Oatmeal Stout

The seasons are changing and so is my beer tastes.  Now that fall is here it's time to start kicking in some darker beers to tide the winter over.  Some will be stouts and porters, others will be Black IPA's, and there's always got to be some super hop bomb IPA's.  So to kick it off, here's an oatmeal stout that I have brewed before.  It's similar to a Shakespeare Oatmeal Stout from Rogue.

Recipe:
10 gallons

Fermentables:
23 lb GW 2-Row
1.18 lb Bairds Chocolate
1.18 lb Crystal 120L
8.73 oz Roasted Barley
1.55 lb Flaked Oats

Aniticpated OG: 1.074
Actual OG: 1.070
Anticipated FG: 1.019
Actual FG: 1.019
ABV%: 7.3%

Hops:
1.25oz Cascade for 75m
1.25oz Cascade for 60m
1.25oz Cascade for 30m
1.25oz Cascade for 1m

41 IBU

Yeasts:
5 gallons with White Labs WLP004-Irish Ale
5 gallons with Wyeast Pacman slurry

Notes:
Brewed last Sunday (9/16/12).  Smooth brewing.  Used a canopy to keep the leaves from falling into the boil.  Fermenting is coming along slow.
Update 10/7/12: Kegged the Irish Ale half.  Really tasty.  FG was 1.019.  It might have dropped a little lower, but I was in a rush to get it going for a party.  I'll keg the other half next week for the next party it's going to.

Cana's First Run

Rather than repost what we did, how bout you check this out!
http://canahomebrewclub.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-first-gathering.html

This is going to be sweet!

pTARAdactale

One of the many things I love about my wife is that she loves a super hoppy IPA.  She loves the IBU's cranked up.  She loves Pliny and so many other great IPA's.  So this IPA is named after her (and she loves dinosaurs, hence the name).







Recipe:
5.5 gallons

Fermentables:
14 lb GW 2-Row
1.6 lb CaraPils
1.2 lb Crystal 40L

Anticipated OG: 1.081
Actual OG: 1.070
Anticipated FG: 1.023
Actual FG: 1.018
ABV: 6.8%

Hops:
2oz CTZ for 60m
1oz Summit for 30m
1oz Cascade for 5m
1oz Centennial for 5m

2oz Cascade in Hopback (mash tun)
1oz Summit in Hopback (mash tun)

2oz Cascade for 7 days in secondary dryhop
1oz Centennial for 7 days in secondary dryhop

88 IBU's

Yeast:
White Labs WLP001 (new)

Notes:
Smooth brewing.  I need to get a pump so I don't have to move really hot kegs up a level on the brew tree.  Brewed on Friday, August 10.
Update 8/27/12: Racked to secondary last week and added 1.5oz Cascade and 1oz Centennial Dryhops.  I'll keg tomorrow probably.  FG was 1.018.
Update 9/13/12: Man, this is tasty!  Really good hop aroma and finish.  It's a little bit sweet due to the Crystal 40.  I'll revise that next time I think.  Otherwise another winning IPA!

Foster Art Night IPA

There's a street called Foster in SE Portland that has been long neglected and considered the bad part of town.  It's been referred to as "felony flats" amongst other bad terms.  Well, it's making a comeback and it's going to be awesome.  Part of what's happening is people are taking back the neighborhood and making stuff happen.  One of the groups working towards this is a creative group that is putting on a monthly event called "Foster Art Night".  This is essentially a moving party that happens on the third Saturday of the month from roughly 2p to late PM.

This month (as in a week and a half), The Southeast Church is going to host art and music as part of the event.  We're going to also offer free homebrew (a fairly limited amount though).  This IPA is going to go towards that (well, at least half of it).  Hence the name of the brew.  If you're in the Portland area and want to taste it, come to The Day Theatre on SE Foster at 55th Ave on Saturday the 18th between 4pm and 5pm and we'll be serving it up!



Recipe:
11 gallons

Fermentables:
17 lb GW 2-Row Base
5 lb Simpsons Golden Promise
3 lb GW Crystal 40L
2.4 lb CaraPils
8 oz Dextrose (corn Sugar)

Anticipated OG: 1.066
Actual OG: 1.071
Anticipated FG: 1.019
Actual OG:
ABV:

Hops:
3 oz CTZ for 60m
2 oz CTZ for 30m
2 oz Cascade for 10m
4 oz Cascade in Hopback (mash tun)

3oz Cascade for 7 days Dryhop
2oz CTZ for 7 days Dryhop

(total of 1 pound of hops!)

Yeasts:
Fermentis Safale 05 in one bucket
White Labs WLP001 California Ale in other bucket

Notes:
This brewday took a long time.  Everything was going smoothly until the boil time.  Instead of using the normal boiling station I moved the boil kettle up to the second tier so I could gravity feed to the mash tun that I was going to use for a hopback.  The only problem was that it took an hour and a half to get the wort up to boiling, then had to boil it for an hour, plus a long wort chilling since the screen would get a little plugged from the hops in the mash tun/hopback.  Time to get a pump I guess so I can use my actual boil burner for boiling.  Oh well, it's all part of the learning process...
Update 8/12/12: Racked the batch for Foster Art Night to secondary and added 1.5 oz of Cascade and 1oz of CTZ Dryhops.  Gravity was 1.018, so an ABV of roughly 6.9%.  Flavor was smooth, hoppy, and awesome.
Update 8/19/12: Unveiled this at Foster Art Night last night.  Response was really good, although there was a rather small crowd there (if 12-15 people is considered a crowd).  So the leftovers will go towards Cana.

Alaska Amber Clone

Another day, another amber ale.  This was originally going to be for Old Dirty Randy and his roofing crew, but he brewed one up himself instead.  So now I'll have an amber again.  Fine by me.  I found the recipe somewhere online I think (it's been a while since I wrote it up).  Here's the details...

Recipe:
5.5 Gallons

Fermentables:
7.5 lb GW 2-Row Base
8 oz CaraPils
5 oz Crystal 90L
5 oz Crystal 120L
2 oz Special B
1 oz Roaster Barley

Anticipated OG: 1.042
Actual OG: 1.043
Anticipated FG: 1.012
Actual FG: 1.010
ABV: 4.3%

Hops:
2 oz Fuggles for 60m
1 oz Mt Hood for 5m

1 oz Mt Hood Dry Hop for 7 Days

34 IBU

Yeast:
Fermentis Safale 05

Notes:
Smooth brewing on this batch on Monday August 6th.  Brewed 2 batches that day.
Update 8/13/12: Racked to secondary and added 1oz of Mt Hood Dryhop.
Update 8/17/12: Kegged.  I'll do a taste update next week.
Update 8/27/12: Tastes great and it is less filling.  I'll try to do a side by side sometime soon.

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!