Springtime Aroma Pale Ale

Well, spring is in the air and it has been beautiful here in Portland lately.  Best spring I can remember.  That better not jinx the next three months... I tried a new beer the other day, NWPA from Fort George Brewing.  It was awesome.  Light bitterness with a ton of hop aroma.  There was a large amount of hop particles floating in the beer, that was poured from a can (why breweries filter everything seems strange to me, I like the lack of filtering on a beer like this).  It was delicious.  So naturally, I used that beer to inspire one of my own.

This is a session style beer (4.2%) with only 23 IBU's.  There are a ton of hops in this thing though.  I'm hoping that the aroma and flavor really dominates over the usual crazy bittering I do.  I also didn't do any hop additions at 60 minutes, but let it boil plain for 30 minutes, then added hops at the midway point.  Hopefully that really does something good for the beer.  Anyways, here's the details...

Recipe:
10.5 gallons

Fermentables:
12.5# GW 2-Row
2# Victory
1.5# Carapils
1.5# Crystal 30L

Anticipated OG: 1.044
Actual OG: 1.048
Anticipated FG: 1.010
Actual FG:
Anticipated ABV: 4.5%
Actual ABV:

Hops:
(60 minute boil)
1oz CTZ at 30m
2oz Citra at 5m

2oz Cascade at flameout
2oz Citra at flameout

4oz Cascade dryhop for 7 days
2oz Citra dryhop for 7 days

IBU's: 23

Yeast:
1 pack of Safale US-05 made with 1L starter two days before.

Notes:
4/24/13: Brewed this last Monday (2 days ago).  I'm fermenting this one in a 50L keg with a stopper and an airlock in the bunghole.  So far so good.  Gravity was at 1.019 today which is impressive since I only used one pack of Safale.  I guess the starter is helping out.  It's the first time I've used a starter.  So far the aroma and flavor is exactly what I was going for.

Lawnmower IPA

I've been wanting to experiment with a lower ABV IPA for a while now and finally got around to doing it.  So often in order to get really big hop flavor you have to have a higher ABV beer.  I'd like to have a lower ABV beer with really big hop flavor (one of the reasons I like Bitter American from 21A so much).  So this is my first attempt at a "lawnmower beer" in the IPA department.  Here's the details...

Recipe:
5.5 gallons

Fermentables:
8 lb GW 2-Row
12 oz Crystal 40L
8 oz Carahell
4oz Dextrose

Anticipated OG: 1.047
Actual OG: 1.046
Anticipated FG: 1.013
Actual FG: 1.010
Anticipated ABV: 4.4%
Actual ABV: 4.7%

Hops:
161 Calculated IBU's
1oz CTZ for 60m
1oz Summit for 60m
1oz CTZ for 30m
1oz Summit for 30m

1oz Centennial at flameout
1oz Cascade at flameout

2oz CTX hopback (used my mash tun)

1oz Centennial for 7 days dryhop
1oz Cascade for 7 days dryhop

Yeast:
Safale 05

Notes:
I had been reading about hopbacks and using them while brewing.  I'm not sure how I didn't come across this before or pay attention to it, but decided it was time to put it into play.  I first tried to convert a thermos into a hopback that could also be used as a randalizer in the beer line, but I probably rushed it and failed.  I'll retry that another time.  So I then thought maybe I could drain the boiled wort into my cleaned out mash tun with 2oz of CTZ in it which would filter the hops out as it then entered my wort chiller.  That worked perfectly.  It's now fermenting in my basement and should be ready to transfer to secondary in a couple more days.  I brewed this last Friday (7/13/12).
Also I once again ended up about a gallon short after the boil so I added a gallon of water to the wort.  I'll have to figure out how to adjust Brewpal for that.
Update 7/21/12: Racked to secondary.  FG was 1.010 so ABV is about 4.7%.  Added 1oz of Centennial and 1oz of Cascade.

Bitter American Clone, Round 4

I'm a really big fan of 21st Amendment Brewing's Bitter American Ale.  The lighter body ale with a big hop flavor is quite good.  That plus the lower alcohol makes for a great spring/summer ale.  I'll most likely be bottling this one, so it should last quite a while (I hope!).  Here's the details.  I've altered the recipe again from previous attempts (1st, 2nd, 3rd).  Hopefully this one hits a little closer.  One problem is that Simcoe is in huge demand hence there's not too much around.  Luckily I still had some in the freezer, but this will use it all up.  Hope it's worth it!

Recipe:
5.5 Gallons

Grains:
5lb Golden Promise (Simpsons)
5lb 2-Row (GW)
.8lb Munich Light (Briess I think?)
.8lb Crystal 40L (GW)

Boil Hops:
.75oz Warrior (17%) for 60m
.25oz Warrior (17%) for 15m
.5oz Warrior (17%) for 5m
1oz Centennial (10%) for 5m
1oz Cascade (6%) for 5m

Dry-Hops:
1oz Centennial (10%) for 7 days
2oz Simcoe (13%) for 7 days
.5oz Warrior (17%) for 7 days

Yeast:
White Labs American Ale (WLP001)

Notes:
Brewed this last week actually along with an Espresso Stout, I've just been busy and pre-occupied with other things since to post.  Brewing went well, except for hitting my gravity.  I was targeting 1.054 (75% efficiency) but got 1.060 (82% efficiency).  Oh well.  That will lose some of the session ale quality, but that's how homebrewing goes sometimes!  Fermentation is still going strong and even overflowing at times (a week later).  Not sure what to think about that.
Update 4/24/12: Racked to secondary and added the dry hops.  FG was 1.014, so looks like about a 6% ABV, which is higher than my anticipated 5.5%.  Oh well.

Bitter American 3.0

This is my third time brewing this.  I really like this brew.  I altered it some more after looking at 21A's webiste.  This is a strait up attempt at cloning their Bitter American Session Bitter Ale.  It's quite tasty.  I altered it quite a bit this time, so hopefully it's closer!  I wanted more of a malt taste this time so I upped the Golden Promise up quite a bit.  Also, Brew Brothers' new grain mill is working way better.  My efficiencies today were up to close to 80%!  I came in a couple points over expected gravity as opposed to being under like I have been for the last who knows how many batches.  So without further ado, here's the recipe:

5.5 Gallon Recipe

Grains:
6lb Simpsons Golden Promise
3lb GW 2-Row
2lb Munich Light
.5lb Crystal 40L

Hops:
1oz Warrior Pellet for 60m
.25oz Warrior Pellet for 30m
.5oz Cascade Leaf for 30m
1oz Cascade Leaf for 5m

1.5oz Centennial leaf  Dry Hop for 7 days in secondary
2oz Simcoe leaf Dry Hop for 7 days in secondary

Extras:
1tsp Irish Moss at 15m

Yeast:
Wyeast 1056 Slurry

Notes: Brewing was super easy again.  I was able to get some reading done while waiting for each stage to finish.  Gravity was supposed to come in at 1.053, it was actually 1.056, so my efficiency is way better.  Must be that new grain mill.  This should get down to around 1.012 or so for a final ABV of around 5%.  This will be an awesome summer evening ale to sit on the patio and thank God for how good he is.
Update 7/2/11: Racked to secondary and added 2oz of Simcoe and about .5oz of Centennial.  It was supposed to have 1.5oz of Centennial, but I only had .5oz left.  I'm sure it will still taste awesome!  Final Gravity was 1.011 giving the final ABV of 5.8%.  That's a lot higher than I wanted, so next time I'll back off the Golden Promise by about a pound.  Oh well, so goes the brewing life.
Update 7/8/11: Kegged plus a 22.
Tasting Update: I really like this.  It has a bigger malt taste thanks to the increase in the Golden Promise.  My wife isn't as big of a fan, so more for me I guess.  Next time I'll scale back the Golden Promise to 4.5 or 5 pounds to lower the malt for my wife as well as to lower the ABV.  Overall, another successful brew!
Second Tasting Update:  This has aged very nicely.  This is a fantastic ale.  Highly recommend brewing this!

Bachelor ESB Clone

I wanted to do another hop filled creation, but didn't want a full on IPA, so I went with it's distant cousin, the ESB.  I've enjoyed Bachelor ESB from Deschutes Brewing before, so I figured I'd give this a shot.  I screwed up the hop bill though and somehow bought Tettnanger instead of East Kent Goldings.  Not sure how I did that, but oh well.  Hopefully it turns out.

Recipe:
5.5 gallons

Grain Bill:
10lb      GW 2-Row
1.75lb   Crystal 40L
.85lb     Munich Light
.85lb     Carapils

Hops:
1.75oz  Amarillo @ 60m
1oz       Nugget @ 30m
2oz       Tettnanger @ 2m (should have done 1oz East Kent Goldings, but since I got the wrong one I got upset at myself and threw them all in).

Yeast:
Wyeast 1968 London Ale Slurry from Old Dirty Randy

Extras:
1tsp Irish Moss @ 15m

Details:
Anticipated OG: 1.062
Anticipated FG: 1.019
IBU: 65
SRM: 10.5
Strike: 5 gallons @ 165 (collected just over 3 gallons)
Sparge: 3.9 gallons @ 181 (collected just under 4 gallons)

Notes:
A smooth brewing day.  I racked the Black Beauty and my half of the Breakfast Stout (1056 version) to a keg while I finished off the Chico's Export from the keg.  Good timing on that.  Didn't hit my gravity again despite moving my calculations to 70% from 75%.  I'll have to research some more to figure that out.  OG: 1.052.
Update 6/2/11: Racked to secondary.  Gravity was 1.017.
Update 6/9/11: Bottled.  8 22's and 40 12's.
Update 6/22/11: Sampled a couple bottles last night with my wife.  It's really good.  Good hop flavor and a smooth body.  This is a great inbetween of a pale ale and an IPA.

Angry Canadian

This is a second take on the "Bitter American" clone I had previously brewed titled "Why Are You Yelling At Me?"  Bitter American is a session ale from 21st Amendment Brewing in San Francisco.  The first time I didn't get the efficiency I wanted from the first mash tun I had made, so I had to use some DME the next day to raise the gravity and try to save it.  Luckily it turned out awesome.  So awesome, I had to make more since I keep drinking it and giving it all away.  This time my buddy Gregg (with 3 G's) came over to help out and split the batch with me.  We did a ten gallon batch, so 5 gallons each coming our way!  This was a nice break in for the new Brew Tree.  Here's the important info you're dying to know...

Recipe:
Grain:
7.5lb GW 2 Row
8lb Golden Promise
1lb Crystal 40L

Hops:
2oz Centennial @ 60m
1.5oz Centennial @ 10m
1.5oz Colombus @ 10m
1.5oz Centennial @ 5m
1.5oz Colombus @ 5m

3oz Centennial for 7 days in secondary
4oz Simcoe for 7 days in secondary

Yeast:
Wyeast 1056 Slurry (that thing keeps on giving!)

Extras:
I meant to add 2tsp Gypsum at boil and 2tsp Irish Moss at 15m, but I forgot.

6.2gallons Strike @ 163
8.3gallons Sparge @ 176
Collected 4 gallons from mash and 8.5 gallons from sparge.
Pre-boil gravity adjusted to 1.038 with temp at 140.
Post-boil gravity was 1.043
Anticipated post-boil gravity was 1.043, so I nailed it!
Anticipated final gravity: 1.011
IBU's: 68

Notes:

Gregg modeling the brew tree.  Very nice.

Brewing went super smooth.  The only hitches were forgetting to add the extras and we ran out of propane while trying to get the boil going.  So a quick run to the store down the street and we were back in business.  Otherwise using the Brew Tree is so nice.  Easy to transfer, easy to mash, the keggle mash tun works great, and I can boil 10 gallons and not have to move it to use the counter-flow-chiller.  The 100,000 btu burner's are pretty awesome.  I recommend them.
The counter-flow-chiller wasn't quite as efficient this time, but I still finished right around 75.  I think I need to get the counter-water flow dialed in.  But, the Canadian is fermenting away right now as I type....

Counter-Flow-Chiller in action. 

Update 4/14/11: Gravity is at 1.016 and 1.014 in the two fermenting buckets.  Another day or two and I'll move to secondary.

Update 4/16/11: Racked to secondary and added the dry hops.  However due to my cheapness I only added 2oz of Centennial and 2oz of Simcoe.

Update 4/25/11: I kegged 5 gallons a couple days ago and now I'm waiting for it to be fully carbonated.  Since this is my first keg set up, I'm still figuring it out.  Hopefully it'll be ready soon.  I'll be bottling the other five gallons with Gregg tonight...Bottled it up and got 12 22's and 29 12's.  Pretty good amount and everything went quite smoothly.

Why Are You Yelling At Me? -American Bitter

So this is going to be my first all grain batch, which I plan on brewing this afternoon (supposing everything works out today).  It's a clone recipe of Bitter American, which is an American style Bitter made by 21st Amendment Brewing.  Here's a review I did of the beer.  It's a session beer, so it will have a lower starting gravity and lower ABV.  I hope that this turns out well!  Here's the recipe and details:

Grain Bill:
3.75 lbs 2-Row
3.75 lbs Golden Promise
.5 lbs Crystal 40L

Hop Schedule:
1oz Centennial for 60min
.75oz Centennial for 10min
.75oz Simcoe for 10min
.75oz Centennial for 5min
.75oz Simcoe for 5min

2oz Centennial for 7 day dry-hop
2oz Simcoe for 7 day dry-hop

Yeast:
Wyeast 1056 American Ale slurry from previous batches

Anticipated OG: 1.041
Anticipated FG: 1.010
Anticipated ABV: 4.1%

Hope to brew this today!

Update from the brewing:
Gravity came out at 1.032.  I ended up with 1/2 gallon more wort than I should have, so that's probably why the gravity is lower.  Oh well, it's a session beer which should have lower alcohol, so that should help.  Things went so-so.  See my other post from today to check that out.  I have about 5.5 gallons fermenting right now with the dry hop happening as I type.  Gotta love the hops!
Update 2/25/11:  So since the gravity was so low I decided to try to fix that after talking to Old Dirty Randy at Poorhouse Brewing.  He recommended using some Dry Malt Extract and boiling it into a couple pints of fermenting beer.  So I did the math and added 1.25lbs of DME to a couple pints.  Pre-boil gravity for the batch was 1.012.  After the boil it was 1.022.  So it worked.  After a huge mess with boil overs and malt catching on fire on the stove and lots of smoke, it worked.  Hopefully it saves the batch.
Update 2/28/11: Gravity is at 1.011 with a good malty flavor.  Looks like the DME saved this batch.  I'll rack it to secondary after I bottle the Opening Day Amber Ale in the next day or two.
Update 3/1/11: Gravity at 1.010.
Update 3/3/11: Gravity at 1.010.  Racked to secondary and cold crashed in the garage.  I hope to bottle this in a couple days.
Update 3/6/11: Bottled it up.  Got 48 12's and 1 22oz.  Pretty good!
Update 3/22/11:  This stuff is really good.  It's not quite as malty as the Bitter American, but it's got a great hop flavor and is plenty smooth.  I may up the Golden Promise next time and see if that increases the malt flavor.

Tasting:  Outstanding.  Great hop flavor...really smooth.  I'm really enjoying this one and will be making it again soon!  I'll add a little more golden promise next time to try for a little more malty flavor, but this is great as it was.