Great Taste of the Midwest beerfest

Date: Aug. 11, 2012

My dribble of cognac barrel-aged Dark Lord

My buddy and his girlfriend managed to score me an extra ticket (at face value!) to the Great Taste of the Midwest beerfest! Awesome time. Tons of beers. Very good beers. The sheer number and diversity is mind-boggling.

Best beer: Dark Horse Brewery's Reserve Special Black Ale.

I did manage to get a dribble of Three Floyds' 2012 Cognac-Barrel Aged Dark Lord. It was spectacular, but waiting almost an hour to get it, was probably not worth it. I had managed to get a taste of the Dark Lord a few years ago at the same beerfest. Although it's arguably the best beer I've ever had, the extremely limited release makes people a little crazy to get it. I thought the people behind us in line were going to go ape-shit when they learned they weren't going to get any.

Also had a blast checking out some of the pre-parties the night before.

Harvesting yeast

Date: Aug. 22, 2012

Tonight marks my first foray into harvesting the yeast cake from my fermentor. I'll be harvesting Wyeast 1187 Ringwood Ale.

I'm basing the process off of a few videos I've seen on YouTube. This one was the most straight-forward:



Using two large mason jars: One for cleaning the yeast, and one for storage.

Indian Brown Ale [Secondary]

Racking date: Aug. 22, 2012

Racked the Indian Brown Ale into my new 3 gal carboy to further condition. Also able to get a read on the final gravity, flavor, smell, etc.

Observations:

FG: 1.019 (1.018 at 75 'F)
Taste: Nicely sweet and malty, bitterness prominent, alcohol-ish on the end. Tastes like the offspring of a sweet nut brown and bitter IPA. Excellent. Strong too.
Smell: Nuttiness
Color: Medium brown, not cloudy

TBD Indian Brown Ale

Brew Date: Aug. 10, 2012
#8
3 gal

Much has happened since my last batch. But in the interest of keeping this posting short, suffice it to say that it's been a VERY long, HOT summer. With temps hitting 95+ F in the house at 8 pm throughout most of June and July, brewing anything was totally out of the question. This, of course, made me sad. And itching to brew. No longer! Here, at last, is the latest batch. The recipe is from "Extreme Brewing" by Sam Calagione, p. 142.

I recently purchased a copy of Beer Tools Pro, a software program for homebrewing. It worked great for loading all the ingredients and then scaling down the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 6-8 oz Amber Malt (Fawcett)
• 6-8 oz Caramel Malt 60L (Briess)
• 5-6 oz Chocolate Malt (Briess)
• 1-2 oz Roasted Barley (Briess)
• 1.92 kg Light DME (Golden Light) (Briess)
• 138 g Dark Brown Sugar

• 0.5 oz Warrior pellets (A: 16%)
• 0.6 oz Mt. Hood hop pellets (A: 6.1%)

• Wyeast 1187 Ringwood Ale*

*Yeast starter the night before. Boil 2 c water. Remove from heat. Add ½ c (109 g) light DME. Boil 10 min. Cool and pitch yeast. Aerate on and off for approx 1 hr.

Instructions:

In a grain bag, add amber, caramel, and chocolate malts, and roasted barley to 2 gal water heated to 150-160 F. Steep for 30 min. Remove grain bag and bring water to boil. Remove from heat and add DME. Return to boil. After 15 min, add the Warrior hops in a nylon bag and boil 60 min. 30 min before end of boil, in a separate pot, boil 1 gal water for 10 min and add to brew kettle to compensate for evaporation loss. 10 min before end of boil, add dark brown sugar. Add Mt. Hood hops at end of boil. Cover, remove from heat, and let sit for 20 min. Cool wort to 70 F. Rack to fermentor. Add cold water and top off to 3 gal. Transfer to secondary fermentor after 7-10 days to condition. Condition 2-3 weeks.

Observations:
OG: 1.072 (1.070 at 78 'F)
Smell: Roasted, slight hint of chocolate
Taste: Thick, sweet, rich, chocolate, balanced bitterness, brown sugar?
Color: Deep brown

Original recipe called for OG 1.070. Pretty darn close! Looking for a FG of around 1.015 and ABV of 7.2%. 50 IBUs.

Experience:

With Taj Mahal's "The Natch'l Blues" spinning in the background, a half day at work, and my first brew day in over two months, I was feeling fine. Not to mention a buddy of mine had managed to land me a ticket to the Great Taste of the Midwest beerfest that afternoon. All in all, I'd call it a mighty fine day. Cheers!

“Red Baron" German Alt - Exploded Bottle, Tastes Great!

Just a brief note on the "Red Baron" German Alt. I found one exploded bottle in the basement this weekend -- totally shattered. It must have blown at least a few days ago since all the beer had already evaporated. I had to throw the (by now) moldy box away and wipe down all the bottles. With the hot weather over the past few weeks, the temperature downstairs has risen to 75-80 °F instead of the more typical 60-70 °F during the summer.

On a positive note, I pulled a few of the 16 oz EZ cap bottles and 22 oz bombers to share at our family campout. I hadn't tried any of the larger bottles, and none that have continued to condition in the basement for some time at the higher temps. The taste was MUCH improved. The Alt has taken on a more mellowed smoothness. Even the carbonation seems better. Several of the 12 oz bottles have been over-carbonated up till now. The beer was also several at just cooler than room temperature as well. Chilled in a cooler for a few hours.

I am dying to get cracking on another batch, but it's still too hot here. I simply can't justify having the stove on for an hour or two, to say nothing of the havoc the yeast would go through at the higher room temps.

I hate not having AC.

“Green Eyed" (I)PA [Bottled]

Bottle date: June 3, 2012 (5+ weeks since brew date)

Got a helping hand from my dad for bottling. Thanks, Pops! All in all, it went smoothly enough (except for one spilled beer). Took approximately 2 hours to bottle. Conditioning the bottles in our basement at roughly 68-72 'F for at least three weeks before sharing. Decided to use Northern Brewer's priming sugar calculator this time around. My Red Baron German Alt seems over-carbonated...

Ingredients:

• 6 oz Light DME
• 16 oz cold water

Instructions:

Add DME to16 oz cold water and boil for 5-10 min. Remove from heat. Slowly add to fermented beer in bottling bucket. Siphon into bottles.

Observations:

FG: 1.010 (1.008 @ 76 'F)

Smell: Spicy

Taste: Spicy with hint of citrus, nice hop bitterness but not too much bite

“Green Eyed" (I)PA [dry hop]

Dry Hopping Date: May 6, 2012

A little dry hopping while we wait...

Fermentation is complete. Time to rack to a secondary. The recipe calls for dry hopping 4-6 weeks to add flavor and aroma to the beer (without adding bitterness). This is my first attempt.

Ingredients:

• 1 oz Willamette (A: 5.7%) flowers

Observations:

FG: 1.016 (a little higher than the recipe maintains, but close)

Color: Goldenrod yellowish-orange, slightly cloudy

Smell: Spicy, sweet, Belgian-ish

Taste: Spicy, slight citrus, good hop bite, well-balanced

Experience:

Racking went quickly (for once). Although I opted to use hop flowers, it was a pain to force them into the fermentor through its neck. I may use pellets for future dry hopping. To maintain sanitation, I did my best to crush the hop flowers a bit while still enclosed in their packaging. I used a funnel to get the hops through the neck.

The best part of racking: Getting a chance to taste the (nearly) finished product. I predict this will be my best beer yet! Great hop flavor. Well balanced. Here's hoping the dry hop adds a touch more spiciness and aroma. Not much more is needed.