Summer On My Mind

A lot of Hops

A freezer full of hops, sacks of malt,  empty carboys and a fresh culture of  ESB yeast sets up well for a "summer strength" American Pale Ale.  The goal? Aromatic, well balanced, light to medium bodied American style ale with serious pulling power.

The grist is simple; Pale Ale Malt, Flaked Barley and Crystal 40 to the tune of 1.050.  The plan is to mash just the Flaked Barley and Pale Ale Malt @ 150F for 60 minutes before adding the Crystal 40 during Vorlauf.

 

230 grams of aroma/late/dry hops (~1.5lb/bbl) will be divided:

• 20% (45g) Cascade @ 20 minutes remaining in boil
• 50% (115g) Simcoe/Galaxy @ Whirlpool (30 minutes)
• 30% (70g) Galaxy split between two carboys, 35g each.

I'll add an additional bittering hop, probably Columbus or Chinook @ 60 to hit 35 IBU's (Tinseth).  To better estimate the final bitterness, whirlpool hops are entered to my brewing software as a 5 minute addition. I have found this to be a reasonable estimation of their bitterness contribution.

To dial in my water profile, I'll treat the entire 60 litres of brewing liquor with lactic acid to a room temperature pH of 5.4.  Then add 2 tsp of Calcium Chloride, 3 tsp of Gypsum and a campden tablet.  This should yield an appropriate mash pH with a final Calcium concentration of ~ 100ppm.

100% Whirlpool Hopped Blonde Ale

1040 Shootout Blonde Ale

... coming soon.

Revisited - Pigskin American Brown

Pint from 2nd Keg of Pigskin Brown Ale

So, I likely rushed through the first keg and my initial review doesn't do this beer justice.  It's reeeeally come into it's own, truly.

For the 2nd keg, I opted to forgo the dry hopping, this was most certainly the right call.  It's made a world of difference.  What was once a dank, bitter hop forward beer (with no real character to speak of), has now become a malty goddess.  The Munich and Pale Chocolate malts are playing so well off each other.  Along with the biscuity Pale Ale Malt... what  can I say, a match made in heaven.

I must say however, the Willamette hops added during the boil, are not lost.  There's a supremely balanced floral bitterness which I absolutely adore.  Maybe the First Wort Hops?  Pacman is also glorious.  The beer is all sorts of chewy, beautiful mouth feel, incredible.  All I attribute to this amazing yeast.  What a few extra weeks of conditioning can do to a beer!  I can't wait to make it again!

3rd Rock Pale Ale and Jamil's BCS Scottish 70/-

Pictured left is a Scottish 70/- from Jamil's "Brewing Classic Styles".  In the book he offers two recipes on the same style, one more traditional, the other a modern take on the classic.

I opted the modern version which includes 2-Row, Munich, Honey Malt, both medium and dark Crystal.  Finally Pale Chocolate Malt.

I brewed to an OG of 1040 with a single addition of Target @ 60 minutes for 13 IBU.  I mashed as prescribed @ 158F, fermentation stopped at an FG of 1.014-1.016.  I fermented with 4th gen Pacman yeast harvested from a bottle of Rogue Brutal Bitter.

The beer is excellent!  Lots of character for such a small beer.  Nice body, head retention, great colour.  Could see this becoming a house style.  Easy drinking, satisfying and you can drink two or three and feel fine.  Great social brew for sure.

Pictured right is a late hopped APA.  I call it "3rd Rock".  2-Row, Munich, CaraPils, and a touch of CaraAroma for colour.  OG about 1060.  I followed this with an insane hopping schedule!  Follow me here:

Chinook/Cascade/ Columbus @ 25 min, 15 min, 5 min and 1 min.  IBU count of ~ 36.  Each addition featured a 2:1:1 ratio.  Example 2:1:1 Chinook:Cascade:Columbus followed by 2:1:1 Cascade:Chinook:Columbus followed by 2:1:1 Columbus: Cascade:Chinook.   I then did the same for two dry hops, each 4 days long.  A total 240g for 20 Litres of beer!

First off, the beer drinks nothing like 36 IBU, more like 50 or 60.  It's clear with decent head retention.  Love the colour, classic IPA.  I am picking up some slight oxidation.  I dry hopped this in a secondary which I might not do again.  I have had better success hopping in the keg.  Intense grapefruit and pine flavours.  It's very nice but could do with some more body.  I used 8% CaraPils so perhaps a slightly higher mash temp might be in order.  Nice aroma but not as pungent as I was expecting.  I am getting little from the Columbus.  The Cascade and Chinook shine.  Fermented with Pacman, finishes quite dry.  Drinks like an IPA not the intended APA.

Pigskin American Brown Ale

Brewed on Superbowl XLVIII

45% Dark Munich, 5%ea Crystal 60 and Pale Chocolate Malt.  The Chocolate added late during vorlauf. Target 1060, hit 1057

FWH w/ Willamette, Chinook @ 60 for 20 IBU.  Big hit of Willamette and a smaller amount of Simcoe @ 5 minutes remaining.  45g Keg hop 3:1 w/Willamette:Simcoe.  43 IBU's total

Pacman yeast, fermented ambient (18c), finished high @ 1018.

Great head retention.  Sticky lacing evident.  Medium body, could use more.  Doesn't taste overly sweet contrary to the high finishing gravity (not sure what happened there).  Nicely bittered.  Subtle floral, earthy flavours and aroma.  Hints of roast, loving Pale Chocolate malt.  Could use perhaps another few percentage points of crystal malt.  Nice beer!

Pigskin American Brown Ale

Mr Bowenz English India Pale Ale

MO, C60, Amber and Wheat.  EKG w/Chinook Dry hops.
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/anyone-brewed-ipa-ekg-140192/

Short & Heavy "Special" APA

WLP090 - Pitch +87hrs

Brewed 40 liters of APA yesterday.  I've been trying to use up stock and therefore I'm running light on malt; however, the freezer is well stocked with hops.  To borrow a term from British brewers, with respect to gravity or strength of ale, this is going to be a "Special" strength American Pale Ale.

Base was a mix of Domestic 2-row and Pils combined with a decent portion of Vienna.  Weyermann CaraFoam and some CaraMunich for colour and body.  The **CaraMunich was added late in the mash, during the mash-out, one of a few changes I made to my brew process.  The idea here is to introduce less variables to the mash and thus stabilize the pH resulting in a more predictable wort.

Rather than treating the mash with salts, I simply treated the entire volume of brewing liquor with Lactic Acid to a pH of ~ 5.50 as calculated with the sparge water acidification tool in Bru'n Water.  I then added Calcium Chloride and Calcium Sulfate to the boil for a desired flavour profile and calcium content.

Since I was brewing 40 liters, a decent water to grain ratio can quickly fill my 36qt MLT.  This meant that I was not able to add all my sparge water at once as I normally would with smaller batches. What I decided was to begin draining the second running, then when the water level had dropped slightly, add the remaining sparge water.  A cross between batch and fly sparging.  Didn't seem to impact my mash efficiency at all.

Beyond the tight working conditions of my MLT, the only other issues encountered were a slightly low temperature on the sparge water (got caught making dinner).  The mash and mash-out were a perfect though, 152/168F.  I had two minor boil overs, once before the first hop addition, the second just after the 20 minute addition.  These stops and starts reduced my anticipated boil off and dropped the *OG a point or two.  Finally, during the last 15 minutes of the boil, while recirculating boiling wort through my pump and lines to sanitize everything, I guess some thermo protection switch kicked in and the pump stopped working.  Once the wort had chilled considerably, the pump resumed function.  I feel the risk of infection is minimal since it did get about 10 minutes of contact time with boiling wort.

I've started using Yeastex, a nutrient.  Not sure if it does anything but I figured it's cheap insurance since I tend to re-pitch yeast often.  For this particular beer, I did a split batch, one half receiving 250ml of 3rd gen, BRY-97 - American West Coast Ale Yeast.  This was harvested from a Blonde Ale the previous day.  The other half received a fresh 1L starter of WLP090 -San Diego Super Yeast.   As of pitch +7.5hrs, the BRY-97 had a light krausen covering the surface.  No action on the WLP090.

Here's the recipe...

Short & Heavy Special APA

OG 1.047*/ IBU 40/ SRM 5/ 40L
BRY-97 West Coast Ale Yeast/WLP090 San Diego Super Yeast

42% Domestic 2-Row
33% Pilsner Malt
16% Vienna
5% CaraFoam
4% **CaraMunich I (38L)

15g (13 IBU) Columbus @ 60m
40/20g Centennial/Simcoe @ 20m
40/20g Simcoe/Amarillo, 1/2 @ 5m, 1/2 @ 1m

Dryhop (Keg)
***40/15/5g Centennial/Simcoe/Amarillo

***Amount specified is per keg/19L

Update - Pitch +20hrs

BRY-97 was quick out the gates, the krausen continues to slowly build.  WLP090 was slower off the get go but has exploded filling the entire 4L headspace with krausen.

Update - Pitch +32hrs

BRY-97 krausen now stands at ~2".  From what I've seen in the past, this is pretty much high krausen.  The San Diego Super WLP090 krausen has started to fall slightly.  Very quick!  Wort temperatures holding steady @ 20c

Update - Pitch +63hrs

Both krausens have fallen to a light layer covering the surface of each fermenter.

Update - Pitch +72hrs

Krausen on WLP090 has completely fallen, STC controller set to 22c.

Update - Pitch +87hrs

Sample pulled from each fermenter, BRY-97 @ 1.012, WLP090 @ 1.011.  WLP090 sample very clear already!

Update - Pitch +13 days

Move BRY-97 to ambient and WLP090 to the keg.  Added Dry hops to the WLP090.  Will DH @ ambient for 3 days before moving keg to serving fridge.

Update - Pitch +16 days

Moved WLP090 to the serving fridge.  Set pressure to 30psi.