Early Morning Brew

As I mentioned in the last post, today I brewed a Gumballhead clone. For those not familiar, Gumballhead is an American wheat brewed by Three Floyds Brewery in Munster, Indiana. Since the majority of American wheats are very easy drinking, light, refreshing.....and rather bland, Three Floyds brews theirs with a ton of hops. What the recipe utilizes is several additions of hops but without imparting too much bitterness, only in the range of 35-40 IBUs. I got my recipe from here but made a couple changes. First, I added more hops since this recipe only calculated 27 IBUs. I also scaled down the malt a touch since I didn't want a 5.5-6% abv brew.
Brewing early in the morning is great, to be able to pitch your yeast and clean up before lunch time is nice. Getting all the water measured out and grain milled the night before has become almost routine for me to save even more time. I noticed chilling has been taking even more time now since our groundwater temperature is rising. Time to get more on top of building the whirlpool chiller!

	Stats OG 1.057 FG 1.013 IBU 45 ABV 5.7 % SRM 6	Specifics Boil Volume 7 gallons Batch Size 5.5 gallons Yeast 78% AA US05

Fermentables

% Weight	Weight (lbs)	Grain	Gravity Points	Color
45.5 %	5.00	American Two-row Pale	25.2	1.6
45.5 %	5.00	American Soft White Wheat	27.3	2.5
9.1 %	1.00	Belgian Caravienne	4.1	4.0
	11.00		56.6

Hops

% Wt	Weight (oz)	Hop	Form	AA%	AAU	Boil Time		IBU
10.5 %	0.50	Amarillo	Whole/Plug	9.3	4.7	MH		5.5
10.5 %	0.50	Amarillo	Whole/Plug	9.3	4.7	FWH		9.3
15.8 %	0.75	Amarillo	Whole/Plug	9.3	7.0	60		23.0
10.5 %	0.50	Amarillo	Whole/Plug	9.3	4.7	15		7.6
21.1 %	1.00	Amarillo	Whole/Plug	9.3	9.3	0		0.0
31.6 %	1.50	Amarillo	Whole/Plug	9.3	14.0	DH		0.0
	4.75							45.4

4/29/09: Brewed this morning with light rain. Ended up with over 6 gallons of wort, so gravity was a bit low, only 1.050.
5/06/09: Fermentation looks down. US05, in true fashion, tore a new one; down to 1.009. Flavor is very clean, very hoppy and not too bitter. I'll rack in a day or two.
5/09/09: Racked to secondary on 1.5oz of Amarillo hops.
5/20/09: Kegged up the whole batch.

Hop Profile: Amarillo

Without any set schedule, every so often I will cover a certain hop: breakdown of the composition, common uses, commercial examples etc. This week, since I'll be brewing a Gumballhead clone, I thought I would start with Amarillo hops. Being one of my favorites, Amarillo is a relatively new hop, and on that is actually trademarked. It was discovered by Virgil Gamache Farms Inc., a crop farm located in the Yakima Valley in Washington state. It has quickly grown to be one of the most used and talked about hop in homebrew circles and commercial breweries. The afformented beer, brewed by Three Floyds is made exclusively with Amarillos as are many of their other beers.
Here is a range for its composition:

Alpha acids: 8-11%
Beta acids: 6-7%
Alpha:Beta Ratio: 1.6
Co-humulone (% of alpha acids): 21-24%

Total Oil (Mls. per 100 grams): 1.5-1.9
Myrcene (as % of other oils): 68-70%
Caryophyllene (as % of total oils): 2-4%
Humulene (as % of total oils): 9-11%
Farnesene (as % of total oils): 2-4%
(source)
Unfortunately, I find quite conflicting data here. Oh, the joys of the internet.
I will mix the data, since Yakima Chief labels Myrcene by % of other oils, and is extremely high. Amarillo hops are closely related in composition to Cascade, Cenntennial, Columbus, and Nugget. When discussing the flavor and aroma of Amarillos, most folks will say it's very citrusy, commonly grapefruit and orange. Its usage is fairly dual purpose. Being in the lower third of co-humulone makes it a very clean bittering hop, but it also has a high oil content, so it will come across as very flavorful. Apparently, Amarillos are such a divisive hop, as seen here on Beer Advocate. But, much like Cascade was so bastardized a few years ago, Amarillo seems to be its own bastard cousin.
Other than Gumballhead, some other examples using Amarillo hops are Stone's Levitation Ale, Southern Tier Hop Sun, Clipper City Loose Cannon, and Green Flash Hop Head Red Ale.
As you can see, Amarillos are mostly used pale ales and IPAs since they're very characterful and not especially clean in flavor/aroma. Well, that wraps it up, let me know what info I'm missing, making up or is incorrect.

My Brew Basement

Home brewing in a small city apartment, especially all-grain does pose one big problem. Where to store all your equipment and beer at the end of the day. Fortunately, there are storage units in the basement of my building. This has been a two fold help: lots of storage for brew stuff, and a way to ferment at fairly cool temperatures. So far, the basement has run between 45 (through Jan and Feb), to around 61 now. However, here in DC we're looking at weekend highs in the upper 80s, so we'll see how high it spikes. Fermenting lagers down there worked out well through the winter, and now I'm using its low, constant temp. for some bulk aging. In the pictures here you see the mass amount of beer I have to drink (I need to throw a party), in addition to all my equipment, some commercial beer, and three aging/fermenting beers (Berliner with blow-off, Brett L stout, and the Oat Wine).

Berliner Weisse 2.0

Last year I brewed my first Berliner Weisse, and my first "sour" beer using some bacteria. I loved Dogfish Head's Festina Peche so much that I wanted to clone it (my girlfriend was/is quite the fan that I hoped it was something she would like). I followed Jamil's recipe and pitched both US05 and Wyeast 5335 Lactobacillus Delbrueckii at the same time. Since then, I've gotten the advice that for a more sour beer, you should pitch the Lacto culture at least 24hrs ahead of the yeast. Well, I've decided for this beer to pitch the Lacto 48hrs ahead of the yeast and hold it as warm as possible (upper 70s to 80), and then do regular fermentation in the low 60s.
I've also taken the advice of doing a no-boil, decoction mash for the Berliner. This involves a multi-step mash through three stages: protein rest, saccarification rest, and mash out (134-148-160; 15, 40, 10min respectively). For some more advice and tips on this method check out Ryan Brews and The Mad Fermentationist.

Stats OG 1.040 FG 1.007 IBU 8 ABV 4.3 % SRM 3

Specifics Boil Volume 5.8 gallons Batch Size 5.75 gallons Yeast 82% AA Wyeast 5335 US05

Fermentables

% Weight	Weight (lbs)	Grain	Gravity Points	Color
57.0 %	4.30	American Two-row Pale	22.1	1.3
43.0 %	3.25	American Soft White Wheat	18.1	1.6
	7.55		40.2

Hops

% Wt	Weight (oz)	Hop	Form	AA%	AAU	Boil Time		IBU
100.0 %	0.50	Chinook	Whole/Plug	13.0	6.5	MH		7.8
	0.50							7.8

4/22/09: Brewed pretty quickly including double decoction. I hope I did it alright, but my efficiency turned out quite high, so I'm happy. Ended up with too much wort (around 6gal).

4/23/09: After pitching Lacto about 30hrs ago, I've noticed some real activity with lots of foamy head. Not sure what to make of it; blow off shows no signs of CO2 production. Thoughts?

4/24/09: Beer seems to be at full krausen, or just much more "head". Some CO2 is being produced in the blow-off bucket, but still not as much as a normal fermentation. I'll pitch half a packet of US05 this morning.
4/28/09: I was all set to take the blow-off tube off and replace with foil but noticed krausen was still blowing off. A 1.040 beer with blow off one week in? Perhaps the US05 got a slow start in the acidic environment.
4/29/09: Took a gravity reading to see what's going on with the sustained krausen. Well, it's only down to 1.024; I thought it would be done by now. But, it is intensely sour already and perhaps that's why the yeast is sluggish. We'll see where it goes...
5/05/09: Beer is moving along, down to 1.010. I'd like to see it get to at least 1.005 or lower so I'll leave it on the primary for a couple more weeks. Flavor is a little strange, like freshly fermented bread dough, very yeasty.
5/13/09: Still at 1.009 so I think it's done given the sparkling clarity. I'll rack tomorrow and hope to keg! in a couple weeks.
5/20/09: Kegged up around 3.5-4 gal and bottled 16. Will try and hold onto the bottles for a while and see how they progress (and if any explode at 3.5+ vols!).

Busy brewing day

I haven't been able to make any brewing related items happen in a week or so, so I've made an effort to get quite a bit done today. I started the morning with racking my Oat Wine to secondary and adding 1oz of French Medium Toast Oak cubes. I plan on leaving it in the basement (which runs in the low 60s now) for several months until I'm satisfied with the Brett character.
I also was able to bottle my Cream Ale V 2.0. Last year, in an attempt to brew as many styles as I hadn't and taste them before the BJCP test, I brewed Jamil's Cream Ale. Aside from changing the hops (which he recommends creativity in anyway), it was to the T. This second version was a bit different, and here's a quick break down of the recipe:
5.5 gal batch, OG: 1.055 FG: 1.008
5.5# 2-row
2# Soft White Wheat
1# Flaked Corn
1# Sugar
.5# Munich
.75oz American Saaz 5.8% 60min.
5oz Saaz 20min 3.1%
.75oz Saaz 0min
Wyeast 2565 (Kolsch) 3L starter
I brewed this on March 4th and kept it as cool as possible throughout fermentation and aging. I think it will turn out to be a great drinker for the warmer weather.

NHC Judging

This passed Saturday I got the opportunity to judge at the first round of the National Homebrew Competition. It was my first time judging since I took the BJCP exam last April, and I had a great time. The primaries for the Northeast area took place at Yard's Brewery in Philadelphia. Everyone gathered around 8:30 am to start. I was assigned category 27, Standard Cider and Perry for the morning. Since my ranking is only Recognized and I was a newbie, I was paired up with one other judge who was a Nationally ranked. We were given 12 samples to judge, the majority standard cider, one each English and French cider, and two Perries. Having never judged, nor knowing the guidelines for cider and mead judging, it was pretty nerve racking. My partner was only a little familiar with cider judging and had only made a couple himself. The majority of the samples were quite good. One was definitely infected and showed a huge Lactic acid bite (I loved it!). The two standouts, however, were the perries. A style of cider I've never had, perry is basically fermented pear juice. Its flavor profile is closer to a young white wine than cider. They were amazingly balanced, drinkable and just delicious. Both ranked first and second in our flight.
The afternoon session, I was assigned Smoke-Flavored and Wood-aged beers, a pretty obscure style with a lot of interpretation and creativity involved. About a third of the samples were classic Rauchbier, while the rest were smoked beers and wood aged. Unfortunately for this flight, the majority of what my partner and I tasted were pretty bad. A lot of "smoked" beers with no distinguishable smoke flavor or aroma, and wood aged beers that were just lacking in any positive character. The highlights of our flight were a couple of sour/wild ales. One was based loosely off of the "American Wild Ale" category (no BJCP style yet, but look for some "Other Sour Ale" category to be added as I think it should be), it was a dark Belgian ale aged with two strains of Brettanomyces and aged on oak. It had lots of spicy flavors of rosemary and sage and just enough funk. The other was a Belgian strong pale that was Brett infected and aged on an American oak barrel that previously held Chardonnay. It was just fantastic; between the two of us, we gave it a 43/50, an extremely high score in BJCP judging. It won our flight and will move on (with the other sour, and a peat smoked Scotch ale aged with oak).
Overall, I have to say this was a great experience. I learned a lot about style definitions and got some great homebrewing tips. My partner who was nationally ranked was impressed with my first time judging and said I had a good palate. It was certainly a congenial group, and the alcohol had taken its tole by 3pm. I look forward to judging, and possibly entering in, the Spirit of Free Beer run by our local club, BURP.

Oat Wine

I decided it was time for a big beer that can sit around for a while since all I've been brewing lately have been small beers. The recipe is one I threw together, knowing that I wanted to include a high percentage of malted oats. Thomas Fawcett is the only malting company out there who produces them that I know of. As you can see in the picture, they're much longer and skinnier in shape than malted barley. The mill had no trouble with them either, thankfully. The rest of the recipe is composed of standard malts you would see in a barley wine as well as some flaked oats and barley to hopefully accentuate the mouthfeel associated with oats. I used primarily American hops, but kept it fairly light on the additions as opposed to most commercial examples. The other exciting part was getting a chance to use Wyeast's special Old Ale (9097) strain. As the description details, it is designed to mimic old English stock ales that were barrel aged, often imparting a light Brettanomyces character. This should give my oat wine a slight sweaty, maybe horse hair light aroma and dry it out a bit more than most barley wines. I'll give it several months to age (perhaps add some oak) and hope to bottle this summer.

OG 1.098 FG 1.020 IBU 61 ABV 10.1 % SRM 15

Specifics Boil Volume 7.5 gallons Batch Size 5.5 gallons Yeast Wyeast 9097 Old Ale 80% AA

Fermentables

% Weight	Weight (lbs)	Grain	Gravity Points	Color
41.2 %	10.00	American Two-row Pale	41.7	3.3
33.0 %	8.00	Oat Malt	31.6	5.8
12.4 %	3.00	American Munich (Light)	11.2	5.5
4.1 %	1.00	Flaked Oats	3.7	0.4
4.1 %	1.00	Flaked Barley	3.6	0.4
1.0 %	0.25	German Carafa	0.8	13.6
4.1 %	1.00	Demerara Sugar	5.1	0.4
	24.25		97.7

Hops

% Wt	Weight (oz)	Hop	Form	AA%	AAU	Boil Time	Utilization	IBU
25.0 %	1.00	Chinook	Whole/Plug	13.0	13.0	60	0.190	33.5
25.0 %	1.00	Simcoe	Whole/Plug	11.9	11.9	30	0.146	23.6
25.0 %	1.00	Glacier	Pellet	7.6	7.6	5	0.042	4.3
25.0 %	1.00	Glacier	Pellet	5.5	5.5	DH	0.000	0.0
	4.00							61.4

4/01/09 Brew session took longer than usual given all the grains and hop additions. As you can see, I'm using Tasty Brew's calculator to paste into the blog. I'm not overly happy with the format, but I'll use it for now.

Efficiency was pretty terrible, around 59%. I don't know what to contribute it to, but I know it generally falls on big brews like this. Pitched a 3L starter of Wyeast 9097 and have it sitting in the basement in the upper 50s.

4/11/09 After a pretty heavy fermentation, things have quieted down. Gravity is down to 1.015, 84% attenuation? I did not anticipate that given the really cool ferment and being only 10 days. Flavor is really smooth, very malty. It's much like a thick Scotch ale. I'm very excited to see what the Brett does over the next couple months.

4//22/09: Racked into secondary on top of 1 ounce of French Medium Toast Oak cubes. Should give it at least a few months to mature.

6/27/09: Gravity down to 1.010. Beer is coming along nicely and the Brett seems to like the increased temps (hovering around 73-74). Will give it until about August until bottling.

9/09/09: Bottled with 5gm rehydrated Champagne yeast and 4oz of sugar. I'm noticing a bit of butter coming through and am concerned that I didn't let it go long enough with the Pedio. It's not super viscous like the latest batch of Sanctification I had, but it has a pretty thick mouthfeel. We'll see how this one turns out in a few weeks.