Merry Festivus

It's Festivus time again, the grievances have been aired, and not it's time for this year's Feats of Strength.

Appearance: A deep red with a thick and creamy white head that hangs around for a few minutes. This is exactly what I'm looking for in a holiday ale - dark but not too dark and oh so inviting.


Aroma: Malty and slightly spicy. A small amount of banana, oranges, and black pepper are detectable. Not an overwhelming aroma with very little hop which is entirely old world British and spicy.


Taste: A little bit too bitter without enough malt to balance. Also a bit tannic; it seems I may have added the spices a little early. It's not too bad, just a little off. The complexity of spices is a bit overwhelming and it's tough to pick anything out. I think I need to adjust the spice bill again, maybe less coriander and a little more on the sweeter spices like clove. I may even add some juniper berries next time.


Mouthfeel: A little watery and thin for a holiday ale. The conversion to all grain needs some adjustment. Probably a higher OG and a hotter mash.


Impression: Overall, not too bad but not great. The conversion to all grain didn't quite hit the mark and the spices were a little muddy. I'd give it a B- and I'll sit on a few bottles to see how they age. I've got some ideas for adjustments next year and that's half the fun; changing the beer a little every year and watching it evolve.

As of yet unnamed coffee porter

First order of business...this still doesn't have a name and I'm open to suggestions!

Second order of business, it has been tasted. I actually had some last weekend but I didn't take pictures, etc. so I'm just writing up the tasting notes now. In short; fantastic!

Appearance: A nice pour in an English pint glass. A thick, slightly caramel head lingered for quite a while. My initial pour in an American style pint glass saw the head fade quickly and I expect it either needed a little more age or the glassware was to blame. The color is quite dark but when held to the light takes on a wonderful deep mahogany.


Aroma: Roasty and malty with a mild, pleasant coffee aroma. There's a slight spice likely from the hops but it is barely detectable.


Taste: Malty flavors mix well with a extremely smooth coffee undertones. The balanced bitterness is definitely a coffee dominated bitterness with just enough hops to hold back much sweetness. There's some nice chocolate in the finish after the roasty flavors settle down.

Mouthfeel: Nice body but not syrupy. It holds well on the palette when swished around.

Impression: An absolutely fabulous beer. Some folks have said this is my best beer to date. I'd say it's on par with the citra pale ale. The cold brewed, lighter roasted coffee was certainly the right decision. I'd brew up a keg of this and drink it all winter long.

Brewing again

Last weekend I decided to brew another batch. Jenn has been wanting to try an as of yet unnamed coffee porter so I worked up a recipe and we'll see how it goes. The brew day was pretty uneventful except I was in the process of making a lasagna as well so there was a lot of running up an down stairs.

The interesting part of this brew is the coffee. I've read a number of articles and posts about brewing with coffee, some with conflicting suggestions. I ended up using some Dunkin Donuts coffee I had around the house. It's a medium roast and one of the fairly consistent suggestions I've seen is to use a lighter roast since the darker beans tend to shed more oil which can effect head retention.

How to add the coffee seems to be the biggest point of discussion. I decided to cold brew the coffee and add it at the end of the boil. I put about 6 tablespoons of grounds in a container and added cold water to about 2 cups. I refrigerated for about 2 days. The hope is that the cold brewing will minimize the bitterness in the coffee.

I filtered the coffee and added it to the end of the boil, just long enough to sterilize. The rest of the boil was a pretty typical porter. English pale malts, some crystal malts, and some chocolate malt. An ounce of Northern Brewer for bitterness and no additional hops since I don't want to over bitter and I want the coffee and malt flavors at the forefront. The malt bill is a little odd since I wanted to use up some leftover grains I had laying around, thus there's standard UK 2-row and Maris Otter as well as multiple kinds of crystal.

I racked to secondary today and the gravity was at 1.013 which is a little lower than the estimate. Either the yeast was particularly good this go around or I could have mashed a little higher to get more dextrins. The flavor is pretty good for a non-carbonated state. I'll secondary for a little while to let it clarify a little more before I bottle. I'll probably bottle the same time as the Festivus Feats of Strength.

Coffee Porter

Brown Porter

 

Type: All Grain	Date: 10/23/2010
Batch Size: 5.00 gal	Brewer: Trevor
Boil Size: 6.41 gal	Asst Brewer: Jenn
Boil Time: 60 min	Equipment: Brew Pot (7.5 gal) and Cooler (48 qt)
Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0	Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00
Taste Notes:
Ingredients
Amount Item Type % or IBU 5 lbs 4.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 56.57 % 1 lbs 5.3 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 14.33 % 15.2 oz Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 10.24 % 12.6 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 8.51 % 10.1 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 6.79 % 5.3 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 3.56 % 1.00 oz Northern Brewer [8.00 %] (60 min) Hops 29.6 IBU 0.25 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc 8.00 tbsp Coffee (cold brewed) (Boil 5.0 min) Misc 1 Pkgs English Ale (White Labs #WLP002) [Starter 35 ml] Yeast-Ale
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.049 SG	Measured Original Gravity: 1.049 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.016 SG	Measured Final Gravity: 1.013 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.30 %	Actual Alcohol by Vol: 4.69 %
Bitterness: 29.6 IBU	Calories: 218 cal/pint
Est Color: 28.7 SRM	Color: Color
Mash Profile
Mash Name: Single Infusion, Full Body	Total Grain Weight: 9.28 lb
Sparge Water: 3.71 gal	Grain Temperature: 72.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F	TunTemperature: 72.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE	Mash PH: 5.4 PH
Single Infusion, Full Body Step Time Name Description Step Temp 45 min Mash In Add 11.60 qt of water at 168.2 F 156.0 F 10 min Mash Out Add 4.64 qt of water at 202.4 F 168.0 F
Mash Notes: Simple single infusion mash for use with most modern well modified grains (about 95% of the time).
Carbonation and Storage
Carbonation Type: Corn Sugar	Volumes of CO2: 2.4
Pressure/Weight: 3.8 oz	Carbonation Used: -
Keg/Bottling Temperature: 60.0 F	Age for: 28.0 days
Storage Temperature: 52.0 F
Notes
Hit OG on the mark, no major problems with the brew day. A little under mark for volume. 10/28/10: Moved to secondary, gravity is 1.013
Created with BeerSmith

Festivus Feats of Strength

Brewed the first of the all-grain FFOS yesterday. It was a great day to be out brewing and I had help from Brent (as usual) and a couple of 2nd assistant brewers/observers. Mostly stuck to the recipe with a couple of minor changes. The hops were both US instead of UK grown and the Goldings was 4.5% but I didn't adjust the amounts since these were short boil hops so the IBUs shouldn't change by more than a point or two. I added the spices and final hops at flame out instead of 5 minutes to prevent the spices from going bitter. Hop additions were slightly higher; I used two 1oz bags of fuggles which weighed in about 2.1oz or so and the second Goldings addition was about 0.55oz but again, this shouldn't make much difference.

The mash went quite well, a little stuck during the initial sparge but the second sparge batch went well, perhaps a little too fast as my efficiency was a bit low. Once I hit a boil, there was a little boil over but not a lot lost although it kept threatening to go over again. This led to frequent spraying to keep the head under control. I ended up with more liquid than expected and a lower OG. Extraction efficiency and the boil water additions led to an OG of 1.048 but the wort didn't taste over hopped or over spiced so I stuck with that instead of adding DME to up the gravity.

The extra water and the 2 quart starter brought the wort level right to the top of my carboy. Instead of transferring again to the 6 gallon I setup a blow off tube and pitched at about 78°F. Unlike BP, my device worked as designed as there was about 1/2 cup of blow off in the growler this morning. There's a solid primary going at about 71°F. I'm expecting it to drop about 5° tonight both of which are good for the WLP005.

I was planning about a week in the primary but there's quite a bit of trub in there, coupled with a healthy fermentation, I might be racking on Thursday. I'll edit and update this post when it goes over to the secondary where it'll sit for a couple of weeks, maybe even a month before going into bottles until Christmas.

Preparing for this year's FFoS

It's time again to brew my holiday ale, Festivus Feats of Strength. I started this beer quite a few years ago when I was an extract brewer and have continued the same recipe. This year I've decided to reformulate as an all grain. I've got two assignments for my readers.

1. Give me some thoughts on the recipe design over the next couple of days. Post comments, positive or negative.
2. Brew along with me. I'm planning on brewing this weekend. It will likely be Sunday, starting in the late morning. If you don't do all grain, comment and I'll post the extract version.

Without further ado, here's the recipe. BeeSmith/BeerXML available on request.

Type: All Grain	Date: 12/9/2006
Batch Size: 5.00 gal	Brewer: Trevor
Boil Size: 4.08 gal	Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min	Equipment: Brew Pot (5 Gallon)
Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0	Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00
Taste Notes:
Ingredients
Amount Item Type % or IBU 9 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 78.26 % 1 lbs 8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 13.04 % 8.0 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 4.35 % 2.00 oz Fuggles [4.20 %] (60 min) Hops 22.4 IBU 0.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [4.20 %] (30 min) Hops 4.3 IBU 0.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [4.20 %] (15 min) Hops 2.8 IBU 0.25 tsp Nutmeg (Boil 5.0 min) Misc 1.00 tsp Coriander Seed (Boil 5.0 min) Misc 1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc 2.00 items Cinnamon Stick (Boil 5.0 min) Misc 6.00 items Clove (Boil 5.0 min) Misc 10.00 items Allspice Berry (Boil 5.0 min) Misc 12.00 items Cardomom Pods (Boil 5.0 min) Misc 8.0 oz Honey (1.0 SRM) Sugar 4.35 % 1 Pkgs British Ale (White Labs #WLP005) [Starter 1600 ml] Yeast-Ale
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.064 SG	Measured Original Gravity: 1.046 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.018 SG	Measured Final Gravity: 1.012 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.04 %	Actual Alcohol by Vol: 4.43 %
Bitterness: 29.5 IBU	Calories: 203 cal/pint
Est Color: 26.0 SRM	Color: Color
Mash Profile
Mash Name: Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge	Total Grain Weight: 11.00 lb
Sparge Water: 2.21 gal	Grain Temperature: 72.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F	TunTemperature: 72.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE	Mash PH: 5.4 PH
Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge Step Time Name Description Step Temp 45 min Mash In Add 13.75 qt of water at 170.5 F 158.0 F
Mash Notes: Simple single infusion mash for use with most modern well modified grains (about 95% of the time).
Carbonation and Storage
Carbonation Type: Corn Sugar	Volumes of CO2: 2.3
Pressure/Weight: 3.5 oz	Carbonation Used: -
Keg/Bottling Temperature: 60.0 F	Age for: 84.0 days
Storage Temperature: 52.0 F

Brewery Ommegang Tasting

All the beers

I was lucky enough to get tickets to the Brewery Ommegang tasting at The Pub last night. Along with some old favories like Duvel, Rare Vos, Hennepin, and Three Philosophers I got to try a few beers I haven't had before.

Bière De Mars

Although I've tasted Ommegedon, I've never had Brewery Ommegang's other bret offering, Bièr de Mars. I found this to be more balanced that Ommegedon with a stronger bret flavor and a slight sour note to balance. I suspect the Ommegedon had not sufficiently aged and the brewery representative verified this when he pointed out they had been having trouble getting the aging right. Overall a good beer. Not the best funky farmhouse ale I've had but I'd drink it again.

Triple Perfection

One of the limited release beers on hand was Brewery Ommegang's first foray into triples. The six bottles at the tasting were the only ones available in southwest Ohio so it was great to have the opportunity to try it. A very nice triple with a warm fusel finish. Fairly hoppy with some nice malt notes. Quite light on the esters which is a shame as I would have preferred a little more banana note in this beer. Overall it was quite tasty. I don't suspect I'll get another one unless it moves into full production but I would drink it again if the price was right.

 

Three Philosophers

I had to mention the Three Philosophers as it is always in my top 5 favorite beers and frequently makes number 1 on the list. It did not disappoint. I think this is one of the most unique and tastiest beers on the commercial market and at a retail of about $8 for a 750ml, it's a great value. The brewery representative said he prefers it aged further and recently tried a 2005 which he believes is the best beer they've made so far.

Zuur

A the Zuur. Another limited release with only one case making it to this part of Ohio. This is quite possibly the best commercial sour beer I've ever had. Brewery Ommegang continues it's tradition of making unique but unquestionably Belgian beers. This one is a blend of a sour Flemish brown ale and a kriek style sour ale. The acidity is bright and pleasant but without overwhelming. The cherry sits in the background where it belongs, lending a nice fruit flavor without contributing any sweetness like you would see in a lambic which had cherry syrup added. The malt takes the edge off the sour and the hop is barely noticeable. This is a sour beer for the uninitiated and the sour beer fanatic alike. One of the waitresses serving at the event tried all the beers even though she pointed out that she does not like beer. She loved the Zuur. Everyone should get some of this if they can. I believe the brewery is currently sold out but some of you in NY might find this at your local store and you should definitely buy a bottle or two. I hope this gets re-released or becomes part of their regular offerings.

A great time with great beer and great people. It was a small enough even where I got to spend quite a bit of time talking to the brewery rep and the local distributor. Thanks for hosting a great event!

Citra Pale Ale tasting

It's finally time for the first citra pale ale tasting. It's only been a week since bottling but it's been warm so I expected adequate carbonation. I forgot to take pictures of the pour so I'll update this post next time I open a bottle.

Citra Pale Ale
Appearance: A slightly brownish amber, a little darker than I would have liked by about 5 SRM. Quite clear but not exactly crystal. The head poured fairly large but quickly fell to a quarter inch and stayed there for the remainder of the session.


Aroma: Definitely and American hop beer. A blast of citrus is the immediate impression. Not really a defined citrus fruit, just a brightness that hints at some acidity. Pineapple is also quite prevalent as I expected from what I've read about citra. There is a slightly spicy not in the background but it is barely noticeable. I'm also getting some hints of honey in the back of the nose.

Taste: Hoppy not but overly so; distinctly a pale ale and not an IPA. It's a pleasant hop with most of the same citrus and honey notes in the back of the palette. The spice is a little more prevalent however. There's a slight sweetness but it isn't overly malty. The biscuit flavor that was so strong when flat has fallen to the background. It is still quite noticeable after the flavor fades off the front palette but it doesn't dominate.

Mouthfeel: A fairly light to medium bodied beer, perfect for a warm August night  with some burgers and salad. Carbonation is a bit low but that's expected after only a week. I suspect in a couple more it will be pickley and above average which is right where I'd like it.

Drinkability:  Light and refreshing, this beer teases with a pleasant sweetness but isn't overly malty or sugary. Much like a good martini contains just enough vermouth to acknowledge the existence of France, there's enough of the pineapple and honey aroma to trigger a desire for desert without substituting for it.

New mash tun

I decided my next piece of brewing equipment would be a new mash tun so I started looking around for a good price on an appropriate vessel. I found a new 10 gallon rectangular chest cooler for $20 last week so I picked it up and started the build on Saturday.

I wasn't quite sure what design I wanted but this was definitely going to double as a lauter tun so I needed some sort of filtration system. Rectangular false bottoms are tough to find and fairly expensive so that was out. I originally headed to Lowes figuring I'd use a steel braided hose for filtration but after I got there I decided to build a PVC manifold instead.

I grabbed some 3/4" PVC pipe, 4 corners, 1 T, and a cross adapter for the manifold. I built an exterior rectangle with an output tube down the center. This fit almost exactly through the hole in the cooler and perfectly matched the interior size of the gasket that came with the cooler so I reused the gasket and used some Gorilla glue to seal, support, and insulate the PVC. This design seems to be pretty water tight. Although it is not as mechanically stable as I would like it saved me a bunch on the bulkhead so I think I'll stick with it for now and see how it holds up.

I drilled a bunch of 1/8" holes in the top and sides of the manifold for filtration. I ended up with a stuck sparge a couple of times so I might need to widen them a little bit next time.

An inline ball value connects to the output PVC and a 90 degree plastic PEX barb is a perfect attachment for a plastic hose and is easy to unscrew for cleaning.

I let everything cure overnight and brewed my first batch on Sunday, a citra pale ale. I calculated my efficiency and figure I hit about 80%. My collection volume was a ballpark estimate so this could go a few percent either direction but even low balling at 75% is pretty good for a batch sparge. It was reasonably easy to clean and can double as a chilling vessel if I need to drop wort temperature down really low for lager brewing. Overall I'm pretty happy with the new tun and at about $50 it was a real bargain.

Citra Pale Ale

I was looking to brew something that will be ready in time for late summer drinking and I've been intrigued by the review of citra hops so I figured I'd give them a shot. Another ingredient I've wanted to try is Canadian honey malt. Seemed like a the honey malt would go well with the fruity pineapple of the citra. Pair it with some American hop flavor and you've got an interesting American pale ale.

At the same time, I've been meaning to build a new mash tun so Brent and I set out on a weekend of beer. I'll make another post about the mash tun but here's the recipe for the citra pale ale.

Size: 5 gallons
OG: 1.040
Estimate FG: 1.011
Estimated Color: 8.1 SRM
Estimated IBU: 42.5 IBU
Est. ABV: 4.67%

8 lbs American 6-row pale malt
0.5 lbs 60L crystal
0.5 lbs honey malt

Single infusion at 150F for 75 minutes. Mashed out at 168 with a double batch sparge. Ended up with about 7 gallons of wort.

We did a 60 minute boil with the following hop schedule and 1tsp of irish moss at 15 minutes.

0.5 oz nugget (13.8%) for 6o minutes
0.25 oz fuggles whole (4.0%) for 30 minutes
0.25 oz citra (12.3%) for 30 minutes
0.25 oz amarillo (7.2%) for 30 minutes
0.3 oz fuggles whole at flame out
0.5 oz amarilla at flame out
0.75 oz citra at flame out

Chilled down to pitching temperature and added a 1.5 liter starter with SafAle US-05. Had to add about a liter of extra water to pull up to a fermentation volume of 5 gallons.

Some fermentation was already happening a two or three hours after we put it in the primary. Planning a secondary in a few days so we're using a plastic bucket for the primary.

Efficiency was pretty good on the new mash tun, about 80%. There was a bit of a stuck sparge so I might need to open the holes in the manifold a bit.


22 July 2010 Update
Racked to secondary today. Fermentation was around 70-72F and down to 68F at racking time. A gravity reading was at 1.003 which is lower than I expected but I hadn't used US-05 before. Clarity was good and the nose had a nice pineapple and citrus edge. Flavor was pretty good; a little bready but this will likely fade with some carbonation. I plan to leave it a few days to a week for the remaining protein and yeast to drop out then I'll bottle for a couple of weeks.

2 August 2010 Update
Bottled today after a week and a half at 68-70F. Gravity still at 1.003-1.004. The color is a little darker than I hoped for, more an amber brown, but still good. Flavor is quite bready with a pleasant citrus hop aroma. The hop is fairly week but that's to be expected with no carbonation. I mixed with 4.3oz of corn sugar, going for a fairly well carbonated finished product to lighten it up a bit.We bottled five 6-packs and four 1L flip tops. I expect it'll take a couple of weeks to get a good carbonation going but I'll probably pop a tester next weekend just to check on the progress. When I taste expect a new post with a full report.

Next beer experiment

I've started thinking about my next brew and what it should be. I've been really wanting to try a sour beer, especially since A Dry Wit has developed a slight citrus sourness which I find quite pleasant. I've never brewed any of the traditional sour styles but I've always been intrigued by berlinerweiss so I'm thinking of running off a small batch (maybe a couple of gallons).


Of course, this means recipe design and new equipment. I'll need all new plastic but that's not too big a real. I've been meaning to get some mid sized fermentation vessels for a while too. I've got a bunch of 1 gal and 1/2 gal containers as well as 5 and 6 gal carboys but I really could use a couple of 3 gals. Guess it's time to go shopping. I'd love to try some Better Bottles but I can't buy them around here and they are not inexpensive to ship so I suppose it'll be glass.


As for recipe design, I'm not at all sure having only tasted a few and never having brewed one. It seems there's a lot of variation in recipes on the web as well, some are no boil recipes, some have brett, etc. Any thoughts on a good beginning?

A Dry Wit

A couple of weeks ago I was really in the mood for a Belgian style wit so I decided to pull out the brewing gear and work on something simple. I tend to think of beer names and design recipes around them and "A Dry Wit" spoke to me that day so I decided to do a lower finish gravity wit. Went with extract since it was already Sunday afternoon and I didn't want to be brewing late into the night. I went with the following recipe.

Size: 5 gallons (ended up with a little over 4 gallon when it hit the fermenter)

OG: 1.056

FG: 1.011

Estimated Color: 5.3 SRM

Estimated IBU: 15.7 IBU

ABV: 5.87%

3lbs Wheat DME (Bavarian is all they had so it was about 70% wheat, 30% barley)

2lbs 8oz Extra Light (pils) DME

0.5 oz Cluster (7.9% AA) for 60 minutes

0.5 oz Cluster (7.9% AA) for 5 minutes

0.75 oz Coriander Seed for 5 minutes

0.75 oz Dried Bitter Orange Peel for 5 minutes

I boiled the pils DME for the full 60 minutes and added the wheat DME for the last 5 minutes.

I decided to try a Fermentis dry yeast since I'd never used their product so I pitched 1 package of SafBrew WB-06 wheat yeast dissolving in water per the directions on the Fermentis web site. I cooled and moved to a 6 gallon glass carboy for primary. Pitched a little high at 80°F since it was a little cold out and the temp was likely to drop quickly. About 12 hours later, fermentation was going well at about 70°F.

The next morning the temperature had fallen into the 60's so I decided to put a heating pad against the fermeter and wrap it in a small blanket. This held the remainder of the fermentation in the low to mid 70's. 

After a week in the fermenter, I'd hit final gravity to I bottled. I filled mostly 1L flip tops with a couple of 1qt. fliptops for tasting. I used about 6oz of the remaining DME and I pitched another packet of the WB-06 (again, using the web site directions) to ensure enough yeast for a quick carbonation.

I'm tasting the final product for the first time tonight, about 5 days after bottling.

It's fairly well carbonated but not quite as high as I'd like. Not bad for 5 days conditioning at low room temperature. The head is white with larger bubbles and nice lacing. Dissipation time is medium but it does eventually disappear completely. The color is golden with a slight brown hue and definitely cloudy.

There's a heavy banana and phenolic nose, mostly clove. There's a slight creamy or buttery character but it's barely perceptible. I'm not sure if it's a little diacetyl or if it's due to the heavy banana esters.

The taste is predominantly wheat with a distinct breadiness on the middle palette. Mouthfeel is medium and smooth, rather nice. There's a fairly long finish but the bread is gone and replaced with an astringency and slight fusel quality.

I suspect it needs to mature a little longer but beaing a wit I wouldn't want to let it sit more than another week or so before I tear into it again. A few more days should soak up any diacetyl that's present and hopefully smooth the astringency in the finish.

Welcome to my beer blog

I've been brewing more often these days so I thought I'd create a separate blog for brewing and beer posts. I'm planning on posting information about new recipes I've found or created, brew day logs, tastings, and other homebrewing notes. I'll also throw in the occasional post about exceptional beers I've had, etc.
Volume is likely to be on the low side. Probably a mass of entries around a brew weekend then quite a bit of time off until the next session. I'm encouraging comments, pointers, recipes, etc.