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.

Garbage Porter

Not going into too much detail about this brew.  Basically it was thrown together last moment as a brewing opportunity presented itself.  I used up some bits of malt here and there, a closet cleaner of sorts.

Base malt was mainly Domestic 2-Row (2kg) with some Light Munich (1.5kg) and Maris Otter (1kg) thrown in.  Special grains were Flaked Barley (1kg), Crystal 60 (600g), Chocolate (500g) and Roast Barley (100g).  I had planed for the gravity to be in the 1.060 range but over sparged and ended with 1.050 after the boil.

Hops were Challenger @ 60m (40g) and Target at flame-out (40g).  Supposedly ~45 IBU.

A thin 500ml slurry of BRY-97 pitched @ 17c, fermenting at 18c now.

Update Sept. 14th

Recipe Brewed

Update Sept. 15th

Yeast Pitched @ 9am

Update Sept. 17th

High Krausen last evening, 36hrs from pitch.  Temperatures hitting 18c.
As of 4pm this evening, the Krausen has started to fall (55hrs from pitch), increased the controller temperature to 20c.

Update Sept. 22nd

FG measuring 1.020 @ 68F, primary moved to ambient.

Update Oct. 10th

Kegged and sampled my first pint.  Very nice!  Can use more conditioning time to mellow out the Chocolate malt a touch.

LowTech Honey Ale v1

My wife rarely requests I brew, let alone brew her a certain recipe.  When she does, I listen.  After some R&R on the East Coast this past August, she took a liking to a certain Quebec brewery's Honey Ale.  She asked me to make one so even though it's not my favorite style, how could I say no?

Plan of attack:

• Lower OG (1.046) with Honey addition during Secondary fermentation boosting ABV to 5%
• Add a healthy amount of Crystal and Wheat malts to the mash for body and head retention.  The Crystal malt (CaraMunich I) will hopefully help retain some dextrins and prevent it from going too dry and thin.  Standard mash temperature of 62c/152.6F for 60 minutes.
• As noted, Honey added during secondary.  I top crop yeast from the primary and want to keep the strain as original as possible.  Don't want the yeast to be comfortable with anything other than maltose sugars
• I decided on WLP023 - Burton Ale which has been described as having a slight honey, clover character.  I plan to pitch @ 17c and hold @18c for 72hrs before allowing the beer to free rise and fully attenuate.
• I plan to brew on Saturday

LowTech Honey Ale v1

OG 1.046/ IBU ~20/ SRM ~ 8/ ~23L

80.0% OiO Domestic 2-Row
10.0% OiO Wheat Malt
10.0% Weyermann CaraMunich I

10g of Willamette @ 60 minutes
50g of Willamette @ whirlpool (IBU's calculated as a 15m addition)
500g Wild Blossom Honey during secondary

WLP023 - Burton Ale

Update Sept. 12th

YeastCalc.com

Since the yeast culture was getting long in the tooth (harvested June 24th, 2013), I've pitched the 75ml of compacted slurry to a stater.  At an estimated 10% viability, the original ~ 300B cells is likely down below 30B.  1.2L's should build this back to 190B or so.  Enough for 23L @ 1.046.

Update Sept. 14th

Brewed

Update Sept. 15th

Pitched BRY-97 @ 9am

Update Sept. 16th

Well, that didn't quite work out as planned!  So first off, the WLP023 failed to start.  LowTech IPA v4 had fully attenuated so I move it to secondary with dry hops and re-pitched the BRY-97 yeast to the Blonde Ale.

I missed my gravity (again, Grrr) and this one came out too strong @ 1.050'sih.  Probably a good thing about the WLP023 because I don't think I would have had enough yeast anyways.  I pitched 500ml of very thin slurry which accordingly to Mr. Malty might have even been too much.  I cooled the batch to 17c before pitching the yeast.  Temperature controller set for 18c.  In a couple more days I'll let it free rise and finish off before moving to secondary and adding the honey.

Finally, I had some extra time and decided to brew a batch of Porter.


Update Sept. 17th

High Krausen last evening, 36hrs from pitch.  Temperatures hitting 18c.
As of 4pm this evening, the Krausen has started to fall (55hrs from pitch), increased the controller temperature to 20c.

Update Sept 22nd

FG measuring 1.012 @ 68F, moved to ambient.

Update Sept 24th

FG measured 1.010 @ 68F, primary moved to freezer set for 4c (9 days since pitch)

Update Oct. 10th

This one has been sitting in the keg for a couple of weeks, still seems to have a permanent haze.  There's a flavour I am detecting that I don't quite care for, sorta belgian?  Not sure, needs more time.

LowTech IPA v4 - Whirlpool Hopping

1st Year Centennial Hops

A run of the mill American IPA with hop additions at 60 minutes and flame-out/whirlpool only.  Inspired by the Avery recipes for Homebrewers, I really wanted to find out what kind of bittering, flavour and aroma I could get out of my whirlpool setup.

Brewday wasn't smooth at all.  I missed my target mash temperature (or so I thought) of 65c/149F.  Turns out the calibration on my thermometer is off once again and my attempts to correct, what I thought to be a low mash temperature, were unneeded.

During the correction attempts, I depleted the water reserved for sparging.  Since I don't use a sight glass, I rely on accurate strike and sparge water measurements to correctly predict final volumes into the primary (x-in, y-out).  I didn't want to mess up my pre-measured water and opted to not replace the sparge water (used for mash temp correction as noted above).  Since I didn't rinse the grains as well as I would have liked, the resulting pre-boil SG was lower than anticipated.  I increase the boil time and strength slightly but still fell short of the desired OG (1.055 vs 1.059) and volume (22L vs 23L).

A cam-lock fitting and adapter was added to my MLT.  The intent was to recirculate the wort through a pump and back over top of the grain bed to improve run-off clarity.  Well, the electric leads on the pump must be poorly connected because the power would cut in and out intermittently.  A frustrating experience.  Troubleshooting lead to loss of temperature and wort.  Given these issues, I thought it prudent to conduct a starch conversion test which proved successful.  Apparently, it's really hard to mess up a mash although I gave it my best shot!  To cap it off, I forgot to treat the strike water with Campden.  If I have band-aid beer, I'll know why...

So, what does the recipe look like?

LowTech IPA v4

OG 1.059/ IBU ~75/ SRM ~ 5/ ~23L

84.0% OiO Domestic 2-Row
16.0% Gambrinus Vienna

30g of Columbus @ 60 minutes
120g of Cascade @ whirlpool (IBU's calculated as a 15m addition)
I plan to dry hop with a mix of Centennial, Columbus and Chinook.

BRY-97 America West Coast Ale Yeast (used 1x, making this the 2nd pitch)

I treated my mash water with 3ml of 88% Lactic Acid, 4g of Gypsum, 3.4g of Calcium Chloride and 4.5g of Epsom Salt.  EZWater projected a room temp mash pH of 5.41.  Sparge water was treated with Campden to remove Chloramine from the municipal water.  8g's of additional Gypsum added to the boil. Whirlfloc @ 5m to help precipitate cold break proteins.  Final water numbers: Ca 100, Cl 50, S04 250

At flame-out, the pump/whirlpool was started and 120g of Cascade dumped into the near boiling wort.  The intent was to whirlpool (hot) for 20m but in going with the theme of the brewday... I was distracted when a neighbour popped by for a visit, misread my timer and started the chill water @ 10m (10 minutes too early).  As a result, the flame-out hops had half the hot wort contact time than I would have liked.  After an additional 10m, the whirlpool was shut down and the chiller continued to drop the temperature to around 25c.  At this point the BK was drained to my fermenter.

The primary was placed into the fermentation chamber, STC-1000 set for 17c.  Once at 17c, the wort was well aerated with a Fizz-x for 2-3 minutes before pitching 250ml of cold, compacted BRY-97 slurry.  Based on the age of the yeast (claimed Aug 1, 33% viability), Mr Malty recommends 200ml of slurry.  I didn't use a starter.   STC-1000 controller raised to 18c/~65F where I plan to ferment for 1 day at full krausen before ramping to 20c/68F through completion.

If this beer turns out, I am not to blame.  Ha!

Update Sept. 9th

Light krausen @ 24hrs, full krausen inside 36hrs.  Wort temperature peaking at 18.2c before the freezer drops it back to 17.5c.

Update Sept. 10th

The IPA has been at full krausen for 24hrs, fermentation controller set to allow IPA to free rise to 20c.  Attempted to top crop the krausen/yeast

Update Sept. 11th

Temperatures rose rather quickly.  At 11pm last evening the controller was reading 19.5c.  Today it continues to hover around 20c.  I top cropped the yeast a final time, collecting a total of 200ml of slurry.  I placed my sanitized hydrometer into the pail and it sits at 1.030, would have thought it would have been further along?  Perhaps something to do with the lag time after pitch and the fact the yeast had been sitting in the fridge for a month.

Update Sept 15th

Moved to secondary @ ambient, added dry hops

Update Sept 22nd

Moved back to freezer to crash cool to 1c,  FG measures 1.010.

Update Sept 24th

Racked to keg, added an additional 30g of homegrown whole leaf nugget hops.