They Think I'm Mexican Brown Ale (Rebrew)

Origins:

See previous brew post.

Ingredients:

• 4 oz Northern Brewer hops (11.4% alpha-acid, whole leaf, GR)
• 4 oz Cascade hops (7.0% alpha-acid, whole leaf, US)
• 4 oz Centennial hops (11.6% alpha-acid, whole leaf, US)
• 23.00 lbs. GW NW Pale Malt (2 row) (2° L, Crushed )
• 2.50 lbs. GW Crystal Malt (40° L, Crushed )
• 2.50 lbs. Briess Carapils (1.3° L, Crushed )
• 2.00 lbs. GW Wheat Malt (2° L, Crushed )
• 1.25 lbs Briess Chocolate Malt (350° L, Crushed )
• White Labs San Diego Super Yeast (WLP090)
• 2 tab. Whirlfloc
• 1 tsp. Wyeast yeast nutrient
• 2 tsp. Gypsum (Sparge Water)

Recipie Notes:

From memory I thought that this recipe was a little lighter than I wanted so I added .25 lbs (After doubling the entire recipe.)  The Northern Brewer hops were much higher alpha acid that on my previous batch I could have accounted for that but its not that important to me that if it has MORE hop flavor.  I also removed a pound of Pale Malt because I was afraid that with 31.25 lbs of grain I may overflow my mash tun.  This didn't happen, but it was only about three inches from the top.  I added the Gypsum to the sparge water instead of the boil this time because I read that was a method of doing it.  I really have no reason to do that but I wanted to try it.

Starter Procedure:
On Friday May 25th I got out of work a little early since we had a really good month, I came home and made my starter adding 100g light DME to 1000ml of water in a Erlenmeyer flask.  After applying to the stove-top I threw in a stirbar and 2 drops of Fermcap-S.  Starter finished without incident and I placed the Flask on my stir plate overnight.

Disaster Strikes

Brew Procedure:

This brew I was a little more fammiliar with the all-grain brewing process so I could correctly complete the brew.   I heated 43 quarts of water up to 170 F and poured in the grain.   Letting this mash for 45 minutes I returned to see the temperature had not dropped as much as I wanted to get into the lower end of the mashing temperature.  So I uncovered the mashtun and removed the jacket allowing to to mash for another minutes and cool off a little.  I sparged with 5 gallons of 170F water into the kettle. There was some extremely frothy foam on the top of the kettle.  I hoped it would die down before the wort started to boil.  I was wrong.  Just as the kettle came to a full rolling boil I realized that this was not going to die down.  I quickly ran to my shelf and grabbed the vial of Fermcap-S but it was too late.  The boil-over happened leaving the burning smell of defeat in the air for long after the boil-over had subsided.  Mistyping my recipe I added 4 oz of Northern Brewer to the beginning of the boil and about 3 minutes in I realized my mistake.  I ran to the house and grabbed a strainer and pulled what I thought to be about 2 oz. of hops out for addition in another 42 minutes.

Hops/Ingredients Schedule:

Massive amount of Hops

Quantity	Ingredient	Boiled for
2 oz.	Northern Brewer	Entire 60 min. boil
2 oz.	Northern Brewer	Last 15 min. of boil
2 tab	Whirlfloc	Last 15 min. of boil
1 tsp.	Yeast Nutrient	Last 15 min. of boil
2 oz.	Cascade	Last 10 min. of boil
2 oz.	Cascade	Flame-out
4 oz.	Centennial	Dry Hop

HOP CAKE!

Post Boil:
After the boil I cooled the wort and put it into 2 x 6 gallon carboys with 2 oz. of Centennial Hops in each one.  After I pitched the yeast I aerated the wort with an oxygen stone for 15 seconds each and inserted an airlock.  I have 20 gallons of beer fermenting in my closet, it's a pretty good feeling.

INITIAL WORT GRAVITY: 1.070  Recipes Projected OG 1.080

UPDATE 6/9/13:
Gravity at Transfer: 1.023
131.25*(1.070-1.023)=6.169% ABV

Today I kegged the blond ale and transferred the brown ale to secondary.  This process was done in a whirlwind of siphons, carboys, and hydrometers.  The first thing I did was fill 2 kegs with starsan so they could clean while I moved the beer onto the counter. After placing the 4 carboys on the counter (right) I began transferring the blonde into a keg.  Once this was completed I closed up the keg and purged the air. After staring the siphon on the second carboy I went and cleaned the first while it siphoned into the second keg.  I sanitized another siphon and transferred the brown ale into the carboy I just finished cleaning.  By this time the second 5 gallon carboy had finished draining so I closed that keg up and cleaned it while the brown transferred from the second carboy.  I think you can see where this is going... One issue that I did run into while transferring the second carboy of brown is the siphon kept clogging with hops and since the only place that could release the vacuum was the seal around the siphon it entrapped some air into the line at the bottom of the siphon.  I don't think this was enough to ruin the beer but it is something to note.  I took the siphon out and removed the hops from the end and restarted the siphon.  I had to do this a couple times but other than that it went smoothly.  I tasted the brown ale and I am really excited to drink this beer.  So much hop aroma and flavor while not being overly bitter.  Another week or so in the secondary then I can keg and drink it.

UPDATE 6/23/13:
Transferred the beer to a keg today and crap, this is good beer.  I am extremely pleased with how the beer came out.  This was my first all grain batch I did and this time it turned out even better.  Two days on 30PSI and it should be ready to drink.  The hops are extremely present all the way through the drink from smell to swallow.  Having more character than a traditional IPA because of the roasted malts.  I am glad I added the extra chocolate malt because it did give it a little more color and a bit more toasty flavor that I was looking for.

Gravity at Transfer: 1.022
131.25*(1.070-1.022)=6.3% ABV

Hot Blonde Ale

Origins:
It is really hot in my office as I am typing this and I just want to go downstairs so I am going to phone this one in.  It was also very hot the day I brewed. There just thought of a half assed name.  I was just going to call it unnamed blonde.  The post title is actually titled that now.  Instead I'll go with a little less crappy beer name and call this Hot Blonde Ale.
  I also forgot to take pictures (or space fillers as I call them) so this post may appear to be a little short.

Recipe Specifications:

• Batch Size: 10.00 gal
• Boil Size: 13 gal
• Predicted OG: 1.055 SG
• Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:

• 7.7 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US
• 7.7 lb Pilsner Malt 
• 2.00 lb Flaked Corn
• 2.00 lb Corn Sugar

Total Grain Weight: 19.4 lb

• 2 oz Willamette, US [6.5%] (60 min) Hops
• WLP 090 San Diego Super Yeast

Starter Procedure:

Saturday May 12, 2012 I made my starter. I believe I have finally achieved my perfect starter procedure.  I added the DME to the flask after the water started to heat.  This way the steam did not make the DME clump together and stick to the side of the flask.  After that shake the flask up a little add the stir bar and a couple drops of Fermcap-S and place on the stove-top.  This is the most pain free starter I've done yet.  The typical 1.040 starter itself consisted of the following:

• 100 g DME
• 1/4 tsp Wyeast Yeast Nutrient
• 2 Drop Fermcap-S Foam Inhibitor
• 1000 ml Water

Brew Procedure:
      On Sunday May 13th 2011, I decided to brew. For my birthday I received a software package called BeerSmith2.  Instead of using my typical formula I decided to put my faith in this brewing program to do all of my calculations for me.
     Beersmith suggested I use 25.75 qt of water which seemed high after doing the back calculation I was what I would have used too:

                            19.4 lbs grain x 1.33 qt/lb = 25.75 qt. x 1/4 gallon/qt = 25.75

    Beersmith calculated that based on the grain temperature which i used the ambient temperature in my house. That the mash water needed to be 166.3F to get to a mashing temperature of 156F.
     I have read several studies that claim that with such highly modified grains that are available now an hour mash is no longer necessarily.  All starch conversion can happen in a relatively short amount of time.  I decided not to go with a 20 min. mash that some brewers have suggested but lower it by 15 minutes to 45.  After mashing I transferred to the kettle and completed the brew using the following schedule:

Hops/Ingredients Schedule:

Quantity	Ingredient	Boiled For
1.0 oz	Willamette	Entire 60 Min. boil
1.0 oz.	Willamette	Last 30 min of boil
1 tsp.	Yeast Nutrient	Last 10 min of boil
1 tsp.	Gypsum	Last 10 min of boil

I cooled the wort and pitched the yeast into two 6.5 gallon carboys. Not as much boiled off as I was expecting so there was roughly 11 gallons left after the boil that was transferred into the carboys.  I oxygenated the wort with my oxygen stone for 30 seconds in each carboy and then put the air lock on.

Additional Comments:
    The brew day was very successful.   I hit all my temperatures and nothing went wrong.  My OG was a little low but I believe it was because of volumetric miscalculation of the boil off, not efficiency.  I was also pleased that it only took 4 hours for this session down from 5 for my last brewing experience.  All grain brewing is becoming as familiar as extract is.

INITIAL WORT GRAVITY: 1.048

UPDATE 5/26/13: Transferred to secondary looks and tastes pretty good.  I took a gravity measurement but it did not seem right I will take another one at kegging.

UPDATE 6/9/13:
Gravity at Kegging: 1.006
131.25*(1.048-1.006)=5.5125%

So much siphoning to do

Today I kegged the blond ale and transferred the brown ale to secondary.  This process was done in a whirlwind of siphons, carboys, and hydrometers.  The first thing I did was fill 2 kegs with starsan so they could clean while I moved the beer onto the counter. After placing the 4 carboys on the counter (right) I began transferring the blonde into a keg.  Once this was completed I closed up the keg and purged the air. After staring the siphon on the second carboy I went and cleaned the first while it siphoned into the second keg.

I sanitized another siphon and transferred the brown ale into the carboy I just finished cleaning.  By this time the second 5 gallon carboy had finished draining so I closed that keg up and cleaned it while the brown transferred from the second carboy.  I think you can see where this is going...   I tasted the beer and it seems to have been a success the first thing I thought was Pabst Blue Ribbon.  Which was kind of what I was shooting for.  Pretty clean tasting but may have a bit of an unwanted ester flavor I couldn't be sure because I didn't have much to sample.

UPDATE 6/11/13:
I tasted the kegged beer and it tastes exactly like Pabst Blue Ribbon.... If Pabst had lots of estery flavors, a bunch of extra sweetness and had been under-hopped .  Its not bad and it is definitely drinkable just not as crisp as I was hoping. Maybe if I let it sit for another couple days it will clear up some.

Buffalo Theory Brewing Hop Farm

     Last year I decided to start growing hops, but based on everything I have read hops usually do not produce very much the first year.  In my case this was correct.  I planted my four rhizomes in pots because I was not ready to decide where they would be permanently located.  This year I finally planted them against the north wall of my back yard.  This way the plants would have southern exposure to the sun.

     When deciding the order of my plants I thought about alphabetical, how much I liked the hop, grouped by aroma,  but in the end I decided to sort by low to high alpha acid.   The Rhizomes I chose and order they are planted in is as follows ¹:

Hop Trellis

1. Fuggles 3.5% - 6% AA  - Mild, soft, grassy, floral aroma
2. Cascade 4.5% - 8% AA  - Strong spicy , floral, citrus (i.e grapefruit) aroma
3. Willamette 4% - 7% AA  -  Mild, spicy, grassy, floral aroma.
4. Centennial 9% - 11% AA - Floral, Citrus Aroma, Often referred to as "Super Cascade" because of its similarity; a clean bittering hop
5. Nugget - 12% - 14% AA - Heavy spicy herbal aroma, Strong bittering hop

I originally had a bad source of information for Willamette so I thought it had a higher alpha acid.  Therefore it is out of order with respect to Cascade. It doesn't really matter that much since they are so close anyway.
    I added an irrigation system so that the plants could be watered all at the same time.  This was simply a drip hose system I had purchased the previous year from lowes.  I cut the tips on the drip hoses so taht they would pour more water since the default setting was 1 gallon / hour.

Hops in a row

Plant Base

Irrigation System

1. Hop Data Taken from John J. Palmer, How to Brew, everything you need to know to brew beer right the first time, 2006