IPA Red Ale - May 11, 2014

10 gallon all grain

Aiming for a light easy drinking red IPA with about 5% ABV and a strong citra/piny hop aroma. Mash is low at 149F and the hops are being added late to enhance the aromas. Less bittering hops.

Grains 
Golden Promise           16 lbs
Carapils                       1 lbs
CaraRed                      2 lbs
German Caramel Pils  1.5 lbs
Total grain 20.5 lbs

Mash 149F for 2:15 hrs
Sparge @ 170F to make 13 gallons

Boil
60 mins  US Magnum 2oz  14.7%A
20 mins  Copper coil
15 mins  Whirlfox
15 mins  1oz each of Simcoe 14.8%A and Chinook 13.8% (whole, no bag)
Cooled to 120, 1oz each of Simcoe and Chinook, 15 mins

Yeast: Kolsch yeast (used once before)

OG 1.055
FG 1.018 (May 17)

ABV 4.9% (May 17)
FG 1.009 (May 24)
ABV 6%

Comments

May 13, 2014 - We are having very hot weather this week (90's) so this fermentation vessel is sitting in a bath of water with a temperature between 62F and 67F.

May 17, 2014 - Fermentation has remained below 70F. Still sweet yet very promising. Light yet full body. Aroma is there but needs to age.

May 23. 2014 - Lighter easier drinking ale with wonderful flavour and mouth feel. This will go into two 5 gallon buckets today. Dry hopped with 2 oz of Simcoe (W) and the other Citra (W).

June 1, 2014 - Citra dry hop was ok. Simcoe is superior. Reminds me of Pliny. This is nice and light however the aroma and flavour need 3 to 5 weeks to peak.

July 5, 2014 - aroma is soft but not distinctive in any specific flavor. Mouth feel is spot on for a hot summer beer. Aroma flavor and appearance lends itself to a nice hot summer ale.  Good foam, good all around balance. 

Crystal Pils (German Pils Style)

Jan 11, 2014

15 lbs German Pils

2 lbs Carapils

6 oz Honey malt

Mash 151F for 1 hr

Sparged 9.5 gallons @ 170F

60 mins Tattenger 2 oz

15 mins crystal 2 oz, liberty 1 oz

1 teaspoon 

WLP 800 pitched to wort at 90F with fridge set to 52F

Produced 7.7 gallons at 1.063 OG

Feb 21 - FG  1.013

ABV 6.7%

Feb 21 - Tastes as expected. Needs two months of lagering.

Mar 21 - poured first pint. Aroma is fruity fresh. Still cloudy but this is the first first pour which is pulling everything from the bottom on the keg. All indications that this is on track for excellence. One more month of lagering. 

Apr 1 - Looks perfect and tastes light yet a hint of honey with a nice mouth feel. Very excellent lager over all. Crystal Hop may add some "ok" aroma. I now prefer Liberty, Saaz (in that order).  Bitterness is mild and well balanced. 

Apr 4 - Flavour continues to improve. Wonderful mouth feel with silky honey tones.

Bottom of Primary Fermentation after one month.

Einfach Wunder - Kölsch style. 10 gal

Keg #1 Kolsch Yeast

Keg #2 Ale Yeast. Identical to Keg #1 except for taste 

The Recipe (10 Gallons)

Kölsch typically uses German pilsner malt. Most Kölsch recipes use Spalt hops, but other German noble hops can be used. The beer uses very soft water and is often lagered for a month after fermentation. Here’s the recipe used.

• 15 lbs German Pilsner Malt
• 1.0 lbs German Munich Malt
• 2.0 oz German Spalt hops 4.3%, 60 minutes
• 2.0 oz German Spalt hops 4.3%, 30 minutes

• Keg #1
• WLP 0029 Kolsch Yeast
• FG 1.017, ABV 6.5%
• Aroma of faint rotten eggs
• Flavour it amazing

• Keg #2
• 1028 WYeast London Ale reused from Golden Promise Ale
• FG 1.013, ABV 7%
• Little aroma
• Flavour is young and inferior to keg#1

Mash the grain for 90 minutes at 150°F. This should give you a good fermentable wort. Boil the wort for 90 minutes. At 60 minutes, add the hops.

OG 1.066

Ferment the beer at 60°F (acceptable yeast temperatures range: 56-70F). Once the fermentation is complete, find a cold place to store the beer for a few weeks. Cold Crashing for two day helps brighten this beer. A lagering period will help the beer.

Reinheitsgebot refers to 3 ingredients, not 4.

Keg#1 - May 5 - Lagered with great improvements. Became smoother, finer in taste and clearer. Distinctive Kolsch flavor as expected. This flavor was very pronounced right after kegging. Compared to Faultline Brewery in Sunnyvale (which I tasted today) my beer has slightly more body and more ABV. Very similar beers. 

Keg#1 - May 19, 2014 - Aged to perfection. Big winner! Improvements? Maybe add Carared and mash 1 degree cooler. Do this again. 

Keg #2 -  June 5 - Similar to Keg#1 in all ways except the Kolsch malt is much less pronounced.  This is due to the English Yeast. It created a clean fermentation that fermented faster yet there is significantly less flavor in this beer. You can still detect the "Kolsch" flavor but it's weak.

Keg #2 - June 20 - Over time the Kolsch malty flavours have increased making this a very nice beer. If I lowered the malts to create a 4% beer I would use the Kolsch yeast to deliver more flavour. Keg #2 is very good. Keg #1 is more Kolschy. Next time do Keg#1 with a target of 4%.

POTENTIAL CHANGES 

Definately use the Kolsch yeast. Mashing could be done a degree or two lower if you would like a more Pils like result. 

Experiment X: Black Sludge Porter (FG 1.05)

Aromas of black strap molasses, light chocolate with a background of rich malts. Thick heavy viscosity similar to cool molasses.  The body can only be described as heavy silk. Well carbonated yet it requires a high pour to witness any head. The head is dark dark brown bordering on black.  

Despite the exaggerated amount of dark malts used in brewing this beer, this stout is not harsh or hard to drink. The bitterness is well balanced with the malts and alcohol. Magnum hops come through clean. With this heavy malt recipe none of the late hops are detectable in aroma or flavour. Overall, mild sweetness balanced with the bitterness and malts.

Why did I do this recipe? After only doing a couple of stouts which were a success but rather "normal" I decided I would increase the malts from about 20% of the grain bill to about 60% of the grain bill. More is better, right? I would be measuring these dark grains out by the pounds, not ounces.

Tasting started a few weeks after bottling and continued for about 3 months. I considered this experiment a lesson in what not to do. The malts were so harsh that I would cut this beer with soda water, 50 - 50, and it would turn into a nice dark stout.

Originally not liking this beer, I considered throwing it out and then decided to place in a refrigerator and forget it. Maybe age would help.

Moving forward 2 years

This stout has transformed into a silky black liquid that has been commented on by pros and friends as something special. Time has taken away the harsh flavours and turned this into silky goodness.

Unfortunately the recipe was destroyed since I thought this was a failure. My best guess at the recipe is:

Photo taken during the boil on Feb 24, 2012

5 Gallons of  Sludge

12 lb 2-Row Barley Malt

2 lb Chocolate Barley Malt

1.5 lbs of Biscuit Barley Malt

1 lbs of Flaked Barley

2.5 lbs of Black Roasted Barley Malt

1 lb 40 L Crystal Barley  Malt 

(This is about the maximum my cooler can mash)

60 Minutes - Magnum

Mash at 154F for 90 minutes

Secondary had French oak chips ( 2 oz) and Vanilla Bean (1) for 3 weeks

Carbonate in Bottle

Age 18 to 24 months below 50F.

OG (est) 1.12

FG  1.050 (yes really)

ABV (est) 9%

Tetley Bitter Clone

Style: 4A Ordinary Bitter
Method: All Grain 5 gallon

Malts
8.0 lb     Pale Row Malt
1.5 lb     Flaked Barley
1.0 lb     Brown sugar
2 oz       Chocolate Barley
5 oz       Crystal 80L

Mash @ 151F, 90 mins

Sparge @ 170F to make 7 gallons

Boil intensely for 60 mins

Had to add about 3 cups of water to keep volume up. 

Used white diffuser to aerate wort. 

Pitched yeast at 90F.

Hop Schedule
1 oz 60 min Fuggle
1 oz 20 min Fuggle
1 oz FO Willamette

Safale 04

OG 17 Brix, 1.070
FG 8.5 Brix, 1.011 April 15

FG 8 Brix. 1.08 May 5
ABV  8.1%

Serving at 62F with very low CO2 carbonation.

May 17, 2014 - Strong caramel than expected. Excellent mouth feel. Bitterness is tame and the flavour is good. More ABV than expected happens to balance out with the caramel flavours. All in all an excellent bitter. One of my best. No noticeable hop aroma but hops seems to round this out. If I was to aim for the original style I would decrease base malt to get 3.6% ABV and mash at 150F.

June 20, 2014 - Good in all the right ways however the caramel flavour is still a bit harsh. This is a winner of a beer but my favourite bitters are lighter. I consider this beer a winner as it delivers on the style of a darker best bitter. Slips down the throat with the greatest of ease.

July 13, 2014 - This has not improved with age. The appearance and taste is a bit muddy. The chocolate barley just did not do it for me. Still in search of a great bitter recipe.

Aug 2 - This has turned into a brown ale. People like it a lot however it's not my cup of tea.

Rastpeatin (Honey Oak Barrel)

Raspeatin Feb 1, 2014

(Rasputin with Peat/Smoked Malts)

Tragedy. Dry Barrel delivered leaked 2 gallons of precious stout.

10 gallon recipe with the additions of Rye and Peat malts. Carafa replaced Brown due to availability. Higher quality 2-Row yield a higher ABV. This is going into a fresh Rye barrel to add rye overtones. Brew day was a total of 10 hours due to the two mashes. In the future I can reduce time by purchasing malt extract and eliminate the 2-Row.

Malts (from Brew Brothers inc. Glacier Hops)

1 lb    Briess Malt Chocolate, Organic (US)$1.85
1 lb    Great Western Malting Crystal 40 (C-40), Organic (US)$1.55
0.5 lb Great Western Malting Black, Organic (US)$0.80
1 lb    Great Western Malting Crystal 15 (C-15), Organic (US)$1.55
2 lb    Briess Malt Caramel 120 (C-120), Organic (US)$3.50
1 lb    Weyermann Malts Carafa, Organic (German)$2.34 &&
1 lb    Bairds Malt Peated, Heavy (British)$1.80 (Smelled great!!!) **
1lb     Thomas Fawcett Malting Rye, Crystal Light (British)$1.64 **
36 lbs Great Western Malting 2-Row Pale, Organic (US) ($47.50 for 55 lbs)

Total malt = 44.5 lbs

** Additional ingredients from previous Rasputin clone recipe.
&& Replaced Brown Malt due to availability

Mash / Sparge

Due to the large amount of malt this was done in two batches.

Batch #1

152F @ 60 mins

19 lbs of 2-Row
Most of flavour malts
Sparged at 170 to produced 8 gallons

Batch #2

150F @ 90 mins
17 lbs of 2-Row
Some Flavour malts plus Rye and Peat
Sparged at 180F to produce 7 gallons
(stuck sparge due to batch #1 grain underneath false bottom)


Boil

Long boil to reduce 15 gallons to 11 gallons. Started 60 minute boil after about 2 gallon reduction.

Hop additions (Chinooks Hops from Hops Direct)

60 minutes    Chinook 14% 2 oz (pellets, fresh and smelled great)
20 minutes    Glacier  5.1% 2 oz (older hops, delicate flavour)
10 minutes    Cascade(backyard) 3 oz (last of 2012 yield, smelled great)

Fermentation / Preparation

Cooled with coil to 90F. Poured into large vessel. Added 45 seconds of oxygen with wand/O2 tank. This resulted in a think head on the wort so I had to sprinkle and then slosh the vessel to get the yeast into the liquid.

OG 1.111

FG  1.024, Feb 12

Targets - FG 1.02, ABV 12%

Yeast added was Safale 05 (one pack). Alcohol Tolerance 12%.

1lb   Wyeast Lab Wyeast 1084  will be pitched if needed.

March 1, 2014 - The barrel I've purchased from Woodinville Whiskey Co in WA has been a rocky road. The barrel initially leaks over 2 gallons of beer taking about 24 hours to seal. Five days later I moved this barrel to a barrel stand where I noticed it is still leaking. I'm unable to top this off with beer so I will resort to sanitized marbles soon. Also, the beer was filled with bourbon whiskey and honey. I've noticed that the outside in places are crusted with crystalized honey. I tasted this beer for the first time since it went into the barrel. It has greatly sweetened the beer. This is more like a port wine than a beer. The yeast most likely will not ferment any longer due to its lack of alcohol tolerance (12%) so I will age the beer and look to add a high alcohol tolerant yeast. Unfortunately I would consider the beer a failure due to the barrel. I'm pretty bummed.

March 2, 2014 - Transferred from leaky barrel to the year old barrel from Woodinvile Whiskey. This barrel had my original Irish Red for 4 weeks, A Pale Ale for 4 months and water to keep it moist for about 6 months. The water came out was redish and oaky.

March 5, 2014 - Barrel has mild fermentation happening with air lock. I will top off with Red Bastard Ale.

May 17, 2014 - Poured first 5 gallons into a keg marked Rastpeatin #1. Full  body, lots of flavour, honey tones. Rich red ruby colour in lines. Remaining 3 gallons will get added to Rastpeatin #2 in the Maple Barrel tomorrow.

June 1, 2014 - thick flavorful but will improve with 3 months. No peat detected now. Received very well at party at house.

June 12, 2014 - Smooth with nice tone of peat. Potent.

June 20, 2014 - Serious great stout. wicked ABV 12%+. Peat is in there but not pronounced. The carbonation took a while. PSI at about 17 which seems high but still only give a medium head. 

Foam after adding O2

Rastpeatin (Extract Method) 1st

Note the maple syrup crystals.

For the last 4 or 5 years I have only done all grain brews. Today I'm doing an extract to save mash and boil times to prepare for a new Rye Oak Barrel expected within 2 weeks.

Time	All Grain Method	Time	Extract Method
15 mins	Equipment setup	5 mins	Equipment setup
90 mins	Mash 60 to produce 7 gallons with half the grain bill	90 mins	Mash flavour grains
90 mins	Mash 60 to produce 7 gallons with half the grain bill	45 mins	Boil with hops in kitchen
60 mins	Boil	20 mins	Boil with added hops and extract
60 mins	Boil with hops	20 mins	Cool
20 mins	Cool	30 mins	Equipment cleanup
20 mins	Equipment cleanup
6 hrs	Total	3.5 hrs	Total
12 hrs	Actual duration	4.5 hrs	Actual duration

Back a month ago I did this brew using an all grain method. It took a all day. No messy extracts just pure grains. This beer has attempted to create Old Rasputin with significant short cuts. See the table above for a comparison of times.

Malts 

Malts are the same as previous but the base malts have been replaced with 18 lbs of  liquid extract and 4 lbs of dextrose. This still did not raise the OG to 1.123. In hind sight I would add 2 more lbs of dextrose.

I feel the grains from Brew Brothers are superior to More Beer based on the efficiency of extracting fermentables. Most of the grains I order from Brew Brothers are organic. MoreBeer does not sell Organic grains.

Malts were created with a temperature at 150F for 2 hours.

MoreBeer #  Description            Qty     Price$ Total$
ME10G 9 LB Ultralight Malt Extract Bag     2.00    25.65    51.30
GR600 Malt - Chocolate - Per Lb                1.00    1.89      1.89
GR540 Malt - Crystal 40L - Per Lb              1.00    1.69      1.69
GR610 Malt - Black Patent - Per Lb            0.50    2.09      1.05
GR515 Malt - Crystal 15L - Per Lb              1.00    1.69      1.69
GR562 Malt - Crystal 120L - Per Lb            2.00    1.69      3.38
GR691 Malt - Carafa Special II - Per Lb       1.00    2.29      2.29
GR440 Malt - Peated - Per Lb                    1.00    2.59      2.59
GR455 Malt - Rye - Per Lb                         1.00    2.29      2.29
NA                Dextrose                              4 lbs


Sparge created 7 gallons of wort. It seemed thin. We will see. Total wort was 11 gallons.

The Boil

The boil was shortened to 20 minutes however the the hops were boiled separately in the kitchen. 45 minutes with magnum (2 oz)  making the kitchen smell like weed and 5 minutes with  Willamette. This cooled down to make a paste which was added to the boil. No bags used.

Cooled and poured at 90F.

8 hours after yeast was pitched. Shear madness!

Yeast

The wort was poured directly on top of the yeast left over from the Red Bastard Ale.I had drained this vessel just an hour before  into a keg.  I stirred for about 10 seconds.  This got things off to a huge fermentation start.

OG 1.094

FG  1.025

ABV 9%

Apr 5 - Tastes harsh and bitter. Needs barrel aging. 

May 3 - taste smooth and wonderful.  Aging in primary made a big difference. Placed into a new barrel that had rye and maple syrup. Leaked 2 cup during the first 18 hrs then all seems fine. Expecting secondary fermentation due to maple syrup in barrel.    

May 18, 2014 - Kegged 1st 5 gallon and then transferred last 3 gallons to barrel with other Rastpeatin #1. Then added 3 gallons from other Rastpeatin to this barrel and topped out with about 2 gallons of Villious Stout from the fridge keg. (This freed up a keg for Kilt Lifter)