Brush Valley Brewer

I Have Moved

2010-08-07T08:26:00.000-04:00

If you like what you see here, you really ought to take a look at the new site.

Pliny Then and Now

2009-07-19T15:35:00.001-04:00

The July/August 2009 issue of Zymurgy has the results of this year's reader's best commercial beer in the United States. After being beat out for first place two years in a row by Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA, Vinnie Cilurzo took first place this year with his Russian River Pliny the Elder. The issue includes an article by Vinnie himself where he spends five pages telling you how to brew a double IPA. It includes an updated recipe. I found it especially interesting because I recently featured the recipe he gave out at the the 2005 National Homebrew Competition. It seems he has been tweaking the recipe and this may account for the change in the polls. The IBU values listed are Vinie's measured values, not calculations.

	Then	Now
OG:	1.075	1.070
FG:	1.013	1.011
ADF:	81.8%
IBU:	95–100	90–95
SRM:	5.9	7

Fermentables	Then	Now

Two-Row Pale Malt (1.8 °L)	13.3 lbs. (5.897 kg)	11.0 lbs. (5.0 kg)
Crystal (45 °L)	0.32 lb. (145 g)	0.5 lb. (277 g)
Carapils Malt (2 °L)	0.94 lbs. (425 g)	0.5 lbs. (277 g)
Dextrose (0 °L)	1.1 lbs. (500 g)	0.4 lbs. (181 g)

Hops
Warrior 15.6% AA, 90 min.	2.75 oz. (78 g)
Chinook 12.2% AA, 90 min.	0.5 oz. (14 g)
Columbus 13.9% AA, 90 min.		3.5 oz. (99 g)

Simcoe 12% AA, 45 min.	1.0 oz. (28 g)
Columbus 13.9% AA, 45 min.		0.75 oz. (21 g)

Columbus 14.3% AA, 30 min.	1.0 oz. (28 g)
Simcoe 12.3% AA, 30 min.		1.0 oz. (28 g)

Centennial 9.1% AA, 0 min.	2.25 oz. (64 g)
Centennial 8.0% AA, 0 min.		1.0 oz. (28 g)
Simcoe 12% AA, 0 min.	1.0 oz. (28 g)
Simcoe 12.3% AA, 0 min.		1.0 oz. (28 g)

Columbus 14.3% AA, dry hop.	3.25 oz. (92 g)
Centennial 9.1% AA, dry hop.	1.75 oz. (50 g)
Simcoe 12% AA, dry hop.	1.75 oz. (50 g)
Columbus 13.9% AA, dry hop. (12 to 14 days total)		1.0 oz. (28 g)
Centennial 9.1% AA, dry hop. (12 to 14 days total)		1.0 oz. (28 g)
Simcoe 12.3% AA, dry hop. (12 to 14 days total)		1.0 oz. (28 g)
Columbus 13.9% AA, dry hop. (5 days to go in dry hop)		0.25 oz. (7 g)
Centennial 9.1% AA, dry hop. (5 days to go in dry hop)		0.25 oz. (7 g)
Simcoe 12.3% AA, dry hop. (5 days to go in dry hop)		0.25 oz. (7 g)

Yeast
White Labs California Ale WLP001, Wyeast American Ale 1056

Brew Day - Friday June 19, 2009

2009-06-19T17:46:00.002-04:00

Brewed my Pliny The Elder clone today. I boiled off more than I expected, so the gravity was a little higher than expected — 1.082, instead of 1.075. Apart from that it went really well.

Beer Flag

2009-06-14T19:10:00.002-04:00

In honor of flag day. An oldie, but a goodie. (via Brookston Beer Bulletin)

Beer Flag
Originally uploaded by I am Jacques Strappe

Two Brewing Movies

2009-06-14T12:16:00.002-04:00

Brew Day - Sunday, May 31, 2009

2009-05-31T19:50:00.004-04:00

A Toast from CJ in J

I finally did it.

I brewed my second batch of CJ’s JPA.

I did not want to tie up the whole day brewing, since it was Memorial Day weekend, so I got as ready as possible the night before and start as early as possible in the morning.

Here is the recipe as I made it:

I formulated this recipe to produce five gallons (19 L) of beer for packaging. I assumed a loss due to trub of a half-gallon in the fermenter and another half-gallon in the boil kettle. That left six gallons (22.7 L) at the end of the boil. I assumed a boil-off rate of about one gallon per hour, which means I needed seven gallons (26.5 L) at the start of the boil for a 60-minute full-volume boil. I adjusted the ingredient amounts accordingly to achieve the desired gravities, bitterness, and pitching rates. I assumed the use of bagged pellet hops for all hop additions. I use the Rager formula for calculating bitterness and the Morey model for calculating beer color.

Recipe: CJ’s House of the Rising Sun JPA

Pre-Boil Volume: 7 gallons (26.5 L)
BG: 1.051 (12.62 °P)
OG: 1.059 (14.51 °P)
FG: 1.015 (3.83 °P)
ADF: 73%
IBU: 89.7
ABV: 5.9%
Color: 7 SRM (17.4 EBC)
Boil: 60 minutes

Extract	Weight	Percent
Muntons Light DME	6.5 lbs. (2.95 kg)	76.5
Muntins Wheat DME	1 lbs. (0.45 kg)	11.8

Steeping Grains
Dingemans CaraVienne (19–27 °L)	0.75 lbs. (0.34 kg)	8.8
Dingemans CaraMunich (40–54 °L)	0.25 lbs. (0.11 kg)	2.9

Hops		IBU
Northern Brewer 9.0% AA, 60 minutes	1.5 oz. (43 g)	51.7

Amarillo 8.0% AA, 45 min.	0.25 oz. (7 g)	6.7
Cascade 5.4% AA, 45 min.	0.25 oz. (7 g)	4.5
Centennial 7.7% AA, 45 min.	0.25 oz. (7 g)	6.4

Amarillo 8.0% AA, 30 min.	0.25 oz. (7 g)	4.3
Cascade 5.4% AA, 30 min.	0.25 oz. (7 g)	2.9
Centennial 7.7% AA, 30 min.	0.25 oz. (7 g)	4.1

Amarillo 8.0% AA, 15 min.	0.25 oz. (7 g)	2.0
Cascade 5.4% AA, 15 min.	0.25 oz. (7 g)	1.4
Centennial 7.7% AA, 15 min.	0.25 oz. (7 g)	2.0

Amarillo 8.0% AA, 5 min.	0.25 oz. (7 g)	1.4
Cascade 5.4% AA, 5 min.	0.25 oz. (7 g)	1.0
Centennial 7.7% AA, 5 min.	0.25 oz. (7 g)	1.4

Amarillo 8.0% AA, 0 min.	0.5 oz. (14 g)	0.0
Cascade 5.4% AA, 0 min.	0.5 oz. (14 g)	0.0
Centennial 7.7% AA, 0 min.	0.5 oz. (14 g)	0.0

Yeast
Fermentis Safale S-04

Fermentation and Conditioning

I used 11 grams of properly rehydrated dry yeast. Fermented at 67 °F (19.4 °C). When finished, I will carbonate the beer to approximately 2.5 volumes.

Brew Day - Saturday April 18, 2009

2009-04-18T08:11:00.021-04:00

I liked the result of the live-blog style post for my last brew day, so I am going to do this one the same way.

I have gotten a little behind on my brewing lately. The farm has a gallon-per-minute leak somewhere in the underground plumbing for the outbuildings. We’ve decided to abandon that system in place. With a temporary solution in place, I can now safely chill my beer.

8:00 a.m. — I have the ingredients for two recipes and I have to decide which to make today. The first set is the now-complete ingredients for the CJ’s House of the Rising Sun JPA that I was going to make last time. The other set is for Don Osborn’s Arrogant Bastard clone. Both are extract with specialty grain recipes. I am going to use dry yeast in whichever one I brew.

9:08 a.m. — I have decided to go with the AB clone. Here is the recipe as I am going to make it:

Recipe: Don Osborn’s Arrogant Bastard clone

OG: 1.062 (15.21 °P)
FG: 1.015 (3.83 °P)
ADF: 75%
IBU: 79.1
Color: 14 SRM (35.9 EBC)
Boil: 75 minutes
Pre-Boil Volume: 7.25 gallons (27.4 L)
Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.055 (13.5 °P)

Extract	Weight	Percent
Muntons Light DME	5 lbs. (2.27 kg)	50
Muntins Amber DME	3 lbs. (1.35 kg)	30

Steeping Grains
Dingemans Special B (140–155 °L)	0.5 lbs. (0.23 kg)	5
Dingemans Biscuit (18–27 °L)	0.5 lbs. (0.23 kg)	5
Dingemans Aromatic (17–21 °L)	0.5 lbs. (0.23 kg)	5
Dingemans Cara 45 (40–54 °L) CaraMunich	0.5 lbs. (0.23 kg)	5

Hops		IBU
Chinook 9.9% AA, 75 min.	1 oz. (28 g)	42.7
Chinook 9.9% AA, 45 min.	1 oz. (28 g)	36.4
Chinook 9.9% AA, 0 min.	1 oz. (28 g)	0

Yeast
Fermentis Safale US-05

Fermentation and Conditioning

Use 11 grams of properly rehydrated dry yeast. Ferment at 64 °F (17.8 °C). When finished, carbonate the beer to approximately 2.5 volumes.

10:30 a.m. — Brewery set up. Ingredients collected. Heating 3 quarts of water for steep. Crushing grains. The CaraMunich smells a bit like Cracker Jack. It is very tasty, caramelly, crunchy, grainy. The Biscuit has a grassier, dirtier smell. Flavor is bready and biscuity. The Aromatic actually has relatively little aroma dry. The flavor is subtle, as well. Vaguely sweet. The Special B has a grainy, toasty smell. The flavor is slightly sweet, slightly burnt, toasty, with a very slight coffee flavor.

11:02 a.m. — Grains steeping at in 3 quarts of 158°F water for 30 minutes.

11:30 a.m. — Grains done steeping. Adding to brewpot. Adding DME. Adding water to bring volume to 7.25 gallons.

11:50 a.m. — Starting burner boil. Pre-boil gravity 1.055 (13.5 °P).

12:54 p.m. — Boiling. Added Bittering hops and started 75 minute timer.

1:09 p.m. — Rehydrating yeast.

1:25 p.m. — Added flavor hops.

1:50 p.m. — Placing chiller to boil kettle to sterilize.

1:55 p.m. — Adding Irish Moss.

2:00 p.m. — Adding yeast nutrient.

2:10 p.m. — Flame out. Adding aroma hops. Starting to chill.

2:28 p.m. — Chilled. Transferring to fermenter.

3:00 p.m. — Transferred. Original gravity 1.064 (15.6 °P). Rocking to aerate.

3:20 p.m. — Moved fermenter to fermentation chamber. Pitched yeast. Set thermostat. Time to clean up.

Update: 4/19 9:05 a.m. (The next day…) Fermentation started. Not terribly vigorous, but in my experience 64°F is pretty low. If the yeast seems to peter out before too long, I may raise the temperature and rouse the yeast.

Update: 4/21 8:03 a.m. (Three days later…) Slow fermentation != Weak fermentation. I do not normally ferment this cold, so I guess I should expect it to behave differently than I am used to. Normally — at 67 °F, say — I would expect fermentation to be mostly done by now. Instead, I check it this morning and the trub is swirling like mad, the kreusen has filled the head space and the airlock, and the fermenter is sitting in a puddle of stale beer. I sanitized my blowoff tube and slowly removed the airlock. It hissed like mad for quite a little bit of time. I am guessing it was almost ready to blow. I cleaned it up this morning and it is happily blubbing away in the blowoff bottle.

Update: 5/17 9:25 p.m. (One month later…) Finally bottled. Final Gravity: 1.016 (1.015 @ 68 °F calibrated for 60 °F — refractometer indicates 8.9 Brix or 1.017 SG). The sample jar sample tasted good. Promising. Bottled and moved to storage in the cellar.

Instructions on How to Culture Yeast

2009-03-15T13:03:00.000-04:00

I Love the Internet.

I love it so much I'm going to take it out behind the middle school and get it pregnant!

If you have to ask why, it's things like this.

Tom E over at Destination Beer put together an awesome set of posts on Culturing Yeast. I've been wanting to try and now I have a detailed, illustrated guide.

Thanks Tom.

My Hop Bines Have Arrived

2009-03-08T09:54:00.000-04:00

In my 2009 Brew Year Goals post, I explained that I wanted to try growing some hops this year. I have been doing some research and making a list of potential varieties based on my taste in beer. I was talking with SWMBO about which ones I should try. She asked how much they were. I told her I was looking at freshops.com who had them at $4.50 each. She thought for a moment and said, “Why don’t you just get them all?” Before she could change her mind, I had the order placed. That was March 1. They were shipped March 4 and arrived here March 6. Now they are in the refrigerator waiting for the risk of frost to pass.

I got one of each of the following:

Cascade
Centennial
Chinook
Golding
Northern Brewer
Willamette
Zeus (a.k.a. Tomahawk, Columbus)

Brew Day - Saturday March 7, 2009

2009-03-07T09:24:00.041-05:00

I was going to brew another batch of CJ’s House of the Rising Sun JPA today. I was going to use the yeast I harvested from my last batch. I made a starter with some of it earlier this week. When I could see stuff starting to grow in the jug, it was the wrong color. It was black. After a few days a nice layer of yeast started to develop, as well, but I was fairly certain it was contaminated. I wasn't worried, though, as I had some S-04 for emergency use. This morning I decided to sample the starter beer. It was not bad. It was extremely dry, so I’m guessing that whatever the other inhabitant of the flask is, it is much better at converting sugars than the yeast is. It was an interesting flavor and might make a quite refreshing drink, but it was not beer. I decided to go ahead and use the dry yeast.

Then this morning, while I was gathering my brewing gear and ingredients, I wondered whether the strange taste and behavior of the starter was because I accidentally used the Wheat DME from the recipe rather than Plain Light DME. They both came in one-pound bags. They both look roughly the same. I madly searched through my stuff and found the half-used bag of DME. Luckily it was the right stuff. Unfortunately, I could not find the Wheat DME. I searched back through my receipts until I found the correct sheet, only to find that I had forgotten to order any in the first place. So, lacking one of the major fermentables, I will not be brewing what I planned today.

Fortunately, I am getting smart in my old age, or maybe just humble and recognizing that I am an idiot but with proper planning I can account for it. It turns out that I had two sets of ingredients in the brew queue, so today I will be doing a partial mash version of the McQuaker's Oatmeal Stout recipe from Brewing Classic Styles.

I’m going to do this live-blog style, so look for updates throughout the day.

10:00 a.m. — Preheating oven to 300 °F so I can toast my oats.

10:04 a.m. — 1 pound flaked oats into oven on a sheet pan.

10:09 a.m. — Weighing grains. 8 ounces of Whole Roasted Barley (smells amazing, tastes a bit like coffee grounds). 2 pounds American two-row (smells grainy and tastes like a slightly sweet breakfast cereal). 8 ounces Crystal 80L (smells lightly malty, tastes grainy ands slightly sweet). 12 ounces of Victory Malt (smells lightly malty, tastes like popcorn husks). 12 ounces Chocolate Malt (smells nutty, tastes quite bitter like burnt coffee).

10:18 a.m. — Stirred oats in oven.

10:27 a.m. — Removed oats from oven.

10:36 a.m. — Added toasted oats to crushed grains.

10:42 a.m. — Heating 8.25 quarts of water to 165 °F.

10:56 a.m. — Immersing grain bag in mash liquor and stirring. Mash temperature is 154 °F.

11:28 a.m. — Mash temperature dropped to 150 °F. Heating to 155 °F. Off to set up the brewery.

11:52 a.m. — Heating another two gallons of water to 165 °F.

11:58 a.m. — Lifted the grain bag out of the first pot and let it drain for a minute before transferring it to the other and remixing.

12:08 p.m. — Removed grain bag and let drain and then discarded the grain on the compost pile. Added the wort from the first pot. Measured out 5 pounds 6.4 ounces of Marris Otter LME and added it to the pot and stirred to dissolve. Resulting in 3.75 gallons in my brew pot.

12:35 p.m. — Added 3.25 gallons to get to 7 gallons.

12:50 p.m. — Pre-boil gravity is 1.047 (11.6 °P). Started heating towards the boil. Gas on high.

1:00 p.m. — It‘s one o‘clock and it’s time for lunch. Tum te tum te tum.

1:18 p.m. — Measured out 1.8 ounces of English Kent Goldings (%AA unknown). Starting to re-hydrate dry yeast.

1:28 p.m. — Boiled (and now cooling) 0.5 cups water to use to rehydrate yeast.

1:34 p.m. — Wort is boiling. Added hops and started a 60 minute timer. Reduced gas to medium.

2:07 p.m. — Added dry yeast to the now cool water.

2:15 p.m. — 20 minutes remaining. Added wort chiller to kettle to sterilize.

2:20 p.m. — 15 minutes remaining. Added whirlfloc tablet.

2:25 p.m. — 10 minutes remaining. Added 0.5 teaspoons yeast nutrient.

2:35 p.m. — Flame out… and we’re chillin’.

2:49 p.m. — Chilled to 68 °F. Removed chiller, stir to whirlpool, and lid on.

3:09 p.m. — Transferring to fermenter.

3:45 p.m. — Transfered to fermenter. OG is 1.056 (13.7 °P). Shaking to aerate.

3:55 p.m. — Pitching yeast.

4:15 p.m. — Fermenter moved to fermentation chiller and blowoff tube attached. Temperature controller set at 67±1 °F. Time to clean up.

Update: 15 hours later — 7:00 a.m. the next morning — and we have active yeast.

Update: 2 weeks later — March 21 at 9:51 a.m. — Final gravity is 7.5 °P. With an OG of 1.056, that gives an FG of 1.013 (5.7% ABV, 233 calories per pint). Predicted FG was 1.016. Beer is ready to prime and package. Priming with 4.3 ounces of corn sugar boiled in 2 cups of water. This batch filled 44 pint bottles (5.5 gallons).

Update: 4 weeks later — April 5 at 2:34 p.m. — I’ve actually been sampling this for a few days now and it is definitely done. Very dark. Black (opaque). Thick, brown, long-lasting head. Very malty aroma smelling faintly of coffee ice cream. Very smooth. Very clean tasting. Most of the specialty malts are just noticeable as hints of flavors. Hints of coffee and chocolate. Slight bitterness. I will definitely enjoy this and make it again.

Brew Plans for This Weekend

2009-03-03T11:18:00.004-05:00

The weather forecast calls for 51°F and partly sunny skies this Saturday. Looks like a brew day is in order.

I’ll be making another batch of CJ’s House of the Rising Sun JPA. I’m going to use some of the yeast that I harvested from the first batch, so I think I’ll go ahead and make a starter tonight. I have some dry yeast if it doesn’t work. I’ll crush the steeping grains Friday evening as well as measuring out the hop additions and getting the brewery ready.

Great Homebrew Recipes: Mike McDole’s Tasty American Pale Ale

2009-03-01T12:24:00.006-05:00

Occasionally, I will try to document a recipe that appears to be popular amongst the Internet brewing community. As well as serving as a reminder of a potential future brew, it also gives me the opportunity to relate interesting points about contemporary brewers and their brewing practices.

Mike “Tasty” McDole recently chatted on The Brewing Network forums about his Tasty APA recipe and included a link to his recipe on Beer du jour. Apparently, through a combination of good luck, skill, friends, and some happy coincidences, Mike ended up taking a good bit of it to GABF ’08 and the crowd loved it.

I can only take credit for the recipe and to a lesser extent the brewing. The beer wouldn’t have been made without the good graces of the 21st Amendment Brewery and Shaun O’Sullivan. And I can’t fail to mention my friend and mentor Jamil Zainasheff who made it all possible by letting me take his ProAm spot at the 21A. I’m very lucky to know these guys.

Mike talked a little about where the recipe came from and what he was going for when he came up with it.

This beer [is] mostly about the malt bill so I recommend going to your stash of hops and coming up with a 33–38 IBU hop bill where one third of the IBUs are between 20 minutes and flameout. The hops I list are for what I call “Pliny Lite” but that’s just because the beer was conceived when I blended 3 oz of my Pliny The Elder clone with 9 oz of my Munich Helles… The goal of this recipe is a dry quaffable beer with IPA level hop flavor from an APA level (lower cost) hop bill. The goal is not a beer you can’t make because you can’t get the hops.
Also, although the beer definitely benefits from dry hopping, you don’t necessarily have to. The late additions should carry over enough and those hops could better be used for another batch.
So mix it up and change the name. Choose your favorite hops and make it your beer.

Mike has an advanced setup and normally uses a hopback for the final boil kettle additions. Here is what he had to say for folks that do not have a hopback available.

Frankly I have no real idea what the hop aroma contribution of the hopback is. On the rare occasion I don’t use it, I don’t notice a particular difference which is probably because I use plenty of dryhop. I use it when making lagers like Helles where I don’t dryhop and I (or judges) can’t perceive any hop nose. I think the prevailing wisdom is that the aroma probably gets scrubbed out during primary fermentation. I’m really just using the hopback as a trub filter and if I want more hop aroma I increase the dry hop.
So to answer the question, the reason I say half as much flameout hops as hopback hops is because I feel that would be the equivalent [amount] of hop aroma due to the better utilization in the kettle versus the hopback. Just my opinion, no science, and I'm certainly open to other ideas.
This beer doesn’t lack for hop flavor so I could also see dropping the hopback/flameout hops altogether.

Since I will not be using a hopback, I have already adjusted the hop schedule in this recipe to move the hopback addition to flameout at half the amount, as Mike suggested. Look at Mike’s original recipe for his version. You might also want to listen to the dry hopping episode of Brew Strong for some tips from Mike on how he gets so much hop character into his beers.

I have formulated this recipe to produce five gallons (19 L) of beer for packaging. I assume a loss due to trub of a half-gallon in the fermenter and another half-gallon in the boil kettle. That leaves six gallons (22.7 L) at the end of the boil. I assume a boil-off rate of about one gallon per hour, which means I need seven gallons (26.5 L) at the start of the boil for a 60-minute full-volume boil. I have adjusted the ingredient amounts accordingly to achieve the desired gravities, bitterness, and pitching rates. I assume the use of bagged pellet hops for all hop additions with the contribution of first wort hops at 35% of normal. I use the Rager formula for calculating bitterness and the Morey model for calculating beer color. I created the extract version of this recipe using Ken Schwartz’s method to convert from all-grain.

Recipe: Mike McDole’s Tasty APA

OG: 1.056 (13.8 °P)
FG: 1.013 (3.3 °P)
ADF: 77%
IBU: 37.9
Color: 6.1 SRM (15.1 EBC)
Boil: 60 minutes
Pre-Boil Volume: 7 gallons (26.5 L)
Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.005 (1.3 °P)

Extract	Weight	Percent
Light DME	5.5 lbs. (2.50 kg)	57.9
Pilsen DME	2 lbs. (0.91 kg)	21.1
Wheat DME	0.5 lbs. (0.23 kg)	5.3

Steeping Grains
Carapils Malt (2 °L)	1 lbs. (0.45 kg)	10.5
Crystal (40 °L)	0.5 lbs. (0.23 kg)	5.3

Hops		IBU
Chinook 13% AA, First Wort Hopped	0.25 oz. (7 g)	4.5
Warrior 15.6% AA, 60 min.	0.25 oz. (7 g)	18.1
Simcoe 12% AA, 20 min.	0.25 oz. (7 g)	4.7
Columbus 15% AA, 10 min.	0.25 oz. (7 g)	3.8
Northern Brewer 9% AA, 10 min.	0.25 oz. (7 g)	2.3
Centennial 10.5% AA, 1 min.	0.25 oz. (7 g)	2.1
Simcoe 12% AA, 1 min.	0.25 oz. (7 g)	2.4
Cascade 5.8% AA, 0 min.	1 oz. (28 g)	0.0
Columbus 15% AA, Dry Hop	1 oz. (28 g)	0.0
Centennial 10.5% AA, Dry Hop	0.5 oz. (14 g)	0.0
Simcoe 12% AA, Dry Hop	0.5 oz. (14 g)	0.0

Yeast
White Labs California Ale WLP001, Wyeast American Ale 1056, or Fermentis Safale US-05

Fermentation and Conditioning

Use 11 grams of properly rehydrated dry yeast, 2 liquid yeast packages, or make an appropriate starter. Ferment at 68 °F (20 °C). When finished, carbonate the beer to approximately 2.5 volumes.

All-Grain Option

Replace the extracts with 8 lbs. (3.63 kg) American two-row, 3 lbs. (1.36 kg) Pilsen, and 0.5 lbs. (0.23 kg) Wheat. Use a single-temperature infusion mash of 60 minutes duration at 154 °F (68 °C). A mashout step is optional. Mash efficiency is assumed to be 70%. Mike uses Mosher’s “Ideal Pale Ale” water profile. Note that there is a typo in the online version of the recipe. The Mg level should be 18 and not 118.

Brewing Book List

2009-02-28T12:05:00.007-05:00

I am keeping a list of brewing books that I have or hear about from others. Useful for gift ideas (for others to give to me ;) or just for reference.

The Complete Joy of Homebrewing (Have)
Brewing Classic Styles (Have)
The Homebrewer's Companion (Have)
How to Brew (Have)
Designing Great Beers (Have)
Radical Brewing
New Brewing Lager Beer
Brewing Up a Business
The Secret Life of Beer!
Beer School
Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers
The Brewmaster's Table
Brew Chem 101
The Homebrewer's Answer Book
Principles of Brewing Science
Clone Brews
The Compleat Meadmaker
The Theory And Practice Of Brewing
Beer Captured
Alewife's Garden
Standards of Brewing
Microbrewed Adventures
Beer in America
Beer and Philosophy
Brew Like a Monk
Wild Brews
Farmhouse Ales
Barleywine
Smoked Beers
Wheat Beers
Extreme Brewing
The Homebrewer’s Garden
The Brewer’s Companion
Tasting Beer

Brew Plans for 2009

2009-02-28T10:19:00.010-05:00

I am working on identifying recipes and gathering ingredients so that I am ready to brew when the opportunity arises. Here is what I am currently considering:

(Done!) An American IPA — CJ’s House of the Rising Sun JPA
(Done!) An Oatmeal Stout — Jamil’s McQuaker’s Oatmeal Stout
An American Brown Ale — Either Jamil’s Moose Drool clone or (Pending) Mike “Tasty” McDole’s Janet’s Brown Ale
An American Amber Ale — Jamil’s West Coast Blaster
An Irish Red Ale — either Jamil’s Ruabeoir or Bier Kitty Brewing’s Better Red than Dead
An American Pale Ale — Mike “Tasty” McDole’s APA
An English IPA — Jamil’s Bière de L’inde

I think all of these beers would go over well in our household. I am also tempted by some other beers that SWMBO would probably not appreciate as much as I might. With all of the above available, I think there is room for some experimentation, so I would like to add these to this year’s plans:

A Weizen — Jamil’s Harold-is-Weizen, or simply an American Wheat like Kent‘s Hollow Leg (also from Jamil).
A Belgian Pale Ale — Jamil’s Antwerp Afternoon

That could makes eleven batches if I brew both of the ones where there is a choice. If I were to brew every other week starting as soon as the weather breaks — possibly mid-March — these could take me through the beginning of August. If I did not get started until the first day of Spring and only manage to brew once every three weeks, this could take me through Teach a Friend to Brew Day in November.

Update: I have decided I want to add an English Brown, as well. I have fond memories of reading the paper and sipping a Newcastle at The Old Swan. That would be a Northern English Brown. There are also Southern English Browns, with which I am less familiar but I would like to get to know better. So, I will add these two beers, as well, and a Cider, which should take me through the end of the year.

A Northern English Brown Ale — Someone’s Newcastle Clone
A Southern English Brown Ale — I will have to do some recipe research before I can say which
(Pending) An English Cider — I was happy with the outcome of my Red Cap recipe, so I may try that again

Update (again): You know… There is no Porter here. I think a Porter is in order. Perhaps a Brown or a Robust Porter?

A Brown Porter — The obvious choice would be a Samuel Smith Taddy Porter clone
A Robust Porter — I know less about these, but have heard good things about Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter

Update (yet again): I cannot believe I missed an Imperial IPA! I also ended up making a Stone Arrogant Bastard Clone.

(Done!) An Imperial IPA — Vinnie Cilurzo’s Russian River Brewing Pliny the Elder.
(Done!) A Specialty Beer — Don Osborn’s Arrogant Bastard clone.

Pa. court OKs beer sales at cafes run by Wegmans

2009-02-23T16:29:00.000-05:00

Pa. court OKs beer sales at cafes run by Wegmans - Local | Centre Daily: “Beer sales at restaurants run by the Wegmans supermarket chain got court approval Monday in a pair of cases that expand where consumers can buy take-out alcohol.

“The unanimous decision in Commonwealth Court allows patrons to circumvent beer distributors where customers may only purchase beer by the case.”

Woo hoo!

How Many Brewers Could You Take in a Fight?

2009-02-18T16:35:00.001-05:00

Great Homebrew Recipes: Pliny The Elder

2009-01-31T08:07:00.011-05:00

This is, of course, the recipe that Mike McDole’s winning entry in the 2007 Samuel Adams® American Homebrew Contest is based on.

Vinnie Cilurzo is credited with developing the first commercial Imperial IPA at Blind Pig Brewery in Temecula, CA. In 1997 he became head brewer at Korbel Champagne Cellars’ Russian River Brewery in Santa Rosa, CA. He worked there for seven years before purchasing the brewery. At the American Homebrewers Association 2004 National Homebrew Competition in Las Vegas, NV, and again at the 2005 National Homebrew Competition in Baltimore, MD, Vinnie passed out a handout containing a homebrew scale recipe of Pliny the Elder which, in turn, got posted at ratebeer.com. Later, he worked with Brew Your Own magazine, to publish the recipe. The differences in the grain bill between the two may be due to different volume assumptions.

The small amount of caramel malt and the moderate dextrine malt are consistent with Vinnie’s tips on making better hoppy beers. Supposedly, Vinnie started introducing Dextrose due to mash tun volume limitations at Blind Pig. He found that his customers preferred the dry finish it provided. Also, they apparently no longer use mash hopping. The cows that eat their spent grains supposedly do not like it. Some say that they have switched to hop extract.

At 1:44:30 into the 06-26-05 episode of The Sunday Session, there is a lecture that Vinnie gave at the 2005 NHC called “Dry Hopping: Quantity, Time, Temperature, and Mixing,” including a discussion of this beer and how it came about and the dry hopping schedule at Russian River.

This is from the product page at Russian River Brewing:

Pliny the Elder was a Roman naturalist, scholar, historian, traveler, officer, and writer. Although not considered his most important work, Pliny and his contemporaries created the botanical name for hops, Lupus salictarius, meaning wolf among scrubs. Hops at that time grew wild among willows, much like a wolf in the forest. Later the current botanical name, Humulus lupulus, was adopted. Pliny died in 79 AD while observing the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. He was immortalized by his nephew, Pliny the Younger, who continued his uncle’s legacy by documenting much of what he observed during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

8.0% ABV, 1.071 OG

Gold Medal, 2006 World Beer Cup (Double IPA Category)

Gold Medal, 2005 GABF (Double IPA Category)

Bronze Medal, 2004 GABF (Double IPA Category)

I have formulated this recipe to produce 5 gallons (19 L) of beer for packaging. I assume a loss due to trub of 0.5 gallons in the fermenter and another 0.5 gallons in the boil kettle. That leaves six gallons (22.7 L) at the end of the boil. I assume a boil-off rate of about 1 gallon per hour, which means I need 7.5 gallons (28.4 L) at the start of the boil for a 90-minute full-volume boil. I have adjusted the ingredient amounts accordingly to achieve the desired gravities, bitterness, and pitching rates. I assume the use of bagged pellet hops for all hop additions. I use the Rager formula for calculating bitterness and the Morey model for calculating beer color.

Recipe: Vinnie Cilurzo’s Pliny the Elder

OG: 1.075 (18.2 °P)
FG: 1.013 (3.3 °P)
ADF: 81.8%
IBU: 261.3
Color: 5.9 SRM (14.3 EBC)
Alcohol: 8.4% ABV (6.6% ABW)
Boil: 90 minutes
Pre-Boil Volume: 7.5 gallons (28.4 L)
Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.054 (13.3 °P)

Extracts	Weight	Percent
Light DME (2.2 °L)	10.0 lbs. (4.5 kg)	80.9
Dextrose (0 °L)	1.1 lbs. (500 g)	8.9

Steeping Grains
Carapils Malt (2 °L)	0.94 lbs. (425 g)	7.6
Crystal (40 °L)	0.32 lb. (145 g)	2.6

Hops		IBU
Warrior 15.6% AA, 90 min.	2.75 oz. (78 g)	167.9
Chinook 12.2% AA, 90 min.	0.5 oz. (14 g)	23.9
Simcoe 12% AA, 45 min.	1.0 oz. (28 g)	39.6
Columbus 14.3% AA, 30 min.	1.0 oz. (28 g)	30.0
Centennial 9.1% AA, 0 min.	2.25 oz. (64 g)	0.0
Simcoe 12% AA, 0 min.	1.0 oz. (28 g)	0.0
Columbus 14.3% AA, dry hop.	3.25 oz. (92 g)	0.0
Centennial 9.1% AA, dry hop.	1.75 oz. (50 g)	0.0
Simcoe 12% AA, dry hop.	1.75 oz. (50 g)	0.0

Yeast
White Labs California Ale WLP001, Wyeast American Ale 1056, or Fermentis Safale US-05

Fermentation and Conditioning

Use 16 grams of properly rehydrated dry yeast, 3 liquid yeast packages, or make an appropriate starter. Ferment at 68 °F (20 °C). When finished, carbonate the beer to approximately 2 to 2.5 volumes.

All-Grain Option

Replace the light extract with 13.3 lbs. (6.0 kg) American two-row malt. Mash at 150–152 °F (66–67 °C). Add 1.5 ounces of 13% AA Chinook hops during the mash.¹

To quote Denny Conn, “The difference, to me, is that [first wort hopping] adds hops flavor and smooth bitterness and mash hopping basically does nothing but waste hops.” ↩

Brewing by the Yeast

2009-01-04T13:36:00.018-05:00

During the Fall 2008 cycle of the Wyeast Private Collection I picked up a couple of each of the available strains: Wyeast 1026 PC British Cask Ale, Wyeast 1469 PC West Yorkshire Ale, and Wyeast 1768 PC English Special Bitter. Since I am still somewhat of a neophyte I was not sure what I was going to do with them.

I did some searching and found CJ’s House of the Rising Sun JPA using the now deceased extract recipe from Homebrew Adventures. It sounds like the beer to make using this yeast and I have a batch working in the cellar at the moment. Update: Here is a discussion of 1026 fermentation temperature and another about how it got into the VSS database.

I did a little more searching and discovered that Wyeast 1469 is the yeast Timothy Taylor uses so it seems like a Landlord Strong Pale Ale clone is in order. Perhaps The Inn Keeper from Northern Brewer, thought it seems the water profile is important, too. There is an interesting all-grain clone recipe from the book Brew Your Own British Real Ale, as well.

So far, the only recipe I have been able to find that uses the 1768 is the Northern Brewer Peace Coffee Stout Porter. Though there is some discussion about how fast this yeast ferments.

Does anyone have any other recipe suggestions?

Water Testing Progress

2009-01-04T10:04:00.002-05:00

On of my Brew Year Goals is to get my water tested. So, I was reading the Tips & Tricks over at Brewcommune when I came accross this one about water analysis:

Water testing from Ward Labs, request test W-6.

http://wardlab.com/

Click on "About Us", then "General Information" and then "Sampling Supplies." From there you can order FREE water testing bottles, shipping boxes and pre-paid USPS shipping labels.

If you do that, you get to a page that looks like an order form. You fill in how many of each thing you want — I asked for a water testing bottle and a pre-paid shipping label — provide your contact information, and click submit. I guess I did not expect it to actually be free, so I was pleasantly surprised when the next screen was an order confirmation and not a credit card screen. I guess they figure you are going to use them to buy a water test, after all, and will pay for it then. Still, it is a nice gesture. A little bit later I got an email confirmation, as well.

I will post and update when I get my test bottle.

Beginner Recipes from Brewing Classic Styles

2009-01-03T12:37:00.002-05:00

I have been trying to decide what beers to brew in 2009. In Brewing Classic Styles, Jamil and John have the recipes nicely broken down by difficulty level:

Beginner — Extract with steeped grain and basic equipment.
Intermediate — High gravities, tricky yeasts, odd ingredients, extra steps, and better fermentation temperature control.
Advanced — Partial mash, bacteria cultures, extended fermentation, and active fermentation temperature control.

I still consider myself a beginner and am happy to stick with extract with steeped grains for a bit until I get my skills better refined, so I decided to take a look at all of the “beginner” recipes.

While reviewing the recipes I came across what I assumed was a misprint — always assume somebody else is at fault before assuming you are mistaken — regarding the 300 °L Roasted Barley in the Irish Red Ale recipe. It seems to be a common question. To double check, I went to listen to the Irish Red Ale episode of The Jamil Show. Sure enough, the recipe is correct. I did some searching and discovered that Midwest Homebrewing Supplies carries something called Light Roasted Barley from Briess that fits the bill.

Anyway, I was listening to the show and they got to talking about how Jamil brewed a bunch of recipes using the same yeast in series by pitching on top of the yeast cake from the last batch.

Since I have reusing my yeast as one of my Brew Year Goals, I took a look at the recipes and found a number of series using the same yeast and primary malt. None require a secondary or dry hopping or exceed an original gravity of 1.070, which would seem to make them ideal candidates for yeast reuse. I have them listed here by increasing alcohol content, which is what some recommend.

This is well more than a year worth of brewing for me, but it does provide some interesting ideas.

White Labs WLP001 California Ale or Wyeast 1056 American Ale and Light Malt Extract

Dirty Water Brown (p. 141) — 10C. American Brown Ale — 4.9% ABV
American Pale Ale with Caramel (p. 136) — 10A. American Pale Ale — 5.1% ABV
Call Me! (p. 96) — 6B. Blonde Ale — 5.2% ABV
American Pale Ale (p. 134) — 10A. American Pale Ale — 5.7% ABV
Black Widow Porter (p. 156) — 12B. Robust Porter — 6.5% ABV
Janet’s Brown Ale (p. 143) — 10C. American Brown Ale — 6.6% ABV
Hoppiness is an IPA (p. 186) — 14B. American IPA — 7% ABV

White Labs WLP001 California Ale or Wyeast 1056 American Ale and English Pale Ale Malt Extract

Scottish Heavy 70/- (p. 125) — 9B. Scottish Heavy 70/- — 3.2% ABV
American Amber (p. 137) — 10B. American Amber Ale — 5.1% ABV
West Coast Blaster (p. 138) — 10B. American Amber Ale — 6.8% ABV

White Labs WLP013 London Ale or Wyeast 1028 London Ale and English Pale Ale Malt Extract

Nutcastle (p. 151) — 11C. Northern English Brown — 5.1% ABV
Who’s Your Taddy Porter (p. 154) — 12A. Brown Porter — 5.1% ABV
Bière De L’inde (p. 183) — 14A. English IPA — 6.2% ABV

White Labs WLP002 English Ale or Wyeast 1968 ESB and English Pale Ale Malt Extract

Through a Mild Darkly (p. 146) — 11A. Mild — 3.2% ABV
No Short Measure (p. 116) — 8A. Standard/Ordinary Bitter — 3.6% ABV
Nutty Man Brown Ale (p. 149) — 11B. Southern English Brown — 3.8% ABV
I’m Not Bitter, I’m Thirsty (p. 119) — 8B. Special/Best/Premium Bitter — 4.6% ABV
Programmer’s Elbow (p. 121) — 8C. Extra Special/Strong Bitter (English Pale Ale) — 5.4% ABV

White Labs WLP300 Hefeweizen Ale or Wyeast 3068 Weihstephan Weizen and Wheat Extract

Harold-is-Weizen (p. 192) — 15A. Weizen/Weissbier — 5.0% ABV
Trig Oscuro (p. 194) — 15B. Dunkelweizen — 5.6% ABV

One Shot Recipes

That leaves these recipes which do not share a common yeast with any other beginner recipe.

Kent’s Hollow Leg (p. 101) — 6D. American Wheat or Rye Beer
Scottish Heavy 70/-, Caramelized (p. 127) — 9B. Scottish Heavy 70/-
Ruabeoir (p. 129) — 9D. Irish Red Ale
Triple-X (p. 167) — 13B. Sweet Stout
Antwerp Afternoon (p. 205) — 16B. Belgian Pale Ale

Sources of Ingredients

With the exception of one yeast, I have managed to locate online sources for all of the ingredients involved in making these recipes. I had to go to five sources to find them all:

In some cases the ingredient is available from more than one source. In general I tried to select the one with the lowest shipping charges.

The yeast exception was the Wyeast 3655 Belgian Schelde. It is part of Wyeast’s Private Collection and was last available in 2006. Should it come back around, I am certain that anyone that carries Wyeast will be able to get it. In the mean time, White Labs WLP515 Antwerp Ale seems like an acceptable substitute.

Also note that the White Labs WLP515 Antwerp Ale and WLP006 Bedford British Ale are both part of the Seasonal Platinum Yeast program and availability may be limited.

Malt Extracts and Sugars

Steeping Grains

Hops

Yeast

What I Brewed in 2008

2009-01-02T13:51:00.000-05:00

Two 1-gallon batches of Northwest Golden Cascade IPA
Two 1-gallon batches of Imperial Celebration IIPA
One 5-gallon batch of Speed Brewing Bitter
One 5-gallon batch of Call Me Irresponsible Blonde Ale
One 5-gallon batch of Tongue Splitter IPA
One 5-gallon batch of No Short Measure Ordinary Bitter
One 5-gallon batch of Red Cap Cider
One 5-gallon batch of Triple-X Sweet Stout
One 5-gallon batch of CJ's House of the Rising Sun JPA

Cask Ale Blowout

2009-01-02T09:30:00.000-05:00

It was warm in central Pennsylvania on the weekend after Christmas. Highs in the 50s. Warm enough that I was able to get in a brew session. I decided to brew a batch of CJ’s House of the Rising Sun JPA using the extract recipe on Homebrew Adventures.

It was the first time I used the Wyeast 1026 PC British Cask Ale. I bought two packs as soon as they became available. Manufactured 14-oct-08.

I smacked and the pack did almost nothing. It filled some, but did not swell. There was some yeast in there, but not terribly active.

I made a starter — 7 oz Light DME in 2 quarts of water with a pinch of Wyeast Nutrient — and the starter did almost nothing. Some effervescence but not very active bubbling. Some yeast, but not terribly active.

When I brewed I added a ½-teaspoon of Wyeast Nutrient 10 minutes before the end of the boil. After cooling, I rocked the carboy back and forth for a good five minutes to aerate before pitching. I pitched that afternoon and the next morning I had to switch from a 3-piece airlock to a blow off tube and the bubbling sounded like a damned minigun.

I guess the next time I use the Cask Ale yeast I will keep in mind that it may be a little slow to start.

Getting Reminders

2009-01-02T09:24:00.003-05:00

I have already made some incremental progress on my Brew Year Goals. An important thing about goals is remembering them, so I put them all into my Remember The Milk account. I have it configured to send me reminders several weeks before and again on the day when a task is due. I have it send reminders to my email, as well as my Twitter account. I also have the iPhone App on my iPod Touch, so I can see my task list whenever I want.

Who knew Web 2.0 could help you brew?

2009 Brew Year Goals

2009-01-01T00:01:00.037-05:00

I believe that people are more successful when they have goals — specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-bound goals. I also believe that most people make completely bogus New Years resolutions and quickly forget them. It is no surprise when the year ends and they have not accomplished them. That is why I am defining my 2009 Brewing Goals, not my New Years resolutions.

Here are my goals for the coming brew year:

Reuse the yeast cake from a previous batch
- Some folks pitch right on top of a previous cake. Others wash and save. I bought some Wyeast British Cask Ale Yeast from the private collection that just ended, it would be nice to get more than one batch out of it. Since I just made a batch of CJ's JPA after Christmas with it this would be a great time to start.
- Here is the goal: Figure out how to get more than one batch out of a pack of yeast.
- Do it by Groundhog Day (2/2/2009)
Organize a group buy for equipment and ingredients amongst your brewing friends to save on shipping
- There is no homebrew shop close to me. I order my equipment and ingredients from the Internet. Sometimes the shipping charge is more than the cost of what I am buying.
- I do know a couple other home brewers in the area. If we pool our orders maybe we can share the pain on the shipping.
- It might even be possible to go in with one of the local brew pubs.
- Here is the goal: When you are going to place an order, let your brewing friends know and have them let you know what they want to buy from the same places and order it all together.
- Do it by Saint Patrick's Day (3/17/2009)
Plant some hops
- Who wants to get caught paying too much or stuck in a shortage when hops grows on trees… uh… bines?
- Look over some of your favorite beers and determine what hops are your favorite.
- Select a few hop varieties to grow. Think bitter, flavor, aroma, style.
- Order some hop rhizomes.
- Plant and care for them.
- Do it by the first day of Spring (3/21/2009)
Put together a “toolbox” for brewing stuff
- I have all my brewing stuff stashed in cardboard boxes around the house. When I need to do something, I search through all of them to find what I am looking for.
- Here is the goal: Figure out what brewing equipment you need on a typical brew day and buy a toolbox from the hardware store that will hold it all. Do the same thing for bottling day. If it will all fit, great! If not, get a second one for that stuff.
- Do it by National Homebrew Day (5/2/2009)
Completely nail at least one brew
- Thorough cleaning and sanitation
- Proven recipe
- Quality ingredients
- Good grain crush
- Proper steeping
- Full boil
- Correct hop schedule
- Rapid wort chilling
- Adequate aeration
- Sufficient quantity of healthy yeast with ample nutrition
- Proper and stable fermentation temperature
- Appropriate priming and conditioning
- Do it by Memorial Day (5/25/2009)
Start whirlpool chilling
- When I bought my immersion chiller, I got the optional recirculation package. It is not doing me any good sitting in the box it came in.
- Here is the goal: Buy a high temperature rated, food grade pump and the appropriate plumbing and fittings to be able to recirculate during chilling.
- Be ready to try it on a brew by the first day of Summer (6/21/2009)
Develop a house beer
- It will probably be somewhere between Saranac Pale Ale and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Something that Gretchen will like as well as I do. Hoppy with a good malt backbone and a clean finish.
- Have a draft recipe and brew it by Independence Day (7/4/2009)
- Work on making it consistently.
- Make two consecutive consistent batches by the end of the year (12/31/2009)
Get the water tested
- Water chemistry effects mash pH as well as hop utilization.
- Everybody says to go to Ward Labs and ask for the W-6 Household Mineral Test for $16.50.
- Do it by Mead Day (8/1/2009)
Brew a partial mash beer
- There is no magic here. I just want to try partial mash brewing to get my feet wet with base grains.
- Find a partial mash recipe, or even a kit, and try it out.
- Follow the instructions to the letter and see how you think it compares to extract with steeped grains.
- Do it by Labor Day (9/7/2009)
Attend a regional brewfest and do a write-up
- Gretchen and I attended several festivals last year and had a great time. At the Selinsgrove Brewfest we had the honor of chatting with Hugh from Clipper City Brewing and he even served us Heavy Seas Loose Cannon Hop³ Ale. Awesome stuff and we had a great time.
- It also served as a nice opportunity for the wife and I to get away from things here on the farm and see a little bit of the world outside and enjoy some time together.
- Here is the goal: Identify brewfests within a reasonable driving distance. Consider the breweries that will attend and the beers that you like. Look at the area where it is being held and see whether there are other things to see in the area — Parks, museums, battlefields, and so on. Book a motel room nearby so you do not need to drive afterwards. Make an overnight trip out of it. After you get back, share the joy with the brewing community on the Internet.
- Do it by the end of Summer (9/21/2009)
Get more flip-top bottles
- I have 5 — count 'em, five — Grolsch bottles. I have had them since I got into home brewing the first time in the early '90s. They are great. If I have got a little more beer to bottle than I expected, I just pop it in those. The rubber seals are reusable and cheap to replace when they wear out. The problem is I only have five of them.
- Option 1: Buy a case of Grolsch from the local distributor and save the bottles.
  - Pro: They come with beer in them.
  - Con: They are green so they will not filter out the color of light that causes hops to skunk beer so the beer may not be worth drinking.
- Option 2: Buy a case of generic brown flip-top bottles from a homebrew supply store.
  - Pro: They are brown so the beer is less likely to go skunky.
  - Con: They are expensive and glass sometimes carries extra shipping charges.
- Here is the goal: Get at least 12 more flip-top bottles.
- Do it by Columbus Day (10/12/2009)
Dial in the system
- A consistent brew is all about knowing how your system works. While you are starting out, measure everything.
- How much water per pound does your steeping grain absorb?
- How long does it take your burner to heat a given volume at a given temperature to a boil?
- How much boils off in an hour?
- How much gas does it take to boil for an hour?
- How long does it take to cool from a boil to a given pitching temperature?
- How much water do you use during cooling?
- If you know these things it is easier to formulate recipes and know whether you are brewing consistently.
- Do it by Thanksgiving (11/26/2009)
Make at least one step further on the brewing path
- All grain brewing
  - I do not know how attainable this one is given that I still have it as a goal to nail one extract brew.
- Kegging
  - This seems reasonable. In fact, I understand that it will make brewing easier and more enjoyable.
- Here is the goal: Invest in the equipment needed to get started with kegging and keg at least one batch of beer.
- Do it by Christmas (12/25/2009)
Work on a logo for the brewery
- Everybody else has one. Why not me?
- Something with rolling hills (Hey! It's a valley for Pete's sake!). Low rounded ones to reflect the Appalachian foothills where I live.
- Something memorable that will make a nice backdrop or accent for beer bottle labels, glassware, and clothing.
- Do it by the end of the year (12/31/2009)
Visit a brewery or brewpub and do a write-up
- Who needs an excuse to go to a brewery or brewpub? Nobody, but here's one anyway.
- Here is the goal: Go to a brewery or brewpub and write up a post about your experience.
- Do it by the end of the year (12/31/2009)
Volunteer to help out at a brewery or brewpub in your area
- While you are at that brewery or brewpub let them know you are a budding home brewer and see if you could help out. They'll probably put you on clean up duty, but everybody needs to start somewhere and you still get to watch.
- Do it by the end of the year (12/31/2009)

There! Those are by brew goals for the new year.

What are yours?

How many beer bottles do I need?

2008-12-28T12:54:00.003-05:00

128 ounces per gallon × 5 gallons = 640 ounces

640 ounces ÷ X ounces per bottle = Y bottles

Here are some numbers for bottle sizes you can order online.

6 oz = 106
187 mL = 101
12 oz = 53
375 mL = 50
16 oz = 40
500 mL = 37
22 oz = 29
750 mL = 25
32 oz = 20
1 L = 18
1.5 L = 12
64 oz = 10
2 L = 9

Brush Valley Brewer’s Imperial Celebration Extract IPA

2008-12-23T13:47:00.001-05:00

Gretchen and I really like Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale. We stock up on it every winter. To celebrate July 4th this year, I decided to make a bigger version of it. I looked at a few clone recipes and what Sierra Nevada had to say, then I converted it to extract and cranked it up a bit. Here is my recipe:

Makes four 22-ounce bottles

OG: 1.082 SG
FG: 1.020 SG
ABV: 8.4%
IBU: 79.4
SRM: 8.6 (Amber)

Ingredients

1.4 pounds Alexander’s Pale Malt Kicker (end of boil)
0.5 pounds Simpson’s Caramalt (steeped)
0.1 ounce Chinook pellets (60 minutes)
0.1 ounce Centennial pellets (60 minutes)
0.1 ounce Centennial pellets (15 minutes)
0.1 ounce Cascade pellets (5 minutes)
0.15 ounce Chinook pellets (in primary)
0.15 ounce Centennial pellets (in primary)
0.15 ounce Cascade pellets (in primary)
Wyeast American Ale propagator pack (1056)

Directions

Make a 1-quart starter several days in advance.
Crush the CaraMalt and place it in a disposable grain bag. Bring 1 quart of water to 165°F in a 12-quart pot. Place the grain bag into the pot and allow to steep for 30 minutes.
Bring another quart of water to 165°F and use it to rinse the grain bag. Dispose of the steeped grain.
Add sufficient water to make 5 quarts in the 12 quart pot. Bring to a boil.
Add 0.1 ounces Chinook pellets and 0.1 ounces Centennial pellets. Continue boil for 45 minutes.
Add 0.1 ounces Chinook pellets. Continue boil for 10 minutes.
Add 0.1 ounces Cascade pellets. Remove from heat and add 1.4 pounds of malt extract. Stir to dissolve. Return to heat. Boil for 5 minutes.
Turn off heat. Cover. Place pot in a sink of cold water. Stir wort with a sanitized spoon. Be careful to not aerate the wort while hot. Change the water occasionally as it warms up. Continue until wort reaches 70°F.
Pour wort into a sanitized 1-gallon jug through a sanitized funnel with a screen to remove the sediment.
Swirl the starter to suspend the yeast. Measure out 0.5 cups into a sanitized measuring cup. Pitch. Cap the jug with a sanitized stopper and shake to aerate. Affix a sanitized 3-piece airlock and drilled stopper. Place in a 65–75°F dark place for 1 week.
Place 0.15 ounces Cascade pellets, 0.15 ounces Chinook pellets, and 0.15 ounces Centennial pellets in enough warm (less than 167°F) water to just cover. Steep covered for 20 minutes. Add the hop tea and hops to a sanitized 1-gallon jug.
Using a sanitized siphon, racking cane, and siphon hose, transfer the beer from the primary fermenter to the secondary onto the hop tea. Affix a sanitized 1-piece airlock and drilled stopper. Place in a 65–75°F dark place for 1 week.
Combine 0.7 ounces DME with 12 fluid ounces of water. Bring to a boil for several minutes. Cool to 70°F. Add to a sanitized bottling bucket.
Using a sanitized racking cane and siphon hose, transfer the beer from the secondary to the bottling bucket.
Using a sanitized siphon hose and bottling wand, fill four 22-ounce bottles. Cap and store in a 65–75°F dark place for 2 weeks before sampling.

Notes

This was kind of fun. Though based on other clone recipes of a well known beer, I enjoyed trying to crank up the gravity and hops to make an imperial version that I could make with standard sized available ingredients. We enjoyed the beer. It was a bit sweet for me, but the two batches we made disappeared soon enough.

Shorter "Top 10 Steps to Better Beer"

2008-12-18T15:05:00.008-05:00

From Chris Colby’s September 2005 article Top 10 Steps to Better Beer, annotated with my own notes:

Cleaning (PBW)
Sanitation (Star San)
Quality Ingredients (Vacuum-packed hop pellets stored in the freezer, DME)
Pitch Enough Healthy Yeast (Liquid yeast with starters)
Proper and Stable Fermentation Temperature (Son of fermentation chiller, fermwrap, stopper thermowell, and a digital thermostat)
Wort Aeration (Rock for 5 minutes)
Avoid Excess Tannins (steep in 1–3 quarts per pound, rinse with the same volume or less, stay under 170°F)
Keep Oxygen Away (move beer gently)
Vigorous, Full-Wort Boil (A 10-gallon Blichmann BoilerMaker™ Brew Pot on a Camp Chef Explorer. Woo hoo!)
Proper pH (Hmmm…)

What about proper wort chilling? What would another be? Maybe pitching at your fermentation temperature, though that might be part of proper wort chilling.

A Test

2008-12-17T18:24:00.001-05:00

Posted with LifeCast

Test of LifeCast

2008-12-17T18:17:00.001-05:00

I'm also trying out LifeCast.

Posted with LifeCast

Test of BlogWriter Lite

2008-12-17T17:58:00.001-05:00

I'm trying out the free version of some blogging software for the iPod Touch. It doesn't look like it picked up my draft posts or has any way to save a post as a draft, either.

Okay. It shows up on the blog. I see it recognizes that there are no tags or categories. Maybe that is only available in the pay version.

It seems that this is actually an HTML editor. That is pretty tough when you have to tap 3 times to get a < and two more to get a p.

All that said, at least it allows updates. Something that LifeCast apparently does not. :(

Brush Valley Brewer’s Northwest Golden Cascade Extract IPA

2008-12-16T10:37:00.011-05:00

I brewed this beer back in April after seeing the “Six-pack IPA” episode of the Basic Brewing Video podcast.

Makes four 22-ounce bottles

OG: 1.060 SG
FG: 1.018 SG
ABV: 5.6%
IBU: 66
SRM: 4.7 (Dark Straw)

Ingredients

1 pound Briess Golden Light DME (end of boil)
0.3 ounces Cascade pellets (60 minutes)
0.1 ounces Cascade pellets (15 minutes)
0.1 ounces Cascade pellets (5 minutes)
0.25 ounces Cascade whole (in primary)
Wyeast Northwest Ale yeast propagator pack (1332)

Directions

Make a 1-quart starter several days in advance.
Put 5 quarts of water into a 12 quart pot. Cover. Bring to a boil. Remove cover.
Add 0.3 ounces Cascade pellets. Continue boil for 45 minutes.
Add 0.1 ounces Cascade pellets. Continue boil for 10 minutes.
Add 0.1 ounces Cascade pellets. Remove from heat and add 1 pound of dry malt extract. Stir to dissolve. Return to heat. Boil for 5 minutes.
Turn off heat. Cover. Place pot in a sink of cold water. Stir wort with a sanitized spoon. Be careful to not aerate the wort while hot. Change the water occasionally as it warms up. Continue until wort reaches 70°F.
Pour wort into a sanitized 1-gallon jug through a sanitized funnel with a screen to remove the sediment.
Swirl the starter to suspend the yeast. Measure out 0.5 cups into a sanitized measuring cup. Pitch. Cap the jug with a sanitized stopper and shake to aerate. Affix a sanitized 3-piece airlock and drilled stopper. Place in a 65–75°F dark place for 1 week.
Place 0.25 ounces whole Cascade hops in enough warm (less than 167°F) water to just cover. Steep covered for 20 minutes. Add the hop tea and hops to a sanitized 1-gallon jug.
Using a sanitized siphon, racking cane, and siphon hose, transfer the beer from the primary fermenter to the secondary onto the hop tea. Affix a sanitized 1-piece airlock and drilled stopper. Place in a 65–75°F dark place for 1 week.
Combine 0.7 ounces DME with 12 fluid ounces of water. Bring to a boil for several minutes. Cool to 70°F. Add to a sanitized bottling bucket.
Using a sanitized racking cane and siphon hose, transfer the beer from the secondary to the bottling bucket.
Using a sanitized siphon hose and bottling wand, fill four 22-ounce bottles. Cap and store in a 65–75°F dark place for 2 weeks before sampling.

Notes

Good clarity. Color of dark straw — not quite amber. Well carbonated. Good citrus aroma. Slightly “green” taste — could age longer. Served a bit too cold. Citrus flavor. Good bitterness. Not thin. Success! This was my first brew after a 14 year break. While it is not terribly complex, it was quite good and a good confidence builder.

Wort Chilling Time

2008-12-15T12:59:00.007-05:00

I used my immersion chiller for the first time over Thanksgiving. I hear there are a couple of important temperatures to be concerned with, so I measured how long it took to get from one to the next. This is using MoreBeer’s Efficient Wort Chiller, 55°F ground water, and whirlpooling with a big ass stainless steel spoon, for 6 gallons of wort in a 10-gallon Blichmann BoilerMaker™ Brew Pot.

Seconds	°F
0	212
153	140
380	100
594	80
845	68

The upsot is that I got down to pitching temperature in just over 14 minutes.

Also, I drained the cooling water into a 5-gallon bucket. I had to empty it 6 times. So, it took about 30 gallons of water to do the cooling.

Brush Valley Brewer’s 2008 Red Cap Cider

2008-12-14T10:54:00.015-05:00

Gretchen and I have been growing our own apples for years now. We bought a cider press a few years back and have been making ourselves sweet cider every fall. As I get back into home brewing, after a fourteen year hiatus, I thought I would try a hard cider. I decided to go for a medium-dry, petillant English cider. This is my first attempt at a hard cider.

Here is my recipe:

Ingredients

2 bushels Apples from several varieties
White Labs English Cider Yeast (WL775)
½ teaspoon plus a pinch Wyeast Nutrient Blend
5 Campden Tablets
2 pounds Lactose (Milk Sugar)
0.75 ounces Malic Acid
0.25 ounces Wine Tannins
5 ounces Corn Sugar (for priming)

Directions

Pick the apples and allow them to sit at cellar temperature for one week.
Press the apples. You should end with something in excess of 5 gallons of juice. Measure the Brix and Gravity of the juice. Mine turned out to be 13.6/1.054 this year.
Make a starter by mixing 1 quart of juice with a pinch of yeast nutrient and bring to a boil for several minutes. Cool to 72°F. Place in a suitable container. I used a half-gallon growler. Shake to aerate. Pitch yeast. Affix an airlock. Ferment at 72°F for 2 days.
After pressing, place the juice in a bucket. Add 5 crushed Campden Tablets (one per gallon). Affix an airlock. Allow to sit at cellar temperature for 2 days.
Vigorously stir the juice to disperse any remaining Sulfur Dioxide gas resulting from the Campden tablets. Transfer the juice to a 6½-gallon glass carboy. Add ½-teaspoon of yeast nutrient. Rock to aerate. Pitch the yeast starter. Affix an airlock. Ferment at 72°F for 4 weeks.
Measure the Brix and Gravity of the cider. Mine turned out to be 5.3/1.001 (7% ABV) this year. Rack the cider to a 5-gallon glass carboy and allow to mature at 72°F for 8 weeks.
Mix the lactose, malic acid, tannin, and corn sugar in 5 pints of water and bring to a boil for several minutes. Cool to 72°F.
Add the mixture to the bottling bucket. Rack the cider to the bottling bucket. Bottle. Allow the cider to bottle condition at 72°F for 3 weeks before sampling.

Just for fun I measured the gravity after back-sweetening with the lactose. It brought it back to 1.014, which would be about as sweet as a typical finished ale.

Thanksgiving 2008 Brew Day

2008-12-07T20:21:00.006-05:00

The Brewer in his Brewery
Originally uploaded by brushvalleybrewer

I brewed a milk stout on Thanksgiving this year. It was the Triple-X recipe from Brewing Classic Styles. Jamil talks about it at length in the Sweet Stout episode of his podcast. Things went really well.

It was my first full-boil. My first use of my wort chiller. Gretchen made me a really great meat pie for lunch. I had one of my Irresponsible Blonde Ale’s while I brewed. Everything seemed to go well.

Almost everything, that is. I forgot to crush my steeping grains. It was funny. When I finished the brew — Yes, I got all the way through without noticing — my wife said, “So, the grain mill worked all right then?” Eh? Grain mill. Right. Grain mill. OH SNAP!

Also, after the steeping I tried to rush the boil by starting the flame while I was topping up. Unfortunately, when I added the liquid malt extract, the bottom was already hot and some of it burned before I could get it all dissolved.

Finally, I forgot to measure my boil volumes. I think I boiled off one gallon in an hour, but I’ll have to be more careful next time.

I did manage to nail the target gravity and the brew is happily fermenting at 67°F at the moment. I plan to let it continue to do that and bottle it on the 17th.

Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale

2008-12-07T14:22:00.007-05:00

This is actually a copy of my first post over at beerporn (completely SFW).

Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale
Originally uploaded by brushvalleybrewer

This is a review of Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale from the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company in Chico, California.

Though it is only available seasonally, and marketed “especially for the holidays,” this beer is used by the Beer Judge Certification Program as an example of an American IPA and not a spiced or specialty beer. At 6.8% alcohol by volume this beer will give you a nice warm feeling of cheer on a cold winter’s night.

Sierra Nevada lists the ingredients as two-row pale and english caramel malts with chinook hops for bittering, cascade and centennial to finish and dry hop. They just say they use a “top-fermenting ale yeast,” but it’s probably the Chico yeast. If you look at some of the more popular clone recipes, you'll see that's really all there is to it.

The beer pours a clear copper color with a thick, creamy off-white head. The aroma is hoppy with hints of flowers, spice, citrus, and pine with a faint malt sweetness. The beer feels smooth on the tongue with the right carbonation for an American IPA and a crisp finish that leaves you wanting another. It has a good hop bitterness with a nice malt backbone, with hints of unsweetened chocolate and cherry, like biting into a Godiva cherry cordial.

Overall I really like this beer. The wife an I stock up on it every year between Thanksgiving and New Years.

Brewery Plaque

2008-12-07T12:40:00.001-05:00

Brewery Plaque
Originally uploaded by brushvalleybrewer

I found a site that lets you make fake signs. I used it to make this plaque for my fictitious brewery.

About Me

2008-12-07T11:02:00.014-05:00

I grew up with American beers: Schlitz, Stroh’s, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Little Kings, Mickey’s Big Mouth, and Busch. I enjoyed the variety.

At some point in my career I got a job that required much travel over long distances for long periods of time. By necessity, I drank the local beers: Australian, Japanese, Pilsener in Northern Germany, Helles in the South, Austrian beers, and French. All good in their own way. Then I got sent to England where it seemed that each town had its own brewery. Ah the variety.

I was married by then and my wife also became enamored of English beers. Returning home, my old standby beers left me wanting and my wife disgusted, so we started to look for ways to get the taste of the world beers we remembered.

She had a friend who was into home brewing. He and his wife brought their equipment over to our house and walked us through what was involved in making your own. It seemed simple enough, so on my thirty-fourth birthday, my wife got me a starter equipment kit, some ingredients, the Papazian books, and a membership to the American Homebrewers Association. I do not use the phrase “perfect woman” lightly.

I made a few batches — I even managed to make a passable stout that we still talk about — but I never really understood what was happening. When a batch did not turn out I did not know why.

Feeling a little frustrated, we turned back to the commercial market to find the budding craft brewing movement. Suddenly there were interesting local beers. Some were trying to reproduce authentic English ales. Others were experimenting with distinctly new styles. The market was full of interesting beer and you can only drink so much, so there was less need for me to brew my own haphazard beers.

While many of the craft brewers were good at making beer, some had problems with consistency and scale. Others were good brewers but not good business people. Still others simply succumbed to competition. The result of all this being that the market started to get stale again. The other issue was geographic. I live on the East coast and most of the interesting brewing was happening on the West coast. Oh, there were still good beers, but nothing like the craft brewing heyday. All of this left my heart to wander.

While all this was going on, a wonderful thing happened: The Internet. With it came electronic publishing, e-commerce, discussion forums, social networking, and podcasts. Thank you, Al Gore.

At the same time, all these people were learning new techniques for brewing, and understanding more about why things work and what happens at a chemical level, and they shared what they learned. New products were also coming to market: liquid yeasts, more interesting hop varieties, better malt extracts.

One of the new techniques that intrigued me was small-batch brewing. One day I happened upon the Basic Brewing Video podcast and the episode “A Six-pack of IPA.” James Spencer and Steve Wilkes showed how they made a simple American IPA in a one-gallon glass jug with minimal equipment or ingredients investment. I figured I could do that. I rounded up a maple syrup jug, ordered a drilled stopper, some hops, malt extract, and yeast, found the airlock from my original equipment kit, and tried it out. To my surprise, it worked.

I made a few more small batches and started experimenting with recipes. This time when something did not work out, the Internet was there to help me. I could ask in any number of forums, populated by experienced and dedicated brewers, what went wrong. If it had this smell, or this flavor, or this floating thing, what did it mean? If I wanted a certain flavor, color, aroma, or mouthfeel, how could I get it? I started to learn and I loved it.

I learned that temperature control is important. I never did anything special before to control temperature and frequently got rocket fuel. It was not very good, but I am a possum, so I drank it anyway. While I did not start out controlling the temperature, at least I decided to measure it. I bought myself a fermometer and stuck it to the side of my carboy. It taught me that working yeast can easily raise the fermentation temperature by 8°F. That meant that if my ambient temperature was 72°F — warm, but within the range of some ale yeasts — the fermentation was taking place at 80°F, which makes some nasty Fusel Alcohol. Yuck, nice and spicy! The lesson: Fermentation temperature is of the wort, not the ambient air. Since then I have moved to a thermowell to measure the fermentation temperature and have built a fermentation chiller with a modified home thermostat for temperature control.

I always knew that sanitation was important, but I was naive about it. It never occurred to me that my top-up water should be sterile. Even where I was cleaning appropriately, I was using bleach and did not understand the effects chlorine could have on beer. I really did not understand the difference between cleaning and sanitation. Now I use PBW and Starsan.

I certainly did not know about melanoidin production or hop utilization or DMS precursors. I have moved to a full-boil kettle to try to give better control here. The other thing about hops is the volatility of the flavor and aroma components. To help out here, I now have an immersion wort chiller.

I am still learning, but I think I am to the point where I can make a consistent extract brew. When I am confident I have it down pat, I will be ready to move on to the challenges of all-grain brewing.

Of course, others have found these tools and the craft brewing movement seems to be having a resurgence. Hopefully, it will serve as inspiration for me to brew more and better beers and not as an excuse to quit. We shall see.

Making a Yeast Starter

2008-12-06T18:58:00.001-05:00

Calculate the starter volume required to achieve the number of yeast cells required for the desired pitching rate.
For each quart of starter required, add 3.5 ounces (1 cup) of DME and 1/40 teaspoon yeast nutrient to a quart of potable water.
Boil for 20 minutes to sterilize.
Cool to 70°F.
Pour into a sanitized container with a stopper and airlock.
Shake well.
Add yeast culture.
Let the starter ferment at or near your target fermentation temperature for 24–36 hours.
Periodically agitate to resuspend the yeast, aerate, and remove CO2.
Chill the starter for 24 hours to flocculate all of the yeast.
Decant the starter beer from the yeast cake.
Allow the yeast cake to warm to fermentation temperature.
Swirl the container to suspend the yeast in a slurry.
Inoculate the target wort using the slurry.