Although I only got 7 of you to vote, it looks like the Allagash Tripel clone is the winner. I'll be brewing this on Sunday so I'll post a full report on Monday with stats and how the brew day went. For those of you who want the recipe, it is below. It is in the July-August 2008 issue of Brew Your Own Magazine along with recipes for Ommegang Witte Clone, Lost Abbey Devotion Ale Clone, Two Brothers Domaine DuPage Clone and Red Rock Brewing Pecome Blonde Clone. This is a great magazine that always has great recipes and articles about technique and ingredients. I highly recommend this to anyone looking for some home brewing magazines to read/subscribe to.
Allagash Tripel Clone:
Fermentables:
12.8 lbs (5.8 kg) Pilsner malt
1.6 lbs (.73 kg) sucrose
Hops:
2 oz (57 g) German Tettnang hops (4% AA, 60 minutes)
.4 oz (11 g) Hallertau Mittelfruh hops (whirlpool)
Yeast:
Wyeast 1762 (Belgian Abbey Ale II) or Wyeast 3787 (Trappist High Gravity) or White Labs WLP510 (Belgian Bastogne Ale)
Instructions:
Mash at 153 F (67 C). Boil for 90 minutes. Add sugar for final 15 minutes. Add whirlpool hops at end of boil. Ferment at high end of yeast strain's recommended range.
Cheers,
Jason
Showing posts with label Recipes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Recipes. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Monday, April 27, 2009
Wedding Brew Weekend
As I've mentioned in previous posts (see Witbier and Two Brew Weekend) I was asked to brew some beer for my friends wedding. With the final beer being chosen in early April, I set out this weekend to brew it up for the big day......twice. Early in the week I decided to make two batches. I thought that for an entire wedding reception, 2.5 cases just wasn't going to cut it (now that I said that, I bet there will be a ton left over).
The first batch went off without a hitch. The mash settled perfectly at 152 and stayed there for the entire 60 minutes. I had a small boil over at the beginning mostly because I was paying more attention to drinking some of the last batch and watching the Red Sox. Post boil, I ended up with 6 gallons, which is what I planned. Chilled, racked and pitched. Batch one down!
The second batch went off.....but not so much without a hitch. To set the stage, it was close to 90f in Natick on Saturday, I had gone for a 7 mile run about 2 hours prior to starting the first batch, had one bowl of oatmeal to eat all day, and about 6 homebrews by the time I started batch two. Needless to say, it had it's effects on me. I didn't realize my mistake until the boil, but it turns out I used an extra gallon of water in the mash. DOH!!!! (sorry Chappy, the beer will be fine, I promise)
Sunday, after I had sobered up, I went through my notes and realized where I went wrong. In an attempt to be more efficient, I started batch 2 while batch 1 was still chilling prior to pitching the yeast, so I didn't have the availability of my Blichman boilermaker with the volume sight gauge on the side. Instead, I went back in time to my "pre-boilermaker" days and used a wooden spoon I had notched out at the gallon marks. Apparently I mistook the 5g mark for the 4g mark. Other than that slight mix up, the batch come out well. It's a little lighter in color but it's fermenting away.
Both batches have a very nice krausen on them and are vigorously fermenting away right now. I'm a little concerned that because of the ambient temp in the room, that I might get some bad esters in the beer, so I might move them to the basement. But then basement is on the cooler side of the temp spectrum. Probably in the high 50's. I did give myself a few extra weeks, so if the fermentation slows, I think I'll be ok. Recipe is below.
So here's my questions.....do you think I should blend the two batches prior to bottling to essentially make them one large batch? If you could let me know your thoughts and experiences with blending, that would be great!
Cheers,
Jason
CrystALE
OG - 1.050
Batch Size - 6 g
Fermentables:
8 lbs Two-Row
1.5 lbs Crystal 15L
1.5 lbs Crystal 40L
1 lbs Munich .25 lbs Brown Malt
.5 lbs Flaked Barley
Hops:
.5 oz Columbus (13% AA, 6.5 AAU, FWH)
.5 oz Magnum (14.5% AA, 7.3 AAU, 30 min)
.25 oz Columbus (13% AA, 3.3 AAU, 30 min)
.5 oz Glacier (5.5% AA, 2.8 AAU, 15 min)
.25 Columbus (13% AA, 3.3 AAU, 10 min)
.5 oz Glacier (5.5% AA, 2.8 AAU, DH)
Yeast: Wyeast 1056 American Ale
The first batch went off without a hitch. The mash settled perfectly at 152 and stayed there for the entire 60 minutes. I had a small boil over at the beginning mostly because I was paying more attention to drinking some of the last batch and watching the Red Sox. Post boil, I ended up with 6 gallons, which is what I planned. Chilled, racked and pitched. Batch one down!
The second batch went off.....but not so much without a hitch. To set the stage, it was close to 90f in Natick on Saturday, I had gone for a 7 mile run about 2 hours prior to starting the first batch, had one bowl of oatmeal to eat all day, and about 6 homebrews by the time I started batch two. Needless to say, it had it's effects on me. I didn't realize my mistake until the boil, but it turns out I used an extra gallon of water in the mash. DOH!!!! (sorry Chappy, the beer will be fine, I promise)
Sunday, after I had sobered up, I went through my notes and realized where I went wrong. In an attempt to be more efficient, I started batch 2 while batch 1 was still chilling prior to pitching the yeast, so I didn't have the availability of my Blichman boilermaker with the volume sight gauge on the side. Instead, I went back in time to my "pre-boilermaker" days and used a wooden spoon I had notched out at the gallon marks. Apparently I mistook the 5g mark for the 4g mark. Other than that slight mix up, the batch come out well. It's a little lighter in color but it's fermenting away.
Both batches have a very nice krausen on them and are vigorously fermenting away right now. I'm a little concerned that because of the ambient temp in the room, that I might get some bad esters in the beer, so I might move them to the basement. But then basement is on the cooler side of the temp spectrum. Probably in the high 50's. I did give myself a few extra weeks, so if the fermentation slows, I think I'll be ok. Recipe is below.
So here's my questions.....do you think I should blend the two batches prior to bottling to essentially make them one large batch? If you could let me know your thoughts and experiences with blending, that would be great!
Cheers,
Jason
CrystALE
OG - 1.050
Batch Size - 6 g
Fermentables:
8 lbs Two-Row
1.5 lbs Crystal 15L
1.5 lbs Crystal 40L
1 lbs Munich .25 lbs Brown Malt
.5 lbs Flaked Barley
Hops:
.5 oz Columbus (13% AA, 6.5 AAU, FWH)
.5 oz Magnum (14.5% AA, 7.3 AAU, 30 min)
.25 oz Columbus (13% AA, 3.3 AAU, 30 min)
.5 oz Glacier (5.5% AA, 2.8 AAU, 15 min)
.25 Columbus (13% AA, 3.3 AAU, 10 min)
.5 oz Glacier (5.5% AA, 2.8 AAU, DH)
Yeast: Wyeast 1056 American Ale
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Two Brew Weekend
This weekend was one of the first weekends I've had this year where my wife and I didn't have to travel anywhere, or have any plans to do anything, so I took full advantage of it and was able to brew two batches of beer. The first batch was an attempt at making a clone of Sixpoint Craft Ale's Sweet Action. I used a lot of crystal malt to try and pull out the sweetness, and decent amount of high alpha hops to try and balance it out. The second batch was brewed at my neighbors house with another neighbor and fellow homebrewer. It was our goal to recruit one more person into the homebrewing club, and I think we were successful (Matt??).
The reason for the Sixpoint clone is two-fold. First, It's an awesome beer with a great balance of big sweet malt flavor and big hop aroma and flavor. So naturally, when a homebrewer likes a beer, they try and clone it! Second, my good friend Shaun, who lives in Brooklyn, is getting married to my other good friend Kate. As I've mentioned before, they've asked me to brew some beer for the wedding. We've collectively been trying to come up with a beer that would be enjoyed at the wedding, and one I'm able to brew successfully. A few beers are on the list, but this one was next so I gave it a shot. I posted a few comments on the TastyBrew forum about the original recipe that I created and was told I had WAY too much crystal malt in the recipe and that it would be ridiculously sweet. So I took some out, and added some other malts to try and balance it out and added some more hops for balance as well. I still think I'm on the sweet side with about 23% crystal malt, but we'll have to wait and see.
CrystALE
OG - 1.050
Batch Size - 6 g
Pre-boil Volume - 8 g
Fermentables:
8 lbs Two-Row
1.5 lbs Crystal 15L
1.5 lbs Crystal 40L
1 lbs Munich
.25 lbs Brown Malt
.5 lbs Flaked Barley
Hops:
.5 oz Columbus (13% AA, 6.5 AAU, FWH)
.5 oz Magnum (14.5% AA, 7.3 AAU, 30 min)
.25 oz Columbus (13% AA, 3.3 AAU, 30 min)
.5 oz Glacier (5.5% AA, 2.8 AAU, 15 min)
.25 Columbus (13% AA, 3.3 AAU, 10 min)
.5 oz Glacier (5.5% AA, 2.8 AAU, DH)
Yeast:
Wyeast 1056 American Ale
On Sunday, Rob, Matt and Myself brewed at Matt's house. Matt has been asking Rob and myself to teach him to brew for a while now, and we finally were able to make it happen. We took a walk (through the snow) to Barleycorns and picked up a kit for Matt to make. He chose an English Ale called Burton's Best Bitter. "Best Bitter - Mid level gravity and more malt flavor than the ordinary, also with a touch more hop character" It was reasonably priced at $44 so we picked it up and went back to brew. The day went off without any issues and we were able to show Matt how easy homebrewing can be. With an extract/grain recipe, our brewing time was about 90 minutes and we let the wort cool in the snow which took another 1.5 hours or so, during which we drank beer and stared at a fire. Two of my favorite things....beer and fire!! I don't have the exact recipe, but my attempt from memory is below. I was surprised how much hops were used, 5 total oz for a 5 g batch, but they were mostly low alpha hops.
Burton's Best Bitter
Fermentables:
4 lbs amber malt extract
3 lbs light malt extract
1 Victory Malt
1 Carastan Malt
.5 lbs Two-Row
Hops:
2 oz Goldings (5% AA, 60 min)
1 oz Fuggles (5% AA, 30 min)
1 oz Goldings (5% AA, 1 min)
1 oz Fuggles (5% AA, DH)
Yeast:
Safale S-04 dried yeast
I'm looking forward to finding out how these both come out. Next up, I'm brewing my American Pale Ale for my fantasy baseball draft. I don't have much time so I'm going to have to brew it one night this week. More brewing...WOOO HOO!!!!!
Cheers,
Jason
The reason for the Sixpoint clone is two-fold. First, It's an awesome beer with a great balance of big sweet malt flavor and big hop aroma and flavor. So naturally, when a homebrewer likes a beer, they try and clone it! Second, my good friend Shaun, who lives in Brooklyn, is getting married to my other good friend Kate. As I've mentioned before, they've asked me to brew some beer for the wedding. We've collectively been trying to come up with a beer that would be enjoyed at the wedding, and one I'm able to brew successfully. A few beers are on the list, but this one was next so I gave it a shot. I posted a few comments on the TastyBrew forum about the original recipe that I created and was told I had WAY too much crystal malt in the recipe and that it would be ridiculously sweet. So I took some out, and added some other malts to try and balance it out and added some more hops for balance as well. I still think I'm on the sweet side with about 23% crystal malt, but we'll have to wait and see.
CrystALE
OG - 1.050
Batch Size - 6 g
Pre-boil Volume - 8 g
Fermentables:
8 lbs Two-Row
1.5 lbs Crystal 15L
1.5 lbs Crystal 40L
1 lbs Munich
.25 lbs Brown Malt
.5 lbs Flaked Barley
Hops:
.5 oz Columbus (13% AA, 6.5 AAU, FWH)
.5 oz Magnum (14.5% AA, 7.3 AAU, 30 min)
.25 oz Columbus (13% AA, 3.3 AAU, 30 min)
.5 oz Glacier (5.5% AA, 2.8 AAU, 15 min)
.25 Columbus (13% AA, 3.3 AAU, 10 min)
.5 oz Glacier (5.5% AA, 2.8 AAU, DH)
Yeast:
Wyeast 1056 American Ale
On Sunday, Rob, Matt and Myself brewed at Matt's house. Matt has been asking Rob and myself to teach him to brew for a while now, and we finally were able to make it happen. We took a walk (through the snow) to Barleycorns and picked up a kit for Matt to make. He chose an English Ale called Burton's Best Bitter. "Best Bitter - Mid level gravity and more malt flavor than the ordinary, also with a touch more hop character" It was reasonably priced at $44 so we picked it up and went back to brew. The day went off without any issues and we were able to show Matt how easy homebrewing can be. With an extract/grain recipe, our brewing time was about 90 minutes and we let the wort cool in the snow which took another 1.5 hours or so, during which we drank beer and stared at a fire. Two of my favorite things....beer and fire!! I don't have the exact recipe, but my attempt from memory is below. I was surprised how much hops were used, 5 total oz for a 5 g batch, but they were mostly low alpha hops.
Burton's Best Bitter
Fermentables:
4 lbs amber malt extract
3 lbs light malt extract
1 Victory Malt
1 Carastan Malt
.5 lbs Two-Row
Hops:
2 oz Goldings (5% AA, 60 min)
1 oz Fuggles (5% AA, 30 min)
1 oz Goldings (5% AA, 1 min)
1 oz Fuggles (5% AA, DH)
Yeast:
Safale S-04 dried yeast
I'm looking forward to finding out how these both come out. Next up, I'm brewing my American Pale Ale for my fantasy baseball draft. I don't have much time so I'm going to have to brew it one night this week. More brewing...WOOO HOO!!!!!
Cheers,
Jason
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
American Pale Ale II
This beer is a re-brew of the recipe I brewed for Teach a Friend to Home brew day. This recipe was the third IPA/APA I've brewed and the first two had to be dumped because the first one (American Patriot IPA) was just flat out horrible, and the second (Fresh Hop Harvest Ale) was spoiled by bacteria that was on my home grown hops that I dry hopped with.
This APA came out awesome and I was very pleased. The hop presence was very well balanced by the malt flavour and the sweetness from the crystal malts. Because it was originally brewed for TAFTHBD, I gave almost all of it away. So, this one is just for me!! I was little upset because I missed my OG by .005. This is the second beer in a row where I've missed by OG. I suspect it's because I'm not adjusting my efficiency % when I calculate the recipe on Tastybrew, so I will have to test it out. I want to do an efficiency test on my system soon also so I can know my actual % instead of estimating. Thankfully, no boil-over like last time. I'm finally able to adjust the temp on the burner to prevent the boil-overs. They have been a big headache for me since my swtch to all grain.
I had a different issue with this brew. When I was transferring it to the carboy from the kettle, it seems the trub screen I have inside my boil kettle got clogged with hops. Unfortunately, I had to use a wooden spoon to clear it which didn't work all that well, so I switched to my auto-syphon and racked it with that. I ended up with a lot more trub in the carboy than I wanted, but oh well. After I used the spoon, I realized it wasn't the one I had sanitized, so hopefully it won't ruin this beer but I wanted to make note in case it goes sour. Recipe is below.
Brewed - 1/10/09
H20/Grain ratio - 1.2
Mash Temp/Time - 155/60min
Pre-Boil Volume - 8.5 g
Post-Boil Volume - 6
OG - 1.050
IBU - 41
SRM - 7
Fermentables:
11 lbs Two Row
.5 lbs Crystal 40l
.5 lbs Crystal 20l
.75 lbs Munich Light
.25 lbs Victory
Hops:
.5 oz Magnum (13.5% AA - FWH)
1 oz Chinook (12% AA - 15 min)
.5 oz Cascade (6.6% AA - 10 min)
.5 oz Cascade (6.6% AA - DH)
Yeast:
Wyeast - 1056 American Ale
Cheers,
Jason
This APA came out awesome and I was very pleased. The hop presence was very well balanced by the malt flavour and the sweetness from the crystal malts. Because it was originally brewed for TAFTHBD, I gave almost all of it away. So, this one is just for me!! I was little upset because I missed my OG by .005. This is the second beer in a row where I've missed by OG. I suspect it's because I'm not adjusting my efficiency % when I calculate the recipe on Tastybrew, so I will have to test it out. I want to do an efficiency test on my system soon also so I can know my actual % instead of estimating. Thankfully, no boil-over like last time. I'm finally able to adjust the temp on the burner to prevent the boil-overs. They have been a big headache for me since my swtch to all grain.
I had a different issue with this brew. When I was transferring it to the carboy from the kettle, it seems the trub screen I have inside my boil kettle got clogged with hops. Unfortunately, I had to use a wooden spoon to clear it which didn't work all that well, so I switched to my auto-syphon and racked it with that. I ended up with a lot more trub in the carboy than I wanted, but oh well. After I used the spoon, I realized it wasn't the one I had sanitized, so hopefully it won't ruin this beer but I wanted to make note in case it goes sour. Recipe is below.
Brewed - 1/10/09
H20/Grain ratio - 1.2
Mash Temp/Time - 155/60min
Pre-Boil Volume - 8.5 g
Post-Boil Volume - 6
OG - 1.050
IBU - 41
SRM - 7
Fermentables:
11 lbs Two Row
.5 lbs Crystal 40l
.5 lbs Crystal 20l
.75 lbs Munich Light
.25 lbs Victory
Hops:
.5 oz Magnum (13.5% AA - FWH)
1 oz Chinook (12% AA - 15 min)
.5 oz Cascade (6.6% AA - 10 min)
.5 oz Cascade (6.6% AA - DH)
Yeast:
Wyeast - 1056 American Ale
Cheers,
Jason
Monday, November 3, 2008
Teach a Friend to Home Brew Day - APA
TFTHBD was a good success, brewing wise at least. Only had one of my friends from work show up and my neighbor (who brews as well) came by for the afternoon. The day started pretty early (around 10:30 am) and we cracked open our first Pale Ale from Opa Opa. It was great beer, and get our creative juices flowing.
We chose an American Pale ale as our brew and decided to drink those types all day. The mash went well, although we were a little on the warm side (158) which I'm not too happy about, but thats what happens when you put the lid on, then go drink and don't check it for an hour! I tried to add our first hop addition as First Wort Hops (FWH) to prevent a boilover, but that really didn't work and I once again had a pretty big boilover. Hopefully it won't effect the IBU's too much. We hit our target gravity right on the money, 1.055. That made me happy because my first all-grain batch was a tad bit off the mark.
I used Magnum for the first time and I was very please. Very high alpha (ours were 13.5) and awesome aroma. The recipe is below.
Stats:
Brewed - 11/1/08
H20/Grain ratio - 1.3
Mash Temp/Time - 158/60min
Pre-Boil Volume - 8.5 g
Post-Boil Volume - 6
OG - 1.055
IBU - 41
SRM - 7
Fermentables:
11 lbs Two Row
.5 lbs Crystal 40l
.5 lbs Crystal 20l
.75 lbs Munich Light
.25 lbs Victory
Hops:
.5 oz Magnum (13.5% AA - FWH)
1 oz Chinook (12% AA - 15 min)
.5 oz Cascade (6.6% AA - 10 min)
.5 oz Cascade (6.6% AA - DH)
Yeast:
Wyeast - 1056 American Ale
It is bubbling away pretty good right now, so I'm excited for this to be done. Tonight, I bottle my Brown ale. I took a reading last night and had a great fermentation, slightly more than I had planned though.
Cheers,
Jason
We chose an American Pale ale as our brew and decided to drink those types all day. The mash went well, although we were a little on the warm side (158) which I'm not too happy about, but thats what happens when you put the lid on, then go drink and don't check it for an hour! I tried to add our first hop addition as First Wort Hops (FWH) to prevent a boilover, but that really didn't work and I once again had a pretty big boilover. Hopefully it won't effect the IBU's too much. We hit our target gravity right on the money, 1.055. That made me happy because my first all-grain batch was a tad bit off the mark.
I used Magnum for the first time and I was very please. Very high alpha (ours were 13.5) and awesome aroma. The recipe is below.
Stats:
Brewed - 11/1/08
H20/Grain ratio - 1.3
Mash Temp/Time - 158/60min
Pre-Boil Volume - 8.5 g
Post-Boil Volume - 6
OG - 1.055
IBU - 41
SRM - 7
Fermentables:
11 lbs Two Row
.5 lbs Crystal 40l
.5 lbs Crystal 20l
.75 lbs Munich Light
.25 lbs Victory
Hops:
.5 oz Magnum (13.5% AA - FWH)
1 oz Chinook (12% AA - 15 min)
.5 oz Cascade (6.6% AA - 10 min)
.5 oz Cascade (6.6% AA - DH)
Yeast:
Wyeast - 1056 American Ale
It is bubbling away pretty good right now, so I'm excited for this to be done. Tonight, I bottle my Brown ale. I took a reading last night and had a great fermentation, slightly more than I had planned though.
Cheers,
Jason
Sunday, October 19, 2008
First All Grain Batch
Today, I made the jump to all grain brewing. It's been a long time coming. I've been saving up so I could upgrade my equipment to allow me to do all grain. I recently bought a 10 gallon Rubbermaid mash tun from more-beer and a 60,000 BTU propane burner. Added to the blichman brew kettle my wife bought me for my b-day, I'm ready to rock.
I wanted to do a somewhat easy beer, but something I could brew a lot and make my "house" beer. Lately, I've been hooked on Harpoon Brown Ale. It's their rendition on an American Brown, with some good up front bitterness, and balanced malt sweetness. I'd probably tell you it's my favorite beer right now, but that's because I have one in front of me.
My goal for my first batch, was simple.....clone the harpoon Brown and I'm good. So, I went out their site and noted the stats (they don't list malts or hops they use) and hoped to try and match that. I've been listening to Jamil Zainasheff over on the Brewing Network and he had a show on American Brown ales, so I took his recipe and scaled it down to a 6 g batch and reduced the IBU's so it would be closer to Harpoon. I had a problem though, because the day before i was listening to his show on APA's and when I was going through my notes I seem to look at the APA recipe at the last minute and made a change from cara-pils to Munich, why I don't know. Not sure how much of a difference it will make, but we'll see. Below is the recipe and stats.
American Brown Session Ale
OG - 1.052
FG - 1.010
ABV - 5.5%
quarts per lb - 1.3
Fermentables:
10 lbs American 2-row
.25 lbs Victory Malt
.5 lbs Munich Dark
.75 lbs Crystal 40L
.25 lbs Crystal 60L
.5 lbs Chocolate Malt
Hops:
1 oz Phoenix (10% AA - 60 min)
.5 oz Amarillo (7% AA - 15 min)
.5 oz Amarillo (7% AA - Flame out)
Yeast:
Wyeast 1.056 American Ale
Grains were mashed in 4 gallons of water. Dough in was at 164 f and mash stabilized for 60 min at 150. The mash temp dropped to about 148 f by the last few minutes, but I think it was because I had the top to the mash tun off a bit then getting ready for the sparge. Sparge was with 5.5 g of water at 175 f. The wort boiled down to about 6.5 gallons and I collected about 5.5 in the carboy.
Cheers,
Jason
Monday, October 6, 2008
Catching up - Christmas Ale
I've been a little distracted lately. I've been on the hunt for a new job, interviewing and traveling almost every weekend for some reason or another, and entertaining family a few weeks ago for my B-day. My B-day was a great one. I was pretty bummed about turning 30 this year, no0t because I think it's old, but because I feel old. I used to be a great athlete back in college (I'm usually modest, but I'm 30...time to be proud), but since then my lazy attitude toward training, and ridiculously busy schedule has led me to gain a ton of weight, and constantly injure myself. So, needless to say, even though I was turning 30, I felt like I was turning 60.
But my attitude changed greatly, when my wife pulled out the best gift a home brewer could ever get....a shiny new Blichman Boilermaker 10g brew kettle complete with the Brewmometer, ball valve spigot and borisilic glass sight gauge (yes, I know...my wife rocks). So, what to do with my new kettle....well, brew DUH!
So this weekend, I spend the few hours of free time I had brewing a Christmas spiced beer. I was always a fan of the Saranac Seasons best beer in college, so I wanted to make a spiced ale for Christmas. My brother has always said he has a Samuel Smith's Winter Welcome Ale every Christmas eve while putting the kid's toys together, so I told him my goal was to make one to replace that. My intention wasn't to clone it, but to make a very big, warm and spicy beer that you can enjoy by the fire on Christmas eve, or anytime during the winter. Hopefully I hit the mark. The recipe is below:
Christmas Spiced Ale (recipe created on tastybrew)
Target OG - 1.082
Actual OG. - 1.084
Fermentables:
6 lbs light DME
4 lbs light LME
1 lbs wheat malt
1.5 lbs Munich light
1.54 lbs crystal 80L
Hops:
2 oz. Kent Goldings pellet (5%AA - 60 min)
1 oz Tettnanger plug (4.5%AA - 2 min)
1 oz Hallertau pellet (4.5%AA - 2 min)
Spices:
.5 tsp fresh ground cinnamon (10 min)
.25 tsp fresh ground ginger (10 min)
.25 tsp ground nutmeg (10 min)
1.5 cinnamon sticks, 2 inch (secondary)
Wyeast 1056 - American Ale (primary)
Wyeast 1056 - American Ale (secondary)
I was hoping to have a little more aroma and taste from the spices when I racked it to the carboy, but it was very faint. Next time I will definitely shy away from the plug hops too. They broke apart and clogged by auto-siphon and it was a pain in the ass to get it to the carboy. I will add the remaining cinnamon sticks to the secondary to hopefully get some more spice in the beer. That all depends on how it turns out.
Cheers,
Jason
Monday, September 1, 2008
Robust Vanilla Porter
I had high hopes for this beer. After making a test batch and missing the mark, I decided to move forward with a full 5.5 g batch. I used tastybrew for the recipe formulation and couldn't wait to get brewing. The brew day started off very well, and I noticed as I was steeping the grains there was a frothy foam in the kettle. I figured that was from the flaked barely, which helps with the head of the beer.
I went into the boil, and hopped as scheduled. After I cooled the wort and topped off to 5.5 g, I took a gravity reading and to my surprise, I overshot it by a mile! I couldn't (and still can't) figure out why I overshot it that much. After the session, I re-did the recipe in tastybrew and in my spreadsheet thinking I miscalculated, but it was exactly what it should be. My only thought is that the guy at my LHBS didn't hear me right and gave me more than asked for. I guess I'm going to have to start re-checking everything I buy, which sucks.
I bought two Madagascar vanilla beans which I'll boil to sanitize and add them to the secondary and most likely will add an additional packet of yeast. I'm still confident this beer will finish well, just not exactly like I planned. Sometimes, that's not a bad thing I guess. Recipe and stats are below.
Batch Size - 5.5 g
Boil volume - 4 g
Mash ph - 5.0
Target Gravity - 1.057
Actual OG - 1.082
Fermentables:
8.5 lbs Dark Malt Liquid extract
.5 lbs British Crystal 135-165
.5 lbs Black Patent
.5 lbs Chocolate
.5 British Brown
.5 Flaked Barley
Adjuncts:
2 Madagascar Vanilla Beans (secondary)
Hops:
.5 oz. Challenger (7.5% AA - 60 min)
.5 oz. Challenger (7.5% AA - 30 min)
.5 oz. Fuggle (5.1% AA - 15 min)
.5 oz. Fuggle (5.1% AA - 1 min)
Yeast: - Wyeast 1275 -Thames Valley
New Notes:
(9/2) - Fermentation started with a bang. I woke up this morning to see that overnight, it had blown through the blow off tube into the collecting bowl and already dissapated back down into the carboy. It's still bubbling very frequently (every 2-3 seconds) and hopefully will ferment all those extra sugars I apparently put in.
(9/9) - It's still bubbling away. The bubbles have slowed to about once every 20-30 seconds, but it still going. Once it slows considerably, I'll rack it to the secondary and add the vanilla beans.
(9/15) - I racked it to the secondary yesterday and took a gravity reading (1.020). It still has a little ways to go. I halved the vanilla beans and they are soaking in 1/2 cup of Basil Hayden's small batch bourbon. I'll add that to the secondary tonight.
Cheers,
Jason
I went into the boil, and hopped as scheduled. After I cooled the wort and topped off to 5.5 g, I took a gravity reading and to my surprise, I overshot it by a mile! I couldn't (and still can't) figure out why I overshot it that much. After the session, I re-did the recipe in tastybrew and in my spreadsheet thinking I miscalculated, but it was exactly what it should be. My only thought is that the guy at my LHBS didn't hear me right and gave me more than asked for. I guess I'm going to have to start re-checking everything I buy, which sucks.
I bought two Madagascar vanilla beans which I'll boil to sanitize and add them to the secondary and most likely will add an additional packet of yeast. I'm still confident this beer will finish well, just not exactly like I planned. Sometimes, that's not a bad thing I guess. Recipe and stats are below.
Batch Size - 5.5 g
Boil volume - 4 g
Mash ph - 5.0
Target Gravity - 1.057
Actual OG - 1.082
Fermentables:
8.5 lbs Dark Malt Liquid extract
.5 lbs British Crystal 135-165
.5 lbs Black Patent
.5 lbs Chocolate
.5 British Brown
.5 Flaked Barley
Adjuncts:
2 Madagascar Vanilla Beans (secondary)
Hops:
.5 oz. Challenger (7.5% AA - 60 min)
.5 oz. Challenger (7.5% AA - 30 min)
.5 oz. Fuggle (5.1% AA - 15 min)
.5 oz. Fuggle (5.1% AA - 1 min)
Yeast: - Wyeast 1275 -Thames Valley
New Notes:
(9/2) - Fermentation started with a bang. I woke up this morning to see that overnight, it had blown through the blow off tube into the collecting bowl and already dissapated back down into the carboy. It's still bubbling very frequently (every 2-3 seconds) and hopefully will ferment all those extra sugars I apparently put in.
(9/9) - It's still bubbling away. The bubbles have slowed to about once every 20-30 seconds, but it still going. Once it slows considerably, I'll rack it to the secondary and add the vanilla beans.
(9/15) - I racked it to the secondary yesterday and took a gravity reading (1.020). It still has a little ways to go. I halved the vanilla beans and they are soaking in 1/2 cup of Basil Hayden's small batch bourbon. I'll add that to the secondary tonight.
Cheers,
Jason
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Fresh Hop Harvest Ale
I had a great bewing day today. I was able to harvest a small amount of my cascade hops (I took 1 oz) and brewed my Fresh Hop Harvest Ale using the Cascade hops right from the vine as well as some Centennial pellets. I used Tastybrew to pull the recipe together since my recently created spreadsheet is not reliable at this moment. I was able to hit my target gravity right on the money. Below is the recipe and brewday stats.
Stats:
Water PH - 5.4
Mash PH - 5.0
Target Gravity - 1.056
OG - 1.056
Fermentables
7.5 lbs Amber Malt Liquid Extract
2 lbs. Pale two-row
.25 lbs Belgian Biscuit
.25 lbs CaraPils
.25 lbs Crystal 20L
.25 lbs Crystal 40L
Hops
.5 oz Centennial (pellet, 10.5% - 60 min)
.5 oz Cascade (fresh wet hops, 6.6% estimated - 30 min)
5 oz Cascade (fresh wet hops, 6.6% estimated - 15 min)
.5 oz Centennial (pellet, 10.5% - 5 min)
.5 oz Cascade (fresh wet hops, 6.6% estimated - Dry hop in secondary)
Yeast
Wyeast #1056 - American Ale
New Notes:
(9/2) - Primary fermentation went great. When I woke up the next morning, the bubbles were vigourusly popping. I racked to the secondary 8 days later (8/29) and added another .5 oz of fresh picked hops. Thankfully, I have another ounce or so on the vine which I'll dry and store for later use. The hop smell was amazing. Fresh cascade aroma filled the air as I racked the brew. I gave the .5 oz that I was dry hopping with a big squeze and rub to release some more aroma and dropped them in. I'm getting very excited about this beer.
(9/15) - I bottled this yesterday. When I uncovered the carboy to bottle, it had an interesting white film on the top of the beer. It tasted fine as I sipped the hydrometer sample (1.012) so I'm not too concerned. Hopefully the hops didn't have a bacteria on them when I dry hopped. Anyone have any experience with this or have seen this film on their beer before?
(10/6) - Bad news.....I tried the first bottle and it is completly ruined! It tastes like vinager so I'm going to jhave to dump them all. I'm am not happy. I guess thats the risk you run with fresh hops....lots of bacteria on them. Next year I will make sure that I boil them all and not dry hop with them. I had real high hopes for this one....oh well!!!
Cheers,
Jason
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Designing Great Beers
I just finished reading the first section of Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels. The first section talks about what goes into a recipe, from the malt bill, color characteristics to hops, calculating bitterness and yeast. I'm a few chapters deep into the second part of the book which goes into details of the various classic styles of beer that are out there. I highly recomend this book for anyone who is trying to learn how to create your own recipes.
After I got through part one, and highlighting all the formulas and good things Ray had to say, i decided to try and put together my own recipe spreadsheet that has the calculations for IBU's, water needs based on evaporation and other factors, beer color ( I use HCU's and convert to a range of SRM's) and hop bitterness. Overall I think it's a good spreadsheet. I designed a recipe using the sheet and compared it to one of the online recipe calculators and I was damn close to exact. That made me smile. I have yet to brew the beer because it's an all grain recipe and I am in need or 4 stainless steele fender washers to complete my mash tun and for the life of me can't find a damn place that sells them. I'm hoping to have them soon, and FINALLY make the move to all grain!
On to the point of this post......I wanted to ask some people out there if they would take a look at my sheet, test it out and let me know their thoughts. Just post your email and I'll send it off to you. I'm a firm believer in feedback, and I think a lot of readers of my blog are brewers and coudl help me out with this. It should actually work for extract w/specialty grain recipes as well as long as you know the gravity of the extract and efficiency. So, post or send me an email and I'll send it off to you. Thanks for you help in advance.
Cheers,
Jason
After I got through part one, and highlighting all the formulas and good things Ray had to say, i decided to try and put together my own recipe spreadsheet that has the calculations for IBU's, water needs based on evaporation and other factors, beer color ( I use HCU's and convert to a range of SRM's) and hop bitterness. Overall I think it's a good spreadsheet. I designed a recipe using the sheet and compared it to one of the online recipe calculators and I was damn close to exact. That made me smile. I have yet to brew the beer because it's an all grain recipe and I am in need or 4 stainless steele fender washers to complete my mash tun and for the life of me can't find a damn place that sells them. I'm hoping to have them soon, and FINALLY make the move to all grain!
On to the point of this post......I wanted to ask some people out there if they would take a look at my sheet, test it out and let me know their thoughts. Just post your email and I'll send it off to you. I'm a firm believer in feedback, and I think a lot of readers of my blog are brewers and coudl help me out with this. It should actually work for extract w/specialty grain recipes as well as long as you know the gravity of the extract and efficiency. So, post or send me an email and I'll send it off to you. Thanks for you help in advance.
Cheers,
Jason
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Red Tide Amber Ale #2
This is a re-brew of the Red Tide Amber I made a few months ago. After getting the results back from the home brew competition, I decided to make a few changes and brew it again. One change that I made was swaping out 8 oz of Victory malt for 8 oz of Cara-pils ans 1 oz of Perle hops for 1 oz of Halertauer. I'm hoping that this won't change it too much, but just slightly enough.
I think the reduction of alpha's from Perle to Hallertauer will please me a bit more (probably not the home brew judges, but oh well). I like my hops, but this beer is for my family reunion an my family isn't into the hop bombs, so I'm giving this one a shot.
OG=1.050
FG=1.012
ABV=4.98%
Fermentables:
1 lb. 2-row
8 oz. Vienna
8 oz. Crystal 40l
8 oz. Cara-pils
5lb 8 oz. Amber Malt Extract
Hops:
1 oz. Cascade (6% AA, 60 min)
.5 oz. Hallertauer (4.25% AA, 45 min)
.5 oz. Cascade (6% AA, 45 min)
.5 oz. Hallertauer(4.25% AA, 30)
.5 oz. Cascade (6% AA, 30 min)
.5 oz. Fuggles (4.75% AA, 15 min)
.5 oz. Fuggles (Aroma)
Yeast:
Wyeast #1272 American Ale II
Mashed grains @ 150f-155f for 90 min in a cheese cloth bag. Mashed out at 168f for 10 minutes. Removed grains and brought to a boil. Follow the hop schedule from above and boil for 60 minutes. Cool to 75f and rack to carboy. Pitch yeast and let ferment. When fermentation is slowed to 1 minute between bubbles, rack to secondary.
Cheers,
Jason
I think the reduction of alpha's from Perle to Hallertauer will please me a bit more (probably not the home brew judges, but oh well). I like my hops, but this beer is for my family reunion an my family isn't into the hop bombs, so I'm giving this one a shot.
OG=1.050
FG=1.012
ABV=4.98%
Fermentables:
1 lb. 2-row
8 oz. Vienna
8 oz. Crystal 40l
8 oz. Cara-pils
5lb 8 oz. Amber Malt Extract
Hops:
1 oz. Cascade (6% AA, 60 min)
.5 oz. Hallertauer (4.25% AA, 45 min)
.5 oz. Cascade (6% AA, 45 min)
.5 oz. Hallertauer(4.25% AA, 30)
.5 oz. Cascade (6% AA, 30 min)
.5 oz. Fuggles (4.75% AA, 15 min)
.5 oz. Fuggles (Aroma)
Yeast:
Wyeast #1272 American Ale II
Mashed grains @ 150f-155f for 90 min in a cheese cloth bag. Mashed out at 168f for 10 minutes. Removed grains and brought to a boil. Follow the hop schedule from above and boil for 60 minutes. Cool to 75f and rack to carboy. Pitch yeast and let ferment. When fermentation is slowed to 1 minute between bubbles, rack to secondary.
Cheers,
Jason
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Raspberry Wheat
Wow....it's been a long time since I've last posted. I've had a horrible couple of weeks personally, and on top of that work has been really busy. I have been struggling with time to do anything so with the few free hours I found, I brewed. I only had a few hours, so I decided to take the easy/road and do an all Extract brew. I'm ok with it though, because the extract brews I've done have turned out great, so why not. I needed to reduce the insanity in my life, and anything helped. Here is the recipe. I'll bottle it this weekend, so i'll update with the outcome.
Fermentables:
6.6 lbs. Wheat Malt Extract
Hops:
1 oz. Cluster (6.5% - 60 min)
Yeast:
Wyeast 1056 - American Ale
Fruit Extract:
4 oz. Raspberry extract
OG - 1.044
Boiled for 60 minutes, chilled to 80 f and pitched yeast. Racked to secondary on 5/8. I think I might have racked it a little too soon (stupid I know) because there was still some action in the primary, but very sporadic, so I decided to do it anyway. It's slowed significantly, so I will bottle this weekend with 5 oz of priming sugar.
Cheers,
Jason
Friday, April 11, 2008
Red Tide Amber Ale
This was the second recipe that I created and it came out pretty damn good. I entered it into a local homebrew competition, and they did the reviews today. Haven't heard back yet on what they though, but I'm very axcious. I have't written a review for it yet, but I have almost finished it all. I will put one down on paper this weekend. I was so happy with it, that I just kept getting another and not writing anything down...shame on me!! Here it is:
Brewed 2/17/08
Racked to Secondary - 2/26/08
Bottled - 3/1/08
Tapped/Drank - 3/20/08
Grain Bill:
1lb. American 2-row
.5lb. Vienna
.5lb. Victory
.5lb Crystal 40L
5.5lb Amber Malt extract
Hops:
1oz Perle (8%, 60 min)
.5 oz Cascade (6%, 45 min)
.5 oz Cascade (6%, 30 min)
.5 oz Cascade (6%, 15 min)
.5 oz Fuggles (4.75%, 15 min)
.5 oz Cascade (aroma, 1min)
.5 oz Fuggles (aroma, 1min)
Yeast:
Wyeast #1272 - American Ale II
Grains were steeped in a cheese cloth bag for 90 mins. at between 150-153f. I mashed out at 168 for 10 minutes before bringing to a boil. Fermentation was a little slow to start, but finished in about 4 days. I didn't rack until the next week since I was not around that weekend. Secondary had very little action. It was bottled 13 days after brew day. I put some in my mini-keg, and bottled the rest. Priming sugar was used for the entire batch. Next batch I will force carbonate the mini-keg and prime the bottles to see the difference. It was a little cold in my kitchen so the carbonation took some time to come about, but when it did it was right on!
The beer came out better than expected. After my first original recipe, I was a little nervous this would suck, but I am a big fan. I think I could tone down the grains a bit. It did have a strong malt character, that I was hoping was a little less week, but it did balance nicely with the hops.
Cheers,
Jason
Brewed 2/17/08
Racked to Secondary - 2/26/08
Bottled - 3/1/08
Tapped/Drank - 3/20/08
Grain Bill:
1lb. American 2-row
.5lb. Vienna
.5lb. Victory
.5lb Crystal 40L
5.5lb Amber Malt extract
Hops:
1oz Perle (8%, 60 min)
.5 oz Cascade (6%, 45 min)
.5 oz Cascade (6%, 30 min)
.5 oz Cascade (6%, 15 min)
.5 oz Fuggles (4.75%, 15 min)
.5 oz Cascade (aroma, 1min)
.5 oz Fuggles (aroma, 1min)
Yeast:
Wyeast #1272 - American Ale II
Grains were steeped in a cheese cloth bag for 90 mins. at between 150-153f. I mashed out at 168 for 10 minutes before bringing to a boil. Fermentation was a little slow to start, but finished in about 4 days. I didn't rack until the next week since I was not around that weekend. Secondary had very little action. It was bottled 13 days after brew day. I put some in my mini-keg, and bottled the rest. Priming sugar was used for the entire batch. Next batch I will force carbonate the mini-keg and prime the bottles to see the difference. It was a little cold in my kitchen so the carbonation took some time to come about, but when it did it was right on!
The beer came out better than expected. After my first original recipe, I was a little nervous this would suck, but I am a big fan. I think I could tone down the grains a bit. It did have a strong malt character, that I was hoping was a little less week, but it did balance nicely with the hops.
Cheers,
Jason
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
American Patriot IPA
I brewed this on January 5th and I'm really psyched about it. I was hoping to have it done for the Patriots run to the super bowl, but it won't be done by then. I've been inspired by the recent buzz about hop shortage, and jump on the bandwagon of American tradition..."Bigger is Better". So this beer has 4 oz. of hops in a 5 gallon batch. Not overkill....but just enough to give it some kick. It's still fermenting, so I'll be sure to add the tasting of the finished product when it's dry hopped and ready to drink. This is going to be the new format for posting my recipes so I can provide more info and separate it out by recipe and review. I used the spreadsheet at the beer recipator.
Projected characteristics:
Color - 24 HCU (~13SRM)
Bitterness - 56 IBU
OG - 1055
Grain:
1 lbs American 2-row
8 oz. American Munich
8 oz. American Crystal 40L
Hops:
1.5 oz. Chinook (12% AA, 60 mins.)
.5 oz. Chinook (12% AA, 45 mins.)
1.5 oz. Cascade (6% AA, 15 mins.)
.5 oz. Cascade (Aroma, 1 mins.)
1 oz Cascade (Dry hopped)
Yeast:
Wyeast #1056 - American Ale
Mash:
Steeped grains in cheese cloth bag for 60 mins. @ 150-155F
Boil:
6 lbs. 8 oz. amber malt extract. Hop additions per schedule in Hops bill.
Cheers,
Jason
Projected characteristics:
Color - 24 HCU (~13SRM)
Bitterness - 56 IBU
OG - 1055
Grain:
1 lbs American 2-row
8 oz. American Munich
8 oz. American Crystal 40L
Hops:
1.5 oz. Chinook (12% AA, 60 mins.)
.5 oz. Chinook (12% AA, 45 mins.)
1.5 oz. Cascade (6% AA, 15 mins.)
.5 oz. Cascade (Aroma, 1 mins.)
1 oz Cascade (Dry hopped)
Yeast:
Wyeast #1056 - American Ale
Mash:
Steeped grains in cheese cloth bag for 60 mins. @ 150-155F
Boil:
6 lbs. 8 oz. amber malt extract. Hop additions per schedule in Hops bill.
Cheers,
Jason
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Dunkle-Weizen
This is the recipe for a German Dunkle-Weizen that I brewed back in November. It came out fantastic with big nose fulls of banana and clove.
Ingredients
6.6 lbs. Wheat malt extract
1 oz. Perle Hops (Bittering, 60 minutes)
1/2 oz. Hallertaur Hops (Bittering and Flavor, 10 minutes)
1/2 oz. Hallertaur Hops (Aroma, 1 minute)
Wyeast #3068
5 oz. priming sugar
I didn't get a gravity reading because I broke my hydrometer but the goals were: OG 1050-1054, FG 1011-1015.
Boiled extract in 2.5 gallons of bottled water for 60 minutes. Add 1 oz Perle hops for 60 minutes, add 1/2 oz. hallertaur hops with 15 minutes left in boil, add 1/2 oz. hallertaur hops with 1 minute left in boil. Cool to 75F, pitch yeast and rack to primary fermenter. This fermented for 28 days (I was away for a week and couldn't bottle but when I left it was still fermenting). Bottled at 60F and let sit for 12 days.
Review
After poured in a proper weizen glass, there was a beautiful creamy white thick head. The beer was a little cloudy with yeast but was a golden yellowish/brownish color. Smelled of bananas and cloves with a hint of bitter hops. Very crisp on the first taste with the feel of small bubbles popping on the tongue. Over all, this is a very drinkable beer. (I ended up have a bunch the weekend before Christmas).
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. This is a very easy extract recipe to make.
Cheers,
Jason
Ingredients
6.6 lbs. Wheat malt extract
1 oz. Perle Hops (Bittering, 60 minutes)
1/2 oz. Hallertaur Hops (Bittering and Flavor, 10 minutes)
1/2 oz. Hallertaur Hops (Aroma, 1 minute)
Wyeast #3068
5 oz. priming sugar
I didn't get a gravity reading because I broke my hydrometer but the goals were: OG 1050-1054, FG 1011-1015.
Boiled extract in 2.5 gallons of bottled water for 60 minutes. Add 1 oz Perle hops for 60 minutes, add 1/2 oz. hallertaur hops with 15 minutes left in boil, add 1/2 oz. hallertaur hops with 1 minute left in boil. Cool to 75F, pitch yeast and rack to primary fermenter. This fermented for 28 days (I was away for a week and couldn't bottle but when I left it was still fermenting). Bottled at 60F and let sit for 12 days.
Review
After poured in a proper weizen glass, there was a beautiful creamy white thick head. The beer was a little cloudy with yeast but was a golden yellowish/brownish color. Smelled of bananas and cloves with a hint of bitter hops. Very crisp on the first taste with the feel of small bubbles popping on the tongue. Over all, this is a very drinkable beer. (I ended up have a bunch the weekend before Christmas).
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. This is a very easy extract recipe to make.
Cheers,
Jason
Brown Ale, Revisted
When I posted about my brown ale recipe, i had stated that the carbonation was lacking......which at the time it was. I had another brown ale tonight (1/6/08) and the carbonation has evolved and is very good. The beer has a beutiful cream white head with a nice white lace left on the glass. The first taste was bubbly with some briliant hints of smokey flavor.
For those who say age doesn't make a difference with beer...you are mistaken. This beer has aged very well. I brewed another beer today (IPA) which is my first recipe that I designed. I'm very excited because it is a very hoppy IPA in which I tried to clone the Sierra Nevada Anniversary Ale. I'll be dry hopping in a few days, so I'll post soon with the recipe.
Cheers,
Jason
For those who say age doesn't make a difference with beer...you are mistaken. This beer has aged very well. I brewed another beer today (IPA) which is my first recipe that I designed. I'm very excited because it is a very hoppy IPA in which I tried to clone the Sierra Nevada Anniversary Ale. I'll be dry hopping in a few days, so I'll post soon with the recipe.
Cheers,
Jason
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Brown Ale
First batch and it turned out OK. I chose a brown ale, first because I'm a big fan, but second it's an easy beer to brew. So here it is.
Grains:
10 oz. Victory Malt
4 oz. Chocolate Malt
2 oz. 120l Crystal Malt
Extract:
5.5 lbs Light malt extract
Hops:
1 oz. Northern Brewer (Bittering, 60 min.)
.5 oz. Fuggle (Aroma, 10 min.)
.5 oz. Fuggle (Aroma, 1 min.)
Yeast:
Safale S-04 dry yeast
Grains steeped at 160 F for 30 minutes. Yeast was pitched at 75 F. Fermented between 62-74 F (temp changed in house) for 11 days. Primed with 5 oz priming sugar and conditioned for 9 days.
The first beer had no carbonation at all and barely any head. I think it was because the temp dropped in the basement so i brought it upstairs where it was warmer and let it sit for another 3 days. The next bottle was better. Much better head, but still not much carbonation. After some thinking, i realized it was because I added the priming sugar after all the beer was in the bottling bucket and probably didn't mix well enough with all the beer so some will be more carbonated than others. No bottle grenades though, so we'll see.
The beer had good head when poured aggressively which was very think and slightly tan in color. The smell had a nutty aroma with mild hints of spiciness. It had a very nice color. Very deep brown and very clear. Once sipped, it was very smooth, but the lack of carbonation was very evident and took away from overall taste of the beer. Carbonation aside, the taste was good. The taste of the fuggles was slightly evident and the nuttiness came out in the taste as well. Overall, it was a decent beer. If there was more carbonation I think the beer would have better. good to know for next time.
Cheers
Grains:
10 oz. Victory Malt
4 oz. Chocolate Malt
2 oz. 120l Crystal Malt
Extract:
5.5 lbs Light malt extract
Hops:
1 oz. Northern Brewer (Bittering, 60 min.)
.5 oz. Fuggle (Aroma, 10 min.)
.5 oz. Fuggle (Aroma, 1 min.)
Yeast:
Safale S-04 dry yeast
Grains steeped at 160 F for 30 minutes. Yeast was pitched at 75 F. Fermented between 62-74 F (temp changed in house) for 11 days. Primed with 5 oz priming sugar and conditioned for 9 days.
The first beer had no carbonation at all and barely any head. I think it was because the temp dropped in the basement so i brought it upstairs where it was warmer and let it sit for another 3 days. The next bottle was better. Much better head, but still not much carbonation. After some thinking, i realized it was because I added the priming sugar after all the beer was in the bottling bucket and probably didn't mix well enough with all the beer so some will be more carbonated than others. No bottle grenades though, so we'll see.
The beer had good head when poured aggressively which was very think and slightly tan in color. The smell had a nutty aroma with mild hints of spiciness. It had a very nice color. Very deep brown and very clear. Once sipped, it was very smooth, but the lack of carbonation was very evident and took away from overall taste of the beer. Carbonation aside, the taste was good. The taste of the fuggles was slightly evident and the nuttiness came out in the taste as well. Overall, it was a decent beer. If there was more carbonation I think the beer would have better. good to know for next time.
Cheers
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