Brewer's Cache » Homebrew

10-11-08 Special Brown Porter

brewbaron — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 19:51:19 +0000

This beer was produced during a period in which I was experimenting with lower mash temperatures to produce dryer beers. This beer has an intensely dark brown color with a modest chocolate-tinged head. This beer provides a nice complex flavor that starts with plum that resides to leave a subtle, lingering chocolate finish. There is no apparent hop aroma; plum notes can be detected in the nose. This beer is bittered to balance and has no discernable harshness.

Target Gravity: 1.054
IBU: 32.4
BU/GU: 0.6

Grain Bill

8.0639 lbs American Pale Malt
2.298 lbs Brown Malt
0.5 lbs Chocolate Malt
0.5 lbs Special B

Hops

2 oz Perle Leaf Hops ( 7.5 % ) @ 60 minutes

Yeast

US-50 SafAle

Schedule

Mash this beer at 151 for 90 minutes. Boil for 90 minutes. Ferment at optimal yeast temperature, approx 68F.

3-08-2009: Reducing Heat Loss during Mash

brewbaron — Thu, 29 May 2008 01:00:44 +0000

Maintaining a constant temperature during the mash is very important to ensure the proper balance and yield of the beer. For new brewers or the average homebrewer that mashes without the assistance of a mash temperature control system, this can sometimes be a headache. The following ‘tricks’ might help you manage:

1. Preheat the mash tun. This will reduce temperature loss by the mash tun vessel .

2. Fill the mashtun with the appropriate amount of strike water before adding any of the grain. This will afford you the opportunity to double check the strike water temperature before having to deal with the grains. I generally overheat my strike water by a few degrees to account for temperature loss incurred while measuring out the water. If the temperature loss is less than expected, I just wait a few minutes until the water in the mash tun has dropped to the appropriate level.

3. Keep the mash tun off of cold tile floors. This is one that I overlooked for nearly a dozen all-grain batches. During the winter months, tile floors act as a significant heat sink. By simply setting the mash tun on your countertop, you might be able to save yourself a degree or two of temperature loss.

4. Drape some old blankets or some kitchen drying towels over the mash tun to add a little extra insulation. Most insulated coolers are engineered to keep things cold, not warm. Insulation is typically quite lacking in the lids of most igloo coolers.

12-27-2007: Kansas City Wheat Beer — All-grain version

brewbaron — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 17:21:00 +0000

A light-colored, light-medium bodied ale with nice, noticeable citrusy notes that is reminiscent of Boulevard Wheat Beer. This is my all-grain version of the Kansas City Wheat beer.

Expected Original Gravity: 1.047 – 1.051
Expected Final Gravity: 1.010 – 1.014
IBUs: 22-26
Alchohol by Volume: 4.5-5.0%
Boil duration: 60 mintues

Grain Bill

10 lbs Wheat Malt
0.5 lbs Caravienne

Mash Schedule
Protein rest ~ 20 minutes
Sacrification rest @ 153 ~ 60 minutes

Hop Schedule
1 oz * Cluster Hops ( bittering ) @ 60 min
1 oz Willamette Hops ( finishing ) @ 5 min

Notes

* I am going to substitute the Cluster hops with Amarillo–it is the variety that I have on hand.

You will need to adjust the quantity of bittering hops depending on the alpha acid content of your variety; shoot for 23 IBUs.

Ferment this beer around 65F to reduce the fruity esters. In the past, I followed the 1-2-3 rule, but this time, I think that I am going to ferment in glass and primary this beer for 3 weeks and then rack to a keg for secondary fermentation until its time to tap the keg.

Jamil’s Blonde Ale

brewbaron — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 17:15:15 +0000

Blonde ale is what most Amererican’s think of when they think of beer. This is a light, easy drinking beer that is well balanced, lightly hopped, clean, and crisp. The grain bill is very simple–blonde ales can be brewed using only a single grain, the base malt.

Grain Bill

12 lbs 2-row
0.5 lbs Crystal 20L
The Mash

Single Infusion Mash @ 151F

Hop Schedule
90 minute boil
1 oz Willamette @ 60 minutes.
Yeast
White Labs California Ale Yeast
Notes:
Create a yeast start at least a day ahead of time or pitch two vials of yeast. Fement this beer at 67F; mine took about nine days to complete. For such a simple grain bill, the fermentation temperature must be well controlled. Off flavors will not be hidden!

10/17/2007 – Company Cream Ale – taste with age

brewbaron — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 13:46:10 +0000

My batch of Company Cream ale is aging nicely and is becoming more drinkable. The almost-overpowering ester profile has faded considerably and the corn-like flavor (style characteristic) is starting to come through. Also, the beer has marginally cleared; it is still hazy but not embarrassingly hazy. The hop bitterness is spot-on; I wouldn’t change a thing.

If you attempt this one, be sure to keg it and forget about it; come back to it in six months and I bet that you will be pleased.

10/17/2007 – Step Ladder Stout : Kegged and on tap

brewbaron — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 13:39:00 +0000

Yesterday evening I finally got around to transferring the Step Ladder Stout from the primary into its keg. I don’t much like waiting this long before racking it off, but I have been very busy lately getting Brutus, the brew dog, acclimated and trained–getting used to morning walks has been a bit of a shock to the system!

The step ladder stout terminated with a final gravity of 1.014 which is a little higher than expected–I had trouble with the mash temperature control and ended up mashing at a low temp. I took a little taste and the roasted barely comes through in a huge way, maybe too huge. The color is lovely ink.

I am going to carbonate this one just using CO2 because I don’t have the nitrogen kegging equipment. Based on my past results, this one will be carbonated nicely in about a week or so ( sitting at 12-15 Psi and 45 degrees ).

10/1/07 – Company Cream Ale – Early Observations

brewbaron — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 01:05:53 +0000

This batch of company cream ale is finally carbonated enough to issue some early observations. The color of this beer is a very nice straw yellow color but is quite hazy. I recommend that a flocculant be used to create a beautifully clear beer. This beer has a strong flavor profile with very apparant ester notes of bananna and pear. I can also detect some cider notes in this one, which would likely be due to the extra table sugar added. I recommend that a Californa Ale Yeast be used to clean up the profile a bit and be sure to keep control of your fermentation temperatures. There is little or no hop flavor and the nose is all esters. For a cream ale, I would have perfered a more noticable DMS character, which I am sure is present but masked by the strong ester profile.

This beer has a very nice mouthfeel, very drinkable. I need to fine tune the carbonation before I can give a full report.
Overall, this is going to be a fine beer, just not the beer that I had intended ( we will see ). To find the right balance in this recipe, next time around I am going to experiment with first using a cleaner yeast and keeping very close attention to the fermentation temperature, and then if that doesn’t get me where I want to be, I am going to cut almost all of the table sugar out of the recipe.

[Edit] This beer is improving every day with age and improved carbonation.

If you attempt this recipe, let me know. I always love to hear feedback from the readers.

9/21/07 – Now on tap: Company cream ale

brewbaron — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 03:01:06 +0000

I just tapped my recipe, Company Cream Ale, brewed some weeks ago. Though it is quite early to offer my my early observations, I can say that I nailed the color that I was shooting for. This beer pours crystal clear with a beautiful straw yellow color–it was my first attempt at a light-lovenbond beer. The first pour was relatively free of any “gunk;” I chose to secondary this beer, a practice that has significantly waned now that I keg my beers.

At this point, the flavor is pretty strong; the DMS that is characterisitic of the cream ale style does come through. The pilsen malts and a boil limited to 70 minutes contributed the DMS. The alcohol warmth is certainly present ( 7+%). I expect that this beer will be a nice counterpoint to my lastest batch of brew, the Step Ladder Foreign Stout, which will take its place on tap in a couple of weeks. I hope that the difference in final gravity of the cream ale will be different enough from the stout that I will be able to pour a black and tan, where one beer “sits” on the other in the glass.
More updates to follow when this golden beauty is fully carbonated ( and further aged ).

9/15/2007 – Step Ladder Foreign Stout

brewbaron — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 17:43:47 +0000

Step Ladder Foreign Stout
A dry, intensly dark, foreign stout that should go nicely on a cool fall day.

OG 1.050
IBU 50
Bu/Gu: 1.0

Grain Bill
.75 lbs Roasted Barely 300 L
.75 lbs Roasted Barley 650 L
1 lbs Chocolate Malt
7.6 lbs Pale 2-row
1 lbs Wheat Malt
.50 lbs Dextrine Malt
.75 lbs Crystal 6L

Mash
Single Infusion mash @ 152 with a R = 1.2. I had a hard time holding on the to temperature this time around. My mash actually dipped to 149F before the end of the mash. I had too little remaining capactiy in the tun to adjust. This will lead to a very fermentable, albeit lighter beer–I normally perfer my stouts pretty thick. I batch sparged and got about a 70% efficiency.
Hop Schedule ( 90 minute boil )
2.38 oz Amarillo @ 60 minutes.

I had a boilover at around T-50 minutes. This will likely affect the overall bitterness of this brew. I couldn’t guess how much hop matter was ejected during the boilover so I didn’t attempt to correct for it.

Yeast
1 pk Danstar Windsor English Ale yeast ( properly rehydrated )

Notes:

I had about 5-6 gal of wort after the boil @ 1.050 OG. This was the first brew that I have brewed that required a blowoff hose. I just used my syphon hose which is a little on the long side; it generates too much resistence when it gets gunked up with krausen. When the hose if full, the fermenter pressure really builds up; I can hear the fermenter whistling. I am going to have to keep a close eye on this one.

8-30-07: Sim City IPA, a beautiful thing

brewbaron — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 02:21:26 +0000

This is a pull of Sim City IPA in a Samuel Adams glass ( courtesy of AHA )

From Sim City IPA