Brewer’s Log: Imperial Stout x3

Posted at 10:00 am by Patrick under Brewer's Recipe Book

You can never have too much stout for wintertime. Here is a great imperial stout recipe that is complex and very drinkable.

For 5 gallons (80% efficiency):

Grain
9.00 lbs. Pale Malt (2-row)
1.25 lbs. CaraMunich 40
1.00 lbs. Roasted Barley
1.00 lbs. Special B Malt
1.00 lbs. Vienna Malt
0.50 lbs. Chocolate Malt
0.50 lbs. Special Roast Malt
0.13 lbs. Carafa

Additions (for .75 gallons)
Variant #1: 12 oz. frozen raspberries
Variant #2: 50ml of homemade bourbon vanilla extract (see details below)

Hops
0.60 oz. Pacific Gem (organic) (16.5%) 60 min.

Yeast
White Labs WLP001 American Ale

Mash grains at 153F for 60 minutes. Add all hops when wort begins to boil. After 45 minutes, add Irish moss. After 15 more minutes, knockout to chiller, and pitch yeast. Will be in primary fermentation for up to 7 days, and then either go with a 1 week secondary fermentation (regular version), or make your additions to the secondary and let it go for another 10 days.

OG: 1.079 (19.1P)
Anticipated SRM: 43.8
Anticipated IBU: 38.7

Packaging
Primed with Primetabs and bottled in 12 and 22 oz. bottles

Production + Tasting Notes
Once in a while you get more sugar out of your grain that you expected. Since I was already using an 80% efficiciency setting for this recipe, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself with more points in the kettle than I expected. Rather than making 5 gallons of stronger beer, I opted to keep 5 gallons as is, and take the remaining 1.5 gallons and experiment.

Variation 1: Raspberry Imperial Stout. I added 12 oz of frozen raspberries (thawed and pureed) to a 1 gallon growler with 3/4 gallon of wort. After 9 days, it was bottled.

Variation 2: Bourbon Vanilla Imperial Stout. I split 1/2 of a madagascar vanilla bean (thanks, Penzey’s!) and soaked it in a enlermeyer flask filled with 125ml of Jim Beam (white label) for 1 week. This homemade vanilla extract was then used for the addition to the other gallon growler. I started adding it 25 ml at a time to see how it would meld in with the stout. I stopped after adding 50ml to the growler.

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Brewer’s Log: Wit and Abbey Wheat

Posted at 8:02 pm by Patrick under Brewer's Recipe Book

When summer comes around, wheat beer production goes into full swing. To keep it interesting, I’l mix up the grain bill and/or yeast strains to see what happy accidents might occur. For this brew session, I split a 10 gallon brew into two fermenters, each with a different yeast (WLP 400 Wit, and WLP 500 Abbey). The resulting beers were similar yet had distinctive flavors brought from the yeast. The 400 batch was more of a traditional wit beer formulation, while the 500 batch was slightly less acidic and had other fruity esters. Both were very enjoyable — try this one at home and let me know how yours turned out.

For 10 gallons (75% efficiency):

Grain
9.00 lbs. Pilsner Malt
4.75 lbs. White Wheat
3.60 lbs. Flaked White Wheat

Hops
1.50 oz. Tettnanger (4.5%) 60 min.

Spices
0.30 oz. Bitter Orange Peel 10 min.
0.20 oz. Sweet Orange Peel 10 min.
0.40 oz. Whole Coriander (crushed) 10 min.

Yeast
White Labs WLP400 Belgian Wit
White Labs WLP500 Abbey Ale

Mash grains at 152F for 60 minutes. Be sure to use rice hulls or some other filtering aid in the mash, as the flaked wheat will become gummy and want to cause your mash to stick. Add all of the Tettnanger hops when wort begins to boil. At 60 minutes, knockout to chiller, and pitch yeast. The 400 batch will finish primary a few days quicker than the 500 will, but neither one should take more than 8 days. Be sure to keep the primary fermentation between 70F and 75Fto keep the yeast from getting sluggish. After a week in secondary, package and enjoy.

OG: 1.047 (11.7P)
Anticipated SRM: 9.0
Anticipated IBU: 15.1

Packaging
Kegged and force-carbonated

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Brewer’s Log: Dubbel 2005

Posted at 11:53 pm by Patrick under Brewer's Recipe Book

Sean had some abbey ale yeast on hand from one of his recent brews, so I decided to fire up a Dubbel.

For 5 gallons (75% efficiency):

Grain Bill
6.00 lbs. Pale Malt (2-row)
3.00 lbs. Munich Malt
0.50 lbs. Crystal 60L
0.25 lbs. Chocolate Malt
0.25 lbs. Special B Malt

Hops
1.00 oz. Hallertauer (3.0%) 60 min.

Yeast
White Labs WLP530 Abbey Ale

Mash grain and adjuncts at 154F for 60 minutes. Add the hop addition when wort begins to boil. After 45 minutes, add Irish moss. After 60 minutes total, knockout to chiller, and pitch yeast. Will be in primary fermentation for about 8 days, and then go for a 1 or 2 week secondary fermentation.

OG: 1.053 (13.1P)
Anticipated SRM: 15.5
Anticipated IBU: 13.2

Packaging
Kegged and force-carbonated

Tasting Notes
This beer ended up being a little drier than I would have liked. I ended up mashing at 149F, which created more a fermentable wort than this style calls for. That said, it was very tasty when it was young. For this beer’s first ten weeks, it was wonderfully drinkable. The yeast contributed the expected dried fruit notes and tasted great. After ten weeks, the beer started to have a thin mouthfeel and was not as satisfying to drink. Luckily, there wasn’t a lot left at that point!

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Brewer’s Log: Kiwi Birthday Ale

Posted at 6:33 pm by Patrick under Brewer's Recipe Book

Andrea’s birthday in July seems to always inspire us to have a neighborhood party. This year, I invited her to pick a beer style and help brew it. She wanted a light, refreshing fruit beer for the party, and we picked a kiwi/strawberry combination for this recipe.

For 5 gallons (75% efficiency):

Grain
5.00 lbs. Pilsener malt
2.00 lbs. Munich Malt (2-row)
1.00 lbs. Flaked Soft White Wheat
0.50 lbs. Honey (orange blossom, or other aromatic honey)

Fruit
4.0 lbs. kiwi fruit, peeled and cut into small chunks (3.5 lbs after peeling)
2.0 lbs frozen strawberries (thawed and pureed)

Hops
0.75 oz. Mt. Hood (6.5%) 60 min.
0.25 oz. Saazer (2.5%) 5 min.

Yeast
White Labs WLP001 American Ale

Mash grains at 152F for 60 minutes. Add the Mt. Hood hops when wort begins to boil. After 45 minutes, add Irish moss. After 10 more minutes, add the Saaz hops. 5 Minutes later, knockout to chiller, and pitch yeast. Will be in primary fermentation for up to 7 days, and then rack it to secondary for the fruit addition. It will ferment for 7 to 10 days in secondary. After the fermentation subsides, you can transfer to a tertiary fermentation to help with flavor maturation, or package it..

OG: 1.047 (11.7P)
Anticipated SRM: 9.3
Anticipated IBU: 22.3

Packaging
Kegged and force-carbonated

Production + Tasting Notes
The beer was served as the birthday beer at our summer party, and it very well received. The kiwi tartness had melded with the strawberry flavor to produce a light fruitiness that complemeneted the light body of the base beer, yet avoided being cloying. Andrea remarked that it is "definitely not for the kids".

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Brewer’s Log: Phil Collins Pale Ale (2005)

Posted at 7:44 pm by Patrick under Brewer's Recipe Book

Every brewery has a house beer that always seems ot be on tap, and this one is mine. Modeled after cask conditioned Bass form the UK (not the darker, imported version we get here in the US), this Best Bitter is a true session beer. Delightfully hoppy in an earthy way thanks to the Goldings and Northern Brewer hops, this brew will please both experienced and novice craft beer drinkers alike.

For 10 gallons (80% efficiency):

Grain
13.50 lbs. Maris Otter Pale Malt
2.00 lbs. Crystal 60

Hops
1.00 oz. Northern Brewer (8.0%) 60 min.
1.00 oz. East Kent Goldings (4.75%) 60 min.

Yeast
White Labs WLP001 California Ale

Mash grains at 151F for 60 minutes. Add all of the hops a few minutes before the hops begin to boil (the extra steeping time brings extra hop character to the table). At 45 minutes, add Irish moss to help clarify the wort. At 60 minutes, knockout to chiller, and pitch yeast. 001 is a steady fermenting yeast, so plan on 5 days in primary if your temperature is around 70F. This beer definitely benefits from a minimum 1-week secondary, and 2 is even better.

OG: 1.043 (11.1P)
Anticipated SRM: 11.1
Anticipated IBU: 28.5

Packaging
Kegged and force-carbonated

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