My First Pelicle and A Cucumber Wheat

This post is updates on several beers, first this previous post  when I brewed an American Wheat half of which is destined for cucumbers. Well the time has come! I racked it onto about 3 pounds or so of peeled and sliced cucumbers. I'll give it a week or two depending on the taste and then bottle it. Should be delicious if it tastes like I imagine it will.

The other update is I finally have my first pelicle and I spy a second one on the way. My dark Cherry Saison has formed a nice whitish pelicle and my Rye Farmhouse Saison has some white dots floating around which I am sure is the start of one. The Rye Saison had fermentation issues and had a bubblegum taste, hopefully this will diminish with time and with the Brettanomyces working on it.

Brewing Notes - American Cucumber Wheat, Dark Cherry Saison, Rye Farmhouse Saison

American Cucumber Wheat

I've had the ingredients sitting there for awhile but hadn't gotten around to brewing it until today. I've been really wanting to play with different fruit and vegetable additions. This thread on homebrewtalk sparked my interest in using Cucumbers in an American Wheat. Sounds like it would of been perfect on a hot summer day but should still be enjoyable now. I plan on putting a portion of the batch onto cucumbers, another gallon or two onto mangos and maybe keeping a gallon without fruit.
This batch also was almost entirely all grain with only a pound of extract used. I may try an all grain batch next, I always thought I couldn't really do all grain on my stove but this has changed my opinion.
The grain bill was very simple this time and I've decided to keep my future grain bills as simple as possible.

UPDATE- My First Pelicle and A Cucumber Wheat
 

Specifics 
Batch Size: 5 gallons
Anticipated SRM: 4.1
Anticipated IBU: 22.8
Wort Boil Time: 60
Original Gravity:  1.047
Grain
3 lb Wheat Malt
4 lb Two Row
1 lb Wheat DME

Hops
.5  oz Warrior (16.7%) @ 60 min

 Yeast
Dry Nottingham Ale

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.

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

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.

Slightly Smaller Rumpkin Clone

After reading about Avery's Rumpkin I knew that I was going to brew my version of it for a fall beer. Rumpkin is an imperial pumpkin beer. Its aged on Gosling's Rum barrels for 6 months, coming out to intense 13.2 ABV. I decided to make it slightly smaller as I wasn't going to age it for 6 months and I wanted it ready to drink as soon as possible. I baked the pumpkin pie mix at 350 degrees for an hour, then mashed it in with the rest of the grains at 155 degrees. (Well as close to 155 as I can hold with this electric stove)
The pumpkin was prespiced and if the beer needs more spice I'll add it when I add the spiced rum later. I plan on using Kraken or Sailor Jerry's Spiced Rum. 

Specifics 
Batch Size: 3 gallons
Anticipated SRM: 14.6
Anticipated IBU: 24.1
Wort Boil Time: 60
Original Gravity:  1.070

Grain
3oz of Maris Otter
3oz of Flaked Oats
2oz of Crystal 120
8oz of Brown Sugar
1lb of Honey @ 5 min
4lb of Canned Pumpkin Pie
3.5lb of Amber LME

Hops
.50oz Cluster (7.00%) @ 60 min
.25oz Cluster (7.00%) @ 30 min

Yeast
Safale US-05

Four Grain Ale

Last night I brewed what I call a Four Grain Ale. I used Oats, Wheat, Rye, and Barley. I based the recipe off some rye recipes. It came out to a nice mellow 1.046 original gravity, I wasn't aiming for anything to  high in alcohol. I attempted to brew this as a partial mash and comparing with my Beersmith notes It looks like I hit about 70 percent efficiency.I added a majority of the extract in late to keep the color light.

Specifics 
Batch Size: 2.75 gallons
Anticipated SRM: 10.8
Anticipated IBU: 29.4
Wort Boil Time: 60
Original Gravity:  1.046

Grain
1.5 lbs of Amber liquid Extract @ 60min
2 lbs of Amber Liquid Extract @ 30min
4 oz of Flaked Oats
4 oz of Flaked Rye
4 oz of Torrified Wheat




Hops 
.25oz Cluster (7.50%) @ 60 min
.25 oz Cascade (5.50%) @ 30 min
.25oz Cluster (7.50%) @ 15 min

.25 oz Cascade (5.50%) @ 10 min

Yeast
Safale US-05

Sweet Potato English Ale

Since I read a recipe that included it, I've wanted to brew something with sweet potatoes. I finally got around to it. I brewed a 2.75 gallon batch as I wasn't sure how it would turn out, also I've decided to start brewing smaller batches. I based the recipe off a english nut brown ale. This ended up coming out with a lot higher gravity than I expected, but since it was planned as a fall beer it should have time to mellow.
I diced the sweet potatoes into finger nail sized pieces and then roasted half in the oven for about 45 minutes at 450 degrees. Some ended up burning on the outside but that should just add to the flavor. I then mashed all the potatoes for about an hour at 155 degrees (At least as close to that temperature as I could maintain. I wish I had a gas stove.) I then separated the the potatoes and proceeded to boil the wort as normal. Hopefully the orange color comes through in the end. I am excited to taste the final product.

Sweet Potato Ale

Specifics 
Batch Size: 2.75 gallons
Anticipated SRM: 7.0
Anticipated IBU: 15
Wort Boil Time: 60
Original Gravity:  1.072

Grain
.5oz Biscuit Malt
.5oz Chocolate
.5oz Special B Malt
.5oz Special Roast
1.25oz Dark Brown Sugar
1oz Flaked Oats
1oz Sucrose
1oz Torrified Wheat
3lbs of Golden Light DME

Hops
.25oz Cluster (7.50%) @ 60 min
.25oz Willamette (5.50%) @ 20 min

Yeast
WLP013 London Ale Yeast

Tasting Honey Pilsner Ale

I popped open one of the Honey Pilsner Bottles to do a proper tasting.

Appearance: It pours a nice blonde with a white one or two finger head that immediately diminishes into a small layer of foam. The ale keeps nice strong legs in the glass as you drink it.

Smell: A strong almost foral quality coming from the honey. No other real strong smells.

Mouthfeel: A smooth feel with a little bit of bite from the carbonation. 

Taste: An immediate strong honey taste that is followed by nice malt taste that seems to disappear the farther you get into the glass. I think next time I would pull back on the honey to let the hops and malt flavors come through more.

Brandon O's Graff (For the most part)

 Every attempt I've made at straight cider using juice, sugar and yeast came out thin and dry. Not at all like commercial sweet ciders. This is supposed to be sweet and have body like Strongbow or Woodchuck. Perfect for my significant other and other friends who don't care for beer.
I brewed up a 5 gallon batch following Brandon O's recipe as stated here. The only difference is I used 1.25 Oz of torrified wheat and just amber DME as it was all I had on hand. I used Crystal 120L as suggested in the recipe as I used cheaper juice. Cascade hops were selected as they seemed to go well with cider flavors.

I kept some of the yeast cake from my Honey Pilsner Ale and repitched it into this. The yeast is Safale US-05. After 12 hours the airlock would bubble every 5 seconds or so. Upon pitching the yeast the final gravity of the wort was 1.062. The only thing I am worried about is its currently fermenting at around 70 degrees. I really need to figure out a way to control fermentation temperatures, I'd prefer lower temperatures so no off flavors develop. I have high hopes for this cider.

Honey Pilsner into Secondary

Normally I don't rack beer into a secondary but I'd rather use my 5 gallon brewing bucket for primary than a carboy, and I plan on brewing a Kolsch in the next week.I also wanted to try gelatin finings on this batch to see how it did with clearing beer. I warmed a tablespoon of finings up in near boiling water and mixed it with the wort as it went into the carboy.
The wort smelled really good as it was being transferred. Malty with a citrus peachy on top of that, some of that coming from hops and I think some from the Safale US-05. From what I've read it can sometimes add a peachy aroma.  I saved some of the yeast cake and stored that away for later. Over all I'm excited about getting this into bottle and will bottle it as soon as its cleared up, which will hopefully only take a week or so.

Honey Pilsner Ale

This did not go as planned but I think it benefited from the changes. It originally was a Patersbier Kit from Northen Brewer. I followed the recipe but used a different yeast.  I have substituted the Belgian yeast for Safale US-05 American Ale yeast. It is supposed to very clean American Ale with crisp finish which should go well with the Pilsner malt.
Everything went expected on the brew day except the gravity was low when the yeast was pitched. It was reading about 1.035 and not the 1.047 that Northern Brewer suggests. A krausen didn't form for about 24 hours and even now there is no real activity in the airlock. I decided to add 2 pounds of honey I had leftover from making mead to boost the gravity of this beer. After entering the recipe into a calculator I came up with a predicted gravity of 1.048. The honey was added about 36 hours after pitching the yeast. Over all I am satisfied with the addition of honey, as it should meld well with all the other ingredients.

Safale US-05 American Ale Yeast
0.5 lbs CaraPils
6 lbs Pilsen malt extract syrup
2 lbs of Clover honey

1 oz Tradition hops (60 min)
0.5 oz Saaz hops (10 min)