Friday, December 18, 2009

17 American Pale Ale: Take 3

This morning started off as a downer.... Dumped 4gal of Scottish 80/ down the drain. Mike (Shaky) Graham and I brewed it a few weeks ago, and it got infected. My theory is that a fruit fly made its way in to the fermenter during the transfer from the kettle. This set off a bacterial/wild yeast infection that made the beer unpleasant to say the least.

So now on to happier things! I'm running test batches of the beers that I plan on serving at my wedding. The first beer on the list of test batches is this American Pale Ale recipe I whipped up. I'm using a pretty basic pale ale malt bill, but opted to go overboard on aroma hopping from a few new hop varieties. I'm going 50/50 Sorachi Ace and Citra hops. Sorachi Ace is a Japanese hop with a pleasant, lemony aroma and flavor. Citra is a new high alpha American hop with a strong citrus punch character. This should give this beer a complex, aromatic, citrus character. Citra is one of my new favorites, and every Sorachi Ace hopped beer I've had has been fantastic... So this one should be bad ass to say the least.

17 Citrus Pale
American Pale Ale


Type: All Grain
Date: 12/18/2009
Batch Size: 3.00 gal
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: Brew Pot (7.5 gal) and Cooler (48 qt)
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00


Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
5.25 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 75.00 %
1.00 lb Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 14.29 %
0.50 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 7.14 %
0.25 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 3.57 %


5.00 gm Warrior [15.00 %] (60 min) Hops 15.6 IBU
5.00 gm Citra [10.00 %] (15 min) Hops 5.2 IBU
5.00 gm Sorachi Ace [12.00 %] (15 min) Hops 6.2 IBU
5.00 gm Citra [10.00 %] (10 min) Hops 3.8 IBU
5.00 gm Sorachi Ace [12.00 %] (10 min) Hops 4.5 IBU
5.00 gm Sorachi Ace [12.00 %] (5 min) Hops 2.5 IBU
5.00 gm Citra [10.00 %] (5 min) Hops 2.1 IBU
10.00 gm Sorachi Ace [12.00 %] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
10.00 gm Citra [10.00 %] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -

Dry Hop
10.00 gm Sorachi Ace [12.00 %] (Dry Hop 3 days) Hops -
10.00 gm Citra [10.00 %] (Dry Hop 3 days) Hops -

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.055
Est Final Gravity: 1.014
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.29 %
Est Color: 6.1 SRM Color: Color

Saturday, October 31, 2009

#16 Double IPA

Haven't updated in a while.... Since the Belgian Dark Strong, I brewed up the Gnarliday Ale 2009. I didn't post the reecipe because, well, that's priviledged information :) The recipe changes every year, and I like to have at least one (sort of) secret. Also in the last couple months, I got my results back from the Evergreen State Fair beer competition. I got a Blue Ribbon, and a score of 39 for my Brown Mild. Not a bad way to get back in to beer competitions I must say!

Also, for the Belgian Dark Strong that I brewed in September, I received the biggest compliment ever from a local beer/wine/food critic and former owner of a boutique beer and wine shop: "Flat-damn elegant, no kidding. Perfect balance, gorgeous malt, hops present but restrained, shocking complexity. You know what a critical SOB I am and I really can't find a damned thing wrong with it. One of the two or three best things in the liquid category I've tasted in YEARS."

Now on to today's brew. I was given a pound of Columbus Hops from a friend of my (future) brother in law. Had to make good use of them, and what better way than a big, obscenely hoppy double IPA? This recipe is inspired by Pliny the Elder, the end all be all of double IPA's.

Type: All Grain
Date: 10/31/2009
Batch Size: 4.50 gal
Brewer: Evan
Boil Size: 5.71 gal
Boil Time: 90 min Equipment: Brew Pot (6+gal) and Igloo/Gott Cooler (5 Gal)
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00


Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
13.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 83.04 %
0.75 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 4.80 %
0.65 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 4.16 %
0.25 lb Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 1.60 %
1.00 lb Corn Sugar (Dextrose) (0.0 SRM) Sugar 6.40 %

Hops
28.30 gm Warrior [15.00 %] (90 min) Hops 50.6 IBU
28.30 gm Chinook [13.00 %] (90 min) Hops 43.8 IBU
10.00 gm Simcoe [13.00 %] (45 min) Hops 13.3 IBU
20.00 gm Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] (30 min) Hops 24.0 IBU
15.00 gm Cascade [5.50 %] (15 min) Hops 4.6 IBU
15.00 gm Simcoe [13.00 %] (10 min) Hops 7.9 IBU
10.00 gm Cascade [5.50 %] (1 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
20.00 gm Centennial [10.00 %] (1 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
10.00 gm Simcoe [13.00 %] (1 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -

Dry Hops
20.00 gm Simcoe [12.20 %] (Dry Hop 3 days) Hops -
20.00 gm Cascade [5.50 %] (Dry Hop 3 days) Hops -
20.00 gm Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] (Dry Hop 3 days) Hops


Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.086 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.022 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 8.39 %
Est Color: 9.5 SRM Color: Color

This is going to be the hoppiest beer I've ever done. Here's the lineup of the kettle additions (dry hops not pictured) [blogspot's width limitations cut off the side of the picture. to see the full lineup, open the pic in a new window]


Crushing the grains, apartment style. The mill is clamped on to the railing. I often wonder what my neighbors think is going on over here when I'm brewing.

Monday, August 31, 2009

#14 Strong Dark Belgian

Not so much a belgian, but a belgian inspired ale. I got a hold of the limited release of Unibroue's yeast strain, so I'm doing a beer that's somewhat inspired by their trois pistoles ale. I switched things up by going with american hop varieties, so we'll see how this whole experiment turns out in a few weeks.

I was assisted today by my long time friend Joshua Sowards. He's up from Florida for a few days wishing he could move back (he lived here for a few months last year than had to go back to FL). So we're ending his stay with a brewing lesson.

Original Gravity: 1.086 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 8.41 %
Bitterness: 19.6 IBU
Est Color: 24.8 SRM

Batch size: 3.5gal


Grain:
7.00 lb Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 61.21 %
2.50 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) Bel (3.0 SRM) Grain 21.86 %
0.45 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 3.90 %
0.45 lb Caramunich Malt (56.0 SRM) Grain 3.90 %
0.25 lb Black Barley (Stout) (500.0 SRM) Grain 2.19 %
0.16 lb Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 1.39 %
0.64 lb Corn Sugar (Dextrose) (0.0 SRM) Sugar 5.56 %

Hops:
7.50 gm Magnum [14.00 %] (90 min) Hops 15.5 IBU
4.00 gm Centennial [10.00 %] (15 min) Hops 2.7 IBU
3.00 gm Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (5 min) Hops 0.7 IBU
0.08 tsp Anise, Star (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
0.08 tsp Anise, Star (Boil 5.0 min) Misc

Yeast: Wyeast Belgian Canadian

Saturday, July 4, 2009

#13 Dortmunder Export Lager

4th of July brewin! What better time to throw a few lagers in the chamber than the beginning of salmon season? These next two months are going to be very busy with all the visiting friends, and visiting salmon :) So since lagers take 3-4x or longer to finish out, I figured this is perfect timing.

This recipe was given to me by Mike McDole, some of you other homebrewers may have heard of him. He won the Sam Adams Longshot competition last year with his Double IPA, and is one of the most awarded homebrewers in the world. He gave me this recipe because it's his favorite to brew up for weddings, and since I'm brewing for Amber and I's wedding, I figured it'd be worthwhile to give it a run to see if we think it'd be a good fit.

This recipe differs from his ever so slightly. His recipe calls for Santiam hops for 60min, and Hallertauer for the finishing hop. I went with Liberty, because it's an american Hallertauer (I prefer to stick with American hops, I'm just weird like that), and I supplemented at the 60min boil with a a bit of Magnum (another hallertauer derivitive) to save myself from buying a whole other 2oz of Liberty (they sell in 2oz packs).

Batch Size: 4.00 gal
Boil Time: 90min
Original Gravity: 1.049 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.88 %
Bitterness: 21.1 IBU

Grain
64.00 oz Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 48.00 %
21.33 oz Munich Malt (6.0 SRM) Grain 16.00 %
21.33 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 16.00 %
16.00 oz Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM) Grain 12.00 %
10.67 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 8.00 %

Hops
0.50 oz Liberty [4.30 %] (60 min) Hops 10.0 IBU
0.15 oz Magnum [14.00 %] (60 min) Hops 9.8 IBU
1.50 oz Liberty [4.30 %] (1 min) Hops 1.3 IBU

Munich Lager (Wyeast Labs #2308) Yeast-Lager

Friday, June 26, 2009

#12 American Brown Ale

So my system is almost all replaced since my last couple brews. I built a new mash tun capable of doing moderate gravity beers through 6gal batches if I please. I'm sticking with 3gal batches for a while. 1gal just isn't enough to really get an idea of how a beer turned out, and still have some left over to enjoy. And by my next brew, I'll be brewing on a propane burner on the deck... just waiting on my buddy to lend me some tanks :)

I have an American Brown Ale starting its journey today. I'm going to be doing smaller beers for a while here just so I can really tweak my process and perfect parts I'm not happy with. I'm giving myself a 6% ABV limit until I kick out several consecutive (relatively) flawless batches. And I'm going to abstain from excessive hopping. Just trying to stay away from things that will cover up the flaws.

Batch Size: 3.00 gal
Boil Time: 90 min
Est Original Gravity: 1.058 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.61 %
Bitterness: 29.0 IBU
Est Color: 20.9 SRM

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
6.21 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 82.63 %
0.43 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 5.78 %
0.31 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 4.14 %
0.31 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 4.14 %
0.25 lb Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 3.31 %

7gm Magnum [14.00 %] (60 min) Hops 20.1 IBU
7gm Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (15 min) Hops 6.1 IBU
5gm Cascade [5.50 %] (15 min) Hops 2.8 IBU
7gm Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -

Saturday, June 6, 2009

#11 Summer Ale

Brewing for the second day in a row. Main reason being that I just stepped up a few pieces of equipment to be able to brew 3 gallon batches. So now I'll actually have enough to drink when I'm done! Brewing 1 gal is great for experimentation, but once you have some recipes you want on hand to have for dinner, you never have enough. I also would like a few extra bottles to share with friends for feedback.

So today I'm brewing a summer ale for Amber. It's basically a blond ale, but it will have a bit more flavor and mouthfeel than a blond. After fermentation, I plan on bottling 2gal, then racking the remaining 1gal off to one of my small 1gal fermenter jugs with some fruit, most likely raspberries or cherries, to sit for another week. I want to see how this recipe works as a base for girly, fruity beers. Blonds are definitely not my favorite style... but brewing these smaller, lighter flavor beers will make me a better brewer. It's certainly more challenging to brew lighter, more transparent beers.

(I substituted extract for my pale malt. I still need to build a bigger mash tun to hold enough grains for 3gal batches.)

3gal batch
Est Original Gravity: 1.046 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.38 %
Bitterness: 24.3 IBU
Est Color: 5.1 SRM

Amount Item Type % or IBU
24.00 oz Extra Light Dry Extract (3.0 SRM) Dry Extract 33.33 %
30.00 oz Munich Malt (6.0 SRM) Grain 41.67 %
9.00 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 12.50 %
9.00 oz Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 12.50 %

Hops
0.13 oz Magnum [14.00 %] (60 min) Hops 12.1 IBU
0.50 oz Hallertauer [4.80 %] (30 min) Hops 12.2 IBU

White Labs 001 California Ale Yeast

Thursday, June 4, 2009

10 American Pale Ale II

Well, my last batch of pale ale got infected and dumped out. I know exactly when where in how it happened, so I'm doing everything in my power to not make that stupid mistake again. So today, I re-do the pale ale... Though I did change the recipe enough that it could well be considered an entirely different beer.

My changes came entirely from the hop bill. I've been really wanting to try this somewhat new, and hardly used method of waiting until the last part of the boil to add all of the hops. The longer you boil the hops, the more bittering you get from them, but adding them towards the end of the boil gives you more aroma and flavor from them. This method will take more hops to get the bittering I need, but I think it will be worth it. So my first hop addition will be at 20mins, then adding in 5min increments from then on out. Should be interesting to see how a beer without hops for the entire first half of the boil turns out.

Est Original Gravity: 1.053 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.014 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.08 %


Amount Item Type % or IBU
30.00 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 75.95 %
4.00 oz Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 10.13 %
3.00 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 7.59 %
2.50 oz Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 6.33 %

Hops
0.07 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (20 min) Hops 7.7 IBU
0.07 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (15 min) Hops 6.3 IBU
0.07 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] (15 min) Hops 8.2 IBU
0.07 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] (10 min) Hops 6.0 IBU
0.07 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (10 min) Hops 4.6 IBU
0.07 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (5 min) Hops 2.5 IBU
0.07 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] (5 min) Hops 3.3 IBU
0.13 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (1 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
0.13 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (1 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -

White Labs 001 California Ale Yeast

Sunday, May 24, 2009

#9 American Amber Ale

So first things first: Beer #6, the Imperial Oatmeal Stout is absolutely ridiculous good. It's going to be really tough to let it sit and age a few more months. The temptation to crack open a few more premature bottles is incredibly strong... I have to keep telling myself that the longer I wait, the more awesome it is going to get.

Last weekend I spontaneously decided to start a mead that I had been procrastinating on. Before I left florida, I purchased 2 gallons of fresh orange blossom honey. So now that I have the stuff to pull it off, I figured I better not procrastinate any more given the time it takes to age properly. I made it the simple, no heat way; sanitize the water by boiling it, then mixing the honey in after the water cools. Heat drives off the aromatics of the honey, and since honey has natural antibiotics, heating is not necessary. I have it happily fermenting away in my fermentation chamber. I only made 1/2 gal since it was my first batch. No sense in wasting lots of money worth of fresh honey on a failed experiment.

Tonight's (I'm starting to brew a lot in the middle of the night on weekends since I'm up anyway) brew is an American Amber Ale I'm making up for my fishing buddy Sean. He's going to tie me up a few flies for the upcoming pink salmon run, and I'm bartering with him by giving him his own custom, hand made beer.

I'm using quite an assortment of hops in this one. There are English, German, and American varieties in here, but I think it should work out pretty well.

Here's the info on it


Original Gravity: 1.061 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.86 %
Bitterness: 44.2 IBU

Grains
29.00 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 70.30 %
6.00 oz Munich Malt (6.0 SRM) Grain 14.55 %
4.00 oz Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 9.70 %
2.00 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 4.85 %
0.25 oz Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 0.61 %

Hops
0.13 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] (60 min) Hops 9.1 IBU
0.07 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (30 min) Hops 9.3 IBU
0.25 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] (30 min) Hops 13.4 IBU
0.11 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (30 min) Hops 7.7 IBU
0.11 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (5 min) Hops 3.8 IBU
0.25 oz Hallertauer [4.80 %] (1 min) Hops 0.9 IBU

California Ale Yeast

And as I'm brewing here, I'm enjoying a 22oz bottle of the first beer I brewed on this setup, my dry stout. It has been aging since early march, and is honestly blowing me away with how good it became. The taste is mild and refreshing, with a slight roasty finish. The mouthfeel is creamy and full, almost as if it were being served on a nitro tap. I'm sad that I realized AFTER I poured it that this was the last bottle. I may be brewing this again soon :)

Here is brew #1 Dry Stout with some tastefully placed fuggles leaf hops for added effect

Thursday, May 14, 2009

#8 American Pale Ale

Hurray for brew day! Today's brew is going to be an American style pale ale. I decided it was time I went for something different than what I had been doing, and see how I did with a more transparent style. It's still going to have quite a bit of hop character, but with the lack of roasted malts, and excessive hopping, I'll be brewing something that shows off flaws a lot more apparently.

So the final verdict on version 1 of the Imperial Black Ale is that of success. I certainly think it has a long way to go, but I think it has a whole lot of potential, and those who have tried it love it. Once version 2 is ready to drink, I'll see where we're at. As far as the scotch ale, it was fantastic. I had a pint last night with my dinner, and was beyond pleased. Next time I plan on adding a bit more hops to balance out the sweetness, and eliminating the smoke malt (though it is tasty) to be more within style.

The addition of my chest freezer with external thermostat has been amazing. I keep it at a constant 65 degrees, though I can lower it for lagering. But it's nice to have a dedicated space in the apartment for fermentation. I've also started yeast banking. I don't want to turn this in to an unnecessarily long post, but I'm freezing vials of yeast that I collect from starters I make, and freezing them in vials with a freeze shield solution. I take them out, thaw them, and make starters a week or so before I plan to use them. It'll save me money :)

So back to the pale ale. I am quite excited about this beer. I love simcoe hops, so I'm using them throughout, except for a dash of amarillo at the end for some citrusy aroma. Simcoe has a very pine/evergreen type flavor and aroma, so it's nice to balance it out with something else for more dimension. I'm switching to 90min boils for my more pale beers to break down DMS (a substance that causes a vegetal type off flavor).

So on to the recipe.... (i'm just going to copy all the info from now on so it's easier to copy)


90 min boil
Est Original Gravity: 1.055 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.32 %
Bitterness: 38.9 IBU
Est Color: 9.3 SRM

Grains
30.00 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 73.17 %
4.00 oz Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 9.76 %
4.00 oz Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 9.76 %
3.00 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 7.32 %

Hops
0.07 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] (60 min) Hops 16.4 IBU
0.07 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] (30 min) Hops 12.6 IBU
0.13 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (5 min) Hops 3.9 IBU
0.13 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] (5 min) Hops 6.0 IBU

There's imperial black ale version 2 in the new fermentation chamber

Friday, May 1, 2009

#7 Imperial Black Ale version 2.0

So the last batch of Imperial Black Ale is aging nicely, and I'd say it was the first brew that actually came out okay. Overall, I've been pretty unhappy with the beers, but it's not so much the recipes, but off flavors that I'm trying to work out. I cracked open a bottle of the Shaky Graham's Scotch ale tonight and was very pleased with the lack of off flavors there too. I'm going to brew it again soon, but with more hops. It was a tad on the sweet side even for a scotch ale.

I'm also very happy about the newest addition to my brewing setup. I picked up a small chest freezer from craigslist, and am hooking it up to an external thermostat. I can control my fermentation temps now, and even do lagers if I please :) In another year or so if I can afford it, I'm going to pick up a few small soda kegs and turn my freezer into a homebrew tap system. So I'm all around quite happy it's here :)

So tonight, I'm brewing version 2.0 of the Imperial Black Ale. I wanted a bit less malt body, and a lot more complex hop character in it, so I revamped the recipe almost top to bottom. I now have 4 hops varieties in 9 hop additions, as opposed to 2 hop varieties in 3 additions last time. It's not going to be substantially more bitter, but will be much more complex and interesting, with a much more pronounced aroma.

Imperial Black Ale v2.0
Grains:
40.00 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US
10.00 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L
2.00 oz Carafa III
2.00 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L

Boil Hops
0.12 oz Magnum [14.00 %] (60 min)
0.12 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (45 min)
0.12 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (30 min)
0.12 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] (15 min)
0.06 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (10 min)
0.06 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (10 min)
0.12 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (1 min)

Dry Hops
0.25 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (Dry Hop 3 day)
0.12 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] (Dry Hop 3 days)

Est Original Gravity: 1.078 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 7.64 %

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

#6 Imperial Oatmeal Stout

So the Imperial Black Ale and Scotch Ale have both been bottled and tasted. Both are shaping up to be by far the best brews made on this new setup yet. I'm finally getting the kinks worked out and things are coming along. I really wasn't that happy with the first 3 brews, so I'm glad things are looking up. I picked up a new stainless steel pot yesterday, so that should help a ton too.

Today's brew:
Imperial Oatmeal Stout

Measured starting gravity: 1.080
Est. ABV: 7.9%

Grain:
34.00 oz Pale Malt (2 Row)
6.00 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L
4.00 oz Barley, Flaked (
4.00 oz Chocolate Malt
4.00 oz Oats, Flaked
2.00 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L
1.00 oz Roasted Barley

Hops:
0.12 oz Magnum [14.00 %] (60 min)
0.25 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (30 min)
0.25 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] (30 min)

Scottish Ale Yeast

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Brews #4 and #5 Scotch Ale and Imperial Black Ale

So I've been slacking on keeping up on logging my brews. Last week my buddy Mike "Shakes" Graham and I brewed the first brew of "shaky graham's scotch ale," a recipe I came up with that I plan to use in the lineup of beers when my brewery opens its doors. Scotch ales are very sweet, malty, and lack any kind of real hop character, so they really throw a lot of people off at first. They're a bit different to make too, you mash the grains a few degrees higher than most, and ferment them a few degrees cooler than most ales.

Today I racked the scotch to a secondary fermenter after 2wks in there. I stuck it out in my storage closet outside, where it stays a pretty constant 40 degrees while the weather is still a bit chilly out. Should be perfect for it to sit and condition for a week or so before bottling.

Here he is pre-closet


So today's brew is an experiment of mine to have a new take on a style of beer I love. This beer I'm calling an IBA, or Imperial Black Ale, which of course is a spinoff of Imperial Pale Ale or IPA. It has the malt and hop makeup of an IPA, but I used a german black malt called Carafa to turn it black. Carafa is unlike the other roasted and chocolate malts in that it really doesn't give off near as much of a roasty flavor. So really, I just used it as a gimmick.

Unfortunately things didn't go so great with the brew, and i'm not confident in its turning out as good as it could. I had a stuck mash (the water wouldn't run out of the mash tun because the grains created a suction or plugged the runoff) and had to pour the grains back and forth several times to get it to go again. I also lost a lot of wort to boil off, and may have had beer come in contact with a non-sanitized surface when I was attempting to strain hop trub out after the cool down. I only yielded about a half gallon out of this brew as opposed to close to a full gallon. Guess time will tell. If it's not smelling so awesome after a week when I go to rack it in to a secondary and dry hop it, i'm going to start over.

Scotch Ale:
Grains:
45.00 oz Pale Malt (2 Row)
4.00 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine
4.00 oz Smoked Malt (9.0 SRM)
3.00 oz Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM)
1.25 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM)
Hops:
0.25 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] (60 min)

Scottish Ale Yeast

Est Original Gravity: 1.084 SG

Imperial Black Ale
Grains:
30.00 oz Pale Malt (2 Row)
10.00 oz Munich Malt - 10L
6.00 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine
2.00 oz Carafa III
2.00 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt

Hops:
0.25 oz Magnum [14.00 %] (60 min)
0.25 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (15 min)
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (5 min)
0.25 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (Dry Hop 3 days)

Est Original Gravity: 1.067 SG

Scottish Ale Yeast

Primary for 1wk, rack to secondary and dry hop for 3 days.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Brew #3: Dark Wheat

So this last week got crazy and I didn't end up brewing until now (almost a full week late for me). I try to do this at least once a week to keep the new recipes coming. Last week we opened a bottle of the stout to see how it was conditioning in the bottles (bottle conditioning brings the yeast back to life just enough to carbonate it. then you age it as long as it needs for all the flavors to settle in) and it is coming along very, very nicely. Definitely needs a few more weeks, but I'm very pleased with the results so far. I also bottled the amber style ale (I don't know what else to call it really, it doesn't really fit in to any particular category) last saturday and gave it a pre-bottle tasting. It also showed a lot of potential, and I can't wait to try the fully conditioned finished product. Later along in today's brew I may crack open a bottle of the amber to see how it's going after a week in bottles.

So that brings me to today. I'm brewing up a dark wheat beer. It's not so much in the style of the german hefeweizen, but based on that style with a different yeast type. One of the definitive traits of the german weizen beers is the yeast profile with its banana-y/clovey aromas and tastes. I'll once again be using the Irish Ale yeast to see how that type of recipe translates to a completely different yeast. It's also a bit bigger (higher alcohol) and darker than a typical german dunkelweizen. I have actually designed this beer as a base beer for a few experiments I have coming up involving mixing in some fruits and teas in the recipe... but more on that later :)

Here's today's gem:

Dark Wheat
Original Gravity: 1.064 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.24 %

16.00 oz German Wheat Malt
12.00 oz Munich Malt - 10L
12.00 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US
7.00 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L

Hops:
0.25 oz Hallertauer [4.80 %] (60 min)

Log notes:
Mash temp: 151 - Mashing at a medium temperature. Mashing higher would make for a sweeter, maltier beer, mashing lower creates a drier, more attenuated beer. I'm looking for something right in the middle.

Update:

Just cracked the "Amber style ale" from two weeks ago. It's one of my traditions to try the previous brew on each new brew day... One of the joys of brewing is that you are never quite 100% sure what you're going to get some of the time. This would be one of those times. I'd actually classify this as more of a brown ale. It came up a bit darker than I had anticipated, and it lacks that red tint I was shooting for. The taste is great. It's very clean, medium bodied, medium/low hop aroma and flavor with very little bitterness. Just what I was going for as far as the drinkability. Can't wait to try another in a few weeks!

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Brew #2: Amber Style Ale and an overview of my humble system

So today we bottled up the stout I brewed a week ago. I remade the recipe to the best of my memory that won me a medal a few years ago. Tasted a little sample (pre carbonation/aging) and tasted delicious. Can't wait the few weeks until it's ready to pour!

So here's today's brew complete with pictures to give an idea of how I'm operating here. My system is far from elaborate, but in an apartment, I'm limited to what I can do.

Amber Style Ale
Starting Gravity- 1.0600

Recipe:
Grain Bill:
32.00 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (3.0 SRM)
5.00 oz Munich Malt (9.0 SRM)
3.00 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM)
1.00 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM)
.50 oz Black Barley (Stout) (500.0 SRM)

Hops:
0.25 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] (30 min)
0.13 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] (0 min)


The very humble setup:
Photobucket

The inside of my home made mash tun. The sealant I used around the fitting there looks a bit ripe after I brewed the stout


Mashing the grains. Added 170f degree water, this gets the temperature of the pile of grains there to about 155f.


So last week on my first try brewing with this setup, I found that this small of a batch of grains is hard to keep at 155f for a full hour. I solved this problem by turning my oven to 170f, and keeping the mash tun in there. I check the temp of the grains every 15mins.


The mash is done, and it's time to mash out. I drip the wort in to the pot and keep doing additions of 170f water to the mash tun. I use a collander to break up the flow of water to not disturb the grain bed.




And there she boils! 1hr boil total.


After the boil I put the pot into a sink of ice water. What's nice about a 1gal batch is this actually works very quickly, and there's no need for expensive copper chillers. I then funneled the wort (the unfermented beer) into the fermenter. I use a 1gal growler as a fermenter.


Ah yes, yeast... Can't forget the yeast. Here's a mason jar with some Wyeast Irish Ale Yeast pulled from a fermenter at Big Al Brewing. It's nice to not have to spend $8 on yeast for every batch :) So now it's time for this here to make its way into the beer and start the feeding frenzy. Alcohol is just yeast poop afterall.


And alas, the fermenter, the wort, and the yeast become one.... This is where beer starts happening. Time to throw it in a cool, dark place for a few days.

An intro

So I've had this blog for a while, but blogged mainly about things I don't like. I decided that I want to be more fun and keep a log of my homebrewing, and my quest to open my own microbrewery. I've been brewing for 4yrs now, both professionally and recreationally. I no longer work in a brewery, but now have a strong goal of owning a small production microbrewery.

I moved to Washington in 2007 to work on my brewing career, and I only ended up working for about 4 months doing it. I just couldn't afford to live on an entry level position wage. Previous to that, I worked part time for Orlando Brewing in Florida, and got a lot of awesome hands on experience with everything. Just yesterday actually I started volunteering to help out part time at Big AL Brewing in Seattle, an awesome startup microbrewery just to learn a new system, and get back in to running some big equipment.

I did my first homebrew batch in the fall of 2005, and brewed about once a week until I moved to Washington in 2007. I've entered one of my beers in a competition one time, and won a first place medal (I've had multiples of my recipes win medals, but they were brewed by someone else)... Which gave me a lot of confidence to keep at it and set some lofty goals for what to do with this. This has been the first thing I've ever been truly good at.

So my homebrewing has kind of been put on the backburner since moving here. Main reasons being that I couldn't afford to put together the elaborate homebrewing system I wanted to do, and because I don't have the space. In the apartment Amber and I now live in, I finally have space to store a few things, but not the space to do traditional 5gal homebrew batches. I solved my dilemma by piecing together a pretty crafty little 1gal system. It works perfect for doing stovetop brews, and it's nice to have the ability to experiment with new stuff and not risk wasting the costly 5gal batch.

Anyways, I'll be updating this with pictures and fun stuff as I do my brews, which will be every 1 to 2wks.