20070818

Just racked my Red off of the dry hops to clean most of the hops out. I just racked a Pale straight into keg last week and had too many hops get into the keg with the beer. The hops sank to the bottom and clumped up on the liquid intake. Every glass that I drew was pure foam. I had to blow gas down the liquid line to get the clump blown out. I'm still getting quite a few of the Cascades with every glass. So the Red was racked to a second secondary and I got rid of most of the hops from the dry hop. There will still be some left when I go to keg, but it will be much less than the Pale.

I also racked the Scotch Ale. I've drawn some off to share a taste with Ronnie and friends. It is still higher gravity than what the recipe calls for. I'm hoping that the yeasties will still do some work. Very sweet and the peat flavor is coming through big time.

My friend Bryan and I have plans to keg up a Chocolate Stout on Tuesday. We'll split the batch in half and do interesting things to them. I'd like to see if I can make a Marzipan Stout, one that reminds me of Ritter Sport Marzipan. Instead of a double chocolate, we were thinking of a triple or quadruple chocolate. Time will tell.

Plans: Next batch has to be an Ayinger Oktoberfest-Marzen clone. I don't lager, and I wonder how it will do as an ale. I have to move things through the pipeline though. An ESB is in one of my primaries, I've got my Red, the Scotch Ale, a Holiday Spiced Ale, Dave's Porter, and the Chocolate Stout taking up my secondaries. My fridge has a Peach Ale, Belgian Summer Saison, White Oak Porter, Psychedelic Monk, Super Puppy Pale, and Root Beer filling it up, and I have two empty kegs. The Peach Ale felt rather light, the root beer too. I'd bet the Porter and Saison are only half full. It will be time to bottle soon to clear out some space.

Brew #67: Extra Crystal Bitter

This is the AHS ESB recipe and I'm planning on putting leaf hops into the keg with it. I had done it before with Kent Goldings and I loved the finish. The first taste pounded your taste buds with piney notes, but the finish made it all worthwhile. When getting the recipe, there were no Kent Golding leaf hops, so I'm going to try Crystal. I've never tasted them as a dry-hop. Should be interesting. This brew I did late addition on the extract, but at 15 minutes left of the boil, not an extra bit of time at the end. I used Irish Moss to clear it up a bit more. Sadly, I fell asleep while it was cooling. 5 hours later, I awoke and turned off the wort chiller and got the yeast pitched. It hasn't taken off like some of the past ESB's. Maybe tomorrow.
Update: Got this one in the keg with Crystal Leaf hops in a muslin bag weighted with marbles. It is carbonated and the Crystal Hops are mellow enough that the balance is still good. I can still get a taste of the malt. It's a flavor that doesn't stand out. Instead it goes down mellow.

Brewed: 08-14-2007
Racked: 08-21-2007
Kegged: 09-09-2007 (kegged with 1/2 oz. Crystal Leaf hops.)

OG=1.053@70F
FG=1.004@77F

ABV=6.288%

Brew #66: Scotch Ale

I've been commissioned to make a Scotch Ale. My friend Ronnie read about it and would like to try it. He bought the ingredients for the AHS Scotch Ale mini mash recipe including a 1% alcohol boost and two vials of Edinburgh Ale yeast. The final beer should get up to 9%. Brewed it last night and had no boilover. Yay for keeping the stovetop clean! I've taped some of my steps. I'll have to edit it down and post it on youtube. I'm expecting this to blow the top, but it will take a day or two.
Update: I was expecting BIG things from this, like a fermentation that would blow the top. I rigged up a blow-off tube into a quart bucket half full of water and everything. The fermentation was a constant bloop-bloop-bloop for a couple days and then settled down. Nothing huge though. It is looking rackable only 4 days later. I'll still wait out the week. I'll draw a bit off and let Ronnie try a taste over the weekend.

Brewed: 08-10-2007
Racked: 08-17-2007
Kegged: TBD

OG=1.089@76F
FG=TBD

ABV=TBD

Brew #65: Spiced Holiday Ale

My friend's wife always wants unique flavors. This one may fit the bill. It had a spice pack with cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and ginger. I've been told that it will be a spice bomb at first. After two months in the keg, the flavors will mellow and really be good.
Update: Took a look on the 10th, there was still foam on the beer. Not ready for racking yet. I'll wait another few days.

Brewed: 08-03-2007
Racked: 08-12-2007
Kegged: TBD

OG=1.050@72F
FG=TBD

ABV=TBD

20070727: Thoughts

I collaborate on a few brews with my dive buddy Dave. Since he buys the ingredients, I don't count his brews on my list. Still, we estimate that we've done nine or ten together. Tonight's brew is a Vanilla Porter - extract recipe (not mini-mash). All told, we finished this one in a touch over three hours - three and a half including clean up.

While the boil was going, I was able to rack my second Red #4 to make room in a primary. I always siphon a taste off. Dave said that it was very hoppy. I enjoyed it because the Saaz hops are exactly the flavor I'm going for. The Red gets dry hopped with Saaz Auscha hops for a couple/three weeks. I may rack again to try to filter off the hops and then finally to keg.

We also took the time to keg my third batch of a Belgian Summer Saison in 5 months. I was smiling. The flavor seems as good as my last batch. This one was racked after spending only two weeks in secondary. It seems to have clarified enough, though hard to tell, since it is meant to be still a bit cloudy. The flavor is all there and that is what really counts.

While we were at it, I was curious to see how my White Oak Porter was coming around. I siphoned off a taste for Dave and myself. Definite vanilla oaky aromas and I could taste them as a more subtle flavor in the beer. Makes me proud to think that my goal when I made it will turn out as planned.

This 8 keg beer geek only has 4 empty kegs now with 5 brews in the pipeline. Sweet!

Brew #64: Ed's Red #4 again.

The last batch of Ed's Red #4 didn't stick around long enough for me to enjoy it.

Brewed: 07-23-2007
Racked: 07-27-2007 (w/ 1 oz. Saaz Auscha)
Racked: 08-17-2007
Kegged: TBD

OG=1.050@72F
FG=TBD

ABV=TBD

Brew #63: Flying Dog Pale Ale clone

All the time I've been enjoying my own Ahtanum Pale, or the ESB, or the Simcoe Pale, I've had a few good times down at the Elephant Room listening to the Monster Big Band quaffing a few Flying Dog Pales. At least I get a small bit of a variation on my Pales.
Update: Kegged it straight from the dry-hopped secondary. There are going to be a few Cascades floating around in this beer. Maybe I can get them to settle out in the first few weeks. It's got the right balance that I can enjoy drinking a glass while it is warm and flat. I may have it ready to drink by the weekend.

Brewed: 07-22-2007
Racked: 08-01-2007 (dry hopped w/ 1 oz. Cascades)
Kegged: 08-15-2007

OG=1.050@72F
FG=1.004@78F

ABV=5.633%