Societe Brewing Company
Passive Zombies
I finally learned how to teach my guys to ID the passive voice. If you can insert "by zombies" after the verb, you have passive voice.
— Dr. Rebecca Johnson (@johnsonr) October 18, 2012
(42) Sunday, January 13, 2013 Brew Day — MS-IPA
This recipe is inspired by the recipe for the Stone First Anniversary IPA that Mitch Steele presents in IPA: Brewing Techniques, Recipes and the Evolution of India Pale Ale. It uses my brewing method and what ingredients I had on hand, so do not assume for an instant that this is Stone’s IPA recipe.
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(41) Sunday, September 16, 2012 Brew Day, Return of the Night Horse
6:45 Flame on. Heating mash and Sparge water.
7:14 Kettle strike temperature is 175 °F. Draining to the mash tun.
7:20 Drained. Mash tun strike temperature is 166 °F. I’m going to let it drop a few degrees before doughing in.
7:25 Mash tun strike temperature is 163 °F. Doughing in.
7:31 Mashing at 151 °F.
8:51 Mash complete. Ending temperature was 152 °F. Vorlauff and lauter.
8:45 Lauter complete. Collected just shy of 3.5 gallons. First running gravity is 1.062 SG (1.056 SG at 98 °F).
8:52 Sparging. Kettle Sparge temperature is 174 °F. Mash tun Sparge temperature is 158 °F. Vorlauff and lauter. Second running gravity is 1.025 SG (1.017 SG at 108 °F).
9:04 Sparge complete. Collected a total of 6-7/8 gallons. Reasonably, that puts the first and second runnings at 3-7/16 gallons each. Boil gravity is 1.044 SG (1.041 SG at 83 °F).
9:11 Flame on. Heating wort to boiling.
9:44 Boiling. Waiting for hot break to subside.
9:50 Hot break has subsided. Adding bittering hops.
10:30 Added flavor hops.
10:35 Added Irish moss and chiller.
10:40 Added yeast nutrient.
10:45 Added aroma hops.
10:50 Flame out and chilling.
11:30 Chilled. Whirlpool and let settle. Original gravity volume is 5-7/8 gallons. Original gravity is 1.053 SG (1.051 SG at 74 °F). Target was 1.046 SG.
11:50 Draining to the carboy.
12:09 Drained. Rocking to aerate.
12:14 Aerated.
My yeast is Wyeast 1764 Rogue Pacman with a manufacture date of July 9, 2012. According to Mr Malty, that implies 50% viability. I made a 2-quart starter a few days ago, which means I should have about 2/3 of the yeast I need. 🙁 I need to do these calculations earlier. I could have made a bigger starter or used more yeast packs. This isn’t going to be a very good yeast experiment. This is also the yeast that it took 8 days for FedEx to deliver to me, so who knows how stressed it was to start.
So here’s the plan. I need 226B cells. My starter has about 150B. I have 2 more smack packs that should each give me 50B cells for a total of 250B.
12:23 Pitched.
1:18 Everything is cleaned and put away. The fermentation temperature is not set yet. The fermentation temperature is set to 64±1 °F.
Sunday, October 7 Kegged. Final gravity 1.016 SG (1.017 SG at 48 °F).
(40) Monday, September 3, 2012 Brew Day – Harvest Ale 2012
Today is my second attempt at a harvest ale. The batch from last year worked out well, and I hope to add some of what I’ve learned since then to this year’s batch.
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Wyeast Ale Strain Attenuation
I’ve been playing with Numbers to see what its charting capabilities are. This is a first try at something useful.
The View from Tussey Mountain
Gretchen and I went to the 2012 State College Brew Expo on Saturday. Mike Kauffman was nice enough to snap our picture. You can see Mount Nittany in the background.
(39) Sunday, August 5, 2012 Brew Day — Cascade Ruination
The neighborhood turkey family was out in force while I brewed today.
BVB Cascade Ruination
Selected Style and BJCP Guidelines
14B-India Pale Ale(IPA)-American IPA
| Minimum OG: | 1.056 SG | Maximum OG: | 1.075 SG |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum FG: | 1.010 SG | Maximum FG: | 1.018 SG |
| Minimum IBU: | 40 IBU | Maximum IBU: | 70 IBU |
| Minimum Color: | 6.0 SRM | Maximum Color: | 15.0 SRM |
Recipe Overview
| Wort Volume Before Boil: | 7.00 US gals | Wort Volume After Boil: | 6.00 US gals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Volume Transferred: | 5.50 US gals | Water Added To Fermenter: | 0.00 US gals |
| Volume At Pitching: | 5.50 US gals | Volume Of Finished Beer: | 5.00 US gals |
| Expected Pre-Boil Gravity: | 1.060 SG | Expected OG: | 1.070 SG |
| Expected FG: | 1.017 SG | Apparent Attenuation: | 75.0 % |
| Expected ABV: | 7.1 % | Expected ABW: | 5.5 % |
| Expected IBU (using Rager): | 157.5 IBU | Expected Color (using Morey): | 5.2 SRM |
| BU:GU ratio: | 2.25 | ||
| Mash Efficiency: | 71.0 % | ||
| Boil Duration: | 60.0 mins | ||
| Fermentation Temperature: | 68 degF |
Fermentables
| Ingredient | Amount | % | MCU | When |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US 2-Row Malt | 15lb 0oz | 93.8 % | 4.5 | In Mash/Steeped |
| US Caramel 10L Malt | 1lb 0oz | 6.2 % | 1.7 | In Mash/Steeped |
Hops
| Variety | Alpha | Amount | IBU | Form | When |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Cascade | 5.0 % | 1.75 oz | 11.0 | Loose Pellet Hops | First Wort Hopped |
| US Magnum | 12.0 % | 3.00 oz | 145.2 | Loose Pellet Hops | 60 Min From End |
| US Cascade | 5.0 % | 0.25 oz | 1.3 | Loose Pellet Hops | 15 Min From End |
| US Cascade | 5.0 % | 2.00 oz | 0.0 | Loose Pellet Hops | Dry-Hopped |
Other Ingredients
| Ingredient | Amount | When |
|---|---|---|
| Irish Moss | 0.10 oz | In Boil |
| Yeast Nutrient | 0.10 oz | In Boil |
Yeast
Wyeast 1056-American Ale
Water Profile
| Target Profile: | No Water Profile Chosen |
|---|---|
| Mash pH: | 5.2 |
| pH Adjusted with: | Unadjusted |
| Total Calcium (ppm): | 103 | Total Magnesium (ppm): | 17 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Sodium (ppm): | 34 | Total Sulfate (ppm): | 338 |
| Total Chloride(ppm): | 30 | Total Bicarbonate (ppm): | 36 |
Mash Schedule
| Mash Type: | Full Mash |
|---|---|
| Schedule Name: | Single Step Infusion (65C/149F) |
| Step Type | Temperature | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Rest at | 149 degF | 60 |
Recipe Notes
“Only low alpha finishing hops should be used for [first wort hopping (FWH)], and the amount should be no less than 30% of the total amount of hops used in the boil. This FWH addition therefore should be taken from the hops intended for finishing additions.” — John Palmer, How to Brew
This recipe calls for 5.75 total ounces of hops. 30% of that corresponds to 1.725 ounces. That would correspond to moving the entire 15 minute addition and a quarter ounce of the dry hops to the first wort.
Conveniently, hops come in bags containing whole ounces, so we actually have 4 ounces of Cascade to work with.
We will use 1.75 ounces at FWH and 0.25 ounces at 15 minutes.
Stone’s FG suggests the apparent attenuation will actually be 82.5%. Their ABV suggests something between 78-79%.
Step by Step
Today I’m doing a Stone inspired beer. I was going to do the BYO Ruination clone, but my LHBS didn’t have any centennial hops. I changed it up with cascades and I’m going to first wort hop to accentuate the flavor characteristics. I was going to build the water up to Mosher’s ideal pale ale profile, but I didn’t get out to the store to buy water, so I will just use my well water and not adjust.
9:26 Got a late start. Water is on to boil. Probably started around 9:00. The yeast is all from July 16. According to Mr Malty, that means I’ve got 83% viability. Since I’ve got 3 packs, that’s about 249B cells.
9:53 Kettle strike temperature is 172.6 °F. Transferring to the mash tun. Grain temperature is 77 °F.
10:00 Transferred. Mash tun strike temperature is 163.5 °F. Waiting for it to cool.
10:05 Strike temperature is 160.3 °F. Doughing in.
10:14 Initial mash temperature was 146 °F. Added two dippers of boiling water to raise it to 149.2 °F. Mashing.
11:14 Mash ended at 148.8 °F. Vorlauff and lauter. First wort hops are in the kettle. The gravity of the first runnings was 1.074 SG (1.066 SG at 111 °F).
11:26 Transferred. Kettle sparge water temperature was 170.5 °F. Sparge temperature was 155.5 °F. Collected just shy of 3.75 gallons.
11:33 Sparging. The gravity of the second runnings was 1.034 SG (1.020 SG at 134 °F). Collected 3 gallons. 6.75 total.
11:46 Flame on. The boil gravity was 1.052 SG (1.040 SG at 125 °F). Target was 1.060 SG. WTF? I only managed to get 58% efficiency!
12:30 I’m saying I’m at the boil. Waiting for hot break.
12:34 Break wasn’t as intense as I expected. Adding bittering hops.
1:19 Adding flavor hops, chiller, yeast nutrient, and Irish moss.
1:34 Flame out and chilling.
2:17 Chilled. Settling.
2:37 Draining. Original gravity volume was 5.75 gallons. Original gravity was 1.061 SG (1.060 SG at 73 °F).
3:37 Drained.
3:59 Aerated and pitched. In fermentation chamber at 68 °F.
4:39 Everything cleaned and put away.
Monday morning, August 6th When I woke up this morning, the entire airspace in the carboy was filled with what looked like Great Stuff™. By the time I was ready to go to work, it was coming out of the airlock. I affixed a blow off tube and tried to button up the fermentation chamber as well as I could. The wort was fermenting at 67 °F.
Wednesday evening, August 8th The fermentation has calmed down enough that I was able to replace the blow off tube with a normal airlock. I also took the opportunity to add the first ounce of dry hops.
Monday evening, August 13th I added the second ounce of dry hops.
Sunday morning, August 19th I moved the carboy into the fermentation fridge to crash the yeast.
Sunday morning, August 26th Kegged. Final gravity 1.007 SG (1.007 SG at 57 °F). The hydrometer sample was wonderful. Slight alcohol warmth. Subtle candy sweetness. Smooth bitterness. Dry finish. Carbonating to 2.3 volumes CO₂ (15 PSI at 50 °F).
My Cascade Bine
(38) Sunday, July 8, 2012 Brew Day – Kitchen Sink Small IPA
I promised that I would make Gretchen a low alcohol hoppy beer that would taste like an IPA without all the alcohol. Today, I am attempting to do just that. I looked at a few recipes in Zymurgy and BYO and looked at what I had on hand and come up with this recipe to try. It also helps me clean out my left over grain.
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