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.

2012 Cider (Wilkens)

 Its apple season again and time to make some hard cider.  For this batch, I decided to go more fresh & natural.  5 Gallons of local fresh apple cider, wine yeast (Montrachet) and a little nutrient.  No added sugar, no pectic enzymes.

Started on 9/30/12
OG=1.048

It is bubbling away nicely and smells of sweet apples.  I will leave it in primary until the yeast drops, then a few months in secondary.  I still haven't
kegged Apfelwein IV, which has been aging since last
November.  Time to get to work!

Eberhardt Dark - Recipe

I based this recipe off of a combination of the Scottish 80 and German Lager - both of which I made in the last few months and liked at lot.
I combined what I though were the best parts of each into this one batch of 10 gallons.  This will be split into 2x5 gallon with the only difference this time being the yeast.

Recipe:
  for 10 Gallons OG=1.049
Malt:
 16.5# 2-row
 2# Munich 10l
 2# Vienna
 4oz Chocolate malt
 4oz Black patent malt
Hops:
 2oz Northern Brewer (60 minutes)
Yeast - each went into half (5 gallons)
 Safeale S-04
 Safbrew S-33
Other:
 1 Whirlfloc Tablet in boil (15 Minutes)
 2oz Med Toast Hungarian oak cubes - 1oz in secondary for each 5 gals
Mash 60 minutes at 152F

Brewing:I took the first gallon of mash runnings to boil down separately. This is to caramelize it a little and add to the maltiness.
My boil kettle is only 10 gallons, so I don't have enough room for a full 10g boil.  I started with 9 gallons, which boiled down to a little under 8.  Combined with the separate boil and 2 gallons of distilled top off water, I have my 10 gallons.
With my basement temp around 75F this time of year, I started the first few days of fermentation in the chest cooler, set to low 60's.
After at least 2 weeks primary, I will secondary on oak.  The first half will be kegged soon after, with the other waiting until the first half is gone.
I brewed this at the same time as this year's Havest IPA, which made for quite an exhausting day.

Notes:
  8/26/12 Brew 10 Gals @ 1.058 (Efficiency must have been a bit better than expected..)
     Fermenting in Chest freezer @60F
     1/2 gets S-33 other gets S-04
  

Harvest IPA 2012

With the homegrown hops ready for harvest, it's time for a Harvest IPA.  In this, I load it up with tons of fresh hops - something you can only do this time of year.  Last year, I only got nugget hops, but it turned out ok.  This year both the nugget and cascade plants are producing, so I am excited to see how it turns out.
While putting together the recipe, I was drinking the last of my German lager, which had a nice malty flavor from Munich and Vienna malts.  I wanted to give this beer a little bit of that, so I included a pound of each.  Hopefully it is just enough to balance the hops and not overpower the beer.
I like more hop flavor without over the top bitterness, so I decided to add all of the hops in the last 20 minutes.  This also let me do a short boil (1/2 hour) which really helped because I brewed this the same day as a 10 gallon batch of dark.
I first put the recipe together with 1oz hop additions, but since fresh hops are 70-80% water, this version includes 4x as much hops (by weight).  This came out to about 2 full solo cups for each hop addition.  In the end, I strained 1-2 gallons of used hops from the wort.

Recipe:  5 Gallon batch
Fermentables:
 10# 2-row malt
  1# Vienna malt
  1# Munich malt
  1# cara pils
  1# cane sugar
  Mash 1 hour @ 152F
Hops:
  4oz fresh nugget  (20)
  4oz fresh cascade (15)
  4oz fresh nugget (10)
  4oz fresh cascade (5)
  4oz fresh nugget (flame out)
  4oz fresh cascade (flame out)
  4oz fresh cascade (dry hop)
Boil additions:
  Whirlfloc (15)
Yeast:
   Fermentis US-05
Notes:
  Brewed on 8/26/12 staggered after the dark beer
  With the short boil and extra water from the hops, I ended up with 6 gallons of 1.058 wort.  Weaker than planned, but I do get an extra gallon of final proeduct.
  Fermented at ~70F in swamp cooler.
  Will rack to secondary and dry hop after 1-2 weeks
  It will sit in secondary for 1 week before going into the keg.  I want to drink this one fresh.

Hops - Growing



Cascade plant



Nugget Hop tower

After making your own beer, whats the next level? How about growing your own ingredients?  While it isn't practical for the homeowner to grow fields of barley, hops are actually not so difficult.  There are numerous websites selling hop rhizomes (Root cuttings you can use to propagate the plant)

I forget if these plants are on their second or third year, but I do know I only got hops from one of them (Nugget) last year.  It was enough to make a nice IPA and I plan to do the same this year - but hopefully with enough hops left over to dry and save for later batches too.

I moved the Cascade plant to a better spot with more sunlight and it has thanked my with tons of hop cones.  I have it growing horizontally along the fence.

For the nugget plant, I made a 20' pole and hung strings for it to climb.  In only a few months, it climbed to the top and back down another 6'.  It looks like this single massive hop tower.

In a few weeks, I will harvest and use a ton of them in a nice IPA.  Most recipes use dry hops, which weigh about 80% less than fresh, so I will need to adjust by about 5x, so while a normal IPA recipe may ask for 1/2# or so of hops, I will need more like 4 pounds...

I will post more on that IPA when the time comes.

Drying hops - Assuming I have enough to save for future batches, I will need to dry them for proper storage.  There are a number of methods suggested out there.  I am leaning towards filling a pillow case and putting it in the dryer.  Once they lose 70-80% of their weight I will pack them in ziplock bags and store in the freezer.

Other uses - I also like to make Hops tea from the fresh hop flowers.  For this, just break up a few cones, put them in a tea steeper, fill a container with hot tap water and put in the fridge.  Once it cools down you have a nice refreshing hoppy beverage.  Now that I have a carbonator cap, I may try some hops soda...mmm.  My wife has a recipe for ginger hop soda that we want to try.



Lambic 2012 (Peach) blending

2/3 of my 2012 Lambic blends now completed and aging.
I did the raspberry last week and will do the gueuze sometime in a few months probably.
For this beer, I also took 1 gallon from each of the 2011 and 2012 base beers. We went peach picking on Saturday and picked 9pounds of yellow peaches. The white were not ready yet. Since only a few were ripe, I added 2.5 pounds on Saturday and another 1.5 Monday night for a total of 4 pounds in 2 gallons. This should be enough to get a nice peachy aroma and flavor.
Sometime next year we will get to see how well that goes...

Raspberry Wheat - Tasting

This beer (Recipe) (Brewing) has only been in the keg for about a week and its just about ready for drinking now.  Just in time for tomorrow's party.
 Low malt flavor, just enough hops to balance and a neutral yeast make this wheat beer a clean canvas for the local raspberries to shine.

Appearance:  It has this reddish amber or maybe copper color.  Not as bright red as I would have liked, but this is what you get without food coloring.  The head is nice foamy slightly pink, but mostly white.

Aroma:  the smell is mostly fruity (I would guess raspberry) with a little wheat in the background.

Flavor:  It has a slight tartness and up front berry flavor with a little wheat.  I think there are some hops sneaking in too.

Mouthfeel:  Thin, but in a nice refreshing way.  The carbonation gives it some body.  Just about what I would want for a light refreshing fruity summer beer.

Overall: I do like the beer and I hope it is taken well tomorrow - but I do hope they leave me some to savor over the next month or so too.  Also it gives a preview to what the lambic version may be when it is ready.

 7/8/12 - Brew 5.25 gals.  BR=12 OG=1.046
   Wort was surprisingly clear/white
   US-05 pitched @71 - In swamp cooler w/ ice bottles.
  7/13-15/12 - Picked 7.5# raspberries (total)
  7/15/12 - Added 5.5# Raspberries to Primary  G=1.005
  7/26/12 - Secondary G=1.006
   Not a whole lot of raspberry aroma.  Some flavor. OK warm.  should be better cold/carb
   Good clarity.  better than expected.  color good, little lighter.
  8/2/12 - Keg  ABV=5.25%