Bottling Night...

Bottled the Wheat wine and the WTFiN stout tonight. Used 2.2 volumes CO2 for each (0.8 oz of corn sugar). Got about 2-3 22 oz. bottles and 4 12 oz. bottles from each.

Wheat wine - Perfectly clear, golden yellow, smells great with a hint of honey-sweetness, moderately full mouthfeel.

Stout - Thin on the palate for what I was going for, definite nice coffee / chocolate taste, still a hint of roast although it's faded since being racked, so far OK.

First tastes in 10-14 days.

#6 - Galaxy IPA (YAMO)

Brewed the 2nd of the IPA single hop series tonight. Used Australian Galaxy hops:

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/australian-galaxy-hop-pellets-1-oz.html

Should be good. Changed the malt bill slightly eliminating the biscuit malt and replacing it with wheat - Just to see what happens. Theoretically, should get better head retention and maybe(?) a slight change in body. 

Missed even bigger on the OG this time (11 brix / 1.044) and again got almost exactly one gallon out. Session IPA! 

However, I think I have figured this one out. Very little water was left after the mash despite using my usual 1 qt / lb that I normally use for a 5 gallons. Not sure if this is grain loss or just a consequence of small batch brewing. I even added 1/2 qt / lb to compensate for the lost volume that normally comes with the addition to raise the temperature for the mash. Also, I think that I am having some temperature control problems just trying to use the burner to raise the temperature that could've deactivated things. 

Next time we're going with a traditional all-grain step-infusion mash. Anyhow, recipe below:

http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/68030/yamo-ipa

Plan to bottle the wheat wine this weekend and maybe the first IPA. The lambic is chillin', and the mead is still fermenting...

IPA (Pitcairn) Racked...

Racked the IPA to secondary today. Little darker than what I thought it was going to be but like the taste so far. The citra flavor and bitterness stand out and are easy to pick up. Not a ton of hop aroma though. Will have to see if/how this changes once it gets bottled  - hopefully next week.

Think for the future batches I may change from using three 1/3 oz at each addition to using a four 1/4 oz. additions with the fourth being a dry hop in secondary.

#5 - Citra IPA (Pitcairn)

Brewed the first of the single hop series tonight. Things I like in an IPA: nice hop flavor with good bitterness, which should be complemented by a smooth, full backbone. Used the crystal for body and some caramel notes, biscuit and carapils for a little more fullness and maybe even a hint of bready flavors.

While I normally enjoy more complex hop flavors, the whole point of this is seeing how each one tastes with the same yeast and malt bill. Granted I may make minor adjustments along the way to the malt bill to try and optimize the flavors. 

Recipe below:

http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/66450/pitcairn-ipa

OG - 1.053. Not sure why this one fell short because the volume looks about right and I really tried to calculate out the proper volumes. May be the BIAB technique. Will get a better sense once it's racked to secondary.

Next four brew will be IPAs. 10% of the way to 50 beers!

Stout Racked

Racked the #4 stout to secondary today. Gravity has dropped, but due to volume control issues it looks like it's only going to come in at about 3.5% ABV. Color is good. Taste so far I would say is OK. Not as chocolatey as I had hoped and a little too roasty, also maybe some off flavors from so much chocolate malt.

Other beers update: Probably going to bottle the #1 wheat wine this week. The lambic and mead are still visibly fermenting in the secondary.

Next up: IPA single-hop series - Planning on starting with the Citra. Made a starter with the yeast for the IPAs so I can split it up for the 5 batches. Hopefully get that one done Wednesday night.

Paradisi Racked

Racked the grapefruit mead to secondary today. And after a week in the bucket I have to say that this one smells and tastes great. There is a definite smell of grapefruit on the nose and the taste is sweet with a hint of molasses from the darker honey - the grapefruit kicks in at the end and sort of balances it all out. Probably another month or so in the jug before bottling this one.

#4 - Chocolate Stout (WTFiN)

And not just any chocolate stout. For this one I used chocolate and honey malt in high amounts (10% of the grain bill each). Limited the roast malts because I never like a very roasty stout and used the carapils / crystal for a thicker body. 

Overall, was aiming for a very sweet, savory stout that is pitch black in color. I also added some cocoa nibs at flame out for more of a chocolate kick. Cocoa nibs are very intense with a fair amount of bitterness when eaten alone so only used 1 oz. Recipe below:

http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/65565/wtfin-chocolate-stout

OG: 1.04 - Off from the estimated 1.059 but it works out with 1.5 gallon yield (closer to what I had). Have ended up with more than 1 gallon going into secondary with the last two - Oops.

Busy Weekend...

Racked the Pom Lambic into secondary with the White Labs Brett / Lambic (WLP 653) and 4 oz. of pomegranate seeds today. Put this one way back in the closet - not even going to look at it for 6 months. 

The color was much lighter than I was expecting, however the flavor from the Belgian golden yeast was crisp and enjoyable; should make a nice base for whatever happens next...

#3 - Grapefruit Mead (Paradisi)

Went ahead and made a mead tonight. This was a good one gallon one to try from a cost standpoint. The 3 lbs of honey I used cost almost $14. Compare that to some recipes that call for 15-20 lbs for 5 gallons. That would cost almost $1,000 (joking)!

Recipe formulated after reading Papazian's Home Brewer's Companion section towards the end on meads. As anyone else who's read it knows - apparently he likes them.

I liked the darker color of the buckwheat honey and read that it has more of a molasses type character to it. Thought that it would balance the sweet, fruitiness of the orange blossom (tastes like the honey I remember dipping my McDonald's nuggets into as a kid). And grapefruit, because well, why not? I wanted to add some sort of fruit and thought the sour/tart and sweet would go well together. Champagne yeast used for fermentation. 

Never made a mead and it didn't smell great in the pot, but as always, we'll just have to wait and see. Link to recipe below:

OG - 1.088

http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/64534/paradisi-mead

#2 - Pomegranate Lambic (SP?)

Second beer off and running as of tonight (picture from the mash above). Sidenote - The grinder and scale bought on Amazon worked perfectly.

I've always wanted to do a lambic. The plan for this one is to sit in secondary for 9-12 months before bottling. I've chosen to add the most difficult to spell fruit or vegetable in the world to spice things up - Pomegranate.

Wanted this to be a slightly darker lambic with just slightly chewy body and deeper flavors to go with the fruit. For some reason when I think pomegranate I imagine more of a sour brown. Aiming for something between the traditional pale lambic color/taste I associate with the style and that here. Recipe below:

http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/63584/-sp-pomegranate-lambic

Mead planned for this weekend and on schedule!

#1 Racked

Wheat wine (#1) racked to secondary today. Love the color and it smells great. Hint of sweetness on transfer with lots of booze on the nose if you got close in the bucket.

Makes me worry that I wish I would've made more - We'll see.

Yeast

Made the first of many yeast starters today for this project.

Yes, White Labs has a great array of products, however, $5 apiece adds up, and the brew store is about a 20 minute drive away. So the plan is to have a collection of yeasts cultured up from beers that I drink and from beers that I've made already.

I picked up the White Labs Brett / Lambic the other day, but then realized that I probably need to start fermentation with something else and then pitch that into secondary with the pomegranate. So I cultured the yeast from both an Achel Bruin and an Oude Geuze lambic for future use. To do this I mixed 1/8 cup of DME with 10 fl oz of water for a calculated OG of 1.025 and then pitched the dregs.

Commence waiting...

#1 - Wheat Wine (YINZ)

First batch officially done.

Despite all the lambic and mead talk I ended up deciding to try starting with something a little simpler. So I went with a super hopped, high-gravity wheat wine. I'm really happy because I have no idea how this one is going to turn out.

I've had very few wheat wines. The best was from Jackie O's in Athens, OH and was a honey wheat wine aged on bourbon barrels called "Wood Ya Honey". Sublime. 

There's also not a ton about making them other than some blog posts and an old article from Zymugy in 2007 or 2009 about crazy barleywines. Most have at least 50% wheat making up the malt bill (up to 100%), with the rest being 2-row, with a bit of vienna or crystal thrown in. So that's what I did.

Anyway here's the link to my recipe. http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/63313/yinz-wheat-wine

Forty-nine to go...