Little Hazy Pale Ale

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

7/31/21

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

8/1/21

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

8/5/21

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

8/20/21

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

10/8/21

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

Another Doppelbock

 8/21/21

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

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

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

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

8/22/21

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

8/25/21

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

8/26/21

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

9/1/21

Moved to chest freezer at 50F to begin lagering.

10/8/21

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

Long Break Table Pils

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

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

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

7/24/21

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

7/26/21

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

7/27/21

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

7/30/21

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

7/31/21

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

8/5/21

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

8/20/21

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

8/21/21

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

10/8/21

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

English-ish IPA

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 resulting recipe uses some distinctly non-English ingredients (Cali yeast, Viking Xtra Pale 2-Row, and Dark Munich) 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.

7-31-20

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.

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.

8-1-20

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.

8-5-20

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.

8-7-20

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.

8-9-20

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.

8-11-20

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.

8-25-20

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.

Tasting notes:

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.

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.

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.

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.

Munich Melon Hülles Lager

Nelson Version

I took a bit of a break from brewing (and even more of a break from blogging) but got back to it in January with a hoppy lager 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 this blog post by Scott. 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 Hella Hüll Helles Lager. I'll have to track down a can to compare with my version.



1/20/2020 Brew Day
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 SMaSH Pils.

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

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.

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.

1/24/2020
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.

1/25/2020
Left in chest freezer but adjusted temperature up to 65F. Will likely take a few days to warm that high.

1/31/2020
No noticeable diacetyl on tasting and gravity down to 1.014. Set chest freezer to 32F for quick lagering.

2/6/2020
Split between 2 separate 2.5 gallon kegs, one plain one with an ounce of Nelson Sauvin hops.

2/19/2020

Plain Version

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.

3/28/20
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.

Historic English Ales (1889 Pale Ale and 1896 Strong Ale)

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.

I didn't have the full recipe for either beer as the information I have came from the Home Brewer's Recipe Database 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 Shut Up About Barclay Perkins blog, including an Eldridge Pope XXXX 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.

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.

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.

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 Scott Janish's book.

6/10/18
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.

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.

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.

6/17/18
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.

6/19/19
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.

6/24/19
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.

8/10/19
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.

10/4/19
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.

SMaSH Pils

As 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).

Crystal hops 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 Sierra Nevada's Torpedo, 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.

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.

3/26/19
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.

3/27/19
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.

3/28/19
Used plastic cups for the hops this time and didn't run into any issues.

3/31/19
Fermentation appears to be going slowly but consistently.

4/4/19
Pulled out of chest freezer and kept at room temp in the low 60s.

4/7/19
Krausen has fully fallen and no signs of ongoing fermentation. Moved back to chest freezer at 50F.

4/8/19
Lowered chest freezer temperature to 45F and added gelatin following the Brulosophy method.

4/9/19
Lowered chest freezer temperature to 40F

4/10/19
Lowered chest freezer temperature to 35F

4/13/19
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.

6/10/19
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.

Grande Maison Smash Mosaic Saison

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 Grande Maison 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:

1. I didn't have enough wheat malt for the normal recipe
2. I had a large variety of Mosaic hops and am trying to help clean out the freezer by using more hops
3. 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.

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: my take on Prairie's 'Merica. 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.

Tasting Notes:
Appearance:
Nice pale yellow with large dense white head. Slightly hazy but looks about what I'd expect for a farmhouse beer.

Smell:
Pretty similar aromas to the Saison de Champagne, 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%.

Taste:

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.

Mouthfeel:
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.

Overall:
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.

Notes:
3/9/19
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).

3/10/19
Large krausen and rapid airlock bubbling.

3/26/19
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.

4/6/19
Tasting above, not bad but not my favorite.

Saison de Champagne

These 3 ounces of Nelson cost about as
much as the rest of the ingredients combined

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 clone of ‘Merica, 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.

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.

I bought a full pound of Hallertau Blanc on a whim

Saison de Champagne 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.

A hop farm that I happened to drive past just outside Nelson when I was visiting New Zealand

8/14/18
Brewed on the stovetop with filtered San Francisco water.

9/15/18
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.

10/9/18
Entered 3 of the bottle carbonated version into the California State Homebrew Competition under category 34B: Mixed-Style Beer as a mix of New Zealand Pilsner and Saison.

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.

Tranquility Base Bock

When I think of the great lagers I've enjoyed my mind goes to a few locations: Festbier in a tent at Oktoberfest in Munich, unfiltered Pilsner on the anniversary of Pilsner Urquell in a bar in Prague, and Doppelbock in a big field in the Virginia Mountains. The last one might not be as iconic but let me explain...

My version in a glass stein

Nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia is a surprising wealth of breweries: Hardywood, Champion, South Street, Random Row, Pro Re Nata, Starr Hill, and Three Notch'd can all be found in Charlottesville or nearby Crozet. During the two years my wife was attending grad school at the University of Virginia I visited almost all of these breweries and had plenty of beers from all of them, more often than not appreciating the diversity and quality of offerings. It was a little surprising to see how strong the beer scene could be in this area when the place I lived at the time, the larger and more densely populated Arlington, Virginia, only had a couple of brewpubs that turned out mediocre fare and often shut down shortly after opening.

Not far away from the Charlottesville area, just south of Shenandoah National Park, and near plenty of hiking and outdoor activity areas, is Route 151. Taking this road south takes you straight to countless drinking destinations: Blue Mountain Brewery, Wild Wolf Brewing Company, Silverback Distillery, Bold Rock Hard Cider, Blue Toad Hard Cider, Veritas Vineyard, Flying Fox Vineyard, and Cardinal Winery just to name a few. While I had made the trip this direction a few times for different reasons, in February of 2017 I made it further south on the road, nearly an hour from Charlottesville, where, for the first time, I visited one of the best known breweries in the area: Devils Backbone's Basecamp Brewpub.

Devils Backbone is a brewery that is both loved and hated in Virginia and further abroad due to their great lagers (Vienna Lager is their flagship beer and a great example of the style) and their 2016 sellout to AB-InBev. One of the many Craft breweries to be bought out by what used to be Anheuser-Busch, Devils Backbone may be known as much for their vast marketing and availability as the quality of their products.

This is the pint that I fell in love with

While their sale to AB-InBev, and subsequent tactics by their owners to market and distribute their beers at the expense of Craft offerings, rubbed me the wrong way, I still believe they are the best producers of lagers on the East Coast and would happily drink a Schwarzbier or Baltic Porter from them any day of the week. So, with minimal reluctance, I found myself at the brewpub deciding what to order and the decision ended up being easy. While they had all sorts of terribly gimmicky beers (ginger Bock and fruited Hefeweisse to name just a few) the Basecamp Bound Bock seemed like an easy choice. And oh was it the right one.

Rushing into my mouth were waves of chocolate, deep rich melanoidin laden malt, full creamy mouthfeel, but also nuanced light fruit, fresh grain, and subtle spice, all ending in a crisp, dry, refreshing, and obviously lagered finish. I'm not ashamed to admit I drank a couple more while playing Kubb on their spacious lawn (fortunately I wasn't the one driving).
This is the long way of saying: I discovered how great Bock could be not from my travels to Europe but from an AB-InBev product in the middle of Virginia, go figure. I subsequently found out that this beer was actually the bigger brother style of Doppelbock and was even more impressed with the drinkability. The beer weighed in at a fairly hefty 7.6% ABV (it's a good thing I wasn't driving!). While Devils Backbone's site didn't provide much information (this link used to go to details on this beer but no longer does...) about the beer I knew that one day I would have to try to recreate it.

This brings me to June 2018, on the other side of the country, where I set out to brew a beer that rides the line between Bock (or by the 2015 BJCP definitions a Dunkles Bock) and Doppelbock, with a particular emphasis on noticeable, but not overwhelming, chocolatey character without coming off roasty or finishing sweet. Essentially I wanted this to be a bock/doppelbock that had the harmonious blend of complexity and simplicity only a malty lager can show.

Less dark in this smaller pour than other images

While I wouldn't call my Tranquility Base Bock a clone of the Devils Backbone beer (I doubt their version used Pale Chocolate Malt or some of the other less orthodox ingredients), and while it also didn't turn out perfect, I think I nailed my goal of a super drinkable, surprisingly strong, plenty malty, ever so noticeably chocolatey, refreshing lager.

I was not as rigorous with brewing notes on this beer as most batches but here is what I remember/jotted down:
Brewed on the stove top. Cooled down to 50F overnight then pitched almost expired packs of Mangrove Jack's Bavarian Lager and Fermentis Saflager W-34/70. Raised temp control and fermented at 55F for 5 days before being allowed to rise up to 68F for another 5. Tasting at that point showed no signs of diacetyl so it was cold crashed slowly over 3 days to 33F. After another 5 days it was transferred to keg, carbonated, and kept at 33F for another 4 days before raising the temp to 45F. The temperature in the kegerator has fluctuated between as high as 55F and as low as 19F (I didn't notice the thermostat fell out and the temp controller got the freezer cranking) but the beer has only seemed to round out more over time.

Tasting:

Appearance: Deep brown but not black. Early pours were very clear due to gelatin but late pours (as this one is) have some floaters.

Smell: Very malt forward: chocolate milkshake and fresh baked bread linger together. Some hints of toast and earth but hard to tell where that comes from, otherwise no obvious yeast or hop derived components.

Taste: Lighter on the chocolate than the nose would imply but still a nice light milk chocolate character mingles with the more pronounced notes of toast, bread, and a subtle but growing in the finish clean bitterness. Again, no real hop or yeast character present.

Mouthfeel: Medium-high body with medium carbonation, hit this one exactly where I'd like for the style so that it fills the mouth but doesn't linger too long.

Overall: Again, a beer that I'm very happy with even if it isn't exactly to style. I would decrease both the dark munich and pale chocolate malt slightly if I were to brew this closer to a traditional bock and increase the regular munich a touch if I were to re-brew with a doppelbock in mind. That said, I don't know that I'd want to change this beer much unless I was trying to win a competition.

10/9/18
Bottled 3 bottles from the keg and entered into California State Homebrew Competition under category 9A: Doppelbock.

12/8/18
Still on tap and still tasting great. The beer scored a 36 and received 3rd place in the Strong Euro Lagers category at the California State Homebrew Competition, a good result for a beer not brewed exactly to be a classic Doppelbock and at the low end of the category.

2/28/19
Thought this one had kicked but found out there were still a couple pints left and created the above tasting notes, still a super enjoyable beer more than 6 months after brewing.