Who's brewing this weekend? July 27/28 edition

Too funny! I'll beermail it to you in a little while!

 

When I do a partigyle I always calculate the first runnings to be saturated, as in a gravity of 70-80. Mainly from getting higher than expected gravities on my first runnings of partigyles and then figuring out the maths that they are saturated.

Then again I batch sparge, other sparge methods and desired gravities of the first runnings might change that. Like if you were going to partigyle an IPA and a mild or something lower in gravity.

 

I am all set for a Pale Ale malt/ Legacy hop SMaSH if FedEx ever shows up with my order from Hopsdirect. At this point it looks like a tomorrow morning brew. Going to use BRY-97 and save the cake for future IPAs.

 

My normal batch sparged mash extraction efficiency seems to swing between 79% - 86%. I know that Mosher says you get 50% of your collected sugars in the first 1/3 of the total runnings and the remaining 50% in the remaining 2/3 (37.5% in the 2nd 1/3 and 12.5% in the 3rd 1/3). So I expected to get about 39.5 - 43% of my sugars in my 1st runnings and 39.5 - 43% in my 2nd runnings. My actual beersmith numbers say I got 41% in my first run and 25.5% in my second run. But I actually collected 1.5g more wort in my 2nd runnings than I expected and kept it separate for starters in the future. I didn't include that extra volume in my calculations for the recipe so I'm sure I actually collected much more than 25.5% of the sugars in the second run. I probably have about 15% of the sugars in the 1.5g of wort I stored in growlers for future starter use.

 

[pointless rambling derail alert]

I am still struggling with the scotch ale style. Not for brewing (I haven't made one and don't plan to), but for drinking. I've had homebrew scotch ales that were on both ends of the spectrum (for my tastes, that is). Commercial scotch ales are extremely hit-or-miss for me too, kinda like an infinite, alternating series of "good" and "bad." The issue is my preferences and tastes, not necessarily any given beer by any given brewer. It's just not a style I care for very much. But I like to try everything, and try to find an example of every style that is good, and worthy of a high rating "to style."

For instance, Renaissance cowboy, is a scotch ale made about three or four hours from me. The Texas Big Beer brewery just started getting some distribution where I'm at, and they had four different bombers on the shelf at my local liquor store. I tried the other three, and really liked them, but remarked to the owner of the store that I don't like scotch ales. He said "you have to try it. We had an employee tasting* of all those new beers, and everyone loved it." So did the guy from the brewery who commented on my blog (I think he's the head brewer), insisted this one is different and I'll love it. Well, they were both right. It's the best scotch ale I've ever had and I've even bought it a couple more times since. (that's a huge testimonial coming from me, lol). This beer is 8.2%, fairly typical of the style (sweet, not a lot of hops flavor, malty), but it's not quite what I typically think of when I think of the style. It's got a noticeable bitterness, although not a hoppy bitterness at all, and I suspect has more carbonation than your average scotch ale. These two things probably make the difference to me, as flat/undercarbed beer = NO GO for me, and overly brown-sugar sweet beers with low carbonation are my least favorite of all styles.

Then there's Oskar Blues Old Chub. I've seen it on the shelf for several years now, finally decided to pick one up about two months ago. There's still two left in the fridge, and I'm in no hurry to drink them. This beer is what I think of when I think of scotch ales. Very sweet like brown sugar/molasses, low carbonation, zero hops and the bitterness that would balance it for me is missing (at least to my pallet). I suspect that Old Chub is a fine scotch ale, perhaps one of the best (rated 4.01, which is the only reason I finally decided to try it). But it's just a style that I don't care for. Well, that and hoppy wheat beers, although with hoppy wheats there are a few more exceptions (to me) than there are with scotch ales.

So good luck with your scotch ale. I'd love to try it sometime. Don't know if I'd like it, but hey, with over a hundred "official" styles, umpteen many new breweries all the time, tons of new homebrewers each year, and about a gzillion beer choices on the market, nobody has to like them all. And of course I'm not the one to ask whether a given scotch ale is a "well made" scotch ale, lol. But if I were ever so inclined as to do the BJCP thing, I'd need to have a handle on every style, even my not-so-favorites.

[/pointless rambling derail]

*I really like that they had a tasting, and that the employees actually know something about beer, and about the specific beers they stock. The selection isn't huge like at mega-conglomo-liquors, but all the beer is kept cold all the time, and there's a pretty good choice of beers to choose from every day, with some effort to stock different stuff too. This is the mark of a quality establishment. I go out of my way to go here to buy beer (it's not WAY out of my way mind you, but it's not the closest store with a good choice of craft beers either).

 

Brewed today. Pumpkin barleywine. First autumn beer of the 2013 season! I'm gonna let this one age and simmer down for a few months. Great brew day. Cannot wait for this one.

 

Got DH on my New School American Pils (Mosaic, Simcoe, Calypso), bottled my CAP, stepped up my (Elysian Mortis) Brett starter (no trip to Corvallis for Brett Trios), washed 2 yeasts, rearranged the fridege to take a 3rd keg, bottled a 6 pack of blandish lager and added dryhops to each bottle: Mosaic, Simcoe, Calypso, CTZ, Chinook, and Meridian (give them 3-4 days at room temp then fridge for 2-3 before reviewing). All that after helping a friend from church move. Not a bad day.

 

Little saison action tomorrow:

2-row 80%
White wheat 10%
Flaked oats 5%
Acidulated 5%
OG 1.048

Saaz FWH
Styrian 10 & 0
BU:GU 0.66:1

Mix of Dupont & Thiriez, fermented warm

 

Brewed a rye porter Friday. Used flaked rye and rye malt. Undershot OG by a few but that's no biggie. 1.068 vs 1.071 estimated. Should have ran the rye malt through the mill a few times.

Got a Gumballhead-esque Amarillo wheat on deck for tomorrow. Brewing it up as a handout for my wedding guests (Sept 14th is the big day!) so I wanted something hoppy but approachable. Bitter with Warrior, 2oz Amarillo @15, 2.5oz @ whirlpool/hopstand. Probably dry hop with 2 oz. US-05. 1.050 OG and 32 IBU. My fiancé is going to design some labels which she is very excited about.

Any thoughts on the brew?

 

I'm not big on hoppy wheats, but if it's gumballhead-esque, it should be pretty tasty. That's the one exception to the rule that makes a new rule for me, gumballhead. Traded for it several times, always love FFF.

Rye porter sounds wonderful!

 

Bottling my Black Lodge porter....

 

Kegged a PA. Golden promise,Munich,Vienna with Centennial.

Cheers!

 

I'll be brewing my bourbon oak IPA on Wednesday. Today I have to install a ball valve and sight glass on my new Keggle and possibly keg my Smash.

 

i'll be starting a sour mash today for an "american weisse" type beer. i'm going to let the wort go for a little while to give it a nice lactic sourness, then i'm going to hopburst the shit out of it with probably an amarillo/simcoe/citra combo to get a lot of flavor/aroma without the bitterness, and then ferment with a very tropical/fruity brett strain i've been working with. super excited to see how it turns out.

 

Well, yet again, I slept in, and didn't get up to brew till later! DOH!

About to mash in on my Bo-Pils.. Got my starter crashed after the 3rd step.. Have a solid line of yeast to around the 400ml line on it.

Looking forward to this one... Beautiful weather out this afternoon, dog's asleep in the middle of the yard!

 

Damn, sounds like it's going to be a fruit bomb from hell, with just a touch of pine. I love it! Sounds delicious!

I'm about to brew a smash with munich and citra, and hop burst the hell out of it with pure citra, just to purposely produce a "citra bomb from hell." I see stories of people who over-do it with the citra, the reactions they get from people, how they have to let it mellow for a month or two etc etc... well I'm not going to have this experience for myself by accident. I'm going to do it on purpose. And heck, I never met a hop I didn't like. I guarantee they will all get drank (even if I'm the only one that will drink them).

 

I like Citra, and do a Citra Pale that is really good( It's also a clone of a commercial beer people love )... I did a Zombie Dust clone that was... well, over the top Citra for me. Fresh, I didn't like it. Mango and Melon was out of control. After 2 weeks it's drinking real nice and real close to the real thang.

 

I love Citra, lets get that out there. I have found myself getting tired of it however.

If I were to do an APA, I would use probably around 5-6 ounces at most to hit a happy spot.

Something like a 1.060 OG, 60IBU's, and toss a bunch in 10 minutes and later with a nice hopstand.

Dry hop it... lightly compared to some. Maybe just an ounce of Citra and call it done.

I can't recall how much was used in the ZD clone, I think like.... half a pound in the boil? 2-3 ounce dry hop with leaf Citra.

I will say though.. I just drank 2 pints of it on tap at the house, and it's come around NICELY.. I'm happy with it for sure, and really layers the Citra in there, and has toned down a fair bit.