Thursday, April 21, 2011

Hazelnut. Extra. Special. Bitter.



Looking back at some of my recent blog posts, it appears the last time I brewed was late February, about a 2 month hiatus from homebrewing! That's a lot for me, but I've been busy. I was working 6 days a week for a while, brewing and cellaring for Alameda and Cascade, and believe me, when you do that, the last thing you want to do is spend your only day off huddling over a propane burner in a cold garage while it's raining outside.

Before I get on to posting a recipe, I should get this out of the way: This month, I made the full transition to brewing full-time for Cascade Brewing. It's a bittersweet change for me, because I have really loved my time brewing for Alameda. Working with Carston, Eric, and the rest of the crew has been great, and it will always have a special place in my heart as my first job as a professional brewer. But as a 3/4 time employee, and with Cascade offering a full-time position, I had on opportunity that I just couldn't pass up. I am very excited to work with the Cascade crew, and learn in a production environment that regularly works with barrel-aged sour beers. I feel this will really make me into a strong and confident brewer who is ready to start their own brewery some day in the not-too-distant future.

This recipe that I'm about to post comes about from a few influences: First, I think I will be concentrating more on making 10 gallon batches, less frequently, of beers that are more sessionable in nature. I'm not painting myself into a corner on that one, but I feel like this is more the kind of beer I want to have on tap. I'm not into bottling or creating a lot of extra work for myself, and I can still play with variations on batches after the primary fermentation is complete. Second: I found what I think will be a really cool product that may be available to homebrewers soon. It's a hazelnut product, and I actually want to keep the nature of the product a bit of a secret for now while I am playing with methods of infusing the beer, but rest assured, it's not a bottle of hazelnut extract. It's real nuts. Of course, the problem with nuts is mainly the fact that they have a high oil content, which destroys beer head and can have an effect on flavor and mouthfeel too. This product should provide a way around the oil content problem.

So, half of this batch of a slightly maltier/less hoppy E.S.B. will get a hazelnut infusion post-fermentation, and I will reveal the product & process, whether it works well or not, when I post a recipe tasting in about a month. Since it's something that I think has potential on a pro level, it's important that I try a process that will work on a pro scale. It can't be something that, say, clogs up or detroys a heat exchanger with hazelnut bits, or requires 25 gallons of vodka to extract the flavor and aroma.

This recipe is truly based off what I already had on hand, and I wouldn't necessarily formulate a recipe for an E.S.B. like this if I were to buy everything at a homebrew shop. It's a new yeast for me too, I don't think I have used the Wyeast 1968 (Fuller's) yeast since my early days of homebrewing, if ever. Anyway, enough blabbering, here's the recipe.

Base Beer: Extra Special Bitter
Brewed on 4/20/11
12.9 gallons pre-boil, 11.6 gallons post-boil
O.G. 1.051 F.G. 1.016 ABV 4.7% IBU's 30

7.5 lb. Hugh Baird Marris Otter malt
6 lb. Great Western 2-row organic pale malt
3 lb. Crisp Crystal 35
1 lb. Munich
.5 lb. Aromatic
.25 lb. Pale chocolate

35 gr. Perle pellets 8.5% AA 60 min
24 gr. Perle pellets 8.5% AA 15 min
18 gr. Northern Brewer pellets 7.8% AA 15 min
14 gr. Styrian Goldings pellets 3.4% AA 15 min
56 gr. Styrian Goldings pellets 3.4% AA 0 min

Mash in 5 gallons H2O + 3 tsp "Burton salts", 151 degrees for 60 minutes
Add 2 gallons 200 degree water to bring up to 157
Recirc immediately and sparge with 7.5 gallons H2O + 1 tsp "Burton salts" at 170
Collect 12.9 gallons at 1.046 = 89% efficiency
Boil 65 minutes
Wyeast nutrient and Whirlfloc at 10 min
whirlpool, rest 10 min
chill to 70 with plate chiller over 15 minutes
oxygen 2 minutes
pitch 2.5 liter stirplate starter of Wyeast 1968
Ferment at 68
Clean half was racked straight to keg after primary. For details on the hazelnut process, go here.

Also, I can't remember if I've talked about my new fermenter on the blog yet? Check it out. This was actually an old yeast brink that had been sitting unused at Alameda for quite a while. It's exactly what it looks like: A full-sized keg that has been converted with a corny lid, a gas-in post, liquid-out dip tube, and a manual pressure relief. I cut off the dip tube to leave a gallon of liquid underneath. We'll see how it goes for racking the beer to secondary/keg through the dip tube this time, and if I got the height right to not pull too much yeast through and not leave too much precious beer behind. In the photo, it's sitting in our cold back room with a heating pad strapped on the outside to keep it up to 68 degrees. It's wired in through a Ranco digital thermostat to keep it right at temp.


5 comments:

-- said...

Nice fermenter. I use a sanke for 10 gallon batches as well and love it. I picked up a sanke fermenter kit with thermowell from Brewer's Hardware:
http://www.brewershardware.com/American-Sanke-Keg-Fermenter-Kit-with-Thermowell.html

Tom E said...

I picked up a 10 gallon corny a while back that I've used as a fermenter. With a bit of the dip tube cut off it works great. And it fits in a typical Sanyo-type dorm fridge.

I'm guessing that your hazelnut product is some kind of de-fatted flour. I know that there are "healthier" peanut butter options out there that are made with de-fatted peanut flour.

Sean said...

Good to see your using that Maris Otter. I will be curious to hear how the hazelnut product turns out. I have an idea for a beer that that might work well in.

Gordon Priestley said...

That looks great, I've linked here from Kalgoorlie Craft Brewers Blog.

I'd love to get one of these made, with the corny lid it would really make cleaning possible (I'd not trust the sanke conversion, and we don't really get sanke Kegs here - all are a different fitting).

Cheers!

Marco Aurélio Piacentini said...

Well, I guess this thing can be called a very huge gadget!
By the way... does the dip tube clogged or not?