Black Eye PA

I ran out of stout after giving most of a keg to some friends for their housewarming party, so I needed to brew something dark to keep on tap.  I was really psyched on how this turned out last time, so I'm repeating that recipe.

RECIPE 
(click the link, I didn't feel like retyping it!)

Notes:
Brewed on August 4 in the afternoon.  A nice sunny warm day!  Gravity came in at about 1.061 (I think).  It was supposed to be a little higher, but oh well.  Close enough.  Everything went smooth, including drying the grain which will next move on to become chicken feed.  Fermenting was fast, it's probably almost ready for secondary.  I'll check it tonight or tomorrow.
Update 8/21/11: Racked to secondary and added 1oz of Centennial and 1oz of Simcoe.  Gravity was at 1.012, making this about 6.1% ABV.  While it was supposed to be a little higher, I prefer most of the brews I make to come in between 5% and 6%.

Workhorse IPA Clone

The other day I stopped into Belmont Station hoping they had Pliny the Elder (which they just happened to start selling five minutes before I got there-they only have it for about 3 hours a month before selling out so it really was a lucky stop for me).  I went to pay, but only had my debit card and there's a five dollar minimum, so I had to get something else.  I grabbed a bottle of Workhorse IPA from Laurelwood Brewing and bought that as well.  Since I ended up with a bottle of that, I figured I should brew it (recipe mostly from Old Dirty Randy) since I had close to what the grain bill was and had the hops on hand since I usually try to keep a large supply of hops (cheaper to buy in bulk).  So I'm brewing a clone of a beer I haven't had since I had a bottle of it, so I can compare the two afterwards.  Pretty good story huh?





Grain Bill:
14lb 2-Row
2lb Crystal 40L
1lb Carapils

Boil Hop Bill:
1.5oz CTZ for 60m
1.5oz Amarillo for 30m
2oz Cascade for 10m
2oz Simcoe for 5m

Dry Hops:
.5oz CTZ for 7 days
.5 Amarillo for 7 days
2oz Simcoe for 7 days

Yeast:
Wyeast 1056 slurry that keeps on giving

Extras:
1tsp Irish Moss @ 15m

Notes:
Smooth brewing.  Gravity came in at 1.070 (should have been 1.080ish, oh well).  Fermentation is going crazy.  Good to brew again after over a month, especially on a nice 75 degree summer day.
Update 8/6/11: Racked to secondary and added the dry hops.  I ran out of Cascade though, so I upped the Amarillo.  FG 1.011.  Final ABV 7.5%.
Taste Update: Very tasty.  I'll do a side by side in about a week once this clears up a bit.  This is a nice florally hoppy beer that's smooth and enjoyable.
Side By Side: So I finally cracked open the 22 to see what this is supposed to taste like since I hadn't had it before.  So here's the breakdown:

Color: The Workhorse is a little lighter, but it's somewhat close.
Aroma: Very similar.  The Workhorse is a little hoppier smelling (probably since it's from the bottle).
Flavor:  Very, very similar.  The Workhorse it a little bit maltier, but it's really close.
The Bottom Line: I really nailed it.  Thanks Old Dirty!

Update 11/20/11: So Laurelwood is no longer brewing this.  This recipe really turned out close flavor wise, so if you're jonesing for a Workhorse, make this and enjoy!  I hope to make this again soon!

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!

Trixie 2.0

So the Happy Birthday Aunt Trixie was a huge success, especially to my wife.  She was really psyched on it and started to give me some flack about giving it away, so I told her I would brew up some more.  So here it is.  I modified it a bit from the original, but it's pretty similar.

Recipe:

5.5 Gallons

Grain:

10 lb GW 2-Row

Hops:

.6oz Nugget Pellets from Old Dirty Randy for 60m

Yeast:

1056 Slurry that keeps on giving

Extras:

1tsp Irish Moss at 15m
I'll add 24oz of boiled and strained Raspberries when I rack to secondary.

Notes:

The new grain mill at Brew Brothers must be doing it's thing because I was back to 75% efficiency today.  That means that instead of 4.2ish % ABV, I got 5%.  Still a decent session summery ale, so I'm happy with that.  OG was 1.052.  FG should be about 1.013 for the 5% mark.  Everything went super smooth as well.  Total brew time was about 4 hours.  Sunny day as well.  Perfect Brew Day!
Update 6/25/11: Racked to secondary and added the raspberries.  I boiled 24oz for about 1/2 hour and then strained out the chunks and added the raspberry juice/extract to the brew.  Forgot to get a final gravity.  I'm assuming it was around 1.012ish.

Pliny the Elder Clone

So it's time to jump on the homebrewing bandwagon and brew up some Pliny.  This is definitely a great tasting IPA with a ton of hop flavor.  I'll hopefully pit it against the Tara-dact-Ale (supposing I have some left by the time the Pliny is done) and see which is better.  I'll be brewing this tomorrow which is supposed to be a great day and the start of a great weekend which means I'll be able to dry the grain and get it into some chickens who will turn it into eggs.

Pliny was the guy who first identified hops and gave them a scientific name back in the first century.  What a great guy!

Recipe:
5.5 gallons

Grain:
15lb GW 2-Row
.7lb Carapils
.7lb Crystal 40L (supposed to be 50L, but oh well)

Hops:
3oz CTZ for 90m
.75oz CTZ for 45m
1oz Simcoe for 30m
1oz Centennial for 0m
2.5oz Simcoe for 0m

1oz CTZ for 10 days in secondary
1oz Centennial for 10 days in secondary
1oz Simcoe for 10 days in secondary
.25 CTZ for 5 days in secondary
.25 Centennial for 5 days in secondary
.25 Simcoe for 5 days in secondary

Extras:
1lb Dextrose for 90m in boil
1tsp Irish Moss for 15m in boil

Yeast:
1056 Slurry

Anticipated Results:
OG: 1.084
FG: 1.021
ABV: 8.3%
IBU: 127

I'll post updates as stuff happens as usual.
Brewing Update: Gravity came in way too low.  Hopefully the new grain mill at BrewBros will help fix this problem.  Rumor is that the old one wasn't cracking the grain as well as the new one does.  OG is 1.062.  So this will come in way below the targets...oh well.  Everything else was nice and smooth.  Total time was about 4 1/2 hours, not too bad for a 90 minute boil.
Update 6/7/11: Gravity at 1.022.  I'll give it to the weekend to try to drop a little more.  I'd like it to end up in the 1.014-1.017 range.
Update 6/12/11: Racked to secondary and added first round of dry hops.  One ounce each of CTZ, Centennial, and Simcoe.  Gravity was at 1.011.  Super bitter flavor, this should be good!
Update 6/19/11: Added another .25oz of CTZ and Centennial.  I was also supposed to add .25 of Simcoe, but I added .5oz of Simcoe.  After all, what's better than .25oz of Simcoe?  .5 oz of Simcoe.
Update 6/22/11: Racked to keg.

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.

Breakfast in a Bottle, Round 3.

So I really love this stout.  The oatmeal, the dark malt, the Cascade hops...everything is really good.  So I made another 11 gallon batch, half of it going to my buddy Scott who was jonesing for a dark beer for a good price.  That's where I come in.  So the recipe is pretty similar as the previous incarnation of this, however it's adjusted to account for 11 gallons instead of 10.  The 11 gives a more realistic target of four 24 packs.

Recipe:
11 Gallons.

Grain Bill:
25.3 lb GW 2-Row
1.65 lb Oatmeal (Flaked)
1.1 lb Crystal 120L
1.1 lb Chocolate Malt
.55 Barley (Roasted)

Hop Bill:
2.25 oz Cascade for 90m
2 oz Cacade for 60m
2.5 oz Cascade for 30m
2.25 oz Cascade for 0m

Yeast:
1056 Slurry in one
Pacman slurry in the other
(I'm hoping to see if there's a difference between the two)

Extras:
2tsp Irish Moss for 15m

Specs:
Pre-boil Gravity: 1.050
Post-boil Gravity: 1.061
IBU: 44

Mash: 11.1 gallons @ 163 for 60m
Sparge: 6.3 gallons @ 184-double sparged

Notes:
Everything we smoothly up until boil time.  I had sold my old boil keggle to my buddy since I had another keg I could convert.  I decided that the best time to convert it would be during the mash.  Great idea until the rubber seal broke on the new boil keggle and then I had to run to the hardware store to pick up some more.  But now it's working and working well!  But something about making this stout that leads to problems I guess.  Oh well, it's worth it.
Update 5/23/11: 1056 slurry is at 1.018 and the Pacman slurry is at 1.020.  No discernable taste difference that I can pick up.  I'll give this another couple days to ferment and then I'll bottle it (although I might do a secondary, but I'm not sure yet).
Update 5/27/11: Racked the 1056 to a keg and got 2 22's.  I'll bottle Scott's half in a day or two.
Update 5/29/11: Bottled the Pacman half for Scott.  Got 48 12's for him and 4 22's for me.  I always love it when there's more than 5 gallons in the batch!

Grain Dryer

I did a little research and found out that spent grain is pretty much perfect chicken feed.  I don't have chickens, but I do have a few friends with chickens so I built up a drying rack for the grain that I can leave outside and dry the grain.  It was rotting out before the chickens could eat it all, so hopefully this will do the trick.

I found a 4 foot by 8 foot frame on my sideyard (it's nice living somewhere where there's lots of free stuff!) and so I reinforced it and put some window mesh on the inside to allow airflow and drainage.  

Here's what it looks like.  The corners and frame was existing, so this was pretty easy.  We'll see how it works and hopefully the grain gets used up even more and turns into eggs.

Update: The chickens evidently love the grain.  I guess they may even have to separated when they eat cause one of them gets violent over it.  Good to know the grain is used again!

Black Beauty IPA

I've been wanting to brew up a black/cascade style IPA for a while now.  I've only had a couple different styles, but one that stood out was the Back in Black by 21st Amendment in San Francisco.  Looking at their website, I got a good idea of the recipe, but I figured I'd try to get some details so I emailed the brewery.  Luckily Nico, one of the founders and head brewers emailed me back with some more info.  So I'll list the grain in percentages instead of pounds since that's what Nico sent me.  So here's my take on a Back in Black clone recipe.  Nico, if you see this, thank you!








Recipe:
5.5 gallons

Grains:
78% 2-Row
12% Munich Light
6% Munich 45L
4% Carafa De-Husked Dark Malt

Mashed 5.3 gallons @ 163 and got 3.4 gallons
Sparged 3.7 gallons @ 182 and got 3.6 gallons

Hop Bill:
1.5oz Columbus for 60m
.5oz Columbus for 10m
1oz Centennial for 5m

Dry Hop 1oz Simcoe for 7 days in secondary
Dry Hop 1oz Centennial for 7 days in secondary

Extras:
1tsp Irish Moss for 15m

Notes:
Didn't quite hit my targets again.  I wanted to end up @ 1.070 and ended up at 1.056.  Hopefully the FG ends up lower so the ABV is closer to the target.  I'll figure it out eventually I reckon.  Easy brew day though.
Update 5/18/11: Gravity is at 1.020.  I'll give it another day or two and then rack to secondary and add the dry hops.
Update 5/21/11: Racked to secondary and added 1oz of Simcoe and 1.25oz of Centennial.  Free floating leaf hops.  Should be good.  FG: 1.014.
Update: 5/27/11: Racked to a keg.  I'll charge it and tap it tomorrow.  Update coming then on the flavor of this one.
Tasting Update: I think I got this really close to the original.  I still need to do a side by side, but this has a great flavor with that roasted aftertaste.  The hop flavor is strong, but smooth.  If you're wanting a Black IPA, then make this.  You won't regret it.
Side-By-Side Update: So I picked up a six pack of this to do a side by side comparison.  I've got to say, I really prefer the one I brewed.  But here's the rundown:

Taste: The 21A version has a very dark, smokey, and roasted flavor.  My version has those elements, although much more subdued.  This is the primary reason I prefer my version.

Hops: Almost identical.  I think I really nailed this part.

Color: Identical.

Body/Head: Better head on the 21A.  Same body/mouthfeel between the two.

The Bottom Line: If you want a real roasted, dark, smokey version then get 21A's. If you want a real smooth dark IPA, then come on over to my house before it's gone!

Tara-dact-Ale IPA

My super awesome wife has wanted a beer named after her, so here it is.  This is a slight revision from a previous recipe, the CBHC Double IPA.  She loved the CBHC, so I've revised it and changed the name to let people know how awesome my wife is.  I added some Maris Otter to try to up the maltiness to make it more of an imperial IPA and changed the hop bill slightly to go with what I had in the freezer.  Otherwise, this is very similar.

Recipe:
5.5 gallon

Grain Bill:
11 lb GW 2-Row
3.3lb Maris Otter
1.65 lb Crystal 40L
1.1lb Carapils

Mashed 6.4 gallons @ 163 for an hour
Triple Sparged 3 gallons @ 188
Got 4.3 gallons from mash and 3 gallons from sparge.
Boiled down almost perfectly to 5.5 gallons.
Broke my hydrometer the other day, so no gravity readings.
Theoretical Gravities (according to Brewpal):
OG: 1.085
FG: 1.021
IBU: 109


Hop Bill:
1.75oz Colombus for 60m
.75oz Centennial for 60m
1.25 Colombus for 10m
1.25 Centennial for 10m
1 oz Simcoe for 10m
1 oz Simcoe for 1m
2 oz Centennial for 1m

Dry hop for 7 days in secondary:
1.25 oz Centennial
1 oz Simcoe

Yeast:
Wyeast 1056 slurry

Others:
Meant to put in 1tsp of Irish Moss, then forgot.

Notes:
Super easy brew day again.  4 1/2 hours start to finish, including clean up.  Other than not having a hydrometer, no problems.  Even Jack wasn't too hard to handle.  I have the grain drying on some old window screens so it won't rot in a bucket as it waits for Gregg's chickens to eat it.
So I got a hydrometer and measured this about 24 hours after fermentation started and it was at about 1.050, so I figure it was somewhere between 1.065 and 1.080 to start.  We'll never know though...
Update 5/15/11: Gravity at 1.018.  Still a ton of foam at the surface from the fermenting, so another couple days until I'll rack to secondary.
Update 5/18/11: Racked to secondary and added 1.25oz of Centennial and 1oz of Simcoe.  I skipped the bag again and I'm letting them free float.  FG: 1.016.
Update 5/23/11: Kegged and added 1oz of Simcoe to the keg.  Let's hope this is hopped to the max!  I'll let this chill until tomorrow and then quick charge it so I can hopefully tap the keg tomorrow night.
Update 5/25/11: Man, this is probably my best yet.  Super hoppy and lots of flavor.  I had to clean out the stem and the lid of loose hops that got stuck though...I may have to rethink that idea in the future.