the Big Lebrewski

13E - American Stout

2009-09-26T13:30:00.000-07:00

Info:

Brewer: Chris
Mash: mini-mash
Date: 9/26/2009
Size: 5.75 gallon at pitching

Discussion:

Simple stout recipe with American hops
I added an ounce and a half of malt I got at the Guinness brewery last year

Grain Bill:

2lb Gambrinus organic pilsen malt
1lb roasted barley
8oz oats
6.3oz chocolate malt
4oz 40L
5lb light extract (in boil)

Yeast:

Wyeast 1084 - Irish Ale

The Mini-Mash:

infuse to 152F, hold for 60 minutes
sparge and collect wort

The Boil (90 minutes):

5lb light extract @ start of boil
2.0oz Willamette (homegrown) @ 60
2.3oz Willamette (homegrown) @ 15
Irish moss @ 15
0.5oz Cascade (5.5%) @ 5
Total: 45 IBU (ish)

The Finish:

OG: 1.060

10A - Fresh Hop Imperial American Pale Ale

2009-09-06T23:51:00.000-07:00

Info:

Brewer: Chris
Mash: single infusion
Date: 9/6/2009
Size: 7.75 gallon at pitching

Discussion:

Thanks to Hop Union and a drive to Yakima, I've got 6 pounds of fresh Cascade :)
The idea is an imperial pale ale, clean malt with lots of hop flavor and aroma but not overly bitter.
Hops loss from the hops is crazy! Even wet, they soaked up a quart per pound.

Grain Bill:

14.5lb Gambrinus organic pale malt
2lb Weyermann Munich type I
1lb red wheat malt
8oz 40L
2lb of fresh Cascade
8oz corn sugar (in boil)

Yeast:

Safale US-05

The Mash:

raise to 151F, hold for 60 minutes
mash out to 170F, hold for 10 minutes
sparge and collect wort

The Boil (90 minutes):

1.0lb Cascade (fresh) @ 15
1.0lb Cascade (fresh) @ 10
1.0lb Cascade (fresh) @ 5
1.0lb Cascade (fresh) @ lights out
Total: 100 IBU (ish)

The Finish:

OG: 1.062

4 pounds of Cascade post-boil in the keggle

Harvest time!

2009-08-28T22:24:00.001-07:00

It's harvest time and that can only mean one thing... mega fresh hop brews! As the hops trickle in over the next few weeks we'll be posting some recipes including a dark IPA fermented with lager yeast, a couple of Belgian recipes, and, of course, more renditions of the classic Northwest hop bomb.

Don't forget to look out for these fun fall projects:

honey - for mead (honey wine), of which there are many many types, can also be used in beer
cider - straight up or fermented, use a clean ale yeast and give it lots of staged nutrient additions to ward off sulfur
grapes - for wine of course! check out local vineyards to source fruit, look for a Brix of at least 24
wild berries - you can ferment almost anything, just treat them like wine grapes
pickles - late in the season, but good cukes are still available
pickled peppers/garlic/etc - the name says it all, pickle whatever you can find

22B - Imperial Smoked Porter

2009-07-01T02:27:00.000-07:00

Info:

Brewer: Chris
Mash: infusion
Date: 6/30/2008
Size: 10.25 gallon post-boil

Notes:

Similar to the smoked porter I brewed in December, except I stepped up the IBUs and added some Munich. This one is going to have some zing in it because of a healthy dose of Zeus.

Grain Bill:

22lb Gambrinus organic pale malt
1lb 6oz 60L crystal malt
3.5lb chocolate malt 350L
1lb German rauch malt
1lb Weyermann Munich type I

Yeast:

Wyeast 1098 - British Ale

The Mash:

dough in to 154F
rest 60 minutes
sparge with 180F
collect 12 gallons

The Boil (90 minutes):

2.0oz Zeus (16.4%) @ 60
teaspoon of Irish moss @ 15
1.5oz Mt Hood (5.0%) @ 10
Total: 50 IBU(ish)

The Finish:

OG: 1.072

14C - Hophead Imperial IPA

2009-06-13T14:03:00.000-07:00

Info:

Brewer: Chris
Mash: single infusion
Date: 6/13/2009
Size: 5.25 gallon post-boil

Grain Bill:

16lb Gambrinus organic pale malt
10oz Briess crystal 40L
8oz CaraPils
4oz Belgian Special B
1lb 8oz sucrose

Yeast:

Fermentis SafAle US-05

Misc:

small amounts of gypsum, baking soda, and salt to the mash water
yeast nutrient
Irish moss

The Mash:

mash at 151F, hold for 60 minutes
mash out to 170F, hold for 10 minutes
sparge with 170F, collect 7.5 gallons

The Boil (90 minutes):

2.0oz Zeus (16.4%) @ 70
0.5oz Centennial (9.7%) @ 20
1.0oz Cascade (4.5%) @ 15
Irish moss @ 15
0.75oz Amarillo (5.0%) @ 10
0.7oz Summit (18.1%) @ 10
0.75oz Amarillo (5.0%) @ 5
0.5oz Cascade (4.5%) @ 5
0.7oz Summit (18.1%) @ 1
sucrose @ 1
Total: 127 IBU(ish)

The Finish:

OG: 1.100 (it's imperial, right?)

Dry Hops:

1.0oz Amarillo (5.0%)
0.5oz Cascade (4.5%)
0.5oz Centennial (9.7%)
dry hops will be blended together and sit for 5 days in secondary

18D - Belgian Golden Strong Ale

2009-06-12T21:47:00.000-07:00

Info:

Brewer: Chris
Mash: single infusion
Date: 6/12/2009
Size: 5.5 gallon post-boil

Grain Bill:

15lb Gambrinus organic pilsner malt
8oz Briess CaraPils
2oz Belgian Special B
2.5lb sucrose

Yeast:

Fermentis SafBrew T-58

Misc:

2 tsp gypsum added to water at dough in
a pinch of salt added to water at dough in
these were done to adjust the pH and general water conditions because my water supply is on the soft side

The Mash:

dough in to 120, hold for 20 minutes
raise by infusion to 153D, hold for 60 minutes
raise by infusion to 170F, hold for 10 minutes
sparge with 170F, collect 7.25 gallons
Pre-boil gravity: 1.060

The Boil (90 minutes):

0.5oz Zeus (16.4%) @ 70
Irish moss @ 15
1.0oz Mt Hood (4.4%) @ 10
sucrose @ 5
1.0oz Mt Hood (4.4%) @ 1
Total: 30 IBU(ish)

The Finish:

OG: 1.093

10A - Yet Another American Pale Ale

2009-05-25T12:40:00.000-07:00

Info:

Brewer: Chris
Mash: single infusion
Date: 5/25/2009
Size: 9.5 gallon post-boil
The new twist here is the use of Gambrinus organic pilsner in place of Briess organic 2-row. The kernel size was a bit smaller, so I had to adjust my mill (a Crankandstein 3D). We'll see how the change in base malt pans out...

Grain Bill:

17lb Gambrinus organic pilsner malt
14oz Briess 60L

Yeast:

Wyeast 1056, made up into a healthy starter

The Mash:

mash at 151F, hold for 60 minutes
mash out to 171F, hold for 10 minutes
sparge with 171F, collect 11 gallons (ymmv - I add the last gallon or two start to the kettle, as I'm of the opinion that over-sparging leads to astringency issues, which is a serious flaw when making a pale ale.)

The Boil (90 minutes):

1.75oz Centennial (9.7aau) @ 60
forgot the Irish moss @ 15, d'oh!
1.5oz Cascade (4.0aau) @ 15
0.75oz Centennial (9.7aau) @ 10
0.5oz Cascade (4.0aau) @ 5
Total: 49 IBU(ish)

The Finish:

OG: 1.050

Dry Hops:

0.5oz Cascade (4.0aau) at end of secondary
1.0oz Centennial (9.7aau) in a quick tertiary

11B - Nutty Man Brown Ale

2009-04-26T17:36:00.000-07:00

Repeat of last years batch. Was great last time, should be great again.
Info:

Brewer: Cindy (to shy to post, or maybe just to busy with that beer?!?!)
Mash: Steep and Extract
Date: 04/11/2008
Size: 5 gallons post-boil

Ingredients:

4 lbs Extra Light DME
1 lb Crystal 80 L
10 oz Crystal 120 L
.5 lb Special Roast
4 oz Chocolate Malt
3 oz Crystal 40
4 oz Carafa II
.8 oz US Goldings
Nottingham Dry Yeast

Process

Stepped grains for 45 minutes at 150 degrees F.
Added DME, hops.
Boiled 60 min.
Pitched yeast starter.
Fermenting in the house at around 68 degrees F.
To easy, to tasty!

OG: 1.045 (recipe has said 1.041). Slightly high for style.
Color: recipe said would be 26 SRM. Very dark - almost purple.
IBU: 17
FG: 1.011, right on the low end of style. Could maybe raise the steep temperature a smidge to help that.

10A - American Pale Ale

2009-04-26T17:24:00.001-07:00

Based off of Chris's excellent brew from last year. I'm making this for a wedding, so in interest of being a little more broadly appealling I've cut the hops a tiny smidge (not to say Chris's was over hopped, it was perfect in my opinion, but brew to your audience..)

Info:

Brewer: Ryan
Mash: single infusion
Date: 4/11/2009
Size: 7 gallon post-boil

Grain Bill:

13.5lb Gambrinus 2-row malt
0.6lb Briess 40L crystal
0.2lb Briess 80L crystal (40/80L split based on "what you got it what you brew" - I didn't have any 60L on hand)

Yeast:

Safale US-05

The Mash:

start

20qt @ 170F (1.4qts/lb)

settles @ 151

rest 75 minutes

mash out

8.6qt @ 212F (0.6qts/lb)
settles @ 171
rest 15 minutes

sparge

20qt @ 171F

The Boil (90 minutes):

1.4oz Centennial (9.7aau) @ 60
teaspoon of Irish moss @ 15
1.4oz Cascade (4.0aau) @ 15
0.7oz Cascade (4.0aau) @ 5
Total: 45 IBU(ish)

The Finish:

OG: 1.056 (its good to be a gangsta)

Dry hopping schedule is based on conversation with Chris about what really happened...

To be dry hopped with 0.5oz Cascade (4.0aau) in secondary - 5 days (then remove)
To be dry hopped with 0.5oz Centennial (9.7aau) in secondary - 5 days, after Cascade removal, then immediately bottle.

16A Half Wit White Ale

2009-04-26T17:06:00.001-07:00

WitBier (1D)

Working on "simplifying" the american adjunct mash. Instead of doing a full adjunct mash, I "just" pre-boiled the wheat and oats and added them to the main mash (which was resting at 113F) to bring up to mash.

This theory was pretty much a total failure, its definitely not easier and efficiency was in the toilet (1.042 vs 1.052 with same ingredients). The little mash rest for the adjunct part of the mash in the american adjunct style pash breaks down a lot of the simple starches. Without that, they tend to form a spetzle like noodle that will congeal to bottom of the kettle you are using to gelatenize them in. Don't use this recipe, unless you just like screwing around and don't care how it turns out. The american adjunct mash method is superior in pretty much every way. We'll try another theory next year and drink our sorrows in the meantime.

Info:

Brewer: Ryan
Mash: pre-geletanize and add in mash (yes I'm totally making this shit up, but my temperature-volume calculations at least worked almost perfectly with mixed water and grain, and I did those by HAND, like we had to in the old days, so there!).
Date: 04/11/2008
Size: 5 gallons post-boil

Grain Bill:

Adjunct Boil
3.0lb unmalted wheat (ground to coarse grist in my hand flour mill)
1.0lb rolled quick oats

Malt Mash
2.5lb 2 row pale
3.0lb 2 row weyerman pilsner
(if you have any 6 row, now would be a good time to use a pound, I didn't have any)
1.0lb munich
1.0lb rice hulls

Yeast:

Safbrew WB-06 dry wheat yeast

The Mash:

Add 8 qts/lb at 161F to adjunct target 148-150F, rest 20 minutes
Start main mash, qts/lb @126F target 113F, rest 30m while adjunct boils
Bring adjuncts to boil, stir constantly (it will help, not as much as you'd like, but some). The boiling glue will slowly thicken, adding two more quarts of hot water during the boil will keep it from sticking solid.
Add adjunct back to main mash - target 154F, will likely need ~1-2qts of 212 to bring to temp.
Rest (planned 50 minutes, actual 75 minutes - this is converting like crap)
sparge at 180F.
Yes its a sticky mess, and go ahead and start scrubbing the mash boil pot now... I hope it wasn't your good pot (I have several crappy ones - and I used one of those, whew!)
Ended running off 6.2-6.3 gallons, gravity didn't drop very fast and it kept sticking. A batch sparge might work better here.

The Boil (90 minutes):

20 minutes naked boil (the wort not the players)
1.2 oz Mt Hood (4.1aau) @ 60
0.5oz Mt Hood (4.1aau) @ 5
peel from two mandarin oranges, .5 oz crushed coriander and the "mystery spice" (red peppercorns .2 oz) crushed and added @ 5 (left in primary)
Total: 20 IBU

The Pitch:
OG: 1.042

16A Wit Guy White Ale

2009-04-26T17:03:00.000-07:00

WitBier (1D)
Based on from "Wit Guy White Ale" from "Radical Brewing" Mosher.

Yep, I'm doing it again, this is one tasty beer and is likely (in some form at least) to form a regular part of my yearly schedule.

Info:

Brewer: Ryan
Mash: 2 part adjunct mash
Date: 04/04/2008
Size: 5 gallons post-boil

Grain Bill:

Adjunct Mash
3.0lb unmalted wheat (ground to coarse grist in my hand flour mill)
2.5lb 2 row pale
1.0lb rolled quick oats

Malt Mash
3.0lb 2 row weyerman pilsner
1.0lb munich
1.0lb rice hulls

Yeast:

Safbrew WB-06 dry wheat yeast

The Mash:

Mash schedule based on "Adjunct Mash Procedure" in "Radical Brewing" by Randy Mosher

I was going to try and explain the mash, but decided that it was easier to just plot it. Since I didn't have gnuplot installed I thought to myself "how hard can it be to do this in open office"? Well it turns out that its basically impossible. So I downloaded gnuplot and plotted it in about 2 minutes.

The basic idea is that you do a short mini mash with the wheat, oats and pale. This is then boiled to gelatinize the wheat starch. While this is going on the malt mash is brought through acid and protein rest with hot water like a regular infusion mash. The adjunct mash is then add that back to the malt mash to raise to mash out temperature. After this another short infusion of water is added to go to a high mash, then sparge at 180F.

The Boil (90 minutes):

20 minutes naked boil (the wort not the players)
1.2 oz Mt Hood (4.1aau) @ 60
0.5oz Mt Hood (4.1aau) @ 5
peel from two mandarin oranges, .5 oz crushed coriander and the "mystery spice" (red peppercorns .2 oz) crushed and added @ 5 (left in primary)
Total: 20 IBU

The Pitch:
OG: 1.052

Blonde Bombe 6B

2009-04-26T16:54:00.000-07:00

Catching up on my notes here, I'm a tardy tardy boy. Someone should beer me!

Info:

Brewer: Ryan
Mash: british straight infusion
Date: 04/04/2009
Size: 10 gallon post-boil

Grain Bill:

16lb pale 2 row malt
2lb Munich
1lb Crystal 20L
1lb Malted Wheat

Yeast:

Safale US-05

The Mash:

Add 190F water to 152F rest 70 minutes
sparge with 180F
collect 12 gallons

The Boil (60 minutes):

2.25oz Williamette (5.2aau) @ 60
1.0 oz Williamette (5.2aau) @ 20

The Finish:
OG: 1.050
FG: 1.001 (can you say attenuated? I knew you could). Works out to about 6.4%abv, hence the Bombe part!

Its a little to red, but not bad overall. The malt really comes through nicely considering how light and attenuated it is.

Got Wood?

2009-01-14T22:27:00.000-08:00

Decided to add some wood to the lambic. There are several reasons for this; I wanted to give a slightly more authentic environment for the brett which (based on my limited understanding will use some of the wood sugars as part of its life cycle) and also I'm hoping that the brett will make a home in the wood (from which it can venture forth into future brews). The basic idea for using a notched piece of wood to carry over yeast propagation is based on the concept of a "brew stick" used by the vikings and early celtic brewers (Palmer briefly discusses this in his online book How To Brew, and several other books I have touch on the topic). I've been kind of interested in older and strange techniques lately so this seemed like a fun way to add a little adventure to both the current and maybe some future brews.

I had some alder left over from a bunch of scraps that I picked a couple of years ago from a furniture store. Traditionally you'd use beech, but alder is also a relatively mild wood so I thought it would serve for this purpose. I cut several 6" long by 1/2" square pieces then cut a bunch of notches into each piece with a saw about half way through and 1/2"-3/4" inches apart. The notches will add surface area for the yest to (hopefully) infect the wood through and should also help with the rapid emulated aging process.

Since it was "fresh" wood that had never been used for beer (albeit quite dry) I wanted to get most of the flavor out and definitely any residual wood resins. To do this I boiled it in 5 changes of water until it didn't really change the water color after a 30 minute boil (each change was boiled for ~30 minutes). Hopefully this will mellow it to close to the right amount of wood character for the size of batch I'm making and still leave enough surface area for the yeast to take hold. The basic idea was try and simulate several years of leaching and aging in the kitchen in a couple of hours. After boiling it I put it in the oven at 400F for 45m (at which point it was pretty dry looking) and then put it under the broiler (on low),
until it started to smell pretty toasty. It hadn't quite changed color much yet, but was close, this should carmelize a small amount of the wood sugars and add a little bit of interesting character. I quick chilled three of these sticks under cold wate rand then tossed them into the lambic.

We'll be taking a sample in a month or two and see how its going :)

Peachy Keen Nut Brown

2009-01-11T12:14:00.000-08:00

Info:

Brewer: Ryan
Mash: british straight infusion
Date: 01/10/2009
Size: 5 gallon post-boil

Grain Bill:

9.75lb pale 2 row malt
0.75lb Special Roast
0.5lb Victory
0.5lb Crystal 40L
0.25lb Chocolate (350L) - this was a little darker than we had wanted, prefer pale choc, but what you have is what you use..

Yeast:

Danstar Nottingham dry

The Mash:

Add 190F water to 152F rest 60 minutes (I used the remnant sparge water from the Lambicus Insanitus batch since I had planned this as a filler brew ot kill time while it was boiling)
sparge with 180F
collect 7 gallons

The Boil (60 minutes):

1.2oz US Goldings (5.1aau) @ 60
0.5oz US Goldings (5.1aau) @ 5

The Finish:
OG: 1.055

The Fruit:

6 lbs of defrosted frozen peaches saved over from last spring pitched into primary after initial fermentation had taken off (next morning around 11:00).

Notes:

This is a beer I've made variations of several times before with slightly different base recipes, the nut brown tends to compliment the peaches sort of like an inverted peach cobbler where the savory and nutty components of the beer are complimented by the peaches and residual malt sweetness.

Lambicus Insanitus

2009-01-11T11:32:00.000-08:00

nfo:

Brewer: Ryan
Mash: Turbid Mash (Wild Brews by Sparrow page 141)
Date: 01/10/2009
Size: 6 gallon post-boil

Grain Bill:

Main Mash

8.5 lbs 2 row malt
5.5 lbs unmalted wheat (hard white, ground to a mix of coarse grist, graham flour texture, and flour)

Yeast:

Wyeast 3278 Lambic Blend

The Mash:
This is the mash schedule from "Wild Brews" by Sparrow (pg 141). I basically treated it like a series of batch sparges where you denature the resulting liquid to stop conversion. Actually doing this really helped me to understand what the constituent components of the final wort are like. With a decent mash tun with a false bottom this isn't as hard as its often made out to be, although be prepared for it to take a while and to have a relatively long boil at the end.

Target of 28qts (2qts/lb) total liquid addition
add 5.6qts water (20%) at a little below boiling (roughly 190, with some tweaking) to target 113F, rest 15 minutes
add 5.6qts water (20%) at a little below boiling to target 126, rest 15M
draw off 4qts (~30% of liquid) to kettle, heat to 190 and hold
add 8.4 qts (30%) water at 212 to target 149F, rest for 45m
draw off 8.1qts (50% of liquid) to kettle, heat to 190 and hold
add 8.4qts (30%) of water at 212F to target 162, rest for 30m
draw off 11qts and start heating, the grain bed should be pretty much dry after this. Heat kettle to 190F
Add all the liquid from the kettle back to the mash to target 172F, rest 20m
my 10 gallon mash tun was almost completely FULL at this point
Sparge with 190F water until around 1.008, this got me to right about 8 gallons pre-boil
Pre boil gravity 1.050

The Boil (longer than you want):

Strange mix of ancient hops I've saved up.

.6 oz of 2003 tett
.6 oz of 2003 williamette
3 oz of 2005 goldings. This is the only one with any real bitter left. The rest were long past the "cheese" state. Hopefully these don't throw the bitter to far over, the original recipe called for 4.8 oz of debittered, I'm at 4.2. Well we'll roll with it and see what happens. Post boil it was fairly bitter, but not overly so and since we're going for a ~6 mo+ fermentation I expect a lot of that will scrub out.

Boiled down to 6 gallons over the course of almost 3 hours. While that was going on I basically finished my second batch (peachy keen nut brown, post to follow). I tried to keep it to a "soft boil", lightly rolling but not overly vigorous to minimize excess maillard.
This is the first time I've used the converted keggle I got from a freind of a guy at work. It has a false bottom so I just pitched in the hops loose and crossed my fingers. Worked awesome, drained almost completely dry and basically no hops made it through. The old keggle will be retired and I may try to convert one of my 7 gallon pots to work the same.
Cooled to roughly 80F
Put in a 7 gallon carboy and pitched in the lambic blend.

The Finish:

OG: 1.060

Commentary:

Was the turbid mash worth it? Well only time will tell, I can say that it definitely produced a different wort than any I've ever made before. It was very "bready" and had a definite dextrinous after taste/mouth feel to it. Could you emulate this by just adding dextrin? Maybe, but I don't think it would get the same mix of starches and sugars. The interim run-ofs were interesting to see and taste, there was a definite progression from the first run being almost completely white to the last being a pale golden straw color (which is what the final sparge was like). This definitely helped me grok at a more fundamental level what happens here since I could tast, smell, feel the product, which imho made it worth the experience. I would caution anyone else who wants to try this that this needs a decent sized mash tun (10g for a 5-6g batch) and a 10+gallon kettle because of the large volumes used. Would I do this again? Probably yes, its definitely way easier than a 3 step decoction :)

Updates

2009-01-11T11:29:00.000-08:00

American Wheat:

It's on draft
The recipe came out on the maltier side for style, also low on the hops for my taste. Overall a tasty beer, though. Note: the mash/recipe was more complex than I would normally use for this style.
Next time: 50% 2-row 50% wheat malt in a straight infusion with more hops.
FG: 1.010

Smoked Porter:

Hubba hubba! What a beer! Conditioning in the keg, can't wait to tap it :)
Very chocolaty, with a hint of smoke. Good balance.
Next time: add a small amount (4oz) of black malt to give it a small bite, more like semi-sweet chocolate than milk chocolate.
FG: 1.017

Weizenbock:

In secondary.
Grain bill, mash, and hops were right on, I just with I had some authenic yeast.
Next time: use a German weizen yeast, it'll be a real treat! I am going to use something that puts off a lot of banana and clove.

American Barleywine

In secondary, dry hopped with a massive amount of Centennial and Amarillo
Because of high OG, it's too early to tell what the final beer will be like, still a lot of sweetness because the yeast still has a ways to go. The rousing from the transfer to secondary perked it up quite well. Gravity at transfer was 1.029.
After another month or two, I'll be transfering it to a tertiary fermentation, in which it'll sit until next fall. With the gravity where it is, the yeast will hopefully slowly chew it down to at least 1.018

Lambic

fermenting slllloooooooowwwwwly, we'll give a full report next fall...

the Future

2009-01-11T11:23:00.000-08:00

We started this blog with the header reading:

"The idea? Brew all 28 classic beer styles between Winter Solstice 2007 and Winter Solstice 2008. The results? Read and find out!"

Well, if you read the post mortem, you saw that we came close to the goal and fell short by a batch. No matter, we learned a lot and made some _awesome_ beer!

So, what does the future hold? The plan looks like this: keep on brewing.

Aside from that, we'll keep posting here about brews, equipment, growing hops, and everything else brewing related. We'll also be doing quarterly themes, based on the solstices of course :)

cheers,
the Brewers

the Post Mortem

2008-12-22T11:38:00.001-08:00

Alright folks... here's the results: 27 of 28 styles brewed, with multiple substyles of some categories...

28 - specialty cider, is the only one we didn't get covered. I went to get some cider and the store was fresh out of the fall run of local cider, d'oh! The plan was to make a New England Cider by mixing a lot of cider with a bunch of honey... oh well!

It was a fun project and I thank everyone involved, I think we all learned a lot and made a _ton_ of great beer!

cheers,
Chris

15C - Weizenbock

2008-12-21T18:06:00.000-08:00

Info:

Brewer: Chris
Mash: decoction
Date: 12/21/2008
Size: 5 gallon post-boil

Grain Bill:

8lb wheat malt
5.5lb Munich malt
1/2lb CaraVienna malt
1/4lb Carafa II (added at _end_ of the mash)
1.5lb Briess organic 2-row malt

Notes:

Grist is 50% wheat malt, per German law
2-row was added at the last minute to increase gravity, didn't have any other base malt on hand... My choice would to have added more wheat and Munich.

Yeast:

Wyeast 1010 - American Wheat
Pitched on top of the yeast cake from my wheat beer from last week.
Yes, this is not 100% to style, but it's what I had to work with...

The Mash:

start grains @ 131F @ 2qt/lb
rest 30 minutes
pull thick third to start the decoction
raise decoction to 154F (STIR LIKE MAD!)
rest decoction for 30 minutes
raise decoction to boil (STIR LIKE MAD!)
boil decoction for 20 minutes (STIR EVEN MADDER!!!)
add decoction back to main mash, temp should reach 154F, add additional water if necessary
rest 60 minutes
add pulverized Carafa II
rest 10 minutes
sparge with 180F
collect 7 gallons

The Boil (90 minutes):

1.5oz Mt Hood (5.0aau) @ 60
teaspoon of Irish moss @ 15
Total: 23 IBU(ish)

The Finish:

OG: 1.078
FG: 1.019

9C - Scottish Export 80/-

2008-12-20T17:54:00.000-08:00

Info:

Brewer: Chris
Mash: infusion
Date: 12/20/2008
Size: 5 gallon post-boil

Grain Bill:

3lb Briess Organic 2-row malt
1/2lb Briess 120L crystal malt
spent grain bed from barleywine made earlier in the day
1lb Briess light DME

Yeast:

Wyeast 1084 - Irish Ale
Starter made using light DME

The Mash:

start grains @ 151F @ 2qt/lb while the barleywine is mashing
rest 45 minutes
add to spent mash with an additional 2 gallons
rest 30 minutes
sparge with 180F
collect 7 gallons

The Boil (90 minutes):

0.25oz Zeus (16.4aau) @ 60
teaspoon of Irish moss @ 15
1lb DME @ 10
Total: 20 IBU(ish)

The Finish:

OG: 1.048

19C - American Barleywine

2008-12-20T17:22:00.001-08:00

Info:

Brewer: Chris
Mash: infusion
Date: 12/20/2008
Size: 5 gallon post-boil

Grain Bill:

17lb Briess Organic 2-row malt
1lb Briess 40L crystal malt
1lb Briess carapils malt
1/2lb Special B
3lb Briess light DME

Yeast:

Wyeast 1084 - Irish Ale
Starter made using light DME

The Mash:

dough in to 151F
rest 60 minutes
sparge with 180F
collect 7 gallons

The Boil (90 minutes):

1.5oz Zeus (16.4aau) @ 60
teaspoon of Irish moss @ 15
1.0oz Cascade (4.0aau) @ 15
1.0oz Amarillo (9.3aau) @ 10
3lb DME @ 10
0.5oz Cascade (4.0aau) @ 5
0.5oz Amarillo (9.3aau) @ 5
1.0oz Amarillo (9.3aau) @ lights out
Total: 90 IBU(ish)

The Finish:

OG: 1.112
To be dry hopped in secondary with 1.0oz Centennial and 1.0oz Amarillo

California Common

2008-12-19T22:33:00.000-08:00

Info:

Brewer: David
Date: 12/19/2008
Size: 5 gallon post-boil
Picked the hop-iest California Common recipe I could find
Style Guide 7B, California Common

Grain Bill:

Main Mash

9.5 lbs Gambrinus Pilsner Malt
0.5 lbs Caramunich Malt

Yeast:

Wyeast 2112 California Lager

The Mash:

3 gallons to 127 and dough in all grains.
30 minute protein wait at 120-123F.
90 minutes mash at 150F (+/- )
Iodine tested good, no starch
Sparge with 180F
Sparged to about 6 gallons

The Boil (90 minutes):

Slow to bring to boil, new burner, pretty small. Have to upgrade If I want to do more than a 5 gallon batch.
All hops are Northern brewer
2 oz at 75 min ( this Hop sock split the seem at about 40 minutes, resulting in lots of loose hops.)
1 oz at 60 min
1 oz at 40 min
1 oz at 25 min
1 oz at 15 min
1/2 tsp Irish moss at 10 min
1/2 tsp Wyeast yeast nutrient at 10 min
1 oz at 5 min
1 oz back for dry hopping.

The Finish:

Crash cool to 70F. Dropped to about 100, and slowed down while I found a working thermometer. My digital died in middle of brew (battery ?) and my backup only went down to 100F. Then dropped the rest of the way to 70F.
OG: 1.051 at 60F. Target was 1.046 - 1.054
Went to siphon to 6 gallon carboy, and the free hops plugged the siphon. Wound up skimming most of the free floating hops out with a mesh strainer. Then just funneling everything that was left into carboy by hand, Definitely less than ideal. Should have poured out to second pot, through strainer, and then siphoned from that to carboy (hindsite.)
Temperature had dropped to 60F by time I got done with this. And pitched yeast.
Lot more particulate in batch than I expected, I assume this is from the loose hops, seems to be settling out well though.

22B - Smoked Porter

2008-12-19T21:04:00.001-08:00

Info:

Brewer: Chris
Mash: infusion
Date: 12/19/2008
Size: 5 gallon post-boil

Notes:

Recipe is based on the Stone Brewing Co Smoked Porter recipe published in BYO Magazine in the December 2008 issue.
Bittering hop changed to Zeus
4oz peated malt changed to 8oz German rauch malt

Grain Bill:

11lb Briess Organic 2-row malt
3/4lb Briess 60L crystal malt
1 3/4lb chocolate malt 350L
1/2lb German rauch malt

Yeast:

Wyeast 1098 - British Ale
Starter made using light DME

The Mash:

dough in to 154F
rest 60 minutes
sparge with 180F
collect 7 gallons

The Boil (90 minutes):

0.5oz Zeus (16.4%) @ 60
teaspoon of Irish moss @ 15
0.5oz Mt Hood (5.0%) @ 10
Total: 35 IBU(ish)

The Finish:

OG: 1.065

Chocolate Cherry Stout

2008-12-15T23:18:00.000-08:00

Info:

Brewer: Ryan
Mash: Straight infusion mash
Date: 12/14/2008
Size: 5.75 gallon post-boil after cherry addition

Grain Bill:

Main Mash

9.4 lbs 2 row malt
0.5 lbs black roasted
0.75 lbs 350L chocolate malt
0.5lbs 80L crystal malt
0.75lbs victory malt
0.5lbs oatmeal (actually quick oats - pre gelitanized) lightly toasted in a 300F oven until just barely showing color and nicely aromatic.

Yeast:

Coopers Ale yeast (dry)

The Mash:

Dought in to protein for 10 minutes (not totally intentional, I was a little short on hot water - Doh! indeed)
Brought up to 154F with roughly 4 gallons of 180F (+ a little at 200) water (I put two pots on at once and it was getting a little thin so I dumped in some of the hotter water. I blame the weather for the slow rise, it was 17F outside, yeah I was in the garage but the door was mostly open to keep from poisoning myself. Brrr)
Mash until conversion is complete about 1hr and 30m. Iodine test showed happy grain time.
Sparge with 180F
Sparged to 6 gallons

The Boil (60 minutes):

1.5oz US goldings 5.7AA @ 60
4oz of Penzeys dutch process (22% butter fat) coaco powder (dutch process is less bitter), I had saved a little (~1 quart) of the tail end of the wort (after having poured out a cup for the celebratory post sparge drink) and whipped that with the coaco powder to make a medium thick paste (looked like frosting)
Added 2 cups of hot wort to the coaco mix and then stirred into beer @10. Hopefully just long enough to izomerize the oils, but not long enough to kill the flavor. It took about two minutes to get back to a roiling boil, so full boil with coaco for only about 8 min.
Cooled to roughly 80F (yes it was freezing, I had to pour the saved sparge water on the drain hose to unfreeze the immersion chiller drain. The new chiller - 40' or 1/2" copper worked awesomely though, down to 80 in about 5 minutes, which is damn good even considering how cold it was out).
Pitched in 5lbs of pitted bing cherries I'd gotten from a buddy over the summer and froze for just such an occasion. I realize that this is earlier than most people add fruit, but I'm shooting for an rich cherry undertone with less of the fruity up front and based on past experiences I think the CO2 scrubbing from the primary will do what I want.

The Finish:

OG: 1.060 with cherries (stupidly I didn't take OG w/o cherries - I think I was suffering from a mix of carbon monoxide poisoning and brain freeze at this point). Either way its going to be a nice thick beer. Tastes delicions already!
Pitched yeast on Dec14 at 8:00PM

The Polish:

One vanilla bean, split open added evening of Jan 2

The Dog Cookies:

2 whole eggs (shell and all)
two medium apples chopped
one giganormous spoonful of peanut butter
blend in food processor until fully blended
6 cups spent grain
2 cups fresh ground brown rice
4 cups flour
enough "grain juice" from the bottom of the sparge vessel to make a stiff dough (may not take any)

The cooking of the cookies

Mix well, and form into deliciously shaped cookies (press into a flat and then cut with a pizza wheel works for me.
Put on a cookie sheet, leaving some space between the cookies helps them dry faster/better.
Bake in 350F oven until dry on the outside (45m-1.5 hours)
flip over
lower heat to ~250F and leave for a couple of hours until pretty dry
crack oven door open and leave to dry fully overnight
Enjoy (err I mean - the dogs will enjoy, yeah thats what I meant)

Double Play Wheat Redux

2008-12-15T19:14:00.000-08:00

Check out this clip, shot less than 18 hours fter pitching. Note: I used the olive oil method, hence no aeration, plus a little bit of yeast nutrient in addition to the Wyeast 1010 smack pack...

Double Play Wheat

2008-12-15T12:32:00.001-08:00

Info:

Brewer: Chris
Mash: hybrid cereal mash
Date: 12/15/2008
Size: 9.5 gallon post-boil

Notes:

Mash based on Ryan's Wit
To kill two birds with one stone, I made a large batch of a wheat beer... the first half fermented with a American wheat yeast and will have apricot puree added to it to make a fruit beer. The second half received a pound of Belgian blonde candi sugar and some funky Belgian yeast (read: brettanomyces)
Hops were all homegrown

Grain Bill:

Cereal Mash

3lb unmalted wheat
2lb Briess organic 2-row

Main Mash

3.5lbs red wheat malt
4.5lbs white wheat malt
6lbs Briess organic 2-row

Yeast:

The Mash:

Dough in both mashes to a protein rest
Let cereal mash sit 15 minutes
Raise cereal mash to 154F via direct heat (STIR!!)
Let cereal mash sit 30 minutes
Raise cereal mash to a boil (STIR LIKE MAD!!)
Boil cereal mash 15 minutes (STIR LIKE YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT!!)
Add cereal mash back to main mash, this should raise it to 154F, add extra water if necessary, but if you do your math right this is not needed
Mash until conversion is complete
Sparge with 180F

The Boil (90 minutes):

2.0oz Tettnanger @ 60
1.25oz Tettnanger @ 10
took half of the wort for batch #1 after 90 minutes
then added 1 pound of blonde candi sugar and boiled another 10 minutes for batch #2

The Finish:

Batch #1 OG: 1.048
Batch #2 OG: 1.058
Apricot puree will be added to batch #1 in secondary.

27A - Common Cider

2008-10-25T19:01:00.000-07:00

Info:

Brewer: Chris
Date: 10/25/2008
Type: Common Cider
Size: 5 gallons

Ingredients:

5 gallons of fresh Ryan's Cider (locally pressed)
2 tsp.yeast nutrient

Yeast:

1 pkg Wyeast 1056

.
Pretty straight forward... dumped the cider, nutrient and yeast in a 6 gallon carboy, that's about it!

TO BE CONTINUED

25B - Pyment

2008-10-18T18:52:00.000-07:00

Info:

Brewer: Chris
Date: 10/18/2008
Type: Pyment (mead made with grapes)
Size: 6 gallons

Ingredients:

1 gallon (12 pounds) clover honey
2 tsp. yeast nutrient]
20 pounds of 3 unknown varieties of wine grapes (2 red, 1 white)

Yeast:

1 pkg. Red Star Premier Cuvee yeast (starter made in advance)
1 pkg Wyeast 4366 "Distiller's M-Series"

.
I based this largly on Cindy's traditional dry mead (24A).

The fruit has been picked a few days before. It had been washed and frozen, to break them down to make the yeast's job easier.

Heated 3 gallons of water to 160F, stired in honey, let sit 15 minutes, and cooled. Moved to fermenter and pitched yeast. A few weeks later, I added the grapes and pitched in the Wyeast 4366...

TO BE CONTINUED

8C - OMGWTFESB

2008-06-09T05:33:00.000-07:00

Info:

Brewer: Chris
Mash: infusion
Date: 6/8/2008
Size: 5.25 gallon post-boil

Notes:

Recipe was originally to be the bitter from the 2008 Big Brew Day, which was called "Chiswick Bitter," but it ended up a bit different. :)

Grain Bill:

8lb Briess Organic 2-row malt
1/2lb Briess 120L crystal malt
1/2lb Briess 60L crystal malt
1/2lb Briess victory malt
1/2lb Briess CaraPils malt

Yeast:

Wyeast 1098 - British Ale ™
I meant to get 1968, whoops!

The Mash:

dough in

12qt @ 170F

settles @ 150F

rest for 75 minutes

mash out

8qt @ 212F
settles at 165F

sparge

14qt @ 180F

The Boil (90 minutes):

1.5oz Willamette (4.5aau) @ 60
1.0oz Cascade (4.0aau) @ 60 (yeah, yeah, I know, C-hops in an ESB...)
0.5oz Willamette (4.5aau) @ 15
teaspoon of Irish moss @ 15
0.5oz Yakima Goldings (4.2aau) @ 10
0.5oz Yakima Goldings (4.2aau) @ 1
Total: 47 IBU(ish)

The Finish:

OG: 1.053
To be dry hopped with 0.5oz Yakima Goldings (4.2aau) in secondary
To be dry hopped with 0.5oz Yakima Goldings (4.2aau) in keg

The Post Script:

This blog post was written beforehand, and the recipe was adjusted to reflect reality, that said, this was probably the most messed up batch I've ever done...
I looked at the mash temp, which I thought was too high. After pouring in some cold water I realized that I was reading the wrong temp scale... d'oh! Pulled some wort, heated, added it back in, got things rolling again. This added 20-30 minutes to the mash.
My burner seemed anemic, after an hour of no boil I had to tear apart the burner and put it back together. I didn't find anything, but it worked **much** better. (I mean, it'll push 150k+ BTU)
After this was done (about 11pm) I fell asleep on the couch... NEVER DO THIS!! I woke up at 4am to find a few extra gallons boiled off, joy. Luckily, I hadn't added hops yet, so I added a bunch of water, got it back to boiling, and continued as usual. Total boil was 6 hours...

6B - Sweet Blondie Ale

2008-05-04T20:16:00.000-07:00

Info:

Brewer: Chris
Mash: infusion
Date: 5/4/2008
Size: 6 gallon post-boil

Notes:

The name is a nickname for my son Noble, who has long blonde hair :)
Recipe is from the 2008 Big Brew Day, which was called "Fill in the Hop Blonde Ale," and it got filled in with Cascade because that's what I have a lot of sitting around. I also substituted crystal 20L for the aromatic because it's what I had/could find.

Grain Bill:

9lb Briess Organic 2-row malt
1/2lb Briess 20L crystal malt
1/2lb Gambrinus honey malt

Yeast:

Wyeast 1056 - American Ale™
Starter made on previous day using light DME

The Mash:

dough in

11qt @ 176F

settles @ 152F

rest for 60 minutes

mash out

8qt @ 212F
settles at 167F

sparge

14qt @ 180F

The Boil (60 minutes):

1.0oz Cascade (4.0aau) @ start of boil
teaspoon of Irish moss @ 15
0.5oz Cascade (4.0aau) @ 10
Total: 18 IBU(ish)

The Finish:

OG: 1.047
To be dry hopped with 0.5oz Cascade (4.0aau) in secondary

14B - Caution: American IPA

2008-05-03T03:02:00.000-07:00

Info:

Brewer: Chris
Mash: two step infusion
Date: 5/3/2008
Size: 6 gallon post-boil

Notes:

Yeah, I'm a hophead :P
Inspired by Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale
This was quite an interesting brewing experience, with some equipment performing excellently, and others straight out letting me down.

:( Had some problems with my grain mill, which led to low efficiency:

drill issues... including the one I borrowed
broke the hopper and housing I had built
had to crush one cup at a time using a 9.6V cordless drill and a makeshift hopper, which led to a very uneven crush

:) First brew using my new kettle, a converted Gordon Biersch keg
:) 150,000 BTU hurricane burner stood up to rain and 20 knot winds
:) Massive wort chiller kicking ass, wort was pitchable in 5 minutes.
:( Need a false bottom for keg, hose from the ball valve clogged and the auto siphon wasn't happy with the insane amount of hop material in the wort.

Grain Bill:

13lb Briess Organic 2-row malt
1/2lb Briess 20L crystal
1/2lb Briess Carapils
1/2lb Belgian Special "B"

Yeast:

Wyeast 1056 - American Ale™
Starter made on previous day using light DME

The Mash:

start

15qt @ 142F

settles @ 126F

protein rest for 30 minutes

the big show

7qt @ 212F
settles at 151F
rest for 90 minutes

sparge

10qt @ 180F

The Boil (90 minutes):

1.0oz Centennial (9.7aau) @ 60
1.5oz Cascade (4.0aau) @ 60
teaspoon of Irish moss @ 15
1.25oz Cascade (4.0aau) @ 15
0.5oz Cascade (4.0aau) @ 5
0.5oz Centennial (9.7aau) @ 5
0.25oz Cascade (4.0aau) @ lights out
Total: 67 IBU(ish)

The Finish:

OG: 1.060
To be dry hopped with 0.5oz Cascade (4.0aau) in secondary
To be dry hopped with 1.0oz Cascade (4.0aau) in keg

10A - American Pale Ale

2008-04-28T12:11:00.000-07:00

Info:

Brewer: Chris
Mash: single infusion
Date: 4/28/2008
Size: 5.25 gallon post-boil

Notes:

Essentially, this was to be a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale clone :)
This is the first brew made under the new 2008 BJCP guidelines.
It was supposed to be 10lb of 2-row, but my drill battery died.
Also, I had planned to put some Centennial in @ 15min, but forgot.
Therefore, the malt and hop info is as brewed, not as planned

Grain Bill:

9.5lb Briess Organic 2-row malt
1/2lb Briess 60L crystal

Yeast:

Wyeast 1056 - American Ale ™
Starter made on previous day using a small mash of 2-row

The Mash:

start

14qt @ 170F

settles @ 151

rest 75 minutes

mash out

6qt @ 212F
settles @ 171
rest 15 minutes

sparge

14qt @ 171F

The Boil (90 minutes):

1.0oz Centennial (9.7aau) @ 60
teaspoon of Irish moss @ 15
1.0oz Cascade (4.0aau) @ 15
0.5oz Cascade (4.0aau) @ 5
Total: 45 IBU(ish)

The Finish:

OG: 1.050
To be dry hopped with 0.5oz Cascade (4.0aau) in secondary
To be dry hopped with 0.5oz Cascade (4.0aau) in keg

Die dunklen Bieren

2008-02-24T10:36:00.000-08:00

Here's a picture of the Munich Dunkel (left) and the Doppelbock (right), after both finished primary. Their FG's were 1.015 and 1.018, respectively.

BJCP Styles Updated

2008-02-11T20:07:00.000-08:00

The BJCP released a minor update to the guidelines, details at www.bjcp.org

We'll consider our work done up until now under the 2004 guide, hereafter our efforts will be done with the 2008 version.

Update: German Pils, Marzen

2008-02-04T12:23:00.000-08:00

The German Pils is now out of secondary and into a keg for lagering. The FG was 1.018, which is high so I'm going to top it off with some distilled water to get it down to about 1.012. Volume is 4 .25 gallons.

The Marzen is beautiful! The color is spot on and it's mmmmalty, and the FG stands at 1.014. Volume is 4.75 gallons.

I'd rather be over than under :)

4B Recycled Munich Dunkel

2008-02-04T12:17:00.002-08:00

Info:

Brewer: Chris
Mash: 2-step Infusion plus residual from Doppelbock decoction
Date: 2/2/2008
Size: 6 gallon post-boil
Notes: For this mash I took a second run from my Doppelbock mash by adding a bunch of Munich and some Crystal on top of it. The Carafa II from the Doppelbock helped contribute some color, along with the residual sugars from the first mash.

Grain Bill:

7.5lb Munich malt
4oz Crystal 40L
spent grains from the Doppelbock earlier in the day

Yeast:

Wyeast 2124 - Bohemian Lager™
Starter made previously by Ryan

The Mash:

start with 12qt @ 130F for the new grains, settles at 120F
rest 40 minutes (I was busy sparging the Doppelbock)
added this mixture to the spent grains from the Doppelbock
add 9qt @ 200F, settles at 151F (w00t!)
rest 60 minutes
sparge using 180F

The Boil (90 minutes):

Volume to 28qt (7 gallons)
1.5oz Mt Hood (4.1aau) @ 60
Total: 25 IBU(ish)

The Pitch:

OG: 1.048 (on the lighter side, but to style)

5C Liquid Bread Doppelbock

2008-02-04T12:17:00.001-08:00

Info:

Brewer: Chris
Mash: 1-step Decoction plus some stepped raises
Date: 2/2/2008
Size: 6 gallon post-boil
Notes: This mash is based on the hybrid infusion/decoction that Ryan used for the SchwarzBierz. Heck, it got me 72% efficiency.

Grain Bill:

9lb Munich malt
6lb Vienna malt
3lb Pilsner malt
1lb CaraMunich I
4oz Carafa II
4oz wheat malt

Yeast:

Wyeast 2124 - Bohemian Lager ™
Starter made previously by Ryan

The Mash:

start with 1qt per lb @ 100F
rest 15 minutes
add 150F at 1/2qt per lb, settles at 126F
rest 20 minutes
decoction!

pull 10qt (about a third) that's very thick

raise to 155F
rest 20 minutes
raise to 167F
rest 20 minutes
bring to boil
boil 20 minutes

add back to mash

mash settles @ 153F
rest 60 minutes
sparge

using 180F
I had an issue with my valve on my mash tun getting clogged, thankfully Ryan and Cindy had dropped off a set of coolers early in the day. So I scooped out the mash and resettled it in a cooler with a nice stainless false bottom. Thanks guys!!!

The Boil (90 minutes):

Volume to 28qt (7 gallons)
2oz Mt Hood (4.1aau) @ 60
Total: 23 IBU(ish)

The Pitch:

OG: 1.098 (high for style, but style says 1.096+ :)

18B No Trouble Dubbel - Belgian Dubbel

2008-01-22T13:29:00.000-08:00

Ryan and Cindy came by to help brew this one, with Fritz and Crunch in tow. After two hours of being extremely cold, we moved into the shop and turned on the 240V monster heater to keep warm.

This was a mixed grain/extract batch with a very simple boil. The grain bill is a combination of several online, with some randomness thrown in to taste. I hope this batch will be as easy to drink as it was to brew!

Info:

Brewer: Gordon
Mash: Steep
Date: 1/21/2008
Size: 5 gallon post-boil

Grain Bill:

.25 pounds Crystal 10 L
1 pound Munich
1.5 pounds Belgian Biscuit
.5 Cara Vienna

Yeast:

Wyeast 1214 - Belgian Ale Yeast

The Mash:

150 degrees for 45 minutes, grain in grain bag
Gave a pretty decent pressing of the grain bag at the end, still definitely wet though

The Boil (90 minutes):

5 minutes naked boil
~ .75 oz Halletaur, 55 minutes
Added ~0.3 oz Sterling (Saaz), 5 more minutes
total 22 BUs

The Pitch:

OG: 1.070 (on style!)
Tossed it in

First month - 8 styles done.

2008-01-21T07:29:00.000-08:00

We seem to be well on our way to getting all 28 styles done. As of yesterday, we had 8 styles brewed -- over 1/4 of the way through the list in the first month.

I don't think Ryan and I will keep up this pace once we get past the strong beers. We're running out of carboys at this point, so we may need to take a break soon!

11B - Nutty Man Brown Ale

2008-01-20T21:14:00.000-08:00

Another 2 beer day for Ryan and me. Not as long of a day since this was from extract.

This is a Southern English Nut Brown. This is not a common style; most nut browns are Northern English. This will be a dark, sweet, low-alcohol beer.

The recipe is adapted from a recipe in Brewing Classic Styles. I subsituted 4 lbs DME for 5 lbs LME, and substituted 4 oz Chocolate + 4 oz Crystal 40 for 6 oz of Pale Chocolate.

Ingredients:

4 lbs Extra Light DME
1 lb Crystal 80 L
10 oz Crystal 120 L
.5 lb Special Roast
4 oz Chocolate Malt
3 oz Crystal 40
4 oz Carafa II
.8 oz US Goldings
Nottingham Dry Yeast

Stepped grains for 45 minutes at 150 degrees F. Added DME, hops. Boiled 60 min.
Pitched yeast starter. Fermenting in the house at around 68 degrees F.

OG: 1.045 (recipe has said 1.041). Slightly high for style.
Color: recipe said would be 26 SRM. Very dark - almost purple.
IBU: 17

4C SchwarzBier - is that a pils in my stout?

2008-01-20T21:04:00.000-08:00

I like things that are surprising and a little bit different than expected. This is a good example of that, a good schwarzbier is basically a dark pilsner. Its certainly dark, hopefully its also delicious.

Schwarzbier (4C)
Based on the Köstritzer clone from "Brewing Classic Styles" Zainasheff and Palmer with a little inspiration from a recipe from the Weyermann site.

Info:

Brewer: Ryan
Mash: 1-step Decoction plus some hot water stepped raises
Date: 1/18/2008
Size: 5 gallon post-boil

Grain Bill:

8.0lb weyerman pilsner malt
2.0lb Munich
8 oz dextrin
8 oz carafa II (added after decoction)

Yeast:

Wyeast 2007 - Pilsen Lager ™ This was some yeast Chris had saved over for me from his pilsner batch
Starter (or maybe a booster since it was already a pretty nice yeast cake) made on previous day with light DME

The Mash:

Set Carafa aside for now
Dough in with 1 quart per pound of 98F water to 95
rest 15 minutes
add 150F to 126F (roughly 1/2 quart per pound)
rest 20 minutes
Decoction
removed 6.5 quarts of thick part of mash, raised to 156 over 15 minutes
rest decoction 15 minutes
raise to 167 over 15 minutes
rest 15 minutes
bring to boil over 15 minutes
add carafa II to main mash, this was left out of the mash before the decoction to try and keep a clean flavor profile (less roast) but added after to the main mash so we can get all the color.
boil for 20 minutes
return decoction to main mash, only hit 140
rested at 140 for 25 minutes (only had one burner today so I'm heating water right now)
added 190F water to 150F
rest 20 minutes
add 190 water to 167F rest 20 minutes
sparge with 180 F water

The Boil (90 minutes):

30 minutes naked boil
1.5 oz Mt Hood (4.1aau) @ 60 (21 BUs)
0.75 oz Mt Hood (4.1aau) @ 15 (6.5 BUs)
total 26-27 BUs

The Pitch:

OG: 1.054 (a smidge high for style, but not crazily so)
Pitched yeast

16A Wit Guy White Ale

2008-01-14T20:47:00.000-08:00

WitBier (1D)
Based on from "Wit Guy White Ale" from "Radical Brewing" Mosher.

This batch was started right before the sparge of the Munich Helles. Fortunately Gordon and Tarra came over and were able to help out with stirring, and Cindy took over the Helles boil.

Info:

Brewer: Ryan
Mash: 2 part adjunct mash
Date: 1/13/2008
Size: 5 gallons post-boil

Grain Bill:

Adjunct Mash
3.0lb unmalted wheat (ground to coarse grist in my hand flour mill)
2.5lb 2 row pale
1.0lb rolled quick oats

Malt Mash
3.0lb 2 row weyerman pilsner
1.0lb munich
1.0lb rice hulls

Yeast:

Safbrew WB-06 dry wheat yeast
Starter made a couple of hours before pitching with a little corn sugar and a pinch of yeast nutrient.

The Boil (90 minutes):

20 minutes naked boil (the wort not the players)
1.2 oz Mt Hood (4.1aau) @ 60
0.5oz Mt Hood (4.1aau) @ 5
peel from two mandarin oranges, .5 oz crushed coriander and the "mystery spice" (red peppercorns .2 oz) crushed and added @ 5 (left in primary)
Total: 20 IBU

The Pitch:

OG: 1.052
Pitched yeast, full krausen in <>

1D Helles Bels

2008-01-14T20:14:00.000-08:00

Munich Helles (1D)
Based on Munchen Grobes Bier from "Brewing Classic Styles" Zainasheff and Palmer.

Info:

Brewer: Ryan
Mash: 2-step Decoction
Date: 1/13/2008
Size: 5 (and a bit) gallon post-boil

Grain Bill:

This is a bit lower than the recipe called for based on my previous experience with the Czech Pils. In retrospect I might have been getting higher efficiency because of the 10 gallon batch (the full 3 stage decoction probably didn't hurt either) because I was a little on the low side on this one - a little below style. Oh well.

8.9lb weyerman pilsner malt
0.7lb Munich

Yeast:

Wyeast 2308 - Munich Lager ™
Starter made on previous day with light DME
and (through fault of my own) 3944 - Belgian Witbier™
Starter made on previous day with light DME

The Mash:

Mash schedule based on "German 2-Mash Decoction" in "The Brewers Companion" by Randy Mosher

strike (acid rest)

Added 150F water plus 2 quarts cold to hit 98F (1qt/lb total)
rest 15 minute

Protein rest

Added 150F water to 125F (0.5qt/lb)
rest 30 minutes

First decoction

thick 1/3 of mash removed
raise to 156F over 12 minutes
rest 20 minutes
raise to boil over 20 minutes
immediately return to main mash (we don't want the color here, just the malt)
adjust to 150F
rest 25 minutes

Second decoction

Remove thin 1/2
raise to boil over 20 minutes
immediately return to mash
rest 30 minutes

Sparge @180F

Right before the sparge we started the witt bier since apparently I have the sense of a snail and don't know when I should just slow the hell down. Ironically I was doing the witt because I had the yeast (why thats ironic will become apparent below - read on)

The Boil (90 minutes):

30 minutes naked boil (the wort not the players)
1.1oz Mt Hood (4.1aau) @ 60
Total: 18 IBU(ish)

The Pitch:

OG: 1.040 (low but close, we'll call it good enough - I knew it was a smidge low preboil, but figured I'd rather not risk changing the color/flavor profile by adding DME to adjust).
Pitched 3944 Witt Beer starter
Realized mistake
Cindy made a new quick starter from some dry wheat beer yeast (see next blog post) while I
pitched 2308 Munich Lager (sigh)

I think this may be ok, the wheat yeast is a low ester, and I'm fermenting it pretty cold so I'm hoping the lager yeast out competes. It had a nice big krausen by the next morning so its fermenting anyway. I was originally going to call this To Helles and back, but given this screwup I decided to change the name. How will it turn out? Well we'll find out I guess.

3B - Marzen

2008-01-13T15:21:00.000-08:00

Info:

Brewer: Chris
Mash: 2-step Decoction
Date: 1/13/2008
Size: 6 gallon post-boil
Note: I'm not as insane and/or anal as Ryan :)
Note: I'm still without a hydrometer, so no OG measurement :(

Grain Bill:

6lb vienna malt
2lb munich malt
2lb pilsner malt
1lb cara vienna

Yeast:

Wyeast 2308 - Munich Lager ™
Starter made on previous day by Ryan with light DME

The Mash:

start

16qt @140
settles @127
rest 20 minutes

first decoction

pull 1/3

heat to 160, rest 25 minutes
then boil 25 minutes

add back to mash

settles @148, rest 25 minutes

second decoction

pull 1/4

boil 20 minutes

add back to mash

settles @160, rest 50 minutes

sparge

8qt @170

The Boil (80 minutes):

Add 4qt to bring volume to 28qt (7 gallons)
1.5oz Mt Hood (4.1aau) @ 60
0.5oz Mt Hood (4.1aau) @ 15
Total: 27 IBU(ish)

Background...

2008-01-02T06:39:00.000-08:00

So, Ryan had the idea to become a certified beer judge, and shared the idea with a few fellow beer drinkers, which we of course jumped at. Part of studying for the test is knowing all the various styles and sub-styles inside and out. Somehow in a BJCP discussion, the notion of brewing all 28 styles came up as a way to study.

We all agreed.

After a few bulk grain, hop, and corny keg purchases, we were itching to go. The initial idea was to do all the brews in 2008, but brewers will be brewers... So we started anyways, using the pagan calendar and the the Winter Solstice the commence our endeavor. Given that in the first two weeks we've covered three styles plus an extra sub-style, the sky is the limit!

Check back periodically to see our progress. We'll be posting recipes and tips, as well as our trials and tribulations. Cheers!

26A - Metheglin (spiced mead)

2008-01-01T10:41:00.000-08:00

Ryan made a yummy honey liquer, krupnikas, a couple of months ago. I'm trying to replicate that flavor in this spiced mead.

Ingredients:

60 grams dried mandarin peel (4 mandarin peels)
15 grams lemon peel (1 lemon)
4 cinnamon sticks, broken in half
8 cardamon pods, lightly crushed
7 whole cloves
1.5 nutmeg nuts, crushed
3/4 tsp. white pepper, lightly crushed
3/4 tsp. black pepper, lightly crushed
1 oz. ginger, peeled and sliced
1 gallon (12 pounds) wildflower honey from Millers Honey
Yeast starter with Red Start Premier Cuvee yeast and yeast nutrient
1/2 gallon (6 pounds) clover honey from Costco

Simmer the dry spices in 1.5 quart of water until fragrant. Add ginger, simmer 5 more minutes, put aside.

I had a yeast starter I made a couple of days ago from the yeast residue from my last batch of mead. I took that out of the fridge to warm up.

Bring 4 gallons of water to 180 degrees. Turn off water. Add honeys and spice mixture. Stir. Let it cool down to 70 degrees, pitch the yeast.

OG - 1.103 (the floating thermometer was floating horizontally on top!). This is right near the top of the range for a standard mead - 1.120 would be a sack mead.
FG - I'm shooting for a semi-dry - 1.010 range.

This is probably going to be very slow - probably a couple of years before it is drinkable.

This should be very different than the other mead - the orange blossom is very light and delicate, while this is very dark, rich, and spicy. I plan on making the orange blossom as dry as I can make it and sparkling, while this one I'll try to leave a little sweet and probably do still. They should be interested to compare to each other.

24A - Traditional Dry Mead

2008-01-01T10:24:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago I made a traditional mead

Ingredients:

1gallon (12 pounds) orange blossom honey
1 pkg. Red Star Premier Cuvee yeast
1 tsp. yeast nutrient
4.5 gallons of water

This was my first batch of mead.

I made a starter a couple of hours ahead of time with the dry yeast, about a quart of water, and a teaspoon of yeast nutrient.

There seem to be varying ideas on the best way to make mead - some people boil the batch, some heat it to 160 degrees to pasteurize it, and some people don't heat at all (and somethings sulfite to kill any wild yeasts). I took the middle approach.

I heated about 3 gallons of the water to 180 degrees F and took it off the heat. I stirred in the honey and let it sit for 15 minutes. I cooled the batch to about 80 degrees, poured it into the primary, and pitched the yeast starter.

It took about 36 hours to be really active. Five days later I moved it to the secondary and saved the yeast sludge at the bottom to use as a starter for my next batch of mead.

I forgot to get the OG, but it should be about 1.085 based on the amount of honey which is at the very bottom of the OG range of a standard strength mead - any weaker and it would be a hydromel. I'm aiming for a dry mead, so my FG should be under 1.000 - maybe as low as .990. I'm probably going to do this as a sparkling, but it will be a couple more months before it is ready to bottle, and it probably won't be ready to drink until the end of the year.

2B - I Like Pain Pils (10 Gallons)

2007-12-31T22:26:00.000-08:00

Bohemian Pils (2B)
Based on Bohemian Pilsner from "Brewing Classic Styles" Zainasheff and Palmer.

Pils Pils everywhere a pils. Everyone is apparently doing a pilsner, so in order to make it interesting I decided to do something a little more insane just to see if there was any difference.

Ignoring (or perhaps spurning) reality I decided to do a full three decoction mash pilsner. As everyone (except most AHA finalists who apparently don't care about tradition and only want good beer) knows, you need to do a full three stage decoction with undermodified pilsner malt to get a true czech style pils. So thats what I set out to do (with more than a little help from cindy, who was brewing a mead at the same time).

Starter
You have to have a good start, if you get far enough ahead they'll never catch up. Same thing is true with yeast., especially with a low temp fermentation like a pilsner. So the first thing we did was, about a week ahead of time, started up a mini brew to grow some more yeast.

Sun Dec 23

0.75 gallons of thin DME wort (20 minute boil, no hops) 1.040 OG
Pitched one smack pack Wyeast 2278
Let ferment out for 3 days at 68F
Not having a stir plate (yet, I'm busy, give it a rest) I opted for the "shake it like hell everytime you think about it" method. This got me about 5X growth (rough measurement from the outside) which is pretty good.

Wed Dec 26

refrigerated to let settle. This yeast flocculates like you wouldn't believe, that crap was so stuck on the bottom that I had to pry it off with a spoon handle when I was ready to pitch.

Brew Day
Monday Dec 31, let the brewing commence

Ingredients

24lbs of Weyermann Pilsner
1.5lbs of Dextrin

2.0oz 6.0AA Sterling 60 minutes
0.25oz 7.8AA Sterling 60 minutes 21 IBU's (combined)
2.0oz 6.0AA Mt Hood 30 minutes 15 IBU's (Yeah I know, but sterling are expensive nowdays)
2.0oz 7.8AA Sterling 10 minutes 12.3 IBU's
1.7oz 7.8AA Sterling 0 minutes 0 IBU's
Total 47-48 IBU's. Maybe a little high for style (35-45), but then so was my gravity so it should all work out. I'll just call it an export style :)

Target OG 1.054
Actual OG 1.067 This was only 75% efficiency, not crazy for a triple decoction.
I guess I need to trust reputable authors less, they were figuring only 60% efficiency,
now thats crazy!

Doughed in with 5 gallons of cold water
15 minute rest
added enough 150F water to bring to 95F
15 minute rest
First Decoction

Pulled 3 gallons (thick 1/3 of mash) to small boil pot
heated to 144F over 10 minutes
15 minute rest
heated to 167 over 10 minutes
10 minute rest
heated to boil over 12 minutes
boiled for 30 minutes
11 minutes in I catch on fire- fuck fuck OW! (some more swearing and bit of slapping, disaster averted with only minor leg hair loss) Don't stand so close when stirring if you have frayed jeans, lesson learned

Mix back in, protein rest 127 dropping to 125
rest 15 minutes
Second Decotion

removed thick 1/3 of mash to small boil pot
raised to 167 over 15 minutes
rest 10 minutes
raise to boiling over 15 minutes
boil 30 minutes

mix back into main mash, 152F (added 2 qts cold water to hit target)
Rest 10 minutes
Mash PH at 5.8, which is ok I guess, I'd prefer a bit lower, but onward, we're at step three now and there is no turning back
Third Decoction

remove thick 1/3 of mash (a lot harder to dig that up now than in step one)
raise to 167 over 10 minutes
stand 20 minutes
raise to boil over 10 minutes
boil 20 minutes

add back to mash, target of 167F for mash out (plus or minus accuracy of crappy thermometer)
Planned on mash out of 30 minutes, actually takes 52 because the damn sparge water
just will not get to 180F. Stainless Steel I love/hate you, you are so slow to warm up.

Still with me? Good cause I'm damn tired by this time, its been about 6 hours since I ground the malt, most of it spent standing over a hot burner stirring boiling or near boiling mash and I still have a 90 minute boil ahead of me. You just have a couple more sentences. Stick in there, I made it and am still (mostly) alive.

Oh did I mention, we haven't sparged yet. Yeah the water is finally hot. Sparged with 180F water. The mash stuck (twice), I never have stuck mashes (but then I never do decoctions either, maybe there is something to the theory of separate mash and lauter tuns... have to try that next time). It finally flowed cleanly after I rousted the hell out of it the second time. Anyway another 45+ minutes goes by and we're all mashed out around 12 gallons.

Initial 30 minute boil, no hops just cutting volume and DMS. Hooray for sitting around doing nothing. Added hops according to schedule, overall an uneventful boil. Used my good old trusty immersion chiller and dropped temperature to 73F. Volume was a little low (9.5 gallons) after boil (lots of heat) and gravity was a little high (1.07) so I added 1 gallon of cold water to bring to 10.5 gallons, took final gravity pitches yeast and had a home brew (actually I spent another hour and a half cleaning up then had a home brew, but you get the spirit).

Stay tuned to follow this beer through fermentation and consummation (some would say consumption, but after the amount of energy I've put into it, it had better be good enough to make me have some sort of higher experience).

2A - German Pilsner (Pils)

2007-12-31T15:23:00.000-08:00

Info:

Brewer: Chris
Mash: 3-step Infusion
Date: 12/30/2007
Size: 5.5 gallons after boil
Note: I'm not as insane and/or anal as Ryan :)

Grain Bill:

10lb pilsner malt (~1L)
.5lb munich malt (~5L)
.25lb cara vienna malt (~10L)

Yeast:

Wyeast 2007 - Pilsen Lager™
Starter made on previous day with pilsner DME

The Mash:

11qt@115 to start (105', acid rest)
4qt@212 after 15 minutes (138', protein rest)
6qt@212 after 35 minutes (150' our feature presentation)
7qt@160 after 75 minutes (158', the sparge)

The Boil (75 minutes):

1.5oz Perle (7.8aau) @ 60
1.0oz Tettnanger (4.0aau) @ 15
0.5oz Tettnanger (4.oaau) @ 10
.25oz Perle (7.8aau) @ finish
Total: 40 IBU(ish)