Saturday, May 14, 2016

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.

Sunday, May 1, 2016

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.