Homebrew Journeys

Pale Ale Critique

2011-04-26T23:34:00.001-07:00

Review of the Oaked Pale Ale I made 12 days ago. Never posted a recipe but I'll get to that later:

Pours a very nice amber color. Very clear for a dryhopped Oaked brew that I didn't filter. Thin white head and nice lacing.

Aroma is awesome. Tons of citrus and green hops. Could probably wait a bit longer to get rid of that green aroma but it smells awesome regardless. Could use more oak aroma.

Taste is very similar. Very nice citrus hop flavor, nice malt with a slight touch of sweetness and a nice hop bite. It could use more oak because if I didn't know it was there I don't know if I would pick it out. Tastes slightly green but it's so tasty I don't know if it matters.

Mouthfeel is that nice smooth pale ale feel like a Sierra Nevada. Could use a bit more carb so a couple more days of that would be good.

Overall this is actually one of the best pale ales I've ever had. Let alone brewed myself. Pretty proud of this beer. Brew it up yourself when I post the recipe. It's a good one. Next time I brew it I think I would only add more oak to give it more oakyness. Maybe give it a bit more time to get rid of some of the green. But it's very good for only 12 days old. Gunna brew up a 10 gal next week because this is gunna be gone quick.

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200th Follower!!!

2011-04-18T04:24:00.001-07:00

I decided today that my 200th follower on twitter will get a couple bottles of my Homebrew. I'll shoot you a private message and respond with your address and I'll send off the beer. Every 100 followers from then on will get the same for a while. If I start gettin way to many followers than I'll have to change it but I doubt that will happen. You also have to agree to give me a beer advocate style critique of my beer so I can see what others think. You will also need to send me proof that you are 21. Don't want underage peeps getting ahold of my beer. Last I can only really afford to ship to the continental 48. Sorry International and Hawaii/Alaska peeps.

Tweet me what you think about it. Is this corny? Am I just whoreing myself out? I just want others to try my beer really.

Thanks guys

Corey

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Mango and American Hefeweizen

2011-04-14T00:09:00.000-07:00

Brewed up a batch today. I've been really in to it lately. Been just thinking of ideas and have really been into learning everything about beer. Any way on to the recipe:

10 Gal Batch
Batch Sparge
Mash in @ 153 (target was 152)

12 Lbs 2 Row
12 Lbs Wheat Malt

1 oz Cascade @ 60min
2 oz Cascade @ 10min

WLP 320 American Hefe Yeast

5 gallons is going to be racked on some mango to make a mango hefe and the other 5 is just going to be straight up hefe

I broke my march pump today. Broke the threads right off. I was sooo pissed. But I found out I can replace the housing for $30. So not that bad. Had a bit of a stuck sparge but not that bad. Just slow. So not a bad brew day if you don't count the pump. I'm actually going to brew tomorrow with my roommate. Gunna do a pale ale. Straight forward. I'll post again tomorrow.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Brew Day - Imperial Porter

2011-04-07T17:10:00.001-07:00

Brewin up an Imperial Porter today to celebrate National Beer Day that commemorates the day the 21st amendment was added to the constitution repealing the prohibition. Been a while since I blogged but it's a bit easier from my phone. It's comin to a boil right now. Here's the recipe:

13 lbs 2 Row
2 lbs Pale Chocolate
2.5 lbs Munich
.5 lb crystal 40
1 lb crystal 120
1 lb crystal 60
.5 lb biscuit

Couldn't find the brown malt so that's what the biscuit and some crystal 60 is for.

1oz Magnum hops @ 60min
.5 oz of EKG @ 10

Mash at 154. Ferment with pacific ale yeast.

Honey DIPA Re-Do

2009-05-13T04:38:00.000-07:00

Well I decided I needed to re-do the honey DIPA i did a month or so ago because the hops didnt quite mingle. It was tastin good in the beggining but the hop profile was just not working. Here is the recipe:

Type: All Grain

OG: 1.089

Batch Size: 5.5gal

14lbs Two-Row (73.68%)

2lbs Honey Malt (10.03%)

2lbs Honey (10.03%)

1lb Cara-Foam (5.26%)

1oz Cascade First Wort Hop

1oz Summett @60min

1oz Centennial @20min

1oz Cascade @20 min

1oz Cascade @5min

1oz Summett @5min

1oz Centennial @5min

2oz Summett & Cascade Dry Hop

Mash @ 154F

Sparge@ 170F

I mashed High because of 2 reasons. 1, there is 2 lbs of honey to dry it out and honey malt is pretty sweet. 2, I used Wyeast Imperial Blend from the last private collection that is suppose to give 80%+ attenuation so I wanted some maltiness present. We will see how it turnes out but I know hops are going to be awesome. Lots of grapefruit/pineyness and then great tangerene from the Summett. Its gunna be tasty.

Wit

2009-05-04T15:56:00.000-07:00

Brewed a nice light wit beer yesterday with losts of orange peel for an awesome aroma. Here is the recipe.

Batch Size: 5 gal

Boil Time: 60min

Efficiency: 73%

OG: 1.048

5lbs Wheat (55.5%)

3lbs Golden Promice (33.3%)

1lb Flaked Oats

.5 oz Peril @ 60 Min

10z Sazz @ 30 min

10z dried bitter orange peel @ 5 min

1oz dried sweet orange peel @ 5min

zest of 3 fresh oranges peeled with potato peeler @ 5 min

1oz corriander @ 5 min

Double Infusion mash:

Protien rest @122F for 30 min

Saccrification Rest @ 144F for 30 min

Mash out @ 168 for 10 min

Sparge at 170F

Pitched a 2L starter that had 1.5 cups of DME in it.

I decided to start using buckets instead of glass so I can skim off the top and save yeast which is the best way to do it. Im going to skim off in a min and will post the procedure soon.

Brew Day Today

2009-04-22T16:27:00.000-07:00

Brewed up my saison/brett C batch today. Did a 10 gallon batch split into 2 6 gallon carboys. One carboy had a 2L starter pitched in it and the other had a pack of Wyeast Brettanomyces Clausseni pitched in it. OG was under shot (because I got about an extra gallon, must have calculated wrong) by 2 points. 1.055. Should have been 1.057 but 2 points isn't a huge deal. The mash started at 151 and went down about 2 degrees in 60min. This should be super tasty. A super light dry saison for the summer and a nice beer with pineapple and tropical fruit tartness in about 8 months. Cant wait.

I recommend that anyone considering jumping into all grain, start off with equipment big enough to do 10 gallon batches. You can do 2 different beers like I did today or have a bunch more beer in the same amount of time. Plus you will want to upgrade later anyway.

In the picture I ended up jerry riggin up a 3 tier system with 2 coolers I had laying around. I need to build a sparge arm so I can fly sparge. I just slowly poured the water from the top cooler to the bottom one though.

Sensitivity of Beer to Skunking

2009-04-16T15:37:00.000-07:00

This "test" is in response to the thread on Beer Advocate in which the argument was that beer can become "skunked" after only a minute or two in the sunlight. Some people even stated that after 30seconds they could taste the light struck effect. The thread can be found here.

A little information on what "skunked beer" is can be found here on:

Beer Advocate

franklinbrew.org

findarticles.com

Light struck beer on Wkikipedia: Lightstruck, or skunked, beer has been exposed to ultraviolet and visible light. The light causes riboflavin to react with and breakdown isohumulones, a molecule that contributes to the bitterness of the beer and is derived from the hops. The resulting molecule, 3-methylbut-2-ene-1-thiol, is very similar to a skunk's natural defenses.^[3]

In some cases, such as Miller High Life, a hop extract that does not have isohumulones is used to bitter the beer so it cannot be "lightstruck". Bottles with dark brown glass give some protection to the beer, but green and clear glass offer virtually no protection at all.^[4]

This experiment in no way is very scientific but it was as scientific as I could possibly make it. I don't have hundreds of people to study on and control groups, different glassware and an infinite amount of beer each with a different kind of hop, malt, and mashing method with different hop schedules... I guess you are catching my drift. I did however have a lot of training and schooling on research and have conducted several projects during the course of my Bachelors Degree and Masters Degree.

The experiment:

I filled 7 small plastic cups with 4oz pours of my super hoppy IPA that is only about 1 month old. I also filled 5 standard pint glasses with the same beer and set one aside in the shade. I did not have glass taster cups but I think the plastic ones are similar to what you might find at a beer tasting any way. Here is the hop schedule for this beer

All beers were brought into the sunlight at the same time and the timer was immediately started once the beers were brought into the light. I took 1 sip from a plastic cup, a pint glass and the pint glass in the shade every time.

I took the first sip at 30seconds. No taste difference to me.

I continued at 1 min increments until I hit 6 min then went to 2 min increments since I was not tasting any difference besides added warmth from the sun (and my stomach was getting full and I did not want to be wasted).

After 10 min there was still no sign of skunking so I switched to 5min increments because my stomach was very full. I finally stopped at 25 min with no detection of skunking because I really did not want to vomit.

Conclusion:

As far as my taste buds go they are either not extremely sensitive to 3-methylbut-2-ene-1-thiol (skunking) or the hops used don't give off as much of the compound or there could be a million other factors. I encourage others to try this out as well because it was pretty fun and is an excuse to drink some beer.

My Bugs Came In

2009-04-14T18:19:00.000-07:00

Today my bugs (and a couple other supplies) came in the mail today. From left to right starting at the top: Roeselare Blend 3763 (making a flanders red), Lambic Blend (don't know exactly what I will make yet), Imperial Blend (which looks like I will use for a big DIPA), Brett C (pitching into my Saison Recipe for a 100% brett), Pedio and Lacto (I dont know what I will do with those yet but nice to have around). Cant wait to make these beers but most of these will take a while in secondary before i can actually drink them. More info on the recipes later.

First attempt at a double decoction

2009-04-11T23:04:00.000-07:00

Today was my first attempt at a double decocted Bavarian Weizen. I tried to use LABrewer (Johnnyliberman on BA) schedule but things did not work out so well. Here was the sequence of events:

Strike Temperature was 122F which was perfect. I immediately pulled out 1/3 of the mash after stirring and brought it up to 156f and let sit for 15min then boiled for 15min.

The mash temp had dropped to 119F and I added the boiled grains but it only brought it up to 124F.

I previously had tried to leave back as much water as possible so I decided to pull out water and grains and only bring to a boil and keep adding untill I hit my final temp to begin vorlaufing. I pulled a third and brought it to a boil then added and it brought it to 144F. I pulled another 1/3, boiled, added and it brought it to 151F. Did a final boil of 1/3 and it brought the overall temp to 163 and I gave up there. Started the vorlauf.

Got a stuck sparge. I added more rice hulls and stirred it up again and let it settle and re-vorlaufed. That did the trick. Sparged at 170F.

Obviously I didn't have a fun brew day but once the boil started everything else ran smoothly. And my effiency was actually 82% which is about 14 points higher than normal. I would attribute that to the decoction process and that the mash time was longer than normal but adding some pH stableizer probably helped as well. Here is the recipe:

Batch size: 5 gallons
Boil Time: 60 min
Effiency: 82%
Grain Weight: 10lbs
OG: 1.066

7lbs wheat (70%)
3lbs German pilsner (30%)

1oz Hallertauer @ 25min

Pitched on saved yeast cake of White Labs WLP300 german weizen yeast.
Ferment at 75F to bring out lots of banana

I'm still waiting on my bugs from Northernrewer so I can do my Bret C experiment. Next brew after that is probably going to be a Belgian Quad.

Saison/Brett C Experiment

2009-04-07T02:19:00.000-07:00

For my next beer I plan to brew this week I am going to brew a traditional Saison for the first half of the batch and throw Wyeast 5151-PC Brettanomyces claussenii (Brett C) that just came out this month in the second half. Here is the recipe:

10 gallon batch
All grain
68% Efficiency
Anticipated OG: 1.058
Anticipated FG: 1.017

16Lbs Pilsner 72.73%
4Lbs Munich 10L 18.18%
2Lbs Corn Sugar (Dry it out)

2oz Northern Brewer @ 30min (22.4 IBU)
2 oz Willamette @ 5min (3.8 IBU)

Mash in @ 150 for 60 min
Batch Sparge

I will split the batch into 2 6 gallon primaries and pitch a 2L starter of White Labs Saison 1 yeast into one and then the Wyeast 5151-PC Brettanomyces claussenii into the other and leave that one alone for at least 6 months.

Here is the yeast profile on the Brett C:
Beer Styles: Lambics, Geuze, Fruit Lambic, Flanders Red Ale
Profile: Isolated from English stock ale, this wild yeast produces a mild Brett character with overtones of tropical fruit and pineapple. It ferments best in worts with a reduced pH after primary fermentation has begun. May form a pellicle in bottles or casks. Typically used in conjunction with other yeast and lactic acid bacteria.

Alc. Tolerance 12% ABV
Flocculation medium
Attenuation 80%
Temperature Range 60-75°F (15-24°C)

I am only going to use the Brett C as the primary yeast and make a 100% bret beer and hopefully get some good tropical fruit/pineapple from it. I have heard it can be used in a 100% brett beer and has good results.

The Saison I plan to ferment vey high. At 80F to get a lot of good spicy characters from the yeasts. I chose such a simple recipe because I dont think farmers in France/Belgium where it originated from really dropped a bunch of crap in their beers and I am going to let the yeast shine in this one. I want it light crisp and refreshing. I will report back with pictures and how it turned out later...

My Equipment

2009-04-05T18:16:00.000-07:00

Here are pics of my Home Brew set up. I still have alot of stuff I want to buy (there is always stuff to buy) and most importantly I want a grain mill, a hot liquor tank and currently I am working with my dad to build a three tier set up. Any way here is my stuff:

This is the cabinet in the garage where I keep my home brewing stuff. I need more cabinets...

My brew pot and wort chiller. Its a 15 gallon with a nice SS ball valve and a thermometer. The wort chiller is nice and big for the 10 gallon batches.

The mash ton. It is a 48qt cooler with a ball valve and a home made false bottom manifold made out of 1/2 copper pipe.

Here is a close up of the copper manifold. I used a dremmel tool to cut the slots. They are about1/3 of an inch apart.

I use a pre-chiller during the warmer months since my tap water gets pretty warm in the summer and it makes it hard to cool the wort. I just dump ice into the bucket to pre-chill the water that is going to the main wort chiller.

My fermentation control fridge. Its a Pepsi fridge that you see at grocery stores holding the 20oz bottles at the cash register. The top shelf holds my most precious brews I have aquired in trades or bought (yes that is a Deviation 9th on the far right). It can hold 2 carboys side by side.

This is the 2 stage controller to control the temperature of the fermentation. The probe goes into a thermowell that is inserted into the carboy cap and then down into the fermenting beer. This reads the temp of the actual liquid inside. The fridge plugs into stage one and cools it down if the temp goes higer than what you set it at. I then plug a heat wrap into stage two so if it goes below a certain temp this will heat it up. It stays within 1 degree of the target temperature I want to achieve. The 2 stage controller is kind of expensive but it is worth every penny. If you are brewing in the winter and you want to brew a Hefeweizen with lots of banana, it needs to ferment in the upper 70's and you will need to be able to heat it up. Same thing for a saison. It just adds more control.

Honey Double IPA

2009-04-04T23:06:00.000-07:00

This will be my first blogged home brew recipe. I don't feel like going back to all the batches that I have brewed in the past so I am going to start with the most recent brew I have made. It is a Double IPA brewed with 3 Lbs of honey. My best beer buddy was down here from the bay area and we decided to brew a beer together and this is what he wanted to brew. It is still in the primary since fermentation is kind of slow with that much honey so it's going to be a while longer. It has 12 different hop additions including the dry hop but I won't be able to dry hop untill the fermentation is done. I will dry hop in the primary for 4 days then rack to secondary to clear it up. The last double IPA I did was my first all grain batch and it had way too many IBU's and not enough malt. This one I steped up the malt and droped the IBU's down a bit.

The perpose of the honey was to dry the beer out a bit since it is 100% fermentable but I am hoping there will be some residual honey flavor left when all is said and done.

Here is the recipe:

14 lbs (75.68%) 2 Row
1lb (5.41%) Crystal 40L
1/2lb (2.7%) Cara-Pils
3 lbs of orange blossom honey addedat last 5min (16.22%)

2oz Magnum (14%) @ 60min
1oz Sterling (7.5%) @ 20min
1oz Galena (13%) @ 17min
1oz Williamette (5.5%) @ 10min
1oz Sterling @10min
1oz Williamette @ 5min
1oz Galena @ 4min
1oz ea Centennial & Glacier @ flame out

1oz ea of Galena, Sterling, and Willamette will be dropped in to dry hop

Total IBU's: 149.7
Color: 9.3

Mashed in a little too high at 156F with 5 gallons of water for 60 min but it got down to 154 before I sparged. Did a batch sparge, since I don't have a hot liquor tank yet or a sprinkler, with 3 more gallons. I recirculated about 20 times to get it as clear as possible since my last DIPA was too cloudy for my taste. My efficiency was only 63% on this one but good thing I had calculated for that. Hit my OG @ 1.091 but with only 4.7 gallons of wort. Pitched a large 2000ml starter with 2 cups of DME of WLP001. I really need to get my own mill so I can crush a little finer. This one will be force carbed and on tap I'm hoping in about a week and a half from now. FG will come soon along with tasting notes.

2009-04-01T21:47:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of my Kegerator and bar set up. I run 4 beers on tap and bottle some of them as well so I can take them to friends houses or give them out. My glassware collection is on that shelf in the back and all the spirits are at the bar. One of these days when I actually own the house I live in I will build a bar and incorporate the kegs into the bar itself but that is later on down the road.

My first blog ever

2009-04-01T01:39:00.001-07:00

I always thought blogging was kind of stupid. People just babbling on about their day in an online journal so everyone can see. Then I realized how much a blog can help someone if it has alot of info in it just like some other homebrew blogs I have been reading and learning alot from. That is why i decided to make this one. Also because it will help me keep a good log of how my beers went when I was making them and how they ended up tasting when finished.

Take a journey with me on my homebrew adventures. Maybe you will learn something....