Dark days.

12/3 - Bottled at 1.016. The extra time helped. Tuned the cacao/vanilla/oak and chile infusions to taste in a sample of the base beer and dosed the bottles. Had some extra chile booze, so bottled a few chile-only beers, too. I'm pleased.
--
11/19 - SG at 1.018. Will let it go a bit longer. Too much aromatic malt (or possibly too old?). Otherwise pretty good. Started the flavorings for the split batch. Cacao nibs, oak cubes, vanilla bean, and (separately) dried NM chile (off-brand Hatch), all soaking in rum.
--
Coffee, chocolate, caramel, with just a hint of char and ash. EKG hops for good earth. This will probably be split after primary for a side-by-side base beer and trendy beer version (cacao, oak, booze,... peppers?)

Batch #96

Extra Stout

5 gallons

12 lbs California 2-row malt
1 lb Flaked Oats

1 lb Belgian Aromatic malt

0.5 lb Crystal 120L

0.5 lb Roasted Barley

0.5 lb Coffee Malt

0.25 lb Black Patent

0.25 lb Pale Chocolate Malt

2 oz Kent Goldings 5.2%aa (60 min)

2 oz Kent Goldings 5.2%aa (15 min)

2 oz Kent Goldings 5.2%aa (5 min)

Water: RO with (about) 3g each CaCO3, CaCl2, and 1g each MgSO4, NaCl, NaHCO. Planned 3g CaSO4, but ran out ... just under 1 g added.

Yeast: 1.5L starter of WLP028 Edinburgh Ale Yeast

OG: 1.070 (a little low... batch sparge and weak boil)
FG: 1.016

ABV: 7.1% (closer to 7.8% for the highest dosed beers)

IBU: ~55-60

Single infusion mash at 152F for 1 hour. Batch sparge to collect 7 gallons wort. Boil 1 hour, chill. 

Yes, we do have Citra

Brewing on a weeknight. It's 9:50pm, the boil hasn't started, and I am tired... batch sparged in a hurry, weak boil. Targeted an OG of 1.070, came up a bit shy.

Batch #95

Hoppy red
5 gallons

13 lbs California 2-row malt
0.5 lb Carared

0.25 lb Special B

0.25 lb Chocolate

1 oz Citra 12.7%aa (60 min)

1 oz Citra 12.7%aa (10 min)

1 oz Simcoe 11.6%aa (5 min)

1 oz Citra (1 min)

1 oz Citra (dry)

1 oz Simcoe (dry)

Water: RO with (about) 3g each CaCO3, CaSO4, CaCl2, and 1g each MgSO4, NaCl, NaHCO3

Yeast: 1L starter of WLP001 California Ale Yeast

OG: 1.060

FG:

ABV: 

IBU: ~65

Single infusion mash at 149F for 1 hour. Batch sparge to collect 7 gallons wort. Boil 1 hour, chill. I let it settle overnight before racking to the carboy and pitching yeast.

Again!

--Update 3/1: Harm done? SG at bottling read 1.016...way higher than I remember last time.
--Update 2/21: 1oz Cascade and 1oz Citra added.


Again!

That Brett IPA far exceeded my expectations.

The only difference this time is that I accidentally left out 20%+ of the grain until my lovely assistant commented that the mash seemed a bit thin. OG was spot-on, so no harm done?

Yeast was started with some saved from the previous batch.

Anything but

-- Soaked ~1oz med+ American oak cubes in a chardonnay (after first rinsing the charcoal and particulate off with the same), for about 1 week. Added to the beer on 2/21. Very thin pellicle is present. Beautiful flavors :)

This isn't really a Temptation clone. But it started out as the idea of a Temptation clone.

Batch #93
Wine Barrel Aged Sour Blonde

5 lbs Belgian Pilsner malt
5 lbs American White Wheat malt
1 lb German Acidulated malt

1 oz El Dorado, 15.8%aa, 15 min

Water: 6 gallons RO with 1/3 tsp each gypsom, epsom, and calcium carbonate, 3/4 tsp calcium chloride, and a pinch of table salt. Added 2 gallons spring water. Overall, soft "light colored and malty" profile.
Yeast: Belgian Sour Mix I, WLP655 , 1 L starter

OG: 1.052

FG: 

ABV: 

IBU: ~25

Mash-in to 155F in 17 qts water for 1 hour. Batch sparge to extract 7 gallons wort. Kettle sour overnight (mine formed a pellicle already?!). Boil for 75 min. Chilled, yeast and bugs pitched, nice warm day got things rolling fast.

B. bruxellensis

In illa Brettanomyces nos fides.

Batch #92
Brett IPA

9 lbs 5 oz 2-row malt (yes, boring, I know, but I really thought I had some munich or caramel around)

1 oz El Dorado, 15.8%aa, 30 min
1 oz El Dorado, 15.8%aa, 10 min
1 oz El Dorado, 15.8%aa, 2 min
1 oz Cascade, flameout
1 oz Cascade, dry
1 oz Citra, dry

Water: RO with 8g gypsum, 1g epsom, 2g calcium chloride, and 1g sodium chloride.
Yeast: Brettanomyces bruxellensis, WLP650, 1L starter (~10days growth)

OG: 1.049

FG: 

ABV: 

IBU: ~75

Mash-in to 150F in 14 qts water for 1 hour. Batch sparge to extract 7 gallons wort. Boil for 75 min.

Sour

This turned out really well, and will definitely be a regular summer brew for me now!
--

I've decided it's time, and I am now a brewer of sour beers. This is thanks in part to another homebrewer who's wanted to get a berliner weisse going for a while. We went off to the LHBS to pick up ingredients, and I threw a Brettanomyces bruxellensis culture into my cart. So, anyway, interesting things to come, but for now, a split-batch experiment.

Batch #91
Berliner Weisse

6 lbs German Pilsner malt

6 lbs White Wheat malt

5 oz Melanoidin malt

Water: RO with various salts to get a decent profile for slightly bitter, light color beers. (I lost my notes, but ~50ppm calcium, and ~50ppm each chloride and sulfate from a mix of gypsum, epsom, salt, chalk, and calcium chloride)

Mash in with 10qts and acid rest at ~100F until next infusion is ready.

Drink beer instead of checking notes, adding too much hot water, thereby skipping right past a protein rest to hit a good saccharification rest at about 156F. Remember to look at a clock.

Later, batch sparge. Top up with cold water to 10 gallons, mix well, and split into two 5 gallon containers. Refractometer reading was 9 Brix. Here's the fun part.

My 5 gallons of wort went back into the now empty insulated mash tun with about 4 oz of the original unmashed grist. I intend to check on it over the next couple days and boil when the wort is sufficiently soured from naturally occurring lactobacilli. I plan on about 5 IBU coming from a tiny addition of saaz. Maybe use up the rest of the citra from the last batch as an aroma component. [Update: ~75min boil, no citra, 5 gallons in the carboy after pitching my share of the yeast starter. The two days of "kettle" souring in the mash tun gave a moderate tartness that I suspect will be much more pronounced after the sugars are consumed.]

My co-brewer took his portion home, and will pitch a lactobacillus culture, and probably also not keep notes on what he did. We'll get together in about a month to compare results.

Primary fermentation is slated to use the White Labs Saison II yeast blend.

OG: 1.036

FG: 1.006

ABV: 3.9%

IBU: ~5

Bottled 7/5/15

Chocolate mead

2/13/16 - SG 0.997. Good, but very dry, a little bitter. Needs sweet. Added 5oz buckwheat honey with another 2oz cocoa powder (yes, more bitter...but hopefully also more cocoa aroma) in a little under a pint of water. See you in a few months...

M06
Chocolate mead
2.5 gallon batch

~8lbs clover honey
8 oz cocoa powder

Spring water, no modifications, no boil

Lalvin 71B-1122 wine yeast

OG: 1.120
FG:

Dumped in the honey, shook up the cocoa with water, stirred and stirred and stirred. Go Ferm added with yeast, Fermaid K in a few days. Watch for it this winter at the earliest.