American Pale Wheat with Citrus Zest - Tasting Notes

This is my latest American Pale Wheat Beer.  These are beer utilizing American hops which produce a Citrus character - they typically use large amounts of late hops to impart a profound hop flavor.  To take this one step further, I decided to add Citrus zest (Orange and Grapefruit) to this beer.

To do this I mixed sugar and zest which extracts the flavor from the zest and then added this to the keg to kick off a second fermentation which carbonates the keg.  I used a fairly amount of fruit (2 oranges and 2 grapefruit) on this batch to be conservative - didn't want to create an over the top kind of flavor (read on to see the results).

Anyhow, the beer has been on tap for three weeks now.  The carbonation was a bit high initially with the priming but it's now pouring nicely.  I've been drinking it quite a bit and have been getting worried that the keg will kick soon so time to do an official tasking for the record. 

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Citrus and pine aroma are pretty strong - can't really say if I'm smelling hop of citrus fruit zest here.  Fairly rich smell.  May get a bit of sweet bready malt mixed in there as well.
• Appearance:
• Pours with a 1 finger head that slowly fades down to a thin ring.  Leaves some lacing on the glass.  The beer is golden and not quite clear.
• Flavor:
• The beer has some fruity flavors and piney hop flavors up front and the finish has a medium level bitterness.  There is some light malt flavor in the mix here as well.  The balance of the beer is pretty strongly slanted towards hop flavors and bitterness.  The bitterness lingers a bit longer than the hop flavor here.
• Mouthfeel:
• Light bodied and pretty dry.  Has a bit of a rough edge to the bitterness but still pretty nice drinking
• Overall:
• It's a pretty nice drinking beer with a nice hop focused flavor.  It isn't the most complex beer I've made and the hop character is fairly mild as far as these beers go.  Only going by my imperfect memory I'd say this beer isn't quite as hoppy as some of my other recent examples.  I also think a slightly higher staring gravity could be helpful as think it could have done with just a bit more balance to the malt.  Still, I'm happy to drink every drop of this keg.  As for the citrus, I'd say it certainly doesn't overwhelm the beer used at these levels - I think I'll try this approach again at some point using a bit more.

Kölsch

Kölsch is a German Style of beer which is fermented at ale temperatures and then cold stored for extended periods like a lager.  It is kind of a hybrid style between ale and lager.  I've had this commercially a couple times but it is rare to see in the US (unfortunately I haven't had the opportunity to try a real German one).  I've been considering trying one for quite a while now - that day has finally arrived.

I decided to use a recipe by the famous homebrewer Gordon Strong for this:  Killer Kölsch.  It's a simple grainbill of Pilsner with just a touch of Vienna and Caravienne for a bit of color and a restrained level of hopping with low-Alpha Acid Noble hops (I simplified this a bit for the sake of using up hops in 1 oz increments).  I'm using Wyeast's Kölsch yeast for this one per the recipe.

I opted for a standard mash with this beer (the recipe called for steps through the conversion range).  The beer is supposed to have a OG of 1.046 and then ferment out to the low 1.01s for somewhere around 4-5% ABV.  I typically plan for around 70% efficiency - somehow with this batch I ended up getting 86% which is an all time high for me.  I suspect I had an error in weighing out the grain as the most likely explanation as the process I used wasn't really any different than other beers (served as a reminder that I'm not immune from mistakes here in almost my 8th year of brewing).  I ended up topping up the beer with some spring water to get to a 1.050 OG.

I'm going to let it ferment out for a few weeks and then will lager for a month at near-freezing temperature before kegging.  This will be a 6 gal batch of beer.  Not exactly sure why, but I have a very high degree of certainty that I'm going to enjoy this beer very much (like with my last Pilsner).  These beers go very quickly on tap which is unfortunate given how much time they take to make - I may start making 2 kegs worth of these beers going forward and then condition in the keg rather than fermentor.

Recipe Details:

• Grain:
• 10 lbs Pilsner
• 4 oz Vienna
• 4 oz Caravienne (used Crystal 10L)
• 2 oz Acid
• Hops:
• 0.5 oz Crystal (Pellet, 4.22% AA) at 60 min
• 1 oz German Hallertauer (Pellet, 4% AA) at 30 min
• 0.5 oz Crystal (Pellet, 4.22% AA) at 5 min
• Yeast:
• Wyeast 2565 German Kölsch
• Water:
• 10 gal spring water
• 3 gal tap water
• 1 tsp CaCl

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 6 gal (Target 6 gal)
• Mash:
• 152 F for 60 min
• Boil:
• 75 min
• Fermentation Temperature:
• 68 F
• Primary Duration:
• 3 weeks
• Secondary Duration:
• 4 weeks at 36 F 

Results:

• OG:
• 1.050 (Target 1.046)
• Efficiency:
• 86% (Target 71%)
• FG:
• 1.008 (Target 1.011)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 83% (Target 75%)
• ABV:
• 5.5% (Target 4.6%)

Brewing Notes:

• 12/18/21 - Built a yeast starter (100 g of DME and 1 L of spring water) and set it up on the stir plate to propagate over night
• 12/19/21 - Brewday - from 11:30 AM to 4:45 PM - Including setup and cleanup
• Heated 8 gal of strike water up to 180 F
• Milled my grain - added CaCl to it

• Moved 6 gal of strike water to the mash tun and cycled until the system had stabilized at 162 F.  Stopped the RIMS.
• Stirred in the grain until all dough balls were eliminated.  Let this sit for 10 min to settle.
• Turned on the RIMS and cycled at 152 F for 50 more min

• Heated 7 gal of strike water to 180 F for the sparge
• Did part 1 of sparge.  Fly sparged until 5 gal had been collected.  Started heating this once 3 gal had been collected and had at a boil soon after sparge was done.
• Added water top top off the mash and let sit for 10 min.  Then continued the sparge until we were up to 9 gal.  Did this last part slowly to not break the boil.
• Added the bittering hops at this point and boiled for 60 min
• At 30 min, I added the second batch of hops
• I forgot the Irish Moss this time
• I decided to extend the boil by 15 min to get down to the desired 6 gal
• At 5 min, I added the final hops and the wort chiller to sanitize
• At flame out, I chilled the beer down to 70 F
• Transferred the beer to the fermentor, letting it fall a foot or so to aerate.  Pitched the yeast during the transfer

• Collected 6 gal and measured the gravity as 1.056.  This is 86% efficiency - much higher than I'd expected. I really want a beer that ends up at less than 5% ABV so I'm going to steal 1 gal of this beer to top up some of my Sour Blond Fermenters and I'll add 1 gal of spring water to replace it.  This, in theory, should get me to the 1.046 OG I'd wanted but in practice only got me to 1.050 (which is close enough)
• Moved the beer to my chest freezer set to 68 F to ferment
• 12/20/21 - The beer has formed a krausen by the afternoon of the next day
• 1/27/21 - The beer still has krausen on the surface.  I think my SS brewtech fermenter may no longer be holding pressure somehow since I have no bubbling in the airlock - may have over pressurized it during transfer of my last beer (Citrus Pale Ale)
• 1/9/22 - Chilled the beer down to 36 F for the lagering period
• 2/5/22 - Added gelatin to fine the beer.  I'm going to give it 1 more week before kegging
• 2/13/22 - Kegged the beer today after over a month of laggering.  Measured the FG as 1.008.  From the few pins of extra I had I can say it's a really tasty beer.
• 7/17/22 - Tasting Notes - This is a light, easy drinking beer, with some very nice flavor and aroma.  Flavors are fairly mild but with a a bit of focus you can appreciate that it has a fair amount of complexity.  The style is said to be differentiated from a more standard lager by a fruity character - this isn't something I picked out in my more casual enjoyment of the beer (where the beer seemed to have a lot of the standard lager fermentation character) but on closer inspection I would say this beer does offer a subtle fruitiness.

American Pale Wheat with Citrus Zest

I have run out of hoppy beer yet again - need to learn to time things better.  For my next Pale Ale I'll be going back to a recipe I've used quite a few times previously using a pretty good amount of wheat and a combination of Citra and Amarillo hops with create a beer with strong Citrus like flavors.  To further enhance the citrus character I'm going to infuse the beers with some real citrus flavors.

I'll be getting the citrus I'll be making a Oleo Saccharum which is a simple syrup that extracts citrus oil from the peals.  This is a ingredient for old time cocktails.  It is very simple to make, you just peal citrus zest off the fruit, cover it in sugar, and then wait a few hours to a day and the sugar will extract liquid and flavors from the fruit and turn to a syrup.

For my batch I'm going to be using Orange and Grapefruit - both of which have flavor similar to what I get from these hops.  I'll add this syrup on transfer to the keg and then let the sugar ferment off to carbonate the beer (and hopefully do a bit of oxygen scavenging as well in the process).

Other than the citrus it's a fairly standard beer.  I'll be using enough grain to get a ~3% beer, bittering with 1 oz of hops, flavoring with 5 oz of hops at the end of the boil, and then Dry hopping with 6 oz of the Citra and Amarillo.  This seems like a sweet spot to get a refreshing and drinkable hoppy beer that I can have as many pints of as I like.

I'm thinking the citrus will be a nice subtle additional element to the beer.  Hopefully it is present in the flavor but not overwhelming.  I plan to try this again if it's not a disaster.

Recipe Details:

• Grain:
• 5 lb Pale Malt
• 4 lb flaked wheat
• 5 oz Crystal 10L
• 3 oz Acid Malt
• Hops:
• 1 oz Columbus (Leaf, 14.6% AA) at 60 min
• 2 oz Columbus (Leaf, 14.6% AA) at 0 min
• 2 oz Centennial (Leaf, 10.1% AA) at 0 min
• 2 oz Amarillo (Leaf, 8.8% AA) Dry Hop
• 4 oz Citra (Leaf 13.1% AA) Dry Hop
• Yeast:
• Imperial Yeast A38 Juice (3rd Pitch)
• Water:
• 14 gal of spring water
• 1 tsp CaCl
• 1 tsp Gypsum
• 1 tsp Irish Moss at 15 min
• Extras
• Citrus Sugar:
• 5 oz Sugar
• Zest of 2 oranges
• Zest of 2 grapefruit
• 1 cup water

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 6.25 gal (Target 6 gal)
• Mash:
• 160 for 60 min
• Boil:
• 60 min
• Fermentation Temperature:
• 65 F
• Primary Duration:
• 2 weeks
• Secondary Duration:
• 2 weeks in Keg

Results:

• OG:
• 1.036 (Target 1.038)
• Efficiency:
• 68% (Target 69%)
• FG:
• 1.013 (Target 1.013)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 63% (Target 63%)
• ABV:
• 3% (Target 3%)

Brewing Notes:

• 11/5/21 - Made a yeast starter with 100g of DME and 1 L of water.  Set this up on stirplate to propagate over night
• 11/6/21 - Brewday - 12 PM to 4:45 PM - Including setup and cleanup
• Heated 9 gal of spring water to 185 F
• Milled my grain.  Added Gypsum and CaCl to it so I wouldn't forget

• Moved 5 gal of water to the mash tun.  Let the water cycle through the RIMS until the system had hit 170 F
• Stopped the RIMS and stirred in the grain.  Took care to eliminate doughballs.  Let this settle for 10 min.  Temperature was 158 F after this
• Cycled the RIMS at 161 F for 50 min

• Heated 9 gal of spring water to 185 F for the sparge
• Drained the mash tun and added hot water to the top until I'd collected about 5 gal.  Started to heat the kettle after collecting 3 and had it a boil shortly after collecting 5.
• Topped up the mash tun with hot water and let sit for 10 min.  Slowly drained the mash tun into the kettle until I had 9 gal.  Did this very slowly so the boil wasn't interrupted
• Added the bittering hops at this point and boiled for 60 min

• With 15 min left I added the irish moss
• With 5 min left I added the wort chiller to sanitize
• At the end of the boil I added flavoring hops.  I put a low flow of water in to chill down to about 190 F.  I then let the hops steep for 30 min which took the temperature from 190 F down to 170 F

• Chilled the wort down to 70 F
• Drained into my stainless steel brew bucket - Pitched the yeast during the transfer
• Collected 6.25 gal.  Measured the gravity at 1.036
• Set the fermenter up in my fermentation chamber with my jar based airlock to capture some C02 which will protect the beer during cold crash
• 11/7/21 - Fermentation is a bit slow to get started - no airlock activity yet but there is a bit of foam on the beer which makes me feel a bit better
• 11/20/21 - Dry hopped the beer
• 11/21/21 - Cold crashed the beer to 45 F
• 11/25/21 - Made my citrus syrup:
• Pealed the thin layer of peal off 2 oranges and 2 red grapefruit

• Mixed the peal in a bowl with sugar

• Let this sit over night
• 11/26/21 - Kegging day:
• Transferred beer to keg until I had 5 gal.  I'd first filled the keg with sanitizer and pushed it all out with C02.  Then I fed the CO2 into the fermenter to push the beer into the keg
• Once the transfer was complete the keg was depressurized
• I added 1 cup of boiling water to the citrus syrup and filtered out the orange rinds.  The syrup has a very strong orange/grapefruit aroma

• Took the lid off the keg quickly and poured in the syrup

• Pressurized the keg up quickly the make it seal well and left the beer out at basement temperatures to ferment off the sugar.  I'll give it a week at basement temps
• 12/5/21 - Moved the beer onto tap.  It was already carbonated - a bit over carbonated initially
• 12/29/21 - Tasting Notes - It's a pretty nice drinking beer with a nice hop focused flavor.  It isn't the most complex beer I've made and the hop character is fairly mild as far as these beers go.  Only going by my imperfect memory I'd say this beer isn't quite as hoppy as some of my other recent examples.  I also think a slightly higher staring gravity could be helpful as think it could have done with just a bit more balance to the malt.  Still, I'm happy to drink every drop of this keg.  As for the citrus, I'd say it certainly doesn't overwhelm the beer used at these levels - I think I'll try this approach again at some point using a bit more.
• 2/6/22 - Kicked the keg today.  Hop/Citrus character was still plenty strong at the end.

Pilsner Take II - Tasting Notes

This is my second attempt at the Pilsner Lager style.  This is a pale lager featuring pilsner malt and enough noble hop to get an assertive bitterness.  This version was loosely based on Victory's Prima Pils which adds quite a bit of noble hop flavor to the style by using quite a lot of late hopping.

I really like the flavors of the noble hop and find the original to be really satisfying bitter beer.  It's crisp, easy drinking, and refreshing.

I've been drinking my version of the beer beer for over a month now and it's pouring clear and has a really smooth taste.  It has been very enjoyable having it on draft.  I think it's a good time to do an official tasting here before it's gone.

Tasting Note:

• Aroma:
• Grassy and herbal along with a bready and grainy malt character.  I also get the lager yeast aroma
• Appearance:
• Light gold and perfectly clear.  Pours with a 1 finger head that quickly settles down to a thin ring
• Flavor:
• Light bready malt flavor up front with a bit of herbal hop flavor in the mix as well.  The finish has a fairly firm bitterness along with a bit of malt character.  The balance is towards the bitterness.  Get a little bit of alcohol in the mix and a bit of lager yeast character
• Mouthfeel:
• Light bodied and pretty dry.  Smooth and very easy drinking
• Overall:
• This is a really nice flavorful and easy drinking beer.  Tastes like a pilsner - no doubt about it.  I really enjoy the smoothness of it and the balance between the malt (which is more present than an IPA) and the very satisfying bitterness.

Berliner Weisse Take IV - Tasting Notes

This is my fourth attempt at the Berliner Weisse Style - that is a Sour German Wheat Beer.  They are typically fermented with ale yeast and lactobacillus which creates a light lactic acid based sourness.

For this attempt I reused a blend of Lactic acid, Brett, and Belgian yeast which I've been saving in a jar in the fridge for the last 1.5-2 years.  I didn't create a starter as that wouldn't really help the blend but after several days I'd found that no fermentation had begun (I should have made a starter after all).  I added some German Lager yeast and that got it fermenting.  At the end of fermentation the beer had a pellicle but on sampling I found that no significant sourness had developed (did have a slight Brett character though).

Rather than proceeding with an unsour Berliner Weisse I opted to use 1 gal of aged Sour Blonde beer to make a blend in the keg.  My Sour Blonds are fairly aggressively flavored (largely with Brett) and have a good strong sourness so I figured it would have a meaningful impact when mixed with 4 gal of mildly flavored wheat beer - I'm happy to say that it did and that it managed to save this batch.

As you'll see from the notes, it isn't exactly like a standard Berliner Weisse but it's pretty close and is a nicely flavored, refreshing, and complex beer

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Overripe fruit along with an earthy character are prominent.  Also has a slightly mineral and light bready grain aroma.
• Appearance:
• Pours with a 2 finger head that quickly fades.  Light gold in color and pretty cloudy
• Flavor:
• Medium-light sour flavor hits up front.  This is followed by a bit of bready malt and an earthy/cheesy and slightly fruity Brett character.  There is some mineral flavor in the finish along with some wheat and lightly acidic flavors.  Has a pretty nice balance between the brett, malt, and sour flavors.
• Mouthfeel:
• Light bodied and dry.  Easy drinking
• Overall:
• This is a very interesting beer.  It has a nice pleasing sourness to it which makes it easy drinking and refreshing - about on the level I'd expect for a Berliner Weisse and it also has the wheat malt character you get from the style.  The dynamics are quite a bit different though with a fairly assertive Brett character in the beer - it is quite a bit more complex than a just a lacto soured wheat beer will be.  I'd say it's a bit closer to Lambic than Berliner Weisse although the level of sourness is quite a bit toned down compared with my Lambic inspired Sour Blonds.  I think it's very nice although I'd probably stick to the normal lacto soured version for the next one.

El Dorado & Zappa Pale Ale - Tasting Notes

Time for a tasting of my most recent Hoppy Pale Ale - an El Dorado & Zappa hopped version.  This beer was brewed on 8/14, spent 6 days on 8 oz of dry hop, and then was kegged on 8/28.  I've been drinking it the last couple weeks now.  This, like all the hoppy beers I've brewed in the last several months, is a a pale ale strength beer (~4% ABV) which focuses on Aroma and Flavor hops.  I'm using flaked grains quite a bit in these beers to help with body and typically mash warm to try to retain some additional malt character and then bittering at a fairly consistent amount to end up with a product that has a nice firm bitter character - bitter but not aggressively so.  

This base beer creates a nice palate to experiment with different dry hopping combinations.  Dry hopping is such a wonderful approach to getting intense hop flavor and aroma in a beer.  I've tried quite a few now and have never gotten a combination I don't like.  For this one, I decided to try a couple hops I purchased in bulk:  El Dorado at 6 oz of dry hop and Zappa at 2 oz of dry hop.  I've used these both separately where the El Dorado produced a Citrus character where the Zappa had a piney, grassy, and marijuana like character - both very good beers.  The Zappa was a very pungent hop compared with the El Dorado so I opted for a fairly restrained portion.  We'll see how that turned out in the following tasting notes.

Anyway, I will say  I've very much enjoyed drinking this beer - a beer I can have 3 of in a night and not have a problem.  Time to do a tasting before it's gone.

Tasting Note:

• Aroma:
• Grassy, piney, and a slight bit of citrus character.  Maybe get a small bit of bready malt coming through.  A bit of a spicy character in there too.
• Appearance:
• Pours with a 1-2 finger head that lasts for several minutes and leaves lacing on the glass.  Light gold and a little hazy
• Flavor:
• Piney and herbal hop flavor up front.  This lingers into the finish which has a medium bitterness along with lingering hop flavor.  Slight bit of bready malt and a touch of sweetness in the mix to providing a little balance to the hops.  Not really picking up any alcohol or yeast character
• Mouthfeel:
• Medium-light bodied and pretty dry.  A little bite of bitterness prickling the tongue but still easy drinking
• Overview:
• This is another nice hoppy pale ale.  Easy drinking with delicious hop derived flavors.  This one is fairly boldly flavored but not quite as bold and bright as the last one that used Zappa only.  The El Dorado is a more mild hop and I think the 6 oz used were somehow out competed by the 2 oz of Zappa here.  This beer is certainly no chore to get through but I'm not sure I'd call Zappa and El Dorado a winning combination (at least these crops in these proportions).

Milk Stout - Tasting Notes

I brewed up this Milk Stout back in July based on a historical recipe from the Shut Up About Barclay Perkins Blog:  1939 William Younger Nourishing Milk Stout.  A milk stout is brewed with Lactose, which can't be fermented by brewers yeast, in order to get a beer with a bit more sweetness than normal (it's also called a "Sweet Stout").  Lactose is the sugar found naturally in milk - it is sweet in a very mild way - and was traditionally marketed as sort of a healthful and fortifying addition to beer (sometimes for nursing mothers  - old marketing being shameless in that way)

I've had this beer on tap at 50-55 F for the last 4 weeks and it's drinking very nicely.  Time for some tasting notes before it's gone

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Roast, coffee, and a bit of overripe fruit.  Maybe some honey in there and some sweet bready malt.  Maybe some herbal and grassy hop aroma in there as well.
• Appearance:
• Pours with couple finger head that lingers for a couple minutes and leaves some lacing.  Black (dark reddish brown when held to the light) and a little murky
• Flavor:
• Sweet, roasty, and slightly fruity up front.  The finish has a mild level of bitterness which comes pretty close to balancing a sweet character that lingers.  The sweet flavor has a depth and complexity to it - there's an initial up front mild sweetness which I'd credit to the lactose and then an even more mild caramel-like flavor.  I think I pick up on the Licorice as well although it is very subtle (contributing to the slightly fruity character - not really anything like the candy).  May have a slight bit of herbal flavor in the background.
• Mouthfeel:
• Medium-light bodied.  Sticky sweetness.  Pretty easy drinking - goes down very smooth.
• Overall:
• Richly flavored and sweet (but in fairly restrained way) - aroma and flavor are really lovely.  Has a good bit of complexity with a lot of flavors to pick out and quite of interesting notes.  Goes down very easily and I find that 1 glass is never enough

El Dorado & Zappa Pale Ale

I am finally getting smart with my beer management and brewing up a new hoppy beer before the last one has kicked.  This will be another 3-4% ABV pale hoppy beer loaded up on dry hops.  This is really the wonderful style of beer in my opinion - so flavorful & complex and easy drinking enough to have any many as I want.  These are beers you can't buy commercially and, even if you could, getting them as fresh as you can get homebrewing would be a huge PITA, and then they'd be ridiculously expensive

For this one, I'll be using 6 oz of El Dorado, which impart a sweet fruity character, and 2 oz of Zappa which make a really reach piney and earthy character.  I think two hops will get along well together and at this ratio they'll likely give similar level of character (since the Zappa are so powerful while El Dorado are a bit more mild).  The 8 oz of dry hops get a really bold character - I imagine this is very close to saturation point.

Like the last several pale ales I'll be using about 20% of the grainbill as flaked grain (this time wheat and corn) to try to provide a bit more malt presence.  I'll also mash at close to 160 F to help finish with more body.  These also help keep the ABV relatively low.  With this much hop the malt is so far in the background it doesn't really cut through but I'd like to imagine this could help a bit.  This will probably be clear beer like the others but if it ends up a bit hazy that's fine too.

Finally, I'll be using Imperial Yeast Juice for this beer.  This is probably my fifth beer using this pitch of yeast and a third re-pitch.  It is a good yeast that makes some subtle fruity character.  It also seems to be continuing to ferment out nicely after extended time sitting in jars in the fridge.  This is a really good way of saving some money since yeast is so expensive.

Recipe Details:

• Grain/Adjunct:
• 8 lb Pale Malt
• 1 lb Flaked Corn
• 1 lb Flaked Wheat
• 5 oz Crystal 10L
• 3 oz Acid Malt
• Hops:
• 1 oz Columbus (Leaf, 14.6% AA) at 60 min
• 2 oz Columbus (Leaf, 14.6% AA) at 5 min
• 2 oz Centennial (Leaf, 10.1% AA) at 5 min
• 1.7 oz Cascade (Homegrown Leaf) at 0 min
• 2 oz Zappa (Leaf 5.3% AA) at Day 7
• 6 oz El Dorado (Leaf, 14% AA) at Day 7
• Yeast:
• Imperial Yeast A38 Juice (3rd Pitch)
• Water:
• 10 gal spring water
• 1 tsp CaCl
• 1 tsp Gypsum
• 1 tsp Irish Moss at 15 min

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 6 gal
• Mash:
• 158 F for 60 min
• Boil:
• 60 min
• Fermentation Temperature:
• 65 F
• Primary Duration:
• 2 Weeks
• Secondary Duration:
• NA 

Results:

• OG:
• 1.046 (Target 1.045)
• Efficiency:
• 72.5% (Target 71 %)
• FG:
• 1.012 (Target 1.015)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 73% (Target 66%)
• ABV:
• 4.5% (Target 3.9%)

Brewing Notes:

• 8/14/21 - Made a starter using a saved jar of yeast, 1 litre of spring water, and 100g of DME.  Set it up on the stir plate to propagate over night
• 8/15/21 - Brewday - 12:15 PM to 5:00 PM - Including setup and Cleanup
• Heated 9 gal of spring water to 185 F
• Milled my grain - mixed in brewing salts along with this
• Added 6 gal of strike water to the mash tun and cycled through the RIMS until it had reached 168 F
• Stopped the RIMS and mixed in the grain until there were no more dough balls
• Let the Mash settle for 10 min.  Then started the RIMS cycle and let it go for 50 more minute
• Heated 7 gal of sparge water up to 185 F
• At the end of the mash I did a modified fly sparge until 8.5 gal of wort had been collected.  Started heating the kettle after collecting 4 gal and had it at a boil shortly after the end of the sparge.

• Added the bittering hops after the hot break cleared
• Ended up having to adjust the burner strength to keep boil over
• Wth 15 min left I added the Irish moss
• With 5 min left I added more hops and the wort chiller to sanitize
• At zero minutes I chilled the beer a bit with the heat still on to settle the beer near 175 F and added the 0 min hops
• Let the beer sit and steep at 175 F for 30 min
• Chilled the beer down to 80 F

• Drained the brew kettle into the fermenter.  Let the beer fall a couple feet to aerate.  Pitched the yeast during the transfer

• Moved the beer to the chest freezer set to 67 F to chill down to fermentation temperature to and to start fermentation
• Measured the gravity as 1.048.  Collected 5.75 gal.  Added water up to 6 gal
• 8/16/21 - The beer is fermenting aggressively this morning
• 8/22/21 - Added the dry hops in muslin sacks weighed down with stainless steal.  The beer still had a bit of krausen on the surface.  I pressurized the fermenter with CO2 prior to adding the hops and again after to try to displace the O2 that got in

• 8/26/21 - Cold crashed the beer down to 40 F.  Pressurized the fermenter with C02 to protect from oxygen during this.  I ran out of C02 part way through this.  Hopefully that doesn't cause any harm.
• 8/27/21 - Added gelatin to fine the beer
• 8/28/21 - Transferred the beer to a keg backfilled with C02.  Measured the gravity as 1.012.  I'm going to let this carbonate for a week before trying it out.
• 9/20/21 - Tasting Notes - This is another nice hoppy pale ale.  Easy drinking with delicious hop derived flavors.  This one is fairly boldly flavored but not quite as bold and bright as the last one that used Zappa only.  The El Dorado is a more mild hop and I think the 6 oz used were somehow out competed by the 2 oz of Zappa here.  This beer is certainly no chore to get through but I'm not sure I'd call Zappa and El Dorado a winning combination (at least these crops in these proportions).
• 10/19/21 - Keg kicked today.  The beer was still very nicely hoppy at the end

Pilsner Take II

Today I'll be brewing a Pilsner destined for one of my four Kegs - this will be my second attempt at the style (read about my first attempt).  I very much enjoy the light, crisp, and hoppy flavor of Pilsner (my last two cases of hoppy beer were Victory Prima Pils) - this beer is somewhat inspired by this clone recipe.  I couldn't get the right hops for that one so I've used Saaz and Tettnang for this batch.

This is a very simple recipe with just Pilsner malt.  I've done Decoction mashes for my German inspired lager previously but this time I'm going to see how it does with a single stage mash which will make for a quicker brewday.  I'm shooting for an ABV for around 4.7% for a bit easier drinking on this one.

I'm going to give a few weeks to ferment out and then will do a short (2 week) lager period before kegging.  Looking forward to having this one on tap.

Recipe Details:

• Grain:
• 10.5 lbs Pilsner
• 2 oz Acid Malt
• Hops:
• 1 oz Hallertau Blanc (Pellet, 9.4% AA) at 60 min
• 1 oz Saaz (Pellet, 2.8% AA) at 30 min
• 1 oz Tettnang (Pellet, 3.0% AA) at 30 min
• 1 oz Saaz (Pellet, 2.8% AA) at 5 min
• 1 oz Tettnang (Pellet, 3.0% AA) at 5 min
• Yeast:
• Wyeast 2124 Bohemian Lager (2nd Pitch)
• Water:
• 10 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:
• Primary at 50 F
• Diacetyl Rest at Basement Temps
• Lager at 40 F
• Primary Duration:
• 1.5 weeks
• Diacetyl Cleanup Duration:
• 1 week
• Lager Duration:
• 2 weeks

Results:

• OG:
• 1.048 (Target 1.047)
• Efficiency:
• 72% (Target 71%)
• FG:
• 1.008 (Target 1.011)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 81% (Target 76%)
• ABV:
• 5.1% (Target 4.7%)

Brewing Notes:

• 7/31/21 - Built a yeast starter using 100g of DME and 1 L of boiling spring water.  Let this cool and then pitched my jar of yeast and set it up on a stir plate to propagate over night
• 8/1/21 - Brewday - 1:20 PM to 5:20 PM- Including Setup and Cleanup
• Heated 9 gal of spring water to 175 F
• Milled my grain.  Added brewing salts to the grain
• Moved 6 gal of spring water to the mash tun and cycled until it had settled to 164 F
• Stirred in the grain and let this sit for 20 min.  It settled to 154 F
• Cycled the RIMS at 153 F for 40 min more

• Heated 9 gal of spring water to 185 F
• Did a fly sparge until 8 gal had been collected.  Started heating the beer after collecting 4 gal and had to a boil just after finishing the sparge
• Added the bittering hops at the start of the boil once the hot break had settled a bit

• Added the 30 min hops
• Added Irish Moss with 15 min left
• With 5 min left I added the wort chiller and some flavoring hops.  Let the beer come back to a boil
• Chilled the beer to 80 F
• Collected 5.5 gal and measured the gravity as 1.052.  Topped it up with 0.5 gal of spring water to get to about 1.048
• Moved the beer to the fermentation chamber to chill down to fermentation temperature (50 F)
• 8/3/21 - Airlock finally started bubbling today
• 8/15/21 - Moved it out of the chest freezer for diacetyl rest
• 8/28/21 - Moved the beer back to the chest freezer set at 37 F for a couple weeks of lagering
• 9/5/21 - Added gelatin to fine the beer
• 9/6/21 - Transferred to a C02 purged keg to carbonate.  I'll give the beer a week or so before trying it.
• 10/16/21 - Tasting Notes - This is a really nice flavorful and easy drinking beer.  Tastes like a pilsner - no doubt about it.  I really enjoy the smoothness of it and the balance between the malt (which is more present than an IPA) and the very satisfying bitterness.
• 11/3/21 - The keg kicked today.  I'm going to miss this beer.

Zappa Pale Ale - Tasting Notes

It is time for a tasting of my latest hoppy pale ale - this one using a newish variety of hop, Zappa, which is a former wild hop from New Mexico.  I had read that the hop produces bold but unusual flavors and I'd confirm that is a correct assessment.  It has a flavor profile unlike any other hop I've tasted - it's fruity but it also has a number of other characteristics that are more earthy and grassy than most hops.

I used 6 oz of the hop in the fermenter for this batch (backing down from the 8 oz of dry hops I've started to move to with other beers).  I brewed the beer in Late June, Kegged after 12 days, and have been drinking it the last couple weeks - I'm happy to say I've been very much enjoying the hop flavor it's delivered.  The beer came out to be just under 4% ABV so it's very easy drinking which is nice and I can always go for another - very good summer beer.

Anyway, I'm drinking this beer quickly so better record some notes before it's gone.

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Very interesting aroma.  Slightly fruity with a citrus like character - bitter grapefruit-like smell.  Also has a pine and marijuana like aroma.  Maybe an earthy character as well.  Sometimes I think it smells a bit like gasoline.  It's not really like any other hop I've had before.  Not sure I get any malt or yeast character from it
• Appearance:
• Golden and very clear.  It pours with a 2 finger head that lasts several minutes and leaves lacing on the glass
• Flavor:
• Fruity and piney hop character up front.  The hop flavor lingers into the finish.  There is a medium level of bitterness that lasts quite some time after the sip.  There is maybe a light bit of sweet malt in the finish as well but the balance is strongly towards hop flavor and bitterness
• Mouthfeel:
• Medium-light bodied and pretty dry.  Smooth and easy drinking beer.
• Overall:
• The hop character is very strong in both aroma and flavor and I find it to be enjoyable.  It is a complex hop that creates many flavors by itself which is nice as well.  I've done a few samplings of the beer next to several fairly fresh Tree House beers and thought the level of hop character delivered by this beer was fairly close to them.  This is a hop I'd gladly use again - will try it as a component in a blend most likely.

 

Milk Stout

This week I'll be brewing my first Milk Stout.  This was one of the styles that got me interested in Craft Beer initially - it's just such a odd and interesting concept to make a sweet stout using milk sugar.  They aren't very common which makes it even more appealing as a homebrew recipe.  I'm surprised it's taken me seven years to finally make one.

For the recipe I've decided to go with yet another historical English Beer published on the Shut Up About Barclay Perkins Blog:  William Younger's Milk Stout.  I haven't had a bad result with one of these recopies yet so I keep coming back for more.  This one has a couple very odd ingredients:  1.  16% corn in the grainbill (I've opted for Flaked Corn rather than the grits originally called for) and; 2. Licorice root (which I've opted to use towards the tail end of fermentation like a dry hop).   It also uses brewers caramel to darken the color of the beer - this is always fun to make

I'm sticking mostly to the recipe with this one.  The notable differences are using american pale malt and Willamette hops rather than Fuggles.  I'm going with late boil hops rather than dry hop as well.  The yeast will be as specified:  Scottish Ale.  This will be my first time using it - I'm interested to see how that goes.

This is going to be a fairly strong beer at around 6% and should be fairly sweet with the unfermentable lactose.  I'll be kegging the beer but wont be in a huge hurry to drink it quickly at this strength.  I'll give it 3 weeks to ferment out before kegging.

Recipe Details:

• Grain/Adjunct:
• 9.5 lb 2-Row
• 2.75 Flaked Corn
• 0.5 Crystal 60L
• 0.5 Black Malt
• 1 lb Lactose
• 8 oz Brewers Caramel
• 3 oz Acid Malt
• Hops:
• 2 oz Willamette (Leaf, 5.7%AA) at 60 min
• 1 oz Willamette (Leaf, 5.7%AA) at 30 min
• 2 oz Willamette (Leaf,  5.7%AA) at 5 min
• Yeast:
• Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale Yeast
• Water:
• 13 gal spring Water
• 1 tsp CaCl
• 1 tsp Gypsum
• 1 tsp Irish Moss at 15 min
• Extras:
• 4 oz Licorice  in Fermenter

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 6 gal
• Mash:
• 155 F for 60 min
• Boil:
• 60 min
• Fermentation Temperature:
• 65 F
• Primary Duration:
• 3 weeks
• Secondary Duration:
• NA

Results:

• OG:
• 1.068 (Target 1.066)
• Efficiency:
• 75% (Target 72%)
• FG:
• 1.024 (Target 1.019)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 63% (Target 70%)
• ABV:
• 5.8% (Target 6.2%)

Brewing Notes:

• 7/17/21 - Built a starter using 100 g of DME and 1 Litre of waster.  Let it sit on stir plate over night to propagate
• 7/18/21 - Brewday - from 12 PM to 4:15 PM- Including Setup and Cleanup
• Heated 8 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 and cycled until the temperature settled to about 165 F
• Stopped the RIMS and added in my grain.  Stirred well to eliminate doughballs.  Let the mash settle for 10 min
• Cycled the mash through the RIMS at 156F for 60 min
• Made the brewers caramel using Turbinado sugar.  Cooked this using a "dry caramel" process

• Heated 8 gal of sparge water to 180 F
• Drained the mash tun to the boil kettle.  Added water on the top until I'd collected about 5 gal.  Started heating the kettle after collecting about 3 gal
• Filled the mash tun back for a second sparge and let this sit for 15 min.  Slowly drained this into the kettle so that the boil wasn't broken.  Topped up the mash tun with water until I'd collected 8 gal total
• Boiled full volume for 60 min.  Added my bittering hops when the hotbreak cleared
• Added 30 min hops
• With 20-15 min to go I added the Caramel, Lactose, and Irish Moss
• With 5 min to go I added flavoring hops and Wart Chiller to sanitize
• Chilled the beer down to tap water temperature:  ~80F

• Drained into the fermenter.  Let the beer fall a couple feet to splash around and aerate.  Pitched the yeast during this.

• Collected 5.5 gal.  Measured the gravity as 1.075.  This is higher than target efficiency at 75%.  Adding 0.5 gal to get closer to target gravity (1.068)
• Moved to the fermentation chamber to chill down to the mid 60s for fermentation
• 7/19/21 - The airlock was bubbling the next morning
• 8/1/21 - I found licorice root tea which I'll use.  I'd never had it before so I brewed one up using hot water - it is slightly sweet and has a very mild flavor that isn't really that much like a black licorice candy.  I thought it was pretty nice.  I've decided to use 6 bags which I'll add directly to the beer.  I think I'll give this until next weekend before transferring to the keg.

• 8/10/21 - Transferred to a keg today.  Measured the gravity as 1.024.  The beer has a rich malty flavor and is slightly sweet
• 8/29/21 - Tasting Notes - Richly flavored and sweet (but in fairly restrained way) - aroma and flavor are really lovely.  Has a good bit of complexity with a lot of flavors to pick out and quite of interesting notes.  Goes down very easily and I find that 1 glass is never enough
• 12/1/21 - This keg kicked

Berliner Weisse Take IV

This will be my fourth attempt at a Berliner Weisse Beer.  This is low alcohol wheat beer with a lightly sour flavor.  They are traditionally soured with lactobacillus which works fairly quickly.  For this batch, like my last one, I'll be brewing the beer with a blend of brewers yeast and lacto Brevis which produces a nice level of sourness and a bit of complexity otherwise.

It is a very simple beer with pilsner malt, wheat, and no hops (which inhibit lacto).

This will be my first kegged Berliner Wisse (first kegged sour beer in general).  The beer should end up at around 3% which should be perfect for the remainder of the summer.

Recipe Details:

• Grain:
• 3.5 lb Pilsner
• 3.5 lb Wheat Malt
• 4 oz Acid Malt
• Hops:
• NA
• Yeast:
• Blend of Belgian Trappist Ale Yeast and Lacto Brevis
• Wyeast 2124 Bohemian Lager
• Water:
• 10 gal spring water
• 1/2 tsp CaCl
• 1/2 tsp Gypsum

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 5.75 gal
• Mash:
• 150 F for 90 min
• Boil:
• 5 min
• Fermentation Temperature:
• Ambient Basement Temps (mid 60s)
• Primary Duration:
• 4 weeks
• Secondary Duration:
• NA

Results:

• OG:
• 1.029 (Target 1.026)
• Efficiency:
• 64% (Target 59%)
• FG:
• 0.998 (Target 1.003)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 100% (Target 88%)
• ABV:
• 4.1% (Target 3.0%)

Brewing Notes:

• 7/11/21 - Brewday - 12 PM to 4 PM - Including Setup and Cleanup
• Took my yeast culture out of the fridge to warm up.  It's been probably 2 years since I used it.  Added a bit of sugar to wake it up.  Will let this sit during the brew day and then I'll decide if it's worth using

• Brought 10 gal of spring water up to 175 F
• Milled my grain.  Added CaCl and Gypsum to it
• Moved 6 gal of spring water to the mash tun and cycled through the RIMS and grant until the temperature was settled to 160 F
• Stopped the RIMS and added in the grain and stirred well to eliminate dough balls.  Let this sit for 10 min
• Cycled the RIMS for 90 min

• Transferred the beer into the boil kettle.  Added water on top of the grain bed as I went to do a modified fly sparge.
• Collected until we had 6 gal or so.  Started heating the kettle after collecting 4 gal and had it at a boil near the end of collection.  Added the wort chiller very soon after bring it to a boil and then brought back to a boil to sterilize.

• Chilled down to 80 F
• Transferred to a brew bucket.  Let the wort fall a couple feet to aerate.  Pitched the entire jar of yeast during the transfer
• Measured the gravity as 1.029.  Collected about 5.75 gal which was a bit over 6 gal when the yeast was added.
• 7/13/21 - No sign of fermentation 2 days later.  My yeast cake must be bad.  I'm adding some lager yeast (WY2124) to hopefully ferment.  I also have some lacto soured beer which I'll use to sour the Berliner up to a good level.
• 7/14/21 - A pellicle has formed on the surface of the beer
• 7/15/21 - The airlock was finally bubbling
• 7/31/21:
• It's been 3 weeks since I brewed the beer. I'm going to transfer to the keg today
• The beer has a bubbly pellicle still

• Sampled the beer.  Measured the gravity as 0.998.  It's not sour at all unfortunately.
• I decided to add in some previously soured beer.  Decided to use 1 gal of soured beer from my Sour Blond Fermenter #4 for this.
• Moved beer to the keg
• 9/30/21 - Tasting Notes - This is a very interesting beer.  It has a nice pleasing sourness to it which makes it easy drinking and refreshing - about on the level I'd expect for a Berliner Weisse and it also has the wheat malt character you get from the style.  The dynamics are quite a bit different though with a fairly assertive Brett character in the beer - it is quite a bit more complex than a just a lacto soured wheat beer will be.  I'd say it's a bit closer to Lambic than Berliner Weisse although the level of sourness is quite a bit toned down compared with my Lambic inspired Sour Blonds.  I think it's very nice although I'd probably stick to the normal lacto soured version for the next one.

Zappa Pale Ale

 I let my IPA keg get empty a few weeks ago which was a very sad thing - I've been very busy - and ended up buying a case of commercial hoppy beer which I've also consumed. So, it is high time to brew a new hoppy beer to backfill.  Recently I've been experimenting with different levels of dry hopping and have found that 8 oz of dry hops seems to provide more bold flavor than 6 oz and that hopping in the fermenter seems to be as good as putting half the hops in the serving keg.  These have been experiments with hops I'm fairly familiar with.  For this batch, I'll be trying a hop that is new to me and reported to be potent:  a New Mexico hop called Zappa

I purchased these last year from Hops Direct.  They are a low alpha acid flavoring hop and, per reports, are found to have a very strong pine and marijuana-like character.  The Brulosophy web page wasn't fond of the beer they brewed with the hop.  I'll use it for dry hopping only (going to bitter and provide hot side flavor with Columbus and Centennial as I've done in the last several hoppy beers) and have opted for a 6 ounce dose all in at 7 days.  Will be an experiment to see how I like this hop and how I might use the remainder of it.

For the grain bill I've gone with the ratios of grain used by Sapwood Cellars Cheater Hops (which uses Oats and Wheat) and am shooting for a beer in the 1.045 OG/1.015 FG/4% ABV range.  I'm not trying for a hazy beer here but that may be the outcome as the original is hazy.  The wheat and the oats will hopefully provide some interesting complexity and mouthfeel but will likely be far outshadowed by the hops used in this volume.  Other than that I'm using Golden Promise as the base malt as that's what I have on hand.

Finally, for yeast, I've been doing a good job saving money by saving yeast strains for reuse in jars, I'll be reusing some Imperial Yeast Juice her for this batch.  This is a reuse of the third pitch and will be the third beer I've gotten out of the yeast packet.  I think I'll try harvesting the yeast cake from this beer as well for a third pitch as well.  The yeast seems to be pretty strong still after 6 months in the refrigerator which is very nice - will be building a starter for this of course.

Anyway, I'll give this beer 1 week to ferment, then 1 week to sit on dry hops before moving to the keg, and then will give 1 more week in the keg to carbonate and settle before drinking.  A fast turnaround on these beers is a good think I think.

Recipe Details:

• Grain:
• 7 lb Golden Promise
• 2 lb Pilsner
• 1 lb Flaked Wheat
• 1 lb Flaked Oats
• 5 oz Crystal 10
• 2 oz Acid Malt
• Hops:
• 1 oz Columbus (Leaf, 14.6% AA) at 60 min
• 2 oz Columbus (Leaf, 14.6% AA) at 5 min
• 2 oz Centennial (Leaf, 10.1% AA) at 5 min
• 6 oz Zappa (Leaf 5.3% AA) at Day 7
• Yeast:
• Imperial Yeast A38 Juice (2nd Pitch)
• Water:
• 10 gal spring water
• 5 gal tap water
• 1 tsp CaCl
• 1 tsp Gypsum
• 1 tsp Irish Moss at 15 min

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 6.15 gal
• Mash:
• 158 F for 60 min
• Boil:
• 60 min
• Fermentation Temperature:
• Ambient Basement Temps (High 60s)
• Primary Duration:
• 2 Weeks
• Secondary Duration:
• NA

Results:

• OG:
• 1.048 (Target 1.045)
• Efficiency:
• 72% (Target 66%)
• FG:
• 1.018 (Target 1.015)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 62% (Target 66%)
• ABV:
• 3.9% (Target 3.9%)

Brewing Notes:

• 6/26/21 - Built a started for a second pitch of my Yeast (it has been in a jar in the fridge for the last 6 months - jar showed good activity once warming to room temp).  Moved to the stir plate to propagate over night   
• 6/27/21 - Brewday - 12:45 PM to 5:30 PM - Including setup and cleanup
• Heated 8 gal of strike water to 185 F
• Milled my grain (ended up falling short on Golden Promise so I swapped in 2 lbs of pilsner.  Added CaCl and Gypsum to the grain so I wouldn't forget
• Added 6 gal of mash water cycled through the RIMS until it was a 170 F
• Stopped the RIMS and stirred in the grain.  Let the grain bed settle for 10 min

• Cycled the RIMS for 60 min at 159 F. The temperature was in the high 150s the whole time
  
• Heated 8 gal of sparge water to 200 F
• Drained the Mash Tun into the kettle.  Added sparge water to the top as I went until had collected 8 gal.  Started heating the kettle once 4 gal had been collected and had it at a boil shortly after collecting the target volume 
• Boiled for 60 min

• Added the bittering hops in a sack
• Added irish moss at 15 min
• Added the wort chiller and flavoring hops with 5 min left
• At flame out, chilled the wort down to about 200 F and let sit for 30 min of hop stand (settled down to about 190 in this window)
• Drained the kettle to my fermenter.  Let the wort fall a couple feet to aerate.  Pitched the yeast during the transfer 

• Collected about 5.9 gal and measured gravity as 1.050.  Topped up with about .25 gal
• Setup the fermenter in the basement since my freezers are unavailable for a controlled fermentation
• 6/28/21 -  Fermentation was proceeding strongly by this afternoon
• 7/5/21:
• Tasted the beer - it has a bit of hop character, although fairly mild, and a medium bitterness.  I think the hot side hops are a reasonable investment but no where close to enough.
• Added the 6 oz of dry hops.  Added these in hop sacks weighed down by stainless steel pipe fittings.  The Zappa smells a bit like pine and grass, maybe a bit herbal and perhaps a bit of citrus - pretty bold smelling.  Will be very interesting how that converts to flavors

• The beer still has a bit of krausen on the surface

• Applied CO2 to the fermenter after adding the hops to hopefully purge off some of the oxygen let in while I had the lid off
• 7/10/21 - Moved to the chest freezer to chill down to mid 30s for a cold crash.  Hooked this up to C02 at 1 psi to prevent oxygen from getting sucked in.  Once it was cold I added dissolved gelatin to clear the beer.
• 7/11/21 - Kegged today.  Flushed the keg with C02 by pushing out sanitizer.  Measured the gravity as 1.018.  The hop flavor is fruity and piney - I think it's very nice.  Saving off a couple jars of the yeast slurry for later batches
• 7/31/21 - Tasting Notes - The hop character is very strong in both aroma and flavor and I find it to be enjoyable.  It is a complex hop that creates many flavors by itself which is nice as well.  I've done a few samplings of the beer next to several fairly fresh Tree House beers and thought the level of hop character delivered by this beer was fairly close to them.  This is a hop I'd gladly use again - will try it as a component in a blend most likely.
• 8/28/21 - The keg kicked today.  Was a very good beer.  Glad to have another ready to go on tap today.

English Barleywine VIII

Memorial Day 2021 is here so it is time for another batch of English Barleywine.  This will be my eighth version to be brewed on Memorial day (going back to 2014) -  read about the previous versions: 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020.  English Barleywine is a wonderful style of beer characterized by a strength on a similar level to a wine, a richness of flavor, and a deep complexity.  They are a beer that ages very well and continues to evolve in the bottle (see my 2021 vertical tasting notes).

I typically brew a different recipe every year.  This really highlights one of the great things about being a homebrewer - there is so much to explore and so many things to try.  That I'm still finding unique ways to brew a fairly narrow style of beer after 8 attempts is really cool.  

This year, I'm brewing another historical Barleywine - 1954 Tennant's Gold Label from the Shut Up About Barclay Perkins Blog.  I've brewed a few historical Barleywine from this blog and have been very impressed.  This one is interesting in that it contains no crystal malt and uses a large amount of flaked corn - this should make of a fairly lightly colored beer.  It is also fairly aggressively hopped and brewed to be over 11% ABV.

It calls for a 3 hr boil which I'm going to honor.  This should make hitting the high target OG a bit easier and will darken the beer a bit.  Will be a long brew day as a result.  I'll plan on fermenting fairly warm (low 70s), will give it 4 months on the yeast cake to finish out, and then secondary until the winter - I'm age on Brandy soaked oak this time.

Excited to be brewing again!

Recipe Details:

• Grain/Adjunct:
• 17 lb Golden Promise
• 5 lb Flaked Corn
• 2.5 lb Invert #1
• 5 oz Acid Malt
• Hops:
• 3 oz Willamette (Leaf, 5.5% AA) at 120 min
• 1.25 oz EKG (Pellet, 4.4% AA) at 90 min
• 1.25 oz EKG (Pellet, 4.4% AA) at 60 min
• 1.25 oz EKG (Pellet, 4.4% AA) at 30 min
• 0.25 oz EKG (Pellet, 4.4% AA) Dry Hop
• Yeast:
• S04 (2nd Pitch)
• Water:
• 15 gal spring water
• 2 tsp CaCl
• 2 tsp Gypsum
• 1 tsp Irish Moss
• Extras:
• 2 sticks of brandy soaked oak

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 6.25 gal (Target 6 gal)
• Mash:
• 149 F for 60 min
• Boil:
• 180 min
• Fermentation Temperature:
• 70 F
• Primary Duration:
• 4 weeks
• Secondary Duration:
• 4 months

Results:

• OG:
• 1.109 (Target 1.109)
• Efficiency:
• 74% (Target 68%)
• FG:
• 1.040 (Target 1.024)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 61% (Target 76%)
• ABV:
• 9.2% (Target 11.3%)

Brewing Notes:

• 5/30/21 - Built a yeast started using 100g of DME and 1 litre of water.  Added about 1 cup of yeast slurry from a previous batch 

• 5/31/21 - Brewday - 11 AM to 6 PM - Including setup and cleanup
  
• Heated 8 gal of spring water to 180 F
• Milled my grain.  Mixed in CaCl and Corn

• Moved 6 gal of strike water to the mash tun and cycled the RIMS until the system settled at 160 F
• Stopped the RIMS and added the grain - stirred in well to eliminate dough balls.  Added another gal of water after stirring in the grain to reduce the mash thickness a bit
• Let the mash sit for 10 min prior to starting the RIMS cycle
• Cycled the RIMS for 60 min at 150 F
• Heated 11 gal of sparge water to 175 F
• Added CaCl and Gypsum to the boil kettle
• Did a fly sparge until 9 gal had been collected.  Started heating the kettle after collecting 3 gal and had it at a boil shortly after the end of the sparge.  Started the 3 hr boil
• Filled the mash tun with a second batch sparge.  Let this sit for 30 min.  Then slowly drained this into the kettle.  Was about 2 hrs left in the boil at this point - I filled until we had 10 gal in the boil kettle.
• With 2 hrs left I added the bittering hops

• Added the 90 min hops
• I cooked up a batch of Invert #1.  I used Terbinado sugar for this (along with 2 cups of water and 0.5 tsp of citric acid.  It is a bit darker than normal invert #1 but shouldn't darken the beer too much.
• Added 60 min hops
• Added 30 min hops
• Added invert with 20 min left

• Added Irish Moss at 15 min
• With 5 min left I added the wort chiller to sanitize
• Chilled down to about 75 F (which was about as cold as the tap water)
• Drained into my fermentation bucket.  Pitched the yeast as I drained

• Collected about 5.75 gal and gravity is about 1.122 - way overshot my target.  I'm going to add some water to get down to the desired OG (addition of about half a gal)
• I'm going to let this start over night without temperature control
• 6/1/21 - Fermentation is underway this afternoon 
• 6/2/21 - I've left this without temperature control and also without an airlock.  Fermentation is producing a very estery yeast aroma
• 8/1/21:
• Checked the gravity of the beer - it is 1.040.  

• It is a reddish gold in color.  It is a bit sweet and has pretty bold ester flavor.  Malt and hop flavors are prominent as well.  Tastes nice
• Transferred it to a glass carboy for aging
• Added 2 sticks of brandy soaked oak

• Added the dry hops as well
• 12/18/21 - Bottled today with 4 oz of priming sugar and a rehydrated pack of Red Star Premier Cuvee wine yeast.  The beer is malty and slightly fruity with a bit of brandy character.  Measured the gravity as 1.040.  Collected 5.5 gal of beer which netted me 54 12 oz bottles
• 3/6/22 - Tasting Notes - Bold flavors and a lot of different elements to pick out with this beer.  Quite sweet and pretty boozy.  I like the strong hop presence of this beer and the bitterness - the balance is somewhat to sweetness but the hops provide enough of a counter to make this a beer you feel like drinking rather than sipping.
• 5/28/22 - Tasting Notes (2022):
• Tasting Notes (39 of 50):
• Aroma (7 of 12):  Fruity with a sweet malty aroma.  Maybe a bit wine like.  Got a fair amount of alcohol on the nose
• Appearance (3 of 3):  Reddish gold in color.  Pours with a 1 finger head that fairly quickly fades down to nothing.  Very clear.
• Flavor (16 of 20):  Sweet bread malt and caramel up front.  This is followed by a nice bit of fruity ester character.  The finish has a bit of bitter kick that provides some balance to go along with the sweet malty character.  There is a bit of alcohol in the flavor as well but it's not harsh at all.  I don't think I'm getting any hop flavor in this one.
• Mouthfeel (5 of 5):  Medium-full bodied and fairly sweet.  Drinks very smoothly.  Has a bit of alcohol warming.
• Overall (8 of 10):  A boldly flavored and fairly sweet Barleywine.  Has a fairly simple malt profile and a restrained fruity character so not the most complex beer.  I do think it's delicious and very drinkable
• 5/28/23 - Tasting Notes (2023):
• Tasting Notes (38 of 50):
• Aroma (7 of 12):  Fruity aroma is prominent - musty and overripe dark fruit.  Has a wine-like character
• Appearance (2 of 3):  Golden and a little cloudy.  Pours with a 1 finger head that lingers around for quite a bit
• Flavor (17 of 20):  Fruity up front with a bold dark caramel malt character.  Also has a chocolate like flavor.  There is a bit of grassy and herbal hop flavor in there as well.  Fairly firm hop bitterness is balanced by a fairly sweet finish.  A bit of booze but it's well hidden  
• Mouthfeel (4 of 5):  Full bodied and a bit sticky on the palate.  Has a slight astringency and noticeable warming effect
• Overall (8 of 10):  Really nice bold flavors in this one along with a high level of complexity.  I like the bitterness and the balance it brings.  Makes it easy to drink for as sweet as it is.
• 6/1/24 - Tasting Notes (2024):
• Tasting Notes (41 of 50):
• Aroma (7 of 12):  Musty with some overripe fruit and wine-like character.  A bit of caramel and some alcohol.  Nice smells but fairly mild.
• Appearance (3 of 3):  Pours with a 1 finger head that lingers for about a minute and fades to a thin layer.  Reddish gold in color and very clear
• Flavor (17 of 20):  Sweet and malty up front - toasted bread and a dark caramel character.  A bit fruity in the middle.  Maybe a bit of chocolate in there as well.  Some hop flavor as well - grassy and herbal.  Finishes with bit of bitterness but the balance is decidedly towards the sweet malty flavors.  Get a bit of alcohol flavor but it fits nicely.  Maybe even get something like a butterscotch character out of it.  This is a very nicely flavored beer with a lot of complexity
• Mouthfeel (5 of 5):  Full bodied and drinks very smooth.  Leaves a stickiness on the palate.  Warming alcohol makes its presence known.
• Overall (9 of 10):  This is a complex and very richly flavored Barleywine.  I think the combination of flavors and balance is quite nice (happy that it has hop bitterness left to it).  I think this would be a very good example of what the style is about and (speculation here) why one might age a strong sweet beer like this.