fermentationsofthingspast-blog
Fermentations of things past
A record of beers and wines that I have known, that I have brewed, that I have loved.
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0.16 Euro Scottish Ale
This weekend I brewed a Heavy Scottish ale, traditionally taxed at 70 shillings.
7 lbs Maris Otter
1.5 lbs 40L Crystal
0.75 Chocolate Rye
0.75 Roast Barley
I added 1 tsp NaHCO3, 2 tsp CaCl2, and 2 tsp gypsum to the 15 L filtered water with 1/4 tsp of campden that had been sitting for 20 min to get rid of the chloramine. I’m getting some 5.2 stabilizer for the next batch, pH strips have too narrow a range, and it’s too easy to overshoot. As it was, I believe my wort was probably just a little bit basic.
Held it at 152F for about 90 min, though it shot up to maybe 160 for 10 minutes. Then I raised it up to 170 and sparged with 10L of 190F water.
Once I started the boil, I put in
1 oz East Kent Golding
for 60 minutes, in the last 15 minutes, I put in the wort chiller and some irish moss. I chilled it down to 60F, which went pretty quickly since the city water is nice and cold this time of year.
I pitched from the starter package:
Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale
Got an OG of 1.051 And it was bubbling by the next morning, had to change the airlock on day 2. I’m a little concerned that I’ll overshoot the rather low ABV that’s supposed to accompany this beer, but I don’t think it will be by much.
1.051 -> 1.012 = 5.12%
If I’m serious about keeping the alcohol content from getting too high I could cold crash when the gravity reach 1.014, though just adding a half gallon of water would do the same, albeit at the price of malt dilution. We’ll see how it tastes!
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Don’t Overthink it IPA
I didn’t want to overthink it, so I didn’t
12 lbs golden promise malt
2 oz cascade
2 oz warrior
1 oz centennial
All hops are mixed together and divided into six batches that I through in the boil every 10 minutes.
Cool and pitch sarafale California ale yeast
After 3-4 days
Dry hop with
1 oz centennial
1 oz galaxy
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Holiday Ale 2021
Malt:
1 lb biscuit
1 lb aromatic
0.5 lb 50L crystal
0.75 lb caramunich
0.25 lb black
8 lb 2-row
Mashed at 155-160 for 60 minutes
1 oz East Kent Golding
0.5 oz coriander
0.25 oz cardamom
0.1 oz cloves
2 cinnamon sticks (almost too much)
Boil for 1 hour
Cool and pitch sarafale English Ale yeast
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Pliney the Elder Clone
I wanted to make a big IPA to end summer with, but couldn’t decide on the hops. I saw that there was an official Pliney recipe here: https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/homebrew-recipe/russian-river-pliny-the-elder-clone/ and figured I’d give it a shot. They have a recipe for 6 gallons, mine was more like 5.5 gallons, and I more or less rounded down on most of the grain bill.
13 lb (6.01 kg) two-row pale malt
0.5 lb (272 g) crystal 45° L malt
0.5 lb (272 g) Carapils (dextrin) malt
3.5 oz (99 g) Columbus* hops, 13.9% a.a. (90 min)
0.75 oz (21 g) Columbus* hops, 13.9% a.a. (45 min)
1.0 oz (28 g) Simcoe hops, 12.3% a.a. (30 min)
1.0 oz (28 g) Centennial hops, 8% a.a. (0 min)
2.5 oz (71 g) Simcoe hops, 12.3% a.a. (0 min)
1 L yeast starter with
The s.g. was 1.065, and then I added 0.75 lb table sugar right before the first dry hop addition to create a little positive pressure. This brought the effective s.g. up to 1.071. The first dry hop lasted 14 days:
1.0 oz (28 g) Columbus* hops, 13.9% a.a.
1.0 oz (28 g) Centennial hops, 9.1% a.a.
1.0 oz (28 g) Simcoe hops, 12.3% a.a.
After 9 days, I added a second dry hop addition
0.25 oz (7 g) Columbus* hops, 13.9% a.a.
0.25 oz (7 g) Centennial hops, 9.1% a.a.
0.25 oz (7 g) Simcoe hops, 12.3% a.a.
The final gravity was somewhere between 1.008 - 1.012. I think even though it’s a bit of a pain I am going to be using my hydrometer for the post-fermentation measurement as well as the refractometer. The refractometer just has too much error at the end.
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Rye Belgian Strong
Rye Belgian Strong
A slight rework of a beer I made last year that got rave reviews. I wanted to dry out the finish a bit and increase the rye “spicinesst.”
6.0 lbs Pilsen 2 row
2.0 lbs Rye Malt
0.5 lb Aromatic Malt
0.5 lb Biscuit Malt
Mash at 152 F in 3 gallons, sparge with ~2 gallons 175 F water.
1 oz Northern German Brewer @ 60 min
1 oz Northern German Brewer @ 60 min
0.5 oz Centennial, yeast nutrient, irish moss @ 15 min
0.5 oz Centennial @ flameout
pitch Wyeast 1388 (Belgian strong ale)
1.078 o.g., DME was added to bring o.g. to target
5 days after pitching added 2 lbs of Belgian candi sugar, adding 18.4 points to the og.
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Bavarian Wheat
I brewed this for the F.O.A.M. Cup competition, I made an attempt to hit a pH of 5.2, more on that later.
6 lbs wheat
3 lbs Pils
0.5 lbs Munich
0.5 lbs Malted Oat
0.5 lbs Caramunich
Mash at 152 F
1 oz tettnang (60 min)
0.5 oz tettnang (15 min)
o.g. 1.052, pitch Wyeast Bavarian Wheat
After 3 days, fermentation was not vigorous, so I threw in a packet of M40 (Bavarian Wheat) Mankrove Jack I had on hand.
I used gypsum and 4.8-6.2 test strips to check the pH. I adjusted with some gypsum and baking soda. I didn’t realize that temperature affected pH (sorry Chemistry teacher, it’s been a while), so my readings were skewing more acidic than they actually were. I think it turned out well anyway, but lesson learned.
The esters came through pretty well on this one, I like it, but it may be a little strong for competition. The head retention is great. It also came out a little darker than it should be, less caramunich next time.
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Blood Orange IPA
Another experiment with blood orange. I think it came out all right, there is a minor note of astringency, but by in large, I like the amount of blood orange flavor, and it seems to go well with the hops. That being said, I felt I could have gone harder on some of the hops, they were a little drowned out in this one.
Wort:
4 lbs Pale malt
1 lb Vienna malt
1 lb Munich
1 lb Caramunich
Hops:
1 oz Cascade (60 min)
0.5 oz Cascade (30 min)
0.5 oz Ahtanum (30 min)
0.5 oz Ahtanum (15 min)
0.5 oz Jaryllo (15 min)
0.5 oz Cascade (dry hop)
0.5 oz Jaryllo (dry hop)
Yeast: Safale-04
Fermented 2 weeks at ~70 degrees. After 3 days, added 1.5 L Simply Lemonade mixed with 8 oz blood orange syrup as well as the dry hop addition. The gravity went from 15 to 6.5 brix, leading to a 7.5% alcohol.
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Wookie Jack clone
I basically followed a recipe I found in Zymurgy. It’s bubbling away right now, looking forward to how it turns out.
8 lbs 2 row
1.6 lbs rye
0.5 lb chocolate (calls for care-rye, but they didn’t have that)
0.5 lb carafa II (instead of carafa III)
0.5 lb midnight wheat
mash at 145-148 for 1 hour, then heat to 155 for ten minutes.
It was definitely more like a 90 minute mash. Sparged with 3 gallons of 190 F water.
0.5 oz magnum 90 minutes boil
4 lbs DME
1.0 oz citra 20 min
1.0 oz amarillo 20 min
1 Tbs yeast nutrient 20 min
1 Tbs irish moss 20 min
1.75 oz citra flameout
1.75 oz amarillo flameout
I feel this batch cooled much faster than usual, may have been because the city water is so much colder this time of year so the bathtub really chills it fast. Also, filled the tub up a little higher than I usually do.
Pitched a 1 L starter of S-04 Dry English Ale yeast. Will allow to ferment 10 days.
1.0 oz citra dry hop 1-3 days
1.0 oz amarillo dry hop 1-3 days
1.0 oz citra dry hop 4-7 days
1.0 oz amarillo dry hop 4-7 days
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This year’s Holiday Ale
Mash 90 min at 154F
1/2 lb 45 L caramel
1/4 lb caraffa II special
1/4 lb Belgian special
1/2 lb 35 L caramunich
1 lb belgian aromatic
1 lb biscuit
5 lb Pilsen
3.5 lb DME
1oz Fuggles (60 minutes)
1 oz juniper (30 min)
1 tsp all spice (15 min)
1/4 oz cardamom seed (15 min)
1/2 oz coriander (15 min)
1.065 o.g., dry hop 1 oz juniper after 5 days
~6% ABV
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Honey Kolsch
7 lbs German Pilsner
1.25 lb Munich
0.25 lb carapils
Mash at 154 F for one hour
1 oz Hallertau @ 60 min
0.5 Hersbrucker @30 min
0.5 oz Hersbrucker @15 min
irish moss, yeast nutrient @ 15 min
1 lb Raw Wildflower honey @ flameout
Pitch Wyeast Kolsch 2526
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Rye Belgian Tripel
A lot of words strung together, we’ll see how it turns out.
6.5 lbs Pilsen 2 row
1.5 lbs Rye Malt
0.5 lb Aromatic Malt
0.5 lb Biscuit Malt
Mash at 156 F in 3 gallons, sparge with ~2 gallons 175 F water.
1 oz Northern German Brewer @ 60 min
1 oz Northern German Brewer @ 60 min
0.5 oz Centennial, yeast nutrient, irish moss @ 15 min
0.5 oz Centennial @ flameout
pitch Wyeast 1388 (Belgian strong ale)
1.078 o.g., DME was added to bring o.g. to target
5 days after pitching added 2 lbs of Belgian candi sugar, adding 18.4 points to the og.
Kegged on the 4/27. Measured 10 brix, and assumed 1.092 og. Final ABV should be about 11.5%!<\p>
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Blood Orange Hefeweizen
I am going off a recipe I found as the top google hit, because I wanted to make this style, but had no clue where to start. I think this guy is the top google hit for a reason, the recipe looks solid and has some finer points that I haven’t tried before: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=396346.
I of course had to do a partial mash, which means I basically use all the specialty grains, but the base grain I just use however much is necessary to bring the recipe to 8 lbs and then add malt extract to reach target gravity.
Today’s recipe:
2 3/4 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row)
4 lbs White Wheat Malt
1.25 lb Vienna Malt
Mash at 158 for 60 minutes (temperature monitor was at 158F, I turned off the burner, and it was at 161F after an hour).
OG 1.037 after sparging with 1 Gallon 174F water.
I should also note that I messed up and got Czech Saaz rather than Sarachi Ace. Sarachi is a fairly unique hop, but given the low quantities I think I’ll be fine. Both hops have citrus notes (which I believe is why they’re used) but Sarachi is lemon and Saaz is grapefruit. The recipe continued with making up for the lacking Pale Malt with DME:
1.5 lb DME
.25 oz casceade (60 min)
.25 oz cascade + .25 oz saaz (20 min)
1 lb light brown sugar (15 min)
.25 oz saaz (7 min)
.5 oz orange zest (5 min)
I left the wort in the tub to cool for the next five hours while me and the misses went out to Flying Dog to see Of Montreal. When I got home, I topped off with water, and put it in a 70F fridge after pitching the first yeast (White Labs German Kolsch WLP029, 1L starter), an OG of 1.064. We will see how everything is going after a few days...
It is bubbling away by morning. The temperature is about 74-76 most likely due to active fermentation, so I might turn the fridge to 68F to try to even things out a little.
The beer was left at 70 degrees for three weeks, with the “blood orangeade” and Wyeast 3333 added after 4 days. The FG was 1.011, making it a 7.2% beer. It’s in the keggerator carbonating at the moment. It had a great flavor out of the bucket, looking forward to it!
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Rye Pale Ale
Just a nice afternoon brewin’ up an ale. Thought I’d do a rye, this is supposed to be a clone of the Terrapin, but I upped the Rye a little. I ground the Rye separately from the rest since it is dehusked and therefore a different size from the rest. The malt bill is as follows:
5.5 lbs Two Row Malt
1.5 lbs Malted Rye
1 lb Munich Light
8 oz Victory Malt
6 oz Honey Malt
I mashed in 3.375 Gallons of water at 152F for 60 minutes. and sparged with 1.5 Gallons of 170F water.
I added 3 lbs of DME to the wort, and then went through with the following hop schedule:
½ oz Magnum 60 minuts
½ oz Fuggles 20 minutes
½ oz Golding 20 minutes
1 Tbs yeast nutrient 15 minutes
½ oz Amarillo 5 minutes
1.060 OG, and pitched a starter of White Labs 007 Dry English Ale yeast. After letting it sit overnight, I put it in the lagering fridge at 65F.
Dry hop 1 oz whole Amarillo hops 1 week
Ended up dry hopping more like 1.5 weeks. Kegged it at a final gravity of 1.009, making an ABV of 6.6. I feel like that was higher than I was shooting for, and I need to work out something I'm missing about hitting target Gravity.
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It's time for the keggerator
I want to do a 'making of post' in the near future, but I just wanted to get this posted. I have been enjoying brews from this for a couple months now, it's an amazing and beautiful thing, and totally worth all the money and the work.
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Juniper Christmas Ale
So not only did I bring some people in to experience the beer making process, but they also were tasked with kicking my keg of Oktoberfest so that I would have an open keg to put the new beer into when I came back from Thanksgiving break. They succeeded, which goes to show that having friends is a better way to get to brew more than becoming a fat alcoholic.
.5 lb 45L caramel
.25 lb dehusked black malt
.75 lb 35L caramunich
1 lb belgium aromatic
1 lb biscuit
4.5 lb Pilsen
~4 lbs DME
1 oz Fuggles (60 minutes)
1/2 oz juniper (30 minutes)
1/2 oz juniper, 1/4 oz corriander, 1tsp allspice, 1/2 oz cardomom seed, 1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg (15 minutes)
Wyeast 1098 British Ale yeast
Mash at 156F for 90 minutes in 3 Gallons, sparge at 170F with 1.5 Gallons. I didn't make a starter for the yeast this time, I felt the smack pack was good enough. All herbs and spices (except the nutmeg) were given a once over with a coffee grinder I keep around for grinding spices. The nutmeg was lovingly ground by hand.
It required just a bit over albs of DME to bring the deal up to an OG of 1.063 (it's the holidays, it needs a kick). I let it ferment for a week, at which point it had reached 1.019, I threw in another 1 oz of juniper berries to 'dry hop' for about 9 days. I kegged it yesterday at FG 1.012.
I'm looking forward to trying this one. A comment during brewing was 'it smells like Christmas,' I think that means I did it right. I hope it tastes like Christmas too!
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Dark Side of the Schwarz
This is a Schwarzbier to replace the Take the Black IPA when it kicks. Since it's a lager, I can just let it keep lagering in my mini fridge until it's time to keg! To be honest, I kept pretty terrible notes on this one, but to the best of my recollection it went something like this:
4 oz roast barley
6 oz carafa II special
8 oz 40L caramel
8 oz chocolate
8 lbs Pilsen
2 oz hallertauer (1 oz 60 min, 1 oz 15 min)
WP 833 german lager yeast (1 L starter)
I mashed at 150F for an hour, sparged at 170F. The beer is not supposed to be terribly strong, I think I only added a couple pounds of DME to bring it up to 1.045.
I kept it at 55F for two weeks, then brought it to 65F for two days, and crashed it to 40F for the past couple weeks. I took a gravity reading, and I think I probably just missed the window for a proper diacetyl rest, as it seemed to have reached the final gravity for the yeast strain. Oh well, one of these days.
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Swamp Chiller
I finally rigged a swamp chiller. I say finally, because I tried to brew in Atlanta (and now NoVa) for years, and it gets real hot during the summer. I picked up a bin from Home Depot for about $6.50, bungee corded a towel to it, dumped in some water and turned on the fan. It seems to work pretty well, the fermometer on the side reads 72F and it's been bubbling steadily since Monday.
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