Raspberry Blonde

I brewed a raspberry blonde beer with my girlfriend on St. Patrick's day.  The beer was her idea (she said she wanted a red beer with raspberries in it) and I had her do most of the work outside of heavy lifting/moving hot water.  This was only my second all-grain batch in my cooler setup and her first attempt at making a beer.  I designed the beer with a medium-low abv, low ibu, and medium-low body in mind to allow the raspberries to really shine.  We ended up with just over 4 gallons rather than the desired 5 but OG was only slightly high so we decided not to adjust and just let it ferment for a few weeks before adding berries and going from there.

Update 3/31/13
Gravity down to 1.006. Racked off of trub and into 3 pounds of raspberries.  Girlfriend complained that she "wanted a red beer" whereas this was more of a gold.  Hopefully all of those raspberries impart some nice color in addition to flavor.  The plan is to bottle in 2-3 weeks if the flavor seems established.

4/14/13
Raspberries had lost most of their color so it seemed about time to bottle. Bottled with a low amount of sugar (2.1 oz) to account for residual fruit sugars. Beer had a very strong raspberry aroma and moderately fruity and sour raspberry flavor, but just a tinge of pink in the testing tube. It will be interesting to see how it tastes (and looks) once fully carbonated.

#18 Saison Double Tasting

Today I'm doing a tasting on some of the last bottles of my 18/18B Saison batch.  Originally intended to be a sophie inspired oak aged brett saison with large amounts of wheat, the brett really never came through in this one and I added half the batch to both oak and asian pears.  I brought a bottle of this to a brew club meeting where it seemed to be fairly well received.

A- Both versions are a pretty amber color but the pear version is both darker and cloudier.  The pear version also pours with a bigger head, hold the head longer and still has a ring around the outside after a few minutes while the other has just a few bubbles throughout.

S- Straight: White grape juice, hay, orange peel, juicy fruit gum.  Pear: Much lower levels of fruitiness with some slightly tart pear character and a nice oak level that gives a faint touch of smoke and vanilla.

T- Straight: fairly light flavors compared to the nose, the Juicy Fruit and hay/wheat character come through a bit while the beer finishes lightly sweet.  Pear: Light pear character definitely shines through, I can sense the oak but it helps to bolster the light flavors from the malt/yeast/fruit more than it sticks out on its own.

M- Both beers feel both a bit underattenuated and undercarbonated.  I feel this may be due to the brett never kicking in and bringing the gravity lower as I had expected.

D- Not bad.  The asian pear/oak version is certainly better and seems to have enough fruit to be perceivable without dominating while the oak seems to enhance that fruit character.  I don't think I will use this yeast again (WLP670 White Labs American Farmhouse blend) and the overall character was a bit like Urthel Saisonierre, though more complex.  I will probably never have a chance to do an asian pear beer again but I was happy with the results here and certainly would recommend for anyone else with easy access to them.

Banana Stout tasting and brew house updates

I had not yet posted a tasting of my banana stout as I had been consistently disappointed by it. Today I came home to bottle the table Belgian I made as a side to the quad several weeks ago. I also decided to check on my other on-going projects and make some decisions on them. I'll start with the updates.

Quad: down to 10.13 this one appears done fermenting. Flavor is great with some caramel, spice and fruit mixing with a little boozy heat. I plan to move this to secondary today for two weeks before bottling.

Small Belgian: this one has a lot more off flavors than the quad and seems to have some serious chunks of protein. Nevertheless I need the Carboy and have no intention of dumping so I will bottle today.

Brett Bitter: still a touch more bitter than I would like but it seems a great base for a fruit beer otherwise. Might add blackberries in 2 weeks.

Sour Brown: awesome! This beer seems to have regained a bit of its toasty biscuity qualities while also continuing to develop acid and berry flavors. Really happy with where this is.

Now on to the tasting.

A- opaque black with a big tan head that fades to a pretty one finger layer.

S- fruity as it pours, though not a huge nose in the glass. A little coffee and fruit (I smell banana but my Dad says apricot) shines through.

T- definite overripe banana with some light spice and a little classic stout roastiness. Finishes with a dry roast bitterness.

M- over carbonated which leaves it a bit spritzy. Could definitely use a chewier body too.

D- this beer has improved over time. Still not good beer quality but an interesting experiment. The lactose doesn't seem noticeable so I would use twice as much in the next milk stout I make.

#23 and New Mash Tun

I haven't been super active with this blog recently and there are a few things on backlog (especially tastings of 4 or 5 beers and a few book reviews) but today I brewed a new beer and used a new system recently so that moved to the top of the list.  My #23 is named in honor of both my 23rd batch and myself being 23 years old for less than another month.  Since batch 24 will probably be the only other batch that is equal to my age I decided to do this one right by doing a big Belgian quad with 23 pounds of fermentables.

My new 10 gallon mash tun with over 20 pounds of grain in it

One of my favorite styles for a long time with beers like Westvleteren 12 and St. Bernardus 12 being particular favorites and having recently finished "Brew Like a Monk" it seemed time to go for it.  In an attempt to emulate those beers I am using the Wyeast Trappist High Gravity yeast.  Due to Midwest Supplies leaving out a pound of aromatic I modified my recipe to use 20 lbs of Pilsner, 1 pound of special b, .5 pounds of biscuit malt and 1.5 pounds of a variety of sugars (including corn syrup, white table sugar and brown sugar).  Aiming for a near 1.100 OG could lead to some difficulties with attenuation but I am excited to truly try to make a beer of this style.

To go along with this huge batch I also am doing my first non-biab all-grain brew with my new 10 gallon mash tun!  While brew day was annoying in a few days (yeast had been left out since arriving, 1 lb of aromatic grain was missing, the brew tun was slightly messed up, didn't have enough water and the water filters were going slow) I managed to finally hit my mash temp (151 F) after a prolonged period between 120 and 130 while I went to purchase and then boil distilled water.  So far I'm liking the all-grain set-up much more than BIAB but I will have to see how the final product comes out to make a real determination.

This one had a very active hot break

Note: I also ran a second mash on the malt to make a table beer with some old Abbey Ale II yeast I made a starter for.

Updates:
2/16/13
Cooled to 63F, transferred to 6 gallon better bottle, aerated by shaking for 5 minutes and pitched two swollen smack packs of Wyeast 3787 Trappist High Gravity.  OG came in at a disappointingly low 1.080 (the small beer however did come in at a gravity of 1.055).

2/17/13
This thing took off over night to the point where it blew out the blow off tube!  The most active fermentation I have ever seen.  Made a huge mess but at least I was able to top crop some of the krausen from it.

2/23/13
Fermentation is not nearly as strong as it was for the first few days but still going fairly strong.  Small beer is also still fairly active and giving off strong bubblegum notes.

3/2/13
Fermentation still seems to be going slowly. Sample was at 1.021 gravity, much higher than expected. Color was light and flavor was sweet, boozy, lightly fruity and somewhat bitter. Decided to make another couple pounds of candi sugar to get this closer to where I want it.
Small beer is down to 1.013, probably still has a ways to go. Extremely hazy with protein chunks, I think I grabbed too much of the krausen when sampling. Flavor is a bit fruitier but again too bitter.

3/31/13
Gravity on big beer, #23, down to 1.016. Bottled with 3.3 oz of sugar. Small beer, #24, is finally carbed. Fairly light and tasty with definite Belgian aromas, will need to do a full tasting soon.

#22 - IPA Tasting

If there is one hard rule about homebrew it's that the best batches are gone too soon and the worst stay around too long. This beer, fortunately, has flown by. Down to the last bottle of a 5 gallon bath after just over a month. Time for a tasting.

A- solid off white head that fades to one finger. Very clear bright orange color. Leaves beautiful lace on the way down, as seen in the second picture. Right where I wanted it.

S- luscious fruit and citrus hops with a bit of honey. Melon, lavender, rose, lemon. Lots going on in the hop forest.

T- bright warm lightly toasty malt on the from with a bitingly bitter finish. The hop flavor has already faded a bit, still a nice lemony fruity flavor there but surprisingly faded much quicker than the beautiful aroma.

M- medium in body and carbonation. Very enjoyable with a bit of creaminess from the oats counteracting the otherwise dry body.

O- one of, if not the, best beers I have made to this point. I would gladly serve this or order it from a professional brewery, a bit different than the standard but I'm glad. This is good beer.

2012 Year in Re-brew and Brewing Goals

Looking back at my goals from 2012 I have the following:

• Brewing a sour
• Making a wine or mead and a cider
• Brewing at least 60 gallons of beer
• Brewing at least one of my very experimental beer ideas (smoked fruit beer, caraway spiced rye beer, herb beer, etc...)
• Brewing an all grain batch

Of these goals I certainly accomplished 2: brewing a sour (the sour brown is still in secondary) and brewing an all grain batch (I in fact brewed multiple all grain batches).  I partially satisfied two goals as I brewed a cider and made a somewhat experimental beer in my peated porter, but didn't make anything too experimental and didn't make a mead or wine.  I also came up short in the number of gallons I brewed with just 10 batches at 5 gallons each, plus 1 gallon of cider.  All-in-all it was a mixed bag year for brewing with a few very good beers coming out of it and some techniques learned.  On the other hand there were some bad batches and my brew in a bag ability still lacks.  Rather than set specific one year goals for 2013 I decided to simply list some short (hopefully next few months), medium (hopefully within a year), and long (hopefully at some point) term goals.

Short Term Goals

• Attend a brew club meeting.  I've been meaning to do this for a while and the timing has never worked out.
• Enter a competition.  I need to have a beer I feel is competition worthy or a competition I'm not embarrassed to enter with an "okay" beer.  Hopefully one of the two will happen soon.
• Obtain a new all grain system.  I've been disappointed with the limitations and the quality I have gotten from my brew in a bag setup and decided that I should move to a cooler system.
• Rebrew a beer.  I am yet to have done a "rebrew" of a beer.  While I might not use the exact same ingredients I plan to remake my black saison again with a very similar recipe, hopefully with just as much success.

Medium Term Goals

• Make a mead.  I've been wanting to make a mead for a long time and my brother beginning to make mead and wine (living in Napa Valley certainly helps with that) has made me even more intrigued.
• Make a wine.  Again, this is something I've wanted to do for a while and just haven't gotten around to.
• Brew a DCambic or Marylambic more appropriately. Essentially the plan is to use the wild yeasts I caught in November and brew a full beer with them.
• Brew another sour.  When my current sour finishes I hope to brew a second one using the yeast cake, in addition to my local wild ale.
• Host a tasting.  I've been planning this for a while but haven't figure out exactly how I would do it.  This could be a simple tasting and reviewing session or a pairing with cheese or full courses.  Regardless of how its done it would be fun to get some honest opinions on my beers and share them with friends.

Long Term Goals

• Attend the National Homebrewers Conference and/or Great American Beer Festival.
• Win a competition. I would like to make beer of quality high enough to at least win a category.
• Have a blending session.  With the current sour beer I am making, and the others I plan to make in the future, it could be interesting to blend some of these together.  In addition to blending the beers on my own, it could be fun to have a few friends over to join in and make their own blend.
• Set up a yeast lab.  This isn't something I could do now but having read other blogs and recently getting the book: Yeast, my interest has piqued.
• Begin kegging/build a kegerator.  While I don't mind bottling it might be nice to be able to have at least some beers on tap, especially having some stouts or porters on nitro could be fun.
• Brew a lager.  Again, something I don't currently have the capacity for but would be fun to try if and when I have my own setup where I could control temperatures.
• Take another beer influenced trip.  Maybe a return to Belgium or actually making it to Cologne and Dusseldorf?

With these goals I don't feel the need to brew certain styles at certain times but have some idea of what I would like to do moving forward.  Hopefully 2013 will have some more great beers.

American IPA

I brewed my first straight forward, traditional IPA this past weekend.  While I put a little bit of my own twist on it by using some Golden Naked Oats and untraditional flavoring/aroma hops of Warrior and Nugget (and planning to dryhop with some German Opal) the recipe was one of the most "to style" that I have made. I had some trouble keeping the mini mash part at a low temp. It actually was around 146-148 for a while but slowly raised to 160 after adding some heat, we'll see what that does to the body. The OG was measured at 1.068 and had a refreshingly bitter finish before fermentation. This should end up a nice dry hoppy IPA.

Updates:

12/30/12

Finally bottled with 4 oz. of sugar

1/5/13

Cracked the first one of these open.  Certainly not as bitter as I had expected, more balanced with sweetness but it seems to be a nice pale ale at this point.

Spiced Belgian Tasting

Haven't done a tasting in a while and just popped open my strong/spiced Belgian ale.

A- Cloudy amber with a large head that fades slowly leaving no lacing.  Pretty bubbles in the tan head.

S- Spice, clove and cardamom, lead the way with some caramel, prune and fig notes.

T- Like the nose the spice dominates with clove dominating but a mild toasty flavor and some fig/cherry fruit also in the mix. Finishes long and dry with a bit of tang and hops.

M- Fairly thin, accentuated by the fairly high carbonation.  The carbonation gives it a bit of a bite on the dry finish.

O- A quite pleasant beer with the Rochefort yeast giving strong spice notes that are even more accentuated by the additions.  The wine has faded entirely giving no noticeable contribution.  This one wasn't what I was going for with the beer and the carbonation could be dialed back some, but still very enjoyable.  The alcohol also really sneaks up on you in this one. Very strong but no alcohol presence until you feel it all over.

BKYeast Brett Isolate (Funky Kast #3)

The very cool Dmitri from BKYeast recently had a post about giving away 4 strains of Brettanomyces to those who ask (and pay for shipping). While I thought it was a longshot I decided to send an email inquiring about C2, one of the 3 Brett strains he isolated from Cantillon Iris.  I was happy to hear back that I am one of the 15 people he will be shipping his samples of C2.  I'm super excited for this chance to experiment with such an original yeast (and one from a brewery I very much like and recently visited).  I'm already thinking of a few recipes that have potential to use this yeast as the sole fermenter.  Depending on what characteristics I get out of the yeast I will also probably use it in the secondary or at bottling with saisons, dubbels or old ales.

I hope to have a chance of doing some yeast ranching of my own within the next few months, maybe even starting with the bottle of Cantillon I brought back from the brewery.  It's awesome the number of homebrewers who are already doing it and are giving these options to us... Thanks BKYeast!

Updates:
11-2-12
Made a 1.5 L starter for this, plan to step it up in about 48 hours

11-4-12
Stepped up the starter to nearly 1 gallon. The extra starter wort (in excess of the gallon) was placed outside during the Redskins game and is now sitting in an open (but sanitized) juice container. We'll see if anything comes of that.

11-11-12
Brewed up the best bitter/saison hybrid for this beer yesterday, and added the homemade candi sugar today.  OG of 1.049.

11-23-12
Took a gravity reading and tasting.  Gravity down to 1.012, the flavor is interesting.  Up front there is a strawberry and damp wood sweet sensation that is followed by a horsey, funky, sour flavor mixed with mild bitterness.  The flavor is far from ideal but hopefully it will blend a little better over time and I am wondering whether oak or fruit may play up the nice parts of the front while balancing the strange flavors on the tail end.

1/12/13
Gravity seems stable at 1.010. Flavor has certainly melded as the bitterness faded revealing mainly a woody, lightly fruity and moderately sour beer. This could definitely be a nice base for a fruit beer, I'm not quite sure which type of fruit would go best yet though.  I'm thinking about bottling some and taking a wait and see approach with the rest.

2/2/13
Bottling Day!
Racked from under the pellicle and onto 2.6 oz. of sugar.  I went for the low end of carbonation to avoid bottle bombs if the Brett eats a little bit beyond the 1.010 gravity that it's been at.  1 case (about half the batch) were bottled while the other half was simply moved to secondary, where it might end up receiving some fruit or other addition.  It tastes pretty good: lightly sour, lightly fruity and a bit of a damp woody character.  I look forward to reviewing it once it is finished carbonating.

3-31-13
Added 2 pounds of blackberries directly to carboy. Planning to bottle in 2 or 3 weeks though it could probably go longer on the fruit with the Brett eating away at it

5-17-13

Finally bottled the blackberry half. Side by side tasting to come in a month or so.  As of now the blackberry is subtle but balancing and pleasant.

Sour Brown (Funky Kast #2)

I brewed a sour brown ale back on August 26th, 2012. This was intended to be a bit like the traditional flanders brown/oud bruin .  I haven't made one of these before and have only even drank the similar Flanders Red style but it seemed pretty similar to a Northern English brown ale in terms of recommended ingredients.  In this spirit I used a grain bill similar to one from an English brown with a full pound of victory malt and an oz. of willamette for bittering.  This beer will probably sit in the primary for 1-2 months, secondary for 6-12 and bottles for another 6-12.  It's a long way off from the first tasting but I'm already excited.

8/26/2012

BIAB Mashed at 148F for 60 minutes. Sparged at 160 F. OG was only 1.032. Pitched the Roeselare pack with no starter.

9/1/2012

Realized that the OG was so low due to forgetting a pound each of Caramunich (not a big deal in terms of gravity) and DME (a big difference).  I steeped the pound of caramunich in a little over a half gallon of water, then added the DME and boiled.  Cooled and added into the glass carboy.  Big blow off began within an hour.

10-7-12
Added dregs from 3 Fonteinen Oude Geuze.

10-13-12
Big lacto bubbles on top of this beer now (hard to see in the picture but there's one in the top left), seems the Drie Fonteinen dregs were pretty aggressive..  I added dregs from Lindemans' Cuvee Rene. With dregs of two of the better geuzes I've tried this one should end up nice and funky.

1-12-13
The lacto bubbles have faded and now a thin brett pellicle covers the top.  Gravity is now down to 1.007.  Smell is not very pleasant (a little bit of "outhouse") but taste is more berry and sour with just a touch of sweetness.  The initial characteristics from the malt of toast have faded almost entirely.  Not sure what to do with this one, so I will probably continue the wait and see approach.

2-2-13
Gravity continues to fall slightly, now hovering between 1.005 and 1.006.  This beer is tasty now, but probably won't be safe to bottle for another 6-18 months.

3-2-13
This beer continues to improve. Still around 1.005 but more complex in its sour and funk.

5-18-13

Tastes too good to hold off bottling anymore, full batch ha 3.5 oz sugar added with 1 case worth bottled an the rest moved to a 3 gallon Carboy for secondary. Flavor is moderately fruity with solid but not overpowering complex sourness. Possibly the best sour beer I've ever tasted even flat.

6-9-13

Taste a bottle, still fairly flat. Aggressively sour with some light fruit. Not quite the complexity I would like but it will be interesting to see where the carbonation takes it. I also added the BKYeast C2 Brett to the unbottled half which has taken over, hopefully upping the fruitiness to balance the sour.

11-25-13
Bottled 2 gallons with 1 oz sugar.  The previously bottled version is aggressively acetic which detracts from the roast/fruit flavors.  I don't have high hopes for this half of the batch but letting it go any longer would probably not help.