Pliny the Hoser

Russian River Brewery has grown famous not just for their many wonderful Belgium and American Ales but also because of the very hoppy American Ales. Specifically Blind Pig, Row 2 Hill 56, Pliny the Elder and the ever so special, Pliny the Younger. This beer is made in the same style and like its brothers, it is high in ABV, has a lot of hops especially toward the end of the boil and has been dry hopped.

About the recipe. This brew started off with a lot of base malt and very little Cara-foam and Crystal 40 malts for mouth feel. The mash temperature is about as low as I've ever gone, 148F. This beer is about making the hops the star of the show. The flavour and aroma hops are equal amounts of Simcoe, Centennial and Amarillo.

My Recipe Original Recipe

NA Target OG: 1.088

NA Target FG: 1.012

Estimate 8% Target ABV 10.5%

I did not take any measurements. :-(

Malts Malts

15lbs 2-Row 20 lbs 2-Row

1lb Carafoam 1 lb Carapils

12 oz Crystal 40 12 oz Crystal 40

Note:  Use the first 6 gallons for this wort is collected for this recipe. I ran out of 2-Row so this is going to result in a lower ABV.  

Mash  148F Mash 148F

Boil Boil

70 Magnum hops  2oz 60 Magnum hops  2oz

20 Columbus hops 2oz, whilflox, coil 20 Columbus hops 2oz, whilflox, coil

FO Simcoe, Centenial, Amarillo 2 oz each FO Simcoe, Centenial, Amarillo 2 oz each

Note:  The only difference here is that I should get a slightly more bitter beer with the 70 minutes.

Clone Recipe (close to it)

Dry Hop (65F+)

Dry Hop 1: 1oz ea: Amarillo, Simcoe, Centennial

Dry Hop 2: 1oz ea: Amarillo, Simcoe, Centennial 2 days later

Dry Hop 3: 1oz ea: Amarillo, Simcoe, Centennial, Columbus then 2 days later

Dry Hop 4: 1oz ea: Amarillo, Simcoe, Centennial, Columbus then 3 days later, 7 days later  keg

My Dry Hop Schedule

Dry Hop (65F+)

Dry Hop 2: 1oz ea: Amarillo, Simcoe, Centennial

This simplified dry hop schedule is based on what I consider the biggest bang for the buck. Not having a conical fermenter and also believing that loose hops  (not in a bag) yield better results has me making this a one shot dry hop process.

Yeast: US-05

Fermented in primary for 14 days then transferred to dry hop for 1 week. Then transferred to keg.

My technique at FO dramatically influences the beer. I have been of the believe, which I am questioning, that once the boil is over you should cool the wort to 80F ASAP. Using a large 50 ft copper coil I can routinely get the wort from boiling to 90F in 7 minutes. Then lower the temp down to 80F with a transfer into the fermentation vessel. In the future when aroma is important I will consider bringing the temp down to 120F then leaving it for 15 mins and then continue the cooling process. This process should develop much more aroma.  I'm not concerned about contamination.

The Results. The aroma is a solid yet not overwhelming lemon honey. It's enough to put a smile on your face but not enough for you to exclaim the abundance of hops. The flavour is immense with hops. The bitterness is tame but still present balancing the beer. Slight aftertaste telling you  this is high in ABV but the aftertaste is hops hops hops. The mouth feel is light with the hops dominating the malt flavours. This beer tastes more like the Row 2 Hill 56 with the smooth balance of hops. I would consider this a peer that could stand toe to toe with Russian River's hoppy Ales.

What would I do differently next time? I think I could get a lot more aroma if I let the hops at FO sit in the beer for 45 minutes at 100 F. Stay tuned for more on this later.

Overall, I'm really happy with this beer and I'll do this again.

Growing Hops 2013

2012 Hops

Just planted 5 new rhizomes in my yard. Centennial x2, Chinook x 2 and Cascade. I dug a hole that was about 12 inches deep and filled with near equal parts of sand, potting soil and organic fertilizer. After one week the rhizomes have grown up through the soil (2 inches) and sprouted leaves. This rounds out my hop crop to the list below. Stars indicate amount of crop produced in 2012. Note my Sterling hop died in 2011 after one year.

Chinook Rhizome

1. Cascade x 2 (*****)
2. Zeus x 3 (****)
3. Magnum x 2 (*)
4. Chinook x 2  (new for 2013)
5. Centennial x 2 (new for 2013)
6. Willamette x 1 (***)

Notice the white dots on the rhizome. These I'm told by Thyme Garden are the rhizomes reaction to being too moister  These dots will disappear  when they are planted and start to grow in the ground. From the first signs of growth this week there seems to be nothing wrong with the rhizomes.

Guinness Clone (Updated 10/20/13)

St. James's Gate Brewery in Dublin

Below are 3 Stouts that are all very successful. The 3rd strays from the Guinness recipe with Chocolate Wheat and Cold Press coffee but it's still creamy and wonderful. Guinness has got to one of the easiest beers to replicate.

Eight Guinness freshly poured in Ireland

The real thing in Kinsale Ireland

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April 10, 2013 - Batch #1 - Guinness

Batch #1. Guinness Clone

I've had my eye on making a Guinness clone for a long time but it was not until earlier this year I purchased the Nitrogen/CO2 tank and Nitro tap to dispense this stout in the style it deserves. This is my first attempt at a Guinness clone. There are a few recipes of Guinness on the web and I took a middle of the road approach with some of the ingredients. I've never seen a 'certified' or 'this is it' recipe. I was hoping for some hints when I visited  Guinness Factory in Dublin. It was a real treat but they were not about to give away their recipe. They did mention that they used non-milled roasted grain in their beer but that really wasn't helping me much.

MY GOAL - What am I aiming for with this recipe? Two traits, creaminess and drink-ability. The head needs to be thick creamy and persistent. The stout needs to slip down the gullet and not fill you up. 

MAKING GUINNESS - This recipe is is very simple. Three grains. Base malt, roasted barley and flaked barley for the foam. I mashed at 153F to give a bit of body. The boil was again simple. 60 mins with two hop additions. 

Downward cascading bubbles

HOPS - When it came to hops I want to create the flavour that many refer to as the sourness or slight nip. I chose Northern Brewer for my bittering hop and Cascade for my flavour hop. I know Guinness does not use these hops but I figured that hops are not the star of the show here and I consider these two hops are very clean tasting. Next time I'd try this with more traditional hops but I don't think it would change things much. Some recipes call for adding a can of Guinness that has been open and stood at room temperature for three days. To me this just does not seem right from the point of view of creating your own beer from scratch.

My Recipe Ingredients 1 lb roasted barley 2 lb Flaked Barley 8 lb 2-Row 60 Minute Boil 2 oz Northern Brewer 60 mins 2 oz Cascade 15 mins, Copper Cooling coil, 15 mins Whirlflox , 15 mins Yeast Saf 04 Mash 153F OG 1.047 FG 1.016 ABV 4.1%

Reference Recipe Ingredients 1 lb roasted barley 2 lb Flaked Barley 8 lb Maris Otter 60 Minute Boil 1 oz Fuggle 10.8% 60 mins 1 oz KG 9.5% 15 mins, Whirlflox , 5 mins British Yeast Mash 152F

This fermented in about 5 days to its FG. I let it rest for 3 more days and then kegged it.

DISPENSING A GUINNESS - This beer should be kegged with Beer Gas. Getting this beer to be 'nitro'ed' is simple.  

1. Pressurize to 40 PSI with beer gas (75% Nitrogen and 25% CO2). It's important to note that I have a defusing stone that adds beer gas into the beer instead of the typical pressurizing the gas cavity at the top of your keg. Without this stone it took meet about 2 weeks to get similar results.

2. This resulted in the same cascading Guinness pour you would see in a fine pub. Click here for a short video showing the cascading Guinness bubbles.

3. Pouring a Guinness the right way is important. Pour into a room temperature glass 2/3 full and let rest until it has settled to black. Then complete the pour and serve. Drink only after the Guinness has had a chance to stop it's cascading.  Failing to do this does affect the texture of the stout.

NITROGEN GAS - A nitro tap is different in the way is pours beer. There is a small widget in the tap that basically does the whole Pespi-Mentos experiment while pouring. The Beer Gas is at 40 psi that pushes the beer through the tap. Beer gas is 75% nitro and 25% CO2. Some Nitro does get mixed into the Guinness and this is important however the quality of Nitro is that it generally is very hard to mix with Guinness so the added gas is minimal. Nitro allows the Guinness to be under high pressure without foaming to much. The Nitro creates a finer bubble and smoother head. 

This keg will go fast and considering how easy this was and how well it turned out, I'm doing it again soon.

UPDATED 4/22/13

This clone truly is a clone. Very very similar to the real thing. Beer was a tad on the bitter side towards the final pints. 

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May 19, 2013 - Batch #2 - Guinness

Brewed Guinness again. Similar ingredients (Maris Otter) as above using 1 oz KG hops at 60 min and 1 oz Fuggle at 15 min . (I should have switched the hops, KG has better flavour and is more in keeping with UK style beers.)

• 151F Mash. 60 mins
• Sparged to make 6.5 gallons
• Boiled down to 5.5 gallons

• OG  13.3 BRIX, FG 6,5 BRIX, ABV 6.0
• 1.054 to 1.008
• Comments:

Despite this being the same recipe this came out with more alcohol, more body and more dark barley flavour. Still excellent but this does not taste identical to Guinness like the first batch. This is kind of like its older brother. Bit more body and so a little less drinkable than the first.

Next time use 2-Row not Maris Otter and mash at 153F. Sparge to produce 6 gallons and boil down to 5.2 gallons. This means light boil for 45 minutes and harder boil for the last 15 minutes.

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Sept 20, 2013 - Batch #3 - Guinness

Well two things are different with this batch. Roasted Barley was substituted with Chocolate Wheat and I've added 2 oz of Acidulated Malt. The Chocolate malt was done based on the availability of the malts at Morebeer. From early tastes this is getting me thinking of doing a Red Stout. I would replace the Roasted Barley with Red Cara Malt. The acidic malt is done to test out comments on the internet brew forums that this adds the Guinness sour twang. We will see.

Ingredients

• 1 lb chocolate wheat (this is a substitute) 
• 2 lb Flaked Barley 
• 8 lb 2-Row 
• 3 oz Acidulated Malt, German (trying this for the first time to add sourness)

Mash

• Mash 152F 
• Sparged at 167F to produce 6.5 gallons 

Boil

• 1 oz Fuggle 10.8% 60 mins 
• 1 oz KG 9.5% 15 mins, 
• Whirlflox , 5 mins

Fermentation

• WLP007 

OG: Brix 12.85 reading , 1.0505 reading
FG: Oct 19, 2013 1.012 (5% ABV)

Comments: taste wort prior to fermentation. Lite and chocolaty. Chocolate wheat comes across liter and more chocolaty that its barley chocolate brother.

I added cold brewed coffee. Twice I added 10 table spoons of medium ground medium coffee grounds to a 2/3 full cold water french press over night and then added the coffee to the keg. This has resulted in a stout with a mild coffee aroma and coffee flavour that adds a wonderful dimension to the stout.

Brewers Candi Syrup (AKA Belgium Candi)

This simple process takes about 2 hours from start to finish to produce candied syrup for brewing. I prefer creating a syrup rather that rock candi because syrup dissolves into a fermenting wort much easier. 

Add to  pot:

• 2 lb sugar
• 3/4 cup of water 
• 1/4 tsp of cream of tarter or 1/4 tsp or lactic acid

Used to store syrup:

• 1 Pickling jar, large

Time relative to color of syrup (your result will vary)

• 45 mins.       Very light
• 50 mins.       Light 
• 60 mins.       Dark light
• 65 mins.        Medium (amber)
• 70 mins.        Dark medium
• 80 mins.        Dark
• 90 mins.        Very dark

Stir and bring to 240-260F until color reached. During this heating add water to the syrup to keep the liquid from drying up as well as cooling it when it reach 260F+. When color is reached, cool to 75F. Store or add to fermentation.

On a separate burner I bring a picking jar submersed in water up to about 185F. Empty this jar and add the syrup and top off with water. Leave this to rest over night to cool. The reason I heat this jar is to reduce any risk of the jar cracking with hot liquids. This syrup should store for up to 4 months and possibly longer with no issues.

In my brewing experience, 1 lb of sugar adds about 1.2% ABV in a 5 gallon batch. If you are not looking for the complexities of the caramelizing and only want more ABV then I suggest you add dextrose (corn sugar). You may even use table sugar.

Belgium Beer Tasting!

I enjoyed a Belgium beer tasting at Beltramo's in Menlo Park yesterday. All beers were respectable to excellent. I enjoyed the Allagash Black the most.  Below are the tastes poured and the list of beers shown in the lower middle. I've added one or two words next to each glass which represents my impressions.I liked the Allagash Black and bough a 4 pack. Lots of things going on with this beer on my palette. Smokiness is there but it does not dominate. Compared to Duval non of these would be similar. I would question if number 3 (Prankster) is just a golden ale and should not have even been placed in the tasting.

How I Brew

I've been brewing since 1998 and I'm still amazed of the types of beers you can make with just four ingredients. I brew because it's pretty easy to make some amazing beers.  I've enjoyed beers from all over Europe and I'm impressed with the craft beer emergence over the last 10 years in North America.  I love many types of beers. I appreciate how Europe takes beer seriously and presents beer correctly in every way. I enjoy local beers no matter where I am with only few exceptions. S. Korea kind of did me in when they add ice to warm beer.

I brewed 5 or 10  gallon all grain batches.  I grow my own hops yielding about 3 lbs (dried) which lasts for a few wonderful IPAs..

I  break brewing into four parts. 

1. Mashing (steeping your tea leaves)

2. Boiling (cooking something good with spice)

3. Fermentation (letting the little creatures do their thing)

4. Lagering (letting everything mellow out to perfection)

Cheers!

M  A  S   H  I  N  G

I used to do a three stage batch mash. I felt this resulted in a good efficiency but it was slow and tedious. I've now simplified by doing a 1) single mash some where between 148 F and 156 F and then 2) sparge at 170F. The spent grain tastes less sweet and the process is easier and quicker.

1) I use an eski or a thermos from my local hardware store with a false bottom. It has a 10 gallon capacity which works great however it's a bit small for 10 gallon high gravity brews. It holds a maximum of 25 lbs of grain. The concept of the Brewer's Window is very important. So is the accuracy of your thermometer. Mashing at temperatures as low as 148F will give you lots of fermentable sugars but less malt flavours. Mashing at 156F will give you less fermentables but more malt flavours. I've had some batches that I've accidentally mashed above 158F and they resulted in good beers but have less than 2% ABV. The beers are nice but having more than two beer in one night proves very filling. 

It's super important that you have an accurate thermometer. Without it you may be mashing at the wrong temperature and your results will change a lot.

2) After I drain the the mash I start sparging at 170F. The temperature is interesting here due to the fact that this is considered the highest temperature you can use without getting nasty tannins.  Higher temperature help your sparge flow and avoid stuck mashes. I generally produce a total of 13 gallons for a 10 gallon batch and 7 gallons for a 5 gallon batch.

The way I sparge/lauter is very simple. I place a plastic lid over the grains that has many small holes drilled in it. I then slowly pour the hot water on this lid and collect the wort from the run off. I make sure the water pouring on the lid and exiting the wort are about the same rate.

Decoction Mash -  Some beers, specifically heavier stouts I feel I get better results when doing a two step mash. First at at least 40 mins at 148-150F and then for 40 mins at 154F to 158F. The first mash gets the sugars (scarification step) and the second pulls more malty flavours and body from the grain. This two step process is done by removing about 1.5 gallons from the wort and boiling it and then adding it back to the mash.

B  O  I  L  I  N  G  

This process is about taking the wort and flavoring it with adjuncts, most notably hops.  When the wort starts to boil is goes through a stage called "break". This is essentially boiling until all the foam disappears. This is also the time when I start the 60 minute count down and begin adding ingredients. Most of my batches consist of bittering hops (60 to 45 mins additions), flavour hops (30 to 10 mins) and aroma (5 minutes to flame out).  The biggest variable here is the 100s of type of hops you can use. Some other recipes get adjuncts other than hops typically within the last 5 minutes. Orange peal, coriander, etc.

Hops additions are really interesting. Here's were we home brewers have it over the big beer companies. We can try new hops in ways breweries just can't afford. For many Ales I use Magnum to bitter and then use Simcoe, Columbus, Cascade and Centennial to flavour and add aroma.  For European style beers I to use noble hops and for English Bitters I stick to Kent Golding and Fuggle. There are new hops hitting the market all the time. 

When the hour is up I use a 50 ft 1/2 copper coil to cool the wort down to 100F and then drain it into a carboy for fermentation. For heavy gravity brews (above 1.070 OG) I will oxygenate for 2 minutes.

I add the un-sanitized cooper coil into the boil with 20 minutes left. The boil cleans the coil. I add a fining agent at this time too (Whirfloc).

F L A M E  O U T   H O P P I N G  

At the end of the boil I bring the temperature down to between 120F and 90F and then add aroma hops for 15 to 60 mins. In the past of gotten nice results with 2 oz of Chinook for 30 mins at 100F. 

F  E  R  M  E  N  T  A  T  I  O  N

Guinness

Once the wort has cooled to about 80F to 95F I pitch the yeast. I prefer the dry yeasts because they are not messy and deliver great results. I've done starters in the past but typically now just add the yeast when the wort is still warm. I've had great success with Ales and Lagers doing this.

During the colder months I can ferment at about 68F in the house. During the warmer months I use a dedicated freezer chest with the temperature control. 

As soon as fermentation has stopped I wait about 2 to 7 days and then place in secondary or a keg. Final gravity should be below 1.020 however some tasty malts have left me with a FG of 1.028. Not an issue. This is generally a result of high mash temperatures. 

If the beer requires secondary I will drain primary into a new container and add the new ingredients  This might include licorice, coffee, chocolate nibs, oak chips, licorice root, sugars including candi and molasses. Some of this is soaked in vodka/rum to pull out the flavours and sanitize the adjunct. For example I soak chocolate nibs with vodka for 24 hours and then add the whole thing to secondary.

D R  Y  H O P P I N G 

Ideally after fermentation and cold crashing I'll add pellets to the beer for a week to a month at about 65F. Hop leafs create more frothy flavours however they soak up so much beer I choose pellets. I do not sanitize the hops and have never had an issue. The results greatly depend on the quality of hops. Typical hops that render great results are Chinook, Willamette,  Centennial, Columbus/Zeus, Warrior, Cascade. Nobel hops are not ideal here due to there lower aroma and softer qualities. 

 L  A  G  E  R  I  N  G

8 gallon oak

At this stage I have found that 3 to 5 weeks in cold storage makes good beers great. This is most pronounced with hops. The profile of hops changes a lot over even a 2 week period. One batch I brewed was first like a hop explosion and then weeks later it turned into a mellow hops flavour. 

For lagers this is a must. My lagers come out smelling like rotten eggs and within 4 to 5 weeks become works of art.

BA R R E L  A G I N G   

A few distilleries sell used barrels. The sizes of these barrels at either 5 of 8 gallons. Generally I fill them up with a beer that can develop along with the Rye, Oak of other flavours. Small barrels mean a larger surface to volume ratio so generally you only need weeks in the barrel. 

C O M M EN T S

I've used this process to make American style IPA, Reds, Stouts, Wheat Beers, Belgium beers  and many other types. It amazes me that just four ingredients can create so many different styles of beer and taste so good.

Basic Stout

Basic Stout

Aug 24, 2012

What makes this recipe interesting is that the resulting beer is a "typical Stout". Mouth feel, ABV, malt flavour are all what I would consider a pleasant stout. This recipe could be used to be the base of more interesting stouts. For example adding Peat flavoured Malts could result in an amazing stout.

Milled Barley
Lbs.      Description
9.          2-row
1/2.       15L
1/2.       60L
1.          Chocolate wheat
1.          Biscuit
1.          Flaked Barley


Mash (Batch sparge)
Gals        Temp(F)  Mins
4.             152.      60
3.             159.      20
2.             167.      10

Hop schedule
Time.    Hop.             Oz.        Comment
60.        Kent Golding   2
20.        Cascade          2 3/8.     Back yard

FG 12.9 Brix
Kegged on Sept 2
Dry English Yeast

Comments 
Smooth tasting, full body stout. No hint of chocolate just smooth malt flavor. Shows a nice brownish head typical of stouts. Seems like a good base for future stouts. Lite on ABV at an estimated 4%.

Next time either up base malt or add dextrose to give this some kick. Focus on secondary with either vanilla and nibs or licorice or nothing. Only add buttering hops. Flavor hops are lost in the malt.