Upcoming Beers on the Homebrew Front

Well I’ve got a number of things in the queue that I’m real excited about, including several SMaSH beers:

• Maris Otter / Simcoe SMaSH with WY1968 London ESB Ale Yeast
• 2-row / Fuggles SMaSH with an extra-long boil to increase malliard reactions
• Vienna / Cascade SMaSH (yeast?)
• Another Petite Saison SMaSH fermented at 64-66F (with different base malt/hops this time, TBD)
• Bleach Blonde Ale IV (it still hasn’t been made, lol, even tho I already blogged it)
• Elderberry Wheat III (identical recipe, possibly a slightly different yeast)
• An American Pale Ale with 2-row, munich, vienna, cara-amber, and honey malt, hops schedule TBD, probably an ounce each Cascade/Centennial at 5 minutes with magnum bittering and serebrianka dry hops
• An American / Oatmeal Stout – I haven’t made a stout in a while and my last one came out GREAT!  (I might just make that one again, or something close to it).
• “Election Stout” a rather complex but tasty looking pseudo-session beer, recipe by GreenKrusty101
• Something “session” or “mild,”  Preferably English.
• A Rye beer, fairly hoppy

Note that I’ve done enough American IPAs and hoppy APAs for the moment.  We’re in different territory now.  Not everything has to be super-hopped.  In fact I’ve had trouble finding commercial beers lately that aren’t IPAs or hoppy APAs.

Cloning Pliny The Elder – My First Double IPA

Well I’m going to attempt a Pliny the Elder clone this weekend.   Consistently rated as one of the best beers on the planet, Pliny deserves its reputation.  With ratings of 100 on BA and 100/100 on ratebeer.com, it seems the rest of the craft beer geek world agrees.  If you’ve ever had Pliny, you’ll probably agree too.  I don’t think I’ll quite do it justice, but it’s a great place to start for my first attempt at brewing a Double IPA.

Yeast is California Ale Yeast.

Fermentables:

• 13.25 lbs 2-row
• 8 oz carafoam
• 8 oz caramel-40
• 10 oz corn sugar

Hops:

• 1.5 oz millenium FWH
• 1.5 oz cascade FWH
• 2 oz cascade FO
• 1 oz belma FO
• 1 oz bravo FO
• 1 oz millenium FO

quickly cool to 170F and let stand 30 minutes

Dry Hops

• 2 oz millenium 14 days
• 1 oz cluster 14 days
• 1 oz belma 14 days
• 2 oz bravo 5 days
• 2 oz cascade 5 days

Targets:

• OG: 1.075
• FG: 1.011
• SRM: 7
• IBU: 108

Total fermentation time should be 3 weeks from boil to bottle, plus conditioning time.  I’ve gotten advice to bottle and enjoy as quickly as possible to preserve delicate hop aromas and flavors.  Makes sense to me.

This will be a unique beer for me because it’s only got first wort hops and flameout hops, and a lot of them at that.   Thanks to Barfdiggs on beer advocate for the hops schedule!

Avery India Pale Ale

Having a nice brew right now, Avery IPA.

It’s a pretty tasty IPA.

Tan and quite clear with a very nice white foamy head and great lacing.

Aroma is a little subdued but is nicely hoppy and piney,  with notes of citrus and maybe some apple juice.

Taste is piney, with lemons and grapefruits, a little sweet fruitiness, and some nice hoppiness.

Body is medium, carbonated nicely, and easy to drink.  Mellow and not too over the top, it’s a clean tasting, somewhat mild IPA.

Overall it’s a nice beer.  I’ve got five left from my sixer and I think I’ll enjoy them all as much as I’m enjoying this one!

Cheers Avery Brewing!

Pike IPA

Pike IPA is next on my blogging/reviewing list.  It’s pretty darn tasty stuff!

Coppery and clear, light tan head wasn’t bad and lacing was good.

Aroma is subdued but nice, earthy hops, piney resin, light malts.

Taste is pretty balanced, if a bit heavy on the earthy hops side.  Malts are ample and create a nice balanced beer.  I think the munich malt adds a nice dimension, it’s not something I see a lot in IPAs.

Body is medium and actually pretty drinkable, despite the rather heavy malt and hops assault on your tastebuds.

Overall this beer makes me want to try more of Pike’s beers.  That should say it all right there.

Al’s Benchwarmer IPA

Thanks to to MrOH and OddNotion from BeerAdvocate.com for choosing the name and hops schedule for this IPA, as seen in this thread.

Ingredients:

• Briess Golden Light Dry Extract  3.25 lbs
• Briess golden light liquid extract 3.125 lbs
• Briess 2 Row Caramel 20   6 oz
• Briess 2 Row Caramel 40   6 oz
• Briess 2 Row Caramel 60   6 oz
• 1oz Columbus @ 60
• 0.5oz each Columbus and Cascade @ 15
• 0.5oz each Columbus and Cascade @ 10
• 0.5oz each Columbus, Cascade, and Willamette @ 5
• 1 oz each Columbus, Cascade, and Willamette @ FO
• 1 oz each of Columbus and Cascade and 0.5oz Willamette Dry Hop for 7-10 Days

Procedure:

1. prepare checklist
2. lay out ingredients and equipment
3. bring 1 gallon spring water to 165 F
4. add grains (in mesh bag)
5. steep for 30 minutes at 155F
6. In separate pot, pre-boil 3 gallons spring water
7. when grains are finished steeping, remove grain bag, combine wort into boiling pot with pre-heated spring water and bring to boil
8. add bittering hops, 1oz columbus at 60 minute mark
9. add the wort chiller at beginning of boil.  make sure wort chiller is pre-filled with hot water
10. add the DME and LME incrementally during the boil
11. add 0.5 oz columbus and  0.5oz cascade at 15 minute mark
12. add 1/4 tsp Irish moss powder at 15 minute mark
13. begin sanitation procedures on spoon, thermometer, bucket, wine thief
14. add 0.5 oz columbus and  0.5oz cascade at 10 minute mark
15. add 0.5 oz columbus and  0.5oz cascade and o.5oz willamette at 5 minute mark
16. add 1 oz columbus and  1 oz cascade and 1 oz willamette at FO
17. hop rest 20 minutes
18. stir occasionally with sanitized stainless spoon during hop rest and during cooling
19. while wort is cooling, add 1 gallon chilled spring water to sanitized primary fermenting bucket, allowing it to fall into bucket to increase aeration
20. when wort gets to about 70F, add to fermentation bucket
    
21. top to 5 gallons with chilled spring water
22. take OG reading with sanitized wine thief
23. thoroughly aerate wort with sanitized stainless steel spoon
24. ensure wort is 70F or a little less before pitching yeast
25. pitch yeast
26. gently stir using sanitized stainless steel spoon
27. install sanitized bucket lid and airlock
28. ferment in closet for 7-9 days at 67F ambient air temp.
29. after 7-9 days, add 0.5 oz chinook and 1 oz willamette for dry hopping
30. take FG sample and bottle (after a minimum of 14 days)
31. use 5 oz corn sugar at bottling

Targets: OG: 1.60    FG:  1.016     IBU: 93    SRM: 9.2    ABV: 6.3

Actual OG: 1.064

Actual FG: 1.014

Notes: actually less than 5 gallons came of this batch.  Probably about 4 1/2 gallons.  Most of it was boiled.  Much of the hops were filtered out before adding to fermentation bucket.  I expect the rest to mostly settle out during fermentation.

Wort was the most bitter of any I’ve made so far.  I have high hopes for the flavor and aroma on this beer, after all, I’ve dumped more than seven ounces of hops in it already!

Black IPA

Time for another homebrew.  Gonna make a black IPA, or Cascadian Dark Ale, as some insist on calling it.  The debate about naming such beers is not particularly interesting to me, but some consider it to be the end-all of all dark, hoppy beers.  Meh.

Either way, this beer will be dark and very hoppy, with lots of late and dry hops additions.

The day before, it’s time for yeast.  Wyeast 1056 American Ale.  In the morning I did up the smack pack, left it on the counter at about 68F.  Around noon it was well puffy and ready to go.  I boiled about 1.5 quarts of spring water, then added 3/4 cup of DME, boiled ten minutes, cooled, and added to my sanitized Erlenmeyer flask.  Also sanitized the scissors and package, then added yeast.  I aerated well and have been aerating every few hours.  I’ve got a sanitized airlock on top, but I’ve allowed fresh oxygen to get in every few hours.  It’s krausening well on the stir plate already.

Here’s what’s going into the beer…

• Briess Golden Light Liquid Extract  6.625 lb
• Briess Pale Ale Malt  2.5 lb
• Weyermann De-Husked Carafa II  1 lb
• Aromatic  0.75 lb
• Crisp Crystal Malt 60L  0.625 lb
• De-Bittered Black  0.25 lb
• Nugget Pellets      1 oz @ 60 mins
• Columbus Pellets   1 oz @ 15 mins
• Columbus Pellets  0.5 oz @ 10 mins
• Columbus Pellets  0.5 oz @ 5 mins
• Glacier Pellets      0.5 oz @ 1 mins
• Tettnang, German Pellets  0.5 oz @ Dry
• Glacier Pellets     0.5 oz @ Dry
• Nugget Pellets      0.5 oz @ Dry
• Columbus Pellets  1 oz @ Dry
• Wyeast Labs American Ale – 1056

Targets:

OG: 1.078   FG: 1.020  IBU: 67.6   SRM: 41.62  ABV: 7.60

Procedure to be added before brewing… I’m thinking of trying a mostly full boil on this one, but splitting it between two boil pots.  I can’t do the entire volume in one pot, but I sure can in two…  Considering.  Planning on editing this tomorrow morning with my final decisions on all aspects of the procedure!

More to come on this one…

**next day**

A couple things I’m doing on this one…

I’m using five pounds of grain, so it’s going to be a partial mash.  I’ll use about 2 quarts of water per pound.  I’ll be using about five grain bags.

Also, I’m going to try to boil most of my wort, and use a minimal amount of top off water.  It may be necessary to use two boil pots for this, we’ll see.  After the partial mash, I will see how much the big boil pot is full and make the decision then.

OK it’s morning and I’m about to get started, so I better get my procedure down first!  Here goes…

1. prepare checklist
2. lay out ingredients and equipment
3. bring 2.5 gallons spring water to 160 F
4. add grains (use four or five mesh bags)
5. steep for 60 minutes at 155F
6. In separate pot, pre-boil 1.5 gallons spring water
7. when grains are finished steeping, remove grain bags, gently rinse with hot water
8. add pre-boiled water and bring entire pot (or two pots, if necessary) to a boil for one hour.
9. add bittering hops, using hop bag, 1 oz nugget
10. During boil, added wort chiller, dried malt extract
11. at 25 minutes, add one ounce colombus hops
12. 20 minutes begin sanitation procedures on spoon, thermometer, bucket, etc
13. 20 minutes add 1/4 tsp Irish moss powder
14. 10 minutes add 0.5 oz columbus hops
15. 5 minutes add 0.5 oz columbus hops
16. 1 minute add 0.5 oz glacier hops
17. while wort is cooling, add 1 gallon chilled spring water to sanitized primary fermenting bucket, allowing it to fall into bucket to increase aeration
18. when wort gets to about 70F, add to fermentation bucket 
19. top to 5 gallons with chilled spring water
20. thoroughly aerate wort with sanitized stainless steel spoon
21. take OG reading using sanitized wine thief
22. ensure wort is 70F or a little less before pitching yeast
23. pitch yeast
24. gently stir using sanitized stainless steel spoon
25. install sanitized bucket lid and airlock
26. ferment in closet for 7-10 days at 68F ambient air temp.
27. add dry hops, 1 oz columbus, 0.5 oz each of glacier, nugget, tettnang
28. take FG sample and bottle (after a minimum of 16 days in primary)
29. use 5 oz corn sugar at bottling

OG was only 1.062.  Not sure what was up there, but not too worried about it.