#16 - CASIMOOK IPA

#16 was inspired by two things:

1. My desire to make a truly great West Coast IPA (hasn't happened yet)

2. The article on hop bursting in the latest Zymurgy

My recipes were trending towards late hop additions to try and minimize the bitterness while maximizing hop flavors and aroma based on the early results from the hop-series. The Zymurgy article takes those findings and that concept to an entirely different level. 

It will be interesting to see what almost no bittering hops (some first wort), big additions at flameout, and dry-hopping does. Hops chosen are all traditional West-coast hops; Simcoe, Cascade, Chinook (hence CASIMOOK). Instead of the usual 1 oz of hops for the previous IPA recipes this one has 3 oz! Recipe below:

http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/80996/casimook-ipa

OB - 14.8, OG - 1.060, EG - 1.062

Neato...

Home Toasted Bottled...

Bottled the brown today and so far am pretty pleased. Hint of roast, nice malty flavors, moderately full body, great color. We'll know more in a week...

Pacific Racked...

Racked the Pacific IPA to secondary today. Really like the color. Not really crazy about the hops in this one. Not the traditional hop flavor / aromas. Could also be the different yeast. Will be able to better differentiate once I use it again. White labs describes the yeast as malty. So I think we have the culprit because I was thinking to myself as I was drinking it: "It's a little bready". Oh well, we just have to see what happens.

Taking a week off brewing this week. Next week hoping to finally make a really good West Coast IPA...

DRIS Tasting...

Aroma - Roast, hint of sweetness - 7/12    
Appearance - Jet black, creamy dark head - 3/3    
Flavor - A lot, lot of sweetness, subtle background roast notes, trailing bitterness - 14/20   Mouthfeel - Full, creamy, smooth - 4/5
Overall - 8/10
Total - 36/50. Never made a stout before that tasted like this. In fact, one of the better beers that I've ever made. By far the best beer made in the 50(1) process. The mouthfeel is fantastic. It's smooth and coats the palate. The sweetness detracts a bit but I think that if it doesn't explode in the bottles it should fade with time. This one will age well.

Next time more roast malts for the nose and taste, otherwise no changes.

Not sure why this one stopped fermenting when it did. The champagne yeast should have taken it lower. With it had gotten about 0.03 lower. This one will be made again...

#15 - Pacific Jade IPA (SEIPA)

Fifth(?) beer in the IPA series. Never heard of Pacific Jade before but the package sounded interesting and is 13% alpha. The internet says that this is a mild bittering hop, with some nice aroma. I'm still back-loading this given what happened with the first of the hop series. I want less bitter, more flavor, and more aroma!

I've changed the malt bill a little bit again for this one. No biscuit, acid malt added to the recipe, some more wheat, and crystal 20. Should be lighter in color with a little less malt backbone. Recipe below:

http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/76388/nogtft-old-bruin
OB - 14, OG - 1.057

#15 already! - Which sounds like a lot, but I'm only 30% of the way to 50...

Bruin(ish) Racked...

After days of no action an me wondering what was going on I reopened this to check things out. Evidence of fermentation in the bucket! (Which also doesn't have a perfect seal!). Also, the Brix dropped to 9 from 15 for a current gravity of 1.02 and ABV of around 5%. Is already has a lot of Brett smell / flavor and even a hint of sour already.

Also of note the recipe has been updated. I realized that I forgot to put the brown sugar in. I'm glad that I did and it's been deleted. Which means that my OG of 1.061 was actually pretty close to the new estimate 1.064. 

Also, also of note Brad the Brewmaster from Jackie O's got back to me. Nothing they make is pasteurized so anything is culture-able. Thanks Brad.

Now patience...

Coffee Dubbel Racked...

Racked the coffee dubbel to secondary today onto the filtered 1 oz cold-extracted coffee. 

Was a little on the early side for transfer, but was able to top-crop some of the Belgian ale yeast for future use. Future use may be as soon as next week depending on what happens with the Bruin(ish). Opened it today and no activity whatsoever. Pitched the Orval culture and we'll see what happens over the next 24 hours...

Wit Tasting...

Just accidentally deleted the wit tasting post while trying to make an adjustment. Apparently Ctrl-Z is not undo in Blogger but a convenient erase everything button. Coincidentally, just drank the last one of these today (I think). If another turns up will re-review it. Otherwise, this one has been lost to cyberspace forever...

Mead Bottled...

After two months in secondary this one was ready to bottle (FG - 1.01). It's crystal clear and is like nothing I've every made before (mostly because I've never made a mead before). Starts sweet (but not overly so), ends dry with a definite grapefruit taste and bitterness. It's a smooth transition and a nice balance.

FB -10, FG - 1.01, ABV -  9.8%

Just found out that meads are either still, sparkling, or petillant depending on the level of carbonation. I went for petillant (the middle level) and aimed for 1.5 volumes of CO2 by adding 0.5 oz of corn sugar. This was a little over the calculated 0.4 but I had just over a gallon to bottle.

Not sure how long this is going to take to carb. Probably have to wait 2-3 weeks...

Cold Extraction...

Cold extracting some dark roast coffee for the Dubbel, which is going into secondary tomorrow (fermented fast). Ground 1 oz of the beans and mixed with 400 cc water and put the whole thing in the fridge. Will run it through a coffee filter tomorrow on the way into the jug...

#14 - Old Bruin(ish)

This is my first attempt at an Old Bruin. I say first because I've never made and Old Bruin before and attempt for several reasons:

1. Apparently "real" old Bruins (Petrus, Jackie O's, etc) are all extensively barrel aged for 20 months or more. No one got time for that. Well not 20 months. I plan on aging this one until it's time for the move.

2. The starter that I made from the Jackie O's has something in it. Not the usual yeast layer at the bottom that I get after culturing yeast, but a cloud floating in it. So something has grown, but not sure what. Also, it has bubbles (positive sign?)! I'm going to be adding the dregs of a Russian River that I'm drinking now to supplement as well. I emailed the Jackie O's people to see if the Chunga's Old Bruin could be cultured but they must be too busy making incredible beer to get back to me.

So, in summary. I have no idea what I 'm pitching into a beer I've never made. Plan B is to go pick up some White Labs Trappist tomorrow and just turn this into a Quad. The next beer is going to be a quad anyway so it might be good to have on hand.

Recipe below:

http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/76388/nogtft-old-bruin

OB - 15, OG - 1.061

So this will be something...

Pear Saison Bottled...

Bottled the pear saison this evening. Little lighter in color than I thought it was going to be. Taste is good, hint of pear on the nose, starts with some sweetness from the pear then moves into more of a traditional, tart, saison flavor. I think it will be good once it carbs up and my sinuses clear from this stupid infection.

FB - 7, ABV -  7.7%

Will know more in a week...

Random Thoughts...

Some things I've leaned and realized:

1. Water managment - Critical when doing 1 gallon brews. It's tough to hit 1 gallon going into the bucket exactly and if you don't, well there goes your gravity. So 1.5 qt / gallon for protein rest (131 deg F) and mash (boiling) each seems about right and hits the temperature every time. Sparge water (165 deg F) is whatever is needed on top of protein rest and mash to get to 1.5 gallons (24 cups) plus 2 cups water per lb of grain (roughly).

2. Hops - Limit the 60 min addition. Got a lot of bitterness (astringent notes) with the early IPAs. Not sure if it's the different water, my early troubles with temperature control (likely) when I was trying to use the stove to raise the temperature during the mash, or the yeast (never used the California V strain before), but the recent IPAs, with the lower 60 min additions, have been tasting much better.

3. Thirteen batches completed to date and another coming before the end of the week. This is approaching the total number of beers that I made prior to starting this whole experiment when I was making about 4 batches per year. I really feel that this has been helpful and will give me some good base recipes / jumping off points to make better beer in the future. Gallon brewing is nice, quick, and I've had a wide variety of beers to drink. Also it's been an enjoyable, weekly break from work, worries, etc.

4. Follow up to #3 - I'm looking forward to tweaking some of these recipes. So far I think that the Citra IPA and the Wheat wine could both be really good with some minor changes...

Future Planning...

With the first of the long-term projects coming to an end next week (the mead will be bottled), I am trying to come up with something else that can sit for awhile. While drinking a Jackie O's Chunga's Old Bruin tonight I somehow came up with the idea of doing a Old Bruin (deliciously sour). So I pitched the dregs into a E-flask with the hope of growing whatever yeast and delicious bacteria they used for this one. It looked like there was some sediment but not a ton. 

Fingers crossed...

#13 - Coffee Dubbel (L-IAG!)

Heading deeper into the Belgian brews. Tasted the Wit today and it was good. Official review to follow. 

This is my adaptation of a Belgian Dubbel. I love the sweet, dark fruit richness of most Dubbels and it remains one of my favorite Belgian styles. Thinking about balancing that with just a bit of coffee in addition to the small amount of roast barley in the recipe. Haven't decided if tipping this slightly towards a stout is a good idea and whether it's going to happen or not yet. If not, I need to add coffee to something soon or I'm going to lose my mind!

Original plan was to add some rich dark fruits to this, and still may do that alternatively. Was thinking raisins, figs, plums, or something like that. Recipe below:

http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/74097/l-iag-coffee-dubbel
OB - 15, OG - 1.061 - Perfect - Slightly on the high side of volume.

We'll just have to see what ends up going into secondary with this one (hint - it's still going to be coffee)...

Brown Racked...

Racked the brown ale to secondary today. Taste is very good. Rich and full, just a hint of toast flavors. Also like the color a lot - Darker than a brown in supposed to be. Not your usual thin, watery brown...

Mosaic IPA Tasting...

Nice creamy head, same color as all the other IPAs. This is the first one where I decreased the 60 min hop additions in order to try and minimize the overwhelming bitter / astringent flavors that were present in some of the early versions and...Great success! Review below:

Aroma - Lots of mango / tropical notes, dank - 9/12
Appearance - Creamy head, clear- 2/3
Flavor - The hops really shine in this one. Lots of mango, just a bit of trailing bitterness. Malt bill complements the hops without getting in the way - 13/20
Mouthfeel - Smooth / full - 4/5
Overall - 8/10

Total - 36/50. About right for this one. Love the mouthfeel and despite my love of Mosaic hops, they have a very particular flavor. And the flavor on this one is good...But, I personally think that what separates the good IPAs from the great IPAs (Heady Topper) is a balance of several hop flavors. Also they have just a little more bitterness than this.

One thing that I would change in the future would be to lighten the color a bit.

Of note: This is a great aroma / flavor hop. Consider something else for bitterness...

#12 - Home Toasted Brown (FK:II)

First experiment with home toasted grains. Toasted the pilsner malt as outlined in the previous post. It only makes up 18% of the grain bill so I'm not sure how much it's going to contribute or what impact it will have. That being said the grains smelled great when I was grinding them. 

I hate a thin, watery brown ale so I'm trying to amp up the body on this one. The recipe is a bastardization of multiple recipes for brown ales that I read. Aiming for minimal hop flavor contribution. Want this one to be rich, dark, and carmel(ly). Recipe below:

http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/74091/fk-ii-brown-ale
OB: 15
OG: 1.061
Close, probably a little high on volume. Estimated OG 1.066

Biere de Garde Racked...

Racked the Biere de Garde to secondary. When I opened the fermenter I thought to myself "What is all this stuff (shit) floating on top?!". It was the figs. Phew. Anyway the taste was interesting, not as malty as I thought it was going to be, but I didn't have much to try because most of it went into the jug before I could fill my glass off the siphon. Still had a lot of clearing to do, minimal sediment transferred. Curious...