All Hopped Up-5

 This is our 5th iteration of our enormously popular Double Imperial aromatically hoppy ale. Last time we failed to add gypsum to the boil, and the results were a much less hoppy beer, but a fair comparison to Arrogant Bastard. Since we love the hops, and want to downplay the carmel maltiness a bit, we'll return to the gypsum and reduce the Crystal 60 from 2 to 1 pound in this 10 gallon recipe. Here's the plan for brewing on Memorial Day 2012:

Grain bill (which we've never documented previously!):
30 lbs Great western Organic (California grown and malted!) 2 row malt
2 lbs Briess Organic Carapils malt
1 lb (previously 2) Great Western Organic Crystal 60 malt

Mash grains in about 10 gallons water (147 degrees for 40 mins; 151 deg for 20 mins).

Fly sparge: Vorlauf; add 4 gallons water at 170 deg.

First Wort Hopping (FWH): add 1 oz Columbus to sparge/wort receiving vessel. Total time for sparge: 30 minutes, concurrently heating wort to boil.

At start of boil: (goes for 90 mins)

• add 3oz Columbus
• add 6T gypsum (to harden soft water and bring out hop aromas)
• add 2# organic sugar cane

at 80 mins into boil: Add 4 oz Chinook

at 85 mins into boil: Add 4 oz Cascade

At end of boil ("knock out"):

• Add 4 oz American Summit (very hoppy smell)
• Add 1 oz German Hallertaur tradition
• Add 2 oz Pilgrim

Original gravity expected: 1.080

Yeast starter (White Labs California Ale yeast) started 72 hours prior to pitching, using 1.5 liters water per starter. Pitched at 71 F at 9:15p.m. on 5/28/12.

Dave Chocolate Oatmeal Stout

Daves Chocolate Oatmeal Stout - Batch 2

When the 2012 Aikido raffle winner mused that he liked dark and sweet, I knew what we had to make.  This was so fantastic the first time.

Ingredients for 10 U.S. gallons
Target Original Gravity: 1.073
Approximate Final Gravity: 1.017
Anticipated IBU: 19.9
Anticipated ABV: 7.27%
Wort Boil Time: 60 minutes

Grain:
20 lb Gambrinus Pale Malt 3L
4 lb Gambrinus Munich Malt 10L
1.5 lbs Pale Chocolate Malt 350SRM
1 lb Roasted Barley 300SRM
1 lb Oats, flaked


Hops;
1.5 oz Pacific Gem pellet hops (15.0% AAU) at the beginning of the boil

Addition:
12 oz Cocoa Powder (Organic, Fair Trade)


Yeast:
Irish Ale (Wyeast #1084)
Started two starters back on 2/8/12.

Mash; 8 gallons @ 153d
Sparge; 7 1/2 gallons @ 170d


Start of boil;
1.5oz Pacific Gem hops
Boil 30min

Add
12oz Cocoa Powder
Boil 10min

Add
1t Irish Moss
Immersion cooler
Boil 20min.


OG: 1.061 (maybe..we have a bad device we think)
Put in chamber at 60d air.  Planning to pitch at 68d and hold there at 4 days.


Ferm Update;
Pitched at 10pm and by 7am it was bubbling away.  Must be the warm temp that I'm holding it at.  The air temp has been set at 66 and the carboys are showing around 68.  You can hear the bubbles from outside the garage..it's going crazy!

Cheers!

All Hopped Up---Yum!

Tasted All Hopped Up over the weekend. Deliciously hoppy, great nose and head. Rivals my favorite micro-brewed beer, Hop Stoopid, by Lagunitas. Only made 5 gallons--next time it will be 10!

American Wheat

Well, I guess I'll post the Wheat brewing even though we are going to have to back date the "Daves' Chocolate Stout" and the ensuing beer floats (I was dubious).

For a party coming up in a few moths that I promised I would bring along some beer...I decided (after speaking to the master of ceremonies) that I would bring the second attempt at an American Wheat beer (none of those strange banana / clove flavors for me, thanks).  The first attempt won a third place ribbon, so I feel slightly comfortable making it for a party.  Still very nerviness about having people drink the beer I make...maybe some day when I need a forklift for my hobby, I'll feel more certain.

Brewing went pretty well til trying to move the beer into the carboys.  We had not used hop bags this time, to increase the hop utilization.  What a mess!


Started with two of the 7Bridges Weissbier kits

Grain
11 lbs Pale wheat malt
4 lbs   Pale 2-row malt
4 lbs   Pilsner malt

Hops
1 oz German Saphir pellets.  Boil for 40min
1 oz New Zealand Cascade (not in normal recipe). Boil for 40min
2 oz German Hallertaur Tradition pellets.  Boil for 15min
1 oz New Zealand Cascade (not in normal recipe). Boil for 10min
1 oz German Saphir pellets. Boil for 5min

No Irish moss.

Yeast (used two slightly different ones..was going to use an American Wheat yeast but it was DOA in my starter..crazy)

White Labs - WLP001 CA Ale
 WYeast 1056 - America Ale

Heated 5 gallons of water to 140f and mashed the grain at 125f for 20min.
Heat 3 gallons of water to 200f and added to grain to bring up temp to 150f.  We found we needed to add more heat from the bottom to get to 150f.
Mashed for 40min for starch conversion.
Sparged with 7 gallons of 170 water with our normal 'half at a time' batch sparge method we have been using.
Boiled like normal, it was really fun to see the green oils in the boil pot from the hop pellets as we did not use hop bags.

Cooled to about 95 and then started draining into the carboys...we could see right away that there was quite a lot of hop debris in the liquid.  Started clogging right after three or so gallons.  Dave scraped away at the bazooka filter while I scraped the filter in the funnel.  Not so fun!  Eventually, we got exactly 10 gallons of liquid but we did leave behind a good half gallon of yummy sludge (or so I imagine).

Later that night (after seeing the Santa Cruz Derby Girls for the first time..great fun!) pitiched the yeast at around 67f.

Left it at 67f overnight and down to 66 the next morning.
March 22nd. Lowered the temperature to 64 so it will be clean and crisp!

All Hopped Up

Dave initially called it "Hop Silly", but I call it "All Hopped Up". We went for a hoppy, hoppy beer, more hoppy than any we've made before. Here's how we did it:

Grains in about 5 gallons water (147 degrees for 40 mins; 151 deg for 20 mins).

Modified hybrid sparge: Vorlauf; add 1 gallon water at 170 deg. Drain. Repeat.

First Wart Hopping (FWH): add .5 oz Columbus + .5 oz Homegrown whole hops to sparge/wort receiving vessel. Total time for sparge: 40 mins. Then begin heating wort to boil.

At start of boil: (goes for 90 mins)

• add 1.5 oz Columbus
• add 3T gypsum (to harden soft water)
• add 1# organic sugar cane

at 80 mins into boil: Add 2 oz Chinook

at 85 mins into boil: Add 2 oz Cascade

At end of boild "knock out":

• Add 2 oz American Summit (very hoppy smell)
• Add .5 oz GermanHallertaur tradition
• Add 1 oz Pilgram

Original gravity measured at: 1.080

Yeast starter started 12 hours prior to pitching. Pitched at 71 F at 9:15a.m on 1/30/11.

2/9/11: Specific gravity: 1.020
Dry hop: Added 3 oz New Zealand Cascade Hops (pellet)
Tasted sample: Very hoppy! Delicious--very hopeful for a hoppy end product.

Chocolate Oatmeal Stout

Chocolate Oatmeal Stout

Following on the heels of the deliciously successful chocolate stout I made a few months ago (using 7 Bridges' great kit based on Bison Brewing's wonderful beer), Gresham and I brewed 10 gallons of a new recipe we developed: Chocolate Oatmeal Stout. We're looking to slightly increase the body of the first chocolate stout, and give a silkier mouthfeel. So we did our best to develop a well-balanced grain bill, added flaked oats, and mashed at a slightly higher temperature.

Ingredients for 10 U.S. gallons
Target Original Gravity: 1.073
Approximate Final Gravity: 1.017
Brewhouse Efficiency: will figure this out%
Anticipated IBU: 19.9
Anticipated ABV: 7.27%
Wort Boil Time: 60 minutes

Grain:
20 lb Gambrinus Pale Malt 3L
4 lb Munich Malt 10L
1.5 lbs Pale Chocolate Malt 350SRM
1 lb Roasted Barley 300SRM
1 lb Oats, flaked


Hops;
Hardly any! 1.25 oz Pacific Gem pellet hops (15.0% AAU) at the beginning of the boil

Addition:
12 oz Cocoa Powder (Organic, Fair Trade)


Yeast:
At the suggestion of Tim at Seven Bridges, we pitched two different yeasts--one in each carboy:
American Ale (Wyeast #1056).
Irish Ale (Wyeast #1084)
Started two starters back on 2/3/11.

Directions and brewing notes:
single mash: 7 gallons water @150F x 40 mins., then added 1 gallon 190F water to raise temp to 165F

Sparging:
Hybrid sparge technique:

1. Vorlauf, and then add 2.5 gallons 170F water
2. Stir and rest 10 mins
3. Drain into boil pot
   
4. Repeat steps 1-3 above

Bring wort to boil: Add 1.25 oz Pacific Gem pellet hops (15.0% AAU) at the beginning of the boil. Boil for 20 mins., add 12 oz Cocoa Powder, boil 10 mins. Add .5 tsp Irish Moss, boil 20 mins. Cool wort and pitch at 72F. Hold at 68F for 4 days, then to 63F for 3 weeks.

OG: 1.0725

CopperHead 3

Brew date 12/29/2010

Look at us go!

This is the third brewing of our CopperHead recipe and our first time making 10 gallons in our converted kegs.  We don't have much equipment for this except our two keggles and a propane burner.  Outdoor brewing here we come!







CopperHead 3 (and yea it bit us)

Ingredients for 10 U.S. gallons 
Target Original Gravity: 1.066
Approximate Final Gravity: 1.016
Brewhouse Efficiency: will figure this out%
Anticipated IBU: 
Anticipated ABV: 6.66% 
Wort Boil Time: 90 minutes 

28 lbs of grain..whoot!

Grain:
22 lb Gambrinus Pale Malt 3L (we reduced our grain by a pound to reduce the gravity a bit)
2 lb  Crystal 40L 
2 lb  Munich Malt 8L 
1 lb  Victory Malt 25L 
1 lb  Caramel 120L 
.5 lb  Pale Chocolate Malt 200L 


Hops;
This is a bit crazy as we had won two hop samplers and wanted to use them up. We also added one ounce at 60min to add a tiny bit of traditional bittering even though this recipe is all about late addition.

60min
 1 oz German Spalt Select (5.5 AAU)


20min 
1 oz. American Summit whole hops (13.9 AAU)
1 oz. New Zealand pellet hops (16.8 AAU)

Trying to figure out which hops when...

15min
1 teaspoon Irish Moss
Immersion wort chiller
10min
2 oz. American Cascasde whole hops (7.7 AAU)
1 oz. New Zealand Rakau whole hops (16.8 AAU)
1 oz. New Zealand Cascade whole hops (8.9 AAU)
0min
2 oz. American Cascasde whole hops (7.7 AAU)
1 oz. American Summit pellets (13.1 AAU)
1 oz. New Zealand Hallertaur (7.4 AAU)


Yeast;
White Labs California Ale WLP 001.  Started two starters back on 12/24.

Directions and brewing notes: 

Is this thing on?

heating;

10am Started heading 10 Gallons water to 162 which took about an hour.  We probably could have gone up faster but didn't want to blast the new burner until we felt more comfortable with it.

Pouring in the grain for the mash

mash;

Single infusion mash at 154F (68C) using 10 Gallons of water.  We added a bit of heat now and then to keep it up.  After mashing for 30min we did a starch test and then started adding more heat to stop the starch conversion.  

Batch Sparging;

Six gallons of 170 degree water

action shot of vorlauf!

• Vorlauf (recirculation of wort though the grain)
• Ran the mashing water out quickly and started adding heat right away. It is great to have two pots to use.
• Put half the sparge water on the grain. Gently stirred and let rest for 5 minutes.
• Vorlauf again.
• Ran the water out quickly
• Repeat with the second part of the sparge water.

Boil;

First time running into the boil pot!

Again ran a 90 minute boil that enhances the blood-red color. It also adds a touch more melanoidin and caramel notes.

We ran into major trouble after the boiling with getting the wort out!!!!  Totally blocked and ended up tearing off the home made "hop taco" off the pick-up tube and then having to pour out from the top of the keggle into our old 10 gallon pot to drain into the carboys.

Only gathered about 8 gallons of wort with a gravity reading of over 1.080..sheesh.  Placed this in fermentation chamber at 63 degrees to lower wort a bit before pitching.  Boiled up 5 gallons of water to get up to 5.5 gallons in each.  That cooling took until midnight!  After adding some water and hitting 75 degrees..Took a reading of OG 1.070 (1.071 with temperature adjustment) and pitched in the middle of a huge storm. Hurray!  The wort was very bitter (wonder why) and lots of hop particles.  A bit of cold crashing at the end will take care of that.


At 8am this morning..one of the fermenter was showing visible signs of fermentation and the other one was flat...at 1pm both of them showed some krausen rising.



12/29 6pm
The krausen...she is rising!  Looked over the notes on the other times we made this and raised the temperature to 68 degrees.

1/10/2011 8:30pm


Almost three weeks fermenting so I took a gravity reading to see if fermentation is done.

Final Gravity: 1.010!

Wow, that yeast did some hard work.  The sample is very cloudy...yum..very smooth and not overly bitter.  This is going to be a show stopper as long as we don't get any alcohol warmth after it's been in the bottle.

Alcohol by volume should be around; 8.04 %

I'll take another reading on Thursday or Friday before cold crashing.

Apfelwein

With some brewing experience under my belt and some "why don't you make some wine" questions from Andrea.  A few months ago (9/13/2010) , I started some apple wine fermenting.

2 1/2 Gallons Organic Apple Juice
1 lb Brown Sugar
1 packet of champagne yeast (I think).


I added the Juice and Sugar in parts while shaking  really well to oxygenate and dissolve the brown sugar.  Placed the vapor lock on top and placed it in my fermentation chamber around 70 degrees.  It bubbled quite vigorously for a few weeks but then died out.  I was a little worried and thought the yeast and died out but took a gravity reading while we kegged the Sasion and it was basically 1.00 or maybe lower!

Dave just happened to bring a T-splitter for a gas line over as he just had one sitting around.  What luck! So, I placed this under 20lbs pressure for 6 days and should add a little sparkle in time for the Thanksgiving crowd.

 11/26
After setting up the keg for the party and dispensing some of this sparkling wine, everyone seemed to like it. It was very dry and had faint notes of apple with a clean finish.

I will make this again and try to bottle some with some back sweetener to increase the apple just a tiny bit.

Bison Chocolate Stout

The 7 Bridges all grain kit for Organic Bison Chocolate Stout, using Wyeast #1056 American Ale yeast, based on the National Organic Homebrew Challenge's 2009 Best in Show: Bison Brewing's Chocolate Stout. Brew date 11/13/2010; started at 6 a.m.

Seven Bridges (http://www.breworganic.com/) just developed this recipe in conjunction with Bison Brewing (http://www.bisonbrew.com/), using a proprietary, undisclosed mix of grains. I appear to be the first home brewer to brew this recipe! (They didn't even have the printout for the all-grain recipe available yet--so if anything goes wrong, that's why...)


BISON CHOCOLATE STOUT

*NB: No Bison were harmed in the brewing of this beer.

Ingredients for 5 U.S. gallons
Target Original Gravity: 1.064-1.064
Approximate Final Gravity: 1.014-1.020
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70%
Anticipated IBU: 25
Anticipated ABV: 5.5%
Wort Boil Time: 60 minutes

11.45 lbs Special proprietary Organic Grain mix

0.5 oz. New Zealand Pacific Gem Organic pellet hops, bittering-(25 IBU)-60'
6 oz. Organic Fair Trade Cocoa Powder-30'
0.5 tsp. Organic Irish Moss flakes-20'
Yeast: Wyeast #1056 American Ale yeast; Ferment at 68F (20 C).

Directions and brewing notes: single mash: 4 gallons water @150F x 40 mins., then added 1 gallon 190F water to raise temp to 165F

Sparging:
Hybrid sparge technique:

1. Vorlauf, and then add 1.75 gallons 170F water
2. Stir and rest 10 mins
3. Drain into boil pot
   
4. Repeat steps 1-3 above

Bring wort to boil: Add .5 oz New Zealand Pacific Gem Organic pellet hops, boil 20 mins. add 6 oz Cocoa Powder, boil 10 mins. Add .5 tsp Irish Moss, boil 20 mins. (It looks like a giant pot of hot chocolate!) OG; 1.060 (right on!) Tucked carboy into dining room closet--just like the old days!--because I want to ferment between 70-75F, and the laundry room has been running closer to 60F. Pitched yeast at 72F@11:30 a.m. (yeast had been started 12 hours earlier).

11/13/10: 6:45 p.m.
Fermentation has begun!

11/22/10: Specific Gravity is now at 1.020--is fermentation complete??

11/28/10: Specific Gravity remains at 1.020--fermentation is finished! I now have to find time to bottle. Ahh, the demanding chores of the home brewer! (The flavor of the uncarbonated sample is delicious! The cocoa really comes through on the palate (though not in the nose). This'll be a keeper!