PBHoney's Blog

Hop Scare Is Bottled

2012-01-31T09:14:00.000-05:00

On Sunday night, I put the Hop Scare IPA into bottles. The gravity had settled out at 1.013, right in the target zone, giving us a final ABV of about 6.2%. I screwed up the siphon, so we ended up losing several bottles, but we still managed to fill 42 bottles. One bottle broke during capping, so we actually just got 41 bottles.

The bottles are already showing some sediment, so we know that carbonation is happening. Another 12 days at room temp, and these bottles will be ready for the fridge. I can't wait to taste one.

Hop Scare IPA Update

2012-01-24T21:11:00.000-05:00

I just took a sample of the fermenting Hop Scare IPA to measure the specific gravity of the brew. Right now, it is sitting at 1.013. The recipe called for a starting gravity of 1.058-1.062 and a final gravity of 1.010-1.014. On brew day, I measured 1.060, and today I read 1.013, so we are right in the zone. That translates to about 6.2% ABV, which is dead on for American IPA's (5.5%-7.5%).

The beer has a strong malty smell, and it is a nice, bright copper/caramel/orange color. I tasted a bit of the sample, and it was good. It could use some clearing, but it's tasty.

I am debating bottling or moving to a secondary fermenter this weekend. The quicker it is bottled, the quicker it gets into the fridge, so we'll see...

Hop Scare IPA Brewing Report

2012-01-23T21:29:00.000-05:00

A little over a week ago, I snapped the lid closed on my fermenter full of Hop Scare IPA from Midwest Supplies. The brewing data is below, and brewing details follow.

Hop Scare IPA
Brew Date:		1/15/2012


Recipe Volume:		5 gallons

Grains	Amount	Type
	1 lb.	Caravienne

Malts	Amount	Type
	6 lbs.	Gold 100% Barley Extract - Midwest Supplies
	2 lbs.	Plain Light Spraymalt Extract - Munton's

Hops	Amount	Time	Type	% Alpha Acid	AAU
	1 oz.	60 minutes	Yakima Magnum	14.10%	14.1
	.5 oz.	30 minutes	Amarillo	9.30%	4.65
	.5 oz.	15 minutes	Amarillo	9.30%	4.65
	2 oz.	5 minutes	Cascade	6.40%	12.8
					36.2

Yeast
Muntons Active Brewing Yeast Original Gravity: 1.060

The first thing I did was to fill my brew kettle with 4 gallons of water and steep a pound of Caravienne grains at 155 degrees for 30 minutes. I was able to maintain a temperature between 154 and 157 for the whole time. I removed the kettle from the burner and let it sit for another ten minutes. This type of grain provides unfermentable sugars that provide a thicker mouthfeel and balance out the intensity of the hops.

After removing the bagged grains, I added the liquid and dry extracts to the brew and brought it up to a boil. Unfortunately, the following picture doesn't do justice to the rich, dark amber color the wort had taken on.

This beer had an aggressive hops schedule, and it has earned the name Hop Scare. Hop cones everywhere probably fear this brew. I used pellet hops, shown below. I also experimented with Irish moss, adding a teaspoon during the last 15 minutes of the boil to aid in clarifying the beer.

After an hour at a boil, I put the kettle in an ice bath outside. The temp outdoors was in the mid-20's that night, it it helped the beer cool even faster.

Once the beer had come from over 200 degrees down to the mid-70's I added some water to bring the total volume up to 5 gallons. I think I lost about a half gallon during the boil. I pitched the yeast and locked up the batch.

An original gravity reading was 1.060, which is exactly what the recipe called for (1.058-1.062). The final gravity should be between 1.010 and 1.014, which would mean an ABV of 6.2%. I will report the final gravity this weekend when I bottle up this batch.

There was vigorous airlock activity the morning after brewing, but it dropped off after about two days. I have heard that dry yeast usually do the trick in about two days, so I am not concerned yet.

Beta Irish Stout Tasting

2012-01-23T21:03:00.000-05:00

I had talked myself into tossing out the first batch of beer that I mentioned in an earlier post because the beer wasn't quite up to snuff. Luckily, the guys at Homebrew Talk convinced me otherwise, and I tried a beer tonight with Nina.

The beer, which we're calling P.B.Honey and Co.'s Beta Irish Stout, is actually quite palatable after a few days in the fridge. The cool temps have really helped the brew absorb the carbonation, and the flavor has really developed a lot. It still has a way to go before it hits its peak though.

Right now, the beer pours extremely heady, so Nina poured hers really softly to avoid foaming over.

The beer pours a deep, clear reddish brown with a fine head and decent lacing.

It has a sweet taste, and it reminds us of a dark bread like pumpernickel. Very little hop bitterness, but that's expected considering the recipe.

I am going to give the beers in the fridge a week or two more, then give one or two a try to see if they improve any. I'll probably have one this weekend when I bottle the Hop Scare IPA I brewed last week.

Hop Scare IPA Has Arrived

2012-01-11T11:59:00.001-05:00

The ingredients for my Hop Scare IPA have arrived.

6 lbs. gold liquid malt extract
2 lb.s light dry malt extract
1 lb. Caravienne grains
1 oz. Yakima Magnum hops
1 oz. Amarillo hops
2 oz. Cascade hops
Yeast
Irish moss
Priming sugar

Let's take a closer look at the hops.

That's a lot of hops. Sam Adams famously touts their Boston Lager as having a pound of hops per barrel (a little over .5 oz. per gallon). This beer will have .8 oz. per gallon (4 oz. per 5 gallons).

What's so great about hops anyway? Hops contain three compounds that brewers find desirable: alpha acids, beta acids, and essential oils. Together, these chemicals add flavor and aroma to beer. Alpha acids impart the bitterness that brewers need to counteract the sweetness of the sugars that grains release during brewing. Over time, the bitterness of the alpha acids can fade or change, which is where beta acids come in. Beta acids add bitterness that increases over time, and they are more important in beers that are aged to improve flavor. You've probably heard that your sense of taste is greatly influenced by smell. That's why the essential oils of hops are important: they give hoppy beers their signature citrus and pine smells.

Some hops have better flavors than aromas, and some have better aromas than flavors. That's why brewers add different types of hops at different points in the brewing process. More on that in another post.

I will probably brew this weekend, so look out for pictures and brewing data.

My First Homebrew Experience

2012-01-08T13:11:00.000-05:00

I recently took up brewing my own beer, and with my second brew day planned for next weekend, I thought I would look back on my first brewing experience and the lessons learned.

My first homebrew was an Irish stout from Midwest Supplies. The first part of the brewing process was steeping grains in hot water to extract their fermentable sugars. Then I added malt extract (a concentrated version of the steeped grains) and hops and boiled everything for an hour. This all went off without a hitch. After all, it really consisted of putting stuff in hot water and making sure it didn't boil over.

The trouble started when the pot came off the stove. When the brewer removes the wort (unfermented beer) from the stove, the most important task is to cool the wort quickly. This causes proteins suspended in the wort to coagulate and fall out of suspension. Cooling the wort quickly also helps prevent bacterial growth, which is a major threat to beer.

I put the pot full of hot wort into the kitchen sink with ice and water. Unfortunately, our kitchen sink isn't all that deep, so it can't hold a lot of ice and water to help cool hot wort. Ideally, the wort should be cooled in a half hour or less. After an hour of emptying the sink and refilling it with cool water, I grew impatient and moved the wort to my fermenter.

The wort was probably about 90 degrees at this point, which created several problems. First, when I measured the specific gravity (density relative to water) of the wort, I got an incorrect reading. Specific gravity is useful to brewers for determining alcohol content of their beer and for knowing when fermentation has ended. Because specific gravity is a measure of density, it is affected by temperature. Since I took the reading at a higher than normal temperature, my measurement was off. Normally, one can correct their reading for temperature if they know how warm or cold their wort is, but I was tired and irritated with the process at this point and didn't care to figure all that out.

Next, because my wort took so long to cool, the suspended proteins never coagulated. This doesn't affect the flavor of the beer, but it does cause hazy beer, which isn't as visually pleasing.

Finally, I pitched the yeast into the warm wort. Big mistake. When ale yeast ferments at temperatures that are too high, they create off-flavors in the beer. In my case, there is a medicine-like taste to the beer.

So, here I am with hazy beer that tastes a little funny. But it's my beer.

Next weekend when I brew Hop Scare IPA from Midwest, I'm going to try cooling the pot of wort in a large tub with more ice. I'm also going to do the cooling outside, where the cool temperature should make the process quicker. I also ordered some Irish moss to add to the wort. Irish moss is a seaweed that aids in the coagulation of those proteins, but it doesn't affect the taste of the beer.

As for the brew from a few weeks ago, I am going to let it sit for awhile. I hear that some of those off-flavors age out of the beer. Even if it never comes around, I still learned some valuable brewing lessons from my first batch.

Which Direction to Run?

2012-01-07T14:06:00.000-05:00

Right now, I am running out of habit. It's just what I do.

I first started running in middle school, and ever since, I have identified myself as a runner. There were several hiatuses in my running, but for the past three years or so, I have either been running consistently or feeling guilty about not running consistently.

The problem is that right now, I don't have a direction for my running. I don't have a race or mileage goal in mind. I have attempted two marathons (completed one), run a half marathon, and run countless 5k's. While I am not sure I could ever get into 5k PR shape again, I am positive I can set new PR's in the marathon and half.

The thing keeping me from picking a race and training for it is anxiety. I get pretty bad race day anxiety, but then there's the training anxiety. If one training run goes badly, I go back to my spreadsheets and calculators and start reevaluating my goals. I know conventional wisdom for someone in my situation would suggest that I run without a watch or predetermined distance, but that's just not how I tick (watch pun intended). I can't remember the last time I ran without a watch, but I was probably thinking about how nice it would be to have a watch during the whole run.

If I don't pick a marathon or half to train for, I have considered training to run a 100-mile week. For a recreational runner, I think that's a pretty significant achievement. Also, my heart begins to race a little bit when I think about the calories that type of training would burn. It makes me wish McDonald's had some kind of loyalty program.

But if I don't decide on some kind of goal soon, I'm going to get tired of running.

For the time being, I am considering the Thunder Road Marathon in Charlotte, the NC Marathon in High Point, the Tobacco Road Marathon in Cary, or any of their half marathon counterparts.

But I haven't ruled out the 100-mile week. That's seven double quarter-pounders with cheese, medium fries, and large Dr. Peppers.

Version 2.0

2012-01-05T12:01:00.000-05:00

A few years ago, I started a blog to chronicle my return to distance running after a long hiatus. Since then, I've done all kinds of awesome things, and I decided to suit up and blast into the blogosphere to share them.

I'm interested in all sorts of things, so be prepared for entries on many different topics: distance running, science, education, cooking, brewing, and tons of other sweet stuff.