Brewing After Law School

Brewing for Yeast Propogation

2011-12-13T00:26:00.000-08:00

Yeast is, far and away, the most important part of the brewing process. Yeast is so important that sometimes I will plan my brewing process around making my yeast happy. Just last weekend, I brewed up a Scottish 70/- Ale (a session-strength ale) for the express purpose of building up enough yeast from the slurry to give me a nice cake for brewing up the beer I really want to brew (a Black IPA).

When you know you need to brew a batch to build up a ton of healthy yeast, the best thing you can do is to brew up a low-gravity beer. Since I wanted to build up a propagator of Wyeast 1450 Denny's Favorite 50 yeast (an American-style ale yeast), I made a 2L stir-plate starter, and then pitched that starter into a 1.036 wort of Scottish 70/- wort. Why a Scottish 70 schilling ale? Because I was tired of brewing bitters. Ad I had never brewed this style before. And it's not the worst style to try to win a metal with. Also, a key part of this style is the long boil. So I gave the beer 120 min of boiling and did a pretty classic British base malt and Roasted Barley recipe, with just a pinch of crystal malt. Here's the recipe:

Campbell's Heavy 70/-
Style: 9B-Scottish And Irish Ale-Scottish Heavy 70/-

Recipe Overview

Wort Volume Before Boil: 9.50 US gals
Wort Volume After Boil: 6.25 US gals
Volume Transferred: 5.75 US gals
Volume At Pitching: 5.75 US gals
Final Batch Volume: 5.20 US gals
Expected Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.024 SG
Expected OG: 1.037 SG
Expected FG: 1.010 SG
Expected ABV: 3.5 %
Expected ABW: 2.7 %
Expected IBU (using Tinseth): 19.9
Expected Color: 10.8 SRM
Apparent Attenuation: 71.4 %
Mash Efficiency: 84.0 %
Boil Duration: 125.0 mins
Fermentation Temperature: 60 degF

Fermentables
UK Pale Ale Malt (Maris Otter) 7lb 0oz (94.9 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Medium Crystal (120EBC) 4.00 oz (3.4 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Roasted Barley 2.00 oz (1.7 %) In Mash/Steeped

Hops
US Ultra (9.0 % alpha) 20 g Bagged Whole Hops used 60 Min From End

Other Ingredients

Yeast: Wyeast 1450-Denny's Favorite 50

Mash at 156 degF for 60 mins

Lightening Strikes Twice (When Lightening is Failure)

2011-12-03T19:08:00.001-08:00

So it took me two tries to pass the damn MPRE. It also took me two tries to pass the NY bar exam. And now I know it will take at least two tries to pass the CA bar exam, as I found out recently that I failed it the first time around. When you fail the California bar exam, but your score is really close to passing, they have another grader grade the exam. Then they average your two scores. In my case, the first grader failed me by a hair, then the second grader passed me by a hair, so they averaged the two scores and I failed by a half a hair - or .6%. Yes, out of 2000 points, where you need 1440 to pass, I got 1428.5. If I had just been assigned the second grader the first time around, I would have passed the bar exam. But I didn't. And so I have to pay a ton of money to take the damn test again. And since I scored fairly high (138 raw) on the MBE (the multiple choice portion of the exam that is the same in 48 states and several U.S. territories), I know that I have to focus my studies on the essays this time around - having severe problems with the formatting of legal essays since day one of law school.

But I brew on. I have brewed twice since finding out the bad news, and I plan to keep brewing at least once a month or so. I've neglected this blog lately, but I plan to post more during the next few months while re-acclimating myself to law-study mode. Now, as to those three most recent beers, I made another hoppy "San Diego Style" session ale (which is currently dry-hopping), which was made with WLP029 Wyeast Kölsch Yeast to build up enough yeast for the Düsseldorf Altbier that's fermenting as we speak. Additionally, I brewed a 5 gal batch of Duvel-like Belgian golden strong ale that will be delivered to a fellow Greenbelter, Andy Gray, for barrel aging with a number of souring bugs in a now-neutral American oak barrel.

Brewing with Equipment

2011-10-28T07:00:00.000-07:00

I finally got some fancy equipment, a pump, and a fancy chiller. And yesterday was they day that they got their first use. The beer was a variant of the porter I typically brew - this one being slightly different in that I used Belgian Special B malt instead of British Extra Dark Crystal and an American yeast rather than a British yeast. My only real issue was that it took me about half an hour to figure out how to get my pump working right in the beginning, which got the strike water's temerature down enough that, rather than a 154F mash, I mashed at 150F. Now this isn't the end of the world - but combined with the more attenuative American yeast, that low mash temperature may lead to an overly dry and low-bodied porter. I am sure the beer will be tasty either way, but I hope this yeast doesn't eat too much and leaves me enough residual sugars to have that creamy malty goodness I like about this recipe.

Brewing With Homegrown Yeast

2011-09-01T23:40:00.000-07:00

After I brewed last Monday, I forgot to clean out my graduated cylinder full of wort and a hydrometer... until today when I noticed active fermentation going on in the cylinder out in the backyard. Naturally, I decided to pour that fermenting wort into a sanitized mason jar, where it has continued to ferment. I am not a major sour beer enthusiast, but this seems too good to pass up, provided there are no major risks (a bad 5 gal of beer is not enough of a risk for me).

My thought has been to brew a 10 gal batch of something and split it after primary fermentation into two carboys - dosing one with orval dregs and the other with some of this... to get an idea of what I am working with. I am assuming there is a combination of lacto and brett, but does anyone have a better idea? And should I build up a starter of the stuff, or just pitch the little 4 oz plug of slurry and wort? The way it is fermenting, it almost reminds me of ordinary sacc, which makes me think maybe I ought to use is as the primary strain...

Brewing for NCHF

2011-08-16T15:26:00.000-07:00

Corrine and I are going to NCHF this year, and I plan on making a big showing. The trouble is, this means I have to brew a lot of beer between now and September. The good news is that I have a reason to brew a ton of beer and no limitations on what I have to brew. I have decided to brew a Kölsch, a Black IPA, and a Rye Red Ale (I will also be brewing a Sticke, but that will not be ready in time for the festival).

So now that it's just in the planning phase, I will say this about these beers:

My Kölsch will be primarily Canadian Pilsner Malt, with a pinch of German Melanoidin Malt, and a small amount of German Saurmalt (Acidulated Malt), to balance pH. I will also be using 100% American hops, but the yeast strain will be authentically from Cologne.

My Black IPA will be brewed in the tradition ofd my first black IPA - with tons of new school domestic hops, balanced by some classic C hops and a substantial dose of Canadian 2-row, a touch of Munich malt, and a nice bit of British Crystal. The difference is that this one will be brewed to about 1.066 and 80 IBUs. This will me more of an, "I'm not fucking around" kind of in-your-face hop assault with that creamy-smooth malty backbone. I will be using a shitload of WLP001 slurry for this guy - leftover from the fresh hop amber ale below.

My Red Rye Ale will basically be a nugget-and-cascade 50 IBU 1.055ish beer that will be 25% rye malt, dry-hopped in the keg with cascade and summit, and very heavily late-hopped. I will bitter with Nugget, which will also be used late in the boil beside some Cascade and Summit. Basically, this one will be a 10 gal batch brewed with close to a pound of hops, but kept down to 50-55 IBU's - a monster of a sessionable beer and exactly what Northern California beer culture is all about.

Brewing with Homegrown Wet Hops

2011-08-09T10:09:00.000-07:00

I'm hating myself for forgetting to take a picture of this one! I had about 8.7 ounces of whole wet cascade hops grown out of my hop plants in my mom's backyard. Supposedly wet hops are 4/5 excess water and thus equivalent to one fifth as much dry hops - which left me with the equivalent of 1.75-2 ounces of hops. That's really just enough for a single hop addition in a hoppy beer, so I decided to use them all for aroma, and to do a 5 gal batch so as to get the greatest impact from these hops. Boy oh boy was it fun to brew with them, though. The color was different from regular hops - much more vibrant. And the aroma, while mild, was great.

I decided to go with a hoppy amber ale, so that the beer would be hop-forward, but wouldn't totally rely on the hops for flavor, since I wanted to keep the non-wet additions as neutral as possible, while still producing a hoppy beer. I overshot my efficiency a bit, as I was trying to reduce my efficiency (since I heard lower efficiencies lead to a soother malt profile and want to test this). But it is still within the style guidelines, and since I overhopped it intentionally, I think the increased gravity will likely lead to more balance.

I used Pilsner malt just because I had that available and didn't feel like tearing into an unopened sack of regular 2-row. And I used magnum and glacier hops because they are both smooth bitterers and they have a fairly neutral aroma/flavor. I think the glacier addition will "back up" the cascades, rather than compete - much like Willamette and Goldings tend to do. I also added a small addition of pelletized cascades at 30 min just to pump up the bitterness a bit and give the beer a slight "cascadey" quality in its bittering profile, so as to maximize the percepted impact of the fresh hops.

I used a pint of dense, hoppy, 10-day-old WLP001 yeast slurry I got from Triple Rock, and that's fermenting at a cool 60F right now. Since I am not dry hopping this beer, as soon as it is finished in 2-3 weeks, I will crash cool it, fine it, and keg it. Hopefully that way I will get as much fresh hoppy aroma from it as I can.

Here's the recipe:

Recipe: Wet Hop American Summer
Style: 10B-American Ale-American Amber Ale

Wort Volume Before Boil: 8.50 US gals
Wort Volume After Boil: 6.00 US gals
Volume Transferred: 5.25 US gals
Volume At Pitching: 5.25 US gals
Expected Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.041 SG
Expected OG: 1.059 SG
Expected FG: 1.013 SG
Expected ABV: 6.1 %
Expected ABW: 4.8 %
Expected IBU (using Tinseth): 43.9
Expected Color: 13.0 SRM
Apparent Attenuation: 77.7 %
Mash Efficiency: 80.0 %
Boil Duration: 90.0 mins
Fermentation Temperature: 60 degF

Fermentables
Canadian Pils Malt 8lb 0oz (66.3 %) In Mash/Steeped
Canadian Munich Malt 10L 3lb 0oz (24.9 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Medium Crystal (120EBC/65L) 1lb 0oz (8.3 %) In Mash/Steeped
German Carafa Special III 1.00 oz (0.5 %) In Mash/Steeped

Hops
US Magnum (17.0 % alpha) 14 g Loose Whole Hops used 90 Min From End
US Cascade (5.3 % alpha) 20 g Bagged Pellet Hops used 30 Min From End
US Glacier (5.6 % alpha) 30 g Loose Whole Hops used 10 Min From End
US Cascade (5.0 % alpha) 55 g Loose Whole Hops used At turn off

Other Ingredients

Yeast: White Labs WLP001-California Ale

Mash at 150 degF for 60 mins

Recipe Notes
Flameout Cascades in this recipe were an early August harvest from my own hop vines. Alpha acid % is merely a guess. Name courtesy of Corn Dog

Brewing for Myself - A-Bomb IPA

2011-07-18T16:13:00.000-07:00

It has been a long time since I brewed up a batch for no one but myself. Frankly, a style I rarely brew is an American IPA and that's because so many of my beers are for parties, events, my own education, experimentation, or at the request of my girlfriend. But probably my favorite style of beer to drink is the American IPA and so this time around, I brewed up a batch all for me.

I decided to use 100% "new school" hop varieties because I prefer those kinds of hops when I drink an IPA. For the sake of being novel and because it's what I had lying around, all the hops I used had a name that started with the letter "A." Since so many classic American IPA's are powered by the notorious "C" hops of the pacific northwest (Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, Columbus, etc...), I thought that a 100% A-hop IPA would be a fun and interesting way to showcase new school hop varieties. The hops I used in this beer were Apollo, Ahtanum, and Amarillo.

Apollo is a super high alpha hop with a pretty intense aroma. I would describe the aroma as somewhat between Simcoe and Columbus - two excellent and well-known dual-purpose varieties. That being said, this hop is fairly new to me. I recently made an all-apollo pale ale for my club's single-hop pale ale project, but the high alpha nature of Apollo forced me to use no 60 min bittering hops, so I really don't know how the bittering charge from this hop will effect my A-Bomb IPA.

Ahtanum is known in large part for the part it plays in Stone Pale Ale. Ahtanum has been described as a cross between Goldings-type hops and Cascade-type hops, but I would say it is more aligned with Cascade, Amarillo, and other citrusy West Coast US hops in flavor and aroma. Like Cascade, and unlike most other Northwestern Citrusy hop varities, Ahtanum has a relatively low percentage of alpha acids, which means you can use more of it for flavor and aroma without overly bittering a beer - a fine quality in a hop variety when your beer has loads of Apollo in it!

Amarillo is just about the most desirable US hop to brew with. With a super-smooth bittering quality and an intense citrusy aroma that is more fruit-forward than Cascade or Centennial (which are more floral), Amarillo is an excellent all-purpose Northwestern hop for American-style beers and particularly well-suited to IPA's. That being said, I have found in the past that Amarillo does best when paired with other hops. While some hops like Columbus/CTZ, Cascade, and Simcoe are excellent on their own, Amarillo really shines when it is paired with another hop varietal. Even if I just use a different hop for the 60 min bittering charge and then Amarillo for everything else, I have noticed a marked improvement over a 100% Amarillo beer. That said, most people I know whose brewing opinions I respect believe Amarillo to be among the ultimate single-hop choices. Regardless, this beer will showcase three hops and I am happy that Amarillo will be one of them.

Everything went pretty smoothly. I used a bunch of slurry from a previous brew (the Apollo single hop pale ale), and it took off immediately. I fermented a bit warmer than usual, for no reason other than I wanted to see how a more typical 66 to 68-degree ferment would alter the beer's profile (I usually go a lot cooler, like 58F). Oh, and I lost my hydrometer, so I had to just guess at the efficiency of this one. I used a slightly looser crush than usual, so I figured about 75% seemed right (though it may well have been higher). So here's the recipe:

Recipe: A-Bomb IPA
Style: 14B-India Pale Ale(IPA)-American IPA

Wort Volume Before Boil: 16.00 US gals
Wort Volume After Boil: 13.00 US gals
Volume Transferred: 11.00 US gals
Volume At Pitching: 11.00 US gals
Final Batch Volume: 10.50 US gals
Expected Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.054 SG
Expected OG: 1.067 SG
Expected FG: 1.012 SG
Expected ABV: 7.3 %
Expected ABW: 5.7 %
Expected IBU (using Tinseth): 73.4
Expected Color: 6.5 SRM
Apparent Attenuation: 81.1 %
Mash Efficiency: 75.0 %
Boil Duration: 110.0 mins
Fermentation Temperature: 66 degF

Fermentables
US Pale Ale Malt 17lb 0oz (53.1 %) In Mash/Steeped
US 2-Row Malt 13lb 0oz (40.6 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Dextrin Malt 1lb 0oz (3.1 %) In Mash/Steeped
US Caramel 10L Malt 8.00 oz (1.6 %) In Mash/Steeped
US Caramel 20L Malt 8.00 oz (1.6 %) In Mash/Steeped

Hops
US Apollo (19.0 % alpha) 14 g Loose Whole Hops used 60 Min From End
US Apollo (19.0 % alpha) 57 g Loose Whole Hops used 15 Min From End
US Amarillo (9.3 % alpha) 57 g Bagged Pellet Hops used 15 Min From End
US Ahtanum (6.0 % alpha) 57 g Bagged Pellet Hops used 15 Min From End
US Ahtanum (6.0 % alpha) 57 g Bagged Pellet Hops used 5 Min From End
US Amarillo (9.3 % alpha) 57 g Bagged Pellet Hops used 5 Min From End
US Apollo (19.0 % alpha) 57 g Loose Whole Hops used 5 Min From End
US Ahtanum (6.0 % alpha) 57 g Bagged Pellet Hops used At turn off
US Amarillo (9.3 % alpha) 57 g Bagged Pellet Hops used At turn off
US Apollo (19.0 % alpha) 57 g Loose Whole Hops used At turn off
US Apollo (19.0 % alpha) 57 g Loose Pellet Hops used Dry-Hopped in Primary
US Amarillo (9.3 % alpha) 57 g Loose Pellet Hops used Dry-Hopped in Secondary
US Ahtanum (6.0 % alpha) 57 g Loose Pellet Hops used Dry-Hopped in Secondary

Yeast: DCL US-05 (formerly US-56) SafAle

Mash at 150 degF for 60 mins

Recipe Notes
Pitched full slurry left over from a 5.5 gal batch of pale ale.

Tasting Notes: This one finished a little high and came out a bit maltier than I had hoped. It's still a good beer, but not really "my style." I am not sure why it came out as it did, but I have a second carboy of it that appeared to restart fermentation when I racked it, so perhaps that one will be inaffected by whatever made the first keg so malty. On second thought, based on the 80% efficiency I had with the Wet Hop American Summer, I suspect I got 80% or so with the A-Bomb IPA, too - meaning that I have an Imperial-strength beer with the bitterness of a regular IPA. That would explain the malty lack of balance that has been bugging me.

Brewing and Forgetting

2011-05-25T19:21:00.000-07:00

So I was mistaken about when the Davis Beerfest is, and realized that the San Diego Session Ale I made specifically for that event won't be ready in time for it. As a result, my Züm Esquire Düsseldorf Altbier will have to take its place. At least I'm not showing up empty-handed.

Brewing for Charity

2011-05-24T16:24:00.000-07:00

The Davis Beerfest, is coming up, and I am supplying two beers for this event. One beer is a witbier that I have already brewed (it will ket kegged a week before the event), and the other is a San Diego Session Ale, meaning a low-alcohol, easy drinking ale with loads of American hops.

For the San Diego Session Ale, I decided to go with an intense 100% "hopbursted" - meaning all the hops were added within the last 15 min of the boil - amber-colored ale. In order to get it firmly malty for a small beer, but keep it from being cloying, I went for a grain bill of mostly pale ale malt, with a little crystal and aromatic malts and a small pinch of Carafa Special II for color. In order to get it both clean and American-tasting, as well as clear, I chose to use WLP051 California V Ale yeast. I am going to rack it to secondary, then quickly clear it with some cold crashing and gelatin for a week before I keg it and dry hop it in the keg. Then it will get poured out of the jockey box with room temperature beer going in and cold beer going out. Here's the recipe:

Recipe: San Diego Session
Style: 23-Speciality Beer

Recipe Overview

Wort Volume Before Boil: 8.50 US gals
Wort Volume After Boil: 6.50 US gals
Volume Transferred: 5.50 US gals
Water Added: 0.00 US gals
Volume At Pitching: 5.50 US gals
Final Batch Volume: 5.20 US gals
Expected Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.034 SG
Expected OG: 1.044 SG
Expected FG: 1.011 SG
Expected ABV: 4.4 %
Expected ABW: 3.4 %
Expected IBU (using Tinseth): 44.9
Expected Color: 11.4 SRM
Apparent Attenuation: 74.9 %
Mash Efficiency: 84.0 %
Boil Duration: 90.0 mins
Fermentation Temperature: 64 degF

Fermentables
US Pale Ale Malt 8lb 8oz (90.5 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Medium Crystal (120EBC) 8.00 oz (5.3 %) In Mash/Steeped
Belgian Aromatic Malt 4.00 oz (2.7 %) In Mash/Steeped
German Carafa Special II 2.20 oz (1.5 %) In Mash/Steeped

Hops
US Cascade (5.3 % alpha) 75 g Bagged Pellet Hops used 15 Min From End
US Centennial (11.0 % alpha) 60 g Loose Whole Hops used 5 Min From End
US Citra (14.2 % alpha) 30 g Loose Whole Hops used 5 Min From End
US Centennial (11.0 % alpha) 60 g Loose Whole Hops used At turn off
US Citra (14.2 % alpha) 30 g Loose Whole Hops used At turn off
US Cascade (5.3 % alpha) 30 g Bagged Pellet Hops used Dry-Hopped
US Centennial (11.0 % alpha) 30 g Bagged Pellet Hops used Dry-Hopped

Other Ingredients

Yeast: White Labs WLP051-California Ale V

Mash at 152 degF for 60 mins
Mashout at 167F for 10 min

Recipe Notes
Reverse Osmosis water with 1 tsp of Gypsum and .25 tsp of Chalk added to the mash

Mr. Pink Belgian Witbier

The Witbier is going to be pink. I decided I would go for a pink witbier because I thought that would help it stand out amidst the sea of wheat beers at the beerfest. When I tried tasting some Hoegaarden blended with unsweetened hibiscus tea, it tasted pretty good, so I figure adding some to one of the kegs can't be a bad thing. Here's the recipe:

Recipe: Mr. Pink Hibiscus Honey Wit
Style: 16A-Belgian And French Ale-Witbier

Recipe Overview

Wort Volume Before Boil: 14.00 US gals
Wort Volume After Boil: 12.25 US gals
Volume Transferred: 11.50 US gals
Water Added: 0.00 US gals
Volume At Pitching: 11.50 US gals
Final Batch Volume: 10.50 US gals
Expected Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.037 SG
Expected OG: 1.048 SG
Expected FG: 1.009 SG
Expected ABV: 5.1 %
Expected ABW: 4.1 %
Expected IBU (using Tinseth): 15.5
Expected Color: 3.7 SRM
Apparent Attenuation: 80.9 %
Mash Efficiency: 64.0 %
Boil Duration: 90.0 mins
Fermentation Temperature: 64 degF

Fermentables
Canadian Pils Malt 9lb 0oz (32.4 %) In Mash/Steeped
US Flaked Soft Red Wheat 8lb 0oz (28.8 %) In Mash/Steeped
US Raw Soft White Wheat Berries 3lb 0oz (10.8 %) In Mash/Steeped
Canadian Pale Ale Malt 3lb 0oz (10.8 %) In Mash/Steeped
US Rice Hulls 2lb 0oz (7.2 %) In Mash/Steeped
US Flaked Oats 1lb 0oz (3.6 %) In Mash/Steeped
Sugar - Honey 1lb 12oz (6.3 %) at High Krausen

Hops
US Willamette (3.0 % alpha) 80 g Bagged Pellet Hops used 60 Min From End
US Citra (14.0 % alpha) 14 g Loose Whole Hops used 5 Min From End

Other Ingredients
Orange Peel, Sweet 30 g used In Boil
Coriander Seed 15 g used In Boil
Lime Peel 5 g used In Boil
Cardamom Pod 1 g used In Boil

Yeast: Wyeast 3463-Forbidden Fruit

Mash at 149 degF for 90 mins

Here's what it looks like (more pink in person)

Brewing After Success

2011-04-30T22:47:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday I found out I passed the NY Bar Exam. I still feel like I'm walking on air. Anyway, I just brewed a celebratory batch of homebrew, which should be ready in a few months on account of its need to lager. That's right, I brewed one of my favorite obscure styles, a Düsseldorf Altbier. Recently I decided foreign Pilsner malt can suck it and that I prefer the cheaper Canadian stuff - it's just so much cheaper and has a more neutral flavor. But this recipe also has some lovely German Carafa Special II Malt for color (no domestic maltster makes anything that comes close to Germany's fine dehusked chocolate malt), as well as a judicious dose of German Munich Malt, Melanoidin Malt, and a pinch of Caramunich, as well. I expect this beer to have a complex, malty flavor, balanced by a floral noble-esque hop profile. This style is all about balance, and the best of the examples are also pretty dry, so I mashed at 148F for 60 minutes, to get it dry. I also bitched a large dose of yeast to help things get going. Visible fermentation began in a matter of hours.

Here's the recipe:

Recipe: Zum Esquire
Style: 7C-Amber Hybrid Beer-Dusseldorf Altbier

Wort Volume Before Boil: 8.50 US gals
Wort Volume After Boil: 6.13 US gals
Volume Transferred: 5.50 US gals
Volume At Pitching: 5.50 US gals
Final Batch Volume: 5.25 US gals
Expected Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.036 SG
Expected OG: 1.050 SG
Expected FG: 1.011 SG
Expected ABV: 5.2 %
Expected IBU (using Tinseth): 41.3
Expected Color: 12.0 SRM
Apparent Attenuation: 77.5 %
Mash Efficiency: 80.0 %
Boil Duration: 90.0 mins
Fermentation Temperature: 64 degF

Fermentables
Canadian Pils Malt 7lb 0oz (67.5 %) In Mash/Steeped
German Munich Malt 2lb 4oz (21.7 %) In Mash/Steeped
German Melanoidin Malt 8.00 oz (4.8 %) In Mash/Steeped
Belgian Caramel Munich Malt 60 8.00 oz (4.8 %) In Mash/Steeped
German Carafa Special II 2.00 oz (1.2 %) In Mash/Steeped

Hops
US Magnum (17.0 % alpha) 14 g Loose Whole Hops used 60 Min From End
US Crystal (5.6 % alpha) 28 g Loose Whole Hops used 20 Min From End
US Crystal (5.6 % alpha) 30 g Loose Whole Hops used 5 Min From End

Yeast: White Labs WLP029-German Ale/Kolsch

Mash at 148F for 60 min

Drinking After Law School

2011-04-07T23:05:00.000-07:00

I have been a major beer drinker since May 2010 when I graduated from law school. While I have also enjoyed the fine wine selection available at Costco and the Davis Food Co-Op, it's really the ability to buy singles of all the fine craft beer that has subsidized my homebrew consumption best.

Today I am doing something I have done before but this time I'm writing about it - the 12 oz single-style beer flight. No one is stewarding for me, so this test isn't blind, but I am drinking a few beers today (maybe more tomorrow) all from the American Pale Ale style, and I will write about them as I would if I were judging them in a BJCP competition. Here goes:

1. New Belgium Mighty Arrow Pale Ale

Aroma
Minty, clean, noble-type and perfumey cascade aroma. No esters. No DMS. Clean malt aroma - no caramel or bread-like aromas. 8/12

Appearance
Crystal crear. Light golden color. Good head retention. 3/3

Flavor
Clean, hop-forward. Good, smooth bitterness. Hop profile is clean and noble-like. Minty, smooth, neutral-tasting. Not very citrusy or fruity. Not spicy. Nearly no malt presence. Pilsner malt? Unique for an American pale ale in that there is not a citrus-hop dominance. No esters or phenols. No alcohol. No off flavors. 13/20

Mouthfeel
Smooth, velvety, medium body. Low-moderate carbonation. 4/5

Overall Impression
A nice, clean, sessionable beer, but it lacks the hop presence that I expect from the style. I would also like a little more malt flavor, and the pilsnery taste seems style-inapproriate. 7/10

35/50

2. Flying Dog Doggie Style Classic Pale Ale

Aroma
Nothing. Almost no aroma. Clean, extremely slight malt and hop aroma, slight sour aroma. 5/12

Appearance
Beautiful pale amber color, crystal clarity. Moderate head retention. 3/3

Flavor
Overly neutral. Slight cascade hop character coupled with very slight caramel sweetness. Not toasty or sweet. Bitterness is good. Some cascade in the finish. This bottle may not be particularly fresh. 10/20

Mouthfeel
Moderate carbonation, light-medium body. 4/5

Overall
Not my cup of tea. This beer lacked flavor overall. Just a not great beer. I believe the bottle wasn't as fresh as it ought to be, but I also don't think this beer is dry-hopped, which it properly should be. 5/10

27/50

3. Lagunitas New Dogtown Pale Ale

Aroma
Unmistakeable cascade hop aroma - perfume, grapefruit, and grainy malt blend to smell like a pale ale ought to. 10/12

Appearance
Deep gold to pale amber, very slight haze. Low head retention. 2/3

Flavor
Firm bitterness almost balanced by grainy malt. No caramel. Hop flavor throughout (especially in finish), but the dominant flavor is the bitterness of the hops, leading to a very dry finish, despite the soft sweetness mid-palate that suggests some residual sugars. 16/20

Mouthfeel
Moderate carbonation contributes to dry finish. Medium-bodied. Smooth, but not incredibly sessionable. 4/5

Overall Impression
Excellent beer, but somewhat unpolished. I would prefer if it were clearer and perhaps had a pinch of Munich-type or caramel-type sweetness. It's a bit one-note with the cascade-type hop flavor and bitterness. Still, a fine craft beer, and what I expect a pale ale to taste like, plus some. 8/10

40/50

Day 2

4. Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale

Aroma
Sorta weak on this one. I am already pretty sure this is not the freshest bottle of Mirror Pond I've ever had. Bready caramely malt and cascade hops. Appealing and it seems fairly drinkable - what I mean is that it smells neutral, but there is detectable hops and malt and some very soft fruity esters - if I closed my eyes, I would guess it was a pale ale.8/12

Appearance
Minimal head with good retention. Very slight haze that doesn't dissipate as the beer warms up. Nice pale amber color. 2/3

Taste
Gentle cascade hop mix of perfume, grapefruit (white, not pink), and pine. Soft bready malt sweetness. Firm but gentle bitterness. Not harsh. Incredibly smooth. Easy. Very restrained fruity esters that become more apparent as it warms. Excellent - and much better at 50F than fresh out of the fridge. 17/20

Mouthfeel
Medium body. Low-moderate carbonation for the style (which I like). Creamy. Very smooth. 5/5

Overall
This is really what a pale ale strives to be. The restrained but noticeable yeast esters really push this one from "good" to "great" for me. I would prefer more dry hops and a bit more clarity, but an excellent beer all-around. 9/10.

41/50

5. Caldera Pale Ale (in a can!)

Aroma
Intense cascade aroma. Citrus, perfume, and a hint of pine. Outrageously good. 11/12

Appearance
Brilliantly clear. Small head that does not persist long. Beautiful pale amber color. 2/3

Flavor
Smooth, but firm bitterness. Crisp pine and perfume. Grapefruit and candy-like maltiness. Excellent. Cascade-powered pale ale to and through. Minerally finish. 18/20

Mouthfeel
Medium body. Moderate carbonation. Not creamy. Very smooth. 4/5

Overall
A classic American pale ale. Cascade hops x^1000000. Cascade at its best - and backed by a fine smooth malt backing. So so good. This is a perfect example of what pale ale ought to be. 9/10

44/50

6. Widmer Bros. Drifter Pale Ale

Aroma
Decidedly "new school" hop aroma - fruit salad. Melon, rock candy, and caramel malt. Sweet-smelling, and very inviting. 10/12

Appearance
Honey-colored medium amber and crystal clear. Poor head retention. 2/3

Flavor
Soft bitterness, sweet malt, fruity hops, and that's about it. But the hop profile is complex and very fruity. There is an ester-like quality, but I am almost certain that is just the hops - really serious stuff. 17/20

Mouthfeel
Decidedly medium-bodied, moderate carbonation. Slightly creamy and very smooth. 4/5

Overall
A very unique pale ale in that it is slightly darker and has an entirely different hop bill than the cascade-heavy standard for the style. Very nice, but it could be improved with a pinch more bitterness and more dry hopping. 8/10

41/50

7. Stone Pale Ale

Aroma
Very mild. Citrusy hops and caramel malt. Some oxidation. 6/12

Appearance
Medium amber color. No head, slight haze. 2/3

Flavor
This beer has no hop flavor and it tastes old and really not fresh. Not unexpected for a bottle of such overpriced and unremarkable beer. 9/20

Mouthfeel
Medium body. Moderate carbonation. Not creamy. 3/5.

Overall Impression
The beer has seen better days. The age really shows and it is a problem. There was no hop flavor and basically the beer tastes of very little other than sweetness. 5/10

25/50

Brewing for a Presentation

2011-04-04T19:43:00.000-07:00

So, my presentation before my club, the Greenbelt Brewers Association, is April 19, and my girlfriend and her friend visiting from Portland will be there, so I am extra enthusiastic about keeping it fun and easy to follow - hence lots of tastings and not so much lecturing. I'm presenting on American Pale, Amber, and Brown Ales, so I figured I would get a 6-pack each of pale, amber, and brown ales brewed from bonafide craft breweries, along with some sexy homebrewed exampled brewed by me. I purchased the craft beer in canned form, just because I thought it would be nice to give a little shout-out to those breweries who are helping craft beer lovers know that cans are a great way of storing beer. They are: Caldera Pale Ale, Boont Amber Ale, and Moose Drool Brown Ale. The homebrewed Pale and Amber Ales were described in the last post, but here is what I did with the Brown Ale.

Now American Brown Ales aren't that popular of a style these days, but one thing is for sure, they are malt-forward beers with a somewhat firm bitterness, not unlike their English counterparts. The point to brewing an American brown ale, for a homebrewer, is to build it to your taste, because the style is wide open for interpretation. I stuck with pretty neutral hops for this one and a caramel-sweet, gently roasty recipe with a good deal of quirks. I stuck with WLP001 because I had some on hand.

Hobo Clown Brown
Style: 10C-American Ale-American Brown Ale

Wort Volume Before Boil: 8.00 US gals
Wort Volume After Boil: 7.00 US gals
Volume Transferred: 6.50 US gals
Volume At Pitching: 6.50 US gals
Final Batch Volume: 6.22 US gals
Expected Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.041 SG
Expected OG: 1.049 SG
Expected FG: 1.012 SG
Expected ABV: 5.0 %
Expected ABW: 4.0 %
Expected IBU (using Tinseth): 29
Expected Color: 20.0 SRM
Apparent Attenuation: 76.4 %
Mash Efficiency: 84.0 %
Boil Duration: 90.0 mins
Fermentation Temperature: 60 degF

Fermentables
UK Pale Ale Malt (Maris Otter) 8lb 8oz (75.3 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Brown Malt 12.00 oz (6.6 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Medium Crystal (120EBC) 12.00 oz (6.6 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Extra Dark Crystal 8.60 oz (4.8 %) In Mash/Steeped
Canadian Honey Malt (Gambrinus) 8.00 oz (4.4 %) In Mash/Steeped
German Roasted Barley 4.00 oz (2.2 %) In Mash/Steeped

Hops
US Delta (6.5 % alpha) 23 g Loose Whole Hops used 60 Min From End
US Glacier (5.7 % alpha) 30 g Loose Whole Hops used 30 Min From End
US Delta (6.5 % alpha) 19 g Loose Whole Hops used 5 Min From End

Yeast: White Labs WLP001-California Ale

Mash at 152 degF for 60 mins

Brewing for Education

2011-03-01T10:21:00.000-08:00

This April, I will be giving a presentation on American Ales, that is to say the styles of American Pale, Amber, and Brown ales. There's a lot of recent history to these styles, as they were first invented by American homebrewers and they were the first post-prohibition styles to be created by the American craft beer movement. My presentation will involve tasting three different professional samples that are all "classic" examples of the styles, as well as three homebrewed versions, to contrast how much "room" a brewer has for interpreting the style while still conforming generally to the BJCP guidelines.

As an aside, I plan on using this presentation as an excuse to teach everyone that cans are good for beer. As such, all three of my commercial examples will be canned craft beer (unless there's a great sale that convinces me otherwise). I plan on serving Caldera Pale Ale, Caldera Amber Ale, and Big Sky Moose Drool Brown Ale; but I may switch it up.

I will be brewing the brown ale at home in a couple weeks - and just 5 gallons. But I will be brewing 10 each gallons of pale and amber ale at the house of one of my new mentees from the Greenbelt Brewers Association mentoring program. Following are the recipes, and I will try to remember to post tasting notes and pictures of the brew days and finished beers in due time.

No Fail Pale Ale is intended to be a traditional approach to the American Pale Ale style, with just a little more hop aroma and flavor than usual, as well as the use of very smooth bittering hops. That being said, I expect this beer to come across as a more approachable pale ale than the professional example I expect to serve, Caldera Pale Ale. Since I am using this beer not only to teach about the style to my club, but to teach how to brew the style to my mentees, I decided to go for a Cascade-heavy recipe, since that is the chief hop in Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale, Caldera Pale Ale, and basically 9/10 craft brewed American pale ales. I am complimenting the perfumey grapefruit quality of the cascades with the "in your face" tangerine-orange peel flavor of Summit hops. The bitterness will be provided largely by the 15 min Summit addition, but also by a small dose of Magnum (an extremely smooth bittering hop) at 60 min.

Recipe: No Fail Pale Ale
Style: 10A-American Ale-American Pale Ale

Volume At Pitching: 11.00 US gals
Final Batch Volume: 10.50 US gals
Expected Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.046 SG
Expected OG: 1.054 SG
Expected FG: 1.011 SG
Expected ABV: 5.7 %
Expected ABW: 4.5 %
Expected IBU (using Tinseth): 40.5
Expected Color: 6.6 SRM
Apparent Attenuation: 79.5 %
Mash Efficiency: 78.0 % because this will be brewed on someone else's system and they don't know the efficiency, I listed 78% as a guess
Boil Duration: 90.0 mins
Fermentation Temperature: 60 degF

Fermentables
US 2-Row Malt 22lb 0oz (95.7 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Medium Crystal (120EBC) 1lb 0oz (4.3 %) In Mash/Steeped

Hops
US Magnum (17.0 % alpha) 14 g Loose Whole Hops used 60 Min From End
US Summit (15.5 % alpha) 57 g Bagged Pellet Hops used 15 Min From End
US Cascade (5.7 % alpha) 85 g Bagged Pellet Hops used 5 Min From End
US Cascade (5.7 % alpha) 57 g Bagged Pellet Hops used At turn off
US Cascade (5.7 % alpha) 85 g Loose Pellet Hops used Dry-Hopped

Yeast: White Labs WLP001-California Ale

Mash at 152 degF for 60 mins

Undead Red Ale
Style: 10B-American Ale-American Amber Ale

Wort Volume Before Boil: 14.50 US gals
Wort Volume After Boil: 12.00 US gals
Volume Transferred: 10.00 US gals
Water Added: 1.00 US gals
Volume At Pitching: 11.00 US gals
Final Batch Volume: 10.50 US gals
Expected Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.049 SG
Expected OG: 1.054 SG
Expected FG: 1.011 SG
Expected ABV: 5.7 %
Expected IBU (using Tinseth): 37.6
Expected Color: 11.5 SRM
Apparent Attenuation: 79 %
Mash Efficiency: 84.0 %
Boil Duration: 90.0 mins
Fermentation Temperature: 58 degF

Fermentables
Canadian Pale Ale Malt 12lb 0oz (51.9 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Pale Ale Malt (Maris Otter) 5lb 0oz (21.6 %) In Mash/Steeped
German Munich Malt 4lb 0oz (17.3 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Medium Crystal (120EBC) 2lb 0oz (8.6 %) In Mash/Steeped
German Carafa Special II 2.00 oz (0.5 %) In Mash/Steeped

Hops
US Magnum (17.0 % alpha) 14 g Loose Whole Hops used 60 Min From End
US Simcoe (11.0 % alpha) 58 g Bagged Pellet Hops used 15 Min From End
US Centennial (11.0 % alpha) 113 g Loose Whole Hops used 5 Min From End
US Centennial (11.0 % alpha) 113 g Loose Whole Hops used At turn off
US Centennial (11.0 % alpha) 85 g Loose Whole Hops used Dry-Hopped

Yeast: White Labs WLP001-California Ale

Mash at 150 degF for 60 mins

Futile Resistance Red Ale would have been a double-whammy learning experience, but I opted instead for a full-on traditional Red Ale. I plan to brew Futile Resistance, in the future, though, so I will leave the recipe here, along with my initial idea for the beer. I am not only teaching my mentees about the American Amber style, but I am also going to teach them about brewing with rye. That's because this beer will have a significant shot of rye malt. I am convinced that, after fining this beer and getting it clear, NO ONE will be able to tell from flavor or appearance that there is rye, but they will appreciate the extremely creamy nature of this beer, and learn that rye malt is what did that.

Recipe: Futile Resistance Red Rye Ale
Style: 10B-American Ale-American Amber Ale

Volume At Pitching: 11.00 US gals
Final Batch Volume: 10.50 US gals
Expected Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.046 SG
Expected OG: 1.056 SG
Expected FG: 1.013 SG
Expected ABV: 5.7 %
Expected ABW: 4.5 %
Expected IBU (using Tinseth): 40.7
Expected Color: 12.0 SRM
Apparent Attenuation: 76.4 %
Mash Efficiency: 84.0 %
Boil Duration: 90.0 mins
Fermentation Temperature: 58 degF

Fermentables
Canadian Pale Ale Malt 13lb 0oz (54.2 %) In Mash/Steeped
German Munich Malt 4lb 0oz (16.7 %) In Mash/Steeped
US Rye Malt 4lb 0oz (16.7 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Medium Crystal (120EBC) 1lb 0oz (4.2 %) In Mash/Steeped
US Caramel 120L Malt 1lb 0oz (4.2 %) In Mash/Steeped
US Rice Hulls 1lb 0oz (4.2 %) In Mash/Steeped

Hops
US Magnum (17.0 % alpha) 14 g Loose Whole Hops used 60 Min From End
US Centennial (11.0 % alpha) 85 g Loose Whole Hops used 15 Min From End
US Amarillo (8.5 % alpha) 57 g Loose Pellet Hops used 5 Min From End
US Amarillo (8.5 % alpha) 85 g Loose Pellet Hops used At turn off
US Amarillo (8.5 % alpha) 85 g Loose Pellet Hops used Dry-Hopped

Yeast: White Labs WLP001-California Ale

Mash at 152 degF for 60 mins

Back in Black (IPA)

2011-02-15T12:31:00.000-08:00

So about ten days ago I brewed up another Black IPA. This one is bigger and badder than other ones I've brewed. I did an 11 gallon batch, and I will be pouring 5 gallons of it at the Expo Center for Sac Beer Week. Since Black IPA is a style so indelibly linked to the beer scene in Portland - in part due to the annoying Northwestern habit of naming everything after the northwest - I decided to name this one "Dream of the 90's Black IPA"

Here's what I got:

Recipe: Dream of the 90's Black IPA
Style: 23 Imperial Black IPA

Expected OG: 1.075 SG
Expected FG: 1.013 SG
Expected ABV: 8.3 %
Expected ABW: 6.5 %
Expected IBU (using Tinseth): 95.6
Expected Color: 31.3 SRM
Apparent Attenuation: 81.3 %
Mash Efficiency: 81.0 %
Boil Duration: 90.0 mins
Fermentation Temperature: 58 degF

Fermentables
Canadian Pale Ale Malt 26lb 0oz (80.1 %) In Mash/Steeped
German Munich Type II 2lb 0oz (6.1 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Medium Crystal (120EBC) 1lb 8oz (4.6 %) In Mash/Steeped
German Melanoidin Malt 1lb 0oz (3.1 %) In Mash/Steeped
German Carafa Special II 2lb 0oz (6.2 %) added at Sparge

Hops
US Delta (5.0 % alpha) 42 g First Wort Hopped
US Magnum (17.0 % alpha) 28 g 60 Min From End
US Summit (15.5 % alpha) 57 g 15 Min From End
US Citra (14.2 % alpha) 57 g 15 Min From End
US Simcoe (12.7 % alpha) 57 g 15 Min From End
US Centennial (11.0 % alpha) 57 g 5 Min From End
US Citra (14.2 % alpha) 57 g 5 Min From End
US Simcoe (12.7 % alpha) 57 g 5 Min From End
US Simcoe (12.7 % alpha) 71 g At turn off
US Citra (14.2 % alpha) 28 g At turn off
US Centennial (11.0 % alpha) 28 g At turn off
US Simcoe (12.7 % alpha) 57 g Dry-Hopped
US Citra (14.2 % alpha) 28 g Dry-Hopped
US Centennial (11.0 % alpha) 28 g Dry-Hopped

Yeast: East Coast Yeast ECY 10-Old Newark Ale

Step: Rest at 149 degF for 60 mins

Recipe Notes
Add Carafa Special II at sparge and sparge cool (150F-160F) for 15 min.

Ferment at 58F for 2 weeks, then raise to ambient temperature. After fermentation is complete, reduce the temperature to 30F for 2 days before adding gelatin. Then leave at 30F for 3-5 days before racking into keg or secondary. Dry hop in secondary or keg at ambient temperature for 10-14 days and drop to 30F for 2 days before bottling/carbonating.

Brewing at Sanatar's - Hopfenweizen and a Double Mountain IRA clone

2011-02-03T14:01:00.000-08:00

My club is manning a booth at Cal Expo for Sacramento Beer Week, so I set myself to the task of brewing a couple kegs-worth of good beer to represent our club. One batch is going to be a bigger, badder version of my Rose City Black IPA, and the other is a collaborative brew. My friend John (who I think is the club president), had a bunch of wheat malt lying around and I had a bunch of pilsner malt taking up space, so I figured we could brew a wheat beer - but with a twist. We're brewing a beer that meets the reinheitsgebot definition of a "Weizen" (meaning nothing but hops, water, malt, and yeast - with greater than 51% of the malt being wheat), but would drink like a hoppy American Pale Ale. We're calling this style "Hopfenweizen" which means "hoppy wheat beer" in German. There is a beer out in the midwest that I've never had called Gumballhead, which is said to be similar, but I have never had it, so I can only guess as to how this beer is going to taste.

We brewed it at John's because his garage is a much nicer place to brew than my tiny apartment balcony. In addition to the hopfenweizen, we brewed a "slightly-bigger-than-the-real-thing" clone of Double Mountain IRA, a beer I miss not being able to get since leaving Portland. There was a twist to this, too (in addition to making it bigger and hoppier) - I split the 12 gallon batch of the IRA into 2 fermenters and am fermenting one with WLP540 Belgian Abbey IV, a Belgian strain nearly identical to the one Double Mountain uses; and the other fermenter was going with ECY10 Old Newark Ale- an American yeast strain sourced from the now-defunct old Ballantine Brewery in Newark, NJ. The American one is fermenting in the mid-high 50's fahrenheit and the Belgian is fermenting in the mid-high 60's fahrenheit. This is the first time I have split a batch like this, and I am pretty excited to see how it will turn out.

The recipes are below. I will post tasting notes and pictures of the beers when they are done.

Recipe: Greenbelt Hopfenweizen
Style: 10A-American Ale-American Pale Ale

Recipe Overview

Wort Volume Before Boil: 14.70 US gals
Wort Volume After Boil: 12.75 US gals
Volume Transferred: 11.00 US gals
Water Added: 0.00 US gals
Volume At Pitching: 11.00 US gals
Final Batch Volume: 10.50 US gals
Expected Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.042 SG
Expected OG: 1.048 SG
Expected FG: 1.009 SG
Expected ABV: 5.2 %
Expected ABW: 4.1 %
Expected IBU (using Tinseth): 40.2
Expected Color: 5.0 SRM
Apparent Attenuation: 81.2 %
Mash Efficiency: 79.0 %
Boil Duration: 90.0 mins
Fermentation Temperature: 58 degF

Fermentables
US White Wheat Malt 10lb 8oz (48.8 %) In Mash/Steeped
Canadian Pils Malt 9lb 8oz (44.2 %) In Mash/Steeped
US Rice Hulls 1lb 0oz (4.7 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Medium Crystal (120EBC) 8.00 oz (2.3 %) In Mash/Steeped

Hops
US Summit (15.5 % alpha) 30 g Loose Pellet Hops used 60 Min From End
US Amarillo (6.8 % alpha) 40 g Loose Pellet Hops used 15 Min From End
US Amarillo (6.8 % alpha) 90 g Loose Whole Hops used 5 Min From End
US Amarillo (6.8 % alpha) 90 g Loose Whole Hops used At turn off
US Amarillo (6.8 % alpha) 90 g Loose Whole Hops used Dry-Hopped

Yeast: White Labs WLP001-California Ale

Mash at 151 degF for 60 mins

Recipe: Double Mountain IRA
Style: 14B-India Pale Ale(IPA)-American IPA

Recipe Overview

Wort Volume Before Boil: 16.00 US gals
Wort Volume After Boil: 14.00 US gals
Volume Transferred: 11.00 US gals
Water Added: 0.00 US gals
Volume At Pitching: 11.00 US gals
Final Batch Volume: 10.50 US gals
Expected Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.060 SG
Expected OG: 1.068 SG
Expected FG: 1.013 SG
Expected ABV: 7.4 %
Expected ABW: 5.8 %
Expected IBU (using Tinseth): 73.6
Expected Color: 9.6 SRM
Apparent Attenuation: 80.0 %
Mash Efficiency: 85.0 %
Boil Duration: 90.0 mins
Fermentation Temperature: 64 degF

Fermentables
Canadian Pils Malt 28lb 0oz (91.8 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Medium Crystal (120EBC) 2lb 8oz (8.2 %) In Mash/Steeped

Hops
US Columbus(Tomahawk) (10.0 % alpha) 57 g Bagged Pellet Hops used 60 Min From End
US Magnum (10.0 % alpha) 28 g Bagged Pellet Hops used 60 Min From End
US Simcoe (12.7 % alpha) 113 g Loose Whole Hops used 15 Min From End
US Simcoe (12.7 % alpha) 113 g Loose Whole Hops used 5 Min From End
US Simcoe (12.7 % alpha) 113 g Loose Whole Hops used At turn off
US Simcoe (12.7 % alpha) 113 g Loose Whole Hops used Dry-Hopped

Yeast: White Labs WLP540-Abbey IV Ale Yeast and East Coast Yeast ECY10-Old Newark Ale

Mash at 151 degF for 60 mins

Recipe Notes
Split into two fermenters, one half fermented with WLP540 and one half fermented with ECY10.

English IPA

2011-01-27T12:50:00.000-08:00

My most recent beers were a few English Pale Ales - specifically a best bitter and an ESB. I also used an English yeast for my Porter. Since I had all this nice English yeast ready to go, I decided to use it for an English-style India Pale Ale.

Now, for the English IPA, first of all, I would like to direct those of you who are reading this to my favorite beer blog, "Shut Up About Barclay Perkins" (http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2011/01/characteristics-of-ipa.html) here Mr. Ron Patterson explains more clearly than I could what I always thought was true about English IPA, which fellow homebrewers and American beer lovers would always disagree with - namely that the English IPA is not a strong beer. The Beer Judge Certification Program has been tremendously useful for judging and comparing beer and the BJCP is also extraordinarily influential when it comes to defining beer styles in the American Homebrewer and Craft Beer scene. However, English IPA is a style they just got wrong, in My opinion.

English IPA is not a strong beer. It just isn't. But then, I'm not English and here on the west coast of the US, an IPA is typically a strong, hoppy, golden to copper-colored ale. So what if you use an English yeast and English hops and English malt? Then you have an English-style American India Pale Ale! Now, What I decided to go for was a beer that was on the big end of what would be called IPA in Britain. My OG was 1.054 and the IBUs should be around 45-50. I used British malts (Maris Otter and British Crystal 65L) and yeast (WLP002, purportedly the Fuller's strain) and I hopped this ale 100% with a new American hop variety (Delta) that is said to be similar to Styrian Goldings. I certainly used far more late hop additions than would be typical of any English ale and I added some corn sugar to help this beer dry out. Here is what I came up with. After all, I want this beer to both fit within the BJCP guidelines and properly fit within the true definition of English IPA.

Here's the recipe:

Recipe: Delta Force English IPA
Style: 14A-India Pale Ale(IPA)-English IPA

Recipe Overview

Wort Volume Before Boil: 14.50 US gals
Wort Volume After Boil: 11.50 US gals
Volume Transferred: 9.75 US gals
Water Added: 1.25 US gals
Volume At Pitching: 11.00 US gals
Final Batch Volume: 10.50 US gals
Expected Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.044 SG
Expected OG: 1.054 SG
Expected FG: 1.012 SG
Expected ABV: 5.5 %
Expected ABW: 4.4 %
Expected IBU (using Tinseth): 44.7
Expected Color: 8.4 SRM
Apparent Attenuation: 76.6 %
Mash Efficiency: 88.0 %
Boil Duration: 95.0 mins
Fermentation Temperature: 64 degF

Fermentables
UK Pale Ale Malt (Maris Otter) 18lb 0oz (85.7 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Medium Crystal (120EBC) 1lb 8oz (7.1 %) In Mash/Steeped
Sugar - Corn Sugar/Dextrose (Dry) 1lb 8oz (7.1 %) Start Of Boil

Hops
US Delta (6.5 % alpha) 85 g Loose Whole Hops used 60 Min From End
US Delta (6.5 % alpha) 85 g Loose Whole Hops used 15 Min From End
US Delta (6.5 % alpha) 85 g Loose Whole Hops used 5 Min From End
US Delta (6.5 % alpha) 85 g Loose Whole Hops used At turn off
US Delta (6.5 % alpha) 85 g Loose Whole Hops used Dry-Hopped

Other Ingredients
Wyeast Nutrient 1 tsp used In Boil
2 Whirlfloc Tablets used In Boil

Yeast: White Labs WLP002-English Ale

Mash Schedule
Mash Type: Full Mash
Schedule Name:Single Step Infusion (65C/149F)
Step: Rest at 149 degF for 60 mins

Scrublin Stout

2011-01-27T12:41:00.001-08:00

I used an old-fashioned American yeast (ECY 10 - the old Ballantine Ale strain) for my best bitter, and so I figured it would be a nice yeast to use on a dry stout. Since I hadn't brewed a low-gravity dark beer ever, I thought it seemed prudent to try. Here's what I did:

I dubbed this dry Irish-style stout "Scrublin Stout," as the style originates from Dublin, Ireland and Dublin, California is sometimes called Scrublin by residents of nearby San Ramon, CA, where I grew up. I am kegging this stout today.

Edit: It's good and kegged now and it tastes great.

Recipe: Scrublin Stout
Style: 13A-Stout-Dry Stout

Recipe Overview

Wort Volume Before Boil: 9.00 US gals
Wort Volume After Boil: 6.50 US gals
Volume Transferred: 6.00 US gals
Water Added: 0.00 US gals
Volume At Pitching: 6.00 US gals
Final Batch Volume: 5.50 US gals
Expected Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.031 SG
Expected OG: 1.043 SG
Expected FG: 1.008 SG
Expected ABV: 4.7 %
Expected ABW: 3.7 %
Expected IBU (using Tinseth): 37.5
Expected Color: 31.8 SRM
Apparent Attenuation: 81.4 %
Mash Efficiency: 86.0 %
Boil Duration: 90.0 mins
Fermentation Temperature: 56 degF, ramped up to 64, then matured in primary at ambient (68F) for two weeks after fermentation was complete.

Fermentables
UK Pale Ale Malt (Maris Otter) 6lb 0oz (59.3 %) In Mash/Steeped
US Flaked Barley 1lb 12oz (17.3 %) In Mash/Steeped
US Rice Hulls 1lb 0oz (9.9 %) In Mash/Steeped
German Roasted Barley 14.00 oz (8.6 %) In Mash/Steeped
German Carafa Special II 6.00 oz (3.7 %) In Mash/Steeped
US Pilsen Malt 2.00 oz (1.2 %) In Mash/Steeped

Hops
US Willamette (4.0 % alpha) 28 g Bagged Pellet Hops used First Wort Hopped
US Magnum (17.0 % alpha) 14 g Loose Whole Hops used 90 Min From End

Other Ingredients

Yeast: East Coast Yeast ECY 10-Old Newark Ale

Mash Schedule
Mash Type: Full Mash
Schedule Name:Single Step Infusion (67C/152F)
Step: Rest at 153 degF for 60 mins

Recipe Notes
2 oz of Pilsner Malt were mashed in a thermos brand coffee mug for about 5 days to get sour. That mash was added to the main mash tun at sparge.

Brewing Since November

2011-01-27T12:16:00.000-08:00

Even though failing the bar kept me from writing on this blog, it didn't keep me from brewing good beer. I have brewed several batches in the past few months, and have stepped up my system to 12 gallons. I also joined a homebrew club, the Greenbelt Brewers Association (greenbeltbrewers.org). Of note, I brewed a Double Red Ale inspired by Green Flash Hop Head Red - that was my first 10 gallon batch and it suffered from a few problems - namely a freak storm that sent hail into the kettle, and the learning curve that went along with it being my first 10 gallon batch. However, the beer turned out great, so here's the recipe:

Thunderstorm Double Red Ale

Wort Volume Before Boil: 14.50 US gals
Wort Volume After Boil: 12.00 US gals
Volume Transferred: 10.00 US gals
Volume At Pitching: 10.00 US gals
Final Batch Volume: 9.50 US gals
Expected Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.057 SG
Expected OG: 1.069 SG
Expected FG: 1.016 SG
Expected ABV: 7.2 %
Expected ABW: 5.6 %
Expected IBU (using Tinseth): 60.3
Expected Color: 14.2 SRM
Apparent Attenuation: 76.5 %
Mash Efficiency: 83.0 %
Boil Duration: 90.0 mins
Fermentation Temperature: 60 degF

Fermentables
UK Pale Ale Malt (Maris Otter) 14lb 0oz (51.6 %) In Mash/Steeped
US 2-Row Malt 10lb 8oz (38.7 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Medium Crystal (120EBC) 2lb 0oz (7.4 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Extra Dark Crystal 8.00 oz (1.8 %) In Mash/Steeped
German Carafa Special II 2.00 oz (0.5 %) In Mash/Steeped

Hops
US Amarillo (7.5 % alpha) 50 g Loose Whole Hops used First Wort Hopped
US Columbus(Tomahawk) (12.0 % alpha) 20 g Loose Pellet Hops used All Of Boil
US Cascade (4.5 % alpha) 77 g Loose Whole Hops used 15 Min From End
US Summit (15.8 % alpha) 57 g Bagged Pellet Hops used 10 Min From End
US Cascade (4.5 % alpha) 100 g Loose Whole Hops used 5 Min From End
US Amarillo (10.7 % alpha) 55 g Loose Whole Hops used 5 Min From End
US Cascade (5.7 % alpha) 160 g Loose Whole Hops used At turn off
US Amarillo (10.7 % alpha) 60 g Loose Whole Hops used At turn off
US Amarillo (10.7 % alpha) 50 g Loose Whole Hops used Dry-Hopped
US Summit (15.8 % alpha) 30 g Loose Whole Hops used Dry-Hopped
US Columbus(Tomahawk) (12.0 % alpha) 20 g Loose Pellet Hops used Dry-Hopped

Other Ingredients
Whirlfloc Tablet 1 g used In Boil

Yeast: White Labs WLP001-California Ale

Mash: Single Step Infusion (68C/154F)
Step: Rest at 154 degF for 60 mins

I also brewed my porter once again, albeit slightly modified, and it turned out great. The next time I brew it, though, I will slightly reduce the bittering hops. That recipe is:

Recipe: Grey Skies Porter 2
Style: 12B-Porter-Robust Porter

Recipe Overview

Wort Volume Before Boil: 15.50 US gals
Wort Volume After Boil: 12.00 US gals
Volume Transferred: 11.50 US gals
Water Added: 0.00 US gals
Volume At Pitching: 11.50 US gals
Final Batch Volume: 11.00 US gals
Expected Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.046 SG
Expected OG: 1.060 SG
Expected FG: 1.016 SG
Expected ABV: 5.8 %
Expected ABW: 4.5 %
Expected IBU (using Tinseth): 40.9
Expected Color: 33.4 SRM
Apparent Attenuation: 71.6 %
Mash Efficiency: 83.0 %
Boil Duration: 90.0 mins
Fermentation Temperature: 64 degF

Fermentables
UK Pale Ale Malt (Maris Otter) 17lb 8oz (72.9 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Pale Chocolate Malt 2lb 0oz (8.3 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Medium Crystal (120EBC) 2lb 0oz (8.3 %) In Mash/Steeped
German Melanoidin Malt 1lb 0oz (4.2 %) In Mash/Steeped
German Carafa Special II 1lb 0oz (4.2 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Extra Dark Crystal 8.00 oz (2.1 %) In Mash/Steeped

Hops
US Columbus(Tomahawk) (12.0 % alpha) 60 g Bagged Pellet Hops used 60 Min From End
US Willamette (4.0 % alpha) 30 g Bagged Pellet Hops used 15 Min From End

Yeast: White Labs WLP002-English Ale

Mash Schedule
Mash Type: Full Mash
Schedule Name:Single Step Infusion (68C/154F)
Step: Rest at 154 degF for 60 mins

Brewing After Failure

2011-01-27T11:55:00.000-08:00

So, I haven't updated this for a while since I found out in November that I failed the New York bar exam. I failed by 8 points, or .8% (less than 1%), but failing is failing. While it felt awful, it also sucked away a lot of my free time since I have been studying for the bar again... albeit this time it has been twice as stressful and depressing (though also somewhat less daunting). For those who are interested, I got a passing score on the MBE and the New York Multiple Choice. I failed the written section of the exam, obtaining a less-than-passing score on every essay as well as the Multistate Performance Test. Since I passed the MBE and the NYMC pretty solidly, I only needed a single extra point on any of the essays or the MPT (or 4 more correct MBE answers) and I would have passed. I am expecting to get 10-20 more correct answers on the MBE this time around, as well as an additional point or so on each essay and the MPT, but who really knows, right? We will see how I do this February - and then in July when I take the California exam for the first (and hopefully only) time.

October Bitter and Citrus Wit

2010-10-04T00:21:00.000-07:00

So, Corrine asked that I make some beers for her sister's baby shower. This keeps costs down and is also likely to mean evereyone gets to drink high-quality fresh beer than they otherwise would. So, I decided to make a girl-friendly witbier and a universally-drinkable red autumn English Bitter (something along the lines of Shepherd Neame's Late Red, which is actually brewed with Kent-grown Cascade hops).

The witbier was brewed with raw soft white wheat berries, domestic 2-row, instant oats, cascade hops, lime peel, coriander, and a little bit of cardamom. I will serve this one with orange or lemon slices. The yeast I used was 3711 French Saison - and I used a pretty big starter for such a low-gravity beer.

October Bitter Recipe

Recipe: October Bitter
Style: 8B-English Pale Ale-Special/Best/Premium Bitter

Recipe Overview

Wort Volume Before Boil: 7.75 US gals
Wort Volume After Boil: 5.50 US gals
Volume Transferred: 5.28 US gals
Water Added: 0.00 US gals
Volume At Pitching: 5.28 US gals
Final Batch Volume: 5.02 US gals
Expected Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.032 SG
Expected OG: 1.045 SG
Expected FG: 1.011 SG
Expected ABV: 4.5 %
Expected ABW: 3.6 %
Expected IBU (using Tinseth): 37.9
Expected Color: 13.1 SRM
Apparent Attenuation: 75.6 %
Mash Efficiency: 78.0 %
Boil Duration: 90.0 mins
Fermentation Temperature: 64 degF

Fermentables
UK Pale Ale Malt (Maris Otter) 7lb 12oz (89.5 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Medium Crystal (120EBC) 12.00 oz (8.7 %) In Mash/Steeped
German Carafa Special II 2.58 oz (1.9 %) In Mash/Steeped

Hops
US Nugget (9.8 % alpha) 20 g Loose Whole Hops used 60 Min From End
US Citra (9.0 % alpha) 14 g Loose Whole Hops used 20 Min From End
US Crystal (3.0 % alpha) 32 g Loose Whole Hops used 5 Min From End
US Nugget (9.8 % alpha) 8 g Loose Whole Hops used At turn off
US Cascade (5.7 % alpha) 20 g Loose Whole Hops used Dry-Hopped

Yeast: White Labs WLP006-Bedford British Ale

Mash Schedule
Mash Type: Full Mash
Schedule Name:Single Step Infusion (66C/151F) w/Mash Out
Step: Rest at 151 degF for 60 mins
Step: Raise to and Mash out at 168 degF for 10 mins

Both of these will get 2 weeks in primary, followed by a kegging. The difference will be that the bitter will get dry-hopped in the keg, and the witbier will not.

Ooh, and I accidentally put thrice the recommended amount of brewing salts in the mash - so the beer may come out overly minerally and somewhat harsh - time will tell, I suppose.

West Coast Pale Ale

2010-08-16T14:26:00.000-07:00

What's the difference between a west coast pale ale and an ordinary American Pale Ale? About 5-10 IBU. West Coast pale ales tend to be a little hoppier (though not always). In the same way, a Californian Red Ale will almost always be hoppier than a pacific northwestern Amber Ale (though they are both technically American Amber Ales).

This was an "on the fly" brew, so there was no time to make a starter, and I used a single packet of US-05 yeast to ferment this badboy. This was made with recently-arrived Cascades, and an unopened 2 oz pack of Zeus. I hit my temps fine, and everything has gone smoothly with this beer, though my efficiency is still at just 75%, which leads me to believe that the new LHBS crushes a bit less fine than F. H. Steinbart's up in Portland (where there is an adjustable grain mill).

So this recipe is pretty standard, though it has a couple classic, "homebrew" recipe quirks, namely that I used 1 lb of Belgian Aromatic malt, rather than 2 lbs of American Munich malt (which would likely lead to a similar resulting melanoid-driven maltiness), and I used significantly more late-kettle hops than most professional breweries would put into a medium-gravity beer like this one. The final product should be great, if a little "ordinary" (nothing remotely experimental about this recipe). All together, this beer cost me under $20 to brew up 5 gallons, which brings the six-pack price to $2.50, and the pint price to 50¢ - that's less than a candy bar.

Since it is a little amber in color, I am following the norcal tradition of naming the beer, "Red" followed by the name of an animal. In this case, I decided to go for the Red Panda, because they are cute.

Red Panda Beer (American Pale Ale)

9 lbs Great Western 2-row
1 lb Dingemans Aromatic Malt
1 lb Hugh Baird Crystal 75L

.5 oz CTZ (15% AA) 90 min
1 oz Cascade (5.7 % AA) 15 min
1 oz Cascade (5.7% AA) 5 min
1.5 oz CTZ (15% AA) 0 min
1.5 oz Cascade (5.7% AA) 0 min
1 oz Cascade (5.7% AA) Dry-hop
.5 oz CTZ (13.2% AA) Dry-hop

Mash at 151F for 60 min

US-05 yeast

OG 1.055
Expected FG (I will change this if it comes out different) 1.011
IBU ~44
SRM ~12
ABV ~5.9%

Brewing Black Beers

2010-07-06T08:45:00.000-07:00

Ok, so it has been way too long since I updated this. I have brewed 2 or 3 witbiers, a hopbursted American Pale Ale, 2 Black IPA's, and I am currently brewing a Chocolate Stout.

The witbiers all came out ok (not great), and the hopbursted APA came out pretty good, but the Black IPA that I tapped was amazing (the other one is currently fermenting, so I won't know how it tastes for a few weeks.

Anyway, I will list the IPA recipes here, in order of then they were brewed (oldest first):

Rose City Black IPA:

This is one of the last beers I brewed in Portland, and one of the best. The flavor was outstanding - with a smooth roastiness beneath a rich hoppy aroma and flavor and a silky-smooth mouthfeel. I was eminently proud of this beer, and hope my future Black IPA's live up to the quality of this one.

10 lb Great Western 2-row
1 lb Briess Munich 10L
1 lb Briess Crystal 60L
1.5 lb Weyermann Carafa Special II (dehusked)

US Summit 18.5 % 0.50 oz Loose Pellet Hops 60 Min
US Simcoe 12.7 % 1.00 oz Loose Whole Hops 10 Min
US Cascade 5.7 % 1.00 oz    Loose Whole Hops 10 Min
US Summit 18.5 % 1.00 oz Loose Whole Hops 5 Min
US Simcoe 12.7 % 1.00 oz Loose Whole Hops 5 Min
US Simcoe 12.7 % 1.00 oz Loose Whole Hops At turn off
US Summit 18.5 % 0.50 oz Loose Whole Hops At turn off
US Cascade 5.7 % 0.50 oz Loose Whole Hops At turn off
US Simcoe 12.7 % 1.00 oz Loose Whole Hops Dry-Hopped

Mashed at 150 for 60 min, then the carafa was added just before the sparge water went in, and I sparged with cooler-than-usual sparge water (150F).

Pacman Yeast

OG 1.061, FG 1.012, 68 IBU, 39.5 SRM (midnight black)

Bar Exam Black IPA

This one was brewed a few weeks ago, and just got racked into a secondary fermenter. I will dry hop this in a couple weeks, and tap it shortly after that.

10 lbs Great Western 2-row
2 lbs Briess Munich 10L
1 lb Carastan Malt (Crystal 35L)
1.5 lbs Weyermann Carafa Special II (dehusked)

US Sorachi Ace 11.0 %    0.50 oz Loose Whole Hops    45 Min From End
US Cascade 4.0 %    2.00 oz Loose Whole Hops    20 Min From End
US Simcoe 12.0 %    1.00 oz Loose Whole Hops    10 Min From End
US Sorachi Ace 11.0 %    1.00 oz Loose Whole Hops    10 Min From End
US Simcoe 12.0 %    1.00 oz Loose Whole Hops    5 Min From End
US Citra 10.8 %    1.00 oz Loose Whole Hops    5 Min From End
US Simcoe 12.0 %    1.00 oz Loose Whole Hops    At turn off
US Citra 10.8 %    1.00 oz Loose Whole Hops    At turn off
US Sorachi Ace 11.0 %    0.50 oz Loose Whole Hops    At turn off
US Simcoe 12.0 %    1.00 oz Loose Pellet Hops    Dry Hop
US Cascade 6.0 % 1.00 oz Loose Pellet Hops    Dry Hop

Wyeast 1028 London Ale

Mash 100 min @ 150F

Monsignor d'Houblon Hoppy Belgian & Morningstar Golden Ale

2010-03-20T16:38:00.000-07:00

Monsignor d'Houblon was inspired directly by Gouden Carolus Hopsinjoor. The idea was to make a hoppy (but not bracingly so) Belgian Blonde Ale on the lighter end of the style. I basically attempted to make an American Pale Ale with European and European-style hops (Tettnanger, Mt. Hood, and Willamette). The beer is in the IBU and gravity territory of a strong APA or a milder IPA.... in keeping with what Hopsinjoor and a whole new generation of Belgian beers are all about - balanced hoppiness and restrained bitterness along with the unique character imparted by a Trappist yeast strain.

12 lbs Best Malz Pilsner
.5 lbs Briess Crystal 20L

1 oz Willmamette (5.6% AA) 60 min

1 oz Willmamette (5.6% AA) 10 min

1 oz Mt. Hood (4.6% AA) 10 min

1 oz Tettnanger (3.2% AA) 10 min

1 oz Willmamette (5.6% AA) 0 min

1 oz Mt. Hood (4.6% AA) 0 min

1 oz Tettnanger (3.2% AA) 0 min

1 oz Willmamette (5.6% AA) Dry Hop

WLP830 Abbey (Westmalle Strain)

Ferment at 150 for 60 min, followed by fermentation temp 72F

Now a pic of it (super delicious)

Morningstar was meant to be a Duvel-style Belgian Golden Strong Ale, but my efficiency was shockingly low, for some reason, so it ended up a Belgian Blonde Ale, instead. It is currently in secondary, and I plan on kegging it soon, and priming for a higher amount of carbonation than is typical for me (along with adding some polyclar so the sediment produced by the priming doesn't end up making for a cloundy blonde).

The recipe is as follows:

Morningstar Golden Ale

10 lbs German Pilsner Malt
1 lb German Vienna Malt
2 lb Cane Sugar

1.5 oz Mt. Hood (4.6% AA) 60 min
.5 oz Willamette (5.6% AA) 30 min
.75 oz Tettnanger (3.2% AA) 10 min

I pitched a weak starter of White Labs WLP530 (Westmalle Strain) into Msgr. d'Houblon, but it hadn't started after one day, so I went to the LHBS and picked up a smack pack of Wyeast 1762 Abbey II (Rochefort Strain). When I got ready to pitch the 1762, I could see that fermentation had already begun, but I pitched it, anyway. The resulting yeast cake was used to produce the golden ale. I suspect the Westmalle yeast dominated the flavor profile, but can't say for sure.

Unspeakable Pale Ale

2010-02-17T01:05:00.000-08:00

This one was inspired by SPeakeasy Brewery's Untouchable Pale Ale - though I am sure it will be somewhat hoppier.

7 lbs 12 oz Halcyon
1 lb German Munich Malt
1 lb German Wheat Malt
4 oz German Caramunich II

.4 oz Summit 18.5% AA 60 min
1 oz Cascade 5.7% AA 10 min
1 oz Willamette 5.6% AA 10 min

1 oz Cascade 5.7% AA 10 min

1 oz Cascade 5.7% AA 5 min

1 oz Mt. Hood 4.6% AA 5 min

2 oz Cascade 5.7% AA 0 min

1 oz Mt. Hood 4.6% AA 0 min

.75 oz Zeus 16% AA 0 min

US-05

Mash at 150 for 75 min

OG 1.051, SRM 6.2, ~42 IBU, ~5.3% abv

Now a pic (it's delicious)

Grey Skies Porter (again)

2010-02-17T00:41:00.000-08:00

Made the porter again, albeit with a tweaked recipe and a bit of a bigger gravity/hop situation.

8 lb Optic
12 oz Chocolate Malt (UK)
8 oz Belgian Aromatic
8 oz caramalt
8 oz Kiln Coffee Malt
4 oz Pale Chocolate Malt (UK)
4 oz Crystal 160L (UK)

40 IBU worth Northern Brewer HopShot at 60 min
the remaining fifth of a syringe at 10 min
.5 oz Willamette (5.6% AA) 10 min

Wyeast 1275 Thames Valley Ale

Here's what it looks like poured from a bottle-conditioned bottle (Tastes better on tap, though)

Hella Bitter

2010-02-16T19:00:00.000-08:00

Hella Bitter was meant to be an English Best Bitter (4-4.6% abv) with west coast American hops.

My efficiency was way too high, so I ended up with something more approximating an ESB (still basically within the realm of what i was trying to do, as far as I'm concerned). I have heard that low-gravity beers tend to get higher efficiency, so maybe it isn't that surprising. My beer's OG was supposed to be 1.044 to 1.046, but I got 1.048.

Here's the recipe:

7lb 12 oz Halcyon
4 oz Caramalt
4 oz British Crystal 55L
2 oz British Extra Dark Crystal 160L

1 oz Cascade (5.7% AA) FWH
1 oz Willamette (5.6% AA) 60 min
.5 oz Willamette (5.6% AA) 5 min
.5 oz Cascade (5.7% AA) 5 min

WLP037 Yorkshire Squares Ale

1.048 OG, ~35 IBU, 8 SRM

Dodo Bird Deluxe California Red Ale

2010-01-19T13:15:00.000-08:00

So I went for another beer in the vein of my "California Red Ale." This one is a bit paler, and has a dry English yeast (Wyeast 1275 Thames Valley Ale). This beer was meant to be an American ESB, meaning an ESB in every way, but with American hops. I ended up late-hopping more aggressively than in a standard British ESB, but I think the idea of a "not quite hoppy enough to be an IPA" amber-colored beer around 1.055-1.065 is a great beer style. I call it a California Red Ale because of how many Californian beers are made like that, but for a brewer using brewing software, the idea is to get a beer that fits within (or near) the guidelines for ESB, American Amber Ale, American Pale Ale, English IPA, and American IPA.... focusing on balance and drinkability. The name is inspired by Mendocino Brewing Company in Ukiah, California, whose beers are named after birds. Dodos were about the silliest things man ever made extinct, so the name suits my silly sensibilities.

I hit my mash number perfectly on this one, and I expect it to be a great beer. However, my hydrometer has not been replaced, so I don't know for sure if I hit my expected efficiency of 80% (though I don't really care if it is a little weaker and hoppier or stronger and maltier than expected). Since balance was the chief consideration in constructing this recipe, I have a lot of leeway in the brewing process to still make a delicious beer.

The Dodo Recipe:

10lb Thomas Fawcett Optic Pale Malt
8 oz Hugh Baird Medium Crystal Malt (55L)
8 oz Franco-Belges Caravienne (21L)
4 oz Briess Extra Dark Crystal (120L)

.5 oz Simcoe (12.7% AA) 60 min
1 oz Simcoe (12.7% AA) 10 min
1 oz Cascade (5.7% AA) 10 min
1 oz Simcoe (12.7% AA) 0 min
1 oz Cascade (5.7% AA) 0 min

I may dry hop with an oz of Cascade.

Mash at 152F for 60 min

Wyeast 1275 Thames Valley Ale (3L starter)

expected OG 1.060, 40-45 IBU, 10.6 SRM

Since my fermentation chamber is currently at work lagering my altbier and my dead week märzen, I had to ferment this at ambient - so it is fermenting a little warm, it was at 74F for a day, now it's down to 70F (after 3 days of fermenting). This is a little high for the yeast, but not so far out of the recommended level that the beer will be ruined. Hopefully this strain remains clean at the higher temperature.

Dead Week Märzen: the story of my first lager

2009-12-03T16:21:00.000-08:00

It's dead week. I should be studying pretty serious right now, but I will be gone for a long time during X-mas break, and want to use that time to lager. I already have an Altbier fermented with Wyeast 1007 German Ale (purportedly a genuine Düsseldorf altbier strain). But I wanted to finally make a true lager. My favorite style of lager is the Oktoberfest/Märzen, so I figured I would brew one. Also, I have heard that amber/dark lagers are less fuckupable, so it especially made sense. I'm using a dry yeast, Fermentis W-47/70 (purportedly a genuine Bavarian lager yeast used for Oktoberfests in Munich). Why the dry yeast? Because a 5L yeast starter is just too big to be worth making. I would rather just use two packs of dry yeast than have to figure out how to make a 5L starter.

Here's the recipe:

6lb German Vienna Malt
2lb German Light Munich Malt
1 lb Belgian Aromatic Malt
8 oz German Melanoidin Malt
8 oz German Caramunich II (55-60L)
1 oz Dehusked Carafa II (430L)

1 oz German Tettnanger (3.2 AA) FWH
1.33 oz German Tettnanger (3.2 AA) 70 min

Mashed at 150 degrees for 70 min
Boiled for 110 min (due to excess amount of wort)

I broke my hydrometer, so I wasn't able to take any readings, but I am assuming I got about 80% efficiency, making this beer OG 1.054, SRM 12.7, IBU 23.

I actually made my water Munich-like for this one by adding 2.5 teaspoons of chalk to the mash (my water is extremely soft).

Also, I kegged my Grey Skies Porter and Denny's Rye IPA today (with sugar for natural carbonation). I hope all this works out, as I am planning on bringing one of these kegs down to the bay area with a picnic tap and a travel CO2 thingy to serve at New Year's.

Oregon Altbier

2009-11-22T12:42:00.000-08:00

8lb German Munich
1 lb Belgian Aromatic
8 oz Melanoidin Malt
8 oz German Caramunich III

1.5 oz German Tettnanger (3.2% AA) FWH
2.5 oz German Tettnanger (3.2% AA) 90 min

Wyeast 1007 German Ale

Mashed at 150 60 min

Fermented at 58F, raised to 62F after 10 days. Lagered at 32F for 6 weeks.

OG 1.054 (efficiency too high), ABV ~5.4% (too high), 38 IBU, SRM 12.5

I drank some Lost Coast Downtown Brown while this one was getting brewed.

Denny's Rye IPA, Summit IPA, Amarillo IPA, Grey Skies Porter (Taddy Version)

2009-11-06T02:07:00.000-08:00

So, I have brewed three beers since I last updated the blog, so here goes. I'm going to put down the recipes, in the order I brewed them, then explain any tribulations or interesting occurrences beside the recipe.

Denny's Rye IPA

This is probably the most famous homebrew recipe on the internet. It's easy to find this recipe all over the internet, but I will list my version of it (basically identical to the original) here:

11 lb Great Western 2-row
3 lbs Rye Malt
1 lb 4 oz Briess Crystal 60L
8 oz White Wheat Malt
8 oz Carapils

1 oz Mt. Hood (5.1 AA)      FWH
1 oz CTZ (16.4 AA)           60 min
1.5 oz Mt. Hood (5.1 AA) 30 min
2 oz Mt. Hood (4.3 AA)     Flame-out
1 oz CTZ (16.1 AA)          Dry-Hop

Mashed at 151 degrees F for 60 min, no mashout

Wyeast 1450 Denny's Favorite 50 (1L of yeast cake from California Amber Ale)
OG 1.075, 76 IBU

My next Brew was the Summit IPA

This one was actually meant to be an ESB, but my efficiency was higher than planned, so I adjusted the hopping schedule, and just made an IPA. There are American hops and an English yeast strain, so I guess I would call it an east coast IPA or a west coast English IPA (though that could be confusing).

Summit IPA is the first of my series of Single Hop beers. The plan is to do several single-hop IPA's, pale ales, and ESB's, to get a better feel for hops. Summit is a super-alpha breed, but it has a delicious tangerine-orange quality that has made Widmer's Drifter Pale ale such a fast favorite here in Portland.

Summit IPA

11 lb Briess Pale Ale Malt (2-row)
8 oz Briess Crystal 80L

.25 oz Summit (18.5 AA) 60 min
.5 oz   Summit (18.5 AA) 20 min
1 oz    Summit (18.5 AA) 5 min
1.5 oz Summit (18.5 AA) flameout
.75 oz Summit (18.5 AA) Dry-hop

Mash at 152 degrees F 60 min

OG 1.060, 48 IBU

Safale S-04 dry yeast (my first time using S-04)

Amarillo IPA was meant to be a Pale Ale, but once again, my efficiency was much higher than expected, so I adjusted the hopping and turned it into an IPA.

11 lbs Maris Otter (I think Thomas Fawcett)
8 oz English Medium Crystal 50-60L

1 oz Amarillo (9 AA) 60 min
1 oz Amarillo (9 AA) 20 min
1 oz Amarillo (9 AA) 10 min
2 oz Amarillo (9 AA) Flameout
1 oz Amarillo (9 AA) Dry-hop

Mash at 150 degrees F

OG 1.060, 52 IBU, Fermented at 62 degrees

Wyeast 1450 Denny's Rye IPA (From a 3L starter I made with .25L of the cake left over from the California Amber Ale

Grey Skies Porter

This is an all-grain remake of my best dark beer from my partial mash days. Efficiency was high and I forgot the whirlfloc, so this may well be more stout than porter. Also, I used WLP037, which is not the same yeast I used when I made this porter before.

8 lbs Maris Otter
12 oz British Chocolate Malt 450L
12 oz British Medium Crystal 50-60L
8 oz Belgian Aromatic
8 oz Belgian Kiln-Coffee

.5 oz CTZ (16.1 AA) FWH
25 IBU worth of Northern Brewer HopShot hop extract

Mash at 153

OG 1.058, 40 IBU

This one blew out of my fermenter, all over the lid of the bucket - a huge mess. I let it ferment at ambient (around 70 degrees F)

Maple Brown Ale

2009-10-15T21:26:00.000-07:00

So I had planned on doing 2 brown ales with my White Labs WLP037 Yorkshire Square Ale yeast: a Nut Brown Ale similar to Samuel Smith's Nut Brown Ale, and a Maple Brown Ale. Well, I decided to make a nut brown ale with maple syrup - and it was more mapley than planned....

I did the math wrong and ended up with 2L more wort than could fit in my kettle. As such, I decided to dump some of it and let the very full kettle boil for 90 min or more until it got down to 5.5 gallons. Well, my GF and I were planning to go out to dinner (for my birthday) so I just did a 60 min boil and ended up with 6 gal or so of 1.048 wort - and I wanted a little more kick, so I added another 8 oz or so of maple syrup (I'm going to prime the keg with even more!). I ended up with a 1.052 wort of nice brown beer.

The Recipe:

8 lb Maris Otter
9 oz Special Roast
8 oz Carastan Malt
5 oz Chocolate Malt (UK)
4 oz Crystal 135L (UK)
14 fl oz Maple Syrup (Grade B)

.5 oz Mt. Hood (5.1 AA) FWH
1 oz Mt. Hood (5.1 AA) 60 min

Whirlfloc

1.052, 20 IBU, ~5.4% ABV

Boo Ya, the finished product (very delicious, I might add):

California Amber Ale

2009-10-03T01:24:00.000-07:00

So, there are a lot of crisp, hoppy American amber ales in California that are consumed as freely and broadly as pale ales and IPA's here in Portland. I'm thinking of Mendocino's Red Tail Ale, Speakeasy's Prohibition Ale, North Coast's Red Seal Ale, and plenty of other similar hoppy amber ales. Well, I miss those beers - particularly Red Tail Ale - so I decided to brew something in the same general style of hoppy California-style Amber Ale.

I didn't take any pictures of the brewing process, but it was a somewhat eventful brewday, nonetheless.

Recipe:

8lbs Great Western (US) 2-row
2lbs US Munich 20L
1lb British Medium Crystal (70-75L)
8 oz Victory Malt

1 oz Amarillo (9.0 AA) FWH
.5 oz Zeus CTZ (16.4 AA) 60 min
1 oz Amarillo (9.0 AA) Flameout
.75 oz Centennial (7.8 AA) Flameout
2 oz Zeus CTZ (16.4 AA) Dry-hop

Wyeast 1450 Denny's Favorite 50
Mash at 153 60 min w/mashout

1.052, 13 SRM, 37 IBU

So I wanted to try to get better efficiency this time, and I decided to crush the grains real fine (.225) and mash thin, plus mash-out.

I ended up with too much liquor for my kettle, so I dumped about half of the sparge runoff - but my efficiency was so high that I the gravity was already plenty high. I also planned on doing a 90min boil, but just did 60 (in part because of the super-high efficiency), leaving me with over 6.5 gallons of 1.052 wort - well within my ideal range for this beer. The CTZ have been in my freezer for months, so I figured I would only get about 15% AA from them. It's possible, though, that my IBUs could be as much as 5 points lower or higher than the recipe calls for, depending on how many alpha acids were lost in the 4-6 months of freezer storage.

Also, I may dry-hop this one with 2oz Cascade.

Oh, and i let it chill for about 4 hours, letting so much trub settle that it was already clear going into the fermenter - It will be nice to have such a beautiful, crystal-clear beer coming out of my keg in a month or so.

Neuken Noël

2009-09-28T02:07:00.000-07:00

So this is my set-up. The cooler is the mash tun and the pot above is what I drain the sweet wort into. That sink is used for wort-chilling, too.

So the Neuken Noël is a big Belgian Dark Strong. I made it by using all my leftover grains. The recipe:

9 lbs Gambrinus Pils
2 lbs Gambrinus Pale
2 lbs Belgian Aromatic
1lb Flaked Triticale
10 oz Belgian Special B
1 lb Belgian Dark Candi Syrup (at flameout)
1 lb Raw Pumpkin Blossom Honey (at flameout)

FWH 1 oz Mt Hood (5.1 AA)
60 min 1 oz Perle (8.0 AA)

90 min mash at 149 degrees

3L starter of Wyeast 3787 Trappist High Gravity (Westmalle/Westvleteren Strain)
32 IBU
20 SRM
Expected FG ~1.013
Expected ABV ~8.8%

My hydrometer broke, so I didn't get an SG rating, but I assume it's around 1.090. The wort looked like this:

Yes, I brew on a standard gas stove. That stove gets CRAZY HOT, though, so it isn't much of a problem

It also looked like this.
I use fermencap, so the vigorous boil doesn't create any boilover situation... often.

Penelope didn't help.

This 7lbs of hop porn is why I am excited to start IPA season (hence using all my Belgian ingredients).

This is 1lb each of:
Simcoe
Cascade
Mt. Hood
Tettnanger
Willamette

Along with a lot of Amarillo, Zeus, and Summit, and some leftover Centennial.
The Neuken Dark is going to be bottle conditioned and aged, but most of the beers I brew go in here:

This is my kegerator, just next to my fermentation fridge (which will someday be converted into a 4-tap kegerator).