Tart and Funky Saison

Tired Hand's SaisonHands is, without question, the best Saison I have ever had.  It has a really wonderful mix of spicy, earthy, citrusy, and tart flavors all rolled into a really easy drinking package.  It is a real pleasure to drink in volume.  The beer is pretty much at a Lambic level of complexity.  I don't recall this from my initial tastings of the beer but there seems to be a fairly significant contribution from Brett and possibly some Lactic Acid Bacteria.  This seems to be in line with their current use of Oak Foeders for maturing the beer.  It is a tall order but I've decided to attempt to create a Saison with a similar level of complexity.

The SaisonHands grainbill is a mix of Barley, Wheat, Rye, and Oats according to the brewery.  Apparently they are pretty tight lipped with their recipes so their ratios are an open question.  I decided to go with something similar to this recipe from the Ales of the Riverwards blog.  Ultimately, I think the grainbill is sort of secondary in this beer as the yeast and other critters will really be the star of the show.  I will be shooting for an OG of 1.040 and an FG of 1.004 which should get me in the neighborhood of 4.7% ABV

To try to duplicate the complex fermentation character I am going to primary with both yeast and bugs.  I'm sort of taking a "throw everything at the wall and see what sticks" approach with this beer:

• For the primary yeast I'll use Wyeast 3724 Belgian Saison which is the Saison Dupont strain.  I believe, with it's spicy and tart character, it is probably a bit closer to the Tired Hands strain than the Wyeast French Saison Yeast (3711) I used for my last Saison.  The downside with using this yeast is that it is reported to be a bit finicky and prone to stalling out.  I will try to hold the fermentation in the 80s to keep things moving along.  I wont just be relying on this strain to do the job though so even if it does stall it wont be the end of the world.
• I picked up a Growler of SaisonHands a couple weeks ago and saved the last bit of beer to try to seed my starter with a bit of Tired Hand's microbes.  It turned out that nothing really came out of suspension during it's time sitting so I may be out of luck but I will pitch this anyway.
• Decided to also throw in a few tablespoons of my Lacto Culture (eighth generation of WLP 672 Lactobacillus Brevis) for good measure.  Hopefully this will help it develop a bit of the tartness found in the original.
• Finally, I have opted to also add some dregs from a Oud Beersel "Oude Geuze Vieille" which has a fairly similar Brett character to what I picked up in SaisonHands.  If the primary yeast stalls out I would expect these microbes to pick up the slack.

I will probably give the beer 2 weeks of temperature control and then move it to ambient basement temps for couple month secondary.  Basement should start warming up in this period.  The original beer is aged in oak but I don't really get much in the way of oak flavor from it so I'm not going to add any cubes.

For the hops,  I will be using cascades like the original beer.  I am going to wait until the end of the boil to minimize bitterness a maximize the flavoring contributions.

I will give this beer as much time as it needs but as a going in position I am thinking two months would be a good amount of time to let the various bugs do their thing.

Recipe Details:

• Grain:
• 6 lb 8 oz Pilsner
• 12 oz White Wheat
• 12 oz Rye
• 8 oz Flaked Oats
• 3 oz Acid Malt
• Hops:
• 1 oz Cascade (Pellet, 5.5% AA) at 10 min
• 1 oz Cascade (Pellet, 5.5% AA) at 5 min
• Yeast:
• Wyeast 3724 Belgian Saison
• WLP 672 Lactobacillus Brevis (Ninth Generation)
• Tired Hands "SaisonHands" Dregs
• Oud Beersel "Oude Geuze Vieille" Dregs
• Water:
• 10 gal spring water
• 1 tsp Calcium Chloride
• 1 tsp Gypsum

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 5.75 gal (Target 6 gal)
• Mash:
• 150 F for 60 min (Target 150 F for 60 min)
• Boil:
• 90 min (Target 60 min)
• Fermentation Temperature:
• 80 F
• Primary Duration:
• 15 Months (Target 2 Months)
• Secondary Duration:
• NA

Results:

• OG:
• 1.038 (Target 1.040)
• Efficiency:
• 69% (Target 76%)
• FG:
• 1.000  (Target 1.004)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 100 (Target 90%)
• ABV:
• 4.99% (Target 4.73%)

Brewing Notes:

• 3/31/16 - Made a 1.5 L starter with 6.5 oz of DME and 1/8 an ounce of yeast nutrient.  Chilled in the sink and then added SaisonHands dregs.  Put it on the stir plate to propagate.
• 4/1/16 - Added Wyeast 3724, Lacto, and Lambic dregs to the starter.  The starter had reached high krausen by the next day

• 4/3/16 - Brewday - 10:30 AM to 2:00 PM - Including setup and cleanup
• Heated 10 gal of spring water 160 F
• Power was out so I had to mill the grain using the hand crank
• Transferred 28 qt of water to the Mash Tun by hand which gave me about 3.5 gal above the false bottom
• Added CaCl and Gypsum to the mash tun
• Added the grain and stirred in well to eliminate dough balls
• Checked the mash temp after 10 min - had settled to 150 F
• Let mash for 60 min

• Heated the remaining 4 gal of water to 200 F with about 15 min left in the mash
• Added the mash out water to the mash tun and then gravity drained to the kettle
• Collected 9 gal
• Brought the wort to a boil
• Added the first dose of hops with 10 min left in the boil
• Added the second dose of hops with 5 min left in the boil
• Added the wort chiller just before flameout and brought the wort back up to a boil
• Chilled to 85 F before transferring to the fermenter.  It is very cloudy wort.
• Measured the gravity as 1.038 F
• Moved to the fermentation chamber with reptile heater.  The beer is just about 80 F.  Will allow the fermentation to rise up to 90 F
• Added the yeast to the batch

• 4/4/16 - The beer stated bubbling vigorously by yesterday evening and is still bubbling strongly this morning.  The fermenter is up to 82 F.  Will be interesting to see if it continues to rise.
• 4/22/16 - The fermentation chamber has been in the low 70s for the last couple weeks.  I moved this beer out to the 60 F basement to age out a bit more.
• 5/8/16 - Checked on the beer.  Had a pellicle and a funky aroma.  Smells funky and a bit like a pickle.  I noticed this smell in the dregs of the SaisonHands.  Decided not to take a sample just yet.  I'll give this one another month undisturbed.

• 7/3/17 - Finally getting around to bottling this beer!  It still has the pellicle and has a really funky aroma including the pickle like smell I got from the SaisonHands.  The sample measures 1.000 SG and is straw colored and crystal clear.  Lovely beer.  The flavor is lightly tart with spicy yeast character and slight earthiness in the finish.  The beer underwent two short moves over the last year - got shaken up slightly in the car.  Doesn't seem like this had any negative effects on this beer.  Bottled with 4 oz of priming sugar and a rehydrated package of Red Star Premier Cuvee wine yeast.  Got 56 12 oz bottles of beer from this batch.  I'll give it a couple weeks to carbonate at basement temps before trying one.

• 8/30/17 - Tasting Notes - The level of complexity in this beer is very satisfying.  I feel like I could pass this off as a Lambic as easily as I could a Saison with all the flavors it brings to play.

Lessons Learned:

1. Batch sparging saved a lot of time over the normal fly sparging.  Another pound of grain would have more than made up for the efficiency loss associated with this sparge method.  Need to evaluate where I want my efficiency to be and consider the cost/benefit a bit more.

Russian Imperial Stout with Brettanomyces - 2015 Vintage Tasting

I brewed this Russian Imperial Stout in November 2014.  I let it ferment out for a couple months and then let it age with oak and Brettanomyces for almost a year.  This was an attempt to create a beer like the defunct English brewery "Courage's" RIS which reportedly featured some Brett character including a leather like flavor.  I based the recipe on one from the Mad Fermentationist.

I harvested the Brett (Brett C) from some bottles of a Berliner Weisse I'd brewed.  The beer formed a pretty good pellicle after a few months and dropped about 10 points of gravity during it's time with the Brett.  I was very concerned that the Brett might over attenuate on me but it ended up finishing at a really nice 1.022.

It was a complex beer to start with and it got more complex with age on it.  I found it difficult to sort out anything I would describe as Brett character.  The later tastings all had a slight earthiness that I was thinking could be attributable to the Brett but I wasn't sure.  I was very interested to see what the time in the bottle would bring.  This beer has now been in the bottle for 3 months and I think it is high time for a tasting.

The beer tastes fantastic at basement temps which are about 60 F so that is what these notes are based on.

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• A mix of roast, dark chocolate, and a fruitiness (maybe raisin).  Also get a bit of coffee.  There is some alcohol mixed in but doesn't smell like it would be 10% ABV.  Get quite a bit of vanilla oak character.  Still get the earthy aroma that I had attributed to the Brett in my initial tastings.  Well blended with everything else.  I don't think it's really gotten any more prominent.  Aroma of the beer is quite complex and, overall, very nice.
• Appearance:
• Pours with a pretty light head that quickly dissipates down to nothing.  The beer is a very dark red/brown pretty much opaque.  From the edges it looks pretty clear.  This bottle had a slight pellicle and there were little chunks of it floating on top of the beer.
• Flavor:
• Bitter dark chocolate and dark fruit ester character are pretty prominent along with coffee.  The oak cuts through in the finish along with a definite earthy Brett character (it might be fair to describe it as tobacco or leather like).  I think this has gotten more prominent during it's time in the bottle.  I don't really get any hop bitterness in the finish at this point.  It is a little malty sweet but the earthiness balances it out pretty nicely.  The beer has really good bold flavors which come out really nicely at basement temps.
• Mouthfeel:
• Medium bodied and smooth.  Slight alcohol warming.  Mild astringency.  A pretty easy drinking beer.
• Overall:
• This beer had a great level of complexity after primary fermentation and it has gotten significantly more interesting with age.  I really like the coffee/chocolate/roast flavors and aroma along with the dark fruit character.  The Brett seems to be getting to be a more significant player in the flavor profile with some time in the bottle and it is creating some really nice aged beer sort of flavors.  Hops have fallen off but they aren't missed.

I brewed up another batch of RIS with Brett this last November which went onto the Brett cake from this batch.  I am planning on drinking half of the batch of each of these each year and then saving the other half to do vertical tastings with future vintages.

Trappist Single - Tasting

I brewed up this Trappist Single back in December based on a couple recipes in Zymergy.  I enjoy the bold yeast derived flavors that characterize the Trappist ales.  Being able to brew these beers, which are expensive and sometimes difficult to come by, is one of the great benefits of homebrewing.

The Trappist Single is one of the rarer beers in this category as these beers were traditionally brewed for the monks own consumption while the higher alcohol beers were sold to pay the rent.  In recent years they've started selling them to the general public.

This beer was intended to come in at under 5% ABV.  Ended up getting very good efficiency so I overshot a bit.  Fermentation went very well and it got all the way down to 1.005.  Fermentation character is very nice (extra temperature control paying dividends) - exactly what I was hoping for.

This is intended to be a dry and hoppy beer that a laborer (like a monk making beer) could drink at lunch for refreshment and then go back to work.  I've consumed about half the batch at this point.  Had it almost all to myself which is how I like it.  I feel like I hit the mark pretty well with this one.

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Fruity/Spicy Belgian yeast character dominates.  Some bready malt in the background along with some spicy/herbal hops.  No alcohol on the nose.
• Appearance:
• Pours with three finger head.  Well carbonated.  Head lingers for most of the glass.  Leaves lacing up the glass.  It's a golden color.  Fairly clear - not quite transparent.  Bubbles cascade up for most of the glass.
• Flavor:
• Spicy and bold Belgian yeast up front.  Also get a bit of fruity ester - peach maybe.  A bit of light bready malt mixed in with maybe a bit of honey.  Medium bitterness in the finish.  There is some malt there as well but the balance is definitely tilted to the hops.
• Mouthfeel:
• Dry and crisp finish.  Medium light bodied.  No alcohol warming.  No astringency.  Some prickliness from carbonation. 
• Overall:
• A low alcohol beer with big bold flavors.  This is what I was hoping for.  The Belgian yeast's esters are prominent but don't overwhelm - I think this turned out well.  The dry finish allows fairly subdued hopping to really come through nicely.  It makes for an easy drinking beer with a really nice crisp finish. 

Black Raspberry Tart

I have wanted to try New Glarus Brewing's Raspberry Tart ever since reading about it initially.  Per the web site:

"Treat yourself to a rare delight. The voluminous raspberry bouquet will greet you long before your lips touch your glass. Serve this Wisconsin framboise very cold in a champagne flute. Then hold your glass to a light and enjoy the jewel-like sparkle of a very special ale.

Oregon proudly shares their harvest of mouth watering berries, which we ferment spontaneously in large oak vats. Then we employ Wisconsin farmed wheat and year old Hallertau hops to round out this extravaganza of flavor."

Sounds awesome.  Sadly, they don't distribute outside of Wisconsin so I haven't managed to get my hands on any.  I am going to attempt to create something similar. 

For souring I am going to use my culture of Lactobacillus Brevis rather than use what is on the fruit.  The Brevis produces a nice level of sourness.  I am going to try souring two gal of the six in separate glass jugs in order to get a good level of control over the bacteria.  I will ferment the remainder of the batch with good old US-05.  I'll combine the two after a couple weeks.

For a further level of control over the bacteria after I add the sour portions back to the main batch I'm going to try hopping the main batch.  My hope is that hops will restrain the lacto from making the main batch any more sour after the sour batches are added back (I've been experiencing this a bit with my Flanders Reds)  I decided to try making a hop tea that would be added after the beer would be chilled.

For the grain bill I decided to make a Red Ale similar to my Flanders Reds.  I'll mash at 160 F and add 12 oz of Maltodextrine to try to ensure that the FG of the beer is high and that it has a nice solid malt backbone which I'm hoping will go nicely with the fruit.  I'm shooting for a beer at ~4% ABV.

As for the fruit, I harvested 10 lbs of Black Raspberries from a local Pick-Your-Own Orchard (Highland Orchards) last summer and froze them solid.  They taste really nice - a bit different than Red Raspberries.  I think they'll make a really rich tasting beer at 10 lb per 6 gal ratio I'll be using.

I've read that Raspberry Tart comes in at an FG of 1.040 (per this link).  This is really sweet but it sounds like the sourness balances out the sweetness nicely.  I'm going to try for the same sort of high gravity.  Post fermentation I'll cold crash and fine and then transfer off the yeast cake over to the fruit.  I'll then age the beer on the fruit for two to four weeks in the 40s.  Once the fruit and beer are well integrated I'll bottle.  I'll sample bottles daily until the carbonation is right and then I'll pasteurize them in a hot water bath as I did successfully with my Hard Apple Cider.

The fruit was quite expensive but I'm pretty confident that this beer should turn out nicely.  Really looking forward to giving this one a shot.

Recipe Detail:

• Grain/Adjunct:
• 4 lb Maris Otter
• 4 lb Munich
• 8 oz CaraMunich III
• 8 oz Aromatic
• 8 oz Special B
• 12 oz Maltodextrine (Not factored into efficiency calculations)
• Hops:
• 1 oz Fuggle (Pellet, 4.1% AA) for Hop Tea added after chilling
• Yeast:
• Safale US-05 American Ale Yeast
• WLP 672 Lactobacillus Brevis (Eighth Pitch)
• Water:
• 10 gal Spring Water
• 7 gal Tap Water
• 1 tsp Calcium Chloride
• 1 tsp Gypsum
• 1 tsp Irish Moss at 15 min
• Extras:
• 10 lb of Black Raspberries

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 6 gal (Target 6 gal)
• Mash:
• Step 1:  160 F for 60 min (Target 160 F for 60 min)
• Step 2:  Ramped up to 175 F in 20 min (Target Ramped up to 175 F in 25 min)
• Boil:
• 60 min (Target 60 min)
• Fermentation Temperature:
• 66 F
• Primary Duration:
• With Yeast:  4 weeks
• With Lacto:  2 Weeks
• Secondary Duration:
• With Fruit:  4 weeks

Results:

• OG:
• 1.045 (Target 1.045) - with 5 points from maltodextrine
• Efficiency:
• 72% (Target 72%)
• FG:
• Beer:  1.006 (Target 1.018)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 86% (Target 59%)
• ABV:
• 5.12% (Target 3.54%)

Brewing Notes:

• 3/6/16 - Brewday - 11:40 AM to 3:40 PM including setup and cleanup
• Heated 10 gal of spring water in the HLT and cycled through the Mash Tun, Grant, and RIMS until the system was at 165 F - Took 40 min
• Milled my grain while waiting for the water to heat

• Ended up with 3 gal above the false bottom and 7.5 gal in the system total
• Added CaCl and Gypsum to the mash tun
• Added the grain and stirred well to eliminate dough balls
• Cycled the RIMS at 165 F
• After 10 min the mash temp was between 162 and 164 F so I lowered the RIMS temp to 163 F
• Heated up 9.5 gal of mashout/sparge water in the HLT to 200 F
• After 60 min of mashing I added 2 gal of mashout water and raised the RIMS to 185 F to get the mash up to 175 - cycled for 20 min
• Once up to temp I transferred the grant volume back to the mash tun and then started the fly sparge
• After collecting 3 gal the gravity at the grant was 8 brix (1.032)
• Heated the kettle after collecting 4 gal - Beer was at a boil prior to the end of the sparge
• Finished the sparge after collecting 8 gal - took 25 min.  Gravity at the grant was 4 brix (1.016) at the end of the sparge
• Hop Tea
• Collected an additional 2 quarts from the grant for a hop tea
• Brought the extra wort to a boil on the kitchen range and added the hops
• Boiled the hops for 30 min

• The hops had a herbal aroma kind of like tea
• Tasted the wort at the end of the boil - very bitter
• Let it cool with the lid on after the boil had ended
• Added the Maltodextrine at the start of the boil
• Added the Irish Moss with 10 min left in the boil
• Ended up boiling for 60 min
• Added the wort chiller just prior to flameout and brought the wort back to a boil to sanitize
• Chilled down to 90 F before transferring 2 gal of wort to glass jugs with Lacto

• Added the hop tea to the beer at this point
• Chilled down to 70 F and transferred remaining beer into fermentor.  Let the beer fall a foot or so to aerate
• Measured the gravity as 1.045.  The beer has a really nice redish brown color and is pretty clear.
• Rehydrated yeast in 100 F water in a coffee mug for 20 min before pitching
• Moved the fermenter down to the fermentation chamber
• 3/21/16 - Moved the fermenter out of the chamber and added the two gal of beer fermented with the lacto.  The batches were only lightly sour.  They have gotten much more sour than this in the past - very surprising.  I will let this batch sit for another couple weeks before cold crashing it and then transferring it onto the fruit.
• 4/22/16 - Moved to the fermentation chamber to cold crash.  The beer has a bubbly krausen with some spots of white pellicle.  Took a sample and measured the gravity as 1.008 which is a bit lower than expected.  The beer is a reddish brown.  It has a malty aroma with a hint of lactic sourness.  The flavor is malty with a slight sourness.  Really not as sour as I was hoping for.  It's actually a bit bland.  No off flavors though so I'm comfortable proceeding with fruiting it as planned.  I will cold crash for a couple days and then fine with gelatin.
• 4/23/16 - Added some gelatin dissolved in hot water to the beer
• 4/24/16 - Transferred the beer onto the frozen raspberries in a second bucket.  The beer ended up turning purple during the transfer.  The bucket was about an inch from full - had to leave a couple quarts behind in the fermentation bucket.  Moved back to the fermentation chamber set to 45 F.  This will allow the juice to be freed but should also prevent much fermentation from going on.

• 5/4/16 - Took a sample of the beer.  It is a really lush purple and it has a very distinct black raspberry aroma.  Measured the gravity as 1.008 still.  There are no signs of fermentation in the beer and I've kept it right around 45 F the whole time.  I don't think it fermented down in any significant way.  I'm very surprised that it's this low.  It may be that the liquid in the raspberries offset the gravity increase from the sugar or that maybe there is still some sugar that hasn't gone into solution yet.  I'm not sure what to do next.  The flavor is nice.  The fruit has a presence but it isn't quite as prominent as I'd expected.  More time is definitely needed.  If time doesn't do the trick I may have to try some actions to mush the fruit to try to coax out more fruit flavor.

• 5/21/16 - The airlock has been bubbling slightly even with the beer around 45 F.  I decided to just let it ferment all the way out.  I'm allowing the beer to rise up to the 60s.
• 5/26/16 - Made 2 gal of starter wort with 3.5 lb of Munich malt via BIAB to sour separately with my Lacto Brevis strain.  Didn't add any hops..  Added the wort to 2 one gal jugs after chilling it to 90 F and then put the jugs in a 100 F water bath in the sink over night.  I will use this to give the beer a bit more sourness if it needs it as the original 2 gal I tried to sour with the lacto didn't really build up much acidity (probably due to the cold basement temps).
• 7/23/16 - Bottled the beer today.  Transferred off the fruit which got me about 6 gal of beer.  It is a really lovely purple color.  It was fruity but a bit bland so I added about 0.75 gal of the beer soured with lacto.  This added a slight acidity that didn't seem to overwhelm the other flavors.  Gravity of the beer was 1.006.  Added 4 oz of turbinado sugar for priming - this was what I had on hand.  I got 67 12 oz bottles out of the batch.

• 8/31/16 - Tasting Notes - It's an interesting and really nicely flavored beer.  Not sure you'd guess it had 10 lbs of fruit but it's certainly very fruity.  It definitely provides the sour kick that I've grown to enjoy frequently.  I was a bit disappointed to not get the amount of sweetness that I'd expected from the fruit.  Also hard to disconnect the beer from the fact that I spent $40 for the right to pick and 4 hrs doing the picking in order to make it.  I didn't do that this year and I'm not sure I'd do it again.  The black raspberry flavor is nice but I think I may prefer the normal red raspberry to it.

Lessons Learned:

1. Very smooth brewday - took just about 4 hrs.  Really glad I only collected the required 8 gal of wort.
2. Hop Tea process was pretty easy.  We'll see how effective it is at stopping the lacto.  I think I'm going to employ this for some of my Flanders Reds going forward if it works.
3. I didn't get much, if any, gravity increase from the raspberries.  They really aren't all that sweet when I think about it so I really shouldn't have expected the high FG I'd planned for.  They have plenty of flavor though.

Single Hop IPA (Centennial)

I just finished my last bottle of Double IPA last week and I'm already missing it.  I could just brew up another batch of that one but, in the interest of broadening my horizons a bit, I have decided to try out a new recipe.  I like the idea of brewing single hop beer to get a better sense of what kind of flavors each one imparts.  Based on this I have decided to brew up a "Bell's Two Hearted" clone from homebrewtalk.com.  Two Hearted is a really nice IPA brewed with only Centennial hops.

The recipe states that it is "as close as they come."  I'm not really concerned with creating a clone of Two Hearted so I will be making the following changes from the recipe:

1. Shooting for an OG of 1.055 to 1.060 which, if the beer ferments down to a target of 1.012, will get me a beer that is in the neighborhood of 6% ABV.  This is about a percentage point lower than the actual Bell's Two Hearted but I don't think I'll miss it.
2. Going with the famous Wyeast 1056 American Ale yeast.  This is my first batch with this yeast (although I've used US-05 which is supposed to be the same Sierra Nevada strain).  The recipe calls for S-04
3. Changing up the hop schedule quite a bit to get some more intense hop flavor.  First, I'll be using 3 mL of hop extract to get about 30 IBU.  I'll then hold off on adding hops until the end of the boil.  I will add 2 oz of hops with 5 min left.  Then I'll add 2 oz more after the beer has chilled down to 180 F and let stand for 30 min.  Finally, I will dry hop with 2 oz.  I'm going to skip fining the beer with gelatin as I would normally do to avoid the possibility that I'll reduce the hop character.  I'll plan on bottling this beer after 3 weeks to make sure the beer is as fresh as possible when I start drinking.

I've been considering trying this one out for the last several months.  Two Hearted is actually my wife's favorite beer.  I'm hoping she approves of this one.

Recipe Details:

• Grain:
• 10 lb 2 Row Malt
• 2 lb Vienna Malt
• 8 oz CaraPils Malt
• 8 oz Crystal 20L
• 4 oz Acid Malt
• Hops:
• 3 mL Hop Shot at 60 120  min
• 2 oz Centennial (Pellet, 8.5% AA) at 5 min
• 2 oz Centennial (Pellet, 8.5% AA) added once temp is down to 180 F (stand for 30 min)
• 2 oz Centennial (Pellet, 8.5% AA) Dry Hop
• Yeast:
• Wyeast 1056 American Ale
• Water:
• 10 gal spring water
• 7.5 gal tap water
• 1 oz Calcium Chloride in Mash
• 1 oz Gypsum in Mash
• 1 oz Gypsum in Boil
• 1 oz Irish Moss at 20 min

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 6 gal (Target 6 gal)
• Mash:
• Step 1:  150 F for 60 min (Target 150 F for 60 min)
• Step 2:  Ramp up to 170 F in 45 min (Target Ramp up to 175 in 30 min)
• Boil:
• 120 min (Target 60 min)
• Fermentation Temp:
• 68 F
• Primary Duration:
• 3 weeks
• Secondary Duration:
• NA

Results:

• OG:
• 1.060 (Target 1.060)
• Efficiency:
• 76% (Target 76%)
• FG:
• 1.010 (Target 1.012)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 83% (Target 79%)
• ABV:
• 6.56% (Target 6.30%)

Brewing Notes:

• 2/20/16 - Brewed up a yeast starter with 5.5 oz of DME and 1 liter of water.  Also added 1/8th tsp of yeast nutrient.  Set it up on the stir plate and pitched the yeast.
• 2/21/16 - Brewday - 11:40 AM to 6:00 PM including setup and cleanup
• Heated 10 gal of strike water and cycled through the system was at 160 F
• Milled grain while heating the water

• Ended up with 5 gal above the false bottom and 8.5 gal in the system
• Added CacL and Gypsum to the mash tun
• Added the grain and stirred well to eliminate doughballs
• Set the RIMS to cycle at 152 F
• Added 7.5 gal of tap water to the HLT, for a total of 9 gal, and heated to 185 F for the sparge
• After the 60 min of mashing I added 2 gal of sparge water to the mash tun and upped the RIMS to 185 F to heat the mash to 170 for the mash out - took 45 min
• Added extra gypsum to the kettle before the sparge
• Fly sparged - took 20 min
• Stated heating the kettle after collecting 2 gal
• Gravity at the grant was 10 brix after collecting 4 gal
• Ended up collecting 10 gal - gravity at the grant was 4 brix (1.016 by this time).  Was not a very efficient sparge for some reason
• Was up to a boil a couple minutes after ending the sparge
• Had very significant hot break - ended up boiling over a couple times
• Added the hop extract after the hot break cleared
• With about 20 min left I added the Irish Moss
• Added the first hops with 5 min left
• Killed the flame after getting down to a bit over 6 gal.  Let sit and chill down to 180 F without a lid - took 15 min
• Added the hop stand hops and let the kettle sit for half an hour with the lid on - beer was down to 165 F after 30 min
• Sprayed the wort chiller with sanitizer and put into the kettle for 5 min to be sure it was sanitized
• Chilled down to 70 F
• Transferred to fermenter with all trub and hops

• Collected 6 gal - fermenter was very full.  Measured gravity as 1.060 which is right on target.  The beer has a really nice gold color
• Moved to fermentation chamber set to 67 F.  I'm using an airlock that is extended into the fermenter as little as possible.  I expect that, as full as the fermenter is, some wort is going to be pushed up into the airlock
• Pitched the entire yeast starter which looked to be at high krausen

• 2/22/16 - The airlock filled up and overflowed with krausen.  Hasn't made that much of a mess so far fortunately.
• 3/6/16 - Added the dry hops.  I'll give the beer another 5 days or so before bottling.

• 3/12/16 - Bottled this batch today.  There was a pretty thick layer of hops at the bottom so I only ended up getting 5 gal.  Primed with 4 oz of table sugar.  This got me 51 bottles.  Measured the gravity as 1.010.  The sample has a lot of hop particulate - ended up getting a lot of hops in the bottles as well.  The beer has a really great hop forward flavor.  It is also plenty bitter for an IPA.
• 4/7/16 - Tasting Notes - Has nice flavoring hop character in the aroma and flavor but an odd flavor in the bittering hops in the finish sort of detracts from the whole package.  I wonder if some oxidation may have come into play somewhere along the line.
• 6/5/16 - Entered this beer into a local homebrew competition (22nd Annual BUZZ Off) in category 21A - American IPA.  I wanted to get some unbiased feedback on the beer to see if my palate was off the mark on the bitter character of the beer.  Ended up scoring an aggregate of 32 which is better than I thought it would do.  One of the reviewers mentions astringency and has a very similar takeaway regarding the overwhelming bitterness in the finish.  I consider this a victory for my palate.  He also mentions a smoky phenol which I hadn't picked up.  The other reviewer describes the beer as a bit malty for the style.  I assume there were quite a few IPA that were much better and much hoppier than mine (especially considering this beer's age) and that how hoppy this beer seemed was probably somewhat dependent on the level of hopping in the previous beers these judges tasted.  Really glad I decided to get in on one of these homebrew competitions - it was really exciting and fun to read these comments.  Will definitely be entering some other beers in competitions in the future.

Lesson Learned

1. This brewday was way too long.  The 45 min I spent trying to heat up the mash may have been a wasted effort.  Also, collecting 10 gal of wort was really stupid of me.  I wish I had just accepted the hit for starting gravity or purchased more grain.  The cost in terms of time and extra propane just doesn't justify chasing after an extra bit of efficiency.  I need to plan out these brewdays a bit more carefully.

Hard Apple Cider - Tasting

I fermented up this batch of Hard Apple Cider back in September using some locally grown apples.  They fermented all the way down to 0.994 which is very dry.  I decided to split the batch and dose one part with another gallon of cider to make a sweet cider.  I let this ferment for a few days and then pasteurized the bottles.  It ended up working our well - I have a sweet carbonated cider and no bottle bombs.

For the other half I added a small amount of priming sugar to avoid getting a completely still cider.  This may have been a mistake as I ended up picking up an off sulphur flavor during bottle conditioning.

I have found that both of these ciders seem to taste quite a bit better at basement temps rather than out of the fridge.  This really brings out some nice complexity.  These tasting notes were recorded for a cider served at ~60 F.

L - Sweetened & R - Plain

Back Sweetened Cider Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Light tart apple.  A bit more subdued than the raw cider.  No alcohol or yeast character on the nose.  It is a pleasant aroma
• Appearance:
• Pale gold/yellow.  It has cleared very nicely in the bottle.  Pours with a very slight head that immediately fades to nothing.  Light carbonation continues to appear while drinking.
• Flavor:
• Sweet up front and then transitions into a pretty robust sour apple flavor in the finish.  It's a nice balance between the sweet and sour flavors in the finish.  The alcohol is very well hidden and there is no yeast character I can detect.
• Mouthfeel:
• Light bodied with a sweet sticky mouthfeel.  It really lingers in my mouth for some time after taking a sip.  It's very much like drinking raw apple cider.  It has a pretty firm bite of astringency - much more than I've ever experienced from a beer.  It gives the cider a pretty substantial mouthfeel as light bodied as it is.
• Overall:
• I really like the balance of sweet and sour from this cider.  It makes for a nicely complex drink.  The stickiness of the finish makes it a bit difficult to drink more than one of these in a sitting though.  This is probably sort of the trade you make if you are going to drink it warm (and enjoy the complexity) or drink it cold (and have a smoother/easier drinking beverage).

Plain Cider Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Sulphur smell up front with a bit of apple in the background.  Was a lot more prominent a couple months ago.  Maybe get a bit of alcohol way in the background.
• Appearance:
• Identical to the Back Sweetened half except that the carbonation is even lighter.  Pours with no head and is essentially still.
• Flavor:
• Mild sulphur character is also present in the flavor.  Some apple character comes through in the finish but it's not quite pronounced enough to overwhelm the sulphur.  Swirling the glass seems to reduce the sulphur flavor - like maybe it's dissipating.  No alcohol flavor cuts through.
• Mouthfeel:
• Very dry.  Has the same astringent bite that the sweetened portion has.  The finish is much crisper for this version so it is a bit easier drinking.
• Overall:
• The sulphur is disappointing.  The cider tasted really clean going into the bottles.  I assume that the yeast doing the bottle conditioning threw out this sulphur - I probably should have added more nutrient.  It does seem like the sulphur flavor has faded a lot over the last couple months so these could improve and the swirling trick seems to work pretty well.  This would drink sort of like a white wine if not for the off flavor.

Belgian Witbier

I have been considering trying a Belgian Witbier for the last year and a half.  This is a wheat beer with, as you would expect, a characterful Belgian yeast and added spices.  These typically include Coriander and Orange Peel.  They are often referred to a "White ale" in the US.  Per style, they are very cloudy due to a grainbill of ~50% wheat.  They tend to be fairly low alcohol which, in combination with the spicing, make for a refreshing beer.  I have hesitated to brew one of these up until now as they are pretty complicated to make (as you'll see below) and, with so many flavors in the mix, getting the right balance in the beer seems quite challenging.

I have chosen to brew up a beer based on an article on allaboutbeer.com.  This recipe calls for a grainbill of roughly half pilsner malt and half unmalted wheat which is traditional for the style (with 0.5 lb of oats thrown in for good measure as they are also traditional).  The unmalted wheat requires a cereal mash to allow for good conversion.  I have been doing what I have been calling a cereal mash with some of my sour beers with the goal of extracting starches without getting any conversion.  The cereal mash used for this beer is the real deal in that I need good conversion from these grains.  This will include an initial protein rest at 122 F for 15 min, 15 more min at 150 F to start some conversion, and then a 15 min boil to get the starches into solution.  The main mash will run in parallel with this activity at it's own 122 F protein rest.  The addition of the cereal mash will then raise the temperature of the main mash up to the low 150s for 60 more minutes of mashing.

The beer will be hopped at 60 min and then at 10 min with some low AA% Saaz hops.  Per style, this hopping should provide some hop character, but not so much that it overwhelms any of the other flavorings, and low to moderate bittering. 

I will be using 0.75 oz of Coriander (purchased from a local Indian supermarket) that I will crush (as I don't have a spice grinder).  It has a nice spicy citrus aroma (rather than a celery or hotdog smell which I have read is possible).  I will also be using the zest from two navel oranges in the beer.  An alternate is bitter orange peel which was a bit more expensive and maybe (per opinions on the internet) not as good.  These spices will be added with 5 min left in the boil.

Finally, I will be using Wyeast 3944 Belgian Witbier at 70 to 72 F to ferment this out.  I am hoping to get a good level of esters out of the yeast at this temp range but not so much that they overwhelm the spices.  I have heard that this yeast may be a bit of a slow worker so if it's now down in the low teens as expected after my normal 4 weeks of fermentation I may decide to give it some more time.

This looks like a really well thought out recipe.  I am confident that the beer will turn out well if I am able to get the complicated brewday reasonably smoothly.

Recipe Details:

• Grain:
• Main Mash:
• 5 lb Pilsner
• 8 oz Flaked Oats
• 3 oz Acid Malt
• Cereal Mash:
• 4 lb Unmalted Wheat
• 1 lb Pilsner Malt
• Hops:
• 1 oz Saaz (Pellet, 3.6% AA) at 60 min
• 1 oz Saaz (Pellet, 3.6% AA) at 10 min
• Yeast:
• Wyeast 3944 Belgian Witbier
• Water:
• 10 gal spring water
• 5 gal tap water
• 1 tsp Calcium Chloride
• 1 tsp Gypsum
• Extras:
• 1.5 oz Orange Zest from 2 Navel Oranges at 5 min
• 0.75 oz Crushed Coriander Seed at 5 min
• 1 lb of rice hulls in mash

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 5.75 gal (Target 6 gal)
• Mash:
• Main Mash:
• Step 1:  130 F for 45 min(Target 122 F for 60 min)
• Step 2:  153 F for 60 min (Target 153 F for 60 min)
• Cereal Mash:
• Step 1:  122 F for 15 min (Target 122 F for 15 min)
• Step 2:  150 F for 20 min (Target 150 F for 15 min)
• Step 3:  Boil for 15 min (Target Boil for 15 min)
• Boil:
• 60 min (Target 60 min)
• Fermentation Temp:
• 70 to 72 F
• Primary Duration:
• 4 weeks
• Secondary Duration:
• NA

Results:

• OG:
• 1.046 (Target 1.048)
• Efficiency:
• 69% (Target 75%)
• FG:
• 1.010 (Target 1.010)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 78% (Target 79%)
• ABV:
• 4.73% (Target 4.99%)

Brewing Notes:

• 2/5/16 - Made a DME based starter using 8 oz of extract and 1.5 L of tap water.  Added 1/8th tsp of yeast nutrient.  Boiled in a flask.  Chilled to 60s and added an expired package of yeast.  Set up on a stir plate.
• 2/6/16 - had reached high krausen by this afternoon
• 2/7/16 - Brewday - 9:30 AM to 2:50 PM - including setup and cleanup
• Heated 10 gal of spring water to 125 F
• Had to double mill my raw wheat to get a good crush
• Transferred 10 qt of water to a separate pot for the cereal mash
• Added the grain and stirred in.  The mash settled down to 119 F so I heated a bit more to get to the target of 122 F.  Let sit for 15 min at this temp.

• Continued to heat the kettle through all this.  Was up to 145 F by the time I started transferring to the mash tun
• Ended up with 2 gal of water above the false bottom
• Added CaCl and Gypsum to the mash tun
• Added the rice hulls
• Added the grain and stirred in.  This only brought the mash temp down to about 130 F which was a bit high.  I let it go without taking action.  Let sit at this temp while the cereal mash progressed.
• Heated the cereal mash up to 150 F stirring frequently to avoid scorching.  Let it sit at this temp for another 15 min
• Brought the cereal mash to a boil for 15 min.  Stirred most of the time.  The cereal mash wasn't sticky like the corn based ones I've been doing for the Flanders Reds.  The 15 min rest at 150 F must be responsible for this.  I am going to try this technique for cereal mashing next time.
• Added the cereal mash to the main mash.  Added slowly and stirred in as I went to avoid overheating.  Ended up raising the mash to the high 140s and low 150s.
• Setup the RIMS to cycle at ~2 qt per min with the heat set to 155 F
• Mashed for 60 min
• Heated 7 gal of sparge water to 190 F
• At the end of the mash I transferred all the wort from the grant back to the mash tun and then added a couple more inches of sparge water on top of the grain bed
• Sparged slowly (~1 gal every 5 min)

• Started heating the kettle after collecting 3 gal.  It was at a boil after collecting about 7 gal
• Gravity at the grant after collecting 3 gal was 9.6 brix (1.038)
• Collected 8 gal total - gravity at the grant was 2.5 brix (1.010) at the end of the mash
• Added the 60 min hops after the hot break cleared
• Crushed the Coriander seed with a beer bottle used like a rolling pin.
• Zested the two oranges and got quite a bit of orange zest (1.5 oz) decided to just use all of it
• With about 10 min left I added the flavoring hops
• With 5 min left I added the orange zest and coriander
• Added the chiller just prior to flameout to sanitize
• Chilled down to 70 F
• Transferred to the fermenter by letting the beer fall a foot or so to aerate

• Ended up collecting about 5.75 gal.  Measured the gravity as 1.046.  The sample didn't have as strong of an orange or coriander aroma as would have expected.  It seemed like most of the spice got left behind in the kettle with the hops.  I wonder if that was how it was expected to work
• Moved the fermenter down to the temperature controlled fermentation chamber and pitched the yeast
• 2/8/16 - The airlock was filled with yeast from a very vigorous fermentation by this morning.  Cleaned it out this afternoon.  The orange aroma seemed much more prominent today than it did in the sample yesterday.  Very nice.
• 2/14/16 - Cleaned up the lid which had accumulated a lot of yeast trub as well as the airlock.

• 3/5/16 - Bottled this batch today.  Primed with 5.5 oz of table sugar.  Measured the FG of the beer as 1.011.  The beer was relatively clear and was a really nice light straw color.  Aroma was of Belgian yeast with the coriander and orange faded into the background a bit.  Same with the flavor at this point.  Captured about 6 gal of beer which netted me 58 bottles.  I'll give the beer a couple weeks to bottle condition before giving it a try.
• 6/18/16 - Tasting Notes - This is a light and easy drinking beer that packs a lot of flavor.  The malt balances the yeast character nicely and the spicing is restrained but comes through enough to add another complimentary dimension to the beer.  I wasn't able to pin-point anything I could confidently say was a flavor contribution from the unmalted wheat but it likely was a big contributor to the smooth body of the beer.

Lessons Learned:

1. This cereal mash technique really led to a smoother brewday than I have been experiencing with the corn for my Flanders Reds.  I am going to try this method next time.  I will still ramp up the mash temp prior to adding it to the main mash to prevent conversion.