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.

Brew #23: Honey Amber Ale, May 31, 2015

Here's another kit I bought from Midwest Supplies, which I brewed to the recipe.  I bought this in January or February before I started brewing all grain and it sat in my basement until I had the desire/opportunity to brew it.  This was a bit of a spur-of-the moment, "what am I going to do this weekend" brew.  Because I had the equipment for it now, I brewed this one with a full boil.

Recipe
Batch Size: 5 gal
Boil Size: 5.5 gal
Target OG: 1.054-1.058
Target FG: 1.010-1.016
Style: Amber Ale
Recipe Type: Extract with specialty grains
Boil Time: 60 minutes

Water:
Charcoal filtered York water

Specialty Grains:
8 oz Caramel 80L
2 oz Roasted Barley
2 oz Belgian Special B

Fermentables:
6 lb Gold LME @ 60 min.
2 lb Minnesota clover honey @ 10 min

Hops:
1/2 oz Galena (pellets) @  60 min.
1 oz Fuggles (pellets) @ 2 min.

Other:
1 Whrilfloc Tab @ 15 min.

Yeast:
Wyeast 1056 American Ale

Brewing Notes
5/30/15 - Yeast Starter:
I made a 2 L starter for this one.  I wanted to give this one a little kick start because the yeast was near expiration date. As usual, 8c water, 8oz extra light DME, 1/2 tsp yeast nutrient, boiled 10 minutes and chilled.

5/31/15 - Brew Day:

• Sanitized (star san) my cold side equipment in the big mouth bubbler primary.
• Heated 5.5 gal water to 155 F in 8 gallon stainless kettle on my outdoor propane burner.
• Steeped specialty grains at 155F in muslin bag for 20 minutes.
• Removed the grain bag and held it above the kettle to drain.
• Brought to boil
• Shut off burner.
• Added all of the LME
• Returned to boil, set timer for 60 minutes and added:
  1/2 oz Galena (pellets) @  60 min.
  1 Whrilfloc Tab @ 15 min.
  2 lb Minnesota clover honey @ 10 min
  1 oz Fuggles (pellets) @ 2 min.
• Brought kettle inside and chilled with wort chiller to 74 F
• Transferred to BMB, then topped off with 1/2 gallon room temperature water to get to 5 Gallons
• Took an OG reading of 1.060, corrected to 1.062.
• Pitched entire yeast starter
• Put the BMB in the beer corner of the dining room with a blow off tube.

5/31/15 - 6/9/15 - Primary Fermentation:
Gravity was 1.008 when I racked to the glass carboy on 6/9.

6/9 - 6/27/15 - Secondary Fermentation

6/27/15 - Bottling:
Bottled with 5oz of clover honey (0.42 cups) boiled in 2 c water to prime.  Gravity was 1.008 (7.1% abv).

??? - First Taste:
Dry and a little Meady.  This one was popular too.

Brew #22, Belgian Dubbel 2, May 16, 2015

I really liked the Belgian dubbel I brewed for #13, so I decided to make the all grain version of the same kit.  This is a recipe kit from Northern Brewer, but I think I may have bought the ingredients at the local homebrew shop.  This is brewed to the recipe, no modifications.

Recipe
Batch Size Target (Actual): 5 gal (5 gal*)
OG Target (Actual): 1.064 (1.062)
FG Target (Actual) : 1.009 (1.007)
Brew House Efficiency Target (Actual) : 72% (66%)
IBUs: 29
Color: 28.6 SRM
Style: Belgian Dubbel
Recipe Type: All Grain
Boil Time: 60 minutes

Water:
Carbon filtered York water

Grains:
10 lbs US 2-Row
8 oz Crystal 40L
4 oz Belgian Special B
1 lb Dark Candi Sugar @ 15 minutes

Hops:
1oz German Tradition (pellets) @ 60 min.
1 oz Hersbrucker (pellets) @ 10 min.

Other:
1 Whrilfloc Tab @ 15 min.

Yeast:
WLP500 Monastery Ale Yeast

Brewing Notes
5/13/15 - Yeast Starter:
2 Liter yeast starter: 8c of water, 1/2 lb Extra light DME, 1/2 tsp yeast nutrient, boiled 10 minutes and chilled to room temperature. Fermented on a stir plate. Cold crashed and decanted overnight 5/15 into 5/16, then allowed it to come back up to room temp.

5/16/15 - Brew Day:

• Sanitized (star san) my cold side equipment in the big mouth bubbler primary.
• Heated 13.44 quarts of water 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 154-156F, so I added 1/2 qt cold water, which got me down to 153-155F
• 60 minute mash rest
• 0 minutes: temperature was 153-155F
• 15 minutes: paddled, temperature was 151-152F
• 30 minutes: paddled, temperature was 151F
• 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 14.62 quarts of 195F water
• Ran until the mash tun was dry, about 30 minutes
• Brought to boil - 60 minute boil time
• Added:
  1oz German Tradition (pellets) @ 60 min.
  1 Tab Whirlfloc @ 15 min.
  Wort Chiller @ 15 min.
  1 oz Hersbrucker (pellets) @ 10 min.
• Chilled to 76F
• Siphoned to BMB,
• Volume was only 4.25 Gal, so I topped off to 5 with room temperature filtered water. Something must have been wrong with my calculations on this one.
• Took an OG reading of 1.060, corrected to 1.062.
• Pitched yeast starter

5/16 - 5/30/15 - Primary Fermentation:
Siphoned to Secondary on 5/30.  Gravity was 1.009

5/30 - 6/21/15 - Secondary Fermentation

6/21/2015 - Bottling:
This was a bit of a comedy of errors.  I found mold on the outside side of the airlock water and on the top of the lid when I brought the carboy up from the basement.  This was the last time I put uncapped beer in the basement.  Then, we got about half way through bottling and realized "Oh Shit! we forgot the sugar." So I proceeded to pour 7 22oz bottles and 6 12oz bottles back into the bottling bucket, trying to pour as gently as possible down the side of bucket to try to keep the oxygen pickup down.  I don't recommend forgetting the sugar.  Bottled with 4.6oz corn sugar, boiled in 2 cups of water.  Yield was 7 22oz bottles and 37 12oz bottles, FG was 1.007 (7.2% ABV).

??? - First Taste:
No date, no notes. Again. This was good - I really like the WLP500 yeast character.  As I mentioned in #13, I thought the extract version was better - probably due to my poor execution.

Brew #21, Off the Topper IIPA, May 2, 2015

Here's an all grain kit from Northern Brewer.  I bought this one complete with the "Vermont Ale Yeast" which is supposedly actually Conan. My only taste of Heady Topper was a few months earlier, splitting a can 5 ways with my family, so without tasting side by side, I can't say if this is a clone (it's not a clone).  I also tried my brother's extract version of this kit while brewing #19 so I decided to brew the AG version. Due to a Simcoe shortage, my kit came with Simply Select hop blend instead of Simcoe.

Recipe
Batch Size Target (Actual): 6 gal (5.5 gal)
OG Target (Actual): 1.070 (1.062)
FG Target (Actual) : 1.011 (1.010)
Brew House Efficiency Target (Actual) : 70% (68%)
IBUs: 100+
Color: 11.4 SRM
Style: American IPA
Recipe Type: All Grain
Boil Time: 60 minutes

Water:
Carbon filtered York water

Grains:
0.75 lbs White Wheat
13.5 lb Fawcett Pearl Malt
0.75 lb Light Carastan Malt
1 lb Brun Leger @ Flamout

Hops:
10mL Hop Shot @ 60 min.
2 oz Simply Select @ Flameout, stand 15 minutes
1 oz Columbus @ Flameout, stand 15 minutes
0.5 oz Apollo @ Flameout, stand 15 minutes

1 oz Columbus @ 180F, stand 15 minutes
1 oz Simply Select @ 180F, stand 15 minutes
1 oz Amarillo @ 180F, stand 15 minutes
0.5 oz Centennial @ 180F, stand 15 minutes
0.5 oz Apollo @ 180F, stand 15 minutes

0.5 oz Columbus - Dry hop in primary 4 days
1 oz Simply Select - Dry hop in primary 4 days
0.5 oz Amarillo - Dry hop in primary 4 days
0.5 oz Centennial - Dry hop in primary 4 days
0.25 oz Apollo - Dry hop in primary 4 days

0.5 oz Columbus - Dry hop in secondary 4 days
1 oz Simply Select - Dry hop in secondary 4 days
0.5 oz Amarillo - Dry hop in secondary 4 days
0.5 oz Centennial - Dry hop in secondary 4 days
0.25 oz Apollo - Dry hop in secondary 4 days

Other:
1 Whrilfloc Tab @ 15 min.

Yeast:
Vermont Ale Yeast (Conan)


Brewing Notes
4/25/15 - Yeast Starter 1:
1 Liter yeast starter: 4c of water, 1/4 lb Extra light DME, 1/4 tsp yeast nutrient, boiled 10 minutes and chilled to room temperature. Fermented on a stir plate. Cold crashed and decanted overnight 4/27 into 4/28, then allowed it to come back up to room temp.

4/28/15 - Yeast Starter 2:
2 Liter yeast starter: 8c of water, 1/2 lb Extra light DME, 1/2 tsp yeast nutrient, boiled 10 minutes and chilled to room temperature.  I poured the remaining yeast slurry from Starter 1 and the stir bar into a 2 Liter flask.  The night before brew day, I cold crashed the 2 L starter in the fridge, then decanted the morning of.

5/2/15 - Brew Day:

• Sanitized (star san) my cold side equipment in the big mouth bubbler primary.  This included the wort chiller this time.
• Heated 19 quarts of water to 178 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, so I added cold water until it was 151, which took about 1.5qt
• 60 minute mash rest
• 0 minutes: temperature was 151F
• 15 minutes: paddled, temperature was 148-151F
• 30 minutes: paddled, temperature was 148F, added 1qt boiling water temp was 150F
• 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 quarts of 190F water
• Ran until the mash tun was dry, about 30 minutes
  
• Brought to boil - 60 minute boil time
• Added:
  10mL hopshot @ 60 min.
  1 Whirlfloc Tab @ 15 min.
  1lb Brun Leger @ Flameout
  2 oz Simply Select @ Flameout
  1 oz Columbus @ Flameout
  0.5 oz Apollo @ Flameout
• Moved kettle to the kitchen and let stand for 15 minutes
• Chilled with wort chiller to 180F, then cut off the water flow to the chiller
• Added:
  1 oz Columbus
  1 oz Simply Select
  1 oz Amarillo
  0.5 oz Centennial
  0.5 oz Apollo
• Chilled to 70F
• Siphoned to BMB,
• Took an OG reading of 1.068, corrected to 1.069. Volume was 6 Gallons
• Reserved 1 sanitized vial of yeast from the huge starter to use on a future brew (#24)
• Pitched the rest of the yeast
• Put the BMB in the basement (68F) with a blow off tube. Look at all of those hops.
  

5/2 - 5/15/15 - Primary Fermentation:
Brought the BMB upstairs to try to ramp temperature per the yeast recommendation on 5/8, temp got to 72 to 74F.
On 5/11, dry hopped with:
0.5 oz Columbus
1 oz Simply Select
0.5 oz Amarillo
0.5 oz Centennial
0.25 oz Apollo
Siphoned to Secondary on 5/15.  Gravity was 1.012

5/15 - 5/30/15 - Secondary Fermentation:
On 5/26, dry hopped with:
0.5 oz Columbus
1 oz Simply Select
0.5 oz Amarillo
0.5 oz Centennial
0.25 oz Apollo

5/30/2015 - Bottling:
Bottled  with 4.3oz of corn sugar boiled in 2 c water to prime.  Gravity was 1.011 (7.7% abv).

??? - First Taste:
No date, no notes. Again. These were incredible, but I thought the peach character of the yeast was more subtle than my brother's - although I never tasted side by side.

Brew #20: Hefeweizen and Naked Mango Hefeweizen, April 17, 2015

Here was my first attempt at a split batch. I wanted to try something new (for me) which was add fruit to my beer but I didn't want to commit a whole 5 gallon batch to it. I planned from the start to make a 6 gallon batch, bottling the first 5 gallons after 2 weeks and reserving 1 gallon for experimentation in a secondary.  My original intent was to use blood orange puree, but that was prohibitively expensive.  I ended up using about half of a Naked mango smoothie.  More to come on that.

Recipe
Batch Size Target (Actual): 6 gal (6 gal)
OG Target (Actual): 1.052 (1.047)
FG Target (Actual) : 1.014 (1.011)
Brew House Efficiency Target (Actual) : 72% (67%)
IBUs: 15
Color: 3.6 SRM
Style: Hefeweizen
Recipe Type: All Grain
Boil Time: 60 minutes

Water:
Carbon Filtered York water (I think this is the first brew I used the filter)

Grains:
5 lbs US Pilsner
6.5 lb German What Malt
12 oz Rice Hulls

Hops:
1 oz Hallertau (pellets) @ 60 min.

Other:
1 tbsp pH 5.2 buffer in strike water

Yeast:
White Labs WLP300 Hefeweizen Ale

Brewing Notes
4/17/15 - Yeast Starter:
1 Liter yeast starter: 4c of water, 1/4 lb Extra light DME, 1/4 tsp yeast nutrient, boiled 10 minutes and chilled to room temperature.

4/19/15 - Brew Day:

• Heated 15.31 quarts of water with 1 tbsp pH 5.2 buffer to 170 F in 5 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 155-156F
• 15 minutes: paddled, temperature was 153-154F
• 30 minutes: paddled, temperature was 152-153F
• 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 21.5 quarts of 190F water
• Ran until the mash tun was dry, about 30 minutes
• Brought to boil
• Added:
  1 oz Hallertau (pellets) @ 60 min.
  Wort Chiller @ 20 min.
• Moved kettle to the kitchen and chilled with wort chiller
• Siphoned to BMB,
• Took an OG reading of 1.046, corrected to 1.047. Volume was 5.5 Gallons
• Pitched entire starter
• Put the BMB in the beer corner of the dining room with a blow off tube.

4/17 - 5/1/15 - Primary Fermentation:
Nothing of note. I tested gravity of 4/28 to be sure it was done. Gravity was 1.011.  On 5/1 I racked 1 gallon into a 1 gallon glass carboy on top of half a bottle of Naked mango smoothie.

I had wanted to use blood orange puree, but I wasn't able to get this at a reasonable price, so I went with a backup. The rest I proceeded to bottling

4/28/2015 - Bottling:
Bottled  with ??oz of corn sugar boiled in 2 c water to prime. Yield was 49 12oz bottles.

5/1 - 5/25 - Secondary Fermentation:

Naked Mango in the foreground, bonus preview
of #21 in the background

Secondary fermentation, or more specifically bulk conditioning was just for the 1 gallon Naked mango version.  I wanted to leave this alone for 4 weeks to be sure that if there was any fermentation of the fruit, this would finish up.

5/25/2015 - Bottling:
Bottled the 1 gallon split with 1oz of corn sugar boiled in 2 c water to prime.

5/18 - First Taste (plain Hefeweizen):

Carbonation was ready. Tastes of banana, bubblegum.  Carbonation was like champagne.  I noted that if I make this again, this needs at least 1 lb of flaked wheat to make it more hazy.  I thought it was too clear.  This was not one of my favorite batches, but I think that had more to do with it not being one of my favorite styles.  The beer was well received among my friends and family, and I would say it was a very "accessible" brew for those less interested in bold flavors.

??? - First Taste (Naked Mango Hefeweizen)
The Mango completely dominated the subtle flavors from the yeast.  This reminded me of Peachie-Os.  This is not really my style but some people really liked it.

Brew #19: Honey Oat IPA, April 4, 2015

Finally! A Russell original! While I've made a few tweaks to kits, I hadn't yet built a recipe from the ground up yet.  I went with a pretty simple grain bill and I used some leftover hops in the recipe.

Recipe
Batch Size Target (Actual): 5 gal (5.5 gal)
OG Target (Actual): 1.068 (1.062)
FG Target (Actual) : 1.015 (1.010)
Brew House Efficiency Target (Actual) : 72% (72%)
IBUs: 69
Color: 6.4 SRM
Style: American IPA
Recipe Type: All Grain
Boil Time: 70 minutes

Water:
Acadia bottled spring water

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

Hops:
0.50 oz Columbus (pellets) @ 60 min.
0.50 oz Chinook (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 8 days
0.50 oz Amarillo (pellets)dry hop 8 days
1 oz Centennial (pellets) dry hop 8 days

Other:
1 Whrilfloc Tab @ 15 min.

Yeast:
White Labs WLP001 California Ale Yeast

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

4/4/15 - Brew Day:

• Sanitized (star san) my cold side equipment in the big mouth bubbler primary.
• Heated 17.88 quarts of water to 170 F in 5 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 155F
• 15 minutes: paddled, temperature was 153-155F
• 30 minutes: paddled, temperature was 153-154F
• 60 minutes, began vorlauf
• Vorlauf process is very much manual.  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 190F water
• Ran until the mash tun was dry, about 30 minutes
• Volume seemed high, so although I had planned 60 min boil, I set the timer for 70 min to get more boil off
• Added:
  0.50 oz Columbus (pellets) @ 60 min.
  0.50 oz Chinook (pellets) @ 60 min.
  0.50 oz Simcoe (pellets) @ 20 min.
  0.50 oz Amarillo (pellets) @ 20 min.
  1 Whirlfloc Tab @ 15 min.
  Wort Chiller @ 10 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 an OG reading of 1.062, corrected to 1.063. Volume was 5.5 Gallons
• Pitched entire starter
• Put the BMB in the beer corner of the dining room with a blow off tube.

4/4 - 4/15/15 - Primary Fermentation:
Nothing of note. Gravity was 1.011 when I racked to the 5 gallon glass carboy

4/15 - 4/28/15 - Secondary Fermentation:
Dry hopped with 1 oz Simcoe, 1 oz Centennial, and 1/2 ounce Amarillo on 4/20.

4/28/2015 - Bottling:
Bottled  with 4.3oz of corn sugar boiled in 2 c water to prime.  Gravity was 1.011 (6.8% abv).
Here's a moment that was a little ridiculous.  In the back left, I'm boiling caps to sanitize for this batch. On the back right, I'm boiling the priming sugar.  On the front left, I'm boiling a hop bag to act as a strainer for the dry hops, and on the front right, I'm boiling the yeast starter for #21.


5/15 - First Taste:
This one turned out very well, and I planned to repeat it in the future.  A friend described (very enthusiastically) as "The kind of beer that when you take a sip... it makes you want to take the next sip."  I guess that's the goal?

Brew #18: Lawnmower de Saison, March 28, 2015

A late March snow pushed me back inside, so I brewed #1 of 2 extract kits I bought from Midwest Supplies.  This recipe was exciting to me because it had a fair amount going on: A grain and adjunct bill that looks like a witbier, candi sugar to make it look like a Trappist ale, and a fair amount of hops. I brewed this one with a partial boil on the stovetop.

Recipe
Batch Size: 5 gal
Boil Size: 3 gal
Target OG: 1.055-1.059
Target FG: 1.012-1.016
Style: Saison
Recipe Type: Extract with specialty grains
Boil Time: 60 minutes

Water:
Acadia bottled spring water

Specialty Grains:
0.5 lb Cara20L
0.5 lb Unmalted Wheat

Fermentables:
3.15 lb Wheat LME (65% Wheat, 35% Barley) @ 60 min.
3.15 lb Pilsen LME @ 60 min.
1 lb clear Belgian Candi Sugar @ 15 min.

Hops:
1 oz Saaz (pellets) @  60 min.
1 oz Goldings (pellets) @ 30 min.
1 oz Goldings (pellets) @ 5 min.

Other:
1/4 tsp grains of paradise @ 15 min.
1 oz bitter orange peel @ 15 min.
1/2 oz coriander @ 15 min.
1 Whrilfloc Tab @ 14 min.

Yeast:
Wyeast 3942 Belgian Wheat

Brewing Notes
3/26/15 - Yeast Starter:
This didn't reach my arbitrary 1.060 threshold for making a yeast starter, but I had some question about the health of the yeast.  This was my first time using a Wyeast pack, it had been shipped, and the pack was partially swollen.  Because of this, I made a quick starter, 4C water, 1/4 lb extra light DME, and 1/4 tsp yeast nutrient, boiled 10 minutes and cooled. Then the whole pack of yeast went in the 1L flask.

3/28/15 - Brew Day:

• Sanitized (star san) my cold side equipment in the big mouth bubbler primary.
• Heated 3 gal water to 155 F in 5 gallon economy stainless kettle on the stovetop.
• Steeped specialty grains at 155F in muslin bag for 20 minutes.
• Removed the grain bag and held it above the kettle to drain.
• Brought to boil
• Removed kettle from the burner.
• Added both types of LME
• Returned to boil, set timer for 60 minutes and added:
  1oz Saaz @ 60 min.
  1oz Goldings @ 30 min.
  1/4tsp Grains of Paradise @ 15 min.
  1 oz bitter orange peel @ 15 min.
  1/2 oz coriander @ 15 min.
  1 lb clear belgian candi sugar @ 15 min.
  1 tab Whirlfloc @ 14 min.
  wort chiller @ 10 min.
  1 oz Goldings @ 5 min.
• Moved kettle to the sink and chilled with wort chiller to 100 F
• Added 2 gal of pre-chilled water to the kettle to bring temperature to 72F
• Siphoned to BMB, then added more room temperature water until I had 5 Gallons.
• Took an OG reading of 1.050, corrected to 1.052.  I'm not sure why this one undershot.
• pitched entire yeast starter
• Put the BMB in the beer corner of the dining room with a blow off tube.

3/28/15 - 4/1/15 - Primary Fermentation:
Obviously very fast. Gravity was 1.012 when I racked to the glass carboy on 4/1.


4/1 - 4/21/15 - Secondary Fermentation:
Brought down to the basement floor to "cool crash" - it only got down to around 64F

4/21/15 - Bottling:
Bottled  with 4.3oz of corn sugar boiled in 2 c water to prime.  Gravity was 1.008 (5.8% abv). Yield was 50 12 oz bottles.

5/11/15 - First Taste:
A little belgian, a little spicy.  This one was very popular.

Brew #17: Lakefront Fixed Gear American Red Ale, March 8, 2015

A week and a day after taking the all grain brewing class, I shoveled the rest of the snow off of my back patio, invited a friend over, and brewed my first all grain batch.  For my first batch, I took a recipe from Northern Brewer and bought the ingredients from Bailee's.  I wasn't going to wait for shipping.  This is another entry in the "Clones of things I've never tried the original of" category, technically.  About 6 months later I did find one in Philadelphia in a bottle, but by then it was too late to make a fair comparison and the bottle was past expiration.

Recipe
Batch Size Target (Actual): 5 gal (5.5 gal)
OG Target (Actual): 1.065 (1.064)
FG Target (Actual) : 1.014 (1.010)
Brew House Efficiency Target (Actual) : 72% (77%)
IBUs: 42
Color: 14.9 SRM
Style: Amber Ale
Recipe Type: All Grain
Boil Time: 90 minutes

Water:
Acadia bottled spring water

Grains:
11.25 lbs US 2-Row
0.75 lbs Caramel 60
0.50 lbs Belgian Special B

Hops:
0.50 oz Columbus (pellets) @ 60 min.
0.50 oz Chinook (pellets) @ 20 min.
1 oz Cascade (pellets) @ 5 min.
1 oz Chinook (pellets) Dry Hop 7 days
1 oz Citra (pellets) Dry Hop 7 days

Other:
1 Whrilfloc Tab @ 15 min.

Yeast:
White Labs WLP001 California Ale Yeast

Brewing Notes
3/6/15 - Yeast Starter:
This was my no calculator 1 Liter yeast starter: 4c of water, 1/4 lb Extra light DME, 1/4 tsp yeast nutrient, boiled 10 minutes and chilled to room temperature

3/8/15 - Brew Day:

• Sanitized (star san) my cold side equipment in the big mouth bubbler primary.
• Heated 16.25 quarts of water to 163 F in 5 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, Added about 1/2 gallon of boiling water to raise temperature to 153F.
• 60 minute mash rest
• 0 minutes: mashed in, temperature was 153F
• 15 minutes: paddled, temperature was 151F
• 30 minutes: paddled, temperature was 150F
• 60 minutes, began vorlauf
• Vorlauf process is very much manual.  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 18.5 quarts of 190F water
  
• Ran until the mash tun was dry, about 30 minutes
• Brought to boil
• Set timer for 90 minutes and added:
  0.5oz Columbus @ 60 min.
  0.5oz Chinook @ 20 min.
  1 tab Whirlfloc @ 15 minutes
  Wort Chiller @ 10 minutes
  1 oz Cascasde @ 5 minutes
• Moved kettle to the kitchen and chilled with wort chiller
• Siphoned to BMB,
• Took an OG reading of 1.062, corrected to 1.064.
• Pitched entire starter
• Put the BMB in the beer corner of the dining room with a blow off tube.

3/8 - 3/16/2015 - Primary Fermentation:
Krausen within 12 hours, blow-off within 24, continued through 3/10. Gravity was 1.010 when I racked to the glass carboy on 3/16.

3/16 - 3/31 - Secondary Fermentation:
Dry hopped with 1 oz each of Chinook and Citra on 3/24.  Moved the carboy to the basement and set on the floor to try to "cold crash" on 3/30

3/31/2015 - Bottling:
Bottled  with 4.3oz of corn sugar boiled in 2 c water to prime.  Gravity was 1.010 (6.8% abv). Yield was 50 12 oz bottles


4/26/2015 - First Taste:
This one took a little while to carbonate.  It was a cold April.  These tasted pretty good if not a little under-hopped, but I don't have any notes.  Mostly I was excited to have gone through the complete process from barley to beer.