Berliner Weisse - Tasting

I've been enjoying my Berliner Weisse for the last eight weeks or so.  It never really got any more than a little bit tart and the brett didn't really generate any funk the way I used it as a primary strain.  It has a very interesting set of flavors though and I don't really regret that it's not very sour.

It looked disgusting during fermentation but it turned into a very pretty beer.

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• It has fruity, almost cider like, smell to it.  There is also maybe a hint of funky/cheezy/dirty sock smell lingering in the background.  No malt, hops, or alcohol to speak of.
• Appearance:
• It has a pretty good head with a strong pour (as seen in the picture) but it doesn't linger for long.  It has settled out to be very clear in the 2 months since bottling.  It's a very light colored beer and it almost has a pink hue to it - very strange looking but pretty.  Not sure how that happened.
• Flavor:
• Up front I get slight tartness mixed in with a bit of grainy/bready flavor.  The middle is a very subdued fruity yeast flavor (gets more pronounced as it warms).  The finish has a little bit of a bite to it with some sourness and maybe a bit of alcohol.  It's a very light beer, somewhat watery, and the flavors are all very subtle.
• Mouth-feel:
• It finishes very dry and is a pretty refreshing beer.  You want to take another sip pretty quickly after the first one.  It's pretty highly carbonated but I think it would have been nice to have been a little more carbonated.
• Overall:
• A very refreshing beer that is easy drinking with a pretty low ABV but that still has a fair amount of complexity.  A bit more sourness would have been nice but that actually could have detracted from that complexity.

I was really looking forward to brewing one of these.  I've gone through about 3/4 of my bottles of this batch so I'm thinking another one may not be many batches away.  I don't think I would use the White Labs 677 again though - it produces interesting flavors but I'm really looking for more lactic acid on the next one.

Brown Porter

I drank my last Oatmeal Stout last month and I've started to crave another dark beer.  I found what looks like a pretty nice recipe for a "Brown Porter" on homebrewtalk - Atonement Brown Porter.

My Oatmeal Stout had a pretty complicated grain bill which I realized sort of made it difficult to use the beer to learn more about the various malts.  This Brown Porter recipe has a very simple grain bill (3 malts) and will give me the opportunity to brew with some new ingredients.  In particular it has about 25% of the malt bill as Brown malt which, based on the descriptions, sounds like it will provide some very nice flavors.

It seems like the kind of grain bill I may want to return to at some point to make some minor tweaks - maybe even to use with Brett to try to duplicate the classic English aged porters.

I decided to try to improve my efficiency on this batch by slowing down the rate of draining the wort from the mash tun.  I would typically drain at the highest possible rate which may be causing channeling in the grain bed which could result in sugar being left behind.  It will be interesting to see if I get an efficiency bump doing to this way and if it will seem worth the extra time on the brewday.

Although it isn't a big beer the roast flavors will make for a nice beer for the cold weather as we move into Autumn.

Recipe Details:

• Grain:
• 8 lbs Marris Otter
• 3 lbs Brown Malt (Briess Carabrown)
• 10 oz Black Malt
• Hops:
• 1.5 oz Fuggle (Pellet, 5.3% AA) at 60 min
• 0.5 oz Fuggle (Pellet, 5.3% AA) 0 min
• Yeast:
• Wyeast 1028 London Ale
• Water:
• 12 gal Spring Water
• 1 tsp Calcium Chloride
• 1 tsp Gypsum
• 1 tsp Irish Moss at 20 min

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 6 gal
• Mash:
• 152 F for 60 min
• Boil:
• 90 min
• Fermentation Temperature:
• 64 F
• Primary Duration:
• 4 weeks
• Secondary Duration:
• NA

Results:

• OG:
• 1.048 (Target 1.048)
• Efficiency:
• 69% (Target 69%)
• FG:
• 1.012 (Target 1.012)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 74% (Target 74%)
• ABV:
• 4.73% (Target 4.73%)

Brewing Notes:

• 10/16/14 - Built a yeast starter using 1 L of water and 3.6 oz of DME.  Put onto the stir plate and had good activity a few hours later.  Kept the starter in the basement at ~68 F.
• 10/18/14 - Brew day - 11:20 AM to 4:40 PM including setup and cleanup
• Brought 8 gal of spring water up to 187 F - took about 20 min
• Added brewing salts to the kettle
• Transferred 14 quarts of strike water into the mash tun using a measuring cup
• After 10 min the mash tun had settled to 177 F
• Added the grain all at once and then stirred it in - grain settled out at 160 to 165 F so I added 1 gal of cool spring water and stirred vigorously to get close to the target mash temp (the mash varied from 151 to 158 F but most samples seemed to be about 152 F)

• Gave the mash a stir at 15 min and checked the temperature which had mostly settled to 152 F
• Stirred again at 40 min to try to help conversion along
• Added 4 gal of mash out water, stirred, let settle for 5 min, vorlaufed, and then drained
• I drained at a reduced rate to try to improve efficiency - took 45 min to drain the mash tun

• I started to heat the wort after collecting about a gallon and quickly brought it to a boil.  So, I ended up boiling for a majority of the mash out period

• After I had collected 5 gal I added the bittering hops (about 40 min into mash out)
• Added 3 more gal of cool spring water to the mash, stirred, let settle for 5 min, vorlaufed and then drained slowly again - took about 30 min
• Ended up with 8 gal of wort
• Chilled my sample using coffee cups I had placed in the freezer.  I was able to chill the wort down to the 90s within a few minutes using this method

• Measured gravity as 1.032 at 90 F which is about 1.038.  This is 73% efficiency so I did not collect another batch sparge
• Once the boil volume got down to 6.5 gal I added the Irish Moss
• Once the volume got down to 6.25 gal (to account for expansion of the hot wort) I ended the boil and added the flameout hops
• Added the wort chiller to sanitize and let sit for 10 min
• Chilled the wort down to ground water temps (66 F) which took 25 min
• Transferred to fermentor - collected 6 gal

• Poured back and forth between fermentor and bottling bucket to aerate
• Pitched the entire starter, put the fermentor in the fermentation chamber at 64 F, and setup a blowoff tube as the fermentor is very full
• Measured gravity as 1.046 at 66 F which is 1.048 per the hydrometer calibration which was the target

• 10/19/14 - I had my previous batch (Rye Pale Ale) cold crashing batch in the fermentation chamber with the new batch and it turned out that it managed to chill the Brown Porter down to 56 F over night.  There wasn't any bubbling so I moved it out of the chamber to the 66 F basement to warm up a bit.  6 hours later the beer was bubbling vigorously.  After I bottled the previous batch I moved the Porter back into the fermentation chamber to keep it under control.
• 10/21/14 - The basement has been in the low 60s the last couple days and it cooled the beer down to 62 F.  The bubbling stopped for a bit.  Basement warmed back up into the high 60s later and the beer has warmed to the target temperature of 64 F and is bubbling slowly.
• 11/1/14 - Switched out the blowoff tube for an airlock.  It's pretty humid down in the basement and quite a bit of condensation has formed in the fermentation chamber.  This has also allowed some more black mold to grow - not so much on the fermentor itself but quite a bit on the chamber floor.  I left the chamber open to allow the beer to rise up to basement temps (65 F - 68 F).
• 11/12/14 - Cold crashed down to 35 F to drop the yeast
• 11/16/14 - Bottled this batch.  Ended up at 1.012 at 58 F which was the target.  I saved off 2 liters to try to culture some Brett for my next batch and ended up with ~5 gal.  I primed with 3.25 oz of dextrose to get 2.1 vol of CO2.  Ended up with 53 12 oz bottles.  The beer has a very nice chocolate/roast flavor and a subdued bitterness that makes for a pleasant balance.  This is the first batch I've hit my target OG and FG - pretty happy about that even though it was probably just dumb luck.
• 12/11/14 - Tasting Notes - Really nice dark beer.  The mild level of roast really makes it an easier drinking beer than most stouts I've had.  Nice combo of drinkability and flavor.
• 4/18/15 - Last one of these was consumed today.

Lessons Learned:

1. The slow sparge method may have improved my efficiency and didn't really increase the length of the brewday as I was able to boil while draining the mash tun.  I am going to do this again next time.

Flanders Red 1.1.1

I have been wanting to brew a Flanders Red ever since I tried Duchesse De Bourgogne which is a wonderfully complex sour beer.  It has a nice fruity flavor with some vinegar and a mild level of sourness.  It's also a pretty expensive beer ($20 per 4 pack) which prevents me from drinking it frequently.

I spent quite a bit of time researching the grain bill and found that many hombrewers end up using Pilsner, Munich, and Vienna along with some flaked wheat or corn and small amount of some Belgian specialty malts.  I believe these are all based on Jamil's Flanders Red.  I decided to go with that grain bill as well.

I am using Wyeast Roeselare Blend which I've heard is relatively low on sourness on the first batch but that it becomes more assertive for successive batches.  This is due to the lactic bacteria and Brett in the blend becoming more dominant and the brewers yeast playing less of a role.  To try to get a better first batch I decided to mash high and try to get the Alpha Amylase enzymes to break down the starches.  I found this nice diagram (from "How to Brew" which can be found here) that shows the optimal temperature and pH ranges for the enzymes:

Based on this chart I decided to mash at 158 F.  The grain bill has a lot of dark malts which would tend to drive the pH down so I used the Brun water spreadsheet to determine the salt additions necessary to get a pH of 5.4 with spring water in order to get better performance out of the Alpha Amylase.  Based on this assessment I determined that I would need to add a small amount of baking soda along with my normal additions of Calcium Chloride and Gypsum.

I plan on doing primary fermentation in a bucket for 3 months down in the basement (unless it gets too cold down there) and then transferring the beer to a better bottle to mature for another 15 months.  I will make another batch with the transfer to primary to continue to use the Roeselare Blend and allow myself some blending options down the road.

It's very exciting to finally be giving one of these a try.  I'm trying some new techniques with this batch - I have my fingers crossed that it turns out okay.

Recipe Details:

• Grain:
• 4 lbs Pilsner (27%)
• 4 lbs Munich (27%)
• 3 lbs 8 oz Vienna (24%)
• 1 lb 8 oz Flaked Wheat (10%)
• 10 oz CaraMunich (4%)
• 10 oz Aromatic (4%)
• 10 oz Special B (4%)
• Hops:
• 1 oz Fuggle (Pellet, 5.0% AA) at 90 min
• Yeast:
• Wyeast 3763 Roeselare Ale Blend
• Water:
• 13 gal Spring water
• 5 g Calcium Chloride (2.3 Mash & 2.7 Boil)
• 3.5 g Gypsum (1.6 Mash & 1.9 Boil)
• 2.9 g Baking Soda (Mash Only)
• 1 tsp Irish Moss at 20 min

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 6.25 gal
• Mash:
• 158 F for 60 min
• Boil:
• 90 min
• Fermentation Temp:
• 60 F - 75 F
• Primary Duration:
• 3 months
• Secondary Duration:
• TBD (15 to 33 months)

Results:

• OG:
• 1.056 (Target 1.062)
• Efficiency:
• 66% (Target 70%)
• FG:
• TBD (Target 1.012)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• TBD (Target 80%)
• ABV:
• TBD (Target 6.83%)

Brewing Notes:

• 10/10/14 Brew Day - 8:40 AM to 2:10 PM including setup and cleanup
• At the start of the day I took the yeast out of the fridge and popped the smack pack
• Heated 10 gal of spring water to 187 F (Assume the grain are at 60 F and a 15 F loss in temperature to the mash tun)
• Added the mash portions of the salts to the mash tun

• Added 18.6 quarts of water to the mash tun for a 1.25 quarts to pounds ratio.  I ran the water out my boil kettle's ball valve this time rather than transferring with my measuring cup.  Had to elevate the kettle and have the mash tun on the ground to do this.  It was a positive change but does require more lifting as I'll need the mash tun higher than the kettle to drain it.

• Let the mash tun temperature settle for 10 min - this time I'm targeting 173 F to plan for 15 degree loss during dough in to hit the 158 F mash temp
• Continued to heat the remaining 5.5 gal of water to allow temperature adjustment post dough in
• Added grain and stirred to eliminate dough balls .  I dumped all the grain in at the same time for this one and then stirred which was a lot quicker than adding a bit and stirring in.  I think I was just as effective in eliminating dough balls as well.
• The mash ended up at 155 F so I added another gal of 190 F water and stirred which brought the temperature up to between 158 F and 162 F depending on where in the mash I measured.  Decided to continue with this.
• Wrapped the mash tun in blankets to help insulate - it was ~50 F for most of the brewday
• Checked temperature after 30 min - still around 158 F to 162 F
• After 50 min I ran the starch conversion test - conversions is not complete

• Checked the pH of a chilled sample of wort using strips - measuring pH at ~5.0.  Was shooting for 5.4.  Added 1/8 tsp (~0.5 g) of baking soda to the mash to increase the pH.
• At 60 min the temperature of the mash was between 156 F and 162 F.
• Checked the pH again at 70 min - measured at 5.0 still
• Added ~1/8 tsp more of baking soda to the mash to try to increase the pH.
• At 90 min I checked the conversion and pH again.  Still 5.0 and conversion still hadn't completed.  I decided to just roll with it as I'm not 100% confident that I would expect to see full starch conversion at the 158 F mash temp.  The wort is sweet so there was some conversion.  The bugs should be able to work on starch so maybe starchy wort won't be a bad thing.  Still a bit disappointing for my first attempt to really understand water adjustments.
• Heated the strike water to 190 F
• Added 3 gal of the 190 F water to the mash tun which brought the mash temperature to 170 F
• Transferred the remaining hot water into another small pot
• Stirred the mash, let settle for 5 min, vorlaufed, and then drained.  
• Added the remaining hot water to the mash along with 3 more gal of spring water, stirred, let settle for 5 min, vorlaufed, and then drained.
• Collected 10 gal of wort.  Pulled a sample and put it into the freezer to chill.  Tried to increase rate of chilling by pouring the sample into several small glasses.  This time it took 15 min to chill to 85 F.  Measured the gravity of the wort as 1.030 at which is actually 1.035 at that temperature.  This is 66% efficiency.  So, I decided to continue without taking corrective action - if my volume measurements were correct then I should have about 1.058 OG which isn't too bad.
• While chilling the sample I brought the wort up to a boil - this took 20 min
• Added the boil portion of the brewing salts
• Let the hot break clear before adding the bittering hops

• Added the Irish moss with ~20 min left to go
• Ended the boil when the volume was at ~6.5 gal per the sight glass (this will hopefully compensate for the expansion in the hot liquid and leave me with 6 gal.
• Added the chiller at flame out.
• Chilled the wort down to 80 F and transferred to the fermentor
• Ended up with 6.25 gal of wort.  Measured the OG as 1.052 at 80 F which is 1.056 per my hydrometer calibration.  This is 66% efficiency.
• Pitched the yeast/bacteria blend and moved the fermenter down to the basement where it has been ~66 F
• It was a very rough brew day and at this point I'm not sure whether the beer is going to have enough easily fermentable sugar for the brewers yeast to bring the gravity down to the range it should or if the lactic bacteria and brett are going to be able to deal with the starch I gave them to eat.  I'm surprised I got the level of efficiency I did with the lack of conversion.  It seems like either starches factor into the gravity reading or that starch conversion test isn't accurate.  I am going to try to forget this beer for the next month until I check the gravity reading - that is going to be the first real evidence about what happened with the mash.  I'm kicking myself for adding that baking soda as well - it didn't increase the pH and it added sodium to the beer - I'm worried I'm going to taste it in the finished product.
• 10/11/14 - Airlock is bubbling vigorously the morning after pitching.  The fermentation is producing a very pleasant cider-like aroma.
• 11/7/14 - It has been about a month since I brewed this beer.  Checked the gravity which is down to 1.018 at 64 F.  This is what I was hoping for after primary.  There are quite a few gravity points left for the Brett and Lactic Acid Bacteria to do their thing. The fermentor is starting to develop a bubbly layer of film which I was careful not to disturb.  The beer has Rodenbach-like aroma at this point which is very pleasing - it has a tart/fruity smell.  It has a nice reddish brown color.  No real sourness has developed yet but I think I'm getting a tiny bit of acidity on the finish (although that could be my imagination).  I also think I may be getting a bit of baking soda flavor on the finish - tough to really say though as some sips I don't really get it.  It's already a fairly complex set of flavors.  Will be interesting to see how it evolves.  Next sample will be in 2 months when I transfer it to secondary.

• 11/8/14 - Airlock is bubbling again.  Not sure why this would be happening.  Some theories:  Off gassing, renewed brewers yeast fermentation due to additional oxygen becoming available or rousing when I was taking off the lid, or Brett fermentation.  Probably wont last too long.
• 11/9/14 - The airlock had stopped bubbling by the next morning.  Some small bugs have gotten into the airlock (ants maybe).  Looks like they crawled in from the outside fortunately as one is floating on top of the water - there are a few others at the bottom.
• 12/7/14 - The airlock is bubbling again - slowly.  I don't think this was any external stimuli that got it going again - I haven't touched that fermentor in a month and the temperature down in the basement is as cool as it's been all year (62 F).  The beer is in a new stage of fermentation I guess.
• 12/15/14 - Still bubbling slowly
• 1/11/15 - It has now been three months since I brewed this batch.  Transferred to a 6 gal glass carboy for secondary - made sure to take some of the cake with the beer during the transfer (not sure if that makes any difference).  Took a gravity sample and measured 1.012 so it has come down a bit (6 points) in the last 2 months but still has some room to come down further.  There was no more film but there were a few islands of white powdery substance which was probably pellicle.  It smells terrific - very fruity - more intense than last time.  It tastes a little funkier than it had been previously but still no real sourness.  I cleaned up the ring of krausen around the top and whirled around the yeast cake to get ready for the next batch.  I have covered the secondary with it's box for it's long aging to protect it from light.  I will plan on taking status on it every 3 months.

• 1/25/15 - Checked on the Flanders red after 2 weeks in the glass carboy.  A nice bubbly pellicle has formed.

• 3/14/15 - The pellicle has gotten a bit more bubbly in the last couple months:

• 4/11/15 - It has been 6 months since brewing this beer and it's spent the last 3 months in the glass carboy.  Measured the gravity as 1.006 so it has come down about 0.006 points in the last 3 months.  Still no real sourness has developed - quite a bit of funk in the flavor though.  It still has the nice fruity aroma from when was younger but I think it's faded a bit  It's still a really young beer from a souring standpoint so it could very well still sour up nicely.  I will check on it again in 3 months.

• 10/10/15 - It has been one year since I brewed this beer and 6 months since I took my last sample.  This has included the hot summer months.  I measured the gravity as 1.002.  Only a light pellicle covers the beer.  The sample is very clear and still has the great reddish brown color.  The aroma is slightly fruity with a musty tinge.  There may be a tiny bit of vinegar to the aroma - I check all my airlocks daily and there have been a few times where almost all the liquid had been sucked into the fermentor allowing free air exchange.  I personally like a bit of vinegar so I'm not too concerned if it goes a bit further in that direction.  The flavor is rich and complex.  It has nice funky fruitiness up front and it has developed a light acidity that lingers in the finish.  I can also definitely detect the baking soda I used to try to control the mash pH - very subtle but there.  I regret using it.  The mouthfeel is nice.  Even with the low gravity it seems to have a reasonably substantial body.  Overall I think this beer is aging nicely.  For now I will continue aging it - I'm thinking for 6 more months at a minimum.  I'm curious to see how the beer matures over time.  Ultimately I intend to blend it with one of my other beers.
• 7/23/17 - Status Report:
• Funky aroma with some fruit
• Orange/red and clear
• Lightly sour with a bit of Brett character.  Light fruit flavor.
• Fairly mild in flavor with not all that much complexity
• 9/4/17 - Used 3 gal of this batch for a blend of Cherry Flanders Red along with Flanders Red 1.3.2.  I moved the remainder of 1.3.2 into the fermenter with the remaining 1.1.1 beer.

• 12/16/18 - See latest Status Report

Lessons Learned:

1. My dry measure scale isn't precise to the fraction of a gram and may not even be accurate to the gram level.  I may have added less baking soda than I'd planned to the mash as a result.  Measuring by volume with a conversion to grams may have been a better approach.  Here is a good link to a table from "How to Brew" with a conversion from volume to grams.
2. Not measuring the mash pH at the start may have been a big mistake.  I may have stopped the Beta Amylase with the high temp mash and prevented the Alpha Amylase from doing it's job because the pH was too low.  This could explain why I didn't get good starch conversion even after mashing for 90 min.  I have test strips but I question their accuracy.  I need to invest in a digital pH meter.
3. I hated adding baking soda to the beer.  I really don't need extra sodium in my diet and the potential impact to the flavor of the beer is not good either.  I may have to try using pickling lime or chalk next time.
4. Hitting my mash temperature is a real pain and the tools I have at my disposal to course correct (especially when trying to hit such a high mash temp) are not very good.  Having more hot water available allowed me to get the mash from 155 F to 158 F but I'm wondering if I might have ended up stopping the enzymes with that 190 F water.  I have been researching the work necessary to put together a RIMS setup - this batch has started to convince me that it would be worth the effort - I don't want a repeat of this brewday.

Rye Pale Ale

It has been 3 months since my last brew day.  I have been really eager to get back to it.  I am finally settled in enough in PA to start brewing again.  Just in time too because I'm starting to get lower than I'd like on beer.

The Philadelphia area has many things going for it that I've discovered so far:

• Much better access to European beers
• Some really great breweries (Victory, Tired Hands, Stoudts, Yards . . . )
• A great home brew store - Weak Knee
• Cooler weather and a basement in my house to help with fermentation and long term conditioning

Before my move I was feeling like the process was getting easier and easier with each batch.  Now, between the long break and starting up again in a new place I'm thinking I might have taken a couple steps back.  So, for this batch I'm going to have to knock some rust off and pay some special attention to make sure I don't miss any important steps.  Hopefully nothing will get too screwed up.

I want to start getting a better feel for the many ingredients available to home brewers to try to speed my way to a point where I'm comfortable making my own recipes.  So far I've brewed with barley, oats, and wheat.  I've decided it's now time to try my hands at rye.  I chose this recipe from homebrewtalk which is about 20% rye.  I've really liked the rye beers I've had in the past - it has a very interesting flavor that gets along really well with hops.  This recipe is very hoppy.  To get a better sense for the contribution of the rye it might be interesting to brew this with only barley somewhere down the road.

I am also trying my hands at a new yeast - Wyeast 1272 American Ale II (also my first time with the Wyeast slap pack).  As I progress with brewing I'm coming to understand that the benefits of the huge selection of yeasts provided by White Labs and Wyeast justifies the added effort associated with building up a starter - I'm getting pretty board of S-04, US-05, and Nottingham dry yeasts at this point.  It's exciting to have all these options of yeasts available to me now that I've come to that realization.  To that end, and as a reward to myself to not brewing in so long, I purchased an Erlenmeyer flask and a Stir Plate.

I'm looking forward to the next few months of broadening my horizons and of drinking more home brew.

Recipe Details:

• Grain:
• 8 lbs 2 Row
• 2 lbs 8 oz Rye
• 1 lb Munich
• 8 oz Victory
• 3 oz Acid Malt
• Hops:
• 1 oz Magnum (Pellet, 14.3% AA) at 60 min
• 1 oz Fuggle (Pellet, 5.3% AA) at 30 min
• 0.5 oz East Kent Goldings (Pellet, 7.2% AA) at 20 min
• 0.5 oz East Kent Goldings (Pellet, 7.2% AA) at 10 min
• 1 oz Cascade (Pellet, 7.1% AA) at 0 min
• 1 oz Cascade (Pellet, 7.1% AA) Dry Hop
• 1 oz Columbus (Pellet, 16.3% AA) Dry Hop
• Yeast:
• Wyeast 1272 American Ale II
• Water:
• 10 gal Spring water
• 1 tsp Calcium Chloride
• 1 tsp Gypsum
• 1 tsp Irish Moss at 20 min

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 6 gal
• Mash:
• 154 F for 60 min
• Boil:
• 60 min
• Fermentation Temp:
• 64 F

Results:

• OG:
• 1.048 (Target 1.052)
• Efficiency:
• 65% (Target 71%)
• FG:
• 1.006 (Target 1.011)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 87% (Target 78%)
• ABV:
• 5.51% (Target 5.38%)

Brewing Notes:

• 9/26/14 - Prepared a yeast starter.  For the yeast starter size calculations I used this tool - Yeast Pitch Rate and Starter Calculator.  My slap pack was about 1.5 months old so I ended up building a 1.2 L starter with PA tap water and 4 3/8 oz of DME to get 1.036 gravity wort.  I was able to boil the starter in my new Erlenmeyer flask which saved me the sticky step of pouring from a pot.  Activated the yeast and let the starter cool down to 95 F in the fridge before adding them.  Got a nice whirlpool going on the stir plate.  Here is what it looked like the next morning:

• 9/28/14 Brew day - 6:00 AM to 11:00 AM including setup and cleanup
• Added CaCl and Gypsum to 5 gal of water
• Heated 5 gal of strike water to 177 F (assuming 10 F lost to the mash tun)
• Added 15 qt of water to mash tun for a 1.25 ratio of water to grain
• Let the mash tun temperature settle for 10 min - target is 167 F - ended up at 166 F so just about on target
• Added grain and stirred in to eliminate dough balls - I was shooting for 154 F but the mash ended up at 150 F.  Added a gallon of 180 F water to increase the temperature.  This took about 15 min and got the temperature up to 156 F - close enough.

• After 50 min ran the iodine starch conversion test - conversion appears to be complete
• At the end of the 60 min the mash was at 152 F
• Added 5 gal of mash out water at 185 F (which brought the mash temp to 162 F), stirred, let settle for 5 minutes, vorlaufed, and then drained (I am currently operating with only one pot - need to get a second one to make a dedicated HLT).

• Ended up collecting 8.5 gal of wort.  Measured the gravity at 1.031 at 83 F.  Per my hydrometer calibration this is actually 1.035.  This is 68% efficiency.  This was close enough to not take any action.
• Brought the 8.5 gal of wort to a boil - this took 15 min.
• Waited for the hot break to subside before adding the 60 min hops.  Had a higher than normal hot break - wonder if that could be due to the rye.

• Added the 30 min hops
• At 20 min added more hops and the Irish moss
• Added 10 min hops
• At flame out added the 0 min hops - performed a 15 min hop stand
• Sanitized the wort chiller by adding to the near boiling wort post flameout.  I believe leaving it in there for the hop stand will be sufficient to sanitize the chiller.  This is a change to my previous process to avoid the problem I had with the Strong Brown Ale where I hadn't boiled off enough wort to get to the correct OG but didn't realize it until the wort had been chilled (using the sight glass to determine the extra displacement from the chiller just proved to be unfeasible).  Had I known prior to chilling I could have continued the boil to correct the situation.
• Chilled the wort down to ground water temps (64 F) which took 30 min - big time savings compared with AZ.

• Transferred wort to fermentor.  Used the hop sack to filter out the spent hops and maximize wort collection.  Probably transferred a lot of break material as well.
• Collected 6 gal of wort.  Measured final gravity as 1.046 at 68 F which is 1.048 per the temperature calibration.  This is 65% efficiency which is okay with me.
• Poured the wort between two sanitized fermentors a few times to aerate.  This warmed the wort a bit - ended up at 68 F.
• Moved to the fermentation chamber to chill down to 62 F
• Once it got down to 62 F pitched the entire 1.2 L yeast starter and increased the fermentation chamber to 64 F.  Set up the fermentor with a blowoff tube as the bucket is pretty full.
• 9/29/14 - Good krausen build up the day after pitching.  This yeast strain produces a pleasant aroma (almost a vanilla smell.  I think I used the wrong lid to the fermenter as it doesn't produce a very good seal.  No bubbling in the airlock as a result.
• 10/2/14 - Still have good layer of krausen.  Increased the fermentation temperature to 68 F (basement temperature) to help it finish up.
• 10/11/14 - Added the dry hops in a hop sack
• 10/17/14 - Removed the dry hop sack and reduced the fermentation chamber down to 35 F for the cold crash
• 10/18/14 - Added gelatin for fining.  What appears to be black mold has accumulated on the outside of the fermentor where I had spilled some wort.  Doesn't look like it's made its way into the beer fortunately.

• 10/19/14 - Bottled the batch with 4 5/8 oz of priming sugar for 2.4 vol of carbonation.  Ended up with 5.25 gal of beer which got me 56 12 oz bottles.  Measured final gravity at 60 F as 1.006 which is a bit lower than I'd expected.  The beer is really hoppy at this point with a firm bitterness - I could call this an IPA and nobody would argue.  The dry finish doesn't really detract.  I do get the spiciness in the finish that I expected from the rye as well.  It's a very tasty beer - one of the best I've brewed so far.
• 11/30/14 - Tasting Notes - this one turned out very well.  Really nice balance between hops and spicy rye.  It makes for a great, easy drinking, flavorable beer
• 4/2/15 - Drank my last bottle of this beer today.  It still had some nice hop flavor to it after 5 months.  I will miss this one.

Lessons Learned:

1. Brewing in PA is going to be okay.  The one painful thing about the brewday was that I keep all my equipment down in the basement so I had to make many trips to bring in up and down and the start and end of the day.  Not sure there's anything to be done about that at this point.
2. I was about 52 F when I started brewing this morning.  I lost a lot more heat doughing in than I did in PHX.  I need to compensate for that a bit more - especially as it gets colder out.
3. I liked the process change to add the chiller after flameout.  The water stayed at ~200 F for the entire 15 min hop stand - no infection could survive in that so I think it was sufficient to sanitize.
4. I think my efficiency may have been negatively impacted by the single mash out sparge.  I really need to get myself a dedicated large volume HLT.
5. It would also be nice to figure out a way to chill the post mash gravity sample a bit quicker.  I just put the sampling tube in the freezer and it took about 30 min to get the sample down to the 80s.  If I could have gotten this sample quicker, and I had a HLT with some spare sparge water, I could have done another batch sparge to get a bit more sugar off the grain.
6. The rubber washers on my sight glass are starting to fall apart - need to develop a longer term solution.

American IPA - Tasting

I brewed up this IPA with the hopes of duplicating my favorite beer (Four Peaks Hop Knot) which is only available in Arizona.  Now that I have moved to Pennsylvania I will no longer have access to that beer and I wanted to see if I could put together a reasonable approximation.

I will capture my notes on the comparison between the two beers later this week and today I will just assess the beer on it's own merits.  It drinks very easy and at 7% alcohol (which is very well hidden) I'm finding that drinking three of them results in me getting a skull splitting headache the next morning.

It was reputed that the US-05 strain of yeast will produce a peach ester if fermented below 60 F.  Based on the original clone's lack of peach character using WPL007 I decided to give this technique a shot.  It ended up producing a very significant fruity/peachy flavor.  It is actually quite different than the original but I'm finding that the peach yeast character blends very nicely with the character produced by the dry hops.  I'm sure I will laugh at this when I finally get a chance to try some Heady Topper but this balance reminds me of how that beer is often discussed as having a nice balance of peach ester from the yeast and the floral/citrus hops.

Anyway, I found it interesting to use the yeast in a non-standard way to get some different flavors.  I would like to play around with this some more in the future.

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Citrus/piney hops are the dominant smell mixed with some fruity peach ester character.  No malt and no alcohol in the aroma to speak of.
• Appearance:
• Has a decent head after a fairly aggressive pour (not pictured) that lasts over the course of drinking the beer.  A little bit of lacing on the glass.  It is pretty clear beer if you are careful to avoid the significant amount of sediment at the bottom of the bottle.
• Flavor:
• Up front there is a sweet fruitiness of the citrus hops and the peach ester.  The two flavors get a long pretty darn well in this beer.  The finish has a nice assertive bitterness.  It's a very dry finish.  The flavor has changed a bit over the last two weeks that I've been drinking it.  The finish has gotten drier ss the beer has conditioned in the bottle.  This is the best bottle I have had so far.
• Mouth-feel:
• Has a full bodied mouth feel and finishes very dry.
• Overall:
• The balance between the hops and ester is complimentary.  The bitterness that has emerged after the beer has adequately conditioned makes this a much easier drinker.  The high ABV seems a bit over the top - I think it would have been just as good at 5% and much less hangover inducing.

So, I am very happy with the beer based on it's own merits.

Strong Brown Ale - Tasting

It has been just over 2 months since I brewed up my Strong Brown Ale.  It was intended to be a semi-clone of Lagunitas' Brown Shugga.  I haven't tried it next to the real thing yet but I strongly suspect that I was a bit off the mark with this one.  I ended up stopping the boil a little too early and had an extra half gallon of wort that I poured out after chilling.  That cost me about 6 points off the original gravity.  Then the yeast ended up taking the beer all the way down to 1.015 rather than stopping at 1.025 as I'd hoped.  I believe part of the strategy of using the WPL002 was that it would die off at around 10% ABV but since I started with less fermentables it was able to take the FG down further.  So, it's a bit dryer than the original which is a pretty big flaw since the sweetness was one of the primary characteristics I was shooting for with this beer.  Live and learn I guess.

I tried this beer a few weeks back and it had a pretty stiff alcohol bite too it.  It's still got quite a bit of alcohol in the finish but it is much smoother now.  I believe it will continue to improve over time.  I will plan on doing another tasting in November when the real thing hits the streets.

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Alcohol/Fruity Ester character are the prominent smells.  The fruity flavor is of dried fruit - prunes maybe - it is quite nice.  There is also some malt sweetness in there.  No hop aroma to the beer at all (shouldn't be a surprise because I eliminated all the late hop additions).
• Appearance:
• Very slight head even after a fairly vigorous pour.  The head quickly fades to nothing.  It is a cloudy beer - the cloudiest beer I've made so far.  This is probably due to the wine yeast added at bottling.
• Flavor:
• Even with the lower than expected final gravity there is still quite a bit of sweetness to the beer.  There is quite a bit of dark fruity flavor that goes nicely with the sweetness it has.  I also think I'm tasting something like a brown sugar flavor but that may be my imagination.  The malt has a bit of subtle nutty flavor too it.  The finish is primarily alcohol.  The bittering hops are all lost in the background - can not pick them out past the alcohol.
• Mouth-feel:
• It has a pleasant amount of body too it - I don't think I'd want this to be much more carbonated.
• Overall:
• This beer still seems a bit green.  The alcohol flavor dominates at this point and it's a pretty harsh alcohol burn.  The fruity sweet flavor is pleasant - hopefully that element remains a few months down the line.  Some flavor/aroma hops probably could have improved the beer a bit at this stage of maturation.

I am thinking the beer may be better a few months from now.  The malt and yeast character are very pleasant.  I am hoping that the finish becomes more about them and less about the alcohol as it ages.

Oatmeal Stout - Tasting Part II

I wasn't very happy with my Oatmeal Stout after tasting it about a month and a half after it was brewed and two weeks after it was bottled.  At that time it had an alcohol bite to it that really dominated the flavor of the beer.  It has been about two months since that tasting and the beer has mellowed considerably.

I have been drinking the beer for the last three weeks and have been pretty happy with it (although some sips still seem to have the stronger alcohol taste - not sure how that's possible).  There have been quite a few process changes since I brewed this batch (and no repeat of these issues) so I'm not sure what it really tells me except that a bad beer can mature given time and turn into something drinkable.

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• It has a nice, but subdued, roasted malt smell to it.  I get a little bit of chocolate as well.  There is also a nice bit of sweetness in the aroma.
• Appearance:
• It has a really rich, beautiful, black color (the picture does it pretty good justice).  The head is beige.  It fades down do a thin layer after an average pour.
• Flavor:
• With some age the alcohol has faded into the background for the most part.  Up front I get a little bit of a sweet flavor with some malty complexity.  The finish is almost all roasted grain with maybe a tiny bit of chocolate mixed in.  It's a relatively restrained roastyness compared with an Irish Stout but still pretty dry on the finish.  I don't really get any hops or yeast ester character from it at this point.  The flavor definitely gets a lot fuller and richer as the beer warms up - It's about 60 F at the moment which seems to be about the perfect temperature.
• Mouth-Feel:
• It has a medium body.  Even with light carbonation it doesn't feel thin (now that the alcohol flavor has cleared up).  It think the body is about right for an oatmeal stout - this is about what I had thought it would be like anyway.  The finish is quite dry but not at all unpleasant.
• Overall:
• Now that it's matured I think it's a pretty nice stout.  It's dry and roasty the way I would expect a stout to be but not aggressively so.  I wish there was a bit more going on in the finish than the dry roastyness.  As it is, it's not unpleasant anymore but it's a bit one dimensional.

So, I am very happy that the beer improved but not completely happy with the end results.  It think a bit more chocolate and some additional residual sweetness to the beer would have been interesting.  This recipe was a nice starting stout but I'm not sure I'll use it as any sort of basis for recipes going forward - too much going on with that grain bill.