Something New - Voss Kveik

I enjoy a juicy fruit-forward IPA, and the NE style suits me quite nicely.  While doing some research recently, I ran across a mention of a "Nordic" yeast, specifically "kviek".  As I read on, I got more and more interested in trying this yeast.  I did some more research and found some offerings from different providers, including Omega and White Labs.  When I got to my local homebrew supply store, they had Omega OYL061 Voss Kveik right there on the shelf.  I was looking for hefeweizen yeast, so I picked out the Omega, and White Labs WLP300.

The aroma profile for the Voss sounds very interesting; the write-up at the Omega site says that it ferments equally well across a wide temperature range, but anecdotes online (here, and here) suggest going with a higher temperature to keep off flavors such as sulfur down.  I have a warming plate for making sours, so that should work just fine.

It also seems that this yeast finishes up pretty quickly, so my plan is brew the wort and pitch the yeast, and then put the fermenter on a warming plate for just more than two days before dry hopping the beer.

Brew Day: 7 June 2019

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

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

Hops:
14 g Azacca (10.4%) - @ 20 min
14 g Mosaic + 14 g Huell Melon - 10 min whirlpool/flameout
14 g Cashmere - dry hop

Yeast: Omega OYL061 Voss Kveik

Addendum, 10 June: Took the beer off of the warming plate and dry hopped with 14 g of Cashmere hops.

Addendum, 15 June: Bottled today; got 8 good bottles and one re-purposed soda bottle.

Addendum, 30 June: Tried the re-purposed soda bottle tonight.  I could tell that it was wildly over-carbonated when I put it into the fridge; it was hard as a rock, and the bottle had expanded a bit.  This was borne out when I opened the bottle...I just sat it in the sink and let the foam come pouring out the top.  I did pour most of it into a glass and was able to drink some.  The flavor is heavy on the citrus, with just a little bit of sharpness.  With the exception of the carbonation issue, it's a very flavorful beer.  I'm hoping that the sour will be a bit less carbonated, as sours tend to be.

Addendum, 3 Jul: Opened a bottle last night, the beer is very much over-carbonated, but much easier to manage from the bottle.  I opened it over the sink in case there were any issues, and with the bottle I didn't have a steady stream of foam pouring out of the bottle.  The flavor isn't the issue; the next time I brew using this yeast, I need to treat it the same way as other yeasts, and I can even leave it on the warming plate past 2 or 3 days; either way, it needs more that just a few days.

Another NE IPA

I'm a fan on fruit-forward IPAs (see what Jake says about "NE IPAs" here...), and not having been able to find one commercially, I figured it was time to make another one that I'll likely enjoy after Christmas.  I have some cashmere hops left (I'm going to use some to dry hop a Belgian), so I'm going to do first wort hopping, a massive Mosaic-Citra-Cashmere hop "bomb", and dry hop.  The dry hop is going to be around the size (total number of grams) I usually use, because much more and I won't be able to get the hop bag out of the fermenter!  ;-)

Brew Day: 2 Dec 2018

Partial Mash:
8 oz Munich
2 oz flaked wheat

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

Hops:
FWH - 4 g each Mosaic, Citra, Cashmere hops
Flame-out - 19 g Mosaic, 19 g Citra, 36 g Cashmere hops
Dry hop - 4 g each Mosaic, Citra, Cashmere hops

Yeast: US-05

Addendum, 13 Dec: Dry hopped.

Addendum, 17 Dec: Bottled today; got 7 good bottles, one full re-purposed soda bottle, and one soda bottle partial fill (about half).

MAC Sour

I really like hopped sours or sour IPAs, and as such, I'm going to try something a bit different, in that I'm going to try a combination of hops.  Most of my previous hopped sours have been really good, the most notable of which was the Huell Melon-hopped sour.

This time, I'm going to use a combination of the following hops:
Mosaic (AA: 10.8%)
Azacca (AA: 9.8%)
Citra (AA: 13.2%)

I'm sure you can see where the "MAC" comes from. Something I'm going to do with this brew is create an IPA without the sour, and try it side-by-side.  So, I'll make the following recipe again, albeit without the souring.

Brew Day: 21 May 2018

Partial Mash:
12 oz Munich 1
2 oz flaked wheat

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

Once wort has cooled to 80 deg F, pitch on to (2) Good Belly Straight Shots, then set fermenter on warming plate for 48 - 72 hrs.

Boil #2 (20 min): 24 May 2018
Boil for 20 min to kill the bugs, hop and pitch the yeast.  First whirlpool pitch of hops sits for 20 min, second sits for 10 min, then place kettle in ice bath to cool to 80 deg F, to prep for pitching the yeast.

Hops:
4 g of each of the hops (FWH)
8 g of each of the hops (20 min whirlpool)
8 g of each of the hops (10 min whirlpool)
4 g of each of the hops (dry hop 1)
4 g of each of the hops (dry hop 2)

Yeast:  US-05

Addendum, 7 Jun: Dry hop #1

Addendum, 10 Jun: Dry hop #2

Addendum, 16 Jun: Bottled today, on 2 1/2 T of table sugar dissolved in 1/2 c. boiling water; got 6 regular bottles, a 22 oz flip top bottle, and a repurposed Dr. Pepper bottle out of it.

Addendum, 2 Jul: First taste of this beer tonight, and WOW, is it good!  The very first thing I noticed was the aroma...I got some sweet fruit aroma with just a hint of citrus.  The first taste was amazing!  The body was nice, not too heavy, but good.  Definite fruity sweetness with a mild tartness on the finish.  There is very little bitterness, if any at all.  Very enjoyable beer!

Fruit-forward IPAs

Experimenting with hops, I've found that I like fruit-forward IPAs; in this instance, what I'm referring to is fruit aromas and taste that derives solely from hops, not the addition of fruit to the beer.  An IPA doesn't need to be overpoweringly bitter, with in-your-face pine resin or grapefruit-citrus.  Sure, some like an IPA that way, and I've enjoyed a few myself that are that way...they usually come with names like "hop-pocalypse" or "molotov hop-tail".  

I ran across this recipe for a juicy-fruit IPA, and I recently had an opportunity to try the Sierra Nevada Beer Camp Tropical IPA, based on Citra, Mosaic, and El Dorado hops.

I've done a couple of fruit-forward IPAs myself...the still unnamed IPA (I'm referring to it as "hop bomb" at the moment), a Melon + Galaxy IPA (huge thanks to Mr Rufus Brewing for the recipe idea...), the Mandarina IPA, and most recently, a Calyspo IPA.  Each of these has come out really well (still waiting to do dry hop #2 for the Calypso IPA, so it will be a bit longer), and I've enjoyed them without the addition of fruit (juice, rind/zest to the beer).  These beers have been sort of my version of DuClaw's Hop Continuum series, with beers often being described as "unique".

I haven't always done just straight hopped-up beers.  I really enjoyed the first grapefruit IPA I brewed, and that was a combination of hops and grapefruit zest.

So, the "hop bomb" IPA I made turned out really well...and I mean, REALLY well.  Several of the folks who've tried it all have two things in common...they don't care for IPAs, and they really liked it. The consensus has been that both the aroma and flavor of the beer are rife with berries, and on the sweet fruit side.

From NorthernBrewer:

Mosaic - "Mosaic™ is so named because it gives a range of aromas and flavors which are complimentary to other common hop aromas. Everything from citrus, pine, earth, herbal, mint, bubblegum, blueberry, lime peel, black pepper - the character seems to change depending upon the conditions it is in."

Brewer's Gold - "German Brewer's Gold is a moderate alpha bittering hop with spicy, fruity, and black currant character."

HBC-438 - "Expect prominent tropical and stone fruits, herbal, spicy, a subtle cedar note in the aroma."

Being a small batch home brewer, the "reviews" pretty much mean that that beer is all gone (I tend to average about 9 bottles per gallon), so I thought that with some time I have available, I'll make two batches.  I'm going to use the same recipe and hopping schedule for both batches, and I'm also going to continue with the two-step dry hopping (started with the Calypso IPA) and see how that affects the final results.

Brew Day #2 Starting off...

Brew Day #1: 7 Jan 2016
Brew Day #2: 8 Jan 2016

Music To Brew By
Something else to add...while watching an episode of BrewTV, Wil Wheaton mentioned that along with his brewing notes, he also makes a note of the music he listens to while brewing.  I have my workout music on my iPod, and I like to listen to some of the music while brewing and bottling, so here goes:

Disturbed - Sound of Silence
FatBoy Slim - Weapon of Choice
AC/DC - Thunderstuck

I've also got a mix of Van Halen (NOT "Van Haggar"), Poison, Ozzy (Crazy Train, and Close Your Eyes Forever with Lita Ford), Linkin Park, Family Force 5 (Zombie), and Skillet.  I've even got the entire soundtrack from Highlander (all Queen/Freddie Mercury) mixed in there, as well.

Partial Mash:
8 oz Rahr 2-row malt
4 oz Gambrinus honey malt
4 oz Munich
1 oz CaraPils

*I followed my usual partial mash process.

Boil (60 min):
1 lb Munton's Plain Extra Light DME
6 g Mosaic (AA: 12.1%) (@ 60 min)

Hop Schedule:

	15 min	0 min	DH #1	DH #2
Mosaic             (AA: 12.1%)	4 g	4 g	5 g	5 g
HBC-438         (AA: 15.7%)	4 g	4 g	3 g	3 g
Brewer's Gold (AA: 5.9%)	4 g	4 g	7 g	7 g

Yeast: Safbrew US-05

*I followed my usual process for cooling the wort and pitching the yeast.

9 Jan: Fermenters

Addendum, 9 Jan: Checked in on the fermenters during my morning routine; was greeted to a cacophony of bubbling.  The two "hopbombs" have the blow-off tubes; the one in the back is #1, and has been there for about 36 hrs.  The one in front is #2 and has been there for about 11 hrs at this point.

The other two fermenters are doing well.  The golden one in the back is the abbaye, and the one to the far left is the Calypso IPA, due for dry hop #2 soon...like today.

Addendum, 18 Jan: Dry hop #1 for both fermenters today.  Both were pretty clear, and a nice golden red color when I transferred them into clean, sanitized fermenters and on the hop pellets.  I've got the hops for dry hop #2 measured and ready to go.

Addendum, 20 Jan: Dry hop #2 for both fermenters; bottling on Fri afternoon.

Addendum, 22 Jan: Bottled tonight, each with 1.1 oz of table sugar dissolved in 1/2 cup boiling water; got almost 18 bottles out of it.  From the first fermenter, I got one bottle that was almost completely full, and from the second I got one bottle that was just over half full.  I'm really looking forward to tasting this in two weeks, although I still don't have a name for it.  I wrote "BG" on the labels, for "Brewer's Gold", but maybe after I taste it I'll come up with a name.