#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

#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

#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 %