ESB

I bought a bunch of EKG hops in my last big hop buy with the intention of doing an English IPA. I figured I would grow a culture of WLP002 by brewing a smaller batch of ESB, rather than doing a 5L starter or whatever it would take me to make enough yeast for a bigger beer from a vial. I also wanted to have something tasty and sessionable around as the weather breaks. 

I've never done an ESB before, but I have done several batches of Welsh Pale Ale. This recipe reminded me of that beer quite a bit albeit with considerably more bitterness.

I'm using a combination of hop extract and EKG to get to the bitterness that I want to. In Mitch Steele's IPA book, he mentioned that English brewers would often bag their hops and pull them out after 30 minutes because they found that a longer boil extracted harsher flavor. I figured I could accomplish something like this by combining EKG bittering addition with a calculated amount of extract. I added 3.8 ml of extract and 2 oz of EKG at 30 minutes. According to HopUnion's extract calculator, that will give me 30 IBU in extract and according to Beersmith, I'll get 10 IBU from the 2oz of EKG at 30 minutes. That will put me at just north of 40 IBU once you throw in the knockout hops.

Brew notes:

Treated strike water with campden, 10g gypsum, and 10g calcium chloride for a target water profile of:

Calcium: 117
Magnesium: 5
Alkalinity as CaCO3: 69
Sodium: 20
Chloride: 117
Sulfate: 131
RA as CACO3: -18

I'm seeking balance in the chloride/sulfate ratio and plenty of calcium. The 20g split between calcium chloride and gypsum got me where I wanted to be with my RA without using acid. The next time I brew this, depending on how this one turns out, I will dial back or the calcium chloride and/or gypsum and use a lactic acid addition to compensate and keep my pH where I want it to be.

Mash pH 5.35.

Mashed for 70 minutes at 152, then raised the temperature to 168. I paid particular attention to may sparge temperature for this beer to see if that helped in my extract efficiency. I knew I left some extract in the mash tun on my last DIPA and I wondered if this was the culprit.

Transferred ~14 gallons of wort to the boil kettle. There was still a bit of wort left in the mash tun that couldn't fit comfortably in the kettle. Tasting it, the wort was tannic and not very sweet. The leftover wort was dumped with the spent grain.

Set the timer for a 70 minute boil, added hops and extract at 30 minutes, added rehydrated irish moss and yeast nutrient at 15 minutes, and knockout hops at flameout.

Chilled to 64 degrees, oxygenated for 120 seconds, pitched 2.5L of WLP 002.

OG: 1.048 @ 12 gallons.

Recipe: 

Batch size: 12 gallons

Estimated OG: 1.048 SG

Estimated Color: 7.2 SRM

Estimated IBU: 41.0 IBUs

Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:

------------

Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         

10.00 g               Calcium Chloride (Mash 60.0 mins)        Water Agent   1        -             

10.00 g               Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 mins Water Agent   2        -             

16 lbs                Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM)         Grain         3        84.2 %        

2 lbs                 Munich I (Weyermann) (7.1 SRM)           Grain         4        10.5 %        

1 lbs                 Caramel Malt - 60L (Briess) (60.0 SRM)   Grain         5        5.3 %         

3.00 oz               Hop Extract [10.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min    Hop           6        30.8 IBUs     

2.00 oz               Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 30.0 Hop           7        10.3 IBUs     

3.80 ml               CO2 Hop Extract (Boil 30.0 mins)         Other         8        -             

2.00 oz               Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Steep/Whi Hop           9        0.0 IBUs      

1.0 pkg               English Ale (White Labs #WLP002) [35.49  Yeast         10       -             

Mash Schedule: Temperature Mash, 1 Step, Medium Body

Total Grain Weight: 19 lbs

----------------------------

Name              Description                             Step Temperat Step Time     

Saccharification  Add 23.75 qt of water at 163.7 F        152.0 F       60 min        

Mash Out          Heat to 168.0 F over 10 min             168.0 F       10 min        

Sparge: Fly sparge with 11.54 gal water at 168.0 F

Dutch Double IPA

Are you sure you want to add all those whirlpool hops?

My brew buddy and I are avid Commando fans. We imagine a great double IPA as an action hero: calm under pressure, brutal, and a great (hop) punch line when appropriate. We figured we'd honor Alan "Dutch" Schaefer of Predator fame with the first of our action hero IPA series. I took my IIPA recipe, which is loosely based off of Stone's Enjoy By IPA with Columbus, Centennial and Nugget hops, and tailored it to where I wanted this IIPA to go. It's a little lighter in the ABV (I know, has the CIA got me pushing too many pencils?) and I changed the hop schedule slightly. See below.

Changes:

• 15ml hop extract instead of 25ml. Too bitter at first and the boatload of whirlpool hops will add bitterness.
• Had a snafu with Columbus hops, so had to do 2oz of Columbus and 4oz Mosaic in the whirlpool
• Rolled back the malt bill to put it closer to 8% ABV rather than 10% ABV. More friendly for week night drinking.
• Whirlpooling at 212 degrees rather than crashing to 180 degrees then whirlpooling. I got the feeling that I wasn't getting much out of the whirlpool hop addition in earlier batches.

Process:

Treated 8 gallons of water with 15g gypsum, 4ml lactic acid, and a half campden tablet.

Mashed in at 149 degrees. Started up pump to recirculate wort.

Mash pH 5.45.

PB OG: 1.055

Boiled for 10 minutes then added MT final runnings and 15ml hop extract. Started 60 minute timer.

  

Lots of whirlpool hops. Looks like stew.

Added wort chiller, yeast nutrient, rehydrated irish moss, and 3lb table sugar at 15 minutes.

Added 14 oz hops at knockout - 2 oz Columbus, 4 oz Mosaic, 4 oz Centennial, 4 oz Nugget. Whirlpooled for 30 minutes.

Chilled to 62 degrees, transferred 10 gallons to fermenter (I really need a new solution...this hop blocker is not working and I left 2+ gallons behind), oxygenated with 120 seconds of pure O2, pitched yeast.

OG: 1.072 (I'm thinking this can't be right. PB OG was 1.055, boiled off 2+ gallons of wort and added 3 lbs of table sugar? I have to look into this one)

Good color, tasted like bitter mangos.

Update 3/23:

Transferred 10 gallons to sanitized, purged kegs with two dryhop schemes: 2oz each Mosaic, Nugget, and Centennial and 2oz each Columbus, Nugget, and Centennial. SG: 1.009, tasted amazing. The Mosaic whirlpool hops infused this beer with a crazy amount of tropical flavor. I definitely think I extracted more whirlpooling at 212 degrees than cooling to 180, then whirlpooling, as I had been doing prior to this batch.

I'll let these dry hop at ~68 degrees for 3 days, crash them for two days, then transfer to sanitized corneys with gelatin and carbonate.

Update 3/28:

Transferred COLD beer to purged and sanitized kegs with gelatin.

Update 4/2:

I'm sampling the Mosaic-Nugget-Centennial dry hop and it is oozing with tropical flavor and aroma. The Mosaic dominates the other hops, though in my experience, Nugget is likely adding some tropical notes as well. Centennial isn't very apparent at this point. There are still trace amounts of debris floating around, which I believe is adding some extra bitterness. Once the junk settles out, this will be a very drinkable DIPA that can compete with any commercially brewed example. I'm getting the hang of this west coast IPA cookie cutter formula.

Not quite commercial clarity yet, but give it a day or so. It's amazing how fast gelatin works.

Recipe (note the 2.5oz of hop extract "hop addition" is just for calculating IBU; the actual extract amount added is in ml):

Batch size: 12 gallons
Estimated OG: 1.077 SG
Estimated Color: 5.7 SRM
Estimated IBU: 97.4 IBUs
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
20.00 g               Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 mins Water Agent   1        -             
4.00 ml               Lactic Acid (Mash 60.0 mins)             Water Agent   2        -             
15 lbs                Pale Ale Malt 2-Row (Briess) (3.5 SRM)   Grain         3        50.0 %        
10 lbs                Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM)           Grain         4        33.3 %        
2 lbs                 Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)             Grain         5        6.7 %         
3 lbs                 Cane (Beet) Sugar (0.0 SRM)              Sugar         6        10.0 %        
2.50 oz               Hop Extract [10.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min    Hop           7        47.3 IBUs     
15.00 ml              CO2 Hop Extract (Boil 60.0 mins)         Other         8        -             
4.00 oz               Centennial [10.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool   Hop           9        16.7 IBUs     
4.00 oz               Mosaic [12.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool  0.0  Hop           10       0.0 IBUs      
4.00 oz               Nugget [13.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool  20.0 Hop           11       21.7 IBUs     
2.00 oz               Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Steep/Wh Hop           12       11.7 IBUs     
1.0 pkg               California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) [35. Yeast         13       -             
4.00 oz               Centennial [10.00 %] - Dry Hop 5.0 Days  Hop           14       0.0 IBUs      
4.00 oz               Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Dry Hop  Hop           15       0.0 IBUs      
4.00 oz               Nugget [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 5.0 Days      Hop           16       0.0 IBUs      


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body, No Mash Out
Total Grain Weight: 30 lbs
----------------------------
Name              Description                             Step Temperat Step Time     
Mash In           Add 33.75 qt of water at 161.4 F        148.0 F       75 min        

Sparge: Fly sparge with 10.80 gal water at 168.0 F

NHC Amber Ale adventures and NHC shipping

I initially sampled the NHC Amber Ale in mid-February. It went through a remarkable change from the first pulls that I took from the conditioning keg - about three days into the dry hop - to the final beer after 7 days of dry hopping (5 days at 68 degrees, 2 days crashing at 32 degrees).

She sure is beautiful, but with a nasty bite.

The resulting beer was abrasively hoppy and had a vegetal onion, radish flavor. I narrowed the culprit down to some really pungent CTZ hops that I got from Yakima Valley Hops. I don't know why they were so powerful or why they had the effect of making an off-putting beer. Interestingly, I found this forum post on the Brewing Network where someone else had the same experience with YVH CTZ hops. I contacted YVH about this and they sent me another order of hops on the house. Pretty amazing customer service. I will post back with comparative results with the old batch and the new batch. The representative said that they've never gotten an onion flavor from CTZ.

I decided two things for the re-brew dry hop: 1) I would lower the dry hop down to just 48 hours of hop contact at room temperature, then I'd crash the beer overnight, then transfer to a purged, sanitized keg with gelatin and let it condition. That's a total of 72 hours of hop contact. I figured I could capture the flavor that I originally had out of the bright tank at 3 days. 2) I would separate the batch and dry hop one like I did originally and dry hop one differently: Centennial, Simcoe, and Amarillo. No matter what, I'd have a control batch that I could ship if the onion flavor reared its head in the original.

I tasted the beer a day before shipping date and hands down, the one without the Columbus dry hop was the better beer. It still had a bit of the onion because I whirlpooled with two ounces of the hops, but it was completely toned down. Given my experience with the flavor, it would likely drop out by the time the beer was judged on April 4th. The rest of the beer was where I wanted it: great mouthfeel and sweetness from the English crystal malts, blazing amber color, balanced bitterness, and aggressive dry hop aroma of citrus and flowers. The dankness had to take a back seat, but I was just about satisfied with the beer. It definitely isn't where I wanted it to be, but I'm hoping it will score a 30 to get to the next round where I can hone in the flavors.

Competition Amber Ale

Cream Ale, Amber Ale, Kexxmas Ale, Hefeweizen, ready to go

All labeled.

Ready to ship

What do I think my chances are? I put out the best iteration of my Hefeweizen that I've done in awhile, switching back to WLP300 as opposed to burning up the Safbrew WB-06. The flavor was balanced like I wanted it. I could use more banana/clove personally, but it's much closer to say, a Weihenstephaner or Paulaner.

My Cream Ale will be a crap shoot. It has a great flavor. My gambit to bump up the flaked corn and to add a bit of Munich and Biscuit to give it a creamy malt complexity may have played off. It will be up to a judge's subjectivity to say whether it is too far out of the style or it has an edge over a cream ale that is comparatively boring. As far as drinkability, the cream ale finished dry (1.011) and the added malt flavor doesn't prevent having a pint or two or three. I had a few friends over for a True Detective marathon leading up to the finale and they probably put down 3 gallons of the stuff.

And my Kexxxmas Ale, well, I haven't actually had a bottle of this since Christmas, so I don't know exactly how it has aged over the last three months. I think the bold molasses flavor will set it apart from other Christmas ales and the balanced spice profile will give it a good shot of getting 30+. Talking to friends who have had bottles of it recently though, I'm hearing that the carbonation is a little low.

2/26/2014 NHC Amber Ale 1.1

When I sampled this beer initially on its third day of dry hopping, it was exactly where I wanted it: pleasant dank and tangerine hop flavor and aroma and a perfect malt compliment with a bit of roastiness and nuttiness. I'm sampling it right now after it has been dry hopped for 5 days, crashed, fined, transferred and carbonated and it is absolutely not the beer that I want. It is one dimensional - all bitterness, with a bit of nearly indistinguishable hop flavor on a sample that is right around 45 degrees.

I suspect that the extra two days of dry hopping (plus the two days it was on the hops while it crashed) extracted too much of the qualities of the hops that I didn't want. The Columbus hops I used from Yakima Valley were especially pungent in the onion department. While the first three days must have extracted the dankness I wanted out of them, the next two days pulled out the astringent qualities. Secondly, I think this beer would do well with slightly less bitterness and some chemistry adjustments to dial it towards a more balanced chloride to sulfate ratio.

That gives me 2.5 weeks to brew this beer. I may need the filter for the final presentation, but hopefully I will be able to do it without the filter with a tight schedule.

The changes this go around:

• Balanced chloride to sulfate ratio.
• Backed off on my Magnum bittering addition by .5 oz
• Used Muntons Crystal instead of Briess Crystal because, well, why not?
• Threw out the Midnight Wheat addition - the bump in Lovibond from the Muntons Crystal malt (60 instead of 40 and 150 instead of 120) was enough to get the color where I wanted it.
• 3 day dry hop instead of 5-7 day dry hop

Treated 7 gallons of strike water and added brewing salts. Mashed in low, raised temp over 5 minutes and started 60 minute timer.

Initial mash pH 5.56. Added 1ml of lactic acid. Final mash pH 5.48. This is the first time I've done an on the fly acid addition to knock down my pH. Next time I know I can be less conservative.


Raised mash to 170 and sparged with 168 degree water treated with 1/2 chloramine tablet. Transferred to BK over 15 minutes. The color is a few degrees darker than I anticipated. Should still fall within the amber range.

PB OG: 1.050

Allowed to boil for 15 minutes then added first hop addition.

Boiled for 60 minutes.

Chilled to 180 degrees. Added whirlpool hops and let whirlpool for 30 minutes.

Chilled to 56 degrees over 30 minutes. Allowed to settle out for 20 minutes after cutting off the whirlpool.

Transferred 13 gallons of 1.060 OG beer to a sterilized fermenter. Added pure O2 for 2 minutes and pitched yeast. Set fermentation temperature for 64 degrees.

Really nice color. More vibrant than the first go round.

Update:

Pulled a sample on 3/1/2014. Already down to final gravity. Flavor is good, balanced. I think the dry hopping decision will make or break this beer. Set fermenter to 67 degrees to allow the yeast to clean it out.

Crashed to 38 degrees on 3/3/2014.

I'm thinking that I will dry hop for three days, filter 5 gallons and use finings on the other 5 gallons then force carbonate to bottle and ship by the end of the week next week.

Update 2:

Transferred 10 gallons to sanitized kegs on dry hops on 3/6/2014. In one keg I used 2 oz Centennial, 1 oz Simcoe, 1 oz Amarillo. In the other I kept with the original recipe, but used one ounce less of Columbus hops - 1 oz Columbus, 1 oz Amarillo, 1 oz Cascade. I will transfer these to a new keg on the morning of 3/9/2014. I'm still debating whether to filter the beer or fine it aggressively with gelatin. With a healthy dose of gelatin, I'm thinking it can clear out in three days, allowing me to bottle it and send it out on Thursday next week.

The first attempt at the Amber Ale.

The sample was good: solid malt bill with some juiciness from the hop bursting. The bitterness was much more reserved, allowing more malt flavor to come through.

Heady Blunder tasting notes

I brewed my Heady Topper clone about two months ago now. The first pulls were tasty, but too resiny and harsh. It's been hitting its stride for about three weeks now.

First, as far as closeness to Heady Topper, it's close. It's quaffable, dank and close. Dangerously quaffable at 9.5% abv. It is not a clone of Heady Topper. I think much of that has to do with it being 10 points over gravity - 1.08+ instead of 1.075 or so - and a final gravity ten points over my target final gravity - 1.020 instead of 1.010. But it is certainly in the spirit of Heady Topper. I think the hop bill is pretty damn close. As far as changes, I would make more process changes than recipe changes. It took three weeks or so for the Conan yeast to clear out enough for me to get a clean taste of it. Next time I'd add some fining agents. Secondly, I've found that hop extract seems to come off harsh for a few weeks and then mellows. The first tastes that I had of this beer were incredibly bitter. Then, after some conditioning, it mellowed out and became perfect. Third, I need to get it to attenuate closer to 1.010. I wonder how much the residual sugars are getting in the way of the hop flavor or allowing sweetness to compete with the hop bill. Finally, I might switch up my dry hopping method. For this two-stage dry hop, I added the first round of hops when I transferred the beer to a purged, sanitized keg. Then I added the second round right into the top of that keg. I think it is important to actually remove that first round of hops and dose it with the second so that you get real layers and that the hops don't clash with each other.

Appearance: pours a deep amber with a thick head that clings to the side of the glass. It's finally cleared out to the point where it's much clearer than HT and near commercial quality. Darker than HT, on account of the extra malt.

Smell: intense floral, grapefruit and peach. Tropical.

Taste: mostly peach, with a supporting cast of dankness and grapefruit. The bitterness comes in at the middle and then kind of cleans the palate.

Mouthfeel: creamy. Finishes dry, despite the residual sugars.

The other big takeaway for me in this beer is in using Conan. Close to HT or not, Conan really sets this beer apart from other DIPAs. I'm going to maintain this culture and potentially use it in some other brews and, who knows, brew another HT clone. This is probably one of my best beers to date.



He loves hoppy beers.

Fun side note: I took a growler to this beer to give to American Aquarium last week. I saw them in Pittsburgh a few months ago and talked to them about beer. I casually mentioned that I had thought about bringing them a growler, but didn't. BJ, their lead singer said, "man, we would have drank the shit out of your growler." In Cleveland last week, I brought them a growler, which I believe they sampled backstage. I talked to their slide guitar player, Whit, about the beer after the show. He's a hop head and of course asked which hops were in it. I told him. He still had a quizzical look on his face. I told him that I was trying to clone Heady Topper and he said, "THAT'S IT!" The man had had Heady Topper somewhere and he remembered it. Heady Blunder was in the ballpark.

Call it cloned enough?