American IPA

I am a big fan of Four Peaks Brewing Company from Tempe AZ.  They make what is probably my favorite IPA - Hop Knot.  It has a really wonderfully hop saturated flavor and aroma with a nice mild level of bitterness - it is really delicious.

I will be moving to Pennsylvania at the end of July.  Unfortunately Four Peaks does not distribute outside of AZ at this point.  So, I'll have all the Victory Hop Devil that I could want to drink but no more Hop Knot.

The Bertus Brewery blog has what sounds like a very good clone of Hop Knot that I have been eager to try out.  I am going to use US-05 on this batch.  I would have liked to have tried the WLP007 that the clone called for but I didn't think far enough ahead to prepare a starter.  I'm going to start fermentation off at 58 F at which US-05 is reputed to put off some peach ester.  In the side by side comparison of the clone to Hop Knot it was reported that the original had a slight peach ester that the clone didn't.  I've never personally gotten any peach from Hop Knot but I haven't tried this clone side by side with it either so I will trust that assessment.  Four Peaks uses a proprietary house strain so I am just aiming for close not perfect.  Close will still make a very nice beer I think.

There are a lot of hops in this beer.  It's called "Hop Knot" because they use 5 different hops so go figure.  I have decided to plan for a 6 gal batch and assume 0.5 gal of wort lost to the hops (so, that is 6.5 gal at 71% efficiency and assuming a 0.5 gal loss it's 67% brewhouse efficiency).  We will see if that is a high enough assumption of loss to hops to get me 6 gal in the fermentor.  I am also going to try filtering the spent hops out of the beer with a hop sack to maximize wort collection.

I will also try a slightly different dry hop schedule for this batch.  I am going to dry hop in the primary fermentor using Pellet hops and I'm going to start dry hopping just as fermentation is closing out (day 5 maybe).  I will break the dry hop up into two stages of 7 days each.  I haven't decided if I'm going to use gelatin to fine the beer as I have heard that that can strip out some hop oils.  I will cold crash after the first round of dry hopping is complete.

Hopefully this will turn out to be a fairly close approximation that I can rebrew down the road in PA when I feel like drinking some Hop Knot.

Recipe Details:

• Grain:
• 11 lbs 2 Row
• 4 lbs Maris Otter
• 12 oz Crystal 20 L
• 4 oz Acid Malt
• Hops:
• 1 oz Magnum (Pellet, 13.4% AA) at 90 min
• 1 oz Liberty (Pellet, 5.8% AA) at 30 min
• 1 oz Glacier (Pellet, 5.9% AA) at 30 min
• 0.75 oz Simcoe (Pellet, 14.0% AA) at 5 min
• 0.75 oz Cascade (Pellet, 7.1% AA) at 5 min
• 1.5 oz Simcoe (Pellet, 14.0% AA) at 0 min
• 1.5 oz Cascade (Pellet, 7.1% AA) at 0 min
• 1.75 oz Simcoe (Pellet, 14.0% AA) Dry hop
• 1.75 oz Cascade (Pellet, 7.1% AA) Dry hop
• Yeast:
• US-05
• Water
• 10 gal RO water
• 1.5 gal tap water
• 1 tsp Calcium Chloride
• 1 tsp Gypsum
• 1 tsp Irish Moss at 20 min

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 6 gal
• Mash:
• 150 F
• Boil
• 90 min
• Fermentation Temp:
• 58 F

Results:

• OG:
• 1.060 (Target 1.065)
• Efficiency:
• 62% (Target 67%)
• FG:
• 1.006 (Target 1.013)
• ABV:
• 7.09% (Target 6.83%)

Brewing Notes:

• 6/28/14 Brew day - 7:00 PM to 12:00 AM including setup and partial cleanup
• Added CaCl and Gypsum to RO water
• Heated 6 gal of strike water to 170 F
• Added 20 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 160 F - ended up at 163 F
• Added grain and stirred in to eliminate dough balls - mash ended up at 150 F

• After 50 min ran the iodine starch conversion test - conversion appears to be complete
• At the end of the 60 min the mash was still at ~150 F  
• Added 1 gal of mash out water at 170 F, stirred, let settle for 5 minutes, vorlaufed, and then drained
• Heated 4 gal of sparge water to 170 F and did two equal batch sparges.  Ended up with 8.25 gal of wort.  Took a sample and chilled in an ice bath.  Measured gravity as 1.044 at 81 F which is 1.048 per my hydrometer calibration.  This is 68% efficiency which is a little bit off my target of 71%.

• Added tap water to get up to 9.5 gal - the chlorine will boil off 
• Heated the 9.5 gal of wart up to a boil - took 25 min
• Waited for the hot break foam to subside before adding the 90 min hops

• Added the 30 min hops
• At 20 min added the irish moss
• At 15 min I put in the wort chiller to sanitize
• Added the 5 min hops
• Added the 0 min hops at flameout

5 min and 0 min hop additions - left to right

• Did a 15 min hop stand - hops smelled wonderful but look pretty disgusting

• Chilled wort down to tap water temps (80s) - took 20 min
• Transferred wort to fermentor.  Once it was down to the hops I poured the remainder of wort through a hop sack to strain out as much of the hops as possible.  The hop sack was very effective - seemed to have caught most/all of the spent hops.  Kneaded the bag a bit to get all the wort to drain out.  I think I ended up losing very little wort with this method.

• Ended up with 6 gal of wort.  Measured OG as 1.060 at 60 F which is the nominal measurement temperature for the hydrometer.  This is 62% efficiency.
• Moved the wort to the fermentation chamber at 56 F to chill down to pitching temps over night
• 6/29/14 - Pitching the yeast
• Rehydrated dry yeast in 1 cup of previously boiled tap water at 100 F
• Sprinkled the yeast on the surface and let it absorb water for 15 min
• Stirred to mix in
• Brought the yeast to pitching temps by slowly adding 56 F wort until the mix got down to 66 F
• Poured yeast mix into fermentor
• Shook fermentor to aerate
• Increased fermentation chamber temperature to 58 F
• Set up the fermentor with a blowoff tube
• 6/30/14 - No blowoff tube activity yet - looking through the airlock hole I see that a think layer of foam has formed.  I am confident that fermentation is starting but that it's just a bit slower due to the low fermentation temperature
• 7/1/14 - No bubbling but I opened the fermentor (maybe not a good idea) to find the krausen layer is still there - pretty confident that it is fermenting fine
• 7/2/14 - Letting the fermentation rise to 62 F today to ensure it finishes out
• 7/3/14 - Increased the fermentation temperature to 66 F
• 7/8/14 - Added 3/4 oz each of Cascade and Simcoe as a dry hop addition in a mesh hop bag
• 7/9/14 - Cold crashed my Strong Brown Ale.  Left the IPA in the fermentation chamber to chill down to 50 F and then took it out for the night to keep it in the 50-70 F range for the dry hopping.
• 7/10/14 - By the next morning the fermentation chamber had chilled the Strong Brown Ale down to 34 F.  Moved the IPA back into the fermentation chamber.  At the end of the day I moved it back into the house to prevent it from getting too cool for dry hopping (got down to the mid 40s).
• 7/11/14 - The beer had gotten up to the mid 60's by the next morning.  Moved it back into the fermentation chamber.
• 7/12/14 - Increased the fermentation chamber to 65 F.
• 7/14/14 - Replaced the dry hops with an additional ounce each of Cascade and Simcoe.  The aroma from the spent hops is wonderful.  It smells exactly like Hop Knot.  I am really looking forward to trying this one.
• 7/19/14 - Removed the dry hops and lowered the fermentation chamber temp down to 34 F to start the cold crash.
• 7/21/14 - I decided to fine with gelatin.  Added 1 tsp of gelatin in a pint of water heated up to 160 F.  Hopefully this doesn't strip out too much hop character.
• 7/22/14 - Bottled with 4.5 oz of priming sugar.  Ended up with about 5 gal of beer which got me 36 12 oz bottles and 9 17.5 oz bottles.  Measured the Final Gravity as 1.006 at 60 F.  The sample has a really great hop flavor and aroma to it.  Without having a Hop Knot in front of me I'd say that this beer is very close to the real thing - maybe a tad bit dryer but the flavors are all there.
  
• 8/11/14 - Tasting Notes - On it's own merits - it has a very nice balance between peach ester character and citrus hop flavor as well as a nice firm bitterness.  I think this is a pretty good IPA.
• 8/14/14 - Did a side by side comparison between my IPA and Hop Knot.  My can of Hop Knot was produced on 5/20/14.  My version is quite a bit darker (as shown in the picture).  They have pretty similar levels of carbonation.  The aroma of the two beers is similar - same contributions from the hops - but mine has a lot more fruity ester character.  Hop Knot has a much cleaner hoppy flavor than my beer.  I don't really get much yeast character from hop knot.  Mine has a lot of yeast character by contrast.  The level of bitterness and malt sweetness in the finish is very close.  Mine seems to have a slightly more body which I think maybe due to the fuller flavor due to the ester.  So, I think my decision to ferment US-05 in the 50's to produce the peach ester has caused my beer to be quite different than the actual Hop Knot.  Mine is not very close as a clone (although it is still tasty). Next time I brew this I will probably still US-05 but I'll try to keep the temperature in the clean flavor range.

(L) Hop Knot, (R) My IPA

• 11/28/14 - Opened one of these that was completely uncarbonated.  It may have been that the bottlecap leaked.  I had it and a few others stored in a closet at my mother's house.  The other one I opened had normal carbonation levels - very odd.
• 2/4/16 - Drank my last one today.  The hops had faded away to a large extent but it was still a nice tasting beer.  The peach ester had also faded a bit but was still fairly assertive.

Lessons Learned:

1. I did not account for loss of water to grain and dead space in the mash tun which bit me.  I was planning on having something like 9 gal of wort after mashing but only ended up with 8.  I didn't have any more RO water either so I had to top up with hose water so that I could keep the 90 min boil.  I need to make sure I have an extra 5 gal of RO water on hand when I brew.  I'm sure a small bit of tap water pre-boil isn't going to hurt anything but if I had ended up short on wort at the end of the boil then topping off with tap water wouldn't have been an option I would have been comfortable with.
2. My sugar extraction from the grain wasn't very good - 68% efficiency after matching.  Maybe I should have collected a bit more pre-boil volume (of course I didn't have any more RO water so that wasn't really an option).  I'm not too upset though - I would actually rather have this beer come closer to 6% then 7% just from a drinkability standpoint.
3. My planning for loss of wort to hops kept the OG a lot closer to target than it would have otherwise.  I believe this is the reason I ended up with 6 gal of wort that is reasonably close to the target.
4. Using the hop bag to separate the hops from the wort was very effective.  Not sure if I got 100% of the hops but I definitely got a significant portion of them.  This probably saved me at least 0.5 gal of wort loss.  Cleanup was relatively easy too.

Berliner Weisse

I have decided it's time to brew my first sour beer.  I have been reluctant to invite wild yeast and bacteria into my home brewery but I really enjoy drinking sour beer and hate paying the exorbitant prices for them so home brewing seems like a nice way to save some money.  I plan on buying duplicate sets of equipment and souring the beer in different rooms so hopefully that will allow my clean beers to stay clean.  I imagine there will be a slip up eventually but I think it's worth the risk.

A Berliner Weisse is a nice, refreshing, low alcohol, tart beer.  They seem like a good choice for a first sour beer as they are fairly quick and inexpensive to produce.  For this beer I am looking at a 2 month timeline from brew day to when the beer is ready to drink.  This is compared to several years of aging for other sour styles like Lambic and Flanders Red.  The trade off is that a Berliner Weisse doesn't have anywhere near the complexity of the aged sour beers.

I have had a number of commercial examples of Berliner Weisse that have ranged from just slightly tart to very sour.  These beers are typically produced using a combination of normal brewers yeast to create alcohol and the bacteria lactobacillus to produce lactic acid which creates the sourness.  The yeast and the bacteria work at different rates so there are different techniques that can be used to get the desired level of sourness by giving lactobacillus some solo time to sour the beer prior to the more aggressive yeast eating all the sugar.

In my research I found a recipe on homebrewtalk.com for producing a Berliner Weisse that has the novel approach of splitting the batch of beer, letting the lacto sour half, the yeast ferment the other half, and then combining them.  This recipe also calls for the use of a wild yeast called Brettanomyces which is one of the key contributors to the Belgian sours (though not traditionally used in Berliners).  Brett produces some interesting earthy flavors that are described as "funk" by the beer geeks.  I am hoping that by splitting the batch I will get a pleasant level of sourness and that using the Brett will impart a bit of complexity to the beer.

If this batch goes well I plan on trying some of the more complex sours for long term aging.  I am also interested in brewing a Berliner Weisse with fruit.

Recipe Details:

• Grain:
• 6 lbs 8 oz Pilsner Malt
• 4 lbs 4 oz Wheat Malt
• 2 oz Acid Malt
• Hops:
• 1 oz Mt. Hood (Pellet, 6.1% AA) in the mash
• Yeast/Bacteria:
• Brettanomyces Claussenii (WLP 645)
• Lactobacillus Delbrueckii (WLP 677)
• Wine Yeast (Premier Cuvee) at bottling
• Water:
• 12 gal of RO water
• 1 tsp of Calcium Chloride
• 1 tsp of Gypsum

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 10 gal
• Mash:
• 149 F for 90 min
• Boil:
• No boil - heat to 180 F for 10 min to pasteurize
• Fermentation Temp:
• 80 F

Results:

• OG:
• 1.027 (Target 1.030)
• Efficiency:
• 67% (Target 75%)
• FG
• 1.002 (Target 1.000)
• ABV
• 1.6%* (Target 2%)

* ABV calculation assumes 50% of sugar was consumed by lacto and didn't produce alcohol

Brewing Notes:

• 6/8/14 - Created starters for the Brett and Lacto.  The Brett starter was 1 L of half RO and half tap water boiled with 4 oz of DME.  The Lacto starter was 1 L of half RO and half tap water boiled with 10 g of powdered milk, 10 g of bread yeast, 20 g of corn sugar and 10 g of DME.  Cooled the starters down to room temperature (80 F) and pitched the Brett and Lacto.  Shook the Brett starter to aerate.

• 6/10/14 - The starters have started to settle out.  The Lacto starter has a lot of sediment at the bottom and has a cheesy smell to it - looks a bit like a weird science project - it's going to be difficult to bring myself to taste the starter for sourness levels.  The Brett has a thinner layer of sediment and smells a bit like an estery Belgian yeast - there may be a hint of funk flavor in there as well.

• 6/14/14 Brew Day - 8:25 PM to 12:00 AM including setup and partial cleanup
• Added CaCl and Gypsum to RO water
• Heated 12 gal of strike water to 156 F
• Added 10 gal to the mash tun and let settle for 10 min - temperature ended up at 153 F

• Added the grain - stirred well to eliminate dough balls - temperature ended up at 149 F
• Added the hops to the mash tun at the start of the mash
• At the end of the 90 min mash it was at 144 F

• Transferred to the boil kettle without a vorlauf step - added the remaining 2 gal of water during the transfer.  The wort is extremely cloudy due to skipping the vorlauf.

• Collected 10 gal of wort - brought it up to 180 F and kept it there for 10 min
• Chilled wort down to tap water temperatures (~85 F)

• Decanted most of the liquid off the starters.  Shook the Brett starter to get the yeast back into suspension.  The Brett starter had a flavor similar to Belgian yeast - no real funk to speak of.  The Lacto starter had only a very faint sourness to it.  It will be interesting to see how sour this beer turns out to be. 
• Transferred 5 gal to the Brett bucket by letting the wort fall a foot or so into the fermentor.  Poured the Brett starter in about half way through.  Transferred the other 5 gal to the Lacto bucket from the bottom to aerate the wort as little as possible.  Gently poured in the Lacto at the end of the transfer.
• Moved the fermentors into the 80 F house to ferment and sour
• Measured the OG of the wort as 1.022 at 85 F.  This is about 5 points under measured so the actual OG is about 1.027.

• 6/15/14 - The Brett half of the batch is bubbling away the morning after brewing.  There is a pretty strong Brett funk smell from the fermentation.  No activity in the airlock for the Lacto half at this point.
• 6/16/14 - The Brett half is still bubbling - the Lacto half never started.  There is a pungent cheesy aroma in the closet where I'm having them ferment - not real pleasant.  This is feeling more and more like a science project.  I decided to open up the fermentors to see what's going on - there's obvious fermentation activity in both which is a good thing.  Both are covered with a thin layer of white foam.  The lacto starter never really built up foam like this so it is interesting that the lacto half is foamy - didn't expect it.  I wonder if it might be souring a bit more than the starter.

Lacto Half - Brew day + 2

Brett Half - Brew day + 2

• 6/30/14 - It's been two weeks since I checked on this batch.  The cheesy pungent aroma has subsided quite a bit.  Opened the fermentors and found that both batches have developed a bubbly film which I am assuming is a pellicle - both look really gross but the Brett one is particularly disgusting.  I was intending to perform a taste test but could only bring myself to pull a very small sample the lacto half with a spoon (I did my best to inflict minimal damage to the film).  It has a slightly tart flavor at this point which I think could be quite nice.  The aroma is sort of a mix of tropical fruit and citrus - also pretty nice.  The Brett half aroma is a bit funky but also similar to a Belgian yeast.  So, I will give these two more weeks to sour up and then mix the two batches for further fermentation

Lacto Half - Brew day + 16

Brett Half - Brew day + 16

• 7/11/14 - It has been about two weeks since I last checked on these beers.  I am going to mix them in a couple days.  I took a sample of the lacto half with a turkey baster.  It had an interesting cheezy flavor but no real sourness or even tartness to it.  It also still has a slight cheezy smell.  The brett half has developed a very pleasant fruity smell.  I didn't want to mess with the pellicle to taste a sample.  I will try it this weekend during the transfer. 

Lacto Half - Brew day + 28

Brett Half - Brew day + 28

• 7/12/14 - Measured the gravity of both halves at 1.000 at 79 F.  Per my hydrometer reading this is under measured by about 4 points so the actual gravity is 1.004.  The brett sample has a fruity flavor that's fairly similar to a Belgian yeast.  The lacto sample had a very slight tartness to it.  Both are pretty thin and watery in their current warm and flat state.  The flavor profile is pretty muted - neither half is very flavorful.  As it is now these are seeming like pretty boring beers.  I am hoping they gain a bit more character over the next 4 weeks.  Transferred the batches to secondary (with a new dedicated sour racking cane) and then mixed them between a 5 gal and 3 gal better bottle.  I will be driving across the country with this batch so I have attempted to limit headspace by filling up to the neck of the better bottles.  Ended up with about 1.5 gal extra as a result.  I put a half a gal into a growler that I may try to dry hop and dumped the extra gallon.
• 7/19/14 - A week after combining I checked on the combined fermentors and found that each had developed a new layer of krausen.  No way of knowing if this increase in fermentation activity is due to the lacto or the brett.  I would guess the brett but am hoping it's the lacto to develop a bit more tartness.

• 7/24//14 - The airlock on the 5 gal better bottled half filled with krausen (no big pressure build up fortunately).  I cleaned it out, refilled, and put the airlock back in place.  It could be my imagination but it seemed like the beer is developing more of a tart aroma since doing the transfer.
• 8/3/14 - Drove this beer across the country in the back of my truck.  The airlocks pretty much ran dry at some point along the way.  The beer still smells pretty good - haven't had a chance to do another sample tasting yet.
• 8/22/14 - Collected 8.5 gal and bottled with 11.7 oz of priming sugar (shooting for 3.25 vol of C02) and wine yeast.  Ended up with 85 bottles.  Measured Final Gravity as 1.000 at 72 F - per my hydrometer calibration this is under measured by 2 points so the actual FG is 1.002.  The beer has developed a bit more sourness in the last month.  The sourness is light and clean which seems about where it should be as the beer is very dry and very thin.  I think this is going to be nice and refreshing.
• 10/31/14 - Tasting Notes - 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 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.
• 4/6/15 - The bottle of this beer that I had tonight had a much more pronounced sourness than all the previous bottles.  Very interested to see if all my remaining bottles (~20) have this increased sourness.

Lessons Learned:

1. There is some mixed information on the internet regarding the behavior of the Lacto culture used in this beer.  The Mad Fermentationist used the strain in a 100% lacto Berliner Weisse back in 2012 based on the understanding that it could also produce alcohol.  The While Labs page for WLP677 does not mention this behavior - could potentially have changed strains over time.  He didn't get a whole lot of sourness in the beer.  The source recipe calls for the addition of some lactic acid at the end of process to up the acidity a bit.  It will be interesting to see the level of acidity I get and whether I'll feel that additional lactic acid would enhance it.
2. Bottling an 8.5 gal batch of beer is a lot of work - almost 2x the work of a 5-6 gal batch due to having to do 2 rounds of bottling.  This one has really motivated me to work towards a kegging setup in the near term.

American Pale Wheat - Tasting

One of the main things that attracted me to homebrewing was being able to drink well hopped beers as they should be consumed - very fresh.  This seems like an area where it is very difficult for commercial brewers to compete with home brewers.  The American Pale Wheat I'm drinking right now was sitting on dry hops just 10 days ago.  It's very unlikely that, here in Phoenix, I could go to the BevMo and buy any beer this fresh.

This beer had a pretty huge hop bill (9 oz of hops for 4.5 gal of beer).  A majority of those hops (5 oz) were added as dry hops after fermentation completed.  I was a bit skeptical that those dry hops would really be worth the $15 or so that I spent on them but after smelling this beer I have to say that it was definitely worth the cost and that I would gladly do it again.  The beer was very nice at the end of primary fermentation but it was nowhere close to where it is now in term of aromatic quality.  I can only imagine how great it would be if I was kegging this beer and it was sitting on hops until the moment I served it.  Kegging might have to be something I move forward on in the near term.  I've been drinking it for 5 days now and I really believe that the aroma isn't quite as potent as it was for that first beer.  Still very good though.

I am happy with how this one turned out.  It's going to be interesting to see how quickly the aromatics fade.  I may have to drink this one fairly quickly.

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Intense citrus/tropical/fruit smell on the nose.  A mix of grapefruit and orange mostly.  A very sweet/very pleasant smell to it.  No malt and no yeast character present. 
• Appearance:
• Nice golden color to the beer.  There's a lot of hop particulate matter that clouds the beer a bit.  It's not as clear as I would have liked.  With a more delicate pour I was able to get pretty decent clarity for the picture.  Pretty nice head to the beer but it does fade quickly.
• Flavor:
• Up front I get a lot of fruity/citrusy hop flavor.  Very little alcohol flavor in this beer.  It finishes with a subdued but nice bitterness and maybe a tiny bit of malt.  It's a very dry beer - no sweetness to it at all.  Very much a beer where the hops are running the show - not balanced in any sense of the word.  As it warms up a bit I think I'm getting some characteristics that I would describe as "dank."
• Mouth-Feel:
• I think the carbonation could be a little higher.  The beer doesn't feel thin but I think some more priming sugar wouldn't be a bad thing if I were to make this again.
• Overall:
• This is a very nice sessionable hoppy beer.  I'm not sure I would call it refreshing enough to sit out in the sun without a glass of water to go along with it but it's definitely very easy drinking.  The hop flavor is exactly what I had hoped it would be.

So, this is definitely the best tasting beer I've brewed so far.  I am very curious about how close I got to the original beer.  Next time I am in CA I will have to track some Fortunate Islands down.  I have been a bit worried that bottling, and the oxygen exposure inherent with it, would make brewing a quality hoppy beer difficult for me.  With this one I'm convinced that it is possible, and not that difficult, to brew a very good hoppy beer even if you are bottling.

Strong Brown Ale

I have decided to brew another big beer - a loose clone of Lagunitas' Brown Shugga'.  I got this recipe from the "Can You Brew It" podcast which can be found here.  Jamil interviewed the head brewer at Lagunitas who seemingly gave up the entire recipe with no need for interpretation.  The recipe he described was much hoppier than I would have expected given my tastings of it.  The beer, as described, sort of straddles the line between Double IPA and Barleywine.  I am brewing this one for my mother as she really liked the beer.  She is not a big fan of really hoppy beers typically so I am thinking I must have had some Brown Shugga' with some age on it where the hops had faded.  So, I have decided to use the grain bill for the beer as described but am changing the hopping a bit.  I will do similar volumes of the recommended types of bittering hops (at 90 and 45 min) but I have decided against doing the sizable flame out and dry hop additions.

For this beer I will be using liquid yeast for the first time.  This will require a large starter (4 L) to be built up to get to the ~400 billion cells required for good fermentation in the 1.100 gravity beer.  As I don't have a flask or stir plate this is actually quite a bit of work to put together - dry yeast is a lot easier to deal with.  If I'm going to start using liquid yeast more often I think I should just bite the bullet and buy the necessary equipment (Erlenmeyer flask, stir plate, and Oxygen Injection setup).

I keep telling myself that trying things I'm uncomfortable with is the only way to learn.  I hope this one turns out well.

Recipe Details:

• Grain/Adjuncts:
• 16 lbs 2 Row
• 3 lbs 12 oz Wheat Malt
• 1 lb 1 oz Crystal 60 L
• 1 lb Munich
• 5 oz Crystal 120 L
• 4 oz Special B
• 5 oz Acid Malt
• 9 oz Brown Sugar at 45 min
• Hops:
• 1 oz Willamette (Pellet, 4.5% AA) at 90 min
• 1 oz Willamette (Pellet, 4.5% AA) at 45 min
• 0.25 oz Horizon (Pellet, 11.2% AA) at 45 min
•  Yeast:
• 2 Vials of WPL002
• 1/2 Packet of EC-1118 Wine yeast at bottling
• Water:
• 12 gal of RO water
• 2 tsp of Calcium Chloride
• 2 tsp of Gypsum
• 1 tsp of Irish Moss at 20 min

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 6 gal
• Mash:
• 155 F for 90 min
• Boil:
• 100 min
• Fermentation Temp:
• Starting at 64 F and raising by 1 F per day

Results:

• OG:
• 1.092 (Target 1.100)
• Efficiency:
• 64% (Target 72%)
• FG:
• 1.015 (Target 1.025)
• ABV
• 10.1% (Target 10%)

Brewing Notes:

• 6/6/14 - Created 2 L of yeast starter beer.  Brought 1 L of RO and 1 L of tap water to a boil.  Added 7.2 oz of Light DME to the boil to get a ~1.040 wort.  Chilled wort down to 65 F and split into two 1.75 L juice jugs.  Shook to aerate.  Let 2 vials of WPL002 yeast warm to 65 F and pitched into the two jugs.  Shook again to aerate.  Left at room temperature 80 F and swirled/shook occasionally.

• 6/7/14 - After 18 hrs I chilled in the freezer until the yeast dropped.  Decanted most of the wort off the top of the yeast layer and then added another 1 L of 1.040 wort to each and shook to put yeast back into solution 
• 6/7/14  Brew Day - 6:00 PM to 11:30 PM including setup but not cleanup
• Added CaCl and Gypsum to 10 gal of RO water
• Brought 9 gal of water up to 176 F
• Added 28 qt of strike water to the mash tun for a 1.25 water to grain ratio
• Let the temperature settle out for 10 min - ended up at 167 F
• Added the grain - stirred well to eliminate dough balls.  Ended up at the target mash temp of 155 F

• After 85 min I did an iodine starch conversion test.  Sample turned brown rather than black which told me conversion was complete
• At the end of the 90 min mash the temp was still 155 F
• Added 2 gal of mash out water, stirred, let settle, vorlaufed, and then drained

• First runnings were 6 gal - measured gravity as 1.068 at 90 F, which is under measured by 6 points per my hydrometer calibration.  So, my actual gravity is 1.074.   This is 54% efficiency
• Added 3 gal of sparge water
• Collected a total of 9.5 gal of wort.  Checked gravity again as 1.056 at 90 F which is 1.062.  This is 72% efficiency which is about what I was shooting for with the grain.
• Started the boil - took 20 min.  The pot came very close to boiling over with this one which is odd since I had more wort last time.  This one seemed to foam more than the barleywine.
• Added the 90 min hops after the hot break foam subsided
• Added the brown sugar and 45 min hops

• Added the irish moss at 20 min
• Put the wort chiller in for the boil at 15 min to sanitize
• Chilled the wort down to tap water temps (~85 F).  This took about 20 min
• I ended up with 6.5 gal of wort.  I should have boiled for a bit longer.  Decided to transfer only 6 gal to the fermenter.  My brewhouse efficiency will take a hit because of this.  Let the wort fall a foot or so into the fermenter to increase aeration
• Put into the chest freezer at 62 F to chill down to pitching temps over night
• The next morning I measured my OG as 1.090 at 65 F.  Per my hydrometer calibration this is off by 2 points so my actual OG is 1.092.  This is an efficiency of 64% (with the extra 0.5 gal it would have been 70%).

• 6/8/14 Pitching the yeast:
• Chilled the yeast starter in the fridge to get down to 62 F
• There is a nice thick yeast cake at the bottom of each starter

• Decanted off most of the beer
• Shook up the starters to break up the yeast cake and pitched into the beer
• Shook the fermenter for about 1 min to aerate
• Setup a blow off tube - with the fermenter so full there will likely be a lot of blow off 
• Let the wort free rise up to fermentation temp of 64 F
• Stirred up the wort every couple hours to keep the yeast in suspension
• 6/9/14 - Fermentation is underway - blow off reservoir is bubbling pretty rapidly.  Raising temperature to 65 F
• 6/10/14 - Still bubbling away.  Increased temperature to 66 F
• 6/11/14 - No longer bubbling.  Increased the chamber temperature to 67 F.  Swirled the fermenter a bit to encourage the yeast to go back into suspension and finish out if they haven't already
• 6/12/14 - Increased the temperature to 68 F to help the yeast clean up
• 6/13/14 - Increased fermentation chamber to 69 F
• 6/14/14 - Increased to 70 F.  Took a gravity sample as 1.013 at 70 F which is 1.015 per my hydrometer calibration.  Attenuation was a bit higher than expected/hoped for.  The aroma at this point is fruity English yeast ester.  The alcohol is pretty raw and up front but there is some nice malt complexity there as well.  It has been too long since I had Brown Shugga' to say how close or far this is from the original - I think I do get a little bit of brown sugar in the flavor though.  Way too early to tell how this one will turn out but I am cautiously optimistic.
• 7/9/14 - Cold crashed the fermentation chamber down to 34 F
• 7/10/14 - Added gelatin for fining (mixed 1 tsp in 1 cup of water heated to 140 F and gently poured into the beer)
• 7/12/14 - Bottled with 4.66 oz of priming sugar and half a packet of re-hydrated wine yeast. Measured the final gravity as 1.015 at 60 F.  Ended up with about 5.5 gal and got 51 12 oz bottles.  I definitely get a lot of alcohol from the beer at this point but it also has a very nice malty flavor.  With a couple months to mellow I think this is going to be a pretty nice beer.  I'm not optimistic that this is going to be all that close to the original beer - that 10 gravity points that I lost is probably going to be very noticeable.
• 8/8/14 - Tasting Notes.  I think more maturation time will help soften the alcohol bite that dominates this beer.  I will plan on doing a second tasting in a few months.
• 11/25/14 - Finally had a chance to try the real Brown Shugga again.  It definitely has a hop presence consistent with the hopping schedule recommended by the brewer - I hadn't remembered it being so hoppy.  The bitterness level of mine is about correct but it really does suffer in comparison to the real thing with the nice fruity hops.  It was a mistake to diverge from their recommendation.  If I brew this again I will be sure to use the late hop additions.
• 7/17/15 - Drank one of these that had been sitting in the fridge at my mom's house for the last 6 months. I was suprised to find that it poured brilliantly clear. It has mellowed a lot in the last year. Still a strong beer but it is much easier to drink.
• 7/12/17 - Drank what I think was the last one of these last night.  It was very smooth and tasty.  I think the age did it very well!  Really happy that I was able to save at least one this long.

Lessons Learned:

1. I made the wrong call about ending the boil and ended up with too much wort and lower than expected efficiency.  Putting the wort chiller in displaces wort and makes my sight glass inaccurate.  I need to do some experimentation to better understand this displacement.  Additionally, the wort chiller takes some time to heat up and causes the boil to stop.  I should probably plan for an additional 10 min of boil to compensate for this pause in boil activity.
2. My first attempt at using liquid yeast was a messy and time consuming process.  With no stir-plate I had to shake the starters every hour or so.  The containers are not water tight so I ended up having some of the wort splash out every time.  Having the right equipment would have made life a whole lot easier.
3. Brewing at night was a good idea.  It was a much more comfortable brew day.
4. I had a lot more water absorbed by the grain than expected.  I need to better plan for this going forward.  I got decent efficiency after only having collected 9.5 gal of wort which made for a faster boil which was very nice.
5. After the initial tasting I think that eliminating all the flavor and aroma hops may have been a mistake.  These would have faded over time but at this stage they could help balance the flavor of the beer while it matures further.

English Bitter - Tasting

I am finally getting to taste my English Bitter.  Between the four all grain beers that I have in bottles right now, and the extract batches that I still have left, my pipeline is extremely healthy.  I am hoping this beer can handle some age as it will likely take me some time to get through all of them.  I suspect that it will still be pretty good a few months down the line when I finish the last one.

The beer really makes me want to start kegging.  After trying a few bottles I think the optimal temperature for this beer is from 50 F to 55 F.  Out of my refrigerator it's at about 41 F which definitely reduces some of the complexity of the beer - it's still tasty but not as good.  Kegging would make it easier to keep and serve the beer at that optimal temperature as I would have a dedicated chest freezer for it.  For now taking it out of the refrigerator 15-20 min prior to drinking does the trick.

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Nose is a mix of grassy and spicy hops, sweet honey from the malt, and a bit of fruity ester smell (apple maybe).
• Appearance:
• Nice copper color to the beer.  It is lightly carbonated which is true to style.  Only a slight head that quickly dissipates even after a vigorous pour.  It is pretty clear - minimal chill haze.
• Flavor:
• Up front there is some light malt and a bit of honey.  The middle has crisp and refreshing alcohol coolness.  The finish has a little sweetness quickly followed up by a nice low level of hop bitterness.  I would stay that it has a pretty nice balance between the sweet honey malt and grassy/earthy hop character.  There is some alcohol/ester character there in the finish as well but the flavors are all pretty well integrated.
• Mouth-feel:
• It is a pretty full bodied beer even with light carbonation.  It coats my mouth and leaves a dry finish that demands another sip.  It also leaves a sticky residue.  No real alcohol burn or astringency in this one.
• Overall:
• I am happy with how this turned out.  It has the balance between hop and malt that I was expecting.  It may be a bit more full bodied than is ideal - could be a bit easier drinking if it had fermented out a bit more.  Despite that I could easily drink a few of these in a sitting.

Prior to taking up homebrewing I had not been in the habit of doing any sort of detailed evaluation of the beers I would drink.  I would basically just drink the beer and either I liked it or I didn't.  I think brewing, with an understanding of the recipe and the process involved and then doing these tastings, has given me some insights into the subtle nuances of beer which is very exciting.  With that said, I'm not sure how consistent or reliable my palate is at this point in identifying the subtle flavor contributions of each ingredient.  Going forward it will be very interesting to see how my understanding of the different flavors increases as I continue to brew.