Thursday, June 16, 2011

Table Saison II

I brewed a low gravity saison in early April and it didn't turn out very well. There were a number of problems both in recipe design and during the brew day. I hate to drain pour a good beer, but this wasn't turning into a good beer so no harm, no foul.

When designing the recipe for the first Table Saison, I wanted to keep it as simple as possible. I went overboard with that idea and used only pilsener malt for the grist. Now, for a higher gravity saison like Saison duPont, which purportedly uses 100% pilsener, that works. For a beer with a starting gravity of 1.038, however, I ended up with a thin, watery mess with no body.

The revised recipe (really a whole new recipe all together) has some Belgian pale malt for depth, wheat, and Carapils for body. I also added Styrian Goldings and decided to go with Wyeast 3711 - French Saison.

Table Saison II

OG 1.041 FG 1.002 ABV 5.1% IBU ~26 SRM 3.4

Assumed Efficiency: 70%
Target Volume: 7.75 gal
Target PBG: 1.030
Target OG: 1.036
Total Grain: 9.0 lbs.

39.0% - 3.52 lbs. Castle Pilsener
39.0% - 3.52 lbs. Belgian Pale Malt
13.7% - 1.23 lbs. Weyermann Wheat Malt
08.3% - 0.75 lbs. CaraPils

2.00 oz. Czech Saaz (4.0% AA) @ 50 min.
1.00 oz. Styrian Goldings (2.6% AA) @ Flame out

1.00 tablet Whirlfloc @ 10 min.
0.50 tsp Wyeast Yeast Nutrient @ 10 min.

Wyeast 3711 - French Saison

50% Carbon Filtered Waco, 50% Distilled

Mash at 154

Notes:
Brewed on 16 June 2011 by myself

Mashed for 60 minutes at 154 @ pH ~5.2. Had to add 1/4 tsp phosphoric acid to adjust pH

Collected 7.5 gal of 1.035 wort (mash efficiency 78.4%). Overshot target preboil gravity by 5 points. Need to adjust anticipated mash efficiency on low gravity beers to around 75%.

Removed .25 gal wort and added .5 gal filtered water for 7.75 gal of 1.032 wort

Boiled for 90 minutes and yielded ~6.12 gal of 1.041 wort (evaporation rate 14%). Usually average 11-12% evaporation, don't know what happened. Could have diluted with distilled water to adjust gravity, but decided to leave it.

Chilled to 70 degrees F and pitched smack pack of WY3711 without starter. Shook for ~2 minutes to aerate. Let free rise to 78 degrees F

22 June 2011 - Moved to fireplace. Ambient temperature ~75 degrees F.

30 June 2011 - Gravity 1.002. Bottled 4.6 gal of 75 degrees F beer with 4.28 oz table sugar for a target of 2.5 vol CO2. Yielded 19 12oz and 2 750ml bottles. Had trouble capping some 12 oz bottles (wider rim on Hacker-Pschorr bottles?) and didn't have larger size caps on hand for the rest of the 750ml bottles (Bruery bottles). Ended up dumping about 2.25 gal.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

The Dark One

I enjoy brewing alone, but I really love brewing when I have someone to help. The brew day tends to go much smoother because I don't have to worry about a kettle boiling over while I'm cleaning the mash tun, or have to run around like a chicken with its head cut off. With this beer, I was the one helping. Michelle (fiancée) did most of the recipe design (more chocolate was her motto) and I just steered her in the right direction. The nice thing about having her write the recipe is that if it doesn't turn out well, I can blame her, and if it turns out to be a great beer, I can take all the credit!

The Dark One

OG 1.063(?) FG 1.019 ABV 5.9% IBU ~27 SRM 27.1

Assumed Efficiency: 70%
Target Volume: 7.5 gal
Target PBG: 1.049
Target OG: 1.060
Total Grain: 14.6 lbs

69.9% - 10.22 lbs. Maris Otter
12.7% - 01.86 lbs. Toasted Rolled Oats
04.3% - 0.63 lbs. Chocolate Malt
03.5% - 0.51 lbs. Victory Malt
03.5% - 0.51 lbs. Crystal 20L
02.6% - 0.38 lbs. Roasted Barley
01.7% - 0.25 lbs. Crystal 40L
01.7% - 0.25 lbs. Crystal 60L

1.50 oz. East Kent Goldings (6.1% AA) @ 50 min.

1.00 tablet Whirlfloc @ 10 min.
0.50 tsp Wyeast Yeast Nutrient @ 10 min.
10.0 oz Cocoa Powder @ 01 min.

White Labs WLP002 - English Ale

Carbon Filtered Waco Water

Mash at 156


Notes:
10 June 2011 - Roasted 2 lbs 10 oz of rolled oats in oven at 350 degrees F. 3 cookie sheets roasted for 15, 17, and 20 minutes for some depth. Turned every 5 minutes. Placed in paper bag to cool.

Brewed on 11 June 2011 with Michelle

Mashed for 30 minutes at 155 @ pH ~5.5

Collected 7 gal of 1.054 wort (mash efficiency 71.8%)

Added .5 gal of filtered water for 7.5 gal of 1.051 wort

Boiled for 90 minutes and yielded ~6 gal of 1.068(!) (all the cocoa powder must have thrown the gravity reading off, OG was probably around 1.062-1.065)

Chilled to 66 degrees F and pitched 1.23 l starter of WLP002. Visible activity within 4 hours.

12 June 2011 - Consistent activity in airlock. Thin krausen barely starting to form.

16 June 2011 - Moved near fireplace. Ambient temperature ~75 degrees F. Gravity 1.018.

21 June 2011 - Gravity 1.016

25 June 2011 - Gravity 1.019. Bottled 4.6 gal of 75 degree beer with 2.34 oz table sugar for a target of 1.8 vol CO2. Yield 20 12oz and 15 22oz bottles. Looking back on old gravity readings I realize I probably didn't correct for the temperature of the sample.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Hoppyweizen

I only get to have the full range of New Glarus Brewing Company's beers about once a year. Whenever I go home to Illinois I try to make a pilgrimage across state lines to pick up some New Glarus beers. One of my favorite beers from their lineup is Crack'd Wheat (which, sadly, appears to be discontinued). It's a hefeweizen hopped with American hops (I believe Amarillo). The interplay between the vanilla and clove notes from the hefeweizen yeast works really well with the Amarillo hop character. I'm surprised that more American brewers aren't doing something along these lines.

I had some Cascade, Citra, and Amarillo on hand and I've been trying to brew beers to use up two sacks of Weyermann Wheat Malt and Castle Pilsener Malt before I, incidentally, head home to Illinois and make the pilgrimage across state lines to pick up some New Glarus beers. My only concern with this recipe is that I might have gone overboard a bit on the hopping. I still want to taste the hefeweizen behind the hops, but I've got a feeling that the nice banana character from the Weihenstephan yeast is going to be lost.

Hoppyweizen

OG 1.060 FG 1.013 ABV 6.3% IBU ~38 SRM 5.3

Assumed Efficiency: 70%
Target Volume: 6.68 gal
Target PBG: 1.050
Target OG: 1.063
Total Grain: 16.0 lbs.

52.4% - 8.71 lbs. Weyermann Wheat Malt
35.0% - 5.81 lbs. Belgian Pilsener Malt
06.2% - 1.03 lbs. Rice Hulls
03.1% - 0.51 lbs. CaraMunich

0.50 oz. US Magnum (13.5% AA) @ 60 min.
1.00 oz. Amarillo (9.3% AA) @ 5 min.
1.00 oz. Cascade (5.0% AA) @ 5 min.
1.00 oz. Citra (13.4% AA) @ 5 min.
1.00 oz. Amarillo (9.3% AA) @ Dry Hop
1.00 oz. Cascade (5.0% AA) @ Dry Hop
1.00 oz. Citra (13.4% AA) @ Dry Hop

1.00 tablet Whirlfloc @ 10 min.
0.25 tsp Wyeast Yeast Nutrient @ 10 min.
5 drops Fermcap-S @ Primary Fermenter

Wyeast 3068 - Wiehenstephan Weizen

50% Carbon Filtered Waco, 50% Distilled

Mash at 151

Notes:
Brewed on 08 June 2011 by myself

Mashed for 30 minutes at 145 @ pH ~5.2. Added .75 gal boiling water to raise mash temp to 149 for 10 minutes before running off

Collected 9.25 gal of 1.039 wort (mash efficiency 63.4%). Added .55 lbs Extra Light DME for 9.25 gal of 1.042 wort.

Boiled hard for 120 minutes (~15% evaporation)

Chilled to 62 degrees F and pitched smack pack without starter and without aeration. Let free rise to 72 degrees over 20 hours.

11 June 2011 - Moved near fireplace. Ambient temperature 75 degrees F

12 June 2011 - Gravity 1.020 (65.5% AA)

15 June 2011 - Racked to secondary for dry hop

23 June 2011 - Final gravity 1.013 (77.5% AA). Bottled 3.6 gal of 75 degree F beer with 4.32 oz table sugar for target 3.00 volumes CO2. Yield 35 12oz bottles.

18 July 2011 - First tasting