the Post Mortem

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

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/-

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

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

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

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

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

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

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:

• Wyeast 1010 - American Wheat™
• Wyeast 3278 - Belgian Lambic Blend™

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.