Brew #40: "Barrels Don't Have Wheels," April 10, 2016

This title probably needs some explanation. When I first got the barrel I had it on my dining room table.  When I brought my 2 1/2 year old (C) down that morning we had a conversation that went like this:
C: What's that daddy?
Me: Its a barrel
C: Barrels don't have wheels.
Me: That's true
Now any time we see a barrel he reminds me that they don't have wheels (except at mexitaly - mind blown)

On to the beer.  This was case of "what do I put in the barrel next?" I didn't want to put #39 in the barrel for much longer than about 3 weeks so I had to brew the second beer when I racked it into the barrel.  I went round and round and ended up with a chocolate oatmeal stout.  I didn't want to get cocoa powder residue permanently in the barrel so the chocolate is coming from chocolate malt and possible cocoa extract added to the keg.

Recipe
Batch Size Target (Actual): 6 gal (6 gal)
OG Target (Actual): 1.084 (1.082)
FG Target (Actual) : 1.027 (1.018)
Brew House Efficiency Target (Actual) : 69% (67%)
IBUs: 32
Color: 35 SRM
Style: American Stout
Recipe Type: All Grain
Boil Time: 90 minutes

Water:
Carbon filtered York water

Grains:
16 lbs US 2-Row
2 lbs Flaked Oats
1 lb Chocolate Malt
8 oz Carapils
8 oz Caramel 20L
4 oz Roasted Barley
4 oz Black Patent

Hops:
1 oz German Northern Brewer (pellets) @ 90 min.
0.5 oz East Kent Goldings (pellets) @ 25 min.
0.5 oz East Kent Goldings (pellets) @ 5 min.

Yeast:
WLP002 English Ale Yeast

Brewing Notes
4/6/16 - Yeast Starter:
2 Liter yeast starter: 7c of water, 7oz Extra light DME, 1/2 tsp yeast nutrient, boiled 10 minutes and chilled to room temperature, 2 drops of fermcap, pitched WLP002. Fermented on a stir plate.

4/10/16 - Brew Day:

• Sanitized (star san) my cold side equipment in the big mouth bubbler primary.
• Heated 25 quarts of water with PH 5.2 to 170 in 8 gallon stainless HLT on outdoor propane burner
• Mashed in in 10 gal Igloo cooler, paddled until everything was well mixed and there were no dough balls. 60 minute mash rest
• 0 minutes: temperature was 154F
• 15 minutes: paddled, temperature was 153F
• 30 minutes: paddled, temperature was 152-154F
• 60 minutes, temperature was 152-153F, began vorlauf
• Manual Vorlauf: I run a 2 cup measuring cup full of wort out of the valve and gently pour this on top of the mash.  Then I repeat until I'm satisfied with the clarity.  This takes about 10-15 minutes.
• Heated 7+ gallons sparge water with pH 5.2 to 195
• Ran off and fly sparged until I had 8 1/8 gallons
• Boil gravity was 15.2% brix - 1.061, right on target.
• Brought to boil - 90 minute boil time
• Added:
  1 oz German Northern Brewer (pellets) @ 90 min.
  0.5 oz East Kent Goldings (pellets) @ 25 min.
  0.5 oz East Kent Goldings (pellets) @ 5 min.
• Chilled to 72 F and siphoned to BMB, Volume was 6 gallons.
• Took an OG brix reading of 20.1% which calculated to to 1.082.
• Pitched decanted yeast starter.

4/10 - 4/29/16 - Primary Fermentation:
Transfer to second use balcones whiskey barrel on 4/29 Measured 10.8% brix which calculated to 1.018.  This is quite a bit lower than beersmith predicted.

4/29 - 7/24/16- In Barrel
To prep the barrel this time, after I got #39 out, I gave it a very quick rinse with nearly boiling water 2 or 3 times until the water wasn't cloudy anymore.  I fully expect that if some of the previous belgian yeast wanted to take up residence in this beer, it will.  I wasn't trying to get rid of it. I let this one go for about 3 months.

7/24/16 - Kegged
Kegged on 7/24 to force carb in the kegerator at about 11psi. I measured 11.4% brix which calculated to 1.023, or about 7.8% ABV.  We served a week or so later. Who the heck wants an 8% ABV barrel aged oatmeal stout during the hottest part of the year?

9/23/16 - Bottled
This wasn't getting served frequently enough so the tap was getting stuck closed. We decided to bottle the remaining to make some room in the fridge.  #39 was a little flatter than I'd like in the bottle, so my CO2 pressure in my kegerator got bumped up from 10 to 11 psi.  I was happier with how the beers we carbonated when served on tap, We'll see how that affects the bottled beer.  We bottled 8 22oz bottles and 27 12oz bottles using the "Last Straw" bottle filler.  This time the foam was pretty out of hand, resulting in some low-filled bottles that I don't expect will be as bubbly as I'd like.  About half way through, I shut the CO2 valve to the keg and as the pressure bled off the bottling process was much better.  I think next time we'll try to dial back the pressure at the regulator from the beginning just for bottling, maybe to 3-4 psi.

Tasting
It's big, it's full flavored, it's tasty. It is also improving over time so maybe I'll update this later this winter.  One thing I've noticed is the oak and bourbon flavor in this one is much more mellow than in the beers I've made with soaked chips.

Brew #39: Big Bad Bourbon Barrel Belgian (quad), March 25, 2016

Quick! You're getting a freshly-dumped 5 gallon Balcones Malt Whiskey barrel as a birthday present. It will be here in a week. What are you going to brew to put in it? Faced with this terrible dilemma, I recalled that Bob, the owner at Bailee's, has a bourbon barrel quad that he makes and occasionally lets out for tasting.  I've never had the opportunity to taste it.  I do know he doesn't use a barrel - its oak chips and bourbon, and I know he uses WLP545 Belgian strong ale yeast with WLP099 super high gravity to finish if necessary.  The rest is a closely-guarded secret.  Nonetheless, I was not interested in duplicating something Bob made, I wanted to make something that was truly my own. So while I can say that his brew put the bug in my brain for a bourbon barrel quad, mine is nothing like his.  I also started searching the internet for what else people have put in these barrels. My favorite was this on one of my favorite homebrew blogs. His was in a "Rumble" barrel, but the concept is similar.  And again, I'm not really content to copy someone's recipe - especially if its something I've never tried.  So here's mine:



Recipe
Batch Size Target (Actual): 6 gal (6 gal)
OG Target (Actual): 1.091 (1.091)
FG Target (Actual) : 1.013 (1.016)
Brew House Efficiency Target (Actual) : 65% (65%)
IBUs: 26
Color: 29 SRM
Style: Belgian Dark Strong Ale
Recipe Type: All Grain
Boil Time: 90 minutes

Water:
Carbon filtered York water

Grains:
14 lbs Belgian Pilsner
5 lbs Vienna
12 oz Caramunich
4 oz Caramel 120L
2 oz Carafa II
1 lb D-180 Candi Syrup @ 10 min boil
1 lb D-90 Candi Syrup @ 10 min boil

Hops:
1/2oz German Hallertau (pellets) @ 90 min.
1/2oz Styrian Goldings (pellets) @ 90 min.
1/2oz Willamette (pellets) @ 90 min.
The seemingly random selection of hops for early additions is because these were leftovers from previous brews.  These are almost solely for bittering so this combination is just to get to the target IBUs with hops that are somewhat true to style.
1/2oz Czech Saaz @ 8 min.
0.1oz Styrian Goldings (pellets) @ 8 min because my brother is a smart ass and couldn't just put 0.6 oz in at the 90 minute addition.

Other:
1 Whrilfloc Tab @ 15 min.

Yeast:
WLP500 Monastery Ale Yeast

Brewing Notes
3/21/16 - Yeast Starter:
2 Liter yeast starter: 8c of water (lost count, should have been 7), 7oz Extra light DME, 1/2 tsp yeast nutrient, boiled 10 minutes and chilled to room temperature. Fermented on a stir plate. As always, WLP500 lags a couple of days before going to work hard.  Cold crashed and decanted the starter overnight from 3/24 into 3/25.  Volume ended up around 600mL
3/25/16 - Yeast Starter stage 2:
First thing in the morning, I boiled and chilled 4 c water, 4 oz extra light DME, and 1/4 tsp yeast nutrient and poured this on top of the yeast cake from stage 1.  Cold crashed and decanted to about 400 mL overnight from 3/25 into 3/26.

3/26/16 - Brew Day:

• Sanitized (star san) my cold side equipment in the big mouth bubbler primary.
• Heated 25 quarts of water with PH 5.2 to 169 F in 8 gallon stainless HLT on outdoor propane burner
• Mashed in in 10 gal Igloo cooler, paddled until everything was well mixed and there were no dough balls. 75ish minute mash rest
• 0 minutes: temperature was 153F
• 15 minutes: paddled, temperature was 152-153F
• 39 minutes: paddled, temperature was 151 F
• 67 minutes, began vorlauf
• Manual Vorlauf: I run a 2 cup measuring cup full of wort out of the valve and gently pour this on top of the mash.  Then I repeat until I'm satisfied with the clarity.  This takes about 10-15 minutes.
• Heated 7 gallons of water with pH 5.2 to 195F
• Ran off and fly sparged until I had collected 8.12 quarts of wort
• Boil gravity was 15.3% Brix, 1.061 SG, 2 points over target.
• Brought to boil - 90 minute boil time
• Added:
  1/2oz German Hallertau (pellets) @ 90 min.
  1/2oz Styrian Goldings (pellets) @ 90 min.
  1/2oz Willamette (pellets) @ 90 min.
  1 Whrilfloc Tab @ 15 min.
  1/2oz Czech Saaz @ 8 min.
  0.1oz Styrian Goldings (pellets) @ 8 min
• Chilled  and ran to BMB,
• Took an OG brix reading of 22.0% which calculated to to 1.091.
• Pitched yeast starter

3/26-4/9/16 Fermentation:
Here are a couple of pictures, half an hour apart.  I pitched the yeast around 5:00 pm. By 9:00 the krausen was just starting to form. By 9:30 it was 2 inches tall.  Like I've said, WLP500 is a workhorse once it gets started.

4/9-4/29/16 - Barrel:
I will admit, filling this barrel (or planning to fill the barrel) involved far to much agonizing for a homebrewer.  Do I or don't I prep the barrel? Rinse? Sanitize? Wash with Bourbon? Soak?  So I read the forums, I read the barrel basics guide: it said soak for an hour with hot water. I wrote to the Mad Fermentationist: He said no prep. I called my brother (actual brewing professional): He said don't soak unless the barrel is really old and you suspect leaks and don't use too hot of water. Long story short: I soaked it.  I filled the barrel to the brim with 160F water and soaked for 30 minutes.  The water ended up around 140F while in the barrel.  Also it tasted like a hot toddy coming out of the barrel.

So that's what I did. Then I dumped the water and filled (siphon) to the brim with the beer.  I had intended to split the batch into 5 gallons barrel aged and 1 gallon in a little carboy, but the 1 gallon carboy only filled about half way, which wasn't worth keeping to bottle. There was just too much lost to the yeast cake at the bottom.  Beer was 10.8% brix which calculated to 1.014 (10.2% abv). Also it tasted like bananas foster in beer form.

I started to get some foaming through the airlock pretty quickly so I switched to a blowoff tube.  Apparently the wood acts as nucleation sites for the CO2 dissolved in the beer.


4/27 I took a sample from the barrel to taste.  At this point I got less banana, more vanilla and some understated whiskey flavor.  I thought I might give it another 2 weeks.  Then over the next couple of days I decided that I really had liked it and maybe I should go for "well balanced" instead of over the top whiskey flavor. It was about the color and clarity of a good bourbon.


4/29/16 - Kegging:
I know what you're thinking.  I'm not actually going to serve a 10% plus ABV quad on one of my 3 taps.  It's kegged in order to force carb. I'm not willing to risk this beer being over or under carbonated.  I'm going to bottle it and give the bottles a little bit of time to age. At least a week or two... Going into the keg, I got 11.2% Brix, 1.016 FG. Not sure if the barrel soaked up some of the water and alcohol or if something from the barrel brought the gravity up.  Or maybe my refractometer is less accurate than what I give it credit for.


I've already snuck a couple of tastes via a picnic tap.  What's amazed me so far on this beer is how different it has tasted each time. Clearly it is still developing.

5/14/16 - Bottling:
I should have taken some pictures but I was more focused on figuring out the new bottling process.  I bought a Last Straw bottle filler and added a fourth valve to the distributor in my kegerator for the purge line.  I think I'll do a review of the new equipment and process in a separate post, but to make a long story short, this went very well.  Except for 1 or 2 samples, these bottles are doing some conditioning in my basement.

Brew #38: "Shocking" Wit, March 11, 2016

This brew was a dry run for a future brew (#43) that I'm brewing for my boss's party.  The last time I made a witbier was #2 back in June 2014, and that was a straight extract kit.  I wanted to give an all grain version a try before committed to tapping a full batch in front of my co-workers, giving me a chance to tweak a recipe a bit if necessary. Plus #35 was about to kick and I needed a lower ABV "daily drinker" to put on tap.

Recipe
Batch Size Target (Actual): 5 gal (5 gal)
OG Target (Actual): 1.051 (1.050)
FG Target (Actual) : 1.011 (1.008)
Brew House Efficiency Target (Actual) : 69% (68%)
IBUs: 17
Color: 4.1 SRM
Style: Witbier
Recipe Type: All Grain
Boil Time: 60 minutes

Water:
Carbon filtered York water

Grains:
4.5 lbs US Pilsner
4 lb US White Wheat
8 oz Flaked Oats
8 oz Flaked Wheat
4 oz Munich
8 oz Rice Hulls

Hops:
0.5 oz Hallertau (pellets) @ 45 min.
1.0 oz Cascade (pellets) @ 10 min.

Other:
0.75 oz coriander seed, freshly crushed @ 5 min
0.5 oz dried bitter orange peel @ 5 min
0.5 oz fresh lime zest (6 fresh limes) @ 1 min
0.5 oz fresh lemon zest (5 fresh lemons) @ 1 min

Yeast:
WLP400 Belgian Wit

Brewing Notes
3/11/16 - Brew Day:

• Sanitized (star san) my cold side equipment in the big mouth bubbler primary.
• Heated 12.75 quarts of water with PH 5.2 to 168F in 8 gallon stainless HLT on outdoor propane burner
• Mashed in in 10 gal Igloo cooler, paddled until everything was well mixed and there were no dough balls. 60 minute mash rest
• 0 minutes: temperature was 152-154F
• 15 minutes: temperature was 149-150F
• 30 minutes: paddled, temperature was 145-150F
• 65 minutes, began vorlauf
• Manual Vorlauf: I run a 2 cup measuring cup full of wort out of the valve and gently pour this on top of the mash.  Then I repeat until I'm satisfied with the clarity.  This takes about 10-15 minutes.
• Heated 6.5 gallons sparge water with pH 5.2 to 195
• Ran off and fly sparged until I had 6.5 gallons
• Boil gravity was 10.4% - 1.041, 1 point over target
• Brought to boil - 60 minute boil time
• Added:
  0.5 oz Hallertau (pellets) @ 45 min.
  1.0 oz Cascade (pellets) @ 10 min.
  0.75 oz coriander seed, freshly crushed @ 5 min
  0.5 oz dried bitter orange peel @ 5 min
  0.5 oz fresh lime zest (6 fresh limes) @ 1 min
  0.5 oz fresh lemon zest (5 fresh lemons) @ 1 min
• Chilled  and ran to BMB.  I have a kettle valve now.  Much Better. Volume was 5 gallons.
• Took an OG brix reading of 12.6% which calculated to to 1.050.
• Pitched yeast starter directly

3/11 - 3/26/16 - Fermentation:
It took until the morning of 3/13 for a visible krausen to begin to form.  I'm so used to yeast starters.

3/26- Kegging:
Siphoned to the keg. I pressurized/purged at 10psi 3 times and put in the kegerator to force carb. 6.0% brix, 1.008 FG, 5.5%

3/30 - 5/23 - On Tap:
Just like #37 I tapped this after only 5 days because I wanted to see how long was really needed to force carb.  This was still a little on the flat side so I guess 5 days was too early. This is a good refreshing beer that's easy to drink especially after a bike ride.  When people taste (including my boss), I've been getting "Wow that's really good...but..." and the story is always the same.  Maybe to much lemon and lime, not enough orange coming through.  For the actual party beer I'm going to cut the lime and lemon in half and use fresh orange zest instead of dried orange peel.

Brew #37: Perpetual IPA Clone?, March 5, 2016

Troegs Perpetual IPA had been on my to-brew list for a while.  Troegs nicely posts quite a bit about their recipe on their website, including malts, some information about hop timing, IBUs, and ABV.  So this was my starting point for this brew.

Recipe
Batch Size Target (Actual): 5 gal (5 gal)
OG Target (Actual): 1.074 (1.072)
FG Target (Actual) : 1.016 (1.008)
Brew House Efficiency Target (Actual) : 69% (65%)
IBUs: 94
Color: 6.8 SRM
Style: American IPA
Recipe Type: All Grain
Boil Time: 90 minutes

Water:
Carbon filtered York water

Grains:
12.5 lbs Pilsner
1.5 lb Munich Malt
1 lb Caramel 20L

Hops:
0.75 oz Columbus (pellets) @ 60 min.
1.0 oz Chinook (pellets) @ 20 min.
1.0 oz Mt. Hood (pellets) @ 10 min.
1.0 oz Nugget (pellets) @ 0 min. Steep 15 minutes
1.0 oz Mt. Hood (pellets) @ 0 min. Steep 15 minutes
1.0 oz Citra (pellets) Dry Hop 6 days
1.0 oz Cascade (pellets) Dry Hop 6 days
0.5 oz Mosaic (pellets) Dry Hop 6 days (because I had it and I wanted to)

Other:
1 Whrilfloc Tab @ 15 min.

Yeast:
WLP001

Brewing Notes
3/2/16 - Yeast Starter:
2 Liter yeast starter: 7c of water, 7oz Extra light DME, 1/2 tsp yeast nutrient, boiled 10 minutes and chilled to room temperature, 2 drops of fermcap, pitched WLP001. Fermented on a stir plate.

3/5/16 - Brew Day:

• Sanitized (star san) my cold side equipment in the big mouth bubbler primary.
• Heated 19 quarts of water with PH 5.2 to 166 to 168F in 8 gallon stainless HLT on outdoor propane burner
• Mashed in in 10 gal Igloo cooler, paddled until everything was well mixed and there were no dough balls. 60 minute mash rest
• 0 minutes: temperature was 148F
• 15 minutes: added 2 cups of boiling water, paddled, temperature was 148-149F
• 45 minutes: paddled, temperature was 146-148F
• 75 minutes, temperature was 146-147F, began vorlauf
• Manual Vorlauf: I run a 2 cup measuring cup full of wort out of the valve and gently pour this on top of the mash.  Then I repeat until I'm satisfied with the clarity.  This takes about 10-15 minutes.
• Heated 6.5 gallons sparge water with pH 5.2 to 195
• Ran off and fly sparged until I had 7.5 gallons
• Boil gravity was 13.2% - 1.052, right on target.
• Brought to boil - 90 minute boil time
• Added:
  0.75 oz Columbus (pellets) @ 60 min.
  1.0 oz Chinook (pellets) @ 20 min.
  1 Whrilfloc Tab @ 15 min.
  1.0 oz Mt. Hood (pellets) @ 10 min.
  1.0 oz Nugget (pellets) @ 0 min. Steep 15 minutes
  1.0 oz Mt. Hood (pellets) @ 0 min. Steep 15 minutes
• Chilled  and siphoned to BMB, Volume was 5 gallons.
• Took an OG brix reading of 17.8% which calculated to to 1.072.
• Pitched entire yeast starter, volume was now about 5.75 gal

3/5 - 3/14/16 - Primary Fermentation:
Transfer to 5 gal glass carboy. Measured 8.2% brix which calculated to 1.008.

3/14 - 3/25/16 - Secondary Fermentation:
On 3/19 dry hopped with 0.5 oz Mosaic, 1 oz Cascade, and 1 oz Citra. Yes, I know Troegs doesn't use Mosaic.  I had it and I wanted to anyway.

3/25- Kegging:
Kegged on 3/25 - I forgot to use a strainer bag so I was a little worried about plugging a dip tube (so far so good). I pressurized/purged at 10psi 3 times and put in the kegerator to force carb. 8.2% brix, 1.008 FG, 8.5%

3/30 - 5/20- On Tap:
I tapped this after only 5 days because I wanted to see how long was really needed to force carb.  This was still a little on the flat side and still pretty cloudy, so I guess 5 days was too early.  I've been told this is a spot on clone but I'm not sure those people were tasting critically.  I never did go get that bottle of perpetual for comparison.  I'm not complaining.  I have it on good authority that mine was "better than the original."  You just can't compete with the freshness of homebrew.

Brew #36, Maverick Wild Rye Saison, February 20, 2016

Again, for no reason in particular, sour/funky beers get a Top Gun name.  For this one, the LT Pete Mitchell gets the nod.  Except for the strain of Brett, this is brewed per this Crafted Pours recipe. Here's my first step into the wild world of Brett. As I write this, this one is still in the secondary, so I don't know how it tastes yet.

Recipe
Batch Size Target (Actual): 5 gal (5 gal)
OG Target (Actual): 1.084 (1.079)
FG Target (Actual) : 1.021 (??)
Brew House Efficiency Target (Actual) : 69% (61%)
IBUs: 57
Color: 6.7 SRM
Style: Saison
Recipe Type: All Grain
Boil Time: 90 minutes

Water:
Carbon filtered York water

Grains:
4 lb Rye Malt
12 lb US 2-row
12 oz Flaked Oats
12 oz Flaked Rye
12 oz Rice Hulls

Hops:
0.5 oz Mosaic @ 60 min
1 oz Nelson Sauvin @ 15 min
1 oz Mosaic @ 10 min

Yeast:
WLP565 Belgian Saison I (primary)
WLP650 Brettanomyces Bruxellensis (secondary)

Brewing Notes

2/17/16 - Yeast Starter:
7c Water, 7oz extra light DME, 1/2 tsp yeast nutrient, boiled 10 min, chilled, added 2 drops of fermcap, and pitched WLP 565.  Fermented on Stir plate.  Cold crashed and decanted overnight 2/19 into 2/20

2/20/15 - Brew Day:

• Sanitized (star san) my cold side equipment in the big mouth bubbler primary.
• Heated 22.75 quarts of water with pH 5.2 buffer to 166 F in 8 gallon stainless HLT on outdoor propane burner.
• Mashed in in 10 gal Igloo cooler, paddled until everything was well mixed and there were no dough balls.  Mash in temp was 151-152F
• 75 minute mash rest
• 0 minutes: temperature was 151-152F
• 15 minutes: paddled, temperature was 149-152F
• 30 minutes: paddled, temperature was 148-150F
• 45 minutes: paddled, temperature was 148-149F
• 75 minutes, did not measure temperature. Began vorlauf
• Stuck Vorlauf: I opened the valve and noting came out. Unstuck by blowing in the tube.  Make sure if you do this that A) nobody who is unfamiliar that beer is boiled after this step sees you, and B) the discharge end of the tube is above the top of the fluid level in the mash.  Otherwise you could get a mouth full of hot wort. This never really got clear and it got stuck a couple more times, but eventually it would run consistently (although slow).
• Fly sparged with my new process (see #35) until I had 7.25 gallons pre-boil. This needed almost all of the 6 gallons I had heated to 195F. pre-boil gravity was 1.059 which was right on target.
• Brought to boil - 90 minute boil time
• Added:
  0.5 oz Mosaic @ 60 min
  1 oz Nelson Sauvin @ 15 min
  1 oz Mosaic @ 10 min
• Chilled with Immersion wort chiller to 72F
• Siphoned to BMB
• Took a Brix reading of 19.4%, calcuated to 1.079.Volume was 5 gal.
• Pitched the decanted starter of 565

2/20 -2/25/16 - Primary Fermentation:
Siphoned to 5 gal glass carboy on 2/25 immediately after the majority of the Krausen had fallen. Brix was 9.4% which calculated to 1.012, 8.9% abv.  I had wanted to get this on the Brett before the Saison yeast was completely finished but it looks like even after 5 days I was too late.  Pitched the vial of WLP650 Brett B into the secondary and put the secondary in the opposite corner of the dining room.

2/25/16 - present - Secondary Fermentation:
The beer has shown little bits of foam and bubbles on top since about a week in the secondary.  I haven't tasted yet.

6/12/16 update: I drew a sample and took a gravity measurement of 1.008 @ 74F, corrected to 1.010, which makes it 9.1%.  I definitely tasted some Brett funk, absolutely no tartness (not to be expected). It has lost a lot of the alcohol heat it had going into the secondary.  I think I'll let this one go a little longer, maybe get a professional opinion from my brother next time he's in town.

Brew #35: Talk to me Gose, January 16, 2016

For no reason in particular, this beer has a Top Gun name.  This tribute to the late Nick Bradshaw is a quick and easy sour.  I didn't want to mess around with bacteria and I wanted something I could quickly get in the keg for tap #2, so after receiving assurances from my brother (who is an actual card-carrying professional) that adding lactic acid in the kettle is fine and that's how they do their Berliner Weisse I set to work finding/creating a recipe.  Again I took to the internet for guidance. The recipe that follows is mostly based on this page, but I also looked at this one among others to try to establish the lactic acid, salt, and coriander additions. I planned to go light on the lactic acid and salt additions and add more to the keg if necessary.

Recipe
Batch Size Target (Actual): 5 gal (5 gal)
OG Target (Actual): 1.049 (1.048)
FG Target (Actual) : 1.011 (1.010)
Brew House Efficiency Target (Actual) : 69% (68%)
IBUs: 8.3
Color: 3.8 SRM
Style: Gose
Recipe Type: All Grain
Boil Time: 60 minutes

Water:
Carbon filtered York water

Grains:
4.5 lb German Wheat
4.5 lb German Pilsner
8 oz Acid Malt
8 oz Rice Hulls

Hops:
0.5 oz Saaz

Other:
10 tsp Lactic Acid 88%
1 tsp yeast nutrient
10g sea salt
1 oz Coriander Seed (crushed in projectile-shaped blender)

Yeast:
Safale US-05

Brewing Notes

1/15/16 - Yeast Starter:
This was a small weak starter, but I wanted to give the yeast a chance to re-hydrate and build some cell walls before pitching it into the acidic wort.  I used 4c water, 3oz wheat DME, 1/4tsp yeast nutrient boiled 10 minutes and chilled, then pitched US-05 and fermented overnight on the stir plate.

1/16/15 - Brew Day:

• Sanitized (star san) my cold side equipment in the big mouth bubbler primary.
• Heated 12.5 quarts of water without a pH buffer to 168 F in 8 gallon stainless HLT on outdoor propane burner.
• Mashed in in 10 gal Igloo cooler, paddled until everything was well mixed and there were no dough balls.  Mash in temp was 151-152F
• 60 minute mash rest
• 0 minutes: temperature was 151-152F
• 15 minutes: paddled, temperature was 150-151F
• 30 minutes: paddled, temperature was 149-151F
• 60 minutes, did not measure temperature, measured pH of 4.9. Began vorlauf
• Manual Vorlauf: I run a 2 cup measuring cup full of wort out of the valve and gently pour this on top of the mash.  Then I repeat until I'm satisfied with the clarity.  This takes about 10-15 minutes.
• New fly sparge process based on what I learned brewing with my brother at Dock Street.  Rather than using a measured amount of sparge water and then run until everything is dry, I heated extra sparge water with no pH buffer (like 7 gallons) and then ran off and fly sparged until I had my appropriate boil volume (6.25 gallons) in the kettle.  This keeps my grain bed from compacting so I should get more consistent efficiency especially on big beers, more consistent volume into the fermenter, and less sediment from those last runnings.  All I needed to make this change was a measuring stick for my boil kettle.
• Brought to boil - 60 minute boil time
• Added:
  0.5 oz Czech Saaz (pellets) @ 60 min.
  10 tsp (2oz) Lactic acid @ 15 min.  Target pH was 3.5.  At first I had 3.6 but after a little bit it dropped to 3.2.
  1 tab Whirlfloc @ 15 min.
  1 tsp yeast nutrient @ 10 min.
  10g sea salt @ 5 min.
  1 oz freshly crushed coriander seed @ 5 min
• Chilled with Immersion wort chiller to 70F
• Siphoned to BMB
• Took a Brix reading of 12.2%, calcuated to 1.048. pH was 3.9.
• Volume was 4.75 gal. I'll correct my boil off in BeerSmith
• Pitched all of the little starter

1/16 - 1/25 - Primary Fermentation:
Siphoned to 5 gal glass carboy on 1/25. Brix was 6.2% which calculated to 1.010.  I noted that it was just sour and salty enough.

1/25 - 2/13 - Secondary Fermentation:
This was less about conditioning and was more about waiting for the kegerator to be finished and getting off of the yeast while I traveled for work.

2/13 - Kegging:
Siphoned to Keg. Final Brix was 6.2% calculated to 1.010 FG, 5% ABV.  Pressurized and vented 3 times, then re-pressurized to 10psi serving pressure and put it in the kegerator to force carb.  I had a hell of a time getting this keg o-ring to seat. We decided that it didn't need any more lactic acid or salt.

2/20 - 4/20/16 - On Tap:
Delicious from day 1. Clean, Crisp, and Tart.  I would not change salt or lactic acid at all as these are well-balanced and not overwhelming.  My (other) brother calls it "beer Gatorade" because it is quite refreshing on a hot day.  There is some mild peppery tasted in the background.  I plan to repeat this beer, possibly with some small variations like black pepper or Thai basil.

Brew 34: Grapefruit IPA, December 18, 2015

I'll start this off by saying that as I write this, this is my favorite brew so far.  Expect to see it again in the near future.  The recipe is inspired by Ballast Point Grapefruit Sculpin.  I got online looking for a clone recipe and found this thread on beer advocate.  The tread quickly devolves into a "spirited discussion" of acid malt and mash pH. It's an entertaining read.  But before total war begins, there's a recipe, a good link to another thread about adding grapefruit, and a couple of good insights about the same.  I ended up using the grain bill from this thread, adjusted for efficiency and a hop schedule based mostly on this post on crafted pours.

Recipe
Batch Size Target (Actual): 5 gal (5.25 gal)
OG Target (Actual): 1.074 (1.061)
FG Target (Actual) : 1.016 (1.010)
Brew House Efficiency Target (Actual) : 69% (59%)
IBUs: 90
Color: 7.7 SRM
Style: American IPA
Recipe Type: All Grain
Boil Time: 60 minutes

Water:
Carbon filtered York water

Grains:
11.75 lbs US 2-row
1.5 lb Caramel 10
1 lb Dextrine
10 oz Cara20 (formerly Caravienne)

Hops:
0.5 oz Warrior (pellets) @ 60 min.
1.0 oz Centennial (pellets) @ 30 min.
0.5 oz Amarillo (pellets) @ 20 min.
0.5 oz Simcoe (pelelts) @ 20 min.
1.0 oz Amarillo (pellets) @ 10 min.
0.5 oz Simcoe (pelelts) @ 5 min.
0.5 oz Centennial (pellets) @ 0 min.
0.5 oz Centennial (pellets) dry hop 7 days
1.5 oz Amarillo (pelelts) dry hop 7 days


Other:
1 Whrilfloc Tab @ 15 min.
2 oz grapefruit zest (10 grapefruits) dry hop 7 days

Yeast:
WLP090 San Diego Super

Brewing Notes
12/16/15 - Yeast Starter:
2 Liter yeast starter: 7c of water, 7oz Extra light DME, 1/2 tsp yeast nutrient, boiled 10 minutes and chilled to room temperature. Fermented on a stir plate.

12/18/15 - Brew Day:

• Sanitized (star san) my cold side equipment in the big mouth bubbler primary.
• Heated 18.5 quarts of water with PH 5.2 to 168 F in 8 gallon stainless HLT on outdoor propane burner
• Mashed in in 10 gal Igloo cooler, paddled until everything was well mixed and there were no dough balls. 60 minute mash rest
• 0 minutes: temperature was 151-152F
• 15 minutes: paddled, temperature was 149-150F
• 30 minutes: paddled, temperature was 148-150F
• 60 minutes, temperature was 148F, began vorlauf
• Manual Vorlauf: I run a 2 cup measuring cup full of wort out of the valve and gently pour this on top of the mash.  Then I repeat until I'm satisfied with the clarity.  This takes about 10-15 minutes.
• Ran off and fly sparged with 15.38 quarts of 190F with pH 5.2 water
• Ran until the mash tun was dry, about 30 minutes
• Boil gravity was 12.8 - 1.051, which missed by 8 points.
• Brought to boil - 60 minute boil time
• Added:
  0.5 oz Warrior (pellets) @ 60 min.
  1.0 oz Centennial (pellets) @ 30 min.
  0.5 oz Amarillo (pellets) @ 20 min.
  0.5 oz Simcoe (pelelts) @ 20 min.
  1 Whirlfloc Tab @ 15 min.
  1.0 oz Amarillo (pellets) @ 10 min.
  0.5 oz Simcoe (pelelts) @ 5 min.
  0.5 oz Centennial (pellets) @ 0 min.
• Chilled  and siphoned to BMB, Volume was 5.25.  Look at the Whirlfloc work.
  
  
• Took an OG brix reading of 15.2% which calculated to to 1.061.  Obviously I missed on efficiency pretty bad here.  Based on the pre-boil reading I didn't get a bad reading on the refractometer. There's a possibility I had a bad crush on the grains.  Someone was adjusting the mill at the LHBS just before I milled mine.  The other possibility is that I didn't mash long enough at the lower temperature, but the temperature wasn't that low so I doubt this is it. I made some changes to my sparge for #35, which I'll spell out then.
• Pitched entire yeast starter, volume was now about 5.75 gal

12/18/15 - 1/3/16 - Primary Fermentation:
Transfer to 5 gal glass carboy. Measured 7.4% brix which calculated to 1.010.

1/3 - 1/23 - Secondary Fermentation:
The reason this one had longer than a 2 week secondary was just because of collecting the grapefruit zest.  Between my house and my parents' house we collected the zest of 10 grapefruits with as little pith as possible.  To keep these hydrated and preserved as well as sanitize we soaked them in vodka (just enough to cover the zest) for at least 48 hours.
On 1/16 dry hopped with 1.5 oz Amarillo, 0.5 oz Centennial, and all of the grapefruit zest and vodka.  I had to pull a little bit of beer out of the carboy to make room for all of this addition.

1/23- Kegging:
I bought myself a 3-tap kegerator for Christmas with a little help from my family. I had not yet taken delivery on it, but the LHBS hooked me up with the first keg, gas bottle, regulator, gas line, and disconnect.  Here's what I did:

• Cleaned and sanitized keg
• Reassembled keg except for stud and poppet on the "out" side so that the dip tube would fill
• Siphoned beer through sanitized mesh bag to strain
• Closed the keg
• Pressurized the keg to 20 psi then shut off gas
• Vent, Fill, Vent, Fill, Vent, Fill
• Reduced pressure to about 16 psi
• Brought the keg down to the basement which was about 50F ambient.  Left the gas bottle hooked up to force carbonate.

2/12 - 3-18 On Tap:
It probably didn't need the extra time in the keg but this is when I finally got the kegerator.

Like I said - favorite beer to date.  Expect to see it again soon. I wouldn't change a thing. I don't really care if its not a "clone" so I never did a side-by-side.

Brew #33: Belgian Dubbel 3, November 14, 2015

I wanted to make another Belgian Dubbel because the first 2 (#13 and #22) were among my favorite brews so far. But by this point I couldn't let myself make a third identical version of the same recipe. Because it was the middle of November, I wanted to make a "winter" verison, toning up the dark malts and the ABV.  I didn't make any changes to the hops or yeast.

Recipe
Batch Size Target (Actual): 5 gal (5.25 gal)
OG Target (Actual): 1.070 (1.071)
FG Target (Actual) : 1.011 (1.011)
Brew House Efficiency Target (Actual) : 69% (71%)
IBUs: 28
Color: 32.4 SRM
Style: Belgian Dubbel
Recipe Type: All Grain
Boil Time: 60 minutes

Water:
Carbon filtered York water

Grains:
9 lbs Belgian Pilsner
1 lb Special B
2 lb Caramunich
1 lb Caramel 60L
1 lb Dark Candi Sugar

Hops:
1oz Northern Brewer (pellets) @ 60 min.
1 oz Hersbrucker (pellets) @ 10 min.

Other:
1 Whrilfloc Tab @ 15 min.

Yeast:
WLP500 Monastery Ale Yeast

Brewing Notes
11/11/15 - Yeast Starter:
2 Liter yeast starter: 7c of water, 7oz Extra light DME, 1/2 tsp yeast nutrient, boiled 10 minutes and chilled to room temperature. Fermented on a stir plate. 500 likes to lag, so the starter took 2 days before it got started.

11/14/15 - Brew Day:

• Sanitized (star san) my cold side equipment in the big mouth bubbler primary.
• Heated 16.25 quarts of water with PH 5.2 to 168 F in 8 gallon stainless HLT on outdoor propane burner
• Mashed in in 10 gal Igloo cooler, paddled until everything was well mixed and there were no dough balls. 70 minute mash rest
• 0 minutes: temperature was 151F
• 15 minutes: paddled, temperature was 149-151F
• 30 minutes: paddled, temperature was 149-151F
• 70 minutes, began vorlauf
• Manual Vorlauf: I run a 2 cup measuring cup full of wort out of the valve and gently pour this on top of the mash.  Then I repeat until I'm satisfied with the clarity.  This takes about 10-15 minutes.
• Ran off and fly sparged with 16.75 quarts of 190F with pH 5.2 water
• Ran until the mash tun was dry, about 30 minutes
• Brought to boil - 60 minute boil time
• Added:
  1oz Northern Brewer (pellets) @ 60 min.
  1 Tab Whirlfloc @ 15 min.
  1 oz Hersbrucker (pellets) @ 10 min.
• Chilled  and siphoned to BMB,
• Took an OG brix reading of 17.6% which calculated to to 1.071.
• Pitched entire yeast starter

11/14 - 11/22/15 - Primary Fermentation:
Siphoned to Secondary on 11/22. Brix was 9.0%? which calculated to 1.014. It was very blurry.

11/22 - 12/15/15 - Secondary Fermentation

12/15/2015 - Bottling:
Bottled with 4.6 oz of corn sugar in 2 C water.  Measurement was 8.6% Brix which translated to 1.011 FG, 7.9%.

Tasting:
This is good but not as good as the previous two.  The yeast character is great, but I think I overdid it on the Special B.  I find this one too raisiny.

Brew #32: Christmas Miracle Winter Warmer, October 28, 2015

Initially, I had named this "Time Change Winter Warmer" because I brewed it the weekend of the time change, but it was later renamed to "Christmas Miracle" as in "It will be a miracle if it is ready to give away by Christmas."  I'd call this one an original - I browsed a variety of sources online as well as the previous winter warmer I made in Brew #12 - but I ended up with something that would not be considered a clone or a variant on any of those.

I wanted something full bodied, high ABV, spiced, and with very little hop bitterness.  In other words I wanted to make something with mass appeal, but also just a little out of the "non craft beer" people's comfort zones. I used honey as a fermentable because so far I've liked what it does to beer.  There's also ginger, bitter orange peel, seeds of paradise, cinnamon sticks, and vanilla.  It's a bit over the top, but that's how we like it.

Recipe
Batch Size Target (Actual): 5 gal (5.5 gal)
OG Target (Actual): 1.091 (1.083)
FG Target (Actual) : 1.016 (1.025)
Brew House Efficiency Target (Actual) : 69% (67%)
IBUs: 33
Color: 17.7 SRM
Style: Holiday/Seasonal/Spiced
Recipe Type: All Grain
Boil Time: 60 minutes

Water:
Carbon Filtered York Water

Grains:
13.5 lbs Marris Otter
1 lb Caramel 60L
1 lb Caramel 20L
2oz Black Patent
1.5 lbs Honey (15 minute boil)

Hops:
1 oz Northern Brewer (pellets) @ 60 min.
1 oz Saaz (pellets) @ 10 min.

Other:
1 Whrilfloc Tab @ 15 min.
1 oz Ginger Root @ 5 min.
1 oz Bitter Orange Peel @ 5 min.
1/2 tsp Seeds of Paradise (2g) @ 5 min
2 Cinnamon Sticks @ 5 min.
1 Cinnamon Stick @ 0 min.
2 Vanilla Beans Dry Hop 10 days

Yeast:
White Labs WLP007 Dry English Ale

Brewing Notes
10/28/15 - Yeast Starter:
Another 1.5 Liter yeast starter: 6c of water, 6 oz Extra light DME, 1/4 tsp yeast nutrient, boiled 10 minutes and chilled to room temperature.  Then I decanted a 1-pint jar of washed yeast from #30.  By the next day I didn't see any activity and didn't want to risk pitching a super low cell count so I bought a vial of 007 and added this too.

10/31/15 - Brew Day:

• Sanitized (star san) my cold side equipment in the big mouth bubbler primary.
• Heated 19.50 quarts of water with pH 5.2 to 172 F in 8 gallon economy stainless HLT on outdoor propane burner
• Mashed in in 10 gal Igloo cooler, paddled until everything was well mixed and there were no dough balls
• 60 minute mash rest
• 0 minutes: mashed in, temperature was 157F
• 15 minutes: paddled, temperature was 156F
• 30 minutes: paddled, temperature was 155F
• 60 minutes, began vorlauf
• Manual vorlauf.  I run a 2 cup measuring cup full of wort out of the valve and gently pour this on top of the mash.  Then I repeat until I'm satisfied with the clarity.  This takes about 10-15 minutes.
• Ran off and fly sparged with 14.75 quarts of 195F water with pH 5.2
• Ran until the mash tun was dry, about 30 minutes
• Took a pre-boil refractometer reading of 15.6%, which calculated to 1.063 boil gravity, 2 points under target.
• Brought to boil
• Added:
  1 oz Northern Brewer (pellets) @ 60 min.
  1 Whrilfloc Tab @ 15 min.
  1.5 lbs honey @ 15 min.
  1 oz Saaz (pellets) @ 10 min.
  1 oz Ginger Root @ 5 min.
  1 oz Bitter Orange Peel @ 5 min.
  1/2 tsp Seeds of Paradise (2g) @ 5 min
  2 Cinnamon Sticks @ 5 min.
  1 Cinnamon Stick @ 0 min.
• Moved kettle to the kitchen and chilled with wort chiller
• Siphoned to BMB,
• Took a refractometer reading of 20.2%, which translated to 1.083. Volume was 5.5 Gallons
• Pitched decanted entire starter
• Put the BMB in the beer corner of the dining room with a blow off tube.

10/31 - 11/7/15 - Primary Fermentation:

So this was new for me - 4 batches in process at a time (not including bottle conditioning).  1 of the carboys was borrowed.  Back to front are:

#28 Bourbon Barrel Porter (2), #30 Oak IPA ,#31 Honey Oat IPA (2), and #32 Christmas Miracle.

I put t-shirts over the hoppy beers to try to keep them from getting lightstruck.

Brix was 12.1% translated to 1.027 when I racked to the 5 gallon glass carboy. Racked on top of 2 vanilla beans.

11/7 - 11/17/15 - Secondary Fermentation:
Dry hopped with 1 oz Simcoe, 1 oz Centennial, and 1 ounce Amarillo on 11/1.

11/17/2015 - Bottling:
Bottled  with 4.1oz of corn sugar boiled in 2 c water to prime.  Brix was 11.8%, 1.025 (7.7% abv).

Experiment in Yeast Washing, October 18, 2015

THIS IS NOT A HOW-TO GUIDE!
I screwed this up somehow, so I'm posting this as "here's what I did" and not "here's how to do it."  If you see in my process where I went wrong, feel free to let me know in the comments or by email.  The yeast was WLP007 from Brew #30.
Here's what I did

• Racked the beer from the primary, leaving about a half inch of beer on top of the trub on 10/18, then put the primary lid back on,
• Boiled 6 clean 1 pint mason jars, lids, and rings for about 15 minutes
• Closed all of the mason jars, full of the boiled water
• Put outside to cool down to room temperature
• Poured 4 of the jars into the primary
• Swirled primary to break up the trub
• Allowed to settle 30-45 minutes until it clearly had 3 layers of trub, yeast, watery beer
• Poured off the beer and yeast back into the 4 jars, leaving the trub
• Capped the 4 jars and allowed them to cold crash in the fridge for about an hour while I cleaned my primary. Again, I clearly had 3 layers of trub, yeast, and watery beer
• Dumped the water from the remaining 2 jars and poured the watery beer and yeast layers from the first 4 jars into these
• Capped the jars, labeled and put them in the fridge for later.
• This whole process, start to finish, was about 3 hours

On 10/29 I attempted to use the first of these jars for Brew #32.  I decanted the jar to get the water beer off the top, then added the yeast and trub from the jar to a 6 cup starter.  I was used to seeing my starters take off within about 12 hours, so when after 24 hours had passed and the visible activity was still very anemic, I went to the LHBS and got another vial of 007 and added that to the starter. Then I threw away the other jar.  I just had no confidence in the quantity of viable yeast in these jars, and I don't like the idea of pitching unhealthy yeast in one of my beers.  I haven't attempted yeast washing since, becuase A) I use a pretty wide variety of yeasts, and B) I don't think it was worth the time invested to save $7-$8.

Brew #31: Honey Oat IPA 2, October 17, 2015

This is a repeat brew of my first original recipe, #19.  Rather than brew a straight-up repeat, I decided to make a couple of changes.  First - I changed up the yeast to WLP090 - San Diego Super.  I just wanted to give it a try. Next, I upped the flaked oats from 1 lb to 1-1/2 lb to try to give it a little more nuttiness.  Then the first time I made the Honey Oat, I used an assortment of 1/2 oz hop bags that I had left over from previous brews. This time, I didn't have the leftovers, and I didn't plan to split hops to make a true repeat.

Recipe
Batch Size Target (Actual): 5 gal (5.25 gal)
OG Target (Actual): 1.067 (1.064)
FG Target (Actual) : 1.015 (1.007)
Brew House Efficiency Target (Actual) : 69% (68%)
IBUs: 82
Color: 5.9 SRM
Style: American IPA
Recipe Type: All Grain
Boil Time: 60 minutes

Water:
Carbon Filtered York Water

Grains:
11 lbs US 2-Row
1.5 lb Flaked Oats
1 lb Honey Malt
8 oz Rice Hulls

Hops:
1 oz Columbus (pellets) @ 60 min.
0.50 oz Simcoe (pellets) @ 20 min.
0.50 oz Amarillo (pellets) @ 20 min.
0.50 oz Simcoe (pellets) @ 5 min.
0.50 oz Amarillo (pellets) @ 5 min.
1 oz Simcoe (pellets) dry hop 6 days
1 oz Amarillo (pellets)dry hop 6 days
1 oz Centennial (pellets) dry hop 6 days

Other:
1 Whrilfloc Tab @ 15 min.

Yeast:
White Labs WLP090 San Diego Super

Brewing Notes
10/13/15 - Yeast Starter:
Another 1.5 Liter yeast starter: 6c of water, 6 oz Extra light DME, 1/4 tsp yeast nutrient, boiled 10 minutes and chilled to room temperature.

10/17/15 - Brew Day:

• Sanitized (star san) my cold side equipment in the big mouth bubbler primary.
• Heated 17.50 quarts of water to 170 F in 8 gallon economy stainless HLT on outdoor propane burner
• Mashed in in 10 gal Igloo cooler, paddled until everything was well mixed and there were no dough balls
• 60 minute mash rest
• 0 minutes: mashed in, temperature was 151-152F
• 15 minutes: paddled, temperature was 148-149F
• 30 minutes: paddled, temperature was 147-148F
• 60 minutes, began vorlauf
• Manual vorlauf.  I run a 2 cup measuring cup full of wort out of the valve and gently pour this on top of the mash.  Then I repeat until I'm satisfied with the clarity.  This takes about 10-15 minutes.
• Ran off and fly sparged with 16.5 quarts of 200F water
• Ran until the mash tun was dry, about 30 minutes
• Took a pre-boil refractometer reading of 13%, which calculated to 1.052 boil gravity, 2 points under target.
• Brought to boil
• Added:
  1 oz Columbus (pellets) @ 60 min.
  0.50 oz Simcoe (pellets) @ 20 min.
  0.50 oz Amarillo (pellets) @ 20 min.
  1 Whrilfloc Tab @ 15 min.
  0.50 oz Simcoe (pellets) @ 5 min.
  0.50 oz Amarillo (pellets) @ 5 min.
• Moved kettle to the kitchen and chilled with wort chiller
• Siphoned to BMB,
• Took a refractometer reading of 16%, which translated to 1.063. Volume was 5.25 Gallons
• Pitched entire starter
• Put the BMB in the beer corner of the dining room with a blow off tube.

10/17 - 10/26/15 - Primary Fermentation:
Nothing of note. Brix was 7.2% translated to 1.007 when I racked to the 5 gallon glass carboy

10/26 - 11/7/15 - Secondary Fermentation:
Dry hopped with 1 oz Simcoe, 1 oz Centennial, and 1 ounce Amarillo on 11/1.

11/7/2015 - Bottling:
Bottled  with 4.2oz of corn sugar boiled in 2 c water to prime.  Brix was still 7.2%, 1.007 (7.5% abv).  Yield was 47 12 oz bottles


11/20 - First Taste:
Was still flat

Later (and I don't know when) this did carbonate and I was once again very happy with it.

Brew #30: Elevation Fanboy Oak-Aged IPA, October 10, 2015

Here's another one for the "clones of things I've never tried the original of" category.  I had wanted to make an oak-aged IPA so I started browsing recipes online and came across this one on Crafted Pours. I made a change or two since I couldn't get some of the ingredients, and I wanted my oak chips to be bourbon-soaked.

Recipe
Batch Size Target (Actual): 5.25 gal (5.5 gal)
OG Target (Actual): 1.081 (1.072)
FG Target (Actual) : 1.019 (1.016)
Brew House Efficiency Target (Actual) : 69% (63%)
IBUs: 100+
Color: 10.3 SRM
Style: American IPA
Recipe Type: All Grain
Boil Time: 60 minutes

Water:
Carbon filtered York water

Grains:
14 lb US 2-Row
1 lb Cara20L
1 lb Munich
0.50 lb Caramel 60
0.50 lb Cara-Pils

Hops:
1 oz Galena (pellets) @ 60 min.
1/2 oz Simcoe (pellets) @ 30 min.
1/2 oz Galena (pellets) @ 30 min.
1 oz Simcoe (pellets) @ 20 min.
1 oz Citra (pellets) @ 10 min.
1 oz Centennial (pellets) @ 5 min.
1 oz Centennial (pellets) Dry Hop 10 days

Other:
1 Whrilfloc Tab @ 15 min.
2 oz bourbon-soaked oak chips

Yeast:
WLP007 Dry English Ale Yeast

Brewing Notes

10/8/15 - Yeast Starter:
2L starter, with 7 cups of water, 7oz extra light DME, 1/2tsp yeast nutrient, boiled 10 minutes and chilled. I added 2 drops of fermcap to keep this one from making a mess, then set this on my stir plate on medium until brew day. This yeast was very clumpy. Cold crashed and decanted overnight before brew day.

10/10/15 - Brew Day:

• Sanitized (star san) my cold side equipment in the big mouth bubbler primary.
• Heated 21.25 quarts of water with pH 5.2 to 167 F in 8 gallon stainless HLT on outdoor propane burner
• Mashed in in 10 gal Igloo cooler, paddled until everything was well mixed and there were no dough balls.  Mash in temp was 150-151F
• 60 minute mash rest
• 0 minutes: temperature was 150-151F
• 15 minutes: paddled, temperature was 149-150F
• 30 minutes: paddled, temperature was 148-149F
• 60 minutes, temperature was 148F, began vorlauf
• Manual Vorlauf: I run a 2 cup measuring cup full of wort out of the valve and gently pour this on top of the mash.  Then I repeat until I'm satisfied with the clarity.  This takes about 10-15 minutes.
• Ran off and fly sparged with 14.75 quarts of 190F water.
• Measured bre-boil brix of 15.2%, which converted to 1.061, so I missed here by about 5 points.
• Ran until the mash tun was dry, about 30 minutes
• Brought to boil - 60 minute boil time
• Added:
  1 oz Galena (pellets) @ 60 min.
  1/2 oz Simcoe (pellets) @ 30 min.
  1/2 oz Galena (pellets) @ 30 min.
  1 oz Simcoe (pellets) @ 20 min.
  1 Whrilfloc Tab @ 15 min.
  1 oz Citra (pellets) @ 10 min.
  1 oz Centennial (pellets) @ 5 min.
• Chilled to 74F - Immersion wort chiller to 120, then ice bath the rest of the way.
• Siphoned to BMB, I had about 5 1/2 gallons
• Took a refractometer reading of 17.9% Brix which converted to 1.072
• Pitched decanted yeast starter

10/10 - 10/18/15 - Primary Fermentation:
Siphoned to Secondary on 10/18 on top of 2 oz of bourbon-soaked oak chips (see #28). Measured 9% Brix (1.013).

10/18/15 - 11/25/15 - Secondary Fermentation:
Dry hopped on 11/17 with an ounce of Centennial.

11/25/2015 - Bottling:
Bottled 50 12 oz bottles with with 4.2 oz corn sugar, boiled in 2c water.  Final Brix was 9.4% which calculated to 1.016 (7.4%).  I'll write some real tasting notes the next time I drink one.

4/23/16 - Bottle Bomb Update:
First ever.  I'm not sure what happened here, but I went down to the basement and smelled spilled beer. Upon further investigation, I found that one of the stubby bottles (Sierra Nevada) had exploded.  It wasn't a huge mess - it just soaked the cardboard case and dripped on the floor below.  This one has been pouring very foamy recently.  It doesn't taste infected, and the attenuation was around 77% when we bottled.  I'll drink one today and take a gravity sample to see if it has changed a lot in the past 5 months.

Brew #29: Dunkelweizen 2, September 26, 2015

Just like #8 this was a recipe from Bailee's.  The first time I brewed the dunkelweizen, we decided that it tasted like fall, so the following year I brewed it again.  Let's call this the "second annual" dunkelweizen.  This one is the all grain version, straight from the recipe book in the shop. Among the many things I like about this brew is that it is quick and easy.  I didn't make a starter, I brewed on 9/26 and I opened the first bottle by the end of October, and it doesn't seem to need any aging time.  This is a dark beer that tastes light, so it tends to appeal to people who say they don't like dark beers.  But it also has enough spice and flavor to appeal to those who like full-flavored beers.

Recipe
Batch Size Target (Actual): 5 gal (5 gal)
OG Target (Actual): 1.062 (1.059)
FG Target (Actual) : 1.013 (1.012)
Brew House Efficiency Target (Actual) : 69% (65%)
IBUs: 32
Color: 30.7 SRM
Style: Dunkelweizen
Recipe Type: All Grain
Boil Time: 60 minutes

Water:
Carbon filtered York water

Grains:
5 lb US 2-Row
5 lb English Wheat
1 lb Flaked Wheat
12 oz Midnight Wheat
4 oz Chocolate Malt
8 oz Rice Hulls

Hops:
1 oz German Northern Brewer (pellets) @ 60 min.

Yeast:
WLP380 Hefeweizen IV Ale

Brewing Notes

9/26/15 - Brew Day:

• Sanitized (star san) my cold side equipment in the big mouth bubbler primary.
• Heated 15 quarts of water with pH 5.2 to 165 F in 8 gallon stainless HLT on outdoor propane burner.
• Mashed in in 10 gal Igloo cooler, paddled until everything was well mixed and there were no dough balls.  Mash in temp was 150F
• 60 minute mash rest
• 0 minutes: temperature was 150F
• 15 minutes: paddled, temperature was 148-150F
• 30 minutes: paddled, temperature was 147-148F
• 60 minutes, began vorlauf
• Manual Vorlauf: I run a 2 cup measuring cup full of wort out of the valve and gently pour this on top of the mash.  Then I repeat until I'm satisfied with the clarity.  This takes about 10-15 minutes.
• Ran off and fly sparged with 17.5 quarts of 200F water.
• Ran until the mash tun was dry, about 30 minutes.
• Brought to boil - 60 minute boil time
• Added:
  1 oz German Northern Brewer (pellets) @ 60 min.
• Chilled with Immersion wort chiller to 120, then ice bath the rest of the way.
• Siphoned to BMB
• Took a Brix reading of 14.7%, calcuated to 1.059.
• Pitched yeast directly

9/26 - 10/9/15 - Fermentation

10/9/2015 - Bottling:
Bottled 49 12 oz bottles with with 4.5 oz corn sugar, boiled in 2c water.  Final Brix was 7.6% calculated to 1.012FG, 6.2% ABV

End of October - First Taste:
Delicious from day 1.  Next time I drink one, I'll update with some real tasting notes.

Brew #28, Bourbon Barrel Porter 2, September 5, 2015

Here's another repeat where I brewed the all grain version of a beer I had previously brewed an extract kit.  I planned this one in conjunction with brew #30 to make good use of some bourbon-soaked oak chips.  I'll get into that in the secondary section.  This is once again based on the recipe posted from Northern Brewer, with ingredients purchased from Bailee's.  There is a tweak here and there based on ingredient availability.

Recipe
Batch Size Target (Actual): 5 gal (5 gal)
OG Target (Actual): 1.064 (1.066)
FG Target (Actual) : 1.016 (1.018)
Brew House Efficiency Target (Actual) : 69% (72%)
IBUs: 55
Color: 47.3 SRM
Style: Robust Porter
Recipe Type: All Grain
Boil Time: 60 minutes

Water:
Carbon filtered York water

Grains:
9.5 lb Maris Otter
1 lb Chocolate Malt
1 lb White Wheat Malt
0.50 lb Black (patent) Malt
0.50 lb Caramel 80L

Hops:
1 oz Chinook (pellets) @ 60 min.
1/2 oz East Kent Goldings (pellets) @ 15 min.
1/2 oz East Kent Goldings (pellets) @ 5 min.

Other:
2oz oak chips (medium toast)
2 cups bourbon (I used Maker's Mark)

Yeast:
WLP028 Edinburgh Ale Yeast

Brewing Notes

9/2/15 - Yeast Starter:
1.5L starter.  With the ambient temperature in my house on the warm side, I had been having some troubles with my 2L starters spilling over the top of my 2 L flask, so with this one I threw the kitchen sink at it.  I used 6 cups of water, 6oz extra light DME, 1/2tsp yeast nutrient, boiled 10 minutes and chilled. Then I added 2 drops of fermcap and I used a foam stopper. I set this on my stir plate on low until brew day.

9/5/15 - Brew Day:

• Sanitized (star san) my cold side equipment in the big mouth bubbler primary.
• Heated 17.62 quarts of water with pH 5.2 to 165 F in 8 gallon stainless HLT on outdoor propane burner.
• Mashed in in 10 gal Igloo cooler, paddled until everything was well mixed and there were no dough balls.  Mash in temp was 154F
• 60 minute mash rest
• 0 minutes: temperature was 154F
• 15 minutes: paddled, temperature was 152-153F
• 30 minutes: paddled, temperature was 152F
• 60 minutes, began vorlauf
• Manual Vorlauf: I run a 2 cup measuring cup full of wort out of the valve and gently pour this on top of the mash.  Then I repeat until I'm satisfied with the clarity.  This takes about 10-15 minutes.
• Ran off and fly sparged with 15.25 quarts of 200F water.
• Ran until the mash tun was dry, about 30 minutes.  Took a pre-boil Refractometer reading of 12% Brix>1.047 - about 5 points below target per beersmith.
• Brought to boil - 60 minute boil time
• Added:
  1 oz Chinook (pellets) @ 60 min.
  1/2 oz East Kent Goldings (pellets) @ 15 min.
  1/2 oz East Kent Goldings (pellets) @ 5 min.
• Chilled to 76F - Immersion wort chiller to 120, then ice bath the rest of the way.
• Siphoned to BMB
• Took an OG reading of 1.064, corrected to 1.066 (above target, so I know my boil-off rate in beersmith was too low - adjusted for future brews)
• Took a Brix reading of 16.4%>1.066, so I'm happy with my calibration so far.
• Pitched entire yeast starter

9/5 - 9/22/15 - Primary Fermentation:

Siphoned to Secondary on 9/22.  Gravity was 1.018 by the hydrometer, and 9.2% brix by the refractometer, which calculated to 1.018.  Still happy with my calibration.  Because of the addition of bourbon in the secondary, I need to use this as my FG reading.

9/22 - 11/3/15 - Secondary Fermentation:
On 10/14, I started soaking 4 oz of medium toast oak chips in about 2.5 cups of makers mark. on 10/18 I added all of the bourbon to this beer and half of the chips (which weighed significantly more now).  I like cubes much better, the chips stick to each other and are tough to get into the carboy without making a mess.  I put the other half of the chips in the bottom of a second glass carboy, which I racked #30 on top of that day.

11/3/2015 - Bottling:
Bottled 51 12 oz bottles with with 4.6 oz corn sugar, boiled in 2c water.  Final Gravity was not measured because of the addition of the bourbon.  I took the 6.3% from when I racked to the secondary and added 0.5% for the bourbon to get 6.8%.

11/25/2015 - First Taste:
Fully carbonated, but at this time the bourbon and oak flavors are overpowering.  This beer truly benefits from at least a couple of months of aging.  Next time I drink one, I'll post a better description of taste.

Brew #27, Nuggarillo Rye IPA, August 8, 2015

Not to be confused with Comrade Brewing Company's El Nuggarillo, which didn't exist yet when the name for this one was coined by my brother.  This is a 2-hop IPA with a Rye backbone.  My brother made a 1 gallon batch of the Nuggarillo a little more than a year ago.  His 10 barrel batches are just a little bigger now... Jealousy aside, since he had first made the batch, this was on my to-brew list.  I made a few tweaks other than scaling - adding flaked rye and moving some of the hops around to get where I wanted for IBUs.

Here's a revisit of #14, this time all grain.  We all liked the way I hopped it the first time, with Citra substituted for the Simply Select (now Simcoe). Looking at the recipe on Northern Brewer today, I'm noticing that there are some other differences between what I brewed and what Northern Brewer's recipe is. So once again, same name, different brew. I missed targets on volume and gravity - still getting my system dialed in.

Recipe
Batch Size Target (Actual): 5 gal (5* gal)
OG Target (Actual): 1.064 (1.066)
FG Target (Actual) : 1.014 (1.009)
Brew House Efficiency Target (Actual) : 69% (71%)
IBUs: 89
Color: 8.8 SRM
Style: American IPA
Recipe Type: All Grain
Boil Time: 60 minutes

Water:
Carbon filtered York water

Grains:
10.50 lb US 2-Row
1 lb Carmel 40
1 lb Rye Malt
0.50 lb Flaked Rye
0.50 lb Rice Hulls

Hops:
1/2 oz Nugget (pellets) @ 60 min.
1/2 oz Amarillo (pellets) @ 60 min.
3/4 oz Nugget (pellets) @ 20 min.
3/4 oz Amarillo (pellets) @ 20 min.
3/4 oz Nugget (pellets) @ 5 min.
3/4 oz Amarillo (pellets) @ 5 min.
1 oz Nugget (pellets) Dry Hop 7 days
1 oz Amarillo (pellets) Dry Hop 7 days

Other:
1 Whrilfloc Tab @ 15 min.

Yeast:
WLP001

Brewing Notes

8/5/15 - Yeast Starter:
2L starter, with 8 cups of water, 8.5oz extra light DME, 1/2tsp yeast nutrient, boiled 10 minutes and chilled.  I set this on my stir plate on low until brew day.

8/8/15 - Brew Day:

• Sanitized (star san) my cold side equipment in the big mouth bubbler primary.
• Heated 16.25 quarts of water with pH 5.2 to 165 F in 8 gallon stainless HLT on outdoor propane burner
• Mashed in in 10 gal Igloo cooler, paddled until everything was well mixed and there were no dough balls.  Mash in temp was 154F
• 60 minute mash rest
• 0 minutes: temperature was 154F
• 15 minutes: paddled, temperature was 152F
• 30 minutes: paddled, temperature was 152F
• 60 minutes, began vorlauf
• Manual Vorlauf: I run a 2 cup measuring cup full of wort out of the valve and gently pour this on top of the mash.  Then I repeat until I'm satisfied with the clarity.  This takes about 10-15 minutes.
• Ran off and fly sparged with 14.75 quarts of 200F water.
• Ran until the mash tun was dry, about 30 minutes
• Brought to boil - 60 minute boil time
• Added:
  1/2 oz Nugget (pellets) @ 60 min.
  1/2 oz Amarillo (pellets) @ 60 min.
  3/4 oz Nugget (pellets) @ 20 min.
  3/4 oz Amarillo (pellets) @ 20 min.
  1 Whrilfloc Tab @ 15 min.
  3/4 oz Nugget (pellets) @ 5 min.
  3/4 oz Amarillo (pellets) @ 5 min.
• Chilled to 76F - Immersion wort chiller to 120, then ice bath the rest of the way.
• Siphoned to BMB, I only had about 4 1/2 gallons
• Topped off with room temperature water to get to 5 gallons
• Took an OG reading of 1.064, corrected to 1.066.
• Pitched yeast starter - no notes on if I cold crashed it or not

8/8 - 8/16/15 - Primary Fermentation:
Siphoned to Secondary on 8/16.  Gravity was 1.009

8/16 - 8/26/15 - Secondary Fermentation:
Dry hopped on 8/19 with an ounce each of you guessed it: Nugget and Amarillo.

8/26/2015 - Bottling:
Bottled 45 12 oz bottles with with 4.1 oz corn sugar, boiled in 2c water.  Final Gravity was 1.009 (7.5%).  Once again, this was a crowd pleaser as a late summer drinker.  I'll brew it again and write a real tasting description on that one.

Brew # 26: Kate the Great Russian Imperial Stout, July 24, 2015

Here's another entry in the "clones of things I've never tried the original of" category.  I had a RIS on my to-brew list since the day after Christmas 2014, when I had Troegs Impending Descent after the brewery tasting tour.  I was unable to find a clone recipe online that I liked for this particular Russian, so I got to browsing the internet for a recipe for any RIS that I thought I could handle.  In doing this I discovered Kate the Great from Portsmouth Brewery (now retired?).  I ended up using a recipe based on this old thread on homebrewtalk.  I knew a beer this big and dark would take some time to develop, so I brewed it in July so it would be ready by winter.

There are a couple of things I don't like about this recipe, so I'm posting this with fair warning. First, the grain bill is huge. I'm not talking about the 25 lbs of grains. There are a 11 different grains in this one.  While that may be appropriate for a world-class beer brewed by a world-class brewer, for someone like me, who had been brewing for a little over a year this kind of brew is tough to learn from.  Don't get me wrong, I've ended up with a great and incredibly complex beer.  The problem is, I really don't know how I got there.  I could brew it again, but I'm no closer to making up my own recipe.  I'd say this is the polar opposite of a SMASH brew.  Second is the partial oz hops.  I don't have a problem with whole or 1/2 oz uses, but when I'm using 3 or 4 tenths at a time it means I'm left with 6 or 7 tenths in my hop bag.  What do I do with that? I suppose if I were trying to make a true clone or if I were making a brew commercially and required commercial consistency, then this level of precision might be necessary.

Recipe
Batch Size Target (Actual): 6 gal (6 gal)
OG Target (Actual): 1.102 (1.098)
FG Target (Actual) : 1.022 (1.019)
Brew House Efficiency Target (Actual) : 69% (61*%)
IBUs: 75
Color: 50.6 SRM
Style: Russian Imperial Stout
Recipe Type: All Grain*
Boil Time: 80 minutes

Water:
Carbon filtered York water

Grains:
19.5 lbs US 2 Row
14 oz Flaked Barley
14 oz Belgian Special B
14 oz White Wheat
12 oz Carafa III
10 oz Aromatic
8 oz Caramel 40L
8 oz Roasted Barley
4 oz Black Patent
4 oz Caramel 120L
4 oz Chocolate Malt
(yeah that's ridiculous)
Then, because my boil gravity was low, I added 11oz of extra light DME too.

Hops:
1 oz US Magnum (pellets) @ 75 min.
1 oz St Celeia (pellets) @ 75 min.
1 oz Perle (pellets) @ 75 min.
0.3 oz Centennial (pellets) @ 15 min.
0.4 oz Palisade (pellets) @ Flameout, 15 min. steep
0.5 oz St Celeia (pellets) @ Flameout, 15 min. steep
0.5 oz Willamette (pellets) @ Flameout, 15 min. steep

Yeast:
WLP001

Brewing Notes

7/20/15 - Yeast Starter:
A huge beer deserves a huge starter.  With this one, I had started using a calculator, which told me to use a 3L starter on my stir plate. This was 3L water, 12oz xlt DME, and 1 tsp yeast nutrient, boiled 10 minutes and chilled

7/25/15 - Brew Day:

• Cold crashed the starter overnight from 7/24 to 7/25, then decanted the morning of 7/25
• Sanitized (star san) my cold side equipment in the big mouth bubbler primary.
• Heated 28.2 quarts of water with pH 5.2 to 168 F in 8 gallon stainless HLT on outdoor propane burner.  I knew this one was going to be close for mash tun, so I used this calculator to estimate my mash volume.  This was the reason I dropped to 1.12 qt/lbs.
• Mashed in in 10 gal Igloo cooler, paddled until everything was well mixed and there were no dough balls.  Mash in temp was 154-156F
  
• 60 minute mash rest
• 0 minutes: temperature was 154-156F
• 15 minutes: paddled, temperature was 151-153F
• 30 minutes: paddled, temperature was 153F
• 60 minutes, began vorlauf
• Manual Vorlauf: I run a 2 cup measuring cup full of wort out of the valve and gently pour this on top of the mash.  Then I repeat until I'm satisfied with the clarity.  This takes about 10-15 minutes.
• Ran off and fly sparged with 14.12 quarts of 210F water.
  
• Ran until the mash tun was dry, about 30 minutes
• Brought to boil - 80 minute boil time
• Added:
  1 oz US Magnum (pellets) @ 75 min.
  1 oz St Celeia (pellets) @ 75 min.
  1 oz Perle (pellets) @ 75 min.
  Added 11oz xlt DME @ 45 min due to a low measured boil gravity.
  0.3 oz Centennial (pellets) @ 15 min.
  0.4 oz Palisade (pellets) @ Flameout
  0.5 oz St Celeia (pellets) @ Flameout
  0.5 oz Willamette (pellets) @ Flameout
• Brought inside and allowed hops to stand 15 min.
• Chilled to 76F - My ground water was getting warmer so the immersion chiller was not working as effectively, so this one got an ice bath too.
  
• Siphoned to BMB
  
• Took an OG reading of 1.096, corrected to 1.098.
• Pitched decanted yeast starter

7/25 - 8/16/15 - Primary Fermentation:
I gave this one most of a month to ferment and settle down. Siphoned to Secondary on 8/16.  Gravity was 1.021.  I also measured 11.9% brix on my new refractometer.

8/16 - 9/30 - Secondary Fermentation:
I gave this a month and a half for bulk conditioning, and then I wanted to liberate my carboy, so we bottled and planned to allow some more time for conditioning in the bottle.

9/30/2015 - Bottling:
Bottled 53 12 oz bottles with with 4.1 oz corn sugar, boiled in 2c water.  Final Gravity was 1.019 (10.5%).

Tastes:
I tasted 6 or 8 of these periodically from October 19 until January 12, 2016.  Some were carbonated, some were flat.  By late January, these were consistently carbonated, although a little on the flat side for my taste.
 
Updated tasting 4/18/16: I'm not going to try to use the BJCP five-part tasting notes because that would be a farce.  Here goes: This beer pours black as midnight and opaque, with a thin dark tan head.  Flavor is very complex, with dark chocolate and coffee dominant, with raisin/dark caramel in the background.  Little alcohol heat.  Hop bitterness is definitely present.  This beer is full-bodied but slightly under carbonated.  Overall, I very much enjoy this beer and it will quite the feat of will for me to reserve any for aging.

Next Time:
I'll most likely brew a different RIS this summer for consumption over the wintertime.  The reasoning behind this is just to get a little variety.  I expect to reserve almost a case of the KTG for winter 2016/2017, and I'd like to have something a little different.  As I wrote in the preamble to this post, I really think this recipe is too complex of a malt bill for an amateur homebrewer to learn much from, so when/if I brew this recipe again, I would most likely brew it identically  I would either force carbonate or re-pitch yeast next time so that I can be sure it fully carbonates.

Learning Experiences:
This brew in particular spurred a couple of changes in my brew set-up.  First, it set the wheels in motion to start kegging and force carbonating.  It is frustrating to brew a very big (expensive) beer, wait patiently for fermentation and bulk conditioning, then bottle with sugar, wait, only to find out the beer is flat.  Most likely on this one, the yeast was just so exhausted that it took a very long time to wake back up.  Then because the FG was pretty high, I didn't get the kind of carbonation I was looking for.  The second change was the purchase of a false bottom for my mash tun.  Up until this point, I had been using a bazooka screen, and I think that that is partially to blame for my low efficiency.  I have a theory that there is a dead space on either side of the screen where the flow from the fly sparge is bad, resulting in a portion of the grain being not fully sparged.  A false bottom covering the entire bottom of my mash tun should fix that.  I'll find out next time I brew a beer with half a sack of grains.

Brew #25, Conundrum Session IPA 2, July 11, 2015

Here's a revisit of #14, this time all grain.  We all liked the way I hopped it the first time, with Citra substituted for the Simply Select (now Simcoe). Looking at the recipe on Northern Brewer today, I'm noticing that there are some other differences between what I brewed and what Northern Brewer's recipe is. So once again, same name, different brew. I missed targets on volume and gravity - still getting my system dialed in.

Recipe
Batch Size Target (Actual): 5 gal (5* gal)
OG Target (Actual): 1.048 (1.054)
FG Target (Actual) : 1.011 (1.009)
Brew House Efficiency Target (Actual) : 69% (75%)
IBUs: 71
Color: 5.9 SRM
Style: American IPA
Recipe Type: All Grain
Boil Time: 60 minutes

Water:
Carbon filtered York water

Grains:
3.75 lb UK 2-Row
3.75 lb Maris Otter
1 lb White Wheat
1 lb Caramel 20L

Hops:
1/2 oz Amarillo (pellets) @ FWH
1/2 oz Centennial (pellets) @ 60 min.
1/2 oz Amarillo (pellets) @ 20 min
1/2 oz Citra (pellets) @ 20 min
1/2 oz Amarillo (pellets) @ 5 min
1/2 oz Crystal (pellets) @ 5 min
1/2 oz Citra (pellets) Dry hop 7 days
1/2 oz Crystal (pellets) Dry hop 7 days
1/2 oz Amarillo (pellets) Dry hop 7 days
1/2 oz Centennial (pellets) Dry hop 7 days

Other:
1 Whrilfloc Tab @ 15 min.

Yeast:
Safale US-05 pitched dry

Brewing Notes

7/11/15 - Brew Day:

• Sanitized (star san) my cold side equipment in the big mouth bubbler primary.
• Heated 11.88 quarts of water with pH 5.2 to 165 F in 8 gallon stainless HLT on outdoor propane burner
• Mashed in in 10 gal Igloo cooler, paddled until everything was well mixed and there were no dough balls.  Mash in temp was 154F
• 60 minute mash rest
• 0 minutes: temperature was 154F
• 15 minutes: paddled, temperature was 152-154F
• 30 minutes: paddled, temperature was 151-153F
• 60 minutes, began vorlauf
• Manual Vorlauf: I run a 2 cup measuring cup full of wort out of the valve and gently pour this on top of the mash.  Then I repeat until I'm satisfied with the clarity.  This takes about 10-15 minutes.
• Ran off and fly sparged with 17.5 quarts of 200F water.  I had a 1/2 oz of Amarillo hops in the bottom of the kettle during the runoff as my first wort hop.
• Ran until the mash tun was dry, about 30 minutes
• Brought to boil - 60 minute boil time
• Added:
  1/2 oz Centennial (pellets) @ 60 min.
  1/2 oz Amarillo (pellets) @ 20 min
  1/2 oz Citra (pellets) @ 20 min
  1 Whirlfloc tab @ 15 min.
  1/2 oz Amarillo (pellets) @ 5 min
  1/2 oz Crystal (pellets) @ 5 min
• Chilled to 78F - My ground water was getting warmer so the immersion chiller was not working as effectively.
• Siphoned to BMB, I only had about 4 1/2 gallons
• Topped off with room temperature water to get to 5 gallons
• Took an OG reading of 1.052, corrected to 1.054.
• Sprinkled the yeast on top of the wort

7/11 - 7/20/15 - Primary Fermentation:
Siphoned to Secondary on 7/20.  Gravity was 1.009

7/20 - 8/4/15 - Secondary Fermentation:
Dry hopped on 7/28 with a half ounce each of: Citra, Amarillo, Crystal, and Centennial added directly into the carboy.

8/4/2015 - Bottling:
Bottled 44 12 oz bottles with with 4.1 oz corn sugar, boiled in 2c water.  Final Gravity was 1.009 (5.9%).  Once again, this was a crowd pleaser as a late summer drinker.

Brew #24: F-Bomb Imperial Amber, June 20, 2015

This brew was an all-around original recipe.  I wanted a double IPA, a little on the amber side.  I also wanted to try something else with the pitch of Vermont Ale Yeast (Conan) that I reserved from #21. And, since most of my IPA brews had been on the piney side, I wanted this one to be all citrus.

Recipe
Batch Size Target (Actual): 6 gal (6 gal)
OG Target (Actual): 1.078 (1.076)
FG Target (Actual) : 1.009 (1.015)
Brew House Efficiency Target (Actual) : 72% (69%)
IBUs: 94
Color: 15.1 SRM
Style: Imperial IPA
Recipe Type: All Grain
Boil Time: 90 minutes

Water:
Carbon filtered York water

Grains:
14.8 lbs US 2-Row
8 oz Belgian Special B
1.75 lbs Caramel 40L
1 lb Clear Candi Sugar @ 15 minutes

Hops:
1oz Warrior (pellets) @ 60 min.
1oz Galaxy (pellets) @ 60 min.
1 oz Citra (pellets) @ Flameout, steep 15 min
1 oz Cascade (pellets) @ Flameout, steep 15 min
1 oz Centennial (pellets) @ Flameout, steep 15 min
1 oz Nelson Sauvin (pellets) Dry hop 6 days
2 oz Galaxy (pellets) Dry hop 6 days
1 oz Citra (pellets) Dry hop 6 days

Other:
1 Whrilfloc Tab @ 15 min.
1 oz Bitter orange peel @ 5 Min.

Yeast:
Vermont Ale Yeast (Conan)

Brewing Notes
6/17/15 - Yeast Starter:
I made a huge 3L yeast starter for 2 reasons: There wasn't a lot of reserved yeast from the previous batch, and I wanted to reserve another vial.  To make a 3 L starter, I used 12oz extra light DME, 12 cups of water, and 3/4tsp yeast nutrient, boiled for 10 minutes.  I put this in a 1 gallon carboy.


6/20/15 - Brew Day:

• Cold crashed and decanted the starter overnight from 6/19-6/30
• Sanitized (star san) my cold side equipment in the big mouth bubbler primary.
• Heated 21 quarts of water with 1 tbsp pH 5.2 to 165 F in 8 gallon stainless HLT on outdoor propane burner
• Mashed in in 10 gal Igloo cooler, paddled until everything was well mixed and there were no dough balls.  Mash in temp was 152-154F
• 70 minute mash rest
• 0 minutes: temperature was 152-154F
• 15 minutes: paddled, temperature was 150-152F
• 30 minutes: paddled, temperature was 149-150F
• 70 minutes, began vorlauf
• Manual Vorlauf: I run a 2 cup measuring cup full of wort out of the valve and gently pour this on top of the mash.  Then I repeat until I'm satisfied with the clarity.  This takes about 10-15 minutes.
• Ran off and fly sparged with 19 quarts of 200F water
• Ran until the mash tun was dry, about 30 minutes
• Brought to boil - 90 minute boil time
• Added:
  1oz Warrior (pellets) @ 60 min.
  1oz Galaxy (pellets) @ 60 min.
  1 lb Clear Candi Sugar @ 15 minutes
  1 Whrilfloc Tab @ 15 min.
  1 oz Bitter orange peel @ 5 Min.
  1 oz Citra (pellets) @ Flameout
  1 oz Cascade (pellets) @ Flameout
  1 oz Centennial (pellets) @ Flameout
• Brought inside and let stand for 18 minutes
• Chilled to 78F - My ground water was getting warmer so the immersion chiller was not working as effectively.
• Siphoned to BMB
• Took an OG reading of 1.074, corrected to 1.076.
• Pitched yeast starter except for 1 vial of reserved yeast

6/20 - 6/30/15 - Primary Fermentation:
Siphoned to Secondary on 6/30.  Gravity was 1.016

6/30 - 7/18/15 - Secondary Fermentation:
Dry hopped on 7/12 with:
1 oz Nelson Sauvin (pellets)
2 oz Galaxy (pellets)
1 oz Citra (pellets)

7/18/2015 - Bottling:
Bottled 46 12 oz bottles with with 4.1 oz corn sugar, boiled in 2c water.  Final Gravity was 1.015 (8.1%). This beer was very good, definitely fruity.  I'm not sure why my attenuation was low.  As these aged in the bottle, the carbonation got a little out of hand.  I think this was stalled when I bottled and then as it conditioned the yeast woke back up again.  I never got a chance to take another sample to see if this is right.  I'll be brewing this again in a couple of weeks with a fresh pitch of yeast.