I recently read about a new dry yeast available, BE-134, and wanted to give it a shot. My wife likes Belgian style beers a bit more than I do, and I like to make her beer that she likes. This particular yeast seems to have some really good characteristics, and I'm looking forward to trying it out.
Brew Day: 31 Jan 2018
Partial Mash:
1.5 lb Munich malt
2 oz Carapils
Boil (20 min):
1 lb Pilsen DME
4 oz table sugar
Hops: 14 g German Perle (@ 20 min)
Yeast: BE-134
I followed all of usual procedures in prep, boil, cooling the wort, and pitching the yeast.
Addendum, 7 Feb: Transferred to secondary today; due to my schedule, this is going to sit for just over a month before I do anything more with it.
Addendum, 28 Mar: Bottled today, on 2 1/2 T of sugar dissolved in 1/2 c of boiling water. Got 9 good bottles out of it. During bottling, this one smelled as if it might be pretty close to the Belgians that Terri likes! Can't wait to see what this one tastes like!
Addendum, 20 Jun: Finally, after a couple of months, my wife stopped reaching for her Leffe's in the fridge and grabbed one of these, and she was glad she did! Her first comment, after her first sip, was how much this one tasted like a Leffe! Later in the evening, she wanted another beer, but only a half pour, so I split a bottle with her, and I have to say, this one is very close to a Leffe.
Wednesday, January 31, 2018
Monday, January 29, 2018
Another Brown Ale
The first brown ale I made turned out pretty well, and I wanted to kick it up a notch with a little something extra. So, this time, I'm going to make a similar recipe, but add a little something special in secondary...
Brew Day: 29 Jan 2018
Partial Mash:
8 oz Munich
4 oz Special B
4 oz flaked oats
2 oz chocolate malt
2 oz Carapils
Boil (20 min):
1 lb golden light DME
4 oz table sugar
Hops: 14 g Styrian Goldings hops (@ 20 min)
Yeast: DanStar Nottingham Ale
With this beer, I'm going to try something new (for me)...shortly after brewing this beer, I'm going to start soaking 1 oz of French oak chips in American Honey. I'll put the oak chips in a small, sanitized glass container, and just cover them in American Honey. As they sit, I'll check on them to ensure that all or as much of the chips are soaking as possible. After primary fermentation, I'll rack this beer into secondary, and let it rest on the oak chips. My hope is that this will give the beer an "aged in bourbon oak barrels" flavor. If it works, I'll continue to use this process with some sour beers in the very near future.
Addendum, 31 Jan: Fermentation of the beer is going very well. Began soaking 1 oz of French oak chips in American Honey, by putting the chips in a sanitized glass container and just covering them. I'll be checking on them regularly to see if they need any more added.
Addendum, 7 Feb: Transferred to secondary today, racking on to the soaked oak chips (which smelled incredible!). Due to my schedule, this is going to sit for just over a month before I do anything else with it. I should be able to try the first bottle of this around the end of March.
Addendum, 17 Feb: Decided, due to the weather, to bottle the beer today. I figured that resting on the oak chips for 10 days would be a good start to see how this turned out, and from there, can adjust the timing.
Addendum, 11 Mar: Tried the partial bottle tonight, after chilling the beer. The bottle opened with a noticeable fizz, but the beer itself was not carbonated. There was no noticeable vanilla in the nose, and the beer itself was flat and sour, with a very noticeable flavor of tannins. I'm thinking that the soaking of the oak chips in the booze did nothing to sanitize the oak chips, and bacteria was introduced.
Doing a bit of research, and asking a friend who's a professional brewer (thanks, Phil!), I've decided to update the process to include boiling the chips first, for at least 10 min, to kill any bugs and also remove some of the tannins. The American Honey whiskey is only 35% ABV (70 proof), and that may not have been enough to kill any bugs. Maker's Mark is 45% ABV (90 proof) which might be better, but why chance it, right? Given the volume I'm brewing, letting the chips sit in the booze for 7-10 days, and then letting the beer sit on the chips for 7-10 days should be enough, and longer can only be better.
Brew Day: 29 Jan 2018
Partial Mash:
8 oz Munich
4 oz Special B
4 oz flaked oats
2 oz chocolate malt
2 oz Carapils
Boil (20 min):
1 lb golden light DME
4 oz table sugar
Hops: 14 g Styrian Goldings hops (@ 20 min)
Yeast: DanStar Nottingham Ale
With this beer, I'm going to try something new (for me)...shortly after brewing this beer, I'm going to start soaking 1 oz of French oak chips in American Honey. I'll put the oak chips in a small, sanitized glass container, and just cover them in American Honey. As they sit, I'll check on them to ensure that all or as much of the chips are soaking as possible. After primary fermentation, I'll rack this beer into secondary, and let it rest on the oak chips. My hope is that this will give the beer an "aged in bourbon oak barrels" flavor. If it works, I'll continue to use this process with some sour beers in the very near future.
Addendum, 31 Jan: Fermentation of the beer is going very well. Began soaking 1 oz of French oak chips in American Honey, by putting the chips in a sanitized glass container and just covering them. I'll be checking on them regularly to see if they need any more added.
Addendum, 7 Feb: Transferred to secondary today, racking on to the soaked oak chips (which smelled incredible!). Due to my schedule, this is going to sit for just over a month before I do anything else with it. I should be able to try the first bottle of this around the end of March.
Addendum, 17 Feb: Decided, due to the weather, to bottle the beer today. I figured that resting on the oak chips for 10 days would be a good start to see how this turned out, and from there, can adjust the timing.
Addendum, 11 Mar: Tried the partial bottle tonight, after chilling the beer. The bottle opened with a noticeable fizz, but the beer itself was not carbonated. There was no noticeable vanilla in the nose, and the beer itself was flat and sour, with a very noticeable flavor of tannins. I'm thinking that the soaking of the oak chips in the booze did nothing to sanitize the oak chips, and bacteria was introduced.
Doing a bit of research, and asking a friend who's a professional brewer (thanks, Phil!), I've decided to update the process to include boiling the chips first, for at least 10 min, to kill any bugs and also remove some of the tannins. The American Honey whiskey is only 35% ABV (70 proof), and that may not have been enough to kill any bugs. Maker's Mark is 45% ABV (90 proof) which might be better, but why chance it, right? Given the volume I'm brewing, letting the chips sit in the booze for 7-10 days, and then letting the beer sit on the chips for 7-10 days should be enough, and longer can only be better.
Sunday, January 28, 2018
Ekuanot IPA
I read about Ekuanot hops recently, and really wanted give them a shot in an IPA. YCH Hops describes the hops as providing the aroma of "melon, berry, orange peel, papaya, pine, and peppers", while the Hoptimus Rex bag says, "Lemon, lime, papaya, apple and green pepper". All right, then...let's do this!
Brew Day: 28 Jan 2018
Partial Mash:
1 lb Vienna malt
4 oz flaked oats
2 oz Carapils
Boil (20 min):
1 lb Pilsen DME
4 oz table sugar
Hops:
14 g Ekuanot (FWH)
1 oz Ekuanot (10 min whirlpool @ flameout)
14 g Ekuanot dry hop
I used the hops from Hoptimus Rex, which says "Alpha: 14.2%" on the bag.
Yeast: Safale US-05
Addendum, 8 Feb: Racked into secondary, dry hopping on 14 g of Ekuanot hops.
Addendum, 13 Feb: Bottled today; got 6 regular bottles, 1 22 oz flip top, and 1.5 repurposed soda bottles. Smelled great during bottling, really looking forward to trying this one.
Brew Day: 28 Jan 2018
Partial Mash:
1 lb Vienna malt
4 oz flaked oats
2 oz Carapils
Boil (20 min):
1 lb Pilsen DME
4 oz table sugar
Hops:
14 g Ekuanot (FWH)
1 oz Ekuanot (10 min whirlpool @ flameout)
14 g Ekuanot dry hop
I used the hops from Hoptimus Rex, which says "Alpha: 14.2%" on the bag.
Yeast: Safale US-05
Addendum, 8 Feb: Racked into secondary, dry hopping on 14 g of Ekuanot hops.
Addendum, 13 Feb: Bottled today; got 6 regular bottles, 1 22 oz flip top, and 1.5 repurposed soda bottles. Smelled great during bottling, really looking forward to trying this one.
Thursday, January 18, 2018
Notes
I've been doing some research in order to do some new things in my brewing, and wanted to document a good bit of the notes I'd been keeping, sharing them in hopes of getting input, insight, feedback, etc.
Oak
I brewed a brown ale a bit ago that turned out rather well, and I've been considering making another move in my brewing adventures. I'm going to extend the recipe a bit with some changes to the grains, but I also wanted to see about adding something of an "aged in oak barrels" flavor to the beer. I started looking around online for a bit and decided to talk to the folks at the local home brew supply store, and that really ended up being the way to go! I got some great input into how to go about the whole process, as well as a recommendation for using French oak chips, based on the flavor they'd impart on the beer.
In addition, during my research, I'd run across a great site that discussed using oak chips, which turned out to be very helpful.
The idea I had for the brown ale was to recreate my first brown ale recipe (again, with a few mods to the ingredients), and make use of oak chips soaked in American Honey.
I'm also working up a recipe similar to the Hex Dark Sour Ale, using French oak chips soaked in Maker's Mark, rather than the red wine recommended for the Hex Sour. That would be one way to go; another would be to replicate the Hex Sour recipe, soaking the oak chips in a nice cab.
As a bit of a side note, a bit more than 2 years ago, I brewed an IPA that I ended up naming "LCpl's Tears". It's a name I like for a beer (given my military background; just thinking about the name makes me laugh), and I'm thinking that a dark sour ale, aged on French oak chips (the use of French oak chips paying homage to Belleau Wood) soaked in bourbon, and fermented with a Belgian-style yeast.
Fruit
I've brewed a couple of beers where I've added fruit, or more accurately, the juice of some fruit. The first was the Everlong (yes, a Foo Fighter's reference) IPS, a collaboration brew I made with Mr. Rufus. The raspberry juice was pasteurized (heat to 160 deg F and hold it there for about 10 min...do NOT boil), and that turned out really well. Then there was the sour saison I made where I had a combination of pineapple and watermelon juice, and I sanitized it by freezing it, and then warming it back to room temp before adding it to the beer. In each case, I've learned just a little bit more, and the next step for me is to add fruit juice or zest during bottling, in order to preserve/impart some flavors that may not hold out as well through the fermentation process.
I recently ran across this blog post at GreatFermentations that describes the process that a brewer uses to create a dreamsicle cream ale. The article goes into some great detail regarding the ratio of fruit used, when it was added during the brewing process. There is also mention of the use of the zest, and the specific use of zest that was frozen prior to use in order to "burst the cell walls". There are also some really good notes in the article that describe how to prepare vanilla beans (not extract) for use in making beer.
Additions
Something I've been looking at recently is changing when I make certain additions to the beer, and seeing what effect that has on the results. For example, in my last ginger saison, I made a "tea" by boiling the fresh ginger, and I added the priming sugar to that as part of the bottling process, rather than adding the ginger to the last 10 min of the boil. I'm taking a similar approach with the juniper berries and black tea in my next sah'tea. The plan is to boil the crushed berries and tea bags for a few minutes, and then add the priming sugar to that as part of the bottling process.
My thinking/hope is that more of the flavors I'm looking for will be preserved, as they're not subject to the fermentation process. We did a side-by-side taste test with the ginger saisons, and my wife's comments centered around the fact that the older beer had a good deal more maturity in the carbonation; in particular, the head was much more pillowy. There was not a great deal of difference in the flavor, particularly what stood out as the ginger. I'll see how things fare with the sah'tea, even though I don't have anything available to do a comparison.
Speaking of additions, Medusa IPA is one of my favorites, and for my most recent brew of the recipe, I'm doing a two-stage dry hop.
Oak
I brewed a brown ale a bit ago that turned out rather well, and I've been considering making another move in my brewing adventures. I'm going to extend the recipe a bit with some changes to the grains, but I also wanted to see about adding something of an "aged in oak barrels" flavor to the beer. I started looking around online for a bit and decided to talk to the folks at the local home brew supply store, and that really ended up being the way to go! I got some great input into how to go about the whole process, as well as a recommendation for using French oak chips, based on the flavor they'd impart on the beer.
In addition, during my research, I'd run across a great site that discussed using oak chips, which turned out to be very helpful.
The idea I had for the brown ale was to recreate my first brown ale recipe (again, with a few mods to the ingredients), and make use of oak chips soaked in American Honey.
I'm also working up a recipe similar to the Hex Dark Sour Ale, using French oak chips soaked in Maker's Mark, rather than the red wine recommended for the Hex Sour. That would be one way to go; another would be to replicate the Hex Sour recipe, soaking the oak chips in a nice cab.
As a bit of a side note, a bit more than 2 years ago, I brewed an IPA that I ended up naming "LCpl's Tears". It's a name I like for a beer (given my military background; just thinking about the name makes me laugh), and I'm thinking that a dark sour ale, aged on French oak chips (the use of French oak chips paying homage to Belleau Wood) soaked in bourbon, and fermented with a Belgian-style yeast.
Fruit
I've brewed a couple of beers where I've added fruit, or more accurately, the juice of some fruit. The first was the Everlong (yes, a Foo Fighter's reference) IPS, a collaboration brew I made with Mr. Rufus. The raspberry juice was pasteurized (heat to 160 deg F and hold it there for about 10 min...do NOT boil), and that turned out really well. Then there was the sour saison I made where I had a combination of pineapple and watermelon juice, and I sanitized it by freezing it, and then warming it back to room temp before adding it to the beer. In each case, I've learned just a little bit more, and the next step for me is to add fruit juice or zest during bottling, in order to preserve/impart some flavors that may not hold out as well through the fermentation process.
I recently ran across this blog post at GreatFermentations that describes the process that a brewer uses to create a dreamsicle cream ale. The article goes into some great detail regarding the ratio of fruit used, when it was added during the brewing process. There is also mention of the use of the zest, and the specific use of zest that was frozen prior to use in order to "burst the cell walls". There are also some really good notes in the article that describe how to prepare vanilla beans (not extract) for use in making beer.
Additions
Something I've been looking at recently is changing when I make certain additions to the beer, and seeing what effect that has on the results. For example, in my last ginger saison, I made a "tea" by boiling the fresh ginger, and I added the priming sugar to that as part of the bottling process, rather than adding the ginger to the last 10 min of the boil. I'm taking a similar approach with the juniper berries and black tea in my next sah'tea. The plan is to boil the crushed berries and tea bags for a few minutes, and then add the priming sugar to that as part of the bottling process.
My thinking/hope is that more of the flavors I'm looking for will be preserved, as they're not subject to the fermentation process. We did a side-by-side taste test with the ginger saisons, and my wife's comments centered around the fact that the older beer had a good deal more maturity in the carbonation; in particular, the head was much more pillowy. There was not a great deal of difference in the flavor, particularly what stood out as the ginger. I'll see how things fare with the sah'tea, even though I don't have anything available to do a comparison.
Speaking of additions, Medusa IPA is one of my favorites, and for my most recent brew of the recipe, I'm doing a two-stage dry hop.
Wednesday, January 17, 2018
Brewer's Gold IPA
It's been a while since I've used Brewer's Gold hops, and the first time I tried them, the IPA turned out REALLY well. The hop is said to impart berry and dark currant flavors and I really got a lot of berry from that first batch. This time around, I'm going to take the opportunity to see if I can get a good combination of malts to get more of a red color in the malt, something I'm testing out for future brews.
This is another brew day where we had a good bit of snow, enough that I was able to use snow right off of my deck for the ice bath for cooling the wort.
Brew Day: 17 Jan 2018
Partial Mash:
1 lb 2-row
2 oz flaked wheat
2 oz Caramunich
14 g chocolate malt
Boil (20 min):
1 lb Pilsen DME
4 oz table sugar
Hops:
14 oz Brewer's Gold (FWH)
1 oz Brewer's Gold (@ flame out, 10 min whirlpool)
The hops are BrewCraft US Brewer's Gold, Alpha: 10.5%, Beta: 5.1%
Yeast: US-05
Followed all of my usual procedures.
Addendum, 26 Jan: Dry hopped, on 14 oz of Brewer's Gold hops.
Addendum, 29 Jan: Bottled tonight; got 6 regular bottles, 2 re-purposed soda bottles, and 1 partial fill on a soda bottle.
This is another brew day where we had a good bit of snow, enough that I was able to use snow right off of my deck for the ice bath for cooling the wort.
Brew Day: 17 Jan 2018
Partial Mash:
1 lb 2-row
2 oz flaked wheat
2 oz Caramunich
14 g chocolate malt
Boil (20 min):
1 lb Pilsen DME
4 oz table sugar
Hops:
14 oz Brewer's Gold (FWH)
1 oz Brewer's Gold (@ flame out, 10 min whirlpool)
The hops are BrewCraft US Brewer's Gold, Alpha: 10.5%, Beta: 5.1%
Yeast: US-05
Followed all of my usual procedures.
Addendum, 26 Jan: Dry hopped, on 14 oz of Brewer's Gold hops.
Addendum, 29 Jan: Bottled tonight; got 6 regular bottles, 2 re-purposed soda bottles, and 1 partial fill on a soda bottle.
Saturday, January 6, 2018
Medusa IPA
Medusa hops are one of my favorite hops for straight New England style IPAs, and I've still got some hops available, enough in fact to do a 2-stage dry hop IPA. I had a couple of ounces of different malts available, and thought that this would be a good opportunity to use 'em up.This is a couple of the things I really love about home brewing...not only can I try new things and discovery things I like that aren't commercially available, but I can also make and enjoy them whenever I like!
Brew Day: 6 Jan 2018
Partial Mash:
8.5 oz 2-row malt
7.5 oz Munich malt
2.5 oz Victory
2 oz flaked wheat
*Heat 3 qts water to 160 deg F, put in thermos container and add above grains in a bag. Let sit for 75 min. Heat 2.5 qt water in a stove-top kettle to about 170 deg F, and at the end of the 75 min, remove the bag of grain from the thermos container, draining it, and move it to the kettle. Let it sit for about 10 min, remove it, add the wort from the thermos, and begin heating the wort to boiling.
Boil (20 min):
1 lb Pilsen DME
4 oz table sugar
Hops:
13 g Medusa hops (AA 3.0%, FWH)
1 oz Medusa Hops (AA 3.0%, 10 min @ flameout)
Yeast: Safale US-05
Given the recent temperatures around our parts, I opted to use snow off our deck instead of running out for a 10 lb bag of ice in order to cool the wort. Worked great.
Addendum, 18 Jan: Dry hop #1, racked the beer on to 14 g of Medusa hops
Addendum, 21 Jan: Dry hop #1, racked the beer on to 14 g of Medusa hops
Addendum, 26 Jan: Bottled; got 6 good 12 oz bottles, and two re-purposed soda bottles.
Monday, January 1, 2018
Sah'tea
It's been a while since I made a sah'tea, and I was feeling a bit like I wanted to make another one, and this is a good beer to make for the first beer of 2018. I also wanted to take something of a different approach to the juniper and tea additions, boiling them separately to produce a tea, and then adding that tea to the beer just prior to bottling. This is something I tried with the most recent ginger saison I made. My hope is that by not adding the juniper and tea during the boil, that a good bit of the flavors won't be reduced by the yeast during fermentation.
Brew Day: 1 Jan 2018
Partial Mash:
8 oz Munich
6 oz rye
2 oz Carapils
4 oz Victory
2 oz CaraMunich
*I'm sure folks are going to have questions about the specific choices I made regarding the malts, but as with several other of the beers I've made, it was more about what I had on-hand. The same is true with the hops additions (below).
Boil (20 min):
1 lb Pilsen DME
4 oz table sugar
Hops:
4 g Styrian Golding hops (5.7% AA, @ 20 min)
4 g German Perle hops (8.2 % AA, @ 20 min)
Yeast: K97
Addendum, 2 Jan: After what happened with my last beer, and given the fact that I had to put some of my brewing stuff back on the shelves, I checked on the beer. The yeast seems quite happy, and there were no spontaneous, explosive events this time. I'll let the fermentation run for about 10 days or so, then rack this into secondary for a bit.
Addendum, 11 Jan: Racked the beer to secondary.
Addendum, 18 Jan: Bottling - Bring 1 cup of water to a boil, with 14 g of crushed juniper berries and two black tea bags. Boil gently, let steep for a few min, then pass through a strainer to remove the chunks of crushed berries to get 1/2 c. of hot 'tea'. Dissolve 2 1/2 T (1 oz) of table sugar in the tea. This is the priming solution. Got six good regular bottles, one flip-top, and 1 1/2 soda bottles; I'll be trying the soda bottles (in particular the partial fill) in two weeks.
Addendum, 7 Feb: Tried one of the soda bottles last night; didn't get much of juniper at all, mostly came out as a dark wheat beer. So far what I'm finding in this process is that additives such as ginger and juniper berries are just as good, if not better, added to the boil, rather than during bottling. That is, at least using the procedures I've outlined in my attempts. It's still good beer, just not what I was looking for, specifically.
Brew Day: 1 Jan 2018
Partial Mash:
8 oz Munich
6 oz rye
2 oz Carapils
4 oz Victory
2 oz CaraMunich
*I'm sure folks are going to have questions about the specific choices I made regarding the malts, but as with several other of the beers I've made, it was more about what I had on-hand. The same is true with the hops additions (below).
Boil (20 min):
1 lb Pilsen DME
4 oz table sugar
Hops:
4 g Styrian Golding hops (5.7% AA, @ 20 min)
4 g German Perle hops (8.2 % AA, @ 20 min)
Yeast: K97
Addendum, 2 Jan: After what happened with my last beer, and given the fact that I had to put some of my brewing stuff back on the shelves, I checked on the beer. The yeast seems quite happy, and there were no spontaneous, explosive events this time. I'll let the fermentation run for about 10 days or so, then rack this into secondary for a bit.
Addendum, 11 Jan: Racked the beer to secondary.
Addendum, 18 Jan: Bottling - Bring 1 cup of water to a boil, with 14 g of crushed juniper berries and two black tea bags. Boil gently, let steep for a few min, then pass through a strainer to remove the chunks of crushed berries to get 1/2 c. of hot 'tea'. Dissolve 2 1/2 T (1 oz) of table sugar in the tea. This is the priming solution. Got six good regular bottles, one flip-top, and 1 1/2 soda bottles; I'll be trying the soda bottles (in particular the partial fill) in two weeks.
Addendum, 7 Feb: Tried one of the soda bottles last night; didn't get much of juniper at all, mostly came out as a dark wheat beer. So far what I'm finding in this process is that additives such as ginger and juniper berries are just as good, if not better, added to the boil, rather than during bottling. That is, at least using the procedures I've outlined in my attempts. It's still good beer, just not what I was looking for, specifically.
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