Californication round two

This weekend Nick wasn't available to brew, so Bryan and I brewed up hist first batch of all-grain. For this, I wanted to take another stab at my ribbon of participation winning California Common called Californication from last year. This year I made some changes to the recipe and quadrupled the recipe for a 20 gallon batch. Here is the tale of the tape:

Grain

40.2lb US 2-Row
3lb Crystal 40L
3lb Crystal 90L
2.75lb Vienna
2oz Brewers gold (60min)
1.5oz Target (60min)
3oz Cascade (10min)
1oz Cascade (1min-cool down)

Brewing

We struck with 15.3 gallons at 161f for a mash temp of 155f (panned out to 150 at the end due to heat loss on the big tun) and collected close to 10 gallons on the first runnings. The gravity for the first runnings was 21.5 brix (1.090) which was pretty high. After the second and third runnings, the pre-boil gravity was 1.052, well above the 1.045 I was expecting.



One quick note; last time we brewed with this large mashtun, we noted that we were not able to get up to mashout temp because Beer Smith's temps were low for our needs. With that in mind I made some observations this time around and played with the temps:

Sparge 1 - Supposed to be 168f - I used 9 gallons of water at 175f - Grainbed temp was 158f up from 150
Sparge 2 - I used 5 gallons of water at 185f - grainbed temp was 168f making me pretty happy

Lesson learned was two-fold:

First off, we loose about 4-5f every hour we mash (this was a 75min mash). I need to make sure that I overshoot temps with that in mind. Second, when I want to mashout or sparge, 5 gallons at 185 will get me 10f in increased grainbed temp on ~50lbs of grain. Good stuff to know.



Anyway, besides all of that, we would up with an OG of 1.053 (I must be taking my refractometer readings too high because it's not adding up with what I am getting in measured OG at the end) and a very hoppy brew. We used a qt starter of Wyeast California Lager yeast and mine were firing away within hours.



In the end this beer was $38pp for 10 gallons of beer, not too bad. Bryan volunteered to take care of the spent grains because I wasn't sure of a good place to dump 50lbs of wet grain in the suburbs.

It was a damn fine brew day and both of us left happy. We had some burgers for lunch, my wife made some pancakes for breakfast and we hit all our brew milestones. What more is there to say?

Cheers!

Maibock means May Bock

Nick was out of town so I decided to do a solo batch of maibock using a Munich yeast I had been holding onto for a while. This was the same yeast I used on the Oktoberfest. It's a great yeast and I have the fridge space to do it so I figured 'why not?'.

Anyone not familiar with Maibock I recommend giving one a try. My favorite is the Smuttynose Maibock. It's such a unique flavor. It tastes like you are drinking unfermented wort that is carbonated. Sounds a little weird, but it was honestly the only way I could describe it.

With this beer, I was shooting for an OG of 1.069 to give me a 7%abv brew that would be a smooth drinker with a little kick. The plan is to break this out in the fall (yea I know, May-bock not October-bock) for our Oktoberfest party to go with the OF brew and some brots. Should be a good one.

Here is the recipe:

12lbs German Pilsner
2.25lbs Munich Malt (light)
1.25lbs Vienna Malt
1/2oz Target (60 min)
1oz Liberty (60 min)
Wyeast 2308 - Munich Lager

Process
35min protein rest at 122f (added 4.25 gallons at 133f)
15min Decoction (2 gallons)
45min Rest at 145f
Mashout - 1 3/4 gal boiling - hold at 160f for 10min
Sparge - added 2.2gal of water to mashtun at 168f as wort ran off

The early runnings were 17.5brix (1.070) and the the pre-boil gravity at was at 14 brix (1.055). This was better than the projected 1.051, but in the end, it the gravity was less than the desired 1.069 by showing up at 1.067. Not too bad. It is still plenty in style and should have all the taste I want. The total brew day took about 4 1/2 hrs and was a pretty relaxing brew session. I forget how much more manageable everything is with 5 gallons.

I just checked it tonight and the brew is plugging away in the fridge. I love Munich yeast. Its like a good lineman, it shows up every Sunday and just works. No problems or questions.

Cheers!

The Gelatin Experiment

This is the tale of two ESB's. Last brew day we did a 20 gallon batch so both Nick and I had 10 gallons. Coming out of the primary, both were pretty cloudy and lacked any clarity. Having been down this path before, I decided to add gelatin. However, since I had two of the same brews, I figured I would make an experiment out of it!

The idea here was to see if this gelatin stuff really works. For those of you who don't know, there are many who recommend the addition of flavorless gelatin to the secondary or to the keg to allow the beer to clear up. The process is pretty simple, you get some of the flavorless gelatin comes in single use packages. Make up one pack per 5 gallons in a small amount of water (much like priming sugar), let it cool to room temp and add it to the secondary. I have even heard that you can add it to the keg as well (but I've never tried that).

Either way, I decided to give this a head to head and this is what I saw 10 days after the addition:



On the left is the vessel that I added the gelatin to, on the right is the one without. As you can see by the carboy on the left, a lot of the traub that is seen sticking to the bottle is not in the brew anymore and make it clear. One important aspect of this is balance. The gelatin is finings and can have an effect on the flavor of your brew (as it is pulling some of the proteins and what not from the brew). Using this amount has worked for me in the past and I was pleased with the results. The only question I was left with was "does that stuff really make the difference?" and I think this experiment is pretty conclusive.

There are other ways to get similar results like dropping the temp down to the 40's on the brew and giving it a lot of time (this is more safe for the brew to stay in the secondary for a longer time anyway). This is an alternative for anyone that is repulsed by gelatin and what it's made of. Not me though. I am a non-discriminative eater, all animals are fair game on my pallet.

Batch or Fly?

A few nights back I had a great conversation with Ted to catch up on brewing. Ted was marveling at the massive new mashtun we were using and he had some practical questions about it. The one that stuck out to me was:

"Do you have something against batch sparging?"

While I have saught for the fly sparge that actually works, I have never stopped and asked myself if it's really worth all the effort. Perhaps I am totally focused on doing it just so I can say that I do it. Maybe it's the trickling water and the crazy hoisting of scaulding hot water that attracts me to the fly sparge like a moth to a flame, who knows.

All I know that it's time for me to take a step back and review the benefits and drawbacks of fly versus batch sparging. There is a great artile in BYO about this, but I would like to hear what you have to say, please make a vote on the survay (right side) and leave a comment. I'll do a follow up to sum up the stances.

Cheers!

Extra Mash Tun

After brewing outside the capacity of our current mash tun, Nick and I have been looking for a way to build out. After surfing around for a 100+qt cooler, I was looking Craig's List and saw a five gallon water jug for $10. I couldn't resist.

I picked up this hoss with the intention of having it be the reservoir for our sparge, but last weekend, Nick mentioned that with a little work, we could make this guy duel porpoise - mash tun and sparge reserve.

First off, we had to remove the water spout that was on it already. For this model (and most others to my knowledge) it's just a matter of unscrewing the plastic nut on the back and it's off. Easy stuff.

After getting that off, I had widen the hole a little bit to fit the 3/4" ball valve (with threads)through. Don't go too big though, as you want to have as tight a fit as possible. With two gaskets and some silicone, I was able to seal things up (this is a process, but it's worth continuing to do until you get it right). I have a gasket on the outside and one on the inside. On the inside is a plastic nut from my bottling bucket - works great!

This false bottom was Nick's idea. It's a 1/2" piece of copper tube that has slits sawed into it with a small piece of stainless steal (feed grade from a cheap strainer) on the end. The copper tube is connected to a 1/2" spur via a piece of rubber tube (it was a lot of work to get it over that). All parts are held in place by screw clamps.



This false bottom (1/2" spur and nut) connects to the ball valve (3/4") through a brass 3/4" to 1/2" connection.



So in the end, we have a false bottom for a mash tun using odds and ends pieces I have lying all over. Having a keg system helps me to have a lot of odds and end parts so we were able to make something pretty basic for about $15.

To everyone out there worried about the expenses involved in going all-grain (Adam I am looking in your direction!), here is a way that is cheap - so much so that it will pay for itself in the first batch you do.

Cheers!

Reiterated Mashing

So in December of this past year when my BYO came, I saw an article by Chris Colby about this new technique for brewing high gravity beers. While I was not able to find an online version of the article, you can order it from BYO here or you can hear a really informative interview with James from Basic Brewing Radio here (November 22, 2007) on it.

Reading the article really gave me a lot to think about. Three things come to mind:

1) Is this worth all the work?
2) what's the benefit?
3) If this is some magic way to maximize your grain bill, why not do it all the time?

Well after listening to James' interview and reading a bunch of forum threads on it (here, here and here), I came up with some answers to these questions:

1) Making a big beer is always one of several things, work, time or money.
2) The benefit is being able to make a big beer with a normal mash tun and with out having to boil down 20 gallons of wort
3) No magic, just a way to deal with a 40lb grain bill on a 12 gallon mash tun and a 15gal brew kettle

So after some reading and a meeting with Nick, we decided to take the plunge and we are going to brew a Kaffir Lime Imperial Lager. Here is the recipe:


Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 10.50 gal
Boil Size: 11.70 gal
Estimated OG: 1.080 SG
Estimated Color: 3.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 15.7 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.0 %
Boil Time: 45 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
30.00 lb Pilsner (2 Row) UK (1.0 SRM) Grain 75.0 %
8.00 lb Rice, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 20.0 %
2.00 lb Pale Malt (6 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 5.0 %
3.00 oz Saaz [4.00%] (45 min) Hops 15.7 IBU
Munich Lager #2308 (reused from Samuel Jackson)

Now there are a few things going on here that I need to explain. First off the rice. While flaked rice (rice that is pregelatinized) is the recommended method of using rice as an adjunct, we are going to be using plain white rice because of the lack of availability of flaked rice. So there will be a 1/2 hr rice prep that will either take place the night before or the day of brewing.

With that said, we are going to make our variation on a "reiterated mash":

Reiterated Mashing (our take)

1. 20lbs added to mash tun
2. Strike 10 gal of water at 162 for a grain bed temp of 150
3. Let sit for 20 min
4. Heat up additional 5 gallons water to sparge first 20lbs of grain
5. Runoff into brew kettle - Heat wort up (if necessary)
6. Strike wort from kettle to second 20lbs of grain (in second cooler)with 140-145f grain bed target temp - Rest for 1hr stiring every 10min
7. (in the meantime) Batch sparge 5 gallons of sparge water that was heated up, runoff into second brew pot - Heat up to 140f and hold
8. Empty first 20lbs of grain from mash tun
9. After the hour is up, dump the second 20lbs of grain from second cooler into mash tun along with 2.5 gal of water at 192f for mash out temp - let stand for 10 min.
10. Runoff into brew kettle
11. Use the 5 gallons that was sparged from the first 20lbs to fly sparge the second 20lbs in the mash tun
12. Brew!

From all the reading and listening I did, this process should be about 3hrs on it's own. There are some basic "all grain brewing" aspects of this that are assumed such as recirculation. With that said, there will be minimal to no recirculation before the last runoff because the wort is going into more grain.

After the wort is in the kettle (we are shooting for 11.7gal preboil volume) we will commence with a normal brew day only with a 45min boil to ensure the lightness of the brew.

The kaffir lime is going to be introduced in the secondary. The preparation is for the leaves only. Nick is in charge of this and he is freezing the leaves (20 for a 10.5 gallon batch) and then chopping them up and boiling them. This will make a kaffir lime leaf concentrate and that is what we will introduce to the secondary. It's a pretty interesting idea.

So that's the plan. We are open to feed back as it sounds like there have not been a lot of people out there that have used this approach. I hope that I was able to articulate the technique in a way that makes sense (to those of us above the Mason Dixon line anyway, MNB I am mostly concerned for you as this is pretty confusing).

Cheers!

PS - I am going to take plenty of pictures and try to make a really comprehensive overview of how we are doing this.

Samuel L. Jackson Beer

Sunday was back to brewing for Nick and I in the face of REALLY cold conditions. A few weeks back I did a post about our attempt at making a Samuel Adams Lager clone but due to some unforeseen circumstances, that brew went on hold and I brewed my Tripel Nipple. Well this past Sunday we got back on track.

This brew came out really well and due to an increased efficiency (and the resulting increase in potency of this brew) we decided to change the name to Samuel L. Jackson Beer because this stuff will get ya drunk! I also made some adjustments to the recipe, this is what we ended up brewing:

Samuel L. Jackson Beer

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
21.50 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 82.5 %
2.32 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 8.9 %
2.25 lb Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 8.6 %
3.00 oz Hallertauer [4.80%] (60 min) Hops 24.3 IBU
1.25 oz Tettnang [4.50%] (30 min) Hops 7.3 IBU
1.00 oz Hallertauer [4.80%] (Dry Hop 4 days) Hops -
0.53 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs Munich Lager (Wyeast Labs #2308) Yeast-Lager

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body
Total Grain Weight: 26.07 lb
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temp Step Time
Mash In Add 8.08 gal of water at 162.6 F151.0 F 75 min
Mash Out Add 5.21 gal of water at 198.2 F168.0 F 10 min

Brew Notes

Despite some snow up Nick's way, we were still able to get started with a striking at 7:30am. We struck with about 155f as the temp. I was going for 151f to give this a little lighter body, but not a bog deal. Because this was a big recipe and we were working at the capacity of the mash tun, we ran off three gallons of the wort into a pot so that we could add it to the sparge water (this was Nick's idea and may have contributed to the name of the brew).

We hit our mash out temp of 168f on the nose and let it sit for 10 min. After this we added the sparge water and let the sparge happen for about 30 to 45 min. In the end our pre-boil gravity was 14.75brix or 1.058 gravity, a little more than a point above the projected 1.047.

Our yield was about 1/2 gallon lower than it should have been when things were all said and done and our gravity was 1.060, four above where we were aiming giving us the new name - Samuel Jackson Lager - due to the increase in potency.

In the end our efficiency was about 70% and we need to figure out if it was the recirculation of the wort or hitting the mash out temp that caused the spike.

In other news

I had a little stall in the fermentation of my Tripel Nipple that was solved by taking the bucket upstairs into the bathroom where it could sit at 72f. I have since racked it over and have the 5 gallon carboy on my bench where it's a consistent 68f. Contrary to rumors on the Internets, I don't think that a Tripel is equal portions Bud Lite, Miller Lite and Coors.

On that note, Southern Culture on the Skidz has decided to take some pot shots at my over carbonated (and very over oaked) stout. I didn't get a chance to respond because I was watching the NEW YORK Giants make it to the Super Bowl and I was basking in the light of an all north eastern Super Bowl. While I do sometimes have hiccups in my brewing operation, at least what I do to my beer is legal in all 50 states, unlike the boys at MNB:

Change of plans

Well doe to an unfortunate situation, Nick was not available this weekend to brew. With that said, I still need to get 'my brew on' so I am going to do a solo batch for my brain.

For this brew I am going to do a Belgium Tripel I am calling Tripel Nipple. When I went to get my supplies for the brew day at my LHBS, a kid Ed has working there mistakenly started to ground 2-row pale malt for me instead of pilsener. Ed offered to give me to two row for free and start it all over again, but I told him it was all good and made this with 9.8lbs european 2 row and 5.2lbs pilsener. No need to waste. I am not sure if that takes in out of the "Tripel" category or not though. Oh well, not like I care...

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 6.50 gal
Boil Size: 8.98 gal
Estimated OG: 1.070 SG
Estimated Color: 7.6 SRM
Estimated IBU: 28.2 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 61.00 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
9.80 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 48.40 %
5.20 lb Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 25.68 %
2.00 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 9.88 %
2.00 lb Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 9.88 %
0.25 lb Caravienne Malt (22.0 SRM) Grain 1.23 %
1.00 oz Cluster [8.50 %] (60 min) Hops 20.9 IBU
1.00 oz Mt. Hood [6.00 %] (15 min) Hops 7.3 IBU
1.00 lb Candi Sugar, Clear (0.5 SRM) Sugar 4.94 %
5.50 gal Syracuse, New York Water
1 Pkgs Trappist High Gravity (Wyeast Labs #3787) Yeast-Wheat


Mash Schedule: Double Infusion, Full Body
Total Grain Weight: 19.25 lb
----------------------------
Double Infusion, Full Body
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
30 min Protein Rest Add 4.33 gal of water at 134.5 F 122.0 F
30 min Saccrification Add 3.85 gal of water at 206.7 F 158.0 F
10 min Mash Out Add 2.89 gal of water at 199.4 F 168.0 F

I got started this morning at about 6:30am (thanks Meatball for making sure I was up early on a Saturday) and finished at 11:30am. Pretty smooth brew day for the most part. I hit all of my temps and made some pH adjustments to the mash to get a 5.5pH. Everything went VERY smoothly up until the end.

I discovered that Beer Smith was giving me about 4 gallons more than I needed for the volume I was looking for. I am not exactally sure how it happened, but I can only assume that the quart of water to pound of grain volume is set too high. I am trying to figure out how to fix this for the future.

All was not lost though. I wound up with an extra gallon of brew and it still came in at a hefty 1.070 OG. I can live with that. I was dead on balls accurate with everything else so I am pleased with the day as a whole. Plus at a sunny 40f it was like brewing in Georgia only without being married to my cousin.

In other news...

First off, Ted from Ted's Homebrew Journal and I exchanged some brews over the holidays. Last night I tasted his Simcoe 100 and here are my notes:

Aroma - It's like opening a bag of hops and taking a whiff. There is a little malt tucked away in the background, but the hops are really the star of the show and you can get a complete hops aroma on this.

Appearance - Dark copper with a light brown finish. Depending on what light you hold it in, it can be very dark. The head was a cream color reminiscent of French vanilla. The head build up quickly and stuck around for a long time.

Flavor - Leads in with a hint of bitterness before you are hit with a strong grapefruit flavor. Its not an overly tart grapefruit, but just the citrus tang. Just like the nose, the hops is all over this one. It's a very complete hops flavor and the grapefruit plays very nicely with it.

Overall - My comments verbatim; "Wow - I love this beer!" It's a hell of a brew. My only regret is that I had but one to drink...

Second I racked over my Hairy Porter, very smooth and very sweet. It's actually a lot less harsh than I anticipated. I let it sit in secondary in the fridge for three weeks so its nicely mellowed. It was time well spent. The Anise has an interesting blend in this brew. More to come on this.

Finally it seems as though my "bottling for champs" el cheepo method might not be working. I need to do one of two things; break down and get a beer gun or prime every keg and bottle off of that. We will see...

Back to the brewing

It's not been an easy past week. I am ready to do some brewing to take my mind off of everything.

This weekend we will be brewing a Hopped Bohemian Lager in the spirit of Boston Brewing Company's Samuel Adams Lager. If you don't know about this brew, I tell ya what. If you don't know about Sam Adams, just raise your hand and I'll have Tommy Boy here come back there and hit you in the head with a tack hammer because you're a RETARD.

I am calling this "Bogan's Bohemian Lager" after my professional mentor and close friend Ed Bogan. Ed's wisdom is the reason I am where I am today and I cannot thank him enough. I am going to miss you Ed.

The brew is going to be lagered at 48-50f (depending on how the weather cooperates) and should finish at about 4.5% ABV. Some of the recipes I saw used a decoction so we are going to be decocting this one. I think that it brings a lot of nice flavors and smells out of the malt so I am going to be pushing for us to do that.

Bogan's Bohemian Lager
Brewer: Travis & Nick
Asst Brewer: Meatball
Style: Hopped Bohemian Lager
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 10.50 gal
Boil Size: 13.12 gal
Estimated OG: 1.046 SG
Estimated Color: 13.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 34.5 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount
16.75 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 74.2 %
5.32 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 23.6 %
0.50 lb Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 2.2 %
3.00 oz Hallertauer [4.80%] (60 min) Hops 26.6 IBU
1.25 oz Tettnang [4.50%] (30 min) Hops 8.0 IBU
1.00 oz Hallertauer [4.80%] (Dry Hop 4 days) Hops -
1 Pkgs Munich Lager (Wyeast Labs #2308) Yeast-Lager

Mash Schedule: Decoction Mash, Single
Total Grain Weight: 22.57 lb
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temp Step Time
Protein Rest Add 11.29 gal of water at 126.6 122.0 F 35 min
Saccharification Decoct 4.78 gal of mash and boil155.0 F 45 min
Mash Out Heat to 168.0 F over 10 min 168.0 F 10 min


Initially the plan was to take advantage of the cold weather for lagerning, but since it's been a heat wave here in Syracuse, I am not sure that's going to workout for us. Hopefully things cool down this weekend and we can shut that damn Al Gore up.

Happenings on the Internets

Freak Brothers were nice enough to include me in on a beer exchange that they are proposing through out the beer blogs. The bros have one of the best homebrew setups I have ever seen.

Last weekend Alan from A Good Beer Blog published my post about Ubu Ale on his blog. I am going to be contributing to that blog in the future, up next will be an interview with Tim from Empire Brewing Company and hopefully Kiernan from Landmark Brewing Company.

Finally, congratulations to the fellas from Monday Night Brewery, they have found the bond that connects them is more than beer, it's a game called "Cornhole". God only knows what those guys are up to with their "cornholes".

Schedule for early '08

No brewing for the last two weekends and I am again not going to be brewing this coming weekend as I will be in New Hampshire campaigning for...well a presidential candidate (If you know me, you know who it is, otherwise I want to follow the rules of "no talking religion or politics on your brew blog"...well except when it's complaining about piss poor legislation as they had to do on MNB, that's always fair game).

That being the case, Nick, Meatball and I will be brewing the two weekends after. We are going to do some lagers so that we can take advantage of the weather. I was thinking about either a German Pils or a Maibock for 10 gallon batches on one weekend. We might do another IPA by request on that weekend as well, we will see. The weekend after we are going to plan a long brew day so that we can try the recirculation that was reading about in last month's BYO. The long and short of the technique is that you mash in two stages for 20 min each running all the water off. Now this should provide a very strong lager and we might be able to user the second runnings for another 10 gallon batch. This one is going to take some planning though.

That's what's on the agenda for now. Cheers!

Rain or snow, we brew

In the face of blistering winds, lake effect snow, sleet, and full on up-state winter, we manned up and brewed.

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BINGHAMTON NY

333 PM EST SUN DEC 16 2007

STEADY SNOW WILL TRANSITION TO BANDS OF LAKE EFFECT SNOW TONIGHT...WHICH WILL CONTINUE THROUGH MONDAY. ADDITIONAL SNOWFALL ACCUMULATIONSOF 3 TO 6 INCHES ARE EXPECTED OVER THE AREA TONIGHT...WITH 1 TO 3MORE INCHES IN THE HEAVIER LAKE SNOW BANDS...

WINDS WILL SHIFT TO THE NORTHWEST THIS EVENING...AND INCREASE TO15 TO 30 MPH WITH OCCASIONAL GUSTS 40 TO 50 MPH.

But up here, this is man brewing country, not like the fellas at Monday Night Brewery. Down there the only concern is which Kenny Chesney tape to listen to while they wash down their grits with PBR.

Langunitas IPA Clone

Today we started at 7am and finished at 1:45pm with 16 gallons of brew pitched. We started off with the Lagunitas IPA Clone which went off with out a problem. We struck at about 8:05am with this at 157f. This temp held and we were able to mash out and sparge without a problem. Our pre-boil OG was 1.045 which was right on target.



This brew called for a 90 min boil so it took a little longer than some of of the other brews we have done. It was also a pretty full brew kettle and we had a boil over early on. When it was all said and done though, we were a little low on our expected OG (1.059) and measured out about 1.056. Not a big deal, but there are always places to improve.

Hairy Porter

Yea I know, it was Porterhouse before, but this was Nick's idea for a name and I like it. We also made some changes to the recipe for this one. The biggest change was the use of the kolsch yeast we have from the kolsch and the cream ale we recently brewed. This was after the realization that an Alt and a Porter have a very similar malt bill and we figured the kolsch yeast might make this a more smooth drinking dark beer. We will see.

The other big ingredient in this brew was the star anise (pronounced anus) which we steeped in during the boil for about 25min. We used 25 anis stars with the hope of giving this a really unique flavor that wouldn't fit into a specific category, but we would like.




During the process of brewing the porter, we realized that we didn't have something to steep the hops in so Nick used some screen and his Potsdam education to good use in engineering this masterful creation:




In the end we were able to hit all of our targets with the Hairy Porter and we were both very pleased with the level of anise flavor that the brew had. It should be a very interesting beer in the end.

Two Brew Weekend

One of the many advantages of living in a multi seasonal state like the Empire State is snow. What a great way to use nature to cool down your brews for you!



In the end, the schedule was everything with the two brew day. We started to heat up the water for the porter as soon as we struck for the IPA. This was a start to the process that in the end, worked out really well and allowed us to do two brews with a single mash tun.

Another big brew weekend

After the fiasco that was our first attempt at brewing two beers in a single brew session, we decided to go at it more more time. This time we are taking on a Lagunitas IPA clone and a robust porter I am calling Porterhouse.

Now for those of you that don't know, those of us who live north of the Mason-Dixon Line and don't have to plan our brew days around the Sunday NASCAR race like Jonathan (pictured below) and his buddies at Monday Night Brewery, we like to brew on weekends.

This weekend we will be taking on a 10 gallon Lagunitas IPA clone:

Recipe: Lagunitas IPA Clone
Brewer: Travis and Nick
Asst Brewer: Meatball
Style: American IPA
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 10.00 gal
Boil Size: 13.20 gal
Estimated OG: 1.059 SG
Estimated Color: 7.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 66.2 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.0 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
23.25 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 85.2 %
1.55 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 5.7 %
1.35 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 30L (30.0 SRM) Grain 4.9 %
1.15 lb Munich Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 4.2 %
2.00 oz Horizon [12.00%] (60 min) Hops 43.3 IBU
2.00 oz Cascade [5.50%] (30 min) Hops 15.3 IBU
1.00 oz Williamette [5.50%] (30 min) Hops 7.6 IBU
5.00 oz Cascade [5.50%] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
0.50 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Full Body
Total Grain Weight: 27.30 lb
----------------------------
Name Description
Mash In Add 8.53 gal of water at 170.5 F158.0 F 45 min
Mash Out Add 3.41 gal of water at 196.6 F168.0 F 10 min
----------------------------
We will also be doing a 6 gallon batch of porter:

Recipe: Porterhouse
Brewer: Nick and Travis
Asst Brewer: Meatball
Style: Robust Porter
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (40.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 6.00 gal
Boil Size: 6.80 gal
Estimated OG: 1.053 SG
Estimated Color: 48.0 SRM
Estimated IBU: 35.8 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
10.50 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) Bel (3.2 SRM) Grain 70.0 %
1.75 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 11.7 %
1.25 lb Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain 8.3 %
0.75 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 5.0 %
0.75 lb Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 5.0 %
2.00 oz Fuggles [4.50%] (60 min) Hops 26.7 IBU
1.00 oz Hallertauer Mittelfrueh [4.00%] (30 min) Hops 9.1 IBU
0.25 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
1.00 oz Anise, Star (Boil 20.0 min) Misc
10.00 gm Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs London Ale (Wyeast Labs #1028) Yeast-Ale


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Full Body
Total Grain Weight: 15.00 lb
----------------------------
Name Description
Mash In Add 4.69 gal of water at 174.5 F 158.0 F 45 min
Mash Out Add 1.88 gal of water at 196.6 F 168.0 F 10 min
----------------------------

This is going to be a pretty busy brew day, but should be a lot of fun. The Lagunitas IPA should be a nice and hoppy beer. It uses a pretty crazy amount of hops. With the porter we are going to use the anise sparingly until we get a feel for how strong it will work with the recipe. I learned my lesson with the oak chips on that one.

Cheers!

Bottled the Stout

A few days before I made all the changes and moved the kolsch and cream ale around, I bottled my Great Divide Yeti Imperial Stout cone. If you remember right, I noted that I was WAY over on the oak chips and it was a little like drinking bark.

To help deal with this, I added some water, about 2qts or so, and let it hang out in secondary for a while.

I had another taste since doing this and I have to say it made a big difference. The oak flavor is still there and pretty strong, but nothing like it was before. I am going to let them mellow out in the bottle for a while. As you can see from the pictures, the watering down did not impact the SRM in anyway.



With this bottling I tried a trick Nick was telling me about for long-term storage. You wrap the threads of the growler with Teflon tape and then screw your top on. With these I am going to be bottle conditioning so I have to be sure not to over tighten the caps because the plastic caps (with the plastic diaphragm in them) will break if you try to over tighten them too much. With the Teflon tape it allows you to tighten them snug, without feeling like you have left them loose.



This weekend we are brewing an IPA and a flavored porter. For the flavors we are looking at anise to do something like the pugnacious porter I did a while back, or perhaps some maple sugar to try something different. Any input would be appreciated!

Cheers

My Kolsch yeast scares me

So last night I was racking over my Kolsch from the secondary into a keg and I was harvesting the traub to use for an alt in the future. It was just then it happened, I turned my head and my yeast bit me! The goddamn stuff jumped out of the bottle and bit my finger!

I immediately proceeded to shake the beast free from my finger and it took off towards the sum pump. This yeast knew it was strong enough to brave the cold upstate winter and it wanted the freedom of the outdoors. Fearing for my own life and the life of my assistant brewer Meatball, I went after the beast. It was an ugly scene, traub, hops and blood were everywhere, but at the end of the day, I had bagged me a ferocious yeast stain.

Seriously though, that kolsch yeast is a REALLY aggressive yeast. It's pretty unexpected because it's associated with lighter beers, but it flocculates right through the wort like it's nobodies business.

Last night I did some racking. When I went to rack my kolsch over to a keg from a secondary that has been in the fridge for the last 8 days, the yeast was STILL bubbling in the bottle I used for yeast storage.



As you can see from the pictures above, the one on the lest is the kolsch as I am racking it over last night. The one on the right is the cream ale that used the same yeast and is in the fridge now. If you notice the bubbler with the red cap on the left, that's the one where the yeast from the kolsch is and it's already bubbled over since last night!

Anyway, just a word of warning on this dangerous beast, err I mean yeast.

On the kolsch itself it's a very light beer. I actually topped it off with water after the primary which may have lightened it more, but it tastes fine. It's going to need a little time though. There is a definite lager taste to the kolsch yeast which makes it really intriguing. I did some reading last night in Ray Daniels book, Designing Great Beers, and he traces the origin of the kolsch to a time when Germany went crazy for lagers and ales needed to take the edge off in order to preserve the classic ale styles of old. Interesting stuff and a GREAT book if you want to tell your kids or wife something to get you, this is a great choice.

When I kegged the kolsh, I racked over the cream ale into the secondary.

It was pretty light as well. It has a really nice flavor to it, I think I might bring this to x-mas with my in-laws because it's a great gateway beer for people who are into American Pilsners.



In the end, the whole experience was nothing a few band-aids and a beer couldn't fix.

Cheers!

Cold but fun brew day

We just finished up a great brew day! By the time things were all said and done, we had 11 gallons of cream ale with an OG of 1.044 making our efficiency 71%!

Now I know that people always say "don't worry about how high your efficiency is as long as you are making good beer, that's all that matters", but as much as I whole heartily agree, in a way it's like Ron Jeremy telling you size doesn't matter. You know it really doesn't matter, but you still want wanting more. But I digress.

Today we fired up our water in a blustery upstate NY day at 7am and were done (pitched, cleaned up and ready to be done) by 12:45pm making this a really enjoyable brew day. This was my first time using my mash tun and sparge arm that I worked on last weekend. Things went really well with both additions. Pictured below on the left you can see that we have the sparge arm up on the top running into the mash tun, the mash tun was running off into the brew kettle and we were running that into a bucket for recirculation.



Our pre-boil gravity was right on with the Beer Smith recommendations at 1.032. We were able to get up to a rolling boil and hold it there without boil over for the full hour. The recipe for the cream ale only called for a 1.5 oz bittering hops and a .5 oz flavor hops making it a very light on hops flavor.



Nick made a .5 gallon starter so we were able to pitch a quart each for our buckets. When we ran the brew off we were at 5.5gallons each and dumped the last quart out.



As I said before, our FG was at 1.044 when our target was 1.040 and we had an extra gallon!



In the end it was nice to have an easy brew day. All the equipment finally works the way I want it to, our efficiency improved, and the whole process has become much less complicated. Things that didn't go the way we wanted were that we did not make mash out temp and we were a little low in the mash at only 154. All things I can live with.

Cheers!