tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6706759473702023492024-03-27T02:37:55.458-04:00In Search of Good BeerGudenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01061351196521584849noreply@blogger.comBlogger175125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670675947370202349.post-52921839870582038272023-07-16T14:15:00.000-04:002023-07-16T14:15:47.369-04:00En Zed - New Zealand Pils<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOUjsndN6NX8qOcRVUlj0RlnPciUC0hgaa5usljOePv3DMzta33QlRW7mQeH4BMA2CXwnD1Je6hDUSsaeJGLXLiMaebEM-QoYjomOaI0_QfIeuWLBlwR-fI7SByy9_ba1GCivFZ-a30XDPlChbfCgGCBpP_8rb7D-WZ_LFMlfNm9E9uAyNUy21s8OJAA/s4032/IMG_3680.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOUjsndN6NX8qOcRVUlj0RlnPciUC0hgaa5usljOePv3DMzta33QlRW7mQeH4BMA2CXwnD1Je6hDUSsaeJGLXLiMaebEM-QoYjomOaI0_QfIeuWLBlwR-fI7SByy9_ba1GCivFZ-a30XDPlChbfCgGCBpP_8rb7D-WZ_LFMlfNm9E9uAyNUy21s8OJAA/w480-h640/IMG_3680.jpeg" width="480" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><br /></div>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.<p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3pwx_g4QQ9CPkWmw3-ZCrwrGF62jvHpFTI0S1h8-jYsi9bb6nFvn2aoNR9I0R5P0QjVMlrBm_AL5HIAq8OE9tGMN-ytLJvwMuYpEkXckNI_1wHTNSI3lPZ0olsoq9xnYSiunj4paM7sIU87KtcrPlQE4IxzieoNR8rI0xBh3U1CHEt0LdSrVcPmg/s3840/3F1EF18C-4846-4ABD-B99B-B60A43DF17B8.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2160" data-original-width="3840" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3pwx_g4QQ9CPkWmw3-ZCrwrGF62jvHpFTI0S1h8-jYsi9bb6nFvn2aoNR9I0R5P0QjVMlrBm_AL5HIAq8OE9tGMN-ytLJvwMuYpEkXckNI_1wHTNSI3lPZ0olsoq9xnYSiunj4paM7sIU87KtcrPlQE4IxzieoNR8rI0xBh3U1CHEt0LdSrVcPmg/w640-h360/3F1EF18C-4846-4ABD-B99B-B60A43DF17B8.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Early in the Big Brew day at Maryland Homebrew</td></tr></tbody></table>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.<p></p><p>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.</p><p>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.<br /></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAHtPBafuIo9O4bXUj-euUBKaL8H5tFFGMx78c24Qa0LcOJubzgrKrTg3WH2N9cvBgKfCkPjSzMqnoRDPdBI6R8sqCOnNhZoPkD3EIua5G8_rPfhOcwhos8H3no_qfHrTsfh3gpGhCs08BAvZJqAoqPoX2UgV21mNs5KMkM3RrN5goXmygw4hh3mUTig/s4032/IMG_3679.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAHtPBafuIo9O4bXUj-euUBKaL8H5tFFGMx78c24Qa0LcOJubzgrKrTg3WH2N9cvBgKfCkPjSzMqnoRDPdBI6R8sqCOnNhZoPkD3EIua5G8_rPfhOcwhos8H3no_qfHrTsfh3gpGhCs08BAvZJqAoqPoX2UgV21mNs5KMkM3RrN5goXmygw4hh3mUTig/w300-h400/IMG_3679.jpeg" width="300" /></a>Tasting:<br />Smell: moderate citrus, grass, and pine from the hops mingle with moderately-low bready malt.</p><p>Appearance: pale gold, just a touch darker than straw. Moderate white head shows moderate retention as it lasts throughout and leaves great lacing.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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).</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>5/21/23: kegged and placed in chest freezer at 30PSI and 32F. Plan to decrease CO2 and increase temperature over next few days.</p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFpwxpkyLLtYmuG4NhdSCgYArwc1k9GzlfkHvuaNnUlpNHs0hLh6n7FaDuxicUXGis4bBwWlVtkFpaD_lf0rzU1eoY6Ti6hR0gNOG80JzL6mAWi6ZewacShnk8mmvv6V8mnT59OfjzPO2qIkWXvRnyh4yijkX6EbR8P0LwSI3jMjb14BAFUeR4A5NTwQ/s4032/IMG_3375.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFpwxpkyLLtYmuG4NhdSCgYArwc1k9GzlfkHvuaNnUlpNHs0hLh6n7FaDuxicUXGis4bBwWlVtkFpaD_lf0rzU1eoY6Ti6hR0gNOG80JzL6mAWi6ZewacShnk8mmvv6V8mnT59OfjzPO2qIkWXvRnyh4yijkX6EbR8P0LwSI3jMjb14BAFUeR4A5NTwQ/w300-h400/IMG_3375.jpeg" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ube Ice Cream version</td></tr></tbody></table>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.<p></p><p></p>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.<p></p><p>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.</p><p>6/6/23: tasting notes of the base beer above.</p><p>6/10/23: decided to finally add the dry hop addition to the keg</p><p>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.</p><p>6/19/23: moved back to chest freezer. Still light diacetyl but back into a similar range it was previously in.</p><p>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.</p><p></p>Gudenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01061351196521584849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670675947370202349.post-297082187475741082023-05-07T22:46:00.001-04:002023-10-27T17:44:26.462-04:00Cherry Tree - Smoked Lagers<p></p><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgenL_TvMF8ywbBvOIeMsXOruMAEHGofPxv_OXkVdcfzGedrdir-V2U5FnmSB1RY_1_30syWZN6lT53KNq2AwQWYr4TVDv_nQxZeQC2EoJmm3Qq80rUvlSKwvKWROXGO2hykXIGRFVudIM6D0acFfRKN0SRbWcfEOkhUdxb32kqlyz-VEVzz2_mL8/s4032/168EDB82-7B78-4BAC-8C6E-45229F77E5CA.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgenL_TvMF8ywbBvOIeMsXOruMAEHGofPxv_OXkVdcfzGedrdir-V2U5FnmSB1RY_1_30syWZN6lT53KNq2AwQWYr4TVDv_nQxZeQC2EoJmm3Qq80rUvlSKwvKWROXGO2hykXIGRFVudIM6D0acFfRKN0SRbWcfEOkhUdxb32kqlyz-VEVzz2_mL8/s320/168EDB82-7B78-4BAC-8C6E-45229F77E5CA.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br />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 <a href="https://goodbeer.blogspot.com/2022/07/smoked-helles-22.html">Smoked Helles</a>, I finally decided to take the plunge. For <a href="https://brewgr.com/recipe/100764/">this recipe</a> I decided to go with a super simple SMaSH recipe: 9 lbs <a href="http://www.sugarcreekmalt.com/store/p71/CHERRY.html">Sugar Creek cherrywood smoked malt</a>, 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.<p></p><p>Tasting:</p><p>Unfruited Version:</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhUFPNegXVOIEnfxmo74MjEJSPvgjmqXWsqEtkAFzTfPFzUbPhHNCdG7vF6tYqJnxnjaIz0c_98cxUB7scIBRBqOdXeXkcARUdIJI86uPyaFRZwMFm-tB5ETbXHF42pk4Nkg78rhjGk-3nRnn0mBJg_uZDEUuSOWA1xllogHARc-bI1gBUp9gwHBI/s4032/9D8D4555-BBB9-4B86-BE3C-947ED2DB4336.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhUFPNegXVOIEnfxmo74MjEJSPvgjmqXWsqEtkAFzTfPFzUbPhHNCdG7vF6tYqJnxnjaIz0c_98cxUB7scIBRBqOdXeXkcARUdIJI86uPyaFRZwMFm-tB5ETbXHF42pk4Nkg78rhjGk-3nRnn0mBJg_uZDEUuSOWA1xllogHARc-bI1gBUp9gwHBI/s320/9D8D4555-BBB9-4B86-BE3C-947ED2DB4336.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fruited on the left, unfruited on the right</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p>Cherry Fruited Version:</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>12/17/22 Brewday:</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>Batch sparged with 3 gallons campden treated water at ~120F giving 1.020 second runnings and a combined 6.5 gallons at 1.041</p><p>Wort had moderate smoke and barnyard aromas, not nearly as strong as when I made the <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/670675947370202349/8946518816964831956?hl=en">100% Stjordal smoked beer</a> and with a very different character of barnyard, fruit, and breakfast cereal in addition to phenolic spicy smoke.</p><p>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.</p><p>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 <a href="https://www.morebeer.com/products/cellarscience-german-dry-lager-yeast.html?variant=DY104B&gclid=CjwKCAiA7vWcBhBUEiwAXieItrzcGXxQLglSbTNnRMGX7uYEJ6jZqQii6j5kbQfevlwEpZk3UQmebRoCQJUQAvD_BwE">Cellar Science "German" dry yeast</a> which I have not used before but appears to be their version of W-34/70.</p><p>12/18/22: Increased temperature to 53 as there haven't been any real signs of fermentation after nearly 48 hours.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>12/21/22: Dropped temperature to 52F. Still fermenting strongly.</p><p>12/22/22: Dropped temperature to 50F. Still showing strong signs of fermentation. Gravity reading at 1.028.</p><p>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.</p><p>12/29/22: </p><a href="https://www.morebeer.com/products/oregon-fruit-red-tart-cherry-puree-49oz.html"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOZgjZTnZr2KOJtphqms-49WjcXB8WD570nBTLnGTk7UldPTiSN7KHjEwDq0203GzsoWJ9GDFasIWRY0OaXcm8njH4VSmn-43soDMN9xoqrQSS3iAd6PfzqGjqIxZRAwDN13xAxMLewMPyWXTL8r-9zjbMpE-KWW5n7nkc48_tQN9zNsZ5L_xXv20/s4032/549FB97B-B439-4ACC-A6BC-8B79B2C745DF.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOZgjZTnZr2KOJtphqms-49WjcXB8WD570nBTLnGTk7UldPTiSN7KHjEwDq0203GzsoWJ9GDFasIWRY0OaXcm8njH4VSmn-43soDMN9xoqrQSS3iAd6PfzqGjqIxZRAwDN13xAxMLewMPyWXTL8r-9zjbMpE-KWW5n7nkc48_tQN9zNsZ5L_xXv20/s320/549FB97B-B439-4ACC-A6BC-8B79B2C745DF.jpeg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cherry version on the left, still transferring unfruited version on the right</td></tr></tbody></table></a><p>Racked about half of the batch onto 3 lbs of <a href="https://www.morebeer.com/products/oregon-fruit-red-tart-cherry-puree-49oz.html">Oregon Red Tart Cherry</a> 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.</p><p>1/16/23</p><p>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.</p><p>1/26/23</p><p>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.</p><p>2/6/23: Brought a bottle of each to a bottle share where they were both pretty well received.</p><p>3/7/23: Tasting notes above.</p><p>4/2/23: The unfruited version of this beer received a 36 and placed first in the Wood and Smoke beer category at the <a href="https://www.dchbcompetition.com/">DC Homebrewers Cherry Blossom Competition</a>. 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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p>Gudenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01061351196521584849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670675947370202349.post-42950084033727959592023-05-07T22:45:00.001-04:002023-05-07T23:18:52.853-04:00Maisonette ‘23 - Mosaic Grisette<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgf9QnkpZugXWW8TXfQWZ4y-H3l2gXS1d9b8rrL-qXQuSIq-WjhkMOmlK1po1NNF-5u2om7blK0qriZXEQaOV14EpcviygA0mz4w9kYNjMdRBYPpw9pw5zx5z9At1d0FEgHqFho5SPzr5sVIJ8heSOLKAgeI4xq8FzvBJSCPTFbAa3LUu_K-UEPDw/s4032/IMG_3260.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgf9QnkpZugXWW8TXfQWZ4y-H3l2gXS1d9b8rrL-qXQuSIq-WjhkMOmlK1po1NNF-5u2om7blK0qriZXEQaOV14EpcviygA0mz4w9kYNjMdRBYPpw9pw5zx5z9At1d0FEgHqFho5SPzr5sVIJ8heSOLKAgeI4xq8FzvBJSCPTFbAa3LUu_K-UEPDw/w480-h640/IMG_3260.jpeg" width="480" /></a></div><br />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.<p></p><p>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.<br /></p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>2/20/23: Brewday</p><p>Grain Bill: 5 pounds 6 row (Rahr), 1 pound Pilsner (Sugar Creek), 2 pounds spelt malt (Best Malz)</p><p>Hops: 5.35 oz Mosaic</p><p>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.</p><p>.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.</p><p>2/21/23: yeast is fermenting strong less than 24 hours after pitching with a decent sized krausen and plenty of airlock activity.</p><p>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.</p><p>2/24/23: No signs of activity, moved to a warmer area in the basement near a vent.</p><p>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.</p><p>3/1/23: Kegged.</p><p>3/17/23: Tasting (notes were somehow lost, will need to redo, but photos below)</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi21gS4de825bC7rvB-Z5NCDp4SteSzwr2H4CYjnBNQRi5_sIx6AyIZ2G01guw2hgRnYKVsbL11fFG0LswfFDMtofCsFJJn6_Vx3nB2d8_yy0Fl79S5zd_5MgT2MhiVN2QZTgCt9BAhYACzX6JsVR7NGK1jF-J_ULZDD59fnnM3k_uIOVIjXc9IFqI/s4032/IMG_3232.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi21gS4de825bC7rvB-Z5NCDp4SteSzwr2H4CYjnBNQRi5_sIx6AyIZ2G01guw2hgRnYKVsbL11fFG0LswfFDMtofCsFJJn6_Vx3nB2d8_yy0Fl79S5zd_5MgT2MhiVN2QZTgCt9BAhYACzX6JsVR7NGK1jF-J_ULZDD59fnnM3k_uIOVIjXc9IFqI/w240-h320/IMG_3232.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjiy8bhj-2ImOfwmrQz8AQW7vgeONhXa7sOmN3uMJQc7LRNdD0k8m37xXzv-5PlbzyIdxPt30leulJMibNRA-RFtW1ebaIf0MK_qlT8TFmiYYM1BOnOlux4qcZrabtFKxIbq5-wuJB0GGjorLAaalT5kDfU1P_H7yYXFW5w0LXwK_vyLE3SACavbw/s4032/IMG_3231.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjiy8bhj-2ImOfwmrQz8AQW7vgeONhXa7sOmN3uMJQc7LRNdD0k8m37xXzv-5PlbzyIdxPt30leulJMibNRA-RFtW1ebaIf0MK_qlT8TFmiYYM1BOnOlux4qcZrabtFKxIbq5-wuJB0GGjorLAaalT5kDfU1P_H7yYXFW5w0LXwK_vyLE3SACavbw/w240-h320/IMG_3231.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><p></p><p>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<a href="https://goodbeer.blogspot.com/2016/04/maisonette-50-tasting-and-scores.html"> when entered in specialty categories</a>, 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).</p><p>4/4/23: Tasting, notes above.</p><p>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.</p>Gudenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01061351196521584849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670675947370202349.post-49320144978414790502023-03-17T18:00:00.004-04:002023-04-16T21:01:54.255-04:00Radar Shadow - Amber Lager<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRTxlIY9qIb7yfgzfDUDD3QSU-Yjbcjv-wpNJduKhCXISw6Xn2fA0s4Z-fLbBQO1xAfxcoajBRqrjfAm6X64nXOQJEVVNZBAhgQW2FqiMbUSpAn3H4P9swdnMHxmKmmv81rz9UP-MundAJOXKIK9Usn7er2BThBGHKXR_t_O6OPzsxOfBQhoJxMRE/s4032/3206A4C6-66D6-4D0F-8878-AD8E4F7149E3.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRTxlIY9qIb7yfgzfDUDD3QSU-Yjbcjv-wpNJduKhCXISw6Xn2fA0s4Z-fLbBQO1xAfxcoajBRqrjfAm6X64nXOQJEVVNZBAhgQW2FqiMbUSpAn3H4P9swdnMHxmKmmv81rz9UP-MundAJOXKIK9Usn7er2BThBGHKXR_t_O6OPzsxOfBQhoJxMRE/w300-h400/3206A4C6-66D6-4D0F-8878-AD8E4F7149E3.jpeg" width="300" /></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div>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 <a href="https://www.imperialyeast.com/organic-yeast-strains/homebrew/">available homebrew strains</a> I saw they had a seasonal I wasn’t familiar with: <a href="https://www.imperialyeast.com/organic-yeast-strains/yeast-types/seasonal/hygge/">Hygge</a>. 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.<p></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">This got me to thinking about my visit to the Carlsberg brewery and the red lager I had there: <a href="https://www.carlsberggroup.com/products/tuborg/rod-tuborg/">Tuborg Red</a>. While I didn’t love the</span> 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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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 <a href="https://www.beerwanderers.com/beer-styles/">wide range of styles and naming conventions</a> 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 <a href="https://www.beerwanderers.com/2020/06/vollbier/">Franconian Vollbier</a> and Danish red lager (and maybe not that far off from a Vienna lager).</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidoPD5oPYeEyFbou2pvyQSfOhk4A7YTEQyu-L93X7KwJENay0olggOnfgXF3AvAAeN3wuPqxaaU9sHRi5xY1fTPLz3QXqcPXpC4S_LFM7jEviFmw1DHziA9b-UoI1MItGliOZq9jQn9jGi7iNXiPemi-v8gNaD13G-PfcAZySfteehbhq_XlQMHR8/s4032/129435A4-007D-43AD-B55B-01C31DA528F7.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidoPD5oPYeEyFbou2pvyQSfOhk4A7YTEQyu-L93X7KwJENay0olggOnfgXF3AvAAeN3wuPqxaaU9sHRi5xY1fTPLz3QXqcPXpC4S_LFM7jEviFmw1DHziA9b-UoI1MItGliOZq9jQn9jGi7iNXiPemi-v8gNaD13G-PfcAZySfteehbhq_XlQMHR8/s320/129435A4-007D-43AD-B55B-01C31DA528F7.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><p></p><p>While picking up brewing supplies at <a href="https://www.mdhb.com/index.php">Maryland Homebrew</a> I discovered an expired pack of <a href="https://jasperyeast.com/yeast/lager">Jasper Yeast Franconian Lager</a> 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.</p><p>Tasting Notes:</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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 <a href="https://content.libsyn.com/p/4/3/f/43f79ae51049711c/bbr01-26-23rdviennalager.mp3?c_id=145028457&cs_id=145028457&response-content-type=audio%2Fmpeg&Expires=1674758725&Signature=XyDjfhRNLVqecNFuoRG89qdxVylGxhkZlNMU2r59jANMPHBta3W-Gyd2KVHxxPlIuSwitrmaCBbfOQBusZZW5sz2NoiC42JxjSwuhmPeD7KTbR9vHea5d5ZkgesYhwjK2JTE2teymiH37-IoReawqJ7u3oYQ7BXH48h~n-vynj4wHSnV-Q4Dbk3I2yD5JQOIar7JzsFHr8GnxZu~kuRp9OXFsoCJpESXgkVx3B-IOeO6qYLgFoW8FmI4~UH-t4BcedtIQYMZXpu4Mj4R6VRhPDWJnfBJ5ui9SS6~b4-BPEUqXSTuIhCcyVh79TJ0g0dUo63pMTGPJONBqNjX1HmWag__&Key-Pair-Id=K1YS7LZGUP96OI">Basic Brewing released a podcast</a> 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 <a href="https://www.whitelabs.com/yeast-single?id=229&type=YEAST&style_type=2">WLP850 Copenhagen Lager</a> (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 <a href="https://wyeastlab.com/product/danish-lager/">Danish Lager strain.</a> Maybe this is a good idea after all.</p><p>1/28/23: brewday</p><p>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. </p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbnP6Xh3TbSe48l53ZCuWgpbj4zSmUBJjNHf8jH3Bje1e-utrkCVus2Hbi7-PpGKlF6mBG_WBpVNOTbcUt1M64-_3R5mOLk96A-4cC2TGlX1cA8ITOgAYtXwRLsvacwSfTNjvpoBiuL2opX33x5znLrhvU6DOw7iQeYy7B8h02T0FrWkm6kTj75I4/s4032/AF4E9B27-0C1C-43F8-9128-8CF8B079246B.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbnP6Xh3TbSe48l53ZCuWgpbj4zSmUBJjNHf8jH3Bje1e-utrkCVus2Hbi7-PpGKlF6mBG_WBpVNOTbcUt1M64-_3R5mOLk96A-4cC2TGlX1cA8ITOgAYtXwRLsvacwSfTNjvpoBiuL2opX33x5znLrhvU6DOw7iQeYy7B8h02T0FrWkm6kTj75I4/w480-h640/AF4E9B27-0C1C-43F8-9128-8CF8B079246B.jpeg" width="480" /></a>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.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6Q4FvJGcJoyfRlKHqRBE1Zudt489nPzAysZ6SVuKe17jd94yUppbVtw_5PHwDmghDvsdKJwuANO7MLM0XU_kMjE5YowFYLeubvV2svzoqgpd7OZzZ7GU_TfMiXlHQzOWCzx9HYe37Nf-_j0u4t6WgksFgXr-Nj3YXR9Q6znELlNnveNelAEq1ZmE/s4032/3F716139-C50C-40D1-90B5-E88E6492EA73.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6Q4FvJGcJoyfRlKHqRBE1Zudt489nPzAysZ6SVuKe17jd94yUppbVtw_5PHwDmghDvsdKJwuANO7MLM0XU_kMjE5YowFYLeubvV2svzoqgpd7OZzZ7GU_TfMiXlHQzOWCzx9HYe37Nf-_j0u4t6WgksFgXr-Nj3YXR9Q6znELlNnveNelAEq1ZmE/s320/3F716139-C50C-40D1-90B5-E88E6492EA73.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><p></p><p>1/29/23: less than 24 hours after pitching both beers are showing signs of fermentation with decent sized krausens and airlock bubbling.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>2/11/23: Lowered chest freezer temp 5F every 12 hours for the past few days to reach 45F for serving temp of kegerator.</p><p>2/12/23: Lowered to 30F for lagering. Planning on a quick lager before kegging if both are tasting ok.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>3/2/23: No noticeable diacetyl remaining in either, racked both into a single 5 gallon keg and set in chest freezer on pressure.</p><p>3/8/23: Tasting notes above. Discovered this useful information that might help explain why this beer looks darker than expected. <a href="https://www.brewingwithbriess.com/blog/predicting-beer-color-based-on-formulation/">https://www.brewingwithbriess.com/blog/predicting-beer-color-based-on-formulation/</a></p><p>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.</p>Gudenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01061351196521584849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670675947370202349.post-29898993702308380982023-03-17T17:56:00.004-04:002023-03-17T18:32:12.228-04:00False Sun - Hoppy Black Saison<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYmDyNhPBHY4QEnaro0P7__L_0suNZ4FpQrUstjhv1DcSmp04SB-honJT7j3Q-DR7eeU3LIBDDHYs1YWXUySuJu8kKzFuWUEtKGafhQSAosX_wmWZzmgq4WxOOlKneo69RcDCWs4i0MGxIlB-MgUXfogZWELd1rSWXhB4ut6vskGhhnoHXve2GyFY/s4032/17AD48B0-8DBA-485F-9876-2BF37BC31A08.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYmDyNhPBHY4QEnaro0P7__L_0suNZ4FpQrUstjhv1DcSmp04SB-honJT7j3Q-DR7eeU3LIBDDHYs1YWXUySuJu8kKzFuWUEtKGafhQSAosX_wmWZzmgq4WxOOlKneo69RcDCWs4i0MGxIlB-MgUXfogZWELd1rSWXhB4ut6vskGhhnoHXve2GyFY/w480-h640/17AD48B0-8DBA-485F-9876-2BF37BC31A08.jpeg" width="480" /></a></div><p>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 <a href="https://goodbeer.blogspot.com/2012/05/hoppy-black-saison-recipe-and-tasting-1.html">my</a> two <a href="https://goodbeer.blogspot.com/2014/07/41-hoppy-black-saison-v20.html">previous</a> 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.</p><p>Brewday: 1/15/23</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioeVqmlNF7_7cdMan2Ku1zx-HXfplVdVtNY5l3WjB_FEKSYVULjStHwii8OXyZoSwCzjmDs5XbHzuLoqJAWCFc7d9VCsKncpEZWMzfwypRvdDtUolm8ul2CFdpXkjVWwg-O2Ix__tXJ7wr3dnaOpM463DJi3i4SszcV8fHuQoBWXaoJLVieOWTM1w/s4032/F67B6E26-B12A-4D05-82B3-0975879786FC.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioeVqmlNF7_7cdMan2Ku1zx-HXfplVdVtNY5l3WjB_FEKSYVULjStHwii8OXyZoSwCzjmDs5XbHzuLoqJAWCFc7d9VCsKncpEZWMzfwypRvdDtUolm8ul2CFdpXkjVWwg-O2Ix__tXJ7wr3dnaOpM463DJi3i4SszcV8fHuQoBWXaoJLVieOWTM1w/s320/F67B6E26-B12A-4D05-82B3-0975879786FC.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><p></p><p>Preboil gravity: 1.035 at 7.25 gallons</p><p>Boiled 90 minutes</p><p>Post boil gravity: 1.047 at 5.25 gallons</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>3/6/23: Tasting notes.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIclMheJFausB8J0MMBoyLYWczJwlvcZKWjjHgKGEuvyqLjlg4mPzXf9MAQBrtBf7EzV_8HX3ETO4ZMRgt9oQ2u4GWZGqGGOVozTd9VV7scYoamXUN_bPNsdIpqeSiQ9EGtKUqqP-0tiQ3MzpMks8GOrF3_IbbDEfUxBQCbeL-rl9-ibgOMauysGY/s4032/4FF65D56-A1E2-4140-9994-8056B52EDAA2.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIclMheJFausB8J0MMBoyLYWczJwlvcZKWjjHgKGEuvyqLjlg4mPzXf9MAQBrtBf7EzV_8HX3ETO4ZMRgt9oQ2u4GWZGqGGOVozTd9VV7scYoamXUN_bPNsdIpqeSiQ9EGtKUqqP-0tiQ3MzpMks8GOrF3_IbbDEfUxBQCbeL-rl9-ibgOMauysGY/w300-h400/4FF65D56-A1E2-4140-9994-8056B52EDAA2.jpeg" width="300" /></a></div><p></p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p>Gudenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01061351196521584849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670675947370202349.post-76385957795761016512023-01-30T13:01:00.001-05:002023-01-30T13:01:30.524-05:00Glass Mountain American Lager<p></p><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwuwg1omVFT9rgpdrHNRZyGqgJ67RxanHis5qLBzj3sIp2XZjShWZGUahItMnPGVReBs_gaB61xqmsTFrym8XSpCaGm9arTEMCl3gLPDQdWcJywhuTID5Qi2W-Qq-__WffvSu-q-xBq6fwVbqgKEy57vOasL3d7vs0jmqKzX-c_uUJpqmQho95_TY/s4032/9D6540A9-3890-4842-9BDD-EA1F943068F4.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwuwg1omVFT9rgpdrHNRZyGqgJ67RxanHis5qLBzj3sIp2XZjShWZGUahItMnPGVReBs_gaB61xqmsTFrym8XSpCaGm9arTEMCl3gLPDQdWcJywhuTID5Qi2W-Qq-__WffvSu-q-xBq6fwVbqgKEy57vOasL3d7vs0jmqKzX-c_uUJpqmQho95_TY/w480-h640/9D6540A9-3890-4842-9BDD-EA1F943068F4.jpeg" width="480" /></a></div><br />American Lager<p></p><p><a href="https://brewgr.com/recipe/105865/edit">Recipe:</a></p><p>5 lbs Rahr 6-row<br />2 lbs flaked maize<br />2 lbs flacked rice<br />.5 oz hallertau mittelfruh (60 min)<br />.25 oz hallertau mittelfruh (15 min)<br />2 packs Diamond lager yeast (1 per 3 gallon carboy)<br />Came in just under expected OG at 1.044</p><p>Brew date: 12/10/22<br />Chilled to 60F, pitched yeast and moved to 50F chest freezer.</p><p>12/15: increased chest freezer temp to 55F to finish primary fermentation and move towards diacetyl rest</p><p>12/16: increased chest freezer temp setting to 65F for diacetyl rest</p><p>12/17: moved out of chest freezer into room in the mid to upper 60s to finish diacetyl rest</p><p>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.</p><p>12/23/22: began lowering temperatures by 5 degrees</p><p>12/25/22: lowered to 32F. Will stay at this temperature for a few days before kegging.</p><p>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.</p><p>1/12/23: tasting notes</p><p>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.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVua5gHPar7jU9CJc2SFeyGYUwdZ3734MaUcPDeov7vzBZYTYRc7MLXpBPoByMxe3pQQGn9QWCBY8szVbRM9vkOaUJzMjcDlGyn0WrSe6_Lu6T7UG3KY3TgNA01GDdPyCq3rdanCOEhWl3v6aesC4hcSQ1wgfTuCdAExbkFMDZL5qCHN4n_-kH6cM/s4032/3FE3CE65-E637-4A4B-85D8-01A6112630B1.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVua5gHPar7jU9CJc2SFeyGYUwdZ3734MaUcPDeov7vzBZYTYRc7MLXpBPoByMxe3pQQGn9QWCBY8szVbRM9vkOaUJzMjcDlGyn0WrSe6_Lu6T7UG3KY3TgNA01GDdPyCq3rdanCOEhWl3v6aesC4hcSQ1wgfTuCdAExbkFMDZL5qCHN4n_-kH6cM/s320/3FE3CE65-E637-4A4B-85D8-01A6112630B1.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><p></p><p>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).</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.<br /></p>Gudenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01061351196521584849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670675947370202349.post-63234230273347403412022-10-22T15:27:00.003-04:002022-12-29T19:49:06.039-05:00Doppelbock '22<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaRVERXZ8nqV9X6SxK-3kSiR6LhPbg7Cs-y7c00z9FCmC3qgqQltqINSXOwHJYNotik2FbAMyKLUX1h-Uf9SilDR-zmerdJxPVTgN2As8KClWRIEZUB5KQIIPWD6kCqPgpOllE2tng44xh47EGwybr4xr9msBD7GdukVstEgOupI4lvq4ZOCKEubU/s4032/5A823FE6-2349-4806-834D-CC19E993C858.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaRVERXZ8nqV9X6SxK-3kSiR6LhPbg7Cs-y7c00z9FCmC3qgqQltqINSXOwHJYNotik2FbAMyKLUX1h-Uf9SilDR-zmerdJxPVTgN2As8KClWRIEZUB5KQIIPWD6kCqPgpOllE2tng44xh47EGwybr4xr9msBD7GdukVstEgOupI4lvq4ZOCKEubU/s320/5A823FE6-2349-4806-834D-CC19E993C858.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Doppelbock has been my go to autumn beer for the past few years. The <a href="https://goodbeer.blogspot.com/2019/02/tranquility-base-bock.html">first iteration of the beer</a> 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 <a href="https://www.brewingwithbriess.com/wp-content/uploads/documents/Briess-PISB-Dark-Munich-Malt-30L.pdf">Briess Dark Munich (30L)</a> that I had used in the original version and also increased the amount of <a href="https://bsgcraftbrewing.com/weyermann-caramunich-type-1/">Caramunich</a> 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.<p></p><p>Tasting notes:</p><p>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.</p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRZJNwOKA713-pv4aUwkhDCMeLJKonAX2p6nlyjBmP-FDamUc0Fwz5YHDjYp-zsapSWSky0Q-_Ha-fZ5g0hvQW-JozLT6_LltQx5iElpyu4-tXEY2pKPjUOXMa6JXDJfkfYRbx9J3n7iHWnjGh9nMSpbPSCdJSh9ONlFY_yiueNmuaYk7Sc3xsk6o/s4032/50CC2EAB-D622-4285-B0AC-64E2A63A076A.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRZJNwOKA713-pv4aUwkhDCMeLJKonAX2p6nlyjBmP-FDamUc0Fwz5YHDjYp-zsapSWSky0Q-_Ha-fZ5g0hvQW-JozLT6_LltQx5iElpyu4-tXEY2pKPjUOXMa6JXDJfkfYRbx9J3n7iHWnjGh9nMSpbPSCdJSh9ONlFY_yiueNmuaYk7Sc3xsk6o/s320/50CC2EAB-D622-4285-B0AC-64E2A63A076A.jpeg" width="240" /></a>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>Mouthfeel: Moderately carbonated and fairly full bodied. Alcohol is not hot but does give a warming sensation over time.</p><p>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.</p><p>8/19/22<br />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.</p><p>8/20/22<br />Brewday</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>After cooling to 80F the wort was transferred to a plastic carboy and placed in the chest freezer at 50F. </p><p>8/21/22<br />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.</p><p>8/22/22<br />Almost 24 hours since pitching it isn't show any real signs of fermentation so I increased the temperature slightly to 52F.</p><p>8/23/22<br />Fermenting strongly.</p><p>8/24/22<br />Fermentation seems to be slowing slightly so I increased the chest freezer temperature to 62 for a diacetyl rest.</p><p>8/26/22<br />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.</p><p>8/29/22<br />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.</p><p>9/28/22<br />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.</p><p>9/29/22<br />Tasting above.</p><p>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.</p>Gudenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01061351196521584849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670675947370202349.post-88617944259127885432022-10-22T15:23:00.002-04:002023-01-30T09:56:27.433-05:00First Hop Harvest Bitter<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJkICfcxClBAklFjQ2I4UpDntiS7dv70R8-b920wyq-1-5DGWX6Oci_Dj5gA5xrvmSGHy2WvcjyPVtB2ebocWu3ow47hDHA_chXWT-HC_al2RqCLoDCIXT-rJ-4XaVfcf4k4mBLoSu5HA_MdNHP_JQlf7bAnenY-Vn9sDzkvGXg4YWq5n7tvbULlo/s4032/2B160537-4176-4651-92DE-B4F7E9050712.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJkICfcxClBAklFjQ2I4UpDntiS7dv70R8-b920wyq-1-5DGWX6Oci_Dj5gA5xrvmSGHy2WvcjyPVtB2ebocWu3ow47hDHA_chXWT-HC_al2RqCLoDCIXT-rJ-4XaVfcf4k4mBLoSu5HA_MdNHP_JQlf7bAnenY-Vn9sDzkvGXg4YWq5n7tvbULlo/w300-h400/2B160537-4176-4651-92DE-B4F7E9050712.jpeg" width="300" /></a></div></div></div></div></div>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.<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0X9hehaCGEn1MoHNFgOgziC6Tc83lewRjIpY4bfFMl3YWzn9ms57GScG5TnJjKjCHFk5RsyehMNOo8WI0xBF7Zsr7s-ZQml4vH9Q1ln9yn976a5yvdMmfDcpfdH2TFPfewRk6bB76dszltFqLIxxXEaVYPu3LSV9ib6wtKiRY7R8vGSb-hGO3ItE/s4032/A987028B-74AD-4E02-9557-A3A094A62425.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0X9hehaCGEn1MoHNFgOgziC6Tc83lewRjIpY4bfFMl3YWzn9ms57GScG5TnJjKjCHFk5RsyehMNOo8WI0xBF7Zsr7s-ZQml4vH9Q1ln9yn976a5yvdMmfDcpfdH2TFPfewRk6bB76dszltFqLIxxXEaVYPu3LSV9ib6wtKiRY7R8vGSb-hGO3ItE/s320/A987028B-74AD-4E02-9557-A3A094A62425.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Centennial Hops a couple weeks before harvesting</td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /><p></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYxkgXeV2n8XcmAr1Ha2wgjAlTMIbGxAbRcb-3TInhxRa5h4PJ5u21KacWeRiILokbLCI9Lt-m6UWqJkzrRv4Fz6VFnw9rUPimPaO3ItTrUw_tevqhKmKybNoxfYEUqLC9sYEa7FaDdNL_R81CYWYZeYzyiWn1jR8srQGvrlnsyxa3KIGjd1HXDeU/s4032/33B7FA16-28E8-4F34-AF9B-EC28855B3C38.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYxkgXeV2n8XcmAr1Ha2wgjAlTMIbGxAbRcb-3TInhxRa5h4PJ5u21KacWeRiILokbLCI9Lt-m6UWqJkzrRv4Fz6VFnw9rUPimPaO3ItTrUw_tevqhKmKybNoxfYEUqLC9sYEa7FaDdNL_R81CYWYZeYzyiWn1jR8srQGvrlnsyxa3KIGjd1HXDeU/s320/33B7FA16-28E8-4F34-AF9B-EC28855B3C38.jpeg" width="240" /></a></p><p>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. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLjd22M0K4QK_Bp3AoWKX7FVCKvZASHyaF4XPFPk0BS7wvdyOpLQqGAdQ3mq37nTDlcvkarTw5s94Hf0-2PaFbS8R9YwEbfZU2elsgevNs22r2ihvgRe237JiJIQ0-xygchcvNdD9kDhqfUSRjE7S2w0i4TFYzlOtLHP4UFNJWW01oM9Kt8z25_v4/s4032/DBE87FB6-E216-4033-A44D-F01EF9B90927.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLjd22M0K4QK_Bp3AoWKX7FVCKvZASHyaF4XPFPk0BS7wvdyOpLQqGAdQ3mq37nTDlcvkarTw5s94Hf0-2PaFbS8R9YwEbfZU2elsgevNs22r2ihvgRe237JiJIQ0-xygchcvNdD9kDhqfUSRjE7S2w0i4TFYzlOtLHP4UFNJWW01oM9Kt8z25_v4/s320/DBE87FB6-E216-4033-A44D-F01EF9B90927.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><p></p><p>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.</p><p>Tasting notes:</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><div style="text-align: right;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcdcXdRZE9Z-qY6z3DidRAUgbD9Po3VteyBj3ynYoFpOcNBwavDb3fKynF5EDyA4Fr3tsymyNCDM8lW-QuWGmMGF2AFut5D_hQum6ZWLH7DHVg1y0VgE3eupC26d8d8XlEgJvS1hHJbbeXIsde1-WVl30to91IT6PESmGItcxZrKQq4-xklnT1xRY/s4032/1B2FDF92-E9E2-47F7-8DE8-1539A2E41B5B.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcdcXdRZE9Z-qY6z3DidRAUgbD9Po3VteyBj3ynYoFpOcNBwavDb3fKynF5EDyA4Fr3tsymyNCDM8lW-QuWGmMGF2AFut5D_hQum6ZWLH7DHVg1y0VgE3eupC26d8d8XlEgJvS1hHJbbeXIsde1-WVl30to91IT6PESmGItcxZrKQq4-xklnT1xRY/s320/1B2FDF92-E9E2-47F7-8DE8-1539A2E41B5B.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><p></p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>9/11/22<br />Brewday. No real notes beyond what's listed above.</p><p>9/15/22<br />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.</p><p>9/16/22<br />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.</p><p>9/22/22<br />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.</p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNDRg46GucwXqu8l0jsTNCcHj3OmN8UolJ3wniuTWRRPv-01P6va-tMoHSgWCVlaw0J9fBAabndYAEhNpvvwMWT3wNcMVl-yop_AVFL4kTrl6GIBDsbj7kNTBPx808dlu86X3oTSGXDciyk3LxBOmHJZwTI1WCfjmo1nM2D5RgdRbwcofKnlqL9_c/s4032/44F2039D-79AB-464E-858C-196CB1479877.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNDRg46GucwXqu8l0jsTNCcHj3OmN8UolJ3wniuTWRRPv-01P6va-tMoHSgWCVlaw0J9fBAabndYAEhNpvvwMWT3wNcMVl-yop_AVFL4kTrl6GIBDsbj7kNTBPx808dlu86X3oTSGXDciyk3LxBOmHJZwTI1WCfjmo1nM2D5RgdRbwcofKnlqL9_c/s320/44F2039D-79AB-464E-858C-196CB1479877.jpeg" width="240" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0xwHJmvgxu5JzP_LwllJL6DQoPpDZnV9yhHI9wEedOgyBAiijSsXyFW4S3CDdgqGhLSokYqeT97tfgZZl_TMSQY_bHqC4_DX5vHVVpdP_vrL6IXHxazLIcqaftOwbYBE-HFuWbKyYMgxDIr0mMWAZyyuwx4En4zryzVFmezDdnRlbQJFrB7AZH4c/s4032/D69898F0-3356-4642-95D9-8C77C4D34488.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0xwHJmvgxu5JzP_LwllJL6DQoPpDZnV9yhHI9wEedOgyBAiijSsXyFW4S3CDdgqGhLSokYqeT97tfgZZl_TMSQY_bHqC4_DX5vHVVpdP_vrL6IXHxazLIcqaftOwbYBE-HFuWbKyYMgxDIr0mMWAZyyuwx4En4zryzVFmezDdnRlbQJFrB7AZH4c/s320/D69898F0-3356-4642-95D9-8C77C4D34488.jpeg" width="240" /></a> </p><p>9/28/22<br />Finally recovered enough to provide the full tasting above.</p></div>Gudenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01061351196521584849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670675947370202349.post-81816366009990039512022-08-01T17:22:00.016-04:002022-12-28T13:57:59.926-05:00Summer Pils '22<p></p><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_e2doMmAIUDhbUP6RedjhKncjQpHDXpr1cJ3Vgt2e64p2PbVB-Cc3wOvDDU42OiikpKKyebN-mhrkk4gCxaXjP8Upj8ICfc2OYWYVv9jGsUJtmSHDifE8sd0wIFmaYL6tI18NZzKmith_uYQRvhnKyRgHL0-lW27mX04SRr293Db06EbROR61nbI/s4032/E922D070-0702-4320-8944-5AD9ADF31E29.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_e2doMmAIUDhbUP6RedjhKncjQpHDXpr1cJ3Vgt2e64p2PbVB-Cc3wOvDDU42OiikpKKyebN-mhrkk4gCxaXjP8Upj8ICfc2OYWYVv9jGsUJtmSHDifE8sd0wIFmaYL6tI18NZzKmith_uYQRvhnKyRgHL0-lW27mX04SRr293Db06EbROR61nbI/s320/E922D070-0702-4320-8944-5AD9ADF31E29.jpeg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fairly clear after a few weeks on tap. <br />A Goldings hop plant can be seen <br />growing on the line behind the glass.</td></tr></tbody></table><br />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 <a href="https://brulosophy.com/2017/12/18/dextrine-malt-pt-2-the-impact-of-carafoam-on-various-beer-characteristics-exbeeriment-results/">may not do this as well as advertised</a>). As I've done with some other beers recently I planned to split this between two 3 gallon carboys, each with a different yeast (<a href="https://www.whitelabs.com/yeast-single?id=219&type=YEAST">Whitelabs Czech Budejovice</a> and re-pitched <a href="https://wyeastlab.com/product/munich-lager/">Wyeast Munich Lager</a>). 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 <a href="https://goodbeer.blogspot.com/2022/07/smoked-helles-22.html">smoked Helles</a>.<p></p><p>Tasting Notes:</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>6/12/22<br />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 <a href="https://www.sekado.cz/en/malt.php">the maltster Sekado</a> 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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>6/13/22<br />Increased chest freezer temperature setting to 50F and pitched yeast.</p><p>6/15/22<br />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.</p><p>6/16/22<br />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.</p><p>6/17/22<br />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.</p><p>6/22/22<br />Removed from chest freezer to allow to rise to room temp (currently 66F) for a diacetyl rest.</p><p>6/24/22<br />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.</p><p>6/27/22<br />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.</p><p>7/16/22<br />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.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9xNcTp3XXi1nBY-1XH6BoNUeVrTOo_YUE5Dlmo49lyH3hpoHQEglt6ZAqLekj3tmZ4vuYIf8MplQ73fQ-vxPdILcB4MATUpFv59E_JiaMJKeYLvvI8hKfHuXrdfcM6W2qdy1XNZIKEJZ5vmVdpXPYPBs1I3qx_MNZ-WBJW-1VbesDumgDeX2VFTs/s4032/54D6CD9F-1E08-4E80-91E6-72759E1EB32A.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9xNcTp3XXi1nBY-1XH6BoNUeVrTOo_YUE5Dlmo49lyH3hpoHQEglt6ZAqLekj3tmZ4vuYIf8MplQ73fQ-vxPdILcB4MATUpFv59E_JiaMJKeYLvvI8hKfHuXrdfcM6W2qdy1XNZIKEJZ5vmVdpXPYPBs1I3qx_MNZ-WBJW-1VbesDumgDeX2VFTs/s320/54D6CD9F-1E08-4E80-91E6-72759E1EB32A.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><p></p><p>7/29/22<br />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.</p>Gudenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01061351196521584849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670675947370202349.post-57299501042977315362022-07-18T11:15:00.000-04:002022-07-18T11:15:50.439-04:00Smoked Helles '22<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjknQUQZRGOVi2I9d1VLFWWFnUEBay65qzrl7NXB7ZIaJBheet5XiTjbDU2b1KG98C_WBNBPTMH2fTsUjtx05XFKrlUr9j-GKOl-RcmhA0635taIBmOr_IdOF7LHjPAC1j_cH3EM51ptSSLt2jepL9kLAuAwqiTB-AHgkX_AuSBR8sBdnWnxVUErMc/s3287/8CF2F06B-5014-4531-B79B-BABE2110354C.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3287" data-original-width="2466" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjknQUQZRGOVi2I9d1VLFWWFnUEBay65qzrl7NXB7ZIaJBheet5XiTjbDU2b1KG98C_WBNBPTMH2fTsUjtx05XFKrlUr9j-GKOl-RcmhA0635taIBmOr_IdOF7LHjPAC1j_cH3EM51ptSSLt2jepL9kLAuAwqiTB-AHgkX_AuSBR8sBdnWnxVUErMc/s320/8CF2F06B-5014-4531-B79B-BABE2110354C.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br />Smoked Helles has become my go to spring beer since first <a href="https://goodbeer.blogspot.com/2016/05/belgian-golden-strong-and-smoked-helles.html">brewing a split batch that included it several years ago</a>. 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.<p></p><p><br /></p><p>Simple smoked helles:</p><p>75% (7.5 lbs) Pilsner malt (Weyermann)</p><p>10% (1 lb) <a href="http://www.sugarcreekmalt.com/store/p71/CHERRY.html">Cherrywood Smoked Malt (Sugar Creek)</a></p><p>10% (1 lb) CaraHell (Weyermann)</p><p>5% (.5 lbs) Vienna Malt (Weyermann)</p><p>Tasting Notes:</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguoGEkoBeoPgM-dGwkUXTgZGXu_kXS42A3oGIG2i1Zug9s2xeb_mn1dcoxCndaQrN050J79mVY8u0bg-AmA_Px8SC-6d9W3GoJvKYGtAqCosTwamzxrYu9zSejMkJI8PLjZ3o9O5ha2Mc1kegOq0HOzd2thaEAC58w_lsv9DiBhQEw0wNrf02p6Uc/s4032/FD0C42B4-D388-44C8-82E2-D67212D1FC1E.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguoGEkoBeoPgM-dGwkUXTgZGXu_kXS42A3oGIG2i1Zug9s2xeb_mn1dcoxCndaQrN050J79mVY8u0bg-AmA_Px8SC-6d9W3GoJvKYGtAqCosTwamzxrYu9zSejMkJI8PLjZ3o9O5ha2Mc1kegOq0HOzd2thaEAC58w_lsv9DiBhQEw0wNrf02p6Uc/s320/FD0C42B4-D388-44C8-82E2-D67212D1FC1E.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><p></p><p>5/11/22<br />Planned out a vacation day to recover from the previous night's awesome <a href="https://themenzingers.com/">The Menzingers</a> show and brew a beer.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>After 7 hours pitched one jar of Munich lager yeast previously used for Maibock.</p><p>12 hours after pitching (19 after brewing) increased chest freezer temp to 50F. Added 1 pack of Lallemand Diamond Lager Yeast 8 hours later.</p><p>5/13/22<br />After 48 hours still not seeing any signs of active fermentation so increasing chest freezer temp to 55F</p><p>5/22/22<br />Still slowly fermenting with a decent krausen, increased chest freezer temp to 60F</p><p>5/27/22<br />Fermentation looks complete with just a few yeast rafts on top. Began slowly cooling.</p><p>6/12/22 <br />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.</p><p>6/17/22<br />Transferred to keg and set in chest freezer at 50F.</p><p>6/19/22<br />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.</p><p>7/15/22<br />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.</p>Gudenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01061351196521584849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670675947370202349.post-42005284333317391332022-07-16T13:30:00.001-04:002022-08-02T10:28:39.381-04:00Summer/Sommer Ales<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZsv4lQCFcKYbuazM8Fqjx0ni7O1zqdHrD9UlcDiKm9MKeCDKM9-aRxxbn8GlN5ejRmIbvJpXJx2zXKgfRMoWvhQCrqNjEfg95zn26AtsL4_pEOS-EaVZthfjy9FSVJ5S5aqyaahZz-Pb-yjFer7S3UEaOukB7CmaJGQvxqH-BWbClGJnOuFHP-_A/s4032/F0C19483-947A-462F-9657-A35468E17A22.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZsv4lQCFcKYbuazM8Fqjx0ni7O1zqdHrD9UlcDiKm9MKeCDKM9-aRxxbn8GlN5ejRmIbvJpXJx2zXKgfRMoWvhQCrqNjEfg95zn26AtsL4_pEOS-EaVZthfjy9FSVJ5S5aqyaahZz-Pb-yjFer7S3UEaOukB7CmaJGQvxqH-BWbClGJnOuFHP-_A/s320/F0C19483-947A-462F-9657-A35468E17A22.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br />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 <a href="https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/898/59725/">appears to have been 4.5% abv</a> 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 <a href="https://www.northernbrewer.com/blogs/beer-recipes-ingredients/omega-yeasts-dried-lutra-kviek-yeast">Omega Lutra kveik</a>, a strain notorious for its lager like character, and the other half on the classic <a href="https://fermentis.com/en/product/safale-us-05/">Fermentis SafAle US-05</a> American ale yeast. This should give me two variations on a Summer (or Sommer in Norwegian) ale.</div><div><br /></div><div>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 <a href="https://goodbeer.blogspot.com/2022/07/smoked-helles-22.html">lightly smoked Helles</a> (usually my spring beer) and a <a href="https://goodbeer.blogspot.com/2022/08/summer-pils-22.html">Czech Premium Pale Lager</a> (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.</div><div><br /></div><div>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 <a href="https://youtu.be/Qt6Lkgs0kiU">The Beers of Summer</a> are gone.</div><div><br /></div><div>6/8/22</div><div>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.</div><div><br /></div><div>6/9/22</div><div>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.</div><div>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.</div><div><br /></div><div>6/12/22</div><div>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.</div><div>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.</div><div>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.</div><div>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.</div><div><br /></div><div>6/17/22</div><div>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.</div><div><br /></div><div>6/19/22</div><div>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.</div><div><br /></div><div>7/16/22</div><div>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.</div><div><br /></div><div>Sommer (Lutra kveik version)</div><div>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.</div><div><br /></div><div>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.</div><div><br /></div><div>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</div><div><br /></div><div>Mouthfeel: medium low body with medium carbonation and a touch of creaminess. Pretty nice.</div><div><br /></div><div>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.</div><div><br /></div><div>Summer (US-05 version)</div><div>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. </div><div><br /></div><div>Appearance: fairly cloudy but I can see my fingers through the glass unlike the kveik version. Large white fluffy head with good retention.</div><div><br /></div><div>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.</div><div><br /></div><div>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.</div><div><br /></div><div>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.</div><div><br /></div>Gudenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01061351196521584849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670675947370202349.post-89465188169648319562022-04-13T22:19:00.002-04:002022-04-13T22:19:56.851-04:00Alder Wood Smoked Beer(s)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVlgnnIZ2aFgKo_fZt7dmNyIMomXvEJn7Tw35ZwbFk8gZjqORqdro7fUu6sQNFaKEoDdYO_V3C4CwKPv5ng9W1gaK7CDYDeMk0Kwl1KYES6BKG6U9rXS1Om_RU1au8hg-jHQIMfJYK8gomJVxkHBqMj8EBONhouJUA2jqxaMbmRBeZJQfLgfLviNI/s4032/AE844622-B476-4956-9A69-B21A76FFDA6F.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVlgnnIZ2aFgKo_fZt7dmNyIMomXvEJn7Tw35ZwbFk8gZjqORqdro7fUu6sQNFaKEoDdYO_V3C4CwKPv5ng9W1gaK7CDYDeMk0Kwl1KYES6BKG6U9rXS1Om_RU1au8hg-jHQIMfJYK8gomJVxkHBqMj8EBONhouJUA2jqxaMbmRBeZJQfLgfLviNI/w300-h400/AE844622-B476-4956-9A69-B21A76FFDA6F.jpeg" width="300" /></a></div><br />I was recently extremely intrigued and inspired by the Chop and Brew </span><a href="https://chopandbrew.com/episodes/100-alderwood-smoked-stjordal-style-farmhouse-ale/" style="text-align: left;">episode on a beer made with 100% alder smoked malt</a><span style="text-align: left;">. While I had kept up with </span><a href="https://www.garshol.priv.no/blog/" style="text-align: left;">Lars Garshol's blog</a><span style="text-align: left;"> for years, I had not thought a lot about Norwegian farmhouse styles since </span><a href="https://goodbeer.blogspot.com/2018/02/kveik-blonde-ales.html" style="text-align: left;">brewing a few beers</a><span style="text-align: left;"> with kveik a few years ago and had fallen behind on my reading. For one thing, I missed that Lars had </span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Historical-Brewing-Techniques-Lost-Farmhouse/dp/1938469550" style="text-align: left;">released a book</a><span style="text-align: left;">. 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 </span><a href="http://www.sugarcreekmalt.com/" style="text-align: left;">Sugar Creek Malt Co.</a><span style="text-align: left;"> and ordered Traditional Farmhouse Techniques so that I could set out on making a beer in this style for myself.</span></div><p></p><p style="text-align: left;">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.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXqad7rsqqDBmwO20_MLz3ztlvc7g5M5-kvtCj26_jlmex-objrTgychEgC0XPO6b2zq3Cq1tDiWaRsYesJhKuNLrH2KvQwumrwJTk3uy8xhXxgDe6xX2Bzl7jY6jwOgXLmpt7a1sN3NIwjnXYWvwO23OPTzKAip1wtCih9jzDh6SRlMNZ1TnJLww/s4032/CA07B47D-4E2F-4193-B4A7-27969EB2DBE1.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXqad7rsqqDBmwO20_MLz3ztlvc7g5M5-kvtCj26_jlmex-objrTgychEgC0XPO6b2zq3Cq1tDiWaRsYesJhKuNLrH2KvQwumrwJTk3uy8xhXxgDe6xX2Bzl7jY6jwOgXLmpt7a1sN3NIwjnXYWvwO23OPTzKAip1wtCih9jzDh6SRlMNZ1TnJLww/s320/CA07B47D-4E2F-4193-B4A7-27969EB2DBE1.jpeg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mash hops and the (non-traditional) juniper berries about to be added</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p>When the malt arrived I was finally ready to make a Stjørdalsøl inspired beer and put together a <a href="https://brewgr.com/recipe/100784/edit">very simple recipe</a> 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 <a href="https://omegayeast.com/yeast/belgian-ales/jovaru-lithuanian-farmhouse">Lithuanian</a>) 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.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5TKrinpP0c-jS5wUp5HdiQ20vbfC8XUdi8Gj-cJeH9ScW5CW3vqZSXQGrP9SEDZmXORXn5owgmr9X-8VOaaLq7d3RLfbiSb0A8_d91PnD5x_cQzuXQTlXl2rMmgZATiI7qs7Rje_gpqeCx5jpQqKB5fU0w8TtHXHsaZDSKMmWFei7aqSfOrnSScw/s4032/83EA9CA2-D06F-4384-A0FD-84DA351A5022.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5TKrinpP0c-jS5wUp5HdiQ20vbfC8XUdi8Gj-cJeH9ScW5CW3vqZSXQGrP9SEDZmXORXn5owgmr9X-8VOaaLq7d3RLfbiSb0A8_d91PnD5x_cQzuXQTlXl2rMmgZATiI7qs7Rje_gpqeCx5jpQqKB5fU0w8TtHXHsaZDSKMmWFei7aqSfOrnSScw/w240-h320/83EA9CA2-D06F-4384-A0FD-84DA351A5022.jpeg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">9.5 of the 10 pounds were used in this recipe <br />with the hope to save the last half pound for a future brew</td></tr></tbody></table><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9-ujcDR0-CwTyt215fnfvXSLxX0hlviuPkHz5_MQTxObePI3qewvaeHp6BbP8URtK-JPTNqfdjqSuhYGXKqer8qkDViU3Bf_PUipUtgGRG4qpu7LIYr2wfS3pJpm00XxR5KqtOm4UqkPe4JzNGna3UHqurN929PGpQxrqCU_EPT1by0gyqJymKak/s4032/0A67D5F5-F91E-4343-9CD8-76EB8EB1EC36.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9-ujcDR0-CwTyt215fnfvXSLxX0hlviuPkHz5_MQTxObePI3qewvaeHp6BbP8URtK-JPTNqfdjqSuhYGXKqer8qkDViU3Bf_PUipUtgGRG4qpu7LIYr2wfS3pJpm00XxR5KqtOm4UqkPe4JzNGna3UHqurN929PGpQxrqCU_EPT1by0gyqJymKak/s320/0A67D5F5-F91E-4343-9CD8-76EB8EB1EC36.jpeg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Beautiful light brown color on the smoked<br />malt and a huge aroma that fills the room</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Tasting Notes:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Appearance: Medium brown, very clear. Off white head of thick bubbles is thin but lasts for a while.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">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.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">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.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">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.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">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.</div><p></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFqNZNrPQ8PMR0oYbdVwP4nOZuVNUYJ7lEAfIyy6fwlhCiX2pbg4S2M-MIW90RtwEIejvdF4Y4MYatDivP_LljM4JcRK3CpfCl-E-foZAxdbm3bgKfIIeYDk93jGeO59U5Y-bi28HalrOpHA0kD4C3bkFlD7mI54eN-aRGcFCFxcqwYWZ68OpZQis/s4032/A7AADF24-D392-4677-8220-DCEC5C476183.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFqNZNrPQ8PMR0oYbdVwP4nOZuVNUYJ7lEAfIyy6fwlhCiX2pbg4S2M-MIW90RtwEIejvdF4Y4MYatDivP_LljM4JcRK3CpfCl-E-foZAxdbm3bgKfIIeYDk93jGeO59U5Y-bi28HalrOpHA0kD4C3bkFlD7mI54eN-aRGcFCFxcqwYWZ68OpZQis/s320/A7AADF24-D392-4677-8220-DCEC5C476183.jpeg" width="240" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFrQGjDxpWOpEk4ihH2uxGgozBom6J9AK34k_p_pKq_rn3TSRUPueLZo4I348cpv_XnJaXxyAfkEb6SwPQDWXPhPZQDitdiqVn4vL5OlNtfxgxt7KBd_Xs5FSSFHQY-DK05nOz5mwnQzAuUOfEFD_VHRMUPdbqHTMg-Gr8-l51iBwvcUb5F_5rGAE/s4032/BEA42AA9-FDB3-426B-A909-54FA9786944D.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFrQGjDxpWOpEk4ihH2uxGgozBom6J9AK34k_p_pKq_rn3TSRUPueLZo4I348cpv_XnJaXxyAfkEb6SwPQDWXPhPZQDitdiqVn4vL5OlNtfxgxt7KBd_Xs5FSSFHQY-DK05nOz5mwnQzAuUOfEFD_VHRMUPdbqHTMg-Gr8-l51iBwvcUb5F_5rGAE/s320/BEA42AA9-FDB3-426B-A909-54FA9786944D.jpeg" width="240" /></a>1/29/22<br />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.</p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjt9xIu2sbov1_KMUMjeTmkVz7PbAc27rWDXoPNiEwbCkOLcandOGVYpPrA_ifWRTt07YlFKbycyxo34jivyJa2S5L8GkHfdFZLc_qNxa-BH9xZF7F8VAzoEG3PJjiHBJvLFvQKibX_UqrywXHGK_Vp0nnoRcYxe6NkbWbYES27P5ACmIeCLG_EAk/s4032/A3D218DD-8CEA-4243-B6C5-C5249C211B84.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjt9xIu2sbov1_KMUMjeTmkVz7PbAc27rWDXoPNiEwbCkOLcandOGVYpPrA_ifWRTt07YlFKbycyxo34jivyJa2S5L8GkHfdFZLc_qNxa-BH9xZF7F8VAzoEG3PJjiHBJvLFvQKibX_UqrywXHGK_Vp0nnoRcYxe6NkbWbYES27P5ACmIeCLG_EAk/s320/A3D218DD-8CEA-4243-B6C5-C5249C211B84.jpeg" width="240" /></a></p><p>2/6/22<br />Fermentation very slow if still active but still a thin krausen.</p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUeoKeBfIQhApMyan0btjyHtkkP3NMtfoywiWeaapKIHp-OBRbVd80vR6jmVNNU_jnpIgSCT3V3L3Rg7OTtqp1oHvqoj7ST4iozWIdxzIa_ZdU28riEb_IVAUl90UhDlFD3Sb0MS9Rtqrm1J1Gn8xsmsGqH5l07oWo6Yp24G76v9Cg6FTEV9cVl4o/s4032/6FC8BD6A-E43C-4AFF-9809-6AFBB04948B6.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUeoKeBfIQhApMyan0btjyHtkkP3NMtfoywiWeaapKIHp-OBRbVd80vR6jmVNNU_jnpIgSCT3V3L3Rg7OTtqp1oHvqoj7ST4iozWIdxzIa_ZdU28riEb_IVAUl90UhDlFD3Sb0MS9Rtqrm1J1Gn8xsmsGqH5l07oWo6Yp24G76v9Cg6FTEV9cVl4o/s320/6FC8BD6A-E43C-4AFF-9809-6AFBB04948B6.jpeg" width="240" /></a></p><p>2/17/22<br />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.</p><p>3/2/22<br />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.</p><p>3/18/22<br />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.</p><p>3/23/22<br />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.</p><p>4/13/22<br />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.</p>Gudenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01061351196521584849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670675947370202349.post-77862542390301637112022-04-13T21:28:00.001-04:002022-12-20T00:46:04.163-05:00StarTropics ‘22<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihmxloQn7xR1NyN9NRZ88ZEok8Sz-nBUrTwG02v3YnhehESqU2-tBkrQoT13GgY8bI5JICJ3wcGEhmYpWO8RMKBekjWlhb1MiH_AAWynJNv-ZOh2_bXV_5f20aSyTYcBwxpOOIZlCxkg89ux8ri_ge563k5I108hmEHNiteg5edkoDfTD2M3iszZs/s4032/2C167EB1-2FD9-4952-A452-31DE7A320DC3.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihmxloQn7xR1NyN9NRZ88ZEok8Sz-nBUrTwG02v3YnhehESqU2-tBkrQoT13GgY8bI5JICJ3wcGEhmYpWO8RMKBekjWlhb1MiH_AAWynJNv-ZOh2_bXV_5f20aSyTYcBwxpOOIZlCxkg89ux8ri_ge563k5I108hmEHNiteg5edkoDfTD2M3iszZs/w480-h640/2C167EB1-2FD9-4952-A452-31DE7A320DC3.jpeg" width="480" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My dog enjoying play time during the brew day</td></tr></tbody></table><br />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 <a href="https://brewgr.com/recipe/101415/edit">hazy/New England style IPA recipe</a> has changed a lot over time but for this attempt I’m going back to<a href="https://goodbeer.blogspot.com/2017/01/startropics-30.html"> the version</a> 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 <a href="https://goodbeer.blogspot.com/2022/04/maisonette-22.html">the hoppy saison</a> 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.<div>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).<br /><div><br /><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7Ma0orVl3XKbbIZcHM7UAMk-YVyTfjshoUa9eKQ7zHymJRrVGgYNCjrkt02Xq65SzcQ_ZYbcFdfvDplY1A9na_QcC-H5QOyeqkCABv6i9kiMSVrCyI8enUWejz9kVT2FafHF8TZ9vgKR7LEfXrsTqvig_A8ptpUqjZdo3IvvfvVQnXI7DYGSettU/s4032/A90D9D02-461D-44FA-B759-55FF8586C722.jpeg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7Ma0orVl3XKbbIZcHM7UAMk-YVyTfjshoUa9eKQ7zHymJRrVGgYNCjrkt02Xq65SzcQ_ZYbcFdfvDplY1A9na_QcC-H5QOyeqkCABv6i9kiMSVrCyI8enUWejz9kVT2FafHF8TZ9vgKR7LEfXrsTqvig_A8ptpUqjZdo3IvvfvVQnXI7DYGSettU/w480-h640/A90D9D02-461D-44FA-B759-55FF8586C722.jpeg" width="480" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Tasting Notes:</div>This beer never fully turned around (detailed process notes below) but I'll do a full set of tasting notes anyway.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">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.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Smell: Sweet overripe fruit (melon, papaya) and earthy, hay-like, sweet malt dominate with a light touch of citrus peel and pine.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">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.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">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.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">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.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><p></p><p>3/18/22<br />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.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiabJYh3QwbQ5Cm7lc0OUF4xQ9l-14RjGI3Mgt1fpccm7Vb83Yit-IjOh6hidEPmu6VmV2_b-xskvZ9vey6joXjGO6Yh9mYX9EFUW2Oih1k4bx87MREoatedtByFZbBexyPJHImv3xVeOyIkfvZd-wmK4ffXvtN6VYmgHJN1UdEg17uhlG1JrYpA0/s4032/AF6E025E-8ED9-4454-8E15-1E735F216D57.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiabJYh3QwbQ5Cm7lc0OUF4xQ9l-14RjGI3Mgt1fpccm7Vb83Yit-IjOh6hidEPmu6VmV2_b-xskvZ9vey6joXjGO6Yh9mYX9EFUW2Oih1k4bx87MREoatedtByFZbBexyPJHImv3xVeOyIkfvZd-wmK4ffXvtN6VYmgHJN1UdEg17uhlG1JrYpA0/w300-h400/AF6E025E-8ED9-4454-8E15-1E735F216D57.jpeg" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">All grains for the mash bill mixed together</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p>3/19/22<br />Brewday</p><p>Mashed in with 3 gallons of 180F strike water hitting my target 155F.</p><p>Hop smells from freshly opened 2021 hop pellet bags from Hops Direct:</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGMvii5Vfwh5-Tf0ZrOFPDytisMOXH_3glL1HeuvQCm-DioHfRyPviggD7-r1E3rDbxKFWze9RqPgHt2iVoG7JR7kSKX3wW8sApva_uUEd7y5btFXMpcERkQNcdgC_Si6hTuQBBUyYxUmhl33BFhxvgDS0Mc13TLrFxss5MIpC98WJZLVs67ZC2R8/s4032/D73682E4-2CEB-427E-87F4-FC5538D79B08.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGMvii5Vfwh5-Tf0ZrOFPDytisMOXH_3glL1HeuvQCm-DioHfRyPviggD7-r1E3rDbxKFWze9RqPgHt2iVoG7JR7kSKX3wW8sApva_uUEd7y5btFXMpcERkQNcdgC_Si6hTuQBBUyYxUmhl33BFhxvgDS0Mc13TLrFxss5MIpC98WJZLVs67ZC2R8/s320/D73682E4-2CEB-427E-87F4-FC5538D79B08.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>Comet: Light pineapple and mango, some other tropical and citrus aromas. Light grassy and earthy aromas.<p></p><p>Citra: more pungent papaya and mango. More lemongrass than grass/earth.</p><p>Azacca: again similar with some light pineapple and red papaya. Lighter earth/grass than comet but not really the lemongrass of Citra.</p><p>Galaxy: very different. Still some pineapple and tropical fruit smells and lemongrass but with a pungent pine/dank/funk character</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNyYc_SuGtWUgYsRSgYleDfrbW0bc6d6uvl7PeBQICt4MBLNp6ilKVlCygFaaU2DuYVUr9IM25YAXRg_uS91_BkhARulnnif8YJp9QtDABjm3ThRC75bLanBBy8SsPiAotNpvdYVR4VaTuwzGciTbudoORqlckZeRb-qsC-wImKP4Ym7S5nI0G-pU/s4032/C031C254-8A43-4457-ABDA-A93358700D43.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNyYc_SuGtWUgYsRSgYleDfrbW0bc6d6uvl7PeBQICt4MBLNp6ilKVlCygFaaU2DuYVUr9IM25YAXRg_uS91_BkhARulnnif8YJp9QtDABjm3ThRC75bLanBBy8SsPiAotNpvdYVR4VaTuwzGciTbudoORqlckZeRb-qsC-wImKP4Ym7S5nI0G-pU/s320/C031C254-8A43-4457-ABDA-A93358700D43.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div>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.<p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgptdDxheXmx4I5-Ml8gl3lyiskkS63NN0ZS2ClhmashK6KU7_Ls0M5pOcrDNOx3o_tXBio4r2uMUtNccadmdM9HEAe0StHGjWDfjFBpkY40sU1kbUkXszLERd_DTlBAHKdYbq6XTTQV2u63E8cACTbxgpEtcDOrhYi6I5pXvuN2O0Obcxzzr5lZ9c/s4032/93F0FC32-1554-44DF-9EE9-2885184E03EC.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgptdDxheXmx4I5-Ml8gl3lyiskkS63NN0ZS2ClhmashK6KU7_Ls0M5pOcrDNOx3o_tXBio4r2uMUtNccadmdM9HEAe0StHGjWDfjFBpkY40sU1kbUkXszLERd_DTlBAHKdYbq6XTTQV2u63E8cACTbxgpEtcDOrhYi6I5pXvuN2O0Obcxzzr5lZ9c/s320/93F0FC32-1554-44DF-9EE9-2885184E03EC.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div>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.<p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMY_vZO1ZKQb5uOo5SzLC0oVMbhs2slKueFh3TxX9mjW13ivdVmpkKosvf4hDtY6q5LiouSNvYEOJBhV54p6tLgI3vRfakhpB_fjiP7TJ1JU5s5-mPu-FQJhN6ytCpJUzRUUCzEzDfX9TafxghdP-ISommrxB6JC20oAL1nYNrRrF30SiU9RJuEZI/s4032/32C313C9-7A8B-4A37-8FF0-DBB4C50344E1.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMY_vZO1ZKQb5uOo5SzLC0oVMbhs2slKueFh3TxX9mjW13ivdVmpkKosvf4hDtY6q5LiouSNvYEOJBhV54p6tLgI3vRfakhpB_fjiP7TJ1JU5s5-mPu-FQJhN6ytCpJUzRUUCzEzDfX9TafxghdP-ISommrxB6JC20oAL1nYNrRrF30SiU9RJuEZI/s320/32C313C9-7A8B-4A37-8FF0-DBB4C50344E1.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>3/20/22<br />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.</p><p>3/21/22<br />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.</p><p>3/22/22<br />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.</p><p>3/24/22<br />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.</p><p>3/28/22<br />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.</p><p>3/29/22<br />Added 1g CaCl boiled in 100mL of water and 2mL 88% lactic acid. The acid addition was <a href="http://scottjanish.com/a-look-at-ph-in-hoppy-beers/">inspired by this post</a> 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.</p><p>3/30/22<br />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.</p><p>4/2/22<br />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.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">4/12/22</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Tasting date, tasting notes above.</div></div></div></div>Gudenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01061351196521584849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670675947370202349.post-42767352467724474482022-04-13T21:27:00.001-04:002022-04-13T21:27:06.543-04:00Maisonette ‘22<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdDcKv-UwplX_z8WP_Pdrlo8H1yy62Muv1__s98qspXjpowD5VtCyv10-2QoIIege8MhJTbHmTRQiyhCjE1mI3ya5hOCmHK1GD2-ypVhZCqFBZcH88yr78_qxkoEK0vskpnmXLy1e3AhpGycNYVY4Q1K7Wr9jGr7zpl1vH7_dFCmXTiGNss9BeS_4/s4032/3F504EB3-45C6-4D32-97CC-40FBCBA2BA82.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdDcKv-UwplX_z8WP_Pdrlo8H1yy62Muv1__s98qspXjpowD5VtCyv10-2QoIIege8MhJTbHmTRQiyhCjE1mI3ya5hOCmHK1GD2-ypVhZCqFBZcH88yr78_qxkoEK0vskpnmXLy1e3AhpGycNYVY4Q1K7Wr9jGr7zpl1vH7_dFCmXTiGNss9BeS_4/s320/3F504EB3-45C6-4D32-97CC-40FBCBA2BA82.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br />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)<p></p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>Tasting Notes:</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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. </p><p>3/6/22<br />Brewday:<br />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.</p><p>3/11/22<br />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.</p><p>3/16/22<br />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.</p><p>3/17/22<br />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.</p><p>3/21/22<br />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.</p><p>3/24/22<br />Bubbling very slowly, seems about ready to keg.</p><p>3/26/22<br />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.</p><p>3/27/22<br />Increased PSI to 15 and keezer temp to 40F.</p><p>3/30/22<br />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.</p><p>4/2/22<br />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.</p><p>4/13/22<br />Tasting night, notes above.</p>Gudenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01061351196521584849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670675947370202349.post-19110612399689233172022-04-12T21:22:00.002-04:002022-04-13T13:08:38.915-04:00Breakfast Stout '22<div class="separator"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0q6iPt0Y7x2w-t3EEla5UODB29JL2MEsQmnL4JoswoON2TIMcTuF8sheNEcc52eRpCTBQQWKflePxANNrDfvgyd_OOo-HSLjUzANiE4TQSkOjz0l0vkDO9TDTy7dF63MproosKnk2I9tssxjnV9Z_GOFkMoq29cQ-KHqdsWuEES1a3s9Ip6aNzOc/s4032/C6E30702-B39C-42E5-AFD9-51E248A9FB51.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0q6iPt0Y7x2w-t3EEla5UODB29JL2MEsQmnL4JoswoON2TIMcTuF8sheNEcc52eRpCTBQQWKflePxANNrDfvgyd_OOo-HSLjUzANiE4TQSkOjz0l0vkDO9TDTy7dF63MproosKnk2I9tssxjnV9Z_GOFkMoq29cQ-KHqdsWuEES1a3s9Ip6aNzOc/w300-h400/C6E30702-B39C-42E5-AFD9-51E248A9FB51.jpeg" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Full pour off the stout tap</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwytwGKe2IRuXRBJijrZjZ8BjqN3r644xyR8caRUL1PybJ8dYV6mcH_xKIZ243kWyncoCuLMgACENAAVcAuoa096pGyf_v8JL19eZaHlj_slntkAPyL8ibRJqsdqQJrpBvRtzSIBgazWBphqpIsmqxH8kYO9APnPTH6b_k9OC0dyzayEFmYDpsvuE/w300-h400/01A3D37A-705C-49E2-9F82-5C78FED1BC43.jpeg" width="300" /></div></div>I've brewed <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/670675947370202349/1801527080083882272">several</a> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/670675947370202349/2272688181468731092">versions</a> of an <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/670675947370202349/8207665637821134142">oatmeal</a> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/670675947370202349/7152222713214438997">stout</a> 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 <a href="https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/yoopers-oatmeal-stout.210376/">Yooper's Oatmeal Stout</a> 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.<div><br /></div><div>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.<div><br /></div><div>Tasting Notes:</div><div>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.</div><div><br /></div><div>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.</div><div><br /></div><div>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.</div><div><br /></div><div>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.</div><div><br /></div><div>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.</div><div><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitOrFXdE7LaYtGbYAKs0Gt333ytlOMkG7mgdfKPIiYyLMSEUKb3MeDT5JsIedT_KozIOOqvfIaH1z-t8i3nxQIcFTWK5E7jsXwtBE1sty4lSwF22ANOheOGxG8nJ7LdbCHLE8Vh0fkI7GYopHYWKVqhrJoL2kvPNqxP09-UK8zi3J36MGYCQCFNk4/s4032/1FDB7589-9C0F-488A-AF1F-2E7094132DF6.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitOrFXdE7LaYtGbYAKs0Gt333ytlOMkG7mgdfKPIiYyLMSEUKb3MeDT5JsIedT_KozIOOqvfIaH1z-t8i3nxQIcFTWK5E7jsXwtBE1sty4lSwF22ANOheOGxG8nJ7LdbCHLE8Vh0fkI7GYopHYWKVqhrJoL2kvPNqxP09-UK8zi3J36MGYCQCFNk4/w150-h200/1FDB7589-9C0F-488A-AF1F-2E7094132DF6.jpeg" width="150" /></a></div><div>3/13/22</div><p>Weighed and milled malt in preparation for brew day.</p><p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>3/14/22<br />Brewday:</p><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-jMuXGrun3TgU-G_YAJdyhXg5Z34WNVMKPiAhtsOaDfhuxRegdacJiljTNITW6nOLMa4qESgQJEyxNKkatH9DfrYCEO7F8aYwjWWwr_BhTsKGJ7xZgMaTn6ds8RcvfnWaWReaxLMoeRa17w5N0L1_8srRkEEDrh47LXze-ssjX_Zy8ydx6fpqrHA/s4032/F99FD356-9AB9-429B-BF87-2A57AF1F499F.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-jMuXGrun3TgU-G_YAJdyhXg5Z34WNVMKPiAhtsOaDfhuxRegdacJiljTNITW6nOLMa4qESgQJEyxNKkatH9DfrYCEO7F8aYwjWWwr_BhTsKGJ7xZgMaTn6ds8RcvfnWaWReaxLMoeRa17w5N0L1_8srRkEEDrh47LXze-ssjX_Zy8ydx6fpqrHA/s320/F99FD356-9AB9-429B-BF87-2A57AF1F499F.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div>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).<p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje1MsC5FPa3AfX8eEcscCObphGqsujcKtIvsipZxcPdpFgqjzxSXpQI8Ng60zR-Hs0h4ja6tXGV-XWF2oUlGAYpAEluR0X9uAZ3adm_rDMwC0ux2jeNOCXsllEsYetP0ZbH0bMzy-mtRipGku9kZfrP19uilyU_ypiXTR8tIy01lZ3mLHPokHYLyg/s4032/CC2BDDD4-3FF2-4CFE-91EF-E6C6F48AAE44.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje1MsC5FPa3AfX8eEcscCObphGqsujcKtIvsipZxcPdpFgqjzxSXpQI8Ng60zR-Hs0h4ja6tXGV-XWF2oUlGAYpAEluR0X9uAZ3adm_rDMwC0ux2jeNOCXsllEsYetP0ZbH0bMzy-mtRipGku9kZfrP19uilyU_ypiXTR8tIy01lZ3mLHPokHYLyg/s320/CC2BDDD4-3FF2-4CFE-91EF-E6C6F48AAE44.jpeg" width="240" /></a></p><p></p><br /><p></p><p></p>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.<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><p></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN-clvBOP_BJS4qWVrsxPAVRqoCNxy--PPMDZNyf6pkRdwg1k7i88cpUUelOTLvqrK8zVzsC3QS-8W5vd8iFoz_QPRTvhfg9wjzGcl-L3tw4QPh1OmOxLpwE-V_tA4MxM-ODra-nb3Jfb1uM2Ug6879jGnh-_jBrkUax2Tfv6PZkvTaCxzcfdJB7M/s4032/AB5636C0-CCCD-44FC-88F2-6C6E33DEDB81.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN-clvBOP_BJS4qWVrsxPAVRqoCNxy--PPMDZNyf6pkRdwg1k7i88cpUUelOTLvqrK8zVzsC3QS-8W5vd8iFoz_QPRTvhfg9wjzGcl-L3tw4QPh1OmOxLpwE-V_tA4MxM-ODra-nb3Jfb1uM2Ug6879jGnh-_jBrkUax2Tfv6PZkvTaCxzcfdJB7M/s320/AB5636C0-CCCD-44FC-88F2-6C6E33DEDB81.jpeg" width="240" /></a></p>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.<p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>3/16/22<br />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.</p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOkKepvauYvP5PEcv9DR5x_SoNOt7WeuC9YGuUc7Lhedq30eNZHi4VhXUQzWOWU1U_70FVo5G5zKvlF2KzJtd8GtDOq8wlylRAwjFPRz6MaU5A54Ye-Tgr-kUyjxFSlC__wcKLfUsO4VxUjFyetC5JmZW2DD3OBYqUBO-MkjLRepCPOp4t9J08TGk/s4032/8D8D06C4-0A27-4F4F-9862-E542B9F4E06B.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOkKepvauYvP5PEcv9DR5x_SoNOt7WeuC9YGuUc7Lhedq30eNZHi4VhXUQzWOWU1U_70FVo5G5zKvlF2KzJtd8GtDOq8wlylRAwjFPRz6MaU5A54Ye-Tgr-kUyjxFSlC__wcKLfUsO4VxUjFyetC5JmZW2DD3OBYqUBO-MkjLRepCPOp4t9J08TGk/s320/8D8D06C4-0A27-4F4F-9862-E542B9F4E06B.jpeg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not sure how this photo got in here but I do love Spanish Love Songs and saw them the night before brewday so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p>3/17/22<br />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.</p><p>3/22/22<br />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.</p><p>3/26/22<br />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.</p><p>3/28/22<br />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.</p><p>4/2/22<br />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).</p><p>4/7/22<br />Tasting day.<br />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.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVMfj4_kRYaJtZWsSGGmtzP9Vd09dkyBysBkcz28WtzXX4xHs742jihKEZg9GHgLCcavNbE5I1A6uTE_TyvKFisu_bRsvcJ5P1eIUUQe2MyOTQB8ZCs4nprsqRdEFmGpkOJvRAKTrb1CKN5Se8xd8p6S5NGhg-8P0waeJc0aSZmFtJ6XExfZzf9qs/s4032/04FD3197-0A07-428B-87D4-81B31FF040C3.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVMfj4_kRYaJtZWsSGGmtzP9Vd09dkyBysBkcz28WtzXX4xHs742jihKEZg9GHgLCcavNbE5I1A6uTE_TyvKFisu_bRsvcJ5P1eIUUQe2MyOTQB8ZCs4nprsqRdEFmGpkOJvRAKTrb1CKN5Se8xd8p6S5NGhg-8P0waeJc0aSZmFtJ6XExfZzf9qs/s320/04FD3197-0A07-428B-87D4-81B31FF040C3.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><p></p></div></div>Gudenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01061351196521584849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670675947370202349.post-75747780619861162712022-04-12T20:51:00.000-04:002022-04-12T20:51:06.214-04:00Das Hund Maibock<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYZ3Du7C79uEip5XP2WVLefPeSEQMXcCN7S4hcYxUn0R4ut_g8y9Dq0RIXxUE5NfHVe0dDE4l7MiPz2W-PJD-Kr3fVcdxIWMxIsAC8Bb0BwzifQuScVyFlF4SFmXY5HmkWtgSeb1H8H2V2QA2Bd1AjD7EzZUXANezXHz1NzM5fKE91383YbH1x3_o/s4032/A9CA9ABE-D81A-4B8F-A7BC-C0FD41A26685.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYZ3Du7C79uEip5XP2WVLefPeSEQMXcCN7S4hcYxUn0R4ut_g8y9Dq0RIXxUE5NfHVe0dDE4l7MiPz2W-PJD-Kr3fVcdxIWMxIsAC8Bb0BwzifQuScVyFlF4SFmXY5HmkWtgSeb1H8H2V2QA2Bd1AjD7EzZUXANezXHz1NzM5fKE91383YbH1x3_o/w640-h480/A9CA9ABE-D81A-4B8F-A7BC-C0FD41A26685.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><br />I brewed this beer in January 2022 on my Dad's brewing setup. The recipe is <a href="https://brewgr.com/recipe/100614/">posted here</a>, tasting notes and cellaring notes from late in the process are below. A pretty simple recipe overall with ~60% pils and 40% vienna malt, a decent bittering charge of Magnum plus some small Hallertau Mittelfrüh additions late in the boil, fermented with a classic Munich lager yeast.<div><br /></div><div>I can't seem to find any of the notes or photos from the brewday and have just one photo showing a temp reading a couple weeks later so I've included what process and tasting notes I do have below<div><br /></div><div>Tasting Notes:</div><div>Appearance: Bright gold in color, certainly darker than the average Helles but not to the amber of a Vienna lager. Not as clear as I would like for the style but not a "hazy" beer by any means. Large white fluffy head fades slowly and looks very appealing. Overall it is maybe more of a "keller" Maibock than a traditional one but looks appetizing none the less.</div><div><br /></div><div>Smell: Lightly earthy/grassy/leafy hop and malt character quickly gives way to sweet/cookie/caramel aromas. There's a touch of cider-like/apple fruitiness that may just be a combination of the hops and malt or may be yeast derived.</div><div><br /></div><div>Taste: Starts off with a smooth enjoyable grainy/pilsner malt sweet malt character before transitioning to a much heavier caramel, cider, and vegetal finish which lingers with caramel/cookie/vanilla and some earthy hop character.</div><div><br /></div><div>Mouthfeel: The booziness is only slightly apparent with a thinness that underlies the otherwise relatively sweet and thick body. Carbonation is moderate but seems about right for the style. The lingering sweet finish seems to be more due to the flavors than any astringency or specific mouthfeel character.</div><div><br /></div><div>Overall: For a first attempt at the style I'm not unhappy but I don't think this would be considered a very good Maibock. The caramel and cider characters are much too high though I'm not entirely sure where they're coming from as the fermentation was kept cool for at least a decent amount of time during the early fermentation of the beer (though an unexpected hot streak in early February may have played a part?) and the malt bill doesn't contain any caramel malt. It's possible there was some caramelization due to the high burner heat and extended boil time and the fermentation was done in a cold basement, not controlled temperature conditions, which could have fluctuated more than expected and allowed some of the fruity/apple characters to come out of the yeast. Overall the beer is perfectly drinkable, maybe even too much so given the ABV, but it's not exactly what I was going for. I'm not sure I will re-brew this style any time soon as I find a lower ABV pale lager is often what people want and a more robust and characterful doppelbock is often what I want. If I do make another Maibock I'll increase the late hop additions to balance the malt sweetness and look to control the fermentation temperature better.</div><div><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzGc-xscu5Sc8dlDxxzskPgh9NQfemSKdlpm4TBHnSBJeRJqy8-3BAxHQUpHjF3AeNjfcklx4OYYkyMFohv5huCoT8ZaT1LQq4s73sJep7qRkDldrmRo2P9vfa_vZOb-9llb_JS9f0cRJS93MUzDD2I8qRjchEwDnt4wpmIsuZ6Ohq4PprY4p8h8o/s4032/3E981A84-1C59-4194-A3BB-B1B3D00B11AB.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzGc-xscu5Sc8dlDxxzskPgh9NQfemSKdlpm4TBHnSBJeRJqy8-3BAxHQUpHjF3AeNjfcklx4OYYkyMFohv5huCoT8ZaT1LQq4s73sJep7qRkDldrmRo2P9vfa_vZOb-9llb_JS9f0cRJS93MUzDD2I8qRjchEwDnt4wpmIsuZ6Ohq4PprY4p8h8o/w300-h400/3E981A84-1C59-4194-A3BB-B1B3D00B11AB.jpeg" width="300" /></a><p>Kegged on 3/2/22 and Munich Lager yeast saved in mason jars for future use. Tastes a lot like my helles recipe which I guess makes sense given it's a helles bock, but it’s thinner and less malty than I had expected. Will see how it changes with carbonation.</p><p>3/12/22<br />Set in chest freezer at 32F.</p><p>3/26/22<br />Connected CO2 at 10PSI</p><p>3/27/22<br />Increased pressure to 15PSI and temperature to 45F. Poured a sample. Tasting stronger/boozier and thinner than expected. Hopefully some more time and more pressure will help round it out but doubt it will change too much.</p><p>4/2/22<br />Probably the most popular of the 4 styles I have on tap for my housewarming. Multiple people just described it as an enjoyable German lager though some pointed out some of the sweetness and "vanilla wafer" type qualities. To my taste it is more on the sweet and caramel-y side than I would like but no major off flavors, will need to do a deeper tasting soon.</p><p>4/10/22<br />Tasting date (tasting notes above).</p></div></div></div>Gudenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01061351196521584849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670675947370202349.post-22533767187670564202021-10-08T17:36:00.004-04:002022-02-26T01:10:43.707-05:00Little Hazy Pale Ale<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqYKPfVFGT5G9VBo2JCOclcbT0AS-8aUwdUmKgxrtipYBrdNNl54Ve5LnwfHpy5CLXp90dOBiJ4RB8TUFtPkO_pGlRQe2V2LrnIvEmbb1CFcFrEP_xTWAtj4RPeiUHBu11nEaKPuJYUyQ/s2048/6F0CEA44-D2F1-4813-8AE2-50E30E001D41.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqYKPfVFGT5G9VBo2JCOclcbT0AS-8aUwdUmKgxrtipYBrdNNl54Ve5LnwfHpy5CLXp90dOBiJ4RB8TUFtPkO_pGlRQe2V2LrnIvEmbb1CFcFrEP_xTWAtj4RPeiUHBu11nEaKPuJYUyQ/s320/6F0CEA44-D2F1-4813-8AE2-50E30E001D41.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF9kGdlK4GHeWb4gA2REg4deuEoHo_NdE6cVMVQBOvcdLFcXb4LkQBLMG92pwJvIKBrfJN8v3WxXx7i6xI3giZausBByeOKYVW-vkZsEg_EFJUCQ7itIZRVs6Lzf21-rGgnmBlou3Vdww/s2048/4948313D-4839-476C-BBEF-FE01CF24B3BD.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF9kGdlK4GHeWb4gA2REg4deuEoHo_NdE6cVMVQBOvcdLFcXb4LkQBLMG92pwJvIKBrfJN8v3WxXx7i6xI3giZausBByeOKYVW-vkZsEg_EFJUCQ7itIZRVs6Lzf21-rGgnmBlou3Vdww/s320/4948313D-4839-476C-BBEF-FE01CF24B3BD.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br />After a bit of a hiatus from brewing, and an even longer hiatus from brewing hoppy American styles I decided to get back to basics with a simple Pale Ale. For this recipe I aimed for a beer with some aspects of the classic examples of the style with a little bit of the haziness of more modern pale ales. This recipe was designed largely around using ingredients that I already had on hand for an upcoming doppelbock and hops that are over two years old at this point.<p></p><p><br /></p><p>7/31/21</p><p>Made a 1L vitality starter with the London Ale III yeast, it seemed to get going almost immediately and was extremely active by the time of pitching. Brewday hit a few snags including the water being cut off to my building (and not running clear for a while after being turned back on) and me adding an extra half gallon by accident so the beer ended up with a lower OG than intended. Due to the extra water I ended up with more wort than would fit in the carboy and still have enough headroom so I saved a small bit of the yeast from the starter and added the last quart or so to that jug. Between the old ingredients and the extra water this one probably won’t be the best beer I’ve brewed in a while but hopefully can still come out enjoyable.</p><p><br /></p><p>8/1/21</p><p>Very active fermentation in both the carboy and the jug that had held the starter and received excess wort.</p><p><br /></p><p>8/5/21</p><p>Airlock activity seems to have stopped but still a large krausen on top of both the carboy and jug. Gravity sample reads 1.008 so it seems to be fully fermented. Considered adding the Nelson now but decided to save them for keg hopping in a few days.</p><p><br /></p><p>8/20/21</p><p>Kegged the beer in the carboy with 2 ounces of Nelson in a stainless steel mesh dry hopper. Taste is alright but the roasted and caramel malts stand out a little too much and the hops are more subdued than I would've liked. This is likely due to age of the hops, the extra water that was added, and the extra week it took to get around to kegging it. Hopefully with carbonation and the keg hops it will become a little brighter.</p><p><br /></p><p>10/8/21</p><p>This one has been interesting as it has transitioned over the 6 weeks on tap. Initially very fruity and hazy the beer has transformed closer to a traditional American pale ale over time. The keg hops, in addition to fading over time, seem to have caused some hop creep as this one has consistently become more carbonated than others set to the same PSI. For a smaller pale ale this one is interesting and satisfying enough to be an everyday drinker, especially as a change of pace from the sours and lagers I’ve also had on tap.</p><p><br /></p>Gudenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01061351196521584849noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670675947370202349.post-27433620114862309622021-10-08T17:33:00.003-04:002022-02-23T23:38:17.486-05:00Another Doppelbock<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjziAZKkGgENNGpemsj6WkBNRhNrw27NAHqNRxNEHz_y7V29qnYm5ekW1ncFqh-vlWfxg5JFcXOedqjFnVRPYcCLYPTTTfzV9QDaj72Lv5qSzFLBnKhJ1vkmjuDz8w8IAupXlg20lFfF64/s2048/31DA4EB8-01C8-4A76-8CF1-CA5FAC49AFB5.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjziAZKkGgENNGpemsj6WkBNRhNrw27NAHqNRxNEHz_y7V29qnYm5ekW1ncFqh-vlWfxg5JFcXOedqjFnVRPYcCLYPTTTfzV9QDaj72Lv5qSzFLBnKhJ1vkmjuDz8w8IAupXlg20lFfF64/s320/31DA4EB8-01C8-4A76-8CF1-CA5FAC49AFB5.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br /> 8/21/21<p></p><p>About 3 years ago I brewed my take on a doppelbock: <a href="https://goodbeer.blogspot.com/2019/02/tranquility-base-bock.html">Tranquility Base Bock</a> a beer designed to ride the line between a standard dunkles bock and a doppelbock while having more noticeable chocolate character than is typical of either. While I've been planning to rebrew it for quite some time, between life and pandemics I hadn't gotten around to it until today. While I had originally planned to repeat the recipe without any changes, a few differences had to be made to accommodate both a smaller batch size and some variations in ingredients available.</p><p><a href="https://brewgr.com/recipe/97880/">The resulting recipe I designed</a> is intended to be as similar as possible despite these modifications. One of the main differences that I expect will change this beer is the type of Munich malt used. Munich is available from a variety of maltsters and their definitions of "munich" vs "dark munich" and in some ca<span style="font-family: inherit;">ses "light munich" seem to vary pretty heavily. On my previous batch I had used a dark munich that I have listed as being </span>34°L wh<span style="font-family: inherit;">ich is darker than any I currently see available on the market. Edit: It was likely Briess Dark Munich which is listed at 30 SRM and <a href="https://www.brewingwithbriess.com/blog/a-tale-of-3-rnd-brews-with-our-new-dark-munich-30l/">is documented as being launched at the Homebrew Con in Portland</a> that I attended. <strike>It's possible there was some confusion between EBC and Lovibond, which would put that version of dark munich actually around</strike></span><strike> 13°L, wh</strike><span style="font-family: inherit;"><strike>ich is much closer to the norm.</strike> It will be interesting to see the differences the malt changes make, especially in how dark this version comes out after the last one was a very dark brown.</span></p><p>I missed my target gravity again for this batch, despite lowering my expected efficiency after missing on the last few. Part of the reason for that may be not using the actual PPG numbers for the Viking malts, part may be due to the <a href="https://beerandbrewing.com/ask-the-experts-brewing-a-high-gravity-all-grain-beer/">general difficulties associated with higher gravity beers</a>, and part may be due to the boil just not being as strong, leading to less evaporation and a touch more wort than planned. In the end the lower gravity should push it into the upper end of bock category, which should still be plenty enjoyable and alcoholic.</p><p>After chilling below 70, the wort was run into a carboy in the chest freezer at 48°F that still held the yeast cake from a pilsner I had kegged the day before.</p><p>8/22/21</p><p>Already fermenting heavily with a healthy krausen. Increased temp to 50°F.</p><p>8/25/21</p><p>Still fermenting heavily but appears to be slowing some. Increased chest freezer te<span style="font-family: inherit;">mp to </span>54°F<span style="font-family: inherit;">.</span></p><p>8/26/21</p><p>Appears to still be fermenting but very little signs of action in the airlock so I took a sample. Gravity reading shows it's down to 1.020 so it's nearing FG already. Removed from the chest freezer and plan to leave at room temperature in the 60's for a few days for a diacetyl rest. Taste is good, similar to what I remember though a touch harsher on the roast and more boozy, hopefully it just needs some more time to clean up.</p><p><br /></p><p>9/1/21</p><p>Moved to chest freezer at 50F to begin lagering.</p><p>10/8/21</p><p>This one has turned out very nicely. The harshness and booziness has calmed down and it’s now fairly well rounded and subtle for its’ size. Not quite as chocolatey or interesting as the last batch but still a very enjoyable dark malty lager.</p>Gudenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01061351196521584849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670675947370202349.post-81923024501961748272021-10-08T17:24:00.001-04:002021-10-08T17:30:52.673-04:00Long Break Table Pils<p>After somewhat of a break in brewing I’m getting back to it with this being the first of several beers planned over the next few months. The break was more of a slowdown than a full hiatus with only one beer brewed in 2021 and one that I helped my dad brew in late 2020. The slowdown was due to a number of factors: a backlog of homebrew on hand due to brewing heavily early in the COVID pandemic period and finally packaging several long aging beers, lots of travel (mostly road trips to national parks), getting a dog, and just a general burnout with brewing and drinking that was likely related to general anxiety and stress caused by the pandemic. Getting back to feeling more normal and having free time made me desire to get back in the saddle and planned out a few upcoming brew sessions (and session brews). </p><p>To start I chose to make what I’m calling a Table Pilsner, intended to act as both a way to step up plenty of lager yeast to later re-make my award winning Doppelbock and to give me something light and refreshing on hand for the upcoming hottest time of the year in San Francisco. I’ve been favoring pilsners and other pale lagers over most other styles recently, in part due to the moderate alcohol but more so due to the balance of simple ingredients that give a complex but refreshing flavor. </p><p>While I usually prefer and more often brew the Czech/Bohemian style of Pilsner for <a href="https://brewgr.com/recipe/97265/edit">this batch</a> I came up with something that is more akin to a German Pilsner but has elements of various types of continental pale lagers, including Viking Pilsner Malt and Weyermann Carahell, Hallertau Blanc and Saaz hops, and Munich Lager yeast which will be used later for the doppelbock. The end result is hopefully fairly dry with a light refreshing graininess and enough bitterness and spicy/grassy/fruity flavors from the hops to keep it refreshing.</p><p><br /></p><p>7/24/21</p><p>Brewday. Nothing too crazy to report, 1.040 OG came in just under the planned 1.042. Used one fairly fresh pack of Munich lager yeast plus a pack that was nearly a year old that likely had close to zero viability, was on the fence about adding it but hopefully the dead yeast act as nutrient if nothing else. Transferred to chest freezer set to 50F.</p><p>7/26/21</p><p>36 hours post pitching and the yeast doesn’t seem to have any fermentation . Might pull out to room temp to see if it gets a little more active if not showing signs soon.</p><p>7/27/21</p><p>More yeast activity, not a lot but it seems to be active so I’ll let it go.</p><p>7/30/21</p><p>Still very little activity so I decided to pull a sample. Gravity only down to 1.030, tastes fine but something is off. Identified that the thermostat wasn’t placed well and was reading significantly higher than the actual freezer temperature (especially at the bottoms of the carboy) likely causing the yeast to be too cold to ferment. Moved the thermostat and increased the temperature from 50F to 53F to hopefully get more action.</p><p>7/31/21</p><p>Not super active still but more bubbles coming from the airlock appears to be a good sign.</p><p><br /></p><p>8/5/21</p><p>Pulled another sample, gravity down to 1.011 so it seems the yeast were able to ferment after the temp fix and reached the expected final gravity. Taste is fine but a little muddled. Increased temp to 60F to give it a chance for a diacetyl rest. I don’t taste any butteriness and with it this low in gravity it might not be able to do much but worth giving it a chance. Plan to drop temp in a couple days for lagering, will probably do a quick lager <a href="https://brulosophy.com/methods/lager-method/">quick lager</a> but that will depend on how it tastes and my availability to keg this batch and brew the doppelbock that will re-use the yeast.</p><p>8/20/21</p><p>Kegged in a 5 gallon corny. Taste is just about what I was going for with some light honey like malt sweetness, spicy hops and moderate bitterness. There is a touch of diacetyl that is slightly more than ideal but not entirely off-putting. The yeast cake was saved to be re-used for a doppelbock tomorrow.</p><p>8/21/21</p><p>Set the keg out in the unusually warm apartment to make room for the now fermenting doppelbock and possibly allow the remaining yeast to clean up some diacetyl.</p><p>10/8/21</p><p>This one kicked at some point, had some friends visit then some others house sit so likely one of them finished it off? It was popular with people who like pale lagers but I also found it interesting enough to keep bringing me back. The two weeks at (unusually hot for San Francisco) room temperature seemed to severely cut down on the diacetyl to the point that it was hard to pick out.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Gudenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01061351196521584849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670675947370202349.post-20457324209021478012020-08-25T20:22:00.000-04:002020-08-25T20:22:12.332-04:00English-ish IPA<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWNX9TrwVzXV6Zk1Lo9dqD2mdS1oEGAn-cRPvJrvtyaAl14RZU6wts_8OGhFIouZ2UDsNJUT_gNPXsH5UT1zA8M9E1v4pJ2GCh6R7zMS8XBkgE8KYHRZPf1SSVgHUsVFRQHaceln710kc/s2048/C2873CBF-F638-4787-96AA-1234CDD3E8F7.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWNX9TrwVzXV6Zk1Lo9dqD2mdS1oEGAn-cRPvJrvtyaAl14RZU6wts_8OGhFIouZ2UDsNJUT_gNPXsH5UT1zA8M9E1v4pJ2GCh6R7zMS8XBkgE8KYHRZPf1SSVgHUsVFRQHaceln710kc/s640/C2873CBF-F638-4787-96AA-1234CDD3E8F7.jpeg" /></a></div>After a bit of a break from brewing I realized that while I had some interesting and enjoyable beers on tap (a hoppy saison, a smoked helles, and a few sours) I didn't have anything crushable. With COVID-19 still affecting both my accessibility and desirability to visit bars and breweries I was missing having English style ales that I would often enjoy from Bay Area producers like Freewheel and Barebottle. Combining those factors with a desire to use up ingredients on hand before buying new ones, I set out to make an English-ish ale, and used the Georges and Co. Pale Ale from 1889 (which I had previously made as part of a parti-gyle with a Strong Ale) as the basis. The <a href="https://brewgr.com/recipe/86611">resulting recipe</a> uses some distinctly non-English ingredients (<a href="https://www.morebeer.com/products/cellarscience-cali-dry-yeast.html">Cali yeast</a>, <a href="https://www.morebeer.com/products/viking-2row-xtra-pale-malt.html">Viking Xtra Pale 2-Row,</a> and <a href="https://www.brewingwithbriess.com/Assets/PDFs/Briess_PISB_DarkMunichMalt30L.pdf">Dark Munich</a>) but hopefully somewhat approximates an English historic pale ale/modern IPA and produces a drinkable, if fairly bitter, beer with a defining English hop character.<div><br /></div><div>7-31-20</div><div>Brew day. Collected 8 gallons of water and added K-Meta along with a gram each of CaCl, Gypsum, CaCO3, and NaCl. Following a 1 hour mash a short batch sparge was done with most of the remaining water. The last 1 gallon of runnings were collected separately and boiled for nearly an hour to a moderately thick and significantly darker caramel that was then added back to the rest of the batch. The half pound of Fuggle hops were split between half at the 60 minute mark (following a prior 30 minutes of boiling) and the remaining 4 ounces split evenly and added at 30 and 0 minutes.</div><div><br /></div><div>After chilling to 75F and racking to a 6 gallon plastic carboy it ended up a little below target gravity at 1.060 (still trying to dial in the mill settings) and below target volume with only about 4.5 gallons (probably due to caramelizing the last runnings). I boiled 4 ounces of Sugar in the Raw turbinado in 1.5 quarts of water, cooled and added to the carboy to bring it closer to the goal volume, without diluting the gravity too much further. Yeast was pitched directly rather than following the recommended rehydration instructions. I plan to keep this at room temperature around upper 60s/low 70s.</div><div><br /></div><div>8-1-20</div><div>Vigorous signs of fermentation less than 12 hours after pitching. Some of the strongest airlock bubbling I've ever seen. Sitting at room temperature in the upper 60s it's on the upper end of the temperature range for the yeast but not too hot, this one just seems to be a ripper.</div><div><br /></div><div>8-5-20</div><div>Fermentation activity slowed down, appears to be almost done fermenting already. Added 1 oz EKG. Plan to sample in a few days and keg if ready. Might add additional keg hops and will probably naturally carbonate in the keg for a more authentic English experience.</div><div><br /></div><div>8-7-20</div><div>Fermentation appears complete but taste is a little overly bitter and mineraly. Added 8 ounces of turbinado and 2 ounces of honey boiled in 2 quarts of water. Plan is to give this a day or two to ferment before kegging and allowing to naturally condition. Vigorous fermentation showing again less than an hour after adding the sugars.</div><div><br /></div><div>8-9-20</div><div>About 36 hours after adding the sugar water. Tasting much better and already back down to 1.006. Flavor is tea like with solid but not extreme bitterness and some light caramel and sugar sweetness. Transferred to keg and placed in keezer set to 45F. No CO2 connected, if it doesn’t seem to be naturally carbonating in a day or two I’ll hook it up but wanted to try making this a “real ale”, at least to begin with. My biggest fear about not adding CO2 is that it does not continue to ferment and gets oxidized, but that’s a risk I’m willing to take. I decided not to add any EKG to the keg since I’m happy with the flavor at this point but if I end up needing to connect CO2 in a few days I might add some then, especially if there are any signs of oxidation that I might be able to cover up with hops.</div><div><br /></div><div>8-11-20</div><div>Doesn’t seem to have been much more fermentation after kegging so I’m very gently pushing this one out with just a few PSI of CO2. Very similar to my previous batch with a little more bitterness. Easy drinking with moderate earthy, herbal, and tea like hop flavors blending with light caramel and bready malts. A touch drier and more minerally than I would have liked, using an English yeast and English malts probably would have given less attenuation and more body but it’s completely fine as is.</div><div><br /></div><div>8-25-20</div><div>This one has been on tap for a few weeks. I ended up adding a little bit (~5psi) of CO2 to make it pourable, it seems like the second sugar addition was too fermented out by the time it was kegged to condition naturally. It’s been tasting pretty good and I find myself grabbing a pint or two a few times a week.</div><div><br /></div><div>Tasting notes:</div><div>Appearance- gold with poor clarity, though it’s no hazy IPA. I had intended to use Irish moss but forgot, which combined with the early kegging and no keg finings didn’t give clarity much of a chance. Small white head fades quickly, between the low carbonation and high sugar levels in the beer I’m not too surprised. I plan to use some torrified wheat in future English ales to partially help with that.</div><div><br /></div><div>Smell- light sweet and bread malt, meadow-like herbal, earthy and floral notes and a small touch of citrus. Pretty low aroma given the low carbonation.</div><div><br /></div><div>Taste/Mouthfeel- strong tea like character with a blend of herbal, earth, and fruity flavors. Bitterness is moderate but nicely balancing. Some honey and cookie like sweetness with a little bit of oatmeal cookie flavor. Finish is bitter and tea like, but creamy and not astringent.</div><div><br /></div><div>Overall- another enjoyable, if otherwise unremarkable, English style homebrew. The flavors really balance well with the malt, hops, and yeast giving synergistic flavors and finding a nice balance between sweet and bitter. I was a little worried about using so much hops (8 ounces in the boil) but the end result was really nice and I think a bigger dry hop may have even added more. A really middle of the road beer that is surprisingly strong at over 6% ABV. Easy drinking but with enough going on to bring me back for more, and just enough bitterness to keep it from being too crushable.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGLnG4J2p2BbjTwuzV4vBN0nBrKqyOPUg-ep2XS6smg7FE-dLUdYQKiPtEwFTvDhSAmogNI1BbRuwWyaS7DiG4L56qKEXjl7i1pNz6GOJSkNQgk3fbJt6zs95WemX8oX3cZaBMAyDZikg/s2048/B57F45FB-F332-40EC-A115-2F8063FBD995.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGLnG4J2p2BbjTwuzV4vBN0nBrKqyOPUg-ep2XS6smg7FE-dLUdYQKiPtEwFTvDhSAmogNI1BbRuwWyaS7DiG4L56qKEXjl7i1pNz6GOJSkNQgk3fbJt6zs95WemX8oX3cZaBMAyDZikg/s640/B57F45FB-F332-40EC-A115-2F8063FBD995.jpeg" /></a></div>Gudenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01061351196521584849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670675947370202349.post-18217474950012156432020-03-29T18:34:00.003-04:002020-03-29T18:34:56.098-04:00Munich Melon Hülles Lager<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nelson Version</td></tr>
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I took a bit of a break from brewing (and even more of a break from blogging) but got back to it in January <a href="https://brewgr.com/recipe/71983/">with a hoppy lager</a> that is partially inspired by a line from Scott Janish's great book The New IPA. Specifically there's a note that Hüll Melon (sometimes written Huell Melon) is high in the 2MIB (2-methylbutyl isobutyrate) thiol which gives an apricot-like character, and can be enhanced even more with a lager fermentation. Some of these ideas are explored in <a href="http://scottjanish.com/thiol-driver/">this blog post by Scott</a>. A fruity, (especialy apricot-y and melon-y) Munich Helles might not be classic but the subtle malt sweetness and graininess should lend balance and space for the hops to shine, without this coming out as a hazy IPA (or IPL). Searching around the internet it seems that a Helles with Hüll Melon has been done before by several breweries, including one of my favorite East Bay brewers, Original Pattern, with their <a href="https://www.originalpatternbeer.com/cans/hella-hull-helles-lager">Hella Hüll Helles Lager</a>. I'll have to track down a can to compare with my version.<br />
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1/20/2020 Brew Day<br />
Made a vitality starter of 8 oz DME, 1g Fermaid-k, 1800 mL water, 2 moderately old packs of Wyeast 2308 Munich Lager and a blend of lager yeast saved from my <a href="https://goodbeer.blogspot.com/2019/07/smash-pils.html">SMaSH Pils</a>.<br />
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After several recent batches came out with a strange, harsh character I decided to not treat the water for this batch at all. While I'm not sure water chemicals are the cause of my recent issues I've narrowed it down to a few possible factors and this seemed like the easiest one to test. If this batch experiences the same issues I'll try adjusting my mill settings and do a full inspection of my equipment and review of my processes to see if there's another possible culprit. I'm including extra notes on this batch here to be able to pinpoint the cause of the issue if it happens as well too<br />
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Measured and milled 7.25 pounds Weyermann Pilsner malt and 9 oz Briess Goldpils Vienna. I planned to use Carahell but forgot I was out, should come out a little crisper and maltier with the Vienna but with a similar color.<br />
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Hit 152 on the direct infusion (a few degrees cooler than expected but close enough). Added half an ounce of hops to the first wort and began heating while batch sparging. Hit a combined pre-boil gravity of 1.039, about what was expected for the target 1.047 OG. Boiled for 1 hour then rapidly cooled with immersion chiller (added 45 minutes into boil) to 160. Added the 1.5 ounces of whirlpool hops then continued chilling for about 15 minutes to 68F (room temp). Ran off to plastic carboy through silicon tubing and moved carboy to chest freezer set to 50F. Pitched yeast a few hours later.<br />
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1/24/2020<br />
Fermentation still going moderately with a medium sized krausen. Plan to move out of chest freezer to ~65F room temp for a few days once fermentation begins to drop. Smell from fermentation is strong with sulfur stink, hopefully that's being pushed out and won't carry to the final beer.<br />
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1/25/2020<br />
Left in chest freezer but adjusted temperature up to 65F. Will likely take a few days to warm that high.<br />
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1/31/2020<br />
No noticeable diacetyl on tasting and gravity down to 1.014. Set chest freezer to 32F for quick lagering.<br />
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2/6/2020<br />
Split between 2 separate 2.5 gallon kegs, one plain one with an ounce of Nelson Sauvin hops.<br />
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2/19/2020<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Plain Version</td></tr>
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This one has been on tap for a couple of weeks and is a pretty enjoyable helles at this point. While there was a decent amount of fruitiness from the hops in the non-dry hopped version originally that has largely faded into a bready malt forward easy drinking lager. The dry hopped version was terrific early on, then seemed to experience some hop creep and had diacetyl, it was removed from the chest freezer for a few days and seemed to clear up but the hop character mostly faded as well.<br />
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3/28/20<br />
Nelson half kicked, it was a really nice easy drinker with just enough fruity hop character to keep it interesting. The un-dryhopped version is much more straight forward, it's extremely easy to drink but is arguably too clean and many craft beer lovers would probably find it boring.<br />
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Gudenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01061351196521584849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670675947370202349.post-6635895055316229802020-01-09T14:33:00.001-05:002020-08-09T15:21:32.614-04:00Historic English Ales (1889 Pale Ale and 1896 Strong Ale)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Almost a year ago I kicked off a series of historic English beers that I've been planning for quite a while. The first beer I brewed was the 1867 Georges & Co. Brown Stout that just never turned out how I had hoped. While I'm allowing that beer to continue to age (now with brettanomyces and lactobacillus) I decided it was time to kick off round two of the experiment with a parti-gyle attempt at both the 1889 Pale Ale and 1896 Strong Ale from the same Bristol brewery.<br />
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I didn't have the full recipe for either beer as the information I have came from the <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=LNReCAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false">Home Brewer's Recipe Database</a> which doesn't include the time/size of additions or specifics like IBUs. I used a combination of what I did have, other historic recipes of the styles from the time period and BJCP style guidelines to come up with recipes that seemed fairly authentic but also appealing to my palate. The historic recipes I used as reference came mainly from Ron Pattinson's <a href="http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/">Shut Up About Barclay Perkins</a> blog, including <a href="http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2013/01/lets-brew-wednesday-1897-eldridge-pope.html">an Eldridge Pope XXXX</a> from just a year later than the George's recipe. The BJCP style guidelines I used were English IPA for the Pale Ale and a combination of British Strong Ale, Old Ale, and English Barleywine for the Strong Ale.<br />
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One of the main changes I made from the last batch was changing the base malt from the floor-malted Maris Otter that seemed to cause issues in several beers I made (including a Belgian Dubbel and the aforementioned Stout) to using Simpson's Golden Promise, a malt that I haven't used very often but is generally highly regarded and fits the bill of a English Pale malt. The malt is extremely important in a beer this simple: one grain, one strain of yeast, one hop variety (plus a small dry-hop addition of EKG to the pale ale) and water, so each ingredient will have to shine through.<br />
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While I've done a number of parti-gyle batches in the past this will be one of the biggest batches I've ever made with both beers expected to weigh in over 1.060 (1.064 and 1.088) and I'm using 16 pounds of grain in what is planned to be just 6 gallons total of beer. I'm also planning to boil the Strong Ale for 2+ hours to get a little more caramelization, color, gravity, and bitterness.<br />
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The fuggles are quite old now (they were a year old when I bought them more than a year ago) but hopefully that just adds to the authentically historic qualities of the beer and doesn't hurt it too much. Using aged fuggles could even lead to beneficial and interesting fruity qualities according to <a href="https://www.amazon.com/New-IPA-Scientific-Guide-Flavor/dp/0578477866">Scott Janish's book.</a><br />
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<br />
6/10/18<br />
Brewday: Unfortunately today turned out to be the hottest day in San Francisco since I moved here: over 95F outside and even hotter in my apartment before I started heating water; definitely was not the best day to schedule a multi-hour boil brew day.<br />
<br />
The pale ale went off without a hitch and hit just under the expected gravity (1.064) at 1.062. This was partly due to collecting too much of the second runnings. An extra quarter gallon or so of leftover wort from this half was added to the strong ale. Cooled to about 75F (probably as good as I can do in this heat) and aerated then pitched with a 1L starter of West Yorkshire Ale yeast and moved to the chest freezer set to 65F.<br />
<br />
The strong ale had a lot more issues, with the burner it was on cutting out for some reason and the batch refusing to boil off at the anticipated rate after getting it going again. Coupled with the addition of the extra wort from the Pale Ale it ended up being boiled for a little over 2.5 hours, and being on the burner for close to 4 hours total, adding about 2 hours to the brew day beyond the time needed for the pale ale and what I usually anticipate. Hopefully all of that extra time added some sweetness and complexity in addition to bumping up the gravity to 1.088 and seemingly adding some color. The wort received the remaining .25L of the West Yorkshire Ale yeast and a pack of dry English yeast and was also set in the 65F chest freezer.<br />
<br />
6/17/18<br />
The pale ale blew its bung and both beers overflowed into the chest freezer while I was away for the weekend. Both seem fine and are showing continued moderate signs of fermentation so I didn’t take a sample. I did add 1 oz of EKG hops to the Pale Ale, higher than the originally planned 1/2 oz but at an earlier point.<br />
<br />
6/19/19<br />
Pale ale down to 1.010, taste is subtle with some herbal, tea, and lemon rounding out moderate grainy maltiness. The strong ale is down to 1.025 (almost all the way to the predicted FG of 1.023). Taste is similar with more pronounced maltiness and a little more sweetness but not as sweet or malty as most modern Old Ales or Barleywines. Goal is to keg both beers early next week, though the strong ale might get some extended aging in the keg.<br />
<br />
6/24/19<br />
Kegged both halves and set in keezer at 35F and 12 PSI. Pale Ale is toastier/maltier than I would like and probably needed more hops for both flavor and bitterness but hoping some carbonation will cut through the malt some. The Strong Ale is a bit boozy and a little sweet but not unenjoyable, hopefully some cold aging will allow it to condition.<br />
<br />
8/10/19<br />
These beers have been on tap for a while and have been pretty enjoyable. They both were well received at the SFHG meeting I brought them to, especially the strong ale which people encouraged me to enter in a competition.<br />
<br />
10/4/19<br />
These both kicked a few weeks ago. I forgot to get a picture of the pale ale, it was just such an easy sessionable drinker that it kicked pretty quick. Pictures are all of the Strong Ale which lasted quite a bit longer due to me turning to it less and usually going with much smaller pours when I did have it. Both were pretty nice beers but I would increase the hops quite a bit if I did it again and would probably add some specialty malts (if not going for strict historic authenticity) to give more toast/biscuit notes and some caramel sweetness that both halves could have used to be more similar to modern English beers.Gudenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01061351196521584849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670675947370202349.post-72413952258392719092019-07-16T15:00:00.000-04:002019-07-16T16:32:11.547-04:00SMaSH PilsAs I previously alluded to in my Grande Maison saison post, the SFHG's second competition of the year will be a single-malt and single-hop (aka SMaSH) competition for club members. While I'm liking the way the Grande Maison mosaic saison turned out I always intended to brew a different beer for the competition and this is it. Crystal Light is my latest take on the Pilsner style using just 10 pounds of Viking Pilsner malt, 5 ounces of Crystal hops, and the same German lager yeast that I previously used in my Doppelbock (and have since used in a Helles).<br />
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<br />
<a href="https://learn.kegerator.com/crystal-hops/">Crystal hops</a> are not the most popular choice these days but have a rich history since being first bred in 1983 and are somewhat common both as a supporting aspect in hoppy American styles, including <a href="https://sierranevada.com/beer/year-round/torpedo-extra-ipa">Sierra Nevada's Torpedo</a>, and as a main component in subtler styles due to it's German heritage. After receiving a half pound from Hops Direct at HomebrewCon 2018 I had been unsure how to best utilize them since I've never used it or had a beer solely hopped with it. In the end I decided to continue my effort to help clean out hops from the freezer and give them a try with a generous amount in a pilsner-ish beer.<br />
<br />
The beer was intended to be mostly like a German Pilsner, but came out a bit more full bodied and closer to a Czech Pils, but with a different hop character. This was a really enjoyable beer to have on hand with some mild lemon character rounding out the mild herbal hop flavors and crackery malt character I expect from a pilsner. A touch of diacetyl but definitely within acceptable levels. A nice beer that I would probably tweak by using more hops or additional malts in the future.<br />
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3/26/19<br />
Measured out 8.25 gallons of water, added 1/2 campden tablet and 5 mL 88% lactic acid. Measured and milled 10 pounds Viking Pilsner malt.<br />
<br />
3/27/19<br />
I accidentally broke the glass holding the first hop addition right after adding them to the boil. While I think there's less than a 1% chance that any glass got into the beer (and even lower chance that it would cause any issues if it did) I decided it wasn't worth the risk and dumped the batch. Thoroughly cleaned all the equipment and repeated the steps from previous day. On the plus side the only lost ingredients were 10 pounds of cheap malt and 2 ounces of free hops.<br />
<br />
3/28/19<br />
Used plastic cups for the hops this time and didn't run into any issues.<br />
<br />
3/31/19<br />
Fermentation appears to be going slowly but consistently.<br />
<br />
4/4/19<br />
Pulled out of chest freezer and kept at room temp in the low 60s.<br />
<br />
4/7/19<br />
Krausen has fully fallen and no signs of ongoing fermentation. Moved back to chest freezer at 50F.<br />
<br />
4/8/19<br />
Lowered chest freezer temperature to 45F and added gelatin following the <a href="http://brulosophy.com/2015/01/05/the-gelatin-effect-exbeeriment-results/">Brulosophy method</a>.<br />
<br />
4/9/19<br />
Lowered chest freezer temperature to 40F<br />
<br />
4/10/19<br />
Lowered chest freezer temperature to 35F<br />
<br />
4/13/19<br />
Kegged and place in chest freezer back to 40F. Taste is just ok, not as clean and crisp as I would like but no noticeable off flavors.<br />
<br />
6/10/19<br />
Entered in the SFHG SMASH competition last week, didn't place but was pretty well received. I ended up kicking the rest of the keg the next day.Gudenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01061351196521584849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670675947370202349.post-54231826536743360442019-04-06T19:00:00.000-04:002019-04-06T19:09:31.971-04:00Grande Maison Smash Mosaic Saison<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I have made many, many, many batches of my Maisonette recipe and was planning to do the same, but was forced to change directions due to ingredients on hand, and hence <a href="https://brewgr.com/recipe/66458/">Grande Maison</a> was born. Grande Maison is designed to be a scaled up version of Maisonette but done entirely as a SMaSH (single malt and single hop) beer. There were three reasons I decided to make the change to a bigger hoppier saison today:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>I didn't have enough wheat malt for the normal recipe</li>
<li>I had a large variety of Mosaic hops and am trying to help clean out the freezer by using more hops</li>
<li>The SFHG is having a SMaSH competition in a few months, and this could potentially be an entry or at least give me a better sense of how the Viking Pilsner tastes as the only malt.</li>
</ol>
<div>
I decided to increase the malt bill/gravity/abv by about 50% while the change in hop types being used (Cryo, Leaf, American Noble, in addition to the usual Pellet) makes it a little harder to say exactly what the increase in hopping rate is but the estimated IBUs were kept the same. Looking back through my brew logs I could only find one example of a SMaSH I had previously made: <a href="https://goodbeer.blogspot.com/2014/06/40-nelson-brett-saison-merica-ish.html">my take on Prairie's 'Merica</a>. This beer should be similar to that due to also being a saison with heavy usage of a modern fruity hop. Like the 'Merica clone, I thought about splitting some of the batch later to age with brettanomyces and/or add dry hops, depending on how it tasted after primary fermentation, but decided to keg all of it as is and tweak the recipe in later attempts.<br />
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Tasting Notes:<br />
Appearance:<br />
Nice pale yellow with large dense white head. Slightly hazy but looks about what I'd expect for a farmhouse beer.<br />
<br />
Smell:<br />
Pretty similar aromas to the <a href="https://goodbeer.blogspot.com/2019/03/saison-de-champagne.html">Saison de Champagne</a>, Moderate-High fruitiness from both hops and yeast giving some bubblegum, grape/wine, and berry aromatic. Moderate phenols giving a white pepper impression. There is also some alcohol present, more than I would like for a beer of this strength, it's not a weak beer but more alcohol aroma than I would expect for ~7%.<br />
<br />
Taste:<br />
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More phenolic and sharp than the aroma, less of the bubblegum/juicy fruit character and more alcohol present too. The bitterness is only medium but combined with the fairly high pepper phenol character the overall impression is on the high-end of my acceptable range, almost like a Farmhouse IPA in that sense. Alcohol is noticeable but not overwhelming. Again the overall character is reminiscent of the Saison de Champagne beer that used the same yeast but the hops are a little less wine like and a little more rounded with some berry and grass and the phenols and alcohol are more noticeable.<br />
<br />
Mouthfeel:<br />
Not as dry as most of the Saison/Grisettes I've made, likely due to a combination of higher starting gravity and less attenuative yeast (I often use the very attenuative Wyeast 3711 French Saison or brettanomyces). That said, I think the low-medium body helps keep the moderate bitterness and phenols from coming across too sharply. Carbonation was originally very high but I've knocked it down to more standard beer levels (~14 PSI at 45F) and I again prefer this level over traditional Saison levels with this amount of bitterness, phenols, and alcohol.<br />
<br />
Overall:<br />
Not my favorite example of the style in many ways with the phenols and alcohol masking some of the fruitier characters. If I were to rebrew I'd likely move about 50% of the 60 minute addition to late in the boil or after flameout and add a dry-hop to really emphasize the fruity hop flavors. I'm not sure if I'll use this yeast blend again, it's not bad but doesn't have some of the character that I really crave in this style, maybe adding brettanomyces or an additional yeast strain would help balance this but I might just go back to the Wyeast Belgian Saison and French Saison blend that I've liked in the past (with or without Brett). The Viking Pils malt does a nice job of just hanging around with a very low crackery malt note that's I notice when searching for it but otherwise it gets out of the way to let the other ingredients shine.<br />
<br />
Notes:<br />
3/9/19<br />
Brewed on the stovetop as usual. Brewing went off without a hitch other than ending up with less than 5 gallons due to the hops soaking up wort and blocking the run off. Still able to exactly hit the expected 1.060 OG. Pitched 1 liter starter of previously used blend of Wyeast Belgian Saison (3724) and Farmhouse Ale (3726).<br />
<br />
3/10/19<br />
Large krausen and rapid airlock bubbling.<br />
<br />
3/26/19<br />
Transferred to keg and set in chest freezer at 40F and 30 PSI for 24 hours. No FG recorded as I broke my hydrometer but I would guess it's between 1.004 and 1.008 putting the ABV right around 7%. Tastes pretty nice, fairly hop forward with some of the same wine-like character from the Saison de Champagne that used the same yeast blend, but more bitter and with other complementary components from the mosaic hops. Excited to see how it ends up once carbonated.<br />
<br />
4/6/19<br />
Tasting above, not bad but not my favorite.</div>
Gudenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01061351196521584849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-670675947370202349.post-56773454057847793112019-03-27T17:15:00.000-04:002019-03-27T17:15:04.199-04:00Saison de Champagne<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVa4JGYOcAewzaOj1MZ0UgSiviFJul2smgztU9Dhm9QTfw79oJs5zKMzjnO6bw1CP9ewAN8LciCgcTpUmiXzA6lvGxFuL0AezXYo7-biZWJh_jD7KS1QETsWfxr8wT7xCUzN47q5KsNms/s1600/IMG_7968.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVa4JGYOcAewzaOj1MZ0UgSiviFJul2smgztU9Dhm9QTfw79oJs5zKMzjnO6bw1CP9ewAN8LciCgcTpUmiXzA6lvGxFuL0AezXYo7-biZWJh_jD7KS1QETsWfxr8wT7xCUzN47q5KsNms/s200/IMG_7968.jpg" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">These 3 ounces of Nelson cost about as<br />much as the rest of the ingredients combined</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The first time I can remember trying Nelson Sauvin hops was at a homebrew meeting. At the time I was still somewhat new to brewing and didn’t really care for Pale Ales or IPAs but that all changed that day. The flavors in that Nelson IPA were so exciting and new it immediately changed my mind on hoppy beers. For weeks after I was craving that flavor: the almost wine like, bitter but refreshing, somehow both familiar and unique flavor of Nelson hops. I have used Nelson a few times since, including in a <a href="https://goodbeer.blogspot.com/2014/06/40-nelson-brett-saison-merica-ish.html">clone of ‘Merica</a>, and have found them to be terrific. The only downside is that they tend to be some of the most prized hops so the demand keeps them hard to find and expensive when I do.<br />
<br />
When I first heard about Hallertau Blanc hops I was skeptical that they could have the same level of tropical and wine characteristics that make Nelson so great. After hearing that they had more of a subtle wine character mixed with mostly noble hop flavors I decided that they might make for a great complement to Nelson, at a much lower price.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia4kj_sN3dn6NZimPY4LSOVe2oPs54800MduDrFkKFE75kmhJtEj5LHx9GjaIMWjPnspleG3FvVjFF2Rb5G55-grkZnXGNjGwHt3YD7HQ2UnrkduO7s3sqP13GHLBiXsyTG0F9qi5Von4/s1600/IMG_7969.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia4kj_sN3dn6NZimPY4LSOVe2oPs54800MduDrFkKFE75kmhJtEj5LHx9GjaIMWjPnspleG3FvVjFF2Rb5G55-grkZnXGNjGwHt3YD7HQ2UnrkduO7s3sqP13GHLBiXsyTG0F9qi5Von4/s320/IMG_7969.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I bought a full pound of Hallertau Blanc on a whim</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<a href="https://brewgr.com/recipe/61202/">Saison de Champagne</a> is my latest hop-forwards Saison and I wanted it to utilize these hops and the classic Saison dryness to mimic wine flavors while also having subtle yeast phenols and bitterness that keep it squarely in the Saison category. While I had originally planned on adding dry hops and lightly oaking the beer I decided against it as I liked the character and didn't want to risk messing it up, but that’s probably something I will try if I rebrew it.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizo9PdzF2i35be7qJBqcSnMSKmh2Mh_8638S1h2B0pB0zlUQNEe9WdjAoP-GNenLGpgAREw5DLuaBGubPBsAiTakeuaDlxy2K7jZ96BaLPHcsnn3A5IAwg8vbgKpTrxYDloMEN-XP2YU8/s1600/IMG_1862.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizo9PdzF2i35be7qJBqcSnMSKmh2Mh_8638S1h2B0pB0zlUQNEe9WdjAoP-GNenLGpgAREw5DLuaBGubPBsAiTakeuaDlxy2K7jZ96BaLPHcsnn3A5IAwg8vbgKpTrxYDloMEN-XP2YU8/s320/IMG_1862.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A hop farm that I happened to drive past just outside Nelson when I was visiting New Zealand</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
8/14/18<br />
Brewed on the stovetop with filtered San Francisco water.<br />
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9/15/18<br />
Kegged 3 gallons. Immediately keg filled 6 bottles with 4 carb tabs each to see how this bottle conditions. The last 1.5 gallons or so was added to my Brett Saison Solera.<br />
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10/9/18<br />
Entered 3 of the bottle carbonated version into the California State Homebrew Competition under category 34B: Mixed-Style Beer as a mix of <a href="http://dev.bjcp.org/beer-styles/x5-new-zealand-pilsner/">New Zealand Pilsner</a> and Saison.<br />
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This beer ended up scoring a 35.5 but not placing in it's category in the competition. I was really happy with how this one turned out with noticeable white wine like character and subtle yeast character. While similar to my go-to Maisonette grisette recipe the change of hops and malt bill made it unique while still being fairly easy drinking and refreshing.Gudenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01061351196521584849noreply@blogger.com0