Messages

961

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Simplifying Recipes

« on: July 13, 2012, 06:20:06 am »

The thing about award-winning recipes is that they were likely developed over several revisions. The takehome I get from Drew's talk is that you will likely have better luck designing a recipe on the fly or for a first revision if you keep things simple. Throwing in a pound of this and a pound of that on a whim probably isn't going to give you a focused result.

Once you brew a beer and say "I think it could use a pound of Vienna and a little flaked barley", that's a different story, because you have a defined goal for the specific modifications based on a previous beer.

One more extension I would make is that your "base malt" may be a combination of ingredients. For example - if you brew all your pale ales with a base of 45% 2-row, 45% MO and 10% wheat, and you are very familiar with how this works in a particular style of recipe, then you can treat this as a single ingredient from a recipe design perspective.

962

Beer Recipes / Belgian Barleywine

« on: July 12, 2012, 08:51:17 pm »

A while back I had some Konigs Hoeven Dubbel, and thought the flavor profile would be fantastic in an English Barleywine (I'm a huge Thomas Hardy fan). I ended up taking a clone recipe for the Konigs Hoeven dubbel and stepping it up/combining it with a recipe for Thomas Hardy. My biggest concern with the recipe is that I do want to end up with a fair amount of sweetness (I'm shooting for a Barleywine with some Belgian flavors, not a dubbel/BDS with some English character).

I haven't brewed with the dark Candi Syrup before, so I'm not sure how much residual sugar that is going to leave. Anyone have any thoughts on the recipe below? My thought was to either add some Special B or maybe bump up the mash temp a bit, but I'm open to any suggestions.

HOME BREW RECIPE:
Title: Belgian Barleywine

Brew Method: All Grain
Style Name: English Barleywine
Boil Time: 90 min
Batch Size: 2 gallons
Boil Size: 3.3 gallons
Efficiency: 65%

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.108
Final Gravity: 1.027
ABV (standard): 10.62%
IBU (tinseth): 62.14
SRM (morey): 25.43

FERMENTABLES:
4 lb - Belgian Pilsner (48%)
3 lb - Maris Otter Pale (36%)
0.67 lb - Belgian Candi Syrup - D180 (8%)
0.67 lb - Lyle's Golden Syrup (8%)

HOPS:
0.67 oz - Ultra (AA 9) for 60 min, Type: Leaf/Whole, Use: Boil
0.67 oz - Willamette (AA 5) for 20 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil

MASH STEPS:
1) Infusion, Temp: 152 F, Time: 90 min, Amount: 2.5 qt, Sacc rest

OTHER INGREDIENTS:
1 each - Whirlfloc, Time: 15 min, Type: Fining, Use: Boil

YEAST:
Wyeast - Belgian Abby Ale II 1762

963

Commercial Beer Reviews / Rochefort 8

« on: July 12, 2012, 08:17:51 pm »

I just cracked into a Rochefort 8 a little while ago. At first there was something off I couldn't put my finger on, but as it warmed up it became really clear. There is a huge DMS flavor here. It tastes like someone dumped a can of creamed corn in my beer. Has anyone run into this with the trappist ales before? I've had 2 bottles of Chimay Blue over the past few years where I picked up DMS notes too (although not as much as this Rochefort).

It seems like sacrilege to dump a trappist brew, especially at the price they cost, but I think I might have to. Thankfully I have an Ommegang dubbel in the fridge as backup right now...

964

Ingredients / Re: backwards recipe creation

« on: July 12, 2012, 07:27:54 pm »

There are plenty of excellent brewers on this site that will hook you up if you post here. In addition, Google a few of your ingredients and see what you find (something like "recipe wlp570 tettnang" for example). I'd take most online recipes with a grain of salt unless you trust the author or see several positive reviews, but it should at least give you some ideas and/or a starting point.

When I'm working with a new style, I'll generally either tweak a recipe from Brewing Classic Styles, or go real simple (akin to Drew's "Brewing on the 1's" concept - one base malt & one roast/kilned/crystal malt).

965

Extract/Partial Mash Brewing / Re: Re: my latest pale ale is pretty dry and meh.

« on: July 12, 2012, 05:48:26 pm »

checked it out after work and i'm getting more little bubbles since i dropped the hops in.   not really unexpected, but i'm not sure what it will do to the taste of the already dry, already meh beer.

That's probably just CO2 coming out of solution. Adding dry hops shouldn't really do anything to kick off any additional fermentation if it was already done.

966

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: My IPA changes drastically over time

« on: July 12, 2012, 09:55:19 am »

Maybe the hops covered the solvent notes when the beer was super fresh and now that the hops have faded it's starting to show through a bit more? How's your fermentation temps?

967

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Traveling with wort

« on: July 11, 2012, 09:03:13 pm »

I don't think it will make a significant difference whether you pitch before or after you travel. You can do whichever works best for you.

Do you have a way to control your fermentation temps in your apartment? If not, you may be better off just leaving the whole thing in your parents' basement.

968

Extract/Partial Mash Brewing / Re: my latest pale ale is pretty dry and meh.

« on: July 11, 2012, 08:55:03 pm »

You don't mention if you accounted for the partial boil in your IBU calc's, but I'll assume you did.  You don't mention what your water is like.  Adequate sulfate is important in bringing out the hop and bittering expression.  I prefer about 300 ppm sulfate in my pale ales. 

In addition, if the pH of the wort into the kettle was lower than about 5.2, you start loosing hop expression.  If you used RO or distilled water, then its possible to have the pH drop lower than desirable.  Its not likely though.

What exactly about "hop expression" is diminished by lower pH? Is it IBU's/utilization? Or is it flavor/aroma?

I ask this because I've been toying with the idea of adding some acid to my extract PA recipe. It's getting close to where I want it, but it's missing something to my palate, and I'm thinking that a touch of acidity is what's missing. Ballast Point Sculpin is one of my all-time favorite IPA's, and it has this juicy character that really makes the hops flavor jump out, so that's what is pushing me in that direction.

969

Extract/Partial Mash Brewing / Re: my latest pale ale is pretty dry and meh.

« on: July 11, 2012, 08:43:55 pm »

This is pretty much my spur-of-the-moment extract-only brew. I do 3 pounds of light DME in 3 gallons with about 45 IBU's. I've gone through a few revisions and finally got it to where I'm really happy with it. The first time I made it with WLP001, and it came out thin and dry. The dry part I like, but not the thin part. My most recent revision had 4oz of maltodextrin (for a 3 gal batch) and I used a less attenuative yeast (WLP051). This ended up filling out the body while keeping the dryness.

A beer like this is really about the hops, so I really load up there. I do about 20 IBU's at 60 min with Chinook or Columbus, about 25 IBU's at 15 minutes, 1/2 ounce at flameout then dry hop with an ounce or so for 7-10 days. I also add 1g of gypsum which, paired with the Chinook/Columbus, gives a nice hoppy bite.

If you like crystal malt, you could steep some when you start heating your water and pull the bag at 165 or so to get some extra body and crystal character without adding any time to the brewday. Personally, I'm not a big fan of crystal in my hoppy PA's, so I'm going to use 1lb of Munich LME + 2lb light DME next time I brew. I'm also going to try WLP002. The WLP051 was pretty good, but I'm looking for something a bit more flocculant.

Moral of the story - with dry hops you will end up with a tasty brew. If you want to make this your stock "slacker" brew, keep some maltodextrin on hand, use some gypsum, and do a big flameout hop addition. This is actually a really simple way to make a damn good beer. This recipe alone is going to keep me making extract batches even though I'm making the jump to all-grain next week.

970

The Pub / Re: song title game

« on: July 10, 2012, 12:18:14 pm »

Little Queen - Heart

Rocket Queen - Guns & Roses

971

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Re: Yeast recommendations for hoppy pale ale split-batch

« on: July 10, 2012, 12:04:56 pm »

In my (limited) experience, B. bruxellensis will ferment out about as quickly as Sacchromyces, and it works really well in a hoppy ale. B. lambicus, from what I hear, is notorious for being a slow fermenter.

Interesting. Which Brett b have you used? Did you make a starter?

972

Extract/Partial Mash Brewing / Re: Shandy advice

« on: July 09, 2012, 12:12:18 pm »

The no-sugar lemonade is giving me all sorts of ideas of things to do with some wheat beer I have laying around. I've wondered how to make a "blue raspberry" beer and as gross as the initial thought sounds, Kool-Aid can't be much worse than any other cheap flavor extract. I might try out some of the "on the go" packets I have laying around in a bottle or two for the hell of it.

973

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: What can I do with T58 yeast?

« on: July 09, 2012, 12:02:11 pm »

T-58 is my preferred yeast for hard cider, if you're into that kind of thing. The slight clove flavor pairs well with the apples, and it doesn't like fermenting to dryness in apple must.

Sounds like a tasty combo. I'll have to give this a try. What temp do you ferment at for cider? Ever bottle carb using the T58 - can you get a carbonated cider that doesn't end up bone dry with this yeast?

974

Other Fermentables / Re: Archer Farms - Raw Organic Wildflower Honey

« on: July 09, 2012, 11:57:28 am »

And the terms "organic/inorganic" in chemistry have nothing to do with the terms "organic/conventional" in farming.

Clarified a bit to hopefully quash the tortuous semantics argument.

To my original thought - what intrigued me was the "raw" part more than the "organic" part (it is USDA certified organic FWIW, though).

I never ended up buying any of this honey, btw. Blueberry season is upon us, so I'm going to hit up a couple of my local orchards to see if they can hook me up with a local single-source honey.

975

All Grain Brewing / Re: How much of a difference does mash thickness make?

« on: July 09, 2012, 11:02:51 am »

Session IPA = Pale Ale?

I'm unsure of that.  "IPA" generally means lots of hops, lots of bitter.  "Session" generally means low alchohol.

I've "tried" to brew a session IPA.  Came out at 5.5%ABV.  But for me, that IS a session.

The lines between Pale Ale, IPA and IIPA are really starting to get blurry. My "session IPA" is probably closer to a session DIPA, although I've just come to think of it as a hoppy pale ale. Every time I brew it it gets dryer and dryer. At this point I don't even want any crystal malt in the same room as I brew it. And while my IBU's may not be in the 80's, my BU:GU ratio is a bit over 1.

It may not work for judging, but for my tastes I pretty much see the hoppy American ales as a continuum, and as long as the malt bill is balanced (not too thin/not too malty or sweet), then there is a wide range of gravities and hopping levels that will work.