Jumping Back In!

Someone in the local homebrew club posted the deadline for the Western Washington State Fair's homebrew competition this past week. It's July, so like I posted the other day, it's kind of like my brewing new year... My wife knew that I was getting ready to brew, so she encouraged me to brew some beers for the competition.

Motivated by my new plan - to brew smaller batches - I dug out my brew log. As I thumbed through it, I jotted down a few notes. I figured if I was going to brew for the competition, I should start with some styles that had yielded past success. If lagers were going to be in the mix, I would have to get those cranked out first - so that is where I started. 

I decided on a Vienna lager and a German pils. The former was pretty easy, because that recipe has been pretty stable for me for a while now. However, when I was looking for a solid German pils recipe, I was only able to narrow it down to two - I could not figure out which one was the one I had liked better; I decided to try both... So I scaled those down, along with a dark mild recipe.

Armed with four prettty solid starting beers, I headed to my LHBS to purchase all of the ingredients...

Brew Day: Two Dry Stouts!

With Saint Patrick's Day a couple of short weeks away, I find myself without anything appropriate on tap! I always try to have something dark and roasty on - either a stout or a porter, o
r both! I am not the type who thinks of darker beers as winter seasonals... I can drink a porter anytime, and a dry stout functions just fine as a "lawnmower beer" for me.

Sláinte Mhaith - my dry stout

I have a standby (award winning) dry stout recipe that I brew at least 2-3 times per year. It is consistent and a pleaser for any fan of the style. I call it 'Sláinte Mhaith' (SLAHN-cha wa - Irish Gaelic for 'Good Health'). It is really just the recipe from Brewing Classic Styles (http://www.amazon.com/Brewing-Classic-Styles-Winning-Recipes/dp/0937381926) by Jamil Zainasheff (@mrmalty) and John Palmer with whatever uniqueness my system/process lends:
70% Maris Otter British Pale Malt
20% Flaked Barley
10% Roasted Barley
I use WY1098 British Ale as my yeast...

I have always loved stout - I was among the first people I knew to like Guinness (I will not admit how early). Like many brewers, I originally fell prey to the "more is better" thinking when formulating my stout recipes. When I sat down to write this blog entry, I looked back through my recipe binders and brew logs... There were TEN stout recipes (American and dry). Each was decent - I don't believe I ever made a terrible stout (I have made a few terrible beers though). But none of them was what I was looking for - thus the ten different recipes, none brewed a second time.

Then I listened to Jamil's Dry Stout  episode on The Jamil Show (http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/The-Jamil-Show) - the original one, not the Brewing with Style newer one... He talked about the simplicity of classic Dry Irish Stout. I brewed that recipe, which he later included in the book referenced above: it was exactly what I had been pursuing! I have been brewing that exclusively as my dry stout recipe ever since.

2015. The year is young, and I have been immersing myself in brewing media: Basic Brewing Radio/Video, the beer engine, Chop & Brew, Brewing Network... Was it time to brew a different stout? Should I put more than one stout on tap? An episode of Chop & Brew and an entry in the beer engine blog featured a Beamish-inspired dry stout - I had tried clones of Beamish in the past, but they had fallen short. This recipe, and the subsequent tasting on Chop & Brew, seemed compelling.

I talked through my ideas with my local brewery's tasting room manager (and former student), and he mentioned he had a nitro system that was not currently in use. What?! He offered it to me on loan! That iced it - I was going to brew both, and serve them both on nitrogen!

Brewed and ready for March 17th. No green beer here - only proper stout!

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Slainte Mhaith
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Category: Stout
                Subcategory: Dry Stout
                Recipe Type: All Grain
                 Batch Size: 5.5 gal
              Volume Boiled: 7 gal
            Mash Efficiency: 70 %
        Total Grain/Extract: 10.00 lbs
                 Total Hops: 2.0 oz

Ingredients
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            7 lbs Maris Otter Pale
            1 lbs Black Roasted Barley
            2 lbs Barley (Pregelatinized Flakes)
              **2 oz East Kent Goldings (Whole, 5.00 %AA) boiled 60 minutes.
           Yeast: Wyeast 1028 London Ale

Notes
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mash @ 152°

Vital Statistics
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 Original Gravity: 1.044
 Terminal Gravity: 1.009
            Color: 27.47 SRM
       Bitterness: 41.8 IBU
Alcohol (%volume): 4.5 %

** I actually shifted 10% of the hop bill to 10 minutes to match the Beamish-inspired recipe (for analoous comparison purposes)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Squeamish
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
                   Category: Stout
                Subcategory: Dry Stout
                Recipe Type: All Grain
                 Batch Size: 5.5 gal
              Volume Boiled: 6.5 gal
            Mash Efficiency: 72 %
        Total Grain/Extract: 9.25 lbs
                 Total Hops: 1.9 oz

Ingredients
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
            7 lbs Maris Otter Pale
            1 lbs Malted Wheat
         0.75 lbs Black Roasted Barley
          0.5 lbs American Chocolate Malt
           0.6 oz East Kent Goldings (Pellets, 5.00 %AA) boiled 60 minutes.
           0.4 oz Perle (Whole, 8.25 %AA) boiled 60 minutes.
           0.5 oz Hallertau (Whole, 4.50 %AA) boiled 60 minutes.
           0.2 oz East Kent Goldings (Pellets, 5.00 %AA) boiled 10 minutes.
           0.1 oz Perle (Whole, 8.25 %AA) boiled 10 minutes.
          0.15 oz Hallertau (Whole, 4.50 %AA) boiled 10 minutes.
           Yeast: Wyeast 1098 British Ale

Notes
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mash @ 152°

Vital Statistics
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Original Gravity: 1.042
 Terminal Gravity: 1.008
            Color: 28.44 SRM
       Bitterness: 39.1 IBU
Alcohol (%volume): 4.3 %

Planning Another Big Brew

I had a great time in April brewing with my Guard buddies; it really rekindled my brewing bug. I've been fairly active with beer-related stuff even when I haven't been brewing (but I have brewed 20 gallons in about 4 weeks time).

At drill this weekend, I pushed folks to get another brew date on the calendar. I knew that Kris needed to brew at least another 5 gallons for a wedding in July, so it was just a matter of 'when', not 'if'. We're going to shoot for either Memorial Day weekend or the weekend after drill (mid-June). Confirming that it was actually going to happen, the wheels started turning...

Kris told me that he was planning on brewing another batch of Bill's Citra Special IPA (www.olybrew.com). He brewed a batch about a year-and-a-half ago, and it was stellar. In fact, last spring when Black IPAs/Cascadian Dark Ales were getting a lot of press (and I was drinking a lot of different BIPAs), I began to think about how I would formulate my own Black IPA recipe. This recipe was the first one I thought of as a likely candidate: clean malt profile with a dry finish, and a bright hop character. What better way to contrast the darkness and tiniest hint of roast?

Also, Kris had inquired about brewing 10 gallons instead of 5, so that he could share one keg at the wedding and keep one for himself. Which is also great for me and the rest of our rag-tag brewing group, because that means we'll actually get some. It was then that it hit me - he could brew the Citra Special, and I could brew the Dark Side Citra! Then everybody could do the side-by-side, comparing the original recipe with my style-modified version of the same beer.

I guess I should start working on the recipe. This will have to be a pretty big yeast starter - 15 gallons at around 1.070 OG!

A First: California Common!

I am hoping to brew 15 gallons of beer this weekend...

The first one I brewed was a California Common. I used JZ & John Palmer's How to Brew to formulate the recipe. My starter was going good and strong. The brew day and boil were cruising along without a hitch. All systems go, right?

Did I mention that I am planning to brew 15 gallons this weekend? Ten gallons are going to come from the same grain bill - a parti gyle (mentioned in a couple other posts this past week). This takes a bit of prep and coordination. My plan was to get an early start, and brew straight through the day, marathon style. Can you tell by all of these disclaimers that I have not yet gotten to the actual story?

So... I was pre-staging ingredients for the first brew from the parti-gyle (a big Old Ale) - getting the grain ready, weighing out hop additions, measuring my black treacle. My wife, who supports my brewing habit but doesn't get directly involved with the process (or any of my hobbies - obsessions as she calls them - now that I think about it?), was attempting to engage me in a conversation; the topic was definitely important, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was. And then I was called upon by my sons for an expedient toy repair.

Amid the brewing prep and maelstrom of family activity, my timer went off. 10 minutes remaining in the boil. I grabbed the last hop addition, along with the treacle, and headed out to the deck to drop them into the wort along with the wort chiller. Ten minutes later, I killed the flame, partially replaced the kettle lid, and began chilling my California Common wort.

People who understand the BJCP style guidelines have already spotted my mistake... Treacle? In a California Common? WTF? However, at this point I had not noticed my mistake. Then I took a gravity reading with my refractometer - I overshot by A LOT? I did some quick calculations, and added back some filtered, boiled water to hit my gravity numbers.

It wasn't until I got ready to start on the parti-gyle that I realized what had happened. I went to look for my treacle, which should have been right there on the counter with my hops... Nowhere to be found. Oh crap! I freaked out!

My wife, again supportive of my brewing, managed to talk me down "off of the ledge" about my mistake. She convinced me that the beer would still be 'great' - just not what I had planned (only a small consolation, by the way!). So, technically, I have still never brewed a California Common.

More Yeast!

Like some evil genius in a classic horror movie, I like to grow my army of minions! My minions happen to be microscopic, but they still are powerful - they make my beer for me!

I posted previously about getting a late start on my brewing resolutions... I want to make sure I am brewing regularly, so that my process becomes smooth again. So this weekend - 3 batches! Today I started my yeast for a California Common, an Old Ale, and a Northern English Brown (these last two are going to come from the same grain bill - see my earlier post regarding parti gyle brewing).

I have never brewed a California Common, and I have never worked with the two yeasts I will be using on my Old Ale and my Northern English Brown. I have made two Old Ales in years past; the first one I spiced as a holiday beer, and it did not turn out very well (I under-pitched the first 5 gallons, which were so estery it was only good for mulled ale; the second five gallons were OK). I have brewed both Southern and Northern English Brown in the past, both from kits; these were OK as well, but I am striving for something better.

For my starters, I use the basic metric formula as spelled out in John Palmer's How to Brew: 100 grams of DME for each liter of wort (or 125 g of LME). For "normal" gravity ales (1.050 or less) I tend to just do 1L starters, and for higher gravities I'll do 2 or 3L. If I am brewing a lager or brewing for competition, I use Jamil's pitching rate calculator (www.mrmalty.com, also available on the Wyeast website) to be more precise.

I built myself a simple stir plate from plans available on the internet, and generally follow all of the sanitation instructions published by established homebrewing authors. I use 1 gallon jugs, which I discovered have a slightly convex bottom, making them useless on the stir plate. Eventually, I'll get myself some large Erlenmeyer flasks, but this is not preventing me from making decent yeast starters.