It's hoppy Charlie! - Brown Ale

This is my second brew for one of Aaron's parties and it came out wonderful. I racked it to a secondary tonight and dry hopped. I wondered how the chocolate-ness of a brown ale and the hops of an IPA would merge.. let me just say, it's fantastic. The aroma already is good, but the dry hopping will top it off. I'm going to dry hop it until next Tuesday or Wednesday, then keg it and have it ready for Aaron to take home on Friday, to settle before the party.

Here's the recipe:

Fermentables:
7 lb. Maris Otter
1 lb. Crystal 40
1 lb. Wheat
1 lb. Belgian Biscuit
1/2 lb. Chocolate Malt
1/2 lb. Caramunich

Hops:
2 oz. Kent Golding 4.5% AA - 60 min.
1 oz. Kent Golding 4.5% AA - 15 min.
1.5 oz. Cascade 5.4% AA - 10 min.
1 oz. Amarillo 7.5% AA - 10 min.
1.5 oz. Cascade 5.4% AA - Turn off
1 oz. Amarillo 7.5% AA - Turn off
1 oz. Amarillo 7.5% AA - Dry hop
.70 oz. Centennial 8.5% AA - Dry hop

Yeast: Wyeast London Ale (yeast cake - 3rd generation)

IBU: 60.2%
OG: 1.058
FG: 1.014
ABV: 5.8%

15 gallons = Bottled!

I took the day off today with plans to bottle 3 beers: Belgian Dubble, Belgian Sour Brown and a Smoked Porter. I set up last night, and couldn't resist starting the project. Well, I'm not one to leave a project halfway through, so I ended up blasting through all 15 gallons of beer. I finsihed around 2:30 a.m. Oops.
I hate bottling, but I had a reason to bottle all of these. Both Belgians are pretty high in gravity. The Dubble is around 10%, and should age nicely.
The Sour, hasn't even "soured" yet. I'm hoping it will, but it came out to around 9%. It wasn't intended to be that high, but, I did make this in early spring, when I wasn't as knowledgeable about controlling my alcohol levels. Lessons learned, but, this beer is going to sit another year before I try one. I've read online, that White Labs Belgian Sour yeast can take some time to actually sour. It's still drinkable though, I'm just hoping it sours up more.
The Porter, came out awesome tasting. I read that it ages very well too, and to save a bunch for a year or so later. The flavors will blend even more and that subtle smokey flavor will really blend in nicely. I will crack some of these out around Halloween though, I'm anxious to try it. This one came out to 7.9%. Big, but I tasted the finish product and it's amazing. Can't wait for this fall sippin' beer. :)

I might add, the two big Belgians, I added dry yeast (thanks Nate!) to them both a few days ago, since they've been aging for 6 months or so. Got the tip from Beer Advocate folks that have bottled aged beer before. Hopefully it helps in the carbonation process.

Oh yeah, I also waxed the tops on the Belgians. I had only planned on doing the Dubble, but I had so much wax made, I did the Sours' too. That was fun. The wax took a while to heat up (I put it in a jar, then put the jar in a pot of medium high heat water. After it heated, I started dipping. I learned if I flipped the bottle up right away, it dripped down some, which gives it a cool looking effect. I don't think I'll wax tops too often, only on beers I plan on aging a long time - heck, for that matter, that's about the only time I'm going to bottle. Bottling sucks, but when it's all said and done, it's kind of nice having all that beer bottled.

Speaking of, I found two 12 packs of homebrew stashed away yesteday. Some of my old Weizenbock, which I was just wishing I had saved some for this Halloween, some IPA's I bottled last year, and a Christmas Ale that came out kind of off tasting, so I figured I would age it some. We'll see how that tastes this Christmas! I also found some other bottles that I have no clue what they are. I almost think they're a Kolsch that I did over a year ago, as well as some, potential Apricot Wheats. I'm saving those to test out on DRB customers.. :p

Pumpkin Ale 090409

I've never been a huge fan of pumpkin ales, but I was feeling festive this year, and thought I would try one. 5 gallons of pumpkin beer... what on earth have I done?! Honestly, it tastes pretty good. The way I did it, I spiced it very lightly in the boil, and added a bit more in the secondary. I plan to keg/carbonate in the next few days.

Dayton Road Brewing Pumpkin Ale

Fermentables:
11 lb. Maris Otter
.50 lb. Aromatic
.50 lb. Crystal 40
.50 lb. Crystal 120
.50 lb. Special Roast

Hops:
Kent Golding 4.5% - 1.65 oz. 60 min.

Yeast:
Wyeast 1968 London Ale (yeast cake from an IPA)

Spices:
Cinnamon 1 min. 1/2 tsp.
Ginger 1 min. 1/4 tsp.
Nutmeg 1 min. 1/8 tsp.
Allspice 1 min. 1/8 tsp.
- Added these to the boil with 1 minute left.

Made another bag of the spices above, same amount, and added it to the secondary. The spices sit softly in the background and aren't over powering. It tastes pretty good, I'm looking forward to tasting it carbonated.

3.90 (4) gallons of strike water

DRB Smoked Porter 090409

I had originally planned on making this earlier in the year, but the store I went to didn't have any Rauch Malt at the time, so I waited until it came in stock. This is a pretty close example to Alaska Smoked Porter. A well balanced Porter, with a very mellow smoke flavor in the background.

Robust Smoked Porter (Got the recipe from Brewing Classic Styles, and tweaked it according to what I had available)

Fermentables:
8.5 lb. Maris Otter
3 lb. Smoked Rauch Malt
1 lb. Crystal 40
1 lb. Crystal 80
.75 lb. Chocolate Malt
.50 lb. Black Malt

Hops:
Kent Golding 4.5% - 1.30 oz. 60 min.
Willamette 4.8% - .75 oz. 30 min.
Willamette 4.8% - .75 oz. 15 min.
Kent Golding 4.5% - .5 oz. Turn off
Willamette 4.8% - .40 oz. Turn off

Yeast:
WLP001 - Cal Ale (yeast cake from the IPA)

Fermented for a few weeks - FG: 1.012 - 7.9%

The taste is wonderful. I had originally planned on kegging this batch, but instead I think I'm going to bottle the whole 5 gallons. I've heard these smoked porters are better a year later, so I'm going to put a bunch up for a year and crack them out next fall to see how good they age.

IPA / Wit update

I had a bit of an issue with the IPA. The cal ale yeast batch, came out around 8%, a little higher than expected. I kegged it and dry hopped right in the keg with about an ounce of hops. After a couple weeks, I removed the hop bag and tried the beer. It tasted like a good IPA base, but no big hop flavor to it. A caramel beer I was calling it. So, after several discussion on Beer Advocate forums, I decided to dry hop the hell out of it. I added 5 oz. more of Cascades and Amarillo. After just 3 days, the beer was tasting like a hop bomb. Amazing what dry hopping can do. After about 5 or 6 days, I removed the hop bag. The beer is pretty good right now, though I'm going to let it settle for about a week. Hopefully all the hops that escaped the bag will settle to the bottom and shoot out on the first pour. I'm pretty happy with the taste now though.
The second 5 gallon of this tasted pretty good, pre dry hopped. It was the London Ale yeast, and fermented out clean - the beer was pretty clear too, compared to the other. I ended up dry hopping with 6 oz. of hops on this one, and plan to keg it this week at some point. I have a feeling this one is going to be much better than the last, but should also be a hop bomb. Looking forward to it!

Belgian Wit: Not much on this one, it turned out perfect. Color, taste, everything. Very refreshing. This was a pretty simple recipe, I plan to keep it around and make a batch each summer.

Autumn IPA & Belgian Wit

Well, I finally got off my arse after almost a month of not brewing and did a few batches. My 36th anniversary IPA turned out so good, I wanted to try another IPA. I researched for a couple of weeks, reading about various forums of base grains and hop schedules for IPA's. I finally settled on the grains and hops. Here's the recipe:

Fermentables:
17 lb. 2-Row
3 lb. Marris Otter (did this just to use it up)
6 lb. Munich
2 lb. Caramel 20
1 lb. Wheat (head retention)

Hops:
2 oz. Simcoe - 60 min.
1 oz. Amarillo - 30 min.
1 oz. Simcoe - 20 min.
1 oz. Amarillo - dry hop
1 oz. Simcoe - dry hop

Yeast:
Wyeast 1028 London Ale
WLP001 - California ale

OG: 1.070
Expected ABV: 7.5% (or higher, not above 8)

- I split this up into two 5 gallon batches. The Wyeast took off within hours. I did not make a starter on either of these. The WLP001, took almost two days to start fermenting. I started freaking out, but just as I did, it took off and is still going strong. They both smell fantastic. I'm going to secondary them both for a week or two and keg one of them just in time for University of Michigan football. :)


Belgian Wit

Fermentables:
6 lb. 2-Row
6 lb. German Wheat

Hops:
1 oz. Kent Goldings - 60 min.

Yeast:
White Labs Belgian Wit

Others:
1 oz. Orange peel
1 oz. Coriander

OG: 1.050

Not much to this one. My sister had an extract version I did last year and flipped over it. This batch is basically for her. It better turn out good! So far it smells excellent. Might take this one right to the keg, and let it settle there for a week or two before tapping. Oh yeah, I had a bit of a boil over or two, because I had to use my turkey fryer to boil this one. I ended up adding some water to top off the 5 gal. mark. I wasn't too concerned about it dropping the ABV some, it was looking to be around 5-6%.. this should be a pretty low gravity, easy drinking beer anyhow.

I'll post some comments on how these turn out!

El Hefe & Inventory time

Well, I'm kicking back in the DRB enjoying the newest beer on tap I'm calling "El Hefe" in honor of the guitarist in one of my favorite bands NOFX. The beer came out to a pleasant 6.4% ABV. The smell is very faint, but I'm picking up slight citrus, banana and spice from the hops. The taste is pretty light. A faint hop taste, but a very refreshing and light citrus spice. I was expecting more out of this, I've read hefes can have a stronger citrus, or banana presence, and I've actually had some that tasted like this, but, everything is pretty faint in this beer. Don't get me wrong though, this beer tastes great. The german hops are definitely present in the background, and the malts from the two-row really come out. I can see this as a nice refreshing session beer as we play cornhole in the back yard. I've never been much of a fruit person in my beer, but for kicks I'm going to set out some oranges or lemons for this beer when I have friends over. It might give it that extra citrus perk that I'm looking for.

I've been mulling through recipes the past week, trying to decide what to make next. Well, let me correct that - what to make after this Belgian Wit I'm making for my sister. Basic Belgian Wit - I compared most of the all grain recipes, all are pretty much the same - half 2-row, half wheat, oz. of hops, coriander, orange peel, wit yeast.. BUT, after that beer, I need to find something to make. Here's what I have left:

I'll probably still have a lot of Wheat and 2-Row left after this Wit, as base grains.

12 lb. of German Pilsner
7 1/2 lb. Cara Munich
1 1/2 lb. Special B
1 lb. Rye
3 lb. Crystal 40
9 lb. Munich
2 1/2 lb. Aromatic
2 lb. Crystal 10
1/4 lb. Crystal 20
2 1/2 lb. Maris Otter
1 1/2 lb. Caravienna
1/2 lb. Biscuit

If I only had a ton of hops laying around! Any ideas on what to make with any of this? Nice to just have them on hand. I haven't had to buy specialty grains in quite a while, I just dip into my stash. I'll come up with something I'm sure. It's not too late to make another summertime session beer before I make a couple biggies for winter!
*Thought I would also add, the 36th Anniversary IPA turned out awesome and was a big hit. Everyone drank it up, and I came home that night with an empty keg. Woohoo!