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. 

Chocolate-Cherry Stout

Appearance: Very dark body, billowing tan head with good retention. Decent lacing. No hints of reddish color from the cherries.

Aroma: Vaguely reminiscent of cherries and chocolate - so not overwhelming. Light booziness in the nose. Maybe some earthy hops.

Taste: Hard to place, light roasty quality in the body, with the chocolate and cherry coming through a bit in the finish. Alcohol is there, contributes to the dryness. Maybe a slight tannic quality in the finish

Moutfeel: Fairly light in body. Good carbonation.

Overall: Pleasant but not great. I wish the chocolate and cherry were more prominent so that it was very obviously a Black Forest stout. Next time I would use a little more caramel malt to counteract the dryness and bitterness.

Smokey Porter Dec 2016

Brown Porter recipe with 1/3 of the base malt as smoke malt, and Carafa III-Dehusked for the dark malt.


BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Smoke Porter Dec 2016
TYPE: All Grain

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: 1.050 SG
Estimated Color: 38.1 SRM
Estimated IBU: 32.3 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 76.4 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU       
5.50 gal              Boston, MA                               Water         1        -           
6.00 g                Calcium Chloride (Mash 60.0 mins)        Water Agent   2        -           
3.00 g                Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 mins Water Agent   3        -           
5 lbs                 Maris Otter Malt (Muntons) (3.0 SRM)     Grain         4        44.4 %      
2 lbs                 Brown Malt (65.0 SRM)                    Grain         5        17.8 %      
1 lbs 8.0 oz          Smoked Malt (Briess - Cherry)  (9.0 SRM)  Grain         6        13.3 %      
1 lbs 8.0 oz          Smoked Malt (Weyermann) (2.0 SRM)        Grain         7        13.3 %      
8.0 oz                Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM)          Grain         8        4.4 %       
8.0 oz                Carafa Special III (Weyermann) (470.0 SR Grain         9        4.4 %       
4.0 oz                Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM)   Grain         10       2.2 %       
1.00 oz               Fuggle [4.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min          Hop           11       15.1 IBUs   
1.00 oz               Fuggle [4.50 %] - Boil 30.0 min          Hop           12       11.6 IBUs   
1.00 oz               Fuggle [4.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min          Hop           13       5.5 IBUs    
1.0 pkg               S-04 [23.66 ml]       Yeast         14       -           


Mash Schedule: 154F, Mash Out, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 11 lbs 4.0 oz
----------------------------
Name                    Description                                          Step Temperat Step Time   
Mash Step               Add 15.06 qt of water at 167.4 F                     154.0 F       60 min      
Mash Step               Add 9.00 qt of water at 195.9 F                      168.0 F       10 min      

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun , 2.58gal) of 168.0 F water
Notes:
------

Brewed 12/10/16. Mash temp a bit low - maybe 151F - 152F.

Got 7 gallons of 1.049 wort, and 5.9 gallons of 1.054 wort. 5.5 gallons into the fermenter at 110F, allowed to cool in the 25F ambient air, pitched rehydrated yest when 66F. Active fermentation ~20 hours later.

12/24/16: Kegged with sugar, aiming for 2.25 volumes.

Wheatwine & Brett Table Saison Brew Day

I've been wanting to brew a Wheat Wine Ale for while, ever since seeing the recipe in Modern Homebrew Recipes. Of course, I made some substitutions for the hops and grain that were available to me. And, since 24.5 pounds of grain is a lot, I decided to get a batch of Brett Saison with the partigyle batch.

Wheat Wine ferments

BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Wheatwine
Style: Wheatwine
TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 7.64 gal
Post Boil Volume: 6.51 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal  
Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.121 SG
Estimated Color: 12.4 SRM
Estimated IBU: 48.4 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 73.9 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU        
5.50 gal              Boston, MA                               Water         1        -            
8.00 g                Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 mins Water Agent   2        -            
5.00 g                Calcium Chloride (Mash 60.0 mins)        Water Agent   3        -            
2 lbs                 Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM)                     Adjunct       4        7.1 %        
10 lbs                Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM)                Grain         5        35.7 %       
4 lbs                 Wheat Malt, Dark (9.0 SRM)               Grain         6        14.3 %       
3 lbs                 Munich (BestMälz) (7.6 SRM)              Grain         7        10.7 %       
3 lbs                 Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM)            Grain         8        10.7 %       
1 lbs                 Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM)    Grain         9        3.6 %        
1 lbs                 Honey Malt (25.0 SRM)                    Grain         10       3.6 %        
1 lbs                 Wheat - Red Malt (Briess) (2.3 SRM)      Grain         11       3.6 %        
1 lbs                 Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM)                  Grain         12       3.6 %        
8.0 oz                Acid Malt (3.0 SRM)                      Grain         13       1.8 %        
1 lbs 8.0 oz          Sugar, Table (Sucrose) (1.0 SRM)         Sugar         14       5.4 %        
1.00 oz               Equinox (HBC 366) [14.20 %] - Boil 10.0  Hop           15       10.1 IBUs    
1.00 oz               Simcoe [12.90 %] - Boil 10.0 min         Hop           16       9.1 IBUs     
1.00 oz               Equinox (HBC 366) [14.20 %] - Boil 1.0 m Hop           17       1.2 IBUs     
1.00 oz               Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 1.0 min          Hop           18       1.1 IBUs     
2.00 oz               Galaxy [14.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool  60.0 Hop           19       27.4 IBUs    
2.0 pkg               California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) [35. Yeast         20       -        

1 oz each of Centennial, Calypso, Simcoe and Azacca, dry, 7 days  


Mash Schedule: Temperature Mash, 1 Step, Light Body
Total Grain Weight: 28 lbs
----------------------------
Name                    Description                                          Step Temperat Step Time    
Mash Step               Add 31.80 qt of water at 108.9 F                     104.0 F       10 min       
Mash Step               Add 0.00 qt of water and heat to 131.0 F over 10 min 131.0 F       15 min       
Mash Step               Heat to 146.0 F over 10 min                          146.0 F       40 min       
Mash Step               Heat to 158.0 F over 10 min                          158.0 F       15 min       
Mash Step               Heat to 168.0 F over 10 min                          168.0 F       15 min       

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun , 3.82gal) of 168.0 F water
Notes:

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

Brewed 11/16/16.
Wheat Wine
Not completely sure I got the right temp on the rests. Even stirring the mash constantly there seemed to be variation around 5F-10F in the temperature of the mash.

Ended up with about 5.75 gallons of wort into the fermenter at 1.110 OG, lower than hoped both for gravity and volume. But given this is a very high gravity beer a low efficiency is expected. And, there was a lot of trub that got into the fermenter.

May use DME to brew some top-off beer to get up to the right volume.

Made a starter with 1 pack of dry yeast. Added that and a second pack of dry yeast when beer was 65F. After ~12 hours, good activity. After 36 hours, very rapid fermentation. Ambient temps in the 62F - 65F range. Tomorrow will move been to warmer place.

Color of the wort was beautiful deep amber. It tasted like malt candy. Very sweet and very malty.

Racked to secondary in mid-December.

Added dry hops on 2/25/17, will crash cool, keg and force carbonate in a week.

Hydrometer sample read the FG as 1.030, a bit over the predicted final gravity of 1.027 or so. Taste was a perhaps a bit too sweet. The recipe in Modern Homebrew Recipes had an FG of 1.018, significantly lower than my beer here. Maybe will taste a few samples of the carbed beer then if needed pitch a small starter of US-05 to dry it out a bit more, but would really prefer not to do that.

Brett Table Saison ferments

Brett Table Saison
Same mash as above but with no sugar, partigyled with ~6.5 gallons of 180F water.
Hop schedule was 1oz Tettnanger, 4%, at 60 min, 1oz Tettnanger, 4% at 10 min.

Got 5.1 gallons into fermenter at 1.030 OG. So, around 18% mash efficiency.

Shook to aerate, then pitched left over Tart Cherry Brett left over from a previous beer. No starter.

Wort was light amber color. The taste was fairly bland. Not sweet, and not much malt character. We'll see....

After around 36 hours, active fermentation has begun, with thin white krausen forming on the top of the beer.

Black IPA Review

Appearance: Dark body, deep mahogany when held up to the light, with sticky off-white head. Good head retention.

Aroma: Tropical fruit, similar to the pale ale I brewed with the combination of Azacca and Nelson. Not much pineyness. Would be "juicy" but a moderate background note of chocolate and slight crystal malt sweetness moderates that. As it warms the hop character comes out more, making it more juicy.

Taste: Hard to place, mix of juiciness and chocolatey quality in the aftertaste. Bitterness is moderate and not harsh. Tastes less juicy that it smells. Fortunately the hop and dark malt characters do not clash.

Mouthfeel: Light body, pretty dry, a little bit of residual sweetness. Carbonation moderate. Drinkable. Maybe a hint of booziness considering it's ~7% ABV.

Overall: Pretty good. The flavors and aromas meld pretty well. I wish I taste it blind and compare to a normal IPA with the same hopping etc. but without the dark malt, so that I could really taste how much difference the dark malt really makes. Not sure how reliably I could distinguish it from a normal IPA. It reminds me of the American Stout I brewed following the recipe from BCS but with less sweetness and less body. Don't think I would change anything.

Chocolate Cherry Stout

BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Chocolate Raspberry Stout

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: 1.065 SG
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU        
5.50 gal              Boston, MA                               Water         1        -            
3.00 g                Calcium Chloride (Mash 60.0 mins)        Water Agent   2        -            
3.00 g                Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 mins Water Agent   3        -            
13 lbs                Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM)           Grain         4        83.9 %       
12.0 oz               Carafa Special III (Weyermann) (470.0 SR Grain         5        4.8 %        
10.0 oz               Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM)    Grain         6        4.0 %        
10.0 oz               Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM)    Grain         7        4.0 %        
8.0 oz                Chocolate (Briess) (350.0 SRM)           Grain         8        3.2 %        
0.75 oz               Sterling [7.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min        Hop           9        15.7 IBUs    
0.50 oz               Magnum [10.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min         Hop           10       15.0 IBUs   

1.0 pkg               SafAle English Ale (DCL/Fermentis #S-04) Yeast         12       -


2.00 oz               Cacao Husks,  vodka flavor extraction
            
6 lbs                   Cherries (Primary 7.0 days)       Flavor        13       -            


Mash Schedule: 152F, Mash Out, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 15 lbs 8.0 oz
----------------------------
Name                    Description                                          Step Temperat Step Time    
Mash Step               Add 20.38 qt of water at 165.3 F                     152.0 F       60 min       
Mash Step               Add 12.40 qt of water at 199.4 F                     168.0 F       10 min       

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun , 0.92gal) of 168.0 F water
Notes:
------

Brewed 11/13/16. Got 5.5 gallons of wort into the fermenter at 1.070.

Cooled to 66F, oxygenated 20 seconds and pitched re-hydrated S-04.

Active fermentation by 7am on 11/14/16. By that afternoon, pretty good krausen.

11/15/16 - Moved to 70F ambient. Fermentation was ongoing.

 11/19/16 - Got 2 bags of cherries from Costco, heated to 180F to pasteurize, cooled, then dumped into my wide-mouthed fermenter. The next day, more bubbling as fermentation picked up again.

11/23/16 - Dumped chocolate husks and vodka into fermenter. Now there are around 6.25 gallons of beer, trub, cherries and liquid in the ferementer.

11/27/16 - After crash cooling, kegged with sugar aiming for 2.25 volumes of CO2. Sample tasted good - chocolate up front, cherry in the back.

Black IPA #1

As per Modern Homebrew Recipes by Gordon Strong, with hop substitutions, and slight malt substitution (I ran out of bulk 2-row, so substituted 1# of Pils malt.)

BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Black IPA #1
Style: Black IPA
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 8.04 gal
Post Boil Volume: 7.29 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 6.00 gal  
Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.065 SG
Estimated Color: 26.3 SRM
Estimated IBU: 49.3 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 75.4 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU        
5.50 gal              Boston, MA                               Water         1        -            
3.00 g                Calcium Chloride (Mash 60.0 mins)        Water Agent   2        -            
3.00 g                Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 mins Water Agent   3        -            
9 lbs                 Pale Ale Malt 2-Row (Briess) (3.5 SRM)   Grain         4        57.4 %       
3 lbs                 Golden Promise (Simpsons) (2.0 SRM)      Grain         5        19.1 %       
1 lbs                 Carafa Special II (Weyermann) (415.0 SRM Grain         6        6.4 %        
1 lbs                 Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM)            Grain         7        6.4 %        
8.0 oz                Munich (BestMälz) (7.6 SRM)              Grain         8        3.2 %        
3.0 oz                Acid Malt (3.0 SRM)                      Grain         9        1.2 %        
1 lbs                 Sugar, Table (Sucrose) (1.0 SRM)         Sugar         10       6.4 %        
1.00 oz               Azacca [15.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min         Hop           11       18.9 IBUs    
2.00 oz               Azacca [15.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min          Hop           12       15.2 IBUs    
2.00 oz               Nelson Sauvin [12.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpoo Hop           13       15.2 IBUs    
1.0 pkg               Safale American  (DCL/Fermentis #US-05)  Yeast         14       -            
2.00 oz               Azacca [15.00 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days      Hop           15       0.0 IBUs     


Mash Schedule: 152F, Mash Out, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 15 lbs 11.0 oz
----------------------------
Name                    Description                                          Step Temperature Step Time    
Mash Step               Add 19.36 qt of water at 165.3 F                     152.0 F       60 min       
Mash Step               Add 11.75 qt of water at 199.5 F                     168.0 F       10 min       

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun , 2.28gal) of 168.0 F water
Notes:
------

Brewed 10/29/16:

Starter made, with re-used yeast.

8 gallon into kettle, 1.0526, before sugar.

Boiled down to ~7.25 gallons with 1.070 gravity. A little high but should be OK.

After steeping for 15F, cooled to 100F, and let cool overnight. Pitched at 66F, no aeration, on 10/30/16 around 9am.

Active bubbling and krausen by 9pm. The next day was very active fermentation.

11/5/16
Added 2oz of Azacca, dry hops. ~67 F ambient.