Winter Storm Nelson/Simcoe Pale Ale

We are up to about 6 inches of snow and it keeps coming so what else is there to do but brew some beer . I am trying to do this all inside since it is nasty outside and there is no place to put my car to free up the garage. It is also holiday cookie day so Clare and I are sharing the kitchen.

I am going to try out a hop I bought a while back but never tried, Nelson Sauvin, in a pale ale. It is supposed to have a grape like fruity character that sounds like a love it or hate it type of thing. After looking online I decided to pair it up with some Simcoe to keep it interesting.

The recipe:

• Grain:
• 8 lb Pale Malt
• 1 lb Crystal-15
• 0.5 lb White Wheat
• 0.125 lb Crystal-120
• Hops
• 0.25 oz Warrior @ FWH
• 0.5 oz Simcoe @ 10  min
• 0.5 oz Nelson Sauvin @10 min
• 1 oz Simcoe @ 1 min
• 1 oz Nelson Sauvin @ 1 min
• 0.5 tsp Irish Moss
• 0.5 tsp Yeast Nutrient
• 10 drops FermcapS
• Beersmith Specs:
• OG: 1052
• 33.3 IBU
• 7.0 SRM
• 5.2% ABV

The plan was to mash at 152 F for 60 minutes and boil for 60 minutes. First runnings 2.9 gallons at 19.2%. 4.5 gallons total after second runnings at 14.9%. Forgot to check the pre-boil gravity but the original gravity ended up at right on at 1052 (13.6%). This is what it looked like outside, I have no idea where the animation came from, I think Google did it for me. Pretty cool but also kinda scary, how did it know...

I chilled it with the pump and a snow bank since it was available. Ended up getting it down to 54 before pitching the yeast. Tasted good going in, fermenting at 15.5 C until I get back from Arizona for the holidays.

A couple updates

Just a quick update on the Hop Burst IPA. It finished up at 1010 which puts it at about 6.2% ABV. Not too shabby but next time I would like it to start a bit higher to balance the hops more. This is a hop bomb, but in a good way. There is a ton of good juicy hop flavor but the malt is a bit subdued. It is still clearing up which is understandable since there was a ton of hop junk in the fermenter after it finished. Next time I want to make sure the OG is a bit higher, I might scale back the flameout hops slightly, and I will also probably dry hop it to get a bit more aroma out of it.

The dragons milk is tasting pretty good so far but still needs to age a bit more. I wanted a bit more body our of it so they next time I may add some flaked oat or maltodextrine to the recipe. The bourbon flavor could have been a bit more pronounced too. I think I may go for an imperial stout with the next bourbon barrel beer when the time comes.

Hop Burst IPA

I have been lurking on the email list for the Tippecanoe Homebrew Circle for a while now but never participated at all. Recently some emails started going out about a brew day at People's Brewing Company here in Lafayette. I love the beer there so I figured why not go brew some beer and meet some people. I have read a bit about hop bursting (or late hopping) beer so I wanted to give it a shot. It should provide a huge amount of hop aroma and flavor with pleasant bitterness. The recipe:

• Grain:
• 10 lb Pale Malt
• 1 lb Crystal-30
• 1 lb Vienna Malt
• 0.75 lb Cara-pils
• 0.25 lb Crystal-120
• Hops
• 0.35 oz Warrior @ FWH
• 0.5 oz Simcoe @ 15, 10 and 5 min
• 0.5 oz Cascade @ 15, 10 and 5 min
• 0.5 oz Columbus @ 10 and 5 min
• 0.5 oz Citra @ 10 and 5 min
• 1. oz Citra @ 1 min
• 0.5 oz Galaxy @ 1 min
• 1.0 oz Cascade @ 1 min
• 0.75 oz Simcoe @ 1 min
• 1 tsp Irish Moss
• 0.5 tsp Yeast Nutrient
• 10 drops FermcapS
• Beersmith Specs:
• OG: 1070
• 72.1 IBU
• 9.5 SRM
• 7.3% ABV

The plan was to mash at 152 F for 60 minutes and boil for 60 minutes.

I got all of the stuff packed up in the car which was no small feat and makes the whole brewing not at home thing a bit of a pain. It all fit though and everything made it back in one piece too.

The brewers at People's offered to provide base malt and yeast for free so I got my 10 lb of pale malt from them and crushed it up then mixed in the specialty grains. I also set up right next to one of the former brewers at People's who now works at Flat12 in Indianapolis. He had a pretty nice set-up with a multi-tier system.

   

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Mash went pretty well, but it was cold and windy and I had to adjust temp to get the mash to 152 F. The first 5 minutes were probably more like 149 F. After the mash I tossed in the FWH and sparged ending up with 7 gallons of wort but I forgot to write down the Brix on it. 

Clare came along and helped with the brewing, she stirs the mash like a champ and really likes the spent grain a lot...

 

The boil went pretty well but keeping the burner lit in the wind was a challenge. It probably didn't stay as hot and boil off was lower than usual. This was a ton of hops, the bag below is the 1 minute addition. The 4 doses are in the images below that.

   

 People's gives the spent grain to local farmers so the mash tun was emptied into the grain tub

 After the boil I cooled a bit differently than usual. I picked up a 1/4 HP submersible pump and got it hooked up to my wort chiller. I started with cool tap water and recirculated that until it was hot. Then I switched to a new bucket of cool water and started adding ice to keep it cold. Clare helped stir the wort with the chiller and we got it cooled down with 4 buckets in 20 minutes. Much less water wasted than how I do it at home but it did take a bit longer. 

The wort ended up at 14.7% Brix (1057), much lower than planned. It is possible that the base malt weight was off from the hand scale or the efficiency just went down from the temps and boil. All in all it was a successful brew and a good time. The wort smelled amazing going into the fermentation chamber at 15.5 C and the CO2 bubbles coming out smell like hop heaven.

Dragon's Milk Bottling

I pulled a sample from the Dragon's Milk with the bourbon soaked oak chips and tried it on 10/28. It tasted fantastic with a bit of alcoholic heat in the finish and is still at 1.016. I didn't want it to get too oaked so I went ahead and transferred it to the bottling bucket and put it in storage at ~50 F. Normally I keg my beer but this one will benefit from some additional conditioning and I also don't want to blow through a keg of an 8% beer. This one will be good for the cold winter months ahead.

I bottled it yesterday (11/6) with 3.5 ounces of corn sugar and am really happy with what went into the bottle. I tried a new way to prep the priming sugar that I read somewhere online. I filled a standard mason jar with water, boiled it in the microwave, added the sugar and dissolved it, then re-boiled in the microwave. Once it was done I put the lid on and made sure that everything came in contact with the boiling water. The jar went in the fridge until it was cooled enough to add to the beer.

All of the bottles filled and capped below, hopefully they get even better with age!

Dragon's Milk Update

Checked the gravity on the Dragon's Milk yesterday and it was ~1.018. Not too shabby in my opinion and it tasted great. A bit alcoholic but that should mellow a bit and play well with the bourbon soaked oak chips I added. I soaked 2 ounces of medium toast oak in some vodka for 24 hours to get rid of some of the fresh oakiness. Then I added 4 ounces of Larceny bourbon (because I had it laying around) and soaked them for a week. Dumped it all in the primary last night and will let it go for about a week before tasting it. This one is going to be bottled since I don't want to tie up keezer space while it ages and it might make some nice Christmas presents if it turns out well.

Dragon's Milk Attempt

An update on the Coopers Australian Pale Ale, it is way too cidery. I am not sure what happened. At this point my only option is to try to de-carbonate it, let it warm up and maybe dry hop it. Not sure if it is worth it though... The dark ale should go in the keg today and hopefully it turned out better.

I have never really made a big beer and I have really grown to love New Holland Dragon's Milk. Something about a beer that is aged in a bourbon barrel that then gets the bourbon put back in it is amazing to me. Anyway the recipe was adapted from a couple that I fund online.

Recipe:

• 13 lb 2-row
• 12 oz Chocolate malt
• 8 oz Crystal 75L
• 8 oz Crystal 120L
• 8 oz Flaked oats
• 4 oz Roasted Barley
• 4 oz White Wheat
• 0.75 oz Warrior 13.7% @ 60 min
• 0.5 oz Columbus 15.2% @ 20 min
• 0.75 tsp Irish Moss @ 15 min
• 0.75 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Wyeast) @ 10 min
• 15 drops FermcapS before boil
• 1.6 L Starter of Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale
• 4 oz medium toast oak chips soaked in bourbon added to fermenter after fermentation stops leave for 7 days

• OG: 21% (1084) (Beersmith)
• 39.3 IBU
• 34.2 SRM

Whole lotta grain on this one.

Trying to mash at 156 for this batch so I am going to put the grains in at 168 since there is so much more, after stirring it was right at 156 so it may loose a couple degrees during the rest which is fine. Medium body should be more than adequate with the amount of sugar in there to ferment. Supposed to be a 45 minute mash but I might let it go an hour since it is going to be more like 154 for the temperature. This is first time the mass tun has ever been this full.

First runnings were just over 2 gallons at 26.2%. Second got it up to 4.75 gallons and a total of 19.4% and third took us to 6.75 gallon and 16.5%.

60 Minute boil starting with FermcapS doing its magic.

Finished it up and it looks like 19.2% Brix, 1077. A bit lower than intended but everything went well. My efficiency looks like it took a hit (down to 70%) from the higher grain mass but I can account for that on the next big batch I do. Yeast was pitched and it is starting fermentation at 14.5 C to try to avoid any rapid fermentation issues.

Some quick notes

The Falcon's Eye blonde is tasting great and turned out crystal clear. I also am in the process of shortening the beer lines on the keezer to 9 ft to improve my pours.

The Coopers Australian Pale Ale is done but finished pretty high on the gravity, about 1.014. It also has a pretty cidery flavor but is in the keg since it needs to be ready for this Friday. It is beer and it will be consumed but I am surprised by how high it finished. The yeast packet I used may not have been totally viable or the maltodextrine was too much. I also brewed up the Coopers Dark Ale for him which is fermenting now and hopefully can be quick carbonated for Friday as well.

The next beer I am hoping to make is a bourbon RIS for the winter months and maybe a clone of Hop Knot from one of my favorite breweries, Four Peaks, in Tempe, Az.

Falcon's Eye Blonde follow up and Cooper's Australian Pale Ale

I kegged the Falcon's Eye Blonde yesterday and it finished at 1.004 according to the hydrometer which seemed awful low. I checked the hydrometer with distilled water though and it read 0.996 so it is off by about 0.004. The actual final gravity is probably closer to 1.008 which I am happy with.

I also have a friend here at Purdue from Australia/Germany and he wanted some beer from his home brewery in Adelaide,Australia. He picked up three of the extract kits so I brewed up the first one, an Australian Pale Ale.

It was supposed to also use Coopers Brew Enhancer 2 which after some googleing I figured out was a mixture of 500g dextrose, 250g maltodextrin and 250g of light DME. Fortunately I had all of those ingredients so away we went. The brew is super easy with these kits, just get about 0.75 gallon of water up to boiling, add all of the ingredients and hold it high enough to kill anything for a few minutes. The extract is already hopped, so we will see how good the hop flavor is when it is finished. I diluted the high gravity wort down to 5 gallons total and got it to 72 degrees before pitching the yeast and setting the fermentation chamber to 20 C.

We also had an interesting pizza in Wichita at Wichita Brewing Company. It was a hopperoni pizza which used pepperoni which was stored with hops giving it a crazy dry-hop aroma. It was surprisingly good, so Clare had to try it herself. We will see how it turns out...

Falcon's Eye Blonde

Since Clare is a major optics nerd, when she saw Optic malt she wanted me to make a beer with it. Then she read the description of Falconers Flight hops and that had to go in their too, so here we go. I am making a Blonde ale with those two ingredients in addition to a few others.

Recipe:

• 5 lb 2-row Malt
• 2 lb Optic Malt
• 0.25 lb Carapils
• 0.25 lb Carmel 30L
• 0.5 oz Cascade 5.5% @ 60 ml
• 0.5 oz Falconers Flight 10.5% @ 15 min
• 0.5 oz Falconers Flight 10.5% @ 5 min
• 1 oz Falconers Flight 10.5% @ 0 min
• 0.5 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Wyeast) @ 10 min
• 0.5 tsp Irish Moss @ 10 min
• 10 drops FermcapS before boil
• 800 ml yeast starter of Second generation Wyeast 1450

• OG: 10.0% (1038) (Beersmith)
• 24.4  IBU
• 3.9 SRM

I used some old vacuum packed milled grain from northern brewer for the 2 row, carapils and caramel 30. I ordered a few things before I got my mill so I would like to use them but may just end up tossing them or making a milled grain weird batch.

Mashing at 148 for 75 minutes, preheating the MLT with 3.5 gallons of 175 degree water and grains are going in at 164. Mash was at 153 had to stir a bit and add a bit of cool water but got it down to 149 with help from Clare

I have all of the additions prepped and ready to go for the boil, the Falconer's Flight smells orangey according to Clare.

I am also cheating a bit on my no beer while brewing rule but the hoppy hefe is tasting mighty good today. I think I overpitched both of the hefes since they finished at 1.005 and could use a bit more yeast character but they are still drinkable and the hoppy one is quite tasty. I pulled off some slurry to try again later.

First runnings, 16.4% Brix and 2.5 gallons, 7.0% in second runnings, total volume now 4.9 gallon at 11.2%, 3.9% in third runnings and 9.5% (1036) and 6.8 gallons pre-boil.

The new Keezer is completed and the old chest freezer is now the fermentation chamber.

I want to add two more taps but that requires Clare's approval since those Perlick faucets are a bit pricey.

The Smokey Scott which turned out to be VERY smokey initially despite only 3 oz of peated malt is also now mellowing out nicely.

The fermentation chamber is going to be set at 60 F (15.5 C) for at least the first few days then I might bump it up to 65 F to finish off.

Boiled and ended up at 11% according to the refactometer but I am dubious of the measurements after the boil with all of the hop junk in there. Hydrometer read 1041 after chilling down which is pretty darn close to what I wanted.

Hoppy Wheat

Round two for the weekend, this time a slightly hoppy wheat beer with some of the Belma hop that was released this year. I wanted to use up the 150 ml of Wyeast 3068 that didn't volcano out of the container yesterday so here it is (same grain bill as yesterday with about twice as much rice hulls.

Recipe:

• 5 lb White Wheat
• 4 lb Pale Malt
• 0.25 lb rice hulls
• 0.25 oz Belma leaf 12.1% FWH
• 0.5 oz Belma leaf 12.1% @ 5 min
• 0.5 oz Cascade leaf 4.7% @ 5 min
• 1.25 oz Belma leaf 12.1% @ 0 min
• 1 oz Cascade leaf 4.7% @ 0 min
• 0.5 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Wyeast) @ 10 min
• 10 drops FermcapS before boil
• 100 ml of Wyeast 3068 slurry according to Mrmalty

• OG: 12.3% (1048) (Beersmith)
• 16.5 IBU
• 4.0 SRM

Milled grains just like before and the drill battery from yesterday powered through just fine. 

Mashing at 154 for 60 minutes, preheating the MLT with 3.5 gallons of 180 degree water and grains are going in at 166. Mash was at 155 had to stir a bit but got it down to 154.

First runnings, 19.2% Brix and 2.25 gallons, 8.4% in second runnings, total volume now 4.9 gallon at 14.2%, 5.0% in third runnings and 11.2% (1043) and 6.8 gallons pre-boil. pretty darn repeatable from yesterday. First wort hops went in before emptying the MLT. I am nopt really a fan of brewing with whole leaf hops but I have another 1.5 lbs of whole Belma to get through so I am using it this time.

The rest of the ingredients ready to go in.

And the boil up and running.

A side project is a new kegerator I am starting to work on. It is currently the fermentation chamber but the old kegerator will get swapped into that role once I have the collar done for the new on.

Added the flame out hops and remembered again why I don't like whole hops.

Boiled and ended up at 1047 after chilling down. Pitched 120 ml ish of yeast slurry and put it in with the other fermenter at 63F (17C).

Weinstephaner Clone

An update on the Rye-rish Red first. It scored ok in the competition with a 29 overall but it came out sweeter than I wanted it to since my efficiency jumped so much and I was mashing for a more full body. The higher alcohol left some hot flavors that the judges didnt like and they suggested it might have scored better in the Scottish category. Overall I am happy though, it was nice to get some feedback on the beer and the sampler of beer that The Ram provided was awesome.

The Wee Scott is now kegged and probably almost gone. It turned out very tasty but I think a higher mash temp and maybe half of the peat malt would be a good next iteration.

Going to brew up a Weinstephaner Hefeweissbier clone today. I was lucky enough to get a lot of very active Wyeast 3068 from The Ram down in Indianapolis so I need to get brewing!

Recipe:

• 5 lb White Wheat
• 4 lb Pale Malt
• 3 handfulls of rice hulls
• 1 oz Hallertauer Hersbrucker 2.8% @ 60 min
• 0.5 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Wyeast) @ 10 min
• 10 drops FermcapS before boil
• 100 ml of Wyeast 3068 slurry according to Mrmalty

• OG: 12.3% (1048) (Beersmith)
• 9.9 IBU
• 4 SRM

This is the first time all of my grains are milled by the new Barley Crusher. I got everything measured out and chucked up my cordless drill in the low range and went to it. The first battery didn't last too long but my second battery finished it out. I definitely need to pick up a corded drill for this. Pictures of before and after crushing below, looks pretty good to me at factory setting.

Mashing at 154 for 60 minutes this time to try to keep a bit of body and end up at 1012 hopefully. Preheating the MLT with 3.5 gallons of 180 degree water and grains are going in at 166. Hit 154 on the mash temp, dropped to 151 by the end of the mash.

First runnings, 21.2% Brix and 1.9 gallons, 8.6% in second runnings, total volume now 4.75 gallon at 14%, 5.3% in third runnings and 11.2% (1043) and 6.8 gallons pre-boil. That comes out to 85% efficiency if I am doing everything right which is awesome but now I might have a more alcoholic beer than I wanted. I will have to verify the OG with the hydrometer too and make sure the refractometer isn't just off. I am adding the hops at the start of the boil as usual but will watch the gravity and may cut the boil a bit short. The mash also got a bit stuck during sparging so I think next time I will double up on the rice hulls.

Boil is going fine, the FermcapS is doing its magic and keeping it from boiling over.

Did the full boil and it looks like it ended up at 12.7% (1049). Chilling down to 70 and then pitching the yeast and moving it to the new fermentation freezer. I am going to set it at 63 and hopefully the fermentation keeps below 70 for the first few days then I will bump it up to 68 or so to finish up. The FermcapS should keep it from blowing off but I will probably put a something under and over it just in case.

Well, yeast pitching was more eventful than normal. The slurry that I got last week had settled while it was in the fridge so I decided to pour off the liquid and get it all back in suspension. Once I did that the bottle pressurized and I had a yeast volcano on my hands. I ended up having to sanitize the whole bottle and just open it over the fermenter and guess at quantity. It is already working so I think it will be fine but my hope to use that slurry for another brew may be down the drain with part of the yeast. Anyway, it is in the fermentation freezer now and bubbling away, I will kick up the temp in a day or two.

Wee Scott

Scottish ales have always been one of my favorite beers but with Summer coming up I don't really want a big alcoholic beer to drink so I am making a lower alcohol Scottish ale. Fortunately the fiance supports my brewing habit and gives me little gifts to help from time to time. This time I got a Barley Crusher grain mill and a bunch of pale malt from Northern Brewer since we were in the Milwaukee area. It turns out that a 5 gallon bucket with gamma seal lid will fit almost exactly 25 lb of grain so two buckets per bag is perfect.

Recipe:

• 5 lb Maris Otter
• 1 lb UK Pale Malt
• 8 oz Crystal 30L
• 4 oz Crystal 120L
• 4 oz Aromatic Malt
• 4 oz Special Roast
• 3 oz English Chocolate Malt
• 2 oz Peat Smoked Malt
• 1 oz Willamette FWH
• 1 tsp Irish Moss @ 15 min
• 0.5 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Fermax) @ 15 min
• 10 drops FermcapS before boil
• 500 ml mixed starter
• WLP028 Edinburgh Ale
• WLP041 Pacific Ale

• OG: 1038 (Beersmith)
• 23.2 IBU
• 15 SRM

Preheating the mash tun at 179ish this time since my goal mash temperature is a bit higher at 156. Grains are headed into the mash tun at 168 degrees for a 45 minute mash at 156 (nailed the temp). Mash dropped to 154 over 45 minutes. Another toy I picked up recently was a refractometer, which is getting run through its paces today.

First runnings, collected 2.75 gallons of 16.2% Brix (1064) wort. Added water and stirred like a mad man for about 5 minutes. This seemed to bump my OG a lot last time when I let the fiance stir so I am trying it myself. Second runnings, 6.4% (1024) and 5 gallons total. Third runnings, 4.0% (1015) and up to just shy of 7 gallons. Pre-boil is 9.4% Brix (1036) and just under 7 gallons of wort. Beersmith says 1033 and 6.5 gallons so the new mixing step really seems to help.

FWH were added before draining the first runnings and FermcapS was added before putting it on the heat. 60 minute boil started without issues. Taking a few minutes to transfer the Northern Brewer Dundalk Irish Heavy kit that I brewed about 3 weeks ago into a keg for a couple weeks of secondary fermentation before putting it in the kegerator.

Uneventful boil and chilled to 72 degrees with the help of the fiance before pouring into fermenter and pitching yeast. 

The yeast for this is a combination of two yeasts that I tried at White Labs when we toured. They had a Wee Heavy brewed with a bunch of yeasts and the Pacific Ale had a nice taste profile. I also really like the Edinburgh ale so I just did both in a starter and saved some of the mixture for later use. 

OG 10.9% Brix (1042)

Rye-rish Red

We are fortunate enough to have a great semi-local brewpub in Indianapolis that does homebrew competitions from time to time. The competition that they recently announced is the "Rye Not" homebrew challenge. Basically you have to use at least 25% Rye malt in any beer style that you want. I decided to make an Irish red for this competition and based on the fact that I have to add rye malt and that I am clever as hell I am calling it Rye-rish Red. 

• 5 lb Marris Otter (40.4%)
• 3 lb Rye (24.3%)
• 2 lb Pale 2-Row(UK) (I had this laying around so I used it) (16.2%)
• 1 lb Munich (8.1%)
• 13 oz Caramel 30L (6.5%)
• 5 oz Roasted Barley (2.5%)
• 4 oz Caramel 120L (2.0%)
• 1 oz US Goldings FWH
• 0.5 oz US Goldings @ 5 min
• 1 tsp Irish Moss @ 15 min
• 1 tsp Fermax Yeast Nutrient @ 15 min
• 10 drops FermcapS before boil
• 1200 ml second generation Wyeast 1450 Dennys Fav starter

We have finally made it to spring and today was an awesome 70 degree day to do some brewing with the garage door open.

My mash tun likes to steal a good bit of heat from my strike water so I preheat it with 175 degree water and wait for it to fall to where I want it to be before adding grain. In this case that is 165 with a mash temp of 152 for one hour then batch sparge with two steps to get my pre-boil volume. The weather is so nice today that the fiance even made an appearance. Drained the tun onto the FWH and then batch sparged with about 5 gallons of 170 degree water and ended up with 6.5 gallons of wort.

One hour boil was uneventful and chilling went fine down to 71 degrees. The yeast was pitched and the fermenter went into the brew closet.

Efficiency went up on this batch, not sure if it was the sparge stirring help from the fiance or a different crush. Normally I am sitting around 60% but this time I hit 71% so the beer will be stronger than I intended since the OG came in at 1061. It would have been better to mash a bit hotter to bring the final gravity up but it may have ended up too sweet if I had done that. Anyway we will see in a couple of weeks how it tastes, the first sample had some rye spiciness so that is good.