Frankenmash IPA

American IPA is one of my most-brewed styles. I really love the taste of a super-fresh IPA, although ironically enough, I find that homebrewed IPAs definitely tend to lose their hop aromas and flavors much quicker than commercial examples. That said, it doesn't stop me from brewing it: it just means I had better drink it up!

My usual recipe, however, was at a loss because I didn't have the amount of 2-row I thought I did, or Munich, or C-20...at least I still had the hops. Time for improvisation! I ended up supplementing with some wheat and victory malt to match the usual amount of grain and also hit the gravity numbers so it matched up with the IBUs. Oh and some black barley that got mixed in with my 2-row at the homebrew store when I went to crush the grain. Always make sure to give the little flap a good knock before starting up your own grind!

Of course, I prefer to have additional things to stress me out during a brewday; it helps me to achieve what Mrs. Brother Abelard likes to call my "Brewday face". The yeast was at its best-by date, so luckily I was able to worry about yeast health for awhile, at least until I got home from work to brew, and found out it started up just fine after all:

Finally, of course, there was the little moment of panic when I opened up my kettle filled with filtered water to find white stuff floating around. My initial thought was mold, but it smelled fine and tasted okay too. As it turns out, the white stuff was simply calcium that had fallen out of solution over time. Once I had heated the water and dumped it into the mash, the remaining stuff in the kettle dried into a fine, chalky powder. Disaster averted.

After all that, I ended up pitching the yeast at 11:59 PM, and it has been fermenting quite happily ever since. So happily, in fact, that I had to replace the airlock when I got home from work this evening because the first one became clogged with beer. In conclusion, the usual mantra follows: "Relax, Don't Worry, Have a Homebrew". 

Frankenmash IPA
Batch Size: 5 gallons
Projected Pre-boil: 1.056
Projected OG: 1.065
Projected SRM:9
Projected IBU:71
Mash: 149F for 90 minutes
Boil: 60 minutes
Efficiency: 72.6%

Grains
82.2%- American 2-row Pale, 12 lbs
4.8%- Wheat, .70 lbs
4.7%- Munich, .68 lbs
4.5%- Victory, .65 lbs
2.1%- C-20, .31 lbs
1.7%- C-40, .25 lbs
.3%- Bits of Black Barley that got mixed in with my 2-row at the store, .05 lbs (estimate)

Hops
1.18 oz. Falconer's Flight (11%), 60 minutes
1.0 oz. Falconer's Flight (10.2%), 10 minutes
1.0 oz. Falconer's Flight (10.2%), 5 minutes
1.0 oz. Falconer's Flight (10.2%), 0 minutes
1.0 oz. Falconer's Flight (10.2%), Dry Hop

Yeast
2 liter starter of WLP001
1/4 tsp yeast nutrient in starter; 5 tsp in boil

Notes:
Pitched yeast at 59F ambient; beer was 68F.
Temperature control set to 67F.
Fermentation large and in charge: had to replace airlock on 5/14 with new airlock.

~Br. Abelard

First Brewday, New Place

Kolsch, to me, is one of those styles which always seem to be overlooked when considering one's brewing docket. It either doesn't seem to be the right time of year to brew one, or I am too impatient to wait the additional time it takes to lager it, or I want to brew something intensely malty, or...well, you get the idea. This lack of initiative on my part is odd, considering the first time I truly enjoyed a lager-type beer was Goose Island's Summertime, a Kolsch-style beer. In fact, I believe I first drank it on Brother Thelonious' patio at his (old) Damen apartment, after an afternoon spent watching a Sox/Twins game and grilling hot dogs. Well, things have changed since then: I no longer drink Summertime; my hot dog consumption has been reduced significantly since switching over to only meat which I know from where it came, and how it was produced; and the Sox and Twins both are not nearly as good this season as they were in 2006.

For my first brew in the new place, I wanted to create a beer which would take advantage of the cooler temperatures in my basement, my new *gasp* temperature control system, convert some of my Wisconsin friends to craft beer, and also be a good quaffer for those hot summer days just over the horizon, threatening, ever threatening. Kolsch seemed an excellent fit for those parameters. Done well, I think the style has a balance to it which appeals to the craft beer drinker and macro beer drinker alike: subtle enough to appreciate the balance and craftsmanship for the former; and subtle enough so as to make it approachable to the latter.

I brewed the beer this past Sunday (4/29), after dragging out all of my equipment, cleaning it up, and stressing out over the best-by date on my package of yeast (April 9th). For this beer, I wanted to try out WLP862, better known as Cry Havoc, Charlie P's house strain of yeast and marketed to be good for lagers and ales. Given that it was past its best-by date and (in some camps) purported to be a slow starter, I made a 2-liter starter to compensate. Thankfully, it was chugging away by the morning of my brewday, less than 16 hours after I made it.

Next up to stress out about, of course was the temperature controller, my Johnson A419, coupled with a FermWrap to keep things warm in the cool basement.

The instructions, unfortunately, were very technical (for me), and I was in the middle of the mash and had very little time to decipher them as fully as I liked. I eventually determined I needed to shift some of the jumpers over from an open position to a close position on the internal circuitry to reflect what I wanted to accomplish, which was overriding a heating element, and instructing it to cut out (shut off) when it reached a certain temperature.

The rest of the brewday was uneventful, thankfully, given the new place and unfamiliar (and steep!) steps down to the basement. My wort chiller hooked up to the outside hose properly, chilled it down within 15 minutes, and was hustled inside before the coming storms could conspire to dump bacteria-laden water into my beer.

Above is my setup, which seems to be working well. Four days into the fermentation and it is still fermenting nicely, holding steady at 60F. Ambient temperature as of two hours ago was just around 56F. Below, the recipe specifications:

Ted's Kolsch
Batch size: 5.25 gallons
Pre-boil gravity: 1.039
Efficiency: 70.8%
Original gravity: 1.050
SRM: 4
IBU: 31
Mash: 90 minutes at 149F, for maximum conversion
Boil: 90 minutes, to drive off DMS precursors

Grains
95.4%- 10.3 lbs Pilsner malt
4.6%- .50 lbs Vienna malt

Hops
2.0 oz Hallertau (4.3% AA) (60 min)

Yeast
2 Liter starter of WLP862 (Cry Havoc)
5 tsp. yeast nutrient

Fermented at 60F

~Br. Abelard

Dad's Rye IPA tasting & recipe

My dad got into homebrewing shortly after I did.  We’ve brewed many stovetop extract batches together on my visits home (we did an American brown a couple weeks ago), and I’ve put together a number of recipes for him.  This is one of those; it’s pretty straightforward, based around the new rye malt syrup that Northern Brewer released last year. It's modeled a bit on NB's Denny's Wry Smile kit, the hops in particular, subbing some of the specialty grains my dad had in stock.

Date - 8 January 2012

Venue - My parents' house (WI)

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The beer’s a deep red-brown with a full head on the pour; it drops to a thick film after a few minutes, but doesn’t leave a lot of lacing on the glass.  The aroma has a lot of fruit (apricot, maybe?) and floral notes.  The taste up front is of dark fruit and malt, followed by a strong bitterness that fades back quickly but lingers for a few moments.  There’s a little more fruit in the middle as it warms.  It’s medium bodied, the rye lying heavy on the tongue before slickly sliding off; the carbonation is moderate, not prickly but certainly not flat.  It’s turned out to be a very tasty beer, with a lively fruitiness without being overly sweet, balanced by solid IPA bitterness.

Dad’s Rye IPA (extract)
Batch size: 4 gallons
Projected OG: 1.052
Projected SRM: 9.2
Projected IBU: 38
Boil time: 60 minutes

Grains/Fermentables
94.1% - 6 lb Rye malt syrup
3.9% - 4 oz Biscuit
2.0% - 2 oz C 120

Hops
.5 oz Columbus (14%) (60 min)
.5 oz Mt. Hood (5.5%) (20 min)
.5 oz Mt. Hood (0 min)
.5 oz Columbus (Dry hop 7 days)

Yeast
1 pkg WY1450 Denny’s Favorite 50

- Br. Absalom