American Wheat Pale Ale

This time around I set out to brew a nice and dry, wheat based American Pale Ale.  I wanted to pack in as much orange and lemon zest notes that I could into a fairly easy drinking wheat based beer.  I toyed with the idea of adding some lemon and orange zest to one of the kegs, however once I tasted the finished beer I decided to pass on the citrus zest addition.  Between the Sorachi Ace and Amarillo hops this beer had all the citrus notes that I wanted from the hops alone.  I'm still not certain I love what the Sorachi Ace hops added to this beer.  Yes the lemon notes are there, however I do get hints of the dreaded "dill" that other brewers have noted with the use of Sorachi Ace. The next time around I may switch out he Sorachi Ace hops with some Citra hops.  I did like how the WLP320 - American Wheat yeast kept the yeast profile  of this beer fairly neutral and it certainly dried it out. My final gravity was closer to 1.005 and the oats helped the beer to maintain some body.  The keys to this beer is the use of the oats (at least 4%) and the heavey use of late addition hops and dry hops. The recipe is simple and I feel as though it makes one great hoppy summer beer.

11 gallon batch

Malt

13 lbs of Wheat Malt (54 %)
10 lbs of American Pale 2 Row (42%)
1 lb of Flaked Oats (4%)

1 lb of rice hulls

Hops

1.5 oz of Columbus at 60 Minutes
2 oz of Sorachi Ace at 10 Minutes
2 oz of Amarillo at KO

2 oz of Amarillo Dry – Pellets (7 Days)

1 oz of Sorachi Ace Dry – Pellets (7 Days)

Yeast

WLP320 – American Wheat

Targets

Pre-Boil Gravity – 1.049
OG – 1.057
FG – 1.008
ABV – 6.5%
IBU's - 40

Mash

7.5 gallons of mash water at 145-148 F
9 gallons of sparge water


Boil
60 Minute Boil

I plan to brew a Black IPA this weekend with my good friend Mike Ingrassia.  Once we see how that one turns out we will post the recipe here.

Death Metal Recipe Published

So it's been a while since I have posted an update to this blog.  When I noticed today that Sam Calagione's new book Extreme Brewing, A Deluxe Edition was released on June 1st, I figured it was time that I at least throw a quick update on the old homebrewing blog.  Sam featured my Death Metal recipe in the updated version of his book and I realized that a link to this blog was published in that book.  So if you have come across this blog after reading my recipe in the book, I welcome you!  I will do my best to stay on top of updating this blog with new recipes and my various other adventures in craft brewing as best I can.

Death Metal did bring home another first place this past weekend in the annual Buzz Off Homebrew Competition. The results are posted here.

If you would like more information on Death Metal and my experience brewing with Dogfish Head the best summary is posted here.

If anyone has tried out the recipe that was published, please get in touch with me.  I would love to figure out a way to try your homebrewed version of my beer!

American IPA 2011 v2.0

I blogged earlier about 2011 being the Year of the IPA for me. Basic plan is to brew 4 IPAs in 2011 and change the recipe sligtly based on feedback from the local homebrew competitions I enter (there are 4 major ones). My American IPA 2011 v1.0 did pretty well at this years War of the Worts homebrew competition, placing 2nd out of 54 entries. I got some useful feedback (probalby got more from my friends, but oh well). Decided that maybe a touch more maltiness, an increase in bitterness and a touch more aroma hops might do the trick. This time around I switched the bittering hops from Citra to Warrior pushing the IBUs to 105. I also threw in a lb of Melanoidin malt which might help add a little malt flavor and body. Tossed in an extra ounce of Citra into the dry hop as well. All minor changes, so I guess we will see how it turns out. ,

Here is the recipe as it stands. I plan to brew this Sunday, April 3rd so if you read this and are interested in stopping by just contact me. 10 Gallon Batch
60 Minute Boil Based on 80% Mash Efficiency

Grain
14 lbs of American 2 Row
5 lbs of Maris Otter
2 lbs of Crystal 20
1.5 lbs of Carapils
1 lb of Melanoidin

Hops
3 oz of Warrior (15.8% AA) for 60 Minutes
1 oz of Centennial (13.4% AA) for 30 Minutes
1 oz of Amarillo (10.7% AA) and Citra (13.4% AA) for 10 Minutes
1 oz of Amarillo and Citra for 5 Minutes
1 oz of Amarillo and Citra at KO

2 oz of Amarillo and 3 oz of Citra Dry Hop for 12 days
1 oz of Amarillo and Citra Dry Hop for 5 days

Yeast
Wyeast 1056 American Ale – 2 packs with large starter

Targets
Pre-Boil Gravity = 1.057
OG = 1.069
FG = 1.010
ABV = 7.9 %
IBU = 105

Mash
7.5 gallons @ 152 for 60 minutes

Sparge
Fly sparge with 9.5 gallons of water

Sour Cherry Bock

Well I decided to enter into the world of Lagers. Although half of this batch is going to have quite a twist. Since I have been brewing mostly 10 gallon batches lately I have been trying to do something "different" with "other" half of each batch. This time around I decided to brew a fairly traditional Bock beer. First thought was to brew a Doppelbock, however I set out to create a recipe that would fall on the "lower end" of the Doppelbock category in order to keep the abv under 8% (didn't want to kill the souring bugs). This recipe turned out to be more in line with the Traditional Bock category. Here is the recipe.

10.5 Gallon Batch
90 Minute Boil

Grains
20 lbs of Munich Malt
5 lb of Pilsner Malt
3.5 lbs of CaraMunich
0.5 lb of Melanodin

Hops
3 oz of Hallertauer (3.8% AA) for 60 minutes
1 oz of Hallertauer for 30 minutes

Yeast
WLP833 German Bock Lager – 2 vials with 2,000 ML Starter (built up three times)

Targets
Pre-Boil Gravity = 1.052-1.055
OG = 1.070
FG = 1.016
ABV = ~7 %
IBU = 20

Mash
9 gallons @ 155 for 60 minutes (might not fit the whole 9 gallons, start with 8)

Sparge
Fly sparge with 10 gallons of water

Fermentation
Ferment at 50 degrees F for up to a month.

The Sour Half
Second half with be soured with Lacto, Pedio and Brett along with 2 cans of Oregon Cherry Puree over the course of the extended souring secondary. Once the original beer has finished I plan to transfer to a carboy and start out with one pack of Wyeast 5335 Lactobacillus and one pack of Wyeast 5733 Pediococus for the first three months along with one can of the pureee. After approximately 3 months I will add another can of cherries and a pack of Wyeast 5526 Brettanomyces lambicus. Let sit until ready (at least 10 months to a year). For those of you who are a little more experience in sour beer fermentation please let me know if you have any thoughts on this plan.

Year of the IPA

Well in 2010 I was all about the Double (or like some like to say Imperial) IPA. I brewed my Double IPA about 4 times last year and used that as my focus for the local homebrew competitions. This year I decided to change gears (although just slightly). "Regular" American IPA's it is. The American IPA category gets a considerable higher number of entries in homebrew competitions making for stiffer competition. Plus I purchased a new 14 gallon conical fermentor so I'll be brewing mostly 10 gallon batches this year and well...my mash tun just can't handle the grain bill of the Double IPA's. I plan to brew tomorrow AM (1/15/11), getting started around 9. Feel free to swing by the garage.

Here is the first version of my 2011 IPA's.

2011 IPA Version 1.0

11 Gallon Batch
60 Minute Boil

Grain
17 lbs of American 2 Row
5 lbs of Maris Otter
2 lbs of Crystal 20
1.5 lbs of Carapils

1 lb of Corn Sugar (added last 5 minutes of the boil)

Hops
3 oz of Citra for 60 Minutes
1 oz of Centennial for 30 Minutes
1 oz of Amarillo and Citra for 10 Minutes
1 oz of Amarillo and Citra for 5 Minutes
1 oz of Amarillo and Citra at KO

2 oz of Amarillo and Citra Dry Hop for 12 days
1 oz of Amarillo and Citra Dry Hop for 5 days

Yeast
Wyeast 1056 American Ale – 2 packs with large starter

Targets
Pre-Boil Gravity (without sugar) = 1.049
OG = 1.064
FG = 1.010
ABV = 7.2 %
IBU = 83

Mash
8 gallons @ 152 for 60 minutes

Sparge
Fly sparge with 10 gallons of water

*Photo has nothing to do with an IPA. I just thought it looks cool. Actually not even sure what beer that was.

American Stout

This past weekend I brewed up an Amerian Stout. I wanted to push the limits of my all grain system to see how big of a beer I could mash in my current 10 gallon cooler system. Well it looks like 27 lbs is about the max. That adds up to around a 6% abv all grain beer. I recently upgraded to a 14 gallon conical fermentor (will post more on that in another blog post) so I'm going to be focused more on doing 10-11 gallon batches. Wishing my mash tun was just a littler larger, guess it might be time to work on perfecting the lower ABV session beers. I made a few changes to my brew stand as well. Basically raised the two horizontal pieces so I can go directly from my mash tun into my boil kettle while it's on the burner (lifting 13-14 gallones of wort from the floor onto a burner didn't sound fun).

11 Gallon Batch
60 Minute Boil

Grain
20 lbs of American 2 Row
2 lbs of Roasted Barley
1.5 lbs of Pale Chocolate Malt
1.5 lbs of Crystal 40
2 lbs of Flaked Oats

Hops
2 oz of Simcoe for 60 Minutes
2 oz of Centennial for 30 Minutes
2 oz of Amarillo at KO

Yeast
Wyeast 1056 American Ale – 2 packs with large starter

Targets
Pre-Boil Gravity = 1.050
OG = 1.061
FG = 1.014
ABV = 6.1%
IBU = 57

Mash
8.5 gallons @ 152 for 60 minutes

Sparge
Fly sparge with 10 gallons of water

I plan to keg 5 gallons of this beer. I may even try out dry hopping it in the keg depending on how the hop aroma is. I like my stouts to have a bit of a citrusy hop aroma to them. The other 5 gallons I plan to transfer into a secondary fermentor no cocoa nibs. I may even try to incorporate some Dogfish Head Peanut Butter Vodka into a few of the chocolate stout bottles. We shall see...

The Barrel Has Arrived

The Jack Daniel bourbon barrel has arrived. Just need to wait out the fermentation of everyones Russian Imperial Stout and then it will be time to head back over to Vince to fill this sucker up!