En Zed - New Zealand Pils

Brewed at Maryland Homebrew during their Big Brew for National Homebrew Day. Having to clean all of the equipment, prep ingredients, and pack everything into the car the night before then drive to a location before brewing made this one of the most difficult brews I’ve done. On the other hand it was one of the smoothest brewdays since I had already prepped and measured out everything, including milling the grains, having each hop addition weighed out and separated into bags with addition times listed, and having the carboy, airlock, and transfer tube sanitized and ready to go.

The New Zealand Pilsner recipe I created is also fairly straightforward with 10 pounds of malt (90% Weyermann Pilsner and 10% Weyermann Carafoam) and 3 hop additions, each split equally between Nelson Sauvin and Southern Cross. The Nelson hops gave an interesting aroma of white wine fruitiness but also more dank and musty aroma than I'm used to while the Southern Cross gave more classic new world hop aromas of citrus and pine. I haven’t used Southern Cross before so it will be interesting to see what this blend gives in the beer. I used filtered water off of MDHB’s hose, hopefully that gives similar results to using my campden treated tap water. I did acidify both the mash and sparge, with 20 mL of 10% phosphoric acid in the mash and 5mL in the sparge.

Early in the Big Brew day at Maryland Homebrew

For the most part brewday went off without a hitch and I was able to enjoy some nice homebrews and craft beers while chatting with others at the event. I finished with 5.5 gallons of wort at ~1.046 (I forgot to take a final gravity reading but about halfway through the boil it was around 6 gallons at 1.042), just a touch under my intended gravity but it should work well enough in this style.

After the boil the beer was chilled to 175 and the last hop addition was added. After about 20 minutes the temp had fallen to 160 and I started the chiller again to bring it down the rest of the way. Once the wort reached ~75F I transferred to a 6 gallon better bottle and placed it in the car.

After finishing cleanup (and trying a few more beers) I headed home and placed the carboy in the chest freezer at 50F and attached the temperature probe to the carboy. Checking on it late that night it had reached 52F so I pitched the yeast cake of Imperial Yeast Harvest from my Malt Harvest Pilsner.

Tasting:
Smell: moderate citrus, grass, and pine from the hops mingle with moderately-low bready malt.

Appearance: pale gold, just a touch darker than straw. Moderate white head shows moderate retention as it lasts throughout and leaves great lacing.

Taste: Hoppiness leads with grapefruit, pine, white grape, and herbs, middle is lightly sweet and bready with a hard to describe harshness and slickness that then transitions to a very lightly fruity finish with moderately high bitterness that lingers with a citrus rind character.

Mouthfeel: the beer is mostly clean and crisp but seems to have some light astringency and maybe a slight diacetyl slickness in the middle, though neither are offputting or entirely out of style for a pilsner. Drier than expected/intended but well carbonated.

Overall: after a week in the Balkans drinking lots of pale lagers this beer is both similar and very different to European Pilsners. The fruitiness and bitterness are both nowhere near IPA levels but much higher than a standard pils, but the malt character and even some of the roughness in the middle are very similar to continental pale lagers, especially a few Croatian and Slovenian Pilsners I had last week. Part of me wants this to be a cleaner, less fruity beer and another part wishes I had used fruitier hops and dry hopped it. I’m not sure if the beer is to style or not as I don’t remember having a New Zealand Pilsner when I visited New Zealand but it certainly seems to fall within the right range and it’s a perfectly drinkable beer but it doesn’t quite pop as being “New Zealand”-y or “Pilsner”-y to me. Were I to brew this style again I would likely use less boil hops, more post-boil hops (including some dry hops) and replace the more American seeming Southern Cross with a more tropical or white wine like hop (e.g. Motueka, Galaxy, or just more Nelson).

5/7/23: bubbling away nicely with a large dense white krausen. Hoping to turn this one around in about two weeks so I’ll need to do a quick lager method and get this one to the point of a diacetyl rest by next weekend.

5/11/23: gravity down to 1.024. Tastes pretty good though it has a fairly high sulfur smell, likely from the lager yeast though the Nelson's mustiness might also be adding to it. Very hazy at this point but it is still fermenting. Moved out of keezer and onto basement floor with ambient temperature measuring around 64F. Will leave here for a diacetyl rest until fermentation completes.

5/15/23: gravity reading shows 1.009, a few points lower than expected FG, even after taking into account the lower OG. Less hazy though still far from clear. Flavor and taste are largely unchanged, still somewhat sulfury with a moderate fruity and bitter hop character. I'm a little worried that what I've been thinking of as sulfury is potentially light-struck/skunked character due to the carboy sitting out in the sun for a while before packing up and taking it home. There seems to be disagreement over whether wort can be light-struck but either way there's nothing to be done about it now but wait and see. Will likely move to the chest freezer for a cold crash in the next day or two and keg by this weekend. The planned dry hop addition will likely be added to the keg, if at all. I also might split some of this batch off onto vegan ice cream powder for a club competition.

5/21/23: kegged and placed in chest freezer at 30PSI and 32F. Plan to decrease CO2 and increase temperature over next few days.

Ube Ice Cream version

5/22/23: CO2 lowered to 12PSI yesterday and temperature increased to 40F. Carbonation is a little low but getting close and I don't want to overcarbonate.

Blended 4 oz. Shivery Shack vegan ice cream powder, 1 tsp. ube extract, and a quarter campden tablet with 1 pint of water in a blender, poured it into a keg, then racked two gallons of this beer into the keg. I'm calling the result a Pacific Island Purple Ice-Cream Pilsner. Flavor is interesting, with more of the base pils showing through than expected but still lots of fruit, vanilla, and sweetness from the adjuncts. Appearance is fairly absurd and mostly reminiscent of a blueberry smoothie. The beer tied for second in a club competition of beers made with vegan ice cream powder.

5/23/23: Base beer appears to be just about carbonated now. Aroma and flavor are fruity with some grapefruit, grass, pine, and white grape, but the character has started to fade. There is also some sulfur character still lingering and the bitterness is a touch harsher than I would like but both seem to have rounded out some with the carbonation.

6/6/23: tasting notes of the base beer above.

6/10/23: decided to finally add the dry hop addition to the keg

6/15/23: hops seem to have caused some hop creep and diacetyl so I’ve pulled this from the chest freezer to hopefully clean it up.

6/19/23: moved back to chest freezer. Still light diacetyl but back into a similar range it was previously in.

6/24/23: this one kicked as I filled a growler for a homebrew club meeting. Pretty well received, I saw a few people go back for seconds.

Cherry Tree - Smoked Lagers

I’ve probably had the idea of making a beer that uses both cherries and cherrywood smoked malt for over a decade but never actually went through with it. After purchasing 10 pounds of cherrywood smoked malt nearly a year ago and only using a pound of it in my Smoked Helles, I finally decided to take the plunge. For this recipe I decided to go with a super simple SMaSH recipe: 9 lbs Sugar Creek cherrywood smoked malt, 1 oz. hallertau mittelfruh, and a lager yeast. I only added the cherry fruit to part of this beer at secondary in order to have both a fruited and unfruited version.

Tasting:

Unfruited Version:

Appearance: Pours a nice light golden color, with a white medium sized head that fades somewhat quickly but leaves a small solid layer (the photo is about 5 minutes after pouring). Slightly hazy, not entirely surprising with a bottle conditioned beer and I may have not poured quite as cleanly as I could.

Aroma: The sweet, fruity, and phenolic notes that I associate with cherrywood smoke stand out but this is a fairly subtly smoked beer compared to many rauchbiers. Light grainy and honey malt sweetness from the malt and a very low note of sulfur from the yeast also appear. Not surprisingly the hops aren’t noticeable on the nose.

Taste: Sweet neutral malt leads the way followed by moderate smoky phenols and some fruitiness from the smoke. Finish is just lightly bitter with a lingering fairly light smoke character. Some would definitely find this very smoky but compared to other smoked beers it isn't very strong.

Mouthfeel: Medium low in body with medium carbonation, could maybe be a little more carbonated but I like it for this beer. The smoke phenols seem to linger and tingle the tongue and pull at the back of the throat a bit in the finish and aftertaste but I find it more refreshing than off-putting.

Overall: I’m extremely happy with this beer. The smoke is noticeable but not overpowering and I find it extremely drinkable and thirst quenching. I lost track of taking notes during this tasting as I kept just going back for more. The cherrywood smoked malt from Sugar Creek might be the least smoky smoked malt I’ve used but the character it does have is very enjoyable. This is the 4th time I’ve made some version of a smoked helles using cherrywood malt and it’s pretty clear why I keep coming back to that idea - it’s tasty. That said, less of the smoke character, a slightly thinner body, and a touch more carbonation would put this more in line with what I want out of a lightly smoked pale lager.

Fruited on the left, unfruited on the right

Cherry Fruited Version:

Appearance: Slightly orange/pink tint from the cherries. Head was very small and white and quickly faded to just a small ring. Haze is a touch higher than the unfruited version though that may have just been this pour.

Aroma: Light cherry is the dominant note. While the fruit isn’t strong the smoke is much subtler than in the unfruited version and I have to search hard for it. The light cherry aroma also seems to block the yeast and malt derived aromas as well, though I can just find some grainy sweetness when really trying. As it warms the fruity cherry aroma shows up more and more and phenolic smoke fades even further.

Taste: Moderate cherry flavor fills the mouth. Finish is lingering with just a touch of bitterness and phenolic character. While the cherry character isn’t strong it seems to dominate everything else and what does come through seems more like an off note to the cherry than smoke. The aftertaste has a strange tongue coating sensation that is likely the phenols but there still isn’t a smoky taste.

Mouthfeel: Similar medium level of body as the unfruited version but with a little less carbonation. This is probably due to using the same amount of priming sugar in this batch despite it being slightly larger. Higher carbonation would probably improve a few things, including the head and the ability for the smoke and fruit to pop more, but it’s not totally flat.

Overall: Not bad in any way and for a weird beer experiment that’s probably a win but this one doesn’t quite work. The fruit doesn’t so much compete with the smoke as the cherry flavor subdues any smoke into submission, making it seem more like a slightly strange cherry beer than a smoked beer with cherries. If I were to attempt this again I would likely use less cherries per gallon and/or a more prominent smoked malt. Using both more fruit (cherries or otherwise) and a much smokier malt (e.g. the stjordal style malt) might also be a fun experiment.

12/17/22 Brewday:

Ran into some issues milling as the battery on my drill overheated at one point, then the battery died after cooling down and had to be recharged. Dealing with this caused me to spill some grain and likely caused a slightly higher amount of the malt bill than usual to go uncrushed. Last pound or so of grains were milled and added once the battery had recharged, about 10 minutes after the initial mash in.

Treated 5 gallons water with a quarter campden tablet. Mashed in initially at 148F before adding boiling water about 5 minutes later to raise mash temp to 157F. Temp had fallen to 150F after an hour which is more of a drop than usual but I added some of the grain later, it’s cold out, and I stirred several times. First runnings gave 3.5 gallons wort with gravity measuring 1.051.

Batch sparged with 3 gallons campden treated water at ~120F giving 1.020 second runnings and a combined 6.5 gallons at 1.041

Wort had moderate smoke and barnyard aromas, not nearly as strong as when I made the 100% Stjordal smoked beer and with a very different character of barnyard, fruit, and breakfast cereal in addition to phenolic spicy smoke.

Ran into a few issues during the brewday, including the propane running out at some point during the boil when I wasn’t watching so I boiled for an additional 15 minutes after switching tanks.

After cooling to 60F the wort was transferred to a 6 gallon carboy and placed in a chest freezer set to 50F with the temperature gauge attached to the outside of the carboy. After 3 hours the temperature probe was reading 50F and I pitched a pack (12g) of Cellar Science "German" dry yeast which I have not used before but appears to be their version of W-34/70.

12/18/22: Increased temperature to 53 as there haven't been any real signs of fermentation after nearly 48 hours.

12/19/22: Still no real signs of fermentation more than 48 hours after pitching and I'm a little worried. The yeast packet recommended rehydrating, which I didn't do, and also recommends fermentation temperature of 54-62°F which is higher than it has been for most of the past few days. Gravity sample shows it is down to 1.040 which is down from the original gravity that was around 1.050. Increased chest freezer temperature to 55F to try and get it to really kick off fermentation. Taste of the gravity sample is good, fairly strong but not overly overpowering or phenolic in the smoke character but also with a lot of sweetness that needs to ferment out. Will be interesting to see how this one changes once fermentation really kicks in.

12/20/22: After a night at the slightly higher temperatures a nice layer of krausen and airlock activity show that this one is fermenting strongly now. Dropped the temperature by a degree to 54F, plan to slowly drop it further over the next week.

12/21/22: Dropped temperature to 52F. Still fermenting strongly.

12/22/22: Dropped temperature to 50F. Still showing strong signs of fermentation. Gravity reading at 1.028.

12/23/22: moved out of chest freezer to an area of the basement near a door where temperatures are measuring between the upper 50s and low 60s. Plan to leave for diacetyl rest/completion of primary fermentation before returning to the chest freezer for lagering.

12/29/22: 

Cherry version on the left, still transferring unfruited version on the right

Racked about half of the batch onto 3 lbs of Oregon Red Tart Cherry puree in a 3 gallon carboy and the remainder into a separate 3 gallon carboy. Plain version was placed in fridge at 32F to lager while the other version was left at room temperature to allow full fermentation of the fruit.

1/16/23

Racked unfruited version into bottling bucket with 1.8 oz table sugar boiled in 1/4 cup water. First time bottling in nearly a year and first time using a bottling bucket in as long as I could remember.

1/26/23

Followed the same bottling process as the unfruited for the fruited version. Tasting pretty nice with noticeable but not intense Cherry and drying phenolic smoke still coming through. Cracked open a bottle of the unfruited version - undercarbonated and still a touch sweet but very enjoyable with only moderate phenolics at this point. Will be interesting to taste both side by side once carbonated.

2/6/23: Brought a bottle of each to a bottle share where they were both pretty well received.

3/7/23: Tasting notes above.

4/2/23: The unfruited version of this beer received a 36 and placed first in the Wood and Smoke beer category at the DC Homebrewers Cherry Blossom Competition. I'm not entirely shocked to see this do well as a Smoked Helles in a BJCP competition, it was tasty, clean, and with a noticeable but not abrasive smoke character. One judge noted that more breadiness would help with the balance, and I think they have a good point and will likely use some Vienna malt in addition to less smoked malt the next time I make a smoked helles.

5/3/23: This beer didn't place in the Smoke, Historic & Wood Beer category of the BURP Spirit of Free Beer competition scoring a 20!? :The scoresheets don't really make sense, claiming a clorophenol(?) character that I don't get at all. While this beer is smokey for a smoked helles, and definitely has some smoke phenols, it is not an extremely smokey beer (like the Stjordalsol was) and I also don't get any of the faults the judges noted. It's tough when entering a beer in these types of styles because some people's taste thresholds are very different, as seen by the polar opposite scores this beer received in the two competitions. It's possible the beer is dropping off in quality after a few months but after having a bottle tonight I would still consider it very good.

10/27/23: had a bottle of the unfruited version for the first time in a while and it is still really drinkable. It has also gotten extremely clear at this point, by far the clearest bottle conditioned beer I’ve made. Really a nice beer that I may brew again at some point, even if I go closer to my regular smoked helles next time.

Maisonette ‘23 - Mosaic Grisette

Appearance: Fairly hazy light gold color with a nice fluffy white head of small bubbles with good retention. Pretty much exactly what I’d expect in a saison.

Smell: Earth, spice, pine, citrus. Slightly more herbal (oregano/sage) and earthy/grassy than the floral and fruity chamomile and juicy-fruit gum I would ideally get. There are light elements of those fruit/flower components and enough white pepper to clearly be a saison though.

Taste: Leads with a moderately grainy malt flavor that then segues into some light juicy-fruit and pear like fruitiness with some grassy and herbal hop bitterness and moderate peppery phenols at the finish.

Mouthfeel: Moderate body and carbonation, surprising how full it feels given the low finishing gravity, though the yeast may have produced some glycerol that gives that effect. The carbonation being less than very high also doesn’t help the body and may be the biggest fault this beer has as far as a saison.

Overall: I’m not surprised this beer didn’t do well in one competition - while it’s a beer I like a lot, the mosaic hops always seem to cause confusion when this is entered as a saison. That said, I’m happy with the beer and find it to be similar to a lot of previous batches I’ve made, though not the best examples. There was a short period when the hop aromas had just started to fade where this beer seemed to be at the edge of what I’m aiming for but I now have to search hard for the floral and fruity characters I’d like to see pop here.

Notes for the future: I’ll likely go back to a Pilsner or Pale Ale Malt base for future batches and won’t necessarily go back for spelt over malted or unmalted wheat, I also think dialing back the wheat/spelt percentage would probably be a good idea. The Napolean and Rustic yeasts seemed to work really well here and I wouldn’t hesitate to use them again, although I might aim for a slightly higher fermentation temperature to increase the fruity esters. I also don’t think the higher hop load was a bad change, though doing a longer hop steep at moderate temperatures might be better than the flameout hop addition and I’m not sure the extra ounce+ of hops made much of an impact so I’ll likely go back to the 4 oz version in the future.

2/20/23: Brewday

Grain Bill: 5 pounds 6 row (Rahr), 1 pound Pilsner (Sugar Creek), 2 pounds spelt malt (Best Malz)

Hops: 5.35 oz Mosaic

Mashed at 152 for 30 minutes, which fell to 145 over that time before adding additional water to bring to 158 for another 30 minutes. Batch sparged at 170F.

.35 oz mosaic added at first wort and boiled for 60 minutes, 1 oz flameout hops added when cutting flame and immediately rapidly chilled. After reaching 170 the chiller was stopped and 2 oz mosaic added and let sit for 10 minutes. Temperature fell to near 150 during this time and chiller was started briefly to bring to 140. 2 more oz of hops were added and let sit for 10 more minutes before slowly chilling to 80F. Ran off wort into carboy, collected 5 gallons at 1.042 and pitched a pack of Imperial Rustic. Because the wort was under intended volume and over intended gravity, I boiled, chilled, and added another half gallon to reach 5.5 gallons at 1.038.

2/21/23: yeast is fermenting strong less than 24 hours after pitching with a decent sized krausen and plenty of airlock activity.

2/23/23: Krausen has fallen and the beer is no longer showing any signs of active fermentation. Sample shows 1.008. Smells terrific with juicy fruit gum and a touch of pine aroma but weirdly the sample is thin, not very flavorful, and roughly bitter, hopefully it just needs some time. Added Napolean yeast harvested from Hoppy Black Saison to attempt to dry it out further and do what it does.

2/24/23: No signs of activity, moved to a warmer area in the basement near a vent.

2/26/23: Gravity sample shows the beer has dropped slightly to 1.006 and is also tasting much better and fuller at this point, may have just needed more time but the Napolean may also be adding some slight character that improves the overall impression.

3/1/23: Kegged.

3/17/23: Tasting (notes were somehow lost, will need to redo, but photos below)

4/2/2023: This beer did not place in it's category at the DC Homebrewers’ Cherry Blossom competition receiving a 27 (which seems harsh in my opinion). One judge commented that everything in the beer seemed too subtle (I wouldn't agree with that) while the other knocked it for being too fruity and tropical (that's probably accurate). This beer isn't brewed "to style" for a saison so while other variations of Maisonette have been received well in competitions that use audience favorite style judging or when entered in specialty categories, I don't think it's worth entering in any more BJCP style competitions as a saison (other than the one that I've already sent it too).

4/4/23: Tasting, notes above.

5/1/23: This beer surprisingly placed second out of twelve entries in the Belgian Ale & German Wheat category at the BURP Spirit of Free Beer competition. The beer scored a 34 and was only beat out in the category by another saison that went on to win Best of Show for the entire competition.

Radar Shadow - Amber Lager

After winning a silent auction for a year’s worth of Imperial yeast (only $60 for 12 packs) I was confronted with the dilemma of deciding which strains to use. Checking their list of available homebrew strains I saw they had a seasonal I wasn’t familiar with: Hygge. Hygge is a Danish word that reflects a lifestyle around coziness and comfort and unsurprisingly the strain is a Danish lager yeast (presumably from Carlsberg). The yeast’s description from Imperial is: “A northern European lager yeast famously used in Pilsner style beers that complement significant hop additions. Clean and crisp with a very light sulfur profile.” Having already made a number of pale lagers in the past year I didn’t really want to make another Pilsner but a significantly hopped lager with a little more malt character sounded nice.

This got me to thinking about my visit to the Carlsberg brewery and the red lager I had there: Tuborg Red. While I didn’t love the beer when I had it in May of 2016 the idea of a Danish red lager seemed intriguing and possible. Having a few pounds of characterful Vienna, Munich, and extra dark Munich on hand made me think that it might be nice to make a hoppy but also moderately malty red lager.

Trying to find information on Danish Red lagers as a starting reference point is almost impossible as every search seems to point to Figueroa Mountain’s Danish Red Lager, which is a Vienna Lager. Vienna Lager is probably in the realm of what I’m looking for but not exactly what I have in mind.

Looking for more examples of red/amber lagers to determine a good recipe led me to look at the BJCP defined “International Amber Lager” and “Czech Amber Lager” styles which are also in the ballpark of what I have in mind but flavored more with sweet/caramel tasting crystal malts instead of the toasty/malty Munich and Vienna character I’m desiring.

Searching further I discovered that in the 2021 version of the style guide kellerbier is listed as a historical style with new information I hadn’t previously seen or heard. This included that kellerbier originated from amber beers in Franconia, not the pale and hazy Helles and Pilsner versions I’m familiar with. Reading more about Franconian lagers I realized there are a wide range of styles and naming conventions in Franconia but that somewhere in this realm is probably close to the style I am looking for. I created a recipe for a red/amber that could sit somewhere between a Franconian Vollbier and Danish red lager (and maybe not that far off from a Vienna lager).

While picking up brewing supplies at Maryland Homebrew I discovered an expired pack of Jasper Yeast Franconian Lager and decided to pick it up to use for half the batch alongside the Hygge strain. While the planned brew day is more than a month after the yeast pack’s listed expiration date the high yeast count in Jasper Yeast packs, a large starter, and the fact that this is only being used for a small (~3 gallon) batch should mitigate any issues with underpitching.

Tasting Notes:

Aroma: Fairly strong aroma with malt dominating. Notes of bread crust and light chocolate cake, with subtle dark fruit and floral notes from the hops.

Appearance: Darker than intended, this one is probably a touch past deep amber and into lighter shades of brown. SRM is probably in the upper teens, quite a bit higher than the intended 14. It would probably look lighter if it was clearer but it has a noticeable, if fairly low, haze. Definitely could have used lagering after the re-fermentation. Head is small and off white but shows good retention and lacing.

Taste: Similar to the nose with moderate bready and sweet malt dominating. The floral and herbal hops are light but noticeable in the flavor and the finish is moderately bitter. Like the aroma there’s some subtle chocolate and dark fruit notes that show up more as it warms.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied and with medium carbonation, this seems to be just right in both of these categories, allowing the malt to fill the mouth but also the hoppy bitterness to then wash away the sweetness.

Overall: I’ve thought a lot about this beer, both in designing and making it, cellaring and adjusting it, and tasting it over the past week. In the end the beer is much better than the diacetyl bomb it once was but I’m not sure it really works as an amber lager. I probably wanted this to be too many things, malty and sweet but also hoppy and refreshing, not too pale but not too dark in color, dry and quenchable but also full bodied. In some ways it does all of these but the end effect is somewhere between an overly sweet, dark, and malty Vienna lager and a slightly overhopped dunkel. While this fails to be the amber lager I hoped for, making a decently hoppy dunkel isn’t bad and I find myself happily drinking this beer, especially as an alternative to the other beers I have available. If I were to brew this again I would likely cut the amounts of dark Munich and midnight wheat by at least half, if not removing one or both entirely. I might also increase the hops, either with a late boil addition or a small dry hop. Doing these things should give more of an amber hue and give more of an even balance between the malt and hop flavors.

1/24/23: Created a 1.75 liter starter using 6 oz of dry malt extract. Added the Jasper Yeast Franconian lager pack and placed on stirplate.

1/26/23: Turned off the stirplate and put yeast starter in fridge to cold crash. It looks like I'm not the only one who thought of a red lager when hearing about Hygge as Basic Brewing released a podcast on developing amber lager recipes to use it in. This prompted me to do a little more searching for other recipes in this area and discovered that WLP850 Copenhagen Lager (seemingly White Labs version of this same strain) lists Amber Lager as a suggested style and Wyeast lists Amber Kellerbier as a recommendation for their Danish Lager strain. Maybe this is a good idea after all.

1/28/23: brewday

Mashed in with 3.5 gallons to hit 147F. After 25 minutes added 2 gallons nearly boiling water to reach 160F. After 35 minutes ran off first runnings and added .5 oz Perl’s hops. Added 3.5 more gallons of 180F sparge water to mash tun, then ran off second runnings and combined. Boiled for 75 minutes before adding immersion chiller, then another 5 before adding 1 oz Spalt Select and .5 oz Perle hops. 5 minutes later I added a tablet of Kick Carageenan then 5 minutes later cut the flame and started chilling. Chilled to just under 60F, transferred evenly to two separate 3 gallon carboys, pitched Imperial Hygge into one (“Dane”) and the decanted starter of Jasper Franconian into the other (“Frank”) and placed in chest freezer set to 50F. 

Both carboys looked very interesting with lots of what appeared to be protein, similar to a hot break or cold break. Hopefully this is just due to the carageenan tablet and the proteins settle out without any issues.

1/29/23: less than 24 hours after pitching both beers are showing signs of fermentation with decent sized krausens and airlock bubbling.

2/1/23: Fermentation seems to be slowing in both with the krausen starting to fall and very little airlock activity. I increased chest freezer temperature to 52F and plan to increase by a few more degrees over the next few days in order to cleanup any diacetyl.

2/2/23: Increased chest freezer temperature controller to 54F. Plan to leave at this temperature for at least a few days before doing a forced diacetyl test.

2/7/23: Increased temperature to 60F for a short diacetyl test, plan to decrease temperatures slowly after a few days. No diacetyl detected in sample but didn’t have time to do a forced diacetyl test and I need to get the chest freezer cold for serving beers on tap during the Super Bowl.

2/11/23: Lowered chest freezer temp 5F every 12 hours for the past few days to reach 45F for serving temp of kegerator.

2/12/23: Lowered to 30F for lagering. Planning on a quick lager before kegging if both are tasting ok.

2/17/23: Kegged each version separately. Dane version finished at 1.011 (77% attenuation) and is showing some diacetyl after kegging that I hadn’t noticed in a sample taken yesterday, will give it a little time to see if it’s enough of an issue for me to try to fix it or just enjoy it as is. Frank finished at 1.008 (83% attenuation) and doesn’t have any noticeable diacetyl at this point.

2/20/23: Both versions have strong diacetyl and were removed from the chest freezer to allow them to sit at room temperature for a second diacetyl rest. They will likely need extended time to clean up the diacetyl since there isn’t much yeast remaining in the kegs.

2/26/23: Still noticeable diacetyl in a sample, not terrible but not ideal. Added some of a mix of the two yeasts to both kegs along with a small sugar sample (~1 oz sugar to each keg). Hoping to kick the yeast back in to process the remaining diacetyl. Will probably rack remaining beer in both kegs into a single 5 gallon keg if the process works.

3/2/23: No noticeable diacetyl remaining in either, racked both into a single 5 gallon keg and set in chest freezer on pressure.

3/8/23: Tasting notes above. Discovered this useful information that might help explain why this beer looks darker than expected. https://www.brewingwithbriess.com/blog/predicting-beer-color-based-on-formulation/

4/16/23: this keg kicked. Pretty enjoyable beer and the flavors became more clean and cohesive and appearance had more clarity and slightly lighter color after the age. Would probably still reduce the hops or malts slightly if I rebrew but the most important thing seems to be patience.

False Sun - Hoppy Black Saison

If Black Saison isn’t a classic style, Hoppy Black Saison certainly isn’t. Yet, I’ve found myself making a hoppy black saison for the third time. Like my two previous batches this is intended to blend citrusy American hops, roasty dark malt character, and the spice and fruit of saison yeast. With that in mind I also greatly changed this recipe out of fear of getting too much chocolate/roast flavors and did not include any citrus peel in an attempt to let the hops shine on their own. I’ve also lost the original recipe at this point so it would be hard to entirely recreate even if I wanted to.

Brewday: 1/15/23

Preboil gravity: 1.035 at 7.25 gallons

Boiled 90 minutes

Post boil gravity: 1.047 at 5.25 gallons

1/19/23: This beer has been showing slight signs of fermentation (krausen and bubbles in the airlock) since the day after pitching yeast but the airlock bubbles have slowed rapidly to less than once a minute and I was worried this one may have stalled so I took a hydrometer reading. Gravity sample showed 1.006, indicating that rather than a stall it may have already reached final gravity as it’s below the estimated FG less than 4 days after pitching the yeast. This isn’t entirely surprising for such a fast working and attenuative yeast (not to mention an attenuative malt/sugar bill) but considering the beer has spent most of the time with ambient temperatures in the upper 60s it’s impressive how quickly it’s chewed through the sugars. Flavor is nice, fairly spicy but not clove-like from the yeast, a blend of coffee and dark fruit from the malts, yeast, and sugar, and a refreshing orange-like citrus character from the hops. Still a decent layer of yeast and this one could attenuate even further so it likely won’t be kegged for another couple of weeks but happy with where it seems to be heading at this point.

1/26/23: Krausen has fallen and it isn’t showing any signs of active fermentation. Added 1 oz each of American Cascade and French Strisselspalt.

1/28/23: Kegged and placed in chest freezer at 50F and 20PSI (targeting 2.7 volumes of CO2). Will likely need to adjust the pressure as the temperature in the freezer gets adjusted around a lagering schedule. Taste is interesting, not a lot of obvious yeast character and maybe not as dry as I expect from a saison with both the hops and candi syrup seeming to contribute a lot of fruitiness and some earthy flavors. All around it currently seems a little disjointed and I’m partially wishing I hadn’t added the D-90 but hopefully some carbonation and time will make everything a little more cohesive and saison like.

3/6/23: Tasting notes.

Aroma: Big pepper and fresh cut grass jumps out of the glass, lemony citrus notes eventually mingle in alongside light notes of dried fruit and black cherry.

Appearance: Very dark brown, approaching black with a large fluffy tan head that slowly fades to a thin layer leaving behind lots of foam clinging to the sides. Holding it to the light shows a nice garnet tint though clarity is only medium and I wonder if this one is near the end of the keg as there’s a small amount of what appears to be hop matter in the bottom of the glass that I haven’t noticed on previous pours. Not sure I would want this to look much different other than the particulate.

Taste: Roastier than the nose, with a very mild coffee note throughout. Light pepper and fruitiness from the yeast mingle with light grapefruit and tangerine peel alongside plum, raisin, and date. There’s probably a little bit too much going on though losing any one of the qualities or boosting the hoppiness might make the rest work better. Finish is lightly bitter leaving a subtle blend of fruitiness and the very light coffee impression.

Mouthfeel: This one is very heavily carbonated. This would probably be considered overcarbonation for most styles but I like this much in a saison and it helps the flavors all pop. Body is medium/medium-low, not as dry as would be expected in a saison but I think it mostly works here.

Overall: After more than a month on tap I’m still not really sure how to feel about this one. Part of me regrets using the D-90 as the dark fruit characters it adds seems to be one thing too many in a beer that also features so much from the hops, yeast, and malt. On the other hand, I frequently find myself having a second glass to try to determine how I felt about the first, so it has me going back for more. The hops have faded a bit at this point and probably could’ve been heavier in the first place. Certainly an interesting beer, in some ways it combines a Belgian Saison, a Belgian Dubbel, an American Pale Ale, and a German Schwartzbier all at once and surprisingly somehow almost manages to pull it all off. If I brew this again I will likely use more late/dry hops, an addition of orange peel to increase the citrus character, and drop the candi sugar, to let this be closer to the Black IPA and Saison hybrid I intended when first coming up with this idea.

Glass Mountain American Lager

American Lager

Recipe:

5 lbs Rahr 6-row
2 lbs flaked maize
2 lbs flacked rice
.5 oz hallertau mittelfruh (60 min)
.25 oz hallertau mittelfruh (15 min)
2 packs Diamond lager yeast (1 per 3 gallon carboy)
Came in just under expected OG at 1.044

Brew date: 12/10/22
Chilled to 60F, pitched yeast and moved to 50F chest freezer.

12/15: increased chest freezer temp to 55F to finish primary fermentation and move towards diacetyl rest

12/16: increased chest freezer temp setting to 65F for diacetyl rest

12/17: moved out of chest freezer into room in the mid to upper 60s to finish diacetyl rest

12/20: Gravity reading 1.006, lower than expected but not too low. Taste is pleasant and mild with some light corn and grain character but is also a little more fruity and flavorful than expected, possibly due to the diacetyl rest being too early/warm/long or the late hop addition coming through more than anticipated. Hopefully it cleans up and loses some of that character during the lagering period. No diacetyl detected so it was moved to the chest freezer currently set to 55F. I plan to lower temperatures further over the next few weeks once the other beer (a 100% cherrywood smoked lager) currently fermenting in there finishes primary fermentation.

12/23/22: began lowering temperatures by 5 degrees

12/25/22: lowered to 32F. Will stay at this temperature for a few days before kegging.

12/29/22: Racked both carboys into a single 5 gallon keg and harvested yeast. Keg was placed in chest freezer at 32F and 30 PSI to burst carbonate overnight. Flavor is still a bit fruitier than intended and has a touch of sulfur but not bad.

1/12/23: tasting notes

Appearance: pale and bubbly, maybe just a touch darker than I would expect for the style but that might have more to do with the clarity being less than crystal clear. If I brew this style in the future I’ll need to either add gelatin or use another means to clarify it. Head is big, fluffy, and white initially and quickly fades to a small layer that leaves nice lacing.

Smell: Smell isn’t very strong, especially when initially pouring in the low 30s. Some light sweet graininess that seems malty without much noticeable corn or rice character. There is a slight cider and pomme fruitiness with just a whisper of herbal character. Apple aroma increases significantly as it warms up giving more green apple (probably acetaldehyde).

Taste: Like the smell (and as expected) the flavors are subtle. Sweet and subtly grainy malt dominates with a slightly herbal and earthy character in the middle and a very light bitterness on the finish. Some light apple like fruitiness shows more as it warms, possibly acetaldehyde but possibly yeast derived ester fruitiness due to the diacetyl rest occurring earlier and warmer than it should have. The fruitiness increases as it warms but so do the grainy and herbal characters to keep it from overwhelming.

Mouthfeel: This may be the area this beer is most off from the style as it feels more full bodied and round than I would expect. The beer is fairly highly carbonated though I was having some foam issues initially and have lowered the CO2, but even with the high carbonation it feels surprisingly full and rounded on the palate. If I was to brew this again I would likely mash lower and use a different yeast.

Overall: I’m really enjoying this beer for what it is. In some ways it feels between an American Lager and a German Helles, perhaps due to the Hallertau hops and use of German yeast. The rice and corn (and 6-row) don’t stand out as obvious ingredients to my palette but I wonder if others would be able to tell it apart from a beer made entirely with Pilsner malt. If I were to try brewing this style again I would make a number of changes but this recipe delivered an enjoyable, if flawed, beer.

1/28/23: Keg kicked less than a month after packaging. It was pretty enjoyable and easy drinking and with a few parties at the house this one went very quickly. Not a style I'm dying to brew again but something I'll probably come back to in the future and aim to brew more to style.