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 :(

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.

The Lost Mitten v2.0

I lived in the blue one!

After a two month brewing hiatus (putting together a sweet 3-keg keezer system) it was strongly suggested that I rebrew The Lost Mitten. I'm excited to see how this version turns out using a malt bill I can actually procure instead of the Bell's homebrew competition wort. The first Mitten was a hop monster but it had a good amount of malt character to back it up resulting in a fairly balanced beer. I think this recipe will turn out lighter bodied than the first and can't wait to do a side-by-side tasting once it's all ready. I also can't wait to drink this brew a week earlier than usual w/the new kegging system.

I made a small change to the hopping schedule. I moved more of the Simcoe up front in the boil to do the bulk of the bittering and moved the Crystal addition to later in the boil. I'll also be doing a full 3 oz. of dry hopping making for an even 2 oz. of each of the three hop varieties. Simple.

Brew Recipe

Brew Date: 3/23/14
Style: American Pale Ale
Batch Volume: 5 gal.
Type: All Grain
Color: 6.2 SRM
Target Bitterness: 54 IBU
Target OG: 1.056
Estimated FG: 1.014

Grist
9 lb. American Two-Row
1 lb. Crystal 12L
12 oz. Flaked Oats
4 oz. Pale Wheat

1/2 oz. Simcoe 13% (60 min.)
1/2 oz. Amarillo 8.7% (20 min.)
1/2 oz. Crystal 4.3% (20 min.)
1/2 oz. Simcoe 13% (20 min.)

1/2 oz. Amarillo 8.7%(5 min.)
1/2 oz. Crystal 4.3% (5 min.)

7-Day Dry Hop Addition (Leaf Hops)
1 oz. Amarillo
1 oz. Crystal
1 oz. Simcoe

1 pkg. Safale US-05 Ale Yeast

Brew Notes

Mash Temp: 152 °F
Mash Time: 60 min.
Boil Time: 60 min.
Fermenter Volume: 5.25 gal
Measured OG: 1.055
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72%

I tried to mash this one a little hotter but it ended up not working out. I heated the mash water to 160F and dumped in the grain. Unfortunately I had a few dough balls to break up and all the mixing ended up dropping the temp to 152. Well, whatever. Near the end of the mash I heated 1 gal of sparge water to 170 and put the grain bag in the sparge pot, mixing for a couple of minutes. Then dumped in the sparged wort and started the boil. The Amarillo + Simcoe + Crystal hop addition at 20 minutes smells amazing. It took everything I had to pull it away from my nose and dump it in the kettle. Pitched the yeast at 70F and aerated.

Update 4/8/14 - Dry hopped with an ounce each of Amarillo, Simcoe, and Crystal loose leaf hops in separate hop bags. Added a sanitized shot glass to each bag to help weigh it down. Drew a sample which weighed in at 1.009 SG for an ABV of 6.1%. Smelled and looked great. I thought the sample tasted a little too bitter though so maybe moving to a 1/2 oz. addition Simcoe at 60 minutes was a little agressive.

Kegging Notes
Measured FG: 1.008
ABV: 6.2%
Calories: 179

Carbonation: 2.1 Volumes CO2

Update 4/13/14 - Kegged the mitten. I squeezed the three hop bags with my sanitized hands back into the fermenter to try to get every drop. The overly bitter taste from the last sample was gone. Tastes pretty good but a little young. Had a fair amount of yeast still in suspension that I hope will settle below the keg dip tube. Gravity ended up at 1.008. Cleaned and sanitized keg and beer line before racking into keg. Set at 10 psi and about 45 degrees F. Will sample again in a week and see how she's progressing.

No Malt Left Behind

Like a malty Trivial Pursuit

Bakers have multigrain bread and the 'everything' bagel. The Italians have three cheese lasagna. Nature has the rainbow. This brew is my answer to all of these things. I call it 'No Malt Left Behind.' In my first year of homebrewing I've amassed a fair collection of < 1lb. quantities of specialty malt and European base malts. They're all crying out to be made into beer and my soft heart cannot deny them their destiny. So let's get to it!

Brew Recipe

Brew Date: 10/8/2013
Style: American Pale Ale
Batch Volume: 4.5 gal.
Type: All Grain
Color: ?? (Too much math...)
Target Bitterness: 40 IBU
Target OG: 1.044
Estimated FG: 1.012

Grist
3.5 lb. American Two-Row
22.9 oz. Mostly Golden Promise (Left over from Simcoe IPA kit)
4.3 oz. Vienna
3.7 oz. Crystal 20L
11.6 oz. Melanoidin
6.3 oz. CaraPils
8.2 oz. Red Wheat
11.2 oz. Amber
4 oz. Acidulated

1/2 oz. Centennial 8.8% (45 min.)
1/2 oz. Centennial 8.8% (30 min.)
1/2 oz. Centennial 8.8% (After wort cooled to 170F)

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.
Measured OG: 1.044
Measured FG: 1.010
ABV: 4.5%
Calories: 144

Update 11/3/13 - Dry hopped with the last 2.5 oz of Cascade I had left in the freezer. Divided evenly between two hop bags. The bags just barely fit into the Better Bottle. Let's see how hard they'll be to get out. Decided not to rack to secondary mostly because I'm lazy but partly because the Better Bottle has a wider mouth which should make removing the hop bags a little easier.

Update 11/25/13 - Finally got around to bottling. Beer tastes a lot better with age. With yeast in suspension a couple weeks ago it tasted a lot like orange juice. Very drinkable now.

Racked beer to bottling bucket before adding priming sugar so I don't have go guess beer volume since the bottling bucket is graduated. Boiled 4 oz. of priming sugar in 16 oz. of water. 4 gallons of beer => I added 12.8-ish oz. of the sugar water to the bottling bucket and stirred. Yielded about 40 bottles.

The Lost Mitten

This recipe is my contest entry for the 4th Annual Bell's Homebrew Competition. It's similar to the All Day IPA clone adjusted to use wort distributed by Bell's. The competition wort is made from 100% Michigan Pale Ale malt and measured in at 1.050. It seemed much darker than any pale malt I've used before. Maybe it was more roasted than typical pale malt or maybe some was made into crystal malt.

My understanding is that the Flaked Oats and Red Wheat in this recipe require a mash to convert their starches into sugars. Since the Bell's wort has been boiled already I think this removes its ability to do this. Therefore I had to mash these grains with some kind of enzyme source so I chose two row since I had it on hand. Unfortunately the two-row will contribute its own sugar to the wort so I had to reduce the amount of Bell's wort to keep the gravity down. I ended up using only four of the five gallons of Bell's wort but I couldn't figure out another way to make this recipe keeping the gravity below 1.060. I chose a target gravity a little higher than All Day to give it a little more flavor for the judges and bumped up the IBUs to compensate by using a full 1oz. of Simcoe in the boil.

Brew Recipe

Brew Date: 9/16/2013
Style: India Pale Ale
Batch Volume: 5 gal.
Type: All Grain
Color: ?? SRM (Bell's wort was pretty dark for being all pale malt)
Target Bitterness: 54 IBU
Target OG: 1.056
Estimated FG: 1.012

Grist
4 gal. Two-Row wort from Bells (1.050)
1 lb. American Two-Row (For mash diastatic power. 6-row would have been better)
10 oz. Crystal 10L
8 oz. Crystal 60L
12 oz. Flaked Oats
4 oz. Red Wheat

1/4 oz. Crystal 4.3% (60 min.)
1/5 oz. Simcoe 13% (60 min.)

1/2 oz. Amarillo 8.7% (20 min.)
1/2 oz. Crystal 4.3% (20 min.)
1/2 oz. Simcoe 13% (20 min.)

1/2 oz. Amarillo 8.7%(5 min.)
1/2 oz. Crystal 4.3% (5 min.)
3/10 oz. Simcoe 13% (5 min.)

10-Day Dry Hop Addition
1 oz. Amarillo 8.7% (originally 1/2 oz.)
1/2 oz. Crystal 4.3%
1 oz. Simcoe 13% (originally 1/2 oz.)

2-Day Dry Hop Addition (Why not?)
1/2 oz. Amarillo 8.7% (originally 1/2 oz.)
3/4 oz. Crystal 4.3%
1/4 oz. Simcoe 13% (originally 1/2 oz.)

1 pkg. Safale US-05 Ale Yeast

Brew Notes

Mash Temp: 155 °F
Mash Time: 60 min.
Boil Time: 60 min.
Pre-Mash Volume: 4.5 gal.
Post-Boil Volume: 4 gal. (+ 1 gal top up water)
Measured OG: 1.056
Measured FG: 1.010
ABV: 6.0%
Calories: 183

Measured out all my grain, dumped them in the mill and started the power drill to mill them. The torque from the drill dumped the grain all over the floor because I forgot to hold the other end of the mill down. Bummer. Three pounds of grain in the garbage. That was my only Crystal 20 on hand so I had to change the recipe a bit. Replaced crystal 20 with a combo of crystal 10 and crystal 60 since those were the only crystal malts I had on hand. Mashed 3 lb. of grain in mixture of 4 gal of Bell's wort + 1/2 gal. of tap water.

Measured gravity after boil was 1.070 with 4.0 gal. volume. Added 1 gal. tap water to reach 1.056 OG with 5 gal. volume. It's not Michigan tap water but, hey, it's the best I can do. :) Pitched yeast at 79 degrees.

Update 9/26/13 - Racked to secondary nearly 5 gal. of beer. Gravity reading is a bit over 1.010 which is right around target. Tastes pretty good so far, like a stronger, sweeter version of the All Day. Decided to up the dry hops to 1 oz. Amarillo, 1 oz. Simcoe, 1/2 oz Crystal because you gotta bring your A-game, right?

Update 10/04/13 - Second dry hop addition. Why not? Had some extra hops in the freezer with no home. So I gave them a home. This brings the total dry hop additions to 4 oz. I don't know how much 'too much' hops is but I guess we'll find out if 4 oz. is too much. This is for you Bell's!

Update 10/6/13 - Bottled today with 4 oz. of priming sugar. Got only 43 bottles out of it thanks to dry hop absorption. Boo! I wish I had used slightly less sugar (3.5oz or so) because I don't want too much fizzy out of this. Julie and I tasted the last bit in the bottling bucket and it was SUPER bitter. I hope this is because it may have contained some stuff that settled to the bottom of the bucket. Shouldn't be all that bitter, all things considered.

Update 10/13/13 - Cracked open a bottle after only a week and it is pretty well carbed already. It tastes pretty fantastic with a very strong hop aroma punch and flavor. This'll be one I'm proud to submit for the homebrew competition. I'll be calling it the 'Lost Mitten' as a gesture to my recurring longing to return to Michigan. Fingers crossed! Will be shipping tomorrow.

Willamette APA

For lucky brew number thirteen I decided to tackle a more experimental recipe. I had a bunch of Willamette hops laying around after my Guinness clone brew. Since the aroma and flavor isn't really detectable in a stout I decided to brew a Willamette-forward beer to get a sense of what these little buggers can do. You don't see a lot of all-Willamette beers out there and there may be a reason for it. We're about to find out. I emphasize "experimental."

I was also able to test the limits of my wort chiller with this brew day. I somehow decided it would be a good idea to start brewing outdoors at 2pm in 90 degree heat. After a very hot but enjoyable brew session my wort chiller was not able to bring temperatures down below 82. After pumping 10 gallons of cold water through the chiller I decided to give up and bring the show inside. The yeast was pitched after wort temp fell below 80. All the plants in the yard got a few large drinks of water after distributing all the hose water pumped through the chiller.

Brew Recipe
Brew Date: 6/1/2013
Style: American Pale
Batch Volume: 4.0 gal.
Type: All Grain
Color: 7.4 SRM
Target Bitterness: 39.2 IBU
Target OG: 1.045
Estimated FG: 1.011

Grist
5.5 lb. American Two-Row Malt
1.0 lb. Pilsner Malt
0.5 lb. Crystal 60L Malt

1.0 oz. Willamette Pellet Hops (60 min.)
1.0 oz. Willamette Pellet Hops (15 min.)
1.0 oz. Willamette Pellet Hops (5 min.)
1.0 oz. Willamette Pellet Hops (1 min.)

1 pkg. Safale US-05 Ale Yeast

Brew Notes

Mash Temp: 154 °F
Mash Time: 60 min.
Boil Time: 60 min.
Pre-Mash Volume: 5.5 gal.
Post-Boil Volume: 4.5 gal.
Mash Efficiency: 71.4%
Measured OG: 1.041
Measured FG: 1.005
ABV: 4.7%
Calories: 132

Update 6/10/13 - Racked to secondary today with Julie. Julie had her first successful 1 gal. rack. It went by so fast! Pulled a gravity sample - 1.006. She's gonna be an easy drinker. Sitting at 4.7% ABV right now. It smells a little pungent so I don't think I'm a huge fan of the Willamette aroma but it tastes pretty good. May or may not dry hop with 1 oz. Willamette a few days before bottling.

Update 6/29/13 - Decided to pass on the dry hopping. Last couple of brews were hop monsters so I decided to settle things down a bit. Julie and I pulled off a joint bottling day with her first one-gallon batch yielding nine bottles and this batch yielding 37. FG was a low 1.005 so we should the crisp finish I'm looking for.

Orange APA

This brew is basically a 'kitchen sink' recipe in which I try to use a lot of what I've got lying around. It all goes in. And some of it's orange!

Brew Recipe
Brew Date: 5/4/2013
Style: Mostly American Pale Ale
Batch Volume: 4.0 gal.
Type: All Grain
Boil Time: 60 min.
Color: 5.4 SRM
Target Bitterness: 44.6 IBU
Target OG: 1.051
Estimated FG: 1.013

Grist
6.4 lb. American Two-Row Malt
0.61 lb. Crystal 20L Malt
0.61 lb. Vienna Malt
0.42 lb. CaraPils Malt

1.0 oz. Cascade Leaf Hops (60 min.)
1.0 oz. Cascade Leaf Hops (10 min.)
1.0 oz. Cascade Leaf Hops (5 min.)
1.0 oz. Cascade Leaf Hops (1 min.)
2.0 oz. Cascade Leaf Hops (Dry Hop)
3.0 oz. Fresh Clementine Peel
0.5 oz. Coriander Seed
1 pkg. Safale US-05 Ale Yeast

Brew Notes (Target)

Mash Temp: 155 °F
Mash Time: 60 min.
Pre-Mash Volume: 5.5 gal.
Post-Boil Volume: 4.0 gal.
Mash Efficiency: 70%
Measured OG: 1.050
Measured FG: 1.005
ABV: 5.9%
Calories: 161