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.

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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.

Fresh-Hop Spelt Saison with Paul Key

It's wonderful to be out in the Northwest, so close to the hop fields, where every year we get to brew up a special batch (or three) of fresh-hop beer. Paul Key, my fellow homebrewer-geek, had a nice harvest of Fuggle and Columbus hops growing in his front yard right here in Portland. He was able to knock out a couple of fresh-hop IPA's, and I pitched the idea of getting together for some kind of fresh-hop saison. We kicked around some ideas and came up with this: A pale, moderately strong saison, with about 30% raw spelt in the mash (inspired by Brasserie Blaugies' Saison D'epeautre), moderate-high IBU's for the style at an estimated 30+ IBU, and brewed with a blend of commercial saison yeasts. I certainly have high hopes for it, as the spelt mash had a unique character, and the fresh hops, all added at knock-out, had an intense citrus-orange-spice pungency.

We picked most of the hops while working on a long step-infusion mash, with a protein rest. We didn't have much info on spelt as a grain, which we just bought from Whole Foods, but we assumed that because it was a type of wheat, that it would probably have a similar gelatinization point. Wheat gelatinizes at regular mash sacharification temperatures, so if spelt is the same, that means you don't need a "cereal mash" which would incorporate boiling the spelt to gelatinize it prior to adding it to the mash. I have seen a good deal of internet homebrew recipes with raw spelt that call for a cereal mash, and I don't see how it's necessary. Anything I found online suggested that it gelatinizes at similar temperatures to wheat. Anyway, we actually did an iodine starch-conversion test after our sach rest to make sure we had fully converted the mash, and it showed that we got good conversion.

Runoff was aided by some rice hulls, but we had no problems with a stuck mash whatsoever. Probably could have gotten away without them but it's always good insurance.

We bittered with pelletized hops to keep the IBU's somewhat predictable, and used a boatload of fresh hops at knockout only. These sat in the mash for 20 minutes during "whirlpool", and then an additional 25 minutes while we transfered through the heat exchanger. I think this provides a really nice hop profile and it's very close to what happens in a professional brewery.

We lost quite a bit of wort from the hops, which we forgot to consider when designing the recipe, but I don't think we could have done much about it anyway. Based on our kettle size, we made the biggest batch we could. Sometimes it is just better to collect less wort than do tricky stuff to increase the volume, and neither Paul or I are ever hurting for beer to drink. It's OK to have a smaller yield sometimes.

We decided to go with a saison yeast blend for this beer, which is the first time I have tried blending saison yeasts right off the bat. But both Paul and I have come up really frustrated with the Dupont yeast as a sole fermenter in the past, so this blend will be worth trying in a few beers. We decided to pitch both the "Dupont" strain and the "French Saison" strain, with twice as much Dupont yeast. The fermentation was started rather cool and ramped to 80 over a few days, a good compromise between the French strain which produces plenty of character at cooler temps, and the Dupont yeast which can't seem to finish out if it drops below 85 degrees. The French saison yeast will definitely help attenuate the beer faster when the Dupont yeast slows to a crawl in the last 1/3rd of fermentation.

On a side note, the French Saison yeast has been a bit bothersome for me in the past too, it definitely has its own problems. I have noticed that it tends to dry a beer out almost excessively, so that if there are any tannins from grain extraction at all, it tends to accentuate them and leave an annoying tannic astringency in the beer. We tried to alleviate that with a good dose of calcium to the mash and the sparge water, which should keep the pH low and avoid extracting any harsh tannins in the first place. I think that should help.

Well, I'm looking forward to tasting this beer and using the blend in at least one other brew. If you brewed any interesting fresh hop beers, feel free to brag about them in the comments. Cheers!

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

Recipe: Fresh-hop Spelt Saison

Recipe Specifications

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

Batch Size (fermenter): 11.00 gal

Boil Size: 13.50 gal

OG: 1.056 SG

F.G. 1.006

Estimated Color: 3.4 SRM

Estimated IBU: 24.1 IBUs

Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:

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

Amt Name Type # %/IBU

15 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) Canada (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 66.7 %

7 lbs Spelt - Raw (1.0 SRM) Grain 2 31.1 %

8.0 oz Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM) Adjunct 3 2.2 %

74.00 g Delta [4.50 %] - Boil 90.0 min Hop 4 24.1 IBUs

1.0 pkg Belgian Saison (Wyeast Labs #3724) [124. Yeast 5 -

1.0 pkg French Saison (Wyeast Labs #3711) [50.28 Yeast 6 -

Notes:

-Used Paul's mash kettle w/ false bottom for mash and boil too-----

Water additions: 4 gr. Gyspum, 4 gr. CaCl to mash, same to sparge

8 gallons mash water, mash in to 126 for 20 min

Add heat & stir for 15 minutes to 147, rest 20 min

Add heat and bring to 155 over 7 minutes, rest 30 min

Bring up to 168 over 20 min

Sparge with 9 gallons at 168 over 40 min

collect 13.5

boil 90 min, additions as noted

yeast nutrient/whirlfloc at 10 min

Knock-out fresh hops:

1 lb. Fuggle

2.25 lb. Columbus

Steep 20 min while setting up.

run off probably 25 minutes, lost track.

maybe lost extra gallon from hops, about 9 gallons in fermenter, plus .5 gallon starter

chill to 70

pitch starter and oxygenate 2 minutes

Fermented at 68-70 for first 24 hours

Ramped to 80 by day 3

Keg carbonated after hitting terminal gravity

Yeast starter:

Very fresh Dupont pack: 90% Viability

Older 3711 pack: 55% Viability

Both into a 2L stirplate starter, should give approx 2:1 ratio

Calypso Pale Ale

I haven't posted any recipes in a while, but I've been brewing a bit. For my friends Tony and Annie's recent wedding, we re-brewed a beer I was very happy with: the Belgian summer ale with lemon verbena, yarrow, and grains of paradise. The brew went off very well, and was pretty much identical to the first brew. The only thing we changed was the yarrow: it was a different varietal of yarrow (whatever is growing in our front yard, with yellow flowers), and we used the flowers as opposed to the leaves, which I think added a more floral/honey character and less of the slight aspirin bitterness that the leaves add. The beer was very well received at the wedding party, and we kicked 5 gallons pretty fast. We also bottle conditioned 5 gallons, and primed the bottles with wildflower honey. I'll do a tasting of that pretty soon for the blog.

On to yesterday's brew: We have a few new varieties of hops to play with at Cascade: Bravo, Delta, and Calypso. These are all fairly new hybrids. I wanted to do a single-hop brew with one of these, so I started by doing an aroma evaluation and checking out their information sheets. The Bravo is pretty much a high-alpha bittering hop, not much aroma going on there, so that was out. The Delta is apparently a cross between a Cascade male and a Fuggle. It has a nice, mild, pleasant aroma but it didn't seem extremely unique. I figure I'll save that for another brew, possibly an all-Delta saison or something. The Calypso is apparently a dual-purpose hop. It immediately stood out as having an intense fruity aroma, not much pine or resin, just sort of a high, almost sharp fruityness that reminded me a bit of blackberries or wine. That was definitely the type of hop that I was looking for, something with a unique character that was going to make its mark in a straightforward, hoppy pale ale.

The Calypso information claims that the hop has a "pleasant fruity aroma, with hints of pear and apple". It comes in at 12.8% Alpha Acid (which I guess would almost be considered a mid-alpha hop in today's age of many 16+% bittering varieties. The one thing that stood out was its huge cohumulone percentage: 40-42%. I don't think I have ever seen another hop this high in cohumulone, ever. It used to be widely accepted that higher cohumulone hops contributed a rougher, less refined bitterness than lower cohumulone varieties. I don't know if this is entirely true though, it seems that that theory is being challenged a bit these days. So, we'll see if this hop seems more bitter in this brew or contributes any "rough" bitter character to the brew.

Personally, I don't think assertively hopped American ales need to shy away from a slightly rough character. Grown-ups like hop flavor and bitterness. As long as there's nothing too funky or astringent in the aftertaste, I think a bit of roughness is to be expected. It's not a Czech pilsner after all, it's a hoppy American ale. In any case, I did decide to dial back by just a few IBU's just in case this hop really seemed to be more bitter than the IBU's would suggest. I also didn't fully "hop-load" the end of the boil, the time at which cohumulone doesn't have a chance to get changed into mellower compounds (don't ask me to look up what it gets changed to, if you're interested in stuff like that, check out Principals of Brewing Science, or do an online search).

Anyway, enough blabbing, here's a recipe, have at it.

Recipe: Calypso Pale Ale

Style: American Pale Ale

TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications

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

Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal

Boil Size: 7.00 gal

OG: 1.054 SG

FG: 1.015

ABV: 5.1%

Estimated Color: 9.0 SRM

Estimated IBU: 42.7 IBUs

Brewhouse Efficiency: 78.00 %

Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:

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

Amt Name Type # %/IBU

7 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 66.7 %

8.0 oz Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 4 4.8 %

8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 3 4.8 %

2 lbs 8.0 oz Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 2 23.8 %

25.00 g Calypso [12.80 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 6 15.6 IBUs

28.00 g Calypso [12.80 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 8 0.0 IBUs

28.00 g Calypso [12.80 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 7 10.4 IBUs

9.00 g Calypso [12.80 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 16.7 IBUs

42.00 g Calypso Dry hop - in bags

Notes:

------

2 gr. gypsum, 1 gr. CaCl, to mash only.

Mash: 4 gallons H20, 153 for 55 minutes (fell to 149 over that time). Raised to 168 over 10 minutes,

Sparge with 5 gallons water at 165 over 30 minutes

Collected 6.75 gallons at 1.048 = 86% efficiency.

Boil as noted, with additions of Whirlfoc & Wyeast nutrient at 10 min.

After boil: Top up to 6.25 (hot volume), Whirlpool & Rest for 15 minutes.

Chill through Heat-X, rack to carboy, and add pure oxygen for 60 seconds.

Pitched 1 qt. stirplate-starter of Wyeast 1056, a little warm at 72, came down to 70 within an hour. Ferment at 68

Keg on 9/8/11, dry hops in 2 tea bags for 3 days warm, 10 days cold.

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Better performance with Dupont Yeast

Ludd Lite

Since my last couple of saisons, I have had a little more time to work with Dupont yeast and get to know its performance over successive generations. I've also had the chance to work with it the pro level, with a collaboration saison I did with Ben Edmunds at Breakside.

Ben and I brewed a pretty much straight-up saison with Whitelabs 565, the equivalent yeast of Wyeast 3724 which I have been using. We brewed two 3.5-barrel batches into a 7 barrel fermenter, the second batch went in 24 hours after the first. We pitched a 5-7 bbl sized pitch of yeast, started fermentation at 80 degrees, and let it rise to the high 80's on its own. I don't remember the exact details on how long the beer took to ferment, but I think that it crunched down to 1.007 in only a week or so. That's pretty darn good. We were really happy with how the beer turned out, and it had a nice earthy Dupont-like aroma. So, there's at least one example of a good single-strain fermentation on a pro level. That's what I'm looking for. I'm betting the heavy yeast pitch was a big factor in the quick fermentation.

On the homebrew side of things, the second generation brew, "Ludd Lite", was a low-gravity beer to begin with, and dried out to a fairly bone-dry 1.005 within 3 weeks. I don't know how long it took to hit that gravity, that's just when I got around to racking it to a keg. It's a pretty decent beer, not the most complex beer I've ever brewed, but very drinkable. It's surprisingly tart, farmy, with a little corn flavor and some hops coming through. I think it could use a bit more bitterness but the hop flavor is pretty nice. This isn't a beer that would make beer geeks go crazy, but it's a light summer ale that's easy to drink and more interesting than a light lager or (in my opinion) an "American wheat". Fermentation and recipe details for that beer are here.

The 3rd generation saison was brewed about 3 weeks ago. It's a brown or amber saison that I used a considerable amount of specialty malts on, but also some D2 Candi syrup. This beer didn't dry out to bone-dry, at least not yet, but we'll see if it drops another couple points over the the next month or so hanging out in secondary. It may just be done, and if so, that's OK, because it tastes like a really tasty Dubbel made with an earthy, estery farmhouse twist. I used a very small amount of lemon thyme in the brew, but so far it hasn't reared it's head in the flavor or aroma. So we'll see, maybe I could go a little heavier than that next time.

Clarissa's Birthday Amber Saison

Saison

Type: All Grain	Date: 07/08/2011
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal	Brewer:
Boil Size: 6.48 gal	Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 90 min	Equipment: 6 gallon - SS mashtun
Final Bottling Volume: 4.50 gal	Brewhouse Efficiency: 78.00
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage	Taste Rating(out of 50): 30.0
Taste Notes:
Ingredients
Ingredients Amt Name Type # %/IBU 1 lbs Candi Sugar, D2 syrup (160.0 SRM) Sugar 11 9.1 % 12.0 oz White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 3 6.8 % 8.0 oz Caramunich Malt (56.0 SRM) Grain 4 4.5 % 12.0 oz Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 2 6.8 % 8.0 oz Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 5 4.5 % 1.0 pkg Belgian Saison (Wyeast Labs #3724) [124.21 ml] Yeast 10 - 21.00 g Perle [8.20 %] - Boil 85.0 min Hop 6 27.2 IBUs 14.00 g Crystal [4.30 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 7 2.5 IBUs 28.00 g Crystal [4.30 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 8 0.0 IBUs 2.00 g Lemon Thyme, fresh leaves, picked (Boil 0.0 mins) Spice 9 - 7 lbs 8.0 oz Canadian "Super Pils" (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 68.2 %
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.061 SG	Measured Original Gravity: 1.060 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.007 SG	Measured Final Gravity: 1.012 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 7.1 %	Actual Alcohol by Vol: 6.3 %
Bitterness: 29.7 IBUs	Calories: 200.7 kCal/12 oz
Est Color: 20.3 SRM
Mash Profile
Mash Name: Single Infusion, Light Body, No Mash Out	Total Grain Weight: 11 lbs
Sparge Water: 3.93 gal	Grain Temperature: 72.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F	Tun Temperature: 72.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: TRUE	Mash PH: 5.20
Mash Steps Name Description Step Temperature Step Time Mash In Add 16.00 qt of water at 159.4 F 149.0 F 75 min
Mash Notes: Simple single infusion mash for use with most modern well modified grains (about 95% of the time).
Carbonation and Storage
Carbonation Type: Bottle	Volumes of CO2: 2.3
Pressure/Weight: 100.20 g	Carbonation Used: Bottle with 100.20 g Corn Sugar
Keg/Bottling Temperature: 70.0 F	Age for: 30.00 days
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage	Storage Temperature: 65.0 F
Notes
Mash 4 gallons at 160 plus 1 gr. Gypsum, 2 gr. CaCl Mash in to 149 50 min, fell to 144. direct heat to 154 over 5 min, rest 15 min, no mash out Sparge 5 gal, same salts, 165 90 min boil 15 minute rest after KO, added candi syrup and whirlpooled. Chill thru plate chiller to 75 degrees oxygen 90 seconds pitched maybe 100 ml saison yeast (rinsed and suspended in beer) at 75 Fermentation peaked at 95 by 24 hours (with heating pad) After 10 days, temperature was dropped by 2 degrees per day to 85 7/26 Racked to secondary, flavor is very good. 1.012
Created with BeerSmith

I harvested the yeast once again, and if I have time I'd like to do a 4th generation saison that would be a re-brew of original recipe, to s if I can get a better yeast performance with the same base recipe. The one thing I would like to do better is to pitch the successive generations in a more timely manner. So far it's been at least 3 weeks between brews, which is not ideal for yeast health, but so far it hasn't seemed to hurt much either.

Hazelnut E.S.B. / Base Beer Tasting, and process REVEALED

Finally, here's an evaluation of the hazelnut beer I made a few months ago, and details on the hazelnut product I used as well as how I used it.

First, let's discuss the process, which I kept secret at first, but I promised I would get to. The hazelnut product I lucked into is produced by Freddy Guy Hazelnuts in Monmouth, Oregon. Clarissa and I regularly stock up on their dry-roasted hazelnuts at the PSU farmers market, and they are just great nuts. We put them in salads, breadcrumb mixes, desserts, and also we just snack on them when we have the munchies. A few months ago they had a little sign up that said something to the effect of "We sell hazelnut press cake for brewers, ask about it!" Hazelnut press cake is a by-product of their hazelnut oil. After the hazelnuts are pressed to extract most of (certainly not all of) the oil, a still very flavorful and largely oil-reduced hazelnut cake is left behind. As we all know, oil is the bane of foam stability in beer, and may muddle up the beer flavor in other ways.

Fritz, one of the owners of Freddy Guy, has experimented with hazelnuts in his own homebrew. He typically uses a pound of nuts in 5 gallons, 5 minutes from the end of the boil, to achieve a good hazelnut flavor in his brews. While this would be a great way to introduce them to a recipe as a homebrewer, I am always thinking of how this might pan out on a commercial system. First off, I would worry about about small chunks of hazelnuts slipping into the heat exchanger, which could be very difficult to get back out. It seems like they might even plug up or stop a runnoff completely in a worst-case scenario. Maybe not, but it could be a risk. They could be bagged up, but that would be 30 or more pounds to bag up for a in a 10 barrel brew. My aim with this homebrew was to isolate the the hazelnut contribution by having a clean version of the beer to compare it to, so I decided to add my hazelnuts to half of the beer post-fermentation.

I added 1 lb., 2 oz. of hazelnut press cake to 4.5 gallons of the base beer. The beer had finished primary fermentation and the "clean" half was racked directly to a keg. I prepped the hazelnuts by adding them to 1 quart of boiling water to semi-sanitize them. They do soak up liquid and they soaked up the quart of water completely, so they will decrease your beer yield if they are not rehydrated in some way. Then I funneled them into a large carboy which was then purged with CO2. The beer was transferred on top of this and kept at 68-ish for 2 weeks. I would have only kept it on for a week, but then, you know, life happened, and it just sat around in my back room until I found time to empty out and clean a keg to transfer it to. I periodically spun the carboy to get the nuts back up in suspension. I did see a small trace of oil on top of the beer, but I just tried to leave it behind when siphoning to a keg. The kegged beer was not fined. I just had about 3/4 inch of the dip-tube cut off to leave any sediment at the bottom.

THE COMPARISON:

Base Beer: Nutty, carmelly malt aroma, light citrus/fruity esters from yeast and late hops, but malt-balanced. A touch of tobacco aroma at the end. Deep copper-red hue, good clarity but not crystal clear, with light bubbles. Low foam stand, probably just from lower carbonation. Flavor is malty, like a good amber ale, with plenty of caramel and biscuit flavor from malts and high level of crystal malts, but not cloying. Hop flavor is moderate, spicy, and grassy. Medium-full bodied mouthfeel, finish is dry. Nice drinking beer, not really an E.S.B., more of an American Amber. I could see having a couple of pints in a row with dinner or a yard-work session.

Hazelnut Beer: Exactly the same in appearance as the base beer, no excess haze or particulate, and both have a light wispy head. Aroma is definitively hazelnutty, but it is different than that of a hazenut-extract beer (i.e. it does not smell like hazelnut-flavored coffee or Torani syrup). There is a certain smooth, creamy, nut-buttery quality to it, a light floral perfumeyness, as well as a dry-roasted presence. It's not restrained, it's very much the dominant aroma, but still smells like beer. The hops are not as present in the aroma, and the malt plays a background role. Flavor is like the base beer, but with a sweeter presence similar to almond extract, and a slight dry-roasted nut finish. Not as bitter or hoppy (going back to the base beer for a taste it seems really hoppy in comparison) but it has a nutty dryness at the end. Overall, I think it really captures the essence of the hazenut. The flavor combination works, and I would say it's a very drinkable beer. All the same, maybe the hazelnut level is a bit (like 25%) too high, because I think after a pint of this I would be ready to move on to a different beer. The hazelnut aroma/flavor seems to be powerful enough to potentially stand up to a stronger base beer like a porter or stout.

If you are interested in obtaining some press cake for brewing, and if you do not live in the area, you should contact Freddy Guy's via their website. It looks like they have a mail-order page, and although they do not have the press-cake listed their, I'll bet they would be willing to ship it if you asked nicely. It looks like minimum orders are $25, so you might want to go in on it with some friends or buy some other stuff too. I can't say the exact price they would charge for the cake, but it is probably a pretty good deal.

Ludd Lite Saison 1.0, and first impressions of Beersmith 2.0

(Above: Typical Oregon summer. You have to dress your carboys up like Kenny from South Park and, use heating pads to keep your saisons warms enough!)

This is a pretty "corny" name for a recipe...I was kind of conceptualizing a product that could be marketed one day, even though in all honesty I will probably never call it Ludd Lite (if I did I would probably get a cease and desist request in the mail from a certain macro-brewer). I have always been interested in a saison using all American ingredients, and more specifically, one brewed 6-row barley and corn. So, this was really just a daydream, but I wanted to see how the beer might actually taste: a low gravity "entry level" craft beer that is actually a saison, but takes significant influence from macro-American-lagers. I guess the real trick is making a beer that is super-drinkable but also substantial enough not to be called "watery". We'll see how it comes out. The "Ludd" part of the name is kind of a jokey reference to Ned Ludd, the legendary leader of the Luddite movement in England which rebelled/rioted against automated machinery in the workplace taking away from skilled human jobs. It seems to fit the saison/farmhouse philosophy of doing things.

I'm still pulling my hair out over this damn Wyeast 3724 (Saison Dupont) yeast. I had my first generation batch (the saison with rye) in the keg/secondary with an airlock, kept warm at 85 degrees for 3 weeks. It was bubbling slowly but constantly, so I was hopeful that it was dropping in gravity...until I pulled a sample yesterday during my brew session. It has only dropped 2 points in that time from 1.026 to 1.024! Damn, that was so frustrating I almost stopped my brew session right there. But I decided to keep going, and it did encourage me to pitch and ferment even hotter this time. So far that seems to be paying off with a visibly more vigorous ferment in the first 24 hours. I will pull about a quart off of the new beer to re-krausen the first saison, and hopefully that will do the trick in getting it going again.

Also, this is my first try at using Beersmith 2.0 for Mac. I have always used Promash in the past, even though I've had to keep a barely-working old IBM Thinkpad PC around to run it. Well, so far my opinion of Beersmith is that it's good, but in some ways incredibly over-engineered. I'm sure part of that is just getting used to a new program and figuring out how to do things, but it seems like it is trying to automate too much of the brewing decision making. For instance it is trying to tell me exactly how much water to use in my mash, when and how to do the mash steps, and I don't really brew like that. It's also trying to tell me how many days days it will take to ferment (if you know this yeast, that is even more of a knee-slapper). From the "Brewsheet" layout, I learned that on 7/29/11, I am supposed to "Drink and Enjoy", at which point I am supposed to self score my beer on a 50 point scale. It seems hard to just ignore these parts of the program, but maybe I can change my preferences or make them go away.

Also, with Promash I always used the mash-in temperature calculator to tell me what temp I should get my mash water to in order to hit my target mash temp, and it worked great within a degree every time. With Beersmith's calculator and I ended up mashing in 4-5 degrees hotter than I wanted (easy fix, just mix in a little extra cold water real fast). It is frustrating for now, but I want to try figure out these hangups before I gripe too much about it.

But...I can copy & paste the recipe reports! (Text in RED is some of the stuff that is just wrong or that I would prefer not to have automated and I don't know how to change yet.) If there's any confusion on numbers, see the "notes". They are correct.

Ludd Lite (6-Row, Corn, Crystal hops)

Belgian Specialty Ale

Type: All Grain	Date: 06/15/2011
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.70 gal	Brewer:
Boil Size: 7.21 gal	Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min	Equipment: 6 gallon - SS mashtun
Final Bottling Volume: 5.20 gal	Brewhouse Efficiency: 88.00
Fermentation: Ale, Single Stage	Taste Rating(out of 50): 0.0
Taste Notes:
Ingredients
Ingredients Amt Name Type # %/IBU 3 lbs 9.0 oz Pale Malt (6 Row) US (1.8 SRM) Grain 1 51.4 % 2 lbs Corn, Flaked (1.3 SRM) Grain 2 28.8 % 1 lbs White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 3 14.4 % 21.00 g Crystal [4.30 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 12.7 IBUs 21.00 g Crystal [4.30 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 6 4.3 IBUs 14.00 g Crystal [4.30 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 7 0.0 IBUs 6.0 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 4 5.4 % 1.0 pkg Belgian Saison (Wyeast Labs #3724) [124.21 ml] Yeast 8 -
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.039 SG	Measured Original Gravity: 1.038 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.006 SG	Measured Final Gravity: 1.005 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.3 %	Actual Alcohol by Vol: 4.3 %
Bitterness: 16.9 IBUs	Calories: 0.0 kCal/12 oz
Est Color: 2.5 SRM
Mash Profile
Mash Name: Single Infusion, Light Body, No Mash Out	Total Grain Weight: 6 lbs 15.0 oz
Sparge Water: 5.06 gal	Grain Temperature: 60.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F	Tun Temperature: 155.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: TRUE	Mash PH: 5.20
Mash Steps Name Description Step Temperature Step Time Mash In Add 11.94 qt of water at 157.1 F 148.0 F 75 min
Mash Notes: Simple single infusion mash for use with most modern well modified grains (about 95% of the time).
Carbonation and Storage
Carbonation Type: Keg	Volumes of CO2: 2.7
Pressure/Weight: 17.22 PSI	Carbonation Used: Keg with 17.22 PSI
Keg/Bottling Temperature: 45.0 F	Age for: 30.00 days
Fermentation: Ale, Single Stage	Storage Temperature: 65.0 F
Notes
Yeast: Generation 2 Saison. Cold stored 4 weeks. 4 Tbsp thick slurry into a 1 quart stirplate starter with a little extra yeast nutrient, 24 hours before pitching. Mash: 2 gr. gypsum, 2 gr. CaCl. Mashed in high: 153ish. Calculation said I would mash in to 149. Adjusted quickly with cold water. Fell to 140 over 45 minutes. Heated over 5 minutes to 154. Rest 20 min and sparge. Sparge: 3.75 gallons at 170. 2 gr. Gypsum, 2 gr. CaCl. Collect 5.5 gal at 1.040 = 88% efficiency Top up with 2.5 qts Boil 60 min Wyeast nutrient (1 tsp) and whirlfloc at 10 min Top up to 6 gallons (hot volume) at end of boil (should be 5.75 cold volume) Whirlpool and chill thru plate chiller to 80 degrees Collect 5.5 gallons Oxygen 90 seconds Put on heating pad immediately and dialed in to 90 degrees, it was fermenting within a couple hours. 6/16 ramped to 95 6/20 decreased to 93 6/21 decreased by 2 degrees per day, down to 85, and held there. 7/7 Racked to keg, 1.005. Force carbonate.