Impatience

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
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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.

Reruns

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

Neil's Party Part 1 of 2

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.

Fill it with your mighty juice

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.