Single Hop IPA (Centennial)

I just finished my last bottle of Double IPA last week and I'm already missing it.  I could just brew up another batch of that one but, in the interest of broadening my horizons a bit, I have decided to try out a new recipe.  I like the idea of brewing single hop beer to get a better sense of what kind of flavors each one imparts.  Based on this I have decided to brew up a "Bell's Two Hearted" clone from homebrewtalk.com.  Two Hearted is a really nice IPA brewed with only Centennial hops.

The recipe states that it is "as close as they come."  I'm not really concerned with creating a clone of Two Hearted so I will be making the following changes from the recipe:

1. Shooting for an OG of 1.055 to 1.060 which, if the beer ferments down to a target of 1.012, will get me a beer that is in the neighborhood of 6% ABV.  This is about a percentage point lower than the actual Bell's Two Hearted but I don't think I'll miss it.
2. Going with the famous Wyeast 1056 American Ale yeast.  This is my first batch with this yeast (although I've used US-05 which is supposed to be the same Sierra Nevada strain).  The recipe calls for S-04
3. Changing up the hop schedule quite a bit to get some more intense hop flavor.  First, I'll be using 3 mL of hop extract to get about 30 IBU.  I'll then hold off on adding hops until the end of the boil.  I will add 2 oz of hops with 5 min left.  Then I'll add 2 oz more after the beer has chilled down to 180 F and let stand for 30 min.  Finally, I will dry hop with 2 oz.  I'm going to skip fining the beer with gelatin as I would normally do to avoid the possibility that I'll reduce the hop character.  I'll plan on bottling this beer after 3 weeks to make sure the beer is as fresh as possible when I start drinking.

I've been considering trying this one out for the last several months.  Two Hearted is actually my wife's favorite beer.  I'm hoping she approves of this one.

Recipe Details:

• Grain:
• 10 lb 2 Row Malt
• 2 lb Vienna Malt
• 8 oz CaraPils Malt
• 8 oz Crystal 20L
• 4 oz Acid Malt
• Hops:
• 3 mL Hop Shot at 60 120  min
• 2 oz Centennial (Pellet, 8.5% AA) at 5 min
• 2 oz Centennial (Pellet, 8.5% AA) added once temp is down to 180 F (stand for 30 min)
• 2 oz Centennial (Pellet, 8.5% AA) Dry Hop
• Yeast:
• Wyeast 1056 American Ale
• Water:
• 10 gal spring water
• 7.5 gal tap water
• 1 oz Calcium Chloride in Mash
• 1 oz Gypsum in Mash
• 1 oz Gypsum in Boil
• 1 oz Irish Moss at 20 min

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 6 gal (Target 6 gal)
• Mash:
• Step 1:  150 F for 60 min (Target 150 F for 60 min)
• Step 2:  Ramp up to 170 F in 45 min (Target Ramp up to 175 in 30 min)
• Boil:
• 120 min (Target 60 min)
• Fermentation Temp:
• 68 F
• Primary Duration:
• 3 weeks
• Secondary Duration:
• NA

Results:

• OG:
• 1.060 (Target 1.060)
• Efficiency:
• 76% (Target 76%)
• FG:
• 1.010 (Target 1.012)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 83% (Target 79%)
• ABV:
• 6.56% (Target 6.30%)

Brewing Notes:

• 2/20/16 - Brewed up a yeast starter with 5.5 oz of DME and 1 liter of water.  Also added 1/8th tsp of yeast nutrient.  Set it up on the stir plate and pitched the yeast.
• 2/21/16 - Brewday - 11:40 AM to 6:00 PM including setup and cleanup
• Heated 10 gal of strike water and cycled through the system was at 160 F
• Milled grain while heating the water

• Ended up with 5 gal above the false bottom and 8.5 gal in the system
• Added CacL and Gypsum to the mash tun
• Added the grain and stirred well to eliminate doughballs
• Set the RIMS to cycle at 152 F
• Added 7.5 gal of tap water to the HLT, for a total of 9 gal, and heated to 185 F for the sparge
• After the 60 min of mashing I added 2 gal of sparge water to the mash tun and upped the RIMS to 185 F to heat the mash to 170 for the mash out - took 45 min
• Added extra gypsum to the kettle before the sparge
• Fly sparged - took 20 min
• Stated heating the kettle after collecting 2 gal
• Gravity at the grant was 10 brix after collecting 4 gal
• Ended up collecting 10 gal - gravity at the grant was 4 brix (1.016 by this time).  Was not a very efficient sparge for some reason
• Was up to a boil a couple minutes after ending the sparge
• Had very significant hot break - ended up boiling over a couple times
• Added the hop extract after the hot break cleared
• With about 20 min left I added the Irish Moss
• Added the first hops with 5 min left
• Killed the flame after getting down to a bit over 6 gal.  Let sit and chill down to 180 F without a lid - took 15 min
• Added the hop stand hops and let the kettle sit for half an hour with the lid on - beer was down to 165 F after 30 min
• Sprayed the wort chiller with sanitizer and put into the kettle for 5 min to be sure it was sanitized
• Chilled down to 70 F
• Transferred to fermenter with all trub and hops

• Collected 6 gal - fermenter was very full.  Measured gravity as 1.060 which is right on target.  The beer has a really nice gold color
• Moved to fermentation chamber set to 67 F.  I'm using an airlock that is extended into the fermenter as little as possible.  I expect that, as full as the fermenter is, some wort is going to be pushed up into the airlock
• Pitched the entire yeast starter which looked to be at high krausen

• 2/22/16 - The airlock filled up and overflowed with krausen.  Hasn't made that much of a mess so far fortunately.
• 3/6/16 - Added the dry hops.  I'll give the beer another 5 days or so before bottling.

• 3/12/16 - Bottled this batch today.  There was a pretty thick layer of hops at the bottom so I only ended up getting 5 gal.  Primed with 4 oz of table sugar.  This got me 51 bottles.  Measured the gravity as 1.010.  The sample has a lot of hop particulate - ended up getting a lot of hops in the bottles as well.  The beer has a really great hop forward flavor.  It is also plenty bitter for an IPA.
• 4/7/16 - Tasting Notes - Has nice flavoring hop character in the aroma and flavor but an odd flavor in the bittering hops in the finish sort of detracts from the whole package.  I wonder if some oxidation may have come into play somewhere along the line.
• 6/5/16 - Entered this beer into a local homebrew competition (22nd Annual BUZZ Off) in category 21A - American IPA.  I wanted to get some unbiased feedback on the beer to see if my palate was off the mark on the bitter character of the beer.  Ended up scoring an aggregate of 32 which is better than I thought it would do.  One of the reviewers mentions astringency and has a very similar takeaway regarding the overwhelming bitterness in the finish.  I consider this a victory for my palate.  He also mentions a smoky phenol which I hadn't picked up.  The other reviewer describes the beer as a bit malty for the style.  I assume there were quite a few IPA that were much better and much hoppier than mine (especially considering this beer's age) and that how hoppy this beer seemed was probably somewhat dependent on the level of hopping in the previous beers these judges tasted.  Really glad I decided to get in on one of these homebrew competitions - it was really exciting and fun to read these comments.  Will definitely be entering some other beers in competitions in the future.

Lesson Learned

1. This brewday was way too long.  The 45 min I spent trying to heat up the mash may have been a wasted effort.  Also, collecting 10 gal of wort was really stupid of me.  I wish I had just accepted the hit for starting gravity or purchased more grain.  The cost in terms of time and extra propane just doesn't justify chasing after an extra bit of efficiency.  I need to plan out these brewdays a bit more carefully.

Hard Apple Cider - Tasting

I fermented up this batch of Hard Apple Cider back in September using some locally grown apples.  They fermented all the way down to 0.994 which is very dry.  I decided to split the batch and dose one part with another gallon of cider to make a sweet cider.  I let this ferment for a few days and then pasteurized the bottles.  It ended up working our well - I have a sweet carbonated cider and no bottle bombs.

For the other half I added a small amount of priming sugar to avoid getting a completely still cider.  This may have been a mistake as I ended up picking up an off sulphur flavor during bottle conditioning.

I have found that both of these ciders seem to taste quite a bit better at basement temps rather than out of the fridge.  This really brings out some nice complexity.  These tasting notes were recorded for a cider served at ~60 F.

L - Sweetened & R - Plain

Back Sweetened Cider Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Light tart apple.  A bit more subdued than the raw cider.  No alcohol or yeast character on the nose.  It is a pleasant aroma
• Appearance:
• Pale gold/yellow.  It has cleared very nicely in the bottle.  Pours with a very slight head that immediately fades to nothing.  Light carbonation continues to appear while drinking.
• Flavor:
• Sweet up front and then transitions into a pretty robust sour apple flavor in the finish.  It's a nice balance between the sweet and sour flavors in the finish.  The alcohol is very well hidden and there is no yeast character I can detect.
• Mouthfeel:
• Light bodied with a sweet sticky mouthfeel.  It really lingers in my mouth for some time after taking a sip.  It's very much like drinking raw apple cider.  It has a pretty firm bite of astringency - much more than I've ever experienced from a beer.  It gives the cider a pretty substantial mouthfeel as light bodied as it is.
• Overall:
• I really like the balance of sweet and sour from this cider.  It makes for a nicely complex drink.  The stickiness of the finish makes it a bit difficult to drink more than one of these in a sitting though.  This is probably sort of the trade you make if you are going to drink it warm (and enjoy the complexity) or drink it cold (and have a smoother/easier drinking beverage).

Plain Cider Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Sulphur smell up front with a bit of apple in the background.  Was a lot more prominent a couple months ago.  Maybe get a bit of alcohol way in the background.
• Appearance:
• Identical to the Back Sweetened half except that the carbonation is even lighter.  Pours with no head and is essentially still.
• Flavor:
• Mild sulphur character is also present in the flavor.  Some apple character comes through in the finish but it's not quite pronounced enough to overwhelm the sulphur.  Swirling the glass seems to reduce the sulphur flavor - like maybe it's dissipating.  No alcohol flavor cuts through.
• Mouthfeel:
• Very dry.  Has the same astringent bite that the sweetened portion has.  The finish is much crisper for this version so it is a bit easier drinking.
• Overall:
• The sulphur is disappointing.  The cider tasted really clean going into the bottles.  I assume that the yeast doing the bottle conditioning threw out this sulphur - I probably should have added more nutrient.  It does seem like the sulphur flavor has faded a lot over the last couple months so these could improve and the swirling trick seems to work pretty well.  This would drink sort of like a white wine if not for the off flavor.

Belgian Witbier

I have been considering trying a Belgian Witbier for the last year and a half.  This is a wheat beer with, as you would expect, a characterful Belgian yeast and added spices.  These typically include Coriander and Orange Peel.  They are often referred to a "White ale" in the US.  Per style, they are very cloudy due to a grainbill of ~50% wheat.  They tend to be fairly low alcohol which, in combination with the spicing, make for a refreshing beer.  I have hesitated to brew one of these up until now as they are pretty complicated to make (as you'll see below) and, with so many flavors in the mix, getting the right balance in the beer seems quite challenging.

I have chosen to brew up a beer based on an article on allaboutbeer.com.  This recipe calls for a grainbill of roughly half pilsner malt and half unmalted wheat which is traditional for the style (with 0.5 lb of oats thrown in for good measure as they are also traditional).  The unmalted wheat requires a cereal mash to allow for good conversion.  I have been doing what I have been calling a cereal mash with some of my sour beers with the goal of extracting starches without getting any conversion.  The cereal mash used for this beer is the real deal in that I need good conversion from these grains.  This will include an initial protein rest at 122 F for 15 min, 15 more min at 150 F to start some conversion, and then a 15 min boil to get the starches into solution.  The main mash will run in parallel with this activity at it's own 122 F protein rest.  The addition of the cereal mash will then raise the temperature of the main mash up to the low 150s for 60 more minutes of mashing.

The beer will be hopped at 60 min and then at 10 min with some low AA% Saaz hops.  Per style, this hopping should provide some hop character, but not so much that it overwhelms any of the other flavorings, and low to moderate bittering. 

I will be using 0.75 oz of Coriander (purchased from a local Indian supermarket) that I will crush (as I don't have a spice grinder).  It has a nice spicy citrus aroma (rather than a celery or hotdog smell which I have read is possible).  I will also be using the zest from two navel oranges in the beer.  An alternate is bitter orange peel which was a bit more expensive and maybe (per opinions on the internet) not as good.  These spices will be added with 5 min left in the boil.

Finally, I will be using Wyeast 3944 Belgian Witbier at 70 to 72 F to ferment this out.  I am hoping to get a good level of esters out of the yeast at this temp range but not so much that they overwhelm the spices.  I have heard that this yeast may be a bit of a slow worker so if it's now down in the low teens as expected after my normal 4 weeks of fermentation I may decide to give it some more time.

This looks like a really well thought out recipe.  I am confident that the beer will turn out well if I am able to get the complicated brewday reasonably smoothly.

Recipe Details:

• Grain:
• Main Mash:
• 5 lb Pilsner
• 8 oz Flaked Oats
• 3 oz Acid Malt
• Cereal Mash:
• 4 lb Unmalted Wheat
• 1 lb Pilsner Malt
• Hops:
• 1 oz Saaz (Pellet, 3.6% AA) at 60 min
• 1 oz Saaz (Pellet, 3.6% AA) at 10 min
• Yeast:
• Wyeast 3944 Belgian Witbier
• Water:
• 10 gal spring water
• 5 gal tap water
• 1 tsp Calcium Chloride
• 1 tsp Gypsum
• Extras:
• 1.5 oz Orange Zest from 2 Navel Oranges at 5 min
• 0.75 oz Crushed Coriander Seed at 5 min
• 1 lb of rice hulls in mash

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 5.75 gal (Target 6 gal)
• Mash:
• Main Mash:
• Step 1:  130 F for 45 min(Target 122 F for 60 min)
• Step 2:  153 F for 60 min (Target 153 F for 60 min)
• Cereal Mash:
• Step 1:  122 F for 15 min (Target 122 F for 15 min)
• Step 2:  150 F for 20 min (Target 150 F for 15 min)
• Step 3:  Boil for 15 min (Target Boil for 15 min)
• Boil:
• 60 min (Target 60 min)
• Fermentation Temp:
• 70 to 72 F
• Primary Duration:
• 4 weeks
• Secondary Duration:
• NA

Results:

• OG:
• 1.046 (Target 1.048)
• Efficiency:
• 69% (Target 75%)
• FG:
• 1.010 (Target 1.010)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 78% (Target 79%)
• ABV:
• 4.73% (Target 4.99%)

Brewing Notes:

• 2/5/16 - Made a DME based starter using 8 oz of extract and 1.5 L of tap water.  Added 1/8th tsp of yeast nutrient.  Boiled in a flask.  Chilled to 60s and added an expired package of yeast.  Set up on a stir plate.
• 2/6/16 - had reached high krausen by this afternoon
• 2/7/16 - Brewday - 9:30 AM to 2:50 PM - including setup and cleanup
• Heated 10 gal of spring water to 125 F
• Had to double mill my raw wheat to get a good crush
• Transferred 10 qt of water to a separate pot for the cereal mash
• Added the grain and stirred in.  The mash settled down to 119 F so I heated a bit more to get to the target of 122 F.  Let sit for 15 min at this temp.

• Continued to heat the kettle through all this.  Was up to 145 F by the time I started transferring to the mash tun
• Ended up with 2 gal of water above the false bottom
• Added CaCl and Gypsum to the mash tun
• Added the rice hulls
• Added the grain and stirred in.  This only brought the mash temp down to about 130 F which was a bit high.  I let it go without taking action.  Let sit at this temp while the cereal mash progressed.
• Heated the cereal mash up to 150 F stirring frequently to avoid scorching.  Let it sit at this temp for another 15 min
• Brought the cereal mash to a boil for 15 min.  Stirred most of the time.  The cereal mash wasn't sticky like the corn based ones I've been doing for the Flanders Reds.  The 15 min rest at 150 F must be responsible for this.  I am going to try this technique for cereal mashing next time.
• Added the cereal mash to the main mash.  Added slowly and stirred in as I went to avoid overheating.  Ended up raising the mash to the high 140s and low 150s.
• Setup the RIMS to cycle at ~2 qt per min with the heat set to 155 F
• Mashed for 60 min
• Heated 7 gal of sparge water to 190 F
• At the end of the mash I transferred all the wort from the grant back to the mash tun and then added a couple more inches of sparge water on top of the grain bed
• Sparged slowly (~1 gal every 5 min)

• Started heating the kettle after collecting 3 gal.  It was at a boil after collecting about 7 gal
• Gravity at the grant after collecting 3 gal was 9.6 brix (1.038)
• Collected 8 gal total - gravity at the grant was 2.5 brix (1.010) at the end of the mash
• Added the 60 min hops after the hot break cleared
• Crushed the Coriander seed with a beer bottle used like a rolling pin.
• Zested the two oranges and got quite a bit of orange zest (1.5 oz) decided to just use all of it
• With about 10 min left I added the flavoring hops
• With 5 min left I added the orange zest and coriander
• Added the chiller just prior to flameout to sanitize
• Chilled down to 70 F
• Transferred to the fermenter by letting the beer fall a foot or so to aerate

• Ended up collecting about 5.75 gal.  Measured the gravity as 1.046.  The sample didn't have as strong of an orange or coriander aroma as would have expected.  It seemed like most of the spice got left behind in the kettle with the hops.  I wonder if that was how it was expected to work
• Moved the fermenter down to the temperature controlled fermentation chamber and pitched the yeast
• 2/8/16 - The airlock was filled with yeast from a very vigorous fermentation by this morning.  Cleaned it out this afternoon.  The orange aroma seemed much more prominent today than it did in the sample yesterday.  Very nice.
• 2/14/16 - Cleaned up the lid which had accumulated a lot of yeast trub as well as the airlock.

• 3/5/16 - Bottled this batch today.  Primed with 5.5 oz of table sugar.  Measured the FG of the beer as 1.011.  The beer was relatively clear and was a really nice light straw color.  Aroma was of Belgian yeast with the coriander and orange faded into the background a bit.  Same with the flavor at this point.  Captured about 6 gal of beer which netted me 58 bottles.  I'll give the beer a couple weeks to bottle condition before giving it a try.
• 6/18/16 - Tasting Notes - This is a light and easy drinking beer that packs a lot of flavor.  The malt balances the yeast character nicely and the spicing is restrained but comes through enough to add another complimentary dimension to the beer.  I wasn't able to pin-point anything I could confidently say was a flavor contribution from the unmalted wheat but it likely was a big contributor to the smooth body of the beer.

Lessons Learned:

1. This cereal mash technique really led to a smoother brewday than I have been experiencing with the corn for my Flanders Reds.  I am going to try this method next time.  I will still ramp up the mash temp prior to adding it to the main mash to prevent conversion.