Batch No. 53 - The Alpha Acid Test

The Alpha Acid Test

Brewed - May 18, 2012

Style - American Pale Ale

Ingredients:

• 10.0 lbs. Maris Otter Pale
• 7.0 lbs. Gambrinus 2-Row
• 1.0 lbs. Munich Light
• 0.4 lbs. Crystal 20L
• 0.4 lbs. Crystal 40L
• 0.4 lbs. Biscuit

• 0.90 oz. Chief #3 / P9-VA517005 (60)
• 0.60 oz. Chief #3 / P9-VA517005 (10)
• 0.25 oz. Chief #3 / P9-VA517005 (5)
• 0.25 oz. Chief #3 / P9-VA517005 (1)
• 1.30 oz. Chief #3 / P9-VA517005 (dry hop - keg #1)
• 2.00 oz. Chief #2 / P9-VA436007 (dry hop - keg #2)

• Wyeast #1056 American Ale (2 packs / 1000 ml starter)

OG – 1.052
Primary – 9 days
Secondary - ?? days (dry hopped)

Kegged - ??

FG - 1.006
Attenuation - 88.5%
ABV - 6%

Notes:

• American Pale Ale brewed with some new experimental, high alpha hops
• We received 7 types of experimental hops from Hop Union to be used at our discretion for a beer to pour at NHC; they were all high alpha hops and based on comparing the aromas, I choose one to be the "single" hop to get me to ~ 40 IBU's
• I figured a simple Pale Ale would be a good way to go to really see how the hop does in bittering and flavor 
• I used Chief #2 / P9-VA517005 (15.5% alpha, 5.6% beta) for all hop additions and will dry hop one keg with the 1.3 oz. that remain
• I will use some Chief #3 / P9-VA436007 (17.6% alpha, 6.4% beta) for dry hopping the 2nd keg
• Both of these hops had a nice, fruity, spicy aroma and quite a few others were heavier on the garlic, onion side that I tend not to like that much; we weren't given any flavor profiles, so we'll see how the flavor works out 
• Mash at ~ 152° for 60 minutes; 60 min boil
• Fermentation started in the low 70's

Batch No. 52 - From the Northweiss Corner

From the Northweiss Corner

Brewed - May 18, 2012

Style - Light Hybrid Beer / American (Hoppy) Wheat

Ingredients:

• 12.0 lbs. Rahr Red Wheat
• 5.0 lbs. Weyerman Pilsner
• 5.0 lbs. Weyermann Vienna

• 1.0 oz. Cascade (60)
• 0.75 oz. Amarillo (60)
• 1.5 oz. Amarillo (5)
• 2.0 oz. Amarillo (1)
• 4.0 oz. Amarillo (dry hop)

• Wyeast #3068 Bavarian Wheat (3 packs / 1200 ml starter)

OG – 1.062
Primary – ?? days
Secondary - ?? days (dry hopped)

Kegged - ??

FG - 1.011 (estimated)
Attenuation - 82.3% (estimated)
ABV - 6.7% (estimated)

Notes:

• 2nd go at a New Glarus Crack'd Wheat inspired beer; a hoppy hefeweizen aka a Pacific Northweiss Ale (new style - haha!)
• Mash at ~ 152° for 60 minutes; 60 min boil
• Tried to start fermentation in the mid-60's but ambient temps kept it in the low 70's for the first few days

Sasquatch Ale on the airwaves

Mark Emily was recently on the Basic Brewing radio show giving some updates on the National Homebrewers Conference and of course some background on the mighty Sasquatch Ale.  Reports from the field are that the beer is coming along nicely and I look forward to trying it soon.  Great interview Mark!!

If you want, you can give a listen to the May 17th show here:
Basic Brewing Radio - May 17th

Batch #51 - Saison de Soufflé Fleur

Saison de Soufflé Fleur

Brewed - May 5, 2012

Style - Saison

Ingredients:

• 27.0 lbs. Pilsner
• 5.0 lbs. Red Wheat
• 2.0 lbs. Munich Light
• 1.0 lbs. White Wheat

• Perle - 3.0 oz. (60)
• Saaz - 2.0 oz. (30)
• Dandelion Tea - 32.0 fluid oz. (1.1 oz. dry dandelion leaf tea)

• Wyeast #3711 French Saison (1200 ml starter / 3 packs)

OG –1.068
Primary – 13 days
Secondary - ?? days

Kegged - ??


FG - 1.005 
Attenuation - 92.7%
ABV - 8.2%


Notes:

• Collaboration brew with fellow homebrewing aficionado Bob Zormeir
• After trying Fantome Pissenlit years ago, I have long wanted to try to brew a dandelion saison; with NHC coming up, this was one the beers I wanted to finally get brewed 
• In this case, we brewed the beer together and each are trying a different method with the dandelions
• On the fly, we scaled up a recipe that Bob has worked up; I had never brewed a 15-gal batch on this system, so it was a learning process
• I didn't estimate the pre-boil runoff correctly and we ended up with 13.5 gallons and overshot the targeted OG
• Bob took ~ 5 gallons home with him and when fermentation slows, he will be adding a tea he made with fresh dandelion flowers and a different saison yeast (Wyeast #3724 Belgain Saison I think)
• I made up some strong dandelion tea an dumped ~ 32.0 liquid ounces into the fermenter before the transfer; ~ 5 gallons were transfer on top and I will be adding more tea depending on flavor, strength, etc.
• The remaining ~ 3.5 gallons will be fermented as is with no dandelions and hopefully will turn out to be a tasting wheat saison 
• We both plan on serving our saisons at the NHC Club Night and it will be interesting to taste the different results 
• Mash at 152° and 90 min boil
• Start the ferment ~ 72° 

Updates:

• Wyeast #3711 is a workhouse and this was down to 1.005 in 13 days
• On May 18th, I added ~ 40 oz. of dandelion tea to 4.5 gals of saison in one keg; I have ~ 3.5 gals in the other and will either leave as is as a base or will use some to blend into the dandelion keg depending on how it tastes in a few weeks 

Transfer to the Barrel

After a long, slow ferment that including re-pitching some dry yeast, the Theme from the Barrel No. 1: American Barleywine was finally ready to transfer into the rye whiskey barrel.  The ~ 2.5 gallon carboy fermented down to ~ 1.028 and the ~ 5.0 gallon carboy fermented down to ~ 1.034.  Not quite as low as I had hoped, but it tastes pretty good and we'll see how it turns out after some time in the barrel.  So that comes out roughly to 1.032, 72% attenuation and a hefty 10.6 % ABV.  The barrel should add a little to the ABV.

One bummer though is that I didn't quite have enough barleywine to top off the barrel, so I had to add a little bit of Shore of the Baltic Sea (the only other dark, strong beer I have going right now).  Didn't quite get the runoff I thought I got during the brewday and my math must have been off somewhere.  I had hoped to have ~ 1 gallon or so to keep around to top off every so often as the beer was absorbed into the barrel, evaporated, etc. but I'll just have to do that with the baltic porter instead.

I'll give it some time and give a taste in the next month or so.

Sasquatch Ale - Part 2 @ Larry's Homebrew Supply

Brewing the Sasquatch Ale for NHC - Part Two

On April 22nd, Jerome and I headed down to Larry's Homebrew Supply in Tukwila to brew the second part of the world's first ever Sasquatch Ale.  Bascially concerned about not having enough for the conference, so we brewed ~ 120 gallons total (~ 90 at BJ's and ~ 45 at Larry's).  Essentially the same recipe though no smoked squash in the batch at Larry's.  We brewed in the warehouse on Don's super slick "homebrew" system.  So many cool features including hot water on demand, big clean vessels on wheels, stainless steel conical fermenters and efficient burner for the brew kettle.  I didn't hang around the whole day, but Don was a great host.  We had to add quite a few rice hulls to prevent a stuck mash and the transfer was incredibly slow.  I will post updates when the beer is kegged, etc.

Final recipe and some photos are below (full photo album). 

Recipe:

• 2 Row - 55.0 lbs
• Smoke - 55.0 lbs.
• Biscuit - 9.0 lbs.
• Flaked Rye - 9.0 lbs.
• Crystal 80L - 4.5 lbs.
• Crystal 60L - 4.5 lbs.
• Special B - 2.0 lbs.
• Carafa I - 2.0 lbs.
• Chocolate - 2.0 lbs.
• Juniper Berries in the mash
• Juniper Boughs stuffed in the grant during sparge 

• Cascade - 10.0 oz. (60)
• Centennial - 5.0 oz. (60)
• Cascade - 5.0 oz. (30)
• Centennial - 5.0 oz. (30)
• Juniper Berries - 5.0 oz. (0)
• Coriander - 5.0 oz. (0)

• Wyeast #1056 California Ale

• OG 18.65 (1.077) 

Sasquatch Ale - Part One @ BJ's

Brewing the Sasquatch Ale for NHC - Part One

On April 18th, Brandon and I headed down to BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse in Tacoma to brew the first part of the world's first ever Sasquatch Ale.  BJ's brewer extraordinaire, Derek Osborne, was a great host and put us right to work throughout the whole process and he was very welcoming to the big mess of juniper and smoked squash.  It was a blast and eye-opening experience brewing on a professional system for a first time and even the cleaning was fun!!  The aroma mix from the smoked malt, juniper boughs, smoked squash and spices was amazing.  Batch size was ~ 3 barrels (90 gallons) and it is fermenting away.  I will post updates when the beer is kegged, etc.

Final recipe and some photos are below (full photo album).

Recipe:

• 2 Row - 137.7 lbs.
• Munich Light - 111.2 lbs.
• Biscuit - 23.0 lbs.
• Flaked Rye - 23.0 lbs.
• Smoke - 15.0 lbs.
• Crystal 80L - 11.5 lbs.
• Crystal 60L - 11.5 lbs.
• Special B - 5.7 lbs.
• Carafa I - 5.7 lbs.
• Chocolate - 5.7 lbs.
• Juniper Boughs in the mash
• Juniper Boughs stuffed in the grant during sparge 

• Cascade - 21.0 oz. (60)
• Centennial - 10.5 oz. (60)
• Cascade - 10.5 oz. (30)
• Centennial - 10.5 oz. (30)
• Smoked Buttercup Squash - 14.0 lbs. (20)
• Juniper Berries - 9.0 oz. (0)
• Coriander - 9.0 oz. (0)

• White Labs WLP 01 California Ale

• OG 19.8 (1.082)