Schwarzbier Brewday

I finally got a chest freezer for making lagers and generally controlling the temp of my beers. For an automatic thermostat, I got an STC-1000 which is awesome enough as it is, but a guy in the local homebrew club flashed it with the STC-1000+ ROM. That free upgrade allows you to program the STC-1000 plus with up to 9 fermentation profiles, which can each have their own series of temperature points and associated durations. Apparently one would normally have to pay $200+ for a commercially produced controller with those features.

In any case, for my first lager I decided to brew a 5-gallon batch of Schwarzbier following the recipe of p. 81 of Brewing Classic Styles.

German Schwarzbier
5 gallons
9# German Pils
1# German Munich
11oz Carafa Special II

Hallertau, 1.65oz, 4.0%, 60min
Hallertau, 0.5oz, 4.0%, 60min
Hallertau, 0.5oz, 4.0%, 60min (ended up adding .85 oz at flameout because I didn't want any leftover Hallertau hops).

Mash at 151F, boil 90 mins.

WLP830 - German Lager

Made a large yeast starter on 11/5/14.

Brewed 11/8/14 at a friends house. Didn't really check the OG etc.... but I believe I did get the right volume.

When the boiled wort was chilled to around 100F, I siphoned to a 6-gallon carboy and placed in the 45F fridge.

The next morning, the fridge and beer were at 55F. Pitched the whole starter, shook the carboy to aerate a little bit, then let it ferment.

Fermentation profile programmed into the SCT-1000+ is 2 weeks at 50F, ramp to 60F over 1 day, hold at 60F 2 days, ramp down to 50, hold for a day, then ramp to 35F and hold there.

By the afternoon of 11/11, there was a nice krausen and bubbling, By 11/16 it seemed to be at high krausen. Still bubbling and a bit of krausen on 11/19.

It doesn't smell like ale fermentation.... a little harsh. But we'll see how it ends up.

Transferred to secondary on 12/4/14, after the beer had entered the lagering period at 35F.

Bottled on 1/3/15, using table sugar as a priming solution. I will wait a bit longer before popping the first bottle, since I hear lager yeast takes longer to carbonate.



 

Brett IPA #2 Review

So I finally brewed the same beer twice. Well, almost. This recipe had only one difference from the previous version, which was the addition of the Acid Malt. But the process was slightly different too, since I let the primary fermentation go for two weeks instead of one before adding the dry hops. Let's see if it makes a substantial different in the results…..


Appearance: Golden-orange, hazy with Brett yeast. Solid white head that leaves good lacing around the glass.

Aroma: Bright with hops. Fruity like mangoes or so, but with a dank side too.

Taste: Similar to the aroma: fruity, tropical juicy, but with a solid bitterness. To me it tastes a little more bitter than the last one.

Mouthfeel: Carbonation is on the higher end of moderate. Definitely not as highly carbed as my first Brett IPA. The body is not spritzy but still light.

Overall:Very good. My brother said it tasted like a commercial-quality IPA. I'm not sure if the acid malt made any difference compared to previous batch, but I definitely do detect the lower carbonation in this one. I think for next time a carbonation level around 2.5 would be better, as would a slight reduction in the IBUs. Not sure the acid malt added anything that I can detect.

I think I prefer the previous batch, which I believe benefitted from the lighter body and the slightly lower bitterness.

Mild Review

My second "normal" homebrew batch size was a Mild, following JZ's recipe for that style. With a low alcohol level but a nice flavor, why not brew 5 gallons?

Appearance: Mahogany brown color. A little hazy but nearly transparent. Very small, off-white head on top. Obviously low carbonation.

Aroma: Malty, bready, biscuity aroma. I would say it's grainy - a bit like grain before I mash in. Caramel and light roasty or nutty aroma as well. I don't get hop aroma although I might get a tiny bit of dark fruit aroma, like raisins or so.

Taste: Malty, caramel and toasty, maybe nutty. It doesn't seem too sweet. Low bitterness at the end. Certainly not a very strong taste but nevertheless satisfying.

Mouthfeel: Low carbonation. Thin body but it's not like water. Improves as it warms up.

Overall: I think it. I think it serves its purpose as the kind of beer one could drink without having to worry about the effects of alcohol. But it does have a good flavor. A good beer to drink at a party and serve to people who normally drink crappy beer.

Mild Brew Day

My significant other is very busy these days with studying as she is in grad school. That's left me with some time on my hands, which, naturally, I've chosen to spend brewing over the last few weekends. Friday night she told me that she'd be busy all Saturday, so I decided to brew a nice easy drinking session beer - an English mild. And, since I had limited time to formulate the recipe, I basically copied it out of Brewing Classic Styles and finally did another 5 gallon batch. I pretty much followed the recipe exactly except that I didn't have the right hops so the IBUs are probably going to be a bit off. I kind of guesstimated. Hopefully it won't be overly bitter or cloyingly sweet but somewhere in the acceptable zone for the style.


Mild
5 gallons

7# Maris Otter
8oz Crystal 60
6oz Crystal 120
4oz Chocolate Malt
2oz Black Patent

All hops 60 min
.2oz Kent Goldings, 5.6%
.2oz Tettnanger, 4.5%
.1oz Warrior, 15% 

Union Jacks M07 Yeast

Expected OG/FG/IBUs/ABV: 1.03 / 1.011 / ?? / 3.2%

Brewed 10/13
Brewday went well, but my efficiency was high, I ended up with about 5.25 gallons of 11.2B / 1.045 SG beer.

Split into two 3-gallon carboys. And pitched at about 65F. By the next day, one carboy was going pretty well with quite some krausen, though the other had only slight krausen. Perhaps one carboy got more yeast than the other.

On 10/13 the second carboy was developing a full head of krausen. 

Rye Porter Review

Someday I ought to brew a 5-gallon batch exactly as it appears on the recipe.  This porter is a scaled version of the one from Brewing Classic Styles but also with some grain substitutions. I guess one never knows how the altered recipes compare to JZ's award-winning recipes, although of course every brewer has a slightly different system and technique, so even with unaltered recipes your mileage may vary. In any case, let's see how this one turned out.

Appearance: Dark brown with tan head. Not completely opaque but pretty close. The head lasts.

Aroma: Pretty subdued by I get some roasty and chocolate notes. Coffee-like aroma, with no hop character. The aroma becomes more bready and grainy as the beer warms to proper serving temperature.

Taste: Stronger than the smell, again, roasty and chocolatey, and a little bit acrid. Sweetness is there but minimal. Bitterness is low. I think it should be a little bit sweeter.

Mouthfeel: The first thing I notice is that this beer seems to have a creamy texture without feeling heavy. It's kind of like Guiness in texture. Carbonation is on the low end of medium.

Overall: Pretty good, although I could do without the slight acrid note and I think it should be a little bit sweeter. My wife really like it. I may enter this into an upcoming competition.

 

Brett IPA #2

 My last Brett IPA turned out well enough to share 1st place in a club-only competition. Turns out there's another competition coming up, and the 3 best beers in that one will be brewed professionally and ultimately judged by their sales in the brewery's tasting room. So why not try again?

The only change for this recipe is that I added 2oz of acid malt to try to encourage the brett to produce some nice tropical fruit esters.

Brett IPA
6# Breiss 2-Row
6oz Munich Malt
4oz Victory Malt
4oz White Wheat
2oz Acid Malt

Mash at 152F

.375oz Nugget, 13%, 60min
.5oz Cascade, 6%, 10 min
.5oz Centennial, 10.5%, 10 min
.5oz Cascade, 6%, 5 min
.5oz Centennial, 10.5%, 10 min
1oz Nelson Sauvin, 12%, 1 min

1oz Nelson Sauvin, 12% - Hopstand, 5min @ 210F, 30min @ 180-140F

.5oz Nelson Sauvin, .5oz CTZ, .5oz Centenial, dry, 7 days

WLP644

Expected OG/FG/IBUs/ABV: 1.062, 1.016 (or less as Brett is highly attenuative), 54, 5.9% (or slightly more depending on attenuation).

Starter made on 10/4 with 50g DME and 500ml water, lightly hopped. The yeast was washed from my previous batch of Brett IPA.

Brewed 10/5/14
Brew day went well - not much to say except that I hit my numbers pretty well including gravity and volume. The whirlpool step did seem to be quite a bit cooler than last time, dropping into the 150F - 140F range over the course of 30 minutes of whirlpooling.

I got the beer to about 90F before putting the kettle in the basement to cool to pitching temps.

Pitched when the wort was around 65F, a bit colder than last time but I hope that will not be a problem. Did not aerate, as per last time.

10/6/14, 6pm - Beer was fermenting nicely at 64F, which is on the cool side, but tomorrow I will move it upstairs for a temperature boost. 

Sourish American

I like sour beers, though they take a tremendous amount of time in most cases to do the full souring process. I'm talking like 8 - 12 months minimum. I've completed a Flanders Red which turned out very good but not quite sour enough, and a Belgian strong dark sour which is currently in process, but will likely be ready in another 4-6 months.

A couple of months ago I had a chance to grab a smack-pack of WY3202 - De Bom, a sour blend that can apparently create a good sour in 2-4 months under "optimal conditions". Turns out though that those conditions are fermenting at 75F-80F. Probably I should have brewed this thing in the summer, when things are more in the optimal range. But I figure waiting a long time for a sour is kind of normal. So we'll see what happens.

The recipe is a basically scaled version of Sourish American from The Mad Fermentationist's book, "American Sour Beers." I highly recommend the book, though at this point I cannot directly speak to the quality of the recipes. Though this recipe uses a US 2-Row instead of Pilsner malt and different hops, the biggest difference is the sour mix, since I didn't have a vial of ECY Bugfarm. I also mashed really high to give the bugs lots of complex sugars to chew on.

Sourish American
3.25 gal batch

4.25# US 2-Row
2.5# Maris Otter
12oz White Wheat
8oz Flaked Barley

.5oz Fuggles, 4.5%, 90min

Wyeast De Bom - No starter

Expected OG / FG / IBUs / ABV: 1.062 / 1.009 / 12 / 6.8%

Mash at 158F, sparge with 180F water.

After primary fermentation, add red-wine soaked oak cubes. 

Brewed on 9/13/14
Hit my mash temp well, and the gravity of the pre-boil wort was correct.

However I over-boiled and ended up with like 2.5 gallons of wort, so I topped off with some boiled water to get my volume right. I hardly left any wort in the kettle.

Pitched at around 70F, left in 68F ambient air.

9/14/14, 10pm - Solid krausen forming.

9/22/14 - Krausen has dropped but there still seem to be some bubbles occasionally emerging. Temperature is around 68F - 70F but has fluctuated a bit.

Homegrown Hops

In April, I planted four hop rhizomes in my parents' garden. I had been wanting to plant hops for a while, and since I don't have my own place with a garden my parents' place seemed logical. Here's a rough accounting of what happened.

I planted two Cascade plants, which almost certainly did not get enough sun as they did not grow very tall or fast and only produced a handful of small hop cones. However the cones did smell pretty good. Both of these plants grew up twine which was attached to screws in the side of the house.

Also I had two Centennial plants, one of which did not have enough sun as it was against the same wall as the Cascades and produced a lot of pale green-yellow leaves and only a few cones. The other one grew very well, at least in comparison to the other 3 plants. This one had much more sun and a large trellis built out of PVC pipe to support its growth. It produced a large volume of dark green leaves and about 1lb, 2oz of wet cones, though the cones were small and do not have a huge hop aroma. (Perhaps I picked them too soon.)

So lessons learned from the growing experience.

• Put the hops in a place where they have as much sun as possible. I have a plan for moving things around next year so they get better sun.
• If you plant them in containers, use a very large pot.
• Hops will grow vertically and produce many leaves if they are healthy. Make sure your trellis or twine is well-secured against the wind.
• Have some way to either lower the top of the plant down for picking, or a tall ladder so that you can reach the top. 
• Picking takes time. It took me a hour to pick the hops off of the big plant.
• Learn to pick the hops at the right time- not when the are too underdeveloped but not after they have dried out on the plant. I wish I had looked at some YouTube videos for this.

Once I picked the hops, I placed them in brown paper bags for drying. A few days later they seemed dry, though I don't really know if I am doing this right. Unfortunately they do not smell like the hops I buy from the store. They kind of smell .... grassy or stale or something. But they definitely have some bitterness in the core as I can see, taste and smell the yellowish-green lupulin when cone is cut open.

The yield from the Centennial was a total of 7oz dry hops, and about 3/8oz dry hops from the Cascade. So, the Centennial lost about 1/2 of their weight when drying.

I am pretty hesitant to brew a beer with these things. First, I have heard that first year hops do not tend to be good for beer as the plants have spent their energy developing the root system rather than the lupulin and such. Secondly and perhaps more importantly, my hops just don't smell great. If they don't smell good on their own, how could they smell good in my beer?

My expectations for the first year of growth were not high. But it was for sure a learning experience and I am positive that I can change things up a bit so that next year I get more hops and better quality hops. Picking them at the wrong time may have been the reason for the poor smell.

Brett IPA Review

This is my first IPA brewed with brettanomyces yeast, and based on the results, I will absolutely try again with this combination of yeast, hops and malt, with the only change being a slight addition of acid malt.

I brewed this beer as part of a club-only competition to brew a brett-IPA for a group barrel project. The winning recipe will be brewed by a bunch o' club members then fermented in a wine barrel. It turns out this beer is one of the winners - I'm really interested to see how it turns out when brewed in the barrel.

----------------- Original Review, written 8/27/14
Appearance: Hazy orange, most likely due to low-floccuation brett still in suspension. Fluffy white head, but it dissipate a little too quickly.

Aroma: Very fruity hops. Stronger hop aroma than many or most of my previous hoppy beers. I smell the Nelson quite a bit but it's layered with the classic Cascade & Centennial combination. I don't get much pine. I'm not sure how to identify the contribution of the brett. It's supposed to give a variety of tropical fruity aromas, which if present here blend very well with the hoppy aromas.

Taste: Like the aroma - complexity in the hopiness. Dry but fruity, bitter but not astringent, a hint of pine, maybe a barely noticeable hint of brett funk or so in the aftertaste. Hard to describe except to say that to me it tastes really good. A little fruit-juicy. No sourness detectable.

Mouthfeel: Dry, high-moderate carbonation, and kind of thin in body. Close to effervescent in mouthfeel. Refreshing, but the bitterness prevents it from going down like fruit juice.

Other: I really like it.

For Next Time: I didn't include any acid malt in this brew, but I have heard that including some can boost the brett tropical fruit esters. So, that's what I will do the next time I brew this thing, which I definitely plan to do. Also I will try to pitch a very large starter to ensure good attenuation and avoid bottle-bombs.

--------------- Comments / Consensus from club tasters, 8/28/14
There were about 18 other entries in the field, and mine and another were selected to be brewed for the barrels. I was very happy!

The consensus seemed to be that the two winners had the most "brightness" in terms of hop flavor, as well as good body and appropriateness for the barrel. Additionally neither of the two winners had no faults such as diacetyl, excessive phenols, or acid clashing with the hops. I tasted all of the entries, and I did taste in some other them those flaws, including some that just tasted... bizarre in a way that I don't know how to describe.

Robust Rye Porter Brewday

Back to a dark beer after a string of light and hoppy beers. This will be my first straight porter, as all my previous porters were brewed with smoked malt. I used the recipe from Brewing Classic Styles with a couple of modifications, since I had on hand a pound of rye malt with no immediate plans to use it, so I substituted it for some of the base malt. Secondly I had some spare Crystal 60 lying around, so I tossed it in the mash instead of C-40, and reduced the amount a bit since I figure C60 will give a sweeter note that C40. As for hops, again it was a substitution to what was in my fridge. Now onto the good stuff:

Robust Rye Porter
6# Briess 2-Row
1# Light Munich
1# Rye Malt
8oz Chocolate Malt
7oz Crystal 60
4oz Roasted Barley

Warrior,  .35oz, 15.5%AA, 60min
Willamette, .5oz, 4.7%, 10min
Willamette, .5oz, 4.7%,  5min
Willamette, .15oz, 4.7%, 0min (finishing a bag of hops)

Mash at 154F

US-05

Expected OG / FG / IBUs / ABV: 1.063, 1.016, 28, 6.1%

9/5/14 - Made a starter with recycled yeast from the latest APA

Brewed 9/6/14
Hit my mash temp well, but oversparged and collected 4.75 gallons of wort at 1.051FG. Boiled for 30 minutes before adding hops to compensate.

Everything went well - I even took the gravity at flame out, using my refractometer and volume using my measuring stick. I was over gravity and volume, with about 3.5 gallons at 1.068.

Cooled wort using fresh groundwater to 85F, then placed in basement to reach pitching temps.

Several ours later, decanted most of the starter beer (it had fermented over the past day) and pitched the yeast at 70F.

9/7/14, 2pm - active fermentation with the carboy sitting in a pale of water at 70F, 68F ambient air.

FYI, here's a picture of my cooling setup. The hot wort leaves the kettle through the stainless valve and the high-temp tubing into the march pump, the returns through a whirlpool arm attached to the wort chiller. In this picture the garden hose is supplying fresh water, which is filling the grey bin. Normally, I would use the submersible pump in the bin to re-circulate the cooling water through the chiller, but water in that bin gets really nasty after a while, so I occasionally dump it. Also, in this picture I have managed to balance the chiller just right so that it does not fall over onto the side of the pot.

Audacity Clone Attempt Review

So I attempted to clone the "Audacity of Hops" from Cambridge Brewing Co. without a complete idea of the recipe. I didn't end up with a clone by any means, and sadly, not even with a good beer. Suboptimal. 

Appearance: Chill-hazy deep-orange with fluffy white head that dissipates fairly quickly but leaves a thin layer of bubbles around the perimeter of the glass and on the surface of the beer.

Aroma: Resiny, earthy hops. Fruity background notes. To me it also as a fairly strong caramel sweetness in the nose as well as some kind of yeast-derived esters and a boozy note.

Taste: A kind of odd combination of high bitterness, yeasty spice and a bit of caramel sweetness. It's kind of muddled - like there's too much going on and it doesn't all make sense together. I think I taste the alcohol a bit as well.

Mouthfeel: Medium body, accentuated by the caramel malts. Low to moderate combination. Bitter and alcoholic aftertaste.

Overall: Yikes. A muddled mess. The combination of high hops, caramel malt, and yeast spiceness and esters just doesn't work right in this circumstance. I can drink a glass, but I wouldn't want more than one. You win some, you loose some, especially when you basically have to guess at the recipe.

Needless to say, there was a closer clone attempt from another club member. The pro brewers at CBC were very helpful with their suggestions about yeast handling, drying the beer out, and avoiding any crystal malt in this beer. They also suggested avoiding the "whirlpool hop" technique.

4-Cs APA Review

The blast of hops continues. I've brewed a whole lot of hoppy beers recently, partly just because I wanted to do so and partly because the last two club-only competitions involved hoppy beers. Let's see how this one turned out:

Appearance: Pretty clear orange with slight chill-haze. Fluffy white head supported by lots of little bubbles coming up through the beer.

Aroma: Hoppy but not overpowering. Fruity notes mostly peach, pear, citrus. A little bit of pine. The hop aroma was stronger on the first bottle I opened a couple of weeks ago. Not much malty aroma.

Taste: Moderately bitter, with good toasty and malty backbone. Well balanced between the malt and bitterness, but skews a little too much towards the bitter. Moderate to dry sweetness. Aftertaste is bitter. I don't get any caramel tastes - I didn't use caramel malts, but again I think the British Maris Otter gives it a more interesting malt taste than US 2-Row.

Mouthfeel: Good. Moderately carbed and light to moderate body. Refreshing.

Overall: A hoppy American pale ale. Refreshing but to me a little bit too bitter.

I don't think I would change anything except for next time either up the 0 minute hop additions and / or dry hop.

My hoppy beers definitely fade pretty quickly. The seem to peak 3-4 weeks after brewing. Maybe if I had a kegging system with a fridge they would be better preserved, since the cold of the fridge preserves the hop character better.

Russian Stout Review

I brewed a RIS quite some time ago and though it initially seemed OK once bottled it developed overcarbonation. Fortunately only one bottle exploded, but I cautiously (and repeatedly) released some CO2 from each bottle in hopes that it was merely under-attenuated at bottling and not infected with brett or bacteria.

I would hate for this beer to be ruined since it was an expensive and time-consuming brew. We'll see.

Appearance: As dark as my soul. Zero transparency. Black or very dark brown. Thick brown head that persists for a long time. The bottle did not gush at all, but I did get a bit of excessive foaming at the pour, but fortunately not extreme - letting out some of the pressure seems to have worked.

Aroma: Lots going on. Burnt coffee or chocolate notes, alcohol sweetness, surprisingly not much dark fruit, but some malty-sweetness.  Not sure I get any wood or whiskey.

Taste: A bit acrid, but sweet and quite bitter. Very intense flavor that is hard to characterize. Again I don't get much in the way of dark fruits but maybe a hint of plums and raisins. Also the very intense taste may be masking the whiskey or wood quality, but perhaps there are hints of it in the background.

Mouthfeel: A bit on the light side for this style but I don't think it's extremely far out of bounds. Despite the slight overcarbonation the beer still feels a bit heavy in the mouth.


Other: Better than I was expecting under the circumstances. Not sour, not bretty-funky. This bottle was good but somewhat overcharged. I suspect that the bottles will not be consistent in quality.

For next time:
1) Improved sanitation procedures.
2) Do not ferment too cool, so as to avoid under-attenuation, once the active fermentation is winding down, move the fermenter to a warmer area.
3) More oak, more whiskey, more time aging on oak.

Audacity of Hops Clone Attempt

The brewing club of which I am a minor part is holding a clone competition of the "Belgian Double IPA" Audacity of Hops from Cambridge Brewing Company. The page for the beer has some recipe info and stats for the beer although I heard some contradictory information from a member of the club who spoke with one of the brewers. I've tried to guess at the recipe as best I could.

Audacity Clone Attempt

3.25 gallon batch

6# Belgian Pilsner Malt
2# German Vienna Malt
12oz Table Sugar
12oz Wheat Malt
2oz Crystal 40L

1oz Nugget, 13.1% AA, 90 min
.5oz Cascade, 6%, 10 min
.5oz Centennial, 10.5%, 10min
.5oz Hallertau, 4.5%, 5min
.5oz Tettnang, 4%, 5min
.5oz Hallertau, 4.5%, 1min
.5oz Tettnang, 4%, 1min

.25oz Chinook, 13%, Hopstand
.25oz Amarillo, 9.5%, Hopstand
.25oz Simcoe, 13%, Hopstand
.25oz Tettnang, 4%, Hopstand

.75oz Chinook, 13%, Dry
.75oz Amarillo, 9.5%, Dry
.75oz Simcoe, 13%, Dry
.75oz Tettnang, 4%,Dry

WLP550 - Belgian Ale Yeast

Expected FG / OG / IBUs / ABV: 1.079, 1.015, 88, 8.3%

Brewed 8/3/14
Made a starter on 8/2/14.

Hit my mash temp well, but oversparged. I collected about 4.75 gallons and boiled for 25 minutes before adding the hops.

My OG was probably a bit off because of this, but at the end of the boil I was about at the right batch size.

Hopstand procedure was 5 mins at 210F, then 30 minutes at 180F - 165F. I recirculated the hot wort the whole time using the march pump.

Cooled to approximately 110F, then placed the kettle in the basement in a tub of water. Let cool for 4 hours, and pitched at 70F.

By 8/4/14 at 6pm, the fermentation was going nicely.

Added dry hops on 8/11/14, after most of the yeast had started to drop out. The smell of the beer was good and Belgian.

Bottled on 8/18/14, going for 2.2 volumes of CO2. I got 27 bottles. The trub and hop gunk reduce your volume substantially on a beer like this. 

All Brett IPA

The local brew-club is holding a club-only competition for an all-brett IPA. The winner, in addition to the fame, glory and riches that come from this accomplishment, will have his or her beer brewed in quantity enough to fill a barrel.

My thinking for this beer is as follows:

• Malt takes a background / supporting role and contributes to the body of the beer. Accordingly I used US 2-Row for its relatively neutral flavor. Maris Otter would be too much in this beer. But the  slight bit of Munich, Victory and Wheat malt will leave body and malt flavors without being overpowering.
• Hops and yeast are the key choices, since they need to compliment each other without clashing. 
• I chose Brett-Trois from WhiteLabs. This strain of brett is supposed to produce a huge amount of tropical fruit flavors and, when used as the primary yeast and without aeration, does so without the classic "barnyard" flavors and slight sourness that come from other strains of brett.
• For hops, I chose to feature the fruity, wine like aroma and flavor of Nelson Sauvin hops, as I think they will compliment the brett flavors nicely. However I generally do not like IPAs with too much fruit character - I prefer them to have some degree of piney, resiny character. Thus the Cascade / Centenial combo.
• For yeast, I have heard WLP644 - Brett Trois - is good for IPAs. However it can apparently create some sourness if the wort is aerated - so no aerating this one. The yeast also needs a good starter. 
• Ferment a tad warm to get some good yeast esters and make sure the beer reaches final gravity in a reasonable timeframe.

Brett IPA
6# Breiss 2-Row
6oz Munich Malt
4oz Victory Malt
4oz White Wheat

Mash at 152F

.375oz Nugget, 13%, 60min
.5oz Cascade, 6%, 10 min
.5oz Centennial, 10.5%, 10 min
.5oz Cascade, 6%, 5 min
.5oz Centennial, 10.5%, 10 min
1oz Nelson Sauvin, 12%, 1 min

1oz Nelson Sauvin, 12% - Hopstand, 5min @ 210F, 30min @ 180-160F

.5oz Nelson Sauvin, .5oz Cascade, .5oz Centenial, dry, 7 days

WLP644

Expected OG/FG/IBUs/ABV: 1.061, 1.015 (or less as Brett is highly attenuative), 55, 5.9% (or slightly more depending on attenuation).

Brewed 8/2/14
Made a starter w/ 50g DME in 500ml water on 8/1/14, by pitching time it had already fermented and the yeast was starting to settle. 

Brewday went well, hit my mash and gravity numbers. Yay!

Pitched at 68F after transferring to Better Bottle without aerating. 

8/3/14, 530pm - Beer was fairly actively fermenting.

8/5/14, 6pm - Moved beer to 75F ambient to encourage complete fermentation.

8/14/14 - Added dry hops, right into the primary vessel.

8/19/14 - Moved back to 66F ambient to try to get the hops to sink to the bottom of the vessel.

4-Cs American Pale Ale

I liked my last APA a lot, as it was refreshing, moderate in alcohol, and well balanced between bitterness and bready malt. So I brewed a variant on that style, with a slightly different grain bill and the classic array of American hops for the aroma. FYI, I added the acid malt as an experiment, and because I have heard from some people in the brew club that it may be necessary to get the right mash pH with the water around here. I am curious if it will make any difference in the fast of the beer.

Collecting the first runnings

4-Cs American Pale Ale
6.25# Maris Otter
6oz Munich Malt
6oz Victory Malt
5oz Wheat Malt
2oz Acid Malt

Nugget, .4oz, 13%AA, 60min

Additions of the following at 5min, 1min, and flameout
Cascade, .25oz, 6%
Centenial, .25oz, 10.5%
Chinook, .25oz, 13%
CTZ, .25oz, 15.5%

Mash at 154F

US-05 dry yeast.

Campden to dechlorinate all water
1tsp gypsum and .5tsp Calcium Chloride in strike and sparge water.

Expected OG/FG/IBUs/ABV: 1.054, 1.013, 38, 5.2%

Brewed 7/20/14
Brew day went well, sorry, didn't take many notes. I did hit my mash temp and pre-boil OG numbers pretty well.

No hop stand, just cool to pitching temps as quickly as possible.

Pitched at around 66F. Fermentation was going by the next day, and was even more active the day after.

By 8/2 fermentation ended, and the beer seems to be pretty clear. Ready for bottling I think.

8/6/14 - Bottled with  2.6 oz sugar, going for 2.5 volumes of CO2.

Hefeweissen Review

Appearance: Pretty nice. Color is hazy orange, with a persistent white head.

Aroma: Yeasty esters of ripe bananas, but not strong. Bready malt notes. No hops.

Taste: Not sure. I think the initial taste is a kind of malty bread character, followed by yeasty phenolics and some cloves. I don't get a strong banana flavor  however. Good, moderate body, with solid carbonation on the high side. Bitterness is very low.

Aftertaste: Again yeasty phenolics. Not especially pleasant but not undrinkable. Similar to the failed wit beer from almost a year ago.

Generally pretty bland wheat beer, with phenolic character bordering on unpleasant. I suppose I will need to wait to have a temp-controlled fridge before I can really do well with this style. Apparently 62F is the optimal temperature and this type of yeast is sensitive to deviations from the optimal temp, but as yet I cannot maintain a fermentation at that temperature.

Maybe the yeast is the issue. Perhaps a liquid yeast will be superior?

So, it's disappointing. But I'll try again at some point.

Bavarian Hefeweissen

My in-laws were visiting from Germany for a while in June. They were very interested in the homebrewing process, so naturally the day after they arrive we just hung around and brewed a batch of hefeweissen. Of course the danger in homebrewing a German beer with a group of Germans who have ready access to the best examples of the style is that the homebrew version will suck in comparison to the commercial example. Apparently that's a risk I'm willing to take.

Note: Review to follow shortly.

Bavarian Hefeweissen
3 gallon batch

3.375# German Dark Wheat
3.375# German Munich 10L

0.625 oz Hallertau, 4.5%, 60min

Danstar Munich Bavarian Wheat dry yeast

Expected OG/FG/IBUs/ABV: 1.050 / 1.013 / 14 / 4.9%

Brewed 6/15/15 with Assistant Brewer NB

Sorry, no real brew day notes. But it went generally pretty smoothly.

Pitched yeast at around 63F, when beer was sitting the cool basement.

Let ferment at 63F for a week, then moved upstairs to around 70F to finish out fermentation. Finally put back in basement for a couple of days before bottling.

Bottled 7/22/14. Aimed for 2.75 volumes of CO2 at bottling, got 29 standard bottles.

American Pale Ale Review

It's summer. I've been busy ... or maybe lazy. In any case, it's been a while since I posted but my brewing has only slowed down for the summer, not stopped. By this point this brew is fairly old for a hoppy beer and may be past its prime as far as the hops go, but I'll supplement my tasting notes with memories of how the beer was in its prime.

Appearance: Very clear, light-medium orange color, with persistent, slightly off-white head that sticks to the side of the glass nicely. Decent carbonation bubbles on the side of the mug. Perhaps a little too dark.

Aroma: Hoppy, mostly, with an American hop character of fruity citrus, slight pine. Good bready malt smell as well. Hops could be stronger in the smell. I don't get any yeast esters.

Taste: Pretty evenly balanced between the hops and malt. Fairly dry, but bready malt flavors and a little bit of fruit, and a nice but subdued hop bite at the end. No yeasty flavors, clean fermentation. I like the bready character without the caramel sweetnes.

Mouthfeel: Good moderate body, carbonation slightly higher carbonation than most of my beers but not excessive. 

Overall: A refreshing pale ale with a pretty even balance between hops and malt. Maris Otter base malt  probably helped to put it into the maltier side for this style. I like it quite a bit.

Next Time: Try this with US 2-Row as a comparison, or try to hop it up a bit more, especially in the aroma.

American Brown 2 Review

The pace of my brewing has slowed. I've been busy, and at the moment I have nearly 3 gallons of this brown ale in bottles, 3 gallons of APA in the carboy, and around another 6+ gallons of beer in bottles, not to mention 3 gallons of mead and 5 gallons of souring beer in carboys. Not even the combined drinking power of my wife and me can handle so much beer quickly. So I've held off on brewing for a while.

In any case, this brown ale is a little over a month old, so time to review:

Appearance: Deep brown with a reddish tinge. Transparent around the bottom of the glass. Off white head that fades a little too quickly, but sticks to the side of the glass. A bit hazy.

Aroma: Malty sweetness, with some toasty character. Minimal earthy and floral hop notes.

Taste: Sweet but not cloying due to a moderate bitterness. Again malty and toasty, with moderate to low caramel flavors. A dark bitter chocolate note is in there as well but its subtle. The bitterness is there, maybe a little too much.

Mouthfeel: Moderate to low carbonation, medium body. Slightly bitter aftertaste.

Overall: Pretty solid brown ale. Easy drinking, tasty and moderate alcohol. I like it. Maybe next time reduce the bitterness slightly. Also I'm not sure why the head on this particular bottle wasn't good as previous bottles have had better foam.

American Pale Ale

Yesterday I brewed an American Pale Ale from the recipe in Brewing Classic Styles, of course scaled to 3 gallons. I also put a little more late hops in than the recipe would call for, and used Maris Otter as the base malt to give it a little more malty character.

A new homebrew store opened in my area a few weeks ago, and it's great because it's much closer to my place and therefore much less time consuming than going to the other place. And I got a new toy: a grain mill with an electric drill. The mill is used and I may need to lube it / clean it a bit because it seemed to have some trouble sucking in the grains to between the rollers, and so crushing did not go smoothly.

The brew itself, however, did.

American Pale Ale

6.25# Maris Otter
6oz Munich
6oz Victory
5oz White Wheat Malt

.4oz Nugget, 13%, 60 min
.3oz Cascade, 6%, 10min
.3oz Centenial, 10.5%, 10min
.4oz Cascade, 6%, 1min
.4oz Centenial, 10.5%, 1min

 WLP001

Mash @ 152F

Brewed 5/11/14
Hit my mash temp well, but I overheated the sparge water. I let it cool a bit but probably did not get it as low as it should have been.  Not sure if I extracted tannins and if so, how much of a problem it will create.

I also got the right volume, about 4.1 gallons, with an OG of 1.046. So, pretty good.

The boil went fine, but the cooling was a bit slow and I only got it down to 110F before putting the kettle in a tub of 60F water to finally chill.

At around 9:15pm, when the wort was about 70F, I siphoned it onto the yeast cake from the Brown Ale I recently brewed. The wort did not look as clear as it normally looks. Not sure if it's a problem with the crush or what. I hope it will clear up.

Placed the plastic carboy in a tub of 68F water. Ambient air temps around 60F, so it may cool down a little. 

5/12/14, 5pm - Nice fermentation going. 62F ambient air.

American Brown 2 Brewday

Unfortunately I have been busy / lazy for the last few weeks and as I result I am just now getting to writing up a brew day log to an American brown I brewed on April 20th. I'll only post the recipe below, since I didn't really take notes and I can't remember how exactly it went.

The recipe is based on a clone recipe for Bell's Best Brown:

Bell's Best Clone
3 Gallons
6.5# US 2-Row
9oz C-60
9oz Special Roast
9oz Victory
2oz Chocolate

.35oz Nugget, 13.2% 60min
. 25oz Cascade, 6%, 15 min
.25oz Willamette, 5%, 10 min
.25oz Willamette, 5%, 1 min
.25oz Cascade, 6%, 1min

WLP001

Expected OG/FG/ABV/IBU: 1.058, 1.015, 27, 5.6%

Mash @ 152F.

Brewed: 4/20/14
Made a yeast starter the day before. 
Fermented @ 60F, then after one week moved to 68F ambient to finish fermentation.

Bottled: 5/11/14
Tasted good, but body seemed a little bit thin.

Double IPA Review

I finally brewed a DIPA, hoping to blast as much hops into the beer as possible, especially in the aroma. I used the "whirlpool" hop technique for the first time to achieve this, as I have heard that it works quite well. Overall, I'm quite pleased with the results, since it has the best hop aroma of any beer I've brewed.

Appearance: Burnt orange body, slightly hazy but overall pretty clear. Billowing off-white head that sticks around. Pretty good looking beer I would say. The lacing sticks to the side of the glass as I drink.

Aroma: Dank hop aromas dominate. Piney, resinous, but also a kind of grapefruit or citrusy note. I don't get a lot of fruitiness, it's more dank than that. It's pretty hard to describe the smell. The intensity and saturation of the aroma is good, better than most or all of my other beers, but it cannot be detected from several feet away, like some IPAs / DIPAs can be. I think I detect a bit of alcohol in the nose, but its very subtle. As it warms up, I think I get more fruity quality to the hop aroma.

Taste: Firm bitterness, but not overly harsh, tannic or grassy. I get a fruit like quality, maybe grapefruit, orange, mango or the like, but the bitterness has more piney bite than a fruity quality. It's fairly smooth however. As far as malt, I do get a subtle malty taste in there, with a little bit of sweetness. I don't taste any alcohol, despite the approximately 8% ABV.

Mouthfeel: Moderate to heavy body. It kind of coats the tounge. Mid-range carbonation. I don't think it's "bone-dry" and so I do get some residual sweetness. Aftertaste is hoppy goodness. The bitterness is smoother than many of my other IPAs, but does have a bit of spicy / tannic / vegetable "bite". Normal and / or desired for a DIPA.

Overall: A very hoppy DIPA beer, dominated by the "dank" and piney type of hops. Some malt taste and residual sweetness, with moderate body.

I'm pretty pleased with this one, as it came out as hoppy as I was hoping for: aromatic and bitter, but with a solid malt backbone. I'll will definitely be using the "hop stand" technique in the future with hoppy beers. I think an interesting experiment to try here would be to dial down the IBUs and the OG, but keep the late / dry hops schedule, and see what happens.

Also I will definitely try the Summit / Nugget combo again, even if I don't brew this exact same recipe. At some point to I should try to exactly clone the Green Flash DIPA.

Flanders Red Review

My first sour beer. Yay! It sure took a long time. I brewed this one in September of 2012, attempting to get a beer roughly like Rodenbach or Monk's Cafe. This type of beer is wonderful but the wait is agonizing. Perhaps the long wait somehow makes it taste better in the end.



Appearance: Translucent coppery-brown in color. Not red. Thin white head that dissipates fairly quickly, but leaves some bubbles at the contact point with the glass. 

Aroma: Cleanly but moderately sour. Fruity, like cherries, plums or the like. The fruityness dominates. I think I can detect some brett character in there, as well as some sweetness. Definitely I think the beer smells really good. No hop aroma, and I don't get any wood aroma.

Taste: Maltiness and cherry-like fruit notes up front. Sourness is there but not overpowering in any way. I get some sweetness as well, but balances well with the sourness and the fruityness. In the background I get some musty funky flavors, and maybe some slight tannic dryness in the aftertaste. The taste overall is quite complex.

Mouthfeel: High carbonation, but not effervescent or spritzy. Medium body.

Overall: A sour-sweet Flanders Red with a fruity smell and a very complex taste. I enjoy it very much, but ultimately I am not really sure how well it fits into the style. Should it be more sour in taste or darker in appearance? I don't know.

For Next Time: Not sure. Just brew more sour beers to get an idea of the process, the wait, etc.

Oatmeal Stout Review

I've been pretty busy for the last few weeks and will probably still be busy for the next week or so. That is the reason for the longish delay in reviewing the oatmeal stout. But here goes.

Appearance: Deep brown / black. Not completely opaque, but close. Small tan head that dissipates quickly, leaving only the surface of the beer and a few bubbles around the perimeter of the surface.

Aroma: I get a roast / chocolatey aroma, like a classic dry stout. A hint of dark fruit is somewhere in there. No hop aroma. I'm not really sure that the oats have contributed anything to the aroma, since I don't get anything that smells like oatmeal cookies.

Taste: Again, roast, coffee and chocolatey notes, but pretty subdued. No astringency. It's fairly dry, I would say almost as dry as an Irish Dry stout. I get some hop bitterness in the aftertaste. It's kind of earthy and blends well with the roast flavor.

Mouthfeel: Moderate carbonation, but a thickish mouthfeel provided by the oats. Roasty aftertaste.

Overall:  It tastes quite good, especially as it warms to serving temperature. As intended, it's tasty but overpowering, and it is low in ABV.  A good session beer. But the head retention is disappointing. Next time I will add some Carapils, wheat, or flaked barley to give it better foam.

Double IPA Brewday

So, in a quest to make a really hoppy beer, I finally went for a DIPA. I really wanted to see if I could get the massive hop bitterness, flavor and aroma that characterize a good Double IPA. Sadly, I don't have access to the iconic west-coast DIPAs from Russian River Brewing, since I live on the east coast of the US, but Green Flash does distribute its Imperial IPA  to this area. An approximate clone recipe for that beer was the source for my recipe below, and when I taste my recipe I can compare it a bit to the Green Flash DIPA. However, I am not going for an exact clone, as I modified the hopping schedule a little bit because I really wanted to try the "hop stand" technique, which can apparently result in some really great hop aroma and flavors.

Double IPA
3.25 gallons

8.6# US 2-Row
8oz Carapils
8oz Table Sugar
5oz Crystal 40L
5oz Crystal 60L

Mash at 152F for 60min
90min boil

1oz Summit, 17.5%, first wort
1oz Summit, 17.5%, 60 min
.3oz Nugget, 13.2%, 15min
.6oz Nugget, 13.2%, 10min
.3oz Summit, 17.5%, 5min
.5oz Nugget, 13.2%, 1min
.5oz Summit, 17.5%, 1min

.75oz Summit, 17.5%, Flameout, steep for 20min in whirlpool
.75oz Summit, 17.5%, flameout + 20, steep for 20min in whirpool, then cool wort

1.5oz Summit, dry, 7 days

US-05

Expected OG/FG/IBU/ABV: 1.081 / 1.020 / 197+ / 7.9%
(Note that the IBUs are likely above the point where additional IBUs make a difference in the taste, reportedly at around 100 IBUs.)


3/21/14 - Made a starter with some US-05 I had washed and stored in a mason jar.

Brewed 3/22/14

Hit my mash temps right on, and at the end of the second runnings I got about 4.75 gallons of 1.052 wort (no sugar added yet). With that volume, I had to be VERY careful not get a boil over. Luckily my burner can go to a low enough flame that I didn't have a problem.

Added the first hops, it smelled great. After the second addition of hops, it smelled great and was looking a little green.

At 20 minutes I put the worth chiller in to sanitize it, then connected the pump using a new set of plastic quick-disconnects I got to make cleaning and easier. I started the pump to, again to sanitize it and the tubing.

As I proceeded to add the hops, the beer started looking really green in color, but smelled awesome. The March pump did a fine job with pumping all the hoppy wort, but again my chiller was sort of tipping over. I really need to find a fix for this. After the flameout hops were added, I just let the wort continue to circulate through the pump. The wort cooled to around 170F by 20 minutes after flameout, when I added the second ounce of steeping hops. After another 20 minutes, I started the chilling procees, getting the wort down to 70F before turning the chiller and pumping the wort into the Better Bottle.

Again, having a March pump is awesome! 

Obviously, there was a huge volume of hops in the wort. I didn't use hop bags or anything to filter them out, and so all but a small bit of hop debris and trub ended up in the fermenter. I hope this won't cause a problem.

3/27/14 - The beer was fermenting, with a smallish krausen, not yet full active. Ambient temps were high 50s. I moved the beer up to an area around 66F.

3/28/14- High krausen. The fermentation was very active, making the beer cloudy with yeast and the krausen dark and thick with hop gunk, yeast, and grub. The bubbles coming out of the airlock smelled pretty hoppy, unlike the normal smell.

3/30/14 - Transferred to a secondary fermentor and added dry hops, leaving almost all of the hop debris and yeast sediment behind in the primary fermenter. Didn't get a sample of the beer, but it smelled really good.

4/7/14 - Bottled, going for 2.2 volumes of CO2.

Oatmeal Stout

Two weekends ago I brewed a low-ABV oatmeal stout, as I haven't made a session beer in quite some time, and my wife seems to prefer dark beers like porters and stouts. Also, this was the first time I used my new March pump in brewing, having recently installed a weldless fitting with a 1/2" ball valve onto my brew kettle and bought some high-temp silicone tubing. Fortunately I had tested everything the day before to ensure against leaks, etc..


Session Oatmeal Stout

About 3.2 gallons
 
4.5# US 2-Row
1# 2oz Instant Oatmeal, lightly toasted
8oz Victory Malt
6oz Chocolate Malt
4oz Crystal 80L
4oz Black Patent Malt

.3 oz Willamette, 5% AA, 60 min
.3 oz Nugget, 13% 60 min (substitution since I didn't have enough Willamette)

S-04 Yeast

Mash at 155F

Expected OG/FG/IBU/ABV: 1.048/ 1.012 / 27 / 4.7

Brewed 3/2/14

Brewed with several people who I had invited over, which was really fun but prevented me from taking gravity etc.. Also I didn't take any pictures of my new pumping set up, but I will on my next brew.

Hit my mash temps spot on. I pre-heated my MLT by putting about 1 gallon of boiling water inside for 15 minutes. I think I will do that every brew session in the future.

The only problem was that I didn't measure out enough sparge water, so I had to use about 1/2 gallon of hot (but not hot enough) water from the tap.

During the boil there were no leaks through the fitting. Yay!

At around 20 minutes before knockout I connected the pump, being sure to tighten the hose-clamps very tightly around the barbs so that no leaks would occur. Using hose-clamps is a pain, so at some point I'll upgrade to quick-disconnects for easier connecting of the tubing. I had also attached a ball valve to the output side of the pump so that I could if needed to control the amount of wort going through the recirculating arm.

The input to the March pump was from the kettle, and the output was to the recirculating arm of my wort chiller. After opening the ball valve on the kettle and the valve on the March pump, the boiling wort entered the pump. I then turned it on, and voila, I had boiling wort recirculating, forming a whirlpool. Awesome.

At knockout, I immediately turned on the sump-pump chilling water recirculating system, which worked amazingly well because the chilling water was just above freezing. In fact, the plastic bin was filled mostly with ice. (It has generally been really cold around here for the last two months, though it's clearly getting warmer.) The entire volume of wort went from 212F to about 55F in.... 10 to 15 minutes. Wow! That's is super fast compared to my previous chilling times, and due to the combination of ice-cold chilling water and the recirculating pump.

One thing that didn't work so well, however, was that the weight of the wort in the output tube was kind of pulling the chiller and the recirculating arm to the side, so that it wasn't standing up straight and the output of the recirculating arm was nearly above the surface of the wort. So, I kind of had to stand there and hold it straight. So now I need to find a way to hold the chiller upright or reduce the pull exerted by the output hose.

Once the wort was at 55F, I simply detached the output of the pump from the recirculating arm and pumped the wort into my sanitized carboy. Awesome. However, I rather foolishly picked up the kettle once most of the wort was in the fermenter and tipped the kettle over so that almost all of the trub wound up in the fermenter. Probably not optimal, but it probably won't hurt the beer significantly to have all that trub in there.

Pitched most of the packet of S-04, and placed the fermenter in an area of the house where it was about 64F.

So far it appears that the March pump is a great tool that can significantly ease the brew day by making it less time-consuming. Obviously I'll need to use it a bit more to really get a sense of its strengths and weaknesses. However, one upgrade that will clearly be useful if not at some point necessary is a set of quick-disconnects. 

3/5/14
A smallish krausen was present.

3/9/14
The krausen is gone, and does not appear to have ever been big or super vigorous. Probably normal for a low-gravity beer. 

3/16/14
Bottled, going for 2.2 volumes of CO2. The gravity reading was 1.024 or so. That's 10 points higher than expected, but I don't see why that should be the case. But the yeast had had 2 weeks to do its thing in the right temp range. Not sure what's happening. I just hope I don't get bottle bombs! Maybe a problem with the hydrometer?

Smoked Porter 4 Review

I've been pretty busy over the last few weeks. Went on a ski-weekend, got a tooth pulled (which sucked, so brush your teeth and floss more diligently than I have been), recovered from the tooth extraction, stewarded a home brew competition, brewed last weekend (write-up early next week) and this weekend going away. Plus, I may have a bit of a cold. So this review might not be up to my usual standards, which my army of faithful readers know are very insightful, masterfully written, and demonstrate my world-class palate, along with my humility.

Plus, this review might be slightly biased, for more than the obvious reasons. 

Appearance: Dark mahogany. Not black, especially when held up to the light, but basically opaque. Thin tan head that does not last. The head retention is a little bit disappointing.

Aroma: Smokey but not like bacon or other smoked meat. I get some roasty or chocolate notes in there. Not overpowering smokiness, but then again my sense of smell is not functioning at 100% today. I don't get much if any hop aroma, but if it's there, it's kind of earthy.

Taste: A pretty good balance of smoke, roasty notes, chocolate / coffee, and a slight sweetness in the background. Hop presence is low, but may come through a bit as a spicy or earthy note. The smokiness is pretty smooth. I think for this reason I could drink more than one glass of it, unlike the Bamberger Rauchbiers.

Mouthfeel: Pretty low carbonation, moderate body bordering on slightly thin. I think it has a thinner body than my previous smoked porter. Aftertaste is smoke, slight bitterness, and a combination of roasty sweetness. A little bit of astringency in the aftertaste.

Overall: A "balanced" smoked porter which combines smoke and roasty flavors in pretty equal portions. Slight sweetness and bitterness, but some earthy / spicy hop qualities.

Special Feature: This beer scored a 35 at a local competition, and won 3rd place in the Smoked Beer Style (Category 22). The judges' comments about the beer more or less are consistent with my own impression. I am pretty happy with the results here, though I wish I had gotten something from the judges about how I could push the score "to the next level".

For Next Time: Play around with it. Perhaps use Marris Otter malt as a base for some extra complexity. Or try some German beechwood smoked malt instead of the Cherry-smoked malt. Or perhaps use an English yeast such as S-04. We'll see.

Cider #1 Review

I have recently been branching out from beer into other fermented beverages besides beer. In October 2013 I started a cider, and lasted weekend I started a mead. The cider was actually ready and drinkable in mid-December 2013. After only a week in the bottle it had a bit of a nasty sulfur note, but by January that seems to have mostly disappeared. I've heard that cider tends to age pretty well, so perhaps this tasting will be a further improvement.

Appearance: Pale yellow and translucent. (Even though it doesn't come across in the photo.) Almost zero foam on the surface. Lots of small carbonation bubbles cling to the side of the glass. It could be mistaken for nearly flat Champagne or a glass of white wine.
The color is much light than that of the opaque, coppery-brown pre-fermentation cider. How does fermentation change the color and transparency of the cider?

Aroma: I still get a sulfury not from the yeast, and not a whole lot of apple-like smell. The Champagne yeast does seem to have imparted a kind of white-wine like smell that may obscure the apply quality. Still my wife said that it did have a sourish apple smell. She and I do seem to have differently calibrated noses.

Taste: It doesn't have a strong taste, but I would say this it does have a nice apple taste, and like the nose, some white-winey notes. It does not have a sour bite at all - the campden had its intended effect. I get almost no sweetness. It's very dry, as I was told to expect with Champagne yeast. Also the flavor seems to improve a little bit as it warms. It doesn't have any boozy note in the taste as it is likely around 4%-5% ABV.

Mouthfeel: Low carbonation. It's doesn't have a big body but fortunately doesn't seem thin and effervescent, like highly-carbed Champagne can. The aftertaste does seem to have an apple quality.

Overall:  A pretty dry, low carbonation cider, with some apple flavor and quite some similarity to white wine. Some sulfur in the nose.

As yet, this cider is young. I will need to keep a few bottles around to see how it taste after a year of aging. I will probably make some cider again, though perhaps use a less attenuative yeast, and some sour apples. The sourness can accentuate the apple flavors.

3 Gallons of Mead

So, I brewed some mead today. No special reason, except that off-brand "Kirkland" honey at Costco was $13 per 5-gallons. I'm cheap, and I'm not expecting to make an award winning mead with stuff, especially as it's my first venture with mead.

 Mead:
10# Kirkland Clover Honey
2.25 gallons water
1 tsp. Yeast Energize
1.5 tsp. LD Carlson Yeast Nutrient

Red Star Premier Gran Cuvée Wine Yeast 

Expected OG / FG: ??

Brewed 2/2/14.
 

Put a little bit of Campden in 2.25 gallons cold water to de-chlorinate it. Began heating up the water.


Poured the honey directly into the brewpot as the water was being heated. Stirred to mix in the honey, so that it didn't sink to the bottom and get scorched. Each 5# bottle of honey was about a 1/2 gallon, so I probably got around 3.25-2.5 gallons of "wort".

Immediately after pitching, w/ Star-San foam.

Heated to 180F. The "wort" smelled good - like honey. It developed some bubbles and a little bit of dark stuff on the top. I didn't skim anything off of it. Just stirred a bit.

Turned off the heat at 190F, then let air-cool, although eventually I did put the kettle in a tub of cool water.

Fermentation has started, but no Krausen.

Rehydrated yeast as per instructions, and pitched after aerating 70F "wort".

Measured the OG at 27 Brix, or 1.115 Gravity. So I'm looking at a brew of approximately 16% - 17% ABV.

2/5/14 - Airlock activity at about one bubble every 2 seconds, but unlike beer, no krausen or foaming on the surface. I can see some activity in the liquid however. The appearance of the mead has not changed substantially. It still looks like a murky, yellowish liquid.

Late march - added 3 lbs of mixed berries - strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries to ~2 gallons, and racked the un-fruited portion to a 1-gallon jug.

6/7/14 or thereabouts - Bottled the un-fruited portion in screw-cap wine bottles, and racked the fruited portion to a tertiary fermenter.

West Coast IPA Review

Still working on my hoppy beers. This one is good, but again not exactly what I was hoping for. At some point, I will need to do a DIPA in order to basically see how much hop aroma I can get into my beer.

Appearance: Orange-copper in color, with a fluffy, slightly off-white head that sticks around pretty well. Nearly transparent, especially if I am very careful not to pour in any yeast.

Aroma: Fruity American hops- perhaps a bit a Cascade coming through. Aroma was good, but generally not as strong as I would hope for.

Taste: There's a reasonable amount of hoppy flavor - kind of fruity, a bit piney. I also get a little bit of malty sweetness in the aftertaste. Bitter, but smooth. The first-wort hopping seems to smooth out the bitter finish, especially in contrast to the Rye-IPA I made a while ago, in which the high bitterness and the spicyness of the rye combined to make a bit of a harsh taste.

Moutfeel: Medium carbonation. A bit thin in the mouthfeel, in my view. Aftertaste is a smooth bitterness.
 
Overall:  A smoothly bitter, somewhat fruity American IPA with a thin body. In my view, not bursting with hop aroma enough and a little too thin in body. Perhaps more like a Pale Ale. Still, it's good, and I do enjoy is, as do my wife and brother.

For next time: Try to find a way to get the huge hop aroma some beers have. Is it a recipe issue - i.e. volume of hops - or a technique issue - i.e. cooling time? Experimentation is in order. I will set up my March pump for the next brew, and do a whirlpool hopping system. I'd also like to get a resiny, coating mouthfeel that some IPAs have, in contrast to the kind of thin body here.

Smoked Porter #4

The Boston Homebrew Competition is coming up. This year, I have decided to enter a smoked porter, not just before it is a favorite style of mine, but also because my wife really likes it and because I think I can brew it relatively well.

For this brew, I'll be changing the recipe slightly in order to make it a little less sweet than my previous brew of this style. Last month I had a sample of Alaskan Smoked Porter, which was delicious, but less sweet than my own brew - not more acrid exactly, but a little roastier and dryer than my own. Basically, I knocked down the amount of Crystal malt a little, and added more chocolate and black-patent malt to achieve the desired dry-roasty quality, while keeping the base malt and the percentage of Cherry-smoked malt the same.

Smoked Porter #4
3 Gallons

5.125# US 2-Row
2.5# Cherry Smoked Malt
10oz Munich I
8oz Crystal 40
8oz Chocolate
6oz Crystal 90
5oz Black Patent Malt

1oz Goldings, 60min, pellet, 5% AA
.5 oz Willamette, 45min, 4.9% AA
.5oz Willamette, 10min, 4.9% AA
.5oz Goldings, 5min, 5% AA
.5oz Willamette, 5min, 4.9% AA

Expected OG / FG/ IBU/ ABV: 1.068, 1.017, 42, 6.6%

 Mash at 152F, 60 minute boil

Made a starter with washed US-05 on 1/19/14

Brewed 1/20/14

Mash temp was good, in the 152F -150F range depending on where in the mash I placed my thermometer. Used my 5-gallon round cooler with the CPVC manifold this time. No stuck sparges, though a pretty small leak in the manifold of the MLT.

Got about 4.25 gallons of pre-boil wort, at an OG of around 1.055.

Used a calibration stick to measure the volume of wort, and then adjusted the boil to try to hit my target volume. At the end of the boil, there was around 3.25 gallons of wort, so I seem to have measured things right.

Cooled, using the rig pictured, to around 90F, then racked to a PET carboy. Let stand in 35F - 40F ambient air for a few hours to cool. Pitched at around 65F, and let the  bottle sit in 62F ambient air. Fortunately this time the sump-pump was working properly.

Because I racked when the wort was still relatively hot, it was not as clear as I was hoping. I did leave about a quart of trub in the bucket, which I then poured into a pitcher. After a while some clear wort was on top - enough for a hydrometer sample reading 1.070. Yay, hit my target OG pretty spot-on.

2/2/14- Bottled today with 2 oz of sugar. Fermentation seemed to have been quick but did not generate a very large krausen, likely because of the restrained temperatures, in the 60F - 64F range. Measure FG at 1.018.