Group Brewday: Golden sour project

The Temperanillo barrel aged Flanders Red has been in the barrel for almost exactly a year now, and it's tasting great. The acidity is moderate, with a little acetic character. But the complexity from the Brettanomyces, and the wood and wine character from the barrel is amazing. It sucks to say, this barrel aged beer is putting any of my previous carboy-soured homebrews to shame. That in itself s a big lesson in how important a barrel is to brewing quality sour beers. I'm not saying "Don't brew sours if you don't have a barrel," (some people have had a lot better results with the carboy sours than I have) but I believe it makes a real difference. In some ways this beer feels like it brewed itself, and that we had very little to do with its success.

In any case, since I am going to be moving away soon, I have to give up my slot in the group project for the next beer to go into the Temperanillo barrel. My slot will be taken over by Mike Wright, the owner of The Commons Brewery (formerly Beetje nano-brewery). The barrel project will still be strictly homebrew, but we did have the advantage of brewing all the wort at The Commons in one day, with a double-batch on the 35+ gallon "Beetje" system (the original nano-brew system from before" Beetje" expanded to a 7-barrel brewery and became "The Commons".

The group decided to do a golden sour this time. After some deliberation on the recipe, we stuck to a pretty simple design:

1.062 O.G
85% Gabrinus Organic Pilsner malt
8 %Vienna malt
6% CaraHell
1% Acidulated malt
Mash at 154
Boil 90 minutes

10-12 IBU's from Perle hops at 60 minutes.

As the above picture clearly illustrates, we brewed the beer on a Sunday morning, and many of us had had a late Saturday night. Luckily we had donuts from Acme Donuts, and not much work to do for a lot of the time. Some drinking was done and it was decided that we all really like Green Flash "Rayon Vert", as well as The Commons "Flemish Kiss", both dry hopped, brett-aged belgian pale ales inspired by Orval.

The brewday was very straightforward, but it did end up being about 12 hours, and we still had to get 16 carboys over to Walker's house by car.

Since the only big space we had to ferment the beer in was Walker's basement, we decided to use an alt yeast to ferment the beer. Wyeast #1007 / German Ale Yeast is one of The Commons house yeasts, and we fermented it at ambient basement temperature, which ended up being about 63 degrees fermentation temp.

We are scheduled to rack the beer into the barrel on the same day we rack the Flanders out. We are going to do as little barrel cleaning as possible, possibly just giving it a quick cold water rinse to get most of the trub out. Possibly not even that. We also discussed the idea that if for some reason the golden sour does not progress enough in actual sourness, because of the clean primary fermentation, we could top-up with a strong lacto culture, possibly isolated from a bottle of Fantome or Cascade beer.

As it turns out, we are racking the Flanders out on March 4th, exactly one year after it was filled. That wasn't planned, I just realized it today when looking back at the notes for the first barrel fill. I won't be in town, as Clarissa and I will be in San Clemente for the birth of her sister's first baby. Sounds like a visit to Pizza Port is also in order!

I still haven't gotten around to putting up a post on our other barrel project, the Old Ale with Brett C. that I jokingly call the Billy The Mountain Clone (it was first intended for a 2nd-used bourbon barrel, but we ended up using a pinot barrel due to availability, just like Upright's Billy). I guess I'll get to this when we pull a sample from that barrel, which should happen some time in March.

IPA Tasting and Recipe (Simcoe, Falconer's Flight, WY1968 yeast)

To preface this recipe and tasting a little bit, I'd like to talk about yeast choice. Normally, when it comes to IPA's, I am a Cali ale yeast guy, and I wouldn't think of using another yeast. But in this case, I went to the homebrew store and they were almost cleared out of yeast! I could have gone back for some Cali later, but I got a little lazy and decided to go down to a local brewery for some of their house yeast, which is the Fuller's strain (or Wyeast 1968 ESB yeast). Now, although this isn't my first choice, I had to give it consideration because the brewery is cranking out some great IPA's with it. I won't mention names, but if you were to Google-map my house on NE 57th and Failing street in Portland, it would be a fairly large and well-known brewpub about a mile from my house.

So, I talked with a friend who is one of the brewers at this brewery, and he had some interesting insights on homebrewing with the WY1968 yeast. His observation is that it does not ferment out as dry in a homebrew as it does on a professional level. I would think that the main reason for this is the high flocculation of this particular yeast. It tends to drop out fast and heavy after fermentation, leaving some residual sweetness and some diacetyl in the beer. On a pro level, in a big conical, the natural convection in the fermentation will keep this yeast up in suspension a little longer than in a carboy at home. So his (and my) solution to this problem was to mash low for fermentability, and more importantly, to start agitating the fermenter pretty heavily after primary fermentation starts to slow. I was shaking/rousing my yeast 2-3 times daily when I saw signs of it slowing, up until the day I dry hopped it. And after that, I still agitated in once a day or so.

I think this did help to reduce diacetyl to very low levels (not none, but not noticable), and also helped get a few more points of attenuation, although I think it would have finished slightly drier and even less diacetyl with Cali ale yeast, for sure. See my "overall" comments for even more thoughts on this, below. On to the tasting:

Appearnce: Slightly hazy golden-orange, I assume haze is from dry hopping and overall hop load. White head with good lacing, thanks Carapils.

Aroma: Citrus, Citrus, Citrus (mainly orange) from the hops, some evergreen, some fruity esters and alcohol, some background malt sweetness. No noticable diacetyl but it is probably there in some very small amount. Not hot, no off aromas.

Flavor: Assertive first sip of hop resins, and malt presence with some caramel and mid-palate sweetness, followed by some hop tannins, and a spicy lingering bitter finish. Moderate alcohol on the finish, not hot, just a substantially strong brew.

Mouthfeel: Moderately full body thanks to some residual sweetness and dextrins. Resiny hop bite with a slight hop astringency (green tea like), not out of balance though. slight warming finish.

Overall: Good drinkability, good balance (for an IPA). The slight sweetness, to my palate, is sometimes welcome, other times I think it gets in the way a bit of a full-on hop blast. This almost drinks like some sweeter imperial IPA's I have tried. I think with a cleaner yeast, it might be easier to go back for a second pint, but maybe I am just being a little too picky. I really wish I had done a side-by-side fermentation with Cali yeast! One additional thought, the final gravity of 1.017 is not that high, but there is definitely a perception of sweetness. I think this might be due to the difference between residual dextrins vs. residual simple sugars, which I'm sure this yeast left a little bit of. So, I think it's probable that this beer would taste different than the same beer fermented with Cali and mashed a bit higher, even if they finished at the same gravity (if that makes sense).

OK, whatever, here's the recipe:

Recipe: IPA - Flight & Simcoe

Style: American IPA

TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications

--------------------------

Batch Size (fermenter): 6.30 gal

Boil Size: 8.00 gal

OG: 1.069 SG

FG: 1.017

ABV: 6.9%

Estimated Color: 6.7 SRM

Estimated IBU: 84.4 IBUs

Brewhouse Efficiency: 89.00 %

Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:

------------

Amt Name Type # %/IBU

12 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 92.6 %

8.0 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 3.7 %

8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 3 3.7 %

14.00 g Simcoe [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 6 Days Hop 11 0.0 IBUs

42.00 g Falconer's Flight [10.50 %] - Dry Hop 6 days Hop 10 0.0 IBUs

28.00 g Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 9 0.0 IBUs

42.00 g Falconer's Flight [10.50 %] - Boil 0.0 m Hop 8 0.0 IBUs

28.00 g Simcoe [12.40 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 7 9.4 IBUs

28.00 g Falconer's Flight [10.50 %] - Boil 10.0 Hop 6 7.9 IBUs

28.00 g Falconer's Flight [10.50 %] - Boil 30.0 Hop 5 20.2 IBUs

28.00 g Simcoe [12.40 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 4 46.9 IBUs

Notes:

------

Mash in SS pot

4.75 gal + 2 gr Gypsum + 1 gr. CaCl

149-50 for 40 min, then raise to to 152

152 for 30 min, then sparge out

5 gal sparge, no minerals, 175 for starters but quickly fell to 168ish

Collect 7.5 gallons (held off .5 gallon of that to add later as "top-up")

Wyeast nutrient & whirlfloc at 10 min

Pitched 300 ml WY1968 slurry (78% measured viability), pretty thick stuff.

80 seconds of O2

Pitched at 69 degrees

Ferment in SS keg at 68

after 48 hours, start agitating fermener (rocking) 3x per day.

1/11/12 -1.017 Dry hopped loose in fermenter. Agitated every day or so.

1/17/12 Racked to keg

Jackie O's

Big changes abound! Clarissa and I are going to get married, and we are moving back to my hometown of Athens, Ohio. I'll be working for Jackie O's brewery as the pub brewer.

Here's a local newspaper article on the subject of Jackie O's expansion.

I'm super stoked to get the opportunity to run the pub and work with the brewmaster, Brad Clark, on some of the planning for our production site. I've had some great experiences out here in Portland, but I really love my hometown, and I have always intended to get back to the midwest at some point.

I'm currently planning on starting in May, but that might get pushed back if our licensing on the new production site gets held up (I hope not). I would like to keep blogging while I'm working at the pub. I'll have to talk with them and see how they feel about that, but I imagine they'll be cool with it.

I probably won't be homebrewing at all, to be honest. I want to give the pub everything I've got, and since I'll have some creative license, I won't have to do my experimentation on my days off. Plus, I'm really looking forward to getting into some other non-beer hobbies, like gardening, hiking, and maybe even fishing and hunting.

Session Amber Lager (Accidental Munich Dunkel): Tasting and Recipe

Wow, about 2 months since my last post! That's a record I think. One of the reasons why is that I have decided to wait to post recipes until I do the tasting too. So I have been brewing, but the posts will go up later.

For this beer, I was looking to make a beer that would be reminiscent of an Ayinger lager, especially their Oktoberfest, although once again I did not have their exact lager strain (which would be the Wyeast "Hella Bock" seasonal strain). I wanted it to be dark, melanoidin rich, and slightly sweet, with a big flavor profile but low alcohol. I wasn't looking to make a lager "to style", but I think it's a great example of a Munich Dunkel.

TASTING NOTES:

Appearance: Dark brown with a stable tan head that leaves a great lacing. Ruby highlights, clear but not "filtered" clear.

Aroma: Dark toasted breadcrusts, with a slight fruity sweetness from crystal malts. Very little to no hop aroma, slight alcohol contribution. Robust maltiness and a clean lager profile with maybe just a touch of sulfur (which dissipated as beer spent more time lagering).

Flavor: Toasty, Munich malt derived breadcrust, Moderate sweetness, low caramel flavor, but balanced more towards toasty flavors from malts. Moderate bitterness, very clean. Slight trace of hop flavor, then it ends with dry, toasty malt and clean residual bitterness.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied, a little chewy, hearty enough for winter or fall but not too thick or filling. Moderate carbonation, low alcohol warmth, dry finish with just a touch of astringency.

Overall: This beer is a hit with Clarissa, who has a high appreciation for drinkable, flavorful session beers (you know, the kind us beer geeks think are "boring" and hardly ever brew). I like it a lot, and it's very close to what I was going for, but still I see room for improvement. I'd like to reduce the "bready" impact just a touch, and increase the perception of a light sweetness by dropping the IBU's just a touch. It's a great "dinner" beer, and you can have an imperial pint and go back for another. This keg definitely won't last long.

Recipe: Session amber lager

Recipe Specifications

--------------------------

Batch Size (fermenter): 6.00 gal

OG: 1.048

FG: 1.015

ABV: 4.3%

Estimated Color: 15.5 SRM

Estimated IBU: 23.1 IBUs

Mash Efficiency: 88.00 %

Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:

------------

5 lbs 8.0 oz Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 61.5 %

2 lbs Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 2 22.4 %

8.0 oz Melanoiden Malt (20.0 SRM) Grain 4 5.6 %

12.0 oz Caramunich Malt (56.0 SRM) Grain 3 8.4 %

3.0 oz Carafa III (525.0 SRM) Grain 5 2.1 %

17.00 g Perle [7.10 %] - First Wort 90.0 min Hop 6 19.2 IBUs

14.00 g Perle [7.10 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 7 3.8 IBUs

1.0 pkg Bohemian Lager (Wyeast Labs #2124) [124. Yeast 8 -

Notes:

------

4 gallons water, 1 gr. gypsum, 2 gr. CaCl, 2 gr. CaCO3

Mash in to 125F, 15 min.

Raised to 153 over 10 min, hold 30 min

Raised to 158 over 5 min, hold 15 min

Raised to 168 over 5 min, rest 5 min

sparge w/ 5 gal at 168 (no minerals)

Collect 6.8 gallons at 1.044

Boil 90 minutes, yeast nutrient and whirlfloc at 10 min.

End of boil: top up to 6 gallons (hot)

whirlpool & rest 10 min

chill thru plate chiller to 62

2 min O2

leave in garage at ambient temp (48) until visible fermentation

cooled to 50 degrees by 8 hours and visibly fermenting

fermented at 48-50 for 2 weeks

brought inside for diacetyl rest (65ish) for 1 week

11/23 Racked to keg, aged 3 weeks at 35 before drinking

Starter: 3750 ml stirplate starter 4 days ahead at room temp, decanted. Bohemian Lager yeast.

Tasting: Fresh Hop Spelt Saison

Sorry for the delay on posting this. I did the Fresh Hop Spelt Saison tasting during the first week of November and I just hadn't gotten around to putting it up.

Aroma: Huge fruit profile from esters and hops: I'm getting juicy fruit, orange, tangerine, passionfruit, hop spicyness and peppery esters with a touch of alcohol warmth. A little pils malt is in the background, as well as a wheaty aroma from the spelt.

Appearance: This beer threw a big raw-wheaty haze when youger, but it's surprisingly clear after about a month in the keg. A slight haze with a light gold pilsner hue. Nice glass lacing, starts with a huge head and falls back to an even 1/4 inch head after a few minutes in the glass.

Flavor: Nice balance of bready, slightly sweet malt, with a big spicy hop flavor contribution. Bitterness is not much higher than say, Saison Dupont, which is a really nice level, as in, it's not a Belgian IPA. Like a lot of fresh-hopped beers I have tried, even my favorite professionally brewed ones, it has a slightly sticky/soapy bitterness at the end. It almost gives a bit of a "cottonmouth" after swallowing. Very drinkable, it ends dry and spicy with a touch of warming alcohol.

Mouthfeel: The raw spelt provides some big body considering the very low final gravity. It's almost creamy. Some of the soapy character I mentioned above in the back of the mouth after swallowing. Very smooth otherwise, no astringency or harsh alcohols.

Overall: I'm super impressed with how this beer turned out. The fairly moderate IBU's keeps this beer a very true saison, while the big aroma and flavor hop profile makes it a bold fresh-hop beer. It's very drinkable and I've never tasted a beer quite like it. I am a little less than impressed with the soapy quality from the hops, but it is not too high. It's more of a nuance that I would like to work out in future incarnations of this beer. I don't think there is anything to do about it except use less fresh hops, which I would be willing to cut back on slightly in the future. Working with the raw spelt was a breeze. The only drawbacks it seems to have is that it is very hard to crush, like probably any unmalted grain would be, and it requires a step infusion mash, but clearly not a cereal mash. I'd highly recommend playing around with the grain, especially in saisons or other beers that require some raw grain contribution.

Tasting and Recipe: Cherrywood Smoked Porter

Well screw it: I was going to save this for later but after drinking half a glass of the Calypso Pale Ale, I decided I'd wash my mouth out with something I like a little better. This is a new beer I had not posted a recipe on yet: a smoked porter using Briess Cherrywood smoked malt. We have a sack of of this malt at the brewery and it smells really damn good, like a barbeque in the summertime. Pork ribs come to mind as well as BBQ potato chips, although it's much better than that. It's very tasty to eat on it's own. I was going for a well-balanced recipe, so I erred on the more reserved side as far as percentage of smoked malt, using only 12% in the grist. Well, let's get to the tasting first and then the recipe:

Appearance: Reddish-tan head, not quite black body but could pass for a stout. Nice head retention!

Aroma: Smoke, but light, slightly burnt roast character with a hint of molasses, unsweetened cocoa, and sharpness. A touch of warming alcohols, not surprisingly hardly any hop aroma. No Diacetyl, low esters. Very enticing.

Flavor: Caramel, followed by a quick hit of dry roastyness, and a subtle but lingering smokey finish. A touch of that "cherry cola" sharpness I get from certain proters and stouts. Hop bitterness is moderate, this is not a sweet beer. Finish is roasty, chocolatey, with a mild campfire-smoke that stays for a while.

Mouthfeel: Full bodied but not cloying, slightly creamy, moderate carbonation, spicy and dry roast with just a touch of roasted astringency.

Overall: Lovin' it. This beer has been a real hit so far with other people. I am in some ways tempted to tweak it (maybe dial down the black malt by just a smidge since it is toeing the line of stout, or up the smoked by a hair and the bitterness down by just a few IBU's), but then again, sometimes you start doing all this stuff and realize you had it right the first time. For now I'm just drinking it. One thing I think really works for this beer is it's smokey enough for people that are looking for a touch of smoke, but not so much that it would turn off a regular porter drinker. This keg will kick fast, and then I'll want more.

Here's the recipe:

BeerSmith Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com

Recipe: Cherrywood-smoked porter

Brewer:

Asst Brewer:

Style: Robust Porter

TYPE: All Grain

Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications

--------------------------

Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal

Boil Size: 7.00 gal

Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal

OG: 1.061 SG

FG: 1.019

ABV: 5.5%

Estimated Color: 34.7 SRM

Estimated IBU: 38.2 IBUs

Brewhouse Efficiency: 78.00 %

Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:

------------

Amt Name Type # %/IBU

1 lbs 8.0 oz Cherrywood Smoked malt (5.0 SRM) Grain 2 12.2 %

8.0 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 6 4.1 %

8.0 oz Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain 3 4.1 %

8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 4 4.1 %

8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 5 4.1 %

4.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 7 2.0 %

8 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 69.4 %

18.00 g Falconer's Flight [10.50 %] - Boil 60.0 Hop 8 27.0 IBUs

28.00 g Falconer's Flight [10.50 %] - Boil 15.0 Hop 9 11.2 IBUs

1.0 pkg American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) [124.21 Yeast 10 -

Notes:

------

Mash: 4.25 gal + 3 gr. chalk, 1 gr. Gypsum, 2 gr. CaCl

to 151, rest 45 min, fell to 146

bring up to 162 over 10 min, rest 10 min

Sparge: 5 gal at 168, no salts, 30 minutes

Collect 7 gallons @ 1.052

Boil as noted, nutrient & whirlfloc at 10 min

Whirlpool & rest 15 min

Chill thru plate chiller over 20 min to 70

oxygen 60 seconds

pitch 2nd gen Wyeast 1056 (1 week refrigerated)

Ferment at 68, then keg.

Created with BeerSmith 2 - http://www.beersmith.com

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Tasting: Calypso Pale Ale

A tasting of the dry-hopped, all-Calypso pale ale I did recently:

Appearance: Hazy burnished orange, definitely some hop or chill haze going on that I would like to fine out if it were a commercial beer, but which I'm fine with for a homebrew. Fairly resilient head and nice glass lacing.

Aroma: Hoppy, but not assertively aromatic, vaguely fruity hops with a touch of red apple, pine, and a little onion. Light grassy/bready grain background, very clean low esters and alcohol aroma. No diacetyl. Not bad, not very memorable as far as the hops go.

Flavor: Fairly balanced between bready, caramelly malts and grassy hops. A slightly rough, almost burnt quality of bitterness enters in the flavor mid-palate and seems to linger long after swallowing. Not overly bitter, but at the same time, not a clean or crisp bitterness. Dry finish, no alcohol bite or fermentation off-flavors

Mouthfeel: Medium-full bodied, medium carbonation adds some spicy, prickly character. Just slightly astringent on the gums, which I would think is hop derived rather than malt derived. Clean finish, rather easy to drink.

Overall: Some aspects of this beer I really like. I like the malty, grainy character provided by the fairly large percentage of Vienna malt and crystal malt, although if I were truly looking to design a "perfect" pale ale, I would dial them both back just a touch. The Calypso hops, I have to say, I am not too excited about. The high cohumulone percentage definitely seems to have added a rough bitter aftertaste that I think doesn't make it ideal for a bittering hop, yet on the other hand, the aroma is not really that astounding compared to the more choice American varieties like Simcoe, Amarillo, Citra, or Centennial. So I don't really know where this hop finds its place, either as a bittering or flavor/aroma hop, but maybe other people will have more success with it than I did. Overall, it's a fairly good beer, but the keg is not moving very fast, which is always a sign of how drinkable it really is.