Strawberry Blonde - brewday

The Brew

On a recent vacation to Florida, we visited quite a few Tampa area breweries. Many of those breweries had some great flavor additions to their beers. Cage Brewing of St. Petersberg specifically had a couple of great ones. They had a Peanut Butter Fudge Brownie stout that was amazing as well as a Strawberry Wheat that had the most intense strawberry flavor I've had in a beer. That was the inspiration for this brew. This will likely be the first of many as I experiment with different amounts and type of strawberry flavor.

The Recipe

Grain/Sugars:

7.75 lbs 2 Row (84.4%)

11 oz Wheat Malt (7.5%)

8 oz Crystal 10 (5.4%)

4 oz CaraPils (2.7%)

Hops:

0.30 oz              Galena – Boil 55 min
0.25 oz              Cascade – Boil 25 min
0.25 oz              Cascade – Boil 10 min
0.25 oz              Columbus – Boil 10 min
0.25 oz              Cascade – Boil 5 min

Yeast:

WLP029 German Ale/Kolsch [slurry from (m)Oktoberfest brew]

Extras:

@15 1.0 tsp Whirlfoc

@15 0.5 tsp Wyeast nutrient

@kegging 4oz Strawberry Extract flavoring

Brewday

Labor day brewday. This was a "working" brewday in that I multi-tasked household chores while the brew was going. Everything went as planned and ended up collecting 5.5 gallons of 1.048 wort. Pitched a pint of the yeast slurry i saved from my (m)Oktoberfest fermentation and put the carboy in the fermentation chamber at 58F.

The Wet Cardinal - brewday

The Brew

2 weeks prior to harvest

A few years ago I was introduced to the idea of a "wet hopped" beer. That is a beer brewed with fresh from the field hops as opposed to dried/cured/processed hops typically used. The commercial example that introduced this to me was Last Splash from Boulevard. That beer was a pretty typical American Pale Ale that was brewed with fresh (wet) Nugget hops. The wet hops added something different to the beer that I really dug. Flash forward a couple of years and an email from my LHBS with information about a local grower who would sell wet hops by the pound to homebrewers and I knew I had to take a stab. A couple of emails later and I was meeting up with the grower after work on a Friday to buy some hops he had harvested that afternoon. Big thanks to Andy Andersen of Homestead Divide LLC for the opportunity to brew with some high quality, affordable and very fresh wet hops. These hops were professionally tested by a lab to show they are perfectly in the description and specs of Cascade hops. Here is the hop report.

I decided for this brew I would go with an American Pale Ale. For quite some time I've had in my "recipes to try" folder the 'Can You Brew It' recipe for Nebraska Brewing Company's Cardinal Pale Ale. This seemed like a great opportunity to take a great recipe and play with some fresh hops!

For dealing with the wet hops I had to do a little research on the interwebs. The most common references state usage should be between a 6:1 and 4:1 ration wet to 'standard' brewers hops. Other recomendations was to use them primarily late in the boil, at flameout/whirlpool or for dry-hopping. The main reasons provided for this was the tendency for wet hops to add a grassy character, especially if used as bittering hops and present for the full boil. 

The Recipe

Grain/Sugars:

8.00 lbs. 2-Row (US)

14 oz Crystal 20L (US)

14 oz Crystal 10L (US)

10 oz Munich I (DE)

Hops:

0.50 oz. Galena @60

2.00 oz. Cascade (Fresh Wet Hops) @15

6.00 oz. Cascade (Fresh Wet Hops) @ flame out.

?? oz. Cascade (8 oz dried fresh hops) @dry hop 4 days.

Yeast:

US-05

Extras:

1.0 Whirfloc @10m

0.5 tsp Wyeast nutrient @10m

Brewday

The grower and I arranged to meet up at the LHBS on a Friday evening. I purchased all the ingredients, met Andy and secured the hops. After some convincing of my spouse that these fresh product needed to be used immediately, I set to brewing just after dinner. 

Typical solo brewday for me. Used the 15 gallon kettle to get the 4 1/2 gallons of strike water up to 160°F. Mashed in the grains and water into the trusty cooler mash/lauter tun. Hit the target mash temp of 150°F spot on. While that sat for it's hour long mash I heated the remaining 5 gallons of sparge water. Collected first runnings, sparged and collected a total of 8 gallons of 1.041 pre-boil wort. 

Brought the wort to a boil, added the 1/2 oz of Galena hop pellets and let it go for 45 minutes. At that point, added the first 2 ounces of the fresh Cascades. At first the hops just floated at the top and no real aroma resulted. Then after a couple of minutes the smell was very strong of grassy hoppy goodness. Finished off the remainder of the boil and added the big lot of 6 ounces at flame-out. 

Chilled down the wort, strained out the hops by pouring through a hop bag and collected about 5 1/2 gallons of 1.054 wort. Put the carboy in the fermentation chamber to drop the temp down further before pitching the rehydrated yeast. Fermentation temp will be held around 58°F for the first couple days then at 63°F until close to target FG with a couple of days at 68°F at the end before dropping it back to 58°F for the 4 days of dry hopping.

For that dry hopping I took the remaining 8 ounces of wet cascades and dried them overnight in my food dehydrator. Another thing I've never done, so we'll see how this turns out as well. I am guessing I will loose quite a bit of volume of beer to the hops, but what the heck!

 Brew detail sheet

Catch-up post. Mild, Saison, Oktoberfest

I've fallen behind on the blog. It happens. Life. Since the last post, I've brewed 2 ales, built a fermentation chamber and brewed Oktoberfest using Kolsh yeast, so technically also an ale in a lager costume.

Brews

English Pale Mild

This brew was based off a recipe from Experimental Homebrewing's session recipe collection. Specifically, Drew Beachum's Oat Mild.

Grain/Sugars:

6.0 lbs. Maris Otter

2.0 lbs. Oat Malt

0.6 lbs. Crystal 60

Hops:

0.10 oz. Nugget @60. (A: 16.8%)
0.22 oz. Perle @30. (A: .5%)

Yeast:

WLP005 British Ale

Extras:

0.5 tsp Wyeast nutrient

1 tablet Whirlfloc

 B

Saison with Hibiscus

This brew was also based off a recipe from Experimental Homebrewing. This we Beachum's goto saison recipe, Saison Experimentale. This one is made extra special with the addition of family grown and dried hibiscus flowers. My awesome parents plucked and dried each and every hibiscus blossom from their garden all summer long. This was also the second time I've use Wyeast 3724 Belgian Saison. The first time, I followed standard procedure and experienced the famous 'stall' from this yeast. This time, I followed Drew's open fermentation procedure and low and behold, the yeast attenuated all the way down to 1.004 in about 2 weeks. Amazing.

Grain/Sugars:

8.75 lbs. Pilsner

0.50 lbs. Flaked Wheat
1.00 lbs. White table sugar

Hops:

0.50 oz. Magnum@60. (A: 12.9%)

Yeast:

Wyeast 3724

Extras:

0.5 tsp Wyeast nutrient

1 tablet Whirlfloc

0.6oz Dried Hibiscus flowers in secondary for 3 days

(m)Oktoberfest

My favorite brew season is fall because of this style. I absolutely love it. Until now however, I've never had the correct temperature control to even attempt it. This is the first brew to test out the new chamber. I choose this recipe instead of an all-in lager to take it though it's paces. This brew was based off a recipe from Brülosophy author Marshall Schott. 

Grain/Sugars:

5 lbs. Vienna

2 lbs. 8oz Munich
2 lbs. Pilsner
8 oz Crystal 60
8 oz Honey Malt
2 oz Special B

Hops:

1.0 oz German Hallertau (whole leaf)@60.
1.0 oz Czech Saaz @60
0.5 oz Czech Saaz @15

Yeast:

WLP029 German Ale/Kolsch (2 packs)

Extras:

0.5 tsp Wyeast nutrient

1 tablet Whirlfloc

Build

I found a great site with instructions for a fermentation chamber build. Followed this as a general guide and adjusted to my needs. So far, it's working like a charm!

Stout for Summer - brew day

The Brew

Continuing the Summer of Sessions with a stout. More specifically, with a variation of a Irish Dry Stout. Recipe primarily verbatim from Brewing Classic Styles with the one tweak being the use of Dry English Ale yeast instead of the more traditional Irish Ale strain. Simple recipe, hopefully tasty beer.

The Recipe

Grain/Sugars:

7.0 lbs. Maris Otter

2.0 lbs. Flaked Barley

1.0 lbs. Roasted Barley

Hops:

2.0 oz. East Kent Goldings @60. (A: 5.7%, B: 2.9%) 20 ibu

Yeast:

WLP007 Dry English Ale

Extras:

0.5 tsp Wyeast nutrient

1 tablet Whirlfloc

Brewday

Originally this was going to be my Fathers Day brew. But when Saturday afternoon opened up, I took the opportunity to avoid the 100+ F Sunday forecast and get the brew in.  Setup solo to start it off in the garage. Used the BIAB setup again for this brew. Heated up 8 gallons of water to about 154F and mashed in for 60 minutes. Mowed the lawn during the mash. Cleaned out the car during the boil. Very productive brew day.

At 60 minutes fired up burned and started mash-out. Pulled the bag, light squeeze and fired up burner to full. Measured 7.5 gallons of 1.035 preboil wort. Simple 60 minute boil was startedAdded hops per schedule, chilled, pitched yeast and set to ferment. OG landed perfectly at 1.045. Target FG is 1.011, which if hit, should leave a dry stout holding about 4.4% ABV.

Sima 1 - 'brew' day

The Brew

A few months ago I picked up a new book, Speed Brewing by Mary Izett. In this book, Mary presents methods and recipes for all sorts of quick, generally low alcohol, fermented beverages. Almost every recipe in that book is super easy to make, but one struck me as both easy and delicious sounding, so I had to take a stab at it. That one was the recipe for a historical drink from Finland called Sima. Sima is a fermented lemon drink made from water, lemons, sugar and yeast. Think an alcoholic lemonade.

The Recipe

Grain/Sugars:

7 lemons, thinly sliced

3 cups of table sugar

Yeast
Champagne yeast

Brewday
Boiled 6 cups of water. Mandolin thin sliced the lemons. In a large bowl, added lemons, sugar an off-boil water. Steeped for 10 minutes. Cooled down, racked to carboy and pitched yeast. That's it.

Slamable Saison - brew day

The Brew

I decided after the last brew's low ABV that perhaps this was a good trend. So I am formally kicking off my Summer of Sessions. So every brew I make to drink this summer will be less than 5% ABV. (One exception will be a mid summer Russian Imperial Stout brew, but that one doesn't really count because we won't drink that until Christmas time). So if the Berliner style was the first, then beer number two in this Summer of Sessions is a take on an old favorite from last Spring, a saison made with the fermentation monster Wyeast 3711 French Saison strain.

The Recipe

Grain/Sugars:

4.5 lbs. Pilsner

1.0 lbs. Wheat

0.75 lbs. Vienna

0.25 lbs. Acidulated Malt

0.25 lbs. Flaked Oats

0.25 lbs. Flaked Corn

Hops:

1.0 oz. Willamette @60. (A: 5.1%, B: 3.8%) 20 ibu

1.0 oz. Czech Saaz @10. (A: 3.6%, B: 4.2%) 5 ibu

Yeast:

Wyeast 3711 French Saison

Extras:

0.5 tsp Wyeast nutrient

1 tablet Whirlfloc

Brewday

Brewday was a cloudy Saturday afternoon made available by rained out baseball and soccer. Lemons to lemonade! Setup solo to start it off in the garage. I decided with such a small grain bill to use the BIAB setup today, so i heated up 8.75 gallons of water to about 152F and mashed in for 60 minutes. During the mash got all the boil additions measured and even started on this very write-up.

At 60 minutes fired up burned and started mash-out. Pulled the bag, light squeeze and fired up burner to full. Measured 8 gallons of 1.030 preboil wort. With the high percentage of pilsner malt, the recipe called for a 90 minute boil. Added hops per schedule, chilled, pitched yeast and set to ferment.

WILBiER Weisse - Berliner style ale - brew day

The Brew

All the rage right now in the homebrewing world is a concept called "sour worting". The general idea is to quick sour a beer by pitching a Lactobacillis bacteria into unboiled wort to pre acidify it. One of the more creative approaches to this is to use an alternative source (those other then the standard homebrew yeast producers) of this souring bacteria. The Facebook group "Milk the Funk" (MTF) is a treasure trove of information on this topic and was the inspiration for this brew.

The Berliner Weisse style of beer is a historical style from Germany, more specifically as the name implies, the city of Berlin. It is typically a very sour, sessionable wheat beer. Traditional serving includes adding a sweet syrup at serving time to cut the acidity, however, many now are just drinking it as a straight sour.

Recipe base is from the MTF wiki recipe page for this style.

The Recipe

Grain/Sugars:
 4.75 lbs. Pilsner (DE) [66%]
 2.50 lbs. Wheat (CA) [34%]

Hops:
 0.50 oz. East Kent Goldings

Yeast:
 Lactobacillus Plantarum - Goodbelly JuiceDrink Mango - 1 carton
WLP644 Saccharomyces "Bruxellensis" Trois - 2nd generation repitch

Extras:
 1.0 oz 88% Lactic Acid

Brewday

4/15/2016 Step 1: Wort production and souring phase
The initial wort production was completely standard. With such a small amount of grains and some

time limits I went BIAB. Heated up 6.1 gallons of tap water to 151 F. Doughed in the grains and watched it settle right in at 148 F mash temp. Put the cover on, wrapped the pot in blankets and let it do it's converting. After about 50 minutes pulled and drained the bag, collecting about 5.75 gallons of 1.036 wort. Chilled that down to 100 F as per the MTF recipe (this still seems really hot to me). Added some lactic acid to pre-acidify the wort prior to pitching the lacto bacteria. Rack the wort onto the entire carton of the Goodbelly JuiceDrink. Moved the carboy down to the warmest part of the basement and left it for 3 days. *Unfortunately my PH meter is not working so i don't have measurements.



4/18/2016 Step 2: Pasteurization and saccharomyces fermentation
After the 3 days allowing the lacto to chew on the wort, it had a hint of sour, but not over the top as I was expecting. Schedules being what they are, I had no other opportunity to finish this later, so it was what it was. Transferred the wort back to the kettle. Added in half an ounce of old EKG hops and brought lit the fire. Held temp around 180 for 5 minutes and killed the flame.
Chilled it down and pitched the second generation WLP644 yeast.


After a week in primary on the clean yeast, initial tastings have been very reminiscent of lemonade, not super sour, but a good tart flavor. Regardless, it should be a really easy drinking session-able ale for summer.

2016 Nebraska Brewing Company Wort Transformation Challenge "Brew" Day

Today was wort pick up day for the NBC Wort Transformation Challenge. So, i guess technically, yesterday was brew day for these beers. As stated in previous posts, I have 2 entries for the challenge. I took 2 cleaned and sanitized carboys to the NBC Tap Room/Brew house to get the wort. Checked in, had a quick beer and then lugged the glass jugs back to get filled. They brewed up a 30 bbl batch (bbl is a beer barrel measure. One bbl is about 26 US gallons. So this was about a 774 gallon batch.) It was very cool to be back in a professional brewery, i cannot imagine brewing on that scale.


Loaded my 10 gallons back into the car and headed home. I was solo for this transport and I liken it to the day I drove my wife and first born home from the hospital. Slow, precise and way to over cautious around turns and bumps.

Brew 1: Belgian-American Tart Apricot Ale

The first beer, I didn't alter much. I added in 1 pound of D-45 Belgian Candi syrup, pitched the yeast, aerated as put in temperature control. The addition of the candi syrup did darken the wort a bit. It will be interesting to see the final color.

Original Gravity: 1.065
Target Final Gravity: 1.010
Estimated ABV: 7.0%
IBU: 30

Brew 2: Midwest Tropics IPA

The second beer, was a bit more ambitious. For this one i took 2 gallons of wort, added in 3/4 of a gallon of water and brought it to a boil. Once boiling, I added DME and an ounce of Nugget hops sourced from Midwest Hop Producers. Boiled that for 30 minutes, cooled it down and added it back to the carboy. I pitched my 1.5 liter WLP644 starter. Aerated and put next to it's sibling in the ghetto temp control.

Original Gravity: 1.063
Target Final Gravity: 1.008
Estimated ABV: 7.0%
IBU: 60

Transformation Challenge - The plan

As I mentioned in the last post, this year I will have 2 entries in the Nebraska Brewing Company's 5th annual "Wort Transformation Challenge". There are 180 total entries (limit 2 per brewer) and 4 judging categories:

• Traditional Pale Ale
• Fruit & Spice
• Experimental
• 100% Midwest Hop Producers hops

My plan right now is to use one entry for the Nebraska Grown Hops category and one for the Fruit & Spice. 

Base Recipe: Pale Ale

Malts
• 85% Pale Ale
• 15% Caramel 10 L
Hops
• Warrior @ 60 minutes for 14 IBU (~.25 oz/5 gallons)
• Centennial @ 20 minutes for 16 IBU (~.75 oz/5 gallons)
Specs
• 13.6 Plato or 1.055 OG
• 30 IBU (calculated with Tinseth formula)
• 6.6 SRM
• Mashed at 150 degrees

Entry 1

As we waited to sign-up last month, in talking with a former winner, I picked up a pretty good tip.  One way to make your entry stand out is to reboil (all or a portion of the wort) and make changes to the base. So for the first entry I am going to take a swing at that. The plan is to make a Tropical IPA highlighting the yeast character provided by White Labs WLP644 along with some Nebraska grown Nugget hops.

I will start by bringing 1/2 gallon of water to a boil and then add in 2 gallons of the wort. Bring that up to a boil and add 0.5 oz Duffin Knudsen Nugget hops. Boil for 30 minutes. Chill that back down and combine with the original 3 gallons of wort. My super accurate and not at all hacked together math, says this should push the IBUs up in the 45-55 range. The SRM will be a shade darker. And with boil-off, total volume will drop a bit and concentrate, raising the OG a tad.

After that is all chilled and happy in the carboy, pitch and ferment warm, to really push the tropical fruitiness of 644 for about 3 weeks. Then with a couple days left in the fermentor, dry hop with another shot of Nugget. Really wanting to push the tropical fruit from the yeast and melon from the hops.

Entry 2

This one I don't have quite as much thought through yet. Initial thoughts are to leave the base as is, pitch the same Wyeast 3522 Belgian Andennes I used for the Pre-transformation test batch. And then once fermentation is complete, secondary this on some fruit. Most likely sour cherry or apricot puree.

One week to finalize these plans, but really enjoying the blank canvas! 

Transformation Prep Belgian Pale Ale - brew day

The Brew

This year I am quite excited to participate in the Nebraska Brewing Company's 5th annual "Wort Transformation Challenge". This is a spin on the traditional homebrew competition. In this challenge, homebrewers get 5 gallons of NBC prepared wort, take it home and craft there own beer. Then after fermentation, adulteration and packaging, they bring it back for competition. Last year we heard about the event too late and missed the sign-up. Not so this year! I made the trek down to the brewpub and waited in line to sign up for 2 entries. I am scheduled to pick up my 10 gallons of wort on March 6th.

Each year, NBC changes up the base wort. This year, it's a pretty standard pale ale recipe. 85% pale ale malt, 15% Crystal 10 lovibond. 30 IBUs coming from Warrior bittering and some Centennial additions late.

In preparation for the challenge, I wanted to do a trial run on this base. So I decided to brew up the recipe myself. Original plan was to treat it as an opportunity to grow up a new pitch of WLP644 yeast I used on the Punch Bowl IPA a few months back. But lack of prior planning to get a starter going lead me instead to my LHBS to find something to use. I walked out with a smack pack of Wyeast Belgian Andennes and a Belgian-ish Pale Ale to brew.

The Recipe

Grain/Sugars:
10.2 lbs. 2-Row (US) [85%]
1.8 lbs. Crystal 10L [15%]

Hops:
0.25 oz. Warrior @60.
0.75 oz. Centennial @20.  

Yeast:
Wyeast 3522 - Belgian Andennes

Extras:
1.0 tablet Whirlfoc @15m
0.5 tsp Wyeast nutrient @15m

Brewday

2/14/2016- Brewday
Solo Sunday brewday for this one. Actually the rare combo Valentines Day - Presidents Day Eve brewday actually, because that's a thing. Standard equipment and process. Not much to cover. I did overshoot my pre-boil volume because of an overly aggressive batch sparge. Collected over 8 gallons instead of planned 7 gallons. The cost of that mistake was a OG of 1.050 instead of the planned 1.055, but hey, I'll have more beer to enjoy.

Mashed. Vorlof. Collect. Sparge. Collect. Boil. Chill. Pitch. And done.

2/21/2016 - Fermentation check. 1.008 (5.5% ABV). Tastes pretty plain, with a little Belgian character.

2/26/2016 - Fermentation check. 1.008 (5.5% ABV). Kegged.

Full brew details here.

By the way.... did you know spring is on it's way? My partner in the home brewery was working on her mechanics. :-)