Bourbon Barrel Oatmeal Brown Ale

The combination of beer and whiskey is a winning one.  My first exposure to this was a rye wine aged in bourbon barrels by Four Peaks brewing company in Tempe AZ.  It was a really great tasting beer.  I have since had quite a few other (most notably Goose Island's Bourbon County Brand Stout and Barleywines) that really impressed me.

I've been wanting to try one of these for quite some time but hadn't figured out how to get a barrel or how to fill it if I could find one.  I was delighted to find out that my LHBS (Weak Knee Homebrew) was organizing a group barrel fill so I jumped on board.  This will be the second use for the barrel (first beer aged in it was a Porter) so the recipe chosen (I had no part in this process) is lighter to, I assume, let the remaining whiskey/oak character come through.  The tentative plan is to age the beer in the barrel for about 2 months.

The recipe is a pretty simple brown ale with some oats and wheat for a bit of body.  Relatively light hopping on it.  I'll be using White Labs 013 London Ale yeast which I have not brewed with before (although it should be similar to the 1028 I used for my brown porter) - the web page states that it imparts some oak like esters which sounds interesting.  It seems like it should make a pretty nice beer that should stand up well to some whiskey and oak flavor but not provide anything that would clash with it.  I've been directed to bring it in around 1.068 OG and to mash at 153 or 154 F (probably expect it to finish in the low teens).  I have had to up the base malt a bit to account for the ~70% efficiency I typically see on my system (8.5 lbs of base malt was the suggestion but I'll need 11 lbs to hit that OG number).  No guidance on fermentation temperature - I plan on keeping it down in the 61-63 F basement without any temperature control which should allow it to rise up to the optimal fermentation temperature.

I'm starting a bit earlier than the other brewers (kickoff is planned for mid February) so I should have plenty of time to do my normal 4 week primary.  Brewing a big batch of beer like this there is a real concern about an infection (one bad batch can spoil the whole barrel) so it was stressed that we need to place special attention on sanitation.  I will be extra vigilant with sanitation for this batch (not that I've had any sanitation related problems so far).  I think my head start should give plenty of time to ensure that there are no unwanted critters working in the beer post-primary fermentation.

Really excited to take part in this group brew.  Apparently there are plans to get some more whiskey barrels and some wine barrels so if I enjoy this process I could potentially participate in some more of these events.

Recipe Details:

• Grain:
• 11 lbs 2 Row
• 12 oz Crystal 60 L
• 8 oz Chocolate malt
• 4 oz Roasted Barley
• 12 oz Flaked Oats
• 3 oz Acid Malt
• Hops:
• 1 oz Fuggle (Pellet, 3.8% AA) at 60 min
• 1 oz Willamette (Pellet, 5.2% AA) at 30 min
• Yeast:
• White Labs 013 London Ale Yeast
• Water:
• 12 gal spring water
• 1 tsp Calcium Chloride
• 1 tsp Gypsum
• 1 tsp Irish Moss at 20 min
• Extras:
• 2nd use Bourbon Barrel

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 5.25 gal
• Mash:
• 154 F for 60 min
• Boil:
• 100 min
• Fermentation Temperature:
• Ambient Basement Temps (60 to 63 F)
• Primary Duration:
• 7 weeks
• Secondary Duration:
• 1 day
• Barrel Aging Duration:
• TBD (Estimated 2 Months)

Results:

• OG:
• 1.068 (Target 1.068)
• Efficiency:
• 74% (Target 70%)
• FG:
• 1.012 (Target 1.012)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 82% (Target 82%)
• ABV:
• 7.35% (Target 7.35%)

Brewing Notes:

• 1/24/15 - Put together a yeast starter of 1.6 L of tap water and 7 oz of DME.  Added 1/8 tsp of yeast nutrient and boiled.  Chilled it outside in the snow prior to putting it onto the stir plate and pitching.

• 1/25/15 Brew day - 12:45 PM to 5:30 PM including setup and cleanup
• Heated 7 gal of strike water to 190 F - took 25 min
• Added CaCl and gypsum to the HLT
• Added 20 qt of strike water to the mash tun and let settle for a few min - ended up at 175 F
• Added the grain and stirred vigorously to eliminate dough balls - ended up at 157 F to 158 F
• Stirred in 1 qt of cool spring water which got the mash down to the target of 153 to 154 F
• Stirred the mash after 30 min - was still 153 to 154 F

• Brought 5 gal of batch sparge water up to 185 F - took 15 min
• Stirred again at 45 min - mash was down to 151 to 152 F
• Stirred, vorlaufed, and drained mash tun after 60 min.  Drained slowly at first and then ramped up to having the valve fully open

• Added half the batch sparge water, stirred, vorlaufed, and drained (slow at first and then ramped to fully open)
• Repeated with the other half for the second batch sparge
• Collected 8.5 gal
• Brought to a boil - took 25 min

• Added 60 min hops when the volume had reduced down to 7 gal
• Took a gravity sample at about 7 gal and chilled in the now.  Measured gravity at that point as 1.056.  This looked to be higher than my planned efficiency of 70% (75 to 80%)

• Brought an extra gallon of spring water up to a boil in the HLT to top off at the end
• Added the 30 min hops once I got down to 6 gal
• Added the irish moss at 5.5 gal
• Chilled down to 60 - took 10 min
• Gravity was found to be 1.072 so I added 1 qt of boiled spring water to get to 1.068
• Transferred 5.25 gal to the fermentor (poured in the hops and cold break as well)
• Poured back and forth between bottling bucked and fermentor to aerate
• Pitched the entire yeast starter and left without temp control in the basement which was 61 F
• 1/26/15 - No bubbling yet but the fermentor is building up pressure.  Temperature is still at 61 F
• 1/27/15 - Beer was bubbling slowly this morning.  Per the temperature strip on the side of the bucket the beer was up to 64 F
• 1/28/15 - It had stopped bubbling by this morning.  That was much quicker than expected.  I pitched the yeast at pretty close to high krausen which I had never done before - I wonder if that played a role in the quick fermentation.  Never got above 64 F - was back down to 62 F this morning.  I'm tempted to check the gravity but I'm sure there's a bit more fermentation going on at this point.  I will give this my normal 4 weeks before moving it to secondary for transport.
• 1/31/15 - I decided to check the gravity to ensure that it wasn't stuck (not sure what I would do if it was) - measured 1.014.  Looks like the beer fermented most of the way out in just 1 day which is very interesting for such a large beer.  It has a pretty clean flavor - no fusels.
• 2/26/15 - Moved to the fermentation chamber at 38 F to cold crash and clear.  The beer will be transferred to the barrel this weekend.  
• 3/8/15 - Barrel transfer ended up being postponed due to issues swelling it with the very cold temperatures we've been having here in PA.  May not be until next week that we can do the transfer.  This beer is still sitting in the fermentation chamber.
• 3/11/15 - Added 2 tsp of gelatin dissolved in hot water for fining
• 3/13/15 - Transferred the beer into the bottling bucket for easy transfer into the barrel
• 3/14/15 - Measured the Final Gravity as 1.012.  The beer is pretty boozy but it's a clean alcohol flavor.  It has a nice malt character to it as well though.  I think it will stand up to the whiskey and oak reasonably well.
• 3/15/15 - Transferred the beer over to the barrel today

• 11/2/15 - Bottled this beer with 6 others from the group.  For my 5 gal contribution I got 24 22 oz bottles.  The beer has a really wonderful fruity/floral aroma with just a touch of bourbon.  The flavor is relatively subdued compared with the aroma with only a light bourbon flavor.  Some of the guys detected a sourness to the beer and apparently there was a light pellicle over the top of the beer.  Not sure I picked up on that really.  We bottled the 50 gal of beer in about 2 hrs using a neat 3 tap bottling structure.

• 1/2/16 - Tasting Notes - Reasonably complex beer with some very nice flavors.  Unfortunately the beer is a bit too light and, as a result, is ultimately somewhat unsatisfying as a whiskey barrel beer - lacks the bold flavors you'd expect from a beer aged 7 months in a barrel.

Lessons Learned:

1. I viewed this as a situation where I had to hit the specified numbers.  I was very happy that I accomplished that.  The check of gravity during the boil allowed me to make an adjustment to do a reasonable correction at the end.
2. I end up collecting so much wort that I have to do these really long boils that serve to extend the brew day.  I am hoping that moving to RIMS/Fly Sparge setup will allow me to get a better handle on when I'm done collecting wort.  A refractometer would help with this regardless of the sparging process.

French Saison

I've been considering brewing a Saison for quite some time but I was concerned about the temperature requirements in order to get the dry finish that is characteristic of the style.  People typically start saisons quite a bit warmer (high 60s) than normal ale to accentuate the yeast flavor and then ramp the temp up into the 80s to encourage the yeast to finish the beer out to get down to less than 1.004 or so.  I'm lagering a batch right now so my fermentation chamber is off limits but my basement is sitting between 61 and 63 F pretty consistently so I'm pretty sure I can keep beer at a reasonable fermentation temperature down there.  This may be a little cool for a saison though.

I have been reading that the Wyeast 3711 French Saison yeast is capable of fermenting all the way to typical Saison gravities in the low 60s while still providing a good spicy yeast character.  This sold me on the idea of making a Saison my next batch rather than waiting until the summer.

I found a recipe that sounded pretty nice on homebrewtalk.com called "Cottage House Saison".  The Dark Mild I made as my first batch was also by this brewer.  I decided to go for a lower gravity version of the beer in order to get about 5% ABV.  I liked that it was a pretty simple recipe without a whole lot in the way of spicing (just a bit of black pepper).

Saison are a very rich category.  You see commercial and homebrew examples run the gamut from very light to very dark, from very sessionable to high alcohol, from mild and yeast centric to hoppy and bitter, and sometimes sour and/or funky from wild yeast and bacteria.  I would eventually like to try hitting all those various styles.

Recipe Details:

• Grain/Adjuncts:
• 6 lbs Pilsner
• 1 lb 8 oz Wheat Malt
• 8 oz Caramunich I
• 8 oz Flaked Oats
• 12 oz Orange Blossom Honey at 5 min
• Hops:
• 0.5 oz Sorachi Ace (Pellet, 11.9% AA) FWH
• 0.5 oz Fuggle (Pellet, 3.8% AA) FWH
• 0.5 oz Fuggle (Pellet, 3.8% AA) at 30 min
• 0.5 oz Sorachi Ace (Pellet, 11.9% AA) at 15 min
• Yeast:
• Wyeast 3711 French Saison
• Water:
• 12 gal Spring Water
• 1 tsp Calcium Chloide
• 1 tsp Irish Moss at 20 min
• Extras:
• 1.5 tsp Black Pepper at 5 min

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 6 gal
• Mash:
• 148 F for 60 min
• Boil:
• 90 min
• Fermentation Temperature:
• 61 to 63 F (Basement Temps)
• Primary Duration:
• 4 weeks
• Secondary Duration:
• NA

Results:

• OG:
• 1.038 (Target 1.045)
• Efficiency:
• 62% (Target 76%)
• FG:
• 1.000 (Target 1.004)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 100% (Target 91%)
• ABV:
• 4.99% (Target 5.38%)

Brewing Notes:

• 1/21/15 - Prepared a 1.2 liter starter with 4 oz of DME.  Added 1/8 tsp of yeast nutrient.  Boiled, chilled down to the 80s, put on the stir plate and pitched the yeast.
• 1/23/15 - Brewday - 2:45 PM to 7:15 PM including setup and cleanup
• Heated 5 gal of strike water up to 175 F - took 15 min

• Added 12 qt to the mash tun and let settle for 5 min.  Ended up at 165 F
• Added Calcium Chloride to the mash tun
• Added the grain and stirred well.  Ended up around 155 F so I stirred some more until it was right around 148 F.
• Stirred after 15 min - temp was still right around 148 F
• After half an hour I start to heat 7 gal of sparge water to 190 F and then killed the heat - took 25 min
• Stirred the mash again at 45 min - temp was down to 145 F
• Added the First Wort Hops to the kettle
• Added 2.5 gal of mash out water (which raised the mash temp up to 155 F), stirred, vorlaufed, and then drained at full speed
• Added a 4.5 gal batch sparge (raised the temp to 170 F) and drained quickly
• Collected 9 gal
• Brought to a boil - took 20 min
• Put the jar of honey in hot water to allow it to pour easier
• Added 30 min hops when the volume got down to 7 gal
• Added the 15 min hops and irish moss when the volume got to 6.5 gal
• Added the honey and black pepper once it was a bit less than 6.25 gal

• Chilled down to 60 F - took 10 min
• Transferred to fermentor (included cold break and hops in the transfer)

• Poured back and forth between buckets to aerate
• Pitched the whole yeast starter and left in the basement (not on temp control)
• Collected about 6 gal (maybe a little bit more than that).  Gravity was at 1.038 which was 7 points lower than expected.
• 1/24/15 - Airlock filled with krausen this afternoon.  Setup the fermentor with a blow off tube.
• 1/25/15 - Bubbling pretty regularly

• 1/29/15 - Bubbling stopped.  Switched out the blowoff tube for an airlock
• 2/4/15 - Airlock is bubbling a bit again which is a bit surprising to me - hopefully the yeast is drying the beer out for the last few points.  I'm a bit surprised that it's still working on this beer as it was only 1.038 OG
• 2/24/15 - It has been more than a month and the airlock is still bubbling a bit.  Checked the gravity which is down to 1.000.  The beer has a very nice spicy yeast character - fermenting low produced a good result.  It's light and I'm sure it's going to be very refreshing.  The sample had quite a bit of carbonation somehow - this probably explains the off gassing.  I'm going to bottle this weekend.
• 2/26/15 - Moved to the fermentation chamber set to 38 F to cold crash.
• 2/27/15 - Bottled with 7 oz of priming sugar to get 3.2 vol of carbon dioxide.  Ended up with 5.75 gal which got me 58 12 oz bottles.  I will let these carb up over the next week or two down in the basement.
• 3/18/15 - Tasting Notes - Turned out to be a flavorful refreshing beer.  Pretty happy with it.  The one critique is that it may be a bit more hop forward than I would like for such a light beer.
• 9/21/19 - Drank the last bottle of this after not having any in a couple years or so.  It has a pretty distinct honey flavor and aroma at this point with no hop flavor/bitterness remaining.  It is a very odd beer which doesn't really resemble a saison any more.

Lessons Learned:

1. I forgot to get the normal acid malt to get pH into the correct range (although I have no way to prove to myself it is in the correct range).  I suspect that this could have contributed to my lower than expected efficiency.

Flanders Red 1.2.1

I have decided to brew a new Flanders Red every 3 months for the near term in order to build up a nice pipeline of souring beer.

For this second batch I will use the Roeselare yeast cake from my previous batch of Flanders Red that is being transferred off the cake into a secondary fermentor.  I will be using the same grain bill and hop scheduling for this batch.  I will not be repeating the effort to adjust the water profile to hit any specific pH as I did (in vain) with my last batch.

I have decided on the following number scheme for these beers - 1.2.1 which denotes 1st yeast cake, 2nd pitch, 1 beer in this generation of pitch.  For the third pitch I may try a couple beers with different grain bills and potentially doing a clean primary first on one of them.

I am also planning on mashing a bit higher for this batch to try to get an even higher gravity after the primary yeast have done their thing (previous batch was at 1.018 after a month which is good but I'd like to see what happens if it's higher).

I have been working on a new brewstand over the last couple weeks.  It's not complete but I now have a second pot to use as a HLT and a couple banjo burners.  These should make the brew day go a bit smoother and quicker.  I'm excited to give it a try.

I've been reading that the Roeselare blend is more funky and sour on the second batch.  I think this should give me some good blending options if the first one doesn't end up as sour as I'd like.  I'm not pitching any regular yeast into this batch so hopefully there is still enough after 3 months to get the beer off to a good start.

Recipe Details:

• Grain:
• 4 lbs Pilsner
• 4 lbs Munich
• 3 lbs 8 oz Vienna
• 1 lb 8 oz Flaked Wheat
• 12 oz CaraMunich
• 12 oz Aromatic
• 12 oz Special B
• Hops:
• 1 oz Fuggle (Pellet, 3.8% AA) at 90 min
• Yeast:
• Wyeast 3763 Roeselare Ale Blend (Second pitch)
• Water:
• 13 gal Spring Water
• 1 tsp Calcium Chloride
• 1 tsp Gypsum
• 1 tsp Irish Moss at 20 min

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 6.25 gal
• Mash:
• 150 F for 30 min (Target 162 F for 60 min)
• Boil:
• 120 min
• Fermentation Temp:
• 60 F - 75 F
• Primary Duration:
• 3 months
• Secondary Duration:
• TBD (15 to 33 months)

Results:

• OG:
• 1.050 (Target 1.062)
• Efficiency:
• 57% (Target 70%)
• FG:
• 1.004 (Target 1.012)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 92% (Target 80%)
• ABV:
• 6.04% (Target 6.83%)

Brewing Notes:

• 1/11/15 - Brew day - 10:30 AM to 3:00 PM Including Setup and Cleanup
• Brought 5 gal of 40 F spring water up 210 F (was planning for 200 F but the new burner was a bit quicker than I expected) - took 23 min
• Added CaCl and Gypsum to boil kettle
• Added 12 qt of 210 F water to mash tun and let stabilize for 10 min
• Turned burner down to try to maintain that temp

• Mash tun settled out at 188 F
• Added grain and stirred the (very thick) mash vigorously - ended up in high 160 F to low 170 F range

• Added 3 qt of 40 F spring water to bring down the temp (way too much in retrospect).  Stirred until the mash temp had evened out - ended up at 140 F
• Added remaining 2 gal of (now) boiling water to increase the temperature - stirred in and ended up at 150 F (really sucked as I wanted it to end up at 162 F).
• Brought 8 gal of 40 F water up to a boil in the kettle - took 30 min
• Drained the mash tun after 30 min to try to preserve some of the complex sugars and starches - knew my efficiency was going to suffer due to this decision.  Drained quickly this time with no vorlauf step to get a starchy wort
• Heated first runnings (3 gal) up to a boil to stop conversion - took 10 min
• Added 10 qt more to mash tun once the kettle got to 175 F.  Ended up mashing with this for about 10 min.  Temp ended up in the mid 150s
• Added remaining boiling water to the mash tun - ended up at 180 F
• Drained quickly without a vorlauf again - collected 10 gal of wort
• Brought it to a boil - took 15 min
• Added hops once I got down to 9 gal (roughly 90 min)
• Added Irish Moss at 6.5 gal
• Added the wort chiller at flameout
• Chilled down to 60 F which took 15 min - saved the hottest water in my boil kettle for cleanup
• Transfered the beer onto the yeast cake.  Used the same fermentor the previous batch was in with minimal cleanup - just cleaned up the ring of krausen around the top and swirrled the yeast a bit to get it into suspension in the last inch of the previous batch left at the bottom.
• Moved the fermentor down to the basement at the low 60s.
• Measured the OG as 1.050 which was way off the target gravity - I'm hoping that it will be a rich enough wort to give the wild yeast and lactic acid bacteria something to much on after the remaining domestic yeast have their fill.
• 1/12/15 - Added the bottle dregs from a Russian River Supplication.  The bottle was a bit over a year old.  No airlock activity or foam on the top of the beer yet.
• 1/14/15 - Airlock started bubbling this evening
• 1/17/15 - Still bubbling pretty vigorously - giving off a nice aroma
• 1/18/15 - Bubbling had stopped by this morning
• 2/12/15 - This beer has been in primary for about a month now.  No pellicle has formed yet but there are some floating bubbly spots of film.   Took a gravity sample and was surprised to find that it was down to 1.006.  The sample has a strong brett aroma and flavor at this point - no sourness yet.  It's quite a bit different than the previous batch that had a lot of Rodenbach character - this is similar to the Russian River Supplication flavor profile.  It's nice but I think I prefer the Rodenbach.  It's going to be interesting to see if this one can get sour with the current low gravity (I suspect it will).  I will check on it again in 2 months when I transfer to secondary.

• 4/11/15 - Measured the gravity as 1.004.  Transferred the beer to a glass carboy for aging.  This yeast cake will now get split between my next two batches (1.3.1 and 1.3.2).  It's a beautiful red color.  A nice fruity aroma has become more prominent than the Brett funk from the sample a couple months ago.  It has started to develop some acidity - pretty mild but it's definitely sour (more sour than 1.1.1 was at this point).  I will check on it again after 3 months of aging.

• 5/9/15 - Took a look at the beer after a month in secondary.  A good pellicle has formed:

• 1/9/16 - It has been just about a year since brewing this so it is time to take another sample.  The beer has a speckled film rather than the solid pellicle it had in the previous photo.  Measured the gravity as about 1.005 this time.  So, the beer hasn't come down in gravity over the last 8 months.  It has a really nice pronounced fruity character (cherries I'd say) along with a strong mustiness.  There is also a bit of alcohol on the nose.  It is a beautiful red color and it has cleared up very nicely.  It has developed a pretty firm level of sourness - pretty much at the levels you'd get from Rodenbach Grand Cru or Duchesse de Bourgogne.  Not really getting any strong vinegar flavors at this point (there were many days where I found the airlock dry which I was thinking might give acetobacter a foothold).  Also get quite a bit of the fruit flavor implied by the nose and a strong dose of earthy Brett funk.  Through all those strong flavors there is also still a good bit of malt backbone coming through in the flavor.  It is light bodied and pretty easy drinking for a 6% beer.  All in all I'm really happy how this beer is progressing.  I could bottle this one right now by itself and be plenty happy with it.  I think this is a data point consistent with the claims that the second pitch of Roeselare is more interesting.

• 7/23/16 - I am going to be using this beer as the older component in my first attempt at blending.  Took a sample with this in mind and measured the gravity as 1.004.  The beer has developed a very strong brett funk but in the aroma and flavor.  I would definitely credit the age of the beer for this character.  It will be a nice "old" component to the blend.  It has also developed a pretty firm level of sourness which is at about the levels that I enjoy (about the level of a commercial Flanders Red).
• 7/28/16 - Blended the beer with half of the Flanders Red 1.4.2 batch along with 10 lb of pitted sour cherries.  Will let this batch ferment out for the next three months or so.
• 7/30/16 - Blended the other half with half of Flanders Red 1.4.1 and bottled with 4 oz of priming sugar and some re-hydrated wine yeast.  Got 58 bottles of beer.  Will start drinking this one as soon as it's carb'd up (~3 weeks).

Lessons Learned:

1. The boil kettle and new burners did save me time and improved the process.
2. Having the new stand helped for setup and cleanup quite a bit.
3. Mashing in was a disaster I didn't think I was capable of at this point.  Somehow I didn't think that adding an additional 25% of very cold water was going to have a significant impact on my mash temp - just way too stupid but lesson learned hopefully.
4. Stopping the mash after 30 min was really bad for my efficiency but it may have had the desired effect of keeping some unconverted starches - we shall see after the first measurement after a month.
5. Looking forward to getting a RIMS setup which will add an additional level of complexity but also much better control
6. Second pitch Roeselare definitely has a more aggressive sourness than the first pitch after a year of again.

English Barleywine - 2014 Tasting

I'm excited to finally get the chance to do the first (of many I hope) tasting of the English Barleywine I brewed back on Memorial Day 2014.  I brewed it with the specific intention of drinking one or two a year for the next 10 years or so and monitoring it's progress.  I split the batch into two and aged one plain and one with brandy soaked oak cubes.

The fermentation was vigorous (lots of blowoff) but it seemed to be fairly clean.  It attenuated quite a bit further than I was hoping.  The samples I took were hot from the high alcohol but they didn't seem to have any fusel chracter.  This is probably to be expected with a young beer that is 11% ABV.  I figured the long aging would do the beer well.

I feel like I've come a long way since this batch (in terms of understanding of fermentability and of the many yeast varieties).  Brewing this beer was a nice learning experience for trying my own recipes and brewing a big beer.  I think it could be a nice jumping off point for the next Barleywine I brew (Memorial Day 2015).

Plain Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Dark fruit, alcohol, and estery fruitiness are the primary smells.  No hops or malt coming through.  Very fruity.
• Appearance:
• Muddy and cloudy brown.  Not sure why it's so muddy - the Strong Brown I made next had the same issue.  I bottled both of these with a wine yeast - suspect that might have contributed.  I used a different wine yeast with my Berliner Wiesse and it cleared pretty nicely.  Will use that yeast next time.
• Flavor:
• Fruity ester character and alcohol dominate.  There is some bready malt in there as well.  As it warms the flavor rounds out a lot and becomes much fuller - the alcohol fades and the fruitiness and some caramel come to the fore.  Nothing I could pick out as hop bitterness - I used quite a bit of low alpha acid hops on this batch.  Could use a bit of bitterness.  The alcohol flavor lingers on the finish.
• Mount-feel:
• It's a pretty sharp/firm drink.  Hot from the alcohol.  Pretty thin - would have been better if it had finished at a bit higher FG.
• Overall:
• Pretty boozy at this point.  Even at 7 months old it seems like it needs more time to mellow.  Much better on the warmer side but still pretty harsh.  It will be interesting to see how this tastes with another year on it.

Brandy/Oaked Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Very similar to the plain half but this one also has a distinct oak/vanilla aroma to it.  There is nothing I could pick out as the brandy.
• Appearance:
• Identical to the plain half.
• Flavor:
• Pronounced oak flavor mingles nicely with the fruitiness.  Reminds me of the oak levels in a red wine.  No extra booziness from the brandy which is nice - can't really pick out any contribution from the brandy though.  Vanilla from the oak lingers in the finish more than the alcohol.
• Mouth-feel:
• Same as the plain
• Overall:
• The oak really serves to soften the beer quite a bit.  It is much less harsh and is easier drinking than the plain half somehow.  Has a very nice level of complexity at this point.  Still pretty boozy but that is expected with an 11% beer.  The oak half is quite a bit better at this point.

Dark Lager

The difference between an ale and a lager is that a lager uses bottom fermenting yeast that perform well at colder temperatures than ale yeasts.  A lager yeast can ferment down in the high 40s to low 50s where an ale yeast can only really get down to the low 60s.  Fermenting at this lower temperature range allows the yeast to produce a cleaner flavor profile than is found in ale.  This clean yeast profile lends itself to use in light refreshing beers like a pilsner (which the American Light Lagers are a variety of).  The trade off with the clean profile is that any flaws in the beer are more noticeable due to the yeast not hiding anything as might be the case in an ale.

To brew a lager requires a number of extra steps.  Since you ferment at such a low temperature the yeast need more help getting started so an extra large yeast starter needs to be built.  The yeast have some trouble cleaning up after themselves at lager temperatures so you need to raise the temperature up to the 60s towards the end of fermentation to allow the yeast to take care of diacetyl which is a butter/butterscotch flavored yeast byproduct (some people can't taste it apparently - not sure if I'm one of those people because I have never noticed it in any of my beers).  Finally, lager is typically given a long secondary storage time at near freezing temperature which is apparently critical for getting a clean, clear, and crisp beer.  These steps serve to make a lager a more challenging beer to brew than most ales.

I have decided to see if I'm up to the challenge of brewing a decent lager.

In Arizona brewing a lager could have prevented me from brewing any ale as the room temperatures were just a little too warm for ale fermentation.  Here in Pennsylvania, with my basement being in the low 60s during the winter, I can use the fermentation chamber for the long lager fermentation and storage time and still brew more ales while I wait.

I found a recipe in Craft Beer & Brewing magazine from Ron Pattinson called "1926 Barclay Perkins Dark Lager" that seemed like as good a recipe to start lager brewing on as any - I really like a dunkel lager.

Recipe Details:

• Grain:
• 10 lbs 12 oz Pilsner
• 2 lbs 4 oz Crystal 60L
• 4 oz Roasted Barley
• Hops:
• 0.5 oz Saaz (Pellet, 3.0% AA) at 60 min
• 0.5 oz Saaz (Pellet, 3.0% AA) at 30 min
• 1.25 oz Saaz (Pellet, 3.0% AA) at 10 min
• 0.75 oz Saaz (Pellet, 3.0% AA) at 0 min
• Yeast:
• White Labs 838 Southern German Lager Yeast
• Water:
• 10 gal Spring Water
• 1 tsp Calcium Chloride
• 1 tsp Gypsum
• 1 tsp Irish Moss at 20 min

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 6 gal
• Mash:
• 157 F for 60 min (Target 154 F)
• Boil:
• 60 min
• Fermentation Temperature:
• Primary at 48 F
• Diacetyl Cleanup at 61 F
• Lager at 36 F
• Primary Duration:
• 2 Weeks
• Diacetyl Cleanup Duration:
• 1 Week
• Secondary/Lager Duration:
• 6 Weeks

Results:

• OG:
• 1.054 (Target 1.057)
• Efficiency:
• 67% (Target 71%)
• FG:
• 1.020 (Target 1.016)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 62% (Target 71%)
• ABV:
• 4.46% (Target 5.38%)

Brewing Notes:

• 12/6/14 - I did some research and found that pitching a large amount of yeast at lager fermentation temperatures was probably the way to go.  My vial of yeast was 3 months old so I determined (using this tool) that I would need to build about 4 liters of yeast starter (assuming 1.5 million cells/ml/degree plato).  My flask is only 2 liters so I would have to do a two stage starter.  I added 7.5 oz of DME to 2 liters of tap water and boiled it in the flask.  Let it chill to the low 60s over night.
• 12/7/14 - Pitched the yeast into the starter and put onto the stir plate.  By the evening thick krausen developed.  At some point a bit of it overflowed the top (you can see the dried beer in the picture above).  The starter smells a lot like a budweiser - there is also a slight sulfur smell that I had heard could develop with a lager yeast.  Not a real pleasant smelling fermentation - hope this is largely a product of the warmer temps
•  12/10/14 - Fermentation appeared to have completed so I mixed up another 2 liter starter with 7.5 oz of DME in a pot and chilled the flask in the fridge to drop the yeast.
• 12/11/14 - Decanted off the spent wort and added the new 2 liters of fresh wort and put it back onto the stir plate.  By the evening the starter had popped on me and I lost about a cup of wort onto the floor (big mess)
• 12/12/14 Brew Day - 1:00 PM to 5:15 PM including setup and cleanup
• Heated 10 gal of spring water to 184 F - took 40 min
• Added gypsum and CaCl to the mash tun
• Added 15 qt to the mash tun (I've given up on the 1.25 qt of water to lbs of grain ratio).  Continued to heat the kettle in case the temps came up low
• Let mash tun temps settle for 5 min - ended up at 172 F (was shooting for 169 F) - close enough
• Added grain - stirred to eliminate dough balls.  Ended up at 152 to 154 F
• Added 3 qt of boiling water which initially brought the temperature to between 154 F and 157 F.  Decided not to attempt any further course correction.
• After 30 min the mash temperature was between 157 F and 160 F which was quite a bit higher than the target of 154 F.  Will be interesting to see how this impacts the FG.
• At the end of 60 min the mash temp was at 157 throughout most of the mash
• Stirred in 5.5 gal of mashout water at 210 F - mash temp ended up at 172 F.  This was high enough to stop conversion but not so hot as to pull tannins (hopefully).

• Stirred, vorlaufed, and drained slowly - ended up taking 50 min

• After collecting a couple gal I turned on the heat
• Boil had started by the time 4 gal were collected (after 20 min)
• Added the 60 min hops after collecting 6 gal of wort (after 40 min)
• Ended up collecting 7.25 gal of wort
• Added the 30 min hops once the volume boiled down to 7 gal
• Added the irish moss at 6.5 gal
• Added the 10 min hops at 6.25 gal
• Once the volume got near 6 gal I killed the flame and added the chiller to sanitize and the 0 min hops
• Let the hops steep for ~10 min
• Chilled to ground water temps (~55 F) - took 15 min
• Collected 6 gal of wort.  Avoided transferring most of the hops but got most of the cold break
• Poured back and fourth between two buckets to aerate
• Moved the fermentor to the chest freezer to chill down to 48 F
• Measured the gravity of a sample as 1.054.  It is a nice brown color and fairly clear after sitting for half an hour or so

• Once the fermentor got down to 48 F I put the starter in the chamber to chill down to pitching temps.  I then decanted off most of the starter wort and pitched the yeast

• 12/13/14 - No fermentation activity the next morning - I understand that the lag time for a lager is longer than for an ale due to the cooler temps
• 12/15/14 - Switched from a blow off tube to a 3 piece airlock.  Beer is now bubbling slowly
• 12/27/14 - Increased the fermentation chamber temperature to allow the beer to rise to 65 F for the D rest (this is 1 week earlier than initially planned)
• 1/2/15 - The temperature had risen to 61 F after a week of D-rest time.  Pulled a sample and measured the gravity as 1.020 - expect it to drop a little bit more with the lagering.  It is a pretty nice mahogany color and fairly clear at this point.  The flavor is very clean at this point - no butter/butterscotch or sulpher off-flavors - I'm calling the D-rest complete.  It has a nice balance between sweet malt and hops.  I will lower the temperature by 5 F a day until it is down to lagering temps to try to avoid shocking the yeast.  I will wait to rack to secondary until it is at lagering temp.  Lowered it to 56 F today.

• 1/3/15 - Lowered it to 51 F
• 1/4/15 - Lowered it to 46 F
• 1/5/15 - Lowered it to 41 F
• 1/6/15 - Lowered it to 36 F
• 1/7/15 - Transferred the beer to a better bottle for the secondary lagering period
• 2/18/15 - The beer has spent 6 weeks lagering.  The gravity is still at 1.020 - this is probably due to the slightly hotter than targeted mash temp.  The beer is very clear already but I'm going to fine with gelatin just to make sure (1 tsp dissolved in 1 cup of 160 F tap water).  I will bottle next week.  The beer has a nice clean malty flavor - no off flavors I can detect.
• 2/26/15 - Bottled tonight.  Ended up with 5.25 gal.  Bottled with 6 oz of priming sugar to get ~3.2 vol of carbonation.  Got 54 12 oz bottles from this batch.
• 4/15/15 - Tasting notes - Malty/sweet but still easy drinking beer

Lessons Learned:

1. Putting more than 2 L of wort in a 2 L flask is not a good idea.  I got away with it on the first step of the starter for the most part but for the second step it resulted in a big mess.  Probably would have been better off with a 1.5 L starter of slightly higher gravity for the second step.
2. I had a pretty good time savings from boiling while collecting wort for this batch.  The flow was actually similar to a fly sparge process.
3. I liked that I was able to get decent efficiency from just 10 gal of water.  This made sure that the boil only took 60 min.  I've spent a lot of extra time boiling in my last few batches due to the large sparge volumes.  This extra cost of propane and my time is something that I'd like to analyze more going forward.
4. The more I've brewed here in PA I'm thinking a setup where I can have all my hot side equipment in the garage would save me a lot of time - getting very tired of bringing my stuff up and down the stairs to/from the basement.
5. I think I could get big time savings in the mash from a RIMS setup with a grant and a refractometer to determine if conversion has completed.  I'm mashing for 60 min and not checking conversion - it could be that it's actually complete long before the 60 min.  I also think a refactometer would be really cool for sparging (with a fly sparging setup) as I could stop collecting wort for the boil once I both have sufficient volume and I have collected the correct amount of sugar to meet my OG - this would reduce the boil time and fuel usage.  I really need to move forward with this sort of setup.

Brown Porter - Tasting

There is nothing that hits the spot quite like a dark beer when it gets cold out.  I would choose the coffee and chocolate flavors of a stout or porter over a spiked eggnog or apple cider any day of the week.  With that in mind I chose to brew a Brown Porter a couple months back and I have really been enjoying it with the cold weather here in Pennsylvania.

The recipe included a fairly large percentage (25%) of brown malt.  I am finding that it produces a really nice subtle set of roast flavors (a mix of toasted bread and coffee with a bit of chocolate mixed in).  I really like it a lot and will plan on using it again.

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Aroma is of sweet roast malt.  The description of the Brown Malt mentions Graham Cracker which is definitely accurate.  I think I also get coffee and chocolate.  It is a really pleasant smell.  No hops, yeast, or alcohol make it through.
• Appearance:
• Black with some dark brown around the edges when held to the light.  Pretty much opaque.  Pretty thin head with an average pour.  Head doesn't linger long.  No lacing.
• Flavor:
• The roast flavor dominates but it's subdued.  I get chocolate, coffee and toasted bread from it.  The finish is a little bit sweet with the nice roast character along with a bit of alcohol and maybe a small bit of hop bitterness.  There might be some yeast character mixed in with the alcohol somewhere.
• Mouth-feel:
• It is fairly light bodied and it finishes with a very slight sweetness.  It's very easy drinking (had three of them for this tasting and I wouldn't mind having a fourth).
• Overall:
• Really nice dark beer.  Much better than my Oatmeal Stout turned out.  The mild level of roast really makes it an easier drinking beer than most stouts I've had.  Nice combo of drinkability and flavor.

Rye Pale Ale - Tasting

I've been drinking this Rye Pale Ale for the last few weeks.  It's a very nice drinking beer - goes down very smooth.  It has a really nice balance between hop and malt.

I have had quite a few commercial beers with rye and I've liked most of them.  This beer has enough rye (20%) to get a good strong rye flavor into the beer but is also little enough to not be overwhelming (and also not enough to cause a stuck sparge).

I think I'll have to try another beer with rye not too far down the road.

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Mostly hops in the nose.  It is a spicy and earthy hop aroma.  The hops have gotten a bit more subdued over the last month I've been drinking the beer - this current level is very nice though.  Not able to pick out anything that I'd characterize as malt in the smell but the spicy rye and hops could just be blending aroma.
• Appearance:
• Dark gold (picture doesn't do it justice) - very pretty.  Good head with an average pour - lasts for a few minutes then falls down to a thin layer of foam.  This is the first beer I've made that has left lacing on the glass - imagine this is due to the rye.
• Flavor:
• The flavor is a nice balance of the hop flavor and the spicy rye malt.  The flavors meld together very nicely - I'm not sure I can say where the hops end and the malt begins really (I'd really have to try this hop bill without the rye to say for sure).  The finish sports a pretty firm bitterness with the spicy character which is an interesting combo.  No alcohol presence and no yeast character to speak of.
• Mouth-feel:
• Beer finishes very dry - really good gulper of a beer.  It has decent body (also probably due to the rye).  
• Overall:
• It's a really good beer.  Very nice flavor, easy drinking, good appearance.  I'm very pleasantly surprised by the level of balance in this beer after a month.  At bottling it was drinking a bit more like an IPA but it has really mellowed out nicely.  I think this one could continue to be good for several more months.

So, this is one of may favorite beers so far (second maybe to the Fortunate Islands Clone).  It's also one of the few beers I've made so far that I'd be confident sharing with people as something that I think is basically without any flaws.