Spicy Saison w/ Saaz - Low ABV continued.

Saison is one of my favorite styles to drink, simply because very few are alike. Not that this is a catch all style but it does lend to interpretation. American Breweries have really took this style up a notch in the past few years. Lately I have been really enjoying New Holland's "Golden Cap Saison". It has a great tart finish that makes it extra quaffable. As much as I love that Saison, I decided to take this batch in an all together different direction.


I am going for a spicy, hoppy ale with a dry finish and low ABV. Saaz additions throughout, with a TOUCH of Grains Of Paradise at knock out. The Grains Of Paradise combined with the French Saison yeast should give it a great peppery aroma and flavor. Belgian Pils malt with White Wheat, Dark Wheat and Dark Munich for the grist. I am spiking the mash with 2 oz of black malt for color during sparge. There will be a dry hopping during the last day of fermentation into the short conditioning phase.

PG: 1.042
OG: 1.049
FG: 1.010 (going for 1.005)
ABV: 5%
IBU: 30
SRM: 9.6
EFF: 85%
BOIL: 70 min

Belgian Pils 5lb
White Wheat 2lb
Dark Wheat 1lb
Dark Munich 1lb
Black Malt 2 oz (on grain bed during sparge)


Rest at 125F for 15 min, Rest at 149F for 30 min, Rest at 156F for 15 min

All Saaz

28g First Wort Hops
7g 30 min
7g 10 min
14g Knockout
28 G Dry Hop after high krausen

3g Grains of Paradise Knockout

Ferment at ambient temperature. I am not temp controlling this.

Cream Ale - Low ABV Styles Part 1

It's finally Summer in Chicago, which means everyone is OUT DOORS! Festivals every weekend, the beach, al fresco drinking or just hanging out on the porch. The object is to get as much outdoor activity in before out famous Winter comes through again. Unfortunately my Home Brew situation is all imperial styles at the moment, not exactly easy drinkers in the heat. So I am taking these month's to brew up some low ABV styles which I can get from carboy to keg quickly. This week we are starting with a Cream Ale.

Cream Ale, despite the name, has little to do with Cream. Although in the UK this style is often served with a co2/nitrogen blend, which will give a creamy mouth feel. This style is a hybrid ale akin to American Light Lager except fermented with a top fermenting yeast or a blend of both Lager and Ale Yeasts. The grist is often 6 Row or 2 Row Barley with Rice or Corn Adjuncts to lighten up the body. This ale with have a pale straw to amber color. Hop Profile is balanced with noble hops appropriate. You can find more hop assertive versions but not in the sense of a American IPA. Many Lager at below 40 degrees for a few weeks post fermentation. This is not necessary but will clean up the flavor and increase clarity. Cream Ale is served a higher carbonation level then your standard ale.


This being my first foray in Cream Ale I am relying heavily on Jamil Zainasheff's recipe. Making some small modifications for my system and preferences.

This recipe yields 5.5 Gal and 75% Mash Efficiency. Mashing at 149 F for 90 minutes to insure rice conversion. I might do a step mash, undecided. Fermenting with Wyeast 1056 for a neutrality and attenuation. I am on the fence as far as lagering. This might go right to keg.

Pre Boil Gravity: 1.035
Original Gravity: 1.051
Final Gravity: 1.009
ABV: 5.5%
IBU: 19
SRM: 2.6
Boil: 90 Min
Ferment: 64 F

4 lbs 2 Row
4 lbs Pilsner
1 lbs Flaked Rice
12 oz Dextrous Sugar

1 oz Liberty 90 Min
1 oz Liberty 1 Min

Home Brew Tapping with SmallBar Division St. for Community Park

SmallBar
and Stephen Freshnock present
a HomeBrew Tapping

Thursday, June 3 at 7pm

featuring homebrewed
Coffee Bean Brown Ale made with Star Lounge beans
and
West Coast Double IPA in the spirit of a certain “elder”

A $5 donation is suggested per pint
Proceeds to Benefit Commercial Park

www.freshbrewlog.blogspot.com for more info and behind the scenes with the brewer!

SmallBar Division St
2049 West Division
773-772-2727

----------------

Here is a great opportunity to quaff some home brewed ales and support a great local cause. Look forward to seeing you all there!

#XBREW A Cross Country Brew & Swap. Podcasts.

Chicago winter has finally hit and put a damper on how much I can get out and brew. As soon as it stops precipitating I will be firing up WTF Saison and possibly an Sticke. In the mean time I was invited to be part of a cool project. Several Home Brewing Twitter junkies were invited to brew a chosen style on the same day, add local flare to it and then swap with everyone involved in the project. You can read more about it at http://homebrewcallab.wordpress.com/. I will be cross posting from that blog but feel free to check it out the other participants beer at that link.

One of my beers will be featured on an upcoming episode of the BGP (Beer Genome Project). Done by a few friend's I have met through the awesome internet home brew community. Check it out at http://beergeno.me/. I will post more info when that episode is out. Finally I had a chance to help out Ken and Brad with the Three Floyd's Beer Dinner episode of Hopcast. You can check them out here, http://www.hop-cast.com/.

Single Hop APA and WTF Saison

I am in love with the happy accident which was My last Saison. The Wyeast Saison yeast gave out at about 1.022 and it remained in Primary for almost 6 months. While in primary it picked up a pleasant sour character, that despite many veteran brewer's warnings, has only got better with age. While I know this can not be duplicated, I still have a thirst to brew Saisons as they are fast becoming one of my favorite styles. There is a lot of freedom one can take with a Saison, while it might not meet BJCP standards, they are all unique and delicious.

This particular Saison is a play on the previous recipe. I have cut back the amount of Rye, subbing Grains Of Paradise for a more subtle spiciness. Going to keep the early additions Hallertau but the late additions are going to be some peachy citrusy Amarillo hops. I want to avoid the long wait to get this one to finish out. So I am going to start with the Wyeast Saison, after three days I am going to hit it with Wyeast Trappist High Gravity to dry it out. Thinking of setting aside some unfermented wort and aerating it heavily. Creating a super started for the finishing yeast. Anyone with yeast mixing experience, please chime in!

Today I am brewing a simple single hop APA with Simcoe. I really love this hop and want to get a good grasp on its profile. I want to give a shout out to the folks at Brew And Grow for helping me with a Carpils sub today but also for letting me know you read the blog, THANKS!! You should always support your local home brew shop.

Home Brewer Profile – Joseph Lemnah

New Home Brewer profile at Hop Cast. This week it is the super knowledgeable Joseph Lemnah AKA The Hopfentreader. I leverage this guy for advanced home brew tips..oh and did I mention he is a pro brewer for DFH?! Check it out.. HOPCAST

Recipe: Rye Stout

Brewed this one on Monday as part of the "Bridges Brewery" project. This recipe seems so tasty, i may have to re brew it for my self. Nothing out of the ordinary, just borrowed form a few of my favorite Stout recipe's and replaced a portion of the base grain with Rye malt. I will use a small amount of Rice Hulls next brew as the mash bed drained awfully slow.


OG: 1.061
FG: 1.016
ABV: 6%
IBU: 39
SRM: 38
EFF: 75%
BOIL: 90
(Note: Reduced the first gallon of wort down to .5 gallon. Compensated in water volume. I have not figured out how this impacts my OG/FG)

7.5 lb Marris Otter
3 lb Rye Malt (Note: Mill at the lowest gap setting to get a fine crush)
8 oz UK Chocolate Malt
8 oz UK Roasted Barley
6 oz Caramel 40
6 oz Caramel 80
2 oz Caramel 120

2 oz Fuggles 90 min

Used 2 packs of Safale US-04 as I am fermenting this one cooler than normal, 60 - 62F. Aerated for 30 minutes with aeration stone.

RECIPE: Imperial American Brown Ale w/ Columbus Hops

I am real fond of Brown Ale's. In my opinion Chicago's Goose Island Clybourn location brews really strong Browns, Porters and Stouts (just enjoyed a Triple X Porter there yesterday, mmmm). They do a American Brown Ale called "Naught Goose" and recently did "Imperial Naughty Goose", my recipe is not a clone of this beer but was without a doubt inspired by many pints of it.

The first gallon of runnings were reduced by 50% to create a heavy body and mouth feel. I did not dry hop, the 2 ounce 1 minute addition gave enough hop aroma without it being overwhelming. Being that most Brown Ale's are in the lower ABV I decided to call this one Imperial.

Imperial Brown Ale with Columbus

OG: 1.069
FG: 1.016 (1.020 with Reduction)
EF: 75%
ABV: 7%
IBU: 90
SRM: 25

13 lbs 2-Row
12 oz Crystal 40
8 oz UK Chocolate Malt
8 oz Crystal 10
4 oz US Chocolate Malt

.75 oz Columbus 90 min
.50 oz Columbus 30 min
.50 oz Columbus 15 min
.25 oz Columbus 05 min
2 oz Columbus 01 min

2 packs of US-05

Mashed at 149 for 60 minutes. Spiked mash water with .75 tsp of Baking Soda. Reduced 1 gallon of first runnings by 50% to create a heavier body and mouthfeel.

Hop Cast Home Brewer Profile's - Andy Farley

Ken and Brad are celebrating the art of Home Brewing by featuring them on the Hop Cast site. My friend Andy Farley was featured, check him out here.. HOP CAST

Brew Day Pictures

Brew Day Pictures - American Wheat 2.1 part 1

Brew Day Pictures - American Wheat 2.1 part 2

Russian Imperial Stout Brew Day Pictures

Double Brew Day part 2 - Rye PA 2.0 and American Heffer Recipes

Looks like Friday's weather is going to be perfect for a double brew. Starting the day off with Rye Pale Ale 2.0 and following that with a Hoppy American Wheat with the same grain bill as my German Hefeweizen. With my new burner this should go much faster than before as I can get liquid to boil much much faster. Recipes follow and as always any constructive criticism or advice will be considered.


Rye Pale Ale


Expected Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.048 SG
Expected OG: 1.060 SG
Expected FG: 1.014 SG
Apparent Attenuation: 75.0 %
Expected ABV: 6.1 %
Expected ABW: 4.7 %
Expected IBU (using Rager): 34.9 IBU
Expected Color (using Morey): 5.5 SRM
BU:GU ratio: 0.58
Mash Efficiency: 70.0 %
Boil Duration: 90.0 mins
Fermentation Temperature: 68 degF


Fermentables
Ingredient Amount % MCU When
US 2-Row Malt 9lb 0oz 66.7 % 2.9 In Mash/Steeped
US Rye Malt 2lb 0oz 14.8 % 1.3 In Mash/Steeped
US Munich 10L Malt 1lb 0oz 7.4 % 1.8 In Mash/Steeped
US Flaked Rye 1lb 0oz 7.4 % 0.5 In Mash/Steeped
US Rice Hulls 8.00 oz 3.7 % 0.0 In Mash/Steeped


Single infusion Mash at 152F.

Hops
Variety Alpha Amount IBU Form When
US Magnum 14.0 % 0.50 oz 29.4 Loose Pellet Hops 90 Min From End
US Willamette 4.5 % 1.00 oz 5.5 Loose Pellet Hops 15 Min From End
US Willamette 4.5 % 1.00 oz 0.0 Loose Pellet Hops At turn off

Ferment with Safale US-05

American Heffer - American Wheat Ale

Expected Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.035 SG
Expected OG: 1.043 SG
Expected FG: 1.011 SG
Apparent Attenuation: 74.9 %
Expected ABV: 4.3 %
Expected ABW: 3.4 %
Expected IBU (using Rager): 23.6 IBU
Expected Color (using Morey): 5.5 SRM
BU:GU ratio: 0.54
Mash Efficiency: 70.0 %
Boil Duration: 90.0 mins
Fermentation Temperature: 68 degF


Fermentables
Ingredient Amount % MCU When
German Wheat Malt 5lb 0oz 51.8 % 1.4 In Mash/Steeped
US 2-Row Malt 3lb 0oz 31.1 % 1.0 In Mash/Steeped
US Carapils Malt 1lb 0oz 10.4 % 0.2 In Mash/Steeped
US Rice Hulls 8.00 oz 5.2 % 0.0 In Mash/Steeped
Belgian Special B 2.50 oz 1.6 % 4.2 In Mash/Steeped

Single Infusion Mash at 154F for 60 minutes

Hops
Variety Alpha Amount IBU Form When
US Magnum 16.0 % 0.25 oz 16.8 Loose Whole Hops 90 Min From End
US Simcoe 13.0 % 0.50 oz 5.1 Loose Whole Hops 5 Min From End
US Cascade 4.5 % 0.50 oz 1.8 Loose Whole Hops 5 Min From End
US Simcoe 13.0 % 0.50 oz 0.0 Bagged Pellet Hops At turn off
US Cascade 4.5 % 0.50 oz 0.0 Bagged Pellet Hops At turn off

Ferment at 68F with Safale US-05

More Brew Day Pictures - Imperial India Pale Ale

All Pictures taken with Shake It Photo. Available on the iTunes store and created by fellow #Gent @NickVegas.

Brew Day Pictures - Imperial India Pale Ale

IIPA?

I have had this IIPA sitting in the on deck circle for awhile, Maibock is finally bottled up and out of the fridge (and quite malty/boozy on first sampling), things are warming up outside and in the apartment.. what does this all mean? I can finally regulate fermentation temperature again. Which is great, especially when brewing an imperial style. So tomorrow I was planning on making a BIG malty British ale but instead will do the IIPA. Still using up the last of my 2-row, a little pilsner, honey malt, touch of chocolate malt and some white sugar to dry it out. Using up the last of my Magnum, Horizon, Summit, Cascade and Ahtanum for the hop cocktail. Keeping the fermentation temp at 68 to keep it from getting hot booze but at 9% this one will have alcohol. I will post the final recipe tonight and post lots of pictures tomorrow.

How to do a multi rest infusion mash

This is for fellow Home Brewer Blake who was curious how I do protein rests or multiple rest mashes with a cooler mash tun. Since I do mash in a LARGE cooler I can not raise the mash by direct heat. This involves a few extra calculations if your doing more than a single infusion.

To get started we need to know several variables, grain mass, grain to water ratio(lb to qt) and ambient temp of grain. I am going to use my Czech Pils mash program as an example.

Ambient temp of my grain is 65F, which will change throughout the year. This is important to know since you will be raising your first rest from this temp. I am using 1 qt of water for every lb of grain. There is a almost 14 lbs of grain. Since I am using continental pilsner malt we want to do a protein rest at 130F for 30 minutes and Sac rest at 154 for 60 minutes. I did not mash out but we will go ahead and pretend I did for the sake of this example.

First Rest:

Infusions Temp = (0.2/1)(130 - 65) + 130
So we divide the ration by .2 to get .2. Target Temp - Ambient Temp is 65.

Infusion Temp = (.2)(65) + 130 or 13 + 130

So out first infusion is 14qt at 143F. This should allow for us to meet our target temp of 130F.

Second Rest:

Crank your burner up during the first rest and get your water to a boil. We are going to ad smaller amounts of near boiling water to move our temperature to the saccharification rest temp of 154F.

amount of boiling water = (154 - 130) x (2.8 + 14) / (210 - 154)

(Sac Rest temp - protein rest temp) X (grain mass + water) / (infusion temp - sac rest temp)

or

amount of boiling water = (24)(16.8) / 56

or

amount of boiling water = 403 / 56 or the amount of boiling water is 7 qt to reach 154F.

Third rest:

No we are going to end conversion by mashing out or bringing the mash up to 170F.

So far we have added 14qt + 7 qt for a total of 21 qt of water. This is the main reason I do not mash out unless I have enough room in my tun. Sometimes on larger beers this is not a possibility but I just lauter with 170F water to compensate.

amount of boiling water = (170 - 154) X (2.8 + 21qt) / (210 - 170)

or

amount of boiling water = (16) X (23.8) / (40)

or

amount of boiling water = 380 / 40 or 9.5qt of near boiling water to reach 170F.



So far we have added 32.8qt of water to the tun or 8 gal. This is why I often forgo a mash out and just start the lautering process.

If you want a great introduction please go to HOW TO BREW , this is where I learned this equation. John Palmer gives a very understandable introduction to the mashing process.

Brewing With Malted Rye

In getting ready for the iPhone or Brew Pal RyePA, I needed to do a little more research on our special ingredient to insure success on the first go around. Side Note, looks like my Twitter Friend @blakejarolim will also be brewing this recipe, we will swap, compare and enjoy. God Bless Web 2.0 for its many beer blessings.

I will be using Malted Rye. If you have done any basic brewing reading you know that malted barley is a partial modified grain. The Malster has kick started the germination process and then "paused" it as the best possible moment for starch to sugar conversion. This is great, cause it means I can throw it in with the rest of my grist and use a single infusion mash. EASY..but wait..

Rye kernels are smaller than barley and do not have husks. When we mill barley we leave the husks partially in tact to act as a filter bed for lautering. If I mill my rye at the same gap as my barley i will not get the appropriate crush. So I will need to crush my normal grist and then change the gap for the rye. If you mill at your LHBS then you can place your rye portion in a sturdy Zip Lock bag, steal grandma's rolling pin and carefully crush your rye. Also, similar to Wheat, Rye has a much higher beta-glucan content. This can gummy up your mash in grist's portion's over 10%, possibly resulting in slow run off or the dreaded stuck mash. Using rice hulls as a filter bed will combat this problem. I also read of raising the mash temp by a few degrees to allow for easier run off. Apparently Rye is a little more thirsty than your typical grain. I usually multiply my dry grain weight by .20 to figure for quarts lost in grain. You might raise that slightly to accommodate for water volume.

From what I read most Pro Brewers use Rye in portions of 10-20% to act as flavor enhance to an established style, ie RyePA or Rye Stout. 30 - 50% to dominate a style, like Roggenbier or American Rye Ale. Imagine replacing the wheat with rye in a typical Heffeweizen malt bill. Sounds delicious to You and I but not for everyone.


I hope this summary helps anyone using Rye for the first time. If you have experience with the grain and you would like to correct my information, please comment.



Sources:

Brewing With Rye by Rosannah Hayden

Brewing With Rye; Tips From The Pros by Glenn BurnSilver

Deep Recipe Calculator for Your iPhone

I have had Brew Pal on my iPhone for a few weeks now but really had not had a chance to put it to use. I did not think you could get a terrible amount of functionality for .99 cents. I use a similar software on my iMac, which is great, I can have this with me when inspiration hits or to take advantage of downtime. It will export the recipe to any email address and can also save on the iPhone. It will calculate basic gain/hop/yeast recipes with adjunct promised on a future update. Calculate for mash infusion temps and water volumes. BJCP style guidelines and many more small helpful tools. So to take it through the real test, I am going to write a basic pale ale recipe and brew it using only this application. Sounds like a fun excuse to make some beer, right!