Late-Hop Experiment

My intention with this brew was to use most of my home grown hops to make a nice hoppy pale ale. However, the Cascade I picked still smelled really off like they did last year. Kind of like a mixture of cabbage and pickles. The 1 oz. of Columbus that I picked smelled really awesome though so we'll still be using those. I think in the spring I'll dig up the Cascade plant and replace it with something else. I'm not sure what's wrong but I am sure I'm tired of figuring it out.

So absent a bunch of back yard hops this brew turned into a late-hop experiment. Beside a 1 oz. bittering charge of Columbus at FWH I'll be adding 6 oz. of hops post-boil in attempt to extract more flava' and keep it in the wort instead of boiling it off. Also we had a bunch of random small amounts of grain in storage so I'll be cleaning out the pantry.

Recipe Notes
Style: IPA

Batch Volume: 5 gal.
Color: ?
Target Bitterness: ?
Target OG: ?

Grist
6 lb. 2-row
3 lb. 8 oz. Pilsner

13 oz. Munich

8 oz. Rye

8 oz. Wheat
4 oz. Crystal 20

3 oz. Crystal 40

2 oz. Crystal 10

2 oz. Special B

1 oz. Columbus (FWH)
1 tsp. Irish Most (15 min.)
2 oz. Columbus (Flame out)
1 oz. 7 C's (Flame out)
1 oz. Falconer's Flight (When temp drops to 180F)
1 oz. Home grown Columbus (When temp drops to 180F)

0.8 oz. Simcoe (When temp drops to 180F) 

0.3 oz. Chinook (When temp drops to 180F)

0.33 oz. Citra (Keg)

Yeast
Safale US-05

Brew Notes
Brew Date: 1/24/16
Mash Temp: 152
Mash Time: 60

Boil Time: 60 min.
Fermenter Volume: 4.4 gal
Measured OG: 1.068

Couldn't find the new pH meter I got for Christmas to use for the mash. Sad... However, I used my new refractometer to evaluate the wort pre boil. Came in at 14.6 brix which is somewhere around a gravity of 1.060. At flame out I immediately added the flame-out hops and stirred for a bit to break up the pellets and submerge my hop bag of homegrown Columbus. Temperature dropped to 180 after 25 minutes. Added the rest of the hops and steeped for 30 minutes. Temps dropped to 158. Chilled wort to 68F and poured into fermenter without filtering any of the hop matter. Pitched dry yeast and aerated. Fermented cool in the basement. Activity seen after 24 hours.

1/31/16 - Racked to secondary after a week in primary. Gravity is all the way down to 1.011 for an ABV of around 7.5%. Tastes incredibly juicy like most very young IPA's. I did appreciate the robustness that the higher gravity provided. Ended up with ~3.5 gal. in secondary after racking off of the trub and hop matter.

2/7/16 - Kegged today. Threw in 1/3 oz. of Citra in a hop bag into the keg for future deliciousness. Final gravity 1.011. Added 1/4 oz. of Citra we had lying around into the keg. Tastes juicy. Not much aroma. Almost too bitter, but not quite.

2/9/16 - After a couple of days in the keezer the diacetyl content was too much for me to take. Removed from the keezer so it'll hit room temp again and hopefully the yeast will clean up the majority of it.

2/17/16 - After a week of diacetyl clean up I can't taste it any longer. However, I have a tough time tasting it when the beer is warm. Same with fusel alcohols. Transferred back to the keezer and crossing my fingers.

2/20/16 - Diacetyl still somewhat present but greatly reduced. Good enough for me. In the future will leave my beer in primary for at least two weeks before racking to secondary. Also will pay more attention to fermentation temps especially when reaching terminal gravity. Will try to ensure warm fermentation near the end to help yeast cleanup byproducts.

All Day IPA v2.0

My last four brews have been pretty experimental. I made three batches of the same pale ale with only a change to the malt as a bast malt experiment. Then I made a sour ale which will probably be a few more months in the barrel and has a distinct possibility of tasting terrible. Today is a different story. Today I brew for the ole taste buds.

I'm going back to the well of delicious hoppyness for this brew by whipping up another batch of the old 'All Day' recipe. I did want to make a couple of changes though because that's what I do. I upped the flaked oats to 20 percent of the grist because that's how I understand Founders brews it. I also added 1 lb. of Munich because I love a little of the darker German malt in my pale ales. Lastly I decided to try adding all my hops in the last 20 minutes since I've heard good things about late hopping. Lastly I'll be finishing it all off with a 30 minute hop stand of the 0 minute additions at 180F to favor aroma and flavor over bitterness.

Recipe Notes
Style: Pale Ale

Batch Volume: 5 gal.
Color: 7 SRM
Target Bitterness: 45 IBU
Target OG: 1.050

Grist
5 lb. Pale Malt
2 lb. Flaked Oats
1 lb. Crystal 20
1 lb. Munich
8 oz. Rye Malt
8 oz. Wheat Malt

0.5 oz. Amarillo (20 min.)
0.5 oz. Simcoe (20 min.)
1 tsp. Irish Most (15 min.)
0.5 oz. Amarillo (10 min.)
0.5 oz. Simcoe (10 min.)
0.5 oz. Amarillo (5 min.)
0.5 oz. Simcoe (5 min.)
0.5 oz. Amarillo (0 min.)
0.5 oz. Simcoe (0 min.)
1 oz. Amarillo (Dry Hop 5 days)
1 oz. Simcoe (Dry Hop 5 days)

Safale US-05

Brew Notes
Brew Date: 9/27/15
Mash Temp: 150F
Mash Time: 60 min.

Boil Time: 60 min.
Fermenter Volume: 4.8 gal
Measured OG: 1.046

Great day for an outdoor brew. The sky was threatening rain but it held off for the whole brew day. Raised water to 160F. Dropped to 150F after dough in. I'm getting a lot of variation on my temp drops after dough in. I have to dial that in a little better. After flame out I chilled down to 180F in two minutes then pitched the 0 minute addition and covered with a towel. Smelled fantastic. Chilled down to 85 then took a reading. OG was 1.050 but only collected 4.3 gallons of wort. That's pretty poor efficiency and I'm not sure why. Anyway, I wanted more volume so added 1/2 gallon of water to reach OG of 1.044 in 4.8 gallons. Chilled wort in keezer for a few hours to 68F. Pitched US-05 and aerated.

10/4/15 - Racked to secondary. Gravity is 1.008. Smells fantastic. Tastes a little thin. Also, forgot to temperature correct my OG. Corrected is 1.046, so we're sitting at 5.0% ABV right now.

10/6/15 - Dry hopped 2 oz. in a single hop bag and swished it around a bit.

Kegging Notes
Measured FG: 1.007
Attenuation: 85%
ABV: 5.1%
Calories: 149 per 12oz.
Carbonation: 2.5 volumes (After force carbonating)

10/12/15 - Kegged after dry hopping for six days. Gravity is 1.007. Hop aroma and flavor is fantastic. The malt body is a little bit 'meh' though despite the six-malt grist. Maybe simpler is better.

Centennial IPA

Delicious Centennial Hops

First brew of the new year, and 'tis the season for rebrews. Today I'm brewing up a second batch of the Bell's Two Hearted clone but with some minor changes. First, I'll be dropping the OG just a bit for a target ABV of around 5.5%. I'm becoming a big fan of these 'session IPA' type beers and find myself gravitating toward brewing them. However, I want to keep a little malt backbone around for the Two Hearted clone to hold up the big Centennial hops flavor. The second change is moving from an English to an American ale yeast, S-04 to US-05, possibly resulting in a cleaner flavor than the last brew. Lastly, I'll be jacking up the dry hopped additions from 0.5 oz to a big ole' 3 oz. The Centennial hops I've had since March of last year are burning a hole in my freezer and I gotta use 'em up so it's time to go big. No, bigger than that. BIG! YEAH!

Brew Recipe

Brew Date: 1/5/2014
Style: American Pale Ale
Batch Volume: 5.5 gal.
Type: All Grain
Color: 5 SRM
Target Bitterness: 49 IBU
Target OG: 1.055
Estimated FG: 1.014

Grist

7 lb. Two Row

2 lb. Vienna

8 oz. Crystal 20L

8 oz. CaraPils

1.0 oz. Centennial @ First Wort (8.7% AA)

1.0 oz. Centennial @ 15 min. (8.7% AA)

1.0 oz. Centennial @ 5 min. (8.7% AA)

1.0 oz. Centennial @ 0 min. (8.7% AA)

3.0 oz. Centennial Dry Hop

1 pkg. US-05 American ale yeast

Brew Notes

Mash Temp: 152 °F
Mash Time: 60 min.
Boil Time: 60 min.
Fermenter Volume: 5.25 gal.
Measured OG: 1.050
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72%
Measured FG: 1.007
ABV: 5.6%
Calories: 162

Soaked mashed grain bag in ~2 gal of 170 degree water. Stirred around and added most back to boil kettle to get 5.5 gal pre-boil. Didn't need quite that much sparge water. Maybe 1-1.5 gal next time. Pitched yeast at 70 degrees. Brew went off without a hitch.

Update 1/12/14 - Racked to secondary. Gravity sitting at 1.008. Plan to dry hop in a week with 3-4 oz. of Centennial. Tastes a little dry and base-malty but hope it forms a solid foundation for the dry hopping. This was fermented during the DC cold spell when temps dropped to single digits. Basement was pretty cold, possibly affecting ferm?

Update 1/19/14 - Dry hopped with 3 oz. of Centennial pellets. Swirled the carboy around a bit to mix them in. Smelling pretty dandy.

Update 2/1/14 - Bottled today with 3.5 oz. of priming sugar. Yielded 30 12oz. bottles and seven 22 oz. bombers. Smells and tastes terrific. Very centennial grapefruity. Covered both ends of autosiphon with hop bag to prevent dry hops from getting into bottling bucket. Had to restart siphon several times but the bottling bucket ended up very clear. Final gravity was 1.007.

Simcoe Select IPA

Chillin' out max. Relaxin' all cool.

Third brew weekend in a row! BOOM! Today I'll be brewing a kit from Midwest Brewing Supply called Simcoe Select IPA. I received this kit as a gift from Mike and Sheila Willey for being a part of their fantastic Tennessee wedding. Thanks guys! I've been meaning to do a Simcoe SMaSH for some time too but I think this kit is a better plan. I only had a 5 gallon fermenter available so I cut 10% of the grain bill and volume to do a 4.5 gallon batch to give it some fermentation room but kept the full hop additions. So what do I do with the extra 2lbs. of grain? Why munch on it throughout the brew day, of course.

Brew Recipe

Brew Date: 8/17/2013
Style: India Pale Ale
Batch Volume: 4.5 gal.
Type: All Grain
Color: 11 SRM
Target Bitterness: 67 IBU
Target OG: 1.063
Estimated FG: 1.014

Grist
9 lb. American Two-Row
.9 lb. Crystal 40-60L
.45 lb. Munich
.45 lb. CaraPils

1/2 oz. Simcoe 12.7% (60 min.)
1/2 oz. Simcoe 12.7% (40 min.)
1 oz. Simcoe 12.7% (20 min.)
1 oz. Simcoe 12.7% (2 min.)

1 pkg. Safale US-05 Ale Yeast

Brew Notes

Mash Temp: 155 °F
Mash Time: 60 min.
Boil Time: 60 min.
Pre-Mash Volume: 5.5 gal.
Post-Boil Volume: 4.5 gal.
Mash Efficiency: ?
Measured OG: 1.062
Measured FG: ?
ABV: ?
Calories: ?

Temperature was in the low 70s in the middle of August. What is this? My birthday? Anyway, executed a double brew day today with Mike and Beth Helle and their dog Oxford. Also had a meet and greet between Oxford and our two cats. They were not impressed. Mike brought over a 2nd copper coil so we put it in a cooler of ice water and ran a line from that to our wort chillers. We were finally able to bring wort temps down below 80 degrees in the summer with the help of this new contraption. FG was right on target again. Awesome.

I used four hop bags for the four hop additions but they were pellet hops so not a lot of hop material was held back. Should just reserve the hop bags for whole leaf hops. Not really worth it for pellets. Actually I've been reading about homebrewers using paint strainer bags and pouring the wort through the bags during aeration to collect hop and grain material. Sounds like a better plan than hop bags.

We now have 17 gallons of beer fermenting in the basement between my brews and Julie's so we're both very satisfied brewers now.

Update 8/30/13 - Pulled a gravity sample today and we're sitting at 1.022. Tastes good - bitter with some grapefruit or melon flavor on the back end. It's been stable at 1.022 for a few days now. Maybe when I separated the grain it wasn't mixed well and too much Crystal and Cara ended up in the mash? Whatever. I'll be racking this to secondary in a new Better Bottle I picked up from the local homebrew store. It was much cheaper than a new glass carboy and the mouth is bigger which makes me think removing a dry hop bag will be much easier in this guy.

Update 9/21/13 - Bottled 4 gallons today with 4 oz. of priming sugar. Got 42 bottles total. Final gravity was still 1.022. Julie and I are cursed with mono-Simcoe ales finishing very high. Oh, well. Some like 'em sweet.

All Day IPA

Who doesn't like a beer they can drink all day? This recipe is a Homebrewtalk.com work in progress to clone Founder's All Day IPA, a relatively low ABV pale ale with a great hop forward taste and aroma. I've wanted to brew this recipe for a while now but it's been hard to source Amarillo hops since there's apparently a nation wide shortage of this type. My local homebrew store was out and so were the online go-to's NorthernBrewer and MidwestBrewingSupply.

As fortune would have it today we decided to tour Three Stars Brewing company, a new brewery that opened last year in DC. It was a wonderful tour by one of the owners who was a really great guy from Cleveland (booo!). Before the tour began we browsed around their homebrew shop and what to my wondering eyes did appear but several ounces of Amarillo hops, all in a row. I snatched up 2 oz. after the tour along with the rest of the grist which they had on hand entirely. Despite the 4+ oz. of fairly expensive hops the whole recipe rang up to about $30 AND they helped me pick out bulk grains and crushed as I shopped. I was a fantastic experience and I would love to visit this brewery and their homebrew shop again soon. Great folks all around.

Brew Recipe

Brew Date: 8/10/2013
Style: India Pale Ale
Batch Volume: 5 gal.
Type: All Grain
Color: 5.8 SRM
Target Bitterness: 43 IBU
Target OG: 1.046
Estimated FG: 1.011

Grist
7 lb. American Two-Row
1 lb. Crystal 20L
12 oz. Flaked Oats
4 oz. Red Wheat

1/4 oz. Cascade 6.6% (60 min.)
1/2 oz. Amarillo 8.9% (20 min.)
1/2 oz. Cascade 6.6% (20 min.)
1/4 oz. Simcoe 14.1% (20 min.)

1/2 oz. Amarillo 8.9% (5 min.)
1/2 oz. Cascade 6.6% (5 min.)
1/2 oz. Simcoe 14.1% (5 min.)

1/2 oz. Amarillo 8.9% (dry hop)
1/2 oz. Crystal 3.8% (dry hop)
1/2 oz. Simcoe 14.1% (dry hop)

1 pkg. Safale US-05 Ale Yeast

Brew Notes

Mash Temp: 150 °F
Mash Time: 50 min.
Boil Time: 60 min.
Pre-Mash Volume: 5.5 gal.
Post-Boil Volume: 5 gal.
Measured OG: 1.048
Measured FG: 1.008
ABV: 5.3%
Calories: 157

Got a late start on this brew with dough in at 6:20pm to avoid the heat. Remembered it as 6:10 though so only mashed for 50 min. but that shouldn't matter. Tried sparging grains w/170 degree water over a collander but was more work than it was worth. It takes time for the grain to absorb the water and even more time to squeeze it back out again. Probably just top up with hot water instead to 5.5 gal. next time.

Update 8/17/13 - Dry hopped tonight with 1.5 oz. hop blend. Sprayed sanitizer on a hop bag, filled it up, and dropped it right in the fermentation bucket. The bag keeps floating to the top but hopefully will sink in after it absorbs some of the liquid. Gravity is 1.008. Tastes pretty good so far! Kind of a mellon and grapefruit combo kind of thing going on.

Update 8/23/13 - Too impatient to wait a single day longer I decided to bottle today and get these babies going. Used 4 oz. of priming sugar in the 4.5 gal of collected beer for bottling. Gravity remained 1.008. Squeezed the hop bag dry before removing to get every delicious drop. Dry hopping has added a strong and excellent aroma and just a little pucker around the edge of the tongue. Looking forward to that mellowing out just a bit as it bottle conditions. Got 44 bottles total.

The beer was very cloudy and looked a bit more like cider than beer. I wish now I had taken the time to rack to secondary and let it clear up a little bit but you have what you have. After racking the first gallon to the bottling bucket I rubber banded a hop bag around the siphon to keep unwanted hop material and trube out of the bottles. Worked pretty well but there's a lot of room left for clarifying in the bottle.

Also, the taste was fantastic. Definitely will be brewing this again. And I can say that two weeks in.

Bell's Two Hearted Clone

Ernest Hemingway's fishing failure

Gather 'round whilst I regale you of my recent infatuation with Bell's Two Hearted. It all started a few months ago at the Beer 1k in Crystal City. This was a really cool event during which Julie, I, and some friends were able to sample small pours of 20+ beers over the course of a few hours. I sampled some hits and misses but nothing that really rocked my world. For those familiar with the event, the 1k ends at the top level of a high rise building in Crystal City. The entire floor is unfinished and very industrial looking.

After taking an elevator to the top the doors opened to reveal a sensory overload of loud techno beats, hundreds of half drunk 1k-ers, and another dozen beer vendors. Upon entering this state of sensory overload I spied her from across the room. Twas' a Bell's Brewery booth done made it all the way from Kalamazoo to our little neck of the woods. I was already a big fan of Bell's Brewery - A) It's from Michigan B) Oberon is like capturing Michigan summers in a bottle, and C) all the beers are brewed almost exactly the way a homebrewer would do it. It's unfiltered, unpasteurized, bottle carbonated, and quite literally a living entity.

After a ten minute line for the Bell's booth I discovered they were sampling a beer I hadn't had yet but probably should have - Bell's Two Hearted. It has a color somewhere between amber and orange but the most in-your-face quality of Two Hearted is by far the aroma. I wasn't very familiar with Centennial hops at the time but it was love at first smell. It had a nice but not overpowering citrus smell with a grapefruit quality and a muted but persistent floral tone. If Two Hearted aroma was a band, Sinister Grapefruit would be shredding it up on lead guitar but Floral Garden would be rockin' a solid but not showy drum beat that pulls it all together.

I remember savoring that small sample of Two Hearted for ten minutes. This turned out to be a couple of minutes too long because the booth had just been cleaned out of all samples by the time I got in line again. The following day and a short time afterward, acquiring a six-pack of Two Hearted became my solitary grocery goal. It's not impossible to find in VA but it's not too common. After a second taste confirmed my original opinion and refuted my working theory that Bell's slipped some ecstasy into their samples, I decided to try brewing it myself. The recipe below and the next six weeks are my power ballad love song to Bell's Two Hearted.

Brew Recipe

Looks like 3.5 Michigans

Brew Date: 3/31/2013
Style: American IPA
Batch Volume: 4.2 gal.
Type: All Grain
Boil Time: 60 min.
Color: 5.5 SRM
Target Bitterness: 47.2 IBU
Target OG: 1.071
Target FG: 1.018

Grist
8 lb. American Two-Row Malt
1.6 lb. Vienna Malt
0.4 lb. Crystal 20L Malt
0.4 lb. CaraPils Malt

0.8 oz. Centennial Pellet Hops (60 min.)
0.8 oz. Centennial Pellet Hops (15 min.)
0.8 oz. Centennial Pellet Hops (5 min.)
0.8 oz. Centennial Pellet Hops (1 min.)
0.4 oz. Centennial Pellet Hops (Dry Hop)
1 pkg. Safale S-04 Ale Yeast

Brew Notes

Mash Temp: 152
Mash Time: 90 min.
Pre-Boil Volume: 4.75 gal.
Post-Boil Volume: 4.5 gal.
Mash Efficiency: 71.9%
Measured OG: 1.061
Measured FG: 1.007
ABV: 7.1%
Calories: 198

Crushed grain again at 0.030" gap setting. Filled brew kettle w/5.5 gal. of hot tap water. Mash in at 157. Dropped temp to 152. Doing a 90 minute mash on this one for more conversion a lighter mouth feel. Finished mashing at 149 with sleeping bag method. Was surprised to get a low gravity reading pre-boil but thought maybe it was a fluke. Post boil gravity was still 10 points under target. Low mash temperature? Combination of more water volume than expected and lower efficiency. Hopefully doesn't affect the taste too much. New target ABV is 6%.

Used new wort chiller to cool but didn't have the proper hose connection gender. Held two ends together for 10 minutes. It worked but I got soaked in the process. Need a female garden hose connection on one end and a male faucet connection on the other.

After pitching yeast and letting brew settle there appears to be a LOT of sediment forming. Some can probably be attributed larger hop additions but looks pretty grainy. Must try a wider gap setting for next brew.

Update 4/6/13 - Pulled a gravity sample and holy cow is it low. It's at 1.008 down from 1.061 after only a week. It tastes and smells great too.

Update 4/7/13 - Racked into secondary today. Collected about 3 1/3 gallons. It has a nice orange color very similar to Two Hearted. All signs pointing to awesome!

Update 4/14/13 - Pitch 0.4 oz. of Centennial pellet hops directly into secondary fermenter. Swished the beer around for 10 seconds or so to mix them in and prevent them from just floating on the top the whole time. Hopefully they will settle out before next weekend when it's.... bottling time baby!

Update 4/20/13 - Finally time to bottle this motha'. Appropriately Julie's mom was here to help supervise and photograph the process. Had 3 1/3 gal. of beer in secondary so used 1/2 cup of priming sugar for bottling. Yielded 35 bottles in total. FG ended up at 1.007 which I believe is the lowest I've ever had a beer finish. I'll attribute that to the lower mash temperature I suppose. The gravity sample tasted fan-frickin'-tastic, albeit a little thin. Maybe the carb will body it out. Good color too. Seems like almost the perfect shade of Two Hearted orange.

I tried a new method for racking beer from the fermenter to the bottling bucket. I rubber banded a hop bag to the output end of the auto siphon. There was a lot of hop material floating around after dry hopping and I definitely didn't want that in the bottles. (Sorry centennial hops, I still love you.) It worked out really well! Caught a thin layer of hop particles in the bag and toward the end of bottling noticed almost no sediment/material in the bottling bucket. I'll certainly be doing this every time I rack from a dry hopped fermenter.

Belgian IPA

Brewer’s Best Belgian IPA (The Belgian Julie)
January 5, 2013
5 gal.

6.6 lb. Pilsen LME
1 lb. Soft Candi Sugar
8 oz. Caramel 40L
4 oz. Flaked Wheat
0.5 oz. Millenium Hops (Bittering)
1.0 oz. Nugget Hops (Flavoring)
2.0 oz. Chinook Hops (Aroma & Dry)
1 pkg. Sachet Belgian Style Dry Yeast
½ cup Corn Sugar (Priming)

1/5/13 - Brewing with new 7.5 gal pot. Raised 5 gal of water to 156 to steep/mash. Mashed specialty grains for 45 min. Wrapped sleeping bag around kettle. Only 3 degree drop over mash duration! Removed grains and brought to boil. Taking a long time to boil, may reduce batch size in the future. Used calibrated wooden dowel to measure final yield of just over 5 gal. Took an hour to cool to 85 in sink full of water. Rehydrated and pitched yeast at 85. OG is 1.060. Total brew time 5 ½ hours...

1/12/13 - Dry hopped with remaining Chinook hops. SG reading was 1.020. ABV 5.3%. Had a super thick krausen, had to punch through with wine thief. Tastes pretty good, very Belgian-y. Fermentation smell is thick with sulfur. Slight smell in sample pulled for gravity reading. Hopefully will dissipate over time.

2/3/13 - Bottled today. FG: 1.006, 7.2% ABV. Collected 5 gal. from fermenter and exactly 50 bottles. Used 3/4 cup of priming sugar. Lowest finishing gravity of any beer I've made yet. It did set in primary for a month so maybe that's why. Tastes reallly good, like a bitter Belgian. Can't wait for this one to carb.

2/8/13 - Cracked one open today and it tastes wonderful. Like a bubble gummy Belgian with an extra bitter finish. Not much of the Chinook dry hopping coming through but definitely some hop bitterness. Designed a label based on Julie's favorite wedding photo.