More Sour...

The last sour beer I made is still really good, and I wanted to try something other than Medusa hops.  So, I settled on German Hull Melon hops, in hopes that the melon and strawberry notes will make it through or accent the tartness of the beer a bit.

Brew Day: 23 Oct 2017

Partial Mash:
1 lb Munich
4 oz Vienna
2 oz flaked wheat

Boil #1 (20 min):
1 lb Pilsen DME
4 oz table sugar

No hops or yeast at this time; once the wort is cooled to ~ 90 deg F, transfer to a sanitized fermenter and add two Good Belly Straight Shots.  Wrap in a towel and place on a warming plate.

Boil #2 (20 min): 26 Oct 2017
Returned the soured wort to the kettle, definite 'apple juice' aroma while I was pouring it.  Heated the wort to a boil for 20 min to kill the bugs, then cooled the wort and pitched the yeast.

Hops:

14 g German Hull Melon hops (FWH)
1 oz German Hull Melon hops (10 min rest @ flameout)
14 g German Hull Melon hops (dry hop)

Yeast: Safale US-05

Addendum, 5 Nov: Racked to secondary.

Addendum, 13 Nov: Dry-hopped with 14 g of Melon hops.

Addendum, 17 Nov: Bottled with 1 oz table sugar dissolved in 1/2 c boiling water.  Got 6 good bottles, one 22 oz flip-top bottle, and one 16 oz re-purposed soda bottle out of it.

Ginger Saison, re-deux

Yes, I know...I do make a good bit of "ginger saison" but this has to do with part of what I really like about homebrewing, and that's being able to try different things.  This time around, I wanted to try something a little different, and try adding a "tea" of ginger to the clean fermenter just prior to bottling.  In essence, the idea would be to boil some water with thinly sliced fresh ginger in it, add 1 oz of table sugar to the "tea" for priming, and then add this to the fermenter before the beer is racked onto it, to rest for about 15-20 min before bottling.

Brew Day: 24 Oct 2017

Partial Mash:
8 oz 2-row
4.5 oz rye
4 oz Carared
2 oz flaked wheat

Boil (20 min):
1 lb Pilsen DME
4 oz table sugar
7 g Centennial hops (@ 20 min)

Yeast: DanStar Belle Saison

Addendum, 5 Nov: Racked to secondary

Addendum, 15 Nov: Bottled tonight, with 1 oz of table sugar dissolved in boiling water.  I added several slices of fresh ginger to the water prior to boiling, making a tea from the fresh ginger, and used that for the bottling.  Got 10 bottles.  I need to keep one of my previous ginger saisons and do a side-by-side comparison.

Eureka IPA

I purchased some Eureka hops not long ago, because it sounded like a really interesting variety, and

Eureka is a high AA (~ 18%) hop, so it makes for a pretty good bittering hop.  However, I wanted to continue using the same process I'd used for IPAs before, which is to put in a good bit of hops at FWH, do a huge amount at the end of the boil, and use what was left as the dry hop.

Brew Day: 16 Oct 2017

Partial Mash:
1 lb Munich malt
2 oz flaked wheat

Boil (20 min):
1 lb Pilsen DME
4 oz table sugar

Hops:
14 g Eureka hops (@20 min)
1 oz Eureka hops (10 min rest, at flameout)
14 g Eureka hops (dry hop)

Yeast: Safbrew US-05 + 1/2 vial ClarityFirm

Addendum, 17 Oct: About 9 hrs after pitching the yeast, I checked on the fermenter; there is a good bit of activity and the beer has a nice white foamy head on it.  There is significant bubbling action going on in the blow-off bottle, but there is not much in the way of krausen material in the blow-off tube.

Addendum, 26 Oct: Racked to secondary today, but did not dry hop.  I only want to dry hop it for 3 days prior to bottling and over the next week, I won't have that time so I thought what I'd do is go ahead and rack to secondary to get it off the old yeast and let it age a bit, and then in a bit dry hop for the 3 days, then bottle.

Addendum, 13 Nov: Dry hopped tonight with 14 g of Eureka hops.

Addendum, 17 Nov: Bottled with 1 oz table sugar dissolved in 1/2 c. boiling water.  Got 8 good bottles and a 16 oz re-purposed soda bottle out of it.

Mad Scientist Time

I had some thoughts on modifications to the brewing process, based on somethings I'd read and heard recently, and I thought I'd document them here for later review, and to just put them out there...

I was reading one of the local magazines that talks about brewing and breweries in VA, and read about a beer where the brewer "added blue agave nectar in secondary".  I thought this was a fascinating idea...it would be a great way to add a bit of flavor, and yes, it would also be something of  sugar source for the yeast.  Now, I have added fruit in secondary (with the EverLong IPS Collaboration brew) and honestly, that turned out really nice.  So, fruit or blue agave nectar, either way, right?

From that, another idea I had was that the next time I make my Ginger Saison, I'll add some fresh ginger to the water that I add the priming sugar to, before I boil it.  I'll boil the ginger right along with the water and make a "tea", of sorts.  I'll have to test this out but if I do this and add the priming sugar to the resulting brew, it'll be interesting to see how it affects the overall flavor of the beer.  I do like Left Hand Brewing's Good JuJu (I think every home brewer strives to have their malt "copulate" with the hops, to one degree or another...) and tweaking my own recipes is always fun.

Oh, and I recently had an opportunity to visit the Crooked Run Sterling location.  I was in Herndon for work, and I had done a search on my phone for local brew pubs, and most of locations near me (it was right after work and I didn't want to spend a lot of time in traffic) were closed that evening.  My wife and I had been going to the Leesburg location since we (quite literally) stumbled across it, and after I began my own homebrewing journey, Jake shared with me a method for creating my own sour beers, which I've already used...a lot!

That evening, I had Blackberry Vibes with a couple of Senor Ramon tacos...it was a great way to end the day!  Not only is the color of Vibes interesting, but the taste is even more so...a sour beer with blackberries and vanilla makes for a fascinating tapestry of flavors.

I was looking around our pantry recently and ran across a couple of cans of crushed pineapple in 100% juice...hhmm...that got me to thinking...

Infusing Beer
What else can you do if you're a mad beer scientist?  What wild and crazy things can you come up with?  Let's say that you want to infuse beer with different flavors but you don't have a randall...you can build one, or you can use other alternative methods.

Something I read about when I first got started in home brewing (but haven't tried) is to get some fairly neutral beer, like maybe a 6 pack.  Set aside some hops, either different hops or different quantities, add them to the beer, and then seal the beers back up.  Let them sit for a bit, then chill them, and it's a great way to have a tasting party!

Another alternative, particularly if you want to infuse your beer with something other than hops (works for hops, too, though...) is to use a french press.