Hop Lust » Brewing

June Brewday – Green Flash IPA Clone

brent — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 17:24:43 +0000

Brewing a Green Flash IPA clone with my brother. It’s part of his Christmas present.

10:15 – Mashed In. 152F, 5.3pH.

11:52 – On the way to boiling …

12:20 – Boiling, added the 90 minute hop addition.

That’s a lot of hops….

16:30 – Done cleaning, wort is in the fermenter coming down to pitching temp. Hit the gravity right on at 1.069.

May Brewday – Stuck in Lodi Rye

brent — Wed, 19 May 2010 19:05:41 +0000

Finally brewing again after several busy months! I’m really excited to get this beer brewed in the new fermenter system, since it picked up my house off-flavor the last few times I’ve brewed it. This time I’m also using the White Labs Kolsch yeast, WLP029, to see how it works in the beer.

0945 – Mashed in, off to a nice early start. 149F and 5.4pH. Off to get propane.
1130 – Finally started the first runoff after a LONG trip to get propane. Ugh.
1151 – Second runoff and the kettle is heating up. I just realized that I forgot to sanitize my fermenter though, that’s a bummer. I think the trick will be to move the kettle to the table during the whirlpool and throw the fermenter on the burner then. This is definitely something I’ll have to think about for future brewdays, running out for propane during the mash like I used to do is not great with the new setup.

My rye malt had a lot of bugs in it, as if there wasn’t enough protein in the rye by itself:

1225 – Added my 60 minute boil hops and started the countdown.

1325 – Started the chiller, ran out to get ice and lunch.
Check out the break:

Alright, hit my OG just about right on: 1.042. Everything’s in the fermenter and coming down to pitching temp. A good day, except for the hour and fifteen minutes it took to get propane.

RyePA Kegging

brent — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 21:38:47 +0000

I just finished kegging the RyePA I brewed in November and I’ve got some mixed emotions. Everything was looking great, the fermenter system worked excellent this time around and racking to the kegs with co2 was really simple. I got just the right volume to fill two kegs, and the sample I took to test the gravity smelled great. Then I checked the gravity. It looks like my little mistake during mash-in cost me. The sample came in at around 1.017, giving the beer 6.9% ABV. That’s about 74% apparent attenuation for those that are keeping track. That’s not terrible, but it’s not what I really wanted with this beer. See, I like my IPA’s to be relatively dry, and the rye malt in the grist already adds a creamy viscosity to the brew. The combination is something that’s a little heavier on the tongue than I’d like, but it’s certainly not bad. The taste is spot-on, and I can only imagine that once the dry hops do their thing I won’t really care about this little mistake too much.

Cream Ale Kegging

brent — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 21:39:06 +0000

I just finished kegging the cream ale. It tastes fantastic, the hops may be a little too upfront for the style, but the citrus-y, earthy notes compliment the beer really well in my opinion. I couldn’t stop drinking the sample I pulled. It also attenuated really well, finishing at 1.006 (1.5 P). That puts the final ABV around 5.5. I’m really happy with the results of the batch, but I did have some problems with the new fermenter. I plan on detailing those once I’ve had a chance to really look at what happened.

Barleywine Update

brent — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 03:08:39 +0000

Last Saturday I added 4lbs of Turbinado sugar to the fermenting barleywine. That really woke the yeast up and got them going again for a couple of days. I just got back from The Bruery’s Black Tuesday party and checked the gravity on the barleywine. It’s currently sitting between 1.018 and 1.020. After adding the sugar on Saturday the effective OG should be 1.107. That means that it’s currently sitting at somewhere around 11.8% ABV and it’s delicious. It’s still very yeasty and the hops added near the end of the boil are very upfront. It’s a blast of pine, orange and grapefruit, with a good dose of caramel thrown in for good measure. The hoppiness will fade as the beer ages and the caramel will come out more. This will be a really fun beer to try as it ages.

October Brewday – Barleywine

brent — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:19:28 +0000

I took the day off to brew today. I’m making a big American style barleywine that I’m hoping to drink at Christmas. I know this isn’t enough time to properly age a barleywine, but as long as the alcohol isn’t too overpowering I think it will be a nice beer after only a few months. I enjoy the way barleywine changes as it ages and think it’s great fresh as well.

10:10 – Mashed In @ 150F

12:10 – Started the first batch runoff.

You can see that I’m really maxing out my mash tun, this is right before the first batch runoff:

Starting the vorlauf, the color is perfect and it really smells wonderful!

13:20 – Added the 90 minute hop addition (the one on the top in this pic) and started the timer.

Finally wrapped everything up at about 17:30, which isn’t too bad considering the long mash and boil times. Here is the recipe. I haven’t added the Turbinado yet, that will come in a couple of days. I ended up at 1.092, which is higher than I expected without the Turbinado. This may even hit 12% if the yeast keep going like I expect them to. I’m pitching 4 packages of US-05 into the 10 gallons.

Hoppy Amber Update

brent — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 23:50:43 +0000

I just decided to pull a quick gravity sample from the hoppy amber and it’s tasting very nice. The finishing gravity was a little higher than I expected: 1.016, leaving about 6.7% ABV. No sign so far of the nasty off flavor that’s been plaguing me for about a year…I’ll have to write more about this later.

I’d like to get this kegged in the next day or two and get it on tap asap.

Dead Yeast

brent — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 00:56:46 +0000

After two days of absolutely no signs of fermentation, I decided it was time to pitch some new yeast into the rye beer. It seems like all 4 packets of K-97 that I had were dead on arrival, so I ended up going with US-05. My main concern with doing this is that US-05 tends to attenuate much better than K-97 and has a little different flavor profile. Mostly I just hope it doesn’t end up too dry with the really low mash temperature.

I always rehydrate my dry yeast, and I thought that since there were some bubbles on top after rehydrating that the K-97 would be ok. For reference, here’s a pic of the rehydrated K-97:

And here’s a pic of the happily rehydrated US-05:

I pitched this on Thursday night and the beer is fermenting away now.

I put the Fantome-yeast Saison on tap the other day next to the second keg of Brueday beer and I really enjoy it. It’s hoppy, phenolic and fruity. Yum! I still wish it had finished a little drier, but it’s quite drinkable as-is.

March Brewday – Pale Ale

brent — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 21:46:53 +0000

I didn’t get to brew on the holiday in February like I had hoped. I did keg the MBL though. My study group decided to get together on the holiday to go over some case studies we were working on. The last few weeks I’ve been neck deep in case studies and projects and I’ve been struggling just to keep my head above water. Thankfully, we finished our quarter yesterday and today I’m brewing!

I slept in pretty late since I’ve been getting hardly any sleep for the last week or so, and finally got started around noon.

I decided to go with a pale ale today. So far in 2009 I’ve been in a session beer kind of mood and I’m sticking with that for this beer. It may be a bit on the big side for a session beer, but I still think it qualifies. I’m also using up some hops that have been in my freezer for a while.

12:55 – Mashed in @ 151°F and 5.25pH. Then took off to go get more propane.

14:48 – Basically done sparging, wort’s at about 180°F and I’m getting back outside so I don’t have another boilover.

15:15 – Added my 60 minute hops – some Chinook pellets. Time to start cleaning.

14:18 – Killed the burner and threw in my knockout hops. I won’t be starting the chiller for a few more minutes. This is a strategy that I tried once a long time ago with a pale ale and it came out with a hop flavor and aroma that I really liked, so I’ve stuck with it. I like to let the knockout hops sit for between 15-30 minutes before starting the chiller. I’ll probably be on the short side of that today.

14:32 – Started the chiller…

17:09 – Just got back from the store to grab some ice to run through my immersion chiller. It’s at 90ºF now.

17:35 - So much for this being nice session beer. I just took my grvity reding nd it showed tht I’m t 1.060. Bummer, but mybe I finlly fixed my efficiency problem with my new drill. Oh, nd one of the keys on my keybord isn’t working for some reson … cn you guess which one??

Crazy Yeast and Mo Betta Lite Update

brent — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 21:15:19 +0000

My first keg of belgian oatmeal stout kicked last week and I decided to swap in a fresh keg of the same brew right before I left for class last Saturday morning. I wanted to get it cold so I could bring a growler of it to a super bowl party on Sunday. As soon as I hooked up the gas I knew there was a problem: foam started shooting up into the gas line even though the gas was turned on. I quickly discovered that my manifold does not have check valves like I thought it did and the stout almost made it into my keg of IPA. Without thinking, I disconnected the gas from both kegs and pulled on the pressure relief valve of the stout. Big mistake. Belgian oatmeal stout went everywhere! My clothes were soaked and I was now close to being late for class so I just closed the fridge to deal with it later.

The last time I had touched the keg was a little over a month earlier when it had been pressurized to about 30psi at room temperature. Not enough to cause the kind of reaction I got when I hooked it up. As best I can figure the yeast must have kept working on the already very dry (2°P) beer and overcarbonated the beer in the keg. I’ve been venting pressure for a few days and I can finally pour a glass that’s about 30% beer and 70% foam – at least good enough that I can drink it.

A quick update on the Mo Betta Lite, I took a gravity reading last weekend and it was at 1.5°P (1.006) which is pretty good. With any luck it will drop just a little more. I’m keeping it nice and cool and I’ll probably keg it this weekend. The hops in the sample weren’t quite as noticeable as I’d like, but the grainy sweetness was very nice and it had a slight but noticeable bitterness to it. Pretty good, but it should be better once it’s cold and carbonated.