Saturday, August 20, 2011

Bastogne Single

Bastogne Single

TGT OG 1.050 TGT FG 1.012 ABV 4.7% IBU 25.6 SRM 5.5

Assumed Efficiency: 73%
Target Volume: 5.94 gal
Target PBG: 1.041
Target OG: 1.050
Total Grain: 10.95 lbs.

90.0% - 9.85 lbs. Belgian Pale Malt
04.0% - 0.44 lbs. Vienna Malt
03.0% - 0.33 lbs. Weyermann White Wheat Malt
03.0% - 0.33 lbs. Acidulated Malt

1.77 oz. Czech Saaz (4.0% AA) @ 60 min.
0.50 oz. Styrian Goldings (2.6% AA) @ 5 min.
0.50 oz. Styrian Goldings (2.6% AA) @ 1 min.

1 Whirlfloc Tablet @ 15 min.
0.25 tsp Wyeast Yeast Nutrient @ 10 min.

White Labs WLP510 - Bastogne Ale

50% Carbon Filtered Waco, 50% Distilled
6.0 g Calcium Sulphate
9.0 g Calcium Chloride

Mash at 154

Notes:
14 August 2011 (1700) - Made 2 l starter of WLP510 (prod. date 04 May 2011) w/ Wyeast Nutrient on stir plate.

16 August 2011 - Moved starter off of stir plate and into cellar.

18 August 2011 (1200) - Moved starter into refrigerator to floc more yeast out.

(2200) - Decanted starter wort, poured yeast slurry into sanitized mason jar covered with aluminum foil. Made 1.6 l starter on stir plate.

(2330) - Krausen already forming in starter(!). Added 2 drops of Foam Control to keep from blowing out of starter flask.

19 August 2011 (1830) - Removed starter from stir plate and moved into cellar.

(1950) - Moved starter into refrigerator.

20 August 2011 (1700) - Removed starter from refrigerator.

20 August 2011 - Brewed by myself. Doughed in with 4 gal water at 165. Mashed at 154 for 60 minutes. Sparged with 4.56 gal. Collected 7.5 gal 1.030 wort. Efficiency was way off. Added 1.33 lbs DME to compensate. Boiled for 90 minutes. Yielded 6 gal 1.050 wort.

Yeast pitched at 66 degrees. Set controller to 68. Visible activity in 8 hours.

22 August 2011 (1400) - Removed aluminum foil and replaced with airlock. Sucked a bunch of Star San into carboy when installing airlock. Should be fine. Very active airlock activity.

24 August 2011 - Turned off temperature controller. Rose to 72 degrees.

26 August 2011 - Moved out of freezer to fireplace. Ambient ~75 degrees.

29 August 2011 - Gravity 1.015 (69.1% AA).

08 September 2011 - Gravity 1.014 (71.0% AA). Kegged ~4.75 gal, set to 9.0 PSI for 2.00 vol CO2 at 45 degrees F.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Rood Hout Flemish Red

It took way longer than it should have to do the write up for this beer. I brewed this back in mid-May with Michelle. I thought that I lifted the grain bill from the NHC 2010 Category 17: Sour Ale winner "Zed's Dead Red" by Remi Bonnart, but I must have read it wrong and changed a few things or used what I had on hand (that's what happens when I put off doing the write up for 3 months).

Rood Hout Flemish Red

OG 1.056 FG ???? ABV ???? IBU ~13.5 SRM 3.0

Assumed Efficiency: ??%
Target Volume: 6.25 gal
Target PBG: 1.046
Target OG: 1.055
Total Grain: 12.56 lbs.

27.8% - 3.5 lbs. Castle Pilsener
27.8% - 3.5 lbs. US Vienna Malt
27.8% - 3.5 lbs. ?????
04.6% - 0.56 lbs. CaraMunich I
04.6% - 0.56 lbs. White Wheat Malt
04.6% - 0.45 lbs. Special B
04.6& - 0.45 lbs. Aromatic Malt

0.70 oz. East Kent Goldings (6.1% AA) @ 60 min.

0.25 tsp Wyeast Yeast Nutrient @ 10 min.
1.00 oz Medium Toast French Oak Cubes

East Coast Yeast ECY02 - Flemish Ale
Jolly Pumpkin "La Roja" Dregs
Wyeast 3711 - French Saison

Carbon Filtered Waco Water

Mash at 154

Notes:
15 May 2011 - Brewed with Michelle. Missed mash temp by a few degrees. Mashed at 152 for 20 minutes. Sparged and collected 6.75 gal of 1.051 wort (Efficiency 75.3%. Boiled for 90 minutes at evaporation rate of 12% and yielded 6.15 gal of 1.056 wort. Chilled to 69 degrees and pitched ECY02 and JP dregs.

30 May 2011 - Gravity 1.040. Should add an attenuative yeast to help finish it out.

31 May 2011 - Pitched smack pack of Wyeast 3711 to help finish primary fermentation. I probably shouldn't have used something so attenuative, but that's all I had on hand.

04 August 2011 - First look at beer in a few months. Healthy looking pellicle has formed.

29 August 2011 - Gravity 1.003.



Monday, August 15, 2011

A Little Dinner



Just a quick picture of my new favorite, a vegetable pizza that I lifted from the NXNW menu. I've noticed that I get really terrible heartburn from all of the tomato sauce on Chicago style pizza, so this thin crust pizza with pesto instead of traditional sauce is right up my alley. I used red and yellow bell peppers, mushrooms, onions, zucchini, eggplant, garlic, and feta and mozzarella cheese. I've made it two nights in a row. I'm seriously considering a third.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Anno Domini 2011

Since the beginning of the year I've been anxious to brew a batch of lambic. Actually, I've been anxious to brew a batch of lambic every year so that I can blend gueuze down the road, but I'm just going to take it one year at a time. However, because I'm an apartment dweller in Texas, undertaking a project like that wouldn't quite work. Luckily, about once or twice a year I tend to make it home to Illinois with a basement that stays under 70 degrees and an understanding and patient family. The plan is to brew a batch of lambic whenever I come home, and hopefully after two or three years I can blend gueuze.



Short of fermenting spontaneously and aging in a barrel (both of which I'd like to do in the future), I tried to stay as close to traditional techniques as I could. I used a grist of 66% pilsner malt and 34% raw white winter wheat and employed a turbid mash (thanks to The Mad Fermentationist, Biohazard Lambic, and Wild Brews for helping me understand the how's and why's of the process). It went much smoother and was more enjoyable than I thought it would be at the onset. All together, it only took about two hours longer than a normal brew day.



I mostly followed the instructions for the turbid mash on Mad Fermentationist and Biohazard Lambic to the letter. The only change I made was increasing the grist and water volumes by 25%. In the end, I'm glad I did because my preboil gravity was 1.034, which meant I only needed to boil for ~2 hours. By my estimation, if I didn't adjust the grist I would have ended up with a preboil gravity of 1.025 and had to boil for ~5 hours. I'll take a few more dollars in grain over a few hours of boil time any day. I used spring water for lack of a better option. I didn't bring my carbon filter home with me and I didn't want to have a little bit of chlorine ruin a lot of hard work.

Anno Domini 2011

OG 1.047 FG ???? ABV ???? IBU ~10.8 SRM 3.0

Assumed Efficiency: ??%
Target Volume: ??
Target PBG: ??
Target OG: 1.048
Total Grain: 10.0 lbs.

66.0% - 6.6 lbs. Castle Pilsener
34.0% - 3.4 lbs. Raw White Winter Wheat

0.75 oz. Willamette (5.2% AA) @ 30 min.

0.25 tsp Wyeast Yeast Nutrient @ 10 min.
1.00 oz Medium Toast French Oak Cubes

Wyeast 3278 - Belgian Lambic Blend
Wyeast 3763 - Roeselare Ale Blend
Various bottle dregs (See notes)

100% Spring Water

Turbid Mash

Notes:
29 July 2011 - Made .5 l starter wort with some yeast nutrient to dump dregs into (Jolly Pumpkin Bam Biere, Cantillon Gueuze, Drie Fonteinen Oude Geuze, Girardin Gueuze 1882, Boon Oude Gueuze).

01 August 2011 - Brewed by myself. Ran unmalted wheat through grain mill twice. Followed turbid mash from Biohazard pretty closely. Missed a few temperatures, notably the first 113 degree rest. Overshot by ~7 degrees.

Collected 8 gallons of 1.034 wort. Boiled for two hours yielding 5.76 gal of 1.047 wort (Evaporation rate 14%).

Chilled to 67 degrees, shook for aeration, and pitched both smack packs. Moved to basement with high 60s ambient temperature. Visible fermentation within 8 hours.

02 August 2011 - Boiled oak cubes in water for five minutes and added to fermenter.

03 August 2011 - Pitched .5 l of dregs.