Scotch

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.
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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.

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.
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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.

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.
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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.
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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

*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

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'

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

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.