Go team!

Update 9/13 - Bottled. FG a little high. Less roast and a little lighter color than original recipe called for. Would probably do better in competition as a porter.
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Mrs picked up the B3 Honey Stout kit sometime last year, and never brewed it. So after replacing the LME and pre-crushed malt (with some minor changes based on inventory at the Los Altos showroom), we're having a family brew day!


Batch #81
Honey Stout (extract)

6lbs Ultralight LME

1lb Ultralight DME
4 oz Maltodextrin
6 oz Black Roasted (UK?)
4 oz Crystal 15L (US)
4 oz Munich (Ger)
2 oz Chocolate (UK)
1.5lbs Wildflower Honey, flameout
1 oz Centennial, 10.4%AA (60m)
1 oz Cascade, 6.4%AA (5m)
1 oz Cascade, 6.7%AA (1m)
Whirlfloc, 10m
WLP004 - Irish Ale Yeast, 1 L starter
OG: 1.060
FG: 1.018
ABV: 5.5%
IBU: ~45


Steep grains in 6.5 gal for ~30m at ~155F. All sugars added except for honey. Boil 60m. Honey added at flameout (previously diluted with a little hot water to reconstitute the crystals and make mixing easier). Chill, pitch yeast, and ferment at 65F.

Helldorado - First Attempt

Update 8/25 - Bottled, and a wee bit smoky, but very nice bourbon and brandy. Just waiting waiting waiting now.
Update 8/4 - SG at 1.011! Either the honey fermented or didn't get mixed in well and sank. A little boozy at the current ~12%. Racked to secondary, bourbon/brandy-soaked oak cubes tossed in. Fridge temp reduced to 55F. 
Update 7/21 - Added the buckwheat honey with a little warm water to make for easier mixing, and stirred gently in the carboy to rouse the yeast. The sample I pulled was still a bit sweet (SG~1.020 before adding honey), but had a nice base malt character and a little tropical fruit and citrus from the El Dorado. Esters aren't too strong from the yeast, but are definitely there. Nice rosy alcohol (~8%abv right now). The oak cubes are still soaking. I'll check back in on the yeast in about a week to see how the honey's fermenting out. If the yeast have done their job, I'll rack to secondary and add the oak.
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This is the beginning of a possibly years-long brewing project. It started about a month ago, at the Firestone-Walker Invitational Beer Fest, where I had my very first (second, and third,...) taste of Helldorado. It was delicious. It is not available except in the Anniversary blends, and occasionally in the brewery in Paso Robles. No growlers, no bottles. But I wanted more. The tasting notes at the brewery gave some hints: 10.8%abv, 24IBU, 8 SRM ("deep gold") - Brewed with buckwheat honey and 100% El Dorado hops [my source], aged in bourbon and brandy barrels. After finding the honey and the hops, I played around with some recipe calculations to work out a grist that should give a complex malt character, the right color, and just a bit of caramel sweetness. To be honest, I really just made something up. For the second run, I'll dive deeper into various tasting notes and try to pry a few hints out of the brewers - but I have heard that FW uses cheap CA-grown malt and some light crystal/cara to add complexity. I may not end up with a perfect match to the original, but it has certainly inspired me and given me something to shoot for. In separate containers, begin soaking oak cubes (American medium+ toast): 1/2 oz oak in bourbon (I used Buffalo Trace) and 1/2 oz in brandy (E&J XO). 


Batch #80
Helldorado Clone First Attempt, for 3 gallons

8lbs Golden Promise
1lb German Pilsner
4 oz American Crystal 15L
2 oz American Victory
1.5lbs Buckwheat Honey* (sourced locally in CA Central Valley)
0.25 oz El Dorado, 15.3%AA (60m)
0.25 oz El Dorado, 15.3%AA (15m)
0.5 oz El Dorado, 15.3%AA (1m)
Whirlfloc, 10m
1/4 tsp CaCl2, in mash
WLP007 - Dry English Ale Yeast, 1.5L starter
OG: 1.082

*Add at end of boil or after fermentation begins. I "chose" to do the latter, since I forgot to bring the honey from Merced this weekend.

Mash in with 11qts at 145F, soak for 75min. Raise to 160F by direct heat on mash over ~10-15min. Batch sparge with 8qt at 160F to collect 3.5 gallons at ~16P. Boil 60min, chill to 66F, oxygenate using compressed O2 for ~1min. Pitch yeast and ferment between 66 and 70F.

Brew to the weather.

Update 6/9 - Kegged with 3.5oz table sugar, should give effervescent carbonation to balance the final gravity of 1.004. Will condition in keg 20L keg and probably split into bottles and 10L keg.
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I want something dry, summery, and ready fast.

Batch #79
4.5lbs Golden Promise
4.25lbs White wheat malt
4 oz Belgian Biscuit malt
1 oz N Brewer, 8.6%AA (60m)
0.5 oz Cascade (5m)
Whirlfloc 10m
Wyeast 3711, French Saison yeast
OG: ~1.040
FG: ~1.004
ABV: ~4.7%
IBU: ~35

Mash-in at 148-150F, hold for 1 hour. Batch sparge to 7 gallons wort at ~1.032. Boil down to 5.5 gallons. Fermenting 5 gal around 70F.

Rollin' in green

Update 6/2 - Bottled. Estery, but tasty.
Update 5/25 - Dropped a couple ounces of dry hops in. Instead of clogging up my racking cane with hops floating in the carboy, I made a hop sausage with steel mesh casing. Fits through the carboy mouth and hopefully comes back out later.
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Home again, home again :)

I am not good at reading things. That is why I bought Apollo instead of Amarillo. LHBS was out of MO *and* my oats *and* the yeast I wanted to use. And mashed higher than intended...let's blame it on jet-lag. So slight modification from the last three times, but the same basic idea: amber/red, hoppy as a hopped-up hop...thing.

c.f. Batches 64, 67, 71...trying to be scientific about homing in on perfecting this one. Things like out-of-stock items on brew day, laziness, living 130 miles from my fermentation space, etc, cause some hiccoughs. I do have plans, but plans need money and space and time.

Batch #78
Lost Harvest
10.5 lbs Maris Otter 11 lbs Golden Promise
1 lb British 70-80L
1 lb White wheat malt
8 oz Golden naked oats
8 oz Victory
1 oz Magnum, 12.3%AA (60m)
0.5 oz Magnum, 12.3%AA (30m)
1 oz Centennial, 10.4%AA (20m)
0.5 oz Apollo, 18.0%AA (10m)
0.5 oz Simcoe, 13.7%AA (10m)
0.5 oz Citra, 13.5%AA (10m)
0.5 oz Cascade, 6.7%AA (10m)
0.5 oz Apollo, 18.0%AA (5m)
0.5 oz Simcoe, 13.7%AA (5m)
0.5 oz Citra, 13.5%AA (5m)
0.5 oz Cascade, 6.7%AA (5m)
1 oz each Sim/Cit (dry)
Whirlfloc 10m
1/4 tsp epsom and gypsum in mash
Safale US-05 US-04, 11.5g dry
OG: 1.067
FG: 1.017
ABV: 6.5%
IBU: 100+

Mashed in 17qts at 154F (overshot target of 150 a bit). Sparged 17qts to collect 6.5gal@15P. Boiled 60m, collected about 5.5gal. Pitched yeast at 74F (hot, I know...was in a hurry...bad form.)

Sayonara Shiinamachi

2/11 - Bottled.
1/31 - Dry hops added.

It is cold outside. And inside. But I don't have the patience or time for a lager brew in Japan. This will probably be my last batch here. Let's try this one again. Keeping the fermentation warm enough will be a challenge. Lucky I have an insulated picnic bag that my fermentation vessel fits in, and a shelf up by the ceiling, where the warm air lives. 


I didn't grab enough Hallertau to do an exact clone of the previous batch, so there will be slightly less going on in the nose. I'm not broken-hearted, though, since this should be a good showcase for both the yeast and the Zythos hops.

Batch #77
Zythos White
-1.25 kg Dry Wheat Malt Extract
-1 oz Hallertau, 4.1%AA (60min)
-1 oz Zythos, 10.0%AA (10min)
-0.5 oz Zythos (2min)
-0.5 oz Zythos (dry)
-WLP400 Belgian Wit yeast, 1L starter*
OG: 1.055
FG: ~1.012
ABV: ~5.6%
IBU: 75-ish

Boiled 12L, added extract. Small hot break boilover. Hopped as above. Pitched yeast starter for total volume of 10L in the tank. I'm anticipating a mess.

*starter blew out the top a couple times... lots of yeast on the outside of the flask.

Still my hobby, I swear

12/2 - Bottled
11/28 - SG 1.015-6
11/25 - Zest and juice from 2 mikan boiled in half liter of wort, added to main brew.

Man, it was hot in Japan this summer. And when I was in the States with my beer toys, I never found time to brew. So finally, in November, it's cool enough that I can keep my apartment the right temp for fermenting, and I've got withdrawal bad enough to pay Japanese prices for ingredients. I feel so much better with this one chilling and waiting for the yeast pitch.

Batch #76

-1.5 kg Dry Malt Extract
-1 lb Aromatic (steeped)
-12.5 g Nugget, 11.4%AA (60min)
-12.5 g Nugget, 11.4%AA (20min)
-25 g Cascade (5min)
-25 g Cascade (1min)
-Fermentis Safale US-05 dry yeast, all 11.5g of it (Probably too much. Thanks, Jamil)
OG: 1.065
FG: 1.016
ABV: 6.4%
IBU:  80ish

Steeped grains in 12 L cool water with heat to 160F for ~45min. Dumped in extract, boiled for 60min. Clarifier at 10min. About 9 L after boil. Chilled, fermenting in 65-68F ambient.

I made a CDA

Update 4/27 - Tasty brew, hasty execution resulting in too much hop gunk in the bottles and hence some gushing. Really like the recipe, though!
Update 4/9 - SG 1.014, added dry hops.
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APRIL FOOL!

Why would I make something so unappealing as a CDA/BlackIPA/IBA when I could make a delicious WHITE IPA? So much of the tastiness.

Limited to what I have on hand, this beer will not be a SMASH, but a SMATH. Or, maybe more accurately a SMEBATH. Single Malt Extract Blend And Two Hops.

Batch #75
Zythos White
-1.25 kg Dry Wheat Malt Extract
-1 oz Hallertau, 3.9%AA (60min)
-1 oz Zythos, 10.9%AA (10min)
-0.5 oz each hop (2min)
-0.5 oz each hop (dry)
-WLP400 Belgian Wit yeast, 1L starter
OG: ~1.060 (~1.057 incl starter)
FG: 1.014
ABV: 5.6%
IBU: somewhere between 50 and 80. YOU do the math.

Boiled 11L, added extract. Hopped as above. Boiled off more than I expected. 7L into fermentation. Pitched 1L active yeast starter.