Harvest Ale (Batch #45)

After waiting all summer for my hops to grow I was finally able to harvest a few dry ounces from my Columbus plant that smelled great. I didn't have much success with the 2nd year Centennial or the 1st year Cascade. And the squirrels ate my 1st year Chinook so they didn't even make it out of the ground.

So I put this recipe together first to try brewing with my homegrown hops and second to help clean out the cupboards of some of our various left over malts. I had a bad experience last year brewing with homegrown Cascade so I also wanted to minimize any negative impact they may impart. I decided to throw 2 oz. in a hop bag for a 5 minute boil and I kept them in the boil kettle during the chill.

Recipe Notes
Style: Pale Ale

Batch Volume: 4 gal.
Color: 9 SRM
Target Bitterness: 46 IBU
Target OG: 1.048

Grist
7 lb. 2-row
1 lb. Crystal 20
8 oz. Crystal 40
3 oz. Maris Otter
3 oz. White Wheat Malt

1 oz. Centennial (FWH)
1 tsp. Irish Moss (15 min)
2 oz. Homegrown Columbus (5 min)

Yeast
Mangrove Jack M44 US West Coast

Brew Notes
Brew Date: 9/10/16
Mash Temp: 150
Mash Time: 60 min.

Boil Time: 60 min.
Fermenter Volume: 4 gal
Measured OG: 11.8 Brix (1.048)
Measured FG: 1.010

Doughed in at 158 with 5 gallons of water. Ended up with 4 1/4 gallons post-mash without squeezing the BIAB bag. Was able to chill to only 90F post boil because summer sucks. Chilled the wort in my keezer until it got down to 70 and pitched. Fermentation temperature got up to 84!!! so I put it back in the keezer with the temperature probe directly in the wort. This didn't work so well because of the keezer overshot the target temperature (65F) by 5 degrees (60F). Fermentation had stopped but I thought it was because I put the yeast to sleep. Ended up taking a gravity reading which read 1.012 so I think it was basically done before the temperature shock happened. I let it sit for a couple of weeks to clean up fermentation byproducts.

9/25/16 - Kegged at 1.010 so it continued to attenuate a little over the last two weeks. Turbo carbed so it was ready in three days. This beer tastes really full bodied and creamy with a pillow-y white head that sticks around. There isn't much hop presence in aroma or flavor but there's just a little hint of 'ourdoors' smell that's kind of generically plant-y but not too off putting. In fact it complements the weather well as we head into the fall season.

German Wheat (Batch #44)

This is a beer I threw together to make use of some German Hefeweizen yeast that was about to expire. I took almost no notes but I figured I'd make note of the brew for the record. My buddy Mike and I had a joint brew day in his back yard. Mike brewed an American wheat and I brewed this German wheat.

Recipe Notes
Style: German Wheat

Batch Volume: 4.5 gal.
Color: n/a
Target Bitterness: n/a
Target OG: n/a

Grist
Forgot to record...

Brew Notes
Brew Date: Early summer some time
Mash Temp: 160
Mash Time: 60

Boil Time: 60 min.
Fermenter Volume: 4.33 gal
Measured OG: 11.0 Brix (1.044)

The only abnormal part of this brew day was that my mash temp after dough in stayed at 160F so I decided to mash without wrapping the pot in a sleeping blanket like I usually do. Follwing the 1-hour mash the temp had dropped to 148F.

Since it was pretty hot out I was only able to chill to 88F following the boil. So I took the wort home and put in my chest freezer over night. The temp dropped to 56F by morning so I just decided to pitch then. As you might expect it took a while to get going but fermented down to 1.007. It ended up sitting in the fermenter for a couple of months until a keg opened up in the keezer. I force carbed at 30psi for 48 hours then dropped to 12 psi serving pressure. I love that trick; it carbed up great. It does taste pretty thin and very attenuated but there's definitely a hefe-yeast character there. Not a super great beer but it tastes OK when it's hot out.