Brown Ale with Persimmons

My neighbors have a persimmon tree in their field that seems to produce quite a bit of fruit each year, to the point where they'll make more than enough persimmon pudding to share, and still have fruit left over.  Last year, I thought it might be an interesting idea to try adding some of the fruit to a beer.  I went back and forth with a couple of different ideas; trying an old style recipe, as well as adding the fruit to secondary for a beer I've made before.  I decided to try adding to something I've done before and landed on my Hobgoblin Ale clone, in particular, the one that I brewed with the Nottingham yeast, as this one seemed to produce the best beer of the three that I tried. The idea is to have a dry yeast that allows the flavor of the malt to come through, and then add the fruit to secondary.  I collected about a cup of fruit mash from my neighbor, and froze it to kill bacteria.  When the time comes to rack the beer to secondary fermentation, I'll bring the frozen fruit mash to room temperature in a water bath, and then rack it into a sanitized fermenter.  Once that's done, I'll rack the beer on to the fruit and let it sit for several days.

I found a number of persimmon beer recipes and thoughts on using the fruit, including here, here, and here.  One old style recipe I found a while back included mashing the fruit, and then gently baking it after mixing it with wheat bran.  The resulting "bread" was then added to boiling water...definitely old school.

Brew Day: 3 Nov 2020

Partial Mash:
8 oz caramunich III
2 oz flaked wheat

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

Hops: 14 g Fuggle (@ 20 min)

Yeast: Nottingham

I followed all of my normal procedures through pitching the yeast.

Addendum, 16 Nov: Racked the beer into secondary, on about 2/3 c of persimmon fruit mash.  My neighbor had picked and mashed the fruit, and I stuck the mash in the freezer prior to brewing the beer.  Tonight, I put the container in a warm water bath, and using a sanitized spoon, scooped the mash into a sanitizer fermenter.  I then racked the beer onto the mash, and then gently agitated the beer.  I didn't want to add a bunch of oxygen to the beer, but I just wanted to mix it a little.  We'll see how this turns out in a couple of days.

Addendum, 19 Nov: Bottled beer tonight, using 1/2 c of boiling water (bottled, not tap) to dissolve a bit more than an ounce of corn syrup. I'm going to see if this has an impact on the carbonation issue I've been experiencing. Got 7 good bottles and 2 small, repurposed soda bottles.

Farmhouse Pale Ale

 It's been a while since I've brewed a beer, and I wanted to get back into it with something interesting. Not long ago, I made a visit to my local homebrew supply store, and picked up some Omega liquid yeast along with other supplies.  It's been over a year since the last time I used this particular yeast, but during that time, I'd also tried a Norwegian farmhouse ale from a local brewery and really enjoyed it.  I thought a pale ale using some hops to impart a subtle, fruity essence would be a good way to start back into home brewing.

Brew Day: 25 Oct 2020

Partial Mash:
8 oz 2-row
2 oz flaked wheat

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

Hops:
7 g US Fuggle (4.3%) @ 20 min
1 oz German Huell Melon (6.1%) @ 5 min

Yeast: Omega OYL061 Voss Kviek

After aerating the wort and pitching the yeast, I wrapped the fermenter in a towel and placed it on a warming plate.  I'll check back in after 3 days, but I'm likely going to leave it for a bit longer this time around; the last time I brewed a beer with this yeast, the beer spent 3 days on the warming plate, and was bottled after 8 days.  The first beer I tried from this batch was "wildly over-carbonated".  

Addendum, 26 Oct: About 12 hrs after pitching the yeast, and the beer is bubbling away quite nicely! It's good to see this reaction (i.e., not a slow start, and not an explosive one!) for my first beer since the pandemic started.

Addendum, 8 Nov: Bottled tonight on 1 oz of table sugar dissolved in 1/2 c boiling water.  Got 7 good bottles and 2 repurposed soda bottles.

Addendum, 16 Nov: I've been checking the repurposed soda bottles regularly, and they remain soft, indicating no or very little carbonation.  This is the same issue I started experiencing this past spring, and I don't know if this is an issue with the water, in that there is an issue with the yeast as it's fermenting or if it's an issue with the water used when priming the beer for bottling, or if it's an issue with the sugar.  

I did have the well check in May as part of the regular maintenance cycle, and found that the water out of the well (raw) had a pH of 6.3, and both iron and hardness were '3'.  After filtering, the pH was 6.6, and both the iron and hardness were 0.

My plan at this point is to prepare some bottling sugar using bottle water and 1 oz of corn syrup.  I've got a 12 ml syringe, so I'll sanitize that and use it to add a small amount of the solution to the bottles, and then wait a bit to see what happens.

Pale Ale

In all the time that I've been home brewing, I've never used the S-33 yeast, so I thought I'd give it a shot.  It sounds like it was good for pale ales, which I'm going to make with some Cashmere hops.  I've used this hop before, including to dry hop a Belgian beer, which my wife really enjoyed.

Brew Day: 26 Mar 2020

Partial Mash:
8 oz 2-row
2 oz flaked wheat

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

Hops:
7 g Fuggle (@ 20 min)
1 oz Cashmere hops (10 min whirlpool, @ flameout)

Yeast: S-33

Addendum, 8 Apr: Bottled tonight, on 1 oz table sugar dissolved in 1/2 c boiling water.  Got 9 good bottles, and one 12 oz repurposed soda bottle.

Hobgoblin Ale, pt III

So far, I've made two variations of this beer (here, and here), and liked them both, which is kind of odd because I would not normally choose a brown ale, nor an English ale, for myself. If I had to pick one, I'd say that the first one came out better, but that may be based more on carbonation than anything else.  Or maybe the caramel rye added just a bit of spice to the beer.  Regardless, I'm going to try one more time, and then hold off on the Hobgoblin ale clones again until fall.

I thought that this time around, I'd try a different yeast, but also do something I haven't really done yet...document the process, in pictures.  A friend has been asking, again recently, so I thought this would be a good way to document not just what equipment I'm using, but also my process.

Brew Day: 22 Mar 2020

Fig 1: Equipment

Figure 1 illustrates the equipment I use when making beer.  From left to right, there's a tray with a funnel, racking crane, and tubing.  I use the 1 gal thermos for partial mashing, and below that a digital kitchen scale and thermometer.  Next to the thermos is a 1 gal container of water with just a bit more than 1/2 oz of StarSan sanitizer, and below that is the glass fermenter.  Finally, on the far right is a two-gallon brew kettle.

To begin, I bring 3 qt of water to 160 deg F.  Once the water is up to temperature, I pour that into the thermos, and add the grain (see the "Partial Mash" section below), in a grain bag, to the thermos.  The goal is to have the water at about 144-146 deg F, so I get it up to 160 deg F, knowing that the temperature will drop 10-12 deg when I pour it into the thermos, then add the grain.

The grain stays in the thermos for at least an hour.  It can stay longer.

Fig. 2: Ingredients

Partial Mash:
6 oz caramel malt
4 oz Caramunich
2 oz chocolate malt
2 oz flaked wheat

Figure 2 illustrates the ingredients for this beer. There's the grain listed above, in a grain bag.  To the right of that are the two hops additions (see below), and then the DME.  At the bottom of the picture is 4 oz of table sugar, and the yeast packet.



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

Before the grain has completed processing in the thermos, I like to start heating 3 1/2 qts of water in the brew kettle, bringing it up to near boiling.  Once the grain is done, I then use thongs to remove the grain bag from the thermos, and then dunk it and remove it from the heated water in the kettle.  This water is at a much higher temperature than the water in the kettle, and as such, there won't be the extraction of sugar from the grain.  After doing this several times (I usually do so three times), I add the wort from the thermos and the other fermentables (DME, sugar) to the brew kettle and bring it up to boiling.  Once the wort begins boiling, I add the first hop addition, and begin timing the 20 min boil.  At 10 min into the boil, I add the second hop addition.

Hops:
7 g Fuggle (@ 20 min)
7 g Fuggle (@ 10 min)

When the boil is complete, I move the covered kettle to the sink, which I've partially filled with water.  I then add ice to create an ice bath, and after about 10 -15 min, begin checking the temperature of the wort...I want it to get to about 80 deg F.  Once that happens, I begin transferring it to a sanitized fermenter.

When the fermenter is between 1/2 and 2/3 full, I stop transferring wort.  I put a fermenter cap on it (the cap has a hole in the middle), and begin shaking it to add oxygen to the wort.  I generally shake it for about 5 min, vigorously, add the yeast, and agitate again for a minute or two.

Yeast: S-04

Once the yeast has been pitched (I tend to over-pitch, adding the entire sachet to the wort), I continue adding the wort until the fermenter is about full to the neck.  I then place a sanitized cap on the fermenter, place one end of a blow-off tube in the hole in the cap, and then put the other end in a Gatorade bottle with a bit of sanitizer in it...just enough to provide adequate cover for the end of the blow-off tube.

Once all this is done, I put a tag on the fermenter (beer name, brew date) and put the fermenter in the shower in the downstairs bathroom.  The temperature is pretty constant down there, and if something happens with the fermenter during fermentation, clean-up is pretty easy.

Addendum, 23 Mar: About 12 hrs after pitching the yeast, figure 3 illustrates that 'current state' of the beer.  It's bubbling quite nicely, and you can see why I like to use a Gatorade bottle as a blow-off bottle.

Fig. 3: Beer 12 hrs after pitching yeast

Addendum, 2 Apr: Bottled tonight, on 2 1/2 T of table sugar dissolved in 1/2 c boiling water.  Got 9 good bottles, and 1 partial fill of a 12 oz soda bottle.

Leap Day IPA

Leap day is a good day to brew an IPA...

Brew Day: 29 Feb 2020

Partial Mash:
8 oz light Munich
2 oz flaked wheat

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

Hops:
7 g German Perle (@ 20 min)
1 oz Mandarina Bavaria (@ flameout, 10 min whirlpool)

Yeast: T-58

Addendum, 7 Mar: Dry hopped with 14 g German Mandarina Bavaria hops.

Addendum, 11 Mar: Bottled tonight, on 30 ml of light corn syrup, dissolved into 1/2 cup of boiling water.  Got 8 good bottles and 1 partial fill.

Addendum, 26 Mar: Tried one bottle tonight.  After chilling the beer, opened it to a slight hiss, but the beer poured with minimal carbonation.  The taste of the beer was good, but it was almost (not completely) flat.  I did some research and found a couple of options; one is try flipping the bottles over for three days, then turning them up for three days.  Another option is to try uncapping the bottles and adding a grain or two of dry yeast to each bottle, then re-capping, agitating, and waiting.  I'm going to start by rotating all of the bottles, and see how that goes.

Sour IPA

It's about time that I use up the remaining GoodBelly StraightShots, and how better to do that than with a sour IPA?

Partial Mash:
8.5 oz 2-row
2 oz flaked wheat

Boil #1 - 25 Feb 2020 (20 min):
1 lb Pilsen DME
4 oz table sugar

After the boil, rack the wort on to two GoodBelly StraightShots, in a sanitized fermenter, then place the fermenter on a warmed warming plate, wrapped in a towel.

Boil #2 - 28 Feb 2020 (20 min):

Hops:
7 g German Perle (@ 20 min)
1 oz SA African Queen (@ flameout, 10 min whirlpool)

Yeast: US-05

Addendum, 7 Mar: Dry hopped with 14 g German Mandarina Bavaria hops.

Addendum, 11 Mar: Bottled tonight, on 30 ml of light corn syrup, dissolved into 1/2 cup of boiling water.  Got 8 good bottles and 1 re-purposed soda bottle.

Tasting Notes, 25 Mar: Chilled and opened the soda bottle tonight. Excellent flavor, good body, but only minimally carbonated.  Sours don't usually have much head to speak of, but this beer was very mildly carbonated.  I'm not sure what the issue is, it's something I'm going to need to address.

Honey Ginger Belgian

My wife, who loves ginger Belgians, got me some ginger-infused honey for Christmas, specifically to add to a beer.  So...here it is!

Brew Day: 6 Feb 2020

Partial Mash:
8 oz Munich
2 oz flaked wheat

Boil (20 min):
1 lb golden light DME
8 oz ginger-infused honey (flameout)

Hops: 7 g German Perle (@ 20 min)
1 oz thinly-sliced fresh ginger (@ 5 min)

Yeast: BE-134

Addendum, 15 Feb: Racked to secondary.

Addendum, 16 Mar: Bottled tonight, on 30ml of light corn syrup dissolved in 1/2 c boiling water.  Got 9 good bottles.

Tangerine Wheat

Okay, trying again...

Brew Day: 6 Feb 2020

Partial Mash:
8 oz Munich
2.5 oz flaked wheat

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

Hops: 7 g German Perle (@ 20 min)
4 g dried orange peel (@ 5 min)

Yeast: US-05

Addendum, 15 Feb: Racked to secondary, on 20 ml of tangerine extract.

Addendum, 20 Feb: Bottled today on 2.5 T of table sugar dissolved into 1/2 c boiling water.  Got 9 good bottles and one partial fill of a re-purposed soda bottle.

Saison Wit

I really enjoyed the Lithuanian farmhouse ale I made not long ago, and wanted to try the recipe with a saison yeast.

Brew Day: 27 Jan 2020

Partial Mash:
8 oz 2-row
2 oz flaked wheat

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

Hops:
7 g German Perle (@ 20 min)
7 g German Perle (@ 5 min)
2 g sweet orange peel (@ 5 min)
2 g crushed coriander seeds (@ 5 min)

Yeast: Danstar Belle Saison

Addendum, 2 Feb: Transferred to secondary.

Addendum, 12 Feb: Bottled today, on 2 T of table sugar dissolved in 1/2 c boiling water.  Got 9 good bottles, and one partial fill on a re-purposed soda bottle.

Tasting Notes: So far, I've really liked this beer.  It's light, with a good head, and a bit of citrus in the nose.  The flavor is very peppery, which is different.  Definitely a good one to try again.

Another Hobgoblin Ale Clone

The first time I tried this recipe, it turned out surprisingly well.  I can't say that I'm usually a fan of British ales, nor of brown ales, but I have really enjoyed this particular beer. It's been easy to drink, with subtle notes of toffee and chocolate.  I wanted to try the beer with a dry yeast to see if there were any notable or remarkable differences, so I asked for insight from the proprietors of my local homebrew supply store.  Their recommendation was the Nottingham ale yeast, as it would reportedly allow the maltiness of the beer to come through a bit more.  However, Windsor (a bit more dry) and S-04 were also good options; in fact, S-04 may be a good option for a third round of this beer.

Brew Day: 16 Jan 2020

Partial Mash:
8 oz caramel malt
1.5 oz chocolate malt
2 oz flaked wheat

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

Hops: 14 g German Perle @ 20 min

Yeast: Nottingham Ale Yeast

Addendum, 17 Jan: Maybe 15 hrs after pitching the yeast, I checked on the fermentor and the blow-off bottle was almost full!  The yeast had really taken off!  I used a clean Gatorade bottle with a bit of sanitizer in the bottom for the more active part of fermentation, and ended up replacing the bottle with a new one.

Addendum, 26 Jan: Transferred the beer to secondary.

Addendum, 2 Feb: Bottled on 2 T of table sugar dissolved in 1/2 c boiling water.  Got 9 good bottles.

Tasking Notes: Good flavor, good body.  Smooth, the malt really comes through.  The beer isn't as carbonated as I'd like, though...maybe the beer was in secondary too long, or shouldn't have gone into secondary.