DeeperRootsBrewing

Palatable 10% ABV Beers

2015-01-20T21:47:00.000-08:00

It's an undeniably difficult thing to pull off with elegance: a palatable 10% ABV beer. There are plenty of beers out there that taste good but contain additives or flavor enhancers far beyond what might be considered acceptable when viewed through the lens of the reinheitsgebot. I don't claim to be a purist in any sense, and I have ample love for these beers, but they exist in a category outside of what I tried to do as the aforementioned mindset began to dominate my brewing plans for the end of November. I wanted to brew two beers (one light, one dark) that embraced alcohol instead of trying to cover it up. Beers that would make you pontificate about their gorgeously realized flavors both because they tasted great and because you were more than a little jangled from drinking them. I was looking to use somewhat traditional ingredients to attempt to attain a balance between the heat you taste in a high ABV beer and the flavor that you desire form a quality homebrew.

I admit, this idea stemmed in no small part from a personal dislike of the trending approach in brewing to make all things quaffable also sessionable. Don't peg me as ignorant as I understand the idea behind session beers, they're just not something I plan on embracing anytime soon. I like my beers to be above 5% as a rule. I've tasted plenty of good session beers, but I tend to want to make beer that has a little more danger associated with it. Session beers are a little too reserved. I try hard to find something sexy about them, but the chemistry just isn't there for me.

Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout

I really liked Stone's 12th Anniversary Ale and I set out to do something similar with this beer. The idea was to showcase bitterness from the dark roasted malts, providing a counter to the alcohol bite. Hops took on a background role, with barely 15 AAUs added throughout the process. Two pounds of Flaked Oats provided the base needed to handle all of that bitterness. The result is smooth and drinkable but also intensely alcoholic and bitter.

Hoodoo Imperial IPA

A simple grain bill, with just enough residual sweetness and a ton of hops made this beer the counterpoint to the Bitter Stout. The bitterness needed to cut through the ABV came exclusively from hops, though there was also plenty of aromatics meant to compliment the significant heat in the end result. This beer came out intensely floral and finished just a bit too sweet at around 1.020. If it had dropped another 8 or 10 gravity points, the result would have been significantly less cloying.

Cardamom Milk Stout | Tangerine Wit

2014-11-02T12:31:00.002-08:00

Cardamom Milk Stout

Green cardamom tincture.

Citrusy, resinous, spicy, peppery, dank. Many of my favorite hops can be properly described using these adjectives. Add terms like herbal, minty, warming, cola-like, sweet, and eucalyptus and you're describing something even more complex than Simcoe or Ahtanum or Mosaic. You're describing cardamom.

In my case, specifically green cardamom. I have some family roots in Scandinavia and grew up with some exposure to traditional foods from the region like lefsa, which my grandmother used to make for special occasions. Cardamom is common in Scandinavian breads like pulla and julekake. I've made pulla bread before, and the cardamom flavor is intense and clean with a strong herbal lemon quality that can suggest menthol and finishes with a refined sweet peppery note. It's complex to say the least, and a small amount goes a long way.

I decided to make a milk stout with cardamom as the key flavor component. Inspired by Yak and Yeti's Chai Milk Stout, I set out to accomplish something similar, but without the rest of the chai spices (cardamom is commonly found in masala chai tea, as well).

Recipe - Cardamom Milk Stout

Specifics

Style:

Sweet Stout

Brew Date:

October 19, 2014

Yield:

5 gallons

Color (SRM/EBC):

31.1/61.3

Bitterness (Calc):

56.3 IBU (Daniels)

Batch No:	145
Target OG:	1.056
Status:	Primary

General Information

Method:	All Grain

Method:

All Grain

Inspired by Yak & Yeti's Chai Milk Stout.

Malts and Grains

9.00 pounds	American Pale Malt (2-Row)	78.8% of grist
1.10 pounds	Crystal Malt 80L	9.6% of grist
0.44 pounds	British Chocolate Malt	3.9% of grist
0.44 pounds	British Pale Chocolate	3.9% of grist
0.44 pounds	American Roasted Barley	3.9% of grist
11.42 pounds	Total Grain Weight (Water Amounts)	100% of grist

Adjuncts

1.00 pounds

Lactose (Milk Sugar)

Hops

1.00 ounces	Magnum 12.9% Pellets @ 60 minutes Type: Bittering Use: Boil	12.9 AAUs
1.00 ounces	Total Hop Weight	12.9 AAUs

Boil

Total Boil Time:	60 minutes

Total Boil Time:

60 minutes

Yeast

Name:	Edinburgh Ale
Manufacturer:	White Labs
Product ID:	WLP028
Type:	Ale
Flocculation:	Medium
Attenuation:	72%
Temperature Range:	65–70°F
Amount:	35 ml

I made a simple tincture with cardamom pods, mixing 1/3 cup of the pods with 1/2 cup of vodka and letting the mixture sit in my dark garage for a week. Today I'll be straining the pods from the vodka, then I'll add a small amount of the tincture to the entire five gallon batch after racking it into the keg, tasting as I go. I'm guessing 2-5 drops will be plenty as the tincture's flavor is beautiful but intense.

Bron-Yr-Aur Tangerine Wit

Dried tangerine peel.

That's the way, oh that's the way...

One of the first beers I ever made was Papazian's Who's In The Garden? and I was instantly impressed by the role that spices could play in a beer's flavor. Offer me a wheat beer and I tend to balk, but proffer a wit, and I'm always interested. The hazy whiteness, the aromatic citrus blend of curacao and coriander seed, the gentle bitterness that those spices impress upon the palate. In the years since, I've tried plenty of other wits, from the splendid perfection of Celis White (a sad brewing story of corporate greed and product mismanagement that discarded one man's craft in the mad grab for profit) to the disappointingly generic Blue Moon. I've also made a few other wits and have come to some simple conclusions that are completely biased in favor of my own preferences:

I like the citrus flavor imparted from the curacao more than that gleaned from the coriander.
Grains of paradise are an essential additive in the boil to enhance that citrus bite and provide some background spice.
European pilsner malt makes a big difference in the final flavor.
Goldings hops are my preferred hop aromatic.
A decoction mash increases complexity and enhances mouthfeel considerably.

I gave this recipe a twist by using dried tangerine peel in place of the curacao. Tangerine's somewhat milder flavor compelled me to add a bit more than I typically would, but I think the result will be special. My decoction mash went as planned and it fermented out cleanly.

Recipe - Bron-Yr-Aur Tangerine Wit

Specifics

Style:

Witbier

Brew Date:

October 19, 2014

Yield:

5 gallons

Color (SRM/EBC):

3.2/6.2

Bitterness (Calc):

21.8 IBU (Daniels)

Batch No:	144
Target OG:	1.044
Status:	Primary

General Information

Method:	All Grain

Method:

All Grain

Malts and Grains

4.50 pounds	German Pilsen Malt (2-Row)	50% of grist
4.50 pounds	Flaked Wheat	50% of grist
9.00 pounds	Total Grain Weight (Water Amounts)	100% of grist

Non-Fermentables

.3 oz	Tangerine Peel @ 5 minutes
1 oz.	Coriander Seed @ 5 minutes
.25 oz.	Grains of Paradise @ 5 minutes

Hops

0.35 ounces	Magnum 14.2% Pellets @ 75 minutes Type: Bittering Use: First Wort	5 AAUs
0.25 ounces	Saaz 3.2% Pellets @ 15 minutes Type: Flavor Use: Aroma	0.8 AAUs
0.20 ounces	Kent Golding 7.9% Pellets @ 15 minutes Type: Flavor Use: Aroma	1.6 AAUs
0.80 ounces	Total Hop Weight	7.4 AAUs

Boil

Total Boil Time:	60 minutes

Total Boil Time:

60 minutes

Yeast

Name:	Belgian Wit Ale
Manufacturer:	White Labs
Product ID:	WLP400
Type:	Wheat
Flocculation:	Low
Attenuation:	76%
Temperature Range:	67–74°F
Amount:	35 ml

As for the name, well, if you don't get the reference (or do and are a fan) click below:

Keystone Kryptonite Bitter

2014-07-18T21:00:00.001-07:00

1995. I was 15 years old. I imagine that this commercial played during TGIF between episodes of Family Matters and Step By Step.

I certainly remember it (and all of its other iterations). A bitter beer?!? Primitive man evolved to fear bitterness as an indicator of toxicity in plants, and with bitterness as the most strongly perceived of the five senses, its utility as a warning against potentially dangerous foliage is undeniable.

Bringing the wort to a boil.

But we are not primitive man. We can enjoy bitterness as a flavor unto itself, confident in the knowledge that the intense flavor that flows over our palettes when we drink a delicious English Bitter presents no real danger. In fact, I might venture to suggest that the drinking of Bitter may be the essence of evolved humanity. When you take a sip, you flaunt the ancient beliefs of our ancestors who shunned bitterness out of essential but stifling caution, and whose trepidation was a result of self-preservation uninformed by elevated sensory enjoyment.

A proper English Bitter should be a harmonious melding of simple ingredients and a showcase for British hops, malts and yeast. This is an easy drinking beer with plenty of characterful British yeast flavor, and a platform for hops like Fuggles, East Kent Goldings and Target among many others. This is the beer you order at your neighborhood pub on a Tuesday night after a day at work.

My version strove to use British ingredients as much as possible, with the exception of Pacific Ale Yeast. I plan to enter this beer in a homebrew "friendly" next month where WLP 041 is a requirement. I chose Northdown hops because they are an ingredient I haven't worked with in the past. This beer is the antithesis of Keystone Light (its Kryptonite, perhaps). A proudly bitter beer.

Keystone Kryptonite Bitter

Specifics

Style:

Standard/Ordinary Bitter

Brew Date:

July 18, 2014

Yield:

5 gallons

Color (SRM/EBC):

6.7/13.1

Bitterness (Calc):

55 IBU (Daniels)

Batch No:	142
Target OG:	1.043
Status:	Primary

General Information

Method:	All Grain

Method:

All Grain

Scale Recipe

Enter desired final yield (volume):

gallons

Malts and Grains

7.00 pounds	British Pale Ale Malt	88.2% of grist
0.31 pounds	British Crystal Malt	3.9% of grist
0.31 pounds	Flaked Barley	3.9% of grist
0.31 pounds	Flaked Maize	3.9% of grist
7.94 pounds	Total Grain Weight (Water Amounts)	100% of grist

Hops

1.20 ounces	Northdown 9% Pellets @ 60 minutes Type: Bittering Use: Boil	10.8 AAUs
0.80 ounces	Northdown 9% Pellets @ 5 minutes Type: Aroma Use: Aroma	7.2 AAUs
2.00 ounces	Total Hop Weight	18 AAUs

Boil

Total Boil Time:	60 minutes

Total Boil Time:

60 minutes

Yeast

Name:	Pacific Ale
Manufacturer:	White Labs
Product ID:	WLP041
Type:	Ale
Flocculation:	High
Attenuation:	67%
Temperature Range:	65–68°F
Amount:	500 ml

American to German to Cascadian in 6 Weeks

2014-06-21T12:04:00.002-07:00

Beer production has been steady these past few weeks, blogging has been slow. Here's what's been going on:

Handsome Grandson Double Rye IPA (Version 2)

At the beginning of May I did a rebrew of one of my favorite homebrews: Handsome Grandson Double Rye IPA. I don't rebrew beers too often but this particular beer went over so well last time that I decided to make it again with minor changes. The recipe is a riff off of Tasty McDole's Pliny Clone, but with a rye element to make the final taste a little spicier. It's basically the same as before but without the crystal rye malt and some small hop changes to mix it up a bit; I wanted to use feature Simcoe. This version came out at 9.3% ABV but tasted like it was 7%. It's been on tap for almost a month but is almost gone thanks to a couple of growler fills for friends and a few good nights with fellow homebrewers. If (when) I brew it again, I'll try and dry it out even more.

Excelsior Altbier

I bought a recipe from Midwest Supplies for my brother on his birthday. He brews when he has time and doesn't have any temperature control so Midwest's saison kit seemed like a good fit for warm summer brewing. I picked up their Excelsior Altbier in the process (and got free shipping) so it got brewed at the end of May. It's a Dusseldorf-style recipe so it should be both bitter and malty at the same time with plenty of prominent hop character. Basically an assertive, flavorful, clean German ale. Some cold conditioning after primary fermentation and lower than normal ale temperatures should clean it up a bit. I did a small diacetyl rest just in case, and should have it on tap in another 10 days or so. I wonder how different a Northern German Altbier would be when tasted side-by-side? Last time I was in Germany I didn't have the knowledge or palette to explore all that the German beer scene has to offer and I've been regretful since my eyes were opened by homebrew. I've had mixed results with beer kits but this is my first time sampling the wares from Midwest and I'm optimistic.

Doug Flag Cascadian Dark Ale

Fellow homebrewer and aspiring randonneur, Eric (of Parallel 32 Brewing), took it upon himself to generously host a Summer Homebrew Competition this August. This is a "friendly" with the main goals being to learn something in the process, drink some interesting beer and fun. We've focused on different styles, colors, and the use of particular ingredients for previous competitions. The only stipulation this time is the use of WLP 041 Pacific Ale Yeast, a type that's relatively unfamiliar to all participants.

Saving a WLP 041 sample for next time.

Yesterday I brewed a Cascadian Dark Ale for the competition. While the BJCP has moved to make Black IPA a style variant in the upcoming 2014 revision of the Style Guidelines (Gordon Strong's .ppt presentation here), I tend to think of Cascadian Dark Ale as a better descriptor. There may even be room for both Black IPA and CDA in the style guidelines, but I don't know if it's necessary. Cascadian Dark Ales should showcase hops from the Pacific Northwest, include some roasted character but not nearly to the point of a porter or stout, and should feature Sinamar or Carafa or some comparable specialty grain to add color without bitterness. The final product should be dark brown to black (30 - 40 SRM), smooth and lacking in major astringency, and hoppy in a way that is unusual. The darker roasted malts should bring out hop flavors that are harder to find in a paler counterpart (like mint, rosemary, or other herbal flavors) using the traditional American IPA hops. You can really geek out on the semantics discussion by watching the Brewing TV video below. They do a really nice job of characterizing the style and looking at the naming debate from multiple perspectives.

I wanted to keep my grain bill simple, end up on the low side for SRM, and showcase Mosaic hops (a Simcoe progeny). My final recipe looks like this, though I wanted to use CaraAroma instead of the Crystal 120 but couldn't get my hands on any. The Doug Flag in the beer's name refers to the flag of Cascadia, which contains a Douglas fir tree and colors representing the landscape and sensibilities of the Pacific Northwest and its residents.

Doug Flag Cascadian Dark Ale

Malts and Grains

11.50 pounds	American Pale Malt (2-Row)	87.5% of grist
0.60 pounds	German Carafa II De-Husked Malt	4.6% of grist
0.30 pounds	American Chocolate Malt	2.3% of grist
0.75 pounds	Crystal Malt 120L	5.7% of grist
13.15 pounds	Total Grain Weight (Water Amounts)	100% of grist

Hops

1.00 ounces	Chinook 12.8% Pellets Type: Bittering and Aroma Use: First Wort	12.8 AAUs
1.50 ounces	Columbus 15% Pellets @ 60 minutes Type: Bittering Use: Boil	22.5 AAUs
0.50 ounces	Mosaic 11.5% Pellets @ 15 minutes Type: Flavor Use: Boil	5.8 AAUs
0.50 ounces	Chinook 12.8% Pellets @ 15 minutes Type: Flavor Use: Boil	6.4 AAUs
0.50 ounces	Mosaic 11.5% Pellets @ 0 minutes Type: Aroma Use: Aroma	5.8 AAUs
0.50 ounces	Simcoe 12% Pellets @ 0 minutes Type: Aroma Use: Aroma	5.8 AAUs
1.50 ounces	Mosaic 11.5% Pellets Type: Bittering and Aroma Use: Dry Hop	17.3 AAUs
6.00 ounces	Total Hop Weight	76.5 AAUs

Boil

Total Boil Time:	60 minutes

Total Boil Time:

60 minutes

Yeast

Name:	Pacific Ale
Manufacturer:	White Labs
Product ID:	WLP041
Type:	Ale
Flocculation:	High
Attenuation:	67%
Temperature Range:	65–68°F
Amount:	500 ml

Getting Closer to Gueuze

2014-04-06T11:23:00.001-07:00

18 months ago I had grand ambitions about a series of lambics, brewed at one year intervals and then blended to make gueuze and fruit lambic. In October 2012 I brewed the first in the series, decoction mashing for the first time, and naming it Surranes Lambic. A year-and-a-half have passed since then, and I'm a little behind schedule. Earlier this week I brewed the second version of Surranes Lambic and suddenly I'm all excited about gueuze and blending and sour funkiness again.

A few small things have changed since the plan was hatched back in 2012. Besides the extended timeline, I originally planned to use the remaining 20 pounds of cabernet grapes from my friend Steve's family grapevines in some way. Instead they've been utilized in the making of a Cabernet Pyment (along with an Oaked version). I also thought I might alter the recipes of each of the three batches to provide more variety of flavor and enhance complexity when blending. This has worked well in the past when brewing and blending Flanders Reds. You can use different ingredients in a variety of combinations and different fermentation techniques and processes to get to a proper version of a Flanders Red. That variation makes blending them together all the more enjoyable as the final product can take from a lot of different flavors and the result can be all the more complex and interesting. Instead of altering the base recipe, I decided instead to change up the yeast. With so many different yeast products available (even in the last 18 months) it seemed like an interesting idea to change just that one single variable and get variety from the most important ingredient in any beer.

So, I brewed Surranes Lambic 2 and followed the same process as before. I relied on a decoction mash to enhance the fermentability of the wort. After much deliberation I decided to pitch a portion of a a culture I built up from HaandBryggeriet HaandBic Lambic. My hope is that I'll get to taste a beer that retains many of the characteristics I associate with HaandBic even without the barrel aging: floral, tart, fruit forward (berries), light vanilla, plenty of yeast character. This version will likely get the fruit, but I'm not sure what I'll use.

Surranes Lambic (Year 2)*

Specifics

Style:

Straight (Unblended) Lambic

Brew Date:

April 4, 2014

Yield:

5 gallons

Color (SRM/EBC):

3.3/6.5

Bitterness (Calc):

10.2 IBU (Daniels)

Batch No:	138
OG:	1.046
Target OG:	1.047
Status:	Primary

General Information

Method:	All Grain

Method:

All Grain

The second in a series of three lambics (brewed at roughly one year intervals), meant to be blended into gueuze and also used in conjunction with fruit. Perle hops have been aged over five years.

Malts and Grains

6.00 pounds	Belgian Plisen Malt	61.5% of grist
3.75 pounds	American White Wheat Malt	38.5% of grist
9.75 pounds	Total Grain Weight (Water Amounts)	100% of grist

Hops

2.00 ounces	Perle .5% Pellets @ 240 minutes Type: Bittering Use: First Wort	1 AAUs
2.00 ounces	Total Hop Weight	1 AAUs

Fuzzy Little Foreign Extra Stout + Bugs

2014-04-03T11:55:00.001-07:00

"I'll slack you off you fuzzy little foreigner..."

Whenever people talk about stouts, Guinness invariably comes up in the conversation. It's one of the most famous beers in the world and is THE example of a dry stout. Guinness famously sours a portion of their beer in oaken tuns remaining from the early days of the brewery. These tuns have Brett, lacto, pedio and doubtlessly a bunch of other organisms, and provide the unique taste of Guinness. I wanted to try something similar, but on a homebrew level. Plenty of homebrewers have done this before by adding acidulated malt or lactic acid. Some have soured portions of their wort and then added it to the finished product. As someone who likes making Dregs Beers, I thought I'd try a different approach and add the dregs of a sour beer to my homebrewed stout after a primary fermentation with a traditional ale yeast. My thought is that the English ale characteristics essential to a traditional stout will be established in primary and the remaining bugs and bacteria from the dregs will provide just enough sour bite to make the beer a little more interesting. I like Draught Guinness, but really prefer Foreign Extra Stouts, and they come in two sub-styles: Export and Tropical. Here are some thoughts about each with a short sensory evaluation of two representative beers.

EXPORT
While travelling in Scotland I had a chance to try Guinness Foreign Extra Stout in a bottle. It has a higher alcohol content, plenty of dryness and a smooth creaminess to it that I liked immediately. It's a deep opaque black, and not as bitter as some others I've tried. There's almost no sweetness-it's the Guinness you know and love times two.

TROPICAL
I tried a Lion Stout for the first time when travelling in Peru. It pours a deep dark brown, almost black and has plenty of roasted malt and coffee aromas. Lion retains a sweetness and a hint of alcoholic bite that serves a nice counterpoint to the bitterness associated with a lot of roasted barley.

Fuzzy Little Foreign Extra Stout was brewed in the Export style. Here's the recipe:

Specifics

Style:

Foreign Extra Stout

Brew Date:

March 24, 2014

Yield:

5 gallons

Color (SRM/EBC):

31.4/61.8

Bitterness (Calc):

58.4 IBU (Daniels)

Conditioning:

Bottles and Cask

Batch No:	137
Target OG:	1.075
Status:	Primary

General Information

Method:

All Grain

Higher gravity stout brewed in the export (as opposed to the tropical) interpretation of the style. Brettanomyces to be added mid-fermentation.

Scale Recipe

Enter desired final yield (volume):

gallons

Malts and Grains

8.00 pounds	American Pale Malt (2-Row)	54.2% of grist
1.50 pounds	British Maris Otter Pale Malt	10.2% of grist
1.00 pounds	American Wheat Malt	6.8% of grist
1.00 pounds	Flaked Barley	6.8% of grist
0.75 pounds	Crystal Malt 120L	5.1% of grist
0.75 pounds	American Roasted Barley	5.1% of grist
1.00 pounds	American Chocolate Malt	6.8% of grist
0.75 pounds	American Black Patent	5.1% of grist
14.75 pounds	Total Grain Weight (Water Amounts)	100% of grist

Adjuncts

0.50 pounds

Brown Sugar, Dark

Hops

1.00 ounces	Centennial 9.2% Pellets @ 60 minutes Type: Bittering Use: Boil	9.2 AAUs
0.50 ounces	Centennial 9.2% Pellets @ 30 minutes Type: Flavor Use: Boil	4.6 AAUs
0.50 ounces	Challenger 6.9% Pellets @ 15 minutes Type: Flavor Use: Aroma	3.5 AAUs
2.00 ounces	Total Hop Weight	17.3 AAUs

Boil

Total Boil Time:

60 minutes

Yeast

Name:	Dry English Ale
Manufacturer:	White Labs
Product ID:	WLP007
Type:	Ale
Flocculation:	High
Attenuation:	75%
Temperature Range:	65–70°F
Amount:	35 ml

I plan to sour this beer slightly with Wyeast Brettanomyces Lambicus. This beer will spend some time fermenting out as the bugs do their job slowly. Need more? Check out the BrewBlog posting here.

You can't end a post that references Carl Spackler without including this:

"A looper, you know, a caddy, a looper, a jock. So, I tell them I'm a pro jock, and who do you think they give me? The Dalai Lama, himself. Twelfth son of the Lama. The flowing robes, the grace, bald... striking. So, I'm on the first tee with him. I give him the driver. He hauls off and whacks one - big hitter, the Lama - long, into a ten-thousand foot crevasse, right at the base of this glacier. Do you know what the Lama says? Gunga galunga... gunga, gunga-lagunga. So we finish the eighteenth and he's gonna stiff me. And I say, "Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know." And he says, "Oh, uh, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness." So I got that goin' for me, which is nice."

Calyx Cyser

2014-03-09T12:15:00.003-07:00

8 hours after pitching.

Some ideas take a while to play out completely. I've been tossing around the idea of making a cyser for the past couple years, but despite (or perhaps because of) the simplicity of the process, it just never happened. I had the honey. I had access to the cider. I had picked the brains of cider makers and (re)read information online and in The Compleat Meadmaker. But for some reason I just never set aside the time and made it. Then, two weeks ago I had the chance to judge on the Open Category Mead (26C) panel of the America's Finest City Homebrew Competition put on by Quaff. It's an interesting category to be a part of because none of the offerings can be considered "out of style" which means that basically anything goes. Prior to the judging the pessimistic and optimistic sides of my personality clashed with one another over this fact. Would the meads be terrible, with random ingredients disproportionately added, or concoctions that didn't make the cut elsewhere being thrown in for a lack of other options? Or would the brewer's creativity and instinct carry the day, with unique combinations and techniques making for completely original meads that changed my ideas about what a mead could be like? I honestly had no idea what to expect.

7 ounces of chopped dates.

Luckily the goblet was half full and I was blown away by the quality and crafstmanship of the meads that I had a chance to drink. I was surprised by the range of ingredients and the ways that they were incorporated. Berries, spices, herbs and a variety of other additions accentuated the beauty of honey in liquid form and snapped me out of whatever malaise was keeping me from making my cyser. So yesterday I went ahead and put everything together. This is my first cyser, so I played it relatively safe and borrowed heavily from Ken Schramm's Falls' Bounty Cyser recipe in The Compleat Meadmaker. The result was Calyx Cyser:

Calyx Cyser

Specifics

Style:	Cyser
Brew Date:	March 8, 2014
Yield:	4 gallons

Batch No:	136
Status:	Primary

General Information

Method:

Other

Informed by Ken Schramm's Fall's Bounty Cyser in the Compleat Meadmaker.

Ingredients

3 gallons	Juice - Apple Cider
0.75 pounds	Brown Sugar, Dark
0.40 pounds	Fruit - Dates, pureed
6.20 pounds	Honey - Orange Blossom

Boil

Total Boil Time:

0 minutes

Yeast

Name:	Lalvin
Manufacturer:	Lallemand - Lalvin
Product ID:	71B-1122
Type:	Wine
Flocculation:	High
Attenuation:	75%
Temperature Range:	59–86°F
Amount:	12 gr

Water Profile

San Diego, CA

Calicum:	68 ppm
Bicarbonate:	590 ppm
Sulfate:	205 ppm
Chloride:	94 ppm
Sodium:	94 ppm
Magnesium:	26 ppm
PH:	7.9%

Procedure

No heat method. Mixed honey and brown sugar into the apple cider. Chopped the dates and added them to the carboy.

I omitted raisins and went with some different ratios and yeast, but the basics of Schramm's recipe remain intact. I chose Lalvin 71B because I like its aromatic-enforcing qualities and the smoothness it produces from the high metabolization of malic acid. I followed the staggered nutrient addition schedule that's worked well for me in past meads:

1. During yeast rehydration: 5 grams of Go Ferm
2. When visible signs of fermentation are evident: .75 tsp Fermaid K; .75 tsp of DAP (+ aeration)
3. Roughly one week later: .5 tsp of Fermaid K; .5 tsp of DAP

Click here for the BrewBlog link.

Getting Reacquainted With My Old Friend Mead

2014-02-05T15:22:00.002-08:00

Dry as can be.

Last September I made a mead using some beautiful orange blossom honey and Lalvin 71B (aka Narbonne). For the last 150 days I watched it painstakingly ferment to absolute dryness and clear out as the yeast dropped out of suspension. I did my best to forget about it and let it go about its business without me meddling, and I almost did too well, forgetting to transfer it off the lees into different containers when I should have. Mead can be like an old friend that you haven't seen for a long time. When you don't see that person face-to-face with regularity, the effects of time can be surprising. With mead you hope that the results of time reveal that it's aged more elegantly than that old high school friend who has put on too many pounds and has six kids.

Half of the 12 pounds.

Luckily, this mead developed beautifully, with a pale straw color and a super dry finish that's a perfect canvas for adding additional ingredients and trying something different. The mead has a distinctive citrus flavor as a result of the orange blossom honey and the esters imparted by the yeast. Narbonne is supposed to impart a nice rounded flavor due to its neutralization of malic acid, and I'm counting on it to do its job throughout tertiary. Today I added 12 pounds of cabernet grapes that were gifted to me by my friend Steve last year. The frozen grapes were added in equal portions to two different fermentation buckets and the mead was racked on top.

One of the two buckets will be allowed to do its thing undisturbed for the next month or so, while the other is going to get a few inches of medium toast American white oak in honeycomb form courtesy of Lewy. I want the oak to add nuanced background flavor but definitely not be overpowering so I'm taking his advice and adding about two inches of the honeycomb. I'll be tasting it often to see how it impacts the flavor.

I'll be brewing the second in a series of three lambics later on this month with the intention of blending all of them into a (hopefully) passable gueuze when they are done fermenting and aging. I'm a few months behind schedule. It'll be some variation on the first one, Surranes Lambic. Need some background? The original post can be found here.

Big Dipper IPA | Competition Beer

2014-01-29T21:27:00.003-08:00

I haven't been brewing a whole lot lately, but I have a few small things to share. I made an IPA with my friends Adam and Lewy a few weeks back that's ready to drink for the first time tonight. So I'm sipping on a taster and posting for the first time this calendar year.

Big Dipper IPA

It came out amber, hazy (despite using gelatin) and danky in the nose with a nice cream-colored head that lingers for about 2 minutes. The Simcoe and Centennial dry hops are pretty assertive in the nose. It comes in hoppy and pretty dry when tasted, with a little hint of astringency in the final taste. I get plenty of fruit and malt-forward flavors and even though it doesn't finish perfectly clean it leaves a nice hop residue flavor on the tongue. This was my first time using Denny's Favorite 50, a yeast that's supposed to be a good all-around yeast and accentuate a lot of the fruit and malt character without being too sweet. It seems to do as advertised, but it doesn't mute the hops like I expected it would. I've heard that it's the same as Brewtek's CL-50, a yeast that you can't still acquire otherwise. As for the name, well, when I go thru hiking with Adam we always go to new and different places. We've done the whole John Muir Trail, high country in Zion, and the West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island. Every hike has different scenery and experiences, but one thing is always constant. Adam has to find a body of water and dip himself in it. Without showers and with days worth of sweat and dirt clinging to you, conditions are ripe for a nasty case of jock itch. Hence the name, Big Dipper IPA.

I want to give a big thank you to Jeff from Bikes, Beer, and Adventures (Oxford comma, really Jeff??) for inviting me to be one of a few lucky tasters at his Brett tasting session at KnB Wine Cellars a few weeks back. Jeff put some serious time into brewing and cataloging a bunch of new Brett strains and I felt honored to be included. Looking back I realize that the quality of my tasting observations deteriorated pretty significantly after the first six or seven tasters-sorry-I'm just happy to have been a part of it. You can (and should) read more about it here.

This past week I signed up for San Diego's biggest homebrew competition (the America's Finest City or AFC). I'll be judging and entering both competitions. My Nordic Porter is the only beer I have in bottles worth submitting and I'll be entering the same beer to the National Homebrew Competition early next month. I'm hoping for success with a beer that I put a lot of thought into and took some serious time to brew. It came out clean and dark with almost no real yeast character and a nice even helping of dark roasty goodness. The hops are muted properly, the ABV is right on and it drinks way too well. Hopefully the judges agree.

134 Beers Brewed. What's Next?

2013-10-26T21:24:00.002-07:00

As a homebrewer, you always have the ability to branch out and try something new or different. You don't really have to please anyone except yourself, so the rewards of successful experimentation far outweigh the risks. If a particular beer comes out different than expected then you learn something from the process that you can manage for the next time. If it's absolutely unpalatable then you pawn it off on brewing friends and dump the rest down the drain; you're only out of pocket an average of $20.

I've been slowly cycling through the many beer styles in the style guidelines and every once in a while I like to look back and take stock of what's been brewed and make decisions about what's to come. Here's a breakdown of all 134 beers I've made in the past decade:

	STYLE	TIMES BREWED
2B	Bohemian Pilsener	1

3A	Vienna Lager	1
3B	Oktoberfest/Marzen	1

4B	Munich Dunkel	1
4C	Schwarzbier (Black Beer)	1

5B	Traditional Bock	1

6D	American Wheat or Rye Beer	1

7A	California Common Beer	1

8A	Standard/Ordinary Bitter	1
8B	Special/Best/Premium Bitter	2
8C	Extra Special/Strong Bitter (English Pale Ale)	1

9D	Irish Red Ale	1

10A	American Pale Ale	10
10B	American Amber Ale	8
10C	American Brown Ale	7

11A	Mild	3
11C	Northern English Brown Ale	1

12A	Brown Porter	2
12B	Robust Porter	9
12C	Baltic Porter	2

13B	Sweet Stout	1
13C	Oatmeal Stout	3
13E	American Stout	2
13F	Russian Imperial Stout	3

14A	English IPA	1
14B	American IPA	18
14C	Imperial IPA	7

16A	Witbier	3
16B	Belgian Pale Ale	3
16C	Saison	6
16D	Biere de Garde	2
16E	Belgian Specialty Ale	5

17B	Flanders Red Ale	4
17D	Straight Lambic	1
17E	Gueze	2

18B	Belgian Dubbel	1

19C	American Barleywine	2

21A	Spice, Herb or Vegetable Beer	1

23	Specialty Beer	6

24A	Dry Mead	1
24C	Sweet Mead	1

25B	Pyment	2

26B	Braggot	1

28D	Other Specialty Cider or Perry	2

It's easy to see that my focus has been on American beers, especially IPAs and Pales. There are also plenty of beers and styles I haven't even started to explore. Likewise, I should mention that I've included Dregs beers that I've made (10 so far) which are either approximations of styles or complete anomalies depending on what base beer and yeast are combined together. Some of my favorite homebrews have been lagers, which is interesting because I rarely seek out commercial examples. Maybe it's all of the time and effort it takes to make them come out right. I realize that I need to make more beers with fruit and spend more time working on mead and braggot recipes-drinks that I really enjoy.

For the last weeks of 2013, I plan to make a blackberry cyser, a lambic (number 2 in a series meant for a gueuze), a hibiscus metheglin and a barleywine (recipe to come).

Squashing My Inhibitions About Harvest Beers

2013-09-24T13:17:00.001-07:00

10# butternut squash

I'm not an especially picky eater, but there are a few things I don't really care for. Usually the reason is textural and not connected to flavor. Eggplant, watermelon and most squash (excepting zucchini) are all high on the list. So, I generally steer clear of harvest beers and have avoided brewing the compulsory fall seasonal pumpkin ale that so many brewers despise but feel inclined to make. I subscribe to the rationale behind brewing pumpkin beers as a use of fresh seasonal ingredients and a way to celebrate a change in the season, I just never liked them much.

The only similar beer I've actually enjoyed has been Hair of the Dog's Greg. On a trip to Portland, OR a few years ago, Greg stood out among a ton of excellent beers that I tried. It's unique in that it doesn't have any hops in it, and has a very simple grain bill. The beer is different than any other I've tried. It has a wheat-like cloudiness and a big pilsner flavor and aroma, but the squash adds a mild sweetness that's really complimentary. It seems like unorthodox ingredients often get marginalized in an attempt to minimize their quirks, but retain the novelty of their use in a beer. The simplicity of the Greg recipe allows the three (four if you count water) ingredients to stand out and enhance each other. Alan, the owner, was kind enough to share some information about the recipe with me, and I went ahead and brewed it as best I could.

Greg (courtesy of Alan Sprints from Hair of the Dog)

15# German Pilsner

10# Butternut Squash

WLP028 Edinburgh Scottish Ale Yeast

Greg making a mess in my fermentation chamber

I made a large starter the week prior to brewing as the gravity potential is pretty large in the recipe. On brew day I peeled, seeded and cubed the squash, then roasted it in a 375 degree oven for an hour and a half. The squash started to brown and soften, as the sugars caramelized. I mashed all of the grain and the squash together for an hour at 152 degrees, then gathered the wort and sparged the grain/squash bed to round out the volume. A 90 minute boil got me to the gravity I wanted (1.070), and the starter was pitched after chilling through the Chillzilla.

It was strange brewing without hops. I set the pot boiling and didn't have to add anything else until flame out. Their contribution to beer is one of my favorite aspects of recipe formulation, so I felt like I was ignoring an important process. I also learned while looking into this beer that Butternut squash provides a better pumpkin flavor than actual pumpkin and that it is often used as a substitute for the real thing in pumpkin beers. The starter I pitched got the beer going quickly, and I expect it to be done in time for Halloween.

Lagers, a Black IPA and a Pyment

2013-09-08T00:20:00.001-07:00

Much has happened in the past two months but I haven't been able to coalesce it all into something coherent until now. I embraced the opportunity to set drinking and brewing aside for a time while my now annual lager brewing escapade evolved itself into a drinkable product. During that hiatus I suffered a debilitating ankle injury hiking the West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island, BC, started working again, traveled to Joshua Tree National Park, and bought a pop up trailer, among a myriad of other things. Today I bottled both my Amarelle Tart Cherry Bock and the Nordic Porter that I brewed in early June.

The Amarelle Tart Cherry Bock received a solid 7+ pounds of Montmorency tart cherries over two weeks ago. The result is a sparklingly clear, bright red, malty fruit explosion that weighs in at a drinkable 5.3 percent ABV. I'm not too sure if I can still call it a bock, but I plan to anyway. In any case it's drinkable and pleasant, with beautiful aroma and color.

The Nordic Porter evolved away from my original funky intention. While tasting it sporadically over the past 8 weeks, I started to question whether the addition of Brett in secondary was warranted, and that I might just dose it at bottling. As it improved with lagered age, I started to wonder whether Brett at bottling might only muddle what turned out to be a very cleanly fermented porter. In the end I bottled it all without any bugs. Maybe it'll have some success in competition as a straight and narrow Baltic Porter.

In between, I found time to brew a Black IPA. With a hop schedule loosely based on Blind Pig, I thought that I'd try to really accentuate the difference between expectation and reality with an SRM of 27 and a strictly IPA aroma and flavor profile. Danzig Black IPA was dry hopped yesterday and will be on tap in another 10 days when my kegerator comes back online.

Tomorrow I'll be making a new mead. My very first mead will turn 10 years old in roughly 9 months, and I regret not making meads more often. The past few that I've made have ended up sweet and cloying for my taste. This next mead will focus on a better balance of desirable characteristics. It will officially be a pyment (or is it a melomel?), with 12+ pounds of Cabernet grapes from my friend Steve asserting themselves next to 8 pounds of raw clover honey sourced by Lewy in a honey buy I made last month that included my brother Jeff. I plan to add some acid blend at some point (if warranted), and finish it off with a white oak spiral to try and increase the underlying complexity of the final mead without making too much of a specific flavor impact. Lalvin 71B will probably provide the magic. Check out the recipe below:

Oaked Cabernet Pyment

Summer Lagering | NHC 2013 2nd Round Results

2013-07-02T14:32:00.002-07:00

Summer Lagering

The weather's heating up and it's time to brew a lager or two. This will be the fourth summer in a row that I have taken the kegerator offline and dropped the temperature for lagering. It gives me a break from drinking (kegerators are incredibly accessible for the brewer prone to over-indulgence) and a chance to branch out and try some different beer styles. Last summer I felt like I really nailed down the lagering process, so I plan to apply those lessons to these next two batches. Being comfortable with the process means I also feel confident in pushing the envelope and doing some non-traditional things. Here are the beers I plan to brew next week and the recipes that go along with them:

Amarelle Tart Cherry Bock

Traditional bocks are dark and strong with a malty profile. Munich and/or Vienna malts make up the bulk of the flavor components, with hops and yeast playing secondary roles. The clean lines in a traditional bock should make a good platform for the addition of tart cherries, and I plan to push the SRM envelope a little to make the color match. I'll brew the base beer with mostly traditional ingredients and processes (my second try at decoction mashing), and then add the cherries as lagering finishes.

Malts and Grains

5.50 pounds	German Pilsen Malt (2-Row)	46% of grist
5.50 pounds	Belgian Munich Malt	46% of grist
0.75 pounds	Crystal Malt 90L	6.3% of grist
0.20 pounds	American Chocolate Malt	1.7% of grist
11.95 pounds	Total Grain Weight (Water Amounts)	100% of grist

Adjuncts

9.00 pounds

Fruit - Cherries, Raw or Frozen

Hops

2.00 ounces	Hallertauer Mittlefruh 4.2% Pellets @ 60 minutes Type: Bittering Use: Boil	8.4 AAUs
2.00 ounces	Total Hop Weight	8.4 AAUs

Boil

Total Boil Time:

60 minutes

Yeast

Name:	German Bock Lager
Manufacturer:	White Labs
Product ID:	WLP833
Type:	Lager
Flocculation:	Medium
Attenuation:	73%
Temperature Range:	48–55°F
Amount:	500 ml

Brett Nordic Porter

I had success with 30 Fathoms Baltic Porter last summer. I also really enjoyed Chad Y's 100% Brett B Baltic Porter. I want to sort of combine ideas from each, leaning more toward a ttraditional lager fermentation but still incorporate Brettanomyces into the mix. The recipe will mimic 30 Fathoms with the addition of non-fermentables to increase the perception of mouthfeel and a dosing of Brettanomyces near the end of fermentation or at bottling. I'm hoping for something very digestible and lager clean. I'm not sure what strain of Brett is most appropriate but will probably try and use something I haven't tried before (i.e. not Brett Drie).

Malts and Grains

6.00 pounds	German Pilsen Malt (2-Row)	34.8% of grist
3.50 pounds	German Vienna Malt	20.3% of grist
3.50 pounds	Belgian Munich Malt	20.3% of grist
1.25 pounds	German Dark Munich Malt	7.2% of grist
0.50 pounds	Crystal Malt 80L	2.9% of grist
0.50 pounds	Black Malt	2.9% of grist
0.50 pounds	Crystal Malt 120L	2.9% of grist
0.50 pounds	American Chocolate Malt	2.9% of grist
1.00 pounds	Flaked Oats	5.8% of grist
17.25 pounds	Total Grain Weight (Water Amounts)	100% of grist

Adjuncts

0.50 pounds

Brown Sugar, Dark

Hops

2.00 ounces	Perle 8.1% Pellets @ 60 minutes Type: Bittering Use: Boil	16.2 AAUs
1.00 ounces	Spalt 2.6% Pellets @ 10 minutes Type: Aroma Use: Aroma	2.6 AAUs
1.00 ounces	Spalt 2.6% Pellets @ 1 minutes Type: Aroma Use: Aroma	2.6 AAUs
4.00 ounces	Total Hop Weight	21.4 AAUs

Boil

Total Boil Time:

60 minutes

Yeast

Name:	German Bock Lager
Manufacturer:	White Labs
Product ID:	WLP833
Type:	Lager
Flocculation:	Medium
Attenuation:	73%
Temperature Range:	48–55°F
Amount:	500 ml

NHC Results

I had some good fortune in the Second Round judging at the National Homebrew Conference this year. My KTG Russian Imperial Stout earned a third place finish. I couldn't be more pleasantly surprised. While I think the beer is fantastic, there's certainly a large degree of luck involved as subjectivity in judging beer is impossible to eliminate completely. More than anything else I'm excited to see the score sheets and read the comments from some of the most talented and experienced judges in the world. I made my version of the beer after being inspired by Lewy's, a great beer in its own right. I'll be rebrewing it in the near future. I just wish I had more than one bottle left...

Janet's Brown: A Classic Recipe

2013-05-29T22:11:00.002-07:00

Mike "Tasty" McDole

There are some classic homebrew recipes out there that have carved a name for themselves in the community over time. Their prowess is passed on by word-of-mouth (or click-of-mouse) and they represent both a legacy of innovation and a snapshot of past moments in homebrewing's evolution. Two examples that come to mind are Dave Brockington's Sister Star of the Sun IPA and Charlie Papazian's Goat Scrotum Porter. Many people have brewed them and they have gained notoriety and/or cache in the process. They have staying power because they are groundbreaking. Both recipes above have been around for decades. While I haven't brewed Goat Scrotum Porter, I made my own version of Sister Star of the Sun, and it's not hard to see why homebrewers consider it special. How many times has this beer been brewed? Thousands upon thousands of times, I would imagine.

I'd like to add Mike "Tasty" McDole's Janet's Brown Ale to the list of classic recipes. It's a hoppy version of an American Brown Ale, and it features some classic American hops in Northern Brewer, Centennial and Cascade. With an ABV above 7%, it falls into the fictional style category: Imperial Brown Ale. I first tried this beer in homebrew form as made by Lewy in 2011. It's smooth and nutty, with a slight creaminess to it that belies its ABV. The color is a complex 28 - 30 SRM and the hops make themselves known in both the aroma and taste. At NHC 2011 in San Diego I had a chance to talk with Tasty and he explained some of his thoughts about the recipe, most notably his attempt to keep the different flavors in balance. I think he did an excellent job formulating his hop additions, and that it's the way that the hops combine that sets Janet's apart from imitators. In 2012 I had a chance to try Janet's on tap as interpreted by Vinnie Cilurzo. On a trip to the Bay Area, I stopped by Russian River and had a glass of Janet's that was one of the better beers I've tasted in a long while.

I brewed Lewy's version (#5) of Janet's Brown Ale earlier this month and have since started to condition it. All signs point to it being a great (maybe even classic) beer.

NHC 2013 First Round Results

2013-05-04T17:50:00.001-07:00

The more that I brew, the more specific feedback I need to get better. A decade ago, when I made my first few beers, I just wanted to make something palatable. If it tasted good enough and the ABV was at a healthy level, I was pretty happy. In the course of brewing the past 600+ gallons, my idea of a good beer has changed significantly. After reading The Mad Fermentationist's recent post about The Four Stages of Homebrewing, I'd like to think I'm somewhere between Advanced and Expert (and probably more the former than the latter). In addition to those close to me developing the experience, familiarity with terminology and palate sensitivity to provide higher quality notes and constructive criticisms, my recipe refinement has started to rely on the palates of others beyond myself and my circle of friends. Most of the beers I make are good, but not all of them are great. When I make changes to a recipe or process, it's generally a small tweak or a minor ingredient adjustment. That's one reason why entering beers into competitions has been enlightening. The feedback that I get is more technical and accurate and the bias (my own or that of friends) is removed, making for an honest assessment of the beer.

NHC 2013 First Round Scoresheets

I entered my third competition last month, submitting two beers to the First Round of the National Homebrew Competition. NHC requires 5 bottles, and I usually keg, so I entered beers that I thought were good and that I had enough of. I entered KTG into Category 13F - Imperial Stout and III into Category 17B - Flanders Red Ale. I love both beers, and I got some great feedback from judges and a result I was happy with: KTG advanced to the Second Round of the Competition with a 3rd place score of 40.5 in the Stout Category. Here's a sampling of the judge's perceptions in their own words:

BEER: KTG - Imperial Stout (13F)

AROMA: medium-low malt aromas; dark chocolate and coffee; fig, plum, dark cherry; some sherry

APPEARANCE: pitch black with black highlights; opaque in clarity; head has a creamy tan silk texture

FLAVOR: dark chocolate and roasted coffee; complex ester profile; no detectable hops; alcohol detectable; sherry-like quality, possibly age

MOUTHFEEL: medium-full bodied with moderate carbonation; no astringency

OVERALL IMPRESSION: complex and delicious; additional hops for more complexity

SCORE: 40.5/50 PLACE: 3rd out of 45 entries

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BEER: III - Flanders Red Ale (17B)

AROMA: moderately fruity; tart cherries, rd plums, cassis; woody, piney, no hops; funky aroma evident but not overwhelming

APPEARANCE: slight haze; medium tawny, no head

FLAVOR: good restrained level of tartness; dark fruit; could use more residual malt character

MOUTHFEEL: fuller body with low to no carbonation; somewhat syrupy

OVERALL IMPRESSION: good example; each taste reveals new levels; could use a more complex malt bill

SCORE: 33.5/50 PLACE: none

3rd place finish

Unsurprisingly, my own biased opinion assigns a higher score to III, but I think most of the things that the judges shared were accurate. When both judge sheets mentioned greater malt complexity, I realized that I had been tasting its absence without really identifying it. I have high hopes for KTG in the Second Round: new judges and fresh perceptions, but stiffer competition to be certain. If it doesn't go any farther, I'd still be happy. I want to rebrew both beers and make those small changes that turn a good beer into a great one.

Ringing the Final Bell

2013-04-24T22:57:00.003-07:00

Foaming out of the chiller.

My Dad retired about a month ago. He and I have been working together for a decade, and seeing his face and connecting with him on a daily basis has been a blessing that few children are able to share with their parents. My Dad's a pretty amazing guy, too. He has a huge heart. He's tireless and passionate about his work, almost to a fault. I'm happy to say that I'm a little bit like him. Working with him changed the dynamic of our relationship and made us closer, and his absence is something that I feel acutely. If I really think about it, I realize that we became adult friends at work. When you're trying to raise your kids you can't be their friend. You can be friendly, but that authoritative distance has to be maintained if you really want the best for them. My Dad was never overbearing or domineering, but as I grew up and we worked together, I had the chance to see him in a different light. We became friends, and his absence makes me realize how special that relationship is.

He asked me to brew a beer for his retirement party this summer. His request? Amber Ale. He's a fan of Sierra Nevada, so I decided to make adjustments to a tried and true Pale Ale recipe, adding additional color and hop presence. The result is Final Bell Amber Ale:

Malts and Grains

11.50 pounds	American Pale Malt (2-Row)	89.5% of grist
1.25 pounds	Crystal Malt 60L	9.7% of grist
0.10 pounds	German Carafa I De-Husked Malt	0.8% of grist
12.85 pounds	Total Grain Weight (Water Amounts)	100% of grist

Hops

0.33 ounces	Magnum 13% Pellets @ 60 minutes Type: Bittering Use: Boil	4.3 AAUs
0.50 ounces	Amarillo 8.9% Pellets @ 30 minutes Type: Flavor Use: Boil	4.5 AAUs
1.00 ounces	Cascade 5.5% Pellets @ 10 minutes Type: Aroma Use: Aroma	5.5 AAUs
1.00 ounces	Cascade 5.5% Pellets @ 0 minutes Type: Aroma Use: Dry Hop	5.5 AAUs
2.83 ounces	Total Hop Weight	19.7 AAUs

Boil

Total Boil Time:

60 minutes

Yeast

Name:	California Ale
Manufacturer:	White Labs
Product ID:	WLP001
Type:	Ale
Flocculation:	High
Attenuation:	76%
Temperature Range:	68–73°F
Amount:	35 ml

I brewed this beer over the course of an afternoon and it went exactly as planned. I mashed at 153 degrees F for an hour and gathered 5.5 gallons of wort. I'm hoping the addition of Amarillo hops will give this beer additional complexity. I may dry hop it if it seems appropriate after primary fermentation. Next up? Cascadian Dark Ale and a rebrew of KTG.

BJCP: "It's Tough But Fair"

2013-04-21T21:56:00.003-07:00

I passed the BJCP Tasting Exam last August and have been slowly immersing myself in the process of evaluating beer objectively. When people unfamiliar with craft beer talk to you about being a beer judge, the reactions are pretty typical of what you might expect. People think you get paid to drink beer or that judging is an excuse to over indulge. The truth is that being a beer judge is actually pretty challenging. For the uninitiated, I thought I'd share some information about the BJCP, and maybe provide some insight for those of you thinking about judging beers, too.

The Process

The BJCP has gone through some changes recently and the process of becoming a part of the BJCP has been steamlined significantly. Becoming a judge is a three part process, but continuing education and experience is an essential component.

Entrance Exam

This online assessment consists of 200 questions that have to be answered in one hour (over 3 questions/minute!) and covers the BJCP Style Guidelines and other beer and brewing topics that are essential knowledge for a judge. I studied for the test for a solid week, spending time each night after work reading through the style guidelines and thinking about/tasting beers in different styles. I was able to pass the first time, but it was a lot of questions in a short period of time. Having the style guidelines around as a reference was helpful, but going into the test without any preparation would have been disastrous.

Tasting Exam

After passing the Entrance Exam you're eligible to sit for the Tasting Exam. The exam involves tasting 6 different beers and evaluating them as you would in a beer competition. You have 15 minutes to judge each beer, a process that involves the application of sensory skills to the beer and ends with those interpretations being communicated on the judging sheet. You're told the beer style, just as you would be in a real competition, but everything else is on your own. Beers can be doctored to make them taste different or can be miscategorized. You're not allowed any notes or aids during tasting. Passing scores on the Tasting Exam play a part (along with Experience Points) in determining your BJCP rank.

Experience Points

When you participate in a beer competition as a judge, proctor or organizer you earn experience points which help you advance through the ranks of the BJCP. This makes sense, as the most capable judges are the most seasoned and practiced. Here's how the rankings shake out:

Rank	Tasting Exam Score	Experience Points
Apprentice	Less than 60%	N/A
Recognized	60-69%	N/A
Certified	70-79%	5
National	80-89%	20
Master	90% or above	40

There are additional rankings associated with Grand Master and the levels of Grand Master that one obtains with additional experience and service to the BJCP.

Judging table at AFC

So what's it like to judge beer in a competition? I judged the first round of the San Diego section of the NHC last week. I also judged the America's Finest City Homebrew Competition earlier in the year. A month before you get an email from competition organizers asking you to participate and inquiring about your style preferences. Before the competition date you are told what style you'll be judging. Everyone meets at a certain place (in this case an Episcopal Church) at a certain time. There's a bunch of socializing, talking and some homebrew sharing. Then they serve a meal and go through the procedures related to judging appropriately. You spend the next hour(s) drinking beer with a partner, writing down individual thoughts and impressions and then discussing your results with that person. It's a pretty enlightening experience, as you basically bounce your thoughts and opinions off of another person/palate. Beers that score well are set aside for a mini Best Of Show (BOS). The most experienced judges in a style category drink and compare all of the selected beers, making a final decision about which is best. And that's it. You're hand is cramped from writing. Your mouth is dry from eating saltines to cleanse your palate between beers, and your knowledge base has been expanded.

One of the best things about beer judging is the chance to meet people who have a similar passion for beer and brewing. I learned a lot from the judges that I worked with both times and I look forward to judging more. It's interesting to think about the role of labels and categorization in something like beer that has so many variations and is so dependent on individual taste. On the one hand, it's impossible to compare beers and learn more about them without guidelines to follow. On the other hand, many of the most interesting and exciting beers are those that ignore (or explode) the superficial parameters we use to categorize them. Philosophical concerns aside, it's all part of the process of enhancing one's knowledge and finding new ways to enjoy something that has innumerable variations. Judging beer properly is challenging. I suppose that's why the BJCP website features the slogan: "It's Tough But Fair."

There's a wealth of additional information to be found on the BJCP's website. It's valuable for those interested in being part of the BJCP or for those just interested in learning how to evaluate beer:

http://www.bjcp.org/index.php

The Lurker Chocolate Peanut Butter Coffee Porter

2013-04-13T21:47:00.002-07:00

With coffee as the required ingredient for the next homebrew competition, I started doing some research and thinking about the type of beer I wanted to make and how to add the coffee. I like the taste of coffee when it's not overly bitter, but I rarely drink it because I don't like caffeine. In the spirit of the competition, I first thought I wanted to brew something without dark malts and really showcase the coffee without the intrusion of roasted malt flavor. After trying some different commercial examples (Mikkeller Spontankoppi, Ballast Point Victory At Sea, Kona Pipeline Porter, Haandbryggeriet Coffee Porter among others) I pretty much embraced something that was already intuitively known: darker beers lend themselves better to coffee additions. In the end, I chose to brew something that incorporated other ingredients I've been wanting to use for a while, in addition to the coffee.

During San Diego Beer Week last November, I had a chance to try Karl Strauss' Peanut Butter Cup Porter and was amazed at how much peanut butter flavor came through in the final product. They used powdered peanut butter when making it, which keeps undesirable oil out of the beer without compromising the peanut butter flavor. They also incorporated cocoa nibs into the brew, the rawest and strongest form of chocolate flavoring. I decided to try the same thing on a homebrew scale, using PB2 and also including cocoa nibs. The addition of coffee would add another (hopefully desirable) element to an already complexly flavored beer. All three flavors should make for something pretty ridiculously decadent-more calories than any reasonable person needs to consume at any one time-so I named it The Lurker because it should stay with you for a while, no matter how much Insanity you do.

Karl Strauss' version was a Brown Porter. I decided to brew a Robust Porter and came up with the following recipe:

The Lurker Chocolate Peanut Butter Coffee Porter

Malts and Grains

9.00 pounds	American Pale Malt (2-Row)	60.4% of grist
1.80 pounds	Belgian Caravienne Malt	12.1% of grist
1.20 pounds	German Melanoidin Malt	8.1% of grist
0.60 pounds	American Wheat Malt	4% of grist
1.20 pounds	Flaked Oats	8.1% of grist
0.60 pounds	American Chocolate Malt	4% of grist
0.10 pounds	American Black Patent	0.7% of grist
0.40 pounds	German Carafa III De-Husked Malt	2.7% of grist
14.90 pounds	Total Grain Weight (Water Amounts)	100% of grist

Adjuncts

1.00 pounds	Lactose (Milk Sugar)
1.00 pounds	PB2
1.00 pounds	PB2 - Chocolate

Non-Fermentables

4 oz	Cacao Nibs
16 oz	Cold Pressed Coffee

Hops

1.00 ounces	Magnum 14.2% Pellets Type: Bittering and Aroma Use: First Wort	14.2 AAUs
0.75 ounces	Fuggle 5.6% Pellets @ 20 minutes Type: Flavor Use: Boil	4.2 AAUs
1.75 ounces	Total Hop Weight	18.4 AAUs

Boil

Total Boil Time:

60 minutes

Yeast

Name:	Dry English Ale
Manufacturer:	White Labs
Product ID:	WLP007
Type:	Ale
Flocculation:	High
Attenuation:	75%
Temperature Range:	65–70°F
Amount:	500 ml

I brewed 7.5 gallons last Wednesday. I mashed at 152 degrees F for an hour and had a rolling 60 minute boil. The lactose was added with about 20 minutes left in the boil and should contribute some sweetness and body. Two gallons were used to make Dregs beers (DREGS #9 and DREGS #10), and the other 5.5 gallons was innoculated with 500 ml of WLP007 Dry English Ale Yeast and placed lovingly in the fermentation chamber. I'll be adding the cocoa nibs and PB2/PB2-Chocolate in secondary in two separate additions, allowing at least a week (maybe more) of contact time for both. I anticipate a restarting of fermentation with the addition of the PB2. I'm not sure how many gravity points two pounds of PB2 will contribute, but the final beer should be pretty big. The original gravity after chilling was 1.058.

As for the coffee, I want it to take a prominent role in the flavor, but not be overly bitter. I'm going to cold press decaffeinated French Roast coffee (not sure what brand yet) and add sixteen ounces to the bucket at bottling. I'm hoping that the coffee flavor will shine in the final beer.

Recipe Refinement | Special Competition Ingredient

2013-04-07T21:17:00.001-07:00

3 Fountains IPA/Grassmarket IPA Split Batch

10 gallon IPA split batch coming out of the chiller

Recipe refinement is a glaring weakness of mine. I rarely repeat brew a beer and I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe it's because I always have an idea for something different and my brewing schedule can't keep up (it's getting harder and harder to find time to brew these days). Or maybe it's because I usually want to drink something that I can't find anywhere else and the perfect pale ale, porter, IPA stout etc. has already been done beautifully by so many others. In any case, I admit I don't have a whole lot of reference when it comes to the influence of individual ingredients. Sure, I've played with hops and different yeasts and grains as well as some unorthodox ingredients, but comparative knowledge eludes me somewhat. I have the capability of making 10 gallon batches, but it's only happened a few times. So a few weeks ago I set out to brew an IPA with the influence of yeast in mind. I had a lot of success making Chad Y's 100% Brett B Baltic Porter and I wanted another clean-fermented Brett beer to drink. I've also been keeping up with Modern Times progress toward opening locally and have been following the Mad Fermentationist's brewing experiments as a Modern Times consultant. So, I copied the malt bill for the Modern Times Super 100% Brett IPA test batch and adjusted the hops to my preferences. I brewed 10 gallons worth of wort and pitched a massive starter of Brett B Trois in one 5 gallon carboy and Edinburgh Ale Yeast in the other. I have no illusions about breaking new ground, as I know beers like this have been made before with plenty of success, but I am interested to see the difference between the two. After 8 days of fermentation, the Brett IPA was at 1.012 while the beer inoculated with Edinburgh was at 1.018. Both of them are being dry hopped aggressively as I write this, and I plan to put both on tap, adding a picnic tap to my kegerator exclusively for sour beers in the process. 3 Fountains 100% Brett IPA pays homage to the origin of Brett B Trois, cultured from Drie Fonteinen. Grassmarket IPA references the historic grassmarket square in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Homebrew Competition

The longer that I brew the more people I meet and become close to who brew as well. Over the years we've had quite a few different competitions amongst local brewers, operating at levels of seriousness varying between drunken party and near BJCP level judging. All have been fun and educational-a great way to meet up with like-minded folks and brew something to talk about. This time around we focused on BJCP Category 21 - Spice, Herb or Vegetable Beer. Everyone interested in participating submitted two chosen ingredients, and one select ingredient was chosen in a drawing.

Scott: Coffee, Honey

Danny: Squash, Grains of Paradise

Cracker: Maple Syrup, Watermelon

Eric: Coconut, Vanilla

Sisco: Chocolate, Nutmeg

Lewy: Popcorn, Powdered Peanut Butter

Jeff: Cilantro, Jalapenos

Sean: Kids Cereal

So coffee is the featured ingredient. It doesn't have to be present in any particular way, but must be used at some point in the beer. I'm thinking either cold-pressed (to cut down on bitterness and because it's nicely concentrated) or cracked beans. Either way the coffee would be introduced in secondary and I'm planning to go decaf because caffeine makes me shake. Recipe to follow.

Red Dwarf | More Blending in the Future

2013-02-25T20:53:00.000-08:00

Brewing with friends is fun

Last weekend, I woke up early for a triple brew session with Lewy and Eric. My all grain system is gravity dependent and pieced together over the course of the last ten years. In effect, it's not the most conveniently compact or mobile. So I found myself loading cinder blocks (for brew pot height) into the back of my car at 6AM last Saturday morning. My wife Erin, sitting on the couch in a warm robe with a steaming cup of coffee in her hand looked at me like I was crazy, and at that moment, I think she may have been right. But by the time I got to Lewy's house and fired up the kettle it was time to brew, and all regrets related to comfortable beds and sleeping in vanished. It was a beautiful sight, seeing three different systems cranking out beers that were completely unique and individualized. Lewy made two separate 5 gallon batches. One, a pale ale with hop additions on the fly and another an experimental batch meant to be fermented with wine and beer yeasts. Eric brewed a dark Vanilla Bourbon Imperial Stout using the brand new stainless steel false bottoms he fabricated for both of our coolers (thanks man!). I made another Flanders Red.

Custom SS false bottom

In October I brewed my third Flanders Red and named it Red Giant. It followed recommendations from Wild Brews and other sources and ended up as follows:

6.5# German Vienna
1# Crystal 20
1# Belgian Caravienne
1# Aromatic
2.1# Flaked Wheat

1.5 oz. aged Perle hops (120)

I made Red Giant so I could start getting beers together for future blending after finding success the first time. In fact, Red Giant was pitched on the conglomerated yeast cake left over from the first blending session (5 different yeast cakes with many different strains, dregs, bugs and oak cubes in each). I left Red Giant on the yeast cake for an extended time in an attempt to coax extra funk into it.

Red Dwarf wort

Last weekend I brewed Red Dwarf which followed Red Giant's recipe exactly. Prior to brewing Red Dwarf, I simply racked Red Giant into a fresh carboy, and then pitched Red Dwarf onto the cake again. The difference between the two will be in the yeast contact time and the secondary additives. I plan to leave Red Dwarf on the yeast cake for about 6 weeks, before transferring to secondary on top of roughly 7 pounds of tart cherries. I also decided to mash Red Dwarf at a higher temperature (154ºF instead of 151ºF) to leave some additional complex dextrins in the wort for the bugs to eat away at.

I'm hoping that the similarities and differences in the two will make them good for blending with one another and that Lewy and others will have Flanders Reds of their own to throw into the mix.

Next up I'll be brewing 10 gallons of IPA and fermenting one with traditional ale yeast and the other exclusively with Brett Drie. Recipe to follow.

Thoughts scattered along a winding road... | Protectorate Jack IPA

2013-02-11T20:23:00.004-08:00

Every beer has its place...

Matt Brynildson is the brewmaster at Firestone Walker. He also makes amazing beers. Firestone is responsible for a large portion of the impetus which compelled me to start brewing. In college at UC Santa Barbara, Firestone was one of the only real craft breweries that could claim to be local. On road trips up Highway 101 to Northern California to camp in Big Sur or visit friends, you'd drive past Firestone, sitting alone in what felt like the middle of nowhere adjacent to the Gaviota Coast in Buellton, CA. I was never old enough during times that I drove by, so a stop there wasn't feasible. However, I drank plenty of Firestone in college and always savored it. When you and a roomate hustle together some money to buy beer, it's hard to turn away from the $4.99 thirty pack of Keystone Light (even with the "specially lined can" there would always be 1-4 beers that were undrinkable somehow) and instead spend $5.99 for a twelve pack of Double Barrel Ale, but it happened often enough. Apparently I had my priorities more in line than I realized at the time.

If I was to try and characterize the evolution of my beer palette, Firestone would be first or second along with Sierra Nevada and Nectar Ales as the most influential beers at a time when I was especially impressionable (incidentally, Firestone now owns and brews Nectar Ales). At NHC 2011 I had a chance to listen to a very articulate and entertaining Brynildson talk candidly about hops and generously share Double Jack and other outstanding beers with the audience. His talk and a realization of his role as Firestone's archetype sort of snapped in line a lot of previously disjointed and seemingly unconnected thoughts about how I became a homebrewer. Since then, I've been drinking a lot of his beers and I like almost everything.

Protectorate Jack

He shares a recipe and procedures for brewing Union Jack IPA in Mitch Steele's tome on hop-centric beers, IPA, and I decided to brew it as closely as possible to his specifications. Union Jack is light and crisp with ample aroma from two separate dry hopping additions. Even though Centennial and Cascade make up the bulk of the additions, there are small portions of Simcoe and Amarillo added into each dry hopping, making the nose that much more complex. The recipe calls for London Ale yeast, which should provide a rounder, fruitier taste, and plenty of two row along with some light crystal and Munich malts. I added a small dextrose addition to mine to dry it out and further accentuate the hops. I named my version Protectorate Jack IPA after Oliver Cromwell's short lived era of rule as Lord Protector of the United Kingdom when the Protectorate Jack flag flew in place of the Union Jack. Cromwell is a controversial figure, being the only one to rule England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland concurrently, but also maligned by many of his contemporaries and plenty of British historians. He was one of a few historical figures to be posthumously executed. I hope my beer is judged less harshly. History aside, I'm excited to try and recreate what I think is one of the best West Coast IPAs around and maybe check in with a younger version of myself. Perhaps I can understand his mindset a little more clearly, since the process that started me on this winding road seems to be slowly curving its way around toward full circle. Check the recipe below:

Protectorate Jack IPA

Cheese Making | Lewy's Blackout IPA

2013-01-11T11:02:00.002-08:00

The more that I brew, the more I become enthralled by the transformation that takes place during fermentation. One good way to look at the steps involved in making a beer is simply the process of catering to the needs of a microscopic dynamo. Proper temperature, pitching rate, oxygenation, time, darkness, food source and a myriad of other variables combine to make yeast (and the other organisms that ferment wort) do so in a way that speaks to our taste. In a BN Sunday Session interview (begin listening at 47:00) with the owner and brewer of Cantillon, Jean Van Roy, he makes a telling statement about his role as brewer, saying, "The beer doesn't need a brewer...I'm not a brew master. A master dominates the product, a master controls the product. I can't do it...the beer is a partner." His words make a lot of sense to me, as letting go of control is an essential part of brewing complex beers. An artisanal product requires contact and connection with its producer, but will languish when that producer attempts to impose complete control.

Beer is just one of many products that are "alive" and influenced by yeast and bacteria. Beer, wine, pickled foods, breads, cured meats and cheeses are just a few examples. I've made bread for years, in traditional ways and using a bread maker, and have started to do so with more frequency. Bread making is a craft that provides almost undelayed satisfaction. You can bake a loaf of bread and eat it within a few hours or a day. This makes it easy to experiment and easy to enjoy. It also makes mistakes much more bearable. But, there's something exciting about products that have to ripen and change over time. It forces the producer to let go and have faith in the process and requires the embrace of uncontrollable variables. It's one reason why I tend to gravitate toward beers that need aging and blending and other processes that require the influence of time to be effective. It's also the reason why I started making cheese.

Cheese Making

Cooking curds

Partially pressed Jack cheese

Cheese and beer have a lot of similarities. You can make a simple, enjoyable beer with basic, approachable processes, and plenty of room for error. You can do the same with cheese and related products, making yogurt and cultured buttermilk and other simple dairy-based products that can be made and consumed quickly. But the big, complex flavors you find in aged and bacterially influenced beers and cheeses requires patience and faith in the above-referenced uncontrollable processes. So after making yogurt and getting a feel for the process, I made what will become my first hard cheese. It's a Jack cheese made using a recipe provided by a cheesemaker named Brad Sinko and reproduced in Mary Karlin's excellent book Artisan Cheese Making at Home. I made a few mistakes, pressing it in the wrong size mold, and struggling to maintain some of the temperature variables while cooking the ingredients, but the process was enlightening. I was also able to use some of the left over whey to make bread. The Jack will age in my fermentation chamber for the next two months while time conspires with the unknowable to make it into something greater than the sum of its parts.

Blackout IPA

Lewy's Blackout IPA

I also found time to make a beer. In the course of close to 10 years and nearly 120 batches of beer, I've never reproduced a beer made by another homebrewer without altering it in some way to suit my tastes. I decided to recreate an outstanding Cascadian Dark Ale made by my friend Lewy, following the recipe he provided as strictly as possible. Blackout IPA is dark and hoppy, but different than most other similar beers I have experience with. Lewy uses Glacier hops as the primary aroma component, making the beer unique and enjoyable. He was nice enough to give me hops for the beer from his immense cache. Read Lewy's original post here. I hope my version can do it justice.

Carnelian Red Rye IPA | DREGS #8

2012-12-22T09:52:00.002-08:00

My hobbies are starting to rub up against one another, in a bad way. I like to run. For fun, 5Ks, half marathons, triathlons. In the back of my mind, I always felt like brewing (and the subsequent drinking and consuming of calories) gave me a reason to exercise. From an opposing perspective, exercising with intention seemed to provide me with license to imbibe. Lately, it feels like the two are less complimentary than they have been in the past. When I should be running, I find myself drinking a beer. When I want to brew, I don't because I won't have time to run. Maybe it's the holidays, but often I don't seem to have energy to do either. Every time I find motivation, something interferes and prevents my good intentions from being realized.

Carnelian Gemstones

Yesterday, I got a decent run in right after work. 5 miles through a canyon nearby with no one else around. I didn't feel tired or distracted or out of sync. Then last night I brewed for the first time in over a month. I used rye for the third brew session in a row and made a beer that I hope will be reminiscent of Alpine Nelson, but with more caramel malt character. Carnelian Red Rye IPA uses sizable portions of Nelson hops in the flavor and aroma additions and in dry hop additions as well. There's plenty of rye in the malt bill along with American 2-row and a variety of Caramel Malts rounding out the malt profile. I used rice hulls for the first time to offset the gumminess of the rye and avoid a stuck sparge. Safale US-05 yeast provides the magic. It came out a nice deep red color (hence the name, Carnelian). Check the recipe below:

Carnelian Red Rye IPA

I had a bottle of Oude Gueuze Tilquin á L'Ancienne that I'd been wanting to drink. Gueuzerie Tilquin blends gueuze the traditional way, using worts from a variety of Belgian producers like Cantillon and Boon. It's a beautiful beer in my opinion. It's very tart and aromatic. There's heavy citrus notes in the taste and the finish is wonderfully dry. It's funky, but not in your face. I decided to make a dregs beer using the yeast dregs, so I made an extra gallon of wort when brewing Carnelian RedRye IPA. I admit, the profile of the base beer doesn't exactly scream wild fermentation, but I guess that's sort of the point with dregs beers. You get to combine ingredients and processes that aren't "supposed" to play well together.

DREGS #8: Gueuzerie Tilquin - Oude Gueze Tilquin á L'Ancienne

Next, I'll be brewing Lewy's Blackout IPA. It'll be the first time I've replicated one of his recipes exactly and it's a personal favorite of mine. Can't wait...

Mixing Ingredients In A Big Pot | Crystal Rye

2012-11-21T00:53:00.000-08:00

About a month ago, I set off to brew my third Flanders Red. I had a new recipe and couldn't wait to get started. I've been a dedicated patron of the largest homebrew supply store in the area for 10 solid years. In that time, I've watched them expand their home brew shop as well as their brewing, and despite my appreciation for the beer they make, have found myself a little disappointed in the selection, knowledge base, business hours and customer service on the homebrew end. As I started to measure out my Flanders recipe, two of the five malts that I had planned to use were sold out. Both Special B and Caramunich were out of stock. I had experienced similar disappointment often in the past, arriving with a recipe in hand, only to find that I can't brew the way I'd planned and changing it on the fly for better or for worse. I decided to head elsewhere.

The Best Damn Homebrew Shop inside of Krisp Market reminds me of what my old homebrew supply store used to be like. It's homebrewing done on a smaller scale and without pretense. Why is pretentiousness a factor? I've waxed philosophical in the past about homebrewing being more than just mixing ingredients in a big pot. I still feel like it's a creative outlet akin to art, and that exclusivity and elitism cheapen it in the extreme. You take simple, fresh ingredients, combine them with intention, control (but ultimately just embrace) the intangibles in fermentation, and end up with a product greater than the sum of its parts on many different levels. There's no reason why you should have to navigate any false terrain in the process.

The Best Damn Homebrew Shop has a good selection of malts, many that are new to me. One of the most interesting is Caramel/Crystal Rye. Rye adds a distinctive spicy, dry flavor to a beer when utilized correctly and with appropriate subtlety. I'm a huge fan of Alpine's Nelson which makes great use of rye in conjunction with Nelson Sauvin hops, and I've used rye with some success in the past (most recently with Ryenoceros IPA). Crystal Rye is something I don't have experience with, though. It's toasted like any other crystal malt and ends up at roughly 100 L. Tasting it in its raw form gives the impression that it will impart the same flavors as its unkilned counterpart but with the additional roundness and intensity of flavor you'd expect in a crystal malt. The last two beers I've made have used Crystal Rye and I'm excited about the possibilities. Recipes and descriptions below:

Dotted Line Rye Mild

A recent issue of Zymurgy focused on SMASH beers and included a Rye Mild recipe. Two weeks ago I decided to brew something similar but substituted Crystal Rye for standard Rye and made some adjustments to yeast and hops to suit my preferences. The Maris Otter base malt and single bittering Fuggles hop addition are classically British. I pitched WLP039 East Midlands Ale Yeast to maintain the British flavor profile. The result is a 4.8% ABV Rye Mild that's conditioning right now and should be on tap in a few days.

Handsome Grandson Double Rye IPA

Yesterday, I brewed a double rye IPA with Lewy, Eric and my new friend, Bill. I looked at a lot of different recipes when formulating this beer and decided to stay relatively true to what's worked in the past. A large amount of American 2-Row provides the bulk of the fermentables with a pound of standard Rye and a half pound of Crystal Rye adding complexity. Over a pound of the hops I bought a few weeks back find their way into this beer (Chinook, Amarillo, Columbus, Centennial, Cascade), and I'm hoping that they leave some room for the rye to shine in the final product. I'll be dry hopping it three times before it's done.

Getting Front Row Seats

2012-11-09T17:44:00.002-08:00

If you're a fan of live music, then you've likely had this experience:

Your favorite band is coming to town to play a show, and tickets are scarce. They go on sale on a certain day at a certain time. You carve out that time in your schedule far in advance, making sure you won't have conflicts that might jeopardize your purchase, and when the tickets go on sale you're online, refreshing the page every few seconds until you're given the chance to buy them. You don't worry about ticket price. You're not concerned about convenience fees. You know that if you miss the opportunity to see the concert, that you'll regret it and that's not acceptable. In the mad rush to purchase you buy as many tickets as you can, thinking of your friends and knowing that they will certainly buy one from you, essentially spending their money for them without pause.

That same sense of urgency seized me this week as Hops Direct finished pelletizing some of the most sought-after hop varieties and placed them on sale earlier this evening. I checked their site on Monday and saw that Amarillo, Chinook and Citra hops would be available for purchase on Friday. There has been talk in the homebrewing community about the difficulty in acquiring certain hop varietals. Some types are trademarked, and can only be grown in limited quantities. Many of the most desirable aroma and dual purpose hops used in IPAs are purportedly difficult to find this year for the homebrewer with limited buying power. I started to get anxious. When would their website refresh? Should I stay up until midnight with the expectation that 12:01 would be the start of my chance to purchase these hops? Lewy and I discussed some strategy, but ultimately braced for disappointment. Early this morning and then throughout the day, I checked Hops Direct and saw that the new varieties had not been added to their online store. Away from the computer all afternoon, Lewy sent me updates periodically, telling me that there had been no change. Suddenly, at ten minutes to 5:00, Lewy sent me a text message:

"Buy, buy!"

I dashed upstairs to the computer. logged on, and made my purchase, a pound each of:

Amarillo

Cascade

Centennial

Chinook

Columbus

By the time I finished checking out, the Citra and Amarillo were sold out, hundreds of pounds purchased in less than 10 minutes by the brewing public, hungry for alpha and beta acids in their homebrews. Now it's time to tweak my favorite Double IPA recipe.

DeeperRootsBrewing

Palatable 10% ABV Beers

Cardamom Milk Stout | Tangerine Wit

Cardamom Milk Stout

Bron-Yr-Aur Tangerine Wit

Keystone Kryptonite Bitter

Keystone Kryptonite Bitter

American to German to Cascadian in 6 Weeks

Getting Closer to Gueuze

Fuzzy Little Foreign Extra Stout + Bugs

Calyx Cyser

San Diego, CA

1. During yeast rehydration: 5 grams of Go Ferm2. When visible signs of fermentation are evident: .75 tsp Fermaid K; .75 tsp of DAP (+ aeration)3. Roughly one week later: .5 tsp of Fermaid K; .5 tsp of DAP

Getting Reacquainted With My Old Friend Mead

Big Dipper IPA | Competition Beer

134 Beers Brewed. What's Next?

Squashing My Inhibitions About Harvest Beers

Greg (courtesy of Alan Sprints from Hair of the Dog) 15# German Pilsner 10# Butternut Squash WLP028 Edinburgh Scottish Ale Yeast

Lagers, a Black IPA and a Pyment

Summer Lagering | NHC 2013 2nd Round Results

Summer Lagering

NHC Results

Janet's Brown: A Classic Recipe

NHC 2013 First Round Results

Ringing the Final Bell

BJCP: "It's Tough But Fair"

The Process

Entrance Exam

Tasting Exam

Experience Points

The Lurker Chocolate Peanut Butter Coffee Porter

Recipe Refinement | Special Competition Ingredient

3 Fountains IPA/Grassmarket IPA Split Batch

Homebrew Competition

Red Dwarf | More Blending in the Future

6.5# German Vienna1# Crystal 201# Belgian Caravienne1# Aromatic2.1# Flaked Wheat 1.5 oz. aged Perle hops (120)

Thoughts scattered along a winding road... | Protectorate Jack IPA

Cheese Making | Lewy's Blackout IPA

Cheese Making

Lewy's Blackout IPA

Carnelian Red Rye IPA | DREGS #8

Mixing Ingredients In A Big Pot | Crystal Rye

Getting Front Row Seats

1. During yeast rehydration: 5 grams of Go Ferm
2. When visible signs of fermentation are evident: .75 tsp Fermaid K; .75 tsp of DAP (+ aeration)
3. Roughly one week later: .5 tsp of Fermaid K; .5 tsp of DAP

Greg (courtesy of Alan Sprints from Hair of the Dog)

15# German Pilsner

10# Butternut Squash

WLP028 Edinburgh Scottish Ale Yeast

6.5# German Vienna
1# Crystal 20
1# Belgian Caravienne
1# Aromatic
2.1# Flaked Wheat

1.5 oz. aged Perle hops (120)