2012 Year End Review

2012 was quite a productive year.  I brewed around 100 gallons of beer and cider; made my highest abv beer to date (EoTW Stout); made my first lager; blended lambic with two types of fruit and experimented with a number of ingredients.  Some ingredients I used this year included:  chocolate, oak, home grown hops, Zythos hop blend, smoked malt, local fruit and 'wild' yeast.

2012 Home brew Log:
12/28/11 (Finished in 2012) 5 gallons Chocolate Stout - Tasting
12/28/11 (Finished in 2012) 5 gallons  End of The World Stout - Tasting
1/29/12  10 gallons  Scottish 80 - Half with Oak - Tasting
2/20/12  10 gallons  Lambic-Base 2012
2/20/12   5 gallons   Wheat second run - Tasting - Tasting 2 
4/7/12     5 gallons   Zythos IPA - Tasting
5/5/12    10 gallons  German Lager / Oktoberfest
6/2/12      5 gallons  Zythos Pale Ale - Tasting
7/8/12      5 gallons  Raspberry Wheat - Tasting
7/16/12    2 gallons  Blended Raspberry Lambic
7/21/12    2 gallons  Blended Peach Lambic
8/12/12    5 gallons  Harvest IPA
8/26/12   10 gallons Eberhardt Dark
9/30/12     5 gallons Cider 2012 (Wilkens)
10/7/12     5 gallons Strong Stout
10/7/12     5 gallons Smoked porter - Tasting
11/1/12    10 gallons Belgien Dubbel/Oud Bruin
12/2/12    10 gallons Honey Wheat

Plans for 2013:
 Strong Double/Imperial IPA - Possibly with Belgian yeast (I happen to have some I need to use)
 Another 10 gallons of Lambic base
 Blending Lambic Gueze and this year's Raspberry and peach
 English bitter
 American IPA
 Another raspberry wheat - probably with another 5 gallons of HeffeWeizen
 Another harvest IPA
 Historic 1800 IPA - Possibly with Brett

End of the World Stout is here

Millions of years ago, the galactic Mayan empire foretold the end of the world.  But how will it come? Will it be impact with a comet, zombie apocalypse, death star or Volgon construction crew?  No! it comes to you in a convenient 12 oz bottle!

  I present to you End of the World Stout - a beer brewed to ridiculous strength (20% abv) flavored with chocolate and aged on oak.

I made this monster brew almost one year ago.  Update  After aging for a few months on oak and chocolate, I force carbonated and bottled.  It has been sitting, waiting for this day...

The bottle opens with a hiss to remind me the carbonation transferred over ok.  I was a little worried since this was force carbonated in the keg and I don't have any of that fancy bottling equipment.

It pours deep black with only a hint of head that leaves a ring around the top.

Sweet aroma of dark malt with a hint of chocolate backed up with a whiff of alcohol. Maybe a little bit of roasted in the aroma too, but you have to look for it.

Strong malt favors right up front along with a slight alcohol burn.  The alcohol is actually quite mild considering it is around 20%. The malt/alcohol is followed by velvety chocolate, which lingers long after you have swallowed.  Sadly, I can't find the oak, but maybe it's there helping the favors blend together.  I guess a beer this strong needs more than an ounce.  It could also be that the oak cubes were buried in layers of yeast that settled out in secondary.  

The feel is a bit thick, but not syrupy or sticky.  The carbonation it does have helps lighten it up a bit.  It finishes with a slight alcohol burn and that chocolate.

This beer is more like a chocolate liquor than your average ale/stout/etc.  something to keep you company after the world has ended.  Enough of these and you won't even remember the comet strike or the wave of incoming zombies!

Notes:

    12/28/11 - Brewed  OG=1.10
        Made 2x 1/2 gal WLP099 starters
        Started with Nottingham yeast
    1/1-1/8 - Added 7.# corn sugar added some 099 and yeast nutrient
    1/9/12 -  Final sugar addition. vOG=1.074
    1/10/12 -  + 1 Vanilla bean (Vodka soaked) + 2oz Coco Nubs
          BR=19.2 G=1.04 ABV=14-19%
     1/16-1/17 added 1# cane Sugar vOG=1.182
     1/19/12 - Secondary Got ~4.5 gals - 1 gal of sludge!  G=1.029  ABV=20%
     5/29/12 - Keg + Fridge (To force carb)  FG=1.023, 19brix  ABV=20-21%
          Based on current brix+SG, OG could be 1.169, putting ABV at 19.5%
      8/23/12 - Bottled 1.5 cases
      12/20/12 - This tasting!

     

Honey Wheat - Recipe

With all of the dark, strong and sour beers I have been brewing recently, it was time to make something light and easy drinking.  After tossing a few ideas around I decided to make some honey wheat beer. 

Recipe (10 Gallons)
  10# Rahr 2-row
  5# Wheat malt (Local shop didn't have enough of one kind, so I used white and red)
  2# Wheat flour
  3# Orange blossom honey added at the end of the boil.
  1oz Zythos hop blend (60)
  1oz whole homegrown Cascade hops (15)
  2 packs US-05 dry yeast

Mash:
  Protein rest 10 minutes at 122F
  Sacc rest 50 minutes at 152F

Notes:
  Brewed 12/2/12  OG=1.051
  I took a chance mashing so much wheat with no rice hulls, but with the protein rest and a thin (1.5qt/#) mash, I didn't have too much trouble sparging.  I boiled 9 gallons down to a little over 7. At the end, I topped off with 2.5 gallons of bottled water, giving me 10 gallons in the fermeters.

Belgian dubbel/oud bruin

Recipe for 10 gallons.  I split this into 2 pails.  One got the standard Belgian yeast, the other Roeselare yeast blend, which will become an Oud Bruin.

Fermentables:
   18# Rarh 2-row malt
     1# Carapils
  1/2# Special B
  1/2# Belgian aromatic malt
     1# Belgian dark candi sugar
     2# sugar
Hops:
  2oz German Tradition (60)
  2oz Hersbrucker (15)
Other:
  1 Whirlfloc tablet (10)

Yeast:
  Wyeast 1214 Belgian Abby ale - Sub White labs 530 Belgian Abby ale
  Wyeast 3763 Roselare blend - used in 1/2 the wort for an old bruin.
 
Notes:

10/28/12 - Starter of WYeasty Abbey Yeaast

10/31/12 - Belgian starter failed!

10/31/12 - New starter w/ WLP 530 Abbey Ale

11/1/12 - Brew 10g Belgian double (1/2 goes to oud bruin)   OG=1.065

11/24/12 - Secondary  SG=1.011

Hazy, amber.  Slight yeasty. not much Belgian character.  A little sweet but not bad.

Smoked porter - tasting

Smoked porter Tasting

The beer is dark, almost black with ruby red highlights and a tan head.  Aroma of roasted malt with hints of wood smoke.  The smoke is more prominent in the flavor, backed up by the roasted malts.  It is full bodied and smooth. 

I like how this turned out.  I think the 5# was just the right amount of smoked malt for what I was looking for. 
I will be enjoying this over the winter months.

 

Notes:
10/7/12 - Brew OG=1.052
  +Nottingham Yeast
10/27/12 - Secondary - SG=1.009
  Nice smoky aroma and some in the flavor.  Dark. 
   Lost a lot to trub - only 4 Gallons in secondary.
11/2/12 - Bottled 4 gals of Smoked porter  FG=1.009  ABV=5.75%
   + 2.9oz sugar

Smoked Porter - Recipe

I combined 2.5 gallons of a strong stout and 2.5 gallons of smoked malt to make this beer.  I got 2 different 5 gallon batches with only a little extra effort.  See here for the full Strong Stout recipe. I mashed the smoked malt separately testing the 'brew in a bag' method.  It doesn't help that I didn't have the right kind of bag, but I think I got enough out of it.

For 2.5 Gallons (Then combined):
Fermentables:
  5# Briess Cherrywood smoked malt

Hops:
 1/2oz Northern Brewer (60 min)

Yeast:
  1 packet Nottingham dry ale yeast

Combine with 2.5 Gallons of Strong Stout wort.

Notes:
 Brewed: 10/7/12

 Mashed  @ ~152F for 60 minutes at 2qt/#
   Collected 3.5gals @9brix (1.036sg)
   Final (After combining): 4.8gals @14brix (1.056sg)
  After cooling, I took a gravity reading and got closer to 1.050. 

Looks like I got poor efficiency from the smoked malt.  The small bag made it difficult to stir the mash well.  At least the high gravity of the strong stout helped balance that. 1.050 will probably yield around 5% ABV, so its not too bad.  I will have to top it off 1-2 quarts to make up for the short volume, but it wont affect it by too much.
I did notice that the smokiness of the malt was very mild.  I am hoping 5# was enough to give it some good smoke character.

Update 11/25/12 Tasting

Strong Stout/Porter - Recipe

This recipe was for a combined brewing day.  I have been experimenting with different ways to get more than one beer in a short brew day.  For this, I made ~7.5 gallons of a strong stout and 2.5 gallons of smoked beer.  This recipe is for 7.5 gallons of stout.  See here for the smoked half.

For 7.5 Gallons:
Fermentables:
   15# Rahr 2-row
   1# Caramel 80
   1# English Chocolate Malt
   1# Flaked Oats
   1# Flaked Barley (I had ordered 2# barley, but was shipped 1 barley, 1 oats)
   8oz Black Patent Malt
   8oz English Roast Barley

Hops:
 2oz Northern Brewer (60 min)

Other:
 1 Whirlfloc tablet
 1 Vanilla bean (at flame-out)

Yeast:
  2 packs of S-04 dry ale yeast.

Notes:
 Brewed: 10/7/12 Start 7:45am

 Mashed  @ ~152F for 60 minutes at 1.5qt/#
   First running: 4.25gals @20.8brix (1.087sg)
   Second running: 5gals @11brix (1.044sg)
   Pre-boil 9.25gals @15brix
   Final: 7.5gals @18brix (1.074sg)
  After cooling, I took a gravity reading and got closer to 1.070. 

I probably could have gotten away with 1 yeast pack, but with the high OG, I decided to over pitch rather than under.  I'm sure it helped because the next day, I had blow off - Unexpected with 2 gallons of head space I leave in the pail.
Another thing I noticed with this beer.  Skimming the wort really helped avoid boilover.  I started with 9+ gallons in a 10 gallon pot.  I have skimmed before, but I could see this was really going to need it.  After taking off the top layer of foam, the rest of the boil went flawlessly.