As I said in my 2015 Brewing Goals 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.
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 (Last Snow has coffee, coconut, white chocolate, German Chocolate Cake has cacao nibs, coconut and vanilla) and if you've read a little of my blog, you'll notice I love splitting a batch 3 ways to get different beers.
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.
Porter
3 gallons
74% Efficiency
60 minute boil
5.5 lb 2 Row
0.75 lb Chocolate Malt
0.75 lb C60
0.75 lb Roast Barley
0.25 oz Chinook (60 min)
0.5 oz Chinook (15 min)
Wyeast 1318 @64F. Mashed at 154F.
OG 1.066 | FG 1.022 | ABV 6.0% | IBU 33
Ca 237 | Mg 2 | Na 87 | Cl 219 | SO4 253 | HCO3 269
3/21/15: Brewday. OG 1.063 (Ended up with > 3 gal). Seriously dark. Mash pH high (5.6), added lactic to lower.
3/22/15: Cooled overnight to pitching temp, added decanted 1L starter. Fermentation was visible within hours.
3/24/15: Down to 1.026.
4/8/15: Racked 1 gallon onto 12 oz of frozen raspberries. Racked 1 gallon onto 49 g toasted unsweetened coconut.
4/14/15: Bottled the 2 variants and the plain batch.
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".
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.
Dark Funky Saison
3 gallons
75% Efficiency
60 minute boil
4 lb Belgian Pils (71%)
1.5 lb White Wheat (27%)
0.12 lb Chocolate (2%)
0.5 oz Tettnang (60 min)
0.5 oz Tettnang (15 min)
BSI Brett Drie and Hill Farmstead Dregs at 66F ambient. Mashed at 148F.
OG 1.051 | FG 1.011 | ABV 5.4% | IBU 24
Ca 130 | Mg 2 | Na 66 | Cl 116 | SO4 134 | HCO3 213
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.
3/10/15: Had to switch to a blowoff tube, this thing is fermenting like crazy.
3/16/15: Gravity to 1.011. Taste is very nice, color is a very unappetizing light brown.
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.
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 Scrappy Hound House Pale Ale #1 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).
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).
Pale Ale #2
3 Gallons
74% efficiency
60 minute boil
4.5 lb 2 Row (82%)
0.5 lb Maris Otter (9%)
0.5 lb White Wheat (9%)
0.25 oz Chinook (FWH)
0.5 oz Citra (15 min)
0.25 oz Amarillo (15 min)
0.5 oz Citra (Hop Stand, 180F for 20 min)
0.25 oz Amarillo (Hop Stand, 180F for 20 min)
1 oz Citra (Dry Hop)
0.5 oz Amarillo (Dry Hop)
Wyeast 1318 @ 64F ambient. Mashed at 154F
OG 1.051 | FG 1.011 | ABV 5.2% | IBU 53
Ca 194 | Mg 1 | Na 27 | Cl 120 | SO4 279 | HCO3 108
3/3/15: Brewday. Mash pH 5.3. 1.5 L starter of WY1318. 50 seconds of O2. OG 1.051.
3/7/15: Gravity down to 1.017
3/16/15: Gravity at 1.011. Dry hopped.
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.
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.
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!
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):
Category 13F - Russian Imperial Stout - The Depths
This recipe 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.
Category 16E - Belgian Specialty Ale - Transfunk'd
I absolutely love this beer. 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.
Category 20 - Fruit Beer - Pucker Up Passionfruit
Passionfruit berliner. 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.
Category 23 - Specialty Beer - Here Gose Nothin'
Gose 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.
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).
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.
It's about that time to pull a few gallons off of my "solera", and bottle it up. I did my first pull 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.
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.
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.
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.
Solera Refill
2 gallons
74% efficiency
30 minute boil
3 lb 2 Row (69%)
0.75 lb Wheat (17%)
0.187 lb Aromatic (4%)
0.187 lb Flaked Oats (4%)
0.187 lb C60 (4%)
0.0625 lb Black Malt (1%)
0.5 oz Tettnang (30 min)
No primary yeast, this went straight back into the solera to ferment.
2/21/15: Brewday. Pulled 2 gallons off onto fruit and oak. Refilled solera.
?????: 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.
If you've read my blog recently, you know that my goal at the start of this year was to brew up a killer saison. I went through my first iteration a few months ago and it turned out tasty, but I still feel I can definitely improve on it. Now, I'm a huge proponent of paying attention to your ion levels/mash pH and I believe you can't brew great beer without great water. 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)
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)
Chloride: 0-100 ppm
Sulfate: 0-250 ppm
Calcium: 50-150 ppm
Sodium: 0-50 ppm
Bicarbonate sort of aka alkalinity: <100 ppm
Following these ranges you see descriptors of what higher levels taste like
Chloride: "Levels greater than 250 ppm....tastes pasty or salty...> 300 ppm can have negative effects on clarification, body and colloidal stability"
Sulfate: "At concentrations over 400 ppm however, the resulting bitterness can become astringent and unpleasant"
Calcium: "essentially flavor neutral, but it can reduce the somewhat sour flavor perception of magnesium...minerally"
Sodium: "can contribute a salty taste at concentrations of 150 to 200ppm...may taste harsh and sour in excess, especially when > 250 ppm"
Bicarbonate: I can't find definitive info about levels, but this is closely tied into alkalinity which is really what water chemistry is about.
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.
Commence the experiment which is outlined here but for those who want a summary: rebrew my saison 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, NaHCO3 or CaCl2, respectively, at bottling. Most importantly, dose it high enough that it's in excess so we can test these threshold numbers.
Those numbers to be exact:
Post boil into the fermenter (after adding salts to adjust my mash pH)
Ca 80 | Mg 1 | Na 47 | Cl 55 | SO4 95 | HCO3 134
First gallon 1.5 g CaSO4 added (final pH into bottles 3.9)
Ca 197 | Mg 1 | Na 47 | Cl 55 | SO4 375 | HCO3 134
Second gallon 1.6 g NaHCO3 added (final pH into bottles 4.4)
Ca 80 | Mg 1 | Na 162 | Cl 55 | SO4 95 | HCO3 441
Third gallon 1.1 g CaCl2 added (final pH into bottles 3.9)
Ca 185 | Mg 1 | Na 47 | Cl 241 | SO4 95 | HCO3 134
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.
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.
Beer 1 (CaCl2)
Taste is slightly sour, a slight harshness on the back end. Somewhat lingering in the finish.
Beer 2 (NaHCO3)
Fruity up front. Slightly dry and chalky in the finish.
Beer 3 (CaSO4)
Fell off on back end. Rounded. More bitter than others.
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.
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.
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 October and served as part of a blending experiment for other sour beers. I wanted something funky and very Brett forward.
After reading The Mad Fermentationist's 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 threw it in 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 bottled it a few weeks ago. I finally cracked a bottle recently.
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.
Aroma: Funk. There's a little tartness. Slight fruit, more peach/stonefruit. Funk again, you can tell this is going to be interesting.
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.
Mouthfeel: Well carbed. Medium-high. It's pretty well carbed to style. Maybe could be higher to be more effervescent.
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.
