Nick's Brew Blog

Pumpkin Beer

2011-09-30T13:39:00.001-05:00

Never made a Pumpkin beer before. Well I tried once and failed, due to a stuck sparge, even with rice hulls that mash was a failure. I used 4 lbs of roasted pumpkin in that batch. That was 3 years ago almost, so I am attempting again but this time with less pumpkin and less alcohol. I wanted a smallish beer for easy drinking and hopefully full of flavor. I rested on ~30 oz of pumpkin in the mash. Trust me that isn't a lot of pumpkin when looking at the mash. I bought 3 12oz cans of Organic Pumpkin from Whole Foods and just decided to use all 3, which put me at ~36 oz of puree to use. I just dumped all of it in the mash as I was doughing in. On top of that I went with a small amount of dark brown sugar (8oz) also Organic, and also from Whole Foods. I did not want a ton of spice flavor in the beer so I am only adding in 1.25oz of home made pumpkin pie spice. That includes Cinnamon, Ginger, Allspice and Nutmeg (Organic, Whole Foods). I added this to a White Labs vial and topped off the vial with Bacardi Dark Rum. I will add the spice/rum mixture in secondary and let it sit for a week or so. I hope to have this on tap around Halloween.

Pumpkin Ale

Malt:
9.5 lbs: Rahr 2-Row
12 oz: Crystal 120L
8 oz: Dark Brown Sugar
1.75 oz: Chocolate Malt
1.75 oz: Roasted Barley
30 oz: Pumpkin Puree (in mash)

Hops:
1 oz: Hallertauer 4.8AA @ 60min

Misc:
1 Whirlfloc Tablet

Target OG: 1.046
Target FG: 1.011
IBU: ~18

Actual OG: 1.056
Actual FG: 1.010
Apparent Attenuation: 81.5%

ABV: 6.1%
ABW: 4.8%

Yeast:
White Labs California Ale (WLP001)

Update 10.4.2011: Added in Pumpkin Spice mixture in secondary.
Update 10.10.2011: Started to chill beer in prep to keg.
Update 10.15.2011: Racked beer into keg, set 11psi @ 43degF for around 2.1 co2 level. Beer came out much darker than I thought, still should be good to drink, just looks more like a brown ale than a nice amber/orange color that I was hoping for.

Nelson Sauvin White Oak IPA

2011-09-26T13:59:00.001-05:00

I am attempting to knock out a beer on Labor Day this year cause it seems that the only time I have to brew is on holidays that I don't actually work. I have been wanting to use Nelson Souvin hops for a while, but they are extremely hard to find and only available during certain times of the year. The hops comes from New Zealand and is apparently very rare to find. This hop imparts a nice white wine fruitiness and fresh crushed Gooseberries (whatever that is). I wanted to use my "standard" IPA recipe which for the last few batches I have done really came out great, especially on my last one. This time I wanted to not use Rye, but bump the base malt up a bit and add a bit more Munich. This is rounded out with Crystal 10 and 40 and Flaked Wheat for some body and head retention.

Now what will make this beer different is the fact I am adding in Chardonnay soaked Oak Cubes in secondary along with more Nelson Souvin hops for Dry Hopping. I don't really want to add too much oak or too much wine flavors into the beer, I just want it to be subtle and basically enhance the wine characteristics of the hops I am using. I am adding in extra hops because I know it will sit for a time on the oak cubes and I don't want to loose too much hop bitterness and flavor because of that. So IBU's might seem a bit high for the ABV, but I think in the end things will be balanced out. I am really looking forward to this one.

Nelson Sauvin White Oak IPA

Malt:
13 lbs: Rhar 2-Row
2 lbs: Briess Munich 10L
.5 lbs: Briess Crystal 10L
.5 lbs: Briess Crystal 40L
.5 lbs: Flaked Wheat

Hops:
.25 oz: Nelson Souvin 11.5AA FWH
.25 oz Nelson Souvin 11.5AA @ 90 min
.25 oz Nelson Souvin 11.5AA @ 60 min
.25 oz: Nelson Souvin 11.5AA @ 35 min
.50 oz: Nelson Souvin 11.5AA @ 25 min
2 oz: Nelson Souvin 11.5AA @ 10 min
3 oz: Nelson Souvin 11.5AA @ Flame out
4+ oz: Nelson Souvin 11.5AA @ Dry Hop

Misc:
1: Whirlfloc Tablett
3 oz: Chardonnay Soaked Oak Cubes - 2 Weeks

Target OG: 1.068
Target FG: 1.012
IBU: ~ 73

Actual OG: 1.063
Actual FG: 1.010
Apparent Attenuation: 83.4%

ABV: 7.1
ABW: 5.5

Yeast:
Safale S-05 Dry Yeast

Hopville Recipe

Update 9.29.2011: Added in 3oz of Chardonnay soaked oak cubes. Gravity down to 1.010 and fermentation has halted.
Update 10.5.2011: Added in 4 oz of Nelson Souvin Dry Hops.
Update 10.10.2011: Started to chill beer in prep to keg
Update 10.15.2011: Racked beer into keg. Set 11psi @ 43degF for a 2.1 co2 level. Also thinking of adding in more dry hops.

Summer Saison

2011-07-27T20:06:00.007-05:00

Been too busy to brew is my excuse for now. I always like trying different Saison recipes for some reason and this time is a take on the now defunct Odonada Saison. Although I never got to try the beer, or any of their wonderfully sounding beers, I hope to recreate something of what they had with this recipe. I want the Saison to be rustic, earthy and slightly funky with no Brett present. So to help do this I bumped up the Wheat malt, Acidulated malt and added some Melanoiden Malt and Flaked Oats. I also wanted to bump up the fermenting temperature of the WY3711 yeast this time around. To ferment some where in the 80's was my goal. I was quite lazy making this batch and didn't make a starter at all. I smacked the Wyeast pack and hoped for the best. What I got was a much dryer beer than I expected, but thats a good thing.

Summer Saison

Malt:

7 lbs: Weyerman Floor Malted Pilsner

5 lbs: Wheat Malt

1.5 lbs: Melanoiden Malt

12 oz: Cara-Pils

8 oz: Munich Malt

8 oz: Acidulated Malt

4 oz: Flaked Oats

Hops:

1.25 oz: Chinook 1.25aa @ 60 min

2 oz: Willamette 4.0aa @ 10min

Misc:

1 Whirlfloc @ 20min

Target OG: 1.066

Target FG: 1.010

IBU: ~31

Actual OG: 1.065

Actual FG: 1.000

Apparent Attenuation: 88.7%

ABV: 7.7

ABW: 6.1

Yeast:

Wyeast 3711 French Saison (From Smack Pack)

Hopville Recipe

Update 9.1.2011: Beer finished out a bit dryer than I was expecting. The Wyeast 3711 is an amazing strain of yeast. I let the beer sit on the yeast longer than I wanted which caused it to dry all the way out. This made the beer quite imperial at 8.7% abv, and you can tell it too. While the beer is cold, the hot alcohol is barely noticeable, but as soon as it starts to warm up, they really come out. I think it's going to be back to the drawing board on my Saison recipe. Next time I will look for a more low gravity solution, and try to keep it under 5% abv.

Double Decoction Kolsch

2011-06-08T09:15:00.003-05:00

It's been a hot minute since I have had the chance to brew anything. New job and life is keeping me down. So I had originally planned on doing this batch a month or so back but just got around to this on Memorial Day. I wanted to basically do the same batch of Kolsch I did the previous year, but do a decoction to see if I can pull some extra flavor out of the mash and also just to do one since I have never attempted anything like that before. I do have to say that I love the way the decoction brews up. I got super efficiency (82%) out of my grain and the finished wort dropped super clear after chilling. Instead of using German Tradition this time around I went for Saaz, for a better hop profile. I repitched the same yeast used last year from Gordon Biersch. Surprised that the yeast actually kept for that long in the fridge. Took it a few days for it to wake up, but now its rocking in the beer.

Mash Schedule:

Initial Mash in:
- Protein Rest: 122 for 15 min (thin mash 1.5 q/lb)

1st Decoction:
- Pulled 1.25 gallons thick mash
- Sacc Rest @ 150 for 15 min
- Boiled for 15 min
- Added back to main mash

Sacc Rest in Main Mash
- 150 for 15 minutes

2nd Decoction
- Pulled 1.2 gallons thick mash
- Boiled for 15 min
- Added back to main mash

Mash Out:
- Mashed out @ 168 for 15 minutes
- Sparged as normal

Summer Kolsch

Malt:
9 lbs: Weyermann Floor Malted Pilsner
1 lb: Weyermann Munich
.5 lbs: Flaked Wheat

Hops:
2.0 oz: Saaz 5.5aa @ 60 min
.5 oz: Fuggles 4.9aa @ 5 min

Misc:
1 Whirlfloc @ 15 min

Target OG: 1.044
Target FG: 1.011
IBU: ~34

Actual OG: 1.052
Actual FG: 1.010
Apparent Attenuation: 80%

ABV: 5.6%
ABW: 4.4%

Yeast:
Weihenstephan Kolsch

Hopville Recpie

Update 6.10.2011: This one is a slow fermenter it seems. After almost 2 weeks in primary it still has a nice thick krausen and still bubbling away, fermenting at 62 degrees.

Update 6.18.2011: Just recked over to a keg for lagering. Beer finished around 1.010 which is nice, but being that my OG was kind of high the abv is on up there around 5.3%. I was hoping to keep this beer around 4.4abv. Ill check back in 4-6 weeks and see how this beer is looking.

Update 9.1.2011: Beer is drinking quite nice right now. I plan on submitting 2 bottles of it to the Brewmasters Open, to see how it came out.

Pinot Noir Barrel Aged Oude Bruin

2011-03-18T09:25:00.001-05:00

After more than a year of waiting on our Flanders Red project to finish up it's time to remove that beer and add a new one. Next we all decided on a Belgian Brown or Oude Bruin. There are differences between the two types of Red and Brown, where the red is more tart and vinegar like, the brown is more earthy and lightly funky with the underlying beer carrying it. For this beer I mashed pretty high cause I was using 2nd generation WLP001 yeast and in the past it will finish out pretty dry on the 2nd go around. The beer turned out a lot more brown that I was expecting. Hopefully I can post some pictures of the barrel sometime in the future.

Oude Bruin

Malt:
13 lbs: Rahr Pilsner
1 lb: Munich Malt
12 oz: Caramunich III
8 oz: Special B

Hops:
2.25 oz: Willamette 4.5aa @ 60min

Misc:
1 Whirlfloc @ 20min

Target OG: 1.065
Target FG: 1.015
IBU: ~25

Actual OG: 1.060
Actual FG:
Apparent Attenuation:

ABV:
ABW:

Yeast:
White Labs California Ale (WLP001) - Repitch from Columbus Rye

Hopville Recipe

Update 3.18.2011: Beer fermentation has completed I will take a gravity tonight and see where it stands. Right now it plans on being racked to the barrel next weekend.

Columbus Rye IPA

2011-02-17T08:57:00.005-06:00

I recently aquired some very fresh Columbus hops from Septembers crop. I got 1 lb of Leaf and 1lb of Pellet hops. The leaf hops were an astonishing 17.9% aa and the pellets a good 14.5% aa. I have recently come to love Columbus has a flavor hop even though it's such a high alpha. The flavor/aroma profile is earthy, spicy, pungent, with some citrus overtones. Now it's not Cascade, but there is some citrus in there especially in the aroma. For some reason I love Avery Hog Heaven, it's a single hopped Barleywine hopped only with Columbus and when it's fresh it's amazing. I recently got to try their Uberschewin which is their unfiltered Hog Heaven dry hopped with 2lbs of Columbus and it was pretty amazing. For this I wanted something a bit more drinkable with more flavor/aroma of the Columbus hops with a nice malty backbone. I used a very close recipe to my Citra IPA I made a few months back and then hopped with the Columbus.

Columbus Rye IPA

Malt:
11.75 lbs: Briess 2-Row
1.5 lbs: Weyermann Rye Mat
1 lb: Weyermann Munich
.75 lbs: American Crystal 10L
.5 lbs: American Crystall 40L
.5 lbs: Flaked Wheat

Hops:
.25 oz: Columbus 17.9aa First Wort
.25 oz: Columbus 17.9aa @ 60min
.50 oz: Columbus 17.9aa @ 35min
.50 oz: Columbus 17.9aa @ 25min
2 oz: Columbus 14.5aa @10
2.5 oz: Columbus 14.5aa @ Flame Out
4 oz: Columbus 14.5aa Dry Hop

Misc:
1 Whirlfloc Tablet

Target OG: 1.065
Target FG: 1.014
IBU: ~73

Actual OG: 1.075
Actual FG: 1.013
Apparent Attenuation:

ABV: 8.3%
ABW: 6.4%

Yeast:
White Labs California Ale (WLP001)

Hopville Recipe

Update 2.17.2011: Brewday was pretty typical, I had to adjust my water cause of all the whole leaf hops soaking up all the wort. Once it was said and done using whole leaf hops is kind of a pain in the ass. The problem was that I couldn't siphon off most of the wort into the carboy. My auto-siphon kept getting clogged with the leafs. Once I got through that the beer seemed to had turned out pretty well. It's fermenting quite vigorously right now and I hope to dry hop sometime this weekend.

Update 2.24.2011: Beer is still fermenting right now. I have no idea why or how it is, but usually mine are done by now. I took a gravity reading and at over a weeks worth of fermentation I was still above 1.020. My guess is this, I had a huge blowoff after fermentation started and a ton of yeast was ejected from the carboy. With less yeast I suspect that its taking longer to get down to gravity.

Update 2.28.2011: Beer finally finished out pretty dry at 1.013. I am shocked that it finished that low after my last update. I went ahead and added 4oz of Columbus pellets for Dry Hopping. I plan on crash cooling and kegging this week.

Update 3.3.2011: Racked over beer to keg last night. I am thinking about dropping in more dry hops in the keg, but I want to taste it 1st when it's finished carbonating 1st.

Rustic Saison

2010-12-28T15:26:00.003-06:00

Rustic Saison

Malt:
10 lbs: Weyerman Pilsner
3 lbs: Wheat Malt
1 lb: Munich Malt
1 lb: Golden Naked Oats
.25 lbs: Acidulated Malt

Hops:
1 oz: EKG 7.2aa @ 60 min
1.50 oz: Willamette 5.2aa @ 10min
1.50 oz: Willamette 5.2aa @ 0min

Misc:
1 Whirlfloc @ 20min

Target OG: 1.064
Target FG: 1.007
IBU: ~31

Actual OG: 1.051
Actual FG: 1.003
Apparent Attenuation: 93.9%

ABV: 6.4
ABW: 5

Yeast:
Wyeast 3711 French Saison (Repitch from Funky Holiday Ale)

Hopville Recipe

Update 2.17.2010: I was lazy on updating this one on here. Beer finished out fine and has been kegged for a few weeks now. Not as much "rustic" as I was hoping, but I think I can fix that. A good Saison, but it can get better.

Funky Holiday Ale

2010-12-20T16:16:00.005-06:00

I wanted to brew something that will hold up over time and be more of a fall/Christmas beer to give out to friends next year. I am sure this will spend the better part of next year souring the I will hope to bottle sometime after August hoping that it will be ready in time to give out. After brewing this beer it smelled amazing, this is thanks to the Orange zest and Rosemary that was added. I smelled the air lock after it started fermenting and its going to be amazing I think. I let the figs rehydrate for a few days in my Brown Ale made a few weeks back. I thin boiled the figs and the beer down and purred it all into a nice paste. With the figs pureed, cooked down and added at flame out, I am hoping that some dark fruit notes come out in the taste. Upon tasting it on brew day that is exactly what happened. Smell is of fruit citrus and rosemary with the taste being of figs. I am sure this will change as it ferments/sours, but hopefully once the bugs have been added a new level of complexity will exist.

Funky Holiday Ale

Malt:
15 lbs: Weyermann Pilsner
3/4 lbs: Carafa II Special
3/4 lbs: CaraWheat
6 oz: Special B Malt

Hops:
2 oz: Cascade 5.5aa @ FWH

Misc:
1 Whirlfloc Tablet @15
Zest of 1 Orange @ 0min
1/2 a sprig of Rosemary @ 0min
8 oz pureed black mission figs @ 0 min

Target OG: 1.072
Target FG: 1.004 (after bugs)
IBU: ~30

Actual OG: 1.070
Actual FG: 1.001 (after bugs)
Apparent Attenuation: ??

ABV: 9.2%
ABW: 7.3%

Yeast:
Wyeast 3711 French Saison
Various Bugs (Brett/Lacto/Pedio) (from: Barrel Sour Starter) (Secondary)

Hopville Recipe

Update 12.24.2010: Beer is fermenting quite well and warm. Its sitting around 74 right now, and I would think that the beer will finish fermenting in a few days. The airlock now smells of the fig puree that I put in. I have high hopes for this beer and I hope it doesn't disappoint.

Update 12.28.2010: Fermentation has come to a halt. I will rack over to secondary to add the bugs in a few days. It maybe after the 1st of the year though.

Chocolate Rye Porter

2010-11-22T10:55:00.002-06:00

It is that time again where I wanted to make my Chocolate Rye Porter again. This time I wanted to go back to being a more "Robust" base. The last time I made this is was a little light and more of a Brown Porter base. This beer came out Dark Ruby/Black and just where I wanted it to. My efficiency really was terrible on this beer for some reason. I think it was all the Rye that was added that soaked up too much water. I should have added some DME into the boil, but I think it will be fine just the way it is. I re-pitched the yeast i used with my Brown Ale I made a few weeks back and it was fermenting within 2 hours.

Chocolate Rye Porter

Malt:
9 lbs: Marris Otter
2.5 lbs: Rye Malt
1.5 lbs: Munich
1 lb: British Crystal 45L
.75 lbs: Chocolate Rye
.5 lbs: Flaked Rye
.5 lbs Black Patient

Hops:
2oz: EKG 5.0aa @60 min
1oz: Willamette 4.7aa @ Flame Out

Misc:
1 Whirlfloc Tablet @20 min

Target OG: 1.064
Target FG: 1.019
IBU: ~33

Actual OG: 1.054
Actual FG: 1.016
Apparent Attenuation: 69.4%

ABV: 5.1%
ABW: 3.9%

Yeast:
Re-pitch from Northern English Brown (WLP013)

Hopville Recipe

Update 11.29.2010: Beer is now kegged. My efficiency for this beer was not good at all. I think the beer is a bit thin because of that, even though I mashed in fairly high. Might have to do this one over once I get a good taste of things after it's carbed up.

Update 12.6.2010: I am really proud of what this beer has become. Its very tasty and easy drinking at 5.1% alcohol. I am kind of glad I missed my target gravity by so much. I think next time I will keep the same malt but lower the malt bill to have a ~5% robust porter.

Belgian Golden Strong Brett JD Barrel

2010-11-22T10:44:00.002-06:00

It's time again for another barrel beer. This one is replacing the Barrel Aged English IPA that was brewed back in June. We wanted a light sour on it and then remove it from the barrel and dry hop the crap out of it. Its coming up on the time for this to happen so our next barrel aged beer will be a Belgian Golden Strong. It's a very simple recipe using the WLP570 yeast, which gives off the best smelling aromas while it's fermenting. I think we plan on racking this over in the next month or two.

Belgian Golden Strong

Malt:
13.25 lbs: Pilsner Malt
1.75 lbs: Sucrose
1.5 lbs: CaraVienne

Hops:
2oz: Hallertau 4.2AA @60 min
1oz: Styrian Goldings 4.8AA @20 min
1oz: Styrian Goldings 4.8aa @ flame out

Misc:
1 Whirlfloc @20 min

Target OG: 1.075
Target FG: 1.018
IBU: ~41

Actual OG: 1.074
Actual FG: 1.017
Apparent Attenuation: 75.9%

ABV: 7.6%
ABW: 5.9%

Yeast:
White Labs Belgian Golden Ale (WLP570)

Hopville Recipe

Update 1.4.2011: Racked into barrel yesterday.

The Cellar

2010-11-17T13:08:00.001-06:00

I am starting an on going cellaring thread on here to keep up with the beers (commercial) I have aging or just laying around the house. As I was going through some boxes this afternoon I found that I had forgot about many that were stored up since I moved. I figured this was the best way to fix that problem. This thread will be on going and will be linked from the front page. It's the easiest way I can find to create a "page" in blogger.

Commercial Cellar

Beer: Cuvee Freddy
Style: Oud Bruin
Brewery: Picobrouwerij Alvinne / Den Bierzolder
How Many Bottles: 1
Bottle Size: 750ml
Bottle Date (if any): None
Best By Date: Jan 2015
Beeradvocate (A-)
RateBeer (94)

Northern English Brown

2010-11-08T09:13:00.004-06:00

I have no idea how to come up with witty ways of naming beers. Maybe one day I will be creative and always have a good name of them, but until then I won't worry about it too much. This is the 1st beer that I have brewed since I moved a month ago and it went surprisingly well. Now that I don't live in an apartment I find the cleaning up after myself is much easier and faster. I was done in under 5.5 hours which is normal for me "brewing" but I was also cleaned up, which usually didn't happen till the next day or the days after. For this time around I wanted to make something in the realm of an Avery's Ellie's Brown Ale. It's a dark, thick, chewy, roasty, toffie-ish, chocolate-y brown ale. I wanted to mash in high (around 156) in hopes to make it thick and chewy. Hopefully the beer will attenuate down to 1.016-1.015 range. I want to keep some sweetness, but I don't want it too sweet. Here is the recipe.

Malt:
10.75 lbs: Marris Otter
10 oz: Munich Malt
10 oz: Chocolate Malt
7 oz: Crystal 120L
5 oz: Crystal 10L

Hops:
.5 oz: Northern Brewer 10.5aa @60min
.5 oz: Cascade 5.2aa @30min
.5 oz: Fuggles 5.1aa @5min

Misc:
1: Whirlfloc Tablet

Target OG: 1.053
Target FG: 1.015
IBU: ~24

Actual OG: 1.054
Actual FG: 1.016
Apparent Attenuation: 69.4%

ABV: 5.1%
ABW: 3.9%

Yeast:
White Labs London Ale (WLP013)

Hopville Recipe

Update 11.8.2010: Brew day went as expected. Beer is fermenting at 67-68 degrees.

Update 11.15.2010: Beer was finished fermenting on the 11th. The yeast blew right through the beer in what seems a record time. I checked gravity and it was right where it needs to be (1.016, 1.015). I dropped the cooler to 35 degrees then and I will rack to a keg sometime soon.

Update 11.22.2010: Kegged beer on Saturday (11/20), I plan on letting it sit till our brew clubs party in December. The finished beer wasn't bad at all, very chocolate-y and dark. A bit more hoppy than I was expecting so hopefully some of that will die down with time.

Update 11.29.2010: The beer is finished carbing up and tastes a bit off. Something I can't put my finger on. Maybe some alcohol in the nose, which is strange due to it's low gravity. Also there is something in the middle of this beer that's off putting to me.

Late Summer Kolsch Tasting

2010-10-21T09:06:00.000-05:00

After brewing my 1st batch of Kolsch I moved a month or so after. So a week before I moved, I kegged it up and let it sit till last night. What turned out is really a great beer. I think it could be better, but still a great beer. Overall the beer I think is a tad too bitter for style, but you can taste the malts too. I really hope the Floor Malted Pilsner helped out in this area. The aroma is slightly grainy and fruity which is what I was shooting for. The beer is clear with some slight chill haze I think, but you can still see through it. The picture below doesn't do it justice.

The head on the beer is white as snow. It initially is about a 2 finger head but quickly dissipates to what you see in the picture. Minimal lacing which is nice, it doesn't need to sick around like it does with an IPA. Mouthfeel is perfect which I can thank the 1/2lb of wheat I added. Overall the beer is quite drinkable and session-able at 4.9% ABV. Next time I make this I will do it earlier in the year so I can have something to drink during the hot summer months. Also next time I will cut back on the hops a bit. I think a ~30 IBU level on a Kolsch is perfect and I over shot that by a few IBU.

Late Summer Kolsch

2010-09-16T14:49:00.004-05:00

A few months ago (February) I had the pleasure of meeting Dan Gordon of Gordon Biersch Brewing Company at a local bar here in town. He was here introducing his bottled/kegged beers into the state/city and was doing a mini-tour. After listening to him speak on the Brewing Network a few times I know I had to meet this guy and drink his beers. Well a buddy of mine and a fellow homebrewer brought his Kolsch in for The Dan to drink. Dan thought it was really good but it needed something only his yeast could provide. So my buddy emailed him a month or so later and the next day a big bottle of Kolsch yeast arrived at his door step. Now from what I can tell GB gets most of its yeast from Weihenstephan and I believe that this is the case with their Kolsch yeast. I love their Summerbrau beer and wanted to come up with something of my own for a while. I have been in the middle of moving and haven't had the time to do anything with it. So here is my take on a Kolsch recipe that I took from Jamil again.

Late Summer Kolsch

Malt:
9 lbs: Floor Malted Pilsner
1 lb: Light Munich
.5 lbs: Flaked Wheat

Hops:
1.75 oz: German Tradition 5.7aa @ 60min

Misc:
1 Whirlfloc Tablet @ 20min

Target OG: 1.044
Target FG: 1.011
IBU: ~30

Actual OG: 1.048
Actual FG: 1.011
Apparent Attenuation: 76.4%

ABV: 4.9%
ABW: 3.9%

Yeast:
Weihenstephan Kolsch

Hopville Recipe

Update 9.16.2010: Brewday went better than expected after taking more than a month off from brewing. I was shooting to 70% efficiency and ended up around 73%. Beer is currently fermenting at 62 degrees.

Update 9.24.2010: Raised temp to 68 to help fermentation finish about 4 days ago. Took final sample tonight and hit my target FG at 1.011. Dropped freezer down to 34 to start lagering and clarifying. Ill check back in a few weeks.

Update 11.8.2010: Entered this beer into the Sunshine Challenge as both a Kolsch and a Bo Pils. Should be interesting to see the score I get from the Bo Pils side. I don't think it's hoppy enough, but still should be interesting.

Citra IPA

2010-07-09T09:25:00.004-05:00

I have been wanting to mess around with Citra hops for a while here since I heard a description of what they tasted like. The aroma gives off this grapefruit/passion fruit smell that filled the room up once I opened everything up. Very very fruity which should equal very very tasty in a nice IPA recipe. I had 5oz of hops that I wanted to get the most out of as well, so I went for a kind of "hop bursting" method of putting them into the beer. This is normally done by adding in the majority of the hops as late into the boil as you can. So I went with 1oz at 15 minutes left, 2oz at 10 minutes and 2oz at flame out hoping to maximize flavor while also adding bitterness to the beer. For the base beer I went with a very well known recipe out of Brewing Classic Styles. I re-pitched the yeast I used with my Peach Wheat beer since I am lazy and hate making starters.

Citra IPA

Malt:

12.75 lbs: Pale Ale Malt

1 lb: Crystal 10

.75 lbs: Munich

.25 lbs: Crystal 40

Hops:

.50 oz: Columbus 14.0aa @60min

1 oz: Citra 11.1aa @15min

2 oz: Citra 11.1aa @10min

2 oz: Citra 11.1aa @Flame Out

2 oz: Cascade 5.4aa Dry Hops

Misc:

1 Whirlfloc Tablet

Target OG: 1.067

Target FG: 1.014

IBU: ~55 (Rager)

Actual OG: 1.068

Actual FG: 1.008

Apparent Attenuation: 87.6%

ABV: 8%

ABW: 6.3%

Yeast:

White Labs California Ale (WLP001) (Repitched from Peach Wheat)

Hopville Recipe

Update 7.9.2010: Brew day went well, I missed my pre-boil gravity by a few points and had to add in 12oz of DME to bring it up. Beer is fermenting at 66 degrees.

Update 7.15.2010: Beer finished fermenting yesterday. I ran out of Citra on the brew day and my LHBS is out for the time being. I wanted to go ahead and get some dry hops on this beer so I went with some Type90 Cascade I had in the freezer. I will let that sit for a few days then keg everything up next week.

Update 7.20.2010: Kegged beer and set co2 regulator to 11psi to carbonate beer to 2.4 levels of co2. Beer dried out a bit more that I was hoping, but that was due to the 2nd gen yeast that was used. You can taste the hops up front. Not a ton of malt backbone but some is there. Hopefully this can get carbed up asap cause I can't wait to taste it.

Update 7.26.2010: This beer seemed to be a big hit yesterday at my brew club meeting. Beer is actually quite wonderful, tons of tropical fruit aromas and taste. I can't wait to do this one again. Tasting this before carbing, I was a little scared that something was wrong. Carbonation seems to add the missing link for this beer. At 1st i thought it had dried out a bit much, but if it was any sweeter the hops wouldn't pop as much. I like a dryer IPA anyway. Review to come later.

Flanders Red

2010-06-28T13:06:00.000-05:00

This beer has been in the barrel for 6+ months now and it is looking and smelling beautiful. Here are some pictures of the pellicle.

NHC Score Results

2010-06-28T12:53:00.000-05:00

So I received my NHC score results in the mail on Thursday and I am really happy with my score. The beer was far better than the original one I sent in. It has more smoke and malt backbone that I really thought it would do good and it did. I received a score of 38.5 which is only 1/2 point more than the regional round but personally I think it's a much better beer. On another note I feel pissed about the fact that there are no comments on the score sheets for this beer. The regional round was littered with comments and it really made me rethink a bit on how to make the re-brew beer better. This is exactly my problem with competitions. A lot of judges who judge these competitions are not BJCP certified and you get no real feedback on your beer. If I am paying $7, $8, $9+ to enter plus $15+ to ship them off, I better get some damned comments back. Thats what I am paying for. I honestly could give a crap about placing 1st, 2nd or 3rd in anything. The comments are worth their weight in gold if you get that. Now both judges who judged my Smoked Porter were BJCP certified, I guess that's what makes me more angry about it. These people should know better, they should know how to judge and what they would expect from a judge who is drinking their beer. So I sent an email to the organizer in hopes to get some answers and maybe help make the NHC better next year. We will see what happens. Anyway it's an on going rant for me. Some competitions I send off to are just awesome, some aren't. It's already hard enough to convince someone to send their beers off, adding in shitty judging will ruin that forever.

Anyway here are my scoresheets:

Smoked Porter 2nd Round NHC 2010

Summer Peach Wheat

2010-06-18T09:16:00.005-05:00

Not really a beer I would normally drink, but the summer months and the local peach crop in full bloom I thought I would give this beer a shot. I bought 6 lbs. of Chilton County peaches, which are in the process of ripening up right now. Once they reach full maturity I will then skin and de-pit them, "pasteurize" them and add it to secondary for about 7 days. I plan on heating the puree'd peaches in a double boiler to about 170. There hopefully I can let it sit at 170 for about 10-15 minutes just to make sure I kill anything nasty that might be in the peaches. Though if I ended up with a sour peach beer, I might be happy. I am trying to keep this simple as I can. I am using a clean neutral yeast too cause I don't want any clovey/banana flavor in this beer. I want the peaches to shine in the end.

Summer Peach Wheat

Malt:
5 lbs: Malted Wheat
5 lbs: German Pilsner

Hops:
1 oz: Willamette 4.5aa @ 60min

Misc:
.25 lbs: Rice Hulls
6 lbs: Chilton County (AL) Peaches

Target OG: 1.043
Target FG: 1.010
IBU: ~ 15

Actual OG: 1.042
Actual FG: 1.006
Apparent Attenuation: 85.3%

ABV: 4.8%
ABW: 3.8%

Yeast:
White Labs California Ale (WLP001)

Hopville Recipe

Update 6.27.2010: Beer finished way lower than I thought it would at 1.006. I went ahead and added 6 lbs of pureed Peaches. Beer might start fermenting again. Hopefully the peaches will add a bit of sweetness back into the beer. Time will tell.

Update 6.28.2010: Added 6lbs of peaches in secondary. I will let it sit for a week and then taste it to see when it will need to be kegged.

Update 7.9.2010: Racked over beer to a keg, straining out as much peach junk as I could. Forced Carbed at 28 psi hoping to get a 4.0 co2 level.

Summer Saison

2010-06-14T11:06:00.004-05:00

It's that time of year again where I want to make low alcohol/high drinkability beers to drink during the summer. All I have right now are dark extremely malty beers that really don't go with the hot sweaty summer months. So I have a few new beers in mind and this is the 1st. A nice summer saison, a redux of one I made last year in hops to lower the alcohol a bit and add a more funky earthy taste and aroma to it. From the one I made last year I upped the Vienna malt in hops to bring out a more orange hue and I changed out the 2-Row for the Pilsner malt in hopes to add some grainy taste to the beer. I went with all Styrian Goldings as I just love the flavor of these hops. I added more honey at the end of the boil and went with no spices except for about 1/4 oz of cracked black pepper. I am wanting the yeast to do all the work as far as adding phenols and esters to the beer. The honey was sourced locally through my grandfather. He has "a guy" who keeps bee's on his farm and I asked him for a few pounds of honey a few months ago. I plan on remaking my DIPA at the end of summer so that will use up the rest of it, but for this I only used a pound, which hopefully will help dry things out a bit and darken the beer up some.

Summer Saison

Malt:
5 lbs: German Pilsner
2.5 lbs: Vienna Malt
1 lb: Munich Malt
.5 lb: Flaked Wheat

Hops:
1.0 oz: Styrian Goldings 3.4aa @ 60min
1.0 oz: Styrian Goldings 3.4aa @ 30min
1.0 oz: Styrian Goldings 3.4aa @15 min
1.25 oz: Styrian Goldings 3.4aa @5 min

Misc:
1 lb: Local Wildflower Honey (added @ 1min)
.25 oz: Cracked Pepper (@ Flameout)
1 Whirlfloc Tablet @15 min

Target OG: 1.043
Target FG: 1.009
IBU: ~24

Actual OG: 1.050
Actual FG: 1.010
Apparent Attenuation: 79.3%

ABV: 5.3%
ABW: 4.2%

Yeast:
White Labs Belgian Style Saison Blend (WLP568)

Hopville Recipe

Update 6.14.2010: Brewday was typical got excellent efficiency due to the low malt/grain bill. Yeast was rocking in the starter and it didn't take long for fermentation to start (3-4 hours). Right now I am letting the beer warm up to help attenuate the beer a bit. Took a gravity reading and it was at 1.010 and I would like it a bit dryer if I can get it down there. I am already around 80% attenuation so it should only drop a few more points I would say. Hopefully I can get it around 1.008. I am thinking of racking a gallon of the beer off to secondary and adding some sour yeast. We will see.

Update 6.17.2010: Racked over to a keg with no difference in gravity. Beer tastes a bit thin, but I kind of expected that. Hopefully after it's carbonated up it will even out everything.

Update 7.9.2010: Beer was just great. Lots of spicy fruity aromas with a nice farmhouse taste. Too bad this beer is no more, but I will be making it again!

"Traditional" Barrel Aged English IPA

2010-06-07T21:19:00.002-05:00

I say traditional cause if you read the stories about how the original IPA's were shipped to India they were heavily hopped so they wouldn't spoil, not because of the bitterness. The hops would drop out which then would turn into a nice British ale once it made the long journey in a wooden oak barrel. Along with that barrel there is no way it didn't pick up some kind of Brett infection. So with this one just like my last ones a group of us are switching out our Oaked American Strong (non sour) and replacing it with this beer. Of course this inoculates the barrel so we are now 100% sour on both barrels. One person is fermenting his 5 gallon batch with Brett B and Brett L 100% while the rest of use used either WLP001 or WLP002 to ferment. I think we are looking for a 6 month maturation then will rack out and dry hop with 2lbs of Willamette and 2lbs of EKG hops to give the aroma a kick before either being kegged or bottled by each of us. Also I say it's "English" cause IPA's are now so American that people really don't know where they came from or why it's even called India Pale Ale. The recipe is based off a recipe in Randy Mosher's book Radical Brewing. His recipe calls for 5oz of EKG hops at the 5min mark, but the hops will drop out anyway over 6 months, so we adjusted it with 2 and decided to dry hop it to reach the anticipated aroma.

Barrel Aged English IPA

Malt:
14 lbs: Marris Otter
2lbs: Amber Malt (Cara amber)

Hops:
3 oz: EKG 5.0aa @ 60 min
1.5 oz: EKG 5.0aa @ 15min
2 oz: EKG 5.0aa @ 5min

2 lbs: EKG ??aa Dry Hop in Barrel
2 lbs: Willamette ??aa Dry Hop in Barrel

Misc:
Water adjustments (I didn't write them down)

Target OG: 1.070
Target FG: 1.023
IBU: ~ 61 rager

Actual OG: 1.064
Actual FG: 1.021
Apparent Attenuation: 66%

ABV: 5.7% (before barrel)
ABW: 4.4% (before barrel)

Yeast:
White Labs English Ale Yeast (WLP002) (Pitched from Smoked Porter)

Hopville Recipe

Update 6.7.2010: Brewed this beer back before the beginning of the month. Brew day was typical and had no issues. I got 65% eff, which is normal I think for me now especially getting my grains crushed at my LHBS. Beer finished out in a few days and I let it settle out for about a week more before racking to secondary last night. I fermented the beer as a nice cool 68 degrees.

Update 6.27.2010: Racked beer into the Jack Daniels barrel today.

Update 1.4.2011: Removed beer from barrel yesterday 1.3.2011 and the beer tastes and smells fantastic. Real rustic, bretty, horsey and with the 2lbs of Dry hops added the hops added a much deeper aroma. I can't wait till this one is carbed up and ready. Should be good to go in a week or so.

BMO Shoresheets

2010-06-06T13:41:00.000-05:00

Finally got my scoresheets back from the Brewmasters Open in Alpharetta GA. In what I got with the package was a bottle of C-Brite and a Newcastle pint glass. Too bad I wont use the C-Brite but the Newcastle glass I will use.

Weizenbock - 34.6 3rd place 15c - Placed a lot better than I thought it would. Notes on the beer are exactly what I think. I have no idea why the yeast didn't produce enough of a "wheat" character, but I will know better next time. I'm going to let the keg sit for a few months and drink it this fall/winter once it gets colder outside.

Funky BSD - 39.5 3rd place 23a - Put this in speciality cause it really doesn't fit anywhere. Did very well and this beer is amazing. Not overly sour even though that's what the judges were expecting, it's not at all what I was trying to do. I wanted a beer that showcased everything. Funk, Cherries, Oak, the base beer and I did just that. One of the better beers I have brewed.

Belgian Pale Ale - 30 Did not place 16b - Yeah this beer kind of sucks. It had some very alcoholic phenolics when it was fresh and with age it dropped out to nothing great. I had a bottle that I bottled early on and it was awesome. Too bad the keged version didn't turn out so well. I think the notes are pretty spot on.

Overall for the 2nd year in a row I have been impresses with the BMO and will continue to sned them to them. I have had my issues with competitions in the past but this one seems to be top notch in the south east.

Smoked Porter NHC Re-Brew/Smoking Malts

2010-05-21T10:44:00.003-05:00

So I finally got around to re-brewing my Smoked Porter that placed 3rd in the South Regional of the NHC. My buddy gladly home smoked me some Munich malt. While my original was smoked with Alder, I had to settle for Apple wood smoked malt this time. I tried ordering Alder from a place in Washington State but it did not get here in time. So lets hope the judges don't notice or care that I had to switch it up. I switched up the recipe just a bit on the notes from the judges in the 1st round. So I hope that is kosher as well. I really don't see how they will notice anyway.

So to go into a bit about how the malt was smoked I can describe it here. Basically I told my buddy to cold smoke the malts where you have the wood sitting over some kind of burner or small fire in a separate grill. Then you run duct over to your main smoker and let the malt sit on that till you think it's done. Here are some steps there were described and he went by to accomplish this. Most if not all of this was published in the April issue of Zymurgy Magazine, if you have it.

1. Make sure the smoker is clean. Clean it with Alcohol.
2. Either soak your wood or don't. The author suggested that you don't cause it "works better"
3. Low and slow, make sure the wood isn't on fire.
4. stir malt regularly for even coating
5. 1 hour of smoking provides an intense manageable character for large batches. 10-15 minutes for small batches
6. You will need to De-gas the malt by leaving it out in a bucket covered with a mesh screen for 2 days

So what I really liked about this process is that the Munich was "pre-soaked" and it crushed up real nice with almost a full husk intact. Smelled really smoky and real fruity so I was pretty stoked about getting this brewed. I went with an extra 1/2 lb of smoked malt and cut back on the Black Patent malt just a bit. I also added another pound of 2-Row malt and cut back on some hops and both judges said there was a lingering hop bitterness. What came out of the cooled wort was simply amazing to taste. I really can't wait for this to be done.

Smoked on the Porter (NHC Re-Brew)

Malt:

10 lbs: Canadian 2-Row

4 lbs: Alderwood Smoked Munich Malt

1 lb: Munich

.75 lbs: Crystal 60L

.5 lbs: Chocolate Malt

2 oz: Black Patent

Hops:

1.0 oz: Chinook 11.5aa @60m

.50 oz: Willamette 4.2aa @15min

Misc:

Target OG: 1.074

Target FG: 1.019

IBU: ~39

Actual OG: 1.070

Actual FG: 1.019

Apparent Attenuation: 71.1%

ABV: 6.8%

ABW: 5.3%

Yeast:

White Labs English Ale Yeast (WLP002)

Hopville Recipe

Update 6.2.2010: Neglected to update anything on here for this beer. Brew day was typical fermentation was typical. I was scared that I wouldn't get it out the door in time for the NHC. Good news is that the beer has been kegged and after force carbing it, it was bottled and 3 bottles were shipped off for the NHC final round in 2 weeks. I will post back after the 19th to show how I did.

Update 6.25.2010: Got my score sheets back from the NHC second round. Beer did not place but it was looked on favorably by the judges. Beer received a score of 38.5. Score sheets will be posted later.

Update 6.27.2010: Score Sheet

Brewmasters Open Results

2010-05-18T09:19:00.000-05:00

I looked on the Brewmasters Open website this morning to find the results posted from the 2010 competition. I saw that my Weizenbock and Funky Cherry BSD placed both 3rd in their respected categories. I also entered my Belgian Pale Ale which didn't place to my amazement. The BPA is by far my favorite beer to drink right now. I honestly don't even like my Weizenbock, but I love my Funky BSD. So I am very interested in seeing the score sheets and see how each was scored. Here is what the results looked like.

Table 214 - Speciality Beer (12 Entries)
Vance Barnes, Brewmasters of Alpharetta	Cumming,GA	Imperial Porter	23A	Specialty Beer	1
Group: BRBC (Brewed Ruff Beer Company)	Acworth,GA	3CP - Chocolate Covered Cherry Porter	23A	Specialty Beer	2
Nick Hudson, Carboy Junkies	Birmingham,AL	Funky Cherry Belgian Strong Dark	23A	Specialty Beer	3
Table 215 - German Wheat & Rye (12 Entries)
Ryan Stansbury, Brewmasters of Alpharetta	Atlanta,GA	The Boozinator	15C	Weizenbock	1
Dean Ross, Brewmasters of Alpharetta	Marietta,GA		15A	Weizen	2
Nick Hudson, Carboy Junkies	Birmingham,AL	Weizen Me Weizenbock	15C	Weizenbock	3
Group: BRBC (Brewed Ruff Beer Company)	Acworth,GA	Clementine Hefe	15A	Weizen	HM

NHC Results

2010-05-12T09:25:00.003-05:00

I submitted 2 brews this year in the 2010 National Homebrew Competition my Chocolate Rye Porter in the Brown Porter (12a) category and my Smoked Porter in the Smoked and Wood Aged Beers category (22b).

The CRP basically got the same review as it did at the PSBO2010 a month or so ago and it was what I was expecting. Regardless, this is a beer I plan on improving and changing for the better. Each time I think it's a bit better than the time before. You can view the results here. They gave it a score of 31.5 which is pretty good, but not good enough to place in such a good category.

The Smoked Porter was a different story. I made it subtly smoky and I really think it can be a wold class beer with some improvements. One of the judged raved that they could tell that behind the smoke was an awesome Robust Porter recipe, which is what I was shooting for. This beer placed 3rd and has advanced into the Final round for judging. You can view the score sheets here. They gave it a score of 38 which is my best score yet of any beer that I have made.

For me to enter in the final round I must re-brew this beer, which is a shame cause I should have known better and should have saved a bottle or three to send off. I don't really know if I will get around to doing it or not. The place where I ordered the Alderwood Smoked Munich is out of stock at the moment and that only leaves me to home smoke it myself. I have the Munich, but getting the Alderwood shipped in is proving to be difficult. If I can't get it done in time, I will just resubmit next year.

Weizenbock

2010-04-13T13:36:00.008-05:00

Had a friend who wanted to spread the love of the White Labs WLP351 Platinum Strain yeast, so I thought I would create a Weizenbock since I have never done one before. Maybe after I am done, I will do a traditional Weizen, I don't know yet. Either way I wanted something simple and that I know will turn out good. I went with the recipe out of Brewing Classic Styles that Jamil listed. Don't think I have ever tried a Weizenbock before so this should be something new. Also this will be my 1st attempt at really treating my water. I did throw in some gypsum into my I2PA, but I had no idea what I was doing. So lets hope this turns out well.

Jamil's Weizenbock

Malts:

10lbs: Wheat Malt

3.5 lbs: Belgian Pilsner

2.0 lbs: Munich

.5 lb: Crystal 40L

.5 lb: Special B

.5 lb: Pale Chocolate Malt

Hops:

2 oz: Hallertauer 3.8%AA @ 60 min (~21IBU)

Misc:

1 Whirlfloc Tablet @ 15min
3.5 gr. Chalk Added to Mash
3 gr. CaCl2 Added to Mash
2 gr. Epsolm Salt Added to Mash
3 gr. Baking Soda Added to Mash

3.5 gr. Chalk Added to Boil

3 gr. CaCl2 Added to Boil

2 gr. Epsolm Salt Added to Boil

3 gr. Baking Soda Added to Boil

Target OG: 1.074

Target FG: 1.018

IBU: ~21
Efficiency: 64%

Actual OG: 1.069

Actual FG: 1.010

Apparent Attenuation: 84.8%

ABV: 7.9%

ABW: 6.2%

Yeast:

White Labs Bavarian Wheat Platinum Strain (WLP351)

Hopville Recipe

Update 4.26.2010: A week has passed since brew day and the beer is totally fermented out. I got way more attenuation out of the yest than I thought. Beer tastes alright I guess. I don't really know what to expect being that I have never had a Weizenbock before. I plan on kegging, force carbing tonight and letting it age a while before I drink this. Force carbonating at 33psi @ 45deg F for a 4 levels of CO2.

Update 6.14.2010: Scored a 34.6 and placed 3rd in this years Brewmasters Open. Scoresheet