Here is recipe #2 in the super official Wedding Series. I created this recipe on my own with the inspiration of a summer wedding in Oregon. I wanted something lighter for the summer months, but strong in hops. The piney aromas and flavors of the Simcoe seemed to be perfect match. If I were to do this batch again, I would "spice" up the grain bill a bit (literally). The beer is nicely done, but needs a little something. I'm think replacing some of the base malt (about 1 or 2 lbs) with either a rye or vienna malt would bring out a little more character.
BJCP Style Category: 14B American IPA
Batch Size: 5.50 gallons
ABV: 4.5%
IBU's: 73
Grains:
10.00 lbs US 2-Row Pale Malt
0.60 lbs Crystal 40L
Hops:
0.50 oz Simcoe - First Wort Hops (FWH, see below for instructions)
0.50 oz Simcoe - 45 minutes remaining in the boil
1.00 oz Simcoe - 20 minutes remaining in the boil
1.00 oz Simcoe - 1 minutes remaining in the boil
2.00 oz Simcoe - Dry hop for 14 days in the secondary
Yeast:
California Ale Yeast - White Labs WLP001 (also consider using WLP005, a british ale yeast. I've used this with success for IPA's in the past)
Mash the grains at 151 deg F (strike temp 170 deg F) for 60 minutes using 2.9 gallons of water.
Prior to sparging you'll need to prepare your first wort hops. I use my hop sock and tie it off to my kettle like I would during the boil. During the sparge I like to filter my wort run off directly through the hop sock, so I put my tubing directly through the top of the sock.
Sparge at 170 deg F using 5.3 gallons of water. Boil for 1 hour and add the hops per the recipe.
Pretty simple recipe, but there is some room for improvement. Looking forward to trying to batch again soon in the next few months. Still planning to tap this batch at the wedding.
Look for the final recipe in the wedding series later this week!
Saturday, July 19, 2014
Sunday, July 6, 2014
Low OG Reading and Evaporation During the Boil
I recently posted a short article on how to install a thermometer on the side of your mash tun. I mentioned in that article that I had been struggling to hit my original gravity (OG) for my last three batches. At first I considered it an aberration, however, after another two batches I started to become concerned. My OG readings were consistently low by about 10 points (or 0.01). This was concerning to me because I had a pretty successful track record of being within a few points (plus or minus) of my target OG.
Before the first batch with the low OG reading I had added a Chugger brew pump and a counterflow wort chiller. These two items replaced my old immersion style wort chiller and racking cane for both cooling and transferring wort after the boil. Both items worked fantastic and my brew chilled to groundwater temp quickly and efficiently. Only problem was that my OG reading was low.
My gut told me that the pump and counterflow chiller addition was somehow related to the low OG reading. At the time this made no sense since I couldn't figure out how the chiller could impact the OG.
I went about two more batches with the same results. The beer was turning out fine all along so I wasn't hugely concerned, but I did want to know why I couldn't reach the expected OG readings with any consistency.
I turned to the internet and posted a thread on Homebrew Talk on the topic. I got back some great, technical responses (thanks RM-MN and IslandLizard). Their theory was that I wasn't getting a quality milling on the grain. I always mill my grain at the homebrew shop and that hadn't changed in the last few batches so I doubted this could be the problem.
Finally, I was preparing to brew another batch and consulted the folks at MoreBeer!. After discussing the problem and my brew process we concluded that I was collecting too much wort during the sparge.
When I had my immersion chiller I would let the sparge run dry and I would always end up with 7.5-8 gallons of wort to boil. With the immersion chiller it used to take 30-45 minutes for my wort to cool to the point where it was no longer steaming, but with the new counterflow chiller that entire process happened in 5 minutes or less. With the new chiller I wasn't allowing the wort to continue to evaporate during the cooling process. In other words the same volume of wort cooled through the counterflow chiller would results in a lower OG!
I realized I needed to monitor my sparge more closely and only collect as much wort as I needed. After doing some research online and reviewing beer apps like BeerSmith and iBrewMaster, I concluded that for a 5.50 gallon batch, 7 gallons of wort would be appropriate. I've brewed two batches now with the idea of collecting 7 gallons of wort and my OG readings have been corrected.
These figures work well for my system, but may not work well for others. I would suggest testing your system to figure out what will work well for you. You can perform this testing using the following process:
1. Place 7 gallons of water into your brew pot and bring to a boil.
2. Boil for 1 hour.
3. Cool water as you would normally cool your wort after boiling.
4. Measure the amount of water remaining to determine how much boiled off.
5. Adjust the initial volume of water (or wort, more importantly) you start with to reached your desired final volume.
Pretty simple process. Good luck!
Before the first batch with the low OG reading I had added a Chugger brew pump and a counterflow wort chiller. These two items replaced my old immersion style wort chiller and racking cane for both cooling and transferring wort after the boil. Both items worked fantastic and my brew chilled to groundwater temp quickly and efficiently. Only problem was that my OG reading was low.
My gut told me that the pump and counterflow chiller addition was somehow related to the low OG reading. At the time this made no sense since I couldn't figure out how the chiller could impact the OG.
I went about two more batches with the same results. The beer was turning out fine all along so I wasn't hugely concerned, but I did want to know why I couldn't reach the expected OG readings with any consistency.
I turned to the internet and posted a thread on Homebrew Talk on the topic. I got back some great, technical responses (thanks RM-MN and IslandLizard). Their theory was that I wasn't getting a quality milling on the grain. I always mill my grain at the homebrew shop and that hadn't changed in the last few batches so I doubted this could be the problem.
Finally, I was preparing to brew another batch and consulted the folks at MoreBeer!. After discussing the problem and my brew process we concluded that I was collecting too much wort during the sparge.
When I had my immersion chiller I would let the sparge run dry and I would always end up with 7.5-8 gallons of wort to boil. With the immersion chiller it used to take 30-45 minutes for my wort to cool to the point where it was no longer steaming, but with the new counterflow chiller that entire process happened in 5 minutes or less. With the new chiller I wasn't allowing the wort to continue to evaporate during the cooling process. In other words the same volume of wort cooled through the counterflow chiller would results in a lower OG!
I realized I needed to monitor my sparge more closely and only collect as much wort as I needed. After doing some research online and reviewing beer apps like BeerSmith and iBrewMaster, I concluded that for a 5.50 gallon batch, 7 gallons of wort would be appropriate. I've brewed two batches now with the idea of collecting 7 gallons of wort and my OG readings have been corrected.
These figures work well for my system, but may not work well for others. I would suggest testing your system to figure out what will work well for you. You can perform this testing using the following process:
1. Place 7 gallons of water into your brew pot and bring to a boil.
2. Boil for 1 hour.
3. Cool water as you would normally cool your wort after boiling.
4. Measure the amount of water remaining to determine how much boiled off.
5. Adjust the initial volume of water (or wort, more importantly) you start with to reached your desired final volume.
Pretty simple process. Good luck!
Friday, July 4, 2014
Courtney Chaos Saison
This is the first recipe in a series of three for my sister's wedding. The wedding is at the end of July, so I'll be posting one recipe a week until the wedding. To make it sound super official, I'm calling this the Wedding Series.
Last year over Thanksgiving and couple of homebrews I suggested to my sister that I brew a few batches for her wedding. The following month I picked up a variety of Belgian style ales for a tasting. Styles included blonde, dubbel, tripel, quadrupel, saison, and a sour ale. The saison was Saison Dupont (one of my personal favorite beers) and was my sisters favorite from the flight of beers as well. She chose the name Courtney Chaos. I don't really consider saison to be a particularly chaotic style, but it's her wedding so Courtney Chaos it is. Here's my attempt at brewing a delicious saison for the wedding.
Brew Day: 4/20/2014
BJCP Style Category: 16C Saison
Batch Size: 5.50 gallons
ABV: 6.3%
IBU's: 25
Grains:
8.80 lbs Belgian 2-Row Pale Malt
1.70 lbs White Wheat
1.00 lbs Clear Belgian Candi Sugar
0.60 lbs Flaked Oats
0.30 lbs Munich Malt
0.30 lbs Rye Malt
Hops:
0.62 oz Pearle - 60 minutes remaining in the boil
0.62 oz Willamette - 60 minutes remaining in the boil
Other Additions:
1.12 oz dried, fresh orange peel - 5 minutes remaining in the boil.
Yeast:
French Saison Yeast - Wyeast Labs 3711
Before you brew pick up a fresh orange from your preferred source of oranges (backyard tree, local farmers market, grocery store, neighbors fridge, etc.). Peel the orange before you begin brewing and place them in a sunny spot outside and allow them to dry.
Mash the grains at 150 deg F (strike temp 167 deg F) for 90 minutes using 3.9 gallons of water. Sparge at 170 deg F using 4.5 gallons of water. Boil for 1 hour and add the hops per the recipe. With 5 minutes remaining in the boil toss the dried orange peel into the boil. Cool your wort and pitch your yeast as you normally would.
FERMENTATION NOTES: The last time I brewed a saison style ale the beer did not fully ferment after the first week and I needed to pitch an additional yeast starter for the secondary fermentation. When I pitched into the secondary I used a champagne yeast, which really dried out the beer. Saison's do typically have some dryness, but I felt the champagne yeast was a little overwhelming. Based on this, I let this beer ferment for a full two weeks in the primary to fully ferment. Finally, I aged the beer another two weeks in the secondary before kegging. By the time the beer is tapped the first time it will have been in the keg for about 7 weeks.
This beer will debut at the wedding. Look for pictures on Twitter at the end of the month!
Last year over Thanksgiving and couple of homebrews I suggested to my sister that I brew a few batches for her wedding. The following month I picked up a variety of Belgian style ales for a tasting. Styles included blonde, dubbel, tripel, quadrupel, saison, and a sour ale. The saison was Saison Dupont (one of my personal favorite beers) and was my sisters favorite from the flight of beers as well. She chose the name Courtney Chaos. I don't really consider saison to be a particularly chaotic style, but it's her wedding so Courtney Chaos it is. Here's my attempt at brewing a delicious saison for the wedding.
Brew Day: 4/20/2014
BJCP Style Category: 16C Saison
Batch Size: 5.50 gallons
ABV: 6.3%
IBU's: 25
Grains:
8.80 lbs Belgian 2-Row Pale Malt
1.70 lbs White Wheat
1.00 lbs Clear Belgian Candi Sugar
0.60 lbs Flaked Oats
0.30 lbs Munich Malt
0.30 lbs Rye Malt
Hops:
0.62 oz Pearle - 60 minutes remaining in the boil
0.62 oz Willamette - 60 minutes remaining in the boil
Other Additions:
1.12 oz dried, fresh orange peel - 5 minutes remaining in the boil.
Yeast:
French Saison Yeast - Wyeast Labs 3711
Before you brew pick up a fresh orange from your preferred source of oranges (backyard tree, local farmers market, grocery store, neighbors fridge, etc.). Peel the orange before you begin brewing and place them in a sunny spot outside and allow them to dry.
Mash the grains at 150 deg F (strike temp 167 deg F) for 90 minutes using 3.9 gallons of water. Sparge at 170 deg F using 4.5 gallons of water. Boil for 1 hour and add the hops per the recipe. With 5 minutes remaining in the boil toss the dried orange peel into the boil. Cool your wort and pitch your yeast as you normally would.
FERMENTATION NOTES: The last time I brewed a saison style ale the beer did not fully ferment after the first week and I needed to pitch an additional yeast starter for the secondary fermentation. When I pitched into the secondary I used a champagne yeast, which really dried out the beer. Saison's do typically have some dryness, but I felt the champagne yeast was a little overwhelming. Based on this, I let this beer ferment for a full two weeks in the primary to fully ferment. Finally, I aged the beer another two weeks in the secondary before kegging. By the time the beer is tapped the first time it will have been in the keg for about 7 weeks.
This beer will debut at the wedding. Look for pictures on Twitter at the end of the month!
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