Monday, September 19, 2011

Rye Farmhouse Saison

This should turn out slightly funky and refreshing. Just a blonde ale malt bill with flaked rye and White Labs new American Farmhouse Blend with Brett should add the complexity and refreshing beer I'm looking for. I plan on putting a another beer on the yeast cake after this is done. Eventually I will start pitching the dregs from bottled sours and build up the bugs. I figure I can evolve this into a house sour.
I also tried out a new hop. Strisselspalt is a french hop that seems little used but comes highly recommended.

UPDATE- My First Pelicle and A Cucumber Wheat


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

Grain
2 lbs Amber LME
.5 lb Wheat DME
1 lb Light DME
4 oz Flaked Rye
4 oz Table Sugar
5 oz Honey Malt
2 oz Biscuit Malt

Hops
.75 oz Strisslespalt(4%) @ 5 min
.35 oz Centennial(10%) @ 60 min

Yeast
White Labs American Farmhouse Blend WLP670

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Choco Porter

I found an old bottle of my milk stout and it renewed my interest in brewing a dark beer. After exploring the possibilities I settled on a Chocolate Porter. So this is my attempt at that.
The end product didn't come out as dark as a porter should be and looking back I should of used some roasted barley along with the chocolate malt. The chocolate aroma was amazing coming off the wort as I transferred it to the fermenter.

Specifics 
Batch Size: 3 gallons
Anticipated SRM: 20.7
Anticipated IBU: 26.1
Wort Boil Time: 60
Original Gravity:  1.046

Grain
4 lbs Amber LME
4 oz Chocolate Malt
1 oz Caramel Malt
2.5 oz Flaked Oats
8 oz Maris Otter
1 oz Torrified Wheat

Hops
.5 oz Hallertauer(4.8%) @ 45 min
.25 oz Centennial(10%) @ 60 min

Yeast
Safale US-05

Monday, September 12, 2011

Rumpkin Update

I racked the Rumpkin Clone off the trub and into a clean carboy. I put a miniscule amount of table sugar into the new carboy that way the yeast would let off some C02 and protect it from oxidizing. I also added Sailor Jerry's Spiced Rum along with medium toasted french oak chips. I would of prefered cubes but couldn't find them at Liquor Barn and didn't have time to make the journey out to My Old Kentucky Homebrew. The oak chips will add another layer of complexity and some amount of  floral almost spiciness, plus the added mouthfeel and tannins is a welcome addition.
The flat warm beer seemed thin without carbonation to change the mouthfeel. Now the uncarbonated warm beer already had a slight alochol burn from the final gravity of 1.009 which brings the beer itself out to 8%  Abv. After the rum addition my Rumpkin clone should come out to about 10.5% Abv. I am thinking about pitching champagne yeast to make sure the bottles carbonate.