tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90531608262245629082024-03-12T16:13:43.820-07:00Scrappy Hound BrewingUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger105125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9053160826224562908.post-14482211868055641682015-10-23T09:48:00.000-07:002015-10-23T09:48:36.882-07:00Pumpkin Lager<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Pumpkin beer. You probably have an opinion on it. People either love it or hate it. If you love it, you are either on the pumpkin pie spice crowd or actual pumpkin side. It's a divisive style. Every year I brew one, taste it and swear the style off. Then the next year comes around and Fall hits and all of a sudden I cave and brew one. <a href="http://gatorbeer.blogspot.com/2013/06/pumpkin-ale.html">Every. </a> <a href="http://gatorbeer.blogspot.com/2013/09/pumpkin-ale-v20.html">Single.</a> <a href="http://gatorbeer.blogspot.com/2014/09/sweet-stout-v20.html">Year.</a> I've done a straight pumpkin beer with spices. I then added graham crackers to the mash along with lactose and vanilla. Last year I tried pumpkin pie spices to a stout. They're all very average. And for some reason I'm stupid enough to try it again.</b></span><div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>This year I am of course changing up my recipe. There's a guy on Reddit who has apparently honed in on a recipe over the past 10+ years that he describes as a cross between Punkin and Pumking. He uses real pie pumpkins in the mash and then actually "dry pumpkins" after fermentation to give a gourd-y character. I decided to basically copy his recipe, his spice mix, and his pie pumpkin process. The only exception is I'm doing it as a lager instead of an ale. I had to change something up, didnt I!?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Ichabod Crane</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>3 Gallons</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>74% efficiency</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>5 lb Maris Otter (83%)</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>0.5 lb Victory (8%) - I had to sub this because the homebrew shop didn't have Biscuit</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>0.5 lb Munich (8%)</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>0.4 oz Tettnang (60 min)</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Wyeast 2124 (1 L starter, decanted, then 1.5 L starter)</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>OG 1.055 | FG 1.015 | IBU 12 | ABV 5.5%</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Mashed at 156F to try to get some sweetness. Boiled for 60 minutes. 2 mL lactic acid to get the mash pH to 5.35.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Pumpkin Spices/Process:</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Baked 1 medium pie pumpkin (cubed in 1inch cubes) for 60 minutes at 375F (tossing every 15 mins). Then I mixed some brown sugar (~1/4 c) with some water and spice mix (~1 tsp, see below) and put it back in the oven for 15 minutes until browned. This went into the mash.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>2 tsp of spice mix (below) at 15 mins left in the boil.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>When fermentation is done, bake another pie pumpkin in the oven, then candy on the stove with molasses and maple sugar, then add to secondary.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Spice Mix:</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>1 T cinnamon</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>1 t ginger</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>1 t nutmeg</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>1/4 t cloves</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>10/20/15: Brewed. OG 1.052. Put in fermentation chamber to cool down to 50F.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>10/21/15: Pitched yeast. Following the quick lager method that you can find online. 12 after yeast pitch, added O2 for 60 sec.</b></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099411583903298049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9053160826224562908.post-3125602195851406552015-10-22T13:53:00.000-07:002015-10-22T13:53:15.753-07:00Imperial Stout/Milk Stout Partigyle<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My all time favorite stouts come from Cigar City in Tampa, FL. There is a mouthfeel and sweetness in Marshal Zhukov, Hunahpu and a variety of their El Catador offerings that is consistent across all of their bigger stouts and I don't find it in many other commercial RIS. Apparently many other homebrewers feel the same way because there is an <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCAQFjAAahUKEwisqfqXuNTIAhUDlx4KHaE6Aks&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.homebrewtalk.com%2Fshowthread.php%3Ft%3D406876&usg=AFQjCNEk9DWef57GlnKOMo4obF6HvRqrqA&sig2=8l2KgtWzfl8F2ttZXiDERw&bvm=bv.105814755,d.dmo">extensive thread</a> trying to clone Hunahpu on HomeBrewTalk. Of course this is the internet and everyone seems to know a guy who knows a guy who talked to Wayne Wambles (head brewer at CCB) and got the recipe. </b><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Recipes on the internet have to be taken with a grain of salt. Take this from here, that from there, combine them, put your own twist on them and then brew up something that you hope is in the spirit of the original beer. That's all I'm going for here, a big, thick, chewy imperial stout. I don't expect it to taste like Marshal Zhukov, but if it's in the ballpark I'm good.</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>With my recipe design, one key thing that I think helps CCB's stouts get this character is a high percentage of non-base malts. There actually are some emails and interviews with Wayne where he talks about this. Oh and there is this </b></span><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">sheet of paper under the bar in the tasting room at CCB which is supposedly the first recipe for Hunahpu. As you can see there are a lot of malts, a lot of roasted malts at that, and it's a fairly complicated recipe. So from this, from my theory about base malt being <50% of the recipe and from some select bits of info from online, I pieced my recipe together for a big RIS.</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Aside from the recipe, another thing I read about online was that breweries with these big, thick, chewy stouts sometimes only use the first runnings. I thought this would be a good time to try this and while I was at it, also do my first <a href="http://morebeer.com/brewingtechniques/library/backissues/issue2.2/moshertable.html">partigyle</a>. For those who don't know, a partigyle is where you take off the first runnings, use that to make a beer, then sparge and use the second runnings to make another beer. With my first runnings beer being a RIS, I thought I would do a milk stout for my second runnings beer and just add some lactose during the boil. This brew day was intense because I had to do two separate mashes because my tun was too small, then two separate boils, but I finished it in around 5 hours and ended up with about 1.5 gallons of RIS and 2.5 gallons of milk stout.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Imperial Stout/Milk Stout Partigyle</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>4 gallons</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>74% efficiency</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>7 lb Maris Otter (50%)</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>2.5 lb Munich (18%)</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>1 lb Roasted Barley (7%)</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>1 lb Chocolate Malt (7%)</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>0.5 lb C60 (4%)</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>0.5 lb C120 (4%)</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>0.5 lb Black Patent (4%)</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>2 oz Chinook (60 mins)</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Wyeast 1056 - 2 1.5 L starters, fermented at 64F. Mashed at 154F.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>These values are theoretical if I wasn't doing a partigyle. Look at the notes for actual numbers.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>OG 1.089 | FG 1.031 | ABV 8.3% | IBU 83</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>No water adjustments needed.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>9/20/15: Brewday. Split mash, added baking soda because mash pH was low. Ran off 0.75 from each first runnings. Ended up with 1.5 gal of RIS OG 1.101 and 2.5 gallons of milk stout OG 1.068 (0.4 lb lactose added).</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>9/26/15: RIS gravity down to 1.026. Milk stout down to 1.022.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>10/19/15: Both gravities stable at about the same as last time. The RIS is viscous, a little hot in alcohol, maybe too much roasted barley. Milk stout is nice and sweet. Bottled.</b></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099411583903298049noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9053160826224562908.post-58279269423315998322015-09-11T10:12:00.002-07:002015-09-11T10:12:32.553-07:00The Quest for a Good Hoppy BeerIt's a common theme that I talk about a lot on this blog, my quest to brew a good hoppy beer. I've probably brewed 15+ hoppy beers and every one I brew falls off quickly or lacks a certain hop quality that I find in commercial beers. My last 3 brews have turned into muddled, dark colored beers so quickly that I considered stopping brewing hoppy beers. Instead, after being talked off the ledge by my fiance, I decided to dive into why my beers are failing and tried to fix it.<br />
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There is a <a href="http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/how-to-brew/resources/conference-seminars/">NHC seminar talk</a> that was given at the 2015 conference by the homebrewing master of IPAs, Kelsey McNair. His IPA, Hop Fu! has won NHC Gold 3 times and Silver twice, which is unfathomable in the competition's biggest category. Needless to say, this guy knows his stuff. His seminar focused on a few things that I thought were important: recipe development, water, and packaging. Recipe wise, my hoppy beers tend to be 90%+ base malt and back loaded hop schedules, so I think I'm ok there. I've <a href="http://gatorbeer.blogspot.com/2014/12/brewing-water.html">talked</a> about how I treat my water, and it's in line with what he does, but I adjusted a few numbers to hit his recommendations exactly. The last part, packaging, seemed to me to be a huge focus of his and something I've never given a ton of thought to, so I decided to start there.<br />
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I've heard time and time again that a lot of people have their hoppy beers improve when they start kegging so it got me thinking. I may not be able to keg, but I can certainly improve my bottling process to mimic a kegging setup. If my beer tastes good in the fermenter and not so good 2 weeks later after bottling, something must be happening during bottling, right? Hooray for process of elimination.<br />
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First off, what does a homebrew kegging setup look like? Good brewers will have a keg purged with CO2, they will then rack the beer in a closed system from fermentation vessel to the keg, then seal it up and add CO2 to carbonate. See where I'm going here? There is little to no O2 exposure of the beer. Oxygen is a killer to hoppy beers. So much so that commercial breweries measure O2 pick up in the parts per million level with dissolved oxygen meters. A place such as Modern Times Brewing has spent a lot of money to get this number as low as possible.<br />
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So, what does a bottling setup look like for a homebrewer? Typically we rack the beer into a bottling bucket open to the air, add a cooled corn sugar mixture that I base off a priming sugar calculator, stir, then use a bottling want to get the beer into bottles and capped. Lots of room for O2 pickup in a normal bottling setup.<br />
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My hoppy beers were so heavily loaded with hops on the back end that I felt oxygenation was (one of) the culprits in why my beer tasted so mediocre. I set out trying to mimic the closed loop kegging set up.<br />
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Here's my finished beer. A <a href="http://gatorbeer.blogspot.com/2015/08/scrappy-hound-house-pale-ale-3.html">pale ale with Citra and Nelson</a>. As you can see I brew 2.5-3 gallon batches which leaves some headspace in the fermenter which could be an oxygen issue. Never fear! I picked up a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Portland-Design-Works-Inflator-Cartridge/dp/B002YEFY8I">portable CO2 dispenser</a> which I use to add CO2 to the headspace when I sample and dry hop (which only happened once in this batch, I sampled and dry hopped at the same time). <br />
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This is the CO2 dispenser I picked up. This little device will be used throughout this process to purge anything and everything with CO2.<br />
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Above is my bottling bucket which has a very tight seal. The hole on the lid with the gasket will be used to insert tubing to add CO2, then immediately filled with my siphon tubing to rack the beer. Before the lid was put on, I added my priming sugar solution and just assumed that as the beer was added it would mix evenly.<br />
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The first step was to purge the siphon with CO2, then purge the bucket with CO2 and rack the beer through the hole on top. I need to say that I added a very small pin-hole on the lid as well to let air escape. As I was racking in, air was constantly coming out of this tiny hole which led me to believe I had a good seal.<br />
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My bottling station above my dishwasher is shown on the left. Before I filled any of the bottles I purged them with CO2 just as another crazy attempt to eliminate O2 pickup. Once I finished filling the bottle, I immediately put an O2 absorbing cap on them and capped them.<br />
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My bottling was done and I felt that I had eliminated O2 as best as I could with such a jerry-rigged system. I made sure once I finished bottling them that I put them in my fermentation fridge at ~62F to condition, then straight to the regular fridge to cold condition. Keeping hoppy beers out of any kind of warmth will also help the hops to not fade as quickly.<br />
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Two weeks after bottling, I popped my first one and it's brightly hoppy and I'm pretty dang happy with it. It's not commercial quality, but it's fine for a homebrew. I'm pretty happy I didn't swear off brewing hoppy beers.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099411583903298049noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9053160826224562908.post-77268949129580693802015-08-29T08:00:00.000-07:002015-08-29T08:00:02.625-07:00Scrappy Hound House Pale Ale #3<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's no secret that I hate homebrewing hoppy beers. I'm convinced that it's very, very difficult to brew good hoppy beers at home if you don't keg, and even then I'm still skeptical that they're ever at a near-commercial level. I have yet to have a good hoppy homebrew from anybody. Regardless, I still foolishly brew them because it's one of my fiance's favorite styles and, well, I'm just stubborn.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Most of my hoppy beers fall flat. They're muted and kind of blah even when they're young. I've tried water adjustments, yeast, hops, and just about everything else I can think of. This time I did a few things. First off, I found a talk from this year's NHC by Kelsey McNair who, if you don't know, has won something like 3 NHC gold medals for his IPA, Hop Fu!. He's going pro and this talk was about how to brew the perfect hoppy beer. I specifically focused on two things, the water profile he recommends and eliminating O2 which I think might be hurting my beers. The water profile was easy to hit with salts but eliminating O2 as much as possible took some thinking. I am planning on a post soon with my new (and probably crazy and unnecessary) method, but I did buy this <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Portland-Design-Works-Object-Inflator/dp/B00915FJY2">portable CO2 cartridge dispenser</a> to help me to purge headspace with CO2 when I sampled and bottled.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This recipe I came up with is pretty simple and focuses on two awesome hops, Citra and Nelson. I was hoping for a juicy pale ale that's crushable and really bright. I used late hopping, a hop stand and some super fresh hops from Farmhouse Supply to really drive the aroma. I like the idea of wheat in the grain bill to provide some softness. I'm not optimistic because I have yet to brew a great hoppy beer, but hopefully I'll be surprised!</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pale Ale #3</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3 Gallons</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">74% Efficiency</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5 lb 2 Row</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 lb White wheat</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">0.5 oz Chinook (15 min)</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">0.5 oz Nelson (Flameout)</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">0.5 oz Citra (Flameout)</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">0.5 oz Nelson (180F)</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">0.5 oz Citra (180F)</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 oz Nelson (Dry Hop)</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 oz Citra (Dry Hop)</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">US05 at 66F ambient. Mashed at 150F.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">OG 1.054 | FG 1.011 | ABV 5.8% | IBU 59</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ca 127 | Mg 2 | Na 0 | Cl 44 | SO4 227 | HCO3 38</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">8/15/15: Brewed. OG 1.049.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">8/20/15: Sampled for gravity, purged headspace with CO2 cartridge and added Nelson and Citra dryhop.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">8/26/15: Bottled with new O2 free bottling system.</span></b><br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099411583903298049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9053160826224562908.post-14971463651687848532015-08-28T08:59:00.002-07:002015-08-28T08:59:38.587-07:00More Quick Sours!<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's been awhile since I've posted but that doesn't mean I haven't been brewing. I've been consistently been at it and now that I've got some time I plan to catch up on the blog.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was running low on berliners/quick sours, so I fired up a 3 gallon batch with the intention of splitting it 3 ways. I followed the <a href="http://gatorbeer.blogspot.com/2015/01/scrappy-hound-house-sour-1.html">kettle sour method</a> I've been using for years to make a pretty low gravity (~4%) beer that's nicely tart and clean.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For this batch, once it fermented out, I chose to split 2 gallons on fruit and 1 gallon as a gose experiment.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The first gallon was split on pineapple for an upcoming competition in my area that I actually took <a href="http://gatorbeer.blogspot.com/2014/09/winner.html">first and second BOS</a> in last year (humblebrag). This pineapple berliner might not be the most overwhelmingly crazy fruited berliner that I do, but it scored a 43 on <a href="http://gatorbeer.blogspot.com/2013/11/dr-homebrew.html">Dr. Homebrew</a> and a buddy took my tips on this beer to the final round of NHC in the fruit beer category. I think that 1 chopped pineapple/gallon is perfect for this style. The key to a BJCP competition fruit beer is balance with the base style and at this rate, the pineapple is there, but it's definitely a berliner first and foremost. It's a really elegant blend. I have high hopes for this at the competition.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I split another gallon onto peach puree. These local peaches went on sale for 50 cents a pound so I snatched up 10 pounds. ( let them get really ripe, then took the pits out and pureed them in a food processor and froze them in 2 pound increments. I put one gallon onto 2 lbs of pureed peach. When it came time to rack off the fruit, it was an absolute mess. I left behind a lot of sludge and I'm not sure how well the peach flavor is going to present itself. </span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The last gallon I made into a Margarita gose. I highly salted it (6 g sea salt/gallon) and then added the zest of 2 limes in secondary. I took a sample to see how it was coming and I was BLOWN away. The flavor is absolutely nailed. I haven't been this excited with a beer in awhile. At bottling the flavor was still there so I'm really excited to try it properly carbed.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I always love making berliners because they're so easy to make (mash one day which takes an hour, then boil the next day for 15 mins, and they are low OG so they ferment quickly) and fun to experiment with. I actually have a 5 gallon batch planned for this upcoming beer fest which I plan on fruiting (tropical fruit: dragonfruit, passionfruit, mango, guava) and serving during the people's choice portion of the fest. </span></b>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099411583903298049noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9053160826224562908.post-61175250454515095102015-07-22T09:49:00.001-07:002015-07-22T09:49:33.207-07:00Saison Notes<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">I wanted to post these here for posterity. They are notes from the king of saisons, Shaun Hill of Hill Farmstead. He gave these notes <a href="http://archive.is/VkRos">back in 2007</a>, so they might be a little outdated, but they serve as a fantastic outline of general saison brewing. In particular I take away the sulfate levels as well as the acidification of the sparge water, which I've never done, but will most definitely be doing when I do my 4th iteration of my saison.</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="background-color: white;"><u>Y</u></span></b></span><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><u>east/Fermentation</u>: A great <i>saison</i> begins with the brewer's choice of yeast. A likely candidate is the Dupont culture (WLP 565, WY3724). This will always produce the peppery/estery/earthy characteristic that seems to define the style. Many brewers have reported difficulties achieving desired levels of attenuation while using this strain and are thus forced to finish the fermentation with a second strain of yeast. I have never encountered this dilemma but highly suggest that when using this strain it is necessary to maintain a very warm fermentation temperature - in the range of 75° to 90° F (24° to 32° C) and to use a yeast nutrient. Due to this occasional lack of attenuation, it may be more advisable to choose a more predictable and reliable yeast strain. Chouffe (WLP550, WY3522), Fantome (WY3725), Blaugies (WY3726) or any myriad of the wit/wheat yeasts (WLP400, WY 3463) available from White Labs and Wyeast are capable choices. The Blaugies strain (WY3726) is reputedly less finicky than the Dupont strain and has a very similar flavor profile (likely due to the relationship between the two breweries at Blaugies' startup). If choosing the Chouffe yeast, beware the "flavor bomb." Higher temperatures with this yeast can result in excessive phenolic/ester development. Pay particular attention to the suggested temperature profiles - but don't be afraid to experiment. Being cautious and living by the rules doesn't breed an inspired <i>saison</i>!</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;"><u>Primary</u>: 1-3 weeks</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;"><u>Secondary</u>: 2 weeks</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;"><u>Bottle Conditioning</u>: 2-3 weeks, minimum</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="background-color: white;">Cellar Indefinitely - three-year-old bottles still taste brilliant!</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;"><u>Water</u>: Depending upon the profile of your water source, you may want to try and boost your sulfate levels into the range of 100 to 200 ppm through the addition of calcium sulfate (gypsum, CaSO4). This will benefit the perceived dryness of the final product and accentuate the hop character. If the pH of your source water is much above 6, you may choose to treat with food grade acid (lactic or phosphoric) to bring the pH of mash and sparge water into the 5.2-5.4 range</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;"><u>Grist</u>: Feel inspired. Begin with a base of Pilsen malt. 2 row pale will work if you don't have access to Pilsen malt. This should contribute at least 50% of extract value. Try adding in Munich, Vienna, wheat, spelt, oat, or rye malt. Candy sugar, dextrose, and other sugars (1-10%) will add fermentability to the wort and boost attenuation</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;"><u>Mash</u>: Infusion mash, unless you have the ability/desire to step. Mash temperature should be guided by your desired end result - the lower the temperature, the higher the level of attenuation and fermentability. Try mashing somewhere in the 146° to 152° F (64° to 67° C) range. Adjust as necessary</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;"><u>Boil/Hopping</u>: 90 minute boil. 20-40 ibus. Noble hops are preferable. Try Styrian Golding, East Kent Golding, Hallertauer, Saaz, or try adding an American twist to your <i>saison</i> by using Mount Hood, Amarillo, or any other spicy variety. It's all up to the chef. Add bittering hops at 60 minutes (20-30 ibus); add remaining bitterness in the last 15-20 minutes of the boil. Finishing addition at the end of the boil should be in the range of 1-2 ounces per 5-gallon batch</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;"><u>Spicing</u>: Star anise, coriander, lavender, rosemary, sage, thyme, peppercorns, orange peel, ginger, figs, cumin, dates, etc. Minimal</span></b></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099411583903298049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9053160826224562908.post-19832533088381128282015-06-23T13:50:00.004-07:002015-07-21T08:16:18.316-07:00Scrappy Hound House Saison #3<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Round 3! My first and second attempts at a delicious saison went surprisingly well. I really enjoyed each iteration and felt that there was nothing wrong with the two beers, but they could also be improved on. In this version, I'm sticking to the same general grain bill, but with a little big more emphasis on wheat.</b></span><br />
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<b><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My big change from the past two versions is that I'm introducing a new yeast this time. In the past I've used French Saison Wyeast 3711 and although I love how vicious that yeast rips through a beer (down to sub 1.005 in no time), the flavor profile isn't exactly what I'm looking for. I got in touch with the 2014 saison winner and he uses a split of 3711 and the Belgian saison strain, Wyeast 3724. I had heard stories about the Belgian strain being finnicky, so I had shied away from it, but I think that with some 3711 in there, it'll have no problem ripping through the wort. I aimed to pitch the yeasts in a 50/50 ratio (I built up starters, and eyeballed how much I pitched), so hopefully we'll get the Belgian profile with the fermenting capabilities of the French strain (in a perfect world). Oh, and as far as the last batch where I messed with the water profile, I'm keeping it pretty plain this batch, but I am adding some NaCl to see what that does.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Additionally, as much as I love plain saisons, my Fiance isn't the biggest fan, and since she's mainly the other one who drinks these beers, I'm going to split this batch. I'm thinking that I'll do 1 gallon straight, 1 gallon on some fruit (she suggested Mango, might do Apricots since they're in season) and I think we're going to sour a gallon and maybe pitch some brett. All in due time.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Scrappy Hound House Saison #3</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3 gallons</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">74% efficiency</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">60 min boil</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3 lb Belgian Pils (67%)</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 lb White Wheat (22%)</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">0.5 lb Vienna (11%)</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">0.75 oz Tettnang (60 min)</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wyeast 3724/Wyeast 3711 (50/50) @ 65F ambient. Mash at 148F.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">OG 1.042 | FG 1.006 | ABV 4.7% | IBU 26</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ca 41 | Mg 2 | Na 56 | Cl 87 | SO4 80 | HCO3 38</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6/21/15: Brewday. OG 1.040. 3+ gallons into fermenter. Cooled overnight and pitched in morning.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6/22/15: Visible fermentation by night. </span></b><br />
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<b><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">7/1/15: Down to 1.001. Temperature bumped to 70F</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">7/11/15: Bottled 1 gallon. </span></b><br />
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<b><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">7/19/15: Added 2 packages Goya Mango puree to 1 gallon, dry hopped another with 1 oz. Nelson.</span></b></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099411583903298049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9053160826224562908.post-26052994216363384342015-05-21T09:52:00.000-07:002015-06-15T10:01:57.261-07:00German Pilsner<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Ruh roh. As if I didn't have enough things to work on in my brewing skill set, I decided I needed to tackle lager brewing. </b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I recently <a href="http://gatorbeer.blogspot.com/2015/05/scrappy-hound-house-ipa-1.html">gave up on hoppy beers</a> (spoiler alert, that beer is drinkable but mediocre at best) and have enough sour beer in the house to kill someone, so I didn't know what to brew for a summer drinker. I had a bit of a falling out with my kolsch last time I brewed it, so I didnt want to do that. I nixed a wheat, thought about a blonde/golden but then started reading about quick lagers (Tasty McDole first brought this to my attention on the Brewing Network) and thought, why not? </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>So I'm leaving ales behind for a batch and jumping into lagers. </b></span><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think this comes from the desire to have a super crushable beer for the summer. Oh and it doesn't hurt that I had Firestone Walker Pivo Pils for the first time and fell in love. Now I'm off to create something in a similar vein.</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I want this beer to be crisp, lower ABV, and slightly hoppy. Something you could put away a few of. I'll be following the following quick lager profile:</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>-Pitch massive starter into 50F wort.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>-Bump the temperature up 5F every 12 hours once 50% attenuation is hit until you reach ~68F.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>-Diacetyl rest</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>-Cold crash, gelatin fine, bottle.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I'm expecting this to take a few weeks. I'm not in a rush so I have no problem with this taking longer, but I would like to see how fast I can turn around a decent beer for future reference. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>German Pilsner</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>2.5 Gallons</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>74% efficiency</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>90 minute boil</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>4.5 lb Best Malz Pilsner</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>0.25 lb Carapils</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>0.5 oz Tettnang (60 min)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>0.5 oz Spalter Select (15 min)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>1 oz Tettnang (Flameout)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>0.5 oz Spalter Select (Flameout)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Wyeast 2124 Bohemian Lager @50F. Mashed at 148F.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>OG 1.050 | FG 1.010 | ABV 5.2% | IBU 29</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Ca 70 | Mg 2 | Na 0 | Cl 90 | SO4 26 | HCO3 38</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>5/17/15: Brewday. Pitched 2L starter next morning after cold crash. OG 1.049. Mash pH 5.35.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>5/21/15: Gravity down to 1.024. Bumped ambient up to 58F.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>5/22/15: Bumped ambient to 68F.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>5/26/15: Gravity down to 1.007. Began ramp down to <50F to gelatin fine/lager.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>6/1/15: Gravity down to 1.004. Lagering at 40F.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>6/11/15: Bottled</b></span><br />
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</b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099411583903298049noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9053160826224562908.post-69043431212938213972015-05-08T07:53:00.001-07:002015-05-12T09:16:59.606-07:00Scrappy Hound House IPA #1<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Homebrewed IPAs. My nemesis. I've brewed quite a few, I've tasted quite a few, and they're always lacking something from top tier commercial examples. It's a brightness, a cleanness, something that I can't ever achieve in a homebrew setup. It's happened so much that I'm convinced you can't homebrew a top tier commercial quality IPA (and you DEFINITELY can't if you bottle condition). </span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That being said, I'm an idiot and stubborn and tried to brew one. I was shooting for a Hill Farmstead style IPA. High mineral content, back loaded hops to produce a very light bitterness, and a smooth drinking experience. I also took a page out of Noble Ale Work's Shower series which I believe are 100% golden promise malt, or at least they lean heavily on it.</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This might be my last hoppy beer for awhile. I'm tired of being disappointed, these beers aren't cheap and there are a ton of locally available hoppy beers that will quench my thirst. </span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">IPA #1</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3 gallons</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">74% efficiency</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">60 minute boil</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">7 lb Golden Promise (100%)</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">0.5 oz Chinook (60 min)</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">0.25 oz Citra (15 min)</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">0.25 oz Amarillo (15 min)</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">0.25 oz Centennial (15 min)</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1.75 oz Citra (Whirlpool)</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">0.75 oz Amarillo (Whirlpool)</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">0.75 oz Centennial (Whirlpool)</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 oz Citra (Dry Hop)</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 oz Amarillo (Dry Hop)</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 oz Centennial (Dry Hop)</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wyeast 1318 @ 66F. Mashed at 150F.</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">OG 1.063 | FG 1.011 | ABV 6.9% | IBU 58</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ca 176 | Mg 2 | Na 62 | Cl 110 | SO4 254 | HCO3 203</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>4/18/15: Brewed</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>4/29/15: Gravity down to 1.018. Cold crashed and added gelatin.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>5/4/15: Dryhopped</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>5/10/15: Bottled. FG 1.011. 6% ABV.</b></span><br />
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<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099411583903298049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9053160826224562908.post-66225919102199392932015-04-14T09:58:00.003-07:002015-04-15T14:00:59.251-07:002015 NHC First Round Results<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I entered my <a href="http://gatorbeer.blogspot.com/2015/03/national-homebrew-competition-2015.html">first NHC</a> this year. I finally got my results and scoresheets back and found out that I sent one beer through to the final round. I'm happy, but kicking myself because I think with a few tweaks or changes I could have done better. I guess that's why you should do a few competitions to fine tune your beers before a big competition like NHC.</b></span><br />
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<a href="http://i.imgur.com/TXmDBy8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/TXmDBy8.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>My thoughts on the results:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://gatorbeer.blogspot.com/2014/11/classic-ris.html">Russian Imperial Stout</a> - 13 F - Second place, 41.5/50 The notes on this were great to see, especially because I designed this beer specifically for competitions. That gives me confidence that I can brew competition worthy beers (I see this as a different skill set to brewing good beers). It scored well in most categories, probably worst in the aroma section. I was happy to see this advance, but I'll need a little luck to medal with this as I'd have to imagine 41.5 isn't going to get it done.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://gatorbeer.blogspot.com/2015/02/funky-golden-brett-tasting-notes.html">Golden Brett</a> - 16E - DNP - 29/50. I <a href="http://gatorbeer.blogspot.com/2015/03/national-homebrew-competition-2015.html">knew</a> this beer wouldn't do well. Thinking back now, I wonder why I even entered it. I think because I'm so proud of this beer as just a normal drinking beer, that I hoped somehow it would translate to competitions. That just wasn't meant to happen though as this beer doesn't fit in a category and the comments showed that. I got "the brett overwhelms the beer", "hard to judge", "blend well together, very pleasant". At least I don't have to save 3 bottles for the final round!</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://gatorbeer.blogspot.com/2015/01/quick-sour-update.html">Passionfruit Berliner</a> - 20 - DNP - 30.5. This probably surprised me most of all. I purposefully sent my passionfruit version over my raspberry version after a taste test because the raspberry was very fruit forward and my understanding of the fruit beer category was that you want the base beer to be present, and the fruit to compliment it. Boy was I wrong because I was dinged for a lack of fruit character. "A nice berliner, wish there was more fruit character" and "no detectable passionfruit, base beer style well done". I was very disappointed in how this scored.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Gose - 23 - DNP - 32.5. When I entered this in the specialty beer category I said a gose style beer (historic) with sea salt and coriander added. A good gose is basically a tart, salty beer to me. Coriander is traditionally added, but I can't normally pick it out as a flavor component because the sourness and salt are so forward. See Westbrook's Gose for a good example. Naming coriander as an ingredient was my downfall. I should know better that once you name an ingredient you damn well better be able to taste it. The coriander is a light, orange-y background note, not an upfront flavor. The judges murdered me for this saying, "very good version of style..not enough coriander to detect...salt level was great" and "really refreshing beer..lacks coriander flavor"</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I'm looking forward to the Final Round in June, but I'm not holding out any hopes that my RIS medals. I do think that I'm going to spend the next year fine tuning these recipes, adding a few others (saison), entering some smaller competitions and taking another shot at a NHC medal in 2016.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099411583903298049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9053160826224562908.post-44314832454532517862015-03-23T13:27:00.002-07:002015-05-01T09:23:59.367-07:00Porter<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>As I said in my <a href="http://gatorbeer.blogspot.com/2014/12/2015-goals.html">2015 Brewing Goals</a> post, I was going to focus on a few styles (saison, hoppy beers, sours) and I have done almost exclusively that so far this year. As much as I love re-brewing the same beers with little tweaks and making them better/honing in on them, every so often you need to switch things up.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I decided I wanted to brew a porter for a couple of reasons. 1) A stout/porter/dark beer is a nice change of pace from saisons/hoppy/sours. 2) Some of my favorite beers that I've had (and some I haven't had, but desperately want) are porters ie: Funky Buddha Last Snow, Angry Chair German Chocolate Cake, Hill Farmstead Everett. 3) Porter is a great style to serve as a base for different treatments </b></span><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(Last Snow has coffee, coconut, white chocolate, German Chocolate Cake has cacao nibs, coconut and vanilla) </b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>and if you've read a little of my blog, you'll notice I love splitting a ba</b></span><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">tch 3 ways to get different beers. </b><br />
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></b>
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, I've read countless arguments about porter vs stout and it seems like nobody knows what differentiates the two styles. Personally, I don't really care about putting this beer into a style category as I don't aim to enter this in competitions. Initially I was shooting for a lower ABV, sweeter, lighter (brown to dark brown) beer with little roast character (which is what pops into my head when someone describes a porter). In researching recipes, I think I actually drifted away from that in an effort to get something like Hill Farmstead's Everett. I think the beer I ended up with will be a little roastier (maybe too much roasted malt?), but should end up with a higher finishing gravity to add some sweetness and hopefully a little bit of syrupy-ness, which I actually like. Either way, I think this beer will get tweaked a few times because I'd love to have a good porter in my back pocket.</b><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://i.imgur.com/xFOXD6m.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><img border="0" height="320" src="https://i.imgur.com/xFOXD6m.jpg" width="320" /></b></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Porter</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>3 gallons</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>74% Efficiency</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>60 minute boil</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>5.5 lb 2 Row</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>0.75 lb Chocolate Malt</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>0.75 lb C60</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>0.75 lb Roast Barley</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>0.25 oz Chinook (60 min)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>0.5 oz Chinook (15 min)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Wyeast 1318 @64F. Mashed at 154F.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>OG 1.066 | FG 1.022 | ABV 6.0% | IBU 33</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Ca 237 | Mg 2 | Na 87 | Cl 219 | SO4 253 | HCO3 269</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>3/21/15: Brewday. OG 1.063 (Ended up with > 3 gal). Seriously dark. Mash pH high (5.6), added lactic to lower.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>3/22/15: Cooled overnight to pitching temp, added decanted 1L starter. Fermentation was visible within hours.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>3/24/15: Down to 1.026.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>4/8/15: Racked 1 gallon onto 12 oz of frozen raspberries. Racked 1 gallon onto 49 g toasted unsweetened coconut.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>4/14/15: Bottled the 2 variants and the plain batch.</b></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099411583903298049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9053160826224562908.post-46206110328084091562015-03-11T10:05:00.003-07:002015-03-18T12:11:05.230-07:00Dark Funky Saison<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Things got a little weird on Sunday. I brewed up a dark funky saison type beer. Why? I'm not entirely sure. I'm a little inspired by Hill Farmstead's Edith when I had it recently, but I think this is mostly for curiosity's sake. This also isn't technically a saison, I'm not using a saison yeast, but I don't know what else to call it. Dark Brett Ale? Farmhouse Dark Ale? Who knows, let's just hope I in a few months I get to call it "Delicious".</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I have a 3 gallon better bottle which I have dedicated to shorter term sour/funky beers. I have my solera, which is for long term sours, but I wanted to pump out stuff a little quicker to satisfy my sour thirst. The last beer I did turned out beautifully, so I went with another (hopefully) brett bomb. I am planning on fermenting this solely with BSI Brett Drie and Hill Farmstead dregs from Nordic Saison that I have been growing up for the past few weeks.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Dark Funky Saison</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>3 gallons</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>75% Efficiency</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>60 minute boil</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>4 lb Belgian Pils (71%)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>1.5 lb White Wheat (27%)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>0.12 lb Chocolate (2%)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>0.5 oz Tettnang (60 min)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>0.5 oz Tettnang (15 min)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>BSI Brett Drie and Hill Farmstead Dregs at 66F ambient. Mashed at 148F.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>OG 1.051 | FG 1.011 | ABV 5.4% | IBU 24</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Ca 130 | Mg 2 | Na 66 | Cl 116 | SO4 134 | HCO3 213</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>3/8/15: Brewday. OG 1.050. Mash pH 5.4. It's a little chocolately, so I'm not sure how this will turn out.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>3/10/15: Had to switch to a blowoff tube, this thing is fermenting like crazy.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>3/16/15: Gravity to 1.011. Taste is very nice, color is a very unappetizing light brown.</b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099411583903298049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9053160826224562908.post-43309042770984584232015-03-04T12:56:00.002-08:002015-03-18T12:10:23.490-07:00Scrappy Hound House Pale Ale #2<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I can't make a good hoppy beer to save my life. I've brewed probably 10 different IPA/Pale/Hoppy whatevers and they all suck. Muted aroma/flavor, malt forward, just generally blah. I'm not even being super critical like I normally am when I compare my homebrew to commercial beers and feel underwhelmed. I'm comparing my hoppy beers to mediocre versions of commercial beers and they still suck. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>With that being said, I'm not giving up. I'm on a quest to make an explosive hoppy beer and I'm going to do it. I might not do it for 20 years, but I'll get there eventually. I last brewed my <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2015/03/03/smallbusiness/craft-beer-startup-how-to-guide">Scrappy Hound House Pale Ale #1</a> a month or two ago and the result was typical for my hoppy beers. Uninspired and blah. So I blew that recipe up, read and read and read about brewing hoppy beers and I think I've got it figured out (hahahahahha).</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I took out the crystal. Upped the amount of hops. Got some fresh, uber dank, reliable flavor combo hops. I went over water profiles for hoppy beers again (hellooooo sulfates!). I made sure to get my mash pH low (5.2). I changed the yeast to what apparently is the Hill Farmstead strain. Then I hyped myself up and convinced myself this is the time I brew an awesome hoppy beer (either that or I set myself up to cry in the corner when I taste this and it sucks like usual). </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Pale Ale #2</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>3 Gallons</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>74% efficiency</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>60 minute boil</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>4.5 lb 2 Row (82%)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>0.5 lb Maris Otter (9%)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>0.5 lb White Wheat (9%)</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>0.25 oz Chinook (FWH)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>0.5 oz Citra (15 min)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>0.25 oz Amarillo (15 min)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>0.5 oz Citra (Hop Stand, 180F for 20 min)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>0.25 oz Amarillo (Hop Stand, 180F for 20 min)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>1 oz Citra (Dry Hop)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>0.5 oz Amarillo (Dry Hop)</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Wyeast 1318 @ 64F ambient. Mashed at 154F</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>OG 1.051 | FG 1.011 | ABV 5.2% | IBU 53</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Ca 194 | Mg 1 | Na 27 | Cl 120 | SO4 279 | HCO3 108</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>3/3/15: Brewday. Mash pH 5.3. 1.5 L starter of WY1318. 50 seconds of O2. OG 1.051.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>3/7/15: Gravity down to 1.017</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>3/16/15: Gravity at 1.011. Dry hopped.</b></span><br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099411583903298049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9053160826224562908.post-49110788508711414882015-03-03T09:20:00.002-08:002015-03-03T09:20:31.669-08:00National Homebrew Competition 2015<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>It's time for NHC, the National Homebrew Competition, the largest homebrew contest in the country. It happens once a year and takes place in two rounds. The first round being across the country at judging centers in different cities and the final round taking place at the National Homebrewer Conference, this year in San Diego in June. I've never entered before, but I decided I wanted to have somewhat of a goal to brew for and thought I'd test my beers at the biggest competition of them all.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Let me first say that I'm honestly not a huge fan of homebrew competitions. They're about brewing to style, not brewing the best beer possible. Sometimes those two things coincide, but a lot of times my favorite examples of the style wouldn't fare well in a sanctioned competition (homebrew and commercial beers alike). There is also the problem of judge bias, the placement of your beer in the flight (if your beer is tasted last, judges might be tired or palate fatigued at that point), my belief that judges aren't necessarily always the most qualified, honestly there are a hundred things wrong with competitions. Humans have so many things going on that they can't be expected to accurately and fairly taste and score things.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>With all that being said, I am still entering 4 beers. Hypocritical? Stupid? Stubborn? Maybe, but I'm trying to not let the results affect me. If I win (long shot) I'll certainly be happy but I know that my beer might not have been the best one there or even the best to style, but for some reason the wind was blowing right and I came out on top. The same goes for if I lose, at least I'll get some feedback!</b></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The beers are as follows (and I tried to give an accurate assessment of what I think about them, and I'll update this when results come back in a few weeks):</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Category 13F - Russian Imperial Stout - The Depths</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This <a href="http://gatorbeer.blogspot.com/2014/11/classic-ris.html">recipe</a> was taken from past NHC winning recipes and brewed specifically for competition. It's tasty. A bit boozy. Maybe a little sweet? Or there's this odd sweet character to it. I like it, but I honestly have no idea how it'll score. I can see it getting anything from a 30 to a high score. I'd guess it'll do something like a 34 but I have no basis for that.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Category 16E - Belgian Specialty Ale - Transfunk'd</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I absolutely love <a href="http://gatorbeer.blogspot.com/2015/02/funky-golden-brett-tasting-notes.html">this beer</a>. I think it's fantastic and commercial quality. The aroma is so funky and the taste backs it up. There's a little something on the back end, but I would buy this in the store. With that being said, it's probably not going to do well in competition. There is no category for it and no real base style to the beer. It's out there but unfortunately not a competition beer. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Category 20 - Fruit Beer - Pucker Up Passionfruit</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://gatorbeer.blogspot.com/2015/01/quick-sour-update.html">Passionfruit berliner</a>. I taste tested this against my raspberry berliner and this won because it's more subtle. The raspberry one is delicious, but it overpowers the berliner backbone, and therefore won't do as well in competition. I make good fruited berliners if I may say so myself, so I think this beer will score the best. If I get docked it'll be because the passionfruit is too much, but I think it's nicely subtle. I also worry the carbonation levels might be too high and shipping will mess with it. Crossing my fingers.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Category 23 - Specialty Beer - Here Gose Nothin'</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://gatorbeer.blogspot.com/2015/01/quick-sour-update.html">Gose</a> with coriander and sea salt. I actually rebrewed this specifically for the competition. I toned down the salt a little and I hope that puts it more in line. It's tart, crisp, salty and quaffable. I think this beer has a high floor and a high ceiling, so it could do well.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>If you can't tell, I can make a crisp, lightly tart beer in my sleep at this point and that's why I'm confident in those. Also, those beers fit in specific styles that I know can score well and if I do place it'll be because of those (with the RIS being a dark horse). </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The box has been shipped so it's out of my hands. I really look forward to results and even more so, the next year of dialing in a few other styles for next year when I might be a little more prepared for competition brewing. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099411583903298049noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9053160826224562908.post-60744133799187440912015-02-24T08:42:00.001-08:002015-10-22T13:55:16.839-07:00Solera Fill #2<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>It's about that time to pull a few gallons off of my <a href="http://gatorbeer.blogspot.com/2014/07/solera.html">"solera"</a>, and bottle it up. I did my <a href="http://gatorbeer.blogspot.com/2014/12/solera-pull-1-bottling.html">first pull</a> a few months ago and they are great beers to have around. I blended those so they're not intensely sour (the solera is very sour, almost harshly so), but hit the spot when the sour itch starts.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>On this next pull I wanted to fruit one gallon and I ended deciding on a mixed berry blend from my grocery store. This frozen bag has cherries, blueberries, dark raspberries and blackberries. I think the darker fruit blend will play well with the solera which at the point I can best describe as a dark red/brown type of sour.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The second gallon that I pulled isn't going to have any fruit but rather I added some oak and come bottling time I will dry hop it with a big, juicy hop like Citra or Amarillo. I added ~7 white oak cubes that I pre boiled. I'm hoping a nice oak character will mellow out some of the sour of the beer in the next month or so.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Of course I couldn't just pull off beer, I had to brew some to add back as well. I used The Rare Barrel's recipe for their base red beer to maintain the color/style that the solera already was.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Solera Refill</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>2 gallons</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>74% efficiency</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>30 minute boil</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>3 lb 2 Row (69%)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>0.75 lb Wheat (17%)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>0.187 lb Aromatic (4%)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>0.187 lb Flaked Oats (4%)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>0.187 lb C60 (4%)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>0.0625 lb Black Malt (1%)</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>0.5 oz Tettnang (30 min)</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>No primary yeast, this went straight back into the solera to ferment.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>2/21/15: Brewday. Pulled 2 gallons off onto fruit and oak. Refilled solera.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>?????: The 2 gallons on fruit and oak ended up turning into nail polish. Too much oxygen pickup when transferrring. I ended up bottling the entire solera because I was afraid of it turning into nail polish as well. I've had a few bottles and they're great. Very sour up front, but it dissipates quickly and doesn't linger in the back of the throat like some sours do. Drinkable. </b></span><br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099411583903298049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9053160826224562908.post-25817528141281568322015-02-18T06:11:00.005-08:002015-02-18T09:38:02.871-08:00Saison Brewing Salt Experiment Results<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>If you've read my blog recently, you know that my <a href="http://gatorbeer.blogspot.com/2014/12/2015-goals.html">goal at the start of this year</a> was to brew up a killer saison. I went through my <a href="http://gatorbeer.blogspot.com/2014/12/scrappy-hound-house-saison-1.html">first iteration</a> a few months ago and it turned out tasty, but I still feel I can definitely improve on it. Now, I'm a <a href="http://gatorbeer.blogspot.com/2014/12/brewing-water.html">huge proponent</a> of paying attention to your ion levels/mash pH and I believe you can't brew great beer without great water. </b></span><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So I felt the next step I should take to improve this beer was to delve deeper into water chemistry. (Beware: Some serious geeking out below)</b><br />
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We've all read about the recommended range that each ion has. For reference here are the levels pulled from Water: A comprehensive Guide for Brewers (Palmer and Kaminski)</b><br />
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Chloride: 0-100 ppm</b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sulfate: 0-250 ppm</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Calcium: 50-150 ppm</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Sodium: 0-50 ppm</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Bicarbonate sort of aka alkalinity: <100 ppm</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Followi</b></span><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ng these ranges you see descriptors of what higher levels taste like</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Chloride: "Levels greater than 250 ppm....tastes pasty or salty...> 300 ppm can have negative effects on clarification, body and colloidal stability"</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Sulfate: "At concentrations over 400 ppm however, the resulting bitterness can become astringent and unpleasant"</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Calcium: "essentially flavor neutral, but it can reduce the somewhat sour flavor perception of magnesium</b></span><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">...minerally</b><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Sodium: "can contribute a salty taste at concentrations of 150 to 200ppm...may taste harsh and sour in excess, especially when > 250 ppm"</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Bicarbonate: I can't find definitive info about levels, but this is closely tied into alkalinity which is really what water chemistry is about.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>So I read all this and thought, well, now I need to test this. I can read all about what tastes like what at what concentration, but until I really taste it, I can't know how it will turn out. To me, this is all theoretical and I needed a practical example. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Commence the experiment which is <a href="http://gatorbeer.blogspot.com/2015/01/scrappy-hound-house-saison-2.html">outlined here</a> but for those who want a summary: r</b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>ebrew my <a href="http://gatorbeer.blogspot.com/2014/12/scrappy-hound-house-saison-1.html">saison</a> from before with a slight tweak in grain bill, ferment out with Wyeast 3711, then split it 3 ways and dose each split with CaSO4, </b></span><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">NaHCO3 or </b><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">CaCl2, respectively, at bottling. Most importantly, dose it high enough that it's in excess so we can test these threshold numbers.</b><br />
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Those numbers to be exact:</b><br />
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<a href="http://i.imgur.com/S5rQGVY.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/S5rQGVY.png" height="400" width="341" /></a></div>
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Post boil into the fermenter (after adding salts to adjust my mash pH)</b><br />
<b style="background-color: white; font-family: Neuton; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Ca 80 | Mg 1 | Na 47 | Cl 55 | SO4 95 | HCO3 134</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">First gallon 1.5 g CaSO4 added (final pH into bottles 3.9)</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Neuton; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Neuton; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Ca 197 | Mg 1 | Na 47 | Cl 55 | SO4 375 | HCO3 134</span></span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Neuton; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Neuton; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Second gallon 1.6 g NaHCO3 added (final pH into bottles 4.4)</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Neuton; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Neuton; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Ca 80 | Mg 1 | Na 162 | Cl 55 | SO4 95 | HCO3 441</span></span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Neuton; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Neuton; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Third gallon 1.1 g CaCl2 added (final pH into bottles 3.9)</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Neuton; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Neuton; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Ca 185 | Mg 1 | Na 47 | Cl 241 | SO4 95 | HCO3 134</span></span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>2 weeks in the bottles and it was time for a taste test. I poured the beers into glasses marked on the bottom, had my SO mix them up, then we tasted them.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>My tasting notes below are somewhat sparse, but that's for a reason. The beers were, overall, extremely similar. I was expecting a huge difference in these beers. I'm pushing the upper limits of ion concentrations in beer from what I've read and I expected a similar taste disparity. What I found was that my SO, who drinks a ton of beer, couldn't taste a difference. After tasting through all three beers for 30 minutes, I found that there were subtle differences, but nothing huge or groundbreaking. I would have been happy with any of these beers. This biggest difference is the slightly elevated bitterness note in beer 3, coming from what I assume to be the elevated sulfate.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Beer 1 (CaCl2)</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Taste is slightly sour, a slight harshness on the back end. Somewhat lingering in the finish.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Beer 2 (NaHCO3)</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Fruity up front. Slightly dry and chalky in the finish. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Beer 3 (CaSO4)</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Fell off on back end. </b></span><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rounded.</b><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> More bitter than others. </b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I know the sample size of this experiment = 1 and it's tough to draw meaningful conclusions from one experiment with no replication but the most significant thing I take away from this is to not be afraid of your water chemistry, especially if you end up high or low. I'm going to go ahead and say can't taste the difference in a beer that has 40 ppm Ca versus a beer that has 50 ppm Ca, for example, and you might not even be able to taste the difference in a wider range either. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>In the future I need to push the upper boundaries even further to find a meaningful taste threshold for these ions. I might also blend some of these beers to see if elevated levels of everything does anything to the overall taste. Many more thoughts going on in my head with regards to water chemistry and the like. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099411583903298049noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9053160826224562908.post-50103557669050882212015-02-05T09:39:00.001-08:002015-02-05T09:39:11.201-08:00Funky Golden Brett Tasting Notes<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I'm going to apologize in advance for this review. I'm pretty terrible at articulating my thoughts on beers and describing what I taste, but I wanted to share this one because I'm pretty happy with it. This beer was brewed way back in <a href="http://gatorbeer.blogspot.com/2014/10/golden-wort-for-sours.html">October</a> and served as part of a blending experiment for other sour beers. I wanted something funky and very Brett forward. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>After reading <a href="http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2014/11/phenols-and-brett-initial-results.html">The Mad Fermentationist's </a>post on phenols and how Brett can eat them to make the beer funkier, I was inspired. This beer was fermented with Wyeast's Abbey Ale yeast and when it fermented out it was super belgiany. Spicy and phenolic. I <a href="http://gatorbeer.blogspot.com/2014/10/solera-blendinggolden-brett.html">threw it in</a> my 3 gallon sour carboy, pitched some Yeast Bay's Brussels Brett and the dregs from a Hill Farmstead Anna. I also added some boiled oak cubes to add some more character. I forgot about it in the closet for a few months and <a href="http://gatorbeer.blogspot.com/2015/01/bottling-funky-golden-brett.html">bottled</a> it a few weeks ago. I finally cracked a bottle recently.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWm4aQ6UFHDdh3umYcT8_zo-GVXtNaHyJvBcOkKsaJVgorzqVsBMRDzmaebuYqwgj7IZWiufGHjSjFXH4yZVVV5eG1qpbdTohKPo5x8HIxztnWIVVvvXWTe1Tx3KQvCew31ztG3eiIlro/s1600/IMG_3125.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWm4aQ6UFHDdh3umYcT8_zo-GVXtNaHyJvBcOkKsaJVgorzqVsBMRDzmaebuYqwgj7IZWiufGHjSjFXH4yZVVV5eG1qpbdTohKPo5x8HIxztnWIVVvvXWTe1Tx3KQvCew31ztG3eiIlro/s1600/IMG_3125.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Appearance: It's a pretty beer. Nice golden color. I didn't clear it or cold crash it so it's maybe not as clear as it could be, but no sweat. There was a nice fluffy white head on it which dissipated in time.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Aroma: Funk. There's a little tartness. Slight fruit, more peach/stonefruit. Funk again, you can tell this is going to be interesting.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Taste: Whoa. If you've had a Hill Farmstead beer you know the taste. Their culture is funky and tart and this beer is the same. Not oak forward as expected, but it definitely did something, you can sense the oak in the background. Quaffable. Dangerously so. No hint of alcohol, just a golden/blonde base with funk and a little tartness. Only negative is it drops off quickly on the back end.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Mouthfeel: Well carbed. Medium-high. It's pretty well carbed to style. Maybe could be higher to be more effervescent. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Overall: I'm unbelievably happy with this beer. The Hill Farmstead dregs dominate and that is a very good thing. You get that characteristic HF funk, slight tart. The only thing is the back end is a little, how do I say this, homebrew-y? You know how some beers can fall off a little and get an odd homebrew taste? It's in this beer for a second, but the funk is very dominant so it's not a huge problem. I'd do this again in a heartbeat.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099411583903298049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9053160826224562908.post-14645446191495523772015-01-28T13:39:00.001-08:002015-02-09T13:53:47.123-08:00Quick Sour Update<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>If you don't remember, I recently brewed up a <a href="http://gatorbeer.blogspot.com/2015/01/scrappy-hound-house-sour-1.html">quick sour</a> that I soured with Omega's Lacto blend to try to get a more consistent, clean beer than the one that I do with <a href="http://gatorbeer.blogspot.com/2013/06/souring-wort.html">grain</a>. There's nothing wrong with souring with a handful of grain and I will continue to do it in the future, but I wanted something I could really dial in. Omega's lacto blend is a mix of different strains and from what I had read, could sour quickly, without heat and do it consistently.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I gave it a whirl and it was very successful, taking my quick sour down to pH 3.1 in ~60 hours at 80F. I then pitched boiled and pitched Wyeast 1056 to get a clean ferment and it was time to split this batch to try a few things out.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I split the 3 gallons 3 ways:</b></span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>24 oz frozen raspberries and ~1 c cold steeped midnight wheat for a Dark Raspberry Berliner</b></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>3/4 of a bag of passionfruit puree for a Passionfruit Berliner</b></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>4.2 g coriander and 5.2 g sea salt for a Gose</b></span></li>
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I bottled the gose immediately and the other two gallon experiments have been in my fermenter for about 48 hours before I got impatient and tried a sample.</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The passionfruit berliner is very passionfruit forward. The fruit lends some additional tartness and this beer is very in your face.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The dark raspberry berliner beer isn't dark anymore because the raspberries have totally saturated the beer. It's a brilliant red and the nose is liquid raspberries. By far the most fruit forward beer I've made. I really am looking forward to trying this once it's bottled although I will definitely need to steep more midnight wheat.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099411583903298049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9053160826224562908.post-57595322409924267402015-01-23T09:49:00.004-08:002015-02-17T13:08:15.166-08:00Scrappy Hound House Saison #2<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>My <a href="http://gatorbeer.blogspot.com/2014/12/scrappy-hound-house-saison-1.html">first</a> iteration of my quest for a house saison turned out pretty good. It's a little more phenolic than I'd like, but it's drinkable, clean and pretty tasty. I think that to get a beer that's closer to what I envision in my head, I need to split yeasts. Wyeast 3711 is an absolute monster and will take the beer down to 1.000 no problem, but the flavor profile isn't exactly what I want. I'm going to look into splitting yeasts, going with a more belgian yeast up front and finishing it with 3711. Unfortunately, that won't be until batch #3.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>In the mean time, I'm going to do another batch with 3711 and play around with salts. I <a href="http://gatorbeer.blogspot.com/2014/12/brewing-water.html">posted</a> a brewing water summary and I'm going to push some of these ions to their upper thresholds. I read so much about ranges of Calcium, Sodium, Sulfate, Bicarbonate that I want to see what happens when you go over the upper limit in these ranges. I don't care if the beer doesn't turn out perfect, I'd rather see what I like and don't like about high ion concentrations in beer and then adjust accordingly. Plus, at the end of the day I'll only be out 10 bottles if it's truly undrinkable (which I suspect it won't be).</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>My process will be as follows. Brew up 3 gallons of saison wort. I'm going to add some salts to hit my mash pH of 5.2-3 and establish a base line of:</b></span><br />
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<b style="background-color: white; font-family: Neuton; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Ca 80 | Mg 1 | Na 47 | Cl 55 | SO4 95 | HCO3 134</span></b><br />
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<b style="background-color: white; font-family: Neuton; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">I'm then going to ferment the beer with Wyeast 3711 as normal. Post fermentation, I'm going to split the batch three ways and dose each with a concentration (ppm) of either CaSO4, CaCl2 or NaHCO3 to obtain the following concentrations:</span></b><br />
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<b style="background-color: white; font-family: Neuton; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Adding CaSO4</span></b><br />
<b style="background-color: white; font-family: Neuton; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Ca 197 | Mg 1 | Na 47 | Cl 55 | SO4 375 | HCO3 134</span></b><br />
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<b style="background-color: white; font-family: Neuton; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Adding NaHCO3</span></b><br />
<b style="background-color: white; font-family: Neuton; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Ca 80 | Mg 1 | Na 162 | Cl 55 | SO4 95 | HCO3 441</span></b><br />
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<b style="background-color: white; font-family: Neuton; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Adding CaCl2</span></b><br />
<b style="background-color: white; font-family: Neuton; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Ca 185 | Mg 1 | Na 47 | Cl 241 | SO4 95 | HCO3 134</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;"><b>I'm gong big instead of going home. These elevated levels push conventional reported limits where the beer starts to taste a little off. I'm ok with that and I think this will be valuable in the future. What if I make the perfect beer by adding 440 ppm of bicarbonate!? Won't know until I try. Also, once these are bottled, I'm going to blend a little and create super beers with elevated levels of everything</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;"><b>Scrappy Hound House Saison #2</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;"><b>3 gallons</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;"><b>75% efficiency</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;"><b>4 lb Belgian Pils (80%)</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;"><b>0.5 lb White Wheat (10%)</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;"><b>0.5 oz Tettnang (60 min)</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;"><b>Wyeast 3711 @ 62F ambient. mash at 152F. </b></span></span><br />
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<b style="background-color: white; font-family: Neuton; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">OG 1.046 | </span></b><b style="background-color: white; font-family: Neuton; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">FG 1.006 | </span></b><b style="background-color: white; font-family: Neuton; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">ABV 5.3% | </span></b><b style="background-color: white; font-family: Neuton; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">IBU 24</span></b><br />
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<b style="background-color: white; font-family: Neuton; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099411583903298049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9053160826224562908.post-28285731571735914592015-01-21T09:32:00.005-08:002015-01-21T09:32:50.880-08:00Bottling Funky Golden Brett<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Back in <a href="http://gatorbeer.blogspot.com/2014/10/golden-wort-for-sours.html">October</a> I talked about brewing up 5 gallons of a golden style beer to help in blending for my <a href="http://gatorbeer.blogspot.com/2014/12/solera-pull-1-bottling.html">solera</a> inspired beers. After I topped off the solera and blended, I put the rest of the wort (~3 gallons) into a better bottle. I had read that <a href="http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2014/09/phenols-and-brett-fruity-and-funky.html">The Mad Fermentationist</a> had been looking into the effect high phenols had on Brett funkiness. I had this wort which was super phenol-y, so I figured this was my time to try to produce a beer similar to Wicked Weed's Serenity, which is a brett bomb and absolutely one of my favorites.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I pitched some The Yeast Bay's Brussels Brett that I had lying around, threw in the dregs from a Hill Farmstead saison and added some oak cubes. Three months later it was ready to be bottled. Using my sour bottling bucket, I got to work.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I like to use a variety of bottles to bottle sours. I keep all thick glass bottles, but also wanted to bottle a few in normal 12 oz bottles in case this turns out good for competitions.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>My main secret to bottling is to do it over the dish washer. You don't have to worry about any drips because they land on the door and once you're done, just close it up and forget about it! The next time you run the dishwasher it'll be as good as new.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I only got about 2.2 gallons from this batch. I didn't top off the carboy to the full 3 gallon capacity.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>All finished and labeled. I'll give this a few weeks to make sure the brett does it's thing before cracking one open. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The uncarbed sample was pretty delicious. A little sweet, but the dregs and brett really did it's thing and ate away at the phenols. This beer tastes nothing like a simple golden wort fermented with Abbey ale yeast. That beer is hugely Belgian-y and this is a funky bomb. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099411583903298049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9053160826224562908.post-59563904766301753702015-01-06T13:25:00.002-08:002015-01-26T05:33:25.268-08:00Scrappy Hound House Quick Sour #1<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Next up in
my <a href="http://gatorbeer.blogspot.com/2014/12/2015-goals.html">‘house beer’</a> quest is a sour and I’ve just finished finalizing the recipe/process
and ordering the grain for a 3 gallon batch of Berliner. When I say Berliner, I mean a low ABV pretty
aggressively tart beer that I can then do treatments on if I want
(passionfruit, gose, blackberry?). I’ve
riffed this recipe <a href="http://gatorbeer.blogspot.com/2013/06/berliner-weisse-1.html">many times</a> before and the only difference this time will be
the inclusion of a commercial lacto culture.
My reasoning in choosing Omega’s brand is because I’ve heard it sours
quickly and cleanly and hopefully will mean more reproducible products in the
future.</b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The plan for
this beer will be to sour wort. I’ll
mash and sparge <a href="http://gatorbeer.blogspot.com/2013/06/souring-wort.html">as usual</a>, then let the beer come down to 120F and pitch a 2L
starter of Omega Lacto blend into the kettle, seal with saran and put the lid
on. I’ll keep it warm with a heating
pad. I’ll take samples 2x daily until
the sourness is at a level I like then boil 15 minutes, cool and pitch the
yeast.</b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Scrappy
Hound Berliner #1</b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>3 gallons</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>80%
efficiency</b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>2.5 lb
German Pils (56%)</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>2 lb White
Wheat (44%)</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>0.25 oz
Tettnang (15 min)</b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Sour the
wort with Omega Lacto blend. Ferment
with Wyeast 1056 @ 62F ambient. Mash at
148F for 60 min.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>OG 1.045 |
FG 1.010 | ABV 4.6% | IBU 4</b></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Ca 45 | Mg 1
| Na 0 | Cl 64 | SO4 0 | HCO3 35 | Mash pH 5.32</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>1/15/15: Mashed and sparged. Preboil OG 1.042. Brought it down to 110F and pitched a 1L starter of the Omega Lacto blend that had been going for 24 hours. Covered the top of the wort with saran wrap, put the lid on the kettle and put a blanket around it.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>1/16/15: Beer was down to 83F. Put a heating pad on low inside the towel.</b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>1/17/15: Boiled for 15 mins to kill lacto. Added a few hop pellets. Pitched starter of Wyeast 1056.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>1/25/15: Split the batch 3 ways. Added 24 oz raspberries and ~1 c cold steeped midnight wheat for dark raspberry berliner. Added passionfruit puree for passionfruit berliner to another ~1 gallon. Boiled 4.38 g crushed coriander and 5.16 g sea salt, cooled and added to another gallon.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099411583903298049noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9053160826224562908.post-88044665534478678012014-12-31T10:46:00.004-08:002014-12-31T10:46:54.926-08:00Brewing Water<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> I think I’m somewhat in the minority with respect to the
homebrewing community, but I believe that water chemistry is criminally under
talked about. After fermentation
temperature control and yeast, I think it’s next in line to make killer
beer. And it’s gotten such a rap online
that people are terrified of it. This is
partially because it’s an extremely
complex topic that very few people fully understand, but if you can get
a few basic concepts down and don’t get bogged down in the technical and
complicated side of it, it’s pretty simple to improve your beer.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> This
isn’t meant to be an in depth analysis and explanation of water chemistry in
brewing. If you want that, I highly,
highly recommend <i>Water</i> from John
Palmer and Colin Kaminski, braukaiser.com and a variety of forums including /r/homebrewing
and HomeBrewTalk. Brewing water is a
topic that you can spend hours and days and weeks on and still not fully
understand it. I find it’s best to not
get too bogged down in the science behind it and know just enough to get
by. This is more meant to be a quick
reference guide for myself and a way to wrap my head around this complicated
subject and hopefully other people will benefit as well.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> To me,
water chemistry is about mash pH and a select few minerals which can accent
crispness, hop character, malt character and overall quality.</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> First
things first you need the content of your water. I asked my city for a water report and
received mine back. It looks like this:</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghyphenhyphen-hLloPaAye5e1E0wYFCM5jlM3yWLrTGa8RncWYZnuHMphEELUSPP5dwuRh-WYKrownrNq3Ieu4ao6rAS59GBJV2bJgu0j4YWfB9F7fuu3dPHlb7-G00oN-ysAz52RrZvc0vioLJQDM/s1600/Water+Quality+Analysis.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghyphenhyphen-hLloPaAye5e1E0wYFCM5jlM3yWLrTGa8RncWYZnuHMphEELUSPP5dwuRh-WYKrownrNq3Ieu4ao6rAS59GBJV2bJgu0j4YWfB9F7fuu3dPHlb7-G00oN-ysAz52RrZvc0vioLJQDM/s1600/Water+Quality+Analysis.bmp" height="320" width="249" /></a></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> After a
lot of reading, I found that all I need to know from this is calcium, magnesium,
alkalinity, pH, sodium, chlorine and sulfate. I
don’t have some of those, so I assumed 0 when entering into my
spreadsheet. I use BrewCipher, which
VikeMan on Beer Advocate made. It draws from a few other places to make a spreadsheet
that I find easier and cleaner to use than anything else. I’ve checked the water numbers against Bru’n
Water and they are always essentially the same.</b></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The things my spreadsheet needs to
be inputted are Ca, Mg, Na, Cl, SO<sub>4</sub>, HCO<sub>3</sub> and pH. These are the things I worry about when I’m brewing
and here’s a quick rundown of why.</b></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Calcium (Brewing range 50-200 ppm)</u></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Lowers pH, promotes clarity, flavor
and stability. Needed for alkaline water
to drop pH. Too much can inhibit yeast
performance. Flavor neutral, can reduce
sour perception of magnesium. Works in
conjunction with magnesium to define your hardness (temporary can be boiled
off, permanent cannot, this is a more in-depth subject than what I’m going into
here)</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Magnesium (Brewing range 0-40 ppm)</u></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Similar to calcium, less effective
in lowering pH. Yeast nutrient. Laxative in higher amounts (>125 ppm).</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>Sodium (Brewing range 0-100
ppm)</u></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Lower levels generates a cleaner
flavor in beer. 70-150 ppm rounds out
flavors and accentuates sweetness of the malt, especially in conjunction with
chloride. High sodium and high sulfate
can be harsh/sour/bitter.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Chloride (Brewing range 0-200 ppm)</u><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Accentuates malt sweetness and
fullness. >250 ppm can be salty,
>300 ppm can affect yeast health/fermentation. Can be minerally or salty when combined with
sulfate or sodium in high amounts.</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Sulfate (Brewing range 0-400 ppm)</u></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Accentuates hop bitterness (drier
and more crisp). >400 ppm can make
the bitterness astringent and unpleasant.
Can be added but not readily removed.</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Bicarbonate sort of aka alkalinity (Brewing range 0-?? ppm)</u></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Has the biggest impact on mash pH. Basically, higher alkalinity means you have
to add more stuff to lower the pH into range.
You could read for hours on this subject (and you should), but for now,
I’ll stop.</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> One of
the main reasons we care about these ions is because of mash pH. Why do we care about mash pH? Let’s let <a href="http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=How_pH_affects_brewing">braukaiser.com</a>
explain</b></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 14.4pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 4.8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>“A
commonly accepted optimal range for mash pH is 5.2 - 5.7 with 5.5 being optimal
for starch conversion activity but many authors report wort and beer quality
benefits if the pH is lowered into the 5.2 - 5.4 range [Kunze, 2007][Narziss,
2005]. Kunze in particular lists the following benefits for a mash pH as low as
5.2. Since it is a good and fairly comprehensive list I cited it here. Some of
these benefits listed will be explained in the following sections [Kunze,
2007]:<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.4pt; margin-bottom: 1.2pt; margin-left: 19.2pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">
</div>
<ul>
<li><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14.4pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">The
enzymatic activity in the mash is increased as all important enzymes get
activated. (except for alpha amylase which starts to suffer at a pH below 5.6)</span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14.4pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">The
extract yield (efficiency) is improved</span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14.4pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">The
protein coagulation and precipitation is improved (improved break formation)</span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14.4pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">The
run-off speed is improved</span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14.4pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">The
color increase during the wort boil is reduced</span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14.4pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">Better
trub precipitation and faster pH drop lead to faster fermentation and greater
attenuation of the beer.</span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14.4pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">The
taste of the beer is more rounded, fuller and softer. The beer is crisper, more
fresh and shows more character.</span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14.4pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">The
hop bitterness is more pleasant and doesn't linger</span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14.4pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">The
foam is more stable and denser</span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14.4pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">The
color of the beer is lighter</span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14.4pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">Mash
oxidation is reduced since the main culprit, the lipoxigenase enzyme, doesn't
work well at low mash pH conditions</span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14.4pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">Haze
stability is improved</span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14.4pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">Susceptibility
to microbial spoilage is reduced through lower beer pH beer spoilage organism
don't grow below a pH of 4.4</span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14.4pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">Higher
attenuation</span></b></li>
</ul>
<!--[if !supportLists]--><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> Convinced
yet that brewing water/mineral additions needs to be focused on more? Since I’ve paid attention to my mash pH and
gotten it into the 5.3 range, my beer has been lighter in color and crisper
than ever before. It seems like a lot of
information but it’s been made so much easier due to the wide availability of
spreadsheets you can find online. In
case it’s still not 100% clear, I’ll walk you through how I set up my water.</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>My water doesn’t have much to it
and a low alkalinity so when I’m formulating my water profile the first place I
stop is <i>Water</i>. I look up my style, then the acceptable range
for Ca, Cl, SO<sub>4</sub> and alkalinity (HCO<sub>3</sub>). That’s it!
Then I hop into my BrewCipher excel sheet and play around adding gypsum
(CaSO<sub>4</sub>, lowers pH, adds Ca and SO<sub>4 </sub>ions), calcium
chloride (CaCl<sub>2</sub>, lowers pH, adds Ca and Cl ions) and baking soda
(NaHCO<sub>3</sub>, raises pH, adds Na and HCO<sub>3</sub> ions). I’ll try to get my Ca, Cl, SO<sub>4</sub>, Na
and HCO<sub>3</sub> levels into the ranges given from <i>Water</i> all while keeping the pH around 5.3 (remember that study that
said to get as close to 5.2 as possible without going below? I aim for 5.3 so I have some leeway).</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> If I
can’t get the pH into range and the ions into range, I’ll add some lactic acid
(liquid form, buy it from any homebrew site/shop) and add that to get it into
range. Like I mentioned before, my water
has low alkalinity so I don’t have to worry about my sparge water but if I did,
I’d add lactic acid to get it to ~5.5 before sparging. You can also add more salts to the sparge or
split your brewing salts evenly between mash and sparge to get your pH in line.</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> Voila. That’s it.
On brew day I measure all of the minerals out, dump it in with the
grain, give it a stir then let it sit for about 10-15 minutes before taking a
sample, letting it cool and taking the pH.
If my pH is in range, great! If
it’s high, I add lactic acid, if it’s low I add baking soda, in 1 mL/1 g
increments. </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> I have
many thoughts and experiments planned on how to make my hoppy beers even better
and some theories on the proper water needed to brew kick ass saisons ala Hill
Farmstead (I wish), but that’s for another day.</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099411583903298049noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9053160826224562908.post-77722692109007305682014-12-22T08:48:00.001-08:002015-01-08T07:08:13.227-08:00Scrappy Hound House Pale Ale #1<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>My first attempt at a <a href="http://gatorbeer.blogspot.com/2014/12/scrappy-hound-house-saison-1.html">house saison</a> is in the bottles and it's now time to start working on my <a href="http://gatorbeer.blogspot.com/2014/12/2015-goals.html">hoppy beers</a>. I'm going to be looking at hopping rates and techniques as well as water chemistry to really make them pop. First up is a very simple/classic pale ale. I tweaked the water a bit, but other than that, it's really just for a baseline to work on.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Pale Ale #1</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>3 gallons</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>72% efficiency</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>60 min boil</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>5 lb 2 row (87%)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>0.25 lb C60 (4%)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>0.25 lb Munich (4%)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>0.25 lb White Wheat (4%)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>0.25 oz Chinook (60 min)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>0.25 oz Centennial (15 min)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>0.25 oz Willamette (15 min)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>0.5 oz Centennial (Flameout)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>0.5 oz Willamette (Flameout)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>0.25 oz Centennial (Dry Hop)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>0.25 oz Willamette (Dry Hop)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Wyeast 1056 @ 65F ambient. Mashed at 154F.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>OG 1.050 | FG 1.011 | ABV 5.2% | IBU 43</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Ca 148 | Mg 1 | Na 29 | Cl 51 | SO4 264 | HCO3 112</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>12/20/14: Brewday. I've been getting insane efficiency the last few batches so I had to add water to get my gravity down into range. OG 1.053. Mash pH 5.4. Made 1 L starter 24 hours before. Decanted and saved some slurry for future, pitched into wort the next day. Activity within hours. Hit with 50 sec of oxygenation.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>12/28/14: Current gravity 1.006. Taste is nice and clean. Fruity hops. </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>1/6/14: Bottled</b></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099411583903298049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9053160826224562908.post-81712924271489963452014-12-19T09:39:00.000-08:002014-12-19T09:39:11.661-08:00My thoughts on beer releases<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>It seems like every month there is
a brewery getting lambasted online about how they handled releasing a limited
beer. Hunahpu’s Day, Kane’s ANTEAD
release, NoDa’s Monstro and most recently Fifty Fifty’s Masterpiece have all
had problems in the past year. Hype for
craft beer and more specifically, limited release craft beers are at an all
time high. If you’re a popular brewery
with any sort of following, people will be camped outside your brewery at 2 AM,
weather be damned, the day of the release. </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> Since
no brewery owner is also an event planner (that I’m aware of), I’ve put
together some some fool proof ways to release a beer while keeping beer geeks
everywhere as happy as possible.</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> Probably
the fairest way to release a beer is to do a silent release with a limit. Unannounced, just put the beer in the cooler
and let word of mouth do the rest.
Locals and frequent visitors to the taproom will benefit (rewarding your
biggest customers) and there won’t be out of towners coming in and taking the
beer before someone who comes to the brewery 5 days a week. I’m not saying that once news gets out on
twitter/Beer Advocate/Rate Beer there will be a crush to the taproom, but at
least you give locals a shot.</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> The
hands down easiest way to release a beer and also give everyone a fair chance
to get the next M is to sell it online.
Doing so makes sure that anyone with a computer (read: everyone) gets a
chance to buy. Bonus points if you make
sure the sale is at a time when people on both coasts are out of work, but
let’s be honest, beer geeks will call in sick and risk their jobs to get the
next waelz, bro. The key part of this
plan is to use a website that can handle 5,000 people hitting F5 at once. You’d think they would have learned but
breweries like Cigar City and The Bruery put together websites themselves and
they inevitably crashed during the first online sale. AleSmith and Modern Times have done countless
releases for their delicious BA Speedway Stouts and use Brown Paper Tickets and
have yet to have a problem.</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> The
problem with online sales is that you’re not driving traffic to your tasting
room where you can make the most money (remember that breweries are businesses
first and foremost, no matter what they say, and pint sales in the taproom
equal the greatest revenue). I get that,
so why not have a release party where everyone can pick up the beers they
bought online? Blow it out and have the beer
on tap with other variants and other limited beers. Win win, right? Doing a release party makes sure you don’t
have lines, everyone knows who is getting the beer and people who missed out
still get to drink awesome beer. </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> Online
sales certainly make the most sense but I still understand that they’re not
making breweries the most money and to some extent, they’re not driving hype
for your brewery, which I suspect, is why some opt for brewery only
releases. If a brewery insists on
releasing beer on site at a predetermined time, they have to be aware that
people will camp out. Wristbands prevent
people from cutting in line, saving spots or generally being an asshole. Once the time comes to release the beer,
count the people in line, look at how many bottles you have, then announce a
limit. That’s right, no pre-announced
bottle limits. You gain nothing by
allowing people to take home a case when there are only 2000 bottles made and
500 people in line. Someone will get
upset and it will turn into a shitshow. Instead, allow people to get back in line if
they want more. Basically, this will
allow everyone who arrived on time to get a bottle if they want (unless the
crowd is larger than the bottle count, in which case, you’re going to sell out
anyways so it doesn’t matter even if the limit is 1). Then if people aren’t on time, you can keep
cycling through the line until it’s sold out.</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> The
thing that brewery owners seem to forget sometimes is that craft beer is
big. Bigger than that actually, it’s
enormous. Hype is at an all time high
and you have to assume that if you have a limited release beer, there will be
more demand than supply. Quit saying
that you didn’t expect such a big crowd.
Imagine the most people you think will show up. Now double it and expect all of those people to
be in line at 6 am. You’re ready to plan
your release party. Being taken off
guard isn’t acceptable anymore and any brewery that tries to claim that risks a
black eye which might hurt them in the ever more competitive craft beer market. If you want to have a non-ticketed release party, with a case limit, be my guest. Just know the people who drove 6 hours and got in line at 5 am and didn't get beer are going to raise hell. Hell hath no fury like a beer geek scorned.</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099411583903298049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9053160826224562908.post-635701259705282282014-12-19T05:48:00.005-08:002014-12-19T05:49:07.548-08:00Solera Pull #1 Bottling<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>About 2 months ago I took my first pull from my <a href="http://gatorbeer.blogspot.com/2014/07/solera.html">"solera"</a> and blended it with my <a href="http://gatorbeer.blogspot.com/2014/10/golden-wort-for-sours.html">Belgian golden</a> in <a href="http://gatorbeer.blogspot.com/2014/10/solera-blendinggolden-brett.html">different ratios</a> to make up 2 total gallons. Today I bottled them up and now it's time to wait for them to hopefully carb up (I didn't pitch any other yeast) and then think of my next pull.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>"Two"</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Blend of 2/3 solera with 1/3 Belgian golden. Aged on 2 cans of tart cherries packed in water. This was significantly tart, almost too much so. The solera is so tart I need to blend it even more.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>"Three"</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Blend of 1/3 solera and 2/3 Belgian golden. Much better balance. A nice sweetness to compliment the tart. Golden in color. </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Can't wait to see these carbed up!</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099411583903298049noreply@blogger.com0