Deep Woods Stout

Creepy Laser Ice Breath

It's that time of year when a cold breeze whips past your bald head and icicles hang from the gutters of the house you never leave. Except maybe for a Chipotle run. To fend off old man winter and his creepy skeletal hands we'll be brewing a hearty recipe tailor made to warm the coldest cockles. Today's kit comes from the great guys at WindRiver Brewing Co. and this time it's all about the stout! It will be the last kit in my kit-of-the-month club since I've recently started mad-sciencing with all grain recipes. So let's get on with it, eh?

Recipe: WindRiver Deep Woods Stout

Brew Date: 2/17/2013
Style: Stout
Batch Volume: 5 gal.
Type: Extract
Boil Time: 60 min.
Target OG: 1.064
Target FG: Not supplied for recipe

9.3 lb. Dark LME
0.5 lb. Black Patent
0.5 lb. Crystal 80L
1 oz. Brambling Hops (60 min.)
1 oz. Willamette Hops (10 min.)
1 pkg. Muntons Dry Ale Yeast

Brew Notes
Collected Volume: 5 gal.
Measured OG: 1.070 (Waaay of. Did I get too much LME in my kit?)
Brew Time: 3h30m
Actual FG: 1.021
ABV: 6.5%
Calories: 234

Started with 3 gal of hot water, heated to 162. Steeped grains in muslin bag for 30 min. Killed heat and added LME. Brought to boil and added Brambling hops. Willamette added w/10 minutes left. Cooled wort in 30 min with ice bath. Racked to fermenter and topped off to 5 gal. Measured OG is 1.070. Pitched yeast, aerated and sent to the cellar.

Update 3/5/13 Gravity reading is 1.034. I'm a little concerned that this isn't lower. I'll check again in a week and see if we still have fermentation activity.

Update 3/17/13 - Gravity is still only 1.031. Maybe this is just a high finisher.

Update 4/20/13 - After two months in primary the gravity finally fell down to 1.021. I've run out of patience so I'm bottling this one, gravity be damned. Used 2/3 cup of priming sugar for about 4.5 gal of collected beer. Yielded 44 bottles. It's not really stout season any longer but it might be good for those dark and stormy days we sometimes get.

English Mad Mild

Fermentification

So you like beer but feel trapped in a world of high ABV extreme craft brews? Me too. I've been on a very brief quest (barely left the Shire) for a good low ABV beer to accompany days of lawn mowing, snow shoveling, etc.

After cruising around the forums at HomeBrewTalk.com I came across this little recipe from a poster named Orfy. His Mild Mannered Ale has received 33 pages(!) of reviews and recommendations. I decided it's a shoe-in for my next brew. Low ABV beers also lend themselves well to the Brew In A Bag (BIAB) method so it works well with my small setup. Let's get on with it, shall we?

Mad Fox's Ale Yeast

My first step on my low-ABV journey led me to Mad Fox Brewing Company, in Falls Church, VA. I've been enjoying their <4% Mason's Mild for some time now and ordered one on a particular Saturday in November. Fortune smiled upon my wife and I when our server asked if we'd like a behind-the-scenes tour of the brewery. Hell yes!

Our tour guide, Charlie Buettner, asked if there were any homebrewers in the crowd and I sheepishly raised my hand. I had been brewing for about three weeks at this point and could barely tell a ball valve from a bung hole. Charlie mentioned they regularly dispose of 40lbs. of yeast per batch and would rather give it to homebrewers than dump it down the drain. After taking him up on this offer I went home the proud parent of billions of little ale yeast cells.

The Grist + Willamette Hops

Now with an English yeast in hand and most of the ingredients in inventory it was time to craft a recipe. I was able to obtain all of the grains from my local homebrew store but had to substitute Willamette hops for the Fuggles called for in the recipe. Since I've never used an English style hop before I imagine I won't taste much difference.

After noticing a bit too much trub in the fermenter from my last brew I decided to increase the mill gap to 0.028" from 0.025". The BIAB method lets me use a finer crush than a traditional mash and lauter system because there's no worry of stuck sparges.

Makeshift Mash Tun

The BIAB method isn't all upsides though. One problem we have with this method is retaining heat during the duration of the mash period since the brew kettle serves as our mash tun. One great suggestion I found online was to wrap the brew kettle in an old sleeping bag (remove from stove first...).

Over the course of the 60 minute mash I lost only four degrees and that includes stirring the mash every 15 minutes. This brew was mashed at 158 degrees to promote a more dextrinous wort to give this low ABV mild a little substance.

Fancy Cooling System

After mashing I ended up with a pre-boil gravity of 1.048, waaaay over what I was shooting for with this 1.037 OG mild. Future brews will need to account for these epic ~95% BIAB efficiencies. After calculating a 1/2 gal. water addition during the chill phase I ended up with a 1.037 OG on the money! That also helped reduce my chill time which is pretty... chill.

At the end of the day my 4 gal. recipe ended up yielding 5 gal. after overestimating evaporation and low-balling my efficiency estimate. Free beer!


Recipe: Orfy's Mild Mannered Ale

Brew Date: 1/27/2013
Style: English Mild
Batch Volume: 4 gal.
Type: All grain
Boil Time: 60 min.
Color: 21.6 SRM
Target Bitterness: 24.7 IBU
Target OG: 1.037
Target FG: 1.009

4.5 lb. Maris Otter Malt Recipe
1 lb. Crystal 60L
4 oz. Chocolate Malt
0.75 oz. Willamette Hops (Bittering)
0.75 oz. Willamette Hops (Flavor)
8 oz. Ringwood Ale (Wyeast 1187) yeast slurry

Brew Notes
Mash Temp: 154 - 158
Mash Efficiency: 96%
Pre-Boil Volume: 4.75 gal.
Preboil OG: 1.048
Post-Boil Volume: 4.5 gal.
Post-Boil OG: 1.044 (Why is this lower than pre-boil? Measurement error?)
Water Added: 0.5 gal.
Dilluted OG: 1.037
Dilluted IBU: 19.1
Brew Time: 4h50m (1 hour to heat mash liquor)
Actual FG: 1.012
ABV: 3.3%
Calories: 123

2/2/2013 - Pulled a sample to test gravity. SG is 1.013. Mash temp was a little high so not surprised if this is about as low as it gets. Plan to bottle next weekend regardless. Tastes pretty good, a little chocolaty and sweet. Julie detects a coffee aftertaste but she's a coffee bloodhound.

2/10/2013 - Pulled a sample. SG reading 1.012.

2/16/2013 - FG finished out at 1.010. Collected 4.75 gal. from carboy, yielded 47 bottles. There was a lot of flour/grit on the side of carboy after racking. Probably need a coarser grind. Not much appeared to transfer into the bottling bucket though. The roasty finishing character mellowed out a bit. Julie finds it a little more pleasing. I'm leaving these bottles on the main floor where it's a little warmer for one week to carbonate then plan to cellar.

American Amber Ale

American Amber Ale
January 6, 2013
3 gal.

5 lb. 2-Row Pale Malt (Rahr)
1 lb. Crystal 60L
1.5 oz. Cascade Hops
¾ oz. Cascade Hops (Dry hopping)
1 pkg. Munton’s Dry Ale Yeast
½ cup Corn Sugar (Priming)

1/6/13 - My buddy John helped brew today. Crushed at 0.028” gap to reduce flour created. Used hot water from faucet to fill boil kettle to 5 gal. Started at 120 deg. Heated to 162 and added grains. Temp came down to 158. Used sleeping bag to insulate kettle during mash. Had to remove bag to drop temp down to 153 halfway through mash. The sleeping bag insulates very well! Did not use hop bag in boil because it smelled bad. Ended up getting leaf hops caught in auto siphon. Will probably use hop bag from now on or some other mechanism to separate hop material.

After grain absorption and boiling still ended up with 4.25 gallons in pot. Probably got 4 gallons in carboy because of what was absorbed by the hops. Looks like we can regularly do 4 gallon batches on this stove. OG was 1.042 because of the extra gallon of water that wasn’t absorbed or evaporated.

1/13/13 - Gravity reading is 1.011. 4.3% ABV. Seems ready to be bottled. Tastes a little hoppier than last AG. More amber color too. Doesn’t taste much sweeter but that might be more apparent in a side-by-side with the previous AG.

1/16/13 - Gravity reading is still 1.011. Dry hopped with 0.75 oz of Cascade hops filled with Go marbles. Boiled the bag for 8 minutes to sterilize. Was hard to put the hops in the carboy with all the marbles in there. Maybe no marbles next time. Still tastes good.

1/25/13 - Fixed auto siphon by putting dime in bottom to replace one way valve. Bottled today. Collected 3.5 gal of beer after dry hop absorption. Exactly 36 bottles. Final gravity 1.010. Marbles were in hop bag so couldn't pull out of carboy. Destroyed bag. Dry hop without marbles. Total time 1.5 hours. Used 5/8 cup priming sugar to bottle. Leaving bottles upstairs in warmer air to carbonate. Acceptable amount of trub. Maybe try 0.030" grind next time.

2/10/13 - Tastes and smells really good. Got a little over carbonated. One bottle foamed out the top after opening. Left upstairs to carb for two weeks. Maybe that was too long before chilling? Labelled bottles and put in the cellar. Designed some sweet labels.

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.

American Cascade SMaSH

American Cascade SMaSH
December 30, 2012
2.5 gal.

My first attempt at all grain brewing! Tally-ho!

4 lb. 2-Row Pale Malt (Rahr)
1 lb. Toasted 2-Row Pale Malt (Rahr)
1.5 oz. Cascade Hops
1 pkg. Munton’s Dry Ale Yeast
⅜ cup Corn Sugar (Priming)

12/29/12 - Toasted 1lb. of 2-row at 275 for 45 min.

12/30/12 - Removed yeast from fridge. Collected hops from freezer. Crushed grain at 0.025” spacing. Raised 2.5 gal of water to 165 deg. Preheated oven to ‘WARM’. Removed pot from heat. Placed bag in pot. Stirred crushed grains into water. Mashed grain in water at ~155 for 60 minutes in warmed oven. Raised 1.5 gal sparge water to 170 deg. Dunk sparged grain bag in sparge water. Squeezed a little. Added sparge water to boil kettle and got 4 gal of wort. Removed a few cups of water so boil pot wasn’t brimming. Boiled. Added ½ oz. Cascade at 60 min, 20 min, and 5 min to hop bag. OG is 1.048. Racked to glass fermenter. Collected 2.5 gal of wort.

1/5/13 - Racked beer to secondary. SG is 1.010. Super low. Tastes good, like a generic American ale.

1/12/13 - Bottled 2.5 gallons for 26 beers.FG was still 1.010. ABV is 5.1%. Used ⅜ cup of priming sugar for lower beer volume.

1/24/13 - Tried bottle. Very litre carbonation. Furnace was out while on vacation. Probably too cold. Brought beers up to computer room to carbonate. Significant sediment. Poor job racking or too fine of grind or both. Didn't use auto siphon to siphon. It was broken.

Lake Pepin Porter

WindRiver’s Lake Pepin Porter
a.k.a. Burned Marshmallow Porter
December 15, 2012
5 gal.

6 lb. Dark LME
½ lb. Chocolate Malt
½ lb. Carapils Grain Blend
1 oz. Willamette Hops (Bittering)
1 oz. Fuggles Hops (Aroma)
1 pkg. Munton’s 6 gm. Dry Yeast

12/15/12 - Steeped specialty malts for 30 min. at 160. Added LME before raising temperature.. Boiled for 55 min. Added aroma hops. Boiled for 5 min. Cooled in ice bath for 30 min down to 80 degrees. Strained wort into bucket through metal strainer and colander. OG is 1.050. Hydrated yeast in 1 cup of tap water. Pitched at 72 degrees. Total brew time four hours. Julie bought new airlock so we can get carboy and fermenter running concurrently. Go team!

12/20/12 - Took a gravity reading. SG is 1.022. Rotated fermenter a few times to hopefully rouse yeast and get them to finish the job.

12/21/12 - Racked beer to carboy. SG is still 1.022. Auto siphon hose is a pain in the butt. End that goes in the carboy needs to not curl back up towards the top of the carboy.

12/30/12 - FG is now 1.019. ABV of 4.1%. Forgot the kit didn’t come with bottle caps. Only had 29 leftovers. Bottled rest of beer in three Grolsch bottles and ⅔ filled the Mad Fox growler. That might over-carbonate. Yielded 4.5 gallons.

1/6/13 - Tried bottle. It’s fully carbonated already. On the lookout for bottle bombs. Tastes like burned marshmallows.

Holiday Ale

Brewer’s Best Holiday Ale
a.k.a. Non-Denominational Holiday Ale
December 2, 2012
5 gal.

6.6 lb. Light LME
1 lb. Golden DME
1 lb. Corn Sugar
12 oz. Caramel 80L Malt
4 oz. Chocolate Malt
4 oz. Black Patent Malt
1 Spice Pack (Orange Peel, Cinnamon, others)
1 oz. Brewer’s Gold Hops (Bittering)
1 oz. Willamette Hops (Aroma)
1 pkg. Sachet Yeast

12/2/12 - Steeped specialty malts for 20 min. at 160. Left LME cans in hot water to ease pouring. Boiled and added LME, DME, corn sugar. Added bittering hops after returning to boil. Boiled for 40 min. Added spice pack and flavoring hops. Boiled for 15 min. Cooled in ice bath. Strained wort into bucket through metal strainer and colander. OG is 1.069. Hydrated yeast in 1 cup of tap water. Pitched.

12/9/12 - Transferred beer to carboy for secondary fermentation. Still getting bubbles out of airlock, one bubble per 20 seconds. SG is 1.018. Tastes pretty good, less sweet than I would have thought. Good hint of holiday spice in the nose before tasting and in the aftertaste. First time using Star San for sanitization. Creates a LOT of bubbles. Couldn’t get the cork to stay in the carboy, kept sliding up. Ended up drying cork and inside of carboy neck with kitchen towel. Don’t know if this will lead to infection but better than cork popping out I guess. Total time about 45 min.

12/15/12 - Checked gravity. Currently reading 1.016 FG. ABV = 7.0%.

12/16/12 - Boiled ¾ cup corn sugar w/2 cups water. Let cool and added to bottling bucket. Siphoned beer into bucket. Yielded 49 bottles w/Julie’s help. Designed “Drews Brews” labels. Applied to bottles with milk and brush. Very cheap, easy, and effective.