Bertus Brewery

120 Minute: Your Newborn Baby

2012-03-04T20:07:00.002-07:00

Brewing a 120 Minute IPA clone is much like having a newborn: It's very temperamental, and it needs fed twice a day. In all seriousness, this beer is a lot of work. You need to be very organized, and very sanitary, as you'll be messing with your fermenting wort daily. So here are a collection of tips and tricks I learned along the way that will help should you want to tackle this beer.

Aeration
This is a big one. Simply shaking your carboy isn't going to cut it. You need an oxygen wand.* You'll want to gas the wort before you pitch your yeast, and then gas it for the first two to three days after you pitch the WLP099. This beer is a grueling marathon for your yeast, and you need to keep them as happy as possible.

*The alternative to injecting pure O2 into your wort is olive olive. New Belgium did a huge study with a University in Belgium, and they found that a tiny amount of olive oil can replace the role of oxygen in wort aeration. I won't get into too many details, but the process is: Sanitize a needle or pin, and dip it in some olive oil. We're looking for the tiniest of drops; this isn't something where more is better. Then stir the tiny drop into your yeast starter, and then repeat the process for the primary ferment. It works.

Gravity Readings
Take gravity readings during primary fermentation daily. It's incredibly useful to know how active your yeast are when you are pushing them to the ragged edge. You're already going to have the fermenter open to add sugar, so take a gravity reading while you are there. It takes 60 extra seconds, do it. This leads into the next point....

Cleaning and Sanitizing
If you want to take gravity readings everyday, you'll need to put your samples back into the fermenter, otherwise you'll lose 1-2 gallons of wort. That means your hydrometer and test tube need to be sanitary. You're also going to be pulling off 1-2 quarts of wort twice a day and whisking in dextrose. So keep a pitcher of Star San, I kept mine by the kitchen sink. Soak your hydrometer, test tube, whisk, wine thief(stainless steel turkey basters are awesome), and stirring spoon in star san whenever you aren't using them.

The process I followed was: move the items into a clean empty pitcher, then fill that pitcher with star san, then pour it back out leaving an empty sanitized pitcher containing the whisk, hydrometer, stirring spoon, turkey baster, and test tube. I'd first take a hydro sample with the turkey baster, then stir up the primary with the spoon to get the yeast off the bottom. Next pull off 1-2 quarts into the pitcher with the baster, whisk in the dextrose, dump that back into the primary, and gently stir it in. Finally seal your fermenter back up.

Now clean everything before putting it back in the star san. Yes, it's a total pain in the ass to do all that twice a day. Thankfully it's only about 12-15 days, so suck it up. I can't emphasize how critical it is to ensure everything is cleaned, then sanitized. You're going to be sticking crap in your fermenter 24 to 30 times, so even the smallest amount of bacteria will get a 24x chance to get into your wort. It'll just become routine after a few times. A spray bottle full of sanitizer helps for those objects that are longer than your sanitizer pitcher is tall.

Oxidation
Oxidation is always a concern with hoppy beers, and I'm telling you to pour, whisk, and stir your wort daily; that doesn't sound like the a good idea. Don't be too concerned with oxygen pickup as long as you are still adding fermentables. Every time you add sugar, the yeast will gladly scrub any oxygen that made it's way into the wort. The second you stop adding sugar, oxidation becomes an immediate concern, so no more pouring, whisking, stirring, or doing anything that will mix oxygen into your beer.

Calculating the Gravity
A beer like this requires a healthy amount of math. It's easy to calculate your original gravity at the end of the boil, but how do we calculate the gravity after all the sugar additions? It's actually fairly easy assuming you keep accurate notes. 1lb of dextrose adds .007 gravity points to a 6 gallon batch, and .008 points to a 5 gal batch. So the math says each ounce of dextrose adds .0005 for a 6gal batch. Multiply .0005 by the number of ounces you add. Then add that value to your gravity. Say your OG was 1.l00, and you add 12oz of dextrose. You're OG is now 1.106.

The daily gravity readings are there to tell you how active the yeast are. If you measure the gravity at 1.020 in the morning, then add 12oz of dextrose, you know the gravity should be 1.026. Later that night, if the gravity is back to 1.020, you'll know the yeast fermented all the sugar you feed them. This is very useful information because once the ABV starts to climb high, it's a balancing act. You'll need to feed the yeast to keep them active, but you run the risk of them tiring out and stalling the ferment.

Managing the Ferment
One of the biggest tricks in attenuating this beer is to manage the gravity. The WLP007 will tear through the malt-only wort in a matter of a few days. You'll want to pitch the WLP099 once the gravity falls to around 1.020 or so, and start the sugar additions. The trick is to add enough sugar to keep the wort around 1.020 to 1.028, never much more, never much less. This reduces the osmotic pressure on the yeast, and keeps them much happier. Plus, should the yeast crap out early, you aren't left with an overly sweet beer. Anything under 1.030 is drinkable, under 1.020 is ideal.

Chart detailing how the fermentation progressed

Results
So how did my batch turn out? Rather well I'd say. The original gravity after all the sugar additions was 1.182! And the final gravity settled in at 1.021. Final calculated ABV of 21.1%, which I called 20% for good measure. I was fortunate enough to get a few bottles of the real 120 Minute, so we could do a side by side tasting.

Mine: 21.1%: A little more of that sticky, candied raisin-like malt aroma than the Dogfish. A little less hop character. Bitterness was spot-on. carbonation was quite a bit less. This was carbonated to around 1.5 vols, the Dogfish version was quite a bit more, which might explain the more pronounced hop aroma.

Dogfish: 15-20%: Exact same sticky, candied raisin quality in the aroma, but it's a little more balanced with hop. Much more carbonation, I'd guess around 2.0 vols. Bitterness is the same, as is the alcohol character: dominate, but not biting. It's possible this had 5% less alcohol than mine, which would be a big difference. That would also explain why mine had more of that pronounced malt character, and less hop character. I'll never know for certain though.

All in all, I'm definitely splitting hairs; the two beers tasted identical. I'm pretty confident I could have Sam taste mine, and he would say: "Yep, that's 120 Minute." Despite it's tedious nature, this beer was a blast to brew, and I'm definitely looking forward to brewing my next version, which will be a little more to my taste. I'll say that brewing this beer gave me a new-found respect for 120 Minute. I completely, utterly understand why this beer costs $10 per 12 ounce bottle.

That's about everything I can think of. Hopefully this post, and the last will help someone else brew this beer. I have to give some props to a few of the guys on HomeBrewTalk who paved the way before me, as well as Sean Paxton and the folks on the Brewing Network. Their two hour show is a wealth of information, and is well worth listening to. Good luck to anyone who attempts this beast of a beer, and please let me know how it turns out should be brew it. Cheers!

Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA Clone

2012-03-01T17:37:00.001-07:00

After this post discussing my plan to brew a cross between 120 Minute and Pliny the Younger, I got some feedback that I should post the recipe and process for the original 120 Minute clone. Most of the info is detailed here, but that thread is a million pages long and the information isn't condensed. Unfortunately, there's a flipping ton of information about this beer, so hold onto your hats, this is going to be a long one.

My 120 Minute adventure started with the Brewing Network's Can You Brew It show for 120 Minute. The challenge of brewing a 21% ABV beer really intrigued me, which was compounded by the fact that I had a hard time finding anyone that had truly cloned the beer. The CYBI show was focused around Sean Paxton's attempt attempt at the beer. While he got really close, his beer didn't attenuate, and stalled at 1.050; way too sweet for my taste.

So I used Paxton's recipe as the foundation to build off of. Obviously he had the flavor profile right, but there were definitely some tweaks needed. First and foremost, his base malt, Pilsner. I'm positive Dogfish uses American 2-row. Next on the list is the yeast. Dogfish uses an fairly clean, fairly attenuative english yeast. I've had success using WLP007 in cloning 90 minute, so I used it for the 120 minute recipe as well. The next issue were yeast pitching rates. This beer needs a ton of yeast to ferment out, so I planned on making much larger starters. The final issue were hopping rates. I tripled what Paxton used. A number of folks have had success brewing this on HomeBrewTalk, so it's a fairly proven recipe. So with the stage set, I'll get straight to the recipe and process.

Brew Day
6 Gallons
Target OG (pre-sugar): 1.100 or so

17lbs 2-row
1.25lbs Thomas Fawcett Amber Malt* (see note below)
5oz Amarillo
4oz Simcoe
3oz Warrior
Mix all hops together, and hop continuously for 120min** (see note below)
Mash at 147-149* for 90min
120min boil
10lbs dextrose added slowly once the WLP099 is added*** (see note below)

*Amber malt: Use Thomas Fawcett Amber Malt. If you can't find Thomas Fawcett Amber, look harder. This is the exact malt DFH uses, you can see the bag on BrewMasters. It's available at quite a few online retailers if your LHBS doesn't carry it. For my clone, I subbed 1lb Victory and 4oz Crystal 60. The difference is minimal, but do it right if you can.

**Hopping: Mix all 12oz of hops together, how often you add them is up to you. Some people add a couple pellets every minute, others fill up 40 dixie cups, and add one cup per 3 minutes. I'm way too lazy for that crap. I divided my hops in 13 additions (26g each), and added them every 10 minutes. Realistically, you could add the hops every 20 minutes.

Fermentation
The week before you brew this, you need to start thinking about your yeast. This is by far the most important step in this beer. You need a metric asston of healthy yeast. Without that, you'll have hop-flavored cough syrup. This beer uses two strains of yeast: WLP007, then WLP099 gets pitched a few days after the WLP007. Both strains will need massive starters, so plan on stepping both up.

-WLP007 - Plan on growing about 500 billion cells. This requires a 4-5 liter starter on a stir plate.
-WLP099 - Plan on about the same. I did a 4 liter starter.

Pitch the WLP007 at around 64*, and hold fermentation there for the first couple days. As the fermentation slows, raise the temperature to around 66-67*, and pitch the slug of WLP099 yeast. At this point you want to start your dextrose additions.

***Dextrose: A massive portion of the fermentable sugar in this beer comes from dextrose. Divide 10 pounds of the white stuff into ziplock bags. I'd divide half in 12oz bags, and half in 6oz bags. Start feeding the beer twice a day, 12oz of dextrose per addition. Take a gravity reading at every addition to see how the how the beer is fermenting. As fermentation slows, cut the additions back to 6oz each. The goal is to get as much sugar into the batch as possible, while keeping the FG of the beer around 1.020 or lower.

Once you've added all the sugar you dare, keep the beer warm (68* or so) to help it finish attenuate. When the beer has truly reached FG, you'll want to get it off the yeast cake fairly quickly. Autolysis is rarely an issue in home brewing, but in a 20% beer, it certainly is. Plan to rake the beer to secondary about a week after you hit FG. Marvel at the size of the yeast cake; you'll never see a yeast cake so big in a six gallon batch.

Secondary
You've just brewed an 18-21% ABV beer; that's 36 to 42 proof. It's going to need some time to mellow out. Two months is probably a good length of time before you'll want to consider kegging it (approx three months from brew day.)

We're going to heavily dry hop this beer in the secondary. I used 6oz of hops. 1oz of Simcoe and 1oz of Amarillo added three times over three weeks. Think of the dry hop schedule in reverse: Four weeks from when you plan to keg the beer, start dry hopping.

Keg It
You can't bottle condition this beer. If you bottle it, it will be flat. Force carbonation will be the only way to get some bubbles. I let my beer cold condition in the keg for 4 weeks before I bottled it off for some long term aging.

Wrap Up
The two most critical steps to clone this beer are: Mash temp, and healthy yeast. Mash low to ensure the yeast can ferment the wort, and pitch a metric fucking asston(technical brewer's term) of yeast. If you get those two things right, your beer will turn out great.

That's going to wrap it up for this post. I'll follow this up with another post in a few days regarding some of the tips and tricks I learned brewing this beer. There are a bunch of details to get into, so stay tuned.

How to take better photos of your beer

2012-02-28T11:50:00.003-07:00

Kill the Flash
Please, for the love of good looking photos, turn off the flash. Flashes on most consumer cameras are nearly useless. Unless you absolutely can't see anything in the photo without the flash, you're better off without; it's that simple. Photos of people and things almost always look better without the flash, and beer definitely falls in that category. Flash light reflects off the glass, and washes out the photo. Improve the ambient lighting if you need to, or find another location to shoot before you turn the flash on.

Depth of Field
One theme you'll notice in my photos is that I like to shoot with a shallow depth of field, meaning very little in the photo is in focus, other than the subject. I do this because things and people generally look better when they are isolated from the background.

So how do you shoot with a shallow depth of field? If your camera allows you to set the aperture, great! Choosing a wide aperture(lower number) will give you a shallower depth of field, and it also lets in more light, which is usually a bonus when shooting indoors. If your camera doesn't allow you to control the aperture, choose the portrait mode, and the camera should do that automatically.

Focus
Now that we're shooting with a shallower depth of field, we need to talk about focus. When you shoot with a wide aperture, less is in focus, so you need to make damn sure that your subject is in focus. Photographing beer can be tricky in this sense because images refract through the beer, and your camera's autofocus may struggle to focus on what you intended. It's always a balancing act between focusing on the glass, or focusing on the image refracted in the glass.

Lighting
I find that beer looks best when there is even light through the beer to empathize the color, but not too much light so that the rest of the photo is under exposed. Also, direct sunlight tends to wash out the photo. Basically, don't shine a flashlight through the beer or hold the beer up to a light, and don't try to take photos of beer in direct sunlight. You can get great photos indoors, but you need to turn on all your lights, and definitely don't use the flash.

Composition
If you can keep your beer out of the dead-center of the photo, it's usually for the best. Photos almost always tend to be more interesting when the subject isn't dead center. One of the basic composition concepts in photography is called the rule of thirds. Imagine if your photo had two vertical lines dividing it into three equal sections. The rule of thirds is that you should compose your photo with the subject along one of those lines rather than in the center.

Camera
I do have a DSLR, and I love it. It takes some fantastic photos. With that said, you don't need an expensive camera to take great photos, nor does an expensive camera lead to great photos. I shot this photo and this photo with my iPhone, which I can promise you is no where near as good as a typical point-and-shoot camera. Sure they aren't as sharp and crisp as a DSLR shot, but they still capture the eye.

So get creative, and spend a little time taking better photos of your beer. The awesome thing about digital photography is it doesn't hurt to practice as much as you want. Get out there, take some pictures, evaluate which photos you liked, and what you liked about them. Then wash, rinse, and repeat!

Slightly New Direction

2012-02-23T21:04:00.000-07:00

Let's face it, every new recipe we brew is a gamble. As we become better brewers, we learn how to make more new beers successes rather than failures, but it's never a sure thing. Every brewery is different, every brewer's process is different, and at the end of the day, we're all counting on 200 billion organisms to ferment our beer the way we intend. So what am I getting at?

Since I started this blog, among other things, I write about the beers I brew. I typically post my recipe and brew day notes, and then I've tried to follow up with a post describing how the batch turned out. Well I've thought about it, and I don't believe that's the best approach.

First and foremost, I know that few people reading this blog care about what beers are going to be on-tap at my house soon (at least outside those that drink my beers). So there's no need to attempt to capture someone's interest with a good looking recipe only to make them wait 4-8 weeks to see results. That leads to the second point: People are result oriented; I know I am. I write to share. Whether it be a new trick I learned, best brewing practices, or great recipes, sharing is very much a part of the homebrew spirit. But unless I know a process works, or that a recipe turned out well, I'm typically not inclined to try it. If a recipe I brewed turned out like crap, I want the results right next to the recipe so someone won't make the same mistakes I did. Since I don't have a journalism background, I've been having to learn some of the tricks of the trade the hard way, and it seems that reporting half of a story isn't best practice.

So I'm going to take this blog in a slightly different direction, at least in terms of the posts related to my batches. I'm going to hold off posting the recipe and brew day notes until the beers are done. I'm not doing this to cover up my less than stellar batches, but rather to shrink the distance between concept and results. Unfortunately this does mean that there will be a lag time before my next post regarding my beers. Don't fret, I'll keep my blog updated with other content in the mean time, but after my Furry Penguin is done fermenting, it'll realistically be one to two months before you'll see another post regarding a recipe/brew day. After that, I'll be back on schedule.

That's the long and short of it. Stick around because I have some really cool beers planned for the next few months, and I look forward to sharing the creative things i stumble across along the way!

The Best Laid Plans...

2012-02-21T18:55:00.001-07:00

It always seems to happen. Every time I plan a number of beers in advance, I never manage to stick to the schedule. Thankfully I did make it through five of the six beers I had recently planned, but it looks like the Pale Ale is going to get pushed back. Sometimes my creative ADD takes over.

I've really been fascinated by some of the fringe IPAs (black, wheat, rye) lately, and I've been wanting to make one for awhile now. Stone's Sublimely Self-Righteous is one of my favorites, as well as Odell Mountain Standard and Hops in the Dark. That was until I tried Stone's 15th Anniversary Escondidan IPA. What an incredible beer that is; such a huge mouthfeel with a boat-load of Citra character. I've been wanting to make something similar ever since I tried it.

Then very recently I bought a sixer of Ruthless Rye from Sierra Nevada, which recharged my impulse to brew a Rye IPA. Fantastic beer, again with a lot of Citra aroma. Well it just so happens I have a lot of Citra hops, and I love Citra and Amarillo together, so why not make a Black Rye IPA featuring those hops? I want this beer to be a little bigger than an IPA, but not quite as huge as the Stone BIPAs. Maybe something around 8% give or take.

So I tossed together a quick recipe for what I think will be a great beer. The only thing holding me back on brewing this next is the fact my last four beers have all been 1.060 or higher, and I'm in dire need of a session-strength beer right now. Which leads to my next creative impulse.....

A couple of months ago, I purchased 12oz of experimental hops(HBC 342), and they've been practically screaming at me from the freezer, begging to be used. The plan is to take my pale ale(a 1.055 beer) recipe, and replace all the hops with HBC342.

So now it's a coin toss over which beer I'll brew in the next couple weeks; I'm still debating...Anyway, on to the recipe for the Black Rye IPA!

6 gallons
13lbs 2-row
2lbs 10oz Rye
14oz Crystal 60
14oz Carafa Special III
Mash @ 152*
1.5oz Warrior (17% AA) @ 60
2oz Amarillo/Citra @ 15
3oz Amarillo/Citra @ 0
Dry Hop - 4oz Amarillo/Citra
Safale US-05 - fermented at 62*F

Target OG: 1.075
Target FG: 1.015

Brewing with Bertus

2012-02-19T12:30:00.000-07:00

It's probably about time that I post a walk through of my brew day. Today Greg and I are brewing my Furry Penguin DIPA.

Brew stand all setup

First thing to do is setup the brew stand and start collecting strike water. Greg built a very nice two tier brew stand that holds three vessels (Hot Liquor Tank, Mash Tun, and Boil Kettle.) Once we get the stand setup with the kettles and propane tank, we collect our strike water from Greg's under-the-sink R/O system.

HERMS heat exchanger filled with water

After we have our strike water volume in the HLT, we fire up the burner under the HLT, and start to heat it to 160-175*. At this point we also plug the heater element for the HERMS heat exchanger into the control-toolbox to start pre-heating the water in the heat exchanger (HEX.)

Crushed grain

As the water is heating, we get our grist prepared. We use a Barley Crusher grain mill to mill our malt. Once dialed in, it gives a fantastic crush, batch after batch.

Strike water filling the mash tun

When the strike water reaches our target temp, we open the valve and let the water flow into the mash tun, which in this case is a converted keg. The keg definitely has a good amount of thermal inertia, so we usually have to heat the water quite a bit higher than our desired strike temp. Now we set the desired strike temp on the PID controller, prime the pump, and start to recirculate the strike water through the HEX.

Mash right after doughing in

Once the water hits the strike temp I turn off the pump, and dough in.

PID is controlling the mash temp

After the grains are stirred well enough, I turn back on the pump, program the PID to the desired mash temp, and let it run undisturbed for the next 55 minutes.

Lots of hops

During the mash is typically a good time to get other things done for the brew day, such as weighing out hop additions, and what not. I also start collecting the sparge water from the R/O system and pour it into the HLT.

When there's around 25 minutes let during the mash, we'll fire up the HLT to heat the sparge water; 170*F is the target.

With 5 minutes left, I turn off the pump, and set the PID to 168*. This will allow the HEX to pre-heat in anticipation for the sparge.

Mash after 60 minutes of recirculating

Once 60 minutes of mashing is up, we change the hoses around so that the wort flows out of the mash tun, and into the boil kettle. The sparge water is pumped out of the HLT, through the HEX, and on top of the mash to rinse the grains. I like to sparge fairly slow, so it takes around 20-25 minutes for a 5 gallon batch.

Once we've collected enough wort, we kill the pump, and fire up the burner under the boil kettle. When the wort reaches a boil, we add our pellet hops in a paint strainer bag to keep them from clogging the pump. Whole hops go straight in the kettle.

Hop bag to contain the pellet hops

This beer has a lot of hops =)

With 10 minutes left in the boil we hook up the counter flow chiller, and re-circulate the boiling wort through the pump, hoses, and chiller to sanitize them. This also allows us to whirlpool post boil if we want.

Chilling setup

Once the boil is done, we kill the heat, and either turn on the chilling water, or allow the wort to whirlpool. For this beer, I want the flameout hops to steep in the whirlpool for 10 minutes.

When 10 minutes of whirlpooling is up, we turn on the hose, which flows through the chiller and cools the wort. The first pass through the CFC drops the wort down to 90-110*F, which gets pumped back into the kettle.

Once the whole volume of wort is under about 120*, we start to pump ice water through the CFC, which drops the output from the CFC to about 60*, which gets pumped directly into the fermenter.

Hydro sample - 1.075

I pitch yeast, seal up the fermenter, and set the temperature on my fermentation temperature controller. And that's my brew day.

Taste Updates: Porter and Stout

2012-02-17T18:47:00.000-07:00

Foreign Extra Stout and Robust Porter

So the Foreign Extra Stout and Robust Porter I brewed awhile back are both finally reaching their peak. Here are some brief tasting notes for anyone considering brewing them.

Foreign Extra Stout:

Clarity is excellent for a beer this dark, but it isn't quite dark enough. It's black, but not the jet black I was shooting for. Aroma is roasty, sweet, and there's definitely a caramelized sugar, burnt raisin character from the dark crystals. Flavor is roasty, raisiny, with some esters from the yeast. Probably a little too much, but that's a yeast-management issue, not a recipe issue.

Overall a very nice beer. Only recipe tweak would be an additional 4oz of roasted barley for color and more roast.

Robust Porter:

This beer is definitely on the dark end of a robust porter. Aroma is pleasant with some chocolate and floral notes from the hops. Flavor is more chocolate, and some sweetness from the crystal malt. Very well balanced beer and overall, very nice. I'm extremely excited to submit this beer to the upcoming Great Arizona Homebrew Competition, as I think it will do really well.

It's been a slow last two weeks for me, but there are lots of updates coming soon. I dry hopped my Amber Ale yesterday, tomorrow I'm brewing the Furry Penguin, and I've got a few other fun things going on that I'll post.

Arizona Beer Week!!!

2012-02-13T10:39:00.001-07:00

We are only 5 days away from the start of the 2nd Annual Arizona Beer Week, and I couldn't be more excited. Every single day from Saturday to Saturday there are dozens of beer events around town; beer dinners, beer-food pairings, keg tappings, brewer meet & greets, etc etc.

There's so many events going on each day, that it will make your head spin, but here are a few that I have ear-marked that interest me:
Saturday: Arizona Strong Beer Festival
Sunday: Bell's Tasting @ Total Wine Tempe
Monday: Teakwoods and Flanny's are tapping Four Peaks Robust Porter
Tuesday: Sierra Nevada is tapping three kegs at Taste of Tops
Wednesday: Ballast Point is tapping kegs at Boulders, Firestone Walker, Lagunitas, and Sierra Nevada will be at Flanny's
Thursday: Firestone Walker Tasting at Whole Foods Chandler
Friday: Fox Cigar and Beer Festival

I highly doubt I'll make it to all these, but I'm certainly going to try to attend most. If you haven't checked out the website, and you live in AZ, you should! http://arizonabeerweek.com

Anyone else planning on attending any of these?

Water Chemistry - How to Build Your Water

2012-02-06T11:33:00.003-07:00

I'm sure you've heard it before: Beer is over 90% water. That little adage would lead you to believe that quality water is the most important factor in good beer. I won't go that far, but quality water does help. Aside from temperature controlled fermentations, starting with reverse osmosis water and building back minerals has made the biggest difference in the quality and consistency of my brews. The best part is, it's really not that difficult or confusing. It's easier for me to do this in a Q&A format, so i'll be asking my self questions =)

What the hell is reverse osmosis water?

Reverse Osmosis is a selective filtration process that greatly reduces the ion levels in the source water. It also removes many of the nasties found in water that you wouldn't want to drink. You're probably more familiar with R/O water than you think. The water machines that dispense water in front of grocery stores for 25c per gallon, those are R/O machines.

Ok, but why not use tap water?

Like many big urban cities, in Metro-Phoenix, our water is awful for brewing. It's some of the hardest water you'll find, it's loaded with chlorine, and rather high in sodium too. If you filter out the chlorine, it might be decent water for hoppy or roasty beers, but the other issue is the mineral levels vary greatly depending on the water's source. So you're rolling the dice on pretty much every batch. Thankfully my brew-buddy Greg has a R/O system installed under his sink, but even for brewers that don't, you can buy R/O water from those machines in front of the grocery store. Just fill up a fermenter or two.

So what makes R/O water better?

I won't get into too many of the technicalities of reverse osmosis, but there are a few important things to know. First is that using R/O water isn't going to win you the 'Greenest Brewer in the World' award. Typical commercial R/O units waste approx. an equal amount of water than what is recovered. So your 10 gallons of water took 20 gallons to make. Household under-the-sink units are worse, usually wasting water at an 8 to 1 ratio. The next important thing to know is that R/O reduces ion levels in water by roughly 9 to 1. So if your water had 300ppm of calcium, after R/O it would have ~ 33ppm; it's not quite as pure as distillation. Because of this, it's important to know the mineral content of the base water, since it will affect how you build up water for styles that require very soft water (e.g. Czech Pils).

Huh?

Basically, R/O strips all the minerals in your water down to very low numbers we can consider a 'baseline'. From that baseline, we can easily add back what we need to make our water ideal for brewing.

That makes sense, but why not just use straight R/O water for brewing?

Well if you're an extract brewer you certainly can, but you'll most likely find that your beers are missing something that made the flavors 'pop'. If you're an all-grain brewer, you'll have the same issue, but you'll also suffer some efficiency issues, as your mash pH won't be in the ideal range. As it turns out, we need the minerals that are typically found in our tap water. Starting with R/O water gives us the ability to control the concentration of those minerals.

So how do I start building my water, I've seen brewing water calculators online, they look very complicated?

Assuming your source water isn't off-the-charts hard, post-RO, it'll be relatively devoid of minerals (remember 9 to 1 reduction). For the basic style of beer, I simply:

-Add 1tsp of calcium chloride per 5 gallons of water
-Add 2% acidulated malt to my grain bill (typically between 3 and 5 ounces for a 5 gallon batch.

That's it.

But don't different beer styles require different water?

Yes, that's correct.
Roasty beers (stouts, porters), I skip the acidulated malt.
Hoppy syles (APA, IPA, IIPA), I also add 1tsp of gypsum
Soft water beers (Czech Pils), I cut the calcium chloride down to 1/2tsp
British styles, I double the calcum chloride, and add 1tsp of gypsum.

Those are what work well for me. You may find you need to tweak those numbers some to find what works best for you.

Aren't there other minerals that brewers add like chalk, epsom salts, and baking soda?

Yes.

And......?

I don't find I need them. Acid malt, calcium chloride, and gypsum are all I ever use, and I've made plenty of great beers.

Won't acid malt make my beer taste sour?

Good question. Beers will taste better when their pH is in a certain range. Without acid malt, a mash starting from R/O water will have a pH that's too high, efficiency will suffer, and the beer may taste a little flat. Adding 2-3% acid malt will help lower the mash pH by .2-.3, and I find that it helps accentuate flavors. If you use too much acid malt(5-6%) you will start to taste the acidity, so keep it under 4%.

Lastly I need to give credit and many thanks to ajdelange on Homebrewtalk. Much of this information is from his excellent water chemistry primer.Over the past 18 months, I've made some great beer following his techniques for building water, and I've very thankful for the good advice!

American Amber Ale Brew Day

2012-02-04T15:36:00.001-07:00

Today was an absolutely perfect day in Phoenix, 70* and sunny; hard to beat that for February. With the Super Bowl tomorrow, today was also a great day to squeeze in a brew day.

Last week I finally broke down and bought a Thermapen, and this was the first time I used it. I have to say, it's so damn cool. I can't believe I waited to buy one as long as I did. It reads within 1* of the actual temp in 3 seconds or less, and it's accurate to +/- 0.1*. Needless to say, I was like a kid on christmas. If anyone else out there is unhappy with their current thermometer, buy one of these, you won't be sorry.

Back to the beer.... Today's batch was an American Amber Ale. I brewed this to be much hoppier, and bigger than the typical amber ale, but not quite as hoppy or big as the huge 'West Coast Ambers'. The OG came in at 1.060, exactly where I planned, and the wort tastes really good. Short of any massive fermentation issues, this should be a really nice beer. This batch is the first in the series of three hoppy beers I'm brewing. Up next is the Furry Penguin Double IPA, and a nice little hoppy pale ale. On to the recipe:

6 gallons
10.5lbs 2-row
1lb Munich
1lb Crystal 60
8oz Crystal 120
Mash @ 152*
0.75oz Warrior (17% AA) @ 60
0.5oz Centennial @ 10
0.5oz Amarillo @ 10
1oz Centennial @ 0
1oz Amarillo @ 0
Dry Hop - 1oz Citra
Safale US-05 - fermented at 62*F

OG: 1.060
Target FG: 1.013-1.014

How to Fix and Prevent Chill Haze

2012-02-02T10:20:00.000-07:00

No one likes hazy beer. Other than styles like hefeweizens and wits that are supposed to be turbid, haze is a put-off to most people. Most haze in beer has no taste or flavor, but let's face it, we drink with our eyes first. There's nothing more inviting than a sparkling clear beer just begging to be drank. Unfortunately, without filtration, bright beer can be difficult to achieve for many home brewers, but I'm here to help.

One of the more common reasons for hazy beer is chill haze. You know your beer has a chill haze if it's bright (clear) at room temperature, but turbid (hazy) at fridge temps. Unfortunately, most brewers try to fix chill haze after the beer has been brewed, rather than try to prevent chill haze from the start. Here is a list of best practices that will help ensure your beer is sparkling clear. These are listed in chronological order.

Pre-Fermentation:

Hot Break - This one is kind of a no-brainer, but a strong boil creates a good hot break. As wort comes to a boil, proteins begin to coagulate and form larger particles. As those particles become larger and clump together, they fall out of solution. I say this is a no-brainer because most brewers already achieve a good rolling boil.

Finings - Irish moss or whirlfloc are worth their weight in gold; use one or the other on every batch. Either of these will help precipitate hot break and cold break from the wort. Whirlfloc tablets are actually sized for 10 gallon batches, so use a 1/2 tablet for 5 gallons.

Cold Break - After the boil, chill your wort as fast as possible. As you rapidly chill wort, more protiens, and haze-inducing particulate will precipitate out of solution. This is one of the more critical steps to eliminating chill haze. If you aren't chilling your wort under 80*F in under 15 minutes, invest some time in improving your process.

Post-Fermentation:

Cold Crash - Once the beer has completely fermented out, and you've given the yeast some time to clean up after themselves, crash the beer down as close to 32F as possible. I know not everyone has refrigeration space that can accomidate a fermenter, but if you, don't skip this step. Rapidly chilling the beer from fermentation temps to 32F will cause most of the yeast to drop out of solution, it will also help cause chill haze. Why would we want to cause chill haze? Funny that you ask...

Gelatin - Now that the beer is ice cold, and probably fairly hazy, you'll want to fine it with gelatin. Plain old Knox or any other unflavored gelatin will work. Add one teaspoon to about 1/2 cup of water in a microwave safe dish. Pyrex measuring cups work well for this. I also like to use my thermometer probe to stir. Now microwave the solution, stopping to stir and check the temp every 15 seconds. It shouldn't take much more than 60 seconds to reach 150*F which is our target (Try not to go over 150*). Add the hot gelatin solution to your beer, either straight in the fermenter, or rack your beer on top of the gelatin in a keg. The gelatin will drop out the yeast, and most of the haze inducing particulate in the beer in around 24-48 hours. If you did this in the primary, rack your clear beer into a keg or bottling bucket. If you did this in the keg, simply pull a couple pints of cloudy beer off the bottom of the keg.

Cold Conditioning - The last, but still important step is to condition your beer cold. Brewers that bottle condition their beer are often eager to try their beer after the several weeks it took to carbonate. As a result, they don't let the beer condition long at fridge temps. I know I never did. The same problem happens once brewers start kegging their beer. Going from grain to glass quicker is one of the big draws to kegging isn't it? No matter the package, beer can really benefit from about 2-3 weeks spent at fridge temperatures after fermentation. You can call it conditioning or lagering, but the effect is the same. Haze causing particulate falls out of solution, sharp flavors being to round off, and the beer just plain tastes better.

To summarize: Strong boil, remember the whirlfloc, quick chill. Then cold crash, gelatin, and cold condition. I follow every one of those steps on every batch I brew, and I would urge you to do the same. After all, who doesn't want crystal clear beer?

Small Snifters

2012-02-01T11:21:00.002-07:00

Sam Adams glass for reference

Lots of people will tell you that specific glassware can enhance the beer drinking experience. I'm not a beer snob, but I will admit that a snifter really does help capture the aroma of a beer. And considering I drink a boat load of hoppy beers, this is a good thing.

Most nights, I often don't want a full pint of beer, rather I just want to taste one of my beer to see how it's coming along. The snifters I've seen online hold 12oz or more, and just aren't practical for me. Many breweries use little 4-5oz snifters for tastings, but I couldn't seem to find them for sale indivudually. They sell online for around $30 shipped for a case of 12 (not a bad deal), but I don't exactly need 12. So last night after dinner, my girlfriend and I were perusing a little glass shop in downtown Chandler, and low-and-behold they had the perfect little glasses! Then I saw the price - 4 glasses for $5. Sold!

While I'll admit, they do look a little snobby and douchey, these are still pretty freaking sweet glasses, and the perfect size too!

DIY Tap Handles

2012-01-29T16:17:00.001-07:00

I love DIY projects, and I've really been wanting to make some tap handles for my kegerator. I was considering making some ones out of wood, or possibly buying some of the beautiful wooden, hand-turned handles, but I couldn't really justify the price. Recently while cruising the web, I saw someone make tap handles from used White Labs yeast vials. Brilliant! So I stole the idea, and took some pictures of the process.

Most home brewers shouldn't have any problem acquiring a used White Labs yeast vial. The tricky part though, is removing the label. They use some sort of industrial strength adhesive to hold that bad boy on, lord knows why. I've found the best method to remove the labels is steam + WD40. First heat up a tea kettle or a pot on the stove with water. Once the water is boiling and pumping out steam, (carefully) hold the vial over the steam until you can slowly peal the label off. You'll need to peel a little bit, then steam, then peel some more, then steam some more, but the label should come off as well as most of the adhesive. Now use WD40 or Goo-Gone to wipe off the remaining adhesive until it's shiny. Then just clean with soap and water.

Now we need to turn it into a tap handle. Most home brew shops carry these little brass tap handle adapters. They can be threaded or glued into about anything to make a tap handle. So either cut or drill a hole in the cap of the vial so that the first step of the brass fitting fits. It should fit like the picture below. Then use a two-part epoxy, and apply a very small amount where the brass and plastic meet on the inside. Don't smear so much epoxy in there that you can't screw the lid back on; you only need a few drops.

Once the epoxy dries (consult the instructions for curing time), fill the vial with whatever you like, screw the cap on, and you're done! All in all, a very easy project that looks pretty cool. The two I made are filled with 2-row and whole hops, but I'm going to make another with layers of different specialty grains.

Fixing Esters

2012-01-27T09:09:00.000-07:00

Every now and again a batch I brew doesn't turn out quite as I hoped. Contrary to popular belief, most flaws in beer don't occur during wort production, they occur during fermentation. When I brewed the Honey Blonde Ale for the Crossfit competition, I split ten gallons into two fermenters. One fermenter went into my temperature controlled mini-fridge, the other went into a water bath that I tried to keep around 65* using cold water and ice cubes. The five gallons from the mini-fridge turned out excellent, and that was the batch that I served at the Crossfit event. The five gallons from the water bath are another story.

The water-bath fermenter's temperature fluctuated quite a bit during fermentation. It would drop to 62-63 after I added ice cubes, and shoot up to 68-70 while I was at work during the day. So it was no surprise, although still disappointing, that it turned out rather estery. If there's one thing I really strive for all my beers to have, it's a clean fermentation. I really can't stand drinking beers that are overly phenolic or estery. So here I am with five gallons of a blonde ale that I really don't want to drink. Should I dump it?

Survey says....... nope, dry hop it! I bought a couple 2" diameter stainless tea balls awhile back (pictured above). They're smaller than they look, and hold about 1/4 ounce of pellet hops each. These are great for dry hopping beers directly in the keg. I fill them with hops, and just drop them straight in.

So for this beer, I wanted something really assertive and oily, so I used 1/2oz of Citra. Sure enough, the beer is now rather enjoyable, even if it is a bit out of style with the heavy hop aroma. You'd be surprised how much you can hide esters with dry-hops. The moral of this story is

A. Tightly controlled fermentation temperatures make a huge difference in the ester-profile of a beer
B. Heavy esters suck in beers that aren't meant to be estery
C. Dry hops can hide many a flaw =)

If Pliny the Younger and 120 Minute had a baby...

2012-01-24T11:17:00.001-07:00

Nuclear Penguin aka 120 Minute IPA clone

Last July I took on the monumental challenge of cloning Dogfish Head's 120 Minute IPA. I documented the entire process here and it turned out really well. It tastes just like the older 20%+ ABV versions of 120 Minute. Mine topped out at 21.1% calculated ABV, but considering volatilization of alcohol, I called it 20% for good measure. I drank a few bottles, gave away a few bottles, and now have about 30 left that I'm going to stash away for a long time to mature.

After brewing this beer, I'll admit, it really shouldn't be called an IPA. It's brewed in the spirit of an IPA since it has a ton of hops, but the beer doesn't taste anything like an IPA. The aroma is mostly malt and alcohol. You can smell the hops, but they certainly take a back seat. The taste is the same: there's only some hop flavor and very little bitterness. So I've been thinking about how to make this beer better or I should say, closer to an IPA. Pliny the Younger is arguably the best example of a really huge Imperial IPA (Triple IPA). I want a beer with that level of hop presence, just more alcohol. So my goal is to find a middle ground between Younger and 120 Minute, almost as if PTY and 120 minute had a hoppy love child.

Dogfish Head uses the same fermentation process to create their big beers such as World Wide Stout, Raison D'Extra, 120 Minute, and Fort. They brew a beer around 25 plato or so (1.100), and pitch their normal yeast. As that ferments out, they then pitch a super high-gravity yeast strain, and begin incrementally feeding the beer additional fermentables, usually in the form of corn sugar. This process could be applied to any 'base' beer; 120 minute applies the process to the 90 Minute recipe. What if we started with something more along the lines of my Furry Penguin DIPA recipe, and then apply the 120 Minute treatment to it! So here are the changes I'll be making to the original 120 minute recipe

-First: Less Alcohol
    It was really fun to take a beer as high as possible without distillation, but the alcohol and malt character absolutely dominate the flavor. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it doesn't taste like an IPA. I'm thinking an OG around 1.135 would be much better, rather than 1.182. That will bring the beer in around 14-15% ABV.

-Second: Dry it out
    I want this beer to be as dry as possible. As any who's tried 120 Minute knows, it's a sweet, syrupy, almost sticky candy-like beer. All that sweetness masks the hop aroma, and makes the beer much less drinkable. My 120 clone finished at 1.021, I'd like to see this beer closer to 1.010. That's not quite as dry as it sounds because alcohol affects hydrometer readings, but still much drier than before

-Third: Hops. Much more hops!
    I really want this beer to drink like a big IPA. Even though I used 12oz of hops in the boil for my 120 Minute clone, I want way more. I'm planing on 100AAU of hops just for bittering. 72AAU continuously hopped from 20 to 0min and 54AAU at flame out. That's around 16.5oz of high alpha hops just in the boil.

-Fourth: Hop Extract
    Russian River uses CO2-extracted hop extract to bitter Pliny. This stuff isn't isomerised, so it still contains all the oils and volatiles of normal hops. They literally just extract all the resins from the hop, and leave behind the vegetal matter. It's pretty cool stuff. There are a bunch of benefits for a beer like this.

I want around 100AAU of bittering hops, which is a metric ass-ton in a five gallon batch (6oz of 17%AA Warrior!) Unfortunately, hop extract isn't readily available to the home brewer. Northern Brewer sells an extract called HopShot, but they don't say how many grams of alpha acids are in each syringe, and their bitterness calculations leave something to be desired. Thankfully Hop Union had some nice formulas, and I was able to calc out the info I needed. 100AAU is 27.9 grams of alpha acids or 5.8oz of a 17% AA hop. Hop extract is ~55% AA by weight and there is ~1ml/g of extract. So 5ml of extract contains ~2.75g of AA. Moral of the story is, I need 45-50ml of hop extract to replace 6oz or Warrior, which nets a huge savings of wort. There's also the benefit of not cooking 6oz of hops for 90-120 minutes, which will cut down on the grassy, vegetal flavors in this beer. All in all, making it more Pliny like.

-Fifth: Differnt Hops
    I love the flavor and aroma of the hop combination in my Furry Penguin DIPA, which is Amarillo, Simcoe, and Citra. 120 minute already uses a lot of Amarillo and Simcoe, so the addition of Citra is the only change. I see no benefit in adding these hops early in the boil, so I'll continuously hop them from 20min to 0min.

-Sixth: Even more hops!
    I'm going to do a huge flame out addition, as well as a massive dry hop. 4.5oz at flame out, and 9oz of hops dry hopped in the secondary.

Whew, that was a lot of words to explain a recipe, so here's the consolidated version:

6 gallons
17lbs 2-row
1lb Munich
8oz Victory
8oz C20
Mashed @ 147* for 90 minutes
1lb Dextrose in the boil
2 hr boil

45ml of HopShot hop extract @ 90min (or 6oz Warrior)
6oz (2oz ea) Simcoe, Amarillo, and Citra continuously hopped from 20min to 0min
4.5oz (1.5oz ea) Simcoe, Amarillo, and Citra at flame out
Target OG: 1.105

WLP007 - Dry English Ale yeast for the initial ferment
WLP099 - Super high gravity yeast once the 007 is done
4.5lbs of Dextrose added over the course of 7 days.
Once primary fermentation is complete, rack to secondary
Dry hop five times over the course of 4 weeks with 1.8oz per addition(mix of amarillo, simcoe, citra)

So that's the plan. I'll try to brew this around July, which will be exactly a year after I brewed my first 120 minute clone. I'm hoping for something unique. I know it's only January and that seems like a long way off, but there's a number of other beers I want to brew first. Stay tuned for the brew day of this batch. I'll take a bunch of pictures and try to document the process.

That's a bunch of booze

P.S: I had to do a ton of digging to find the info I needed on those Northern Brewer HopShot syringes. Their little bitterness chart means absolutely nothing to me because calculated bitterness varies so much based on equipment and formula. I calced out that each syringe contains basically 10AAU. In other words, each 5ml syringe is equivalent to 1oz of a 10% AA hop. Lord only knows why NB couldn't put that info on their website, and save us all the effort.

Bertus Porter Brew Day

2012-01-22T09:09:00.003-07:00

Whew! Yesterday was a busy, exhausting, but fun day. Woke up very sore for Friday's crossfit workout, ran some errands, then played golf at noon. Grabbed a quick bite at five and took off to Greg's to brew a Robust Porter. Got home around 10:45 feeling absolutely beat, but productive.

This recipe is my first Porter, so hopefully it turns out well. I got lazy this week, and didn't make a starter for my harvested WLP007, so I pitched a pack and a half of US05 instead. Oh well. This recipe, like my last batch, is one of Jamil's Zainasheff's. I took a little artistic license, but it's pretty similar. I have been looking for a recipe to showcase willamette hops, and this looked perfect.

Brewed: 01-21-12
OG: 1.063

Recipe is calculated for 6 gallons(82% eff)
10lbs 2-row
1lb Munich
1lb Crystal 40
6oz Chocolate Malt
6oz Pale Chocolate Malt
6oz Black Patent
Mash @ 152*
.7oz Warrior @ 90min
1oz Willamette @ 10min
1oz Willamette @ 0min
1oz Willamette - Dry hopped
Safale US-05 - American Ale Yeast. Fermented at 62F

The wort from the hydro sample taste exactly as I hopped it would. I'm definitely looking forward to this beer being on tap. It's going to be a long 5 weeks.

Commerical Brews

2012-01-19T19:51:00.002-07:00

Despite my best efforts, I don't always have home brew on tap, at least not in as well-conditioned state as I would like it to be. Patience is something that I typically find fleeting, but when it comes to waiting for a beer to condition, I can stick it out. Thankfully, the solution to this little conundrum is as easy as a trip to liquor store.

I actually find it nice from time-to-time to take a little break from home brewed beers to sample some new craft beers. And I'm not ashamed to say I have a little chubby for Firestone Walker beers at the moment; there's lots of DBA, Union Jack, and Mission St. Pale Ale in my fridge right now (The Mission St. beers you find at Trader Joes are actually brewed by FW, and at $6/sixer, they're a hell of a bargain.) The quality, flavors, consistency, and originality that Matt Brynildson is brewing up in Paso Robles is pretty fucking outstanding. That combined with a Sierra Nevada or two are keeping this brewer happy until my next few beers are ready. Speaking of which....

My Czech pilsner I brewed awhile back has been lagering away for the better part of two months now, and I can't wait to dig into that keg. Also the Foreign Extra Stout from two weekends ago has fermented out, and is conditioning on the yeast cake at the moment. This weekend I'm brewing a robust porter, so stay tuned for the details and recipe on that one, and an American amber ale is soon to follow.

In other exciting news, my Girlfriend and I decided we are going to Austria and Slovakia in late-April, so if anyone knows of any good bars or breweries in Vienna, Salzburg, or Bratislava, drop me a comment!

Iron Fest 2

2012-01-15T19:46:00.000-07:00

The East Valley Crossfit Iron Fest 2 was a blast! The keg of Blonde Ale I brewed was kicked in about 90 minutes. It was a beautiful day to be outside, and everyone had a great time! Props to everyone who competed yesterday, and congrats to the winners.

Hop Haze? I say excuses...

2012-01-12T07:36:00.002-07:00

hop haze?

If you drink hoppy beers, I'm sure you've heard the term 'hop haze' before. There's a notion that heavily hopped beers or dry-hopped beers will inherently have a hazy appearance due to the hop oils in suspension. I see it all the time on home-brew forums and beer websites; hell, even the BJCP states it's acceptable. Personally, I call BS. I think hop haze is just another excuse to fall back on for hazy beer.

I have no idea how this myth started or perpetuated, but if we're going to debunk it, let's start with commercial beers and ultra-hoppy commercial beers at that.

Russian River's Pliny the Elder: The Double IPA. This is the beer that IPA lovers will give their left arm to get a hold of. They use something like 3 pounds of hops per barrel overall, and over 1 pound of that is dry hopped. It's crystal clear; I mean absolutely brilliantly clear. Even better, is that they don't filter Pliny, they simply fine it with gelatin.
Stone Ruination: A little easier to get a hold of, and absolutely excellent when it's fresh. Another example of a beer that is hopped well beyond the point that's necessary (I'm not sure Greg Koch understands what that word means.) This beer, just like Pliny is brilliantly clear; you could read a book through the glass.
Firestone Walker Double Jack: The best Double IPA in the country in my opionion, and that's what's in the mouth watering pint above. That pint of Double Jack is actually what spurred this post. FW uses over 4 pounds per barrel of hops in this beer (That's well over 1lb in a 5gal batch), and the dry hop accounts for about 2-2.5 lbs of that (6-7oz in 5gal). Despite the aggressive amount of hops, as you can see, this beer sparkles. There isn't even the slightest hint of haze in that beer.

See my confusion? The beers around the country that have the most hops are some of the most brilliant beers I've even come across. But yet I still hear home brewers talk about hop haze, and how lots of dry hops will form a haze in the beer either from hop oils or chlorophenols. I feel it's just an excuse people need to stop using for their hazy beer.

Yes, hops can add a haze to beer immediately after they have been added, but that doesn't mean that ultra-hoppy beers need to be hazy. The beers above prove that. Cold crashing the beer and adding a little gelatin goes a long way to remove any yeast still in suspension, as well as any haze inducing particulate. I'll stop ranting now, and finish enjoying my pint of Double Jack. Cheers to good beer!

Foreign Extra Stout Brew Day

2012-01-09T07:40:00.001-07:00

Almost complete

This weekend I brewed a foreign extra stout. This is my first attempt at brewing this style, so I'm fairly eager to see how it turns out. Equally as exciting, I finished building a counter-flow chiller, and it made it's maiden voyage on this batch. Where has a counter-flow been all my life! I recirculated wort back into the kettle, and in about 7 minutes it brought the entire batch down to 120* using hose water to cool. Once I switched the cooling water to recirculating ice water, the wort was coming out at 60*, which I pumped directly into the fermenter. The entire batch was chilled in about 15 minutes; I'm very impressed.

The recipe is mostly based on Jamil's FES from Brewing Classic Styles. I made a couple of tweaks, but they were fairly minor:

6 gallons
14lbs Marris Otter
12oz Roasted Barley
8oz Chocolate Malt
8oz Crystal 40
4oz Crystal 120
4oz Special B
Mash @ 153*
0.75oz Warrior @ 60
2.25oz East Kent Golding @ 60
WLP007 - Dry English Ale Yeast, fermented at 64*

OG: 1.079
Target FG: 1.016-1.017

Choosing a House Yeast

2012-01-04T12:28:00.003-07:00

Over the past few months I've been inching closer and closer to using one yeast for most everything I brew. I fell in love with WLP007 early last year, and I've been looking for just about every excuse to use it since. I've used it for Blonde Ales, IPAs, Double IPAs, English Pales and American Pales. It has a very clean ester profile for an English strain, attenuates extremely well, and it flocculates like peanut butter. In the low 60* range it's nice and clean, and in the upper 60* range it makes some nice esters. What's not to like?

I had been using the chico strain for just about everything, but I'm finding that 007 gives beers a malty, softer edge than the sharp, bright flavors of chico. So I'm jumping in the deep end with 007. I washed the yeast from my Special Bitter, and then pitched it in the Honey Blonde. I'm going to re-pitch this culture for my next 6 batches (outlined here), and see how they turn out. This is a good mix of styles, and will serve as a good test to see if it 007 can replace chico as my go-to house yeast.

If you haven't tried WLP007, I strongly encourage you to. It's an excellent all around yeast.

Traveling for the Holidays

2011-12-27T10:33:00.000-07:00

There aren't any new brewing related things going on here lately because I'm traveling for the Holidays. Christmas in California, and New Years in Texas. But here's a sunset from Christmas Eve over Laguna Beach. Happy Holidays everyone!

Ten Gallons of Delicous

2011-12-19T18:29:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was my first 10 gallon batch. Greg and I have been using our keggle mash tun for awhile and we broke our boil keggle in last week, so we gave it a full run for it's money yesterday. This batch of Honey Blonde is destined for the East Valley Crossfit Iron Fest. Same exact recipe as my earlier post here, only doubled for 10 gallons, and I used WLP007 rather than US-05 this time. Should be mighty tasty by January 14th! If you're going to be in the area, drop by. It's going to be fun!

Image courtesy of EVCF

Future Batches

2011-12-15T15:16:00.003-07:00

Last night I picked up the specialty malts for my next 6 batches:

Blonde Ale

Foreign Extra Stout

Robust Porter
American Amber
Furry Penguin DIPA
Pale Ale

I'll be making my first 10 gallon batch this weekend with a Blonde Ale. My gym (East Valley Crossfit) is hosting a lifting event called the East Valley Iron Fest in mid-January, and I agreed to brew a keg to serve there. Nothing like mixing alcohol with lifting heavy weight, right?

But anyway, I find it really easy to buy my specialty grains several batches at a time, and store them in gallon zip locks. Then when I'm ready to brew, I measure out my 2-row, and just dump in the bag.

Special Bitter Brew Day

2011-12-10T09:39:00.001-07:00

Today I brewed a special bitter. Just about any one living in the Phoenix area is familiar with Four Peaks brewery. They make a special bitter called 8th Street Ale that I am just obsessed with; it's a lower gravity session beer that just hits the spot. It has a big pronounced hop aroma, more so than you'd expect for a bitter, but the flavor is mostly malty sweetness. Today marks my second attempt to clone it.

6 gallons

6.5lbs 2-row
1lb Munich
10oz Carapils
8oz Crystal 80
0.3oz Warrior @ 60
1oz East Kent Golding @ 15
1oz East Kent Golding @ 0
1oz Styrian Golding @ 0
Mash @ 154*
WLP007 - Dry English Ale Yeast, fermented at 64*
OG: 1.044
Dry Hop 1/2oz each Stryian Golding/EKG

Brew day went smooth other than the fact that I collected too much wort, so my OG was down a little (1.048 was the goal). Today was the first day my friend Greg and I brewed with our new keggle, and it was tough to estimate the volume of wort I had. Despite that, I'm definitely looking forward to see how this batch turns out!

In other news, my Honey Blonde, took first place in a competition this weekend with a 41.5, and my IPA placed third in another!!

Hoppy Holidays

2011-12-07T17:27:00.001-07:00

I purchased a bunch of hops in bulk this fall from the 2011 harvest, and I just finally got around to breaking them down into 4oz packs. If there are any hop-heads out there that don't buy hops in bulk, you should strongly consider it. Pick up a foodsaver and some vacuum bags because the savings are huge. After shipping I paid an average of 81 cents per ounce. This years hop harvest smells absolutely incredible: very oily, fragrant, and pungent. Looks like it's going to be a very hoppy 2012 at my house!

Here's the rundown:
2lbs Amarillo
2lbs Centennial
2lbs Citra
2lbs Simcoe
1.5lb Warrior
1lb Styrian Golding
1lb EKG
12oz HBC 342
8oz Cascade

Spent Barley Bread

2011-12-05T11:43:00.004-07:00

So Yummy!

Like many other brewers I often stare at my mash tun wishing I had a useful way to utilize the spent grain that's left over from brewing. It always seems like such a waste to throw away. Since I don't have a farm or a compost bin, using the grain to bake bread seems like as good of an idea as any. The results were delicious, and there's abosuletly nothing like the smell of fresh baked bread coming out of the oven.

I start by rehydrating a packet of bakers yeast. This process should seem very familar to most brewers. Heat 1/4c of water to 110F and add a teapsoon of sugar, then sprinkle on the yeast. Allow that to sit for 10 minutes, then stir until creamy. Set this aside for now.

spent grains

Then I take approx 3 cups of spent grain, and blend it with 8oz of beer, in this case Left Hand Black Jack Porter. The spent grain were a mix of Pilsen and Carapils. The goal here is to grind up the hulls so the bread isn't quite as 'grainy' I then take that mixture, and add a 1/4c of olive oil.

grain and beer - post food processor

On the dry side, mix about 2cups of bread flour with a tablespoon of salt, and 1/4c brown sugar. Stir to combine, and slowly add the dry mixture to the wet to combine. Now mix in the yeast. The dough will be very sticky and tacky at this point.

Now slowly start incorporating an additional 3-4.5 cups of bread flour; I needed about 4cups. Once you've incorporated most of the flour, you can turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead it as you add the last bit of flour. You'll know you've added enough flour when the dough is hardly sticky, rather smooth and elastic. Once you've kneaded for 8-10 minutes, place dough in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a damp kitchen towel.

before first rise

Rest until it's doubled in size(1-2hours.) Now it's time to 'punch down' the dough. Basically turn the dough back out onto your work surface, and lightnly knead it until it's reduced in size. Then shape the dough into your deisred shape; I choose something like a football. Cover and allow dough to double in size again. Now is a good time to preheat your oven to 475*. If you have a pizza stone, this is an excellent time to use it.

after second rise

Once the dough has risen, you'll want to score the top with a sharp knife. This allows steam to escape, and also make the loaf look pretty. Once I put the dough on the pizza stone, I immediately lower the oven temp to 400*. Every couple minutes for the first ten minutes, I misted water with a spray bottle onto the oven walls to create steam. This helps develop the crust.

I turned the loaf 180* after 20 minutes, and baked until the internal temp hit 200* (about 45-50min).

money shot

For my first loaf, it turned out really good! Crunchy crust with a soft pillowy inside. The barley flavor is definitely evident, as is the porter; this is definitely going to be a mainstay around my house. I think next time I'm going to add some green chiles.

Lots of help from HomeBrewTalk and The Fresh Loaf for the baking advice!

Here's the consolidated recipe:

3c Spent Grain (not dried)
~5-6c Bread Flour
1/4c Brown Sugar
1TBSP Salt
1c Beer
1/4c Olive Oil
1 packet Active Dry Yeast

Homebrew Competition Tips

2011-12-01T11:35:00.000-07:00

Let's face it, while we enter competitions for a source of objective feedback about our beers, deep down, we want to win. Isn't that why they're called competitions? The simple answer is brew the best beer you can that fits the style you plan to enter, but that's easier said then done. Here are some tips that will help your beers place more often.

Clean Fermentation:
This is the most general tip, but also the most important. It's really hard to score well in competitions with beers that weren't fermented clean. Pitch the proper amount of yeast, whether dry or liquid, and control the temperature you ferment at. The amount of yeast and temperature will vary from beer to beer, but there are some excellent yeast pitch rate calculators out there. More often than not, this alone will put your beer ahead of the pack in the flight.

Number of Entries:
Enter more beers. It sounds really simple, but if you're really trying to take home a ribbon, it's one of the best methods. Judging in competitions is so variable, and relies quite a bit on luck. Where your beer was placed in the flight, the quality of the other entries, what the judges ate for breakfast, which way the wind blows, etc can all have an effect on how your beers are judged. Entering more beers into the comp will help even out the highs and lows, and give you a much better chance at placing.

Follow the Style Guidelines (Sort of):
Beers in BJCP Competitions are judged based on how accurately they exemplify the style. The judges will be reading the style sheet over and over as they taste beers throughout the flight. Most people try to shoot for the middle of the style, but the trick here is, you can often pull some really high scores by brewing your beer a little over the top. Judges are presented with one beer after another in a flight, and they often develop palette fatigue. If your pale ale is near the end of the flight, and the hop aroma and bitterness are a little over the top for a pale ale, it will stand out from the crowd and often score really well. Obviously this technique will backfire if you beer is very first in the flight, but I like to play the odds.

Bottling:
If you bottle your beer rather than keg, using some method to reduce the amount of yeast in the bottle is a good idea. Cold crash your primary if you can, or consider a secondary. You're aiming for only a thin layer of yeast at the bottom of your bottles. If there's a half inch of yeast at the bottom, that's most likely going to be stirred back up, and your beer won't taste as well as you intended. Oxygen pickup at bottling is less of a concern since there will be fermentation in the bottle.

If you keg your beer, and bottle out of the keg, you'll need more caution. Use a method to fill your bottles that fills them from the bottom. If you can gas your bottles with Co2 prior, even better. It's easier than most people think to oxidize finished beer, and this will be more evident if the competition date is a ways in the future. There won't be any fermentation in the bottle, so cleanliness and sanitation are even more important. Most homebrews don't know how well their beer travels, and they've never tasted their beer after it's sat on a hot UPS truck for a week. So the more meticulous you can be, the better.

Freshness:
Following the last point: Freshness. Styles that are best fresh (Wits, wheats, hefes, hoppy styles), should be stored cold prior to the competition. If the comp organizer doesn't specifically state that they will be storing bottles cold, assume they won't be. Keep your bottles in your fridge, and drop them off or ship them as near to the deadline as you can. As soon as your bottles leave your hands, you have no control over them, so control what you can.

First Impressions:
Appearance and carbonation only account for a few points on the score sheet, but they have a much greater effect on the judges perception of your beer. If the bottle is a gusher, their mind will instantly jump to injected. If the bottle is flat, the flavors in the beer will be subdued. If the beer is murky, and the style calls for brilliant clarity, the judge won't be as excited to try that first sip. First impressions go a long way. A properly carbonated, brilliantly clear beer makes a great first impression on the judge. They'll have that in their mind as they evaluate your beer, and you will score higher even if there are some slight flaws in other areas.

Results:
With all this talk about try to place well, it's very important to take the scores you receive with a grain of salt. Lots of things can influence the scores your beer receives, and one competition isn't always an accurate representation of the quality of your beer. Before you think your beer is the best on earth, or the worst, enter the same beer in a couple more competitions so you can establish a trend. I've had the same beer score a 41 and a 28 in two different competitions; personally I felt it warrented a score around 35.

Lastly, don't be upset if your beer doesn't score as well as you hoped. Competitions first and foremost should be fun, and are an excellent source of objective feedback. Crack open a bottle of your beer as you read the judges notes. This will go a long way towards helping you evaluate your beer, find flaws, and improve your technique and your product. And isn't that what the point of all this is, better beer?

Honey Blonde

2011-11-29T17:30:00.000-07:00

Here's what else is on tap at my house right now. A crisp blonde ale. Blonde Ales are a little out of season considering the weather is cooling off, but for Sunday football, there's not much better. This is a beer that can be consumed in volume! It's dry, crisp, malty, just a hint of hops, and very, very drinkable.

Amarillo Blonde

Brewed: 10-16-11
Kegged: 10-30-11
OG: 1.051
FG: 1.010
ABV:5.4%
IBU:22

Recipe is calculated for 6 gallons(84% eff)
8lbs 2-row
8oz Vienna
8oz Crystal 10L
Mash @ 150*

.75oz Centennial @ 60min
.25oz Amarillo @ 20min
.25oz Amarillo @ 0min

Safale US-05 - American Ale Yeast. Fermented at 62F for 4 days, then 68F for 3 more.

This beer is a huge hit with the light-lager crowd. It's smooth, malty, with a dry crisp finish. Personally, I wish this beer had a little more hop aroma, but that's possibly just because I'm a hop head. I do realize the pumpkin in the picture is a little outdated with the christmas season now here, but oh well..

Furry Penguin DIPA

2011-11-29T17:01:00.002-07:00

I suppose it's fitting my inaugural post is about my favorite style of beer, a Double IPA. Some people like to call them all Imperial IPAs, but personally I think there is a difference between Doubles and Imperials. I think of Doubles as bigger, hoppier IPAs, but still dry and not overly-malty. I think of Imperials as big malty hoppy IPAs. Maybe I'm crazy, but that's my belief on the nomenclature. Anyway... Here's my most recent Double IPA, the Furry Penguin:

Hopilicous!

Brewed: 10-24-11
Secondary/dry hopped: 11-7-11
Kegged: 11-15-11
OG:1.071
FG:1.010
ABV: 8.0%
IBU: ?!?!!?

Recipe is calculated for 6 gallons due to wort loss from the hops (72% eff)
13.5lbs 2-row
8oz Victory
8oz Crystal 40L
1lb Dextrose
Mash @ 148-149* F

3.25oz Warrior(17.1%) @ 90
1oz Citra @ 30
2oz Simcoe/Centennial @ 15 (1oz each)
4oz Simcoe/Citra/Amarillo @ 0 (2oz Simcoe, 1oz ea Citra/Amarillo)

WLP007 - Dry English Ale yeast. Love this yeast for IPAs: it ferments clean, fast, and drops super clear, super quick. Fermented at 62F for 6 days, then raised the temp to 68F for 8 more days to help the yeast finish up.

Dry Hops:
Racked to secondary then:
4oz Amarillo/Citra/Centennial/CTZ (1oz each) for 5 days
3oz Amarillo/Citra/Simcoe (1oz each) Added day 5 for 4 more days
Rack to bottling bucket/keg on day 9 in the secondary.

The recipe for this beer started off as something close to Pliny, and evolved into the recipe above. I love using Amarillo, Simcoe, and Citra together, especially for dry hopping.

Tasting Notes: Aroma is heavy citrus and tropical fruit with lots of oily, resiny character. Taste is more of the same. A little malt sweetness up front, then boom: Hops. Finish is dry and bitter, but the bitterness isn't harsh and doesn't linger.

It also just took first and scored a 43 at a BJCP competition which is my highest score to date!