Little Hazy Pale Ale

After a bit of a hiatus from brewing, and an even longer hiatus from brewing hoppy American styles I decided to get back to basics with a simple Pale Ale. For this recipe I aimed for a beer with some aspects of the classic examples of the style with a little bit of the haziness of more modern pale ales. This recipe was designed largely around using ingredients that I already had on hand for an upcoming doppelbock and hops that are over two years old at this point.

7/31/21

Made a 1L vitality starter with the London Ale III yeast, it seemed to get going almost immediately and was extremely active by the time of pitching. Brewday hit a few snags including the water being cut off to my building (and not running clear for a while after being turned back on) and me adding an extra half gallon by accident so the beer ended up with a lower OG than intended. Due to the extra water I ended up with more wort than would fit in the carboy and still have enough headroom so I saved a small bit of the yeast from the starter and added the last quart or so to that jug. Between the old ingredients and the extra water this one probably won’t be the best beer I’ve brewed in a while but hopefully can still come out enjoyable.

8/1/21

Very active fermentation in both the carboy and the jug that had held the starter and received excess wort.

8/5/21

Airlock activity seems to have stopped but still a large krausen on top of both the carboy and jug. Gravity sample reads 1.008 so it seems to be fully fermented. Considered adding the Nelson now but decided to save them for keg hopping in a few days.

8/20/21

Kegged the beer in the carboy with 2 ounces of Nelson in a stainless steel mesh dry hopper. Taste is alright but the roasted and caramel malts stand out a little too much and the hops are more subdued than I would've liked. This is likely due to age of the hops, the extra water that was added, and the extra week it took to get around to kegging it. Hopefully with carbonation and the keg hops it will become a little brighter.

10/8/21

This one has been interesting as it has transitioned over the 6 weeks on tap. Initially very fruity and hazy the beer has transformed closer to a traditional American pale ale over time. The keg hops, in addition to fading over time, seem to have caused some hop creep as this one has consistently become more carbonated than others set to the same PSI. For a smaller pale ale this one is interesting and satisfying enough to be an everyday drinker, especially as a change of pace from the sours and lagers I’ve also had on tap.

Another Doppelbock

 8/21/21

About 3 years ago I brewed my take on a doppelbock: Tranquility Base Bock a beer designed to ride the line between a standard dunkles bock and a doppelbock while having more noticeable chocolate character than is typical of either. While I've been planning to rebrew it for quite some time, between life and pandemics I hadn't gotten around to it until today. While I had originally planned to repeat the recipe without any changes, a few differences had to be made to accommodate both a smaller batch size and some variations in ingredients available.

The resulting recipe I designed is intended to be as similar as possible despite these modifications. One of the main differences that I expect will change this beer is the type of Munich malt used. Munich is available from a variety of maltsters and their definitions of "munich" vs "dark munich" and in some cases "light munich" seem to vary pretty heavily. On my previous batch I had used a dark munich that I have listed as being 34°L which is darker than any I currently see available on the market. Edit: It was likely Briess Dark Munich which is listed at 30 SRM and is documented as being launched at the Homebrew Con in Portland that I attended. It's possible there was some confusion between EBC and Lovibond, which would put that version of dark munich actually around 13°L, which is much closer to the norm. It will be interesting to see the differences the malt changes make, especially in how dark this version comes out after the last one was a very dark brown.

I missed my target gravity again for this batch, despite lowering my expected efficiency after missing on the last few. Part of the reason for that may be not using the actual PPG numbers for the Viking malts, part may be due to the general difficulties associated with higher gravity beers, and part may be due to the boil just not being as strong, leading to less evaporation and a touch more wort than planned. In the end the lower gravity should push it into the upper end of bock category, which should still be plenty enjoyable and alcoholic.

After chilling below 70, the wort was run into a carboy in the chest freezer at 48°F that still held the yeast cake from a pilsner I had kegged the day before.

8/22/21

Already fermenting heavily with a healthy krausen. Increased temp to 50°F.

8/25/21

Still fermenting heavily but appears to be slowing some. Increased chest freezer temp to 54°F.

8/26/21

Appears to still be fermenting but very little signs of action in the airlock so I took a sample. Gravity reading shows it's down to 1.020 so it's nearing FG already. Removed from the chest freezer and plan to leave at room temperature in the 60's for a few days for a diacetyl rest. Taste is good, similar to what I remember though a touch harsher on the roast and more boozy, hopefully it just needs some more time to clean up.

9/1/21

Moved to chest freezer at 50F to begin lagering.

10/8/21

This one has turned out very nicely. The harshness and booziness has calmed down and it’s now fairly well rounded and subtle for its’ size. Not quite as chocolatey or interesting as the last batch but still a very enjoyable dark malty lager.

Long Break Table Pils

After somewhat of a break in brewing I’m getting back to it with this being the first of several beers planned over the next few months. The break was more of a slowdown than a full hiatus with only one beer brewed in 2021 and one that I helped my dad brew in late 2020. The slowdown was due to a number of factors: a backlog of homebrew on hand due to brewing heavily early in the COVID pandemic period and finally packaging several long aging beers, lots of travel (mostly road trips to national parks), getting a dog, and just a general burnout with brewing and drinking that was likely related to general anxiety and stress caused by the pandemic. Getting back to feeling more normal and having free time made me desire to get back in the saddle and planned out a few upcoming brew sessions (and session brews). 

To start I chose to make what I’m calling a Table Pilsner, intended to act as both a way to step up plenty of lager yeast to later re-make my award winning Doppelbock and to give me something light and refreshing on hand for the upcoming hottest time of the year in San Francisco. I’ve been favoring pilsners and other pale lagers over most other styles recently, in part due to the moderate alcohol but more so due to the balance of simple ingredients that give a complex but refreshing flavor. 

While I usually prefer and more often brew the Czech/Bohemian style of Pilsner for this batch I came up with something that is more akin to a German Pilsner but has elements of various types of continental pale lagers, including Viking Pilsner Malt and Weyermann Carahell, Hallertau Blanc and Saaz hops, and Munich Lager yeast which will be used later for the doppelbock. The end result is hopefully fairly dry with a light refreshing graininess and enough bitterness and spicy/grassy/fruity flavors from the hops to keep it refreshing.

7/24/21

Brewday. Nothing too crazy to report, 1.040 OG came in just under the planned 1.042. Used one fairly fresh pack of Munich lager yeast plus a pack that was nearly a year old that likely had close to zero viability, was on the fence about adding it but hopefully the dead yeast act as nutrient if nothing else. Transferred to chest freezer set to 50F.

7/26/21

36 hours post pitching and the yeast doesn’t seem to have any fermentation . Might pull out to room temp to see if it gets a little more active if not showing signs soon.

7/27/21

More yeast activity, not a lot but it seems to be active so I’ll let it go.

7/30/21

Still very little activity so I decided to pull a sample. Gravity only down to 1.030, tastes fine but something is off. Identified that the thermostat wasn’t placed well and was reading significantly higher than the actual freezer temperature (especially at the bottoms of the carboy) likely causing the yeast to be too cold to ferment. Moved the thermostat and increased the temperature from 50F to 53F to hopefully get more action.

7/31/21

Not super active still but more bubbles coming from the airlock appears to be a good sign.

8/5/21

Pulled another sample, gravity down to 1.011 so it seems the yeast were able to ferment after the temp fix and reached the expected final gravity. Taste is fine but a little muddled. Increased temp to 60F to give it a chance for a diacetyl rest. I don’t taste any butteriness and with it this low in gravity it might not be able to do much but worth giving it a chance. Plan to drop temp in a couple days for lagering, will probably do a quick lager quick lager but that will depend on how it tastes and my availability to keg this batch and brew the doppelbock that will re-use the yeast.

8/20/21

Kegged in a 5 gallon corny. Taste is just about what I was going for with some light honey like malt sweetness, spicy hops and moderate bitterness. There is a touch of diacetyl that is slightly more than ideal but not entirely off-putting. The yeast cake was saved to be re-used for a doppelbock tomorrow.

8/21/21

Set the keg out in the unusually warm apartment to make room for the now fermenting doppelbock and possibly allow the remaining yeast to clean up some diacetyl.

10/8/21

This one kicked at some point, had some friends visit then some others house sit so likely one of them finished it off? It was popular with people who like pale lagers but I also found it interesting enough to keep bringing me back. The two weeks at (unusually hot for San Francisco) room temperature seemed to severely cut down on the diacetyl to the point that it was hard to pick out.