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.

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!

Wits End

THE PLAN:
The basic plan is to brew another Belgian Wit, reminiscent of Victory Whirlwind.  Such a great summertime beer, can't wait to have this one available. 

RECIPE:
6# Belgian Pils
5# Flaked Wheat
1 oz Hallertauer (60)
.25 oz Tettnang (didn't have any Saaz)
Bitter & Sweet Orange Peel
Wyeast 3944 Belgian Wit (1L starter made ahead of time)

BREWDAY 5/27 (first Friday of summer hours):
This has been put on hold for close to a month now... hoping the grains are still fresh.
(will add notes later)

Dirty Dozen

It's almost May in VT, and that means fiddleheads, dandelions, and homebrew competitions.  I brewed around 18 batches last year, and am already up to 7 batches this year... and not that they all rocked, but I did have a hard time narrowing down my entries.  I narrowed it down to around 10, then somehow a couple other crept in there... I had a hard cutting any, so I went with 12 in the end.  Here's a list with a few comments, I'll post an update once the competition (May 14th) is finished:
Maple Red Ale - amber ale brewed with 100% maple sap instead of water, maple syrup added at bottling.  I bottled it 2 weeks ago and it's still hardly carbonated, so hopefully by the time the competition happens, it'll be good.  Hopefully.
Berliner Weisse - an old German sour ale, 3.5%, light, tart, and with the rhubarb addition, even more tart.  I'm really hoping this does well, but I think it might get flagged for being a little too light.  It tastes pretty watery to me.  I also bottled it last night, and I'm hoping the yeast held out and do their job now.  I also added a tiny bit of champagne yeast, probably so tiny that it won't make any difference. 
Amber Ale - a nice solid amber, I wasn't particularly fond of one of the hops I used, but that won't hurt.  It's also got a little chill haze, and last year this category was judged in the morning, so there's a chance it will still be cold and hazed, but hopefully not.  I think this one has potential to place, but it could go in any direction.
Saison - brewed this for my former drummer's wedding last August, getting a little old, but still solid. 
Oktoberfest -brewed this a year ago.  Borderline too old, but... whatever.  Still a solid beer regardless.
[Update 5/4 - had one of these last night at a BJCP study group session, it seems as though the ones I bottled are infected with something.  We found a ring inside the bottle just where the beer stopped in the neck.  We also found that it was quite oxidized, which in the end was good for us all to experience.  Kind of embarrasing on my end, but it sounds like it could have been the carb tabs that caused it.  I checked the only other bottle I had and it also had a ring.  I'm going to check the brown rice lager bottles too to see if they have it since I bottled them all the same night.  In any case, I'm going to try and pull this from the competition.]
Double IPA 1 - this was my HopSlam clone, could be good, who knows.  I was a little down on this beer before, but when I finally did a side by side of an actual HopSlam, I was pretty surprised how similar the aroma, flavor, and mouthfeel were.  The biggest difference was in the color and clarity.  Appearance is only 3 points, so I'm guessing I get a 1 or 2. 
Double IPA 2 - most recent one... actually, so recent that aside from 4 bottles that I capped today, the rest of it is still sitting in secondary!  This is definitely on the lighter side of the imperial IPA category, but still meets all the criteria aside from color... this one was purposely brewed to be very light in color (and it still has a nice malty body).  If this thing carbs right, I'm one lucky SOB.  What a afro-engineered job I did.  
Patersbier - This one has probably my highest hopes, although the category its in is a competitive one.  I also worry about carbonation since I bottled this out of a keg with my nifty little homemade beer gun. 
Honey Rye - This one I love.  Period.  But, this was brewed for a mashers style competition and got thrown out early because it had a vanilla taste to it... I was a little peeved about this because I don't think they considered that I used a Kolsch yeast which is what they were tasting.  But, nonetheless, a few other people that brewed beers for that are also submitting and we're waiting to see if they'll be judged similarly.  As much as I was not into this style (6D - American Wheat or Rye beer) I absolutely love this creation.  Perfect spring beer. 
Cranberry Oak Tripel - This was probably the most debatable of the bunch as to whether I should enter it.  It's got some age under it now, so things have mellowed out a bit, but I have been to hell and back trying to tie this thing up.  I'm going to try some more tonight, but last time I had it I thought that it was a little too dry of a finish.  I could definitely taste the cranberry and oak, but that damn champagne yeast I used just effed it up.  When I brew this again, I will repitch with some of the original yeast I think.  Anyways, this got submitted to the Specialty Category, pretty much the catch-all, so we'll see how it does.  My Rye IPA placed 3rd in this category last year. 
Belgian Strong Dark - Ah yes, the good old Sugar Plum Fairy.  I think that this achieved what I set out to do, and I'm particularly proud that I got such a great plum-like flavor just from the grains... but really it was all the grain's doing.  I think this finished a little thick, a little sweet, but still pretty solid.  One thing that has really come out with age is the spicing, which may throw this out of the category I submitted it in - 18E - Belgian Strong Dark.  The judges that score this could throw it out because of this quality and say that it should have been in the Belgian Specialty category or the Christmas/Winter Specialty beer category.  It would be a shame if this got tossed because of a logistical thing like that, because I think it pairs well to style.
Doppelbock (x2) - As Jack Skellington once said "And the best, I must confess, I have saved for the last..." My friend and brewing cohort Matt joined me in brewing 2 different doppelbocks a few months ago - one was a 3 gallon double decoction batch, and the other was a 3 gallon infusion batch.  We both feel that the infusion batch is much better, but we decided to enter both just to see what the judges come up with.  Should be interesting.  

So, as I'm about to try and enjoy a rare evening at home, I have my thoughts on these babies of mine that are now in the care of some fellow brewers.  The next 15 days will be a little difficult, but I'm confident in my brewing, and should see some success.  But ya never know!

5/26 UPDATE
The comp didn't turn out as good as I had hoped.  Most of my beers were major failures, and there were definitely some questionable reviews... like my saison, it got a 12 out of 50.  My Sugar Plum Fairy got a 40 out of 50, which is outstanding, but when it advanced to a mini best of show for that category, 3 beers with lower scores ended up taking the top 3 places.  Kind of effed, but what can I do?  Nothing.  In addition to that, one of our doppelbocks took 2nd in the bock category... the interesting thing about that is that the decoction took 2nd... not the infusion.  Still to this day, we both agree (as do a group of peeps we do tastings with) that the decoction is off mark... it's hot, and quite the cherry bomb.  The infusion is much nicer.  Who knows what happened.  Most of the other beers dropped somewhere in the middle, some scored a lot lower than expected.  Definitely not a good day, and I could feel it coming.  Oh well.  Tough lesson learned.  I definitely wanted that credibility or validation, and I fell way short of it.  It hurts the old self esteem a bit, I feel that I'm a better brewer than what I was scored at.  I think part of it was getting skunked on a few things, but I can also confirm that I held on to these beers too long.  I also never brewed any of them to style, I really was creating my own recipe, and dropped them into categories they may fit into.  The judging is so subjective and entries live or die by the pallets of two particular people doing the judging.  I stewarded the event, and it was definitely interesting to see how different people tasted things.  I first helped out with the American Ale category, the two judges I was assigned to covered brown ales, and a couple pales.  They both really liked a brown ale that was (in my opinion) way over roasty.  They didn't think so, they advanced it to the mini best of show for the category, and as soon as two elder judges tried it, they flagged it for being too roasty.  At least I got some validation for my own judging.  Needless to say, the whole experience kind of turned me off of competitions.  I can certainly say that I will not be submitting a dozen beers next year.  Maybe a couple.  That was just effin stupid on my part. 

Soulshine DIPA

THE PLAN
Another double IPA attempt.  This one - lighter & more balanced between malt sweetness, hop bitterness, and hop aroma/flavor.  Planning on using citrusy hops, I used simcoe last time - 2 oz bitter, 2 oz dry hop... and the beer came out smelling and tasting a little too much like grapefruit.  Using Centennial and Citra this time.  Hoping that will give me the profile I want.   Also using honey again, but a little less this time, only 1# compared to 3# last time.

Yeah I know, the name is cheesy, but whatever. 

THE RECIPE:
14# Pale Malt
1# Crystal 10L (would like 40L but I only had 10 & 60 to choose from)
1# honey (late boil addition)
2 ounces Centennial (60)
1 ounce Citra (0)
1 ounce Citra (dry hop)
Wyeast 1056 

4/17 BREWDAY
God this took too long to get brewed.  Time is hard to find these days.
General: Single infusion mash, mashout, and batch sparge.  90 minute boil.
Targets: 15 total pounds x 1.25 = 18.75 qts @ 166 (target = 152), 60 minute mash,
pre-boil 6.43 gallons @ 1.060
Actuals:
Preheated mash tun with 2 pints boiling water, held for 15 minutes while strike water was reaching temp
18.75 qts @ 176 (to account for cooler - can always decrease temp, very hard to increase it)
Added strike water (176) to cooler, after 5 minutes temp @ 172, added 6 ice cubes, temp now @ 167 
(~2PM) Doughed in immediately, temp @154 (a few spots at 152, but this was perfect)
After 30 minutes, I opened, temp @ 154 still, stirred up a little, temp still @ 154
After another 30 minutes (60 total), I started to vorlof  (*I skipped a mashout this time and I'm regretting it.  I got 10 qts 1st run, and 15 qts 2nd.  That's not right.  Should be equal or the other way around.  The pre-boil gravity is lower than expected because of this.  Probably left some sugar in the grains, which would have been washed out at a higher temp.)
1st runnings: Collected 2.5 gallons (10 qts), Brix 20/1.083 - total mash absorption = 8.75 qts
Added 15 qts sparge water @ 180, after addition temp @ 158 :-(  target was 168/170
2nd runnings: Collected 15 qts, Brix 10/1.040
Total pre-boil - 6.5 gallons @ Brix 14.5/1.059
Boiled for 90, and added water at the end to top off at 5.25 gallons.
Hop additions:
2 oz Centennial (90)
1/2 oz Amarillo (45 - supposed to be 60 but the clock got away)
1 oz Citra (0)
Also added Irish Moss at 15 left, and 1.5# honey at flame out before I added the Citra.
The gravity (even after adding the extra water) was Brix 17.4/1.071.
Chilled to 66 degrees via immersion chiller
(~8PM) Pitched Wyeast 1056 yeast starter (~8PM)

FERMENTATION LOG:
4/18 8AM - a bubble every 10-20 seconds or so, temp @ 68F

4/19 2AM (yes, 2AM) - bubbling about twice a second, temp @ 70F, decided to soak a towel in cold water, wring it out, and wrap around carboy.  That will hopefully maintain the temp around 68-70.

4/19 8AM - bubbling has slowed a little, temp @ 68F, took wet towel off and put t-shirt back on.  Kinky.

4/24 - RACKED TO 2ND
1.012 Nice color, pretty good aroma already, great balance of bitterness and sweetness.  Added 1.5 oz citra dry hops (whole).  Can't wait for this to be done!

5/9 - BOTTLING
With the help of Jen's dad, got twenty-six 12 oz bottles and thirteen 22's.  Sunshine on the caps.

5/22 - FIRST TASTING
Decided to try to open one of these while we were away on a 4 day weekend excursion.  Popped open one of the 12 ounce bottles, just about completely carbed, not quite there, but enough to enjoy it.  Definite citrusy & honey aroma.  Wow, can't believe how much of the honey comes through... I'm having aromatic recollections of my honey rye, interesting.  Everything is pretty much where I'd hoped it would be with the body, color, mouthfeel, and the whole nine.  Will try another one next weekend and give it a full review.

A review from Mr. Don Osborn (starts at 3:24):

How Wheat It Is

In light of my pending wheat brews (wit, hefe, wheat saison), I've been doing some in depth research on the various kinds of wheat malts out there, and thought I'd write a brief post explaining the differences.

What IS wheat anyways? 
It's a grass, and is the leading source of vegetable protein in human food, the others being corn and rice.  It originated in the "Near East", aka the Middle East, but cultivated world-wide today.  Wheat grain is a staple food used to make flour for leavened, flat and steamed breads, biscuits, cookies, cakes, breakfast cereal, pasta, noodles, couscous and... beer!  Enough, for more info see Wikipedia.

Grains Varieties
There are probably more types of wheat than any other brewing grain.  There's raw, malted, torrified, flaked, red, white, winter, etc.  
Raw (unmalted) wheat - The raw wheat has a higher protein content (which will make the beer much hazier, and mash harder to lauter and requires a cereal mash) and does not contain any enzymes. However, it's quite a bit cheaper due to not being malted. It's also thought to help beers age longer (such as gueuze or lambic) than malted wheat.
Flaked & Torrified wheat - Flaked and torrified are types of raw wheat that are easier to handle than the little grains of raw wheat, which are hard, tiny and huskless (i.e. difficult to mill). Torrified is just puffed wheat, and flaked wheat is cooked and pressed. Both of these are generally easier to work with then plain raw wheat.  
Wheat malt - This, of course, is just malted wheat.  You can find light wheat malt, dark wheat malt, carmel wheat, etc.  
Red vs. white - The grain of wheat used in brewing is either white or red (either can be of course malted or raw). White is generally softer, and that is preferred, but it also is what gums up the mash. But it's not always softer.

Typically, the general rule when selecting wheat base grains is this:
For German wheat beers, use malted wheat.
For Belgian style wits, use unmalted wheat (either raw, torrified, or flaked).
In both of these instances, they are typically 40-60% of the base grain total, the other % being malted barley (either pale or pilsener malt).

Beer Styles
If the number of wheat grain types was not enough, there's also a variety of beer styles that have something to do with wheat.  Wit, Witbier, Weiss, Weissbier, Weizen, Hefeweizen, Dunkelweizen, Kristalweizen, Weizenbock, American Wheat, Berliner Weisse, etc.  All of these can really be broken into 2 main categories (Weiss & Wit) with 2 smaller categories (Sours & American Wheat).  Here's a quick and dirty guide to all.

Belgian Wit

Hefeweizen

American Wheat

Weissbier, short weisse: these terms are used almost exclusively in the southern German state of Bavaria. "Weisse" is German for "white".
Weizenbier, short weizen: these names are used to indicate the same thing, but the choice term for Western & Northern Germany. "Weizen" is German for "wheat".
Hefeweissbier or hefeweizen: "hefe" is the German word for yeast. The prefix is added to indicate that the beer is bottle-conditioned (unfiltered) and thus might have sediment.
Kristallweissbier or kristallweizen: if the weissbier is filtered, the beer will look "clear" (or "kristall").
Dunkles weissbier or dunkleweizen: a dark version of a wheat beer ("dunkel" is the German word for "dark").
Weizenbock is a wheat beer made in the bock style originating in Germany. An example of this style is Aventinus, made by the G. Schneider & Sohn brewery in Kelheim, Germany.
Witbier or simply wit: Dutch language name for the Belgian style of wheat beer.
La bière blanche: The French language name for this type of beer.

So, happy wheat brewing... like I mentioned, I'll be brewing a wheat trio next: a wit, a banana hefeweizen, and a wheat saison.  Pysched for all..

Cheers!

Maple Red Ale

THE PLAN:

Somewhere along my way, I wondered about using maple sap as a substitute for water in brewing a batch of beer.  After a google search, I see that others have tried this, and it seems to work fine, but doesn't really add a ton of maple flavor to a beer.  When I think of a maple beer, typically a maple porter comes to mind for whatever reason.  I like those, but I want to shy away from that I think.  I finally decided on an amber ale... but evolved into a red ale, which is pretty much the same thing.  I am getting some sap from my friend Simpson who works at the VT Audubon Center in Huntington.  They tap about 500 trees and make syrup for educational purposes.  I'm also going to use some maple syrup in the boil, and probably some in secondary if needed, as well as using it for priming.  So here we go... Vermont Maple Red Ale!

THE RECIPE: 
7+ Gallons of VT Sugar Maple sap
9# Pale Malt
1# Crystal 10L
1/2# Crystal 40L
1/2# Vienna
3 oz Roasted Barley
1# Maple syrup to end of boil
1 oz Chinook (60)
1/2 oz Cascade (10)
1/2 oz Centennial (10)
1/2 oz Cascade (0)
1/2 oz Centennial (0)
Wyeast 1056 (starter made with maple syrup)

I also plan to add more maple syrup at bottling/kegging time to taste.

Can't wait for this one, but timing will be interesting seeing that I have to wait for a run of sap before I start going!  Hoping I can brew on VT Maple Open House Weekend, March 19-20.

3/17 BREWDAY: (night)
The sap started running this week, and since I was collecting sap from 2 sources, Thursday, St. Patty's Day, turned out to be the day that I would get the sap from both.  So, Thursday night, I celebrate with brewing this batch.  I was given 7 gallons of sap from each source, and flirted with the idea of boiling all 14 gallons down to about 8 or 9... but I took a gravity reading of the sap and it was already 1.012, so I really felt like it was unnecessary. 

Single infusion mash, target temp about 154 so that I can leave plenty of unfermentables in there to produce a nice body and sweet taste.  Even though I decided against boiling the total volume down, I did boil the sap for about 10 minutes before using.  I boiled 9 gallons and split it up into 3 pots: 14 quarts for strike, 7 quarts for mashout, and 14 quarts for sparge.  The sap was pretty discolored and cloudy, and made everything smell like cotton candy.  Not necessarily a bad thing in my opinion.  I was letting the strike water settle down in temp to about 170 before pitching in the cooler, and I had already added a quart of boiling sap to the cooler,... but this is where things took a bad turn.  I poured the sap in when it was about 169.  After 5 minutes, the cooler has sucked the temps down to 163.  Ouch.  Not good.  I know that adding the grains will take another 10-15 degrees, so I took the whole batch and poured it back into the kettle to raise the temp up again.  This time, I poured in when it was 171, and it still sank to 165.  Not happy, but I had already wasted an hour chasing strike temps.  I doughed in all the base malts first, then the specialty malts, mixed it all up, then added some of the roasted barley on top.  I mixed it up more, added a 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda, and let it sit for a few minutes.  Temps seemed to be around 153 which made me happy, since my target was 154.  I checked it again about a half hour later and the temps had sunk to 150 and below.  Not good.  AND I had to leave to go pick up a part for our car, pick up Jen, Barrett, and get my propane tank filled since it ran out while I was boiling the remainder sap.  I knew this wasn't ideal, to leave those temps sink below 150, and to leave it for another hour at those temps.  Beta Amylase will have its way, making a more fermentable, lighter bodied, drier beer.  Damn damn double damn!

So, I got back and the temps were between 143 and 146.  I heated up the mashout sap to boiling, threw that in, and the temps only rose to about 158.  I let it set for about 15 minutes, and then I drained for first runnings.  I got 3 gallons, 17.2 Brix, or about 1.070.  I had been heating up the sparge water at the same time, so I got the first runnings on the burner, and I poured the sparge water in - 14 quarts @ 180, still only brought the temps up to about 165.  Oh well.  Second runnings - 3.25 gallons - Brix 10, or about 1.040.  Pre-boil was about 6.25 gallons, 1.058.  Shooting for a 60 minute boil.

Boil went fine... added 1/2 ounce Chinook at 60 minutes, 1/2 ounce Centennial & 1/2 ounce Cascade at 15, along with a teaspoon of Irish moss, and threw my immersion chiller in to sanitize.  Also added about 6 ounces of maltodextrin at the end of the boil too, to help resolve some of the body issues caused by the lower mash temps.  I also threw in a few ounces of maple syrup with about 5 minutes to go.  Getting ready for knock out.

Collected 5.25 gallons of wort - Brix 14.5, or 1.059.  I had to add some water so that I wasn't way way over.  I think my initial reading was 15.something/1.066.  I really wanted this to land around 5.5%.

4/16 BOTTLED
I guess I missed an update when I transferred to secondary... but today was a good day to get this batch bottled.  Gravity was sitting pretty at 1.010, and everything cleared out very well.  Even though I never put any maple syrup in the boil or secondary, I can still taste maple.  Everywhere I read about using sap said you won't get any maple flavor, but I tell you I do!  In any case, I decided to use maple syrup to prime the bottles with rather than corn sugar.  I found a few things online (one from Mid West Brewing Supplies) that says to use 1 & 1/4 cups of maple syrup with a pint of water, so that's what I went with.  I'm really liking the taste of this already, I would say the hops do come on a little strong... if it were a straight forward amber ale, I think it would be perfect... but I really wanted the maple character to come out on this so the hops do kind of prohibit that from happening.  Hopefully using the maple syrup for priming will add more aroma and flavor.  The only thing I really worry about is overcarbing it.  Ended up with 2 dozen 12 oz bottles, and a baker's dozen of 22's. 

Next up... tasting!  And a video of the entire process!

And a review from Mr. Don Osborn (starts at 2:53):

Honey Rye

THE PLAN

Recently I started participating in a local homebrew club here in Vermont called the Green Mountain Mashers.  They're holding an internal club competition on style 6D - American Wheat... but substituting the wheat with rye, or at least a portion of it.  I'm kind of late in the game, but I think I can squeeze a batch in before the night they're judged, just about 6 weeks from now.  After looking into the style, I decided I'd do a 40/20/20/20 split of pale malt/wheat/rye/honey.  I'm hoping the honey will add a little complexity to the the wheat and rye, but we'll see.  I'm also opting to use a Kölsch yeast instead of an ale yeast, just to play around with the style a bit. All in all, this should be a nice crisp spring time beer that we can enjoy!

THE RECIPE
4# Pale Malt
3# Rye Malt
3# Wheat Malt
1 oz. homegrown Tettnang (60)
1# Honey (@ flameout)
10g Citra (@ flameout)
Wyeast 2565 - Kölsch

2/23 BREWDAY (night brew):
Need to get this brew ready for the 4/4 club competition, so I couldn't wait til the weekend to brew.  Shooting for a single infusion batch sparge to make things simple.
10# grain - 12.5 qts strike water - target mash temp = 152, did some scrambling with initial temps, but finally got it there.  After 60 minutes, I added 7 qts boiling water for mashout.  It only brought the temps up to 163 which I was a little disappointed in.  But whatever, not a big deal.  After 10 minutes, I did first collection:
1st runnings - collected just under 3 gallons, Brix 13.3/1.054.
Added 15 qts sparge water @ 170, after 10 minutes I started the 2nd run off.
2nd runnings - collected 15 quarts, Brix 5.25/1.021 - this seemed very very low... so I decided to only add up to 6 gallons for the boil rather than all 15 quarts.
Pre-boil - 6 gallons, Brix 8.9/1.035.  Not great, but whatever.
Boil was set for 60 minutes, added 1 oz. homegrown Tettnang at 60.  Added wort chiller with 10 minutes left.  At flame out, I added 1 pound of local honey, and 10g of Citra hops. 
Chilled to 60F, collected 4.75 of 1056 wort, decided to add a quart of water to bring it up to 5 gallons.
SG - Brix 12.3/1.049, 5 gallons, fermenting at 60 degrees.  Plan on doing this for a while, then lagering for a while as well.  Maybe 4 weeks for primary, 2 weeks for lagering?  Other way around?  Not sure yet.  Actually I don't think I have that much time, so hopefully this will finish fermentation quickly!

2/25 FERMENTATION WATCH
Been checking in on this guy... it's rockin steady in my basement at 58F.  Started bubbling within 24 hours, and is steadily chuggin away.  Hope this will finish out within a week or two so I can start lagering soon.

3/6 TRANSFER FOR LAGERING
It was nasty out today, so I decided to transfer this bad boy from primary to a keg today start lagering for the next 3 or so weeks.  Used my new hydrometer  - 1.016... not bad.

Golden-straw color, hazy still, pretty bland aroma... a little yeasty yet... really everything is pretty subtle.  Nothing really pops at this point.  Taste is fairly clean, crisp, a little sweetness from teh honey & malt... getting right to where I want it.  This could turn out pretty good.  At least a nice crisp Spring beer.

3/27 BOTTLING
Decided I better get this thing bottled if I want it to be ready for April 4th.  Gravity said 1.018, but then again it was just out of the fridge, so probably 36F or 38F.  Smells crisp from the Kolsch yeast, a tiny bit of spice, wheat, and hops... very subtle though.  The yeast is definitely overpowering everything else at this point.  Haze, straw color, might clear up a bit as it warms.  Taste is similar to aroma - very crisp at the front, smooths out to a balanced mix of hops, wheat, and maybe a little spice from the rye.  Honey really isn't overtly present, kind of hidden in the texture.   Used a little less than a cup of corn sugar to prime, collected twelve 22oz bottles, and a case of 12 oz bottles.  Wish I had a warm room to condition these in, but until I do, they'll be upstairs in one of the bedrooms next to the baseboard heater.  A week should be good enough to provide some strong carbonation, so we'll see... will probably test one a week from today.  This will definitely be a great beer to enjoy on a warm Spring day.  Lookin forward to it!

And a review by Mr. Don Osborn: