Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Tina's Irish Red Ale

A friend requested I brew an Irish red up for her. So here it is, a nice Irish Red Ale based off Jamil's recipe. Everytime I read or use another one of Jamil's recipes it keeps reminding me to pick up his book Brewing Classic Styles. This beer has a simple malt bill that I decreased the amounts of special grains and added some Dextrine malt. The reason is because his recipes are made for 6 gallon batchs and I'm brewing a 5 gallon batch. I added the Dextrine malt because I've had issues with my beer coming out thin lately. 


Specifics 
Batch Size: 5 gallons
Anticipated SRM: 4.7
Anticipated IBU: 18.9
Wort Boil Time: 60
Original Gravity:  1.045

Grain
3 lbs Extra Light DME
4 lb American 2 Row
4 oz Roasted Barley
4.5 oz Crystal Malt 120
4.5 oz Crystal Malt 40
5 oz Dextrine Malt

Hops
.15  oz Warrior (16.7%) @ 50 min
1 oz Northern Brewer (9.3%) @ 60 min

 Yeast
Dry Nottingham Ale

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Citra Cream Ale

I've been brewing alot of darker beers and wanted to brew something up light, refreshing and something that would help convert BMC drinkers. A cream ale is what was needed! A  packet of Citra hops had been sitting in my fridge for awhile and it seemed the right time to use it. I would be able to use only Citra since a cream ale doesn't need high IBU's, which would let me taste what exactly Citra brings to the party. I followed Jamil's Cream recipe with a little modification, I used 2 pounds of Maris Otter and a pound of 6 Row.

Specifics 
Batch Size: 5 gallons
Anticipated SRM: 4.7
Anticipated IBU: 18.9
Wort Boil Time: 60
Original Gravity:  1.045

Grain
4 lbs Extra Light DME
1 lb Table Sugar
1 lb American 6 Row
2 lbs Maris Otter
1 lb Flaked Maize

Hops
.5 oz Citra (13%) @ 60 min
.25 oz Citra (13%) @ 5 min

 Yeast
Safbrew US-05

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Session By Session Witbier

Alot of my friends drink Bluemoon. I've introduced some of them to Hoegaarden which was well received. This beer should be enjoyed by all. I decided to brew session strength so that I could get that grey/white color instead of the darker witbiers that come from extract. I also didn't want an alcohol bomb. I couldn't find indian coriander and just used orange from the grocery store. I wish I used marmalade instead which I read about right before the brew session. A tablespoon of wheat flour was added to the boil to get a permanent haze. The bittering hops were a combination of hops I had left in my fridge that needed to be used and I added a small portion of Amarillo to put a different dimension of citrus into the beer. Safbrew T-58 was pitched and should work well within the style, but what it may add well be seen. I've heard mostly pepper/spicy and or a slight fruityness, but also some banana/cloves like a Hefeweisen. Hopefully this fermentation will stay on the Belgian side and not like a German wheat.


Specifics 
Batch Size: 5.5 gallons
Anticipated SRM: 4.7
Anticipated IBU: 17.3
Wort Boil Time: 60
Original Gravity:  1.039

Grain
 2 lbs Extra Light DME
2 lbs Wheat Dme @ 15 min
8 oz  Table Sugar
1 lb Red Wheat
3 oz Munich Malt
8 oz Flaked Oats
3 oz Torrified Wheat

Hops
.75 oz Hallertauer (4.8%) @ 60 min
.15 oz Williamette(4.6%) @ 60 min
.25 oz Spalt(.2.6%) @ 60 min
.50 oz Amarillo(8.5%) @ 15 min
.50 oz Spalt(2.6%) @ 5 min

Yeast
Safbrew T-58

Misc
.25 oz Orange Peel @ 5 min
.25 Crushed Coriander Seed @ 5 min
.25 oz Orange Peel @ 0 min

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Dark Cherry Saison

I racked my first Saison into secondary to let some bubblegum off flavors that dominated it hopefully clear off. But before I did that I brewed up another beer to put on the yeast cake, a Dark Cherry Saison. I still had a couple pounds of tart cherries I had picked and frozen earlier in the summer and though they would be interesting with a roasty and smoky malt bill. Also this beer is very much in the traditional saison idea as with farmhouse ales they would use what they had on hand. I am very excited to taste this beer which should be a complex beer perfect for cold winter nights.
 After transferring the wort onto the yeast cake fermentation took off after a couple hours. I put the cherries into primary at flameout because the flavors would meld more with the beer itself and would  not just be a cherry beer. 

UPDATE- My First Pelicle and A Cucumber Wheat
 
Specifics 
Batch Size: 4 gallons
Anticipated SRM: 16.1
Anticipated IBU: 27.5
Wort Boil Time: 60
Original Gravity:  1.047

Grain
 3 lbs Light DME
4 oz Chocolate Malt
4 oz Torrified Wheat
4 oz Flaked Oats
10 oz Table Sugar
4 oz Smoked Malt

Hops
.75 oz Northern Brewer (9.6%) @ 45 min
.25 oz Northern Brewer(9.6%) @ 5 min
.25 oz Strisslespalt (2.3%) @ 5 min

Yeast
White Labs American Farmhouse Blend WLP670  Yeast cake

Friday, October 7, 2011

Modern Sahti

After reading an article in BYO, a section in Radical Brewing and then listening to a Basic Brewing podcast featuring Finnish Style Juniper beers, I was hooked. I attempted to formulate a modern Sahti recipe. Something that could be enjoyed with our modern palate, not wanting something to offputting. Traditionally Sahti is not boiled during the brewing process, but I decided to boil it but only did a 30 minute boil. The only thing I wish I had done looking back is pitch a little Brett with the yeast. I pitched Safale S-33. I felt its qualities would lend itself to how the original Sahti yeast behaves. Sahti brewers uses a special bread yeast that is fast fermenting, stays cloudy, and has some estery overtones somewhere between a Hefeweisen and a Belgian.
Now somehow my Beersmith file is missing. So my notes are gone. So I can give you what I remember. The malt bill was 4oz of the Applewood Smoked Malt, 8 or more ounces of Flaked Rye, a small amount of Crystal 120 and 4 to 6 ounces of Chocolate Malt. 3 pounds of extra light DME were used in the boil. I really wish I had the notes on this brew. I used .3 ounce of Northen Brewer hops at 30 minutes and a .5 ounce of uncrushed juniper berries for the last  5 minutes of the mash. Then another .5 ounce of crushed juniper berries 10 minutes from the end of the boil. This was only a 3 gallon batch. Hopefully the juniper won't be overbearing, that is the main thing I am worried about.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Hoppy Spaghetti Wheat Beer

This thread on Homebrewtalk had stuck out in my mind and I tried a batch to see how it went. I followed the mashing instruction in the thread. Basically you simmer the pasta for a hour then mash like normal with the other grains. I did a 30 minute boil with this beer as I had already brewed one beer that night and SWMBO was hurrying me out the door. I tasted the water after simmering the pasta and it had a sweet taste to it. I'm excited to see how this turns out. 


Specifics 
Batch Size: 3 gallons
Anticipated SRM: 9.1
Anticipated IBU: 23.5
Wort Boil Time: 60
Original Gravity:  1.046

Grain
 3 lbs Light DME
1.25 lbs Wheat Spaghetti
8 oz Table Sugar
1 oz Flaked Oats

Hops
1 oz Whole Leaf Cascade (5.5%) @ 30 min
.5 oz Whole Leaf Centennial (10%) @ 15 min
.5 oz Amarillo Gold Pellets (8.5%) @ 10 min
.5 oz Whole Leaf Centennial (10%) @ 5 min
.5 oz Amarillo Gold Pellets (8.5%) @ 0 min

Yeast
Safale US-05

Applewood Smoked Porter

I decided to do another dark beer but wasn't sure what I wanted to do. A porter sounded good and I had recently purchased some Applewood Smoked Grains and I decided to do a smoked porter. Just chewing on the grains it was a nice smooth sweet smokey flavor that should work well with the roasty flavors in the beer. The main issue I had was trying to figure out how much smoked grain to use, not wanting it to be overbearing but still wanting it to be noticeable. It came out to 27.6 percent of the whole grain bill.



Specifics 
Batch Size: 3 gallons
Anticipated SRM: 30.5
Anticipated IBU: 34.2
Wort Boil Time: 60
Original Gravity:  1.046

Grain
3 lbs Amber DME
3.2 oz Special Roast
3.2 oz Biscuit Malt
3.2 Special B Malt
5 oz Chocolate Malt
1.5 lbs Applewood Smoked Malt

Hops
1 oz Cluster (7%) @ 60 min

Yeast
Safale US-05 (Slurry repitched from a previous beer)