My return to the game

For those of you that have been faithful readers of this blog in the past, you are well aware of the fact I haven't been brewing much in the last couple of years, as well as my propensity for lengthy (sometimes involuntary) hiatuses. Frankly, this makes me sad. I have plenty of free time, a little disposable income, and a fiery passion for beer. I would like to return to the days when I was brewing more consistently, firstly because I miss having homebrew in the house. Secondly--and perhaps most importantly--beer is a creative outlet for me. I'm starting to feel like a bedridden Keith Jarrett with all of these ideas whirring around in my head and nowhere to exercise them, and at this point I feel like I owe it to myself to get things rolling again. I'm hoping these upcoming batches will serve as my very own The Melody at Night, with You. 

Recently, I read an article (which I of course can't relocate at the moment, but for which I will post a link when I do find it) about brewing one-gallon batches of in lieu of making yeast starters (small batches of unhopped beer meant solely to stimulate yeast growth and get a proper volume of yeast to pitch into a 5-gallon batch). I don't always make starters, but in an attempt to hone my methods a bit and take my beer to the next level, I'm going to try and avoid underpitching from hear on out. To save my more casual beer fans from too much jargon, this way the yeast will do what it's supposed to, and the beer will taste better and be the correct ABV.

I have planned a simple but classic 1-gallon ordinary bitter to build up a nice yeast cake for my all-time favorite recipe, the Westminster 1839 Porter. Here are the two recipes:

Ordinary People:

Target OG: 1.038

Target FG: 1.012

Target ABV: 3.3%

Target IBU: 29

Projected SRM: 12°L (copper/amber)

1 lb Maris Otter

4 oz Crystal 60L

1 oz brown sugar

12 g (for accuracy) East Kent Goldings @30 min

7 g East Kent Goldings @flameout

WLP002 English Ale yeast

Westminster 1839 Porter:

Target OG: 1.057

Target FG: 1.019

Target ABV: 5%

Target IBU: 45

Projected SRM: 32°L (VERY dark, almost opaque)

8 lbs Maris Otter

2 lbs Brown malt

8 oz Black patent malt

2.5 oz Fuggles @60 minutes

1.5 oz Fuggles @5 minutes

WLP002 English Ale yeast cake from Ordinary People

I'm very excited about these. The porter was really tasty last time, and I just love a good, quaffable English bitter. If the porter comes out as well as last time, I've got my eye on a May competition in Philly...but more on that later.

Thanks for reading, and PROST!

Planning my triumphant return

Having not brewed in almost a year, I am finally making plans for my return-to-the-game batch. I am actually planning two brother batches, one session strength beer and one high ABV beer, using the same yeast strain.  I hope to brew one and possibly both in the first week of August, as it is my first truly free week of the summer. The plan is to brew two very exciting original Belgian hybrids, two brand new recipes that I've never done before.  Here is what we have to look forward to:

Friar Tuck Belgian Mild:
Target OG: 1.040
Target FG: 1.009
Target ABV: 4.1%
Target IBU: 13
Projected SRM: 23°L (brown)

6 lbs Maris Otter
1 lb flaked wheat
8 oz Special 'B'
4 oz Midnight Wheat (or Carafa III)

Single Infusion Mash @154°

8 oz Dark Belgian Candi Syrup

1 oz Styrian Goldings (pellet)  @First wort hop (so I can get some smooth bittering qualities as well as some late addition character)

WLP500 Trappist Ale


Belgocalifornication IPA:
Target OG: 1.075
Target FG: 1.017
Target ABV: 7.7%
Target Bitterness: 53 IBU
Projected Color: 14 °L (amber)

12 lbs Maris Otter
3 lbs flaked wheat
8 oz Special 'B'

Single Infusion Mash - 152°

8 oz Dark Belgian Candi Syrup

1 oz Columbus (pellet) @60

1 oz Amarillo (leaf) @10
1 oz Centennial (pellet) @10
1 oz Citra (leaf) @10

1 oz Amarillo (leaf) @flame out
1 oz Centennial (pellet)@flame out
1 oz Citra (leaf) @flame out

1 oz Centennial (pellet) dry-hop 14 days
1 oz Citra (leaf) dry-hop 7 days
1 oz Amarillo (leaf) dry-hop 5 days

WLP500 yeast cake from Friar Tuck Belgian Mild

I am super excited for these.  I love Belgian ales as much as I love breaking the rules, and these recipes satisfy both of those criteria.  I am also a big fan of reusing yeast as it saves a bunch of money per batch and doesn't require a starter.  More updates to come in a week or so.

JuniorSenior RyePA Returns!

Mm...fresHops

Brewed up one of my favorite AG recipes this week, my delicious JuniorSenior rye pale ale, which I first brewed back in July of 2010.  Brewing went really well, and the only real difference in the recipe this time was that I used some whole hops from fresHops.com, and the new Rebel Brewer Pub Ale strain from White Labs.  Brewing went really well, the wort tasted absolutely delicious, and better still, I established a compost set up that made for some really easy and stress-free cleaning of my mash tun.

The recipe is a totally original bit-o-this, bit-o-that, quintessentially homebrewerish kitchen sink recipe that I crafted on the train from Boston back from Andover.  Rather romantic, I suppose.  Here's how it stacks up [5.5 gallons]:

Target OG: 1.052
Target FG: 1.013
Target IBU: ~40

6 lbs American pale malt
2 lbs Rye malt
1 lb wheat malt
1 lb Crystal 60°L
8 oz Aromatic malt

1 oz. Amarillo [10.8%AA]@60
1 oz. Amarillo @5
1 oz. Amarillo @1
1 oz. Amarillo, dry-hopped for 12-14 days.

WLP250 Rebel Brewer American Pub Ale Yeast [woohoo!]

Yay composting!

One of the best things about brew day was that I didn't dread/avoid cleaning my mash tun, thanks to a decent shovel and a new composting set up that I fashioned from a trash can.  It's so great to just be able to scoop up the grain with no messiness, and it's green!  Furthermore, it will make amazing fertilizer for my hop plants this summer.  Circle of life...make-a-the-world-go-round.

Get ready for next week, when I start brewing some Irish beers to stock up for St. Patrick's Day.

Now bring us some figgy pudding...

...and a cup of good cheer.  Today I brewed an ale that I've been wanting to get going for a while; the English counterpart of my Père Noël de Bruxelles Belgian Christmas Ale.  Ah yes, this is the fabled Figgy Pudding Ale that I have been planning for a while, a spiced English-style barleywine/old ale-ish beer with mission figs added in.  Since the Nashville water is horrendous right now (I think they call it an "algae bloom," I call it "the water tastes like potting soil,") I was forced to brew with carbon-filtered drinking water and Burton Water Salts (it had been a while since I had used those!), which should actually yield some great results.  After oversleeping this morning and getting a late start, I really had a great brew day.  Things went smoothly and cleanly, and by the end of it, I had a wonderful high-gravity brew that smelled of Christmas.  Seriously, this was one of the best-smelling beers on brew day that I have ever made.  Hopefully that bodes well for this one as I let it ferment to perfection.  Here's the recipe (2.5 gallons):

7 lbs. Maris Otter
.5 lbs. Biscuit Malt
.5 lbs. Amber Malt
.5 lbs. Belgian Dark Candi syrup, 90L (amazing stuff)

Mash at 152° for 45 minutes and then raise to 158° for the last 15

1 oz. Challenger hops (7.7%AA) @90 min
.5 oz. East Kent Goldings (7.2%AA) @15

1.5 lbs dried black mission figs (these were amazingly good)@10
.5 T cinnamon @1
.5 T nutmeg @1
1 T ginger @1

Danstar Nottingham Yeast (no starter made)

OG: 1.096 (oh yeah!)
IBU: 47
Anticipated SRM:19

Also added some French oak to my Belgian Christmas ale today.  I've been soaking some oak chips in rum to add to the Figgy Pudding Ale.  Delicious!

Additionally, Ryan of Ryan Brews fame (check him out!) has asked me to do a review of the Belgian Table Beer for his blog and the HomebrewTalk recipe database.  It is delicious and I am looking forward to giving it a review.

Père Noël de Bruxelles: Christmas in June

Racking the BTB, reusing the yeast cake!

Today was a wonderful brew day.  I woke up bright and early this morning and got my strike water and mash ready.  I stabilized the temperature at 150° and left it alone...for the next four hours.  I went to my church choir gig and left the mash alone to do its thing, which actually isn't a bad thing at all; it actually gives the grain ample time to convert, and pretty much can only affect the result for the better.  Anyway, after singing this morning, I came back and found that my mash tun had only gone down 4 degrees over four hours.  Awesome!  I was able to really get into brew day and do my thang from there on out.

For those who are scratching their heads, make no mistakes; this is a CHRISTMAS beer.  But Jeff, why are you brewing it in late June?  Well, I want to give the beer a few months to age into beautiful wonderfulness so it will be just perfect for wintertime.  This one should weigh in at about 8.2% ABV, a really nice strength for a winter warmer.  Here is the recipe (remember this is a half batch):

Anticipated OG: 1.084
Actual OG: 1.084 (f yeah 75% efficiency)
Anticipated SRM: 15 °L
Anticipated IBU: 34

5 lbs Franco-Belges pilsener malt
1 lb Flaked wheat
1 lb light Munich malt
.25 lbs Belgian amber (biscuit) malt

.5 lbs 90°L Belgian Candi syrup

1 oz. Hallertauer pellets @60 minutes
.5 oz. East Kent Goldings (I've been in a wicked EKG mood lately) @15 min
2 lbs dried Turkish apricots (no preservatives) @10 min, then added to the fermenter
.5 oz fresh-crushed coriander seed @10 min

.5 oz French oak cubes in secondary

Wyeast 3522 Belgian Ardennes, yeast cake reused from Belgian Table Beer

Collecting sweet sweet runoff

Amidst the mashing, vorlaufing, sparging, racking, and boiling of stuff, I also managed to bottle my delicious Lucky Leaf summer cider.  It is really tasty and should be ready to drink in a couple of days! 

C is for cider, that's good enough for me

Overall, brew day was fantastic and I got so much done, it just felt good.  Everything went smoothly, not too many hurdles, and I just know that this Christmas beer will be a winner.  Can't wait to see how it progresses over the next few weeks, and then in the bottle over the next few months!  Should be awesome.  Stay tuned for its release in December, and stay tuned for the upcoming brew day of my English Christmas beer, the Figgy Pudding Ale.  It will be a very similar beer, but with its own uniqueness.  Delicious!  It will be hard to wait six months for them but it will be worth it, and I'll have some great beer (and cider) to drink in the meantime.

Prost,
Jeff

"Eye of the Storm" Belgian Table Beer

Hydrometer floating in the golden wort

Yesterday, amidst threatening weather, I was able to crank out the second brew of the summer, a Belgian Table Beer.  I read quite a few blogs of other homebrewers, and when I read this post on Ryan Brews, I knew I needed to brew this beer for summertime.  I woke up yesterday morning to start brewing, and before I even mashed in, it was as dark as night and started pouring down rain.  No problem, I thought, I'll just do the boil the next day and split my brew day up.  I happily went along with the mash, which once again went perfectly with essentially no drop in temperature (and 77% efficiency!).  I did my mashout and collected the first runnings, and I realized that the sky was getting brighter and the rain softer. 

Perfect mash temp consistency

As I did my sparge and collected the second runnings, I saw that it was no longer raining!  Upon checking the radar, I noticed that among all of the thunderstorms in the south, there was a huge opening over Nashville.  I decided to risk it, and braved the outdoors to do my (90 minute) boil.  It went great, and I again went back inside just as a few drops of rain were starting to fall (hence eye of the storm).  From there, it was just an elevator ride, wort chiller, and yeast pitch (not to mention lots of cleaning), and I was done for the day.  Fabulous.  I even "went green" (haha) with my brewing and conserved a couple of quart bags worth of spent grains with the intention of using some of them in cooking/baking (see the latest issue of Zymurgy).

Fresh whole-leaf Hallertauer hops in the boil

Here is my recipe, a slight modification of Ryan's (thanks, Ryan!):

Anticipated OG: 1.040
Actual OG: 1.044
Anticipated SRM: 2.4 °L
Anticipated IBU: 26

6 lbs. Franco-Belges Pilsener Malt
2 lbs. Soft Flaked Wheat

1 oz. Hallertauer (Whole 4.3% AA) @60
1 oz. East Kent Goldings (Pellets 7.2% AA) @10
1 oz. East Kent Goldings (Pellets 7.2% AA) @0, 10 min. steep

Wyeast 3522 Belgian Ardennes, with an 800 mL starter, started 2 days ahead of time on a stir plate

Happy Birthday to Matt Clark, and Happy Fathers Day to my dad and all the dads out there!  Have a homebrew in their honor today.

Prost,
Jeff

Belgian Table Beer Review, 8/5/11

I am now totally legit.

Two days ago, I made a serious advancement in my brewing. I finally brewed my first all-grain batch of beer (I say "finally", but this was really just my fifth batch of beer...hard to believe!). For those of you who aren't brewers, I'll break it down for you:

-Beer is made by fermenting sugars that have been extracted from the complex carbohydrates in grains
-As a homebrewer, one can simply buy this "malt extract" in dry or syrup form, boil it with water and hops for about an hour, and produce excellent beer
-Instead of just buying malt extract for this recipe, I just used grain to make the beer, converting the complex carbs into sugars myself...this process is known as "mashing" and the whole process (including the boil) takes closer to 3 hours
-Because I have complete control over the grain content of my extract, I have a huge amount of control over the finished product of the beer, more so than if I just used extract
-This means better, fresher, more original beer (think eating natural, locally grown food instead of packaged stuff)

This means that in about a week and a half, we'll be pouring pints of my all-grain original recipe English Mild off of the faucet! I am so excited to taste it! As soon as the mild goes from the carboy to the keg, I'll be brewing another all-grain batch, an APA known as the Ballardvale Pale Ale. That'll give me time to fully ferment and then dry-hop that batch while we are enjoying the English Mild. Should be great!


It's important to maintain proper ale fermenting temperatures in these summer months


My beautiful brown mild bubbling away!