Hefe

I was doing some research recently, looking at dry yeasts and I ran across a thread that mentioned getting different results from Safbrew WB-06 yeast; specifically, by under-pitching and then moving to secondary after a week, you could get more pronounced banana notes.  I've recently done a couple of hefeweizens using liquid yeast that turned out pretty well, but I wanted to give the dry yeast another shot.

Brew Day: 4 Dec 2015

Partial Mash:
8 oz 2-Row
7 oz Rahr Red Wheat
1 oz CaraPils

*Used usual partial mash process.

Boil (60 min):
1 lb Bavarian Wheat DME (@ 60 min)
10 g German Perle hops (@ 60 min)

Yeast: Safbrew WB-06

At the end of the boil, I placed the kettle in an ice bath and got the wort temperature down to 80 deg F.  I filled the fermenter about half way and started aerating the wort.  I then pitched the yeast, and aerated a bit more, after which I added the rest of the wort.

I'll keep an eye on the beer over the next couple of days, and next week I'll transfer it to a clean fermenter for another week to 10 days.

Addendum, 5 Dec: Things really took off last night!  The blow-off bottle is all full of krausen, with lots of foamy material coming out of the bottle.  I'll more than likely have to change the bottle near the end of the weekend.

Addendum, 12 Dec: Transferred the beer to a clean fermenter today.

Tasting notes: I tried transferring the beer to a clean fermenter early in the fermentation; the lesson learned here is that WB-06 is a good wheat beer yeast, but not the best hefeweizen yeast.  Definitely go with a proven liquid yeast when brewing a hefe.

Mandarina

A bit ago, I was doing some research into Huell Melon hops, and I ran across a description of Mandarina Bavaria hops, and is often the case, decided that I need to try them out.  Yes, I have a problem.  A daughter of Cascade hops, this variant is described as having orange, tangerine, and citrus aromas.  After trying a beer with Melon hops, this one should be very interesting.

Apparently, Hermitage Brewing has a single hop IPA based on the Mandarina Bavaria hops, and it sounds like it's something worth trying.  Like many single hop beers, this one should give you something of an idea of what the hops are like, and the affect they can have on a beer.

I'll see how this one turns out, and in the future I'll try some variations, such as using Safbrew T-58 yeast instead of the US-05.  Additions I've considered include blood orange (juice and zest), and tangerine.

Brew Day: 2 Dec 2015

Partial Mash:
8 oz Gambrinus Honey Malt
8 oz 2-Row malt
1 oz Carapils

*I prepared the partial mash using my usual process.

Boil (60 min):
1 lb Pilsen DME
7 g Warrior hops (@ 60 min)

Yeast: Safale US-05

Hops:
Mandarina Bavaria, AA: 7.4%
14 g Mandarina (@ 10 min)
14 g Mandarina (@ flameout)

Addendum, 12 Dec: Dry hopped today

Dry hop: 14 g Mandarina

Addendum, 18 Dec: Bottled with 1 oz table sugar, dissolved in 1/2 cup of boiling water.

Addendum, 2 Feb: I came back to this one and noticed that I didn't have any tasting notes...for shame!  This brew had a LOT of hops, and what I found is that drinking the beer right at two weeks after bottling isn't the best idea.  I mean, it's good to try it, but don't be surprised if there's a hoppy bitterness present.  Better to give it more time.  I had one of these this past weekend, and I have to say that after letting it sit longer, I was very impressed with the flavor.  Now, I'm biased, and I knew that the hops were Mandarina, but I definitely got the impression of a flavor tangerines; not sweet, like mandarin oranges, but the bitterness had evened out a bit and I was getting an orange-citrusy flavor.  It was very good, and definitely something I'd brew again.

Addendum, 5 Apr: I had the beer that I "bottled" in a soda bottle, and I have to say, it was pretty awesome.  Great carbonation and lacing, really good flavor.  The bitterness normally associated with an IPA wasn't there, likely due to the simple passage of time.  Even so, it was still a very good beer.

Addendum, 23 May: This evening I'm trying Stone Brewing Pale Ale, which I picked up this afternoon.  I decided to try it because the bottle mentions Mandarina Bavaria hops (the online description include Magnum and Herkules, as well).  There's a stamp on the bottle that says it was bottled on 5 Dec 2015, and is best "enjoyed" by 4 Mar 2016 (so I'm 2 1/2 months passed that).  It's not bad...it has a bit more zip to it than my brew, but it's not bad.  It's a bit more malty than something I'd like on a warm day, after mowing the yard or being out all day riding and grooming the horses, but it's not bad.

Something "New"

This brew comes from Mr Rufus Brewing Co, based on an exchange on Facebook.  Whomever is behind the "Mr Rufus" had posted a picture of a sample of a beautiful golden brew, and included, "So much honeydew, berries, and even some mango from the Galaxy hops!"  That got me to thinking...I'd like to try that! And when I say "try", I mean both make and taste.  The "Mr Rufus" folks graciously shared the boil volume and hop schedule (thanks!), which I converted for my brew volume.

When I refer to this as something "new", I'm not suggesting that it's new, in general...it's just new to me.  I've had beers infused with fruit, mostly wheat or wit beers that have some sort of fruit puree or zest added during the brew process (I've added grapefruit zest to one or two of my IPAs), but I'm also interested in the aromas and flavors you can get from just hop additions and dry hopping, especially the unusual ones, or ones you don't necessarily see in available craft brews.

I was able to pick up the hops from Jay's Brewing, a home brew supply store in Manassas.  They've come a long way since I visited last June, and Jill was very helpful.

One of the things I've said that I really enjoy about home brewing is that if I want a wit beer or a hefeweizen after a long afternoon of shoveling snow in the middle of winter, I can have one.  Something else I've figured out that I like about home brewing is not only trying beers like this one, but then having small amounts (partial ounces) of left-over hops that I can then combine into something really unusual.

Brew Day: 20 Nov

Partial Mash:
8 oz Gambrinus Honey Malt
8 oz 2-Row malt
1 oz Carapils

I followed my usual partial mash process; bring 2 qt water to 156 deg F, pour into the 1 gal cooler.  Add above grains in a muslin bag, pushing down gently with a spoon in order to ensure that the water circulates throughout.  Seal the cover for an hour.  At about 45 min, bring 4 qt of water in the brew kettle to 170 deg F.  Once the grains have sat for about an hour, loosen the top on the cooler and manually circulate the wort through the grain several times.  Once this is done, gently remove the grain bag from the cooler, allowing the water to drain, and move the bag to the brew kettle, steeping for about 10 min.  At 10 min, remove the grain bag, add the wort from the cooler and bring the wort to a boil.

Boil (60 min):
1 lb Pilsen DME

Yeast: Safale US-05

Hops:
Warrior: AA ~ 15%
Galaxy: AA 14.5%
Huell Melon: AA 4.5%

7 g Warrior (@ 60 min)
7 g Melon (@ 10 min)
7 g Galaxy + 7 g Melon (@ 5 min)
7 g Galaxy + 7 g Melon (@ flameout)

Addendum, 24 Nov: Activity had settled down enough that I replaced the blow-off tube & bottle with an airlock.  I'll dry hop this one right around the time that I bottle the Hop-Bomb (tentatively an IPA).

Addendum, 30 Nov: Dry hopped tonight.  I'm looking forward to bottling this one in a week.
Dry hop: 14 g Melon

Addendum, 7 Dec: Bottled today; smelled incredible!

Addendum, 23 Dec: Tasted one of the beers today...very good!  The beer pours with an orange-amber color, and with a nice substantial, white head.  Carbonation is good, as is lacing throughout the time it took me to finish the beer.  Definite notes of sweet fruit in the nose, and the flavor has a bitterness on par with a Bell's Two-Hearted, albeit without the citrus/grapefruit notes.  There's also a slight sweetness from the malt.  As a hop-head, I definitely enjoy everything about this beer, from the color, the appearance of the head, to the flavor.  I'm going to try this one again, but the next time, I'm going to use a slightly different dry hopping schedule, and go for a 2-step dry hop, each for 3 days.

Here's what I'm thinking...bitter with a hop with some high alpha acids, and then two Melon hop additions, one at 5 min, one at flameout.  Then do a 2-step dry hop, each for three days.  All additions will be 14 g, for a total of 2 oz throughout the process.

Unnamed IPA, or "Hop Bomb"

A bit ago, I ran across a lone ounce package of Brewer's Gold hops at a local home brew supply store, and something compelled me to grab it and find something to do with it.  I know, I admit...I have a problem.  While described as a bittering hop (at 10.5% AA, I get it...), it can also impart a "spicy aroma" that is described as having a "black currant" characteristic.  I thought this might make a nice aromatic/flavor addition to an IPA using Mosaic hops.

I also have some (14 g) HBC-438 hops left over from a previous single hop brew, so this may be a good opportunity to use it up.  Also, it would be a good counterpoint...see what the single hop beer is like when contrasted to this one.

Brew Day: 13 Nov 2015

Partial Mash:
8 oz 2-Row malt
5.5 oz Weyermann CaraRed
5.0 oz Briess GoldPils
1.0 oz Briess CaraPils

Just to be clear, the malt bill for the partial mash had more to do with what I had left/available than anything else.

*I used my usual partial mash process.

Boil (60 min):
1 lb Pilsen DME (@ 60 min)
3 oz corn sugar (@ 60 min)

Hops:
7 g Mosaic (12.1% AA) (@ 60 min)
3 g HBC-438 (15.7% AA), 4 g Mosaic (12.1% AA), 4 g Brewer's Gold (10.5% AA) (@ 15 min)
3 g HBC-438 (15.7% AA), 4 g Mosaic (12.1% AA), 4 g Brewer's Gold (10.5% AA) (@ 0 min)

Yeast: Safale US-05

*Followed my usual process for the boil, as well as for aerating and pitching the yeast.

Addendum, 14 Nov:  Checked on the fermenter this morning, about 11 hrs after pitching the yeast.  Things are looking good, as you can see from the picture to the right.  Nice activity through the blow-off tube, some material collecting in the blow-off bottle.  You can't tell from the image, but there are lots of tiny bubbles rising up from the trube that's already settled at the bottom of the fermenter.  Things seem to be progressing very nicely at this point, we're off to a good start.

Addendum, 18 Nov: Activity had settled down enough for me to put an airlock on this one.

Addendum, 24 Nov: Dry hopped tonight.
Dry Hop:
6 g HBC-438 (15.7% AA), 4 g Mosaic (12.1% AA), 4 g Brewer's Gold (10.5% AA)

So far, looks like it's doing very well, and I'm looking forward to bottling this one next week.

Addendum, 1 Dec: Bottled, with 1 oz table sugar dissolved in 1/2 cup of boiling water.

Addendum, 15 Dec: Pours to a very light brown color, with moderate head and lacing.  Carbonation is good.  Sweet fruits or berries both on the nose and the palate.  A small bit of the malt peaks out from behind the hops, very slightly.  A small bit of pine in the aftertaste.  Definitely an IPA, but without an overpowering piney or citrus bitterness.  Very drinkable, and quite enjoyable...in part because it's not like anything I've ever had an opportunity to taste.

Addendum, 25 Dec: My daughter's boyfriend came over and spent some time with us, and the rest of the family, and had one of these.  He's not a huge drinker, but liked it so much that he wanted another one!  My brother-in-law tried this one and really liked it.  I don't have any tasting notes at this point, because I didn't get to have one, but those who did try this one really liked it.

Addendum, 9 Aug: A bit ago, I found a 22 oz Belgian and three of these beers sitting in the back of a cabinet.  I tried one not long ago, but didn't do any updates.  I'm having another one tonight, and it's really good.  REALLY.  The beer is a golden amber color and poured with a nice, thick head.  The head dissipated during my first few sips, but there's some good lacing going on.  The flavor is distinctive...a light cedar flavor from the HBC-438 hops, with a little bit of fruit, but none of the sharp bitterness found in many commercial IPAs.  Very distinctive and enjoyable.

HBC-438 IPA, ie '38 Special

A bit ago, I was reading about a new hop varietal that's still experimental, called HBC-438 (you can read a brief history of the varietal here).  What I read said that it was being released to home brewers for testing, and the characteristics of this hop sounded fascinating (described as stone fruit, lemon, honey, tropical fruit, mint, and herbal), so I ordered 2 oz from Northern Brewer.  The alpha acids are pretty high with this one, so using it for bittering as well as aroma/flavor shouldn't be a problem.

It turns out that NB also has a recipe for The Luckiest Man Alive Pale Ale, which uses these hops...and about a third of each kit goes to benefit research to find a cure for ALS, or "Lou Gehrig's disease".  Brewers are kind of awesome people, aren't they?

Part of the reason I'm looking forward to trying this particular hop is that it's similar to Medusa hops (Medusa doesn't have the alpha acids that the HBC-438 does), a variety I heard about in the spring, and an ounce of which was graciously provided by the good folks at Northern Brewer.  Unfortunately, I lost the initial batch to a cracked fermenter cap, but I was able to use some of what was left with another brew.

Brew Day: 5 Nov 2015

Partial Mash:
1 lb 2-Row malt
1 oz Carapils

*I used the same process for the partial mash that I always use.

Boil (60 min):
1.7 lb Gold LME (@ 60 min)
*I went with a bit more LME this time for two reasons: I didn't want to add any corn sugar, and it was what I had left...better to use it than to waste it.

Hops - HBC-438 (AA: 15.7%, Beta: 5.9%)
7 g HBC-438 (@ 60 min)
13 g HBC-438 (@ 10 min)
7 g HBC-438 (@ flameout)

*This recipe leaves me with a small bag of 14 g of HBC-438 hops (out of a total of 2 oz) to use in a complex IPA that uses multiple hops.

Yeast: Safale US-05

Addendum, 6 Nov: About 13 or so hours after pitching the yeast, the beer is doing very well.  Good activity through the blow-off tube, with some material (not a lot) in the tube and blow-off bottle.

Addendum, 7 Nov: Checked in on the fermenter this morning...after some of things that have happened over the months that I've been home brewing, I tend to check the fermenter(s) on a daily basis...and things are going very well.  There's a bit more activity, with bubbles flowing through the blow-off tube with greater frequency than yesterday.  Also, looking closely at the fermenter, I can see thousands of tiny bubbles flowing up from the bottom of the fermenter...it's very cool to see this kind of positive activity!  In fact, I've been closing the door to the bathroom (the fermenters are all in the tub) and when I go to check on the fermenters, the room has a distinctive aroma of stone fruit.

Addendum, 16 Nov: Dry hopped with 14 g HBC-438.  The brew is doing well...wonderful, orange-golden color, lots of good fermentation activity going on (i.e., the airlock cap was riding high before and after the dry hopping).  If my schedule allows me to bottle no later than 23 Nov, this one will be ready on 7 Dec.

Addendum, 18 Nov: The airlock cap is no longer riding high or floating in the airlock, but I'm not really worried about it and I'm not going to freak out.  I've seen this with a couple of beers so far, albeit not with this yeast.  I'm usually pretty careful with cleaning and sanitizing my gear. I re-used the muslin bag that I put the hops in, and started the way I always do...boiling the bag itself in a cup of water, nuked in the microwave.  After I poured out the boil water, I covered the bag itself in a small amount of sanitizer while I prepped the rest of my gear.  I then put the hops in the bag, and stuffed the bag down inside the fermenter, and then racked the beer on top of it.  I'll give this one a day or two more before bottling.

Addendum, 23 Nov: Bottled tonight, with 1 oz of table sugar dissolved in 1/2 cup of boiling water.  I got nine good bottles out of it...I'm really looking forward to trying this one!

Addendum, 11 Dec: Taste test went very well tonight, very happy with this one.

When I first opened this one, I did a gentle pour, so the head wasn't very thick.  The color is a little darker than others I've done, a dark amber color with an off-white head.  A thick head didn't persist, although there were bubbles left over the whole time it took us to get through the glass.  The second beer I had later in the evening had a thicker head, because I wasn't so gentle with the pour.  In both cases, there was some mild lacing that persisted.

I put my face in the mouth of the glass and caught a definite and pronounced aroma of berries in the nose as the bubbles from the head were bursting.  It was a sweet fruit aroma, not citrus or spicy.

No pine or bitter citrus at all, not even in the after taste.  I did catch what I first thought was cinnamon on the palate, but when I had a second beer later in the evening (no other beers in between), it came across more as something floral mixed in with the malt (from the LME).  This hop is mild enough to allow the malt to be more pronounced.  This definitely one I'd do again as a single hop brew, and next time I'll definitely go for a lighter malt bill, both in color and flavor.

We decided on a name for this one - '38 Special.  The apostrophe is for where the '4' would go...it's silent.

Azacca IPA #2 - YASF IPA

Source: NorthernBrewer.com

My first Azacca IPA (named "My So Fly IPA") turned out so well that I wanted to make it again, this time with a twist...in this case, using White Labs Clarity Firm.  A buddy of mine liked the Azzaca IPA so much that he wanted his wife to try it, and she needs gluten free products.

Interestingly, I received an order shipment from NorthernBrewer yesterday, and thumbing through the supply magazine, I came across an Azacca recipe.  The malt bill is different, as is the hop schedule; my hop schedule is a bit more aggressive than the one NB uses.

In this case, the "YASF" in the page title stands for "Yet Another So Fly".  My wife dubbed my first iteration "My So Fly IPA", and this one is simply a remake using the Clarity Firm.

All steps (partial mash, boil) followed the normal processes I've been using.

Brew Day: 27 Oct 2015

Partial Mash (usual method):
1 lb Belgian Munich malt
1 oz CaraPils

Boil (60 min)
1.25 lb Golden LME (@ 60 min)
3 oz corn sugar (@ 60 min)

Hops
7 g Azacca (@ 60 min)
14 g Azacca (@ 10 min)
11 g Azacca (@ flameout)

Yeast: Safale US-05
*Added ~1/2 vial of Clarity Firm

Addendum, 28 Oct: About 13+ hrs after pitching the yeast, I checked on the fermenter.  There's a good deal of activity, and I'm very happy about that.  What's different is there isn't much krausen in the blow-off tube (there is a very small amount), and none in the blow-off bottle.

Addendum, 6 Nov: Dry hopped with 19 g Azacca hops.  Within seconds of putting the new cap and airlock on the fermenter, the airlock cap was floating.  I'll bottle next week, and then this should be ready for it's first side-by-side comparison tasting with the original Azacca IPA on 27 Nov.

Addendum, 12 Nov: Bottled the beer tonight, with 1 oz table sugar dissolved in 1/2 cup boiling water as the priming sugar.

Addendum, 20 Nov: I was doing some research tonight, and I ran across this Beersmith article that discusses gluten reduced beers and Clarity Firm...

Addendum, 25 Nov: Tasted one tonight after chilling; it's almost exactly the same as the first batch!  Definitely a keeper recipe.  The next step is to do a side-by-side comparison between this one and the original batch, for which I still have a few bottles left.

Addendum, 10 Aug: I still had one of these in my fridge, believe it or not, and I decided that tonight was the night to finish it off.  Man, it was still good.  I had originally made this one as an effort to let a friend try the Azacca IPA, with the caveat being that she can't have gluten.  The beer poured with a small-ish head which dissipated quickly, and after the first couple of sips, there wasn't much apparent lacing.  The beer was absolutely crystal clear, as expected, and was a nice golden color.  Even without a prominent head, the carbonation was still good.  The beer had a medium body, was drinkable without being really heavy.  As far as the flavor, I'm getting a little bit of pine, and only a very small amount of bitterness.  The best I can describe is that it's like having something just a bit less bitter than a Bell's Two-Hearted.  I'll have to look at revisiting this beer in the future.

Tripel

I've wanted to try another tripel (for my wife...she likes tripels) since my first attempt didn't turn out quite the way I would've hoped.  I had a chance to stop by BrewLoCo today to pick up a few things, and since they were out of Jasper's excellent hefeweizen yeast, I thought I'd give an abbey liquid yeast a try.

Brew Day: 16 Oct 2015

Partial Mash:
1lb Belgian Munich malt

Boil (60 min):
1lb Golden Light DME
3.5 oz Belgian candy sugar
2.0 oz corn sugar

Hops:
7 g German Perle (@ 60 min)
7 g Czech Saaz (@ 10 min)

Used the usual process for the boil, and cooling the wort.  This one cooled to just below 80 deg F, call it 78 deg F, when I started transferring it to the fermenter.  I know that wort cools a little more while I'm transferring it to the fermenter. I filled the fermenter about halfway and then removed the transfer tube, covered the fermenter, and vigorously shook it to oxygenate the wort.  Once that was done, I added the remaining wort.  I'd let the yeast sit out through the entire boil process, allowing it reach room temperature, and agitating it along the way so that all of the yeast wasn't settled when I pitched it.

Yeast: JasperYeast JY-027 Scourmont Abbey yeast (pitched ~ 1/2 bottle)

This one is going to sit in primary for about 4 weeks before I bottle it.

Addendum, 17 Oct: The manufacturer describes this yeast as, "Slow starting strain but one that finishes slowly but steady. A good yeast that does need time."  As I'm writing this, it's been less than 24 hrs since I pitched the yeast, and there is no activity.  I'm going to be patient, but I'll likely declare it a failure if I don't see anything by Sunday evening.  I'm still a little gunshy since I had to rescue the IPA I tried using a yeast that, when pitched, was 6 months and 2 days old.

Addendum, 19 Oct: Checked on the fermenter this morning, and there's a great deal of fermentation activity.  This yeast was, indeed, "slow to start".  I'm looking forward to seeing how this one turns out.

Addendum, 10 Nov: Bottled today.  I know, it was a few days early, but things were pretty much in stasis, and as it turns out, I had a couple of beers to bottle (per my calendar) on one day, so I thought it would be a good idea to get this one bottled now.  Besides, this will give me a chance to have a taste test.

Addendum, 24 Nov: Taste test.  The beer poured with a nice golden color.  Carbonation was good, with a nice white head and some moderate lacing.  The nose and flavor was floral, with a bit of citrus in the finish.

Addendum, 23 Dec: Poured one for my wife tonight.  Full, pillowy head, the beer poured crystal clear with a nice golden color.  Got a bit of floral spice in the nose, and some alcohol warmth on the back.  Very nice tripel.

Ginger Saison

I wanted to try creating another beer with ginger, after my first one didn't turn out quite the way I wanted, likely due to too much ginger.  So this time, I'm going to try something a little lighter in color, a bit less ginger, and with a different yeast.

Brew Day: 14 Oct

Partial Mash (usual method):
1 lb Belgian Munich malt

Boil (45 min):
1 lb Pilsen DME
4 g Czech Saaz (@ 45 min)
< 0.5 oz thinly sliced ginger root, in a muslin bag (@ 10 min)

Yeast: Danstar Belle Saison

All parts of the process (partial mash, boil, transfer to fermenter, aeration, pitching yeast) occurred as per usual.  I racked the beer to a fermenter, and put it away; I'll check in on it later tonight or tomorrow morning and see how it's doing.

As a side note, the wort was a bit darker than I'd expected, a light brown.  While I was sparging the mash, I noticed that the wort at that point was a little browner that I had hoped.  I'll keep that in mind in the future when using the Belgian Munich malt.  I am hoping that over time, the particulates will settle out a bit and the beer will both lighten and clear.  Otherwise, I won't have a "wit"; I may have to change this to "ginger saison".

Addendum, 15 Oct: Checked on the fermenter this morning; some nice, moderate activity and a bit of krausen-y material in the blow-off tube and bottle.  Fermentation seems to be progressing nicely.

Addendum, 19 Oct: Changed the title of the post (and accordingly, the description of the beer) to "ginger saison".  This one isn't going to end up being a "wit", but I hope that the ginger addition was suitable, and that it ends up working well with the yeast.  Also, swapped out the blow-off tube for an airlock today; within seconds, the cap on the airlock was floating...definitely a good sign.

Addendum, 29 Oct: Bottled today, using 1 oz table sugar dissolved into 1/2 cup boiling water.  Used two 22 oz flip top bottles and 6 regular 12 oz bottles (capped by hand).

Addendum, 12 Nov: Tasting tonight...turned out REALLY well, another one of Terri's favorites.  Pours with a nice head, and the carbonation is good.  Solid body, tastes like a tripel...that's what Terri said, and I agree.  Just a hint of ginger, which is a nice backdrop to the Belgian-style flavors imparted by the yeast.  Some mild lacing.

LCpl's Tears (was "VM-IPA #2")

After my first attempt at a "VM-IPA", I decided that I wanted more of a red color to the beer; after all, VMI's nickname is "Big Red".  I wanted to get a red color, as well as really pushing up the hops.

Note: I changed the name of this one on 2 Nov.  See below.

I looked to a couple of other recipes to see what it would take to make a red, or more reddish ale.  I found a couple that might work, such as this one, and this one.  I also figure that if I get close to the color I want, I can also tweak it just a bit more with some steeping grains, getting color without much in the way of modifying the flavor.

Brew Day: 13 Oct

Partial Mash (following usual method):
5 oz 2-row
2 oz Caramel 60L
1 oz CaraPils
4 oz GoldPils Vienna Malt
4 oz CaraRed
2 g English black malt

The wort from the partial mash came out a bit more brown than I wanted, and I'm hoping that the end product will have more red in it than brown.

Boil (60 min)
1.25 lb Golden LME (@ 60 min)
4 oz corn sugar (@ 60 min)

12 hrs after racking 

Hops
7 g FFC7 (@ 60 min)
4 g Mosaic (12.8%) + 4 g Amarillo + 2 g Simcoe (@ 15 min, muslin bag)
4 g Mosaic (12.8%) + 4 g Amarillo + 4 g Simcoe (@ 5 min, muslin bag)

Yeast: Safale US-05

Addendum, 14 Oct: You can't tell from the picture to the right, but the beer is bubbling away nicely, at about 12 hrs after being racked to the fermenter.  It's not all krausen-y, but there is some very good activity.

Addendum, 15 Oct: Checked on the fermenter this morning; still has some nice, moderate activity (could hear the bubbling from the door...), and some krausen-y material has moved in to the blow-off tube and bottle.  Things seem to be progressing nicely at this point.

Addendum, 19 Oct: Switched out the blow-off tube for an airlock today; after 20 min, the airlock cap wasn't floating.  I opted to pitch the remaining JY-027 yeast left over from the tripel I brewed on Friday.  As it took a bit for activity to start, I'll see how this one goes.  The JY-027 is described as a slow-starting, slow-going yeast, so if there was any viable yeast remaining in the pitch, I may have to let this one sit in the fermenter for a bit longer.  Still, if things do go well, it will be interesting...so, here's hoping!

Addendum, 20 Oct: Checked on the beer this morning, have proof of life!  The airlock cap is floating!  Incidentally, the tripel is still using a blow-off tube as the yeast is still pretty active.  Maybe that's something I can look forward to with this one.

Addendum, 2 Nov: I decided to rename this one, for a couple of reasons.  First, it doesn't have the red color I was hoping for, and second, I had to "rescue" the fermentation with the Belgian yeast I had left over from a tripel.  When I described what I'd done to the proprietor of Kettle and Grains, he remarked that it should be "interesting"...and I agreed.  So, between the brown color, the Belgian yeast, and the hops, I ended up with a "one-off" beer.  As to the name, one day I was joking around with one of my college roommates (he went Navy...) and had the idea to name a beer "LCpl's Tears".  We thought it was funny, and I later looked it up online and found this Terminal Lance cartoon.  The Belgian yeast has been doing it's thing for 2 weeks now, and I feel like I need to wait a bit longer...at least a week to 10 days...before dry hopping this one.

Addendum, 7 Nov: I was going to dry hop this beer on Monday, but it's going to be a pretty busy day for me, so I went ahead and dry hopped it today.

Dry hop 
4 g Mosaic + 4 g Cascade + 6 g Amarillo + 3 g Simcoe (muslin bag)

Addendum, 12 Nov: Bottled the beer tonight, with 1 oz table sugar dissolved in 1/2 cup boiling water as the priming sugar.

Addendum, 24 Nov: Taste test.  Pours a golden red-brown color, with good carbonation and a nice white head.  The head doesn't persist, and there is some mild lacing.  Mild fruit aroma in the nose, finishes with a bit of grapefruit, and just a bit of alcohol warmth.  Light bodied, not heavy at all, and easy to drink.  This one kind of tastes like it has grapefruit or grapefruit zest in it, finishing with a citrus bitterness reminiscent of grapefruit.

Addendum, 2 Jun 2016: Finished off the bomber of this tonight with friends, got three nice glasses out of it.  The beer poured with a very thick head, which settled down pretty quickly, and left some nice lacing on the glass.  The beer itself was brown in color, and crystal clear, a bit malt-forward with a nice bite from the hops.  Overall, a very good brew; one of the folks trying it had never had one of my beers, and immediately liked it.

VMI-PA

I mentioned to my wife that I was working on a recipe for a "Semper FiPA" (she knows I like IPAs) and she thought the name was kind of cool, and she said, "how about a VMI-PA?"  Being a 1989 VMI grad, I kind of liked that idea, but thought about building the recipe from scratch rather than brewing based on what I had available and going from there.

I wanted to do something that would be red in color and I found this recipe that looked really interesting, so I thought I'd give it a try.  I modified it for a 1 gal batch, and upped the hop additions a bit to get more of an IPA.

Brew Day: 2 Sept 2015

Ingredients

Partial Mash
11 oz Briess 2-row malt
4 oz CaraRed Malt
2 oz Crystal 60L
1 oz CaraPils
12 g Simpsons Black Malt

I followed my usual partial mash process; 2 qt water at 156 deg F in a cooler, add grains is grain bag for 1 hr.  Cycle at the end of the hour, cycle the wort through the grain bag several times manually, then remove the bag and place in 4 qt water at 170 deg F, in the brew kettle, steep for 10 min.  Resulting wort is about 1 qt; add to brew kettle, raise temperature to boiling.

While brewing, I enjoyed one my last remaining original grapefruit IPAs.

Boil - 45 min
1 lb Pilsen DME (@ 45 min)
3 oz light Belgian candy sugar (@ 45 min)

Hops:
7 g Warrior (@ 45 min, bittering)
7 g Amarillo (@ 10 min - muslin bag)
7 g Amarillo (@ 5 min - muslin bag)
15 g Amarillo (@ 0 min, flameout - muslin bag)

Note: A similar hopping schedule worked out well for the Azacca or "So Fly" IPA,

Yeast: Safale US-50

As I put the fermenter away for the evening, I noted that the color of the soon-to-be beer was more brown than red.

12 hrs after brewing

The following morning, about 12 hrs after putting the fermenter away, I checked in on the beer, and it's bubbling away nicely.  Not a massive amount of krausen, but some good activity.

Addendum, 7 Sept:  Fermentation had settled out a bit, so I removed the blow-off tube yesterday morning and put an airlock on the fermenter.  I ran across a picture on Facebook this morning of a brew from Mr Rufus Brewing (you can see a picture of the brew here) with a brilliant red color, and asked about the grain bill.  What they so graciously shared was that it was 82% 2-row, 10% Munich, and 8% Crystal 150L.  Assuming that the pilsen DME equates to 20 oz of grain, the approx. percentages for this brew come in at 54% Pilsen, 30% 2-row, 10% CaraRed, 5% crystal 60L and 1+% black malt.  After we see how this one turns out, I will likely try a variation of the Rufus recipe, again going primarily for the color.  If I remove the CaraRed and the Crystal 60L, and just go with 1 oz of the Simpson's black malt, that may get me closer to the red color (I can use the other malts in later brew).

Addendum, 12 Sept: Racked to secondary, dry hopped with 15 g of Amarillo hops.  The beer had a very nice citrus orange scent throughout the process.

Addendum, 19 Sept: Bottled today.  Transferred to a clean fermenter with 1.2 oz of table sugar dissolved in 1/2 cup of boiling water.  Got 9 good bottles out of this one.  It's still darker than I'd like, but I'll be very interested in the flavor; if the hops turn out nicely, the next time I try the recipe I'll do away with the CaraRed and go with just 10g or so of the black malt, to try to get the red color.

Addendum, 5 Oct: Tasting - Beer pours with a slightly reddish-brown color, with a mild head, but good carbonation.  Aroma of sweet citrus in the nose, with a mild grapefruit flavor and a slight malt finish, albeit not a malty aftertaste.  A bit mild for an IPA; in addition to modifying the malt bill to get more of red color, I will likely also modify the hops (type and amount, but not the hop schedule) to get a bigger, bolder IPA, fitting of the name "Big Red".  For example, I might add some Simcoe.

For my next attempt, I'll drop the Crystal 60L (and maybe the CaraRed, as well), and go with about 10g of Simpson's black malt.  This should get me more of the color I'm looking for, without adding any flavor.  I've got some Belgian Munich malt, and I'll use that and the black malt for the partial mash, filling in the remaining malt bill with Pilsen or golden light DME.