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.

Barleywine 2016

On the eve of 2016, I brewed the first installment of a planned annual barleywine project. Here's round two, brewed almost exactly a year later. The first beer really dried out, but after several months in the bottle, it's become more enjoyable. The new batch has retained a better balance of residual sweetness and hop bitterness and is pretty tasty right now. I'm tempted to punch it up a bit with dry hops before bottling (in the style of Stone's Old Guardian with Pekko dry hop) but I doubt I'll drink an appreciable amount before that addition fades. And this is a beer I plan to keep around for a while to appreciate. 



Barleywine 2016

Batch size: 3 gallons
Projected OG: 1.102
Projected SRM: 14.6
Projected IBU: 105.5
Boil time: 120 minutes
Brewhouse efficiency: 60%   

Grains
80.0% - 14 lb Great Western 2-row
11.4% - 2 lb Weyermann Munich II
5.7% - 1 lb C40
2.9% - 8 oz C80

Hops
.6 Millennium (15.6%) (60 min)
.5 oz Bravo (16.2%) (15 min)
.5 oz Chinook (11.9%) (15 min)
.5 oz Centennial (8.9%) (15 min)
.5 oz Bravo (10 min)
.5 oz Chinook (10 min)
.5 oz Centennial (10 min)
1 oz Bravo (5 min)
1 oz Chinook (5 min)
1 oz Centennial (5 min)

Yeast
2 pkg US-05 (rehydrated)

Extras
1 tsp Yeast nutrient (10 min)
.5 tablet Whirlfloc (10 min)

Water (mash)
Profile: Reno
8 g Gypsum, 5 g CaCl, 3 g Baking soda, 8 ml Lactic acid (88%)

Brewday: 29 December 2016
Mash: 20 qts @ 151 F for 90 minutes
Sparge: 14 qts @ 200 F
Pre-boil volume: 6.1 gallons
Pre-boil SG: 17.5 P (1.0)

Target water profile: Balanced (brewersfriend.com)
Ca 109.2, Mg 3.0, Na 35.5, Cl 81.0, SO4 141.7
Alkalinity -19.7, RA -99.3, pH 5.25

3.5 gallons to fermenter at 56F. 1 minute pure O2. Fermented in swamp cooler at 58-60F ambient. After 3 days of active fermentation—and signs of krauesen beginning to drop—allowed swamp cooler to free rise, about 1F/day.

10 January 2017: Ambient temp rose to 63F & held for several days; moved swamp cooler out of brew closet, ambient rose to 65F & roused daily. Today all krauesen has dropped. Removed from swamp cooler to rise to room ambient (68F) & roused daily for a week or so.

Secondary: 26 February 2017
FG: 1.022
ABV: 10.7%

Bottled: 30 April 2017
Bottled 2 gallons with 1.7 oz table sugar, yeast nutrient, and rehydrated US-05.
Moved 1 gallon onto 1 oz boiled oak cubes.
Bottling yeast (US-05) acclimated to the beer’s high gravity 24 hours ahead of time by adding finished beer to the priming solution at a ~1:1 ratio with water.

Session Baltic Porter

I like porters. I really like Sinebrychoff. And it's cold out now, so I've been jonesing for dark and malty beers pretty hard lately. But I'm also looking for more session-strength beers so I can keep drinking, rather than being knocked out after a bottle or two of high-octane stuff. So here we are.

Lower-gravity English porters are fantastic, but I wondered what a scaled-down Baltic porter would be like. With session beers, I try to stick to a few of Mike Tonsmiere's basic guidelines to preserve flavor in a smaller package:

 - Use more characterful base malts
 - Use a higher percentage of character malts
 - Aim for a higher saccharification rest temperature
 - Select a less attenuative, more expressive yeast strain

First three items: check. While the Wyeast German Ale strain doesn't really fit Parameter 4, it should keep the finished beer a bit more lager like, in the style of the original. Bring on the little big beer.

Minibrychoff - session version of Sinebrychoff Baltic Porter

Batch size: 5.75 gallons (5 finished gallons)
Projected OG: 1.044
Projected SRM: 32.4
Projected IBU: 23.5
Boil time: 60 minutes
Brewhouse efficiency: 70%   

Grains
57.1% - 5 lb Weyermann Vienna
22.9% - 2 lb Weyermann Munich II
11.4% - 1 lb Weyermann Carafa Special III
8.6% - 12 oz Weyermann Caramunich III

Hops
.3 oz Millennium (15.6%) (60 min)
2 oz Saaz (3.0%) (10 min)

Yeast
WY1007 German Ale - .6L stirplate starter

Extras
1 tsp Yeast nutrient (10 min)
1/2 tablet Whirlfloc (10 min)

Water (mash)
Profile: Reno
Target profile: London (brewersfriend.com)
Ca 94.5, Mg 3.0, Na 10.0, Cl 65.1, SO4 54.3
Alkalinity as CaCO3 83.7, RA 14.6

Brewday: 26 November 2016
Mash: 155F for 90 minutes (1 qt @ 212F added to reach temp)
Pre-boil volume: 7.3 gallons
Pre-boil SG: 9.7P (1.038)

Water additions: 3 g Gypsum, 4 g CaCl, 5 g Chalk, 2 ml Lactic acid (88%)

5.3 gallons to fermenter. Fermented in swamp cooler at 58F ambient.

28 November 2016: High krauesen & blowoff at 58F or even slightly lower. Krauesen starting to fall, so warmed swamp cooler to 60F; will continue to raise temp ~5F every 12 hours to 68F.

20 December 2016: Fermentation has been finished for a week or more. Moved fermenter to garage (50F) until bottling.

Bottled: 19 January 2017
FG: 1.016
ABV: 3.7%
Moved 1 gallon onto 1 oz oak cubes (boiled) and 1 gallon onto .1 oz Seville orange peel, .1 oz cinnamon stick, and 1 oz toasted coconut, all soaked in Jim Beam for a couple weeks.
Bottled 3.25 gallons with 3.7 oz brown sugar and rehydrated US-05.

Bottling #2: 26 February 2017
Bottled 2 gallons (oaked, spiced) together with 2.0 oz brown sugar and rehydrated US-05. The oak and the coconut really come through; the coconut is particularly fantastic.

American Strong Ale

During a stay in Boise a few months ago, some good friends invited me over to harvest Chinooks from their backyard bine. It was pretty late in the season for it, and the hops were a bit past their prime; unfortunately, they were also pretty well infested by aphids. Nevertheless, we had a good time picking sticky hops on a crisp autumn afternoon, and I took home and dried what ended up being about 3.5 ounces.

Well, what to do with Chinooks, a variety with which I have little experience? Take on something in the neighborhood of Tasty McDole's Arrogant Bastard clone attempt! I've been coming back around to Stone's bigger, less hop-focused (than Ruination, IPA, Delicious, etc.) beers, such as Old Guardian and Arrogant Bastard, as the thermometer's been dropping. Uncertain of the potency of the fresh hops, given their age at picking--they only lost half their weight at drying--I supplemented with Cascade and Centennial pellets.

I'm pretty pleased with this small batch, though the bitterness seems very low compared to the IBU estimate. Great classic American maltiness, though. I'm planning to use this recipe as a base for this year's barleywine, just amped up a bit; going to really push the bittering.

Bastardized - riff on CYBI Arrogant Bastard clone

Batch size: 3.5 gallons

Projected OG: 1.072
Projected SRM: 15.3
Projected IBU: 83.6
Boil time: 90 minutes
Brewhouse efficiency: 68%   

Grains
93.6% - 11 lb 2-row
6.4% - 12 oz C150

Hops
.3 oz Millennium (15.6%) (60 min)
1 oz Chinook leaf (6.5% est.) (15 min)
.5 oz Cascade (6.9%) (15 min)
.5 oz Centennial (7.6%) (15 min)
1 oz Chinook leaf (10 min)
.5 oz Cascade (10 min)
.5 oz Centennial (10 min)
1.5 oz Chinook leaf (5 min)
1 oz Cascade (5 min)
1 oz Centennial (5 min)

Yeast
WLP007 Dry English Ale - 1.2-L starter

Extras
1 tsp Yeast nutrient (5 min)
1/2 tablet Whirlfloc (5 min)

Water (mash)
Profile: Reno
9 g Gypsum, 3 g CaCl, 2 ml Lactic Acid (88%)

Brewday: 6 November 2016
Mash: 150 F for 3 hours
Pre-boil volume: 6.2 gallons
Pre-boil SG: 13.0P (1.051)

Transferred 4 gallons to fermenter. Fermented in swamp cooler at 66F.

Bottled: 26 November 2016
FG: 1.014
ABV: 7.7%
Bottled 3 gallons with rehydrated US-05 and 2.4 oz brown sugar.
Remaining gallon transferred to secondary with 1 oz home-toasted oak cubes (360F for 3.5 hours, sanitized with boiling water in microwave before adding). Planning to let it age long term and use for future blending.

American Dark Wheat

One of the nice surprises from my summer cross-country trips in recent years has been Thunderhead Brewing in Kearney, Nebraska. I went in the first time not expecting too much, but was very impressed with the beers. The one that made the biggest impact on me was their Cornstalker dark wheat beer: dark in color and a little chocolatey but with a light, easy drinking body. It's built a bit like a dunkelweizen, but with a clean American yeast and American hops. On a hot day, I could go through pint after pint of this stuff.

Though I really wanted to brew something in the Cornstalker vein to have around for the warmer months, this batch didn't make it out until late autumn. It's still pretty damn drinkable in colder weather, though more like a black blonde ale (if you will) than an American dunkelweizen. The Midnight wheat is actually too smooth; only giving off the slightest hint of roast, upon rebrew I'd sub out some of this grain for chocolate malt to achieve more coffee and chocolate notes. It also stayed on the dry hops much longer than originally intended; instead of a real grapefruit punch, the hops come across as herbal. A few tweaks and better planning to put this out in the late spring, and I think it'll really be a winner.

American Dark Wheat

Batch size: 5 gallons
Projected OG: 1.046
Projected SRM: 29.1
Projected IBU: 26.4
Boil time: 70 minutes
Brewhouse efficiency: 75%   

Grains
54.8% - 5 lb Great Western 2-row
32.9% - 3 lb White Wheat
8.2% - 12 oz Midnight Wheat
4.1% - 6 oz Bairds Dark Crystal

Hops

.3 oz Millennium (15.9%) (60 min)
.5 oz Cascade (5.5%) (30 min)
.5 oz Cascade (5 min)
1 oz Cascade (dry hop - 2 days)

Yeast
WLP090 San Diego Super Yeast

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

Water additions (mash)
4 g Gypsum
1 g Salt
4 g CaCl
1 ml Lactic acid (88%)

Brewday: 18 September 2016
Mash: 154F for 60 minutes
Pre-boil volume: 7.4 gallons
Pre-boil SG: 9.4P (1.037)

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

Water Profile: Reno
Target profile: Balanced Profile (brewersfriend.com)
70.9 Ca, 3.0 Mg, 22.0 Na, 83.7 Cl, 71.4 SO4
Alkalinity 20.6, RA -31.7 (ppm as CaCO3); 5.3 mash pH

Dry hop: 21 September 2016
Added as fermentation slowed, but hadn’t finished completely.

Bottled: 30 October 2016
FG: 1.011
ABV: 4.7%
Bottled with 4 oz light brown sugar.

Sample was fairly neutral. Bottled more than a full month after intended; not a lot of dry hop character, but also not super vegetal, thankfully.

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.

American Sour Red

Last summer, I brewed a mixed fermentation blonde beer with a collection of propped-up bottle dregs. This year, I continued that tradition with a red beer.

While the rough outline of the recipe follows the Rare Barrel's base red beer, I used Best Mälz's RedX malt for the base to (hopefully) achieve a truly saturated red color. Flaked oats as well as wheat and rye malts joined the party for added malt complexity and mouthfeel. The barest sliver of Galena brings just over 5 IBUs to the batch.

Prior to boiling, I soured the wort with a lacto starter grown up from malt. I've followed this process with great success in the past, but this time around, it failed to produce any noticeable sourness. It may have been the short contact time: having found this method to make a big impact in previous batches, I only gave the starter 8 hours to work before boiling. At this point, however, my dregs culture has produced plenty of acidity, so no harm, no foul. I started this year's batch with Wyeast's French Saison yeast to consume some of the simpler sugars and produce some spicy esters before the Brett and bugs took hold and continued shaping the beer. At transfer, I didn't get any bold saison characteristics, which was in line with my expectations for this yeast's addition: subtle underlying complexity.

Since my 6-gallon carboy was otherwise occupied by mead, this batch spent its two months of primary fermentation in a plastic bucket. At transfer to secondary, the flavor was developing nicely, but might be more acetic than I'd prefer. It has since developed a nice pellicle and is aging happily. While I really enjoyed fruiting much of last year's blonde, most of the fruit I have on hand right now--farmer's market-procured pluots, peaches, and nectarines, all sliced, frozen, and vacuum packed in the freezer--don't strike me as a great pairing for a red beer. I do have some cherries from a year and a half ago, but they haven't been properly sealed and smell suspiciously like the smoked cheese we bought around the same time. This beer might be a good candidate for oaking.

I've planned a dark beer for next year's iteration. I'll still probably go with that, but may brew another blonde in the meantime to use all of the stone fruit I have hanging around right now. I may also start a new dregs culture; in my zeal to start this project, my existing culture received dregs from a few bottles that I'd prefer not to have in the mix. This spring I had a new culture going from a bottle each of Logsdon Farmhouse Cerasus (October 2014) and Cascade Blackcap Raspberry (2015) that was producing a fantastic strawberry character. I ended up adding it to the mix that went into the red, but I'd like to start over with that blend for future mixed fermentation beers. As far as the project overall, though, I don't regret a moment of it.

American Sour Red

Batch size: 5.25 gallons
Projected OG: 1.063
Projected SRM: 15.3
Projected IBU: 5.2
Boil time: 60 minutes
Brewhouse efficiency: 62%

Grains
67.2% - 10 lb Best Mälz RedX
13.4% - 2 lb Weyermann Wheat
9.2% - 1 lb 6 oz Flaked oats
6.7% - 1 lb Rye malt
3.4% - 8 oz Aromatic

Hops
.1 oz Galena (16.0%) (60 min)

Yeast
250 ml Lacto starter (sour wort 8 hours)
Sour Cultures No. 1 (1/4 cup), 2, 3
WY3711 French Saison - 1 l starter

Extras
1 tsp Yeast nutrient (5 min)

Water (mash)
Profile: Reno (brewersfriend.com)
Target profile: Balanced (brewersfriend.com)
65.2 Ca, 8.5 Mg, 20.9 Na, 76.5 Cl, 86.7 SO4
Alkalinity 34.0, RA -17.5

Lacto starter: 28 May 2016
25 g DME with 250 ml water & pinch of yeast nutrient, with handful of malt
Kept in bucket with hot tap water & aquarium heater set to max (93F).

Brewday: 16 June 2016
Mash: 18 qts @ 156F for 60 minutes
Sparge: 20 qts @ 190F
Pre-boil volume: 7.2 gallons
Pre-boil SG: 13.2P (1.052)

Water additions (mash): 4 g Gypsum, 2 g Epsom salts, 1 g Salt, 4 g CaCl

Pre-acidified with 7 ml Lactic acid (88%), brought to quick boil, chilled to 115F, pitched Lacto starter. Covered in plastic wrap, kept warm for 8 hours; no noticeable souring took place. Boiled as usual.

Transferred 5.9 gallons at 15.8P to fermenter.
Chilled to 72F (warm ground water), put in swamp cooler at 62F to chill. Fermented in swamp cooler at 68F ambient, ramped to ambient (~75F) after 1 day active fermentation.

Secondary: 17 August 2016
SG: 1.012

Bottled: 1 May 2017
FG: 1.010
ABV: 7.0%
Bottled 4 gallons with 3.8 oz table sugar.
Bottling yeast (US-05) acclimated to the beer’s high gravity 24 hours ahead of time by adding finished beer to the priming solution at a ~1:1 ratio with water.
Moved 1 gallon onto 9.7 oz dried blueberries (rinsed in boiled water, sprayed with Star San) & .5 oz boiled oak cubes.