When I brewed my sour red ale, I had a little more liquid left over in my mash tun than I normally do. Rather than simply dumping this water down the drain, I thought it would be interesting to drain it into a gallon jug, add some left over Kombucha dregs I had saved (I had big plans of starting my own mother culture but never got around to it), pop an airlock on it, and let it ferment like a normal beer. Normally Kombucha is fermented aerobically, which results in the production of acetic acid, and provides the majority of the tartness in Kombucha. I figured if I didn't allow all this oxygen to get in, I would cut back on the acetic acid production and allow the lactobacillus (and whatever other bacteria is in the culture) to create more of a lactic sourness that is associated with sour beer.
So I drained about a half a gallon of the final runnings of my mash tun, added about 3 Hersbucker hop pellets and boiled it for about 15 minutes to sterilize the wort. After that I cooled it to about 75F and dumped in the dregs of a bottle of GT's Kombucha. A couple days later there was a krausen and it seemed to ferment quite traditionally.
After about 3 weeks in the gallon jug, I have enough beer for bottle six 12 oz. bottles with about 25g of table sugar and 2g of Safale US-05 at bottling to ensure carbonation and left the bottles at ambient temperature.
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Sour Red
I think the main reason I've been so attracted to brewing is that it
combines science with art. As an engineer, I am exposed to and
appreciate science to the highest level, but I rarely get to express
myself artistically. Brewing lets me do this. Using bacteria and wild
yeast to craft "sour" or wild beers, as done in Belgium for centuries,
opens up a whole door of science, art, and inspiration, that many
brewers who follow the traditional German or English methods do not get
to experience. Additionally, drinking these beers adds a whole new
complexity to the flavors the most experienced traditional beer drinker would
associate with beer. I knew I wanted to brew one of these beers, I
just needed a little more time to learn the craft and, um, gain
inpiration by seeing what flavors can be found in other sour beers.
Prior to brewing this beer, I read Wild Brews by Jeff Sparrow. This text covers the history, brewing methods, and tasting experience of sour beer both in Belgium and newer interpretations in America. I would say it's a must read for any fan of sour or wild beers.
For my first sour beer I wanted to do a lambic. However, procedurally, it's a little complicated to begin with (turbid mash, long boil, aged hops, and that's not even getting into spontaneous fermentation). So I decided to go for my next favorite sour style, a Red Ale. Something similar to Rodenbach Grand Cru, Russian River Supplication (my favorite), or Jolly Pumpkin La Roja (the commerical bugs I used in this batch), but uniquely my own and most importantly actually drinkable a year from now!
My thought process in designing this recipe is to do a single infusion mash (for simplicity's sake) but do it at a high temperature to give the Brett and bacteria more sugars to eat during the long secondary fermentation. After a couple of months I'll taste the sourness and add more bottle dregs if I want to try to add to it. Once it's nearly done I'll taste it again and see what fruit I want to age it on. I'll probably bottle half straight and age the other half on fruit for a couple of months.
See also Kombucha Fermented Beer Experiement.
Sour Red Ale
Batch size: 5.5 gallons
OG: 1.060
FG: ???
SRM: 15
IBU: 20
Grain
3 lbs. Belgian Pils Malt
3 lbs. Munich Malt
3 lbs. Vienna Malt
2 lbs. White Wheat Malt
1 lb. Caramunich
6 oz. Crystal 120
~4 oz. Crystal 15
Hops
2.00 Hersbucker (Pellet, 3.1%AA) @ 90 min., left out of freezer for about a month
Yeast
Wyeast 3763 Roeselare Ale Blend
Jolly Pumpkin La Roja dregs (bottled 9/17/2013)
Misc.
1 tablet Whirlfloc @ 15 min.
1/2 tsp. yeast nutrient @ 15 min.
Mash
Sacch rest. at 157F for 60 min.
Water
Carbon filtered DC tap water with some 5.2 stabilizer thrown into the mash.
Notes
Brewed 3 May 2013, by myself
Mash pH seemed a little low so I tossed in some 5.2 stabilizer.
Had some Crystal 15 left over in the bottom of my grain box so I threw that in too.
Collected 6.5 gallons of 1.052 runnings.
90 minute boil.
Cooled 5 gallons of 1.065 wort to 71F, added 1/2 gallon of distilled water to get the gravity down to 1.060.
Pitched the 3763 and dregs and left at ambient temperature to ferment (~70F).
6/5/2013 - Racked to secondary with 1 oz. French medium toast oak cubes boiled for 10 minutes. Down to 1.011, subtle sourness, very fruity and sweet, but tasty. I'll revisit this in a year or so.
Prior to brewing this beer, I read Wild Brews by Jeff Sparrow. This text covers the history, brewing methods, and tasting experience of sour beer both in Belgium and newer interpretations in America. I would say it's a must read for any fan of sour or wild beers.
For my first sour beer I wanted to do a lambic. However, procedurally, it's a little complicated to begin with (turbid mash, long boil, aged hops, and that's not even getting into spontaneous fermentation). So I decided to go for my next favorite sour style, a Red Ale. Something similar to Rodenbach Grand Cru, Russian River Supplication (my favorite), or Jolly Pumpkin La Roja (the commerical bugs I used in this batch), but uniquely my own and most importantly actually drinkable a year from now!
My thought process in designing this recipe is to do a single infusion mash (for simplicity's sake) but do it at a high temperature to give the Brett and bacteria more sugars to eat during the long secondary fermentation. After a couple of months I'll taste the sourness and add more bottle dregs if I want to try to add to it. Once it's nearly done I'll taste it again and see what fruit I want to age it on. I'll probably bottle half straight and age the other half on fruit for a couple of months.
See also Kombucha Fermented Beer Experiement.
Sour Red Ale
Batch size: 5.5 gallons
OG: 1.060
FG: ???
SRM: 15
IBU: 20
Grain
3 lbs. Belgian Pils Malt
3 lbs. Munich Malt
3 lbs. Vienna Malt
2 lbs. White Wheat Malt
1 lb. Caramunich
6 oz. Crystal 120
~4 oz. Crystal 15
Hops
2.00 Hersbucker (Pellet, 3.1%AA) @ 90 min., left out of freezer for about a month
Yeast
Wyeast 3763 Roeselare Ale Blend
Jolly Pumpkin La Roja dregs (bottled 9/17/2013)
Misc.
1 tablet Whirlfloc @ 15 min.
1/2 tsp. yeast nutrient @ 15 min.
Mash
Sacch rest. at 157F for 60 min.
Water
Carbon filtered DC tap water with some 5.2 stabilizer thrown into the mash.
Notes
Brewed 3 May 2013, by myself
Mash pH seemed a little low so I tossed in some 5.2 stabilizer.
Had some Crystal 15 left over in the bottom of my grain box so I threw that in too.
Collected 6.5 gallons of 1.052 runnings.
90 minute boil.
Cooled 5 gallons of 1.065 wort to 71F, added 1/2 gallon of distilled water to get the gravity down to 1.060.
Pitched the 3763 and dregs and left at ambient temperature to ferment (~70F).
6/5/2013 - Racked to secondary with 1 oz. French medium toast oak cubes boiled for 10 minutes. Down to 1.011, subtle sourness, very fruity and sweet, but tasty. I'll revisit this in a year or so.
Hoppy Red Ale
A common mantra in the West Coast style of brewing hoppy beers is
that crystal malts and hops do no mix well. Therefore, in theory, a
hoppy crystal forward beer like a red or amber ale should not work out. However, beers like Founder's Red's RyePA (my
favorite year round Founder's offering, which unfortunately has been
relagated to a seasonal in bottles and year round only in draft due to
freshness problems), Green Flash Hop Hed Red, and Maine Beer Company Zoe, haved proved that, when executed, the proper hops can complement
the caramal and dark fruit flavors that come from crystal malts quite
well.
Maine Beer Zoe served as my inspiration for this beer. Drinking it was
one of my "wow" beer moments. I was amazed how the malt character could
be so complex with flavors of bread, caramel, figs, raisins, and even a
subtle chocolate finish, but not detract from the grapefruit, pine, and
fruity characteristics of the hops. Over the past year or so I had
accumulated a few half open grain bags of wheat, crystal 40 and 120, and
chocolate malt. So it seemed fitting to throw all that together and
hop it like crazy and brew my interpretation of a hoppy red ale.
Mosaic hops are supposed to be next big hop in the craft brewing world. They are a descendent of Simcoe and have a subtle grapefruit flavor, but additionally provide melon like notes as well. I first had them in Great Lakes Alchemy Hour and was blown away. I knew I had to buy some as soon as possible. I thought that in a beer that has some fruit flavors imparted by the malt, the not-so-traditional Mosaic would complement that well. I decided to pair the Mosaic with one of the more traditional hops, Centennial, in order to be sure that this beer does not end up too "out there". I also threw in some Citra that I had in a half open bag in the dry hop to make the beer a more tropical. The idea with the hopping was to have a foundation of the expected citrusy American hop character, but throw in some non-traditional flavors of melon and tropical fruit on top of it to play off of the complex malt bill.
A Hoppy Red Ale
Brewed 18 April 2013 by myself.
Batch size: 5 gallons
OG: 1.064
FG: 1.012
SRM: 17.5
IBU: 65
Fermentables
9 lbs. Rahr 2-row
1 lb. Briess Victory Malt
1 lb. Red Wheat Malt
8 oz. Crystal 40
4 oz. Crystal 120
4 oz. Chocolate Malt
Hops
0.50 oz. Warrior (Pellet, 13.7% AA) @ 60 min.
0.70 oz. CTZ (Pellet, 15.2% AA) @ 60 min.
1.00 oz. Centennial (Pellet, 9.2% AA) @ 10 min.
2.00 oz. Mosaic (Pellet, 11.6% AA) @ 0 min.
2.00 oz. Centennial (Pellet, 9.2% AA) @ 0 min.
2.00 oz. Mosaic (Pellet, 11.6% AA Dry hop (1/2 10 days, 1/2 in keg)
1.00 oz. Centennial (Pellet, 9.2% AA) Dry hop (1/2 10 days, 1/2 in keg)
1.00 oz. Citra (Pellet, 13.5% AA) Dry hop (1/2 10 days, 1/2 in keg)
Yeast
WLP007 - 1L starter made 4/16/2013
Misc.
1 tablet Whirlfloc @ 15 min.
1 tsp. yeast nutrient @ 15 min.
Mash
Sacch. rest 151F for 60 min., batch sparge.
Water
Carbon filtered DC tap water with 8g gypsum and 4g CaCl split evenly between the mash and sparge
Notes
Forgot to add the Red Wheat to the mash, so I added it to the batch sparge and let it rest for 30 minutes; didn't seem to cause much of a problem since I hit my expected efficiency. Planned on using all Warrior hops to bitter but I had two half opened bags of Warrior and Columbus so I just weighed them to see what was left and added each bag.
Collected 6 gallons of 1.055 runnings. Boiled for 60 min to hit an OG of 1.064 (74% efficiency).
Tap water only let it cool to 72F, so I put it in the fridge to bring it down to 65F, after about 5 hours.
Gave it 60 seconds of pure oxygen and pitched the decanted starter, and left it at 63 ambient to ferment.
~12 hours solid fermentation, 12 hours after that it was blowing off!
4/26/2013 - Down to 1.013, raised ambient temp to 65F for fermentation to finish off.
4/28/2013 - Set temp to 50F to get some of the yeast to drop out prior to dry hopping.
4/29/2013 - Added 1 oz. Mosaic, .5 oz each of Centennial and Citra to the fermenter, bagged and weighed.
5/6/2013 - Down to 1.012, cold crashed. Tasty, would have liked a little more Mosaic character.
5/9/2013 - Kegged with the other half of the dry hops.
7/2/2013 - Tasting Notes:
Appearance: Deep mahogany with a cream had that lingers around nicely, providing nice lacing down the glass. Slight haze from the use of wheat when held up to the light.
Smell: Sweet fruit and caramel with a subtle tropical and melon-like aroma from the Mosaic hops. Very nice.
Taste: Flavor starts with sweet caramel malt and slight roast then leads into grapefruit, melon, and a little bit of tropical or stone fruit, maybe peach? Then the roast, strong caramel, and bitterness come and the end is a great dry, fruity, bitter finish.
Mouthfeel: Medium-thin body, thinner than you would assume for a beer over 7% ABV with this much crystal malt, but I generally like my beers dry and drinkable so this really isn't a flaw in my mind. This makes it nice and refreshing with medium to medium low carbonation, just where I would like it.
Notes: Overall, for a kitchen sink beer, I'm very happy with this. I would say there is a little more roast flavor than I would like and next time I would opt for crystal 80 instead of the crystal 120, but I had to make do with what I had on hand. I really like Mosaic hops with darker malts, if I where to brew another hoppy red or a black IPA in the future, I'd definitely feature Mosaic heavily.
Maine Beer Zoe served as my inspiration for this beer. Drinking it was
one of my "wow" beer moments. I was amazed how the malt character could
be so complex with flavors of bread, caramel, figs, raisins, and even a
subtle chocolate finish, but not detract from the grapefruit, pine, and
fruity characteristics of the hops. Over the past year or so I had
accumulated a few half open grain bags of wheat, crystal 40 and 120, and
chocolate malt. So it seemed fitting to throw all that together and
hop it like crazy and brew my interpretation of a hoppy red ale.Mosaic hops are supposed to be next big hop in the craft brewing world. They are a descendent of Simcoe and have a subtle grapefruit flavor, but additionally provide melon like notes as well. I first had them in Great Lakes Alchemy Hour and was blown away. I knew I had to buy some as soon as possible. I thought that in a beer that has some fruit flavors imparted by the malt, the not-so-traditional Mosaic would complement that well. I decided to pair the Mosaic with one of the more traditional hops, Centennial, in order to be sure that this beer does not end up too "out there". I also threw in some Citra that I had in a half open bag in the dry hop to make the beer a more tropical. The idea with the hopping was to have a foundation of the expected citrusy American hop character, but throw in some non-traditional flavors of melon and tropical fruit on top of it to play off of the complex malt bill.
A Hoppy Red Ale
Brewed 18 April 2013 by myself.
Batch size: 5 gallons
OG: 1.064
FG: 1.012
SRM: 17.5
IBU: 65
Fermentables
9 lbs. Rahr 2-row
1 lb. Briess Victory Malt
1 lb. Red Wheat Malt
8 oz. Crystal 40
4 oz. Crystal 120
4 oz. Chocolate Malt
Hops
0.50 oz. Warrior (Pellet, 13.7% AA) @ 60 min.
0.70 oz. CTZ (Pellet, 15.2% AA) @ 60 min.
1.00 oz. Centennial (Pellet, 9.2% AA) @ 10 min.
2.00 oz. Mosaic (Pellet, 11.6% AA) @ 0 min.
2.00 oz. Centennial (Pellet, 9.2% AA) @ 0 min.
2.00 oz. Mosaic (Pellet, 11.6% AA Dry hop (1/2 10 days, 1/2 in keg)
1.00 oz. Centennial (Pellet, 9.2% AA) Dry hop (1/2 10 days, 1/2 in keg)
1.00 oz. Citra (Pellet, 13.5% AA) Dry hop (1/2 10 days, 1/2 in keg)
Yeast
WLP007 - 1L starter made 4/16/2013
Misc.
1 tablet Whirlfloc @ 15 min.
1 tsp. yeast nutrient @ 15 min.
Mash
Sacch. rest 151F for 60 min., batch sparge.
Water
Carbon filtered DC tap water with 8g gypsum and 4g CaCl split evenly between the mash and sparge
Notes
Forgot to add the Red Wheat to the mash, so I added it to the batch sparge and let it rest for 30 minutes; didn't seem to cause much of a problem since I hit my expected efficiency. Planned on using all Warrior hops to bitter but I had two half opened bags of Warrior and Columbus so I just weighed them to see what was left and added each bag.
Collected 6 gallons of 1.055 runnings. Boiled for 60 min to hit an OG of 1.064 (74% efficiency).
Tap water only let it cool to 72F, so I put it in the fridge to bring it down to 65F, after about 5 hours.
Gave it 60 seconds of pure oxygen and pitched the decanted starter, and left it at 63 ambient to ferment.
~12 hours solid fermentation, 12 hours after that it was blowing off!
4/26/2013 - Down to 1.013, raised ambient temp to 65F for fermentation to finish off.
4/28/2013 - Set temp to 50F to get some of the yeast to drop out prior to dry hopping.
4/29/2013 - Added 1 oz. Mosaic, .5 oz each of Centennial and Citra to the fermenter, bagged and weighed.
5/6/2013 - Down to 1.012, cold crashed. Tasty, would have liked a little more Mosaic character.
5/9/2013 - Kegged with the other half of the dry hops.
7/2/2013 - Tasting Notes:
Appearance: Deep mahogany with a cream had that lingers around nicely, providing nice lacing down the glass. Slight haze from the use of wheat when held up to the light.
Smell: Sweet fruit and caramel with a subtle tropical and melon-like aroma from the Mosaic hops. Very nice.
Taste: Flavor starts with sweet caramel malt and slight roast then leads into grapefruit, melon, and a little bit of tropical or stone fruit, maybe peach? Then the roast, strong caramel, and bitterness come and the end is a great dry, fruity, bitter finish.
Mouthfeel: Medium-thin body, thinner than you would assume for a beer over 7% ABV with this much crystal malt, but I generally like my beers dry and drinkable so this really isn't a flaw in my mind. This makes it nice and refreshing with medium to medium low carbonation, just where I would like it.
Notes: Overall, for a kitchen sink beer, I'm very happy with this. I would say there is a little more roast flavor than I would like and next time I would opt for crystal 80 instead of the crystal 120, but I had to make do with what I had on hand. I really like Mosaic hops with darker malts, if I where to brew another hoppy red or a black IPA in the future, I'd definitely feature Mosaic heavily.
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Smoked Honey Porter
Recently Franklin's Brewery in Hyattesville, MD was kind enough to let my homebrew club, DC Homebrewers, collaborate with them on a beer. My friend Jake and I were in charge of designing a recipe, and brewing a pilot batch prior to brewing the commerical version at
Franklin's. Being in DC and all, and since one of our club members
successfully petitioned the White House last year to release their beer
recipes, we thought it would be fitting to brew the White House Honey Porter. However, that recipe looks extremely uninspiring. So we decided
to make some changes. The idea was to brew a Honey Porter the way DC Hombrewers would.
We started off by adding Crystal 120 to introduce some more dark fruit flavors and Crystal 40 add a little caramel depth. We upped the Chocolate Malt for more roast/chocolate flavors. Additionally, to make it more unique and our own, we used some Smoked Malt to give it some smoke undertones. Hop wise we decided on Columbus to give the beer a firm bitterness (~30 IBU, far greater than 10 IBU WH verison), and also impart the dank, spicy, earthy, citrus flavors that an aggressive hop like Columbus can assert.
Oh yeah, there's honey too (after all this is suppose to be the White House Honey Porter), but we added it to the fermenter in order to get more honey flavor, as opposed to at the end of the boil, which basically just increases fermentability.
Currently (6/25/2013) the Frankin's version of the beer is on tap and is absolulely awesome. The bitterness is closer to 45 IBU, there is a nice smoke flavor, but it doesn't overpower any of the chocolate/roast/dark fruit flavor you expect to have in Porter.
"A More Perfect Union"
Brewed 14 April 2013 with Jake, Erich and the members of HOPS in the parking lot of 3 Stars Brewery
Batch Size: 5 gallons
OG: 1.064
FG: 1.012
SRM: ?
IBU: 29
Fermentables
9 lbs. US 2-Row
2 lbs. Munich Malt
12 oz. Chocolate Malt
12 oz. Crystal 40
8 oz. Smoked Malt
8 oz. White Wheat Malt
4 oz. Crystal 120
2 oz. Black (Roast) Barley
1 lb. Honey added to the fermenter
Hops
0.25 oz. Columbus (Pellet, AA unknown) @ 60 min
0.25 oz. Columbus (Pellet, AA unknown) @ 20 min
0.50 oz. Columbus (Pellet, AA unknown) @ 10 min
0.50 oz. Columbus (Pellet, AA unknown) @ 5 min
Yeast
1 cup of Franklin's thick house slurry (assumed to be WLP001)
Mash
Sacch. rest 154F for 60 min.
Water
3 Stars carbon filtered DC water
Notes
Keg kept at Jake's place.
5/11/2013 - Kegged and carbed, nice roasty, dried fruit, subtle smoke in finish. Perhaps too sweet. Increase IBU for Franklin's batch. Jake quickly let some sit on oak for 30 min. and it tasted great. We will probably but the rest on oak.
We started off by adding Crystal 120 to introduce some more dark fruit flavors and Crystal 40 add a little caramel depth. We upped the Chocolate Malt for more roast/chocolate flavors. Additionally, to make it more unique and our own, we used some Smoked Malt to give it some smoke undertones. Hop wise we decided on Columbus to give the beer a firm bitterness (~30 IBU, far greater than 10 IBU WH verison), and also impart the dank, spicy, earthy, citrus flavors that an aggressive hop like Columbus can assert.
Oh yeah, there's honey too (after all this is suppose to be the White House Honey Porter), but we added it to the fermenter in order to get more honey flavor, as opposed to at the end of the boil, which basically just increases fermentability.
Currently (6/25/2013) the Frankin's version of the beer is on tap and is absolulely awesome. The bitterness is closer to 45 IBU, there is a nice smoke flavor, but it doesn't overpower any of the chocolate/roast/dark fruit flavor you expect to have in Porter.
"A More Perfect Union"
Brewed 14 April 2013 with Jake, Erich and the members of HOPS in the parking lot of 3 Stars Brewery
Batch Size: 5 gallons
OG: 1.064
FG: 1.012
SRM: ?
IBU: 29
Fermentables
9 lbs. US 2-Row
2 lbs. Munich Malt
12 oz. Chocolate Malt
12 oz. Crystal 40
8 oz. Smoked Malt
8 oz. White Wheat Malt
4 oz. Crystal 120
2 oz. Black (Roast) Barley
1 lb. Honey added to the fermenter
Hops
0.25 oz. Columbus (Pellet, AA unknown) @ 60 min
0.25 oz. Columbus (Pellet, AA unknown) @ 20 min
0.50 oz. Columbus (Pellet, AA unknown) @ 10 min
0.50 oz. Columbus (Pellet, AA unknown) @ 5 min
Yeast
1 cup of Franklin's thick house slurry (assumed to be WLP001)
Mash
Sacch. rest 154F for 60 min.
Water
3 Stars carbon filtered DC water
Notes
Keg kept at Jake's place.
5/11/2013 - Kegged and carbed, nice roasty, dried fruit, subtle smoke in finish. Perhaps too sweet. Increase IBU for Franklin's batch. Jake quickly let some sit on oak for 30 min. and it tasted great. We will probably but the rest on oak.
Rye Brett Saison
Saison is one of my
favorite styles to brew and drink. The fact that it is such an open
ended style really gives the brewer a lot of room for expression. For
this beer I really wanted to focus on the earthy, spicy, and rustic
qualities that are often found in a saison, and have the citrus and
fruit flavors in the background. In order to do this I used a
healthy amount of Rye malt, Saaz hops, and finished the beer with
Brettanomyces Bruxellensis. Since the Brett will give the beer a
nice barnyard/horse blanket flavor, the saccharomyces strain was not
overly important, and having just brewed the Motueka Saison with Wyeast
3711, I wanted to recycle that yeast cake and use it for this beer too.
Since 3711 is such a workhorse I wanted to mash this beer high, in
order to guarantee the Brett has enough sugars to chomp on during the
long secondary fermentation.
Rye Brett Saison
Brewed 5 April 2013
Batch Size: 5 gallons
OG: 1.058
FG: 1.002 (anticipated)
SRM: 4.7
IBU: 30
Grain
7.5 lbs. Rahr 2-Row
2 lbs. Rye Malt
1 lb. White Wheat Malt
Hops
0.52 oz. Warrior (Pellet, 13.7% AA) @ 75 min
2.00 oz. Saaz (Pellet, 2.9% AA) @ 10 min
Yeast
Wyeast 3711 - 1 cup of slurry from Motueka Saison
WLP650 Brettanomyces Bruxellanus added to secondary
Misc.
1 tablet of Whilfloc @ 15 min
1/2 tsp. Yeast Nutrient @ 15 min
Mash
Sacch. rest 151F for 60 min
Water
Carbon filtered DC tap water
Notes
Brewed 5 April 2013, by myself
Missed mash temperature by 4 degrees, decided it would still be okay, just less sugars for the Brett
Used rice hulls due to Rye Malt and Wheat, ran off great.
Collected 6 gallons of 1.048 runnings (70% eff)
Extended boil by 15 minutes to concentrate the wort. Cooled to 69F, pitched yeast. Solid fermentation after 8 hours.
4/17/2013 - Racked to secondary, down to 1.004, pitched a vial of WLP650
6/5/2013 - Not as much Brett character as expected (still young), so I pitched 1L of 1.035 starter wort to provide some more sugars for the Brett.
Rye Brett Saison
Brewed 5 April 2013
Batch Size: 5 gallons
OG: 1.058
FG: 1.002 (anticipated)
SRM: 4.7
IBU: 30
Grain
7.5 lbs. Rahr 2-Row
2 lbs. Rye Malt
1 lb. White Wheat Malt
Hops
0.52 oz. Warrior (Pellet, 13.7% AA) @ 75 min
2.00 oz. Saaz (Pellet, 2.9% AA) @ 10 min
Yeast
Wyeast 3711 - 1 cup of slurry from Motueka Saison
WLP650 Brettanomyces Bruxellanus added to secondary
Misc.
1 tablet of Whilfloc @ 15 min
1/2 tsp. Yeast Nutrient @ 15 min
Mash
Sacch. rest 151F for 60 min
Water
Carbon filtered DC tap water
Notes
Brewed 5 April 2013, by myself
Missed mash temperature by 4 degrees, decided it would still be okay, just less sugars for the Brett
Used rice hulls due to Rye Malt and Wheat, ran off great.
Collected 6 gallons of 1.048 runnings (70% eff)
Extended boil by 15 minutes to concentrate the wort. Cooled to 69F, pitched yeast. Solid fermentation after 8 hours.
4/17/2013 - Racked to secondary, down to 1.004, pitched a vial of WLP650
6/5/2013 - Not as much Brett character as expected (still young), so I pitched 1L of 1.035 starter wort to provide some more sugars for the Brett.
Motueka Saison
Water is the most
important ingredient that goes into beer. It's common for most people
to focus on the grain bill or hops in a beer and often overlook water by
simply using whatever comes out of the tap. Part of this stems from
the common advice many homebrewers give: "if it's good enough to drink,
it's good enough to brew with". I don't believe this is entirely true. While
adding brewing salts are not necessary to brew great beer, understanding
what potential off flavor elements your water contains is extremely
important. The two most popular in municiple water are chlorine and
cholarmine (a compound of chlorine and ammonia). DC tap water contains
both, depending on the time of year. Luckily, all you have to do is buy
a carbon block filter to remove the chlorine/chloramine and you're good
to go.
It's extremely important to remember how your carbon filter works
once you buy it. I did not. Being the neat freak that I am I decided
that after I brewed my last beer, I would empty out my carbon filter and
clean it. So I did. And I put it back together, and used it for this
beer. However, when I went to brew my next beer, I needed to move it on
my counter. When I picked it up, the filter seemed extremely light and
I quickly noticed that it was not full of water, thus no pressure to
force the water through the filter. I forgot that after you drain the
filter, it must be turned upside down in order to fill it back up
again. If not, water simply passes through it and not through the
carbon, rendering the filter useless. To compound the problem, I brewed
this beer as DC was "shocking" their water (loading it up with
chlorine). Needless to say, I brewed with chlorine in the water. A lot
of it.Anyway, the idea for this beer was to use Motueka hops (a descendent of Saaz, grown in New Zealand) in a saison to provide the spicy, earthy aroma associated with Saaz but with slightly tropical twist that New Zealand hops impart.
Motueka Saison
Brewed 15 March 2013 by myself
Batch Size: 5.75 gallons
OG: 1.055
FG: 1.003
SRM: 4.1
IBU: 30
Grain
8 lbs. Rahr 2-Row
2 lbs. Rahr White Wheat Malt
Hops
0.65 oz. Warrior (Pellet, 13.7% AA) @ 60 min.
0.50 oz. Motueka (Pellet, 6.5% AA) @ 10 min.
1.50 oz. Motueka (Pellet, 6.5% AA) @ 0 min.
1.00 oz Motueka (Pellet, AA) Dry Hop 5 days
Yeast
Wyeast 3711 - no starter, wanted to stress the yeast to see what flavors it would provide
Misc.
1 Whirlfloc tablet @ 15 min.
1/2 tsp. Yeast nutrient @ 15 min.
Mash
Sacch. rest 151F for 60 min.
Water
(Un)filtered DC water with 4g gypsum split between the mash and sparge
Notes
Hot liquor tank had a crack by the spout, had to find every pot in my kitchen to heat and store enough water to use for the sparge.
Collected 6 gallons of 1.049 runnings, cooled to 76F, added 1/2 gallon of boiled and cooled (un)filtered DC water to lower the gravity. Left at 64F ambient to ferment.
8 hours later the airlock is bubbling away.
3/29/2013 - Down to 1.003 (~7%)
4/1/2013 - Dry hopped with 1 oz Motueka
4/5/2013 - Kegged. Phenolic, medicinal flavor, slightly tart.
4/28/2013 - Realized I didn't let my carbon filter fill up.
5/11/2013 - Entered the beer into the DC Homebrewer Club/Sam Adams competition (winner gets to brew on the Sam Adams small system with the bearded dudes from the commercial). Out of about 70 entries, this beer made the final 15. When all was said and done it received a respectable 37. With the flaws being too hoppy and not enough yeast character for a saison. I think this is due to the fact that the phenolics made the flavor slightly harsh and 3711 isn't an overly expressive yeast.
Tasting Notes:
Appearance: Pale yellow, nice head that sticks around
Smell: Subtle fruity yeast, medicine (maybe some hops are there too, but for me the medicine trumps it)
Taste: Tart, fruit, medicinal
Mouthfeel: Thin, nice carbonation, easy drinking and refreshing for a 7% beer
Notes: Maybe I did not pitch enough yeast, which could have stressed out the yeast and added to the medicinal flavor.
Monday, June 24, 2013
Maris Otter/Citra SMaSH
A few years ago the Citra hop took the craft beer and, as a result, homebrewing world by storm. Amidst this storm I decided that I should buy an ounce Citra here, a pound there, and another ounce somewhere else. Basically anytime I ordered ingredients I checked to see if there was any Citra in stock, and if yes, I bought it. I'm also pretty sure I did all this prior to ever tasting a beer with it. Yes, I was a bandwagon fanboy of the Citra hop.
After a couple months of accumulation, and being a college student who brewed in his apartment, his parents house in New Jersey, and a family vacation home in Pennsylvania, I managed to leave a breadcrumb trail of Citra in every location I've been. So fast forward a few years. I moved out of my college apartment, and my family cleaned out their freezers. This gave me a surplus of Citra hops that I never knew I had. After having Three Floyds Zombie Dust, Surly Abrasive Ale, and Kern River Citra, all of which showcase Citra extremely well, I wanted to do something that used Citra exclusively. I've used it multiple times mixed with other hops in IPA or yeast forward beers like Saison, but never alone. I also had never done a single malt beer. So I thought it would be fitting to do a SMaSH beer with Maris Otter malt and Citra hops.
Maris Otter is English pale malt. It's know to be slightly darker and impart more of a toasty, bready character that traditional US 2-Row. I thought this would lay down a firm foundation for the Citra to shine.
Obviously the recipe is fairly basic. The idea was to mash fairly low so the beer dries out and the tropical flavors of the Citra hops can flourish, but still mash high enough to have some dextrins left over to balance the bitterness that a high Alpha Acid hop like Citra will impart. Yeast wise, I was lazy, I did not feel like making a starter, so I went with US-05. Any even more so, I didn't feel like rehydrating on brew day. We'll see how that decision came back to bite me...
MO' Citra SMASH!
Batch Size: 5 gallons
OG: 1.055
FG: 1.011
SRM: 5.8
IBU: 45
Grain:
10 lbs. Maris Otter
Hops:
0.50 oz. Citra (Pellet, 14.1% AA) @ 60 min
1.00 oz Citra (Pellet, 14.1% AA) @ 10 min
2.00 oz Citra (Pellet, 14.1% AA) @ 0 min (50 minute hop stand)
1.00 oz Citra (Pellet, 13.7% AA) Dry Hop 10 days
Yeast:
Safale US-05
Misc.:
Whirlfloc @ 15 min
Yeast Nutrient @ 15 min
Mash:
Sacch. Rest @ 151F for 60 min
Water:
Carbon filtered DC tap water cut with 4 gallons distilled with 8.5g gypsum and 4g CaCl split evenly between the mash and sparge
Notes:
Brewed 1 March 2013, by myself.
Planned on mashing at 153, ended up being 151.
Collected 6.25 gallons of a 1.044 runnings
Shook for a minute or so to aerate.
Chilled to 65F, left at 62F ambient to ferment.
~24 hours later, active fermentation
3/6/2013 - Increased the temperature to 65 ambient to ensure fermentation completes.
3/8/2013 - Down to 1.011, noticeable diacetyl. Turned off temperature control (about 68 ambient) to do a diacetyl rest of sorts.
3/13/2013 - Still diacetyl. Will leave this at ambient temp for a little longer.
3/15/2013 - Needed the fermenter so I racked it to secondary. Made a 750ml starter out of US-05. Will pitch later to try to add some active yeast to clean up the diacetyl.
3/26/2013 - Still diacetyl. added 1000ml of 1.040 wort to hopefully get the yeast going again.
3/29/2013 - Diacetyl seems to be fading but still noticeable. Added only 1 oz. of Citra to dry hop. I don't want to waste hops on a flawed beer. It seems that not hydrating the dry yeast and perhaps not oxygenating enough didn't give the yeast enough oomph to clean up the diacetyl.
4/5/2013 - Crashed to 36F.
4/7/2013 - Kegged into a double flushed with CO2 keg.
4/14/2013 - Tasting notes:
Appearance: Deep yellow, medium haze, medium head dissipates fairly quickly.
Smell: Mild Citra nose: tropical, mango, sweet bready malt, but to me the buttery diacetyl dominates. If this beer wasn't flawed I would have dry hopped much more.
Taste: Bread malt to tropical mango notes. Low bitterness (due to waiting for the diacetyl to clear), toasty microwave popcorn...
Mouthfeel: Dry, nice body. Medium, medium low carbonation, lingering butter feeling.
Notes: Diacetyl pretty much dominates everythng. Moreso in mouthfeel. However, other friends and homebrew club members did not pick up on the diacetyl until I brought it up. Well received by others, and I would have dry hopped much more if I didn't think it was flawed.
After a couple months of accumulation, and being a college student who brewed in his apartment, his parents house in New Jersey, and a family vacation home in Pennsylvania, I managed to leave a breadcrumb trail of Citra in every location I've been. So fast forward a few years. I moved out of my college apartment, and my family cleaned out their freezers. This gave me a surplus of Citra hops that I never knew I had. After having Three Floyds Zombie Dust, Surly Abrasive Ale, and Kern River Citra, all of which showcase Citra extremely well, I wanted to do something that used Citra exclusively. I've used it multiple times mixed with other hops in IPA or yeast forward beers like Saison, but never alone. I also had never done a single malt beer. So I thought it would be fitting to do a SMaSH beer with Maris Otter malt and Citra hops.
Maris Otter is English pale malt. It's know to be slightly darker and impart more of a toasty, bready character that traditional US 2-Row. I thought this would lay down a firm foundation for the Citra to shine.
Obviously the recipe is fairly basic. The idea was to mash fairly low so the beer dries out and the tropical flavors of the Citra hops can flourish, but still mash high enough to have some dextrins left over to balance the bitterness that a high Alpha Acid hop like Citra will impart. Yeast wise, I was lazy, I did not feel like making a starter, so I went with US-05. Any even more so, I didn't feel like rehydrating on brew day. We'll see how that decision came back to bite me...
MO' Citra SMASH!
Batch Size: 5 gallons
OG: 1.055
FG: 1.011
SRM: 5.8
IBU: 45
Grain:
10 lbs. Maris Otter
Hops:
0.50 oz. Citra (Pellet, 14.1% AA) @ 60 min
1.00 oz Citra (Pellet, 14.1% AA) @ 10 min
2.00 oz Citra (Pellet, 14.1% AA) @ 0 min (50 minute hop stand)
1.00 oz Citra (Pellet, 13.7% AA) Dry Hop 10 days
Yeast:
Safale US-05
Misc.:
Whirlfloc @ 15 min
Yeast Nutrient @ 15 min
Mash:
Sacch. Rest @ 151F for 60 min
Water:
Carbon filtered DC tap water cut with 4 gallons distilled with 8.5g gypsum and 4g CaCl split evenly between the mash and sparge
Notes:
Brewed 1 March 2013, by myself.
Planned on mashing at 153, ended up being 151.
Collected 6.25 gallons of a 1.044 runnings
Shook for a minute or so to aerate.
Chilled to 65F, left at 62F ambient to ferment.
~24 hours later, active fermentation
3/6/2013 - Increased the temperature to 65 ambient to ensure fermentation completes.
3/8/2013 - Down to 1.011, noticeable diacetyl. Turned off temperature control (about 68 ambient) to do a diacetyl rest of sorts.
3/13/2013 - Still diacetyl. Will leave this at ambient temp for a little longer.
3/15/2013 - Needed the fermenter so I racked it to secondary. Made a 750ml starter out of US-05. Will pitch later to try to add some active yeast to clean up the diacetyl.
3/26/2013 - Still diacetyl. added 1000ml of 1.040 wort to hopefully get the yeast going again.
3/29/2013 - Diacetyl seems to be fading but still noticeable. Added only 1 oz. of Citra to dry hop. I don't want to waste hops on a flawed beer. It seems that not hydrating the dry yeast and perhaps not oxygenating enough didn't give the yeast enough oomph to clean up the diacetyl.
4/5/2013 - Crashed to 36F.
4/7/2013 - Kegged into a double flushed with CO2 keg.
4/14/2013 - Tasting notes:
Appearance: Deep yellow, medium haze, medium head dissipates fairly quickly.
Smell: Mild Citra nose: tropical, mango, sweet bready malt, but to me the buttery diacetyl dominates. If this beer wasn't flawed I would have dry hopped much more.
Taste: Bread malt to tropical mango notes. Low bitterness (due to waiting for the diacetyl to clear), toasty microwave popcorn...
Mouthfeel: Dry, nice body. Medium, medium low carbonation, lingering butter feeling.
Notes: Diacetyl pretty much dominates everythng. Moreso in mouthfeel. However, other friends and homebrew club members did not pick up on the diacetyl until I brought it up. Well received by others, and I would have dry hopped much more if I didn't think it was flawed.
WELCOME!
As someone that spends the majority of his time thinking, listening, or reading about beer, brewing, and fermentation and as someone that enjoys writing, I thought it would be a good idea for me start a blog to record my trials, errors, and experiences with beer. I am by no means an expert, but I feel like I have a firm foundation in homebrewing and try to get better with every batch I brew. So instead of just writing my notes in my trusty "Brew Book", I'll share them on this blog to ease whatever curiosity or questions any readers may have. If anything, this is a way for me to express my experiences, but if you like something you read or have a question please comment or email me and let me know.
Rather than going back and trying to remember/post every beer I've brewed the past two years I've been homebrewing, I've decided to post every beer I've brewed in 2013, and continue on from there.
Enjoy!
-Sean
Rather than going back and trying to remember/post every beer I've brewed the past two years I've been homebrewing, I've decided to post every beer I've brewed in 2013, and continue on from there.
Enjoy!
-Sean
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