Flanders Red 5.1.1

I will be brewing up another batch of Flanders Red - this time using ECY Flemish Ale Blend (ECY02).  I have been wanting to try this one for quite some time but it never seemed to stay on the shelves long enough.  It seems like the production volumes for East Coast Yeast must have gone up here of late as I've now had the opportunity to try three of their blends in the last couple months.

I am really interested to see how this blend performs over multiple batches compared with Wyeast Roeselare.  I believe both of these blends are intended to mimic the Rodenbach culture.  Sounds like Rodenbach Foederbier was a source for some of the microbes in the ECY blend.  The Roeselare culture produces some wonderful flavors - I don't expect that the ECY blend is necessarily be better but I am hoping that it provides something new and interesting that would be useful for blending purposes.  I'd expect that it may be a bit more aggressively sour on the first pitch than the Roeselare ended up being.

I am going to use roughly the same grain bill from the last several batches (Maris Otter, Munich, Corn Grits).  For specialty malt I'll be swaping out the Special B for Double Roasted Crystal 120L as I had some left over from previous batches.  The stuff isn't easy to get at this point so I don't think I'd consider switching to it going forward even if I really like what it brings to the table.  I don't imagine it will provide much in the way of noticeable difference.

I'll be hopping this batch with ~1/3 an ounce of Fuggle Hops.  Hopefully this prevent any lactobacillus in the blend from playing too much of a role (just a guess at this point that that would be undesirable).

From a process perspective, this batch will be executed very similarly to the previous batches:

• Executing full cereal mash with the corn
• High temperature mash
• 60 min boil with Maltodextrine to give the microbes a bit more food

I will be pitching the ECY Flemish Ale Blend directly into the batch for this first round of the 5.x.x series of beers.  I'll give this beer 3 months on the primary yeast cake and then will transfer it to a glass carboy for long term aging.  I'll look to do some primary first experiments with the beer in future batches.  Will also make some batches to see how it performs using a plastic bucket fermenter.

Lovely Red Wort

Recipe Details:

• Grain/Adjunct:
• 5 lb Maris Otter
• 3 lb Munich
• 12 oz CaraMunich III
• 12 oz Aromatic Malt
• 12 oz Double Roasted Crystal 120L
• 12 oz Maltodextrine
• Cereal Mash:
• 1 lb 8 oz Corn Grits
• 8 oz Maris Otter
• Hops:
• 1/3 oz Fuggle (Pellet, 4.1% AA) at 60 min
• Yeast:
• ECY 03 Flemish Ale Blend
• Water:
• 10 gal spring water
• 7.5 gal tap water
• 1 tsp Calcium Chloride

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 6 gal (Target 6 gal)
• Mash:
• Cereal Mash:
• Step 1:  115 F for 15 min
• Step 2:  155 F for 15 min
• Step 3:  Boil for 15 min
• Main Mash:
• 160 F for 60 min (Target 160 F for 60 min) - Including Cereal Mash
• Ramped up to 175 F in 25 min
• Boil:
• 60 min (Target 60 min)
• Fermentation Temperature:
• Ambient Basement Temps (60 F to 75F)
• Primary Duration:
• 3 months
• Secondary Duration:
• 18 to 36 months

Results:

• OG:
• 1.056 (Target 1.055)
• Efficiency:
• 69% (Target 68%) - Not including 5 points from Maltodextrine
• FG:
• TBD (Target 1.004)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• TBD (Target 92%)
• ABV:
• TBD (Target 6.69%)

Brewing Notes:

• 6/19/16 - Brewday - 7:30 AM to 12:30 PM including setup and cleanup:
• Cereal Mash:
• Added ~2.5 gal of hot (~120 F) tap water to a 5 gal pot
• Poured Corn Grits in and milled in the cereal mash portion of MO malt.  Let this sit for 15 min for the protein rest
• Heated up to 150 F on a turkey fryer.  Stirred frequently during this heat up phase
• Let sit at 150 F for 15 min.  Ended up settling out in the mid to high 150s
• Heated up to a boil and then sustained the boil for 15 min.  Got a really good rolling boil going that kept all the grain in suspension - there wasn't any scorching of this batch

• While performing the cereal mash I heated up 10 gal of spring water and cycled through the system until everything was at 150 F
• Ended up with 3.5 gal above the false bottom and 8 gal in the system total
• Added the grain and CaCl to the mash tun and stirred in well to eliminate dough balls
• The cereal mash was complete a few min after adding the main mash.  Added the cereal mash to the main mash.  I stupidly tried to pick up the cereal mash using my bare hands and got some lovely burns.  Even more stupidly I dropped the cereal mash pot without a thought for where it would land.  Ended up precariously purched on the edge of the turkey fryer.  Another inch and the contents (which were napalm like in consistency) would have spilled all over my sandle clad feet.  Stupid, stupid, stupid and lucky.
• Let settle for 5 min and then started the RIMS at 2 qt per min set for 165 F
• Mashed for 60 min
• At the end of the mash I upped the RIMS temp to 185 F to ramp the mash up to 175 F
• Heated 7 gal of sparge water to 200 F
• Fly sparged
• Started heating the kettle after collecting 4 gal of wort
• Collected 8.25 gal - gravity at the grant was 4 brix (1.016) by the end of sparge
• Had it at a boil a few min after the end of the sparge
• Added the hops and Maltodextrine as soon as the hot break cleared

• Added the wort chiller with about 5 min left in the boil to sanitize
• Chilled to 75 F
• Pitched the yeast and then moved to the basement at ambient temps to ferment for the next three months
• Collected 6 gal and measured the gravity as 1.056.  The wort is a really lovely/deep red color
• 6/24/16 - No bubbling in the airlock the day after pitching.  Didn't check on it again until 4 or 5 days in - found that it was bubbling slowly by that time.
• 7/23/17 - Status Report:
• Cider like aroma with a bit of funk.  A bit of alcohol mixed in
• Redish orange and a bit cloudy
• No sourness at this point.  Has a bit of a Belgian yeast profile.  No Brett character I can detect
• Needs more time to mature.  Maybe a second beer on this cake would be more interesting

Lessons Learned:

1. I need to be more mindful of safety when brewing.  I lightly burned my hands and could have burned my feet badly when I picked up a hot pot with my bare hands and then quickly dropped it.  Got lucky that it landed back on the burner enough not to spill on me.  Wearing sandals while brewing is comfortable but it's just asking for trouble.  Need to wear my work boots when brewing.
2. I believe that the auto sparge recycle mechanism is potentially contributing to my 70% efficiency by disturbing the grain bed and causing it to be distributed unevenly.  This could cause the sparge water to not flow through the grain bed evenly which would probably harm my efficiency.  This picture shows how uneven the grain bed was after the sparge:

Belgian Witbier - Tasting

I brewed up my first Belgian Witbier over four months ago now.  It has been in the bottle for over three months.  This is a style that is ideally consumed fresh.  The beer may have been better a couple months ago but I didn't really notice any drop off in quality as I drank the beer over time.

This is an interesting style of beer in that it is spiced with Coriander and Orange peal.  Per the style guide, these serve to compliment the spicy and fruity Belgian yeast.  This is the first beer I've brewed with spicing other than hops.  It made for an interesting brew day to add these ingredients.

This was also the first beer I've brewed to utilize a cereal mash to convert the sugars in unmalted wheat.  The use of unmalted wheat is traditional to the style and, in theory, lends some flavors that cannot be approximated through the use of malted wheat.  Not sure that's really true but it was interesting to go through the process.

I've really enjoyed drinking this beer.  This isn't a style that I've had too many commercial examples of but I'll have to seek some more out for comparison.  This is definitely a lot better than Blue Moon - has a lot more going on.

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Fruity and spicy yeast ester is the primary aroma.  It's indistinctly fruity.  After that, there is quite a bit of coriander on the nose.  Next there is some bready malt character.  Not sure I'm getting any orange - could just be well blended with the yeast ester character.  No hop character.
• Appearance:
• Pours pretty clear now that it's been sitting in the bottle for 3+ months.  I swirled the sediment into suspension part way through the pour to get the cloudiness seen in the picture.  It is light gold in color.  Pours with a 3 finger head that dissipates down to a thin layer after a few minutes.  Leaves a bit of lacing on the glass.
• Flavor:
• Beer is balanced between the bready and slightly sweet malt and the spicy and fruity yeast esters.  Up front a bit of light coriander spice comes through pretty clearly.  It finishes with a light and crisp bitterness that doesn't linger long.  There is a bit of orange zest flavor in the finish.  No real hop flavor (don't recall any when it was fresher either).
• Mouthfeel:
• Medium-light bodied.  Smooth drinking.  It has a slightly sweet finish.
• Overall:
• 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.

Cheese Curds

After a positive experience in my first foray into cheese making (with a Mozzarella Cheese) I have decided I would like to invest the time an energy required to make a variety of cheeses.  Eventually this will require equipment for aging cheese but I'd prefer to take baby steps.

It turns out that there are quite a few cheeses that don't require any aging which can be made using similar equipment to Mozzarella Cheese.  Cheese Curds are one of these.  I decided to give these a shot.

I will use this recipe from cheesemaking.com.  It seems a bit easier than the Mozzarella really but it will expose me to a few new aspects of cheese making:

1. Using real animal rennet for coagulation of the cheese
2. Using a culture to acidify the cheese
3. Pressing the cheese with weight to cause it to drain

I don't imagine that any of this will be particularly difficult but I'm sure I will learn a few things going through this recipe.

I was introduced to cheese curds by some friends of mine from Wisconsin maybe 10 years ago.  Hadn't had them since as they aren't sold in Arizona.  I remember that they were pretty tasty but not much else about them.  Hopefully I like these since, with a 2 gal recipe, I'll have quite a lot of them.

Ingredients:

• 2 gal Whole Milk (Pasteurized and Homogenized)
• 1/2 tsp Calcium Chloride
• 1 packet of Thermophilic Culture C-201
• 1/2 tsp Liquid Animal Rennet
• 1 tsp Kosher Salt

Process/Notes:

• 5/28/16 - Cheesemaking Day - Took ~5 hrs
• Added 2 gal milk to a 5 gal pot
• Heated the milk up to 96 F

• Dissolved CaCl into ~1/4 cup of water
• Added the CaCl to the milk and stirred in
• Poured in Culture, let sit for a couple minutes, and then stirred in
• Let sit for 30 min off heat with the lid on to let the culture start to do it's work
• Diluted the Rennet in 1/4 cup of water
• Added the Rennet and stirred for 30 s

• Waited 25 min - the milk hadn't finished coagulating (should have taken 18 to 25 min per the recipe)
• Waited 10 more minutes - passed the clean break test this time with a knife

• Cut curd into a grid pattern and then waited a few minutes until the whey started to rise through the cuts
• Stirred which broke the curds into smaller pieces
• Slowly heated up to 116 F.  Used the medium-low setting on the kitchen range (4).  Ended up taking 45 min (should have taken 30)
• Let sit, covered, for 45 min at 116 F.  Stirred every 5 min or so

• Drained the curds into a cheesecloth lined colander.  Started out by scooping the curds out with a slotted spoon.  Changed my mind and just poured the hole thing into the colander when too many little chunks escaped the spoon

• Pulled up the corners of the cheesecloth to form the curds into a ball.  Tied it up on the sink to drain for 15 min
• Twisted the cheesecloth to wring some more whey out
• Put a plate over the ball and then placed a gallon jug of water on top of the plate to press the cheese

• Let drain for 3 hrs
• Removed the cheese cloth.  The curds had formed a consolidated mass which was kind of rubbery
• Broke the mass of cheese into pieces (the cheese curds) and put them into a plastic freezer bag

• Added 1 tsp of salt to the bag and then tossed the cheese curds around to evenly distribute

Impressions:

• The cheese has a chewy and slightly rubbery texture which I find pleasant.  The first day it squeaked when chewing - this is apparently typical for cheese curds.  The next day there was no more squeak but the texture is pretty much unchanged.
• It tastes quite a bit like the Mozzarella cheese.  The finish may have a bit more going on which could be due to the culture.  I have gotten a small bit of funky flavor on some of the curds which is almost band aid like although it isn't unpleasant like it sounds. 
• The salt level is very nice - every piece has a small bit of salt in the flavor but none are over salted.  I think 1 tsp is a really good amount if I do this again.
• My wife didn't like them after eating one small piece.
• I've gone through quite a few of them already - probably half the batch.  I should probably slow down as it's not exactly the most healthy food in the world.  Will keep an eye on how they keep.

English Barleywine III

As I've done for the last two Memorial Days (see 2014 and 2015) I will be brewing up another batch of English Barleywine.

Like with the last batch I plan on giving this beer 1 month of primary fermentation and then 5 months of bulk aging.  I'll bottle in late November/early December and then sample it around Christmas.  I'll also do a vertical tasting with the other vintages.

I'm changing up the grainbill quite a bit from last time.  I'll be using some 1.5 lbs of Simpson's Double Roasted Crystal 120L which will make this beer a bit darker than was the goal last time.  I'll also be using 3 lbs of Rye Malt which I hope will add an interesting dimension to the beer.

The last batch fermented down to the 1.03s after a month.  It then somehow dropped 20+ points in secondary with no signs of continued fermentations.  I let quite a bit of yeast make the transfer over to secondary on the last beer.  I will fine this beer with gelatin prior to transfer on this one to try to avoid that happening again.  I have also increased the mash temperature for this round up to 158 F in hope of putting up another barrier to over attenuation.

I'll be using a second pitch of Wyeast 1335 British Ale II for this batch.  The yeast cake just fermented a Dark English Mild that I brewed up last week.  I believe this is my first time using this strain.  It's said to provide a malty character.  Only time will tell if it's prone to over attenuation with this wort unfortunately.

Finally, I'm going to skip the oak for this beer as I'd like to let any contributions from the Rye shine through.

Really excited to do another one of these beers.  I haven't really gotten what I was intending for the last two but they still turned out to be tasty and interesting.  We'll see if I'm any closer to the mark with this one.

Recipe Details:

• Grain:
• 17 lb Maris Otter
• 3 lb Rye Malt
• 1 lb 8 oz Double Roasted Crystal 120L
• 2 oz Acid Malt
• Hops:
• 2 oz Challenger (Pellet, 6.1% AA) at 60 min
• 2 oz Target (Pellet, 9.5% AA) at 20 min
• Yeast:
• Wyeast 1335 British Ale II (Second Pitch)
• Water:
• 10 gal spring water
• 11 gal tap water
• 1 tsp Calcium Chloride in Mash
• 1 tsp Gypsum in Mash
• 1 tsp Gypsum in Boil
• 1 tsp Calcium Chloride in Boil
• 1 tsp Irish Moss at 15 min

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 6 gal (Target 6 gal)
• Mash:
• 158 F for 60 min (Target 158 F for 60 min)
• Boil:
• 120 min (Target 90 min)
• Fermentation Temperature:
• 70 F
• Primary Duration:
• 4 Weeks
• Secondary Duration:
• 5-6 months

Results:

• OG:
• 1.093 (Target 1.095)
• Efficiency:
• ~70% (Target ~70%)
• FG:
• 1.012 (Target 1.025)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 86% (Target 72%)
• ABV:
• 10.63% (Target 9.19%)

Brewing Notes:

• 5/30/16 - Brewday - 6:00 AM to 11:30 AM including setup and cleanup
• Heated 14 gal of strike water in the HLT.  Cycled through the system until everything was at 160 F
• Milled my grain while heating the strike water.  Double milled the rye as it was very hard.  I've switched to manual cranking on the mill - the rye was a lot of work even for just 3 lbs

Rye (left) and Barley (right)

• Ended up with 6 gal above the false bottom and 11 gal in the system total
• Mixed the CaCl and Gypsum with the grain
• Added the grain to the mash tun and stirred well to eliminate doughballs
• Set the RIMS to cycle at 160 F at ~2 qt per min
• After 10 min the mash was 158 F - right on target
• Heated 10 gal of sparge water to 185 F
• Mashed for 60 min total
• Fly sparged
• Collected 10 gal of wort which was more than intended
• The gravity at the grant was 6 brix at the end of the sparge.  This is 1.024 in SG which is quite a bit of sugar left.  Tough to get good efficiency with such a large grainbill
• Started heating the kettle after collecting 3 gal.  Had the wort to a boil about half way through the sparge

• Added a second dose of Gypsum and CaCl to the boil
• Added the bittering hops with about 60 min left in the boil

• Added the flavoring hops with 20 min left in the boil
• Added the irish moss with 15 min left in the boil
• With 5 min left in the boil I added the wort chiller to sanitize
• Chilled down to 75 F
• Transferred on the yeast cake.  Left behind about a quart of hoppy wort.

• Moved the beer down to the fermentation chamber set to 70 F
• By the evening fermentation had kicked off strongly.  Krausen filled the 3 piece airlock and blew out the second piece.  Probably should have gone with a blow off tube but I'm lazy.  Hopefully it doesn't make too much of a mess.
• 6/23/16 - Transferred the beer to a glass carboy for secondary/aging (was too lazy to cool crash and fine with gelatin as initially planned).  I am using a vented silicon bung for this batch.  Measured the gravity as 1.030.  I was careful not to take too much yeast over during the transfer to try to limit how much additional fermentation is performed.  The beer is a deep amber color.  It has a very clean fermentation profile with very light fruity yeast ester.  It has a rich malt character along with a caramel/toffee like flavor.  There is a pronounced spicy/earthy flavor which must be from the rye.  Very light bitterness on the finish even as fresh as it is.  Balance at this gravity is definitely slanted towards sweet malt.  It will be interesting to see how far this one comes down over the next 5-6 months.
• 7/7/16 - The beer has developed a slight pellicle.  I knew this was going to happen eventually but not quite sure how it happened though.  Not too worried about the effects of this.  Probably going to drop quite a bit in gravity as a result though.

• 12/12/16 - We've been moving so I've gotten to bottling a bit later than I would have liked.  Still plan on doing a Christmas first tasting.  Carbonation levels will likely be impacted by this.  Ended up getting 5 gal of beer which I primed with 3.5 oz of sugar.  This got me 48 12 oz bottles.  Probably could have gotten 1 or 2 more if I made sure to capture the last bit in bottles.  Decided to be lazy as 48 is plenty.  Measured the FG as 1.012 which is a bit lower than I hoped it would go.  Still has a bit of sweetness and a full bodied mouthfeel.  It has a really nice caramel flavor - definitely taste the impacts of the double roasted crystal.  No brett character that I can pick up despite the pellicle.  I've moved the beer twice in the last few months and it got sloshed around quite a bit.  Happy to say that no stale oxidized flavors have been picked up as a result of this.
• 1/30/17 - Tasting Notes - The beer has a really nice malt complexity.  I think the rye was a good addition.  No brett flavor has developed that I can identify and it's definitely not sour.  I was happy to find that some hop character remained after the 6 months of aging.  I don't imagine it will still be there for the next official tasting (Christmas 2017).  I hope I like what's left.
• 2/27/17 -Vertical Tasting notes with my other English Barleywine (2014 and 2015).
• 3/9/18 - Tasting Notes (2017) - The beer has a really lovely, rich malt complexity.  Hop character is still showing up in the mix.  This one has aged well and I have high hopes that it will continue to do so
• 5/26/19 - Tasting Notes (2019):
• Aroma:  Rich caramel.  Some graham cracker.  Slight bit of overripe fruit.  Some alcohol comes through
• Appearance:  Dark Red/Light Brown.  Poured with a 2 finger head that slowly faded down to a thin ring.
• Flavor:  Really nice malt flavor.  Sweet bread and caramel.  Slight fruity flavor.  A bit of alcohol but well hidden.  Slight bitterness remains.
• Mouthfeel:  Medium bodied and fairly sweet.  Smooth drinking
• Overall:  Lovely malt flavors.  Not all that complex (as far as EBW go) but still very pleasant.  Hides the 10+ ABV remarkably well.
• 5/23/20 - Tasting Notes (2020):
• Aroma:  Very strong musty and estery aroma.  Not a great aroma although it improves as the beer sits a bit.  Maybe a bit of wet cardboard oxidation smell.  Get a bit of malt coming through all this
• Appearance:  Pours with a finger of head which fades down to a thin ring - leaves some lacing.  The beer is brownish red and clear
• Flavor:  Really rich malt flavor up front - sweet and toasty and kind of Grahm-cracker-like.  This lingers into the finish.  There is a very slight bitterness in the finish as well.  There is a bit of fruity ester that comes through up front and a mustiness that comes out in the finish
• Mouthfeel:  Medium bodied and a bit sweet.  Pretty smooth beer
• Overall:  Really nice rich malt flavor to this one - very bold.  I'm very pleasantly surprised it still has a good amount of hop bitterness left at this point.  Not quite as much going on as the others in terms of fruit ester.  Still very nice
• 5/30/21 - Tasting Notes (2021):
• Aroma:  Has a spicy yeast character along with a raisin-like flavor.  Also has a dark caramel and graham cracker aroma
• Appearance:  Dark Reddish Brown.  Poured with a 1 finger head that fades down to a think layer over several minutes
• Flavor:  Sweet bread, caramel, graham cracker and chocolate.  Pretty boozy in the finish.  Has a bitterness that is balanced by a really sweet and tasty maltiness.  Maybe has a little fruity ester in there but it is far in the background
• Mouthfeel:  Medium-full bodied and fairly sweet.  Pretty smooth drinking
• Overall:  Really nice bold flavors and a good complexity - very rich.  Malt really the star on this one.
• 5/28/22 - Tasting Notes (2022):
• Tasting Notes (40 of 50):
• Aroma (9 of 12):  Booze along with some sweet toasted malt and caramel.  A little bit of fruit in there as well.  Get a bit of wine-like character and some oak.  Maybe get a bit of herbal hop in there as well.
• Appearance (3 of 3):  Brownish red in color and very clear.  Pours with a 1 finger head that quickly fades to a thin ring.  Bubbles continue to cascade up
• Flavor (16 of 20):  Boozy up front along with some dark caramel and toasted malt flavors.  Maybe get something like chocolate in there as well.  Slight bit of fruity ester in there.  There is a fairly assertive bitterness in the finish along with more booze and a nice lingering malt flavor.  Get a little bit of grassy and herbal hops in the mix as well.
• Mouthfeel (4 of 5):  Medium full bodied and slightly sweet.  There is a warming sensation on the palate.  A little bit of astringency that prickles the back of the throat.
• Overall (8 of 10):  Big bold flavors in this one.  Quite boozy.  It's got a good amount of complexity - mostly focused on depth of malt flavor and not a whole lot of fruit.
• 5/28/23 - Tasting Notes (2023)
• Tasting Notes (37 of 50):
• Aroma (7 of 12):  A bit of dark, overripe fruit along with a musty aged beer character.  Get a bit of alcohol and some caramel malt
• Appearance (3 of 3):  Redish brown in color and very clear.  Poured with a 2 finger head which fades down to a thin ring quickly.  Continues to send up cascading bubbles for some time after the pour.
• Flavor (16 of 20):  Bready malt and dark caramel up front.  A little bit of fruit in there but its fairly subdued.  There is also a bit of chocolate flavor in there.  Maybe some herbal hop too.  It finishes with a medium bitterness that is balanced by a slight sweetness.  Maybe getting a bit of oak in there too.
• Mouthfeel (4 of 5):  Medium-full bodied and just a bit of stickiness on the palate.  Has a slight astringency.  Pretty drinkable for a big beer.
• Overall (7 of 10):  It's a boldly flavored beer with good complexity.  Malt is the star of the show with this one with hops coming in second and fruity yeast ester a fairly distant third.  It's a nice beer
• 6/1/24 - Tasting Notes (2024):
• Tasting Notes (38 of 50):
• Aroma (7 of 12):  Fruity and wine-like character along with some caramel malt.  A little booze in there.  It's a pleasant smell but fairly mild
• Appearance (3 of 3):  Pours with a 3 finger head that fairly quickly fades down to a thin ring around the glass.  It is red-brown and very clear
• Flavor (17 of 20):  Dark caramel, toasted bread, and graham cracker.  Maybe a bit of chocolate in there as well.  Just a slight fruity flavor in there as well.  The finish is mostly malt but it's not that sweet - it lingers in a nice way.  Get a fair bit of bitterness that balances the flavors in the finish somewhat.  Has some booze character in there as well but it's fairly well hidden.  I think this a really nicely and boldly flavored malty beer
• Mouthfeel (4 of 5):  Medium full bodied and just a little bit sticky on the palate.  I this is pretty smooth and some mild alcohol warming.
• Overall (7 of 10):  I really like the malt character in this one.  It lacks a bit in complexity but definitely has enough going on to be worth savoring.  I think it drinks pretty easily for a strong sweet beer (doesn't feel like it needs to be a sipper)
• 7/31/25 - Tasting Notes (2025):
• Tasting Notes (40 of 50)
• Aroma (8 of 12):  Smells sweet.  Bready and caramel with a bit of fruit.  Has a musty smell as well
• Appearance (3 of 3):  Pours with a 1 finger head that quickly fades to nothing.  Dard redish brown and very clear
• Flavor (17 of 20):  Dark malt flavor - caramel.  A little fruity ester character in there as well.  The finish is slightly sweet.  There is a mild bitterness to it.  You can taste the booze but it's pretty mellow.  Has an almost medicinal character to it - sort of reminds me of cherry.  The flavors are bold and quite nice
• Mouthfeel (4 of 5):  Medium-full bodied and a little sticky on the pallet.  It drinks very smoothly.
• Overall (8 of 10):  This is a bold and characterful beer with a pretty nice complex set of flavors between malt and fruity ester character.  It is sweet and boozy like you'd want an English Barleywine to be

Lessons Learned:

1. I should have the homebrew shop mill my rye for me next time.  My arm is still tired from milling that by hand.

Dark English Mild - Take II

My first all grain batch was a Dark English Mild.  It turned out nicely.  It has been a little more than two years since making that beer so I've decided to take another shot at the style.

Found an interesting looking recipe in the January/February 2016 edition of Zymurgy from Charlie Papazian called "Visionary Mild".  It uses of a Caramel Malt by Simpsons called "Double Roasted Crystal 120L" which I hadn't heard of before.  I guess it's pretty new.  It was difficult to find; the major homebrew supply sites don't have it yet.  Ended up ordering from some out of state homebrew shop.  The grain has a nice flavor - it's a combination of cracker, caramel, roast, and maybe some dark fruit.  Didn't do a side by side comparison but it does seem to have a bit more complexity than you'd get from normal Caramel 120L malt.  I bought enough to try in a couple more beers.

I'm making a few modifications to the recipe:

• I am planning for a OG of 1.035 rather than 1.040 and will mash at 158 F to try to get the yeast to stop around 1.013 to get around 3% ABV rather than the 4% ABV from the original recipe.  My attempts to influence (or even predict) how far the yeast will attenuate haven't been successful of late but I keep trying.
• I am skipping the flavoring hop additions called for in the original recipe.  I want the malt to be the star of the show in this beer (it is a mild after all).  I'll also be using Challenger hops for this one as I couldn't find the Northdown hops the original called for (would like to track that one down at some point as I haven't used it yet).

I made a Pale Mild last year that turned out to be pretty bland.  Hoping this one, with roast malt as part of the equation, will be interesting even with the restrained hopping.

Recipe Details:

• Grain:
• 6 lb 8 oz Maris Otter
• 12 oz Double Roasted Crystal 120L
• 12 oz Brown Malt
• Hops:
• 1 oz Challenger (Pellet, 6.1% AA) at 60 min
• Yeast:
• Wyeast 1335 British Ale II
• Water:
• 10 gal spring water
• 5 gal tap water
• 1 tsp Calcium Chloride
• 1 tsp Irish Moss at 15 min

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 5.26 gal (Target 6 gal)
• Mash:
• 159 F for 60 min (Target 158 F for 60 min)
• Boil:
• 60 min (Target 60 min)
• Fermentation Temperature:
• 70 F
• Primary Duration:
• 1 Week
• Secondary Duration:
• 1 Week

Results:

• OG:
• 1.037 (Target 1.035)
• Efficiency:
• 66% (Target ~70%)
• FG:
• 1.012 (Target 1.013)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 67% (Target 62%)
• ABV:
• 3.28% (Target 2.89%)

Brewing Notes:

• 5/22/16 - Brewday - 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM including setup and cleanup
• Heated string water in HLT and cycled through Mash Tun, RIMS, and Grant until the system was at 165 F
• Milled my grain while heating the strike water
• Ended up with 3 gal above the false bottom and 7.5 gal in the system
• Added CaCl to the grain
• Added the grain to the mash and stirred to eliminate dough balls

• Cycled the RIMS at 1 qt per min at 160 F
• Checked the temperature after 20 min and found that it was a bit uneven throughout the grain bed.  Stirred to try to even it out
• Checked again 30 min into the mash and found that the temperature was a bit low.  Raised the RIMS to 163 F

• Mashed for 60 min - temperature was 159 F by the end
• Heated 7.5 gal of sparge water to 190 F
• Fly sparged
• Started heating the kettle after collecting about 3 gal
• Had it to a boil a minute after ending the sparge
• Collected 8 gal of wort.  Gravity at the grant was 2 brix at the end of the sparge
• Added the hops once the hot break cleared
• Ended up losing about half a gal of wort while draining the pump when I forgot to close one of the valves on the boil kettle - damn.
• Boiled for 60 min
• With 15 min left in the boil added the irish moss
• Added the wort chiller to sanitize with 5 min left in the boil
• Chilled the beer down to 75 F
• Drained into the fermenter.  Ended up knocking in a bit of the concrete backer board when I tilted up the kettle to help it drain.

• Pitched the yeast packet directly into the fermenter and then moved the beer down to the fermentation chamber set to 70 F
• Measured the gravity as 1.037
• 5/23/16 - Fermenter was bubbling by the next day and holding steady at 69 - 70 F
• 5/30/16 - Transferred the beer to another bucket fermenter to free up the yeast cake for an English Barleywine.  Made sure to limit the amount of yeast that transferred over to simplify bottling.
• 6/24/16 - Chilled the beer down to the 40s to drop the yeast out of suspension.
• 6/25/16 - Bottled with 3.5 oz of priming sugar (using normal granulated sugar).  Ended up with 5 gal.  This got me 50 bottles.  Measured the gravity as 1.012.  The sample has a really nice malt profile which is a mix of dark caramel and toffee as well as graham cracker.  I'll give this batch a couple weeks to carb up before sampling the first one.
• 8/20/16 - Tasting Notes - Malty, flavorful beer in a nice light package.  Been enjoying this one on weeknights and with lunch on the weekends.

Lessons Learned:

1. Good 4 hr brewday again thanks to only collecting enough wort to boil down in 1 hr
2. Getting more and more tired of my mash tun the longer I use it.  I feel like I'm not getting good cycling of the return water with the auto sparge.  Maybe not leaving enough water on top of the grain bed once it settles to get a good cycle.  It seems that the water just bores a hole in the grain bed.

Amber Ale - Tasting

It has been more than 4 months since I brewed up my first attempt at an Amber Ale. 

I had been thinking that this would end up as a pretty malty beer (hadn't read the style guide) but it's turned out to be quite hop forward.  It's definitely closer to pale ale than brown ale in terms of hop/malt balance.  Four months is a bit longer than I'd normally wait to take notes on a hoppy beer but this one has aged gracefully which I'm happy about.

I made my own candi syrup for this beer.  It was a lot of fun taking plain sugar and finding a way to get some extra flavors out of it.  I can't be sure but I think these flavors did come through as extra caramel and dark fruit in the final product.

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Hops are the most prominent smell.  Less prominent than they were a couple months ago but it's still pretty hop forward.  It is a grassy/piney aroma.  The malt comes through pretty strongly as well - this is mostly caramel.  There is a fruitiness to the aroma that may be from the yeast or maybe the candi syrup.  No alcohol on the nose.
• Appearance:
• The beer is a dark copper/light brown color.  Has cleared very well.  A slow pour yields a thin white head that quickly fades down to nothing.
• Flavor:
• Up front I get piney and herbal hops along with a bit of caramel and bready flavor from the malt.  The finish is slanted a bit towards the hops but it is reasonably well balanced out by the malt.  The bitterness lingers for a while.  There is a bit of alcohol in the flavor and a bit of fruitiness.
• Mouthfeel:
• Medium bodied.  Slight astringency along with the bitterness.  Carbonation is light.
• Overall:
• As I mentioned before, I was expecting a beer more balanced between malt and hop than this one turned out.  This drinks like a slightly maltier pale ale really.  It is pretty nice regardless.  The flavors are pretty bold and, as I like a hoppy beer, I find them to be very pleasant.

Hop Crop 2016

Last year I planted two East Kent Golding hop rhizomes in an elevated bed.  Over the course of the summer they grew to be ~10 feet.  I chose not to do any significant pruning the first year under the theory that having a lot of leaves would help them build up good strong root structures which would help them in future years.  This likely contributed to the fairly low hop yield last year.  I didn't even bother harvesting the 2 dozen or so hop cones that formed.  When fall and winter rolled in I cut the vines down to near ground level and covered the bed with a few inches of shredded leaf and grass clipping mulch.  You can read more about the first year's experience in this post.

I managed to keep my curiosity in check over the winter and did nothing to disturb the hop bed.  It got very cold this year and I believe the entire bed froze several times.  The thick layer of leaf mulch hopefully helped insulate the hops from too many freeze/thaw cycles.  Spring is now here again and it is starting to warm up.  Looking forward to another exciting summer of hop growing.

This year I plan on trying to maximize the hop output by taking the following actions:

• I will prune the side arms of the hops to help them focus on growth in the main vine
• I am going to allow 6 vines from each hop plant to grow.  I will have three per string.
• Last year I didn't have a steep enough string so the vines were having some trouble winding themselves around it.  I will tie the top of the string up much higher to try to resolve this this year.  Like last year, I'll be using a partially dead tree as a trellis.
• I am going to leave the leaf much and grass clippings on the planter box to help it retain moisture and provide continued nutrients.  I would like to avoid using organic fertilizer on the bed if possible.  I will clear the mulch around the hop vines themselves to hopefully avoid any rot.
• I am going to use this product to avoid the Japanese beetle infestation I had last year.  Don't know if the beetles has any major effect on the health of the hops but I'd rather not chance it. 

I, admittedly, have never been very good with plants.  From everything I've read, hops are very hearty plants.  I will continue to do my best to keep these healthy.  Hopefully these hops will continue to thrive despite any mistakes I might make this year.

Hop Growing Log:

• 3/31/16 - It has been in the 60's for the last week or so and the nights are typically above freezing.  Decided to clear the leaf mulch away from the hops mounds.  Each mount had a couple pale shoots that have started to grow out.  I accidently snapped one off while clearing the leaves (doh).

• 4/9/16 - Got about an inch of snow this morning.  I threw some leaves on top of the hops to protect them.

• 4/10/16 - Snow has all melted.  I had some leftover soil from my raspberry patch so I put down a couple inches onto the hop bed.  Covered the hop plants with about an inch.  I cleared away the leaves while I put the dirt on and then re-covered it.  The soil under the leaves was a rich black color which smelled wonderful.  I think the leaves will provide a lot of nutrients for the plants this year.
• 4/16/16 - It has started to warm up.  It is projected to be in the 60s and 70s all next week with the nights in the 40s and 50s.  It may be that winter is finally over.  Fingers crossed.  Checked the soil under the leaf mulch and it's still pretty moist.  Will wait to give the hops their first watering of the year.
• 4/17/16 - Watered the bed with 2 gal of fish tank water.  Put most of it on the leaves.  The fish tank water is probably pretty high in nitrates from fish waste which I'm thinking will be good for the plants.  Will probably need to water a couple times a week if there's no rain.  Will plan on using fish tank water on these somewhat regularly.
• 4/20/16 - A couple shoots have broken the surface on the plant closest to the garage.  The shoots have the start of some green leaves forming.  They had been purple and white at the after the winter.  Really excited that they're starting to get active.
• 4/22/16 - Three shoots have now broken the surface on the plant closest to the garage and one in the far one.  They are thicker shoots than last time.
• 4/25/16 - Seeing some strong growth from 4 sprouts on hops nearest the garage.  They are starting to leaf out quite a bit.  Also seeing three sprouts start to emerge on the far bed.  The plants.  I'm really excited.  I put in a fourth fence post to hold line.  I'm going to let these grow out a good bit before training them to a line.
• 5/4/16 - It has been a rainy week but the hops have been thriving.  The hop mound closest to the garage has 4 shoots that have grown to about 6 inches and another one just breaching the surface.  The other mound has 6 shoots which are from just emerging to a couple inches in height.

• 5/8/16 - Put up a fourth fence post and rigged up a new trellis.  One of the lessons learned from last year, where I tied the climbing ropes to a low branch in a nearby tree, was that the vines don't readily climb up the rope if it isn't steep enough.  This time I wanted to go with a much higher branch.  I ended up using some plastic covered wire to form a crude pulley system by throwing it over a high branch and then forming a loop with it.  I then put a bite in the wire using line bolts and attached a carabineer.  I can raise an lower this carabineer by pulling on one side of the other of the wire rope.  This system has allowed me to get the top of the climbing ropes 20 to 25 feet up which makes for a pretty steep line,

• 5/13/16 - Have had very strong growth from one of the mounds with our sunny weather.  Several vines have gotten to be ~1.5 foot long.  I've trained 4 onto the growing lines.  The other mound is growing as well but not quite as vigorously.  The vines are 4-6 at this point

• 5/21/16 - Mix of sun and rain this week.  The hops have been doing very well.  Have several vines that are now winding their way around the climbing ropes.  A couple have crested the top of the first tier and are now getting started up the second tier.

• 5/30/16 - We had a lot of sun this last week.  Hops seemed to have really enjoyed it.  All the vines have now affixed themselves to the lines and all four lines have vines on the second tier.  Several of the hop plants have make their way several feed up the second tier lines.  No signs of Japanese beetles just yet thankfully but I will be surprised if we don't start seeing them here in early June.  I should also note a new bit of growth in a corner of the bed away from the current mound.  I'm going to let this one grow to see what happens - Would be neet to have additional mounds start to crop up for future years.

• 6/12/16 - The hops have progressed quite a way up the line in the last couple weeks but growth up has definitely slowed.  The upper portion of the vines are starting to put out side arms with little flower buds on them.  I think I'm going to have a decent crop this year.  No sign of Japanese beetles yet.  Now have three shoots coming up away from the main hop mounds.  I've trained one of them onto the ropes.  Not sure what I'll do with the others.

• 6/19/19 - I've had a few more new shoots come up this week.  I decided to cut them all off at ground level to help the plant focus on growing the main vines.
• 7/4/16 - The plants were attacked pretty aggressively by Japanese beetles over the last week.  There has been significant damage to most of the upper leaves.  It seems like the development of hops has slowed significantly as well.  We've had dry weather and I haven't been watering them frequently so that could have played a roll.  I will be watching them closely over the next couple weeks.
• 7/10/16 - The hops aren't doing too well.  I've been picking at least a dozen beetles off a day and they're still doing significant damage to the plants.  It seems like the hop development has slowed significantly since they arrived.  Not sure there will be enough plants to justify harvesting again this year.

Lessons Learned:

1. Need to find some way to deal with the Japanese beetles