Updates are
few and far between for me because of my schedule. I’d like to apologize for
not updating in what seems like forever. I have a few projects in the works and
I’d like to touch on them and upload some pictures just to keep us sane. In
fact, I think these projects are what keep me sane during this busy time of my
life.
A Short Look Back
When last I
checked in, I was fermenting the Maple Pecan Nut Brown ale. The beer came out
as one of my best to date, but there were pros and cons to this: I only got to
bottle less than 4.5 gallons, but those 4.25 gallons were thick and strong. A common issue I experienced doing my all
grain 5 gallon batches was failing to hit target fermentation volume. This was
due to my inability to measure the amount of wort gathered during sparge. So,
in a nutshell, I only gathered 5.5 gallons to boil, then boiled off almost a
gallon, then lost about a half-gallon to fermentation goop. This left me with
my rough estimate of 4.25 gallons of the beer that was thicker and stronger
than it was supposed to be. Not all that bad since I didn’t have any specifics
to adhere to. Hitting that exact same recipe won’t be difficult, because I kept
good notes the whole time. I would aim to make the beer more ‘sessionable’ next
time.
Since then,
I have made 4 beers: 10 gallons of Belgian Wit, 10 gallons of American Pale
(single hopped!), 5 gallons of Irish Red and 5 gallons of a Belgian Sour (Abbey
style). I have also updated my current hardware in some places and started a
kegerator project.
The Wit
This was a
very light, summer beer. We used coriander and bitter orange peel to match the
style. I wasn’t particularly fond of the lightness of this beer and I have
complaints of the level to which it was carbonated. However, the beer was
favored among my friends who enjoy a lighter beer. At times I would even call
it watery and flat but I imagine my intoxication at the time of tasting caused
me to be bitter about it. A thick heffeweisen is closer to my preferred style
for wheat beers.
 |
| Jonny uses the dremmel to cut a notch in our bayou burner so that a BBQ grill can fit snug. |
 |
| Kyle stands by. |
The Pale
As an
experiment, my buddies and I wanted a basic grain bill and single hop variety
while also trying out a new dry hopping method. Instead of racking to secondary
at the full end of fermentation, we simply added the hops about 3 days into
primary fermentation. This method was revealed to us from the internets
somewhere, and we felt it was a great idea especially for (1) saving time on
the ferm and (2) creating less work by not racking to secondary. We were not
disappointed and in fact my buddies used this method in a recent IPA clone of
one of our previous batches. I still have about 4 gallons of the pale in keg and
I am picking up my CO2 tank this weekend: I’ll finally be able to hook it up
and tap it properly and probably bottle a bunch of it for saving (but note,
pales/highly aroma hopped beers aren’t meant to age because the characteristics
of the aromas apparently fade with age).
The Red
Of beers I
have crafted, Reds and Porters are the most abundant. Of both I had first made
extract batches and of both I feel I have started to hone my all-grain styles.
I have experimented with hops a great deal in my reds and I may have found my
balance (well, not in this red, but
because of this red, I have discovered the balance). I’ve used this recipe a
number of times but with an increase in efficiency in both method and madness,
the red this time came out full bodied and full of both malt and hop flavor. I
personally find the bittering level slightly high, it’s a crisp and lingering
bitterness that is best tasted at warmer temperatures (60°F – 70°F serving
temperature) in order to allow the smooth and thick dark malt body to slide in
side-by-side with the Fuggles bittering. Not only was the chosen hops Alpha
Acid percentage count higher than the suggested bittering hops for the recipe,
but I also used more of the hops. One of the reasons for the change was because
I have had these hops in the fridge for a while and I wanted to use them before
they went bad. Some other things to note were that the beer came out much more
red (read: darker) than previous batches of the same beer and this could be due
to a number of reasons: my most likely culprit is that I over-weighed the specialty
grains when I bought them. The recipe
called for 1 lbs. of Crystal 120L malt and a quarter pound each of Black
Roasted Barley and Special B. This combination, in conjunction with the large
amounts of fermentable malts, usually makes for a rich red color. My guess was
I used closer to ½ pound of Black Roasted Barley or Special B by accident.
 |
| The Red, after adding oxygen |
The Sour
I’ve been
trying a lot of sour beers lately, as many as I can get my hands on. The first
sour I ever knowingly tried was from a brewery in Dexter, Michigan called Jolly
Pumpkin Artisan Ales. I am not sure which of their beers it was that I tried,
but it was a sour with a raspberry on the label. Then, I picked out a Flemmish
sour red from a brand called Strubbe’s which doesn’t have any advertised fruit
characteristic but really hits home on the sour front. It might even have some
dark cherry undertones. I really suggest that beer. The next I tried was
Rodenback Grand Cru sour red ale. This one wasn’t as punchy as the Strubbe’s,
but was more session-able. It came in a large wine bottle, corked, so it felt a
little classier, or something. After trying a few different sours, mostly
imports (Jolly Pumpkin was the only American sour I’ve tried), I decided to try
and make one. A buddy found the recipe, and he, too, brewed this sour. Our plan
is to blend our two sours together after 6 months of secondary fermentation.
The way a sour works is, you brew a beer (usually a Belgian style or ‘Abbey Ale’) then after
primary fermentation, you add a culture of lactobacillus and let it ferment in
a cold, dark area for a long time (recipe said 6 mothts).
11 lbs.
Pilsner Malt
1 lbs. Wheat
1 lbs.
Munich Malt
1 lbs.
Aromatic Malt
1 lbs.
CaraMunic Malt
4 oz Special
B Malt
4 oz.
Chocolate malt
90 minute
boil – 1 oz Challenger Hops
@ 30 minutes
– 1 lb Organic Cane Sugar
@ 2 minutes
– 1 oz Fuggles Hops
OG: 1.085.
The recipe suggests adding oak or dark cherries during this ageing/secondary
fermentation. I have not done either of those, but I would like to age on both.
As I mentioned before, my buddy and I will be blending about a gallon each of
our two sours which will then be tasted and most likely put away for further
ageing. I plan to age a large portion of mine for a year at least.
 |
| The Sour, Abbey Ale Yeast kicking ass |
No comments:
Post a Comment