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.