Another IPA - Another FAIL

Not having great feelings about the IPA I brewed for my friends' wedding, and needing more beer to give as gifts to a few other friends, I gave the IPA carousel another ride. Especially since the previous IPA wasn't ready for comparison by this brewday, I forged ahead with a completely new and different recipe.

Sad to say, though, the results were much the same, for all the same process issues mentioned in the previous post. The time has come for me to buckle down and really figure out my processes for hoppy beers. I foresee a very straightforward series of pale ales and IPAs in the next year to master these issues.

Again, for posterity, here's the recipe. Looking forward to switching gears next brewday for a style that's more in my wheelhouse.

#162 Payback IPA

Batch size: 5 gallons
Projected OG: 1.065
Projected SRM: 4.9Projected IBU: 42.2
Boil time: 70 minutes
Brewhouse efficiency: 70%   

Grains
 64.7% - 11 lb 2 row
17.6% - 3 lb Weyermann Rye
17.6% - 3 lb Weyermann Vienna

Hops
.4 oz Millennium (15.0%) (60 min)
1 oz Cascade (8.4%) (20 min)
1 oz Ahtanum (3.9%) (15 min)
1 oz Cascade (10 min)
1 oz Ahtanum (5 min)
2 oz Cascade (dry hop 2 days)
2 oz Ahtanum (dry hop 2 days)


Yeast
WLP001 California Ale - 1 l shaken starter

Extras

1 tsp Yeast nutrient (5 min)
.5 tablet Whirlfloc (5 min)

Water (mash)
Profile: Reno
10g Gypsum, 3g Table salt, 12 ml Lactic acid (88%)
2 g Citric acid (sparge)

Brewday: 1 May 2017
Mash: 22 qts @ 150F for 90 minutes
Sparge: 19 qts @ 212F
Pre-boil volume: 7.75 gallons
Pre-boil SG: 15.0P (1.060)

Target water profile: Light colored & hoppy (brewersfriend.com)
Ca 69.0, Mg 3.0, Na 40.4, Cl 52.9, SO4 146.8
Alkalinity -90.0, RA -140.9, pH 5.48

Fermented in swamp cooler at 63F ambient.

5 May 2017: Allowed swamp cooler to free rise to 65F.
7 May 2017: Removed fermenter from swamp cooler to free rise to room temp. Spiked to 73F ambient the next day, so moved back to swamp cooler at 68F and agitated daily.

Dry hop: 11 May 2017
Moved fermenter back out of swamp cooler to free rise to ~70F ambient. Agitated daily.

Bottled: 16 May 2017
FG: 1.012
ABV: 7.0%
Bottled with 5.1 oz table sugar. 

Matrimonial IPA - FAIL

At the request of a friend, I brewed an IPA for her wedding last month. I've been pretty let down by my attempts to make hoppy beers, so I've stayed off IPAs in general for a while. For this one, I went for a very pale wort--just 2-row, pils, and wheat malt--and a mix of traditional and new-school hops, including a bunch of Waimea that I received for renewing my AHA membership.

 Though I've mostly calmed down my noob homebrewer tendency to take the kitchen sink approach to recipe design, I still get too weird too fast with my hopping regime to really understand what

Unfortunately, this beer lived up to my expectations...of failure. Despite using more than a half pound of hops, it really lacks in flavor, aroma, and even bitterness. The malt end misses the mark: it's sort of sickly sweet (though it's fairly well attenuated) and insipid, lacking any real grain character. The appearance is also quite strange: it's quite a bit darker than I'd expect from the grains used and has a weird pink hue that's pretty intense in the bottle dregs. While it's drinkable, it's a solid flop. The rest of the batch will find its way down the drain shortly.

My thoughts are that I have a number of recipe and process issues here, including (but probably not limited to):

 - Serious oxidation problems, especially at bottling. I try to be conscientious about keeping out oxygen at transfer, but I suspect I'm still not doing a good enough job.

 - Messing with water chemistry without having a firm grasp on what's in my tap water to start or really what I'm trying to accomplish. I haven't invested in an actual water report, relying on an old report someone posted to brewersfriend.com. To that I've been adding what seems like an awful lot of minerals in a somewhat haphazard fashion to make the numbers look right on brewersfriend's water calculator come out right. I've tried to make my way through Water and have failed spectacularly; I need to get a better handle on what I'm trying to achieve before playing around with this any more.

 - Bittering addition is too small. I still remember my very first extract kit: a pale ale. When I tried it, I was dismayed by its overly strong bitterness. This memory has stuck with me and has informed all of my batches up to now, to the point where I get really gun shy around the early hop addition for pretty much every recipe. Until I really push into NEIPA territory, I think my beers--particularly the pale ales and IPAs--could really do with a more substantial bittering charge.

 - Adding flavor/aroma hops in too many ways to understand what each of them do. Hopbursting, whirlpool additions, staggered dry hop additions, mid-ferment dry hops to encourage biotrasformation by the yeast...I've given every method I've come across a shot, though usually not one at a time so I could figure out what each contribution lent the final beer. It's time to simplify and learn for myself what each of these will do.

 - Rushing the batch to finish. Yes, a batch of beer can be done in a week, depending on certain factors. In my hurry to have this batch ready for the wedding, I threw caution to the wind a bit and pushed ahead with certain steps, particularly bottling, perhaps before they should've happened. Gotta plan better and learn to chill.

In the spirit of this blog--and proper documentation in general--here's the recipe. Maybe I'll revisit its battered, broken husk at some point once I figure out what the hell I'm doing when it comes to hoppy beers. Also as of this post, I'm going to start including my batch number. One function of this blog is to act as an online batch log, so I should keep the batch numbers, right?

#161 Matrimonial IPA

Batch size: 5 gallons
Projected OG: 1.068
Projected SRM: 4.5
Projected IBU: 36.0
Boil time: 90 minutes
Brewhouse efficiency: 66.5%   

Grains
66.7% - 12 lb 2-row
22.2% - 4 lb Weyermann Pils
11.1% - 2 lb White Wheat

Hops
.4 oz Millennium (15.6%) (80 min)
1 oz Simcoe (12.9%) (5 min)
1 oz Waimea (17.8%) (5 min)
.5 oz Mosaic (11.0%) (5 min)
2 oz Waimea (hop steep - 30 min below 185F)
1 oz Mosaic (hop steep - 30 min below 185F)
1 oz Cascade (8.4%) (hop steep - 30 min below 185F)
1 oz Cascade (dry hop - day 4)
1 oz Waimea (dry hop - day 4)
1 oz Simcoe (dry hop - day 10)
.5 oz Mosaic (dry hop - day 10)

Yeast
WLP001 California Ale - 1.5 L starter

Extras
1 tsp Yeast nutrient (5 min)
.5 Whirlfloc tablet (5 min)

Water (mash)
Profile: Reno
10g Gypsum, 3g Table salt, 11 ml Lactic acid (88%)
2 g Citric acid (sparge)

Brewday: 16 April 2017

Mash: 23 qts @ 152F for 60 minutes
Sparge: 19 qts @ 190F
Pre-boil volume: 7.75 gallons
Pre-boil SG: 15.0P (1.060)

Target water profile: Light colored and hoppy (brewersfriend.com)
Ca 69.0, Mg 3.0, Na 40.4, Cl 52.9, SO4 146.8
Alkalinity -90.0, RA -140.9, pH 5.48

Fermented in swamp cooler at 64F ambient.

Dry hop #1: 21 April 2017
Removed blowoff tube & allowed swamp cooler temp to rise to 66F.

24 April 2017: Taken out of swamp cooler, free rise to 70F over 2 days. Agitated daily.

Dry hop #2: 27 April 2017

Bottled: 29 April 2017
FG: 1.013
ABV: 7.3%
Bottled with 5.1 oz table sugar.

Amarillo IPA Tasting & Recipe

Right after moving to Reno two years ago, I stumbled upon a ridiculous local sale on Amarillo pellets and bought two full pounds of them. While I'd love to purchase in bulk more regularly, my planning skills tend to fail me when it's time to get serious about it. These hops have found their way into a number of beers over the past couple years, but I still had a sizeable cache hanging around this spring.

Rogue's Yellow Snow IPA is the beer that first turned me on to this varietal, probably better than a decade ago now. My sense memory of the beer from that time is of big, bright, fresh mixed citrus, not dominated by old-school grapefruit bitterness or (soon-to-be) new-school overripe tropical fruit character. I decided the best use for the rest of my stores was to make a Yellow Snow-inspired batch.

Rogue freely gives the ingredients for their beer right on the bottle, and between that information and a little more online digging, I put together my recipe. Sadly, it did not come together well for me. The previous beers in which I'd used this batch of Amarillo had tended to have an unpleasant onion/garlic/sweat element, probably from my less-than-perfect packaging/aging techniques. That element was front and center here, coupled with a cloying malt presence from the melanoidin malt. Though well brewed, the end result was tough to choke down.

Though I don't plan to completely remove Amarillo from my hop rotation, I won't be as eager to add it to my full range of hoppy beers in the future. Hoping for better experiences to come that will restore my faith in this hop!

=====

Appearance: Deep amber with orange highlights, quite hazy. Tan-tinged white foam collapses but leaves traces most of the way down the glass as it's drunk.

Smell: Thick taffy-like sweetness, kind of old onion, a hint of orange peel.

Taste: The melanoidin malt is front and center, giving the beer a cloying malt sweetness. The garlic/onion edge of the hops follows up, making for a bizarre flavor combination. A slightly vegetal bitterness helps scoot the beer off the palate, but the garlic/onion lingers in the aftertaste.

Mouthfeel: Medium-full body. Carbonation is okay, but not enough to counterbalance the weight of this beer. It seems like the malt character is weighing it down despite its relative dryness.

Overall: Sadly, this one's a dud. The melanoidin malt is overwhelming, and the Amarillo really has none of the citrus-tropical character I used to love. This combination works well for Rogue, but terribly for me.

=====

Amarillo IPA - Rogue Yellow Snow-ish

Batch size: 5 gallons
Projected OG: 1.064
Projected SRM: 6.5
Projected IBU: 69.3
Boil time: 60 minutes
Brewhouse efficiency: 61%  

Grains
70.5% - 10 lb 11 oz Rahr 2-row
19.7% - 3 lb Weyermann Vienna
6.6% - 1 lb Carafoam
3.3% - 8 oz Melanoidin malt

Hops
.5 oz Amarillo (10.7%) (60 min)
1.5 oz Amarillo (15 min)
2 oz Amarillo (0 min) 30-min steep
3.5 oz Amarillo (dry hop - 5 days)

Yeast
WLP090 San Diego Super Yeast - 1.5 L starter

Extras
1 tsp Yeast nutrient (5 min)
.5 tablet Whirlfloc (5 min)

Water (mash)
Profile: Reno
Target profile: Light colored and hoppy (brewersfriend.com)
91.1 Ca, 3.0 Mg, 10.0 Na, 46.8 Cl, 144.5 SO4
Alkalinity -39.9, RA -106.6 (ppm as CaCO3); 5.23 mash pH

Brewday: 05 September 2016
Mash: 152F for minutes
Pre-boil volume: 7.5 gallons
Pre-boil SG: 13.8P (1.0)

Water additions: 9 g Gypsum, 3 g CaCl, 6 ml Lactic acid (88%).

5.75 gallons into fermenter.
Fermented in swamp cooler at 63F ambient.

Dry hop: 11 September 2016
Active fermentation pretty much complete; wanted to add dry hop before cessation of activity.

Bottled: 17 September 2016
FG: 1.010
ABV: 7.1%
Bottled with 3.87 oz table sugar.
Aroma was much brighter at day 2 & 3 of dry hop. Will experiment with shorter contact times in the future.

Session IPA III

Back for more summer session beer stockpiling. For the third iteration of this recipe, I returned to the original grist, yeast (third generation now for the WY1469), and water treatment, messing with just  the hops a little. I got weird on Simcoe in my first couple years of homebrewing, but now that my once-beloved Amarillo has really changed--at least the ones I've had in the last couple years--it seems only right to return to this first-new-wave "super fruity" hop.

As with the dark mild, I started this batch as a semi-open fermentation, letting it do its first few days of active fermenting with the bucket lid loose and aluminum foil instead of an airlock. The aromas coming from the fermenter have been encouragingly fruity. If it ends up like its predecessors, it won't be hard to enjoy. Bring on the heat of summer.

Session IPA III

Batch size: 5.5 gallons
Projected OG: 1.038
Projected SRM: 6.8
Projected IBU: 57.3
Boil time: 60 minutes
Brewhouse efficiency: 67%   

Grains
83.3% - 7.5 lb Weyermann Organic Vienna
11.1% - 1 lb Flaked oats
5.6% - .5 lb Belgian Caramunich 80L

Hops
.5 oz Amarillo (10.7%) (10 min)
.5 oz Columbus (15.2%) (10 min)
1 oz Simcoe (12.9%) (0 min) 40-min steep
1 oz Amarillo (0 min) 40-min steep
.5 oz Columbus (0 min) 40-min steep
2 oz Amarillo (dry hop - 6 days)
1 oz Simcoe (dry hop - 6 days)

Yeast
WY1469 West Yorkshire Ale - 3rd generation, harvested from Dark Mild

Extras
1 tsp Yeast nutrient (5 min)
.5 tablet Whirlfloc (5 min)

Water (mash)
Profile: Reno (brewersfriend.com)
Target profile: Light colored and hoppy (brewersfriend.com)
94.5 Ca, 3 Mg, 10 Na, 48.5 Cl, 150.4 SO4
Alkalinity 8.3, RA -60.8

Brewday: 24 May 2016

Mash: 154F for 60 minutes
No sparge
Pre-boil volume: 7.5 gallons
Pre-boil SG: 8.3P (1.032)

Water additions (mash): 9 g Gypsum, 3 g CaCl, 2 ml Lactic acid (88%).

5.75 gallons to fermenter at 66F. Fermented in swamp cooler at 64F. Started with fermenter lid loose for semi-open fermentation.

27 May 2016: Sealed fermenter, added airlock, and removed temp control; rose to 70F over the next few days. Agitated (spun fermenter) 2-3 times/day.

31 May 2016: Removed fermenter from swamp cooler; ambient ~75F.

Bottled: 9 June 2016
Forgot to check FG!
Bottled 4.5 gallons with 3.6 oz table sugar.

Double IPA & Winter Porter Tasting

While brewing a session IPA today to have on hand for summer festivities, I finally decided to knock out a couple sets of tasting notes. Neither of these beers turned out exactly as I'd like. The double IPA seems like it might've found the mark if I wouldn't cling so closely to my memory of what Amarillo hops used to be; the porter suffered from my own misuse or mistreatment of the West Yorkshire Ale yeast. For all the smack I talk below, I'm still drinking both these beers without having to work too hard to choke them down.

===== 
BRING IT ON DIPA

Appearance: (Chill) hazy golden orange color, big off-white head that has a good bit of staying power. In pouring, the beer/bottle yeast can have a strange pinkish hue. Becomes very clear when warm.

Smell: Pine, onion, some alcohol, a little bread as it warms.

Taste: Pine & onion hanging around from the aroma along with some diesel hop character. Some perception of sweetness that may be coming from the hops. Finishes with a balanced bitterness, definitely not overly bitter.

Mouthfeel: On the thin side, though not overly so. Medium carbonation; hits the tongue without filleting it. A little tongue numbing.

Overall: Probably my most successful attempt at a double IPA. This one reached the degree of attenuation I was seeking to get away from cloying malt sweetness; I may even want to bump it back up a couple points next time to retain a bit more malt backbone. Malt definitely didn't get in the way here, and I'm tempted to add in a higher percentage of character grains (Munich, Vienna, aromatic, or even a bit of crystal) in the future. I'm slowly coming to grips with the fact that the Amarillo hops I've had in the last couple years do not have the same citrus characteristics that endeared this varietal to me originally. I'm getting a lot more of the onion/garlic/diesel now. It doesn't always come out--and I sure hope it doesn't on the session IPA I'm brewing today--but I'm missing the mark more often than not with this hop.

=====

Winter Porter

Appearance: Deep brown/black body with clear red-brown highlights; a little bit of light brown foam hangs out at the rim for a while. While I'd like more head on this beer, otherwise it looks pretty much like spot on for the style.

Smell: I've given this one fifteen to twenty minutes to warm up before sampling, so much of the diacetyl present in this batch--which has been widely variable, bottle to bottle--may have blown off. Some butter popcorn remains, combining with the dark grains and a mineral character to give an impression of sharp mineral roastiness. While not terrible, the diacetyl buttery character has been so strong on other bottles as to make this nigh undrinkable.

Taste: I'm struggling here. Not assertively roasty, though not chocolatey either. Has a certain tang that I associate with the dark malts to a degree, but I can't quite pin with a descriptor. Not the best.

Mouthfeel: Medium-full body from the residual sweetness and slight residual diacetyl. Does retain a certain creaminess, especially when chewed a bit. Not unpleasant.

Overall: Not my favorite porter, to be sure. I've had spectacular results from this yeast (WY1469) in the past, but on this batch it really took a bad turn. This was my first real experience with diacetyl, and it's been strong enough to encourage me to do a diacetyl rest on every beer from here on out. It's been a few years now since I had Flag Porter, but my recollection of that beer was my guide here. My quest for a really badass "English/brown" porter continues.

SMaSH II Tasting

The prevailing opinion these days seems to be that SMaSH beers are more useful as experiments to get to know particular ingredients than as "refined" recipes for heavy rotation imbibing. While I'll admit that the two SMaSHes I've done now haven't made me the most excited of anything I've brewed, this one in particular isn't terribly hard to drink. Though I doubled the hops from my first SMaSH, I'll probably push up the hopping rate further for subsequent batches. I do get some flavor & aroma contributions from the Sterling here, but this rates as a solid blonde ale. To really get the full sense of the hops, I'll probably aim for more West Coast pale ale character going forward.

=====

Appearance: Burnished gold, a touch hazy.

Smell: Slight toast, warm malt. Hops come out as herbal and earthy. Maybe just a little citrus hiding in the back.

Taste: Crisp, herbal, slightly orange. It intensifies as it moves to the back half of the tongue, finishing warm and bready. An herbal note lingers.

Mouthfeel: Medium-lean body, mid/low carbonation that gives it just a little bite around the front and sides of the tongue. Not difficult to take the next drink.

Overall: Though it's not terribly complex, it's an easy drinker. The Vienna makes a good impression here. I could use more Sterling character...or maybe I couldn't, as the lingering herbal note isn't necessarily my favorite. I could see this hop working well in a lager.

Double IPA

With few exceptions, my hoppy beers haven't been terribly successful. My attempts to brew double/imperial IPAs have met with outright failure. But hope springs eternal, and here I am, giving this style another shot.

I blame having a few opportunities over the past couple years to bury my face in a Pliny the Elder at Russian River's brewpub; living on this end of the country definitely has its advantages. For me, this beer still captures the best of hop flavor and drinkability that this style can offer. So, as many before me have done, I loosely modeled this recipe on the one Vinnie Cilurzo has given out freely for many years now.

That being said, I swapped Vinnie's crystal and carapils for dark Munich to add a touch of maltiness and added flaked oats for...well, because I can't help myself. With my excessively low mash temperature, I may yet regret the lack of unfermentables when I check the FG. Hey, I like a well

attenuated beer, so I guess we'll just see. I stuck with CTZ, Simcoe, and Centennial for hops, but added a significant amount of fruity Amarillo to the hop party. (I still have a bunch left over from last year, and I see a Yellow Snow-inspired IPA on the horizon to take care of that.) I also added a hell of a lot of brewing salts to the mash, chasing Tasty McDole's mineral concentrations I recorded from a Session at some point. I've been pleased with--or at least not offended by--the water manipulation I've done in the last few years, but this is another level of messing around.

While I certainly have a lot of trepidation revolving around this batch, fermentation on the Cal ale yeast cake from my recent SMaSH beer took right the hell off, but I easily kept fermentation temps low in a swamp cooler. With the first charge of dry hops in the carboy, it smells amazing; I'm fired up to see how it all turns out in the end.

BRING IT ON

Batch size: 5 gallons
Projected OG: 1.073
Projected SRM: 5.4
Projected IBU: 110.6
Boil time: 70 minutes
Brewhouse efficiency: 60%   

Grains/Fermentables
69.8% - 11 lb Rahr 2-row
12.7% - 2 lb Flaked oats
9.5% - 1.5 lb Weyermann Munich II
7.9% - 1.25 lb Table sugar (primary)

Hops
1 oz Columbus (15.2%) (60 min)
1 oz Simcoe (11.6%) (10 min)
.5 oz Centennial (11.2%) (10 min)

1 oz Amarillo (10.7%) (0 min - 60 min whirlpool/hop stand)
1 oz Centennial (8.5%) (0 min - 60 min whirlpool/hop stand)
.5 oz Simcoe (11.1%) (0 min - 60 min whirlpool/hop stand)

2 oz Amarillo (dry hop #1 - 10 days)
2 oz Centennial (dry hop #1 - 10 days)
1.5 oz Simcoe (dry hop #1 - 10 days)

1 oz Amarillo (dry hop #2 - 5 days)
1 oz Centennial (dry hop #2 - 5 days)
1 oz Simcoe (11.6%) (dry hop #2 - 5 days)

Yeast
WLP001 American Ale - cake from SMaSH II 

Extras
1 tsp Yeast nutrient (5 min)

Water (mash)
Base Profile: Reno (brewersfriend.com)
114.1 Ca, 18.2 Mg, 10 Na
43.3 Cl, 264.6 SO4
Alkalinity -123.8, RA -215.8

Brewday: 17 January 2016
Mash: 146F for 70 minutes (intended 151F)
Pre-boil volume: 8 gallons
Pre-boil SG: 12.8P (1.050)
Post-boil OG (w/o sugar): 15.6P (1.062)

Salt additions (to mash): 14 g Gypsum, 6 g Epsom salts, 3 g CaCl, 12 (should’ve been 14) ml Lactic acid (88%)
Chilled to 58F.
5.6 gallons to fermenter; 45 seconds of pure O2 at pitching.
Fermented in swamp cooler at 60F ambient.

Sugar addition #1 (.75 lb): 22 January 2016

24 January 2016: moved out of swamp cooler to ambient temp (~66F).

Sugar addition #2 (.5 lb): 25 January 2016

Dry hop #1: 27 January 2016

Dry hop #2: 2 February 2016

Bottled: 6 February 2016
FG: 1.009
ABV: 8.5%
Bottled 5.5 gallons with 4.3 oz table sugar.

Tasting

SMaSH II

My brewing runs in short spurts these days. I finally managed to get some wort out of the mash tun and over the burner during the no man's land between Christmas and New Year's Eve. The first batch was another SMaSH, this time featuring Vienna malt and Sterling hops.

I've used Vienna quite a bit and really like the bready, grainy warmth it brings to a recipe. Sterling, on the other hand, I've never used in a way that has really accentuated its character. I recall a beer brewed by Ted Danyluk in Chicago in my early days of homebrewing that featured this varietal, but that's about the extent of my experience with it.

Given the lack of hop character in my previous SMaSH, I've bumped up the hops to four ounces this time; hopefully they'll make a more pronounced appearance in this iteration. I suppose I should really aim for a half pound or more to really make them stand out, but we'll see how it goes here. As this beer features a German malt and an American "noble"(ish)-style hop, I went with an American ale yeast fermented a little cooler than normal to get a clean (possibly faux-lager/hybrid?) character.

As of this posting, the batch has been going for a solid week, the swamp cooler holding steady and cool, and the overly full primary carboy has been intermittently blowing off yeast throughout a very consistent fermentation. Thinking good thoughts as it continues to rock along.

SMaSH II

Batch size: 5.5 gallons
Projected OG: 1.048
Projected SRM: 5.0
Projected IBU: 37.6
Boil time: 60 minutes
Brewhouse efficiency: 73%

Grains
100.0% - 10 lb Weyermann Vienna

Hops
.5 oz Sterling (8.7%) (60 min)
1 oz Sterling (10 min)
1 oz Sterling (0 min - 30 min whirlpool/hop steep)
1.5 oz Sterling (dry hop - 5 days)

Yeast
1 vial WLP001 California Ale - no starter

Extras
1 tsp Yeast nutrient (5 min)
.5 tablet Whirlfloc (5 min)

Water (mash)
Profile: Reno (brewersfriend.com)
8 g Gypsum
1 g Epsom salts
1 g CaCl
5.5 ml Lactic acid (88%)

Brewday: 27 December 2015
Mash: 152F for 60 minutes
Pre-boil volume: 7.5 gallons
Pre-boil SG: 9.8P (1.038)

Mash profile target “Light colored and hoppy” from brewersfriend.com.
Received 45 seconds of pure O2 at pitching. Reoxygentated 12 hours later prior to active fermentation.
Fermented in swamp cooler at 59-61F ambient.

3 January 2016: After 6 days of active fermentation, during which there was active blowoff, upped the swamp cooler temp to 62F.

Despite very cloudy kettle runoff at the end of transfer to primary, there's probably only about 1 qt of trub at the bottom of the fermenter. Will plan to leave less in the kettle in the future!

8 January 2016: Krauesen still present, but very little noticeable activity. Raised swamp cooler temp to 64F & have agitated fermenter daily.

Dry Hop: 9 January 2016
FG: 1.012
ABV: 4.7%

Transferred to new bucket, sealed without an airlock (or hole). Fair bit of splashing during transfer early on, unfortunately, so won’t be surprised it this one turns out oxidized.

Bottled: 15 January 2016
Bottled with 4 oz table sugar.

Tasting: Success! Easy drinking with notes of warm bread and herbal hops.

Timothy Taylor Landlord Clone

I think I've romanticized British beer for myself. My early forays into imports were usually from England, often from Samuel Smith, Young's, and the like. I'm also a sucker for cask beer; after several years and a lot of sampling, sometimes I can even tell good from bad. A few experiences, most notably at Magnolia, have kept me going after these styles. So of course I've worked them into my own brewing schedule. Some of my English-derived homebrews have turned out pretty good, while others--notably my ordinary bitters--have been sorely lacking.

I've had Graham Wheeler's Brew Your Own British Real Ale for a while, but don't think I've ever brewed any recipes straight out of it. Having heard/read rave reviews of Timothy Taylor Landlord, a best bitter, and having had some very good experiences with Wyeast's West Yorkshire Ale strain, which some associate with this beer, it seemed high time to finally dig into the Wheeler and see how I did with his recipe.

Other than slight adjustments to reach round numbers, the recipe was straight from the book. Michael Tonsmiere's take on Tim Taylor provided the water chemistry. The wort's color in the fermenter struck me as a little sickly, but it looks great in the glass. Having been out of town, I haven't sampled the final product in a week or two, but my initial impressions were that I may have caused some oxidation at bottling. Will post full tasting notes in the near future (below).

Timothy Taylor Landlord (Wheeler)

Batch size: 5.5 gallons
Projected OG: 1.046
Projected SRM: 28.7
Projected IBU: 7.0
Boil time: 60 minutes
Brewhouse efficiency: 70%

Grains
99.3% - 9 lb Fawcett Floor Malted Maris Otter
0.7% - 1 oz Black Patent

Hops
.7 oz East Kent Goldings (5.7%) (60 min)
.7 oz Styrian Goldings (3.8%) (60 min)
1 oz Styrian Goldings (10 min)

Yeast
WY1469 West Yorkshire Ale - no starter

Extras
1 tsp Yeast nutrient (5 min)
.5 tab Whirlfloc (5 min)

Water (mash)
Profile: Reno
Target water profile from the Mad Fermentationist (link above)
9 g Gypsum
1 g Epsom salts
3 ml Lactic acid (88%)

Brewday: 7 September 2015
Mash: 151F for 60 minutes
Pre-boil volume: 7.6 gallons
Pre-boil SG: 9.9P (1.039)

5.5 gallons to fermenter at 11.6P.
Fermented in swamp cooler at 65F.

Moved out of swamp cooler to ambient temps (60-68F) after 6 days of active primary, near end of activity.

Bottled: 19 September 2015
FG: 1.010
ABV: 4.7%
Bottled with 3.2 oz table sugar.

Tasting: 4 January 2016
Super clear with a gorgeous tawny color, but overcarbonated, overly thin, and just a bit unpleasantly funky. I've been thinking it's oxidized, though the opinion of my LHBS is that it has a touch of lacto character. One way or another, it's a dumper.

Rye Saison IIa

This was the second beer to come out of the kettle on my first brewday back. This was a competition rebrew of my rye saison from this past winter, so not a lot to report on the recipe. The only planned difference was that I added the turbinado to the fermenter as primary slowed rather than adding it to the boil kettle. I actually waited longer than planned for this addition; by the time the turbinado joined the party, the krauesen had completely dropped. The fermenter showed very little activity even with more fermentables added. I gave it a few spins several times a day for about a week and fortunately it finished out properly.

The numbers from BeerSmith have been very different from those on Brewtoad when I first brewed this recipe, most importantly in IBUs and efficiency (versus my OG-to-volume numbers). I may look into the IBU formula settings, but as long as I'm sticking to BeerSmith, I should be able to trust the consistency of my numbers. The efficiency is probably based on different values for the grains between programs; until I get serious enough to input specific numbers for each lot of grain I use, I'll probably stick to relying on BeerSmith.

First taste at bottling displayed a more subdued yeast profile than the previous batch. I pitched very warm, but may have overcooled before fermentation really got going. Next time I may just let WY3711 start in the low 70s and free rise from there; I haven't encountered any issues with it generating fusels or other problematic compounds at elevated temps so far, and hey, it is a saison yeast. We'll see how this iteration does in competition in about a month.

Rye Saison IIa - rebrew for the NV State Homebrewing Championship 2015

Batch size: 5 gallons
Projected OG: 1.053
Projected SRM: 5.5
Projected IBU: 23.6
Boil time: 60 minutes
Brewhouse efficiency: 70%

Recipe

Brewday: 16 August 2015
5 gallons at 11.2P (1.044) (w/o sugar) to fermenter.
Chilled to 78F, 1 minute of pure O2, placed in swamp cooler. Active fermentation 15 hours later at 66F (cooler temp).
Fermented in swamp cooler at 68F; ramped up to 75F after 1 day of active fermentation.

21 August 2015: Active fermentation ended. Added turbinado (in solution). No activity witnessed over 24 hours; may have happened quickly overnight? Agitated regularly for a week; showed a little activity.

Bottled: 2 September 2015
FG: 1.003
ABV: 6.6%
Bottled with 4.3 oz table sugar.

1st Place, Belgian & French Ales; 3rd Place Best of Show: NV State Homebrew Championship 2015

Summer Pale Ale '15 tasting

This has turned out to be one of my more successful hoppy beers, though it's not as fresh as it once was. The malt character is close to what I'd like out of an American pale: background grain & bread, no more than a hint of sweetness. The hops side still needs to be dialed in; lacking experience with Chinook--and maybe getting something different from the Amarillo than I foresaw--the hop character ended up much darker and heavier than my sense memory had prepared me to expect. If the worst thing that happens, though, is that I have to do more "research" (read: brewing) to learn more, then I think I can live with that.

ALSO: Hey, it's post #100! I've gone through a couple gallons of beer over the last four and a half years since I started whinging about homebrewing. More to come!

=====

Appearance: Amber-gold, a bit hazy. Moderate head laces down the glass.

Smell: Assertive orange juice, hints of dark pine following up. Very nice.

Taste: Orange juice carries through from the aroma, coupled with firm upfront grapefruit/pine bitterness. Finishes somewhat rough, on the onion/pine end of the spectrum. Malt is slightly warm in the finish, but pretty low; it adds a little complexity to the end. Low for a pale ale; the hops are solidly on top.

Mouthfeel: Carbonation is a little prickly; body is low-medium with a nice creaminess. Squarely a pale ale in this area.

Overall: Not a bad pale ale, though not quite to my taste. The assertive onion/pine character was more than I’d prefer. I’d pinned it to the Chinook, though I’ve recently had it suggested to me that this character may come from certain Amarillo crops. In the end, the principal drawback from its sessionability is the hop character; I keep stopping to consider the hop character. Not a bad thing, honestly.

Competition Pale Ale

Back from summer travels and back into the mash tun. Since my rye saison and session IPA placed in this spring's Great Basin Brew Off, I needed to rebrew for the Nevada State Homebrew Championship; bottles are due at the start of October. The session IPA picked up an honorable mention in the American Ale category, entered as a pale ale. It wasn't really a proper pale (on purpose) so for competition I started from scratch with a new pale ale recipe.

I've never really nailed hoppy beers; usually I'm supremely underwhelmed by the aroma and flavor I achieve (the one exception was the session IPA, which is why it went to competition). For this batch, I leaned more toward the currently trendy tropical fruit salad style with Galaxy, blended with the no-longer-new-school big citrus of Amarillo. The malts are overwhelmingly German, with oats for body/mouthfeel (it's getting to be a regular thing) and just a little American crystal. My love affair with Vienna continues, augmented by dark Munich and Caramunich for extra maltiness. Looking for more yeast character than Cal Ale--which also seems to be the current trend for East Coast hoppy beers--I put Denny's Favorite back in the ring.

BeerSmith is back up and running, and the new version has me rethinking my efficiency calculations. I've always had my mash efficiency in mind, but looking through the new version of the program, I'm now trying to think more in terms of overall batch efficiency. Which, of course, means I'm looking at significantly lower numbers. Even factoring in that, my mash efficiency seems to have dropped off a fair bit from even a year ago. Is it my crush (same mill gap), water calculations (need more?), or just Reno? Still working it out.

Brewday went well, though it's a real struggle to get temps in check here in late August; I pitched with the wort only down to 80F. Fortunately, not much seemed to get going before the swamp cooler brought the batch into the mid 60s. The beer is through fermentation now, waiting for an empty carboy so it can receive its dry hops. The yeast will go on to ferment another pale ale, my first straight-up SMaSH.

Galaxarillo Pale Ale

Batch size: 5 gallons
Projected OG: 1.047
Projected SRM: 9.2
Projected IBU: 47.5
Boil time: 60 minutes
Brewhouse efficiency: 64%

Grains
61.5% - 6 lb Best Malz Vienna
20.5% - 2 lb Weyermann Munich II
10. 3% - 1 lb Flaked oats
5.1% - 8 oz Weyermann Caramunich II
2.6% - 4 oz C40

Hops
.2 oz Millennium (15.9%) (60 min)
1 oz Amarillo (10.7%) (10 min)
1 oz Galaxy (14.8%) (10 min)
1 oz Amarillo (dry hop - 5 days)
1 oz Galaxy (dry hop - 5 days)

Yeast
WY1450 Denny’s Favorite 50 - 1.4 l starter with continuous aeration

Extras
1 tsp Irish moss (10 min)
1 tsp Yeast nutrient (10 min)

Water (mash)
Profile: Reno
5 g Gypsum
4 g Epsom salts
3 g CaCl
3 ml Lactic acid (88%)

Brewday: 16 August 2015
Mash: 12.5 qts @ 152F for 60 minutes (+1 qt @ 212F to get to temp)
1st sparge: 10.5 qts @ 190F
2nd sparge: 12 qts @ 180F
Pre-boil volume: 7 gallons
Pre-boil SG: 10.3P (1.040)

Water profile based on the "Light colored & hoppy" profile from brewersfriend.com.
5.5 gallons at 12P (1.047) into the fermenter.
Chilled to 80F (warm ground water), 1 minute pure O2, pitched yeast.
Active fermentation 15 hours later at 65F.
Fermented in swamp cooler at 65F; brought up to 70F at the end of fermentation.

Dry hop: 5 September 2015
FG: 1.015
ABV: 4.2%
Gravity was a few points higher than expected, but the sample didn't taste overly sweet. Nice warm malt character; hops give balanced bitterness with a bit of tropical fruit flavor, but not very pronounced in taste or aroma.

2nd Place, American Ales: NV State Homebrew Championship 2015

American Sour Blonde

For as much as I really enjoy sour beers, it's been nearly two years since I produced one. Seeing an opportunity over this summer to set a new sour project rolling undisturbed, I put together a recipe for a moderate-gravity blonde beer based on The Rare Barrel's blonde recipe. The only alterations I made to this recipe had to do with ingredient availability: Briess aromatic malt was available locally while the Franco-Belges variety was not, and unmalted soft white wheat stood in for spelt malt. I don't foresee these changes really ruining this beer.

I really like the approach Jay Goodwin, one of The Rare Barrel's founders, has described for testing out ingredients and processes for producing sour and funky beers. He's covered it several times in his interview on the Brewing Network and in his own excellent BN show, The Sour Hour. The Rare Barrel contracts local breweries to produce three different worts--blonde, red, and dark--to their specifications, eliminating the need for their own on-premise "hot side" brewery. They then experiment with different yeast and bacteria strains and mixes, fruits and other post-boil ingredients, and other variables in their Berkeley, California facility. Over time and many batches, they seek to determine what different souring methods and processes offer sour brewers and blenders. It was a real treat to finally sample their wares in their tasting room this spring.

My plan here was to make a double batch of wort to ferment and sour with two different cultures: one with Wyeast's proprietary lambic blend, the other with the sour/funky dregs I've collected over the past year (along with the grown-up dregs from a bottle of Russian River's Damnification). I managed to produce about six and a half gallons of wort on my system, to which I then added back boiled & cooled water for eight total gallons. Two carboys received four gallons each. The batches fermented cool and controlled to start, then ramped up to the semi-uncontrolled ambient temps of Reno's summer months. The initial krauesen had dropped in both fermenters after the first few days in water baths, though the Wyeast carboy began another before we left town.

Not trusting conventional airlocks to stay full during our absence in the heat and low humidity, I set up blowoff tubes for each carboy that run into a bucket of Star San. Hopefully this will keep oxygen transfer to the wort from getting too crazy. My only big concern for this experiment comes from my top-up water; I couldn't tell before I started adding it to the carboys, but it picked up a bit of pink-brown color from the old boil kettle that held it. That kettle has had some deep scorching from a failed batch several years ago that I wasn't able to fully remove. At this point I can only hope that it won't heavily impact the way this project turns out. For now, I'm just curious to see the variation between the carboys as the different yeast and bacteria blends have expressed themselves when we return.

American Sour Blonde - double batch

Batch size: 8 gallons
Projected OG: 1.050
Projected SRM: 5
Projected IBU: 7
Boil time: 70 minutes
Brewhouse efficiency: 68%

Grains
68.75% - 11 lb 2-row
12.5% - 2 lb Wheat
6.25% - 1 lb Organic soft white wheat
6.25% - 1 lb Aromatic
6.25% - 1 lb Organic flaked oats

Hops
.2 oz Millennium (15.9%) (60 min)

Yeast
A - Bottle dregs from RR Damnation (multi-stage stirplate starter) & collected sours
B - WY3728 Belgian Lambic Blend - no starter

Extras
1 tsp Yeast nutrient (5 min)

Water (mash)
Profile: Reno
2 g Gypsum
6 g CaCl
3 g Epsom salts
1 g Salt
7 mL Lactic acid (88%)

Brewday: 15 June 2015
Mash: 156F for 60 minutes
Milled & boiled white wheat in 1 qt water for 15 minutes; added to start of main mash
Pre-boil volume: 8.25 gallons
Pre-boil SG: 12.7P (1.051)
Post-boil SG (before adding back water): 14.1P (1.057)

Top-up water had pink-brown cast to it; may be from sitting all day in the old kettle.
Final fermenter volume (total): 8 gallons
OG is estimate; possible affecting factors include untrustworthy measuring tools and stratification of wort & top-up water.

Water report and chemical calculations from brewersfriend.com, using "light colored & malty" setting.

Topped off 2 fermenters with boiled & cooled water to 4 gallons each.
30 seconds of pure O2 in each fermenter.

Ferment:
Day 1 - up to 69F ambient
Day 2 - 71F ambient
Day 3 - 72F ambient; initial krauesen dropped in both carboys
Day 4 - removed from water baths, left at ambient temps (75-85F) for several months

15 February 2016: As the WY3728 batch's airlock tended to suck back and go dry with exceeding regularity (drafty corner?) I swapped the airlocks on both batches for breathable silicone stoppers a couple months ago. Today I found out how good a job they do at creating a vacuum rather than let in outside air. I pried a bit at the top piece, expecting to let out a bit of pressure. Instead a massive gasp of air rushed in, breaking the pellicle. I haven't checked these batches' progress at all; this might be the time.

Secondary/Bottling #1: 30 April 2016
A
FG: 1.011
ABV: 4.6%
Sample was solidly lactic, tart that grabs the sides of the tongue, very light hint of saltine.

Bottled 1 gallon with .4 oz table sugar. Remainder put on fruit:
1-gal #1: 1 lb 6 oz pluots
1-gal #2: 1 lb peaches
1-gal #3: 2 lb 7.1 oz cherries

B
FG: 1.011
ABV: 4.6%
This batch took on air during fermentation and developed very obvious acetobacter infection, but tasted all right at this point. Sample was somewhat tart, generally uninteresting.

Bottled 3 gallons with 1.9 oz table sugar. Remaining gallon put on 1 lb 5 oz cranberries.

Quick Summer Saison

As with many of the current generation ---perhaps every generation--of beer enthusiasts/afficionados/nerds, a single beer brand or style rarely holds my attention for long (though a case could certainly be made for IPAs, judging from my Instagram feed). Whether it's the wide range of commercial offerings available or just my own short attention span, I like a lot of variety in my drafts and bottles. I knew one type of homebrew wouldn't tide me over for the summer, so before I'd even brewed my recent pale ale, I was already planning the followup. When my brother-in-brew Ted sent me a photo of a beautiful glass of saison he and our other brew friend Joe had recently made together, my plans solidified on that style once again.

This beer distinctly departs from my recently successful rye saison. With under two weeks to go from kettle to bottle, I aimed to produce a table-strength beer that started in the neighborhood of 1.040. Looking for a little more malt complexity, I split the base malt between Vienna and dark Munich, including moderate amounts of malted rye and oats. Not needing the gravity boost and mashing low to reach proper dryness, I skipped the sugar on this one. While I dig the ease of use and results from a good pitch of WY3711, Ted's saison reminded me that I've wanted to get back to WLP566, which worked so well in my spiced petite saison noire a few years ago (and which I'll finally rebrew this fall, hopefully).

Fermentation happened even faster than I'd planned, so much so that I didn't really get to ramp up the primary temperature very much before the krauesen dropped. Final gravity was a touch higher than I'd like but not out of bounds, and consistent with my other results with this yeast; since I moved it to bottles so quickly, I just hope it was really finished! I'm keeping an eye on the batch, and the bottles have behaved themselves so far. Happy to have a little variety in my summer supplies, especially as I travel.

Peu Été

Batch size: 4.5 gallons
Projected OG: 1.040
Projected SRM: 5.9
Projected IBU: 22.9
Boil time: 60 minutes
Brewhouse efficiency: 78%

Grains
43.5% - 3 lb Best Malz Vienna
29.0% - 2 lb Weyermann Dark Munich
14.5% - 1 lb Weyermann Rye
13.0% - .9 lb Organic flaked oats

Hops
.2 oz Millennium (15.9%) (60 min)
2 oz St. Celeia (Styrian) Goldings (4.5%) (5 min)

Yeast
WLP566 Saison II - no starter

Extras
1 tsp Yeast nutrient (5 min)
1 tsp Irish moss (5 min)

Water
Profile: Reno
1 g Gypsum
2 g (3 g) Epsom salts
5 g CaCl
2 mL Lactic Acid (88%)

Brewday: 11 June 2015
Mash: 120 minutes - dropped to 129F
Pre-boil volume: 6.5 gallons
Pre-boil SG: 8.1P (1.032)

Water report and chemical calculations from brewersfriend.com, using "light colored & malty" setting.

Began fermentation in water bath at 69-71F (beer temp) for first 2 days. Krauesen dropped on day 2; beer temp 72F. Removed from water bath to reach ambient temp (75-80F) until bottling, yeast roused regularly for the first few days.

Bottled: 19 June 2015
FG: 1.009
ABV: 4.1%
Bottled with 4.9 oz table sugar.

Early tasting: 3 July 2015
It's only had two weeks in the bottle, but so far this reads much more like a Belgian pale ale: the fruity & peppery notes are much more muted than I'd expect from a saison, accompanied by a huge, warm bready character that develops as it warms. No overcarbonation/bottle bombs so far.

Summer Pale Ale '15

Our time in Nevada over the past ten months has been exciting, hair rasing, and pretty much an all-out marathon through the end of the school year. Consequently, the last few months have included no time for brewing, borne out in the blog's lack of activity. Placing in a local competition with a couple winter beers a while back was nice, but in the meantime I've actually run out of homebrew on hand; that's not a regular occurrence here! Regular duties wrapped up a few weeks ago, though, finally leaving some time to get the system cranking again ahead of leaving for the summer.

So what's first up, coming back after a dry spell and looking to summer quaffing? Yup, American pale ale. This beer should fulfill several of my needs: moderate alcohol, quick turnaround, hoppy, easy drinking in the heat. Somehow, I think I've managed to entirely avoid using Chinook hops--at least in any meaningful, memorable way--in my seven years homebrewing. That ends here: I'm looking forward to tasting this "rough, piney" hop as it plays with Amarillo.

After talking with a new homebrewing friend here in Reno, I'm also messing with a very short dry hop exposure time here. I added the dry hops to the primary last night and the beer will go into bottles after just a day (and maybe a half) of exposure. (Never mind, it took all week to get to it, so dry hopping lasted about my normal five days.) My previous thought had been that the pellets might not even fully hydrate in that amount of time, but we'll see how it comes out. This is also the first batch on which I used my new pure oxygen setup; just a minute of pure O2 was much more convenient than 45 minutes with filtered air, and yielded a nice strong start. I'll be happy to have my own beer on hand again soon.

Summer Pale Ale ’15

Batch size: 5.5 gallons
Projected OG: 1.048
Projected SRM: 8
Projected IBU: 39
Boil time: 60 minutes
Brewhouse efficiency: 75%

Grains
82.1% - 8 lb Vienna
10.3% - 1 lb Flaked oats
5.1% - .5 lb Caravienne
2.5% - .25 lb C60

Hops

.7 oz Chinook (11.4%) (60 min)
1 oz Amarillo (10.7%) (10 min)
2 oz Amarillo (0 min - 150 min steep)
.4 oz Chinook (0 min - 150 min steep)
2 oz Amarillo (Dry hop - 1 5 days)
1 oz Chinook (Dry hop - 1 5 days)

Yeast
1 pkg US-05 (rehydrated)

Extras
1 tsp Yeast nutrient (0 min)
1 tsp Irish moss (0 min)

Water
Profile: Reno
6 g (7 g) Gypsum
3 g CaCl
3 g (4 g) Epsom Salts
2 mL Lactic Acid (88%)

Brewday: 3 June 2015
Mash: 154F for 60 minutes
Pre-boil volume: 7 gallonsPre-boil SG: 9.2P (1.037)

Water report and chemical calculations from brewersfriend.com, using "light colored & hoppy" setting.

Pure O2 for 60 seconds.
Began fermenting in water bath (68F) by the next morning; cooled bath to 64F. Let water bath free rise to 70F on 6th day after active fermentation began. Removed from water bath—free rise to ~75F—on 9th day after active fermentation began.

Dry hop: 14 June 2015

Bottled: 19 June 2015
FG: 1.012
ABV: 4.7%
Bottled with 4.2 oz table sugar.

Early tasting: 3 July 2015
Still young in the bottle, but so far this beer seems solidly made, with no standout off-flavors. Great Amarillo aroma; however, I don't think I'm really into Chinook. In its best moments, it adds an assertive piney note to the flavor, which can be very interesting; at its worst it gives the beer a rough, muddled, and (dare I say it) somewhat "catty" character. Hoping further age will better meld the hops.

Rye Saison II tasting

Finally managed to do this long-promised tasting. Of course, I ran out of the first batch before this point, so we're down to a single non-comparative review. To make up for that, though, I'm including highlights from the comments I received on this batch from the 2015 Great Basin Brew Off here in Reno, in which this beer took first place in the Belgian & French Ales category. I also just learned/realized today that this beer--along with the first session IPA--is now eligible for the Nevada State Homebrewing Championship in the fall, so it'll soon be rebrew time for me. I may diversify the grain bill to a degree, but I'm not unhappy with what this beer has become with some age.

=====

Date: 10 May 2015

Venue: Home (Sparks, NV)

Appearance - Hazy golden orange. Medium bubbles collect at the top of the glass, creating a dense, lasting foam stand that leaves a bit of lace.

Smell - Perfume, a little soap, and pear. Maybe a bit of orange. Some spice in the background. Very low hop aroma.

Taste - Dry & spicy; clove, flowery, light fruit (pear again?). Finishes with a solid phenolic kick that definitely says saison. The yeast really shines here. Hint of malt in the back. Nice & clean.

Mouthfeel - Lively, prickly carbonation, but the body is still medium full; thanks, rye malt!

Overall - My early reservations disappeared with age. Spice & phenolics are right on. Maybe I'd go for more malt and/or fruity ester character, but I'm very happy with this simple recipe and looking forward to more saison brewing.

=====

Judges' comments:

Aroma - "Some very nice spiciness up front. A bit of black pepper, honey, tropical fruit."
   "Fruity aroma with some grainy maltiness, peppery aroma also. Very high carbonation makes it tingle in the nose."

Appearance - "Golden color, white rocky head that persists..."
   "Great color and appearance. Head is a little thinner that I'd like to see, but is persistent."

Flavor - "A bit of sweet graininess in the front, followed with a lot of acid from carbonation. Pineapple. Some nice hop bitterness that lingers. Some spice pops through."
   "Spicy flavor with some low hop bittering and flavor, no tartness in flavor. Dry finish by the hop bittering lingers..."

Mouthfeel - "Medium body, high carbonation, no astringency, no tartness, no alcohol warming."
   "Carbonation is high, almost too high."

Overall - "Very tasty. High carbonation makes it appear very dry and with the lingering hops it seems a bit too bitter for the style..."
   "...Clean with peppery phenols but balanced. Seems a little higher hop rates but still very drinkable..."

Rye Saison II

Not entirely happy with how my recent saison with WY3711 came out, I did something out of character for me: a straight-up rebrew with a single change (basically). As I'd blamed my perhaps overzealous use of Amarillo hops for the prominent plasticky quality of the first batch, this batch instead received the more traditional Styrian Goldings for the flavor/aroma component. I also upped the pre-boil volume to finish with a full five gallons, added Irish moss at the end of the boil, and altered the fermentation temp a bit, as noted below.

While the brewday caused no fuss, the fermentation was where things got more exciting for this beer. I brewed this the day before we drove cross country for the holidays, putting it in a water bath with my aquarium heater to keep it in the mid-70s during our two-week trip. Over that time, not only did our car break down twice--both times in Arizona--but a poorly insulated sprinkler pipe in the attic of the house froze and broke, running water through half the house for several hours before the fire department turned it off. And where did it break? Just above the closet in which the saison was fermenting.

Our gracious landlords were very quick to clear out our belongings from the affected areas of the house and had the water evacuated. When we returned, I found the carboy still in the cooler, now drained of water. Miraculously, it was perfectly fine; no evident infection, with the airlock more or less firmly in place. Once the house drying was over and we were able to move back in--it'll be months before repairs are completed--I gave it a few days to let the dust kicked up by the work settle and then bottled this batch. Tasting the hydrometer sample at bottling, I'm afraid that the Amarillo may not have been the culprit in creating the quality I dislike in the first batch; though not exactly the same, it's present in this second batch. I'll do a side-by-side tasting of these saisons shortly.

Update: Given some aging, the plastic note has disappeared from both batches, leaving not one but two very nice saisons. I'll get into it in the tasting notes.


Rye Saison II (The Styrian)


Batch size: 5.3 gallons

Projected OG: 1.062

Projected SRM: 7.3

Projected IBU: 36.5

Boil time: 60 minutes

Brewhouse efficiency: 71%


Grains/Fermentables

60.0% - 6 lb Weyermann Organic Vienna

30.0% - 3 lb Weyermann Rye

10.0% - 1 lb Turbinado (10 min)

Hops

.5 oz Millennium (13.5%) (60 min)

2 oz Styrian Goldings (4.5%?) (10 min)


Yeast

WY3711 French Saison - 1.5L stirplate starter

Extras

1 tsp Yeast nutrient (10 min)

1 tsp Irish moss (10 min)

Water

Profile: Reno

1 g Gypsum

1 g CaCl

1 mL Lactic acid (88%)

Brewday: 20 December 2014

Mash: 147F for 3 hours

Pre-boil volume: 6.8 gallons

Pre-boil SG (w/o turbinado): 10.4P (1.041)

Chilled to 70F. Aerated for 30 min, pitched 8 hours after KO. Started in water bath @ 55F; raised to ~75F over several hours, left there for fermentation.

Survived the great NYE flood intact. Sat @ ~80F(?) for a few days during cleanup, presumably after active fermentation finished, then moved to 50F garage for a few days prior to bottling.

Bottled: 10 Jan 2015

FG: 1.006

ABV: 7.5%

Bottled w/ 5.2 oz table sugar.

Tasting: 13 May 2015
Success! Turned out clean, spicy, and fruity with a few months of age. Also took first in Belgian ales in a local comp! Will rebrew this fall for a statewide comp.

1st Place, Belgian & French Ales: Great Basin Brew-Off 2015

Amarillo Rye Saison

I've mentioned before that I have a messy history brewing saisons; I've often tried to use the style as a forum for weirdness before really figuring out the base beer. This summer's straightforward iteration was much more successful, though it may have suffered from some oxidation in the bottle. For my second batch of Reno-based homebrew, I continued my exploration of this fascinating, rustic beer.

The biggest influences on wort production were 1) the significant amount of Weyermann rye malt in my stores right now, and 2) an astonishingly good deal on Amarillo pellets at Reno Homebrewer, one of the local supply shops, right after we moved here. I've stuck with Wyeast's French Saison yeast over one of the Dupont strains. Dupont isn't my favourite example of the style and I really like how WY3711 tears right through a wort without fuss.

As an added bonus, it was on this batch that I finally checked the efficacy of my water bath method for stabilizing fermentation temperature. I've never been sure of the temperature differential between the water bath and what's going on in the fermenter during active fermentation. Thus, I didn't really know how much I

needed to drop the water bath temp to maintain my target fermentation temp. With the saison wort actively fermenting (just about high krauesen) in a glass carboy sitting in a ice chest water bath that only came halfway up the batch, the fermentation only ran a half a degree higher than the water bath itself. I'll definitely do more testing, but that's an informative first result.

The beer finished nice and dry--as expected with this yeast--and has been in the bottle for a few weeks now. As beer tends to do, it's evolved a bit over that time. Early on, the leading aromatic and flavour character was somewhat phenol-plastic; it wasn't terrible, but it definitely wasn't the best. That's begun to mellow a little, leaving room for a fruitier character to come through. My initial impression is that the Amarillo and rye (even at 30% of the grist) are not playing dominant roles; it's the yeast that still comes to the fore (see update below). If anything, some of the unpleasantness may have come from the interaction of these ingredients. It may be on the bright side for the cooling fall temperatures, but it helps me remember summer. Complete tasting notes coming soon.

My next saison will be a rebrew of my petit saison noir from a few winters ago, hopefully with the WLP566 I originally used. I don't really have any "house" yeast strains, especially for saisons, though I've really been pulling to get what I want out of WY3711. Based on this current batch, though, I may start to mess around with others to find my preferred mix of fermentation characters. Of course, if this beer continues to mature into something along the lines of my last saison, I may just stay put.

Update: It's hard to keep everything in mind all the time. As I'm sure many of you have, I now recall reading a pile of anecdotal information on the plastic-phenol bombs that can arise when combining Belgian yeasts with American hops. I'd forgotten all about that until yesterday, when I watched Nate Smith's 2014 NHC presentation on using new hop varieties, courtesy of the intrepid Chip Walton of Chop & Brew. I'm considering rebrewing this beer soon with more traditional continental hops--either Styrian Goldings or something noble--to contrast with the current batch and possibly restore my faith in WY3711.

On another note, I really like the concept Nate presented in his talk for doing split batches to compare hops. He produces a large batch (15 gallons) of base wort, then splits it post-boil, running 5 gallons at a time through a hop back with a different hop variety, then through a plate chiller to each fermenter. He then usually follows up with a dry hop that matches the hop back charge for each split. It's a great idea that easily scales for smaller test batches, but requires a couple pieces of equipment I lack. Worth ruminating on for the future...

Update 2: After some time in the bottle, this beer has really turned around for me. While the combination of Amarillo and spicy yeast still throws me a little, the plastic character is gone. Much more drinkable, thankfully! Notes on this beer and the rebrew coming soon.

Autumn Denial - Amarillo Rye Saison

Batch size: 4.5 gallons
Projected OG: 1.063
Projected SRM: 7.3
Projected IBU: 30.1
Boil time: 60 minutes
Brewhouse efficiency: 79%

Grains/Fermentables
60.0% - 6 lb Weyermann Organic Vienna
30.0% - 3 lb Weyermann Rye
10.0% - 1 lb Turbinado (10 min)

Hops
.5 oz Millennium (13.5%) (60 min)
.5 oz Amarillo (8.2%) (10 min)
1.5 oz Amarillo (dry hop - 5 days)

Yeast
WY3711 French Saison - 1.5L stirplate starter

Extras
1 tsp Yeast nutrient (10 min)

Water
Profile: Reno
1 g Gypsum
1 g CaCl
1 mL Lactic acid (88%)

Brewday: 27 September 2014
Mash: 12 qts @ 147F for 3 hours - dropped to 116F
Pre-boil volume: 6 gallons
Pre-boil SG (w/o turbinado): 11P (1.044)

Chilled to 74F. Yeast pitched a little over 24 hours after knockout, once starter flocc’d out. Aerated for 30 minutes before pitching.
Fermented in swamp cooler at 70F for 2 days, then raised 3F/day to 80F.

Dry hops: 14 October 2014
Added loose to primary.

Bottled: 20 October 2014
FG: 1.003
ABV: 7.9%
Bottled with 4.8 oz brown sugar.