Brother Thelonious Visits for a Brew Weekend

After a great deal of anticipation and back-and-forth planning, Br. Thelonius made it up to the Northwoods of Wisconsin for a weekend of brewing. There was a great deal of eating (of good food), good discussion, good baseball listening, good beer, and of course, good brewing. The weekend exceeded expectations; an impressive achievement given the hype!

The docket consisted of two 2.5 gallon batches: a Tripel for the Friday evening brew session and an English IPA for the Saturday brew session. For these batches I wanted to try out two styles I had never brewed before, and also make crisp and refreshing beers for the warm months ahead. To that end, I've made the decision to use my beer ledger in the ol' budget for only homebrew and the purchase of special beer that I'd like to age/cellar. This idea stems from trying to brew (and drink) more to the season; brew more in general, and; with the dearth of great choices at the store (aside from some of New Glarus' offerings), save my money to buy some excellent beer when I do have the opportunity.

Both of the brews went according to plan and really involved very little dramatics or cursing. I was a little worried with the 3787 as it started out REALLY slow, but it picked up nicely. The interesting part for both beers was fermentation: it was too cool in the basement to ferment the English IPA, and I didn't have a bath setup in the closet upstairs, so the result of fermentation was this:

Note the gunk all over the side.

Happily for the Tripel, I had a nice fermwrap setup for that, and got to utilize the temperature control to its fullest extent:

I guess I didn't have to worry about the 3787.

To ensure that it didn't produce too harsh an alcohol flavor and also finished dry enough, I started the fermentation at 66F, and raised the temperature over the course of 7 days up to 77F. Now, the results from both brews:

Velvet Hammer Tripel

Batch size: 2.5 gallons
Pre-boil: 1.063
OG: 1.089
FG: 1.012
ABV: 10.9%
ADF: 88%
SRM: 4.5
IBU: 34
Mash: 148.5F for 90 minutes
Efficiency: 75.7%
Boil: 90 minutes

Grains and Additions
79%- 7 lbs German Pilsner
2%- .25 lbs Aromatic
19%- 1.25 lbs cane sugar

Hops
1.15 ounces Tetnang (4%), 60 minutes
.25 ounces Tetnang (4%), 10 minutes

Yeast
1.3 L starter of Wyeast 3787, 12:12 AM, 5/19/12
1/4 tsp yeast nutrient in starter; 2 tsp in boil
Pitched at 66F; raised to 77F over the course of 1 week

Notes
Blowoff hose necessary by 5/19/12, 2:05 PM
Fermentation complete by 5/30/12; replaced with airlock
Hydrometer sample is full of citrus and spice; the alcohol seems well hidden to my palate.

English IPA

Batch size: 2.5 gallons
Pre-boil: 1.053
OG: 1.065
SRM:11
IBU:50
Mash: 151F for 60 minutes
Efficiency: 65%
Boil: 60 minutes

Grains
78.7%- 6 lbs Maris Otter
13.1%-   1 lb White Wheat
3.3%- .25 lbs Victory
2.4%- .18 lbs C-40
2.5%- .19 lbs C-120

Hops
1 ounce Northern Brewer (8.6%), 60 minutes
.78 ounces Willamette (4%), 10 minutes
.85 ounces Tetnang and Willamette (4%), 0 minutes

Yeast
1L starter of WLP013 London Ale, 6:50 PM, 5/19/12
1/4 tsp yeast nutrient in starter; 2 tsp in boil
Pitched at 70F ambient. No temperature control.

Notes
Extremely vigorous fermentation. Visible activity had ceased by 3rd or 4th day.


~Br. Abelard