Doppelbock '22

Doppelbock has been my go to autumn beer for the past few years. The first iteration of the beer scored a medal at the California State Homebrew Competition. While I usually like to change things up I was very happy with how that beer turned out and have been trying to recreate it in the years since. Last year's version was enjoyable but seemed to be missing something in the maltiness category so I went out of my way to source the Briess Dark Munich (30L) that I had used in the original version and also increased the amount of Caramunich to a full pound. I otherwise kept the recipe largely the same with equal amounts of Pilsner, Vienna, and Munich malts and the pale chocolate malt that may not be traditional but seems to give a nice note of chocolate without being too roasty.

Tasting notes:

Smell: Big malt character pops out with milk chocolate and dark fruit (plum and raisin). The roast and fruit characters are probably a little higher than desired and mostly over power the more subtle bread and crust character from the Munich and Vienna malts. A touch of alcohol comes through as it warms. No hop or yeast derived aromas.

Appearance: Dark brown with nice garnet tints, especially in the light. Fairly clear but has a touch of haze that makes it seem darker. Head is small and off white and quickly fades to a ring of small bubbles.

Taste: Up front there’s a big sweet bread crust-like malt character but this quickly shifts toward a more roasty chocolate and burnt sugar character. Finish had notes of dried fruit and moderate bitterness that blends with the roast character to give a bittersweet chocolate impression. No hop character other than the bitterness.

Mouthfeel: Moderately carbonated and fairly full bodied. Alcohol is not hot but does give a warming sensation over time.

Overall: While not an overly bad beer this is probably the worst of the doppelbocks I’ve made. The roast character seems stronger than in past batches and overshadows the other characters of the beer. While this one seemed to have some rough, near metallic, off flavors when first kegged the additional time at cool temperatures and carbonation seem to have rounded them out. While I was excited to get the 30L dark Munich malt I think it was overwhelmed by using so much Caramunich, especially with the pale chocolate malt also in the mix and I will probably only use a quarter pound of each of those in my next attempt at this style. The failure to set my mill correctly and try to correct it by adding malt extract was also a mistake as it meant there was less of the Munich malt character in the end product to balance the roast and caramelized flavors.

8/19/22
Made a starter from a mason jar of yeast previously used on a Helles and a Pilsner. First time using this 2L Erlenmeyer flask and first time using a stir plate in a long time but both seem to work well. The starter should have been created a few days earlier for maximum viability but this should provide some increase to the amount of yeast available and provide vitality to the yeast already in the mix.

8/20/22
Brewday

Forgot to adjust my mill setting until half way through milling which led to undercrushing and low efficiency. I also added too much sparge water and ended up with ~7.5 gallons pre-boil. Between both of these I ended up with a pre-boil gravity ~1.040 which is no where near what was expected. In order to resolve these issues I did a 2 hour boil and added a pound of dry malt extract. Despite both of these adjustments the post-boil gravity was still only 1.066, a ways short of the planned 1.072 and more in the middle of the Dunkles Bock range than the low end of the the Doppelbock range as intended.

Hops were split between a first wort addition that was boiled the full 2 hours and a later addition that was boiled for only 45 minutes.

After cooling to 80F the wort was transferred to a plastic carboy and placed in the chest freezer at 50F. 

8/21/22
Approximately 18 hours after putting the wort in the chest freezer I shook the carboy to oxygenate and pitched the yeast starter from the stir plate.

8/22/22
Almost 24 hours since pitching it isn't show any real signs of fermentation so I increased the temperature slightly to 52F.

8/23/22
Fermenting strongly.

8/24/22
Fermentation seems to be slowing slightly so I increased the chest freezer temperature to 62 for a diacetyl rest.

8/26/22
Still fermenting, increasing the temperature seems to have kicked it back up a bit. Hopefully this will be able to get rid of any diacetyl without producing esters.

8/29/22
No signs of fermentation at this point. Began cooling off by lowering to 55F. Will continue decreasing temps for a few days until it gets down to lagering range.

9/28/22
I got a terrible sinus infection that hit me hard for nearly a month and took very poor notes during this time. The beer was eventually lagered, then kegged only to have my CO2 tank kick. 2 CO2 tanks later (I setup another one while still sick only to find out later a different keg was leaking) it is finally carbonated and starting to taste close to expectations.

9/29/22
Tasting above.

12/29/22: This batch kicked after adding a 1/2 gallon to a growler and drinking/dumping the remaining ~1/2 gallon. This one got pretty mixed reviews, no real complaints (other than one person saying it was watery(?) and it received a few strong compliments but very few people went back for a second pour and I rarely found myself choosing to reach for it during the 3+ months it spent on tap. I’m interested in rebrewing this with less character malts and a greater eye toward yeast health and fermenting temperatures but that likely won’t be any time soon.

First Hop Harvest Bitter

When brewing this beer and starting to write this post I was dealing with a terrible sinus infection and hadn’t been doing a good job keeping up with my brewing or my blog. I was out of CO2 in my kegerator and had multiple beers that had recently been kegged or were in need of a keg, so they were likely getting oxidized and I didn’t have the time or energy to deal with them. While I thought about also cancelling this brew day to rest and recover I didn’t want my first year hop cones to whither on the vine so I picked them and brewed a small bitter of sorts.

Centennial Hops a couple weeks before harvesting

I ended up with only a touch over 1.5 oz of fresh wet hops (1.115 oz centennial, .385 oz Comet and just .125 oz Goldings), which is around the equivalent of .3-.4 oz of dry hops per most conversions I’ve seen, so any ideas about making a super hoppy IPA (or even American pale ale) went out the window and I instead reworked the Special Bitter I had been planning to brew later in the year to instead be a lower gravity and half volume batch in order to give the hops some chance of shining through in the finished beer. Just 3 pounds of base malt (equal parts Maris otter and golden promise) and a quarter pound each of a few flavoring malts (victory, torrified wheat, and crystal 70/80) hopefully got the recipe in the ballpark of what I was looking for: a very small beer with an emphasis on hops but enough malt backbone to remain balanced and drinkable. Due to bad weather and my struggles with illness I brewed in a bag on my stovetop, only popping outside at the end to chill the wort. While half an ounce of commercially bought Goldings pellets were added for the full 60 minute boil to provide bitterness the fresh wet hops were added post-boil during the “whirlpool” around 150F and left in until the full chill and transfer to carboy had completed. While I slightly undershot my expected gravity and came in at only 1.030 I’m hopeful this will still be an enjoyable, if not overly expressive or impressive, beer. 

The hops smelled great off the vine, all three seemed pungent with classic pine and citrus hop goodness (though I had a sinus infection so I was working hard to smell much). After picking I found myself too tired to start the brew day so I packed them up and went back to bed. After sitting in ziplock bags in the fridge for a day they had changed a bit with the Goldings only really smelling of leaves and unripe fruit, maybe they were underripe? The comet had a bit of tropical mango aroma mixed with a floral, earthy, and grassy character reminiscent of a meadow, and the centennial carried aromas of tangerine, pine, and fresh cut grass. It was interesting to see what these fresh scents were like after having only experienced dried hops for so long and I was excited to see what, if any, of that character comes through in the beer.

Tasting notes:

Smell: Not strong on the nose but what does come through is nice: predominantly malt character of graham crackers, granola, and sugar cookies with more moderate yeast and hop notes giving a touch of orange peel, grass, and basil. Searching hard I also find some very subtle dried fruit/raisin character that may be from the crystal malt or a combination of factors.

Appearance: Surprisingly clear after a few weeks in the keg. Small very white head with nice bubbles lasts throughout. Head was larger previously but this hasn’t had any CO2 added in a while. Color is somewhere between a copper and gold depending on the glass and lighting. All around a very appetizing look to my sensibilities. Nice lacing shows as the glass empties.

Taste: Leads off very subtly but the malt, hops, and bitterness catch up and come through late in the swallow. The malt slightly leads with lightly toasted bread, honey, and graham cracker. This is followed by mild green/herbal/earthy notes that are reminiscent of black tea followed by a moderate bitterness that helps balance the subtle malt character and lead to a surprisingly long finish that includes characters from the malt, hops, and bitterness. The malt character builds some as I continue to drink but it all seems well I’m balance. None of these characters are strong but everything about this beer seems more interesting and characterful than a 3% abv has any right to be.

Mouthfeel: One of the things that initially jumps out, even when pouring, is that, as intended, this beer is very lightly carbonated. This probably wouldn’t appeal to a lot of American palettes but I find it very nice for letting the subtle flavors shine through. The body is fairly light but doesn’t feel too thin due to the low carbonation, moderately low attenuation, and maybe the torrified wheat.

Overall: I don’t think this is a great beer and most of the people who have tried it (albeit mostly non-beer drinkers) haven’t been very impressed. I don’t drink many ordinary bitters (in part due to them being very hard to find in the US) but I doubt this would be considered an exceptional example of the style. That said, this is a beer I’m extremely happy to drink and proud to have made. Nothing about the beer is necessarily exciting yet every time I pour a pint of it and raise it to my lips I find a big smile come across my face. Everything in the glass is enjoyable and balanced. The homegrown hops don’t exactly shine through but they seem well integrated with the malt and I’m happy with the decision to have used them here. Like some of the other pale British beers I’ve made over the years it’s a nice beer that I’m happy I made and my only real complaint is that I don’t have a nice dimple mug to quaff it from.

9/11/22
Brewday. No real notes beyond what's listed above.

9/15/22
Kegged with very little pressure (10PSI in several short bursts). Aiming for just over 1 vol CO2 for a cask-like effect. Beer is surprisingly flavorful but unfortunately it’s mostly malt flavor. A small herbal note but hard to tell if that is from the fresh hops. At worst this seems like a pretty enjoyable and ultra-low gravity drinker, if not the best expression of my homegrown hops.

9/16/22
Hit the beer with another short burst of CO2. Pours pretty well off the stout tap giving a nice big head and a lovely copper to gold body (lighter than it appears in the photo). A touch hazy but no complaints for less than a week grain to glass. Hops are still subdued compared to malt but there seems to be a lot going on for a 3% abv beer and overall it’s quite nice. One of those beers that makes me wonder why I don’t brew beers like this more often.

9/22/22
Found a few hops that were either missed during the harvest or were late bloomers. Added a comet cone to a glass of this beer, no obvious flavor impact but a fun visual.

 

9/28/22
Finally recovered enough to provide the full tasting above.

Summer Pils '22

Fairly clear after a few weeks on tap.
A Goldings hop plant can be seen
growing on the line behind the glass.

I've brewed a few takes on Pilsner over the years. With pale lagers dominating the worldwide beer market it's surprising how few of them are as good as the classic Pilsner Urquell. For this beer I am going very classic in using almost entirely pilsner malt split between two European maltsters with Sekado Czech Pilsner malt and Weyermann Bohemian Pilsner Malt and just a small amount of Carafoam to hopefully keep up the body and provide plenty of head, given the moderately low expected OG and FG (although it may not do this as well as advertised). As I've done with some other beers recently I planned to split this between two 3 gallon carboys, each with a different yeast (Whitelabs Czech Budejovice and re-pitched Wyeast Munich Lager). This approach was intended to give me the option to either blend the two at packaging, or package each separately to be able to determine my preferences of each strain separately. Unfortunately, neither yeast seemed to want to take off and I had to combine both onto a yeast cake used for a smoked Helles.

Tasting Notes:

Smell: Sweet grainy and honey-like malt with some herbal, vegetal, and slightly funky hop notes. Fairly mild. No diacetyl or DMS that I can detect.

Appearance: Light gold with a small fluffy white head that doesn’t have much retention but does leave nice lacing. Fairly clear but not crystal. When first on tap it was fairly hazy but time and low temperatures seem to have almost entirely cleared up the appearance.

Taste: leads with a honey and sweet malt flavor that transitions to a slightly herbal and spicy hop character that eventually finishes in a slightly vegetal and medium-low bitterness.

Mouthfeel: moderately low body and fairly low carbonation. This one was more carbonated but some issues with the kegerator led to temperature and pressure swings that it still hasn’t fully recovered from. Not flat but could use more bubbles, especially for this style.

Overall: a pretty nice easy drinking beer with a small amount more flavor than your average American lager. A few friends consistently chose this over the 3 other beers I had on tap a few days ago and I enjoy it quite a bit too. Not quite what I want in a “Czech Premium Pale Lager” in that it could probably be a touch bigger, a touch cleaner in the finish, a touch more carbonated, and a touch more bitter, but it’s an easy enough drinker that should help cool me down after mowing the lawn over the next few months.

6/12/22
Brewday. Getting a later start than originally planned after cancelling plans to brew then un-cancelling and moving forward with the process. Forecast had called for rain most of the day when I checked this morning but after a short shower it looks like it may have cleared up so I decided to brew. Measured and milled out 4 pounds of the Sekado malt, 5 pounds of Weyermann Bohemian, and 1 pound of Carafoam. First time hearing of the maltster Sekado so it will be interesting if it gives a different character to the Weyermann Bohemian that I am familiar with, though there's a good chance I wouldn't be able to tell without beers made with each being side by side. Out of the bag the Sekado is a touch toastier and drier/harder but otherwise has a similar slightly crackery but otherwise clean and plain-grain flavor that I expect from pils.

Mashed at 152F for 1 hour (had fallen to 150F by end). Ran off first runnings then batch sparged at 160F. Runoff smells lightly sweet, with grainy, honey, and slightly hay like notes which seems pretty good for a pils. Only ended up with 6.25 gallons after runoff but decided to not add a quarter gallon of water since it was also only reading 1.041 pre-boil OG giving ~1.046 estimated post-boil to 5.5 gallons which is less than intended.

I weighed out the hops based on my calculations before realizing that I had underestimated the alpha acid percent of this particular pack of Saaz (4.0% actual vs 3.3% predicted). Rather than use less hops I decided to move the first and second additions further back in the boil, possibly giving more flavor/aroma in addition to bringing bitterness down to the target amount.

After the 60 minute boil I cooled to 80F (outdoor ambient temp) and racked to two 3 gallon carboys. Ended up with only 5 gallons of wort at 1.053 OG. While this would have left the beer gravity/ABV/IBUs in the range of the style guidelines I had hoped for this to be on the lower end of alcohol and bitterness so I boiled, chilled, and added another quart of water to each carboy to bring the gravity down to 1.048 and hopefully keep the beer from being too bitter. Carboys were added to chest freezer set to 40F to chill down. After 2 hours the outside of the carboys was still reading over 65F so I decided to wait overnight for them to chill further.

6/13/22
Increased chest freezer temperature setting to 50F and pitched yeast.

6/15/22
After nearly 48 hours at 50F there's no signs of fermentation. Lager yeast are generally slower to kick off and show less activity, especially at this low of a temp with the wort having been around 40F when pitching, but I would have expected some bubbles in the airlock by now. I may have underpitched given the age of the yeasts and lack of a starter, but thought I would be able to get away with it since the beer wasn't particularly high in gravity and each pitch was only going to half a batch. Increased chest freezer temp to 55F to hopefully allow it to kick off. If there aren't signs of life tomorrow I might need to take more steps.

6/16/22
Very minimal signs of fermentation today with a few bubbles sitting on top and the very occasional bubble out of the airlock. Temp on outside of carboy is still reading 51F so it has retained the lower temperatures despite increasing the temperature controllers set point. My basement is in the low 60s and could have been even cooler over night so maybe it shouldn't be too surprising that the chest freezer and gallons of wort didn't warm up too much. I pulled the carboys out of the fridge to allow them to warm some. If no signs of life in the next few hours I will purchase additional yeast today to add to them. I usually try to have a pack of dry lager yeast on hand for these types of situations but used my last one on the smoked helles.

6/17/22
I didn't make it to the homebrew store to grab more yeast and the beer is still showing nearly no signs of fermentation so both carboys were combined in a 6 gallon carboy that previously held the Smoked Helles. In hindsight I should have washed the yeast cake and cleaned the carboy first to minimize the amount of smoke that carries over but with it having been a lightly smoked beer I am hoping it doesn't fully ruin the pils. Even if the smoke doesn't come through this beer could have some issues due to the time spent sitting and oxygen intake from racking it to a carboy at this point. The carboy was placed back in the chest freezer and temperature lowered back to 50F. A few hours later and it is now showing an active fermentation with a decent krausen.

6/22/22
Removed from chest freezer to allow to rise to room temp (currently 66F) for a diacetyl rest.

6/24/22
Pulled a sample to check diacetyl progress. Flavor and aroma are a bit strange: cracker and bitterness as expected but also earthy, fruity, and slightly funky notes. No diacetyl flavor (butter) but there is a bit of an unexpected thickness to it that could be from diacetyl and at 1.010 it shouldn't feel as thick as it does. It hasn't been lagered yet and is currently looking hazy so maybe there is just some yeast or other particulate in the sample that will settle out and clean up. Despite the lack of diacetyl flavor I'm going to give it another day at the warmer temps before lagering in hopes that the thick/slick sensation fades. This beer doesn't seem entirely ruined but doesn't seem like it's going to be a good pilsner.

6/27/22
Forgot to put this one back in the chest freezer for lagering until today. Plan to leave it in there set to 32F for the next few weeks. Likely kegging around the weekend of 7/16.

7/16/22
Kegged and placed in keezer at 12PSI and 42F. Saved yeast in two unmarked mason jars and set in refrigerator. Taste at kegging is less strange than when last tasted but still seems to have a slight weird graininess and doesn’t feel as cohesive as expected for a pils. It's possible this is due to the Sekado malt that I'm unfamiliar with, the extended time before fermentation kicked off causing oxidation or other effects, the use of yeast from a beer with smoke causing some of that flavor to transfer over, or something else entirely. The flavor is a bit hard to describe or pin down (especially given the moderate hop flavor and bitterness that are also present) and it isn't entirely off-putting but seems out of place in this style. Hopefully a little carbonation and some more time can improve the beer further but at least it seems to be drinkable at this point.

7/29/22
Tasting notes given above. This one has turned the corner and gotten a good response from most people who have tried it but suffered from undercarbonation at the one homebrew club meeting I brought it to a few days before the tasting. I'm pretty happy with it but would say it isn't quite as good as most of the other pilsners I've made.

Smoked Helles '22

Smoked Helles has become my go to spring beer since first brewing a split batch that included it several years ago. This year I got a later start on it than usual but still wanted to get one going to have it on tap for the summer. Something about the low levels of bitterness, moderate crackery and bready malt, and a noticeable sweet smoke character from cherrywood smoked malt makes this one a refreshing drinker in the warm weather. It will be interesting to see how the Sugar Creek smoked malt compares to the Briess that I've used in previous versions.

Simple smoked helles:

75% (7.5 lbs) Pilsner malt (Weyermann)

10% (1 lb) Cherrywood Smoked Malt (Sugar Creek)

10% (1 lb) CaraHell (Weyermann)

5% (.5 lbs) Vienna Malt (Weyermann)

Tasting Notes:

Smell: light sweet caramel and honey like malts up front. The smoke comes through more as I drink but is fairly restrained and enjoyable giving notes of fruity sweetness and a touch of pork barbecue. No noticeable yeast or hop derived aromas.

Appearance: bright gold with a large fluffy white head. Probably a little too much carbonation making the head larger than intended but it works. The head fades fairly quickly to a thin layer but that thin layer then lasts throughout. Clarity isn't crystal clear but very good given that there were no filtrations or finings used.

Taste: leads with a lightly sweet and grainy malt character giving cracker, bread, and breakfast cereal notes that then wash slowly into a mild sweet and very lightly smokey flavor that lasts through a light but refreshing bitterness.

Mouthfeel: dry and crisp. Carbonation is maybe just a touch high but this drinks very well. Body is just the right level to let the flavors hit the entire mouth before fading away.

Overall: a very enjoyable and refreshing beer that I could happily drink multiple half liters of. The smoke is fairly low but I go back and forth on whether I would like it to be higher. Any less and it should be left out entirely but any higher and it might dominate some of the subtler character that makes the beer so enjoyable and refreshing. Even with how much I like to tweak my brews I could definitely see making this exact same recipe again with no changes. This one is probably in the top 10 beers I’ve brewed but probably wouldn’t make my top 5.

5/11/22
Planned out a vacation day to recover from the previous night's awesome The Menzingers show and brew a beer.

Mill had a couple rusty spots. Attempted to clean but couldn’t fully get them off, hopefully it doesn’t come off/carry through in the beer.

Mash started at 154 but fell to 148 by end. Mashed out with 1 gallon at 180F, ran off then batch sparged with water at 180F to reach 6.5 gallons.

Surprisingly little smoke smell during runoff. Maybe I should have upped the amount of smoked malt but at least I have 9 more pounds left to work with.

Brought to boil and added 1 oz Hallertau Mittelfruh hops and boiled for 60 minutes with an addition of Irish moss at 10 minutes. Chilled with immersion chiller to below 80F, transferred to 6 gallon plastic carboy and placed in kegerator at 45F.

After 7 hours pitched one jar of Munich lager yeast previously used for Maibock.

12 hours after pitching (19 after brewing) increased chest freezer temp to 50F. Added 1 pack of Lallemand Diamond Lager Yeast 8 hours later.

5/13/22
After 48 hours still not seeing any signs of active fermentation so increasing chest freezer temp to 55F

5/22/22
Still slowly fermenting with a decent krausen, increased chest freezer temp to 60F

5/27/22
Fermentation looks complete with just a few yeast rafts on top. Began slowly cooling.

6/12/22
After about 2 weeks at 30F the beer is still looking similar with some small yeast rafts but seems to be clearing up and looks ready for packaging soon. Gravity measurement shows it down to 1.011. Taste is fairly clean but a touch lighter on the smoke than I would like and maybe a little thinner/more watery, but both might improve with carbonation and warmer serving temperature. Will likely keg sometime in the next week.

6/17/22
Transferred to keg and set in chest freezer at 50F.

6/19/22
Poured a small sample tasting. Surprisingly clean, the smoke just barely shows up in the nose when I search for it, otherwise taste and smell is mostly clean with light herbal and honey character. I would probably use at least twice this much smoked malt, possibly more, if making this recipe with the same ingredients again. Not bad but closer to a plain helles than a smoked anything.

7/15/22
Tasting day with notes above. After about a month in the keg this one is quite nice. Interested to see what 9 pounds of the smoked malt does on its own given how subtle it is at 10% of a batch. It seems to be a bit more subtle than other cherrywood smoked malts I've used but has a very nice character to it.

Summer/Sommer Ales

Originally designed as an all grain batch inspired by Heavy Seas old Summer Ale (later renamed Sea Nymph) that I enjoyed in the summer of 2011. For the malt bill (and much of the beer) I aimed for this to ride the line between an American blonde ale and an American wheat ale with about 20% wheat and just a small amount of light caramel malt. Sea Nymph appears to have been 4.5% abv which fits the idea of a blonde or American wheat, though other styles could also fit that profile. While Comet is likely not the hop used in that beer I think it’s citrus and tropical character should go well in small amounts to balance the malt. I had originally designed the recipe to be straight forward with 2-row, wheat, and caramel 20 as the ingredients so in changing to an extract version I aimed for something similar but used Carahell in place of the crystal 20 and replaced the 2-row and wheat malts with a blend of extra light and wheat dry malt extracts. Half the batch will be fermented with Omega Lutra kveik, a strain notorious for its lager like character, and the other half on the classic Fermentis SafAle US-05 American ale yeast. This should give me two variations on a Summer (or Sommer in Norwegian) ale.

This along with my previous and next brews that will be on tap this summer are intended to be fairly pale, moderate in alcohol, refreshing, and interesting without being overly strong in any way, allowing for quaffability and cooling off in the heat. The two other beers of summer '22 are a lightly smoked Helles (usually my spring beer) and a Czech Premium Pale Lager (aka Bohemian Pilsner). Most likely these three will be the only beers I have on tap for the upcoming summer months, though summer essentially started weeks ago with temperatures topping 90F here in Maryland. I guess you could say they're "lawn mower" beers, though maybe a bit more complex and interesting than your average one.

Compared to the slightly smoke forward helles and noble hop forward Pils this beer should round out the mix by being a little more fruity due to the yeast and the American hops. If I am able to find some extra time to brew an additional batch to join these it would likely be a saison/grisette or a simple quick sour, since both could be enjoyable light drinkers but also provide something different than these 3 offer. My next brew day following these 3 was used to get some long aged sours started, with some lagers also planned to be brewed later this summer that will likely not be ready until the fall, after The Beers of Summer are gone.

6/8/22

Brewed after work inside on stovetop due to storms outside. This beer is the first time brewing a stovetop batch in this house and first time in a while doing an extract with steeping grains.  Ran into a few unexpected issues, including needing to take the wort outside to chill since my immersion chiller didn't connect to the kitchen sink as it had in my old apartment and the boil off being much lower than on my usual burner leading to more than an extra half gallon of wort that was added to a 1 gallon jug and pitched with dregs from a bottle of Saison DuPont and dregs from a bottle of my homebrewed "Gotlandsdricke" made with Jovaru yeast. The Lutra version was transferred to carboy around 90F while US-05 batch was chilled to ~80F (as far as I could easily get it down to). The two ended up being blended some prior to pitching yeast and pitching was slightly delayed so the Lutra version was probably a little lower than 90 at time of yeast being added and US-05 may have been in the upper 70's. Both were covered with shirts to prevent light and left in basement in low 60F ambient temps.

6/9/22

Despite pouring a decent amount of wort from the carboys to the extra jug in order to give headspace in the carboys the Lutra version fermented so strongly overnight that it blew off its airlock less than 12 hours after pitching. That version was left to open ferment and slowly bubble over the top of the carboy for about 12 hours before seeming to calm down at which point the airlock was re-attached.

US-05 version was also bubbling away after 12 hours but not nearly as intensely, while the farmhouse yeasts version isn’t showing much sign of life even 24 hours later.

6/12/22

Basement has warmed up some along with the outside temps and is now hovering between the mid and upper 60s, which should be good for both versions of this beer as this is around the low end of recommended temperature range for Lutra and the middle of the range for US-05.

Lutra version is barely bubbling, opening the airlock gives smells slightly of yeastiness and the kveik "twang" that people sometimes mention with this strain (milk/yogurt/overripe citrus?). This batch is likely done fermentation but may need a few days to clean up. Gravity sample shows 1.013, sample tastes and smells more fruity, citrusy and refreshing than carboy smells. Not clear or clean so I would not call this very lager like at this point but definitely enjoyable.

US-05 version is still fermenting moderately with a large krausen, lifting the airlock gives aromas that are citrusy and pleasant, but probably needs at least a week to finish and clean up so I didn't take a gravity sample yet.

Farmhouse version is showing some signs of life with a decent layer of krausen, smell off the airlock is smoky, probably from the Gotlandsdricke dregs. It will be interesting to see whether the smoke persists strongly through to the finish but I have no real plans for this small amount of beer so if it's unenjoyable it will be easy to dump and if it is enjoyable it might get bottled or blended in with something else.

6/17/22

Kegged both versions. Probably should have waited on the US-05 as first pour is tasting yeasty and a bit strange. Lutra version also tastes a bit more yeasty and less lemony and refreshing than the previous sample but that may be due to the yeast getting stirred up and coming out in the first pour here. Kegerator set to 50F with 20 PSI.

6/19/22

Poured a small sample of each. Both have a bit of a pizza aroma: herbal (basil and savory) and bready (dough, yeast, crust). The Lutra version tastes more lemony and nice, not clean but a pleasant character. US-05 is less clear in appearance and the flavor is closer to the nose with herbal and slightly yeasty notes. Both versions are under carbonated at this point. Hoping with some more time they can clean up. Neither is necessarily unpleasant at this point but they don’t quite hit the notes I’m hoping for in a refreshing summer ale where I probably would have liked a little bit less body and more lemony citrus character.

7/16/22

Side by side tasting of both versions with image above. Despite some differences and pros and cons to each I’m not sure I have a preference on either version but am fairly happy with the beer overall and am happy to have a lightly fruity, fairly low ABV, and otherwise fairly unremarkable, beer on tap.

Sommer (Lutra kveik version)

Smell: orange peel, nondescript fruitiness, light honey, cracker, and wheat bread malt notes. Fruitiness and a touch of milk caramel note is more noticeable after a few sips.

Appearance: fairly opaque golden orange with a large white fluffy head with good retention. Not hazy like a NEIPA but very far from clear and even more opaque than the American Ale yeast version.

Taste: similar to the nose with moderate fruity and slightly citrusy notes blending with mild graininess. Finish is again slightly milk caramel with a touch of tropical fruit. Hard to discern yeast from hops. Bitterness is very low but just enough

Mouthfeel: medium low body with medium carbonation and a touch of creaminess. Pretty nice.

Overall: I would definitely not say that this yeast produces anything like a lager as it is advertised, but as a moderately neutral and very fast fermentor it did a solid job. Not the best beer and I may have actually enjoyed it more with more kveik character but it was an easy to produce and easy to drink brew.

Summer (US-05 version)

Smell: similar to Lutra version with fruit, light citrus, and malt but also some doughy and yeasty character and a touch of pine. As I drink it that classic American hop citrus and pine-like character comes out more and more. 

Appearance: fairly cloudy but I can see my fingers through the glass unlike the kveik version. Large white fluffy head with good retention.

Taste: less rounded than the kveik version with the hops coming through more noticeably (though not super strong) with pine and citrus. Bitterness seems higher with less sweet malt character noticeable and none of the milk caramel character.

Mouthfeel: medium low body with medium carbonation. Maybe a touch thinner than the other version but in a nice range for the style and makes for a light summer drinker.

Overall: not quite what I was going for with this beer but certainly enjoyable enough. This version has less fruit/tropical and sweet malt character than the kveik one but still has enough enjoyable notes to go back for more.

Alder Wood Smoked Beer(s)

I was recently extremely intrigued and inspired by the Chop and Brew episode on a beer made with 100% alder smoked malt. While I had kept up with Lars Garshol's blog for years, I had not thought a lot about Norwegian farmhouse styles since brewing a few beers with kveik a few years ago and had fallen behind on my reading. For one thing, I missed that Lars had released a book. For another, I missed how readily available many strains of kveik had become. Maybe what surprised me the most about the video though, was how there was suddenly the ability to buy malts made in the traditional Stjørdal style in the U.S. Within a day or two of watching the video I had placed an order with Sugar Creek Malt Co. and ordered Traditional Farmhouse Techniques so that I could set out on making a beer in this style for myself.

The book arrived first and it did not disappoint. An absolute page turner of history, culture, techniques, and ideas that, despite having read Lars' blog for years, felt new and exciting. I would easily put it in the top few beer/homebrewing books that I've ever read and feel that the information included, and the writing quality in terms of both style and clarity, are top notch. I tore through the book cover to cover and plan to go back to it again regularly.

Mash hops and the (non-traditional) juniper berries about to be added

When the malt arrived I was finally ready to make a Stjørdalsøl inspired beer and put together a very simple recipe of 9.5 lbs Stjørdal malt from Sugar Creek, 1.5 lbs of white sugar, and 1 oz of Hallertau Mittelfrüh. One half of the batch was fermented with a kveik strain (in this case Omega's Voss Kveik), making it (hopefully) close to a traditional Norwegian style. I had originally planned to ferment the other half with a lager yeast to make it closer to a traditional German Rauchbier to give myself a reference point for the flavor of the smoked malt, but after reading the book I was inspired to instead go with a Baltic (specifically Lithuanian) yeast strain in an effort to emulate a historical Gotlandsdricke. While Gotlandsdricke is a fairly different, and very geographically distinct, style it shares some commonalities in that it is a dark, smoked, farmhouse beer often made with juniper that was historically made with a farmhouse yeast so while this recipe might be farther from that style it should be in the ballpark. I had also wanted to try out the Jovaru yeast since it was first released but had not yet had an opportunity. Perhaps the most inauthentic part of this recipe was the use of Juniper berries rather than branches, but it was the closest thing I could easily procure and with the smoked malt being such a driver of the flavor I'm hopeful this won't cause a huge departure from the true flavors of these styles.

9.5 of the 10 pounds were used in this recipe
with the hope to save the last half pound for a future brew

Beautiful light brown color on the smoked
malt and a huge aroma that fills the room

Tasting Notes:

Appearance: Medium brown, very clear. Off white head of thick bubbles is thin but lasts for a while.

Smell: This one explodes out of the bottle with aroma: Very high levels of smoke reminiscent of campfires and smoked meats but also some medicinal and earthy/funky/farm-like aromas. There is some pine, wood, and a touch of toffee in the mix but it is mostly dominated by the smoke and phenol character.

Taste: Taste starts off with a toasty and sweet malt that it is quickly swept away with phenolic smoke. The smoke overwhelms and lingers but other subtle flavors show up throughout with moderate cherry-like fruit and some subtle pine and citrus peel. Finish is lightly piney and citrusy with plenty of smoke that lingers long after the sip.

Mouthfeel: Very low carbonation and moderate body give this a surprising creaminess. Drinks a bit like a cask beer and does not come off nearly as strong in alcohol as it is. No astringency though the smoke lingers in the mouth with the creaminess.

Overall: I'm not entirely sure this was what I envisioned this beer to taste like when reading or hearing descriptions of the style but I'm very glad I made it. The smoke is different and complex and interesting and the other characters seem to blend well. It's hard to know how much of the character comes from anything but the smoked malt but the yeast, hops, and juniper berries may have added a little of the fruit/pine/citrus complexity that work well. If this beer is at all close to the traditional style I can see why so many in the region are taking the effort to not only brew but also malt their grain, it's unlike anything else and extremely enjoyable. I don't know if I'll ever brew this exact recipe again but if I do the only things I would likely change would be to make it more traditional with juniper branches instead of berries and possibly removing the white sugar. I also would likely try a lager strain in place of the Jovaru version, but I should do a full tasting of that half before deciding.

1/29/22
Fittingly cold and snowy brew day for Nordic inspired beer(s). Milled 9.5 pounds of Stjørdal malt on my father's mill. Mashed in at 154F and added half an ounce each of hops and juniper berries. Ran off after an hour rest, added sugar to first runnings and stirred, then put on burner and began heating during sparge. Sparged at 180F, added second runnings to kettle and brought to boil. Added the second .5 oz. dose of hops after about 15 minutes of boiling then boiled for another 60 minutes before chilling. Chilled to low 80s, ran into two separate 3 gallon fermenters and pitched separate yeasts. Placed next to each other and wrapped in towels in a fairly cool basement; hopefully they can rip through fermentation before their temps fall too much.

2/6/22
Fermentation very slow if still active but still a thin krausen.

2/17/22
No noticeable fermentation, should probably be packaged by now but currently between houses and this is staying at my parents' house while my equipment is in storage.

3/2/22
Kegged in separate 3 gallon kegs. Taste of both pre-carbonation is very smokey and interesting. Camp fire, pine, cherry, and interesting fruitiness all come through in both with the "Gotlandsdricke" version being dryer and emphasizing the pine and a touch more spicy phenols. TBD whether I carbonate and serve on draft or transfer to bottles.

3/18/22
Bottled both halves. 2/3s of the Stjørdalsøl version was left with the very low (~5 PSI at room temperature) carbonation while the other 2/3s (labeled Stj) received one Cooper's carbonation drop. All of the Gotlandsdricke bottles (except for a couple of 12 oz bottles) received one carbonation drop.

3/23/22
Brought a bottle of each of the low carbonation versions to a DC Homebrewers meeting on 3/19 and one bottle of the low carbonated Voss version to a BADASS meeting. Very well received in terms of it being interesting but not a beer that everyone necessarily enjoyed. Both versions are aggressively smokey with some interesting pine and fruit character. I find the Voss/Stjørdalsøl version has more cherry and citrus while the Jovaru/Gotlandsdricke version is a touch drier and more phenolic, though some felt it was less smokey and very different from the Voss. The phenol level is so high that it occasionally comes across to me as medicinal and chloraseptic-like but in small pours the beer is highly interesting and enjoyable. Hoping to do a more thorough tasting in the future.

4/13/22
Tasting Night, tasting notes above. Tasting notes were done on a small bottle of the low carbonated version of the Voss/Stjørdalsøl version. I may revisit in the future with a higher carbonated bottle or the Gotlandsdricke/Jovaru version.

StarTropics ‘22

My dog enjoying play time during the brew day

Yet another rebrew of a recipe that I’ve enjoyed in the past. As with my last brew (Breakfast Stout) I attempted to aim for my favorite of the versions I had previously made but there’s no guarantee I’ll get the same results. This hazy/New England style IPA recipe has changed a lot over time but for this attempt I’m going back to the version that was co-crowd favorite at the DCHB BBQ at 3 Stars brewing many years ago. While I did make a blog post about that beer and have what seems to be the recipe (it was only labeled as StarTropics and I've lost most of my recipes over the years) I don’t have a lot of my notes, including the water profile, mash temperature, and the temperatures for the hop rest. I’m also not sure these were the exact hop additions used, including the ratios being different than I remember and the 60 minute hop addition seeming fairly large. With the hoppy saison I recently brewed already tasting more hoppy and bitter than expected I decided to lean towards a less hoppy recipe for this one and cut the 60 minute hop addition (in this case a first wort hop addition) from 1.5 oz to .5 and used the Comet I have on hand in place of Nugget. I considered cutting the boil hops entirely but did not want to stray too far from the previous recipe and didn't particularly care for the last no boil hop NEIPA I brewed.

Due to the lack of notes from that recipe I decided to take detailed brew day notes this time in case this batch also turns out particularly well (or to have a reference if there’s things to improve upon).

Tasting Notes:

This beer never fully turned around (detailed process notes below) but I'll do a full set of tasting notes anyway.

Appearance: Nice golden hue and substantial, but not offensive to my tastes, levels of haze. Finally pours with a small head though it recedes to a small ring fairly quickly. Looks the part of a hazy IPA in most ways.

Smell: Sweet overripe fruit (melon, papaya) and earthy, hay-like, sweet malt dominate with a light touch of citrus peel and pine.

Taste: Subtle fruity and dank characters lead with a big sweet malt middle finishing with a piney and herbal bitter ending. Touches of lemongrass, pine, earth, and melon throughout but none of the big, bold, tropical fruit character I would expect from the hops used. Adding the acid and calcium chloride seems to have knocked out most of the rough edges but may have also tampered down on the desirable hop characteristics.

Mouthfeel: Relatively low carbonation but moderate body, there's a lingering effect in the mouth that I believe is due to the calcium chloride but may also be from the oats or hops. While it could still probably use a little more carbonation it's not unenjoyable at this level.

Overall: A relatively disappointing beer. Far from the worst I've made but the hops just don't pop with the fruity, juicy, tropical character that they should and instead the overall impression feels a bit green and lackluster. Next time I will likely cut out the sugar and golden naked oats and use all 2-row rather than Maris Otter to keep the malt bill more straightforward (though I might add some wheat), shift to using more of the hops in the boil and late hop stand and filter more of the hops during the transfer to the carboy in order to reduce the grassy/green/polyphenol characteristics, and probably adjust the water chemistry to use less calcium chloride or at least less in proportion to the amount of gypsum. In the end I don't hate this beer and have no plans to dump it but it doesn't excite me like the best versions of my StarTropics recipes have.

3/18/22
Weighed and milled grain in preparation for brewing today. Collected 4 gallons and added 2g CaCl and 1g Gypsum for the mash water. I had planned to use twice as much of each but ran out of gypsum. I also collected another separate 4 gallons for the sparge and added a quarter campden tablet to each.

All grains for the mash bill mixed together

3/19/22
Brewday

Mashed in with 3 gallons of 180F strike water hitting my target 155F.

Hop smells from freshly opened 2021 hop pellet bags from Hops Direct:

Comet: Light pineapple and mango, some other tropical and citrus aromas. Light grassy and earthy aromas.

Citra: more pungent papaya and mango. More lemongrass than grass/earth.

Azacca: again similar with some light pineapple and red papaya. Lighter earth/grass than comet but not really the lemongrass of Citra.

Galaxy: very different. Still some pineapple and tropical fruit smells and lemongrass but with a pungent pine/dank/funk character

All 4 smell enjoyable and carry similar tropical fruit notes. After walking out of the room the hops were in then re-entering I was hit with a huge blast of tropical fruit hop aroma, hopefully some of this makes it into the beer.

After 55 minutes I added about 1 gallon of water at 180F to the mash, stirred and then let sit for 5 more minutes. After vorlauf first runnings were run into kettle with 8 oz Batey’s turbinado sugar and 0.5 oz Comet hops. Stirred occasionally to well mix sugar during run off. Added last 4+ gallons of sparge water to mash and let sit for a 5 minute batch sparge before running off. After about 15 minutes of running off the kettle had reached 6.5 gallons and was put back on the burner to boil.

Preboil gravity of 1.042. As with my last batch this is a touch lower than estimated but shouldn’t be too far off by the end of the boil (estimated 1.050 instead of the expected 1.055). 45 minutes into the boil I added the immersion wort chiller. 15 minutes later I cut the flame and began chilling.

Overshot chilling slightly at got down to 170F before realizing. Cut chiller and added first 3 oz hop dose. Let sit for about 25 minutes before returning. Temperature had fallen to 150F so I added the second hop dose and started the chiller again. Stopped chiller after about 5 minutes and let sit at 120 for another 10 minutes. After chilling to just under 80F wort was transferred to a 6 gallon carboy and a pack of Wyeast London Ale III pitched. OG measured as 1.052, just a touch below expected. I'll need to either tighten my mill or just slightly lower my efficiency expectations going forward. No filter was used when transferring from the kettle so this one has a lot of hop particulate, hopefully this only helps provide additional character and doesn't cause any issues.

3/20/22
Showing active signs of fermentation about 24 hours after pitching. Turbulent and brightly green in appearance, there is plenty of hops moving around in this one.

3/21/22
Still bubbling with a big krausen nearly taking up all the head space. May need to remove the bung temporarily if it gets any bigger. Inspecting the recipe further after brew day I recognized that the recipe shows only a 45 minute boil, so maybe the 1.5 oz of hops were used in the past batch but not boiled for a full hour, if so this beer should be lower in bitterness than that batch.

3/22/22
Bubbling has slowed, may be in part due to the ambient temperature cooling off some. Still a large krausen though not as voluminous as yesterday.

3/24/22
Gravity at 1.017 so it should still have a little ways to go. Taste is a bit harsh and more bitter than expected but not terrible. Hoping the harshness is just due to the amount of yeast and hop particulate in the sample at this point and fades with another week or so of fermenting and some conditioning. Added the first dry hop dose directly to the carboy.

3/28/22
Gravity down to 1.012 which is the expected FG. Taste is alright but more piney and astringent than desired without the level of tropical fruit character intended. I might keg this one sooner than expected to get it off the hop material, although I do plan to add keg hops.

3/29/22
Added 1g CaCl boiled in 100mL of water and 2mL 88% lactic acid. The acid addition was inspired by this post from Scott Janish showing a possible reduction in the grassy and astringent bitterness character when pH is reduced. I'm hoping these additions improve the beer but I intentionally went fairly low on each as I can always add more during or after kegging.

3/30/22
Transferred to keg in 31F keezer with last 3 oz. dose of hops in a stainless steel tube. Taste is a bit muted and overly harsh but not terrible. Hopefully some time at cold temperatures will help it clean up and the keg hops can add some brightness but I don’t think this one is going to fully turn around.

4/2/22
Was able to serve this at a housewarming party. Probably the least popular of the 4 beers on tap and definitely a bit undercarbonated. Not bad but not a particularly good hazy. We'll see what a little more time and carbonation does for it.

4/12/22

Tasting date, tasting notes above.

Maisonette ‘22

After recently moving to a new house back on the east coast it seemed like a good idea to do a simple, easy, tried and true recipe for my first batch in a new environment and with new equipment. While most of my brewing gear from San Francisco made the trip with me I now have a yard and so am able to brew outside on a burner again for the first time in about 5 years. In addition to buying a Bayou Classic burner I also needed to adjust to other variable including a new (leaky) hose for providing water to the wort chiller, a new location for fermenting, and a new-ish water source (still WSSC water so it should be similar to what I used at my parents’ house)

In addition to a few new variables I also chose to make this specific recipe due to being super busy moving in and preparing my new house. In addition to brewing this beer today I am also building the collar for my keezer, assembling a grill, prepping for painting, and moving furniture in multiple rooms this week. Productive but exhausting work that only left room for an extract brew day with minimal interaction.

The recipe is pretty similar to a doubled volume version of the very first batch I made of this beer: dry malt extract, mosaic hops, saison yeast. One big change is that in the first version I made it used only about one third wheat DME whereas this really upped the wheat content with 100% Briess Bavarian Wheat DME. It will be interesting to see how this beer turns out with this high of a wheat content, I expect it to be fine but maybe not quite as enjoyable as the ~20% I usually aim for.

Tasting Notes:

Appearance: Light gold with moderate haze. Large white head with great retention. Looks somewhere between where this beer usually falls and a classic hefeweizen, darker and hazier than ideal but within range for a farmhouse style beer and pretty appealing all around.

Smell: Fruit and spice from the yeast dominate giving an even balance of banana and bubblegum with Christmas/baking spice aromas of clove and allspice. Moderate malt presence then shows with sweet honey and breakfast cereal character. Hard to pick up the hops specifically but the mosaic character seem to be just there, blending into the fruit and spice character giving slight berry and herbal characters.

Taste: Fruity up front with banana/bubblegum/berry character that quickly blends into a mix of honey-like malt notes, leafy bitterness, and a lingering peppery and clove like spice that lasts into the finish. As it warms the Mosaic hop character comes out a little more but is still largely drowned out by the pepper/clove and banana from the yeast.

Mouthfeel: Moderately low in body and moderately high in carbonation, keeping this one very drinkable. There is a touch of astringency in the finish but it isn't off putting.

Overall: This beer is a fine grisette/saison but lacks some of the subtlety of yeast character and complexity of hop character I go for with this recipe. The hops don't show through to the normal level I look for and the yeast seem to have produced both more clove like esters and more banana/bubblegum than the more subtle "Juicy Fruit"/Chamomile/pineapple characters I aim for. Part of that may be the temperature conditions being lower than expected in the beginning then fairly high, and part of it may be due to adding the hops at warmer temperatures in the hop stand than usual. Next time I will likely go back to all grain, cut down the wheat percentage to my usual ~20% and add most or all of the post boil hops closer to 140F. 

3/6/22
Brewday:
Measured out 6.5 gallons of tap water, added half a campden  tablet, then began heating on my new bayou classic burner. Added DME and stirred as much as possible until dissolved. Added .35 oz mosaic hops at boil. Added 1 oz at flameout and began cooling. After ~10 minutes stopped cooling and added another 1 oz hops at ~180F. Let sit for 10 minutes before cooling again. Added 1 oz at 150F and stopped cooling again for ~20 minutes. Cooled to 95F and moved to 2 separate 3 gallon carboys, each with half of remaining .65 oz of hops. Pitched half a pack of Wyeast Belgian Saison in each. Plan to add Wyeast French Saison to dry it out after giving the Belgian Saison a few days to create character.

3/11/22
Pitched an inflated pack of Wyeast 3711 French Saison split into each carboy. Yeast appeared to still be active but very slow. Ambient temperatures are far below ideal for saison strains in the low-mid 60’s.

3/16/22
Still showing slow signs of fermentation. The beers were placed next to the actively fermenting oatmeal stout in hopes the heat generated by those carboys would help kick start these but while those are overflowing with yeast activity these continue to just very slowly bubble with a thin layer of krausen.

3/17/22
Hydrometer reading shows this is only down to about 1.030 so it has hardly fermented. Taste is very sweet with a surprisingly high hoppy bitterness. Moved to an upstairs bedroom at around 72F (instead of the 62-64F basement). Hopefully the warmth re-ignites the fermentation but if not I'll probably add a yeast more capable of fermenting at the cool to moderate temperatures in a few days.

3/21/22
Gravity reading shows this has fallen to 1.015 so the higher heat definitely seems to have helped, but it should have a few more points to go. Sample is very tasty with lots of juicy fruit gum and grainy sweetness finishing with a pronounced but not overly strong bitterness. I don't think this will be one of my best batches yet but has shaped up nicely over the past few days and should be ready to keg soon.

3/24/22
Bubbling very slowly, seems about ready to keg.

3/26/22
Gravity down to 1.014, doesn’t seem to be going any further. Transferred both carboys to a single 5 gallon keg. Didn’t do a great job avoiding the trub and got more yeast and hop particulate than desired, hopefully that will settle out. Set keg to 10 psi in keezer at 32F.

3/27/22
Increased PSI to 15 and keezer temp to 40F.

3/30/22
Dropped temp back down to 33F and lowered PSI slightly. Seems fairly well carbonated. Taste is fairly fruity but a bit more bitter, rough, and hazy than usual. I think the higher percentage of wheat and adding a large amount of the hops as high as 180 may be part of the issue. Hoping a couple more days at cold temps clears some things up but doesn't seem like a bad beer as is.

4/2/22
Probably the most or second most popular of the 4 beers on tap for a housewarming party. Overall it's not my favorite version of this beer but is definitely a Saison with fruity and spicy characters and a touch of the things I like most about Mosaic hops.

4/13/22
Tasting night, notes above.

Breakfast Stout '22

Full pour off the stout tap

I've brewed several versions of an oatmeal stout in the past, usually with very good results. For this batch I decided to repeat the coffee version that I made in my second attempt for a nice breakfasty stout. This recipe is extremely similar to Yooper's Oatmeal Stout and it's easy to see why that's such a popular recipe. The differences between the recipes are that I have increased the amount of oats and switched from flaked to rolled, cut the flaked barley, replaced the chocolate malt with more pale chocolate, added a small dose of Golden Naked Oats, and changed the yeast. Ok, that seems like a lot but I think the essence of the beer is probably still very similar to that recipe.

I did make a mistake when ordering for this batch and bought crystal 60 instead of 80 and this will probably lead to a little more sweetness and less dark fruit character but should still make for an enjoyable silky smooth stout. This is my first all-grain batch at my new house/with my new setup so repeating a previously enjoyable recipe should help me continue to dial-in my processes.

Tasting Notes:

Appearance: Pours jet black with some mocha and garnet highlights in the light, so it's not entirely opaque. Large off-white to tan head off the stout tap. Looks like a solid stout.

Smell: Coffee up front with a blend of roast, ash, chocolate, and a light green pepper note. Hard to pick out other characters from the coffee since they are also mostly coffee/chocolate/roast but there is some toffee and graham cracker sweetness. No noticeable yeast or hop derived aromas.

Taste: While the roasty characters of chocolate/coffee/burnt marshmallow dominate the coffee is less apparent here and blends in more to the toffee/caramel sweetness and blend of earthy and subtly vegetal/fruity notes. There is a bit of a medium malt/oatmeal character in the middle before finishing with a slightly acidic and moderately bitter finish that is both coffee like and vegetal.

Mouthfeel: Fairly thick and smooth with moderately low carbonation. In a lot of ways the mouthfeel seems to be where it should be but the finish feels long and awkward rather than silky and enjoyable, possibly due to the calcium carbonate additions.

Overall: Not the best oatmeal stout I've made but it has certainly improved a lot over time. With the other half of this batch still sitting in the carboy and having not received the coffee, oak, or mineral additions I am interested to see how that compares and if what I had earlier perceived as issues were merely due to drinking it too young. If I were to brew this again I would probably switch back to the WLP002 or similarly clean English yeast, switch the Magnum hops for Target or another English variety, and maybe reduce the golden naked oats to simplify the malt bill. I also won't use the Trader Joe's Colombia Supremo coffee again as I found this batch to not be great in this beer or when drinking my morning cup of joe.

3/13/22

Weighed and milled malt in preparation for brew day.

3/14/22
Brewday:

Scheduled a vacation day to be able to recover from a busy weekend/week/month and also to get an extra chance to brew. Collected 4 gallons of tap water in two separate pots, added a quarter Campden tablet to each and began heating one for initial mash in. Missed mash in temp hitting only ~148F with the first ~3.5 gallons of 170F water but added about half a gallon of boiling water after 5 minutes to bring up to 156F. Ran off slowly after 1 hour while heating sparge water to 170F. Used the first half of sparge water on a fly/hybrid sparge that was added while first runnings were still running off. Put pot holding first ~4.5 gallons of first/second runnings at 1.052 OG onto burner and performed batch sparge with last ~2 gallons of sparge water. OG of last runnings was 1.027, giving a combined pre-boil OG of ~1.044, a little lower than expected but not terrible (depending on the boiloff this would give an efficiency in the low 70% range rather than the near 80% anticipated).

I had a slightly smaller amount of Magnum hops than anticipated (.6 oz rather than .75) but added them pre-boil to try to get the maximum extraction of alpha acids. Given the slightly lower gravity this beer appears to have and the slightly higher alpha acid content of the hops (14.8 vs 12.6) the smaller amount of hops might be better for balance.

Refractometer measured OG of 1.057 ended up being only a touch below expectations. I find the pre-boil often measures much lower than expected when measuring pre-boil and post-boil OG and so I generally don't make any adjustments based on the pre-boil gravity.

3/16/22
One carboy blew its bung and was allowed to open ferment. About 12 hours later I found the other carboy's airlock had overflowed with krausen. Clearly this is a traditional top fermenting yeast and needed more room than provided in each carboy. I cleaned, sanitized, and re-applied the airlocks and bungs to each but placed on loosely so they could easily be pushed out by the yeast if it again gets that active.

Not sure how this photo got in here but I do love Spanish Love Songs and saw them the night before brewday so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

3/17/22
Fermentation activity seems to have calmed down. While one bung was dislodged overnight the krausen on both carboys has fallen back down and the bungs were re-inserted fully. Still a decent sized layer of thick yeasty krausen and plenty of bubbling in the airlock but not nearly as active as 24 hours earlier.

3/22/22
Gravity reading shows 1.013, slightly lower than expected. Taste is a little astringent and muddled, hoping it just needs some time to settle down.

3/26/22
Gravity still showing 1.013. Less yeasty taste in the sample but still a bit astringent, with some acrid ashy roast. I probably should have capped the mash with the roasted malt but hopefully it’s not too aggressive once carbonated. Added .25 oz Peet’s Major Dickason’s Blend and .5 oz Trader Joe’s Colombia Supremo to one carboy along with 1.2 oz of boiled oak cubes. Should be ready to keg in a couple of days. Unlikely to get much oak character in that short amount of time but hoping it will help to round it out a bit.

3/28/22
Transferred coffee version to keg. Coffee aroma is fairly strong but coffee flavor is a little subdued. There’s still some astringency and acidity that I assume is from the dark malts in the mash and not adjusting water chemistry. To try to resolve these issues I added the coffee and oak to a mesh bag and added it to the keg. I also boiled 4g Chalk (CaCO3) and 1g Calcium Chloride in 1 cup of water and added it to the keg. Will taste from here and remove the coffee when flavor seems right and add additional water salts if needed.

4/2/22
One of the four beers on at a housewarming party. Not the most liked by most but a few people enjoyed it. The coffee does seem pretty strong at this point and the off characters seem to have subsided (or been hidden).

4/7/22
Tasting day.
Not part of the tasting but I will note that the Intertap stout faucet seems to work about as expected causing a lot of the carbonation to be released during the pour. While this give a good looking pour that resembles a nitro stout, reduces the carbonation in the beer for a good mouthfeel, and produces a big (usually too big) head, there are some downsides to the faucet. My main issue with it is that the design of it seems to cause a lot of beer to stay trapped inside leading to a large amount of splashing and dripping later on when it does finally fall out. While this isn't a huge deal it does seem to cause more lost beer and more of a mess than the other Intertap faucets that I am otherwise very happy with. Probably more of a novelty than something I'll regularly use, I did this tasting with a beer poured off the stout faucet but might change it up in the future to see how much of an effect it has.