Chai Spiced Brown Ale

After being a major slacker on this blog for the last two months, I'm happy to be posting a recipe again.  I may not have been posting, but I definitely kept brewing over the holiday season.  I'm going to try to keep things more consistent in 2014.  Here's a recipe that I brewed towards the end of 2013 (exact dates unknown).  This has turned out to be one of the more enjoyable recipes I brewed last year and I'd definitely recommend this batch to anyone who enjoys a smooth brown ale with a hint of spice!

I found this recipe inspiration in Radical Brewing by Randy Mosher (see page 170).  I didn't follow Gordon Strong's recipe exactly since I want my brown ale to be a little stronger than the recipe in the book, though I did use chai spices as directed.

BJCP Style Category: 11C Northern English Brown Ale or 21A Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer

Batch Size: 5 gallons

Grains:
4.75 lbs UK 2-Row
2.50 lbs Vienna Malt
1.25 lbs Munich Malt
1.00 lbs Caravienne Malt
0.75 lbs Crystal 80
0.25 lbs Chocolate Malt
0.25 lbs Flaked Oats

Hops:
1.50 oz Saaz - 60 minutes remaining in boil


Yeast:
British Ale Yeast - White Labs WLP 005

Chai Tea Spices:
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
2" ginger, peeled, sliced
1 star anise
1 black cardamom pod, split
1/2 whole nutmeg, roughly chopped
2 cinnamon sticks
5 whole cloves
18 green cardamom pods, split
2 tsp black peppercorns
0.25 tsp fennel seeds

I mashed 3.6 gallons of water with the grains at 147 deg F (strike temp 163 deg F) for 60 minutes.  Sparge with 4.2 gallons of water at 170 deg F for about 60 minutes.

Sparging beautiful brown ale...

Once you've collected your wort, bring the batch to a boil and add the Saaz hops once you reach boiling.  Boil for 60 minutes.  Cool and transfer your wort to the primary fermenter, pitch yeast, and ferment for one week.

After the primary fermentation is complete you're ready to add the spices.  Gather all your spices ahead of time and prepare as noted above.  

Chai Tea Spice Blend!

Bring one quart of water to a boil and pour the water over your spices.  Allow the spices to steep for 15 minutes in the water.  Strain to remove the spices and chill until you are ready to use.

Transfer your fermented beer to the secondary fermenter.  Add the chai tea to your taste.  I ended up adding the entire tea blend and did not find it to be overwhelming.  Leave the batch in the secondary fermenter until you're ready to bottle or keg.  The final product is delicious.  Enjoy!

November Bay Area Beer Events!!

I need to get more consistent about posting these.  I came up with a nice September list, and completely dropped the ball in October.  Better late than never for November!

November 9 - 101 North Brewing Naughty Aud Imperial Stout Release Party - Pub Republic, Petaluma

November 9 - 8th Annual West Cost Barrel Aged Beer Fest - The Bistro, Hayward

November 14 - An Evening of Kaiseki & Sake - Mandarin Oriental, San Francisco

November 18 - Peak Organic Bar Hop Project - Southpaw BBQ, San Francisco

East Bay Special Bitter (EBSB!)

This is a pretty straight forward recipe than the past few that I've posted here.  With the holidays coming soon I have spice beer on tap and spice beer planned to be brewed next weekend (Winter Chai Brown Ale!).  I thought it would be nice to have something on tap that was easy drinking and pull me away from the awesome Harvest Pumpkin Ale.  Also, we are expecting a few Thanksgiving guests who aren't into spiced beers (my Dad....see you at Thanksgiving!).  After debating for some time where to go this weekend, I remembered a nice batch of ESB I brewed a few years ago.  I'm sure this isn't the same recipe, but I whipped this one up Saturday night and headed to MoreBeer! in Concord on Sunday morning.  Without further BS-ing, enjoy!

Brew Day: 11/3/2013

BJCP Style Category: 8C Extra Special/Strong Bitter (English Pale Ale)

Batch Size: 6 gallons

Grains:
11.50 lbs American 2-Row (looking back on this now; I probably should used UK 2-row; relax have a homebrew)
1.1 lbs Crystal 40 
0.4 lbs Crystal 60 (I had an extra 0.4 lbs of Crystal 60 which I substituted; otherwise I would've used 1.5 lbs of Crystal 40)
0.5 lbs CaraRed

Hops:
1.00 oz Northern Brewer - 60 minutes remaining in the boil
0.50 oz Northern Brewer - 30 minutes remaining in the boil
1.00 oz East Kent Goldings - 15 minutes remaining in the boil
0.50 oz East Kent Goldings - 1 minutes remaining in the boil

Yeast:
British Ale Yeast - White Labs WLP 005

Mash the grains at 151 deg F (strike temp 168 deg F) for 60 minutes using 4.5 gallons of water.  Sparge at 170 deg F using 4.6 gallons of water.

Brew Day - 11/3/2013

Sparging!

Fermentation:  

As always, I carbonate at room temperature until I convince my wife to let me convert our garage into a temperature controlled fermentation chamber (not happening....).  If you do have the ability to fine tune your fermentation temperature, I'd recommend 68 to 72 deg F.  That seems to be a pretty common range for ESB's from my Clone Brews book.

11/4/2013 - 7:00 am

11/4/2013 - 6:30 pm - LIFT OFF!

OG = 1.056 (actual 1.062)

FG = 1.018
ABV = 5.0% (projecting 5.8%)

How To: Use a Counter Pressure Bottle Filler

Over the past few months since I went head over heels for kegging, one of the problems I've been facing is:

How do I get the carbonated beer out of the keg and into the bottle?

If you've ever tried to pour a beer directly from your tap into a bottle you're probably familiar with foam over flow that follows shortly after.  It's kind of like those 3rd grade volcano projects you did as a kid. This is usually followed by spilt beer, cursing, and tears of frustration (don't cry over spilt milk, but wasted beer is sinful).

On recent trip to MoreBeer! in Concord I invested in a Counter Pressure Bottle Filler. 

Counter Pressure Bottle Filler

This device is essentially a stainless steel tube with a 3-way valve at the top and a pressure relief valve on the side. 

I tested this gadget out this weekend on my Harvest Pumpkin Ale.  Through some trial and error this seems to be the least painful filling procedure:

1.  Clean and sanitize bottles and bottle fuller as your normally would. For me this includes PBW cleaner and Star San sanitizer. 

2. With the 3-way valve in the neutral position (perpendicular) and pressure relief valve closed, connect gas line and beverage lines to the top of the bottle filler. 

3.  Set the pressure on your regulator to 8-15 psi.  This was the pressure recommended by MoreBeer!, but I found that my typical serving pressure (5 psi) worked well too. 

4.  Insert the filler into your bottle so that the rubber stopper is snug inside the bottle. 

5.  Open the valve to the gas side and allow the bottle to fill with CO2. Once the bottle is full begin to open the pressure relief valve to allow air the escape. 

6.  Once you have air moving through the pressure relief valve you're ready to fill the bottle with beer. Move the 3-way valve to the beverage side. You can control the flow of beer into the bottle by adjusting the pressure relief valve. The more air you allow to escape, the faster the beer will flow into the bottle. 

Beer filling in progress...

This is what this process is supposed to avoid, head inside the bottle.  I need more practice.

7. When the bottle is full, move the 3-way valve back to the neutral position   Remove the bottle filler and cap the bottle immediately. 

A few things NOT to do:

- Do not try to stop the flow of beer using the pressure relief valve. This will only stop the flow of beer until you remove the filler. Once that happens the system is open, beer comes flowing out onto the floor of your garage, and you begin shouting. 

- Do not move the 3-way valve back to the gas position after the bottle has been filled.  Pushing gas into your beer is bad.

MoreBeer has a great video on their website detailing this process.  

Great American Beer Festival

Just wanted to share a few photos and happenings from my Great American Beer Festival experience.  First off this is an epic event that draws 50,000 people over 4 events in at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, CO.  With that many people you'd think that this would be overwhelming and you'd never have a chance to get a brew, but that is not the case at all.  Over 600 breweries attended the fest this year featuring 2000+ brews.  I have no idea how many I tried, but I know my glass was rarely empty.  Here are a few of my favorites from last weekend:

1.  Throwback Brewery - Spicy Bohemian (Jalapeno Pilsner) - North Hampton, NH

This one takes top the slot for me.  Personally, I'm not really into spicy foods and I've always held a little intimidation for chile beers.  This beer assuaged all fears and provided the inspiration for a jalapeno wheat beer this winter (hopefully I'll be brewing this in early November).

2.  Dock Street Brewpub - That's What She Said Chocolate Saison - Philadelphia, PA

The name is awesome, and the beer was delish.

3.  Elysian Brewing Company - Dark O' the Moon (Pumpkin Stout) - Seattle, WA

Great fall and winter spices to accompany the thick stout ale.

4.  Heretic Brewing Company - Chocolate Hazelnut Porter - Fairfield, CA

I once tried to brew this style (possibly the same recipe from Jamil's book, since Jamil owns this brewery) and failed miserably due to "over-hazelnutting".  This batch was blended and balanced perfectly between the porter flavors and hazelnut.

Other items of note from my 2 days and 9+ hours at this event:

Best T-Shirts go to the Ex-communicated Mormon Drinking Team (thank you to the woman in this photo for letting this photo happen!)

Weird photo.  There's a man licking someone with a horse head here.  It is what it is.  Don't judge me for taking time to capture this moment.

Silent Disco!!!

Lastly, if Southwest ever prints a security document for you just know you're in for a long day.  It basically means you're not getting on your flight.  I ended up flying home into San Francisco (instead of Oakland), took BART to Oakland, a cab to the Oakland Airport, and finally drove home.  Southwest that was LAME.

RYE-toberfest

It's my first post here in the last few weeks.  I didn't mean to go dark on everyone, but I've been experiencing the joys of home ownership.  Between renting chainsaws, building garden boxes, and brewing beer I didn't have too many opportunities to post.  Here's the latest recipe I brewed two weeks ago now.  This is a Roggenbier (German Rye Ale) that I've brewed in honor of Oktoberfest.  Naturally, the recipe follows Reinheitsgebot (the German Purity Law) which only allows water, barley, and hops as beer ingredients.  The recipe is from one of my favorite recipe books, Brewing Classic Styles by Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer.  I'll be serving this beer at small neighborhood Oktoberfest celebration at the end of this month with my friend Justin in Sacramento.

Batch Size: 6 gallons

Grains:
6.25 lbs Rye Malt
3.50 lbs Munich Malt
3.00 lbs German Pilsners Malt
1.00 lbs Caramunich Malt
2.00 ozs Carafa II


Hops:
1.00 oz Tetnang - 60 minutes remaining in the boil
0.30 oz Czech Saaz - 15 minutes remaining in the boil

Yeast:
Hefeweizen Ale - White Labs WLP 300

Hefeweizen Ale Yeast Starter

Mash, Sparge, and Boil:

Bring 4.6 gallons of water to a strike temperature of 171 degrees F.  I use a water to grain ratio of 1.33 qts per pound of grain.  Mash at 154 degrees F for 60 minutes.  

Mashing time....its so hot right now!

This recipe recommended increasing the pre-boil volume to allow for a 90 minutes boil to help reduce the DMS.  

Side note:  DMS is dimethyl sulfide and is produced during the boil.  This will usually be boiled off, but sometimes it may dissolve back into the beer and will give a cooked vegetable off flavor.

I sparged 5.2 gallons of water at 170 degrees F.  Once the wort was collected I boiled for 90 minutes, added hops per the recipe, cooled, and pitched my yeast starter.

Wort collection

Fermentation:  

The recipe recommends a fermentation temperature of 62 degrees F.  If you have the ability to control your fermentation that low, then try it out.  I fermented in my closet at room temperature and the fermentation went great.

OG = 1.054 (actual 1.056)
FG = 1..014 (actual 1.016)
ABV = 5.2%

Opening Up to Sour Beers

I remember the first time I tried a sour beer.  I made a face that looked like this:

Yes, I was 8 years old with a bowl haircut when I had my first sour!!

When I was living in San Francisco, I received a number of sours in my beer of the month club from Plumpjack in Noe Valley.  I was always terrified of these beers and they ended up aging in my refrigerator for months until I worked up the courage to open one.  Since that time I've tried a number of sours and my, "OMG, that's gross" face has steadily declined but I had never reach the point of actually enjoying a sour until last week.

Last week I attended a home brew club meeting for the first time with The Mad Zymurgists in Livermore.  The topic of the night was sours and of course as any good home brew club would do there was a beer tasting.  According to the BJCP, the following styles are recognized as sours:

BJCP Category 17

17A. Berliner Weisse
17B. Flanders Red Ale
17C. Flanders Brown Ale/Oud Bruin
17D. Straight (Unblended) Lambic
17E. Gueuze
17F. Fruit Lambic

Now, two of these styles are beers that I've enjoyed in the past.  I've found Berliner Weisse and Gueuze to very enjoyable beers and would recommend that any beer drinker explore these style as an "entry drug" into sours.  I didn't even realize these were sour styles until last Thursday.

Similarly, a lambic may be a great way to convince some of your wine snob friends to begin enjoying the delightful-ness of beer.  A lambic will usually come in a fancy, corked bottle and can be sweet & sour.  Also, the color is usually not amber or golden like most beers.  Most of the lambics I've been exposed to are some variation of red in color.  Don't tell your friends its beer and they'll drink it straight down!

Finally, we come to the two styles that surprised me the most, the flanders red ale and the flanders brown ale (or oud bruin).  I did not expect to enjoy either one of these, but these really opened my eyes last week to how enjoyable sour ales can be.  The flanders red ale was a beer called Oude Tart from The Bruery (side note we also tasted an ale aged in bourdon barrels with wild yeast call Tart of Darkness also from the The Bruery).  I regret not being able to recall what the flanders brown ale was, but if it returns to my memory I will update this posting.

So in summary, if you're looking to start you're journey into sour beers perhaps begin with a nice Berliner Weisse or Gueuze, save the lambics for your wine snob friends, and then ease yourself into the flanders red.  I enjoyed the tasting so much that it got me thinking about brewing my own sours.  Perhaps I'll jump into those style someday when I'm ready to commit to aging one for about a year!