Messages

61

Beer Recipes / Golden Lemongrass Farmhouse

« on: July 14, 2012, 12:19:18 PM »

Golden Lemongrass Farmhouse:

7.25 lb Pale malt
4.00 lb Wheat malt
1.00 lb Munich I
0.75 lb Caravienne
0.50 lb Light candi sugar

1.00 oz Tettnanger
1.00 oz Hallertauer
1.00 oz Saaz

Whitelabs 670 American Farmhouse Blend
Rack on 2 lbs fresh lemongrass.

Target OG: 1.058

This actually kinda resembles a Tripel. Pretty damn tasty! Please try brewing it and tell us about your results!

62

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: What's Brewing This Weekend - 7/13 Edition

« on: July 14, 2012, 11:20:04 AM »

Finished my brewing duties yesterday. Kegged my apricot wheat with a whole load of Amarillo keg hops. Brewed a dark fig saison for the holidays. If all goes well, I'll rack it on some bourbon oak and Brett b.

63

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: What's Brewing This Weekend - 6/29 Edition

« on: June 28, 2012, 09:56:31 PM »

Brewing an English Mild and racking my hopped American wheat on pureed apricots. Pretty damn excited.

64

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Ideas for wedding brews late July?

« on: June 28, 2012, 09:45:11 PM »

Thanks guys! Looks like it's gonna be a sessionable English Mild. Maris Otter, victory, crystal, flaked barley, etc. Gonna decoct and do a long boil with several hop additions (East Kent Goldings and Saaz) to build a nice complexity. Trying to trick the palate, as it will be around 3.5% abv. 

What level carbonation should I shoot for? Will probably keg condition with corn sugar.

65

Beer Recipes / Re: How do you step up an IPA to Double IPA?

« on: June 24, 2012, 11:42:08 AM »

Generally, the target sweetness level on an IIPA is less than it is for a standard IPA. A sweet IIPA can get cloying pretty fast. Alcohol is pretty much a substitute for sweetness when it comes to balance in a finished beer.

Good call. I totally didn't think of that.

66

Beer Recipes / Re: How do you step up an IPA to Double IPA?

« on: June 23, 2012, 12:02:42 PM »

As promised, here's my original IPA recipe (based on Maui's Big Swell)

8.5 lb pale malt  (62.3%)
2.0 lb 40L crystal (15.1%)
1.0 lb 10L crystal (7.5%)
1.0 lb munich I (7.5%)
1.0 lb flaked maize (7.5%)

1.0 oz Cascade
1.0 oz Citra
1.0 oz Magnum
2.0 oz Simcoe (keg hop)

So to step it up to a IIPA, my idea here is to do a small first wort addition, use about 6-9ml hop extract at the beginning and boil for 90 min. Then, as stated above, additions at flameout, whirlpool, dry hop and keg hop. I'll probably boost the base malt % and add some simple sugar (as per morticai's suggestion) to augment the fermentables so I can keep the body on the lighter side and get a little more booze in there.

I want to get just a little more sweetness than normal to balance the hops, alcohol and carbonation (shooting for about 1.080 or so.) So, what is a good target saccrification rest? Thanks for all the suggestions! Keep the conversation going!

67

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Ideas for wedding brews late July?

« on: June 22, 2012, 05:01:55 PM »

I love a good hefe on a summer day but I think he's also doing one and I am bringing an apricot wheat. I'm thinking a big IPA and something sessionable and English. Keep the ideas coming! Thanks!

68

Beer Recipes / How do you step up an IPA to Double IPA?

« on: June 22, 2012, 12:11:33 PM »

Hey kids, what are some general guidelines for stepping up your favorite all-grain IPA to a double IPA? I'm thinking a little hop extract in the boil to avoid grassy/vegetal flavors from over hopping. Then probably a lot of late boil, whirlpool and dry hops. I've keg hopped with great success in the past, too.

As far as grain bill goes, do I just dial up my base and specialty malts proportionally to one another? I don't have my recipe in front of me but can post later for further input. Thanks!

69

General Homebrew Discussion / Ideas for wedding brews late July?

« on: June 22, 2012, 12:33:11 AM »

Ok, so I'm the best man for my buddy's wedding here in Colorado in late July. He's already got a few bases covered: Czech Pils, Doppelbock, Berliner, Coconut IPA, Tafelbier, Schwarz, and a couple others I can't remember.

So, I'm wondering what should I contribute? Something fast fermenting. I already have an apricot wheat on the way and an American kolsch. Also, a lemongrass farmhouse which will be bottled as gifts for the wedding party. Ideas, anyone? I'm thinking another sessionable fruit beer and something English...

70

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: What's Brewing This Weekend - 6/22 Edition

« on: June 22, 2012, 12:11:38 AM »

Monday's my birthday, I'm off from work and brewing up a pseudo-Oktoberfest with Wyeast 2124 at ale temps. Can't wait.

What's your method/recipe? I'm really interested in doing something similar but had my ideas shot down by my buddy who is self-proclaimed lager expert. Is it possible to brew an ale that looks and tastes pretty close to an oktoberfest? I just don't have the ability to lager at the moment.

Oh, and happy birthday!

71

Kegging and Bottling / Re: To yeast, or not to yeast...

« on: June 19, 2012, 04:16:10 PM »

Ok, so the golden farmhouse is racked on about 2 lbs of lemongrass at the moment and tasting great! Gravity is down to 1.006 so I'm wondering if I should wait until it completely finishes out to 1.000 or below before dosing with sugar and bottling?

It is WLP 670 which I believe contains brett. So I assume it will continue to chew on any fermentables in the bottle for some time. I also don't want to rush it but I need to get this bottled for a wedding at the end of July. Thoughts?

72

Beer Recipes / Re: Wheat stout, because...why not?

« on: June 18, 2012, 07:13:38 PM »

you had me all the way ... until the citra hops. 

Haha, yeah it's just what I had on hand at the time. It's barely detectable, anyway.

73

Beer Recipes / Wheat stout, because...why not?

« on: June 18, 2012, 04:33:52 PM »

Hey all, this is a recipe of a wheat beer that started as a Dunkel and ended up somewhere between an porter and a stout. The short explanation is that I screwed up my grain bill badly, and through much advice and guidance by the AHA community, I was able to pull off a pretty tasty beer. More details in this post: http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=12021.msg158227#msg158227

Anyway, here's the recipe:

5.5 lb Pale malt
5.0 lb German wheat malt
1.25 lb Munich I
14 oz Blackprinz

1.0 oz Mt. Hood
1.0 oz Citra

Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephan
Whirlfloc & Yeast nutrient

Protein rest @ 122 for 30 min
Sacc rest @152 for 30 min
Mash out @168 for 10 min

fly sparge and 60 min boil

Mt. Hood @ 0:00 and Citra @ 45:00

The next time I try this, I'll use Safale US-04 English ale yeast and probably English or German hops. Turned out pretty decent. I keg conditioned with 3/4 cup priming sugar and an extra shot of CO2 after crashing. I hope you enjoy and please post if you try this or something similar!

74

All Grain Brewing / Re: Ok, so I gotta situation here...

« on: June 16, 2012, 04:51:27 PM »

*UPDATE*

Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone. I actually learned a lot about brewing with this one! I ended up taking about 1/4 existing grain bill (including the Blackprinz) and cut it with wheat and pale. Used American hops and WY3068. Kegged with 3/4 cup priming sugar. It now resembles a really clean, smooth wheat stout. I dialed up the hops a little higher than I would for a Dunkel (the original planned beer) and it balanced out perfectly. I'm super excited about this one!

Here's the recipe: http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=12521.0.

Thanks again!

75

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: What's your preferred Belgian Pale yeast?

« on: June 09, 2012, 02:32:57 PM »

My "standard" Enkel uses T-58. Why? Because it's super cheap, and does the job. If you ferment it cool you'll get something close to a Leffe-type flavor.

If I had to pick a liquid strain, I'd go with the Ardennes.

Just trying to get an idea of what to use for the upcoming batch. This being the first attempt at a Belgian Pale, I thought I'd see what is preferred. Thanks for all the info!