Weizenbock and it's dark offspring..

Saturday morning I got up pretty early and began brewing a weizenbock. Here's the recipe:

10 lb. wheat
5 lb. pilsner
2 lb. munich
.5 lb. special B
.5 lb. crystal
.25 lb. chocolate malt

1/2 oz 6.2% Hallertau
WLP 300 Hefeweizen Ale

Mashed in @ 152 degrees. Boiled for 90 minutes.

I had read several things about people brewing this style and quite often they commented on how active the fermentation was - some joked about the airlock blowing off. I ignored the stories and stuck with an airlock.. sure enough, Sunday morning the airlock was filled with fermenting beer and was hissing. I ran to the hardware store and picked up some tubing and quickly made a blow-off tube. Here's the video:



So - let me back up a bit. After I had about 7 gallons of run off from the mash tun, I threw some dark carafa grains into the mash tun and continued sparging. The carafa added some darker color to the wort. I managed to get another 5 gallon @ 1.016 pre-boil gravity. I added 3 lbs. of wheat DME to the boil, and a 1/2 oz of 6.2 hallertau hops. After boil, I ended up with about 4.5 gallons of wort and pitched a basic wheat yeast into it. The fermentation hasn't been as crazy as the weizenbock, but still took off that evening.

I also bottled 5 gallons of saison and 3 gallons of the apricot wheat. Was a busy day at the DRB!

Apricot Wheat

7 lbs of Bavarian Wheat DME and 1 oz. of Saaz hops.

This recipe is as basic as you can get, and makes for a great base for doing a summer fruit beer. I was ready to rack to the secondary, and needed some quick fruit. I was looking for raspberries, but the local grocery store didn't have them in the form I was looking for (in heavy syrup - canned). I studied the fruit for a while and thought about doing a blackberry, however it was like $4 a can! I found apricots, which were like a $1 a can, and ended up with them. 2 lbs of Apricots in heavy syrup dumped in the bottom of a bucket. Wheat transferred on top of it to sit two weeks.

Original gravity was 1.062, final ended up at 1.018: 5.9% abv. The fruit bumped it up just a bit. I noticed more activity in the airlock shortly after adding the fruit.

I ended up bottling half of this batch and kegging the other half. When I did my gravity reading, I tasted it.. and didn't taste much of an apricot taste. Maybe after it's cold and carbonated it'll come out more.. we'll see! Speaking of.. I'm going to go carb that keg now, maybe have a pint later today. :)

Dayton Road Brewing's logo

I used to have an eagle on my garage, before the siding was redone. When Dayton Road Brewing came about, I thought about putting a big ol' star on the front - since the eagle disappeared when the new siding went up (I bet the siding guys stole it - it was sweet). Anyhow, a star is better than an eagle. The idea behind the star is more for the "image" of the DRB. Every bottle will look the same, but different colors. There will be a star in the middle of each bottle - with Dayton Road Brewing at the top - and the kind of beer below the star. If I ever make labels that is.. for now, at least we have a logo or mascot, or whatever it may be. :)

Dayton Road Brewing Saison

I think I've lost count of how many brews the DRB has had on tap, but I can start counting the all-grain batches. Above is a photo of my first Saison. I blogged about the brewing process a few weeks ago. This was my second all-grain batch, and it went even smoother than the first one. The gravity dropped to 1.011, and because I was so busy this past week, I ended up kegging one of the carboys and brewing a wheat that I've re-used the Saison yeast with. The Saison turned out wonderful. It's cloudy, but has a wonderful orange hue to it. The taste is awesome, a bit of an orange sweetness to it, with a pepper type spice and other flavors whirling around. Every time I drink some, I find a different flavor.

Here's the Wheat recipe - it's an extract batch, and let me tell you, extract was so easy after doing all grain, I feel like I could do a batch in my sleep, or when I get up in the morning before work.. haha. But, this was probably even easier than other extract batches I've done:

7 lbs. Bavarian Wheat DME
1 oz. Saaz Hops (full boil)
1/2 oz. Orange Peel (final 15 mins.)
1/2 oz. Crushed Coriander (final 15 mins.)

I transferred the Saison to a keg and immediately pitched the cool wort on top of the yeast cake. Within 5 hours activity started and continued for 3 straight days. It's slowed down now, and I've wrapped it in an electric blanket to get it a little warmer. I'll probably take a reading this weekend to see how the gravity is doing.
I'm also going to rack my second Saison to a secondary for a clearing stage before I bottle it. I still need to get some bottles for the Saison, I'm going to put them in bombers instead of smaller bottles, and will probably let them sit for quite a while before cracking into them.

What's next? Well, I think the DRB has seen enough of summer beers, we're ready to move on to maybe something hoppy or dark. I might do a quick 5 gals of a Pale Ale and am eventually going to do a weizenbock for my autumn beer. After that, who knows! I probably need to work on consuming the product before I think about brewing more.. I'm eventually going to run out of carboys! A good problem to have.. :)

A pint of homebrew on a warm summers day

Nothing much about this post, just that I still think it's pretty awesome that I can skip the bar (where good beer is $4.75 a pint) and come home to a great homebrewed beer. This is my Cream Ale. Very refreshing on a hot summers day.

Saison brew day

I became interested in the Saison style recently when investigating summer style beers. Saisons ferment at a high temperature (80-85F), so its a perfect time of year to brew one. Here's some Saison history:
Saison is a French word for season, because it was originally brewed in the winter, and enjoyed throughout the summer months. The name was given to the style in Wallonia, which is the French-speaking region of Belgium. They are considered to be a farmhouse ale because it was originaly brewed in farmhouses for farm workers who drank up to 5 liters a day (that's over a gallon!) during harvest work days. Back in the day, this style was less than 3% abv.
At one time, Saison was described as an endangered style, but in recent years has made a come back. Modern day Saison is a complex style with a fruit aroma, earthy yeast tones, mild to moderate tartness. Some Saison styles have been described to have light an orange, coriander and peppery taste to them. The modern day Saison ranges from 5-8% abv.

The recipe I used is mostly from the book "Brewing Classic Styles." I used different and less hops than suggested.

DRB Saison:

21 lbs. Pilsner
1.5 lbs. Belgian Wheat
1.5 lbs. Munich
2 lbs. Corn Sugar
2 oz. Hallertau G. Tradition (6.2%AA)
1 oz. Hallertau Select (1.5%AA)
Yeast: 565 White Labs Belgian Saison Ale (starter made a couple days in advance)
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Mashed for 90 mins. at 148F. Sparged at around 160F. Pre-boil gravity was 1.055. Original gravity ended up at 1.074. Fermentation started last night.

The brew went good. I started at around 6 a.m. and finished up (cleaning and everything) around 2 p.m. I can't really see how I could reduce the time any, especially since this beer took a bit longer than normal. It rained a bit during the brew too, but luckily I was partially under the garage so everything stayed dry. Later in the boil, I enjoyed a Le Merle Saison from North Coast Brewing Co. This has been my favorite Saison style yet, high carbonation very light and refreshing. I can only hope mine turns out this good!
I moved the fermenters to the second floor of my house, where it's warmer. I almost was going to move them to the attic, but I'm going to monitor the temps up there for now, the attic might be too warm. I seem to remember fermenting one of my first beers last year, and worrying about the 80 degree temps.. so it shouldn't be a problem reaching that temp upstairs. I plan to bottle 5 gallons of this, which was my plan for the cream ale, but it was just so darn good, I ended up kegging the second 5 gallons. We'll see how this one goes. I want to brew a 5 gallon all-grain batch sometime soon, so the DRB kegs are full, but I'm not sure what to make... I'm thinking of making another wheat style, and re-using some of the yeast from the Saison. Anyhow, that's the latest from the DRB! Here's a slide show of the Saison brew day.

Beats The Heat Cream Ale

Well folks, I did it. I can honestly say, that my first all-grain beer has turned out awesome. We all sat on the porch yesterday afternoon and had a few pints of it. Man it's good. I completely forgot to take a final gravity reading, so I can't tell you the abv's - I have another 5 gallons that I'll test later on. I think I'm going to bottle the other half of it. It's a very light tasting beer with mild hop taste. A perfect summer brew that I'll for sure do again someday.