Guinness Clone

For my tenth homebrew adventure we pulled off an epic 'trippel' brew day. I got together with my new brew buddies Mike and Scott to brew a trio of beers ready in line with the St. Patrick's Day season. On deck were an Imperial Stout, an Irish Red, and my cobbled together recipe for a Guinness clone. This was also my first time brewing outdoors which turned out to be a blast. It also somehow went by very quickly. All three of us finished in under four hours total. I've never brewed that fast indoors on any of my brews, even the extract batches. The ladies brought us District Taco for lunch so that gave us the energy to push through to the end.

This was also my first experience brewing with a wort chiller. Mike was interested in building is own out of copper tubing so I decided to go in with him and try to make one myself. I was less patient with the turns and ended up kinking the copper piping a little but it worked really really well. It normally takes 30-40 min. to chill 4 gal. of wort from boiling down to 80 degrees. The wort chiller did it in less than 10 minutes. Definitely a worthwhile investment. Just need to find an attachment for my kitchen sink for those indoor brew sessions.

Brew Recipe
Brew Date: 2/24/2013
Style: Irish Stout
Batch Volume: 5 gal.
Type: All grain
Boil Time: 60 min.
Color: 33.5 SRM
Target Bitterness: 33.6 IBU
Target OG: 1.046
Target FG: 1.011

Grist
5.5 lb. Maris Otter
2 lb. Flaked Barley
1 lb. Roasted Barley

3 oz. Acid Malt
2 oz. Willamette Pellet Hops (60 min.)
11g. Danstar Windsor Ale Yeast

Brew Notes

Mash Temp: 155
Mash Efficiency: 78.8%
Pre-Boil Volume: 4.4 gal.
Volume after Water Addition: 4.5 gal.
Measured OG: 1.054
Measured FG: 1.014
ABV: 5.3%
Calories: 179

Started with 5 gal tap water brought to 162F. Saccharification rest at 154°F for 30 min. Used .030" crush again and ended up with very similar brewhouse efficiency as last batch. Very consistent so far. Had to ferment in the small carboy (~4.5 gal.) so gravity ended up being higher than target because there was no volume left to add water.

Update 3/5/13 - Gravity reading today is 1.014. Got a lot of roasty taste and it's pretty good already. Pretty excited about this one.

Update 3/17/13 - Bottled today. Gravity remained 1.014. Yielded 43 bottles. Used 1/2 cup of priming sugar again to hopefully prevent over carbonation. This is especially true with the 43 bottle yield vice a traditional 50 bottles.

Belgian wHeat

This here is one for the ladies. Julie's soccer team, The Heat, is preparing for their first game of the season in early April. What better way to celebrate the their eventual first victory than with a homebrew party? Since the only brew everyone on the team can agree upon is Blue Moon Belgian White, we decided to try brewing a Blue Moon clone. This will be my first wheat beer so I was excited to give it a shot. After searching the Googles for a good clone I found this recipe on Home Brew Talk and decided to give it a shot. We went to the homebrew shop today to pick up ingredients and it was BUMPING! The store has maybe 250 sq. ft. of retail space and it was all occupied with 15+ people. It was a super crappy rainy day outside though so maybe everyone was in a hunker-down-and-homebrew mode. We sure were.

Brew Recipe
Brew Date: 2/23/2013
Style: Belgian Wheat
Batch Volume: 5 gal.
Type: All grain
Boil Time: 60 min.
Color: 3.3 SRM
Target Bitterness: 21.4 IBU
Target OG: 1.049
Target FG: 1.012

Grist
5 lb. Pilsner Malt
3 lb. Flaked Wheat
1 lb. Flaked Oats
0.75 oz. Cascade Leaf Hops (45 min.)
0.75 oz. Cascade Leaf Hops (15 min.)
0.4 oz. Corriander Seed
3 oz. Fresh Chopped Orange Peel
11g. Danstar Munich Wheat Beer Yeast

Protein rest at 131°F for 30 min.
Saccharification rest at 154°F for 30 min.
Mash out at 168°F for 10 min.

Brew Notes

Protein Rest Temp: 134
Mash Temp: 151
Mash Efficiency: 77.2%
Pre-Boil Volume: 4.4 gal.
Preboil OG: 1.057
Volume after Water Addition: 4.85 gal.
Measured OG: 1.051
Measured FG: 1.011
ABV: 5.3%
Calories: 168

Used .030" crush resulting in less efficiency but hopefully less sediment to rack off too. Used hop bag for first hop addition. Should get another hop bag rather than try to put 2nd hop addition in boiling hot hop bag.

Update 3/5/13 - Checked gravity. We're sitting at 1.013. Smells of sulfur still from the Belgian yeast but definitely picking up the same black peppery taste I get from Blue Moon. Hopefully that means we're headed in the right direction.

Update 3/17/13 - Bottled on Julie's birthday. Used only 1/2 cup of priming sugar because of over carbonation problems with recent batches. Will be carbonating in the warmest part of the house. Gravity is now 1.011. The sulfur smell from two weeks ago is gone and it's smoothed out a lot. Looks like it's going to be a good beer to complement orange slices. Yielded 45 bottles.

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.