tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50760020475536489602024-03-15T22:09:51.255-03:00Meek Brewing Co.Just another homebrewer who spends too much time and energy on one hell-of-an-awesome "hobby".Shawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08469375277267237839noreply@blogger.comBlogger173125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5076002047553648960.post-72261847025327151822017-10-24T15:02:00.000-03:002017-10-24T15:39:00.778-03:00When I Lost My Mind and Decided to Open a BreweryLooking back, I'm not really sure when it happened. I don't think I had a severe head injury... not that I can recall, anyway. But isn't that how some head injuries work, you don't actually remember having them? Let's say I had a head injury. Easier, that way!<br />
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Ok, I'll try to be serious. I've been homebrewing since November 29th, 2009. Like a lot of people, the first time I brewed, I was immediately hooked. I had done a lot of reading on homebrewing before I brewed that first batch; it was something I was interested in after a trip to Belgium in February of the same year finally got me into beer. There was no history of homebrewing in university for me, in order to save money on beer; I didn't start drinking good beer until I was 32 years old (yes, I'm aware I just gave away how old I am). That first batch was my one and only beer brewed from a kit. It was an "American IPA" that had medium LME (not light!), a full pound of Crystal 60 L as a steeping grain, and two hop additions: an ounce of something at 60 minutes, and another ounce of Brewer's Gold at 5 minutes. Fermented with a pack of dry yeast, it came out... not great, as I'm sure you can imagine. Obviously with those ingredients, it was really more of an American Amber.<br />
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It didn't matter. I loved brewing, and the reading and talking about beer escalated in a big way for me after that day. I brewed another 6-7 batches before moving into all-grain. I started this blog in November, 2011. I started writing for the <a href="http://acbeerblog.ca/" target="_blank">Atlantic Canada Beer Blog</a> in March, 2013. I kept brewing throughout it all, maxing out at about 24 batches a year. I haven't been the most regular brewer, but every 2 weeks is enough for me to keep my 4-tap keezer pretty full, with beers for me, my wife, and for friends. It's also been enough to allow me to experiment, especially over the last couple of years, where I've moved more into sour, hoppy, and other areas of brewing.<br />
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Most importantly, I've got to know a lot of great people through brewing, including some that I haven't actually met in person. We've all heard the homebrewing community described as, in general, a very open, friendly, and forgiving one, and like a lot of other people, I can personally attest to that. I've learned a lot about brewing through other homebrewers, and I owe a lot of people at least or beer or two!<br />
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Where was I going with this? Oh, right. After a lot of thought and planning, I'm opening a 2 bbl brewery with fellow homebrewer, Rob Coombs. Like a lot of homebrewers, I've always thought about taking the hobby to the next level, but I held back due to lots of (I assume) normal concerns. Would I start hating brewing if I did it professionally? Would I lose too much family time? Would I be able to cut it making beer for the public? Every homebrewer has heard the words, "You should open a brewery!", but how seriously can you take those words? Especially when they're coming from someone who is drinking beer for free!<br />
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I'm opening a brewery because I'm passionate about brewing, and that's it. I'm not a risk-taker by nature; the Meeks have a long history of not taking risks. But I know now that if I don't give this a try, I'll probably regret it, more so than if I try and it doesn't work out. Rob and I are extremely like-minded when it comes to beer and brewing, and I'm very glad to not be doing this on my own. It's very helpful to have someone to split all the work associated with opening a brewery (and yes, what you've heard is true... there's a lot of it!). Most importantly, we like to brew and drink the same types of beer; just check out the recipes on this blog, <a href="https://lostcompassbrewing.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">and on Rob's</a>, and you'll have an idea of what we'll be brewing.<br />
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So yeah, the brewery! <a href="https://www.facebook.com/nichebrewing/" target="_blank">Niche Brewing</a> is, as mentioned, going to be a 2 bbl brewery. We have a space that we're leasing, that won't be open to the public, as all of our product will be kegged and sold through local bars and restaurants... at least for awhile. Some of our equipment has arrived, but with renos and getting everything together, it'll still be awhile before we have beer to sell. By Christmas would be great, but we're not setting a particular date; we've seen other breweries experience unexpected delays, and know what can happen! In fact, there's already been several hiccups, so don't get me started...<br />
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If you check into this blog even semi-frequently, now maybe you'll know why I haven't been posting as often. I'm not quite sure what's going to happen to the blog; I definitely still have some sour beers (and a couple others) I want to post the recipes/tasting notes for, and I've considered writing about the experiences of opening a brewery, but I'm not sure that I can realistically pull that off. I'll definitely still try to post updates (and, of course, feel free to follow Niche Brewing on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/nichebrewing/" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/NicheBrewing" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/nichebrewing/" target="_blank">Instagram</a> for more-regular updates), and if I can keep up with beer recipes, I absolutely will. As Bart Simpson has said, "I can't promise I'll try, but I'll TRY to try".<br />
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Thank you for reading this long-winded post, and all of my other long-winded posts (which is basically all of them)! I've really enjoyed writing this blog over the last almost-six years, and I truly do hope I can continue it to some degree. And if anyone has any questions at all about Niche Brewing, by all means let 'em rip! I'll do my best to answer them as well as I can.<br />
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Almost forgot... we're also on <a href="https://twitter.com/NicheBrewing" target="_blank">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/nichebrewing/" target="_blank">Instagram</a>, and are trying to get used to providing updates accordingly!Shawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08469375277267237839noreply@blogger.com68tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5076002047553648960.post-27912424950863186192017-08-31T12:14:00.002-03:002017-08-31T12:14:54.217-03:00Tasting: Flanders Brown Ale (Oud Bruin)Wow, talk about a long time coming! Some people have been curious about how this Flanders Brown - a malty, fruity, sour style <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2014/04/brewing-flanders-brown-ale.html" target="_blank">that I brewed in March of 2014</a> - turned out, so my apologies for taking so long to post a follow-up. Although, to be fair, a lot of the waiting was because it took a long time for the beer to be ready! Nah, that's not fair; I started writing this post months ago and it's still taken me this long to post it. All the blame is on me.<br />
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I knew from my previous experience brewing a Flanders Red that this wouldn't be ready/sour enough in any short amount of time, so I basically tucked it away somewhere and tried to forget about it. The <a href="https://www.wyeastlab.com/rw_yeaststrain_detail.cfm?ID=194" target="_blank">Wyeast Roeselare</a> blend takes time (it's a mixture of a Belgian style ale strain, a sherry strain, a <i>Lactobacillus</i> culture, a <i>Pediococcus</i> culture, and two <i>Brettanomyces</i> strains), and this beer confirmed for me what I had discovered with the Flanders Red - <u>it really helps to pitch bottle dregs of other sour beers if you want to get it quite sour</u>. After many months on its own, the Roeselare just wasn't getting it to where I wanted it to be; after pitching various bottle dregs over the next six months or more, the beer had changed significantly.<br />
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Using a blend of that many bugs and yeasts, plus throwing in bottle dregs, basically confirms that you'll really never be able to recreate the same beer twice. But I'm ok with that; that's kind of the beauty with most sour beers, no? And in case anyone is interested, here's a summary of the dregs that I did pitch for this batch, and when they were pitched:<br />
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11/4/15 - Cantillon Gueuze 100% Lambic Bio (bottled June, 2013)<br />
16/4/15 - Prairie Funky Gold Amarillo<br />
17/4/15 - Allagash Century Ale (bottled Feb, 2015)<br />
24/4/15 - Allagash Coolship Cerise (bottled Jan, 2012)<br />
29/4/15 - <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2011/12/flanders-red.html" target="_blank">Cherry Neighborino</a> (homebrewed Flanders Red)<br />
13/6/15 - Jolly Pumpkin Sobrehumano Palena ‘ole (bottled May, 2012)<br />
28/7/15 - Cantillon Grand Cru Bruocsella (bottled Jan, 2013)<br />
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By the time I took another gravity reading in September, 2015, the FG had dropped from 1.013 (where it was after a week of fermentation, and then still sat eight months later, right before I started pitching bottle dregs) to 1.009. The beer was tasting quite sour at this point, so I ended up bottling it a couple of weeks later. I made sure to add a full 5 gram pack of Lalvin EC-1118 wine yeast (rehydrated), to make sure the beer carbonated (wine yeast is better at a more acidic pH, compared to using something like US-05); I aimed for 2.5 vol CO2.<br />
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Once the beer carbonated (it definitely didn't get to 2.5 vol, which didn't surprise me), I immediately sampled it - hey, it had already had enough time, right? Thankfully, I was pretty happy with how it had turned out. I've been drinking it off and on since bottling over a year ago, and it has improved since my first taste. The sourness is definitely there - I took a pH reading from a degassed sample months ago, and it was at 3.38 - and the malt complexity is pretty much where I want it.<br />
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These non-kettle-soured sours (and don't get me wrong, I have nothing against kettle-soured beers) are truly wonderful to have on hand... when they turn out. They involve a hell of a lot of patience, but the waiting can really be worth it. Pulling one out of the cellar every now and then, to check on its progress and share with friends, is great to be able to do. The key is brewing them semi-frequently, so that you can start building up inventory. I'm trying hard to do this more often; I have a wine-barrel Flanders Red on the go, half bottled and half the batch now aging on blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries, as well as a Blonde sour (think Russian River Temptation), with half of that batch aging on mangoes (I also plan to dry hop when I'm about ready to bottle). I've finally been doing better at actually following my own advice of brewing these beers more often; I actually just brewed another Oud Bruin a few weeks ago as well.<br />
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So, remember - buy some extra carboys and brew these beers often, be patient, and don't be afraid to experiment with hops, fruit, wood, sour bottle dregs etc. And did I mention be patient?<br />
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<i>Appearance:</i> Pours with a moderate-small, off-white head that fades very quickly to almost nothing. Body is dark brown/reddish, with excellent clarity.<br />
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<i>Aroma:</i> Plenty of sourness, making your mouth water with the first whiff; surrounded by dark fruit, and a medium caramel sweetness from the malt bill.<br />
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<i>Taste: </i>Nice balance of caramel malt character and fruity ester, with an emphasis on dark fruit. Finishes slightly sweet, with a high sourness factor... lots of mouth-puckering tartness, here (I would guess a lower pH than the 3.39 my meter gave).<br />
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<i>Mouthfeel:</i> Medium-light bodied, with low carbonation.<br />
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<i>Overall:</i> I think this turned out quite well; the amount of time this beer has had definitely hasn't hurt. These tasting notes are from two days ago, and I can say with surety that the beer has definitely progressed since initial tastings. Wish I could say I could replicate it exactly, but likely not going to happen!</div>
Shawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08469375277267237839noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5076002047553648960.post-68688616693124289592017-07-14T13:14:00.001-03:002017-07-14T13:14:48.425-03:00Grapefruit Milkshake IPA (w/ Azacca, Citra and Mosaic)Last fall, I brewed my first Milkshake IPA (and in true me fashion, posted about it almost 3 months later... sigh), <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2017/02/orange-creamsicle-ipa-my-first-attempt.html" target="_blank">Orange Creamsicle IPA</a>. With half a pound of lactose powder, vanilla bean, orange zest, and hopped with plenty of Azacca, Equinox and Galaxy, it came out really tasty. It wasn't QUITE where I wanted it to be, as I felt that it could use more vanilla (I had used half a vanilla bean), but otherwise I really enjoyed it.<br />
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Originally going up in February, that post is now my third-most-viewed post of all time (and close to passing to #2). I've been blogging since November of 2011, so when a post is viewed that many times in five months, it really says something. And no, I'm not saying it says something about my writing! It shows that this is a "style" that is really taking off in North America. And it shows that when your blog is referenced, even briefly, on <a href="http://www.themadfermentationist.com/" target="_blank">The Mad Fermentationist</a>, your popularity increases exponentially! Where were you in junior high school, Mike Tonsmeire, huh? Huh?<br />
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Brewing a beer like this again was a definite thing for me. Aside from being obviously juicy, fruity, tropical, etc. from the zest and hop additions, the vanilla and lactose work surprisingly well, giving the beer a very smooth, silky mouthfeel, without being cloyingly sweet. So, in early April I brewed up another Milkshake IPA, with a few changes this time around.<br />
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The grist I kept almost the same, with only one change: originally, I had a mix of 2-row and Maris Otter (emphasis on the 2-row), but I started thinking afterwards, why do that with a beer of this style? I understand that if you want a bit more malt complexity, Maris Otter is great, but in a beer that has lactose powder, vanilla bean, fruit, and a boatload of hops... somehow I think anything that Maris Otter adds is going to get lost. And with it's slightly higher price, I couldn't justify it. So the majority of the grist is 2-row, with close to 15% Flaked Oats, and a bit of Carapils and Acid malt.<br />
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Hops. The changes I made here were purely out of experimentation, not because I wasn't happy with the three varieties I used the first time around. This time around I kept the Azacca, and switched out the Equinox and Galaxy for Citra and Mosaic. You're talking about two awesome varieties being replaced by... two awesome varieties. I love all four of those hops and would be happy using any or all of them in a beer. I couldn't remember recently combining Citra and Mosaic together, so thought this would be a good opportunity. Citra and Mosaic were used at 10 minutes, and for a hop steep. A large dose of Azacca for the first dry hop, then more Citra for a second.<br />
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For the vanilla bean, this was a simple adjustment. Half a bean (scraped and chopped, soaked in vodka for a week or so before packaging, with the resulting tincture being added to the serving keg) gave some vanilla presence the first time, but not enough. A friend who tried mine <a href="https://lostcompassbrewing.wordpress.com/2017/04/26/milkshake/" target="_blank">brewed his own version</a> and added a whole bean, and it was spot-on. So, a full bean it is!<br />
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Finally, the fruit. There were plenty of options here, ranging from a combination of zests to whole fruit. I had fully intended on adding mango into secondary after fermentation was complete, but ultimately I decided on more zest... and not a fruit I normally would have thought of for a beer like this - grapefruit. But, anyone who's had Grapefruit Sculpin from Ballast Point knows that it's a pretty delicious beer (at least, it was the last few times I had it), and grapefruit is a descriptor you can find in several hop varieties, so I gave it a shot. I used almost twice the amount of zest that I used for orange in the last beer, keeping in mind that the bitterness of the beer may be accentuated by the grapefruit.<br />
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Fermented (with London Ale III, of course), dry-hopped, kegged, and consumed (mostly, there's a few bottled-from-the-tap beers left), this beer came out pretty a-ok. The one vanilla bean is, I can confirm with certainty now, the way to go for a 5 gallon batch. The level of vanilla in both the aroma and taste is pretty much just where I'd want it to be for this beer. Of course, the juicy, fruity tropical hops are the stars of the show, with a touch of residual sweetness from the lactose (I still think 1/2 lb is enough). I get a bit of grapefruit, but I wonder if the large dry-hop additions aren't overshadowing the zest? The Brew Bucket smelled very strongly of grapefruit after I had racked to the keg, but I don't get near that aroma in the actual beer. And I do think the bitterness for this one is a bit too high; since the IBUs are about where the last one was, I'm guessing maybe the grapefruit is increasing the perception of bitterness even more.<br />
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Changes for next time: dial the IBUs back a bit if using grapefruit zest, but more likely, I'd go with a different fruit. The beer is still quite enjoyable, but I think the orange zest from the last beer worked better. And, of course, I'll probably tweak the hops even more, just because! But this is turning into a pretty solid recipe, and I'd recommend most of what you see below.<br />
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<b>Recipe Targets:</b> (<u>5.5 gallons</u>, 75% efficiency) OG 1.067, FG ~1.014, IBU ~54, SRM 4.2, ABV ~7%<br />
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<b>Grains & Sugars:</b><br />
4.65 kg (75.8%) Canadian 2-row<br />
900 g (14.7%) Flaked Oats<br />
180 g (2.9%) Carapils<br />
180 g (2.9%) Acid malt<br />
227 g (3.7%) Lactose powder <i>(added during the boil)</i><br />
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<b>Hops:</b><br />
Polaris - 8 g (17% AA) @ 60 min<br />
Citra - 28 g (11.5% AA) @ 10 min<br />
Mosaic - 28 g (10.5% AA) @ 10 min<br />
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Citra & Mosaic - 42 g each @ 0 min (<u>with a 15 min hop steep</u>)<br />
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Azacca - 104 g dry-hop for 5 days (in primary)<br />
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Citra - 80 g dry-hop for 5 more days (in primary)<br />
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<b>Misc:</b><br />
17 g grapefruit zest (in primary with Citra dry hop)<br />
1 vanilla bean (scraped and chopped, soaked in vodka for a week, strained and added in serving keg)<br />
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<b>Yeast:</b> Wyeast 1318 London Ale III (~240 billion cells)<br />
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<b>Water:</b> Fredericton city water, carbon-filtered; 3 g Gypsum and 7 g calcium chloride added to mash<br />
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- Brewed in early April, 2017, by myself. 50-minute mash with 16 L of strike water; mash temp on target at 150 F. Mashed-out for 10 minutes with 8.5 L of boiling water to 168 F. Sparged with ~3 gallons of 168 F water for final volume of ~6.75 gallons.<br />
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- 60-minute boil; added the lactose in the final 20 min. Final volume ~5.5 gallons; OG a bit low at 1.065. Chilled to 64 F, then poured into Brew Bucket (from SS). Aerated with 90 seconds of pure O2, pitched yeast at 64 F.<br />
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- Fermentation active by the next day and over 2-3 days (temp got as high as 72 F).<br />
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- 8/4/17 - Fermentation started slowing, added first dry hop.<br />
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- 13/4/17 - Added second dry-hop and grapefruit zest.<br />
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- 20/4/17 - Kegged beer (with vanilla bean-infused vodka), carbed at 30 PSI for 36 hours.<br />
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<i>Appearance:</i> Pours much like the last: moderate-large sized, stark white head that shows great retention. Body is pale yellow, and completely cloudy.<br />
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<i>Aroma: </i>Bright and full of juicy, tropical fruit; followed by some vanilla, and a touch of grapefruit. Not really getting any malt character (that's ok).<br />
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<i>Taste:</i> Like the aroma suggest, plenty of juicy fruit goodness from the hops! Much better level of vanilla this time around (definitely noticeable, but not sickening), and the grapefruit does come through a bit as well. Finishes with a moderate bitterness.<br />
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<i>Mouthfeel: </i>Medium-bodied, medium carbonation. Very smooth and creamy.<br />
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<i>Overall: </i>Very nice; I give the hop and fruit edge to the last beer, and the vanilla to this one. Hoping that my next attempt will be even closer to where I want.</div>
Shawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08469375277267237839noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5076002047553648960.post-24865552359703011572017-06-21T12:20:00.000-03:002017-06-21T15:24:49.774-03:00Gose two ways: Cilantro & Lime, and Oaked, Lemon zested, Southern Cross dry-hoppedI've been homebrewing for over seven years now, and like most of those brewing for that amount of time, I pretty much brew beers that I know I'm going to like. By that, I don't mean that I know all of my beers are going to turn out well - they don't - but I try to brew styles that I enjoy the most. I used to experiment with plenty of styles, tackling recipe after recipe from Jamil's <i>Brewing Classic Styles</i>, which really is a great way to start brewing, especially when you haven't tried a lot of different types of beer. For someone in Atlantic Canada in late 2009, you didn't have a whole lot of options out there, and if you wanted to try a Belgian Golden Strong, for example, you either had to travel, or you had to brew your own.<br />
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While there are a few beer styles I don't really enjoy, most of them I'm good with... but that doesn't necessarily mean I want to have 5 gallons on hand. So now, I brew a lot of hoppy beers, some Belgian styles, and some sours, for the most part. And I usually like to keep them pretty simple, focusing on the hops and yeast, with maybe a bit of experimentation every once in a while. But lately, and I can't quite figure out why, I've been trying to experiment even more. I don't agree with throwing a bunch of weird crap into a beer just because, but as a lot of brewers out there have proven - pros and amateurs - sometimes you can make it work.<br />
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Last year, I brewed <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2016/06/brewing-gose-using-lactobacillus.html" target="_blank">my first Gose</a>. Aside from using <i>Lactobacillus plantarum</i> capsules to sour the wort, this brew involved a bit of experimentation, as I added lime zest to half of the beer, and dry-hopped the other half with Citra. Both beers were tasty, but the lime half was the better of the two; it was extremely refreshing, with the lime character working perfectly with the salt and tartness of the base Gose. I knew when I had it that I would brew it again, and I always meant to add more than just lime zest the second time around.<br />
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Once spring hit, I knew it was time to try this style again. It's great anytime of year, of course, but a nice Gose during spring and summer is really a beautiful thing. Is there a more-perfect beer style for this time of year? Salty, tart, refreshing,.. and low-alcohol. Luckily, I already knew what I wanted to do with it this time around. As mentioned, I really enjoyed how the lime zest worked in the first Gose I brewed; shortly after brewing that beer, I started thinking that I'd take it even a step further. The Margarita-like qualities of that beer made me think of Mexican food, which often features lime as well. And what else do you see in a lot of Mexican dishes? Cilantro!<br />
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That may seem a bit odd for a beer, but after a bit of Googling I could see that others have tried it before. And Fredericton's first cidery, <a href="http://www.redroverbrew.com/" target="_blank">Red Rover</a>, has a one-off named <i>White Witch</i> that features fresh cilantro; they've been making this sporadically for more than 2 years, and it's really tasty. I was a little unsure of exactly how much cilantro to use in a Gose, so I contacted Red Rover's Adam Clawson for a bit of advice, which he was nice enough to give. However, I wasn't completely positive that a Gose with lime zest and cilantro would work well... and if it didn't, I'd be stuck with 5 gallons of it. So I decided to brew the beer, sour the wort, boil, and then split the batch. But what to do with the other half?<br />
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After a bit of thought, I decided to go with that OTHER zest, lemon. I've never worked with lemon zest in a beer before, and couldn't think of a reason why it wouldn't work well in a Gose. I went a bit further, wanting to dry-hop this half as well, so I looked through all the hop varieties I had in my freezer to see which ones also had notes of lemon. Southern Cross seemed like a good choice, as it also has descriptors of lime. But no, I didn't stop there! I continued crawling out further on the limb and made the odd choice of adding some oak.<br />
<br />
Now, as I mentioned, I'm not usually the type to throw everything I've got into a beer. One of those breweries I mentioned above that really seems to make experimenting work is <a href="http://grimmales.com/" target="_blank">Grimm Artisanal Ales</a>. I was lucky enough to try a couple of their beers a year or two ago, and I realized that when done properly, a bit of oak flavor in a Gose can work. IF DONE PROPERLY. I rarely brew with oak, and when I have, it's almost always been with oak cubes that I can safely let bob around in a Flanders Red for a year or so. This is the problem with oak... too much of it can completely ruin a beer (for me, at least).<br />
<br />
I won't get into all the various forms of oak there are (French vs. American, medium-toast vs. light), but what is important to point out is that the smaller the form of oak, the more surface area will be in contact with the beer. More surface area means a faster extraction of oak flavors... but it can also mean a harsher oak experience. Make sense? When you're talking about a beer like I'm brewing here, though, you don't want to be using oak cubes that can require months for a gentle oak presence to enter the beer... freshness is key. We're using zest here, and hops, so don't want to age the beer. And this is how Grimm does it. How do I know? I asked them!<br />
<br />
Owner Joe Grimm was kind enough to answer an email I sent about how they added oak to their beers. He admitted they have many methods, but for a beer like their <a href="http://grimmales.com/vacay/" target="_blank">Vacay</a> (a delicious dry-hopped sour conditioned on white oak), they use lightly-toasted oak spirals. Unfortunately, I don't have access to oak spirals here, but oak chips are pretty close. Joe recommended a week at the most, but what it's really going to come to with adding oak is tasting it every day or two until it's where you want it, just to be safe.<br />
<br />
This post is getting long-winded, so let's get on to the recipe. I basically brewed the exact same beer as in the past, with a simple grist of equal parts Pilsner and Wheat malt, and about 4% Acid malt thrown in to drop down that mash pH. Mash, sparge, vorlauf, all that, and bring to a very brief boil before chilling down to around 100 F. I then pitched my Lacto starter (which I made up days before with Lactobacillus plantarum capsules - for the full approach, check out my <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2016/06/brewing-gose-using-lactobacillus.html" target="_blank">previous post</a>) and let it sour for a couple of days till the pH got to around 3.4. Transfer back to the boil kettle, boil for 5 minutes (with a small hop addition to get a measly 7 IBUs or so), chill to the mid-60s F, and pitch a package of US-05 and hope to God that the pH isn't too low for it to start fermenting (if you want to be more sure, it's not a bad idea to ferment with a Saison or Brett strain, both of which can handle lower pH better than an American strain can).<br />
<br />
Luckily, it did ferment out fine. Of course, I had split the wort in two and oxygenated each well, in order to be more confident that the US-05 would do its job. Once fermentation was complete, it was time to start adding the extra ingredients. I decided on kegging one half and bottling the other, so I racked one half to my dry-hop keg and added the freshly-zested lemon zest and the oak chips. I was torn on how much of the oak chips to add; I read a wide variety of recommendations online, and ultimately decided on 18 grams. I really was worried about overdoing it, so this seemed safe. After a week, I was starting to get a bit of oak flavour, so I pulled out the oak and lemon zest and threw in the Southern Cross for another 5 days, then racked to the serving keg and carbed it up.<br />
<br />
The other half I added the lime zest and cilantro in a mesh bag directly in primary. So, how much cilantro? I was originally planning on 100 grams or so, but then came up short! I had asked my wife to pick up a bunch at the grocery store, but unfortunately it turned out to be a measly bunch. I also was growing some at home, but I still didn't have the 100 g, ultimately coming in at 62 g. I also wasn't sure what to do with the cilantro to make sure it didn't further infect the beer, so I chopped it up fairly fine, washed it and sprayed it lightly with Starsan. I didn't want to boil it or steam it, in case it took away some of the flavor. After I brewed the beer, I read that you can soak it in high-proof grain alcohol to sanitize it? Anyway, found out too late, but my approach seemed to do the trick (in hindsight). After a week, I racked it to the bottling bucket with table sugar to carbonate, and bottled it up.<br />
<br />
So, how did these turn out? Let's start with the Cilantro Lime Gose, since I've had more feedback from friends (naturally, since it was bottled, it has been easier to give away). Personally, I really like it. The lime works as well as it did in the last beer, and the salt level is just where I like it. As for the cilantro, it could definitely stand to have some more... it IS there, in the taste anyway, but if I brewed it again I'd definitely try to get closer to the 100 g I initially aimed for. Other beer geeks seem to have enjoyed it, and the combination of flavors seems to be working well.<br />
<br />
As for the lemon zested-oaked-dry-hopped half, that one is more of a conundrum. I wasn't sure how I liked it at first. I found the aroma kind of... weird; I got a very odd oak presence, but like I was smelling it through a barrier. Does that make sense? No, it probably doesn't, because I don't really get it either. The flavor, however, was much better - the lemon zest came out really nicely, with some extra citrus from the dry-hop (although you'd never know I used the equivalent of 6 oz for a 5 gallon batch). Just a touch of oak in the taste, which was perfect. As for others who have tried it, some have loved it and commented on wanting a keg for their house, while some have definitely not enjoyed it. One person found it too astringent, and one outright didn't like the oak. I understand that, but, if you try an oaked Gose, you kinda gotta know what you're getting into, no? Luckily, the oak presence in the aroma came down very quickly, and now I find it a refreshing, easy-drinking summer beer.<br />
<br />
Ultimately, for me, both beers are winners, especially for a first go. The Cilantro Lime Gose is the winner, coming out as being slightly more refreshing, and just a better fit, overall. If I brewed it again I'd definitely add more cilantro; as I mentioned early, maybe up it to 100 g and go from there. I think the oaked Gose was an interesting experiment, and something I'd like to try again from a different angle.<br />
<br />
<b>Recipe Targets:</b> (<u>5.5 gallons</u>, 75% efficiency) OG 1.033, FG ~1.009, IBU 7, SRM 2.9, ABV ~3.2%<br />
<br />
<b>Grains:</b><br />
1.4 kg (47.9%) Bohemian Pilsner<br />
1.4 kg (47.9%) Wheat malt<br />
125 g (4.3%) Acid malt<br />
+ 100 g Rice hulls<br />
<br />
<b>Hops:</b><br />
Polaris - 14 g (17% AA) @ 5 min<br />
<br />
Southern Cross - 88 g dry hop for 5 days <u>for 1/2 of the batch</u><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<b>Misc:</b><br />
14 g freshly-ground Coriander seed at 2 min<br />
25 g Sea Salt at 2 min<br />
<br />
<i>Half #1:</i><br />
Lime zest - 6.5 g in secondary after fermentation is complete, for 7 days<br />
Cilantro - 62 g, washed, in secondary with the lime zest, for 7 days<br />
<br />
<i>Half #2:</i><br />
Lemon zest - 7 g in secondary after fermentation is complete, for 7 days<br />
Oak chips - 18 g in secondary with the lemon zest, for 7 days<br />
<br />
<b>Bacteria/Yeast:</b> Lactobacillus plantarum capsules (5) in a 1 L starter; after souring, wort fermented with 1 pack rehydrated US-05<br />
<br />
<b>Water:</b> Fredericton city water, carbon-filtered; 5 g Gypsum and 5 g calcium chloride added to mash<br />
<br />
- Brewed on March 20th, 2017, by myself. 50-minute mash with 9.5 L of strike water; mash temp on target at 150 F. Mashed-out for 10 minutes with 5 L of boiling water to 168 F. Sparged with ~3.75 gallons of 168 F water for final volume of ~5.75 gallons.<br />
<br />
- Pre-boil gravity at 1.033. Brought to a brief boil, then chilled to 95 F. Added 5 mL of phosphoric acid, then racked to carboy, pitched Lacto starter, attached heat belt and set carboy on heating pad. Four days later, the pH had dropped to 3.4 - this is with the temp never really getting about 75 F, even with the heat belt and pad.<br />
<br />
- Transferred wort back into kettle, brought to a boil. Started 5 minute boil, added hops, coriander and salt at time above. Chilled down to 62 F and poured into two 3 gallon BBs. Aerated for 60 seconds and pitched yeast at 64 F. Fermentation visible by next day, continued for two days at about 70 F and then slowed quickly. Took a gravity reading on April 8th, sitting at 1.009.<br />
<br />
- Racked one half to dry-hop keg and added oak and lemon zest in two separate, sanitized mesh bags. After about one week, removed both bags and added Southern Cross. Five days later, transferred via CO2 to serving keg and carbed.<br />
<br />
- Added lime zest and cilantro to the other half, in primary, in a sanitized mesh bag. After one week, bottled with 62 g table sugar for approximately 10 L, aiming for 2.5 vol CO2 with a maz temp of 70 reached; also added 1/2 pack rehydrated champagne yeast.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7huKA6XofJkPBeN-R_fp6R3_JS0wa0VJZdXJCcyTCXvSGM1XYu1IPN3aqhyphenhyphenBZYeBPT0oJlTZcD2lJirhKm090nYWqMUHUflg3ao-aAsbfVeiDIoMVR6DrQjSYP9wC3idSb4ZEiWiNGEjI/s640/blogger-image--1932088612.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7huKA6XofJkPBeN-R_fp6R3_JS0wa0VJZdXJCcyTCXvSGM1XYu1IPN3aqhyphenhyphenBZYeBPT0oJlTZcD2lJirhKm090nYWqMUHUflg3ao-aAsbfVeiDIoMVR6DrQjSYP9wC3idSb4ZEiWiNGEjI/s640/blogger-image--1932088612.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I was going to show pictures of both, but they really do look exactly the same.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i>Appearance:</i> Bright yellow body, with a lot of haze, for both beers. The white head is medium-sized, and doesn't fade TOO quickly (seems like the phosphoric acid added before fermentation is doing its thing).<br />
<br />
<i>Aroma:</i> Cilantro Lime Gose (CLG) - Bright aroma of fresh lime takes the main stage; slightly sour. The presence of cilantro here is, at best, extremely light. Oaked Gose (OG) has an oddly-dull aroma - I get a bit of oak, but it's quite muted and blocking anything else. After a few weeks, this went away and the lemon zest came out much better.<br />
<br />
<i>Taste:</i> CLG - Big hit of lime and tartness in the flavor; acidity works well with the lime, of course, and the cilantro comes through more than it did in the aroma (still, would rate it mild at the most). OG - Much stronger than the aroma, with the lemon zest combining well with the Southern Cross dry-hop... although I admit, I'm not quite sure how much of the dry-hop is coming through. Only slightly oaky. Both beers have a great level of salt in the flavor as well.<br />
<br />
<i>Mouthfeel:</i> Both beers are light-bodied, with moderate carbonation. Smooth; not watery despite the low ABV.<br />
<br />
<i>Overall:</i> I enjoy both beers, especially now that the OG has cleared up a bit. The oak kind of works, but I don't know how necessary it really is... a worthy experiment, we'll see if I do this again. CLG is a real winner, a great summer beer that I have to admit is - despite the overuse of the word these days - quite crushable.Shawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08469375277267237839noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5076002047553648960.post-59767301077891028242017-05-20T12:14:00.000-03:002017-05-20T12:14:56.564-03:00Brewing a Brett Session IPA (with Azacca and Columbus)I brewed <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2015/07/brewing-100-brett-ipa-with-amarillo-and.html" target="_blank">my first 100% Brettanomyces IPA</a> in May of 2015; I'm not really sure why it took me so long, since I'm a big fan of Brett, a big fan of hops, and a big fan of when the two are used together! There's lots of Brett IPAs available commercially now (well, in most parts of North America), so you probably don't need me to tell you that the good ones feature just the right amount of funk (not too much, but noticeable) with lots of citrus, tropical, and pineapple notes from the addition of large amounts of the best hop varieties. Sure, it depends on exactly what hops you go with, AND the strain(s) of Brett you ferment with, but this really can be a delicious style. But you didn't need me to tell you that, right?<br />
<br />
That original brew was, for me, the best out of all the Brett IPAs I've brewed since. It featured Amarillo and Hallertau Blanc, and was fermented with <a href="http://www.theyeastbay.com/wild-yeast-and-bacteria-products/amalgamation" target="_blank">The Yeast Bay's Amalgamation</a>, a "Brett Super Blend" made up of six different Brett strains (which they don't tell you exactly what they are). I don't know why this particular beer was so great, but I guess it was just the right combination of hops and Brett. I've used Amalgamation several times since, and it's definitely a winner, and my go-to when it comes to 100% Brett fermentations.<br />
<br />
I've been trying to have one of my four taps always dedicated to a sour or 100% Brett beer, and when my <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2017/01/gose-dry-hopped-with-chinook-and.html" target="_blank">Gose dry-hopped with Chinook and grapefruit zest</a> was finally about to kick, I made sure to take the time to brew another Brett IPA. This time around, however, I was looking for a beer that was lower than the 6.5-7% ABV range. There's nothing wrong with these beers, but I continue to be drawn more and more towards the sub-5% beers that aren't going to necessarily leave me buzzed when I shouldn't be. So, why not a Brett Session IPA?<br />
<br />
Why not, indeed! The only real concern that I had was ending up with a beer that was watery and thin. Since most Brett strains don't produce glycerol, a compound that is responsible for giving a lot of mouthfeel/body to a beer, fermenting entirely with Brett runs the risk of resulting in a thin, watery beer; with a lower ABV beer, I'd imagine this is even more likely. With my other Brett IPAs, I always tried to account for this by adding a good portion of Wheat malt, and by mashing relatively high. This approach has worked in the past, so with this Brett Session IPA, I did the same thing; in fact, I used almost the same grist as my other Brett IPAs, to a lower OG of 1.042, but took out some Wheat malt and made up the difference with Flaked Oats. I also mashed even higher than before at 155 F, compared to 153 F last time.<br />
<br />
I took the opportunity to use different hop varieties this time around - aside from my <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2016/07/azacca-brett-brux-trois-vrai-ipa.html" target="_blank">all-Azacca Brett IPA</a> that I brewed last spring, all of my others had two hop varieties in them, and this is the approach I wanted to take here. I still had quite a bit of Azacca on hand, so I decided to go with this again; for the second variety, I chose Columbus, a hop I feel is often unfairly overlooked. It's readily available, cheap, and has a nice dank, resinous, sometimes-kind-of-fruity set of qualities to it that I usually enjoy. I thought maybe it would pair well with the Azacca, offering a nice contrast to the citrus, mango, and pineapple notes from that variety. The hopping schedule is similar to the other Brett IPAs: a bit of Polaris at the beginning of the boil to get a few IBUs, then the Azacca and CTZ (with an emphasis on Azacca) for a hop steep, more when the immersion chiller started doing its thing, and then a couple ounces of each in the single dry-hop.<br />
<br />
Brew day and fermentation seemed to go off without any major hitches. The FG came in very low this time around, at 1.003 (I've had a wide varieties of apparent attenuation with Amalgamation), and after dry-hopping the beer for 5 days, I racked it to a keg and force carbed it. When I had my first pour, I knew immediately that it had fallen short of where I wanted it to be, and that this wasn't going to improve with time. The issue? Too much Brett character, and not enough hops.<br />
<br />
This had happened before. The aforementioned all-Azacca Brett IPA had the same problem, but at that point I assumed it was due to the Brett strain I had used for fermentation. This was one of the only times I brewed a Brett IPA and DIDN'T use Amalgamation; instead, I went with Brett brux Trois Vrai. While I did enjoy that beer, I want the hops to really pop in a Brett IPA (it's not just a Brett beer, after all), and that didn't happen with that beer. And since I had used Azacca before and loved it, I blamed it on the Brett.<br />
<br />
This latest beer is somewhere in between: more hop character than the all-Azacca beer, but not as much as other Brett IPAs I've brewed. So, while I still stand by my initial conclusion that Brett brux Troi Vrai may not be the best Brett strain for hoppy beers (at least in part), I admit now that some of the reason for it's blahness is due to the newer Azacca I had used. A friend and I bought a couple of pounds (this was the 2015 crop), and he was underwhelmed by his as well. Unfortunate, but it happens.<br />
<br />
Regardless, it's not a bad beer at all, it's just not where I wanted it. Definitely some nice Brett funk in there, bit of pineapple, citrus, and a little dankness from the Columbus. And at only 4.7% ABV, I'm really happy with how easy-drinking it is. I should also mention that the recipe definitely turned out a low-ABV beer with a solid mouthfeel, even with the lack of glycerol production from the Brett... it's not too thin at all. So if you're looking to brew a Brett Session IPA, I can recommend the recipe... just maybe check your Azacca, or go with a different hop!<br />
<br />
<b>Recipe Targets:</b> (<u>5.5 gallons</u>, 80% efficiency) OG 1.042, FG ~1.010, IBU ~25, SRM 3.1, ABV ~4.1%<br />
<br />
<b>Grains & Sugars:</b><br />
2.6 kg (72.2%) Canadian 2-row<br />
350 g (9.7%) Flaked Oats<br />
350 g (9.7%) Wheat malt<br />
150 g (4.2%) Carapils<br />
150 g (4.2%) Acid malt<br />
<br />
<b>Hops:</b><br />
Polaris - 4 g (17% AA) @ 60 min<br />
<br />
Azacca - 42 g (8.2% AA) @ 0 min (<u>with a 20-minute steep</u>)<br />
CTZ - 28 g (10.9% AA) @ 0 min (<u>with a 20-minute steep</u>)<br />
<br />
Azacca - 42 g @ 0 min (<u>when started chilling</u>)<br />
CTZ - 28 g @ 0 min (<u>when started chilling</u>)<br />
<br />
Azacca - 56 g dry-hop for 5 days (in primary)<br />
CTZ - 56 g dry-hop for 5 days (in primary)<br />
<br />
<b>Misc:</b><br />
1/2 tab Irish Moss at 5 min<br />
<br />
<b>Yeast:</b> The Yeast Bay Brett Amalgamation (with a starter, to ~150 bil cells)<br />
<br />
<b>Water:</b> Fredericton city water, carbon-filtered; 3 g Gypsum and 8 g calcium chloride added to mash<br />
<br />
- Brewed on January 24th, 2017, by myself. 50-minute mash with 10.5 L of strike water; mash temp on target of 155 F. Mashed-out for 10 minutes with 4 L of boiling water to 162 F. Sparged with ~4.25 gallons of 168 F water for final volume of ~6.75 gallons.<br />
<br />
- 60-minute boil. Final volume ~5.5 gallons; OG low at 1.039. Chilled to 64 F, then poured into SS Brew Bucket. Aerated with 60 seconds of pure O2, pitched yeast at 65 F.<br />
<br />
- Good activity after 24 hours, only lasted for a couple of days. Temp reached max of 68 F during fermentation. Added dry hops into fermentor after about 2 weeks (I had been away), for 5 days. FG quite low at 1.003. Racked to keg at this point and force carbed at 30 PSI for 36 hours.<br />
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<br />
<i>Appearance:</i> Pours with a large, dense, white head that sticks around for days. Body is light-yellow, and quite hazy.<br />
<br />
<i>Aroma:</i> Definitely a Brett beer... that barnyard Funk character hits the nose first, followed by light citrus/dank notes from - I assume - the Azacca and Columbus.<br />
<br />
<i>Taste:</i> Again, the Brett wins. Funky, bit of pineapple, with the hops supporting nicely. Bit of carbonic bite in the finish, and the bitterness is about medium (higher than I expected from the 25 IBUs calculated). Very dry finish, thanks to the low FG.<br />
<br />
<i>Mouthfeel:</i> Medium-light bodied, medium carbonation. Smooth, not too thin at all for a sub 5% ABV beer.<br />
<br />
<i>Overall: </i>I like it, but the hops don't come through enough. I think the hopping amounts and schedule are sound, it's just that this Azacca crop isn't doing it.Shawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08469375277267237839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5076002047553648960.post-1762120521513106632017-04-10T15:16:00.001-03:002017-04-10T15:16:21.438-03:00Brewing a Coffee Milk StoutWhen you're really into hoppy beers and sours, sometimes it's a little too easy to get caught up in brewing those styles, so much that it can lead to forgetting to brew other, almost-as-delicious beers. By late December (yeah, I'm behind in posting again), it occurred to me that I hadn't brewed any really dark beers in quite some time; when I looked at my brew log, I was surprised to see it had been even longer than I originally thought. I brewed a Black IPA in November, 2015, and that's still a hoppy beer; the last time I had brewed a Stout was in May of 2014. Yikes!<br />
<br />
For someone reading this blog, you couldn't be blamed for assuming I don't normally drink dark beers like Stouts or Porters. While my beer consumption definitely leans heavily towards lighter, hoppier (or Belgian) styles, I still really do enjoy darker beers as well. The last Stout I brewed was a Sweet Stout (aka Milk Stout); this was the second time brewing this recipe, with a few tweaks, and it was a very tasty beer. Sweet Stouts are great because they give you plenty of roast character, plus a little bit of extra sweetness and mouthfeel from the addition of lactose powder. Throw in that they're in the 4-6% ABV range, and you're laughin'.<br />
<br />
I was originally going to just brew up the same Sweet Stout recipe as before. However, I've been drinking more and more excellent Coffee Stouts lately, and the more I thought about it, the more I figured coffee in a Sweet Stout would be a fabulous addition. And it turns out I'm not the only one, as there's plenty of commercially brewed Coffee Sweet Stouts out there; I just didn't discover them until after. Oops.<br />
<br />
When it comes to adding coffee in beer, there are many methods. I won't do what others have done and list them all here, but brewers definitely feel strongly about some over others. Personally, I had no desire to add coffee beans in the mash, or the boil, or in primary, as I suspect (and others have confirmed) that at least some coffee character is ultimately lost during fermentation. I narrowed it down to two other approaches: adding cold-brewed coffee at packaging, or adding coffee beans for a short time in secondary.<br />
<br />
The former approach seems to be the most popular one used, and I can see why, especially when you're talking about a commercial-size batch. You can brew a concentrated, large batch of coffee and add it to a brite tank, as opposed to trying to add (and eventually remove) a crapload of beans. We homebrewers, luckily, don't have to worry about stuff like that! While I initially was planning on taking the cold-brewed approach, I decided on adding beans in my dry-hop keg with the beer - the filter I have in there would work perfectly for transferring the beer to the serving keg (via CO2), with very minimal clean-up. And after talking with Derek Dellinger of <a href="http://www.kentfallsbrewing.com/" target="_blank">Kent Falls Brewing</a>, who has had success with this method as a homebrewer, it made more sense to me.<br />
<br />
But, how much coffee? I really didn't have anything to go by, experience-wise, but after speaking with several friends who have brewed with coffee, I settled on 150 grams of beans for a 5.5 gallon batch. I preferred to use coffee that wasn't your typical blend, and luckily had recently met up with Kent and Tanji, two good friends who live in Freeport, ME. They own a coffee roasting business, <a href="https://www.freeportcoffee.com/" target="_blank">Freeport Coffee Roasting</a>, and they're turning out some really excellent products (I suggest you check them out and order some... don't worry, I don't work for the White House, nor do I have any business ties to any coffee companies, so it's ok!). I used their <a href="https://www.freeportcoffee.com/products/kenyakichwa" target="_blank">Kenya Kichwa Tembo</a>, a medium-roast described as "citric, floral, with medium acidity" (Note - this is why I like coffee beers - you could use so many different types of excellent coffee and always have a different result).<br />
<br />
For my grist, I went with the same recipe as I've used in the past - Maris Otter as the base, some Black Patent, CaraMunich, Pale Chocolate malt, and a full pound of lactose sugar added during the boil. In my experience, this produces a beer that is roasty, creamy, and only slightly sweet. Bittered to just ~20 IBUs (use whatever variety you want at 60 mins), I fermented the beer with London Ale III. Why? Because it was the only English strain I had on hand. I've used Irish Ale before, and that worked great, but I figured with the roast character and coffee, LAIII would do fine.<br />
<br />
I brewed and fermented the beer, then racked it to my dry-hop keg on top of the coffee beans. After about 30 hours (Derek had said roughly a day should do the trick), I pushed the beer to the serving keg with CO2, and carbed it up. It was really nice to have a dark, non-hoppy beer on tap for a change (the beer just kicked a week or so before I finished this post), and for my first go at a coffee beer, I was pretty happy with it. The coffee character was perfect for me; I've definitely had coffee stouts with MORE coffee presence, but too much coffee can overwhelm some of the actual beer, in my opinion. The beer is pretty creamy; I think the lactose could come through a bit more, which may have to do more with the coffee shadowing it a bit. I can't imagine more than a pound of lactose powder is necessary.<br />
<br />
So, what would I change? I think I'd cut back on the coffee just a bit (maybe down to 125 grams to start), and I'd like to try a coffee blend with a little less acidity, which I think would let the lactose sweetness come through some more. Overall, though, a really nice beer that was very popular with most of my beer-drinking friends (yeah, yeah, it's free, of course they're going to say they liked it!), and definitely one I'll be coming back to tweak in the near future. My recent trip to San Diego allowed me to bring back some <a href="http://moderntimesbeer.com/site/age-verification" target="_blank">Modern Times</a> coffee, so look for a follow-up, soon.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Recipe Targets:</b> (<u>5.5 gallons</u>, 75% efficiency) OG 1.060, FG ~1.020, IBU ~21, SRM 37, ABV ~5.3%<br />
<br />
<b>Grains & Sugars:</b><br />
4 kg (74.7%) Maris Otter<br />
400 g (7.5%) Black Patent<br />
300 g (7.1%) CaraMunich<br />
200 g (3.7%) Pale Chocolate malt<br />
454 g (8.5%) Lactose sugar <i>(added during the boil)</i><br />
<br />
<b>Hops:</b><br />
Polaris - 10 g (17% AA) @ 60 min<br />
<br />
<b>Misc:</b><br />
1/2 tab Irish Moss at 5 min<br />
150 g Coffee beans (<a href="https://www.freeportcoffee.com/" target="_blank">Freeport Coffee Roasting</a> Kenya Kichwa Tembo blend)<br />
<br />
<b>Yeast:</b> Wyeast 1318 London Ale III (with a starter)<br />
<br />
<b>Water:</b> Fredericton city water, carbon-filtered; 4 g Gypsum and 6 g calcium chloride added to mash<br />
<br />
- Brewed on November 30th, 2016, by myself. 50-minute mash with 14 L of strike water; mash temp on target of 152 F. Mashed-out for 10 minutes with 6.75 L of boiling water to 165 F. Sparged with ~3.75 gallons of 168 F water for final volume of ~6.75 gallons.<br />
<br />
- 60-minute boil. Final volume ~5.5 gallons; OG 1.062. Chilled to 64 F, then poured into Better Bottle. Aerated with 70 seconds of pure O2, pitched yeast at 65 F.<br />
<br />
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<br />
<br />
<i>Appearance:</i> Pours with a moderate-low, tan-coloured head that fades fairly quickly to a thin ring. Body is jet-black in colour and opaque.<br />
<br />
<i>Aroma:</i> Even weeks after kegging, the coffee aroma is still coming through wonderfully - roasty, slightly floral as promised.<br />
<br />
<i>Taste: </i>Big flavours of roast from the coffee, and I'm really digging the slightly acidic, citrusy flavours that go along with it. Slightly sweet, could probably be a bit higher in that department.<br />
<br />
<i>Mouthfeel:</i> Medium-bodied, medium-low carbonation.<br />
<br />
<i>Overall: </i>For a first attempt, I'm pretty happy with this one. I think this particular coffee works really well in a stout like this - the blend of acidity, roast, and citrus and floral notes is spot-on. Changing the grist a bit, and decreasing the coffee slightly, may help bring out the sweetness a bit more; I don't really think adding more lactose powder is the answer. I'm also happy with doing the bean-steep as a means of adding coffee, as it's pretty simple and effective, from what I can tell.Shawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08469375277267237839noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5076002047553648960.post-41278279864495873372017-03-23T14:00:00.001-03:002017-03-23T14:00:33.120-03:00Belgian Dubbel (with vanilla bean)<i>Disclaimer: This post is, uh, a few months overdue. Just go with it!</i><br />
<br />
Another Christmas season, another excuse to brew a Christmas-giveaway beer! This has become an annual tradition for me, where I brew a new beer with the intention of giving most away as Christmas gifts to fellow beer geeks, and even a few who aren't. Two years ago was my first, a <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2014/12/brewing-red-ipa-la-sierra-nevada.html" target="_blank">Red IPA</a>, and last year was a <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2016/01/meek-celebration-2015-imperial-ipa-with.html" target="_blank">DIPA</a>. It's no secret I'm a fan of the hops, but I like many other beer styles as well, especially those with a Belgian influence. Looking back at all of the hoppy beers I brewed in 2016, I decided it was time for something a little different.<br />
<br />
There's plenty of delicious Belgian-style beers, but I think if I had to narrow it down to my favourite (outside of Sours), I'd go with the Dubbel. Such a wonderful, complex style that somehow manages to focus on a blend of malt character, caramel, fruity esters, and spicy phenolics, with a bit of warming alcohol (but not hot), and little to no hop presence. When brewed well, it all comes together perfectly, resulting in a truly-fantastic beer. And there's plenty of great examples out there, with the obvious ones coming from several of the Trappist breweries, some of which are fairly-readily available (if you don't live in New Brunswick, that is).<br />
<br />
I've brewed two Dubbels before, one in 2010, and <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2013/11/brewing-belgian-dubbel.html" target="_blank">another in 2013</a>. They weren't the same recipe - the first was taken from Jamil's Brewing Classic Styles, and the second was from another great book, Brew Like a Monk, by Stan Hieronymus. The latter recipe came from The Lost Abbey's Tomme Arthur, and featured a hefty grain bill that showcased seven different malt types, along with some Dark Belgian Candi Syrup (which I will refer to as DBCS, due to laziness). Both beers came out well (I can't remember if I had a preference or not between the two), with a nice balance of toast, fruit, and spice... but there seemed to be something missing.<br />
<br />
What I think it was in both cases was the presence of <u>dark</u> fruit; fruity esters is one thing, but it's the raisin/plum/etc. character that really makes a Dubbel different from many other styles. While some brewers actually add these ingredients to their beer, most of the time they come from two sources: a dark malt like Special B, and DBCS; and really, it's the DBCS that makes the biggest difference. Look at some of the most revered dark Belgian beers out there, and a lot of the really good ones (such as many brewed at Trappist breweries) consist of Pilsner malt, DBCS... and that's it.<br />
<br />
There are different varieties of DBCS available, made by different companies. They also come in varying degrees of darkness... I guess that's the best way to describe them? As expected, the darker they get, the more of that dark fruit, chocolate, roasted character you're going to get. Luckily, the roast character is actually kept to a minimum; you don't want a Belgian Dubbel or Quad tasting like a stout, but having some chocolate character is still ok.<br />
<br />
For the recipe, I decided to go with the Brewing Classic Styles one. It still has quite a few different malt types (mostly Pilsner, but with another 25% of the grist includes six others), which may not be necessary, but I do remember enjoying that first beer, so I decided to follow the recipe again. However, this time I went with a DBCS that is 180 SRM (D-180 from <a href="http://www.candisyrup.com/" target="_blank">Candi Syrup, Inc.</a>), much darker than my first Dubbel, as well as my second. As a result of this, I actually used less (just half a pound); going with the full pound would have resulted in a very dark beer, too dark if you're really trying to stay in Dubbel territory. With the descriptors of "subtle notes of anise, dark chocolate, dark stone fruit, caramel, with a hint of dark-toasted bread" for the D-180, I hoped that I was adding enough to bring that out.<br />
<br />
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<br />
I would have loved to have used a Belgian yeast strain that I haven't yet tried, but unfortunately I didn't plan enough ahead (it can take weeks to get a new yeast smackpack around here). Luckily, I did still have some extra Wyeast 1214 Belgian Ale slurry on hand; this is the Chimay strain, and I've used it in a few beers and always have been happy with the results. I find it gives a nice balance between spicy phenolics and fruity esters, so I was happy to use it here.<br />
<br />
I decided before brewing this beer that I wanted to take it in a slightly different direction than before. When I was planning to brew <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2017/02/orange-creamsicle-ipa-my-first-attempt.html" target="_blank">my Milkshake IPA</a> (which I had ready to go directly after the Dubbel), it was the first time in years that I had used vanilla bean in a recipe. It got me thinking to how much I enjoy vanilla in a beer... when it's used appropriately - that is, in the right circumstances, and in the right amounts. Too much vanilla can easily be cloying and off-putting. But it was pretty easy to see it working in a Dubbel, so I planned on adding a full bean when bottling. I scraped out the "flesh" of the bean, chopped up what was left, and soaked it all in a small amount of vodka for a week or so, then strained and added the vodka into the bottling bucket.<br />
<br />
Here's where I had a moment of stupidity. For some reason on bottling day, I started wondering if the vodka was going to be adding some additional sugar to the beer... and if it did, shouldn't I therefore aim on the low side for target CO2, in case I ended up with bottle bombs? Pfft. Anyway, of course I didn't, and as a result the beer came out undercarbed. Dammit! Not flat, of course, but more like around 2 vol CO2 instead of the 3 or so I'd like to see in a Dubbel. Not to mention I underestimated the total volume (because I'm so used to brewing hoppy beers that leave lots of hoppy sludge behind)... sigh.<br />
<br />
But on the bright side, the beer is really tasty! Unfortunately, the appearance kind of blows because there's basically no head retention due to the carbonation, but it smells ans tastes quite nice. The vanilla is just about where I wanted it - you can notice it, and it works well, but it doesn't overpower the beer. And this DBCS is great, easily the best of the ones I've used so far. Plenty of dark fruit character in the beer, accompanied by some light phenolics from the yeast.<br />
<br />
This recipe has got me thinking that vanilla bean would work well in some other styles, so don't be surprised if I incorporate it again in the near future!<br />
<br />
Note: Sorry for the lack of posting lately... no excuses, but I do have my next post on my Coffee Sweet Stout ready to go, look for that one within a week or so. I'm heading to San Diego next week with my family, which will - of course - also manage to revolve around beer!<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Recipe Targets:</b> (<u>5.5 gallons</u>, 80% efficiency) OG 1.063, FG ~1.015, IBU ~17, SRM 18, ABV ~6.4%<br />
<br />
<b>Grains & Sugars:</b><br />
4 kg (70.8%) Bohemian Pilsner<br />
400 g (7.1%) Munich<br />
400 g (7.1%) Wheat malt<br />
200 g (3.5%) Aromatic<br />
200 g (3.5%) CaraMunich II<br />
150 g (2.7%) Special B<br />
75 g (1.3%) Acid malt<br />
227 g (4%) Extra Dark Belgian Candi Syrup (180 SRM) <i>(added during the boil)</i><br />
<br />
<b>Hops:</b><br />
Polaris - 8 g (17.7% AA) @ 60 min<br />
<br />
<b>Misc:</b><br />
1/2 tab Irish Moss at 5 min<br />
1 x Vanilla bean, scraped & chopped, soaked in 1/4 cup Vodka; vodka added at bottling<br />
<br />
<b>Yeast:</b> Wyeast 1214 Belgian Ale (with a starter, ~270 billion cells)<br />
<br />
<b>Water:</b> Fredericton city water, carbon-filtered; 3 g Gypsum and 6 g calcium chloride added to mash<br />
<br />
- Brewed on November 2nd, 2016, by myself. 50-minute mash with 15 L of strike water; mash temp on target of 153 F. Mashed-out for 10 minutes with 6.75 L of boiling water to 168 F. Sparged with ~4 gallons of 168 F water for final volume of ~7.25 gallons.<br />
<br />
- Pre-boil gravity at 1.047. 90-minute boil. Final volume ~5.5 gallons; OG 1.063. Chilled to 64 F, then poured into Better Bottle. Aerated with 75 seconds of pure O2, pitched yeast at 64 F.<br />
<br />
- Active fermentation by the next morning, really picking up by the evening, temp at 70 F. Turned up the heat in the room to boost it a bit higher, reaching 74 F by the next morning. Already started slowing down by that evening.<br />
<br />
- 15/11/16 - FG 1.014. Strained vanilla/vodka liquid and added to bottling bucket, along with 137 g table sugar (boiled and cooled), aiming for 2.7 vol CO2 with max temp of 74 F reached.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFeTJHgPkhaAcNnRF20ZtaNIOMRnBeGijeABtkR_h5zLnBfUJcP6MvG6reX3ys1E3I6IEvl4GLcaMXEV23sr49H7f5Mu4zqUSX9HEhCrgzB60cSFHbEyvDbr_FlbY0TbddgewgklQMsMBA/s640/blogger-image-1708645382.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFeTJHgPkhaAcNnRF20ZtaNIOMRnBeGijeABtkR_h5zLnBfUJcP6MvG6reX3ys1E3I6IEvl4GLcaMXEV23sr49H7f5Mu4zqUSX9HEhCrgzB60cSFHbEyvDbr_FlbY0TbddgewgklQMsMBA/s640/blogger-image-1708645382.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is the best I could do 3 months after Christmas...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<i>Appearance:</i> Pours with a small, rapidly-fading head that is virtually gone within seconds. Body is a dark brown colour with ruby highlights, and excellent clarity.<br />
<br />
<i>Aroma:</i> Caramel, toffee, nice amount of dark fruit (cherry, raisin), and a mild-to-moderate presence of vanilla. No alcohol.<br />
<br />
<i>Taste: </i>The caramel and dark fruit characters blend well together, and dominate; the vanilla follows and lingers into the finish. Low bitterness, still finishes fairly dry. Smooth.<br />
<br />
<i>Mouthfeel: </i>Medium-light bodied, medium carbonation (after several months; was only medium-low at first).<br />
<br />
<i>Overall:</i> A really nice beer. The appearance and carbonation was a bummer at first, but they've finally come around a little (now that I only have a few bottles left!).Shawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08469375277267237839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5076002047553648960.post-55349386288681948282017-02-09T13:33:00.000-04:002017-04-05T18:29:46.887-03:00Orange Creamsicle IPA - my first attempt at a "Milkshake" IPAWith the number of commercial breweries at an all-time high, it's not surprising that new beer styles are popping up on a fairly regular basis. I use the word "styles" very loosely, of course; some people don't really like seeing that word used when these beers aren't actually official styles, at least according to the BJCP or other organizations. Me? I don't really care; if you want to call your beer a "Purple Yak Juice IPA" style, go for it. As long as I don't have to drink it.<br />
<br />
One style I've been hearing about for months now is the Milkshake IPA. I believe <a href="http://www.tiredhands.com/" target="_blank">Tired Hands</a> was either the first, or at least one of the first, to start brewing such a beer (as to how that got started, I suggest you Google it... it's a pretty funny story!). But even Atlantic Canada is starting to hop on the Milkshake train, with at least two breweries releasing their own: <a href="http://www.tideandboar.com/" target="_blank">Tide & Boar</a> in Moncton, New Brunswick, has released several iterations with different fruit (such as <a href="http://acbeerblog.ca/2016/12/09/friday-wrap-up-20161209/" target="_blank">Peach Ale Shake</a>), and Nova Scotia's <a href="http://www.bigspruce.ca/" target="_blank">Big Spruce Brewing</a> currently has their take on the style out, <a href="http://acbeerblog.ca/2017/01/06/friday-wrap-up-20170106/" target="_blank">Liquid James Brown</a>.<br />
<br />
So what exactly is a Milkshake IPA? It takes the growing popularity of the Northeast/New England IPA (cloudy, pale-coloured, creamy, and super-hoppy without high bitterness) to the next level...<br />
<ul>
<li>Lactose powder is added to the beer to give some residual sweetness, and bump up the mouthfeel even more.</li>
<li>Vanilla bean is usually added to bring the aromas/flavours associated with vanilla milkshakes.</li>
<li>Fruit is often added (but not always), bringing even more to the aroma and flavour.</li>
</ul>
Of course, you need to add lots of hops in whirlpool/dry hop additions; Flaked Oats are often used to help the beer get plenty cloudy; and it's quite common to see London Ale III used for fermentation, in true classic-Northeast IPA style. Some brewers even add flour to the mash (and maybe even the boil?) to enhance cloudiness, but I dunno... this seems like an unnecessary step to me.<br />
<br />
The more I read about Milkshake IPAs, the more I wanted to brew one, and not because I thought it was a slam-dunk style. If anything, this type of beer strikes me as one that could be either really tasty, or a complete mess. There's a lot of different ingredients working together! If you add too much lactose, your beer could be TOO full-bodied, and maybe a bit too sweet (although lactose is only 1/6 as sweet as table sugar, I believe). Too much vanilla? That's an ingredient that could overwhelm the hops pretty easily. But I was intrigued enough to give it a try on my own, even though I didn't really have anything to go on. Giving it some more thought, I moved towards making this beer orange-heavy; combined with the vanilla, this would give it an orange creamsicle-ness in the aroma and taste - I hoped, anyway.<br />
<br />
I started with the grist, putting together a recipe that looked like it would work well for a Northeast-style IPA: 2-row and Maris Otter make up the base, with a good amount of Flaked Oats (~15%) to provide the creamy mouthfeel and haze; I also added a little bit of Carapils and Acid malt. The lactose powder is of course meant to be added in the boil; I didn't really know how much to go with, here. With the Flaked Oats already boosting the body, I was worried that too much lactose would overdo it, not to mention the potential to add too much sweetness. The only time I've brewed with lactose in the past was for a couple of Sweet Stout recipes, where I added a pound for each 5 gallon batch. I decided to halve it for this beer, figuring it'd be better to go too light than too high.<br />
<br />
Now, for a truly orange creamsicle-type aroma, I would add Galaxy and Citra to this beer. Orange characteristics are present in plenty of different hop varieties, but I find it particularly strong in these two. However, I didn't have a lot of Galaxy or Citra on hand. What I DID have a lot of were two other varieties I really enjoy, Equinox and Azacca. I've seen "tangerine" and "citrus" used when describing Azacca, and Equinox definitely has some other citrus characters that I thought would work well, so this was the combo I chose. I went with my fairly-standard approach of an ounce each at 10 min, a good amount for a hop steep/whirlpool addition, and then two separate dry-hop additions (with the second dry hop made up of Equinox, and the remaining Galaxy in my inventory). With a touch of Polaris at the beginning of the boil, the IBUs come in at a calculated mid-50s range, which seemed perfect to me. With the majority of the 10 oz of Azacca and Equinox being added after flame-out, I was going for lots of fruity, citrusy hop aroma and flavour.<br />
<br />
After fermentation with LAIII was complete, I dry-hopped the beer in primary for 5 days, then racked to my DH keg (which has two filters surrounding the dip tube) along with more hops. This was where I also added the orange zest; I went on the seemingly-heavy side, adding 9 g zest (that's about 0.5 g/L) in a sanitized, mesh bag, weighted down with some marbles, and held suspended in the keg by some dental floss. After 4-5 days in this keg (I roused the hops frequently by picking up the keg and basically turning it back and forth a few times every day), the beer was pushed via C02 to the serving keg.<br />
<br />
This is when I added the vanilla bean, another ingredient that I was worried about adding too much. Instead of adding a full bean as I've done in the past with other beers, I went with a half. I suspected this may be at the low end, but again, I didn't want the vanilla too strong, where it could start hiding the hops. I had scraped and chopped the vanilla bean about a week previous, and soaked it in a bit of vodka for that period (this method had worked well in my recent Belgian Dubbel). That liquid was then strained into the serving keg before transferring the beer onto it.<br />
<br />
After chilling and carbing the beer, I had my first taste... and was quite happy, especially considering it was a first attempt with several things I thought could have went wrong. Because I've been behind on blogging, this beer has now kicked, but many people got to try it, and feedback was good. The beer was definitely cloudy, with a very smooth, creamy mouthfeel. The aroma and taste had a lot of hop character - plenty of citrus, fruit, and yes, some orange - with some slight sweetness coming through... but thankfully, not too much. Bitterness was medium-low, right about where I wanted it.<br />
<br />
In terms of what I'd like to see changed, the vanilla character was definitely too low. Yes, there was some there, but I think for this style there needed to be more. A friend had brewed a Milkshake IPA as well, which I got to try after I had brewed mine. He had added two vanilla beans to his, and while the beer was tasty, the vanilla character was too strong, and definitely overwhelmed the hops (this was easy to confirm because he had split the batch, with half getting no vanilla at all). I'd say you could safely add one vanilla bean, and have a better chance of hitting that sweet spot. Finally, the beer could be a bit drier; not sure why, but my final gravity was several points high at 1.022. Keep in mind that high number is because of the lactose, which isn't fermented by the yeast, but it still would have been a better beer if it had finished at 1.018, as the recipe called for.<br />
<br />
Ultimately, this was a good beer, and I think a pretty decent recipe. Azacca and Equinox sure aren't the easiest hops to find, but I'm sure there's a multitude of substitutions you could make and still have a great beer... maybe even better! Hopefully some of you try this recipe, and have equally good results.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Recipe Targets:</b> (<u>5.5 gallons</u>, 75% efficiency) OG 1.068, FG ~1.018, IBU ~54, SRM 4.6, ABV ~6.8%<br />
<br />
<b>Grains & Sugars:</b><br />
2.9 kg (47.2%) Canadian 2-row<br />
1.75 kg (28.5%) Maris Otter<br />
900 g (14.7%) Flaked Oats<br />
180 g (2.9%) Carapils<br />
180 g (2.9%) Acid malt<br />
227 g (3.7%) Lactose powder <i>(added during the boil)</i><br />
<br />
<b>Hops:</b><br />
Polaris - 8 g (17% AA) @ 60 min<br />
Azacca - 28 g (7.8% AA) @ 10 min<br />
Equinox - 28 g (13.4% AA) @ 10 min<br />
<br />
Azacca & Equinox - 42 g each @ 0 min (<u>with a 15 min hop steep</u>)<br />
<br />
Azacca & Equinox - 28 g each dry-hop for 5 days (in primary)<br />
<div>
<br />
Equinox & Galaxy - 42 g each dry-hop for 4 more days (in DH keg)<br />
<br /></div>
<b>Misc:</b><br />
9 g orange zest (in DH keg)<br />
1/2 vanilla bean (scraped and chopped, soaked in vodka for a week, strained and added in serving keg)<br />
<br />
<b>Yeast:</b> Wyeast 1318 London Ale III (~240 billion cells)<br />
<br />
<b>Water:</b> Fredericton city water, carbon-filtered; 3 g Gypsum and 7 g calcium chloride added to mash<br />
<br />
- Brewed on November 16th, by myself. 50-minute mash with 16 L of strike water; mash temp on target at 150 F. Mashed-out for 10 minutes with 8.5 L of boiling water to 168 F. Sparged with ~3 gallons of 168 F water for final volume of ~6.75 gallons.<br />
<br />
- Pre-boil gravity at 1.053. 60-minute boil; added the lactose in the final 20 min. Final volume ~5.5 gallons; OG a bit low at 1.066. Chilled to 64 F, then poured into Better Bottle. Aerated with 90 seconds of pure O2, pitched yeast at 64 F.<br />
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<i>Appearance:</i> Pours with a moderate-sized, white head; nice retention, some sticky lacing as the beer recedes. Body is a beautiful light-orange colour, very hazy/cloudy.<br />
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<i>Aroma:</i> Lots going on here - interesting mix of orange, tropical fruit, and light vanilla. No alcohol.<br />
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<i>Taste:</i> I'd say in decreasing order of intensity, I get tropical fruit hop character, orange, and vanilla, with a lingering low amount of sweetness. Very smooth. Medium/medium-low bitterness in the finish.<br />
<br />
<i>Mouthfeel:</i> Medium-full bodied, medium carbonation.<br />
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<i>Overall:</i> This turned out better than I had really expected; obviously, luck was a big factor here. I'd love to experiment with this style - different fruit, different hops - but I'd definitely keep the grist, mash schedule, and yeast as-is.</div>
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Shawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08469375277267237839noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5076002047553648960.post-78001492801924269102017-01-26T13:54:00.000-04:002017-01-26T13:54:08.040-04:00Northeast Double IPA (with five hop varieties)Because five hop varieties is better than four, right?!?<br />
<br />
No, of course it isn't, and anyone who reads this blog even semi-regularly probably knows that I don't usually use more than 2-3 hop varieties in any beer, with a few exceptions (namely clone recipes that I put together, where I know that the beer in question contains more than a couple of different hops).<br />
<br />
The day after brewing my Experimental Sour entry for the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/188137358266763/" target="_blank">4th Annual Big Spruce Home Brew Competition</a> - a <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2017/01/gose-dry-hopped-with-chinook-and.html" target="_blank">Gose dry-hopped with Chinook and grapefruit zest</a> - I brewed my entry for the Imperial IPA category. I don't normally do back-to-back brew days, but in this case I didn't have a lot of choice. It's difficult brewing these styles of beers for competitions - you really have to time it well, so that your beer is definitely ready in time to have it entered, but also, you don't want it ready TOO early, when you're talking about a style that is better fresh.<br />
<br />
I should say right off that if you're brewing a DIPA for a BJCP-certified competition, brewing it in the style of a Northeast version - pale-coloured, cloudy, low bitterness - probably isn't the best idea, if you're really trying to win. Why enter if you're not trying to really win? Great question, you've got me in a box here. In this case, I guess I just really wanted to brew what I like to drink; with several bottles going to the competition, that's a lot of beer leftover. And I'm just no longer a fan of sweet-tasting, Crystal-laden, extremely-bitter DIPAs. So, I thought I'd brew a beer that I knew I'd like (on paper, anyway), enter it, and see what the judges thought.<br />
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The grist you see below is basically an amalgamation of several hoppy recipes I've brewed and enjoyed: 2-row and Pilsner malt, with almost equal amounts of Flaked Oats, Carapils and Wheat malt, plus my usual ~2% of Acid malt for mash pH adjustment purposes. Mashed low at 149 F to keep the beer dry, it is, as you can see, purposefully devoid of any real Crystal malts, resulting in a calculated SRM of just 4.5. The BJCP lists the range for DIPA as 6-14, which is pretty wide. Whenever I pour a new-to-me DIPA and see it on the higher end of that range, I cringe, as I'm usually expecting a Crystal-y, low-hop aroma to follow (which isn't always the case, of course, but...). I also added a good portion of table sugar to help dry out the beer further, which I boiled in a bit of water, cooled, and added to the carboy when primary fermentation showed signs of slowing.<br />
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As I mentioned above, I don't normally use more than 2-3 hop varieties in a beer, but I had come up with a combination that I was looking to try. I've been enjoying Chinook lately (which I used in the mentioned Gose and a <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2016/12/chinook-session-ipa.html" target="_blank">100%-Chinook Session IPA</a>), and have always been a fan of Columbus (CTZ), so I decided to throw an ounce of each in at 10 minutes. At flameout, more Chinook for a hop steep, along with one of my favourites, Galaxy. After that steep, and when my immersion chiller began its job, I added two other favourites, Nelson Sauvin and Simcoe. I knew from my own experience and many commercial beers that these hops work together well, so I finally went with a single, fairly-large dry-hop addition of the big three, Galaxy, Nelson and Simcoe. With a small Polaris addition at the beginning of the boil, the total calculated IBUs comes in around 65, at the low end of the BJCP range of 60-120.<br />
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It probably comes as no surprise that I fermented this beer with London Ale III, which seems to be the go-to yeast now for many northeast hoppy style beers; I'm no exception, as I think it's a great strain for hoppy beers. Once again, I knew that the resulting cloudiness could easily be a negative factor for the judges, if they were judging strictly by-the-book. However, I also know that a lot of BJCP judges probably enjoy a DIPA that is cloudy and pale... and I've never had any problems with a beer coming out cloudy with LAIII - it's pretty much a guarantee when I ferment with it. Throw in an addition of Flaked Oats, and it's probably going to be even cloudier.<br />
<br />
This one was brewed in mid-October, the day after the Gose, and kegged on November 8th (Election Day). I definitely didn't have to leave it this long before kegging, but I was doing my best to time its readiness for the competition. I was, from the start, quite happy with how it turned out - yes, it was cloudy, and yes, the bitterness wasn't extreme, but the beer had a very nice (to me) blend of tropical fruit and pine. Creamy, smooth mouthfeel, slightly warming from the alcohol, but still goes down easy. Was it the best DIPA I've ever brewed? No, but it was far from the worst, too.<br />
<br />
Like my Gose, however, this beer did not place in the competition. While it received better scores than the Gose did, the judges commented that the beer's colour was too light, and that it wasn't bitter enough. And they're exactly right, by BJCP standards. So I definitely was not surprised by the results. Luckily, though, I really liked the beer! It hung around on tap for a couple of months before finally kicking just the other day.<br />
<br />
So, for a DIPA that I brew for me, this was a good beer. I'd definitely brew another DIPA with the same grist, and maybe play around with the hops a little (of course), and likely dial it back to 3 varieties instead of 5. But if you've got these ones on hand and were looking for a new DIPA to brew, I think I can safely recommend this one.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Recipe Targets:</b> (<u>5.5 gallons</u>, 75% efficiency) OG 1.074, FG ~1.014, IBU ~65, SRM 4.5, ABV ~8%<br />
<br />
<b>Grains & Sugars:</b><br />
2.8 kg (42.9%) Canadian 2-row<br />
1.8 g (27.6%) Bohemian Pilsner<br />
500 g (7.7%) Flaked Oats<br />
475 g (7.3%) Carapils<br />
475 g (7.3%) Wheat malt<br />
125 g (1.9%) Acid malt<br />
+ 350 g (5.4%) Table sugar (added when fermentation slows)<br />
<br />
<b>Hops:</b><br />
Polaris - 7 g (17.7% AA) @ 60 min<br />
Chinook - 28 g (13.7% AA) @ 10 min<br />
CTZ - 28 g (10.9% AA) @ 10 min<br />
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Chinook & Galaxy - 42 g each @ 0 min (<u>with a 20 min hop steep</u>)<br />
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Nelson Sauvin & Simcoe - 28 g each <u>when started chilling</u><br />
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Galaxy, Nelson Sauvin, Simcoe - 42 g each dry-hop for 5 days (in primary)<br />
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<b>Yeast:</b> Wyeast 1318 London Ale III<br />
<br />
<b>Water:</b> Fredericton city water, carbon-filtered; 8 g Gypsum and 10 g calcium chloride added to mash<br />
<br />
- Brewed on October 18th, 2016, by myself. 50-minute mash with 15 L of strike water; mash temp on target of 150 F. Mashed-out for 10 minutes with 8.25 L of boiling water to 168 F. Sparged with ~3.25 gallons of 168 F water for final volume of ~6.75 gallons. <br />
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- Pre-boil gravity at 1.055. 60-minute boil. Final volume ~5.5 gallons; OG 1.074 (taking future sugar additions into account). Chilled to 64 F, then poured into Better Bottle. Aerated with 90 seconds of pure O2, pitched yeast at 64 F.<br />
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- High activity in the airlock the next morning after pitching; unfortunately, it was quite warm outside during this period, and I didn't try to keep the temps down with water, ice, etc., so over the next couple of days the temperature climbed to 75 F - much higher than my usual fermentation. Luckily, it was pitched low and climbed only gradually.<br />
<br />
- When fermentation began to show signs of slowing, the sugar was added in two halves (about 12-16 hours apart) after being boiled and cooled in water.<br />
<br />
- 31/10/16 - FG 1.015. Dry-hopped in primary the next day.<br />
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- 8/11/16 - Kegged and force-carbed for 36 hours at 30 PSI.<br />
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<i>Appearance: </i>Pours with a light-golden colour in the body, medium-sized white head, sticky and holds on for awhile before fading. Very hazy.<br />
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<i>Aroma:</i> Nice blast of tropical fruit, pine, with some of that Nelson-specific white wine character coming through. No real malt character here, it's all hops, as wanted and expected.<br />
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<i>Taste:</i> Again, hops all the way, but I find the malt supports them enough so that it doesn't come across as astringent or overbearing. Lots of fruit, juicy. Medium bitterness in the finish, dry.<br />
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<i>Mouthfeel:</i> Medium-bodied, creamy; medium carbonation.<br />
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<i>Overall:</i> I really enjoyed this beer; I'm a big fan of the creamy body yet dry finish, and the hop combo works quite well.Shawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08469375277267237839noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5076002047553648960.post-16964319317911313372017-01-12T14:04:00.000-04:002017-01-12T14:04:50.672-04:00Gose dry-hopped with Chinook and Grapefruit ZestNovember, 2016 featured the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/188137358266763/" target="_blank">4th Annual Big Spruce Home Brew Challenge</a>, a homebrewing competition in the Maritimes held by <a href="http://www.bigspruce.ca/" target="_blank">Big Spruce</a>, a craft brewery out of Nyanza, Nova Scotia. Last year I had entered a beer, <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2015/12/brewing-red-ipa-with-cascade-ctz-and.html" target="_blank">Inherit the Red</a>, in the Red IPA category; surprisingly, it won gold, and owner/brewer Jeremy White invited me to Big Spruce to assist in brewing the recipe in February. That beer was launched at the <a href="http://www.frederictoncraftbeerfestival.com/" target="_blank">Fredericton Craft Beer Festival</a> that March, under the name <a href="https://untappd.com/b/big-spruce-brewing-meek-thy-maker/1439606" target="_blank">Meek Thy Maker</a> (his idea!).<br />
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I decided to enter two beers in this year's competition, one in the Experimental Sour category, and one in the Imperial IPA category (the third and final category was Mild). Both beers were brewed back to back over a two day period, with the Sour brewed first. I always have a lot of ideas of different beers to brew (and not enough time... don't we all?), especially in the sour category, but I was particularly interested in brewing a Gose again. The <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2016/06/brewing-gose-using-lactobacillus.html" target="_blank">last Gose I brewed</a>, I split the batch and dry-hopped half with Citra, and added lime zest to the other half; both came out quite nice. I had kettle-soured the wort using a starter made from <i>Lactobacillus plantarum</i> capsules, and the method worked out well for me. For more details on the whole process I used, check out that post.<br />
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With this new beer, I wanted to take the same approach to kettle-souring the wort - I had plenty of L. plantarum capsules on hand, and the ability of L. plantarum to work at warm room temperatures (not to mention not having to pay strict attention to oxygen ruining your beer, causing aromas of vomit and such) makes it a no-brainer for me to use. I have a heating pad and a heat belt, but no really effective way of keeping wort in the 100 F range, especially this time of year.<br />
<br />
In terms of what to do with this Gose, I had quite a few ideas, some of which I regretted not doing soon after I finally settled on one (this is a pretty typical problem with me in homebrewing). As I mentioned, I was happy with both the lime zest and Citra-dry-hopped Gose versions I did before, and started thinking that maybe combining these two approaches would work well. I finally settled on brewing a Gose dry-hopped with both Chinook and grapefruit zest - I usually get grapefruit character when I use Chinook in hoppy beers, and figured that some additional zest would bring this out even more.<br />
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For the recipe, I used the exact same as the lime and Citra Gose. A very straight-forward grist (close to 50/50 Pilsner and Wheat malt, with ~4% Acid malt), mash at 150 F, and you've got your wort all ready to be soured! Hopefully. Bring that to a very brief boil to kill off whatever bugs are there already (or even bring it close to 200 F or so and hold it for a few minutes), then cool to 100 F and transfer into your fermentor. At this point, I actually added 5 mL of phosphoric acid (80%) to bring the wort pH down to ~4.6. Aside from giving the Lacto a bit of a head start, this has been shown to help improve head retention, which can often be an issue in sour beers. I tried this with my last kettle-soured beer, a <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.ca/2016/07/sour-session-ipa-kettle-soured.html" target="_blank">Sour Session IPA</a>, and it definitely made a difference.<br />
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I did my best to keep the wort warm, which actually wasn't too difficult, as the heat pad and belt managed to keep the temp at about 90 F. After a couple of days the pH had dropped to 3.23, so I transferred back to the kettle and started a very short, 5 minute boil. A bit of Polaris for a small bittering charge was added, along with the coriander seed and sea salt. I then chilled down to the low 60s F, pitched a full pack of rehydrated yeast, and let it ferment out. The gravity only got down to 1.010, with a pH of 3.48; neither budged after another week, so I racked the beer to my dry-hop keg and threw in the Chinook (loose) and grapefruit zest (in a mesh bag with marbles to weigh it down, dangled in with dental floss). Eight days later, I did an oxygen-free transfer to the serving keg and carbed it up.<br />
<br />
Well, I knew when I drank this beer for the first time that while the idea was sound, the resulting product probably wasn't going to win any competitions. It's lightly tart, fruity, with - yes - some nice grapefruit presence... but, the grapefruit isn't where I wanted it to be (despite the dry-hop keg, after empty of beer, absolutely reeking of grapefruit), and the beer isn't sour enough. I'm starting to think that with kettle-soured beers, if the only hops going in are in the dry-hop, you have to be really aggressive to get a lot of hop character. If I brewed this again, I'd go up to 5 oz of Chinook, and maybe even a bit more grapefruit zest.<br />
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As for the competition, nope, it didn't win, or place. Both judges thought it should be more sour (for an Experimental Sour beer, anyway; apparently they thought the sourness was ok for a straight Gose), and both also said it was too salty. Personally, I like the salt level in this beer - I definitely don't find it a kick-in-the-head for saltiness.<br />
<br />
All this being said, I still enjoy the beer, and at only 3% ABV it's by far the most sessionable thing I have on tap right now! While far from perfect, it doesn't really have any really glaring flaws (to me), and I like the mouthfeel - light, yet creamy. More Chinook character (and a little more grapefruit) would likely improve this beer.<br />
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<i>Note:</i> The majority of my readers are in the United States; I don't like to enter political territory on this blog, but I have to note that both of these competition beers were kegged on November 8th (Election Day), which helped with the naming of both. This one? <a href="https://untappd.com/b/meek-brewing-co-there-gose-america/1818023" target="_blank">There Gose America</a>.<br />
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<b>Recipe Targets:</b> (<u>5.8 gallons</u>, 75% efficiency) OG 1.033, FG ~1.008, IBU ~7, SRM 2.9, ABV ~3.3%<br />
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<b>Grains:</b><br />
1.4 kg (47.9%) Bohemian Pilsner<br />
1.4 kg (47.9%) Wheat malt<br />
125 g (4.2%) Acid malt<br />
+ 100 g rice hulls<br />
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<b>Hops:</b><br />
Polaris - 14 g (17.7% AA) @ 5 min<br />
<br />
Chinook - 84 g dry-hop for 8 days (in dry-hop keg)<br />
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<b>Misc:</b><br />
Irish Moss - 1/2 tab @ 5 min<br />
Coriander seed (ground) - 14 g @ 2 min<br />
Sea salt - 25 g @ 2 min<br />
Grapefruit zest - 12 g in dry-hop keg for 8 days<br />
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<b>Bacteria/Yeast:</b> Lactobacillus plantarum capsules (6) in a 1 L starter; after souring, wort fermented with 1 pack rehydrated US-05<br />
<br />
<b>Water:</b> Fredericton city water, carbon-filtered; 5 g Gypsum and 5 g calcium chloride added to mash<br />
<br />
- Brewed on October 17th, 2016, by myself. 50-minute mash with 9.5 L of strike water; mash temp on target at 150 F. Mashed-out for 10 minutes with 5 L of boiling water to 168 F. Sparged with ~3.75 gallons of 168 F water for final volume of ~5.75 gallons.<br />
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- Pre-boil gravity at 1.032. Heated to a simmer, then chilled to 100 F. Added 5 mL phosphoric acid to bring wort pH to 4.61. Racked to carboy, pitched Lacto starter, attached heat belt and set carboy on heating pad. Two days later, the pH had dropped to 3.23 with the wort temperature in the range of 80-90 F.<br />
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- 19/10/16 - Transferred wort back into kettle, brought to a boil. Started 5 minute boil, added hops, coriander and salt at time above. Chilled down to 62 F and poured into BB. Aerated for 60 seconds and pitched yeast at 64 F.<br />
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- 31/10/16 - FG high at 1.010, pH reading 3.48. Racked beer to the dry-hop keg, added Chinook (loose) and grapefruit zest (in sanitized mesh bag with marbles to weigh down, floss to hold in beer).<br />
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- 8/11/16 - Pushed via CO2 into serving keg, carbed at 30 PSI for 36 hours, then set at 10 PSI.<br />
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<i>Appearance: </i>Very light-golden coloured beer, with a fair amount of haziness. The head is surprisingly moderate-sized (or even a bit larger), white and fluffy, with respectable staying-power; slowly settles to about 1/4-finger size.<br />
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<i>Aroma:</i> Fruity and slightly sour; yes, the grapefruit is there, but the hops are not as prevalent as expected from the size of the dry-hop.<br />
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<i>Taste:</i> The tartness from the Lacto and fruitiness from the Chinook are there, but I'd like to see more of each. The hop flavours do blend very nicely with the grapefruit zest; bumping it up would only help this beer, I think. Finishes dry on the palate, low bitterness.<br />
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<i>Mouthfeel: </i>Medium-bodied, moderate carbonation. Could stand to be a bit lighter.<br />
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<i>Overall: </i>Tasty, but next time I'd add more Chinook, and bring the pH lower to accentuate the sourness. I'm satisfied with the combination of grapefruit zest and Chinook, however, and would encourage others to try the same.Shawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08469375277267237839noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5076002047553648960.post-87484779128776911412016-12-16T14:47:00.001-04:002016-12-16T14:47:36.109-04:00Chinook Session IPAI've been trying to make it an "unofficial" target of mine to brew one of these one-hop Session IPAs at least a few times a year, and oddly enough, I've been doing really well at accomplishing that. <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2013/11/brewing-mosaic-one-hop-session-ipa.html" target="_blank">My first one, featuring Mosaic</a>, was brewed about three years ago. The one I'm writing about today was my seventh. Most of these beers turned out quite well, especially the <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2015/03/brewing-equinox-one-hop-session-ipa.html" target="_blank">Equinox Session IPA</a>, which I re-brewed with barely any changes.<br />
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This Chinook Session IPA is the first time I've brewed one of these beers and featured a hop that has actually been around for a while. It began to be used in brewing back in the mid-1980s, and is truly one of the first 'C' hops. A high-alpha acid variety, Chinook's usual descriptors include citrus, spicy, and pine, with grapefruit being another one that pops up. I've used it in other beers - and quite enjoyed it - but have never brewed with it all on its own. I'm a big fan of grapefruit characteristics in beer, so I wanted to see if it really gave off THAT much grapefruit. Plus, I had quite a bit of it on hand, so that worked too!<br />
<br />
Is this beginning to seem like one of those unplanned beers? I wouldn't go that far, but I definitely didn't have this one sitting on the back burner for months. I have a large list of single-hop Session IPAs I'd like to brew, so finally tackling the Chinook option seemed like a good idea. I always like to have at least one sub-5% ABV beer on tap, and Session IPAs are pretty much delicious any time of the year.<br />
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Once again, I stuck with the Russian River Row 2, Hill 56 clone grist, where the bulk is Pilsner malt and Maris Otter, and a little light Crystal, Carapils, and Acid malt thrown in. My hopping schedule stayed the same as well - a bit of Polaris at the beginning of the boil to about 15 IBUs or so, then an ounce of Chinook at 10 min, 2 oz for a 15-minute steep, and a 3-oz dry hop. For fairly-punchy-or-higher hop varieties, this approach has worked well for me in the past.<br />
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For fermentation, I would have loved to have used London Ale III again, but unfortunately my stir plate crapped out on me when I would have made a starter. Sure, I could have gone back to the old "intermittent shaking" approach, but it's really tough to revert to a method that a) requires twice the amount of starter volume, and b) actually involves effort, compared to using a stir plate. The hell with that! So, I used a package of rehydrated US-05.<br />
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This is probably my shortest post ever, but there really isn't much else to say! I've gone over this recipe many times. The brew day and resulting fermentation went fine, the bulk of active fermentation was complete after a few days, and the dry hops were added into primary a week after brewday. Another five days later, I kegged the beer and started carbing.<br />
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As I had hoped, this is another easy-drinking, hop-forward beer that - while not being exactly ground-breaking - hits all the right notes for a Session IPA. Hopping with all Chinook has given the beer a very-balanced mix of citrus fruit and pine in both the aroma and flavour, but I don't really get a lot of the grapefruit I was expecting. There's definitely more clarity in this brew compared to the previous Session IPAs where I used London Ale III, which just confirms that using that yeast can often be enough to get a cloudy beer (if that's what you're looking for).<br />
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Tasty! It's proven to be a dependable Session IPA recipe, regardless of which hop(s) you want to feature. In this case, it's extra-enticing when you consider that Chinook is easily 1/2 - 1/3 of the price as many newer varietals.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Recipe Targets:</b> (<u>5.5 gallons</u>, 75% efficiency) OG 1.048, FG ~1.012, IBU ~45, SRM 4.5, ABV ~4.8%<br />
<br />
<b>Grains:</b><br />
2.3 kg (57.1%) Bohemian Pilsner<br />
1.35 kg (33.5%) Maris Otter<br />
160 g (4%) CaraRed (20 L)<br />
120 g (3%) Carapils<br />
100 g (2.5%) Acid malt<br />
<br />
<b>Hops:</b><br />
Polaris - 6 g (17.7% AA) @ 60 min<br />
Chinook - 28 g (13% AA) @ 10 min<br />
<br />
Chinook - 56 g @ 0 min (<u>with a 15 min hop steep</u>)<br />
<br />
Chinook - 84 g dry-hop for 5 days (in primary)<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<b>Misc:</b> 1/2 tab Irish Moss at 5 min<br />
<br />
<b>Yeast:</b> US-05, 1 package, rehydrated<br />
<br />
<b>Water:</b> Fredericton city water, carbon-filtered; 5 g Gypsum and 8 g calcium chloride added to mash<br />
<br />
- Brewed on October 4th, by myself. 50-minute mash with 13 L of strike water; mash temp slightly high at 154 F. Mashed-out for 10 minutes with 5.5 L of boiling water to 165 F. Sparged with ~4 gallons of 168 F water for final volume of ~6.75 gallons.<br />
<br />
- Pre-boil gravity at 1.040 (target 1.039). 60-minute boil. Final volume ~5.7 gallons; OG a bit low at 1.047. Chilled to 64 F, then poured into Better Bottle. Aerated with 60 seconds of pure O2, pitched yeast at 65 F.<br />
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- 11/10/16 - FG 1.012; dry hops added into primary.<br />
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- 16/10/16 - Racked to keg, carbed at 30 PSI for 36 hours, purged and set at 12 PSI.<br />
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<img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXBVfH4ID0o0SE0HUVffIipZKWg42J9eP3GncOVrP-qGZ4rkFpl8-rL_L58hVdBdadMP-siC8cDpegF7A-RobSlr4dufRphAX7mGMPyvfeyShdhoXQ9PwG44fuGziT0YnM6t0u48wL1rj9/s640/blogger-image-1724098058.jpg" width="480" /></div>
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<i>Appearance:</i> Pours with a moderate-sized, white head - pretty decent retention, fades after a bit to 1/4-finger. Body is a burnished-gold colour, with good clarity (definitely a difference when using US-05 vs London Ale III!).<br />
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<i>Aroma:</i> Pleasant aroma that first reminds me of Rockets (the candy); it's slightly sweet right away, but then comes through with a nice mix of citrus fruit and pine. Maybe a touch of grapefruit.<br />
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<i>Taste: </i>Very nicely-balanced between the citrus and pine, with a just-lightly-sweet supporting malt backbone.<br />
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<i>Mouthfeel:</i> Medium-light bodied, medium carbonation.<br />
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<i>Overall: </i>May not be up there with the very best Session IPAs I've brewed, but it's still very enjoyable. Great balance of pine and fruit, and proves that Chinook is a fantastic hop variety... especially considering it's price.<br />
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Shawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08469375277267237839noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5076002047553648960.post-86544805931846843842016-11-10T15:40:00.000-04:002017-04-19T19:02:01.598-03:00Brewing a Maine Beer Co. Lunch clone (No. 8 in the Maine Beer Clone series)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_hIYim1GwemppNSKxYSffria1iuGoKWZGpcZODoQ0Zp-pm1fPYnAYYDUYuJ9P75KKCwOkg8BgydMnjbfX2o6rZKzFmfgf1Lf7DJj_T2v37XLi612vtmhFzdtiC8xZRu8DF1LYjtnCdSJ7/s1600/mainebeer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_hIYim1GwemppNSKxYSffria1iuGoKWZGpcZODoQ0Zp-pm1fPYnAYYDUYuJ9P75KKCwOkg8BgydMnjbfX2o6rZKzFmfgf1Lf7DJj_T2v37XLi612vtmhFzdtiC8xZRu8DF1LYjtnCdSJ7/s1600/mainebeer.jpg" /></a></div>
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Another year, another attempted clone of a Maine beer! It never ceases to amaze me how many awesome breweries this state has. My wife and I took a beer trip to Portland in May; it was our first trip without kids to Portland in about a year and a half... that was a real eye-opener to me, since I regularly used to make it to Portland about four times a year before my daughter was born. With that big of a travel gap, there were a few new breweries that had popped up, and it looks like some more have opened even since then. My point is, there are plenty of great beers brewed in Maine, and therefore plenty of great beers to try to "clone" at home... but I keep coming back to the classics, most of which are brewed by <a href="http://mainebeercompany.com/" target="_blank">Maine Beer Company</a>.<br />
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<b>Lunch</b> was MBC's fourth release (after Peeper, Zoe, and Mean Old Tom), and their first American IPA. Let me tell you, even though it's been years now since they started brewing it, it is still considered - rightly so - a fantastic IPA. Here's how the brewery describes it:<br />
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<i>Intense hop flavours and tropical, citrus fruit and pine aromas dominate the flavour profile, balanced by subtle malt sweetness.</i><br />
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That's actually a perfect summation of this beer. If you look at the many pictures snapped of Lunch, you can see immediately that it doesn't look quite as pale-coloured as many IPAs are now; it definitely is on the dark-golden/light-amber side of things. That's not to say this is a sweet beer; it certainly isn't, thankfully. But there's more malt character than a lot of newer breweries put into their hoppy beers. But with Lunch, it all works perfectly. Hoppy, yet balanced. Bitter to a degree, but smooth and easy-drinking. A great beer! And, interestingly, not named after the meal, but after a whale that swims (swam?) off the coast of Maine that had a bite out of its fin, and was named Lunch by the locals as a result.<br />
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I've always wanted to brew a clone of this beer. I've done many other MBC clones in my <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/p/maine-beer-clone-series_10.html" target="_blank">Maine Beer Clone series</a>, and Lunch has been the next one planned for some time. And I'm certainly not the only homebrewer to have tried to clone Lunch; there's plenty of attempts out there that have been documented on blogs, homebrew forums, etc. But this time around, I didn't have to do any work. Nope, no digging, no bugging brewers, no analyzing the beer at all.<br />
<br />
You may be wondering, has he developed some sort of a psychic sense when it comes to homebrewing? No, I can assure you that if I had, I would be making better beer. What happened was months ago, someone emailed me and we chatted about at least one of my MBC clones. That person eventually told me that they had been giving a photo taken of the MBC actual brew log, turned to a double-brew day of Lunch. They asked if I'd like a copy; I said sure, even though I admit I was skeptical. But when they sent it along, I had to admit that it looked genuine! I guess only a brewer at MBC could confirm, but it really does appear to be authentic. Everything is there: grist and percentage of each grain, exact hop times, amounts, and alpha acids, pH readings... everything. EXCEPT the dry hop. However, this person told me they had questioned Dan Kleban (MBC's co-owner and head brewer) on this, and that he confirmed they use a total of 2.3 lbs/BBL, shared equally between all three of the hop varieties in the beer (Amarillo, Centennial, and Simcoe).<br />
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I've actually had this recipe for months now (maybe even over a year?), but only got around to brewing it in September. I'm no fool; I know that recipe is only part of what makes a beer great, with technique being at LEAST half of it. But I wanted to give it a try! I've had Lunch about ten different times, so I'm at least a little familiar with it, and had an idea what to expect it to look, taste, and smell like. So I finally found the time to fit it in my brewing schedule, and scaled the recipe down from ~400 gallons, to 5.<br />
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The grist is made up mainly of 2-row, with small amounts (~4%) of Crystal 40 L, Munich 10 L, and Red Wheat, and an even smaller amount of Carapils. I also threw in some Acid malt as I always do for pale beers, to bring my mash pH into range (MBC's mash pH for Lunch is ~5.4). I will note that I asked Dan Kleban a while back if they did pH adjustments when making large dry-hop additions (e.g. Dinner), and he responded by saying that they didn't do any pH adjustments. I assume this means no adjustments throughout the brewing process at all, and the brew log seems to indicate this; I see no mention of Acid malt, phosphoric acid, etc. The OG I was aiming for was 1.063; Lunch is a 7% ABV beer, and MBC lists their OG as 1.059. Personally, I can't get the attenuation they seem to be getting, so I always aim for several points above their target when brewing one of their beers, to make up for that. I should also note that the Lunch mash temp is listed as 149 F.<br />
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As with all their beers, MBC lists on their website the hop varieties used in each. Lunch uses Warrior, Amarillo, Centennial, and Simcoe. Without seeing what is, apparently, the actual recipe for Lunch, I would probably come up with a clone that involved large additions of all three flavour hops, late in the boil (or maybe even just a flameout addition), and a large dry-hop... I would have been half-right.<br />
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Check out that hopping schedule! Let me begin by saying their 60-minute addition is actually Warrior, not Centennial; I'm not sure what I was doing. Maybe lowering the IBUs to where I wanted them? Dunno, but if you want to follow the MBC recipe, use 3 grams of Warrior (17.7% AA) at 60 minutes. Otherwise, there are many additions throughout the boil, but they're SMALL additions. I can see why they're not large; it's not like you're going to get much aroma or flavour at 45 or 30 minutes, and they weren't going for high IBUs. Obviously this approach works for them, so while it was against how I normally brew now, I followed their schedule to a tee. Minus the 60-min addition, of course. The flameout addition I used was also changed; MBC lists a whirlpool addition at half of what I have, 12 g of each variety for 5 gallons. I upped it because I assume their whirlpool is longer than 20 minutes at that size, so I made a hopefully-educated guess. A single, large dry-hop (almost 6 oz total), and you're set! Ferment the beer with a neutral American strain, of course (WP001, Wyeast 1056, US-05, etc.).<br />
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So, the beer was finally brewed and fermented, with no real issues to report; I admit it felt a little weird adding so few hops before chilling the beer, but I had faith. I pitched a rehydrated package of US-05, and fermentation took off quickly. The FG made it down to 1.011, which was about what I expected. The dry-hops went into primary for about 5 days, and then I kegged the beer and carbonated it with my typical 36-hours-at-30-PSI approach, which usually works well.<br />
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This was one of those beers where I really liked it at first, then felt that both the hop aroma and flavours dissipated quickly... and then came back a few days later. I'm still not sure if this is actually a part of the process, or one of my... quirks, but it can certainly be frustrating! Now that the beer (or me) has settled down, I'm enjoying it. While it's certainly not the best IPA I've brewed, it's got a pleasant blend of pine and citrus, with a fairly powerful aroma, and moderate bitterness. But how does it compare to Lunch?<br />
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Well, luckily I recently made a trip to Portland, and had a friend pick up a super-fresh (as in, bottled two days before I bought it) bottle of Lunch for me! And now that I've done a side-by-side with these beers, I can say that this recipe will get you VERY close. Complete tasting notes are below, but these beers are extremely similar: they look virtually identical, and the aroma and taste are pretty much spot-on as well. The biggest differences were that my clone smelled a bit hoppier, while the real thing had the edge in the taste department, with a smoother balance between the malt and hops.<br />
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If there's one thing this beer has taught me, though, it's that IPA tastes and expectations have changed in the last couple of years. I really enjoy Lunch, but it's not the type of IPA I usually seek out now. It's still a great beer, no doubt about that, but it doesn't really seem to be in line with the REALLY great IPAs out there, such as <a href="http://www.bissellbrothers.com/" target="_blank">Bissell Brothers</a> The Substance - hazy/cloudy, super-hoppy, with little perceived bitterness.<br />
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But if you're a Lunch fan - and I think most of us still are - give this recipe a try! I don't think you'll be disappointed. And a big shout out to the person responsible for sending it to me; I apologize for losing the email and forgetting your name!<br />
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<b>Recipe Targets:</b> (<u>5.5 gallons</u>, 75% efficiency) OG 1.063, FG ~1.011, IBU ~50, SRM 6.9, ABV ~6.8%<br />
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<b>Grains:</b><br />
4.75 kg (82.3%) Canadian 2-row<br />
250 g (4.3%) Crystal 40 L<br />
250 g (4.3%) Munich<br />
250 g (4.3%) Wheat malt<br />
150 g (2.6%) Acid malt<br />
125 g (2.2%) Carapils<br />
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<b>Hops:</b><br />
Centennial - 5 g (9% AA) @ 60 min<br />
Centennial - 7 g @ 45 min<br />
Centennial - 5 g @ 30 min<br />
Amarillo - 4 g (8.7% AA) @ 30 min<br />
Simcoe - 3 g (12.2% AA) @ 30 min<br />
Centennial - 11 g @ 15 min<br />
Amarillo - 6 g @ 15 min<br />
Simcoe - 5 g @ 15 min<br />
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Amarillo, Centennial, Simcoe - 24 g each @ 0 min (<u>with a 20 min hop steep</u>)<br />
<br />
Amarillo, Centennial, Simcoe - 58 g each dry-hop for 5 days (in primary)<br />
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<b>Misc:</b> 1/2 tab Irish Moss at 5 min<br />
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<b>Yeast:</b> US-05 Safale (1 pack, rehydrated)<br />
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<b>Water:</b> Fredericton city water, carbon-filtered; 5 g Gypsum and 7 g calcium chloride added to mash<br />
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- Brewed on September 27th, 2016, by myself. 50-minute mash with 15 L of strike water; mash temp on target of 149 F. Mashed-out for 10 minutes with 8.5 L of boiling water to 168 F. Sparged with ~3.25 gallons of 168 F water for final volume of ~6.75 gallons.<br />
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- Pre-boil gravity at 1.050 (target 1.051). 60-minute boil. Final volume ~5.7 gallons; OG low at 1.061. Chilled to 64 F, then poured into Better Bottle. Aerated with 75 seconds of pure O2, pitched yeast at 64 F.<br />
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- Airlock bubbling strong by the next morning, continuing on for a few days before slowing down. Temp got up to 72 F during the peak.<br />
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- 4/10/16 - FG 1.011; added dry hops into primary.<br />
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- 10/10/16 - Racked beer to keg, cooled, and carbed to 10-12 PSI.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghxa2504ZP7-HperDKTKeBPyldKYwPsTmlXTdCAr7t-uGssoS8YnWDNHa2uQopEJCdjPyBBq_ociaXawWfwOHS0ao5Lim4gCINWYPsVwrlPT-lJI-eKhTR2qAOTryTbOd-Fdb9SqmgL8Au/s1600/IMG_2123.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghxa2504ZP7-HperDKTKeBPyldKYwPsTmlXTdCAr7t-uGssoS8YnWDNHa2uQopEJCdjPyBBq_ociaXawWfwOHS0ao5Lim4gCINWYPsVwrlPT-lJI-eKhTR2qAOTryTbOd-Fdb9SqmgL8Au/s640/IMG_2123.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lunch on the left, homebrew on the right</td></tr>
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<i>Appearance:</i> Colour is about exactly the same; the homebrew is just slightly lighter in colour, and more clear. In the commercial version, the head lasts longer and there's more lacing.<br />
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<i>Aroma:</i> Virtually identical, hard to tell the difference. The homebrew is a bit stronger in the hop department - fruity and citrusy - while the commercial beer has a bit more malt presence.<br />
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<i>Taste:</i> Again, extremely close, with the commercial beer having the hops come across as smoother, somehow; lots of hops in both, citrusy and fruity, balanced by a bready malt backbone. Medium bitterness in both.<br />
<br />
<i>Mouthfeel:</i> The real thing is slightly creamier. Both are medium-light bodied, moderate carbonation.<br />
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<i>Overall: </i>You can tell them apart, but not by much. Doing it blind (the triangle-test would be best) would make it even more difficult. I'm going to give the edge to Maine Beer Co. though, thanks to the smoother body and flavour profile.Shawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08469375277267237839noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5076002047553648960.post-8195897690348518092016-11-04T14:37:00.000-03:002016-11-04T14:37:02.705-03:00Brett IPA with Citra and Vic Secret - 1/2 fermented with Amalgamation, 1/2 with Brett CAfter the "eh" feelings I had about <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2016/07/azacca-brett-brux-trois-vrai-ipa.html" target="_blank">my last Brett IPA</a> (hopped entirely with Azacca, and fermented with Brett brux Trois Vrai), I've been itching to try brewing the style again. When done well, 100% Brett IPAs are delicious beers, exhibiting the perfect balance between bright hoppiness and Brett funk. Unfortunately, the Trois Vrai used in my Azacca Brett IPA wasn't - in my opinion - a good strain to use in such a beer... the funk, while tasty, barrelled through the beer (even in the early days of pouring) and masked most of the Azacca hoppy goodness.<br />
<br />
The first two Brett IPAs, however (<a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2015/07/brewing-100-brett-ipa-with-amarillo-and.html" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2015/11/brewing-100-brett-ipa-with-galaxy-and.html" target="_blank">here</a>), were a different story. Fermented with <a href="http://www.theyeastbay.com/wild-yeast-and-bacteria-products/amalgamation" target="_blank">Amalgamation</a> from The Yeast Bay, both beers were closer to what I look for in a Brett IPA - especially the first one, hopped with Amarillo and Hallertau Blanc. For those who don't know, Amalgamation is a "Brett Super Blend" of six different <i>Brettanomyces</i> strains; it works fantastically well in 100% Brett beers. After those two beers, unfortunately my Amalgamation slurry seemed to go south, so I had to toss it. This was a special order online that I had piggy-backed on with someone else, so getting it again wasn't looking like it'd be easy anytime soon.<br />
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Luckily, a friend had purchased a vial fairly recently, and saved me a small amount of slurry to brew with. He also had some slurry of <a href="http://www.whitelabs.com/yeast/wlp645-brettanomyces-claussenii" target="_blank">White Labs Brett claussenii</a> that he gave me; he had used it recently in brewing a <a href="https://lostcompassbrewing.wordpress.com/2016/08/16/brewing-a-brett-session-ipa/" target="_blank">Brett Session IPA</a> (hopped with Citra, Equinox, and Galaxy) which was quite tasty. I had never brewed with Brett C before; White Labs describes it as having "low intensity Brett character", with "more aroma (fruity, pineapple) than flavour contribution". Again, his beer was really good, and the description sounds ideal for a Brett IPA. I had planned to brew two separate Brett IPAs, fermenting one with Amalgamation and one with Brett C, but then I had a thought - what about splitting a batch and comparing two otherwise-exact beers after fermenting with different Brett strains? Done!<br />
<br />
This involved a little more work than usual, because I had to grow up (via two starters each) both Brett strains to pitchable amounts (~100 billion cells each, plus a little more to save for another beer), starting from somewhere in the line of 3 billion cells. Of course, I had no idea how many cells I had, but it was a very small amount of slurry for each strain, so I erred on the conservative side.<br />
<br />
For the recipe, I used the same grist as for all of the Brett IPAs I've brewed so far. Maybe it's time to change this up, but I find the simplicity of 71% 2-row, 21% Wheat malt (to help bump up the body), and small amounts of Carapils and Acid malt, all mashed at ~153 F, works well in Brett beers. So far with this style and this recipe, I haven't had an issue with the body being too thin, as can be a common problem in 100% Brett beers, due to the minimal production of glycerol.<br />
<br />
I pretty much stuck with my normal hopping schedule as well, but I was back and forth on exactly which hops to use. I wanted to keep the hops the same throughout, since the main purpose of this brew is to compare 100% fermentation with two different Brett pitches. I quickly settled on using two varieties, and made the decision of which to go with basically based on inventory. I still had 6 oz of Vic Secret on hand, and some Citra to use up as well; I considered throwing in a third variety, but decided to go with Vic Secret and Citra on their own, in a 2:1 ratio, respectively. As with the other beers, a small bittering addition with Polaris at the beginning of the boil, and then large additions at flameout and when I started chilling, and a single dry-hop.<br />
<br />
Once brewed, boiled, and chilled, I split the roughly 20 L of wort into two 3-gallon Better Bottles (yeah, I flip back and forth between metric when it comes to volume; that's just how I roll), and pitched the two starters. As you can see from the pics below, the two beers looked pretty much the same during fermentation. The temperature for both got to 74 F, and while fermentation started fairly quickly, it wasn't long before it was petering off. The airlock for the Brett C half was bubbling slightly more than the Amalgamation half, but otherwise there wasn't much of a difference. After a couple of weeks, I took a gravity reading of each: Brett C got to 1.005, and Amalgamation to 1.003. This was a big difference compared to my other Brett IPAs, especially the Amalgamation ones, where the first beer finished at 1.014, and the second at 1.008. Since the grist and pitching rates for all three are the same, I assume this has something to do with fermentation temperature (the first Brett beer never reached higher than 70 F).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDtwIAJqYntQQSJLupmcg-SFO5CxDTrEFZQvUPtlg9t9q5EPuNINBdpxS-b4HoVTR0MCt3cIvMo1gCTVK7Dni1VlUyvGVtpRmYldyj84750JI0piOCw5e6XzTYdWMwLS7uAHMyEbijW7Yi/s1600/BRETT.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDtwIAJqYntQQSJLupmcg-SFO5CxDTrEFZQvUPtlg9t9q5EPuNINBdpxS-b4HoVTR0MCt3cIvMo1gCTVK7Dni1VlUyvGVtpRmYldyj84750JI0piOCw5e6XzTYdWMwLS7uAHMyEbijW7Yi/s640/BRETT.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not the prettiest laundry sink, I know.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I kegged the Amalgamation half, and bottled the Brett C half, simply because I didn't have two tap lines available at the time. Plus, this does allow you to let some of the bottles sit back and change with time, but right now, we're really more concerned with how these beers differ <u>fresh</u>. I mean, we're talking about a single-strain Brett IPA vs. one fermented with six strains, so these beers must have come out quite different, right?<br />
<br />
Well, not so much, actually. Let me start off by saying that both of these beers are quite tasty, and in terms of Brett IPAs I've brewed, are rivalled only by the very first Amalgamation IPA. The Citra and Vic Secret work very well together, and with the Bretts, with a pleasant combination of pineapple, citrus and tropical fruit, and a bit of barnyard funk. The beers also look identical, as I expected. The main differences are in the mouthfeel (the Amalgamation is smoother and less carbonated; both of these may have to do with how they were carbonated?), and that the Brett C beer has a low level of phenolic spiciness in the aroma and flavour, that I don't really detect in the Amalgamation.<br />
<br />
An interesting experiment! I'll continue to mess around in the future, but for now, Amalgamation remains my go-to fermenter when it comes to Brett IPAs.<br />
<b><br />Recipe Targets:</b> (<u>5.5 gallons</u>, 75% efficiency) OG 1.057, FG ~1.005, IBU ~40-45, SRM 4.1, ABV ~6.8%<br />
<br />
<b>Grains:</b><br />
3.7 kg (71.2%) Canadian 2-row<br />
1.1 kg (21.2%) Wheat malt<br />
200 g (3.8%) Carapils<br />
200 g (3.8%) Acid malt<br />
<br />
<b>Hops:</b><br />
Polaris - 10 g (17.7% AA) @ 60 min<br />
<br />
Citra - 28 g @ 0 min (<u>with a 20 min hop steep</u>)<br />
Vic Secret - 42 g @ 0 min (<u>with a 20 min hop steep</u>)<br />
<br />
Citra - 28 g @ 0 min (<u>when started chilling</u>)<br />
Vic Secret - 42 g @ 0 min (<u>when started chilling</u>)<br />
<br />
Citra - 28 g dry-hop for 5 days (in primary, 14 g per fermentor)<br />
<div>
Vic Secret - 86 g dry-hop for 5 days (in primary, 43 g per fermentor)<br />
<br /></div>
<b>Misc:</b> 1/2 tab Irish Moss at 5 min<br />
<br />
<b>Yeast:</b> 1/2 batch Brett C, 1/2 Brett Amalgamation (with a starter, ~100 billion cells each)<br />
<br />
<b>Water:</b> Fredericton city water, carbon-filtered; 3 g Gypsum and 5 g calcium chloride added to mash<br />
<br />
- Brewed on September 7th, 2016, by myself. 50-minute mash with 15 L of strike water; mash temp on target of 153 F. Mashed-out for 10 minutes with 6.75 L of boiling water to 166 F. Sparged with ~3.5 gallons of 168 F water for final volume of ~6.75 gallons.<br />
<br />
- Pre-boil gravity at 1.045. 60-minute boil. Final volume ~5.7 gallons; OG 1.056. Chilled to 64 F, then poured into two 3-gallon Better Bottles, ~10 L each. Aerated with 45 seconds of pure O2 per fermentor, pitched yeast at 66-68 F.<br />
<br />
- 20/8/16 - Amalgamation FG 1.003, Brett C FG 1.005. Dry-hopped both in primary.<br />
<br />
- 25/9/16 - Kegged Amalgamation portion, bottled Brett C portion (with 56 g table sugar, aiming for 2.4 vol CO2).<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitAbXMGm6DOsS_L2SzUPz-UM9MVDgvPp-95DjV3sNoZVYTD0DjonstpnRFTh-JqDKS68bmXByCAXSu7dxJejAUXJBsVnq852nynG3qVh1VQaFbOi39LxloX0RINCLnXmPXWaNHbBTx6J5k/s1600/brettc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitAbXMGm6DOsS_L2SzUPz-UM9MVDgvPp-95DjV3sNoZVYTD0DjonstpnRFTh-JqDKS68bmXByCAXSu7dxJejAUXJBsVnq852nynG3qVh1VQaFbOi39LxloX0RINCLnXmPXWaNHbBTx6J5k/s640/brettc.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<i>Appearance:</i> Both beers look identical upon pouring - light-golden colour, hazy/downright cloudy, medium-sized stark-white head that shows very good retention, hanging around for minutes after pouring.<br />
<br />
<i>Aroma: </i>Lots of citrus, lots of pineapple and tropical fruit in both, with a low background of barnyard (it's there, but not overly noticeable); very slight phenolic character as well, a little stronger in the Brett C beer.<br />
<br />
<i>Taste:</i> Very similar, again, with a pineapple/citrus fruit character coming through strongest. Again, the Brett characteristics (barnyard funk) are there, but not strong... just enough to let you know what you're drinking. The Brett C beer has that slight phenolic spiciness carrying over into the flavour as well. Both finish with a medium-low bitterness.<br />
<br />
<i>Mouthfeel: </i>Here's where the beers seem to differ the most - the Brett C beer is carbonated higher (likely because it was bottled) and isn't quite as smooth as the Amalgamation, exhibiting a bit of carbonic bite. Medium-bodied for the Amalgamation, medium-light for Brett C.<br />
<br />
<i>Overall:</i> I enjoy both quite a bit, but Amalgamation is the winner, here. Shawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08469375277267237839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5076002047553648960.post-74984805784766299382016-09-15T14:44:00.000-03:002016-09-15T14:44:28.966-03:00Brewing a New England Pale Ale with Funktown Pale Ale yeastBy now, I think we're all quite familiar with the whole New England (Northeast?) IPA subject, a beer which many in the Northeast USA love, and those in the Western states despise. I actually don't think it's as cut-and-dry as all that, but if you were to read (and I'm sure most of you have) the constant arguments online over this, you'd be easily fooled. It seems to boil down to a beer that is super-hoppy (with an emphasis more on hop flavour and aroma than bitterness), hazy, and with a creamy mouthfeel (but still finishing fairly dry). It seems to be the haze that bothers non-believers the most; I fall on the side that doesn't care about the haze. If the beer is delicious, I'm ok with it; and as I've said before, when I now see a pale, super-hazy beer, I get excited! It's like Pavlov's dogs, but with tasty beer instead of dog treats or whatever he used (maybe he DID use beer, secretly).<br />
<br />
There's plenty of commercial and home brewed NEIPAs and NEPAs out there now; even New Brunswick is coming through with some. <a href="http://www.trailwaybrewing.com/" target="_blank">TrailWay Brewing</a>, here in Fredericton, releases many beers that are big on hop aromatics and flavours, hazy to the point of downright murky, and often sub-5% ABV. It's great! Personally, I've brewed a lot of beers in this area as well, even if I haven't really labelled them "New England" (or Northeast), specifically.<br />
<br />
One thing I haven't been doing in my recipes that many others do is add oats (flaked or malted). It's not that I'm against it, it's just that I've had pretty good success in achieving the goals I've aimed for by fermenting with London Ale III, limiting use of fining agents to a bit of Whirfloc near the end of the boil, and adjusting my water chemistry to have roughly equal amounts of chloride and sulfate (in the 100-120 ppm range). When putting together a new Pale Ale recipe early in the summer, I decided to try incorporating oats into the recipe, and immediately remembered that I had always wanted to try brewing the <a href="http://www.alesoftheriverwards.com/2015/08/tired-hands-hophands-clone-revisted.html" target="_blank">Tired Hands HopHands clone</a> on Ed Coffey's site. Obviously this is a very popular recipe, as there's around 90 comments on that post alone (no wonder he's <a href="http://www.alesoftheriverwards.com/2016/08/im-taking-my-talents-to-pitman-new.html" target="_blank">gone semi-pro now</a>!), and I've seen it pop up on other homebrew sites since.<br />
<br />
Ed's recipe is made up of roughly 82% Superior Pale Ale malt, and 18% Flaked Oats; the beer is hopped with equal amounts of Amarillo, Centennial and Simcoe, with the emphasis being on a large dry-hop addition of all three. Fermented with London Ale III, he compares it to a "fruit juice cocktail", which sounds pretty damned good to me. However, I decided not to brew this exact beer this time around, although I imagine I will come to doing that, eventually. No, this time I wanted to "borrow" from this recipe, and take it in a slightly different direction.<br />
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<br />
How? Mainly by fermenting with The Yeast Bay's <a href="http://www.theyeastbay.com/wild-yeast-and-bacteria-products/funktown-pale-ale" target="_blank">Funktown Pale Ale</a>, which they describe as a "blend of our Vermont Ale strain and a unique wild strain of Saccharomyces that is well-suited for primary fermentation". The blend is a collaboration with White Labs, so let me just put out there what you're immediately thinking on that description - this is <b>Conan</b> blended with what used to be called <b>Brett Trois</b> (until White Labs confirmed that it's actually not Brett, and reclassified it as a wild Saccharomyces). A friend of a friend had some Funktown Pale Ale slurry left over, and I was lucky enough to get some, so I grew it up over a couple of steps to have enough for a Pale Ale. I hadn't set out to use it with Ed's HopHands clone grist and hopping schedule, but that seems as good a place as any to use it! I've never actually brewed with Conan, either by purchasing it, or growing it up from a can of Heady Topper, but I've heard plenty of good/frustrating things about it. I feel like I've read (from other homebrewers) that after several generations, it can be finicky to finish fermentation, but maybe I'm wrong.<br />
<br />
As mentioned, while I kept the hop schedule, I changed two of the three varieties. The Simcoe remained, but I dropped the Amarillo and Centennial, mainly because I'm planning on brewing a Maine Beer Co. Lunch clone very soon, which uses these three varieties as well. So, I gave it some thought and mostly-randomly settled on subbing in Chinook and Hallertau Blanc, two varieties I've used before and always enjoy. With these three, I was expecting to get pine, grapefruit, pineapple, and citrus, which sounds like a decent mix to me. Roughly equal amounts of all three, the dry-hop amounts were a bit skewed due to inventory levels, but the overall amount used for that addition is still fairly large, at a total of 5 oz.<br />
<br />
It was a relatively normal brew day; my OG came in on target, no major issues that I noticed. I pitched what I calculated to be about 200 billion cells. Who knows how accurate that is; I estimated to have a very small amount of cells to begin with, 3 billion, and like I mentioned built that up over a couple of starters on my stir plate. Fermentation started by that evening, however, so things were looking good. Unfortunately, when I checked the gravity a week and a half later, it wasn't at the 1.008 that BeerSmith had estimated (based on the apparent attenuation of the Funktown yeast)... it was 1.016! I'm not really sure what happened here - the temp didn't drop, and it appears that I pitched plenty of cells, so I'm going to assume it has something to do with the finicky nature of Conan? I'll never know. When I tried a taste, however, I didn't find it overly sweet, so I wasn't extremely worried. I dry-hopped the beer, and then kegged it six days later and force-carbed.<br />
<br />
I'm pretty happy with how it came out in the end. The hops seem to work well together, although I don't really get much pine in either the aroma or flavour; mainly a fruit-blend, if that makes any sense. I can't really pick out any one or two specific types of fruit, but I've never really had a nose/palate for that, anyway. Definitely a creamy, smooth mouthfeel, the beer could still benefit from a bit of a drier finish. It's not sweet, exactly, but another 3-4 points lower in the gravity would improve it.<br />
<br />
As for the real question, what does the yeast add to this beer... I'm not sure I can really answer. Since this isn't a recipe I've brewed before, or a yeast I've used before, all I can say is that it's a tasty, wonderfully hoppy brew. But how much does the yeast strain have to do with this? In hindsight, I should have split the batch and fermented half with US-05 or something, but it was the beginning of summer and I had limited fermenting space at this time. So, while I'd recommend the recipe as a whole, I'm not sure how different it would be with a more readily-available yeast strain. I'm interested to hear of others' experience(s) with Funktown Pale Ale, however!<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Recipe Targets:</b> (<u>5.5 gallons</u>, 75% efficiency) OG 1.052, FG ~1.008, IBU ~38, SRM 4.1, ABV ~5.7%<br />
<br />
<b>Grains:</b><br />
1.95 kg (41.7%) Canadian 2-row<br />
1.95 kg (41.7%) Maris Otter<br />
600 g (12.8%) Flaked Oats<br />
175 g (3.7%) Acid malt<br />
<br />
<b>Hops:</b><br />
Polaris - 5 g (20% AA) @ 60 min<br />
Chinook - 14 g (11.8% AA) @ 5 min<br />
Hallertau Blanc - 14 g (8% AA) @ 5 min<br />
Simcoe - 14 g (11% AA) @ 5 min<br />
<br />
Chinook, Hallertau Blanc, Simcoe - 21 g each @ 0 min (<u>with a 20 min hop steep</u>)<br />
<br />
Chinook - 35 g dry-hop for 5 days (in primary)<br />
Hallertau Blanc - 51 g dry-hop for 5 days (in primary)<br />
Simcoe - 54 g dry-hop for 5 days (in primary)<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<b>Misc:</b> 1/2 tab Irish Moss at 5 min<br />
<br />
<b>Yeast:</b> Funktown Pale Ale (with a starter, ~200 billion cells)<br />
<br />
<b>Water:</b> Fredericton city water, carbon-filtered; 5 g Gypsum and 8 g calcium chloride added to mash<br />
<br />
- Brewed on June 27th, 2016, by myself. 50-minute mash with 13 L of strike water; mash temp on target of 150 F. Mashed-out for 10 minutes with 7 L of boiling water to 168 F. Sparged with ~3.75 gallons of 168 F water for final volume of ~6.75 gallons.<br />
<br />
- Pre-boil gravity at 1.043 (target 1.042). 60-minute boil. Final volume ~5.5 gallons; OG on target at 1.052. Chilled to 64 F, then poured into Better Bottle. Aerated with 60 seconds of pure O2, pitched yeast at 64 F.<br />
<br />
- Airlock showing activity by that evening, temp up to 68 F. By the next morning, regular bubbling going on, temp at 72 F. Fermentation seemed pretty much done by the next couple of days; temp never got higher than 72.<br />
<br />
6/7/16 - Added dry hops into primary; FG higher than planned, at 1.016.<br />
<br />
13/7/16 - Racked beer to keg; LOTS of hop sludge left in the carboy that did not settle well, so I left more beer behind than I would have liked. Set in keezer for ~12 hours to bring temp down, then force carbed.<br />
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<br />
<i>Appearance:</i> Pours a very light-golden colour (lighter than it appears in this crappy picture), with a medium-sized, white head that settles at about 1/2 finger. Quite hazy, as expected.<br />
<br />
<i>Aroma:</i> All hops, with the emphasis on fruity (pineapple) and citrus; not really getting much grapefruit or pine, surprisingly.<br />
<br />
<i>Taste:</i> A little more malt character in the flavour, but it's definitely still in the background compared to the hops. I wouldn't say a particular fruit flavour jumps out at me; I find it a pleasant mix of tropical fruit. Medium to medium-low bitterness in the finish.<br />
<br />
<i>Mouthfeel:</i> Medium-bodied, very smooth and creamy. Moderate carbonation.<br />
<br />
<i>Overall: </i>I enjoyed this beer, and found that it continued to improve over weeks in the keg, surprisingly. One could argue that the hops were a bit muddled at first, but I found the fruit character came through more once it settled down a little. A fine beer that I wouldn't necessarily rush back to brew exactly the same, but I'd definitely experiment with this yeast some more.<br />
<br />Shawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08469375277267237839noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5076002047553648960.post-78010325102356648012016-08-26T10:03:00.001-03:002016-08-26T10:03:18.015-03:00Kohatu Session IPANearing the end of my pre-summer brewing step-up (meanwhile, summer is just about over - typical), I decided to brew another beer in my one-hop Session IPA series. While it hadn't been that long since my last one (in March, an <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2016/05/nelson-sauvin-session-ipa.html" target="_blank">all-Nelson Sauvin beer</a>), this is a style - and experiment - that I really enjoy brewing, and even though I've done five different beers in this group already, I have plenty of other hop varieties that I want to try in it.<br />
<br />
One of these hops is <b>Kohatu</b>, a variety I've never used in a beer before. Originating in New Zealand, I split a pound of pellets with a friend last fall, pretty much always with the intention of using it in a single-hop beer. Described on the <a href="http://www.bear-flavored.com/2011/12/bear-flavoreds-ultimate-guide-to-hop.html" target="_blank">Bear-Flavored Ultimate Guide to Hop Varieties</a> (I use this all the time; thanks Derek!) as having "intense floral characters, grapefruit, pine needles, and tropical fruit", it sounded pretty good to me; kind of like a mash of Chinook and Simcoe, with another fruity Southern Hemisphere variety thrown in. Summer is the perfect time for low-ABV beers with these characteristics, no? Ok, any time of year is good for these beers, really.<br />
<br />
Apparently Kohatu is a descendent of Hallertau Mittelfruh; it's been available commercially for the last few years or so. It seems to range in the 5-7% AA zone; digging around a bit more online, I was getting the impression that opinions vary on just how "intense" its characteristics are. That shouldn't surprise me, really, but more brewers than not described is as less punchy than hops like Citra, Nelson Sauvin, Azacca, etc. etc., so I kept this in mind when planning the recipe.<br />
<br />
Partially because I was lazy, but mostly because the Nelson Sauvin Session IPA turned out so tasty, I used the exact same grist as last time. This is actually the grist for the very-popular Russian River Row 2, Hill 56 clone that has been circulating for some time (my attempt at that beer is <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2014/06/brewing-russian-river-row-2-hill-56.html" target="_blank">here</a>); for most of my Session IPAs, I had fine-tuned a recipe of my own, but with the Nelson one I decided to go with this grist, and was happy with it for that beer. The key is to aim for a mash temp of 153-155 F, so that you can help boost the body a bit.<br />
<br />
Also with the other Session IPAs, I had come up with a hopping schedule I felt worked well: a little bit of Polaris or hop extract at the beginning of the boil, then one ounce of whatever hop was featured at 10 min, a two ounce addition at flameout for a 15-minute hop steep/whirlpool, and a three ounce dry hop. This time, however, I bumped up the last two additions - I had 8 oz total of Kohatu, so I decided to just use all of it in this batch. Therefore, three oz at flameout, and four for the dry hop.<br />
<br />
Once again, as in the Nelson Sauvin Session IPA, I decided to ferment this batch with London Ale III. While all of the others used US-05, I was really happy with how the LAIII worked in the last batch - fruity, juicy, great mouthfeel, and of course, hazy! I also tinkered with the water chemistry, aiming for the "more chloride than sulfate" approach, which I've had good results with.<br />
<br />
The brew day went normal, no issues, and fermentation was going strong around 24 hours after pitching the yeast slurry. I kegged the beer a couple of weeks after brewing it, and was drinking it a few days later. I was a little unsure how I felt about it at first, but after settling into its own after several days, I started enjoying it. Is it my favourite one-hop Session IPA I've brewed? No, but it's not my least favourite, either. Kohatu definitely has some of the characteristics mentioned above - it definitely has a light tropical fruit note in the flavour, and a light amount of pine as well. There's also this light spicy character that is pretty interesting, and works well with the other flavours and aromas. I think you could describe Kohatu as complex, if not intense... does that make sense?<br />
<br />
As you can see, the key word here is "light"; I definitely would consider Kohatu to be less-punchy than some other varieties. Based on my experience, in the Southern Hemisphere hop category, I'd put it somewhere between Summer and Nelson Sauvin. So, it works well on its own, but may be better put to use with at least one other hop to bolster it a bit. Mind you, this is the only time I've brewed with it, so take my thoughts with a grain of salt (actually, I urge you to always do that!). Either way, a hop variety that I would gladly use again, and a tasty beer that ended up being perfect for summer.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Recipe Targets:</b> (<u>5.5 gallons</u>, 80% efficiency) OG 1.048, FG ~1.013, IBU ~34, SRM 4.5, ABV ~4.5%<br />
<br />
<b>Grains:</b><br />
2.3 kg (57.1%) Bohemian Pilsner<br />
1.35 kg (33.5%) Maris Otter<br />
160 g (4%) CaraRed (20 L)<br />
120 g (3%) Carapils<br />
100 g (2.5%) Acid malt<br />
<br />
<b>Hops:</b><br />
Polaris - 6 g (20% AA) @ 60 min<br />
Kohatu - 28 g (6.4% AA) @ 10 min<br />
<br />
Kohatu - 84 g @ 0 min (<u>with a 15 min hop steep</u>)<br />
<br />
Kohatu - 112 g dry-hop for 5 days (in primary)<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<b>Misc:</b> 1/2 tab Irish Moss at 5 min<br />
<br />
<b>Yeast:</b> Wyeast 1318 London Ale III (with a starter, ~175 billion cells)<br />
<br />
<b>Water:</b> Fredericton city water, carbon-filtered; 5 g Gypsum and 8 g calcium chloride added to mash<br />
<br />
- Brewed on June 13th, 2016, by myself. 50-minute mash with 13 L of strike water; mash temp on target of 153 F. Mashed-out for 10 minutes with 5.5 L of boiling water to 165 F. Sparged with ~4 gallons of 168 F water for final volume of ~6.75 gallons.<br />
<br />
- Pre-boil gravity at 1.040 (target 1.039). 60-minute boil. Final volume ~5.5 gallons; OG a bit high at 1.049. Chilled to 64 F, then poured into Better Bottle. Aerated with 60 seconds of pure O2, pitched yeast at 64 F.<br />
<br />
- Plenty of activity by the next morning, reaching its peak that evening with a temp of 70 F. Started slowing down after a couple of days - but the krausen remained thick and milkshake-like even a week later (pretty common for LAIII).<br />
<br />
22/6/16 - Added dry hops into primary; FG 1.011. Racked to keg five days later and started force carbing.<br />
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<br />
<br />
<i>Appearance:</i> Pours with a moderate-sized, white head with fairly good retention - fades to 1/4 finger or so after a couple of minutes. Body is light golden, with a decent amount of haziness.<br />
<br />
<i>Aroma:</i> I wish I could describe it better, but it's kind of a mix of fruit (grapefruit as advertised) and spice, and slightly floral. Surprisingly has quite a lot going on, even if it's not what you would describe as "punchy".<br />
<br />
<i>Taste: </i>Mainly a light fruity character accompanied by light spice. This isn't the phenolic spiciness that you see with Belgian yeast, it's something different. Luckily it's mild - it doesn't taste like someone raided the spice cabinet and dumped it in the beer. Medium-light bitterness in the finish.<br />
<br />
<i>Mouthfeel:</i> Medium carbonation, medium-light bodied; smooth.<br />
<br />
<i>Overall: </i>A tasty beer, and an interesting hop. I'm curious to what it would be like used with some other variety(ies); depending on what else you added, would the Kohatu be drowned out, or complement the other? Something I'd buy again in the future to experiment with more!Shawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08469375277267237839noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5076002047553648960.post-65465074315323043382016-07-30T13:55:00.001-03:002016-07-30T13:55:18.565-03:00Sour Session IPA (kettle-soured, fermented with Brett)Shortly after brewing my first kettle-soured beer (a <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.ca/2016/06/brewing-gose-using-lactobacillus.html" target="_blank">Gose</a>, half dry-hopped with Citra, the other half with fresh lime zest), I've been keen on doing another beer with the same technique. The souring-with-Lactobacillus-sourced-from-L. plantarum-capsules approach worked fairly well the first time; while the pH didn't get QUITE as low as I would have liked, the process was relatively painless, with no purging of oxygen necessary, and lower temps for souring required (compared to using Lacto from grains, or even a direct, commercial pitch). I also have quite a few capsules left, so I might as well put them to use, no?<br />
<br />
It was easy to pick what to brew next using this method - I've been a big fan of hoppy sours since I first tried <a href="http://prairieales.com/beer/funky-gold-amarillo/" target="_blank">Funky Gold Amarillo</a> by <a href="http://prairieales.com/" target="_blank">Prairie Artisan Ales</a> last year. What a fantastic beer: the perfect level of sourness, big tropical fruit hop character... just amazing. Hoppy sours are now the next big thing, with many commercial breweries releasing their own iterations. Most of these are quick-soured with Lactobacillus, which makes sense; if you want to focus on hops, you don't want a beer to take months to sour properly. Mind you, the dry hop is really the big thing here, as high bitterness in a beer from large early-boil additions doesn't really work in a sour - the flavours can clash in a big way.<br />
<br />
I have to be honest here, and admit that I did not set out to brew a "Sour Session IPA". My original plan was to have something in the 6% ABV range, which is around where most of the hoppy sours out there seem to finish. More on that later. But to start off, I used the exact same grist that I have used for my Brett IPAs (most recently, an <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2016/07/azacca-brett-brux-trois-vrai-ipa.html" target="_blank">Azacca single-hopped beer fermented with Brett brux Trois Vrai</a>), simply because I wasn't looking for something complicated, and this one has worked well in the past. Mostly 2-row and Wheat malt, it has a bit of Carapils and Acid malt as well, and that's it. I was looking for a very pale beer, here, and this gets you in the area of 4 SRM, which I thought was perfect. I mashed at 153 F to give the beer a bit of body, since I was pretty sure I'd be fermenting with Brett after souring.<br />
<br />
From what I can tell, most hoppy sours are dry-hopped, and have very little - if any - hops added before fermentation is complete. As I mentioned, high bitterness apparently doesn't work in a beer like this, but I still wanted to get as most hop flavour and aroma in this beer as I could. I finally decided on adding no hops during the boil, but I did end up doing two large additions after the propane was turned off: a 20-minute steep, and more once the immersion chiller began chilling. I chose Columbus (CTZ) and Hallertau Blanc, two varieties that I really enjoy but don't get used as much as I'd like. My thoughts were that the two together would give a nice mix of dank, tropical, pineapple characters. Even with a total of 6 oz between the two being used, the calculated IBUs only came to around 10 (in contrast, Funky Gold Amarillo is listed as having 18 IBUs).<br />
<br />
I had way too many ideas of what I wanted to use for the dry-hop additions, and finally decided that my best option here was to split the batch after boiled and chilled, so I could ferment the wort separately and dry-hop with two different varieties. I chose two of my favourite American hop varieties right now: Equinox, a quite-new hop that is very unique ("lime, lemon, papaya, green pepper"), and Citra. And I don't really have to say anything about Citra at this point, do I?<br />
<br />
The process I used to sour my wort was the same as I used for my Gose. I made a 1 L, 1.040 DME starter and chilled it to 100 F, then opened and pitched in 5 plantarum capsules. This time, however, I added a very small amount (~0.5 mL) of phosphoric acid to the starter before emptying in the capsules, to bring the pH down to ~5, and give it a head start. Now, I left the flask on a heating pad like the first time, which kept the temperature at 95 F or so. After a couple of days, the pH was only down to 3.85, and I started getting discouraged. However, I decided to leave it a while longer since I wasn't in a hurry. The next morning, my wife inadvertantly unplugged the heating pad while I was at work all day; I didn't notice till I got home, and plugged it back in. The next morning I checked the pH again, and it had dropped to 3.21! Maybe unplugging the heating pad had nothing to do with it, but I'm wondering if maybe L. plantarum works better at room temperature than it does in the 90s? Research by others indicates it should work plenty fine at 95 F, and that it doesn't start having issues until you get above 110 F. Whatever the reason, it seemed to work better this time compared to when I used the same method for the Gose. Maybe the phosphoric acid-induced push had something to do with it?<br />
<br />
So I mashed, sparged, vorlaufed, etc. as usual, to a little over 5.5 gallons, heated it all to a boil and chilled it down to 100 F. At this point, I gradually added small amounts (1 mL at a time) of phosphoric acid until the wort pH had reached ~4.5. Lowering the wort pH to 4.5-4.8 has been shown to aid in preventing foam degradation (check out a detailed explanation on the Milk the Funk Lacto Wiki <a href="http://www.milkthefunk.com/wiki/Lactobacillus#Foam_Degradation" target="_blank">here</a>). The wort was then transferred into a Better Bottle, where I then pitched the Lacto starter. Instead of immediately turning on a heat pad and attaching a heat belt, I waited until the temp got down to the 80s F, and then switched on the pad and belt, which kept the temp in the high 80s. After several days, the pH was down to 3.3 (and tasting sour), which surprised me again, as this was quite lower than I had got to with the Gose, at 3.69. Obviously I got to a better place with the starter this time around, and it worked very well considering the temp never got above 85-86 F.<br />
<br />
I continued on, bringing the soured wort to a boil for 5 minutes, then cut the propane and threw in the first hop addition for a 20-minute steep. Once I started chilling, the second addition went in (smelling delicious, by the way), and I chilled it all down to about 64 F. The batch was split into two 3-gallon Better Bottles, both aerated for 45 seconds with pure O2, and then the Brett starter was pitched in an equal volume into both, at 66 F. The OG came in lower than planned, at 1.053, but I wasn't too concerned (or surprised, since my efficiency has been lower than normal lately, and using a good portion of Wheat malt never helps it).<br />
<br />
Both beers were undergoing active fermentation by the next morning, and slowed down very quickly, with virtually no airlock activity by the following evening.. Now, the temperature didn't get that warm (maybe 72-74 F at its peak), but I had no reason to be concerned; I checked on the beers regularly, as is my practice, and didn't notice any major spikes or drops in temperature. However, when I took a gravity reading a few days after pitching, it was only at 1.020! D'oh! But I thought, hey, it's Brett, maybe it needs some more time, but alas, after another week the gravity hadn't budged. So, I was forced with deciding whether to give it more time (which didn't seem like it would help), pitching another yeast to hopefully drop it more, or just go ahead and dry-hop it. I went with option #3, and re-classified this beer as a "Sour Session IPA". What I was worried about, however, was bottling this beer. Any beer at 1.020 would make you worry about bottle bombs somewhere down the line, but a 1.020 beer with Brett in it? Exactly.<br />
<br />
Ultimately, I kegged one half (Equinox) and bottled the other (Citra), adding sugar to aim for only 2 vol CO2, as opposed to the 2.5 I would normally go with. And when the beer seemed carbed after 5 days, I put as many bottles as I could into the fridge, which was a good thing because this beer is now DEFINITELY carbed to higher than 2 vol; probably closer to 3, in fact!<br />
<br />
But how do the two beers taste? There's a lot of similarities between them, but ultimately the Citra dry-hopped half comes out on top. Thankfully, neither tastes sweet to me, which was obviously a worry with the high FG (as an aside, I think this strain may just need extra time; a friend had a beer finish at 1.020 as well, and after leaving it on pineapple for an additional month, found the FG had dropped to 1.005).There's something in the Equinox beer that I can only describe as slightly... clashing. For some reason, the bitterness in this beer - despite only having a calculated IBUs of 10 - feels too high. Not sure if it's the Equinox (can't see it), the dry-hop addition being slightly larger than the Citra half (maybe?), or if I simply got more bitterness out of the steep than I calculated (but that doesn't make sense, because the Citra half had the same steep).<br />
<br />
On the plus side, the sourness is pretty much right where I want it. Definitely enough for you to know this is a sour beer, but not TOO mouth-puckering. Nice hop presence, lots of fruit, with the Citra beer being somewhat brighter, without the slightly-harsh finish of the Equinox. The body is smooth, but not overly-full (a worry with that 1.020 FG) and it certainly doesn't taste too sweet.<br />
<br />
So, I'm calling this one a success, with room for improvement. For a re-brew, I'd use a less-finicky Brett strain, and cut back on the flameout hop addition; maybe halve it and go from there. Otherwise, a good brew to have on hand for this season, and further proof that souring with Lacto plantarum capsules works!<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Recipe Targets:</b> (<u>5.5 gallons</u>, 75% efficiency) OG 1.057, FG ~1.014, IBU ~10, SRM 4.1, ABV ~5.8%<br />
<br />
<b>Grains:</b><br />
3.7 kg (71.8%) Canadian 2-row<br />
1.1 kg (21.4%) Wheat malt<br />
200 g (3.9%) Carapils<br />
150 g (2.9%) Acid malt<br />
<br />
<b>Hops:</b><br />
CTZ - 49 g @ 0 min (<u>with a 20 min hop steep</u>)<br />
Hallertau Blanc - 35 g @ 0 min (<u>with a 20 min hop steep</u>)<br />
<br />
CTZ - 49 g @ 0 min (<u>after started chilling</u>)<br />
Hallertau Blanc - 35 g @ 0 min (<u>after started chilling</u>)<br />
<br />
Citra - 48 g dry-hop for 5 days (<u>1/2 the batch</u>, in primary)<br />
Equinox - 70 g dry-hop for 5 days (<u>1/2 the batch</u>, in primary)<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<b>Misc:</b> 1/2 tab Irish Moss at 5 min<br />
<br />
<b>Bacteria/Yeast:</b> Lactobacillus plantarum capsules (5) in a 1 L starter; after souring, wort fermented with WLP648 Brett brux Trois Vrai (with a starter, ~200 billion cells)<br />
<br />
<b>Water:</b> Fredericton city water, carbon-filtered; 5 g Gypsum and 5 g calcium chloride added to mash<br />
<br />
- Brewed on May 24th, 2016, by myself. 50-minute mash with 15 L of strike water; mash temp on target of 153 F. Mashed-out for 10 minutes with 6.75 L of boiling water to 167 F. Sparged with ~2.5 gallons of 168 F water for final volume of ~5.75 gallons. Heated to a brief boil, then chilled down to 100 F. Added ~4 mL phosphoric acid till wort pH was 4.5, then pitched Lacto starter.<br />
<br />
- 26/5/16 - pH reading of 3.31; moved BB to back room of garage where temp was in the low 60s F, until I was able to complete the brew.<br />
<br />
- 31/5/16 - 5-minute boil. Final volume ~5.5 gallons; OG low at 1.053. Chilled to 64 F, then split the batch into two 3-gallon Better Bottles. Aerated with 45 seconds of pure O2 per fermentor, pitched yeast starter at 66 F.<br />
<br />
- Fermentation going strong by the next morning, very strong in the evening, but visibly slowing by the next morning. Several days later, gravity was reading 1.020. A week later, no change. Added dry hops to the Equinox half and kegged it four days later; waited a few extra days for the Citra half, then bottled after a four-day dry hop, aiming for 2 vol CO2.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil3Sc40A62Z6cfeehtHYXhIXrGZrhkuIrzXf6MQtRYY0sll37Ue89bf13i-lVpyRYZURKsYK25PmKI6XXYWxyYq6InqavzTDL9Qarv2MzD1LaqpKY3jFqP2SlUpLpJrAKdn2GfhGkELCdt/s1600/soursession.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil3Sc40A62Z6cfeehtHYXhIXrGZrhkuIrzXf6MQtRYY0sll37Ue89bf13i-lVpyRYZURKsYK25PmKI6XXYWxyYq6InqavzTDL9Qarv2MzD1LaqpKY3jFqP2SlUpLpJrAKdn2GfhGkELCdt/s640/soursession.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i>Appearance:</i> Both pour with a moderate-sized, white head that, despite the low pH, shows quite good retention. Body is yellow-coloured, with a fair amount of haze.</div>
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<i>Aroma:</i> Very big and bright, for both beers, like sour orange juice. </div>
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<i>Taste:</i> More sour orange juice, but the Equinox beer has a slightly-harsh, tinny aftertaste that takes away from the positives. The Citra, meanwhile, all gels together very well and is quite refreshing.</div>
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<i>Mouthfeel:</i> Medium-bodied, creamy. Equinox beer, being kegged, has moderate carbonation, while the bottled Citra half is higher, as I had expected; effervescent.</div>
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<i>Overall:</i> Citra wins, and I don't know why! </div>
Shawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08469375277267237839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5076002047553648960.post-65069899852391898372016-07-04T13:31:00.003-03:002016-07-04T13:31:41.755-03:00Azacca Brett brux Trois Vrai IPAOk, say that three times <u>really</u> fast.<br />
<br />
I've been itching to brew another 100% Brett IPA for a few months - my first two attempts in 2015 were both fermented with <a href="http://www.theyeastbay.com/wild-yeast-and-bacteria-products/amalgamation" target="_blank">The Yeast Bay's Amalgamation</a> (a blend of six Brett strains); <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.ca/2015/07/brewing-100-brett-ipa-with-amarillo-and.html" target="_blank">the first</a> was hopped with Amarillo and Hallertau Blanc, <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2015/11/brewing-100-brett-ipa-with-galaxy-and.html" target="_blank">the second</a> with Galaxy and Southern Cross. I was happy with both beers, although my favourite of the two would probably be the first one. When making an online order for some homebrew supplies a couple of months ago, I saw that they had White Labs <a href="https://www.whitelabs.com/yeast/wlp648-brettanomyces-bruxellensis-trois-vrai" target="_blank">Brett brux Trois Vrai</a> available; you may remember all the controversy surrounding White Labs Brett Trois last year, a popular strain that turned out not to actually have Brett in it at all (summed up best <a href="https://embracethefunk.com/2014/12/11/brettanomyces/" target="_blank">here</a>). Vrai being french for "true", this is the real Brett Brux strain, and is described by White Labs as having a "robust, complex sour character with aromas of pear", and is intended to be used for Brett-primary fermentations.<br />
<br />
Sure, why not? Like I said, I really enjoyed my last couple of Brett IPAs; I won't rehash Brett IPA facts that I covered in the original posts, but they're great because they're usually ready within several weeks (similar to Sacch-fermentations) as opposed to when Brett is used with other strains, where a beer can ultimately take months before it's ready. Also, they often exhibit a really great combination of light Brett funk and tropical fruit (depending on hop variety(ies) used, of course), where at least some of the fruit character is from the Brett itself.<br />
<br />
Of course, there's a lot of Brett strains out there, and just like Saccharomyces, the strain you use is ultimately going to have a huge effect on how your beer turns out. I assume that some Brett strains work better in Brett IPAs than others, but I ordered the Trois Vrai for the hell of it, throwing caution to the wind like the crazy, wild man I commonly am. I built it up with a couple of starters (of course, the vial White Labs sent had an extremely small amount of cells - only 3 billion - so you have to get that up to ~200 billion, plus I overbuilt by another 50 billion to re-use for another beer), and planned my recipe.<br />
<br />
I was completely happy going with the same grist I had used for the last two Brett IPAs: 2-row, a good portion of Wheat malt, and a bit of Carapils and Acid malt to make up the difference, all to an OG of 1.057 (Trois Vrai is listed as having an attenuation of 85%+, so I was hoping for the FG to get to at LEAST 1.010). I mashed at 153 F to try to keep the body of the beer from being too thin (most Brett strains don't produce glycerol, which increases body and mouthfeel of beer).<br />
<br />
I'm not quite sure why I decided to make this a single-hop beer, but I had quite a bit of Azacca on hand, which may have had something to do with it. I also really love Azacca - its citrus, pineapple, and tropical fruit characteristics are pretty awesome, and those qualities really sound like they would work great in a Brett IPA, no? I went with a small addition of Polaris at the beginning of the boil, and then added all of the Azacca (about 8 oz total) from flameout on, with almost half incorporated into a single dry-hop addition.<br />
<br />
Once the brewing was complete, I pitched the Brett starter at about 66 F (Trois Vrai is listed as having an optimal temperature range of 70-85 F) and let 'er go. May (and frankly, the first half of June) was mostly cool in Fredericton, and I didn't use a heat belt, so the temperature never really rose above 72 F, but fermentation took off quickly. The FG didn't get to where I expected based on the listed attenuation; it made it to 1.014 and then stopped, so maybe keeping this strain warmer is an important point. After a couple of weeks or so, I dry-hopped in primary, and then kegged the beer about 5 days later. I strongly considered bottling this beer, but had space in my keezer and decided to go that route. <br />
<br />
I've been drinking this beer for 3-4 weeks now, and I can say this: Brett brux Trois Vrai DEFINITELY contains Brettanomyces. Check out the picture below this paragraph... that's the pellicle on a small pour of this beer, 2-3 days after I poured it (I cleared the line in a small glass and forgot to toss it). Yikes! Aside from that, the Brett presence in the aroma and flavour is quite strong, and seems to grow stronger every few days. This beer is very unlike my first two Brett IPAs - with those beers, you really noticed the hops. While you can tell there are hops in this beer, they're definitely not in-your-face, and I'd never guess that Azacca was used. Simply put, the Brett dominates, and has since the first pour. I'd describe this beer as 75% Brett beer, 25% IPA. Think barnyard funk with a bit of tropical fruit.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW7OYJMhwGDFkwbWxhfeg2-Lwj3UhMBD2gs4rGTb-2xDHc-_a7yO-Z1Om6zPhgqbZjZLwR5PY0PHECXBb9jjik7jlFlk_yDyNAcXdeYXRcEUh7oobRMIgWnZaIh0HpgRVixQiFUBibH1p4/s1600/IMG_1416.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW7OYJMhwGDFkwbWxhfeg2-Lwj3UhMBD2gs4rGTb-2xDHc-_a7yO-Z1Om6zPhgqbZjZLwR5PY0PHECXBb9jjik7jlFlk_yDyNAcXdeYXRcEUh7oobRMIgWnZaIh0HpgRVixQiFUBibH1p4/s640/IMG_1416.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Makes you wonder what's growing in the tap line...</td></tr>
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<br />
I guess that just goes to show you how important yeast selection is in a beer; we all know that when we're choosing a Sacch strain, but when you think Brett, it's easier to just assume that any strain will do. Experiment a bit, read a little on Brett strains, and you'll see that they're easily as diverse as many strains of Saccharomyces... maybe even more so!<br />
<br />
In the meantime, I've been enjoying this beer, and others who have tried it seem to be as well. Personally, I prefer the Amalgamation blend I've used before: it attenuated better, and had much more of that pineapple, tropical fruit character that I love in Brett IPAs. The Brett brux Vrai would probably work really well in other 100% Brett fermentations, but I'd recommend another strain for a Brett IPA, unless you're really curious for yourself. I plan to brew a Brett Table beer sometime soon with it, which I think would be a good match. <br />
<br />
<b>Recipe Targets:</b> (<u>5.5 gallons</u>, 75% efficiency) OG 1.057, FG ~1.010, IBU ~42, SRM 4.1, ABV ~6%<br />
<br />
<b>Grains:</b><br />
3.7 kg (71.8%) Canadian 2-row<br />
1.1 kg (21.4%) Wheat malt<br />
200 g (3.9%) Carapils<br />
150 g (2.9%) Acid malt<br />
<br />
<b>Hops:</b><br />
Polaris - 10 g (20% AA) @ 60 min<br />
<br />
Azacca - 70 g @ 0 min (<u>with a 20 min hop steep</u>)<br />
Azacca - 40 g @ 0 min (<u>after started chilling</u>)<br />
<br />
Azacca - 105 g dry-hop for 5 days (in primary)<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<b>Misc:</b> 1/2 tab Irish Moss at 5 min<br />
<br />
<b>Yeast:</b> WLP648 Brett brux Trois Vrai (with a starter, ~200 billion cells)<br />
<br />
<b>Water:</b> Fredericton city water, carbon-filtered; 5 g Gypsum and 5 g calcium chloride added to mash<br />
<br />
- Brewed on May 4th, 2016, by myself. 50-minute mash with 15 L of strike water; mash temp on target of 153 F. Mashed-out for 10 minutes with 6.75 L of boiling water to 167 F. Sparged with ~3.5 gallons of 168 F water for final volume of ~6.75 gallons.<br />
<br />
- Pre-boil gravity at 1.045 (target 1.046). 60-minute boil. Final volume ~5.5 gallons; OG on target at 1.057. Chilled to 64 F, then poured into Better Bottle. Aerated with 60 seconds of pure O2, pitched yeast at 66 F.<br />
<br />
- Fermentation was going strong by the next evening, but airlock activity was complete within 48 hours later. Temp never got above 72 F.<br />
<br />
- 16/5/16 - FG 1.014; added dry-hops into primary. Kegged five days later and started carbing.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF6_-tseWz6fY5YKYEn4bR3b3Me0k_DKoAkESOOrngF10LqXfGo65fbTpoqg4qT54PAdQiRLfbja2U5lS4vmhPh3jthf6qdByvlK0mZGybrZ8f0bHyCMpzQB2uw2t4ZLfdZMxdbP9IKHzT/s1600/azacca.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF6_-tseWz6fY5YKYEn4bR3b3Me0k_DKoAkESOOrngF10LqXfGo65fbTpoqg4qT54PAdQiRLfbja2U5lS4vmhPh3jthf6qdByvlK0mZGybrZ8f0bHyCMpzQB2uw2t4ZLfdZMxdbP9IKHzT/s640/azacca.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
<br />
<i>Appearance:</i> Pours with a moderate-large, white creamy head that shows very good retention - even after several minutes, it's still at least a finger-size thick. Body is a light gold colour, and after several weeks is showing very good clarity (although, admittedly it was quite hazy for a while at the beginning).<br />
<br />
<i>Aroma:</i> Barnyard funk, light wheat character, moderate fruitiness; it all works well together, but you would expect more of that citrus, grapefruit, piney character because of all the Azacca used.<br />
<br />
<i>Taste:</i> Funky, horse-blanket characters dominate; kind of tastes like Orval in a way, with more of a light fruitiness to back everything up. Shows a light tartness. Finishes with a medium-low to medium bitterness, fairly dry.<br />
<br />
<i>Mouthfeel:</i> Medium-bodied, moderate carbonation.<br />
<br />
<i>Overall:</i> An enjoyable Brett beer, but not the best Brett IPA by any means. I think this yeast strain would best be used in Brett beers that aren't supposed to center around hops.Shawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08469375277267237839noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5076002047553648960.post-56654955992109133832016-06-22T12:20:00.000-03:002016-06-22T12:20:19.710-03:00Brewing a Gose (using Lactobacillus plantarum capsules)I've been promising myself over and over that I would start brewing more sour beer styles; I really love drinking them, and have only attempted a few different ones in the course of my homebrewing career: a <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2011/12/flanders-red.html" target="_blank">Flanders Red</a> that turned out pretty great (1/2 the batch aged on cherries), a <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2012/10/brewing-berliner-weisse.html" target="_blank">Berliner Weisse</a> that wasn't nearly sour enough, and an <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2014/04/brewing-flanders-brown-ale.html" target="_blank">Oud Bruin</a> that I've finally been drinking the past six months, that I'm pretty happy with. When you're brewing sours by pitching a mixture of bugs and yeasts, you can end up with some truly wonderful beers... the problem, however, is that it can take one hell of a long time till the beer is where you want it. Both the Flanders Red and Oud Bruin were a good 16-20 months before I bottled them.<br />
<br />
The solution? Kettle souring. I'm sure most if not all of you have heard of this method by now; it's quickly gained a lot of momentum in the commercial and homebrewing communities. In a nutshell, you mash and sparge as usual, bring the wort to 190 F or so to pasteurize, chill down to a warm temp to pitch your Lactobacillus (the ideal temp will depend on the strain), pitch the Lacto and keep the wort warm until the pH drops to where you want it (3.3-3.5, roughly), transfer back to your kettle and boil the wort briefly to kill off the Lacto, then chill as usual and pitch a neutral yeast strain or Brettanomyces to ferment out the beer. I couldn't explain it any better than many who already have; check out the <a href="http://www.milkthefunk.com/wiki/Sour_Worting" target="_blank">Milk the Funk wiki on Sour Worting</a>, as well as their <a href="http://www.milkthefunk.com/wiki/Lactobacillus" target="_blank">Lacto wiki</a> - highly informative and extremely-well researched. Mike Tonsmeire's <i>American Sour Beers</i> is also an excellent resource, one of those books that I keep going back to again and again.<br />
<br />
The idea behind all this is that you can sour the wort within several days, and if you then boil it, you don't have to worry about bacteria coming in contact with your kegerator, post-fermentation equipment, etc. Of course, if you don't care, you don't have to boil the wort; just pitch your regular yeast and be done with it. If your wort pH gets down quite low, say, below 3.4, using a Brett strain is a good idea since it ferments better in the presence of acidic wort than a lot of Saccharomyces strains do.<br />
<br />
Will this method give you as complex a sour beer as the standard, "old-fashioned" way? Probably not. But if you're looking to brew a hoppy sour, a sour with fruit, or something similar, it's a great way to give you a tasty sour beer without the months of waiting. Or so I've heard; I'm certainly no expert. But I have had several commercial version of kettle-soured beers that were great; I really do love the hoppy sour beers that are coming out now, and more and more breweries are coming up with their own twists on the "style".<br />
<br />
But what about a Gose? A lot of brewers have brewed this German style - sessionable, tart, salty - via the kettle sour method, with great results. I've had several commercial Gose beers and have really enjoyed many of them; it's something I've always wanted to brew, so I thought it would be a great one to try with a faster-souring method. I was initially going to order another pack of Lactobacillus from Wyeast (or maybe White Labs), but I had been reading more and more about people sourcing Lactobacillus from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/L-Plantarum-30-Veg-Drcaps/dp/B00BZ3YWXC/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1436820324&sr=8-4&keywords=lactobacillus+plantarum" target="_blank">Swanson Probiotic capsules</a>. Unlike a lot of probiotics that you see, these ones only contain one type of Lacto, <i>Lactobacillus plantarum</i>, a species that is surprisingly quite effective at lower-than-usual temperatures, between 80-90 F. For someone like me, who doesn't have a lot of options for keeping wort hot (above 100 F), this is a great option. I quickly ordered the capsules on Amazon, and then kind of forgot about them until recently.<br />
<br />
I finally got around to making a Lacto starter in April. Of course, there are different thoughts on the approach you should take; the Milk the Funk wiki mentioned above has a very detailed one that I did not see in time. Ultimately, I ended up taking the <a href="http://www.alesoftheriverwards.com/2015/07/lactobacillus-plantarum-gose-sourcing.html" target="_blank">approach that Ed documented</a> in his attempt: four Lacto plantarum capsules in 1 L of wort. No need to set it on a stir plate of course; I simply set the flask on a heating pad for a few days, where the temp stayed at about 90 F. After 48 hours or so, the pH was down to 3.53. I was hoping to go lower, say 3.3 or so, but even after adding another capsule, it didn't budge. 3.53 isn't horrible, so I decided to press on and brew the beer.<br />
<br />
<u>NOTE:</u> Just to make clear, depending on your Lacto source, you sometimes have to be very careful about keeping as much oxygen as possible out of your wort, starter or otherwise. Apparently with the L. plantarum capsules, this isn't an issue. Just keep in mind that if you're sourcing Lacto from grains, it's very important to purge with CO2 whenever possible, so you don't end up with the vomit, cheese, or fecal aromas/flavours from other organisms popping up due to exposure to oxygen.<br />
<br />
Putting together a recipe was pretty easy; the grist is just a 50:50 blend of Pilsner malt and Wheat malt, with some Acid malt added in to bring the mash pH down to ~5.4. Goses are usually pretty low-ABV; most seem to be < 5%, so I aimed for an OG of only 1.033, and mashed pretty cool at 150 F. Once the vorlauf, sparge, etc. was complete, I brought the wort up to 190 F or so for a few minutes, then immediately chilled it down to 100 F. Racked into a Better Bottle, I pitched the entire 1 L of Lacto starter and set the whole thing on a heating pad, with a heat belt attached, and let 'er go. I was able to hold to the wort temperature in the high 80s F with this method. After a few days, the pH was 3.69, and it didn't get any lower than that. Again, not 100% ideal, but it did taste slightly tart, so I transferred the wort back to the boil kettle and continued.<br />
<br />
A traditional Gose features the addition of both salt and coriander in the boil. The typical approach appears to be 1/2 an ounce (14 g) of each, but I've had many homebrewed Goses that didn't strike me as salty enough. You don't want to be drinking beer that tastes like sea water, but you DO want to notice it. A friend had recently brewed a Gose using 3/4 oz (21 g) of salt, which brought it closer, but not quite there (in both our opinions). I finally settled on a bit more - 25 g - along with 14 g of freshly-ground coriander seed, added during the last 2 minutes of the boil. For the hops, I wasn't looking for much bitterness for this style; since I was only planning on boiling the wort (after soured) for 5 minutes, I added 14 g of Polaris at 5 min, giving 8 IBUs. The wort was then chilled to the low 60s F, and I pitched a full package of rehydrated US-05. I didn't feel fermenting with Brett was necessary; with a pH of only 3.69, US-05 could easily handle the job. However, it's best to still err on the side of caution and pitch more yeast than is necessary in this case, hence the full pack of US-05 for a 1.033 beer.<br />
<br />
It didn't take very long, of course, for fermentation to be complete (FG was 1.006). Now, I had to decide where I wanted to go with this beer. I had originally planned on splitting the batch - dry-hopping half with Citra, and keeping the other half plain. However, I knew it wasn't going to be as tart as I had hoped, so I figured it best to add something else to the plain portion. Lots of options, naturally, but I settled on fresh lime zest. I figured it would work well with a Gose, giving the beer an almost Margarita-like quality to it, thanks to the salt (no, do not start thinking about Bud Light Lime-a-Rita!).<br />
<br />
Another question... how much lime zest to add? You don't need a lot; lime zest is pretty potent stuff. Mike Tonsmeire mentions in his book to start with 0.5 g/L when adding citrus zest. I was looking at about 10 L of beer, so I went with just a touch more, 6.5 grams (0.65 g/L), to make sure I noticed the lime (hopefully without it tasting like pure lime juice). I racked the beer like so: half into a 3 gallon Better Bottle, and the other half into my dry hop keg, where I added the Citra. I added the zest to a mesh bag and dunked it in Star San for a couple of minutes, before dangling in the BB with dental floss. A smarter way, I now know, is to simply dunk the limes and your zester in Star San before zesting. Oops!<br />
<br />
After about 5 days, I kegged the Citra dry-hopped portion and bottled the lime zest portion. Now that I'm drinking both, I have to say that my preference may be for the lime Gose, which surprises me. Both are refreshing, palate-cleansing beers; light and easy-drinking, the salt level is spot-on. I don't get much coriander from either beer; admittedly, the coriander seeds weren't the freshest, but they smelled great when I was grinding them. Maybe going to 0.75 oz next time would be a better amount? As for the sourness level, the beer is definitely tart, but I'd like to see it with more tartness. Not a lot - you don't want Lambic-level sourness - but a bit more would be just the ticket.<br />
<br />
The Citra Gose is enjoyable enough, but despite a dry-hop of 2.5 oz (the equivalent of about 5 oz for a 5 gallon batch), I'm not getting near as much Citra in the aroma or flavour as I would expect. Meanwhile, I think I lucked out in my lime zest addition for the other half - there's definitely a really nice, obvious lime presence, but it didn't come out on the heavy side, which I started worrying was going to happen. I ended up naming that one "Margarita Gose", as it comes about as close to a Margarita beer as you would want.<br />
<br />
So, I'm happy with the amount of salt used (I don't think I'd change it at all), and the amount of lime zest. I'm still torn on the Citra addition; maybe one can only expect so much hop presence to come through in a beer like this? The equivalent of a 5-oz dry hop for a 5 gallon batch seems like plenty to me. If I tried again, I think I'd experiment with adding some Citra at flameout for a 15-20 minute hop steep; yes, you'd give the beer more IBUs this way, but maybe it would work.<br />
<br />
I would also like both beers to be more sour. Again, NOT a Flanders Red or Lambic sourness, but just a hair above where they are now. Now that I've been reading more on the subject, I think a couple of things would need to change for next time on this front:<br />
<ol>
<li>Use phosphoric or lactic acid to lower the wort pH - There's a couple of reasons why this is a good idea; one is because for someone with water like mine, the wort pH comes out higher than ideal, especially in lighter-coloured beers. Lowering the pH, at least slightly, kind of gives the Lacto a head start, if that makes any sense (this applies to the starter and final wort). On top of that, it's been shown that lowering the wort pH to ~4.5 before pitching the Lacto can help aid in reducing foam degradation (see the Milk the Funk Wiki link for more details). If you can get it, I'd use phosphoric acid, as it won't affect the taste like lactic acid can.</li>
<li>I think it's possible that the Lacto starter was too warm for the L. plantarum to lower the pH where I wanted it. I'm not positive here; the evidence would indicate that L. plantarum is still fine up to 90 F, and probably up to 100 F; but I can tell you that I've brewed a hoppy sour since this beer, and accidentally had the heat pad unplugged for the starter, where the pH jumped from a seemingly-stalled reading of 3.9 to 3.3 in a short matter of time. More on that in a future post.</li>
</ol>
<div>
Overall, though, I'm enjoying both of these beers, and for my first foray into kettle souring, I'm quite happy. The capsules worked well enough for me to warrant using them again, especially now that I know to try a slightly different approach next time.</div>
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<b>Recipe Targets:</b> (<u>5.5 gallons</u>, 75% efficiency) OG 1.033, FG ~1.009, IBU 8, SRM 2.9, ABV ~3.2%<br />
<br />
<b>Grains:</b><br />
1.4 kg (47.9%) Bohemian Pilsner<br />
1.4 kg (47.9%) Wheat malt<br />
125 g (4.3%) Acid malt<br />
+ 100 g Rice hulls<br />
<br />
<b>Hops:</b><br />
Polaris - 14 g (20% AA) @ 5 min<br />
<br />
Citra - 70 g dry hop for 5 days (in dry hop keg) <u>for 1/2 of the batch</u><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<b>Misc:</b><br />
1/2 tab Irish Moss at 5 min<br />
14 g freshly-ground Coriander seed at 2 min<br />
25 g Sea Salt at 2 min<br />
<br />
Lime zest - ~6.5 g in secondary after fermentation is complete, for 5 days <u>for 1/2 of the batch</u><br />
<br />
<b>Bacteria/Yeast:</b> Lactobacillus plantarum capsules (4) in a 1 L starter; after souring, wort fermented with 1 pack rehydrated US-05<br />
<br />
<b>Water:</b> Fredericton city water, carbon-filtered; 5 g Gypsum and 5 g calcium chloride added to mash<br />
<br />
- Brewed on April 19th, 2016, by myself. 50-minute mash with 9.5 L of strike water; mash temp on target at 150 F. Mashed-out for 10 minutes with 5 L of boiling water to 168 F. Sparged with ~3.75 gallons of 168 F water for final volume of ~5.75 gallons.<br />
<br />
- Pre-boil gravity at 1.033 (target 1.032). Heated to ~195 F, then chilled to 100 F. Racked to carboy, pitched Lacto starter, attached heat belt and set carboy on heating pad. Four days later, the pH had dropped to 3.65 - with the heat belt and pad, the temp was about 80 F, so I had panicked and turned on a space heater in the room, which brought it up to around 90 F or so.<br />
<br />
- 26/4/16 - Transferred wort back into kettle, brought to a boil. Started 5 minute boil, added hops, coriander and salt at time above. Chilled down to 62 F and poured into BB. Aerated for 60 seconds and pitched yeast at 64 F. Fermentation visible by next day, continued for two days and then petered off.<br />
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- 4/5/16 - pH reading 3.69. Split the batch by racking half into dry-hop keg and added 70 g Citra, other half racked into 3 gallon carboy (~10 L) and added 6.5 g lime zest (sanitized by dunking mesh bag, marbles and zest in sanitizer before adding to carboy).<br />
<br />
- 10/5/16 - Bottled lime half with 60 g table sugar, aiming for 2.5 vol CO2 for 2.5 gal, max temp 70 F reached. Racked Citra half into serving keg and set carb to PSI 30 for 24 hours.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG0_v1sQpet5dzhx5kJEaiFGwzIqpDu6ps1ioSz8QnUAbH5y_ZMTYQxI56vQ4u9Kb60z-gDcLNVZsAxZpbrBgpnCvxV8cOIIq_A7A77fxW_pDbRyzaTZTjcc5wg50JtmYNGwHCAj2dwVsq/s1600/gose.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG0_v1sQpet5dzhx5kJEaiFGwzIqpDu6ps1ioSz8QnUAbH5y_ZMTYQxI56vQ4u9Kb60z-gDcLNVZsAxZpbrBgpnCvxV8cOIIq_A7A77fxW_pDbRyzaTZTjcc5wg50JtmYNGwHCAj2dwVsq/s640/gose.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lime zest on the left, Citra on the right</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i>Appearance:</i> As you can see from the picture, they look pretty identical. Both pour with a moderate-sized, white head that fades fairly quickly, as expected. The Citra head lasts longer, however... due to being force-carbed, or is the lime zest causing that head to fade a bit quicker? Lime body is just slightly darker, but both beers are pretty pale. Touch of haziness.<br />
<br />
<i>Aroma:</i> Moderately salty, touch of coriander; the Citra portion has a light fruitiness and a little dank character. The lime beer definitely has the lime zest coming through in the aroma, more prominent than the salt; works very well.<br />
<br />
<i>Taste:</i> Citra half: the Citra hits first, pleasant low fruitiness, followed by a moderate-low tartness on the tongue. Finishes lightly salty, with low to no bitterness. Dry and refreshing. Lime half: great amount of lime character in the flavour, followed by the saltiness to make it seem that much more maragarita-like. Same tartness as the Citra half... pleasant, but not quite enough. Great summer beer.<br />
<br />
<i>Mouthfeel:</i> Both are light-bodied, with moderate carbonation.<br />
<br />
<i>Overall:</i> Refreshing, easy-drinking; I enjoy both, but give the edge to the lime zest portion. I think the salt level is perfect, could use a bit more coriander. Expected and wanted more Citra presence in the dry-hopped version. And, of course, both could benefit from some more tartness.<br />
<br />Shawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08469375277267237839noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5076002047553648960.post-20509076568058134592016-06-03T13:01:00.000-03:002016-06-14T19:25:20.605-03:00Brewing a Trillium Scaled Up cloneBack when I wasn't as picky a beer drinker, I thought that DIPAs were one of the easier styles to brew... you basically just had to throw a lot of hops in! Luckily (?), I'm not that naive anymore... it's just not that simple. I now know exactly the type of DIPA that I love, which means there's now a lot of DIPAs out there that I really don't enjoy. I want my Imperial IPA to be light in colour; an absolutely-huge hop aroma that's big on tropical fruit, citrus, and pine; ditto for the flavour, with a bit of supporting malt character, but no noticeable Crystal/caramel malt, and a moderate bitterness, finishing dry. In short: not dark amber, sweet, and bracingly bitter, which too many DIPAs are (in my opinion).<br />
<br />
Now, if all that sounds good to you, and you're looking for a brewery that can provide you with such a beer, let me just say that <a href="http://www.trilliumbrewing.com/" target="_blank">Trillium Brewing</a> is the place to go. I probably don't need to tell you that; if you're into hoppy beer I'm sure you've at least heard of Trillium. Based in Boston, they opened in 2013, with a second location outside the city, in Canton, opening a few months ago. Check them out on Rate Beer, or Untappd, or any rating-based website, and you'll see that virtually all of their beers are consistently rated extremely highly. I've had several different bottles, and I can attest that this is not simple hype talking... they really are that good, and they're brewing some of the best New England-style (Northeast?) IPAs around. A friend picked me up several beers on a trip last year, and they were all great.<br />
<br />
After that, another friend was in Boston and brought back some Trillium to share; one of these was Scaled Up, one of their DIPAs. When people ask me, "What's the best beer you've ever had?", I can never really answer the question. I've had so many great beers, all at different times, different places, different circumstances, that I could never really select <u>one best beer</u>. But now I can say without a doubt that Scaled Up is definitely up there with the best beers I've had, probably in the top 3. I know some people hate using "juicy" as a descriptor for beer (I guess because it's too vague or something?), but Scaled Up is the epitome of juicy. It looked, smelled, and tasted very much like orange juice... but more. Super-hazy, super-fruity and tropical, super-smooth... super-everything. And I wasn't alone in my love for this beer; everyone else in the room agreed it was one of the best DIPAs they'd ever tried.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVME0unG_BiV4Bsic-FRBPSUB91CfSXvvfuUnyUHaYpf8HkRSIbp13QnMRpc3nwBDVG4_v_mFTYnldCFBvs6xyxDHDaPVs7-HYx2E2qi1TUGJIsfCac7UWFYcUcUmVH9pqG6pgpYmlhLpQ/s1600/Trillium_scaled-up_label_reference.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="389" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVME0unG_BiV4Bsic-FRBPSUB91CfSXvvfuUnyUHaYpf8HkRSIbp13QnMRpc3nwBDVG4_v_mFTYnldCFBvs6xyxDHDaPVs7-HYx2E2qi1TUGJIsfCac7UWFYcUcUmVH9pqG6pgpYmlhLpQ/s400/Trillium_scaled-up_label_reference.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Naturally, I was curious as to what went into this beer, and I wanted to try cloning it. It's been awhile since I've brewed a clone beer, so just to confirm - I never really expect to brew an exact replica of a commercial beer when I set out to "clone" it, I'm just looking to see if I can brew something close... I guess that's the best way to put it. With this beer, Trillium's website did a pretty good job explaining what went into it, ingredient-wise:<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>The first Double IPA produced at our Canton brewery. Featuring four powerful aromatic hop varieties, Galaxy, Mosaic, Nelson Sauvin, and Columbus, Scaled Up emits dank, spicy aromas that lead into fruity, citrusy flavors of peach and orange on the palate. Lighter in body than most of our other DIPAs, Scaled Up finishes dry and smooth with a pleasant bitterness.</i><br />
<br />
Of course, I reached out to the brewery via email - twice - to see if I could sneak a bit more info out of them, especially regarding the hops and what ratio they were used at. Unfortunately, I never received a reply, which is completely understandable. That didn't deter me, though, so I just got to work putting a recipe together on my own.<br />
<br />
Thankfully, the Trillium site also listed the ingredients for the grist: Pilsner, White Wheat, Flaked Wheat, Dextrine, Dextrose, and C-15. I would assume that these were listed in decreasing order, in terms of % used, but of course I couldn't be sure. I ended up putting together something that looked good to me, with several substitutions:<br />
<ul>
<li>2-row replaced Pilsner (because I found out on brew day I was low on Pilsner... stupid)</li>
<li>Carapils replaced Dextrine (all I could get, plus it seems to me they're about the same thing)</li>
<li>Flaked Oats replaced Flaked Wheat (all I had on hand)</li>
<li>Table sugar replaced Dextrose (I've never felt it was worth it to pay more for Dextrose)</li>
<li>CaraRed replaced C-15 (the closest I had; CaraRed is ~20 L)</li>
</ul>
<div>
As you can tell, I certainly didn't put work into planning this too far ahead, for some reason. Plus, I've always had issues with inventory through BeerSmith; I think I'm the only one who has this problem, but it constantly fluctuates despite my keeping up with it. Even when I completely zero out a hop variety, for example, I'll see it pop up again a week later, saying I have 10 oz or something. Weird. Anyway, I still thought the grist looked good. I aimed for a mash temp of 149 F to try to keep the beer dry, and added Acid malt as usual to bring the mash pH into the 5.4 range.<br />
<br />
I'm not sure what the IBUs are for Scaled Up; they're not listed on the website, but I really didn't care too much, anyway. I know where I wanted them based on my tastes; I was thinking around 60 would be sufficient. Low for a DIPA, yes, but this beer did not taste overly bitter to me, and in my hoppy-brewing experience lately, aiming in that range for a DIPA works well. I bittered at 60 min with a small amount of Polaris; this hop isn't listed by Trillium, but I don't feel that the bittering variety makes a difference. Columbus (CTZ) is listed, and maybe that's the hop they use for a bittering addition; then again, maybe they don't even add anything before the last part of the boil. In the end, I decided to use CTZ and Mosaic at 10 min, CTZ, Mosaic, and Nelson at flameout for a hop-stand, Galaxy, Nelson and Mosaic when I turned on my chiller, and two dry-hop additions (one in primary, one in my DH keg) of all three. I didn't go for huge amounts in the dry-hop, but a total of 6 oz seems like enough to me, now. In fact, I'm always a bit hesitant going above 3-4 oz in the dry-hop for my beers, after some previous not-great results and from reading about beer pH being increased with larger dry-hop additions. I was hoping 6 oz would be right for this beer.<br />
<br />
I don't believe that Trillium makes it perfectly clear on their website which type of yeast strain they use, but based on their beers that I've tried, and the how they smell, taste and look, I immediately thought of using London Ale III (Wyeast 1318). I won't go on about how great this strain is; I've already done that on many of my recent hoppy-beer posts. But if you haven't brewed with it before, I suggest you seek it out. If you don't have access and want to use a neutral, American strain like US-05, I'm sure that you'd still have a very good beer. However, try to get LAIII; I don't think you'll regret it!<br />
<br />
So, I seemed to be all set. The brew day went well, targets were mostly hit (OG was a couple of points low), and the wort smelled - as expected - pretty damned amazing after being chilled down to the low 60s F. I aerated with 90 seconds of pure oxygen and pitched the yeast slurry at 64 F; fermentation took off by the next morning and was soon going strong. When I saw signs of it slowing down after a day or two, I added the sugar (boiled and cooled in some water) and it picked up again, continuing actively for about a week. It was around 2 weeks or so that I added the first dry hop charge into primary (I took a final gravity, and it looked, smelled, and tasted just like OJ, which got me totally psyched) when the krausen had finally settled; five days later I racked to my dry hop keg with the second dry hop addition.<br />
<br />
I've been drinking this beer for a little over a week now, and it's been on kind of an odd evolution. The first pour from the keg was, while a bit undercarbed, completely delicious. Similar to when I took the FG, it was very orangey, fruity, tropical. I made myself wait a few more days before trying it again, and I couldn't believe how different it now was. While it certainly wasn't as nasty as my experience trying to brew a <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2015/06/batch-100-maine-beer-co-dinner-clone-no.html" target="_blank">Dinner clone</a> (Maine Beer Co.'s white whale DIPA), it reminded me of it. The hops were more muted, a bit spicy and onion-y; also, quite dank. A few days later, it had improved slightly, and now it's back to being pretty good again.<br />
<br />
Ultimately though, while I enjoy this beer, it's nowhere near as great as Scaled Up. And I'm ok with that; I don't expect miracles to happen. But I'm still a bit disappointed that, considering the hops that were used, the beer didn't come out very tropical or juicy; at least, not to the level I was hoping for. It definitely has a big berry character, and it's plenty dank... but I wasn't really going for dank. I also wonder if on my system, 6 oz total of dry hops is just too much? What would this beer have been like if I hadn't dry-hopped it at all?<br />
<br />
So, what would I change? Aside from obviously using Pilsner malt instead of 2-row, I'd try dialling the dry-hop back a bit... say, 1.25 oz of each of the three used, as a single addition. Drop the CTZ from the hop steep, and replace it with Galaxy. I think London Ale III is a good yeast to go with, and the grist seems solid, at least until I can get the hops more where I'd like them to be, and then start adjusting other aspects of the recipe. If you're thinking of trying this recipe, I suggest you go with those changes, and expect a quite-good DIPA, but maybe not the BEST THING YOU'VE EVER TASTED.<br />
<br />
In closing, however, I poured another glass of this beer last night for the picture below, and damn if it wasn't tasting even better! It's been on for several weeks now... maybe it really needed some time to settle into its own? If anyone ever has doubt that beer is like a living organism...<br />
<br />
UPDATE: Someone on Reddit was kind enough to let me know (shortly after posting) that Trillium has said in the past that the yeast they use is the equivalent of White Labs 007 Dry English Ale; the Wyeast equivalent is 1098 British Ale. So, obviously I also recommend going with either of these two strains, as they would definitely differ from LAIII.</div>
<br />
<b>Recipe Targets:</b> (<u>5.5 gallons</u>, 70% efficiency) OG 1.070, FG ~1.012, IBU ~60, SRM 5.5, ABV ~7.7%<br />
<br />
<b>Grains:</b><br />
5.3 kg (79.5%) Canadian 2-row<br />
325 g (4.9%) CaraPils<br />
275 g (4.1%) Wheat malt<br />
200 g (3%) CaraRed (20 L)<br />
125 g (1.9%) Acid malt<br />
90 g (1.4%) Flaked Oats<br />
350 g (5.2%) Table sugar (added in primary when fermentation slowed)<br />
<br />
<b>Hops:</b><br />
Polaris - 7 g (19.8% AA) @ 60 min<br />
<br />
CTZ - 28 g (10.5% AA) @ 10 min<br />
Mosaic - 28 g (11.9% AA) @ 10 min<br />
<br />
CTZ - 28 g @ 0 min (<u>with a 20 min hop steep</u>)<br />
Mosaic - 28 g @ 0 min (<u>with a 20 min hop steep</u>)<br />
Nelson Sauvin - 28 g @ 0 min (<u>with a 20 min hop steep</u>)<br />
<br />
Galaxy - 42 g @ 0 min (<u>when begin chilling</u>)<br />
Mosaic - 42 g @ 0 min (<u>when begin chilling</u>)<br />
Nelson Sauvin - 7 g @ 0 min (<u>when begin chilling</u>)<br />
<br />
Galaxy - 28 g dry-hop for 5 days (in primary)<br />
Mosaic - 28 g dry-hop for 5 days (in primary)<br />
Nelson Sauvin - 28 g dry-hop for 5 days (in primary)<br />
<br />
Galaxy - 28 g dry-hop for 5 more days (in keg)<br />
Mosaic - 28 g dry-hop for 5 more days (in keg)<br />
Nelson Sauvin - 35 g dry-hop for 5 more days (in keg)<br />
<br />
<b>Misc:</b> 1/2 tab Irish Moss at 5 min<br />
<br />
<b>Yeast:</b> Wyeast 1318 London Ale III (with a starter, ~250 billion cells)<br />
<br />
<b>Water:</b> Fredericton city water, carbon-filtered; 7 g Gypsum and 7 g calcium chloride added to mash<br />
<br />
- Brewed on April 12th, 2016, by myself. 60-minute mash with 18.5 L of strike water; mash temp on target at 149 F. Sparged with ~4.5 gallons of 168 F water for final volume of ~6.75 gallons.<br />
<br />
- Pre-boil gravity at 1.051 (target 1.052, before sugar addition). 60-minute boil. Final volume ~5.75 gallons; OG a bit low at 1.062 (so, 1.068 with sugar addition). Chilled to 64 F, then poured into Better Bottle. Aerated with 90 seconds of pure O2, pitched yeast at 64 F.<br />
<br />
- Great fermentation by the next morning, and was even showing signs of slowing down a mere 48 hours after pitching. I added the sugar at this point, and activity quickly picked up again and continued for several more days. After close to two weeks (FG 1.011), added the first round of dry hops into primary for 5 days, then racked to the dry-hop keg, added the second dry hops for 5 more days, then transferred via CO2 to the serving keg and began carbing.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizPOGx-IQ95b1tTempwY8vvoecAqtigTHzrSgkS_X1ZG_VHq1no30_F1_MQC4UZu-v0jzcfXqJbgRlvQnIvaMi_Vo8Vcxs_bJV8hPdVqlOUkNLwVqtdRaubxGY1KpM17bLbMnBJ6WkG3-u/s1600/embiggened.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizPOGx-IQ95b1tTempwY8vvoecAqtigTHzrSgkS_X1ZG_VHq1no30_F1_MQC4UZu-v0jzcfXqJbgRlvQnIvaMi_Vo8Vcxs_bJV8hPdVqlOUkNLwVqtdRaubxGY1KpM17bLbMnBJ6WkG3-u/s640/embiggened.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<i>Appearance:</i> Pours with a moderate-sized, white fluffy head; good retention, sticky lacing left on the glass. Body is a very light amber colour, with better-than-expected clarity (although there's definitely still haze present).<br />
<br />
<i>Aroma:</i> Lots of berries, basically. A bit dank, and just the slightest hint of alcohol.<br />
<br />
<i>Taste:</i> Big hop blast - again, mainly berries and dankness - balanced slightly by the bready malt character; but, ultimately, yeah... hops. Should be more tropical, but it's still very tasty. Medium-high bitterness in the dry finish, more than expected from the ~60 IBUs for a 7.5% ABV beer.<br />
<br />
<i>Mouthfeel:</i> Medium-light bodied, moderate carbonation.<br />
<br />
<i>Overall: </i>Very good; I enjoy it as a DIPA, I like the berry hop character and dryness, but since I was hoping for - if not expecting - a closer version of Scaled Up, I have to admit I'm a touch disappointed.Shawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08469375277267237839noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5076002047553648960.post-9138453072730468482016-05-05T12:23:00.001-03:002016-05-05T12:23:22.656-03:00Nelson Sauvin Session IPAIt's been awhile since I've brewed a new entry in my series of one-hop Session IPAs; while I did rebrew the <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2015/03/brewing-equinox-one-hop-session-ipa.html" target="_blank">Equinox Session IPA</a> a few months ago, the last new entry was almost a year ago, when I <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2015/08/brewing-summer-one-hop-session-ipa.html" target="_blank">brewed one with Summer hops</a>. While not a bad beer, it was the least enjoyable out of all of them (<a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2013/11/brewing-mosaic-one-hop-session-ipa.html" target="_blank">Mosaic</a> and Equinox were both great, <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2014/08/brewing-el-dorado-one-hop-session-ipa.html" target="_blank">El Dorado</a> was quite good); it was the first and only time I've brewed with Summer, and the hop aroma and flavour was extremely mild compared to the other Session IPAs I've brewed. I always enjoy having a sessionable, hoppy beer on tap, so it was definitely time for me to re-visit this series, and I had a lot of hop varieties I was anxious to try out.<br />
<br />
Before choosing a hop, however, I decided to make this a completely different Session IPA from the other four I had brewed. For those, I was happy to have dialled in a grist, mash temp, hop schedule, and yeast that I felt were all where I wanted them to be for a beer like this. The grist was made up of ~70% 2-row, 11% each Munich and Wheat malt, 5.5% Crystal 40 L, and ~2% Acid malt. I mashed high (~155 F) to keep the body up, which is of course always a challenge when you brew beers in the 4-4.5% ABV range (or lower). I fermented all of the Session IPAs with US-05, which I had been using for basically all of my hoppy beers then.<br />
<br />
But, I've really been enjoying fermenting hoppy beers with London Ale III; if you follow along with this blog, you can definitely attest to that. My last six hoppy beers have all been fermented with this strain, and I love how it works with the hops I've used, giving a really fruity beer with a fantastic, creamy mouthfeel. I wanted to try using this strain in a Session IPA, of course, but felt that I didn't really need a grist with 30% specialty malt; I was pretty sure a simpler grain bill with the proper mash temp would be sufficient with LAIII.<br />
<br />
It was easy for me to decide on a grist after picking out the yeast strain. Even though I've only used it twice now, for a simple, delicious malt bill that pairs great with hops and LAIII, I feel that you can't go wrong with the Row 2, Hill 56 clone: Pilsner and Maris Otter, light Crystal and Carapils, and a bit of Acid malt. I used it recently in an <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2016/03/american-pale-ale-with-azacca-and.html" target="_blank">APA with Azacca and Galaxy</a>, and that beer was one of my favourites I've brewed in a while. I scaled down the recipe to an OG of 1.048, and decided to aim for a mash temp of 154 F; while not completely sure, I was pretty confident that it would give enough body in the beer.<br />
<br />
There, everything decided! Oh wait, the hops. While I had many varieties on hand that I had never used on their own before, I couldn't help but be drawn back to maybe my favourite variety, Nelson Sauvin. Ah, what a wonderful hop. I know I don't have to tell you that, but I can't help it. It's so delicious. And surprisingly, I had quite a lot of it on hand, so I was really interested in brewing another one-hop beer with it; the first one was a completely different beer, my <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2013/10/brewing-prairie-artisan-ales-merica.html" target="_blank">Prairie 'Merica clone</a>, a SMaSH Saison. I really loved that beer, and it was two and a half years ago that I brewed it, so it was settled - Nelson Sauvin Session IPA it is. I kept the hop schedule for this beer the same as what I had used before: a little bit of a bittering addition at 60 (I used Polaris, and only 4 g, to get ~9 IBUs), then Nelson at 10 minutes (1 oz), at flameout for a 15-min steep (2 oz), and a dry-hop (3 oz). Six ounces total for the batch, definitely nothing crazy, but I've had great results with this method, and Nelson is pretty expressive to say the least.<br />
<br />
Aside from fermenting with LAIII, I added some Gypsum and calcium chloride to my mash as I have done for all hoppy beers over the last six months or more. While I may not have everything completely dialled in yet, I feel like I'm getting pretty close, for my tastes anyway. Aiming for a chloride:sulfate ratio of about 1:1, with both numbers in the 100-150 ppm range, seems to work really well. If you haven't tested your water or tracked down a water report, I suggest you do. You don't necessarily have to be a water expert; obviously, the more you know, the easier it is to understand and tweak, but if you're into hoppy beers (and I assume you are if you're reading this), this higher-chloride-than-we-used-to-think-was-a-good-idea approach really does help in brewing some tasty beers.<br />
<br />
Well, now that I'm drinking this beer, I definitely have a decision to make about future Session IPAs, because I really like how this turned out. That's easy to say when you're brewing with Nelson, but aside from how well the hop comes through in this beer, I think I may prefer this style with the R2H56 grist and fermenting with LAIII. The beer looks fantastic, pale-gold-coloured and hazy, just like I like it to look; huge tropical aroma (I admit I wouldn't know what a gooseberry smells like, but if this truly is it, then I gotta buy me some gooseberries to string into a necklace so I can wear it all day long); I admit the flavour isn't quite as punchy as I expected from the aroma, but it's still very good. Smooth and creamy, as are so many beers (I've found) when fermenting with LAIII.<br />
<br />
I also think that ~6 oz is enough hops for this style of beer; I've had other homebrews that used more hops, and they didn't strike me as hoppier in either aroma or flavour, really. I'm a firm believer now that there is a too-many-hops point for beer; whether this is due to hop-flavour-overload/contrasting, pH changes with increasing dry-hopping, or something else, I don't know, but there it is. If this beer could use any changes at all, the only one I would make would be a longer hop steep, which would likely bump up the flavour intensity a little bit. Otherwise, I'm happy with this, and at the calculated ABV of 4.3%, it's perfectly sessionable, and about right where I want a hoppy beer to be in terms of appearance, aroma and flavour.<br />
<br />
It's just too bad that Nelson Sauvin is so damned expensive and hard to get...<br />
<br />
<b>Recipe Targets:</b> (<u>5.5 gallons</u>, 80% efficiency) OG 1.048, FG ~1.013, IBU ~35, SRM 4.5, ABV ~4.5%<br />
<br />
<b>Grains:</b><br />
2.3 kg (57.1%) Bohemian Pilsner<br />
1.35 kg (33.5%) Maris Otter<br />
160 g (4%) CaraRed (20 L)<br />
120 g (3%) Carapils<br />
100 g (2.5%) Acid malt<br />
<br />
<b>Hops:</b><br />
Polaris - 4 g (20% AA) @ 60 min<br />
Nelson Sauvin - 28 g (10.5% AA) @ 10 min<br />
<br />
Nelson Sauvin - 56 g @ 0 min (<u>with a 15 min hop steep</u>)<br />
<br />
Nelson Sauvin - 84 g dry-hop for 5 days (in primary)<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<b>Misc:</b> 1/2 tab Irish Moss at 5 min<br />
<br />
<b>Yeast:</b> Wyeast 1318 London Ale III (with a starter, ~175 billion cells)<br />
<br />
<b>Water:</b> Fredericton city water, carbon-filtered; 7 g Gypsum and 7 g calcium chloride added to mash<br />
<br />
- Brewed on March 21st, 2016, by myself. 50-minute mash with 13 L of strike water; mash temp a bit low at 153.5 F. Mashed-out for 10 minutes with 5.5 L of boiling water to 168 F. Sparged with ~4.25 gallons of 168 F water for final volume of ~6.75 gallons.<br />
<br />
- Pre-boil gravity at 1.038 (target 1.039). 60-minute boil. Final volume ~5.75 gallons; OG a bit low at 1.047. Chilled to 64 F, then poured into Better Bottle. Aerated with 60 seconds of pure O2, pitched yeast at 64 F.<br />
<br />
- Good airlock activity by the next morning; 24 hours after that, it had slowed significantly; temp never got higher than 68 F.<br />
<br />
- 4/4/16 - FG 1.013. Added dry hops into primary.<br />
<br />
- 10/4/16 - Racked beer to keg, set in keezer overnight to bring temp down, then force-carbed at 30 PSI for 36 hours before dropping down to 10 PSI.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1jIeMK48ALjbCWFhvY3GV2rOMeRB04l2twaDiF-VsyYTBAW2Iu4yCv2VZWZJWdNLmMQSzdmYTRJWVdfzCB-VWFya5pJOeIqBT6636KzcQUSUBuYR0oMsvhfE3SeIG3MgVKKyzod0IjgcV/s1600/nelson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="466" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1jIeMK48ALjbCWFhvY3GV2rOMeRB04l2twaDiF-VsyYTBAW2Iu4yCv2VZWZJWdNLmMQSzdmYTRJWVdfzCB-VWFya5pJOeIqBT6636KzcQUSUBuYR0oMsvhfE3SeIG3MgVKKyzod0IjgcV/s640/nelson.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<i>Appearance:</i> Pours with a moderate-sized, white fluffy head that shows good retention, eventually fading to 1/4-finger or so. Beautiful, light-golden colour for the body, quite hazy.<br />
<br />
<i>Aroma:</i> Yeah, that's Nelson alright! Tons of fruit, very berry-like, maybe just a touch of dank. It's basically all hops in the aroma, and I'm ok with that.<br />
<br />
<i>Taste:</i> Same; lots of berry fruitiness, very juicy, as expected. Finishes with a medium bitterness, dry and refreshing. Nice supporting malt character, just a light breadiness that works perfectly.<br />
<br />
<i>Mouthfeel: </i>Medium-light bodied, moderate carbonation. Very smooth and creamy.<br />
<br />
<i>Overall:</i> I don't use the word crushable, but if I did, I'd certainly use it here. Up there with the Equinox for my favourite Session IPAs I've brewed so far.Shawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08469375277267237839noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5076002047553648960.post-10356826574682348852016-04-22T10:50:00.000-03:002016-04-22T10:50:58.509-03:00Belgian APA with Equinox and Mosaic (inspired by Schilling Racogne)First off, let me say that I realize the term "Belgian APA" sounds kind of ridiculous. It's tough with a beer like this, though. You know what I'm getting at here, right? A Belgian IPA, basically, but in APA territory for ABV, as in roughly 5-6%. But I can't call it a Belgian Pale Ale, can I? There's <a href="http://bjcp.org/2008styles/style16.php#1b" target="_blank">already a style for that</a>, and that one isn't considered a hoppy beer. So, while Belgian APA struck me as odd at first, I'm comfortable with it now; if you really think of it, it's no more crazy than saying "Belgian IPA".<br />
<br />
What brought me to brewing a beer like this, you may ask? Well, when my wife and I drove to Vermont last June, we went out of our way to stop at <a href="http://schillingbeer.com/" target="_blank">Schilling Beer Company</a> in Littleton, NH. I had been looking for a decent place to stop, and this place looked perfect. It was quite literally right on the way to VT, the beers brewed there (and the food) were rated really well, and I loved how what they were serving was a mixture of German, Belgian, and hoppy American styles, and beyond. It looked awesome, and we weren't disappointed.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipGFHSxtpJw1wzUIkPVU0BQ-bFxupNdBPCzK6kMbt7TMPd9lLwBnMamw8IyZZjz8RDHPLp7vdwtV3BRHJR0rBl03F_S1iYOELc6Y_WSmJzdmyXaQdbf9Fz1TmDLGmqNMYtBIdqRTucjEyK/s1600/10325242_619224484853805_614989947999296330_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipGFHSxtpJw1wzUIkPVU0BQ-bFxupNdBPCzK6kMbt7TMPd9lLwBnMamw8IyZZjz8RDHPLp7vdwtV3BRHJR0rBl03F_S1iYOELc6Y_WSmJzdmyXaQdbf9Fz1TmDLGmqNMYtBIdqRTucjEyK/s640/10325242_619224484853805_614989947999296330_n.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">The Schilling Brewery; photo: John Hession, NH Magazine</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
We were greatly in need of a beer or two when we arrived there after many hours of driving. Getting one of the last tables on their deck (beautiful little spot, by the way, overlooking the river), we ordered a couple of sampler trays, and I was impressed by most of what I tried. My favourite, however, was their Racogne. A "Belgo Pale Ale" (hey, maybe that's what I should have called this beer!), it's a 5.5% beer that the brewery describes as follows:<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3a3834; font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6px;"><i>Hazy orange in appearance with a medium mouthfeel, Racogne (“Ra-con-ia”) showcases Mosaic and Equinox hops and a Belgian yeast of medium flavor intensity to produce mellow tropical fruit aromas and ‘juicy’ hop flavors.</i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3a3834; font-family: "open sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.6px;"><br /></span>
I can tell you, it smelled and tasted as advertised. Hugely juicy and tropical, the beer took two of my favourite hops and made them work perfectly with whatever Belgian strain they used for fermentation. I could have drank a heck of a lot more than a sampler size, that's for sure. I never thought I'd be disappointed to have to get in the car and continue on to Vermont! Ok, maybe not quite, but close. Ever since, I've been meaning to brew something along the lines of this beer. Maybe not a clone, per se, but something along the same lines. I love Mosaic and Equinox - I've done a single-hop Session IPA with both (Mosaic <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2013/11/brewing-mosaic-one-hop-session-ipa.html" target="_blank">here</a>, Equinox <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2015/03/brewing-equinox-one-hop-session-ipa.html" target="_blank">here</a>), but haven't used them together before. And I've been meaning to do another Belgian-style hoppy beer, so it all seemed like a good excuse to give this a try!<br />
<br />
Before diving in, I thought I'd at least TRY emailing Schilling to ask them if they'd be willing to share a bit of info on the beer. I was curious about several things: the grist, whether they used Equinox and Mosaic in equal amounts, and mainly, what type of Belgian yeast are we talking about here? So, I sent out a friendly email, and got a quick reply from their Head Brewer and President, John Lenzini. He was very appreciative, but said that their current policy is not to share recipe info, at least not until they become more established and start distributing to a larger degree.<br />
<br />
So, I was on my own. I decided to keep things as simple as possible, and developed the grist based on my previous recipe for a <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2014/12/brewing-belgian-session-ipa.html" target="_blank">Belgian Session IPA</a>, scaled up to an OG of 1.052. I had enjoyed this grist in the Session IPA, and the colour seemed about right for this beer. It's made up of mostly Pilsner malt, with small amounts of Aromatic, CaraVienne, and Wheat malt, and Acid malt. I find this gives a nice supporting malt character while allowing the hops to dominate; mind you, this was with a Session Belgian IPA, but really, this APA is only 7 gravity points higher than that one, so it should be fine. I still aimed to mash fairly low, at 150 F, to keep the beer pretty dry.<br />
<br />
The hop schedule was pretty easy. I went with slightly more Mosaic than Equinox, simply because I had more Mosaic on hand. I decided to once again try dropping a bittering addition, with no hops being added until 10 minutes, where I threw in 2 oz of Mosaic. Three oz total for a hop steep, another couple after the chiller was turned on, and then equal amounts (1.5 oz each) of Mosaic and Equinox for the dry hop, giving a grand total of 10 oz of hops. Not bad; I don't think more than this would be necessary, assuming the hops are fresh.<br />
<br />
I was mostly guessing when it came to choosing a yeast strain. As I mentioned in the Belgian Session IPA post, it's trickier pairing yeast with hops when you're working with Belgian strains, compared to American ones. There's a lot of Belgian strains out there, and they all have varying degrees of esters and phenolics, and can clash easily with certain hop varieties. I haven't brewed a lot of Belgian IPAs; the Belgian Session IPA used Wyeast 3787 (the Westmalle strain), and I really liked it. However, this brew day wasn't planned too far in advance, and I'd have to special order that one to get it again. My LHBS did have <a href="http://wyeastlab.com/rw_yeaststrain_detail.cfm?ID=127" target="_blank">Wyeast 1214 Belgian Abbey</a> in stock, which is supposedly the Chimay strain. Oddly enough, I don't think I've brewed with this strain before. Chimay doesn't brew any hoppy beers to my knowledge, but I'm a fan of their regular three-beer lineup, so I thought I'd finally give the strain a try and see how it worked with Equinox and Mosaic.<br />
<br />
Well, the brew day brought no surprises, and I was drinking this beer within a few weeks (kegged, of course). While I honestly can't say if this is even close to Racogne, it is one tasty beer! I don't think I've brewed a hoppy, Belgian-style beer that had the hop aromas and flavours blend so well with the Belgian yeast. The aroma is probably 75% hop fruit bomb, with 25% Belgian fruity/spicy phenolics blended in... probably the same in the flavours. The beer is hazy, although NOT as hazy as that picture below would indicate (that was taken shortly after bumping the keg a couple of times when moving my CO2 tank around), with a medium-light body and a smooth, creamy mouthfeel (the feel and look of the beer would make me think it was fermented with London Ale III, if it wasn't for the Belgian characteristics).<br />
<br />
So, in short, great beer, would absolutely recommend you give it a try if you're so inclined. Mosaic and Equinox aren't the easiest hops to find, by any means, but if you can, brew it! It'd be interesting to split the batch and ferment it with a couple of different Belgian strains, see how that affects the final beer; I may try this in the future. In the meantime, I'm really sad to see this one go... the keg kicked two nights ago, dang it.<br />
<br />
<b>Recipe Targets:</b> (<u>5.5 gallons</u>, 75% efficiency) OG 1.052, FG ~1.011, IBU ~45, SRM 6, ABV ~5.3%<br />
<br />
<b>Grains:</b><br />
3.9 kg (83.4%) Bohemian Pilsner<br />
225 g (4.8%) Aromatic<br />
225 g (4.8%) CaraVienne<br />
225 g (4.8%) Wheat malt<br />
100 g (2.1%) Acid malt<br />
<br />
<b>Hops:</b><br />
Mosaic - 56 g (10.5% AA) @ 10 min<br />
<br />
Mosaic - 56 g @ 0 min (<u>with a 15 min hop steep</u>)<br />
Equinox - 28 g @ 0 min (<u>with a 15 min hop steep</u>)<br />
<br />
Mosaic - 28 g @ 0 min (<u>when begin chilling</u>)<br />
Equinox - 28 g @ 0 min (<u>when begin chilling</u>)<br />
<br />
Mosaic - 42 g dry-hop for 5 days (in primary)<br />
Equinox - 42 g dry-hop for 5 days (in primary)<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<b>Misc:</b> 1/2 tab Irish Moss at 5 min<br />
<br />
<b>Yeast:</b> Wyeast 1214 Belgian Ale (with a starter)<br />
<br />
<b>Water:</b> Fredericton city water, carbon-filtered; 7 g Gypsum and 7 g calcium chloride added to mash<br />
<br />
- Brewed on February 24th, 2016, by myself. 50-minute mash with 13.5 L of strike water; mash temp a on target at 150 F. Mashed-out for 10 minutes with 7.25 L of boiling water to 168 F. Sparged with ~4.25 gallons of 168 F water for final volume of ~7.25 gallons.<br />
<br />
- Pre-boil gravity at 1.041. 90-minute boil. Final volume ~5.5 gallons; OG on target at 1.052. Chilled to 60 F, then poured into Better Bottle. Aerated with 60 seconds of pure O2, pitched yeast at 64 F.<br />
<br />
- Fermentation was a bit slow to start with this batch; didn't really see a krausen till the evening of the 25th, with vigorous airlock activity by the next morning, temp at 74 F. By the next morning, the krausen had already receded quite a bit, and the airlock was silent... very fast!<br />
<br />
- 9/3/16 - Final gravity of 1.012. Added dry hops into primary.<br />
<br />
- 15/3/16 - Racked beer to purged keg, set in keezer to bring temp down and then started carbing.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifooTQxIHwbMhPOKILQ6oo0jdRMokzMspBe-FCKoTNZkqsPTAhzYPgywxbEy-IrcsbuLu-82frEsHIkPlI5J43QfY6EZ7Q0gpsBUUqUbzgSM9xoCznMmqKgrGIYbqfRg721xy72OtCgX7S/s1600/bruges.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifooTQxIHwbMhPOKILQ6oo0jdRMokzMspBe-FCKoTNZkqsPTAhzYPgywxbEy-IrcsbuLu-82frEsHIkPlI5J43QfY6EZ7Q0gpsBUUqUbzgSM9xoCznMmqKgrGIYbqfRg721xy72OtCgX7S/s640/bruges.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<i>Appearance:</i> Pours with a moderate-sized, white head that shows good retention, eventually fades to a thin film on the beer. Nice lacing on the glass. Body is a light orange color, with a lot of haziness.<br />
<br />
<i>Aroma:</i> Wonderful combination of big, tropical, fruity hops and Belgian phenolics; the spiciness follows the hop blast, as I had hoped. The nose is definitely reminiscent of Equinox, with the Mosaic character coming through well.<br />
<br />
<i>Taste:</i> Ditto, fruity blast, green pepper slightly (or maybe I just know to look for it with Equinox?), followed by the phenolics. Medium-light bitterness in the finish, fairly dry.<br />
<br />
<i>Mouthfeel:</i> Medium-light bodied, moderate carbonation. Smooth and creamy.<br />
<br />
<i>Overall:</i> Beautiful beer, one of my favourites lately. I'd brew this again and not change a thing, although I am curious as to what a different yeast strain would contribute, or take away.Shawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08469375277267237839noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5076002047553648960.post-86984540986897450732016-04-13T12:16:00.000-03:002016-04-13T12:16:13.778-03:00India Pale Lager (Cascade, Comet & Vic Secret)For me, the months of January and February equal Lager Season. Not necessarily drinking, of course, but brewing them. Ever since I purchased a separate freezer and a temperature controller in 2011 (my first major homebrew equipment purchase), I've brewed 2 or 3 lagers each year. Now, with a temperature-controlled freezer, I could technically brew a lager any time of year, but it's just so much easier in the winter, when ground water temps are a lot lower. Lagers aren't my favourite class of beer to brew, but I completely appreciate the talent it takes to brew a really good one. You have to pitch a lot of healthy yeast, you have to aerate properly, you have to pay close attention to fermentation temps and diacetyl rests and lagering periods... it goes on and on. It's not easy to brew a really good Pilsner, and that gets missed a lot by people who don't know a lot about brewing.<br />
<br />
Last year was the first time since having the freezer that I didn't brew any lagers. This happened for two reasons: 1) I was kind of on a big hoppy kick and kept brewing APAs, IPAs, etc., and 2) my fermentation chamber had become a keezer; with 3-4 taps flowing at a time, there just wasn't enough room for a carboy, let alone two. This year, however, I figured that I could take the time to brew at least one or two; by cleverly using the back, closed-off room of my garage for fermentation (acting as my beer cellar, it's kept at a perfect 48-50 F thanks to a simple digital thermostat), and the garage itself for lagering (it's typically 2-4 F during January and February), I thought I could make it work.<br />
<br />
So, in early January I brewed a Festbier (think paler, more-bitter Oktoberfest) using a private collection strain from Wyeast, Munich Lager II. I've used this strain before in a <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2013/03/brewing-vienna-lager.html" target="_blank">Vienna Lager</a> and a <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2013/04/brewing-schwarzbier.html" target="_blank">Schwarzbier</a>, and was quite happy with it... good malt character, decent attenuation, less diacetyl-producing. The Festbier turned out pretty decent, and - as usual for my <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2012/03/guide-to-lager-brewing.html" target="_blank">method to brewing lagers</a> - I kept lots of slurry to re-use for another beer. I had full intentions of brewing a bigger beer, like a Bock or Doppelbock, but as usual, all those hops in the freezer were calling to me...<br />
<br />
While India Pale Lager is not a defined "style" of beer (at least, it isn't in the BJCP), that - as usual - doesn't keep plenty of commercial breweries from brewing it. I don't think I have to get too technical here: an IPL is basically an American IPA fermented with a Lager yeast strain. I believe the idea is that since Lager strains generally give a very clean beer (if brewed properly), an IPL should bring the hops (and supporting malt) even more forward than when used in an IPA (even one featuring a generally-neutral yeast strain, such as US-05). I can't really comment on whether this is true; I've never brewed an IPL, and I haven't tried many of them either. The standout for me is one that is definitely impressive to have been brewed well, TrIPL, a 10% monster with CTZ, Chinook and Citra from <a href="http://jacksabby.com/" target="_blank">Jack's Abby</a>, probably one of the best Lager breweries in North America.<br />
<br />
Well, I decided to give it a go, if only to see if there was really a difference between a heavily-hopped Lager vs. a heavily-hopped Ale. When putting together the recipe, I didn't want a beer that was too dark, of course, but maybe something that wasn't Light Lager yellow, either. I was originally going to go with all-Pilsner malt for the base, as I would with a lot of pale Lagers, but after a bit of reading online, I decided to add some 2-row in. I made up the rest with some Munich, Wheat malt, and Melanoiden, trying to give the beer a bit of body and provide some breadiness. A bit of Acid malt, as usual, and that was that. I mashed fairly low, at 150 F; I wanted a fairly-dry beer, and with the attenuation of the Munich Lager II not being super-high, I hoped this would give me a good balance of enough-body with not-too-sweet.<br />
<br />
I went with three hop varieties, one that I've used plenty of times, one I've used once and really enjoyed, and one that I've never brewed with before:<br />
<ul>
<li><b>Cascade</b> - We've all used Cascade, and it often gets forgotten in the mad rush of new, hot hops out there... and it's a shame. Sure, it may not be as potent as Galaxy, Azacca, Citra, Mosaic, etc., but its citrus and grapefruit characteristics can be truly wonderful in a hoppy beer, and I've been trying to use it more often lately.</li>
<li><b>Comet</b> - I think this one has been around for awhile, but I hadn't brewed with it since my <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2016/01/meek-celebration-2015-imperial-ipa-with.html" target="_blank">2015 Meek Celebration</a> (Christmas giveaway beer), and I really liked it in that beer. Described by the <a href="http://www.bear-flavored.com/2011/12/bear-flavoreds-ultimate-guide-to-hop.html" target="_blank">Bear Flavored hop guide</a> as "intense wild American grapefruit/citrus character, extremely dank"; it doesn't disappoint. So obviously, I'm looking for grapefruit in this beer.</li>
<li><b>Vic Secret</b> - A new (~2013) Australian variety, this hop has been doing well - I see it popping up in a lot of beers lately, and I tried a single-hop beer from Fredericton's <a href="https://www.facebook.com/trailwaybrewing/?fref=ts" target="_blank">TrailWay</a> awhile back that was quite good. Described as exhibiting flavours of passionfruit, pineapple and some light herbs and resin, I thought it would work nicely with the Cascade and Comet.</li>
</ul>
<div>
I mixed it up a bit as per the hopping schedule below, with an ounce or slightly more (when using up stock) of all three in a single dry-hop. But that raised the question: what is the best way to dry-hop an IPL? Do you lager the beer first, and then dry-hop? Or is the lagering period also the dry-hop period? Problem is, even light lagers are lagered for longer than your typical dry-hopping time (which is often no longer than 5-7 days, or even shorter). I looked into it some, and turns out that - surprise! - there are a lot of different opinions on the "best" way to dry-hop a lagered beer. So, I chose the following method: brew the beer, ferment cool as expected, raise temp for a short diacetyl rest, bring back down to ~50 F again, then after a couple weeks total, rack to a keg and lager the beer. After several weeks, throw the dry hops in that keg, move the keg inside to a warmer temperature for 5 days, then transfer the beer from that dry-hop keg into the serving keg, chill and carb. Make sense?</div>
<br />
The brew day was fine, if a little longer than usual - with a 90-minute boil, a hop steep of 15 minutes, and having to chill to 50 F or lower, it definitely stretched out compared to an Ale brew. Fermentation was going about 24-36 hours after pitching, and in true Lager fashion for me, never got crazy... the airlock bubbling every 2 seconds for several days is what I'm used to for Lagers. After about 5 days the bubbling started slowing down, so I moved the fermentor inside for a 2-day diacetyl rest in the mid-60s F, then moved it back to 50 F ambient. After two weeks total, I racked the beer to my "dry-hop" keg and left it in the garage to lager... not exactly the most regulated way to do so, but my garage was holding at about 40 F or so, consistently, so it would have to do. Two weeks later I threw in the dry-hops, moved the keg inside for 5 days, and then transferred via CO2 to a purged serving keg, and started carbing.<br />
<br />
And how did it turn out? I've got to say, I quite enjoy this beer. Really smooth and creamy, it's got a fruity, candy-like sweetness to it that in no way overshadows the citrusy, fruity, slightly-herbal flavours from the hops. The malt also complements the hops well, but be very clear, this is a hop-forward beer. It just seems a little less dry than a lot of hoppy ales I've brewed, but it's still juicy. That's the best way I can think to explain it. I'm sure a different Lager yeast with a bit higher attenuation would result in a drier beer, but I like how this tastes, and I'm a big fan of the mouthfeel.<br />
<br />
This is something I'll definitely try again, although now it's probably going to have to wait until next winter. Lots of room for experimentation here - with many Lager yeast strains to play with, not to mention all those wonderful, wonderful hop varieties, this is a style I look forward to revisiting again. In the meantime, I need to track down some more commercial examples...<br />
<br />
<b>Recipe Targets:</b> (<u>5.5 gallons</u>, 72% efficiency) OG 1.063, FG ~1.014, IBU ~52, SRM 5.7, ABV ~6.4%<br />
<br />
<b>Grains:</b><br />
3 kg (50.6%) Bohemian Pilsner<br />
2 kg (33.8%) Canadian 2-row<br />
300 g (5.1%) Munich<br />
300 g (5.1%) Wheat malt<br />
200 g (3.4%) Melanoiden<br />
125 g (2.1%) Acid malt<br />
<br />
<b>Hops:</b><br />
Polaris - 10 g (19.8% AA) @ 60 min<br />
<br />
Cascade - 28 g (6.4% AA) @ 10 min<br />
Comet - 28 g (7% AA) @ 10 min<br />
<br />
Comet - 28 g @ 0 min (<u>with a 15 min hop steep</u>)<br />
Vic Secret - 28 g @ 0 min (<u>with a 15 min hop steep</u>)<br />
<br />
Cascade - 28 g @ 0 min (<u>when begin chilling</u>)<br />
Comet - 28 g @ 0 min (<u>when begin chilling</u>)<br />
<br />
Comet - 44 g dry-hop for 5 days (in primary)<br />
Cascade - 30 g dry-hop for 5 days (in primary)<br />
Vic Secret - 28 g dry-hop for 5 days (in primary)<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<b>Misc:</b> 1/2 tab Irish Moss at 5 min<br />
<br />
<b>Yeast:</b> Wyeast 2352 Munich Lager II (slurry)<br />
<br />
<b>Water:</b> Fredericton city water, carbon-filtered; 8 g Gypsum and 8 g calcium chloride added to mash<br />
<br />
- Brewed on February 10th, 2016, by myself. 50-minute mash with 15 L of strike water; mash temp on target at 150 F. Mashed-out for 10 minutes with 7.75 L of boiling water to 165 F. Sparged with ~4 gallons of 168 F water for final volume of ~7.25 gallons.<br />
<br />
- Pre-boil gravity 1.047 (target 1.048). 90-minute boil. Final volume ~5.5 gallons; OG 1.064. Chilled to 48 F, then poured into Better Bottle. Aerated with 120 seconds of pure O2, pitched yeast slurry at 50 F and set fermentor in back room of garage, ambient temp set for 50 F.<br />
<br />
- Airlock showing signs of activity by the next evening, with steady bubbling occurring for the next week. When activity slowed, moved carboy inside for two days for a diacetyl rest at ~64 F. Moved back into 48 F temp for another 10 days or so.<br />
<br />
- 1/3/16 - Racked to CO2-purged keg, set in back of garage where temp was approximately 38 F.<br />
<br />
- 15/3/16 - FG 1.014. Added dry hops to keg, purged again, brought keg inside to sit at room temp.<br />
<br />
- 20/3/16 - Transferred via CO2 to serving keg, began carbing.<br />
<br />
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<br />
<i>Appearance:</i> Pours with a moderate-large size white head that shows good retention, eventually fading to 1/2-finger. Body is a deep-golden colour, with very good clarity.<br />
<br />
<i>Aroma:</i> Pleasant bready malt character, with a strong hop presence that is fruity and tropical, for the most part. Clean, no diacetyl, no sulfur.<br />
<br />
<i>Taste:</i> Lots of hops, tropical, citrusy, with a bit of an herbal-like quality that two fellow beer geeks picked out. Backed by the malt sufficiently, but definitely a hoppy beer. Finishes crisp and fairly dry, smooth and easy-drinking.<br />
<br />
<i>Mouthfeel:</i> Medium-bodied, moderate carbonation. Very smooth and creamy.<br />
<br />
<i>Overall:</i> Very enjoyable; I haven't had a lot of IPLs but this is one of the better ones I've had for awhile. Definitely a recipe to play around with; changing hop varieties and yeast strains really opens the possibilities.Shawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08469375277267237839noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5076002047553648960.post-80735406635273128862016-03-30T11:56:00.000-03:002016-06-11T13:13:50.726-03:00Brown IPA with CTZ, Galaxy, & Simcoe, fermented with London Ale IIIAbout a year and a half ago, I brewed <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2014/11/brewing-brown-ipa.html" target="_blank">my first Brown IPA</a>. This was right around the time that the draft of the 2015 BJCP Guidelines had come out, where it was being suggested that Brown IPA become a new category, or more accurately I guess, a sub-category of "Specialty IPA". I won't bore you with the details on how a Brown IPA differs from an American Brown Ale... you can check out the BJCP Guidelines or click on the link for my first brew. In my original beer, I went with a five-malt grist, hopped fairly aggressively with Citra, CTZ and Nugget. I liked it: with a toffee/caramel sweetness, it had a prominent nose of earthy, spicy hops (Nugget made up the majority of the additions), and finished fairly dry with a moderate-high bitterness.<br />
<br />
But this is kind of a tough style to brew, simply because I don't think I've had many Brown IPAs. And really, I don't know if I want to. That sounds bad, but there's something about this style that I just can't get excited about. God knows I love hoppy beers, and I'll happily brew and drink any variety of American IPAs, Session IPAs, APAs, etc. I really enjoy a well-crafted Red IPA or Black IPA... so why is it that I can't get excited about a Brown IPA? Is it <u>because</u> I haven't had many, or because it's one of those styles that seems like it was created as an afterthought? Maybe the whole 114 categories of IPA and counting is starting to wear a bit thin? I don't know, and maybe even suggesting such things is blasphemous. But I know how to really test this out... brew another one!<br />
<br />
Sure, why the hell not? I was looking to mix things up anyway, so I decided to revisit this recipe. Here's where I made a mistake: because I made the decision to go this route a bit too-close to brew day, I simply used the same grist as with the first beer (but with a little Acid malt added for the mash pH). I should have re-read my post, because that grist gave a beer that was too dark. The style SRM range is 11-19, and the grist I selected brings it in to 23.That's slightly below Black IPA territory, but that's really not a big deal... I'm certainly not using a lot of dark, roasted malts in this beer. It's mostly 2-row, a couple of caramel-type malts, and some Victory and Chocolate malt as well. I also added some Gypsum and calcium chloride as usual, and aimed for a mash temp of 151 F, trying to keep the body medium-light, with a mostly-dry finish.<br />
<br />
I wanted to approach the hops differently for this beer. While the first Brown IPA did have some CTZ and Citra - so, you're getting some fruit character - Nugget, as mentioned, made up the majority. I initially went that route because I thought the combination would work well in this style, and it did. But this time around I wanted to go more in the direction of an APA or American IPA; read: fruity, citrusy. I chose three varieties: CTZ again, because I feel it really does work well in this style of beer, and Galaxy and Simcoe, to hopefully really boost the tropical fruit, and maybe add some pine as well. I followed my general schedule: a bit of Polaris at 60 to ~17 IBUs, then an ounce each of CTZ and Simcoe at 10, followed by some Galaxy and Simcoe for a hop steep, CTZ and Simcoe after starting the chiller, and an ounce each of all three in the dry hop (plus a little more Galaxy to use up the rest of that package).<br />
<br />
As I've done many times over the last few months, I fermented this beer with London Ale III. The first beer was fermented with US-05, but I've been using LAIII a lot lately, with good results, and honestly, I really wanted to brew a Brown IPA and ferment it with this strain, if only to see how many people would get angry when I posted a pic of the resultant beer, all cloudy and brown. If some people get upset about a beer that looks like orange juice, imagine their reaction if it <u>literally</u> looks like shit!<br />
<br />
Ok, I'm kidding. And actually, while I'm on the side of those who get excited when they see an IPA that looks like pulpy juice, there IS something different about seeing a darker beer with the same haze/cloudiness. Juice is one thing. Mud is another. But it wouldn't bother me to the point of not drinking it, that's for sure, especially if it was delicious!<br />
<br />
Where was I? Oh, the beer. So, yeah, that's the recipe. When I brewed it I was under my target gravity by 4 points (my efficiency has definitely been lower lately; maybe an issue with my grain mill?), but as usual, I wasn't too bothered. The FG was also higher than expected, at 1.017, so overall the beer did come in at quite a lower ABV than expected. I dry-hopped the beer in primary for 5 days, then kegged it.<br />
<br />
While, again, I don't feel like I have a lot of beers to compare this to, I'm pretty happy with how it came out, and I think I like it a little better than my first Brown IPA. Sure, the grist is the same, but I think the hops selected here do work better - there's a nice piney and slightly dank overtone to it, but it's a little more fruity than the first beer. I definitely don't think the Galaxy comes through like it would in a paler beer, but it works. Still too dark, naturally (actually, being such a dark brown prevents it from looking muddy!), but the high breadiness and very light chocolate comes through in the aroma and flavor as I was hoping. The bitterness comes across as in the medium range, with a fairly dry finish. Overall, though, the beer is quite smooth and creamy. <br />
<br />
In the end, though, I don't think I'm a big fan of Brown IPAs. While I've definitely embraced Black, Red, White, and Belgian takes on the IPA style, Brown is definitely at the bottom of the list for me. Could be because I haven't had a really great example of one, could be because it's just not for me. I'll continue to try commercial (and other homebrew) versions as they're available to me, but I won't be rushing out to brew one again any time soon.<br />
<br />
And no, it's not because it's a cloudy, brown beer!<br />
<br />
<b>Recipe Targets:</b> (<u>5.5 gallons</u>, 75% efficiency) OG 1.066, FG ~1.013, IBU ~58, SRM 23, ABV ~6.9%<br />
<br />
<b>Grains:</b><br />
5.1 kg (82.7%) Canadian 2-row<br />
325 g (5.3%) Caramunich II (45 SRM)<br />
265 g (4.3%) Chocolate malt<br />
235 g (3.8%) Victory malt<br />
165 g (2.7%) Crystal 60 L<br />
75 g (1.2%) Acid malt<br />
<br />
<b>Hops:</b><br />
Polaris - 7 g (19.8% AA) @ 60 min<br />
<br />
CTZ - 28 g (13.4% AA) @ 10 min<br />
Simcoe - 28 g (12% AA) @ 10 min<br />
<br />
Galaxy - 28 g @ 0 min (<u>with a 15 min hop steep</u>)<br />
Simcoe - 28 g @ 0 min (<u>with a 15 min hop steep</u>)<br />
<br />
CTZ - 28 g @ 0 min (<u>when begin chilling</u>)<br />
Simcoe - 28 g @ 0 min (<u>when begin chilling</u>)<br />
<br />
CTZ - 28 g dry-hop for 5 days (in primary)<br />
Galaxy - 37 g dry-hop for 5 days (in primary)<br />
Simcoe - 28 g dry-hop for 5 days (in primary)<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<b>Misc:</b> 1/2 tab Irish Moss at 5 min<br />
<br />
<b>Yeast:</b> Wyeast 1318 London Ale III (with a starter, ~250 billion cells)<br />
<br />
<b>Water:</b> Fredericton city water, carbon-filtered; 7 g Gypsum and 7 g calcium chloride added to mash<br />
<br />
- Brewed on January 26th, 2016, by myself. 50-minute mash with 15 L of strike water; mash temp a bit low at 150 F. Mashed-out for 10 minutes with 7.75 L of boiling water to 165 F. Sparged with ~3.5 gallons of 168 F water for final volume of ~6.75 gallons.<br />
<br />
- Pre-boil gravity low at 1.050 (target 1.054). 60-minute boil. Final volume ~5.75 gallons; OG low at 1.062. Chilled to 62 F, then poured into Better Bottle. Aerated with 75 seconds of pure O2, pitched yeast slurry at 64 F.<br />
<br />
- Fermentation was off and pacing by the next morning, going strong over the first few days with the temps staying comfortably in the 67-68 F range. The krausen, as usual for LAIII, was thick and milkshake-like for many days after fermentation signs stopped in the airlock.<br />
<br />
- 18/2/16 - Added dry hops into primary, FG 1.017.<br />
<br />
- 22/2/16 - Racked into CO2-purged keg, set in keezer to bring temp down and began force carbing the next day.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPFhY3TSyjHtwO1h7zc4D82V6ZusVOAfPKXRWgw3hWFHcUv_HzKYDuU1PEjv3Eo-JRyTxnuFfhMb6X_jwMPdSYZ0KbOjG_Ymwdgs4_UOp26Q9jDOCQ6S9qAdFurKp-JBXpMDUAljWERnAP/s1600/IMG_5473.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPFhY3TSyjHtwO1h7zc4D82V6ZusVOAfPKXRWgw3hWFHcUv_HzKYDuU1PEjv3Eo-JRyTxnuFfhMb6X_jwMPdSYZ0KbOjG_Ymwdgs4_UOp26Q9jDOCQ6S9qAdFurKp-JBXpMDUAljWERnAP/s640/IMG_5473.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<i>Appearance</i> - Poured with a medium-sized head that fades after a few minutes to a thin film on top of the beer. Body is a very dark brown colour, and seems virtually opaque when held to the light.<br />
<br />
<i>Aroma</i> - Quite balanced, with the toffee-like, chocolatey malt character melding well with the piney, dank, slightly fruity overtones from the hops. Otherwise clean, no flaws.<br />
<br />
<i>Taste</i> - Very nice flavour blending here: light chocolate, dark bread, toffee, with similar hop character noted in the aroma. Finishes slightly dry, but balanced well with the sweetness, medium bitterness. Smooth.<br />
<br />
<i>Mouthfeel</i> - Medium-bodied, medium carbonation, creamy.<br />
<br />
<i>Overall</i> - I enjoy this beer, even if it's far from my favorite IPA style. If I brewed it again, I'd try to drop the color by at least several SRM points, and maybe dial the bitterness back by 5-10 IBUs. I wouldn't mind also switching up the hops again, maybe even dropping the CTZ in favor of another fruity variety, such as Azacca or something similar.Shawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08469375277267237839noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5076002047553648960.post-34953660010441191902016-03-02T10:42:00.001-04:002016-03-02T10:42:20.000-04:00American Pale Ale with Azacca and Galaxy, fermented with London Ale IIIIn 2014, I brewed the widely-available <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2014/06/brewing-russian-river-row-2-hill-56.html" target="_blank">clone recipe of Russian River's Row 2, Hill 56</a>, a Simcoe single-hopped American Pale Ale. I had been looking to brew something for my older brother's wedding, and I had heard good things about this beer. Simcoe is a great hop, and despite being used in relatively-small amounts in this recipe (only 4 oz for a batch; compared to a lot of hoppy recipes nowadays - my own included - that's really not that much!), the beer had a great aroma and flavour, and was enjoyed by non-beer-drinkers and beer geeks alike.<br />
<br />
Since then, I've always meant to brew that recipe again, except change up the hop(s) used. I know other homebrewers have used that recipe to feature other varieties, continuing the trend of single-hopped beers. But for me, I more just wanted to stick with the grist and go from there. I don't know why the grist seems to work so well, but it does. The combination of Pilsner malt and Maris Otter (instead of just using 2-row, which is pretty common in APAs) works really well at providing enough of a slightly-bready malt character to the beer, topped off with a little bit of light Crystal (~20 L) and Carapils. As usual for my system, Acid malt is also added to bring the mash pH down to the 5.4 region; I've been doing this consistently now, and I've been quite happy with the effect it's having (I fully acknowledge that a blind-tasting has not been done to confirm this!).<br />
<br />
So, with the grist already decided, I had a hell of a bunch of hops to pick from. I've made several hop orders since late fall, and along with quite a bit left from last year's crop, there were all sorts of options. I wanted this beer to be REALLY juicy; ever since I was lucky enough to have tried Scaled Up, a DIPA from <a href="http://www.trilliumbrewing.com/" target="_blank">Trillium Brewing</a>, a month or so ago (have you tried this beer? It's amazing!), I've been craving hops even more than usual. Damn these delicious beers for spoiling me! Luckily, many of the hop varieties I have in my freezer should be more than satisfactory, so, what to pick?<br />
<br />
Ultimately, I settled on two varieties, to keep things relatively simple. And I picked two that are becoming two of my favourites as I use them more and more - Azacca and Galaxy. I really don't think you can go wrong with either one, and as I was giving it some thought, I realized that I hadn't actually used them <u>together</u> before. Travesty! But what better beer to showcase how these two blend than a fairly simple APA? And how could these not work together, right? They've definitely got to be two of the more-tropical, fruity, citrusy varieties out there, in a world with one heck of a lot of fruity hop types.<br />
<br />
I didn't follow the hopping schedule for R2H56; I went with what I almost always use now for hoppy recipes that I develop on my own: a small bittering charge at 60 minutes (to only 10-15 IBUs; in fact, I'm starting to drop this altogether in some beers), an ounce at 10 minutes, then large WP and post-chilling additions, along with a dry-hop of 3 oz total. I've had good results with this method, and don't usually stray too far. The ratio is skewed slightly towards Galaxy (5.5 oz vs. 3.5 oz of Azacca), but only because I had more Galaxy on hand.<br />
<br />
For fermentation, I went once again with London Ale III. I've brewed several different variations on the IPA style with this strain now, and you can count me as yet another believer... it is truly great with hoppy beers. It doesn't attenuate as highly as US-05, usually finishing for me to 1.013-1.014, giving the beer a nice, creamy mouthfeel without tasting under-attenuated. I find the beers I brew with this strain come out very hazy/cloudy in true Hill Farmstead/Trillium fashion, but that's ok with me! I know not everyone is thrilled by a hazy beer, but many of the best hoppy beers I've had have been cloudy, so I kind of expect that, now.<br />
<br />
The brew day for this beer was uneventful, everything going smoothly. Fermentation was going strong by the next day - normal for my experience with London Ale III - and after 10 days or so I dry-hopped the beer in primary for about a week, then transferred to a keg and started carbing. I was really looking forward to this beer.<br />
<br />
And what a tasty beer this is! I have to say, if Azacca and Galaxy were easier to get, this would be my new house APA. I've made very few beers juicier than this - big blast of tropical fruit and citrus, with maybe just a touch of pine in there. Lately, as the keg is getting down, the beer looks and tastes a lot like OJ, and of course I mean that in a good way. Creamy, smooth body, but it still finishes quite dry with a moderate bitterness. It's definitely been one of the best-received of my homebrews; it's rating on Untappd is the highest of any I've brewed, tied with my <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2015/03/brewing-equinox-one-hop-session-ipa.html" target="_blank">Equinox Session IPA</a>.<br />
<br />
Ok, so it's no big deal that I've confirmed what we all would have guessed: Azacca and Galaxy work great together, especially when fermented with London Ale III. But hey, I'm still glad I took the time to try it!<br />
<br />
<b>Recipe Targets:</b> (<u>5.5 gallons</u>, 75% efficiency) OG 1.056, FG ~1.013, IBU ~45, SRM 5.2, ABV ~5.6%<br />
<br />
<b>Grains:</b><br />
2.9 kg (57.7%) Bohemian Pilsner<br />
1.65 kg (32.8%) Maris Otter<br />
200 g (4%) CaraRed (20 L)<br />
150 g (3%) CaraPils<br />
125 g (2.5%) Acid malt<br />
<br />
<b>Hops:</b><br />
Polaris - 5 g (19.8% AA) @ 60 min<br />
<br />
Galaxy - 28 g (12% AA) @ 10 min<br />
<br />
Galaxy - 56 g @ 0 min (<u>with a 15 min hop steep</u>)<br />
Azacca - 28 g @ 0 min (<u>with a 15 min hop steep</u>)<br />
<br />
Galaxy - 28 g @ 0 min (<u>when begin chilling</u>)<br />
Azacca - 28 g @ 0 min (<u>when begin chilling</u>)<br />
<br />
Galaxy - 42 g dry-hop for 5 days (in primary)<br />
Azacca - 42 g dry-hop for 5 days (in primary)<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<b>Misc:</b> 1/2 tab Irish Moss at 5 min<br />
<br />
<b>Yeast:</b> Wyeast 1318 London Ale III (with a starter, ~200 billion cells)<br />
<br />
<b>Water:</b> Fredericton city water, carbon-filtered; 7 g Gypsum and 7 g calcium chloride added to mash<br />
<br />
- Brewed on January 13th, 2016, by myself. 50-minute mash with 15 L of strike water; mash temp on target of 151 F. Mashed-out for 10 minutes with 7.5 L of boiling water to 166 F. Sparged with ~3.25 gallons of 168 F water for final volume of ~6.75 gallons.<br />
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- Pre-boil gravity 1.044. 60-minute boil. Final volume ~5.75 gallons; OG 1.055. Chilled to 62 F, then poured into Better Bottle. Aerated with 60 seconds of pure O2, pitched yeast slurry at 64 F.<br />
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- Active fermentation by the next day, continued for 2-3 before settling down. Dry-hopped in primary on January 25th; FG 1.013. Kegged on February 1st.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2ya-H0QxmieBmbgCWWUGKQ1O7JqqGU7RBoAfBnSCQg-Y0gtsPhM_mNIbd0qmM6lxICsEdfzXLhmY4EARAhKa_HgPZPHo6lBJXBbP6wqvLzH-gnLHgZoomlNmNU7ZKDRB21UT_8AdSxvkd/s1600/IMG_0770.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="476" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2ya-H0QxmieBmbgCWWUGKQ1O7JqqGU7RBoAfBnSCQg-Y0gtsPhM_mNIbd0qmM6lxICsEdfzXLhmY4EARAhKa_HgPZPHo6lBJXBbP6wqvLzH-gnLHgZoomlNmNU7ZKDRB21UT_8AdSxvkd/s640/IMG_0770.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<i>Appearance:</i> Pours with a moderate-sized, white creamy head (not normally as large as in that picture) that fades to about 1/2-finger and sticks around. Body is a light-orange colour, and very hazy/cloudy.<br />
<br />
<i>Aroma:</i> Big punch of orange juice, along with a tropical fruit character that I unfortunately can't pick apart to actually name which fruit(s). Very little malt character.<br />
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<i>Taste:</i> A little more malt presence here - lightly bready, maybe a touch of wheat character? - but still mostly juicy, fruity hops. Bitterness in the finish comes across as medium-light, to me.<br />
<br />
Mouthfeel: Medium-light bodied, very creamy, moderate carbonation. Smooth.<br />
<br />
<i>Overall:</i> A great beer, made great by great hops. Will brew again, and don't think I'd change anything... at least not to a large degree.Shawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08469375277267237839noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5076002047553648960.post-66369616276103109702016-02-23T12:22:00.001-04:002016-02-23T12:22:09.634-04:00100% Citra-hopped Session Red IPA, fermented with London Ale IIIFor my last homebrew batch of 2015, I didn't have too much trouble coming up with what to brew. I never have problems with ideas, it's more often a case that I can't decide WHICH one to go with. Here, however, I had just brewed a new <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2016/01/meek-celebration-2015-imperial-ipa-with.html" target="_blank">Imperial IPA</a> for giving away (well, mostly) as Christmas gifts, and I was looking to have a couple of session beers on tap. I actually rebrewed my <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2015/03/brewing-equinox-one-hop-session-ipa.html" target="_blank">Equinox Session IPA</a>, but wanted another. Looking back at some of the hoppy, session beers I've brewed, the <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2015/04/baby-zoe-session-version-of-maine-beer.html" target="_blank">"Baby Zoe"</a> - a clone of <a href="http://www.mainebeercompany.com/" target="_blank">Maine Beer Co.</a> Zoe, but dialled back to a sub-5% ABV - stuck out as one of my favorites.<br />
<br />
So, I planned on brewing another Session Red IPA, so to speak. But I didn't want to do the exact same recipe... quite the contrary. I used the idea to come up with one that was completely different in grist, hops and yeast. I've been having mostly good luck with my series of one-hop Session IPAs, and I liked the idea of trying a single hop in a darker grist. Would the hop come through with similar characteristics as in a pale beer? I didn't know; I don't really recall trying many Session Red IPAs at all, let alone a single-hopped one, so I picked a hop that I loved, and was quite familiar with: Citra. Hey, if you're a homebrewer and like hops, you're familiar with Citra.<br />
<br />
But first, as always, the grist. My first intention was to simply copy the grist I had used for the Baby Zoe; I liked it, and had used in a couple of other beers. But I remembered that the grist for another Red IPA clone recipe I brewed once - <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.com/2014/09/brewing-modern-times-blazing-world-clone.html" target="_blank">Blazing World</a>, from <a href="http://moderntimesbeer.com/site/age-verification" target="_blank">Modern Times</a> - was also quite good. I have actually been wanting to do a "Baby" recipe of that beer as well, so it made sense to give it a try in this beer, in case I never got around to doing a smaller Blazing Worlds. It's a simpler recipe than what's involved for Zoe: a large portion of Maris Otter for the base, almost 15% Munich for extra breadiness, and then a bit of Roasted Barley and Carafa II to darken. I also added close to 2% Acid malt for mash pH purposes (and some calcium chloride and Gypsum, of course). Pretty straight-forward, giving a calculated SRM around 11.<br />
<br />
I took a slightly different approach to the hopping schedule as well. Yes, it's all Citra, of course, but I dropped the 60-minute addition. I've been keeping the IBUs in a lot of my hoppy beers relatively low, with most of them coming from late or whirlpool additions, but I still usually add a little bit of a high-AA hop at the beginning of the boil. This time around, I made no additions until the 10-minute mark, where I threw in 1 oz. Another ounce at 5 minutes, then a steep of 3 oz, and another 3 oz for the dry-hop. That's half a pound of Citra in a ~4.5% ABV beer, which I assumed would be enough. But would it be the super-tropical, sometimes-cat-pee aroma that I was used to?<br />
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As for fermenting the beer, normally I'd use something neutral like US-05. But I've been having a lot of fun with London Ale III for my last bunch of hoppy beers, and I wanted to try using it in this one. If I had been really curious as to how a low-ABV, Red IPA with all-Citra would taste, I wouldn't have changed another variable, let alone the yeast. Oh well!<br />
<br />
Once fermentation was complete, I left it alone for a few more days before taking a gravity reading and throwing the dry hops into the primary fermentor. After another five days, I kegged the beer and started carbonating. As usual, I started sampling the beer a bit too early; I can't help it, I always have such a hard time waiting for a beer to be "ready", and it doesn't matter what it is! But with this beer, I find it's been tasting virtually the same since I started drinking it in early January.<br />
<br />
In a nutshell, I like this beer. I like that it's low-alcohol, but thankfully doesn't come across as too thin (mind you, more body WOULD be preferable; my target mash temp of 155 F was missed by a couple degrees, since I was tackling too many things that morning and got distracted). I enjoy the malt presence - there's some toffee and caramel in there, but it's not too sweet for a Red IPA. I do think I prefer the Zoe clone grist, however, so will likely stick closer to that in future beers of this style. The Citra does come through quite a bit, but definitely not so much as in a pale beer, as I mostly expected. I actually find that it's more dank than fruity; I know others have noticed this in beers heavy in Citra, and since it's a single-hop beer, I shouldn't be surprised. But I brewed a <a href="http://meekbrewingco.blogspot.ca/2012/09/brewing-kern-river-citra-dipa-clone.html" target="_blank">Kern River Citra DIPA clone</a> in 2012 - that single-hop beer had far more fruitiness to it than this one.<br />
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My only real complaint is that the head isn't very dense; it disappears soon after pouring the beer. If I brewed it again I may add some wheat malt, but I haven't really had issues with that before. The beer is also very hazy, but I've been getting that a lot with many of my recent heavily-hopped, London Ale III-fermented beers, and I'm ok with it. If you're looking to try something new with your Citra, give this one a go, especially if you're into sessionable Red IPAs.<br />
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<b>Recipe Targets:</b> (<u>5.5 gallons</u>, 75% efficiency) OG 1.048, FG ~1.014, IBU ~40, SRM 11, ABV ~4.5%<br />
<br />
<b>Grains:</b><br />
3.5 kg (81.7%) Maris Otter<br />
625 g (14.6%) Munich<br />
75 g (1.8%) Acid malt<br />
45 g (1.1%) Roasted Barley<br />
38 g (0.9%) Carafa II<br />
<br />
<b>Hops:</b><br />
Citra - 28 g (11.1% AA) @ 10 min<br />
Citra - 28 g @ 5 min<br />
<br />
Citra - 84 g @ 0 min (<u>with a 15 min hop steep</u>)<br />
<br />
Citra - 84 g dry-hop for 5 days (in primary)<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<b>Misc:</b> 1/2 tab Irish Moss at 5 min<br />
<br />
<b>Yeast:</b> Wyeast 1318 London Ale III (with a starter, ~200 billion cells)<br />
<br />
<b>Water:</b> Fredericton city water, carbon-filtered; 4 g Gypsum and 4 g calcium chloride added to mash<br />
<br />
- Brewed on December 14th, 2015, by myself. 50-minute mash with 13 L of strike water; mash temp low at 153 F (was aiming for 155 F, but got distracted). Mashed-out for 10 minutes with 5 L of boiling water to 163 F. Sparged with ~4.25 gallons of 168 F water for final volume of ~6.75 gallons.<br />
<br />
- Pre-boil gravity a bit high at 1.041 (target 1.039). 60-minute boil. Final volume ~5.5-5.75 gallons; OG 1.049. Chilled to 62 F, then poured into Better Bottle. Aerated with 60 seconds of pure O2, pitched yeast slurry at 64 F.<br />
<br />
- Fast and efficient fermentation over the next couple of days. FG on Dec. 26th was 1.014; added dry hops on this date in primary. Racked into CO2-purged keg on January 2nd.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1w13LEdBjhvc8bo9EjXcqrE_2RvRIg_T9mA5S5n4n6kocOONBXV-SAXq3YTRAgiTSqlFmlBuKoV-YVrMXkS-Y5tnTmiDS0FuLI2j1EKPfEmZX84Lot-FrOmZrqns2Z57uR17yJMK-Z14-/s1600/citra.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1w13LEdBjhvc8bo9EjXcqrE_2RvRIg_T9mA5S5n4n6kocOONBXV-SAXq3YTRAgiTSqlFmlBuKoV-YVrMXkS-Y5tnTmiDS0FuLI2j1EKPfEmZX84Lot-FrOmZrqns2Z57uR17yJMK-Z14-/s640/citra.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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<br />
<i>Appearance:</i> Pours with a small-moderate-sized off-white head that fades very quickly, leaving only a thin film on the beer. The body is a dark red color, and quite hazy.<br />
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<i>Aroma:</i> Pleasant blend of toffee-sweet malt character and a mixture of fruity and dank from the Citra. The sweetness is there, as expected, but luckily it's well-balanced thanks to the hops.<br />
<br />
<i>Taste: </i>That malty sweetness (caramel, toffee) comes up first, surrounded immediately by mostly-dank hops. Some fruit, but I find the taste has the dankness dominate. It finishes slightly sweeter than a paler hopper beer, as expected; moderate bitterness.<br />
<br />
<i>Mouthfeel: </i>Medium-light bodied, moderate carbonation (bordering on moderate-low).<br />
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<i>Overall:</i> Enjoyable. Would like to see more body and a denser head, but I enjoy the easy-drinking nature of the beer and the slightly-altered Citra presence. A worthy experiment, and another sessionable beer I could see myself brewing again.Shawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08469375277267237839noreply@blogger.com0