Recipe Recap: #21 - #25

Today's Recipe Recap will cover brews #21 through #25. There were 3 rebrews - all disappointing. There were a lot of problems and disappointments here. It almost feels like my brewing is going backward. A big part of it was using harvested yeast and having a hard time controlling fermentation quality during the summer.

#21, Firestone Walker Union Jack IPA Clone 2.0
The result was definitely better than the first. However, I got way too much ester and phenol character, and what I'm pretty sure was chlorophenols, which eventually went away. The flavor was okay, but never quite right. Carbonation was great, but the beer wasn't nearly dry enough. I was discouraged enough to never bother with this recipe again.

#22, Janet's Brown Ale 2.0
Well, this one was mistakenly made with pale chocolate malt, and that made it completely different. Without the mild roast of the chocolate, this one just didn't taste right. On top of that, it was way overcarbed, maybe due to underattenuation. No roast at all, pretty much just bready and hoppy. Disappointing. Entered this one in competition because I ran out of Sweet Stout - didn't expect it to do well and it didn't. It was slammed for too much carbonation and lack of roast, among other things.

Still, I'll probably try this again eventually.


#23, Pliny the Elder Clone 2.0
This was a huge improvement over the first attempt, but it still only sorta tasted like Pliny, and I couldn't come anywhere near the dryness of Pliny. The greater sweetness of my version blocked some of perception of bitterness, so it didn't seem that hoppy (despite the obscene amount included in the recipe). I entered one in competition, but lost a lot of points because most of hops had dropped out due to age, making it seem sweeter and revealing flaws in fermentation. It was pretty damn great early on, and has convinced me to throw my IPAs into the refrigerator as soon as they are carbed.



#24, Heretic Evil Twin Clone
An infected disaster. This infection may have continued into batch #26. First time I've feared for my health due to a bottle bomb infection. Maybe I'll try making this again someday, but I'm not really sure just yet.



#25, McQuaker's Oatmeal Stout
Pretty awesome, despite its flaws. Would've been better with fresher, healthier yeast, lower carbonation and a bit more sweetness and mouth feel. I will be rebrewing this with my own tweaks to make it my own recipe and correct its flaws.

All Grain Recipe: #28 Jamil's Chocolate Hazelnut Porter

Another damn infection!

Okay, I wanted to create some beers for Thanksgiving. Something holiday-ish but not necessarily 'holiday' or "christmas" beers. I decided to go with a chocolate hazelnut porter and a witbier - both are spiced, but not 'holiday' spiced. The porter would be the more interesting one, while the witbier would be for family with less adventurous palates.

I retired my Mr. Beer kegs for this batch, and have moved entirely to Better Bottles. I picked up an extra one at HopTech in Dublin while mashing.

The recipe calls for baking cocoa added at the end of the boil. This turned out to be difficult, and it didn't distribute evenly until it boiled for a while (even then it was chunky). It sunk to the bottom of the fermenter. During fermentation, the cocoa all went up to the top with the krausen. It was all very strange and made me uncomfortable. If I were to make another chocolate beer, I'd stick with cocoa nibs or chocolate extract!

True to my word, I didn't repitch yeast. I used a fresh vial of WLP001, but with no starter. After a month in primary, the FG was insanely high - 1.028. Even given the amount of specialty malt, the attenuation was way too low, about 57%. Out of fear that I'd get bottle bombs, I bottled these all in 1 liter PETs, which would bend instead of exploding if fermentation started up again in the bottle.

After 3 weeks in the bottle, carbonation was perfect, but the flavor was... off. Ashy, like a freshly burned candle or incense. Unpleasant, and the hazelnut and chocolate just made it worse.

One more week, and suddenly all of my bottles were bulging. Opening the bottles led to a fountain of beer.

Okay, so I did have underattenuation, which led to fermentation in the bottle. No big deal, right? Just let off pressure until the CO2 level hits the right amount, then drink. The problem is that the flavor got worse instead of better, and no amount of pressure relief led to a proper amount of CO2. I believe there was an infection that didn't manifest itself until after the beer was bottled.

After I realized it was likely an infection, I poured everything out. Yet another failure; I'm starting to get discouraged.

Anyway, as usual the recipes are after the break.

All Grain Recipe: #27 Mirror Pond Pale Ale Clone

For this recipe, I thought I'd make a clone of Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale, from Can You Brew It.

Another not so great brew. This time, the problem was the yeast. I created a starter from a repitch of WLP007 (instead of the WLP002 the recipe called for). The first sign of trouble came when I smelled the starter, which was way more "Belgian" than it should have been. I thought it might just be the starter, so I pitched it.

I soon discovered it wasn't just the starter. Samples taken from the fermented beer tasted more like a Saison than an APA. They weren't bad, and the flavor mellowed over time. If it was an infection, they would get worse over time. I decided to roll with it, after letting it sit for twice as long as I normally would. I dry hopped it and bottled it, and when I tried it two things jumped out at me:

1) The carbonation was correct, unlike many of my other brews which were way overcarbed.
2) It wasn't bad! The Saison with citrusy cascade hops wasn't a bad combination.

After this brew I decided I'm going to stop repitching yeast. When it works, it is great, but it is too inconsistent. Yeast can mutate too much after only a few repitches, especially if the harvesting isn't done just the right way. I suspect the lack of attenuation in many of my beers may even be caused by less healthy yeast from repitching. It will only be fresh vials from here on out.

Recipes after the break.

All Grain Recipe: #26 Rogue Dead Guy Clone

This was an infected disaster. It was infected some time in secondary by my house wild yeast. It started fermenting again out of nowhere, and by the time I threw it out it had an astringent, Belgian-y flavor.

Let us never speak of it again.

For those curious, the recipe came from Can You Brew It, and is just after the break. I included notes I took while listening to the podcast, which is here.

Recipe Recap: #16 - #20

Today's Recipe Recap will cover brews #16 through #20. My brewing is definitely getting better. I improved my process, lowered my efficiency, corrected my pH, cleared my beer more, carbonated properly and controlled my fermentation better.

#16, Firestone Walker Union Jack IPA Clone
First, the bad news. This didn't really taste like Union Jack at all. I bittered with Columbus hops for 60 minutes instead of Warrior for 90, giving it a much harsher bitterness. My OG was off, and it attenuated more than it should have. My high efficiency led to a lack of strong malt character, so it was hop dominated (more like my pliny clone). My lack of pH control led to a little bit of phenolic off flavor and astringency, but very very little.

Finally, the carbonation was higher than I'd like, making the beer seem harsh. Oddly enough, I have to carb around 2 - 2.2 volumes, using BeerSmith's calculator, to reach a level of carbonation that is close to what you'd get from a commercial bottle or draught. This beer was carbed to around 2.6-2.7 volumes.

Also, I tried to dry hop without a hop bag. That was a huge mistake, and I lost almost a gallon of beer to hops before all was done.

The good news is that it was a pretty good beer. It just wasn't a clone, and it wasn't perfect.


#17, Janet's Brown Ale
Holy cow, this stuff was good out of the gate. I had one after only being in the bottle less than two weeks and it was fantastic. I carbed it properly, to around 2.3 volumes. The head was thick and creamy and lasted a long time. The hop aroma was strong and pleasant. The hop flavor and subtle roastiness of the chocolate malt went hand in hand. The mouth feel was nice and thick but never sweet, and very drinkable. My best beer so far!

If there was any complaint, it might be that the specialty malt flavor wasn't as pronounced as I expected and there was a hint of phenolics in the background. I only noticed it when I compared mine to a commercial Black IPA that had a similar flavor.

I'd love to try the real thing and compare! I've also rebrewed this one with some improvements to my process. I carbed to 2.3 volumes, and will probably reduce that to 2.0 - 2.1 next time I bottle.



#18, Stone Levitation Clone
Light, dry and orange-y. Drinkable and full of flavor, though more and more I prefer beers with a very thick body. I can't detect any off flavors, though.

Carbonation is a little high at 2.5, and I would reduce that to 2.3 next time. I had to sub Mt. Hood for the Crystal, which may have had significant impact on the flavor. Aroma and flavor are definitely dominated by the orange citrus of the Amarillo. Over time, the flavors have 'melded' together into a more cohesive single flavor, where before it felt like a combination of different flavors competing for my attention. I don't know if that makes sense, but it's the only way I can describe it.

This will probably taste closer to the original if I lower my efficiency and adjust my specialty malt percentages. Of course, I haven't compared it to the original. I'll come back and update this post when I do, or create an entirely new post.



#19, JZ's American Pale Ale
Well, I'm not the biggest fan of Pale Ales in general. They're usually pretty dry and boring. For me, a glass of beer is an event, not something I drink pints and pints of. It tastes decent, though a little young, and the carbonation feels higher than it should. I think the flavors need time to merge. It currently tastes like hops and malt, instead of a single combined 'pale ale' flavor, if that makes sense.

This is my first beer made with a lower efficiency, 5.2 pH stabilizer and gelatin finings. I can definitely tell. The beer is clearer and cleaner than any before it. I detected no off flavors. Very clean and very drinkable. The flavor is similar to Levitation, probably due to using the same base malt (Great Western American Pale Ale malt, a US version of British pale malt).



#20, Triple-X Sweet Stout
Heaven in a glass. This will be gone in no time, even though I'm only drinking on weekends on my diet. Thick but drinkable. Slight milk-like aftertaste. Creamy espresso and chocolate flavor, with a hint of alcohol. Not hot alcohols or off flavors that I can detect. This one has been in the bottles only two weeks and yet is nicely carbed, creamy and delicious. Proof that if you need to age your (lighter) beer more than a few weeks, you probably did something wrong.

I carbed to 2 volumes, and will probably reduce that to 1.8 or 1.9 next time. There *will* be a next time.

All Grain Recipe: #25 McQuaker's Oatmeal Stout

My first oatmeal stout, based on Jamil's Brewing Classic Styles recipe.

The resulting beer was unusually acidic and overcarbonated, even though I only carbed it to 2.0 volumes with corn sugar. I suspect that it wasn't fully attenuated, and may have finished attenuating in the bottle.

My wife loved it, and it tasted pretty damn good to me, even with the flaws.

I also sent it in to the Northern California Homebrew Festival competition, where it received a 27/50, with the following taste notes:


Aroma:
* Med fruity esters + med phenolics gives odd aroma like cola.
* Strong pear ester, some caramel. Light a weizenbock. Roasty notes as it warms.


Appearance:
* Dark, dark brown in color, opaque. Tall brown head, fine bubbles. Mouss-y w good retention.
* Rocky head, creamy dark brown, clear, med persistent creamy head, low CO2 (low???? later he says lots of CO2)

Flavor
* Malt sweetness, roasted notes (coffee+milk). Fruity esters, slight tartness. Low hop bitterness leaves the balance a little sweet. Roasted acid finish.
* Moderately sweet with caramel, not very roasty. Sharp fruity ester, finishes slightly dry. Slightly tart. Slightly oxidized? (no way)


Mouthfeel:
* Medium body, lighter due to carbonation. Slight creaminess but comes off as watery. Higher acidity in the finish.
* Med-full body, not as creamy as expected. Medium carbonic bite, tingly. Slightly dry, not huge or chewy.


Overall:
* An interesting beer that's difficult to describe. Hard to say the acidity is due to infection - it's almost like star san. My guess is that you lost temp control during fermentation, finishing and storage, which gave a bunch of esters. Maybe an older extract batch?
* It seemed like the fermentation wasn't clean enough, esters were too strong and reminiscent of wheat beers. Body was slightly low.

Recipes are after the break.

All Grain Recipe: #23 Pliny the Elder, v2.0

I decided to give the Pliny clone another go. The problems I had last time were these:

• Slightly fruity; maybe even hot alcohol. Possibly high fermentation temp.
• Bitterness was too harsh. I'm not a huge fan of Columbus for bittering. Something smoother like Warrior or Magnum would be better.
• Not dry enough. Needed to do something to dry it out: more sugar, less crystal, lower mash temps.
• Carbonation was too high. Reduce it to 2.2-2.3.
• Too dark. Not really a problem, per se, but Pliny is very pale and mine was more dark bronze.

I ended up following the MoreBeer pliny clone recipe pretty closely this time, here.

The recipe can be found here, if you search for "Pliny" on the page. Note that this recipe uses dry yeast, while I recommend the WLP001 liquid + starter. The recipe is also for 5 gallons. If you brew 6 gallons to account for a gallon of losses to trub and other stuff, you'll need to scale up.

This version definitely came out better, even if it still doesn't taste like Pliny. Even with my lowered mash temp, lowered Crystal amount and increased sugar, I still ended up with something pretty thick. My version is more like a typical Imperial IPA - more of a sipper. What makes Pliny different is that it is so dry and drinkable that you have chugged 2 pints of it and didn't even notice.

On the bright side, my newest brew has no off flavors or hot alcohols, and is very good regardless. It just isn't Pliny :P

All Grain Recipe: #22 Janet's Brown Ale, v2.0

AKA, Janet's Light Brown Ale

Janet's Brown is the next of my beer rebrews - beers that I liked, but didn't come out quite as perfect as they could have. Several process changes later and I'm ready to make them even better.

As a reminder, the main process changes involved a lower efficiency, a change in the way I scale recipes to my efficiency, racking to secondary with gelatin, the use of 5.2 pH stabilizer and yeast nutrient and lower carbonation across the board.

What I didn't intend was to use Pale Chocolate malt instead of Chocolate. It must have been a brainfart while I was measuring out ingredients at MoreBeer. I didn't even realize the mistake until I was racking into the fermentor and wondering why in the hell my beer was brown instead of black!

For all of you who are confused, let me make it clear.

YOU CANNOT SUBSTITUTE PALE CHOCOLATE MALT FOR CHOCOLATE.

Ever.

You don't sub twice as much pale chocolate for chocolate, or half as much chocolate for pale chocolate. It is about more than color -- the the two malts don't even taste alike.

So once again, no matter what the doofuses at homebrewtalk.com tell you, there are no subs. Use the right one or get out.

Of course, using a different version of chocolate malt won't ruin your beer. It will just be a different beer. Since I've brewed the original, this is a pretty good way to compare the two. The main difference I noticed is that the new version, besides being brown instead of black, has a toasted bread or cracker flavor. It still has a bit of the roasted coffee-like flavor from the regular chocolate malt, but it is much more subtle and hidden in the background. It's actually pretty damn good.

Recipe Recap: #11 - #15

Today's Recipe Recap will cover brews #11 through #15. This was a dark time in my brewing - of recipes #9 through #15, my only success was #12. It gets better though, and I won't be discouraged!

#11, Harold-is-Weizen Hefeweizen
A disaster in a bottle. I overpitched the yeast from a previous batch. Since the yeast didn't get a chance to grow and produce the characteristic clove & banana flavors, this beer ended up tasting like nothing. Nothing except cooked corn, that is. I forgot to do a 60 minute boil. Since this has a significant amount of Pilsner malt in it, the DMS levels in the final beer were very high. To top it all off, this beer was so overcarbed that half of the bottles I opened were gushers. I eventually gave up and dumped more than half of the batch to make room for new stuff.



#12, Pliny the Elder clone
There were definitely some problems. The massive amount of dry hopping left the beer a muddy brown-green color that took weeks in the fridge to settle out. The carbonation was just a little bit higher than I'd have liked (it gushed while warm but was fine when refrigerated). The body was thicker than the original Pliny, so my next attempt will use less Crystal, more Dextrose and mash at a lower temperature. The dry hop was pretty long, so I ended up with a more 'raw' hop flavor, though it wasn't so bad as to taste vegetal or grassy. I also used Colombus as the main bittering hop, which lent a harsher, oilier bitterness that made it less drinkable.

On the bright side, this was still a tasty beer, and definitely the best I had brewed so far. I'll definitely be iterating on this one, and intend to try a more updated recipe from MoreBeer (as opposed to the 'original' old school recipe I followed). The new recipe uses less Crystal, more Dextrose, more CaraPils, mashes at a lower temperature, bitters with Warrior and has a very slightly different ordering of hop additions. It also dry hops for a shorter time. This should lead to a smoother, drier, more drinkable beer.



#13, Arrogant Bastard clone
On the bright side, this does taste pretty close to the original.

On the other hand...

I accidentally bittered with Simcoe instead of Chinook (shame, since Simcoe costs twice as much). Read the labels on your hops!! My evaporation rate ended up way off, so I finished with around a quart and a half of extra wort and missed by OG by quite a lot. Worst of all, I overcarbonated this one by a ton. There were no gushers, but the flavors came out incredibly harsh due to the level of co2. Letting the beer flatten by swirling it constantly helped the taste. There may have been some astringent qualities to it, but that may have been a sensory side effect of the carbonation.

Not terrible, but not a success either. The ones in glass bottles can't be helped, but I was able to release some of the CO2 in the plastic bottles to improve the beer.



#14, English Apple Ale
Ugh, where do I begin. Lots of problems here. Tons of astringency from the apple juice - I'll probably use filtered apple juice next time in the hopes of getting less astringency from the apple matter. "Earthy" english hop flavor in the Mr. Beer kit didn't go well with the apple (frankly, I didn't expect any hop flavor in the Mr. B kit at all). Over carbonated, just like the last several batches, which combined with the English malt and apple astringency to create a beer that is super harsh and hard to drink.

Next time, I'd use filtered apple juice, American two-row (or some neutral, light extract), a clean bittering hop with no flavor hops and a way lower carb level (2.1 - 2.3). I'm not sure whether I'd use English or American yeast on the next batch. I went too crazy on this one, and should have started with a simple, neutral beer that happened to have apple juice in it.

On the bright side, the apple flavor was noticeable and there was a good residual sweetness in the beer.



#15, Munich Madness Oktoberfest/Marzen
Mistakes, mistakes, mistakes. Sensing a pattern yet?

First off, I 'innocently' adjusted the recipe with more hops because I had leftovers. I didn't want to leave just a few grams sitting around in the freezer, so I'd have tossed them out. I used 25 gm of bittering hops instead of 20 gm, and 15 gm of flavor hops instead of 7 gm. Yes, I used more in my 3 gallon batch than the original recipe calls for in 6 gallons (14 gm).

Then, I ended up with way too much pre-boil volume because I hadn't yet figured out the impact of grain absorption. I decided to boil longer instead. I ended up with too little wort and instead of topping it off, I thought I'd just have a stronger beer.

Finally, it's slightly overcarbed but not too bad. It doesn't gush, but I'd personally prefer something around 2.4-2.5 instead of 2.8.

Tastewise, the Hallertau character is way too dominant. I'm finding more and more than I'm actually not a big fan of Hallertau, and the fact that I used more than double what the recipe called for in the flavor addition is really obvious. The beer is also too big, with an alcohol warmth due to the high ABV (6.9% instead of 5%!!). It isn't as drinkable or dry as the style calls for, it is hard to detect the 'toasty' flavors that the style is supposed to have, and there is a very strong caramel flavor that reminds me of the recipes in which I used too much Crystal 15. I'm not even sure I can taste the munich malt behind the strong crystal flavor.

This one might still turn out to be okay with some cold conditioning, so I won't call it a failure, but I also won't call it a success.




On the bright side, my beers start getting WAAAAY better at #16 and beyond...

All Grain Recipe: #21 Union Jack IPA, v2.0

My original version of this recipe (here) had a lot of problems, but also a ton of potential. I've resolved to solve as many of those problems as possible in my first re-brew!

Recipe Recap: #1 - #10

Recipe Recap is a quick overview of where each of my recipes ended up: how they tasted, mistakes I made, how likely I am to brew it again and anything else that comes to mind.

Let's start with batches #1 through #10!


#1, Mr. Beer Classic American Blonde w/ Booster
My first beer ever. Thin, highly carbonated American-style blonde. Nothing special, but it wasn't completely terrible for a first attempt either. Chlorophenols from using unfiltered tap water and acetaldehyde (green apple flavor, due to using just one can of malt and one pouch of booster) dominated the flavor for a long time, but conditioned out. Not a terrible first try, and encouraging enough for me to continue the hobby.



#2, Mr. Beer Cowboy Honey Wheat
A much bigger, maltier beer than the Blonde, I ultimately didn't care for it. The honey left a flavor, despite what everyone claims, and the combination of high alcohol sweetness, honey flavor and the base flavor of the Cowboy Golden Lager recipe left a cloying kind of flavor that I couldn't get past. A couple months of conditioning made it decent, but further conditioning after that made it worse. I poured out half of the last PET bottle after drinking just a few sips.



#3, Mr. Beer Eye Opener Sumatra Stout
My first premium recipe and my first attempt at steeping grains. I'm not sure the half pound of crystal did anything, and I don't know what the bit of oatmeal I steeped at the last minute did. This came out as a very tart and thick beer with a nonexistent head and none of the creaminess you expect from a stout. It isn't bad, and I still drink it from time to time.

For reference, the 'tart' flavor is very much like the Alaskan Oatmeal Stout, so I don't think there was anything wrong with the recipe or process - it just isn't my style.



#4, Mr. Beer American Devil IPA
My second premium recipe, and the first time that steeping grains made a difference. In retrospect, I should have just steeped CaraPils. I didn't have an appreciation at the time for the flavor impact Crystal malt would have, even just the Crystal 15 variant. This as also my first time adding and boiling DME, and my first time using US-05.

This was my first indication that maybe the dipshits on the forums weren't quite as knowledgeable as their 3 years brewing and their matter-of-fact attitude would have you believe. Half a pound of Crystal is NOT appropriate for steeping in ANY Mr. Beer recipe, as it has a significant flavor contribution. This IPA wasn't bad - it was my favorite beer so far, and I went through it quickly. However, to this day I don't know what American Devil IPA is supposed to taste like due to the Crystal 15 I added.

As for the recipe, it was not hoppy at all, not even to me (I was not a hophead at the time). Bitterness was pretty high, but little to no hop character. A very malty, caramely beer.



#5, Mr. Beer Pilothouse Pilsner
Not a true czech pilsner, so I had no idea what to expect. My first time using CaraPils and my first time using Danstar Nottingham. I'd heard that if you fermented Nottingham cold, you'd get something close to a lager. I fermented too cold, and didn't do a diacetyl rest, and ended up with butterscotch flavored beer. It never went away. There was a slight hop bite, but not much hop flavor. Overall not great, but not terrible either.



#6, Mr. Beer Witty Monk Witbier
Unfortunately this turned out to be more Blue Moon than Hoegaarden, and more orange beer than white beer. The orange flavor was so powerful in the wort that it smelled like cough medicine. On top of that, I used  the Fermentis T-58 ale yeast, on the recommendation that it worked well with witbiers and other belgians. Perhaps that is the case with normal witbiers, but this was a Mr. Beer witbier and nothing like a real one. I can only describe the flavor as orange-y and salty, very phenolic from the yeast which clashes strongly with the sweet orange flavor of the beer. I try to pawn this off on guests but it's still not gone.



#7, Mr. Beer German Hefeweizen
Now THIS was a success. My first time boiling hops, though not exactly ambitious - it was just a quick 15 minute flavor/aroma addition of Hallertau. Also my first time using liquid yeast, and the WLP300 worked great, producing a very nice, dry, banana-flavored hefe. Very refreshing, and pretty close to what a hefe should taste like. It reminded me of Franziskaner hefe, but of course not as good. Still not bad though.



#8, Red Tail Ale Clone (aka Burnt Toast Ale)
My first all grain and half a disaster. My mash efficiency was terrible, my brewhouse efficiency was terrible and I was dumb enough to toast my own 2-row instead of just using Victory. It was also my first time using tap water in a long time, with campden, but I didn't use enough campden and ended up with lots of chlorophenols in this one. The toasted flavor was way too strong, and the ABV was about 2% lower than the real thing.

The worst part was that I used lots of Anchor bottles, and the ones that didn't outright snap at the neck or crack simply didn't seal well. At least 8 bottles of this were wasted because they weren't carbed at all. Don't use Anchor bottles. You've been warned.

On the bright side, after several months of conditioning this went from being a disappointment to being my best beer. The carbonation was medium (unlike my later brews), the head was nice and creamy and the toasted flavor mellowed out and ended up working really well. The first beer I really missed when it was gone. The best part is that the final bottle...turned out to be a dud. Au Revoir.



#9, Mr. Beer Oktoberfest Vienna Lager
Pretty meh, overall. I used 1/4 lb of Crystal 15, which I thought would've been better than 1/2 lb. Nope, shouldn't have done it. I also thought I'd use the rest of my Hallertau (left over from batch #7) as flavor and aroma hops. Nope, shouldn't have done it. At first it tasted a lot like Negra Modelo, but with a lot of chlorophenols in it. As it aged, it definitely got more caramel-y and the Hallertau character came out. It is drinkable, but not great, and I'm just trying to get rid of it at this point.



#10, Biere de L'inde English IPA
The worst yet. I was starting to get pretty discouraged at this point.

My efficiency was still terrible - turns out this was due to MoreBeer's grain mill being set so wide it did virtually nothing. I ended up extracting a buttload of tannins, and I don't know why. I followed the same process as batch #8, which had no tannins. The taste was off and worst of all, I carbonated way too high. I ended up with gushers, bottle bombs and injuries. If allowed to warm up and go flat, this becomes an okay but not great beer. It also had some chlorophenols early on, but not as bad as earlier batches.

This one is still around, but they are gushers as often as not. The liter-sized PETs can be opened to let the CO2 out, but the glass bottles are a lost cause.

All Grain Recipe: #20 Triple-X Sweet Stout

I'll confess that I'm a big fan of Stouts. Maybe it's because they were among the first complex, craft beers I ever had, and maybe it's because I love coffee and chocolate and all those other flavors that define a good Stout. Or maybe it's because back before I appreciated hops, Stouts were just the kind of malt-forward, mild but interesting experience I was looking for.

Now I'm brewing my own beer and I appreciate all styles of craft beer. I love hops and bitter, extreme beers. I made a Mr. Beer Stout recipe and was really disappointed - it didn't have the flavors or drinkability I expected, and I still haven't finished the batch from over 6 months ago. Do I still like Stouts?

Well, there's more to the style than just 'Stout'. There are dry stouts like Guiness Draught, which tastes like water and stale coffee. Add a little more body and you've got Guiness Extra Stout, which I think is pretty good. Beef it up even more and you've got the Foreign Extra Stout, a Stout brewed at higher gravity specifically for import (I haven't had this). Add oatmeal for a thicker, creamier texture and you get an Oatmeal Stout, of which Sam Smith's Oatmeal Stout is far and away my favorite.

Then there's the Imperial Stout, a terrifying monstrosity that approaches or even surpasses 10% ABV and actually has late hopping. These things are thick, alcoholic and must be aged months or even years before they reach their prime.

Oatmeal stouts were my favorite. I say 'were' because I recently had a Milk Stout made by a brewery in Alaska (it might be Kenai River Brewing Co., but don't quote me on that). It was my first Sweet Stout, and it was a revelation. It combined my favorite things in the world: beer, espresso/chocolate and milk. Now, it didn't literally contain chocolate, espresso and milk, but I'll be damned if it didn't taste like having an alcoholic espresso!

In fact, the official BJCP guidelines agree:

A very dark, sweet, full-bodied, slightly roasty ale. Often tastes like sweetened espresso.

Damn right.

Sweet Stouts are actually not sweet. They are also called 'Milk Stouts' because of the use of unfermentable lactose (milk sugar). This thickens up the body and gives it a barely perceptible 'milk-like' character, especially in the finish. Lactose isn't sweet. Seriously, try some right out of the bag.

However, a Sweet Stout doesn't have to be made with lactose. It can be sweet or not. It can be astringent and start or smooth and chocolatey. The important thing is that it has a thick body, moderate alcohol, low hop bitterness, no hop flavor, is relatively clean with only a slight fruitiness and is dominated by 'roasty' flavors. Lactose just happens to be the easiest and most traditional way to get the perfect character for this style, and I wouldn't recommend doing it any other way.

If you insist on having a 'sweet' Sweet Stout, try using a yeast with low attenuation like WLP002. I used a more attenuative, less fruity strain, WLP007. If it still isn't sweet enough for you, tough luck - sweet is a relative term when it comes to beer.


Another thing about Milk Stouts: they have a nice creamy head upon pouring, but it disappears almost immediately. This is not a flaw. Bad head retention is a typical trait of commercial examples (rare as they are), no matter how good they are. You'll just have to get over it. Don't go on BeerAdvocate and ding a Milk Stout you just tried because the head was gone in five seconds!

Speaking of commercial examples, the only one I've personally found on store shelves is Young's Double Chocolate Stout. I remember it being quite good, and didn't know it was a Sweet Stout at the time. It isn't to style though, since it is made with chocolate. Some beers I'd like to try are Left Hand Milk Stout, Rogue Double Chocolate Stout (though the high ABV is suspicious) and a couple examples from Terrapin, none of which I have been able to find locally.

The recipe I used came from The Jamil Show episode on Sweet Stout. JZ gives the same recipe in his Brewing Classic Styles, where he calls it Triple-X. The name is an homage to JZ's favorite Sweet Stout, Mackeson's XXX. I can only assume that he modeled his recipe after that beer.

What will jump out at you immediately is the insane amount of Black Patent malt in this recipe. According to JZ, he prefers to use Black malt in sweet stouts and Roasted Barley in his other stouts. I was worried about this at first, especially when I tried a sample at bottling time and found it to be tart and bitter, even astringent, from the large amount of black malt.

Don't worry. Don't change the recipe. It turned out great, the best beer I've ever made. The lactose, thick body and bitter roastiness of the black malt all come together to make something you'd never expect. It is perfect, and I plan to brew this beer over and over again. In fact, this won't just be my house stout: it will be my house beer, period.

Also, the wife loves it.

Anyway, below is my recipe, followed by the 6 gallon original recipe from The Jamil Show and Brewing Classic Styles. The original recipe also includes my notes from the show, which you should definitely read.

All Grain Recipe: #19 JZ's American Pale Ale

You know what I haven't made yet? An APA. Seriously. I've made three IPAs and a load of other stuff, but not one good old fashioned Pale Ale.

Since I've been having some process issues and have been worried that my efficiency is too high, I'm changing things up. Thus the need for a simple beer, where I can focus wholly on my process. I'm switching to a single batch sparge BIAB, which should get me mid to upper 70s efficiency. Compare this to the 90+ efficiency double batch sparge BIAB that I've been using, but I feel like has been giving me slightly grainy or astringent flavors in some of my beers (not all, just some).

I've also picked up some 5.2 pH Stabilizer from Five Star. I never picked it up because it seemed too expensive, but when you do the math it turns out to cost about 25 cents per batch. That's perfectly reasonable. I don't want to buy a pH meter or add acid or acid malt to my mash, I just want it to work, and that's what this is supposed to do. Here's hoping.

I'm also standardizing my mineral additions. Hoppy beers get 3 grams of calcium chloride in the mash and 3 grams of gypsum in the boil. The calcium chloride in the mash is to get at least 50 ppm of calcium to aid in conversion, while the gypsum is there for flavor in hop forward beers. Lighter or maltier beers (low IBUs and little to no late hopping) will get a simple 4 grams of calcium chloride in the mash. No exceptions - I don't want differences in mineral additions between batches to confuse my results.

Next, I'll be adding gelatin to the secondary to help drop out yeast. Currently, it takes 2-3 weeks in the refrigerator to get a halfway clear beer. I hope that the addition of gelatin finings will speed that up. To use gelatin, combine a half cup of distilled or RO, chlorine-free water with about 1/4 - 1/2 TSP (that's teaspoon) for a 3 gallon batch, or 1/2 to 1 TSP for a 5-6 gallon batch. Heat it slowly until nice and evenly mixed and at around 150 - 170 F. DO NOT BOIL. Pour it into secondary (make sure the gelatin is at least 100 F at this time, don't let it cool more than that) and rack your beer on top of it. Let it sit for a week on the gelatin and gently rack off for bottling.

Finally, I'm setting 2.3 volumes of CO2 as my standard. I will not go over 2.3 volumes unless the style demands it (Hefeweizens or Belgians, for example). I've found that when bottle conditioning, the carbonation I get from a calculation for 2.3 volumes is different than one would expect from kegging to the same CO2 level, so I should aim for lower carbonation rather than higher.

As for the recipe itself, I'm using JZ's American Pale Ale recipe from The Jamil Show American Pale Ale episode. I estimated 75% brewhouse efficiency. I ended up getting 78% extract efficiency and 74% brewhouse efficiency after losses to flameout hops. I also dry hopped even though the recipe didn't call for it.

Here's my recipe, followed by the original 6 gallon recipe.

All Grain Recipe: #16 Firestone Walker Union Jack IPA

I finally tried Firestone Walker's Union Jack IPA and I was floored. It has an incredible hop character, strongly pine-y and resin-y with hints of citrus. It is balanced by just enough malt sweetness to combine with the hops to create a candy-like, vanilla, date, cake sort of flavor. However, it is dry enough to not be cloying. It has a very similar character to Lagunitas Hop Stoopid and Green Flash Imperial IPA, but way drier. Where Hop Stoopid is thick and chewy and Green Flash is sweet to the point of cloying (I could barely finish the bottle), Union Jack manages to hit the same level of complexity without becoming overpoweringly sweet.

I immediately sought out a clone recipe and found that The Brewing Network did an episode of Can You Brew It on Union Jack. Huzzah!

Episode here.

It turns out to be a pretty complicated recipe.

The flavor is primarily tons of Cascade and Centennial in the boil, followed by a whirlpool aroma steep of more Cascade and Centennial, followed by two huge dry hop additions.

The mash is done really low (145) to dry out the beer, but then they use WLP002 English Ale yeast to maintain some residual sugar. Their mash is also a double infusion, where they raise the temp for the last 10-20 minutes to make sure it is fully converted.

Even their fermentation is complicated, requiring that you pitch at a low temperature and keep it there until yeast growth is complete (a day or so), probably to minimize ester production by the english yeast, then raise the temp (but still not too high).

The main thing I learned when making this beer is to always use a hop bag and make sure it is tied off super tight so no hops come out of the top. Holy shit was it a disaster!

The centennial I got from MoreBeer was not fully pulverized. Instead of a thick hop sludge, I had a chunky mass of hop leaves. Some got out because I didn't tie off my hop bag well enough and the hops clogged my siphon. I ended up just dumping the whole pot into the fermentor because I couldn't siphon it all out.

I also had the bright idea of dry hopping without a bag (note: I used a bag for batch #12, my last dry hop experience, and it was fine). I ended up losing close to a gallon of beer due to absorption by the hops and spigot clogging. To avoid losing even more, I ended up pouring from the top of the keg through a sanitized strainer into the bottling bucket. Bottling took forever.

I will never go without a hop bag again. I don't care if you get better extraction, or more flavor, it isn't worth the hassle.

Here's my recipe, immediately followed by the original 6 gallon CYBI recipe.

All Grain Recipe: #15 Munich Madness Oktoberfest Ale

I recently brewed up a Mr. Beer Oktoberfest Vienna Lager kit, batch #9. Like all Mr. Beer kits, this isn't a true to style beer, but rather a hybrid of Oktoberfest and Vienna Lager brewed with an ale yeast. I brewed it with a Nottingham ale yeast, a quarter lb. of Crystal 15, 1.5 lbs. of DME and 6 oz. of Booster. It turned out really great, even though it has only had two weeks to carb/condition, and has me itching to do a non-kit version of the same style.

The biggest difference between Vienna Lager and Oktoberfest is that an Oktoberfest generally has a Crystal malt presence and more hope character. Another obvious difference is that commercial examples of Vienna Lager are very difficult to find. Negra Modelo is a good example that I enjoy, and Trader Joe's sells a decent one that is brewed by Gordon Biersche. 

In contrast, Oktoberfest is a German lager and is brewed by several German breweries, including Spaten, Paulaner and Ayinger. Oktoberfest lagers were brewed in March ('Marzen') for consumption during festivals in the fall ('Oktoberfest'). 

Whichever way you go, you'll get a clean, malty, dry beer with a focus on malt and a roasted flavor. It goes down easy with a dry finish that makes you want to drink more. I find this style to be the most refreshing of the 'darker' beers one can find.

My main problem is that brewing lagers is a pain in the ass - one that I don't find to be worth it. Why invest in a brewing refrigerator and spend 2-3 months lagering your beer when you can get something that tastes just as good or better by using an ale yeast? True, it might not be true to style, so you may not want to enter it into a competition, but the end product will be just as drinkable.

Below is the Oktoberfest recipe I plan to use from Brewing Classic Styles. The original recipe is for 6 gallons at 70% efficiency, but I've scaled it to 3 gallons at 85% efficiency. The hops are tweaked slightly based on advice in Designing Great Beers, which says to use 0.75 oz of flavor hops and target an IBU to Gravity ratio of around 0.5. I'm also trying to get rid of around 40 grams of Hallertau I have in the freezer.

Finally, I substituted the WLP029 Kolsch ale yeast instead of using the WLP820 Marzen yeast. The WLP029 is supposed to give a clean, lager-like flavor that works well in this style. It supposedly creates a bit of sulfur early on, which goes away with aging. I'll be fermenting lower than normal, around 65 if I can, but I'd like to avoid getting too much diacetyl in the end product.

Below is the BeerSmith brewsheet for the recipe scaled to my equipment and efficiency, followed by the original 6 gallon recipe.

Recipe: #14 English Apple Ale (or Graff, if you prefer)

There's this great little brew pub in Anchorage called Moose's Tooth. I visit it at least once every time I'm visiting family in Alaska. Back before I was a beer geek, I loved their Apple Ale, and would drink 3 pints of it and get completely messed up. It wasn't a cider, but it had a great apple flavor balanced with a decent body, residual sweetness and malt flavor.

That beer stuck with me so much that it was the first thing I thought of when I started brewing. I knew that someday I would make a delicious apple ale. Well, I had no idea I would progress so fast. In the mean time I've learned to appreciate dozens of different beer styles, become a hop head and moved onto all grain brewing.

That doesn't mean I left behind my 'dream' of brewing an apple ale. This type of fruit beer is really rare. Seriously, try searching for advice on brewing an apple beer. I'll wait.

...

Back yet? You either found a bunch of terrible recipes that are more like a cider than a beer, a bunch of advice on making fruit beers with everything BUT apple, or you found this thread. Can you tell me what the SG of apple juice is, or what the best apple juice to use is? Hop levels? Beer style (please, not an American Wheat with apple flavor added)? The Graff thread is probably the single best resource for making an apple beer, if you can stand to read all of it. It is a great starting point, though.

So, it took me a while to craft what I thought would be the right balance. Most 'graff'' recipes are ciders with a slight bit of malt - I didn't want that. This needed to be a beer drinker's beer that just happened to also taste like apple. I knew I'd want lots of apple flavor, so I had to use at least a gallon of juice. However, I knew I'd want some residual sweetness, body and lots of malt flavor, which apple just wouldn't give me. To counteract the dryness of the juice, I went with lots of crystal malt, a little CaraPils, and the WLP002 English Ale, which leaves residual sugar and gives a good ester profile.

Perhaps most importantly, I was going on a camping trip that weekend and needed something that would be quick to make. Conveniently, I had a Mr. Beer Englishman's Nut Brown Ale HME can sitting around. I picked up a couple pounds of DME to finish it off.

Fermentation was absurdly active. FermCap wasn't enough to keep at least half a quart of beer goop from spilling out through the top, even when fermenting at a cool temp. Krausen didn't drop for a week. FG hit a perfect 1.013, though - not too low, not too high.

It has definite apple flavor, but it is smooth and subtle and blends well with the malts. Hop presence is subtle and also blends well - I was definitely worried about having hops that conflicted with the apple flavor. Also, tannin level started out high (from the apple juice) but seems to have settled out. I assume it was because I used unfiltered apple juice - if they were extracted from the grain, they would probably have been permanent.

When making this beer, remember this advice:

• Use pasteurized juice, with NO added flavor or sugar. 
• Don't boil the juice; keep it sealed until it is ready to top off. 
• Watch out for high krausen, overflow or exploding fermentors. 
• Don't use aroma or flavor hops; stick with bittering, and no more than 10-20 IBUs. You can use late additions in a future recipe if you're feeling adventurous.
• Go for a dark, rich style with lots of maltiness but no roasty character. No porters, no stouts. An American Amber or a Nut Brown Ale are both good choices.
• Use a dark crystal for a complementary flavor along with wheat or CaraPils for body & head retention. 
• Don't use too much apple juice, or you will end up closer to a cider; two gallons of juice per 5 gallon batch is a good amount, but you can adjust to your taste.

Here's my recipe. I aimed for 11 quarts but ended up with 11.1 quarts. I also added some Crystal 15 which I *normally wouldn't have added*. However, I had it sitting in the freezer and wanted to get rid of it. I've since discovered that I'm not a huge fan of Crystal 15, and would leave it out in the future.

If this turns out decent, I'll probably refine it and maybe create an all grain version, or at the very least an extract + hops boil.

Apple Brown Ale / Graff

Fruit Beer

Type: Extract	Date: 5/13/2011
Batch Size: 11.10 qt	Boil Size: 8.20 qt
Boil Time: 15 min	Equipment: Brew Pot, Full Boil All Grain (5 Gallon)
Ingredients
Amount Item Type % or IBU 1 lbs DME Golden Light (Briess) (4.0 SRM) Dry Extract 16.37 % 1 lbs DME Sparkling Amber (Briess) (10.5 SRM) Dry Extract 16.37 % 1 lbs 3.4 oz Mr. Beer Englishman's Nut-Brown Ale HME (20.2 SRM) Extract 19.80 % 6.4 oz Crystal/Caramel Malt - 15L (15.0 SRM) Grain 6.55 % 4.0 oz Carapils (1.5 SRM) Grain 4.09 % 4.0 oz Crystal/Caramel Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 4.09 % 2 lbs Apple Juice (6.0 SRM) Sugar 32.73 % 1 Pkgs English Ale (White Labs #WLP002)  Yeast-Ale
Beer Profile
Est Original  Gravity: 1.070 SG	Measured Original Gravity: 1.070 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.013 SG	Measured Final Gravity: 1.013 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 7.37 %	Actual Alcohol by Vol: 7.45 %
Bitterness: 17.1 IBU	Calories: 315 cal/pint
Est Color: 14.0 SRM	Color: Color
Carbonation and Storage
Carbonation Type: Corn Sugar	Volumes of CO2: 2.5
Pressure/Weight: 70.2 gm	Carbonation Used: 67g
Keg/Bottling Temperature: 70.0 F	Age for: 28.0 days
Storage Temperature: 70.0 F

All Grain Recipe: #13 Stone Arrogant Bastard Clone

So I was listening to JZ's Can You Brew It? podcast and, after just finishing up a previous clone, I thought I'd try one of their clone recipes. The first thing that came to mind was Stone's Arrogant Bastard, a hoppy, malty, delicious and super drinkable (for its ABV, anyway) beer. The problem was that they had deemed it 'not cloned' on the CYBI episode I listened to a few months back.

Lo and behold, they had a rebrew, and it was good! I whipped out BeerSmith and started calculating faster than you can spell 'inebriated'.

The episode is here.

Here's the recipe, scaled to my system. Unfortunately, my evaporation rate was way lower than my tests had predicted. The recipe is *designed* for 12 quarts. Please remember that before you try replicating it!

I messed up quite a bit here, not just with the evaporation rate. I also accidentally used Simcoe for the bittering additions instead of Chinook. Arrogant Bastard is (according to CYBI) a SMaSH recipe: Single Malt, Single Hop. The malt is Special B, a Belgian crystal malt that gives a very rich, raisin-y flavor. The hop is Chinook, which I think tastes very strongly of pineapples.

I also wrote down the recipe wrong, scaled it improperly, mashed a degree or two too high and overall just missed my OG and FG by a ton. The important thing is to use 90% 2 row, 10% Special B, only Chinook hops, OG of 1.066 and ABV of 7.2%.

This brew was also my last time doing a triple sparge. I found that double sparging works just as well and requires less work. I found no evidence of tannins in any brew where I triple sparged.

In fact, I messed up so much that I'll post the original 24 quart, 70% efficiency recipe from the show after this one. I went back and made sure the recipe is 100% correct.

Here is my recipe, followed by the original 6-gallon recipe.

All Grain Recipe: #12 Pliny the Elder clone

I don't know when it happened, but I'm a hophead now. Just a couple of months ago I didn't care for the overpowering hop flavors and aromas of west coast IPAs, and now I'm suddenly craving hops. I can only imagine it's a combination of drinking more craft beer and doing hop taste tests. Chewing on raw hop pellets can really desensitize you.

So of course, once I realized this I went out and picked up some Pliny the Elder from Russian River Brewery. I've had this before, but it was too much for me. Now it is like heaven in a glass. Dry and drinkable, with a very complex hop character that makes it far tastier than typical IPAs that tend to have a one-sided hop flavor. It is bursting in hop flavor and while the bitterness is high, it is a smooth bitterness that doesn't stick in your mouth unpleasantly (see Stone Ruination, Green Flash West Coast IPA for examples of IPAs that taste like you've been sucking on a grapefruit long after you've finished off the bottle).

Thus, next up is a clone of Pliny. Vinnie from Russian River has made no secret of his recipe - it is freely available, and many people clone it. You can get a clone kit from MoreBeer, or you can see this pdf of the recipe. The MoreBeer kit doesn't quite match the original PDF. Also, the recipe has changed over the years and apparently uses hop extract to achieve a higher bitterness than is possible with hop boiling alone.
edit: I tasted this recently and it is definitely extraordinarily bitter. It also didn't come out as dry as the real thing. The hop flavor profile is pretty close, though.

My goal is still to iron out the kinks in my process. However, I might as well make something delicious in the process. Plus, this recipe will teach me about dry hopping. I also plan to increase the batch size to make up for the large amount of trub I'm getting after boil. I'll be transferring the cooled wort to a sanitized bottling bucket, which will let me measure out exactly how much volume I ended up with and allow the trub to settle out before I transfer it via the bucket's spigot.

Here are some other things I'll be doing that are new with this batch:
Rinsing the grain only twice, but with a larger amount of water each time.
Using my new refractometer to get a feel for how well it works. I'll measure the efficiency after first, second and third runnings.
Repitching my WLP001 from batch #8 (my first all grain), and making a starter with it a few days before.
Preheating the oven to 200 F and turning it off in the hopes that it keeps temp better than leaving the oven on.
Using 200 F sparge water so that the grain is about 168-170.
Boiling 90 minutes.

In practice, I messed up a few times. The biggest one is that I calculated the water for a 60 minute boil, but the hops for a 90 minute boil. I had to adjust the amount of bittering hops to compensate for only boiling 60 minutes. Fortunately, there isn't much difference between 60 and 90 minutes when it comes to bitterness extraction, due to diminishing returns.

My 24x24 grain bag from MoreBeer finally gave up the ghost. I saw holes in the bottom and sides after this batch, so I tossed it out with the spent grain.

The second fuckup was underestimating the amount of trub. I made an 11 quart batch (actually ended up with 11.25 due to less evaporation than expected), but only racked about 9 quarts instead of 10.

Pitched from my starter mason jar and got a nice quick fermentation. The taste of this beer was incredible, even before finishing. A week later, I dropped hopped by putting the first dose in a sanitized & boiled hop bag and hanging it from the lid of the fermentor. I did the same thing with the second dose a little over a week later.

The main thing I've noticed about the result is that it is pretty harsh and not as dry as the original. The recipe gives 152 as the mash temp, but newer recipes use 148. I will probably adjust this to use 148 to attenuate more. I'll also give it a few weeks to age (it hasn't actually been 3 weeks bottled yet) before assessing the hops again. If the bitterness remains harsh, I will try a smoother 90 minute bittering hop like Warrior. Note: The morebeer.com Pliny recipe uses Warrior for the 90 minute addition.

Here's the recipe, from the PDF linked at the start of the post:
(edit: I've included the original 5 gallon recipe at the end).

All Grain Recipe #11, or, How I Almost Made a Weizenbock

After creating a delicious Mr. Beer German Hefeweizen recipe, I was in the mood to repitch that WLP300 and make myself another hefeweizen, but this time from scratch and all grain. In the process, I learned a lot of hard lessons.

First off, I took what I learned from my previous two batches about grain crush and efficiency. I talked to the guys at MoreBeer about their grain mill being set too coarse and they tightened it up for me. I ran it through three times just because I'm paranoid, of course.

Second, I thought I'd see how well oven mashing would work. Basically, I heated my mash water to strike temp, doughed in my grain, set my oven to 170 and stuck the (covered) pot in there. I mashed for two hours just because I wanted to be 100% sure of conversion and because I wanted to take a trip to Starbucks for a ghetto iced latte (4 shots espresso, add my own milk from the condiment bar, half the price of a regular iced latte).

The temp tended to go up when set at 170, so next time I will try preheating the oven and turning it off.

I thought about doing a mashout, which is where you heat the mash to 168 in order to stop conversion and thin the mash to make sparging easier. The problem is that the temp went up so slowly that it would've taken forever to actually do it, so I gave up and just sparged three times with about 3.3 quarts each. The sparge water temp was about 170, but when added to the grain I only got 150 F. It turns out that you want the actual grain to be 168 F during sparging, so you need to heat up your sparge water closer to 200 F!

After doing a fine crush, mashing for two hours and sparging three times (not to mention squeezing the grain bag), I got a whopping 89% extract efficiency on a recipe I originally calculated for 65% efficiency! My hefeweizen had suddenly become a weizenbock.

To make up for it I let the trub settle out in my boil pot and didn't transfer the bottom couple of quarts. I then topped off the fermentor with a couple of quarts of distilled water and got an OG of 1.051.

I really don't like how haphazard all that was, though. From now on I'll be focusing harder on getting repeatably results. I've gotta be able to isolate variables and diagnose specific problems, or I'll just keep making mistakes. This is probably just a side effect of my anal retentive programmer background.

Anyway, I pitched my jar of harvested yeast and went on my way.

Here's the recipe, Harold-is-Weizen hefeweizen from Brewing Classic Styles.

Harold-Is-Weizen Hefeweizen (WLP300)

Weizen/Weissbier

 

Type: All Grain	Date: 4/23/2011
Batch Size: 11.00 qt	Boil Size: 13.83 qt
Boil Time: 60 min	Equipment: Brew Pot, Full Boil All Grain (6 Gallon)
	Brewhouse Efficiency: 89.00
Ingredients
Amount Item Type % or IBU 2 lbs 8.0 oz Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (1.6 SRM) Grain 50.00 % 2 lbs 8.0 oz White Wheat Malt (3.1 SRM) Grain 50.00 % 17.01 gm Hallertau (MoreBeer 2011) [4.30 %] (60 min) Hops 15.9 IBU 0.50 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min) Misc 5.00 items FermCap-S (Boil 0.0 min) Misc 8.00 gm Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 min) Misc 1 Pkgs Hefeweizen Ale (White Labs #WLP300) [Cultured] Yeast-Wheat
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.062 SG	Measured Original Gravity: 1.052 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.015 SG	Measured Final Gravity: 1.006 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.11 %	Actual Alcohol by Vol: 5.99 %
Bitterness: 15.9 IBU	Calories: 227 cal/pint
Est Color: 4.0 SRM	Color: Color
Mash Profile
Mash Name: BIAB Triple Sparge	Total Grain Weight: 5.00 lb
Sparge Water: 9.23 qt	Grain Temperature: 72.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F	TunTemperature: 72.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: TRUE	Mash PH: 5.4 PH
BIAB Triple Sparge Step Time Name Description Step Temp 120 min Mash In Add 7.00 qt of water at 165.0 F 152.0 F
Mash Notes: After mash out, remove the bag and drain as much liquid from it as possible before setting it aside in a drip tray (a cooling rack placed atop the brew kettle works great, as does a pulley or hook with the bag attached). Transfer your liquor to a bucket and return the grain bag to your mash kettle. Add one third of your sparge water, stir and wait 10 minutes. Repeat two more times (drip, drain, sparge, drip, drain, sparge).
Carbonation and Storage
Carbonation Type: Corn Sugar	Volumes of CO2: 2.8
Pressure/Weight: 83.2 gm	Carbonation Used: 76gm
Keg/Bottling Temperature: 72.0 F	Age for: 28.0 days
Storage Temperature: 70.0 F

All Grain Recipe: #10 Biere de L'Inde English IPA

This is my chance to fix some of my all grain mistakes and find out if this is going to pan out or if I should run back to extract.

First off, I corrected my BeerSmith equipment profile. I reduced the Lauter Tun Deadspace to 0, because this parameter doesn't apply to BIAB brewing. I reduced the Lost to Boil Trub and Chiller to 0.2 quarts, because I'm not really sure what to put here, but I know I don't lose half a gallon to trub. 

Finally, I measured the boil-off to be a little less than a gallon when I boiled three gallons, which came out to be about 30%. Mash Tun Volume is 24 quarts and Mash Tun Weight is 9 lbs.

Hopefully, these more accurate parameters should give me a more predictable brew day!

The recipe:

Biere de L'inde English IPA 

(from Brewing Classic Styles, scaled to 2.5 gallons)

Style: English IPA
TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 11.00 qt      
Boil Size: 15.75 qt
Estimated OG: 1.063 SG
Estimated Color: 12.5 SRM
Estimated IBU: 38.3 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount        Item                                       Type         % or IBU    
6 lbs 2.1 oz  Pale Malt, Maris Otter (2.5 SRM)           Grain        86.00 %     
4.0 oz        Biscuit Malt (19.0 SRM)                    Grain        3.51 %      
4.0 oz        Crystal/Caramel Malt -120L (120.0 SRM)     Grain        3.51 %      
4.0 oz        White Wheat Malt (3.1 SRM)                 Grain        3.51 %      
4.0 oz        Crystal/Caramel Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM)      Grain        3.48 %      
15.00 gm      Northern Brewer (MoreBeer 2011) [8.60 %]  (Hops         29.8 IBU    
19.00 gm      Goldings, East Kent (MoreBeer 2011) [7.20 %Hops          -          
20.00 gm      Fuggles (MoreBeer 2011) [5.10 %]  (10 min) Hops         8.5 IBU     
4.00 gm       Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 min)   Misc                     
1 Pkgs        Nottingham (Danstar #-)                    Yeast-Ale                


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body
Total Grain Weight: 7.13 lb
----------------------------
Single Infusion, Medium Body
Step Time     Name               Description                         Step Temp     
60 min        Mash In            Add 9.97 qt of water at 165.1 F     152.0 F       


Notes:
------
Note: Add only 10 qts at first, but I add up to 2 more of hot sparge water for raising temp. Consider heating some water to boiling for this instead of using sparge temp water. Mash in 170 oven. Stir every 20 minutes. Sparge twice with about 1 gallon each time. Mash longer than 60 minutes if iodine test doesn't show full conversion. Try mashout to raise efficiency - either heat up or use hot water.
If you have very soft water, you may optionally add 7g of gypsum and 7g of chalk. (I will try just adding 4g, 1 tsp, of gypsum for now)
You may substitute Danstar Nottingham for the WLP013.
If using a yeast with lower attentuation (like WLP002) and making a high gravity IPA, dry out the beer by adding corn sugar or mashing at a lower temperature.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I subbed Nottingham for the WLP013 London Ale Yeast because I had it on hand.

The main event:

Things went bad before I even started. I checked my freshly milled sack of grain when I got home to find that it was VERY badly crushed. It consisted of 90% whole grains. 

Solution?

I took a rolling pin and a 1 gallon zip lock and pounded that grain into submission, half a pound at a time. It took forever and I tore through 3-4 bags. The crush was very uneven, so I did it twice. I was sweating by the end of it. The result was an uneven grain crush with lots of flour and whole grains, but at least it was better than what I started with

To reduce the number of mash variables from last time, I mashed on the stove again. I used a ratio of 1.4 qts/lb and mashed for about two hours while I waited for my friend to get himself showered and come over. I did several iodine tests to make sure conversion was done.

An iodine test involves taking a sample of clear wort from your mash kettle and putting it on a white plate (not paper!). Add a few drops of 1-2% iodine and mix it up. If the mixture turns out very light and clear, that means the iodine didn't react with starch and you have full conversion. This is harder to do with dark beers, and you'll need to use less wort and consider placing the wort + iodine on a piece of white chalk.

Here's the thing to know about the iodine tests: it only tells you how much available starch has been converted to sugars. Thus, if you have an uncracked grain kernel, the water will not properly penetrate and convert the endosperm inside of it. If you have lots of uncracked grains, you could pass the iodine test and end up with very low efficiency anyway.

Anyway, on to the sparge. I decided to try something different this time. I split the 168 F sparge water in half and repeated the sparge process from last time twice. I measured 65% efficiency this time, which is better than last time despite the awful grain crush.

Here's a reminder of the process:

* Remove the bag and drain it with a rolling pin over the kettle, using a cooling rack or collander

* Pour the first runnings into a bucket

* Put the grain bag into the mash kettle with half of the sparge water at 168, stir it up, and wait ten minutes

* Repeat the above three steps with the other half of the sparge water

* Measure the volume using the marks on the bucket, stir up the wort very well, and take a gravity reading. Calculate your efficiency using this volume and SG measurement.

The rest of the process was pretty uneventful, except for one thing. I ended up with more water at the end than I should have. It turns out that I took the percentage of evaporation that I calculated at 3 gallons and applied it to the full batch. This actually led to BeerSmith calculating a larger eveporation rate, closer to 1.25 gallons than 1. I ended up with a higher volume beer than originally intended. Fortunately, the higher efficiency balanced out the extra water.

I rehydrated the Nottingham, pitched it and shook the crap out of the keg. Stuck it in an ice chest and that's that.