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...