Belgian Blonde

So, do I suddenly have a thing for blondes? The power of summer compels me! Following on the heels of the Centennial Blonde we brewed in June is this tasty concoction inspired by the Belgian beer Leffe Blonde. I originally looked at doing a Trappist style ale but reading up on the brettanomyces refermentation and the 6-8 month secondary requirements I was understandably intimidated and impatient. So Leffe Blonde clone it is. For this recipe I'll be substituting American Two-Row for what is thought to be pilsner malt. The hops also came in at way lower alpha acid content than I predicted so the second hop addition was moved up from 30 to 40 minutes from the end of the boil to help account for the difference. This is also the biggest all-grain recipe I've done so far at 1.069 target OG.

Brew Recipe

Brew Date: 8/04/2013
Style: Belgian Blonde
Batch Volume: 4.5 gal.
Type: All Grain
Color: 5.8 SRM
Target Bitterness: 20.1 IBU
Target OG: 1.069
Estimated FG: 1.017

Grist
9 lb. American Two-Row
1 lb. Light Munich
10 oz. Cane Sugar (Added at 15 min. before flameout)
5 oz. Belgian Biscuit
4 oz. Melanoidin

1 oz. Styrian Golding 3.2%AA (60 min.)
1 oz. Saaz 3.0%AA (40 min.)

1 pkg. Safbrew T-58 Belgian Ale Yeast

Brew Notes

Mash Temp: 158 °F
Mash Time: 60 min.
Boil Time: 60 min.
Pre-Mash Volume: 5.5 gal.
Post-Boil Volume: 4.75 gal.
Mash Efficiency: ?
Measured OG: 1.070
Measured FG: ?
ABV: ?
Calories: ?

It was a lovely 78 degrees out today. After crushing my grain for this recipe I realized the gap setting for the mill was waaay too wide. Set it to 0.030" and re-crushed. With 5.5 gallons of 166 degree water, after adding the grist I was very close to the top of my 7 gallon boil kettle. A lot of grain in this one. Mash temp started at 160 and ended at 158. Added table sugar at 15 minutes left in the boil. Had problems cooling the wort again with the coil chiller. Only able to get down to 90 degrees. Took it inside and ice bathed it down to 84. OG reading was spot on which was good news.

Got impatient during the cooling pricess and transferred it to the carboy and pitched the T-58. I've heard Belgian yeast likes it hot but I think this was too hot. Awoke the next morning to a very vigerous fermentation. No off smells or anything. I'm excited to try this next weekend and see what the warm starting temp for fermentation produced.

Update 8/8/2013 - Couldn't resist pulling a sample today. After four days the gravity dropped down to 1.012 with little activity going on in the fermenter. Taste had a hint of the Belgian character I'm going for but had a pretty strong fusel alcohol taste which I'm sure is a side effect of the high fermentation temps. I'm not sure if this will mellow out over time but it's currently a little too harsh to be enjoyable. Maybe chalk this up as a brewing lesson learned and move on. Must devise a better method for chilling wort quickly to pitch temps in the summer.

Update 8/11/13 - Racked to secondary today. Detected a small hint of that belgian characteristic in the nose from the gravity sample but not quite 'belgian' yet. Very bready still. Gravity was standing strong at 1.011.

Centennial Blonde

Looking for a Famous Blonde?

Break out the sunglasses and hot pants, the heat of summer is in full effect. When you're sweating like a mad cow in pasture and staring at your brew equipment with strong anticipation of your next brew day there are a few styles that immediately tear into mind. I needed a cold, light, refreshing brew that was better at quenching thirst than inspiring daring tales of taste exploration. Upon researching recipes for just such a brew I settled on an overwhelmingly popular recipe on HomeBrewTalk.com for a Centennial Blonde ale. As we all know Centennial hops are clearly the best hop out there for every occasion so I needed little convincing.

• Greatest Country: U.S.A.
• Greatest Planet: Planet Earth
• Greatest Hop: Centennial, of course!

Here's the recipe for this little blonde thirst quencher.

Brew Recipe
Brew Date: 6/22/2013
Style: American Blonde
Batch Volume: 4.5 gal.
Type: All Grain
Color: 3.9 SRM
Target Bitterness: 21.6 IBU
Target OG: 1.039
Estimated FG: 1.008

Grist
5.5 lb. American Two-Row
10 oz. CaraPils
6 oz. Crystal 10L
6 oz. Vienna

0.25 oz. Centennial Pellet Hops (55 min.)
0.25 oz. Centennial Pellet Hops (35 min.)
0.25 oz. Cascade Leaf Hops (20 min.)
0.25 oz. Cascade Leaf Hops (5 min.)

1 pkg. Safale US-05 Ale Yeast

Brew Notes

Mash Temp: 150 °F
Mash Time: 60 min.
Boil Time: 60 min.
Pre-Mash Volume: 5.5 gal.
Post-Boil Volume: 4.5 gal.
Mash Efficiency: 71%
Measured OG: 1.040
Measured FG: 1.004
ABV: 4.8%
Calories: 129

Brewed this one with my friends Rob and Beth, their dog Bo (as in "Bo knows beer"), and the inlaws Dave and Ann. It was hot outside like last time but decided to brew this one on the flagstones in the shade of our north yard. This turned out to be a MUCH better idea than brewing in the sun stricken heat of the south yard. We also discovered our new go-to outdoor lounge location. Six people drinking around the brew kettle in camping chairs is one of the most relaxing environments I can imagine.

Despite being a little cooler today than the last batch the wort chiller couldn't get the brew below 90 degrees. Finished cooling in an ice bath in the sink. The OG for this batch ended up spot on the recipe target. I may be delusional but I think I'm getting better at this.

Update 7/27/13 - Bottling day. This time I'll try shooting for a specific carbonation level. The carbonation level in a bottle of beer is measured in a simplified unit called 'volumes.' One volume is equal to one liter of CO2 at 20C at 1 atmosphere in 1 liter of beer. With a blonde ale like this I'll be shooting for 2.5 volumes of CO2 as a good amount of carbonation for this style.

According to this priming sugar calculator we should be using about 100 grams of corn sugar with our 4.0 gallons of beer. So I guess a good rule of thumb is 25 grams of corn sugar per gallon. Boiled 100g of priming sugar in 1 cup of water. Added to 4.0 gallons of beer while racking into the bottling bucket. Stirred a little with the wine thief. Yielded 40 bottles even. Carbonation on the Willamette Pale is a little low still. Hope this one carbs ok.

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

Bell's Two Hearted Clone

Ernest Hemingway's fishing failure

Gather 'round whilst I regale you of my recent infatuation with Bell's Two Hearted. It all started a few months ago at the Beer 1k in Crystal City. This was a really cool event during which Julie, I, and some friends were able to sample small pours of 20+ beers over the course of a few hours. I sampled some hits and misses but nothing that really rocked my world. For those familiar with the event, the 1k ends at the top level of a high rise building in Crystal City. The entire floor is unfinished and very industrial looking.

After taking an elevator to the top the doors opened to reveal a sensory overload of loud techno beats, hundreds of half drunk 1k-ers, and another dozen beer vendors. Upon entering this state of sensory overload I spied her from across the room. Twas' a Bell's Brewery booth done made it all the way from Kalamazoo to our little neck of the woods. I was already a big fan of Bell's Brewery - A) It's from Michigan B) Oberon is like capturing Michigan summers in a bottle, and C) all the beers are brewed almost exactly the way a homebrewer would do it. It's unfiltered, unpasteurized, bottle carbonated, and quite literally a living entity.

After a ten minute line for the Bell's booth I discovered they were sampling a beer I hadn't had yet but probably should have - Bell's Two Hearted. It has a color somewhere between amber and orange but the most in-your-face quality of Two Hearted is by far the aroma. I wasn't very familiar with Centennial hops at the time but it was love at first smell. It had a nice but not overpowering citrus smell with a grapefruit quality and a muted but persistent floral tone. If Two Hearted aroma was a band, Sinister Grapefruit would be shredding it up on lead guitar but Floral Garden would be rockin' a solid but not showy drum beat that pulls it all together.

I remember savoring that small sample of Two Hearted for ten minutes. This turned out to be a couple of minutes too long because the booth had just been cleaned out of all samples by the time I got in line again. The following day and a short time afterward, acquiring a six-pack of Two Hearted became my solitary grocery goal. It's not impossible to find in VA but it's not too common. After a second taste confirmed my original opinion and refuted my working theory that Bell's slipped some ecstasy into their samples, I decided to try brewing it myself. The recipe below and the next six weeks are my power ballad love song to Bell's Two Hearted.

Brew Recipe

Looks like 3.5 Michigans

Brew Date: 3/31/2013
Style: American IPA
Batch Volume: 4.2 gal.
Type: All Grain
Boil Time: 60 min.
Color: 5.5 SRM
Target Bitterness: 47.2 IBU
Target OG: 1.071
Target FG: 1.018

Grist
8 lb. American Two-Row Malt
1.6 lb. Vienna Malt
0.4 lb. Crystal 20L Malt
0.4 lb. CaraPils Malt

0.8 oz. Centennial Pellet Hops (60 min.)
0.8 oz. Centennial Pellet Hops (15 min.)
0.8 oz. Centennial Pellet Hops (5 min.)
0.8 oz. Centennial Pellet Hops (1 min.)
0.4 oz. Centennial Pellet Hops (Dry Hop)
1 pkg. Safale S-04 Ale Yeast

Brew Notes

Mash Temp: 152
Mash Time: 90 min.
Pre-Boil Volume: 4.75 gal.
Post-Boil Volume: 4.5 gal.
Mash Efficiency: 71.9%
Measured OG: 1.061
Measured FG: 1.007
ABV: 7.1%
Calories: 198

Crushed grain again at 0.030" gap setting. Filled brew kettle w/5.5 gal. of hot tap water. Mash in at 157. Dropped temp to 152. Doing a 90 minute mash on this one for more conversion a lighter mouth feel. Finished mashing at 149 with sleeping bag method. Was surprised to get a low gravity reading pre-boil but thought maybe it was a fluke. Post boil gravity was still 10 points under target. Low mash temperature? Combination of more water volume than expected and lower efficiency. Hopefully doesn't affect the taste too much. New target ABV is 6%.

Used new wort chiller to cool but didn't have the proper hose connection gender. Held two ends together for 10 minutes. It worked but I got soaked in the process. Need a female garden hose connection on one end and a male faucet connection on the other.

After pitching yeast and letting brew settle there appears to be a LOT of sediment forming. Some can probably be attributed larger hop additions but looks pretty grainy. Must try a wider gap setting for next brew.

Update 4/6/13 - Pulled a gravity sample and holy cow is it low. It's at 1.008 down from 1.061 after only a week. It tastes and smells great too.

Update 4/7/13 - Racked into secondary today. Collected about 3 1/3 gallons. It has a nice orange color very similar to Two Hearted. All signs pointing to awesome!

Update 4/14/13 - Pitch 0.4 oz. of Centennial pellet hops directly into secondary fermenter. Swished the beer around for 10 seconds or so to mix them in and prevent them from just floating on the top the whole time. Hopefully they will settle out before next weekend when it's.... bottling time baby!

Update 4/20/13 - Finally time to bottle this motha'. Appropriately Julie's mom was here to help supervise and photograph the process. Had 3 1/3 gal. of beer in secondary so used 1/2 cup of priming sugar for bottling. Yielded 35 bottles in total. FG ended up at 1.007 which I believe is the lowest I've ever had a beer finish. I'll attribute that to the lower mash temperature I suppose. The gravity sample tasted fan-frickin'-tastic, albeit a little thin. Maybe the carb will body it out. Good color too. Seems like almost the perfect shade of Two Hearted orange.

I tried a new method for racking beer from the fermenter to the bottling bucket. I rubber banded a hop bag to the output end of the auto siphon. There was a lot of hop material floating around after dry hopping and I definitely didn't want that in the bottles. (Sorry centennial hops, I still love you.) It worked out really well! Caught a thin layer of hop particles in the bag and toward the end of bottling noticed almost no sediment/material in the bottling bucket. I'll certainly be doing this every time I rack from a dry hopped fermenter.

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.