Updates

Not a lot has been happening around here lately. I've been sick and am on antibiotics so I have slowed down on my consumption of beer (read: stopped). I finally transferred the Rye IPA to a keg and set it outside in the fridge to cold crash. Smelled fantastic! I also submitted my Oatmeal Stout and Ordinary Bitter in to the Babble Brew-Off Homebrew competition. I have high hopes for the stout, but am a little concerned for the bitter since I bottled it from off the tap, a method which has been known to have oxidation issues (leads to pretty off-putting flavors).

I haven't gotten around to brewing the Scottish Wee Heavy since I've been sick. But now I also want to wait until I get my fermentation fridge moved from the garage to the basement so I can properly control fermentation temp on that brew. It's pretty important the yeast doesn't produce any esthery/fruity flavors, so a low (64 deg) fermentation is pretty key.

All's Well

Although I didn't really want to brew yesterday, I muscled up and got to it. I managed to hit all my numbers (mash temp, OG, volumes) spot on, so I'm pleased with that. I transferred the "red" to a secondary and racked the stout onto the yeast cake I had used for the "red". It started fermenting within a matter of hours, and has a nice creamy head of krausen at this moment. It's fermenting at a steady 68, although I would have preferred 64-65. Oh well, a little more ester production never hurt.

My next brew is a big one, and I'm really looking forward to it. A Scottish Wee Heavy. Five gallons of approximately 10% ABV Scotch Ale, mmm mmm! 19 lb of grain, a one gallon starter, and nearly one year of aging.

St. Patty's Day Preps

I've gotten started on my St. Pat's Day brewing. I cooked up the "Irish Red" a couple weeks ago (see recipe and link below), and am getting ready to brew up the stout tomorrow. I put Irish Red in quotations because this didn't come out very Irish, or Red. Everything went according to plan, mash went well, and I even hit my original and final gravities dead on. But a first sampling was a bit disappointing. This tasted more like a cross between a brown and pale ale. The color is one of a dark caramel wheat, a slight fruit note in the nose (fermented a bit high, around 67), and a decent balance between malt and bitter, tending toward the bitter end. This is not at all what I wanted, and am pretty disappointed. I know it's still very young and will surly improve with some again, but it will not transform into what I was expecting to have brewed. It's not that close. I'm considering passing this off to someone if they want it and making a fresh batch from a different recipe. But I don't have time to brew. This weekend is set for the stout, next weekend I'm away, and brewing on the 14th only gives me a month to age. That's not quite enough (it wouldn't be awful, but I'm certain it wouldn't be great either).

In the meantime I've been procrastinating kegging my Ordinary Bitter even though I've been looking forward to drinking this since I first tried it. And have also been lazy about bottling the Rye IPA. So much work, never enough time.

A Brew Year

With the new year comes brew resolutions. I don't typically believe in resolutions because they are more often than not goals we tend to break. But these are resolutions I feel I can live up to, and if I don't, no big deal.

1) be more consistent with my technique
2) keep better notes on tasting, etc
3) better planning/execution
4) make a 9% or higher
5) make a lager

As for the brew-off, my brew day went pretty well. No big surprises, or accidents, or anything. Very smooth, just the way I like it. I tasted the beer for the first time the other day. It was still young, and I don't think it was completely fermented (FG is supposed to be 1.010, it was around 1.016), but it was mighty tasty! Very smooth caramel flavor with a very nice hop balance. I was originally going to bottle this and put the Rye IPA on tap, but I think those plans will have to be switched. I'd really like an easy drinker like this on tap about now.

It's also about time to get started on my St. Patty's Day brews - a red and a stout. I was goingto start this past weekend but just didn't get around to it. So I'll get the red started next weekend before we go on vacation, then brew up the stout a week after we get back. That way I can get a good couple weeks of the red on the yeast, plus pitch the stout right onto the same cake. Hooray for planning!


Rolf's Irish Red
6.5 lb Marris Otter
1 lb Brown Sugar
0.5 lb Dextrine
0.25 lb Chocolate malt
0.25 lb Flaked Oats
1 oz Challenger hops (60)

Anticipated OG 1.051
Anticipated FG 1.013
IBU 22
SRM 16

Guiness Clone
6.75 lb Marris Otter
2.5 lb Flaked Barley
1.12 lb Roasted Barley
2 oz Acid Malt
2 oz East Kent Golding hops (60)

Anticipated OG 1.044
Anticipated FG 1.012
IBU 32
SRM 25

A Challenge!

Jake has challenged me to a beer-off! This is very exciting. We will be brewing the same recipe (below), an Ordinary Bitter, and see what kind of results we get. I ordered a pound of Fuggle hops from Hops Direct and sold 4 oz to Jake and Kelly (at cost, of course). So now I have 13.5 oz of Fuggle hops (they gave me a heavy lb) that need to used in some beer. Thus the English Mild, or the Brown ale on my to-do list. As I said, I'm looking forward to this brew-off, which I will probably brew this weekend, and will of course post all things brew related.


Ohiobrewtus' Ordinary Bitter

6.75 lb Marris Otter
0.50 lb Crystal Malt 60L

0.50 oz Fuggles (60 min)
1 oz East Kent Goldings (40 min)
1 oz East Kent Goldings (15 min)
1.5 oz Fuggles (5 min)

Wyeast English Special Bitter yeast (Private Collection)

Expected OG 1.041
Expected FG 1.010
IBU 35
SRM 7

IPA a go-go

I'm back to the IPA basics. Love me some hoppy brews, and it's been a while since I made one. I brewed a Dogfish Head 60 min IPA clone back in the last week of November, it's bottle aging right now. I have tried a bottle and it's just like I remember (well, I bit lighter as I missed my OG by 10 pts). It's got an amazing grapefruit aroma from the dry hops, nice smooth, light body, and a lovely crisp bite.
The Rye IPA has been fermenting for two weeks now, and I just took my first sample of it. I was very pleased with the results. It's got a very strong hop bitterness right now, but once it gets dry hopped that should balance it out pretty well.

It's The Litte Things

As I mentioned earlier, brewery activity has slowed lately. I brewed up a 2 gallon batch of Dogfish Head 60 Min clone, it's dry hopping right now and will be ready to bottle in about a week (I can't wait!). That basically came about from brewing withdrawal. I put the porter on the gas to carbonate and it's coming along. I think it's too young still as it is very sweet. Served at just below room temp it's not as bad, more of the roasted flavor comes through. But being that this is a rather big beer (OG was about 1.084) it probably needs months of aging in reality.
The stout came out pretty darn great! It's actually pretty light in body, and has a good bitterness to it that compliments the roasted flavors very nicely. The oats definitely added a smoothness to it that I enjoy.
I'm looking forward to getting the amber ales on the gas so they can be drinkable in a week or so. Then this weekend it's time to (finally) brew up Denny Conn's Rye IPA. I am very excited for this as I have only heard good things. And I'm ready for nice hoppy beverage. It'll also need some aging, but that's why I have the Dogfish Head to tide me over. I think I'll also make another quick turnaround brew after that. Something similar to the Scottish Light I brewed a while back, but more along the lines of an English Mild. Something that's drinkable within a few weeks of brewing, not heavy, goes down easy. A good lunch beer. Yeah, that's what I'd like about now.

Slow

Not much has been happening since Teach a Friend to Homebrew day. In fact, I've taken those few weeks in between off as there's lots of beer aging away, waiting for a keg to free itself (well, it can't do it alone, I'll help). I transfered the ten gallons of Amber Rye to secondary fermenters and added Polyclar, a clarifying agent that helps eliminate evil chill haze.
I'm also getting ready to make my first lager, now that the cold has come. But my fermenting fridge is in the garage, and it's even too cold in there! I have the thermostat in the fridge set to 50, but the temp is around 45. A bit too cold for the lager yeast I've chosen, Wyeast 2124 Bohemian Lager, which has a temp range of 48-58. So I'm thinking of moving the fridge to the basement where I can have excellent control all year round. Too bad the things heavier than a mo'fo.

Pilsner Jasuhn
8 lb German Pilsner
1 oz Select Spalt (60 min)
1 oz Saaz (30 min)
0.5 Spalt (30 min)
1 oz Saaze (flame-out)

Target OG 1.048
Target IBU 33

Teach a Friend to Homebrew

Saturday, November 1, was teach a friend to homebrew day. I only had one friend over who had never brewed before, and one who does partial mashes. The day had it's glitches with a mill that wouldn't crush the grain at first (turned out to be a loose screw), and a way missed OG (1.043 instead of 1.053). But we still ended up with ten gallons of beer, albeit slightly different from what we had set out to brew (Southern Sky Amber Rye). I used this batch as an opportunity to try a brew with two different styles of yeast to see how they affect the beer. Five gallons were fermented with Wyeast London Ale 1028, and the other five with a packet of Nottingham dry yeast. I took our first hydrometer samples this past weekend and was impressed with the differences. The Nottingham yeast produced a smoother, more malty product, with the hops being nice and subtle. The London Ale yeast let the hops shine through very nicely. Their flavor really popped. But it's early, and time will be the ultimate judge.

Stupid Dogs

I was supposed to brew a Summit SMaSH (single malt and single hops) this weekend, but ran into some obstacles. Saturday started off great. A friend from work got us free tickets to the Badger game against Illinois. Another friend was working the beer tent, so we got to drink for tips only. Great seats and a great game! Badgers finally won their first Big 10 conference game of the season ('bout freaking time!). Went back to the beer tent after the game, met Wendel the Miller Hight Life guy, got some free swag. Good times. My buddy and I shared a cab ride back to my place to hang out and sober up. After a couple ours I drove him home and that's when the shit hit the fan.

I got back to my place after 10-15 minutes only to find our foster dog Einstein soaking wet and bleeding in our kitchen. Dexter (our forever dog) is lying under the table, his muzzle and neck covered in blood that's clearly not his own. Both dogs are panting heavily. Without hesitation I leave Dexter behind and take Einstein to the emergency vet. I spend an hour or so there while he gets checked out. They decide they want to sedate him to get a better look at his wounds and send me home, telling me they'll call in a few hours to come pick him up.

I get home, clean Dexter off and find a few nicks and bruises on him, but nothing too bad. After a few hours I get a call from the vet. They say they'd like to keep him overnight so they can keep a better eye on him as he comes out of sedation. I pick him up the next morning, and he's got four drainage tubes put into his bigger wounds. He is messed up! I don't know who or what started the fight as both dogs have been getting along very well for three weeks now, but Dexter most definitely won.

So my Sunday was spent picking up meds and cleaning wounds instead of brewing. But there's always next weekend.

Even Flow

Well, nothing too even about it. I have one tap that seems to want to give off a hell of a lot more foam than the other and I don't know why.
But that's neither here nor there. Some updates have occurred. The stout I brewed a couple weeks ago had an OG of 1.057, which is just about perfect in my opinion. It took me some time to decide on which yeast to use for that brew. I had read in BYO that a London ESB Ale yeast would work very well, but then had some reservations about it's low attenuation levels (only about 69%). Well, I fermented this beer in the fridge for two weeks at 68 degrees, and was very pleased to see that it attenuated very well. FG was 1.016, for a total of 71.9% attenuation. OK, that's not a huge difference, but it's better than I expected. Since this is a stout and doesn't really need much clarity, I just went straight to the bottle with it. I indent to condition and age it two months at least. Right now it has a strong roasted flavor to it, but it's very smooth and balanced. I'm fairly certain that roastiness will mellow out in time.

We finally kicked the Scottish Light keg. That was a very popular brew, and I have every intention on making it again soon only with a little more abv this time. We're coming up to the end of the Litehaus Wheat keg as well, but I just kegged the 5 gal strawberry Litehaus batch and it's hooked up to the gas right now at 13 psi (hoping for about 2.3 vols). Soon I will have another keg to fill and that will be the Holiday Ale, which I'm looking forward to finally trying.
There's so much beer I want to make and so little time, and too few taps.

Wedding Weekend

This past weekend was my first trip in to Michigan, 25 miles outside of Detroit in a city called Plymouth. Not much to see, just a small, nice suburban city. We were there for my wife's brother's wedding. And I've got to say, for a Wisconsin boy, yeesh, the beer selection was sub par. I know that sounds cruel, but there were two options: Miller Light (which I can completely tolerate), and Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat (yech!). Now I really, really do not enjoy even one sip of Leinies Sunset Wheat. I find it too syrupy, and very sweet. It really just isn't to my taste at all. So, with my options being two mea beers, I stuck to booze. Good old gin-toniks with a twist of lime. Those went down nice and easy.
Due to the long weekend, and my being tired from driving 7.5 hours each way, brewing was out of the question. So, once again a brew will be put on hold. Although I should certainly get to that porter this week as I have a 2.5 qt starter sitting in my fermenting fridge.

Finally, a Stout

I haven't made a stout since March of this year. Not because I don't love stouts, it's just that I'm constantly trying different and new brews. But today is the day, and I'm making an oatmeal stout that I, for no good reason, have been putting off for weeks. I made my starter two nights ago, 3 quarts worth, and I just started mashing my grains 20 min ago. I overshot my mash temp by 6 degrees (was going for 152), so I'm letting it cool down a bit. My inventory was off (no idea how), because I thought I had 3 oz of East Kent Golding whole hops, but I only have two. So I'll be subbing the missing ounce with Fuggles.
I'm 20 min into my boil, missed my pre-boil SG by 6 points, which is not that bad. The original recipe called for an OG of 1.055, I was looking at hitting 1.059, now it should come to about 1.056. Pretty good in my opinion.
My neighbors, en elderly couple, have seen me brewing in the garage a number of times. Today the wife (I forgot her name) came to ask what I was doing. So I told her, and she seemed fascinated. She told me about a son of a friend of hers who also brews, living in Minneapolis, who has won a few awards. I'll definitely have to bring them over a few brews.

Something Aint Right

Three weeks ago I decided to make a yeast starter from one of Rogue's famous beers. They use a special strain of yeast known as Pacman yeast which is supposed to be very clean, and have a very high attenuation (80%-85%). Unfortunately due to scheduling conflicts I was unable to brew and had to put the starter aside. So I let it sit in the fridge for a few weeks, giving the yeast a nice rest. Today was the day to have at it and use the Pacman on the oatmeal stout I was to make. But when I opened the starter to take a whiff... phew! It smelled like sour milk. Definitely not something I want to put in my beer. So, I'll be putting off the stout once more and taking another go at building a starter from harvested yeast.

A Flavourful Note

Both the Scottish Light and the Centennial Blonde are now available on tap. The blonde came out great! This was my second attempt at the recipe, and last time I had added a dry hop addition for some aroma. I decided to go without them this time and am not disappointed. It's extremely smooth, slightly sweet, slight hop bitterness, and very, very drinkable.
The Scottish Light (see below for recipe) is just that... light! I missed my FG by only 4 points (was shooting for 1.011 and hit 1.015), but with a starting gravity of only 1.035, those four points make a huge difference. I lost 1% abv, from 3.5% to 2.5%. It's very thin, which you would expect from a light beer, but it does have good (albeit subtle) malty flavor. While it is enjoyable, it is not what I'm looking for in a beer. I want more body (which I may have lost in part due to poor mash temperature stabilization), and more pronounced flavor. So next up... Oatmeal Stout!