Andrew's Homebrew Log: July 2016

Sunday, July 31, 2016

Double IPA - Take 2

I really love the complexity and depth of flavor in a well made double IPA. These are usually my beer of choice when going to the local bar. I've been very impressed by many of the new beers I've tried this year - the level of hopping these beers are bringing to the table seems to be steadily increasing. The trouble is that the cost of the beers seems to be steadily increasing as well. It's not unusual to see a 10 oz pour go for $7 or more around here. This is too much for me to be happy drinking them very often.

My first attempt at brewing a Double IPA, a Heady Topper clone, turned out to be as good as any commercial beer on the market. It was a sad day when I drank the last one. I held off brewing another one due to the extra cost and effort associated with brewing one of these. It's a long brew day dealing with all the hops and, with a well hopped example like the Heady Topper, you're looking at 20-30 dollars in hop costs alone.

As good as the Heady Topper clone ended up being it's also difficult to get up the courage to try to brew some other beer as it's likely not going to match it. I found a nice looking Pliny the Elder recipe on the Bertus Brewery blog that might have a fighting chance. When fresh, Pliny the Elder is a fantastic beer with great intense hop flavor (falls off slightly with age). The hype seems to have subsided a bit as people have moved onto newer beers but it's still a very difficult beer to track down - even in Sacramento CA somehow. It's funny that it's actually a bit easier to get Russian River beer here in Philadelphia that it is in the Sacramento area. I haven't had any Pliny now in at least a year - I need my Pliny fix.

Pliny has a very simple malt bill with just a bit of specialty malt (1 lb) along with some sugar to help dry the beer out. I'll be mashing at 152 F.

It would normally call for hop extract for the bittering but I'm going to just use some high AA hop instead as I didn't really care for the hop extract last time I used it (in my Two Hearted Clone attempt). It will be a 90 min boil on this batch. The recipe calls for 45 and 30 min additions of hops which I'm going to defer to 10 and 5 min. Additionally, I'm going to increase the flameout and dry hop additions a bit to try to get more hop intensity. I'll add both flameout and whirl pool additions of hops. I have some Simcoe, Amarillo, and Columbus hops left over from the Heady Topper batch last year that I am going to be using in addition to those called for in the original recipe. I've been storing them in the fridge in zip lock bags. They smell good still (compared them with the fresh hops I have for the batch and they're about the same) so I'm confident that they aren't oxidized. With these I'll have a bit more than 1 lbs of hops in the batch.

Like with the Heady Topper clone, I've planned to end up with 6.5 gal post boil with the assumption that I'll lose about a half a gal in the kettle to all the hops.

Recipe Details:

Grain/Adjunct:

15 lbs 2 Row
8 oz Crystal 60L
8 oz CaraPils
4 oz Acid Malt
12 oz Dextrose

Hops:

1 oz Apollo (Pellet, 18% AA) at 90 min
0.5 oz Columbus (Pellet, 15% AA) at 15 min
0.5 oz Amarillo (Pellet, 7% AA) at 10 min
1 oz Simcoe (Pellet, 12.9% AA) at 5 min
2 oz Amarillo (Pellet, 8% AA) at 0 min
1 oz Columbus (Pellet, 12.5% AA) at 0 min
2 oz Simcoe (Pellet, 12.6% AA) at 0 min
1 oz Amarillo (Pellet, 7% AA) added once beer cools to 180 F (stand for 30 min)
1 oz Cascade (Pellet, 6.9% AA) added once beer cools to 180 F (stand for 30 min)
1 oz Centennial (Pellet, 7.6% AA) added once beer cools to 180 F (stand for 30 min)
0.5 oz Columbus (Pellet, 15% AA) added once beer cools to 180 F (stand for 30 min)
1 oz Simcoe (Pellet, 12.9% AA) added once beer cools to 180 F (stand for 30 min)
1 oz Cascade (Pellet, 6.9% AA) First Dry Hop - added after 4 days (sit for 7 days)
0.5 oz Columbus (Pellet, 15% AA) First Dry Hop - added after 4 days (sit for 7 days)
1 oz Simcoe (Pellet, 12.9% AA) First Dry Hop - added after 4 days (sit for 7 days)
0.5 oz Amarillo (Pellet, 7% AA) Second Dry Hop - added after 11 days (sit for 7 days)
1 oz Cascade (Pellet, 6.9% AA) Second Dry Hop - added after 11 days (sit for 7 days)
0.5 oz Columbus (Pellet, 15% AA) Second Dry Hop - added after 11 days (sit for 7 days)
1 oz Simcoe (Pellet, 12.9% AA) Second Dry Hop - added after 11 days (sit for 7 days)

Yeast:

Wyeast 1056 American Ale Yeast

Water:

10 gal spring water
8 gal tap water
1 tsp Calcium Chloride in Mash
1 tsp Gypsum in Mash
1 tsp Calcium Chloride in Boil
1 tsp Gypsum in Boil
1 tsp Irish Moss at 20 min

Process Details:

Batch Size:

6 gal (Target 6 gal)

Mash Temp:

153 F for 60 min (Target 153 F for 60 min)

Boil:

90 min (Target 90 min)

Fermentation Temperature:

63 F for 4 days
Allowed to ramp up to 70 F to finish

Primary Duration:

21 days

Secondary Duration:

None

Results:

1.083 (Target 1.070)

Efficiency:

78% (Target 66%)

1.012 (Target 1.010)

Apparent Attenuation:

85% (Target 85%)

ABV:

9.32% (Target 7.88%)

Brewing Notes:

7/30/16 - Created a 1.6 L starter out of Munich Malt and pitched the yeast. Set it up in a flask on a stir plate. Bubbling started a few hrs later.

7/31/16 - Brewday - 12:00 PM to 6:00 PM including setup and cleanup

Brought 10 gal of spring water to 175 F
Transferred strike water to mash tun and grant until there was 4 gal above the false bottom and 7.5 gal in the system total
Added CaCl and Gypsum to the mash tun
Cycled the RIMs at 153 F
Added the grain. Stirred well to eliminate doughballs
Mashed for 60 min

Grant

Brought 10.5 gal up to 185 for the sparge
Fly sparged
Collected 9.5 gal. Gravity at the grant was 6 brix at the end of the sparge
Started heating the kettle after collecting 4 gal. Had it to a boil shortly after the end of the sparge
Added the bittering hops shortly after the hot break cleared
Had several partial boil overs
Added the sugar with 30 min left in the boil
Added the Irish Moss with 20 min left in the boil
Added the 15, 10, and 5 min hops
Boiled down to 6.5 gal in order to get 6 gal of beer
Added the wort chiller at flameout
Added the fame out hops
Let the flameout hops sit until the kettle reach 180 F (which took 20 min). Then added the "whirlpool" hops. Let these sit for 30 min with the kettle uncovered
Chilled down to 80 F (this seemed to be as far as ground water temps would take me).
Transferred the beer to the fermenter. Collected 5 gal before the hop particles blocked the flow. Decided to just pour all the liquid into the fermenter - took most of the hops with the beer.

Ended up with 6 gal. Measured gravity as 1.083 - significantly overshot the 1.070 target OG.
Pitched the entire yeast starter. The starter had settled down since the morning when there was about an inch of krausen.
The beer was at 75 F. Moved it to the fermentation chamber set to 63 F to chill. Setup the beer with a blowoff tube as this will probably be a pretty strong fermentation.

8/1/16 - Beer was bubbling frequently this morning. Fermentation is well underway.
8/5/16 - This morning I increased the chamber temperature to 70 F. Will let it ramp up naturally. The beer was still bubbling. This afternoon I added the first round of dry hop. I used a mesh bag weighed down with a couple stainless steel bolts and tied on a string to pull them out when done. I'll give these dry hops 7 days. There were a lot of hops floating on the surface of the beer. It smells very nice.

8/14/16 - Pulled the first round of dry hops and added the second round to the fermenter loose. The beer has a really wonderful hop aroma at this point. I squeezed out the hop sack into a glass. Was awesome but slightly astringent - probably good I didn't squeeze that into the main batch. I lowered the chamber temperature to 62 F. Will give this 4-5 days before cold crashing.
8/20/16 - Lowered the fermentation chamber to 35 F to help clear the beer. I'm going to skip gelatin on this batch.
8/22/16 - Bottled the beer today. Had 6 gal in the fermenter but it turned out the last gal was all hops - pretty amazing. Measured the gravity of the beer at 1.012. Bottled with 4 oz of priming sugar. Ended up with 51 12 oz bottles. The beer smells fantastic and has a really rich hop flavor. I think it's going to be very nice. I'll give this a week to carb before trying my first one.
9/3/16 - I've had 4 or 5 of these over the last week. Very little carbonation has developed so far. I guess the 9% alcohol must be slowing the small bit of remaining yeast down a bit. The beers still taste wonderful though.
10/26/16 - Tasting Notes - Can't believe it's been 2 months since I bottled this beer. It's held up nicely. Slight reduction in intensity of hop flavor but it's still plenty hoppy. This one never quite carbonated and just doesn't look very nice.

Lessons Learned:

With my last IPA I used a bag to filter out the hops from the kettle. I didn't do that this time. We'll see if I have a problem when it comes time to bottle as a results.

Saturday, July 30, 2016

Flanders Red Blend #1

I have decided it is finally time to start drinking some of the Flanders Red beer that I've been accumulating over the last year and a half. I have brewed up 18 5-6 gal batches of beer over that time. I don't want to try to get too fancy with this first blend so I'm going to limit myself to 2 beers - one "old" one (~18 months) and one "young" one (~1 year old) a la Rodenbach Grand Cru.

I am going to blend up 2 ~5 gal batches of beer as part of this first blend. One of these batches will be bottled immediately (will be going with normal capped bottles as all my beers are pretty dry and will carb up using priming sugar and wine yeast). The other batch will be aged on 10 lb of pitted sour cherries that I picked up this week.

For the "old" beer I have two candidates: 1.1.1 (21 months old) or 1.2.1 (18 months old). I'd like to age one of these for a full 3 years before using. They were both pretty similar in flavor so either would be nice for the blend. I decided to use 1.2.1 as it would hit the 3 year mark 3 months after 1.1.1 and I'd rather not wait that extra time.

Here are some tasting notes for 1.2.1:

Aroma:

Brett funk comes through strongly on the aroma along with a bit of cherry. I don't remember the Brett being anywhere near this strong in the last sample (back in January). No hop aroma and no alcohol.

Appearance:

Has a really nice red color and very clear.

Flavor:

Fruity flavor comes through first followed by a pretty firm sourness (very similar level to Rodenbach Grand Cru). Tartness lingers through the finish. Earthy brett flavor comes in pretty strongly in the finish as well. No vinegar flavor that I can detect.

Mouthfeel:

Light-medium bodied. No astringency. Acidity brings a slight prickliness. There is a very slight sweetness to the beer although the impression of sweetness may be enhanced by the acidity.

Overall:

The beer has a nice level of complexity between the fruit, brett funk, and sourness. I'm really happy with how much the last 6 months have allowed the brett to impact the flavor. I think this will be a good blending ingredient given this aged beer flavor - would also be very good by itself if I wanted to go that way. I was hoping that some acetic acid would develop in a beer this age. It seems that the glass carboy and airlock did a really good job keeping oxygen exposure pretty low.

For the "young" beer I have quite a few options. The 1.4.x (1.4.1 and 1.4.2) series struck me as being the best beers so far from my initial tastings. Add to that that I noticed a small crack had formed towards the bottom of the glass carboy holding 1.4.1 and that pretty much sealed the deal for me that these would be the ones I should use first. I will plan on blending half of 1.4.1 with half of 1.2.1 and then bottling that directly, blending half of 1.4.2 with the other half of 1.2.1 (and aging this on the cherries), and then transferring the remainder of 1.4.1 into the 1.4.2 carboy for further aging.

Here are some tasting notes for 1.4.1:

Aroma:

Fruit along with fairly pronounced earthy brett aroma. May get a small bit of oak mixed in.

Appearance:

Dark red and perfectly clear.

Flavor:

Up front I get a lot of fruit flavor before a firm sourness kicks in. The sourness lingers into the finish where it is balanced by a really nice bready/roasty malt character. There is also a chocolate like favor in the finish which is very nice. The flavors in this beer are very bold.

Mouthfeel:

Medium-light bodied. Sour finish has a stickiness to it - lingers for a bit after drinking. No alcohol presence I can detect. Smooth and easy drinking.

Overall:

This is a really nice tasting beer. It's firmly sour but the maltyness that has remained over the aging period does a lot to balance this. The fruit flavor is very bold in this beer - I hope this remains strong in the blend. Big brett aroma but not a whole lot in the flavor so far. I think this is going to be very good in a blend.

Here are tasting notes for 1.4.2:

Aroma:

Very funky/musty aroma along with some fruit. Alcohol comes through - smells pretty potent.

Appearance:

Very pretty dark red. Perfectly clear at room temperature.

Favor:

Pretty firm sourness with some fruity notes. Sourness lingers through the finish. Quite a bit of bready malt flavor through the finish as well. A bit of brett funk in the finish but it's pretty mild at this point. Taste the alcohol a little bit as well. It's very wine like in flavor.

Mouthfeel:

Medium light bodied. Slightly prickly from the acid. Slight sweetness in the finish. Slight alcohol warming.

Overall:

Very complex flavor and aroma like the other two. This one is a bit stronger than the others at nearly 8% ABV. It will be nice to blend this down a bit with the slightly weaker beer. I think this will be a good one to mix in with the cherries given the firm sourness and nice malt backbone.

Blending Notes:

Cherry blend:

7/28/16:

Added 10 lb of pitted sour cherries to a plastic bucket fermenter. Highland Orchards lost all theirs this year in an early spring cold snap but were nice enough to order some from Michigan for me. They have a lot of juice and are slightly sweet. I think they will be very nice in this beer

Transferred about half of 1.4.2 onto the cherries. This was probably about 3 gal.
Transferred half of 1.2.1 into the fermenter. This was likely about 2.5 gal

Will let this ferment out for several months in the room temperature basement with an airlock

7/30/16 - The airlock is bubbling slowly this morning. Third round of fermentation is getting underway
8/5/16 - Lots of little bubbles in the airlock still
1/15/17 - Bottled this beer today with 3.5 oz of priming sugar and a pack of dry yeast (Premier Cuvee). Didn't rehydrate the yeast this time. Got 6 gal of very pulpy beer. Ended up with 51 12 oz bottles of beer. The FG is 1.002. The beer is very sour with a pleasant cherry flavor. Smells a lot like Rodenbach Alexander.
3/31/17 - Tasting Notes - I think the beer and the large amount of cherries get along very well. The beer is bold enough to make it's presence felt and play an effective supporting role to the star of the show. The cherries come through in way that makes you well aware that you're drinking a cherry beer which is exactly what I'd hoped for. It's a complex beer and I'm very pleased with it.
6/27/20 - 2020 Vertical Tasting:

Aroma: Candy-like cherry aroma followed by earthy and leather Brett character
Appearance: Brownish red and pretty clear. Pours with very little foam that is gone in a second
Flavor: Mild cherry flavor up front that transitions to a light acidity. Earthy Brett comes in next and lingers into the finish along with the acidity. it has a slight nutty character in the background - almond maybe. Also some mineral flavor in the finish
Mouthfeel: Light bodied and dry. Fair amount of prickly acidity. Easy drinking and refreshing
Overall: Flavor and aroma are fairly mild. Nice complexity - a lot going on. The cherry is more in the background than I remember

Plain blend:

7/30/16

Transferred the remainder of 1.2.1 (~2.5 gal) to the bottling bucket
Transferred about half of 1.4.1 to the bottling bucket (~3 gal)

Rehydraded a package of Red Star Premier Cuvee champagne yeast in a glass of warm water. Let this sit for about half an hr prior to pitching
Dissolved 4 oz of priming sugar in 2 cups of boiling water and added to the beer
Stirred well to get good distribution of sugar and yeast
Got 58 12 oz bottles out of the batch
Will let these sit for a few weeks before trying the first one

11/30/16 - Tasting Notes - The beer ended up with a really pleasing level of complexity. It's not as good as Rodenbach but I'm still really happy with how well it delivers the expected flavors. The malty flavor is especially pleasant going along with the firm acidity. Not sure how the beer managed to retain this as a number of the other batches didn't really have that.
6/27/20 - 2020 Vertical Tasting:

Aroma: Earthy and leathery Brettanomyces character. A bit of overripe fruit. Maybe a touch of vinegar.
Appearance: Reddish brown and clear. Pours with a think wisp of foam that is gone immediately.
Flavor: A bit of fruity flavor up front which then transitions to sourness which then lingers to the finish. It is a medium level of sourness. Earthy and funky Brett flavor lingers in the finish as well
Mouthfeel: Light bodied and very dry. Light prickling acidity. Very easy drinking and refreshing
Overall: Bold flavor and aroma and fairly complex. The earthy Brett character is probably the most dominant characteristic. Pleasing level of acidity makes for nice drinking

Monday, July 11, 2016

Flanders Red 1.7.1 & 2.3.1

It has been 8 months since I brewed up Flanders Red 2.2.1 and about 5 months since brewing Flanders Red 1.6.1. I had only intended on leaving these beers on their yeast cakes for 3 months. I decided to brew up a double batch of beer to fill these two fermenters. 1.7.1 will go onto a seventh generation Roeselare cake and 2.3.1 will go onto a third generation Mélange Sour Blend. I will age both of these batches in bucket fermenters after they've primaried with normal brewing yeast and then secondaried for a few months on the cakes.

No significant process or ingredient changes for this batch. I am doing another proper cereal mash with this batch. I may want to try flaked oats again and see if that produces results much different than the cereal mash as it would save quite a bit of time. I am hopping the batch lightly to hopefully impede the lacto which has started to get a bit to assertive in the flavor profile of both the primary yeast and Roeselare. We'll see if that works. I may have to go a bit more aggressive on the hops next time.

I haven't tasted or looked at either of the Mélange beers in months. Wasn't too impressed with the first one on transfer. Will be interested to see if the second one is any better. If not I may end this series of beer with this third batch.

I've started to accumulate a really large amount of Flanders Reds (18 5-6 gal batches if you include these two new ones). My oldest is a bit over 18 months old. I am going to start to consider how I might blend some of these beers in the relatively near future. I'm probably going to do a 5 gal plain blend and then another 5 gal blend aged on some sour cherries for a bit.