The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated

I'm going to try and get this blog going again.

First a quick recap of what I've done during my hiatus.

Added a new brew kettle:

So far this year I've managed to brew eight beers.

• Twelve Pound Red 1.0 - A hoppy red ale using Centennial and Cascade hops. Pretty good beer with a nice balance between the hops and the malt.

• Collison Stout - My second attempt at a dry stout. This time I tried to use nottingham yeast and it ended up under attenuated and a little on the sweet side. Pretty decent overall, but not what I was trying for.
• Twelve Pound Red 2.0 - Went with Simcoe and Amarillo this time. Also nice.
• Saison - Bunch of Pilsner, touch of wheat, a mix of Kent Golding, Saaz, and Styrian Golding, and some 3711 French Saison yeast. Nice.
• Peter's Pale Ale - alot like the first Robot Pale Ale, brewed to celebrate my son's first birthday. It was well received. (I should take better tasting notes)
• Festivus Ale - I'll do a separate post on this with tasting notes later in the year...
• Citra Xtra Pale Ale - A really delicious hoppy pale ale.

• Amarillo IPA -  Separate post coming soon...

Anniversary Ale I

I can't believe it's been a year already. Why it seems like it was just the other day that I was over-pouring my extract, mis-measuring my gravity, and forgetting to stir in my priming solution. I've come so far in the last year. Now I'm screwing up my mash temps, missing my target OG, and still forgetting to stir in my priming solution. Progress, right?

The recipe is basically the same as my first batch except it's all grain now, I dropped the late hop additions, and I (tried too) beef up the gravity. I wanted a big beer, but I had some problems hitting my mash temps and ended up with about 55% efficiency so I ended up with a beer in the 7% ABV range. Going forward I'm going to try a series of recipes that all have twelve pounds of grain and work on hitting a consistent mash temp. I really didn't want to start my all-grain brewing with a couple of high gravity beers, but those were the beers I wanted so I went for it. One was good, one was not. Once I get my mash technique figured out I think I'll be a little better with my efficiency. By the time this December rolls around I should have my all-grain system dialed in better and I'll be able to hit that higher OG, maybe add some more chocolate as well.

Besides the mash everything else with this brew turned out really well. Color is a deep dark black with a light brown head that eventually settles down to a thin film that leaves a touch of lacing on the sides. Aroma has a milk chocolate mixed with coffee smell to it. Flavor is even better with more of a dark chocolate bitterness mixed with caramel. Mouthfeel is rich and creamy, I think the carbonation is perfect. Alcohol isn't noticeable at all, I kept the fermentation temps pretty low. There really isn't anything I don't like about this beer, I wanted it to be stronger but it's really good as is. It has this chocolaty creaminess to it that I'm really digging. It works well as a dessert beer, I like to pair it up with various pieces of gourmet dark chocolate.

Recipe:

Expected OG: 1.090
Actual OG: 1.073
Expected FG: 1.020
Actual FG: 1.021
IBU: 55
Boil: 75 minutes
Pre-boil Volume: 7 gallons (estimate)
Final Volume: 5 gallons
Apparent Attenuation: 70%
ABV: 6.9%

Grains:
15 lbs. American 2-Row (Briess)
1 lbs. Caramel 40L (Briess)
1 lbs. Caramel 80L (Briess)
12 oz. Chocolate Malt (Briess)
8 oz. Black Malt (Briess)

Hops:

1 oz. Warrior (pellet 15.8% AA) @ 75 min.

Extras:
8oz. Ghirardelli Cocoa Powder @ 0 min.

Yeast:
1 packet each Safale US-05, Safale S-04

Water:
Spring water from Welpman Spring in Morgan County, MO

Mash:
Heat 6 gallons of water to 169˚, also heat up a gallon or so to a boil to use to preheat the cooler.
Add preheat water to cooler and let sit until strike water is ready.
Dump preheat water and add grains and Ph 5.2 buffer.
Add strike water, stir. Should be about 154˚
Stir every 20 min for a total of 60.
While mash is sitting heat 3.5 gallons of water to about 175˚
Drain cooler into bucket – be sure to recirculate until its clear.
Add sparge water, stir, let sit for about 20 min
Recirculate, drain.
Hopefully I have about 6.5 gallons of sweet wort.

Boil:
Heat to a boil, add hops.
Boil wort for 75 mins.
Add cocoa powder.
Chill wort to about 70˚ or less, transfer to carboy, aerate, take gravity, pitch yeast packets.

Notes:

Brewed on 12/6/09 by myself.

12/6/8:40am – The 170˚ strike water was not quite enough, only got up to 150˚, had to add a little bit of boiling water, and then some ice cubes, and then some more boiling water to get it to about 150˚ (I'm really good at this).

12/6/9:30am – With the extra additions I collected almost 4 gallons of first runnings. Added about 2.5 gallons of sparge water and it didn't get close to a mash out temp, so I added a little more to get it up around 155˚, still not there but oh well.

12/6/11:30am – Pre-boil gravity looks to be about 1.060 from about 7 total gallons, hopefully this boils down to 1.090, we'll see. (I don't think this is right. 7 gallons of 1.060 should boil down to about 1.084, I think)

12/6/12:30pm – OG looks to be about 1.073 which would be about 55% efficiency.

12/6/1:15pm – Pitched both yeast packets into 68˚ wort, dry.

12/7/9:00am – About 1.5 inches of kraeusen. Temp is around 59˚

12/7/6:05pm – Churning along real nicely, kraeusen is at the neck of the carboy. Beer is at about 57˚ and ambient temp is like 49˚ so I'm going to try to warm it up a bit.

12/9/9:00am – Primary fermentation appears to be about done, removed blow-off and moved to office where it can warm up a bit and finish. Fermentation temps never got above 62˚.

12/15 – Moved it back into the cellar (mid 40s). Hopefully it's finished, going to let it sit and condition for a few weeks.

12/31 – Bottling day. 44 x 12 oz for 4.13 gallons. Used 2.9 oz corn sugar for about 2.2 volumes of CO2.

Turd Bird Brown Ale

This is a brew that I had originally planned as a partial mash, but since I had my cooler mash tun up and operational, I decided to adjust the recipe to be almost all grain with just a few pounds of extract at the end to kick the gravity up.

But what about that name?

Glad you asked. The name of the beer is an homage to the worst baseball team of the decade ('00 – '09), the Kansas City Royals. The phrase “Turd Bird” comes from an old AM sports talk show, The DA Show, that I used to listen to during my morning drive. The host and some of the regular callers took to calling the Royals the Turd Birds and it fit. So ever since, that's the name I use to refer to the Royals whenever they are playing like shit, which happens to be most of the time.

A few quick notes and links about the Royals 2000 – 2009*:

*I should preface this by saying that I really, really love the Royals and, to a greater extent, baseball. I watch or listen to games all season long. I am constantly reading Royals or baseball related blogs, websites, and articles. I study advanced statistical analysis, sabermetrics, for hours at a time. If you called me a seamhead or a baseball nerd, I'd take it as a compliment. But with all this knowledge comes the acute realization that the Royals, as an organization, are severely flawed. Which makes it even more painful to watch, yet still I watch, and study, and analyze. And what does that make me? Crazy? Or just fanatical? I need a drink...

Notes:

• 672-948, that's the Royals record for the decade. Second place is the Pirates with a 681-936 record.
• The Royals never had a league average offense (as measured by OPS+). Not once.
• Only once, in 2007, when they lost 93 games, did they have an average pitching staff (as measured by ERA+) and just barely.
• For the decade they were outscored by 1,316 runs. One thousand three hundred and sixteen. That's a lot.
• They fired one of the worst general managers in baseball and replaced him with somebody who is proving to be even worse.
• Someday we'll look back at the Neifi Perez trade and say: “Man, that was a bad trade but it was nothing compared to that Betancourt trade."

Links:

• Royals Rotten Decade (Wrap-Up) [Kings of Kauffman]
• The Royal Decade [Joe Posnanski]
• Best and worst teams of the decade [ESPN]
• I could go on but this is a beer blog...

I was aiming for a mash temp of about 154˚ and I missed to the low side. In an effort to bring the temp up I threw some boiling water in, not sure how much but it was too much, and my temp ended up around 160˚. So then I tried some ice to bring the temp back down to where it needed to be. I think the inconsistent temperature is the source of my 58% mash efficiency. I obviously need to practice this a bit more. I ended up with 77% attenuation from the yeast so I think most of the conversion occurred at the lower temp before I added the boiling water, which probably made it hot enough to stop most of the conversion so I didn't extract all the fermentable or unfermentable sugars I wanted.

I thought the flavor ended up okay. The major problem is overcarbonation which is amplifying a mineral/metallic flavor that I don't really like. Not sure if it is from the recipe or just the carbonation. After it warms up the flavor get a little better, but still seems a little off. I'm pretty sure it was mainly the carbonation that caused the problems, but next time I want to simplify the recipe a bit as well.

So the beer was not quite what I had intended, but the Royals weren't quite the team that the owners intended them to be. So in a way, I guess this is the perfect tribute beer. I'm planning on repeating this beer every year the Royals have a losing season, so I should have plenty of opportunities to get it right.

Recipe:

Expected OG: 1.090
Actual OG: 1.081
Expected FG: 1.020
Actual FG: 1.018
IBU: 50
Boil: 60 minutes
Pre-boil Volume: 6.5 gallons
Final Volume: 5 gallons
Apparent Attenuation: 77%
ABV: 8.3%

Grains:
10 lbs. Maris Otter ( Crisp)
1 lbs. Victory (Briess)
1 lbs. Caramel 60 (Briess)
12 oz. Special Roast (Briess)
8 oz. Brown Malt (Crisp)
4 oz. Chocolate Malt (Briess)

Extract/Sugar:
3 lbs. Pilsner DME ( Briess)

Hops:
1 oz. Warrior (pellet 15.8% AA) @ 60 min.

Yeast:
Wyeast London Ale 1028

Water:
Spring water from Welpman Spring in Morgan County, MO

Mash:

• Heat 5 gallons of water to about 167˚ also heat up a gallon or so to a boil to use to preheat the cooler.
• Add preheat water to cooler and let sit until strike water is ready.
• Dump preheat water and add grains.
• Add strike water, stir.
• Stir every 20 min for a total of 60.
• While mash is sitting heat 3.25 gallons of water to about 170˚.
• Drain cooler – be sure to recirculate until its clear – into bucket.
• Add sparge water, stir, let sit for about 20 min.
• Recirculate, drain.
• Hopefully I have about 6.5 gallons of sweet wort.

Notes:

Brewed on 11/15/09 by myself.

11/15 - OG was only 1.081 which means I got about 58% efficiency, which is bad. I had problems hitting my mash temp, was around 160˚ for awhile, so that is part of it. Chilled the wort down to about 68˚ and racked onto yeast cake from spice ale at about 1pm.

11/16/9am – Chugging away at 63˚ with about 2 inches of Kraeusen.

11/17/8am – Good thing I used a blow-off. Still around 63˚

11/19 – Primary fermentation appears to be over. Removed blow-off.

11/21 – Temp is in the mid 50s. Going to let it sit and condition for a couple weeks.

12/09 – Bottling Day. Bottled 25 x 12 oz, 11 x 22 oz, and 3 x 24 oz for a total of 4.8 gallons. Sample had an odd roasty/toasty flavor, not sure if I liked it, we'll see.

1/2/10 – First tasting. Pretty good, nice toasty, roasty flavor, bready with a touch of caramel. Also a mineral like flavor that I'm not really liking. Mouth feel is a little on the light side and I definitely over carbonated it, which is making it seem more bitter than I wanted.

Cooler Mash Tun

I know I'm a little behind with the posts around here, but I assume you're used to that by now. All grain brewing posts coming soon, or your money back. But first a few pictures and words about my new cooler mash tun.

Back in September I was the happy recipient of a 50 quart Coleman Xtreme5 cooler. I didn't get around to converting it into a mash tun until October, but I've been brewing all grain beers ever since.

The first step was to take out the drain plug and replace it with a valve. I loosely followed this guide over at Home Brew Talk. They use a piece of PVC pipe on the outside to help it seal better and it give a more stable base for the valve. The PVC on the outside plus the fact that I was able to reuse the rubber grommet that came with the cooler gave a nice tight, clean looking seal. I was impressed with how well it all went together. The only improvement I want to make is replacing the washers on the inside with stainless steel ones, but I haven't been able to locate any in the size I need.

Another thing I didn't like was the angle of the drain valve. It comes out at a 45 degree angle instead of just straight out. Not much I could do about that, but I would like to build some kind of stand for it.

Next is the manifold, I decided to go with a pipe manifold instead of a stainless hose. No real reason, thats just what I did. One note: if you use plastic pipe you want to be sure to use CPVC instead of regular PVC. CPVC has a higher heat rating so it won't leach any chemical into your wort.

Here is a detail of the pipe. I went with drilled holes instead of cutting slots. It seemed less labor intense.

Here is one last picture of the inside fully assembled.

Fall Spice Ale

For the fall I wanted to make a nice spiced ale using pumpkin pie spices. I decided to follow Jamil's recipe from Brewing Classic Styles. I agree with his idea that it's not really the pumpkin that makes the pie good, it's the spices. Plus I thought it would be a lot easier to not use pumpkin in my beer. Because I'm using the yeast cake for a high gravity brown ale I decided to go with Wyeast 1028 London Ale which has a little higher attenuation than some other English yeasts.

The brew day went pretty well, I don't recall having any problems. I think this is the first of my partial mashes that went smoothly which is kinda funny because it's my last one. I received a cooler for my birthday and converted it to use as a mash tun.

The only problem I had was on bottling day. I forgot to stir in the priming solution after I racked the beer into the bottling bucket. Since I also added the spices to the priming solution, I ended up with some bottles that were over carbed others that were near flat and the spicing was weak in general with virtually no spice flavor in the under carbed bottles.

Luckily, the base beer was pretty good. Nice carmely flavor with a touch of toffee and dark fruit. The mouth feel, and spice aroma varied depending on which bottle you had and how carbonated it was. Overall, I think the recipe was good. I just need to clean up my technique a bit. Maybe next year...

Recipe:
Expected OG: 1.061
Actual OG: 1.063
Expected FG: 1.016
Actual FG: 1.015
IBU: 26
Boil: 60 minutes
Pre-boil Volume: 5.5 gallons
Final Volume: 5 gallons
Apparent Attenuation: 75%
ABV: 6.3%

Extract/Sugar:
Briess Pilsner DME 5 lbs.

Partial Mash Grains:
Crisp Maris Otter 2 lbs.
Briess Caramel 40L 8.6 oz.
Castle Aromatic 8 oz.
Briess Special Roast 4 oz.
Briess Caramel 120L 4.4 oz.

Hops:
60 min, Warrior 15.8% 0.6 oz.

Other:
½ tsp Cinamon
¼ tsp Ginger
1/8 tsp All Spice
1/8 tsp Nutmeg

Yeast:
Wyeast 1028 London Ale 1 qt starter

Water:
Spring water from Welpman Spring in Morgan County, MO

Partial Mash (stove top method): In a 8 qt. stock pot, heat 7 quarts of water to 165˚, meanwhile pre-heat another 8qt pot in oven (set to warm) add grain bag and grains to preheated pot, then slowly add water and stir thoroughly. Mash temp should be about 154˚. Move pot to preheated oven for 60 minutes.

After about 30 minutes, heat 5 quarts of water to about 175˚. When mash is done, pull out the grain bag and let it drain for a few minutes. Add bag to heated water stir and let sit for 20 minutes to rinse out any remaining sugars. Should end up with around 10+ quarts of wort.

Add 3 gallons water and wort to brew kettle (for a total of around 5.5 gal.), add 2 lbs. DME and stir, heat to a boil, add hops and start 60 minute timer. At about 15 min. add a 1 tsp of Irish Moss to help with clarity and the rest of the DME.

Chill wort to about 68˚ or less, transfer to carboy, aerate, take gravity, pitch yeast.

Notes:

Brewed on 10/7/09 by myself.

10/8/12:30 – pitched yeast at about 66˚. No real problems with this batch, went pretty smooth. About 70% mash efficiency.

10/15 – beer cellar is a little cold, temps are below 60˚. Moved into office. I think it fermented out but I'm not sure, going to let it warm up a bit just to make sure.

11/15 – Bottling day. 4.2 oz of corn sugar boiled in 2 cup water plus spices added to sugar water at flame out and allowed to cool. Filled 24 - 12 ounce bottles, 13 - 22oz bottles and 2 - 330 ml bottles (the 2nd one only about ¾ full).

Weizenbock

Next up is my first attempt at repitching a yeast cake. I saved the Wyeast 3068 from my last Hefeweizen in a growler that I stored in the fridge until I needed it (about 3 weeks). I also corrected my partial mash mistake from the last brew and went with a “double partial mash”. Basically I mashed in 2 pots instead of just one, and I have to say it worked out fairly well, except my efficiancy was a little low but I'm getting used to that.

The recipe is pretty much all mine. I did some research and looked at some different recipes to get an understanding of the basic ingredients and then made up my own combination of malts. I decided to go light on the Crystal 120 to keep the dark fruit flavors in the background, I really wanted the caramel and banana to be the main attraction. I think I did a pretty good job of accomplishing this. I don't think I would change this recipe much, maybe add a little more caramel malt and a slightly lower fermentation temp, it got away from me a little.

The aroma has a nice balance of banana fruitiness and caramel/tofee sweetness, with a bready background. A touch of dark fruit but not to much. Clove esters combine with the alcohol to add some spiciness. Deep ruby/brown color. Decent head retention. Full bodied with just enough bitterness to keep everything in check.

Recipe:
Expected OG: 1.080
Actual OG: 1.075
Expected FG: 1.020
Actual FG: 1.021
IBU: 24
Boil: 60 minutes
Pre-boil Volume: 5.5 gallons
Final Volume: 5 gallons
Apparent Attenuation: 71%
ABV: 7.1%

Extract/Sugar:
Wheat DME 3 lbs.
Briess Pilsen DME 2 lbs.

Partial Mash Grains:
Weyermann Light Munich 4 lbs.
Weyermann Dark Wheat Malt 2 lbs
Weyermann Cara Wheat 8 oz.
Weyermann Cara Munich III 4 oz
Briess Crystal 120 4 oz.
Weyermann Chocolate Wheat 2 oz.

Hops:
60 min: Warrior, 15.8% 0.5 oz.

Yeast:
Wyeast 3068 cake saved from Hefe

Water:
Spring water from Welpman Spring in Morgan County, MO

Double Partial Mash (stove top method): In brew kettle, heat 11 quarts of water to 165˚, meanwhile pre-heat two 8qt pots in oven (set to warm) add grain bags and grains to preheated pots, then slowly add water and stir. Mash temp should be about 153˚. Move pots to preheated oven for 60 minutes.

After about 30 minutes, heat 8 quarts of water to about 175˚. When mash is done, pull out the grain bags and let it drain for a few minutes. Add first running to kettle. Pour 4 quarts of heated water to each pot and add grain bags, stir and let sit for 20 minutes to rinse out any remaining sugars. Should end up with around 14 – 16 quarts of wort.

Add 1 gallon or so of water and wort to brew kettle (for a total of around 5.5 gal.), add DME and stir, heat to a boil and add hops.

Chill wort to about 70˚ or less, transfer to carboy, aerate, take gravity, pitch decanted yeast starter.

Notes:
Brewed on 9/19/09 by myself

9/18/09 – made 2 cups of wort with about 1.8 oz. of DME and pitched it onto the decanted yeast cake.

9/19/2:00pm – OG came out low, again. Calculating about 55% efficiency, not good. Pitched starter at about 68˚. I bought a small fountain pump and used it to recirculate ice water through chiller. Worked great. Need to make a bigger chiller.

9/19/11:00pm – Fermentation is under way, about a ½ inch of kraeusen. 70˚

9/20 – Fermentation has been rocking all day. Lots of yeast through the blow-off. Temp got a little higher than I wanted, around 77˚

9/21 – Fermentation has started to settle down a bit, temp is holding around 72˚. Removed blow-off and replaced with foil.

9/25 – Temps have been dipping down into the upper 60s, hope they stay like this or go lower.

10/15 – Bottling day. Bottled 24 – twelve ounce bottles, 12 – 22oz. Bottles and one 750ml bottle. Used 6 oz. of corn sugar for about 3 volumes of CO2.

Collision Stout

Continuing with my catch up posts. For my next brew I wanted to brew something on the lighter side, that wouldn't be terribly difficult to brew. I decided to go with a dry stout, by light I meant low gravity. Expecting a quick brew night, I was met with adversity right from the beginning. Seems that I have a bit of a problem with spacial recognition, what I thought was a twelve quart pot was actually eight. So here I am at about 8:00 at night with twelve quarts worth of grain and water and not enough pot to mash it all. In the end I ended up with all my grains and mash water in the brew kettle but it's bigger around than my grain bag so it ended up looking more like steeping grains than mashing. In the end I made a pretty damn good stout so I can't complain much, yet another lesson learned.

The beer I ended up with had a solid black color with a deep ruby edge. Muted aroma of roasted barley, bitter sweet chocolate. Flavors are similar, roast and chocolate with an ample bitterness. Mouth feel is rich and creamy, smooth, I could drink a few of these. When I first started drinking this batch there was a weird mineral/metallic off flavor but that cleared out with a little more bottle conditioning and now I have an easy drinking dry stout.

Recipe:
Expected OG: 1.058
Actual OG: ??
Expected FG: 1.012
Actual FG: 1.010
IBU: 53
Boil: 60 minutes
Apparent Attenuation: ??
ABV: ??

Extract/Sugar:
Briess Pilsner DME 4.0 lbs.

Partial Mash Grains:
Maris Otter 2.0 lbs.
Flaked Barley 2.0 lbs.
Roasted Barley (extra crush) 1.0 lbs.

Hops:
60 min. - First Gold, 8.0% 2.0 oz.

Yeast:
Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale 1 qt. Starter

Water:
Spring water from Welpman Spring in Morgan County, MO

Partial Mash: In a 8 qt. stock pot, heat 7.5 quarts of water to 162˚, meanwhile preheat 12qt crock pot, add grain bag and grains to preheated pot, then slowly add water and stir. Mash temp should be about 150˚.

After about 30 minutes, heat 5 quarts of water to about 170˚. When mash is done, pull out the grain bag and let it drain for a few minutes. Dump wort into kettle, add bag and heated water back to crock, stir and let sit for 20 minutes to rinse out any remaining sugars. Should end up with around 10+ quarts of wort.

Add 3 gallons water and wort to brew kettle (for a total of around 5.5 gal.), add DME and stir, heat to a boil and add bittering hops. At about 15 min. add a 1 tsp of Irish Moss to help with clarity.

Chill wort to about 80˚ or less, transfer to carboy, aerate, take gravity, pitch decanted yeast starter.

Notes:
Brewed on 9/2/09 by myself.

8/31/09 – made starter with about a quart of water and 4oz of DME.

9/2 - Totally screwed up the mash. Not a 12qt pot. More like 8. Ended up mashing in the brew kettle. Not ideal. Stupid, I am.

9/3/12:45am – Pitched yeast at about 70. Forgot to take gravity reading. Maybe I shouldn't brew at night?

9/8/09 – Primary fermentation is over. I had the carboy in a water bath, pretty sure temps stayed around 70 or lower.

9/24 – Bottling Day. Eleven 22 oz. and twenty-four 12 oz. bottles used 2.8 oz. of corn sugar for about 2 volumes of CO2.

11/23 – Taste comparison with an O'Hara's Irish Stout. Mine was more bitter with more of a bittersweet chocolate versus the sweeter coffee flavor of the O'Hara.

Stout

Festivus Ale

I decided a while back that I wanted to make a big Christmas beer to hand out to friends and family during the holidays, I just wasn't sure what style I wanted to brew. At first I considered brewing up one of those ambiguous “winter warmers” that almost every craft brewer seems to put out this time of year, then I remembered that I don't even really like very many of them. Then I read about this french saison yeast the Wyeast had released as part of their “Private Collection” special release program. It's a french saison yeast, rumored to be from Brasserie Thiriez, that doesn't need ridiculously high fermentation temperatures like their regular saison yeast. Bingo, I quickly decided, after consulting Farmhouse Ales, that the beer I would brew would be a Bier de Noel, basically a dark, high gravity saison. The recipe was based off the info in the book.

Most of the bottles are still in my cellar waiting for me to design a label and get them ready for Christmas, but I did crack one open the other night to see what I had made. I have to say it turned out to be real good, maybe my best beer to date.

The aroma has a weird peppery flavor from the yeast mixed with a caramel/nutty malt note, hard to describe but I liked it. Alcohol is nicely integrated but very noticeable. Mouth feel is silky smooth with a little more body than you would expect from a beer this dry. It even has pretty good head retention. Should be even better after another month or so in the cellar. I might even save a few of the 12 ounce bottles for a competition.

Recipe:
Expected OG: 1.074
Actual OG: 1.077
Expected FG: 1.010
Actual FG: 1.004
IBU: 24-27
Boil: 60 minutes
Pre-boil Volume: 5.5 – 6 gallons
Final Volume: 5 gallons
Apparent Attenuation: 94% (!!)
ABV: 9.6%

Extract/Sugar:
Briess Pilsner DME 4.5 lbs.
Cane Sugar 1.5 lbs.

Partial Mash Grains:
Weyermann Light Munich 3.5 lbs.
Weyermann Cara Munich III 12 oz.
Castle De-Bittered Black 2 oz.

Hops:
Brewers Gold 8.0%, 60 min 1.0 oz.
Vanguard 4.4%, 15 min. 0.25 oz.
Vanguard 4.4%, 0 min. 0.25 oz.

Yeast:
Wyeast 3711 French Saison 1.5 qt starter

Water:
Spring water from Welpman Spring in Morgan County, MO

Partial Mash (stove top method): In a 8 qt. stock pot, heat 5.5 quarts of water to 165˚, meanwhile pre-heat another 8qt pot in oven (set to warm) add grain bag and grains to preheated pot, then slowly add water. Mash temp should be about 150˚. Move pot to preheated oven for 60 minutes.

After about 30 minutes, heat 6 quarts of water to about 170˚. When mash is done, pull out the grain bag and let it drain for a few minutes. Add bag to heated water stir and let sit for 20 minutes to rinse out any remaining sugars. Should end up with around 9+ quarts of wort.

Add 3.25 gallons water and wort to brew kettle (for a total of around 5.5 gal.), add DME and stir, heat to a boil, add hops at intervals above. At about 15 min. add a 1 tsp of Irish Moss to help with clarity, at about 5 min. left add sugar. After boil is finished let sit for about 20 min. to aid in hop flavor.

Chill wort to about 80˚ or so, transfer to carboy, aerate, take gravity, pitch decanted yeast starter.

Notes:
Brewed on 08/12/2009 by myself.

8/11 /12:30pm - 5oz DME + 1.5 qt water = starter

8/13/12:30am – OG is a little low, yet again, added 8oz of sugar boiled in 2 cups of water. Working backwards in Beer Calculus, I'm figuring that my mash efficiency is about 68%. I also need to use less sparge water since the grain is already saturated.

8/13/1:30am – pitched starter at about 75˚ with a temp corrected OG of 1.077. I put the BB in a tub of cold water and by 2:20am the temp was down to 70˚. I want the fermentation to start out low then I'll take it out and let it rise naturally.

8/13/11:30am – Fermentation has started, about a 1 ½ inches of Krauesen. Temp is around 70˚, replaced ice bottles. I think I'll let the temp ramp up a little from here.

8/18 – Temp has been holding around 72-74˚ the last few days. Moving into office (where temps can get up to 77˚ for some reason) for a while to make sure it finishes.

9/16/09 – Bottled eight 12oz., eighteen 22oz., and two 24oz. Bottles with roughly 16oz left over that went into a 24oz bottle. Total of about 4.3 gallons. Primed with 3.6oz. of corn sugar @ about 72˚ for about 2.3 volumes of CO2.

Hefeweizen Part II

So...I'm way behind on posts around here so I decided today I'm going to try to catch up a little (Peter willing). I didn't even take any pictures of this batch.

First up is my second batch of Hefeweizen. I told you back in July that I was going to brew it again with a better yeast and that is exactly what I did. Wyeast 3068 did exactly what I wanted and this batch turned out better than the first batch. The banana aroma is more pronounced with a more subdued clove note. Carbonation was better with just over 3 volumes of CO2. It lacks head retention which I think is due to it being all extract. There were some slight off flavors that are probably from a fermentation that got a little to hot or the extract. Next summer I'll brew this again, only as an all grain recipe and I bet it'll be even better. I'll definitely be using 3068 as my regular wheat yeast from now on.

Original Gravity: 1.053
Actual FG: 1.013
IBU: 12-15
Apparent Attenuation: 75%
ABV: 5.2%

6 pounds of Muttons Wheat DME
1 ounce of Vanguard (5.0%) for 45 minutes
Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephan Wheat from a 1 quart starter

Brewed on 08/06/2009 by myself.

Add 5 gallons of water and 6 pounds of extract, heat to a boil, add hops and boil for 45 minutes. With about 5 min. left add the chiller to sanitize it.
Chill wort to about 80˚ or less, transfer to carboy, add water to 5 gallons, pitch yeast.

Notes:
8/5 - Made a yeast starter using about a quart of wort (3 oz DME) in a growler.

8/6 – Forgot to take final gravity. Pitched entire 1qt starter at about 77˚ at 11:30am Using a blow off this time because this yeast is supposed to produce gobs of Kraeusen. Had full Kraeusen by 8:00pm and by 9:30 the blow off tube was full. Temp is around 75˚

8/7 – Blow off tube still full this morning, bucket is filling up with yeast. Temp is holding at 75˚

8/13 – Fermentation is pretty much done, temp has been holding at ambient 72 – 73˚

8/26 – Bottling Day. Used 6.5oz. of corn sugar in close to 5 gallons for about 3.3 volumes of CO2. 24-22oz, 4-12oz, 1-24oz. Saved yeast cake for weizenbock.

Robot Pale Ale - Baptism Batch

My second batch of Belgian Pale Ale was brewed for my son's baptism reception. This was my first partial-mash and my first time making a yeast starter. I also changed just about everything from the original recipe, bad idea. The beer turned out okay and everybody liked it or at least pretended to but I thought the first batch was a little better.

I tasted it side-by-side with my first batch. Here are my notes:

• The partial-mash came out a little low on my mash efficiency and I had to add some sugar to get the gravity up.
• The color is about the same as last time but a bit clearer – better cold break or more floc from the yeast?
• A lower final gravity that gave the beer the dryness I was looking for.
• I think the biscuit malt was a little too pronounced there is a grainy, biscuity flavor that is a little off. I'll definitely go back to the specialty grain amounts I used in the first batch.
• I'm not sure which yeast I like more, the first seems a little fruitier and the second I'm not sure about, not as fruity maybe a little peppery, masked by all the biscuit.

Recipe and Notes:

Expected Original Gravity: 1.053
Actual OG: 1.051
Expected Final Gravity: 1.014
Actual FG: 1.009
IBU: 20
Boil: 60 minutes
Boil Volume: 5 gallons
Final Volume: 5 gallons
Apparent Attenuation: 82%
ABV: 5.5%

Extract:
Briess Pilsner DME 2 lbs. 12.5 oz.
Corn Sugar 1.5 lbs.

Partial Mash Grains:
Briess Pilsner 3 lbs.
CaraMunich 8 oz.
Biscuit 8 oz.

Hops:
Vanguard (pellets) 4.4%, 60 min. 1.5 oz.
Halertau (pellets) 3.8%, 1 min. 1.0 oz.

Yeast:
Wyeast 3522 Belgian Ardennes (Achouffe) - slurry from a 1 qt. starter.

Water:
Spring water from Welpman Spring in Morgan County, MO.

Notes:
Brewed on 06/17/2009 by myself.

Partial Mash (stove top method): In a 8 qt. stock pot, heat 5 quarts of water to 164˚, add grain bag. Mash temp should be about 153˚. Move pot to preheated cooler for 60 minutes (using heated towels).

After about 30 minutes, heat 2 gallons of water to about 170˚. When mash is done, pull out the grain bag and let it drain for a few minutes. Add bag to heated water for 10 minutes to rinse out any remaining sugars.

Add extract and 7 quarts of water. Heat to a boil.

Boil for 60 minutes, adding the hops at the intervals listed above. At about 5 min. add the sugar and the chiller to sanitize it.

Chill wort to about 76˚, transfer to carboy, add water to 5 gallons, aerate, pitch yeast slurry.

6/16 – Made a yeast starter using about a quart of wort (3.5 oz DME) in a growler.

6/17 – My gravity was about 8 points low so I boiled up another ½ pound of sugar in 2 cups of water and added that so my total sugar addition was 1.5 lbs instead of the pound I had planned. I must have had a low efficiency on my partial mash

6/17 – Pitched yeast at about 73˚

6/18/10am – Fermentation is very active with about a 2 – 3 inch kraeusen, ferm temp = 72˚

6/19/11am – Fermentation still pretty active, looks like it's just past peak. Kraeusen is beginning to fall a bit.

6/24 – temp has been in the 72˚ – 73˚ range the past few days – man is it hot outside. Kraeusen is long gone, conditioning now.

7/12 – Bottled 48 12oz bottles, one 750ml bottle and a 330ml bottle. Used 3.8oz of corn sugar for about 2.2 volumes of CO2.

8/1 – Everybody seemed to like the beer, my mom had two! I think next time I want to keep the Biscuit at 4 – 6 oz, 8 seems like a bit much to me. Also might want to cut the sugar down to ½ a pound.