Problems with the BJCP Guidelines

I often gripe about issues I see with the BJCP guidelines. So I decided to put my feelings on the guidelines here: I actually credit some fault in many homebrew competitions to the BJCP for including some styles that I personally deem (in all my omniscient wisdom) to be too obscure and rare or undefined-in-their-home-country to be appropriate for judging. Other styles should be merged, I think. And some styles should have a better spot than Category 23. I also have some other issues with the guidelines. Among them:

Northern German Altbier and Düsseldorf Altbier: "Northern German Altbier" is exceedingly rare and basically fits within parameters of Düsseldorf Altbier, so the styles should be merged. And despite what the guidelines say, I do not believe anything called "altbier" in Germany is made with a bottom-fermenting yeast. Then again, if a brewer submitted a beer fermented with a lager yeast, no one would be able to tell that it wasn't a German Ale yeast fermented extra cool.

Scottish 60/-, 70/-, and 80/-: all three Scottish session ales should be a single style, IMO, or included with bitters since, in Scotland, that is how they are treated; and they are RARE in Scotland, as the hoppier "bitter" style has dominated the draught ale market for the past 30+ years.

Southern English Brown Ale: there is only one such beer brewed in England (Mann's Original Brown Ale) and it is pasteurized, never-cask-conditioned crap, which is not CAMRA-approved and not exported to the USA. Just fold this one into Northern English Brown Ale and call it "English Brown Ale."

Brown Porter and Robust Porter: should just be a single category since they can be fairly judged against each other and are so similar

Foreign Extra Stout and American Stout: should be merged into a single, "Extra Stout" category since any foreign extra stout fully fits within the guidelines of an American stout and the difference implies an American Stout needs a C-hop aroma which muddies judges' perceptions and causes judging errors.

English IPA: should be treated as a style of bitter, since that is how it is treated in England and cask ales almost NEVER exceed 6% ABV (most beers called IPA are under 5% ABV in Britain), the recent brewers who do English IPA's that fit within the style guidelines were inspired by American beers and usually use imported American hops - so they are really just brewing American IPA. My point being, the idea of a maltier-than-American-IPA 6.5% ABV hoppy ale brewed with British hops existing in any form in Britain is unfounded. If anything, splitting the American IPA into the styles of "East Coast IPA" and "West Coast IPA" makes more sense since both styles actually exist on a large scale, but I would just drop English IPA and fold it into bitters.

Belgian Pale Ale: while I appreciate the BJCP trying to create a style for De Koninck-style beers, the truth is that only De Koninck and Palm truly fit this style. Anyone who has tasted a fresh De Koninck in Antwerp and subsequently tasted a Rare Vos in upstate New York will tell you the two beers couldn't be further apart, stylistically. While I very much like De Koninck and Palm, there are too many Belgian Styles as is, and many more common styles in Belgium (like the modern trend of hoppy Blond Ales or the widely-seen style of "Red Ales" that are essentially toned-down Dubbels) are kept out of the guidelines. This is why there is a specific "Belgian Specialty Ale" category. In my opinion, this category should absorb "Belgian Pale Ale"

Sour Ale: while this style is basically well put-together, there is no "other sour ale" or "specialty sour" subcategory, despite the fact that 99% of homebrewed sours do not fit within the guidelines of the existing categories and end up overloading the Belgian Specialty Ale category as well as Category 23 with sours (which inevitably leads to especially bad apples-oranges problems for judges).

Strong Ale: I just don't see a reason for the distinction between Old Ale and English Barleywine.

If it were up to me, the guidelines would be shorter and probably with more "other ________" or "specialty ________" subcategories, but since these guidelines are what we have, they will define styles (and do - I have seen pro breweries in the US brew the BJCP "English IPA" as though the style was really English and not just a way for the brewery to sell an "IPA" brewed with fewer and cheaper hops like Willamette and Nugget. Regardless, I am glad the BJCP exists, despite its flaws, because these competitions would be hell if there were no universal guidelines.

Brewing It Again (Honing Your Best Recipes): Porter & American Amber Ale

For those of us who entertain the idea of ever really owning a brewery or even of having a great home pub with a few regular beers on tap, having perfected those four or five "regular beers" is an important task. And it makes for a fun and educational way to brew - always looking at your beers objectively, trying to determine how to better the recipe or the process to get it "just right." Another consideration is ingredient selection - using under-appreciated and less costly hops as well as domestic grains can help keep costs down; nice savings in everyday brewing, but especially important in a production brewery.

The very first beer that I tried to replicate was the porter I brewed in the fall of 2008 (during my partial mash days), that I dubbed "Grey Skies" after the trademark Portland weather I was experiencing at the time. I dare say that was the finest extract beer I ever made. Not only did I have to convert it to all-grain, but I soon learned that one of the key ingredients (Franco-Belge Kiln-Coffee Malt) was very difficult to obtain (kudos to F. H. Steinbart for carrying it). So I have remade the recipe several times, always with "perfection" in mind.

I also worked on perfecting American Amber Ale, Kölsch, Düsseldorf Altbier, English "Best" Bitter, and American Brown Ale styles - deducing that maintaining a single-yeast brewery for the regular lineup, and that the most logical strain would be the brewpub standard-bearer and workhorse WLP001/Wyeast 1056, also called "Chico" due to its famed use at Sierra Nevada.

But I would get bored always using WLP001 for my homebrew, so I often try out different yeasts, and since I have no immediate plans to "go pro," I don't bother myself with the fact that some of the flavors and aromas wouldn't necessarily be the same.

Grey Skies Porter

The last time I brewed this beer, I found it a little lifeless. I think this is because the combination of the clean (low-ester) American yeast and the relatively low level of hop flavor, combined with the low roast-bitterness from my judicious use of Carafa Special II (a dehusked Chocolate Malt from Germany) instead of the more classic UK or US Chocolate Malt or Black Patent Malt led to the beer being a bit too "tame" and smooth. Additionally, the Belgian Special B malt added a fruity aspect that seemed out-of-place, particularly since it replaced the toffee-molasses candy flavor that I get from British Extra Dark Crystal.

So this time around, while still using an American ale yeast (this time WLP090 San Diego Super Yeast, I decided to go with a lot of British Medium (65L) Crystal malt in place of any Extra Dark crystal or Special B, and I used British Chocolate Malt in place of the Carafa Special II I have been using for some time (since the original recipe's Belgian Kiln-Coffee Malt is hard to find in the bay area). I also decided to make this a bit of a hoppier beer by swapping the English or Noble-type flavor/aroma hop addition in favor of Centennial, a classic American "C Hop" with a more punchy floral character than the English-style hops I usually use.

Here's the recipe:


Recipe: Grey Skies Porter v5
Style: 12B-Porter-Robust Porter

Recipe Overview

Wort Volume Before Boil: 14.50 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: 10.50 US gals
Expected Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.050 SG
Expected OG: 1.060 SG
Expected FG: 1.014 SG
Expected ABV: 6.1 %
Expected ABW: 4.8 %
Expected IBU (using Tinseth): 41.9
Expected Color: 32.8 SRM
Apparent Attenuation: 75.2 %
Mash Efficiency: 80.0 %
Boil Duration: 90.0 mins
Fermentation Temperature: 64 degF

Fermentables
US 2-Row Malt 14lb 4oz (57.0 %) In Mash/Steeped
Canadian Vienna Malt 3lb 12oz (15.0 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Medium Crystal (120EBC) 3lb 0oz (12.0 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Pale Chocolate Malt 2lb 0oz (8.0 %) In Mash/Steeped
Belgian Aromatic Malt 1lb 0oz (4.0 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Chocolate Malt 1lb 0oz (4.0 %) In Mash/Steeped

Hops
US Nugget (11.6 % alpha) 65 g Bagged Pellet Hops used 60 Min From End
US Centennial (6.5 % alpha) 30 g Bagged Pellet Hops used 10 Min From End

Yeast: White Labs WLP090-San Diego Super Ale

Mash at 154 degF for 60 mins


Wanderlust Red (American Amber Ale)

I settles on the ideal basic malt bill for an American Amber Ale last year when I brewed the Undead Red Ale last year. Since then, all my American amber ales have been pale ale malt or plain 2-row, a little Munich Malt, a good dose of British Medium Crystal, and a touch of Carafa Special II for color. My last attempt won my club's style of the quarter competition and took third inState. So this time, I went with a very similar recipe, just tweaking the hopping a little bit to make it a bit more aromatic than before, and reducing the size of the beer a bit to make it more sessionable. Also, I used a different yeast, Wyeast 1450 Denny's Favorite, just because I had it around, and have found it a nice yeast for amber ales in the past. Since I am planning to enter this beer into nationals, as well as the World Cup of Beer, I really wanted to get this one right in the middle of the style guidelines to really hammer it in with the judges that I know how to make a great American Amber Ale. Also, this is a smallish beer, so I figure I can build up all this yeast to put into a big stout in the near future.

Recipe: Wanderlust Red
Style: 10B-American Ale-American Amber Ale

Wort Volume Before Boil: 8.50 US gals
Wort Volume After Boil: 6.20 US gals
Volume Transferred: 5.50 US gals
Water Added: 0.00 US gals
Volume At Pitching: 5.50 US gals
Final Batch Volume: 5.02 US gals
Expected Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.037 SG
Expected OG: 1.051 SG
Expected FG: 1.012 SG
Expected ABV: 5.1 %
Expected ABW: 4.0 %
Expected IBU (using Tinseth): 38.4
Expected Color: 12.0 SRM
Apparent Attenuation: 74.9 %
Mash Efficiency: 78.0 %
Boil Duration: 90.0 mins
Fermentation Temperature: 66 degF

Fermentables
US 2-Row Malt 7lb 7oz (67.6 %) In Mash/Steeped
Canadian Munich Malt 2lb 8oz (22.7 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Medium Crystal (120EBC) 1lb 0oz (9.1 %) In Mash/Steeped
German Carafa Special II 1.00 oz (0.6 %) In Mash/Steeped

Hops
US Nugget (11.6 % alpha) 15 g Bagged Pellet Hops used 60 Min From End
US Centennial (6.5 % alpha) 35 g Bagged Pellet Hops used 30 Min From End
US Amarillo (10.9 % alpha) 60 g Bagged Whole Hops used At turn off

Yeast: Wyeast 1450-Denny's Favorite 50

Mash at 152 degF for 60 mins

Brewing American IPA

So I finally brewed again. A few things have happened to my brewing situation since I last brewed: I took the CA bar exam for the second time (because I am a retarded douche failure) and I missed out on the deadline to brew for BAM's 1 quarter 2012 "style of the quarter" competition due to studying for said exam.

But here's the skinny on the IPA I will be sending to a handful of competitions. I like really fruity "new school" hops like simcoe, citra, et al. And I have tended to blend lots of these hop varieties in pretty complex ways in my hoppy beers. The results have been good, but Nathan Smith's presentation at January's BAM meeting convinced me to try a simpler hop schedule. So this batch's flavor/aroma is really zeroed in on two of my favorite hop varieties: Nelson Sauvin (from New Zealand), and Amarillo (from Washington). I also used some Summit hops as FWH and some Columbus as 90 min bittering hops - but those shouldn't feature too strongly in the flavor/aroma of this beer.

Nathan Smith's presentation also involved a mini-presentation from Mike "Tasty" McDole on Whirlpooling, so I tried my hand at that, though this is a tad difficult with my system. Well, here's the recipe:

Recipe: Strange Days IPA
Style: 14B-India Pale Ale(IPA)-American IPA

Wort Volume Before Boil: 15.00 US gals
Wort Volume After Boil: 13.00 US gals
Volume Transferred: 11.50 US gals
Water Added: 0.00 US gals
Volume At Pitching: 11.50 US gals
Final Batch Volume: 10.50 US gals
Expected Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.055 SG
Expected OG: 1.064 SG
Expected FG: 1.013 SG
Expected ABV: 6.7 %
Expected ABW: 5.3 %
Expected IBU (using Tinseth): 107.4
Expected Color: 5.7 SRM
Apparent Attenuation: 78.5 %
Mash Efficiency: 77.0 %
Boil Duration: 90.0 mins
Fermentation Temperature: 64 degF

Fermentables
US 2-Row Malt 22lb 0oz (75.9 %) In Mash/Steeped
Canadian Vienna Malt 6lb 0oz (20.7 %) In Mash/Steeped
UK Light Carastan Malt 1lb 0oz (3.4 %) In Mash/Steeped

Hops
US Summit (14.0 % alpha) 95 g Bagged Pellet Hops used First Wort Hopped
US Columbus(Tomahawk) (12.9 % alpha) 55 g Bagged Pellet Hops used 80 Min From End
NZ Nelson Sauvin (12.2 % alpha) 180 g Bagged Pellet Hops used 10 Min From End
US Amarillo (10.9 % alpha) 100 g Bagged Whole Hops used At turn off
NZ Nelson Sauvin (12.2 % alpha) 100 g Bagged Pellet Hops used At turn off
NZ Nelson Sauvin (12.2 % alpha) 100 g Bagged Pellet Hops used Dry-Hopped
US Amarillo (10.7 % alpha) 100 g Bagged Whole Hops used Dry-Hopped

Yeast: White Labs WLP001-California Ale

Mash at 149 degF for 60 mins

Recipe Notes
After fermentation is complete, add whole Amarillo dry hops to primary fermentation vessel for 5 days, then rack into kegs with Nelson dry hops for 5 days, then filter/jump into serving kegs.

Brewing Kölsch

So my first attempt at Kölsch came out really delicious, but I over-hopped it a little for the style, leaving me with something more reminiscent of a German Pilsner than a true Kölsch. So the second time around (with the 5th generation of the same packet of yeast), I decided to hop it a bit less aggressively and give myself something more properly Kölsch-like. I did 10 gallons, and then kegged half of it unfiltered for an SF beerweek event, and the other half has received a longer lagering time in my freezer and will be the first beer put through my new (and not yet arrived) beer filtering system (thanks to my girlfriend's mom and stepdad for the gift certificate that led to the purchase).

Anyway, here is the recipe and I will post a picture of a glass of the Kölsch when it is all nice and filtered.


Climate Change Kölsch
Style: 6C-Light Hybrid Beer-Kolsch

Wort Volume Before Boil: 15.00 US gals
Wort Volume After Boil: 12.00 US gals
Volume Transferred: 11.00 US gals
Water Added: 0.00 US gals
Volume At Pitching: 11.00 US gals
Final Batch Volume: 10.25 US gals
Expected Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.040 SG
Expected OG: 1.050 SG
Expected FG: 1.011 SG
Expected ABV: 5.2 %
Expected ABW: 4.1 %
Expected IBU (using Tinseth): 26.5
Expected Color: 3.5 SRM
Apparent Attenuation: 77.9 %
Mash Efficiency: 85.0 %
Boil Duration: 90.0 mins
Fermentation Temperature: 58 degF

Fermentables
Canadian Pils Malt 18lb 8oz (97.4 %) In Mash/Steeped
Belgian Aromatic Malt 8.00 oz (2.6 %) In Mash/Steeped

Hops
US Magnum (16.0 % alpha) 15 g Bagged Whole Hops used 60 Min From End
US Ultra (9.0 % alpha) 40 g Bagged Whole Hops used 20 Min From End
US Ultra (9.0 % alpha) 40 g Bagged Whole Hops used 5 Min From End

Yeast: White Labs WLP029-German Ale/Kolsch

Mash at 150 degF for 90 mins

Brewing for Yeast Propogation

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 medal 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)

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

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.