Grapefruit 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), Orange Creamsicle IPA. 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.

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 The Mad Fermentationist, your popularity increases exponentially! Where were you in junior high school, Mike Tonsmeire, huh? Huh?

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.

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.

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.

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 brewed his own version and added a whole bean, and it was spot-on. So, a full bean it is!

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.

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.

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.

Recipe Targets: (5.5 gallons, 75% efficiency) OG 1.067, FG ~1.014, IBU ~54, SRM 4.2, ABV ~7%

Grains & Sugars:
4.65 kg (75.8%) Canadian 2-row
900 g (14.7%) Flaked Oats
180 g (2.9%) Carapils
180 g (2.9%) Acid malt
227 g (3.7%) Lactose powder (added during the boil)

Hops:
Polaris - 8 g (17% AA) @ 60 min
Citra - 28 g (11.5% AA) @ 10 min
Mosaic - 28 g (10.5% AA) @ 10 min

Citra & Mosaic - 42 g each @ 0 min (with a 15 min hop steep)

Azacca - 104 g dry-hop for 5 days (in primary)

Citra - 80 g dry-hop for 5 more days (in primary)

Misc:
17 g grapefruit zest (in primary with Citra dry hop)
1 vanilla bean (scraped and chopped, soaked in vodka for a week, strained and added in serving keg)

Yeast: Wyeast 1318 London Ale III (~240 billion cells)

Water: Fredericton city water, carbon-filtered; 3 g Gypsum and 7 g calcium chloride added to mash

- 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.

- 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.

- Fermentation active by the next day and over 2-3 days (temp got as high as 72 F).

- 8/4/17 - Fermentation started slowing, added first dry hop.

- 13/4/17 - Added second dry-hop and grapefruit zest.

- 20/4/17 - Kegged beer (with vanilla bean-infused vodka), carbed at 30 PSI for 36 hours.

Appearance: Pours much like the last: moderate-large sized, stark white head that shows great retention. Body is pale yellow, and completely cloudy.

Aroma: 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).

Taste: 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.

Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied, medium carbonation. Very smooth and creamy.

Overall: 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.

Brewing a Brett Session IPA (with Azacca and Columbus)

I brewed my first 100% Brettanomyces IPA 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?

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 The Yeast Bay's Amalgamation, 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.

I've been trying to have one of my four taps always dedicated to a sour or 100% Brett beer, and when my Gose dry-hopped with Chinook and grapefruit zest 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?

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.

I took the opportunity to use different hop varieties this time around - aside from my all-Azacca Brett IPA 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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

Recipe Targets: (5.5 gallons, 80% efficiency) OG 1.042, FG ~1.010, IBU ~25, SRM 3.1, ABV ~4.1%

Grains & Sugars:
2.6 kg (72.2%) Canadian 2-row
350 g (9.7%) Flaked Oats
350 g (9.7%) Wheat malt
150 g (4.2%) Carapils
150 g (4.2%) Acid malt

Hops:
Polaris - 4 g (17% AA) @ 60 min

Azacca - 42 g (8.2% AA) @ 0 min (with a 20-minute steep)
CTZ - 28 g (10.9% AA) @ 0 min (with a 20-minute steep)

Azacca - 42 g @ 0 min (when started chilling)
CTZ - 28 g @ 0 min (when started chilling)

Azacca - 56 g dry-hop for 5 days (in primary)
CTZ - 56 g dry-hop for 5 days (in primary)

Misc:
1/2 tab Irish Moss at 5 min

Yeast: The Yeast Bay Brett Amalgamation (with a starter, to ~150 bil cells)

Water: Fredericton city water, carbon-filtered; 3 g Gypsum and 8 g calcium chloride added to mash

- 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.

- 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.

- 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.

Appearance: Pours with a large, dense, white head that sticks around for days. Body is light-yellow, and quite hazy.

Aroma: 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.

Taste: 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.

Mouthfeel: Medium-light bodied, medium carbonation. Smooth, not too thin at all for a sub 5% ABV beer.

Overall: 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.

Orange Creamsicle IPA - my first attempt at a "Milkshake" IPA

With 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.

One style I've been hearing about for months now is the Milkshake IPA. I believe Tired Hands 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: Tide & Boar in Moncton, New Brunswick, has released several iterations with different fruit (such as Peach Ale Shake), and Nova Scotia's Big Spruce Brewing currently has their take on the style out, Liquid James Brown.

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...

• Lactose powder is added to the beer to give some residual sweetness, and bump up the mouthfeel even more.
• Vanilla bean is usually added to bring the aromas/flavours associated with vanilla milkshakes.
• Fruit is often added (but not always), bringing even more to the aroma and flavour.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Recipe Targets: (5.5 gallons, 75% efficiency) OG 1.068, FG ~1.018, IBU ~54, SRM 4.6, ABV ~6.8%

Grains & Sugars:
2.9 kg (47.2%) Canadian 2-row
1.75 kg (28.5%) Maris Otter
900 g (14.7%) Flaked Oats
180 g (2.9%) Carapils
180 g (2.9%) Acid malt
227 g (3.7%) Lactose powder (added during the boil)

Hops:
Polaris - 8 g (17% AA) @ 60 min
Azacca - 28 g (7.8% AA) @ 10 min
Equinox - 28 g (13.4% AA) @ 10 min

Azacca & Equinox - 42 g each @ 0 min (with a 15 min hop steep)

Azacca & Equinox - 28 g each dry-hop for 5 days (in primary)

Equinox & Galaxy - 42 g each dry-hop for 4 more days (in DH keg)

Misc:
9 g orange zest (in DH keg)
1/2 vanilla bean (scraped and chopped, soaked in vodka for a week, strained and added in serving keg)

Yeast: Wyeast 1318 London Ale III (~240 billion cells)

Water: Fredericton city water, carbon-filtered; 3 g Gypsum and 7 g calcium chloride added to mash

- 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.

- 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.

Appearance: 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.

Aroma: Lots going on here - interesting mix of orange, tropical fruit, and light vanilla. No alcohol.

Taste: 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.

Mouthfeel: Medium-full bodied, medium carbonation.

Overall: 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.

Azacca Brett brux Trois Vrai IPA

Ok, say that three times really fast.

I've been itching to brew another 100% Brett IPA for a few months - my first two attempts in 2015 were both fermented with The Yeast Bay's Amalgamation (a blend of six Brett strains); the first was hopped with Amarillo and Hallertau Blanc, the second 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 Brett brux Trois Vrai 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 here). 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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

Makes you wonder what's growing in the tap line...

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!

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.

Recipe Targets: (5.5 gallons, 75% efficiency) OG 1.057, FG ~1.010, IBU ~42, SRM 4.1, ABV ~6%

Grains:
3.7 kg (71.8%) Canadian 2-row
1.1 kg (21.4%) Wheat malt
200 g (3.9%) Carapils
150 g (2.9%) Acid malt

Hops:
Polaris - 10 g (20% AA) @ 60 min

Azacca - 70 g @ 0 min (with a 20 min hop steep)
Azacca - 40 g @ 0 min (after started chilling)

Azacca - 105 g dry-hop for 5 days (in primary)

Misc: 1/2 tab Irish Moss at 5 min

Yeast: WLP648 Brett brux Trois Vrai (with a starter, ~200 billion cells)

Water: Fredericton city water, carbon-filtered; 5 g Gypsum and 5 g calcium chloride added to mash

- 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.

- 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.

- Fermentation was going strong by the next evening, but airlock activity was complete within 48 hours later. Temp never got above 72 F.

- 16/5/16 - FG 1.014; added dry-hops into primary. Kegged five days later and started carbing.

Appearance: 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).

Aroma: 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.

Taste: 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.

Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied, moderate carbonation.

Overall: 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.

American Pale Ale with Azacca and Galaxy, fermented with London Ale III

In 2014, I brewed the widely-available clone recipe of Russian River's Row 2, Hill 56, 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.

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!).

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 Trillium Brewing, 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?

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 together 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.

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.

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.

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.

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 Equinox Session IPA.

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!

Recipe Targets: (5.5 gallons, 75% efficiency) OG 1.056, FG ~1.013, IBU ~45, SRM 5.2, ABV ~5.6%

Grains:
2.9 kg (57.7%) Bohemian Pilsner
1.65 kg (32.8%) Maris Otter
200 g (4%) CaraRed (20 L)
150 g (3%) CaraPils
125 g (2.5%) Acid malt

Hops:
Polaris - 5 g (19.8% AA) @ 60 min

Galaxy - 28 g (12% AA) @ 10 min

Galaxy - 56 g @ 0 min (with a 15 min hop steep)
Azacca - 28 g @ 0 min (with a 15 min hop steep)

Galaxy - 28 g @ 0 min (when begin chilling)
Azacca - 28 g @ 0 min (when begin chilling)

Galaxy - 42 g dry-hop for 5 days (in primary)
Azacca - 42 g dry-hop for 5 days (in primary)

Misc: 1/2 tab Irish Moss at 5 min

Yeast: Wyeast 1318 London Ale III (with a starter, ~200 billion cells)

Water: Fredericton city water, carbon-filtered; 7 g Gypsum and 7 g calcium chloride added to mash

- 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.

- 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.

- 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.

Appearance: 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.

Aroma: 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.

Taste: 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.

Mouthfeel: Medium-light bodied, very creamy, moderate carbonation. Smooth.

Overall: 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.

Brewing a Red IPA, à la Sierra Nevada Celebration

DISCLAIMER: This is not a clone recipe of, or an attempt at cloning, Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale.

Not that I have anything against Celebration... on the contrary, I've always really enjoyed it. Hard to believe that a beer like this - they call it an American-style IPA, but look at it... it's a Red IPA, or hoppy American Amber, right? - has been around for over 30 years. There would have been a lot of years at the beginning there where you'd be hard-pressed to find another beer like this from anyone. For the two of you reading this post who haven't tried this beer, it's a seasonal release that comes out in the late fall, in time for Christmas. No, it's not spiced or mulled or anything like that, so I guess you can't call it a "Christmas beer", but what does that really even mean? It's just a tasty amber-colored, hoppy beer that is brewed with Cascade, Centennial, and Chinook hops.

All this being said, I decided this year to brew a "Christmas beer"; not a beer that is dark, strong, and heavily spiced, but simply a beer that I could give away for the holidays. I considered a lot of styles, most of them hoppy (of course), and, inspired by the type of beer Sierra Nevada Celebration is, I decided to go with a hoppy Amber Ale, aka West Coast Amber, aka India Red Ale, aka - and according to the new BJCP guidelines, the "definitive name" - Red IPA.

But I wanted this beer to be more than Celebration... that is, I wanted it to be hoppier. Every year there are some people who inevitably complain that Celebration isn't as hoppy as it was last year. I have no idea if this is true; I suspect that it's more likely that people have changed. I know for a fact that beers I found hoppy a few years ago would no longer taste as hoppy to me now; when you've had some great hoppy beers, you can get spoiled quickly (otherwise known as the lupulin threshold shift). Now that I HAVE had a lot of hoppy beers, I can confirm that Celebration isn't a supremely-hoppy beer... it's got a great malt character, and the hops ARE there, but I want more in my Red IPAs. I want beers along the lines of the last couple of hoppy Ambers I've brewed, namely the Modern Times Blazing World clone and Maine Beer Co. Zoe clone.

So that's exactly what I aimed for with this beer. I enjoyed the Blazing World clone so much that I went with the exact same malt bill; it makes a deep-red colored beer, with a really great malty sweetness that works fantastically at supporting a very hoppy beer. Lots of Maris Otter, almost 15% Munich malt, and then a little bit of Roasted Barley and Carafa II... in my opinion, it all works perfectly for this style of beer.

I had a LOT of ideas about which hops to use in this beer. I've brewed a lot of hoppy beers in 2014, and I still had quite a few varieties from the 2013 harvest. Three varieties, max, were what I wanted to use in this beer. But... which ones? After a lot of thought, I decided that I absolutely wanted to use Amarillo and Simcoe, mainly because I'm a big fan of Alpine Duet, an IPA that uses equal amounts of both; I've tried to clone that beer twice (here and here), and these hops really do work well together. But I had never used them together in an Amber, so I thought this was a great chance to try them in a darker beer.

Picking out the third hop was harder. I wanted to go with something great, one of the popular, new/newish varieties that I've brewed with, and therefore had a bit of experience with. I strongly considered both Nelson and Mosaic, but as much as I loved both, I had used them in the Blazing World clone. Galaxy crossed my mind as well, but in the end I settled on Azacca. I loved what it brought to my Oxbow Grizacca clone, and after the debacle with that beer (a leak of some sort drained most of the keg in the keezer, shortly after I had started drinking it), I wanted to try it again, and soon. The aromas of ripe stone fruit, the touch of pine... I figured it would work really well with Amarillo and Simcoe.

So, the hopping schedule below is what I came up with. I didn't base it on anything other than feel; if I had written the recipe down, and then erased my memory and wrote it again an hour later, the proportions would probably be different. An addition of Amarillo at 15 minutes, then heavy flameout additions (one for a hop steep, the other after turning on the wort chiller), and one dry-hop addition in primary... it all came to roughly 45% Amarillo, and 27.5% each Simcoe and Azacca. I really liked how the hopping in this recipe looked; it somehow worked in a way on paper that just HAD to translate to the final product. Or, so I hoped. Fermented with US-05, typical for my hoppy beers, the goal was a really hoppy (emphasis on tropical fruit and pine) ale, balanced with the malty sweetness of an Amber ale, finishing on the dry/bitter side.

I would normally keg a beer like this, but since my plans were to give the majority of the batch away, it just made sense to bottle it and distribute it ASAP, so that everyone would be able to drink the beer as fresh as possible. I timed the brew day to be in mid-November; that would give it a couple of weeks in primary, followed by the dry-hop (also in primary), and then a good two week period to carbonate, more than enough if the bottles were kept at room temperature.

And in a complete twist in my blogging routine, I'm posting the tasting notes at the same time as the recipe. I don't think I've ever managed to do that for a beer that I brewed recently! I'm quite behind in my posts lately, and I really wanted to have this one out before Christmas... looks like I'm just making it. BARELY. I can say that the beer came out really great, just what I was aiming for in terms of hop presence (huge), flavors/aromas (tropical, piney, citrusy), and malt presence (balanced almost perfectly). If I could change anything, I'd back off on the bitterness, but only slightly. Maybe knock it down to 60-65 IBUs? I've had several friends check-in to this beer on Untappd - Meek Celebration (2014) - and they've all loved it, for the most part.

If you're looking for a new hoppy Amber, Red IPA, whatever, to brew, I suggest you give this recipe a try... if you can get your hands on the hops, of course. Here's hoping everyone has a great Christmas, filled with good cheer, friends and family, and - of course - fantastic beer!

Recipe Targets: (5.5 gallons, 72% efficiency) OG 1.068, FG ~1.012, IBU ~75, SRM 14, ABV ~7.2%

Grains:
5.2 kg (83.3%) Maris Otter
930 g (14.9%) Munich malt
70 g (1.1%) Roasted Barley
45 g (0.7%) Carafa II

Hops:
Hop extract - 5 mL @ 60 min (or 28 g of 10% AA hop variety)

Amarillo - 40 g (8.1% AA) @ 15 min

Amarillo - 20 g @ 0 min (with a 15 minute hop steep)
Azacca - 40 g @ 0 min (with a 15 minute hop steep)
Simcoe - 20 g @ 0 min (with a 15 minute hop steep)

Amarillo - 20 g @ 0 min (when wort temp below 180 F)
Simcoe - 40 g @ 0 min (when wort temp below 180 F)

Amarillo - 54 g dry-hop for 5-7 days
Azacca - 40 g dry-hop for 5-7 days
Simcoe - 20 g dry-hop for 5-7 days

Misc: 1/2 tab Irish Moss at 5 min

Yeast: US-05 Safale, 1 package, rehydrated

Water: Fredericton city water, carbon-filtered

- Brewed on November 18th, 2014, by myself. 50-minute mash with 16 L of strike water, mashed in at target of 150 F. Mashed-out for 10 minutes with 8.75 L of boiling water. Sparged with ~3 gallons of 168 F water for final volume of ~6.75 gallons.

- SG a high at 1.057 (target 1.055). 60-minute boil. First flameout hops had a 15-minute steep before turning on the chiller, then added the second flameout hops. Final volume a little over 5.5 gallons; OG on target at 1.068. Chilled to 65 F, then poured/filtered into Better Bottle. Aerated with 90 seconds of pure O2, pitched rehydrated yeast.

- Good fermentation activity over the next four days, started slowing down quickly after that. Temp got as high as 70 F.

- 28/11/14 - FG a bit high at 1.016. Added dry-hops directly into primary.

- 3/12/14 - Bottled with 104 g table sugar, aiming for 2.5 vol CO2. 

Appearance: Pours with a moderate-sized, slightly off-white head that is thick and pretty creamy, with really good retention... fades to 1/2-finger or so. Body is a deep, dark ruby-red color, with excellent clarity.

Aroma: Absolutely huge hop aroma. Lots of tropical fruit, citrus, pine... there's a lot going on. The malty sweetness is there behind the hops, and it provides a nice backing to the aroma. No alcohol, no flaws that I can detect.

Flavor: Some of that bready, maltiness that is a little sweet, but the hops win out again. Great, sticky tropical and citrusy flavors in here. The beer is nicely balanced, with the finish leaning towards the dry side. Moderate-high bitterness.

Mouthfeel: Medium-light bodied, medium (almost medium-high) carbonation.

Overall: I really like this beer; it's up there with the Blazing World clone for my favorite hoppy Ambers that I've brewed. I'd dial back the IBUs a little, but otherwise I'd keep the recipe as-is.

Brewing an Oxbow Grizacca clone (No. 5 in the Maine Beer Clone series)

It occurred to me a while ago that I hadn't brewed any Maine beer clones lately; my last one was the delicious APA, MO, from Maine Beer Company, back in early January. So, naturally that got the idea in my head to brew another... and I'm telling you, there's a lot of good options. It never ceases to amaze me how many awesome breweries that Maine has. Some obvious beers that would be great to "clone" came to me: Maine Beer Co. Lunch, lots of beers from Allagash, and one of the most highly-sought-after beers in the state, The Substance, a fantastic American IPA from one of Portland's newest breweries, Bissell Brothers.

BUT. I was in Portland for one of my beer trips in June, and I had a lot of fantastic beers there, as always. Maybe my favorite was one from the farmhouse brewery, Oxbow, in Newcastle. The beers coming out of this little brewery are pretty awesome; I attempted a clone of one of their Freestyle series beers, No. 5 (a "Black Wheat Saison"), almost two years ago (my recipe here, along with more info on Oxbow). That was actually my first beer in the Maine Beer Clone series, and I had a lot of help from Oxbow co-founder and head brewer Tim Adams.

Oops, I'm digressing. Anyway, this awesome beer I had from Oxbow was Grizacca. I didn't know anything about the beer at the time, other than it was a ~5% ABV Saison-type beer. It was really delicious, and smelled fantastic. Light and easy-drinking, it was a very pale-colored beer, pretty cloudy. Strong on both Saison yeast character, and hops. Very "ripe" and fruity, I swore to myself that it must be heavily-hopped with Nelson Sauvin. Obviously, I was paying absolutely no attention to the actual NAME of the beer. Now that I know more, I can elaborate. Grizacca is a Grisette, heavily-hopped with Azacca.

First, some info on what a Grisette is/was. Thought to originate in the Hainaut province of Belgium in the late 1800s, Grisette was brewed for miners with the intention of being a dry, refreshing, and sessionable beer, similar to Saisons being brewed for farmers. Indeed, Grisette is very similar to the Saison style... at least, how Saison originally was: a low-alcohol, light-bodied golden ale. With a grist usually made up of a healthy portion of wheat, the beer was only lightly-hopped. According to "Farmhouse Ales: Culture and Craftsmanship in the Belgian Tradition", by Phil Markowski, only a single brewery in Belgium markets the name grisette: Brasserie Friart, better known now as Brasserie St. Feuillien. 

So, Oxbow took a mostly-diminished beer style (although, to be honest, it seems to me that a lot of today's low-alcohol Saisons could be considered Grisettes as well), and made it their own... by hopping the hell out if it with one of the newest, hottest hop varieties out there right now - Azacca. An American variety, I believe the 2013 crop was the first time Azacca was released commercially under that name (previously, it was known as ADHA 483; not quite as catchy). Like a lot of hops, it has many descriptors, including tropical fruit, citrus, pineapple, grapefruit, orchard fruit, and pine, among others. Already, there have been a lot of experiments with single-hopped beers with Azacca (especially among homebrewers; check out those by Derek at Bear-Flavored and Chris at Lewy Brewing).

Due to the generous information I was given for my last Oxbow clone, I decided to try emailing Tim Adams again to see if he'd be willing to help out a bit with a clone for Grizacca. Luckily for me, he was once again quite forthcoming. Here's his email response...

Use some good pils. 1/2 the grist should be a blend of malted wheat and and spelt.  Again, use the good stuff! Shoot for 4.5-5% abv. Blast your whirlpool with Azacca but save some for dry hop!  You might wanna dry hop twice, and you might wanna thow in one more hop varietal ;) Saison yeast of your choice, just make sure it does a good job!  We shoot for about 1.002 final gravity. You want that shit dry!

He was even nice enough to apologize later for being "cryptic" about the second hop variety; totally unnecessary, but still great of him! I felt this was plenty of information to go on, and could at the very least set me on the right track. 

I started by, of course, putting the recipe's grist together. Spelt is an ancient type of wheat that is high in protein (~17%) that is starting to see more use in brewing. I knew right away that I wouldn't be able to find any spelt from my LHBS. However, a friend here in Fredericton is the owner/brewer of a fairly-new Belgian-style brewery (Grimross Brewing), and he normally uses spelt in one of his flagship beers. Unfortunately, it had been hard to come by lately, so he was fresh out. Tim had actually told me that if finding spelt was an issue, to substitute in flaked wheat, which is what I ended up having to do. Otherwise, the rest of the grist was easy... I added a bit of Acid malt for pH reasons, and some rice hulls to help prevent a stuck sparge. I aimed for an OG of about 1.042 to get to ~4.7% ABV... I thought getting down to 1.002 for a final gravity may be pushing it a bit on my system at this time of year (summer would have been another story), so I figured 1.005-1.006 would be more realistic.

Coming up with a hopping schedule was, for the most part, pretty easy. I added a bit of Azacca at the beginning of the boil to provide a few IBUs (feel free to use any bittering hop; I used Azacca simply because I didn't feel the need to open a vacuum-sealed bag of another variety for just a few grams), and then added a whole whack of it near the end of the boil, at 5 minutes, flameout for a hop stand/steep, and even more when the wort temp dropped below 180 F (an approach I've been using a lot lately for hoppy beers). The question was... what should I add for the other hop variety, which I assumed would be in the dry-hop additions?

I really wish I had one of those amazing senses of smell, or a fantastic palate like some do... but I don't. I'm not going to pretend I can pick out a certain hop variety in a multi-hopped beer, especially when it's in the background compared to a highly-flavorful hop like Azacca. First, I considered Nelson Sauvin based on my initial thoughts on Grizacca, but somehow I can't see Oxbow using that in a beer with Azacca. I was going to go with Centennial, but at the last minute I changed my mind... and I don't know why. But I did, and threw in some Simcoe for both dry-hop additions. Even if it's not what Oxbow uses, I figure it'll still be tasty!

For my yeast, I went with the always-dependable (for me, anyway) Wyeast 3711 French Saison. I've used this strain several times in the past (such as in my very tasty Prairie Artisan Ales 'Merican clone); I really like what it brings to a beer, and how well it attenuates without a lot of fuss (I'm looking at you, 3724). It's also a great yeast to use this time of year; it's not exactly hot out anymore, and Wyeast lists the fermentation range from 65-77 F, which is perfectly doable any time of year, really, indoors.

And that's about it. As usual, here's hoping for a tasty beer, if not a clone of the real thing! It's all about the adventure, right? Well, the end product has to play SOME part in all this.

Recipe targets: (4 gallons, 75% efficiency) OG 1.041, FG ~1.005, IBU ~40, SRM 3, ABV ~4.6%

Grains:

1.3 kg (49.1%) Pilsner
650 g (24.5%) Wheat malt
650 g (24.5%) Flaked Wheat
50 g (1.9%) Acid malt
125 g Rice hulls

Hops:

Azacca - 5 g (14% AA) @ 60 min

Azacca - 30 g @ 5 min

Azacca - 30 g @ 0 min (with a 15-minute steep)

Azacca - 60 g after started chilling, when wort temp below 180 F

Azacca - 40 g dry-hop for 4 days (in primary)

Simcoe - 20 g dry-hop for 4 days (in primary)

Azacca - 40 g dry-hop for 4 more days (keg-hop)

Simcoe - 20 g dry-hop for 4 more days (keg-hop)

Misc.: 1/2 tab Irish Moss @ 5 min

Yeast: Wyeast 3711 French Saison (production date Aug 19th)

Water: Fredericton city water, carbon-filtered; 2 g Gypsum and 2 g calcium chloride added to the mash

- Brewed on September 28th, 2014, by myself. 50-minute mash with 8 L of strike water, mashed in at target of 148 F. Mashed-out for 10 minutes with 5 L of boiling water. Sparged with ~4.25 gallons of 168 F water for final volume of ~5.75 gallons.

- SG a bit low at 1.028 (target 1.029). 90-minute boil. Flameout hops had a 10-minute steep before turning on the chiller; wort temp was almost immediately below 180 F, where I added the second amount of flameout hops. Final volume ~4 gallons. Chilled down to 64 F, then poured into Better Bottle. OG slightly high at 1.042. Aerated with 60 seconds of pure O2, pitched yeast.

- Good activity over the first several days, temp getting up to 74 F. Visible fermentation ended quickly.

- 10/10/14 - FG 1.005. Added 1st dry hops directly into primary.

- 14/10/14 - Racked beer to CO2-purged keg; added 2nd dry hops in a weighted-down mesh bag; left at room temp.

- 18/10/14 - Removed dry-hops, set keg in keezer to bring temp down before starting to carb.

- Tasting notes here... the beer came out great, I'm really happy with it. However...