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.

Watermelon Wheat

THE PLAN
I've had 2 watermelon wheats in the past and I've enjoyed both.  I'm not sure what triggered my recent interest in brewing one, but whatever... it's gonna happen. 

THE RECIPE
Batch #33
Following a simple American Wheat recipe from Jamil
6# Pale Malt
6# Flaked Wheat
1 oz Hallertauer (60)
Wyeast 1010 American Wheat
3# Watermelon (seedless, diced, and pureed to about 1 gallon)

6/3 BREWDAY (2nd summer hours Friday)
This should be a fairly easy batch.  Single infusion batch sparge.  Target is 152 for 60 minutes.
13.75 qts @ 166 (in cooler) -> 154, added an ice cube, temp down to 151/152
Mashout w/ 9 qts @ 200 -> 163/164
Collected 4.3 gal, Brix (will add)
Sparged w/ 12 qts
6.5 gallons total collected, pre-boil brix:
We decided to hit up Jazzfest, so I got it boiling and then shut it off and wrapped in blankets.

6/4 Got up and checked the temp around 8:30, still up around 143, not bad for 14 hours.  Got it on the burner and got it boiling fairly quickly. 
Chilled to what I thought was around 64/65, but after getting it intot he carboy it was close to 70.  I thought I'd seal it up and see if it would drop since the ambient temp that day was like 63.  Well... it only did by a few degrees, and that was after 12+ hours...

6/5 8:30AM - temp still up around 68, but decided to get this thing pitched anyways.  A little nervous that I brewed this Friday, boiled Saturday, and now I'm pitching on Sunday.  I hope that doesn't screw it up.  I've been careful with keeping it sealed, so I would think it would be safe.

6/7 Fermentation appears to have finished... settled at about 66F in the basement, bubble every 7 seconds.  Will still let this go until Friday, then I'll transfer to 2nd on top of the watermelon.

6/11 RACKED TO SECONDARY
Hacked up 2 seedless watermelons, pureed them, and put 1 gallon of the puree into my fermentation bucket.  Racked the beer on top.  Gravity is at 1.015.

6/18?  KEGGED
Kegged this bad boy today, I tried to filter things out by running the siphon tube into a sanitized grain bag.  Worked ok, I figure whatever sediment is left will settle at the bottom.

6/19 - First tasting
A little flat yet, but it has only been a day.  Great flavor, cloudy, great aroma. Can't wait for this to be completely carbed.

6/25 - More Tasting
This is a good one, and a quick one.  Will have to brew again!