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.