Saison Take 4 - Tasting Notes

 I brewed up this Saison (my 4th attempt at the style) back in Early October.  I used what is supposed to be the Saison Dupont strain of yeast:  Wyeast 3724 Belgian Saison.  This is a notorious yeast for stalling at a high gravity without help.  I was able to get it to ferment all the way to 1.002 by keeping the beer at 80 F for a 6 weeks.  It has produced some lovely esters which make the extra effort well worth it.

I moved the beer to a keg a bit over a month ago and it has carb'd up nicely in this time.  Time to do an official tasting before it's gone.

This is a style of beer all about the yeast really and is meant to be dry and refreshing.  I think I met the mark on all of those fronts.  Given that I'm using the Dupont strain I decided to also do a side by side comparison with the real deal.  My beer was brewed with Wheat and American hops so it was not intended to be a clone but I still think it will be interesting to compare (plus it's an excuse to buy a big bottle of Saison Dupont for myself on New Years Eve)

Excited to be doing a deep dive on the beer.

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Belgian yeast ester (fruity and spicy) most prominent.  Get a bit of bready malt in the background.  Maybe some grassy hop aroma in there as well
• Appearance:
• Golden and very clear.  Pours with 2 fingers of head that lingers for 5 min or so - leaves lacing on the glass
• Flavor:
• Strong fruit ester character up front - this lingers into the finish.  Pretty good kick of bitterness in the finish as well  This is balanced by a bit of malty sweetness.  Slight malt flavor in the mix as well - maybe a bit of hop flavor in there too.
• Mouthfeel:
• Medium-light bodied and pretty dry.  Fairly crisp and easy drinking.  Smooth.
• Overall:
• This is boldly flavored beer and is quite refreshing with the dry and bitter finish.  I really enjoy the ester profile.  From memory, I think this is very much like how Saison Dupont tastes (will test that next).  It hides it's almost 7% ABV very well - would not guess it is that high from drinking it (but you do feel it the next morning which is my only qualm with this beer)

Side by Side Comparison:

• Aroma:
• Dupont has a strong noble hop aroma out front and the yeast ester is in the background.  Tough to compare the beers but I think the yeast ester character could very well be of a similar level between the beers
• Appearance:
• The Dupont is carbonated higher than mine and is equally clear.  Color is very close with mine being just slightly darker
• Flavor:
• The Dupont also has a fairly strong noble hop flavor (grassy, floral, and spicy) which plays nicely with the fruity ester character.  The malt in mine is much more of a presence in the balance of flavors while Dupont is all about the hops and yeast playing against each other.  I would say bitterness between the two is very close
• Mouthfeel:
• Mine has a bit more body but I would say they're equally dry and crisp.  Very similar in terms of drinkability and smoothness.
• Overall:
• I believe the Wyeast 3724 could really be the Dupont strain comparing these two although I wouldn't bet the farm on it.  The hop presence in Dupont is a bit of a surprise.  Without this side by side comparison I think I would have credited a lot of the hop flavor to the yeast since the hops compliment the yeast so nicely.  These hops have turned out to be a major difference between the two beers.  In the end, I like them both no less than I had before the head to head comparison.
• 
  

American Pale Wheat Take III - Tasting Notes

This is a very hoppy beer that I brewed up in mid November and then kegged on 12/3.  I've been drinking it pretty quickly (started before it fully carb'd) and half expect the keg to kick every time I pull a glass.  

The beer used 5 oz of kettle hops and then 6 oz of dry hop (3 oz of which are in the keg) and is mainly a showcase for Citra and Amarillo hops.  It is a low gravity beer (went from 1.040 to 1.013 for 3.5% ABV) and is very easy to drink in volume. 

It has been interesting watching it develop over the  last couple weeks.  It started out very aggressively hoppy in the first few days after kegging and had some astringency (hop burn) but mellowed out quite a bit after the first week.  It has been drinking very nicely with pungent hop aroma and taste since.  I feel like it may be started to fade slightly here in the third week (although this could be partially due to the beer dropping below the level of the hop bag which was hanging half way down the keg via dental floss).  I tried very hard to limit oxygen in this beer - tough to know if I went far enough.

The beer is slightly hazy even after cold crashing and fining.  This was also the case the first time I brewed the recipe.  Haze is a much discussed topic with the popularity of NEIPA. Could either be the wheat or hop oils causing this I guess.  I don't mind the appearance but I certainly wasn't targeting haze with the batch or intending this to be a NEIPA

It is finally well carb'd so I think now is a good time to do a tasting

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Herbal and fruity (vaguely citrus) hops come through very strongly.  Gives an impression of sweetness to the beer.  Might also add a grassy, piney, and marijuana like notes from the hop.  Not really able to pick up any yeast or malt contributions through the bold hops but they are likely contributing to the background flavors
• Appearance:
• Pours with about 1 finger of foam that leaves lacing.  Light gold in color and slightly hazy
• Flavor:
• Up front I get bold hop flavor (fruity and herbal) which is then followed up with a pretty firm bitterness.  The bitterness lingers into the finish along with the hop flavor.  The is a very light malt flavor and a slight sweetness in the finish.  Balance is strongly towards the hops.
• Mouthfeel:
• Light bodied and pretty dry.  Bitterness is slightly astringent maybe (has become less and less astringent with time in the keg)
• Overall:
• This has been a really lovely hoppy beer to drink.  The bold hop flavors were exactly what I was hoping kegging (and keg hopping) would provide.  This is a very light beer - very sessionable and easy drinking.  I think the level of bitterness is nice but it could have done with a bit more of a malt presence for balance.  When I brew this again I will maybe add a small amount of caramel malt to the mix. Additionally, I've noticed this beer drinks quite a bit better once it's warmed up from the 44 F I'm keeping the keg at - flavoring hops really come through better.  I'm going to work on increasing my serving temperature on the kegs based on this.

Timothy Taylor's Landlord Clone

This week I've brewed up an attempted clone of a well regarded English Pale Ale:  Timothy Taylor's Landlord Bitter.  I've never actually had an opportunity to try the original but I very much like English Pale ale and it's been quite a while since I made one.  I figure it would be tough to go wrong with making an attempt at this one.  The brewery has posted a very nice tour video with quite a bit of useful information on the process: see that here.  I've also based my recipe on one created by famous homebrewer Gordon Strong.

This is a beer reported to be made using only one grain:  Simpson's Gold Promise.  I picked up a 55lb sack of this for use in this recipe (will have a lot left over which is just fine by me).  The beer is about 4.3% ABV and should come in at around 1.010.  

The beer is an amber color which is a bit darker than you could expect from just pale malt.  Many of the clone recipes add a couple ounces of roasted malt to get the desired color.  I decided to try making a bit of brewers caramel, which is a fairly traditional ingredient in English Brewing used to provide color but not much in the way of flavor or fermentable sugar.  I did this by making a very dark dry caramel.  I will make 4 oz and add a bit at a time until the color looks about right (should go from about 6 SRM to 9)

The beer is hopped fairly assertively per the video referenced above with generous late hopping.  They use a combination of Fuggle, East Kent Golding, and Styrian Golding in the beer where the Styrian are the star flavoring hop.  My hopping was maybe slightly higher than the reference recipe mostly to use the full ounce of the hops I'd purchased.  Having not had the beer I don't expect I'll care much if the balance is slightly different.  I love English Hops anyway though so I don't expect I'll regret having a bit more.

Finally, the yeast used for this beer is reported to be a strain derived from the Timothy Tailor Brewery.  They do an open fermentation in square fermenters.  The yeast stays on the surface after fermentation has completed so brewery ends up skimming it off the top to discard or to culture for the next batch (top cropping).  They also rouse the yeast early in the process to encourage it to finish.  I'm going to go with an open fermentation for my batch with the lit on loosely with no airlock.  I may try to top crop the yeast.  I'm not got to go through the trouble of rousing.  They start their beer in the low 60s and then cool it through the fermentation process.  I've decided to let it start in the low 60s and then rise naturally sitting at ambient basement temps.

I'm going to keg this beer and plan to give it 4 weeks to finish out.  Really excited to be trying some new things.

Recipe Details:

• Grain/Adjunct:
• 9.75 lbs Simpson's Golden Promise Pale Ale
• 2.6 oz Dark Caramel
• 2 oz Acid Malt
• Hops:
• 2 oz Fuggle (Pellet, 4.4% AA) at 60 min
• 1 oz English Golding (Pellet, 4.5% AA) at 10 min
• 1 oz Styrian Golding (Pellet, 3.5% AA) at 0 min
• Yeast:
• Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire Ale
• Water:
• 12 gal spring water
• 1 tsp CaCl
• 1 tsp Gypsum
• 1 tsp Irish Moss at 15 min

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 6 gal
• Mash:
• 152 F for 60 min
• Boil:
• 60 min
• Fermentation Temperature:
• Ambient Basement Temperature (low 60s)
• Primary Duration:
• 4 weeks
• Secondary Duration:
• NA

Results:

• OG:
• 1.046 (Target 1.043)
• Efficiency:
• 76% (Target 71%)
• FG:
• 1.013 (Target 1.010)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 71% (Target 76%)
• ABV:
• 4.3% (Target 4.3%)

Brewing Notes:

• 12/12/20:
• Built a yeast starter using 100 g of DME and 1 L of water.  Boiled, cooled, pitched the yeast and then set it up on a stir plate to propagate
• Cooked up 4 oz of Dry Caramel.  Put sugar on a pan and cooked it on medium low until it was all dissolved and boiling.  Smokes quite a bit in the process
• 12/13/20 - Brewday - 9:15 AM to 1:15 PM Including Setup (I did a deep cleanup this time which took several hrs)
• Brought 7 gal of spring water to 180 F
• Milled my grain.  Added CaCl and Gypsum to the grain

• Moved 6 gal of water to the mash tun.  Cycled through the grant and RIMS until the temperature had stabilized to 162 F.
• Stopped the RIMS cycle and added in the grain.  Stirred well to eliminate dough balls

• Let the mash settle for 10 min
• Cycled the RIMS at 152 F for 50 min
• Heated 7 gal of spring water to 185 F for the sparge
• Drained the mash tun and fly sparged until I had 4 gal in the kettle
• Added 5 more gal of water to the mash tun and let this sit for a second batch sparge.  Let this sit for 10 min
• Started heating the kettle after collecting 3 gal and had it at a boil prior to the second sparge
• Added the bittering hops once the boil was under way
• Slowly drained the second batch sparge into the kettle.  Slow enough to allow the boil to continue.  Fly sparged until a total of 8 gal has been collected
• Added my brewers caramel by draining boiling wort into the pan which contained the crystalized sugar.  Let this dissolve a little bit at a time and then added back into the kettle.  This took multiple cycles to get enough for color.  The wort seemed dark enough before I'd dissolved it all so I stopped (only ended up adding 2.6 oz)

• With 15 min left in the boil I added the Irish Moss
• Added 10 min hops.  These are pellet so I added them in loose
• With 5 min I added the wort chiller in to sanitize
• Added the 0 min hops

• Chilled the beer slowly to give the hops a bit more time at temps at about 180 F.  Was able to chill down to about 70 F
• Drained the wort to a brew bucket
• Collected 6 gal.  Measured gravity as 1.046 which was just a bit above target of 1.043.
• Pitched the yeast starter
• Left the beer to ferment with the lid on top of the fermenter but unsealed to try to mimic and open fermentation
• 12/13/20 - Krausen has formed

• 12/16/20 - The fermentation is producing a very fruity aroma
• 1/10/21 - Moved the beer to the chest freezer set to 40 F to cold crash
• 1/12/21 - Added gelatin to fine the beer
• 1/15/21 - Kegged the beer today and set it to carbonate at 12 PSI.  Measured the final gravity as 1.013.  So, I overshot my OG by 3 points and it's stopped 3 points higher than intended and I met my ABV target.  I'll give the beer at least a few days before I start drinking it.
• 2/7/21 - Tasting Notes - A really drinkable beer with a lovely balance between malt and hops.  Nice flavors and good amount of complexity.  I would say this is the best English Bitter I've made so far.  I feel compelled to play around with this yeast some more as I suspect that it's playing a significant background roll in flavor profile (I don't believe this beer would taste as good with Chico yeast)
• 3/15/21 - Kicked the keg sadly.  The beer was still delicious up to the last pint

Burnt Honey Mead (Bochet) - Tasting Notes

This was my second attempt to make a mead.  With it I used a procedure to boil the honey to darken the color and create toasted sugar flavors - this is called a Burnt Honey Mead or Bochet.  I made two gallons of it which seems like a good amount of a beverage that tends to be consumed slowly.

I made the mead in August 2018, let it ferment and age until November 2019 before bottling, and then have been drinking one every couple months over this last year.  It finished with quite a bit of residual sweetness without any action from me and has been very stable in the bottle which is a victory for my sanitation process.

The long aging time has produced a nice mellow beverage.  Time to record some official tasting notes.

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Caramel and dark fruit are prominent along with a honey aroma.  Also has a bit of a boozy character
• Appearance:
• Dark gold and very clear.  Perfectly still
• Flavor:
• Sweet honey up front with a raisin and caramel flavor coming in next.  The finish has a pretty firm bitter bite to it which is kind of balanced by a bit of sweetness that lingers on the palate.  The fruity flavor really lingers for a while.  Get a bit of alcohol flavor on the finish
• Mouthfeel:
• Medium bodied and a bit sticky and sweet.  Noticeable warming alcohol warming presence.  Definitely a sipper
• Overall:
• Boldly flavor with a good amount of complexity.  Not easy to drink a lot of as it's quite sweet (half a bottle might be a good amount in one sitting) but enjoyable as a sipping drink on a cold night.  I like the flavors quite a bit - fruit and caramel are very nice - and it's neat that they're all derived from just browning honey.

American Brown Ale Take II

 This week I'll be brewing up an American Brown Ale.  This will be my second attempt at the style (read about the first attempt).  This time I'm basing the beer roughly on a recipe by Mike "Tasty" McDole (an award winning homebrewer who passed away a couple months ago):  Janet's Brown Ale.

I've decided to bring the beer in at about 5% ABV which is a bit lower than the original.  I'm cutting back on base malt to accomplish this and keeping the specialty malts at about the same level.  It's a fairly complex malt bill (I ended up using 2 base malts as I ran out of 2 Row and had to dip into a new bag of Golden Promise).  I really enjoyed the malt backbone in my last brown ale and expect this will deliver a similar experience

For hops, I've used Northern Brewer for bittering (per the original recipe) but have adjusted the late hops a bit.  The original called for Cascade for flavoring - I've opted to use Chinook for that instead (as I had some available).  Still dry hopping with Centennial and, since I'll be kegging this one, added more Keg Hops to the mix.  I think this will be a nicely hoppy beer.

For yeast, I've opted to re-use the S04 English strain I'd saved from a previous batch rather than buy a pack of Chico yeast this recipe calls for.  Yeast is expensive - nice to cut costs where you can by reusing.  I don't imagine this will make a big difference in the final flavor profile.  I'll be fermenting fairly cool with the beer at ambient basement temperature (low 60).  

I'll give it 2 weeks to ferment out and then cold crash/dry hop for a week

Recipe Detail:

• Grain:
• 6.5 lb 2 row
• 1.5 Golden Promise
• 1 lb Crystal 40L
• 1 lb CaraPils
• 1 lb Wheat
• 0.5 lb Chocolate
• 2 oz Acid
• Hops:
• 1 oz Northern Brewer (Pellet, 6.4% AA) at 60 min
• 1 oz Northern Brewer (Pellet, 6.4 % AA) at 30 min
• 1.5 oz Centennial (Leaf, 10.1% AA) at 5 min
• 1.5 oz Chinook (Leaf, 12.2% AA) at 5 min
• 2 oz Centennial (Leaf, 10.1% AA) Dry Hop
• 2 oz Centennial (Leaf 10.1% AA) Keg Hop
• Yeast:
• S04 (Second Pitch)
• Water:
• 13 gal Spring Water
• 1 tsp CaCl
• 1 tsp Gypsum
• 1 tsp Irish Moss at 15 min

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 6 gal
• Mash:
• 154 F for 60 min
• Boil:
• 60 min
• Fermentation Temperature:
• Ambient Basement Temperature (low 60s)
• Primary Duration:
• 3 Weeks
• Secondary Duration:
• NA

Results:

• OG:
• 1.049 (Target 1.050)
• Efficiency:
• 71% (Target 72%)
• FG:
• 1.013 (Target 1.014)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 73% (Target 71%)
• ABV:
• 4.7% (Target 4.7%)

Brewing Notes:

• 11/27/20 - Built up a yeast starter using S04 that I'd saved from a previous batch.  Used a 1 pint jar of slurry (which included a lot of trub).  Took off quickly
• 11/28/20 - Brewday - 10:15 AM to 2:30 PM
• Brought 8 gal of spring water up to 190 F
• Milled my grain.  Added CaCl and Gypsum to the mix so I don't forget
• Added 6 gal to the mash tun and cycled through the RIMS until the temperature had settled to 164 F
• Stirred in the grain
• Let the mash sit for 10 min to settle.  Temperature ended up at 155 F
• Cycled the RIMS for 50 min with temperature set to 155 F (fermenter read a bit lower for most of that)

• Heated 7 gal of sparge water to 200 F
• Drained the mash tun into the boil kettle.  Started heating after collecting 4 gal.  Topped up the mash tun until I'd collected 6 gal.  Had the beer at a boil soon after this
• Added the bittering hops.  Threw these in loose as a muslin sack doesn't contain the pellet hops very well
• Added the remaining sparge water to the mash tun, stirred, and let sit for 10 min.  Then drained this into the boil kettle (slowly so the boil isn't interrupted)
• Ended up with 8 gal
• I had several minor boil over through the 60 min.  Had to pay quite a bit of attention to the heat to keep these to a minimum
• Added the 30 min hops.  Also put these in loose
• At 15 min, added the Irish Moss
• With 5 min left, I added the worth chiller and the flavoring hops.  I bagged the leaf hops (did 1 oz per bag which leaves a lot of room for expansion of the hops which I hope will give good contact to them
• Chilled the beer fairly slowly (took maybe 20 min) to give the hot wort more time with the hops
• Transferred the beer into a Stainless steel brew bucket.  Let it fall a couple feet to aerate
• Collected 5.4 gal.  Measured the gravity as 1.055.  This is 71% efficiency.  I'm going to top up to 6 gal which should be an OG of 1.049
• Pitched the entire yeast starter into the beer
• 11/29/20 - The beer was bubbling aggressively by the next morning
• 12/12/20 - Added the dry hops in muslin sacks weighed down with stainless steel bolts (1 oz per bag).  Will let this sit at basement temperature for a few days.
• 12/18/20 - Moved the beer to the chest freezer to cold crash at 38 F
• 12/19/20 - Added gelatin to fine the beer
• 12/20/20 - Kegged today with 2 oz of dry hops.  Used the following procedure:
• Filled the keg with star san solution
• Pushed the sanitizer out of the keg with 2 psi of pressure
• Quickly opened the keg and dropped in 2 weighted bags of the dry hop.  Didn't tie these up like last time so they should be sitting at the bottom the whole time
• Re-pressurized the keg to 2 PSI
• Drained the SS brewtech brew bucket output spigot to the keg output (so that beer comes in at the bottom of the keg with minimal splashing and hooked the keg in to the stopper hole of the brew bucket to release the keg's C02 on top of the beer in the fermenter and (hopefully) offer some protection from oxygen
• Moved the beer to my kegging chest freezer setup with 12 PSI of pressure to carbonate
• Measured the final gravity of the beer as 1.013
• 1/26/21 - Tasting Notes - This is a very hoppy beer - hopped to a level similar to an IPA.  The contributions of the brown ale are in the mix but relegated very much to a background role.  The Centennial hops are very nice - the 2 oz of keg hops really amped up hop contribution.  The fruity ester character from S04 is nice as well but it may have been better to go with a less expressive yeast to let malt and hops interplay a bit more - so much going on in the beer with a pronounced yeast component.  Still, can't complain about what is a nicely flavored beer.
• 2/17/21 - Kicked the keg today.  The beer was still very hoppy up to the last glass and the hops in the keg still smelled vibrant and fresh.  I don't recall what it was like well enough at the start ot say if it's fallen off or not but certainly not stale or bland at the end.

Raspberry Wine Vinegar

This will be my third attempt at making vinegar - I'll be using my homemade Raspberry Wine for this batch.  This wine fermented to 13.6% ABV and was backsweetened to 1.022 at bottling.  I'm hoping that, at this ABV, it will make a fairly strong vinegar with a good amount of sweetness remaining for balance.  The wine is fairly tart on it's own which may make for a bit more complexity than acetic acid would provide by itself

I'll use 2 12 oz bottles for this batch and will add them on top of the mother culture I've used for my last two vinegar (Apple Cider and Malt) which were both made using Braggs Apple Cider Vinegar Mother culture.  The mother cultured from my first batch didn't seem to be enough to get the Malt vinegar going for my last batch so I ended up adding more of the brags.  I'll try not to resort to that this time

I'm going to let this sit in a corner of the kitchen for the next couple months and test occasionally to gauge it's progress.

Brewing Notes:

• 11/1/20:
• Added the raspberry wine to the previously used jar (on top of the mother culture left behind after the transfer of the Malt Vinegar

• Draped a thin cotton cloth over the top for air exposure and secured with the lid ring
• 11/26/20 - Checked on the vinegar today.  There are bubbles forming around the outer ring of the jar.  I suspect the remaining sugar to be fermenting a bit.  I took a sample - it tastes a bit more acidic than the normal cider but doesn't have a particularly strong vinegar character just yet.  There is some sweetness to it still

English Porter - Tasting Notes

This was an English Porter I brewed up back in September based on a historic recipe published on the Shut Up About Barclay Perkins Blog: 1915 Courage Porter.  It is pretty simple recipe that features the use of Invert Syrup like most of the old English beers seem to.  It was fairly smooth brewday except for the need to extend the boil by 20 min due to having a bit more wort collected than was expected.  I ended up with a 5 points higher on gravity than expected and ended up with a 4.9% ABV beer rather than the 4.2% I'd intended.

It was nice fermentation with S04 yeast which is the Whitbread strain the recipe called for.  I let it sit on the yeast cake for 4 weeks.

I kegged the beer at 12-13 PSI and have been drinking it for the last couple weeks.  I've enjoyed having it on tap.  It has carbonated up nicely at this point so it's time to do a tasting (while it lasts).

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Roast, coffee, and a bit of chocolate aroma most prominent.  Has a slight fruity character as well and maybe a bit of a sweet smell
• Appearance:
• Black/dark brown.  Pours with a 1 finger of tan head when gentle with the beer (quite a bit thicker if agressive).  Foam fades to a thin rick after a couple minutes.  Leaves a little lacing
• Flavor:
• Roasty flavor up front which becomes more of a coffee flavor in mid palate.  A bit of sweet malt character on the finish.  Has a medium level of bitterness on the finish as well which balances the malt pretty nicely.  The roasty and malty flavors linger for a while on the palate after swallowing.  Get some chocolate in the finish along with a slight fruitiness.  Slight alcohol flavor to it
• Mouthfeel:
• Medium-light bodied.  Fairly dry and pretty crisp with the roast and bitterness. This is makes it pretty easy drinking and calls you to take another sip
• Overall:
• I really enjoy a roasty flavored beer and this is a very enjoyable one.  It think the balance of this recipe is quite nice - has a small bit of sweetness that prevents the roast and hop bitterness from becoming abrasive but is by no means a sweet beer.  Makes for very good drinkability.  There isn't anything extraordinary about the beer but it is boldly flavored and offers a good amount of complexity to go along with it's drinkability (quite a bit like a Guinness I would say).

American Pale Wheat Take III

My new kegging setup has me very excited for  the prospects of trying many more hoppy beers.  I've purchased several popular varieties of American hops in bulk here in the last couple years and have been keeping them in my freezer.  This includes Citra and Amarillo which I used on my first hoppy beer:  A version of the Mad Fermentationist's beer made for San Diego Brewery Modern Times, Fortunate Islands.  I've decided to revisit that beer for a third time (read about the first and second).  These hops make a really lovely beer with bold citrus-like hop flavor.

This time around I'll be using a couple more hop varieties for flavoring in the kettle:  Columbus and Centennial.  My thought is this would add some complexity to the overall package.  I also hope to stretch my pound of Citra (which is fairly expensive and often sold out) into multiple beers.  I'll do a fairly sizable hop addition at the end of the boil (4 oz) and then hit the beer with 3 oz of dry hop in the fermenter and then another 3 oz in the keg - the dry hops will be comprised of Citra and Amarillo in similar ratio to the first beer.  I'm expecting a really bold hop flavor and aroma from this.

I'll be aiming for an ABV of around 4% for this batch to allow for worry free consumption of a third pint if I so desire.  The low alcohol was one of the wonderful things about my first Keg Beer (a Rye Pale Ale).

Finally, I'm trying out a new yeast variety, Imperial Yeast Juice, which is a strain used for New England IPA.  It is supposed to provide some more ester character than typical American Yeast that compliments American Hops.  Is also supposed to be a vigorous fermenter so I'll use a blowoff tube.  I'm going to try out a CO2 capture contraption for this batch which I hope will protect the beer a bit from Oxidation during cold crash and transfer by allowing it's own CO2 to be sucked back into the fermenter after pressure change.

I'll give the beer 2 weeks to ferment before adding the dry hops and then cold crashing and fining for a week.

Recipe Details:

• Grain:
• 5 lb Wheat Malt
• 4 lb Pale Ale Malt
• Hops:
• 1 oz Columbus (Leaf, 14.6% AA) First Wort Hop
• 2 oz Columbus (Leaf, 14.6% AA) at 5 min
• 2 oz Centennial (Leaf, 10.1% AA) at 5 min
• 2 oz Citra (Leaf, 13.1% AA) Dry Hop
• 1 oz Amarillo (Leaf, 8.8% AA) Dry Hop
• 2 oz Citra (Leaf, 13.1% AA) Keg Hop
• 1 oz Amarillo (Leaf, 8.8% AA) Keg Hop
• Yeast:
• Imperial Yeast A38 Juice
• Water:
• 10 gal spring water
• 1 tsp Gypsum
• 1 tsp CaCl
• 1 tsp Irish Moss at 15 min

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 5.75 gal
• Mash:
• 158 F for 60 min
• Boil:
• 60 min
• Fermentation Temperature:
• Ambient Basement Temps (low 60s)
• Primary Duration:
• 3 weeks
• Secondary Duration:
• NA

Results:

• OG:
• 1.040 (Target 1.040)
• Efficiency:
• 65% (Target 71%)
• FG:
• 1.013 (Target 1.012)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 67% (Target 69%)
• ABV:
• 3.54% (Target 3.7%)

Brewing Notes:

• 11/14/20 - Made a yeast starter with 100 g of malt extract and 1 L of water.  Set it up on the stir plate to propagate
• This was a very strong pitch of yeast.  Took off within a couple hrs.  I'm sure I didn't actually need a starter given it's strength.

• 11/15/20 - Brewday - 8:30 AM to 12:45 PM - Including Setup and Cleanup
• Brought 7 gal up to 190 F
• Milled my grain.  Added the gypsum and CaCl to the grain so I wont forget about it
• Added 5 gal of water to the mash tun and cycled through the RIMS until the temperature had settled to 168 F.  Stopped the RIMS
• Added the grain and stirred well to eliminate doughballs.  Let this settle for 10 min
• Cycled the RIMS at 158 F for 60 min
• Brough 5 more gal of water up to 185 for the sparge
• Slowly drained the mash tun until 4 gal had been collected.  Added water to the mash until that was done.
• Added the bittering hops during the draining
• Heated the kettle up to a boil
• Filled the mash tun back up for a second batch sparge.  Stirred the mash and then let it settle for 10 min.  Slowly drained the second batch sparge into the boil kettle - slow enough to keep the boil going.  Collected up to 8 gal
• Boiled for 60 min until I got down to about 6 gal
• Added Irish Moss with 15 min to go
• Added the worth chiller and flavoring hops with 5 min left and brought back to a boil to sanitize
• Chilled to 180 F and let the hops site for 30 min
• Chilled down to 70 F very slowly
• Transferred to the fermenter.  Let the beer fall a couple feet to aerate.  Pitched the yeast starter during this transfer

• Measured the gravity as 1.043.  Collected 5.25 gal.  This is both of34 gravity and under volume.  Decided to add half a gal of spring water which should bring it down to about 1.040.  Missed my efficiency target by 4%. The wort is bitter with some nice hop flavor

• Set the fermenter up in the basement with a blowoff tube fed into a couple jars which I'll use to capture CO2
• 11/16/20 - The fermenter is bubbling vigorously this morning
• 11/18/20 - Bubbling has stopped
• 11/27/20 - Added the dry hop in 3 muslin grain socks.  Weighted them down with stainless steel
• 11/30/20 - Moved to the chest freezer to chill down to 50 F
• 12/1/20 - My C02 storage jars seem to working okay - haven't started pulling liquid into the fermenter yet (hope that means that CO2 is being pulled in).  I'm going to drop the temperature down to 40 F to hopefully better clear the beer.
• Added gelatin this evening
• 12/3/20 - Kegged the beer today:
• First I filled the keg with starsan and then I pushed all the liquid out the tap with C02.  This is to reduce the O2 in the keg
• I put my 3 oz of keg hop into muslin bags (1 oz per bag) and tied them up with dental floss

• I then quickly opened the keg and put the hops in so they were dangling above the bottom
• I pressurized the keg to 2 psi
• I then setup a connection from the fermentation bucket output spigot to the keg out line to drain beer into the keg and a connection from the keg gas line to the fermenter via a drilled stopper and pipe to have the gas in the keg fed to the top of the fermenter (this is hop fully mostly C02 and will offer the beer a bit of protection from O2

• Drained to the keg.  I left the lid on so it was guess as to when the keg is full.  I could get some sense of the liquid level based on the temperature.  I think I ended up getting very close to the full amount in there
• Measured the gravity as 1.013.  The beer smells and tastes wonderfully hoppy.  It is a little murky but nowhere near the level of murk of a NEIPA
• Setup the keg at 12 psi.  I'll give it the weekend to settle and carb up a bit before I start drinking small amounts.  Really excited to see what additional effect the keg hops will have
• Saved the yeast in a couple jars for future re-use
• 12/20/20 - Tasting Notes - This has been a really lovely hoppy beer to drink.  The bold hop flavors were exactly what I was hoping kegging (and keg hopping) would provide.  This is a very light beer - very sessionable and easy drinking.  I think the level of bitterness is nice but it could have done with a bit more of a malt presence for balance.  When I brew this again I will maybe add a small amount of caramel malt to the mix. Additionally, I've noticed this beer drinks quite a bit better once it's warmed up from the 44 F I'm keeping the keg at - flavoring hops really come through better.  I'm going to work on increasing my serving temperature on the kegs based on this.
• 1/10/21 - Keg kicked today.  The beer retained its hoppy flavor right to the last pint.  Was delicious and I'm sad to see it gone.

Munich Dunkel Take II

This week I'll be brewing up a Munich Dunkel.  This is one of my favorite styles of beer and will be my second attempt at making one (read about the first here).  This is a dark lager beer that makes use of Munich Malt and a decoction mash to get a sweet bready and toasty malt character.  They are really delicious.  I'll be kegging this beer.

For my previous version, I used a recipe that used Munich and then a number of specialty malts for complexity.  This time I'm going the simple route with a grain bill of Munich only.  I'll do a triple decoction mash.  Decoction, if you're unfamiliar with it, is a traditional process used to get better extraction from grains.  It originated from a time where grain were lower quality and wouldn't provide good extraction with a singe infusion.  It involves pulling a portion of the mash, boiling it, and then adding it back to the main mash to increase the overall temperature to put it in the ranges of the various enzymes.  In the process of boiling the gain and wort are darkened and (in theory) new, malty, flavors are created.  I'll be doing three boils for this beer.

For hops, I'll be using a traditional German variety - Tettnang.  It is a very mildly hopped beer style.  I'll go with just 2 oz of low Alpha Acid hops (at 1 hr and 30 min).

For yeast, I have a packet of Wyeast 2124 Bohemian Lager.  I'll make up a 1 Litre starter and ferment at 50 F.  I'll give it 3 weeks to ferment, 1 week at warmer temps for Diacetyl cleanup, and then 4 weeks of lagering

I'm going to shoot for a beer with somewhere between 5 and 6 percent ABV.

Recipe Details:

• Grain:
• 12 lb Munich
• 2 oz Acid Malt
• Hops:
• 1 oz Tettnang (Pellet, 3% AA) at 60 min
• 1 oz Tettnang (Pellet, 3% AA) at 30 min
• Yeast:
• Wyeast 2124 Bohemian Lager
• Water:
• 12 gal spring water
• 1 tsp CaCl
• 1 oz Irish moss at 15 min

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 6 gal (Target 6 gal)
• Mash:
• Triple Decoction:
• See details in brewing notes
• Boil:
• 60 min
• Fermentation Temp:
• 50 F for primary
• 65 F for Diacetyl Cleanup
• 32 for Lager
• Primary Duration:
• 4 weeks
• Secondary Duration:
• 4 weeks

Results:

• OG:
• 1.058 (Target 1.055)
• Efficiency:
• 76% (Target 72%)
• FG:
• 1.010 (Target 1.014)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 82% (Target 74%)
• ABV:
• 6.3% (Target 5.4%)

Brewing Notes:

• 10/31/20 - Built a yeast starter using 1 L of water and 100 g of dry malt extract.  Set this up on a stir plate to propagate

• 11/1/20 - Brewday - 6 AM to 11:30 AM - Including setup and cleanup
• Heated 6.5 gal of spring water to 160 F
• Milled my grain.  Added CaCl to it
• Stirred in the grain and broke up any dough balls
• Let the mash sit for 15 min - temperature settled out at 140 F
• Moved 10 quarts of the mash (taking grain and leaving most liquid behind) to a separate pot.  Heated this up to the high 150s and let it sit for 15 min.  Then brought this to a boil for 10 min
• Added the decoction back to the mash tun.  The main mash had settled to 125.  Adding the decoction raised it to 160 F.  I added half a gal of 60 F water and that overshot me back down to 147 F.   Let this sit for 15 min at this temperature
• Pulled 5 quarts of mash and boiled this for 10 min
• Added the decoction back to the mash.  It had fallen to 143 F.  This raised it up to 156.  Let this rest for 15 min

• Heated 7  gal of spring water for the sparge to 180 F
• Pulled one final decoction (5 quarts) and boiled for 10 min while waiting for the strike water to finish.
• Added it back to the mash tun and let it sit for 10 min
• Batch sparged.  Started heating the kettle after collecting 3 gal.  Had it to a boil during the second batch sparge.  Collected 8 gal of wort
• Added my bittering hops
• Added 30 min hops
• Added Irish Moss with 15 min left
• Added wort chiller to sanitize with 5 min left
• Chilled down to about 70 F
• Drained into a bucket fermenter - the the wort fall a couple feet to aerate.  Collected about 5.4 gal of wart
• Measured the gravity as 1.064 which is 76% efficiency

• Topped it up to 6 gal which should bring the gravity down to about 1.058
• Pitched my yeast
• Moved the beer to the chest freezer to cool down to 50 F for fermentation 
• 11/2/20 - The fermenter was bubbling slowly by the next afternoon
• 11/8/20 - Still bubbling after a week
• 11/19/20 - Moved the beer out of the chest freezer to warm up and do a diacetyl cleanup
• 11/30/20 - Moved to the chest freezer set to 50 F initially.  Will lower this further later in the week
• 12/1/20 - Dropped the temperature to 40 F
• 12/24/20 - Transferred the beer into a purged keg.  Measured the gravity of the beer as 1.010.  Set it up to carb at 12 PSI.  The beer actually has a fair amount of natural carbonation as well which is interesting.  Ended up with 2 extra pints at the end which I'll drink today.  Saved the yeast cake in 2 jars for use in future beers.
• 3/31/21 - Tasting Notes - This has a very nice malt character to it.  I really like the Munich Dunkel style.  I also very much like the later yeast character and enjoy the interplay between the malt and yeast here.  This is a fairly strong beer at 6.2%.  This doesn't hurt it but does make it more difficult to choose this as a second pour.  I'd aim for a bit lower next time.

Rye Pale Ale Take II - Tasting Notes

I brewed up this Rye Pale Ale back in  Mid September as my first kegged beer.  I designed the recipe as a low alcohol beer that could be readily consumed in volume as a session beer.  I targeted to be 4.33% but FG ended up a higher than expected at 3.68%.  This was just fine as it was even more sessionable and the extra FG points likely helped keep it from seeming watery.

Making the beer was a bit of a challenge as I found the reused yeast that pitched (Wyeast 1028 London Ale Yeast) was very slow starting.  I thought I'd be safe pitching without a starter.  I had to pitch a second jar of the yeast a couple days after brewing to get things going.  After fermentation had completed the beer formed a pellicle indicating an infection.  I'd initially thought an odd flavor I detected was due to this but I came to second guess that.

I hoped the beer fairly heavily with Cluster and some home grown Cascades.  I bittered to maybe 30 IBU and then used 5 oz of hops at flameout/whirlpool, 2 oz of fermentor dry hops, and 2 oz in the keg.  The Cascades were kind of a wet hop (or only partially dried).  When I ran them between my hands they had a really lovely cascade aroma but just smelling them intact had a somewhat odd aroma.  I believe this is what I initially blamed the infection for causing.  Had trouble pinning it down (had described it as mineral and plastic - neither of which my wife agreed with).  It may be that sort of vegetal would be an accurate descriptor. 

I'd considered dumping the beer but decided to proceed to keg at 12 PSI.  I took quite a few samples in the first week and it was reasonably carbonated by the second.  As it aged the hops mellowed a fair amount during the cold aging and as I got used to them I came to enjoy the flavor quite a bit.  Very happy I didn't dump it.

The kegged lasted about a month before I kicked it last night.  Luckily, I captured tasting notes for posterity before that happened

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
•  Hops are the prominent character in the aroma.  They're kind of an odd aroma.  As I've gotten used to it and they've mellowed a bit I've decided they're herbal or floral maybe.  Malt comes through as well.  It is sweet and bready.  I think I pick up an earthy rye character as well.  Tough to pick anything out that I'd call a yeast character but I'm sure it's there but just well integrated with the hops
• Appearance:
• Dark gold in color.  Pours pretty clear.  Depending on how aggressive I am with the pour I can get a few finger head that slowly fades.  It leaves lacing
• Flavor:
• Up front I get the flavor and some sweet malt.  I taste the earthy and spicy rye better than I smell it.  It adds a nice crispness.  The finish has a medium light bitterness.  This is well balanced with malt and lingers for awhile on the palate.  Not really any prominent yeast flavor sticking out.  Also don't really taste anything I would associate with Brett character from the infection
• Mouthfeel:
• A really nice sessionable keg beer.  I've had six pints of this on a brew day and was no worse for ware by the end.  This is exactly the kind of beer I was thinking I wanted to start making.  it is flavorful and complex in addition to drinkable.  I've been impressed by the hop character as it's aged - having the hops in the keg is a real help I think (as is being able to purge the keg of Oxygen)

Russian Imperial Stout with Bourbon Soaked Oak - Take III

This will be my third attempt to make a Bourbon Soaked Oak Russian Imperial Stout inspired by Goose Island's Bourbon County Brand Stout (Read about 1st and 2nd attempts).  As I found in recent Head to Head Comparison between my beers and a 2017 BCBS, the beers I've made so far are tasty but lack the intense whiskey character of the real thing.

My first beer was oaked with 4 oz of charred and toasted oak sticks I prepared myself out of lumber and then soaked in Makers Mark.  Finding that the first lacked whiskey character, I reasoned that the Makers Mark being 45% and barrel aged spirit being 60% was a significant difference.  So, for the second attempt, I soaked my oak in Everclear diluted down to barrel strength and I then oaked the beer with 5 oz worth of sticks.  This was still not enough.  This also wasn't helped by the fact that second beer only fermented down to 1.055 which also contributes to a significant difference in balance than the original.  My conclusion from the first two rounds:  

1. Barrel proof spirit was an improvement
2. Oak preparation seems good as far as I can tell
3. I used too little oak in these batches

I think the base beer I'm making is good enough to get me close to the real thing.  It seems clear to me that the "magic" of BCBS is in the barrel aging (no shit, right?  I'm a slow learner).  We can determine quite a bit about their oaking levels based on some simple analysis:

Whiskey barrels are about 53 gal each.  The internal surface area of a 53 gal barrel is about 56 square inches per gal.  In my previous batches of beer I've added oak considering the weight of the oak rather than the surface area which, in retrospect, I think may have been a mistake and one of the key contributors to my beers not matching the whiskey character of BCBS.

I'm using sticks that are about 1 in x 1 in x 6 in (see how I made them here).  This is about 26 square inches each.  In order to match the surface area of a whiskey barrel I'd need to use 2 of these sticks per gal which is 12 per a 6 gal batch.  I used the equivalent of 3 or 4 in my last batches.  

This doesn't consider that my wood has end grain exposed to the liquid while the barrels do not.  Putting that aside for a moment, I think we can get some interesting insights into the absorption capabilities of a barrel based on the following analysis:

The base beer is 11.75% ABV per the BCBS spec sheet (we assume they're still aiming for that).  After spending months in fresh whisky barrels the beer has increased in alcohol.  Suspect this is due to the barrel proof spirit absorbed in the wood which then intermingles with the beer during aging in a non-climate controlled warehouse.  Doing a bit of math we can derive how much barrel proof spirit is added per gallon of beer to get to, for example, a 14.1% ABV (which is the ABV of my last remaining 2017 BCBS):

• 1 gal of base beer contains 128 oz
• At 11.75% ABV this is about 15 oz of alcohol
• At 14.1% ABV this is 18 oz of alcohol
• So, we've picked up 3 oz of alcohol per gal
• Barrel strength whisky is ~60% ABV.  
• So, to get 3 oz of alcohol you'd need 5 oz of barrel proof whisky added per gal

As a sanity check, this would mean that in a 53 gal whiskey barrel there is about 2 gal of spirit absorbed in the wood.  This seems to me to be fairly believable.

Finally, another data point on the absorption capabilities of my oak with end grain:

• I have been soaking oak in the Everclear diluted down to ~60% ABV over the last year
• I measured the weight of 4 sticks of my oak be 11 oz prior to the soak.  This now weighs 20.4 oz
• Therefore, we've picked up 9.4 oz of spirit by weight 
• 1 cup of this spirit (8 oz by volume) weighs 7.4 oz
• The 9.4 oz of spirit by weight is ~10 oz of spirit by volume
• So, 2 sticks would get you the 5 oz of spirit which matches the per gal absorption of the barrel

Now, drum roll, please . . .

It appears that Two 1 in x 1 in  x 6 in sticks of oak per gal provide the correct surface area to match a 53 gal whiskey barrel, absorb enough alcohol to increase the base beer from 11.75% ABV to 14.1% ABV when the alcohol is released, and match the absorption rate of a real barrel closely despite the end grain

Based on this analysis, I'm going to try out a very dramatic increase in oaking for this batch, from 3-4 sticks last time, to 12 for a 6 gal batch.

I'll stick with the same base beer but, based on the findings from the higher than ideal FG last time (I measured the gravity of real BCBS at 1.038), I'm going to pitch extra yeast to restart a stuck fermentation if I end up much higher than my target of 1.040.  I'll start out with a second pitch of Wyeast 1028 (London Ale) for this but also have some White Labs 099 (Super High Gravity) to add in if a stall occurs.

I'll let this beer ferment out for a month or so prior to moving to secondary.  It should be a very agressive fermentation so I'm going to split this into 2 fermenters at first to prevent loss of beer due to blowoff.  Oak will be added in secondary and I plan to age it until next summer up in my attic (where I've been aging the oak).

Recipe Details:

• Grain:
• 14 lb 2 row
• 10 lb English Style Pale Malt
• 8 lb Light Munich
• 2 lb Crystal 60L
• 1.5 lb Chocolate Malt
• 1.5 lb Roasted Barley
• 12 oz Black Patent
• 4 oz Acid Malt
  
• Hops:
• 3 oz Chinook (Leaf, 12.2% AA) at 60 min
• Yeast:
• Wyeast 1028 London Ale Yeast (2nd Pitch)
• White Labs 099 Super High Gravity Yeast
• Water:
• 20 gal spring water
• 2 tsp CaCl
• 2 tsp Gypsum
• 1 tsp Irish Moss at 15 min
• Extras:
• 12 sticks (1x1x6 in) of White Oak Soaked in 60% Everclear

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 7 gal (Target 6 gal)
• Mash:
• 153 F for 60 min
• Boil:
• 4.5 hrs
• Fermentation Temp:
• 68 F
• Primary Duration:
• 4 weeks
• Secondary Duration:
• 6-8 months

Results:

• OG:
• 1.135 (Target 1.129)
• Efficiency:
• 70.52% (Target 57%)
• FG:
• 1.040 (Target 1.040)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 68% (Target 65%)
• ABV:
• 12.8% (Target 11.75%)
• Note, with the whisky soaked oak this would be up to ~15% ABV
• (6.25 gal of total beer * 128 oz/gal * 12.8% ABV + 12/2 sticks * 3 oz Alcohol/ 2 sticks)/6/25 gal * 128 oz/gal
• (102 oz + 18 oz of Alcohol)/800 oz of Total Liquid = 15%

Brewing Notes:

• 8/1/20 - Made a couple 1.5 L starters and added in a couple jars of yeast slurry from my last Barleywine.  Not a lot of obvious activity by the next morning (this yeast started slow for me last time as well but ended up doing the job so I wont worry too much about it)

• 8/2/20 - Brewday - 9:30 AM to 7:30 PM- Including setup and cleanup
• Brought 10 gal of spring water up to 185 F
• Milled half the grain for this batch.  Found that I was missing the Crystal 60L.  Had to go to the HBS across town to get it which will add 2-3 hrs to the brew day.  Will do it during the first mash

• Added half the CaCl and Gypsum to the grain
• Moved 7 gal of water into the mash tun and cycled through the RIMS at 163 F until everything had evened out
• Stopped the RIMS and added the grain.  Stirred in well to eliminate dough balls
• Mashed for 2.5 hrs.  It went from 154 F to 151 F over that time
• Sparged with the remaining warm water left from the strike
• Did a modified fly sparge by ladling water on top of the grain bed while I drained
• Started heating after collecting 4 gal.  Collected until I had about 8 gal
• Boiled the beer for 2 hrs

• Collected the liquid from the mash tun into a separate bucket to use as strike water for the next mash
• Cleaned out the mash tun
• Brought 10 gal of spring water up to 185 F for the next mash
• Milled the second half of the grain
• Added remaining CaCl and Gypsum to the grain
• Added strike water along with previous mash runnings to the mash tun and cycled the RIMS until it has settled out to 163 F

• Stopped the RIMS and added the second half of the grain.  Stirred well to eliminate dough balls
• Let it settle for 10 min and then cycled the RIMS at 153 F for 60 min
• By the end of the first 2 hrs of the boil the wort had been reduced to 3.5 gal
• Sparged the mash into the boil kettle using the same modified fly sparge method until I had 11.5 gal of wort total
• Boiled for another 2 hrs.  Had many slight boil overs and had to adjust the heat level quite a bit over the course of this second half of the boil.  I decided to add 30 min to the boil towards the end.  With about 8 gal left I found that my Brix was 28 so I decided to just boil down to 7 gal which would be about at my target SG of 30
• With 60 min left I added the bittering hops

• With 15 min left added the Irish Moss
• With 5 min left added the Wort Chiller to sanitize
• Once the boil completed I chilled to 80 F
• Had about 7 gal of beer at this point
• Measured the gravity as 31.5 brix (1.135).  I decided to let this ride as I'd added about 2.5 L of yeast starter to this which was maybe an OG of 1.05.  This would water it down slightly.
• Transferred the beer evenly to 2 fermenters.  Pitched the yeast during this transfer - they had started showing a good amount of activity over the last couple hrs of the brewday. Yeast added about half a gal of volume.  Let the beer fall about a foot to aerate
• Moved the fermenters to my chest freezer set at 68 F
• 8/3/20 - Airlock was bubbling aggressively by this afternoon
• 8/7/20 - Fermentation looks to be about done.  I'll give it another week before checking gravity
• 8/15/20 - Measured the gravity as 1.054.  I'm going to pitch some WLP 099 - Super High Gravity yeast to try to get this down a bit further.  Made up an all grain starter and set it on a stir plate
• 8/16/20 - Lots of activity in the starter.  Pitched the whole thing into one of the two fermenters.  We'll see how far this takes it before I decide what to do with the second fermenter.
• 8/18/20 - The airlock bubbled again yesterday and then into this morning.  I have the fermenter out of the fermentation chamber where it's in the low 70s.  Will check the gravity again this weekend
• 8/27/20 - The airlock bubbled for about a week.  I checked the gravity again today and found it has dropped to 1.050.  I was hoping for a much bigger drop.  Flavor wise it seems a fair bit less sweet than it had been though so definitely an improvement.  

• 8/29/20 - Transferred the beer from the two fermenters into a fresh one.  Ended up filling almost to the top so close to 7 gal still.  I scooped in maybe a couple cups of yeast slurry from the fermenter that had the Super High gravity yeast in hopes that it will come down some more.  Measured the gravity of the mixed beers as 1.048.  This is lower than the sample from a couple days ago which was taken from the spigot at the bottom of my SS BrewTech fermenter.  I wonder if there may have been a bit of settling/stratification going on that made for an inaccurate gravity reading.  Anyway, I'll let the beer sit for another couple weeks to ferment a bit more.
• 9/2/20 - There has been active airlock activity for the last few days after the combination of the beers and transfer into a fresh fermenter.  I don't see how the beer couldn't be dropping further in gravity.
• 9/6/20 - Checked the gravity again today - down to 1.045.  Tastes quite a bit less malty and sweet than it had at 1.055.  Hopefully it will keep going down a bit more for me.
• 9/13/20 - Airlock has continued to slowly bubble over the last week.  Measured the gravity again and it had dropped down to 1.042
• 9/20/20 - Measured the gravity again and found it's down to 1.040.  Decided to transfer into secondary along with my 12 oak pieces for long term aging.  Putting it in a fermenter with no pressure relief mechanism in the hopes that pressure forces beer into the wood like occurs with a barrel.  I'll keep this in the basement for a couple weeks to monitor pressure build up and then move it to the attic to be exposed to temperature variation

• 10/4/20 - The fermenter hasn't really gotten any more pressurized here in the last couple weeks.  I think it's low risk of bursting at this point.  I've moved it up to the attic to age for the next year.  Fall is starting to set in so it's getting cool at night and staying in the low-70s and below during the day - hopefully this will start the process of extracting spirit from the wood.
• 12/26/20 - I did a side by side tasting of the beer and a 2019 BCBS today.  The beer has been aging in the attic where it's been warm and then very cold as we've transitioned to winter.  It has an alcohol bite to it that is approaching BCBS (closer than the previous versions I think) but isn't quite equal to it.  It also doesn't have close to the oak flavor of BCBS yet.  It definitely needs more time on the oak (pleased that it wasn't quickly over-oaked in the last 3 months.
• 1/24/21 - Moved the beer down to the heated bedroom to warm the beer up a bit and hopefully cause some exchange of flavor with the oak
• 6/14/21 - I put the beer back up in the attic 4 months ago or so and it's been through the cold of winter and now the hot of the start of summer.  Decided to do a comparison with BCBS (2020 version)
• Aroma:  Very close in terms of intensity of whiskey character (agressive) - mine might be a bit stronger actually.  Both have chocolate and coffee coming through behind the alcohol.  \
• Flavor:  Both beers are front and center about the whiskey character.  I'd say they are very close in terms of strength.  The flavors between them are a bit different.  Mine has a bit of a fruity character that blends with a more sweet chocolate character.  The real thing is maybe more roast focus.  Very close and tough to do a real tasting between beer pulled from secondary and a carb'd beer from the bottle
• Overall:  I'm very encouraged by what I'm getting out of the extra oak here.  I'm going to give the beer another 5 months of aging  (as planned) to see how it goes.
• 11/20/21 - The beer sat in the attic all summer and now it has cooled off as the nights are in the 30s.  I'm thinking it's about time to bottle and decided to do a pre-bottle tasting:
• Aroma:
• Strong booze and oak along with a prominent chocolate and roast aroma.  There is caramel and dark fruit mixed in as well for good measure.  Very complex
• Flavor:
• Strong boozy and oak flavors up front followed by a sweet chocolate, roast, and caramel flavor.  There is a bit of bitterness in the finish which is then overwhelmed by a strong alcohol flavor and oak.  Very, very rich flavor profile.
• Overall:
• It's a really good beer and I think the strength of the alcohol is very close to what BCBS provides (not drinking it side by side this time to say for sure).  It's boozy but not quite like a real bourbon flavor.  I suspect my oak preparation is the source of some difference - I'd bet my toasting is a bit more agressive than what they're doing which makes for a more caramel flavored spirit. 
• 12/29/21 - Bottled today with a pack of Red Star Premier Cuvee Wine yeast and 4 oz of sugar.  Measured the gravity of the beer as 1.040 (so no drop over the last year).  Collected about 6.25 gal which got me 46 BCBS bottles (which are 16.9 oz) of beer.  I'm going to let this carbonate up over the next couple weeks before trying the first one

• 6/13/22 - Tasting Notes - Boldly flavored and booze forward beer.  It is pretty complex with the rich malt and whiskey/oak derived character.  The oak character itself seems quite a bit different than a typical bourbon - a lot more caramel and no vanilla really.  The oak is certainly very smooth - it is definitely not over-oaked to my palate.  As a BCBS clone I think (and I'll post a proper side to side comparison on this) my beer is very close in terms of boozy presence but the character I got out of the oak was significantly different from the real thing

2020 Oak Preparation

I use quite a bit of oak in my aged homebrew.  I sometimes use plain, toasted, but most often will soak it in a wine or spirit first in order to both condition the wood (leach out some of the tannins) and to impart extra flavor to the beer.  I had initially been purchasing small, toasted, oak cubes from the Homebrew Store for this but I recently found that purchasing White Oak lumber and preparing it myself is both cheaper and provides a better customizable product (like being able to decide the size)

I've typically been producing small amounts on an as-needed basis which often didn't allow for a very long soak time.  I think a longer soak time could result in better absorption of the wine or spirit into the wood and get me more flavor.  So, I'd decided to prepare a lot of oak all at once for use over the next year with Sour Beer, Raspberry Wine, and bulk aged English Barleywine and Russian Imperial Stouts

This post will document my approach for making this oak

Whiskey Oak Preparation Steps:

• First I left the American white oak lumber outside on the roof of my shed to be exposed to the weather for a year.  The rain, snow, sunshine, cold and warm weather result in the wood becoming seasoned.  This should result in some reduction of tannin in the wood which makes for a smoother character when aged with barrel strength spirit

• At the end of the aging the wood had a dark layer on the outside

• I cut the seasoned wood into 1x1x6 inch chunks using a table saw.  I slice off the outer layer once cut to rough shape

• I then toasted the oak in the oven at 375 F for 4 hrs.  The oak creates a wonderful vanilla, caramel, and toasted aroma - it's very much like a bakery smell

Toasted vs untoasted oak color

• After letting the oak cool I then char it over my propane burner until a good alligator char is achieved

Sprayed with water to put them out - this also caused additional cracks in the char

Example of char depth (from a stick made earlier this year)

• I then rinsed the charred oak with water for several minutes to clean any dirt or lose char off as well as to cool it
• Then I mixed up a 63% spirit using spring water and Everclear and add it to half gallon mason jars with 3 sticks of oak each.  This is 3x the amount of oak the equivalent amount of spirit would be in contact with in a real barrel which makes a much more oaky "whiskey" than the real thing.  It is still drinkable at this level of oaking.  This will be one potential area of difference when using the oak for beer ageing

• The jars are moved up to the non-climate controlled attic where they'll be exposed to wide temperature variation over the next year.  This will drive the whiskey in and out of the oak which will cause oak flavor to infuse the spirit and cause the wood to become saturated with alcohol

Wine Oak Preparation Steps:

• For my wine oaks I'v'e used unseasoned oak as I think the tannins are potentially more benefit to the beers I'll be using these in
• I cut these sticks into 0.75x0.75x4 and 0.75x0.75x6 inch strips.  These are smaller to fit through the neck of a glass carboy

• I toasted these in the oven for 4 hrs.  Some were toasted at 350 F and some at 375 F
• I put 10 sticks of 375 F toast oak at 0.75x0.75x4 into a 1 quart mason jar with Port.  This should leave just enough room to allow for expansion of the wood once liquid is absorbed but still get them out

• I used a half gallon mason jar to age the oak with Cabernet Sauvignon wine.  These are 6 inch pieces.  Most are about 3/4 an inch but there are some smaller ones.  Probably have 15 jammed in the jar.  These were toasted at 350 F

• I setup 10 sticks of 350 F Toast 0.75x0.75x4 oak in a 1 quart mason jar with Brandy

• I put 18 0.75x0.75x6 375 F toast in a half gal mason jar with Chardonnay