Merry Brewmas to me!

Today I went to my LHBS and picked up my Christmas present to myself. Basically it was a shopping spree. I finally got myself a glass carboy after wanting one for a couple years. I also picked up ingredients for a couple of 5 gallon extract with steeping grain batches. The one I am brewing today is from Jamil's book Brewing Classic Styles. It is the recipe called Janet's Brown Ale which I am renaming Nanci's Brown Ale after my wife, even though she does not like beer. It is a crazy hopped American Brown Ale. I had no plans on going for a brown this hoppy but for some reason all the recipes I was contemplating brewing were hoppy.
The recipe starts out with a lot of steeping grains, almost 3 pounds. Which includes some crystal 40, carapils, and some nice chocolate malt. Then for the extract it is 6 pounds of light DME and 1 pound of wheat DME. Then the hops. It is just over 9 oz of hops. A nice mix of Northern brewer, and what was supposed to be centennial and cascade. But I love cascades and it looks like when I was adding the brew to beersmith I typed cascade for all three of the finishing hops. Oh well, It will still be awesome. For the yeast I am using WYEAST 1056. Its 62 IBUS, about 6.5% abv and on the BU:GU scale its a 9.5. WOW.




53 Nanci's Brown Ale
American Brown Ale
Type: Extract Date: 12/18/2011
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal Brewer:
Boil Size: 3.15 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: Brew Pot (4 Gallon)
End of Boil Volume 2.86 gal Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal Est Mash Efficiency 0.0 %
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage Taste Rating(out of 50): 30.0
Taste Notes:
Ingredients


Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
6 lbs DME Golden Light (Briess) (4.0 SRM) Dry Extract 4 60.6 %
1 lbs DME Wheat Bavarian (Briess) (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 5 10.1 %
1 lbs 1.1 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 10.8 %
1 lbs 5.0 oz Caramel Malt - 40L (Briess) (40.0 SRM) Grain 1 13.3 %
8.3 oz Chocolate (Briess) (350.0 SRM) Grain 3 5.3 %
1.84 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 6 36.5 IBUs
1.84 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 7 18.1 IBUs
1.62 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 8 7.6 IBUs
1.99 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 9 0.0 IBUs
1.99 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Dry Hop 0.0 Days Hop 11 0.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) [124.21 ml] Yeast 10 -

Chocolate Milk Stout Hydro

Sample with the stupid thief



I just took a sample for my Milk Stout to get a hydro reading and taste test. I had to use my thief which I hate and now I remember why. First I have to sanitize it and then put the hydrometer in it. Then I can't get the sanitizer to flow out of the bottom because the hydrometer is blocking the hole. Then I have to try to open the lid on the fermenting bucket with one hand while I hold the sanitized thief in the other hand and try to keep it from touching anything. Then I have to get the sample into the thief without getting too much gunk, while making sure I still get enough beer for the hydrometer to float in. Much easier if you have a fermenting bucket with a spigot.
Anyways took the reading and after two weeks its at 1.034. I don't know how many gravity points lactose adds but that still seems kind of high to me. I still plan on leaving it in the fermenter for another week at least. Most likely won't be bottling next weekend because of family things, so it looks like Wednesday the 30th will be bottling day.

I let the sample sit in the freezer for about ten minutes then tasted it. It smelled a little "hot" from the alcohol when I was taking the sample and it tastes of that as well. That's basically all I get. Maybe some chocolate undertones but it could be me just wanting to taste that. I don't think there is anything wrong with this beer, it should mellow over time. I just need to get some more beer going so I can stay out of this one.

Finally brewing again!

I finally brewed a batch of beer on Sunday 11/5. The last batch of beer I brewed before that was July 27th. I have just been really busy with work, and the twins started kindergarden. But my Dad purchased a Mr. Beer kit and has been going crazy. I talked to him about maybe going to the LHBS and he said he wanted to go, so that made me get a recipe together.
I decided on a Chocolate Milk Stout which is a recipe I have been wanted to mess with for a while. I started with the Milk Stout recipe from Brewing Classic Styles and then looked at the Chocolate Milk Stout recipe on www.northernbrewer.com and I made my own. I wanted to do extract for the ease, this time.
I wanted to use cocoa nibs since that is what the northern brewer recipe used. They used to include chocolate extract in that kit but it got lots of negative reviews for tasting like fake chocolate.

Here is the recipe from Beersmith. This was a five gallon batch with about a starting boil of 3 gallons.

Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
6 lbs DME Dark Traditional (Briess) (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 4 80.0 %
4.0 oz Crystal, Dark (Simpsons) (80.0 SRM) Grain 3 3.3 %
12.0 oz Pale Chocolate (200.0 SRM) Grain 1 10.0 %
8.0 oz Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain 2 6.7 %
2.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 26.1 IBUs
1.0 pkg Whitbread Ale (Wyeast Labs #1099) [124.21 ml] Yeast 7 -
1.00 lb Lactose (Boil 0.0 mins) Flavor 6 -

My OG was high at 1.072 but I attribute that to the lactose and it should be right around 5% ABV. I let this ferment a week and then added 4 oz of cocoa nibs in a hop sack. I'm not going to transfer to a secondary but I will leave it in the primary for three weeks total. Two of those with the cocoa nibs.
I also want to make a Jalapeno beer. My dad made the Fire in the Hole Mr. Beer recipe and it got me thinking about the all grain Jalapeno Cream Ale I did last year that was awesome. I also want to do another batch of the Amarillo Face.

It would be nice to get the pipeline going again but with money and time, I don't know if that is going to be possible.

Sun King Barleywine

The other day I got an interesting opportunity to try a local beer. Sun King Brewery which is about 10 minutes from where I work, cans their beer. One of the first beers they brewed when they started production was a Barleywine called Johan the Barleywine. They served this mostly on tap, but they did release a limited number of cans and I was lucky enough to get one. It was actually given to me by a guy that I work with who got two cans and didn't like it. So I lucked out.

Im not good at describing what I smell and taste so if you interested in that I will let you read the reviews on Beer Advocate. I will say that I'm not a huge fan of barleywines, being that I am a hophead, but I did find the complexity of the beer nice. I'm not one to let a beer reach room temp before I drink it. I like to pour it cold right out of the fridge and be amazed at how the beer totally changes its flavors as it warms up.

What I think is particularly cool about this beer is the fact that it's a barleywine in a can. Probably one of the first of its style to be canned, if not the first. It's not just any can, but a can that Sun King has made for limited run brews. I guess when they order from the Ball can factory they have to order a ridiculous amount of each can design. So for the smaller batches they had a generic can made and they place a sticker on each can to identify the beer. I find that pretty cool.

So here are some pictures of the can.

BP ale spill label

I don't usually make labels for my beer because they seem like a waste of time but I thought this was a funny name that I came up with today as I was bottling this beer. So I made a label using Gimp. If you have not heard of gimp then you should check it out. I found it today as I was searching for alternatives to expensive photoshop. I use photoshop a lot at work and I find this software very much like photoshop but it's free so that's very nice. So anyways here is the label I made.

BP Ale Spill

From Instant Upload

BP Ale Spill Sample at bottling.


I don't like Belgian Beers. But for some reason I decided I wanted to make one. I think I was inspired by one of my beer buddies Esheppy, who says one of his favorite homebrewed beer is his Buckwheat Belgian Pale Ale. I have never made a Belgian, but always wanted to, so I picked up a kit from my LHBS Great Fermentations. I am calling this BP Ale Spill.
I bottled this today and I was completely surprised by the smell. I don't know why, because it smelled exactly like a Belgian beer should. It was kind of meaty, spicy and farmish. I used Wyeast Belgian Ardennes. I don't know exactly how to describe it but it doesn't make me excited for this beer. We will see in 2 weeks when I give this one a taste test.

From Instant Upload

BPA in the bottle.

From Instant Upload

Amarillo Face

I just finished the best batch of beer I have made to date. It was the Amarillo Face, which is another kit I picked up from the LHBS. The thing that this beer and the Belgian have in common is that I used liquid yeast.

New LHBS in Indy.

Somehow a new Local Homebrew Shop called the Tuxedo Park Brewers opened just a few minutes from where I work and I had no idea. I haven't been there yet since I just found out it was open last night. I plan on going and browsing later this week and checking the place out.

There is also a winery downtown that's pretty close to my work. It carries a few homebrew supplies but their stuff is always prepackaged grains and hops which I am a little leary of because I'm not sure of the age. It's a good place to go and pick up a hydrometer or a quick pack of yeast if I'm in a pinch.

I love my normal LHBS which is called Great Fermentations, but the problem is the location. I live on the southwest side of town and it is located on the north east side of town. It takes me about 45 minutes to get there and 45 minutes back. But the customer service and brewing knowledge are impressive. One of the guys that used to work there even opened a brewery in the same building a few months ago. I also have done a couple of the in house kits that Great Fermentations puts together, and they have been complete, easy to use and so far very tasty.