Burly Fire

The Vermont Pub & Brewery has been having these small batch/experimental beers every Monday, and with all of my BJCP exam studying, I have been getting really sick of looking and analyzing styles, so I came up with a few really bizarre beers.  I had met one of the guys from VPB this summer at the VT Brewers Festival, so I threw the idea out to him about collaborating for one of these small batches, and they seemed to like an idea I had about a hot wing beer, which is basically a smoked beer with an ancho pepper in 2nd, along with a healthy dose of fruity american hops.  We met recently and hashed out a recipe, I decided to push to make it more of a fire beer than hot wing since no smoke will taste like chicken.  They also had smoked chipotle peppers that were really nice so we're going with those.  When discussing a base beer, I thought their Burly, an Irish Red, would be good.  It has a nice malty backbone that smoke and heat could pair well with, and Irish Reds sometimes have a diacetyl which could aid in a buttery character that is a major component in wing sauce.  Planning on brewing in December with a January release, should be interesting!

RECIPE:
I think we're shooting for a 10 gallon batch (12 brewed, 10 into kegs), and this is what we have so far:
Batch #42
60% Pale Malt
30% Beechwood smoked malt
8% Crystal (not sure what L yet)
2% Roasted Barley
3 oz Citra pellets (60)
4 oz Amarillo (0)
X oz Citra/Amarillo (dry hop)
2 Yeasts: 1) Wyeast Denny's Fav & 2) VPB House yeast
Smoked/dried chipotle peppers in 2nd (not sure how much yet)

12/10 - BREWDAY
Brewday set for Sat. 12/10.
More later!

Lewis Creek Brownie

I've been bitten by the smoked malt bug.  Over the last couple of months I've sampled a few really really nice beers that were lightly smoked.  Too much smoke is a terrible thing in my opinion.  I hate smoked beers that taste like smoked salmon, which is ironic because I named this beer after a brown trout, go figure.  Anyways, beers that are lightly smoked can have a pleasant campfire aroma and flavor to them that is really nice.  So, I've had this idea to make a lightly smoked brown ale for the fall.  Getting a little bit of a late start, but whateva.

RECIPE
Batch #41
8# pale malt
1# Weyerman Beechwood smoked malt (mild smoke character)
1# Best Malts Smoked malt (strong smoke character)
1# Aromatic
1# Crystal 60L
1# Golden Naked Oats
1/4# Chocolate Malt
1/2 oz Willamette (first wort hops)
1/2 oz Columbus (60)
1 oz Willamette (0)
Safale s-04

10/26 - BREWNIGHT
Single infusion mash @ 153F, batch sparge.
60 minute boil
This was supposed to end up at 6 gallons, but got boiled down a little too far, so I ended up with 5.75 gallons, SG 1.060

11/1 - gravity @ 1.020, some sweet smoke in the aroma as well as some fruity esters; opaque, light brown; flavor consists of sweet malt & mild smoke, a little bitter as well. Going to stir it up, and move it upstairs to finish off. 

11/9 - 1.018, gonna rack to a keg.  Carbed a 1L bottled for sampling.  

11/14 - took the 1L bottle to the November Mashers meeting.  I. Am. In. Love.  Wow, I'm so happy with this one.  Back the fuck up if you don't like it.  It surely won't be to everyone's taste, but I nailed what I was shooting for.  Booya.  

Mystery Rye PA 2011

Two years ago I brewed a partial mash version of this recipe for the AHA teach a friend to brew day, and it turned out nice.  Won a 3rd place in the specialty beer category for the 2010 VT homebrew comp.  A friend of mine, Bill Mares, dropped off a good bit of hops from a friends yard but didn't know what kind they were.  To me they smelled pretty mild.  I figured it would be perfect for another mystery hopped beer.

RECIPE
Batch #39
10# Pale Malt
3# Rye Malt
1/2# Crystal 60L
1 oz. Chinook (60)
1 oz. Mystery hop (60)
1/2 oz. Chinook (30)
1 oz. Mystery (0)
1 oz Mystery (dry)
Wyeast 1056 (used 2 tubes of my 1056 that I collected and stored.  Made a 750mL starter and added two tubes to it. )

Yippee, let's brew.
9/17 BREWDAY (night)
Brewing time has been really hard to find this year with Barrett getting older and Jen working more weekends. Didn't end up starting this until 8PM.

Mashed in with 18qts water @ 166F, doughed in, temps leveled off around 154/155.  Target was 154.
Stirred at 30 minutes, temps down to 152ish.
At the next 30 minutes mark, temps were at 151/152, and after an addition 15 minutes of waiting, added 10 qts of mash out water @ boiling.  Seemed to be a little too much, temps were like 175.  Added some ice cubes, got it down to 168/169 and let it set for about 15 minutes.
First runnings: 5.5 gallons (whoa), @ 13 brix/1.052.
Added 1.5 gallons sparge water, collected a total of 7 gallons.
Pre-boil: 7 gallons @ 12 Brix/1.048, target was 1.049 @ 70% efficiency
It was 11PM by the time I collected it all, so I covered it all up with blankets and will boil in the AM.

9/18 BREWDAY pt.2
60 minute boil, added 1 oz Chinook & 1 oz Mystery hops

10/2 - transfer to 2nd, added 1 oz Mystery hops, and a 1/2 oz of Chinook for dry hopping.
Smells fruity, and like a hef. Gravity - 1.015

10/16 - Kegged - 1.014 - Not a huge hop aroma, but definitely sweet and bitter. Could be a little drier.

11/5 - This is going fast, probably only a couple pours left.  Had a glass while watching the Penn State vs. Nebraska game.  I'm enjoying this one quite a bit - nice blend of fruity hop flavors and aromas, good bit of bitterness, and a decent malt backbone.  Still think it finished a little sweet, but, still a good one in my book.  

Pumpkin Roggenbier

Pseudo decoction, w/ roasted pumpkin

I've made a pumpkin ale the last two years, as well as a pumpkin stout (2009), and a pumpkin wheat (2010).  This year, I'm not really feelin a pumpkin ale.  I have a keg of Oktoberfest, and I will have a keg of rye ipa soon... and a keg of cider... so really, I didn't want two more pumpkin beer kegs.  Anyways, long story short, I did decide on doing a pumpkin roggenbier.  I had a roggenbier on my sights to have ready for the fall, and the more I thought about it, the more I saw that they could fit together (the pumpkin and the beer).  Roggenbier is a German concoction that is like a dunkelweizen but instead of wheat, you primarily use rye.  The big difference is that rye gives off a slightly spicey character.  I felt like this could potentially pair well with the pumpkin/spices.  Additionally, the traditional yeast for Weizens/dunkelweizens and roggenbiers, is the german wheat yeast which, when fermented at lower temps (62ish), can highlight a clove note rather than the banana esters that are present when fermented in the upper 60's low 70's.  I love the banana flavors in these styles, but I figured the clove might pair better.  For the pumpkin, I'll stick with what I'm familiar with - I typically use 8#'s of pie pumpkins, 2#'s of butternut, and 1# acorn.  I dice them up, top them with brown sugar, and bake them for 45 minutes.  When that is ready, I throw it all in the boil along with some spices.  At the very least, this should be interesting.

RECIPE:
Batch #40
5# Rye malt
5# Pale malt
1# Flaked rye
1# Munich
1# Caramunich
1 oz Carafa I
1 oz Tettnang (60)
1 oz Saaz (0)
Wyeast 3068

9/18 BREWDAY
And so it begins.  Was really trying to do this the same day as the rye ipa, but I just got started way too late. (will add brewday notes later)

10/2 - transferred to 2nd, added 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice. 

10/16 - kegged. 1.014. Smells like a German wheat beer. Definite clove/banana yeast esters are present. Body seems thick, but the FG is right. Definitely get a litle spice, both is up front flavor as well as finish.

10/26 - Still unsure about this one.  I think the pseudo decoction I did created the thickness that I'm not liking in this.  I think a little bit of a decoction would be great, I just think this was overdone.  Also, I probably should not have added any spices.  There is definitely enough spice with the rye and the low fermented yeast notes of clove to pair well with the pumpkin side of it.  I think this would be a great beer if I took those thing into account for next time.  

   

2011 Hop Harvest

2011 Fuggles

Not a great year for my hops.

Fuggles:  18 oz wet,  5.25 oz dry.
Tettnang:  6.25 oz wet, 2.625 dry.
Saaz:  4 oz wet, 1.75 dry.

One positive note on this is that my Fuggles came out pretty good this year.  Highest numbers so far for them and they were very green.  The others kind of tanked.

Here's a little graph of what I've kept track of over the last couple of years, apparently I don't have any data for the first few years.  Kind of strange.

The chart is a little difficult to read, I'll need to improve on my excel skills... but there are two numbers for each year, one for wet and one for dry.  The three different lines are the hop types. 

Tettnang took a huge hit this year.  I know one reason was that I accidentally clipped one of the vines, and the top of another one broke off early on.  Not sure those two could account for that much of a loss, but I'm sure it was a significant loss.

Funky Monkey

A year or so ago I brewed a bavarian weizen and added six pounds of banana to it, I also hopped it with Citra hops, and unbelievably, it was pretty balanced, almost tipped towards the citra.  I've been wanting to brew that again, but chillax on the hops so that more banana comes out, but I also wanted to do it without and bananas this time.  So, with my joint homebrew club picnic a week away, I'm going to try to crank this batch out.  I am also fiddling with the idea to do a decoction, and possibly a sour mash in order to get a little more complexity out of it.  But, I'm also leaning towards doing this one as a single infusion batch sparge and foregoing the sour mash, then maybe doing the former of the two ideas when I have some more time.

RECIPE:
Batch #38
6 Gallon batch
5.5# Weyerman Pilsner
5.5# Weyerman Light Wheat Malt
1 oz. Hallertauer (60)
1/2 oz Hallertauer (1)
Wyeast 3068, 1L starter, pitched at high krausen.

8/5 BREWDAY

Jenny's Cream Ale

A preliminary label idea...

Thought I'd try doing a cream ale for the picnic I'm hosting in August, in addition to the second batch of watermelon wheat I'm hoping to do as well.  And if I'm going a cream ale, why not name it after Jen.  This should be a fun, easy, and quick rendered batch.  Here's to summer and it's lawnmower beers!

THE RECIPE:
Batch #37
This is based off of a Jamil recipe, but he likes to use rice, I've chosen to use corn.
4# Pale Malt
4# Pilsner
1.75# flaked maize
.75# Honey Malt
.25# Biscuit Malt
1oz Cluster (60)
Wyeast 1056

7/30 BREWDAY:

Tim Tim Dubbel Raymond

Tim, pitching the yeasties

My hometown friend, and Bucknell Chemistry professor, Mr. Tim Ryamond has exquisite taste in beer, and an interest in learning how to brew.  He visits VT once a year for a week with his family, and so we planned on doing a batch together.  I gave him the freedom to choose any style and he decided on a Belgian Dubbel, not unlike Chimay Premiere.  This will be a pretty straight forward recipe with the goal of opening up a corked bottle of it at Thanksgiving.  Thanks to Jill & Jen for taking the kids swimming while we brewed!

RECIPE:
Batch #36
11# Belgian Pils
2# Munich
1/2# Caramunich III
1/2# Aromatic
1/2# Special B
(yes, I forgot to add sugar)
1 oz Pearle (60)
1 oz Styrian Goldings (0)
Wyeast 1214

7/31 - BREWDAY
Single infusion mash - 149F for 60 minutes, batch sparge.

8/1 - FERMENTATION LOG

7AM - small krausen, temp of water was 64, temp on carboy looked like it was 66 or 68. Will probably take it out of the water this evening and let it raise. 

9PM - temp of water was about 70, so I removed the carboy from it, looked like it was right around 70 as well, perfect for 24 hours in. I'm gonna let it ramp up, we'll see how quickly it does now. 

11PM - temp at 72, totally kickin now.

8/2 - 7AM - going full throttle, temp at 78

2PM - still chugging, temp at 78 or higher.

9PM - noticed bubble had slowed/ceased, temp around 78.

8/3 - 8:30AM - no bubbles, temp at 74. 

8/31 - Kegged to be lagered.  Will sit in the fridge for a month now.

Corked and ready to prime

11/9 - BOTTLING - 1.016 - Twenty 750mL bottles corked, and a few 12 oz bottles as well.  Only 2 weeks until Turkey day, hoping that they'll be primed by then.  

Black Heart RIS

THE PLAN

Been wanting to brew a Russian Imperial Stout... I blogged about one recipe I was thinking about earlier this year - Bourbon "Barrel" RIS.  I've put it off for 2 reasons... 1.  I was afraid I wouldn't have enough room in my mash ton.  2. I couldn't decide on a recipe.  It's been long enough, this thing needs brewed, and I have some emotion behind it right now, so it's time.  Black Heart symbolizes exactly what you'd expect... the loss of love.  The label I'm working on is the three of swords from the tarot deck, another interest of mine.  I'm aiming to "release" this on Valentines Day 2012. 

THE RECIPE

Batch #35

22# Pale Malt
3# Munich
1# Crystal 90
1# Choc Malt
1# Roasted Barley
1/2# Crystal 60
1/2# Special B
1/2# Black Patent
2 oz Citra (60)
2 oz Tettnang (60)
1 oz Fuggles (10)
1 oz Willamette (10)
2 oz Willamette (0)
Wyeast 1028

Single Infusion mash, ~154, 90 minute boil.
Ferment at 67
Secondary for 6+ months

Just about maxed out my 48 qt mash tun

6/26 BREWDAY (acting as summer solstice)
- Have been putting this off for so long because I wasn't sure if my mash tun would handle it.  Had to go with a 1:1 ratio for grain:water.  12 gallon cooler, 7.5 gallons of water, 6+ "gallons" of grain... yikes.
- Heated 30 quarts to about 175, added to cooler, waited 5-10 minutes, temp down to about 170.
- Doughed in all of the grain... little by little, and holy shit, it fit!  Stoked.
- Starting temp was right around 152, but I saw things from 149 up to 158.  All good.
- At 15 minutes in, I decided to add another 2 quarts of boiling water just to make sure it was staying up.  The temp now was about 154.  Cool.
- Checked at 45 minutes, stirred a bit, temps still above 150, so I'm good.
- Heating 20 qts of sparge water to 180F.
- Going with a 75 minutes mash to account for sparge water time.
- First runnings:  4.5 gallons, 1.106

9 gallons of black love

- Pre-boil: 9 gallons, 1.074
- Boil down to 7.5 gallons, then add first addition hops... leaving a little more in there since I'm using 6 ounces of whole hops which will suck up quite a bit of the wort.
- Added 1 ox Fuggles, 1 oz Willamette, irish moss, and chiller with 10 miunutes left.
- Added 2 oz Willamette at flame out.
- Chilling... down to 9- degrees... and kaplooey.  1/4 gallon water in the kettle from the chiller.  Gonna have to fucking boil again.  God damn it.  I guess I can tell all the non beer geek peeps it was "double boiled".  One plus for having to do this was that I filtered out the hops.
- After 2nd boil (which was about 30 minutes), I chilled to 64.  Gonna wait until morning to pitch yeast, hoping it will have built up a little more by then.

6/27 -pitched 1000mL starter & leftover rinsed yeast from oatmeal brown around 8/9AM.
By midnight, noticed krausen was 2" high and bubbles off the big blowoff tube were about once every second and a half or so.

6/28 - 7AM - Krausen is out of the blow off tube and has filled the first bucket.    Wrapped some cold towels around it to try and bring the temp down a bit, was pushing 74.

6/29 - 1:30pm - things have slowed down, took a gravity reading... sitting about 1.058, so still a ways to go.  Might pitch some more yeast to help it finish out, but I may wait a bit.

6/30 - 5:30p - switched to a regular airlock last night... bubbling every 4 seconds right now.  Hoping that gravity gets to where it needs to be.

7/1 - 7pm - bubble every 8 seconds.

7/3 - 10:30 pm - bubble every 17 seconds.  Gravity at 1.042.  Still not where I want it, but it's getting there.  I have a feeling this probably is about finished though.  That's pretty high... but if I do remember correctly, Bourbon Co. Stout finishes at 1.043... wouldn't that be funny.  Taste is pretty... regular.  Everything seems pretty balanced at the moment... no fusels, not as much fruity flavor as I wanted.. but its there.  This has promise.

7/24 - had a good reason for drinking some of this tonight, checked the gravity too.  1.040, boo.

9/3 - built up the blow off yeast, pitched in at high krausen.  No activity at first, but definitely got some bubbles.

9/21 - gravity check - 1.035!  Wuhoo!

9/27 - took a liter out to carb w/ new carbonater tool to take in to work for the stout ice cream.  The flat beer was kind of bland.  Just tasted like stout without much else.

9/29 - took it in, had a tasting and it tasted amazing.  That blandness was gone.  It was very rich.

9/30 - withdrew 2 more liters to take to work for the ice cream.  Noticed the

10/1 - transferred about 4.5 gallons to another carboy.  Going to decide if I want to oak/bourbon it or just go with it by itself.  If the latter of the two, then I'll keg it and throw it in the fridge.

10/3 - The micros test passed, so we will officially be scooping this imperial stout ice cream this Thursday!  http://ow.ly/6MeYy

 

Hoppy Father

Tried finding a hoppy monk picture,
but this was more interesting, and fitting.

THE PLAN
I brewed a Patersbier earlier this year, which turned out great, but as I was drinking it, it dawned on me that this would be a fantastic base beer for a Belgian IPA.  So, here we are, and I'm ready to do it.  As luck would have it, my parents were visiting us, so I thought this would be an appropriate beer to brew with my dad, seeing that it's close to Father's day and he is my dad... even though it's a different kind of father we're talking about here.

THE RECIPE
Batch #34
9# Belgian Pils
1.5 oz Citra (60)
.5 oz Citra (5)
1 or 2 oz Citra (dry)
Wyeast 1214

6/10 BREWDAY (3rd summer hours batch)
Actually ended up brewing this with my mom... my dad was off doing business stuff.  
Single infusion mash, batch sparge
11.25 qts @ 162F, target = 147F
After dough in, 147F (146-149) for 75 minutes
After 45 minutes, temp down to 143F, added 1 gallons of ~ 180F and got temp back up to 147F
After 2 hours (had to leave), temp down to 135.  Added 9 qts boiling water, hit mashout of 164F.
Collected 4.5 gallons, Brix 12/1.0
Boiled, added hops, chilled to 66 and pitched yeast starter.
Hydrometer: 1.060, maybe 1.058
Refractometer: 13.8 = 1.056
Gave it a taste (from hyrodrometer),  really really bitter, almost a little too bitter for the balance. 

6/12 FERMENTATION CHECK-IN
Things are better than yesterday.  Last night the temp was about 68, and there really wasn't much going on but a thin krausen.  I stirred it up a bit.  This morning there was some activity, temp about the same.  I decided to move it up to the kitchen.  Over the coarse of the day, it has risen to close to 74 (as of 10:30pm).  I wish I kept notes of the last fermentation, I vaguely remember it hitting upper 70's.  I probably won't let it go that high, but we'll see.

6/13 FERMENTATION CHECK-IN
Temp as of 8am was 76.  As of 1pm, bubbling has slowed, krausen has dropped, and temp is now 74.  As of 5:30pm, bubbling has pretty much stopped and temp is down to 72.

6/15 FERMENTATION CHECK-IN
Gravity down to 1.012, gonna rack to 2nd and add dry hops.  Taste is still pretty bitter.  Hardly any of the Belgian flare coming through. 

7/4 KEGGING
Racked to keg, filtered with coffee screen, gravity @ 1.010
Still really bitter, and now a citra aroma bomb as well.  Damn...

7/5 TASTING
It's only been in the keg for a day or so... but already my suspicions have been upheld... lots of hops, not much Belgian.  :-\  Oh well... lesson learned.  Next one will rock.  And it may get better if I gave it a little time to let the aroma hops die out a tad.  But, I'll just enjoy this one for what it is.