG~1.052, a little estery, still VERY sweet, obviously.
--

I bought a sack of Scottish Golden Promise. Twenty-five kilograms of awesome. So I brewed a strong scotch ale to kick it off. I meant to use a pound of flaked barley, but the shop was out, so I planned to use oats, but then I forgot to put them in the mash. Oh well. A slightly finer crush and a little bit of water chemistry pushed my efficiency up to about 68-70%, which I think is pretty good for such a big beer. I used a little extract because my mash tun is not big enough for 25lbs of grain. Shooting for just the faintest touch of smoke - beechwood instead of peat. I can't stand peat smoke.

Additionally, at the suggestion of the folks at the club, I vented the barleywine and resealed to let some of the CO2 out.

Batch #30
~~Wee~~ Heavy
--15lbs Scot. Golden Promise
--4lbs Light Dry Malt Extract
--1.375lbs Am. Crystal 60L
--12oz Ger. Melanoidin
--12oz Ger. CaraRed
--4oz Ger. Rauchmalt
--2lbs corn sugar (secondary fermentation)
--2oz Willamette 4.3%AA, whole (60min)
--1oz Willamette 4.3%AA, whole (20min)
--1/4 tsp supermoss (10 min)
--WLP028 Edinburgh Ale yeast, 2 vials in 1.7L starter
OG: 1.115 (effectively 1.132)
FG: 1.039
ABV: 12.2%
IBU: 30ish, according to BeerSmith

Mash-in at 156F in 6.25gal water. Added ~1.5gal hot water for mash-out (didn't quite hit 168F...). Fly sparged with 1.25gal water. Collected 7.25 gallons wort. Boiled down to 6.25 gallons before adding extract, let hot break clear, then add first hop addition (for a slightly longer than 2 hour boil). Really, really, shake it up to aerate. My lag time was about three hours.

A slightly bigger lager.

2008-12-28T13:27:00.000-08:00

Update 1/7/09 - SG at 1.012 already! Wow. That was fast. The sugar, I know. After some discussion on the B3 board, I've decided not to call this a doppelbock anymore. I don't know what it is. Bock? We'll see. I'm going to start lagering as soon as I have an empty keg...hopefully in the next day or so.
--

Used my brand new grain mill today. Looks like my efficiency in the mash was about 65%. It was the first time I've done a step mash, so I'm not ruling that out because I didn't really know what I was doing, but I'll try for a finer crush on the next batch.

I was going to make one of Papazian's recipes today, but decided that his doppelbock, while it sounds good, was a little lighter than I want. I was going to make the B3 doppelbock, but the shop was OUT of Munich malt. What?

So I'm making a scaled down version of the recipe for Samichlaus found in the BYO clone issue.

Batch#29
Doppelbock
--14lbs Ger. Pilsner
--1.5lbs Am. Vienna
--1lb Crystal 75-80L
--1.75lb Turbinado sugar
--1.5oz Glacier 6.0%AA (60min)
--3/8oz Sterling 6.0%AA (15min)
--0.5oz Vanguard 4.4%AA (2min)
--1/4tsp Supermoss (10min)
--WLP838 S. Ger. Lager, trub from Dortmunder Lager
OG: 1.080
FG: 1.013
ABV: 8.8%
IBU: ~25

Mashed in at 0.75qts/lb to 110F. Rest 25min while heating water for next infusion. Added about a gallon of water at 190F, mash raised to 135F for 10min. Added remaining 3 gallons of near-boiling water to reach 158F. Mashed 40min. No mash-out (tun full!). Recirculated until clear, collected 3.5 gallons wort while sparging with 170-180F water (2 gallons). Stirred the mash, recirculated until clear, collected another 3.5 gallons. 90 minute boil. Checked on the beer after 8 hours, healthy kraüsen and a couple bubbles per second! Reusing yeast cakes is the way to go.

Boomstick.

2008-12-27T17:21:00.000-08:00

Edit 1/24/09 - Kegged. Waited so long because all my kegs were full. Clogged the racking cane...a few times. Tastes pretty good, though.
--

Edit 1/7/09 - SG at 1.019 for 6.66%abv, so racked to secondary,...and oaked and dry-hopped. =)
Recipe updated as such. I just used the hops I had on hand. We'll see how it turns out.
--

Heard it was a good one. Don't mind the busy hop schedule, it's three additions of substitutes for Centennial and Amarillo. Might oak it. First time using dry yeast. I blew up a pyrex pitcher, but there's no glass in the beer and it was bubbling happily this morning.

Batch#28
JZ's Evil Twin (AleSmith Evil Dead Red Clone) click for source
--12lbs Brit. Maris Otter
--1lbs Ger. Munich
--1lb Crystal 40L
--0.5lbs Crystal 120L
--0.5lbs Am. Victory
--0.25lbs Pale Chocolate

--3.5AAU Willamette (20min)
--2.25AAU Cascade (20min)
--3AAU Columbus (20min)

--2.5AAU Willamette (10min)
--5.25AAU Cascade (10min)
--4.5AAU Columbus (10min)
--4.5AAU Vanguard (10min)

--2.5AAU Willamette (0min)
--5.25AAU Cascade (0min)
--4.5AAU Columbus (0min)
--4.5AAU Vanguard (0min)

--1oz Cascade (dry hop)
--1oz Sterling (dry hop)
--2oz Am. Oak chips (secondary)

--1/4tsp Supermoss (10min)
--Safale US-05 dry ale yeast, 62-65F ambient
OG: 1.070
FG: 1.019
ABV: 6.66%
IBU: ~25

Mashed in at 154F, 5 gallons, 60 min. Mashed out to 168F with additional 3.875 gallons (to the absolute top of my mash tun!). Collected 6.75gallons over ~1hr...stuck sparge, backflowed to clear blockage. 90min boil. I used pellet hops and had ~5gallons after the boil, overshooting the OG target of 1.066 by a bit. My efficiency came out to about 65%, I think...estimating from OG and volume change.

Bubbling away next morning...by evening ~3/second and thick kraüsen.

Lager Cherry

2008-12-17T17:15:00.000-08:00

*Pop*

Very excited for my first lager brew, despite recent work-related events. Decided to make things simple and use a single infusion mash.

Batch#27
Slashed Stipend Lager (Dortmunder Export)
--9lbs Ger. Pilsner
--2lbs Ger. Munich
--1lb Crystal 15L
--0.5lbs CaraPils
--1.67oz Sterling 6.0%AA (60min)
--1.67oz Sterling 6.0%AA (10min)
--1.67oz Sterling 6.0%AA (1min)
--1/4tsp Supermoss (10min)
--WLP838 S. Ger. Lager, ~2L starter
OG: 1.052
FG: 1.013 (at time of lagering)
ABV: 5.1%
IBU: 35

Mashed at 152-154F for 60 minutes in 16qts water (~1.3 qts/lbs). Batch-ish sparge: vorlauf and drain - 2.5 gallons collected, add 4 gallons 190F water, let mash rest at 170F for a few minutes, vorlauf and drain - 4 gallons collected. My efficiency suffered a bit, likely due to channeling down the mashtun wall. Oh well, 65%. Roughly 65-70min boil including time waiting for hot break to settle. Dumped the hop pellets right in the kettle today. Collected some particles with a stainless mesh in the funnel on the way to the fermenter. Ended with just over 5.5 gallons in kettle, left ~1/4 gallon behind with hops mess.

I heart SF

2008-12-08T13:50:00.000-08:00

Pub crawl in the city this weekend. Hard to beat a beer on the Caltrain at 10:30am.

21st Amendment: 21A - 536 Stout, 21A - Spiced Holiday Ale, delicious Jamaican jerk chicken wings, glazed ribs, cheeseburger
Monk's Kettle: Fuller's London Porter on nitro
Zeitgeist: Bear Republic - Racer 5 IPA, Moonlight - Death & Taxes (black lager)
Toronado: Rodenbach Grand Cru (mmm...flanders red sour ale)
Suppenküche: Köstritzer - Schwarzbier, Gebratene Rehmedaillions in Rotwein-Pflaumensoße mit Rotkohl und Spätzle (venison, red cabbage, spätzle)

and back home by 9:15pm.

Framboozin'

2008-11-22T12:33:00.000-08:00

Update 12/9/08 - SG dropped a bit more, the beer tastes fantastic, and its in the keg.
--

Update 12/8/08 - Do you know how hard it is to find unsweetened red raspberries for less than $4/12oz? Safeway has the sweetened stuff. TJ's has BLACK raspberries, which are not the same as red raspberries in color or flavor. Whole Foods has unsweetened red. But I really didn't want to spend $20+ on frozen berries. So I used a big can of Oregon puree (49oz?). Beer's been in secondary on the fruit since the 3rd...I'll give it another few days and then keg it up. SG was at 1.017 at racking, but there's been some more activity (had to stir the puree in, which riled the yeast a bit), so I expect it'll come down to maybe 1.014-1.015. A little lower than I was hoping for, but I guess that's what I get for pitching a healthy starter of WLP001.
--

Another brown! This one will receive berries in secondary to make a (hopefully) less-syrupy clone of New Belgium Frambozen.

Batch#26
Framboozin'
--12.5lbs Am. 2-row (RAHR)
--0.5lbs Brit. Chocolate
--0.25lbs Amer. Crystal 60L
--0.25lbs Melanoidin Malt
--0.5lbs Maltodextrin
--1oz Kent Goldings 4.2%AA (60min)
--1oz Willamette 4.3%AA (15min)
--1oz Willamette 4.3%AA (5min)
--1/4tsp Supermoss (10min)
--4lbs frozen raspberries (secondary)
--WLP001 Calif. Ale, ~1.3L starter
OG: 1.067
FG: 1.013
ABV: ~7%
IBU: ~20

Mash at 150F for 60 minutes in 17qts water (~1.25 qts/lbs). Mash-out for 10 minutes at 170F (add 2 gallons boiling water). Fly sparge with 2.9 gallons at 170F. Extract 6.5 gallons for 60 minute boil. Estimated water usage: 8.2 gallons. Assuming grain absorption of 0.12 gal/lb, about 1.6 gallons lost to grain.

Double duty

2008-11-15T21:36:00.000-08:00

Two batches in one day with my equipment meant that today, I was heating, mashing, boiling, chilling, repeat from 9am until 7:30pm. I managed to squeeze in some guitar, laundry, video games, a burrito, most of Iron Man, and some good idle chat with friends. It was a very busy day.

Did I have to brew twice today? No, but I made two starters on Thursday and didn't want to do it tomorrow. It actually ended up saving me some cleaning time, since I figured that the 30 or so grains left in the mash tun wouldn't be the end of the world, nor would the few hop leaves stuck to my chiller (Copper Fonzie) do harm...same hops, after all. I did, however, learn to use a hop bag for my whole hops, as they were more or less...not whole, but shredded. The wassail has more than one hop flower in the fermenter.

Batch#25
Nutcracker Brown Ale
--10lbs Brit. Maris Otter
--0.5lbs Caravienne
--0.5lbs Amer. Crystal 60L
--0.25lbs Victory
--0.25lbs Brit. Chocolate
--1oz Willamette 4.3%AA (60min)
--1oz Willamette 4.3%AA (5min)
--1oz Willamette 4.3%AA (1min)
--1/4tsp Supermoss (10min)
--WLP002 English Ale, ~600mL starter
OG: 1.055
FG: 1.016
ABV: 5.1%
IBU: ~15

Mashed 70min at 154F. Again, forgot to start the mash-out water on time, hence the extra 10 minutes. Mash-out at 168F (10 minute rest). Extracted 6.25gal with a 67% efficiency. Boiled for 60 minutes with hops as indicated. Chilled and pitched yeast for fermentation just under 70F (it's still warm here...not radiator action needed yet!). This is the B3 Nut Brown recipe, with Willamette subbed for Northern Brewer.

I really ought to calibrate my hydrometer and get some fermometers. Also on my list: finishing that damn stir plate and hooking up temperature control to the fridge.

Winter warbler

2008-11-15T21:18:00.000-08:00

Update 11/28/08 - Bottled. It's...interesting. We'll see.
--

Update 11/18/08 - Decided this should be boozier. Threw in 2 pounds of turbinado (raw) sugar. That should give the yeast something to think about now that the kraüsen is settled. I figure it's good for another 2%abv or so.
--

Winter beer time! After careful consideration and some serious drinking (emphasis on serious and not on drinking), I decided to brew three beers for the coming holiday season: a nut brown, a wassail, and a raspberry brown. The inspiration for this came from three sources: a nutcracker tap handle in the works, a desire to brew a traditional holiday ale, and New Belgium Frambozen, respectively.

I started with the wassail (you know, for wassailing). Some people just spice, others claim it's a blend of brown ale and spiced cider. This is probably the longest ingredients list I've dealt with in my experience. Here's the recipe I used:

Batch #24
Winter Warbler Wassail
--7.25lb Scot. Golden Promise
--1.5lb Vienna
--0.5lb Caramunich
--0.5lb Amer. Special Roast
--2 oz British Chocolate
--8 oz Brown Sugar
--8 oz Honey (15min)
--1oz Kent Goldings 4.2%AA (60min)
--1oz Willamette 4.3%AA (30min)
--1/4tsp ginger
--1/4tsp nutmeg
--1/4oz sweet orange peel
--1 whole cinnamon stick
--1 whole clove
--2qts unfiltered apple juice
--1/4tsp Supermoss (10min)
--WLP005 British Ale, 1L starter
OG: 1.055
FG: 1.012
ABV: 7.7%ish?
IBU: 20-25

Mashed grains for ~70 minutes (forgot to start the mash-out water on time) at 154F in 3.5gal water (up to 4gal after temp adjustments). Extracted 6gal wort, mixed in brown sugar. Brought to a boil. After 15-20minutes (my timer stopped working...rargh!), added first bittering hops. I used whole hops today. Added second hops with 30 minutes to go, honey with 15, spices in a stainless steel tea ball for 5 minutes (crushed cinnamon into large pieces). After the ~75min boil, I had around 4.75gal of wort. Added the apple juice and pitched the yeast. Fermenting just under 70F. My efficiency came out to about 67%, but I'm not certain of the expected yields and need to calibrate my hydrometer (although it shouldn't be off by more than about 2 points).

Small feather, but it's in my cap

2008-11-06T18:57:00.000-08:00

The latest incarnation of the blackberry stout took 2nd place in its category at the Beer, Beer, and More Beer forum competition. Okay, so it was 2nd out of 4 or 5, but still, I'm proud of it. I have yet to see the judges' comments,...even though I was at the competition as a steward and could have read them. =)

Denny's

2008-10-04T14:35:00.000-07:00

Updated 11/06 - So good...wouldn't change this recipe except maybe to get the right rye/wheat grain. Dry kegging definitely not necessary.
--

Updated 10/23 - Kegged, tastes great, no time for dry hopping. Not sure I'd want to do it, the hop/rye nose is so nice right now.
--

Denny Conn apparently makes a mean Rye IPA. Given the hops that aren't surviving my freezer too well, and the shop being out of two ingredients, mine's a little different from his recipe:

Batch #23
R.I.P. Ale (Based on Denny's RIPA)
--11 lbs American 2-row Pale Malt
--3 lbs Flaked Rye (Denny calls for rye malt)
--1.25 lbs Crystal 60L
--0.5 lbs CaraPils
--0.5 lbs American White Wheat Malt (Denny calls for flaked wheat)
--1 lb Rice Hulls (Phil at Los Altos MoreBeer's suggestion)
--1 oz Mt Hood 5.2%AA (1st wort hop, 60min)
--1 oz Columbus 12.2%AA (60min)
--0.5 oz Mt Hood 5.2% AA (30min)
--1 oz Glacier 6.0%AA (20min)*
--1.5 oz Willamette 4.6%AA (2min)*
--1.5 oz Mt Hood 5.2%AA (1min)
--1 oz Columbus (dry hop 3 days)**
--1 tab whirlfloc (15min)
Yeast: White Labs California (WLP001), 1.25L starter
OG: 1.066
FG: 1.012
ABV: 7%
IBU: 60-65

Mash at 154F for 60 minutes, mash out for 10 minutes at 168F. I collected 6.25 gallons of wort and ended with just over 5 gallons. Again, my efficiency is not great. Add Mt Hood hops during lauter (1st wort hopping), bring to boil, add hops as scheduled, whirlfloc at 15 minutes. Chill, pitch yeast.

*My additions
**Changed my mind and left this one out.

8th Annual Autumn Brew Review, Minneapolis, MN

2008-09-29T14:26:00.000-07:00

Hooboy, that was fun. Harder to handle than the Russian River Beer + BBQ Revival, mainly due to the lack of all-you-can-eat BBQ.

But we're still alive...his (J) and hers (R) comments and ratings on a scale of to

MN Breweries:

August Schell Brewing Co: Schell's Original, (J, correctly guessed at the "guess the MN beer" game put on by MNBrew.com)
Barley John's Brew Pub: Belgian Enkle (J); Wedding Ale (R)
Brau Brothers Brewing Co: Ring Neck Double Nut Braun (R); Strawberry Wheat (J, too much berry)
Finnegans: Irish Amber (J+R)
Fitgers Brewhouse: Wildfire Lager (R...really, it's hhhhHot); Dread Pirate Dunkelweizen (J...mmm...hoppy); Tugboat Irish Stout (R...not as good as Big Boat Oatmeal)
Herkimer: Sky Pilot (R)
Lake Superior Brewing Co: Special Ale (J...okay...nice bitterness, nothing fantastic...R guessed correctly and won us a pint glass)
Lift Bridge Brewery: Blueberry Blonde (J...it was purple...not well balanced with bitterness IMO)
Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery: Oak Porter (J...so good); Fresh Hop 2008 (R...again correctly guessed!)
St Croix Brewing Co: St Croix Maple Ale (J...needed more hop, if I recall); Cream Ale (R)
Summit Brewing Co: Wet Hopped Extra Pale - Cask (R); Something...Wet hop? (J...I remember liking it!)
Surly Brewing Co: Furious (R the hophead); Cynic Ale (J...mmm...saison!)
Vine Park Brewing: Rabid Penguin Porter (R), Flanders Red? (J...okay, maybe I like some sours)

(J...very disappointing); Starfire Pale
Non-MN Breweries:

Avery Brewing Co: New World Porter (R); 15th Anniversary Brett Gueze (J...not a fan of most sours I'm learning...)
Bell's Brewery, Inc: Amber Ale - Cask (R); 3rd Coast - Cask (J)
Boston Brewing Co: Sam Adams Cherry Wheat (R...mmm...cough syrup?)
Some Meadery...: Blueberry Mead (J...too sweet)
Boulevard Brewing Co: Unfiltered Wheat (J...eh); Bob's 47 Oktoberfest (R)
Furtermore Beer: Knot Stock (J...my pick of the day!); Something nutty...definitely not Knot Stock or Oscura... (R)
Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Co: Oktoberfest (R); Big Eddy RIS (J...blech, not a good RIS, IMO...too sweet and smoky without enough bitter?)
Moyland's Brewery & Restaurant: Moylander DIPA (J)
New Belgium Brewing Co: 1554 (R); Giddy Up! (J...okay, not great)
New Holland Brewing Co: Ichabod Pumpkin (R...can tasty the pumpkin, a little clove heavy); Dragon's Milk (J...better for long sipping...bourbon aged black ale...kinda soy saucy)
North Coast Brewing Co: Scrimshaw(?) (R)
Brewery Ommegang: Hennepin (R...fantastic, really); Witte (J...not what I was in the mood for, I guess)
Shmaltz Brewing Co/He'Brew: Lenny's RIPA (R..."if our RIPA smells like this, I'll be really happy"); Rejewvenator Fib Dubbel (J...kinda figgy, duh)
Tyranena Brewing Co: Bitter Woman IPA (R); Dirty Old Man (J...again...the whiskey barrel ruined it for me...the idea of an imperial rye porter i like, though)

I guarantee I missed one (we played the game where you try to remember what you had after the fact, and not all of it was in the tasting guide...the game's hard when you have about 50 smileys between two people)

Weird.

2008-09-14T22:31:00.000-07:00

Halloween's a-comin', so here's one of the draft beers for that. I revised the recipe from last time. The main goal was to use fresh sugar pumpkin. Fresh pumpkin was located...after I started the mash. I scaled back the amount of canned pumpkin under the assumption that I'd find the fresh stuff in time to secondary for a bit before kegging. This one should actually taste like pumpkin. I also toned down the spice and added some chocolate malt for color and maltodextrin for body. Still f-ing terrible efficiency on this one, though.

Batch #22
Old Pumpculiar v1.5
--8 lbs 2-Row American Pale Ale Malt (RAHR)
--1 lb Flaked Wheat
--2/3 lb Crystal 75L
--1/8 lb British Pale Chocolate
--4 oz Maltodextrin (60min)
--8 oz Cane Sugar (15min)
--8 oz Molasses (15min)
--45 oz Canned pumpkin (in mash)
--1/2 fresh pumpkin (15min)
--1/2 fresh pumpkin (in primary)
--1 oz Glacier 6% AA (60min)
--0.5 oz Willamette 4.6% AA (15min)
--Whirlfloc (15min)
--1.25 tsp pie spice (15min at flameout)
--White Labs WLP001 California Ale Yeast (1.1L starter)
OG: 1.046
FG: 1.007
ABV: 5.1%
Calc. IBU: 27

Single infusion, 1hr at 150F. Collected 6.5 gallons of wort with an efficiency of under 60%. Rargh. No idea what's up with that, seeing as I pulled 75%+ on the blackberry a couple weeks ago. Fresh pumpkin was split in half (goo and seeds removed) and baked face down at 300F long enough to soften the flesh. Pie spice was 2 parts cinnamon to 1 part each of cloves, allspice, nutmeg, and ginger.

Not funny anymore.

2008-09-13T21:24:00.000-07:00

This post is no longer funny. I got home yesterday and checked on the barleywine. Good thing, too. The dimples on the caps were on their way from innies to outies. I managed to get everything in a refrigerator, but have no room for anything else right now. I'm hoping that crash cooling will prevent these from become bombs. Why oh why did I have to be so impatient...next time I'll know better, I suppose. Hopefully I won't get back from vacation in two weeks to find the worst mess ever in my kitchen.

Why not?

2008-08-31T15:50:00.000-07:00

Update 9/13/08 - Bottled 4.5 gallons. Tart right now, but should mellow over the next month or so. Primed with 4oz corn sugar.
--
Update 9/7/08 - Racked to secondary, added 1# frozen berries.
--
Update 9/1/08 - Ack! Well, more of a "BOOM" and a soft rattle of the house. I forgot that this one tends to ferment really fast and didn't hook up a blow-off tube. So I instead spent about half an hour cleaning up the closet and am doing laundry to get the blackberry out of everything. At least my fancier clothes that share the closet weren't hit. Smells good, though.
--

Competitions are coming, and just for the hell of it, I decided to submit one of my favorite brews. Changed it up a little this time to enhance the berry flavor. Should be ready in time for the California State Homebrew Competition, and the MoreBeer forum competition, which I will be stewarding to try and get in to the judging thing (at the very least, to refine my tasting skills). I'll probably also submit the GoP Trippel.

In other news, my mash efficiency jumped up today. Turns out the mill I was using didn't grind well enough for all grain. With the other mill in the shop, my efficiency (nothing else significantly different) jumped to around 75%.

Batch #21
Blackberry Stout 3 (All-grain), Irish Ale Yeast (White Labs 004)
--9 lbs Amer. 2-row Pale (RAHR)
--1 lb Crystal 40L
--8 oz Black Roasted
--4 oz Black Patent
--4 oz Chocolate Malt
--1 oz Glacier 6.0%AA (60min)
--1 oz Glacier 6.0%AA (1min)
--4 lbs Frozen blackberries (~10min)
--1 lb Frozen blackberries (secondary)
--1/4 tsp Supermoss (10min)
OG: 1.054+ (right on the money for 75% efficiency!)
FG: 1.011
ABV: ~6%
Calc. IBUs: ~23

Mashed for 1 hour at 154F in 3.5 gallons water. Fly sparge (by the pint) with 170F strike, collected ~ 6.5 gallons wort. Added 4 lbs berries with clarifier to sterilize. One pound of berries will be added to the secondary.

GoP

2008-08-24T21:54:00.000-07:00

Update 9/13/08 - Bottled just under 5 gallons. Nice and peppery. Hazy because I forgot the clarifier on brew day, but delicious. No competition until the haze settles out. High expectations for aging on this one. Primed with 4oz corn sugar.
--
The Westmalle Trippel is delicious. This is not it. But based on a clone recipe for it from BYO. But definitely not going to be Westmalle's trippel. It was mainly an excuse to use the grains of paradise!

Again, low mash efficiency. I may have to chat up someone that knows what they're doing here...

Batch #20
GoP Trippel
--12.75 lbs German Pilsner Malt
--1 lb Clear candi sugar
--1 lb Amber candi sugar
--1 oz Glacier 6% AA (90min)
--1 oz Mt Hood 5.2% AA (15min)
--1 oz Mt Hood 5.2% AA (5min)
--1/4 tsp lightly crushed grains of paradise (5min)
--White Labs WLP500 Trappist Ale Yeast (2L starter)
OG: 1.070 [target 1.081 >:( ]
FG: 1.006
ABV: 8.4%
Calc. IBU: 38

I added the grains of paradise, subbed in Mt Hood and Glacier (available and in my freezer, respectively), and split the 2 lbs clear sugar into 1 lb clear, 1 lb amber. Also, I'm an idiot, and didn't see the Belgian pils bin right next to the German at the shop. Whatever. Obviously, I'm not trying to make Westmalle.

I mashed in at 135F in 4 gallons. Over the next hour and a half or so, I ramped the temperature to 148F by adding ~3 pint amounts of hot water. After 10 minutes at 148F, I added enough water to get the temperature to 167F and let the mash sit for another 10 minutes before starting the lauter. With no sparging I was able to extract 7 gallons.

This was a two hour boil. I boiled the Glacier for 90 to account for the slightly lower AA compared to the Styrian Goldings called for in the Westmalle clone recipe. The sugar went in with 30 minutes left. I lightly crushed the spice (just enough to split the corns in half or so) and boiled that for the last 5. Chill. Pitch yeast.

Wat.

2008-08-22T09:19:00.000-07:00

Update 9-4 - Kegged. Cleared the keg with CO2, racked, set seals, put in fridge at 40F with 10psi. Also, very tasty, with a nice aroma.
--
Update 8/28 - Racked to secondary. 1.5oz Willamette added. Tastes great. Will keg in a few days.
--

I brewed up a batch of St. Rogue Red Ale clone last night. I made a bittering hop substitution since the shop was out of Chinook. An ounce of Magnum gave me a slightly higher AAU than the recipe called for. That in combination with the faster evaporation rate than expected led me to do a 75 minute boil instead of 90. The problem, though, is that my gravity came out 10 points shy. TEN! Even more irritating is that the hydrometer reading actually dropped between lauter and flame out. So my initial mash gravity reading of 1.043 (which would be perfect!), was probably high due to stratification in the collection vessel (despite my efforts to stir it around). This means that my overall efficiency is low...back to the books, eh?

Batch #19
St. Rogue (with substitutions)
--7 lbs 2-Row American Pale Ale Malt (RAHR)
--1 lb Dark Munich (recipe calls for "Munich", but this smelled tastier)
--1 lb Crystal 15L
--1.25 lbs Crystal 40L
--1 lb Crystal 75L
--1 oz Magnum 13.1% AA (75min)*
--1 oz Centennial 10.4% AA (2min + whirlpool)*
--Whirlfloc (15min)
--White Labs WLP001 California Ale Yeast (1L starter)
OG: 1.040 [target 1.052 >:( ]
FG: 1.010
ABV: 4%
Calc. IBU: 45ish

*Recipe calls for ~ 10AAU Magnum for 90 minutes, and ~ 10AAU Cent. in whirlpool or hopback

Mashed grains for 60 minutes at 155F. Sparged with water at 168-170, extracting 6.5gal. The recipe calls for 6 gallons wort + 0.5 gallons water. I thought that was stupid.

At flame out, I removed the bittering hops, gave the wort a whirl with the Centennial. Chilled to about 70, and pitched just the slurry from my starter. Lag time of more than 3 but fewer than 10 hours (I sleep sometimes). I'll likely secondary with the leftover Willamette from the pumpkin brew to give it some more hop aroma.

Vonnegut plus two.

2008-08-21T22:36:00.000-07:00

So, now that I've actually read Slaughterhouse V...

No, of course there are no real parallels to this little operation. I simply translated the name of a street to English. Now, back to Trafalmadore.

It's pie time I brewed this.

2008-08-03T12:51:00.000-07:00

Update 8/14 - Bottled. Spices are good, pumpkin flavor is a little mild. I think I'll add that a little differently for the next round. In other news, I'm done with WLP007. I don't really want a FG below 1.010. I didn't even really want that yeast, but am too impatient to wait for the Los Altos B3 shop to get the right strains in stock.
--

I was advised to try brewing Old Pumpculiar, as everyone that has made it seems to love it, and I'm looking for a good pumpkin brew for the fall. So, it being August, I decided to give it a go. I figured that if this is ready by September, that gives me plenty of time to decide on changes before the Halloween edition.

Batch #18
Old Pumpculiar (with substitutions)
--8 lbs 2-Row American Pale Ale Malt
--1 lb Flaked Wheat
--2/3 lb Crystal 75L*
--8 oz Cane Sugar
--8 oz Molasses
--75 oz Canned pumpkin* (in mash)
--1 oz Glacier 6% AA (60min)*
--0.5 oz Willamette 4.6% AA (15min)*
--Whirlfloc (15min)
--1 Tbs Pie spice* (15min at flameout)
--White Labs WLP007 Dry English Ale Yeast
OG: 1.046
FG: 1.006
ABV: 5.2%
Calc. IBU: 23

*Substitutions and changes. I added cloves to the pie spice because they belong there.

Mash grains and pumpkin (fresh or canned) at 153F for 60 minutes. I collected 6 gallons of wort, which makes for a slightly small batch. I'd recommend 6.5 gallons. My OG was about 10 pts low - I think due to over sparging during lauter. [I ended up making closer to 7.5 gallons of wort and not collecting all of it. The mistake: submerged hose tricked me into thinking I needed more water in the tun. So, my efficiency was low (really low...like 50-60%) unless I use the 7.5ish estimate which puts me right around 75%.]

Add hops and sugars at the appropriate times during the boil. Add the spices at flame-out and rest for 15 minutes before chilling. I used yeast from a 2L decanted starter. Good kraeusen when I checked about 10 hours after pitching.

Retirement Plans

2008-07-13T21:54:00.000-07:00

I think I've spent enough money at MoreBeer to warrant them giving me a 401(k) plan that matches my investment in their products. They had their annual 15% off sale yesterday, and, so help me, I may have upgraded my mash tun. You see, the homemade 5 gallon water-cooler mash tun works great for low to normal gravity beers in a 5 gallon batch. Sounds great, you say? It is!
...
But?
...
Yes, but, not so great for high to very high gravity beers. I ran into the problem with brew 17, the Ruination clone. Anything above an original gravity of say, 1.06 becomes difficult due to the thick mash required to fit all the grain in the cooler. My water ratio was about 1:1 quarts water to pounds of grain, and temperature maintenance was trouble because the top of the cooler didn't fit on all the way. I think I managed to semi-rescue this delightful double-IPA with the extract and sugar additions, but I wasn't happy about it. So, I resolved to improve my arsenal. After a couple weeks of looking, I discovered that I would save a whopping $5 by building my own 10 gallon tun ($50 cooler, $34 false bottom, $30 in fittings, etc., +tax) compared to buying one new at a 15% discount ($128 after tax). Not worth the time and gas. And, why the hell not, another keg. As a result, I am trying to sell my old mash tun and avoid the store for a few weeks to save some dollars. Also, the guy recognized my voice on the phone. Definitely time for a break.

Ruin(ed?)ation

2008-07-06T15:17:00.000-07:00

Updated 7/31/08 - Well, it's not Ruination. But it's pretty good anyway.
--

Five gallon mash tuns are a funny thing. They work great. They really do. So long as you're mashing less than about 14 pounds of grain. But when you want to mash 15.6 pounds for an OG of 1.075, your water to grain ratio quickly falls to almost one quart to a pound. The first lauter had a great SG of about 1.08, but I had to batch sparge twice to get the seven gallons needed for a 90 minute boil. My initial boil gravity came out to about 1.052. I added some corn sugar and DME to boost it a little bit and wound up with an OG of 1.065 after the boil. Even with the target FG of 1.010, this is going to be a little weaker in alcohol than we were shooting for. Between all of that mess and some hop substitutions, well, we'll see...

Batch #17
Stone Ruination Clone - "Rumination" (so Brad can say it right). Recipe from BYO's 150 Clones special issue.
--14.6 lbs 2-row
--1 lb Crystal 15L
*--8 oz Corn Sugar
*--1 cup Light DME
--36 AAU Magnum (60min); *I used 4 oz of 9.3% Newport
--15.7 AAU Centennial (Steep 5min at flame out); *2oz 6% Cascade pellets + 1oz 7.4% Cascade whole
--2 oz Centennial (Secondary 3-5 days); *2 oz Cascade
--Whirlfloc (20min)
OG: 1.065 [1.075 target]
FG: 1.008 [1.010 target]
ABV: 7.1% [7.7% target]
IBU: ~120 [100+ target]

*My subs and fixes

Mash grains at 149°F for 60 minutes, 90 minute boil. My mash was funky because of the capacity of my mash tun. I extracted 1 gallon after an hour, and pulled out 6 more over the next hour. I had lots of temperature fluxuation due to heat loss out the top (no tight seal when it's that full) and hot water additions combined with difficulty stirring such a thick mash. Moral of the story: 10 gallon mash tun for OGs over about 1.065. Racked to secondary after 8 days. Cascade added. Kegged after 5 days.

Sweet 16th

2008-07-02T07:44:00.000-07:00

I do admit I was intrigued by a recipe for DuClaw Vanilla Bean Oatmeal Stout. I like oatmeal stouts, and I like vanilla. It seems like this should be an easy gap to bridge. When talking about it with some friends, someone said "put chocolate in it - vanilla and chocolate are always separate". Not always, but it sounded like a good idea, so I borrowed some tips from a clone recipe of Young's Double Chocolate Stout and threw in a little lactose and cocoa powder. In the end, this might be more like drinking a milk shake, mouthfeelwise, anyway. The cocoa is of course unsweetened, and the vanilla should just add aroma.

Batch #16
Chocolate DuClaw Vanilla Bean Oatmeal Stout
--9 lbs 2-Row American Pale Ale Malt
--17 oz Black Roasted Malt
--1.25 lbs Flaked Oats
--6 oz German Chocolate Wheat
--6 oz Crystal 60L
--8 oz Lactose
--4 oz Cocoa Powder (15min)
--3 vanilla beans (secondary)
--2 oz Kent Goldings 4.5% AA (60min)
--Whirlfloc (20min)
--White Labs WLP007 Dry English Ale Yeast
OG: 1.052
FG: 1.013
ABV: 5.1%
Calc. IBU: 24

Mash all the grains for one hour at 152°F. I added 1 tsp gypsum to the mash water. Collect 6.5 gallons of wort. My efficiency was around 72%, giving me a gravity of 1.048. Add the lactose and boil. Add the hops. At 20 minutes remaining, add the clarifier and dissolve the cocoa in hot water. Add the cocoa to the boil with 15 minutes left. Flame out, hops out, start chillin'. I pitched the yeast slurry from a 1 pint starter. Dry English wasn't my first choice, but it'll do. Spent 1 week in primary. Three beans added at secondary, kegged after 5 days (a little rushed on everything because I was juggling with brew 17).

Do the mash.

2008-06-03T19:06:00.000-07:00

Well, I've now brewed my first all-grain recipe. I built a mash/lauter tun out of a 5 gallon cylindrical water cooler, a stainless steel false bottom, and the following (inside to out):

3/8" hose barb to 1/2" MIP
1/2" FIP to 3/4" male hose
3/4" female hose to 3/4" MIP
(Cooler wall)
#17 rubber O-ring (#15 would have been better)
3/4" ID washer (2" OD, milled to 1.75" to fit the cooler)
3/4" FIP to 1/2" FIP reducer
1/2" x 1.5" MIP nipple
1/2" ball valve (threaded 1/2" FIP both sides)
3/8" hose barb to 1/2" MIP

Toss in some vinyl hose, teflon tape, and a trio of clamps, you've got yourself an all-grain setup. It's fun to build, but not really worth the time. I spent about $75 ($20 for a new cooler, $25 for the false bottom, $30 for other parts), which is only about $10 less than a new complete assembly from MoreBeer.

For my first recipe, I borrowed Jim Rossi's Honey Pale Ale from MoreBeer's library.

Batch #15
Jim Rossi's Honey Pale Ale
--7 lbs 2-Row American Pale Ale Malt
--8 oz Honey Malt (Crystal 25L)
--3 lbs Honey (15min)
--0.5 oz Cascade 7.4% AA (60min)
--0.5 oz Cascade 7.4% AA (1min)
--Whirlfloc (20min)
--White Labs WLP001 Calif. Ale Yeast
OG: 1.054
FG: 1.004!!!
ABV: 6.5%
Calc. IBU: 15ish

Mashed 1 hour at 152°F with 2 quarts per pound. Batch sparged to 6 gallons. Mash gravity was 1.035. My calculations bring that to about 74% efficiency. I used whole hop leaves for this one.

For the Rogue in all of us.

2008-05-26T21:00:00.000-07:00

I bought a cooler. My next batch will be all-grain. In the meantime...

Apparently, John Maier of Rogue is in cahoots with MoreBeer. He gave them the recipe for the I²PA. They claim he uses one of their brew sculptures (must resist...) for playing around with his own stuff, including this variant on one of Rogue's best, the Brutal Bitter.

Batch #14
Blackened Brutal Bitter (extract)
White Labs California Ale Yeast
--7 lbs Ultralight (LME)
--4 oz Maltodextrin
--2.5lbs Munich
--1.25lbs Crystal 60L
--11 oz Carafa Special II
--1.5 oz Newport 9.3%AA (90min)
--1 oz Newport 9.3%AA (60min)
--2 oz Amarillo 8.9%AA (1min)
--2 oz Amarillo 8.9%AA (1min at flame out)
--1 oz Amarillo (dry-hop in secondary)
--1 Whirlfloc tab (20min)
OG: 1.057
FG: 1.015
ABV: 5.5%
Calc. IBUs: ~90

Grains steeped for 30 minutes at 160F. My OG came out low for the recipe, so the alcohol will probably be around 5.5-6% instead of 7-8%. The low IBU rating is a result of weak bittering hops (tastybrew.com gives a typical Newport as 15.5%AA for 140IBU in this recipe).

Kölsch Ale

2008-05-04T14:36:00.000-07:00

Update 7/31 - After about 2 months of waiting I hit this with the CO2 and it's very nice. Light in body and alcohol. Has that German lager aroma.
--

I think the first Kölsch I had was the Pyramid Curveball. It was light, refreshing, grassy, and delicious. Gordon-Biersch also makes a decent Kölsch, which I found a little odd since it's technically an ale, and they tend to stick to lagers. Cool fermentation and a lagering period makes the style a really clean session beer perfect for slow summer days. This one I picked up as a kit from MoreBeer. It should be pretty decent with mild bittering from the Glacier and a noble aroma from the Vanguard. I tweaked the boil time on the second hop addition for a little more bitterness to more closely match the style's profile.

Batch #13
Kölsch Ale (extract)
White Labs German Ale/Kölsch Yeast
--4 lbs German Pils (LME)
--2 lbs Light Malt (DME)
--4 oz Maltodextrin
--8 oz Crystal 15L
--0.5 oz Glacier 6.0%AA (60min)
--1 oz Vanguard 4.4%AA (5min)
--1 Whirlfloc tab (20min)
OG: 1.043
FG: 1.012
ABV: 4%
Calc. IBUs: 16

Grains steeped for 30min at 160±5F in ~4 gallons of water. Dry malt and dextrin added after steeping, along with additional 2 gallons water. LME added at boil. First hops after hot break. Cooled with wort chiller, yeast pitched at 65F.

Hop to it.

2008-04-24T17:30:00.000-07:00

Update, June 16th - This was a big hit with the hophead friends. Unfortunately, just a few days (seriously, 4 of 'em) after tapping the keg, it turned. We drank our way through most of it, so it might just be the dregs that I'm tasting, but I'll be doing a leak check on my lines just to play it safe. I don't think I'll make this one again soon just because I have too many other great IPAs to crank out (Hello, Ruination clone...thanks, BYO!)
--
It's IPA time!

Batch #12
Columbus IPA (extract)
White Labs California Ale V Yeast
--9 lbs Ultralight (LME)
--1.5 lbs Crystal 15L
--2 oz Magnum 13.1%AA (60min)
--2 oz Columbus 12.2%AA (5min)
--2 oz Columbus 12.2%AA (2min)
--2 oz Columbus (dry-hopped)
--1 Whirlfloc tab (20min)
OG: 1.062
FG: 1.017
ABV: 6%
Calc. IBUs: ~95

Steep the grains for 30 minutes in ~4 gallons water, bring to 6 and boil. Wort chiller knocked it down to ~65 in 45 minutes. Dry-hopped more Columbus in secondary after 10 days primary (slow fermentation around 60F). Vanguard whole hops?

I lost a lot of volume on this one. In the fermenter it's maybe only 4 gallons. Off to a slow start - the heater was off because it's been nice out. One should know California better...nights in the high 40s to low 50s. The heater is back on to keep the fermentarium nice and warm at 65ish through the night.

Blackberry Stout the Second

2008-04-16T10:03:00.000-07:00

Update: So tasty. So very, very tasty. Roasty toasty malt flavor with just enough berry flavor for it to be recognizable but not overpowering. Will definitely go for round 3 on this one.
---
The old blackberry stout was such a hit after it aged for a couple months that I thought I'd try it again. This time, instead of spending nye $30 to have the berry puree shipped from Maryland (seriously, it's the one berry that MoreBeer doesn't supply), I spent about $10 at Trader Joe's for berries. The stout kit I used as a base last time has changed a little (hop shortage, anyone?), and we left out the gypsum, since that just made the beer chalky and is primarily for mash water adjustment, anyway. The main difficulty of the method I used was that I didn't have a sanitized strainer on hand to scoop my berries out of the wort. This meant that I clogged the spout on my bucket and had to pour from the bucket into a funnel. That actually went surprisingly well with an extra pair of hands to help. The only other issue was the berries clogged the funnel at the end of the pour, and I had to hop (as in a grain hopper, not as in hops) the funnel so the berries would fall through.

Batch #11
Blackberry Stout 2 (extract), Irish Ale Yeast (White Labs 004)
--7+ lbs Ultralight Malt Extract
--1 lb Crystal 40L
--8 oz Black Roasted
--4 oz Black Patent
--4 oz Chocolate Malt
--1 oz Glacier 6.0%AA (60min)
--1 oz Glacier 6.0%AA (1min)
--5 lbs Frozen Blackberries (~10min)
--1 Whirlfloc tab (20min)
OG: 1.054
FG: 1.013
ABV: 5.4%
Calc. IBUs: ~25

Steep grains 30 minutes in 4 gallons water at 160±10ºF, add water to 6 gallons, bring to boil. Add extract and 1 oz Glacier. At 20 minutes, toss in clarifier. At 10 minutes, dunk in chiller and berries. I'd recommend bringing the berries up to at least room temp first, as the cold berries set my boil back about 10 minutes. More hops at 1 minute. Chill. Ferment. Secondary after 1 week to get the beer off the berries. After bottle/keg, give it one month to condition, drink within four months.

Strong beer and sticky floors

2008-03-10T08:58:00.000-07:00

Updated 8/14 - Bottled. Finally. After giving this one a swift kick in the pants with a new batch of yeast, it's finally in the bottles. Of course, now I'm paranoid about bottle bombs. Hopefully everything will survive and some of the weird flavors will settle down by October or November.
--

Updated 3/30 - Racked to secondary. SG still high (around 35), but I think once that falls some more, this will be tasty. I've put it back near the heater to try and keep the yeast active...will think about adding some more to give it a little shove. If it weren't so damn sticky, I'd be pretty happy with the 8+%ABV it's at now, but I want that 10%.
--

I brewed a big beer yesterday as a demo for a friend thinking about starting the habit. This is one a made up, so hopefully it'll be tasty. I plan to let it secondary for a while and then cellar in bottle for a few months.

Batch #10
"Decathalon" Barleywine (Partial mash)
Super High Gravity Ale Yeast (White Labs 099, two vials instead of a starter)
--11 lbs Ultralight LME
--~2.5 lbs Light DME
--1 lb Caravienne
--1 lb Crystal 75L
--1 lb CaraPils
--8 oz British Chocolate
--8 oz Orange Honey
--2 oz Newport 9.3% (60min)
--2 oz Simcoe 10.4% (10min)
--2 oz Columbus 12.2% (5min)
--1 Whirlfloc tablet (20 min)
OG: 1.098-1.100
FG: <1.030
ABV: 9+%
IBU: ~75-80

Mashed the grains around 165 for 45 minutes, sparged a little over two gallons to get a total of ~3 gallons wort at a gravity of about 20. Added water and DME, brought to a boil. Added 6lbs LME and Newport after hot break. Added the remaining LME and the Simcoe at 10 minutes, Columbus at 5, chilled to 70F or so in about 30 minutes. Fermenting at 65F, lag time was about 8-9 hours. It's cool enough so that I didn't lose any beer out the airlock. The yeast should bring this to about 10% ABV.

Where's a live grenade when you need one?

2008-03-03T09:11:00.000-08:00

Updated 3/30 - Kegged. Strong, delicious. Can't wait for tapping time.
---

As revenge for doing an entry level brew last week, we did a partial mash last night. I still have yet to get the volume of water right for this process, as I ended up with far less than the target 3 gallons of wort from the mash. I know part of it is that the bottling bucket with a grain bag isn't the best lautering system in the world. I also don't have a spare kettle large enough to heat the 2+ gallons for sparging if I want a collection vessel. The centennial hops smelled pretty good, but I'm not so sure about the rye...I had my first rye beer a couple days ago and I wasn't that impressed. Hopefully it will be balanced well enough by everything else that's in...

Batch #9
"Fire in the Hole" (MoreBeer MiniMash Kit355)
English Ale Yeast (White Labs...1 L starter using 1 cup light DME)
--7 lbs Ultralight LME
--2 lbs 2-row
--1 lb Flaked Wheat
--1 lb Crystal 75L
--8 oz Rye
--8 oz Munich
--2.8 oz Carafa
--1 oz Magnum 13.1% (60min)
--2 oz Centennial 10.4% (5min)
--1 Whirlfloc tablet
OG: 1.067
FG: 1.015
ABV: 6.8%
IBU: ~56

The target gravity ranged up to 1.075, so I tried making a starter. Boiled 1 cup of light DME in 1 liter of water for 10 minutes, let it cool, and pitched my yeast with a teaspoon of fermaid K. It built up a nice layer of yeast at the bottom and was still active when I chilled it to knock the live cells out of solution so I could pour off the top half-liter or so before pitching to primary. I used an empty vodka bottle, largely because I felt I could skip sanitizing something that lived in the freezer and contained 40% alcohol. If I had any doubts, the batch is bubbling away right now.

As always, the Fonz was in for the last 10 minutes of the boil, and I still haven't tasted copper in any of my conditioned brews.

The Ocho

2008-02-23T22:47:00.000-08:00

Updated 3/22 - Kegged. FG is a little high, but the fermentation looked like it's still active. Hopefully it'll settle down over the next few weeks. On the plus side, the beer was pretty tasty despite its simple recipe.
--

For my eighth brew, I whipped up a batch of the MoreBeer Belgian Trippel. Nothing fancy. Extract and candi sugar. No specialty malts or anything. Yet somehow it still took me just as long to brew. Probably due to the imprecise measurement of water for the boil, which resulted in the pot having almost 7 gallons after adding the extract, which resulted in me sitting there in the kitchen watching for boilovers while I waited for a gallon or so to leave. In the end I still had a little too much water (OG 1.070 instead of the target 1.075-1.080), but meh.

Batch #8
Belgian Trippel (MoreBeer Extract Kit)
Abbey Ale Yeast (White Labs P530)
--6 lbs German Pilsner LME
--3 lbs Light DME
--1 lb Clear Belgian Candi Sugar
--1 oz Vanguard 4.4% (60min)
--1 oz Sterling 5.0% (1min)
--1 Whirlfloc tablet
OG: 1.070
FG: 1.020
ABV: 6.5%
IBU: ~15

Pitched a little warmer this time, at about 75ºF. The recipe suggests fermenting at 70ºF for clean taste with less heavy alcohol, or in the mid-70s for more yeast emphasis. They suggest trying the other Belgian yeasts for different flavors. In the end, this should get us a nice 7% trippel-style ale. It's a nice golden color. I anticipate secondary in about a week, bottle in three or four weeks instead of kegging so we can see how it matures over the next several months to a year.

Bottling and Kegging

2008-02-16T20:24:00.000-08:00

My fermenters are empty. The lady's Multibrown is sweet, but will be good in a few months, I suspect. The champagne yeast did about nothing to it, but after some conversation (over beer, of course) with the brew shop guys, between the recipe and the east coast yeast used, this is normal. The red is hoppy, delicious, and in a keg. The Guinness clone is not the right color, but has some of the right flavor notes. Again, hoppier than I wanted (my fault for being a dumb-dumb). Also kegged. St Pat's party in a month, here I come with a nearly complete kegerator.

Fresh out of empty fermenters.

2008-01-24T13:10:00.000-08:00

The St Patty's beers are both fermenting away now. I used a Guinness Draught clone recipe that I found for the stout. I made a few changes to work with what was available in terms of ingredients and time. Original here.

Batch #7
"Guinness Draught Clone" Dry Irish Stout
Irish Ale Yeast (White Labs P004)
--4 lbs Ultralight Malt Extract (liquid)
--2 lb Flaked Barley
--14 oz British Roasted Barley
--21 oz soured stout(15min)
--1 oz Santiam 5.8%AA (60min)
--2 oz Kent Goldings 5.5%AA (30min)
--1 Whirlfloc tablet (15min)
OG:
FG: 1.010
ABV: ~3.7%
Calc. IBUs: 52

Flaked barley steeped from cold up to 175F (giving ~20 minutes between 150 and 170), allowed to rest for ~30 minutes as temp fell to 160 and roasted barley was added. Extract and first hop after hot break. Yielded 5 gallons in the fermenter. My hydrometer is still hanging out with the Malty Brown, so no numbers there yet (should be ~1.038 if the "mash" was 75% efficient; and, yes, Guinness is a low OG beer). This recipe ended up being a little on the bitter side, but should be tasty. Guinness is rumored to use ~3% sour wort to get the lactic acid twang, hence the 21 oz sour beer. I only had two days to sour, so it may not do anything. I used a 10oz bottle of my blackberry stout and a bottle of Guinness.