Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day 2013 is upon us, the weekend that tends to be the swan song of summer around these parts. From here on out it is a long slog down into the depths of winter. I've also extended the normal 3 day weekend into a full blown week of vacation as my list of tasks to get done around the house has grown quite long, especially with the birthday party for the little one coming up next weekend.

Earlier this week I kegged the Pale Tranquility so that it will be available for the party next weekend. Putting it in the keg on Wenesday only allowed for 11 days to carb up, at normal serving pressure that has usually not been enough for the beer to be at its prime. As a consequence I upped the pressure to around 30 lbs to speed it up a little bit. I don't want to over carb so I pulled a sample this evening and it is doing very well. At this point I'd put it close to 90% of what I'm looking for, so I turned it back down to serving pressure and will consider it good. One more week at normal pressure and it will be at that sweet spot that I love.

Oh, and for how it tastes, pretty damn good if I do say so myself especially given that it was an American Pale recipe that I built mostly from available grains that I had on hand. The only ingredient I had to pick up was 1 oz of Simcoe for flavoring, I reused the yeast from a prior batch of Sky Blue.

One of the more enjoyable tasks that is on the list is to take up the brew club challenge of cloning Stone's Arrogant Bastard. I had planned to brew it this coming Sunday morning, but the weather forcast is not looking good so it looks like it will be pushed to Monday morning. Close enough. I've yet to settle on the recipe for the clone, a bit of research is in order to find out what I already have on hand and what I'll need to complete the brew. The next brew after that is also in the planning stages. Our club has volunteered to help out with a fundraiser the first weekend of November, all German style beers. I've volunteered to supply a Dunkleweizen. It'll be my first, but it's a style I like so will be happy to showcase to the public and enjoy the rest.

Another project I'm hoping to complete this week is the ribcage immersion chiller that I've been wanting to make for quite some time. I have all the necessary hardware already sitting around I just haven't had the time to put it all together. If I can get to it on Sunday it'll be ready to use on Monday for the clone.

Cheers

Brew Day!

Brewing the Blue Moon clone finally. Only a few weeks after I had planned.

Brew Day 03/03/13

It had been a long dry spell since the last Brew Day, back in December if I recall correctly.

Thanks to my long suffering wife for doing parenting duty while I played in the Garage. Granted, during the Mash I also grilled some steaks and veggie kabobs which she found rather tasty, so there's that.

Anyway, I brewed the Smithwicks for the brew club challenge. I'm not sure if I'll have it ready for St Pats but it should be good for the end of the month judging at the next beer club meeting.

Everything went well, except for the hose that was frozen for a while until I thawed it out with the jet heater in the garage, but even that was overcome.

I'll probably brew again this coming saturday, the Blue Moon Belgian White clone that I had planned to be the next one until the Smithwicks interjected itself into the rotation.

Oh, 1.056 OG on a target of 1.051, so there's that.

PS: I broke my drill I use to crush the grains, so now I get to buy a new one! (always look on the bright side of life, doo doo, doo dum dee dee doo doo)

Ranger IPA A/B

Nate (coworker and fellow brewer) was kind enough to provide me with two bottles of his Ranger IPA that he brewed roughly at the same time I brewed mine. To be fair, he actually suggested the clone, although we used slightly different recipes.

I finally got around to opening one of his bottles to compare with what I have on tap. It's a rough task, I know, but I make these kind of sacrifices so you don't have to.

From here on out I'll be refering to mine as Ranger A, and Nate's as Ranger B.

To the comparison...

After the pour both produce a moderate head, very similar, and both leave nice lacing on the glass after drinking. Head retention seems to be the same, not quite disappearing but leaving a nice coating on the surface.

Ranger B on the left, Ranger A on the right. Head is very similar.

On the nose, Ranger B has a more pronounced fragrance of subtle fruitiness than Ranger A. One of the ways ours recipes differed was in the dry hop stage, I think the aroma comes down to this.

As to flavor, there is very little difference between the two, with just a bit more of a 'greener' hoppiness to Ranger B, once again I attribute it to the difference in dry hopping stage.

The major difference between the two is in clarity. This is most likely completely down to the fact that Ranger A is on tap, and has been able to settle in the keg while chilled for a good month now while Ranger B is bottled so has not had the same chance to clarify.

Ranger B on the left, Ranger A on the right. You can see the print on the piece of paper through Ranger A at this point. Ranger B has a bit of chill haze right out of the bottle, but it cleared up quite a bit once it warmed up a little. Once again, this is most likely all due to the fact that Ranger A was able to settle in the keg for a month while Ranger B did not have that conditioning.

All in all, I'm quite happy that both Rangers were so close. It was my first All Grain brew while Nate has been doing BIAB for quite a while now. I took Ranger A down to the LHBC meeting at the end of January and everyone there was favorably disposed towards the clone. I was still being asked for samples after I had already ran out of the samples that I brought down.

Brew Club Challenge

My LHBC has put forth a challenge to its members to brew a Smithwick clone. To be judged against each other, and the real deal, in an informal competition at the end of March. I'm up for the task, so this is what I'm planning.

8 lbs Maris Otter
1 lb CaraPils
.375 lb Crystal 60
.25 lb Crystal 120
.12 lb Roasted Barley

1 oz Kent Golding

WLP004 - Irish Ale Yeast

Mash 1.3 U.S. Qts of water per pound of grain @ 154 degrees f.
Sparge with close to 2 U.S. Qts of water per pound of grain @ 178 degrees f.
Ferment at 60-65 degrees F (This will be the hardest part to get right for me as I don't have the means to Lager yet, but I'll think of something)

Blue Moon Belgian White Clone

Here is the recipe that I've put together for the next brew, a Blue Moon Belgian White clone:

6 lbs - American 2 row
4 lbs - White Wheat
1 lb  - Flaked Oats

I'm planning to mash on the warm side for a sweeter conversion, target will be 156F.

Boil for 90 minutes:

1.5oz Mt Hood @ 90
1.5tsps crushed Coriander @ 10
.5tsps crushed sweet orange peel @ 5

Will use WLP001 - California Ale yeast as the information I've read says to use.

The particulars:

OG: 1.057
FG: 1.014
ABV: 5.6%
IBU: 25.2
Color: 4.0 SRM

Not sure when I will get around to actually brewing this, probably sometime in February.

Next Brew

I know it will still be a few weeks before I brew again, but it is already in the planning stages.

I'm going for a Blue Moon Belgian White clone. I've researched a number of different recipes up to now and I think I have a good feeling for what it needs. I haven't quite built out the recipe list for what I'm going to use yet though.

My friend from Aurora (you know who you are) very generously got me a gift certificate to NB that will be utilized, along with a few other purchases. One thing I don't know if they have yet is the right adjuncts. A Blue Moon thread on HBT talks of specific dried orange peel to use, the commentor was one of the brewers that helped develop the beer back in the 90's.

Once I get the grain bill, adjuncts, and yeast decided, I will post the recipe and brew day schedule that I plan to use.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, Blue Moon, it holds a special place in my heart as it was one of those beers that launched my beer snobbery at Old Chicago.

Cheers!

Brew Day

Brewing the Northern English Brown today. Cold and rainy out so looks like I will be in the garage.

I'll also be smoking some baby back ribs, as well as a turkey breasts. The garage is going to smell awesome!

UPDATE: Okay, all done with the brew. Started heating water at 8 AM. Crush grains, mash, sparge, boil, chill, cleanup. 1:30 PM. Not to bad if I do say so myself.

In between brew activities, I prepped 3 slabs of ribs and a turkey for the smoker. Started those around 10 AM. They should be done around 3 PM or so.

The Northern English Brown has been dubbed 'Brown Turkey'. My target gravity was 1.052 based on the brew calculator. One thing I did was crush the grains a little be finer this time. It looked even better than the last one. I had a large majority of half husks for setting the grain bed, but this time around very few of those husks had any malt clinging to the inside.

I think this might have increased my efficiency, as I came out at 1.066 OG. Thats quite a bit higher than I would have expected from the grain bill using my BrewR calculator, but maybe someone else can run numbers for me and give me a different idea on what I could have expected.

Here is the grain bill:
8lbs Marris Otter
1lb Victory
.5 lb Caramel 120L
.25 lb Chocolate

I did a yeast starter on the WLP002 that I'm using on this beer so hopefully fermentation will start a bit quicker than the last brew. Time will tell.

Taste Testing

Blackened is the IPA has been on CO2 at 10lbs now for 8 days. Pulled off a pint of it tonight, and I pronounce it good.

The recipe that came with the kit called for it to be dry hopped, but I altered it and put all the hops in during the boil. Most dry hopped IPA's tend to be a bit 'green' to my tastes.

Carb level still isn't quite up to full snuff, another week and it will be perfect. But, as of now, it is good to go as it still retains CO2 in the beer after the head subsides.

The gravity bottomed out at 1.024 on a projected 1.021. Earlier I thought it was a bit sweet to taste, but now it seems to have equalized out and has a nice balance.

Northern English Brown

Next beer to be brewed is going to be a Northern English Brown Ale. I've looked at numerous recipes to get a good idea of how most of them are built. Here is what I've come up with for the style.

Mash at 150F for 90 minutes.

8# Marris Otter
1# Victory
.5# Crystal 120L
.25# British Chocolate Malt

Boil for 90 minutes.
1.5 oz UK Fuggles @ 60
.5 oz UK Fuggles @ 10

WLP002 - English Ale Yeast

Specification Targets:
OG: 1.051
FG: 1.013
IBU 25.6
SRM 21

Style Guidelines
OG: 1.040 - 1.052
FG: 1.008 - 1.013
IBU: 20-30
SRM: 12-22

This should be on the upper end of the ABV scale at 5%, mid hoppyness for the style, and on the darker end.

Should be fun.

Sourcing Ingredients

So, for the home brewers that read this. How much comparison shopping have you done on sourcing grains in bulk?

I've got the main companies linked on the right from which I normaly order supplies. I'm going to forgo kits from here on out, so buying #50 at a time is my likely route and have to price shop in much larger quantities.

I've done a brief comparison on Briess 2-row as a base malt. LHBS will sell for $54 or if preordered (they order on their own schedule and do not put in special orders for 1 customer) they sell it for $46.

I know I have to be overlooking something on Northern Brewer, but I cannot find regular Briess 2-row in a #50 bag, only the 'Organic' 2-row. So, then pricing NB by the # puts #50 at $62.50.

Midwest Supplies has Briess 2-row at $49.50, and also a cheaper brand, Rahr 2-row at $33.60 for #50. (nice prices but is there a reason Rahr is so cheap?)

I know there are a ton of other suppliers out there, but this was just a brief overview looking at this first sources.

So I'm looking at;
NB $62.50 + $12.86 Shipping = $75.36
MS Briess $49.50 + $16.24 Shipping = $65.74
MS Rahr $33.60 + $16.24 Shipping = $49.84
LHBS $46.00 + Tax (and get it on their schedule) = $49.22
     OR $54.00 + Tax For in stock. = $57.78

Anyone got anything better to report?

UPDATE: I've been reading reviews on Briess vs Rahr on 2-row. Majority opinion is that Rahr and Briess are interchangeable as a base malt, but Briess is a bit better on specialty malts. Added new entry to the calculation above.

At a suggestion I checked morebeer.com
MB Domestic 2-row $60.25 w/free shipping

First AG Brew Day

Brew day began roughly around 9:30 AM when I began measuring out water. I calculated that I would need just over 7 gallons between Mash and Sparge. I used the figures of 1.25 qts per lb of grain, with 8.7 lbs of grain. Using 1/2 gallon of water per lb of grain for sparging, adding the two I came up with 7.1 gallons needed.

I started heating strike/sparge water a bit before 10 AM. By 10:20 AM I had set 2.75 gallons with the grain for the mash. Temp going into the tun was done at 168F, I checked it after 30 minutes and it had settled down to 148F, perfect target for the recipe (see Ranger IPA post).

The Mash. Using 8.7 lbs of grain the MT was a little over half full.
Bigger beers using up to 12 lbs of grain should be no problem with this MT.

At 11:20 I had the heated sparge water at 174F and into the HLT it went. Started setting the grain bed and then draining the wort. I learned that the flow of water from the HLT to the MT is slower than draining the MT into the Kettle. The flow fluttered out after about 20 minutes, so I closed the valve and let the sparge water build back up. When I resumed I used a slower flow out of the MT to the Kettle so that all the water would not drain off the grain.

Flow of water out of the sparge arm.

The grain seemed to have absorbed a bit more water than I anticipated as once the wort was drained I ended up with 6 gallons, instead of the 6.75 that I anticipated. I will adjust next time and prepare a bit more sparge water to use.

HLT on the left going to MT, and then the Kettle. Eventually I'll build a 2 Tier stand for the HLT and MT, and let the kettle stand on the legs from the burner.

Once all the wort was in the kettle I started to bring to a boil. I hit boiling at 12:15 and did first hop addition. From there it was a standard 60 minute boil with Tons of hops, some pellet, some leaf (LHBS only had Simcoe in leaf).

The large amount of hops, with some being leaf made the trub at the end of the boil cost me a gallon of water. I didn't want to drain to much of the sludge into the fermentor so I ended having to top off with a gallon of water to hit my 5 gallon total. Next time my calculations will be taking into account a better estimate of losses from HLT, MT, and Kettle.

As a consequence of the loss to the kettle I missed my target gravity, but was very close. My BrewR calculator gave me an estimate of 1.061 OG and I ended up with 1.059. Not to shabby for my first attempt if I do say so myself (and I do!).

I ended up tweaking the Ranger IPA recipe from the post below to the following:

• 8.25 lb 2-row
• 3 oz Chrystal 120
• 30 oz of corn sugar (I had 6 packs of priming sugar sitting around not being used, as I keg 99% of my brews)

I haven't yet bothered to figure out the efficiency of my mash, but given how close I was, and how much water I used to top off I think it was pretty good.

All in all, I would call today a smashing success based on my goals. From the very beginning at 9:30 AM to finishing clean-up of all equipment, putting it all away, yeast pitched, etc... I was done at 2:45 PM.

And, I have dubbed the brew 'Ranger Danger' as I altered the hops bill a bit as well (I like hops, alot). The IBU's calculated out a bit above an American IPA style, and a bit above the recipe I used as a guidline.

• 1 oz Chinook @ 60 mins
• 1 oz Simcoe Leaf @ 30 mins
• .75 oz Cascade @ 15 mins
• .75 oz Cascade @ 0 mins
• 1.5 oz Cascade Dry Hop

Recipe was targetted at 70 IBU's, BJCP style 14B is 40-70 (really? 40? wusses), with this hops schedule BrewR came up with 72 IBU's for Ranger Danger.

Looking forward to drinking it in a month.

Ranger IPA

Many thanks to N.S. who pointed out this recipe to me. I'm not above jumping on a bandwagon, and I love IPA's. Mmmmmmmmmm, Hops! I think I've found the first AG project for this weekend.

HBT - Ranger IPA

RANGER
OG 1.059
FG 1.009
IBU 70
SRM 7
ABV 6.4%

Grains/Sugars
8.25 lb Pale Malt
3 oz Crystal 120L
2 lb cane sugar - added when 15 minutes are left in boil

Hops
60 minutes - 12 AAU Chinook (1 oz of 12% aa)
30 minutes - 6.5 AAU Simcoe (0.5 oz of 13% aa)
15 minutes - 3.8 AAU Cascade (0.75 oz of 5% aa)
0 minutes - 0.5 oz Cascade
dry hop - 1.25 oz Cascade - for one week

Yeast
Wyeast 1792 or
Wyeast 1272 or
WLP051

Details
Mash @148*F
Boil for 90 minutes
Ferment @68*

Shopping List

In preparation for doing an AG recipe in the hopefully not to distant future I've come across a few items that I need.

1 - Mash Paddle, needed to stir the grains as they steep
1 - General Idea of what I'm going to be making (Grain Bill, hops, yeast)
1 - Method of keeping the hot water tank above the mash tun, I'm going to have to improvise in the short term until I can build a stand for just this logistical problem.
1 - Some sort of kit for testing my water quality. PH has a huge effect on grain utilization I've heard. I have some items left over from the days of fish tanks, should suffice for PH. I can also get a water quality report from the city showing various levels of chemicals. If any are too far out of whack I'll have to find out how to balance them.

Additionally:

1 - Packet of champaign yeast to restart a stalled fermentation of the Dunkleweizen (stuck at 1.024 for 2 weeks)