Cana

Some friends and I were passing around ideas like we always do about homebrewing and the furtherance of the gospel.  We thought, how could homebrewing lead to Jesus?  So we decided to try something out.  We're going to start a small community venture called Cana.  Why Cana?  Well, for starters Jesus turned the water into wine in the city of Cana at the start of His ministry.  This occurs in John 2.  You can read it here, which is also the site for our community ramblings, recipes, and other random tidbits.

Here is the blog address:  www.canahomebrewclub.blogspot.com

We'll likely be meeting on the first Saturday of each month at my house to start.  We'll brew a batch or two of beer, discuss and engage the Bible (probably to start by looking at everything the Bible has to say about alcohol, both good and bad), and enjoy being in community with one another.  Meetings will generally last about 4-5 hours (length of time to brew a batch of beer), although everyone is free to come and go as they wish.  Each meeting will also be the tasting of the previous meetings beer, so there's the incentive to come back!  Also, a suggested donation of $5 will help cover expenses and keep the venture going.  More details will come eventually, but all are invited (21+ that is due to US alcohol laws).

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.

Widmer Drop Top Amber Clone

It's been a while since I've done an amber and I've always like Drop Top, so why not brew one!  I found a recipe for this from a commercial home brew supply store online and I just copied their recipe and then ordered the goods from Brew Brothers.  Half as much money that way and they delivered!  Seriously, if you don't go to Brew Brothers and you live within an hour of Hillsboro, Oregon, you're wasting your money.  Plus their selection is crazy good.  Anyways, here's what I did...

Recipe:
5.5 Gallons

Grains:
8.25 lb GW 2-Row
.5 lb Crystal 10L
.5 lb Honey Malt
.5 lb Special B Malt

8oz Lactose (Milk Sugar) added at the start of the boil

Mash:
Strike: 3.66gallons at 170 degrees.
Sparge: 4.19 gallons at 170 degrees.

Anticipated OG: 1.051
Actual OG: 1.054
Final Gravity: 1.013
ABV: 5.4%

Hops:
.25oz CTZ for 60m
.5oz Magnum for 60m
1oz Northern Brewer for 10m

It was supposed to be Magnum for 1oz for a full hour, but I only had .5oz and didn't want to buy more that I wouldn't use right away.  Since I had so much CTZ, I figured for the bittering it would be close enough.

Yeast:
Safale 05.  This is my first time using this one.  Fermented fast even without a starter.

Notes:
Brewed back on June 22, but I forgot to post about it.  The mash/boil gave out less wort than I should have had, so I added about 3/4 a gallon of water after the boil.  This gave me the right gravity as well as enough wort.
Update 7/3/12: Racked to secondary and got the final gravity at 1.013.  Right on target.  The flavor is really close to Drop Top.  Probably a dead ringer.  If you want some Drop Top, then this will do the job nicely!  I'll update again after secondary and once it's on tap.

Mt Hood IPA

So this is stage two in my IPA journey. It's probably a journey of 10,000 batches (hopefully not literally), so hopefully the batches continue to turn out good. Here's the details: 

Recipe: 
5.5 Gallons

Grain: 
10 lb 2-Row
1.2 lb Carahell
1.2 lb Golden Promise


Mashed 4.65 gallons at 152. 
Sparged 3.5 gallons at 175. (Came out short so I added a gallon of water after the boil). 


Target OG: 1.063 
Actual OG: 1.065 
Final OG: 1.009
ABV: 7.3%


Hops: 
2oz CTZ for 60m 
1oz CTZ for 30m 
1oz Mount Hood for 5m 
1oz Mount Hood at flameout 2oz 


2oz Mount Hood for 7 days dry hop 


Yeast: 
White Labs WLB001 California Yeast Slurry 


Extras:
8oz Oak chips in secondary


Notes: Smooth like always. Gravity came in really high and amount of wort was low, so I added about 3/4 of a gallon of water. That seemed to fix the problem.

Update 7/7/12: Racked to secondary.  FG was at 1.009.  Really dry tasting so far.  I added 2oz of Mt Hood and 8oz of American Oak Chips.  Trying something new with the oak chips.  I guess Vinny at Russian River uses a lot of oak chips in his IPA's, which I consider to set the standard currently, so it seems worthwhile to give a shot to.  I'll let you know how it goes.
Taste Update 7/17/12:  This is easily the worst beer I have ever made.  The oak chips were smoked instead of plain and I didn't even think about that fact until I lifted the lid on the secondary bucket.  I'm going to give this to a neighbor who thinks he might be able to do something with it.  The picture at the left is probably a better name for this because this is what it tastes like!

Tricerahops IIPA Clone

I've come to the realization that of all the beers out there, I want to drink mainly IPA's.  It's not that other brews aren't as tasty, it's just that IPA's are really tasty.  So I've decided to spend a lot more time perfecting the IPA.  In fact, within the next five years I plan on making the greatest IPA that anyone has ever had.  I'll let you know when it happens.

For now though, I'll have to keep practicing.  So with this round of practice I present to you my take on Ninkasi's Tricerahops.  It's a double IPA, meaning more hops and a higher gravity.  I made up the recipe myself after looking at their ingredients and partially going off the Total Domination Clone I made that turned out really close.

Recipe:
5.5 Gallons

Grain:
14lb GW 2-Row
2lb Carahell
2lb Munich Light

Hops:
2oz Summit for 60m boil
1oz Amarillo for 30m boil
1oz Centennial for 5m boil
1oz Palisades for 5m boil
1oz Amarillo at flameout

1oz Centennial for 7 days dry hop
1oz Palisades for 7 days dry hop

Yeast:
Whitelabs WLP001 California Ale Slurry

Notes:
Brewed this a couple weeks ago, but forgot to post it.  I messed up when adding the grain and knocked my filter loose.  That caused the grain to flow out when I drained the mash.  I was able to strain it, but it killed my gravity.  It was supposed to come in about 1.085, but actually came in about 1.074.  The final gravity when I racked it to secondary and added the dry hops yesterday was 1.014, so I got 7.9ABV, which is just under the 8.5ABV listed on the website.  IBU's are about 102 according to BrewPal.  The flavor was really good when I checked it yesterday.  Nice and bitter with some good floral aroma's coming off it.  Should be quite good after a week of dry hops.
Taste Update:  I guess I forgot to update this one on secondary.  I added the hops listed above and let them sit for a week.  The flavor on this was outstanding.  I'll grab a 22 of Tricerahops tonight so I can do a side by side.  I'm actually almost out of this one already.  I've shared a bunch and brought a couple growlers to friends houses lately.  The taste is really smooth with a nice crisp hop finish.  I think using CO2 in the secondary bucket and in the keg really helped that out.  The body is has a nice mouthfeel and flavor.  This is definitely something I'll be brewing again.

Taste Comparison:
The one on the left is the homebrew, the right is the real Tricerahops.  You can see the color is darker in Ninkasi's, although that is about where the differences in the two end.  

Color: Ninkasi is a little darker, but they're pretty close.
Body: Really close.  I actually couldn't tell any difference in the body except that Ninkasi's was a little more carbonated (which is a relatively easy fix for me).
Hops: Again almost dead on.  Ninkasi's was a little more on the aroma since it was straight out of the bottle, but the aroma flavor was identical.
Overall: Outside of the color being lighter, this was pretty dang close to a dead ringer of a clone.  I'm confident to say that you will not be let down by using this recipe if you're looking for a Tricerahops clone.  Cheers!

Summer Fruit Beer Series

Summer is quickly arriving (as it's raining as I type this...).  Summer means warm weather (usually, this is Portland afterall...), BBQ's, and sitting on the porch in the evening enjoying life.  So to go with all three of those, I'll be brewing up some fruit flavored beer.  I typically don't really enjoy these too much, but a lot of other people do, so I'll brew them up to show good hospitality (and to keep their hands off my IPA's).  I decided to do the Trixie again that I did last year that turned out really well.  I also wanted to try something new, so I'll be splitting the batch (10 gallon) in half.  Half with be Trixie (raspberry flavored beer), and the other half will be halved again.  One (2.5 gallons) will be aged with whole strawberries on secondary, the other half will be grapefruit.  I think I'll throw in some amarillo or summit hops with the grapefruit to really try to highlight the grapefruit.  This will be an experiment.  It could be awesome, or it could be horrible, the good thing is that it's only 2.5 gallons and cost me all of $3 or so for the 2.5 gallons.  Total cost of this recipe to me is probably $2 for the beer ingredients (thanks to a kind gift of a 50 pound grain bag on my ledger at Brew Brothers from a good friend) and it'll be another $12 or so for the fruit I'm guessing?  I hope to use real Oregon Strawberries which will really up the quality!  So $14 cost to me isn't too shabby.

Recipe:
10 gallons

Grain:
20 lb GW 2-Row

Anticipated ABV: 5.0%
Original Gravity: 1.050
Final Gravity: 1.013
Strike Water: 7.5 gallons @ 163 degrees
Sparge Water: 9 gallons @ 183 degrees

Hops:
1oz CTZ (16.8%) for 60m

Yeast:
1056 slurries

Extras:
I'll boil 24oz of raspberries in 1/2 gallon of water for about 30 minutes, strain out the chunks, and add that to the secondary for the Trixie (Mcmenamins Ruby Clone) portion.
I'll add a half pound or so of whole strawberries to the 2.5 gallons of one of the experiment fruit beers.
I'll add a couple grapefruits cut into slices to the secondary of the other 2.5 gallons of experiment beers plus maybe an ounce or so of summit or amarillo (probably summit because it's way cheaper than amarillo).

Notes:
Brewed last weekend (5/26/12) and everything went fine.  Fermenting nicely.  Should be ready to transfer to secondary in about a week.  Also I was able to break out the grain dryer only to have it start pouring like I've never seen in Portland a few hours later.  Most of the grain dried pretty well though, so at least there will be something for the chickens!
Update 6/19/12: Sorry for the delay on the update.  I split one bucket into two buckets at secondary.  One I added a grapefruit cut into eighths with 1oz of Summit Hops.  The other got a pint of whole Oregon strawberries (so much better than California or anywhere else).  I let those sit for a week or so and then bottled them last night.  The other buckets I racked to secondary along with 24oz of frozen raspberries that I boiled for 30 minutes, then strained and chilled.  Those have been sitting about a week and will need to be bottled shortly.  I'll update again when I taste each of them.
Taste Update: The early tasting on the raspberry one is that there's a funky flavor.  It's one I've had come up before so it's got to be from the yeast.  Time to get rid of all the 1056 slurry's I have since it's definitely from that.  The flavor isn't bad, it's just not as good as it should be.

Total Domination (Warrior Edition)

So when I brewed the Total Domination from Ninkasi I had no idea how awesome that recipe was going to turn out.  The flavor was pretty spot on other than the aroma hop flavor, which I might say I "Totally Dominated" over Ninkasi's version.  So all that to say that I wanted to brew it again.  I headed down to Brew Brothers (the greatest homebrew store in the world and they will ship!) and reloaded on grain, hops, and some new yeast.  Grain, check.  Yeast, bought one new vial of White Labs California Ale WLP001. Hops, this is where the warrior comes in...they were out of Crystal, so I substituted Warrior since I like the flavor that gives.  We'll have to see how the end product comes out.  Here's the details...

Recipe:
11 gallon

Grain:
22 lb GW 2-Row
3.2 lb GW Munich Light
1.6 Weyerman's Carahell

Strike: 10.1 gallons @ 163 degrees F
Sparge: 6.8 gallons @ 182 degrees F
Based on 75% efficiency

Hops:
2 oz Summit (15.8%) for 60m
1 oz Summit (15.8%) for 30m
2 oz Cascade (6.2%) for 5m
2 oz Warrior (17%) for 1m

2 oz Cascade (6.2%) for 7 days in secondary
2 oz Warrior (17%) for 7 days in secondary

66 IBU

Yeast:
White Labs WLP001 California Ale in one bucket
White Labs WLP001 California Ale Slurry in the other bucket

Starting Gravity: 1.068
Final Gravity: TBD
ABV: TBD


Notes:
Smooth brewing, although it was a long day overall.  After brewing we had our church service so I had to go set up, preach, and then clean up afterwards.  That plus brewing takes more out of me that I had anticipated!  Once again, since I was brewing it had to rain.  I need to get some grain dried out for my friends who have chickens, so hopefully next time I brew it's dry for a few days to use the grain dryer again.  Gotta re-use as much as possible, especially if it means the chickens get great high protein food!
Update 5/30/12: I racked one of the buckets to a keg and added an ounce of Cascade and an ounce of Warrior Hops.  I would normally do that in secondary, but our IPA rations are really low and I couldn't wait to get it on tap.  I'll charge it today.  Hops were in a bag.  I also bottled 5 22's with what was left.  I'll rack the other bucket to secondary and do a proper dry hop in the next few days and I'll try to time it so that as the first keg runs out I can put the second on tap.

Espresso Stout

This is my attempt at cloning Laurelwood Brewing's Espresso Stout.  I had this a month or two ago and it really stood out to me.  It was fantastic actually, so I figured I'd give it a shot.  I brewed an 11 gallon batch to split with my buddy, so that's why the amounts will be so high.  I stuck with my oatmeal stout recipe, I just took out the oatmeal.  I'll add some cold brewed Portland Roasting Espresso to the secondary, which will be soon since I brewed this last week.  I still have to figure out the amount of coffee and how that's going to happen.  I'll put what I did in the notes, like usual.

Recipe:
11 Gallon

Grains:
25lb 2-Row (GW)
1.3lb Crystal 120L (GW)
1lb Chocolate
.6lb Roasted Barley

Hops:
1.5oz Cascade (6%) for 75m
1.5oz Cascade (6%) for 75m
2oz Cascade (6%) for 30m
2oz Cascade (6%) for 1m

Yeasts:
5.5 gallons with Wyeast Pacman
5.5 gallons with Wyeast 1056 slurry

Notes:
Brewed last Saturday.  Smooth brewing (I did this plus the Bitter American in one day).  Gravity came is right at 1.068 (75% efficiency).  Fermentation on the Pacman bucket was fast and furious.  I had to set up a blow off hose since the airlock was close to popping.  The pressure on the bucket was unreal, like nothing I had seen before in person (although here's a video of an airlock popping).  The 1056 bucket is slowly going, it started after a day or two (probably time to ditch that slurry).
Update 4/24/12: Added 1/2 gallon of cold brewed coffee to each bucket at secondary.  For the cold brewed coffee, I added a bunch of medium grind coffee and filled the growler with water and stuck it in the fridge for a couple days.  I then filtered out the grinds and added the coffee to the secondary bucket before I transferred the beer.  I used two 8 cup grind amounts for the amount of coffee.  It smells really good.  First bucket is bottled and I'll bottle the second bucket in a day or two.

Taste Update 7/17/12: So this turned out amazingly good.  The coffee flavor was perfect, the cold brew method really brought out the flavor of the coffee without the acidity.  The balance to the stout was dead on.  The Pacman yeast was definitely better than the 1056 yeast.  It's such a good strain, especially for stouts.  This is one I'll be making again for sure.  Also, I did a side by side with the Laurelwood Espresso Stout, which was the inspiration for this one, to see how they matched up.  I used the Pacman yeast version in the comparison.

Body: Extremely similar.  The Laurelwood version kept a better head (the one on the right), but otherwise these were very close.

Flavor: Again, very close.  The coffee in my version was a touch stronger, but a touch smoother in the Laurelwood.  It was really hard to tell the difference.

Hops: Too hard to discern.

Overall: This was very close.  I think the Laurelwood might edge out my version overall, but just barely.  I honestly couldn't tell them apart in a blind tasting, so that should tell you something!  If you're looking for a good coffee stout, brew this up and enjoy!

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.

Opening Day Pale Ale 2012

Opening Day, a national holiday at least in my household, is only three weeks away.  After a long winter of staring out the window waiting for spring, baseball is almost back!  Spring Training is already here, which means that it was time to brew up an Opening Day Ale.  Last year I did an amber ale, which was pretty good, but also an extract beer.  This year I decided to do a pale ale.  Here's the details...

Recipe:
5.5 gallons

Grain:
10lb GW 2-Row
.8lb White Wheat
.8lb Crystal 40L

Hops:
.75oz Chinook 14.2% for 60m
.50oz Chinook 14.2% for 15m
.25oz Chinook 14.2% for 1m
2oz Cascade 6.0% for 1m

Dry Hops:
2oz Cascade 6.0 % for 7 days
.50oz Chinook 14.2% for 7 days

Yeast:
Wyeast 1056 Slurry

Notes:
Smooth brew day (brewed on 3/11/12).  I forgot to take the Original Gravity though, so I'll just assume that I hit my target of 1.056.  Fermentation is going well.  I'll hopefully move this to secondary soon.  I'll need to get a keg opened up by April 4th, so I can at least quick charge it in time for the game on the 5th.  Go Cubs Go!
Update 3/20/12: Racked to secondary and added the dry hops.  I put in 2oz of Cascade and .5oz of Chinook.  I saw some Summit in my fridge I was tempted to throw in as well, but decided to save that for something else down the road.  Can't wait for baseball to officially start again!