Today is the first brew of my new recipe for Anonymous American Ale.
Continue reading “(35) Monday, February 27, 2012 Brew Day — Anonymous American Ale”
(35) Monday, February 27, 2012 Brew Day — Anonymous American Ale
Designing an Anonymous American Ale
By Anonymous (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
The Goal
I am designing a new recipe for my next brew. I had designed the house ale around my wife’s likes and dislikes. It is a tasty beer and I like it, but it is very “in your face.” It is full bodied, which was a goal, but it does so by being sweet and heavy. Two is my limit.
Over the holidays, I made “Hey, Zeus!” I used medium English crystal, rather than light and added some pale chocolate, as well. I was thinking of something like Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale, but ended up with something much more like an American Brown Ale. I was concerned she would not like it, since she hates English Brown Ale, but by the time we kicked the second keg, she preferred it to the house ale.
Now I have a brew day coming up and I am trying to come up with a new recipe that incorporates these new taste preferences, as well as my own desire for a drier, more subdued beer.
Testing for Diacetyl
Ensure no diacetyl left in beer before cooling fermented beer (if you indeed do that). To do this, put a small beer sample in a sealable jar. Immerse jar in 170 °F (77 °C) water bath until sample is 170 °F (77 °C), holding for 15 minutes. Cool jar to room temperature in a cool water bath, then smell sample. If you detect any buttery notes, continue to age beer at room temperature and check again the next day. Cool beer once diacetyl is not detected.
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p style=”margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;”>BurnSilver, Glenn. “Clones from a Can.” Brew Your Own Mar. 2012: 38-39. Print.
(34) Saturday, January 27, 2012 Brew Day — NHDS1.2
Today is the third iteration of my Night Horse Dry Stout with the changes I described earlier.
Original Volume: 6 gallons
Original Gravity: 1.038 SG
Mash: Protein rest for 15 minutes at 120 °F then saccharification rest for 60 minutes at 150 °F.
Boil: 60 minutes
Fermentation: Ferment at 65 °F then do a diacetyl rest.
Serving: Serve at 52–55 °F with 1–1.5 volumes of CO₂.
| Ingredient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Crisp Maris Otter | 78% |
| Flaked Barley | 11% |
| Crisp Roasted Barley | 11% |
| Kent Goldings (6.1% AA) 60 min. | 38 IBU |
| Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale | 149B Cells |
For the Mash
Heat 3 gallons of water to 138 °F. Transfer to the mash tun. The strike temperature should stabilize at 129 °F. Add the crushed grains to the mash. The mash temperature should stabilize at 120 °F. Allow the mash to rest for 15 minutes. Heat 2 gallons of water to boiling. Transfer to the mash tun. The mash should stabilize at 150 °F. Allow the mash to rest for 60 minutes. Batch sparge with 3.5 gallons of 170 °F water.
Continue reading “(34) Saturday, January 27, 2012 Brew Day — NHDS1.2”
(33) Saturday, December 31, 2011 Brew Day — BVBHA1.5
This is another in the ever-evolving Brush Valley Brewing House Ale. This one is largely driven by ingredient availability.
I formulated this recipe to produce five gallons of beer for packaging. I assume a boil-off rate of about one gallon per hour with a full-volume boil. I use bagged pellet hops for all hop additions. I assume a loss due to trub of a half-gallon in the boil kettle and another half-gallon in the fermenter.
Recipe: Brush Valley Brewing House Ale v 1.5
BJCP Style: 14B — American IPA
Brewhouse Efficiency: 74%
Pre-Boil Volume: 6.44 gallons (24.4 L)
BG: 1.054 SG (13.3 °P)
Original Volume: 5.5 gallons (20.3 L)
OG: 1.062 SG (15.2 °P)
FG: 1.017 SG (4.3 °P)
ADF: 73%
Bitterness (Tinseth): 50 IBU
ABV: 6.1%
Color (Morey): 11 SRM (22 EBC) — Deep amber
Boil Duration: 55 minutes
BU:GU 0.80
Calories per 12-ounce Serving: 216 — 119 from Alcohol, 96 from Carbs
| Grains | Quantity | Percent |
|---|---|---|
| Crisp Maris Otter Malt (3.5 °L) | 11.0 lb. (4.990 kg) | 88 |
| Crisp Light Crystal Malt (45 °L) | 1.5 lb. (0.680 kg) | 12 |
| Hops | IBU | |
| Citra 11.4% AA, 55 min. | 1.5 oz (43 g) | 46.7 |
| Citra 11.4% AA, 5 min. | 0.6 oz (17 g) | 3.8 |
| Citra 11.4% AA, dry | 1.7 oz (48 g) | 0 |
| Yeast | ||
| Wyeast 1099 Whitbread Ale™ (Manufactured 11/9/11; 60% viability) | Want 229B; Have 120B | |
| Other | ||
| Irish Moss, 15 min. | 2.2 g | |
| Brewer’s Choice™ Wyeast Nutrient Blend, 10 min. | 2.2 g | |
| Water Treatment | Mash | Boil |
| Gypsum (CaSO₄) | 9.4 g | 6.4 g |
| Calcium Chloride (CaCl₂) | 1.4 g | 1.0 g |
| Baking Soda (NaHCO₃) | 0.9 g | — |
| Canning Salt (NaCl) | 0.5 g | 0.3 g |
Adjusted Mash Water Profile
| Sodium (Na): | 26 ppm |
|---|---|
| Calcium (Ca): | 191 ppm |
| Magnesium (Mg): | 3 ppm |
| Sulfate (SO₄): | 301 ppm |
| Chloride (Cl): | 57 ppm |
| Total Alkalinity (CaCO₃): | 148 ppm |
| Residual alkalinity: | 10 |
| Chloride to sulfate ratio: | 0.19 (Very Bitter) |
| pH: | 5.2 |
Continue reading “(33) Saturday, December 31, 2011 Brew Day — BVBHA1.5”
Changing the Night Horse
The start of the journal entry for my most recent batch of dry stout lists the changes from the previous batch. I did not expect much impact from the changes, so I felt comfortable changing five things at a time. Now that the new batch has fully conditioned and I can really appreciate it, I can say it is significantly different from the first. There are no overt flaws, but
- The roast flavor is harsher
- The body is thinner
- The head is lighter in color, thinner, is not long lasting, and leaves little lace
I want to look at the changes to see what I might want to do next time.
LHBS
I took a drive down the valley to the Bald Eagle Brewing Company today. Tom Sweet, the owner, seems like a friendly and knowledgable guy. He has a nice variety of beer and winemaking ingredients and equipment. Tom offers his own beer kits, grains and extracts from Briess and Muntons, yeast from Wyeast and Fermentis, and a nice range of what I think are Hopunion hops. I picked up a few things. His prices are within a few pennies of the best prices I can find online. I do not have to pay shipping. I do not have to wait days to get my ingredients. I think I will go back the next time I brew.
Local Home Brew Store
I am going to have to get myself over to the Bald Eagle Brewing Company. They are less than 40 minutes away.
View Bald Eagle Brewing Company in a larger map.
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(32) Saturday, November 26, 2011 Bew Day — Night Horse Dry Stout
Today is a re-brew of batch 29. Changes in today’s version include:
- Crisp Maris Otter in place of the Thomas Fawcett & Sons Halcyon malt
- Simpson’s Roasted Barley (550L) in place of the Briess Black Barley (500L) — I thought I ordered Crisp Roasted Barley (695L) but that’s not what my records show
- Re-pitching the Wyeast 1469-PC West Yorkshire Ale yeast from batch 31 in place of the Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale
- Single Infusion Mash in place of the Double Infusion Mash skipping the protein rest.
- As with batch 31, I am going to be using a low vigor boil — medium heat seemed to work fairly well
Note for next time: Gretchen pointed out the flaker marks on the flaked barley just like the ones she gets when she flakes oats for our oatmeal. We got a sack of barley from a local farmer to try our hand at malting, but we could use it directly just by running a pound of it through our flaker.
Continue reading “(32) Saturday, November 26, 2011 Bew Day — Night Horse Dry Stout”
Be a Drop Out
It might be a little hard to see, but if you look close you will see that the yeast have dropped out of about the top three inches of my carboy. This is what happens when you cold crash. If I let it go long enough, it would all drop out. Unfortunately, it does not look like it is going to make it in time for me, since I need the yeast in this carboy for the beer I am making tomorrow.
Update: By the next morning, the yeast had dropped to 4½ inches. For it to drop entirely, it would have to drop 10–11 inches. Since I put it into the fridge on Wednesday evening, it has been about 56 hours since crashing. That corresponds to about a 1/12 of an inch per hour (or an inch every 12 hours). In order to drop 10 inches, it would have to crash for 5 days — 6 to be on the safe side.