I haven't updated this blog in several years. I started a new homebrew blog using Wordpress when I started up websites using 1&1 hosting service. But now I haven't updated that blog in a long time either. I've just got too much else going on just now to want to keep up to date with blogging about beer, or any other topics either.
New homebrew blog, fairly up to date, at Rick brews (for reference, http://rickbrews.naturist-rick.com). However, I don't write very much at times, just sort of a stub that I intend to get back to later, then never do. What a lazy procrastinator I am.
June 12, 2013
September 02, 2011
Brewday, clone of Lagunitas Censored Ale, anglicized
Leaving work early, but I'll have my requisite 44 hours in so I'm not slacking! Going to the beach for a nice walk in the late afternoon sun, then it's home for an all-grain brew session.
The recipe is derived from this podcast, Can You Brew It: Lagunitas Censored on the Brewing Network, The Jamil Show, Can You Brew It?. I've made this once before and I didn't think it was anywhere near 'cloned'. Probably the process (mine vs. their's) was wrong. It was still mighty tasty and I drank it all, mind you, but just not cloned.
To try something a bit different, which actually meant "I don't know what change(s) to make to my process to make the original recipe taste closer to Lagunitas Censored Ale", I decided to change all of the American malts (Briess) to English ones (Crisp).
I'll get back with you, probably later tonight (didn't happen), to fill in the recipe specifics and how the brew session went, a la The Mad Fermentationist blog on his brew sessions.
Anglicized Lagunitas Censored Ale clone
Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 6.00
I need to run this through Pro-mash, don't I?
Total Grain (Lbs): 15.75
Anticipated OG: x.xxx
Anticipated SRM: xx.x
Anticipated IBU: xx.x
Brewhouse Efficiency: xx %
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes
Grain
------
Crisp Maris Otter 11.8125 lbs (5.36 kg) -- 75.0%
Weyermann Munich Type II 1.5625 lb (0.71 kg) 9.9%
Weyermann Pale Wheat 1.25 (0.57 kg) 7.9%
Crisp Crystal Malt 60L 1.0625 lb 0.48 kg) 6.7%
Crisp Roasted Barley 0.0625 lb (0.03 kg) 0.4%
Hops
------
Willamette (Pellet, 4.60% AA) @ 60 min.
Cascade (Pellet, 4.60% AA) @ 15 min.
Horizon
Centennial
Liberty
Yeast
------
White Labs English Ale, WLP002
Water Profile
--------------
Profile: Titusville FL, filtered through activated carbon to remove chlorine
Mash Schedule
-------------
Sacch Rest - 60 min @ F
Mash Out - 10 min @ 168 F
Notes
------
7/16/11 Brewed with Audrey
Collected 6.75 gallons of 1.038 runnings with a batch sparge.
Left out the whirlfloc and yeast nutrient.
Chilled to 65 F and pitched with 1 rehydrated (85 F for 15 min) pack of US-05. Shook for 5 minutes to aerate. Left at 65 ambient to ferment.
Good fermentation after 18 hours.
7/24/11 Fermentation appears to be mostly complete.
8/7/11 Bottled, down to 1.012. Added 3.5 oz of cane sugar to the 4.38 gallons of beer we yielded. Aiming for 2.5 volumes of CO2.
9/23/11 Solid beer, but not great. The Willamette lent a spicy hop character that I'm not enamored with, not to say it is a bad beer, just one that I don't love.
The recipe is derived from this podcast, Can You Brew It: Lagunitas Censored on the Brewing Network, The Jamil Show, Can You Brew It?. I've made this once before and I didn't think it was anywhere near 'cloned'. Probably the process (mine vs. their's) was wrong. It was still mighty tasty and I drank it all, mind you, but just not cloned.
To try something a bit different, which actually meant "I don't know what change(s) to make to my process to make the original recipe taste closer to Lagunitas Censored Ale", I decided to change all of the American malts (Briess) to English ones (Crisp).
- Maris Otter instead of 2 row pale ale,
- Crysal 60 instead of Caramel 60, and
- Crisp roasted barley instead of the Briess roasted barley.
I'll get back with you, probably later tonight (didn't happen), to fill in the recipe specifics and how the brew session went, a la The Mad Fermentationist blog on his brew sessions.
Anglicized Lagunitas Censored Ale clone
Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 6.00
I need to run this through Pro-mash, don't I?
Total Grain (Lbs): 15.75
Anticipated OG: x.xxx
Anticipated SRM: xx.x
Anticipated IBU: xx.x
Brewhouse Efficiency: xx %
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes
Grain
------
Crisp Maris Otter 11.8125 lbs (5.36 kg) -- 75.0%
Weyermann Munich Type II 1.5625 lb (0.71 kg) 9.9%
Weyermann Pale Wheat 1.25 (0.57 kg) 7.9%
Crisp Crystal Malt 60L 1.0625 lb 0.48 kg) 6.7%
Crisp Roasted Barley 0.0625 lb (0.03 kg) 0.4%
Hops
------
Willamette (Pellet, 4.60% AA) @ 60 min.
Cascade (Pellet, 4.60% AA) @ 15 min.
Horizon
Centennial
Liberty
Yeast
------
White Labs English Ale, WLP002
Water Profile
--------------
Profile: Titusville FL, filtered through activated carbon to remove chlorine
Mash Schedule
-------------
Sacch Rest - 60 min @ F
Mash Out - 10 min @ 168 F
Notes
------
7/16/11 Brewed with Audrey
Collected 6.75 gallons of 1.038 runnings with a batch sparge.
Left out the whirlfloc and yeast nutrient.
Chilled to 65 F and pitched with 1 rehydrated (85 F for 15 min) pack of US-05. Shook for 5 minutes to aerate. Left at 65 ambient to ferment.
Good fermentation after 18 hours.
7/24/11 Fermentation appears to be mostly complete.
8/7/11 Bottled, down to 1.012. Added 3.5 oz of cane sugar to the 4.38 gallons of beer we yielded. Aiming for 2.5 volumes of CO2.
9/23/11 Solid beer, but not great. The Willamette lent a spicy hop character that I'm not enamored with, not to say it is a bad beer, just one that I don't love.
July 13, 2011
Catching up documentation of my brewing activity
With the new contract working hours and not wanting to spend the majority of a whole weekend day brewing, I've arranged my work hours so I'm done with the week by 3 pm on Friday. 30 minute drive home and I'm brewing by 3:30. Seven or so hours later the wort is in the fermenter and chills overnight in the temperature controlled fermentation 'incubator' when it is pitched. Then, I've got the whole weekend, less Friday night, to frolic, etc.
April 22, 2011. My first North German Altbier from Brewing Classic Styles by JZ & JP.
May 21, 2011. pLambic 2011 #2 pitched with ECY02 yeast blend
June 24, 2011. My first pKolsch from Brewing Classic Styles
July 10, 2011. Belgian Strong Dark Ale, BSDA to feed the solera in about a month (Aug 06)
This Friday, July 15. Another 'The Innkeeper', but the yeast from Northern Brewer is WAY old.
April 22, 2011. My first North German Altbier from Brewing Classic Styles by JZ & JP.
May 21, 2011. pLambic 2011 #2 pitched with ECY02 yeast blend
June 24, 2011. My first pKolsch from Brewing Classic Styles
July 10, 2011. Belgian Strong Dark Ale, BSDA to feed the solera in about a month (Aug 06)
This Friday, July 15. Another 'The Innkeeper', but the yeast from Northern Brewer is WAY old.
May 12, 2011
March 08, 2011
Homebrewing like a maniac
The original draft for this was dated in March, 2011. I never completed it or published it, so I don't know what the publish date will be now that I've completed it.
Over the next four out of five weekends, probably on Sundays, I'll be brewing up 4 different beers.
1. Belgian strong dark ale (BSDA) #3 of 3 for my solera project (3 criadera started 4 months apart).
2. A Munich Helles, my first ever lager
3. A repeat brew of Denny's Wry Smile Rye IPA
4. The first pLambic of 2011 using Bugfarm #5 from East Coast Yeast (ECY01)
February 17, 2011
Lots of brewing going on
Right now I'm fermenting a California common (Uncommonly Lucky recipe from BCS) and an Orval clone (Oval AG kit from Northern Brewer). The California common will be racked to a keg tonight for carbonation and conditioning if the final gravity is ok. It was brewed 12 days ago on Sunday, 06-Feb-11. The Cali common was started this past Sunday, 13-Feb-11. I'm currently drinking two sessions beers and a sour ale, thus the dispensing temperature controlled chest freezer (50 oF) is filled to the max.
The one session beer is Cumbrian Double Brown Ale, a Northern Brown Ale all grain recipe from Northern Brewer. A previous extract version of this I consider to be the best beer I've made since restarting the hobby in February of 2009. Northern Brewer was out of one of the grains, Halcyon, so I got it from Rebel Brewer. The yeast is a Wyeast Premier one called British Cask. I forget the Wyeast strain number for it but will look it up, maybe tonight, and update this post. This all grain version is still tasty and also one of the best I've made.
The other session beer is from a kit from Northern Brewer called 'The Inkeeper', a British Best Bitter. However, I forgot these kits were for 5 gallons instead of the 6 gallons that I've been brewing for a while now, so the O.G. was only 1.042. This O.G. is at the bottom level for a Best Bitter, so maybe this one will be more of an Ordinary Bitter. I don't care if it has 5/6 less alcohol, it's still very tasty. When I make it again I'll get enough ingredients for 6 gallons. The yeast is another Limited Edition Wyeast one, Yorkshire Ale I think, # 1495. But I'll have to look this up tonight too and update the blog post accordingly.
The sour beer is my second attempt at a sour beer back in May of 2009. By the time I got it kegged it had been conditioning in a Better Bottle for nearly 18 months. It is a Flanders Red pitched with Wyeast Roeselare sour blend (#I dunno). It's pretty good and not nearly as sour now as it was at 1 year. Pretty complex flavors and these got me a compliment from Dave Webb at last month's SAAZ homebrewer's club meeting. I'll take along another bottle of it this Sunday for the February SAAZ meeting.
Also age conditioning:
The one session beer is Cumbrian Double Brown Ale, a Northern Brown Ale all grain recipe from Northern Brewer. A previous extract version of this I consider to be the best beer I've made since restarting the hobby in February of 2009. Northern Brewer was out of one of the grains, Halcyon, so I got it from Rebel Brewer. The yeast is a Wyeast Premier one called British Cask. I forget the Wyeast strain number for it but will look it up, maybe tonight, and update this post. This all grain version is still tasty and also one of the best I've made.
The other session beer is from a kit from Northern Brewer called 'The Inkeeper', a British Best Bitter. However, I forgot these kits were for 5 gallons instead of the 6 gallons that I've been brewing for a while now, so the O.G. was only 1.042. This O.G. is at the bottom level for a Best Bitter, so maybe this one will be more of an Ordinary Bitter. I don't care if it has 5/6 less alcohol, it's still very tasty. When I make it again I'll get enough ingredients for 6 gallons. The yeast is another Limited Edition Wyeast one, Yorkshire Ale I think, # 1495. But I'll have to look this up tonight too and update the blog post accordingly.
The sour beer is my second attempt at a sour beer back in May of 2009. By the time I got it kegged it had been conditioning in a Better Bottle for nearly 18 months. It is a Flanders Red pitched with Wyeast Roeselare sour blend (#I dunno). It's pretty good and not nearly as sour now as it was at 1 year. Pretty complex flavors and these got me a compliment from Dave Webb at last month's SAAZ homebrewer's club meeting. I'll take along another bottle of it this Sunday for the February SAAZ meeting.
Also age conditioning:
Golden Dragon, a Belgian Strong Dark Ale all grain from Northern Brewer. It was 1 year aged on 02-Feb-11 and I'll be drinking it next when one of the session beers runs out. This could be 3 to 4 weeks from now. It isn't as good as I had hoped, so I've decided not to bottle any for further aging. I'll use my BDSA solera project output for this, starting in early August, 2011. - Notre Dame d'Golden Valley. An Orval clone, recipe kit from Northern Brewer. The Oval kit mention above has the exact same ingredient list as this one, but with different yeast. I guess NB figured that made it enough different to give it a different name. It has been age conditioning since 03-Mar-10, almost a year.
- Two Lambics
- A 2010 version of the Flanders Red.
- A 2011 version of the Oud Bruin, secondary pitched with East Coast Yeast's Bugfarm IV (Al B. is now commercial, selling his great sour mixes through Princeton Homebrew in New Jersey. I used Al B's Bugfarm III, acquired at the end of December, 2009 from him via a distribution he arranged on a forum thread at the Burgundian Babble Belt fora). Age conditioning started a few weeks ago. You can find out about East Coast Yeast on Facebook. See their Info tab for how to order their yeast inoculum products. Most are (proprietary) blends.
June 10, 2010
Thus, proposed brewing schedule for a year
Brew days are almost all Sundays. Get some sun, do chores, run errands on Saturdays, then an all-grain brew on Sunday. Fall weekends compete with UF Gator home football games. The football games will always win.
Jun 20 American Rye
Jun 27 Belgian Dark Strong Ale, solera start
Jul 11 At ICES meeting
Jun 18 Just returned from ICES meeting
Aug 15 Lagunitas Censored Ale clone from CYBI
Aug 22 Scottish 70/- Ale
Aug 25 Flanders Red 2010
Sep 12 Belgian Blonde (wish it were twins!)
Sep 19 Classic American Pilsener, my first lager attempt
Oct 03 All Brett. or Jolly Pumpkin clone, CYBI
Oct 10 Cumbrian Double Brown Ale, yum
Oct 24 California Common
Nov 28 Solera #2, BDSA
Dec 12 Northern German Alt
Dec 19 Brown Porter
Jan 23 Munich Helles
Feb 20 Kolsch
Mar 20 Maibock/Helles Bock
Mar 28 Solera #3, BDSA
Apr 10 Swartzbier
Added 23-Jun-10
Jun 20 American Rye
Jun 27 Belgian Dark Strong Ale, solera start
Jul 11 At ICES meeting
Jun 18 Just returned from ICES meeting
Aug 15 Lagunitas Censored Ale clone from CYBI
Aug 22 Scottish 70/- Ale
Aug 25 Flanders Red 2010
Sep 12 Belgian Blonde (wish it were twins!)
Sep 19 Classic American Pilsener, my first lager attempt
Oct 03 All Brett. or Jolly Pumpkin clone, CYBI
Oct 10 Cumbrian Double Brown Ale, yum
Oct 24 California Common
Nov 28 Solera #2, BDSA
Dec 12 Northern German Alt
Dec 19 Brown Porter
Jan 23 Munich Helles
Feb 20 Kolsch
Mar 20 Maibock/Helles Bock
Mar 28 Solera #3, BDSA
Apr 10 Swartzbier
Added 23-Jun-10
I've just been to a web application called TimeGlide that can generate a timeline. I used it to put in my last homebrew, Moose Drool clone to give it a try. Here it is so far. I'll be adding all of the above brewing sessions later and the ones prior to 22-Jun-2010 once these are done. What do you think of TimeGlide?
A link to my public homebrewing timeline.
Here is some code I copied from TimeGlide to embed this here in my homebrew blog
June 09, 2010
Future drinking schedule
Assumption: each corny keg has forty eight 12 oz. serving portions in it after filling, and I will drink two per day, which is what various health sites recommend for a man. Thus, each keg will last for 24 days, give or take. There are quite a few styles I have yet to try. Some I don't have a strong reason or feeling to try. I've already brewed some of my favorite styles I like after drinking a few craft brews of them.
So, here is the 'Rick's drinking list', with the date I'll need to start drinking them and the name of the beer or style. The start date is one day after emptying the previous keg. Thus, this beer should already be in my 'dispensing' temperature controlled chest 'freezer' and fully carbonated. Hm. Why won't the following table start just after this paragraph? There are NO HTML tags between the close of the paragraph and the start of the table?| Start date | Brew |
| Now | English Best Bitter |
| 12-Jun | Moose Drool |
| 06-Jul | Oud Bruin (just for a few days as I'm going on a trip) |
| 18-Jul | American Rye Ale |
| 12 Aug | Scottish 70/- Ale |
| 05-Sep | Cumbrian Double Brown Ale |
| 01-Oct | Belgian Blonde Ale (maybe, maybe not) |
| 26-Oct | Brown Porter |
| 20-Nov | Classic American Pilsener |
| 14-Dec | California Common |
| 2011 | |
| 07-Jan | Lagunitas Censored Ale |
| 31-Jan | Northern German Altbier |
| 24-Feb | Wry Smile Rye IPA |
| 20-Mar | Munich Helles |
| 13-Apr | Kolsch |
| 06-May | Maibock/Helles Bock |
| 31-May | Swartzbier |
June 08, 2010
Brewing history of RickBrew through May 22, 2010
This is my second year of new-brewing. I've got a lot of styles I want to try, so I can better pick those I do best and also like to drink (of course,otherwise, what's the point?). Since discovering sour ales or wild brews, I'm trying more of these, even though they have an aging / conditioning time of a year or more.
| Date | Brew | Description |
| 2009 | ||
| Sep 26 | Waldo Lake Amber | Northern Brewing all-grain Limited Edition Kit of an American Amber Ale with Denny's 50 yeast strain |
| Oct 08 | Raspberry Wheat | American Wheat with 1 can Oregon raspberry puree added to secondary |
| Oct 24 | Wry Smile Rye IPA | Northern Brewer all-grain Limited Edition Kit of an American IPA with Rye malt and, again, Denny's 50 yeast strain from Wyeast. |
| Nov 11 | Petite Saison d'Ete | Northern Brewer Limited Edition kit with Wyeast 3711? Saison yeast strain |
| 2010 | ||
| Jan 06 | Notre Dame d'Golden Valley | A Northern Brewer extract Limited Edition kit of an obvious Orval clone, making this a Belgian Special Ale style |
| Jan 17 | Golden Dragon | Northern Brewer all-grain Limited Edition kit with Wyeast Belgian Golden Ale yeast. Actually a Belgian Dark Strong Ale style |
| Jan 24 | Oud Bruin | From Brewing Classic Styles, all-grain. Secondary pitched with Al's Bugfarm III, a sour mix donated by Al of Burgundian Babble Belt forum fame |
| Feb 14 | Dusseldorf Altbier | Cowboy Alt from Brewing Classic Styles all-grain (BCS from now on) |
| Mar 06 | California Common | from BCS, all-grain |
| Mar 17 | Lambic #1 | from BCS EXTRACT recipe, pitched with Al's Bugfarm III for secondary |
| Mar 25 | Lambic #2 | from BCS EXTRACT recipe, pitched with Wyeast's lambic blend |
| May 02 | English Best Bitter | from BCS. All-grain. WLP002 London ESB |
| May 09 | Oud Bruin 2010 annual | from BCS, all-grain. Mixed secondary pitch - White Labs sour blend, Wyeast Roeselare blend - but VERY old, a bit of starter from Al's Bugfarm III |
| May 22 | Moose Drool clone | Recipe from The Jamil Show on Brewing Network, all-grain. "Can You Brew It". CLONED! |
May 28, 2010
2nd Annual Oud Bruin brewed
The following is copied from The Mad Fermentationist blog, so I can do a better job of recording my brew log. I'll just reformat it to my style. I'm copying it so I don't forget to add any details. The details of each of my brews will replace Mike T.'s details.
This has happened when mashing the last two brews, with grains milled by an online homebrew source I've been using lately. The post-mash / pre-boil O.G. was high 1.070. This is almost the anticipated POST-BOIL O.G.! Two in a row from this supplier, so I am pretty sure they mill the grains too fine.
I ordered from this online supplier because they were a bit cheaper for the ingredients and the shipping was a dollar less. I could use less grain instead and hit the target O.G., but I'm still too inexperienced at all-grain to figure this out without missing the mark a few times. My question, to myself, is... What does it matter if the O.G. and final ABV are too high? I'm the one doing the drinking of the final product and I'm not too interested in entering the beers in any contests where they would have to be within style guidelines.
I've never tasted a Flanders Brown Ale / Oud Bruin, so I can't say whether my previous version is good or not. I like the taste of my first Oud Bruin (OB d'Table from a Northern Brewer extract kit offered over a year ago), and now I'm doing all grain brews and I've got some very interesting sour bugs to inoculate it with. (I'm a microbiologist by trade, so I use 'inoculate' instead of 'pitch'. They're the same thing). I've got: an old Wyeast smackpack of Roeselare blend (nearly a year old), a White Labs sour blend, WYP...I'll have to look this up later, and some of the older, but occasionally fed, starter that was inoculated with Al's bugfarm III (need reference).
I aerated the chilled wort for less than 60 seconds with pure oxygen because it foamed up to the top before this time was up. According the Mike Tonsmiere, The Mad Fermentationist, "more oxygen dissolved in the wort at the start of the fermentation is supposed to cause the Brett to produce more acid". This sounds good to me. I hope I still get enough acid even though aeration was incomplete.
Annual Oud Bruin
I like this post by The Mad Fermentationist on culturing sour beer bottle dregs
I've made text replacement down to here.
Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 4.75
Total Grain (Lbs): 11.50
Anticipated OG: 1.061
Anticipated SRM: 4.9
Anticipated IBU: 10.7
Brewhouse Efficiency: 69 %
Wort Boil Time: 125 Minutes
Grain
------
8.50 lbs. Belgian Pilsener
1.00 lbs. Belgian Munich Malt
0.75 lbs. CaraFoam
0.75 lbs. Flaked Oats
0.50 lbs. Sauer(acid) Malt
Hops
-----
6 grams (.2 oz) Magnum Pellets @ 50 minutes
Extras
-------
1 Servomyces @ 10 min
.5 Wirlfloc @ 10 min
Yeast
-----
White Labs WLP645 Brettanomyces Claussenii (yeast cake)
Water Profile
-------------
Profile: Pale, Low Hop
Calcium(Ca): 65.0 ppm
Magnesium(Mg): 7.5 ppm
Sodium(Na): 15.0 ppm
Sulfate(SO4): 50.0 ppm
Chloride(Cl): 96.0 ppm
biCarbonate(HCO3): 23.0 ppm
Mash
-------------
Single Infusion for 60 minutes at 151
Notes
-----
Brewed 1/31/06
Oatmeal boiled for 10 minutes with 1/2 gallon water to gelatinize before mashing.
The Sauer Malt was added at the start of the sparge so it wouldn't interfere with the mash pH.
Cooled to 63 degrees and oxygenated for 60 seconds while racking onto the yeast cake from the first Brett brew.
2/8/06 1.014 Not much funkier than the first brett brew, but it does have a little more sourness. Still pretty cloudy, not sure if that is just the oats or if it is the Brett.
2/11/07 Transferred 2 gallons to 1 gallon jugs for secondary, and 2 gallons on top of cherry puree (1 lb dried Montmorency cherries heated with Luigi Bosca Resera Pinot Noir to cover to 160 and steeped for 15 min, drained and then pureed with about 1 cup fresh wine.) The beer with the cherries quickly turned bright red.
2/12/06 Decided that it was a waste to leave the 1/4 gallon of SebastianP's Brett C in a fermenter alone, so I poured it into the Cherry fermenter. Gravity of the straight batch is down to 1.010 if the residual liquid in the yeast cake is any indication.
2/17/07 Sample of Cherry carboy gravity at 1.010, looks like any sugar the cherries added is gone. Light pink color with a mild cherry/funk nose, should smooth out as time goes by.
2/18/07 Added some US-56 to one of the plain jugs, looking to see how it effects carbonation and flavor in the finished beer.
2/28/07 Transferred off the cherries, still 1.010. Plain batch is tasting great and is down another point to 1.009.
3/10/07 Bottled, 2 oz of sugar for the 2 gallons of plain. The plain had 4 bottles "bottle hopped" centennial, mt hood, sterling, and simcoe. The cherry got about 2.25 oz of sugar for 2 gallons, the sugar colored slightly because some got caramelized on the sides of the pan.
4/17/07 Tasting of the cherry/wine half
7/21/07 Tasting of the plain half
Carbonated at ~1.7 volumes, meaning 9 lbs CO2 tank pressure and 53 oF in the conditioning and dispensing temperature controlled 'chest freezer'.
Pretty good, could be better but I really don't know what to do to make it better. I'll probably brew it again as I like commercial best bitters and ESBs. There are still quite a few more other beer styles I'm going to try first. Including quite a few other session beers. Actually, I'm drinking one now as I write the post.
Sunday, May 6, 2010
Oud Bruin
Brewed on 06-May-2010 with another stuck mash half way through lautering
This has happened when mashing the last two brews, with grains milled by an online homebrew source I've been using lately. The post-mash / pre-boil O.G. was high 1.070. This is almost the anticipated POST-BOIL O.G.! Two in a row from this supplier, so I am pretty sure they mill the grains too fine.
I ordered from this online supplier because they were a bit cheaper for the ingredients and the shipping was a dollar less. I could use less grain instead and hit the target O.G., but I'm still too inexperienced at all-grain to figure this out without missing the mark a few times. My question, to myself, is... What does it matter if the O.G. and final ABV are too high? I'm the one doing the drinking of the final product and I'm not too interested in entering the beers in any contests where they would have to be within style guidelines.
I've never tasted a Flanders Brown Ale / Oud Bruin, so I can't say whether my previous version is good or not. I like the taste of my first Oud Bruin (OB d'Table from a Northern Brewer extract kit offered over a year ago), and now I'm doing all grain brews and I've got some very interesting sour bugs to inoculate it with. (I'm a microbiologist by trade, so I use 'inoculate' instead of 'pitch'. They're the same thing). I've got: an old Wyeast smackpack of Roeselare blend (nearly a year old), a White Labs sour blend, WYP...I'll have to look this up later, and some of the older, but occasionally fed, starter that was inoculated with Al's bugfarm III (need reference).
I aerated the chilled wort for less than 60 seconds with pure oxygen because it foamed up to the top before this time was up. According the Mike Tonsmiere, The Mad Fermentationist, "more oxygen dissolved in the wort at the start of the fermentation is supposed to cause the Brett to produce more acid". This sounds good to me. I hope I still get enough acid even though aeration was incomplete.
Annual Oud Bruin
I like this post by The Mad Fermentationist on culturing sour beer bottle dregs
I've made text replacement down to here.
Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 4.75
Total Grain (Lbs): 11.50
Anticipated OG: 1.061
Anticipated SRM: 4.9
Anticipated IBU: 10.7
Brewhouse Efficiency: 69 %
Wort Boil Time: 125 Minutes
Grain
------
8.50 lbs. Belgian Pilsener
1.00 lbs. Belgian Munich Malt
0.75 lbs. CaraFoam
0.75 lbs. Flaked Oats
0.50 lbs. Sauer(acid) Malt
Hops
-----
6 grams (.2 oz) Magnum Pellets @ 50 minutes
Extras
-------
1 Servomyces @ 10 min
.5 Wirlfloc @ 10 min
Yeast
-----
White Labs WLP645 Brettanomyces Claussenii (yeast cake)
Water Profile
-------------
Profile: Pale, Low Hop
Calcium(Ca): 65.0 ppm
Magnesium(Mg): 7.5 ppm
Sodium(Na): 15.0 ppm
Sulfate(SO4): 50.0 ppm
Chloride(Cl): 96.0 ppm
biCarbonate(HCO3): 23.0 ppm
Mash
-------------
Single Infusion for 60 minutes at 151
Notes
-----
Brewed 1/31/06
Oatmeal boiled for 10 minutes with 1/2 gallon water to gelatinize before mashing.
The Sauer Malt was added at the start of the sparge so it wouldn't interfere with the mash pH.
Cooled to 63 degrees and oxygenated for 60 seconds while racking onto the yeast cake from the first Brett brew.
2/8/06 1.014 Not much funkier than the first brett brew, but it does have a little more sourness. Still pretty cloudy, not sure if that is just the oats or if it is the Brett.
2/11/07 Transferred 2 gallons to 1 gallon jugs for secondary, and 2 gallons on top of cherry puree (1 lb dried Montmorency cherries heated with Luigi Bosca Resera Pinot Noir to cover to 160 and steeped for 15 min, drained and then pureed with about 1 cup fresh wine.) The beer with the cherries quickly turned bright red.
2/12/06 Decided that it was a waste to leave the 1/4 gallon of SebastianP's Brett C in a fermenter alone, so I poured it into the Cherry fermenter. Gravity of the straight batch is down to 1.010 if the residual liquid in the yeast cake is any indication.
2/17/07 Sample of Cherry carboy gravity at 1.010, looks like any sugar the cherries added is gone. Light pink color with a mild cherry/funk nose, should smooth out as time goes by.
2/18/07 Added some US-56 to one of the plain jugs, looking to see how it effects carbonation and flavor in the finished beer.
2/28/07 Transferred off the cherries, still 1.010. Plain batch is tasting great and is down another point to 1.009.
3/10/07 Bottled, 2 oz of sugar for the 2 gallons of plain. The plain had 4 bottles "bottle hopped" centennial, mt hood, sterling, and simcoe. The cherry got about 2.25 oz of sugar for 2 gallons, the sugar colored slightly because some got caramelized on the sides of the pan.
4/17/07 Tasting of the cherry/wine half
7/21/07 Tasting of the plain half
8/21/09 Final tasting of the plain half, still very tasty.
Kegged: 15-May-2010.
Carbonated at ~1.7 volumes, meaning 9 lbs CO2 tank pressure and 53 oF in the conditioning and dispensing temperature controlled 'chest freezer'.
Began drinking: 22-May-2010.
Pretty good, could be better but I really don't know what to do to make it better. I'll probably brew it again as I like commercial best bitters and ESBs. There are still quite a few more other beer styles I'm going to try first. Including quite a few other session beers. Actually, I'm drinking one now as I write the post.
May 27, 2010
Update on the English Special / Best Bitter
Brewed on 02-May-2010 with a few problems.
Stuck mash about half way through, so I had to stop the lauter, stir things up, then vorlauf and continue sparging. The resulting O.G. was higher than anticipated. I finally think I figured this out. I've ordered my last 3 grain bills from a new supplier, milled of course. I think they mill it too fine, resulting in both the stuck sparge and the higher O.G. I don't mind the higher O.G. - probably higher ABV as a result. But. . . the Best Bitter had and O.G. more in line with an ESB, thus out of style.
The next mash I did (Moose Drool clone, see a future/next? post) I added 0.5 lbs of rice hulls and the mash did NOT get stuck, but the O.G. was still much higher than it should have been. I ordered from this online supplier because they were a bit cheaper for the ingredients and the shipping was a dollar less. I could use less grain instead and hit the target O.G., but I'm still too inexperienced at all-grain to figure this out without missing the mark a few times. My question, to myself, is... What does it matter if the O.G. and final ABV are too high? I'm the one doing the drinking of the final product and I'm not too interested in entering the beers in any contests where they would have to be within style guidelines.
Kegged: 15-May-2010.
Carbonated at ~1.7 volumes, meaning 9 lbs CO2 tank pressure and 53 oF in the conditioning and dispensing temperature controlled 'chest freezer'.
Began drinking: 22-May-2010.
Pretty good, could be better but I really don't know what to do to make it better. I'll probably brew it again as I like commercial best bitters and ESBs. There are still quite a few more other beer styles I'm going to try first. Including quite a few other session beers. Actually, I'm drinking one now as I write the post.
April 13, 2010
The solera concept
The solera concept for making an aged beer has a certain appeal to me. As I understand it from Wikipedia and The Mad Fermentationist, you set up a long term brew --> age/store and harvest it at whatever interval, replacing the harvested beer with younger or, even, new brew. For example, Mike T. and his brewbuddy Nathan have a sour one keg system where brew is harvested on some set period and it's replaced by freshly brewed / new beer. As the beer matures over time, the average age of the kegged brew gets older and older and eventually reaches a plateau age. They had just started a big wood barrel with a sour beer.
Another, more complex, approach would be to have a series of smaller kegs, each started at some interval and, upon 'maturity', a portion of the oldest keg would be harvested and replaced with the same amount from the next oldest keg, and so on down the line of kegs, with the youngest keg getting 'fed' the newly brewed beer. I tried to figure this out in a spreadsheet and like it better than just one (big) barrel.
For example: 4 kegs (or carboys), each 3 months apart in starting age with 1/4 (1.25 gallons OR ~ 12 12 oz. bottles) of the oldest keg harvested each period (after 1 year startup) and 1.25 gallons transferred from the next oldest keg (the 9 month old one at this point). After 15 of these 3 month cycles the oldest beer would have an average age of nearly 1.75 years. I could then drink a bottle of this beer per week (actually from 1 year on) FOREVER (skipping week 13 each three months).
What beer(s) to try with this? Well, one that ages well. Everyone focuses on a sour beer, so I thought of an Orval clone. Others (Mike T. and Nathan) have tried a lambic-like beer (but the hops weren't 3 years old). The lambics aren't a dark beer, which tend to aged better than the light or golden ones, but, of course, they are well aged and the gueuze blends use up to 3 year old lambics.
I also might try a Belgian Dark Strong Ale, since JZ states you shouldn't even be drinking this beer at less than a year old. OR. Maybe I could add a Brett. brux. to this as is done with the Orval clones (JZ Belgian Specialty Ale recipe).
Note: I already have an Orval clone in a keg (Northern Brewer's extract kit 'Notre Dame d'Golden Valley, kegged age will be 3 months on 8-Jun) AND a BDSA in a keg (Northern Brewers all grain kt 'Golden Dragon', kegged age will be 3 months on 21-May). I would need to start brewing for the next solera in the cycle about a month ahead of these 'kegging' dates, so I need to get on it (at least for the BDSA). If I really like the original Notre Dame or Golden Dragon a year from now, then I'll just wait 3 more months until the ones I'm about to brew are a year old, and start the solera from then on.
Getting ready to brew up a special bitter!
Several weeks away from brewing an English Special Bitter
Placed an order at Brewmasters Warehouse for the ingredients this past Friday. Also ordered 2 more Ranco temperature controllers (unwired).
Expected brew day is: Sat. or Sun. 24 or 25 April.
 |
Mashing the grist to make wort |
I need to get another chest freezer plus a Ranco digital controller for fermentation temperature control. Then I'll have one for beer dispensing at 50 oF or so and one for fermenting at 65, 68 or whatever oF. I will probably never ferment more than one beer at a time, but the long-term aging beers that I have would probably do better at 68 oF than at whatever my room temperature is. Maybe I'll put a cheap window air conditioner into my under stairwell storage area or in the half bath next to this, insulate the walls, and use that for long-term beer aging & storage. I dunno. Not yet though.
From Brewing Classic Styles by Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer.
Grist bill:
9.5 lbs Pale Ale malt (Maris Otter)
0.5 lbs Belgian Aromatic malt
0.5 lbs Crystal 120 oL
0.25 lbs Briess Special Roast
Mash 60 minutes at 151 oF
Hops:
34 g (1.2 oz.) East Kent Goldings @ 60 min.
14 g (0.5 oz.) East Kent Goldings @ 20 min.
14 g (0.5 oz.) East Kent Goldings @ 01 min.
Yeast:
WLP002 or WYeast 1968 London ESB. Ferment at 68 oF
Carbonate at 1.5 - 2.0 volumes of CO2
WLP002 or WYeast 1968 London ESB. Ferment at 68 oF
Carbonate at 1.5 - 2.0 volumes of CO2
February 21, 2010
Next
- California Common - actually started 15 or 16 days ago. Need to rack to keg tonight.
- Lambic with Al's bugfarm III -- Also already started about 10 days ago. Pitched Al's bugfarm about day 5. Blew off fermentation lock, but has settled down now to slow bubbling every 15 sec.
- Lambic with Wyeast Lambic blend -- I will try to start it tonight. Primary yeast of White Labs 530 Belgian whatsover. ?Abbey or Trappist?
- English Best/Special Bitter in late April. I've got to drink a Party Pig of Denny's Wry Smile Rye IPA, a keg of California Common and a keg of Dusseldorf Altbier, first.
- Moose Drool from 'Can you brew it?' podcast of J. Zanisheff, et al.
Dusseldorf Altbier
From JZ and JPalmer, Brewing Classic Styles. Wyeast German Ale yeast (#1007 I think?).
Currently in primary 1 week (brewed Sunday, February 14, 2010). I'll need to lager this for 4 + weeks at 41 F after racking to a conditioning / dispensing keg next Sunday, or so. Fermenting now at 60 F with my new Ranco digital temperature controller (used a Johnson's analog controller from Sunday to Friday, though. +/- 3 or 4 F. Much narrower range since Friday. (It's Sunday now, 2 days later).
Oud Bruin #2
Long story, but got my hands on Al's bugfarm III via a Forum on the Burgundian Babble Belt. The vial was delivered on Jan 2, 2010 and it took my several weeks to get ingredients for an Oud Bruin, recipe from Brewing Classic Styles by Jamil Zainesheff and John Palmer. Primary was fermented with a Belgian yeast, White Labs WLP 500 for xxx days, racked to secondary in a Better Bottle and a starter made with Al's bugfarm III was pitched then. A pellicle has developed.
Details to follow.
Golden Dragon
A limited edition, all-grain kit from Northern Brewer using a Wyeast Private Collection yeast. The style is a Belgian dark strong ale.
Details to follow. I has been fermented, 5 weeks in primary (what a procrastinator I am). I racked it to a keg (my first kegging of a beer) to condition for at least a year before tasting/dispensing. Racking was today, Sunday 21-Feb-2010.
Notre Dame d'Golden Valley
A limited edition extract kit purchased quite a while ago from Northern Brewer. It is an Orval clone I think, given the tongue-in-cheek description from NB. The "Private Collection" Wyeast strain that came with the kit was...duh, I forget. I'll look it up later.
Details to follow
Petite Saison d'Ete
An all grain kit from Northern Brewer. A "limited edition" kit because the yeast, Wyeast 3711, is a limited availability 'Private Collection' yeast. At the writing of this post, the strain is now available from Wyeast full time.
More on this post later. Too late. It's long gone. Pretty good early. Did not age very well. Had to force down the last couple of 22 oz bombers.
Denny's Wry Smile Rye IPA
Another all grain kit from Northern Brewer. Used Wyeast #1450, strain 50 of Denny Conn. Back when I got the kit the strain was a 'Private Collection' and the kit was a 'Limited Edition' (because of the yeast availability). Just recently, Wyeast made the strain available all the time.
Pertinent info (o.g., f.g., abv, ibu, srm, key, mouse)
Grist list.
Hops.
Yeast
Mash temps
Ferm temp
Conditioning
Kegged into two Party Pigs. Yummy stuff. One has been consumed, the other is waiting it's turn. Probably way to carbonated. The first one was.
I'll get back to this post later.
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