I always host. I always prepare the main dish we'll be eating during the day. I always have fun, but usually have much less time for socializing as I juggle an all-grain batch, food, and other hosting duties. I'm usually still finishing my brew day after everybody else has left. And then I'm cleaning up in the dark.
At my local homebrew shop (Olympic Brewing), I noticed Briess liquid rye malt extract for the first time... I'm a sucker for rye! I'll try anything with the word "rye" in it. I grabbed 3 Kg with the intention of trying it out soon...Another thing I really love is drafting up recipes. My recipe binder is probably at least 3 times s thick as my brewing log! So of course, after buying the rye malt syrup I took a couple of shots at rye recipes.
Around the same time, I was making final plans for the group brew day... A light bulb went off: why not brew extract with grains? That simple decision was quite liberating actually. I seldom brew extract anymore - usually at least half of my fermentables come from a mash (partial mash); occasionally I'll brew quick batches of extract to fill keg gaps between all-grain brews (especially in the winter).
It would be nice to have a bit more social time when everybody was over. Cutting liquor heating, mash, and sparge time out of my brew day might mean hanging out more than flitting about. My brew day would be synched with everybody else's (who mostly brew extract batches). Plus, it was like a step back in time - a return to my roots - to what got me hooked in the first place...
I flipped back to my earliest recipes in my brew logs. It was a trip down memory lane. Although I could no longer bring to mind tasting memories of most of those early brews, I had my notes. And I remembered little associations for every single one: the ones I brewed for my wife, the bad batches, the hits and misses. The "beginner" shined through: other people's recipes (Papazian, homebrew shop, etc.), odd combinations of ingredients, weird formulations, kitchen sink brews...
My recipe formulation has come a long way... Thanks in part to Brewing Classic Styles, I can quickly formulate a beer that falls where I want it. Experience with various ingredients - different grains and hops - has helped me with what fits best and where. My extract batches have benefited in the same way - I have a few that I stick with because they yield good results with minimal fussing: American Pale, British Bitter, and Bavarian Hefeweizen (the first two are usually made to build up a good supply of healthy yeast).
Although I was going to make the move to simplicity for the big brew day, I did step it up from my straightforward stand-by extract brews... I opted for a more sessionable IPA: on the low end of ABV for the style, with the bulk of the hopping as late additions. The liquid rye would provide the bulk of the fermentables, along with a little dry malt extract. I also decided to do a mini-mash of 2-row along with a bit of chocolate malt (concurrent with my main boil to preserve the time efficiency) for a bit of extra character and color.
The brew day went great. I had more time to talk and hang out, as I had anticipated. There was much less cleanup for me. I actually had time with my family at the end of the brew day.
Within 12 hours, my beer was off and going like gangbusters in the carboy. Time will tell how the beer actually turns out, but the process was fun, and I'm sure that the end result will be enjoyable one way or another as well.
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Recipe: Rye't On
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General
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Category: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Subcategory: American IPA
Recipe Type: Extract
Batch Size: 6 gal
Volume Boiled: 7 gal
Mash Efficiency: 72 %
Total Grain/Extract: 9.11 lbs
Total Hops: 4.6 oz
Calories (12 fl. oz.): 185.5
Ingredients
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0.5 lbs 2-Row Brewers Malt
0.25 lbs 2-Row Chocolate Malt
6.6 lbs CBW® Rye Liquid (Malt Extract)
1.76 lbs Dry Extra Light Extract
0.6 oz Bravo (Whole, 15.50 %AA) boiled 90 minutes.
0.6 oz Magnum (Whole, 14.50 %AA) boiled 15 minutes.
0.7 oz Chinook (Whole, 13.00 %AA) boiled 5 minutes.
0.25 oz Magnum (Whole, 14.50 %AA) boiled 5 minutes.
1.3 oz Chinook (Pellets, 13.00 %AA) added to Secondary.
0.6 oz Citra (Pellets, 12.00 %AA) added to Secondary.
0.6 oz Magnum (Pellets, 14.50 %AA) added to Secondary.
Yeast: Wyeast 1056 American Ale
Notes
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-Mini-mash 2-row and chocolate malt @152°
-Dry hop 5 days
Vital Statistics
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Original Gravity: 1.056
Terminal Gravity: 1.012
Color: 16.13 SRM
Bitterness: 47.7 IBU
Alcohol (%volume): 5.8 %
[recipe created/calculated using Beer Tools]
I have converted nearly 100% to plastic carboys. It took me a while to convert over, because I did not like all of the ribs in the Better Bottle brand - too hard to clean and lots of build up. Olympic Brewing began carrying smooth-sided PET carboys in 3 and 6 gallon sizes, and that's when I finally switched.
ReplyDeleteThe only drawback that I have found is that I believe they hold a static charge. The reason I think this is that a fine dusting of yeast tends to cling to the inside surface even after the beer is finished and the majority of the yeast has flocculated out. In side-by-side brews, pitched from the same yeast starter, the yeast does not cling to a glass carboy, but does in the PET. Static or some other surface explanation is all that I can think of.
At any rate, I forgot my Whirlfloc tablet in this batch. Between the "static cling" and a lack of coagulant in the boil, this beer was a cloudy mess. I have had to cold crash WY1056 to get a good floc in the past, so I tried that. 48 hours made a difference, but it was still pretty cloudy.
I fined it with gelatin (my first go with finings in the secondary) last night to help rectify the cloudiness. This morning, I could already begin to see a difference - solids were coagulating in strata throughout the column of liquid. Hopefully it will clear significantly... Then I'll do the dry hop.
I will probably do another post about my first experience with gelatin finings later...