American Bitter

Coming back to the basics after a bit of some crazy beers, I decided to make something simple, low alcohol and hoppy to have on tap for the last months of hot weather. Since I've made so few English style beers, I thought it would be one to tackle. I aimed for a low gravity bitter, between a Standard/Ordinary and a Special, but with all American hops as I'm not a huge fan of English hops. I intended on using all Centennial but noticed I didn't have quite enough, so I used up the remainder of my Amarillos from the Gumballhead brew. In this beer, it'll also be my first opportunity to hop in the keg, so any advice on that procedure will be greatly appreciated.
Recipe:

	Stats OG 1.046 FG 1.010 IBU 34 ABV 4.7% SRM 10	Specifics Boil Volume 7.5 gallons Batch Size 5.5 gallons Yeast 77% AA Wyeast 1275

Fermentables

% Weight	Weight (lbs)	Grain	Gravity Points	Color
91.4 %	8.00	British Two-row Pale	39.8	3.6
5.7 %	0.50	American Crystal 120L	2.2	10.9
2.9 %	0.25	American Special Roast	1.1	1.8
	8.75		43.0

Hops

% Wt	Weight (oz)	Hop	Form	AA%	AAU	Boil Time	Utilization	IBU
14.3 %	0.75	Amarillo	Whole/Plug	9.2	6.9	60	0.272	24.8
9.5 %	0.50	Amarillo	Whole/Plug	9.2	4.6	10	0.099	6.0
19.0 %	0.50	Amarillo	Whole/Plug	9.2	9.2	5	0.054	3.3
19.0 %	1.00	Amarillo	Whole/Plug	9.2	9.2	0	0.000	0.0
19.0 %	1.25	Amarillo	Whole/Plug	9.2	9.2	DH	0.000	0.0
19.0 %	1.75	Centennial	Whole/Plug	10.5	10.5	DH	0.000	0.0
	5.25							34.1

7/29/09: Brewed today, rather quickly. I built up just a 1L starter the night before and the yeast finally showed big activity the afternoon after. I got tired of running my chiller for such a long time ran off the wort, oxygenated (likely too high in temp. but we'll see if there's an effect), and stuck the carboy in cool water. Once it was down to about 75 degrees I pitched the yeast. Lag time was pretty short, and now it's producing just the most amazing krausen: full of huge bubbles reaching to nearly the top of the carboy. Efficiency was nearly a consistent 72%, but I was a bit low on volume, I think only about 5.25 gallons into the carboy.
8/12/09: First sample taken. Gravity is at 1.010. Flavor was really thin and lacked the Amarillo punch I hoped for. I also tasted a bit of vegetalness. I'm hoping it will dissipate and that keg hopping with help give it the hoppiness I want.
8/19/09: Kegged her up after the Gose kicked. Didn't take a gravity reading so I'll assume somewhere around 1.009-1.010. I increased the amount of keg hops to account for its lack of hoppiness. I had a cask pint of Victory's Uncle Teddy's Bitter a couple days ago and it was amazing. I hope this one turns out half as good. I think I'll give it a bit more time before I start ramping up the PSI to let the hops settle and meld in. I used a snipped piece of panty hose for the whole hops.

Tasting: Gose, Bottled

The gose project has certainly been a learning experience. It's a style that very few brew pubs in America tackle, and with a wide amount of interpretation. Mine took on inspiration from a few homebrewers brave enough to brew the style, and from experience of small scale craft brewers. The tasting that follows is from the bottle conditioned Gose, given about 1 month in the bottle up til this point. I've chosen to drink the rest because the Brett has started to work on the remaining sugars and giving the beer a huge amount of carbonation, nearly to the point of exploding the bottles (the remainder sit in the fridge, hopefully stalling any fermentation).

Aroma: A piercing lemon and coriander bouquet burst forth with a sweaty, salty background giving it girth. The brett character is much more forthcoming in the bottled samples than the keg. Overall, it's quite similar to my Berliner as most of the flavor is from the Lacto than the Brett or spice.
Appearance: Just a touch hazy, with a small, quarter inch of head upon pouring that quickly dissipates into a thin white covering. Color is just north of straw, very pale.
Flavor: This beer is certainly delivered in waves of bright, tart lemon notes, earthy coriander, a touch of savory saltiness, and finishing with a distinct bready, cereal like maltiness. The flavor vascilates between a nice champagne and a pale Belgian, with it's high carbonation, bracing acidity and earthy, bready, clean maltiness.
Mouthfeel: This is one of the most highly carbonated beers I've produced, and certainly one that I've had in a long while. In turn, it thins out the body considerably more than the kegged version (review to come in the near future). The prickliness of the carbonation combined with the acidity give it a really light feel on the tongue and a smooth, yet bright finish.
Overall: The only complaint I have of this beer is that I decided to bottle (condition) it way too soon. I never gave the Brett the chance to really dry it out and funk it up. It certainly contains traits of all the things I put into it: wheat, Lacto, coriander, salt, Brett, and I think, very much in balance. It is a thirst quenching, highly carbonated brew that really cuts through the DC heat of the summer. I will definitely have to attempt something like this again, perhaps without the brett, and see how it turns out. Overall, fantastic!
Recipe and notes.

Trip to New York

Madeline and I finally got a chance to get out of town on a (all too brief) vacation. We took the bus up to New York for a few days. Staying in Gramercy/Murray Hill whatever, we were able to get around town really easily. Being such a short trip I had to do quite a bit of planning of what beer places I wanted to visit. Madeline refused to go to Brooklyn since it was a bit out of the way so that was kind of a bummer. However, Blind Tiger, one of the premier beer bars in NY was pretty accessible, so we hit that up the first day (a mere 30min after arriving!). Blind Tiger has about 28 beers on tap, 2-3 casks, a gravity and "pin". They just started their "Christmas in July" event the previous day so about half of the taps were winter or Christmas seasonals. I convinced Madeline to get a Dupont cider that was the "pin" knowing vaguely what it would be. The bartender asked, "Are you sure, it's quite sweet?". I knew a little about Dupont ciders and said it's fine. Well, he pulls out this 3-4L barrel and pours about 4oz into a wine glass of room temperature, still cider. Now, I'm a bit concerned and when Madeline smells and tastes it, she's pretty overwhelmed. I try it and realize it's the cider that they blend (fortify) with Calvados, giving it a nice warming 17% abv. It was a bit rough going down, but very tasty. I got a few beers: a cask of Otter Creek Imperial IPA, Great Divide Hibernation and finally a Samiclaus. The latter was very confusing. I've only had Samiclaus in the bottle once a couple years ago and this tasted nothing like it. Incredibly smooth, not as sweet or Sherry like as I remember, and thoroughly drinkable. I was also pretty impressed with the prices, considerably cheaper than DC. The atmosphere there was really comfortable, a rustic feel with lots of unfinished woods, old lamp sconces, and various wall seating throughout. A bit buzzed after that, we left for our dinner at Blue Hill.
The next day, I was able to get some beer shopping done stopping by at New Beer Distributors and Whole Foods (Bowery). NYC being so close to us, the selection wasn't too jaw dropping, but I did make a decent haul.
On the homebrew front, the Monster seems to be chugging along strong. Unfortunately, I didn't acquire a beer sitter to change out water bottles to keep it cool (or feed it sugar), so temps seemed to get up into the mid to upper 70s. When I got home, I checked it out and gave it another 1#+ of sugar. I finally got a good whif of alcohol when I popped the foil off, so I think it'll get to 20% no problem. The melomel appears to be completely fermented out, so I'll rack it off the majority of the trub soon and let it age before kegging. Up next, I've been slowly building up the dregs of a bottle of Drie Fonteinen Kriek to make a 3% sour with all Global Kolsch malt. In addition, I'll be making a "American Bitter" with all Cenntenial hops and British malt and yeast.

Tasting: Coffee Brown

After giving this beer a couple weeks to really mature, and hopefully get better, it's time to do a formal tasting.

Aroma: Bitter, rich, iced coffee. A bit of ripe strawberries and a touch of green apple. Little to no malt or hop notes; the coffee is quite dominating.
Appearance: Almost pitch black with a small mahogany, dark brown highlight towards the bottom of the glass. A half inch of well supported, light tan head lasts throughout.
Flavor: The iced coffee feel is starting to fade and the remaining beer comes across as hoppy mild ale. There's a vague maltiness to it without a definitive flavor and a citrusy, hoppy finish. I don't sense any off flavors, nor a significant contribution by the yeast.
Mouthfeel: The body and carbonation on this beer is just fantastic. Its low alcohol and medium body, combined with the moderate carbonation provide a creaminess thats spectacular. It really bumps up the drinkability despite the warm weather.
Overall: I'd say, overall, I'm not too impressed with this beer. It's overlly one dimensional with the coffee really dominating the beer. Its low gravity (low alcohol) give it great drinkability, but it's just a bit too boring for me, and not thirst quenching (to no fault of being a coffee brown). If I had to repeat it, I'd go for more of a coffee stout rather than a brown with more darkly roasted malts to compliment the coffee flavors.
Recipe and notes.

Red Currant Melomel

A few years ago, I attempted my first mead. Not knowing anything outside of: honey, water, yeast, nutrients, I ended up making something that is simply indrinkable (and I still have about 9 bottles left). I used 12 pounds of honey for a three gallon batch, OG of 1.150 and pitched 2 packets of Champagne yeast and no oxygen. It only managed to finish at 1.050 and it sat in secondary for over a year before I bottled it.
I've only had a couple homebrewed meads, and they are quite tasty. I had an idea to make something fairly low in gravity, and refreshing that I could have on tap during the warm August and September months. I got very nervous about my process again this time, more so about what nutrients to use, what I should expect for an OG etc. I ordered 7 pounds of Wild Blackberry honey from Flying Bee Ranch, recieved them very promptly and kindly, and new nutrients through Midwest. I chose to use Lavlin 71B Narbonne since it was recommended for fruit meads (melomel). Again, I never got a definite answer on how much yeast to pitch as this is extremely important for a healthy ferment. But I did make a good guess at how much water to use to get to about 5.5 gallons of total must into the carboy.

Recipe (sorry about 4 different units of measure):
7# Wild Blackberry Honey
2K Boiron Red Currant Puree
10gm Lavlin 71B
15gm Goferm
1.87 tsp DAP

7/16/09: Brewed in about one hours time. Got lazy with cooling the must and ended up pitching the yeast close to about 80 degrees. Gave it about 2 min of O2 and left to ferment in the basement with about 74-75 degree ambient temperature. Lots of action evident the morning after, but no idea how an elavated temperature will affect fermentation.
7/22/09: Gravity just hovering above 1.000 so this puppy looks like it's done. Lots of trub and sediment dropped out of solution, so I think I will rack it before kegging in a few weeks. Flavor seems solid though a little yeasty.
9/22/09: Finally got to keg this one up. I dumped a bit of the coffee brown as I was just tired of it and wanted to get this one in the pipelines.

Poll Results: Styles

I gave the poll a few weeks this time and managed 22 votes. It seems most folks are all over the place in what they brew. Personally, as you can see in "What's Brewing", I make all kinds of beers. Lately, it's been mostly soured/funked beers, but I like to have some more simple, low gravity brews on tap. Coming up, I'm making my second ever mead, a red currant melomel and a bitter hopped with all Centennial hops. The brew warehouse downstairs is moving along a bit more quickly given the warmer temperatures. I took some samples with everyone else last week and the funky Belgian stout is taking a nice tart turn since being racked onto bugs in December 08. The oat wine is moving along just fantastically, I can't wait to bottle it in another month and be drinking it for Thanksgiving. The Oud Bruin is starting to take on some lactic funk, and the vanilla wine beer will probably be bottled in another month or so. The Monster is moving along steadily, I have 6 more jars to add before I start adding sugar. I think I will make a big batch of sugar syrup and can that to add every day like the wort. Other than those two upcoming beers/meads I won't be brewing a whole lot the rest of the summer as it's getting increasingly difficult to keep temperatures down. Tastings are coming up of the two taps, and the Mango Chipotle which I bottled a couple weeks ago.

The Monster

Well, the day got off to a great start. The brew session started last night when I started the mash. With help from a couple friends (Mike and Devin) we managed to get 9 gal of water and 31# of grain into my mash tun. There was, strangely, enough room for probably 3-5 more pounds of grain (I'll keep that in mind for next time, yeah, right). I hit my mash temp on the low side, 143, but said screw it and topped up the cooler for the night. This morning (~8hrs later), it had dropped to 136. I wasn't overly concerned about proper conversion given the extended time so I heated up my sparge water (a wimpy 3.5 gallons) higher then normal since I wasn't going to do a mash out.
Once I started running this beer off into the pot I knew it was going to be interesting. It had this strong, rich, caramel, candy sweet aroma; it was just wild. I got about 9 gallons of wort into the pot with a gravity of 1.093! After pumping the numbers into BeerSmith, it looks like I nailed my pre boil, and hopefully post boil gravities, with a 60% efficiency.
The plan from here is to can ~3 gallons of wort into 12x1L jars and get the rest into the fermenter. I'm pitching a big starter (2L to 4L build) and one pack of US05 for good luck. O2 for about 10minutes prior. Each can will be added once a day with them being oxygenated for 1-2 min. After that I'll be adding 5# of sugar (or up to 10#, whatever the yeast can handle), likely 1# per day until the yeast poops out. I have high hopes for this beer and it's certainly a learning process. I'll be sure to post plenty of pictures and updates.

Stats OG 1.208 FG IBU 104 ABV SRM 24

Specifics Boil Volume 9 gallons Batch Size 5 gallons Yeast 79% AA WLP099 US05

Fermentables

% Weight	Weight (lbs)	Grain	Gravity Points	Color
57.1 %	23.00	American Two-row Pale	110.6	8.3
12.4 %	5.00	American Munich (Light)	21.5	10.0
0.6 %	0.25	American Crystal 20L	1.1	1.0
0.6 %	0.25	American Crystal 30L	1.1	1.5
0.6 %	0.25	American Crystal 60L	1.1	3.0
0.6 %	0.25	Belgian CaraMunich	1.1	3.8
0.2 %	0.10	German Carafa Special	0.4	12.0
0.5 %	0.20	American Chocolate	0.8	14.0
2.5 %	1.00	Rye	3.9	0.7
19.2 %	7.22	Cane sugar	64.8	2.0
	40.30		201.4

Hops

% Wt	Weight (oz)	Hop	Form	AA%	AAU	Boil Time	Utilization	IBU
25.0 %	1.00	Chinook	Pellet	11.5	11.5	90	0.156	26.9
25.0 %	1.00	Summit	Pellet	18.5	18.5	90	0.156	43.2
25.0 %	1.00	Chinook	Pellet	11.5	11.5	30	0.112	19.3
25.0 %	1.00	Summit	Pellet	18.5	18.5	10	0.053	14.6
	4.00							104.0

7/8/09: Started mash previous night and went about 8 hours before sparge. Started with about 9 gallons into the pot at 1.093 preboil gravity. Boiled for approx. 2.5 hours with hop additions as noted (though I added some leftover Chinook and Simcoe hops at 90 min, less than .5oz combined). Ended up with too much volume, about 5 gallons. I also added 6ea crushed Beano tablets at the beginning of chilling. Canned 12x1L cans of wort and ran the rest off into the fermenter (about 1.5-2gal). Oxygenated for 10min with O2, then pitched my 099 and one packet of rehydrated US05. I'll wait until Friday to start adding wort, one can a day thoroughly oxygenated. Once all the additions have been made, I'll start adding the sugar. Wish me luck!
7/11/09: Things are going well. I've added 3L of wort so far at 24hr intervals giving each 2 min of oxygen. Still at high krausen.
7/16/09: Out of curiosity I took the first sample. Gravity is only down to 1.070 so it's roughly 9% abv. I might add some additional nutrients tomorrow with the 9th wort addition. I bought 10# of sugar today which I will cook up with some lemon juice to convert and boil down to a thick syrup and can to add daily.
7/21/09: Added the first jar of sugar syrup today, 1# 11oz. This should bring the gravity to around 1.157. I'll take a sample tomorrow night and see where it has fermented down to. Second sugar addition will be added on Thursday (7/23) morning.
7/22/09: Took another sample, gravity down 1.050ish (we didn't wait for the sample to really settle out). Looks like it's close to 15% abv. I'll add a sizable sugar addition tomorrow morning and then we're off to NYC for a few days. Hopefully it'll be fine fermenting out and another addition will be added Saturday night.
7/27/09: After this mornings addition, I believe my theoretical original gravity is now hovering around 1.208! I had to make a couple changes calculations as the above one is incorrect. First, the sugar syrup I'm adding is only 85% sugar, so I had to account for that, and second, the TB calculation for the gravity contribution of cane sugar is quite low. It's closer to 9-9.5 points per pound that the 6.5 that this one gives. All and all, I have one more addition to make but I think I might hold off a couple days and see if I've killed this thing or if it can take it.
8/01/09: Well I moved the fermenter upstairs so it's at about 79-80 degrees to I can eek out the last 10-20 points. Gravity sample this morning was at 1.062, with an OG of 1.208 gives me 19.1% abv. I'm really hoping it can get down to at least 1.050, but it certainly looks like it's slowing down. I hope the higher temps will help it move along.
8/8/09: Well, things are starting to look a little dire. Gravity is steady at 1.062 for nearly a week now. I stirred things up, added 5 tablets of Beano, crushed, and 1tsp of Yeast Energizer. I hope I can at least get 5 more points out of this because it tastes like alcoholic syrup. It is thick!
8/15/09: Racked to secondary on top of 1.5oz medium toast Hungarian oak cubes. No gravity taken. After racking and cleaning out the carboy, I noticed a lot of crystallized sugar at the bottom; it must have recrystallized at some point. Alas, I've no idea where the gravity is at this point.