Sour Beer

I have some Good Belly Straight Shots left over, and while I don't have a specific plan for a beer, I thought I'd at least start by brewing the sour batch up.

Brew Day: 30 Nov 2018

Partial Mash:
6 oz Special B
3 oz Munich
2 oz flaked wheat

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

Once the boil is complete, chill the wort in an ice bath, and add the wort to a sanitized fermenter with (2) Good Belly Straight Shots; place on a warming plate (wrapped in a towel) for 48-72 hrs.

Boil #2 (20 min): 3 Dec 2018
20 min boil to kill the bugs.

By the time I got to the second boil, I'd decided to do another "barrel aged" sour ale.  As such, later this week, I'll prepare the oak chips in a manner similar to the way I did so previously.  This one is likely going to be a barrel-aged brown or red sour (BABS, BARS) ale.

Hops: 14 g Styrian Golding hops

Yeast: BE-134

Addendum, 9 Dec: Boiled 1.2 oz of oak chips in water for 5 min, then placed them in a sanitized tupperware container.  Covered the oak chips in Woodford Reserve (90.4 proof); it took 2 small bottles, 100 ml.

Addendum, 17 Dec: Racked the beer on to oak chips placed in a hop bag.  I saved the Woodford off for inclusion in baked beans.

Addendum, 21 Dec: Racked to secondary.

Addendum, 12 Jan: Bottled on 1 oz table sugar dissolved in 1/2 cup boiling water.  Got 9 good bottles out of it.

Dry hopped Belgian

For my last Belgian, I decided completely on a whim to dry hop it with Cashmere hops.  It turned out that my wife really liked the flavor, and so while I still have some of these hops, I'm going to do this one again, albeit intentionally.

Brew Day: 26 Nov 2018

Partial Mash:
8 oz Munich
2 oz flaked wheat

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

Hops:
14 g German Hersbrucker (FWH)
14 g Cashmere hops (dry hop)

Yeast: BE-134

*I followed all of my normal procedures.

Addendum, 8 Dec: Dry hopped today; 14 g Cashmere hops.

Addendum, 15 Dec: Transferred the beer to secondary.

Addendum, 12 Jan: Bottled on 1 oz of table sugar, dissolved in 1/2 cup boiling water.  Got 8 good bottles out of it.

Sah'ti

Wow, I haven't done a sah'ti variant in a while, looks like it's time to brew another one!

Brew Day: 30 Oct 2018

Partial Mash:
4 oz Munich
4 oz Crystal Rye
2 oz flaked wheat

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

Hops: 14 g German Hersbrucker (@ 20 min)

At 10 min into the boil, add 22 g of crushed juniper berries and 3 black tea bags, in a hop bag, to the wort.  Keep the bag in the wort through the cooling process.

Yeast: K-97

Addendum, 31 Oct: Checked on the beer this morning; the yeast kicked off rather nicely and is doing it's job very well.  I may need to change out the blow-off bottle in the next day or two, depending on the activity.

Addendum, 12 Nov: Transferred to secondary.

Addendum, 25 Nov: Bottled today, on 1 oz table sugar dissolved in 1/2 cup of boiling water.  Got 9 good bottles.

Sour Cashmere IPA

With the cashmere hops I have available, I wanted to try a side-by-side comparison of an IPA against a sour IPA.  So, same recipe, same everything, the only difference is this one was soured via my usual process.

Brew Day #1: 26 Sept 2018

Partial Mash:
12 oz Munich
2 oz flaked wheat

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

Brew Day #2: 29 Sept 2018

Boil (20 min):

Hops:
14 g Cashmere hops (FWH)
21 g Cashmere hops (@flameout, 20 min)
21 g Cashmere hops (10 min after @flameout, 10 min)
14 g Cashmere hops (dry hop)

Yeast: US-05

Addendum, 8 Oct: Dry hopped

Addendum, 11 Oct: Bottled on 1 oz of table sugar dissolved in 1/2 c boiling water.  Got 9 good bottles.

Addendum, 26 Oct: Opened a chilled bottle tonight.  The sour was very pronounced, so much so that the flavors I found in the cashmere IPA were overwhelmed.  The beer was well carbonated but none of the other characteristics were present; minimal head, no lacing, etc.  Very much an example of a sour beer.  Same body as the IPA, and just as enjoyable beer to drink.

Cashmere IPA

I received an ad from an online home brew supply store, and it mentioned having  a blonde ale available made with Cashmere hops.  I did some research on this one, and found sites like DraftMag that had descriptions of what this hop has to offer, and immediately thought to myself that I would LOVE to try this in an IPA, as well as a sour IPA.  The description at BSG has some very interesting notes...I'd really like to see how 'secondary notes of coconut' smells and tastes.

I did a search on Amazon and found an 8oz bag of the hops that would set me back less than purchasing 4oz from the online store, and they showed up the other day.  I can't wait to try them out in a beer, and to get a good whiff of the hops themselves.

One description suggests that this hop would do really well alongside Mosaic, and based on my recent experience, I couldn't agree more.

Brew Day: 27 Sept 2018

Partial Mash:
12 oz Munich
2 oz flaked wheat

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

Hops:
14 g Cashmere hops (FWH)
21 g Cashmere hops (@flameout, 20 min)
21 g Cashmere hops (10 min after @flameout, 10 min)
14 g Cashmere hops (dry hop)

Yeast: US-05

Addendum, 7 Oct: Dry hopped on 14 g of Cashmere hops.

Addendum, 11 Oct: Bottled on 1 oz of table sugar dissolved in 1/2 c boiling water.  Got 8 good bottles and one partially filled re-purposed Dr Pepper bottle.

Addendum, 26 Oct: Opened the re-purpose soda bottle tonight.  Beer poured with a golden brown color, good carbonation and a moderate, pillowy white head.  Consistent lacing throughout the glass, similar to a Bell's Two-Hearted.  Nothing specific jumped out in the aroma, but the palette was different; there was sweetness followed by a creamy mouth-feel reminiscent of coconut.  Very enjoyable IPA; body is a bit heavier than I'd want for a summertime beer, but overall, a very good drinking experience.

YAB (Yet Another Belgian)

The last Belgian turned out pretty well, and it's a very good beer that I like to keep on-hand.  So, having some of the yeast that really makes this one turn out quite nice, I brewed up another batch on a rainy Sunday.

Brew Day: 16 Sept 2018

Partial Mash:
12 oz Munich
2 oz flaked wheat

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

Hops - 14 g German Hersbrucker (at the beginning of the boil)

Yeast - BE-134

*I followed all of my usual procedures.

Addendum, 23 Sept: Completely spontaneous dry hop onto 14 g of Cashmere hops today.

Addendum, 27 Sept: Racked the beer to secondary.

Addendum, 28 Oct: Bottled tonight; got 8 good bottles and one partial fill.

Addendum, 11 Nov: Taste test.  Terri tried it without me telling her what the beer was; she guessed that it was a Belgian but also said that there was a smoothness to it, as well.  I told her that I'd dry hopped the beer with the cashmere hops, and that the hops was described as imparting "coconut".  With the IPA, I'd gotten that not as a straight coconut flavor, but more an impression, based on mouthfeel; there was a slight sweetness and a smoothness that I'd associate with coconut milk. I tried it, as well, and found that I really enjoyed it.  This may be "the new thing"...dry hopping a "normal" beer to impart a little something different.  Some options might be Huell Melon, for a hint of strawberry, in a Belgian or a hefeweizen. 

Sour Beer

With the fall coming and the stores all overwhelmed with pumpkin ales and fall beers for Oktoberfest, I felt that I needed to start preparing some sour beers for the fall season.  One of the great things about homebrewing is that I can have what I want, when I want it!

Brew Day #1: 4 Sept 2018

Partial Mash:
14 oz Munich
2 oz flaked wheat

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

After the boil, chill the wort to 80 - 90 deg F, and add to a sanitized fermenter, on (2) Good Belly Straight Shots.  Place an air lock in the fermenter cap, and place on a warming plate, wrapped in a towel.

Brew Day #2: 7 Sept

Boil #2 (20 min):

Hops:
FWH: 14 g Jarrylo (AA: 14.2%)
Flame out #1 (20 min): 6 g Jarrylo, 10 g Mosaic (10.8%), 10 g Citra (13.3%)
Flame out #2 (10 min): 6 g Jarrylo, 10 g Mosaic, 10 g Citra
Dry hop: 7 g Mosaic, 7 g Citra

Yeast: US-05

As soon as I took the wort off of the burner, I added the first flame out hop addition, and then added the second 10 min later.  At the 20 min mark, I put the wort in an ice bath to cool it to about 80 deg F, and pitched the yeast.  I then inserted a blow-off tube in the fermenter cap, and put the beer in the basement bathroom.

Addendum, 18 Sept: Dry-hopped the beer this evening.

Addendum, 21 Sept: Bottled; got 7 good bottles, one partial fill, and on repurposed Mountain Dew bottle.  This beer smelled very fruity during the bottling.

Addendum, 7 Oct: Opened the soda bottle tonight.  The beer poured with a hazy golden color, typical of the sours I've made.  There was mild carbonation and no head, also inline with sours.  The beer was mildly tart, and had a hint of fruitiness.

Wai-iti IPA

Not long ago, I was at my local home brew supply shop and found some Zythos hops for an IPA.  I was interested in some hops that would impart fruit, specifically pineapple, and had gone to the shop looking for Denali hops.  While I was there, Arthur latched on to my thoughts regarding a hop variety that would provide something akin to pineapple (or another sweet fruit), and came up another hop variety called Wai-iti. I liked the description enough to go ahead and get some on the spot, and I finally found the time to put together an IPA.

Wai-iti Hops:
Band of BrewTuber's review
MoreBeer description
Hopslist description

Brew Day: 28 Jul 2018

Partial Mash:
12 oz Munich
2 oz flaked wheat

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

Hops:
7 g Wai-iti hops (FWH)
14 g Wai-iti hops (20 min steep, @ flameout)
21 g Wai-iti hops (10 min steep, 10 min after flameout)
14 g Wai-iti hops (dry hop)

Yeast: US-05

I followed all of my usual procedures.

Addendum, 7 Aug: Dry-hopped the beer today; got some very fruity aromas during the transfer on to the hops, and the beer was hazy.

Addendum, 9 Aug: Bottled tonight, on 1 T of table sugar dissolved in 1/2 c boiling water.  Got 6 good bottles and two 22 oz flip top bottles.

Tasting Notes, 10 Sept: Opened a bottle tonight that I'd filled all the way up to the top; usually when filling bottles, there's some room left when I remove the racking crane, but with this bottle, I'd let some of the remaining beer trickle into the bottle, filling it up all the way.  As such, there was no head space in the bottle, and the beer was well carbonated.  The beer poured with a pillowy, white head, and the beer itself was a golden color.  There's a definite aroma of sweet fruits in the nose, as well as on the palette.  There was definitely a dearth of any bitterness at all, and no pine resin (as with the Zythos IPA).  This is a very juicy IPA, although I'm not getting a definite impression of any one particular fruit (pineapple, mango, guava, etc.).  Very good, very drinkable beer.

I had an opportunity to enjoy the Tangerine Technique Pale Ale at Kindred Spirit Brewing this past weekend, and the Wai-iti IPA has a bit more body, and a bit more flavor, as well.

As I was enjoying this beer, I noticed some definite lacing going on along the glass; not as much as, say, a Bell's Two Hearted, but very definite lacing.

Good gravy, but I do enjoy a juicy IPA!  Why go bitter if you don't have to?

"Barrel-aged" dark sour

I recently ran across an article that gave me some new insights into using oak chips in brewing a beer.  I really like DuClaw's Midnight Due, and I thought, why subject myself to a "limited release", when I can brew my own? My first attempt at using oak chips didn't turn out so well, and think that it was because I hadn't properly sanitized the chips, nor did I let the beer age long enough.

Brew Day #1: 9 July

Partial Mash:
6 oz Special B
6 oz Munich
2 oz flaked wheat

Bring 3 qt of water to ~ 160 deg F, pour into a 1 gal thermos container.  Add grain bag with grains, making sure all of the grain gets saturated.  Seal the thermos for at least an hour.

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

Raise 3+ qt water in the brew kettle to at least 170 deg F.  Remove grain bag from thermos, transfer to brew kettle, steep for ~ 10 min.  Remove grain bag, add wort, DME, sugar, and boil.

Cool the wort in an ice bath until it reaches ~ 80 deg F.  Rack on to (2) GoodBelly StraightShots that have been brought up to room temp.  You can fill the fermenter all the way up; place a sanitized air lock in the fermenter cap, wrap the fermenter in a towel, and place on the warming plate for 48 - 72 hrs.

There will likely be some wort left in the kettle, so save it off in a bottle, placing it in the fridge until the second boil.

Begin preparing the oak chips.  Add 1 oz of oak chips to boiling water for 5 min; drain, and place in a sanitized glass bottle, and just cover with whisky (Johnny Walker Black Label, 86.8 proof).  Let set for 7 days, the contribute the whisky to the sink, and just cover the chips with bourbon.  Let sit for at least 5 days, and then rack the beer on to the chips and bourbon for several days.

Boil #2  12 July (20 min):
Pour the contents of the fermenter into the brew kettle, and then add the contents of the bottle, and about half a bottle again of tap water.  Boil for 20 min to kill the "bugs" (i.e., souring bacteria). Cool hopped wort to ~ 80 deg F in an ice bath, then transfer to a sanitized fermenter, aerate, and pitch the yeast.

Hops: 14 g German Hersbrucker (AA: 2.3%, @ 20 min)

Yeast: BE-134

Okay, so this one turned out to be a real mish-mash of styles...it's going to be more red than brown, it's sour, uses a Belgian yeast, and I'm still going forward with the oak chips.  This one is going to be real interesting!

Addendum, 16 July: "Contributed" the Johnny Walker whisky that the oak chips had been soaking in to the sink this morning, and added a couple of ounces of Maker's Mark bourbon whisky (90 proof); not enough to cover the chips but over the next couple of days, I will be rotating the container.  The beer itself is still bubbling away quite nicely.

Addendum, 21 July: Racked the beer on to the oak chips; I did not include the bourbon (saving that for baked beans this weekend).

Addendum, 26 July: Racked the beer off of the oak chips and into a clean fermenter; now, to wait.

Addendum, 16 Sept: Bottled today, on 1 oz of table sugar dissolved in 1/2 cup boiling water.  Got 8 good bottles and 1 22 oz flip top bottle.  Also, I tried something a bit different...I added a very small amount of BE-134 yeast to the fermenter while racking the beer on to the bottling sugar.  I did this because historically, the sour beers have always been lightly carbonated, and this beer has been sitting for longer than any other beer I've made thus far.  As a precaution, I moved all of the other bottles out of the tub where I keep the carbonating beers; that way, if there is a bottle burst, I won't loose, or have to clean, so many bottles.  We'll see how this turns out; it may have been completely unnecessary.

Addendum, 30 Sept: Finally tried one of these last night...WOW!  I'd thought to try one on Friday, but when I went to uncap the bottle, the neck just below the cap split apart.  I did pour the beer into a glass through a strainer (in case there were small shards of glass) but the beer was clearly not carbonated.  I chilled another beer, and poured it last night.  The carbonation was subtle and the color was a reddish-brown.  There was nothing distinctive in the aroma, but the flavor was tart up front, with a woody vanilla on the back end.  Had it had a hint of acetic acid, I might have thought that it was a Flanders ale.  I really enjoyed this beer, and it's definitely one that I would enjoy by itself...just the beer, nothing else, and that would be it.  I'm definitely going to try the oak chips again, but this time, I think I'll put them in a hop bag so that they're a little easier to manage/handle. 

Oak Chips

My first attempt at "barrel aging" on oak chips didn't turn out too well, likely for several reasons.  For one, the beer got infected...it was clearly soured, and that wasn't the intent.  Further, there were really harsh tannins in the flavor. 

However, a recent issue of Zymurgy had a Dragon's Milk clone recipe (by Amahl Turczyn) that had some really good advice on preparing the oak chips for use:

- boil the chips for 5 min
- soak the chips in cheap whiskey or bourbon for 7 days, then "donate" the booze to the sink or to a marinade recipe
- soak the chips on good bourbon for 4 - 7 days
- after the beer has fermented, rack on to the chips and monitor the beer until you have "noticeable vanilla notes"
- rack the beer into secondary (off of the chips) and let it mellow for a month or two

I see a good opportunity for a "barrel-aged" sour in the near future.