Blonde Ale Review

Appearance: White head with good retention and lacing. Straw body with moderate haze.

Aroma: Light malty aroma with some sweetness. Low hoppy character - maybe a little citrus character. No piney aroma. Grainy. Does not have crystal or character malt taste.

Taste: Malty and grainy with a hint of sweetness. Maybe has a bready note. Hop taste is low. Bitterness is low but noticeable. Soft finish with a minerally note.

Mouthfeel: Light body, moderate carbonation.

Overall: Easy drinking, pleasant, and lowish in alcohol. A good summer lawnmower beer.

For next time: Would only try to reduce the haze. Not sure if it's chill haze or something else. 

Blonde Ale

BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Club Blonde Ale
Style: Blonde Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 7.00 gal
Post Boil Volume: 6.25 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal  
Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.047 SG
Estimated Color: 3.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 23.8 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 76.4 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU        
4.00 g                Calcium Chloride (Mash 60.0 mins)        Water Agent   1        -            
2.50 g                Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 mins Water Agent   2        -            
10 lbs                Canada Malting Co. 2-Row  (1.8 SRM)    Grain         3        100.0 %      
0.50 oz               Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min     Hop           4        17.2 IBUs    
0.50 oz               Centennial [10.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool   Hop           5        6.6 IBUs     
1.0 pkg               California Ale V (White Labs #WLP051) [3 Yeast         6        -            


Mash Schedule: 150F, Mash Out, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 10 lbs
----------------------------
Name                    Description                                          Step Temperat Step Time    
Mash Step               Add 13.50 qt of water at 162.6 F                     150.0 F       60 min       
Mash Step               Add 8.00 qt of water at 204.1 F                      168.0 F       10 min       

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun , 3.07gal) of 168.0 F water
Notes:
------
4/16/17: Made a starter

4/18/17: Brewed. Mash temp was slightly high at 152F, added a little cool water to bring it down.

Got 7 gallons of 1.040 wort into kettle, started boil and added leaf hops.

At flameout, added remaining leaf hops and stirred every couple of minutes. Got ~5.6 gallons of 1.052 wort, a bit higher OG than predicted.

Cooled to 100F, racked clear wort, leaving dense pile of hops and cold break in the kettle. Got ~5.25 gallons into fermenter. Placed fermenter in temp-controlled fridge with 65F as target temp.

4/19/17: Oxygenated 40 seconds, pitched starter. By 6pm, krausen was starting to form.

Brett Table Saison Review

Appearance: Billowing, dense white head with excellent retention. Golden hazy body with lots of little bubbles rising up the side of the glass.

Aroma: Immediate impression of mild bretty funk. Not super fruity, just bretty. Maybe aspiriny smell. Earthy hop character and malt character is minimal. Pleasant. I don't get any notes of cherry, despite the name of the yeast.

Taste: Brett is the star here. Light funk, aspirin like notes, maybe a little bit of acidity. Hop flavor is low. Not much in the way of malt, as whatever malt notes one can get from a 1.030OG beer are surely covered by the brett here.

Mouthfeel: A bit thin and watery, unsurprisingly. Quite dry, but not highly carbonated enough to give it a tingly feeling like champagne. Does leave a bretty aftertaste.

Overall: Light in brett funk, refreshing and at 3.3% very easy drinking. I may brew a beer like this again, though since it's the parti-gyle of a 12% wheatwine, I will have to use a different recipe since I don't plan to brew another huge beer for a while. 

Czech Lager 2016

Rebrew of previously brewed Czech Lager.

Result: Very similar to last time, but this time the result is slightly drier, and less rounded maltiness. Didn't do decoction this time. Still a wonderful beer as it is quite tasty but not highly alcoholic. Highly sessionable. Next time, use decoction.

BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Czech Pale Lager 2016
Style: Czech Pale Lager
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 7.54 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.89 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.25 gal  
Bottling Volume: 4.85 gal
Estimated OG: 1.044 SG
Estimated Color: 4.3 SRM
Estimated IBU: 36.4 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 77.5 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU        
5.25 gal              Boston, MA                               Water         1        -            
7 lbs 8.0 oz          Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM)            Grain         2        86.9 %       
7.0 oz                Caravienne Malt (22.0 SRM)               Grain         3        5.1 %        
6.0 oz                Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM)                Grain         4        4.3 %        
5.0 oz                Acid Malt (3.0 SRM)                      Grain         5        3.6 %        
0.50 oz               Magnum [11.00 %] - First Wort 60.0 min   Hop           6        23.7 IBUs    
1.00 oz               Tettnang [3.90 %] - Boil 15.0 min        Hop           7        7.6 IBUs     
0.50 oz               Saaz [2.80 %] - Boil 10.0 min            Hop           8        2.0 IBUs     
0.50 oz               Saaz [2.80 %] - Boil 5.0 min             Hop           9        1.1 IBUs     
1.00 oz               Saaz [2.80 %] - Steep/Whirlpool  10.0 mi Hop           10       2.0 IBUs     
1.0 pkg               Saflager Lager (DCL/Fermentis #W-34/70)  Yeast         11       -            


Mash Schedule: 154F, Batch Sparge, Mash Out
Total Grain Weight: 8 lbs 10.0 oz
----------------------------
Name                    Description                                          Step Temperat Step Time    
Mash Step               Add 13.78 qt of water at 168.2 F                     156.0 F       45 min       

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun , 5.87gal) of 180 F water
Notes:
------
http://byo.com/stories/issue/item/3244-czech-pale-lager-style-profile
5 g calcium chloride (CaCl2) to the mash
3 g CaCl2 to the sparge water.

Created with BeerSmith 2 - http://www.beersmith.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Funky Mild Review

This is my second attempt at a beer from American Sour Beers. This one isn't actually soured, but dosed with Brett-C in the secondary fermentation. 

Appearance: Deep ruby brown. Nearly opaque but in bright light it is clear. Low but persistent tan head. The camera on my phone doesn't do the appearance of my beers any favors.

Aroma: Noticeable bretty cherry quality. Kind of musty with a chocolate note. Like dark bitter chocolate mixed with cherries. The Brett smell is similarly funky to my Brett C saison but definitely has a stronger cherry like nose. Perhaps that's an interaction between the Brett and the dark or crystal malts. I don't think I get any English yeast type esters.

Taste: Similar to the aroma. I get some bretty horseblanket funk. Maybe some leathery notes, a bit of chocolate, but doesn't have as much cherry as the nose. Low sweetness, very low bitterness, hops not detectable. Maybe some dry, spicy notes from the rye malt, but it all blends together.

Moutfeel: Fairly thin, like a mild is supposed to be. But mid to high carbonation range, which is probably a little too high. Aftertaste is bretty funk, maybe with a slight taste of bitter chocolate. Pretty dry - the brett must have consumed some of the sugars left over from the English ale yeast.

Overall: I'm not sure what to make of the taste profile of this one. Not clearly a sour, not clearly a mild, not a saison. Just different than anything that comes to mind. It's pleasant but has a stronger taste than a mild and probably a little more alcohol, both due to the brett. Probably not quite the session beer due to its more robust taste... but probably still is pretty low ABV.

I would like to continue brewing the beers from American Sour Beers. Maybe next is the Buckwheat Sour Amber or the Lambic. We'll see.... I currently have too many unfilled carboys so I'm looking to fill them with some sours or the like.




 

Czech Pale Lager Reivew

Appearance: Persistent and fluffy white head. Straw gold body. Not quite crystal clear but close. I probably disturbed some sludge from the bottom of the keg while transporting it from the lager fridge to the keg-o-rator.

Aroma: I get a crisp, earthy and spicy Noble hop aroma. Pilsner malt aroma contributes nicely with a sweet and grainy character.

Taste: Very nicely balanced between hoppy taste and malt. Like the nose the hoppy quality is crisp, earthy and spicy. The malt quality is a little bit bready like the crust or so. Sweetness is low but there.

Mouthfeel: Surprisingly full for such a low ABV beer. Carbonation is moderate and contributes to the crisp / dry aftertaste. The aftertaste has a spicy hop quality and maybe a slightly mineral note.

Overall: I'm very happy with this one. It's flavorful, hoppy and well balanced between malty and hoppy. Very drinkable. Similar to my Helles but lower ABV and more balanced between the malt and hops. My wife said that it tastes like Krombacher or Warsteiner from her native Germany.

At some point I should do a side-by side with Notch Session Pils to see if it tastes like an "real" example of the style.

Munich Helles Review

My third lager was is a Munich Helles, with a malt and hop bill straight from Brewing Class Styles but a yeast substitution. In any case, I was hoping for a light, refreshing beer to go into my kegorator for July and August.


Munich Helles

Appearance: Golden body, very slightly hazy but nearly crystal clear even after a long lagering time. Billowing white head, with OK retention.

Aroma: Grainy, pilsner aroma. I don't get much hop aroma. Maybe a tiny bit of DMS but pretty clean.

Taste: Again malty, light, pretty dry. Bready character but not as intense as a good hefeweissen beer. Subdued and earthy hop bitterness prevents a cloying quality.

Mouthfeel: Light body, good medium carbonation. Probably I should carb it up a little more.

Overall: A light lager with a good malt character. Appropriate for hot summer days. I like it and would definitely brew it again in order to have an easy drinking, sessionable beer in one of my kegs. More flavorful and bolder than mass-market 'Murican pale lagers, but still refreshing and light enough to be consumed in relatively large quantities.

Kiwi Konnection Pale Ale

A Pale Ale (or maybe "Session IPA") with New Zealand hops, appropriate for the summer. The malt bill is based on that of one of my previous Pale Ale's, but the hop combo has some Nelson Sauvin and Rakau hops from NZ, along with some 'Murican Calypso hops.

The high alpha acid percentage of the hops is sufficient to entirely avoid and early-boil bittering addition. Even with 5min, 1min and flameout additions, Beersmith says I can get ~44 IBUs, for an IPA-like 1:1 ratio of malt to bitterness. So maybe this beer is more like a session IPA or the like.


BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Kiwi Konnection Pale Ale
Style: American Pale Ale
TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 6.88 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.88 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.25 gal  
Bottling Volume: 4.85 gal
Estimated OG: 1.053 SG
Estimated Color: 6.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 43.6 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 75.3 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU        
9 lbs                (Half US 2-Row, half Maris Otter)          Grain         1        81.8 %       
10.0 oz               Munich Malt (9.0 SRM)                    Grain         2        5.7 %        
10.0 oz               Victory Malt (25.0 SRM)                  Grain         3        5.7 %        
8.0 oz                White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM)               Grain         4        4.5 %        
4.0 oz                Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM)    Grain         5        2.3 %      

0.50 oz               Calypso [15.40 %] - Boil 5.0 min         Hop           6        5.4 IBUs     
0.50 oz               Nelson Sauvin [12.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min   Hop           7        4.2 IBUs     
0.50 oz               Rakau [10.80 %] - Boil 5.0 min           Hop           8        3.8 IBUs 
   
0.50 oz               Calypso [15.40 %] - Boil 1.0 min         Hop           9        1.2 IBUs     
0.50 oz               Nelson Sauvin [12.00 %] - Boil 1.0 min   Hop           10       0.9 IBUs     
0.50 oz               Rakau [10.80 %] - Boil 1.0 min           Hop           11       0.8 IBUs  
  
0.50 oz               Calypso [15.40 %] - Steep/Whirlpool  30. Hop           12       10.5 IBUs    
0.50 oz               Nelson Sauvin [12.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 30.Hop           13       9.3 IBUs     
0.50 oz               Rakau [10.80 %] - Steep/Whirlpool  30.0  Hop           14       7.4 IBUs   
 
1.0 pkg               Safale American  (DCL/Fermentis #US-05)  Yeast         15       -   
        
0.50 oz               Calypso [15.40 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days     Hop           16       0.0 IBUs     
0.50 oz               Nelson Sauvin [12.00 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Da Hop           17       0.0 IBUs     
0.50 oz               Rakau [10.80 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days       Hop           18       0.0 IBUs     


Mash Schedule: 154F, Batch Sparge, Mash Out, 6.8 gal
Total Grain Weight: 11 lbs
----------------------------
Name                    Description                                          Step Temperat Step Time    
Mash Step               Add 17.75 qt of water at 165.8 F                     154.0 F       60 min       
Mash Step               Add 8.80 qt of water at 201.1 F                      168.0 F       10 min       

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun , 2.56gal) of 168.0 F water
Notes:
------
Treated mash water with Gypsum and CaCl, for 5.2 mash pH. No treatment of Boston area sparge water.

Starter made the previous week for a planned double brew day that never happened.

Brewed 7/1/15
Hit Mash temps, and Mash pH.

Gravity of pre-boil wort was a little too high - like 1.046. Only slightly off though.

Volume into kettle seemed about right.

Whirlpool details: At flameout, turn on recirculation pump but do not start cooling. Let stand 5 mins, then cool wort to 180F. Let stand 30 mins. Then cooled to ~100F before transferring into carboy and placing in cool basement to finish cooling.

Got ~ 5.4 gallon into fermenter after leaving behind some trub and hop gunk in the kettle.
 
Pitched decanted starter the next morning at 68F.

I started brewing after a day of work, turning on the burner at ~ 4:30 PM. Done with brew and cleaning by 9:30PM. Not bad.

7/2/15
Good krausen. 67F ambient air.

7/7/15 
Krausen mostly down.


 

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. 

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.

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?

Berliner Weisse 2 Tasting

On July 4 I brewed a sour-worted Berliner Weisse, which I had allowed to sour four about 72 hours. I was aiming for a more sour beer than I had last time I used this technique,

Appearance: Golden hazy yellow, with a white head that quickly dissipates.

Aroma: Unfortunately I get a slightly off "trashy" smell from it, with a little bit of lemony tartness mixed in. I hope this smell goes away after a while as it did with my last use of this technique.

Taste: I get a pretty "clean" sourness throughout, especially in the aftertaste. It has a lemony quality, but not mouth puckering like it would be to bite on a lemon. Maybe a little bit of pilsner grain taste or very slight sweetnes in there, but the sour dominates.

Mouthfeel: Pretty thin due to the low gravity. I don't think it is quite as effervescent as my last one, so it doesn't have the enhanced mouthfeel that can come from high carbonation in a low gravity beer.

Overall: A light, refreshing, and moderately sour Berliner Weiss that probably should be more sour and more highly carbonated. Overall, I don't think it's much different than my last try at this style using the same sour-wort technique. Perhaps next time I'll sour longer, or maybe try the technique of adding lacto to the fermentation.


Other: I recently went with my with to Northern Germany, where her family lives, and took along a bottle of this beer. Her family generally do not drink Berliner Weiss, but they said it was pretty sour, and generally OK. However, they emphasized that the style is pretty much always consumed with sweet Woodruff or Raspberry syrups, in a shallow challice, stirred up a bit to get a nice thick head, and drunk through a straw. (Beer through a straw?!)

Kölsch Tasting

About a month ago I brewed a Kölsch, intending to have a nice, easy drinking but tasty summer beer. I think I achieved that goal, thanks to a controlled fermentation temperature, enough time for the relatively non-flocculent Kölsch yeast to settle, and use of finings.

Appearance: Golden yellow, with a large white head that stay around a while. Slight chill haze and maybe a tiny bit of yeast, but still relatively clear for my beers.

Aroma: Soft, slightly bready nose, with the pilsner malt coming through. I don't really get any of the fruity quality that some of examples of the style supposedly have.

Taste: Again the grainy quality of the pilsner malt comes through. It's pretty dry, but has a slightly sweetness and so it's not as crisp as a Pilsner beer. The hop presence is low but it has some of the floral or earthy quality of German hops. The taste is subtle, good for a "lawnmower ale."

Body: Moderate to high carbonation, and light mouthfeel. The aftertaste is grainy, slightly sweet, and with a crispy hop character.

Overall:  A light, subtly flavorful beer with moderate alcohol, moderate-high carbonation, and a crisp grainy quality, but not as crisp or dry as a Pilsner beer. I think it is a better summer beer that the Ordinary Bitter I brewed a while ago. Overall I like it quite a lot. Don't think I would change anything. A German friend of mine, for what it's worth, said that he would not be surprised to have a beer like this in Cologne. Yay!

Berlin Weiss 2.0 Brew Day

Last year I made a Berliner Weiss by souring the entire volume of wort. I let the wort sit for 20  hours, and it didn't quite get as sharply sour as I was hoping. For this brew I used pretty much the same recipe except that I plan to sour for about three days, starting the souring process on a Monday evening and ending it on a Thursday afternoon. I think also that I'd like to add raspberries to 1 gallon of it. I've heard that the sourness goes well with many fruit. Finally, I don't have US-05 right now so I'll use some of the left over Kolsch yeast I washed a few days ago.

Berliner Weiss 2.0
2.625# German Pilsner Malt
1.5# White Wheat
.25oz American Perle, 3.5% AA, 15 minutes

15 minute boil.

Kolsch yeast. 

Expected OG/FG/IBUs/ABV: 1.031 / 1.008 / 3 / 3.1%

7/1/13
Mashed at 149F for 2 hours, sparged as usual then let wort cool to 118F. in my MLT. "Pitched" a handful of grain and a little bit of steel cut oats at around 10PM. Covered the surface with sanitized aluminum foil and pressed the air bubbles out. Place MLT is the garage, where ambient temps are around 75F.

7/2, 7/3
Removed some wort, boiled for a few minutes and added back in to the MLT in order to keep the temps at around  100F. The wort had a kind of unpleasant smell, like trash or something. But that's normal.

7/4
At 4pm, boiled the wort for 15 minutes, cooled to around 65F, and pitched the washed Kolsch yeast. No starter since this is such a low ABV beer, although I've heard the acidity can inhibit full fermentation to the target FG. So total souring time of around 70 hours. I had a little bit of wort left in the boil kettle. It had a sour aftertaste, but in kind of a weird way. The unfermented wort, in my experience, rarely tastes like the finished beer. 

7/8
The beer is still slowly bubbling, ambient temps at 67F. The yeast had not settled at all, and a thick yeasty krausen is still sitting on top of the beer. Fermentation was never so active as to push any yeast out of the airlock, despite that the Better Bottle only has about 1/2 gallon of head space left.

7/23
Bottled 2 gallons, going for 2.6 volumes of CO2. Put the remainder (about 0.8 gallon) into a 1-gallon jug with 20oz of frozen raspberries that I thawed and squished. By the next day it was slowly bubbling but I couldn't see many bubbles rising through the beer. Many of the white raspberry seeds were floating on top of the beer, but a few occasionally sank.

The regular version was at 1.005 FG, with a definite sourness, and like my last Berliner, a slight trashy smell. I hope that part will go away. 

Kölsch Brew Day

Summer is coming up, and although the weather is getting warmer in the Boston area the basement of my parents' house is still staying a fairly constant 60F. That's a bit too cool for most ales but a "hybrid" yeast would do well at that temperature. So, I decided to go for a Kölsch. It's a nice, easy-drinking summer beer. Brewing Classic Styles says that it should be lagered to clear the yeast, which doesn't flocculate well. I can't do lagering at this point, but the guys at the LHBS suggested using some Isinglass instead.  I'm planning to keep it in primary for 3 weeks, add Isinglass for 1 week, and then bottle.

Sorry, none of my brilliant photography for this one.

Kölsch
3.25 gallons
6.13# German Pilsner Malt
6.1oz Weyerman Vienna Malt

1oz German Hallertau, 4.1%, 70 mins

Wyeast - Kölsch

Anticipated OG/FG/IBUs: 1.052 / 1.013 / 24 IBUs

Brewed May 26, 2013

Prepped a starter, pitched around 11am. It was bubbling by about 3pm. That was fast.

Performed a 90 minute mash at 150F, added mash-out water, waited 10 mins and collected 2 gallons of first runnings. Second runnings  were another 2.3 gallons.

Pre-boild OG was 1.043 @ 4.3 gallons, about 74% efficiency. Higher than usual. Yay!

Boiled 90mins to drive off any DMS formation. Ended up with slightly less than 3 gallons after cooling, but with the starter the total volume in the fermenter was exactly 3 gallons. That's a little more wort boiled off than usual. I'm not sure why.

Pitched at 60F and placed in some cold water.

Two days later it appeared as though some krausen had formed and subsided but there was no bubbling in the airlock, I suspect because my fermenting bucket isn't what it once was and has an airleak. I really gotta get a 5-gallon BetterBottle with one of those big orange caps.

6/31/13
Bottled today, aiming for 2.6 volumes of CO2. Final gravity was 1.012, about as expected. Yay! That sample tasted OK but a bit "green."

Funky Table Saison Brewday

I would like to do a beer with a Brettanomyces twist, but without having to wait a really long time. This means keeping the gravity low, as I have read from several sources that for every 10 gravity points above 1.020 you should secondary the beer for an additional month to let the Brettanomyces work its magic. (After primary for 4 weeks). Otherwise the flavors may not fully develop or you may get beer that becomes dangerously overcarbonated (ie bottle-bombs).

The most prominent homebrewing funk-master in my mind is The Mad Fermentationist. I have been inspired by some of his recipes, such as his Funky Low Gravity Saison. As I understand it the basic idea is to make a saison in the 1.040 OG range and ferment with a combination of WLP645 Brett c. and WLP565 Saison. I'm going for a strong brett taste to get a sense of what that micro-critter is all about.

For this brew I based the grain bill of the BCS Saison recipe but scaled it down a bit to hit a 1.041 OG, with slightly reduced hopping. A little bit of acid malt and a 152F mash temp is part of the picture so that the brett has some good material with which to create its characteristic funkiness. The plan is to primary for about 4 weeks around 70F, followed by a secondary for 2-3 months. I hope the beer will be ready in February '13.

Funky Mini-Saison
3.25 gallons

3# Belgian Pilsner
1# Wheat Malt
0# 4oz Cane Sugar
0# 4oz DME (I forgot to get Munich Malt at the LHBS. That was dumb.)
0# 6oz Crystal 40L
0# 4oz Acid Malt
----
5.125# Total Fermentables

1/2 tsp. gypsum
152F Mash Temp
90min boil

5/8oz Hallertau, 3.9%AA, 60 mins
3/8oz Hallertau, 3.9% AA, 15 mins
1/2 tsp. Irish moss, 15 mins

WLP565 - Belgian Saison I
WLP645 - Brett c. 

Expected OG: 1.042 
Expected IBUs: 21


10/4/12
Made a starter with WLP565 from the previous saison and with WLP645 Brett. c. 

10/5/12
The starter was fermenting nicely with a moderate krausen by 7:30am.Started the mash around 7:50a and hit the 152F temp right on. Got 2.25gal of 1st runnings, as I was aiming for. Hit my pre-boil volume target of 4.5gal too.

Pre-boil OG without the sugar or DME was 1.030 at 4.5 gallons. That is about 76% efficiency. My system seems to get better efficiency on lower gravity brews. Added the sugar and DME with about 75mins left in the boil.

Used the IC to get the wort to 110F. Placed brew kettle in 65F water with some ice-packs to cool it to pitching temps.
   
Pitched when beer was at 70F, then placed fermentor in bin of 66F water for primary fermentation. Ended up with 3.4 gallons, or 3.5 with the starter thrown in. I have 5 cups (.3125 gal) of trub left in the bucket.

If my calculations and measurements are correct this all works out to a boil-off rate of .525 gallons / hour for my set-up on a rigorous boil. I need to figure that exact number into my calculations the next time I brew so that I get the right volumes.

Also, according to my rough calculation, because of the greater mash efficiency than expected, I should still have about the right OG of 1.042 - 1.045.

Pitched around 3pm. By 11:30 that evening the airlock was bubbling fairly actively.

10/19/12
Transferred to secondary. The gravity was at 1.006 - pretty low but I hope there's something left for the brett to munch on over the next few months. The sample tasted OK but definitely "green" and in need of more flavor development. I got a bit more than 3 gallons into the Better Bottle.  

1/18/13
Bottled with 68g of sugar, going for 2.4 volumes of CO2. The beer was all the way down to 1.003. I got slightly more than three gallons in a bunch of 22oz bombers and a few 16oz bottles. I will try the beer in a couple of weeks. 

American Brown Tasting

Wanting a cheaper American brown ale than the very tasty but relatively pricey Janet's Brown Ale, a few weeks ago I brewed the Dirty Water Brown, also from Brewing Classic Styles (though I had to substitute the hops). The results are quite pleasant, but unsurprisingly not as distinctive and enjoyable as the Janet's Brown. My first tasting was three weeks after brewing, at which point it had a "green" taste. It has however improved significantly since then. Again, more and more I have seen that most of my brews should not be consumed at less than a month old.

Appearance: Coppery brown in color with moderate chill haze despite that this bottle has been in the fridge for 5 days. Good off-white head from the initial pour, which over time fades to a light coating of bubbles on the surface of the beer and sticks to the side of the glass.

Aroma: A good whiff of Cascade hops greets the nose upon the initial pour, combined with a slightly sweet and toasty smell. Pleasant. The hoppy smell fades as I drink, with the toastiness becoming more prominent.

Taste: A really nice combination of slightly sweet / malty / toasty character combined with a fruity hoppy character and moderate bitterness in the finish.

Mouthfeel: Low carbonation, moderate body, with a slightly sweet aftertaste.

Overall: A moderately hoppy, moderately malty brown ale, well balanced between malt and hops. No alcohol bite. Not a strongly flavored beer but very pleasant. I like it a lot.

For Next Time: I don't think I would change anything with this one except for finding some way to reduce the chill haze. I did put Irish moss in the boil. Maybe I could make improvements to the wort chiller or boil more vigorously?

Cascade Session IPA Tasting

About three weeks ago I brewed a Cascade Session IPA intended to be a low-alcohol hoppy beer appropriate for drinking in quantity over the summer. Today, on this momentous occasion, I taste the results of my tremendous effort. Oh wait, the occasion is momentous and the effort was not tremendous. But I digress.

Appearance: Hazy orange in color. White three finger head that dissipates over a few minutes to a very thin covering of foam. Head leave a small lacing over the sides of the glass.

Aroma: Tropical fruit hop smell like grapefruit or so. Not quite as strong as I'd like though. Smell persists even as I continue to drink.

Can I interest you in my banana?

Taste: Slight fruity hop taste, with moderate bitterness. A metallic taste (similar to the undesirable aftertaste on my previous attempt at a hoppy beer) predominates in the middle and end of my sip. I hoped to get a bold, fruity bitterness from the Cascade hops. I'm not sure if that good taste is hiding under the metallic quality or if it is just absent completely.

Mouthfeel: Low carbonation, but it doesn't feel thin. It doesn't have the resiny tounge coating quality of some hoppy beers or the body and maltiness of bigger IPAs. It's pretty dry though.

Overall Impression: Nice hoppy smell, good appearance, but the taste is not what I want. I'd like a grapefruit type flavor from the Cascade hops and a smooth bitterness.

Issue: WTF is the metallic taste??? Could it be a little bit of rust from the non-stainless steel in my MLT (now replaced by stainless)? Could it be a by product of over or underpitching? What about the water?? Arg!

For Next Time: Increase the late addition hops to get better smell. Find and destroy the source of the metallic taste. Cool the wort as fast as possible to pitching temps. Pitch the correct amount of yeast.

------

Currently most of the bottles are sitting in a dark basement room at about 68F. Perhaps the beer will get better over the next few weeks. If so I may post again on this beer. 

Lübecker Hefeweissen

German wheat beers are great for summer. I love their fruity taste, light color, and slight phenolic / clove character. Their appearance when poured into the proper type of glass is magnificent. My wife doesn't like them much but I have wanted to brew one for a while. The below recipe is scaled from Brewing Classic Styles. The fermentation temp is pretty low because apparently higher temps can result in a unbalanced bubblegum or overly banana like flavor. What I'd like is the right balance of banana and clove character.


Lübecker Hefeweissen
3 Gallon batch
2.75# Belgian Pilsner Malt
2.75# Weyerman Wheat Malt
0.25# Briess Extra Light DME

0.5 oz Tettnanger, 3.5% AA, 60 mins

Expected OG: 1.044
IBUs: 13

Mash
112F for 15 mins, to get 4-vinyl guiacol, a precursor to the clove character
152F for 60 mins
167F mash out for 10 mins

90 minute boil to reduce DMS.

Whitelabs Hefeweisen Ale, WLP300.

Ferment at 62F, raise to 68F after active fermentation to get good attenuation.
 

6/16/12
Mash conducted using infusions of hot or boiling water. Ended up with a pretty dilute mash after all those water additions. As a result, the first runnings were almost the complete pre-boil volume, so this ended up more like a no-sparge than a batch sparge. Crappy efficiency, thus the .25# of DME added to the boil to up the gravity a little.

Next time I think I'll try a decoction mash or direct heating the mash when I need to do multi-step mashes. That way I can avoid overly dilute mashes.

Pitched at 65F, when beer was in 55F tub of water. Pitched around 3PM. No starter.

Didn't take post-boil OG reading. Got a little more than 3 gallons into the 3 gallon carboy. Only a little headspace.

6/18/12
Very active primary fermentation despite the low ambient temps around 64F and that the beer was sitting in a tub of 60F water. Used a blow-off tube.

6/22/12
Still slight activity visible through the glass carboy. Replaced blow-off tube with airlock. One bubble / minute or so. Lost some beer to blow-off. Now there is almost exactly 3 gallons in the carboy.

6/28/12
No visible activity, some yeast has flocculated but still a lot of yeast is floating at the top of the carboy, especially on the carboy walls. Looks a beautiful hazy yellow / orange color.


7/1/12
Bottled with 2.75 oz of table sugar, for about 2.8 - 3 units of CO2. FG was 1.011. Got almost exactly 3 gallons. I used mostly 22oz and 16oz bottles, which apparently can withstand high pressure. I did use a few 12 oz bottles, which I hope will not explode as 3 units is roughly their pressure limit.