Beer

I tend to limit my brewing activities during the summer, but now that it’s getting colder, it’s time to fire up the brewhouse (i.e. my kitchen). I’ve been toying with the idea for this batch for a while now. The concept is that I will brew up a full 5 gallon batch of Russian Imperial Stout, ferment it out, then split the batch into two for secondary fermentation. One will simply condition as normal. The other will get an addition of Bourbon soaked oak cubes. Then! At bottling time, I plan to bottle some of the regular stout, some of the bourbon oak aged stout, and a blend of the two. This is most exciting, though I gather it will probably take a while for all of this to come together and condition well. Brewing is not a hobby for the impatient. So let’s get this party started:

Brew #12 – Russian Imperial Stout

November 2, 2013

1 lb. Crystal 60 (specialty grain)

1 lb. Debittered Black Malt (specialty grain)

0.75 lb. Chocolate Malt (specialty grain)

0.5 lb. Roasted Barley (specialty grain)

0.5 lb. Munich Malt (specialty grain)

9 lb. Briess Golden Light DME

2 oz. Columbus hops (bittering @ 16.3% AA)

1 oz. Cascade hops (flavor)

1 oz. Cascade hops (aroma)

2 oz. Oak Cubes: American Medium Toast

16 oz. Bourbon (TBD)

Wyeast 1450 Denny’s Favorite 50

Like my first attempt at a stout (which was nowhere near an Imperial, but still), the base of this beer is all light DME, so I’m getting all the color and flavor out of specialty malts, of which there are a lot. Indeed, this is the most malt I’ve used in a recipe since my second batch (a Belgian tripel), and this is a great deal more complex too. (I originally only planned on a half pound of Debittered Black Malt, but my homebrew shop was only selling it in increments of 1 pound, so I figured why not). Steeping the grains in 2.5 gallons of water (needed to add more because I was using so much grain), the wort got super black, almost like black ink, and smelled strongly of coffee. According to my calculations, this should come out at around 59 SRM (anything over 30 is generally considered “black”, and my previous attempt at a stout was around 45 SRM).

Once I steeped and sparged the grains, I added 2/3 of the DME, adding the last 1/3 halfway through the boil. I actually had a bit of a boil-over mishap. Perhaps I started with too much water, which raised the level of the wort higher than normal (for me, at least). And it turns out that 9 pounds of DME takes up a lot of space too. In any case, I didn’t lose too much liquid and the crisis was mostly averted, so all was well there (it just made for more cleanup, boo).

Aside from the amount and variety of malt, the other big change from my first stout recipe is a more well rounded hop schedule. I felt my last batch didn’t have enough bitterness, and since this sucker is much bigger, I went with a high alpha hop in Columbus, and straightforward Cascade for flavor and aroma (not that those characteristics should or would be dominated by hops, but the Cascade should add some complexity, which is what I’m going for here).

Original Gravity: 1.098 (around 23.1°Bx). This is exactly on target, so I must have done something right! If all goes well, the ABV should wind up somewhere just north of 10% ABV, with enough residual sugar to stand up to the Bourbon and oak (FG should be somewhere around 1.023, assuming 75% attenuation).

Speaking of which, I used a Yeast starter for this batch. Yeast starters are not always necessary, but they seem to be a general best practice. All you do is pitch your yeast into a small amount of wort, which gets the yeast working and increases cell population dramatically, then you pitch the result into your full batch. For a beer this size, pitching more yeast is usually recommended, and will lead to a faster fermentation with less of a chance for off flavors or infection. This is my first attempt, and it seemed to go ok. Near as I can tell, I made a relatively small starter, and some recommend making a larger one, but I didn’t really have time to keep stepping it up (I started it on Thursday night, and it was ready to go on Saturday). That being said, I’m guessing I significantly increased the amount of yeast I pitched, which is certainly better than just chucking one yeast packet in the wort (or paying another 6 bucks for a second packet).

So I figure I’ll let this go in primary for two weeks, then rack to secondary (splitting into two three gallon fermenters) for an additional 3 weeks. As previously mentioned, I’ll be adding bourbon soaked oak cubes to one of the secondary fermenters. Not sure which Bourbon I’ll use for that task just yet (any recommendations? That Evan Williams Single Barrel in the picture is pretty good, but I might use something different) I also need to figure out if I’ll need to reyeast after secondary (any ideas there? I see mixed reports out there…)

I’m really excited to see how this turns out, even if it probably won’t be ready for a couple months (right around Christmastime). It should age really well too. In the meantime, I’ve still got that Brett dosed saison in secondary, and I think I’ll be bottling that soon. And once the RIS goes into secondary, I plan to sneak in another batch of something less complicated. Perhaps that hoppy red ale I keep talking about…

Update: Fermentation is going strong. Since I was using a yeast starter, I began fermentation with a blowoff tube (instead of your typical airlock) and I’m glad I did. Within 24 hours, this sucker is fermenting like crazy. All was fine a couple hours ago, then I went out for dinner and boom, blowoff tube engaged fully. Otherwise, this thing might have popped the lid on my bucket, shooting yeast and partially fermented wort everywhere. Ha.

(Cross Posted on Kaedrin Beer Blog)

After two weeks in primary fermentation, the 5 gallon batch of saison has been split into two. About 2 gallons has been bottled (yielding a little less than a case), with the other three being racked to secondary and dosed with Brettanomyces Claussenii (WLP645 for the enquiring).

Crossing the Rubicon of funk wasn’t particularly difficult just yet – it basically just consisted of opening the vial of yeast and dumping it in the secondary fermenter. The real test will come in a few months time, when the yeast has had proper time to work its way through the remaining sugars. Or maybe I inadvertently infected my entire house with Brett and will have trouble with all my future batches. The die has been cast, to continue the Rubicon metaphor.

Final Gravity: 6.9 Bx, around 1.007. As usual, my hydrometer gives a slightly lower reading, but we’re still looking at somewhere around 6.8% – 7.2% ABV, which is a little higher than expected, but still on point. This puts attenuation in the high 80% range, somewhere around 88%. Hopefully, this mean there’s enough residual sugar for the Brett, but not so much that the Brett version will be dominated by that character.

In the meantime, I’ll have some non-funky saison to keep me busy (though I’ll clearly want to save enough to do a side-by-side comparison once the Kaedrôme rises). I’m debating what to do with my next batch. Being the dead of summer limits options a bit. Saisons are great because they can ferment out at 70+ degrees with no real ill effects. But, you know, I just made one. I really want to make a hoppy red ale of some kind, and an imperial stout too. In both cases, I’d like a somewhat lower ambient temperature than will be possible during summer (and the bathtub trick is out because I’m redoing my bathrooms, though perhaps I could do something in a smaller container). And I’m going to want to do this split batch trick as well, dry hopping (for the red) and oak aging (for the stout) half the batches. Perhaps I’ll just make it a busy fall.

(Cross Posted on Kaedrin Beer Blog)

My fourth batch, brewed almost 2 years ago to the day, was a saison that turned out fantastic when it was fresh, but degraded over time (and become super carbonated). I’ve been wanting to make another batch of saison recently, so I took the recipe for the initial batch, toned down in terms of malt, and threw in some fancy Nelson Sauvin hops for yucks.

The real adventure this time around will be splitting the batch into two after primary fermentation: half will be bottled at that point, with the other half going into a secondary fermenter and dosed with Brettanomyces. I’ve long ago established that saisons are the least coherent style in the history of beer… which is actually one of the reasons I love them so much. My initial batch (and half of this current batch) was patterned after Saison Dupont, a classic of the style. The Brett dosed half of this batch will (hopefully!) be closer to Fantôme’s saisons, which is where the name of this beer (Kaedrôme, get it?) is coming from (big thanks to Scott of Beerbecue for suggesting that perfect name).

Allllrighty then, lets get this party started:

Brew #11 – Saison

June 22, 2013

0.5 lb. Belgian CaraVienne (specialty grain)

3.15 lb. Northern Brewer Pilsen LME

3 lb. Briess Pilsen DME

1 lb. Light Belgian Candi Sugar (liquid)

1 oz. East Kent Goldings hops (bittering @ 5.8% AA)

0.25 oz. Nelson Sauvin hops (bittering @ 10.9% AA)

0.5 oz. Saaz hops (flavor)

0.25 oz. Nelson Sauvin hops (flavor)

0.5 oz. Saaz hops (aroma)

0.5 oz. Nelson Sauvin hops (aroma)

0.5 oz. Bitter Orange Peel

1 tsp. Irish Moss

Wyeast 3711 French Saison Yeast (Primary)

White Labs WLP645 Brettanomyces Claussenii (Secondary)

I’ll spare you the play by play, as that’s mostly the same for every batch. The only thing I’ll say about that is that my new kitchen kicks ass, and has removed 30-60 minutes from the process. It turns out that the “Power Boil” element actually lives up to its name (it still takes a little while, but much faster than my old stovetop). And the bigger, deeper sink makes cooling in an ice bath much quicker too. It only took a little less than 3 hours, including all the cleaning.

I hope the Nelson Sauvin hops work out with this one. I basically chose them on a whim, thinking they would go pretty well with the saison. I hedged a bit and used some Saaz that I had laying around too, so I hope it’s a solid combo. Hop Additions at 60, 15, and 5 minutes remaining in the boil. Irish moss at 15 minutes. Orange Peel at 5 minutes. Pitched the 3711 yeast at 70 degrees.

Original gravity: 1.060 (14.6 Brix), pretty much right on target. My little homebrew app says I should be getting 80%+ attenuation out of this (maybe even as high as 85%).

Now I just need to figure out the process for the Brett dosing, but I’ve got a couple weeks for that. Again, general idea is to fill up my 3 gallon secondary fermenter, pitch the Brett in there, and bottle the rest of it right away.

I know very little about the different varieties of Brettanomyces, but in looking around, this seems like the one that fits me best. For the uninitiated, Brett is a wild yeast strain. It usually contributes funky, earthy characteristics to beers. Some people use descriptors like “horse blanket”, “barnyard”, or “band-aids” (among lots of other stuff, even smoky and spicy flavors), but that… doesn’t sound good, does it? Indeed, Brett is generally viewed as a contaminant and thus something to be avoided, but if done properly, it can match really well with beer, especially sour beers. This saison isn’t meant to be sour, though apparently the Claussenii strain that I’m using is more subtle than some of the others and contributes a “fruity, pineapple like aroma”. I’m going for something along the lines of older Fantômes (which tended towards sour) or Logsdon Seizoen Bretta, but everything I read about Brett is that it’s a little on the unpredictable side. So fingers are going to be crossed.

Since the primary fermentation yeast is going to yield a pretty dry beer to start with, I’m guessing that the Brett won’t be a massive contribution, but that sounds good for my first attempt at this sort of thing. Unlike regular brewer’s yeast, Brett will eat up pretty much any sugars left in the beer, so I need to give it a lengthy period to do its thing, at least a couple months. Luckily, it’s a hardy organism and thrives in warmer temperatures (so summer was a good time to experiment with this sucker). On the other hand, my understanding is that Brett is difficult to clean, etc… and a lot of homebrewers advise keeping the equipment that touches it separate from your regular brewing materials. This should be fine, as I’ve basically been using the same stuff for two years and some of it could probably be refreshed anyway.

So this is going to be one of the more interesting batches I’ve ever made… if it goes well. Wish me luck!

(Cross posted at Kaedrin Beer Blog)

After two weeks in the bucket, I bottled the Fat Weekend IPA today. Fermentation seemed to as well as usual. A week into the process, once fermentation had slowed considerably, I cracked the lid and dropped in an ounce of Simcoe hops. This is only the second time I’ve dry hopped a batch of beer, but hot damn, judging from the smells emanating from the bucket during bottling, I’m in for a fantastic little brew here. Last time, I got a huge grapefruit character, this time, I got a more well rounded fruitiness as well as a piney aspect that was very pleasant.

Final Gravity: 1.014, which is just about dead on what I was expecting. That being said, I also still seem to have trouble reading my refractometer. Comparing an actual hydrometer reading, I get something lower (around 1.012). The refractometer is showing something around 9.3 bx, which translates to around 1.016. I need to get better at this. Regardless, it’s looking like I’m somewhere on the order of 7.3% to 7.6% ABV, which is close to what I’m shooting for, so all will be well.

Very pretty looking beer, a nice warm golden orange color, perhaps a hint darker than my last batch of IPA. As already mentioned, the aroma is fantastic, citrusy fruit and pine all over. I gave it a taste too, and I do believe this is going to be fantastic stuff. I got almost exactly 1 full case of beer out of this batch (2.5-3 gallons), which will be perfect. Though only half of what I normally make, I’ve found that hoppy beers don’t last, and start to fade quickly. After 6 months, my last IPA was still good, but it was a bit of a malt bomb. This is something I’ve become more sensitive to as my palate evolves, so I’m glad I’ll probably finish this case off before it has a chance to fade significantly. Fat Weekend is about a month out, which means that this should be fully conditioned and indeed peaking right about then.

Not sure what’s going to come next here. I’ve been toying with the idea of an imperial red ale, but may also try a batch of barleywine or imperial stout too (and perhaps finally take the secondary fermentation plunge, complete with bourbon soaked oak cubes). Whatever the next batch is, I’ll probably start it in March/April. If I end up going the big beer route, I’ll definitely be spending more time conditioning the beer than usual, so it will hopefully be doing really well by next Autumn… But I definitely want to make a sessionable Summer saison, akin to my last saison attempt, but a little lighter. I’ll plan for that in April/May, and that should last me through the summer…

(Cross posted on Kaedrin Beer Blog)

So I’ve been slacking on my brewing hobby of late, though not without good reason. I spent most of December revamping my kitchen from the ground up, so there was much time when I simply wasn’t capable of brewing anything (not to mention the sanitary conditions, which were obviously poor whilst work was proceeding). After putting some finishing touches on the kitchen in January, I’m finally ready to resume brewing. One of the nice things about my new kitchen is that I upgraded my stovetop, which now comes complete with a “PowerBoil” element that, you guessed it, boils water faster than my old stovetop (I’m forced to use electric, which is less than ideal for brewing purposes). And boy did that come in handy. I estimate that this shaved a solid 30-60 minutes off the brewing process, which came in at around 2.5-3 hours, including post-brew cleaning.

This batch is being brewed for a specific reason, the titular “Fat Weekend”, a gathering of portly friends from all over the northeast (and some points west) which will be sometime in mid-march. Last year, I brought a variety of homebrews and was shocked to see that the Simcoe IPAs were the first beers to go (and got the best complements), so I’m making this specifically for that weekend. Let’s hope it turns out well.

In terms of recipe, this is a variation on my Simcoe Single Hop IPA from last year (interestingly enough, brewed exactly one year ago to the day). For the most part, the malt bill is identical. A slight increase in Crystal 20, simply because my homebrew shop was only selling in half-pound increments, and I’m using pilsen for the entire base malt (which, again, is just based on what was available). The big change, though, is in hops. Instead of using just Simcoe, I’m adding in the trendy hotness of Citra and Falconer’s Flight (both used in equal proportions for flavor and aroma additions). Simcoe will remain on bittering duty, as well as contributing the dry hop addition. Otherwise, we’ve got an identical recipe.

Beer #10: Fat Weekend IPA

Half-Batch (2.5 gallons)

February 4, 2013

.5 lb. Crystal 20 (specialty grain)

.5 lb. CaraPils (specialty grain)

.5 lb. Vienna Malt (specialty grain)

3.3 lb. Briess Pilsen Light LME

1 lb. Briess Pilsen DME

0.5 lb. Turbinado Sugar

1 oz. Simcoe (bittering @13.2 AA)

0.5 oz. Citra (flavor)

0.5 oz. Falconer’s Flight (flavor)

0.5 oz. Citra (aroma)

0.5 oz. Falconer’s Flight (aroma)

1 oz. Simcoe (dry hop)

1 tsp. Irish Moss

Wyeast 1056 – American Ale Yeast

Overall, pretty straightforward stuff here. The only major change is the hops. Citra seems very much in the vein of Simcoe, but it’s got a more fruity and less piney, woodsy feel to it. I also usually get a more herbal fruit out of it… nothing like a Euro-hop, but distinct from the grapefruit and pine character of Simcoe. Falconer’s Flight is actually a proprietary blend of numerous hops, including Amarillo, Citra, Simcoe, Sorachi Ace, and other Northwestern US hops, apparently even experimental hops not yet available by themselves. The idea of this blend is to approximate the flavor of the trendy hops in a blend featuring those same hops, but also less trendy (and thus more readily available) hops. Tired Hands has made a few beers featuring Falconer’s Flight recently, and they’re exceptional, so I’m thinking they’ll be a good fit here. Really excited to see how this will turn out.

Brought 2 gallons of water up to steeping temperature 150° F – 160° F in record time (less than 10 minutes), steeped the specialty grains for around 25 minutes or so, drained, sparged with another half gallon of water, added the malt extracts, put the lid on to bring to a boil. Again, this happened in record time, at which point I added 1 ounce of Simcoe and started the timer. Realize I forgot to add the Turbinado sugar, so do some quick calculations, add about half a pound in, throw the lid back on to get the boil going a little better. 45 minutes into the boil, add half an ounce each of Citra and Falconer’s Flight. I don’t have a scale or anything, so I’m doing this by sight, but it seems to be working out fine. Also throw in the irish moss at this time. Finally, with 5 minutes left to go, I add the aroma hops, which is again split between Citra and Falconer’s Flight.

Moved the pot to the ice bath to cool it off, brought it down to about 80° F, strained the wort (removing the hops) into the fermenter, and topped off with about a gallon of cold water, bringing the final temperature down below 70° (almost too low, actually, but still above 62°). This will produce slightly more than 2.5 gallons, but it’ll all work out for the best in the end.

Original Gravity: 1.070. A little higher than my last batch, but not by much (this makes sense, given the hot scotchie adventure I engaged in last time). I’m guessing this will still clock in around the 7% – 7.5% ABV range, perhaps on the higher end, which is fine by me.

Like I did last time, I’ll wait a week or so to let the primary fermentation stage end, then add the dry hops (1 ounce of Simcoe) for another week or so, at which point, I rack to the bottling bucket and bottle the suckers. I’m quite confident this batch will come out well.

After this one, I’m not sure what will be next. I’ve been toying with the idea of a hopped up imperial red ale, which could be a lot of fun (and would probably resemble the above recipe quite a bit, with some amber malt and maybe some other darker malts to balance things out). After that, I want to make a sessionable summer saison, similar to my last saison batch, if not quite as potent.

(Cross posted on Kaedrin Beer Blog)

I think I’ve mentioned this style as a potential next batch after, well, most of my previous beers. Well, I’ve finally pulled the trigger. This one doesn’t come from a kit or even a clone recipe, though I did look at clones for St. Bernardus 8 and Ommegang Abbey Ale (two of my favorite dubbels). The real key resource was Brew Like a Monk, by Stan Hieronymus. Abbey Dubbels are generally dark beers, though that color comes more from dark sugars (usually candi syrup or rocks) than from roasty malts, meaning that these beers usually surprise folks who think they “don’t like dark beers.” The dubbel has Trappist origins, and they generally keep things simple. As such, what I ended up with wasn’t particularly complex from a recipe perspective. I don’t think I’ll be able to replicate Trappist attenuation rates (which reach into the mid or even high 80% range), but I’m better at temperature control than I used to be, so I guess we’ll see what happens. Here’s the recipe:

Beer #9: Abbey Dubbel

September 29, 2012

1 lb. Aromatic Malt (specialty grain)

0.5 lb. CaraMunich Malt (specialty grain)

0.5 lb. Special B (specialty grain)

7 lb. Briess Golden Light DME

1 lb. Dark Belgian Candi Syrup (90° L)

1.5 oz. Hallertauer (4.3% AA, bittering)

0.5 oz. Hallertauer (flavor)

1 oz. Saaz (aroma)

1 tsp. Irish Moss

Wyeast 3787 Trappist High Gravity Yeast

Again, nothing super complex here. Trappists apparently don’t use quite as much in the way of specialty grains, but the ones I’m using are not uncommon (especially the Special B, which is a key component for a lot of commercial beers). I get the impression that they use more sugar as well, though they’re careful about additions and temperature control, something I have little control over. But for the most part, this seems like a solid, middle of the road recipe.

I started by bringing 2 gallons of water to around 150°F – 155°F, then I steeped the specialty grains for about 25-30 minutes. Removed grains, sparged with another gaollon of warm water, bringing the amount in the pot to around 3 gallons. Added all of the malt extract and candi syrup. This is the first time I used candi syrup, and I have to say, it’s much easier to work with than the typical candi “rocks”. After that, I covered and settled in for the boil, which took about 40 minutes (stupid electric stovetop). Once at boiling, I added the bittering hops and started the timer. The Hallertauer hops I got came in at a lower alpha acid percentage than I had planned on, so I had to do a little audible here and add an extra half ounce. Hopefully this will be enough… According to my little calculator thingy, this beer will come out at around 23 IBU, which should be plenty…

With 15 minutes remaining, I add the flavor hops and Irish moss. I had originally planned a full 1 ounce addition of Hallertauer here, but I had repurposed some of that for bittering, and from what I can tell, a lot of recipes eschew flavor hop additions entirely, so this should be fine. With 5 minutes remaining, I hadd the Saaz aroma hops. When finished, I plop the pot in my little ice bath, and wait for the temperature to get down to the 80°-90° range. Strained the wort into the bucket, and topped off with about 2 gallons of cold water (bringing the temperature down to a more appropriate 70° or so).

For the yeast, I went with Wyeast 3787 Trappist High Gravity Yeast (packaged 8/28/12), which is apparently derived from the Westmalle strain (and since they make some of my favorite Trappist beers, I think that’ll work for me). This yeast also has a high attenuation range and is apparently more tolerant of higher temperatures (ideal range 64°-78°). Since it’s fall, temperatures are dropping, but the ambient temperature inside my house is still around 70°-75°, so I wanted to make sure the yeast would tolerate that. I’ve managed to keep the ambient temperature on the lower end of that range for the start, so here’s to hoping things go well.

Original Gravity: 1.079 (around 19°Bx). Yeah, so this came in a little higher than I was going for (which was 1.076), but I don’t think it’s a major cause for concern. The target ABV is now around 7.6% (assuming around 75% attenuation), though that could easily grow to be around 8% if I get more attenuation out of the yeast. My only real concern here is that I have enough bittering hops, though this is a malty style, so I think I should be fine.

I plan to bottle in 3 weeks time (could probably go shorter, but I want to make sure the attenuation maxes out here, and my previous experience with Belgian yeast makes me want to make sure I don’t bottle too early). I’m not sure what will be next in my brewing adventures. I’ve been thinking about some sort of highly hopped imperial red ale, but I’m also considering a big ol’ American Barleywine (perhaps finally getting myself a secondary fermenter and doing some bourbon oak aging). I’m also out of the IPA I made last year, and I’m definitely going to make more of that stuff at some point. And I’m not sure what I want to do about a Christmas beer this year either. Should I replicate last year’s recipe (which was perfect)? Or try something new? So many beers, so little time! Stay tuned.

(Cross posted on Kaedrin Beer Blog)

Charles, 2nd Earl Grey was prime minister of the UK for four years, backing significant reform of the British government (in particular, he architected a redistribution of seats in the House of Commons and an expansion of the right to vote). How he came to lend his name to the famous bergamot-flavored tea is mildly mysterious. Like a lot of historical beer origins, there appear to be a lot of apocryphal tales surrounding Earl Grey tea, usually involving a recipe made by a Chinese mandarin. In some accounts, the mandarin is grateful to Lord Grey because one of his men saved the mandarin’s son from drowning. The story that seems more likely to me is that the recipe was specifically formulated to suit the water at Grey’s estate. The bergamot apparently offset the lime present in the water there and when Lady Grey used it to entertain guests in London as a political hostess, it became popular enough that Twinings sought to make it a brand. Or something. But enough about stuffy British politicians, let’s get to the beer!

Bottling of my Earl Grey bitter commenced after two weeks in the fermenter. From observation of the airlock, fermentation seemed to go well for the first two days, but then it dropped off considerably. Given the low original gravity, this was not too surprising, but I gave it the full two weeks anyway.

The beer turned out to be a little lighter in color than I was expecting (which is not a big deal or anything), but the aroma was quite nice. A lot of citrus in the nose, which is exactly what I was going after. However, I’m not entirely sure how much of that came from the bergamot tea I used in the recipe. I had also used a small amount of orange peel, which certainly contributed something to the flavor, and it’s also worth noting that Fuggle hops (even when used in bittering applications like I did) can contribute a soft, fruity aroma/flavor to the beer. I suppose one could call this more of a variant on Earl Grey than anything else – something more like Lady Grey tea, which also has orange (among a few other ingredients). Well, whatever the case, it seems like it will be quite an interesting beer.

Final Gravity came in at around 1.010, and according to my calculations, this works out to around 4% ABV (maybe a little more), which was pretty much the target (a little over 75% attenuation, which is pretty good). I had a bit of a worry when I first took my refractometer reading, as it came in at around 5.4°Bx, but it seems that Final Brix is a bit misleading because the alcohol distorts the readings a bit. With the help of the internets, I was able to correct for that distortion, and all seemed well. I also took a hydrometer reading, which came out a little lower than reported above, thus the beer might be slightly stronger than expected (but still around 4.5% ABV).

Another point of interest is that I primed the beer with around 2.5 oz. corn sugar, about half the normal dose. The style is typically not very highly carbonated, so I didn’t want to overdo the priming sugar. Hopefully this will work out to create something with enough carbonation, but still smooth and quaffable. The beer actually tasted ok right now, even in its relatively flat form, so I think a minimum of carbonation would suit this nicely.

That about covers this beer. It’s been an interesting exercise and I can’t wait to taste the final product in a couple weeks. Next up will be a Belgian-style dubbel, though I’m not entirely sure when I’ll get to that and we’re starting to get to the warmer months of the year, where fermentation temperature will get more difficult to control…

(Cross posted on Kaedrin Beer Blog and Tempest in a Teacup)

So I’ve had this crazy idea for a while. I like beer. I like earl grey tea. Why not combine the two? The thing that makes Earl Grey tea distinctive is bergamot, which is a sorta orange-like citrus fruit. Very nice aroma and flavor, as evidenced by the famous earl grey tea. I love a little citrus in my beer, so my first thought was that I should just go out and buy some bergamot oil, and add a tsp or two to the wort towards the end of the boil. Unfortunately, food grade bergamot oil is not as common as I thought. Everything I found was for aromatherapy or skincare – for external use only. Now, I didn’t exactly want to make tea beer, but it looks like that’s what I’m going to end up doing. And in fact, I had some Stash Double Bergamot tea laying around, so I figured I could use that to impart some bergamotty character (with the tea hopefully being drowned out by all the malt and hops and whatnot).

The next question was what to use for the base beer. In looking around, I see that I’m not the first person to think of this idea, but other folks seemed to be doing this with something like a Belgian Wit beer. This would certainly highlight the bergamot and tea flavors in the finished product, but I didn’t want a beer dominated by those flavors, so I looked around at some other options. Since I was making an Earl Grey beer, I thought I should try to use an English style as the base. This was also in keeping with my recent affinity for lower gravity beers (or, at least, non-face-melting beer), and I eventually settled on the English Bitter style. The name is a bit of a misnomer – these are not super-bitter beers, though perhaps there’s more hop character than usual for low ABV styles. Still, it seems like a beer that would take on the nice flavors of the bergamot and tea without being overwhelmed either way. In searching around, I found this nice kit from Northern Brewer called The Innkeeper, which sounds rather awesome. I added in some of my tea and, for good measure, some Bitter Orange Peel that I had leftover from previous beers. Here’s the final recipe:

Beer #8: Earl Grey Bitter

March 10, 2012

4 Bags Stash Double Bergamot Earl Grey Tea

0.25 lb. English Extra Dark Crystal (specialty grain)

0.25 lb. Belgian Biscuit Malt (specialty grain)

3.15 lb. Pilsen LME

1 lb. Pilsen DME

1 lb. Corn Sugar

1 oz. US Fuggle (Bittering @ 5.2% AA)

1 oz. UK Kent Goldings (Bittering/Flavor @ 5.8% AA)

1 oz. Styrian Goldings (Aroma)

1 tsp. Bitter Orange peel

Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire Ale

It’s a mildly unusual recipe to start with and I’m adding my own unusual elements too. Here’s to hoping it turns out well. I started by bringing 2.5 gallons of water to around 150°F – 155°F, then I began steeping both the specialty grains and 3 of the tea bags (I was reserving one for the end of the boil). My hope was that adding the tea this early in the process would yield an interesting, but not overpowering flavor to the beer (after all, I imagine a lot of the character will be lost in the boil). I only steeped the tea for about 5 minutes, leaving the grains to steep for another 15 or so minutes.

Brought the mixture to a boil, added all of the malt extract and corn sugar, waited (again) for it to return to boiling, then added the Fuggle hops. The strangest thing about this recipe is that the second hop addition comes a mere 15 minutes later. This seems like it would provide more bittering than flavor, but I assume both will be present in the finished product (normally flavor hops are added no less than 30 minutes into the boil, as the flavor compounds are lost after long boils). Finally, with about 5 minutes left, I added the Styrian Goldings. About a minute later, I added the last teabag (though I didn’t keep it in the whole time – in retrospect, I should have probably just made a cup of tea separately, then poured it into the boil). And while I was at it, I threw in some bitter orange peel, just to amp up the citrus a bit (in case the tea didn’t provide it).

Off to the ice bath for cooling, which is something I think I’ve got a better handle on these days. I think some of the issues with my early beers were partially due to poor temperature control. And I’d guess that part of the reason my last few batches have come out so much better is that I’ve gotten much better about cooling the wort in an ice bath (I use much more ice now, basically, and it helps that I’m doing this during late winter, when I can open my windows and drop the room temperature quickly). Anyways, got this stuff down to about 80°F – 90°F, strained it into the bucket, and topped off with some room temperature and cold water, bringing final volume up to 50 gallons.

Apparently one of the things that makes this recipe distinctive is the yeast, which seems to have relatively low attenuation (certainly lower than the American and Belgian yeast strains I’ve been using of late), but given the relatively low gravity nature of the recipe, and the sizeable simple sugar addition, I think the result will still be dry enough. The yeast was packaged on 1/16/12, so it’s relatively fresh.

Original Gravity: 1.042 (around 10°Bx). I got sick of using my hydrometer, so I invested in a fancy new refractometer. Unfortunately, I got the variety that only displays measurements in Brix, but the conversion is somewhat straighforward and I have an easier time reading this than my hydrometer. The gravity came in a little below the target, but it should be fine. If all goes well, this should produce a beer at around 4% ABV (maybe even less). Given the alcohol and simple sugar addition, I’m looking at a light (in body, not color), quaffable beer. Fingers crossed.

I plan to bottle in about two weeks time (could probably do so earlier because of the low gravity, but I’ll keep it at two weeks). Since the style isn’t supposed to be heavily carbonated, I’ll probably end up using less priming sugar than usual, maybe 2-3 oz (as opposed to 5). Next up in the brewing adventures will be a Belgian style dubbel, though I need to do some work to figure out a good recipe for that one. After that, who knows?

(Cross posted on Kaedrin Beer Blog and Tempest in a Teacup)