The summer has been very busy but I managed to squeeze two brew sessions in so far, a Munich Helles and an ESB.  The Helles started at 1.057 and finished at 1.012 for a ABV of 5.9%.  It is currently cooling to lager temp where it will rest for the next month and a half or so.  The ESB started at 1.057 also and finished at 1.015 for a ABV of 5.5%.  Since my fermentation chamber is being used for lagering right now I made a swamp cooler for the carboys in the basement.  This seemed to keep the beer in the high 60’s.  I may bottle 5 gallons of the ESB and keg the other 5 gallons.  I think the malty ESB will age well in bottles.  Next up is an IPA because I just ran out!

I was looking though some of the grain and hops that had been left over from prior brew days and figured I could make a beer out of this.  Some of the specialty grains are old but are un-crushed at least. I used all of the specialty grains laying around other then a half pound of black patent.  On the hops front I had some Amarillo, a little Citra, and some very old Simco and Warrior.  Efficiency was lower then normal at 75% likely due to over estimating the amount of sparge water necessary.  I forgot that I had 3 gallons of dead space calculated into by beer smith profile.

The correct volumes should have worked out as the following.  The target with no dead space calculated was 8.5 gallons of mash and 9 gallons of sparge water.  Two gallons go under my false bottom and half a gallon goes in the hoses and herms coil.  That makes the mash water 11 gallons and sparge water 6.5 gallons.  I may then add a half gallon to the sparge water to compensate for the half gallon under the mash tun dip tube.

ScrapsIPA

75% Efficiency  11 Gallon Recipe:
(12g in the kettle, 11g in the fermenter, 10g in the keg)
1.062 – OG Estimated
1.013 – FG Estimated
104 – IBU Estimated
6.5% – ABV Estimated

24# Brewers 2-row
1.5# Munich Malt
1.1# Vienna Malt
0.25# Crystal 40L Malt
0.5# Crystal 120L Malt
3.5oz Warrior 60min
1oz Simcoe 20min
2oz Amarillo 10min
1.5oz Amarillo 5min
1.5oz Citra 5min
1.5oz Amarillo 0min
1.5oz Citra 0min
4oz Amarillo Dry Hop 5 days
0.8oz Citra Dry Hop 5 days
Safale US-05

Mash at 152 for 60 minutes
Boil for 60 minutes

Brewed: 5/13 OG 1.061
Gravity Sample: 5/19 1.010
Dry Hopped: 5/21
Cold Crashed

My wife’s cousin is interested in growing hops this year.  In upstate NY one of that hops that should grow well is cascade.  He has yet to dive into the craft beer scene, so I wanted to brew something that was mild and used hops he might grow.  I liked the look of the following recipe on HBT.  It’s a pale ale with a maris otter base, cascade, orange zest, and coriander spices.  Tweaking it for my system in BeerSmith resulted in the following.

85% Efficiency  11 Gallon Recipe:
(12g in the kettle, 11g in the fermenter, 10g in the keg)
1.059 – OG Estimated
1.017 – FG Estimated
29 – IBU Estimated
5.5% – ABV Estimated

16.5# Maris Otter Malt
2# Vienna Malt
2# Crystal 10L Malt
2oz Cascade FWH
4oz Sweet Orange Zest 10min
4oz Coriander 10min
2oz Cascade 10min
2oz Cascade 5min
2oz Cascade 1min
4oz Cascade Dry Hop 5 days
Safale S-04

Mash at 155 for 60 minutes
Boil for 60 minutes

Brewed 3/8: OG 1.057
Gravity Sample 3/12: 1.015
Dry Hopped 3/13: 1.015
Cold Crashed 3/20: FG 1.013, ABV 5.8%

Finished product.  It is good and easy drinking.  I would dial back the coriander to 3oz and put more hops in it but that was not the point of this brew.

I was nearly out of my Rye IPA and needed something hoppy on tap.  I was on the hunt for a juicy hoppy west coast’ish IPA/Pale.  A recipe on HBT caught my eye.  It claimed to be a clone of 3 Floyds Zombie Dust.  A beer sadly not available in my area.  It is hopped with citra only which was good because I had a pound of citra pellets sitting in my fridge for the last few months looking for a home.  I liked the tons of late hops for that juicy hop character.

Brewed on 1/11, dry hopped on 1/18, kegged on 1/25.

Here is a scale example of the ingredients in the average 16oz glass and the end product.

85% Efficiency  12 Gallon Recipe:
1.070 – OG Actual
1.018 – FG Actual
75 – IBU Estimated
6.9% – ABV Actual

22# 2-Row
2# Munich 10L
14oz Melanoiden
14oz Crystal 60L
14oz Carafoam
1.5oz Citra FWH
2.5oz Citra 15min
2.5oz Citra 10min
2.5oz Citra 5min
2.5oz Citra 1min
5oz Citra Dry Hop 5 days
Safale S-04

Filling HLT and starting Heat

Salts to add

Crushing grain

Doughing in and bring mash to temperature

Starting sparge plus first wort hops

Starting boil

End of boil and starting cooling

1.070 on the nose

I am a fan of schwarzbier.  A dark lager that is both rich and refreshing.  This will be by first attempt at a schwarzbier and my second lagger.

Using 90% efficiency – OG 1.046 / FG 1.011 / IBU 26 / SRM 26.4 / ABV 4.6%

8# (48.5%) German Munich Malt
6.5# (39.4%) German Pilsner Malt
.8# (4.8%) Carafa III
.4# (2.4%) Crystal 40°
.4# (2.4%) Chocolate Malt
.4# (2.4%) Roasted Barley
60 minute hops  – 2oz Mount Hood / .66oz Vanguard
20 minute  hops – .66oz Vanguard
0 minute hops – .66oz Vanguard
White Labs German Lager yeast WLP830 (Two step starter 1.5L & 3L)

Batch size – 12 Gallons
Water profile – Ca=80, Mg=10, Na=26, Cl=33, S04=16, HCO=165
Mash – 1.25qt/lb – 75 minutes @ 151
Boil time – 90 minutes

This is a scaled version of BarleyWater’s recipe. Link

I will attempt to pitch at 40°-45° let it warm up and hold it at 50°.  After the gravity hits 1.020 I will do a diacetyl rest around 65° until I hit FG then start slowly cooling and lager for a few weeks.

I am brewing up a batch of Kal’s Electric Pale Ale.  It seems like a fitting first brew.

Using 95% efficiency – OG 1.057 / FG 1.010 / IBU 39.5 / SRM 4.9 / ABV 6%

15.5# (78.5%) 2-row Malt
3.5# (17.7%) Germain Vienna Malt
.75# (3.8%) Crystal 40°
20 minute hops  – 1oz Centennial / 1oz Amarillo
10 minute  hops – 2oz Centennial / 2oz Amarillo
0 minute hops – 2oz Centennial / 2oz Amarillo
Dry hops – 2oz Citra 7 days
2 Packs of US-05 dry yeast rehydrated

Batch size – 12 Gallons
Water profile – Ca=110, Mg=18, Na=16, Cl=50, S04=275, HCO=70
Mash – 1.25qt/lb – 90 minutes @ 152°
Boil time – 60 minutes

His more detailed recipe is located at the following link.  Ordering the ingredients  via his links will help support his site.

I had some random hops laying around for a while so I brewed up an IPA to use some.

70% (11#) – Pale malt
20% (3#) – Rye
7% (1#) – Crystal 60
3% (.5#) – Carapils/Dextrine malt
WPL-001 California ale yeast
75 IBU (1.5oz) – Warrior @ 60min
15 IBU (1.0oz) – Amarillo @ 15min
3 IBU (.5oz) – Amarillo @ 5min
4 IBU (.5oz) – Simcoe @ 5min
0 IBU (.5oz) – Amarillo @ 0min
0 IBU (.5oz) – Simcoe @ 0min
0 IBU (1.0oz) – Citra @ dry hop 5 days

OG: 1.067
FG: 1.013
IBU: 98
SRM: 10
ABV: 7.1%

5/12/14 – Brew day, yeast pitch, fermenter @ 60°

I am going to attempt my first lager.  It will be a Munich Helles.  I am using Wyeast 2308 “Munich Lager”.  I am doing my first step up starter.  I used the calculator on brewersfriend.  Using a manufacture date of 3/14 and two 1.5L steps I should end up with 458 million cells and a pitch rate of 1.74M cells / mL / °P for 5.5 gallons.   I am also going to try an interesting fast lager method from brulosophy.  If it works nicely it will make my lager and ale fermentation times nearly the same.  My tap water profile looks good for this beer, it would be nice if it was softer but I think I am close enough.

Target OG = 1.051
Target FG = 1.010
Target IBU = 20
Target ABV= 5.3%

95% German Pilsner (Best Malz)
3% Munich (Best Malz)
1% Biscut Malt
1% Melanoiden Malt
Hallertauer Mittelfrueh used for first wart hops to hit about 20 IBUs
Wyeast 2308 Munich lager yeast

Mash at 154 for 60 minutes
Boil for 90 minutes

Source

4/3/2014 – Starter Step 1 (1.5L & 150g DME)
4/5/2014 – Cool starter
4/6/2014 – Starter Step 2 (1.5L & 150g DME)
4/8/2014 – Cool starter
4/12/2014 – Brew day, fermentation chamber set at 50 degrees