Another Hoppy Brown Ale

Another hop-bursted brown ale with different hops this time. Ah, wait...I didn't put anything in here about the first one now, did I? The previous brown ale was a little higher gravity (I used all DME instead of half dry and half liquid) and I used Michigan-grown Centennial hops along with Pacific Northwest Crystal. I brewed it December 4 and bottled and it 10 days later. It's fantastic stuff so far. I have the half the batch in the "cellar" at about 40 F and the rest split between the kitchen corner at 75 and the fridge. Despite a boil-over which resulted in some hops being lost, the final product is quite hoppy with an impressive hop aroma, especially considering I didn't steep or add any dry hops. I'm staring to think that hop-bursting is the way to go in order to impart the now classic in-your-face American hop flavor and aroma. I'll try and post more on this batch as it ages.

So that was the first batch. This time around I couldn't get enough of the Centennial hops I wanted, so used a half-ounce of Magnum at the start of the 60-minute boil and three ounces of Sterling and the remaining half-ounce of Magnum at 15 minutes left in the boil. I also split the addition of the malt extract, adding three pounds of dry at the start and the liquid 45 minutes into the boil. All the of extract was the same: Briess Pilsner. Before starting the boil, I filled the fermenter with six gallons of water combined with one crushed campden tablet to counteract the chlorine in my tap water. I let this mixture sit a minute, then I poured three gallons into the brew kettle and left three in the fermenter. My mini-mash included one pound of Victory and a half pound each of Carafa I and brown malt in bag for 15 minutes. The mash temp got a little high (160 F), but I'm not going to worry about it. What's done is done. I actually had to restart the boil when I added the second half of the malt extract. I immersed my wort chiller for the final two minuets of the boil to sanitize it, then let the beer cool for 30 minutes. I added Irish moss at 13-15 minutes left in the boil and I cooled the wort for 30 minutes, poured into the awaiting fermenter filled with the remaining water. I sprinkled one packet of S-05 yeast in a layer on top of the wort and let sit for 15 minutes in covered fermenter then mixed by agitating the fermenter bucket, added ferm lock and moved to space under counter in the corner of the kitchen. Here's to hoping this brown ale is as good or better than the previous one!

Belgian IPA gets tapped

I tapped a very interesting IPA tonight. I ended up packaging the whole batch of my Belgian IPA into two Party Pigs and just tapped the first pig after less than a day in the fridge. The aroma, despite dry hopping in the secondary and the Pig, is a bit neutral at first with light orange-marmalade notes which give way to a fairly intense phenolic character. This marmalade-phenolic character imparts itself on the palate as well and the esters make an interesting mix with the Chinook flavoring hops. The finish is bitter at first, but then tart. There is a decent amount of body to this beer, at least up front, which is what I expected using the Wyeast 3711 strain. I'm not sure I like such a strong phenolic character in a hoppy beer. Perhaps with age in the fridge the phenols will lager out. I think if I brewed this again that I would cut back on the Caravienne (I used a full pound), since I think it may have add a bit too much sweetness. I may have to start calling this beer Bittersweet IPA, as it almost tastes like I'm sucking on a toffee hard candy, eating an orange slice and drinking an IPA all at the same time.

Belgian-American IPA gets brewed

I brewed what I intended to be a Belgian-American IPA last Monday and today I racked that beer as a buttery pale ale with two ounces of Amarillo hops. I topped up the primary with a little too much water and ended up with a six-gallon batch of pale ale instead of a five-gallon batch of IPA. I racked to the secondary tonight and I'm hoping this beer's yeast cleans up after itself. After just seven days, this latest brew is a quite cloudy orange hue with an orange marmalade component to the aroma. So far it tastes rather odd, not infected, just strange. It is bitter, but the bitterness is coated in a buttery, orange marmalade sweetness accented by caramel. I'm definitely glad I've racked this one, because I think it's going to need some time to get rid of some intense amounts of diacetyl. Here is the recipe, where you'll see that I used an ample amount of Caravienne (a little over 13 percent which is perhaps a bit too much), but I have to wonder if it was enough to add such caramel character. I noticed some scorching on the bottom of the kettle after the brew session which may also be a factor in the caramel character of this beer. What I'm more concerned though is the buttery diacetyl. In the meantime, I'll have a homebrew and not worry.

The homebrew I'm having is my previous batch, Bitter Flowers, and it's drinking quite well. There is a light peppery hop aroma with perhaps just a touch of DMS, but it's not off-putting. The carbonation is quite good. A persistent quarter-inch fluffy white head sits on top of this brew, with ample lacing left behind with each sip. The mouthfeel definitely suggests saison; it is crisp without being too light, yet this beer has a very dry finish. There is an assertive, peppery hop bitterness yet the finish is rather soft before becoming impressively dry. The soft mouthfeel combined with the dry finish can be attributed to the Wyeast 3711 French Saison yeast. This character is specifically mentioned on the yeast lab's website. Overall, I'm a pretty pleased with this beer. The hint of DMS bothers me, but I haven't noticed it in all the bottles. I have to say that drinking this beer has me kind of wishing I brewed another batch instead of trying to brew a Belgian IPA with the same yeast.

Bitter Flowers Bottled

Bottled the hoppier version of the Flower Pepper saison that I'm calling Bitter Flowers earlier this evening. It's quite a bit hoppier (really just bitter), especially in the finish which is quite dry. At an original gravity of 1.048 and 40 IBUs of Crystal hops it's quite a beer so far. I love the performance of the Wyeast 3711. I fermented it in the mid- to upper-70s and it reached 87 percent apparent attenuation in under seven days. There seemed to no airlock activity the last couple days so I decided to check the gravity and at 1.006 I decided I could bottle. I brewed a five and a half-gallon batch so it yielded 30 12-ounce bottles, 12 12-ounce bottles and one two-liter flip-top growler. While bottling, I sampled some of my Dash the Curry Pale Ale and I'm still not in love with it. I picked a bottle that's been in the fridge for a couple weeks and it still has a prominent banana aroma. Not only does it smell like a German wheat (as opposed to a Belgian Pale Ale), it tastes a bit like one, too. It's coming across too full-bodied and sweet with a slightly unpleasant phenolic and oddly bitter finish despite a bitterness ratio of 0.472. I've moved a six-pack to the fridge and plan to move the rest of the beer off-site to a cooler location that is in the upper '60s. I'm thinking this is a beer that might taste better in the winter or early spring. Hopefully it just needs time to lager out some of the bitter spiciness and banana esters.

Brewing "Bitter" Flowers

Brewed a simplified and most likely hoppier version of the Flowers saison today. For a quick weeknight brew, I cut out the specialty malts and substituted some amber extract. I also increased the bittering hops by an ounce and dropped out the Strisselspalt in favor of all Crystal. I also erred on my "water needed" calcuations and ended up with six gallons in my seven-gallon fermenter. Hopefully, this won't be a problem. I also changed the yeast up, using Wyeast 3711 instead of 3724, since it's cooling off quite a bit in the kitchen. The ambient temperature is now 75 degrees, but I expect it to get even cooler in the next few days. I've used the 3711 strain before at this temperature and was amazed at how attenuative it was for not fermenting very warm. We'll see what happens, eh? So I cracked open the first bottle of my Dash the Curry Pale Ale, as a tribute to the prior batch, and I was pleased with it. The name comes from an English expression and a M.I.A. song, but I picked the name because I added a dash of Garam Masala. This spice blend included peppercorns, mace, cumin, cinnamon, nutmeg, star anise, cardamom, cloves and coriander. I also added an additional amount of coriander with the Garam Masala. All the spices were added at 10-15 minutes left in the 60-minute boil. I threw caution to the wind and pitched an almost two-year-old packed of Safbrew T-58 yeast from Fermentis. So far (after only a couple weeks) the beer taste a little bit too much like a wheat beer with a bit too much banana and clove, but there's enough other stuff going on (no doubt from the spices and Styrian Golding hops) that it's okay.

Flower Pepper Saison Tasted

I finally have two batches in the bottle and I'm already burning through the first one, what I'm simply calling "Flowers." I chose the name because I used lots of late and dry additions of Crystal hops. I also used a seasoning from Trader Joe's called Flower Pepper late in the boil to add complexity and aroma. Flowers is a saison-style ale and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out, especially for a beer made with about 85 percent malt extract and 15 percent grains. I used a mix of dry and liquid extract along with a pound of 40L crystal malt for color. Aside from the wonderfully flowery aroma and great flavor, what I'm most impressed about with this beer so far is how dry it turned out. I had to go back in my notes and double-check that I didn't add any sugar to increase the dryness. It's definitely one of my drier saisons and drier than the last I brewed back in June with Wyeast 3725 as opposed to the 3724 (Dupont strain.) The Wyeast 3724 truly worked its magic when fermented at around 83-85 degrees in my kitchen in late August. We had a couple 90 degree days which helped keep the temperature up and the yeast very happy. Best I can tell, the beer ended up reaching apparent attenuation of about 80 percent. What I'd like to do (what I may have to do because it's getting cooler out) is brew up another batch of this stuff, but with the Wyeast 3711 strain, one with which I've brewed a rather dry saison in the past. I'd definitely use the Flower Pepper again, too, as it seems to add a complex fruitiness. It drinks like a flowery Pils with a tart finish. A great beer for year round; maybe a new house beer.