Contest Entries

While I've slacked a bit on writing up my brew sessions, I've been quite active. I just submitted four entries to the Topsfield Fair home brew competition. I expect to be schooled in some categories, and may compete in others. The nice thing is that I should received some informed constructive criticism with my scores. Feedback from friends is nice, if not biased to the positive. Unfortunately, I don't hang out with enough home brewers who'll tell me that I under pitched the yeast and caused some wacky side reaction.

I submitted:

Frak You You Frakking Cylon - An American pale ale brewed with a german altbier yeast, and a blend of whole leaf Simcoe and Sariaci Ace hops. The APA category typically gets a lot of entries. I don't expect to faire to well. The beer is a bit turbid, and the hops aren't as fresh now as they once were. I do think my hop choices, particularly the Japanese Sariachi Ace may get some bonus points for uniqueness.

Alt Deco Rock Fist - My take on a german altbier. I cold conditioned this quite effectively to get a nice smooth flavor. My cold conditioning equipment may offer an advantage over a complete novice. I may have over hopped this brew - and may lose points for using some American hops.

The Wallonian Wazoo - A saison that had been sitting in the basement for about 8 months with a strain of Brettanomyces bringing the funk. I entered it as a Belgian specialty ale. Its too dark to meet the saison guidelines, and might be a bit funky. This beer is decent, and may benefit from slim competition.

The Cult of Skaro Triple - This Belgian style triple would easily be my strongest entry if I weren't afraidd of some problems with uneven carbonation. Lets see if I get lucky, or some advice to solve that problem.

Rack the Wazoo, Taste the Cat

Monday night, I racked the wallonian wazoo to secondary. I added 1/4 cup of medium toast French oak chips, and 2 bits from the wassail to wallonia. I also pitched half a pack of wyeast's brettanomyces bruxelis. That saison will live in the basement for 6 months as flavors develop. The gravity at racking was 1.012.

We also tasted the first of the scooting cat. It pours a hazy orange, with wonderful white head. the retention is excellent. The spelt definitely helped out there. The flavors range from sweet to resinous citrus notes and the hops can get a bit grassy. It's also very full bodied, which was unexpected given my recent run of thin beers.

Wallonian Wazoo

The saison I brewed last summer has developed very nicely, and is easily the best beer I ever brewed. Since Kate and I have become miserly in its consumption, so that there is more to share, we decided it would be best to brew another. Instead of trying to recreate a high temp fermentation as temperatures fall, I figured that I'd switch yeasts and take some liberties with my recipe so that I can better explore the style. I also ordered some brettanomyces yeast to sour the brew in secondary.

Again, I used a 2 hour boil but with this stove I encountered complications from evaporation and the occasional boil-over. I need to think ahead and boil additional water to add at the one hour point to replace evaporated liquid durring my partial boil.

This saison is my first beer that will not have irish moss as a clarification agent. We'll see how that works out. I also tried using my brewing chest to cool my pot (after adding a gallon of ice water). It wasn't especially effective. I need a wort cooler.

Grains: 1.5 lb Aromatic, 1lb Pilsner, 1 Lb Wheat, 0.5 lb Munich Malt. Mashed with a single 60 minute infusion at 148-152 sparged @ 170 F.
Dry Extracts: 2lbs Muntons Light DME
Liquid Extracts: 3.3 lbs Breiss Bavarian Wheat
Hops: 1 oz East Kent Goldings (60), 0.5 oz Hallertauer (20), 1 oz Hallertauer (1), 0.5 oz East Kent Goldings (1)
Yeast: Wyeast 3522 Belgian Ardennes (cultured from flasks)
Etc: 1 g Grains of Paradise (20 min)
Fermentation Notes 1 week @ 75 F
OG: 1.060

Scooting Cat / Agressive Progressive

My most recent brew session was inspired by Brasserie d'Achouffe's Houblon Chouffe Dobbelen IPA Tripel. It may be one of the most perfect beers in the world, and the first to blend American hoppiness with fruity Belgian yeasts. So I snagged a smack pack of Wyeast 3522 the Ardennes Yeast (proportedly d'Achouffe strain) and went to town crafting some madness.

Grains: 0.5 lb Aromatic, 0.75 Vienna Malt, 2lb Pilsner, 0.5 Lb Spelt, 0.25 lb Biscuit Malt. Mashed with a single 60 minute infusion at 150-155sparged between 170-175 F.
Dry Extracts: 2lbs Muntons Light DME, 2lbs Cooper's Light DME
Hops: 1 oz Northern Brewer (60), 1 oz Cluster (30), 1 oz Liberty (1)
Yeast: Wyeast 3522 Belgian Ardennes
Etc: 1 tsp Irish Moss (30 min)
Fermentation Notes 1 week @ 79 F
OG: 1.065

Continuing the Burton Ale Yeast Campaign

While I have been lax in updating this blog, I have been quite occupied with brewing. I used the Burton Ale yeast cake from the mild to prepare two higher octane beers. One is an attempt at a Chery Stout, the other my holiday Barleywine. My stove likes to cause boil-overs.

Cerise Noire - Cherry Stout

Grains: 1 lb Chocolate Malt, 1 lb Crystal 105, 2lb Belgian Pilsner, 0.5 Lb Roasted Barley, 0.25 lb Cara-Red. Mashed with a single 60 minute infusion at 150-155sparged between 170-175 F.
Dry Extracts: 3lbs Muntons Light DME, 2lbs, Muntons Dark DME
Hops: 1 oz Northern Brewer (60), 1 oz Williamette (5 min)
Yeast: White Labs #026 - (Burton Ale Yeast from Clark Kent's Manners Cake)
Etc: 1 tsp Irish Moss (30 min)
Fermentation Notes 1 week @ 69 F, racked onto 5.5 lbs of Frozen Sweet Dark Cherries for 2wks at 68 F, racked into tertiary fermentation for a month at cellar temps (64-55)

The initial gravity was about 1.060, and it dropped to 1.015 before racking it onto Cherries.

Boil-over Barleywine - (the most frustrating brew day ever)
Grains: 1 lb Belgian Aromatic, 0.5 lb Vienna, 2lb 2-Row Pale, 0.5 Lb Cara Pils Barley. Mashed with a single 60 minute infusion at 150-155sparged between 170-175 F.
Dry Extracts: 8lbs Muntons Light DME, 1 lbs, Coopers Light DME
Hops: 1 oz Galena (90), 1 oz Cluster (60 min), 1 oz Crystal (1 min)
Yeast: While Labs #026 - (Burton Ale Yeast from Cerise Noise Cake)
Etc: 1 tsp Irish Moss (30 min)
Fermentation Notes 2 week @ 68 F, cold conditioned from 60- 40 over two weeks on the yeast, racked to secondary with 5 oz of priming sugar (I'm concerned about oxidation) and 1 oz of Crystal. 4 Weeks at cellar temps, will bottle with S-59 dry yeast.

OG: 1.090

Another Take on Clark Kent's Manners

I decided to kick off my post-summer brewing relay with a mild. I'll use the yeast for my next two brews (a cherry stout, and a barleywine). The mild is just a big starter with a tasty by-product.

It also gave me a chance to cut my teeth on brewing with an electric stove. It's certainly inspiration to buy a propane burner. Although it is nice to use a stove that outputs enough heat to create a truly vigorous boil.

This recipe is drawn from the pages of David Sutula's Mild Ale. It's also the first beer to be fermented using Greg's chest freezer for temperature control. I have it set to 68+/-1 degree. It's sharing the chest with the saison, which I had cold conditioned down to 55 for a week. Now it's back in the heat. The secret to my saison will be temperature abuse. Of course, I'll send it to the basement this weekend.

Grains: 0.5 lb Belgian Pils, 10.5 oz Flaked Maise, 1.33 lb of Crystal 60 a 30 minute rest at 130-140, 60 minute rest at 150-165 (the new stove is wacky) sparged between 170-175 F.
Dry Extracts:2 LB Muntons Extra Light DME.
Adjuncts 10.5 oz Cane sugar, ~0.25 cup molasses
Hops: ~0.5 oz Hallertau (90), 2 oz Fuggle (90) (the recipe only called for fuggle, but didn't adjust hops for extract or all grain, so I added my scrap hallertau).
Yeast: While Labs #026 - (Burton Ale Yeast)
Etc: 1 tsp Irish Moss (30 min)

Note to Self....

Bronze winner Cerise Cassée ("Broken Cherry') from Cambridge Brewing Co. in Cambridge, Mass., begins with a 100% sour mash for three days. After primary fermentation, brewer Will Meyers adds 300 pounds of sour cherries and ignites a second fermentation with a Belgian abbey ale yeast. A third fermentation with several strains of Brettanomyces lasts nine months in French oak Pinot Noir barrels.

Taken from Probrewer.com

Wassailing to Wallonia

I thought I was done brewing for the summer. I figured it was too hot, I was too busy, and I would be otherwise occupied. I planned to use the summer to read, research and prepare for the next round. Then one of my co-workers ordered a kit, and I was inspired by Phil Markowski's Farmhouse Ales.

So, I advanced the time table for my Christmas saison. I planned to brew it up in September but figured that I could take better advantage of the next six months to let it mature. I'll admit, finding out that Brassiere Dupont runs their fermentation for Vieille Provision (Saison Dupont) at 95 F. Many folks regard Saison Dupont as the finest saison. It's nice, but I'm partial to the wackiness from the nutjobs at Fantome

Anyway, I browsed through the book, and noted the common ingredients to concoct my own recipe. It's my first foray into completely designing a recipe. I must and Promash was quite helpful in calculating gravity and IBUs. I still worry that I may have over hopped, but we'll see. They were all low AAU hops.

One big difference with this brew, is that I used a 2 hour boil instead of a typical 60 minute excursions. Hopefully this adds some caramel notes and may help as a preservative.

Grains: 2 lb Belgian Pils, 0.5 lb Belgian Aromatic, 0.75 lb Munich Malt mashed in at 30 minute rest at 134, 45 minute rest at 147 and sparged between 170-175 F.
Liquid Extracts: 2.7 lb Briess CBW Bavarian Wheat Malt Extract, 3.3 LB Muntons Extra Light LME.
Hops: 1 oz Hallertau (60), 1 oz Styrian Goldings (5 AAU) (30), 0.5 oz Hallertau (30), 0.5 oz Hallertau (5), 0.5 oz Styrian Goldings (5 AAU) for 34 IBU
Yeast: While Labs #565 - (The Dupont Yeast)
Etc: 1 tsp Irish Moss (30 min), 1 oz powdered ginger (30)

The fermentation progresses quite vigorously, which was a bit of a surprise. I’ve heard that this yeast is rather slow. I'm not planning to rack to secondary until Sunday of next week. We'll see if this yeast agrees. Right now its at about 78, but I'm letting it go at its own pace. I hear that the ambient temp will push into the 90s today. Maybe I'll get some Dupont efficiency.

I'm already inoculating some oak chips with apple wine so see if I can impart some wild flavors.