Spring Cleaning: Dark

Modern Art: Malt-Oat-Barley

This brew is my dark complement to last week's 'Spring Cleaning: Light'. I accumulated all the Chocolate, Black Patent, and Black Barley in the house and threw in a pound of flaked oats for good measure (and smoothness.) Last year I had accidentally purchased the wrong hops for a brew so I had 1 oz. each of Fuggles and Styrian Golding with happens to be just perfect for bittering up a dark and dirty monster.

An explanation on the yeast. The wife is a 1 gal. brewer and only needs 1/2 package of dry yeast for a healthy fermentation. Thus we had a couple 1/2 packs of yeast hanging out in the fridge with nothing to do. I decided to put 'em to work for this brew. Typically I'd use an Irish Ale yeast or S-04 or something for this dark ale. Instead we're experimenting with half American ale yeast and half Bavarian wheat ale yeast. These house cleaning recipes are really igniting my child-like curiosity. Why can't I justify a whipping up a crazy recipe unless I "have" to. Me sees more wacky brews in the future.

Recipe Notes
Style: Black Half-Heffe?

Batch Volume: 5 gal.
Color: 48 SRM
Target Bitterness: 32 IBU
Target OG: 1.040

Grist
5 lb. 8 oz. 2-Row
1 lb. 1.2 oz. Chocolate Malt
1 lb. Flaked Oats
7.1 oz. Black Patent Malt
5.7 oz. Black Barley

1 oz. UK Fuggle 5.3% (FWH)
1 oz. Styrian Golding 3.2% (FWH)

1/2 Pkg. Safale US-05
1/2 Pkg. Safbrew WB-06

Brew Notes
Brew Date: 2/15/15
Mash Temp: 149F
Mash Time: 80 min.
Boil Time: 60 min.
Fermenter Volume: 5.25 gal
Measured OG: 1.040
Brewhouse Efficiency: 73%

Brew day went very smooth. Raised water to 160 to dough in. Mashed at 153 (149 after correcting for uncalibrated thermometer.) Collected 5 gal. of wort even and boiled for a solid 60 min. Chilled to 70F and poured through brew bag and colander to filter out hop crap. Collected 4.5 gal from boil kettle at a gravity of 1.048, so had some room to top up. Added 0.75 gal. of cold tap water to hit 1.040 in the fermenter.

Update 2/21/15 - Racked to secondary to make room in the fermenter bucket. Gravity is 1.012. Tastes and smells veeery roasty. Almost getting an astringency out of the roast. Lots of chocolate and toasted flavors.

Kegging Notes
Measured FG: 1.011
Attenuation: 73%
ABV: 3.8%
Calories:132 per 12oz.
Carbonation: 2.5 volumes

Update 2/25/15 - Kegged 10 days after brew date. Gravity is 1.011. Tastes pretty good. Wife says it tastes 'smooth.' I'll take it. Purged CO2, pressurized, and shook keg back and forth horizontally 100 times to try carbonating faster. Will try doing this once per day and compare to the previous brew to see if it speeds things up. All done under serving pressure of 12 psi.

Spring Cleaning: Light

Brew Shop!

Time to get back on the horse. It's been four months since I last homebrewed so we've got a lot of ground to make up. My first 'recipe' of the year will be a spring cleaning brew. We've accumulated over a dozen specialty malts in fractional quantities with some nearing a year old. So it's time to use up the old and make room for the brew (new... brew... get it?) This first spring cleaner will incorporate all the pale and crystal malts we've got in the inventory. In a couple of weeks I plan to do a spring cleaning 'dark' in which we use every malt that starts with 'chocolate', 'roasted', or 'black'.

Spring cleaning the hops out of the freezer means this brew is getting a generous helping of Willamette and the rest of the Centennial. I've had these hops in the freezer since I just started homebrewing when I decided then I would only brew Guinness and Two Hearted clones. Time to move on. 18 month old hops... get in there!

I also want to use up some of the dry yeast that's been in the fridge for a few months. We received some free packets of dry belgian saison yeast last year at the AHA conference so this one's getting the saison treatment. It will most likely be cold fermented in our chilly basement at around 60-65 farenheit. We'll see if that saison flavor can power through at the low ferm temps.

Oh, also this is the first recipe I made with our new app, 'Brew Shop.' Things went pretty well except I found out the malts in the app aren't alphabetizing correctly. TODO++;

Recipe Notes
Style: Um... what kind of bagel is an 'everything' bagel?

Batch Volume: 5 gal.
Color: 11.4 SRM
Target Bitterness: 43 IBU
Target OG: 1.043

Grist
6 lb. 8.5 oz. 2-Row
11.1 oz. Rye Malt
8.1 oz. Special Roast
7.2 oz. Crystal 120L
4.7 oz. White Wheat Malt
4.6 oz. Acid Malt

1.25 oz. Willamette 5% (FWH)
1 oz. Willamette 5% (20 min.)
1 oz. Willamette 5% (10 min.)
1.25 oz. Centennial (Whirlpool)

0.5 oz. Amarillo (Dry Hop 4 Days)
0.5 oz. Simcoe (Dry Hop 4 Days)

0.5 oz. Crystal (Dry Hop 4 Days)

Dry Belgian Saison Yeast

Brew Notes
Brew Date: 2/8/15
Mash Temp: 150F
Mash Time: 90 min.
Boil Time: 60 min.
Fermenter Volume: 4.6 gal
Measured OG: 1.043 (1.043 @ 70°F)
Brewhouse Efficiency: Too lazy...

Brought 5.5 gallons of water up to 157F. Doughed in all at once dropping the temp to 150. Mashed for about 90 minutes stirring once. Temperature finished at 148. Collected 5 gal wort after squeezing the BIAB bag. Losing only 1/2 gal to grain absorption sounds pretty good. Brought the wort to a boil at 216F... maybe time to re-calibrate the thermometer. After boil, added whirlpool hops after dropping tempt to 190F to reduce AA isomerization and bitterness. Poured wort through BIAB bag to filter out hop matter. This took a while since there was a lot of hop crap in there. Measured gravity at 1.047 for 4.25 gal of wort. Added ~0.4 gal. of water to hit target gravity of 1.043 with final volume of ~4.6 gal. Pitched yeast, aerated, and let it do its thing.

Update 2/13/15 - Pulled a hydrometer sample just out of curiosity. Sitting at 1.008. Smells saison-y and a little sulfurous. Tastes pretty grainy (young?) and has a little bit of a sharp bite at the finish. Is that the saison yeast or the acid malt? IDK.

Update 2/15/15 - Racked to secondary to make room for a dark hefe in primary. Gravity is 1.006. The aroma is starting to come together. Smells great. Has a deep cloudy orange color. Pretty excited to put this one on tap. Maybe dry hopping for a few days beforehand. We'll see.

Update 2/18/15 - Dry hopped in a sanitized hop bag. Swirled the beer around a bit to coat the hop bag. Planning to keg after four days on the hops.

Update 2/20/15 - Pulled a gravity sample to measure and taste. Gravity remains at 1.006 (whew) and smells like the inside of a peach. Saison acidic bite on the back of the throat. Like if a citrus peach existed this would be the flavor. A couple more days on hops then into the keg with you.

Kegging Notes
Measured FG: 1.006
Attenuation: 86% (yikes!)
ABV: 4.9%
Calories:139 per 12oz.
Carbonation: 2.5 volumes

Update 2/22/15 - Racked to the new keg I got for Christmas after four days on hops. New keg is nice, shiny, and leak free. Leaving to carb under serving pressure (12psi) at 40F. Not agitating keg in any way to determine how long it takes to carb if I just leave things alone. Smells and tastes like melon and citrus. Very juice like. I think this is just because it's fairly young and this *should* go away and taste more like beer with time if I remember correctly.

Hop Harvest Pale

Hops on Harvest Day

Brewed today with my good friend from college, Mark. It's been too long bro!! We decided to put together a recipe highlighting the homegrown Cascade hops I harvested last month. The hops are only from a 2nd year plant so I'm not expecting amazing things. After cracking open the vaccu-sealed mason jars we found the hops to have a very 'grassy' aroma and they seemed more moist than when I packed them in there after harvesting. Rubbing them between my hands still resulted in a sticky feeling and pungent aroma. Here's hoping they impart a uniquely delightful character in the beer rather than a uniquely grassy flavor. Regardless, I'm sure we'll learn a lot about homegrown hops by the end of this experiment.

Recipe Notes
Style: Pale Ale

Batch Volume: 4 gal.
Color: 9 SRM
Target Bitterness: 50 IBU
Target OG: 1.051

Grist
6 lb. 2-Row
1 lb. Crystal 20L
8 oz. Crystal 40L

8 oz. Flaked Oats

0.3 oz. Cascade 6.6% (FWH)

0.6 oz. Centennial 9.0% (FWH)

2 oz. Homegrown Cascade ?% (10 min.)

1 oz. Homegrown Cascade (0 min.)

S-04 Yeast

Brew Notes
Brew Date: 10/12/14
Mash Temp: 152F
Mash Time: 60 min.
Boil Time: 60 min.
Fermenter Volume: 4 gal
Measured OG: 1.052 (1.050 @ 85°F)
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72%

The temps in northern Virginia have cooled to the point where I actually want to brew outdoors again. So we fired up the old propane burner, put the NFL RedZone channel on the iPhone, and got down to it. Brought 5 gal. of water up to 156 and doughed in. Temp dropped to 152 and remained there for the duration of the mash. Ended up with 4 gallons after pulling the grain bag and 4.5 after squeezing the daylights out of it. Decided to do the early hop additions as 'first wort' because I like that there's no 60 minute addition to fuel the hot break into a possible boil over. Things just go more smoothly.

After the boil, we brought 4 gallons of hot wort inside and chilled down to 85 with the immersion coil. Strained the wort through the grain bag while pouring into the fermenter. Took a gravity sample and put the wort in my keezer before pitching yeast. Total brew day was only 4 hours. Gotta love cooking w/gas.

Pitched 11am the following morning at 58 degrees.

Update 11/4/14 - Dry hopped with remaining 1.4 oz. of homegrown Cascade. Divided between two sanitized hop bags and smushed them into the better bottle. Gravity sample reads 1.008.

Kegging Notes
Measured FG: 1.008
Attenuation: 85%
ABV: 5.8%
Calories:169 per 12oz.
Carbonation: 2.5 volumes

Update 11/11/14 - Kegged at 10 psi after seven days of dry hopping.

Update 11/21/14 - So yeah the beer definitely just has a grassy/vegetal aroma and flavor. Not great. None of the Cascade citrus aroma is present. Maybe the hops were picked to young? Whatever the problem this was a major disappointment :(

Pumpkin v1.1

Orange you glad it's pumpkin season?

I was very unsatisfied with the result of the pumpkin ale brew last year. After much convincing from friends and fellow brewers I decided to try revisiting the the pumpkin ale recipe again this year. I feel like the recipe last year was just 'too much.' Too much pumpkin, too much spice, too much cider flavor from the brown sugar, etc. In the software industry we we call these problem 'bugs.' You don't want bugs in your software and definitely don't in your beer. When you release bug fixes you call that a 'point release.' I'll be calling this batch Pumpkin v1.1 in honor of bug squashing beer nerds everywhere.

This year I decided to kick it down a notch (does anyone ever say that?) and instead of making a pumpkin ale, try to make a decent autumn ale that happens to taste a little like pumpkin. I'll be using half the pumpkin in the mash, half the brown sugar in the boil, and half of the spice additions. If I brew one pumpkin ale per year then I think I'll finally nail down a recipe I like around the year 2030. I'm envious of my future 50 year old self finally enjoying a great pumpkin homebrew.

Recipe Notes
Style: Spice Beer

Batch Volume: 4 gal.
Color: 13 SRM
Target Bitterness: 22 IBU
Target OG: 1.047

Grist
5 lb. 2-Row
1 lb. Crystal 60L
1 lb. Victory
2 lb. Libby's Canned Pumpkin

4 oz. Light Brown Sugar (60 min.)

1.0 oz. Hallertauer 3.2% (60 min.)

1.0 oz. Hallertauer 3.2%(15 min.)

Spices (15 min.)
2 tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 tsp. Nutmeg
1/4 tsp. Ginger
1/4 tsp. All Spice

US-05 Yeast

Brew Notes
Brew Date: 8/31/14
Mash Temp: 148F
Mash Time: 75 min.
Boil Time: 60 min.
Fermenter Volume: 4.25 gal
Measured OG: 1.046 (1.044 @ 85°F)
Brewhouse Efficiency: 73%

I planned to mash this recipe a little higher, around 152°F or so but lost more temperature during dough in than usual. I think this is part of the learning process when moving from 5 gallon to 4 gallon brewing. I didn't roast the pumpkin in the oven this year. I just plopped it in with the rest of the mash.

It was a hot summer day so I only had patience to cool the wort to 85°F with the immersion chiller and let the keezer do the rest of the work. After leaving the wort in the keezer for 24 hours the temp dropped to 62°F. Pitched the yeast and aerated.

Update 9/9/14 - Racked to secondary. Gravity reading is 1.006, lower than I hoped but not unexpected given the lower mash temp and the sugar addition. Hydrometer sample is much more drinkable than the pumpkin brew from last year but is still a little too spicy. The spiciness didn't seem to diminish over time in the brew last year but I'm excited to see how this turns out.

Kegging Notes
Measured FG: 1.006
Attenuation: 87%
ABV: 5.25%
Calories:149
Carbonation: 2.3

Update 10/5/14 - Kegged today. Gravity remained 1.006. Spiciness was good warm but the malt backbone started to disappear as it cooled.

Black & Extra Mild

Today's brew completes the trifecta of session ales. First I brewed an extra hoppy Bitter American clone that was like a hop shot to the brain. Then I brewed an extra funky and spicy session Saison with a strong yeast personality but low alcohol presence. This time I will be highlighting some sweet and roasty malt by brewing an English Mild.

My first attempt at brewing an English Mild in early 2013 was less than stellar since I bottled either before fermentation was complete or with too much priming sugar. Either way it was very overcarbonated and made me feel not so 'Mild.' I was very excited having the opportunity to brew with Mad Fox's house yeast but this time I decided to go with the more familiar Nottingham ale yeast. I do intend to try brewing again (maybe several more times) with the yeast from Mad Fox but that will be a yarn for future tales.

I wanted to double the amount of chocolate malt in the recipe to give it more charred flavor than a typical mild but without the harsher bite a black malt can contribute. So the extra chocolate will put the 'black' in 'black and mild.'

Recipe Notes
Style: Mild

Batch Volume: 4 gal.
Color: 28 SRM
Target Bitterness: 24 IBU
Target OG: 1.035

Grist
3 lb. 2-Row
1 lb. Crystal 60L
11 oz. Crystal 40L
8 oz. Special Roast
8 oz. Chocolate Malt

0.5 oz. Fuggles 5.3% (60 min.)
0.5 oz. Fuggles 5.3% (30 min.)

Nottingham Ale Yeast

Brew Notes
Brew Date: 8/3/14
Mash Temp: 152F
Mash Time: 75 min.
Boil Time: 60 min.
Fermenter Volume: 4.75 gal
Measured OG: 1.030
Brewhouse Efficiency: 71%

The big mistake I made with this brew regarded water calculation. I decided to do a 4 gallon brew instead of a 5 gallon to help speed up the process and to go through the keg a little faster. However I used the same amount of mash water that I usually do anticipating I would add less water after the mash.

So I started with 5.5 gallons of water and after the mash ended up with 5 gallons of wort, losing about 0.1 gallons per pound of grain. The hour long boil only reduced that by 1/4 gallon so I ended up with 4.75 gallons of wort for the yeast to munch on. This lowered my gravity from the calculated 1.035 to 1.030 turning this into an English EXTRA Mild. On this up side this might be my first brew the clocks in at under 100 calories per bottle.

So for an average 4 gallon brew I should be using slightly less than 5 gallons in the mash. For these session ale's I've been brewing a lot of lately it'll be maybe 4.75 gallons.

Update 8/13/2014 - Racked the now 1.009 SG Mild to secondary - my 'ole oak whiskey barrel. Put a 1/2 gallon of water in the whiskey barrel (which hasn't seen use for a few months) and it was leaking all over the place. I guess this enforces the importance of rehydraing your barrels. Brought 5 gallons of water up to 180F, dumped it into the barrel, and let it sit for 60 minutes. This should help sanitize the barrel and swell the wood to seal up any gaps. It worked like a charm. The water I dumped out of the barrel smelled great. Nice and woody with the sweet whiskey/bourbon aroma and a bit of roasty char. Hated to see it go down the drain. Racked the mild into the barrel and plugged with a rubber stopper. No airlock.

Update 8/18/2014 - Pulled a sample with Mrs. DrewsBrew's autosiphon. Nice and roasty with a little char character. Not much contribution from the whiskey yet. Will sample again in another week. Gravity is 1.008.

Kegging Notes
Measured FG: 1.008
ABV: 2.9%
Calories: 98
Carbonation: 2.3

Update 8/26/14 - Kegged today after 13 days in the whiskey barrel. Tastes oak-y and with a dry aftertaste but roasty and sweet initially. Definitely enough time for this petite mild. Tastes pretty good uncarbonated at room temperature. I'm actually afraid of losing some of the flavor once it's chilled and carbed.

Hoppy French Saison

Yeast-tastic

This French Saison will be my first attempt at pitching yeast saved from a previous brew. After racking the saison I made in January to secondary I saved two pints of yeast slurry in two mason jars in the back of the fridge for 4 1/2 months. I almost forgot about it until I came across this recipe by the Mad Fermentationist, Michael Tonsmeire. The wife and I had the opportunity to meet Michael at the AHA conference last weekend during his book signing. Since he's a DC local I can't wait to run into him soon at a BURP meeting.

I made a yeast starter to wake the yeast back up from its prolonged slumber. I boiled 100g of pilsen DME in 600mL of water for 5 minutes, cooled the wort down to 75F, then pitched the top of both of the mason jars until I had 1000mL in the flask. I put the flask on the stir bar thing-y over night.

Recipe Notes
Style: Saison

Batch Volume: 5 gal.
Color: 3 SRM
Target Bitterness: 38 IBU
Target OG: 1.044

Just pilsner and wheat malt

Grist
6 lb. 4 oz. Pilsner Malt
1 lb. 12 oz. Wheat Malt

0.6 oz. Nugget 13.9% (FWH)
1.5 oz. Saaz 3.5% (10 min.)
1.5 oz. Saaz (0 min.)

0.2 oz Black Pepper Corn (0 min.)

French Saison Yeast (Wyeast 3711)
- 1 L yeast starter

Brew Notes
Brew Date: 6/21/14
Mash Temp: 155F
Mash Time: 75 min.
Boil Time: 60 min.
Fermenter Volume: 4.75 gal
Measured OG: 1.039 @ 80F (1.040 corrected)
Brewhouse Efficiency: 62%

Mashed for a little longer than usual just because I wasn't paying attention. Didn't stir the grain at all during the mash. I even forgot to after the mash. Retain 155F mash temp throughout the 75 min. mash with just a sleeping bag wrapped around the kettle.

During the mash I decided to add some pepper corn I had left over from the previous saison. It was completely unnoticeable last time. I decided to add a little more this time and to measure by weight. I don't think 0.2 oz. is too much. I'm reading about people using 0.5-4.0 oz. online. Don't mind it much if it isn't peppery but it would be horrible to use too much. I gave the pepper corn a few pulses in the coffee grinder to bust it up before adding it to the kettle.

Well it looks like I did something wrong because I missed the target gravity by 10% and my efficiency dropped to 62%. Maybe I should have stirred more throughout the mash and just before pulling the grain bag. I poured the cooled wort through a strainer to pull out most of the hop material. I thought maybe the hop junk was artificially raising my gravity on previous brews. I added a bunch of hop crap to the hydrometer tube and that didn't change the gravity reading at all.

With the wort chiller running full steam I could only get the wort down to 80F. Decided to pour the wort into the fermenter at that temp and put it in my new keezer which is set at 45F. After four hours the temp dropped to 72 so I pitched the yeast starter, aerated, and went to bed.

6/22/14 - By 10AM (9 hours later) the fermenter temperature has reached 82F and fermentation is vigorous. Debated putting the fermenter back into the keezer but decided to let it ride.

6/23/14 - Temperature is down to 80 and fermentation is slightly less vigorous.

6/24/14 - Temp is down to 79

6/25/14 - Temp is at 78. Gravity reading is all the way down to 1.004. No more visible signs of fermentation. Beer tastes great. Has a lot of warm farmhouse/belgian aroma and is very light. Will go down very easy. No real fusel alcohol aroma detected and feel no alcohol burn when drinking despite high ferm temps. A little buttery/oily taste persists after swallowing and lasts only a second or two. Obviously young but a sign of good things to come.

6/29/14 - Racked to secondary. Gravity reading is still 1.004. Smells very Belgian-y with a strong bubble gum aroma and flavor. Saved two pint jars of trub/yeast to reuse for a Gen #3 saison brew. Trub was much cleaner this time after filtering out all the hop matter while transferring to primary. Left the mason jar lids on loose this time to prevent pressure build up from continued fermentation. Labeled the jars with strain, generation, and harvest date.

Kegging Notes
Measured FG: 1.004
ABV: 4.6%
Calories: 125
Carbonation: 2.5 volumes

Bitter American Clone

Next up on my list of session brews is the Bitter American by 21st Amendment brewery. I love this ale for contributing a big malt character in a class of otherwise thinner 'hop water' ales. I'd love to nail down *my* perfect session ale and always have some variation of it on tap. Bitter American, it's your turn to shine. Show me what you're workin' with.

Recipe Notes
Style: American Pale
Batch Volume: 5 gal.
Color: 8 SRM
Target Bitterness: 41 IBU
Target OG: 1.042

Grist
3 lb. Golden Promise
3 lb. 2-Row
1 lb. Munich
1 lb. Crystal 20L

0.5 oz. Warrior 15% (60 min.)
1.0 oz. Cascade 6.6% (15 min.)
1.0 oz. Centennial (Dry Hop)
1.0 oz. Simcoe (Dry Hop)

1 pkg. US-05

Brew Notes
Brew Date: 5/26/14
Mash Temp: 154 °F
Mash Time: 60 min.
Boil Time: 60 min.
Fermenter Volume: 5.0 gal
Measured OG: 1.042
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72%

Today was a 'quad brew' day with the wife and two close friends. All together we made 17 gallons of beer! Used my propane tank that read 'empty' with the intention of finishing it off and swapping it out with the tank on my friend's grill. Well I'll be damned if the tank didn't last through the whole brew day! I can't recall how many brew days I've gotten out of this tank but it's far more than I expected. Had a little bit of a boil over because I wasn't paying attention but it was an otherwise flawless brew day. Nailed my target OG which always makes you feel good.

6/8/14 - Racked 4.3 gallons to secondary. Gravity reading was 1.008 for an ABV of 4.5%. Looks pretty dark for a pale ale just like Bitter American. Kind of tastes like generic beer and has only faint hop aroma. These should both change w/a 2 oz. dry hop addition.

6/17/14 - Dry hopped with simcoe and centennial in two sanitized hop bags weighed down with a couple of shot glasses each. Hopefully they can give this bland beer some character.

6/20/14 - Kegged today because impatience. Transferred the two hop bags from secondary into the keg to get the 'keg hopped' flavor. Put it in the kegerator at 45F under 10psi.

Kegging Notes
Measured FG: 1.008
ABV: 4.5%
Calories: 137
Carbonation: 2.1 volumes

6/21/14 - Let the keg chill for a day under pressure then shook it back and forth for five minutes in attempt to speed up carbonation and to increase beer contact/flow through the two hop bags. Excited to see if/how this changes the flavor and aroma.