Citrucide Pale Ale

•May 15, 2016 • Leave a Comment

Decided to make a nice light Pale Ale with an Amarillo Mosaic blend. It turned out fantastic, so I thought I’d post the recipe.

The dual dry-hop additions are not a mistake; I’ve been having very good results cutting my dry hops in half.  I add half when fermentation is almost complete, and half about 3 days later.  This allows the first load to intermingle with the yeast that are still in suspension, producing some favorable compounds that are not otherwise produced.  The second addition adds back some of that aromatic “pop” that can be lost by CO2 scrubbing at the end of fermentation.

Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 15.50 gal
Boil Size: 17.60 gal
Boil Time: 60 min
End of Boil Vol: 15.90 gal
Final Bottling Vol: 16 gal
Date: 29 Apr 2016
Equipment: HERMS – 15.5 gallon
Efficiency: 83.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 80.0 %
Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
20 lbs Pale Ale Malt, Rahr (2 Row) US (3.5 SRM) Grain 1 70.2 %
6 lbs 8.0 oz Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 22.8 %
2 lbs Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM) Grain 3 7.0 %
1.50 oz Amarillo Gold [7.30 %] – Boil 30.0 min Hop 4 10.5 IBUs
1.50 oz Mosaic [12.20 %] – Boil 30.0 min Hop 5 17.5 IBUs
1.50 oz Amarillo Gold [7.30 %] – Boil 10.0 min Hop 6 4.9 IBUs
1.50 oz Mosaic [12.20 %] – Boil 10.0 min Hop 7 8.2 IBUs
3.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) [50.28 ml] Yeast 8 –
1.50 oz Amarillo Gold [7.30 %] – Dry Hop 3.0 Days Hop 9 0.0 IBUs
1.50 oz Mosaic [12.20 %] – Dry Hop 3.0 Days Hop 10 0.0 IBUs
1.50 oz Amarillo Gold [7.30 %] – Dry Hop 3.0 Days Hop 11 0.0 IBUs
1.50 oz Mosaic [12.20 %] – Dry Hop 3.0 Days Hop 12 0.0 IBUs

Gravity, Alcohol Content and Color

Est Original Gravity: 1.055 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.012 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.6 %
Bitterness: 41.1 IBUs
Est Color: 6.6 SRM
Measured Original Gravity: 1.055 SG
Measured Final Gravity: 1.011 SG
Actual Alcohol by Vol: 5.8 %
Calories: 182.3 kcal/12oz

Mash Profile

Mash Name: Single Infusion, Medium Body
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F

Total Grain Weight: 28 lbs 8.0 oz

Mash Steps
Name Description Step Temperature Step Time
Mash In Add 38.51 qt of water at 162.8 F 152.0 F 60 min
Mash Out Add 19.95 qt of water at 203.0 F 168.0 F 10 min
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Session APA 2.0 recipe

•May 5, 2013 • Leave a Comment

I’m behind in posting my most recent recipes, and this one turned out great.  This is a great beer for summer, so I thought I’d post it as things finally begin to warm up

A few notes…I usually thrown in dry hops with about .5-1 plato left to ferment (2-4 points).  This lets the yeast react with the dry hops a bit and gives some great flavors.  For a much better in-depth explanation of this reaction check out Stan Hieronymus’s book, For The Love of Hops.  This time I was a bit late but still got some of that flavor.

I also got a nice big pitch of Kolsch yeast from O’Fallon Brewery for this batch.  A great yeast for just about any beer, it goes really nice with lighter hoppy beers.

Finally, I have fallen in love with Caravienne malt for my hoppy styles.  It is around a 20L Crystal malt, but has some really nice grainy/toasty character too.  For lighter hoppy beers, it is frequently my only character malt addition.

Anyway, on with the recipe:

SessionPA
American Pale Ale
Type: All Grain Date: 12/23/2012
Batch Size (fermenter): 11.00 gal Brewer: Dave Blue
Boil Size: 13.50 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: 20 gallon brewpot and Igloo Cooler (12 gal)
End of Boil Volume 11.25 gal Brewhouse Efficiency: 80.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 11.00 gal Est Mash Efficiency 81.8 %
Fermentation: Kolsch Yeast Ale Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0
Taste Notes:

Ingredients

Ingredients

Amt Name Type # %/IBU
13 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 89.7 %
1 lbs 8.0 oz Caravienne Malt (22.0 SRM) Grain 2 10.3 %
0.70 oz Simcoe [12.20 %] – Boil 20.0 min Hop 3 10.3 IBUs
1.50 oz Simcoe [12.20 %] – Boil 10.0 min Hop 4 13.2 IBUs
3.00 oz Simcoe [12.20 %] – Boil 0.0 min Hop 5 0.0 IBUs
0.7 pkg Kolsch Yeast (Wyeast Labs #2565) [125.00 ml] Yeast 6 –
3.20 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] – Dry Hop 3.0 Days Hop 7 0.0 IBUs
1.80 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] – Dry Hop 3.0 Days Hop 8 0.0 IBUs

Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.038 SG Measured Original Gravity: 1.039 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.009 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.009 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 3.7 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 3.9 %
Bitterness: 23.4 IBUs Calories: 127.6 kcal/12oz
Est Color: 4.7 SRM

Mash Profile
Mash Name: Single Infusion, Medium Body, No Mash Out Total Grain Weight: 14 lbs 8.0 oz
Sparge Water: 10.89 gal Grain Temperature: 55.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F Tun Temperature: 72.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE Mash PH: 5.20

Mash Steps

Name Description Step Temperature Step Time
Mash In Add 17.40 qt of water at 169.0 F 154.0 F 60 min
Sparge Step: Fly sparge with 10.89 gal water at 168.0 F
Mash Notes: Simple single infusion mash for use with most modern well modified grains (about 95% of the time).

Notes
Hit all numbers reasonably well, but chilled farther than expected. Pitched at 60F, ramped up to 65 over about 6 hours. I over-pitched since I had so much yeast, a little under double what was recommended. 🙂 Should ferment out pretty quickly.Threw in DryHops after fermentation was done at 8 days on NYE…busy week.

Didn’t get to keg until 1/17, seems to have had no bad effect, and super clear. Very happy with the flavor, and LOVE that caravienne. Must keep it in stock.

Posted in General Brewing, Recipes
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Hot as Helles at Perennial!

•December 7, 2012 • Leave a Comment

A few weeks ago I was by Jim Leabig asked to brew my Hot as Helles recipe as a pilot batch at Perennial Artisan Ales here in town.  This is a Chipotle Munich Helles that took best of show at this year’s Champion of the Pint competition, held by Garage Brewer’s Society.

We brewed 20 gallons on Jim’s Top Tier system and all went well.  We had a higher efficiency than expected but compensated by adding water during the boil.  Hit right at 1.048, which was the original target.

Hopefully the beer will be ready in a few months.  I’ll post more when we’re ready to add the chipotle infusion.

Pics below.

 

Posted in Brewday pics, General Brewing
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Augusta Bottoms Beer Festival

•October 7, 2012 • Leave a Comment

Saturday, October 6th was the annual Augusta Bottoms Beer Festival.   It was a great time as usual, and there were some fantastic beers this year, both from commercial breweries and homebrewers.

Some standouts for me were Kirkwood Station’s Pumpkin Ale, Heavy Riff’s Imperial Pumpkin Porter, Perennial’s Peach Berliner Weisse, Bob Brandt’s Graceland Kingnut Porter, and Bob Love’s Rumpkin.  There were lots of other great beers there and too many I didn’t get to try.

Met some cool folks as always, and had some great discussions.  I’m looking forward to next year!

 

Posted in Festivals

Airlock Action

•October 4, 2012 • Leave a Comment

This is the airlock about 1.5 hours after pitching the yeast from the Gumballhead 5.0 brewday.  Yeast preparation is described in the previous post!

 

Posted in Brewday pics, Brewing Techniques

Gumballhead 5.0

•October 3, 2012 • Leave a Comment

It’s been a while since a ‘real’ post, but I’ve decided to start the blog back up.  I just kegged the Gumballhead recipe I brewed a few weeks ago.  For this iteration, I switched yeasts from WLP002 to WLP007.  I think both of these yeasts really complement the hops (Amarillo).  I’ve also totally changed the hop schedule.

Previously I had a lot of late boil hopping, plus a decent dry-hop addition.  I heard a ‘rumor’ that the makers of this beer do so with one boil addition, which is the bittering addition. and all of the flavor and aroma come from dry-hops.

I held off on posting this until sampling it…at first I was going to do a two-stage dry-hop addition with a 4 oz for 4 days and an additional 2 oz for 2 days after dumping the first addition (I ferment in a 14 gallon conical).  After sampling it, I decided I was where I wanted to be, and stuck with the 4 oz.  This hop addition is the same as my earlier iterations of this recipe…but it seems like giving dry-hops their own stage to shine really cleans up the profile and makes them ‘pop’.   I may be using this technique a lot in the future, especially for ‘session’ hoppy  beers and APAs.

As usual, I did build up the yeast from 1 vial to ~400 billion cells via a 4 liter starter, then crashed it.  Something I’ve been doing lately is ‘waking the yeast up’ on brew day. I take about 600ml of my first runnings (which are around 1.090 for a beer this size), then add about 600ml of water, bringing the gravity to ‘starter’ range.  I boiled this wort for a few minutes, chilled it, and added the yeast from the starter (the supernatant was first decanted), and got it going while I finished the brewday.  This technique gets the yeast going within 30 minutes of being pitched into the wort, and really speeds up fermentation. It is a practice I have been and will continue to use.

Recipes and Photos below.

Gumball Clone 5.0
American Wheat or Rye Beer
Type: All Grain Date: 11/19/2011
Batch Size (fermenter): 11.00 gal Brewer: Dave Blue
Boil Size: 13.75 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: 20 gallon brewpot and Igloo Cooler (12 gal)
End of Boil Volume 11.70 gal Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 11.00 gal Est Mash Efficiency 76.7 %
Fermentation: WLP007 GBH Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0
Taste Notes:

Ingredients
Ingredients

Amt Name Type # %/IBU
11 lbs 12.0 oz Wheat Malt, Red (2.4 SRM) Grain 1 55.3 %
9 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 44.7 %
1.40 oz Amarillo Gold [10.10 %] – Boil 60.0 min Hop 3 24.9 IBUs
1.0 pkg Dry English Ale (White Labs #WLP007) [35.49 ml] Yeast 4 –
4.00 oz Amarillo Gold [9.30 %] – Dry Hop 6.0 Days Hop 5 0.0 IBUs

Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.055 SG Measured Original Gravity: 1.054 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.014 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.011 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.5 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 5.8 %
Bitterness: 24.9 IBUs Calories: 177.9 kcal/12oz
Est Color: 4.0 SRM

Mash Profile
Mash Name: Single Infusion, Full Body, No Mash Out Total Grain Weight: 21 lbs 4.0 oz
Sparge Water: 9.66 gal Grain Temperature: 72.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F Tun Temperature: 72.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE Mash PH: 5.20
Mash Steps

Name Description Step Temperature Step Time
Mash In Add 26.56 qt of water at 165.9 F 154.0 F 60 min
Sparge Step: Fly sparge with 9.66 gal water at 168.0 F
Mash Notes: Simple single infusion mash for use with most modern well modified grains (about 95% of the time).

Posted in Brewday pics, Brewing Techniques, Recipes

I’m back!

•September 23, 2012 • Leave a Comment

Hello all! It’s been way too long since I last updated this blog, and I see there is still a reasonable amount of traffic, so I’ll be posting some updates soon, including version 5.0 of my Gumballhead Clone recipe, and pics from the annual Augusta Bottoms Beer Festival on 10/6. I will also have a new URL soon.

Stay Tuned!

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Finally, an update!

•April 20, 2010 • 2 Comments

So I’m finally getting around to posting some new info…I have a lot to talk about and some new pics to share.

GBS had their first annual Champion of the Pint competition on April 10th.  We ended up getting 132 entries, and had a lot of great beers.  I ended up judging American Ales in  the morning and the Specialty category in the afternoon.

The competition was a great experience, and for being our first it went off with relatively few hiccups.  The few that we did have were noted and we have added it to lessons learned.

Champion of the Pint Medals

Champion of the Pint Medals

I entered 4 beers: an ESB, a Northern English Brown, a Dortmunder Export, an American Wheat(Gumballhead Clone), and a Weizenbock.  The Gumballhead Clone ended up winning  a gold, with the Weizenbock, Northern English Brown, and Dortmunder Exports all winning bronze medals.  I’ll post recipes for the winners in a followup post. (The Dortmunder is already posted).
My hops are going Crazy this year, they’re already in excess of 15 feet.

I’ve also finally gotten around to adding Quick Disconnects to my mash tun to facilitate pump hookup for recirculation (vorlauf) and pumping to the boil kettle.
That’s it for now, I will be posting recipes for the beers mentioned above soon.

Posted in General Brewing, Hops
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General Update

•March 5, 2010 • 1 Comment

No updates in a while, and I have brewed 2 big batches that weren’t documented.  I will be posting them in the next few days, as well as a recipe for an Amarillo Wheat I want to brew (shooting for something like 3 Floyd’s Gumball Head).

More to come…

Posted in General Brewing
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Iron Brewer On The Air!

•January 14, 2010 • Leave a Comment

This week the president of Garage Brewers Society, Jeff Britton, was interviewed about our Iron Brewer Competition on the Basic Brewing podcast.  It’s a pretty interesting and entertaining interview:

http://www.basicbrewing.com/index.php?page=radio

It’s the January 14th episode.

Posted in General Brewing
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